A few hours had passed since Jason and Chakra dueled and defeated Matilda and Felicia in an Orichalcos Tag Team Duel and security had already removed their unconscious bodies from the island, Jason and Chakra were still in Martin's office giving their reports on the incident but what about the other students who were present at the duel?

"Well, they weren't lying." Tyler commented as he read the webpage on his desktop PC, he and the other students with Duel Spirit Guides were in his dorm room looking up information on the opponents that Jason and Chakra had faced in an attempt to find out more about the Orichalcos Duelists.

"They weren't lying about what?" Chelsea asked as she stepped forward.

"Everything, the card list for the next set was leaked over the weekend and Depressed Angel, Laughing Demon, Weeping into Heaven/Laughing into Hell and D.D. Archfiend is among the leaked card names." Tyler responded as he showed her the list. "The only names I can't find are Corrupted Angel and the two Fallen Angel monsters they used."

"Yeah, I think it's a safe but that those monsters were custom made for Jack, whoever he is." Chloe responded as she read the list. "Can't see any other cards that look like they fit in with the cards those women used though."

"Well rumors are saying that I2 are coming out with new fiend and fairy type XYZ Monsters but nothing about monsters that are treated as both." Tyler responded before changing tabs. "Speaking of those two it took some searching but I was able to confirm that they were prostitutes before they worked for Victor, have a look at this news article I found from the Salt Lake Tribune." Tyler added and the others walked over to read that article.

"Sixty men and women arrested for prostitution in whore house sting operation, police officers among them." Chelsea read the headline aloud and frowned before folding her arms. "They did mention that they worked in a brothel but Salt Lake City isn't exactly a small place so that could've been any whore house."

"Keep reading." Tyler responded with a sigh and Chelsea did so.

"Okay, so a Matilda and a Felicia were among the hookers arrested, you do realize that those are pretty common female names, right?" Chelsea asked and Tyler turned to her with a frown on his face. "I'm not defending them but your proof does have some holes in it, just saying."

"I was getting to that part." Tyler said as he switched to another tab. "I looked up the mug shots from that arrest and, despite a depressing number of girls around our ages being among the prostitutes arrested, I found what I was looking for." Tyler said before scooting backwards and allowing the others to see the mug shots. "Look familiar?"

"That's them all right, they look a little roughed up but that's definitely them." Chelsea said as she scratched her head. "Maybe they liked it rough in the sack."

"I'm not even going to comment on that." Tyler responded with a slight blush. "But I did some more digging and that wasn't their only arrest for prostitution, they had both been arrested for drug possession as well."

"So they were crack whores, what's the big deal?" Chelsea asked with a shrug. "All that's telling me is that Victor likes recruiting criminals to use the Seal."

"The big deal is that after the arrest at the brothel they dropped off the radar almost completely." Tyler responded with a frown. "No further arrests, no records of home ownership in Salt Lake City or Utah, it's like they just vanished."

"Only to come back a year later but as Orichalcos Duelists, I bet Salt Lake PD will be thrilled to know about that." Chloe commented with a frown as she read the article. "What about the guy they mentioned, Jack?"

"Well like Chelsea said, Jack is a common name." Tyler responded with a frown. "However I was able to find a Jack among the men arrested for soliciting prostitutes, apparently arrested whilst in the middle of snorting coke off of a hooker's ass, he has a similar history to them."

"You mean he had prior arrests before vanishing after that big one?" Chelsea asked and Tyler nodded. "Either this is a hell of a coincidence or we're dealing with the same guy."

"Unfortunately, as you know, we didn't get a description or even a last name from Matilda or Felicia and they aren't exactly in any condition to tell us at the moment." Tyler sighed in annoyance before switching to another tab. "But I was able to find the mugshot of the Jack they arrested at the Brothel, his full name was Jack Hass."

"Let me guess, false name?" Chelsea asked with a slight laugh and Tyler nodded. "Thank god for that, what parent would name their kid "jack" with a surname like that?"

"His idea of a joke I guess, his real full name is Jack Haynes and he has quite the rapsheet in Salt Lake City." Tyler said as he scrolled down. "Forgery, counterfeit, generally small time stuff oh and about fifty counts of soliciting prostitution…."

"Did you say fifty?!" Everyone else in the room asked and Tyler shook his head.

"I'm just the messenger but the guy was apparently a frequent customer of the whore house." Tyler said before chuckling. "That said, all the prostitutes, when asked about him and yes that includes the twins Jason and Chakra thought, all had the same thing to say about him, he was a rude misogynistic a-hole who was a bit…lacking downstairs." Tyler said and Chelsea fell over laughing when she figured it out.

"Oh my fucking god…." Chelsea said as she rolled over laughing her ass off. "You know you've got it bad when the girls whose jobs are basically to fuck you complain about your dick size!"

"Once again, I'm not commenting on that." Tyler said as he shook his head. "I can only think of one reason why they put up with despite all that and that's the possibility of him….."

"Let's cut the bullshit Tyler he compensated for his dick size by throwing money around." Chelsea interrupted him and Tyler sweat-dropped. "Most rich boys tend to do that in my experience, mostly thanks to my experiences here at Duel Academy."

"We're just going to ignore the fact that you said that whilst sharing a room with two rich boys." Brandon commented as he cleared his throat and Chelsea sweat-dropped. "And don't even think about asking Theresa about that Lance!"

"I was going to get a drink!" Lance asserted as he walked towards Tyler's mini-fridge which Theresa was standing by. "You got any good sodas in there Tyler?"

"I picked up a few 24 packs over the weekend and I don't exactly drink all that often." Tyler responded before clearing his throat. "Back on topic and ignoring Chelsea's comment…"

"I said most rich boys, not all!" Chelsea pointed out and Tyler cleared his throat. "How did you find all that out anyway? I don't think the Police Department's website would have such private info on it, just the basics of the arrest."

"Your right, it doesn't but like I said I did quite a bit of digging." Tyler responded with a nod as he switched tabs. "And by digging I mean hacking, fortunately I know how to cover my tracks and they'll never know I was there but that's not important, I was looking for reasons why Victor would recruit those three people from the arrest for his Orichalcos revival."

"I'm going out on a limb and saying that the sisters had daddy issues or something along those lines." Chelsea responded with a frown and Tyler nodded.

"It does seem to be the case, however as I am not a psychology major and I don't think anyone else is in this room is either so I'm not qualified to make such a statement." Tyler responded as he shook his head. "And I'm not about to reveal that I've hacked a foreign police department's database to the school by asking the opinion of one of the shrinks they have on staff."

"Maybe you could but switch around the details." Chelsea suggested with a shrug. "Names of the hookers, names of their clients, what they said in their interviews, even the city name, say that it's for a creative writing project or something."

"Well I am a member of the creative writing club so that could work." Tyler admitted as he scratched his chin in thought. "However that isn't the important detail, what is the important detail is how those three out of all the sex workers and clients at the brothel were selected by Victor or even why he chose that particular brothel."

"What about the brothel itself, what happened to that?" Chelsea asked and Tyler checked his info.

"The city tore it down as the madam in charge of it was wanted in another city for murder of a hooker they've built a small nursery where the brothel once stood." Tyler responded and the others sweat-dropped. "And no, the irony of that isn't lost on me either."

"Hey, we're back." Jason said as he entered the room with Chakra behind him. "What did we miss?"

"Tyler's been doing some background checking for the past hour or so." Chloe responded as she turned to them. "So far the most we've learned is that the Orichalcos Duelists you faced and this "Jack" character they referred too might be connected beyond the fact that they work for the same guy."

"What do you mean?" Chakra asked and Tyler motioned them over to his desktop, the two of them walked over and Tyler went over what he had learned with them. "He was snorting coke off a hooker's backside when he was arrested and several hookers were complaining about the size of his penis, how charming." Chakra muttered sarcastically and Tyler shook his head.

"Honestly I'm surprised that you were the first to bring that up." Tyler commented with a frown as he turned to them. "Obviously there is no way we can collaborate this unless we meet Jack in person and considering how high up he seems to be in the totem pole that might not be until we take the fight to them."

"Speaking of your duel, how are you holding up Jason?" Nicola asked and Jason shrugged.

"The nurse gave me some painkillers to cope with the pain but she thinks it'll be gone by Wednesday at the latest." Jason responded with a frown. "As for the meeting with Martin, well it went as well as any meeting with Martin would really, fortunately he kept it short and to the point." Jason added before turning to the others. "So aside from you guys and Nicola who else is helping out with this?"

"We have two Asian students from the Ra Yellow Boy's Dorm helping us." Tyler responded as he turned to them. "Ashitaka Tomoe or Ash as we prefer to call him since his first name's a bit of a mouthful and Hu Wukong."

"The Bujin and Fire Fists duelists from the qualifiers, those are good choices." Chakra commented with a smile. "But I get the feeling that we'll need more than just them."

"I've been trying to get my girlfriend Beth to help out." Chelsea responded with a frown on her face. "No luck there though even though she got kidnapped by an Orichalcos Duelist to lure me out back when they started again."

"Give her time, she'll help us out." Chloe responded before frowning. "Then again considering how dangerous the Orichalcos is I'm surprised that we're getting as much help as we are, you'd think that they'd think it was a terrible idea." Chloe added and Chelsea scoffed. "What?"

"You're talking about bad ideas when you used the Seal yourself last week?" Chelsea asked and the other students, aside from Jason, Chakra and Nicola, winced as their eyes widened. "What?"

"Oh, not much, you just picked the worst possible time to have said that!" Chloe said with a face-palm and Chelsea blinked.

"Huh?" Chelsea asked before it hit her like a ton of bricks. "Oh….."

*meanwhile outside the dorm*

"So, someone else was targeted." Ash thought as he approached the dorm with his hands in his pockets, he had just heard about the Orichalcos Tag Duel and since he wanted to get away from Hu for a while he decided to meet with the others. "And since they often meet up in Tyler's dorm room it shouldn't take me to long to find…."

"YOU DID WHAT?!" The voices of Nicola, Jason and Chakra rang out simultaneously from inside the dorm and Ash sweat-dropped.

"I wonder what that's about." Ash thought before shaking his head and continuing towards the dorm. "One way to find out I suppose."

*back inside the dorm room*

"Yeah, I activated that damn field spell." Chloe sighed in annoyance as she stared down the three furious students. "That wasn't my wisest idea."

"And that's gotta be the biggest understatement ever." Lance commented as he rubbed the back of his head nervously.

"Not the time or place for smart ass comments Lance." Chloe sighed before turning to the other students. "Basically my opponent used the Exchange Spell Card to get it into my hand…."

"You still could've discarded it for an effect!" Jason pointed out and Chloe frowned.

"I didn't have any cards in my hand that required me to discard a card otherwise I would've done so!" Chloe retorted as her eyes narrowed. "But instead I left it in my hand until he played a Spell Card that forced me to use a Spell Card or lose the duel."

"And you didn't just take the damage instead because…." Chakra asked and Chloe sighed.

"I was worried that the bastard would get away." Chloe responded as she shook her head. "In hindsight that was a moot point because the others were there alongside Professor Hamden so he wouldn't have gotten far if I had taken the damage."

"That still doesn't excuse the fact that you used the Orichalcos Chloe." Nicola responded and Chloe turned to her. "Hell you saw what it did to Andreas and god knows how many other duelists back in Battle City so why would you even be tempted to use it?!"

"After my opponent used Exchange a strange voice kept nagging me to use the Orichalcos, I eventually caved in." Chloe sighed just as the door opened. "If you want to chew me out for it Theresa beat you too it the day after and I haven't even thought about using that Spell Card again!"

"How do we know that's true?" Jason asserted as he stepped up to her. "How do we know that you haven't been an Orichalcos Duelist all this time acting as a mole to the other duelists and have been helping them onto the island?!"

"Excuse me?!" Chloe demanded as her eyes narrowed. "What the hell would I have to gain from something like that? The only mole among the Battle City duelists was Otto and he was expelled not long after Battle City!"

"How do we know that you weren't another mole?" Jason asked not noticing Lance walk up to him. "They got to Otto, what's to stop them….." Jason never finished his sentence as he was flawed by a punch to the jaw not from Chloe but from Lance.

"Jason, that's enough." Lance said as he stared down at him and Jason glared at him. "Yes, Chloe made a huge mistake last week but you seem to forget a couple of things, the fact that Chloe's cover would've been blown due to the other female duelists having rooms literally right next to hers and if she was a mole why didn't she reveal herself during the finals like Otto, Karen and Felix did?!"

"Okay, I get your point." Jason grunted as he rubbed his sore jaw. "But did you have to punch me?!"

"You were accusing my girlfriend of being a mole for the enemy." Lance said as he glared at him. "So yeah, I did!" Lance added before grabbing him by the scruff of his t-shirt. "So either you apologize or you get another, make your choice because I'm feeling really punch happy right now!"

"Lance, that's enough!" Chloe said as she put a hand on her boyfriend's shoulder. "Yeah, he crossed the line with his accusations but…."

"And you didn't be activating the Field….." Jason trailed off as Lance went to punch him again only to be stopped by Ash's kendo stick blocking his path.

"It would appear that I chose an interesting time to come over." Ash sighed as his eyes narrowed. "Lance, I hate to do this but unless you let go and help him up you're getting a face full of my kendo stick." Ash warned him and Lance glared at him before letting go and standing up. "Do I even want to know what this is about?" Ash asked as he seethed his kendo stick and Lance helped Jason up.

"It's a long story, partly caused by Chelsea's big mouth." Lance responded whilst ignoring the glare he was getting from Chelsea. "Gonna keep this simple, well as simple as I can really and the four of you must promise not to reveal this to anyone, not even your roommates."

"Lance, Hu is my new roommate." Ash responded with a sigh as the others turned to him. "He pretty much badgered Jeff into letting him by my new roommate and he did so to shut him up basically, in short I'll have to tell him."

