Chapter 21: Battle for Blue-Eyes

Damian and Scott were at a card shop, looking at cards in various display cases. It's been two days since Damian was attacked, and they figured that they should boost up their decks in case something like that happens again. That was the justification they gave Ghassan who insisted they spend Winter Break inside the apartment anyway. In truth, they just wanted to enjoy themselves.

"No way." Scott whispered. "Take a look at this card Damian. 'Quick Rush. Select and activate one of the following effects. Draw 1 card, or select 1 Level 4 or lower monster you control. It can attack this turn, regardless of any effects or conditions.' Does that mean you can have a monster attack on the first turn of the game?"

Damian nodded. "Chazz used that card against Jaden in Season 3 to have a monster attack turn one. Get that card in your starting hand, and it's basically free damage."

"And you can use it to have certain monsters be able to attack after using an effect which forbids monsters from attacking after activation. Man. The anime world REALLY doesn't care much about balance."

"Hey, it could be worse. I haven't see any Negative Energy Generator cards in this world, so there's probably SOME form of banlist here."

Scott was curious. "What does that card do?"

"Triples the attack points of any DARK monster you control. No downsides to it either."

Scott widened his eyes. "Holy shit that's broken."

"Uh-huh. Pretty sure it was only used in the first episode, and never popped up again."

Scott got back to looking at cards in the display case. "Hey, this 'Spell of Pain' card. You told me and Ghassan that Giga Gagagigo used it to nearly beat you, right?"

Damian nodded. "In this world, it reflects damage from any attack or card effect, not solely effect damage from an opponents card like in our world."

Scott grinned. "That's definitely gonna come in handy."

"Anything catch your interest boys?" A man asked.

Scott was still looking at cards in the display case. "Yeah, we'll take 9 copies of both Quick Rush and Spell of Pai-"

Damian tapped Scott on the shoulder. "He's not a worker at this card shop."

Scott turned his head, and saw a familiar long-haired gentleman, and widened his eyes. Several people in the card shop were pretty surprised at the presence of the man as well. "Pegasus?"

Pegasus smiled. "Fancy running into you boys. On the same day we were to have our second meeting as well."

"Those two know Pegasus?" A man in the store asked.

"What's going on? Are they business partners with him?" A young woman wondered.

"Two teenagers being business partners of Pegasus? No way." Another woman replied.

"You never know. Kaiba was a teen when he started partnering with Pegasus, wasn't he?"

"Evidently, my presence caused a bit of a stir. Lets go to your hotel room to have our meeting? Oh, and I'll be more than happy to pay for those cards you wanted." Pegasus told them. Pegasus walked up to a stunned store clerk to talk about buying the cards Scott mentioned.

"Well, we knew that we'd be having another meeting with him about our cards" Damian said.

"Yeah. Let's just hope this works out for us." Scott replied.


"So you guys ran into Pegasus?" Ghassan asked. Damian, Scott, and Pegasus arrived at the hotel, and entered Ghassan and Scott's room.

"Yeah. Not sure if it was by chance, or if he knew we were gonna be at that card shop." Scott answered.

"A little of both. I just looked around places where I figured you boys would be spending time at." Pegasus replied.

"So you were searching for us?" Damian asked.

"Well, I couldn't risk you boys trying to avoid our meeting." Pegasus sat down on one of the beds, the trio sitting on the other bed. "Unfortunately, Kaiba boy couldn't join us. He's still in shock about Blue-Eyes being mass produced in the future."

"Figured as much." Scott said.

"As I said two days ago, we still need to discuss how you three irresponsibly brought these cards into the past. And finding out that you three have been hiding secrets from me sure doesn't make things easier."

"What are you talking about? We let you know about the Synchro and Xyz monsters." Ghassan said.

"Yes. But evidently, there are some rules in the future for Duel Monsters that you didn't tell me about." Pegasus reached into his pocket and got out a card. It depicted a blue, serpentine dragon with long green hair, and fairy wings. "Like this card. Ancient Fairy Dragon. I don't remember designing this card, so it's reasonable to assume that you sold it online I take it?"

