Oh, this is just perfect…simply perfect…
Since I've actually gotten another chance to do this thing, I have to talk about my survival here at the academy…
I know it was stupid to save Vergil since I got caught, and now I'm the one who gets punished…joy. But I have to try to stay here…
I have to deal with this one chance to stay here at the academy. Of course it might be a little difficult by facing this weird guy…
…I just can't really get a hold on this guy's strategy, and it might be a little difficult for me to actually win this one.
…This can't really be serious…I'm like fighting the stars themselves…joy…
/-/--/--//-/-//--/-/
Chapter 20
Duel Out is A Go!
/-/--//-/-/-/--/
"So…Zeff got caught?" Cain asked summing everything up rubbing his chin with his right hand. "That's not good…but, who's Zeff again?"
"The guy with the eye patch and usually has this little guy on his shoulders," Taylor explained lifting Rox up to Cain's eye level.
"…What is he? A wolf loving pirate?" Cain asked not noticing that Rox was growling at him. However, his attention was drawn to the little wolf cub jumping at him snarling and teeth barred. "WHAT THE!"
As Cain was rolling on the ground trying to stop the wolf cub from taking a bite out of him, everyone continued on with the conversation. The only ones, who seemed to notice that Cain was fighting with Rox, were Vergil and Kara. "Shouldn't we separate them?"
"Not now, we've got some things to discuss…" Takashi stated as Kara watched Cain wrestle with Rox.
"First things first…how are we going to help Zeff?" Garu asked jumping on the top bunk looking down at the group in the small Red Dorm.
"…That's not really an issue here," Vergil stated with a serious look on his face getting a look from Garu, Yae, Takashi and Taylor. "The main problem is stopping Kurro's plan in the bud before he can implement it…"
"What in the world are you talking about?" Yae asked with a shocked look on her face.
"We should get Zeff out of this predicament!" Garu shouted over Cain's curses and Rox's growls and snarls.
"I hate to say this," Taylor stated crossing her arms. "But Vergil's right…we need to stop Kurro's plan…"
"I'm surprised that you two wouldn't help an ally," Takashi pointed out while not looking up from his book. "If I may…why?"
"…We'll need more allies," Vergil said pushing his glasses up as Rox trotted over towards him and rubbed his head up against Vergil's right leg. "…We should probably tell them Taylor…"
"Yes you're right," Taylor responded with a nod as Kara reached for the first aid kit.
Everyone turned towards the center of the room to see that Cain was slowly getting bandaged by Kara wherever he was bitten. "That mutt better not have rabies…"
/-/-/--//-///-//-/
Speaking of a wolf, standing in the middle of Kurro's office was none other than Zeff standing with a large blinding light gleaming over his body as he looked straight forward to meet with the dark glare of Kurro's eyes as his head were placed upon his overlapped hands.
Behind Kurro was none other than Chinto to his right with a large smirk on his face; while on Kurro's left was Ashton with a weary look on his face as his eyes shifted towards Kurro and Zeff. 'Punishing a kid? That seems a little too much…'
"Zeff Bates…first year Slifer Red student," Kurro read aloud from the folder he had on his desk with his finger following the lines. "Age, fifteen. Grade average, B plus, dueling status; number one hundred and seventy-eight…not bad for a first year red, not bad at all…"
"…thanks…" Zeff replied raising an eyebrow at Kurro's actions.
"…so tell me…how much did you hear?" Kurro asked closing the folder and sitting back in his seat to seem more relaxed.
"…I don't know what you're talking about…" Zeff answered dully with his arms crossed over his chest.
"I see…you're playing the ignorance card," Kurro chuckled rubbing his chin slightly as he stood up. "Fine then…not only do we have Chinto here seeing you at the scene, but you were caught none the less…"
Standing up from his seat, Kurro slowly walked towards Zeff with a small smile on his face. As soon as Kurro was behind Zeff, the headmaster slapped his hand onto the wolf duelist's shoulder. "…A word of advice kid…I can be your beast friend, or your worst enemy. Your choice…"
"Scare tactics won't work on me old man," Zeff warned with a chuckle in his voice making Kurro smile a little more demonic.
"Hmm…I see," Kurro laughed walking in front of Zeff. "Then perhaps as business men we can settle this? It's never too early to earn some business experience."