"Well tell him not to tell anyone else." Lance responded and Ash nodded in response. "Like Chloe said, she was backed into a corner, was worried about her opponent getting away, used it, instantly regretted it, are we clear?"

"Yeah, we're clear." Nicola said as she shook her head. "I'm just surprised that she used it in the first place, I watched her first Battle City duel on and that looked ridiculously painful."

"Thanks for the reminder Nicola." Chloe responded with a shudder and Nicola winced. "Look it wasn't exactly my finest hour and besides, the likelihood of me ever using that damn spell card again is the same as Chaos Emperor Dragon coming off the ban list."

"Not that the ban list seems to matter to those bastards." Nicola commented with a frown. "They mentioned that one of their associates uses Chaos Emperor Dragon and my opponent in my dream duel used Painful Choice to make summoning Rainbow Dark Dragon easier."

"Dream duel?" Jason asked with a look of confusion on his face which Chakra shared.

"We're not exactly sure how but those bastards have the ability to target us when we're asleep, think the Nightmare on Elm Street movies but with Duel Monsters." Lance responded as he shook his head. "At first they targeted Chloe and Andreas and they were pretty low Ki, when they targeted Chelsea they upped their game big time."

"Yeah, to the point where I still have nightmares about it." Chelsea added with a shudder. "And considering my taste in music and movies that should tell you something about how nasty it was." Chelsea added before turning to Ash. "I'm guessing you didn't come over just to stop Lance beating the shit out of Jason?"

"You still haven't apologized by the way." Jason was quick to add and Lance shook his head.

"Apologize to Chloe first." Lance responded before turning to Ash. "Is she correct Ash?"

"I didn't even know you had company." Ash responded as he nodded to Jason, Chakra and Nicola. "But yes, she is correct though it is to do with Jason and Chakra."

"Let me guess, word reached your ears about our duel?" Jason asked and Ash nodded. "Well I'm doped up on painkillers at the mo but we didn't come out of that duel all that badly."

"That is good to hear." Ash responded with a nod before turning to the others. "So have there been any new developments since my Orichalcos Duel?"

"Nicola, Jason and Chakra have volunteered to help us." Chelsea said as she motioned towards the three teens. "And we think we know who one of the top henchmen in the organization is."

"I'll be the first to admit that it is a longshot." Tyler chimed in as he motioned Ash over to his desktop and Ash walked over. "But by using the fact that the sisters that Jason and Chakra faced a few hours ago pretty much admitted that they were ex prostitutes I did a little digging and found out that the Jack they mentioned might have been a frequent customer of the brothel they worked at."

"Your right, it is a longshot." Ash responded as he read the newspaper article. "But considering how little we actually know about the Orichalcos Duelists as a whole it's the best lead we have but correct me if I'm wrong but isn't there also a female henchmen."

"You're going to have to be a little more specific." Chelsea pointed out and Ash nodded.

"I remember being told that towards the end of your Orichalcos Duel and the Tag Team Orichalcos Duel that you managed to find a female henchman nearby." Ash responded and Chloe frowned before reaching into her blazer pocket.

"Yeah, but we don't know much about her." Chloe responded before retrieving the picture that Sarah had dropped whilst running from them. "We got a name earlier, Sarah, but besides that the only info we have is that she dropped this picture whilst running from us."

"And the picture itself just raises more questions." Chelsea added as she folded her arms. "It's a picture of Chloe's step-parents when they were younger with a three year old girl but according to Chloe that girl's too young to be her when she was adopted."

"She is I wasn't adopted until I was seven years old." Chloe responded with a nod as she looked at the picture. "I asked my dad about it but all he said was that the girl was someone else's kid who they babysat for until she was killed in a horrible car accident a year before they adopted me." Chloe responded before an idea popped into her head. "Hey Tyler, can you see if you can find any articles on that accident?"

"I can try." Tyler responded before turning to his desktop and opening a new tab. "Where did your parents live at the time?"

"They've lived in Domino City all their lives." Chloe responded and Tyler nodded before going to Google.

"Then it shouldn't take me too long to find the article." Tyler responded as he typed into the search engine, however when he saw the time on his computer clock he frowned. "Actually we should meet up again after the tournament duels tomorrow, it's almost curfew time, Jason, Nicola, don't worry you have enough time to get back to the Osiris Red Dorms if you hurry."

"Then I guess we'd better get going." Jason said with a nod as Andreas let Nicola out of the room whilst holding the door open for her, however before Jason could leave Lance cleared his throat. "Seriously dude? Can't this wait until tomorrow?"

"Why so hesitant? All you need to do is say one simple word to my girlfriend and I'll be out of your hair." Lance pointed out and Jason sighed before turning to Chloe. "And it had better be sincere."

"Fine, Chloe I'm sorry I said those things to you and I shouldn't have said them in the first place." Jason apologized and Chloe nodded with a small smile on her face before nudging Lance with her elbow.

"Huh? Oh, right, and I'm sorry for punching you." Lance apologized and Jason nodded before leaving the room with Chakra. "I guess I'll see you tomorrow Chloe, want to meet up for the Duels?"

"Sure, let's meet up outside the main building." Chloe nodded in agreement before she left with Chelsea, once the students who didn't belong in the Obelisk Blue Boy's Dorm had left Lance turned to Tyler. "I guess I'll see you in the morning."

"Sure, good night." Tyler responded and the other boys left in short order. "Strange, I can't find any mention of the story Chloe mentioned a few minutes ago." Tyler thought as he scrolled down the list of websites. "She mentioned that it was a year before she was adopted and since she's eighteen I should be going back twelve years." Tyler realized before adding "from twelve years ago" to the search bar and hitting enter. "Well that didn't help much all I can find is a similar story about a couple losing their daughter in collision with a drunk driver….wait a minute…." Tyler thought whilst he read the preview for the article and clicked on it, once he read through the article Tyler's eyes widened. "Oh my god, Chloe's not going to like this."

*the next morning*

Thankfully for the students on the island there wasn't a repeat of the storm that had plagued the proceeding night and most of them were able to get to sleep without much hassle and those who didn't only didn't get any sleep because they were with their boyfriend/girlfriend and thus it took them a little longer to get to sleep.

"Good morning Chloe." Chelsea greeted her roommate when she heard her yawn Chloe sat up in her bed and swung her legs over. "Just warning ya, you'd better get dressed ASAP."

"Why?" Chloe asked as she checked the time on her watch. "The tournament duels aren't starting for another couple of hours at the least."

"I know and that's not why I mentioned it." Chelsea responded as she called her roommate over and Chloe walked over to Chelsea's desktop which was showing Duel Academy's website.

"Martin's called an assembly two hours before the duels begin?" Chloe asked as she read the headline. "Bad timing isn't it? I mean if it's about the security upgrades yesterday then wouldn't it have been easier to just post it on the website?"

"Chloe, given how long we've known him, not to mention the fact that he used a Sylvan Deck against me in our duel on Saturday, I'm surprised that you're surprised by that." Chelsea joked as she shook her head. "Seriously though if he's calling an assembly this early then it's probably about more than just the Security Upgrades, might have to do with that new type of card that I2's releasing in a couple of sets."

"A new card type? Even so then that still doesn't make any sense to me, I mean if this new card type is anything like the Synchro and XYZ Monsters then it should go in the extra deck right?" Chloe asked as she walked over to her closet and started searching for an outfit to wear.

"Actually Chloe, from what I've heard this new Card Type is something that will change the way Duel Monsters is played." Chelsea responded as her roommate started getting dressed. "But all I know about them is its name, Pendulum Monsters."

"What, you mean like that old Machine Monster Pendulum Machine?" Chloe asked and Chelsea sweat-dropped.

"Chloe, Sophia Pegasus may be giving old monsters new chances, mostly beast type monsters but still, but I don't think she'll be bringing back that old, outdated monster." Chelsea responded as she shook her head. "I mean seriously, a Level Five monster that could easily be beat by more Level Four monsters than I care to count? I know the early Duel Monster rules were radically different to what they are today but come on!"

"What's even sadder is the fact that that Pendulum Machine isn't even the worst offender of the bunch!" Chloe responded with a grin as she put her Ra Yellow Blazer on and left it open to show her crop top underneath. "Crawling Dragon anyone?"

"Yeah but on the other hand if we're going to sit here and joke about terrible early Duel Monster cards we're gonna be here all day and miss the assembly and Tournament Duels." Chelsea responded as she logged off and stood up. "And honestly, I managed to miss one assembly and I'm not doing that again!"

"You mean when you and Beth missed the assembly that sent me and the other students off to New York for Battle City because you were making out with each other?" Chloe asked with a grin and Chelsea shook her head.

"The sex was worth missing the assembly, that's all I'm saying." Chelsea responded with a grin as she made her way to the door. "Anyway, I'm ready to go when you are."

"Let's go." Chloe nodded in response before following her roommate out of the dorm.

*a bit later on*

The assembly hall wasn't used all that often, in fact the last time it was used was when the students who competed in Battle City returned to the island, due to the fact that the school preferred posting announcements on the its website rather than calling assemblies just to make an announcement, however when they did call assemblies it was usually for something major and as a result most of the time all of the students attended and this was no exception.

"Good morning students, I hope you've enjoyed your four day weekend." Martin greeted them as the students sat down. "Now as you know there was several promotion duels that were held on Saturday which resulted in eight students being promoted, whilst most of their former rooms have been filled up we are still looking for students to fill in their former rooms so if you fancy the former dorm rooms of Beth McKenzie, Kyle Winston and Rachel Travis in Osiris Red and Marcus Reynolds and Andreas Freshier in Ra Yellow don't hesitate to ask your headmaster but keep in mind that it will be done on a first come, first serve basis."

"That's it? He called an assembly for that?" Chloe thought with a look of confusion on her face."Nah, it can't be, there's probably more to this."

"Our second piece of business is security, as you may have noticed there's a few more security guards stationed at various points including the duel fields." Martin added and some members of the crowd groaned. "And judging from that response I can already tell that some of you have had bad encounters with them, rest assured that they have only been hired in response to the recent wave of Orichalcos Duels on the island including one that took place after the Ra Yellow Welcome Party ended and they have been instructed to only hassle you if they think you're up to something suspicious."

"So in other words it's up to them who will get in trouble and they'll probably ignore everything Jessica and Cameron do." Lance thought with a frown as he glanced over at Chloe who was also frowning, the new couple were sitting next to each other near the back of the class. "Yep, this is definitely reminding me of the school I was at before I moved to Domino City."

"However they are also willing to listen to you if you have any grievances with other students and they will deal with it to the best of their ability otherwise they will report it to myself or one of the other teachers at which point we will take care of it." Martin added before one of the proctors stepped onto the stage wearing what looked like a Duel Academy disk but with extra slots and buttons just below the life-point counter. "And now onto our last piece of business, starting from today the school will be using new Duel Disks supplied by Kaibacorp."

"New Duel Disks? Is this a response to the new Pendulum Monsters?" Chelsea thought before noticing that Nicola, who was sitting next to Beth, looked uncomfortable. "Is there something wrong Nic?"

"I'll tell you after the assembly." Nicola responded as she glanced up at Chelsea who nodded in response.

"You may have noticed that this duel disk has several features that are different from the standard issue Duel Disk." Martin continued as the proctor loaded a deck into the duel disk. "And Proctor Thompson here will be doing a demonstration of these features, first off show them the auto shuffle feature."

"Yes sir." Thompson responded before pressing a button on his duel disk, the Duel Disk shuffled the deck for several seconds before stopping.

"As you can see you no longer have to do the shuffling yourself, the duel disk does it for you." Martin added before turning to Thompson and activating his own Duel Disk. "Before you ask, we won't be having a duel, I am merely assisting in the demonstration, Thompson and I will now draw a card each." Martin added before they drew a card each before Thompson drew another.

"I summon Front Observer in attack mode!" Thompson played the card and a new monster appeared on the field, it was a small blue and yellow machine with a propeller on its head, a claw on its right hand and what looked like a gun in its other hand (4/1000/1500). "I set one card facedown and end my turn, this in turn activates Front Observer's effect, since it's the end phase of the turn that I summoned this monster I can add one Earth Type Pendulum Monster from my deck to my hand!" Thompson added before pressing some buttons on his duel disk, as the deck shuffled Martin heard some confused murmuring from the crowd.

"It'll all be explained in due time students." Martin responded before Thompson added the card he was looking for to his hand and shuffled the deck again. "My turn." Martin announced before drawing his card. "I summon Sylvan Bladefender!" Martin played the card and the plant themed samurai appeared on the field (4/1900/700). "Bladefender, attack Front Observer!" Martin commanded and the samurai charged into battle…..

"Not if I negate the attack with Negate Attack!" Thompson activated the trap and Bladefender's blade was stopped by an invisible force-field.

"Very well, I end my turn, don't worry students this demonstration won't take too much longer." Martin added and Thompson drew his card. "Thompson, it is time to demonstrate a Pendulum Summon!"

"Off course! In my right Pendulum Zone I place the monster I searched out last turn, Rescue Hamster!" Thompson played the card and a new monster appeared on the field, it was a small hamster wearing a yellow worker's helmet similar to Rescue Rabbit's (Pendulum Scale: 5/4/300/100). "And in my right Pendulum Zone I place Odd Eyes Pendulum Dragon!" Thompson played the card and another, much larger monster appeared on the field, it was a large red dragon that was odd in appearance as it was in name (Pendulum Scale: 4/7/2500/2000).

"Excellent, now you have a combined Pendulum Scale of Nine." Martin said with a nod as he stared at the two monsters. "And that means that you can Special Summon as many monsters whose levels are between the levels five and nine as possible."

"WHAT?" The entire crowd shouted simultaneously and Martin cleared his throat.

"Thompson, care to demonstrate that fact for the students?" Martin asked and Thompson nodded.

