Disclaimer: No I do not own Yugioh
Chapter 41: The Finals Begin
Deondre scratched the back of his head tiredly as the alarm clock in his room went off. He had hit the snooze button at least five times already. This time he just threw the device out of the window, his logic being that Giovan was rich enough to get a new one. He slid out of bed and went to get dressed. He needed to go and get Rebecca. They had to discuss their game plan for today in the finals.
After he had finished getting showered and dressed, he walked the short distance to Rebecca's room and knocked on the door. "Hey Rebecca! Open up!"
The door clicked open and Daniel grinned at Deondre. "Hey there buddy."
Deondre stared at his supposedly dead friend for a few seconds, and then promptly passed out.
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Daniel sighed as he went over the huge stacks of cards on the desk in front of him. ("Tell me why we are doing this again Rikuo?")
("Because your original deck couldn't beat Sestros. This time we will make a deck that I can be proud to run.")
Daniel rolled his eyes and placed another card from the piles into the messy stack that sat in front of him. ("Why don't you make it then?")
("I don't think that your friends quite like me.")
Daniel looked over at Deondre and CJ, who were both going through each others cards to see if there was anything they needed for their decks. ("That's true. They didn't react very well to seeing me back from the dead. I don't think they'd feel very comfy in the same room as you. You are a demon after all.")
("Less talking, more building.")
Daniel sighed and got back to work.
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At about noon the two teams met in the dueling arena.
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Team Domino was the first to arrive. Yugi, as always, was wearing his normal leather clothing, belts and all. He was never one to dress up for an occasion anyways.
Kaiba was wearing his white overcoat that he had used during the Battle City tournament. While he didn't believe in magic and the like, it was never a bad idea to wear a good luck charm. Other than that he looked the same as he always tended to.
Joey had put on a pair of blue jeans and a dark blue jeans jacket. He had his blond hair styled as it always was, though he was taking advantage of Giovan's accommodations with his new pair of tennis shoes that he had found in the closet of his room.
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Team Topdeck arrived shortly after them. Daniel, as per his deal with his sister, was still a billboard for her fashion design. He still wore the black and silver leather bodysuit with black leather jacket that she had made for him. Rebecca had made one little adjustment though. On the back of the jacket she had embroidered the design of a howling wolf in silver upon the black surface. While Daniel felt indifferent about it, Rikuo threatened to kill him if he didn't wear that jacket while he dueled.
Deondre was wearing his customary jersey, though he had made a slight adaptation to the design. He had added a pair of black ray ban sunglasses and he had replaced his do rag with a silver and black cap, saying that if Daniel had to wear so much of the two colors, that they may as well make it the team's new colors.
CJ was wearing a black and silver jersey with his normal black cap. Like Yugi, he really didn't like to dress for any special occasion.
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Up on the balcony Giovan watched the two teams with real interest sparkling in his eyes. ("This is where the dueling becomes what it was meant to be. This is where we see who is the best of the best in the world of Duel Monsters.") He took a deep breath and then began.
"Welcome duelists to the finals of the Shadow Corporation Tournament. Each of you have proven that you are the best in the world when it comes to dueling, but now it is time to narrow you down even more. We will be using the COC system to determine who will duel who in the finals, and I want each of you to give your very best. After all," he motioned to the cameras set up all around the dueling ring. "This is being televised to the world. Now let's get started."
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Daniel and Yugi stepped forward, each of them holding a COC in their palms. They exchanged smiles, knowing that despite which one of them won this tournament, they would both still work together to take down Giovan. The moment of smiling passed quickly, and the two threw their COCs to the ground, watching the cubes bounce about and finally come to a stop.
Yugi's landed on a six.
Daniel's landed on a six.
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Giovan looked at the numbers and nodded. "The first round will be CJ Anderson vs. Joey Wheeler! Duelists, take your places!"
Joey and CJ exchanged smiles this time. They had hoped it would come down to the two of them. Almost in unison they climbed into the dueling ring and their duel disks clicked into place.
Giovan's voice was like the starting gun to a race. "Let the finals begin! Duel!"
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Rebecca and Amy sat in Rebecca's room, watching the duel on the television.
Amy bit her nails in nervousness. "He has to win this duel..."
Rebecca nodded solemnly. "He will. He will."
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Joey drew his five cards and then his sixth. "Get ready CJ, because I'm not going to go easy on you."
CJ drew his five cards as well. "I'm not expecting you to Joey. Give me your all, or else my victory over you won't feel right."
