Team Zero: Crystals

Disclaimer-I don't own anything.

Chapter 30: Zero is a Powerful Number Pt. 2

Tal held up the final card in his hand and smirked at Usami. "Now to activate the devastating ability that my Cyborg carried with him. I discard one card from my hand to inflict 1000 points of direct damage to your life points." Tal slid the card into the graveyard slot. Flashes of brilliant light shot out blinding Usami for a few seconds.

Usami-3000 LP
Tal-2600 LP

"Now I think I will end my turn." Tal smirked and Usami narrowed her eyes. Slowly she pulled a card from her deck. She then outstretched her arm, palm towards Tal's monsters, fingers stretched.

"Attack the mage my dragon!" She commanded and the dragon obeyed. Opening its mouth, a rainbow spray of light shot out towards the Mage monster.

"The ability of Death Serpent Fangs activate. I get to redirect the attack to Lava!" The path of the speeding light slowly altered until it was headed towards the large blob of molten lava. "Lava's ability is much like Alforce's but in reverse. Whenever it is attacked it destroys the monster that attacked it." The blast hit the monster and blasted around him leaving the monsters perfectly fine on the field.

"Different Dimension Dragon cannot be destroyed in battle by a monster of 1900 attack or less so my monster survived." But to everyones surprise the dragon slowly started to fade away. Small white particles of light flickered off of it as is finally vanished from the field. "What?"

"My monster didn't defeat it in a battle, the effect destroyed it. It was destroyed before a battle was started. That is how my monster survives. Now is it my turn or are you not done?" Tal asked and got a very angry nod from Usami. "Good, Now I activate Buzz Eyes special ability. During my standby phase the power lets me double the amount of cards that are in my hand. I have one card so I get to draw one more." Pressing on the censor his duel disk spit out another card. He then pointed to his mage. "Attack directly my Mage!" The mage charged up a large white ball of energy and shot it straight at Usami. Colliding with her, smoke and dust were kicked up from the ground creating a wind of sorts. Then she heard the beeping noise coming from her duel disk.

Usami-1500 LP
Tal-2600 LP

"Wait, you monsters all have zero attack power. How did I lose 1500 life points?" Usami looked from her duel disk back to the man who just was smiling and crossing his arms. "Answer me!" she demanded.

"Fine, Mage's special ability is that when it attacks directly you lose 500 life points per each zero equipment attached to Mage. I have three, Death Serpent Fangs, Buzz Eyes, and Cyborg Helmet. Which reminds me." He held up the two cards in his hand. "I discard two cards for Cyborg's ability to deal 2000 points of damage to you directly."

Usami-0 LP
Tal-2600 LP

Usami fell to her knees as the dueling holograms disappeared from Tal's field. He slowly walked towards her smiling wickedly.

"So girl, you lost. Are you ready to give me your soul?" He asked pulling the shadow medallion out from under his shirt and holding it towards Usami.

Suddenly the shadow medallion went flying out of Tal's hand and landed on the yard a few feet away. Tal stopped moving and looked down to see what had happened. Standing right next to him with his fist still outstretched, Kevin looked up at him angrily. He had moved swiftly and punched the shadow medallion out of Tal's hands.

"So, you want some ones soul?" Kevin asked as he pulled his fist back and looked up at Tal. "Then you will have to go through me to get hers!" He pointed to his chest with his thumb when he said 'me'.

"Tough guy huh?" Tal lifted his arm to punch Kevin but decided against it. "Do you wish to duel for both yours and her souls?"

"I am fine with that. I will win and save us both!" Kevin proclaimed as he duel disk snapped into place. He quickly moved over to where Usami was kneeling on the ground. She looked up at him and smiled. He returned the smile.

"My hero." She proclaimed and he started to blush.

"Boy. I do not have all day. Are you and your girlfriend done yet?" Tal asked as he placed his shuffled deck back into the deck holder on his duel disk and it locked up.

"She's not my girlfriend!" Kevin snapped back and placed his deck into the appropriate slot. "I will start first."

Kevin-4000 LP
Tal-4000 LP

Kevin drew his opening six cards and looked at them. "Alright, he claims to have 20 monsters in that deck. One for each type of monster out there. I saw eight monsters so there is still 12 that I haven't seen." He looked at his opponent who press the button on his disk and pulled the five cards it spit out into his hand. "I will play my Archfiend Soldier (1900/1500) in attack mode and set three reverse cards face down. Your move Tal." A large purple armored monster appeared on Kevin's field.

Tal pressed the censor and grabbed the card the disk spit out. "I play my rock Zero Monster in defense mode. Come forth Zero Monster Boulder (0/0)!" A large round boulder appeared on Tal's field. It had two eyes and a mouth with a set of white fangs. A necklace made out of small pebbles was around the entire beast. "I end my move."