"With pleasure! I use the effect of my Pendulum Monsters to summon Summoned Skull!" Thompson played the card and the massive demonic fiend appeared on the field (6/2500/1200). "Summoned Skull, attack Bladefender with Lightning Strike!" Thompson commanded and the demon launched its attack at the Samurai destroying him. "Front Observer, attack him directly!" Thompson commanded and the machine flew towards Martin before hitting him with his claw.

"And that's the end of that demonstration." Martin announced and the crowd cheered. "Please give a hand for Thompson and do go easy on him, it's his first day here at the academy." Martin added and the crowd cheered.

"Best first day ever, right?" Thompson asked jokingly and the crowd cheered even louder as he left the stage.

"Now whilst I'm sure that most of you got a kick out of seeing me defeated there is one last thing to announce, as of five minutes ago the shop got its first shipment of Pendulum Monsters and you are free to go get them right about….." Martin trailed off as the bell rang. "…..now, and your new Duel Disks will be waiting for you in your dorm rooms." Martin added and the crowd cleared the room in a hurry to get to the duel shop, however whilst that was going on Thompson was making a call.

"Jack, the fool fell for it." "Thompson" whispered into his earpiece as he walked away. ""Sarah is a fucking genius for coming up with this plan!"

"It was my idea you idiot!" Jack snapped at him and "Thompson" sweat-dropped. "Anyway, what's going on there? Sounds like a stampede is going through the main building!"

"Martin just announced that the shop has the Pendulum Monsters on sale." "Thompson" added with a grin under his mask. "You know how kids are they are always excited to get their hands on the latest toy until the next one rolls around."

"Did you suddenly forget that some of those "kids" are as old as eighteen?" Jack asked and "Thomson" sweat-dropped. "Whatever, just try not to get trampled! In the meantime meet up with Delaney and plan your next move with her." Jack responded and Thompson grinned before hanging up and walking off.

*later on*

Whilst there was a rush to be the first student to get their hands on a Pendulum Monster and appropriate support cards at the end of the day most of the students were happy with what they got including the students who competed in Battle City and their friends.

"Timegazer Magician, Stargazer Magician, I just need a warrior to represent the other half of my deck and I'll be all set." Chloe commented with a satisfied grin on her face as she looked at the two Pendulum Monsters she had gotten from the Card Shop. "I'm surprised you didn't grab any Chelsea."

"Chloe, I run a Watt Deck, the only Level Six Monster I have that isn't a Synchro Monster is Wattaildragon." Chelsea sighed as she turned to her roommate. "Just saying, I would've been wasting my money getting those cards." Chelsea added before shaking her head. "Anyway I was wondering something about you during the assembly."

"What do you mean?" Chloe asked and Chelsea shook her head.

"You told me a couple of weeks ago that Lance would be your first boyfriend if you got together." Chelsea started and Chloe frowned realizing what she meant. "And yet now that you're together with Lance you say he wasn't your first?"

"Yeah, I guess I should clarify on that." Chloe said with a sigh as she shook her head. "What I meant was that Lance was my first serious boyfriend, the others were just guys at my old school who only wanted to date me because I was one of the hottest girls at that school, I learned my lesson after the third one started bragging and I basically told myself that I wouldn't date another boy until I was sure that he would be my Prince Charming." Chloe added and Chelsea laughed. "You laugh but that was actually what I wrote in my diary, at the time I was into two things, romantic comedies and Disney movies, I even named one of my dogs after Nala from the Lion King."

"Well, I'll give you credit for having good taste in animated movies." Chelsea said with a grin which quickly turned into a frown. "That said if you wanted to make sure that Lance was the right guy for you then why did you make him promise not to brag about having sex with you? Don't you know him better than that?"

"I do, I just…." Chloe trailed off before sighing. "Off all the times to have a brain fart….." Chloe muttered under her breath before shaking her head. "I guess I'm just insecure about trusting anyone after dad lied to me about my biological dad's conviction for eleven years."

"That's fair enough but you still forgave him in the end." Chelsea pointed out and Chloe nodded. "Like I said on Sunday, Lance has put so much work into getting you to be his girlfriend that he'd be stupid to screw that up."

"Yeah, maybe your right, how long do we have before the Tournament kicks off again anyway?" Chloe asked and Chelsea checked the time on her computer clock. "Though I will admit one thing, it's kinda strange getting a new duel disk barely a couple of days after I got my old new one."

"My guess is that they scheduled the Promotion Duels first and got the new Duel Disks from Kaibacorp sometime yesterday but yeah, it'll be weird." Chelsea commented before turning her attention back to her computer clock. "Err we have about half an hour left, if we want to get good seats we'd better hurry."

"Who's competing today again?" Chloe asked as she grabbed her duel disk and Chelsea checked the schedule.

"Well your new boyfriend's team is up first against Kristopher O'Neil and Lamont Berry, after that Vernon Chan and Charity Hensley is taking on Latoya Conley and Loella Schneider." Chelsea responded as she read the schedule. "Should be a good couple of duels anyway and a decent break from the Orichalcos Duels at least."

"Honestly at this point, especially after what happened yesterday, I'll just be happy to never hear that card's name again." Chloe sighed and Chelsea nodded in agreement. "Sadly it'll be a long time before that happens."

"Yeah, but we've got something to use against them that they seem to be terrified off, namely the Legendary Dragons…." Chelsea trailed off before wincing at the uncomfortable look on Chloe's face. "And that's if The Eye of Timeaus trusts you again after you used the Orichalcos, open mouth, insert foot."

"First off if you're into that kind of kinky stuff, at least keep it between you and Beth." Chloe responded with a grin and Chelsea grinned as well.

"Ha-ha, very funny, seriously Chloe, leave the smart ass remarks to me, there is a reason why I was called Queen Smart Ass at one of my old schools." Chelsea responded and Chloe shook her head.

"I thought you gave yourself that title after you got the principle to laugh at one of your jokes?" Chloe asked as the two girls left the dorm room and Chelsea shook her head.

"Details, details, anyway what was the second thing?" Chelsea asked and Chloe grinned.

"Second, let's just get going." Chloe responded and Chelsea grinned before they walked off.

*meanwhile*

"He loves me, he loves me not, he loves me…." Nicola trailed off as she leaned against the wall of the Obelisk Blue Boy's dorm, she had agreed to meet Andreas there so that they could attend the duels together, at the moment though she was passing the time by going through the old "he loves me not" routine using her deck instead of a flower. "He loves me….crap, a spell card, I have to start over." Nicola sighed to herself before reshuffling her deck by hand.

"Ah there you are Nicola." Andreas's voice rang out and Nicola jumped dropping her deck in the process. "You do remember the part about the Duel Disk having an auto-shuffle feature now right? Wait, that's your old Duel Disk?"

"I haven't been back to my dorm room since I woke up this morning." Nicola responded as she bent over to pick up her cards. "Besides, even if I did go back to my room I'm still a bit iffy about using it."

"Yes, Chelsea did mention that you looked uncomfortable when they demonstrated the auto-shuffle feature." Andreas said with a nod before sitting down on the grass. "Here, let me help you."

"Thanks." Nicola responded as they started picking up her cards, Nicola sighed after a few minutes before looking around and plopping down on the grass. "All though honestly, it ties into the dream duel I had on Saturday because my opponent was using a Duel Disk with an auto-shuffle feature and he was blatantly cheating to boot."

"Ah yes, that." Andreas sighed as he shook his head. "If it makes you feel any better you could always ask Martin how easy it is to rig the auto-shuffle feature to give you the cards you need outside of a card effect." Andreas added and Nicola frowned.

"Wouldn't that make him think that I intend to cheat whilst using it?" Nicola asked and Andreas shook his head.

"Not if you word it correctly, say that you heard about some pro-league duelists using an exploit in the auto-shuffle feature to win their duels, something along those lines." Andreas responded and Nicola grinned at that idea. "How are your wounds anyway?"

"They're healing up, went to the nurse's office after I got the Crystal Beast Pendulum Monsters for a checkup and the good news is that the claw marks are barely visible and the gash has cleared up mostly." Nicola added and Andreas smiled at that. "She thinks that they'll be completely healed by the time the weekend's here."

"That is excellent news." Andreas said as he handed her one of her cards. "Maybe now you'll wear crop tops more often." Andreas added and Nicola shook her head.

"Dad only let me get away with a couple of them and they are buried in my closet somewhere, he doesn't even let me wear swimwear that exposes my stomach." Nicola responded with a grin as she gathered up her cards. "When I said that he's overprotective I meant it, only reason I have any tops that show off some skin is because mom brought them for me the day before I moved to the island."

"Your mom, wait, I thought…..." Andreas trailed off and Nicola shook her head.

"My dad remarried when I was seven years old, he told me that he got tired of the bachelor life-style when he came clean about, well, you know." Nicola responded as a small grin appeared on her face. "She already had a son from another marriage, he's a few years older than me and he attended Duel Academy a few years ago, but before he introduced me to them he made sure that they knew I was autistic and what that meant."

"That makes sense I'd probably do the same in his shoes." Andreas nodded in agreement as he gathered up and handed over more cards. "So how is your step-mom?"

"Well, obviously I can't compare her to my birth mom." Nicola responded with a sad sigh and Andreas nodded. "But she's awesome, I basically couldn't ask for a better mom, well besides…." Nicola trailed off as a few tears rolled down her cheek.

"I understand." Andreas nodded in understanding and Nicola grinned at that. "What of your brother? I believe you mentioned him when you stopped by Lance's dorm room on Sunday?"

"Yeah, his name is Zach and we get along great." Nicola responded as she thought of him. "I mean yeah, I did catch him "enjoying" his porno mags a couple of times but he doesn't' care if I'm autistic or not, I'm still his little step-sister."

"So you know the nature of Lance's magazines." Andreas said as he raised his eyebrow and Nicola laughed.

"I'm autistic, not naïve." Nicola responded with a grin. "I basically played along with him because I found his whole routine funny."

"I will admit that I had to stop myself from laughing a couple of times." Andreas admitted as he thought back to that day, he picked up the last card from Nicola's deck and handed it to her. "You know, I did hear you going through the "he loves me not" routine."

"Oh god…." Nicola said with a slight blush on her face. "I needed something to pass the time and I first thought of you and me…..well, as a couple." Nicola said as she rubbed the back of her head nervously. "I only used my deck because there were no flowers around."

"Well, that kind of improvisation will help you at the school." Andreas said as he got up and helped Nicola up when she got up she was inches away from Andreas's face and blushed a bit. "As for why you were doing that, I think you know the answer."

"Really…." Nicola trailed off and Andreas nodded, the two teens leaned in for a kiss when…..

"Err, guys, the duels are about to start." Marcus's voice rang out and they both face-faulted. "That and I don't think you want an audience whilst you deflower Nicola."

"That wasn't even remotely what I had in mind." Andreas responded as he blushed like a madman and he helped Nicola back up. "Nicola, I think we'd better continue this conversation away from prying eyes."

"Err, yeah, let's do that." Nicola said with a blush before following the boys into the main building and putting her deck back in its slot, Nicola absent-mindedly drew the first card from her deck and looked up at Andreas when she saw what it was. "Crystal Beast Sapphire Pegasus, that's the last card Andreas gave me after he finished gathering up my cards and it just happened to be my Duel Spirit Card, Andreas's specialty is Beast Type monsters so maybe it's a sign that he does love me? I mean we did almost kiss." Nicola thought before shaking her head. "It can't be I mean it has to be a coincidence."

"I think we both know the answer to that Nicola." Sapphire Pegasus responded and Nicola sighed.

"Maybe but what will I say? My autism makes finding the right words hard enough but confessing my love to him?" Nicola thought as she put her hands in her blazer pockets. "That and he's in Obelisk Blue now, how many Obelisk Blue students do you know who are dating Osiris Red Students?"

"Well you're already the first autistic student at this school you could always be a first in another area." Sapphire Pegasus responded and Nicola sighed.

"I need some time to think on this." Nicola responded before returning her monster to her deck.

*a bit later on*

By now the stadium that was hosting the Tag Tournament was filled up with students and the students who were working together to eliminate the Orichalcos made sure to sit with each other, thankfully for them Jessica Stevens, Cameron Matthews and Thomas Newborne were sitting across the arena from them so they could enjoy the duels in peace.

All except for one of the students and that was because he was competing next.

"Fire Fists and a video game based deck." Lance chuckled under his breath as he leaned against the wall. "How hard can it be? Sure they beat they're first round opponents but they haven't faced me yet!"

"Getting cocky before we even step into the arena Lance?" Evan asked as he approached his teammate and Lance looked up. "I wouldn't do that if I were you, I heard several Obelisk Blue Students say the exact same thing in the first round and their teams ended up being eliminated."

"Maybe but why wouldn't I be cocky?" Lance asked with a shrug before he kicked off the wall. "I've been riding high ever since I was promoted to Obelisk Blue and whilst I couldn't find any Fire Type Pendulum Monsters when I looked I think I'll be fine without them."

"Your deck has gotten us this far despite it being hit by several banlists in a row." Evan responded with a nod and Lance frowned. "At least you didn't have to change your deck because the banlists crippled it."

"Yeah, that reminds me, are you sure about using your old deck after how well you used the Prophecy Deck? I mean I get why you changed it but won't that leave you at a disadvantage?" Lance asked and Evan shook his head.

"Trust me, I was running this deck long before the Spellbook and Prophecy archetypes were a concept being proposed to Pegasus, we'll be fine." Evan responded with a confident look on his face as the two boys entered the arena. "Just remember what I said, having a little confidence is okay and all but there's a thin line between cocky and arrogant, keep that in mind."

"Trust me, I will." Lance responded before they stepped onto the arena.

