Chapter 3: Slifer of Hands
Buzz rang through the academy about Crowler's dismissal to Ash and sent him to Slifer Red. "So that boy who came to the island from that storm earlier today?" a male student brought up. "Well, get this… Crowler sent that boy and the mouse to Slifer Red. Word is, that boy called Crowler a female."
"What, really?" another young man gawked. "What was he thinking?"
"Can you blame him for that mistake in gender identity? Those purple lips must have had him get the wrong message."
"Well, coming out, I would've done the same thing if I said anything about him on first impression," a third young man admitted. "Seriously, why does Crowler need lipstick? It doesn't make sense."
"Tell me about it, those lips kinda creep me out."
"Speaking of lips, a couple of Obelisk girls tried to sneak a peek at the new kid when he first arrived, only to be defied by the dinosaur duelist," the second young man added. "Seems the new kid's got an immediate fanbase despite not having a Duel Monster card, let alone have a duel."
"Lucky him," the third young man hissed. "Well, if anything, there's Jaden who can train him in Duel Monsters, which is funny since I heard from Jesse that the kid's a trainer himself."
"What's so funny about that? You learn from each other, right?"
"Point taken," the first young man agreed. Ash and Pikachu were escorted by Jaden and Chazz to the complex where they both housed themselves in.
"I still say that was rather gutsy to call Crowler a girl, new kid," Chazz snickered.
"I'll say," Jaden laughed. "I've never seen Crowler so embarrassed by that. I mean, sure, I give him a dose of humiliation from time to time, but never seen him so red..." Ash, clutching his head from the mistake, felt the shame of the encounter.
"I get it, you two," he mulled. "It was an honest mistake. How was I suppose to know that Crowler was a guy?!" Pikachu felt just as bad as Ash in the embarrassment, even though he was being held by Alexis. They soon found the complex with the red roof.
"Well, this is it: the Slifer Red Dorm." As they arrived, Jaden used a key to open a room. Inside were bunk beds, a desk, a miniature fridge, a coffee-maker and an alarm clock. "And this is your room." Viewing the beds, Ash believed he wouldn't be alone.
"Will I have some company?"
"Not with me, you won't," Chazz snarled before walking down the steps.
"Chazz will take some time to warm up to you," Jaden advised. "Anyway, I'm gonna gather my friends to see your Pokémon. I'm sure we want to see what you have." Ash couldn't wait to see who else came around.
"I'll make sure my Pokémon are ready," he promised. As Jaden flopped a nod, Pikachu screeched. His tail had a large orange tabby cat biting down. Pikachu prepared to zap it, sparks radiating from his cheeks. The tabby saw the sparks and released its fangs on the poor creature. Jaden knelt to meet the cat.
"Pharaoh, that's not food." The tabby sadly mewed. Jaden picked it up as Pikachu tried to straighten the fur dislocated from the bite. "Sorry. Pharaoh belonged to Doc Banner. He's no longer here but we're keeping him as an honorary pet." Ash itched Pharaoh's head, much to his awe.
"There are Pokémon that are like cats, though one I deal with on a daily basis." Then he wondered if he could watch the cat. "Say, is it alright if Pharaoh's with me? He'll behave after Pikachu warned him."
"No problem! I'll be right back." Putting Pharaoh down, Jaden dashed off to let Ash see his deck with a written note. He unwrapped the deck's package, viewing different colors on the cards: yellow, orange, green and magenta. He organized the cards by color. Total, each of the four colors had 25 cards, 100 altogether. Next, he tiled the cards in a ten-by-ten paper carpet. He read the note given by Jaden.
"Okay, so if I read this right, I need at least 40 cards to duel. Yellow are Normal Monsters, Orange are Effect Monsters, Green are Magic and magenta are Traps that I lay face-down before using them." Looking over the cards, there were some cards he saw that appealed to him like a black dragon with vapors emitting. The card read "Pitch-Black Dragon." Ash picked it up. "Pitch-Black Dragon… A Union Monster? What's that?" Meanwhile, Pharaoh pawed another orange card, this one being an orange spike ball with a rat's head.
("That card?") asked Pikachu. Ash heard the squeaking before eying the cat's paw. He picked it up and read the name.
"Thousand Needles… It reads that if this card's Defense is higher than the Attack of the attacking monster, that card is destroyed after Damage Calculation. A nice little card to have. Thanks, Pharaoh." The tabby mewed. About 20 minutes passed when Jaden knocked on the door. Ash opened it just as he got his deck made.
