Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh or Power Rangers RPM or Spiral
Author's Notes: Did I give Ryan an extra card?
. . .
"How did that bastard know what my face down cards were?' Ethan wondered. "He knew each and every one. There's no way that's humanly possible. Our reports didn't say he was psychic or anything." The wind in his hair did nothing to cool his fiery mind. Ethan held tight to his accomplice as her D-Wheel sped down the road.
"You know, for someone so smart, you can be pretty dumb at times," she said.
"What do you mean by that, Emma?"
"You used three very popular and easily recognizable cards. You stood in front of a metallic surface, He saw their reflections. You do the math. Everything else was just sheer dumb luck."
"That asshole cheated?" Ethan gasped. "Turn around, I'm going to tell him the duel is void and I don't have to answer any of his stupid questions."
"Calm down, it's your own fault anyway. You added in your little house rule and he threw in his. Either way he's still an impressive duelist. Even his luck was amazing. He risked a lot on Vincent's effect and it paid off big time when you summoned Abyss Golem. The look on your face was priceless too."
Ethan sighed. "I want a rematch with him."
"Well too bad, you already had your chance. Someone else signed up for round two."
. . .
Maki sat in her living room playing an RPG on her DS. The microwave hummed in the background as it warmed water for her tea. Maki smiled as she selected her next attack. She drummed her fingers to the rhythm of the boss theme. "Oh Reiko, will you ever give up?"
A knock on the door caught her attention. "Coming!" She called out as she shut her DS. She stood up from the couch and walked over to the door. She opened it with a smile. "Ryan, what brings you here?"
"I was supposed to duel Ethan after school today, but he never showed," the boy lied. "You two seemed like friends so I was wondering if you knew his number. I wanted to call him to reschedule."
"Yeah, we're friends," Maki confirmed. "I have his number; let me get it for you." She reached into her pocket and grabbed her cell phone.
"So, are you two close?" Ryan inquired.
"Yeah. We've known each other since we were kids," Maki told him. "Why?"
"Because from what I gather, he was there in the library from before your deck got stolen. I just found it odd that you didn't ask him to watch your things before you went to the restroom."
"I just didn't realize he was there. Why does it matter?" Maki flipped her phone open and began searching for her friend's number.
"Because, he stole your deck and it's been bugging me."
"What do you men he stole my deck? Ethan's my friend; he'd never do that to me."
"I couldn't help but wonder, why there at the library. Surely there must have been a better opportunity. It couldn't possibly have been a spur of the moment thing. This isn't the sort of thing many people would do without planning. And I've met Ethan, he isn't the type to do things without thinking them through. Even if I consider the fact that he wanted to steal your deck and he just took the first opportunity to do so, we still have a problem. The plan was a little messed up from the start. There were easier ways to bypass the security system. A stolen ID for instance. You could even walk out the door after someone else opened it for you, and you'd never leave a record. Anyone else might have looked suspicious if they waited to sneak out with someone else. But, Ethan is your friend. He could have left with you and nobody would question it. Even if the police did get there, they wouldn't be likely to search your friend."
"Why are you telling me all this? Even if Ethan did do it, not that he did, then maybe it just meant he didn't plan things out well enough." Maki snapped her phone shut. "Maybe you should just leave."
"I'm telling you this because I want to get a confession out of you. It would save me the trouble of having to prove that you were in on the whole thing!" Ryan pointed an accusing finger at Maki.
"Now you're just being ridiculous. That has got to be the lamest, most absurd story I've ever heard." Maki sat down on her couch and crossed her legs. "I'm afraid that I'm going to have to ask you to leave."
"Okay, I guess I'll just have to go prove my story. I'm sure that the principal will be willing to help me out. After all, a theft on school grounds looks really bad and a prank sounds so much better." Ryan said with a smirk.
"What will the principal be able to do anyway? Frame us?"
"It's simple really. There are cameras installed in every restroom. I doubt you actually bothered to wash your hands. The footage from the cameras will show us that."
"N-there's no way they installed cameras in the bathrooms. That's an invasion of privacy," Maki protested.
"You seem awfully worried for someone who's supposedly innocent."
"Of course I'm worried; someone's getting to watch me pee."
Ryan chuckled. "Okay, maybe I am bluffing. Maybe I'm not. But if I'm telling the truth, the principal will find out that you needlessly caused a disturbance. You could be expelled."
Maki sighed as she reached for something behind her couch. "Dammit, you're smart." She pulled out her Duel Disk and strapped it onto her arm. "Perhaps even smart enough to figure out why we did it." She pulled out a card from her deck case and slipped it into the Field Spell Zone. "I activate the Field Spell, Broken Darkness!"