"Welcome to day eleven of the Tag Team Tournament!" Martin announced and the crowd cheered as both teams stepped onto the arena. "We apologize for the delay but anyone who saw the announcement on the website should know why the delay was put into effect, without further ado let's introduce the first match of the day and it is between Evan Grant and one of the new Obelisk Blue Students Lance Alvers and Kristopher O'Neil from Osiris Red and Lamont Berry of Obelisk Blue."

"I liked this match better when I wasn't outnumbered three to one by Obelisk Blue Students." Kristopher muttered under his breath but adjusting his glasses. "But then again I guess congratulations are in order Lance."

"Yes, yes, I know, I'm now in Obelisk Blue." Lance said with a confident grin as Kristopher chuckled. "You may bow before me and say that I'm not worthy." Lance added and everyone else face-faulted.

"You ARE kidding, right?" Kristopher asked as he and others got back to his feet. "Anyway that was one of the things I wanted to congratulate you on, the other thing is finally getting to do the bedroom funky monkey with Chloe after all this time." Kristopher added and it was Lance's turn to face-fault whilst the other competitors looked at him strangely. "What?"

"Bedroom funky monkey…." Evan trailed off as he stared at the Osiris Red Student. "That is the strangest euphemism for sex that I have ever heard and I stumbled upon Lance's po…." Lance swiftly got to his feet and covered his partner's mouth in one swift motion.

"Did you suddenly forget that Chloe is in the audience?" Lance whispered into his ear as he pointed his girlfriend out. "Let me spell it out for you, she hasn't even seen the inside of my dorm room yet, let alone my porn stash!"

"Right, got it, now please remove your hand." Evan responded and Lance nodded before walking back to his spot. "As I was saying, and I stumbled upon the porn stash of an Obelisk Blue student who shall not be named completely by accident."

"Could've sworn you were about to say Lance's name." Kristopher commented as a large sweat-drop rolled down his head.

"Nope, not at all, he was referring to that new Obelisk Blue Student, Lane, yeah, that's it." Lance responded and Kristopher nodded.

"I DON'T EVEN HAVE A PORN STASH!" An unknown male voice from the audience rang out and the three students sweat-dropped.

"Ladies and gentlemen I present to you my fellow Obelisk Blue Students." Lamont muttered under his breath as he pinched the bridge of his nose in annoyance. "Martin, can you please announce the order and get this duel started before I develop a severe migraine?" Lamont called out to him and Martin cleared his throat.

"An excellent idea Lamont, the order will be as follows, Lance, then Kristopher, then Evan and finally Lamont." Martin announced and the students moved into position and drew their opening hands. "Now, let the duel begin!" Martin added and Lance drew his card.

"Just for the record Kristopher, I haven't gotten that far with Chloe yet." Lance said as he looked over his hand. "Sure, we made the relationship official over the weekend and don't get me wrong, I definitely want to go that far with her but she's the kind of girl who prefers to take things slow with a relationship like this, are we clear?"

"Crystal." Kristopher responded with a nod. "Must resist blue balls joke…."

"Lance, before you continue…." Evan trailed off with a sigh. "I understand that you're new to this but you just embarrassed your new girlfriend in front of the entire school." Evan added and Lance's eyes widened when he realized that. "If I were you I'd start thinking up a million ways to apologize to her, pick one that you think is the best and apologize as soon as possible."

"Oh shit…." Lance thought before glancing over at were Chloe was, which was easy enough since his friends where all in the front and second rows, and realizing that she was blushing like a madwoman. "Even after I start dating her fate seems determined to kick me in the balls regarding her, better start brain-storming." Lance thought before looking over his hand. "I set two cards facedown and I summon Great Angus." Lance played the cards and the large blood red warthog appeared on the field (4/1800/600).

"I can't believe you still use that outdated card." Lamont said as he shook his head. "Especially now that you are an Obelisk Blue Student and after we were introduced to the Pendulum Monsters during the assembly earlier."

"First off I couldn't find any Fire Type Pendulum Monsters no matter how hard I looked." Lance responded as he folded his arms. "Second, who am I to say no to a decent fire type beat stick like Great Angus? I mean hell, people still use Gemini Elf and Apprentice Magician and those cards are even older than Great Angus."

"Those are some great points, I will grant you that." Lamont admitted with a nod.

"Anyway, I'm pretty sure I wasted most of the time limit already so I end my turn." Lance added and Kristopher drew his card."The guy runs a Video Game Deck, how tough can he be?"

"Didn't you say the same thing when you first heard of Chloe's deck?" Thestalos asked and Lance shook his head.

"That was before I knew just how dedicated she is to making a Spellcaster/Warrior deck based on the Fantasy Novels she read growing up work." Lance responded as he glanced up at Kristopher. "And in her defense there's plenty of support for warriors and Spellcasters but Video Game cards? Last I checked there were only a handful of those cards released, including Enemy Controller."

"I start with a Field Spell, I activate World 1!" Kristopher played the card and it didn't take the four duelists long to recognize their surroundings once the scenery changed, it was the opening level to the original Super Mario Brothers game and they could've heard the iconic music that went with it in the background.

"You're kidding." Lance said as he looked around. "Sophia Pegasus actually approved a field spell based on the opening level of Super Mario Brothers."

"Trust me I was as surprised as you were when I found this card and other cards like it in the pack I got when the Card Shop sold out of Pendulum Monsters." Kristopher responded before shaking his head. "But there's more to this Field Spell than just Super Mario Brothers, after all there are plenty of other NES Games."

"We're not going to go through them all are we?" Lance asked as a large sweat-drop rolled down his head. "I ask because I am in no hurry to put up with the horror of Action 52 as a Field Spell." Lance added and the three duelists gave him an odd look.

"Action 52?" Kristopher asked as he scratched his head. "I don't think I have that game in my extensive video game collection, then again I do mean extensive since I have pretty much every console ever made since the Atari 2600 and a gaming PC…."

"First off, how the hell can you fit that many consoles and a Gaming PC in one Osiris Red Room?" Lance asked as an even larger sweat-drop rolled down his head. "Those rooms are tiny!"

"I managed it with great effort and perfect space management." Kristopher responded with a smirk. "Now I don't want to risk running out of time so can we get to your second point?"

"My second point is that you should be thankful that you've never heard of, or played, Action 52." Lance responded and Kristopher frowned.

"I guess I'll take your word for it, for now I activate one of World 1's effects, for the cost of not conducting my Battle Phase this turn, a moot point as it is my first turn, I can add one monster with the name "Video Game Hero" in its name from my deck to my hand." Kristopher added before he started using the auto-shuffle feature to shuffle through the deck.

"That's going to take some getting used to." Lance thought as he watched Kristopher pick up his card.

"I now summon the monster I retrieved, Video Game Hero – Mario!" Kristopher played the card and an unmistakable figure appeared on the field, it was Mario, the famous video game character and Nintendo's mascot as he appeared in the original Super Mario Brothers (4/1000/1500).

"Is anyone else beginning to think that Sophia Pegasus is a bit of a gamer chick?" Lance asked as he looked at Kristopher's two cards. "I mean seriously, what else am I supposed to take away from this?"

"Well, her step-dad was known for his love of cartoons and eccentricity, well that and rumors surrounding his sexuality that I'm not about to get into, maybe that rubbed off on his step-daughter in regards to Video Games?" Kristopher offered before shaking his head. "But like Lance I've wasted enough time here, I set two cards facedown and end my turn." Kristopher set the two cards down and Evan drew his card.

"This field spell concerns me." Evan thought as he looked around the field. "On one hand, I love the old Mario games as much as the next guy who grew up on the NES but there's one thing I remember from the games and that's hidden dangers." Evan thought before picking up three cards. "I will not waste as much time as my partner or Kristopher, I set one card facedown, a monster in defense mode and I activate Arcane Barrier."

"Right now I'm actually glad that Heavy Storm has been banned for several banlists." Lance commented absentmindedly and Evan nodded.

"Indeed, in any case I end my turn." Evan announced and Lamont drew his card.

Meanwhile in the audience the crowd was eagerly anticipating the next move as much as they could, however for one group of duelists they were distracted by one thing.

"Guys, where's Tyler and Miranda?" Chloe realized as she looked around having finally gotten over her prior embarrassment. "You'd think they'd be here with us."

"I stopped by Tyler's dorm room earlier, benefits of being an Obelisk Blue Student." Andreas said as he pushed his glasses up his nose. "He said that he was busy with something and Miranda would be joining him shortly, he also added that he planned to watch the matches as soon as they were uploaded onto Duel Academy's YouTube channel."

"This makes no sense to me." Chelsea admitted as she folded her arms. "Whatever he's doing, surely he can put it on hold, right?" Chelsea asked with a frown. "Unless it's an online multiplayer game, I know he's a pretty avid gamer."

"I seriously doubt that it was something as simple as an Online Multiplayer Game." Andreas responded with a frown. "The one thing that gave it away was his tone of voice, to put it simply it sounded like he had uncovered information that could turn our war on the Orichalcos Duelists on its head, curiously enough he also said that he wants you to come over to his dorm room as soon as the duel ends or, if you have a class right after the duels, as soon as you can Chloe, he didn't say why but it was clear that your presence is vital."

"I get the feeling that I'm not going to like where this is going." Chloe admitted as she took a deep breath. "But if it helps us against the Orichalcos I'll be there as soon as I can." Chloe added before turning her attention back to the duel.

"Right then, let's see how this thing works." Lamont thought as he played his drawn card. "I start my turn with a Spell Card called Fire Formation – Tenki! Now since Lance uses this card in his deck and he is good friends with another Fire Fist Duelist…."

"If you mean Hu then I have to correct you." Lance responded as he folded his arms. "I don't really know him well enough to consider him a friend, the only thing I know about him, aside from what deck he runs, is that fact that he's my old roommate's new roommate so if anything he's more of an acquaintance."

"Fair enough, now then, do you want to explain the effect or should I?" Lamont asked and Lance shook his head.

"Go ahead." Lance responded and Lamont nodded.

"For now this Spell Card acts as a Fire Type Beast Warrior exclusive version of Reinforcement of the Army." Lamont added before adding in some commands onto his disk…..or at least trying too. "How hard can this thing be? I've entered it correctly."

"Normally I'd say "That's What She Said" but this is my first duel as an Obelisk Blue Student." Lance thought as he watched Lamont struggle. "Besides, Obelisk Blue Students are held to a higher standard than the rest so they are probably above such childish…."

"That's what she said!" Daniel Troy's voice rang out from the audience and the four duelists sweat-dropped.

"Or not…." Lance's thoughts trailed off as Lamont finally figured it out.

"Okay, I think I just wasted a good amount of time trying to figure this out so I'll go through this as quickly as possible! First I summon Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Bear in attack mode!" Lamont played the card and the large armored bear appeared on the field (4/1600/1200). "And since Tenki is on the field Bear gets a slight power boost." Lamont added as Bear's attack increased to 1700. "I set two cards facedown and end my turn." Lamont added and Lance drew his card. "Note to self, after duel make Daniel pay for that joke."

"Inferno, this monster isn't much use to me right now." Lance thought as he looked at his drawn card. "My graveyard's empty and the only facedown card I have that could be useful is Reckless Greed and that could backfire big time." Lance thought before shaking his head. "What have I got to lose?" Lance thought as his facedown card flipped up. "I activate Reckless Greed! Now in exchange for skipping my next two draw phases I get to draw two cards."

"Using such a risky card this early Lance? You must me getting desperate." Lamont responded as Lance drew two cards.

"Considering that my first card was a dead draw I consider the risk worth it." Lance responded as he sent his trap card to the graveyard before looking at his drawn cards. "This is more like it!" Lance thought before picking up one of his drawn cards. "From my hand I activate the effect of Flamvell Baby! In exchange for sending this monster to the graveyard I can give Great Angus a power boost." Lance added he sent the monster to the graveyard and Great Angus's attack increased to 2200.

"So you gave your above average monster a power boost? I still don't see the point." Lamont responded and Lance grinned.

"Oh, you'll get the point!" Lance responded as he retrieved the monster from the graveyard. "For starters I remove Flamvell Baby from play so I can summon another old favorite, Inferno!" Lance said as he pocketed the card and played another causing the small flame with the demonic expression on its "face" to appear on the field (4/1100/1900).

"You're going for a Rank 4 or something?" Kristopher asked and Lance shook his head.

"If I was going for a Rank 4 I wouldn't have used this combo for it, for one thing that would be a waste off Flamvell Baby's effect especially when I have level four monsters that I can normal summon like Great Angus." Lance responded before picking up another card. "Speaking of normal summons, I use mine to summon another Tuner Monster, Laval Forrest Sprite!" Lance played the card and the young, red haired girl in the blue dress appeared on the field (2/300/200). "All right, that's enough messing around! I tune Inferno with Laval Forrest Sprite!" Lance announced as the two monsters leapt into the air, the two Synchro Rings quickly surrounded Inferno and seconds later Flamvell Urquizas appeared on the field (6/2100/400).

"Two powerful monsters and one with the ability to do piercing damage no less, not bad." Lamont commented with a chuckle. "But the question is who your target is?"

"That question's easy enough to answer as Mario over there is a sitting duck!" Lance said as he pointed to Mario. "Great Angus, attack Mario!" Lance commanded and the beast charged towards the famous video game character.

"Sorry Lance but your princess is in another castle." Kristopher responded as his trap card flipped up depicting the famous "your princess is in another castle" scene from the original Mario game but with Marauding Captain in Mario's place. "Literally, my trap card is called "Your Princess is in Another Castle and how it works is easy! When you target a monster of mine with "Video Game Hero" in its name I can remove him from play until my end phase."

"Why bother with that when Interdimensional Matter Transporter would've done the job just as well?" Lance asked but his question was soon answered when another familiar figure appeared in Mario's place. "Is that one of the Mushrooms from Mario?"

