The Night passed uneventfully, after a sumptuous dinner everyone parted
ways. Joey and Mai walked off to spend time with one another as did Ryu
and Kelly. Yugi retired to his room to call home and check in then to
rest for the first round in the morning.
Robert and Sammantha had decided that a moonlit walk on the beach would make for a nice end to their evening.
As the sun filtered through the windows the next morning Sammantha awoke to an empty bed and an ocean breeze. The sliding door to the balcony was open and Robert could be seen occasionally through the gently flapping curtains.
"Rob, what are you doing?" Sammantha asked as she approached the open door, her answer was obvious as she finally laid eyes upon him.
Robert sat cross legged on a makeshift mat on the Balconies floor, back straight and eyes closed, his breathing was slow and steady and his hands were cupped at his navel.
"Should've known." She commented as she turned around to start a pot of coffee with the complimentary maker that came with the room. Since they'd moved to Japan a few years before Robert had taken up meditation, originally it was to help him deal with being away from his family home and his and Sammanthas old friends back in California. he later found that it also helped him to focus before a Duel and even before a meeting at the Industrial Illusions offices.
He was usually at it for an hour plus or minus a few minutes each morning, since the Tournament started however he hadn't really been able to, as such Sammntha thought it best not to disturb him until it was time to get ready for the first round.
Yugi had been awake for a few hours before Sunrise, having Turned in at nine the night before, his deck was in need of some serious tweaking. "Man, It's like I just threw all these cards together with no rhyme or reason." Yugi joked to his other self.
'You're just being over critical, this deck has served us very well in the past. But it couldn't hurt to modify it a little more.' The Spirit of the puzzle replied as Yugi once again broke his deck down into three piles and sifted through them, swapping cards for those he'd won and those he'd bought with him for just this occasion.
Joey Wheeler slowly made his way back to his room, being careful not to make too much noise outside the rooms of his friends. He didn't want to face any uncomfortable questions as to why he'd been in Mai's room all night.
'I doubt they'd believe we fell asleep watching HBO.' he thought as he slipped into his room to prepare for the first round of the Battle Island finals.
Kelly Marcus sat on the balcony of her room watching the waves beat upon the shore below, drinking in the sound, sight and, smell of the ocean. Letting the cool breeze wash over her. A light knock at her door snapped her out of her calming trance. Fairly skipping to the door she opened it so see Ryu standing there with a large platter topped with a large sliver dome.
"Room service ma'am." He joked and bowed slightly and smiled.
"Well, Don't expect a tip, you're late!" Kelly giggled in response as she let him in.
Battle Island Colosseum
Yugi and Claire stood on opposite sides of the massive expanse of the field, their Duel Disks locked and ready at their sides. Seto Kaiba approached and looked over the the field, nodding as a formality to the two Duelists he waited as they nodded back and then took another step forward to address the now crowded stadium.
"Welcome to the first round of the Battle Island Finals. Todays Duel will be between Yugi Mouto and Claire Calico. The end of this Tournament will signify the opening of Duelist Haven's all over the world to the general public. To those of you watching at home I hope these Duelists give you a good show. But remember the real fight's in the finals." Kaiba spoke, the small Microphone pinned to his lapel picking up his ever word.
"Now would the Duelists please take their places and plug in their Duel Disks so the Colosseums systems may do what they were designed to do." Kaiba added and watched as Yugi and Claire stepped forward to the areas indicated by holographic Arrows hovering over head.
As the two Duelists connected their Duel Disks to the Stadiums systems a brief humming sound could be heard as the stadiums computers scanned the new commponents and locked in their signatures.
Between the two Duelists a rotating message appeared.
System Updates Complete...
Their Duel Disks hummed to life and each of their Duelist statistics were represented as Holograms before them.
"Well, it's good to see both of you are who you say you are." Kaiba spoke as he turned to leave then added. "Now start the countdown and virtual coin toss."
