Dragon's Chick
Duel 7
XXX
In a enormous room sat Vect lazily on his throne. Skulls decorated the platform, only giving up a more creepy vibe by the fact that many of them had crystals in their eye holes. On the other hand several of the eyes were still moving. Above Vect stood the rotting corpse of the two security guards Titan had killed. They were fine gift to his every growing arsenal of victims. Beside him were his two advisors Cythrax and Lillith who were also sitting on their smaller but no less sinister thrones.
The purple and blue lightning was suppose to provide a calm, soothing atmosphere in contrast to the corpses of several of Titan's victims. Vect himself found the whole situation trivial, primarily because it was done through more mundane methods and because Titan tended to kill his victims relatively quickly.
Relatively was the important word.
In front of Titan stood the naked form of Hiromi the newest victim and plaything Cythrax had provided to their newest recruit after he had had his way with her. Cythrax had gotten every single thing he had wanted from her. Every. Single. Thing.
Now Titan was the one being spoiled by his new prize. Whereas the previous Hiromi was a headstrong woman who had taken the worst of the lowest rugs of society and risen to the top of the pyramid, the new one was just a weak, chained middle-aged woman covered in scars and sweating with terror.
Cythrax would have drowned her in worse but as said before he had everything he had wanted out of her. Vect and Lillith were neatly observing Titan's actions because while Titan had been acting in line and following their orders his new mission required a new ... set of skills.
Titan slash Hiromi's face once with his new metal claws causing the woman to shriek in fright. He was hoping to have his way with her but his superiors wanted a show of his strength.
And he would gladly obliged.
He slashed Hiromi's face once again, causing another shriek of pain and a trickle of blood to ooze out of the woman's face. Pathetic. He had been doing this for less than ten minutes and the woman was already a frightful mess. Too bad though. He hadn't been able to drink in his the fun at all tonight.
Titan smiled viciously as he raised his claws for the final blow., "I wonder how far I much of your body I can tear off ... with one hand."
Then he stabbed Hiromi in the stomach. His hand pierced through to the other side of her body coating it with blood.
"Oh don't be scared. I never hit the same place twice. Maybe I'll go for the head next time. Maybe it'll be your pussy," he chuckled before slowly pulling out his hands.
"AH!" screamed Hiromi as Titan ripped out half her stomach with his bare hands.
She bled to the ground, blood pulling to the floor. The stains would provide a deft of colour o the otherwise white marble.
Then Titan yelled at Cythrax, "Hey Cythrax. Fix her up. I want to rip her apart again!"
"Really?" smirked Cythrax nevertheless walking past Titan.
He knew this was coming the moment Titan had turned to his face. It was what he did. Taking a leap off his platform Cythrax landed right in front of Titan. With a grunt several thin, black spidery appendages opened up behind his back. The appendages then broke up into various fingers oozing with liquid and unnatural mandibles. Rearranging Hiromi's stomach lining and shocking was just the miraculous knowledge he had in store but one very trivial for Cythrax; especially because the corpse was still fresh.
Once he was sure he had followed the correct procedure Cythrax revived Hiromi.
Only to have Titan slash her again.
"Ah!" screamed Hiromi as Titan ripped out her jugular this time.
"Again!" cheered Titan.
Cythrax re-arranged the ripped off organ after prying it from Titan. Then he re-arranged it onto Hiromi once again. Finally he shocked her again.
Titan then stabbed her in the pelvis and ripped out another organ.
"Again!"
"Again!"
And so the process repeated throughout the night, Hiromi's screams being just one of the many but not the last of the members of the Black Skull. Lillith smiled; their organization as growing to the size they needed.
Just as planned.
XXX
Back at Duel Academy the final duel was about to commence. You could taste the excitement and tears.
"This is it," commented Kyrie, "The last hurdle."
"It's been pretty even sided so far," acknowledge Alexis, "Although I'm not going to bet on who's going to be the winner of this match."
"Jaden," bluntly answered Mindy.
"Really?" questioned Jasmine to her friend, "Why?"
"Well Dimitri was pretty good and ..."
Alexis and Kyrie could only sigh at the ongoing argument.
XXX
In contrast to the friendly atmosphere that filled the box between the four girls, Chazz and Jaden had not taken their eyes off each other. Arms crossed and eyes completely steady Jaden was out for blood.
Chazz even more so.
Jaden stated, "Let's end this once and for all."
