YuGiOh GX The Future

by judodave

Rewritten version of an old fanfic, original cast: It's been 20 years since Jaden graduated from Duel Academy and now Chloe and Lance, two friends who love to duel have enrolled in the school but what challenges await them at Duel Academy? Complete, sequel coming soon!

124. Starcrossed

A couple of hours had passed since the tournament duels for the day had wrapped up and for the most part the students had returned to their daily lives at the academy whether that meant them attending classes or spending time with their friends/loved ones, for one group of students however they had other things on their minds.

"Okay, so, Chloe and Chelsea still have their classes." Theresa commented as she sat down on the sofa in Brandon's room, she had been in her boyfriend's room since the duels ended aside from her classes for the day and currently only a few people were missing in action. "Don't know what classes they have but the last time I saw them in class was for Hamden's class which was a couple of hours ago, anyone else I'm missing?"

"Last I spoke to them Chelsea said that their last class of the day was Duel Theory with Martin." Brandon responded as he took a sip of his drink. "They weren't exactly thrilled about it but it'd be a good test of their skills especially since they have to face Thomas and Rajin tomorrow morning." Brandon added before thinking for a moment. "I'm pretty sure that the others have the same class and well, unless Martin decides to arrange a rematch between Chloe and Lance I doubt anything that interesting will happen in the class."

"If that did happen I'm sure Chloe could handle Lance, especially with that new Silent Magician monster of hers." Theresa responded with a small grin. "Not sure how she'd be able to handle Lance's bruised ego if that did happen, being beaten by your new girlfriend in a duel isn't exactly good for your ego."

"My ego wasn't that bruised when you beat my Dark Scorpions back when we started dating." Brandon responded with a shrug before frowning. "If anything, my ego was bruised by the fact that I was beaten by a Ra Yellow student but that's beside the point, Martin's classes usually go on for an hour give or take a few duels and that hour's almost up so we should be expecting some company soon." Brandon added before glancing at Theresa. "So, what was so important that you didn't want to discuss it back at the arena?"

"I'd rather talk about it with everyone present." Theresa responded with a frown on her face. "But I will say that it has something in common with Marcus's recent run-in with Marie."

"You mean the Redemption Seekers." Brandon responded and Theresa nodded. "Did Tyler ever make any headway with that video we found on the flash drive Marie left behind?"

"Haven't had a chance to ask him about it and, well, last I checked he was still in the infirmary recovering from his match against Jack." Theresa responded with a frown before there was a knock at the door. "Want to bet that that's the others?"

"Well, I'm not expecting any other visitors so I'm not taking that bet." Brandon responded before he stood up and answered the door, sure enough the other students were on the other side of the door and Brandon let them in. "Okay, now that we're all here." Brandon added as the other students made themselves comfy. "What was it that you wanted to tell us?"

"Okay, just to bring Chelsea up to speed, after I lost the final match of the Battle City Tournament we made it our mission to go after the Orichalcos Duelists and try to save Andreas's soul." Theresa started and Chelsea nodded in response. "Problem was, we didn't know where to start looking but whilst Lance was searching around Otto's hospital bed for Andreas's soul card he got a call from a disposable cell phone saying that if he wanted to save Andreas we'd have to come to the docks for a final showdown, well, we thought it was a final showdown at the time."

"Yeah and the three comatose students and Tyler can attest to the fact that who you guys thought where the head honchos where just another cell." Chelsea nodded in response before frowning. "I know that Chloe mentioned dueling a former gang leader that Lance had beat up at one point and we also know about Marie but who were the others?"

"Lector Goldsmith, the former corporate lawyer for my dad's company who got fired for embezzlement, Tyler's dad and then there's the boss, otherwise known as Lance's dad." Brandon responded before noticing the uncomfortable look on Lance's face. "I know it's not something you're comfortable talking about but there was no way of skirting around the issue, anyway we don't need to worry about any of those guys coming back, Lector and Michael's soul cards were ripped up after their duels and Lance's dad? Well no-one knows what happened to him."

"What do you mean? He lost an Orichalcos Duel, right?" Chelsea asked with a confused look on her face and Lance nodded.

"Yeah, he did but he disappeared into thin air afterwards, some force was watching my duel against him and at some point, during the duel he angered that force somehow." Lance said as he shifted his weight. "Once Ultimate Baseball Kid scored the killing blow I should've paid more attention to him but I was more interested in getting off that duel arena, if I had then maybe we'd have a clue as to what happened to him."

"I'm just impressed that he was able to find a working duel arena, those things are so archaic that not even my dad used them when he was a pro-duelist." Chelsea responded as a large sweat-drop rolled down her head and Theresa shook her head.

"From what I remember of the duel, that thing had to be custom built." Theresa responded with a frown on her face. "Every time he dealt damage to Lance he would get an electric shock, unfortunately it didn't work both ways and to make matters worse he was using a Burn Deck."

"I'm not even going to question how much money he must've burnt on that thing's construction alone, no pun intended." Chelsea responded with a frown. "Then again considering how deep Victor's pockets must be that must've been pocket money for Victor, anyway how does that tie in to what you wanted to tell us Theresa?"

"As I've already said, we dealt with what we thought were the remnants of the organization at the time, most of the duelists had some kind of personal connection to us." Theresa responded before sighing. "You already know about Marie, Lector and Lance and Tyler's dads along with that gang leader with the grudge against Chloe but me? The duelist from my past that I faced off against was Drew, one of my ex-boyfriends and a former Duel Academy student who got expelled after a horrific accident caused by him convincing me to take a joy ride on two duel runners with him."

"Yeah, I've heard of those things, they are really popular in the pro-circuit last I checked." Chelsea responded and Theresa nodded with a frown. "So, what happened?"

"He showed up scarred and a lot thinner than I remembered him being, I dueled him and defeated him and, well, I thought that was the end of it." Theresa sighed as she leaned back. "Until last night, he left a note on my dorm room door saying that he wants to duel me tonight." Theresa added and the others frowned, all except Chelsea who had a skeptical look on her face.

"No offense Theresa but how do you it's even him?" Chelsea asked as she folded her arms. "Drew's a pretty common name for both genders and I'm guessing you never saw him, at least Marie was kind enough to leave that video for Marcus."

"Those are good points Chelsea but I'd recognize his hand-writing anywhere and her referred to me by a pet name he had for me when we were dating and before you ask, I haven't told anyone else that pet name, not even Brandon." Theresa responded and Brandon nodded in confirmation. "This, off course, means one of two things, either he got back with the Orichalcos Duelists after he escaped jail time via a plea bargain like Marie did or he's running with the same group that she is running with."

"And we're still not sure if we can completely trust the group Marie is running with." Brandon chimed in as he folded his arms. "So far, our only interaction with them was when Marie stole Marcus's copies of Red-Eyes Black Dragon and Red-Eyes B. Chick, not exactly a good first impression by any stretch of the imagination and that's not even getting into the fact that Marie only returned one of the monsters she stole."

"Marie did seem sincere about wanting to mend old wounds but you guys, aside from Chelsea, were there when I dueled her back in Battle City, saying that she's not exactly of sound mind is a major understatement." Marcus responded with a frown on his face. "And don't get me started on Drew, I mean he wasn't exactly a model student when he was in the academy but since his expulsion he seems to have gone over the edge."

"And that was before his arrest, I hate to imagine what some time behind bars, however brief, did to him even if he was let out early." Theresa responded before holding up her duel disk arm. "Even so, I've never been one to turn down a challenge and I plan to meet him tonight, hopefully I can get some answers."

"Drew used a Fabled Deck when you faced him in Battle City and considering that Marie used a completely different deck than the one she used against me I wouldn't be surprised if Drew's done the same." Marcus commented with a frown. "When does he want to meet up with you anyway?"

"The note he left on my door said seven o'clock." Theresa responded before checking the time on her watch. "That gives me an hour, plenty of time for me to prepare for anything he throws at me."

"Yeah well, just keep in mind what I said and be prepared for any new tricks he has up his sleeve." Marcus responded and Theresa nodded.

"I didn't come this far in Duel Academy without being prepared for any possibility during a duel." Theresa responded as she glanced over at her decks which were on a nearby coffee table. "Hell, at one point I had twenty different decks, ended up selling most of them because I never got to use them." Theresa added before picking up one of her decks and putting it in her duel disk slot and the others in their case. "But if there was one advantage of being familiar with so many deck builds its the fact that I know how most decks work like the back of my hand."

"Problem with that is so many new decks have come out since you scaled down the number of decks you owned." Brandon chimed in with a frown. "I'm not saying that you can't handle Drew, your last duel against him proved that you can, what I am saying is be prepared for anything."

"Well, after everything that's happened since Lance and Chloe joined the school I've learned to expect the unexpected." Theresa commented dryly before checking her watch again and standing up. "Now if you excuse me, I have a duel to prepare for."

