Yu-gi-oh

No Limits

Chapter 23-The King's Championship

By Kevin Jones

"Is everything in place?"
The owner of the mysterious voice is unknown. All that the man listening can tell is that the voice has a sense of amuse to its tone.
"Yes sir, all the invitations went out yesterday and all of the subjects you chose should be here within the next hour."
The owner of this voice is sitting in his black leather chair with his blue eyes closed; he knows the punishment he would receive if he were to lay eyes on the owner of this voice.
"You have proven yourself to be a good servant…, hmm, judge."
Even though his eyes are closed, the man in the leather chair can tell that the man in his office is standing near the window, via the direction of the noise of light footsteps. He can tell other things of his visitor even with his eyes closed. He can tell he's short and skinny based on how light his footsteps are. He also knows that his visitor has big feet based on previous visits when it would be raining outside and all that would remain of his visitor would be a set of wet prints on the wooden floor. Even though his visitor uses some sort of device that disguises his voice, causing it to sound mechanical, he can tell his visitor is a happy man seeing as he commonly laughs on his visits.
"Thank you sir," he is happy to receive praise from such an important man.
"All I wish now is to choose a worthy successor."
"I assure you, all of the participants have proven themselves worthy of the honor you are passing on."
"And even if they refuse it, we will make them want the honor."
The man in the chair can now hear a drawer opening and glass being removed from it.
"Oh my, a 65 Ayala, I don't want to sound rude but do you mind if I have a glass?"
"At 9:30 in the morning? I have no problem with it, but this early, it's not good for your liver."
"Nonsense, I think it adds a little sparkle to the day, would you like a glass?"
"I'd be honored sir."
The man in the chair now hears more glass being moved, a pop, and then liquid pouring.
"To the future, my friend," says the visitor.
The man in the chair reaches out gently, grabs the glass and waits till he here's a clang.
"To the future."
The man drinks and stops when he hears something placed on the leather blotter on his mahogany desk.
"When I entered the last King's Tournament more than 70 years ago I was skeptical of what the Grand Master had the power to do, so if you see any nonbelievers in the group, play them this and I assure you they'll want my power."
"Yes sir."
The man in the chair can now hear the light footsteps head towards the door. The door is now slowly opening.
"Good day, my servant."
"Good day, my master."
The door is now closing. The man in the chair leans back, counts to ten, opens his eyes and gets up. He slowly walks to his door, opens it and looks towards his secretary.
"Something the matter sir?"
"No, I just wanted to make sure you remember what to do when a bunch of young people show up in a little while."
"Let them in with no questions asked sir."
"And what are you to do with the knowledge that an old man was just in my office?"
"Completely forget it."
"Good," the man is now lifting his hand, "very good indeed." The man snaps his fingers and all of a sudden his secretary jumps in her seat.
"Oh judge Taft, is something the matter?"
"No sweet heart, nothing at all."

…

The United States court House is a grey, boring, roman based building with a ridiculously long stare case just to get to the front door.
"Chase," starts Debris Dragon, "are we walking into a trap?"
I look around, I'm the only one around wearing a Duel Disk and my Duel Runner is the only one I see parked anywhere near here.
"It's possible but"-
"Hey Chase, you didn't think you were going in alone were you?"
That voice, it sounded like Toni… it is Toni, Kai to and there now sprinting up the steps.
"What are you guys doing here?"
"Same as you I'd imagine." As Kai says this, both he and Toni pull unmarked envelopes out of their pockets.
"Wait, Segas gave all of us invitations to this tournament?"
"Looks like it. I found mine on my window sill when I got home yesterday, and I figured that if I got one, then you and Kai probably got one to."
"Then why didn't you call me or Kai?"
"Because, if we're supposed to be in a huge tournament then we'd all need our sleep, instead of spending the whole night trying to figure out what's going on here."
"Actually, unlike Toni, I didn't find my invitation till I got up this morning and found it tapped to my front door."
"OK so they want all 3 of us in this, but why?"
"Well boys, looks like we just got to go in and find out."

