Chapter 21
Lightning struck down on top of Duel Academy's Volcano, Rain poured hard, causing clothing and hair to be completely stuck to the two teenagers as they slowly made their way up, unfortunately the silver Prius only got to the bottom because there was no other way up, they had to stop twice due to Claudia's leg starting to bleed again, but she just kept pushing forward, her friends was in danger, and she wasn't going to let anything happen to them. Zane on the other hand wanted Claudia to stay put while he went up the rest of the way.
"Claudia love…. You need to rest…you can't keep pushing you-" "SHUT UP! Just….don't Zane, I'm not stopping and I'm not resting for god sake!" Anger was clearly shown in her voice and eye's, Zane had never heard her snap at him like that before. "Claud…."
She turned to him, "If this person is after Me Zane, then it should be me up there, not Alexis, Not Syrus…. I've lost too many people so many times over the years because of me… My parents was killed because I couldn't stop Claire from buying that damn music box, I lost Joshua over a stupid experiment of human teleportation because I couldn't stop him…. Artie got hurt protecting me… Steve Died because I couldn't convince him to not go with Walter Sykes…. So Zane…please don't stop me…" he couldn't tell if she was crying due to the rain, but he did know her eyes, they held pain… deep pain he never saw before,
Running a hand through his hair, he picked Claudia up ignoring the blood seeping into his jacket, "Alright, if we are going to save them together…. I'm going to run us up… if you feel any pain bite my shoulder ok?" and with that he began to sprint the rest of the way, Claudia's grip on his shoulder tightened.
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Upon the Volcano's top, the Shadow Rider was stood watching his hostages, "Soon she will be here, and soon I will have the first key to the sacred beast cards, I suppose I could just take this one but as the rules say, the key must be won in a duel." He knelt down looking to the unconscious blonde on the floor, "Fine piece of meat too," he touched the girls leg and slowly began to slide it up when a voice shouted.
"GET YOUR FILTHY HAND OFF MY GIRLFRIEND!" the boy tackled him to the ground but the shadow rider over powered him "Oh another key keeper, but unfortunately you are not the one I am after. Now be a good little boy and run along!" Jaden went to punch the shadow rider but Chazz managed to get the chestnut haired boy off him when they saw Zane Carrying Claudia.
The red heads eye's landed on Alexis chained up and Jaden being held back by Chazz, "Oi! Freak a zoid! Let my friends go!" the masked man stood up wiping his clothing "I'm afraid I can't do that Key Keeper, after all…how am I supposed to duel you if I do not have the le-way?"
Claudia got down from Zane's arms and limped forward, "Oh I'll duel you alright you bastard! Then when I win, your arse is being carried off to jail!" she strapped her duel disk onto her right wrist, it would be a struggle with the sling right there but she would have to make do. Zane was about to step forward but suddenly a moat of molten lava surrounded Claudia and the masked rider, "My name, is Night shroud, key keeper and we are duelling for that key around your neck… I'll start first," his duel disk activated, and Claudia's mind was going through re-runs of her nightmares, this was the man that she was meant to be duelling, and this was the exact duel…only this time Alexis and Syrus was chained up, and her other friends was stood on the sides watching the duel, Zane was stood behind her un harmed.
"Claudia… be careful I do not trust this guy in the slightest." Claudia nodded her head, and looked to Night Shroud, drawing his first card, "I summon Masked Dragon in attack mode! Then I end my turn." He stood there, with a smile on his face, them red glowing eye's on the mask made her shiver slightly as she drew her first card, "Alright let's see how you do with this newly modified deck!" Zane narrowed his eye's, he had no idea what Claudia was saying due to she only ever had one deck.
"I summon to the field Cyber Dragon Zwei in attack mode!" his eye's widened taking a slight step back, "You finished the deck! How?" Claudia just turned her head smiling to the love of her life, "I'll tell you later, but let me show you something, this is the modified Cyber Dragon deck, there are a few cards I have that you don't babes. Now Zwei! Attack Masked dragon!"
The machine type Dragon lunched forward taking out the Masked dragon, but that only made her opponent smile more, "Thank you for your assistance Key keeper, now you've activated my dragons special ability, I'm now allowed to special summon to the field a dragon that has 1500 attack points or less….and I choose… Red eye's black chick!"
On Night shrouds side of the field, a large dragon egg appeared up from the molton lava they was duelling over, Sweat began to pour down Claudia's forehead from the heat, as she saw a red eye appear through the cracked egg. "I set one card face down and activate my magic card Different dimension capsule, which allows me to pick a card from my deck and remove It from play, on my second stand by phase, that card is then added to my hand, you're move batman."