Darkness crept out of her Duel Disk and engulfed the room. "Hey, what are you doing?" Ryan demanded. He knew the answer. The darkness disappeared quickly, but it had given Maki enough time to escape.
. . .
"I didn't expect him to show up at my house," Maki said into her cell phone. "He's really good, Ethan. He knows that I was in on the whole thing." She leaned against a tree in the park. "What should I do?"
"You're a smart girl, you'll figure something out," Ethan teased.
"Well, I can't go back home until I sort this whole thing out. He'll just know to find me there. I bet he'll probably come check up on you next, so you might want to spend the night at Emma's. I'd come too, but I hate her cats. They drive my allergies insane."
"Well, either quit complaining and had on over or figure out something else to do. I suggest you just go back there and confront him."
"And tell him what? We were supposed to be secretive and challenge him on our terms. He unraveled our little trick and took advantage of the situation. He's better at this then we thought!" Maki sighed as she slumped over. "I wish we had our powers back, then we could just go to another world to hide until the time was right."
"Listen, just challenge him to a duel and tell him that you'll answer all his questions if he wins. Then beat him. And if he somehow manages to emerge victorious, run away again."
"Are you insane? I can't just go back there. What would I say? I ran away from my house, I can't just go back there to challenge him to a duel. That would look way too uncool!"
"Then how about challenging me right now?" Ryan suggested.
"Eeep! When did you get here?" Maki asked as she closed her cell phone. "How did you find me?"
"That's a simple one, Maki. I have a Special Duel Disk with a built in GPS locator. If I duel someone then I'll be able to track their location from that point forward. When you activated your Field Spell I knew you would try to run away, so I activated my Duel Disk as well. So, do you want to duel me or would you prefer to just give me the answers I want?"
"Sorry, Ryan, but it won't be that easy. If you can track our locations, you really should have tried to track down Ethan. I'm not nearly as kind as he is." Her Duel Disk quickly activated. "If you can bring me down to 0 Life Points I'll tell you whatever you want."
Ryan mimicked her actions and activated his own Duel Disk. "So, want to throw in any arbitrary challenges like your friend Ethan? I don't want my victory to be too easy."
"Shut up and get ready to pick the pieces of your shattered dream up off the ground. You're not winning this duel, Ryan. I summon Elemental Hero-Clayman in defense mode." (800/2000) The brown clay soldier stood in front of Maki like a bodyguard waiting for any attack. "Now I activate the Continuous Spell Card, El Draw!" Her eyes briefly shifted between two cards before she slapped one onto her Duel disk. "Every time I fusion summon a Hero Monster I get to draw 1 extra card. I set another card and end my turn."
"Wow, you actually do have an Elemental Hero deck. I just assumed you were eventually going to challenge me to a duel and give me time to prepare an anti- Hero deck before pulling a completely different deck out of your butt."
"Now why would I do that?" Maki teased.
"So I'd load my deck with tons of useless cards that would weigh me down," Ryan said as he drew. "I summon Child of the Blade, Mars, in defense mode." (1100/1400) 'If I use Easy Mode and she activates her card, then Mars' effect is negated. But I have no way of guaranteeing my safety with Hard Mode. Think, she runs an Elemental hero deck, what kind of support do they have? No, wait; it could easily be a splashable card like Mirror Force. She could even have set a card that she normally wouldn't have, just to mess with me. She is friends with Ethan and he knows my deck type. He could have told her.'
"I activate Mars' effect. I can guess what kind of card your face down is, and if I'm right, you take damage," Ryan began.
"Save it, Ethan already told me about your deck and the whole stupid Easy and Hard Mode crap. So just tell me, are you going for Easy Mode. Or do you actually have the guts for Hard Mode?"
"Well, I had planned to go easy on you, but no holding back now. Time for Hard Mode." Ryan swung his arm out and watched Mars point his sword forward at the facedown. "Your card is," he thought it over. 'Counter Traps are rare, but they do exist. However, chances are it's something else. Ritual Spells rarely go face down, and I doubt she'd set one just to mess with me. She runs an Elemental Hero deck; with all those Fusions, she'd have enough of a hard time just trying to maintain hand advantage. So unless it was a low level Ritual Monster like Doriaido, I doubt she'd include it. Then again, Doriaido could help for some of the newer fusions. It could also be an Equip Spell, those are common. A normal spell is doable too.' He made no progress in his head.
"Just give up now, you'll never get it," Maki taunted.
"Continuous Spell Card, El Draw!"