"I've already got some," Zeff replied turning his head to the side. "Never deal with hustlers…"
"Good advice," Kurro said rubbing his chin at the fact that this Red student was actually starting to get on his nerves with his sarcasm and cocky attitude. However, he had to remain calm and collected against this student. "However…there are times when that is not even an option…"
"…one of those times is now…"
Snapping his fingers, Chinto slowly walked towards the door and then stood in front of it with his hands behind his back. Zeff on the other hand was watching Kurro the entire time…waiting for Kurro to get on with this little speech of his…
"Are you planning on boring me to death?" Zeff asked with a smile on his face to show the fanged tooth he had. "Cause if that's my punishment; you're doing an excellent job so far…"
"An excellent mind and sarcastic," Kurro chuckled spinning around and grabbing Zeff's shirt at an incredible speed for an old man. "…its too bad that I'm required to have a punishment established for you…you are going to be a test subject for one of my newest plans for this academy…"
Releasing his grip, Kurro turned around and snapped his cane on the ground to gather everyone's attention. "…with students as yourself running on this campus, breaking the rules periodically, I have developed a plan that will guarantee that only the ones who deserve to be here will thrive…"
"I call it the Duel Out Program…and you should consider yourself lucky to be one of the first two students to experience it…Chinto, let him in…"
Nodding to Kurro, Chinto knocked on the door with the back of his fist allowing the door to open up. Standing in the doorway, Zeff was met with the sight of another student. This one with spiked back silver hair on top of his narrowed face, it was obvious to everyone to show the weird scar on the right side of his face. At the top right of his forehead was a mysterious scar that was in the shape of a star that seemed to have a point race down his eye.
His ripped Obelisk Blue uniform had the tails ripped off as well as the sleeves showing his long sleeved white dress shirt that had dark blue stars on random parts of his shirt. He also had ripped blue jeans on with a small watch like contraption on at his belt. "…You've got to be freaking kidding me…"
"Mr. Zeff Bates…I'd like you to meet the duelist Fomalhaut Stellar," Kurro introduced with the blue student, Fomalhaut, slowly walking into the room with his eyes closed. "Like you, he is a duelist at this fine academy who happens to be a bit of a bad egg. You see, Mr. Stellar was charged with assault and battery against his fellow students…"
"No need for the fancy terms you old coot," Fomalhaut commented narrowing his dark eyes towards Kurro. "Just say I started a fight without a scratch while putting several students in the nurse's office…"
"…this guy did that?" Zeff asked raising an eyebrow at Fomalhaut.
"You want to try against me?" Fomalhaut offered lifting his hand up towards Zeff.
"Gentlemen!" Kurro shouted snapping his cane onto the ground to get everyone's attention. "Save your breaths and threats for the Duel out Program…you two will have a duel against each other. Now allow me to explain to you two about the Duel out Program…"
Snapping his fingers, the computer on Kurro's desk spun around to show a screen that had the pictures of both Zeff and Fomalhaut, each of them with duel disks on their arms. Both of them had red borders on their duel disks as they both held up their five card hands. "Since you both seem to have potential, I've developed the duel out program to limit the amount of duelist who needs to be expelled from said academy.
"For dealing with you bad seed duelists, I've set up opponents with other students who have broken the rules. So to decide who stays or goes, you two will face off against each other, who wins stays and faces a less serious punishment, and the loser leaves the academy without a transfer request to another academy.
"In case you're wondering about the match ups, I've set up the duelists to face each other based on the severity of their actions. Since Mr. Stellar's crime was multiple beatings on other students, resulting in increasing the health insurance fee, and yours was crossing private property, eavesdropping and breaking curfew…"
"It was four in the afternoon," Ashton pointed out making Kurro fall slightly towards the ground.
"Don't contradict me Ashton!" Kurro shouted narrowing his eyes at Ashton. Then, after adjusting his collar, Kurro spun back towards Zeff and Fomalhaut with a calmed look on his face that made the two duelists sweat in embarrassment, very creepy. "Now then, back to the explanation, since you both have violated the rules at a very great level so you two get to face off against each other…however, I should probably say that your duel will have one certain aspect that you should be aware of…
"But I'm not telling you two about it…"
"You bastard!" Fomalhaut shouted making everyone's eyes widen from his rude comment directly shot into Kurro's face. "If I'm even going through with this stupid ass duel, then you could've at least paired me with someone who could've at least given me a challenge…not this runt."
"I'm standing right here!" Zeff growled.
"Notice how I'm not caring," Fomalhaut chuckled not taking his eyes off of Kurro. "Same reason why I don't care if I get busted talking like this to the higher ups…you dumb asses are still going to punish me either way. So I figure, I might as well enjoy pissing off the establishment anyway."
"As much as I find your attitude interesting," Kurro muttered with a blood vessel appearing on the back of his head. "You're not helping with your case…"
"Didn't you just listen?" Fomalhaut asked with a raised eyebrow at the fact that his little speech was just ignored by the headmaster of the school. "I don't give a crap! So just get on your little speech, let us go or just shut the hell up!"
"…fine," Kurro replied narrowing his eyes down at Fomalhaut, and rubbing his forehead to relieve some of the stress while heading back to behind his desk. "…as for the special condition…I don't know what it'll be. You see it's randomly selected and could be something completely unknown to me."
"You could've just said that," Ashton stated making the blood vessel reappear on Kurro's head.
"Not helping here Ashton," Kurro growled sitting down back into his seat. "Anyway, the duel will occur in the morning tomorrow at precisely six a.m. at the main duel arena. If you want you can invite your friends to watch your duel…"
"Yeah, yeah," Fomalhaut sighed turning back towards the door and heading towards it. "I'm not wasting any more time…not with idiots like you."
"Well, that's rude," Chinto remarked watching Fomalhaut walk out of the room with his eyes closed and arms crossed.
