Chapter 8: The Teams of Duel Academy
"Next on the agenda," Matt said as he looked over his notes. "We still haven't figured out what our big fund raiser will be this semester. The only ideas we've considered so far are the OTK Bash, the date auction, and the jail and bail sales. Oh, and my boy Bryan suggested we do a Jell-O Wrestling fundraiser."
"What about my idea?" asked Brad Nguyen. He was a senior who had only been a member of the team for two years. Like Fusayo, he was a bit of a suck-up, but he was a little lacking in the efficiency department; he made up for it with creativity, though. "I'm telling you; people love kissing booths and people love petting zoos."
"Nobody's interested in a kissing zoo," Matt repeated from previous discussions. "That's just gross."
"A petting booth might be fun," joked Desmond Vele, junior member and wielder of the Batteryman OTK. He winked at Laura Gertin when he made that suggestion, a subtle reminder between the two of them that he and she were secretly dating, if "secretly" means "everyone knows about it and no one cares."
"That's not the appropriate kind of attention to bring to our organization," Laura argued. It was still odd, Matt thought, to consider this group of five people to be an organization. Actually, they were just one branch of a fairly widespread Team OTK, including a number of famous professional duelists who, since joining the professional leagues, have banded together to form a professional Team OTK. "We need something that will be popular without being completely amoral."
"I really don't think Jell-O Wrestling is completely amoral," Fusayo said. "It's not like in those stupid movies where people do it naked. They'll be clothed." Ironically, the possibility of losing clothing is what draws an audience to such an otherwise ridiculous event. Laura pointed that out and went into a short sermon about "sins of the flesh."
Matt pointed out, "Unfortunately, I can't imagine making a whole lot of money on Jell-O wrestling with such a small student body, and I don't know how comfortable I am asking a bunch of people to cover themselves in Jell-O with some of the townies watching and bringing their cameras. Besides, the problem with that and the date auction is that we'd have to go outside the team to find people; there aren't enough of us to get much of a response."
And, he thought to himself, this isn't exactly a lineup from Vogue. He could probably convince Kasumi and Cary to participate in a date auction for charity—and maybe even pull in a pretty penny in the process—but they wouldn't do Jell-O wrestling if they were hypnotized. There were a lot of attractive people he might be able to rope into participation somehow, but not everyone would be willing to auction themselves off for a night without getting something in return, which defeats the purpose of the charity event. What Matt wanted was an idea that would be suitable for a college campus and might attract a crowd willing to spend a few bucks on it.
"What if we put together a big tournament?" Brad asked. "Like, uh… a Tag Team tournament or something." Everyone else just stopped to look at him. "We could charge people to come see it, and we could charge any pairs who want to sign up a registration fee. Then the winner could get, like, a trophy or something to make up for the fee."
"That actually sounds like a good idea," Fusayo commented.
"I know," Matt replied, equally dumbfounded.
"But it came from Brad."
"I know!"
Laura, as always, felt it necessary to argue and find some fault with the proposal. "We are not allowed to hold a tournament just any time we wish," she reminded them. "We have to go through the proper channels and get permission from the administration staff, and then we have to get all the supplies and materials necessary, and then we actually have to put everything together."
"That doesn't sound so difficult," Matt commented. "Why don't you take point on that?" Laura's expression changed dramatically. Now, suddenly, she was pleased to be offered a role of such responsibility, but she struggled to suppress the immense pleasure she felt lest her teammates realize that she's an easily flattered woman.
"I would be happy to," she accepted. "I will contact Dr. Lankford as soon as we conclude this meeting." Dr. Lankford was the faculty chair of Team OTK, and one fond of skipping the team's meetings unless he was specifically in charge of something or had an important announcement for them.
"I really like that idea," Matt repeated, trying to shake off the shock of hearing something useful from Brad. "I guess that brings us to our last note of business. Any prospects on new recruits so far?" Fusayo was mostly in charge of that, although every member was allowed to keep an eye open and make suggestions.
