The Duel Masters Tournament

Light poured across the eastern sky, and over the sleeping city of Domino. It soon reached the Palace of The Fortunate, and it sparkled on the glass, and shined into the rooms.

Aaron's glasses were the first thing to get hit by the light, and lit up the room in the direction of his bed. His crest started to tingle and Aaron lifted his eyelids, "Yawn! ...Is it morning already?" He wondered. He climbed out of bed and looked out to the lit city, "Let's get this tournament on the road." He said, putting on his glasses, which now were shades.

Light simmered across into another room and, and glittered up Jess' shiny blonde hair, her crest on her hand began to glow. She moaned in her last moments of sleep as she lifted her head off its soft pillow. She wore not much more than a large shirt to bed, and see rubbed her eyes. "That was a good night sleep, I think I need a nice swim to start the day off." She said, stepping into the bathroom, and casting her shirt on the bed.

And last but not least, Dan had fallen asleep by his windowsill with his hat covering his brow, but his crest tried to wake him up as well. "Mm.Five more minutes." He mumbled. Just then, the crest burst with bright light, and more importantly pain! "OW!" He shouted, and his attempt to get up caused him to fall out the window!

He flipped and snatched the ledge, "This is not the way I enjoy waking up in the morning." He said, as he dangled high above the street.

Just then, the ledge began to give way, "I knew I shouldn't have had that donut last night." He grumbled.

"Need a hand? Or you enjoy hanging on the outside?" A voice asked.

Dan looked and saw Gearfried dangling from a chain, "Well?" He asked.

"Just admiring the view." Dan said, as he threw himself at Gearfried and grabbed on. Gearfried started to pull up the chain.

"Top floor, Shoes, Appliances, Clothes, and Penthouse." He said, stopping at Dan's window.

"Thanks for the lift," Dan said, climbing off, but turned his head, "Don't tell the Fox."

"Not a word." Gearfried said, as he shot up back to his room.

About ten minutes later Dan and Aaron headed down to the Pool. Aaron was dressed to swim in red Speedos, and wore a black shirt with his sneakers, but kept a small paperback in his right hand. Dan wore his hat, and wore a pair of orange trunks, no shirt and a pair of sandals. The pool was already busy with the other duelists, splashing and running around.

Aaron took a chair that bordered the poolside and plopped himself down and started to read.

Dan on the other hand, threw down his hat on a table along with his towel and sandals, and readied to jump into the pool, "You not going in?" He asked.

"I came down here to relax before we have to go pay Maciejko a visit." Aaron said, not lifting his head.

"Ok, just don't complain if you get wet." Dan said, couching.

Aaron looked over his shades, "Tidal wave countdown in 5." He whispered.

"4."

Dan jumped, "3."

He reached the apex, "2."

He began falling, "1."

He made contact, "Zero."

A giant cannonball shot water five feet high in a circular funnel, and spread out across the pool towards Aaron.

"Oh no." Aaron said in a sarcastic tone as the water was practically on top of him. His crest lit up, and an invisible shield blocked the wave.

"Defense has its perks." He said, continuing to read his book. But something caught his eye, a beautiful blonde climbed out of the pool and head towards him.

"Whoa." Is all he could say as he saw that it was Jess, wearing a very revealing black bikini. Water clung to her stunning figure but it made her look as though she were shining.

"What? You afraid of swimming?" She asked, although he continued to remain speechless.

Dan climbed out of the pool and walked up to her, "He just doesn't like getting wet." He said, moving his glance towards the pool, then to Aaron.

Jess caught the drift and they turned their attention to Aaron. Aaron remained completely clueless, as two pairs of wet hands grabbed a hold onto him.

"Well that's not goooood!!!!" He shouted as he was flung from his chair and flying into the pool with a definitive SPLASH!!!

He swam to the surface, and spout "Cooollldddd."

The other Senvas were laughing as their friend shivered in the cold water. He swam back to the edge of the pool and pulled himself up over, "That.waasss. not.funnnniee." He managed to spit out.

"You call that cold? Man you really need to get out." Dan said.

"Easy.fffoorr .you. you. to say..ay." He continued, knowing full well, Dan was invulnerable to cold, and for that matter heat.

"Well you needed a nice wakeup call, now come on we have to get ready for the tournament." She said, helping the still frozen Aaron up. Aaron's colorless face started to turn red as Jess held him close. Dan gave a sigh, he wanted to spend the day there, but he picked up his stuff and followed the two out into the hall.

They all joined up on the bus, as it headed for the Mirage tower, the hosting body of the tournament. Aaron watched the building as it came into view, over 12 miles away. It was easily bigger than Kiaba corp, and any other structure in the city. It was so tall, it extended into the sky, and it looked like the Chrysler Building, but instead of a sharp point at the top, it appeared to have a huge observation deck.