Damian nodded. "Yeah. What about it?

"Let's read it's effect shall we? Once per turn: You can destroy as many Field Spells on the field as possible, and if you do, gain 1000 life points. Then you can add 1 Field Spell from your Deck to your hand. Tell me, why would it say you can destroy as many as possible when only one Field Spell can exist on the field?"

Ghassan resisted the urge to smack Damian. He made a massive oversight selling that card to the public. "In our time, both players are able to control a Field Spell. It was a rule implemented around 2014 or so according to our history books."

"We didn't mean to hide it from you. It just didn't cross our minds." Damian said.

"Hmm...interesting." Pegasus put the card in his pocket, and then got out another one. It depicted a dinosaur made out of fossils. "Here's another card that catches my interest. Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo. If this card is flipped face-up: Destroy all Special Summoned monsters on the field. Neither player can Special Summon monsters."

"...And?" Scott asked.

Pegasus got out another copy depicting the same monster. "Funny, because that's not the effect I remember giving it. Here's the ability I remember having it be. If this card destroys an opponent's monster by battle, it is changed to Defense Position at the end of the Damage Step. Then, it gains DEF equal to the DEF of the destroyed monster until the End Phase of your opponent's turn. Quite a difference in effects wouldn't you say so?"

Damian hid his nervousness. He completely forgot that Pachycephalo had a completely different effect in the anime when he sold that card. "You probably changed it's effect some time later. If I recall correctly in history class, you originally made it so that Magic Cylinder only worked if cards like Dark Magician or Dark Magician Girl were controlled, didn't you?"

"True, but when I change effects later on, I merely make adjustments to existing effects, or add an additional effect to give a card more use. I don't change everything about the original effect like with this card."

"Hey, we didn't know you in our time. Maybe you figured Fossil Dyna needed a massive rework." Scott said.

"I suppose that's a possibility. But it DOES confirm my suspicions that you've been hiding details about the future from me." Pegasus said.

Damian shrugged. "We didn't intend to. They just slipped our minds."

"So, I take it there aren't any other major additions to the game in the future?" Pegasus asked.

"Well, there are, but nothing that we brought." Ghassan lied. Pegasus didn't need to know about Pendulum or Link summoning. If the world wasn't prepared for Pendulum Summoning, it would be easier to help The Light of Destruction take it over. Besides, it would be way too much of a hassle to explain how Pendulum Summoning worked. And since none of the three used Link Summoning rules, that was a non-issue.

"Alright. Now, to get to the meat of the discussion. The irreversible impact you three boys made by irresponsibly bringing these Synchro and Xyz monsters."

"Hey, it's not like you didn't solve that. You're making Synchro and Xyz monsters left and right. Everybody just thinks that they're just new cards made by Industrial Illusions now." Scott said.

"Do you know what I had to spend for that to be the case? Countless of my card designers are on forced overtime to create enough Synchro and Xyz cards to make it seem as if they're truly ready for release. And Kaiba boy and I have been needing to keep track of every one of those cards that happened to be sold online in case a card that wasn't produced by us pops up for the sake of us mass producing it later. And can you imagine how awkward it is whenever I'm asked a question about a mechanic within Duel Monsters that I, the creator, don't know about? 'Mr Pegasus sir? Do Xyz ranks count as levels? Mr Pegasus sir, can Tokens be used as Synchro and Xyz materials?' It's embarrassing to not be certain about the answers."

"Ranks don't count as levels, and Tokens can be used for Synchro materials, but not XYZ materials." Damian answered.

"Well what do you know? All of my guesses were correct. Still, the point is that it's much more complicated producing these cards when Industrial Illusions themselves don't have all the information about it."

"Well, what do you expect us to do about it? We're not exactly card designers." Scott replied.

Pegasus placed his hands together. "How's this for a start? Show me every single card that you brought from your timeline. It'll be easier to keep up this illusion if we know what cards exists that we haven't produced."