"Before you go." Lance chimed in and Theresa turned to him. "Did you find out any info on that Infernal Revival card?"

"We did but it turned up more questions than answers." Brandon responded with a frown on his face. "First, we tried various websites that report what cards are being released in the coming months, there is a booster pack coming out in two months' time but there's no record of a Trap Card called Infernal Revival, not even in the foreign language versions."

"Then we tried calling some of the friends we made during Battle City and the expulsion duels, we figured that since I2 has imposed an embargo on any official information regarding booster packs in recent months and pro-duelists are usually the first to receive the latest booster packs they would know something the websites weren't telling us." Theresa added before letting out an annoyed sigh. "Not even Eddie knew anything about the Trap Card and he's the reigning Battle City Champ, which means that it has to be a forgery."

"Which begs the following questions, why does Jessica have a fake card in her deck, how did she get her hands on it, why did it work on her disc and how did it not send up a red flag in Martin's mind?" Brandon added as he folded his arms. "We know that Amelia and Caitlin have been asking him about the legality of Infernal Revival since they lost their match but Martin has refused to comment."

"Cameron and Jessica's families are both wealthy enough to pay their way into Obelisk Blue, what if he's refusing to comment because he's worried about possible reprisals from the higher ups caused by their family's complaining." Chelsea chimed in with a shrug. "It would definitely explain why they were so lenient on them after Chloe was goaded by Cameron into deactivating the safeties on her duel disk, you'd think they wouldn't include a button the turned off the safety features on those things, especially ones designed for students."

"Thanks for the unpleasant trip down memory lane Chelsea." Chloe sighed in annoyance and Chelsea winced in response. "But she has a point, Cameron was let off way to easy whilst I got a year's detention because I fell into his trap, that might have gotten annulled thanks to my expulsion duel but even so."

"I get what you mean girls but unless you have proof, well, it's basically the same thing as Caitlin's comments about Jessica's infidelity before the duel started." Brandon responded with a frown. "Unless they do something monumentally stupid and rule breaking to the point where not even their family's money can save them from getting punished I don't see you getting that proof either unfortunately."

"Yeah well, we both know that they aren't the smartest tools in the shed." Chelsea pointed out with a smirk on her face. "They'll slip up eventually." Chelsea added before turning to Theresa. "So, what's the plan for your preparation? If plan to prepare with a duel I'm happy to be your sparring partner."

"Are you sure? Your reputation as a sore loser is almost as bad as your temper." Theresa pointed out and Chelsea sweat-dropped in response.

"Not when I'm playing a friendly match, besides I'll need all the practice I can get for the duel against Thomas and Rajin tomorrow, especially since he'll have a chip on his shoulder about being one counter trap away from securing his team's place in the finals." Chelsea responded before motioning to Chloe. "For that matter we could both use the practice it's win-win."

"I see your point." Theresa responded before nodding. "Okay, how about this, there's no way I'll be able to get two duels done in an hour so why don't I face you two in a handicap match? Might be a nice preview for the finals if you two make it that far."

"Now that's a three-way I'd love to see!" Lance chimed in with a grin only to laugh nervously at the glares he was getting from the three girls.

"No, just no, Chelsea might be a lesbian and for a time Chloe was mistaken for her lesbian girlfriend because they spend so much time together but I'm straight and not about to cheat on Brandon with anyone, let alone two other women." Theresa responded with an annoyed look on her face and Lance laughed nervously again.

"Can't you girls take a joke?" Lance asked and Theresa frowned. "Guess not."

"Come on, we'd better get out of here before my boyfriend manages to dig his way into the center of the Earth." Chloe added and the other two girls nodded before they walked off.

"I had better get going as well." Andreas added as he stood up. "I have some unfinished business with Nicola and I'm sure most of you know what that means." Andreas added before following the three girls out of the room, soon afterworlds the other students left one by one until Brandon was left alone in his room.

"I didn't want to say anything whilst Theresa was still in the room but I doubt that she could take Drew." Brandon thought as he scrolled through his Facebook wall. "By Marcus's own admission Marie had improved a lot since she dueled him after Battle City and Drew has been out of jail for about as long as Marie has, he was already a skilled duelist so who knows how much he's improved?"

*meanwhile*

Whilst Theresa had her warm-up duel against Chloe and Chelsea the rest of the student body was, for the most part, settling in for the night and that was also true of the Osiris Red Girl's Dorm which was quiet now as most of the girls had either retired to their rooms for the evening or where out dueling other students, as for Nicola?

"Okay, so I need a few more Beast support cards so that I can keep up with the rest of the student body." Nicola thought with a frown on her face as she sat on the edge of her bed going over her deck, she was still in her school uniform but her pajamas lay on the bedside table ready for when she would get changed and ready for bed. "And if today's duels proved anything it's that updating my deck regularly is a good idea." Nicola thought before looking at some of the cards she had picked out. "Shield and Sword saved my behind when I had that dream duel this past weekend, that's definitely not something that I'll bring up when Zach and mom come over on Saturday but that's beside the point, but considering that most of my monsters have stronger defense points than attack points and I really only included this card for Emerald Tortoise I'm not sure if it's worth keeping in my deck going forward." Nicola thought before there was a knock at the door. "I'm decent." She called out and Andreas opened the door. "Oh Andreas, I didn't think you'd come over."

"Well, I didn't have anything to do back at the Obelisk Blue Boy's Dorm and besides, I wanted to talk to you about something." Andreas responded and Nicola nodded before putting her deck back in her duel disk and setting it aside. "May I come in?"

"Yeah, sure." Nicola invited him in and Andreas entered the room not bothering to close the door behind him. "Sorry there isn't much room in here." Nicola added as she motioned to the chair next to the coffee table which was stacked high with homework as was the desk itself. "But I've been neglecting my homework ever since Sapphire Pegasus became my Spirit Guide and I do want to get most of it done before my family come over on Saturday."

"That's fine." Andreas shrugged before sitting next to her. "Though you didn't mention that they were coming over."

"They called me on Skype before the duels started today, apparently, this Saturday is a visitors' day for the families of the students here." Nicola responded before laughing a bit. "All though, wording it like that makes it sound more like a prison island than a school."

"Indeed, it does." Andreas agreed with her before turning to her. "I suppose you remember the conversation we had at the beginning of week? Regarding your family and, well, the possibility of us being a couple."

"Yeah, we were about to seal the deal when Marcus interrupted us to tell us about the duel between Lance and Evan and Kris and Lamont." Nicola commented as she thought back to that day. "Man, I still can't get Lance's butchering of the Pokémon Theme Song out of my head."

"Still not the worst cover of a Pokémon Theme Song I've ever heard." Andreas nodded in agreement before inching closer to her. "Look, I know things have been pretty hectic since then and I'm not even going into the incident when you walked in on me wearing nothing but a towel but if I can be honest? I didn't realize it until that day but I think I've had a crush on you since we first met back at Battle City."

"And here I thought love at first sight was an old cliché only found in romance novels and fairy tales." Nicola responded with a sheepish laugh before turning to Andreas. "Well, you know how awkward I was back then but looking back I think I felt the same." Nicola added before turning to Andreas. "But are you sure this can work? I'm in Osiris Red and you're in Obelisk Blue, aren't you worried about what your dormmates might think?"

"If I was worried about that I wouldn't be here." Andreas reassured her and Nicola grinned in response. "So, do you want to pick up from where Marcus interrupted us?" Andreas asked and without hesitation Nicola kissed him, the kissing continued for a few minutes and almost progressed into a full on make-out session when…

"Err, Nic, you left your door open." Cindy's voice rang out and Nicola broke the kiss almost immediately before blushing furiously when she realized that several other girls where in front of her dorm room including her neighbors. "Unless you want an audience for your first sex session with your boyfriend off course."

"How long were you lot standing there?" Nicola asked once the surprise wore off and the girls started giggling.

"Long enough." Sam responded with a grin on her face, the crowd quickly dispersed and Nicola let out a deep breath. "Seriously though, nice catch."

"Yeah well, if anyone asks it was just a quick kiss and nothing else, last thing I need is gossip spreading before my brother gets a chance to meet my boyfriend." Nicola responded and her neighbors nodded before walking off, Nicola turned to Andreas and sighed. "I knew I should've closed the door first."

"Heat of the moment and all that, I know." Andreas nodded in understanding before standing up. "Still, as beautiful as you are, I wouldn't want to impregnate you before the first date, unless you want to explain that to your parents and your brother."

"I think I'd rather sit through a hundred lectures by Martin before I had to explain that." Nicola responded with a small grin on her face. "Speaking of dates, how are we going to arrange one."

"Martin had a hand in arranging Chloe and Lance's first date the other day, I'll try to have a chat with him before the duels start tomorrow." Andreas responded before going to open the door. "As for our first make-out session, I'll take the same approach Lance took and order condoms."

