Chapter 2- Friends Reunite

Blair was not the only former student now to have a job at Duel Academy; Bastion Misawa too was a member of staff as well. Since graduating five years ago he was immediately given a really important job by Chancellor Sheppard, one that equated in responsibility as much as Sheppard's own position. Bastion was given the honour of being the Academy's first ever power engineer and monitor.

However the job was not of the conventional sense, as the new method of electrical power was of Bastion's own invention. Before graduation day he sent off the blueprints of his plans to Kaiba Corp, where he would later learn his proposal had reached the hands of Seto Kaiba himself. Kaiba then contacted Chancellor Sheppard to provide the job and funds for the project to Bastion.

The plan was to draw energy from the Sacred Beast cards and using a complex circuitry in a specially designed power generating station to convert that energy into electrical power to self-run Duel Academy. It took a total of two and a half years and hundreds of thousands of Kaiba Corp's finances for Bastion to finally get it all done. Now three years onward he headed the Power Supervision team which observed the controlling and manipulation of the energy. Bastion knew there were dangers with what he was doing as he knew from experience that the energy of the Sacred Beast cards combined together was virtually limitless; there was always energy that went unconverted and had to be transferred elsewhere as according to his calculations a leak of unconverted card energy in either of the two power chambers that made up the station could prove deadly to anyone who did not wear protective gear.

As if anyone would be stupid enough not to wear protective gear, he thought.

Then he remembered Jaden. Except him.

"Mr. Misawa?""

"Hmm," he turned to see Marcel and Amundsen his two deputies of the team running towards him."

"What is it, boys?"

"Hah!" Marcel whooped. "Told you he'd forget, mon ami."

"Forget what?" Bastion asked in a puzzled tone.

"Mr. Misawa," Amundsen answered. "Today's the first day of your Reunion Week. Everyone who's coming is arriving at the dock in ten minutes."

Reunion Week? Oh no!

He looked at his wristwatch to double check. They were right.

"Great Scott! Is that the time? Arrgh! I'm supposed to be giving the guided tour of the station after Blair's duel and the special party!"

"Bastion, relax," Marcel raised his voice. "Amundsen and I will get everything set up for the tour here. You just head own to the dock and relive old times with our friends."

Bastion exhaled with relief. "Thank you, Marcel. What would I do without you?"

"Be missing everything in the world outside?" Marcel joked.

Bastion nodded. "Probably."

:*:

Leaving everything to Marcel and Amundsen, Bastion raced down to the docks. As he got within view he could already see the boat arriving.

Thank God I'm not late. I almost did a Jaden.

Panting he finally reached the dock as the boar moored in. He watched the ramp come down onto the concrete jetty and as his fellow former students walked across it. His eyes began looking for familiar faces, hoping to recognise old friends.

"Hey Bastion," he heard a voice call from behind.

He turned to see Blair coming to the dock as well, stopping only when she reached his side.

"Hello Blair, coming to see everyone?"

"They're my friends too Bastion."

"Is this the only welcoming committee for the greatest student Duel Academy ever had?" a snide voice reached them.

"Hello Chazz," both Bastion and Blair muttered.

Chazz Princeton perhaps the most obnoxious student Duel Academy ever had had descended the gangplank, still wearing his black trench coat around him.

"Hah, made you look," Chazz flashed a brilliant smile as he threw that trench coat off, revealing a sharp business suit underneath, the quality of which made Bastion and Blair's jaws drop.

"You two are looking at the new CEO of Princeton Incorporated."

"What about your brothers?" Bastion asked.

"Let's just say a friend volunteered to help with my hostile takeover as long as I let him buy out the company."

"Let me guess, Kaiba Corp?" Blair spoke, remembering how often the elder Princeton brothers were at loggerheads with the famous Seto Kaiba.

"Yep, best decision ever made. We invested in the transporters straight away; we're gonna get the mother lode."

"Oh, and what mother lode may that be, Private Chazz?" a cocky sounding Texan accent drawled.

"Hassleberry!" the other three turned.

Tyranno Hassleberry jumped of the boat deck and landed cleanly on the dock.

