"Seniority first, I draw. I summon Maternal Junk in defence mode." A woman made out of junk was summoned. Defence was 1500. "Alright you whippersnapper, show me what you're made of." He set a card face down.
"Don't worry, I'm planning on it. I'm not goin' easy on ya just cause you're old. I draw, I summon Blackwing Vayu and since birds of a feather flock together, I can summon another Blackwing from my hand to join Vayu on the field. Say hello to Bora the Spear. When this Blackwing attacks another monster in defence mode, and it's rockin more attack points then defence points, it slams you with the difference. Duck and cover you old fogie because Bora's attacking, with spiralling spear." Crow's monster attacked. Feather wriggled in the sling. I peered inside. She was awake, but just barely. She yawned and made a yawning noise. I heard Emily 'aw' behind me.
"I activate a trap, Scrap-iron Scarecrow." It stopped the attack.
"Nice," Jack said.
"Looks like Bashford's using a junk deck like mine."
"After Scrap-iron Scarecrow scraps your monsters attack, I can once again place it face down on my field. So, there." Crow snickered.
"I'm thinking I might underestimate you gramps," Crow said.
"It's my turn. I draw." He drew his card. I stared at him. He looked like he was in a trace and talking to himself.
"Hmm," I said.
"What's wrong?" Emily asked me.
"Nothing," I said back.
"Well, okay. If you say so," She said back. I still felt her eyes on me. I glanced over and saw Yusei staring at me too. I glanced back to the duel.
"Hey grandpa, something wrong?" Crow asked.
"It's nothing just...just, just never you mind," Mr Bashford retorted back.
"Alright, alright, so make a move already," Crow said annoyed.
"I summon Paternal Junk in attack mode." He threw it down. "And when Maternal Junk is on my field, Paternal Junk gains an additional 500 attack points and now from my hand, I activate the Junk Factory field spell." A factory appeared onto the field.
"What's this about?" Crow asked.
"It's about winning sunny-boy and don't you forget it," Mr Bashford said. "See here in the Junk Factory, every Junk monster on the field gains 500 attack points."
"Pretty good old dude, you nearly doubled the monsters power without having to sacrifice anything," Crow complimented. I stared over at Jack.
"Bashford's got a good pair and if he summons what I think he'll summon he'll have a full house," Jack said. Blister stared at Jack too.
"What does that mean, 'he'll have a full house'?" Blister asked. "Are you saying Crow's done for?"
"No way, I'm pretty sure Crow's got some feathers up him sleeve," Yusei said. Feather wriggled and said a cute baby noise. I giggled and cuddled her closer to me. She must have heard her name being called or noticed Yusei's voice.
"Let's battle. Go Paternal Junk attack." It attacked Crow's monster. Crow groaned. His life points went down to 2200.
"You just helped me out ya goofy-geezer. Because Blackwing Vayu the Emblem of Honour only has the power to Synchro summon from the graveyard. My comeback will be starting right now." Crow seemed happy. I giggled.
"It's hard to make a comeback in the Junk Factory sonny," Bashford said.
"What do you mean?"
"In the Junk Factory, when one of my Junk monsters destroys one of your monsters, I can snag it from your graveyard and send it packing back to your deck."
"Ahh, oh man," Crow yelled. "Not bad, I gotta hand it to ya, ya old dog you still know a lot of tricks."
"Heh, well for my next trick, I play three cards face down and end my turn," Bashford ended. Where's the other card? The third one.
"Why won't he summon it?" Jack asked curiously.
"Summon what?"
"The third card," I said.
"What third card?" Blister asked. I didn't answer him. Let's just see if he summons it later on.
"It's my move. I activate the Black-winged Strafe which wipes out one of your monsters in defence mode, by sending a Blackwing from my hand to my graveyard. Let's say goodbye to my Shura the Blue Flame and say goodbye to your Maternal Junk."
"Not so fast, go Scrap-iron Barricade. During this turn, you can't destroy the monster protected by this barricade with card effects. Crow groaned. "And just like Scrap-iron Scarecrow, after being activated Scrap-iron Barricade can return to its face down position on the field.
"Pretty good old timer, but let's see how you handle Blackwing Blizzard the Far North," Crow said. Blizzard was summoned and made a noise. "When Blizzard of the Far North is successfully summoned, I can then special summon one level 4 or bellow Blackwing from my graveyard to join him on the field. So I special summon, Blackwing Shura the Blue Flame in defence mode"
"Then I'll just activate another trap, Scrape-Iron Pitfall."
