Chapter 10: Gems get Swarmed

I had to get a couple stitches in my shoulder after they removed the knife. When I duel I have to be careful not to jerk my arm around too much. I was happy I didn't have to stay in the hospital for too long, it would suck if I couldn't get John back for what he did to Michele.

"Hear anything about John?" I asked Peter when I got to the park with Michele, Alice, and Jessica.

"Nothing new," he answered. "His parents are in denial about him being a Shadow Duelist and no one's seen him."

"Well, any new cards?" I didn't want to stay on the subject for long.

"Nothing for Dragunities, but I did manage to get my hands on a new Naturia."

"Which one?" Alice was almost jumping with excitement.

"Barkion." He pulled out a trade binder and it was on the first page.

"I'll give you one hundred dollars cash right now for it," said a masked man as he walked over and took out his wallet. The mask was a diamond shape, and sparkled so bright I thought it actually was one for a minute. He has sandy blonde hair and I could see his blue eyes under his mask. He was almost a head taller than me.

"I can't match that." Alice said. She looked like she was on the verge of crying.

When I was about to see how much cash I had the man said, "Well I have Beast too." He pulled the card from the deck box on his belt. "You have Exterio. Wanna have a winner take all for it?" The man powered up his duel disk and loaded his deck.

"Fine by me." She slapped her deck in and powered up her duel disk.

Alice: 4000

Masked man: 4000

"Stop!" I yelled as Alice drew her fifth card.

"Why?" Alice asked as a black smoke rose around her feet.

"How'd you know?" Michele asked me.

"No one in Domino wears a mask like that. And even if they did, I know pretty much everyone on this side, and I've never seen anyone even close to what this guy looks like."

"But how do they know I have Exterio?" Asked Alice.

"We know all," the Shadow Duelist butted in. "But get on with your move."

"I draw!" Alice's hand was shaking, but her breathing was steady. "And I Summon my Naturia Mantis!" The mantis with leaves for pincers (or whatever mantises have) rose directly in front of Alice. "And I end my turn with two face downs!"

"My draw! And I play the Spell Card Gem-Knight Fusion! Now I'll fuse Gem-Knight Sapphire with Obsidian to form Gem-Knight Zirconia!" The humanoid monster was big, as big as my house, and it had gauntlets on both of its arms. It had a cape and a light blue body with bronze and steel rings all over its body. When I saw the 2900 ATK points I already knew Alice was going to have to pull something out of her ass to win this.

"I use the effect of Naturia Cosmobeet: when you Special Summon a monster I can Special Summon him!"

"That won't save you! Attack, my beast!" Zirconia seemed to flinch at the word "beast," but followed his orders. He drove his fist right through Cosmobeet without breaking a sweat.

Alice: 2100

"And I'll end my turn with a monster face-down in Defense Position and a face down behind it."

"My draw!" Alice's breathing was shaky now, too. "And I Summon my Naturia Butterfly!" The butterfly with pink wings took one look at Zirconia and hid behind Alice. "Get out there you coward!" Alice scolded as she pushed Butterfly next to Mantis. "And I'll end with Insect Neglect." The card with a beetle inside an electric cage showed itself to the Shadow Duelist.

"You should learn how to control your beasts," he looked at Zirconia, who flinched again, while he drew his card. "But you won't get the chance anymore! Attack, beast!"

"I use Naturia Butterfly's effect: when you attack I can send the top card of my deck to the Grave to negate that attack." The top card was Naturia Horneedle.

"Well then I'll Summon my Gem-Knight Iolite!"

I didn't get a chance to see the monster before Alice sent it to the Grave with Mantis's effect, using Naturia Ladybug as a sacrifice.

"I end my turn with another face down."

"I Draw! And I summon Naturia Stinkbug and end my turn."

"I draw! And I play Gem-Knight Fusion. So I'll fuse my Gem-Knight Tourmaline with my Alexandrite to form Gem-Knight Topaz." The new fusion had Orange armor and blades that looked like lightning bolts attached to his wrists. He had a cape that was yellow on the outside, and green facing him. "Now attack that Mantis!"

"I use Stinkbug's effect to send him to the Graveyard and end the Battle Phase."

"Your move."

"She can't keep that up forever." I said.

"Keep what up?" Asked Jessica.

"Dodging his attacks. She's trying to stop him from attacking for as long as she can, but it won't work forever. Eventually she'll run herself dry with those moves."

"Not with this!" Alice said as she threw down Naturia White Oak.

"I play Raigeki Break! Now I discard my Gem-Armadillo to destroy your Oak."

"Well I should thank you for that. I use his ability to bring out two Naturia Mosquitoes from my deck!" I couldn't see the monsters, but I still heard their damn buzzing. "Now you can't attack any of my monsters."

"Why not?" Asked Michele.

"Naturia Mosquito's effect is that only it can be attacked," Jessica answered. "With two of them the second protects the first and the first protects the second."

"Exactly. I only need two more moves and this duel is mine."

"You won't get two more!" The Shadow Duelist roared as he drew his card. "I play one card face down and end my turn."

"I draw! And I use Naturia Butterfly to attack your Zirconia!"

"She doesn't have enough life points to withstand that!" Micheled exclaimed.

"You don't know much about Naturias do you?" said Jessica. "Mosquito's other effect makes your opponent take your battle damage, as long as it's not the one fighting."

Zirconia smashed Butterfly between his hands.

Shadow Duelist: 1600

"Now I play Naturia Fruitfly!" The fly had a normal fly face, but its wings were leaves, its body was a blue raspberry, and its tail (or whatever flies have) was a strawberry. "And with his effect your monsters lose 300 Attack Points for each Naturia I control."

"I draw!" The Shadow Duelist was about to go insane. "You useless rocks!" His monsters backed away in fear. "Why can't you do something right for once in your lives? I place one card face down and end my turn."

"I draw! And I play the final piece of the puzzle: Naturia Dragonfly!" The dragonfly looked like a normal one, but with a twig for a tail. "And thanks to his ability he can't be destroyed by anything with more than 2000 ATK, not that that matters with your field right now. But he also gains 200 ATK for every Naturia in my Grave, and I have six, putting him at 2400. This is the Ultimate Naturia Insect Formation! Now, Dragonfly, attack that Topaz!" Dragonfly tackled Topaz into the Shadow Duelist, taking the rest of his Life Points.

After the body changed and the new guy stopped screaming Michele took the deck.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"These monsters weren't fighting because they wanted to."

"Aye," Barbaros appeared behind Alice. "Gem-Knights despise fighting. The last time they did it was to protect the world."

"So why are they fighting to destroy it now?" I asked.

"They aren't!" Michele screamed. "Didn't you hear me? They were forced to!"

"So, what now?" Jessica asked. "We find a good home for the deck?"

Michele looked at me with pleading eyes. I could tell what she was thinking, and I didn't like it.

"Does it really have to be him?"

"Who?" Jessica asked.

"The one person I know whose skills match mine."

"So was he at Duel Academy?" Alice asked.

"No." Michele answered.

"Why?"

"He doesn't have a deck." I said, still hating what I knew we were going to have to do.

"Who is this guy?"

"My older brother."

Sorry this chapter was so short, but please read and review! Any questions or anything I'll try to get back to you soon. Thank you!