"Oh why thank you, you are so kind, Draw! Since my Red eye's black chick wasn't destroyed last turn, I can use its effect by sending it to the graveyard, to special summon to the field! My Red eye's black dragon! Attack her little robot!" Claudia stood back slightly, wobbling on her feet, her eye's widened, "That….that's the dragon from my dream!"
Night Shroud smiled "Trust me, this my dear keeper, is going to hurt you a lot more than it's going to hurt me!" at that moment, Claudia could sense something different about the duel, but it was too late, Red eye's black dragon, used it's inferno fire blast to destroy Zwei, dealing 900 points of damage to her, but it wasn't Zwei or the life points reducing she felt, she suddenly gripped her stomach leaning over, "GAH! Wh…what the hell was that?"
Night shroud just began laughing, "Oh I forgot to tell you, when one of us takes life point damage, it's actually ripping into your soul, oh and another thing, with this being a Shadow realm duel, when one of us loses….our soul is taken to the shadow realm!" Claudia's eye's widened, Fear clearly shown in her eyes, she wasn't expecting this no….
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Over in America, South Dakota at Warehouse 13, Artie and H.G Wells was stood on the balcony, the stacks had rumbled slightly and lights flickered, Electical surges was being shot through out the warehouse, "What's going on Artie? This…has never happened before."
Shaking his head, licking his bottom lip, Artie shook his head slightly "I…I don't know…. But I have a feeling what ever is causing the warehouse to act up….is not good."
"You are correct Artie… the Warehouse is responding to Claudia…." They turned around to see Mrs Fredrick there, looking rather ill and in pain, "I can feel it too, she must be in a rather dangerous duel if I can feel something ripping at the girls soul…."
Artie walked up to the woman, "What do you mean ripping at Claudia's soul?" taking a deep breath, "I'm Afraid….Claudia's in a Shadow duel"
Artie's mouth dropped open, as he looked between the two women, before rushing over to the Farnsworth, finding Claudia's station and began to call her.
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Claudia felt the Farnsworth buzz in her back pocket, she reached in and threw the thing over the lava to Zane, "Answer it, I'm too busy at the moment. Alright my turn, I summon to the field Cyber Dragon Core, and this baby's special ability allows me to add 1 cyber spell/trap card from my deck to my hand, then I activate Machine duplication on Core, to special summon two cyber dragons to the field!" Zane had to admit, he was rather impressed with Claudia's deck, he didn't even know Cyber core actually excisted. "Right now here is where the new gen Cyber comes to play! I over lay both Cyber Dragons on the field to XYZ Summon Cyber Dragon Nova! Now this is where it gets complicated so I hope your keeping up to speed Night Shroud."
She looked over to the man on the other side of the field, ever since she reached the volcano she couldn't help but feel as she knew the man in front of her, his voice, she had heard his voice somewhere before.
"I use one of Nova's material's to activate I's effect to resurrect 1 cyber dragon, and I choose Zwei, since it's also treated as Cyber dragon in the grave, I then use Nova's over effect to remove Core from play, to increase Nova's attack power by 2100! Now destroy Red eye's!" with that last command, Cyber dragon Nova shot out a beam of lightning from it's mouth completely destroying Red eye's black dragon. Dealing 1800 damage to him.
"That was a very nice move Key keeper, I didn't know Cyber Dragons could over lay that's a pretty rare card you got your hands on, now I place one monster face down, and another card face down in the spell/trap zone, then end my turn."
Claudia nodded drawing a card, "Zwei attack his face down monster!" Night shroud laughed, again, his laugh seemed so familiar to her, she closed her eye's trying to drowned it out, but for some reason, it wouldn't go, she hated it when her mind was in over drive, "that was Magical merchant, fair enough it's destroyed but I still get it's effect, so basically I have to keep discarding cards to the grave until I gain a spell card and here we go…. Monster reborn."
"Alright Nova direct attack on Night's life points!" but Nova was instantly stopped, as Night Shrouds facedown card was revealed as Negate attack.
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On the side lines Zane opened the Farnsworth to see Artie on the other side, "Mr Nelson you pick a bad time to call…" "Zane! Where's Claudia! The warehouse it's going nuts over here!"