"I've been itching to wipe that swagger out of your step," hissed Chazz twitching his fingers.
Jaden hummed back balling his fists, "Well I'm hoping that I can blind your other eye."
That got a growl from Chazz.
Sheppard broke apart the two boys hoping they wouldn't kill each other, "Just duel already!"
That wasn't a strict hyperbole though and that's what worried Sheppard. These two were suppose to be the future; especially if the Shadow Riders do appear this year. he had barely walked off stage when Chazz started the duel with an explosive start.
"I'll go first. I play V-Tiger Jet in attack mode!," Chazz taunted, "Then I add Frontline Base. Front-line Base specially ability is that once per turn I can summon a Union monster from man hand to the field."
XXX
"Oh no," whispered Dimitri from up in the stands.
Bastion agreed, "He's using the XYZ deck. That's both a good and a bad thing."
XXX
" And I chose W-Fighter Jet. But these monsters aren't staying for long. I'm fusing them to bring out a monster from my extra deck. In all your mechanized glory VW Tiger Catapult," he smirked.
VW - Tiger Catapult AP: 2000
Jaden knew exactly was about to come for two main reasons. First he had actually looked up Chazz's deck and researched any ways to beat it ahead of time. Secondly his own father used those cards, and while Chazz talked a big game, his dad was in a league of his own.
"I play three cards face down," replied Jaden, "And one card face down in defence mode."
"In that case," chuckled Chazz at Jaden's pitiful reply, "I summon X-Head Cannon!"
X-Head Cannon AP: 1800
"Bad move Chazz," activated Jaden, "Because I play two trap cards. First I play Chain of Destruction!"
"It's effects are that whenever a monster with less than 2000 attack points is summoned I get to pick out exact replicas of it in your deck and put them into the graveyard!"
"Wait no! that means...," screamed Chazz as two other copies of X-Head were removed from his deck.
"Then I play Bottomless Trap Hole!" continued Jaden revealing his other trap card, "Whenever a monster with over 1500 attack points is summoned I banish it to the void."
"But that means," stuttered Chazz realizing what Jaden had just done.
"No more XYZ dragon cannon," answered Jaden.
XXX
"In one move Jaden's all but crippled Chazz's deck ability to summon his powerful monsters," acknowledged Sheppard from the teacher's box, "Very impressive don't you think Crowler?"
"Yes," growled Crowler, "Yes it is."
XXX
"Screw you," replied Chazz from the arena, "Because while you've made it much easier for me to summon another X-Head Cannon. I play Call of the Haunted! And since you were so generous to send it to the grave-yard I think I'll bring back X-Head Cannon."
"Uh-oh," whispered Jaden.
X-Head Cannon AP: 1800
"That's right," smirked Chazz, "Now attack VW Tiger catapult destroy that face-down card!"
"Dam it!" screamed Jaden before showing his monster.
Red Wyrm.
"You've just activated Red-Wyrm's special effect Chazz. Whenever it's destroyed in battle you lose 500 life points," explained Jaden.
The ghost of the fire dragon appeared in front of Chazz and shot a torrent of fire at him.
"Dam," Chazz cursed.
Chazz LP: 4000 - 3500
Of course he wasn't done yet.
"But that still doesn't change the fact that my X-Head Cannon can still attack," returned Chazz.
"Ah!" screamed Jaden as the machine blasted him.
Jaden LP: 4000 - 2200
Glancing at the card he had just drawn Jaden quickly formulated a plan.
"Then I play one card face down and summon a monster you should I know I have," returned Jaden, "Come on out Giant Red Seasnake."
Seasnake AP: 1800
"Now attack that X-Head Cannon," kamikaze Jaden.
"But that will mean that they'll destroy each other," pointed out Chazz.
Jaden smirked, "I know. But that's the reason I'm doing it."
The seasnake twisted around the cannon causing it to malfunction and blow-up. It burnt to ashes in the process as well.
"Thanks for that," smirked Chazz, "Because now your wide open. Just to be on the safe-side I play one card-face down. Now attack him directly Tiger Catapult!"
"You really don't learn do you," reminded Jaden making a call back to their first duel, "Oh well. You activated my trap card ; Mirror Force! Mirror force's ability is that it destroys all Attack Position monsters on my opponent's side of the field. Guess which one I choose?"
"Then I end my turn," growled Chazz as his VW - Tiger Catapult destroyed itself.
"Good move. I play another card face-down and end my turn," repeated Jaden.
