Hey everyone! I hope everyone had a happy Turkey-Day and are gleefully waiting the winter holidays. As for me, I'm cranking out chapters for three fanfics, though I'm trying to get these up ASAP.
Since the first part of my story semi-follows the anime storyline, I'm not including the entire duels that have aired on TV (the Jaden vs Jesse exhibition match for example, my story has the exact duel). It takes way too long, because I have to watch the episode repeatedly, and be able to get all of the card information, and sadly, I don't have the time. So instead, I'll just have the ends of the duels, and onward with the chapter stuff.
I don't own YuGiOh GX, and if you read GX fanfictions, I would think you know who does…
Chapter 3
(Like I said, if you read the Author's note, you'll realize this is not the beginning of the duel, but the end. As long as the duel aired on TV, I won't type out the whole thing)
"Now Neos and Air Hummingbird, merge to form Elemental Hero Air Neos!" Jaden's monster appeared on the field in a dazzle of light. "Now, because my life points are lower than yours, Jesse, my monster gains an extra 1200 points!"
Jesse watched in awe as Air Neos's stats began climbing, ending at 3700.
"So it's game over! Neos, attack!"
"Sorry to interrupt," said Jesse, "but its time! That monster you were so hopeful to see…"
"Oh, yea!"
"Jesse's going to summon his dragon!" exclaimed Syrus, from his seat in the stands.
"Gee, what gave it away?" Aster smirked, "the dramatic pause or his reference to it through the entire duel?" Syrus laughed.
"All seven Crystal Beasts are here, so there's only one thing to do," the North Academy student said, "I play Rainbow Dragon!"
The seven beasts on Jesse's field flew into the sky in a rainbow of color. "Meet the most feared creature in history! You'll never survive!"
There was an awkward pause as everyone stared at the monsters in the air.
"Just kiddin'!"
"What!?"
Jaden's attack continued into Jesse, knocking his life points down to zero.
"What happened to Rainbow Dragon?" asked Jaden.
"Well that's the funny thing! It hasn't been created yet! You see, there's a stone tablet with the Rainbow Dragon on it, but nobody's ever found it!"
"Oh wow…good game, Jaden," said Jesse, as the two duelists shook hands. Syrus saw their bio-bands light up, but apparently not Jaden nor Jesse, nor the rest of the room noticed.
Professor Viper moved to the two duelists who were currently smiling and laughing together.
"Very good! A fitting start to the new semester! This is only a sample of your duels. As my reading picked up, and I'm sure you all saw for yourselves, these two show remarkable spirit and energy. You all will duel at least once per day, and my bio-bands will alert me if you are eluding your duels. Should you choose not to duel on a given day, you must duel twice the next, or to the amount of the days you refused to play plus the daily requirement. Should you not have the dueling energy and spirit to back your hopeful dueling careers, you'll be expelled!"
"He's scaring the students!" cried Crowler.
Bonaparte nodded, "And that's our job!"
Professor Viper continued, "As eager some of you are to duel…the 'survival duels' as I prefer to call them, won't start until tomorrow. While I was able to record the duel today, I will need to set up the rest of my duel recording equipment so I can record all of your duels. I can only monitor a few at a time. So rest up, and prepare to fight tomorrow."
One week later…
Sartorius moved into the living room of his house and flicked on the evening news. A cup of tea in his hand, he flipped through the channels to the News at Nine. While the anchorman spoke of the usual headlines, a banner across the bottom of the screen began to form, a headline and limited information flashing along the screen.
What's this? Sartorius said to himself. As he read the news flash, the anchorman stopped his talk of a celebrity divorce.
"We have this special update on the Tokyo Prison scare. It seems there was a breakout. While we are receiving more information, we will return…after the weather…"
Sartorius finished watching the story and turned off the television. Grabbing his coat, he headed out to the car.
"Where to?" his driver opened the door for him.
"Kaiba Corp. I need to get to Duel Academy immediately."
"Yes, sir."
This is not good. With those men on the loose, we may all be in danger…"Uh, guys…you really didn't have to. I'm not a big fan of parties."
"We know, Aster, but there's no reason not to celebrate your last victory!"
"Uh huh, but…"
"You set history records!"
"Records are made to be broken, Jaden. Who knows, you could break them!"
Jaden laughed, "You really think so?"
"Hey, anything's possible, right?"