"You got it in exchange for removing my monster from play I can summon a Mushroom Token in defense mode." Kristopher said with a grin as the small token crouched down (1/0/0). "And since I removed Mario from play using my Trap's effect my token can't be destroyed by battle or card effect until your next turn."

"That would've been a good move but you didn't say anything about battle damage being negated and as your partner just pointed out Urquizas can inflict piercing damage." Lance responded as Great Angus backed down and Urquizas charged into battle.

"That's what I have my other Trap Card, What a Horrible Night to Have a Curse!" Kristopher activated the trap which depicted the cover of the NES Game Castlevania II: Simon's Quest with Vampire Lord and Monster Tamer in the place of Dracula and Simon respectively,when Lance saw the card's artwork he sweat-dropped. "What?"

"I'm sorry but I would've thought that Sophia Pegasus would make cards based off of GOOD NES Games, not poorly executed sequels to a classic game." Lance responded and Kristopher growled.

"Hey, Castlevania II: Simon's Quest was ahead of its time! In my opinion the Metroidvania Games wouldn't have existed if not for Castlevania II!" Kristopher asserted as he pointed a finger at Lance. "I mean seriously, have you even played Castlevania II or are you basing your opinions on the Angry Video Game Nerd's review of the game?"

"Dude, I grew up on the NES and N64, off course I played that game!" Lance responded with a frown. "And you know what I remember? No warnings about the day/night mechanic, bad controls, the wall tornado thing!"

"Do you know what they're talking about?" Evan asked Lamont as a large sweat-drop rolled down his head.

"If I did I have no doubt that I would've joined in on the debate, personally I've always been more of a PC Gamer." Lamont responded as he scratched his head in confusion. "All though we should probably stop them before the time limit runs out."

"Those are nick picky points at best….." Kristopher trailed off before being interrupted by Lance.

"YOU COULD BEAT DEATH BY WALKING OUT OF THE FUCKING BOSS AREA!" Lance yelled out and Kristopher sweat-dropped.

"Okay, I admit, the bosses in that game weren't great." Kristopher sighed before shaking his head. "But many classic NES games can say the same…."

"ENOUGH!" Evan and Lamont yelled simultaneously and their partners face-faulted.

"Kristopher, can you please resolve your trap card's effect before the time limit runs out." Lamont added as they got up and gathered up their cards.

"Oh, right, when a level six or higher monster declares an attack on a Video Game Hero monster, and before you ask the Mushroom Tokens count as Video Game Heroes if World 1 is in play, I can negate the attack and destroy the monster." Kristopher responded as Urquizas screamed in pain before shattering. "However if that monster was anything except for an Effect Monster the Field Spell I have in play is destroyed."

"That's an oddly specific restriction." Lance commented with a sweat-drop as the Field Spell shattered. "Ah well. Guess we'll never find out World 1's other effects."

"World 1 may be gone but not forgotten, if the field spell is destroyed by a Trap Card's effect I can take a different Field Spell from my deck and add it to my hand." Kristopher responded as he inputted some commands on the duel disk. "Think of it like your advancing to the next level of a NES video game." Kristopher added before the auto-shuffle feature found the card he was looking for and gave it to him before reshuffling his deck.

"Whatever you say, anyway I've wasted enough time this turn so I'll end my turn." Lance announced and Kristopher drew his card once Great Angus's attack returned to 1800 and Video Game Hero – Mario returned to the field.

"As I said, by destroying World 1 with my Trap Card's effect I was able to search out another field spell from my deck." Kristopher added as he picked up his card. "However the effect isn't universal, the field spell has to have the words "World" or "Level" in its name."

"If it weren't for the fact that it has to be a Field Spell it could be used to search out pretty much any Level Monster." Lance pointed out and Kristopher nodded.

"True but now you get to put up with this effect, I activate Level 2!" Kristopher played the card and the scenery changed to another famous level, this time depicting the second level of the original Castlevania.

"Now this is more like it!" Lance said with a small grin on his face. "I always preferred the Castlevania Games to the Mario Games."

"Well, considering your taste in music that doesn't surprise me." Kristopher commented before he shook his head. "I activate my Field Spell's effect, in exchange for discarding a monster with the name "Video Game Hero" in its name I can take a Warrior or Spellcaster with Video Game Hero in its name and add it to my hand." Kristopher announced before adding more commands to the auto-shuffle feature.

"The school definitely picked a good day to introduce the Auto-Shuffle feature." Lance thought as Kristopher retrieved the card from his deck and it was shuffled. "But I still don't know what half of those monsters do."

"Next I activate Video Game Hero – Mario's effect, at the cost of five hundred life-points I can summon another Video Game Hero that's level six or higher with one less tribute than is normally required." Kristopher announced before his life-points dropped to 7500. "Pretty fitting because if it weren't for success pf the original Mario game none of the classic games would've been created."

"Just continue your move before the time limit runs out." Lamont sighed and Kristopher nodded.

"Fine, I summon Video Game Hero – Belmont in attack mode." Kristopher played the card and a new monster appeared on the field, like Mario it wasn't hard to recognize him as the hero of the NES Castlevania Games Simon Belmont as he appeared in the first Castlevania complete with the Vampire Killer Whip (6/2000/1500).

"Sorry to disappoint Simon but Dracula's not around to battle him." Lance said with a grin and Kristopher rolled his eyes.

"That joke was obvious and not funny at all." Kristopher responded before pointing to Great Angus. "But it's not like Dracula was the only monster Simon battled in the early days of Castlevania! Belmont, attack Great Angus!" Kristopher commanded and the monster prepared to whip Lance's monster…..

"Did you forget about my own facedown card? It's not as new as your cards but you know what? It still works! I activate Negate Attack!" Lance activated the trap and the whip bounced off the invisible barrier. "It looks like my monster gets to live for another turn."

"Won't do you much good, you won't be able to draw for another two turns thanks to Reckless Greed, remember?" Kristopher asked before looking at his hand. "I end my turn." Kristopher announced and Evan drew his card.

"I hope Lance knows what he's doing using Reckless Greed this early is a big risk especially if it backfires like his attempt did." Evan thought before looking at his drawn card. "Hello…." Evan thought before picking up and playing the drawn card. "Lance may not be able to conduct his draw phase for a couple of turns but I can help him along the way! I activate Spellbook inside the Pot!"

"Did you forget that that card benefits us as well?" Lamont asked as the four duelists drew three cards. "And honestly, that card's getting as overused as Card of Sanctity was before it was nerfed and practically every duelist in Battle City used that card including the students who were competing!"

"Hey, I admit that I probably would've lost my first Battle City Duel if it weren't for me drawing Card of Sanctity when I did but I only used that card a handful of times." Lance asserted as he folded his arms. "And besides, my fellow students were worst offenders in that regard, believe me!"

"I do but that's beside the point, anything else you want to do Evan?" Lamont asked and Evan nodded.

"First I flip summon my facedown monster Apprentice Magician!" Evan flipped the monster up and the young blonde female Spellcaster appeared on the field (2/400/800). "This activates her effect, considering that Lance's new girlfriend uses this card in her deck I shouldn't have to say it out loud."

"Do it anyway." Lamont responded and Evan nodded.

"Her effect lets me add a Spell Counter to Arcane Barrier." Evan added as his Spell Card glowed. "Next I activate Book of Moon to flip her back facedown and protect my life-points." Evan played the card and the magician disappeared from the field. "I set one card facedown and end my turn." Evan set the card down and Lamont drew his card.

"Okay enough childish video game discussion…." Lamont trailed off before noticing the glares he was getting from Kristopher and Lance. "Oh come on! Consoles can't compare to PC…."

"Don't give me that PC Gaming Master Race bullshit I get enough of it from Chelsea." Lance interrupted him as he pinched the bridge of his nose in annoyance. "The only reasons I haven't argued with her about it are that 1: I like to think I'm better than that and 2: I'm stupid enough to argue with Chelsea."

"A wise decision but in any case, I summon the Tuner Monster Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Boar!" Lamont played the card and a tall muscular bold man with the ghostly form of a boar alongside it (4/1100/1400) and his attack increased to 1200 thanks to Tenki. "You may have Synchro Summoned Urquizas only to use it unsuccessfully Lance but with this Tuner Monster I'm sure I'll have better luck! I tune Bear and Boar together!" Lamont announced as the two monsters leapt into the air.

"A Level Eight Synchro Summon, I just know that that's going to be bad news." Lance sighed as Boar dissolved into four Synchro Rings that quickly surrounded Bear.

"Bad news for you that is, I summon Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Kirin!" Lamont played the card and once the bright flash faded a new monster appeared on the field, he was a tall bearded man with black hair who had ridiculously long hair and an elaborate green and gold robe (8/2000/2800) and thanks to Tenki's effect its attack increased to 2100.

"And mom thinks I should get a haircut now that I'm in Obelisk Blue!" Lance exclaimed when he saw the monster but calmed down when he saw the stats. "Besides, that guy's pretty weak for a Level Eight Synchro."

"There's more to a monster's strengths than just an attack score Lance, unless we are suddenly in the old school style of dueling, anyway when Kirin is Synchro Summoned I can take one Fire Formation Spell/Trap Card from my deck and set it on the field." Lamont explained before inputting the commands on his duel disk, retrieving the card he needed and setting it down. "But you can worry about that later, you see for each Spell/Trap Card I control whilst Kirin is on the field all of your monsters loose one hundred attack points."

"That doesn't apply to Kris's cards as well, right?" Lance asked but his fears were soon confirmed when Great Angus's attack points dropped to 1600. "Can we talk about this?"

"Sorry, but no, Kirin, attack Great Angus, I feel like having wild boar for dinner!" Lamont commanded and the Beat-Warrior charged into battle…..

"I activate my trap card Shift, this forces you to attack my facedown Apprentice Magician instead!" Evan activated the trap and Kirin changed course instead attacking the facedown monster and destroying her. "This in turn lets me activate the effects of Arcane Barrier and Apprentice Magician!"

"Well played." Lamont complemented him as Evan's Spell Card got another counter and he inputted some commands on his duel disk. "But I simply don't see Lance being able to take advantage of this, because of his Reckless Greed Trap Card he can't draw until the turn after his next one!"

"I didn't need reminding of that." Lance grunted as Evan set the monster facedown.

"Good to see that you don't suffer from short term memory loss, I end my turn." Lamont announced and Lance didn't draw due to Reckless Greed.

"Well, at least after this turn I won't have to wait much longer until I can conduct my Draw Phase again." Lance thought before looking over his hand. "Nice, this combo could work!" Lance thought before playing a card. "First I activate Burial from a Different Dimension to return Flamvell Baby to my graveyard!" Lance played the card and retrieved the monster from his pocket before returning it to the graveyard slot.

"And what good will that do you? Flamvell Baby's effect only activates from the hand." Kristopher pointed out and Lance nodded.

"I know but I didn't say anything about being done, did I? I summon Royal Firestorm Guards!" Lance played the card and the strange red demon appeared on the field (4/1700/1400). "Since I summoned Royal Firestorm Guards I can activate its effect, this allows me to take four pyro type monsters from my graveyard, shuffle them into their respective decks and draw two cards."

"That glorified Pot of Avarice won't help you." Lamont responded as Lance shuffled the monsters into their respective decks. "Or have you forgotten about Kirin's effect?" Lamont asked as the monster's attack dropped to 1500.

"No, I haven't and trust me, as soon as I get a method of taking Mr. Steroids down I will." Lance responded as he drew two cards.

"Lance, you can't see his body mass because of that robe, how do you know he's on steroids?" Evan asked as a sweat-drop rolled down his head.

"Details, details, besides that you have seen how big that guy is, right?" Lance asked before looking at his drawn cards. "These cards aren't of much use right now since I've used up my Normal Summon so now what?"

"Lance, did you already forget about that Rank 4 XYZ Monster you got this morning?" Thestalos asked and Lance grinned.

"No but thanks for the reminder." Lance responded as he played a card. "Next I activate Eternal Fire! Using this card I can treat Great Angus as a Pyro Type Monster for the rest of the turn." Lance announced as Great Angus started glowing. "Only downside is that I can't summon anything except Pyro Type monsters for the rest of the turn which is a good thing because I'm opening up the Overlay Network!"

"Since when did you have Rank 4 XYZs in your extra deck?" Evan asked with a raised eyebrow and Lance shook his head.

"Since this morning, that's when." Lance responded as Great Angus and Royal Firestorm Guards were sucked into the Overlay Network. "But anyway, using my two Level Four Pyro Monsters I summon Infernal Flame Vixen!" Lance played the card and a new monster appeared on the field, to put it simply it was flames in the shape of an attractive woman's upper body with the lower body of a horse, a white face that had blood red bat like wings protruding from it and it was carrying a scythe made of flames (Rank: 4/2200/2000).

"Valiant effort Lance but the only things that monster can destroy are either Mario or the Mushroom Token." Lamont pointed out as Flame Vixen's attack dropped to 2000. "Or did you forget about Kirin's effect?"

"I didn't, in fact I summoned this monster to get around that problem." Lance responded as he sent Great Angus to the graveyard. "I activate the effect of Infernal Flame Vixenby detaching an Overlay Unit I can increase her attack power by five hundred points." Lance announced as Infernal Flame Vixen's attack increased to 2500. "And that's more than enough to bring him down! Infernal Flame Vixen, attack Brotherhood of the Fire First – Kirin!" Lance commanded and the monster charged towards the monstrous man before decapitating him with her scythe setting the body alight in the process and bringing Lamont's life-points down to 7600. "Huh, that was pretty metal." Lance commented as Infernal Flame Vixen's attack increased to 2700 now that Kirin was no longer on the field.

"If you say so but my deck has more than just one trick up its sleeve." Lamont responded and Lance frowned.

"I set two cards facedown and end my turn." Lance set the two cards down and Kristopher drew his card.

