Several miles out at sea, a fleet of battleships powered through the ocean currents in a tight formation. Helicopters flew close for support as all weaponry on board both naval and aerial vehicles stood primed and ready. At first glance, one would think that such a fleet was headed towards a major battlefield but it was not. This fleet was commissioned for armed escort and protection.
"Attention all craft, I know it's been a long journey, fighting off intruders and attack subs. It seems the whole world is trying to infiltrate our defenses but it's about to all pay off," said the commanding officer over the radio as land came into view.
Naturally, one can't help but wonder who, aboard one of these ships, could be of such importance that would warrant the need for protection on such a scale.
"We're about to reach our final objective and with the payload safe."
In actuality, it wasn't a "who… "
"So full speed ahead, men. This is the moment we've been waiting for"
It's more of a what.
"The moment Duel Academy gets their new rare cards!"
"Please Slifer, help me pass this test. If I don't pass this then I won't be in Ra Yellow, and I don't want to be stuck wearing red for the rest of my life, not that there's anything wrong with red." Syrus said as he chanted something to a picture of Slifer the Sky Dragon, attempting and failing to pull off a séance of sorts. Jaden was snoozing a bit, wearing only his undergarments as he had gotten back late from a nightly rendezvous with Alexis. Syrus continued on. "If you're listening to me then please give me a sign." He jumped when an alarm clock rang. He sighed as it was just Jaden sleeping in a bit. "Come on, wake up Jay. We've got tests today."
"You shouldn't try that." This confused the young vampire as he didn't know why Chumley would want him to stop. "You know that after the written test comes the field exam, and I don't want to be the guy that faces off with Sparda." Syrus left, but blushed as Jaden mumbled something about Alexis' tongue and ran off.
Sometime later, Jaden was awake and with a full stomach. He dashed off to the exam, but noticed one of the staff having trouble with the van. "Need a hand?" He asked as he started pushing, deciding that a good deed would be his own reward.
"Oh, are you from the auto club?" she asked.
"Nope, just your everyday chivalrous knight."
"Isn't that nice."
Jaden lifted the back of the van off the ground.
"You're such a sweet boy, I'll remember this."
"How about next time, you just remember the extended warranty on this thing," Jaden grunted as he pushed the vehicle up the hill.
Many students were hard at work to complete their written exam.
"You have 45 minutes left to finish your test," said Banner.
Jaden came in at that moment. "Sorry I'm late." Banner nodded as a few people had some thoughts. 'He comes about all carefree and is late. If I didn't do the research myself, then I wouldn't have thought of him as a war hero duelist. Jaden needs to apply himself more.' Bastion's pencil was flying with answers, but he himself felt bored and unchallenged. Alexis was having different thoughts, 'Maybe I should've asked if he would stay with me 'till morning, then he might not be so late. It would take some luck or serious studying to finish the test when we're already fifteen minutes in.'
"Here is your test Mr. Yuki, but you will be pressed for time." Jaden worked on his test as best he could, but there was someone that wasn't a part of the class watching. 'Just you wait Jaden, you may find the written portion difficult, but the field duel will become a nightmare.' Crowler was watching and waiting. He thought of a plan to humiliate Jaden, and then remembered a bit of information that may turn the tides in his favor. He slunk off to begin the plan.
Later
"All right class, the written exam is now over. So please walk, do not run, to get in line to get today's new rare cards," Banner announced.
"They're here?" one student asked.
Banner then just realized what was about to happen, "Oh dear."
Every single student then rushed out the door to get to the card shack first like Christmas shoppers the night before Black Friday, the horror.
Jaden and Syrus were asleep through it all.
The students rushed like starving animals to the card shack to get the new rare cards. It was a usual ritual for most as they waited for the chance to improve their decks and get promoted, and they got to the shack. The man that was in charge of the escort team held the briefcase. "Well, now. You want the cards? Then come and get 'em." He said as the place opened, but when they got in there was only a slip of folded paper inside. "Huh? Where are the rare cards?" One of the students asked, but the girl that was by the case shook her head. "You know the rules, it's first come first serve, and this gentleman got here first." The person in question could hardly be seen, but the students complained on how it wasn't fair.
"Wake up you two." Bastion said, with Alexis beside him, both trying to wake the two sleeping Slifers.
Syrus was the first to stir awake.
"I flunked, didn't I? I'm a complete failure," he said, hopeless.
"Sy, if you were graded on melodrama, you'd get an 'A."
The two then noticed the barren classroom.
