A/N: Edit: on second thought, despite some crude language, I'm bumping this fic back to T. This fic has some dark themes, but I'm not sure they're that dark.


Duel Academy looks more like an island resort to me than an academic boarding school. And, having an active volcano feels as if it should be violating many safety laws.

I digress. Orientation went well—the ushers looked at me strangely when I asked for a Slifer Red male uniform, but gave one to me anyway. They fit better and looks nothing like the Female Uniform which looks more like something from a stripper's club.

I was also really fond of this red Duel Academy cap. I might wear it more often if I just style my hair around it.

But there was something else that caught my attention during the orientation. I was able to spot, Mr. Late wearing the same color I was—which is weird because I really did think he was a good duelist. Then again, seeing him impressively able to fall asleep while standing up explains a few things about him.

After the chancellor finishes, my school PDA tells me that I am in Slifer Red, but instead of going straight to the dorms, I had to go somewhere else first.

Eventually, I did find the card shop store. There looked to be no sign of anyone there so I called out, "Ms. Dorothy?"

A kindly woman stepped out. "Oh hello? The card shop isn't quite open yet so do come again."

"No no," I stepped forward. "I'm Wilona Konami, do you remember that Email resume I sent?"

The woman blinked before realization crossed her face. "Oh! Come in, come in, you're really ready to do this, aren't you?"

"Yes, I am."

"Well then, welcome aboard the Duel Academy staff! I'll get you in some you started right away. There's a lot to set up before we open up."

[Tag Force: Heroes and Villains]

"Well, you're working very hard!" As most of the shop is finished, Ms. Dorothy hands me a packed meal. "Can you really do all of this along with your studies?"

"I've done something like this before, Ms. Dorothy. You don't need to worry, but thanks for the meal." I'm not going to pass down free food whenever I can. "What else can I do?"

"You've done enough, sweetie! It's time for your orientation. The Obelisk Girl Dorms are close by but you better hurry."

The Obelisk Blue dorms huh? It does look really… good. "No, I'm wearing these red jackets for a reason. I'm going to be staying at the Slifer Red Dorms."

"What? But I thought all girls stay in the Obelisk Blue dorms?"

"Well, I was qualified, but the thing was I didn't want to receive an expensive loan that I would have to pay back later. Slifer Red seemed more manageable and cheaper to stay in."

"Hmm," She looked at me with a worried frown. But it soon stopped. "Well then, that's enough working for today, and you can go meet your other Slifer Red students."

It didn't take me long before I finally did arrive at the rather—well I was long used to living in conditions like this. At least the view of the sea was beautiful.

The welcome dinner was more like something out of a school cafeteria, but it wasn't unreasonable. I ended up seeing the familiar face and luckily for me, there was an empty seat next to him.

"Huh? A Girl—here?!" The small one with teal hair looked at me in surprise, before the rest of the dorm did—only then did I realize I was indeed the only girl here.

Mr. Late finally thinks I'm important enough to look up from his meal and spots me. "Ouf bey! bou're—"

"Swallow first, Mr. Late, before you make yourself look more like a fool."

The brunette did as he was told before pointing to me. "Oh, hey Burger Girl! You're here!"

"Burger Girl?" The small one across from Mr. Late repeated with confusion.

I motioned to the teen stuffing his mouth with rice. "We met at Burger World before this man here thought the tests would end at four, not nearly ten minutes before it ended."

Mr. Late swallowed his bite. "I was able to make it, and scored big! When did you take your, test, Burger Girl? I mean you were out there faster than the others."

"I went at the crack of dawn." I looked down at the meal before me. It did look good. "A bit of—the early bird gets the worm—the opposite of you, Mr. Late."

"Uh, hey," The small one called out. "So what is your name? I doubt your name is actually Burger Girl."

I gave a small smirk. "Don't you know it's rude to ask for a name when you don't introduce yourself first?"

"I'm Jaden Yuki, the next King of Games!" Mr. Late introduces himself with a proud smile but bits of food around his mouth. He points his chopsticks over to the short one and I learn his name is Syrus Truesdale. In return, I simply tell them who I am.

We eventually do meet the headmaster for the red dorms. A nice man named Professor Banner. He keeps a pudgy cat around, which is nice.

Yuki over there interrupts his attempt at an ice breaker but it lets everyone begin eating.

It's an alright experience—really. But to my surprise, Professor Banner walks by and tells me I have a room all to myself since everyone else in the red dorms is a male. Of course, it meant that others had to fit into already cramped rooms, but sucks for them!

What sucks for me though is that I applied to also be part of the Janitorial staff here in Duel Academy. That means even late at night, I still have to work.

My first assignment, after putting on the cleaning uniform, is to clean one of the duel arenas.

As I made my way there, I thought I heard the sounds of battling. When I did arrive at where I was supposed to begin cleaning, imagine my utter surprise to see students dueling against each other way past curfew, and one of them being Yuki himself participating in a duel.