"Considering how long Lance has been waiting for his order to arrive it might be summer break by the time we actually have sex for the first time." Nicola said with a grin before Andreas left the room and closed the door behind him, without a second thought Nicola picked her deck back up and started looking through it again. "Okay, where was I again?"

"I'm not surprised that you've lost your train of thought." Sapphire Pegasus's voice rang out in Nicola's head and Nicola did her best to ignore her as she swung her legs onto the bed and lay down. "Considering how close you were to losing your virginity to him before your first date."

"Not listening." Nicola responded as she went over her deck. "Okay, good substitute for Shield and Sword, well it's not like there's a shortage of good Beast Support cards out there, Andreas seems to add a new one to his deck every time I see him duel, maybe I can ask him for recommendations."

"Yes, and I'm sure that's the only reason you want to spend some alone time with him." Sapphire Pegasus responded and Nicola groaned.

"I thought the agreement was that you'd stop teasing me once I made the relationship with Andreas official." Nicola thought before realization hit her. "And I just realized that it might be a good idea to tell dad that me and Andreas are an item before my family comes over on Saturday."

"Yes, the agreement was that I'd stop teasing you, but it was that I'd stop teasing you about you walking in on Andreas naked." Sapphire Pegasus responded and Nicola groaned knowing where she was going with this. "Your desire to have sex with Andreas for the first time on the other hand? That's fair game."

"You know, I'm really wishing that I had never gotten a Duel Spirit guide right now." Nicola responded with a groan. "At least Chloe's Duel Spirit doesn't give her this much crap."

"No but she is a lot older than me." Sapphire Pegasus responded and Nicola rolled her eyes. "And besides, I know that, as much as you want to deny it, you've been having wet dreams involving you and Andreas for a while now."

"If I wasn't so tired I'd summon you just so I could throw a pillow at your face." Nicola sighed in annoyance before returning her attention to her deck.

*an hour later*

The duel between Theresa, Chloe and Chelsea was just wrapping up and it wasn't looking good for the two girls from Ra Yellow. Chelsea had already been eliminated by one of Theresa's trap cards and since the turn order was Chelsea, then Theresa and finally Chloe that meant that the turn automatically passed to Theresa, as for the field? Theresa had Black Luster Soldier on her side of the field whilst Chloe had Silent Magician on hers but since she only had two cards in her hand and had already used up Silent Burning Chloe's monster was a sitting duck and with only five hundred life-points and no trap card on the field there was no way Chloe could survive the next attack.

"Well girls, thanks for the warm-up." Theresa thanked them before checking the time on her watch. "But I have a date with my ex-boyfriend, Black Luster Soldier attack Silent Magician!" Theresa commanded and the soldier slammed his sword into the ground sending a shockwave towards Chloe's new monster destroying it in an instant and sending her life-points down to zero in the process. "No offense but if you girls intend to beat me and Brandon in the finals you're going to have to do better."

"Yeah well, don't forget that there's a whole weekend to go before the tournament finals." Chloe responded as she gathered up her cards. "And a lot can happen over the next few days, we'll be ready for you next time."

"Yeah, what she said." Chelsea grumbled under her breath clearly still sore over the loss. "I just hope that the warm-up was good enough to prepare you for Drew."

"Oh, believe me, it was." Theresa responded but before she could say anything else the three girls heard clapping coming from the trees surrounding the clearing that they had been dueling in. "You guys hear that clapping as well?"

"Yeah and it's weird, I didn't think anyone else on the island was out and about this late." Chelsea responded as she looked around looking for the source of the clapping.

"Behind you." A feminine voice familiar to Theresa and Chloe rang out and the three girls turned their attention to a tree right behind Theresa where they saw Marie leaning against it having just stopped her clapping, she was wearing the same outfit that she wore during her last duel with Marcus but was also wearing a jacket presumably because of the cold weather. "Been a long-time Theresa, Chloe."

"Marie, first Drew returns to the island not long after you did and now you show up again?" Theresa asked once her surprise wore off as she folded her arms. "I believe you have something that belongs to my friend."

"What? No "nice to see you again"? No "what have you been doing since we last saw you"?" Marie asked mockingly and Theresa's eyes narrowed. "Yeah, yeah, I know, I was an Orichalcos Duelist the last time you saw me in person and I did borrow a couple of cards from Marcus to lure him out." Marie added before smirking. "And if he wants his Red-Eyes Black Dragon back he'll have to beat me."

"Oh really? And what's to stop us from taking it from you?" Chelsea chimed in as she marched up to the shorter teenager. "Three against one, I'm just saying, the odds aren't looking good for you and that's if we don't decide to call security."

"And if you did call security me and Drew would be off this island faster than you can say "so long Red-Eyes Black Dragon"." Marie responded as she looked up at Chelsea and Theresa's ears perked up when she heard Drew's name. "And based on everything I heard you got Drew's note last night."

"What is your connection with Drew?" Theresa asked and Marie smirked.

"What do you think? Drew came to the Redemption Hunters after he had plastic surgery to repair the damage done to his face." Marie responded and Theresa's eyes narrowed. "Believe me, it'd be like he never took that joyride with you back when you were a Ra Yellow Rebel, it took me a couple of minutes to realize that I was talking to a guy who was once so ugly that he could shatter a room full of mirrors just by standing outside it."

"I don't care what your organization calls itself Marie, you and Drew were both Orichalcos Duelists and to be frank, I don't trust you as far as I can throw you." Theresa responded and Marie let an annoyed sigh.

"They said it would be like this on the outside, I guess I'd better let my actions speak louder than words." Marie responded as she brushed past Chelsea. "Come on, Drew asked me to be your chauffer for your little date." Marie added and Theresa's eyes narrowed.

"And if I didn't take you up on that offer?" Theresa asked and Marie grinned.

"That's up to you but aren't you interested in what our superiors have in store for you guys?" Marie asked and Theresa hesitated. "How about this, I'll let you bring Chloe and Chelsea along, just to prove that I'm being honest and that there's no funny business going on."

"Guys, can I have a quick huddle?" Theresa asked and Chloe and Chelsea nodded before huddling together with Theresa. "I don't like this."

"Join the club." Chelsea responded with a frown on her face. "But I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't a bit curious."

"I'm in the same vote as you guys." Chloe responded as she glanced over at Marie who was leaning against the tree again and looking at her fingernails. "If nothing else this will be a perfect opportunity to learn more about this third party going forward."

"Guess we don't have a choice." Theresa conceded before breaking the huddle and turning to Marie. "Okay, lead the way but if there's any funny business, well just keep in mind what Chelsea said about our numbers advantage."

"I was hoping you'd see things my way." Marie responded with a grin before kicking off the tree and motioning for the three girls to follow her, the walk continued for about twenty minutes with Theresa, Chloe and Chelsea casting the occasional uneasy look towards the trees that made up most of the north side of the island, something that didn't go unnoticed by Marie. "Yeash, it's like you girls don't trust me or something."

"Yeah, it's not like you aren't a former Orichalcos Duelist with a history of theft." Chelsea responded with sarcasm dripping from her mouth and Marie shook her head.

"And considering that you once spent a stint in juvenile hall for punching out a pro-duelist after he kicked your ass in a duel your hardly able to talk about the past." Marie responded before yelping in surprise as Chelsea spun her around and lifted her up by her jacket's collar with an angry look on her face. "Oh, I'm sorry, did I touch a nerve?"

"How do you know about that?!" Chelsea asked through gritted teeth as Chloe tried to calm her down. "I thought Marcus said that you didn't have the resources of the Orichalcos Duelists."

"Oh, I don't, but your juvenile conviction is a matter of public record until you turn eighteen." Marie pointed out as Chelsea's eyes narrowed. "When is your birthday again? July 22nd? I mean you have to wait a whole month before you can even think about representing the academy at next year's Battle City Tournament and that's if they even let a student with a juvenile record, sealed or not, compete…"

"June 22nd, two weeks from now." Chelsea corrected her before setting her down and letting go off her collar. "And if you don't want a broken nose you won't bring that up again."

"Oh, trust me, I don't repeat my mistakes." Marie responded as she straightened up her jacket. "But wasn't it a broken nose that landed you in juvie in the first place? I'm surprised Duel Academy accepted you in the first place." Marie added and sensing where this was going Theresa quickly stepped in.

"Look, I get that tensions are high but the last thing I need right now is you losing your temper!" Theresa said as she turned to Chelsea. "In fact, I prefer to avoid that happening whilst I'm near you whenever possible but don't we have a meeting with Drew to get to?"

"Yeah, we do." Marie responded as she dusted herself off. "All though, honestly, I'm surprised your letting someone with her temper help you out, or do I need to remind you girls that anger leads to you making rash decisions."

"And if you don't shut up I'll make a rash decision right now by throwing you into the ocean!" Chelsea snapped at her and Marie gulped before leading the other girls away without another word, whilst Chelsea continued to glance around she noticed that Theresa was walking alongside her. "Let me guess, you have questions regarding that incident Marie brought up."