"Ta da! The one and only!"

"And I thought Chazz was the showoff," Blair muttered to herself.

"Excuse me! I'm the only showoff around here, Ms. Blair Flannigan," a young man with long brown hair and dashing good looks appeared from nowhere behind Chazz.

Chazz jumped and twisted around in a fright.

"Hello Atticus," Bastion acknowledged.

"Hey Bastion. My sis on holiday yet?"

Blair remembering what Jesse had told her earlier cut in. "She'll try to. Jess told me their project is at a very delicate stage right now."

"Don't tell me," Atticus waved his hand. "Setting up base in another dimension."

"This one hit's a little closer to home. It's Dark World."

As she expected everyone around her froze at the mention of the place they all wanted to forget. But it was cut quickly when Chazz turned around, realising that there were two people he had seen on the boat that had yet to come off.

"Where are Aster and Sartorius?"

Hassleberry grumbled. "Knowing Sartorius, he's probably doing one last check on his psychic cards."

:*:

Indeed in his cabin Sartorius was doing exactly that. Not a good fortune, not a good fortune at all, he thought as he examined the three cards before him on the table. One in particular plagued his mind. The Lightning Struck Tower; sudden and imminent death. In all his time as a psychic he had never once drawn that card, which worried him completely. The other two cards were perfectly normal, one of them being a sign of happiness. Entwined Hearts face up meant that two people destined to be together were about to reunite. The last card was Multi-Encounter, which meant that Entwined Hearts would occur multiple times in the near future.

But so will the Lightning Struck tower, he thought.

"Hey Sartorius!" Aster knocked on his cabin door. "We're at Academy Island."

Sartorius looked up from the cards. "Coming, "he called out.

But he looked back down at the three cards. His eyes tightened in fear as he gazed at the Lightning Struck Tower. He did not like this one bit.

:*:

Blair, Bastion, Hassleberry and Chazz waited for Aster and Sartorius to show. Blair checked her wristwatch. It was nearly half an hour to her duel.

"So Hassleberry, how's bone digging going?" Bastion asked.

"Huh? Oh, I gave that up four years ago. There's pretty much nothing left to dig up."

"So then what?" Chazz blinked.

"I'm a pilot now, and I'm working at Kaiba Corp. I've just been enlisted as a member of the project between them and Industrial Illusions."

Blair blinked this time. "Another friend working on this I.I. and K.C. project? What are the chances?"

"Stronger than you think," Bastion answered. "Mr. Pegasus told me my power idea for the Academy ended up being the foundation of the project. He said without it he and Mr. Kaiba could not have gotten it off the ground."

"Hey guys!"

They turned to see Aster coming down the gangplank with Sartorius in tow. Blair noticed the worried look on the psychic's face.

"Hey Aster! Sartorius!" Hassleberry and Atticus both replied.

"Any sign of Jaden?" the pro duellist asked. "I couldn't find him on the boat."

Everyone shook their heads.

"Guess that means the sarge is a no-show," Hassleberry muttered.

"Nuh!" Chazz snorted. "He's probably running late as usual."

"But there was only one boat, Chazz," Atticus pointed out.

"Wait!" Bastion put up his hands. He had noticed one other absence on the boat. "Where's Zane?"

Everybody looked back at the boat. The gangplank was already being pulled back aboard by the crew.

"Ah, excuse me," Aster called up to them.

"Yeah?" one of the shipmen asked.

"There's someone who hasn't got off yet. A Doctor Zane Truesdale."

The shipman looked at the passenger manifest. "Let's see. Truesdale. Ah, aha, ah, ah yeah here it is. Says here he'll be coming here by private plane."

"Private plane? Why?"

"According to the manifest, he was waiting back for the only absentee. A Jaden Yuki. Said he expected Mr. Yuki to be running late."

"Ugh! Where would the slacker get without us," Chazz groaned.

Nobody bothered to answer him.

"Thank you," Aster replied to the shipman.

"Well, that answers that," Bastion spoke. "I guess that means we head to the first thing on the Reunion itinerary. Blair's promotion duel."