…

There is nothing odd about the inside of the Court House. I'm here a lot so I'd know if something was wrong.
"OK, according to what the lady back at the front desk said, Judge Taft's office should be right around the next- oh boy," apparently there's more than just the 3 of us in this tournament.
Toni's right, there's about…12 other people here. The age range looks like from a 10-year old to a 40-year old. Everyone is stuffed in here and it looks like the Judges secretary doesn't even seem to notice we're here.
"Check out the guy's secretary, I wouldn't mind unbuttoning that blouse."
Kai says this as we move towards the Blond with the C's.
"Excuse me," I begin, "we're here to see Judge Taft. Ms… can you hear me?"
"Don't bother."
We all look to our right, wait there's no one there.
"Down here."
We all look down to see the 10-year old standing next to us. He's short with long brown hair that's being kept in a pony tail that lays against a button down flannel shirt and ends where a pair of blue jeans begins.
"Who are you?" Upon asking this, I also notice an older model Duel Disk on the boys arm so I at least know what he's here for.
"I'm Wilson, Wilson Leonson."
"Let me guess you're here for the King's Championship," I ask.
"Yup, I got my invitation last night."
Happy little bra- Toni just nudged me.
"Something's up," she whispers into my ear, "I mean me and Kai being in this is odd enough, but a small child?"
"So what are your names?"
"Well, I'm Kai, this is Toni and this is Chase."
"Wait a minute, your Chase Rhodes?"
He is now right in front of me and some of the other guys here are also starting to look over.
"You know who I am?"
"You bet. There have been a lot of rumors spreading about you. Like how you have a Stardust Dragon or that you have a Hero deck that almost never loses!"
"And where exactly did these rumors begin?"
As I say this I glance at Toni.
"Hey, don't look at me, I only spread rumors about my own dueling skills."
I now look at Kai.
"I keep to myself and do I really look like the kind of guy who's hanging around Elementary schools trying to attract little kids attention so I can tell them stories."
"OK, then where did these stories come from?"
"I think," The boy begins, "the stories were started by some guy named Segas."
"Segas, you mean the people who are hosting this tournament?"
"You bet, I feel honored to be in a tournament hosted by Segas."
"Wait a minute," starts Toni, "do you mean the same Segas that probably tested you before sending you the invitation?"
"...I don't know about that-"
"He means the rich fraternal group, Segas."
Instantly we all turn our heads to see a skinny white haired man with tanned skin and a pair of large round steel rimmed glasses covering a pair of ice blue, sinister, eyes."
"What do you mean by fraternal group?"
As Kai completes this sentence, a long devilish smirk develops on the man face.
"Wait, so the 4 of you have come to here for this tournament without knowing anything about Segas?"
"I know there a bunch of grade nut cases," I say.
"As true as that might be, Segas is still a powerful organization."
"Enlighten us," remarks Toni.
"It'd be nice if I could. By the way, my name is Ralph Ortega, I'm a Free lance Journalist."
He extends his hand to shake mine, I don't extend mine.
"So how exactly did these people find out about you?"
"Same way they found out about everyone here. They have people everywhere. After all, they've been around for centuries."
"Centuries," remarks the kid.
"But of course, they've had a hand, usually in financing, some of the biggest project in New York City. They've helped with buildings like the Empire State Building, Central Park, and The World Trade Center, both, building, clean up and rebuilding. I'd imagine when the city was rebuilt after World War 3 these guys had a huge hand in putting together both the Satellite and New Manhattan."
I don't like this guy. First of all, he talks too much and second, he seems to be way too obsessed with these people. It almost seems like he finds something Erotic about all this.
"So then what's with this whole tournament?"
Kai says. I'm starting to want this guy to just shut up.
"From what my research tells me, they hold this tournament, more or less, once every 70 years. What the purpose is I don't know."
"Isn't it obvious?"
A large, in all directions, Samoan guy is now standing in the middle of the sitting area. Why is it no one passing us finds this strange?
"And what's that?"
As Toni asks this, the man lumbers over till he's only an inch away from us.
"Money, a serious shit load of money."
"You think the power of The King is Money?"
Asks Ortega with an interested look on his face.
"What else, and even if it isn't do you know how much some people will pay for genuine information on Segas, a lot."
"And you know this how?"
Ortega says this as he begins to hover around the Samoan.
"Simple, I know a few crazy rich people who are in to all this conspiracy stuff. They want to get as close to these people as possible and they'll pay a lot of money to do it."
"Define a lot," says Ortega.
"There's a woman down in Philly, rich old bitch, who says she'll pay 500,000 dollars for genuine evidence of Segas."
Suddenly, everyone in the waiting room is now staring at the large man.
"Did you say 500,000 Dollars?"
The large man circles around to see a skinny blond skate boarder who looks no older then Kai.
"That's right, 500,000, and I'm going to be the one to collect it, so if I were all of you, I'd do as I'm told and stay out of the big guys way."
"Very inspiring."
What the hell, I didn't even hear the door open but it is. There's now a tall grey haired white guy with a thick mustache standing in the door way.
"I assume, starts Ortega, that you are Judge Franklin Taft?"
"You've assumed right, Mr. Ortega."
Right off the bat I can tell something isn't right with this guy. He's got the type of voice you'd expect to come out of the mouth of a Conman.
"What's with your Secretary?"
Wilson Asks while pointing at the women who has yet to even acknowledge that there's anyone else here.
"Oh don't worry about her. Now if you all follow me, I'll be giving you a little presentation in one of the conference rooms, and there will be refreshments.