"You could say that." Theresa responded with a frown on her face. "Look I know better than anyone that anger tends to cloud your judgment but punching out a pro-duelist? What if you end up facing that pro-duelist after you graduate? Because people in the pro-leagues tend to have long memories, especially when another duelist assaults them!"

"Don't you think I've thought about that?" Chelsea asked before sighing in response. "The pro-duelist I faced that day is based in my home city of Chicago, it's pretty much the reason why my parents made the decision to enroll me at this Duel Academy and not the one over in America but even if I still lived in Chicago my opponent didn't want to press charges against me, it was his agent that insisted."

"Sounds like the agent wanted to make an example of you." Theresa reasoned and Chelsea frowned in response. "Though that does raise the question of how your parents could enroll you in a foreign school, you'd think the juvenile conviction would be a major stumbling block, not to mention being expelled from three other schools."

"Believe it or not they got the pro-duelist to put in a good word for me and it was enough for them to let me come here." Chelsea responded before sighing. "Unfortunately, it's a double-edged sword, the reason I wasn't invited to compete in Battle City with you guys was because the school board wasn't willing to sign off on a student with a juvenile conviction to represent them in the tournament, even though it was my only fucking offense." Chelsea grunted in annoyance before taking a deep breath. "The sooner my eighteenth birthday rolls around, the better, that's all I'm saying."

"If you two are done gossiping over there." Marie interrupted them mid-conversation and they looked up and realized that Marie and Chloe had stopped just ahead of them. "We've arrived, don't expect any candlelit dinners or binge watching romantic comedies but what you can expect, well, I guess I'd better not spoil it."

"Just as a personal note, I'd rather be trapped in the Orichalcos than watch any romantic comedy." Theresa responded and Marie shook her head.

"Take it from someone who's been there, you don't want your soul trapped in that awful place and I don't care how much you hate Romantic Comedies." Marie responded before standing to the side and letting Theresa into the clearing, when Theresa entered the clearing she saw Drew with his back to her and frowned.

"Okay Drew, I'm here." Theresa said as her eyes narrowed. "What do you want?"

"Oh, I can think of a few things." Drew said before turning around and Theresa was clearly taken aback by what she saw, he was no longer as thin as Theresa remembered him as he had clearly put on some weight but not enough to be considered even remotely overweight, what was most striking however was the fact that the scar that was once down the right side of his face was long gone as was the harsh nature of his voice, on his right arm he had a standard issue duel disk much like the one Marie previously used against Marcus. "Your forgiveness for a start, the deaths of my former employers…..."

"Your face…..." Theresa trailed off and Drew grinned.

"Oh, you mean this?" Drew asked as he ran a hand down the right side of his face. "It's a wonder what plastic surgery can achieve nowadays, back when I first had the accident my damage was considered untreatable but now? Well, just look at me." Drew said as Chloe, Chelsea and Marie entered the clearing. "And I see that you've brought some friends as well, Chloe I recognize from Battle City but the taller girl?"

"She's Chelsea Cunningham." Marie cut off Chelsea's attempt to introduce herself and Chelsea frowned. "You know, the Osiris Red Student whose criminal record prevented her from competing? Obviously, she's been promoted to Ra Yellow since then but still." Marie added as she adjusted her collar. "And yeah, her temper is as nasty as her file suggested."

"File?!" Chelsea asked with an annoyed look on her face. "What do you mean by file?!"

"I'm glad to see you remembered to not tell them." Drew nodded before turning to them. "I believe Tyler asked the Orichalcos Duelist known as Jack why that particular group of Duel Academy students were targeted, now obviously, I have my history with Theresa, Marie has her history with Marcus and, well, then there's the unfortunate case of Robert…..."

"And if you don't want me to undo the good your plastic surgeon did that'll be the last you'll mention of my father!" Chloe warned him as her eyes narrowed. "Just get to the point."

"Understood." Drew responded with a nervous gulp as he tugged at his collar. "Truth is, when Victor first brought back the Orichalcos he knew that that the Legendary Dragons wouldn't be far behind so as his organization grew and he recruited the agents that would make up the Battle City branch he had Phillip and Michael assemble files on each Duel Academy student and their likeliness to receive a dragon, I will say that for all his insanity has spot on with his predictions and molded the branch so that each duelist would face someone from their past."

"So, if he used that as criteria for recruitment, why did he recruit my dad?" Chloe asked as her eyes narrowed. "Don't forget, I was there and I saw for myself that the other Orichalcos Duelists were disgusted by what that bastard put me through as a kid."

"Believe me, we were." Marie nodded in response with a sad frown on her face. "Hell, it hit me the hardest because I knew kids that had been in similar situations from the orphanage I grew up in! But in all honesty Phillip didn't do nearly enough research into the guy and didn't realize just what he had done until it was too late, in fact the rest of the branch where pretty much clueless about the guy until he made his move against you and, well, the fact that you responded to seeing your biological dad again by calling him a son of a bitch sent up more than a few Red Flags."

"And then we learned the truth, if you guys thought you were shocked you should've been on the ship when he started using psychological warfare against you." Drew responded as he folded his arms. "Never seen such a tense silence in all my life! Even Ramon, the guy who had the second biggest grudge against you, looked ready to murder that bastard."

"Chloe, I'm sorry for what your dad put you through, really, I am, but if Phillip knew about it in advance I'm pretty sure that he would've had Robert killed rather than recruit him." Marie added before turning to Theresa. "So, what say you Theresa?"

"Well, what you just said makes sense, even though he was a deadbeat dad to Lance he was still a dad and any parent would want five minutes alone with that bastard for what he did to Chloe, I know my mom did and as for the rest of the Orichalcos duelists, well my mom always said that even the most cold-blooded killers have a conscious." Theresa reasoned before turning her attention back to Drew. "But as for forgiveness? Just because you've fixed the damage the accident did to your face through what must've cost you a pretty penny in plastic surgery and put on a few pounds since I last saw you doesn't mean I'm so eager to forgive you, even setting aside the fact that that stunt almost got me expelled and arrested you still used the Orichalcos against me and intended to trap my soul in the Orichalcos!"

"And I regret that decision every day, but I suppose if I can't convince you through words." Drew added as he activated his duel disk. "Then I'll convince you through actions!"

"They often say that actions speak louder than words." Theresa responded as she activated her duel disk. "And we'll see if your actions back up what you're saying!"

"Hey Chloe, what deck did he use in Battle City again?" Chelsea asked as she glanced at her roommate and Chloe looked up.

"He used a Fabled Deck, you know, the Fiend Archetype that focuses on discarding monsters that isn't Dark World?" Chloe asked and Chelsea nodded in response. "But if Marie's duel with Marcus is any indication then I doubt that information will help Theresa much."

"She has no idea how right she is." Marie thought as she overheard the two roommates talking before turning her attention back to the duel.

"I'll go first, ladies first and all that." Theresa announced and Drew nodded as she looked over her hand. "And I start my turn with the Spell Card Allure of Darkness!" Theresa played the card and quickly drew her three cards, once she surveyed the three cards she had drawn she picked up the only monster she had drawn and pocketed it. "Next I set two cards facedown and I summon Beginning Knight in attack mode!" Theresa played the cards and the young version of the Black Luster Soldier appeared on the field (4/500/2000).

"It appears that your slipping Theresa, we both know that a monster with that high a defense would've served you better in defense mode." Drew responded and Theresa's eyes narrowed.

"As curious as I am as to why your trying to help your opponent, I have my reasons for summoning my knight in attack mode." Theresa responded with a frown on her face. "Let's see if he takes the bait." Theresa thought before looking over her remaining cards. "I end my turn." Theresa announced and Drew nodded before he drew his card.

"Since I control no Spell/Trap Cards I can Special Summon Alich, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss!" Drew played his card and a winged, armored humanoid appeared on the field, he had shoulder length blonde hair and his face was covered by a strange mask (3/1200/0). "Now I can only use this monster's effects once per turn but that should be the last of your concern."

"If he had used this deck back in Battle City I'd strongly doubt that." Theresa thought with a frown as she stared at Drew's new monster. "But since he Special Summoned that thing he could easily use it for a Synchro or XYZ Summon."

"Now for my Normal Summon I will bring out the Tuner Monster Rubic, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss!" Drew played the card and a massive purple fiend appeared on the field, it had black horns, was armored like the other monster and was very intimidating (3/100/2100). "Feel free to make any "pot calling the kettle black comments you want but since I've already mentioned that Rubic is a Tuner Monster I don't think I need to point out that he won't remain on the field for much longer."

"I wasn't going to make a comment along those lines because I'm not a smartass like Chelsea is." Theresa responded earning an annoyed glare from Chelsea. "But if you are going to do a Synchro Summon then get on with it, or have you forgotten that the students are expected to be in their beds by 11:00pm at the earliest?"