"What!? But how?" Maki watched her second El Draw shatter and vanish like fading particles of light. "There's no way you could have done it this time. I talked to Ethan before you showed up. He called me to whine about your little cheating trick with the reflection on the statue. There's no way for you to see my cards here. So how did you figure it out?"
Maki: 3000
"You gave yourself away. 'I activate the Continuous Spell Card, El Draw.' Your eyes shifted between two cards in your hand before you picked one. I easily figured out that you had two copies of the same card."
Maki smiled in surprise. "Wow, that's actually rather smart. No wonder he wanted to test you."
"Who wanted to test me?" Ryan questioned.
"Reduce my Life Points to 0 and I'll tell you," Maki chuckled. "And don't worry, I won't flee from you like my friend did."
Ryan placed two cards face down. "I end my turn."
Maki drew her next card. "I activate the Spell Card Polymerization! By fusing Elemental Hero-Flash and Elemental Hero-Sparkman, I can bring out Elemental Hero- Thundaga!" Lightning struck the Earth and took the form of a Sentai Soldier dressed in yellow. Blue lightning bolts decorated his outfit. (2600/2100)
"Don't tell me you plan to summon the entire spandex brigade," teased Ryan.
"To quote Dr. K, THAT IS NOT SPANDEX!" Maki shouted jokingly." Anyway, his effect is what makes him so useful. But first of all, El Draw gives me a new card." Maki's Duel Disk spat out an extra card for her. "I'll use Thundaga's effect, I discard a card from my hand," she slipped her new card away," and you can't activate face down card's this turn." Electricity cackled as it jumped from one of Ryan's cards to the next. "I know it may not seem very deadly, or even electric themed, but trust me, there's more to it. I just need to destroy one of your monsters this turn, and I can destroy both of your facedown cards. So, Thundaga, Bolt Judgment!'
The Elemental Hero summoned a rod to his hand. A green orb rested on the tip for mere moments before lighting up. It spat waves of lightning at the surrounding area, carelessly tearing through the ground before zapping all three of Ryan's cards and sending them to the grave."
'Shoot, Mind Haxorz and Ominous Fotrunetelling. I was going to see every card in her hand then deal her damage with Fortunetelling. I could have comboed it with Ven for further damage.'
Ryan sighed. "So, anything else?"
"Yes, since my Thundaga destroyed a monster, I can remove from play three Elemental Heroes in my grave to add a Spell from my grave to my hand."
'Sparkman, Flash, and one from Thundaga's cost,' Ryan figured.
"So I'm adding Polymerization back where it belongs." Maki explained. "Your move, Ryan."
He drew a card. "Once this duel is over, you better tell me everything you know about the Octogram, about Yuu, and about the person who wanted to test me." Ryan sighed. 'Now I know how Ayumu felt in Spiral, trying so hard to deal with the Blade Children so he could find his missing brother.'
"My turn!" Ryan searched his hand for something he could use. "I summon Child of the Blade, Venus!" A beautiful blonde haired girl in an ancient Grecian robe appeared before Ryan. (1400/1000) "She's got a special effect. Once per turn, I can randomly select one card in my own hand and guess what kind of card it is. If I'm right, she gains 600 attack points until the end of the turn. Or I can go for Hard Mode. If I'm right with hard mode then she gains 1000 attack and a piercing effect until the end of the turn."
Ryan shuffled his cards around and revealed one to Maki. "It's an Equip Spell, isn't it?"
Maki nodded. "I bet it wasn't too hard for you to figure that one out since the options aren't that numerous. Considering she's in need of no sacrifices and can easily reach 2400 attack points, I'm going to have to say she's a little broken."
"You're right about the lack of choices, I only have Equip Spells in my hand." Ryan explained. He listened to Venus' raising attack. (2400/1000) "As for broken, I'm just going to say she has a few drawbacks to even her out. Like, during your turn you can use the same effect to lower her attack. Anyway, I'll equip her with Blade of the Rising Sun and Blade of the Falling Star!" Venus sheathed her sword only to grab two new ones from the air. One had a beautiful silver handle decorated with a golden sun, while the other had a jet-black blade decorated with a silver star. "Now these cards can only be equipped to Children of the Blade," Ryan explained. "My Rising Sun lets a monster attack again if it destroys a defense position monster. In addition, it gains attack equal to the destroyed monster's defense until the turn ends. Falling Star allows me to recover Life Points equal to one half the damage my monster inflicts." Ryan pointed forward. "Go and attack Clayman."