"Lance's monster is powerful but if Lamont can get Kirin back on the field that won't be an issue." Kristopher thought before he looked at his drawn card. "Perfect! Now I can show of real power of this deck!" Kristopher thought before playing the card. "I activate Power Up! In video games power ups, well, power up the character and this card does something similar."

"And how does it do that exactly? Does it give Mario a magic mushroom? Or does it give Belmont one of the holy items?" Lance asked as the Mushroom Token disappeared from the field.

"None of the above, by sacrificing one monster on my side of the field I can target one Video Game Hero and allow him to use his effect with no cost for the rest of the turn, I target Mario." Kristopher responded before picking up the card. "So I summon Video Game Hero – Richter with Mario's effect!" Kristopher played the card and a new monster appeared on the field and like the others it was easily recognizable as another Castlevania Hero, this time it was Richter Belmont, the main character of Castlevania: Rondo of Blood (6/2200/1800).

"Wait a minute, Rondo of Blood was a PC Engine Game and no, I don't count that bastardization of a SNES port as that game!" Lance pointed out as he folded his arms. "I thought this archetype only covered the NES era?"

"I never said that, in truth this archetype features several cards based on characters from the late eighties/early nineties era of video games." Kristopher responded with a grin. "There's a card based on Sonic the Hedgehog, several Mortal Kombat Characters and even the first Pokémon game."

"As curious as I am about those cards you are on a time limit." Lamont chimed in and Kristopher sweat-dropped.

"Well let's just hope that they drop the time limit for the third round." Kristopher responded with an annoyed sigh before pointing to his monsters. "Anyway, I now use my two Level 6 Monsters to do a XYZ Summon of my own." Kristopher added as the overlay network opened up and the two vampire hunters were sucked in.

"Okay, we've seen two monsters from Super Mario Brothers and Castlevania, what's next? Also why did I just sound like an impatient Smash Bros. Fan?" Lance thought as Kristopher retrieved the monster.

"I XYZ Summon Video Game Villain – Dracula!" Kristopher played the card and from the portal emerged the form of Dracula that was used in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night complete with robe (Rank 6:/2500/2000).

"You used two vampire hunters to XYZ Summon Dracula." Lance said as he stared at Kristopher like he had grown a second head. "What next, will Mario and Luigi by used to XYZ Summon Bowser?"

"Yes, yes, I realize that there's a great irony in using those monsters in particular to summon Dracula." Kristopher admitted as he folded his arms. "However Dracula requires two level six Video Game Hero monsters regardless of who they are, same goes for the other XYZ Monsters in the archetype really."

"Wouldn't it make more sense to use villains to summon them? I mean aside from Bowser occasionally going go karting with Mario they don't exactly hang out that often." Lance responded and Kristopher shrugged.

"Well every good, non-casual game needs an antagonist so in effect the heroes create the villains, the same can be said for most fiction really." Kristopher responded as he shook his head. "Besides, isn't your new girlfriend into fantasy novels? I'm sure she could think up a few examples of this just off the top of her head."

"As much as I'd like to ask Chloe we're in the middle of a duel and I think you'd better hurry up." Lance pointed out and Kristopher sweat-dropped.

"Great point before I go on the attack I activate Dracula's effect, Minion Summon!" Kristopher announced as he sent Richter to the graveyard. "By detaching an overlay unit I can special summon one Level Four Monster from my deck as long as it's a Dark Type Monster, however the monster can't attack and it'll be destroyed during the end phase." Kristopher added before inputting the commands into the duel disk.

"I've seen that thing used several times over the course of this duel and I'm still not used to it." Lance thought with a frown as Kristopher played the card which Lance quickly recognized. "Wait, a Fleamen, seriously? Please tell me that thing's not going to be as annoying to kill as they were in the games?" Lance asked as the tiny man hopped up and down on the field (1/0/0).

"Considering that that thing has zero attack points I doubt it Lance." Evan responded as he folded his arms. "Besides, he just said that it'll be destroyed during the end phase."

"That's true but in this case Fleamen has taken inspiration from The Creature bossfight in the original Castlevania." Kristopher responded as the Fleamen hopped onto Dracula's back. "I activate Fleamen's effect you see it is a union monster that allows any Video Game Villain it's attached too to attack twice in the same Battle Phase as well as an additional five hundred attack points that come as standard." Kristopher announced as Dracula's attack increased to 3000.

"That's going to be a pain in the ass." Lance commented as Kristopher started imputing more commands on his duel disk. "Okay, now what?"

"When Video Game Hero – Richter is sent to the graveyard I can special summon a specific monster from my deck so please welcome Video Game Heroine – Maria!" Kristopher played the card and another new monster appeared on the field, it was the young blonde woman from Castlevania Symphony of the Night who had previously appeared as a young girl in Rondo of Blood (4/1700/1500).

"Wait, why does her adult form count as a heroine? She only had a starring role as an adult in the botched Sega Saturn port of Symphony of the Night and that was never released stateside!" Lance pointed out and Kristopher shrugged.

"If I had to guess it was to avoid confusion with the Madolche Monsters." Kristopher responded as his deck shuffled. "Only downside to summoning Maria this way is that she can't attack the same turn she was summoned but, obviously, Dracula comes with no such restriction! Dracula, attack Infernal Flame Vixen." Kristopher commanded and the video game boss unleased three fireballs at the monster destroying her and bringing Lance's life-points down to 7700.

"By attacking Infernal Flame Vixen when she has an attack power of 2500 or more you've allowed me to activate her effect!" Lance announced as he sent Royal Firestorm Guards and Flame Vixen to the graveyard. "And this effect lets me remove any three monsters from play from any graveyard and whilst I'd rather not run the risk of any of the cards in your graveyard having effects that activate from there I'd rather not deal with Kirin again so I remove Boar, Bear and Kirin from Lamont's graveyard!" Lance announced and Lamont frowned as he pocketed the three monsters.

"You may have removed my partner's monsters from play but you still have to deal with my monsters! Dracula, use your second attack to attack Lance directly!" Kristopher commanded and the Fleaman hopped up and down a couple of times before Dracula prepared to launch his attack….

"Not this time! I activate Defense Draw!" Lance activated the trap and the attacks hit, he grunted in pain but took no damage before drawing his card. "Thanks for the extra card."

"Doesn't matter, at this rate you'll deck yourself out before Evan's turn begins." Kristopher pointed out before looking at his hand. "I end my turn." Kristopher announced and Evan drew his card.

"As much as I hate to admit it, he's right, at the moment I've lost count of the number of additional draws I've made since I activated Reckless Greed last turn." Lance thought with a frown as he glanced over at Evan. "My match against Chloe to secure my place in Obelisk Blue ended in a draw due to double deck out and if it weren't for Nutrient Z I'd still be in Ra Yellow, not to mention the fact that Nicola lost her rematch against Andreas because she accidentally decked herself out, here's hoping Evan has drawn something good."

"Lance has been doing a lot of draws since he activated Reckless Greed and whilst it is a good tactic it's not without its risks." Evan thought as he glanced up at his partner. "Lance's promotion duel on Saturday ended in a double deck out partially thanks to a countered attempt at his usual Inferno Tempest combo and I seem to remember hearing that Andreas's last duel ended with his opponent decking herself out, hopefully we can avoid that." Evan thought before flipping up his monster. "I flip summon my Facedown Monster!"

"Let me guess, Apprentice Magician again? You really are predictable." Lamont commented as he closed his eyes with a chuckle." Honestly I preferred the deck you used in the first round."

"Yes, I should've used a deck that had been crippled by two ban lists in a row rather than a deck that's actually benefitted from it." Evan responded as a large sweat-drop rolled down his head. "Sarcasm aside, who said I summoned another Apprentice Magician?"

"Hmm, what do you….?" Lamont trailed off before he recognized the monster. "Magician of Faith,why on Earth would you summon her and not Apprentice Magician instead? Magician of Faith's effect is good but Apprentice Magician's effect would've benefitted your Spell Card."

"I know and if you'll give me a moment I'll show you why." Evan responded before retrieving a Spell Card from his graveyard and adding it to his hand. "Next I set a monster in defense mode and a card facedown, your move Lamont."

"If that isn't an obvious trap then I'll happily accept my demotion to Osiris Red." Lamont thought with a chuckle as he looked at the monsters. "Magician of Faith is a decent flip effect monster that may have been lethal in her heyday but doesn't hold up nowadays, not to mention the fact that he left her in attack mode and with a measly three hundred attack points she won't last long against even my weakest monsters." Lamont thought before looking at his drawn card. "I summon Coach Soldier Wolfbark."

"Gee, that's a move I never saw coming." Lance commented with a deadpan expression on his face as the small, grey humanoid wolf appeared on the field (4/1600/1200). "Pity that you can't use his effect since I banished the three monsters you had in your graveyard when Kris destroyed Infernal Flame Vixen."

"First of all you've used the same Fire Deck with improvements since you joined Duel Academy don't tempt me to make a "Pot Calling the Kettle Black" joke because I will." Lamont responded before shaking his head. "Second, I may not be able to use Wolfbark's effect but he still has 1600 attack points, 1700 actually thanks to Tenki." Lamont added as Wolfbark's attack rose to 1700. "And those 1700 attack points are aimed at Magician of Faith!" Lamont commanded as the monster charged towards the much weaker Spellcaster…..

"I activate my Quick Play Spell Card Book of Eclipse! This Spell Card flips all face-up monsters into facedown defense mode." Evan activated the Spell Card and smirked. "Not only does this protect my life-points but it gets rid of Kris's Union Monster!"

"Did you really think that it would be that easy? I activate Video Game Heroine – Maria's effect!" Kris responded before discarding a card. "It can only be activated in response to the activation of a Spell Card but this effect lets me negate the activation off and destroy that Spell Card as long as I discard a monster from my hand." Kris added before a series of small monsters swarmed over the spell card destroying it, with no Spell Card to stop him Wolfbark continued the attack destroying Magician of Faith and bringing Evan's life-points down to 6600.

"Just so we're clear, does Maria's effect apply to Spell Cards already in play?" Evan asked and Kris shook his head. "Well in that case Arcane Barrier gets its last Spell Counter." Evan added as the Spell Card glowed again.

"Maria's effect may not apply to it but there's other ways that I can destroy it before you can use its effect." Kris responded before looking at his drawn card. "I set one card facedown and end my turn." Kris announced and Lance didn't draw due to Reckless Greed's effect.

"Okay, so I can't draw thanks to Reckless Greed for another turn, Kris has a three thousand attack beat-stick that can attack twice and special summon monsters alongside another monster that can negate Spell Cards and Lamont is one monster away from either another Synchro Summon or XYZ Summon, in short, things aren't going well." Lance thought before looking over his hand and finally noticing the card he had drawn with Defense Draw. "Inferno Tempest and D.D. Dynamite, normally I'd use this combo in a heartbeat but Maria's effect will just negate it."

"Lance is taking his time, I think it's safe to assume that his usage of Defense Draw didn't help him beyond protecting his life-points." Evan thought as Lance looked over his hand. "He had better think of something soon because Kris could wipe out his life-points during his turn otherwise."

"My other card is Spellbook inside the Pot but like I said, Kris could just negate it, on the other hand he might save Maria's effect for a card he views as a bigger threat." Lance thought before playing the card. "I activate Spellbook inside the Pot!"

"Is he trying to trick me into using Maria's effect?" Kris thought as his only female monster glanced over at him. "No, that can't be it, I neglected to mention that Maria's effect can only be used once per turn and he's clearly never heard of this archetype before this match." Kris thought before shaking his head. "Normally I'd negate it but who am I to say no to some extra cards?" Kris asked as all four duelists drew three cards.

"Normally? I thought you said that you got these cards earlier today?" Lance asked with a raised eyebrow and Kris shook his head.

"I meant in general, I mean honestly Maria isn't exactly the only card that can negate Spell Cards in the game." Kris pointed out and Lance nodded.

"Good point." Lance admitted before looking over his hand. "Mystical Space Typhoon, Fire Recovery and Heaven's Lost Property, just my luck that I happen to draw three spell cards in a row! Heaven's Lost Property could help since it's essentially Graceful Charity's effect applied to both players though." Lance thought before playing the card. "Next I activate Heaven's Lost Property!"

"Another drawing card? Did I miss the memo that you had suddenly decided to include the Exodia pieces in your deck or something?" Lamont asked as the four duelists drew three cards and discarded two.

"No but if you could see my hand you'd understand why I played this Spell Card." Lance responded before looking over his hand. "I set four cards facedown and end my turn."

"Draws six new cards and not a single monster among them, how ironic." Kris commented as he drew his card.

"It may be ironic but I'm about to ensure that you can't use Fleaman's effect, I activate Mystical Space Typhoon!" Lance activated the Spell Card and the four duelists braced themselves as a storm washed over the field. "Since Union Monsters are technically equip cards when they are attached to a monster I'm using my Spell Card to destroy Fleaman!"

"You're in Obelisk Blue yet you used such an amateur move? I use Maria's effect to negate the effect of Mystical Space Typhoon!" Kris announced as he discarded a monster from his hand and the storm subsided as several small animals swarmed and destroyed the Spell Card. "No wonder you needed Chloe's help to enter Obelisk Blue."

"Yeah, I'm just gonna pretend you didn't say that." Lance grunted as he sent his Spell Card to the graveyard.

"In a moment you'll wish that I never made this move either! I detach Dracula's last overlay unit to summon one of Castlevania's most memorable bosses!" Kris announced as Dracula stretched out his cape again and a new monster appeared on the field, it was a gigantic ball of wailing human flesh that was horrifying to look at (1/?/0). "Legion!"

"Great, I could never beat that boss as a kid." Lance grunted as he stared down the monster.

"Am I the only one slightly concerned that my partner just summoned a massive ball of flesh?" Lamont asked as a large sweat-drop rolled down his head. "Seriously, this was in a Nintendo game? I thought Nintendo was meant to be family friendly!"