"I know…" Fomalhaut chuckled leaving the room with nothing more.
The echo of Fomalhaut's footsteps filled the almost empty hallway as the setting sun soon began to flow through the invisible glass. Then suddenly, the footsteps ended abruptly silencing the hallways…
"…I see that you're not worried at all Fomalhaut…"
The scarred duelist simply opened his eyes to see that leaning up against the wall was a young man who looked to be the a little older than him only slightly dark blue hair that was combed back over his semi pale skin… however the rest of his body was covered with what appeared to be a black overcoat with many red clouds on the design that was showing that he had his arms crossed. "…Shouldn't you at least worry a little bit my friend?"
"…Last time I checked Lucian," Fomalhaut growled walking slowly past Lucian, only to be followed by him. "…I was working under you, not being a friend…"
Lucian shook his head as his cloak flowed back slightly to show the comfy black jeans with dark gray vest. "…I understand that…however, you do realize that I am trying to make sure that we are successful in our objective.
"And should you lose this duel and leave this academy…I will have no choice but to destroy you."
That voice rang through Fomalhaut's head as he slowly halted to a complete stop and crane his head towards Lucian. "You should know better than that…I'm more than capable of not losing to a slacker…especially if I use my true power."
"Another thing about that, you'll have to restrain your skills in the duel," Lucian added walking in front of Fomalhaut. "We can't risk blowing our cover here…at least not yet."
"…Fine…" Fomalhaut scoffed to the side turning his head towards the setting sun. "…it's going to be a clear night tonight. Perfect for me to practice with my strategy…"
"Just remember…don't go to overboard…" Lucian warned before walking away from Fomalhaut and down into the shadows of another hallway. "I'll be here to watch your match in the morning…however, I'll have to leave before noon…the boss wants me to come to the Atlantic Academy to watch some guy's plan to recover from a dreaded disease using ancient magic…
"Might be good for me to learn how to more successfully spilt personalities. I just wonder if this Dias, or whatever he's called will be good enough…"
"…You'll find out…now won't you?" Fomalhaut growled walking in another direction than Fomalhaut.
/--/-/--//-/--//-//-
Cain and Kara had already left from the Red Dorm, Cain to discuss how things were going to occur with Mustang and Kara had to return to her dorm to simply get some homework done.
That left all the others in Garu and Yae's dorm room, a majority of what they were talking about were arguing about what they should do next.
"We gotta help Zeff!" Garu shouted sending a sparking glare towards Vergil.
"What we need to do is stop Kurro's plans!" Vergil roared narrowing his eyes down at Garu with a dark aura around him.
"Zeff!"
"Kurro!"
"Zeff!"
"Kurro!"
"This is going no where," Yae sighed leaning next Taylor watching Garu and Vergil shout at each other.
"Pretty much," Taylor sighed.
Flipping a few pages in his book, Takashi was looking his book trying to enjoy the literature even with all of the loud shouting. However, his attention was grabbed by the opening door to reveal that Zeff was slowly walking in trying to not be noticed. "Well now, look who's here. It's Patchy the Wolf Boy."
"That's a cheap shot," Zeff sighed getting everyone's attention in the room.
"Zeff! You're back!" Garu shouted jumping towards the wolf duelist. "Then I take it that you're not in trouble."
"Nope…I'm definitely in trouble," Zeff laughed making everyone sweatdrop at his response. "In fact, I've got a duel tomorrow that if I lose then I'm outta here!"
A small silent breeze swept through the room until everyone except Zeff shouted out at the same time. "What the hell!?!"
"How can you be so calm!?" Yae yelled with her hair flowing back in the air slightly.
"…I honestly don't know," Zeff answered before heading towards the desk with his deck to prepare it. Everyone's immediate response was to fall face forward into the ground.
"Zeff," Taylor sighed with Rox trotting back over to Zeff and then jumped into the wolf duelist's lap. "Shouldn't you at least try to be a little worried?"
"Nope, but I'm just getting my deck ready for the duel…so do you guys mind?" Zeff asked getting a nod from everyone.
Later, as the night sky loomed over the island, Zeff had finally finished his deck's final alternations and had taken seat on the roof with Rox sleeping next to him. Looking at the beautiful moon, Zeff slowly rubbed the back of Rox's head as the wolf cub snoozed calmly. "…I knew something like this would happen when I accepted these terms…
"…but…but…but, I don't want to lose everyone I've met. I knew that this would happen…sorry everyone…"
//-/-/-/-/-///-//
6 a.m. on the dot…
"Come on Zeff!" Garu shouted from his seat getting Yae, Taylor, Rox and Vergil to stare at him.
"Garu…it's too early for that…" Yae moaned slapping her forehead.
"Aw come on!" Garu stated as Zeff and Fomalhaut slowly stepped onto the dueling platform. "We gotta show our support to Zeff!"