"Good, I have the perfect monster to deal with that card." Kevin smiled and drew his next card. "I summon Spear Dragon (1900/0) to the field in attack mode." A large blue dragon monster appeared on Kevin's field next to his soldier. It had a needle nose beak which it opened and a swirl of white wind appeared inside it. "Attack his defense monster!" The tornado flew out of the monsters jaws and pierced through Boulder.

Kevin-4000 LP
Tal-2100 LP

"And Archfiend Soldier will attack Directly for 1900 more points of damage. Go Death Slice!" The monster charged across the field and brought his sword down on Tal's body. He groaned as the hologram flew into him.

Kevin-4000 LP
Tal-200 LP

"And I end my move." Kevin announced happily.

"Well, first my monster left behind Boulder Necklace!" The necklace made out of pebbles appeared on Tal's field due to its ability. Tal then press the censor on his disk and grabbed the next card. "Next I play the magic card Hacking Life! I get to hack into your life point counter and rob you of half of your life points, adding them to mine."

Kevin-2000 LP
Tal-2200 LP

"Next I set one card face down and summon the Zero Monster of Aqua, Zero Monster Tortoise (0/0)" A large brown turtle with a dark green shell that had a pattern drawn on it with a bright yellow coloring. "I equip it with my Necklace and end my turn." The boulder necklace hovered around the turtle's neck.

Kevin drew his card and looked at it. "I sacrifice my two monsters on the field to bring forth the Dark Magician (2500/2100)." In bright flashes of yellow light the two monsters disappeared from the field and were replaced with a large magician monster holding a green staff. "Next, one of my down cards activate. Go Graceful Charity! It lets me draw three and discard two." Kevin pulled three card from his deck and slid two cards into the graveyard. "Next, a second face down card, Dedication through Light and Darkness! It lets me offer the Dark Magician to summon from my deck Dark Magician of Chaos (2800/2600)!" The black clad magician appeared on Kevin's field as the purple magician faded away in twin lights of white and black.

"Didn't you lean from her duel that powerful monsters mean nothing?" Tal asked the boy who seemed pleased with his move.

"Don't you know anything. My monster will rip apart your strategy and it starts with his ability. I get to pull one magic card back from the grave. I pull Graceful Charity." The card slid out of the graveyard and Kevin snatched it up. He then slid it back into his duel disk and pulled three more cards. He quickly discarded two of them and pointed at his magician. "Attack his turtle now! Chaos Black Magic!"

"Now comes the fun part. My monster's special abilities kick in. First the Boulder Necklace lets me switch whichever monster is attacked to defense mode." The turtle monster crouched down and pulled its limbs inside its shell. "Next my monsters special ability will activate. Increasing its defense by the attack of the monster attacking it (0/2800)!" The ball of black and purple magic bounced off the shell without leaving so much as a scratch on it.

"I set one more card face down and call my turn to an end." Kevin announced as the brown backed card appeared on his field.

"Then I draw. I will switch my turtle back to attack mode and summon the Zero Monster of Thunder, Zero Monster Sparks (0/0)!" A large lightning bolt appeared on the field. It opened it's two eyes on the mouse head that sat at the top of the long bolt of lightning. "I will use his ability to discard one card to destroy one monster on your side of the field." Tal slid one of the cards in his hand into his graveyard and the large lightning bolt shot across the field. In a burst of light the monster was broken up into small data bits. "My turn has ended."

"Damn, that has a destroy effect. Now I can't keep anything as long as he has cards in his hand." Kevin drew his card. "But his field is still defenseless." He slapped the card he drew down onto his duel disk. "I summon Breaker the Magical Warrior (1600/1000)(1900/1000)." The red cloaked magician appeared on Kevin's field and wielded its sword back. "Activate ability, by sacrificing the token on him and lowering its attack (1600/1000) I destroy one magic or trap card. I chose Boulder Necklace!" The wave of light that shot out of the sword broke the necklace clean off the large turtle monster. "Now attack his Turtle!"

"Trap card go! Zeroing it all Out stops any damage to my life when a monster of zero attack is destroyed." Breaker slashed down on the monster, slitting him in half with the greatest of ease. As Tal slid the card into the graveyard he pulled out one other card and slapped it onto his duel disk. "I get to pull the equipment from anywhere so I play Tortoise Shell, the card I discarded last turn!"

Kevin glared angrily at Tal and looked at his hand. He had nothing that was going to help as of right now. "I end my turn."

Tal pressed on the censor and like clockwork, it spat out another card. Picking it up Tal grinned and placed it on the duel disk. "I summon the fairy Zero Monster, Go Zero Monster Angel (0/0) in defense mode." An angelic female monster appeared on Tal's field in a crouching position. It wrapped it's white feathery wings around it's body to protect itself. She had long blond hair that sat below a dazzling hovering halo. "Next I switch Sparks to defense. I discard this card to activate his ability and you say goodbye to Breaker!"

