"Why did you bring me back?" asked/demanded Adrian Gecko. The leader of Burning Freedom and the Rare Hunters gave the teen a small smile.
"Is that any way to thank the person responsible for returning you to this world?" asked Constant Lutte. Adrian responded by glaring at the man and gritting his teeth. Seeing this, Lutte simply sighed and continued to talk. "I brought you back so that you would help my movement to create a better world. It's what we both want, it's it? I understand what is in your heart young man and it's a world where children don't go hungry. A place where there will be no inequality. There will be no rich or poor and crime will be a thing of the past. Is that not something worth fighting for?"
"It is," said Adrian with a cocky smile. "But I don't need your help to do that." With that, Adrian turned and began to walk away.
"And how far will you get on your own?" asked Lutte which caused Adrian to stop dead in his tracks. "Right now you are penniless and friendless."
'Damn,' thought Adrian as he stopped in his tracks. 'He has a point. I've been gone for too long and Echo is…' Lutte grinned as he saw Adrian's hesitation. He walked over to the teen and then pulled out a deck from his pocket which he then handed to the teen. Curious, Adrian looked at the cards and then gasped in surprise.
"Where did you get this deck?" he demanded.
"A person called Chestmaster," replied Lutte. "He is my contact inside Industrial Illusions. He has been helping us strengthen our decks and has provided the means to extract what we need from those we duel."
Adrian stared at the deck for a while. It was powerful. With it he believed that he could even defeat the famous Yugi. Then, a plan began to form in Adrian's head. For now he would go along with Burning Freedom and do what they wanted him to do. But then, when the time was right, he would duel Lutte and take him down. Then with the power of the Wicked Gods he would rule the world.
"What would you have me do?" asked Adrian. Lutte just grinned.
-x-
Chazz let out a sigh. So far he and Jesse had found nothing. No Rare Hunters, no bad guys, no anything. Right now Jesse was using the restroom while Chazz was sitting on a bench in the park. 'We better find a Rare Hunter soon,' he thought as he closed his eyes. 'Or at least get some dueling in.' With that, Chazz stood up with his eyes still closed and bumped into someone with enough force to knock them both to the ground.
"I'm sorry," he heard a voice say. Chazz opened his eyes and found himself staring at the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. All he could see right now was a face with long blond hair and lime green eyes. "Excuse me, but could you please get off of me?" Chazz blinked for a moment and then realized that he was on top of her.
"S-sorry," said Chazz quickly as he got off of her. It was then that he noticed that she was wearing jeans, a black shirt with a U.F.O on it, and a white lab coat. He watched as she turned around and began to search the grass for something. A few seconds later it seemed that she found what she was looking for: bottle thick glasses.
"Kind of ruins the image, right Boss?" said Ojama Yellow who appeared next to Chazz.
"Quiet you," said both Chazz and the girl at the same time. They both blinked and then began to point at each other.
"You can see Ojama Yellow?" shouted Chazz.
"Of course I can see him," said the girl. "I also have a duel spirit." As soon as she said that a small gray humanoid like creature appeared on her shoulder with red almond eyes. The creature then began to make a clicking noise which caused the girl to giggle as she stood up. "Let me introduce myself. My name is Mina Allverse and this is little guy is Alien Grey."
"The names Chazz Princeton," replied Chazz as he got up while trying to sound cool. "Since you're able to see Duel Spirits I'm guessing that you're a powerful duelist."
"I guess," said Mina with a blush. "Right now a friend of mine is holding onto my duel disk and deck. I had to meet up with my sisters and I couldn't take it with me."
"How come?"
"Because they think dueling is a waste of time," replied Mina with a sigh. "Like that's anything new. Everything I do, even my job, is a waste of time to them."
"What do you do, if you don't mind me asking," asked Chazz.
"I'm an astrobiologist but I also have my hand in xenoarchaeology," replied Mina with pride. Chazz, however, looked clearly confused. "An astrobiologist studies life in space and xenoarchaeology is a hypothetical from of alien archaeology. Lina, my oldest sister, is a geologist while Tina, the middle child, is a zoologist."
"So what you're saying is that you have older sibling who don't believe in you," said Chazz with awe. Finally, someone who could understand him.