The party was in the 'Special Event' room of the Obelisk Hall. Atticus had the big screen TV set to professional dueling, and Jesse and Jim had brought the food from the Obelisk cafeteria. Jaden wanted to go with them, but there wouldn't have been anything to bring back.
"Ease on the chips, Sarge, that's our third bag we've gone through already and we picked up the food half an hour ago!"
"I know, but they're so addicting!"
"Why didn't you guys wait till after the weekend to throw a party for me?" asked Aster, plopping down on a couch, "then I wouldn't have to deal with these crutches anymore…these things are a pain in the –"
"Ah, the duel's boring," sighed Atticus, as he turned off the TV.
"Did you do any other celebrating since your victory?"
"Uh, no. I just said, I'm not a party person."
"Why?"
"You wouldn't be either if every event you went to had the paparazzi tailing your every move just waiting for you to humiliate yourself so they can tell the world that you just did something moronic like choke on a pretzel…"
"You choked on a pretzel in public?"
"No…I'm just saying…"
"But I thought you liked the press!" exclaimed Jaden.
Aster cocked an eyebrow, "every duelist has a 'press face'. It's our way of saying we don't-like-humiliating-one's-defeat-but-we'll-do-it-anyway-because-the-public-likes-rude-and-selfcentered-celebrities. I know a lot of Pros and we agree that we don't like to humiliate anyone, but we do it because the public wants it. And when we don't talk in that tone, the press rewords everything we say to make it seem that way."
Jaden stared for a moment, "Oh."
"Does Zane do that too?" asked Syrus, "put on a false image for the press?"
"He might," Aster thought about it, "but I doubt it, Zane loves power and victory now. He'd probably be thrilled to humiliate someone he defeated."
"There you are," said Adrian, coming into the room, "I've been looking all over for you guys."
"You have?" asked Alexis, "why?"
"Chazz wanted me to tell you – Sartorius is here and he's in the Chancellor's office with Professor Viper."
"Really? What's Sartorius doing here?"
"So where's Chazz?"
"He's outside the Chancellor's office, or at least he was. But it seemed they were arguing over something…"
Jaden put on a crazy grin, "This'll be sweet! Let's go eavesdrop and see what's up!"
"I'm with you, Jay!"
"Let's go, Syrus!" The two best friends ran from the room. Hassleberry then ran after.
"Hey, Sarge! Don't forget your number one friend!"
"Jaden's my wingman!"
The argument between the two echoed throughout Obelisk Blue. Aster sighed, grabbed his crutches, and got up, making his way to the door, "Well, right now, there's nothing better to do than go follow. Anyone coming with?"
"Count me in," said Alexis, "If we don't go now, we'll hear it from Jaden sooner or later. Might as well get all the facts straight now before he forgets half of them."
"I take it this Sartorius bloke is your manager?" asked Jim. Aster nodded. "I'm in."
Everyone from Aster's party met Chazz outside the door.
"What's going on in there Chazz?" asked Jaden.
"Professor Viper and Sartorius are shouting at each other. They just started a few minutes ago, so you didn't miss a thing."
The doors to Chancellor Sheppard's office whooshed open and Sartorius stood in the doorway.
"I thought I heard you out here."
"You did?"
"Well, no, but the limited powers still in me have warned that there would be eavesdroppers…and look who's camped outside the door? Jaden and his bundle of friends."
"What are you doing here, Sartorius?" asked Aster, "I thought you were home planning my next tour."
"Well, I was…did you see the news tonight?"
"No, I was having a…uh…the gang threw me a party for my victory over Maxwell Simmons and for all the shiny medals I got."
"I see. Well, since you're going to end up hearing the entire conversation one way or another, you might as well come in. I doubt the Chancellor will mind, since you eavesdrop on him as a daily activity." Sartorius left the door open as the gang piled inside.
Professor Viper peered at the group and then glared, "What's this?"
"They were going to hear what's going on from Aster anyhow, so they might as well hear the whole story now."
Aster blinked, "This is about me?"
Sartorius turned and fixed his gaze on his star duelist, "Yes. Based on the most recent turn of events, I want to make sure you're well protected…should something happen to you…"
"Like what? He is perfectly safe here at Duel Academy," said Viper, "and as a student here, he will participate in the daily activities. There is no reason why he should be in any danger."
Sartorius glared at the professor, "before I start on the whole danger part, Aster is only here at Duel Academy because of his recent injury. Within five days, he will be back in the Pro Circuit. I don't see the point of putting him through a survival duel, since he's already a Pro."
