Dan awoke with a pounding headache.
His first thought was that he had a hangover. His second thought was to ask himself how he'd managed to get a hangover without consuming any alcohol. It wasn't until his third thought that he finally started to remember them events of the previous day.
Massaging his aching head, he pushed himself upright... and was startled to find himself in the living room rather than his bedroom. He'd somehow fallen asleep stretched across one of the sofas.
"Morning sleepyhead!" Leah chirped, an inch from his ear.
Dan nearly fell of the sofa with fright. "Jeez... don't do that!"
"Sorry," she grinned, standing up straight. "Oh wait, no I'm not!"
Dan hmphed in response. Then he asked, "How did I end up here?"
"Don't you remember?" she asked, stepping back into the kitchen area. "After we returned from the Kasen World, Professor Usur gave us a quick debriefing, then told us to go straight to bed." She grinned. "Everyone else made it to their rooms at least, but you just sprawled out where you are and fell asleep straight away."
"Couldn't you have woken me up and sent me to my proper bed," Dan asked. "I have a crick in my neck now."
"But you looked so sweet like that," Leah cooed, an evil grin on her face. "I didn't want to disturb you."
"Thank, I guess..." Dan murmured, pushing himself into a sitting position. By chance, his gaze slid over his right hand... and what he saw made his heart skip a beat. "WHOA!" he gasped, clutching his shaking wrist.
A blue number sixty-eight was etched onto the back of his hand.
He immediately panicked! His band must have failed him in the night, because that symbol outside of a duel could only mean one thing: he was about to be possessed!
"Leah! Come and look!" he cried desperately. "Now! Quickly! It's... it's..." he trailed off as he examined the symbol more closely, and found that it wasn't its normal blue colour. Nor was it glowing. Instead, it seemed to have been scrawled onto his hand with a blue felt-tip pen. He sighed. "Leah... I don't suppose this has anything to do with you by any chance…"
Leah couldn't hold it in anymore. She doubled over with hysterical laughter. "You should've seen your face! It was... oh god..." she clung to the counter for support, laughing her head off. "Oh why didn't I have my camera? That was priceless!"
"It's not funny!" Dan said, throwing a cushion at her. "You nearly gave me a heart attack!"
As Leah threw the cushion back, a bedroom door opened and Katie stepped into the room. She was fully dressed, but still had 'bed head' – her hair was all over the place. "What on earth's going on in here?" she asked. "I heard Dan scream... I thought something had happened."
"Yeah, she happened," Dan said, point at Leah, then flipping his hand around to show Katie the pen marks.
Katie snorted with laughter. "Oh, I see... you got him good then?" Leah nodded, still struggling to control her own giggles.
"Yes, yes, very funny," Dan said, smiling as he started to see the funny side. "So where's James? And Matt?"
"James is still asleep," Katie said, pointing over her shoulder at her bedroom door. "I don't know about Matt-"
"In the shower..." Leah said, gasping for air.
"Are you quite finished?" Dan asked. She nodded, breathing deeply and calmly to control herself. "Right then," he grinned, stretching back out across the sofa and putting on a ridiculously posh voice. "Breakfast time I think. Ladies, bring me some bacon and eggs at once."
"Aren't you going to help cook?" Katie asked, genuinely surprised.
"Nope," he replied, closing his eyes sleepily. "Today's my unofficial day off."
"Rubbish," Leah said. "We did all the dueling yesterday; you three boys hardly did a thing. If anything, you should be making us breakfast."
Dan opened one eye and looked at her. "Alright then," he grinned. "I'll cook breakfast for you. All by myself. With no help. How does that sound?"
Leah gasped and clapped a hand over her mouth as she realised what that would mean. Katie quickly stepped in. "No no no, don't even think about it. The last thing we need is to burn this building down." She grinned sheepishly. "We nearly did that yesterday. Twice."
"To be fair, the second time it happened, we were in an alternate universe," Dan added.
"To be fair, the first time it happened, we were in this universe and you were incinerating an omelette," Leah pointed out.
Dan threw another cushion at her. "Hey. Five more minutes, and that masterpiece would've been complete."
"Five more minutes, and that masterpiece would've turned this building into a chimney," she teased. "Ten more minutes, and it would've burnt the city to the ground."
Dan laughed, and started to argue back when he was interrupted by an alarm. A loud, warbling alarm that filled the entire apartment with noise. They all recognised it: it was the alarm that told them one thing. A Number had just been detected, and that they had to go and fetch it.