"Sorry, but I activate the effect of my removed from play Elemental Hero, Illusion Wind!" (0/0) Maki exclaimed. Venus leapt forward, winging both her blades at Clayman. The Elemental Hero raised his hands to catch the blade, but he couldn't push the swordswoman back. With a second wing of Falling Star, Venus managed to send Clayman tumbling backwards. He fell to the ground with a loud thud and sent dirt flying through the air, creating a smokescreen of cover. Venus jumped up and blindly plunged her blade toward the ground, hoping to impale Clayman and finish him off. She felt her sword sink deep into something and waited for the smoke to clear. A breeze blew the cloud of dust away, revealing a second Venus. Cracks split down her forehead as she slowly fell apart like a bunch of meaningless pixels. The real Venus stumbled backwards.
Maki: 2000
"While my Elemental Hero Illusion Wind is removed from play, I can protect my Heroes from attacks at the cost of 1000 Life Points," Maki told her opponent.
Ryan smiled. "Sounds like a costly way to protect yourself." Ryan smiled. "Well, I equip my final card to her, Shiningsoul Überblade. I can release a monster equipped with this card and two other equips to Special Summon a monster from my hand or deck with up to twice the equipped monsters original attack. So come on out, Iris Dragon!" (2800/2000) "Normally the equipped cards would transfer over, but they won't work on Iris Dragon." Ryan watched his dragon fly through the air. It had black scales and a main of purple petals.
"My move?" Maki drew a card. "I fuse the two Elemental Heroes on my field to form, Elemental Hero Gaia!" (2200/2600) "He steals half your monster's attack and I get to draw a card."
Iris Dragon 1400
Gaia 3600
"Attack!"
Iris Dragon fired a stream of Iris Petals at Gaia, but the giant Elemental hero brushed them off. He moves forward without bothering to dodge. The petals bounced off him harmlessly. Realizing there was nothing left to do, Iris Dragon tried to fly off, but Gaia caught her by the tail and slammed her to the ground. He began pounding away on the helpless dragon.
Ryan 1800
Ryan grunted as his Life Points dropped. "Just as planned," he joked. "When my Iris Dragon is destroyed I call out a card type and draw a card. If I draw a card of the type I called out, I can draw again. If it's still the same type, I can keep drawing." Ryan thought it over for a mere second. "Monster Card!" He picked up the top card of his deck. It was a Spell.
"I set a card and end my turn."
Ryan drew a card, fearing it would be his last." Alright, here we go, just what I needed! I activate the Spell Card Pot of Greed. This lets me draw two more cards." Ryan watched his available choices triple. "Now to end this right now. I activate the Spell Card Trap Booster! By discarding a card from my hand, I can activate a trap from my hand, so I'm using Call of the Haunted to bring back the monster I just discarded. Come on out, Child of the Blade- Raz!" (2600/2800) "Once per turn I can select one card in your hand and you reveal it to me. If it's a monster, you have to Special Summon it. If it's a Spell or Trap, then it goes face down on the field. Now, here's the part I like. Whatever kind of card I pick, you'll be weakened in some way."
"Weakened how?" Maki asked.
"It depends. What kind of card do you have?" He looked at the last card in the girl's hand.
"I special summon Elemental Hero-Bladedge!" (2600/1800) The golden warrior leapt into the scene and stood in front of Maki, waiting for the chance to strike.
"So looks like I get an offensive advantage in this case. Had it been a spell or trap, you wouldn't be able to activate face down spells or traps until the end of the turn. But since it's a monster, Bladedge weakens all your other monsters by his own attack.
Maki watched Gaia's attack points vanish. 'Crap, my face down card won't do a thing. It's Doriado's Blessing. I only played it to scare him out of attacking or to bait him with his effect . I can't bluff my way out of this. Well, it's a good thing I have Illusion Wind!'
"Go, Raz, slay her Gaia!" The sword master dashed forward. His black hair remained nearly perfect as he blurred away from everyone's vision. He thrust his blade into Gaia's back, but the Elemental Hero melted away like a mud statue.
Maki: 1000
"That would be my Illusion Wind at work again." Gaia reappeared on her side of the field. "My move?" She drew a card. "You know, with zero cards left in your hand, it'll take a lot of luck to keep surviving, maybe you should just give up now?"
"Oh really? I'd say we're about even at the moment," Ryan surmised. "I can easily take you out if you make the wrong moves, and I'm confident that I'll be able to hold my own against you. So maybe you should give up. I just need to draw one good card to win."
"Same here," Maki said.