"It's only a promotion duel if she wins or puts up a good enough fight, Bastion," Chazz replied.

"Well, if I was up against you Chazz, I'd trounce you easily," Blair slyly remarked.

For once Chazz did not take the bait. "You would've if it was five years ago, but I've been getting better."

"So have I."

Bastion moaned. "Can we just get to the arena and see who her surprise duellist is?"

"I can predict it for you," Sartorius perked up, hoping to be able to forget his previous reading.

Blair nodded. "Go ahead."

Sartorius handed her his deck of tarot cards. "Shuffle."

Blair shuffled the deck and handed it back to him. Sartorius moved the top five cards to his hand.

"Now choose two cards for me to discard."

"The first on the left and the second on the right."

Sartorius removed those cards and looked at the remaining ones.

"Hmm, Hidden Heart of Gold. Your opponent hardly ever shows his true feelings to anyone. Then the Wise Mentor; your opponent is either a teacher or a close confidante. And then there's Mysterious Fortune. Something is going to happen to your opponent in his or her future. I need to draw another card to determine that."

He pulled another card from his deck. His eyes widened. "It's the duel card Final Fusion."

"What does that mean?" Hassleberry asked.

"One of two things. It means your opponent either has this card in his or her possession or is destined to do something similar to the card's function."

"Well, that's a lotta help," Hassleberry exclaimed sarcastically. "A teacher or a close confidanta or whatever. That could be any teacher in this school. Same goes for that Hidden Heart of Gold. And that Mystery Fortune and Final Fusion, no help there either."

"Hassleberry, enough!" Blair shouted. "Don't knock back Sartorius' ability. He doesn't mock yours!"

Hassleberry scratched his head. "Sorry, private."

"It's fine," Sartorius sighed. "Sometimes I'm glad not to know the truth behind my predictions, or that I am proven wrong."

"Okay, Chazz announced. "Everybody's off the boat. Zane and Jaden are coming later by plane. Blair's duel is now in twenty minutes of starting. To the arena!"

Everyone nodded and began running towards the campus.

:*:

Chazz, Bastion, Hassleberry, Atticus, Aster and Sartorius entered the VIP box of the duelling arena. Chancellor Sheppard arose from his usual seat to greet them.

"Hello graduates!" he boomed. "Life outside school treating you okay?"

"A little."

"You know I'm doing fine, sir. I work here."

"As best as can be, Chance."

"Music's fine. Duelling's fine. And so am I."

"Ditto for me as well, except the music."

"Bad morning, Chancellor, but otherwise fine."

"Good," Sheppard replied.

Everyone watched as Blair entered the arena and took her place on one side of the field. Sheppard spoke into the microphone.

"Good morning, Ms. Flannigan. Ready for this?"

Blair brought a thumbs up. "You bet, sir."

Sheppard smiled. "Then good luck and meet your opponent. And here he is," he motioned to the other side of the field. "Doctor Vellian Crowler!"

Blair turned and indeed found herself facing her mentor across the field. That's a point for you, Jess. You'll get a big kiss when I see you again. She smiled and bowed her head. "Respects, mentor."

Crowler grinned. "Don't be formal, Blair. This is a duel. Emotions run high when people friendly to each other have to face off."

Above in the VIP box Chazz looked down at the field nonplussed. "Okay, I get the Wise Mentor, but Hidden Heart of Gold? Come on."

"Chazz," Bastion spoke. "Crowler does care, you know?"

The CEO of Princeton Inc. shrugged. "Point taken, but Final Fusion? Last I looked, Crowler does not have that card in his deck."

No one had an answer for him.

"So my assistant teacher, are you ready to ascend or remain on your current level?" Crowler asked.

"Ascend, of course!" Blair declared.

"DUEL!"


Okay everyone, Crowler is indeed Blair's opponent in a duel that will decide whether or not she will be promoted to a full teacher. Congratulations to those that guessed right. Everyone scheduled to arrive at Academy Island for Reunion Week has done so, with the exception of Jaden and Zane. Didn't I make Zane a good friend by hanging back for our favourite GX duellist? I will have the next chapter up soon. Please R&R.