"You must be joking..." Katie groaned.
"Seriously? Now?" Dan said, pushing himself upright again. "They're going to send us out now?"
Leah scooped her D-Gazer off the table and quickly dialled a call to Professor Usur. As usual, it was answered very quickly. "Yes? What is it?"
"Good morning Professor," Leah said, having to raise her voice over the sound of the alarm. "I just wanted to check something with you. It's just that... well... the alarm's going off in our room."
"I'm well aware," Usur replied. "And you're wasting valuable time telling me this, so I suggest you get a move on."
"But, sir..." Leah said dejectedly. "After everything that happened yesterday, we were just hoping that... you know... we could have a day off today. I mean, we have been through a lot..."
"You're absolutely right," Usur said. "You most certainly should take a day off. And while you're doing that, I'll just pop out and tell the Number holder to put his rampage on hold for a few hours!"
Leah's face fell as she realised that he was being sarcastic. "Yeah, but-"
"BUT NOTHING!" the Professor roared in her ear. "The Numbers don't operate on your schedule, little girl! You don't get to choose when Numbers do and do not appear! Now I suggest you get your team moving and retrieve that Number, or there will be consequences!" The line went dead abruptly.
She sighed and removed her D-Gazer. "He said-"
"We heard," Katie replied. "He wasn't exactly whispering. I could hear that over the ala-"
The door of the bathroom suddenly flew open, and Matt stepped out, with only a towel around his waist. His hair was covered in shampoo, water was dripping down his body, and he was brandishing a loofah as though it was a deadly weapon. "What's happening?" he gasped. "Are we under attack?"
"Nope, it's just the Number alarm," Katie grinned. "Looking good, by the way."
Matt suddenly became conscious of his appearance, and quickly retreated back into the bathroom, shutting the door behind him. The girls giggled at him, and Dan shouted. "Get a move on, will you. The Professor sounded grumpy."
"It's not funny!" Matt shouted through the door, as the girls continued to laugh at him. "I'll be out in a sec..."
*SOME TIME LATER*
"Rock-paper-scissors! Rock-paper-scissors! Rock-paper-scissors!"
The Deltas were standing out in the warm summer's air, in one of the city's many duel parks. James had proven impossible to wake up, so they had simply left without him. At this time of day the park was deserted, which suited the Deltas just fine. They had found the Number holder – a stocky bearded guy who communicated mostly in complaints – and were now attempting to decide who would be dueling him. Unfortunately, rock-paper-scissors with four people almost always ended in a draw. Especially since one of their members was quite prone to cheating.
"Leah, for the last time, 'lizard' is not an acceptable choice in rock-paper-scissors." Dan said in exasperation.
"Which is what I've been saying all along!" Matt insisted. "Neither is spock. What exactly is a spock anyway?"
"Come on, guys," Leah grinned. "You must've heard of the classic game, rock-paper-scissors-lizard-spock. It's easy. Scissors cut paper, paper covers rock, rock crushes lizard, lizard poisons spock, spock smashes scissors. It's easy."
"Ok, but what about the branches?" Katie asked. "What if paper meets lizard?"
"Easy, lizard eats paper," Leah said. "There are branches for all of them. Scissors decapitate lizard, spock vaporizes rock, paper disproves spock..."
"Argh, my head..." Dan clutched his head in mock agony.
"Seriously, what is a spock?" Matt asked insistently.
"Ok, that's lovely and all..." Katie said. "But do you think that, for now, we can stick to the version that doesn't require a user manual?"
Leah sighed. "Alright then."
*THREE MINUTES AND TWELVE SPOCKS LATER*
"Yes!" Dan exclaimed, holding his triumphant lizard aloft.
"Aw..." Leah groaned, staring dejectedly at her defeated spock. "I wanted to duel this one."
Matt was the only one who had picked rock, and was staring at it in utter bewilderment. "Am I the only one still wondering what a spock is?"
"Pretty much," Katie said. "Good luck Dan."
He nodded in thanks, then stepped forward to face the Number holder. "Sorry about the wait, you ready to go?"
"Hmph, whatever," the holder grunted. "You've kept me waiting for long enough, now you get to be on the receiving end of my dueling power!"