"Not a whole lot, sir," Fusayo replied. "I've noticed a few people have won a duel or two using a one-turn-kill strategy during the semester so far, but not a whole lot. Mitsuro Itachu did so twice, and Cary Strickland has done so a number of times, too. Of course, Naoto Kurotsuki has the most one-turn-kills outside our team."
"There's a shocker," Matt thought when he remembered Naoto's Exodia deck. "I suppose I could speak to each of them and see what kind of interest they might have in joining. Any freshmen show the potential to add to the list?"
Laura hummed loudly and curtly at that point, a sign that she wasn't getting enough attention. "Freshmen are not eligible to join Team OTK," she pointed out. "It's in the bylaws."
"Obviously that's not always true," Matt reminded her. "I joined as a freshman. I can approach them now; the bylaws only prevent them from joining until their second semester." Laura knew he was right, but she kept her "high and mighty" look for the time being.
"You can't go inviting freshmen to join our team," Desmond objected. "It's against regulations and it destroys team morale."
Matt stared at him for a moment before saying, "Anyway…" That was him ignoring Desmond's attempt to score points by agreeing with Laura even after a point has been decided. "We've got to have at least one or two freshmen prospects."
"Of course we do, sir. I'm very thorough when it comes to doing my scouting duties for you." Fusayo looked at his list. "Lili Von has shown the most promise with her chaos cards, but Ivy Roaks actually has a one-turn strategy already implemented in her deck." Matt took note of that. "Oh, and Rory Ruiter told me specifically that she would like to join. I think she said she is currently putting some OTKs in her deck and will be ready by next semester."
"There's another shocker," Matt commented, but this time, he had a little smile on his face. "That covers everything on my agenda. Anything else someone except Brad wants to bring to the table?" He wanted to preempt Brad's request for ear pieces that each member could wear during events to facilitate communication. After Brad reacted and then quickly put his hand down, no one showed any sign of bringing up a new item. "Alright, then. We all have our assignments for the week. We'll get together again same time next week. Meeting adjourned."
----------
There are two types of cheese in every fridge, and there are two sides to every coin. Previously formed for the purpose of beating the Guardian Duelers, Team Lockdown now found themselves often in competition with Team OTK. Headed by junior Numbers Harper, the members of Lockdown were left with only four members after one graduated last spring, and so they were more proactive in recruitment than Matt felt the need to be.
"I dueled with Shane Pricer and Jeri Fleig yesterday," Numbers told her cohort. "There's no way they would last on this team."
She was currently on her way to her class, escorted by Keiju Iwase, a senior. He was a fairly nondescript guy: black hair, dark eyes, and somewhat short. Team Lockdown didn't really concern themselves with rank except to know Numbers was their Number One, but Keiju was probably ranked third behind Lori Colman, who wasn't present at the moment.
"Have you thought about the freshmen yet?" he asked. "I picked out a couple of them I thought might appeal to you." He told her briefly of Ivy Roaks' potential. "She doesn't use a lockdown strategy right now, but if we wanted to recruit her more actively, her plant deck does lend itself to a lockdown strategy."
Numbers took a mental note. "I'm not really wild about the idea of teaching someone how to use a lockdown strategy, but if it comes to that, I might reconsider. Did you check on that Clinton Ealey guy?"
"I did, and you were right on the money. He uses a number of Arcana Force cards that have actually been pretty effective so far. I believe he's ranked in the top ten of the current freshman class already, but his strategy should be easier to cultivate than Ivy's."
"Good. I'll give him a visit this evening."
"I found one other potential recruit: Lucy Mercer. She used a Lockdown strategy with her Disenchanter against Joel Hullum's Iron Chain, deck-milling strategy."
Numbers actually liked the sound of that. "Well, I feel confident she wouldn't need much coaching to use such a strategy more easily." She wasn't part of a team right now, for one reason, because she was just recently a Guardian Dueler, and she couldn't hold dual membership with another team. "I wonder if she'd be interested."
"We should certainly consider asking," Keiju recommended. "She's a great duelist and would certainly help bolster our ranks and our chapter's reputation."
