Before you all read, I realized that I screwed up on the effect that Trischula of the Ice Barrier has. The effect that I gave it allows it to negate the effect of an opponent's monster. The effect that it is supposed to have, is to remove a card in your opponent's back row, graveyard, and hand. It turns out that the Trischula card I have is actually a misprint, which is why I used the effect I did during the tag duel.
Anyways, I hope you're all enjoying the story so far!
Several days had passed since winter break had ended, and that particular day being a Wednesday meant that it was a gym day. This particular day all three dorms were sharing a gym class supervised by Miss Fontaine.
"Alright class, get your game on!" Miss Fontaine exclaimed rather cheerfully, holding up a tennis racket. "Tennis game that is!"
Every student had been paired up in a doubles match. This particular day had paired up Alexis and Fujin, against Kai and Yuki. Kai was decent at tennis, while Yuki was awful at this particular sport.
"How can someone who is so good at dueling, be so bad at other sports?" Fujin laughed. Her question being directed at Yuki, before she served the bright green ball over the net, only for Kai to send it back.
"You think this is bad?" Even Yuki had to laugh at how terrible he was at this point. "Just be glad the academy doesn't have a golf course-oh crap! Head's up Alexis!" Yuki had gotten a lucky return swing in after Fujin had sent the ball his way. The only problem, was that ball was heading straight for Alexis. And would have made contact, had someone else not intervened, to whack it away.
The four Obelisks, as well as Jaden, and Cyrus turned to see the ball sail away … and nail Dr. Crowler in the eye. The same eye he had been hit in with baseball during a previous gym class, which made the six wince in pain. That shiner of Dr. Crowler's had just begun to heal, and now it looked like he'd have to deal with another.
"That was a close call." The newcomer spoke up. He was another Obelisk with rather long brown hair, someone that both Fujin and Kai recognised as Harrington, the captain of the Duel Academy tennis club. He turned his attention to Alexis, giving her a wink. "Need me to carry you to the nurse?"
Alexis made a rather disgusted noise, as she pushed past him to go and check on Dr. Crowler. "Ugh, no thank you…"
"Uh, Dr. Crowler…?" Kai gave the head of the Obelisk dorm a light shake. After taking that tennis ball to the eye, the man landed in a rather comical crumpled heap, but quickly made his way to his feet, his one good eye zeroing in on Jaden who had wandered over.
"YOU!" Crowler's outburst made those who were gathered around either jump in shock, or take a step back. "You're in big trouble slacker!"
"What?" Jaden sounded shocked at this, mainly because he had nothing to do with Crowler getting nailed in the eye this time. "But I didn't do anything!"
"Save your excuses for later!" Crowler growled, quickly dragging Jaden away by the ear.
Yuki frowned, as that didn't sit right with him. Why was Jaden being blamed for something he didn't do? "Uh, I'll catch up with you guys later."
"Hey, where are you…? And he's gone…" Kai shrugged watching Yuki go after Crowler and Jaden.
Yuki had followed Dr. Crowler to the nurses office, where he could hear the head of his dorm berating the Slifer student for something that wasn't even his fault. Rolling his eyes, and having a suspicion that he knew who it was who continued to try and get Jaden into trouble, Yuki entered the nurses office.
"Uh, excuse me." Yuki spoke up. "Dr. Crowler, you getting hit by that tennis ball wasn't Jaden's fault."
"I told you." Jaden gave his friend a thumbs up as he spoke to the head of Obelisk.
Dr. Crowler looked between both students, and let out a sigh of resignation. "Alright Yuki, I'll hear you out…"
"That ball never would have hit you if it wasn't for someone else interfering." Yuki explained.
Miss Fontaine, who was also present in the infirmary, also confirmed Yuki's story. "It's true Dr. Crowler, I saw the entire thing. If Harrington didn't act, that ball never would have hit you."
"The captain of the tennis team?" Crowler asked at the mention of the name.