Vergil wasn't really paying attention to Garu. He was directed towards Fomalhaut as he shuffled Zeff's deck in a rough manner. 'Fomalhaut Stellar…I didn't think that he'd be Zeff's opponent. With good grades and excellent dueling skills, Fomalhaut was able to get into Obelisk Blue thanks to his ties to the higher ups…'
'But he's been in trouble with starting fist fights in his past, putting almost anyone who got him extremely mad into critical condition. He's strong, but he doesn't know how to stop…'
Moving his eyes from Fomalhaut, Vergil noticed that sitting across from the arena was none other than Kurro, Team Legendz, the girl that they met in the underground dock and Chinto. How Chinto didn't remember Vergil was beyond him.
But what really caught Vergil's eyes, were none other than Lucian standing down near the area where the duel platform connected with the floor. 'Who in the world is that?'
"DUEL OUT!"
"Couldn't you have waited till I got my deck into my duel disk?" Zeff asked snapping the cards into his duel disk and immediately pulled the top five cards from his deck.
"…Sorry, I don't wait for trash," Fomalhaut stated placing a card onto his duel disk making the horizontal back card appear before him. "And neither do my cards, so hurry up you worthless waste of skin." (FLP: 8000)
"Ouch…what did I do to deserve that?" Zeff asked drawing his sixth card, then with a nod he immediately lifted up a card that was slapped onto his duel disk. (ZLP: 8000)
"…The fact that I'm being forced to be paired up with a $&() like you is what!" Fomalhaut growled through his teeth making a blood vessel appear under his scar. "I'm elite…and instead of being treated as such, I'm forced to face off against a slacker to decide whether I stay or go!
"It's the principle of the matter at hand! If I'm going to be kicked out of here, then I want it to be at least by someone who's on the same level or higher of skill in dueling! But no…I'm forced to face off against a weakling!"
"Weakling?" Zeff asked a little taken back forcing him to slap his next card onto his duel disk. The card appeared onto the field, immediately shattering it into the Timber Wolf (1700/400) that howled loudly into the air. "I'll show you a weakling! Timber Wolf! Attack that face down monster!"
With the back of its silver fur standing up, the wolf leapt towards the face down monster making the back card flip up into a toga wearing man with six wings that was immediately pinned down to the ground. Before the man could do anything, the Timber Wolf sank its fangs into the man's neck killing the man off.
"And since my Timber Wolf destroyed a monster," Zeff chuckled as his wolf trotted back proudly back to his side of the field with its nose in the air (1700/400 + 400/400). "Its attack increases…"
"Yes, but you have no idea as to what my monster was," Fomalhaut sighed pulling out his dueling deck and fanned it out to look through the cards. "It was a monster known as Shining Angel…and when destroyed as a result of battle I can special summon one light monster from my deck and it doesn't matter what level it is!
"It could have a level of ten million! And all I would have to do is make sure that it has less than fifteen hundred attack points…but I think I'll settle for a level three monster…"
Snapping a card from the deck, Fomalhaut slapped the card onto his duel disk, sending a flurry of stars from his duel disk into the air. Leaping from the stars a yellow and dark blue blur spun quickly on the ground in front of Fomalhaut.
The blur stood up to reveal a young skinny man with a chibi like body and spiked golden hair with a long tied black hair tail with a star at the end, his eyes are as dark as the sky. On his skinny body is a dark blue jumpsuit with white stars near the top that became apparent as the young man jumped for joy at appearing on the field (1300/700). "…simply known as Star Wanderer…"
"What the hell is that?" Garu asked raising an eyebrow at the floating monster in front of Fomalhaut as a card shot from the blue's deck and into his hand.
"Something very dangerous…" Vergil muttered to himself rubbing his chin. "I figured that Fomalhaut would have something rare…but nothing like this…"
"And since my Star Wanderer appeared on the field," Fomalhaut continued lifting the card up and flipping it around to show a spell card with a crab scuttling through the stars. "I can take one card with 'Zodiac' in its name from my deck and into my hand…"
"Zodiac you say?" Zeff questioned looking at the rest of his hand. "Well then…I guess I'll just set two cards face down…and call it a turn…"
"…Heh…fool," Fomalhaut chuckled drawing his seventh card and then immediately lifted three cards from his hand up and into his duel disk. "You have no idea what I'm capable of. I activate the Zodiac spell cards, Taurus, Cancer and Virgo!"
All three of Fomalhaut's spell cards appeared behind his excited Star Wanderer as multiple red, blue and yellow stars shot from all of the Zodiac spell cards and flying behind the Star Wander as he flew through the air. When the stars caught up to the giggling Star Wanderer, the astronomical monster slowly floated down in front of Fomalhaut with three glowing stars orbiting around his body, one red, blue and yellow (1300/700 + 600/0 + 200/200 + 300/300).
"What the hell!?!" Zeff shouted with his jaw dropping down to the platform.
"My Zodiac cards each have an added effect to my 'Star' monsters," Fomalhaut explained pointing towards the spell card that had a crab scuttling through the stars. "My Cancer spell card increases the attack of all Star monsters by two hundred points."
