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Chapter 11
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The next duel is up but there are complications. Half of our tag team is huddled in a ball in shock, so we have to stall until he's out of it.
This is going to be one hell of a miracle. We're not the most diplomatic bunch.
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Its been a whole day since Jasmine and Burdock's duel with the Psychers. Jaffa found a psychiatrist to try and bring Ali out of his shock, but so far there doesn't seem to be any progress.
"Come on doc," Burdock said "there has to be something you can do."
"I'm afraid that Mr Ali had repressed the emotions he had felt when the duel became reality, and now they're taking their course." the psychiatrist replied.
"So you're telling me that he has to go through this state? There's nothing you can do?" asked Jaffa.
"Well.............." the psychiatrist started.
"Doctors only say "well....." when there's something risky involved. So what is it?" Jaffa asked.
"Well, as you gathered it is risky but I don't think we should try it. He needs to come out of this naturally."
"What is it?" Jaffa asked again, this time angrier.
"How long do you think he would need doctor?" Stuart said trying to change the subject.
"I would say that Ali would need approximately a month to get over it."
"What is this method that you're avoiding?" Jaffa said, marching up to the psychiatrist.
"Like I said he needs to...urgh!" the doctor exclaimed as Jaffa slammed him against the wall.
"WHAT IS IT?!" Jaffa roared.
"Jaffa calm down!" said Stuart. He nodded at Burdock.
Burdock started to pull Jaffa off of the psychiatrist.
"I know enough psychiatry crap, that the shock Ali's in right now, could very well end up damaging his mind, leaving him to wind up in a nut house!"
Everyone stopped and stared at Ali, then the psychiatrist.
"I will not see my brother go through that, doctor." Jaffa continued, after he'd cooled down. "So what is this method that you keep avoiding?"
"It involves putting him through a duel." the doctor started saying.
"Easy, we're in a tournament." Burdock interrupted.
"It's not that simple. Ali has to go through the duel, and every life point lost, he has to be electrically shocked."
"You're kidding?" asked Jasmine.
"I'm afraid not. The main problem is that he may give up duelling altogether, just so he cannot associate with the pain."
"Actually doc, the main problem is getting him to duel in the first place." Stuart said calmly.
Jaffa was standing pondering something, whilst all this was going on.
"It was the Solar Lock................" he muttered.
"What did you say?" Susan asked.
Jaffa looked up.
"The Solar Lock, and the real damage, well pain anyway........they were the trigger. If we can just avoid those conditions, this may work."
"But how? Ali's deck is built around Burn Damage. And the treatment requires him to go through electro-shocks." Jasmine said.
"Not if he was to use a different style of Fire Deck. He just needs to change tactics. We may not even need the electro-shock." explained Jaffa.
"Then why am I here?" asked the psychiatrist.
"To be honest, I needed an expert opinion on all this. And sorry about earlier." said Jaffa.
"Quite all right. And your idea is sound, but how are you going to bring him out of his shock?" asked the psychiatrist.
Jaffa smiled, and pulled out a bag of triple-chocolate, chocolate chip cookies.
"Simple really."
He started to rustle the packet, and then opened it under Ali's nose.
"Nothing's happening." Susan said.
"Give it a minute." Jaffa asked.
Everyone stared at Jaffa holding the bag of cookies under Ali's nose, wafting the smell into his nostrils.
A minute later, Ali stopped rocking...............and looked down at the bag, then took it, stood up and started eating.
He then realised everyone was staring at him.
"What are you all staring at?" Ali said with his mouth full.
Everyone just stared at him, then at Jaffa.
Jaffa shrugged and smiled.
"Do I know my brother or do I know my brother?" he asked of no-one in particular.
"Okay, that's Ali out of the shock for now, but we don't have time to make a new Fire Deck from scratch. Especially one that doesn't focus on Burn Damage." Burdock said pointing at the clock.
Just then they heard someone coming into their room.
It was one of the officials for the tournament.