"I guess." Yuki answered his dorm head's question with a shrug. "I'm not too good at tennis, and even worse at golf, so I don't really pay attention to who's on the school sport teams. But, to repeat what's been said for the upteenth time, if he hadn't interfeered in that doubles match, you wouldn't have that black eye."
Crowler sighed, and rubbed his eyelids with the tips of his fingers. Only to forget his eye was injured, and yelped in pain the second he touched his black eye. "Alright, well there's nothing for it, but to have you and you." He added with an icy look to Jaden. "Get a little more practice in."
"Wait." Jaden whined, looking at Dr. Crowler. "Why do I have to go through with it?"
"Because you didn't try hard enough to convince me you didn't hit me with that tennis ball slacker!"
In the girls locker room, Alexis had just finished changing when she was approached by her two friends Jasmine and Mindy.
"Alexis, we found out who that tennis guy is for you." Jasmine began rather excitedly.
'Oh no, here we go again…' Alexis thought, and with a sigh she turned to her friends. "I don't recall asking you two to do that for me."
"Well, his name is Harrington Rosewood. He's the heir to Rosewood Sporting goods, and a third year Obeli-" Jasmine continued, before Alexis brushed past her two friends.
"Not interested." She said with a shake of her head.
"Told you." Mindy turned to her friend, fixing Jasmine with an 'I told you so' look on her face.
"Really, you would pass on a guy like that?" Jasmine asked rather shocked.
"Jasmine, she's saying that Harrington isn't her type." Mindy sighed, while rolling her eyes.
"Exactly." Alexis sounded relieved that this could be put behind them. At least until she heard what Jasmine said next.
"Oh, so that means she does like Yuki!" Jasmine's comment made Alexis' face go bright red. Thankfully, she was spared further embarrassment, when she caught Syrus dragging both Kai and Yumei through the halls.
"Syrus! Slow down!" Kai was nearly tripping over his feet trying to keep up with the smaller Slifer.
Syrus was clearly panicking, and it looked like he was searching rather frantically for someone or something. "Oh man, where's the lousy tennis team."
"Uh, Alexis…" Yumei fixed her friend, who had just exited the changing room with a look that pleaded for help. "Where would the tennis team meets up?"
"Out on the court…" Alexis looked rather puzzled at all of this. "Why? What's going on?"
"The most unfair thing!" Syrus began. "Dr. Crowler is making both Jaden and Yuki run drills with that tennis nut for hitting him with that tennis ball!"
"Wait, what?" Alexis sounded clearly shocked, and slightly angry. "But neither of them hit him."
Out on the court, Yuki and Jaden were being served tennis balls by Harrington who seemed to have a cannon for an arm, as it was all they could do to avoid being hit, let alone return swing.
"I thought we were doing tennis, not speed drills…" Jaden sounded exhausted, and was knocked to the ground after a particularly hard swing from Harrington.
"Yeah… no kidding…" Yuki was gasping for air, just barely avoiding an oncoming serve.
"Come on you two, no pain no gain. Gotta hustle to build that muscle. Pick up the pace to win the race." Harrington laughed, while winding up for another serve. This made both Jaden and Yuki groan.
"Okay, we get it…" Jaden groaned.
"Yeah, let off the sports cliches…"
"First rule of tennis." Harrington huffed. "There's no I in the word 'team'. Moving on, it's time to work on both forehand and backhands. I think one thousand serves should make tennis more your racket, get it?" He laughed, serving the next ball.
"Oh I get it, this guy's nuts." Yumei groaned, having just arrived at the tennis court alongside Kai, Alexis, Jasmine, and Mindy, with Fujin following close behind.
"Maybe he's not boyfriend material after all…" Jasmine rubbed the back of her head, feeling a wave of embarrassment wash over her for suggestion.
After the first ten strokes, Yuki had enough of this guy. Deciding he would do whatever it took to return one of those insane serves of Harrington … and actually managed to return the next serve. Knocking the ball back to the athletic cliche-loving Obelisk. Catching him right between the eyes, and knocking him to the ground.