"First off, the Castlevania series might have gotten its start on the NES but Legion over there made its debut in Symphony of the Night, a PS1 Game." Lance responded as he pointed towards the monstrosity. "All though I think it went under a different name back then, it's been a while since I played that game."

"It did, for some odd reason it went by the name Granfaloon but that's not important." Kris responded as he pointed to the monster. "And before anyone asks, this thing is a Zombie monster as it would drop down zombies to attack the player character during the boss fights and like its game counterpart Legion draws its power from my graveyard, in game turns Legion gains a thousand attack points for each monster with video game in its name in the graveyard and thanks to Dracula and Maria I have four monsters." Kris added as Legion's attack shot up to four thousand.

"I'm not scared, size isn't everything you know." Lance responded and the other boys shared a look before snickering. "What?"

"Did Chloe say that to you when you had sex with her for the first time?" Kris asked and Lance face-faulted.

"Okay first off, I'm well-endowed, second I can't believe I just said that in the middle of a school duel, third, as much as I'd like too, I haven't had sex with Chloe yet." Lance responded as he got back to his feet. "Fourth, another comment like that and I'll just skip the duel and beat the shit out of you."

"Didn't really need to know the first point." Kris responded as a large sweat-drop rolled down his head. "But who knows? Maybe Chloe will be generous enough to play naughty nurse with you after I beat you! Legion, attack his life-points directly!" Kris commanded and an opening between the bodies that made up the creature opened up allowing a blue laser to shoot out.

"That thing fires lasers?" Lamont asked as the attack hit Lance bringing his life-points down to 3200.

"Trust me, that's not the weirdest part about Symphony of the Night." Lance responded as he got up. "And as much as that hurt you just fell into my trap! Activate Inferno Tempest!"

"Ugh, that thing." Lamont grunted as Kris quickly inputted commands into his duel disk. "You do realize that that Spell Card hurts your partner as well right?" Lamont asked and Lance went to answer when….

"Up, up, down, down, START!" Kris interrupted him and Lance looked up. "Recognize this Lance?"

"You're Konami Code Trap Card!" Lance realized as his eyes widened. "Wait, I thought that could only be used with the Gradius monsters?"

"Actually there are two versions of that trap, the one I used last time and this one called Konami Code Failed!" Kris responded and Lance had a closer look at the artwork before realizing that the player had hit the select button instead of the start button. "In this version since the Konami Code failed it instead negates the activation of a Spell Card."

"Why didn't you just use Maria's effect again?" Lance asked as the Spell Card's hologram shattered. "Unless you don't have a monster to discard!"

"Close but no cigar, I neglected to mention that Maria's effect can only be used once per turn." Kris responded and Lance gave him a funny look. "I forgot, so sue me! Dracula, finish him off!" Kris commanded and the vampire prepared its attack….

"Nice, you fell for my bluff! I activate my real trap!" Lance announced as the trap card flipped up. "Mirror Force!"

"No!" Kristopher yelled out but it was too late as the attack was reflected back at the opposing team's monsters destroying them all and taking Level 2 with it. "There's a couple of things I should explain, first if Fleaman is equipped to a Video Game Villain he forfeits the ability to take the bullet for the monster it's equipped too, second if Dracula is destroyed whilst having no Overlay Units attached he takes the Field Spell I have in play with him."

"Don't tell me, Level 2 shares World 1's effect?" Lance asked and Kristopher nodded before he started inputting commands.

"Exactly but I won't activate my third Field Spell just yet." Kris responded as he added the Spell Card to his hand and waited for his deck to shuffle. "I end my turn with a facedown card." Kristopher announced and Evan drew his card.

"Well, that monster will certainly be haunting my nightmares for the rest of my time at the academy." Evan thought before shaking his head. "At least Lance's trap ensured that its stay on the field was a short one, now I have to work on turning things around." Evan thought before flipping his remaining monster up. "I flip summon Apprentice Magician!"

"So that's why you summoned Magician of Faith instead of another one." Lamont commented with a frown. "You already had your third copy in your hand."

"I've had this copy in my hand since my first turn but that's not important! Normally I'd use her effect to add another counter to Arcane Barrier but since it already has four counters that is irrelevant." Evan continued before his final Apprentice Magician vanished alongside Arcane Barrier. "And now I sacrifice my two cards to use Arcane Barrier's effect and let me and my partner draw four cards."

"Dude, did you happen to forget what he said about my deck? I've gone through enough of it as it is." Lance pointed out and Evan shook his head.

"Your fine, you have plenty of cards left." Evan responded and Lance nodded. "I can't say the same for them on the other hand! I summon Breaker, the Magical Warrior!" Evan played the card and the sword wielding magician appeared on the field (4/1600/1000) and the monster's attack increased to 1900 thanks to his effect. "Now I use his effect to destroy Kris's facedown monster!" Evan announced as the swordsman leapt towards the facedown card destroying it.

"Well, there goes part of my strategy, good thing that trap can activate from the graveyard." Kris thought as he sent the card to the graveyard.

"Next I set one card facedown." Evan announced as the facedown card appeared on the field. "And I attack Kris's life-points directly!" Evan commanded and Breaker charged towards the Osiris Red Student before slashing him with his sword and bringing his life-points down to 5900. "I end my turn." Evan announced and Lamont drew his card.

"Kris may have cost me my monster but we have more tricks up our sleeves." Lamont thought as he looked at the card he had just drawn. "First I activate Burial from a Different Dimension in order to return the three monsters Lance banished earlier to my graveyard."

"That card doesn't exactly fit into a Fire Fist deck." Lance pointed out and Lamont shook his head as he moved the three monsters from his blazer pocket to his graveyard.

"I like being prepared for anything." Lamont responded as he sent his Spell Card to the graveyard. "In any case I set a card facedown and a card in defense mode to end my turn." Lamont announced and Lance grinned before drawing his card.

"Great, now that I can move again I can make a comeback!" Lance thought before playing a card. "I activate Fire Recovery, using this Spell Card I can discard a Fire Monster to my graveyard…." Lance said as he sent the monster he had drawn to the graveyard. "And special summon another Fire Monster from my graveyard, so I summon Great Angus!" Lance played the card and the blood red boar appeared on the field again.

"Still resorting to your old tricks huh?" Kris asked with a chuckle.

"Hey if it ain't broke don't fix it!" Lance responded as he sent Fire Recovery to the graveyard. "Besides I have four other cards to play with so if I were you I'd be more worried about them."

"Yes well call me when you're done recycling your old moves." Lamont responded and Lance shook his head.

"Actually I'll settle for calling you when I'm done attacking Kris's life-points directly!" Lance responded and Great Angus pounced towards Kris before tackling him and bringing his life-points down to 4100.

"Why did I suddenly become the target of your attacks?!" Kris protested as he got back to his feet. "I'll freely admit that Lamont is a much better duelist than I am!"

"We'll get to him once we're done with you and besides, you summoned a monstrosity last turn that will haunt my nightmares, if you ask me you earned it." Evan countered and Kris rolled his eyes.

"I only summoned that thing for an OTK and honestly, if you're going to lambast anyone for using OTKs look no further than your partner!" Kris pointed out and Lance frowned. "I mean honestly, I'm convinced that his Inferno Tempest/Return from a Different Dimension combo is what got Return banned a couple of ban-lists ago and not Dragon Rulers."

"I only used that combo twice in Battle City and both times were against Orichalcos Duelists." Lance responded as he folded his arms. "If you ask me you're full of shit."

"Yeah, off course you'd say that." Kris muttered under his breath as he shook his head. "You also used that combo against a National Champion to win your expulsion duel, for all we know he used his clout to get that card banned."

"That was before Dragon Rulers were even a thing!" Lance protested before shaking his head. "And even if what you say is true there were several banlists since then before Return was banned, you'd think that that card would've showed up on the next banlist after those duels!"

"Touché, anyway don't you have a turn to finish?" Kris asked and Lance nodded.

"I set three cards facedown and end my turn." Lance set the three cards down and Kris drew his card.

"Okay, so I lost most of my best monsters and my life-points in one fell swoop, not a problem, I still have one last trick up my sleeve." Kris thought before picking up the Field Spell he retrieved from his deck last turn. "If you are expecting my next Field Spell to be level three then don't because technically the game this Field Spell takes inspiration from doesn't have levels, only cities and towns."

"You realize that you just described most RPG games right." Lance pointed out and Kris shook his head.

"Details, details, just let me play the Field Spell!" Kris responded and Lance nodded. "I activate the last Field Spell that cane with this set! Pallet Town!" Kris, not noticing that a massive goofy grin had appeared on Lance's face, played the card and the scenery changed for the last time depicting Pallet Town from the first Pokémon game, you could even hear that original Pokémon Anime theme in the background. "Apparently someone at Kaibacorp is a big Pokémon fan, anyway….."

"I WANNA BE THE VERY BEST! LIKE NO ONE EVER WAS!" Lance started singing along to the anime theme song loud and proudly, unfortunately for everyone else Lance was a horrible singer and the other duelists, alongside the teachers and other students, immediately clutched their ears in pain but Lance didn't stop until he had sung the theme in full at which point he noticed the others rubbing their ears. "What? Pokémon's my favorite game and anime series even if the anime gets stupid at times."

"I'm not going to lambast you for that because you have good taste, at least as far as games go." Kris said as he recovered. "But…."

"Lance Alvers, if you ever sing in public during your tenure in Duel Academy again you will face a second expulsion duel." Martin interrupted them and Lance's jaw dropped whilst the other students cheered.

"Oh come on! Was my singing really that bad?" Lance protested but nothing could prepare him for what happened next.

"YES!" Everyone else in the school yelled out at him and Lance face-faulted.

"You guys have no taste!" Lance yelled back as he got back to his feet. "But since I no better than to call Boldilocks and the Three Hairs on his bluff why don't you just continue the move?"

"Did he really just call Martin "Boldilocks and the Three Hairs"?!" Evan thought as a large sweat-drop rolled down his head. "May god have mercy on his soul the next time he has Duel Theory."

"Yes, before you interrupted me with…..whatever that noise was that just came out of your mouth I was going to explain Pallet Town's effect, you see there's a reason why I played this last as its effect depends on the number of field spells in my graveyard and on the field." Kris responded as he stretched his arm out. "This effect allows me to summon three Starter Tokens, one for each Field Spell, in attack mode!" Kris announced as three monsters appeared on the field which Lance quickly recognized as the Kanto Region's Starter Pokemon, Squirtle, Charmander and Bulbasaur (1/500/500).

"Okay, I'll take Charmander." Lance commented earning a confused look from Kris. "I always chose the Fire Starter whenever I played a Pokemon game, even in the first game."

"I'm not even going to comment on the stupidity of that since that left you at a disadvantage going into the first two gyms." Kris sighed as he shook his head. "Anyway, since I summoned three of them my tokens can't be used as Tributes or to Synchro Summon a monster so I set this." Kris announced as the facedown card appeared on the field. "And end my turn." Kris announced and Evan drew his card.

"Three weak monsters, all in attack mode and only a single trap to protect him, either this is the most obvious Mirror Force bait since the card was created or there's more to his Field Spell than an effect that summons tokens." Evan thought before grinning. "Fortunately my own trap card will do away with that!" Evan thought as he activated the Trap. "I activate Pitch Black Power Stone and I use its effect to add a token to Breaker!" Evan announced as Breaker glowed and his attack power increased to 1900 again. "However I use his second effect again to destroy Pallet Town."

"You couldn't let me enjoy this nostalgia trip for a couple of more minutes?" Lance protested as Breaker's attack decreased to 1600.

"Consider this revenge for your atrocious singing!" Evan responded as Breaker leapt towards the scenery.

"Fortunately for Lance it won't be that easy! From my graveyard I activate the Trap Card Power Down!" Kris announced as he held up the trap depicting Mario powering down from his Fire Flower state. "In a way this works like Fiendish Chain except it can activate from the graveyard as long as I banish it from my graveyard, and before you ask this was the card you destroyed with Breaker's effect last turn but anyway it requires me to have at least three Video Game Hero monsters on my field to activate it this way."

"Let me guess, the tokens count." Evan asked and Kris nodded as Breaker stopped mid-jump and his attack dropped to 1600 again.

"Yes but the downside to this is the fact that I can't stop you from attacking with it." Kris responded with a frown as he pocketed the Trap. "So, care for round two?"

"On one hand this could backfire in any number of ways, on the other hand if the attack goes through I can set things up for Lance to finish of Kris on his next turn." Evan thought before pointing to Breaker. "Breaker, attack the monster in the middle."

"Charmander." Lance corrected him and Evan nodded.

"What he said." Evan added and Breaker charged into battle…..

"It won't be that easy either! I activate Rare Candy!" Kris activated the trap which depicted the Pokemon item Rare Candy. "In the Pokemon games this item increases a selected Pokémon's level, came in handy whenever said Pokemon was on the verge of evolving and you didn't have the patience to level it up the old fashioned way, in this game however it levels up a start token that's been targeted for an attack in a different way, namely it adds the attacking monsters attack points to the attacked monster's."

"And that can apply to any monster in the game?" Lance asked and Kris nodded as Charmander breathed fire at Breaker as its attack increased to 3100 incinerating the magician and bringing Evan's life-points down to 5100. "Yep, I can see that Trap Card among the forbidden cards on a future banlist."

"Says the guy who has a card that can banish every monster in the graveyard and deck." Kris pointed out and Lance sweat-dropped. "Honestly, why hasn't Infernal Tempest been banned yet?"

"Probably because Infernal Tempest requires me to take over three thousand points of damage before I can use it." Lance responded with a frown as he folded his arms. "Honestly, are you going to try to find a reason why Great Angus or Royal Firestorm Guards should be banned next?"