"You're team is up. Why aren't you in the arena?"
Before anyone could say anything, the psychiatrist stepped forward.
"These people asked me to administer some treatment to one of their teammates. Sorry it took so long, but we're still going through some stages here. So can you give us five more minutes?"
The official checked something on his pad.
"OK for medical reasons, I can grant your team five more minutes. But if you are not in that stadium within 5 minutes, you're out."
When he left everyone started thanking the doctor.
"No problem. You guys are my favourite team. Now I've got to go."
After the doctor left, everyone stared at Jaffa.
"OK lets see the deck." Stuart said pointing at Jaffa.
"Whatever could you mean?" he asked innocently.
"You know what I mean. Whats this back-up deck you've been working on? We don't have time to play this game."
Jaffa sighed, and reached into one of the many pockets in his jacket.
"Here it is." he said pulling out a deck, "Now I must warn you guys, it's not entirely finished. It focuses on the Flamvell monsters and all that. It's still missing a few cards, but that can be sorted out later."
"But does it meet the 40 card minimum?" asked Susan.
"I wouldn't have brought it if it didn't. What I mean is, that it still needs a few tweaks to get it just right. I don't even have all the Flamvell support cards yet cus they haven't all been released yet. But its got some Neoflamvells in it."
"Neoflamvells?" asked Ali. "Are they sort of like those XX-Sabers that you get with the X-Sabers?"
"Exactly the same kind of idea. Now this deck works on Synchros bro, so you're going to have to change tactics here ok? But like all Fire decks, it does have an essence of Burn in it. It just needs you to use it in a different manner."
Ali quickly went over the deck.
"This only has the one Synchro monster."
"No, it has three copies of the one Synchro monster. They haven't brought out any other Synchros for this Archetype yet. But don't worry, I've stuck in a few other cards to help out. Like your favourite Ritual Monster. Should work alongside Stuart's Magic Deck."
"Hmm........this might work." Ali mused.
Stuart then grabbed Ali by the arm.
"We'll figure it out later, right now we've got to get a move on."
They then started running down the hall.
"The Neoflamvells utilise the Graveyard and card removal!" Jaffa shouted after them.
"Gotcha!" Ali shouted back.
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"All right folks looks like we're ready to start this match!" the MC announced.
Ali and Stuart stood on one side of the arena, with Ali going over each of the cards in his new deck.
On the other side stood the two duelists from Team Bluemen.
"If you could introduce yourselves to the audience." asked the MC whos voice was starting to sound a little hoarse.
"Ali."
"Stuart."
The two guys from Bluemen said at the same time, "Jim."
"Wait your both called Jim?" asked Ali.
"Yup." they said at the same time.
"Ok if they're gonna be doing that all the way through this duel, thats gonna annoy the hell out of me." Ali muttered to Stuart.
"I think that's their plan. Besides, for them to do that through the whole duel, they would have to have identical decks, and identical draws. And thats pretty much impossible." Stuart replied.
Then Ali noticed something about the Jims.
"By any chance are you two related to the Paradox brothers?" Ali asked.
"Why yes...." one stared.
"You could suggest...."
"That we are....."
"Related by our father......."
"Who is their little brother......"
"That the ones called Para...."
"And Dox......
"Are indeed our uncles......."
"You little buttocks." They finished together.
Ali slapped his forehead.
"Great.........rhyming duelists.....why oh why."
"Well, you started it by asking them." Stuart pointed out.
"Yeah, I wouldn't mind it though if they were any good at the rhyming thing though. I mean come on.....Dox rhyming with buttocks? How desperate were u guys for something to rhyme there?" Ali asked.
"Enough chat." said Jim 1.
"Lets get this duel underway." said Jim 2.
"You see?" Ali said to Stuart, "No rhyme there. What a waste." Ali shook his head.
"Ok, lets just beat these guys already." Stuart said.
"All right folks this could get a little confusing." the MC said referring to the two Jims.
"Duel!"