"Nice shot…" Jaden groaned, shakily getting back to his feet.
Yuki was hunched over, and managed to give his Slifer friend a thumbs up. "I get lucky every now and then…" He groaned, before collapsing to the ground.
"Alright, come on up buddy." Kai said, slowly getting Yuki back onto his feet. "You two alright?"
"If dying of heatstroke constitutes as 'alright'..." Yuki replied, earning a laugh from Kai as Alexis handed her two friends a bottle of water each from the cooler Harrington had brought.
"You guys are lifesavers, thank you." Yuki happily gulped down about half the bottle, before dumping the rest of it onto his head. Something Alexis and Kai had to try their hardest to not laugh at.
By that point, Harrington had recovered, and was looking like he was about to spew flames at the sight in front of him. "It should be me who's drinking that water. Alright, time to run some interference. Hey!" He shouted, marching up to the group in similar fashion to an old fashioned cartoon villain. His focus solely on Yuki. "You can't just talk to a first round pick like Alexis. You can't even return a tennis ball, so you stay away from my little Obelisk Pixie!"
Yuki nearly choked on the second water bottle Alexis handed him. "Obelisk what!?" He choked out, looking just as shocked as everyone else.
"I'm warning you Yuki." Harringon glared at the exhausted Obelisk. "You stay away from the beautiful girl!"
By then, Yuki was done. "First, you don't tell me what to do. Second, this whole thing is your fault! Jaden and I wouldn't even be here, if it wasn't for you! Learn to mind your own business!"
"And third!" Alexis interjected, stepping in front of Yuki. "I'm his friend, and you of all people don't get to decide he can't be around me! … oh, and fourth. If you call me Obelisk Pixie again, I'll give you a serve you won't soon forget!"
"Well, I guess the huddle's over then." Kai said with a shrug. "Come on, let's get out of here."
"Hey, we're not done yet!" Harrington growled. "When the huddle's over, you gotta battle!"
"No thanks." Yuki shook his head, as he turned to leave. "I'm done with tennis for the rest of my life."
"Oh no, you and I are gonna duel right here, right now! Winner becomes Alexis' fiance!" Harrington's declaration made Yuki freeze, and caused his as well as Alexis' face to turn bright red. Though, while Yuki was red in the face out of embarrassment, Alexis was absolutely furious.
"He can't be serious…" Mindy said, while she and Jasmine positioned themselves on either side of Alexis, in case they needed to hold her back.
"Not a chance in hell." Yuki said, after a few moments. "I'm not putting Alexis in that position. Besides, I already dueled one nut-case who had the same schtick you do."
"Alright then, I'll duel him." Alexis was glaring daggers at Harrington at this point, and was heavily considering making good on her threat from earlier.
"Hang on, you can't just duel to become your own fiance…" Harrington shook his head, like that was the last thing he wanted.
"Fine then." Alexis sighed, turning to Yuki. "Care to help me turn the tables?"
Yuki then fixed his friend with a rather confused look on his face. "What do you mean by that?"
"Simple." Alexis held up her duel disk, after slotting her Cyber Angel deck into the main slot. "We both duel him. He seemed to think it was fair, when he was serving tennis balls at you and Jaden."
"I'm in." Alexis didn't have to finish her explanation, as Yuki already had his duel disk at the ready.
"Wait, time out!" Harrington looked between the two other Obelisks who looked more than ready to destroy him. "Th-this isn't fair!"
"Oh well." Alexis said, activating her duel disk.
"Sucks to be you." Yuki readied his dragon deck, before activating his. "It's time to play the game!"
"Duel!"
Alexis-LP 4000
Yuki-LP 4000
Harrington-LP 4000
"Normally I would say 'ladies first'." Yuki began, drawing his sixth card. "But this guy has been driving me crazy all afternoon, so I'm ready to wipe the court with this guy."