"Considering that Great Angus is basically just an old school style beatstick and that Royal Firestorm Guards isn't as universal as Pot of Avarice, no." Kris responded before turning to Evan. "Don't you have a move to finish?"

"I was getting to that, I was just waiting for you two to stop bickering anyway I set a monster in defense mode and end my turn." Evan announced and Lamont drew his card.

"It's obvious to me that Kris needs those tokens on the field for whatever reason, otherwise he would've used that Rare Candy trap card on something stronger and inflicted more damage." Lamont thought before looking at his drawn card. "Another dead draw but at least this monster can destroy Great Angus." Lamont thought before playing the card. "I summon Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Dragon!" Lamont played the card and an attractive Japanese woman in green Samurai armor appeared on the field, however what caught the other boys' eyes wasn't her good looks but the various small dragons surrounding her (4/1800/400) and her attack increased to 1900 thanks to Tenki. "Dragon, attack Great Angus!" Lamont commanded and the woman charged into battle….

"As your partner is fond of saying it won't be that easy! Activate Trap Card Negate Attack!" Lance activated the trap and the woman's charge was stopped by a force-field. "Better luck next time."

"Depending on what my partner has in mind there might not be a next time, for now I end my turn." Lamont announced and Lance drew his card.

"Lamont has a point, this could be my last turn." Lance thought before looking at his drawn card. "But the big guy could help!" Lance thought before playing the card. "I sacrifice Great Angus to bring out another old favorite of mine, Thestalos the Fire Monarch!" Lance played the card and Great Angus disappeared from the field only to be quickly replaced by the monarch of fire (6/2400/1000). "I think Martin mentioned during the last turn that my monarch's effect applies to both players?"

"Yes, I did and that was one of the few rules that didn't change between rounds." Martin responded over the PA system and Lance nodded.

"Okay guys, hold them up!" Lance told them and his opponents nodded before holding up their hands, Thestalos threw a fireball at Kris's middle card and another at the card on the far right of Lamont's hand. "So did I get lucky?"

"You are referring to the duel and not your girlfriend, right?" Kris asked as a large sweat-drop rolled down his head.

"Whilst I am hoping to get lucky in both areas I mean the duel." Lance responded and the two boys shook their heads.

"You hit another copy of Power Up." Kris responded as he held up the Spell Card before sending it to the graveyard.

"And you hit a Trap Card." Lamont added before sending the trap to the graveyard.

"At least Kris will have to use his next Video Game Hero's effect at a cost." Lance thought before pointing to Charmander. "Thestalos, attack Charmander!" Lance commanded and the monarch prepared another fireball…..but it was intercepted by a force-field. "What the….."

"Remember the monsters I discarded for Maria's effect earlier? They weren't random monsters." Kris responded before holding up the cards. "Video Game Hero Support Cast and Video Game Hero Shield, on their own they don't add up to much but if I have both in the graveyard I can banish them to protect one Video Game Hero monster from being destroyed by battle or card effect."

"You can't protect them forever! I end my turn." Lance announced and Kris drew his card.

"You know what? Your right! I can't protect them forever!" Kris responded as the three tokens started glowing. "I activate the second effect of Pallet Town, if all three of the Starter Tokens are still on the field during the stand-by phase after they were summoned I can destroy all three to summon stronger tokens." Kris explained as the three monsters grew up, or evolved, into monsters that Lance recognized as Wartortle, Ivysaur and Charmeleon, the first evolutions of the original three starters (4/1600/1200). "First Evolution Tokens!"

"Were those really the best names Sophia Pegasus's marketing team could come up with?" Lance asked as a sweat-drop rolled down his head. "Because if it is then she needs to fire them all and hire new ones!"

"Lance, we have bigger problems, especially if he's drawn another copy of Rare Candy." Evan pointed out and Kris shook his head.

"I'm not at liberty to say, however I will say that none of my monsters can attack unless a certain Video Game Hero is on my side of the field so you're safe, for now." Kris responded before picking up and setting two cards. "But for now I'll settle for making you sweat with these facedown cards, I end my turn." Kris announced and Evan drew his card.

"He could have dealt me some serious damage if he had played that monster so why wait?" Evan thought as he looked at his drawn card. "Gemini Elf, I'm not about to risk the possibility of either of Kris's facedown cards being another copy of Rare Candy because that could cause me some serious damage but Lamont's monster is easy pickings." Evan thought before glancing up at Lance. "Can I borrow Thestalos?"

"Knock yourself out." Lance responded with a nod as Thestalos made his way to Evan's side of the field.

"Good but first things first, I summon Gemini Elf!" Evan played the card and the twin elves appeared on the field (4/1900/900). "Thestalos, attack Dragon!" Evan commanded and Thestalos threw a fireball at the female samurai destroying her and bringing Lamont's life-points down to 7500. "Gemini Elf, it's your turn!" Evan commanded and the elves casted their spells at Lamont bringing his life-points down to 5400. "It was about time that you took some damage!"

"I could argue that point all day but why bother when I can activate Damage Gate!" Lamont activated the trap and started inputting commands into his Duel Disk. "I use this trap to summon Boar from my graveyard!" Lamont played the card and the Tuner Monster returned to the field.

"And here comes another Synchro Summon!" Lance commented as he rolled his eyes. "And you call me predictable!"

"You are but that's not the point." Lamont retorted before turning to Evan. "Is that all?"

"Yes, I end my turn." Evan announced and once Thestalos was back on Lance's side of the field Lamont drew his card.

"Good, now the real fun can begin! I summon Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Dog!" Lamont played the card and a new monster appeared on the field, it was a young, armored woman accompanied by the transparent form of a dog (2/1100/1200). "Now I tune Dog with Boar to summon one of my favorites!" Lamont announced as the two monsters leapt into the air, Lamont played the card and grinned as Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Horse Prince appeared on the field (6/2200/2000).

"I remember that monster from the last round, it allows you to search out another Fire Fist monster at the cost of summoning another Level Five or higher monster for the rest of the turn." Lance commented and Lamont nodded.

"Yes and I use it to summon Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Rooster in defense mode!" Lamont said as he searched through his deck, once he played the card and the young man in rooster like armor appeared on the field (3/1500/100). "This in turn activates Rooster's effect which lets me add another Fire Fist Monster to my hand!" Lamont added before inputting more commands.

"Let me guess, that's another Tuner Monster that you'll be tuning Rooster with next turn?" Evan asked as Lamont added the monster to his hand and let the auto-shuffle feature do its work.

"Now, now Evan, as a Spellcaster user you should know that a good magician never reveals his tricks." Lamont responded with a chuckle. "Besides, if I were you I'd be more worried about Gemini Elf, Horse Prince, attack his elves!" Lamont commanded and the horse mounted monster charged into battle before destroying the elves and bringing Evan's life-points down to 4700. "I end my turn."

"Quick question, why didn't you summon Rooster in attack mode?" Kris asked as Lance drew his card. "You could've done more damage."

"And Lance would've destroyed it with Thestalos ruining my plans." Lamont responded with a nod before realizing something. "And I just said that out-loud during Lance's turn."

"Thanks for making my choice easy for me but why attack one monster when I can take them both out? I activate my Trap Card Call of the Haunted, no prizes for guessing which monster I'm bringing back." Lance played the card and Great Angus returned to the field. "Thestalos, dethrone that Prince, Great Angus, roast that rooster!" Lance commanded and the two monsters launched their attacks at Lamont's monsters and whilst Great Angus's attack dealt no life-point damage due to Rooster being in defense mode the same couldn't be said for Thestalos's attack which brought Lamont's life-points down to 5300.

"It's only a flesh wound, I'll recover from it." Lamont responded as he sent his monsters to the graveyard.

"Sure you will, for now I end my turn." Lance announced and Kris grinned before drawing his card.

"I activate Pallet Town's second effect one last time to evolve my three monsters to their final forms!" Kris announced as he played the three monsters evolved into their final forms, Charizard, Venusaur and Blastoise (8/3600/1000). "Final Evolution Tokens!"

"Three tokens that are slightly stronger than my girlfriend's best monster, thanks for that." Lance grunted before grinning. "Besides, if they are anything like your last tokens then you can't attack with them without a certain Video Game Hero monster." Lance responded and Kris laughed. "What's so funny?"

"Oh nothing, just the fact that I've had it in my hand this whole time." Kris responded and Lance's eyes narrowed. "I drew it with Spellbook inside the Pot earlier but without Pallet Town on the field it was a dead draw, not anymore! I summon Video Game Hero – Red!" Kris played the card and a new monster appeared on the field, Lance quickly recognized it as Red, the protagonist of the first few Pokemon games (1/0/0). "Let's get the basics out of the way, Red can't be summoned without Pallet Town on the field and as long as he's on the field neither him nor my tokens can be destroyed or targeted for an attack, in short you are out of the tournament unless your facedown card is another Mirror Force."

"I'm saying nothing." Lance responded as he put his hands up.

"Too bad! Venusaur token, dethrone that monarch!" Kris commanded and the Venusaur prepared his attack.

"You do know that grass types are weak against fire types, right? I activate my trap card Blowback!" Lance activated the trap which depicted a man opening a door only to be met by raging flames and to Kris's surprise both the token and Thestalos were consumed by flame. "I added this card on the off chance that I ended up facing Chloe in another duel but this is a good a time as any."

"What's going on? Red protects my monsters from being destroyed!" Kris protested and Lance shook his head.

"But not from being sacrificed otherwise you would've mentioned that." Lance responded and Kris grit his teeth before nodding. "The only downside to this trap is that until the end phase of my next turn I can't summon monsters to my side of the field but the effect makes up for it, when a Level Eight or higher monster attacks a Fire type monster of a lower level the two monsters get sacrificed."

"So it's a Fire Specific Trap Version of Share the Pain, I still don't see how that helps." Kris responded and Lance grinned.

"But wait, there's more! If the fire type monster was Level Six or higher the attacking monster's attack points gets dealt as damage to the opponent, or should I say opponents?" Lance asked and their eyes widened as their life-points plummeted to 500 and 1700.

"You'll pay for that!" Kris said as Lance sent his trap to the graveyard. "Right now! Charizard Token, attack Great Angus!" Kris commanded and the monster took flight before breathing fire at the monster….only for his attack to be stopped by a wall of flame. "What now?"

"If Blowback is in the graveyard when a Fire Type Monster I control is targeted for an attack I can remove it from play to end the Battle Phase." Lance explained as he pocketed the trap. "Downside is that I can't summon cards to my side of the field next turn but I think your partner's in trouble."

"Oh shit….." Kris trailed off before looking over at Lamont. "You have a way to survive until your next turn, right?"

"Unfortunately, no." Lamont responded and Kris's eyes widened. "Don't worry Kris, with those remaining tokens you have them on the run, you can win this even without my help."

"I hope your right." Kris commented with a gulp. "I end my turn." Kris announced and Evan drew his card.

"Lance, I require the usage of Great Angus." Evan told him and Lance nodded.

"Go for it." Lance responded as Great Angus made its way over to Evan's side of the field.

"Then let's end this! Great Angus, attack Lamont's life-points directly!" Evan commanded and the boar charged into battle before tackling Lamont to the ground and bringing his life-points down to zero. "One down, one to go."

"Unless Lance recycles both Blowback and Thestalos I don't see me losing any time soon!" Kris countered and Evan shook his head.

"I guess we'll have to wait and see, for now I end my turn and since Lamont was just eliminated the turn jumps to Lance." Evan announced and Lance drew his card.

"I hate to admit it but he's right, I don't know how I'm going to get past his monsters….." Lance thought before looking at his drawn card and grinning broadly. "Well, well, well, looks like I get to summon a card after all."

"But you said….." Kris trailed off before being interrupted by Lance.

"I said that I couldn't summon monsters to MY side of the field, your side of the field on the other hand? I can summon as many monsters as I want but I only need one." Lance responded as he held up the card. "Here's some hints, I used it in my promotion duel, it's a Level Eight Fiend Monster and it inflicts burn damage!"

"Oh shit…." Kris sighed as Lance tossed the card to him confirming it to be Lava Golem. "Okay, what monsters do you want me to tribute?"

"Your tokens." Lance responded as the two tokens were consumed by lava from Lava Golem and the cage dropped down around Kris, suddenly Red screamed in pain before shattering into a million pieces. "I thought so, Red needs those monsters to stay on the field, doesn't he?"

"Yeah, in the games this was known as Blacking Out and happened when the player ran out of useable Pokemon, in this game if all three tokens leave the field Red is automatically destroyed." Kris responded with a disappointed sigh. "Just go ahead and end your turn, we all know how this is going to end."

"I end my turn and the duel!" Lance responded and Kris didn't bother looking at the card he had drawn as the lava burned him bringing his life-points down to zero.

"Here are your winners, Lance Alvers and Evan Grant of Obelisk Blue!" Martin announced and the crowd cheered. "Next up is Veron Chan of Ra Yellow teaming up with Charity Hensley of Osiris Red to take on the combination of Latoya Conley and Louella Schneider of Ra Yellow!"

"Wasn't Veron the guy who run the Skill Drain Normal Monsters deck?" Lance asked Evan who nodded.

"Yes, he was also the one who found his deck amongst his girlfriend's sex-toys." Evan nodded in response before grinning. "Try to avoid a similar situation with Chloe." Evan added and Lance frowned.

"Considering that she was living with her foster family before she enrolled here I'd be surprised if she did have sex toys." Lance responded as he folded his arms. "Besides, I'm pretty sure she's a virgin so I doubt she has any even if she kept them hidden."

"Good point, anyway I'm assuming you're off to join Chloe and your other friends?" Evan asked and Lance went to confirm when he saw her leaving the building.

"Actually it looks like she's going out to stretch her legs so I'll go join her outside first." Lance said as he walked off. "Catch you later."

"Catch you later." Evan nodded in response before walking off.