"Hey, Ash!" he welcomed. "Come on out." Ash came to the door and saw Syrus, Hassleberry, Jesse and two others, both raven-haired. One was a girl in the same clothing as Jaden while the other was a young man in yellow. Ash and Pikachu came down to see these people. "I like to introduce you to my friends. The one in Obelisk Blue is Syrus Truesdale." Syrus came forward. "He treated Pikachu while some of us worked on you."
"Ah, so the mouse is Pikachu," he awed. "How are you feeling?" Pikachu squeaked happily to reply.
"Thanks for helping Pikachu out," Ash praised as they shook hands.
"Don't mention it." Next came Hassleberry.
"This is Tyranno Hassleberry," Jaden pointed to the muscle. "He'll run you like you're in the military." Hassleberry and Ash shook hands.
"Can't wait to duel with you, Private," Hassleberry huffed. Jaden turned the new young man, also wearing yellow.
"This is Bastion Misawa." Ash and Bastion shook hands.
"So you must be the bass Jaden fished out of the ocean," he teased with a British accent.
"If you're calling me a bass, what does that make Pikachu?"
"I'm not gonna tease it." Pikachu sighed in some comfort. The other raven-haired turned to Jaden with some curiosity.
"Didn't you say that this guy's got some more monsters?" she asked.
"Don't worry, Blair!" he replied. "You'll see!" Jaden now approached Ash, ready to see more Pokémon. "Okay, Ash… We're ready to see more of your monsters." The cue made Ash take a deep breath.
"Okay, I bet it's that time," he sighed. He grabbed the red/white balls and tossed them high. They opened, releasing light which formed to different creatures. Aside from Chimchar, four others emerged from the light. There was an orange weasel with a flotation ring around its neck, a grayish-brown avian with a tuff of feathers curving forward to make a weird hairstyle, a tiny green turtle with a pair of leaves protruding out of its head and a magenta scorpion with wings. "These are my Pokémon: Chimchar..."
("Hi there!") Chimchar greeted.
"Buizel..."
("Who are they?") the weasel wondered.
"Staravia..."
("New friends, Ash?") the avian beaked as the winged scorpion jumped on the tiny turtle's back, trying to hide from the new people.
"Turtwig..."
("Who's on my back?") the turtle grunted.
"And..." Ash stopped himself when the scorpion peered out to him. "It's okay, Gilgar! They won't hurt you." The scorpion jumped from Grotle's back and showed itself. Hassleberry came by Turtwig, impressed with its size.
"Turtwig, is it?" he recalled the names. "Smallest turtle I've seen. Still, mighty fine." Turtwig appreciated the gesture of the tanned man with the accent. Bastion bumped fist and paw with Buizel while Blair and Chimchar got to know each other. The students and the Pokémon enjoyed themselves with the duelist, just as Pharaoh climbed on Staravia. Jaden came forward with an idea.
"So, Ash..." he spoke up. "As one of the top duelist, I can give you a lesson in real duels. You got your Duel Disk?" To show the item, Jaden turned his Duel Disk like he did before his duel with Jesse that never happened. Ash showed the Duel Disk before slipping it on his arm. Like Jaden's, Ash's new toy unfolded to form the same shape. "Cool! And your deck? You did make sure to have at least 40 cards."
"I got 40, alright," he showed. Jaden inserted his deck which shuffled, 4000 appearing on his counter. Copying, Ash inserted his deck with the same result.
"Nice! Dorothy must have given you some wicked cards. Alright, Ash… get your game on!" The duel started.
"How about you go first so that I may understand it more?"
"Deal! First, draw out five cards from the top of your deck." Once five cards were in each hand, Jaden continued by pulling out another card. "And because I go first, I pull one more for the first part. Now I play… Elemental HERO Burstinatrix in Attack Mode!" He put the card face up on his Duel Disk. A hologram activated and revealed a woman with skin as white as a ghost and wearing a skin-tight red spandex suit and a golden helmet. "Now I place two more cards, face-down." Two cards emerged as Buizel got in front of Ash to protect him from Burstinatrix. Jaden gawked at Buizel's willingness to defend his trainer.
"Buizel, they're holograms. They can't hurt me." Buizel looked at Ash like he didn't know what to do. That's when Ash realized Jaden didn't use Burstinatrix. "Why didn't you attack me?"