Ghassan paled. Scott and Damian had a fair amount of Pendulum Decks, or at the very least, Pendulum Monsters scattered throughout several of their decks. Ghassan's lie might have gotten the trio into trouble. "Well we..."

"Sure thing." Scott said. Scott handed Pegasus his backpack. "I have a ton of decks in there, so it might take a while." Pegasus opened the backpack up, got a portfolio containing several decks, and started to search trough the decks, taking pictures of them with his cellphone. Scott turned to Ghassan and Damian. "All of the cards related to Pendulum Summoning I had, I left in my dorm." He whispered. "I figured we'd be ask to show our decks."

"Good thinking. But what about you Damian?" Ghassan asked.

Damian smiled. "I'll get my backpack from my hotel room, and show you my decks Pegasus." Damian said. Damian stood up, and walked out of the bedroom. Ghassan and Scott got the idea. He'll empty out cards related to Pendulum Summoning, and show them to Pegasus.

"I only have one deck on me." Ghassan pulled out his Jurrac Deck and gave it to Pegasus.

A few minutes later, Damian came back into the room with his backpack. "Here are my decks Mr Pegasus." Damian took out a portfolio containing several decks and gave them to Pegasus. With how cluttered he kept his decks before, buying one at Duel Academy definitely made them easier to manage.

"Thank you." Pegasus started to search through and take pictures of Damian's decks as well. It took about an hour and a half for Pegasus to be done with all of the decks. Sure enough, not one had anything to do with Pendulum Summoning.

Pegasus took one last snapshot of a group of cards in Scott's Dark Magician deck. "I must say, it's intriguing to see Xyz and Synchro variations of older monsters I designed pop up. Red-Eyes Flare Metal Dragon, Ebon Illusion Magician, Blue-Eyes Spirit Dragon. It's great to see that some of my favorite creations aren't forgotten about in the future."

"So, is everything fine then?" Scott asked.

"For now anyway." Pegasus said. He gave the portfolios back to Scott and Damian. "But I have another request towards you specifically Scott."

"Is it about my Blue-Eyes deck?" Scott asked.

Pegasus nodded. "All of your decks that have Blue-Eyes White Dragon in them to be precise. Something tells me that if I mass produce Blue-Eyes cards, Kaiba boy will throw a major tantrum, and stop doing business with me out of spite. KaibaCorp's hologram technology is a major reason why Duel Monsters is so popular today, so I'd rather not risk that. However, that'll make your possession of Blue-Eyes cards difficult to explain if they're ever found out about."

Scott knew where this was going. "Sorry, but I'm not giving you my Blue-Eyes cards."

Pegasus sighed. "I figured you'd say that. But you should know that-"

"That what? You and-or Kaiba will abuse your power to take away my legally owned cards all because Kaiba never learned to share as a kid?"

"Maybe we should find out from Kaiba what he'd do first before making any decisions." Damian suggested.

"I tried. He hasn't been picking up any of my calls. The boy's obsessed with Blue-Eyes White Dragon. Finding out that he won't be the only one who can use it might have broken him." Pegasus replied.

Scott suddenly realized something. 'Hey, Light. How long do you think it'll take before you completely take over Kaiba?'

'I suspect about 5 months or so.' The Light of Destruction replied in Scott's head.

"Alright. How's this? We'll have a duel right now. If you win, we'll have this discussion again during summer vacation or so, Kaiba included, to see if I give you my deck. If I win, you drop this subject, and never bring it up again."

"So even if I win, the risk of your Blue-Eyes cards being revealed to the public will exist for half a year? I have to say, this isn't too fair of a wager." Pegasus replied.

"Nobody's found out about my Blue-Eyes cards before. I haven't used them against any student at Duel Academy. And even if they're found out, I can just say something like they're just replicas, not actually the cards. The only thing at risk if I continue to have them is Kaiba's pride."