Joey snickered and slid two cards into his duel disk. "A wise guy huh? Alright then, I summon Alligator's Sword (1500/1200) in attack mode!" A green-scaled warrior appeared on Joey's field and snapped its sword up, ready to fight. "End turn."
CJ drew and slapped down his own monster. "I summon Berserk Gorilla (2000/1000) in attack mode." A fire-breathing ape appeared on CJ's field and roared. Without even waiting for CJ to tell it to, it charged across the field, fists outstretched to destroy Joey's monster.
Joey flipped up his face-down card. "I activate the trap card Kunai with Chain!" A metallic boomerang attached to a length of chain appeared on the field. Joey's Alligator Sword grasped the weapon and threw it across the field, the boomerang spinning around the Berserk Gorilla, ensnaring it with the length of chain. The fuming Gorilla screeched in pain and exploded. "This trap just equipped to my Alligator's sword. As long as it is equipped my monster had 500 extra attack points. That's not all though. Kunai with Chain puts one of your monsters to defense mode too." (2000/1200)
CJ frowned. "That explains why my Gorilla exploded. When it is switched to defense mode it is destroyed immediately." He knew that normally he would already be angry, but this duel was different than the other duels in the past. This was one where he didn't feel any pressure to win. There was no tournament to him at the moment. This was nothing more than a casual duel between him and a new friend. "I set two cards face-down and end my turn."
Joey drew and pointed at CJ. "Alligator's Sword! Attack his life points directly!" The scaled warrior shot across the field, only to explode halfway there.
CJ held up his face-down card. "You attacked my Sakuretsu Armor. When I trigger it your monster is destroyed."
Joey nodded and slid a card into his duel disk. "I guess I'd better set this card face-down then. Plus I'll summon Little Winguard (1400/1800) in defense mode. End turn."
CJ drew and slapped down a new monster. "I summon Mad Dog of Darkness (1900/1400) in attack mode!" A demonic dog appeared on his field and howled. "Attack his Little Winguard now!"
Joey flipped his second face-down card. "Sorry but I can't let that attack get through! I activate the trap card Bottomless Trap Hole! This will drop your monster out of the game!"
The Mad Dog was yanked down into a grey pit, its final howl echoing across the field.
CJ fanned out his remaining cards and pulled one of the middle ones free. "I set this face-down and end my turn."
Joey drew and a soft smile played across his face. "I hope you are ready to lose CJ, because I just pulled a monster you probably have a lot of experience with. I sacrifice my Little Winguard to summon Jinzo (2400/1500) in attack mode!" The armored form of Jinzo appeared on field. Its red eye lenses shimmered and CJ's face-down cards were slapped to the floor. "As long as Jinzo is on the field neither of us can play any trap cards. I have him in play though, so I don't need traps to defend me. You on the other hand..." He left the rest of the sentence out, knowing that CJ already understood the situation he was in.
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Daniel frowned and crossed his arms across his chest. ("That's right; Joey does have a Jinzo doesn't he? That might be a problem for CJ. His deck's main defense is trap cards.")
("At least you have a connection with your Jinzo though. Wheeler's monster holds only the slightest connections to his spirit.")
("You can sense the connections between people and things?")
("No, I'm just lying to you.") The tone Rikuo used was so dead-pan that if there was any sarcasm in it, Daniel couldn't detect it.
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Joey pointed at CJ. "Jinzo attack his life points directly!" The monster charged up a ball of dark energy between its palms and fired it at the dark-skinned duelist. The ball struck CJ in the chest and he was thrown to his back. Luckily the pain simulators were on normal settings, because Giovan would have found it hard to explain to a worldwide audience why people were dying in his tournament.
CJ- 5600
Joey- 8000
CJ came back to his feet still smiling. "Alright, this should make things interesting shouldn't it?"
Joey smiled back just as widely. "You know it. End turn."
CJ drew and slid a card from his hand into his duel disk. "I set one card face-down and end my turn."
Joey was puzzled that CJ didn't summon a monster to defend himself with, but he didn't want to argue with good fortune. ("That means I can attack his life points directly.")
He drew and slapped down a new monster. "I summon Gearfried the Iron Knight (1800/1600) in attack mode!" A black steel knight appeared on his field and lifted its sword in preparation to attack. "Now Jinzo, blast him again!" Jinzo cupped its hands together and powered up another ball of dark energy.
CJ tapped a button on his duel disk and his newest set card flipped up. "Reveal Ability Negate! This quickplay equipment magic card connects to your Jinzo and shuts down its special ability, meaning I can play my traps!" A steel clamp popped free from his card and shot across the field, clicking into place on the back of Jinzo's neck right before the metal monster unleashed its attack.