"Yeah," replied Mina as she looked away. "I truly believe that there is life out there, just waiting for us to find it. But my sisters think I'm just an idiot Sci-Fi fan."
"I know what that's like," admitted Chazz. "My older brothers are the same with me. They think they're big shoots because they are a CEO and a lawyer."
"We have so much in common," said Mina as she smiled at Chazz. "Maybe we could get together some time after the tournament."
"I-I'd like that," replied Chazz with a blush. Mina smiled until she noticed the time on a nearby clock.
"I'm late," she cried out. "I'll see ya later Chazz." And with that she took off. Chazz continued to watch her as she ran. Sadly, his vision also included lots of hearts. His long time crush on Alexis quickly faded as it was replaced with a new one. To him, Mina was like an angel that had descended from the heavens.
"Ah, Boss," said Ojama Yellow. "Just a quick question. How can you call her if you don't have her number?" Chazz blinked as he was brought back to reality. Letting out a small curse, Chazz began to run in the direction she had gone. It wasn't long until he caught up with her, however she wasn't alone. In front of her were two men in dark suits. It took him only an instant to realize who they were and when he saw one grab Mina's shoulder he lost his cool.
"Slade," yelled Chazz. "You and Jagger get away from her!"
"Well, well," said Slade as he roughly pushed Mina to the side and stepped forward. "Looks like we finally found you Chazzy. Time to pay you back for that humiliation you gave me back at Dual Academy."
"That would just be a waste of my time," said Chazz as he tried his best to sound tough. "You couldn't even beat me with a handy cap so what makes you think you can defeat me this time?"
"What's the matter Chazz?" sneered Jagger. "Afraid you'll lose?"
"I just want nothing to do with you to," said Chazz.
"Well too bad for you," said Slade. "The family dream of world domination was ruined because of you. And we're going to make you pay. Don't forget that we still have ways of making you do what we say. Remember your favorite card? The one we took away from you when you nearly lost that match in prep-school?" With that Slade held up a card that caused Chazz to gasp. "If you duel us both and win, we'll not only give you our locator cards but I'll also return this card back to you. But if you refuse or lose, well I guess I'll just have to rip this card in two. I know how much this card means to you since mom and dad gave it to you before they died."
"Fine," said Chazz as he seethed in anger. Out of the corner of his eye he watched as Mina moved to the side line. She was safe and appeared to be alright.
"Now you hold on a minute," came a voice behind Chazz. Everyone looked and saw Jesse running towards them. "Two against one is just plain unfair. So what do you say we make this a tag team duel. And, if I lose, I'll give you my Crystal Beast deck!"
"No way," growled Jagger. "This is a family matter!"
"Why not," said Slade which surprised Jagger. "I bet that deck would go for a lot of money on the dueling black market."
"You're right," admitted Jagger as both he and his bother readied their duel disks. Seeing this, Jesse and Chazz began to do the same. But, before Chazz put his on, he added a card from his side deck into his main. Once everyone was ready they all yelled out "Let's duel!" at the same time. Both teams received 16000 life points and a black ring appeared around the duel field.
"Hey, what's going on?" demanded Chazz.
"This is just a gift from Burning Freedom," said Slade with a nasty grin. "Also known as there Rare Hunters! They also gave us our decks and a crash course in how to use them. Little do they know that they're digging their own graves."
"See, we plan on taking over Burning Freedom," said Jagger. "We'll go along with their plans until the time is right and then take over this organization. Then we will have world domination faster than we ever thought possible. And, as an added bonus, you happen to be our first target!" With that, both older brothers began to laugh. But, what they didn't know was that there was a camera nearby. Kaiba had hundreds of them set up all over the city looking for interesting duels to broadcast on the giant screen in the downtown plaza. And this duel qualified as interesting so now everyone could watch it.
"I'll go first," said Slade as he drew the first card. "I think I'll start by sending Hecatrice to my graveyard so that I can add Valhall, Hall of the Fallen to my hand and then I'll play it." With that, Slade played his continuous spell card which took the form of giant marble pillars with red drapes behind him. "Now, since I have no monsters on the field, I am allowed to special summon one monster from my hand. So rise: Bountiful Artemis!" With that, a metallic looking creature appeared on the field. Its upper body looked like a human but its lower body looked more like a top which hovered above the ground. This creature had wings, wore a purple cape, and had 1600 attack points. "Next I'll summon Royal Knight in attack mode!" Now another machine like angel appeared on the field. This creature hade one blinking green eye in the middle of its head and a small sword. Its attack points were 1300. "Now I'll finish with two face downs and end my turn." This left Slade with no cards in his hand.
