Chapter 5; the duel cup begins
Sonic was making a final check in his deck. Everything was set. Today the duel cup would begin. Full of excitement he rode his duel runner after taking a quick breakfast and headed for the duel dome. He reached there and asked where he had to park his runner in case he had to have a turbo duel with an opponent. He parked it in the special garage for the participants and headed for the dueling field. His friends were all there.
"You're late" Amy teased him with a smile.
"I had to find where to park my runner. So is our competition here?"
"The girls are here. I heard one of the two boys is at the cafeteria right now. So only one is missing."
"Would he happen to be the one entering right now?" Jet asked.
Sonic turned around and saw a black hedgehog entering the arena with a black duel disk in his left arm and an frozen face. He noticed Sonic looking at him and approached.
"My, my would you happen to be the duelist who defeated lucky joe yesterday? Sonic the hedgehog?" he asked with a smile and at the same time having something like an angry look of excitement.
"Guilty as charged." Sonic said with a same expression. " And you are Shadow the hedgehog right?"
"Precisely. We will open the tournament this year. With your defeat" he said smiling with closed eyes."
"No duel is set before it happens Shadow."
"Ok then I'll be waiting in the arena when it begins" he said and left.
Amy went close to Sonic.
"Damn. Why do you have to duel such an arrogant opponent?"
"Relax Ames. I eat guys like this for breakfast even if I already had breakfast." Sonic said closing his eye.
Soon after this the stadium seats started filling up. In half an hour the whole dome was full. Sonic was full of excitement but his hand was shaking a bit. He had never dueled in front of so many people. But he would let that stop him. Right then the announcer started announcing with the microphone. His voice echoed in the whole stadium.
"LAAAADIES AND GENTLEMEN! WELCOME ALL. WELCOME TO THIS YEAR'S DUEL CUP. I AM VERY EXCITED TO SEE HOW THIS YEAR'S TOURNAMENT WILL GO. BUUUUT…! THIS IS NOT LIKE THE OTHER YEARS. THIS YEAR ON THIS VERY STADIUM THE PARTICIPANTS WON'T ONLY RECEIVE A LEGENDARY RARE CARD BUT THEY WILL RECEIVE IT ALONG WITH A TITLE MATCH FROM THE CHAMPION OF THE WORLD. THAT'S RIGHT. THE WORLD CHAMPION IS HERE. EVERYONE GIVE HIM A HUGE WELCOME.!"
Suddenly a duel runner engine roar was heard. Sonic barely saw the champion running around the arena on the runner course raising his hand as a sign of victory. He stopped before entering the garage again and dismounted his runner. Using a microphone he said;
"Let the duel cup BEGIN!"
The dome was under an earthquake from the outrage of excitement from the crowd.
"AND NOW! WITHOUT FURTHER ADO LET'S BEGIN OUR FIRST DUEL! THE FIRST PARTICIPANT. KNOWN AS THE SHOTGUN. ONE TURN IS ALL HE NEEDS TO WIN. EVERYONE RAISE YOUR HANDS FOR SHADOW THE HEDGEHOG!"
More excitement from the crowd.
"AND HIS OPPONENT. I NEVER THOUGHT I WOULD SEE THIS DUELIST MYSELF. THE CONTINUOUS VICTOR FOR OVER 2 YEARS IN GREEK LEAGUES EVERYONE GET UP AND CALL HIS NAME!"
Every last one of the watchers stood up and shouted "SONIC THE HEDGEHOG!"
"AND THERE THEY ARE. ENTERING THE ARENA!"
Sonic stood in front of Shadow.
"Let's do this, Shotgun."
"Huh. Can you survive the bullet I'll throw you?"
"Oh you bet I can."
"Let's do this then."
They shuffled and cut each other's deck and went to their positions on their field.
"LET'S DUEL!"
"I'll start ." Sonic said. " Alright. Come out shura! Next I'll place one card face down and end my turn. Come at me Shadow."
"Consider me already there. My turn. Draw. Ok you're as good as dead my hand is what I need to kill you in a turn. But I am feeling generous today so I'll give you a chance. I set a monster. Then 2 cards face down. Make your move."
"Alright I draw. I summon forth elphin the raven Now your monster switches battle modes."
"I knew you would do that. I discard effect veiler to negate your monster's effect."
"Impressive" Sonic thought "he read a strategy noone of my my friends has countered before."
"Still Shadow I'm far from done. Shura attack his set monster."
Shura destroyed it.
"Thanks cause when my reborn tengu leaves the field a new one comes to take his place."
"When shura destroys your monster he invites a new blackwing to the party. Say hello to breeze the zephyr. Now elphin will destroy your last tengu."
"Nope I play the trap Zero generator. In exchange for all my monsters attack points it is indestructible."
"Maybe but since it's in attack mode you will take damage."
"I know but before the battle, I activate the trap card of last will. Because my monster's attack became 0 I draw until I have 5 cards in my hand."
"The battle continues."
Elphin and breeze attacked tengu.
"AAh" (Shadow LP 4700)
"Before I end my turn I will set one card and tune my level 3 breeze with my level 4 shura to synchro summon Blackwing Armor Master. Now I end my turn."
"Is that all? Pathetic. Here I go. Draw. I summon the level 3 tuner monster genex ally birdman. And I tune it with tengu to synchro summon the one, the only, the POWER TOOL DRAGON!