"Speaking of bolstering your ranks…" Both Numbers and Keiju jumped when they heard that third voice come out of nowhere. Bryan snuck up on both of them and popped up directly between them, a move he perfected in high school football when he used to run a variety of blitz patterns. "I want to join!"
"Geez, Bryan," Numbers moaned. "Stop doing that. You're like a ninja." He just laughed and repeated his request to join Team Lockdown. "We've already had this discussion. You need to have a lockdown strategy to be eligible."
"I have one," he insisted. "I figured one out and added it to my deck. Well, to one of them." Bryan liked to carry around two decks just to keep up a variety of cards and keep his opponents on their toes.
"With the Elemental Heroes?" Keiju asked. "Why don't you join Team OTK? I'd think you had an in, being best friends with the guy in charge and all."
Bryan gave Keiju a puzzled look. "You don't think Matt and I spend enough time together already?" He slowly shook his head and tsked. "You and Lucy are very different people."
"Why wouldn't you want to join them?" Numbers prodded. "Join us and you'll only ever duel against Matt—not with him."
"And you don't think we can draw crowds of people interested in watching Matt and me go head to head in a duel?"
He had a point. Because they already arrived at the Marufuji building where Numbers had class and she wasn't the type of person to delegate annoying people to someone else she actually liked, she offered Bryan a deal before leaving Keiju alone with his insistence.
"I already know you're a good duelist because you beat Julian last year right after he beat me. I will offer you one opportunity to obtain fair scrutiny, but only under certain circumstances." She looked at Keiju and said, "You duel Bryan, and regardless of the outcome, if he uses a lockdown strategy against in this duel, then we'll give him fair consideration for joining the team."
"In this duel?" Bryan repeated. "What if I just happen not to get the right cards?"
"Then you can try again next year. The whole point to having a lockdown deck is that you can make it work regularly. It's the same for us as it is for Team OTK. Now, do you accept?"
"Of course I do. I'll pull off that lockdown strategy like it's a week-old band-aid."
"Lovely," Numbers mumbled. "Have fun, Keiju." With that, she went inside the building and left the two guys outside to figure out the details.
"Usually," Keiju said, "we duel potential recruits the old-fashioned way—"
"On a table," Bryan translated.
"Right. That way we don't hurt their Academy dueling records just before they join our team. Is that how you want to do it?"
"It's not my record you should worry about," Bryan reminded him. Keiju just laughed at Bryan's confidence, but he knew Bryan was probably right; he was ranked second at the academy for a reason, although that was before he changed his deck to accommodate a lockdown strategy.
"We use the Duel Disks," he decided. "That way, there will be a record of the duel in case we ever need proof of the cards you played."
"Fair enough. Where do you want to do this?" Academy rules said duels with Duel Disks could happen pretty much anywhere, but not within a certain distance of the academic buildings; if the students inside get distracted when they see a duel out the window, the professors get upset and tend to take it out on the students. Rather than rely on a bunch of young adults to stay focused, the rule was to use the quad or stay closer to the residential side of campus. Bryan and Keiju decided to set up between the Blue Mansion and the blue d-hall.
"Do I have to let you go first?" Bryan asked.
Keiju informed him, "Usually the recruit goes first."
"Awesome. Here goes!" Bryan excitedly drew his first six cards. "I'll start things off with Elemental Hero Lady Heat (4/1300/1000)." Bryan's side of the field burst into flames, and a woman sprang forth wearing armor that looked as if it were colored by the flames. "And for backup, I'll play Hero's Bond to summon two more Heroes from my hand." Lady Heat held her arm forward as if psyching herself up for battle. Two more heroes faded in as they placed their hands over Lady Heat's. Elemental Hero Ocean (4/1500/1200) resembled a blue fish-man bearing a two-pronged spear, and Elemental Hero Woodsman (4/1000/2000) resembled a green hulk with half his body turned to wood. "I'll also put a card face down and end my turn."