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(Stuart: 8000) (Ali: 8000)
(Jim1: 8000) (Jim2: 8000)
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"I'll kick things off." said Ali.
He looked at his cards. Ok, so lets go with someone familiar. This'll do.
"I summon Flamvell Firedog in Attack Mode."
A giant dog, with skin like a volcano and two spikes jutting from its shoulders appeared. (1900, 200).
"Stuart you wanna do anything?" Ali asked.
"Oh yeah. First I discard a card in order to Special Summon The Tricky."
A jester-clad monster appears in front of Stuart. (2000, 1000)
"And next I Normal Summon my Arcane Apprentice."
A person in purple robes appeared in a flash of smoke and started to cough on its own entrance smoke. All you could see under its hood were two red eyes. (1000, 400)
"And now I Tune my Arcane Apprentice to my Tricky, in order to Synchro Summon........Arcanite Magician!"
The smaller spellcaster waved his wand and turned into 2 stars of light and started spinning around Tricky, until a flash of light later, a white robed, purple skinned sorcerer stood in its place, with a determined look on its face. (400, 1800)
"Why did you do that?" asked Jim1.
"Indeed, that monster is much weaker than the monsters that you used to summon it." Jim2 pointed out.
"Ahem." Stuart said pointing at his Spellcaster.
Two orbs of green light were floating around Arcanite Magician's head. And then his attack score went up. (2400, 1800)
"You see when my Magician was Synchro Summoned, he automatically recieved two Spell Counters. And for each Spell Counter he has, he gains 1000 Attack Points. And now, since I used Arcane Apprentice for a Synchro Summon, I get to add a card from my deck to my hand called Assault Mode Activate."
"Nice one." Ali said as Stuarts Disk ejected the card for him.
"Now I activate the Field Spell, Magical Citadel of Endymion, along with 2 face-downs." Stuart said nearly emptying his hand.
The field changed to look like a giant arcane city.
"Their move?" asked Ali.
"Their move." Stuart replied.
"Two can play at the Field Game. I Normal Summon my Kuriboh, then activate Double Summon, and Sacrifice my Kuriboh to summon Labyrinth Wall in defense mode." Jim1 said.
The iconic fuzzball appeared briefly before transforming into a giant labyrinth. (0, 3000). A light came on behind Stuarts head.
"Oh I might want to tell you guys now. Every time a Spell card is activated, a Spell Counter is added to my Field Spell." Stuart said before the two Jims disappeared behind the wall.
Ali muttered to Stuart, "You think we should tell them about Aracnite's other ability?"
"Nah, lets see what they do first."
"Now your monsters must traverse our Labyrinth to get to our points."
"Oh my god man. That was Duelist Kingdom rules! You really need to get your head in the game." Ali said.
"Maybe so." Jim2 said. "But now I summon a monster in face-down defense mode and activate Heavy Storm to clear the field."
"In that case I activate my Assault Mode Activate. I sacrifice my Arcanite Magician to Summon Arcanite Magician/Assult Mode."
The Magician flared with a red light and the robes transmuted into armour. (900, 2300) - (2900, 2300)
"Like his previous form, this Spellcaster gets 2 spell counters automatically, and each one gives him an extra 1000 attack points."
Both Jims noticed that the Magical Citadel was still standing.
"What happened?"
"Simple. When you activated your Spell card, you gave my Citadel another Spell counter." Stuart said pointing at the second light above his head.
"But by removing one Spell Counter, like so," Stuart said as the new light went out, "I get to stop my Field Spell from being destroyed."
"So all you managed to do with that spell, was to increase the power of Stuarts Magician, and only get rid of one face-down." Ali said.
"No matter, you're monster still cannot get past our Wall. We end our turn." the two Jims said.
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(S: 8000) (A: 8000)
(J1: 8000) (J2: 8000)
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"Ok then our turn." Ali said. "Since you guys have only two cards in your graves, I get to Special Summon Neflamvell Origin."
