Chapter 2: The Princess of the Sky

"Alrighty then, anyone of you two know why I called you here to my humble abode so early on a Saturday?" Kyle asked.

Kim and Maxi looked at him with tired eyes, barely able to stay awake if not for his obnoxiously loud voice.

"Because you hate sleep and you want us to drag us into it as well?" Kim raised her hand. She then used that same hand to cover her yawning mouth.

"Nope, try again; how about you Maxi?"

Kim turned next to her and saw the boy sleeping soundly on the corner of the sofa. She picked up the pillow next to her and smacked him awake.

Maxi jumped up as if he was struck by lightning. "It's because we don't have a new team for our member right?"

Kyle sighed. "Flip the words dude."

"Kyle…?" Kim raised her hand again. "As you can see we can't function without food and/or coffee in our systems. As team leader you need to be responsible for your teammates well-being."

"But why is it my Job? Not my fault that you guys didn't get enough rest."

"Actually it is your fault." She replied, yawning again. "I haven't gotten up this early since Saturday morning cartoons as a kid. Normally I'd be sleeping right now, not having a team meeting at 8am on a Saturday morning."

"Alright Alright I get it." He acknowledged. It was clear to him that he wasn't going to get anything out of them until they had something to kick start them. "Fortunately for you guys I live a few blocks from a McDonalds."

"Oh that's so sweet of you." Kim smiled.

Kyle rolled his eyes. "Yeah yeah, I'm a real charmer. I'll be back in a bit. In the meantime…" he grabbed the remote from the coffee table and threw it to Maxi, who jumped up again from the shock.

"Watch some Saturday morning cartoons. I think Cartoon Networks doing a Duel Masters marathon."

"If it's all the same, I'd rather watch something not related to DM at the moment. Playing the game is one thing, but my brain can't take those awful jokes this early in the morning." Kim noted. "Bring me back a Mocha frappe?"

"Got it; Maxi, small coffee light and sweet, right?"

Maxi drowsily nodded.

"I will take that as a yes." Kyle assumed. "I'll be back."

The door shut behind Kyle as Kim flipped through the channels on the TV. She stopped when the screen showed a cartoon featuring a group of multicolored ponies interacting with each other. She grew wide-eyed as if she was drowning in a pool of nostalgia.

"Oh my god I haven't seen this show since I was a little kid! I'm surprised its still on the air." She said, leaning forward.

"Oh no! Tech is not watching My Little Pony!" The Reef Prince rejected at the sight of it.

Kim turned to the little deck avatar and stuck her tongue out. "Unless you have some way to change the channel, don't argue."

Tech glared at her and crossed his arms. "Tech accepts challenge!" he turned towards the television and his eyes flashed red for a brief moment.

The TV suddenly changed over to another show, where a tall British man in a suit was running with an attractive young woman into a blue wooden box.

"What—how did you…?" Kim asked surprised.

"Maxi upgrades deck case programming." Tech said proudly. "Tech can access electrical signals and can control machines at will. In other words: Tech troll 'Puppet Girl'."

"Oh yeah, we'll just see about that." Kim switched back to My Little Pony.

Tech's eyes flashed again, switching back to Doctor Who.

"Quit it you stupid rinse cup!" she changed the channel, but Tech switched it back almost as fast.

Kim and Tech continued to go back and forth until one of them changed to another channel entirely.

"And welcome back to this week's presentation of Duel Zone! The Show where we go over the highlights of the major tournaments happening all over the world! I'm your host D-MAX and I welcome you viewers at home to the perfect reason to be up on an early Saturday morning! Now without further ado, let's get on with the show!"

Kim sighed and turned to Tech. "Is this okay with you?"

Tech nodded. "Doctor Who episode was a repeat."

"Wow I can't believe it's been two weeks since we became a team…" Kyle said folding his hand on the back of his head.

Axel materialized onto his shoulder. "You say that, but you guys haven't done anything 'team-related' since you made up the name."

"Which is what I was trying to tell them before I got forced to feed those two;" Kyle replied. "The tournament's coming up soon and we still need two more members."

"Well, maybe you just need to find someone that isn't around here, like someone who just moved in."

"Wow, that isn't impossible at all, nope." Kyle said sarcastically.

"It was a suggestion; I didn't say that you had to go along with it."

"Good because I'm not." He said, opening the door to the restaurant.

"Hmph; I don't see you coming up with any ideas…" Axel said offended.