Pegasus shook his head. "Sorry, half a year is unacceptable. But, I must admit..." Pegasus smiled. "I'm curious about seeing these new Blue-Eyes cards in a duel. I'll duel you, but if I win, I get to take your Blue-Eyes deck."

Scott sighed. "Fine. But only on the condition that during summer, we have a discussion for whether or not I get them back."

"Very well." Pegasus stood up, and walked towards a table in the room. "Let's duel without holograms so we don't cause a commotion." Pegasus got out a deck, took out and put in several cards, and then shuffled it.

Scott nodded, got his Blue-Eyes deck, and walked towards the table as well, sitting down at the other end of it. "Alright then."

Ghassan and Damian walked towards the table. Pegasus and Scott both drew 5 cards. "Duel!" The two yelled. (Scott 4000/Pegasus 4000)

"I'll go first." Pegasus drew a card. "I set two cards face down. Next I summon Toon Gemini Elf (1900/900) in attack mode." Pegasus put down a card depicting art of two cartoonish woman, one with a blue dress and long blonde hair, the other with a purple dress and long auburn hair. "That'll be the end of my turn."

Scott drew a card. "I summon Protector with Eyes of Blue (800/1300) in defense mode." Scott put down a card depicting art of a muscular swordsman with spiky light-blue hair. "When he's normal summoned, I can special summon another level 1 LIGHT Tuner monster in my hand. I summon my The White Stone of Ancients (0/0) in defense mode." Scott played a card depicting art of a shining light-blue gemstone.

"You know, it's not quite as exciting with no holograms." Damian said.

"Now, with Protector's other effect, I can special summon a Blue-Eyes from my hand by sending an effect monster I control to the graveyard." Scott sent his White Stone of Ancients and played a Dragon that looked similar to Blue-Eyes White Dragon, but much more of a bright-white tone. "My Dragon Spirit of White (2500/2000) is considered a Blue-Eyes card. And when it's normal or special summoned, I can choose a spell or trap you control and remove it from play." Scott pointed to the face down card that was directly below Toon Gemini Elf.

"Well I might as well activate it in that case. Before it's removed from play, I activate Waboku. Now for the rest of the turn, my monsters can't be destroyed by battle, and I take no battle damage."

"You got lucky. I end my turn. And now that it's the End Phase, I can use White Stone of Ancients effect to special summon Blue-Eyes White Dragon (3000/2500) from my deck." Scott searched through his deck, got out a copy of the dragon, and played it on the field.

"My move then." Pegasus drew a card, smiling when he looked at it. "I activate Terraforming. This card lets me add one Field Spell from my deck to my hand. I choose to add Toon Kingdom." Pegasus shown a card depicting art of a cartoon castle popping out from a book. "Now, let me take you to a land of cartoons." Pegasus placed Toon Kingdom on the field. "To activate this card, I remove from play the top 5 cards in my deck." Pegasus took the top 5 cards of his deck, and put them in his pocket. "Now, this card is considered Toon World."

"And naturally, this means that your Toon Gemini Elf can attack directly since I control no Toon monsters, right?"

"Indeed."

"Looks like Toon Kingdom's better in our world than in this world." Damian whispered to Ghassan.

"What do you mean?" Ghassan asked.

"In our world, you only have to banish the top 3 cards to activate it. AND Toon monsters can't be targeted by card effects."

"Toon Gemini elf attacks you directly." Pegasus stated. (Scott 4000-2100) "Now, since Toon Gemini Elf did battle damage to you, I can use it's effect to discard a random card from your hand. How about this one?" Pegasus pointed to the card on Scott's far left.

"Alright then." Scott tossed a card depicting art of an old man with long blue hair named Master with Eyes of Blue (300/1200) to the graveyard.

"I now summon Toon Masked Sorcerer (900/1400) in defense mode and end my turn. Most of my Toons can't attack the same turn they're summoned, so he won't get his moment to shine yet."

Scott drew a card. "And if things go as planned, not ever. I activate Dragon Shrine. This lets me send any Dragon monster from my deck to the grave. And if it's a normal monster, I can send another Dragon there. I send another copy of Dragon Spirit of White to the graveyard, and I send another copy of White Stone of Ancients there as well."