Alexis simply shrugged. "Fine by me Yuki. Let's just take this guy down."
"Oh, I intend to." Yuki selected one of his cards. "Let's see how you stack up to this tennis boy, I summon Alexandrite Dragon in attack mode!" After placing the selected card on his duel disk, Yuki's brightly scaled dragon roared as it appeared on his field.
Alexandrite Dragon Atk-2000
"Next, I'll set the field." He groaned at the bad joke. "And after apologising for that stupid joke, I'll play the field spell Fusion Gate, so there's no need for us to use Polymarization."
"Nice play partner." Alexis gave Yuki a smile, that only infuriated Harrington all the more. Alexis then, after Yuki set a third card face down, drew her sixth card. "Alright, my turn. And after setting a card face down, I summon Etoile Cyber in attack mode."
The cute female warrior that Alexis had used in her duel with Yuki giggled, and gave a little pirouette as she appeared on her field.
Etoile Cyber Atk-1200
"That'll do it for now." Alexis said, ending her turn.
"Right, time for a return serve." Harrington said, drawing his next card. "Okay, I activate the spell card Service Ace. Here's how it works: I pick a card from my hand, and you guess whether or not it's a spell, trap, or a monster card. If you guess correctly, you're good. If not, you get nailed for 1500 points of damage." Harrington held up his chosen card, which caused Alexis and Yuki to look at one another.
"You're the lucky one." Alexis said. "You should guess."
"You sure?" Yuki asked, while looking between Alexis and Harrington. "If I guess wrong, one of us is taking damage."
"Don't worry, I trust you." Alexis' words made Yuki's cheeks flush lightly, and Harrington scowl.
"Alright, I choose monster." Yuki said, while pointing to the card in Harrington's hand. And judging from the look on Harrington's face, it looked like he had chosen correctly.
"Correct. So I'll set two cards face down." He slid the chosen cards into his duel disk. "And call an end to my turn."
"Right, my draw!" Yuki felt his stomach flip excitedly. "Alright, I summon Delta Flyer in attack mode!" Yuki announced, setting the card onto his duel disk, which caused the small brown dragon to appear next to Alexandrite Dragon.
Delta Flyer Atk-1500
"Hey, that's the monster you used against Kai and Fujin in the tag duel last semester isn't it?" Alexis eyed the smaller dragon curiously, to which Yuki nodded.
"Yeah, and let me remind you of its effect." Yuki said, before continuing. Though he did enjoy the confused look on Harrington's face. "I can raise any monster's level by one, so I'll use it on Delta Flyer."
"Here it comes." Fujin said, remembering the tag duel.
"Alexandrite Dragon, a four star monster. Delta Flyer, a three star monster elevated to a four star monster. With a total of eight stars, I can summon a monster so cold, it will freeze that burning love you have for this sport! Rise, Trischula of the Ice Barrier!" At Yuki's words, the air chilled. A literal blizzard formed out of nowhere, encircling the three duelists. When it died down, there was a large dragon with snow white scales, and icy blue eyes stood where Yuki's two dragon's had been.
Trischula of the Ice Barrier Atk-2700
Normally, Yuki hated the cold. However, he had nearly passed out from heat stroke, so the cold air given off by his icy dragon felt incredible. "Unfortunately since you don't have an effect monster on your field, I can't negate its effect with Trischula, so I'll settle for attacking you directly!"
"Oh know you won't!" Harrington said, flipping up his trap card. "This trap card is known as Return Ace! I don't take any battle damage, and I can tail you for 1500 points of damage!"
"Crap…" Yuki groaned, while his dragon's attack deflected off of Harrington's trap card.
Yuki-LP 2500
"So much for that so called luck of yours." Harrington smirked. "That's 15 luv. Don't worry my little Obelisk Pixie, I'm a far better partner than dragon boy here."
"Call me that one more time. I dare you." Alexis growled. "And don't forget you have to discard three cards due to your trap card."