…

There is a lot going through Vanessa's mind. The first thing is that she overslept and she didn't get a chance to eat Breakfast, her bra is itching her back and as usual Chase is occupying most of her Brain power.
After strangling him the night before, Chase said that he never even attempted to touch her, the strangest part was, was that something in the back of her mind was telling her that he was telling the truth, which didn't make sense because she knew that someone in the Priest costume had taken a, unnatural, interest in her but somehow she knew that whoever, or whatever, it was, it wasn't Chase or Kai.
The current issue is that she is now being sent to the Head Master's office, something that in 10 years of schooling, had never happened before.
"OK," she thought, "I don't have anything I'd have a guilty conscious over... so maybe they just need me to confirm something they thought I saw, but what would I know about anything going on around here?... Unless it has something to do Chase, I haven't seen him yet today, granted I haven't had history yet today, but what could he have done? He said that Moretti-"
Vanessa's thoughts are interrupted as she stops in front of the large old Mahogany door that says "Head Master."
She takes a deep breath and knocks on the door.
"Who's there," says a deep muffled voice.
"It's Vanessa Aaronson, sir, my math teacher told me to come here."
"Oh yes, come in, come in."
Hesitantly, Vanessa turns the knob and opens the door to find someone who is not the Head Master.
"Well Ms. Aaronson long time, no see."
Sitting in her Principal's chair is the FBI Agent from The Arcadia Boarding School, Agent Roy Mustang. To her right, Vanessa can see his Partner, Agent Riza Hawkeye sitting in the chair across from the desk and the chair to her left, a man she doesn't know. This one is small and pale with short black hair and large round glasses, dressed in the same style Black suit as Mustang.
"Agent Mustang, what, what are you doing here?"
Now she is sure of it, this has something to do with Chase and that has her more nervous and confused than before.
"Well, among other things, we're here about Chase."
Vanessa suddenly tenses up, a sharp contrast to Mustang who seems to be calm, collected and is even leaning back in the large red office chair.
"Don't worry," says Hawkeye in a soothing motherly voice, "right now, he's in no immediate danger."
"How do you know that?"
"One of my men is with him."
"Where is he?"
"That's a little hard to explain."
"Try."
Mustang rolls his eyes, puts his hand on his forehead and takes a deep breath. "Very well then, seeing as you too are around each other a lot, I assume you know that an organization known as Segas has taken an interest in Chase."
She nods.
"As members of the FBI anti cult unit and the people who were responsible for cleaning up Chase's last mess, we were assigned the job of intercepting an event known as the King's Championship."
"The King's Championship?"
"Told you this is hard to explain, Hawkeye, mind taking over."
"Yes sir, the tall blond women begins to stand up, walks behind Mustang and pushes a button, turning on a large hologram screen with the word "classified" on it.
"We know very little about Segas. We do not know there goals and we know very little about their activities. What we do know is that many of their supposed members," there are now a large number of pictures of people appearing on the screen, "men such as Andrew Carnegie, J. Edger Hoover, Sir Mark Zuckerberg and many more. We also know that they've been involved in constructing some of the most influential buildings in the world."
"That's how we got involved, back in 2025 when World War 3 ended and the country decided to rebuild New York City with a Satellite Sector, a lot of people couldn't understand where all the money was coming from. Unfortunately every lead has lead to a dead end for the past 15 years."