"Say what? This is an ultra rare card."
"Indeed. But your black-Winged dragon is even more rare."
"What? No way. His effect isn't that broken so why would it be so much rare?"
"I'll tell you why. Your deck's main theme was to defeat any opponent in some way depending on your playstyle. But it turned out it could almost never defeat burn deck with effect damage. So the creator of the blackwings had the idea to create a blackwing king dragon to work as a shield against effect damage. But that would make the blackwings practically almost invincible. So it was only printed ONCE and released to the public."
"WHAT? ONCE?!" Sonic said in shock
"That's right once only. My deck is Power tool dragon who is able to search my deck for equip spells to power up. But there was never produced a card for countering effect damage. So.. wanna bet?"
"Bet?"
"I possess 2 power tool dragons. If you win I will give you one. If I win tohugh I get your black-winged. Deal?"
"So basically.. you want the ante rule to take effect in this duel?"
"Yes."
"Hmmm. DEAL"
The crowd started raging when they heard Sonic's answer. But he ignored them.
"Make your move Shadow."
"As you wish. I activate my dragon's effect. I pick 3 equip cards from my deck." He showed them to Sonic and then held them face down. "Choose one."
"The middle one."
"The others return to the deck. Now I equip my dragon with 4 spells. 3 mage power and power tool c and d."
"Uh oh that's very bad."
"Bad is an understatement for this situation. My dragon gains 500 hundred attack points for every spell and trap on my field and I set one card face down as well. My spell and trap zones are Full so he gains 2500 for every mage power and 1000 on my turn for power tool for a grand total of 10800 attack points. "
" That means If it kills my elphin I lose!"
"Exactly Sonic. This iswhy I m called the shotgun. And to make sure you won't counter me I activate before I enter my battle phase my anti magic arrows."
"Another ultra rare card?"
"Now you can't activate any spell or trap at this battle phase. Also you can't use a counter effect on my arrows. Power tool end this!"
Power tool dragon attacked elpin and an explosion occurred. The battlefield was covered with smoke so nobody could see what happened.
"Sonic!" Amy shouted "Are you ok?"
Shadow appeared when the cloud of smoke started disappearing.
"And another kill for the shotgun." He said smiling. But then.. "Huh?"
Sonic appeared as well smiling holding in his left hand his hand cards and on the right hand one of those cards. His life points were intact.
"But how? I won." Shadow said surprised.
"I'm not so sure. This little guy saved my life." He said and flipped the card in his right hand and showed kuriboh.
"Damn that fushball. I was almost there."
"He takes the hit for elphin and my life points."
"Hm. I end my turn."
"Shadow. Can I ask you something?"
"Fire away."
"Why would a duelist of your caliber need to play with the ante rule? You're amazingly strong. So why do you need my dragon?"
"What kind of a question is this? Because of its rarity"
"No there is another reason. You're not dueling for fun. I can see that."
"I need it cause… well I won a duel against a rival of mine and he had a burn deck. He went into rage and said I cheated. I won fairly. Then he had his deck taken by his parents because this happened in a public place for a year. But now he wants a rematch. Unless I take your black-winged dragon I'll lose. And it is not that I am afraid of losing I have lost before. But I just don't want to lose to him."
"Shadow you don't need my dragon."
"I do."
"Then I will prove it to you. But now we have a duel on the line. And it's time to end it. My turn. Draw. I activate my set card the call of the haunted. Now I resurrect my elphin. Then my other set will emerge. Dark core. I discard a card to banish your dragon."
"WHAT?!"
"Next I tribute my armor master to summon synchro doppelganger."
"What kind of a move is that. Armor Master is better."
"Watch and learn. The card I discarded for dark core was vayu the emblem of honor. By removing this and my armor master from my graveyard they become materials for a synchro summon. The monster summoned will have its effects negated. Then I chain with my doppelganger's effect. I tribute it to special summon 2 synchro monsters of the same level from my deck by destroying the one I would synchro summon. So I destroy it and balckwing silverwind the ascendant to summon red dragon archfiend and black-winged dragon!"
The crowd went crazy when black-winged appeared.
"So this is the fear of facing this beast." Shadow said in awe.
"Alright my dragons. End this!"
"I can't allow that. Go Mirror Force."
"Predictable. I chain with starlight road which negates the effect of a card that would destroy more than one cards on my field and summon stardust dragon to my field. Now all 3 will attack!"
"NOOOOOOOOO" (Shadow LP 0)
"Damn. I'm done" he said looking down with a face full of disappointment. Sonic approached him
"What? Oh yeah the ante rule."
He was about to give Sonic his Power tool.
"No Shadow I don't want it. I want you to get up and come with me. I have a way to help you with your deck to fight your rival."
"What way?"
"Trust me he will go home crying and raging again."
"I will trust you"
Right then the announcer shouted.
"THERE IT IS EVERYONE THE FIRST DUEL IS OVEER! THE WINNER IS SONIC THE HEDGEHOG!"
Sonic and Shadow headed back to where Sonic's gang was sitting.
"Great job Sonic" Amy said hugging him.
"Awesome duel both of you." Knuckles and Jet said.
"Thanks guy. Knuckles get up. It's your turn now."
"I know wish me luck guys."
"Break a leg" They all said together. Then they sat and waited for Knuckles' duel