Once again the Duelists were confronted with a new Hologram, this time of a count down from ten and a rapidly spinning coin.
As the countdown reached zero the coin stopped and Claires face was shown.
"Guess I go first." She spoke as she drew her hand and her card for the turn. "I'll summon cats ear tribe in attack mode and activate United We Stand, increasing my kitties attack and defense by eight hundred points. Now I'll set a card and end my turn."
Claire's cats appeared on the field, two lounging about with the third standing ready to attack with a "sword" no bigger than a letter opener.
Yugi watched his opponent warily, she didn't look at all dangerous. Wearing a short white skirt and a pink Tanktop that matched her pink Duel Disk, her brown hair tied back into pig tails with hello kitty sunglasses resting on her head.
'Yugi, be careful Remember what Happened with Rebbecca. You let your guard down with her and were nearly overwhelmed.' The Spirit of the puzzle warned as he came forward taking Yugis place in the Duel.
"Equip cards won't save your monster from this, I summon SKILLED DARK MAGICIAN!" Yugi declared as the robed mage appeared on the field.
"Now my Magician will attack your Cat's Ear Tribe!" Yugi commanded and his magician launched a blast of dark magic at the waiting cats.
The waiting cat leaped free of his lazily lounging comrades and swung at the blast of energy reflecting it back at the Skilled Dark Magician destroying the monster and dealing eight hundred points of damage to Yugi through Feedback.
Yugi: 7200 Claire: 8000
"WHAT!?" Yugi was shocked, the tiny cat had wiped out his magician with a recoil attack and was now back amongst his comrades mewing slightly.
"Oh! you didn't know Cat's Ear Tribes effect? Oh well let me tell you what my darling kitty cats can do. You see when ever a monster attacks my Kitties that monsters original attack is reduced to two hundred, as such my my precious kittens with the United We Stand powering them up are able to wipe out your nasty ol' magician." Claire finished explaining and her cat tossed Yugi a V for victory accompanied by a wink and a cute little meow.
"Ugh, I think I feel a cavity forming." Ryu joked as he and the others watched the Duel from the participants box at the "fifty yard line" of the Colosseum.
Kelly snickered at Ryu's comment and Sammantha simply watched the kitten monsters playing on the Claires side of the field. "Sooo Cute..." She murmured, one of the little cats had found a ball of Yarn and was busy playing with it as it's comrade with the "sword" stood by and looked on with interest as it's teammate played.
"So that's why they're linked into the Colosseums systems." Robert spoke as he to watched the cats.
"What do you mean?" Sammatha asked prying her eyes off of the playing Kittens.
"The Duel Disks are only programmed with so many monster reaction animations. But the Colosseum most likely has thousands of reaction programs, making the monsters more life like and providing a better show. Kaiba always was a showman." Robert answered and turned his attention back to the Duel as Yugi set two cards and ended his turn.
Claire smiled as she drew her card for the turn and looked over her hand. 'Hmmm, Yugi won't leave himself open to attack so at least one of those cards is a life saving trap.' She thought as she once again looked over her cards.
"I summon my Inaba White Rabbit and equip my Cat's Ear Tribe with Dark Pendant bringing its attack points to twenty three hundred if only for this turn." Claire explained as all tree of her cats rose up and drew their "swords", the spectral white rabbit floating by their side twitching it's ghostly ears.
"Now my Rabbit will attack your life points directly." As Claires words left her lips the spectral rabbit vanished from the field and appeared directly before Yugi's shocked face, wrinkling it's ghostly nose it butted heads with the spikey haired Duelist and vanished back to Claires side of the field.
Yugi rubbed his forehead as his life points dropped yet again.
Yugi: 6500 Claire: 8000
"And my Kitties will also attack directly." Claire announced and her three furry monsters bounced, rolled and, ran across the field to attack only to be stopped as three Robbed women appeared and raise a protective barrier before Yugi, sparing him from the attack.