"Huh? You gotta be kidding me."
"Afraid not sparky. When you use a special summoning to bring a monster to the field, it falls right into my Scrap-Iron Pitfall and returns to your hand."
"Oh man," Crow said.
"And now, just like my other traps this card returns to its face down position," Mr Bashford said. Crow looked deep in thought. I wonder what he's thinking. Feather wriggled in the sling. I looked down to see that she was wide awake.
"Hey sweetie, do you want to watch daddy duel?" I whispered. She blinked. I giggled and took her out of the sling and held her in my arms, with her eyes staring at the field. Her head is so fragile to hold, but I took control of it by having her lean her head back on my arm.
"The old man's starting to rattle our easily rattled friend," Jack said.
"Crow just needs to find a way around all those traps," Yusei commented.
"It's not all that easy," I said. Feather made a cute baby noise. I giggled. "Do you have faith in daddy sweetie?" She made another noise. Emily giggled.
"I guess she does," Emily smiled.
"From my hand I activate the Cards for Black feathers spell, which gives me the power to draw two new cards from my deck, in exchange from sending a Blackwing from my hand to the graveyard. So by shipping off my Shura the Blue Flame I can draw." Crow smiled. "When there's another Blackwing on my field I can summon Gale the Whirlwind from my hand in attack mode. Now I activate whirlwinds special ability. This Blackwing can halve one your monsters attack and defence points. With that done, now Bora the Spear can attack Paternal Junk" Bora attacked, but Crow forgot about the facedown cards.
"I activate my trap, Scrap-Iron Scarecrow."
"I was afraid you'd do that," Crow said. It blocked the attack.
"You're never getting to me sunny-boy," he said smirking.
"Heh, never say never you old gibber-gabber. Cause you never know, Gale the Whirlwind, recycle that Paternal Junk."
"Crow realises that Blackwing and Paternal Junk both have 1300 attack points doesn't he? Does he want to destroy the both of them?" Blister commented. I smiled, I know his strategy.
"Before attacking, I activate the Moon Shadow's special ability from my hand. By sending this card to the graveyard, I can increase Gale the Whirlwinds attack points by 1400."
"Ah, so he's not crazy."
"Gale the Whirlwind, attack," Crow ordered. The old man lost some points. Then the ground started to shake a little. The junk was falling down. This isn't good. "How do ya like that, never count me out." I blushed. Crow was just so darn cute with everything he does.
"Let's see if you're still doing your little happy dance after I activate my trap card"
"What? You've got another one." I blushed at him again. His voice is just amazing. Feather wriggled in my arms. I looked down to see that she was concentrating on the duel. I smiled at the thought.
"With the trap Junk Spirit in play when a Junk Monster is destroyed in battle and send to my graveyard, I can re-summon that monster in the end phase. How do YOU like THAT?" Bashford countered.
"No way," Crow yelled. "I place one card face down and end my turn." He seemed a bit disappointed.
"And now Paternal Junk returns to the field and once again, because of my Maternal Junk and Paternal Junk's special abilities, Paternal Junk gains some attack points."
"Ah great, do we're back to where we were," Crow commented.
"Okay, now I'm confused. What's the old guy waiting for?" Yusei asked confused.
"I know, he seems into the old family structure tactic, so why hasn't he completed it yet?" Jack asked.
"So you're saying that Paternal Junks the father and Maternal Junks the mother then that means, that means there's a third card missing from that family," Blister stated.
"Yep, Kid Junk. If he'd summoned it to the field, Paternal Junk would gain another thousand attack points in order to protect the kid from any harm," Yusei explained.
"Gotcha: and if that happened then the old man would have this in the bag, is that it?"
"Well if that was part of his plan he would have done it already. With Maternal Junk and Paternal Junk both on the field, gramps could have used their abilities to summon Kid Junk straight from his hand," Jack said.
"So, why wouldn't that be part of the old man's plan?"
"Who knows?" Yusei gasped and started walking away.
"What's going on Yusei? Where are ya off too?" Blister asked.
"Gonna poke around in the old man's house, I've got a hunch about something," Yusei said. Emily was shocked.
"What kind of hunch?" Yusei smiled.
"Let's just say that if it turns out I'm right then Crow has nothing to worry about." He walked off.
"What is he talking about? What is his hunch?"