"Hold on, isn't Dragon Spirit of White is an effect monster?" Ghassan asked.

"Let me guess. It's considered a Normal Monster when it's in the graveyard?" Pegasus asked.

Scott nodded. "Now, I activate the effect of my Master with Eyes of Blue in the graveyard. By shuffling it into my deck and sending an effect monster I control to my graveyard, I can special summon a Blue-Eyes monster from my deck." Scott sent Protector with Eyes of Blue to the graveyard and shuffled Master with Eyes of Blue back into his deck, "And naturally, I choose to special summon my second Dragon Spirit of White." Scott put the second copy of the card on the field.

"And since it was special summoned, you can remove from play a spell or trap card that I control."

"Yup. And I choose Toon Kingdom."

"Nice. Toon Kingdom is pretty much the backbone for Toon decks, so getting rid of it so early will definitely help out." Damian said.

Pegasus sighed as he put the Field Spell in his pocket. "No appreciation for the cartoons I see."

"I prefer live-action shows. I attack your-"

"I activate my continuous trap card, Dragon Capture Jar. As long as this card's on the field, all Dragon monsters are switched to defense mode, and can't change their battle positions."

"Tweaked your deck to counter mine I take it?" Scott turned his three cards into horizontal positions.

"It's a lot easier to when you let me see your whole deck." Pegasus replied.

"I set a card face down and end my turn. And with The White Stone of Ancients sent to the grave this turn, I special summon another copy of Blue-Eyes White Dragon from my deck." Scott placed a fourth Blue-Eyes on the field in defense mode.

"Two Dragon Spirit of Whites and two Blue-Eyes White Dragons. Scott can get out a lot of strong monsters really easily with his Blue-Eyes deck." Damian said.

"Yeah, but it with Dragon Capture Jar, he can't do much." Ghassan replied.

Pegasus drew a card, put it back in his hand, and got out another one. "My my. Four beautiful and fierce dragons, but all of them helpless. It's truly a waste isn't it? Well, I sacrifice my Toon Gemini Elf and my Toon Masked Sorcerer so that I can summon Toon Buster Blader (2600/2300) in attack mode." Pegasus sent the two cards to the graveyard and played a card depicting art of a cartoonish purple armored warrior with a large sword. "And if you know the regular Buster Blader's effect, you can what Toon Buster Blader's effect is as well."

Scott sighed. "For every Dragon monster I control or is in my graveyard, Toon Buster Blader gains 500 attack points."

"Scott has four dragons on the field and two in his graveyard." Damian stated. "So that means Toon Buster Blader's gaining 3000 attack points."

"Holy shit that's powerful." Ghassan said.

(Toon Buster Blader 2600-5600/2300) "But, like most Toons, he can't attack the same turn he's summoned. I set a card face down and end my turn."

Scott drew a card. "Alright then. I overlay my two level 8 Dragon Spirit of White's so that I can Xyz Summon my Divine Dragon Knight Felgrand (2800/1800)." Scott put the two monsters over each other and placed a card depicting a warrior in shining dragon-like armor over them. "And since Xyz materials aren't considered as part of the field, your Buster Blader's gonna be losing some attack points."

(Toon Buster Blader 5600-4600/2300) Pegasus remembered designing that card when Xyz and Synchro monsters started to spread. "Negating the effect of Toon Buster Blader I take it?"

Scott nodded. "By detaching an Xyz material, Felgrand can negate the effect of any monster on the field, but that monster is no longer affected by other card effects." Scott sent one of the attached Dragon Spirit of White's to the graveyard. "Meaning that Toon Buster Blader's attack goes back to normal entirely. (Toon Buster Blader 4600-2600/2300)

"Well, that's disappointing." Pegasus stated.