"No, I haven't forgotten, though I still don't see the point in enforcing a curfew at a school where most of the students are in their mid-to-late teens." Drew responded before pointing to his monster. "Regardless, I don't think this phrase will ever have a more appropriate meaning than when I summon this monster, Rubik, give Alich a Tune-Up!"

"Unless they released a Synchro Monster version of that old Musician King Fusion Monster I doubt it." Theresa responded as the two Fiend Type Monsters leapt into the air for the Synchro Summon, once the bright flash faded Theresa did a double take when she saw the monster that Drew had summoned. "What on Earth?"

The monster that appeared on the field had the appearance of a medieval court musician and he was tall with short red hair that could barely be seen under his oversized hat, it wasn't the appearance that caught Theresa off guard though, it was his instrument which looked like a gold colored guitar that had flames shooting out of the neck and bottom end "Please welcome to the stage Virgil. Rockstar of the Burning Abyss!" Drew announced as his monster took a bow (6/2500/1000).

"And here I thought Sophia Pegasus's step-dad released some odd monsters." Chloe commented as a large sweat-drop rolled down her head.

"Tell me about it, that guy looks like someone straight out of a Power Metal Music Video." Chelsea nodded in agreement before noticing that Marie had covered her ears. "Anything you're not telling us?"

"Not much, just brace yourselves, even though you listen to this type of music Chelsea." Marie responded and the two girls gave her an odd look.

"Now in the Tenacious D music video for the song "Tribute" the Devil approached the musicians telling them to write the best song in the world or have their souls eaten." Drew commented as Virgil starting tuning his guitar. "A bit much if you ask me, especially when he could've just gone to Virgil here and save himself a few minutes! Virgil, ROCK ON!" Drew commanded and his Synchro Monster played a single and very, very loud chord that sent shockwaves towards Beginning Knight.

"My ears are going to be ringing for an entire week thanks to that monster but my life-points will be untouched!" Theresa responded as her trap card flipped up. "I activate Lucky Silver Dollar, since you just attacked a monster with less than a thousand attack points my monster isn't destroyed and my life-points don't take the hit!" Theresa added as her monster withstood the shockwave even though it nearly knocked him off his feet at once point.

"Very well, I set two cards facedown and end my turn." Drew announced and once she was done rubbing her ears Theresa drew her card.

"Ow, my ears." Chloe moaned as she clutched her ears in pain, on the other hand Chelsea just stood there with her arms-crossed and an unimpressed look on her face. "How are you not in pain?"

"Chloe, I've been going to metal concerts since I was thirteen years old and even then, I was always right up at the front!" Chelsea responded as she glanced at her roommate. "That was nothing!"

"I don't care how many Linkin Park or Papa Roach concerts you've been too." Marie responded as she dug around her jacket pocket before finding several ear plugs, after putting two of them in her own ears she tossed a pair each to the other three girls. "You might want to keep these in your ears for as long as Drew has that monsters on the field."

"Okay, first off, don't insult me by calling Linkin Park and Papa Roach metal." Chelsea responded with an annoyed look on her face as she and Chloe put the ear plugs in. "Second, when I said metal I meant along the lines of Slayer, Cannibal Corpse Death, Death Angel, Dark Angel, Testament, Exodus, god knows how many Black Metal bands…."

"Is she always like this?" Drew asked Theresa as large sweat-drops rolled down their heads and Chelsea continued to list off metal bands.

"If you think she's on a tangent now, just be glad that Marie didn't name-drop Limp Bizcit." Theresa responded as she listened to Chelsea's tangent.

"Okay, I get it, you listen to a bunch of bands I've never heard of, well except for Slayer." Marie said after a good ten minutes of Chelsea listing off bands. "So, what are your thoughts on Limp…." Marie never finished the sentence as Chloe covered her mouth.

"Marie, I don't exactly like you because of your past affiliation with the Orichalcos Duelists." Chloe whispered in Marie's ear and she nodded. "With that in mind, don't mention that band name! The last guy who insinuated that that band was a metal band spent a week in the infirmary and I, alongside her parents, had to personally talk the teachers out of giving Chelsea an expulsion duel." Chloe added before removing her hand.

"You're not kidding, aren't you?" Marie whispered and Chloe nodded. "You know what? Lost my train of thought!"

"Good." Chelsea responded before turned their attention back to the duel.

"And you couldn't give these out before the duel, because?" Theresa asked as she put her ear plugs in and Marie shrugged.

"I had no way of knowing that he was going to Synchro Summon Virgil on his first turn." Marie responded with a shrug. "Besides, the Burning Abyss archetype makes use of so many different summoning techniques that it makes my head spin just thinking about them!"

"I'll take your word for it!" Theresa responded before playing the card she had drawn. "I activate Burial from a Different Dimension! Using this Spell Card, I can move the monster I banished last turn to my graveyard!" Theresa played the card and retrieved the monster from her breast pocket and moved it to her graveyard. "Next I switch Beginning Knight to defense mode and I set another monster in defense mode to end my turn." Theresa announced as her knight crouched down and a facedown monster appeared next to it and Drew frowned before drawing his card.

"Funny, I seem to remember your strategy being a lot more offense based in our last duel." Drew commented as he drew his card. "Then again, it is patently obvious that you are using a different deck."

"Yeah and the fact that you summoned a Synchro Monster with 2500 attack points on your first turn doesn't help." Theresa pointed out and Drew nodded.

"Point taken, now I know Marie was kind enough to toss you those earplugs but you might want to brace yourself regardless, Vigil, attack Beginning Knight!" Drew commanded and the same, very loud chord rang out sending shockwaves towards her knight.

"I'm afraid your set is about to encounter technical difficulties! I activate my Trap Card Interdimensional Matter Transporter!" Theresa activated the trap and Beginning Knight disappeared from the field. "I didn't use this last turn because I wasn't about to take a direct attack on the second turn, regardless of what you summoned." Theresa added as she moved Beginning Knight to her breast pocket.

"Very well, Vigil, she wants an encore so attack her defense monster!" Drew commanded and the same chord was played again sending shockwaves towards Theresa's facedown monster, revealing it to be a young knight in similar armor to beginning knight (4/500/2000), which was promptly destroyed. "All you seem to be doing is summoning weak knights for my bard to destroy."

"Not to mention a few eardrums." Theresa commented dryly as she sent her monster to the graveyard. "But you can worry about Evening Twilight Knight later, alongside all the people your monster has to be waking up."

"Don't get me started on that, I get enough of that shit every time I duel thanks to my neighbors!" Drew groaned as he messaged his forehead in annoyance. "I set two cards facedown and end my turn."

"Then maybe he should move to the countryside if his monster's causing him this much trouble with the neighbors, still I can't shake the feeling that I've seen Drew's new monsters before, outside of Duel Monsters." Theresa thought as Beginning Knight returned to the field and she drew her card. "It's time I went on the offensive! I summon Manju of the Ten Thousand Hands!" Theresa played the card and the multi-armed fairy type monster appeared on the field (4/1400/1000). "This is turn activates Manju's effect, when this monster I summoned I can search my deck one Ritual Monster/Ritual Spell Card and add it to my hand."

"Theresa, darling, you don't need to explain that monster's effect to me." Drew commented not noticing the annoyed look on Theresa's face. "That card was around when we were still dating."

"True but it is customary to explain the effect of the card, also don't call me darling." Theresa warned him before inputting commands into her duel disk. "Anyway, I use Manju's effect to add a Ritual Spell Card to my hand!" Theresa announced as she retrieved the Spell Card from her deck which subsequently auto-shuffled. "And I won't keep you or the audience guessing, I activate my Ritual Spell Card Super Soldier Ritual!"

"Okay, if Theresa has a monster based on the Chris Evans version of Captain America I'm perfectly fine with losing to her team in the finals." Chelsea commented as Manju and Beginning Knight where absorbed into the ritual pot that had appeared on the field. "I may be gay but I would definitely appreciate the eye candy!"

"I'm afraid your out of luck there Chelsea and frankly, I think I2 were skirting on thin copyright ice when they released those video game based cards that Kris used in his duel so I doubt we'll be seeing any MCU based monsters." Theresa responded as she tried not to laugh before turning to Drew. "Back to business, this Spell Card can be used to Ritual Summon any Black Luster Soldier monster but I'm using it to summon a monster that shares the same name as the Ritual Card itself." Theresa added before playing the card and a new monster appeared on the field, it bared a close resemblance to the original Black Luster Soldier but it was leaner and had more colorful armor. "Black Luster Soldier – Super Soldier!" (8/3000/2500).

"I'm not impressed." Drew commented as he folded his arms. "For the same price, you could've summoned the regular Black Luster Soldier and get the same result, what sets this monster apart from the original?"