"It's a work in progress. You can't just pick anyone. They need to have charm, passion…" Without looking Kyle bumped into someone in front of him and the sound of a plastic cups and drinks splashing in all directions was heard from below afterward.

"Oh man!" the blonde-haired girl knelt down to pick up one of the cups of spilt coffee from the ground.

"Oh my god, that was my bad!" Kyle shot down to pick up the other two cups. "I wasn't watching where I was going."

"Don't worry about it. I'm a bit of a klutz myself," she tried to laugh off. "Man that was all the money I brought with me…"

"I'll replace it!" Kyle said without question. "Don't worry about it it's on me."

The blonde girl looked at him and smiled. She stood up and noticed one of the drinks covering her green shirt. "It's on me too…"

Kyle couldn't help but smile at that. "I'm Kyle."

"Amy." She replied, shaking his hand.

Minutes later Kyle returned to his house with a curled smile on his face and his cheeks a faint red color.

"Wow…" he said, feeling warm.

"Um… Coffee Team Leader?" Kim looked over the couch with a wide-awake Maxi, chewing on a piece of bacon.

Kyle snapped out of his daydream and saw his two teammates eating breakfast without him.

"Who made that?" he asked surprised that they were eating.

"Allison did." Maxi replied. "I never knew your sister could cook dude!"

"Hey, Team Leader: Coffee, Now, Please!" Kim repeated, snapping her fingers to get his attention.

Kyle turned to her and facepalmed himself. "I forgot it!"

Kim's arm dropped and her eyesight fixated on him. "You forgot it?"

"It's a long story…" Kyle said.

"You got thirty seconds before I shove your deck case down your throat." She snarled.

"Me and Axel were talking on our way to McDonalds about how it's been two weeks since we made this team and that we haven't recruited any new people since we met you; I rejected his initial idea about adding someone who just moved here and in my distraction caused me to bump into this cute girl named Amy. I replaced her drinks with the money I was gonna use for us and we started talking. Turns out she actually just moved her to NYC and she's also a Duelist and I asked what her rank was, she's an A-rank like us and then I told her about our team and she doesn't know if she wants to join because she's kinda well known where she used to live and she doesn't wanna draw attention in case some recognizes her and I told her 'don't worry about it, what's the worst that can happen?' and she agreed but only after she duels me. So…: I have to meet her at TCG Towers around noon and I promised I'd take you guys along so she could meet you."

"3.3 seconds remaining." Tech announced to them.

"So… The reason why I don't have coffee is because you met a girl…?" Kim asked him.

"Who might join our team, I might add." Kyle replied.

"You met a girl and she's the reason why I don't have coffee?" Kim repeated. She stood up and got closer to Kyle, who moved back into the door.

"Did I mention that she might join our team…?" Kyle repeated, becoming fearful of his teammate.

Jester materialized onto Kim's shoulder and cackled at him.

"Maxi! Kim's going 'jealous mode!' Do something quick before I start coughing up comet missiles!" Kyle called out to him.

Kim hesitated and her face flushed as she took one leap back. "Wha—what makes you think that I'm jealous!? Look, let's just forget about the coffee thing alright?" she got back on the couch and focused on the television.

"And that ladies and gentlemen, is the elegant fury of the Duel World's 'Wind Princess' Amanda Earhart. Becoming an A-Rank at the age of 15, she has taken the nation by storm with her Partner: Alcadeus, Winged Justice! Where will the winds of fate guide her next as she continues to soar above the competition?"

"She's on the top 100 leaderboard. She's ranked number 47." Maxi said, going through his tablet.

"Wow, she must be good then." Kim said. "What do you think of her Kyle?"

"That's her!" Kyle exclaimed.

Kim turned around. "Say that again?"

"That's Amy! That's the girl I just met!" he repeated again.

Maxi turned back with the same surprised expression. "Are you serious? Do you know how awesome it'd be to have her on our team?"

"Oh I do!" Kyle said excitedly. "Axel! Forget what I said earlier, that was the best idea you've ever came up with!"

Axel scoffed. "Every idea I give you is the best idea I'd ever come up with because I'm always right!"

Kim turned back. "She's just eye-candy for the two of you isn't she?"

"That is not true!" Kyle and Maxi exclaimed.

"Tech scans show that both Kyle and Maxi 90% lying."

"SHUT UP YOU RINSE CUP!" they both snapped.

Jester cackled, amused at Tech being berated.

And so, noon time rolled around and the Trio walked through the doors of TCG towers where Amy sat patiently across the room, skimming through her deck.

"Hey Amy!" Kyle waved to her.

