Disclaimer: No I do not own Yugioh.
Chapter 42: Beatdown vs. Luck
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."
Joey saw CJ's smile and thought it was alright to smile about his immediate victory now. "Oh really? Let's see you back of that claim."
CJ slid the card he had drawn into his duel disk. "Oh don't worry your pretty blond head off Joey, I'll prove it alright! I play the magic card Dream Duel. If I have 500 or less life points then we send all of our current cards to the graveyard and start a new duel with the same life point totals." He picked all of his cards up and slid the stack into his graveyard, leaving his field clear.
Joey did the same. "So we draw five cards now?"
CJ shook his head. "Nope. We each draw the top card of our deck and play it immediately. Then we flip a coin to see who goes first."
As one both duelists drew their single card. In an almost comical manner they both yelled, "I play Pot of Greed!" at exactly the same time. For a second the two of them stared at each other, not yet drawing their cards. Then they both broke down into helpless laughter.
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Daniel chuckled and looked over to see that Yugi was sharing in the good humor too.
Deondre shook his head slightly at CJ. ("God you're an idiot sometimes.")
Kaiba just rolled his eyes and waited for this pathetic side-show of a duel to end.
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Joey was the first to recover. He drew his two cards and slid one of them into his duel disk. "I guess since these two cards count towards our starting card, I'll play this face-down and summon Rocket Warrior (1500/1200) in attack mode."
CJ drew his two and slid them both into his duel disk. "I set two cards face-down. Now let's flip the coin, shall we?" He took a coin out of his pocket and flipped it into the air.
Joey watched the coin launch into the air, leaving a silver arc in its wake. "Heads." The coin landed and sure enough it was on heads.
CJ nodded to his opponent. "You get to go first in this new duel Joey."
Joey drew and pulled his Rocket Warrior off of his disk. He slid the monster into the graveyard and slapped down the new creature. "Time to roll another die. I summon Maximum Six (1900/1200) in attack mode." A giant six-armed purple humanoid appeared on Joey's field. "Now I roll a die and increase his attack power by 200 points times the number on the die." The giant cocked back one of its arm and threw a little white die to the ground. The die bounced around insanely and finally landed on a one. (2100/1200)
CJ winced. "That sucks. You were better off with the Rocket Warrior."
Joey shrugged and pointed at CJ. "It's not like it matters. Maximum Six attack his life points directly!" The giant charged across the field, only to slam into a barrier. It roared in anger and punched the invisible wall a few times before giving up and tromping back over to Joey's field.
CJ held up one of his two face-down cards. "You triggered my Defense Shield. This trap card protects me from all forms of damage until the end of the turn it is activated."
Joey frowned but he couldn't really complain. ("That trap could have been a lot worse for me.") "End turn."
CJ drew and looked over at Joey's field. ("Chances are good that Joey has a trap card for an attack.") He realized it didn't matter. He either attacked now or it was game over for him anyway. "I summon Berserk Gorilla in attack mode! Attack his Maximum Six!" The fire-breathing ape roared and stomped across the field, fists ready to crush Joey's monster.
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Daniel bit his lower lip. ("What is he doing!?")
("I know exactly what that ape has face-down. He's hoping to trigger it at the last possible second, so that Wheeler doesn't have a chance to activate his face-down card to counter it.")
("That's too risky though...")
("He doesn't have much of a choice in the matter at the moment.")
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Joey knew that CJ had something up his sleeve. "I'm not gonna let your monster's attack get through! Reveal face-down trap card Graverobber! This trap lets me steal one card from your graveyard, so I'll take your Defense Shield and block your attack!" The invisible wall sprang up and stopped the Berserk Gorilla cold in its tracks.
CJ smiled and flipped up his face-down card. "Sorry Joey, but I was hoping you would counter my attack. That lets me activate my face-down trap card Renewed Efforts. This will negate the trap card you used and increase my Berserk Gorilla's attack power by 500 points until the end of the turn." (2500/1000)
The invisible wall dropped and a now much larger Berserk Gorilla flew across the field and slammed its fists down on top of Joey's Maximum Six. The giant crashed face-first into the ground and exploded into digital dust.
CJ- 300
Joey- 5300
CJ nodded to his friend. "I hope you get a nice draw. End turn."
Joey drew and frowned. "I wish I was that lucky. End turn."
CJ drew and slapped down a new monster. "That's too bad Joey. I summon D.D. Crazy Beast (1400/1400) to compliment my attack force." A red and teal googly eyed monster appeared on his field and let loose with a garbled roar. "Now Berserk Gorilla and D.D. Crazy Beast, attack Joey's life points directly!" The two creatures launched across the field and tackled Joey, sending him backwards a few feet.
CJ- 300
Joey- 1900
CJ took a calming breath. He was one turn away from victory. "End turn."
Joey drew and his eyes widened in a way very much like CJ's had when he had drawn Dream Duel. "This should be an interesting next turn. I'll set two cards face-down and pass to you."
CJ drew and slid his D.D. Crazy Beast into the graveyard. "I sacrifice my D.D. Crazy Beast to summon Manticore of Darkness (2300/1200) in attack mode." As the red and teal beast faded away it was replaced by a winged humanoid lion monster.
Joey bit his lower lip nervously. His victory all came down to the card he was about to activate. "Alright, let's end this CJ!"
CJ nodded. "I couldn't agree more! Manticore of Darkness attack!" The lion roared and shot across the field, claws outstretched to strike down the blond-haired duelist.
Joey said a silent prayer and flipped up his face-down card. "I activate the trap card Aura Armor!" A suit of dragonic armor appeared on Joey's field and absorbed the blow from the Manticore. "This negates your monsters attack and creates a player token on the field with an attack and defense equal to half of my life points."
CJ- 300
Joey- 950
The armor flew over to Joey and snapped on around him, giving him the appearance of a dragon knight. (950/950)
CJ scratched at his chin in thought. "That saved you from one attack, but my Gorilla can still wipe you out. Now go Berserk Gorilla, end this duel right now!" The fire-breathing ape roared and charged across the field to smash Joey into the steel floor.
Joey said that silent prayer once more, just to make sure that it stuck. ("Please...I'm beggin ya here...") "Not so fast CJ! I reveal the trap card Take One Chance!" A sorter machine appeared on Joey's field and began to shake. "This machine right here is going to give me one random card from either of our graveyards. I may immediately play that card, regardless of what it is."
The machine pinged and spat out a card. Joey steadied himself and reached out to tug it free. His chances of winning rested on whatever this card was. ("Please...just this once let me be the winner in the finals of a tournament. Please...") He drew the card and felt tears develop in his eyes.
CJ grimaced. "Hey man, I'm sorry you didn't win. It was fate. Rikuo's on our team and...." His words died in his throat as Joey started to jump up and down in delight. The tears he had shed weren't tears of sadness. They were tears of joy.
Joey slapped down the card he had drawn into his duel disk. "It's time end this! Red-Eyes Black Dragon (2400/2000) in attack mode!" The Berserk Gorilla was just inches from landing a punch on Joey's head when a streaking blur of black scales slammed into it. The two forms wrestled for a moment before the black armoring of Joey's favorite monster offered the advantage the Red-Eyes needed to overcome the Gorilla. In one bite CJ's monster was gone and so were the rest of his life points.
CJ- 0
Joey- 1900
CJ stood there, blinking in confusion. ("How...what...when...err...")
Joey stood up and smiled, this time in a much friendlier manner. "That was a great duel CJ." The holographic projectors shut down and the dragon armor Joey was wearing disappeared. "You nearly had me." He extended his hand to his newest friend. "We're still cool right?"
CJ's confusion broke down. He smiled back and shook Joey's hand. "Of course. It's not like the tournament victory was riding on this duel. I know that Deondre and Daniel can pull it off."
The dueling ring lowered to ground level and the two friends had already gotten into the lovely game of complimenting each other's plays from the duel.
"That Amplifier combo with Jinzo was great. I ran right into that one."
"Yeah, but when you used Mirror Action to steal my Treasure of Fate effect? That was pure genius!"
"Yeah but..." CJ was stopped cold by the glare he was getting from Deondre. ("Apparently not everyone who is a member of my team likes having a fun duel.")
Daniel wasn't even paying attention to CJ anymore. He already had the COC in his hand and was getting ready to roll it as soon as Giovan announced them to do so. ("Please let me get Kaiba.")
Giovan yawned and looked up from his magazine. "Oh is it over yet?" When he saw that the field was empty, he placed his magazine back under his chair and looked down at the assembled duelists. "By the look of the scoreboard it seems like Team Topdeck got victory snatched from them at the last moment. So now then, let's get on with the next COC roll. Hopefully the two duelists that are chosen will have a bigger dislike of each other than those two had."
Daniel and Yugi rolled their COCs.....
To be continued...
Next chapter: Defeating the Dragon Master
Author's Notes: Ah another chapter finished! I feel so accomplished. I like writing for the finals of tournaments, because I can imagine the tension in the air. It's invigorating.
Anyway, I hope that this met all of the Joey lover's expectations of a good duel for their fave character. I promised that I would make his earlier loss up to you, and I hope that this was enough. If not....er.....um.....::Runs off::
BoatySX: Hey dude, I know you want to talk to me, but the website doesn't like it when you post web addresses in your reviews and it cuts them out. If you still want to contact me put your email address in l-i-k-e t-h-i-s. I'll get back to you as soon I get your email.