AUTHOR'S NOTE: I decided to fuse the characters of Matthew and Sean (Phoenix) into one character. From now on we will have Matthew, who looks like the Matthew from before but has Sean's personality and status.

Duel 10 – Two Mirrors

Cristy hated this place. It was just sunrise but the radiant glows of orange light did not comfort her. The light did not warmly embrace her and unveil the beauties of a new day. Instead, the light coldly and sharply refracted against her body and carved away the skin of the world to reveal an ugly and foreign terrain. Williamsburg Bridge towered above them, an austere cave of stone. The floor was a filthy gray, filled with heaps of trash on one side and bordered by sharp rocks barricading the East River on the other.

Standing in her view was her opponent, a petit girl with dirty blond hair wearing a worn hoodie. Behind her stood two boys, both tall and intimidating with piercing eyes, one slim and wasting and the other massive. Handling a camera on the side leaned a dark haired sewer rat of a girl wearing all black.

It was like she was in a different planet. When Matthew admitted her to the Shining Crusaders he took her from her middle class suburban home and toured her to the city where she belonged all along. He showed her the lavish world of the greatest duelists, the world of the spotlight. But this place was an ugly pit in the middle of nowhere.

"Glad you could come, princess." Jolene taunted her. "For a moment I thought you were lost without your paparazzi and body guards behind you."

"No, I chose to come here by myself." Cristy retorted. "It's a thing called DIGNITY and MANNERS, something poor people and white trash girl like you will never understand."

"Oh, so you want to throw stereotypes around. Two can play at that game, rich white princess. I hope you got a good good plastic surgeon because after this duel your pretty little face will be wrecked beyond recognition. But that's OK. Daddy can just buy you a new face and a new life."

"Jolene," Cristy said. "I don't know what terrible little thing happened in your life but the truth is inescapable. Yugi did exist as the King of Games. You just don't believe that because you lost your first duel and your little pet dog died on the same day. That's the only reason people diss Yugi. They just have grudge on everything because something bad happened in their life."

"Sorry sweetie but owning little pet dogs is what little rich girls do. Let's duel already!"

IvyCat: 4000 II CrystaalCristy: 4000

CRYSTAAL_CRISTY: Draws. Sets 1 monster face down and 1 back row card.

IVY_CAT: Draws. Sets 1 monster face down and 1 back row card.

CRYSTAAL_CRISTY: "I will wipe you off this filthy map right now. You and your team will never darken a doorway again."I flip Lightsworn Hunter Ryoko. I mill 3 cards to destroy your set monster with its effect!" A snow white wolf leaps out from the face down card and pounces on Jolene's set monster, shattering it. "I tribute Ryoko to summon Celestia, and I mill 4 cards to destroy your backrow." The wolf vanishes and a warrior maiden clad in white armor and weaponry emerges. A slash of her sword slices away Jolene's card. "And I activate Foolish Burial, I mill Lightsworn Wulf to special summon him with his effect." A snow-white, wolf-like humanoid brandishing a club appears.

IVY_CAT: Grimaces. "Oh no…"

CRYSTAAL_CRISTY: "You and your filthy dark team don't deserve to live past one more round. I attack with both monsters to kill you in one turn!" Cristy's monsters dart to Jolene, sword and club in hand and smash – a covenant of blue robed priestesses form a barrier with their incantation. The Lightsworn monsters are shoved away.

Curses. "How dare you ruin my one turn kill!"

IVY_CAT: "I'm sorry. Was I supposed to throw the fight to you? Is that what you're used to, rich white princess. Throw any attack at me and I'll throw it right back at you."

CRYSTAAL_CRISTY: "I set one card and end my turn. You'll pay for sure. I'll kill what little is of your team. You people are so poor and pathetic not even the undertaker will bury you."s

IVY_CAT Draws. Sets 1 monster and 3 back row cards. Stares Cristy dead in the eyes. "Bring it."