"Then I play one card face down," copied Chazz.
Neither player had any monsters on their sides of the field.
XXX
"That's surprising," noted Dimitri from up in the stands.
"You always say that whenever someone doesn't do anything noteworthy," pointed out Bastion.
Huffing at his friend's comment Dimitri explained, "Doesn't make it any less true. I guess the two of them used up all their possible monster cards in the first few turns."
Bastion raised realizing what Dimitri was saying, "Oh then this is over."
Dimitri smiled a little, "But I don't think a little encouragement wouldn't go unnoticed."
"I thought we had to ..." questioned Bastion.
XXX
"Fine Rising Hallejuah," sang Jaden as he drew his card. He had looked over the stands and had noticed Dimitri acting slightly weird but had gotten the message
"What the hell is that?" asked Chazz looking over the stands as well.
Jaden just beamed, "Just something my friends and I decided to make together."
"And how will that help you?" asked Chazz looking his opponents.
"Fine Rising Hallejuah," straightened Jaden ,"Remember that song. I want you to remember that for the rest of your life."
"What is it? And why?" asked back Chazz.
"Because of this card," he retorted showing it to Chazz.
XXX
"Are you sure this is allowed?" asked Ms. Fontaine from the teacher's box.
"That phase might not make a lot of sense to you," grinned Satyr ,"But it does to my little Ras. They love that song because the three of them karaoked it the night before their match. As a nice parting gift to their fellow Ras if they lost."
"Were they expecting to lose then?" asked Sheppard turning to Satyr, "There's no point in having a code if it's the last person playing it."
"Especially because those drop-outs boys told me about that phrase before they even started," backed Crowler, "You don't hand your plans straight to the enemy."
"Really?" queried Banner, "That doesn't sound like you to let them off the with that so easily."
"It's not," admitted Crowler, "But if those Ra's wanted to sing that once then who am I to stop them."
Satyr waved off, "Not at all and that's a good thing. I'm glad you let them say that Crowler. But let's just say that if Jaden drew a card that he expects to use to win this."
XXX
"I play Graceful Charity," answered Jaden, "Which allows me to draw three cards but discard two."
Then Jaden quickly sent the appropriate cards into his graveyard.
"No," widened Chazz, "I activate my trap-card Des-Counterblow. If any monster on either side of our fields decides to attack us then it is automatically destroyed. I know what kind of monsters people summon with graceful charity. Normally it's used as a way to get past tribute costs."
"Good for you," admitted Jaden, "But that's not going to save you from me because I play my two face-down cards."
One was an old man holding up two potions while the other was a card Chazz himself had played.
"The first is Poison of the Old Man. When this card is played I get to choose if I want to give myself 1200 life-points or to make you lose 800."
An orb of light circled over Chazz and Jaden's head upon the card's activation.
"And I choose the latter," emphasized Jaden directly the blast to Chazz.
Chazz LP: 3500 - 2700
"So," scoffed Chazz, "I still have more life-points than you."
"That's true," admitted Jaden before activating his second-face down, "Yet I play another card that you yourself should have; Call of the Haunted. Chazz you were half right about my plan. But that's not good enough."
"So?" once again asked Chazz, "There's nothing in your grave-yard that's strong enough to wipe me out. Giant Red Sea-snake and that's pretty much it."
"Wrong," smirked Jaden, "Remember the two-cards I just discarded?"
The two cards flashed before Chazz's mind as they were placed into Jaden's graveyard. Jaden's indigidant smirk played through his mind.
"Oh!" widened Chazz.
One of them must have been an extremely powerful monster.
"That's right. I choose to bring back one monster that is can beat you; Dark Horus! Arise from the ashes of the grave and wreck havoc throughout the night." commanded Jaden.
Shadows shifted round the arena as they danced in a web of light. Then the shadows sprang up together colliding against one another to form a ball of energy. Black, silver and grey light streaked out from the ball as it took the shape of a magnificent dark phoenix. It's metallic feathers lusted through the arena staring down at Chazz's empty field.
Then it screamed a cry of merciless vengeance and Crowler knew that this was over.
Dark Horus AP: 3000
XXX
"Oh," Harrington observed, "Looks like Zane has some competition."
"What I don't get is if he had such a powerful monster," retorted Brier, "Why didn't he summon it then play Poison of the Old Man?"
"And why's that?" asked Ishiki as he looked at the black phoenix.