Then pointing towards the middle spell card, depicting a bull rampaging through the stars, Fomalhaut crossed his arms over his chest. "And then, my Taurus spell gives an additional six hundred attack points to all star monsters…"
The final spell card gleamed with multiple yellow stars that floated around it, showing a beautiful woman standing in the stars with her hands clasped together. "And finally, Virgo increases all star monsters by three hundred points…"
"Now then, Star Wanderer! Attack his Timber Wolf! Star Shower!"
Flying into the air, the Star Wanderer spun into the air with multiple stars following his body as he lifted his arms up into the air and then aimed towards Zeff's field.
'Good thing I've got Mirror Force face down…' Zeff thought raising his arm over his face down card about to flip up. "I activate…"
That's when a large amount of stars rained down from the sky shattering the trap card before it could flip up fully. Zeff's surprised eyes looked up to see the Star Wanderer giggling at him with stars floating around his right hand. "Whoops…did I forget to mention something?"
"What the? Now you're smug?" Zeff asked completely confused as to why his opponent was acting so strangely.
"I can be how I want to be," Fomalhaut chuckled adjusting his hands towards the three spell cards. "And thanks to my Cancer and Virgo Zodiac cards, you can't chain spell or trap card when my star monsters attack and I can destroy at least one spell or trap card whenever a star monster attacks…and speaking of attacking…"
With a wink of his big eyes, the Star Wanderer flew at a high speed towards the Timber Wolf with two flaming stars in both of his hands. Then flying straight into the air, the Star Wanderer scattered many multi-colored lights streaming down onto the howling wolf, making the beast roar in pain until it disappeared into digitalized pixels. "Not good…" (ZLP: 7700)
"And to end my turn," Fomalhaut continued on not listening to Zeff's comment and another card slowly appearing in front of him left to the three Zodiac cards. "I'll set one card face down…your move I guess…wimp."
Slowly drawing his next card, Zeff considered his next move by looking at his four card hand. 'Hmm…lets see…he's got three spells out, a twenty-four hundred attack point monster, and one face down card. If I get rid of those spell cards, then I can take out that small powerhouse…'
'And I've got exactly what I need…'
"I activate the spell card, Heavy Storm! So all spells and trap cards on the field bite the big one!" Zeff announced as the wind around the two duelists began to warp around them. "So kiss your spell cards and face down card goodbye!"
"Sorry," Fomalhaut sighed loudly pulling out his deck and lifting three cards up from his deck and into his graveyard. "I send three Zodiac cards from my deck to the graveyard to activate the trap card, the Fourth Trine!"
Flipping upwards, the card flipped up sending out four extremely long scrolls shot from the picture seeming to halt the violent wind from destroying all the spell cards on the field. When the storm died down, the Star Wanderer bounced from all four scrolls and immediately landed on Fomalhaut's duel disk to pull it out and fan through it. "My trap allows me to negate the spell and remove it from play…and then, I can take another Zodiac card from my deck and add it to my hand."
"Okay…there goes my plan," Zeff muttered looking at the remaining three cards in his hand. "I'll set one more card face down, and set a card face down…that's all."
"Hmm…how shocking," Fomalhaut chuckled drawing his next card with his Star Wanderer landing on his shoulder with a slight giggle coming from the little monster, then taking another card from his hand, Fomalhaut slipped the card into his duel disk, erupting into black and white stars. "And here's another twist, I activate the spell card, Zodiac – Gemini!"
Turing left and right with the white and black stars orbiting around him, the Star Wanderer smiled brightly leaping off Fomalhaut's shoulder and floated in the air gracefully.
Zeff raised an eyebrow at the new spell card and noticed that the Star Wanderer didn't get stronger…and at the fact that Fomalhaut had placed another card from his hand into his graveyard. "What's wrong? This spell card not got a kick ass effect?"
"Actually…it does," Fomalhaut replied snapping his fingers towards the face down monster at Zeff's field. "Now then…since I'm declaring an attack, a spell or trap card bites the dust!"
With a great smile, the Star Wanderer spun around Zeff's field, raining down a large amount of multicolored stars from behind its trail. The stars rained directly down at the face down card on the right, shattering it into nothing…
"Why thank you! That face down card was known as Dark Coffin!" Zeff announced raising his hand up towards the ground as a dark green smoke began to surge from the ground.
Noticing the smoke, the Star Wanderer flew back to Fomalhaut's field with a worried look in his eyes as a golden jeweled coffin slowly began to rise up from the platform. And when the coffin slowly opened up to reveal a dark blue eye with a demonic eye the Star Wanderer was brought to tears.
"Relax," Fomalhaut warned taking another card from his hand and slipping it into his graveyard. "In order to appease it, I'll discard one card from my hand…it's of no consequence to me.
"However, you still get my monster's attack…Star Shower!"
Sniffing away the tears, the Star Wanderer flew directly towards the face down monster that was immediately revealed to be a small blue wolf cub with a small pair of horns from his head (800/1200). The stars crashed around the small cub making it cry out in pain as the light engulfed it. (ZLP: 6500)
"What in the?" Zeff shouted looking down at his duel disk. "How'd my life points lower?"