"More importantly, why would he snoop around?" Emily asked. I shook my head. Feather made her cute baby noise. I smiled and continued to watch the duel.
"My turn sonny," Mr Bashford said. "I draw. I activate the Junk Barrage spell card and I equip it onto Paternal Junk and with that boost, now Paternal Junk, attack Blackwing Gale the Whirlwind." It attacked and Crow lost his monster and most of his life points. More of the junk piles were sinking. "Looks like the birdbrain of a monster you have is about to be destroyed and your life points are about to fly the coop Crow. It's over" Crow screamed. "Get ready for a thrashing scooter." Crow screamed again.
"This funny old guys not so funny anymore," he said. More trash piles started sinking.
"Whoa what is that?" I placed Feather back into the sling to keep her safe.
"Feels like the commotion from the duel is gonna bring these mountains of junk crashing down on us. Crow, stop the duel. We gotta get outta here."
"Huh? You heard him gramps, let's go," Crow said. He looked towards me. "Wendy, take Feather out of here alright. I'll be fine." I gasped, nodded and ran slowly away with the others.
"What's the matter sunny-boy? You're not scared of losing to me are ya?"
"Alright, if that's how it's gonna be..." I gasped and had to keep running. As Crow ended the duel more trash fell.
"Crow," Jack yelled.
"Hey, look out!" Blister yelled. The trash near Crow fell down onto the arena with a loud crash. But where were Crow and Mr Bashford? Are they okay? I ran over to the area where Crow was standing last.
"Crow? Crow, where are you? Darling?" I started to shed tears. Feather started to cry. I held her tightly. Just then a refrigerator door opened. Crow held it up. I smiled happily. They're okay.
"Were you lookin' for us?" he said. I still hard tears flowing from my eyes. Crow looked up at me. "Wendy, it's okay. I'm okay," He walked over and held me. I cried in his arms. Feather wriggled in the sling. We both smiled.
"No... Adam's duel arena, this can't be," Mr Bashford said. He tried to get to the arena, but Crow held him back.
"Stay back," he said.
"Let go of my squirt. I have to get into my house." He struggled to get away.
"I'm afraid there's not much left of it," Yusei ran over.
"What were you doing?" Blister asked. He walked over to Mr Bashford.
"I'm sorry. Your house was buried in the rubble but I was able to get out in time with this." He held out a family photo. "I thought you might want it"
"Aw look at that. A nice family moment," Crow said with his arm around me.
"Family? We figured you didn't have a family."
"I don't I, well I, I did," He stuttered.
"You didn't summon Kid Junk. I'm guessing that's because it's not part of your deck. Right?" Yusei asked. Crow held me closer.
"That's right. I use to have it but I gave it to my son. I was a sculpture artist and I was so focused on my work that I neglected what was most important to me. When I realised how I've been acting, I built this duel arena to try and make amends but it was too late. I have woken up every day since thinking, maybe this will be the day my son comes home for a duel." Everyone saddened.
"So that's why you don't want to leave this place. You're waiting," Blister said.
"Is that right?" Yusei said.
"Yes, I've spent an entire lifetime waiting," he started crying.
"You know what? You've got yourself a new son right here," he pointed to himself with his thumb. Then with his arms out wide he continued. "In fact, you've got four, four giant little boys. Plus two beautiful daughters and..." he grabbed Feather lightly from the sling and held her out to Mr Bashford. "And...a gorgeous granddaughter." Mr Bashford stared in awe at her. A beautiful baby girl was in front of his eyes. "Go on, you can hold her," Crow said nicely. Mr Bashford held his arms out to hold her. He did. Crow wrapped his arms around me as we stared at the sight. Mr Bashford started to cry.
"She's...beautiful Crow," he cried. "What's her name?" Crow and I smiled.
"Her names Feather, Feather Hogan," Crow answered. Emily giggled.
"I'm a proud godmother," she said. I giggled. Mr Bashford handed Feather back over to me.
"You better be," I answered. Crow snickered.
"AND if you live at Martha's you'll be surrounded by more grandkids than you can shake a cane at," he said.
"That sounds nice," he said.
"Well then, what are we waiting for," Crow said. A few minutes later and we were back to Martha's place. The kids greeted us.
"Crow, Wendy, you're back," Jake said. Jasmine ran out and hugged me. Martha had a few words with the boys and Mr Bashford. They explained everything. Mr Bashford decided to make a life-like Stardust Dragon sculpture. The boys, Emily and I decided to stay and watch with the kids. A few hours later and it was dusk. Mr Bashford was done with the sculpture. The kids awed at how amazing it was.