CRYSTAAL_CRISTY: "It's on now! I summon Ehren the Lightsworn Monk. Her effect won't allow to use whatever monster your hiding over there. Attack!" The dark skinned woman monk with tight white clothes leap in a spin kick, aiming for the hidden monster.

IVY_CAT: "I flip Gravity Bind." Ehren is pulled straight into the ground, stunned. "Monsters Level 4 and above can't attack."

CRYSTAAL_CRISTY: "I don't think so. Royal Decree! I negate all traps."

IVY_CAT: "I flip Dark Bribe! Royal Decree is negated!" Cristy's trap card shatters. "No one can penetrate past my shield. You won't touch me the entire duel."

CRYSTAAL_CRISTY: Seethes. "Well, it would make sense that you can't even attack. Tell me, Jolene, how many good cards can you actually buy? No wonder you only play defensively. I never saw you use a single monster. What are you going to do? Just wait for me to deck myself out with my Lightsworns? You are the most pathetic and cowardly duelist I ever faced! Matthew was right. None of you are any true duelists. You all are cowardly, dirt poor street rats with no morality in you."

IVY_CAT: "This is coming from some one who hides in Matthew's penthouse along with all the other Crusaders. Girl, you wouldn't know what the real world was like if it slapped you on the face."

CRYSTAAL_CRISTY: "Oh, but I do know this. You dark duelists are completely amoral. You guys think you're so smart, that without Yugi you figured dueling all out and don't need to live a life of any principles. But that's wrong. You need Yugi. We all do, and that's why the Shining Crusaders exist."

IVY_CAT: "People don't need a shepherd and to appoint yourself is one of the most arrogant things you can do. It's not like your shepherd exists anyway. You have no evidence. Media propaganda that might as well been staged doesn't count. I flip Macro Cosmos, so all your cards will be banished instead of going to the Graveyard." Cristy banishes 3 cards for Ehren's effect.

Cristy feels a nervous chill down her spine. She never faced a deck like this before. It doesn't make any sense. Milling her deck is stupid. She can play Judgment Dragon. – But she is banishing her cards instead! What does she do!?

IVY_CAT: "I set one monster face down and I flip Morphing Jar" A stone jar hiding a grinning, one-eyed beast inside pops up from one face down card. "Be banish our hands." Jolene sees Cristy's nervousness and she likes it. The sheep have ben herded. Now… just to close the pen and begin shearing them. "I set two face down cards."

CRYSTAAL_CRISTY: "Alright! It's time to break your lock and defeat you. I summon Lumina, the Lightsworn Summoner and I discard 1 card to revive Lyla, the Lightsworn Sorceress." A small, unarmed woman in white robes manifests on the field. She circles the air with her hands, light and energy trailing behind them, ripping open a gate Lyla leaps out from. –

IVY_CAT: "I play Royal Decree. I pay 800 to negate your Special Summon." (LP: 4000 3200) The dimensional gate evaporates as quickly as it had appeared.

CRYSTAAL_CRISTY: "I'm not done yet. I will beat you. You won't lock me down. I play Mystical Space Typhoon." A vortex of air and thunder gathers, zeroes in, and blasts away Gravity Bind. "Celestia, Wulf, Ehren, Lumina, attack! Kill her now!"

IVY_CAT: "I'm sorry Dave, I can't let you do that." Jolene mocks, impersonating the supercomputer Hal. "I activate another Gravity Bind." And Cristy's entire army mercilessly crashes mid air to the ground. "Read. My. Lips. You. Can't. Touch. Me."

CRYSTAAL_CRISTY: Banishes 3 cards for Ehren's and Lumina's effects. She has no choice. She now says to herself. "I know that Jolene runs a Mill deck. And to make that work, she must set up a strong defense so she can survive. For this entire duel I have been fighting against a wall I can't break down. Except maybe with this combo I can next turn."

IVY_CAT: "Just to make sure you rage quit on me I flip Needle Worm, now mill 5 cards!" Cristy obliges.

CRYSTAAL_CRISTY: "So that's how you want to play, huh? You dark duelists are the same. I mean, just look at you.