Suddenly a flame sprouted from the ground and circled Lady Heat; she absorbed the energy and sprayed a stream of fire directly at Keiju. "I forgot to mention… Lady Heat deals damage to you during my End Phase equal to 200 times the number of Elemental Heroes on my field." Bryan 8000: Keiju 8000 – 600 = 7400.
"I know," Keiju said calmly. Then he drew his card. "I'll summon Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV4 (4/1600/1000)." The dragon, which resembled a large, metal pigeon, perched itself in front of Bryan's Heroes. "He'll target your Lady Heat (1300)." Bryan's facedown card was a feint that couldn't stop Horus's black flame from destroying Lady Heat. "I'll place two cards face down, and then during my End Phase, Horus evolves into Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV6 (6/2300/1600)." Bryan 8000 – 300 = 7700: Keiju 7400. His sparrow-like dragon grew into a much larger, metallic eagle.
"That's a big dragon," Bryan noted. "And I'm a little limited on cards at the moment, seeing as I spent most of them during that first turn." He drew his card. "But here's the good news: During my Standby Phase, Ocean lets me bring Lady Heat back to my hand from the Graveyard, and Woodsman lets me take Polymerization from my deck to my hand. That's something, right? And now I'll summon Elemental Hero Stratos (4/1800/300)." A blue-skinned man with white pants, a blue breastplate, and wings with two gyros on his back swooped from the sky and hovered in front of Bryan. "When he's summoned, I get to destroy as many facedown cards as I have Elemental Heroes." Stratos buzzed past Keiju's field and destroyed both his facedown cards.
"And now… why wouldn't I play Polymerization to fuse Ocean and Woodsman into Elemental Hero Terra Firma (8/2500/2000)?" The new Elemental Hero was massive and white, and he had a blue gem on each shoulder and his forehead, plus a red gem on his chest. "He's stronger than your spell-canceling dragon."
Keiju's strategy wasn't a secret on campus; he'd used it dozens of times in his four years. The highest level of Horus the Black Flame Dragon came with the ability to negate his opponent's spells; Elemental Heroes need a lot of spells for support, and so it was no surprise Bryan was playing to take Horus out early. Terra Firma planted a powerful fist on the breast of Keiju's dragon.
"Now you're wide open for a direct assault from Stratos (1800)." The Hero buzzed Keiju's field again and struck him directly. Bryan 7700: Keiju 7400 – 200 – 1800 = 5400.
"You're a tough opponent," Keiju admitted, "but the whole purpose of this duel is to see if you can use a lockdown strategy." He already expected Bryan could beat him in a straight duel, but if Bryan was going to use an unfamiliar strategy, Keiju might have a shot; the alternative is Bryan never gets the strategy ready and can't join the team, anyway.
"Here's a strategy I'm sure you weren't ready for. I'll play Change of Heart to take control of Terra Firma (2500)." A small woman with one angelic wing and one demonic wing appeared on the field, then she possessed the body of Terra Firma, turning his aura black and moving him to Keiju's side of the field.
"That card's off the ban list?" Bryan asked.
"Probably just for this week," Keiju replied. "I'm surprised you don't read the ban list every day."
"I don't change my deck very often," Bryan confessed. "Anyway, do what you will with my monster so I can have it back at the end of the turn."
"I don't think so. First I'll have Terra Firma (2500) attack your Stratos (1800). Then I'll send your monster to the Graveyard as a Tribute to summon Jinzo (6/2400/1500)." Bryan's monster disappeared, and in its place appeared a tall and lanky, mechanical man wearing a green coat and with his cerebrum exposed to the air. His glassy eyes shone with a red light. "As long as he's on the field, we can neither use nor activate any Traps."
"I think I know how Jinzo works by now," Bryan muttered. To himself, he thought, No Traps? You've got to be kidding me!
"Good. I'll end my turn." Bryan 7700 – 700 = 7000: Keiju 5400.
"No Traps," Bryan noted as he drew. "Then I'll have to play Graceful Charity to draw three cards and discard two. I'll also play Miracle Fusion to fuse Ocean and Woodsman in my Graveyard into Elemental Hero Absolute Zero (8/2500/2000)." Bryan's new monster was coated in white armor and bore a white cape that billowed in the frosty air. "He's strong enough to destroy your Jinzo (2400) and return Traps to the formula."