"It's like the real Stardust Dragon," Jake said.
"No, it's even better," Jasmine said. Mr Bashford laughed.
"Well I don't know if I'd go that far," he said.
"It seems like he'll be happy here. You've done your good deed for the day Crow," Yusei said.
"You think so?" He said. I nodded. I kissed his cheek. He blushed lightly and laughed.
"Hey Crow, get over here. My shoulders are killin' me. Come here and rub 'em for me would ya?" Mr Bashford said. Emily and I giggled.
"Huh? Why do I have too?" Crow answered.
"Quit whining and help a tired old man out, Crow. Don't you wanna get in your good deed for the day?"
"I did that," Crow protested. Yusei lightly pushed Crow forward.
"Go on Crow," Yusei said.
"You're his new son remember?" Jack said. Crow groaned, walked over and started rubbing his shoulders.
"Oh yeah, that's the stuff right there. Don't be weak, put some strength into it," Mr Bashford said. Crow looked over, smirked and said:
"Oh, like this?" he squeezed Mr Bashford's shoulders hard. He groaned.
"Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow!"
"You said to put some strength into it," Crow said.
"I did not. Don't you know you're supposed to be gentle with your elders?"
"I can't win with you," Crow said. We all laughed. A heard a little yawn. Feather was getting tired. It was time to go home. It has been a long day for all of us.
"I hate to say this, but I think we should go home. Feather's getting tired and I have to feed her soon," I said. Everyone nodded. We all said our goodbyes to the kids, Martha, Blister and Mr Bashford and we all headed home. Emily rid on Yusei's runner with him. She blushed the entire time. I giggled. A few minutes later and we were home. As soon as we walked in the door, I ran upstairs and fed Feather in Crow's and my room. Crow walked in quietly as I was feeding her. He looked over and smiled at her drinking. He sat on our bed and held me close as we both watched her drink. Crow and I stared at each other with love.
"You know I'm very proud of you darling. You continue to amaze me," I said with a smile. Crow snickered and kissed me on the lips. It was long and tasteful. We broke away when Feather made a cute noise. She was done with her dinner. Crow wanted to burp her again. I handed her over and he did. Soon, she fell asleep on his shoulder. Crow smiled and placed her into her cradle. Crow held me close as we watched her sleep.
"Darling?" he whispered. "How many more children do you want?" I smiled.
"About three in total I suppose," I answered. He smiled.
"No more than three?" I giggled.
"You're wanting more?" I asked. He nodded.
"I want to experience and cherish these moments with more of our future children," he answered staring down at Feather. "It's just too amazing being a parent." I smiled.
"Well," I wrapped my arms around his neck. "How about we make it three minimum? We'll see how many children we can afford to have." I said. It's true; we need to be financially stable to be able to take care of children. We're already struggling. He smiled and kissed my lips.
"Do you want to try for another one now?" he growled. I giggled.
"Not now darling," I said. He pouted. I giggled again and kissed his lips. I turned on the baby monitor and took the other down stairs with us. It was Emily's turn to cook dinner. She finished up the lasagne and we ate in silence. What Blister told us about the meteor that hit was starting to rattle us.
*Flashback*
"Guys, now that the old man's happy we need to talk," Blister said.
"Talk about what?" Yusei asked.
"Did you guys see the reports about the meteor that hit outside the city?" He asked.
"We didn't need a new report. We heard the impact," Crow said.
"I've been picking up some weird chatter about it on the BSB channels (British Satellite Broadcasting. Don't know why it would be on the British channels though. Haha)"
"What sort of chatter?" Jack asked.
"Cryptic stuff, from what I can gather it seems like it wasn't a rock that fell. I've heard a few references to the Stone Tablet."
"This was two weeks ago right?" Yusei asked. "That was the same time that duelbot Ghost started showing up"
"Think there might be a connection there?"
"I don't know but whatever it is that fell it seems the Public Security Bureau got a hold of it and it keeping it very hush-hush," Blister said.
"A stone tablet? A duelbot? What exactly is going on around here?"
"Well whatever it is, one thing is clear someone doesn't want anyone to know," Blister said.
*End Flashback*
We all couldn't get that information out of our heads. We finished up our dinner and we decided to get some well needed sleep and that we'll talk about it tomorrow. Crow kissed me goodnight and hugged me closely. Soon we fell fast asleep.