"I am testing the duelist in everyone at this school. Aster, no matter how good of a professional he is, resides at Duel Academy, and will be treated as a student."
"You're going to make him duel through an injury? Are you mad?"
"If I recall, Mr. Sartorius, didn't you do that?"
"That was different. Should Aster not have dueled Simmons, he would have to wait for the next tournament to start, and then win it to gain a title that belonged to him since Kyle Jables dropped off the face of the Earth."
"So he turns on the safety protocols on his duel disk. Big deal."
"So you're going to make him stay through these duels, even though he won't be at this school to complete the next week's worth of classes?"
"Until Thursday, which is a week from now, he will continue to participate in the survival duels, and that is final. Until he gets off campus, he follows my guidelines."
"Excuse me, Gentlemen," said Sheppard, and everyone jumped. He had been so silent through the conversation that Jaden had forgotten he was even there. "I think the decision to participate, or not to participate, rests on Aster's decision. It is, of course, his dueling that is the focal point here. Aster, you decide. You're only going to be here for another week at the most. Do you want to participate in the survival duels, or not?"
"Sartorius," Aster began, and Sartorius and Viper slowly turned to look at him, "I don't have a problem with these survival duels. It eases the longing of something to do while I sit around and do practically nothing."
"Then it's settled then," said Viper. He turned to leave the Chancellor's office.
"Is that all, Sartorius?" asked Sheppard.
"No, and this directly concerns you, Aster, and probably any duelist. You said you haven't seen the evening news, correct?"
"Yea, why? What's up, Sartorius?"
"Remember the disturbance at Tokyo Prison?"
"Uh huh…what's this all about, anyway?"
Sartorius sighed, "There was a large breakout. The police have formulated a list of missing convicts, and some of the names you might find familiar." He pulled from his pocket a list of names printed from the Internet and handed them to Aster, who was currently seated in a chair by Sheppard's desk.
There was an awkward pause as Aster peered through the list, and frowned at a couple of names.
"What is it, Aster?" asked Alexis.
"Some of these guys are nobodies. Well, nobodies to me, anyhow. A few charged with the simplest crimes from attempted robbery to some of the major, such as kidnapping, rape, and murder. A few mentally insane…and…" he trailed off.
"Who?" asked Atticus. He got up from his seat next to his sister and stood behind Aster, peering over his shoulder.
"Remember those guys I told you about? Who would…or at least they tried to…kill a duelist and steal their one-of-a-kind cards?"
Syrus nodded, "I remember you telling us about that!"
"Did they escape?" asked Jesse.
"All of them."
"All of them!!" cried Jim, "Crikey! How many were there?!"
"Ten."
"Ten?" Chazz repeated, "Were they the only other ones on the list?"
"No," said Aster, shaking his head, "then there's the nobodies, and…"
"Now who?"
"Thorn Turama. He escaped."
"Who's he?"
"He's the guy I beat a while ago. Had he had beaten me; he would have gone on to face The D for the championship title. But he lost, and it sent him on a long losing streak that eventually ended his dueling career. His manager quit on him and he lost his other sponsorship deals from other losses.
"He went low for a while, but then he was out-of-the-blue charged with the raping of a teenage girl and sent to prison. I don't think he did it, but the courts found him mentally insane, so he's back and forth between regular prison and a mental prison. Personally, I'd keep him in the mental ward…"
"That's not all, Aster," said Sartorius, "Katie Bish was found."
"Where is she?" asked Adrian.
"She's dead."
Everyone stared at Sartorius, trying hard to not believe those two words. Chancellor Sheppard looked down at his desk, not saying a word. There was another awkward silence in the room before Alexis broke it, "What happened to her?"
"She was found, in an abandoned tool shed on the Domino outskirts with her Duel-disk on, shot to death in the head, arm, chest, leg, and side. Her deck was missing, and there were bruise marks on her arms."
"Wow," said Hassleberry, "that's horrible!"
"There was also a note next to her on the floor where she was found, written in blood, it stated, 'She was the first'. I don't know how many other victims there will be, but I want to make sure, Aster, that you are safe."
"Well, I don't think…" Aster began, but then stopped speaking, thought for a moment, then nodded, "Fine."
"Why the sudden change in mind?" asked Jaden.
Aster turned to the Australian duelist, "there just happens to be a coincidence between the note, Bish's death and the escape of Turama."
"There is?" asked Syrus, "What is it?"
"Unless you were really into the Pro Circuit a while back, you wouldn't know, or remember. But since D and I have been in for a while, I kind of have a clue.
