Chapter 6: Broken Bonds
"Do you think Kyle's gonna take our advice and make a Saber-Bolt deck?" Maxi asked his two teammates as they strolled down the street to get Kyle for school.
"He better." Kim replied, moving her sunglasses to the top of her head, letting her blue eyes take in early morning sunlight. "He has the Bolt-Tails and he bought that pair of Bronze-Arm Sabertooths before we left the store last night. I think Dark Saber-Bolt would work for his deck. It's aggressive, just like him."
"Don't you remember the NYC Duel Circuit last summer? Team Zaber used an Aqua Saber-Bolt deck to take the tournament against Cobalt Control. I think his play style would be better rooted in that." Maxi said.
"Of course you would think that Maxi. Water does have its draw power, but when it comes to removal, all it's got is that bounce, and commanding both civilizations, I'm pretty sure I know what I'm talking about when I say Darkness suits him better."
"Well as his Best Friend, I know him better than you do."
"Former Best Friend, you mean."
"He's gonna choose water…" Maxi stopped.
"Darkness suits him fine…" Kim turned back.
Amy looked at the two of them and sighed. Vento materialized on her shoulder and the Skyforce Champion shook his head as well. "Vento?"
"Si, la mia Principessa?" Vento replied.
"Remind me to always stick to the light civilization no matter what."
"Absolutely." He nodded, understanding where she was coming from. "If I may intrude mi amici… We should continue moving so as we are not late for scuola."
Kim and Maxi looked at the Alcadeus and realized that if they continued they'd be late for class. The two of them decided to hold their debate until they got to Kyle's house.
"Ok I think it's done." Kyle dusted his hands off and studied the deck that laid out before him.
"So you decided to go with Light then?" Allison said as she came down the staircase and then behind the couch to look over Kyle's shoulder at the deck. "I figured you'd build Aqua Saber-Bolt or Dark Saber-Bolt after all of the suggestions that Maxi and the others were giving you."
"Kim uses Darkness, Maxi uses Water. They could give me all the tips in the world but in the end its my deck." Kyle replied collecting the cards. "Besides, as Team Leader, I should be the one giving them the tips, not the other way around."
"A team works with each member helping one another." His sister replied. "Like the five civilizations, each ally themselves to one another to form their own teams.
"Water and Fire aren't allies, and neither is Darkness and Nature."
"Light and Fire aren't allies either and yet you decided to go for that approach."
"Well so did you. Or did you do it because of your crush on the Skyfire General?" He looked over.
Allison blushed feverishly and drove one of the pillows into the side of Kyle's head, the ladder trying to decide to either gasp for air or continue to laugh at his sister's embarrassment. "I told you to NEVER speak of that!"
"Okay okay I'm sorry!" Kyle laughed. "Come on, I gotta get to school."
"Mom left me the keys so I have plenty of time to suffocate you and drag your semi-conscious body to class before the late bell." Allison snarled as she pushed down harder.
The sound of the doorbell interrupted Allison's assault as they both looked up and saw the trio of Victory Drive members waiting patiently for them. Kyle rolled from his sister's wrath and ran to the door to let his team in.
"Ready for school?" Maxi asked, holding his fist out to Kyle. "It's already 7:30."
"Yeah yeah, not important right now. What is important, is the new deck sitting on the table over there." He eagerly pointed he ran back to the living room and Allison approached the trio to let them in. "I'm driving so don't worry about it, I'll be in the car waiting." She said grabbing her jacket. "Hurry up and show them the deck before you make me late too."
The door closed behind her, with the trio walking over to Kyle who was spreading his deck out by civilizations. To Kim and Maxi's surprise, there was a huge lack of Water and Darkness cards, and roughly 11 out of the 40 cards were Yellow instead.
"Like it? I call it: Shining Saber-Bolt!" He said happily.
"Kyle… you said you were going to use Aqua Saber-Bolt." Kim said. "Remember?"
"As the JetBlaze Knight, I can't fly through Darkness, nor soar through the oceans. Axel and I can only take off higher and higher."
"But you said that you were going to at least try out Aqua Saber-Bolt. That's some great leadership skills if you agree to something and turn your back on your promises!"
"Whoa why are you getting mad at me for? This is my deck, not yours. And besides, I know I screwed up, but it's not something to get worked up about."
"That's not the point!" She snapped. "You asked for help and we all agreed to help you. The fact that you blatantly disrespect our suggestion not only shows how much of a bad leader you are, but also how much of a friend you are too."
"So if all of you are offended by my decision concerning my deck, why is it that you're the only one so upset about it?" Kyle asked her.
Kim hesitated and turned around, realizing that Maxi and Amy both were looking at the deck and examining it.
"Guys… this doesn't bother you?" Kim asked them.
"Well… Kyle actually made a solid deck." Amy said.
"As much as I hate to admit it, she's right."
"Oh of course you would agree with her Maxi!" Kim rolled her eyes.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Amy asked, feeling offended by that statement.
"It means that all you have to do is bat your eye-lashes and then you have every boy listening to your every whim. Heck I'm sure that Kyle added light to his deck because you suggested it to him. Is that why they call you 'Princess', because you have the leisure to have people fall in love with you? First my Brother and now my friends, who else are you going to take from me?!"
"KIM!" Kyle shouted, cutting her off. She turned, angered and upset, with Kyle just as annoyed with her outburst. "Calm down, alright?"
She shook her head. "No. There is no reason for me to calm down. Even though it was only two weeks, the three of us were a team. Second she shows up and you and Maxi fawn over her whenever you're not dueling. I joined you guys because I want to go to the D-Fighters Tournament just as much as you two claimed you did. I want my S-Rank Title, just as much as you said you wanted it."
"Wait, how is all of this my fault?" Amy stepped in. "What have I done to you to make you hate me?"
"You're really asking me that? I have a list, where should I begin?!"
"KIM! That's enough. We're going to be late for school." Kyle stepped in again.
"Kyle Shut up for two seconds please!"
"Oh I get it." Kyle grew a smirk. "You're jealous! It's obvious that she's a prettier, more mature and a much better duelist than you are."
"Take that back." Kim snarled.
"I will not, because it's true." Kyle replied, crossing his arms.
"No it's not. I am not jealous of her."
"Stop being in denial, it's written all over your face."
"Um Kyle…" Maxi whispered. He motioned his hand in front of his throat signaling him to cut the words before it went too far.
"You can't admit to the fact that Amy will trump you in everything you do. As long as you stay jealous she's just going to become better and better than you."
As the words danced in the air and into Kim's ears, her eyes began to become heavy with tears. She looked down and mumbled something under her breath.
"What was that? I can't hear you." Kyle taunted.
Kim's reply was a clean smack across his face. "I said you're a Jerk, a snake, a lying, haughty, loser who thinks some reverse-psychology crap is going to work on me! Well guess what Einstein, it didn't! If you didn't want my help you could've just said so, instead of leading me to believe I was actually helping out. Because of your stunt all you did was break my heart and lose a member of your team… Give it back.
Kyle raised his eyebrow amongst his shock. "Give what back?"
"My card. The card I bought for you when we first met." She reminded him. "The card that I gave you after I threw our match. The card I gave to the person who I assumed would've made a great Team Leader… looks like I was mistaken. You don't deserve it."
"There's not a chance that you're taking it from me… I earned this card from you fairly." Kyle shot back, pulling it out to show her.
"Earning it and deserving it are two different things." She reached for the card but Kyle held her back.
"I said No!"
"Give me back my card!" She screamed at him. "Give it back!"
"Maxi, Amy jump in at any time!" Kyle called to the both of them. In that split second, Kim's fingers latched onto the card and nearly ripped from Kyle's grasp.
Maxi grabbed Kyle and Amy took Kim, both ladder holding on to the Tatsurion card. A sudden tear was heard and once the duo managed to get them apart from one another, they both looked at each other with a half of a card in their hand. The shock and realization that Kyle's Tatsurion the Unchained card was torn in two was enough to bring them back to reality. Kim looked at the card and grew a painful smile.
"See this? This card was a symbol of our friendship. And its torn in two now." She wiped her eyes. "That's what I get for trusting in someone like you…" she dropped the piece of the card on the floor and walked to the front door. She opened the door and turned her head. "You owe me five dollars for the card." And slammed it behind her.
The room stood quiet for a moment, Kyle shocked by what just happened. "My card…"
Amy walked up to him and smacked Kyle's other side, bringing his focus back. "I'm going after her. When I get back you better have some sort of way to fix this you understand me? What you did was disgraceful, no matter what intentions you had. Only you can get yourself out of this mess, so start thinking of something Leader." Amy's voice was icy.
Amy stormed out and slammed the door behind her too. Maxi looked over to Kyle and shook his head. "This isn't what you expected, was it?"
Kyle went back on the couch. "Go to school Maxi. No sense in your being anymore late."
"You're not coming?"
"One skip isn't going to do anything. I'll meet you in TCG Towers afterward."
"Alright if you say so." Maxi shrugged his shoulders. "Let's go Tech."
"Roger that!" Tech spoke through the deck case. Maxi went to open the door. "Looks like Allison wasn't gonna wait."
"Sorry about that."
"No worries, Bus is pulling up. Catch you later dude." Maxi waved as he closed the door.
Kyle sat in the living room all alone after Maxi left, contemplating what he said and how his intentions backfired. Guess being a leader is harder than he figured.
Axel materialized from the deck case. "What was your intention when it came to saying all of those things about Kim?"
"I don't know…" Kyle admitted. "I was upset. I know I screwed up but what she said about me being a bad leader sorta got to me. I gotta get her back to us."
"Let Amy take care of that part, you're probably the last person she wants to see."
"So you're saying that Amy's a better leader than I am?"
"Considering how mature she handled this situation and got the 'Team Leader' to fix his mess clearly shows that she can be a better leader than you will ever be."
Kyle nodded regretfully. "You couldn't be more right."
Kim found herself not too far off from where she stormed off, heading to the McDonalds a few blocks off. She thought that if anything could clear her mind it would be Coffee. As she took a seat with her Mocha Frappe coffee, she reached for her phone and went onto the DCA Website to check the ranking list. As she scrolled down the list, something caught her attention.
"You're not seeing things. You passed me on the rankings list. And Kyle for that matter too." Amy said taking a seat.
"Why did you follow me?" Kim asked her.
"Because you need comfort and Kyle is probably the last person you want to see." She answered. "Blake talked about you a lot; back when we traveled."
"How did you meet my brother?"
"I told you at a Tournament, back when my family lived in Italy. After the match he offered me a partnership."
"What kind of Partnership, what did you do with him?"
Amy took a deep breath before answering. "Creature Hunting."
Kim nearly choked on her coffee. "Creature what?!"
"Your Brother, believe it or not, is an S-Rank Kaijudo Master. I'm sure you heard of KG's past exploits in the last few years. The Neo Bolshack Dragon Incident for example."
"Those are rumors. That stuff never happened."
"That's only because the DCA covered everything to keep the masses from going hysterical. The Neo Bolshack Dragon incident, the Vortex Wars that followed, the DCA/NOVA War of 2016 in Tokyo. I've done my research they were all true. KG's been a defining factor in each one of those incidents."
"Ok then, so in other words, you've been with him for the last year saving the world from creatures who have been in one way or another trying to conquer both the Human World, and the Creature World. Sounds exciting."
"It is. And He wants to recruit Kyle and you guys to help us out."
Kim raised an eyebrow. "You're joking, right?"
"Ever wonder what the 'D-Fighters Tournament' was? It's a recruitment tournament to appoint duelists who are worthy of becoming S-Rank Kaijudo Masters, the only duelists in this world that can stop the creature attacks that we constantly face. And this time around, if we don't do something, the Creature World will fall."
"You really think I would fall for something like that?"
"Tell me, why is it that when WotC took the game over, various changes were implemented?"
"To give the game a fresh start."
"Is what people are saying. The truth is that a majority of the creatures in the Creature World have been wiped out. Only a few survived, and the ones that did, underwent changes in order to keep hidden from whoever killed them off. The DCA is working on figuring out what caused this. Now you know why I joined your team, why Blake's returned. But keep it a secret alright? I'd appreciate it if Kyle and Maxi don't know just yet."
It was a lot to take in, but she nodded. "What does it matter though, I quit Team Victory Drive."
"I smacked him again for you." Amy told her with a smile. "Seriously though, Kyle had good intentions. You know he didn't mean anything he said right?"
"Didn't keep it from hurting any less."
"That's understandable… You like him, don't you?"
Kim shrugged her shoulders. "Hard to like anyone that idiotic."
Amy nodded. "Well he is a teenage boy after all. They don't make wise decisions all the time. And knowing Kyle, there's only one way to get through to him."
"I have to duel him, don't I?"
"The way through a man's heart is through his deck." Amy said. "And to make sure you bring out the best that he has to offer…" Amy dug into her jacket pocket and pulled out a card. "I want you to take this. It's from a good friend of mine and he gave it to me in case I found a Darkness Duelist that can make use of its full potential."
Kim took the card and examined it. She looked back at the smiling blonde haired girl and grew a smile.
"No hard feelings right?" Amy asked.
"Right." Kim nodded, and grew a small smile of gratitude.
"So Kim and Amy did show up to school then?" Kyle asked as he and Maxi walked down the street towards TCG Towers later on that afternoon.
"Yeah dude, you were the only one who didn't show up." Maxi replied. "Figured out a way to get Kim back on our team?"
Kyle shook his head. "I spent the morning realizing how much of an idiot I was and how Amy would be a much better leader of this team."
"Well she is a professional duelist." Maxi said. "She's more experienced than we are, despite us all being A-Ranks and all."
"That's not what I mean. She did what I wanted to do. I wanted to go after Kim and apologize, but I didn't know how. Amy took charge and gave me something to think about. If I'm gonna be a good leader I need to grow up a bit and take responsibility of my actions; that, and also the feelings of my friends."
"I could've told you that." Maxi said. "That reminds me, Kim seemed to be in a better mood when they both made it to 2nd period."
"Oh yeah, rub it in why don't you?" Kyle sighed.
"Kim actually said she would be waiting for you at TCG Towers after school."
"You told her that I was coming?"
"No, she actually wanted to talk to you in person, and where else would you be after school than here?"
The two of them approached the doors of the Tower as they slid open. The two of them walked inside and Kyle's eyes instantly came into contact with Kim's, who leaned against a K-Terminal in the center of the room. The room was eerily quiet, which caught their attention instantly. Kyle and Maxi looked around and saw that the other players who were in the middle of their own TCG games and store transactions were all staring at the two of them.
"Um dude?" Kyle asked Maxi. "Why is everyone staring at us like that?"
"Because, they all know what happened to Team Victory Drive." Amy said, walking up to them. "They heard of Kim's defection from the team and they all came to see the duel between her and the Team's Leader."
"But what do they care about our team?" Kyle asked her.
"Because you guys have been promoting business in my father's store…"
Kyle and Maxi's heads jerked almost instantly to the direction of the voice, where their gazes met with a tall dark-skinned Sri Lankan man, dressed in nearly all black, except for the white button-down shirt and dark blue tie around his neck. On his shoulder rested a skeleton-like Liger creature with a blue mane. To Kyle and Maxi, there was only one duelist that could fit that description.
"It's Karon Davidson!" Kyle exclaimed. "Team Kaijudo Generation's Dark Reaper!"
"And his Avatar Creature: Kage, the Death Liger!" Maxi added.
The Liger scoffed. "Our reputation precedes us."
"As I was saying, you guys have been bringing businesses to our store and personally, I've been watching from afar the talents that you possess; especially her." He pointed to Kim. "So when I heard that she quit Team Victory Drive, I felt the need to step in."
"I'm sorry, wha? I'm too busy going nuts because I'm talking to one of my dueling idols!" Kyle said, remaining excited.
"Kyle…" Kim finally spoke up. She caught his attention due to his facial expression changing.
"Kim I…" Kyle started but stopped short, feeling hesitant to continue.
"Kettou Da!" Kim finished her statement, really surprising Kyle.
"You're… challenging me?"
"Accept or not, your choice…" She stated.
"But… After what I said…"
"We're Duelists first and foremost." Kim reminded him. She held her hand up and the Blue and Purple electricity sparked around her hand, showing her Kaijudo Energy. "We let our decks do the talking. After all, for me to truly get to know you, I intend on pushing you to your limits in a duel, as I expect you to do the same for me. Only then can we truly understand one another. Show me the power of the Shining Saber-Bolt Deck!"
Kyle took a moment to find the words, confused by her sudden change in attitude, but the slight smirk on her face, was enough to wake him up and nod. "Yoshi! I accept. If I win, you come back to our team."
"And if I win… That's my secret. Deal?"
"Ikuzo." Kyle smirked, strapping his glove on, the red and green electricity sparking around his hand.
"Koi, Bring it on!" Kim nodded.
They both walked around the K-Terminal and set their decks on their respected sides as the shields deployed.
"Ready for this?" Kyle asked, drawing his hand.
"Whenever you are." Kim nodded, doing the same.
"DUEL START!"