IVY_CAT: "What do you mean?"

CRYSTAAL_CRISTY: "Oh, what I mean? Well, I'm going to tell you right now. Sometimes I just gotta' tell what I gotta' tell and if you're one of those guys who are easily offended you might as well just shut your ears right now, in fact you might as well just stay off the real world right now and watch like Sesame Street for the rest of your life. Like I've never cared and I'm not gonna' care right now."

IVY_CAT: "Um, sorry, but did you forget but you're not blogging! You're not in your nice big house right now and your drooling fan boys are not here to validate every little thing you say!"

YUKIO: Speaks up. "Uh-oh. Cover your ears lads, she's going on a full blown ignorant-"

CRYSTAAL_CRISTY: "Ranting time! I mean seriously, you guys are made up of one hipster white girl, a big fat black dude, a skinny Asian dude, and a weird emo black girl. I mean, OH MY GOD! Someone call the PC Police right now 'cause I think we just got together the ultimate diversity dream team. Like I'm surprised JC is your team leader. Shouldn't he be dead from diabetes by now? And look at Maya. I mean, what the hell are you? Black people can't be emo, but I'm not sure you're really black anyway. But I do think Yukio is cute and hot. Maybe he can help me with my algebra homework.

JC: Shakes his head. "No comment. Even for a me, no comment."

YUKIO: "I think Cristy's brain just exploded in its pants. There's enough brown down there now to run a chocolate factory."

CRYSTAAL_CRISTY: "I mean, look at you Jolene. You're trying to look all hip and progressive by hanging out with THEM, but then again you're a hipster. You try to look grungy and hang out with people who got it worse than you but you're just another little rich white girl. You're just like me, Jolene. Only difference is who you hang out with. You need your little comrades to make you feel good about yourself and to protect you. You need them to tell you who you are."

MAYA: Gives her voice for the first time. "Cristy, who are you talking to?"

CRYSTAAL_CRISTY: Gasps in shock. "Uh, what? I'm talking to you losers. Who else?"

MAYA: "Think about what you're saying, Cristy. You're not actually talking to any real people. You constantly rant in your videos and in your duels against all sorts of stereotypes. None of them real. They're just imaginary characters. They're just things in the dark that scare you. When you duel you might as well duel against a brick wall or rant in front of your computer."

IVY_CAT: Shakes her head and snickers. "Honestly, Cristy, who do you think I am? Do you think I'm as weak and naïve as you are? One moment you say I'm dirty and poor and the next moment I'm a rich white girl. Can you at least stick with your stereotypes? I stand with my friends and duel against you because it's the right thing to do. The way you Crusaders and all your other teams treat everyone else is just cruel and wrong, and as long as you evil rich little pricks exist I'm going to keep fighting you until you don't exist."

CRYSTAAL_CRISTY: "We'll see about that, Jolene. The only reason you can mill me is because of your shield and now I'll break it. I flip summon Ryoko. I banish 3 cards to destroy Macro Cosmos." A familiar white wolf leaps from a face down card and pounces on Macro Cosmos. "Now I can monsters in my Graveyard! I tribute Ryoko for Celestia! Next I mill 4 cards to destroy…" The white wolf is swallowed by light. A sorceress in white robes and armor appears, aims her staff and with two lightning bots shatters, "Royal Oppression and your face down."

IVY_CAT: "You still can't attack though. Forget about my Gravity Bind?"

CRYSTAAL_CRISTY: "Nope. Time to break you. I activate Burial From A Different Dimension, and I return Wulf, Celestia, and Jain to the Graveyard. Now I have four Lightsworn monsters of different names in my Graveyard: Wulf, Celestial, Jain, Ryoko. I summon Judgment Dragon!" Lightning breaks out in all places and celestial vortex of blinding light swirls above. Slowly, shapes and outlines coalesce into a huge reptilian frame, and a huge dragon with sparkling scales and horns touchdowns on the ground.