"And that's not all. I activate my facedown card, Call of the Haunted. I can special summon a monster from my grave in attack position. And even though it'll get switched to Defense Mode because of your Dragon Capture Jar, I choose my Dragon Spirit of White." Scott summoned the monster from his graveyard yet again. "You know the drill. With Dragon Spirit's effect, I remove from play your Dragon Capture Jar."

"Not bad." Pegasus put the trap card in his pocket.

"Now, I'm switching my two Blue-Eyes White Dragons to attack mode. Blue-Eyes White Dragon attacks Toon Buster Blader."

Pegasus sent Toon Buster Blader to the graveyard. (Pegasus 4000-3600)

"Now, Divine Dragon Knight Felgrand attacks directly."

"Sorry." Pegasus flipped his face down card. "I activate my own copy of Call of the Haunted. I special summon Toon Buster Blader from my graveyard." Pegasus got Toon Buster Blader out of the graveyard and played it. "And naturally, it gains 500 attack points for every Dragon monster on your field or graveyard." (Toon Buster Blader 2600-5100/2300)

"Figures. I set a card face down and end my turn."

Pegasus drew a card. "I activate Pot of Greed to draw two cards." Pegasus drew two cards from his deck. "I activate Toon Table of Contents. This lets me add any Toon card from my deck to my hand." Pegasus searched through his deck and got out a card. "I took enjoyment in Toon Kingdom, but I'm still fond of the classics. I activate Toon World!" Pegasus placed the continuous spell on the field. "Of course, I have to pay 1000 life points to activate it." (Pegasus 3600-2600)

'Toon World or not, I can still use Felgrand to negate Toon Buster Blader's effect.' Scott thought to himself. 'And when that happens, it won't be able to attack directly.'

"Next, I activate the equip spell, Comic Hand. Since I have Toon World on the field, I can take control of any monster on your side of the field, and have it treated as a Toon Monster." Pegasus pointed to one of Scott's Blue-Eyes White Dragons. "I'll take that monster if you don't mind. Unless you want to use Felgrand to make your Blue-Eyes unaffected of course."

"Not good. If Scott lets Pegasus take control of Blue-Eyes, it can attack him directly." Damian said.

"But even if he prevents Blue-Eyes from being affected, then Toon Buster Blader will be able to attack directly. It's a lose-lose situation." Ghassan said.

Scott sighed. "I'll let you take control of my Blue-Eyes."

"Marvelous." Pegasus put the Dragon on his side of the field. "It's as if I'm using Blue-Eyes Toon Dragon again. Such nostalgic times. Though, with one less dragon on your side of the field, that'll make my Toon Buster Blader's attack points go down by a bit" (Toon Buster Blader 5100-4600/2300) "Now, Battle Phase."

Scott detached the remaining Dragon Spirit of White from Felgrand. "I negate the effect of Toon Buster Blader." (Toon Buster Blader 4600-2600/2300)

"As if that'll matter. I'll attack you directly with Blue-"

"Sorry. I activate my quick-play spell, Silver Cry. This lets me special summon a Dragon Normal monster from my graveyard. Dragon Spirit of White (2500/2000) is considered a Normal monster when in the grave so..." Scott special summoned the detached Dragon Spirit of White in defense position. "And naturally, when it's special summoned-"

"Yes yes. You get to remove from play a spell or trap card I control. I got it the first time." Pegasus replied.

Scott pointed at Pegasus's Toon World. "I remove Toon World from play. And with no Toon World, Comic Hand gets automatically destroyed. Meaning I get my Blue-Eyes back."

Pegasus nodded before giving control of Blue-Eyes White Dragon back to Scott as he sent Comic Hand to the graveyard, and Toon World into his pocket. "At this rate, I wouldn't be surprised if my entire deck gets remove from play. I have Toon Buster Blader destroy one of your Dragon Spirit of White's."

Scott sent one of his copies of the card to the graveyard. "Good thing the Dragon Spirits were' in defense mode."

"I set two cards face down and end my turn. And naturally, Toon Buster Blader gets it's effect back." (Toon Buster Blader 2600-5600/2300)

Scott raised an eyebrow. 'That card he set on the left...he had that in his hand since the beginning of the duel.'