"Dark Horus is a very powerful monster. I can see why Jaden talked about it on his first day and the updated version is even more powerful," explained Brier, "Originally Dark Horus has the effect, where if spell card is played on your opponent's turn you can bring back one level four DARK monster from the graveyard. The newer version is even more powerful allowing you to bring back any level four or lower levelled dark monster whenever any spell card is played."
That got a surprised look on Syrus's face.
"So not only is that card as strong as the Blue Eyes White Dragon, it's ability means that you can summon another monster from your graveyard making spell cards an risky choice to make," understood Syrus, "But Jaden seems to be using the older version of that monster."
"Or this would be over," finished Brier.
"It already is," elaborated Harrington, "Jaden didn't play Call of the Haunted first for a very good reason. Look at Chazz's field. There are still two face downs on that side of the field. If one of them turned out to be Mystical Space Typhoon or something of such Jaden would have just crippled himself altogether leaving Chazz to attack him directly the next turn."
"Your right," gasped Brier, "And it wouldn't matter what card Chazz pulled. As long as Jaden's life-points reach less than 800 this match ends with Chazz's victory."
"So that's why he didn't use those two cards until now," understated Syrus ,"Chazz could have pulled any other stunt to win this match."
XXX
"Finish him!" screamed Jaden, "Dark Horus shadow beam blast!"
The black winged phoenix raised itself to the top of the stadium. It's enormous body caused a shadow to appear over Chazz who could only gap in terror. Curling its wings to cover its mouth Dark Horus began charging up a black ball of energy. Then with a ear splitting scream it launched the beam of energy directly at the Obelisk boy.
Chazz LP: 2700 - 0
For a moment all everyone could stare at the win that Jaden pulled. Life-points set to 2200 Jaden had emerged victorious and had virtually eliminated any doubt that his victory against Crowler was a complete fluke.
XXX
Yellow: 2800
Blue: 1400
XXX
"And the Ra team has won the team match!" announced Sheppard.
XXX
"Yeah!" screamed Dimitri who ran up to Jaden.
"We did it didn't we?" smiled Bastion right behind him.
"Oh yes," laughed Jaden before giving his friends a hug. The three boys could only laugh knowing that they were completely safe from elimination.
XXX
"No!" screamed Crowler, "This can't be happening. This can't be true. This can't be ..."
"It is," interrupted Satyr, "House arrest for the three of them."
"Don't you want to congratulate them?" asked Banner, "I mean it's not every day that Ra students beat Obelisks and this is no exception."
Satyr looked down the arena where the three boys in yellow uniforms kept laughing. A small trickle of other Ra's were coming doing to the stage to greet and congratulate their fellow students.
"No. I have a lot of work to do now.," answered Satyr, "Plus I'm going to have to be the one to inform the Princeton brothers that they're younger brother has just lost the punishment match."
"Ouch," sympathised Banner, "Good thing I'm not you then. Although I'm pretty sure your Ras are going to have a party."
"Should we stop them then?" shot back Satyr, "For all I care this mess is over. Let them have their fun."
XXX
It was so odd seeing Jaden duel Chazz. Granted he understood what was at stake and why they were doing it. To Zane there was nothing else that needed to be said. Yet there was some odd again with Jaden. The siren's call that he had faintly heard during Bastion's match was basically screaming in his ear. Zane could have sworn he had seen Jaden duel once before. Once.
But why? He had never met Jaden until he had thrown Raizou out a window. He had never actually duelled him either. Something more was going on here and Zane had to get to the bottom of it. There was one place where he could begin his investigation and that was in the incident report.
XXX
"Okay spill everything now," ordered Alexis turning to Kyrie. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Zane walking away from the arena silently.
Kyrie tried to placate, "It's not my story to tell but I do believe that your owed an explanation."
"You do," cooled Jasmine.
"Meet me at the Ra dorms tonight. I'll contact you when," she insisted harshly
Jasmine, Mindy and Alexis would only look at each other before nodding at Kyrie's harsh face.
XXX
Soothing music filled the air as the Ra students mingled and chatted with each other. Drinks and refreshments were being served by Jaden himself. Dimitri was acting as a dealer as he passed out card to several other Ra students in what was some weird twisted version of Crazy Eights, Poker, Blackjack and ... something else.
No one really knew what it was called but it was sure fun.
Especially because Dimitri actually had a rule list for any questions the players had. The eight of them were constantly watching each other, waiting for a signal that would give the other away. Fortunately Dimitri wasn't playing himself, in the interests of fair play, and they were using normal playing cards.