Harrington simply shrugged, while discarding three cards from the top of his deck. "That's fine by me, now I believe it's your turn my dear."
An angry tick was going in both Alexis and Yuki's forehead. "Yuki, I swear if you don't take him down, I will." She growled drawing her next card.
"Oh feel free." Yuki sounded just as infuriated as Alexis.
"Alright, let's see how he likes this." Alexis held up her card, which was her Blade Skater. "Thanks to my partner here, I don't need to use a fusion card. So I can fuse my Blade Skater with my Etoile Cyber, and summon my Blade Skater!"
The two chosen monsters were sucked into a vortex, and Alexis' blue and red colored monster emerged from that vortex seconds later.
Blade Skater Atk-2100
"But I'm not done there! I activate Cost Down!" Alexis said, sliding the spell card into her duel disk. "By discarding one card to my graveyard, I can lower a monster's level. So, I'd like to introduce you to my Black Magician Girl!"
"Woah, hold on!" Mindy said, rather shocked at the reveal of Alexis' monster. "When did she get that card?"
Black Magician Girl Atk-2000
"Who cares?" Syrus had a dreamy tone in his voice, and there were hearts in his eyes while he got a look at Alexis' new monster.
"Another beautiful card, such as yourself." Harrington winked at Alexis, which made both her and her monsters recoil in disgust.
"Don't even think about it." Alexis glared at Harrington. "See, this is a new card. And a special one at that, since my partner here." She gave Yuki a smile, which made his cheeks flush. "Gave it to me."
Harrington's jaw went slack as he looked from Alexis, to her monster, then over to Yuki. He repeated this process several times, as his brain attempted to process Alexis' words.
Taking advantage of his momentary silence, Alexis spoke up. "Alright guess it's time for me to end this! Black Magician Girl, attack directly! Black Burning!"
Alexis' new monster pointed her staff at Harrington, and the male Obelisk got nailed by the sphere of dark magic.
Harrington-LP 2000
"Now Cyber Skater, take him down!" Alexis was all set to end this duel, before Harrington revealed his face down.
"Not so fast my dear, I still have a second trap!; Nutrient Z!" Harrington smirked, at the reveal of his card. "See, whenever I'm about to take more than 2000 points of damage, I can increase my life points by 4000!"
Harrington-LP 6000
"Well, you're still not stopping my attack!" Alexis smirked, as her monster nailed the Obelisk in the stomach with a diving kick.
"Ouch, and she wears heels…" Yuki winced, having remembered the kick that Etoile Cyber had given him months ago.
Harrington-LP 4900
"Well, looks like it's your turn McEnroe." Alexis' comment made Yuki snort with laughter.
"You stole my line." Yuki was nearly doubled over in laughter, as Harrington drew his next card.
"Well speaking of McEnroe, I'll summon the monster Big Server!" Harrington's creature looked more mechanical than man, with a large tennis racket.
Big Server Atk-300
"And the reason he's so big, is that he can attack you directly!" Harrington smirked, as his monster whacked a flaming tennis ball straight at Yuki.
Yuki-LP 2200
"Hang on, why is he only attacking Yuki?" Jasmine asked. There was a frown on her face, as she crossed her arms over her chest.
"Simple." Kai answered, and Fujin finished for him.
"He wants to humiliate him." The purple haired Obelisk continued. "Make him look bad in front of Alexis."
"So, he's essentially disregarding Alexis." Jasmin huffed.
"He's making a mistake." Mindy shook her head in disapproval. "That's gonna come back to bite him."
"And I'm not done there." Harrington said, while holding up a spell card. "I'm equipping my monster with this; Giant Racket. With this card, he can't be destroyed in battle once, and I don't take any damage. Oh! But I'm not done there! See my Big Server has another effect, and that is I can add a Service Ace to my hand. Of course you get a card too, but nothing you draw is gonna compare to this!"
"Monster." Yuki said, which made Harrington blink in surprise, and then scowl when he revealed Mystical Shine Ball. "Looks like lady luck is on my side."