"So there a bunch of ultra rich, influential people, how does that end up equaling the lunatics that have been toying with us?"
"That's where the King's Championship comes into this," begins Mustang. "It appears that once every 70 or so years, Segas holds this tournament, we have yet to understand why."
"So your theory is that they want my friends for this tournament?"
"It's not theory, its fact," Mustang says this more seriously.
"How do you know?"
"We have a man in the tournament."
"How on earth did you manage that?"
"One of our agents who has been working this case for quite some time, apparently something he did impressed these people."
"But how can you guarantee that he's safe?"
"He's wired, so is Chase, Kai, Toni and the entire The United States court House."
"How do you know that they're there and how did you get them bugged in the first place?"
"Kid, we're the FBI, it's what we do and if you don't believe me, we even have you bugged."
Mustang pushes a button on the desk and suddenly, "if you divide the product of the base and the height you can..."
"That's me!"
Mustang turns off the recording and leans back in the chair.
"I'll leave this to my main tech guy, Agent Fuery."
Mustang gestures to the man in the chair who responds by tensing up, followed by a slow rising out of his chair.
"Right then... Ms. Aaronson... using the latest advances in Micro technology we have successfully been able to place Micro cameras on Mr. Rhodes, Mr. Rodriguez, Ms. Sorrentino, yourself and throughout the United States court House."
He's says this nervously while looking like a deer caught in Head Lights.
"I just told her that," says Mustang with an irritated tone.
"Yes sir, sorry sir."
"You'll have to excuse Agent Fuery, he's never any good when he's around beautiful women."
"Roy!"
Vanessa turns red before saying, "so then how did you get one on me and better yet, where's there one on me?"
Vanessa is now frantically looking over her body for anything out of place.
"Come to think of it," starts Mustang, "where did you place the transmitter on these kids?"
"Well... you see, for Rhodes and Rodriguez I placed them on the top buttons of their jackets and for Ms. Sorrentino and, and Ms. Aaronson... you see, we used the only 2 cameras we had left... and well, sorry about this."
He pushes a button on a small remote and suddenly, the room is now filled with a large beeping noise coming from Vanessa's back.
"Fuery," Mustang's face now shows both anger and annoyance, Hawkeye has a look of pure embarrassment, Fuery has his head down in order to hide fear and Vanessa now realizes why her Bra's been bothering her, "why did you place the wire in the girls' underwear?"
"The only 2 we had left were Shoulder Holster/Bra taps!"
"So you snuck into my home, went into my room and went rummaging through my underwear drawer!"
"But I, you see I, if I could of-"
"Mustang, Mustang."
A loud whisper is now coming from a laptop on the desk.
"Come in Havoc, what is your location?"
"We're entering a conference room where Judge Franklin Taft, I repeat, Judge Franklin Taft, will explain the tournament."
"Do you have Rhodes and the others in sight?"
"Yes sir."
"We're turning the camera on now; make sure you can keep a visual."

…

We've now entered a large conference room. It has a large wooden table with walls containing different pictures of New York City Judges. If I were to take a guess this room is usually used for Jury delegations.
"Now, will you all please take a seat and you're all welcome to the Donuts."
"Excuse me," some blond guy looks like he's about to ask a question, "Mind if I smoke?"
"Does it bother anyone if he does?" No one responds. "Fine with me."
As we all sit down, the blond guy who is now sitting across from us pulls out a pack of Camel, pulls one out, lights it and has the lit end in our direction."