"Waboku..." Claire hissed as Yugi smiled at her, her Turn over Claire turned control of the field over to Yugi.
Robert and Sammantha had decided that a moonlit walk on the beach would make for a nice end to their evening.
As the sun filtered through the windows the next morning Sammantha awoke to an empty bed and an ocean breeze. The sliding door to the balcony was open and Robert could be seen occasionally through the gently flapping curtains.
"Rob, what are you doing?" Sammantha asked as she approached the open door, her answer was obvious as she finally laid eyes upon him.
Robert sat cross legged on a makeshift mat on the Balconies floor, back straight and eyes closed, his breathing was slow and steady and his hands were cupped at his navel.
"Should've known." She commented as she turned around to start a pot of coffee with the complimentary maker that came with the room. Since they'd moved to Japan a few years before Robert had taken up meditation, originally it was to help him deal with being away from his family home and his and Sammanthas old friends back in California. he later found that it also helped him to focus before a Duel and even before a meeting at the Industrial Illusions offices.
He was usually at it for an hour plus or minus a few minutes each morning, since the Tournament started however he hadn't really been able to, as such Sammntha thought it best not to disturb him until it was time to get ready for the first round.
Yugi had been awake for a few hours before Sunrise, having Turned in at nine the night before, his deck was in need of some serious tweaking. "Man, It's like I just threw all these cards together with no rhyme or reason." Yugi joked to his other self.
'You're just being over critical, this deck has served us very well in the past. But it couldn't hurt to modify it a little more.' The Spirit of the puzzle replied as Yugi once again broke his deck down into three piles and sifted through them, swapping cards for those he'd won and those he'd bought with him for just this occasion.
Joey Wheeler slowly made his way back to his room, being careful not to make too much noise outside the rooms of his friends. He didn't want to face any uncomfortable questions as to why he'd been in Mai's room all night.
'I doubt they'd believe we fell asleep watching HBO.' he thought as he slipped into his room to prepare for the first round of the Battle Island finals.
Kelly Marcus sat on the balcony of her room watching the waves beat upon the shore below, drinking in the sound, sight and, smell of the ocean. Letting the cool breeze wash over her. A light knock at her door snapped her out of her calming trance. Fairly skipping to the door she opened it so see Ryu standing there with a large platter topped with a large sliver dome.
"Room service ma'am." He joked and bowed slightly and smiled.
"Well, Don't expect a tip, you're late!" Kelly giggled in response as she let him in.
Battle Island Colosseum
Yugi and Claire stood on opposite sides of the massive expanse of the field, their Duel Disks locked and ready at their sides. Seto Kaiba approached and looked over the the field, nodding as a formality to the two Duelists he waited as they nodded back and then took another step forward to address the now crowded stadium.
"Welcome to the first round of the Battle Island Finals. Todays Duel will be between Yugi Mouto and Claire Calico. The end of this Tournament will signify the opening of Duelist Haven's all over the world to the general public. To those of you watching at home I hope these Duelists give you a good show. But remember the real fight's in the finals." Kaiba spoke, the small Microphone pinned to his lapel picking up his ever word.
"Now would the Duelists please take their places and plug in their Duel Disks so the Colosseums systems may do what they were designed to do." Kaiba added and watched as Yugi and Claire stepped forward to the areas indicated by holographic Arrows hovering over head.
As the two Duelists connected their Duel Disks to the Stadiums systems a brief humming sound could be heard as the stadiums computers scanned the new commponents and locked in their signatures.
Between the two Duelists a rotating message appeared.
System Updates Complete...
Their Duel Disks hummed to life and each of their Duelist statistics were represented as Holograms before them.
"Well, it's good to see both of you are who you say you are." Kaiba spoke as he turned to leave then added. "Now start the countdown and virtual coin toss."
Once again the Duelists were confronted with a new Hologram, this time of a count down from ten and a rapidly spinning coin.