"Aside from the effects granted to it by Beginning Knight that basically make it a Ritual Monster version of Envoy of the Beginning?" Theresa asked as she folded her arms. "You know what? Rather than tell you, I'll demonstrate! Super Soldier, attack Vigil, Rockstar of the Burning Abyss!" Theresa commanded and the soldier slammed his sword into the ground sending shockwaves towards Drew's monster and destroying it.

"So, I lost five hundred life-points, I can live with that." Drew shrugged his shoulders before looking at his duel disk so that he could activate one of his traps only to do a double take. "WHAT?! How did I lose three thousand life-points?!"

"You lost the additional life-points through Super Soldier's effect, when he destroys a monster and sends it to the graveyard you take that monster's attack as damage on top of the battle damage, Vigil's attack was 2500, you don't exactly need to be a mathematician to figure the rest out." Theresa responded before grinning. "And thanks to Beginning Knight's effect he can attack again, do it Black Luster Soldier!" Theresa commanded and the soldier charged into battle before striking Drew with his blade bringing his life-points down to 2000. "He didn't activate any of his facedown cards, why?" Theresa thought with a frown. "I end my turn by setting one card facedown!" Theresa announced and Drew nodded before drawing his card, before he took his turn however he gave Theresa, Chloe and Chelsea a chance to give the earplugs back to Marie.

"You've seen one of my new monsters, now you're about to see two more." Drew commented before playing the card he had drawn. "First I activate a card that you used earlier in the duel, Allure of Darkness!" Drew announced before drawing his three cards and quickly banishing one. "Now I activate the first of my two cards that'll allow me to summon two of my decks Heavy Hitters, first up is The Terminus in the Burning Abyss!" Drew played the card before picking up three cards from his hand. "This card is pretty much an archetype exclusive version of Polymerization and I will use it to summon a monster that requires three different Burning Abyss Monsters." Drew said as he sent the monsters to the graveyard. "Dante, Pilgrim of the Burning Abyss!"

"Okay, now I definitely know where I've heard these names before!" Theresa thought as the three fiends appeared on the field for a moment before being sucked into a hellish gate, seconds later another colorfully dressed man stepped through the gate, he was wearing white and blue robes, had shoulder length light blue hair and a golden staff (9/2800/2500). "Drew, something had been bugging me about your monsters ever since you summoned Virgil a few turns ago but until now I couldn't figure out what."

"Until now?" Drew asked with a raised eyebrow and Theresa nodded.

"Rubik, Alich, Virgil and now Dante." Theresa said as she folded her arms. "This archetype is based on the Divine Comedy, isn't it?"

"I was wondering if you'd ever figure it out but yes, it is." Drew responded with a nod before frowning. "Then again considering that you told me that you once did a book report on the Divine Comedy I'm not surprised, in fact I'm more surprised by the fact that your teacher let you read it."

"It was a religious studies class, everyone else in the class just wanted to read the bible for the assignment, I just made the argument that reading the bible would've been too predictable when she argued against it." Theresa responded with a shrug before smirking. "Not only did it work but I got an A+ on the assignment, but anyway back to the point." Theresa said before her eyes narrowed. "So, Burning Abyss, is it a custom archetype or just one that I've never heard off?"

"It's one you've never heard off, it's been topping the regionals over in the states since it came out." Drew responded before motioning to Marie. "And even though Marie over there accused me of metagaming when I chose my new deck she dropped it when I told her the story about that particular religious studies class."

"It's still Metagaming, I don't care what your excuse is." Marie responded as she rolled her eyes in response. "Honestly, if he wasn't so busy trying to fight the Orichalcos he'd be competing in those tournaments!"

"I thought all the Orichalcos Duelists got life-time bans from all tournaments following Battle City?" Theresa asked as she raised an eyebrow. "The ones that are still alive that is?"

"Part of our plea bargains was that the ban would be lifted, off course it helped that myself and Marie never got to use the seal during our time in Battle City." Drew responded before shaking his head. "Back to business, I activate my Trap Card the Traveler in the Burning Abyss! This trap card lets me Special Summon any number of fiend type monsters from my graveyard in defense mode if they were sent there this turn, so let me welcome back Barber, Cagna and Calcab and yes, they are all Malebranches of the Burning Abyss!" Drew announced as the three monsters appeared on the field, the first one was a gigantic, hideous black fiend (3/1700/1000), the second was a small goblin like fiend that seemed to crawl on the ground (3/1500/300) and the last one was a tall, muscular purple fiend with wings (3/1400/0).

"I fail to see the point of bringing these monsters out." Theresa commented with a skeptical look on her face. "Super Soldier could destroy just two of those things and your life-points would be wiped out in an instant!"

"Believe me, I've noticed but as for the point of all this, once again I'll show you! I activate the Ritual Spell Card Good and Evil in the Burning Abyss!" Drew played the card and Barbar and Calcab were consumed by blue flames. "You're not the only one who can play Ritual Cards Theresa and this one requires that I sacrifice any number of monsters who's levels equal six or more so I sacrifice Barbar and Calcab to summon Malacoda, Netherlord of the Burning Abyss!" Drew played the card and a new monster emerged from the flames and well, to put it simply, it was the devil, the monster had red skin, huge wings, horns on its head and was wearing midriff bearing blue armor (6/2700/2200).

"You know, a few years ago, I'd be stoked that I2 actually had the balls to make a monster based on the devil." Chelsea responded with a gulp as she stared at the monster. "But after Tyler's encounter with Lucifer the Damned last night? The appeal was pretty much vaporized."

"You needn't worry, this monster isn't nearly as broken as that abomination." Drew reassured her before shaking his head. "All though, considering that the monster in question has infinite attack points and can banish all cards on the opponents' side of the field for no cost and still attack on the same turn that is a very high bar to climb!"

"So, that's how that thing was able to get past Ultimate Axon Kicker." Chloe realized before grinning. "All we need to do is include Imperial Iron Wall in our decks and Jack…."

"Will still kick your asses even if you draw it on your first turn." Marie cut her off as she folded her arms. "Or do I need to remind you of the fact that that thing has infinite fucking attack points?! Not even Armityle, the Chaos Phantom can beat that thing and that monster gains ten thousand attack points whenever it attacks!"

"I thought that card was a myth?" Chelsea pointed out and Marie shook her head.

"Oh, it's real, there's also only one copy in the entire world which is rumored to be deep within I2's vaults and even if you did manage to steal it undetected you'd need the original three Sacred Beast Cards to summon it and those are even rarer, don't even get me started on the summoning conditions for those things." Marie responded as she folded her arms. "In other words, it's not mythological but it may as well be."

"Shifting back to Lucifer the Damned, you seem to forget one thing Marie." Chelsea said and Marie turned to her. "To summon that thing in the first-place Jack had to banish one Synchro and one XYZ Monster from his graveyard, if we activate Imperial Iron Wall before he can summon Lucifer he won't be able to get it on the field."

"Except that has the same problem as using Mask of Restrict against Cameron." Theresa realized as she looked up towards them. "Who's to say that Jack hasn't prepared for an opponent using Imperial Iron Wall?"

"Theresa, no offense but your giving Jack too much credit, this is the same guy who got caught snorting crack off a hooker's ass whilst he was on probation for soliciting prostitutes." Chelsea responded with a grin. "I mean seriously, that guy has to be as dumb as the decision to cast Denise Richards as a Nuclear Physicist in The World is not Enough."

"Look, even as a James Bond fan I have to agree that that is easily the worst casting decision in the history of the franchise and considering how long that franchise has gone on for that's saying a lot." Marie nodded in resignation before sighing. "But even with that in mind, Theresa's right about Jack, aside from staples like Mystic Space Typhoon and Dust Tornado so that he can get rid of Imperial Iron Wall, well let's just say that you didn't see all of that monster's effects when he dueled Tyler."

"And now that that's out of the way, can we get back on track?" Drew asked and the three girls nodded before he turned his attention to Theresa. "First things first, when Barbar is sent to the graveyard his effect activates allowing me to target up to three other Burning Abyss Monsters, banish them and burn you for three hundred points per monster." Drew explained as he pocketed three of his monsters and Theresa winced as her life-points dropped to 7100. "There's still a considerable gap between our life-points but I won't worry about that for now, I activate Call of the Haunted to bring back Barber." Drew announced as his facedown card flipped up and the monster returned to the field. "And I end my turn at that." Drew announced and Theresa drew her card.

"On one hand, I have no way of knowing whether he has Mirror Force set, especially since he's got three facedown cards, on the other hand if he summons something stronger or makes either of his monsters stronger than Super Soldier then I'm in big trouble." Theresa thought as she looked at her drawn card. "Off all the times for my not to draw Mystical Space Typhoon, still this could come in handy." Theresa thought before pointing at Malacoda. "It's time I ended this Drew! Super Soldier, attack Barbar!" Theresa commanded and the soldier charged into battle….

