Disclaimer: No I do not own Yugioh.
Chapter 30: Downtime before the semi-finals
Each of the teams had their lunches in their room...
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Team Topdeck all had met in Deondre's room. Deondre himself was lying on his bed, snoring contently. Over on the desk was CJ, who was yelling at the fates for not letting him get a try in the tournament yet. Amy was tending to Deondre's wounds that he had sustained during the game against Gangrel.
Rebecca though was looking out of the window of the room. The sun shone down on the island and made her remember each of the crazy things that had happened here so far. So much had happened that had changed a lot of the things she thought about both dueling and life. ("My first duel in the tournament against Team Makai....")
CJ pointed at the weakened Emperor. "Go Nexus the Conqueror! Attack with Excalibur Holy Wave!" The gladiator leaped into the air so far that he was staring the Emperor into the eye at the apex of his leap. He slammed his sword down into its skull and a golden wave of power ran down the immense monster's body, instantly splitting it in half. The backlash damage sent both Brujah and Caine flying out of the ring.
She smiled a little at the memory. She had been glad to show those jerks who were the best duelists. Of course not to say that the others didn't do their parts too. Every duelist on Team Topdeck had put forth top notch effort to get them here. Deondre had to face that nut-case Clarice to get them enough points to move onto the next area of the tournament.
Deondre sighed and waved his finger back and forth in the air. "Tsk tsk, watch this. I'll now activate the effect of my Dimensional Armor. Attack to the Dark Magician!" The blue crystal armor latched onto the machine and there was a flash of brilliant blue light. As it cleared a much taller magician wearing the Dimensional armor appeared and bowed to Deondre. "Allow me to introduce my ultimate spellcaster, the triple D himself!" He did his own bow to his small audience. "I present to you the Different Dimension Dark Magician (2700/2700) in attack mode."
Then of course there had been those crazy Emissaries who had challenged them to a two on two duel in the graveyard area. That was where she had learned about the spirit of Rikuo, who had been living inside her brother's body.
Rikuo and CJ nodded together as her face-down card exploded. "Because it isn't necessary. You'll be finished right now." He slid the card he was holding in his hand into his duel disk. "I play the equipment magic card Divided We Fall! When this is equipped to a monster that has United We Stand on it the monster gains 4000 attack points, the ability to deal damage through defense, and to add insult to injury the power to attack twice." The Wolf Demon Lord roared, the very graveyard around them shuddering with the force of its attack power. (16400/1800)
"And now Wolf Demon Lord, show the emissaries that I can win even when my partner is an Ape." He ducked a punch aimed for his head as the samurai demon launched in and in two cuts Spirit's face-down monster was destroyed and her life points gone.
Thinking about the graveyard though brought her memory back to the movie that Giovan had shown them. He had arrived at the graveyard and had killed his own Emissaries as punishment for not defeating Rikuo and CJ. Then Rikuo had told them all to go on without him, and that he would join them as soon as he defeated Giovan in a duel. When they had arrived to a dinner in the castle, Giovan had decided to show all of the assembled duelists just what had happened in his duel with Rikuo.
"Now Jinzo, Cyber Shock attack!" The green armored monster built up a dark ball of energy in between its cupped hands, and then when the ball was properly formed, he hurled it across the field.
Giovan started laughing as the ball headed towards him. "It's been a good game boy, but now that your hopes are so high, it's time to bring them crashing down. I reveal the magic card Dark Wall of Air, protecting me from all direct damage this turn." A wall of black air appeared and blocked Jinzo's attack.
As the darkness ball faded, Daniel stared in mute horror. He collapsed to his knees. ("Just like that...I've lost.") His turn ended and all of his machine monsters exploded, leaving him with only the Wolf Demon Lord on his field.
Giovan drew and without even looking at his card ended his turn.
Daniel had no cards left in his deck. Since he couldn't draw a card he lost the duel. He was so numb with shock that he didn't even hear Garlin's approach. All he could feel was the sadness at having failed, and the understanding that he would never see his friends or family again. ("I won't let myself die honor-less though.") He knew that Rikuo must have been rubbing off on him more then the demon would let on. If this had been a week ago he would have run away screaming in fear, like Spirit had done.
Yet he only felt regret...
Giovan stood in front of him, the ex-demon king sneering down at his fallen adversary. "Are you ready to accept your punishment boy?"
Daniel lifted his head up, chin held high. He knew that tears were streaking his face, but it didn't matter. "I'm ready to face my death."
Giovan raised an eyebrow in surprise. He had expected the boy to plead with him, or maybe call upon Rikuo for help. He hadn't expected actually be facing the boy when he inflicted out his punishment. "As you wish." His open-palmed hand came in line with Daniel's forehead. "Your life is at its end."
Daniel felt the energy gathering around Giovan's palm and he closed his eyes, praying that it would be a swift and merciful end. ("I'm sorry CJ....Deondre....you two are going to have to pick up where I left off and win the tournament. I'm sorry Amy, for not getting to know you better. Rebecca...I'm sorry....forgive me....") Then all he felt was flame and death as his body was ripped apart.
Rebecca could feel the tears streaming down her face as she recalled watching her brother burn alive. Her fists clenched tighter and tighter to the fabric of her pants. ("Giovan Garlin...you will pay.")
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Meanwhile in Team Domino's room...
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Yugi sat in his chair, staring at the card he had won from Apollo during the quarter-finals. ("Myth Speaker's special ability allows me to forfeit drawing a card to special summon any monster card from my deck to the field. This is an excellent way to get the Egyptian God Cards on the field.") He slid the card into his deck and removed one of his other monster cards.
Kaiba was sitting at the table in the room and working on his laptop, hoping desperately that his informants had found something out about what kind of deck Giovan Garlin uses. Unfortunately though he was disappointed as his mail box was empty. ("Nothing at all.")
Joey looked out the window and then looked over at Yugi. "Hey Yug?"
Yugi looked up from the desk. "What's up Joey?"
Joey looked out the window and sighed tiredly. "Why is it that whenever the three of us enter a tournament something crazy and supernatural happens?"
Yugi smiled and shrugged. "I bet that Murphy's Law has something to do with it."
Kaiba snorted derisively from his spot at the table.
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Meanwhile in Team Blitz's room...
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Siegfried looked out the window and frowned. ("This is getting out of control. How could someone as powerful as Giovan Garlin be so evil? He killed that girl's older brother, and the worst part of it was that he seemed happy that it had happened.")
Devan was laying against the bed, yawning. "What's on your mind Sieg?"
Siegfried looked over at his teammate. "What are we going to do about Giovan?"
Devan shrugged. "If I have my say we kick his ass from here to every other end of The Asylum."
Siegfried rolled his eyes and looked back out the window. "Somehow your answer doesn't surprise me."
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Giovan Garlin looked at the three teams in their rooms from his chair in his office. "I love reality television," he said to himself.
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An hour later an alarm went off inside each of the rooms, signaling the beginning of the semi-finals. Everyone trooped out of their rooms and went down to the arena area.
Giovan was waiting for them. He had already gotten back into his seat and chuckled as each of them walked in. "Welcome back everyone! I hope all of you enjoyed your temporary rests?" When the only replies he got were death glares from the collective members of the three teams, he sighed and rested his head on one of his palms. "Jeeze you people are a let-down."
To be continued...
Next Chapter: CJ vs. Cyclone
Author's notes: I know this was a really short chapter, but think of this kinda like a mix of a revenge-of-the-stock-footage episode and a short intermission between the end of the quarter-finals and the beginning of the semi-finals. Get ready for some intense dueling in the next chapter though.