Yuki had an empty field and was facing down some guy on a horse that looked pretty intimidating. I heard him saying something…

"...but Chazz doesn't know that my monsters and I… We have—a bond!" Yuki drew his card in a rather dramatic fashion before he was distracted and looked my way.

He stops when he finally notices me at the entrance of the duel arena. "Oh, hey Wilona."

Everyone else, two more Obelisk blue, Truesdale, an Obelisk Blue Girl, and the person who Yuki is dueling all snap their heads towards me.

"Yuki," I manage to fight the urge to roll my eyes while taking out the vacuum cleaner. "What are you doing here this late past curfew?"

"What's it look like I'm doing? I'm dueling." He responded without care before pointing to me. "What's with that weird get up?"

"I applied for sanitary jobs and was accepted. I was tasked to help clean this—supposed to be empty—duel arena." I shook my head. "Look, Yuki, I doubt even you want to get expelled on the first night of school. There's a patrol of security guards that's supposed to come in here in like a few minutes, you all better leave before they come!"

"How do you know that?" Truesdale asked me while he was next to some blonde that eyed me weirdly.

To answer the smaller one, I took out a walkie talkie. "Miss, when is the closest batch of Security guards coming to Arena Blue?"

After a beep, I play my walkie talkie on loudspeaker mode. "Oh they should be there around now, deary, why is something wrong?"

I look up and the blue guy from across Yuki puts off his duel disk. "Nothing, Miss, I was just checking."

"W-Wait!" Yuki looks to me after the duel is forcibly stopped. "Aren't we students here?"

The blonde one next to Truesdale starts to talk about the rules that Jaden didn't know and that the blue one—Chazz as she says— didn't tell him.

"Hey, it's not my fault the Slime can't read a basic book!" The tosser tried to defend himself.

I raised my brow. "But aren't you currently breaking that rule too?"

"I would and could have played a hundred games past curfew then escaped before those bozo guards could even guess what's happening!"

So he screamed, but when we heard said 'bozo guards' coming close, they all booked it faster than a green light in the Grand Prix.

"Aw, man! We're screwed! If they find us here, who knows what could happen to us!?" Truesdale cried out.

"What!? Is it really that bad I was dueling here this late!?"

"Yes, Jaden!" The blonde girl pointed out.

At that moment, something came into my mind. "Take the north entrance," I tell the remaining three as I walk in the opposite direction. "Unlike the rest of you, I'm supposed to be here. I can distract them longer for you all to escape."

Yuki waves his hand as the other three leave me behind. "Thanks, Wilona, see you at the dorms later!"

Oh no, he shouldn't be thanking me. Not one bit…

[Tag Force: Heroes and Villains (3rd POV)]

Chazz Princeton wondered who slipped him a letter that threatened him and would have called him an idiot for not showing up—in a remote location with even it's own poorly drawn map.

All he knew was that he was supposed to meet this jerk five in the morning or 'face the consequences'. Ha! Like Chazz would be afraid of some punk thinking he had all the power!

Chazz followed the end of the map to some remote clearing a fair distance from elsewhere on the island.

He heard a bush shaking and got his duel disk out. To his surprise, he spotted Jaden and his dumb sidekick step out from the opposite side.

"Slifer Slacker! What, couldn't take losing?!" Chazz activated his duel disk and glared at the two Slifer Reds.

"Chazz! I guess you wanted that rematch after all!" Jaden activated his duel disk too but spoke with a completely different tone than that of the Obelisk Blue.

It took them both a second to realize something off about what the other just exclaimed.

"Wait," Jaden put down his duel disk and pointed. "You didn't call me out to finish our duel?"

"What!? You threatened me, you Slifer Slacker! I don't even want to be seen a hundred miles near your stupid dorm!" Chazz screamed back.

"Wait," Syrus looked between the two. "If Chazz didn't challenge Jaden, and if Jaden didn't call out Chazz, who brought us here?"

"That would be me, gents."

From behind the tree, everyone could see the light-green hair and blue-tinted glasses over purple colored eyes. Wilona Aestas stepped out, with a smile that no one had ever seen on her face before.

"You? Janitor Girl!?"

Wilona's smile didn't falter as she looked to Chazz. "Burger Girl, Janitor Girl, Red Hat... it doesn't quite matter what you call me—even if those names become crueler in a few minutes—what matters, dear gentlemen, was that I was the one who called you both here."

"Oh, did you call us out here to finish our duel? Wow, Wilona, you rock!"

The green-haired girl only shook her head and tossed her hair off her shoulder. "Oh, Yuki, sweet, single-minded, Yuki. I didn't bring you both here to do that."

The girl took out something she was hiding behind her back.

Then it played, "I would and could have played a hundred games past curfew then escaped before those bozo guards could even guess what's happening!"

Wilona pressed pause, skip, then play once more on the Walkie Talkie she was carrying.

"Aw, man! We're screwed! If they find us here, who knows what could happen to us!?"