As the countdown reached zero the coin stopped and Claires face was shown.
"Guess I go first." She spoke as she drew her hand and her card for the turn. "I'll summon cats ear tribe in attack mode and activate United We Stand, increasing my kitties attack and defense by eight hundred points. Now I'll set a card and end my turn."
Claire's cats appeared on the field, two lounging about with the third standing ready to attack with a "sword" no bigger than a letter opener.
Yugi watched his opponent warily, she didn't look at all dangerous. Wearing a short white skirt and a pink Tanktop that matched her pink Duel Disk, her brown hair tied back into pig tails with hello kitty sunglasses resting on her head.
'Yugi, be careful Remember what Happened with Rebbecca. You let your guard down with her and were nearly overwhelmed.' The Spirit of the puzzle warned as he came forward taking Yugis place in the Duel.
"Equip cards won't save your monster from this, I summon SKILLED DARK MAGICIAN!" Yugi declared as the robed mage appeared on the field.
"Now my Magician will attack your Cat's Ear Tribe!" Yugi commanded and his magician launched a blast of dark magic at the waiting cats.
The waiting cat leaped free of his lazily lounging comrades and swung at the blast of energy reflecting it back at the Skilled Dark Magician destroying the monster and dealing eight hundred points of damage to Yugi through Feedback.
Yugi: 7200 Claire: 8000
"WHAT!?" Yugi was shocked, the tiny cat had wiped out his magician with a recoil attack and was now back amongst his comrades mewing slightly.
"Oh! you didn't know Cat's Ear Tribes effect? Oh well let me tell you what my darling kitty cats can do. You see when ever a monster attacks my Kitties that monsters original attack is reduced to two hundred, as such my my precious kittens with the United We Stand powering them up are able to wipe out your nasty ol' magician." Claire finished explaining and her cat tossed Yugi a V for victory accompanied by a wink and a cute little meow.
"Ugh, I think I feel a cavity forming." Ryu joked as he and the others watched the Duel from the participants box at the "fifty yard line" of the Colosseum.
Kelly snickered at Ryu's comment and Sammantha simply watched the kitten monsters playing on the Claires side of the field. "Sooo Cute..." She murmured, one of the little cats had found a ball of Yarn and was busy playing with it as it's comrade with the "sword" stood by and looked on with interest as it's teammate played.
"So that's why they're linked into the Colosseums systems." Robert spoke as he to watched the cats.
"What do you mean?" Sammatha asked prying her eyes off of the playing Kittens.
"The Duel Disks are only programmed with so many monster reaction animations. But the Colosseum most likely has thousands of reaction programs, making the monsters more life like and providing a better show. Kaiba always was a showman." Robert answered and turned his attention back to the Duel as Yugi set two cards and ended his turn.
Claire smiled as she drew her card for the turn and looked over her hand. 'Hmmm, Yugi won't leave himself open to attack so at least one of those cards is a life saving trap.' She thought as she once again looked over her cards.
"I summon my Inaba White Rabbit and equip my Cat's Ear Tribe with Dark Pendant bringing its attack points to twenty three hundred if only for this turn." Claire explained as all tree of her cats rose up and drew their "swords", the spectral white rabbit floating by their side twitching it's ghostly ears.
"Now my Rabbit will attack your life points directly." As Claires words left her lips the spectral rabbit vanished from the field and appeared directly before Yugi's shocked face, wrinkling it's ghostly nose it butted heads with the spikey haired Duelist and vanished back to Claires side of the field.
Yugi rubbed his forehead as his life points dropped yet again.
Yugi: 6500 Claire: 8000
"And my Kitties will also attack directly." Claire announced and her three furry monsters bounced, rolled and, ran across the field to attack only to be stopped as three Robbed women appeared and raise a protective barrier before Yugi, sparing him from the attack.
"Waboku..." Claire hissed as Yugi smiled at her, her Turn over Claire turned control of the field over to Yugi.