"Easy. The first to start a duel doesn't attack on the first turn. Now when you summon a monster, you're free to attack. Speaking of, it's your turn now." Ash nodded before he drew a card, hoping he followed the rules. He scanned through his hand which had two orange, two magenta and two green cards. "Now you can only summon a monster up to level 4. Also, you can summon one monster at a time unless there are cards that will allow you to bring more." Ash soon found a card with four stars and summoned it.
"This should work." He placed a card with a grayish-blue rat on his Duel Disk. "I summon Giant Rat in Attack Mode." A hologram of Giant Rat emerged. "Attack Burstinatrix with Hyper Fang!" Giant Rat raced in and took a huge bite on Burstinatrix, which shattered into a thousand pieces. Jaden's score fell a little from 4000 to 3800.
"Nice play! Using Giant Rat to take out Burstinatrix… you're first deal in damage. Now that you used your only monster on the field, do you have anything else like trap cards to set down?" Ash glanced at his hand to see what he could use. He made a rookie mistake.
"I'll put four cards face-down!" Four cards emerged by Ash. "And that should do it." On that cue, Jaden drew another card.
"Okay, then. Get ready for another savior… I summon Elemental HERO Sparkman!" What emerged now was a blue humanoid robot in yellow hi-tech with a handgun. "Now, Elemental HERO Sparkman! Blow away that Giant Rat!" Sparkman shot rounds of lightning which shocked the Giant Rat to shatter. Ash covered up but he couldn't keep his points from dropping. Ash's score fell from 4000 to 3800.
"Well, that bites..." Suddenly, Syrus remembered something from Ash's destroyed card.
"Ash!" he yelled. Ash turned to Syrus. "You can use Giant Rat's special effect! You can summon an Earth-Attribute monster with 1500 Attack Points or less!" Ash realized that he had a card that could would from Dorothy's handout.
"Thanks, Syrus! I use Giant Rat's effect..." That's when a card slipped from the middle of the deck. "And summon… Millennium Shield!" Suddenly, a giant red shield emerged with a gold rim and an Egyptian eye in the center. Everyone stood aghast with Ash's summon while the deck shuffled.
"Well, that's a surprise pick," Bastion awed.
"Yeah, who knew Dorothy gave Ash one heck of a card like Millennium Shield?" gulped Jesse. Jaden organized his thoughts to the choice of card.
"Well, that's a rare one!" he giggled. "Okay, then. Since I used my only monster to attack, I can't do anything else this turn. Of course, Millennium Shield has no Attack Power." His turn starting, Ash drew another card.
"I'll make it easy on you and lay one card face down in Defense Mode," he announced. One card emerged sideways. "And that's it."
"Alright." Jaden drew another card. "My go… and I'll summon Elemental HERO Avian in Attack Mode!" Card placed, the hologram of a man in green with wings emerged next to Sparkman. "You should've turned your Millennium Shield to Defense. Get ready to be schooled! Go, Sparkman! Attack the Millennium Shield!" Sparkman charged another round of lightning when Ash grinned.
"That's what you think! I activate my trap!" A card flipped upward, a magenta card with a knight holding a huge wooden/steel shield up. "Ready for Intercepting! With this, I can adjust Millennium Shield's position from Attack to Defense, face-down. Let's see Sparkman penetrate this shield!" Now Jaden grinned.
"Don't say you didn't ask for it! I activate my trap!" From one of Jaden's cards emerged a magenta card that had a green circular wall which had feathers around. "Feather Wind! Since I have Avian on the field, I can negate your trap and destroy it!" Ash's trap card broke to pieces.
"Oh boy..." Ash couldn't defend the shield.
"Finish the attack, Sparkman!" Jaden's monster fired the electricity that blew Millennium Shield to pieces. Ash's score dropped significantly from 3800 to 2200. "Avian, take out that face-down!" Avian raced in fired a tornado from the palm of his hand when the tornado blew back and wiped out the user. Jaden stood in shock. "What?" His score fell from 3800 to 3000 as he saw Thousand Needles. Ash smirked at the failed attempt.
"You'll have to thank Pharaoh for Thousand Needles. If your monster's attack is weaker than my defense, not only do you take Life Point damage, the monster's gone as well." Jaden smiled at the surprise defense Ash threw up.
"Impressive! Nice use of disguising your defense and using your monster's effect. Okay, you're up!" Ash drew the next card from his deck. He looked at it, not sure if that card should be used.