"When Turama went down his path of defeats, he would always swear after his loss that he would get back at us one day."
"Us?" asked Jaden.
"Us being the victors. After his first one, against me, Thorn came down to Sartorius and me as we were leaving and demanded a rematch. Sartorius refused, as I was due in America for a mini-tour and didn't have the time for one right then and there. Turama got mad and attacked Sartorius. It wasn't anything extraordinary, just one flying fist. He was restrained and taken out of the Duel Dome. His last duel before dropping out of the leagues was against Katie Bish."
"Who did he duel before her?" asked Chazz, "shouldn't that person be afraid right about now?"
"Maxwell Simmons dueled Thorn Turama a week before Turama's match against Katie Bish."
"Someone should warn him then!"
"It's too late for that," said Sartorius, shaking his head, "He disappeared this morning."
While the police surrounded the area where the murdered duelist was found, on the other side of the city, a car pulled up behind an abandoned warehouse. The darkness of the night shielded the car from any onlooker.
Five men came out of the car, and proceeded into the back of the facility.
Inside, the warehouse was cobweb and dust filled. It appeared untouched for years. The men filed to a back room and closed the door, fastening the bolt. Going to the bookcase, one of the men tipped back a book to reveal a button. Pushing it, the bookcase turned to a forty-five degree angle, allowing the men to continue into the hidden passage.
Inside the hidden hall, a set of stairs lead down, while the hall continued straight. The men continued down the stairs, and entered a room to the right.
It appeared to be a control room of some sort. One man was in the room, at a wall with a computer attached. The monitor was on, showing another room in the building. The room on the screen seemed to be a tank, one filling with water.
The man at the computer turned, "I see you have returned. I take you weren't spotted at all?"
"Not a chance. We dumped her like you said and left the note."
"Good, good."
"If I may ask," asked another man, besides the one who opened the bookcase, "what are you filling up?"
"Hmm? Oh, want to take a look, guys?"
The five men from the car nodded. They followed the other man out of the room. His jacket had a name printed on the back. Turama.
They followed Turama back up the stairs and into a different chamber.
From the doorway of this room, the only place to walk from this level was a strip of floor going to the other side. A set of stairs from the other end went down to a lower level where there was more room to walk. Water was slowly, and still rising from openings in the floor.
"The water has reached a level of three feet since I started it up," Thorn explained, "but by the time the flow reaches a foot below the lower level down there, it will have reached twenty."
"Uh, why are you filling up the tank?"
"This, is where I'm going to stage the greatest fall of a Pro Duelist…literally."
Turama sighed upon seeing the confused faces of the men.
"Uh, can you elaborate on that a bit?"
Turama smirked, "of course. The hook up there," he pointed to the metal hook, "it's attached to a hidden crane. We will attach someone to the hooked crane, and at a certain time, let him go into the pool below, where he'll drown."
"How do you know he'll drown?"
"Usually, when you're stuck to a fifty pound weight, you don't make it to the surface twenty feet above you…"
"Oh."
"Wouldn't it be easier to shoot the guy?"
"I don't plan to re-use my revenging methods. I plan keep any connection between the victims and me as slim as possible. Reusing the same methods might give them a lead…somehow…"
"Oooh."
"So, is Simmons going on this thing?" one of the henchmen indicated the setup.
"No, no," said Turama, "I'm saving this for the one who sent me spiraling down my path. It was his fault I lost all those twelve duels after that!"
"So we're going to kill twelve people?"
"As fun as it would be, I'd rather not. The police would figure it was me too quickly. I'm only going to pick a select few. The more important ones."
"Oh, ok."
"Katie Bish had ended my streak, as I was kicked from the leagues only an hour after the defeat. Maxwell Simmons defeated me humiliatingly, and the same happened two other times. I will get them as well. But I am saving this trap – for the best. And I save the best for last…"
"Oh, so who's going to go last?"
"He was just in ProLeague Magazine recently, as a matter of fact. Our beloved, newly crowned King of the Pro Circuit – Aster Phoenix."
Dun dunn dunnnn!
I hope I didn't confuse you with the last part. I didn't give the henchmen names yet, as they're rarely important, but you'll probably hate me with the ending like that…
I would love to know what you think! The purple button craves attention, especially from happy readers like you! Also, I did my best to edit this chapter. If you found anything that makes no sense, alert me to it immediately and I'll gladly fix.
Happy Holidays!