"Oh man, take a look at that thing. It's huge!" Dan exclaimed.

"Equal to your appetite Dan. And then some." Aaron said, still taking in the sight.

"It's easily the largest structure this side of the world, extending over three miles off the ground." Jess said, not giving it the simplest of glances.

Dan was a little surprised, "How'd you know so much about it?" He asked.

Jess answered, "My father, He was a stock analyst; he was connected to just about every business on the East as well as the West. He discovered me when that place was under construction, and he pointed it out to me as we took off for America and told me all about it."

"But you said u were 5 when you were adopted. You can remember that far back?" Aaron asked.

"We Kitsune start off as Fox demons, then discover our transformation abilities at 10 in our years, so I was the equivalent of 15 in your years." She said.

"So how old are you?" Aaron asked.

"As a human I'm 17, but as a Kitsune I'm 27. They are roughly the same age in comparison." She said.

Aaron was still trying to take it all in, but he decided to drop it and focus on his relaxation exercises.

"What's with him?" Jess asked, with attitude, apparently she was sensitive when it came to her age.

"He's just practicing the relaxing methods; you didn't have to learn them. But you didn't have to go train with sensei like we did." Dan said.

"That's because I taught myself." Jess said.

Dan raised his eyebrow, "And how did you manage that?" He asked.

"Back in my Pride, I was taught the ancient history of the world we live in. I learned to play Duel Monsters from studying the Shadow games that were played in Egypt 5,000 years ago."

"So I guess when we face each other in the dueling ring I'll be expecting a challenge." Dan said.

"You'll get one, Just don't disqualified until then." Jess said, starting to lighten up.

"Deal." Dan said, sticking out his huge hand, and they shook, and another hand landed on theirs.

"Let's do this." Aaron said, giving them a grin.

"LET'S DUEL!"

The buses finally came to a halt outside the colossal tower. The duelists all disembarked from the buses and awaiting them was Louisa Matador from the airport.

"Welcome Duelists, please wait. Your host is about to arrive." She said.

Everyone looked at the front doors, expecting Jargon to come out, but he didn't appear.

"So where is he?" Jess asked.

"I don't know. How bout you Dan?" Aaron asked.

"Up there." Dan said, looking up at the top of the tower. The other Senvas looked up and saw what he was looking at. A person was plummeting down from the tower!

"Is he trying to kill himself?" Jess shouted.

"Use those eyes of yours, I bet that fox can see what he's planning." Dan said.

Jess's eyes began to change appearance into a bright gold, her vision tuned up and see focused in on Jargon, he was dressed in Tuxedo, complete with cane, and a bag strapped to him.

"He's got a parachute." She said, as her eyes fixed back to normal, just as he opened it and drifted it down to the platform in front of the tower. He wasn't very elderly, he was in his early forties, his hair was black with tiger stripes of white. He stood with a calm expression on his face, his dark eyes were full of excitement.

"He's got one heck of a poker face." Dan said.

"Nah, I bet he's a push over." Jess said, resuming her confidence mode. But Aaron remained quiet, waiting for the strange man to say what he had to.

"Welcome Duelists, within these walls you will face the greatest challenge u have ever experienced. The duels held in here will be held in a virtual world!" Jargon called out to the crowd.

The duelists cheered, except for the Senvas, each had heard from one source or another about Seto Kiaba's Virtual Reality game and how both his Step father and his business partners tried to trap him and Yugi Moto inside.

"Now I shall explain the new rules. First is the new option we've added, know as the Deck Master. Each player will select a Duel monster to serve as the Deck Master, This monster stands beside you during the duel until you summon it to the field. Each has there own abilities that can be used during the duel, but remember this rule. If the Deck Master is destroyed, the duelist loses the duel." Jargon explained.

Next Louisa held up a remote control and a pressed a button. A giant screen extended behind her, and it turned on. "Now this is another new option when dueling. The Duel Master." She said. All of a sudden two images of kids appeared on the screen.

"In the virtual world a new option is available, you can transform into a duel monster and Duel the old fashioned way." She said.

One of the kids was a young boy who called out, "I choose Hayabusa Knight as my Duel Master." He placed the card in a slot on the back of his duel disk, His body was engulfed in light, and emerged as the Flacon warrior monster.

The other was a girl who raised her card up to the sky, "I choose Dunames Dark Witch." She said as she loaded her card. And in an instant, she became the Fairy monster.

Just then, a Skull Guardian appeared on the side of them. "Before a Duel Master's bout a referee will appear to judge the battle. They will cancel a duel if a player is cheating, and award the winner the points they need."

The Guardian spoke, "This is an official Duel Masters match. The rules are simple, the first to defeat the other master by process of combat wins, the loser must then Forfeit a selected card for keeps to the winner and then be ejected from the tournament. Are we in agreement?" He asked.

"YEAH!" They agreed.