"Where'd everybody go?" asked Syrus.
"At the card shack, today's the day the new rare cards arrive," Alexis answered.
"WHAT?! How come no one told us?"
"Because everyone wants the best cards for themselves, to use in the upcoming field test."
"So how come you're not rushing to get new cards?"
"Please, one errant card and my entire deck's delicate balance is thrown off," Bastion said with a hint smugness.
"Mine wouldn't."
"Then let's go before they run out," Jaden said to the little vampire before the two ran off.
They got to the card shack, but there was no one there. "They couldn't have run out of cards already, could they?" Syrus asked as they walked up to the counter. "I think it might be because we slept in. Next time don't hold an all-night Slifer séance." He then looked at the girl at the counter. "Miss, are there any cards left?"
"Yeah, but we've only got regular packs. Here," She handed a pack of normal cards. It was a normal booster pack, but Syrus tried to offer it to Jaden. "You take it Sy, I've got two good decks, and I'm thinking of unleashing hell."
"Oh, you're that auto-knight that came to my rescue earlier today." A voice said getting Jaden's and Syrus' attention. "Hey, you're the lady that had van trouble!"
Chazz and his two friends were hanging around the hall. Clint and Sam were somewhat scared. "I send you two to get some of those rare cards, and you come back empty handed?!" Chazz was not pleased, and his tone showed it. "It's not our fault Chazz, some sticky fingers got all the cards first and didn't save the rest!"
"Bah, it doesn't matter since no duelist here can beat me."
"Unless that duelist goes by the name of Jaden Yuki," a familiar voice spoke out.
The trio of boys turned to the source and found the same person from the card shack.
"It's that sticky fingers who took all the rare cards!"
"You mean these?" he said, throwing open his cloak to reveal the numerous cards lining it.
"Who the hell are you?" Chazz demanded, fed up with this mystery guy's mind games.
The person then pulled his cloak off to reveal himself to be…
"CROWLER?!"
"In the flesh my student!" Chazz just smirked a bit. "You looked better with the disguise on." Crowler just fell down a bit before getting back up. "Barbs aside, I believe we have a common enemy in Jaden Yuki. I'll set up the exams that you'll duel him, and beat him with these rare cards."
"Problem is, that only students from the same dorm can duel each other." Clint said, but Crowler waved his hands. "I have connections to arrange it. So what do you say Chazz?"
"Why should I waste my time dueling a Slifer Slacker?" That's when Crowler had one last part to say. "I'm sure that Miss Rhodes would dump the Slacker and gladly take you as her paramour when you win."
"Fine, I'll beat that Slacker." Chazz said, with thought of the idea of having a succubus trophy wife dancing around in his head.
"I'm dueling a blue?" Jaden was standing on the dueling field, ready to face his opponent, but he was looking at Chazz, not a random Slifer.
"Yes, you see you seem to talk big game, and I wanted to make sure you can back up the talk. So, who else than the best of the first year Obelisk Blue dorm?" Crowler said, but Jaden knew there was something more to it than that. Still, the thought of at least knocking Chazz down a peg or two was a little too enticing.
"I accept!"
"LET'S DUEL!"
Chazz: 4000
Jaden: 4000
"Here goes!" Jaden drew his card.
"I'll start off by summoning 7th Hell: Lust in defense mode."
A scythe-wielding ghoul in a red tattered tunic appeared on the field.
"I don't think your little ghoul can stand up to what's about to happen to him." Chazz then drew a card, 'Thanks for the rare cards Crowler.'
"Fresh off the presses is Magical Mallet! With this I can get a redo. All the cards in my hand that I don't want I can put back in my deck and reshuffle."
Syrus was sitting beside Bastion and was shocked, "A rare card on the first draw!"
"And a dangerous one at that. Now Chazz can essentially pick which cards he wants and doesn't want." Bastion answered the young Slifer.
Chazz had placed the cards in his deck and reshuffled, and drew. "And that's not all, I can reshuffle Magical Mallet and I can play it again and again." He then reshuffled his deck a second time after he played Magical Mallet. "It comes in handy when I'm looking for this: V-Tiger Jet!" A combat jet in the shape of a tiger roared on to the field.
V-Tiger Jet/ ATK: 1600/DEF: 1800
A yellow and green aircraft with robotic tiger appendages and head appeared on Chazz's field.
"And there's a lot more where that came from because I play Frontline Base! It allows me to summon another Lv. 4 or below monster this turn and I have just the one, too. W-Wing Catapult!"
This time, a blue boxy machine materialized.