"Simple…my Taurus gives my Star Wanderer a trampling effect," Fomalhaut answered with the Star Wanderer appearing right next to Zeff with a large grin. "And thanks to Gemini…
Creating multiple stars in his hand, the Star Wanderer prepared to slam the stars into Zeff's face. "…My Star monster gains another attack!"
"You're not the only one with a secret ability!" Zeff shouted as a small wolf cub appeared in front of the Star Wanderer, scaring the small monster.
/--/-//-/-/-/-
"…I see…" Mustang mumbled to himself after listening to what Cain had to say about Kurro's plan to take over the dueling world. "This might be bad…"
"Might be?" Cain asked narrowing his eyes at Mustang. "Who knows what he's planning on how to do that!"
"I realize that!" Mustang shouted sending sparks from his eyes towards Cain's. "And I know that we need to do something…"
"But what is the question here," Cain commented lowering his electrifying glare.
Silence echoed through the Obelisk Blue main hall as the two strong duelists thought to themselves slowly…
…until Mustang snapped his fingers and smiled brightly. "I think I've got it!"
"For the last time, you and Ami going out won't solve anything!" Cain growled with a blood vessel appearing on his fist.
"No, no, no, not that," Mustang chuckled noting that this time, Ami wasn't around to help protect him from the shorty's wrath. "But rather, since Kurro's planning on dueling to gather the duelist academy's contracts through dueling, we could probably do the same thing here…"
"Interesting idea Mustang," Cain admitted rubbing his chin and narrowing his eyes down at the Die Hard Kaiser. "However…how are we going to get him to agree to a duel? It's not like we have tons of money or connections to the stock of the academy. So how exactly would we get him to duel?"
"Uh…good point," Mustang laughed loudly to cover his embarrassment. "I hadn't really thought of that point…"
A loud sigh escaped from Cain's mouth as he looked towards the large window to see the sun beginning to appear over the horizon. "Besides…there's something else that's bothering me…"
"Huh? What would that be?" Mustang asked turning towards the short duelist with expectation.
"…Do you remember last year near the end before you dueled Vic for the Kaiser Title?" Cain asked raising his head towards Mustang to show the seriousness in his eyes. As a nod as a response, Cain continued. "Good…then you remember when Ed and Kinjou appeared here…"
"Yeah…I remember dueling against Kinjou…" Mustang admitted, but not admitting the fact that he lost the first time to the weird duelist. "Even though he was tough, I managed to pull a win at the last minute…"
"Same here for Ed…" Cain stated locking his hands together, he didn't want to remember the crap that the Pop Hero Duelist used against him. "Anyway…I believe I mentioned that Vergil and the others saw a muscular green haired man and a blonde, um, well…buxom woman…"
"And what pray tell does that have to do with this?" Mustang asked wondering where this was going.
"Last year, Rioko told me that he saw a muscular green haired man with a kid he dueled against," Cain stated looking up from his hands and towards Mustang. "And I saw Vic duel against that very same woman last year who was in the cave…
"If you ask me…not much of coincidence…"
"I can see how you'd be right about that," Mustang added thinking about how things might be connected from the events of last year and this year. "So, do you got a theory or what?"
"…I think so…but not sure," Cain answered shaking his head in disappointment. "We should probably look into this…we might find out something that could help us in our current situation…"
"So, now what?" Mustang asked with a question mark appearing over his head.
//-//-/-/--/-/-/-/
"So now what is this?" Fomalhaut asked with his Star Wanderer pouting next to him looking at the blue wolf (800/1200) that was crouching down next to Zeff. "More weaklings for the fray?"
"Don't mock the Gale Wolf Cub," Zeff warned gesturing towards the small wolf cub in front of him wagging his tail. "Whenever he's destroyed in battle, one of his brothers follows to jumps in to follow the pack…"
"…Straight into the jaws of death," Fomalhaut finished snapping his fingers towards his Star Wanderer. "Cause thanks to Gemini, I can have my Star monsters attack twice…so now then, Star Shower!"
With a small giggle, the Star Wanderer threw many stars onto Zeff's field, shattering the wolf and face down card on Zeff's field, destroying them immediately. (ZLP: 5300)
From the debris, another Gale Wolf Cub appeared on the field crouching down on the ground in front of Zeff. "Seems you forgotten about my wolf's ability to summon another one…"
"More targets for me…" Fomalhaut admitted looking at the remaining two cards in his hand, and sliding it into his duel disk, allowing the Star Wanderer to sit onto the back card. "Anyway, I'll end my turn with a simple face down…let's see if you've got any kind of counter shot…"
"Oh just watch…" Zeff stated spinning his next card into his hand and then turned it around to show the familiar green and blue grinning pot. "I activate Pot of Greed! Now, I'm able to draw two more cards from my deck!"
Doing as such, Zeff nodded and lifted up another card from his hand, this one depicting a rugged gangster man with his back turned wearing a black leather jacket with a raging dragon on the back. "Next up is Desperado Manager! So now, I can draw two more cards from my deck…"
Immediately lifting the next two cards up from his hand, Zeff took another three from his hand and slipped them onto the top of his duel disk. "…and then place three cards from my hand onto my deck…"
"That was a pretty useless card, why even bother having a copy of that card in your deck?" Fomalhaut questioned as Zeff raised yet another card from his hand into the air.