Narrowing his onyx eye's to the old man, "What do you mean going nuts?" Artie was about to speak but Mrs Fredrick took the Farnsworth off the older agent, "Is Agent Donovan in a shadow duel?" Zane's eye's flickered up slightly, "Yes… her opponent explained it to her, after she felt pain ripple through her heart… something about if she loses, she loses her soul, and it worries me…"
Mrs Fredrick nodded, "I was afraid of that, The warehouse and myself can feel the pain miss Donovan is in, she needs to plan her moves very carefully Zane…"
The teenage boy nodded as his worried eye's landed back onto Claudia, she was almost kneeling to the ground as her right leg was giving way, he could see that she was sweating greatly and panting rather heavy, "That's not all I'm worried about Mrs F, she's still badly injured from that mission the other day…."
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Just reaching the top of the mountain, Pete placed his hands on his hips, "Why couldn't they duel at the bottom of the volcano!" Myka just rolled her eye's grabbing the man by his shirt seeing Jaden and Chazz, "What's going on?"
Jaden looked to the woman "Mykes! It's pretty bad bro, Claudia's in a life or death duel.. and this jerk is forcing her to duel him because he won't let our best friend and my girl go!" Myka looked to the side to see Alexis and Syrus unconscious but chained to a wall, her eye's then darted over to Claudia almost passing out, surrounded in a circle of Lava, "Oh this is bad…"
"Tell me about it… There isn't any popcorn either…Nightshroud doesn't know how to entertain his guests well…" Jaden joked, but was hit in the head by Myka.
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"Alright Key keeper! It's my turn! I activate the spell card Monster re-born to bring back my red eye's black dragon! Then I use Inferno fire blast spell card to destroy Nova, yeah my red eye's can't attack this turn but….wait what's going on?" Claudia just smirked to him, "You activated Nova's special effect! Now that he's destroyed I can summon one fusion type monster from my extra deck! Welcome to the playing field CYBER END DRAGON!"
The clouds began get darker and lightning struck around Claudia, but for once she did not flinch as she knew that it would not strike her, "Alright I send my Red eye's to the graveyard to upgrade it for a new Red eye's dragon…welcome RED EYE'S DARKNESS DRAGON! Who is now on 4200 thanks to the 6 dragons I currently have in my graveyard! Attack cyber end!" with that Cyber end dragon was destroyed and a scream ripped out from the teenagers lips, clutching her heart.
Sweat dripped off her chin, she had never felt such pain before, it almost scared her to think on how it would end if she lost the duel, but now it was her turn, she drew her next card and at that moment, her different dimension capsule activated allowing her to add the card inside to her hand "Alright I activate my trap card Call of the haunted! To bring back Cyber end Dragon! I then activate the spell Solidarity! Which increases all my monsters attack points by 800! Now cyber end dragon! Destory Darkness dragon!" instantly cyber end dragon destroys red eye's darkness dragon, she then raised her left hand, "Go Zwei! Finish him off!"
And with that Night Shrouds life points hit Zero, causing the man to scream in pain and a rather large eruption coming from the volcano beneath their feet, but Claudia was too weak to try and get out, so she ran forward tackling the man to the ground just avoiding the explosion.
"CLAUDIA!" she heard several people scream, but she was focused on one thing, "Alright, lets see who you really are Night Shroud…" she took off his mask and her heart instantly sunk, her duel disk hitting the ground as tears glistened.
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After the explosion, Zane and the other GX students had managed to get to safety especially thanks to Pete and Myka, but that was it… once the smoke disappeared, Zane shot up and began looking for his girlfriend. Over the heated rocks, he saw the girl, knelt down hanging over the man Night Shroud.
He rushed over, With Pete and Myka on his tail, "Wait Zane!"
"Claudia! Get away from him!" but his heart stopped when she looked up to him, heart stopping tears was down her face, her bottom lip quivering. "Z..zane… i…it's …"
Pete and Myka stopped just in front of the body that was laid tightly in Claudia's arms, which was currently bleeding from over using it, "oh my god…. That's Joshua…" Zane's head shot up to Myka, he was confused until Pete looked to him, "It's Claudia's older brother…. Joshua…" Zane's eye's widened as he watched the girl he had come so close to, cry her heart out holding the man in her arms.
Myka's Trained eye suddenly noticed something on the ground, it was a duel monster card, and the picture inside of it wasn't of a monster, spell or trap, it was actually of the mask Joshua had worn as Claudia duelled him. She knelt down to the older Donovan and checked for a pulse, "Claudia sweetie… he's going to be ok…. I promise you…" but the girl didn't hear Myka, she didn't hear anyone as she held the one person that she had lost twice already close to her.
And she didn't want to let go….
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And that's it for the first exciting chapter of the Shadow Riders!
Oh my god! Joshua was one of the shadow riders?
Will he come too?
What will Zane have to say about this?
And is Alexis and Syrus ok?
Curedream90 and ArticDragonSlayer! Over and out