"Except you've already drawn your card for the turn, and you're still stalling for time. You can't figure out what to do with it. I doubt it's a monster. Otherwise you would have summoned it and did a suicide attack with Bladedge and attacked directly. Either that or it's a monster that needs two sacrifices but doesn't have the strength it needs to hold its own against Raz. Of course, the third possibility is that it is a monster, but it's too weak to do much good and would only be a liability on my next turn, but you probably would have at least set it by now. If it were trap, it would probably be face down by now. Overall, I'm guessing it's a spell card that you can activate, but don't know what to do with. Maybe it's a Reinforcement of the Army and you have no clue what monster to grab with it."
'Dammit, he's right. The Warrior Returning Alive can let me grab a warrior from my grave and add it to my hand, but my only choices at the moment are Clayman. But what if I need it later?' Maki sighed. "I end my turn, oh crap," she stared in horror at her attack mode Gaia. He had no attack points, one good attack would be enough.
'There's no way she'd make such an amateurish mistake,' Ryan thought to himself as he drew a card. 'She must be trying to lure me into an attack so she can use her trap. But, why didn't she use it last turn?' Ryan tried to figure it out.
Maki did her best to hide her smile. 'That's right, I know you don't actually believe I messed up on purpose, Ryan. You probably think I'm trying to lure you into attacking so I can activate a trap card.'
'I get it; she must have needed something she could discard for a cost. I wonder then, what could that card in her hand be? Necroid Shaman? No, it doesn't necessarily have to be something like that. Any card will do. But then, what could her face down be. Raigeki Break? No, she could activate that at any time. Think, Ryan, think!' He set his newest card face down. "I end my turn."
Maki drew. 'He seemed way too worried about my face down card. If his face down was anything to gear, he would have set it and ended his turn right away. That means I can safely say that it's safe to attack.'
Maki grinned. "I activate the Warrior Returning Alive to return Clayman to my hand. Next I use the Spell Card Fusion Burst. This card lets me add a Polymerization from my grave to my hand by returning a Fusion monster to my extra deck. So I remove Gaia from the field and activate Polymerization to fuse my Clayman with Bladedge to resummon Gaia!"
In a series of needlessly flashy lights, Gaia vanished only to reappear when Bladedge vanished into a mystical swirling vortex. (2200/2600) "He steals half your monsters attack points and I get to draw a card."
Gaia 3500
Raz 1300
Maki quickly activated her next card. "Monster Reborn, bring back Elemental Hero Bladedge!" (2600/1800)
'Gaia must be one of those E Hero fusions that just need a Hero and a monster of the right element. In this case, an Elemental Hero and an Earth monster. I better be careful before she pulls something else out."
"Gaia, crush his Child of the Blade."
"Sorry, I'm using Negate Attack," Ryan watched Gaia's fist collide with a wall of air. "So I assume this means it's my move?" Ryan watched the monster's attacks revert to normal. 'Okay I can at least slay Gaia. Though now I'm really curious to find out what that face down card is.' He reached for his next card.
'At this moment there are approximately 28 cards in my deck and I have about 7 cards that can stop me from getting killed. Do the math in my head and that's a one-in-four chance of getting what I need. I like those odds.'
Ryan drew. "I activate the Spell Card Monster Reborn. Come back to me, Iris Dragon!" Golden sparks marked the return of his previously deceased monster. (2800/2600) "Now I have enough attack points to wipe out your last two monsters and take away over half your Life Point!"
"If you're brave enough to attack." Maki pointed to her face down. 'Now he'll try to figure out if it's a bluff or if I want him to attack.'
"Sorry, your bluff isn't going to work. You had too many chances to use it, but you didn't. Besides, why try to lure me into an attack when I'm already going to attack? I'm going to follow through. Go, Iris Dragon, attack Bladedge." Iris Dragon fired a stream of petals, but Maki's monsters vanished from sight.
'What's going on?' Ryan wondered. The sound of trickling Life Points alarmed him. He quickly checked his own Life Points. They remained at 1800. 'What?' On a hunch he examined Maki's Life Points. 'No! Crap!'
Maki: 0
'She used Illusion!' Ryan turned to his opponent. "You aren't getting out of this on a technicality, Maki!" he growled. Her words rang in his ears. 'If you can bring me down to 0 Life Points I'll tell you whatever you want.'
"Sorry, Ryan, but the deal was that I'd tell you everything if you could bring my Life Points to 0. I gave them up all on my own. So you fail the challenge."
"That's stupid! I still beat you!"
"Too bad I never said you just had to beat me," Maki teased. She calmly walked away. "Go ahead and get us expelled if you want. You'd just lose your nest chance of every finding Ethan or me for a rematch."
Ryan suppressed a growl of frustration.