The man had had plenty of time to prepare his equipment, so Dan hurriedly threw his gear on and linked his D-Gazer. The augmented reality field rose up around them. The man – who they had learnt was called Genjū – was making no attempt to hide his number; the glowing red number forty on his chest.
"AR Vision – link established."
"DUEL!"
Genjū LP: 4000
Dan LP: 4000
"I kept you waiting long enough, old timer," Dan said. "You can have the first move."
"Hmph, whatever," Genjū replied. "I draw. There's plenty of power in my hand, but I don't need it yet. For now, I Set one monster face-down and end my turn." His face-down monster materialized.
Dan blinked. This was unusually non-aggressive for a Number holder. Not that he was complaining. "My turn, draw. I Normal Summon Blizzard Dragon!" A predominantly blue dragon appeared.
Blizzard Dragon: Dragon-Type/WATER/Level 4/ATK 1800/DEF 1000
"Battle! Blizzard Dragon, attack the face-down monster!" The blue dragon tilted its wings forward and rushed towards the face-down monster, which flipped up to receive the attack. It was a golden bird, with four wings in the shape of an "X". The dragon smashed straight through it.
Phantom Beast Cross-Wing: Beast-Warrior-Type/LIGHT/Level 4/ATK 1300/DEF 1300
"Phantom Beasts, is it? Alright, I'll place one card face-down and end my turn," Dan said, placing his hidden card on his duel disk.
"Then I draw," Genjū said, apparently completely unimpressed by Dan's move. "I activate the Continuous Spell Card, Fire Formation – Tenki." The Spell appeared on his field, and began to shimmer as though in a heat haze.
"Hey, I recognise that card," Leah exclaimed.
"You should do," Katie replied. "I used it against you in our very last duel."
"When this card is activated, I can add any Level four or lower Beast-Warrior-Type monster from my Deck to my hand. I choose Phantom Beast Wild-Horn." His duel disk extracted the card, which he placed into his hand. "Then I'll Normal Summon it. Appear, Phantom Beast Wild-Horn!" A bull-like creature appeared. It resembled a minotaur, with shining gold horns like an antelope, and a savage-looking blade in its hand.
Phantom Beast Wild-Horn: Beast-Warrior-Type/EARTH/Level 4/ATK 1700/DEF 0
"Why Summon that?" Dan asked. "It's weaker than my Blizzard Dra- wait a minute..." Suddenly the dots connected. "That Cross-Wing I destroyed last turn..."
"You betcha!" Genjū roared. He looked like an angry dwarf, jumping up and down, shouting at everything, and waving his duel disk in the air. "As long as Cross-Wing is in my Graveyard, all Phantom Beast monsters on the field – plus any monsters named Gazelle the King of Mythical Beasts – gain 300 ATK!"
Phantom Beast Wild-Horn: ATK 1700 → 2000
"And don't forget my Spell Card!" he added, indicating his Fire Formation – Tenki card. "As long as this card stays face-up on the field, all Beast-Warrior-Type monsters I control gain an additional 100 attack points!"
Phantom Beast Wild-Horn: ATK 2000 → 2100
"Battle time! Onwards, Wild-Horn! Attack Blizzard Dragon!" The minotaur charged across the field at breakneck speed, and slashed at the dragon once, twice, three times. The dragon howled in pain and arched its neck, then exploded violently. Dan covered his face.
Dan LP: 4000 → 3700
"That all you got kiddo?" Genjū shouted, jumping up and down with glee. The red number forty on his chest flared brighter. "C'mon, heated duels are what I live for, and you're giving me nothing! Give me more! Give me everything you have! Right now!"
Fun Fact #1: So who was it that wanted to see some Phantom Beast action? There were at least two of you.
Fun Fact #2: Ok, so, naming themes. The word Genjū is Japanese, and it literally means Phantom Beast. It's what the Phantom Beasts are called in the OCG. Call us unoriginal if you like.
Fun Fact #3: Before anyone asks, no, I still have no idea what a spock is. I choose to believe that it's the result of a rock and a spider falling in love...
Fun Fact #4: For those of you who are wondering why Gazelle the King of Mythical Beasts was included in Cross-Wing's explanation, it's because Gazelle is actually a Phantom Beast monster. It was released long before the other Phantom Beasts, and as a result, when it was released in the TCG, they messed its name up (which they tend to do a lot). It's name should've been Phantom Beast King-Gazelle, or something similar. For now, just think of it as an undercover Phantom Beast.