"Its only for a real strategist," Zeff answered as a large red curtain appeared behind him. "I pay eight hundred life points, in order to activate the spell card, Enchanting Fitting Room! Now, I can take the top four cards of my deck and if any of them are level three or lower monsters, I can instantly summon them!"
Four holograms of cards floated above Zeff, three of them depicting three Silver Fang cards (1200/800 x3) and the other one Call of the Haunted. Taking three of the cards, Zeff slid them across his duel disk, making the three silver furred wolves appear in front of him. "Of course, since Call of the Haunted isn't a monster, its shuffled back into my deck…"
"So you've got three useless wimps," Fomalhaut scoffed looking at the small hand in his opponent grasp. "Any plan you have will be just useless as well…"
"Do you even listen to yourself?" Zeff asked lifting up another card from his hand. "I activate Big March of the Animals! For each beast monster I have on the field, I can increase the attack of all beasts with two hundred points extra! So that eight hundred points each!"
The Gale Wolf Cub (800/1200 + 800/0) and the Silver Fangs (1200/800 + 800/0) all howled into the air loudly. Fomalhaut was still not impressed at all… "That's all? Please tell me that you at least have Triangle Attack in your hand. That way you could at least get a few cheap shots in…"
"Nope…but I've got the spell card, Wild Nature's Release!" Zeff shouted as his Gale Wolf Cub immediately grew up in a feral manner (1600/1200 + 1200/0) roaring loudly. "So my beast gains its defense into its attack! Gale Wolf! Lead the attack!"
Pouncing forward, the Gale Wolf landed on the panicking Star Wanderer, shattering the monster in a matter of seconds. Fomalhaut had a cold drop of sweat beat down the side of his head at the fact that he had three large wolves starring him down as if he were a fresh piece of meat. "…Not bad for a bastard…" (FLP: 7600)
"Time for some pay back!" Zeff shouted as all three of the Silver Fangs charged forward towards Fomalhaut, feral looks in their eyes as they leapt into the air.
Fomalhaut's eyes widened as all of the wolves landed on top of Fomalhaut, forcing him to the ground. Through out the growls of pain, the wolves bit at Fomalhaut's neck and tried to snap him into miniature pieces of himself. (FLP: 1600)
"Still think I'm a weakling?" Zeff asked crossing his arms of all of the Silver Fangs ran back to his side of the field.
The arena was quiet, everyone awaiting for Fomalhaut to answer…
"…heh, heh, heh…"
"Sorry to inform you," Fomalhaut chuckled slowly standing up without the use of his arms…a very creepy scene especially with the cracks that echoed from his body. "…But I have been waiting for this moment…the moment that I can stand up and show myself…"
"What?" Zeff asked as Fomalhaut smiled at him demonically.
"It was a pure accident…but still, you've managed to inflict some damage to my perfect strategy…" Fomalhaut muttered to himself gesturing towards his opponent's Gale Wolf Cub that shattered into many pixels and the three Silver Fangs grew calmed (1200/800 x3). "…however, you are not the one who has earned my full power…"
"Still…you've managed to inflict some damage to me…let's have a showdown. You and me, fighting through the remainder of the duel…to see who thrives or dies…"
Nearly ripping the next card off his duel disk, Fomalhaut's dark eyes seemed to grow darker and gleam as he threw his hand over his next card. "I activate the trap card, Star Shower!"
All five of Fomalhaut's cards shattered in front of him, into a multitude of stars that floated onto his duel disk. Then taking his deck out of its holster, Fomalhaut pulled the four bottom cards from his deck into his hand. "By destroying all Zodiac cards on the field, I can draw the same amount of cards from the bottom of my deck!"
'NO!' Lucian's eyes widened at the sight of the demonic smile plastered all over Fomalhaut's face as he raised his duel disk up along with his full hand. 'Fomalhaut! You were not to go this far!'
"I activate the spell card, Book of the Pure!" Fomalhaut laughed as a beautiful tome appeared in front of him releasing a multitude of feathers and stars. "This card works like book of life, only for fairies…"
"That monster was a fairy?" Zeff asked as the Star Wanderer (1300/700) reappeared on the field from the feathers and stars. As with his appearance, a card shot out of Fomalhaut's deck and into his hand. "I would've guessed an extravagant warrior, or depraved fiend…"
"Even tough guys can use fairies," Fomalhaut defended lifting another card from his hand into his field card zone. "I now activate my next spell!"
Around the entire field around the two duelists darkened like the night's sky, creating a multitude of stars around the two duelists. But then all of the stars exploded into even more stars around the two duelists. "But I'm not done yet…" (FLP: 100)
From three of the stars around the duelists, three more Star Wanderers (1300/700 x3) exploded from them and on the field laughing loudly as three more cards shot out from Fomalhaut's deck. "Prepare yourself! This duel ends now!"