"What!? Is it really that bad I was dueling here this late!?"

Jaden Yuki tilted his head. "You recorded us? Why would you do something weird as that?"

Chazz stomped his foot and pointed to the red-themed boy. "You idiot! She's threatening us! She has proof we were breaking the rules last night, and if she gives that to Sheppard, we could even be expelled from the school!"

For once, even the usually cool-headed Jaden seemed to go into a panic. "What!?"

Chazz glared back at Wilona who still kept her smile of sadistic power. "This bitch is blackmailing us!"

Wilona gave a fake gasp. "Language Princeton! We're still in a place of learning! But blackmail is such a strong word," Wilona walked forward with a slow but easy-going pace. "I prefer the words: business investment. There's really no need to worry, gentlemen, all you have to do is do a few favors here and there and this audio won't find itself on the good Chancellor's desk."

"How can you say something so evil with a smile!?" Poor Syrus clutched his head, ignorant of the evil that the green-haired girl was truly capable of.

"You're horrible, Wilona!"

"You all know how to flatter a girl," The she-witch with a red hat was smiling at the three boys. "But I'm afraid sweet talk won't get you gents anywhere. I just want to make sure we're all on the same page. If I ask for something, you'll help dear little, me?" Wilona smiled, tilted her head and put her hands near her face.

Syrus would have found it cute and attractive if he wasn't deathly horrified. Jaden was still in shock while Chazz gripped his fist angrily before throwing it dramatically.

"You think you can blackmail me, and get away with it?!"

"Yes." Chazz's anger flinched at the unprecedented evil that was Wilona's answer.

There was a beeping noise coming from one of Wilona's jacket pockets and she took out a pager. "Oh, I have to go to the card shop for my shift. You boys have a great day though!"

And with that, Wilona left, leaving all three men to their 'great' day.

[Tag Force: Heroes and Villains]

Syrus Truesdale, despite being blackmailed by a hot girl so early in the morning, was feeling rather good. A different mail—a love letter was given to him of all people, from the even more beautiful and gorgeous Alexis Rhodes.

All he needed to do was meet her in the girl's dorm!

What could possibly go wrong?

[Tag Force: Heroes and Villains]

"Oh, Syrus, what went wrong?" Jaden knew the message said to meet them at the Girl's dorm, but there was one place, the usually laid back Jaden was going to visit first.

Or at least, he was going to visit, but he saw the person he was looking for walking towards the dorms carrying a large number of books.

"Wilona!" The light green-haired girl looked up to see Jaden jumping off the second floor and running up to her. "What did you do to Syrus!?"

Wilona only raised her brow. "I beg your pardon? I haven't seen you or Truesdale since the crack of dawn."

"What but who else can be blackmailing me again?!"

The other Slifer Red's eyes narrowed. "Blackmail? Show me…. After I put these texts away." She motioned to the books she was carrying.

"Oh right sure. Do you need help carrying that?" Jaden didn't know much, but his mom did teach him manners when it came to people in obvious need.

Wilona looked at Jaden for a moment with obvious confusion or she thought there was something in his teeth. Jaden picked for anything that was stuck on his teeth before Wilona shook her head. "Thank's for the offer, but I'm used to labor. But you're really nice—offering me help when apparently I'm the first person to blackmail you today."

"I mean—if someone needs help, you give it to them—don't you?"

Wilona then gave a soft laugh while shaking her head in disbelief. "You really are heroic, Mr. Yuki. It is a shame that I am not."

After putting her books away and listening to the message, Wilona looked to Jaden while the two were behind the dorms.

"You do know whoever they are, if they find you and Syrus in the girls' dorm, they will have physical evidence like me to blackmail you, right?"

"I just can't leave my friend hanging there! Besides, you blackmailed us and we're still on kinda good terms. Maybe I can challenge them to a duel for our freedom!" Jaden paused a second before looking to Wilona. "By the way, I challenge you to a duel for me and Syrus' freedom!"

The girl's face fell into a deadpan. "Yuki, I barely have any skill in dueling, you'll defeat me easily. I won't make that foolish decision."

"Darn, maybe it'll work on Syrus' new blackmailers."

There were many reasons as to why that wouldn't and shouldn't work, instead, the other Slifer Red just decided to do this. "Oooorrr," Wilona brought a finger up for Jaden to focus back on her. "We could try it my way."

[Tag Force: Heroes and Villains]

"Is he even coming?" Jasmine Makurada asked Alexis as they al waited by the lake.

"He said over the PDA he was coming over," Alexis said, "But you're right, he's taking a while."

"You think he ditched his friend?" Mindy Hamaguchi asked.

Syrus, who was still bound, seemed to panic. "What!? Oh no! My worst nightmare since I came here with Jaden is finally happening! Hello, again darkness, my old friend!"

"Calm down, I doubt he would do that," Alexis spoke out.

"Hey!" All four of them panicked at the sound of a shout.

They turned around to see two heavily dressed janitors walking up to them, one of them with a scratchy voice they all assumed to be an old lady.

"You kids shouldn't be out here this late at night!" They must have been old as they were slightly hunched over. "You might all get colds in this weather!"

"We're sorry, Miss, we'll be back in our dorms in a second."

"You kids these days! So rebellious, why back in my day, we listened to our elders right away!" The first granny hobbled over to them, and they could see she was wearing a cleaning mask and red Duel Academy cap which both covered most of her face. "Why! Wait a second—that small one isn't a girl!"

"Oh no! My nightmare spiraled down worse than before! I don't want to be naked in front of the class!"

"Calm your tights sonny," The 'granny' spoke out. "Back in my day it was so much harder for men to get into school—my beloved husband had to drop it to raise the family farm and feed my family. My eldest son had to drop high school to go to war." The granny's hoarse voice started to crack and she gave a sniff. "He never came back..."

"But I'm sure these kind girls were just helping you back to your dorm right? There's no way they would do such a cruel thing to an obviously simple mistake, right?"

The granny, who was wearing a cleaning mask and the red hat, looked towards the three girls. Although her face was covered, the three girls felt a smile behind the mask and all suddenly felt really guilty.

"Um er yeah! We were totally going to help him!"

Alexis and Jasmine turned towards Mindy who looked panicked and whispered quickly after saying that. "I'm sorry, the story about her husband and son got to me!"

Syrus started to tear up. "Granny!"

"Dry your tears, little one, and remember next time to be more mindful of your surroundings, come along then. You girls don't need to stay out any longer while we old women can bring this young man back to where he belongs."

The Obelisk girls were flabbergasted, but the granny was able to snatch Syrus' leash and started walking away with the former prisoner.

It was then that Alexis' PDA played. "Uh hey, if you guys are still there, umm I kinda got lost—but don't worry, I'll definitely be there! … The girl's dorm is near the volcano, right? Oh wait, gotta go—the place might be collapsing around me—I'm too high up!" Then the message abruptly was cut off.

Alexis Rhodes stared into her PDA in utter disbelief before two words escaped her mouth, "That… idiot!"

"Granny," Syrus was now crying in relief. "You're my new hero! I can't believe I trusted Jaden!"

"What!? Syrus, that's so mean of you to say!"

Everyone heard the voice that just came out of the PDA, now just come out from the other 'granny' who had a bandana instead of a cap.

Syrus couldn't believe it and the first granny was slowly pushing her palm into her face and gripping tightly into it—almost as if she was practicing to use it on someone else.

"No see," Everyone watched the other Granny stand up straight, and removed the bandana around their head, revealing a familiar bunch of brown hair. "You didn't recognize me because it was dark and I'm wearing my blazer underneath this Janitor's uniform, pretty clever huh?"

"Ah!" Alexis and her friends ran up to catch up with Jaden and Syrus. "You were trying to trick us!"

"What!? No, we weren't! We were trying to rescue Syrus!"

"Yuki—just stop talking." The first Granny didn't remove her hand off her face, but Syrus recognized that posh accent. Only two people he's met so far in this school and only one of them was a man.

As Wilona removed her mask but kept her hat. A familiar light green ponytail was pulled at the back of the hat and fell, which clued the smaller boy who his 'savior' really was. Poor Syrus fainted at the thought that his 'savior' was actually his newest source of nightmares.

"Syrus!" Jaden cried out before kneeling to his fallen friend.

"Okay, I don't know what's going on," Alexis began before pointing to Jaden. "But what I do know is that you're here on illegal grounds and if you don't want you, or your friends to get expelled—"

"Actually, if I may, I do have a janitor's permit that allows me to sweep some floors here in the Obelisk Blue Dorms. In fact, I was going to come back here and feed some of the fish in the lake. So I'm actually alright to be here—not these two." Wilona motioned to Jaden and Syrus.

"Wilona!" Jaden cried out while trying to carry his fainted friend.

"Yuki, you have lost many things this night, one of them is the ability to talk to me as of right now." The girl spoke with all the edge of a bloody but still sharp knife.

"Okay fine, but that's still for you and the other boy!" Alexis added back in. "If you don't want to get expelled, you'll have to duel me." If there was one thing going on for Alexis this night it was that her plan was indeed working, just not in the way she expected.

"A duel?" Jaden had a smile on his face and looked up to Wilona. "See, I told you my plan would have worked!"

"… Do not talk to me, Yuki. I'm still bloody ticked off."

[Tag Force: Heroes And Villains]

To be unseen by prying eyes, the group of Obelisk Girls and Slifer Reds brought their duel to the center of the lake thanks in part to two boats docked nearby.

"Before we begin," Alexis shouted from across Jaden, a still fainted Syrus, and Wilona who was managing the boat, "How did you pull all of that off?"

"What you mean the plan to rescue Syrus? I mean it was a super cool—even spy movie-related plan!"

"That you ruined, Yuki!"

"Hey, I didn't want to let Syrus down like that!"

"You could have done it after we left!"

Jaden flinched at the murderous aura of the light green-haired girl then turned back to Alexis. "Okay, so here's how it went down."

Wilona knew that if Jaden appeared there, he would be potentially kicked out for disobeying the rules. But Wilona knew a way he could be there, without actually being there. Wilona had access to janitor uniforms and made Jaden wear a woman's one to make it look like he was a female janitor, so no one would even think twice about him actually walking through the front doors of the female dorm. Their next step was to make a pre-recorded message, one that Wilona gave Jaden specific lines to say, and after a certain amount of time, have Jaden's PDA send the message back to their 'blackmailers'. The point of this was to make their 'blackmailers' think Jaden was somewhere else, and not right in front of them.

Wilona had figured out since the location was the female dorms, the blackmailers were also girls—Jaden left out the part where back then he was wondering if the girls of this school were all blackmailers—and because of that, she wanted to talk with them first under her guise. Jaden was surprised that Wilona was so good at acting, but he did recall her mentioning that she used to lie and act above her age to get into jobs earlier.

"Whoa! That's like super complex!" Mindy commented out loud after hearing everything explained.

"Man, I had problems just picking an outfit every morning before coming here, and she's already like super villain brained or something," Jasmine commented along.

Alexis also had her comments. "I admit, it was really clever. It would have worked if you didn't blab at the very last second."

"Hey, Syrus is my friend, I'm not letting him down!"

Wilona sighed and put a hand on her head. "Pride cometh before the fall."

No one heard her though as Alexis pointed at Jaden and cried out, "Well that all depends on this duel! Let's get started!"

"DUEL!"

Jaden: 4000 LP

Alexis: 4000 LP

Alexis drew first, showing that she was taking the initiative. "I summon, Cyber Gymnast in attack mode!" As soon as she placed the card in her disk, something flew or jumped high into the sky. With an impressive frontal flip over several times, the figure soon landed, making the water around her ripple with an impressive show. The monster revealed a muscular woman with blonde hair and some kind of dancer get up.

Cyber Gymnast

[Type:Effect Monster/Sub-Type:Warrior/Attribute:EARTH/Level:4/ATK:800/DEF:1800]

"Then I place a face down, and end my turn!"

Turn 2: Jaden. Cards: 5

"Time to throw down!" The Slifer Red drew his card and wasted no time. "Nice! I summon Elemental Hero Heat in attack mode!"

Elemental HERO Heat

[Type:Effect Monster/Sub-Type:Pyro/Attribute:FIRE/Level:4/ATK:1600/DEF:1200]

A powerful-looking fire hero appeared and for a second, steam could be seen flying around him as he landed near the water.

Jaden gripped his fist. "And if you think he's hot now, just wait! He's just warming up!"

"Yuki, those puns were horrible. You can't threaten someone with puns." Wilona stated.

"Hey, I thought they were pretty fire—get it?"

"I do, I just can't take it seriously."

"Man, Wilona, you've got to lighten up."

"You've given me no reason to, Yuki."

Jaden shook his head and focused back on the duel. "Okay, as I was saying, Heat's got a sweet ability: for every Elemental Hero I control on my field, he gains 200 attack points which includes himself!"

ATK:1600→1800

"Now go, Heat! Flare Spear!"

The Elemental Hero clasped his hands together before separated them, creating a link of fires that took the form of a lance. He threw it with great speed towards Alexis' 800 attack monster.

However, the girl remained calm and instead activated her trap card. "Go, Doble Passe! This trap card changes the direction of your attack to me!"

The fire lance flew past the Gymnast and instead exploded near Alexis's boat.

Alexis: 4000 LP→2200 LP

Jaden: 4000 LP

Alexis held on and threw her arm out as soon as the attack landed. "In exchange for taking that attack, my monster gets to counter-attack you directly!"

Gymnast did so, skating past with incredible speed, jumping into the air, and socking Jaden in the face.

Alexis: 2200 LP

Jaden 4000 LP→ 3200 LP

Jaden shook his head and tried to stand back up from the hit. "That Alexis is something else! Just letting me get to her life points so she could get to mine?!"

Alexis heard this and smiled. "So, are you impressed?"

Jaden, even after getting hit, smiled in return. "Impressed? I think I'm in love!"

"You're sweet, too bad I have to crush you!" Alexis spoke before seeing Jaden make no other move this turn.

Turn 3: Alexis. Cards: 4

"Now then, where were we?!" The blonde girl took out another card. "First, I activate Gymnast's special ability, by discarding a card from my hand, I can destroy one face-up attack position monster on my opponent's side of the field! Looks like your Heat is all washed up!"

"Why are you also doing puns!?"

Despite Wilona's cries, Gymnast flew in and tackled heat into the lake. Bubbles fizzed greatly but soon dissolved into nothingness before Gymnast flew back into Alexis' side of the field.

"Next, I sacrifice Gymnast in order to summon, Cyber Prima!" As soon as she said this, Gymnast burst into light and formed into a more elegant, smaller, but obviously more powerful female monster.

Cyber Prima [Type:Effect Monster/Sub-Type:Warrior/Attribute:LIGHT/Level:6/ATK:2300/DEF:1600]

"Usually, she has the power to destroy all face-up spell cards on the field, but since there isn't anything on your field, she'll have to settle for another direct attack!"

Cyber Prima skated in with the grace of a champion figure skater and then kicked Jaden in the arm with enough force to shake the boat.

The Slifer Red grunted in pain and fell to his knees from the heavy blow.

Alexis: 2200

Jaden: 3200→900

"Whoo ho! Way to go, Alexis!" The two girls besides the blonde Obelisk Blue cheered at the insane blow to her opponent.

Also, Crowler, who had fallen into the water after accidentally trapping Syrus with the false love letter, was watching the duel with glee that Alexis was showing that upstart his place.

"I'll end my turn by putting down a face down." Alexis finished.

Turn 4: Jaden. Cards: 5

"Are you alright, Yuki?" Wilona asked with a softness Jaden hadn't seen in the girl.

"Thanks for the worry, Wilona, but don't be! In fact, I'm excited! Alexis is an amazing duelist!"

Wilona shook her head and scoffed. But there was a smile on her face. "Well, if you lose, you might not get the chance to face her or anyone else here anymore."

"All the more reason why I'm going to win this!" Jaden's smile shined like a star in the middle of that dark lake. "I draw!"

He smiled when he saw the card. "Alright, I activate the field spell, Fusion Gate!"

There was an obvious distortion in the air that made everyone look around with surprise.

"Now here's how it works! Now both of us can fusion summon monsters all we want, but the kicker? The material has to be removed from play instead of being sent to the grave, so with that in mind!" The Slifer Red took out two cards. "I banish Elemental Hero Clayman and Sparkman in my hand to fusion summon, Elemental Hero Thunder Giant!"

The two material cards flew up towards the main distortion and space around them started to warp them both together. Light exploded in the sky and out came a towering creature with thunder crackling around him.

Elemental HERO Thunder Giant [Type:Fusion/Effect Monster/Sub-Type: Warrior/Attribute: LIGHT/Level:6/ATK:2400/DEF:1500]

"Now I activate his special ability! By discarding one card from my hand, I can destroy a monster on the field whose original attack points are less than 2400!"

"What!?" Alexis cried out before Jaden activated his ability and had Thunder Giant shoot a ball of plasma that expanded near Prima and exploded, incinerating her in the explosion.

"And that's not all, Thunder Giant still has his attack left! That's 2400 Attack Points to your 2200 life points!"

Thunder Giant race over to Alexis, positioning his palm over the blonde girl's head with electricity crackling and about to explode.

"No way! Alexis!"

The obelisk blue moved fast. "Nice try, but I reveal my face down: Defense Draw! This turns the battle damage I take to 0 and lets me draw a card!"

Alexis' deck shined and an invisible forcefield slammed the massive giant away back to Jaden's field before the attack could connect. After surviving that attack, Alexis drew the shinning card atop her deck and it's protective light faded.

"You almost got me there, Jaden! Now I'm impressed!"

"You're impressed? I'm stoked! You played that amazingly Alexis, now I definitely wanna beat you!" Jaden cried out before placing one card face down.

Alexis saw that Jaden was once more making no other move past this turn and moved to make it hers. "I said you impressed me, but you're going to need to do better than that to beat me!"

Turn 5: Alexis. Cards: 4

"I draw!" As she saw the card in her hands, a smile appeared on her face. "I play the Ritual Spell card, Machine Angel Absolute Ritual!"

Jaden's eyes widened. "No way, you use Ritual Monsters?!"

"I have some fusion ones too, but I don't let that stop me." She continued on. "This ritual card allows me to sacrifice not only cards in my hand, and field, but also cards in my graveyard and shuffle them into my deck! I shuffle back Gymnast in my graveyard and Etoile Cyber in my hand in order to Ritual Summon, Cyber Angel Izana!"

Throughout that whole time, Alexis had the area around her turn into some mix of a temple and high tech computer. The centerpiece behind her burst into green flame and the two monsters she had chosen, two level 4 monsters, flew and jumped into the green flame. When they did, the fire exploded and a majestic but metallic humanoid figure descended into the field.

Cyber Angel Izana [Type: Ritual/Effect Monster/Sub-Type: Fairy/Attribute: LIGHT/Level:8/ATK:2500/DEF:2600]

Jaden was shaking. "… This… This is so sweet! I get to face a powerful ritual monster!" He was shaking of excitement.

"I'm glad one of us is enjoying this situation," Wilona muttered under her breath. She didn't want to lose two pawns so early into the school year!

