Star and Valerie drew their opening hands and began with 4000 life points. "I'll go first," Valerie said. "I play a face down monster and a face down card."

Star drew. "I summon Absorbing Kid from the Sky (ATK 1300)," she said. Her monster looked like a little fat asian boy with wings. "Absorbing Kid, attack Valerie's face down monster," Star ordered. Absorbing Kid fired a blast of light from his hands that revealed Valerie's monster to be Shining Angel, which was quickly destroyed.

"I activate my trap, Soul Rope," Valerie said. "When one of my monsters is destroyed, Soul Rope let's me summon a 4 star monster from my deck in exchange for 1000 life points. And I summon X-head Cannon (ATK 1800)." Valerie's life points went down to 3000 and a yellow robot with a human torso, a round lower half and two long blaster canons on its shoulders appeared in front of the dark skinned girl.

"And that's not all," Valerie continued. "With Shining Angel destroyed, I get to summon another monster. Say hello to Z-metal Tank (ATK 1500)," she said and brought forth a yellow tank.

"Well my monster has a special effect too," Star said. "Since Absorbing Kid destroyed a 4 star monster, I gain 1200 life points," the blond girl explained as her life points increased to 5200. "I end my turn."

"Good," Valerie said as she drew. "I play the continuos spell Soul Absorbsion and summon Y-dragon Head (ATK 1500)." Valerie's new monster was a red mechanical dragon. "Now I remove all three of my monsters from my play to XYZ-dragon Cannon." Y-dragon Head perched on top of Z-metal Tank, then X-head Cannon landed on top of Y-dragon Head. "And it gets better. Soul Absorbsion gives me 500 life points every time a card is removed from play, so now I gain 1500."

"Look's like Star will get to see Kwan again sooner than she thought," Tucker said as Valerie's life points rose to 4500.

"Shut up Foley," Star yelled.

"If you two are done, I'd like to continue," Valerie said. "Before I attack, I use Dragon Cannon's effect. I discard a card from my hand and destroy any card on the field: like your Absorbing Kid from the Sky." Valerie discarded a card and Absorbing Kid was destroyed. "Since the card I discarded was Ojamagic, I get to add three new cards to my hand: one each of Ojama's Green, Black and Yellow."

"Why would you have those cards in your deck?" Star asked as Valerie added them to her hand.

"They make good fodder for Dragon Cannon's effect," Valerie explained. "Let me show you," she said as she discarded Ojama Yellow to pay for Dragon Cannon's effect.

"I activate my trap," Star said before Valerie could pick a target. "Ultimate Offering."

"Why would Star play that?" Jazz asked out loud. "That trap isn't going to stop Valerie's monster."

"But revealing it might prevent Valerie from destroying it," Danny said. "That trap is available for both players to use. Valerie might not destroy it if she thinks it will come in handy later."

This proved to be true for Valerie destroyed Star's other face down card instead, which was revealed to be Draining Shield. With nothing left in her way, Valerie attacked Star directly. XYZ-dragon Cannon fired several blasts of energy from several different cannons that lowered Star's life points to 2400. Valerie ended her turn and Star drew.

"I summon Glen Duo (ATK 1700)," Star said and brought forth two annoyingly cute creatures, one green and one pink. "Now I use Ultimate Offering to pay 500 life points so I can summon an additional monster. And thanks to Glen Duo's effect to serve as two tributes when sacrificed to summon a fairy type light attribute monster, I now summon Majestic Mech Goryu (ATK 2900)."

Star's life points went down to 1900 as Glen Duo vanished. In in its place was a large serpentine mechanical dragon with a segmented body and feathered wings at the end on each segment.

"Goryu, attack XYZ-dragon Cannon," Star ordered. The Majestic Mech fired a blast of golden energy at the Dragon Cannon that destroyed its target and decreased Valerie's life points to 4400.

Valerie drew as her turn began. Aw hell, she thought as she looked at her hand. I've got something capable of defeating my former friend, but I'll have to wait till next turn to use it.

"I play one face down card and summon Gear Golem the Moving Fortress in defense mode (DEF 2200)," Valerie said as she brought forth a mechanical monster protected by a spiked wall.

"That won't stop me for long," Star said as she drew. "I summon Hysteric Fairy (ATK 1800)." Star's new creature was a young woman in a blue skirt and shirt with glasses and wings. "Now I equip her with Cetus Of Dagla, which increased her attack strength to 2300." she said as two curved blades appeared in her hands. "To make things even better, I gain life points equal to any battle damage Hysteric Fairy inflicts on you."

"Goryu, destroy Valerie's defensive monster," Star ordered, prompting Goryu to blast the Moving Fortress into oblivion. "Just so you know, even though your monster was in defense mode, you still take battle damage due to Goryu's special effect. Now Hysteric Fairy, direct attack." Hysteric Fairy charged forward and slashed Valerie. Both battles had reduced Valerie's life points to 1400, while Star's increased to 4200.

"If you think you've got me beat, guess again," Valerie said as she drew. "This is even better than what I had in mind. I play Graceful Charity so I can draw 3 cards then discard 2." Valerie drew her cards then discarded her remaining Ojamas. "Now I summon V-tiger Jet (ATK 1600)," she said and brought forth a white mechanical tiger with jet engines in its legs. "Next I use your Ultimate Offering trap to summon W-wing Catapult (ATK 800)." Valerie's life points went down to 900 as what looked like a blue jet with a launcher of some kind on it appeared in front of her.

"I'm not even close to done yet," Valerie said. "I activate my trap, Return From the Different Dimension. I cut my life points in half and get to summon as many of my monsters as possible that were removed from play." Valerie's life points were halved to 450 as X-head Cannon, Y-dragon Head and Z-metal Tank manifested in front of her.

As soon as all her monster card zones were filled, Valerie removed all her machines from play. The X, Y and Z monsters once again combined into XYZ-dragon Cannon as the V and W ones combined into VW-tiger Catapult (ATK 2000). Valerie's newest combined machine was simply V-tiger Jet on top of W-wing Catapult. Since she removed 5 monsters from play, Soul Absorbsion gave her 2500 life points, putting her at 2950.

"I get the feeling that this is going to suck," Star said.

"You don't know the half of it," Valerie said with a grin. "I remove both of my monsters from play to summon V-Z Dragon Catapult Cannon (ATK 3000)." XYZ-dragon Cannon and VW-tiger Catapult split apart and all 5 monsters combined. The end result was a massive humanoid machine with two claw for hands and cannons on its waist. With two more monsters removed, Soul Absorbsion put Valerie's life points at 3950.

"Now I use V-Z Dragon Catapult Cannon Cannon's effect to remove Majestic Mech Goryu from my play," Valerie said. Goryu disappeared from the field and Valerie gained another 500 life points from Soul Absorbsion, putting her at 4450. "Dragon Catapult Cannon, attack Hysteric Fairy." Valerie's monster fired its cannons and destroyed Hysteric Fairy, decreasing Star's life points to 3500.

"Looks like Star isn't going to make it," Paulina said. "At least she put up a good fight."

"She might be able to turn things around," Jazz said. "If she gets a miracle on her side."