"I must admit, your Blue-Eyes deck is intriguing. And from searching through it, I know there's more that your deck can do."

"You seeing my deck beforehand gives you a bit of an unfair advantage don't ya think?" Scott drew a card, and put it in his hand.

"I'd say that you being from a time with far more advanced cards balances that out."

'Is that face down a bluff? Why wouldn't he have set it beforehand if it was useful? Or maybe there just weren't the proper requirements.' "I activate the effect of one of my White Stone of Ancients in my graveyard. By removing it from play, I can add a Blue-Eyes monster from my deck to my hand. I remove it from play to add Dragon Spirit of White back to my hand."

"You sure do rely on that monster."

"Now that I have two less Dragons in my grave, Toon Buster Blader's attack goes down by 1000." Scott stated. (Toon Buster Blader 5600-4600/2300) "Now, I'm sacrificing my Divine Dragon Knight Felgrand and one of Blue-Eyes White Dragon's to Normal Summon my Dragon Spirit of White once again."

"Of course you realize this means Toon Buster Blader gains 500 attack points yet again." Pegasus stated. (Toon Buster Blader 4600-5100/2300)

Scott eyed Pegasus's face downs. 'I'll have to hope, the facedowns are a bluff. Right now, if I get rid of his Call of the Haunted, Toon Buster Blader will be destroyed. "I activate the effect of Dragon Spirit of White to remove from play your Call of the Haunted.

"Sorry." Pegasus flipped over the face-down card he set on the right. "I activate Solemn Strike. When a monster's effect would be activated, I pay 1500 life points to negate the effect and destroy the monster." (Pegasus 2600-1100)

Scott gritted his teeth as he sent Dragon Spirit of White to the graveyard. 'Damnit...I'd rather not have to give Pegasus my Blue-Eyes deck, even if I might get it back. I just have to hope that last face down is a bluff. If it was useful, he'd have set it earlier, right?' "I activate the spell card Dragon's Mirror. By removing from play fusion materials from my field or graveyard, I can special summon a Dragon Fusion monster from my extra deck." Scott put two of his Blue-Eyes White Dragon's in his pocket.

"And Buster Blader loses a ton of attack points now." Damian stated. (Toon Buster Blader 5100-4100/2300)

"I Fusion Summon Blue-Eyes Twin Burst Dragon" (3000/2500) Scott played a card depicting a two-headed bright-white dragon with blue veins all over it's body.

"Toon Buster Blader will gain 500 attack points again." Pegasus stated. (Toon Buster Blader 4100-4600/2300)

'I'l have enough life points to survive.' "Twin Burst Dragon attacks Toon Buster Blader!"

Ghassan gasped. "What is he doing?!"

"It's part of Twin Burst Dragon's effect." Damian stated. "It can't be destroyed by battle, and..."

"At the end of the Damage Step, if a monster was attacked by Twin-Burst but not destroyed, that monster gets remove from play." Scott finished. (Scott 2100-500) "And Twin Burst can attack twice, so with Toon Buster Blader gone-"

He was interrupted by Pegasus's clapping. "My, my. Your deck is really powerful. If I didn't adjust my deck to counter it, I would have lost."

"WOULD HAVE lost?"

Pegasus flipped his face down on the left over. "I activate Imperial Iron Wall. As long as this continuous trap is on the field, no player can remove cards from play. I noticed that's the primary way your Blue-Eyes deck gets rid of cards, so I put a few copies in."

Scott's eyes widened. "You...you had that card since the beginning of the duel. You could have protected your Toon spells and Dragon Capture Jar."

Pegasus nodded. "I wanted to see what your deck was capable of. Would hardly be enough examination if the game was too easy for me."

Scott was speechless. Pegasus stayed two steps ahead of him the entire duel. He had no more traps or quickplay spells in his hand, nor anything to get rid of Toon Buster Blader. The only reason Pegasus didn't beat him sooner was because he wanted to be entertained. Scott put a hand over his deck. "I give up..."