A giant ball of fire appeared on the field, then immediatly shrunk down into the cute little fireball that is the monster. (500, 200).
"What is that thing gonna do?" asked Jim1.
"Well first of all, I'm going to Special Summon another one." And another one appeared onto the field.
"Then I sacrifice the first one to Summon out Flamvell Fiend."
A giant blue flame appeared and then it took on the shape of a long spindly demon. (2100, 1200)
"And then I Tune the second one with my Flamvell Firedog........to Synchro Summon Flamvell Uruquizas!"
The little fireball flew over to Firedog, and engulfed the hound in fire. In the fire they could see the Firedog changing into a more humanoid figure, the out of the fire emerged a man, in molten armour. (2100, 400)
"Stuart?" asked Ali.
"I activate the Spell card, Book of Secret Arts and Equip it to my Magician, raising his attack and defense power by 300 points."
A book appeared in front of Arcanite Magician, as well as a light appearing behind Stuart's head. (3200, 2600)
"Ok folks looks like we could be seeing some potential damage here." the MC declared.
"Now my magician makes the first attack and destroys your Labyrinth Wall." Stuart said.
The Spellcaster lifted its staff and then sent a blast of arcane energy at the wall completly crumbling it.
"Now thats out of the way, my Uruquizas attacks your face-down monster." Ali said pointing at Jim2's face-down card.
Uruquizas jumped over the arena, and then slammed down on the face down card, revealing it to be Sangan.
"Thanks, now I get to select a monster from my deck with 1000 attack points or less." which he did. Then he saw that Uruquizas was still standing in front of him, real close.
"Why is that monster here?" asked Jim1.
"Simple, he has a Penetration effect. So now the difference between, your monsters defense points and my monsters attack points get taken from your Life points."
Uruquizas lifted one of his hands and then sent a stream of fire at Jim2.
"Also, it's treated as Battle Damage, and whenever Uruquizas deals Battle Damage, he gains 300 attack points."
The Flamvell monster returned to Ali's side of the field, and placed a hand on his shoulder.
"I'm fine really." Ali said to the hologram.
Uruquizas smiled, then returned to his place. (2400, 400)
"Ok that was weird." the MC said, without realising he was speaking into the microphone.
"I'm not through with you lot yet. My Fiend still has his attack. Which he'll direct at Jim number 2. Thats you Sangan boy." Ali pointed out.
The blue monster charged at Jim2 and clawed at his chest, and as it did so, two balls of fire then formed in its hands.
"Along with his Battle Damage, he also deals you 200 points of damage for every Pyro type monster in my Graveyard. And both of my Origins are Pyro-types."
"Wow, in one turn, they've knocked out one of the Jim's Life Points by 4700. This duel could well belong to Team Satellite." the MC declared.
"In that case ref, we surrender." one Jim said.
"What?!" came outraged cries from the audience.
"We know all about the Assault Mode's special ability of wiping our field at a cost of two Spell Counters. That would then leave my brother open to an attack from Ali's Flamvell monsters winning them the duel. So we cannot win."
Both Jims placed their hands over their Deck slot in the signal of surrender, and the holograms disappeared.
"Well.....uh.....there you have it folks. Team Satellite win another round. Thats three out of three wins. Hope you all get ready for the real tournament next week. The first three rounds will be Riding Duels!!" the MC said trying to sound cheerful.
"OK, these guys were definetly scoping us out. Time to get that deck tweaked up to spec Ali." said Stuart as both Jims left the stadium.
"Hmm, oh yeah on my way." Ali muttered as he stared at his Extra Deck.
That was definelty weird.....it was almost as if Uruquizas had come to life there........nah. Ali looked at his arm where the Fire Mark was. Then again..........
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"Well that was a disappointment." Dusk said after the preliminaries.
"Well what did you expect?" asked Dawn. "They were just as they say 'scoping out the competition'. It's strategy."
"I know. But that last bout was a major letdown........oh now I've started to sound like these humans. Now I'm really depressed."