Joey paled at what this meant. ("Crap...")
CJ nodded at the look on Joey's face. "Yeah Joey, it's that bad. Activate Attack Redirect! This trap card sends your Jinzo's attack right back at your field!" The ball of energy swerved and launched back across the field, slamming into Joey's Gearfried and blowing it apart.
CJ- 5600
Joey- 7400
Joey grinned. "I havfta admit, that was a pretty clever play CJ. End turn."
CJ drew. "Thanks man. Now let's get Jinzo off the field with this magic card. I play Fissure! This will destroy the monster on your field with the lowest attack total. Since your only monster is Jinzo, that's the end of your secret weapon." A large crack formed in the earth and yanked Jinzo down into it. There was a loud crunch noise and then the crack in the ground slammed shut.
CJ tossed down his monster. "Now to even up the life point totals I summon Enraged Battle Ox (1700/1000) in attack mode!" A large Minotaur monster appeared on his field and snorted angrily. "Attack his life points directly!" The Minotaur charged and slammed its battle axe down on Joey's shoulder, bringing him to one knee.
CJ- 5600
Joey- 5700
Joey came to his feet and laughed light-heartedly. "That was a pretty good hit. I gotta admit that made my shoulder sting a bit." He knew that at the moment he was at a disadvantage, but he didn't really care. It had been a long while since he had actually had a fun duel.
CJ scratched the back of his head. "Yeah, sorry about hitting you so hard man. My turn's done, so let's see if you can turn this around."
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Giovan frowned angrily. If there was one thing he hated it was a friendly game. ("It's a shame that the rest of the board thought it best to televise the finals, or else these two would be dueling for their lives right now.") He reached underneath his chair and pulled out a magazine. To him, anything was better than watching this buddy buddy crap right now.
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Joey drew and slid his card immediately into his disk. "Perfect! I play the magic card Treasure of Fate!" In the air in front of him a white die appeared and started to roll along the ground. "Whatever number this die lands on is how many cards I draw. Then after I draw that many cards I remove that same number of cards from the top of my deck." The die landed on a five.
CJ bit his lower lip nervously as Joey drew five cards and put them into his hand, then he took off another five and slid them into his back pocket. "Wow, that's a powerful magic card Joey."
Joey nodded. "Hell yeah it is. It's a real life saver."
CJ grinned and flipped up his face-down card. "It is? Well then let's see if it can save my life in this duel. I activate the trap card Mirror Action." A white die appeared on CJ's field and began to bounce around. "Now I copy the effect of your magic card." The die landed on a five.
Joey frowned. He had never had someone actually use one of his magic cards against him like that before. "Wow...that's a powerful trap."
CJ nodded as he drew five cards into his hand and then took five cards from his deck and put them into his back pocket. "Yep. And that's not all it allows me to do. Now I may play any magic and trap cards from my hand onto the field. The best part of it is that they can be activated on this turn too. So I set three cards face-down." He folded his hand up and did a little bow to Joey. "Sorry if I broke your groove Joey. Please continue."
Joey blinked in surprise at how polite CJ was being. "Uh...sure." He slid three cards into his duel disk. "I set three cards face-down and I'll summon my Swordsman of Landstar (500/1200) in attack mode!" A little warrior appeared on his field. "Now I'll trigger the magic card Monster Reborn to revive Jinzo from the graveyard to the field." The green metal monster rose up from the ground, its red lenses glowing and forcing all of the face-down cards on the field to freeze.
CJ didn't look worried though. He just smiled and watched as Joey built up an attack force.
Joey pointed at the Enraged Battle Ox. "Jinzo attack!" The metal monster charged up its attack and in one flash of dark light CJ was wide open.
CJ- 4900
Joey- 5700
"Now attack his life points directly Swordsman of Landstar!" The little warrior flew across the field and dealt CJ a glancing blow on the shoulder with its sword.
CJ- 4400
Joey- 5700
Joey checked his hand to make sure he did not forget anything. "Looks like all of my plans are in place, so your move CJ."
CJ drew and he nodded, more to himself than to his opponent. "Alright Joey, looks like it's time to bring out the big guns. I activate the magic card Buried Alive, which sends five monsters from my deck into the graveyard." He pulled his deck out of his duel disk and one after another he slid a monster card from his deck into the graveyard slot of his disk. Then he shuffled his deck and clicked it back into his duel disk.