Pegasus nodded. "Understandable choice." Pegasus stood up, putting his deck back in order. "That means I'll be taking your Blue-Eyes deck. We can discuss you getting them back during the summer. I don't like taking away cards others rightfully own, but like I said, you owning Blue-Eyes is too risky in case people find out."

Scott sighed. "I understand." Scott put together his Blue-Eyes deck and gave it to Pegasus. "And I take it you'll want my cards related to Blue-Eyes in my other decks as well." Scott asked.

"Naturally."

Scott stood up from the chair, and headed towards his portfolio of decks. He searched through every card relating to the Blue-Eyes White Dragon, and put them together. "If we find a way to return to our time though, you will give me my Blue-Eyes cards back, right?"

Pegasus nodded. "If that occurs, there'll be no need to keep a hold on it."

"Alright then." Scott walked towards Pegasus. 'You think you can possess Pegasus too if I give him Blue-Eyes CHAOS Dragon?' Scott asked The Light of Destruction.

'I'm not at my original power, and there isn't anything weakening Pegasus's mind like Kaiba finding out about your Blue-Eyes cards. It'll be far slower.'

'Damn. Guess we can't possess Pegasus like Kaiba then.' Scott gave Pegasus his Blue-Eyes cards. "Here you go."

Pegasus smiled. "Thank you very much. As we said, we'll meet sometime during summer to further discuss this. Oh, to all three of you boys. I know you're hiding something from me."

"What are you talking about?" Ghassan asked.

"Looking shocked about stuff your friends say that you should already know. Whispering to the sides. Looking nervous as I'm inspecting your cards. You really think I wouldn't expect you to be hiding more from me? Please boys, give me more credit than that."

The three all widened their eyes in shock.

"There you go right there. If you truly had nothing to hide, you wouldn't be so surprised about what I pointed out. More likely confused if anything. You three aren't very good liars. So I hope that during our meeting in the summer, you'll be more honest with me and Kaiba-boy. Without the made up story about being from the future, or the lie about there being no other types of cards from you boys." Pegasus turned to Ghassan. "You need to work on your poker face the most. I would have actually believed those stories if it weren't for you. Anyway, so long." Pegasus walked out of the door.

"Geez...I knew Pegasus was smart, but I didn't think he'd be able to read us like a book so easily." Damian stated.

"Damnit...we got over-confident." Ghassan said. "We were so used to manipulating people at Duel Academy that we thought we'd get by in this world without much trouble. It was stupid to think that. Especially when an underaged girl snuck her way into Duel Academy and passed off as a boy."

"Ghassan's right." Scott said. "Not everybody in this dimension's gonna be as easy to trick as most of the people at Duel Academy. Banner completely shut down our plan to get Jaden expelled, Mokuba and Kaiba found out that we're responsible from bringing in Synchro and Xyz monsters, and Pegasus tricked us into thinking he believed our lies."

Ghassan sat down on the bed. "I feel like shit...all the times I told you guys not to blow our cover, and it turns out I'm the one most responsible for it."

Damian sighed. "I guess we were being too naive to think that we could get away with hiding our identities so easily."

Scott nodded. "We were. And I lost my Blue-Eyes cards because of it. But we can't change the past. It's clear that the three of us alone aren't enough to change this world. We need allies."

"The only 'allies' we've got either don't give a shit about us, or are trying to harm us." Ghassan pointed out.

"I'm not talking about the other people working for The Light. I'm saying we need to make more allies. And I think we all know a certain professor who'll be a good start. Albeit a temporary one."

Ghassan suddenly remembered his and Scott's plan and nodded. "Alright then. First thing next semester, we're becoming Shadow Riders."


Wasn't expecting this chapter to be so long. With the end of the Winter Break arc, next chapter will see our trio go back to Duel Academy, and attempt to become Shadow Riders. With last chapter, we know that Banner has other plans for our protagonists. Will they be able to convince Banner to change his mind? Or was their plan doomed from the start?