Amy looked up, hearing his voice and smiled.

"Wow, she's cuter in person!" Maxi said.

"Oh please!" Kim said in annoyance. "You two haven't seen a cute girl before."

Kyle looked over to her. "Well not one who's both hot and duels too."

Kim slammed her heel into Kyle's foot after he made that comment, making him yelp in pain.

"Holy crud can't you take a joke!?" Kyle asked her as he sat into a chair and held his foot for dear life. "Man what's in your heel, cement?"

Kim ignored him and walked up to Amy who was coming from the opposite direction.

"Hi there, I'm Kim." She smiled. "I'll be dueling you in Kyle's place if you don't mind."

"Why what happened to him?" she looked over to him.

"I just got my foot—" Kyle cut himself off when he noticed the jester running his claws across it's throat, telling Kyle that Kim will kill him if he says what happened to him.

"What happened to your foot?" Amy asked curiously.

"I hit my foot in one of the K-terminals, no biggie." He lied. He looked over to Jester who gave him a thumb up.

"Kim, can you please duel Amy for me, I don't think I can stand…" Kyle said, taking deep breaths through the pain.

"Thought you'd never ask…" She said, sliding her glove on. "…Kettou Da!" her hand then sparked.

"Oh, so you have skills in Kaijudo Art too?" Amy said amused. "This should be interesting." She noted, sliding her yellow and white glove on. Her hand sparked with Green and White lightning as well.

They walked over to the K-Terminal next to them and shuffled their decks. They set their decks and slid their Kaijudo IDs into the terminal.

"REAPER GIRL: CONFIRMED!" Kim set her hand on the side of the terminal, activating her side, as five teal-shaped shields materialized on her side.

"WIND PRINCESS: CONFIRMED!" Amy followed suit as five shields appeared on her side as well.

With their shields set and their hands drawn, only two words kept them from starting their match.

"DUEL… START!" They announced to each other and their spectators as the Holographic Sign projected with the same words. It dispersed and hovered on both sides as counters for their Shields.

"I'll start off." Kim set Darkness mana and tapped it. "I summon Marrow Ooze!"

The amethyst crystal materialized and began to melt, turning into a mutant creature, a tan monster with red and blue lines on its body, and multiple tentacles with tiny mouths on its arms and shoulders.

"Your turn." Kim told her.

Amy nodded, drawing and setting Light mana to start off. "I'll do the same; I summon Thunder Cruiser."

The Topaz Light crystal materialized, having the symbol of the Sun engraved in it. It dispersed and turned into a small brown-tipped white ship that hovered on Amy's side.

"I end my turn." She said.

Kim drew her next card and she set Water mana. "I cast: Ice Blades, return Thunder Cruiser!"

Marrow grabbed the materializing blades and slashed the air, the blades unleashing a cold wind that blew Thunder Cruiser out of the Battle Zone.

"Now then, Marrow Ooze, Break her shield, ike!" Kim tapped Marrow Ooze as the zombie slithered and used the Ice Blades to slash the shield to bits.

The card shot up from the terminal, with Amy catching it. She looked at it, and flipped it around. "Shield Blast: I activate Sprout." She set the card to the grave and sent the top card of her deck into her mana zone.

Kim nodded acknowledging the play and setting Marrow Ooze to the grave yard. "I end my turn."

Amy drew and set her third mana. "I summon Thunder Cruiser and Essence Elf."

Thunder Cruiser materialized once again, but this time alongside a small feminine-like plant creature with bright orange wing-like arms.

"Essence elf boosts all of my creatures by +1000 with its Nature's Gift ability, putting Thunder Cruiser at 3000 power." Amy noted.

Thunder cruiser began to radiate with a green aura as she mentioned Essence Elf's ability.

"I can do math, thanks." Kim said as she drew her next card. She set mana and tapped all three.

"I Cast Logos Scan and draw two cards."

The three mana crystals materialized and formed together two smaller shield-like rectangles that disappeared shortly after. Kim drew her two cards and gave a small smile, liking what she drew.

"I end my turn." She announced.

Amy drew her card and set mana. "I summon Bronze-arm Tribe, and I add the top card of my deck into mana." She took the top card and flipped it over into her mana zone. "I end my turn there."

"Afraid to attack…?" Kim taunted. "Not what I expected from Number 47."

Amy smirked. "Guess you saw the Duel Zone Highlights huh; knew I'd draw attention to myself one way or another."