"First off, I'll use a face-down." One card flipped up, showing it being green with a green jar with a sinister face. "I play Pot of Greed, allowing me to draw two cards from my deck." Glancing at these two cards, he smiled before turning to Syrus. "Hey, what do I do to bring a Level Five monster in progress?"
"You need to sacrifice one monster for a Level Five or Six," Syrus explained. "Two monsters for a Level Seven or higher." Ash nodded before knowing what to do.
"Okay, then… I'll sacrifice Thousand Needles and call forth… Two-Thousand Needles!" Thousand Needles prickly body grew in size. "Now, Two-Thousand Needles, attack the Sparkman!" The rodent unleashed the needles, turning Sparkman into a pin cushion. It blew up. Jaden used his arms but to no avail. His score fell again, 3000 to 2600. "That should do it for my turn. I'll take the lead in the next." Jaden never stopped smiling to Ash despite the threat.
"For your first duel, you're not bad!" he complimented as he drew his next card. "Now watch this! First, I play my Pot of Greed!" He showed Ash the same card he played on his turn, then drew two cards. "Now, first I play Oversoul!" The green card Jaden revealed was a big purple "O" with blue vapors. "This allows me to revive Elemental HERO Burstinatrix!" From below, Burstinatrix emerged. "Next I play Monster Reborn!" The new card had a white cross with a red jewel in the center. "I bring back Elemental HERO Avian!" From the same ground, Avian emerged. "And we're not done, now I play Polymerization!" The third card Jaden showed two creatures in a vortex with their bodies swirling together. Burstinatrix and Avian became forms of light. "I fuse Burstinatrix and Avian to become… Elemental HERO Flame Wingman!" From the combined light as it faded was a green goblin-like man with a red dragon's head as a right arm, the dragon's tail and a white wing behind his left shoulder. "I'm still not done! I now play Heated Heart!" This green card's picture had a blue "H" surrounded by fire. "For this turn, I power-up Flame Wingman's Attack by 500 points! Now, Elemental HERO Flame Wingman, scorch Two-Thousand Needles!" Flame Wingman shot a blaze of fire which burned Two-Thousand Needles to dust. Ash's hands risen to stave from the heat. His points fell from 2200 to 1600. "And since Flame Wingman destroyed Two-Thousand Needles, you take extra damage based on its Attack Power." Ash watched his score finally end from 1600 to zero. "And that's game!" Ash collapsed to a seat where his Pokémon came to make sure he wasn't hurt. Jaden and Jesse joined in and helped Ash to his feet.
"You okay?" asked Jesse. Ash sighed in disappointment.
"I lost..." he admitted. Then he looked up with a smile. "But I had a lot of fun." The Pokémon sighed in relief to Ash's well-being.
"I know, right?!" cheered Jaden. "By the way, what were those cards you had, face-down?" Ash removed the cards from the slots and showed them. One was a trap card where a red dragon had a mount of a black knight with spikes. The other was a magic card with a man in blue on one knee and holding a sword and shield. "The Reliable Guardian and Formation Union." The name of the trap card had the boys wonder why Ash had a card like that.
"You have a Union monster, private?" asked Hassleberry. Ash dug through his deck when he found the card and handed it to Syrus.
"Pitch-Black Dragon?" he read the name. "Does this mean you have Dark Blade?" Ash dug a little more and pulled out a yellow card which had a black knight wielding scimitars.
"A card combination like this could prove useful," Bastion praised as Syrus handed back Pitch-Black Dragon. Chazz came back to the dorm.
"So, you did your duel?" he asked.
"Yep and Jaden won, as usual."
"Though Ash looks ready to go for more," Syrus pointed out. The news forced Chazz's hand to his head in some anguish.
"Great..." he mulled. "Just what the Academy needs, another Jaden Yuki!" While he didn't appreciate Ash staying while he waited for his chance to go back home, he had no choice but to bear the brunt of a mistaken identity. That night, Ash recalled his Pokémon except for Pikachu.
"Looks like tomorrow, we start some schooling," he huffed. Ash lied on the bottom bunk while Pikachu preferred the desk with a blanket.
("Worried a little?") he squeaked.
"Nervous. After all, it'll be the first time since Roxanne's Gym in Rustboro City."
("That long… Well, good night, Ash!") Pikachu curled himself and fell asleep.
"Night, Pikachu." Soon enough, Ash closed his eyes and began to snooze as well. The Duel Academy will provide excitement… more than he may desire.
TO BE CONTINUED...