…

"Audio visual achieved."
The FBI agents and the girl are now looking at a holographic image showing Chase, Kai, Toni, and some kid sitting across from the agent.
"How's the camera holding up?"
"So far the heat from the cigarette has yet to be affecting the camera's performance."

…

"Now that all 1, 2, 3... Wait a minute someone's missing."
The door has now flung open and a very familiar face has walked through the door.
"Sorry I'm late Judge Taft, my train left late."
"Chase," whispers Toni, "isn't that the Charles kid from a few weeks ago?"
Toni's right, it is Charles. After we Duel he left school, why, nobody knows. Apparently, wherever he went, he came back for this tournament.
"You're here now."
Charles takes a seat right next to the judge. I can also see that's he's now got an ear ring in his right ear.
"OK, now that all 16 of you are here, we can begin."
The man pushes a button on the desk causing the lights to turn down and a large blank screen is now visible next to the silhouette of the old judge.
"First off, as you all know, I am Judge Franklin Taft and I am representing Segas."
There is now a symbol on the screen. I'd imagine it's there logo but it's an odd looking one. It looks like a purple bird with its wings taking off.
"Segas is a fraternal organization dedicated to steering Humanity in the right direction."
"Define steering," I say.
"Gladly, you see, this is slow world. It takes human beings decades to make changes, so for the past few hundred years, Segas has been around to... speed up the process.
"What do you mean by speed up," asks Kai.
"Well," the picture has changed; we now see the New York skyline, the logo for Apple and The Post-It Logo.
"These are just a few of the innovations we of Segas have created."
"You guys were behind Post-Its," asks Wilson.
"You have no idea what the world was like before Sticky notes. Now, naturally, as I assume you all can imagine, we of Segas have people who are in charge."
"Like you," asks Toni.
"Ms. Sorrentino, I am no more than the host for this event, and I'd appreciate it if these interruptions would stop. Unlike many of our members, the Grand Master of Segas must remain secret, even to all of us, because of this; our leader is someone who is selected from society, someone who shows intelligence beyond that of normal people. That is why when our leader feels his or her death is upon them they initiate the Kings Championship, a Tournament where our top possibilities face off in a challenge of our current Grand Master's choice. This time around, our leader has selected a 16 player, single round elimination Duel Tournament where the winner will receive the ultimate prize. Whoever wins this tournament will become the new Grand Master of Segas."
"Wait a minute," begins the Samoan, "so you're telling me that whoever wins the tournament becomes the leader of you guys?"
"That's correct."
"And this is a lifelong gig?"
"Correct again."
"How much does this "Grand master make?"
"I'm no more than his servant. I don't know who he is or how... rich he is."
"Fine, one last question, what happens if whoever wins this tournament doesn't want to be your new boss."
He's laughing now. "The Grand Master said some of you might think that, which is why he made you all a little DVD to watch on just what you can do with the power of the king."
He has pushed another button and the screen now shows some guy standing in a big black room.
"... Son of a bitch, I remember when this happened. You're all going to enjoy this, so let's watch."
"Attention Grand Master!" The tall skinny man in the video says. "I request to challenge your ability to lead Segas via a match of Duel Monsters!"
"Challenge accepted."
The second voice appears to be coming through some form of intercom system that is also cloaking it to make sound inhuman.
Challenger
"The First move is yours."
"Thank you, now I play The Spell card Polymerization! Now by sending Summoned Skull and the Red Eyes Black Dragon from my hand to the graveyard I can summon the unstoppable Black Skull Dragon!" (ATK: 3200/DEF: 2500)