Jaden didn't want to have Duel Monsters being flung around indoors and Bastion and Dimitri agreed. The last thing the trio had wanted was to have to add property damage to their list. With everything that was going on none of them put is past Crowler to find another reason for them to get expelled.
Bastion was discussing popular deck types with Brier and their flaws while also goring through his calculations and equations to the rapid audience of three. Actually there was five but Ishiki and someone else were having a push up contest right as Bastion stood on the top of both boys.
"Fifty three," growled Ishiki's opponent.
"- And that's why using an earth deck is good against a water deck so long as a legendary ocean is not in play," finished Bastion.
Altogether it was a very odd gathering of Ra students pattered by some Obelisks and Slifers who just wanted to hang around.
An example for such was Syrus listening to whatever Bastion had to say as he jotted everything down. The teal haired boy had been invited after Zane had notified Jaden that he wasn't coming tonight. It was strange how they got access though Mindy noted.
Most of the Ras had just stopped by to congratulate Dimitri and his pals on their magnificent win. Jaden had milked the gratitude for what it was worth by making the entire dorm give them the cafeteria for five hours, thus the quiet party. Every other door was locked from the outside with Yamanaka, and occasionally Jaden, having to ejected anyone who decided to cause any trouble.
Fortunately there hadn't been any more incidents but the gathering was odd to say the least. It was nothing like any of the parties she had been invited to as a teenager concluded Mindy. The atmosphere alone gave that away. It was very makeshift in organization but that was accepted as well.
The sizzling of bacon told her that their meal was finished. Quickly Jaden pulled out the strips and began placing them in the proper palettes. Altogether it was like those get together her grandma always had. Granted this one was larger in scale but the point still stood.
So how had they gotten in?
Kyrie was the one they should be thanking. Apparently she knew Jaden well enough for it to warrant a pass through Yamanaka on his insistence.
"This doesn't seem like a party," brushed off Jasmine.
Mindy just puffed up, "Well I'll admit the food is a bit worse than the girls dorms but it does seem like a well made gathering of odd people."
"So you were saying that it sucks?' answered Jaden appearing behind the girls making them shriek.
Kyrie seemed quite miffed from Jaden's antics as well.
"Don't do that to us," hissed Kyrie.
"Well it's been a stressful day," commented Jaden, "I just thought it would be a nice little inside joke to play."
"And you always do that whenever I have friends over because ..." trailed Kyrie.
Jaden elaborated, "Because it's nice to have friends that can see all the sides of you. That way you know if they're worth holding onto."
"Hey!" complained Mindy and Jasmine.
"That's not what we're here for," interrupted Alexis knowing where this argument was about to go towards. She knew it would be bad to draw attention to what Jaden had said but neither Kyrie or Jaden seemed to mind the comment.
"What we want to ask is what did Kyrie do for the three of you?" queried Alexis.
Jaden straightened up at the question before growling to Kyrie, "You told them?"
"They wanted to know and I might have slipped some stuff about how I was meeting the three of you in the Ra dorms," defended Kyrie.
Jaden just growled again, "So you told them? What can't you keep your mouth shut for once Kyrie?"
"I'm sorry," apologised Kyrie, "But they're my friends. I think I can trust them on this matter."
"Really," mocked Jaden, "Tell me would you be willing to go all the way for them then? Would you risk the career you built and people you stepped on the way up for them?"
That was a bit of a hyperbole but so was life. Kyrie didn't say anything though which was all Jaden needed. Then as he started walking towards the oven a small word escaped her lips.
"Yes."
That got everyone to freeze. Mindy, Jasmine and Alexis found it touching while Jaden just looked at her in shock.
"Are you stupid," hissed Jaden, "You've only known them for three weeks at the most. Alexis I can understand but Mindy and Jasmine? Really?"
"I said yes," argued back Kyrie firmly.
"And your poor judgement is what always gets me into trouble. You always trust the wrong people," Jaden shot back flexing his left arm. The one that was troubled.
Kyrie stiffened at Jaden's gesture but refused to back down. Jaden wanted to just walk away. He really did. But Kyrie was coming to him once again for an explanation. Plus he was being a bit of a hypocrite right now. He had only known Dimitri and Bastion for just as long so he wasn't someone to talk.
You can lie through an entire interview Jaden but you can't lie to your family's face can you?