Jolene cannot move. "I pay 1000 (LP: 4000 3000) and every card except Judgment Dragon goes bye-bye." Judgment Dragon roars and stretches its huge wings. Light bursts out into a huge shockwave, instantly vaporizing all of Jolene's and Cristy's monsters in a blaze of white flames. Cristy shouts in victory – But, a faint light glows in Jolene's Graveyard slot in her duel disk.

IVY_CAT: "Were you about to attack just now? You forgot about the Neko Mane King face down didn't you?"

CRYSTAAL_CRISTY: "But how did you –" She remembers that Jolene set two monsters from Morphing Jar #2. One was Needle Worm. The other was… "Oh."

IVY_CAT: "Neko ends your ends the moment it's sent to the Graveyard." She snickers. "Sorry. I told you. You won't touch me a single time this duel."

CRYSTAAL_CRISTY: Shock turns into anger, and then into rage. "How dare you! You think that cheap trick will work against me! Let me tell you something. In my hand, I have another Judgment Dragon. You can have your precious next turn all you want. I'll just beat you in the end. It's inevitable, Jolene Summers. We have the money and power. No matter how much you dark duelists squirm the light of we Crusaders will always wipe you out. The house always wins."

IVY_CAT: Breaths deeply and draws. Opens her sharp green eyes. "Not in this duel. I activate Dimension Fissure. This continuous spell makes all monsters banished instead of being sent to the Graveyard. I activate Level Limit – Area B, another continuous spell. All monsters Level 4 and above are forced into the defense." Judgment Dragon is forced to kneel. It pulls its huge wings over its face and scaly body. "I activate Soul Release and banish 5 monsters in your Graveyard." Cristy's Graveyard explodes in a dazzle of light. The spirits of 5 of her monsters there, Lumina, Lyla, Ehren, and both Celestias, flee into the field and whizz aimlessly before dissipating.

"And finally, I summon Jowgen the Spiritualist." Cristy almost squeaks something between "No…" and "What…?" A man robed in traditional Japanese priestly regalia quietly makes his entrance. "I discard 1 random card, the only card I have, to destroy Judgment Dragon." The priest wields his staff, bright swirling energy gathering around him before thrusting it at the dragon. The bright light hit Judgment Dragon and in instant it disappeared. "And furthermore." Jolene concludes. "You can't Special Summon at all."

"But I'm not finished yet. Necroface, since it was banished, activates, and we both banish 5 cards from our Decks." Both duelists do so. "I end my turn and D.D. Scout Plane is Summoned because it was banished." A black spherical robot warped from a dimensional netherworld before hovering close to the ground and shielding itself with its arms.

CRYSTAAL_CRISTY: Is silent. She simply mouths but never says, "This can't be… This can't be…" She stares at her duel disk. She can't win. Her Judgment Dragon is banished. Her Celestias are banished. The Judgment Dragon in her hand is useless. Even if she could bring them all back into her Graveyard she couldn't Special Summon them anyway. Her only chance is to draw Ryoko or Lyla but… it is too weak and too slow for any offense. Jolene's wall is too strong. She would just rebuild it. Every single time… Inevitable defeat creeps in and blackens her heart, slowly but surely poisoning everything she sees, hears, and tastes. To thing that these stupid poor people, these… what was that word again? Motley! This motley diversity team could beat her!

It was pointless. Jolene won. Cristy silently places her hand on her deck. All the holographic monsters and cards disappeared.

IvyCat: 3200 II CrystaalCristy: SURRENDER

Jolene gasped for her, relieve overtaking her so hard she almost fell to the dirt. For the last few days Maya and she spent as much time as they could researching and thinking of how to defeat Cristy, of exactly the right cards could be used together with what they had to counter her strategies. And the results showed Her and Maya's research finally paid off.

JC broke the silence with a victorious war cry, thrusting his fist into the breaking light of dawn. Yukio shouted happily and tackled Jolene, hugging her so lovingly he lifted her off the ground and twirled her around. Jolene clung to him in affection and they happily kissed. Maya would have done all of this herself but she kept the camera fixed into place. She did, however, shout a few whoops and hoorays before hooping, "This is going straight onto Daily Motion! Our first defeat of the Crusaders!"