"For now," Keiju replied.
"Yeah, yeah. Take your turn." Bryan 7000: Keiju 5400 – 100 = 5300.
Keiju drew. "Excellent. I'll play Level Modulation to revive Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV6 (2300)." A die appeared on the field showing the number six, and the eagle-like dragon reappeared on the field. "Then I'll play Level Up! This automatically evolves my beast into Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV8 (8/3000/1800)." When Horus evolved, it grew even larger; it was a metallic, somewhat avian dragon with most of its weight in its hindquarters and tail. "As long as he remains on the field, I get to choose which Spells get activated."
"I know your strategy," Bryan said.
"Good. I'll set another card and set a monster."
"No attack?" Bryan asked. Keiju said he wasn't interested. "Good. Then I'll play Skyscraper 2 – Hero City!" A futuristic city with domed towers and spires atop high skyscrapers sprouted across the field. Atop the skyscraper directly in front of Bryan stood Elemental Hero Stratos (1800). "Using the effect of Hero City, I can Special Summon any Elemental Hero that was destroyed by battle, and using Stratos's effect when he is summoned, I can take an Elemental Hero from my deck and put it in my hand. I choose Elemental Hero Knospe (3/600/1000)." Bryan summoned his heroic plant bud as soon as he retrieved it from the deck. This Hero was a bipedal plant bud with fronds for feet, buds for hands and a head, and two more fronds off its back like a scarf.
"That's odd," Keiju noted. "An Elemental Hero that is a plant and not a warrior?"
"Knospe is less well known," Bryan admitted. "But it's still got an awesome effect; if there's another Hero on my field, you can't attack Knospe and it gets to attack directly." Knospe disappeared into the ground, then a sprout suddenly popped up on Keiju's side of the field and damaged him before a Bugs Bunny-like molehill traveled back to Bryan's side of the field. "Of course, that was pointless, anyway. I'll attack Horus (3000) with Absolute Zero (2500)." His frosty monster lunged at Horus, but the dragon countered by releasing a spray of black flame. When Absolute Zero exploded, icicles pelted Horus and Keiju's facedown monster, destroying both. "And now you're wide open, anyway." Stratos (1800) flew by again and attacked Keiju directly. Bryan 7000 – 500 = 6500: Keiju 4800 – 600 – 1800 = 2400.
Keiju noticed at that point that Bryan's new monster seemed to bloom just a little bit. Knospe (+700/-900) gained 100 AP and lost 100 DP when it attacked. If left unchecked, that effect would result in a lot of direct attack damage.
"You are an incredibly lucky duelist," Keiju noted. "Of all the ways to destroy Horus before he could be a threat, you just happened to draw Miracle Fusion."
"Better off lucky than good, I always say."
"Clearly." Keiju wondered what he might do. Bryan didn't have any big monsters on the field, but Knospe was going to grow stronger each turn. "I'll play Call of the Haunted to revive my Jinzo (2400)." Mist rose from Keiju's Graveyard and solidified into the mechanical body of Jinzo. "I'll summon Masked Dragon (3/1400/1100) and attack both your monsters." Jinzo held his hands together to generate electricity, then whipped his hands forward to destroy Stratos (1800), and the masked dragon—a small, white wyvern with a red underside—pounced on Knospe (700). "I'll set a card and end my turn." Bryan 6500 – 600 – 700 = 5200: Keiju 2400.
"Good call. I'll use Hero City's effect to bring Knospe (600) back to the field." His monster sprouted back to the field. "Now I'll play my facedown Rose Bud; it lets me replace Knospe with Elemental Hero Poison Rose (6/1900/2000)." Bryan's bud bloomed very suddenly, and from its flower sprouted a woman with floral hair and frond-like clothing.
"I haven't seen you use this card, either."