"That Slifer Red doesn't understand that when Alexis busts out a ritual monster, they're as good as done!" Jasmine threw her fist in the air as if cheering for victory already.

Alexis her self pointed. "When Izana is ritual summoned, she has the ability to destroy one spell and trap card on my opponent's side of the field. But on the plus side, you get to choose which gets destroyed."

Jaden looked at his cards. "I choose my field spell, Fusion Gate!"

Izana slammed her spear into the water and a stream of water sped out and stabbed into the distortion around them, shattering it somehow like glass.

Alexis wasn't done. "Now I attack Thunder Giant with Izana!"

The giant fired bolts of electricity towards the mechanical angel, but nothing could deter it from raising its axe and slashing the far bigger monster in half.

Alexis: 2200 LP

Jaden: 900→800 LP

"I reveal my trap card, Hero Signal! After one of my monsters gets destroyed in battle, this card allows me to special summon a level 4 or lower Hero card from my deck or hand into the field, and I choose Elemental Hero Bubble Man in defense mode!"

As soon as Jaden did this, bubbles from the water below started to rise in frequency before a large bubble appeared and burst open, revealing this new monster.

Elemental HERO Bubbleman. [Type: Effect Monster/Sub-Type: Warrior/Attribute: WATER/Level:4/ATK:800/DEF:1200]

"And actually, I should be thanking you for letting me destroy my Fusion Gate! See when Bubbleman is summoned into the field, and there's nothing else on my board even a field spell, I can draw two cards!" Jaden exclaimed as he did so with his own deck.

"That's not bad, but Izana has another effect, Jaden! When she successfully destroys a monster in battle, she can attack again!"

"What!?" Jaden cried out before Izana moved again and stabbed her spear right through Bubbleman, destroying him instantly.

"I guess Bubbleman really fits his name, he lasted as long as a real bubble," Alexis spoke with a taunt. "I end my turn by placing this face down."

Turn 6: Jaden. Cards: 3

"Those ritual monsters are no joke, but there's no way I'm backing down now!" Jaden drew his next card.

A smile appeared on his face as he looked to Alexis. "Ritual monsters are cool and all, but I'll stick to fusion! I activate Monster Reborn and bring back Elemental Hero Thunder Giant!"

The monster returned from the grave with a powerful roar, but everyone could see that it's attack points were still 2400, a little too low for Izana's 2500 attack points.

"My monster already destroyed your giant, or are you expecting a different outcome?" Alexis narrowed her eyes as Jaden continued to smile.

"Oh, it'll be different! This time, I'm gonna win for sure!" Jaden held a card up high. "I activate Polymerization! I fuse Elemental Heroes Woodman and Ocean in order to summon my rarest card!"

Two heroes no one had ever seen before flew out of Jaden's hand. They both slammed into each other, forming a powerful light and from the sky, a being that just screamed, 'Hero' slowly descended into the field.

"Everyone, meet Elemental Hero Terra Firma!"

Elemental HERO Terra Firma [Type: Fusion/Effect Monster/Sub-Type:Warrior/Attribute:EARTH/Level:8/ATK:2500/DEF:2000]

Alexis saw the new monster's attack points. "If you're trying to make our monsters clash and destroy each other, you've got another thing coming! I reveal my face down, the Continuous Trap card, Dimension Guardian! I choose one attack position monster on my side of the field and it can't be destroyed by battle or card effects!"

As Alexis said this, a ghostly phantom from the picture of the card appeared and shined a light over Izana, obviously protecting it from harm.

"Now you can't get to my life points!" Alexis smiled.

However, Jaden was still also smiling himself. "Now why would I want to win in such an uncool way? I said I was going to win and that's what I'm here to do!" Jaden pointed to Terra Firma.

"Terra Firma has an ability that allows me to tribute one Elemental Hero monster on the field, and gain attack points equal to the tribute's amount!"

"You're kidding!?"

"Oh, I'm not joking this time, Alexis!" Jaden gripped his fist. "Thunder Giant, lend your power to Terra Firma!"

The two heroes gripped their hands together into an upper handshake with a powerful slap before Thunder Giant burst into light that was absorbed by Terra Firma.

ATK: 2500→4900.

"4900 Attack points?!" All of the Obelisk Blue Girls, and Crowler, and a newly awakened Syrus exclaimed as they saw the powered up monster.

"Your monster will survive, sure, but your life points won't! Go, Terra Firma!"

The powerful hero unleashed two energy blades in each of his hands and attacked Izana. The machine angel buckled under the immense pressure, but the extra force rushed to Alexis and knocked her back—making her fall on her friends.

Alexis: 0

Jaden: Winner!

"And that's game!" Jaden gave his trademark two-finger salute to the blonde getting back up from the attack while their monsters faded.

"That was..." Wilona quietly watched the end of the duel. "Almost as exciting as watching some of the best duelists in the past."

A little later, the Slifer Reds and the Obelisk Girls met up together.

"A deal's a deal. I win, so that means you let us off the hook." Jaden stated with Syrus on his right and Wilona on his left.

"Okay, we'll keep quiet about this little event." Alexis put one hand on her hip. "Though we are going to talk a lot about how you were dressed as an old woman."

"What!? Oh, come on!?" Jaden cried out before the rest started to laugh at his expense.

"Just because you won fair and square doesn't mean I'm letting you off the hook for almost making a fool out of us with that rather convoluted plot that didn't work."

Jaden suddenly felt killing intent coming from his left side. It was even worse than any sense of danger and pain he felt in the duel with Alexis.

"H-Hey! Don't say it like that! I didn't just win 'fair and square'. It was a super close duel, Alexis. I mean it, you were amazing."

Alexis was rather stunned at the honest praise of her skill.

"Come on, you two, now you owe me," Wilona spoke up, making the two Slifer Reds flinch in fear of her. "First thing's first, I need you both to row—now!"

"Yes, Miss!" Both Slifer Red boys panicked as they hurriedly did what the scary girl asked them to.

Meanwhile, Crowler was furious, but chasing after Jaden and Syrus. "I can't believe Alexis lost! No, there must be something I can still salvage from this! I just need to follow..." Crowler's inner monologue stopped as he noticed something red and bad-smelling floating in the sea that seemed to be leaking.

"O-Oh what is this putrid stuff? Are they littering?! It's not much, but I can definitely get that Slifer Slacker in detention for littering—wait, why do I sense danger?"

"Uh, Wilona, what are you throwing into the lake?" Jaden asked while he and Syrus were still rowing the boat.

Wilona had a container beside her. In that container, while wearing gloves, Wilona was taking chunks of raw meat out and tossing them into the lake. "Didn't I tell you I was going to come back here for another job I was assigned for? There are fish in these lakes—surprisingly, Seto Kaiba has also had contracts with some animal preservations. In this lake swims nocturnal, freshwater piranhas: some of the only ones of their kind. I'm throwing away this special meat so they can be fed properly. Why do you think no one swims in these lakes or is allowed to?"

As soon as she said this, there was a screaming and mysteriously androgynous yelp followed by the sounds of many teeth sinking into flesh.

The Slifer Reds all looked around, but they saw no sign of anything in the water. They all just shrugged and continued on their way.

"I can't believe we got blackmailed twice in one day!" Syrus sighed before looking to a rather angry girl in front of them. "At least one of them promised to let us go."

"Oh yeah, that reminds me! Wilona, I challenge you for our freedom!"

"Yuki, we went over this, no. You also don't get to do that after screwing up my attempt to help you in the first place." Wilona narrowed her eyes and made even the carefree Jaden wince. Wilona sighed. "And I already told you, you're a better duelist than me. You'd easily winn your freedom back."

"Can I at least duel you for fun?"

Wilona looked to Jaden with an unreadable look on her face. "...Not today in the very least! I'm still pissed off you couldn't bloody hold your tongue for just a few more minutes!"

"Wait," Syrus looked between his best friend and his current nightmare. "Wilona tried to help save me?"

"Yeah, she was really into it too! I felt like I was watching a spy movie." Jaden was easy in his response.

However, Syrus then looked to Wilona in confusion. "Why did you do that? I thought you didn't like us?"

"I never said that," Wilona sighed. "I just want some insurance over the course of these school years. It's nothing personal."

"Blackmailing your friends sounds pretty personal, Wilona," Jaden noted.

That third word got Wilona to freeze. "Friends? You thought of me as a friend?"

"Well yeah. You helped me back during the exams, didn't you?" While Jaden returned her question with another question, Syrus was a lot more silent on the whole thinking of someone like that as a friend.

"… I'm surprised you actually did think of me as a friend. You're the first to say that. The first who actually seems to truly mean it."

Jaden watched Wilona's face soften. He could tell she was bothered by something.

"Of course I mean it! You're kinda scary and mean, but you're not all that bad!" Syrus looked a bit shocked that Jaden could say something like that so sincerely to someone who was still blackmailing them.

Wilona gave a soft laugh but this time it didn't sound like she was laughing at Jaden, it seemed more like it was towards herself. "You really are heroic, Mr. Yuki. It is a shame that I am not."

[Tag Force: Heroes and Villains]

"… You seem troubled."

"It's all different. They were using different cards, different styles of play, it was the same but different in the end."

"If I were to compare them… the ones here are all more skilled at this current time."

"Isn't that a good thing then? The duelists here are stronger, all of them."

"It also means the 'bad guys' are also stronger here. What's our next move?"

"… Hmm... what about being the bad guys?"

[Tag Force: Heroes and Villains]

A/N: Alright, I am so excited how this story will play out. I hope all of you enjoy it as well. For now, since my interest in it is still fresh, I'm trying to pump these out quickly. Sorry if there are grammar mistakes, but I really want it to get to a certain part.

(Edit: Added new and changed some things when I missed some numbers.)