"NO! NO! NO!" A grating, high-pitched voice shocked everyone from the joyful moment. A lanky young man with baggy pants and sideways caps shot up to them. His haggard, patchy, barely grown beard, his dirty mullet, and sunglasses gave him away instantly. It was Drinking Molotov. "This did not happen! Way to go Cristy you bimbo! You lost, you LOST against a group of rag tag idiots! Just what Matthew will say!"

"Hey!" Yukio shouted. "That's no way you treat a team mate. She was a worthy opponent."

"Oh shut up you wanna be rock star!" Molotov snapped back. He swerved his eyes to Maya. "So you're the one filming all this, huh?" He sped up to her, raising his fists to assault her. "I'm going to break you and your VR! No one will no about this! As far as the Internet and the dueling world know, this duel never happened!"

"I don't think so!" A voice boomed from behind them.

"What!?" Molotov snapped.

From everywhere in hidden corners, behind the bridge's pillars and behind raised sidewalks leading to roads above, crept out an innumerable amount of people. Molotov quickly retreated and huddled with Cristy. They multiplied and arrogated into a huge throng entirely blocking out one of the entrances in a crescent moon shape.

From the mass a handsome young man with dark skin and neatly groomed slick black hair and beard stepped forward. "You will not harm anybody as long as I'm here. You're outnumbered Crusader. I suggest you leave."

Molotov, dumbstruck, was reduced to silent, gaping silently like an idiot. It was as if he was struck with a hammer on the head. He turned to the equally silent Cristy, who just gazed at the ground in defeat. Seething hatred burned in Molotov's eyes. He wanted to kill, to kill the girl who beat Cristy, to kill the girl video taping it all, to kill everyone, but he couldn't. Silently, Molotov and Cristy crept away.

The throng of people burst into cheers and laughter. A member of a high profile team was thoroughly beat! They hadn't seen this in years! For the longest time in duel monsters, the richest teams regularly won because they could buy the best cards. With Monarchs and Chaos they routinely trounced everyone who dared challenge them. For the longest time winning in duel monsters was a matter of who had the biggest wallets and the most connections to the upper crust of society. But now, it looked like things could finally change.

The crowd rounded on Jolene and Yukio, almost separating them as they tried to high hive and congratulate the winner. Of course, JC couldn't help himself and interjected constantly, "Well of course Jolene won. But IT WAS I who was the brain behind the whole operation and IT WAS I whotaught her how to play. If it wasn't for MY LEADERSHIP none of us would see the light of day again."

Maya snorted and shook her head. "Oh JC…" It was almost endearing.

Of course Maya did not go unnoticed. All too many people in the crowd popped up to pose in front of her camera. The handsome dark-skinned man and a young woman in a shawl approached. "Hey, thanks for filming all of this the duel was awesome! Yay! Let everyone see us on the Internet for this glorious day!" They said. "We are the leaders of team Moonlight, a refuge for duelists who can't make it in this metagame." We are Hassan, better known as SilentSword, and Arifa, better known as Hypatia. Awesome times are ahead."

A pale young woman with raven black hair and piercing ocean blue eyes, wearing her old Obelisk Blue academy uniform was next. "Hello, I am the leader of Team 42. We are the shockwave between high class duelists and everyone else. I'm Alexis Burkeheart, but you can call me Texcy, my username."

Another young woman, small in size, even paler than Alexis and with darker hair, with ruby lips, wearing a black skirt and corset came up. "Hey guys. I'm not the leader of our team because we have no leaders. Say hello to Team Hate Club. I am Juno, but I go by the name Blue Lilly."

Maya eagerly recorded everything. For this brief moment, all darkness and worries were chased away. Her heart hadn't felt this light, her mind hadn't been this free in the sky, for so long. Maya was happy to have so many new friends.