The sky above the duel became dark and cloudy. The clouds circled above Breaker and Kevin. From the center of the spiraling clouds came a blinding flash of light and a large bolt of electricity the shot down, disintegrating Breaker where he stood.

"I equip Tortoise shell to Sparks and end my turn." Tal relayed as the large green shell flew over the large lightning bolt and suddenly equipped to it.

The gang stood in silence watching Kevin and Tal. They were amazed at the unrelenting power of the Zero Monsters despite the minimal attacking power.

"They are amazing." Reku said, knowing what the entire group was thinking. "So strong and so well played by him."

"And you wanted to rush into a duel with him not to long ago." Ronin commented with unwavering eyes on the battle. "You were gung ho to charge straight at him. His cards are amazing and according to what he said, he made them."

"Draw!" Kevin bellowed out as the card was snapped from its spot on top of his deck. "I set one monster face down and in defense mode. Next I activate my face down card. Go Ring of Destruction on your Sparks! Since he has no attack we won't lose any life points but he will be gone."

The large ring burst out from the holographic image of the card and went spinning across the field. It wrapped around the monsters 'neck' region. A loud booming noise came as the grenades around the ring detonated leaving a pillar of smoke and nothing left in it's wake.

"Good thing that for his ability I get to play Spark's spark!" A small lightning bolt appeared on the field in replacement to the monster it belonged to. "So now I get to draw and I will play Zero Weapon Recycled to pull the equipment back I discarded last time for Spark's ability. I bring to the field Angle's Halo!" A glowing halo just like the one on Angel's head appeared behind her. "It is her equipment and I equip it to her and end my move." The halo and the one above Angel's head merged to make a halo of even brighter light.

"Can you do that? Does that mean the ability will be doubled or something?" Usami snapped in from her place behind Kevin.

"I can do anything I want. Remember I spent late nights and long weekends perfecting my Zero Monsters." He looked down at his duel disk where his deck was locked away. "I made each of them perfect. I know all strengths and their very few weaknesses. You cannot win against them without cheating!" Tal boasted as he looked back up at the two kids. An image flashed through his head of him sitting at an artists drawing board. In front of him sketches of various monsters on different sheets of paper. He sat back and put his pencil behind his ear admiring his work. On the piece of paper sitting in front of him was an early sketch of Sparks. Tal smiled and continued. "I would like to see you try tobeat them."

"Fine, I draw and sac my face down monster to summon Cyber Tech Alligator (2500/1600) in attack mode!" A large green reptilian monster appeared on Kevin's field. It was covered in red cybernetic parts that covered good chunks of area on it's body. It stretched out it's two long red armored wings while flexing its armored claws. "Attack Angel now!" Kevin said whipping his arm around to point at the crouching angel. The alligator monster roared and slashed down on the woman destroying her.

"Her ability kicks in. She does a nice thing by doubling both of our life point scores. Now comes the fun part. See I equipped her with her own equipment meaning that our doubled life point scores will...double. I figured, you know, that a Angel can't be bias." He smiled and slid the two cards into his graveyard. "Since her equipment isn't in my hand deck or grave when she is destroyed I cannot bring it to the field but that is okay. Now the duel will last a lot longer."

Kevin-8800 LP
Tal-8000 LP

Kevin did actually breath a sigh of relief. "Good, that will give me some life points to play around with. Now he won't be able to kill me in one blast like he did Usami." Kevin looked out of the corner of his eye at her.

"So?" Joe yelled from the sidelines. "All you did was help your opponent out too. I though that if you created the cards that you weren't being fair with their effects. That is the fairest thing that you have done!"

"FAIR!" Tal snapped at him. Head jerking towards Joe, his brow squeezed down into an angry position. "All of these cards are fair! I don't cheat my opponent!"

"Could have fooled me with some of those abilities." Joe said cleaning his ear out with his pinky. "Seems like most of them are unbalanced and broken cards."

"It isn't like that." Tal grumbled back he looked down at his duel disk again where his deck was locked inside the mechanical inner workings of the disk. "Let me tell you something boys and girls. They are all fair, for me to use. I remember what each one represents. The pain that nothing in life is fair. It all started years ago..."

/Flashback/

"I was a lonely boy who had no family because of a violent gang attack."

Rain was falling down on a boy who was curled up on a grassy area behind his house. The boy couldn't have been any older that five or six.

The squealing of tires could be heard as a group of punks in a gang drove off in various vehicles. The front of the house looked like swiss cheese from bullet holes. Glass was broken and strewn out all over the yard and the inners of the rooms in the house. Motionless in the house were two bodies. A female mother wrapped in the arms of her husband.

These were not the targets of the gangs assault. It was a nearby kid who belonged to a rival gang. This family was caught in the cross fire and suffered the consequences.