"About time," said Chazz as he drew his card. "I'll summon my Masked Dragon in attack mode!" As Chazz placed his card on his duel disk a red dragon appeared in front of him.
"You activated my traps," declared Slade as his two face downs were revealed. "First there's Forced Back which sends the monster you just summoned back to your hand. And since Forced Back is a counter trap card it activates the effect of my continuous trap card Synthetic Seraphim!" As Slade declared the cards name another machine looking angel appeared next to him in his spell/trap card zone. This one was on all fours and had wheels at the end on each limb. On its back were four small cannons. After it was activated it fired one of its cannons and launched a Synthetic Seraphim Token onto Slade's field. The token looked like a floating green orb with 300 attack and defense points. "And let's not forget about the effect of my Bountiful Artemis. Whenever one of my counter traps is activated I am allowed to draw a card." And with that Slade drew him card with an evil grin.
"I end my turn," said Chazz. He knew this was bad. Slade not only sent his monster back to his hand, but also gained a card and a token at the same time.
"It's my draw," said Jagger as he drew. "I'll start by playing two continuous spell cards: Dimensional Fissure and Soul Absorption!" With that, the space above Jagger and Slade seemed to be cut into a cross shaped pattern. Looking into it, Chazz and Jesse could see only a swirling darkness. "Thanks to the effect of Dimensional Fissure all monsters that would normally go to the graveyard will instead be removed from play. And thanks to Soul Absorption we will be gaining 500 life points each time a monster is removed from play. Now, to finish my turn, I summon my D.D. Survivor in attack mode. With that, a blond haired human appeared on the field. No one could see anything about this figure for he was wrapped in a brown tatter cloak.
"My draw," said Jesse as he drew his card and then looked the field over. He already knew they were at a disadvantage. So far the enemy had three monsters in attack mode and one token. They also had three active spells and one active trap. But no face downs. "I'll summon my Topaz Tiger in attack mode!" With that, a white tiger with a horn on its head appeared on the field. This monster had 1600 attack points. "Now I'll destroy the strongest monster on the on the field. Attack D.D. Survivor!"
"Stupid move," said Jagger as Jesse's tiger began to run towards the blond warrior. "My monster will win this fight." But then, before his very eyes, Slade watched as his monster was destroyed and he lost 200 life points making his total 15800. "How?"
"When Topaz Tiger attacks a monster he gains 400 attack points during the damage stage," explained Jesse.
"I guess you forgot about my spell cards," said Jagger. "That's to Dimensional Fissure my monster is instead removed from play. Then, thanks to Soul Absorption, I get 500 more life points which raise my life points to 16300. Also, thanks to D.D. Survivor's affect, he will be returning to the field during the end phase." Jagger grinned. "If you want to have any hope at victory you will have to start dealing 600 points of damage at the least if you want to even dent our life points."
"Alright then," said Jesse. "I guess I'll play my Crystal Tree and end with a face down." As Jesse ended his turn a small tree appeared on the field as did D.D. Survivor.
"So sad," said Slade as he drew a card. "I'll summon Layard the Liberator!" A new mechanical like angel appeared on Slade's field, this one having 1400 attack points. Layard had no legs, it just seemed to hover in the air and there were several pink disks floating below its waist. This monster also had six arms and wings. "Now Bountiful Artemis will attack Chazz with Fulfilling Light!" Once the attack was issued, Bountiful Artemis raised its hands and sent a golden colored light at Chazz.
"I activate my trap, Rainbow Life!" declared Jesse. "By discarding one card from my hand any damage we would have taken this turn will instead be added to our life points." With that, Jesse discarded his Rainbow Veil equip card to the grave. After he did that a rainbow colored wall appeared in front of the to of them and blocked the attack of Bountiful Artemis. When the attack ended their life points went up to 17600.
"Fine then," said Slade. "I'll play a face down and end my turn. But don't think you have won just yet. Our decks were designed to defeat you. And once this match is over we will be one step closer to ruling the world!"
…to be continued