"It doesn't matter if you're in Ra Yellow or Obelisk Blue, you can still fall for the oldest trick in the Duel Monsters book." Drew responded as his trap card flipped up. "Most of my cards may be new but I only need Sekeretsu Armor to deal with Super Soldier." Drew added and Theresa's eyes widened as the infamous armor clasped onto Super Soldier before self-destructing taking the monster with it. "Well, so much for you ace in the hole, wait, why are you smiling?" Drew asked as he saw Theresa's smirk.

"I'll take a page out of your book and show you!" Theresa responded before inputting commands into her duel disk. "When Super Soldier kicks the bucket, I can Special Summon one Gaia, The Fierce Knight monster from my deck!" Theresa added before retrieving and playing the monster. "Such as Arisen Gaia, the Fierce Knight!" Theresa played the card and a monster that resembled Yugi Motuh's iconic knight appeared on the field as his horse let out a whinny (7/2300/2100).

"Let me get this straight, your latest deck is filled with retrained versions of some of Yugi Motuh's most iconic monsters?" Drew asked with a curious look on his face. "Strange, I seem to remember you being more of a Kaiba fangirl when you first joined the academy, you had a shrine and everything."

"Drew, unless you want me to hurt you, you will never mention my Kaiba shrine in front of my friends again!" Theresa warned him as she blushed like a madwoman whilst Chloe and Chelsea struggled not to laugh. "Especially when I count Miranda and Tyler Kaiba among my close friends, and not a word of this to ANYONE!" Theresa warned Chloe and Chelsea as she glared at them and the two younger girls gulped.

"But it's true." Drew protested and Theresa ran a hand down her face.

"Yeah, and I threw it in the trash when they stumbled upon it, I knew it was a bad idea to count that thing among my personal belongings when I graduated to Obelisk Blue." Theresa added as her eyes narrowed. "And as much credit as I give them for taking it in good humor, it was one of the most embarrassing moments in my entire time at Duel Academy and that's saying a lot."

"Okay, you make a fair point." Drew admitted before motioning to Chloe and Chelsea. "But I doubt those two are going to let you live that down any time soon, even if they do keep it quiet."

"I'll find a way to keep them quiet." Theresa responded before grinning. "Besides, it's still my turn and even though Super Soldier is gone my knight can still beat your weaker fiends, Gaia, attack Calcab!" Theresa commanded and the knight charged into battle…...

"And once again, you've fallen for the oldest trick in the book! I activate my Trap Card Fire Lake of the Burning Abyss!" Drew played the card and Theresa's eyes narrowed. "This trap card requires me to destroy two of my own Burning Abyss monsters but it also takes three of your cards with it so I'll take out Gaia and your facedown card." Drew announced and Theresa's eyes widened as a lake of fire suddenly appeared on the field consuming Drew's two fiend type monsters, Gaia and Theresa's facedown card. "This, off course activates Barber's effect." Drew said as he banished the other two monsters in his graveyard bringing Theresa's life-points down to 6500. "And Calcab's as well."

"If it's anything like Barbar's effect I won't like it one bit." Theresa responded and Drew nodded.

"That is the general idea but you can rest easy, his effect lets me return one set Spell/Trap Card on the field to the owner's hand and, well, there's only one set card on the field and it's mine." Drew responded before retrieving his set card. "Speaking of which, I can't help but be curious as to what your facedown card was."

"It was Dark Spirit Art – Greed, as Arisen Gaia is a Dark Type Monster I would've been able to use him in a combination move with that Trap Card to summon another monster." Theresa responded as she folded her arms. "My thought process was pretty much along the same lines as a quote from one of my favorite movies of all time, I'm going to need a bigger monster."

"Ah yes, I do remember the nights we used to spend watching the original Jaws and pretending the sequels never happened." Drew nodded in response before shaking his head. "It's a shame that we can't revisit those days, even if you hadn't moved on since my expulsion and started dating again I doubt you'll ever forgive me for joining the Orichalcos Duelists in the first place."

"Yeah, holding your breath on that might just result in your death." Theresa nodded in response before sighing. "And as much as I hate to admit it, now that your back to your old self in the looks department I doubt you'll have much trouble finding another girlfriend, in any case I set one card facedown and end my turn." Theresa announced and Drew grinned before drawing his card.

"My, my, how the tables have turned." Drew commented before looking at his drawn card. "Especially now, because I can summon the star of the Divine Comedy."

"What are you talking about?" Theresa asked with a look of confusion on her face. "You've already summoned Dante!"

"That is true but I2 created two cards based on that character." Drew responded before shrugging his shoulders. "I don't know if it's because they ran out of ideas or they just wanted to focus more on the star of the story but onto business, using the special ability of the Burning Abyss monsters I Special Summon the following Malebranches of the Abyss, Cir and Draghig!" Drew played the cards and two more fiends appeared on the field, the first one was a purple monster seemingly made from rock (3/1600/1200) and alongside it appeared a black winged fiend with an elongated head (3/1100/900). "But I wouldn't get to attached to my monsters for I am using them to build the Overlay Network!"

"You weren't kidding when you mentioned about the number of ways he has to summon monsters." Chelsea commented to Marie as the two weak fiend type monsters where sucked into a portal.

"Why would I kid around about that?" Marie asked with a grin as she watched the XYZ Summon in action. "You are about to see one of your school's best students get one turn killed!"

"We'll see about that Marie!" Theresa responded as she overheard the conversation between the two girls and the monster emerged from the portal, compared to the other Burning Abyss monsters this one was rather plain looking as he was a young man with shoulder length green hair and blue eyes who was wearing a black shirt with a red vest over it and red pants. "Besides, that monster seems to be the most faithful this archetype has been to the source material!"

"I never pegged you as the sort of person who'd cry "ruined forever" at the slightest change in an adaptation." Drew responded before shaking his head. "Nethermind, please welcome to the field Dante, Traveler of the Burning Abyss!" Drew said as he pointed to the monster (Rank: 3/1000/2500), when she saw the stats of the monster however Theresa looked unimpressed.

"Considering that he's the second monster to be named after the original author of the Divine Comedy he's not that impressive stat wise." Theresa commented with a frown as she started at the monster. "Hell, I can probably name a few better Rank 3 Monsters off the top of my head but I get the feeling that he makes up for his low attack score with his effect?"

"And you'd be correct in that assumption, but first I have a Spell Card to play." Drew added before playing a card. "I activate Ancient Telescope!"

"What?" Theresa asked though her tone of voice gave away the fact that she was more bemused than shocked. "That card is as ancient as its namesake! I didn't even know that they still printed that thing!"

"As you said, this is a very old card." Drew admitted with a nod as he picked up the top five cards in his deck. "But I will explain the card's effect! This card allows me a sneak peek at the top five cards of my deck and I get to rearrange them in any order I wish." Drew explained before looking over his hand and if Theresa wasn't shocked before Drew's next move shocked her as he selected the card at the very bottom of the pile and moved it to the top before returning the cards to the deck. "What's the matter? Cat got your tongue?"

"I'm just surprised, that's all." Theresa responded as her eyes narrowed and Drew sent his Spell Card to the graveyard. "You could've rearranged the order in any way you wanted and yet you only moved one card, why?"

"I suppose it is a valid point." Drew admitted with a shrug. "But to be honest, that one card was all I needed to move and you'll understand why in an instant! I activate the effect of Dante, Traveler of the Burning Abyss!" Drew announced as he detached Draghig. "By detaching an overlay unit from Dante I can name a number between one and three and no, you don't get to guess it, depending on the number I chose I will send any number of cards from the top of my deck to the graveyard."

"And you just had a sneak peek at the top of your deck thanks to your Spell Card." Theresa realized as her eyes widened. "Let me guess, the top card of your deck was Barbar?"

"Didn't you say something about not being a one-trick pony earlier? Well the same applies to me and for the record, I'm only sending one monster to the graveyard via Dante's effect." Drew responded as he sent the monster to the graveyard and Dante's attack increased to 1500. "And the monster I just sent to the graveyard was a second copy of Cir!"

"What was the point in that?" Theresa asked and Drew grinned before retrieving a monster from his graveyard.

"Because when Cir is sent to the graveyard I can Special Summon any Burning Abyss monster from the graveyard, oh and Marie?" Drew asked as he turned to the petite girl. "You might want to hand out the earplugs again."

"At least you warned us this time." Marie grunted in response before digging into her pocket and retrieving the earplugs, once she put them in her own ears she tossed earplugs to Chelsea, Chloe and Theresa who subsequently put them in.

"Now that that's out of the way, please welcome back to the stage for his encore Virgil, Rockstar of the Burning Abyss!" Drew played the card and sure enough the Synchro Monster returned to the field.

"You know, if the real-life Dante could see what a gaming company had done to the characters of his epic poem, he'd probably be turning in his grave right now." Theresa responded and Drew shook his head.