"I lost everyone that day. My mother, my father, my siblings. No one was left but me. I knew that sooner or later I had to move. I could not stay in that same spot too long. The memories were going to kill me. But as I walked out to leave I found my break in life."

Walking down the ally behind the houses that were assaulted by the gang, young Tal was cornered by headlights from cars coming down both sides of the alleyway. The door swung open and a tall man in a black trench coat jumped out. He had black hair that was spiked up and a tough look on his face. He slowly walked towards Tal.

"So kid," He started as he cracked his knuckles, "ya part of the murder of our friend in there."

Tal didn't know what to do. He curled up into a small ball and laid down on the ground. "No." He spit out in his childish fear. "Bad men in cars killed them. All of them, even my family."

"So, you have no family left?" The man cocked his eye brows and smiled wickedly. The glare from the headlights behind him made him seem even more wicked. Tal nodded and the man reached down and pulled Tal up by the scruff of his neck. "Then you can come with us. We are the ones who they were targeting. I'm Donny, do ya have a name kid?"

"It's...Tal." Tal choked out as Donny set him down on the ground again.

"Well Tal, welcome to ya new family. See here, I be the boss, got it?" He asked questionably. Tal nodded and followed Donny back to his car.

"I figured that I had nothing else to lose. I went with Donny and he trained me to be tough. I was no longer the scrawny weak kid I was. Now I was a member of a gang, and a gang that got sweet revenge against the ones who cause all the pain to me for killing my family. I stayed with the gang for many years until..."

"Hold it! Stop right there!" A police officer yelled as he chased Tal down an alley. Tal was older now, more like 12. They had just come from a gang brawl so Tal's muscles ached and his eyes were blackened. Blood was coming out of cuts and his nose.

Glancing over his shoulder at the cop, Tal picked up as much speed as he could. He came to the other end of the alleyway and burst out into the street. He unfortunately ran straight into waiting officers. Tal slowed to a stop and prepared to turn around and run but the officer that was behind him grabbed ahold of his shoulder.

"I was placed in a Juvenile Delinquents facility until my release back into society. But I did a stupid thing. I went and got back into that gang. I ran around with them for several more years until I was caught again. But this time I was sent to prison. Finally getting out of there because they only busted me for a minor crime and not like my...manslaughter crimes, I decided to give up trying to be with that gang. I started looking for a job and found one..."

"Industrial Illusion. Well this is the place." Tal looked up at the large skyscraper that reached practically to the sky. He looked down at the flyer in his hand that said: HELP WANTED. Tal soon found himself in the office of Maximillion Pegasus.

"Well, so you wish to work here for me to start a fresh life and to get away from your past." Pegasus commented as Tal sat himself down at a chair across the desk from Pegasus.

"But...wait...how?" Tal looked at the man, he hadn't said a word yet from walking into the room to sitting down and Pegasus knew everything about him already.

"I have my ways of knowing these things." Pegasus said as he flicked his hair back revealing one of his eyes was a solid gold fake eye. It looked like an eye Tal had seen in drawings from ancient Egypt. "I also know that you truly mean it so I will allow you to have the job." Pegasus said and ushered Tal out. Tal hadn't gotten but three words out in the entire conversation, and they were garbled words that made no seance. "You will start work first thing in the morning. Eight o'clock sharp. See you then, Tal-boy." Pegasus said as he shut the door behind Tal. /

/end flashback/

"I worked for Pegasus a short time before he hosted his Duelist Kingdom Tournament. A prestigious tournament only for the top ranked duelists. There he was defeated by the now world champion, Yugi Motou. After that, the world started to lose faith in Industrial Illusion so the company was going down the drain. I was the one who stayed late nights to get the company back up on its feet. Pegasus was so pleased with me that he allowed me the use of his equipment. If I brought him detailed sketches and effects, he could help me make them into cards. That was my first deck, the deck I learned to play by, and the deck that hasn't changed in years."

"Bravo." Kevin clapped his hands in a sarcastic manner. "And why do you work for a low life like Chaos?"

"I quit Industirall Illusion a short time after because I wanted power, and Chaos had offered it to me. Now not only did I have a powerful deck, but I had the power to use it. The only thing I had to due is use the power he gave me and the deck and my disposal to capture souls for him." Everyone glared at Tal. The eyes that were fixated on him were angry and cold eyes. "And that is what I plan to do. I DRAW!" Tal snapped the card off his deck.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
To John: Why are you answering for demon fan? Are you demon fan?

To Darksoulki: Um...,thanks.

To Nanashi: Err...,I don't think my girlfriend will be too pleased with that. What forum are you talking about? And what is wrong with my Zero Monsters? They are great. But by all means you don't have to read my crap before the all mightily Wolfgeneral. He far surpasses me in talent and in story.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX