Author's notes: I think I'm going to change up the duel format a bit. 8000 life points duels take a while to write so I'm going back to 4000. I'm also not going to write what's in the main character's hand because that was also annoying to do sometimes. I'm also including the defense points in my monster stats so now it'll look like this: Dark Magician(LV7 2500/2100)

Duel 1: Trapped in the Light

*Bang! Bang! Bang!* Wade was awoken by a loud banging at his front door. Wade's bedroom was near the front of the house on the first floor so he heard the banging as if it were coming from his window.

"Whaaaaat?" Wade groaned. He forced himself out of bed and went to the front door. *Bang! Bang! Bang!* "Yeah... yeah... bang bang and stuff..." he said as he unlocked the door. The banging stopped.

"Did you hear about Matt?" Derek asked.

"Huh?" Wade asked, still half-asleep.

"Dude, school's in half an hour and you're not even up yet? Your parents need to get back from that business trip soon... hurry up and get dressed I needa tell you about what happened last night," Derek said.

"Tell me," Wade answered as he retreated to his room to look for his school uniform.

"Matt didn't get home last night. He was found in a coma after losing a duel..." Derek started.

"What?" Wade asked shocked. "No way... we were... Matt was... What?"

"His mom called me last night and it was on the news this morning. Someone got a video of what happened," Derek explained. "He was dueling some guy in a black cloak and after Matt lost there was some weird static on the video and then Matt was on the ground and the guy was leaving. I'll find the video in class later and show you."

After school Wade, Derek, Kyle, Ariana and Chloe went to the hospital to visit Matt. His mother wasn't there because she had work and his father divorced his mother years ago and no longer lived in the area. Matt was alone.

"Matt..." Kyle said as they looked at his lifeless body.

"How did one guy this just by dueling him?" Chloe asked rhetorically.

"I don't know... but I'm stopping him," Derek said. "We're stopping him. Or her... it could be a her but my point is that this person hurt Matt and we can't let him get away with it!"

"You're right," Ariana agreed.

"How do we find him though?" Chloe pointed out. "Sorry to kill the mood but if we can't find this guy then we're out of luck."

"We'll let him find us," Wade stated simply. "This guy's gotta have a goal, right? We can find him. How hard could it be?"

Harder than they expected. The 5 teens spent the next week before the tournament trying to track down the mystery duelist with no luck. Every night they separated and wandered the darkest parts of the town hoping to get ambushed by the duelist but he seemed to have disappeared completely.

The following Friday, the last day of school before summer vacation the tournament officially started. Like many other large tournaments in the area the first round consisted of a free for all round where a duelist could challenge whoever they wanted to a duel. In order to pass on to the next round they had to collect the required number of whatever trinket the tournament distributed to its competitors(in the previous tournament they were each given 2 unique coins and had to gain 12 over the weekend to pass on to the next round). For this tournament duelists were given diamond-shaped gems that were colored with a mix of green and blue that never quite blended together. They were meant to fit into either a wrist gauntlet or necklace distributed at registration. Duelists needed to gain 7 gems to pass on to the next round.

Kyle was the first find an opponent to duel: Tim Rogers, one of the recent graduates from their high school. He was known for being a basketball star and a great duelist. He was pretty obnoxious though and acted as though he was the best at everything.

"I'll start," Tim said as he drew a card. "I summon Ally of Justice Cyclone Creator(LV3 1400/1200) and place 1 card face down to end my turn."

"First I'll summon Totem Dragon in defense mode(LV2 400/200) and next I'll activate Dragon's Gunfire to inflict 800 points of damage to your life points. And I'll place 1 card facedown to end my turn," Kyle said.

LP: 3200/4000

"Heh, that litle dent in my life points doesn't scare me if that's what you were trying to do. I'll give you something to worry about. I summon Ally Salvo(LV2 400/300) in defense mode. Now, I'll tune my two monsters on the field to Synchro-Summon my Ally of Justice Catastor(LV5 2200/1200)! I'll also activate DNA Transplant so I can change the attribute of every monster on the field to an attribute of my choosing, like Light. Now when Catastor can destroy any monster it battles without appyling battle damage. But we'll save that for later. Now, I'm activating Lightning Vortex. By discarding my Lyna the Light Charmer I can destroy all of your monsters. Now I'll have my Catastor attack you directly and end my turn with that!"

Kyle's Dragon was destroyed by a bolt of lightning, leaving him wide open to the attack of Catastor.

"Yeah... well I've got a few tricks of my own," Kyle said as he drew a card. "First I'll use my Totem Dragon's ability to bring him to the field. Next, I'll use his other effect to treat him as 2 tributes for summon Red-Eyes Black Dragon(LV7 2400/2000)! I'll follow that up with my face-down card: Metalmorph! Now I can summon Red-Eyes Black Metal Dragon(LV8 2800/2400) by sacrificing my regular Red-Eyes! I'll place two cards face down and end my turn."

LP: 3200/1800

Tim drew, "You really don't know when to quit, it isn't like your dragon's gonna be much of a defense once I attack."

"That's why I'm using Threatening Roar so you have to skip your battle phase this turn," Kyle replied.

"Damn. I wanted to finish this duel quick. Oh well, I guess I'll just summon Machina Soldier(LV4 1600/1500) in defense mode and activate Card Trader. Now every standby phase I can take one card in my hand and shuffle it back into my deck then draw a new card. Your move."

"I activate Call of the Haunted to bring my Red-Eyes Black Dragon back to the field. I'll also summon Exploder Dragon(LV2 1000/0)! Hope you're ready for this. First I'll have my Exploder Dragon attack your Catastor! Due to both of our monster's effects no battle damage is done but your monster's destroyed as well. Now I'll have my Red-Eyes Black Dragon attack your Machina Soldier and my Red-Eyes Black Metal Dragon will attack you directly!" Kyle's first dragon flew at Tim's Ally of Justice and blew up, leaving nothing behind. Red-Eyes shot a ball of fire at the other machine and destroyed. Red-Eyes Metal finished things with a long fire blast straight at Tim. "Your move."

LP: 400/1800

Tim had a worried look on his face when he drew his card. "I activate Hammer Shot to destroy your Black Metal Dragon!" A giant hammer slammed down on Red-Eyes Black Metal Dragon leaving nothing behind. "I'll set face down and end my turn."

"Looks like this duel's just about over," Kyle smiled. "I activate another Dragon's Gunfire!" Red-Eyes Black Dragon opened up its mouth and shot a fireball at Tim. "Looks like I win."

LP: 0/1800

"Dammit..." Tim muttered to himself then sighed. "Good game kid." He handed over the gem from his gauntlet.

"Same. Your deck's pretty strong," Kyle replied as he placed his second gem into his gauntlet. Only 5 more left until he made it to the next round.

The two duelists parted way. Kyle bought a soda from a vending machine outside of a store and continued walking until he heard a familiar voice. He followed it around the corner of a building and saw Chloe preparing to duel someone.

"I guess I can take a break for this..." Kyle thought to himself.

NEXT: Chloe duels Pete Armstrong, a duelist known for his skills with Dinosaur monsters.