"Again, with the hatred of any adaptation?" Drew asked before sighing. "Besides, Dante was alive during the Renascence Era, I'm pretty sure that his remains are nothing but bones right now so if he is doing any rolling I'm impressed." Drew added before grinning. "In fact, if I where you I'd be just a little bit more concerned by the fact that right now I have the firepower to end at least a couple of duels." Drew added though neither duelist noticed Chloe doing the math on her IPhone's calculator app.

"Err, actually you really only have enough power to end one duel." Chloe pointed out and the two duelists turned to her. "I did the math and the combined total of your monsters' attack points is 9700."

"Okay, I didn't realize that Chloe was such a stickler for math." Theresa commented as a large sweat-drop rolled down her head. "But in case you haven't noticed I still have a facedown card!"

"Yes, and so did I last turn." Drew commented before turning it around and Theresa's eyes widened when she saw it. "And it's another old favorite, Mystical Space Typhoon!" Drew played the card and a storm washed over the field destroying Theresa's facedown card. "So, care to tell us what it was?"

"It was Mirror Force, it would've wiped out all of your monsters including Malacoda since it's effect doesn't target." Theresa responded with a sigh as she sent her trap card to the graveyard. "Even so, it was a hard-fought duel and you earned the win, just not my trust."

"I knew it wouldn't be that easy." Drew sighed in response before glancing over at Chloe. "I'm guessing that I don't need to attack with all of my monsters to end the duel?"

"Err, no, just three of your attacks would be enough to end it." Chloe responded before noticing the annoyed glares Theresa and Chelsea where giving her. "What? He asked!"

"Regardless, Dantes, soften her up!" Drew commanded and the two monsters launched their attacks bringing her life-points down to eight hundred. "Virgil, rock her world!" Drew commanded and Virgil played one last time, unlike his previous attacks this one was more of a guitar solo than a single chord being played but nonetheless, it was effective as it brought Theresa's life-points down to zero and sent her falling backwards onto her backside sending the band keeping her ponytail up flying in the process letting her shoulder length hair free.

"I lost." Theresa realized as she sat there on the ground in disbelief, she heard footsteps approaching her and looked up seeing Drew offering her his hand.

"I always said that you looked better with your hair down." Drew commented and Theresa hesitated for a moment before grabbing onto his hand and let him pull her up. "You certainly let your hair down a lot when we were dating."

"Very funny." Theresa responded as she rolled her eyes and Chloe gave her the hairband. "Besides, I don't know if you've noticed but I'm not the same woman I was when we were dating Drew and I'm not just talking about the fact that I'm three years older." Theresa added as she put her hair back up in the ponytail. "You think the accident changed your life? It changed mine tenfold, after you lost your expulsion duel Martin called me into his office and whilst he never outright said it, his intention was to scare me straight."

"And clearly it worked." Drew nodded in response before frowning. "So, what did he say exactly?"

"He said that he and the other teachers saw a lot of potential in me, in fact that was pretty much the main reason why I got promoted from Osiris Red to Ra Yellow so fast." Theresa responded before sighing in annoyance. "In retrospect my fast promotion might have triggered my troublemaking attitude at the time, sure I got into trouble a lot in Osiris Red but those where minor offenses at worst, during my first few months in Ra Yellow, well I guess you could say that I upped my game but what Martin basically said was that I had barely avoided getting an expulsion duel that day and it was the fact that you put me up to it that saved me from potentially sharing your fate." Theresa added as she started to walk off in the direction of the Obelisk Blue Girl's Dorm. "I can clearly see that you are genuine about changing your ways Drew and if you prove your worth against the Orichalcos Duelists then maybe I will forgive you."

"That's our plan." Drew added and Theresa stopped in her tracks. "All the Redemption Seekers want is to see the Orichalcos destroyed once and for all, some of us never even used the card in the first place but had our lives effected by it in different ways, including an old friend of Chloe's."

"Who are you talking about?" Chloe asked as she interjected and Drew turned to her.

"Does the name Jared Malloy mean anything too you?" Drew asked and Chloe's eyes narrowed. "Yeah, I thought so."

"Who's Jared Malloy?" Chelsea asked and Chloe turned to her.

"He was a guy that I knew from foster care who competed in Battle City, not surprised that you've never heard of him because he didn't past the city stage of the tournament before he was eliminated by Axel Loather." Chloe explained before sighing. "And before you ask, he wasn't an Orichalcos Duelist but before he decided to do it himself Otto tried to bribe him with a rare card in exchange for destroying my deck."

"We only know about it because he came forward after Chloe's deck was destroyed, last time I heard anything about him was when he testified at Otto's trials but since then he's been pretty active on the pro-circuit in America." Theresa added and Chelsea nodded. "At least this is one of your recruits that actually makes sense."

"We do try." Drew responded before walking off. "But for now, I'll take my leave, somehow I doubt the teachers will be happy to see me again considering how my tenure here ended but it was good seeing you again Terra." Drew added before disappearing from site.

"Terra?" Chelsea asked and Theresa grinned.

"Remember when I mentioned my pet name earlier? Terra was my pet name." Theresa responded with a grin before sighing. "It made a lot more sense back when I was a troublemaker, you know, Terra, Terror, but nowadays it fits me about as well as my pre-teen school clothes."

"Yeah but I don't think Brandon would complain about you wearing it." Chelsea teased her and Theresa laughed. "And as for the whole Kaiba shrine thing, don't worry, your secrets safe with us, right Chloe?" Chelsea asked and Chloe nodded.

"Thanks for that guys." Theresa said with a grin before checking her watch. "Come on, it's getting close to curfew so we'd better get going, we can explain what happened in the morning before we head to the Main Arena for the duels."

"Yeah, lets." Chelsea responded before the two girls walked off, Chloe went to follow them but Marie cleared her throat catching her attention.

"I thought you had left with Drew." Chloe commented and Marie shook her head.

"I was hoping to get some alone time with you, foster kid to foster kid, you know?" Marie asked and Chloe gave her a skeptical look. "I don't blame you for being skeptical but hear me out."

"Fine, I had a question that I wanted to ask anyway." Chloe admitted as she turned to Marie. "When you were talking about how my father's actions affected the other duelists something stuck out like a sore thumb but I wasn't sure what, until Theresa had a similar revelation." Chloe added before folding her arms. "Aside from my father and his cronies the only Orichalcos Duelists I saw in the abandoned mall that night were Michael, Karen and Felix, how did you know about it?"

"That's it? You realize that I could easily answer that with "Michael, Karen and Felix told us after the fact.", right?" Marie asked and Chloe's frown deepened. "I wasn't that far from the truth when I said that, Michael's job throughout the tournament was to report on agents' activities and deal with any agent that had compromised the operation in some way and was clearly about to lose their duel, when your step-dad was kidnapped Phillip took a further step by having him outfitted with a camera eye piece allowing him to relay the action."

"When we saw him, Michael was on the first floor with me and my dad, he couldn't have had that good a shot at the other floors." Chloe pointed out and Marie nodded.

"True but Robert had restored power to the elevators so that his cronies could reach the top floor easily, clearly he never told you or the rescue party but Michael, Karen and Felix knew about them, the rest is history." Marie shrugged before stepping forward. "Now onto what I wanted to talk to you about." Marie said as she stepped into Chloe's personal space. "You have one of the three cards that could put a permanent end to the Orichalcos but you only used it once, well twice if you count that one failed attempt."

"If you know about the failed attempt then you know why I haven't used it." Chloe sighed as she dug into the pocket she kept her side deck in and dug through it before retrieving the Eye of Timaeus.

"Yugi Motuh made the same mistake you did and he was eventually able to regain the card's trust, if he can do it, so can you." Marie said before standing on her toes and leaning in to whisper in the slightly taller girl's ear and Chloe didn't notice how it looked like they were about to start making out because she was more confused than anything else. "Don't let your self-doubt keep you from ridding the world of the Orichalcos once and for all, believe me, I had just as much self-doubt when I joined the Redemption Seekers." Marie added before pulling back and without warning Marie kissed Chloe on the lips catching her by surprise, it only lasted for a few seconds and there was nothing erotic about it but Chloe still felt compelled to return it until Marie broke it off. "Consider that my good luck charm for the next time you use Timaeus, if you're willing to accept a kiss from another girl in public then using that card shouldn't be a problem." Marie added before walking off leaving a bewildered Chloe in her midst.

"Did that just happen? I kissed another girl and I enjoyed it." Chloe thought as she watched Marie walk off. "I mean, I know I'm not gay, my feelings for Lance are as strong as ever."

"Many teenage women do experiment with lesbian relationships in college." Silent Magician responded and Chloe blushed a bit. "Maybe your realizing that your bi-sexual."

"You mean that I swing both ways?" Chloe responded before shaking her head. "Man, if that's true then my dad's got not one but two major bombshells coming his way, not only do I have a boyfriend but I'm also bi-sexual." Chloe thought before she started to walk off. "Maybe I should sleep on it, maybe ask Chelsea what she thinks in the morning if I do have dream sex with other girls." Chloe decided before heading off to her dorm.