Dawn tried to give Dusk a hug. There was only about one millimeter of distance between them, but to them it felt like a great distance was still left.
"Soon, we will be one once more. Gaia can't stop us. Besides, I think I've found our first convert come the Alignment." said Dawn holding an image of Jaffa.
"Indeed. I felt a strong darkness in him when he let a portion of his rage out. If we could just get the rest to flow through...........hold on, his trigger seems to be family." said Dusk plotting something.
"Yes that could work, especially if the Earthbound Higher where to duel him and say just the right things to him." Dawn said, with a cruel smile playing across her lips.
"And I know just the things to get him to say. But we need to get him angry enough first to drive him over the edge later. I think the girl with Kisara can help us there."
"You mean for the Higher to......then him?" asked Dawn.
Dusk nodded.
Both of them then started to laugh maniacally as the sun began to set.
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Meanwhile at Stonehenge's remains (well the Earthbound Worshippers had travelled the world) a group of people gathered.
"I fear that the Time of Alignment draws ever closer." said one whos voice sounded like the earth shaking.
"Indeed. Are you sure you have chosen wisely Gaia?" asked one whos voice was like water running.
"I am sure." replied a woman who had a voice like birdsong. "So long as they don't give into the darkness within each of them, then they will be spared their doom."
"Indeed." replied one with a voice like fire. "We had only managed to save ourselves back then by sealing ourselves within these tablets." he said gesturing at Stonehenge.
"True Uruquizas, but we cannot trust that they will be able to do the same." said the last person, whos voice was like the very wind.
"Gaebolg, yours is in most danger I would have thought." replied the earthen spoken one.
"True, Gatmuz, true. I fear that Dusk and Dawn may have already discovered his flaw. And that may prove his undoing at this conflicts end."
"Trishula, are you sure you can't lend any of your powers?" asked Gaia.
"I am certain..........that now is not the right time." replied the being whose voice had sounded like water. "None of them have shown the ability to for my element."
"But Jaffa wielded the Ice Barriers very effectively." Gaebolg stated.
"True, but he is still not ready. Gatmuz how goes your study of Burdok?" asked Trishula.
"He still clings to your brethren of the sky and flame. But I sense he might be drawing nearer. Gaia how goes it with Stuart."
"His mastery of the arcane is to be commended, but he is not quite ready for that power. Perhaps after this conflict he will be ready, but I fear it may take a generation or two. And by then it could be too late."
"Speaking of readiness, Uruquizas, what was with your little display at the Stadium?" asked Gatmuz.
"I wanted to make sure the child was ok. The Shadow Duel still lingers in his mind. I fear that that may be his undoing just as Jaffa's rage may be his." Uruquizas sighed.
"Hopefully we can aid you in these matters." came a new voice.
All five of them then looked at Kisara appearing before them, with one who could be her twin.
"Kisara, I see that you have brought with you your darker half." Gaia said.
"The name is Dahaka thank you very much." replied Kisara's twin. She had black hair instead of Kisara's white, and wore a black and red robe instead of her sisters plain light yellow one.
"Dahaka of course, I apologise." Gaia said. "I appreciate you aiding us."
"Well, Twilight threatens my realm as well as my sisters and yours so I might as well help. They have abused the power of Darkness and Light for too long."
"Twilight will probably strike at my charge, in order to unleash a portion of Jaffa's doom. I may have to change my stipulation with her." Kisara said.
"Unfortunately its too late to change your agreement with her. We'll just have too prepare her for another Shadow Duel. This time against a demon greater thatn the first one she faced. Much greater." Gaia said.
"I've already mentioned this to my sister." Dahaka said. "Those demons draw their power from a different source this time, but it still lies within my realm. If possible, I'll try and get my Chosen to deal with the threat before it becomes one."
"Thank you." said Kisara.
"Least I can do. Now to our plans for the final fight........."
And so they started to plan fro the final battle and left the rest up to their Chosen. Hoping it would be enough.