Kim drew her card and set mana. "I wouldn't worry about it. Because after this duel, your rank's gonna drop." She tapped all four mana. "I Summon Aqua Senechal and a second Marrow Ooze."

Senechal and Ooze materialized next to each other and locked their sights on their opponents.

"Is that right?" Amy drew her card and set her mana. "In that case I should stop taking it easy on you. I summon Starlight Strategist!"

Six Mana crystals lined across Amy's side as they fused together and became a towering Gold robotic creature with various golden orbs encircling it. Its small blue eyes lit up as it descended amongst its allies.

"Alright, you got her on the ropes now!" Maxi and Kyle chanted.

"Whose side are you on!?" Kim turned to her teammates in fury.

Kyle and Maxi closed their mouths instantly pretending that they never said a word.

Amy giggled. "Sorry about that. I kinda have that effect on guys…"

That set a nerve off in Kim. She turned around back her opponent and her glove sparked violently to show her rising annoyance. "Now I'm definitely bringing you down." She drew her next card and sent it to mana. "I cast Bone Blades on Thunder Cruiser!"

Marrow Ooze was once again armed with blades as he threw them into the ship, which then exploded from the damage. Amy moved the card to the graveyard.

"Aqua Senechal, break her shield! And with his Choten's Advisor ability, whenever he attacks I get to draw one card from my deck." She drew her card.

Senechal formed the blue energy ball from his hands and slammed it into the shield, it breaking into pieces. Amy took the broken shield and added it to her hand.

"I end my turn." Kim stated as Amy drew.

Amy set mana and tapped all seven of the cards.

"It's been fun while it lasted Kim, but now it's time I put an end to this;" her glove sparked with the Green and White lightning. "Soar through the winds of Truth: Alcadeus, Winged Justice!"

The Seven Emerald and Topaz Crystals fused together to create a Sapphire and Gold Robotic warrior with illuminating white wings. He slowly descended down with his arms crossed, with all of the creatures acknowledging his presence.

"This is Vento, My Alcadeus." Amy said reassuringly. "He'll bring you to justice soon enough."

Kim hesitated by Amy's sudden change in demeanor. So much so that she didn't realize that Marrow Ooze tapped.

"Starlight Strategist's ability: Celestial Guide; it taps one of your creatures whenever one of my Skyforce Champions enters the battle zone."

"That's not good!" Kyle said. "That means that Amy can take out both of Kim's creatures this turn."

Starlight released one of its orbs as it shot towards Marrow and paralyzed it with a bolt of electricity.

"Bronze attack Marrow Ooze; Starlight attack Senechal, Ike!"

Bronze and Starlight both went on the offensive and took down both creatures, making quick work of them both, much to a surprised Kim.

"I end my turn." Amy said.

Kim shook off the shock and drew her next card. She tossed her other card to mana and used the card she drew. "I cast Logos scan to draw two cards." She drew her two cards, drawing Bone Blades and Skeeter Swarmer. As much as Bone Blades would help, she used half of her mana on Logos Scan, so she couldn't use it to take out Bronze-arm tribe. She sighed and tapped two mana.

"I summon Skeeter Swarmer." Better any defense than no defense, she thought.

The Mosquito-like creature materialized into the battle zone.

"I end my turn." Kim said, not liking her odds.

Amy drew and set mana, tapping them for the last card in her hand. "I Summon Twilight Commander." She said as she set the card down.

A copper-colored robot, in similar shape as Starlight Strategist materialized, as Starlight sent one of its orbs to tap Skeeter.

"Starlight, Attack Skeeter."

Starlight unleashed the rest of its orbs as it commanded them to squash the bug.

"Bronze-arm tribe, break her shield!"

Bronze twirled its pitchfork and hurled it into one of her shields, shattering it. Kim took the shield as it flew into her hand. "No trigger."

"Alcadeus: Double break! Also, with his Infused with Light ability, I can untap any one of my Level 5 or less creatures. I untap Bronze-Arm tribe."

Alcadeus aimed his arm in front of two of the shields and fired a light beam that decimated them both. Two shields flew into Kim's hand, once again, not triggering.

"Now, with Bronze-arm tribe untapped, I'm allowed to attack with it again. Once more, Bronze!"

Bronze stretched its arms and tossed its pitchfork again, leaving Kim with one shield left.

"Not going down that easily! Shield Blast: Terror Pit on Alcadeus!"

The shield shards glimmered briefly before turning into the legion of purple hands that crushed the surprised robot.

"Vento, no!" Amy said surprised.