"She's the big key in my lockdown strategy." Keiju asked if he was serious. "Yes. I could win more easily without her, but I want to show you that I have and can use a lockdown strategy. For that, I just need to summon one more card: Twilight Rose Knight (3/1000/1000)." A woman with blue hair wearing a purple suit of armor and a lavender cape pointed her sword at Keiju as if to threaten him.
"That card, I'm more familiar with," Keiju said.
"Good. Then you know that as long as Twilight Rose is on the field, you cannot select another plant as an attack target. And as long as Poison Rose is on the field, you cannot attack anything except her. With both those effects active, you can't attack."
"Hence, your lockdown strategy." Bryan tapped his nose to signal a correct answer. "Very good. You actually found a lockdown strategy with Elemental Heroes."
"I did. But you know that I hate waiting to end a duel, so I'll play Parallel World Fusion." A bright light shone at the top of the field, and Ocean and Woodsman returned to the game—specifically to Bryan's deck. "This card lets me fuse two monsters that have been removed from play by putting them back in my deck."
"You're going to use Terra Firma again?"
"Nope."
"Ah. Absolute Zero, then."
Bryan shook his head. "I've got a different plan this time. Terra Firma requires these specific monsters, and Ocean takes point to create Absolute Zero. I'm going to let Woodsman take point here."
"I'm not sure what that means."
"It means my monster combine into Elemental Hero Gaia (6/+3400/2600)." Poison Rose and Twilight Rose were joined by Gaia, a Hero taller than any to hit the field yet, wearing black armor that doubled the Hero's natural weight. "And when Gaia is summoned, Jinzo (-1200) loses half his AP while Gaia absorbs them. And now, Gaia will destroy Jinzo." As Gaia walked across the field, every step he took left a new crater in the ground. Finally, he reached his hand down on top of Jinzo and fired a burst of kinetic energy from his wrists, crushing Jinzo completely. "Now Poison Rose (1900) can destroy Masked Dragon (1400)." She scattered poisonous spores across the field; they poisoned the Masked Dragon and turned it purple before it faded. Bryan 5200: Keiju 2400 – 2200 – 500 = 0.
As the holograms faded, Keiju conceded the duel. "Your lockdown strategy really didn't do anything in that duel."
"But I played it!" Bryan reminded him.
"That's true," he had to admit. "I'll let Numbers know that you do, in fact, have a lockdown strategy in your Elemental Hero deck."
"Awesome. Will it happen before the School Duel?"
"My talking to Numbers will happen before the School Duel. She might decide to wait until afterward to approach you."
"Why? It's not like she can participate again. She already dueled against Hawkins last year, and students only get to be in the School Duel once during their Academy years."
"True. But Matt dueled Godwin last year, meaning you are now the highest-ranked, available student. Numbers might think you should focus on the School Duel instead of working to change your deck just to join our team."
Bryan scoffed messy-raspberry style. "We'll figure something out. You just tell Numbers to come see me about a Lockdown badge."
This chapter doesn't make me happy. The events were pretty necessary, but it turned out so long considering how little was accomplished. Starting with the next chapter I'm going to use a slightly different writing voice. I think it will help make events more cohesive and the inclusion of characters much easier.
On a brighter note, the duel went pretty well even though Bryan stopped Keiju from setting up his Horus Lockdown. The point I wanted to make there was that Bryan was a stronger duelist when he dueled normally and that using a lockdown strategy actually required effort on his part--it doesn't come naturally to his playing style.
Credits:
Darius Mantzios....tiramisu19
Jason Maxim....Maxim and Knight
Nathan Zislaw....Mavrik Zero
Hillary Delaney....Nodqfan144
Lili Von....Happy2BMe
Carter Jade....Jaden2010
Mitsuro Itachu....Titanic X
Sean Bivins....DarkVestroia2
Naoto Kurotsuki....Kurotsuki Haru
Hayley Wilson....TeamRocketDiva
Maikeru Stone....onyxshade7
Victor Rocks....Iron-Arm-V
Alister Kazama & Jessica Parks....ZaneKazama001
Synthia Spencer.....Madly Chessur
Everyone else so far....YamiRuss