Five constellations appeared behind all four of the Star Wanderers, all of them clumped too close together to see what they depicted. Five different colored stars orbited around the Star Wanderers as they all giggled together at once.
"What in the!?!" Zeff shouted confused as all three of his wolves cowered backwards from the invisible ground. "H-how are you able to…"
"Star Wanderers!" Fomalhaut commanded as all four of the Star Wanderers flew directly from Fomalhaut's side at a top speed towards Zeff. "Speed of Light Dash!"
Ignoring the wolves, the Star Wanderers' speed shattered all three of the Silver Fangs in the process and crashing into Zeff multiple times, making the lone wolf duelist cry out in pain as his duel disk began to spark and then explode on his arm making him howl out in pain even more. "AAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!" (ZLP: 0)
From the smoke rising from his busted duel disk, Zeff slowly began to fall backwards as the dark sky shattered along with all four of the Star Wanderers. Fomalhaut grinned sadistically as Zeff crashed on the platform knocked out…
"…Weakling…I showed my respect to you by giving you a taste of my power," Fomalhaut sighed getting his calm demeanor back on his face and taking off his duel disk. "…apparently you weren't able to handle it. If we meet again…I hope for you to get stronger…"
"ZEFF!" Garu shouted leaping from his seat and jumping from the other seats to go down to help his friend.
Meanwhile…
"Heh, I guess we've found our duelist to stay," Kurro chuckled with a great smile on his face.
"Seemed a little one sided if you asked me…" Ashton stated making a blood vessel appear on his forehead.
"…Don't you have a class to attend to?" Kurro asked slowly turning his head back towards Ashton who just stood up and walked away from his boss.
That's when Kurro took notice of Fomalhaut talking to Lucian as Garu helped a knocked out Zeff. '…hmm…that student…no, he's no student. That type of outfit is now banned thanks to my new rules. Who is that?'
/-//-/-/-/-/-/-/-
Card Stats
Desperado Manager / Spell / Effect: This card can only be used when you have at least one card in your hand. Draw two cards from your deck, then return three of your cards from your hand to the top of your deck.
Image: a rugged gangster man with his back turned wearing a black leather jacket with a raging dragon on the back
The preceding card was used by Chazz in the third season.
Star Wanderer / Light / LV. 3 / ATK: 1300 / DEF: 700 / Fairy/Effect: When this card is summoned to the field, you may take one 'Zodiac' card from your deck to your hand (the deck is then shuffled).
Description: A young skinny young man with a chibi body and spiked blonde hair with long tied back hair tail with a star at the end, his eyes are as dark as the sky. On his skinny body is a dark blue jumpsuit with white stars near the top.
Zodiac – Taurus / Continuous Spell / Effect: Increase the attack of all monsters with 'Star' in their name by 600 points. When this a monster with 'Star' in its name attacks a defense mode monster with a lower defense score than the attack of the attacking 'Star' monster, inflict the difference to your opponent's life points.
Image: A see-through bull rampaging through a starry sky.
Zodiac – Gemini / Continuous Spell / Effect: To activate this card, discard one card from your hand. All monsters with 'Star' in their name may attack twice in the battle phase.
Image: A white and black clothed pair of cute twins running through a starry sky.
Zodiac – Cancer / Continuous Spell / Effect: Increase the attack and defense of all monsters with 'Star' in their name by 200 points. When a monster with 'Star' in its name attacks you must select one spell or trap card on the field and destroy it.
Image: A crab scuttling through the starry sky.
Zodiac – Virgo / Continuous Spell / Effect: Increase the attack and defense of all monsters with 'Star' in their names by 300. When a monster with 'Star' in their name attacks your opponent cannot chain spell or trap cards.
Image: A beautiful woman standing in a starry sky with her hands clasped
Book of the Pure / Spell / Effect: By skipping your normal summon this turn, you may special summon one Fairy type monster from your graveyard to your side of the field. Then you may take one removed from play monster and return it to its owner's graveyard.
Image: A beautiful tome being held in a lovely angel's hands.
The Fourth Trine / Counter Trap / Effect: This card can only be activated when your opponent activates a spell card. Send three cards from your deck with 'Zodiac' in their name to negate the spell's activation and remove the card from play. Then, you may add one card from your deck with 'Zodiac' in it's name to your hand.
Image: Four scrolls crossing each other with different constellations on them.
Star Shower / Trap / Effect: When this card is activated, destroy and send all cards with 'Zodiac' in their name from your side of the field to your graveyard. For each card destroyed, you may draw one card from the bottom of your deck.
Image: Many stars falling front the sky.
When this card is destroyed as a result of battle, you may special summon one 'Gale Wolf Cub' from your hand or deck. A small blue wolf cub with a pair of horns sticking from his head./-//-/---/-///
Garu: Zeff…no…you're-you're gone…
Yae: I can't believe it…it seemed like he would always be here…
Garu: …All we've got left of him is Rox, his eye patch, and this note…
Ashton: I didn't know this would happen!
Kurro: He's next…
The student's fights continues, will 'he' be able to survive against the endless army? Chapter 21: Students Unite and Divide
??-??-??: We need action!