Joey scratched the back of his head in confusion. "Why'd you do that? Your deck looks pretty low on cards now."
CJ shrugged. "Trust me Joey this'll be over soon, one way or another. Now I remove a water, fire, wind, earth, light and dark monster from my graveyard to summon my most powerful monster!" He grabbed the card out of his hand and tossed it onto the field. "Say hello to Nexus the Conqueror!" (3500/3000) A magnificent warrior wearing gladiator's armor appeared on the field. He hefted a huge sword off of his back and bowed to Joey.
Joey whistled in amazement. "Now that's a warrior monster! How'd you get something so rare?"
CJ pointed over to Deondre. "My buddy over there got his hands on a Supreme Duelist Series pack of cards. Luckily I managed to convince him to give me one of them."
Joey crossed his arms across his chest. "Alright, so you're gonna attack my Swordsman right?"
CJ shook his head. "Nope. I'm attacking your Jinzo."
Joey frowned. "You sure about that man? You'll deal me a lot more damage if you kill my Swordsman."
CJ rolled his eyes. "Despite what my friends say I'm not dumb. You've got something face-down to make your Swordsman stronger than my Nexus. I'm attacking your Jinzo and that is final!" The gladiator nodded to his master and charged across the field, sword held high to cut the Jinzo down.
Joey tapped a button on his duel disk. "I warned you man. I reveal the quickplay magic card Call to Arms. This allows me to play any equipment magic card from my hand right now. So I play the magic card Amplifier on Jinzo, which means that now I can play my trap cards!" A steel skullcap covered with wiring appeared on Jinzo's head, and all of Joey's pinned face-down cards lifted up off the ground and hovered again.
CJ saw the problem already. He was running into a fatal trap. ("Crap...")
Joey flipped his next card. "Now I reveal the trap card Skull Dice!" An imp appeared on the field with a red die clenched between its hands. "Whatever number comes up in the roll will decide by just how much your monster's attack power will be cut down by. Go Skull Dice!" The imp dropped the die and it bounced along the ground, finally coming to a stop on a five. "That means your monster's attack power becomes 700!" CJ's Nexus the Conqueror stumbled, his power dropping rapidly.
CJ's eyes were wide as he watched Joey's Jinzo blast his Nexus into oblivion.
CJ- 2700
Joey- 5700
Joey shrugged apologetically to his friend. "Sorry, but I tried to warn you against attacking a monster like Jinzo."
CJ sighed and nodded his head. "Yeah you did...I didn't listen though." He looked his hand over and slapped a monster onto his disk in defense mode. "Don't think that this is the end though Joey. I've still got a chance to win this duel. End turn."
Joey drew and slid a card from his hand into his duel disk. "We'll see man. I activate the magic card Starpluster, which will sacrifice my Swordsman of Landstar and then roll a die." The Swordsman exploded and in its place was a glowing golden die. Joey plucked it out of the air and tossed it to the ground. "Now whatever number it lands on plus three will decide what level of monster I can summon from my hand to the field." The golden die landed on a two and Joey slapped down a monster. "Guess that means your gonna face my Flame Swordsman!" (1800/1600) A burly warrior wielding a flaming orange sword appeared.
CJ remained silent through it all. While he was no longer smiling, he didn't look angry either. He was doing his best to remain impassive throughout this entire duel if he could. It would help him in the long run.
Joey pointed at the face-down monster. "Flame Swordsman attack with Flaming Sword of Battle!" The warrior slammed his sword through CJ's monster, instantly incinerating the card.
CJ slid his monster card into the graveyard and braced himself as Joey's Jinzo blasted him directly.
CJ- 300
Joey- 5700
Joey didn't smile this time, though it was mostly because he didn't want to anger CJ. Inside though he was cheering for himself. By the time this duel would be over every duelist in the world would remember him, unlike before when he had never been recognized for his skill during the Duelist Kingdom or Battle City tournaments. "Alright CJ, take your last turn."
CJ drew and his eyes widened in surprise. He had thought that this duel was over for him. The card he had drawn still gave him a chance though. "I wouldn't say that Joey. It's bad luck to say a game is over if you don't know that for sure." His smiled returned in full force. "This duel isn't over yet. Not by a long shot."
To be continued...
Next Chapter: Beatdown vs. Luck
Author's Notes: Whew! I typed this entire story end to end all at once. The worst part of it all is that I'm still hyped up to finish this duel. All of you Joey fans out there tell me what you think of my portrayal of Joey. If you've got questions then please post them in your reviews. I'm going to finish the rest of this duel now.