This is old, the opponents Duel Disk is pretty old fashioned plus how many people use Black Skull Dragon, no matter how big and menacing it looks.
"Next I set 1 card face down and end my turn."
Grandmaster
"Not a bad move, I discard 1 card in order to special summon The Tricky (ATK: 2000/ DEF: 1200) in attack mode."
"Not gonna a work because I activate Bottomless Trap Hole! Now your monster is destroyed!"
"Not on less I play Tricky Spell 4. Now I tribute The Tricky in order to summon 2 Tricky Tokens! (ATK: 2000/DEF: 1200) Next I play Token Bomb, now I destroy my 2 Tricky Tokens in order to inflict damage to your life points equal to their ATK points!"
"Wait, but that means-"
"Yes, it means you lose and I assume you know what happens if you lose."
"Wait no, no, no!" (4000-0)
Suddenly a big purple light engulfs the screen. None of us can see anything but I have a bad feeling about what's happened.
"He's dead," says Wilson.
He's right; the screen is back and it shows the skinny guy on the ground, cold and lifeless.
Winner: Grand Master Loser: Challenger
"That's it, that's the power," begins the Samoan, "this "power of the King is just the ability to do OTK's!"
"Have you been paying attention," says Ortega.
"The power of the King is the power over life and death. That man is dead because he couldn't prove himself intelligent so the Grand Master decided to end his existence."
"Bingo Mr. Ortega, whoever wins this tournament will become the new Grand Master of Segas and learn this ability and others from our wise leader while he still has time on this earth."
"What if you don't want to become this "Grand Master"?"
As Toni says this, everyone's eyes widen.
"Then throw your match. For the next 4 days at exactly noon, each of you shall find an envelope containing the location of your next duel. The tournament is single round elimination with standard duel rules applying. The winner will advance and the loser will be free to go, however, all 15 loser are obligated to never speak of what they have learned or what they will see for the rest of their lives, understood?"
Everyone begins to nod their heads. I think we all know what will happen if someone chooses to spread the story about what's going on here.
"Good, now, you are all free to go so long as you mind your manners on the way out and good luck to you all."
We all get up; by looking around I can tell everyone is deep in thought, although for some strange reason Toni is scratching her back.
"Toni" starts Kai, "is something wrong?"
"Well, what we just saw has me a little uncomfortable, and for some weird reason, my Bra really itches."
"Ms. Sorrentino."
Toni's heart stops as she turns around to see why Judge Taft has just called her name.
"Next time your here, could you please dress appropriately."
Confusingly, Toni looks at the rest of us and finds nothing to different with her clothes, jeans and black sweatshirt.
"Next time your here, dress like a woman should, with a skirt."
"Why-"
"Don't worry your honor she'll do it." Good thing Kai just interrupted Toni; I don't want another demonstration of what Segas can do.
With that we quickly jolt out of the room and back into the sea of people who have no idea about what's transpiring right under their noses.
"What an ass," says Toni.
"Like him or not we're all part of this now," says Kai.
"Apparently these nuts tested you guys to." I say believe me I have no idea how Toni and Kai were tested. "Do either of you guys think you're going to throw your matches tomorrow?"
"Hell no!"
"Toni."
"I agree with Toni, Chase. We're duelists, there's no way we'd ever even entertain the idea of throwing a duel and were not going to start now."
"But this could get dangerous."
"We knew that from the beginning," says Toni. "But if we're going to find out any more information about these guys, then 1 of us has to win this tournament."
"I think I might know someone who can help us with that."

…

"Judge Taft is an arrogant old ass with an ego big enough to fill the Hudson."
Nick Rush and I are sitting at an outside table at a small cafe in lower Manhattan.
"I take it you've dealt with him before?"
"He's one of the few judges who is immune to my irresistible charm."

"I find that hard to believe."
Nick is a Criminal Defense Lawyer, hens why he's in charge of me, I figure who better to ask about a judge then a lawyer.
"Save the charm for another time, this guy has some serious issues."
"How so?"
"As in a few years back, I was defending a client out of my own pocket."
Nick has a habit of taking on cases that he has to pay for himself.
"A woman's daughter died and during the autopsy they found a chemical similar to Antifreeze in the daughters digestive track."
"Antifreeze?"
"Antifreeze, it was a liquid people used to use to keep the gas in their cars from freezing back before the days of Momentum. Anyways, the Doctors believed that the only way this stuff could have gotten into the little girl was if her mother made her drink it."
"Makes sense to me."
"Of course it does, but when I first talked to the woman she seemed as clueless as you about Antifreeze. Also, the police never found any evidence that there had been any Antifreeze in the house."
"But," there's always a but.
"But Judge Taft was convinced from the moment the case started that this woman was guilty."
"How so?"
"Think of it this way, the woman also had a son. Neither of the kids had the same father and the woman was never married. The 3 of them lived in a rundown apartment right on the Satellite border over in the Bronx."
"You're thinking social class bias?"
"Happens a lot, most judges come from rich family's so they grow up being told that poor people are bad and since their lives are good they never think otherwise-"
"You know that I know how that works but did you have any evidence that the mother didn't do it?"
Nick leans back in his chair and takes a sip of the beer he ordered.
"I did a little research and found a Doctor up in Boston who told me about a genetic disease that not only skips a generation but when tested, using normal tests, shows up just like antifreeze."
I can tell that Nick is still angry about this.
"Did it turn out to be the disease?"
"I have no idea, by the time I had found all this out, the little girl was buried. The mother didn't want to us to exhume the body until after Taft said the evidence was admissible."
"Sounds open and shut to me."
"It did to me to, but Taft wouldn't hear of it."
"Why not?"
"According to him, he wasn't going to defile a little girl's final resting place for an obvious case."
"But he didn't know that!"
"That man probably thinks he's god and as far as God was concerned this woman belonged in jail for the rest of her natural life."
"But, couldn't you have tried to go to the Supreme Court?"
"That was my plan but then World War 3 started so I left the city. Followed by the city being blown up and guess who was a huge downer in rebuilding this place, so I knew once the humanitarian was asked about the case it would be thrown out and then you showed up which basically stopped any other shot I had of getting this case appealed and then the statute of limitations ran out and that brings us to today."
"So a, possibly innocent, woman has spent, I'd imagine, almost 20 years in jail because an influential Judge thought she was street trash."
"Welcome to the wonderful world of the US court system. Now why exactly did you want to meet me out of the blue and how do you know Judge Taft?"
"It's a little hard to explain."
"It was a little hard to explain to my client why I had to reschedule our meeting because I needed to have lunch with a teenage boy."
"Fair enough, have you ever heard of a group called Segas?"
Nick looks shocked, so shocked he almost drops his half full beer glass.
"Where did you hear about them?"
He sounds nervous.
"Taft is part of them and their holding a tournament to find their new leader."
"And there thinking you?"
"As well as Toni, Kai, a little kid, some creepy journalist, a giant fat guy, some hipster, my classmate Charles as well as 8 other people."
"Listen Chase, Segas is dangerous. They've been around a long time and there not afraid to do whatever it takes to make sure most people think they don't exist."
"What have they done?"
"Look, there's just something's both you and I aren't suppose to know."
"Like what it is Segas does."
"Exactly, there more than just a bunch of rich guys who like to throw away cash, there dangerous."
"You mean with-"
"Don't say anything else. Just do as you're told and hope that when it's over they'll leave you and your friends alone, got it."
"Nick-" All of a sudden Nick's I-phone which has been laying on the table next to his plate is now vibrating.
"That's my 12:00, I got to go." He looks relieved. "Promise me you won't get into anymore trouble then you're already in."
"I promise." He is now quickly picking up his Brief Case and his I-phone.
"This should cover our lunch." He just dropped a crunched up $50 bill onto the table and he's now walking off.
"He's scared about something."
I look to my right; Debris Dragon is next to me.
"Has anyone been watching us?"
"Why would I know that?"
"I assumed you've been keeping your eyes open."
"Why would anyone be watching us?"
"We are involved in a tournament hosted by the most powerful and influential people in the city."
"Well that's one reason."
"This is serious; these people are apparently so powerful that they have Nick Rush, New York's biggest ego, quacking in his shoes. Whoever these people are they have this entire city wrapped around their finger."
"So then now what can we do?"
"The only thing we can do, Duel."
Next time: Round One Begins
"So far, both Rhodes and Leonson are doing everything according to plan."