"Now I combine them into VW Tiger Catapult!"
VW Tiger Catapult/ ATK: 2000
The two machines then connected together at the Tiger Jet's bottom by the blue jet's top.
"And let's not forget his special ability."
"Oh come on, is this guy's turn ever going to end sometime this century?" shouted Syrus.
"By sending one card to the graveyard, I can switch one of your monsters into attack mode."
The ghoul on Jaden's field then stood up and brandished its scythe.
"Now my Tiger Catapult will send your monster back to hell!"
The machine unleashed a barrage of missile on the Hell: Lust, shattering it into particles.
Crowler gazed down in glee at Chazz's move against the young Slifer.
"My goodness, perhaps Jaden can't play with the big boys after all. I guess he's not as good as everyone thinks."
Sheppard remained silent as he watched the duel.
'Don't be so sure of that, Crowler. Sparda is just getting started.'
As the dust from the attack settled, Chazz found not only were Jaden's life points unchanged but now there were five copies of the monster he destroyed squatting in defense mode.
"What the? Where did they come from and why haven't your life points gone down?"
"That's Lust special ability: when he's destroyed, I take no battle damage and I get to summon as many Lust Tokens equal to number of cards you played this turn. Since you played five, I get five tokens."
Chazz growled at this predicament.
"Fine, I place one card facedown and end my turn. But make no mistake; I'll be bringing the heat next turn."
"In that case, I better cool things down! I sacrifice two Lust tokens in order to summon Cerberus, the Ice Guardian in attack mode!"
Two of the ghoulish tokens were encase in ice before a massive three-headed dog monster incased in armor-like ice came charging onto the field and crushing the two of them. The three heads then unleashed a growling howl.
Cerberus, the Ice Guardian/ ATK: 2300
"Now Cerberus, attack the VW-Tiger catapult!" Cerberus did as his master commanded and blasted VW-Tiger with a blast of ice, freezing it until it couldn't fly and shattered on impact with the floor.
Chazz: 3700
"Well then, I think I'll throw down a face down and call it a turn, and I think you should've summoned a V-8." Jaden chuckled at the semi-bad pun, but Chazz just growled.
"I must say that Jaden's deck is full of unknown cards. Those Hell cards make it easier to summon stronger monsters." Bastion stared at the young man. "Yeah, and I wonder what's next." Syrus said, looking at the war hero with awe in his eyes.
"That's one big dog." Mindy nervously tried to hide behind Alexis when she said that. "Yeah, and it's just the first guardian in Jaden's deck." Alexis just smiled as she watched the duel.
"I've read about him! Cerberus is traditionally from Greek lore, and is the guardian of the Underworld. How did Jaden get him in his deck?" Jazz was shocked to see the fabled guardian, especially since it was always with the Darkstalker Hero Sparda. "I know you have questions, but mine is what Crowler is up to?"
"You got lucky Slifer Slacker, but I've still got some tricks. Now I summon X-Head Cannon, and with Frontline Base I can summon Z-Metal Tank." Two more mechanical monsters appeared on the field.
After seeing what Chazz had summoned, he had good feeling he knew what was coming next.
"Next, I play my face down, Call of the Haunted! It allows me to bring back a monster in my graveyard and I choose…"
A red mechanical Dragon appeared.
"It's him!" shouted Syrus.
"He has it!" Added Bastion.
"That's right, Y-Dragon Head! It's what I discarded for my Tiger Catapult's effect. Now I combine them all to create XYZ-Dragon Cannon!"
XYZ-Dragon Cannon/ ATK: 2800
"I'm not done yet. I play Monster Reborn from my hand to summon back VW Tiger Catapult!"
The aforementioned monster returned with a roar.
"Now Chazz has two monsters out with over 2000 attack points each!" Bastion exclaimed.
"But Cerberus took down VW no problem, why would Chazz call it back?" asked the short vampire.
"I had heard rumors that VW and XYZ monsters were part of the same family and they had one more assembly form."
"But wait, there's more; or rather less. They say two is better than one but I disagree. Especially when the one is the ultimate VWXYZ Dragon Catapult Cannon!
The two monsters took off into the air and broke apart into their separate monsters before reforming into a new humanoid machine.
VWXYZ Dragon Catapult Cannon/ ATK: 3000
"Makes your demon dog look like a puppy, huh?"
Cerberus then disappeared in a small whirlwind.
"Or at least it did. Oh, that's right, I didn't mention VWXYZ ability. He allows me to banish one card on your field once a turn. And if you think that's impressive, just wait until he attacks."