Dam it why did his sisters words have to come back out now of all times.
"I'll get Dimitri and Bastion," sighed Jaden.
XXX
The rooftops was a strange place for the group of seven but it did seem to provide a good view. The cool night sky created a calm atmosphere and the fence surrounding the rooftops meant that they could lean back and listen. The party down stairs had too many people for this explanation. Bastion couldn't trust anyone else to spill what they had done.
Then again Jaden had accomplished quite a feat in a small amount of time. And he also wanted to hear the whole story. Compared to the girls, expect possibly Kyrie, Bastion had the most thorough idea of what Jaden created for them.
Speaking of the girls, they were sitting next to each other as Jaden paced back and forth, probably trying to find a good way to structure this. Dimitri just goofingly nodded as he slide a little beside Mindy's side. The girl didn't seem to mind so Bastion just let the whole matter die.
"What do you know about the decks those three used? Before the duels today I mean," asked Jaden starting off the conversation.
"I know that Taiyou uses a dragon deck and that Raizou uses some sort of weird fortress deck. Chazz reinvents himself too much for me to get a good vibe on him," stated Alexis.
Jaden nodded before continuing on, "Well I was able to find a deck list of the official decks that those three used thanks to Kyrie."
"Wait," raised Jasmine, "I remember that. Three weeks ago Kyrie and Alexis duelled each other over some sort of contact details. Alexis then said she would have to do another thing for Kyrie before she left."
"That's right," acknowledged Alexis, "And that was ... the official deck list of all the Obelisks students. It came under my name but that means that ..."
"Thanks to you Kyrie," elaborated Jaden continuing Alexi's train of thought, "We were able to get a photo-copy of the deck lists of the Obelisk students we were facing. Granted however there were two problems with that whole situation. The deck lists which Kyrie provided was a very incomplete version of what we needed. They weren't what we were exactly looking for against those three."
"I noticed," conceded Kyrie, "The deck list which I gave you only showed you two things; a list of cards Chazz and his fellows bought through their Obelisks tokens and what was their main deck."
"However," continued Jaden ,"We had a sneaking suspicion that the decks Chazz and his peers would use were completely different if not radically structured. Frontline Base and Des Counterblows are examples of cards that Chazz shouldn't have."
It was now Dimitri's turn to speak up.
"We hypothesized that Crowler would make such a move to stack the deck in our favour as much as possible," touched upon Dimitri, "That's why Jaden had to hack into the school mainframe to get a list of cards that were in Chazz, Raizou and Taiyou's possession."
"You can do that?" gaped Mindy looking at the boy beside her.
Jasmine however was far more critical than her friend.
"And how did you know that Crowler would try to pull something like on you guys. For all you might have known you basically hacked into the database of the school, illegally mind you, for your reckless paranoia," commented Jasmine, "I'm still surprised you expect us to not hand you in."
"Well you did promise me," reminded Kyrie, "And I trust you not to do this at least for my sake."
"Yeah," Alexis closed, "And whether we like it or not I'm taking this to my grave. What about you two?"
That didn't change the fact that Jaden had some blackmail material on Alexis thus her commitment to their silence.
Mindy chirped as she cozed up to Dimitri, "Sure."
The boy in question didn't seem to mind at all.
"I guess I might as well," drawled Jasmine.
"Anyways," explained Dimitri, "What clued us in onto Crowler's machinations was when he put a letter in Jaden's locker. I saw it first and in any other circumstances would have tried to sneak into the girls dorm jus to talk to Alexis."
That got several bewildered looks from the girls.
"You what?" questioned Alexis.
"But you were under house arrest," reminded Bastion, "So you told us about the letter. We still are under house arrest by the way."
"Yeah," rubbed Dimitri, "It was kind of embarrassing reading love letter out loud."
"As it should be," harked Mindy, "Those are meant to be a private thing between two people and two people only."
"Well that's what really tipped us off that Crowler would go to any means to expel us," continued Jaden, "The three of us decided to call Kyrie about the lover letter to know where Alexis was during my gym class."
"And that's why you wanted to get my phone number," clicked Alexis remembering Kyrie's duel, "It's to confirm your suspicions. From what I've been able to gather so far, neither of you were completely sure if I had sent the letter or not and whether I was one of those "obelisks" or not."
But that meant the deck Kyrie used that night was Jaden's.
"What do you mean those "Obelisks"?" emphasized Mindy turning to Dimitri.