"She's not the only one." Alexis gave Yuki a wink, which made him blush, and caused Harrington's scowl to deepen. "So, how are we gonna take this guy down?"
'Hatchling…'
"I've got an idea." Yuki had to shake his head, having heard Mythic's voice in his head.
"Hey, are you alright?" Alexis sounded concerned.
Yuki fixed her with a smile. "Yeah, I'm fine. Anyways, this is how we're gonna beat him." He held up the card he just drew, which made Alexis go wide eyed, then fix him with a smile.
"Alright, do it!"
"Hope you're ready Harrington, and even if you aren't … well too bad!" Yuki slotted his new card into his duel disk. "I play the Eye of Timaeus!"
Harrington, as well as everyone else went wide eyed at the reveal of Yuki's card. Everyone except Yumei and Kai, as those two knew that Yuki possessed that particular card.
"Knew there was only a matter of time until he played it." Kai had an excited look on his face.
"About time!" Yumei replied, with a look to match the one on Kai's face.
"Alexis, you mind?" Yuki asked, turning to his partner.
The female Obelisk simply smiled, and gave him a nod. "What's mine is yours partner."
"Alright then, I'll fuse Alexis' Black Magician Girl." Yuki began, while discarding a dragon monster from his hand. "And another monster, and I'll summon a new monster! Black Magician Girl the Dragon Knight!"
Yuki's dragon, as well as Alexis' Black Magician girl were sucked into a vortex, and soon after, a dragon with dark green scales that clearly was Timaeus himself, emerged from the vortex. On its back was the Black Magician Girl, now clad in a knight's armor, now weilding a sword in lieu of her staff.
Dark Magician Girl the Dragon Knight Atk-2600
"She's beautiful…" Syrus had the same dreamy tone in his voice once again.
"You like her now." Yuki looked over his shoulder at the Slifer with a smile on his face. "Wait until you see her effect. By discarding one card, she can destroy one monster on my opponent's field!"
Harrington went pale at Yuki's words. "Wait what?"
"If you were gonna ask for a time out." Yuki discarded his chosen card as he spoke. "That's not happening!"
Timaeus let out a mighty roar, and blasted away Big Server with a burst of flame.
"Yuki, I think it's time to end this." Alexis said with a smirk on her face.
"I couldn't agree more! Trischula, Timaeus!" Yuki looked to Alexis, and her smirk turned into a smile as she knew just what he wanted.
"Burn it down!" The two Obelisks said in unison, ordering their monsters to attack Harrington, who was engulfed by a combination of ice and fire breath.
Harrington-LP 0000
"Glad that's over." Yuki sighed in relief, before handing Alexis back the ghost rare Black Black Magician Girl.
"Not just yet." Alexis had an evil glint in her eye, before walking over to Harrington. "Just because you lost, I do have something to give you."
Harrington looked up hopefully, only for his eyes to roll up in pain. Alexis had kicked him square between the legs, which him crumple to the ground, and caused Yuki, Kai, Syrus, and Jaden to groan.
"Owww…"
"That's gonna hurt in the morning…"
"I think it's hurting now…"
"I am not some prize to be won!" She said to the tennis loving Obelisk in an icy tone, aiming to kick him again, only to be stopped when Jasmine and Mindy pulled him back.
"You know, I realized something." Fujin spoke up, as everyone made their way to the Obelisk Dorms. Rather, almost everyone as Jaden and Syrus had broken off to go back to the Slifer dorms. "Since Yuki dealt the finishing blow to Harrington, that means he's your fiance Alexis."
Yuki stopped dead in his tracks. His face now bright red. "Wait, that stipulation was still in effect!?"
"I guess…" Alexis was equally red in the face. "Since neither of us said anything about it…"
"Alright, come on." Fujin said, ushering her two friends towards the Obelisk dorm. "We''ve got a wedding to plan."
"Fujin!" Both Alexis and Yuki squeaked out in protest.