"Arrivederci, you stupid rust bucket;" Kim said with a devilish smile on her face.

Amy glared at her opponent. "Essence elf, break her last shield."

Kim suddenly shifted back to reality as the holographic shield shards skimmed across the field, leaving her field empty.

"I wouldn't celebrate if I were you." Amy said in a dark tone. "There's no way for you to get yourself out of this situation. I'd suggest you give up."

Kim suddenly felt Amy's Kaijudo Energy building. Her body began to grow cold from the fear of facing that, which was a first for her because she never faced a duelist that could intimidate her. There was definitely more to this girl than she lead on. And today wasn't the day that Kim wanted to find out."

She drew her card and sighed. "I end my turn. Good Game."

Amy smiled gracefully. "Yeah, it was definitely a good game!" She took Twilight Commander and tapped it. "Todomeda!"

The K-Terminal lit up and the Turn Counter turned into a display which read: "WINNER: WIND PRINCESS!"

Kim collected her cards and turned to head out the door.

"Hey, Kim where are you going…?" Kyle turned as his eyes followed her.

"To catch up on my sleep." She replied, yawning. "It's a Saturday and I lost three hours of sleep because of you."

He rolled his eyes. "OK fine. Text you later…?"

She held a thumb up in response as the door slid open.

"What's gotten into her?" Maxi wondered.

"Some people can't take losses as easily as others I suppose." Axel commented.

"I guess that's a possibility."

"Um Kyle…?" Amy chimed in. "About that team thing…"

"Oh yeah; Listen, you beat us fair and square and since I know that I said that you had to join our team if you lost, we never agreed on what happened if you won right?"

"Actually… I was wondering if I could join anyway?"

Kyle and Maxi's eyes widened.

"What's with the surprised look guys?" she asked them. "I mean, Kim's a really powerful duelist, I'm sure she's stronger than what she lead on today."

"So you wanna join just to have a rematch with Kim?"

"Well, yeah; and I got two handsome guys to duel alongside with." She said getting closer to them.

Kyle and Maxi both turned beet red from her advances, to which she laughed. "Sorry, I couldn't resist. Everybody tends to think I'm nothing but eye-candy and they tend not to take me seriously when it comes to dueling, especially the girl duelists. They always think I'm some blonde-dunce who just pretends to be into card games just to get close to guys."

"But you're not, right?" Kyle asked.

"Oh please. I've been dueling since I was a little kid. Megan Warner and Jake Wilson are my dueling idols, especially since they both used Alcadeus in their decks when they were our age. I want to become S-Ranks like they are so I can duel both of them."

"So you wanna become something like a Master Skyforce Champion?" Maxi pondered at the thought.

Amy nodded. "That's it exactly! Both my Father and Grandfather were Fighter Pilots in their time in the air force, which is why I moved so much. Since I was a kid I wanted to touch the sky with my fingertips. I want to grab the stars by my hands and I want to reach even higher than that; as far as Vento and I can reach."

The white data stream traveled from her deck case and onto her shoulder, which revealed her deck avatar.

"Ciao." The Alcadeus saluted to the duo. "I am Vento, Amy's Deck Avatar; Piacere!"

"I'm sorry…?" Kyle was taken by surprise by the bilingual Deck Avatar.

"He said 'Pleased to meet you.'" Amy translated. "I'm actually half Italian and I grew up there when my family lived in Florence. We only moved to the states a few years ago when I began to take dueling seriously and started going competitive.

"That's so cool; I always wanted to go to Italy!" Maxi said excitedly.

"Really?! You should it's amazing, it'll be totally worth it to go!"

Maxi and Amy began to trade stories about Italy and its culture as Kyle smiled and fell back in the chair. "Well, guess that leaves only one more person, right Axel?"

The Tatsurion nodded. "Right; shouldn't been too difficult."

"Not at all…" He replied. "At least, I hope not…"

Kim continued to walk down the street, the image of Amy stuck in her head. "I don't trust that girl… She's hiding something."

Jester materialized onto her shoulder and cackled.

Kim turned to him and nodded. "Don't worry, I'm already working on it…"

Unknown to her, a pair of eyes focused on her and continued to trail behind her.

"Target Locked." The owner of the eyes smiled. "Fang, Let's move out."

The Dark wolf-like beast growled on his shoulder as it disappeared in a purple stream into his deck case. He opened his deck and stared at the "Dark Scaradorable" card on the front of the deck.

"Let the hunt begin, Reaper Girl…" he smirked, removing his sunglasses and revealing his icy blue eyes…