Dimitri repeated the events of Jaden and Chazz first late night duel, "During our first day here Chazz challenged Jaden to an afterhours duel. Alexis warned us about security that night but we weren't sure if that was because she was trying to protect Chazz or to protect us."
"My confirmation and the files I provided through Kyrie to you three," admitted Alexis, "Meant that the three of you had a very valid motive to hack the school database."
"We didn't just hack the school data-base," clarified Jaden, "Bastion what else did you think I did?"
"We practiced a lot for the duel ahead of time. And I mean a lot. Jaden worked on creating a computer program to stimulate the behaviour of those three so that we could guess how they would react. We had a field of information to work with I will remind you," demonstrated Bastion by pulling out his Water Dragon, "This card was the one I would have preferred to have used however Jaden reminded me that on the off chance that Taiyou did decide to play that beast of a monster I would be defeated quite easily."
The constant drills the three of them went through still kind of haunted Bastion. Jaden could be really obsessive and determined when he had a clear goal. Then again Jaden had structured some free time so that was pretty decent of him so Bastion wasn't too angry.
"My role in this," summarized Bastion ,"Was to build a deck of monsters for each of us against who we were facing. Jaden's role making a computer program to stimulate the behaviour of each of our opponents. Jaden didn't want to hack into the main-frame at all because the longer his computer stayed connected to the school's internal cyber security the easier it would be for them to trace it back to us; thus Kyrie's role."
"I also created another program to examine what cards the three of them had played since they began duelling," added Jaden.
"Wait," understood Mindy, "I know Chazz was one of the highest in duel prep school, if not the highest. So when you mean you basically examined and dissected their playing styles that means since ..."
"The day they stepped started their first duel in Duel Prep," gloated Jaden, "The fact remains that thanks to the large digital footprint those three have had since they started their duelling careers, combined with the lack of different decks they've used meant that they lost the moment they stepped foot into the duel arena."
"That's pretty impressive," praised Alexis, "Congratulations you guys. You've managed to not find a way to know every action Crowler would take but you've also somehow managed to turn every single advantage they had into a disadvantage. But you said something about Des Counterblows and Dimitri's role in all this."
The last sentence was directed at Dimitri.
"That's much less complicated," reassured Dimitri, "First and foremost I had to get my deck up to par against Raizou. We already knew who each of us were facing. Chazz is nothing if egotistical. Even if he hadn't chosen Jaden as his opponent, Jaden would have decided so anyways. Raizou was a far harder nut to crack so to speak. His deck was the most dangerous considering the circumstances."
"That's why you didn't use Jaden's Elemental Heroes," noted Kyrie, "Because that would have been suicide against Raizou. And Taiyou had somehow managed to summon that behemoth of a monster on his first turn proving that your plan wasn't completely infallible."
"That's right," informed Dimitri, "But what I did have was a lot of Maha Vailos. Sure I didn't get a chance to use those cards but the fact remains that my deck was formulate to include any and all equip cards possible especially when Raizou would have played Dark Door on me."
"So the deck had to be low level equip monsters that would somehow get past Power Bind while strong enough to crush Raizou to pieces," widened Mindy getting the gist of the matter, "And here I thought you just liked the deck."
Dimitri winked at Mindy, "I do like my new deck. It's actually pretty good and I've beaten Jaden quite a few times."
"Really?" mocked Jaden, "I wouldn't say that. I mean I was going easy on you when ..."
Bastion interrupted Jaden bluntly stating, "You summoned Dark Horus and Gaia the Dragon Champion and still lost against Dimitri."
"That's was only once," complained Jaden.
Dmitri bragged, "One time is enough isn't it Jaden."
"I still beat you in over 200 matches," returned Jaden.
Dimitri slumped at that comment and began moping to himself. Mindy just patted him on the back at that comment.
"So where did you get all those equip cards Dimitri used?" questioned Jasmine.
"Barter Card," said Bastion, Kyrie and Jaden simultaneously.
That got a giggle out of Alexis and a smile from Jaden. Jasmine soon found herself laughing at the action which soon spread throughout the rooftops. Soon the whole group was laughing at the night they were having. It would cement the friendship of the seven and be remembered throughout their lives.
For Jaden the stars really did twinkle and dance tonight.
"Well that's the story," he finished, "Now let's go back to the party."
"That too," grinned Dimitri pulling Mindy behind him.
"I win the pool," affirmed Kyrie to Alexis. The girl in question just sighed and gave her something.