Double-Dee had finally managed to breathe again after escaping Marie's love-shower, so that they could finally duel. "Tell you what, boyfriend?" Marie said mockingly. "We could make this duel a little more… interesting."

Double-Dee cocked an eyebrow. "What do you mean by 'interesting'?"

"Well, we could do this duel with the ante-rule. What is your most powerful card, Double-Dee?" He knew that he would regret this dearly, but nonetheless, he showed her his card.

"This one. The Ancient Gear Golem."

"Alright!" Marie said, the smile on her face not quite matching the chill in her voice. "Now, if you win, you'll receive…" She pondered for a moment. "Ah! Swords of Revealing Light and Gogiga Gagagigo! But if I win, you have to give me Ancient Gear Golem, and you have to spend one hour together with me!" Double-Dee shuddered. Who knew what could happen during that kind of meeting?! He had to win now!

"Very well." Both players readied their decks. "DUEL!" Marie went first.

Marie's starting hand: Final Countdown, Swords of Revealing Light, Gagagigo, Giga Gagagigo and Zero Gravity. She drew Giant Soldier of Stone.

"Let's go, Giant Soldier of Stone!" The soldier stood up from its slumber, towering over Double-Dee. "And now I activate my trump card! Final Countdown!" Marie cried enthusiastically. Double-Dee wondered briefly what it did. As if on cue, Marie smirked and explained. "Now, by sacrificing 2000 life points, its effect will resolve in 20 rounds, this being the first one! Once it resolves, I win the duel!"

Double-Dee sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "How do you expect to win a duel by counting on such an unreliable card? You have to wait for 20 rounds for a victory. If the enemy is skilled enough, he can beat you before 20 rounds have passed!" Marie snickered menacingly.

"Wait till you see the rest of my deck, sweetie!" She set a card, then finished her turn, letting Double-Dee draw. However, as his hand went to the duel disk on his hand, he failed to notice the flame lighting over their heads…

Double-Dee's starting hand: Ancient Gear Soldier, Ancient Gear Castle, Negate Attack, Ancient Gear Beast and Ancient Gear Workshop. He drew Different Dimension Capsule.

"I activate Different Dimension Capsule! By removing from play one card in my deck, I can add it to my hand two rounds after activating this card!" He looked through his deck, noticing that Golem was at the bottom. So, he picked it, placing it in the capsule. "I also activate Ancient Gear Castle!" he exclaimed. "This will raise all Ancient Gears ATK by 300. And now I summon my Ancient Gear Soldier!" The soldier rose slowly, not toppling over despite its faulty construction.

"Attack her Stone Soldier!" The machine raised its rifle, firing rapidly at Giant Soldier of Stone, completely destroying it. Marie had 1700 LP left. "I'll set one card face-down. Your move, Marie." A second flame lighted...

Marie drew Pot of Greed. "Okay, playing Pot of Greed!" Her hand went to the silver disk on her arm, and she drew Polymerization and Enchanting Fitting Room. "Cool! I'll use Enchanting Fitting Room! Now I can draw four cards from my deck, and the monsters with level 3 or less is Special Summoned to the field!" She drew Ojama Green, Yellow, Black and Trio. Examining the card in her hand, she said "Well, Ojama Trio isn't a monster, so I'll summon Ojama Black, Green and Yellow!"

The trio, one green, one yellow and one black, all of them disgusting, appeared in front of Marie. With a lazy smirk on her face, she raised her hand. "Now, I will activate Polymerization, sacrificing my three Ojamas to summon Ojama King in defence mode!" The giant, white Ojama jumped in front of Marie, where the other Ojamas had previously stood. "His special effect activates! Now, three of your Monster Zones are useless as long as Ojama King is on the field!"

Double-Dee flinched. Now it would be complicated to play Golem. He would have to…

"Hello? Earth to boyfriend! I'm summoning Gagagigo in attack mode!" The reptilian warrior rose from his resting place. "Attack his Soldier, Gagagigo!" The warrior tried to do so, unknowing that Double-Dee had other plans in mind.

"I activate my face-down card! Negate Attack!" he cried and flipped the card over. Marie snuffed. Her attack had been stopped. She would not stand for this…

"Well, if I can't attack you, I say you can't either! I activate Swords of Revealing Light! Now you cannot attack me for three of your rounds! Your move, sweetie!" The third flame ignited.

Double-Dee drew Ancient Gear Cannon. "I'll special summon Ancient Gear because of its effect!" he said. The machine appeared in a flash next to Soldier. "I tribute Ancient Gear in order to summon my Ancient Gear Beast!" The beast stood in all its creaking glory, eyeing down Marie. However, with that blasted Swords of Revealing Light on the field, he was unable to act. "Your move." He was still oblivious as flame number four lit.

Marie drew Gravity Bind. "Okay, Gagagigo! Destroy his Soldier!" The reptile delivered a high kick towards Soldier, destroying him, leaving Double-Dee with 3850 LP. "Your move, boyfriend!" The fifth flame ignited.

Double-Dee was about to draw, when he finally discovered the flames over the field. What's more, something resembling… was that a face showing up between the flames? It was thin, like formed of the smoke from those flickering flames, yet still menacing. But he had no time to offer it much thought when his eyes fell upon his drawn card: Blowback Dragon. The corners of his lips curled upwards in a smile.