"DUELISTS FIGHT!" The Guardian called out as he swung his sword down.

And the match was on, The witch attacked with blasts of dark energy, but the Knight shot out of the way. "In this kind of duel, it's not the monster with the highest attack who wins, it's the one with the better fighter." Louisa said.

The Knight lunged in for the attack, with its sword, but then a ring of red grenades appeared around its neck and exploded! "In this format, you can use a set limit of five options; these are cards from your deck that you can use in battle. Monster, Magic, and Trap are all allowed, some can mean the difference between victory and defeat, observe." She said, as The Knight reappeared on the field, with a card picturing a purple fog emerging from a graveyard.

"A Call of the Haunted Trap card." Jess said.

"Nice move." Aaron said.

"The Call of the Haunted trap revived the Duel Master, and now he can continue in the duel, out a monster revival card, he would have been declared the loser." Louisa said.

The Knight lunged again after the fairy, she tried to activate her Ring of Destruction again, but it wouldn't appear.

"Option cards take time to recharge, such as her ring. The stronger the card, the less times you get to use it."

The fairy dodged last minute as the knight tried to slay her. They both flew into the sky as they continued to duel.

"She's stalling for time so her ring will charge up." Dan said.

"She won't be able to, the Knight is too fast." Aaron said.

"It is about to reach the climax." Jess said.

As the Knight closed in, the Fairy took off. Just then, the ref's eyes flashed. It shot at incredible speed and sliced the fairy in half, and she blew up into digital bits. The crowd was shocked.

"The referees are programmed to enforce the rules, no leaving the designated dueling sight, no doubles of certain options, and no attacking the referee. Break any of the following and u will lose and forfeit your place in the tournament." She said.
"And finally, the main point behind the virtual world, you will be dueling in a Role play game. Each of you will be assigned a different task to perform in the world of Sloano, you must defeat 5 sanctioned duelists and complete the role required of you in order to compete in the Finals. Now that all of that is explained, all of you who have the courage to duel meet back here in one hour." Jargon said, as both he and Louisa left for the inside.

"Anyone feeling we should back out?" Aaron asked.

"Not me, I live for this kind of thing." Jess said.

"Me neither, Alice told us our assignment was to face whatever evil is in there. And I don't know about you, but the Senva of Offense is going in." Dan said.

"I agree, we may even discover if the Senva of Justice is in the tournament. So I'm going all the way." Aaron said.

"You won't even make it past the front door." Said annoying voice, coming from behind. The Senva's turned to see a girl with ghastly white hair, a bright green jacket, brown shorts, boots, a spider shaped hair clip, and a pair of horn rimed glasses over her purple bug eyes.

"Look Aaron, it's your girlfriend." Dan laughed, but then winced as Dan was elbowed by Jess, "Who are you?" She demanded.

"My Antsy, I'm a member of the Daikai. We are the are the 4 generals who guide our army of Stalkers to steal cards and Duel Monsters to attack you." She said.

"What do you want with us?" Aaron asked.

"Meet me in ten minutes. If you don't, you'll have to watch as my pets have some lunch with the crowd." She said, holding up a Man Eater Bug.

The Senvas tensed up, a Man Eater bug was huge in the real world, it would kill everyone in the crowd.

"I see we've come to an understanding, see you over there." She said, pointing to the roof of a nearby building, and then she disappeared into the crowd.

"This has trap written all over it." Dan said.

"But what choice do we have? Dan, wait here and watch out for any bugs." Aaron said.

"We'll handle the Bug herself." Jess said.

"Alright, and be careful." Dan said, As the two headed towards the building.

Ten minutes later, Antsy appeared on the roof.

"I expected all of you here." She squeaked.

"We had no grantee you'd be here." Jess said.

"Smart girl, but not smart enough!" She screeched. Just then, there was a lot of buzzing. The 2 looked to see they were surrounded; Needle Worms and Man Eaters began to chew from the next floor upwards. And in the sky, a pair of Perfectly Ultimate Great Moths descended from the clouds.

"I think we're in trouble." Aaron said.

"Oh really?" Jess spat.

"Hope you can grow wings, or were in trouble." Aaron said, as he took out Gearfried.

"Actually, yes." She said, taking a card from her deck.

"It doesn't matter what u become, you're all bug food!" Antsy said, as she took off riding an Insect soldier of the sky.

Aaron's body quickly changed into the familiar Gearfried, but Jess had changed into a form of monster that was female. She had black skin, short blond hair, wore a pink dress and had black wings.
"I'm Marie, the Fallen One."

To be continued.

Next time: The Senvas challenge Antsy's bug army both on ground and in the air. However, The deadline is running close and the tournament about to begin. Can Jess' Marie stand against the deadly assault of the Great moths or will she fall to her doom from 3 miles up?

Next time at The Duel Masters Tournament,

Marie's Plummet to Victory or Defeat.