"Hold it Chazz, I play A Hero Emerges!"
"A hero what?"
"Emerges, what this does is you have to randomly pick one card from my hand and if it is a monster, I can summon it."
"Fine, the far right!"
In most cases, one would think that a strong warrior or a hideous abomination would appear, but what was summoned by the effect of A Hero Emerges was a small furry monster with angelic wings. *Kuri* this caused many of the girls in the audience to squeal along with phrases like: "It's so cute!" "I just want to hug it!"
"I summon my good friend, Winged Kuriboh, and he'll be finishing the duel." Chazz just laughed at the monster Jaden summoned. "I'm not even going to bother with it, and I'll attack that Lust Token." VWXYZ-Dragon Catapult Canon attacked one of the Lust Tokens. "That's the end of my turn." Jaden smirked as he drew another card. He took a quick glance and smirked.
"I'll set one card face down and that's it."
"That's it, all right because you're finished, Jaden. VWXYZ attacks Kuriboh!"
The machine open fired with its beam cannons.
"Time to end this, I discard two cards and play the spell card Transcendent Wings!"
"WHAT?!"
The beams began to cascade off the now much larger wings of the brown fur ball.
"Transcendent Wings has evolved Winged Kuriboh into a level ten monster; and it gets better, too. When he sacrifices himself, he destroys all monsters in attack mode and deals damage to your life points equal to their attack points."
The powered up Kuriboh then threw VWXYZ's attack right back at him, shattering them both into pieces.
Chazz: 700
"Lucky punk!" Chazz snarled
"Lucky? No, I just have a soft spot for old ladies but not for you, Chazz, since it's now my turn."
Chazz tensed up.
"I switch my two remaining Lust Tokens into attack mode and have them attack you directly!"
The two ghouls stood up and rushed forward with incredible speed, slashing at Chazz.
Chazz: 0
The crowd was stunned, before they broke off into a cheer at the amazing Duel. "Well done Jaden Yuki. This is the first time that someone from Slifer Red ever beat an Obelisk Blue in the history of our academy. You are truly a model student for the Darkstalker community, and I am proud to promote you to Ra Yellow!" Shepherd announced on the PA system in the gym. Everyone was chanting Jaden's name, but Alexis ahd quickly ran up and kissed him on the cheek.
"How could Chazz lose to that Slifer Slacker with all those rare cards I gave him!?" Crowler said as he watched Jaden get praised for doing what was thought to be impossible. Chancellor Shepherd turned his head towards. "What's this about giving Chazz some rare cards?" Crowler tried to keep Shepherd in the dark, but the man pulled a PDA that had various complaints about a single individual grabbing all the cards. When that was shown, Crowler knew that he would at least get toilet cleaning duty for quite a while.
Later…
"How's this? Roommate wanted, no one named Chazz; rare cards a plus," suggested Chumley.
Syrus remained silent; already missing the war hero he had come to befriend.
"Hey, Sy, if you're not gonna help with, the least you could do is make me a grilled cheese."
"I just thought Jaden would say goodbye to us, that's all."
"Someone say my name?" a voice said from the door.
It was Jaden, still wearing his red duster but now with the Ra Yellow blazer underneath.
"Jaden?! What are you doing here? Aren't you in Yellow now?" Syrus asked shocked.
""Well, first off, I wanted to say congrats on passing your exam. Secondly, yep, I'm a yellow but I've talked with Sheppard and made it so that I had the privileges of a Ra Yellow but I can reside here in the Red dorm." Jaden said with a smile.
"Ahhhhhh, Really?!" Syrus said with tears as he hugged the bigger boy around the waist.
"Hey, Sy! Leggo, you're getting my coat soaked!" the boy yelped in surprise.
"Oh sorry!" Syrus said as he pulled away.
The rest of day passed by as three friends in the Red dorm laughed.
OC Cards
7th Hell: Lust/ DARK/ Lv. 4/ Fiend/ ATK: 1500 /DEF: 1400/ When this card is destroyed by battle, negate any battle damage and special summon as many "Lust Tokens" to the field equal to the number of cards your opponent played the turn this card was destroyed: "Lust Token / Level 1/ Fiend-type/ DARK Attribute/ ATK: 500/ DEF: 500/ When this card is destroyed by battle, negate any battle damage."
Cerberus, the Ice Guardian/ WATER/ Lv.7/ Fiend/ ATK: 2300/ DEF: 2000/- Effect to be revealed.