"Now Different Dimension Capsule resolves, sending the card removed from play to my hand." He picked the card, his Ancient Gear Golem, and added it to his hand. However, he would have to come later, as he didn't posses the power to destroy Ojama King yet. "I sacrifice my Beast to summon Blowback Dragon!" The machine, an armless and wingless dragon robot appeared in front of Double-Dee, where Beast had previously stood. "Now, target Swords of Revealing Light!" he cried, pointing at the offending card

The dragon did so, looking at the swords that surrounded it. Marie was confused. "Target?" she saidSuddenly, three coins appeared in front of Double-Dee, before they started spinning. Two got heads, whilst one received tails. Suddenly, the swords disappeared as Blowback Dragon roared. "What the-?!"

"Blowback Dragon's special effect," Double-Dee said"I can target a card on your side of the field and then flip three coins. If two or more are heads, the targeted card is destroyed." Marie grovelled. "Your Gagagigo is defenceless against my Blowback Dragon! Destroy it!" And at thatBlowback Dragon jumped into action, biting Gagagigo in two pieces which quickly dissolved into nothing. Marie had now 1250 LP left. "Your move," he said with a smile. Flame number six ignited.

Marie sneered and drew Ancient Rules. "I activate Ancient Rules to summon Giga Gagagigo!" The monster, looking slightly more deformed than Gagagigo, appeared in front of Marie, hissing slightly. "Destroy Blowback Dragon for me, will you?" she said with faked sweetness in her voice. So it did, launching 150 damage points at Double-Dee. "I'll just set one card. Your move, sweetie-pie!" Flame seven lighted up.

Double-Dee drew Ancient Gear Tank. He smiled. NOW he could summon Golem.

"I sacrifice my castle to summon my ace card! Ancient Gear Golem!" Like in the prologue, Ancient Gear Golem was summoned like last time we saw him. "I also equip him with Ancient Gear Tank, raising his ATK by 600!"

Marie gasped fearfully. Now her Ojama King could easilybe destroyed!

"Go, my Golem! Destroy Ojama King!" Golem punched right through King, destroying him, shattering him in tiny pieces. "Don't forget Golem's special effect!" Double-Deereminded her "You lose damage even though King's in defence mode!" And of coursebeing Double-Deehe was right. Marie got King right on top on her, leaving her with 650 LP. "It's your move, Marie," he said with a smirk and a bow Flame eight flickered to life..

Hey, author here. Sorry to disturb your unevenly updated card game story, but due to severe boredom during writing of this chapter, it had to be shortened down a bit. Okay, a FEW bits. Okay, I admit it. We had to cut most of Marie's and Double-Dee's duel, so let's pick it up near the end of the duel. Marie has managed to summon Gogiga Gagagigo, and is holding Double-Dee from dealing the finishing blow. However, Double-Dee manages to hold his own by clever use of Trap cards, yet that doesn't stop his LP to tumble down to 950. Also, Marie managed to raise her own LP to 1450, and she has activated Gravity Bind, disallowing any level 4 or higher monster attack. Plus that Final Countdown only needs one more flame to fully activate, and it's Double-Dee's turn. If he doesn't pull off a miracle move, he's out!

Double-Dee stood fast, even though Marie's deck had worn him down a good deal. It all came down to this. If he didn't draw the much needed card now, then…

He drew, and sighed in relief. He held the one card that would be his saviour in his hand.

"I sacrifice my Ancient Gear Soldier to summon Ancient Gear Engineer!" The machine, having construction faults and a drill for an arm appeared next to Golem.

"So what?" Marie said with a menacing chuckle "He can't attack, and you know it, Double-Dee!"

"Oh, I think he can, Marie. You see, when a Trap card targets Engineer, the effect is negated, and the card is destroyed!" As he said, Engineer had only gazed at Gravity Bind before it was destroyed. Marie emitted a shriek of astonishment "You'll have more than one reason to scream, Marie! Go, Golem! Destroy Gogiga Gagagigo!"

Golem, obviously wanting to pummel someone for the entire duel, rushed at Gogiga to destroy it. Marie was hit by the impact and was reduced to 1400 LP. "Oh, and Engineer has yet to attack!" Double-Dee added as casually as if he was mentioning the weather "Finish this duel, Engineer!"

Engineer jumped at Marie, and as its drill struck her, the nineteen flames and the face ofsmoke disappeared. Marie's LP was 0. The duel was over.

"Okay, you win. Here ya go." Marie handed Double-Dee the cards she had promised him. Double-Dee, disliking the idea of an ante-rule duel, reluctantly took the cards before walking off.

"Finally! The first bracket has finished the duelling! Now bracket 2 can move out!" Eddy was pleased with the way the tournament had enveloped, ever since Leatimra had joined. However, Leivar and Ariu didn't walk with the rest of the duellists. They went to speak with Aidoxe, who was far from pleased.

"This plan hasn't been going to great. Not only have we lost Nomah, but now HE has joined the tournament in her place?!"

"It waz nothing we could do about it, Aidoxe. I guezz fate haz an dizturbing zenze of humour." Ariu nodded.

"I know. But still, you two have to play your cards better than Nomah. She was far more interested in her own body than anything else. Do not make such mistakes."

Ariu and Leivar nodded in understanding.

"Right. Now get going, or you'll catch attention."

"Yez, Aidoxe." With that, the two walked off, while Aidoxe stayed behind, trying to think things over.

Marie kicked a tin box across the road. Now that she was out, she had nothing better to do but to wait at home for her sisters. When she arrived at the Kanker trailer at Park 'n' Flush, she found an envelope at her door.

"What the..?" She opened the envelope, to find a letter reading: "To a great duellist." Also inside were two cards: Swords of Revealing Lght and Gogiga Gagagigo. She smiled toherself. "Hmm. Charming."