Still in omniscient POV.

"I'll ask you again: where…..is…..Akiza?" the angry club hollered in Yusei's face. "You know something about my best dancer and I want to know what it is."

"I honestly have no idea what you're talking about," Yusei lied to hide Akiza. "Now can you stop with the spitting and put me down?" While their confrontation was going on, the dancer was walking down from the kitchen with Crow to see what the yelling was about.

"What's all the commotion about?" the Blackwing wielder quizzed before he was yanked back up the stairs.

"Don't go down there," Akiza warned him. "That's my boss Yusei's talking to."

"Your…..boss is the guy at the door?" Crow retorted. "Why is he here?"

"He must've learned that I left the club and has come to bring me back," the dancer explained. "Slick also has anger management problems, particularly involving anything belonging to him."

"So why don't you just go down there and tell 'im off?" the former thief suggested.

"That has about as much chance as Jack admitting he has a drinking problem," Akiza compared. "But there is one thing that might work." Crow cocked his head at her remark, to which she pulled out her newly-redesigned deck in order to make her point.

"You're gonna duel him?" he wondered.

"Slick has a reputation for taking high risks in games of chance," the dancer continued. "If I can beat him, he should leave us alone."

"Sounds like a plan," Crow commented. When the two got back to the workshop floor, they found Yusei lying face down, beaten and battered by Slick.

"Yusei!" the dancer and Crow shouted at the same time, running to tend to any injuries he may have sustained.

"What did you do to him?" Akiza posed to her boss, tears streaming from her eyes.

"Relax, he'll be fine," Slick smoothed over the dancer. "If I wanted to put his life in jeopardy, I'd have used my iron club."

"Nobody lays their hands on my pal and gets away with it!" Crow hastily shouted as he ran up to the club owner, trying to avenge Yusei. His hastiness got the better of him as Slick swiftly jammed his knuckles into Crow's neck.

"Are we going to have any more problems here?" Slick calmly asked, straightening out his hand he used to hit Crow.

"Yes: a dueling kind of problem," Akiza clarified, standing up over Yusei. "I won't stand by and let you hurt my friends."

"You're kidding, right?" the owner snickered. "This has to be some kind of joke."

"It's no joke," Crow coughed, quickly recovering from the blow he just suffered. "She wants to duel you." The dancer nodded to add the final point of emphasis to Crow's statement.

"All right then," the sly man agreed, cracking his knuckles. "I accept your challenge."

The four of them sauntered outside to the moonlight-bathed courtyard in front of the workshop. Slick stood on one side, armed with his deck and duel disk, not looking very worried. His rationale was that he believed he could easily beat Akiza. On the other side, Akiza stood not too far from the front door, braced her deck and the duel disk Crow used on his runner since she didn't have one on hand. Off to the side were Crow and the still unconscious Yusei, who was propped up against the wall.

"Rock him like a hurricane," the Blackwing wielder tried pun a famous music lyric.

"The stakes are as follows," Slick laid out the parameter. "Should I win, you come back to the club and speak nothing of your desertion. However, if you win, I'll leave you alone for you to pursue your own dreams. Sound fair?"

"Good enough for me," Akiza agreed. It seemed simple enough: win and stay or lose and go home. Both competitors switched on their gear, drew five cards, and began their match with 4,000 points each.

"I'll kick things off," Slick stated, drawing to hold six cards."I'll put two cards face-down and play Grand Tiki Elder. That'll do."

"In that case, allow me to take the lead," Akiza shot confidently, drawing her sixth card. "I call in Botanical Lion." From out of a blue vortex emerged something that resembled the king of the forest, only more plant-like.

"Stop right there," Slick interjected as one of face-down cards flipped up. "I play my Hidden Soldiers trap."

"What's that do?" the dancer wondered, feeling lost. "I can't remember."

"Since you called up a monster, his trap allows him to summon up to a 4 star dark monster," Crow shouted from the sideline.

"Your birdbrain friend is right," Slick answered, holding up a card. "Now I bring in Melchid the Four-Face Beast." Next to the tiki thing shot up a monster with a rotating array of masks.

"Your monsters don't scare me," Akiza said confidently. "Botanical Lion attacks your elder. By the way, it gains 300 ATK points for every plant monster I have in play." The plant beast's strength jumped to 1,900 as it surged forward.

"Your attack has been rerouted, courtesy of Absolute End," Slick interjected with his other trap card coming into play. "Now your attack is directed towards me." The lion curved away from Grand Tiki Elder and straight for the club owner.

"Even better," Akiza said upbeat. "Now you'll lose half your life points."

"That's what you think," Slick responding, dropping a card from his hand into his graveyard just as Botanical Lion reached him. "By discarding Kuriboh, I take no damage from this attack." The infamous fur-ball cane out of nowhere and took the hit from the plant beast.

"Smart move on his part," Crow commented in his mind. "He saved his monster and avoided taking a major hit."

"Fine, I end my turn," she said, feeling frustrated.

"Wait a second," the former thief said under his breath. "Melchid AND Tiki Elder? Akiza, be ready."

"Once again, your birdbrain friend is right," Slick uttered greasily, drawing to hold two cards. "He's not as dumb as he looks." All Crow could do was clench his fist in anger.

"There's a monster that can be special summoned, provided I have Tiki or Melchid as one of the sacrifices," the owner explained, holding up another card. "But I have them both on the field."

"You don't mean…" Akiza chattered through her teeth.

"Yes, I do," the angry guy said. "Behold, Masked Beast Des Gardius!" Both of his monsters faded into a black hole and out came a nightmarish fiend, armed with large claws and three masks.

"Des Gardius, attack!" he commanded his beast as it slashed at Botanical Lion, wiping it out in one swipe and reducing Akiza's score to 2,600.

"Stand strong," Crow shouted from the sideline, trying to boost morale.

"Can she even stand up?" Slick asked aloud. "That's all she wrote for this turn."

Akiza's fallen behind after just one round and up against the strongest of all the Mask monsters. Can she turn it around or end up having to leave Yusei? Stay tuned to find out. Review if you choose to. Please do.