The True Slifer Red
Chapter 6
-Jaden-
Sighing, Jaden ran a hand back through his hair as he closed the door to the male wing of the Sponsor Dorms. Securing his finally finished essay under an arm, he trudged over to his room, hearing the snoring of Chazz as he passed the cocky duelist's room. "Note to self." Jaden yawned, doing his best to keep it down so he wouldn't wake up the others who went to bed earlier "don't stay up till midnight to write an essay the day before a big duel."
It had been three weeks since his duel with Missy and tomorrow would have the first of the quarterly Promotion exams that the school held. And while his rank admittedly couldn't go any higher unless he got another deity class card, he did have to do well in his duel test tomorrow in order to keep the privileges he'd been enjoying.
Over the past few weeks, he'd been growing closer with Bastion, Syrus, Alexis, and even Missy as they spent time together. Missy's admittedly being limited as she spent most of her time with, or attempting to be with, Zane. Regardless, he found he enjoyed the bug user's company. For Syrus the group had been trying to help Joey Wheeler's attempts in getting the little bluenette's confidence up. Bastion had just been a matter of social skills as he couldn't believe the upper-class Brit was as easily flustered as he was. He'd even hung out with Zane from time to time, the upper year Cyber user making sure he remembered what would come at the end of the year.
The big issue he had to deal with alongside Alexis though were their 'fan clubs'. Given how often he'd been hanging out with Alexis even before the Sponsorship announcement, several students had taken to the opinion that the two were dating, or that he was trying to 'seduce' her, or vice versa. Honestly it was infuriating as none of the idiots would listen to either of them about the issue.
More than once, girls from his fan club had tried breaking into his room at night to 'woo him away from Alexis' as they had oh so 'elegantly' put it. Every time he'd gone right ahead and called campus security who had them taken to Crowler's creepy little assistant Bonaparte. He was mainly upset because they fully believed he was dating Alexis and had tried this stunt.
One of Alexis' fan boys had tried something similar but instead of simply hiding out in her room to try and 'woo' her the idiot had tried a more 'forceful' approach. The end result was him, Zane, Bastion, Syrus, Missy, Alexis, and even Chazz had beaten the punk black and blue and since then none of her fan boys would come anywhere near the sponsored dorm.
Stifling another yawn, he opened the door to his room, looking forward to a good night's sleep only to yelp and slap a hand over his eyes when he saw Missy laying on his bed wearing nothing but purple lace underwear. "Missy!" he yelped, staunchly refusing to look "What are you doing?!"
"Jaden?!" the girl whisper yelled as she, he assumed, covered herself "What are you doing here?! Where's Zane!?"
"Zane's room is across the hall Missy," he said with an exasperated sigh as he began to calm down, pinching the bridge of his nose as he did so while still keeping his eyes covered "this one's mine. Besides, Zane went to bed two hours ago."
"Oh." He heard the bug duelist mutter before there was a bit more rustling "You can open your eyes now, I'm covered."
Nodding he did so and saw that she was now wearing purple pajama bottoms and a white spaghetti strap tank top as she sat blushing on his bed, "You do realize the problem now right?" he asked "The security system for our dorm won't let you leave now as each bedroom goes into lockdown once each occupant settles in for the night and the door to get out of the hall is already sealed, it'll only open in the morning or if there's an emergency tonight."
"I know," Missy groaned as she flopped back onto his bed with a sigh "I really did think that this was Zane's room though."
"Another attempt to get him to fall for you?" he asked as he walked over to his dresser and began looking through it to find his pajamas, "Decided that if your little 'stunt' didn't work then nothing would?"
"Something like that," Missy said with a blush before sighing "but now you're gonna call campus security on me, aren't you?"
"Nope." he said simply as he walked into the bathroom and closed the door, changing out of sight of his temporary 'roommate'.
"Wait what?" Missy asked sounding surprised "But that's what you did on all those other girls who snuck into your room."
"They were trying to seduce me specifically while also believing that I was already in a committed relationship," he answered as he slipped on the simple black sleep shorts and tank top "that's what really ticked me off about it. You not only know that I'm not dating Alexis, but weren't even trying to do this in my room to begin with. So, I'm cool. If you try this with Zane, then what goes down is between the two of you." As he said this, he opened up the bathroom and walked over to his wardrobe, pulling out a spare pillow and blanket "I'll crash on the couch tonight and you can take the bed before sneaking out in the morning once the doors unlock."
"Thanks Jaden," Missy said softly as he noticed a faint blush on her cheeks "you're a good guy."
"What are friends for?" he said with a small smile and a shrug before settling down on the couch and within moments he was out like a light. Waking up the next morning he yawned widely as he stretched, glancing about the room as he remembered what had happened the previous night and noticed Missy happily snuggled up in his bed. Glancing at his alarm clock he walked over and shook her shoulder, "Missy," he said softly as she groaned and began to stir "doors will be opening any second now. The other guys won't usually be awake for another half hour or so, so you should be able to sneak back to the girl's wing."
That woke her up as she shot out of the bed quickly, as if not realizing where she was at first before she relaxed, "Thanks Jaden," she said with a smile which he returned before stiffening when she pulled him into a hug and kissed his cheek "as I said before, you're a good guy."
"Y-you're welcome." He stammered out with a blush as Missy giggled before she opened his door and snuck down the hall. Sighing he flopped down onto his bed, "Why must girls be so confusing?" he asked the universe but, as usual, got no response.
An hour later he sat next to Bastion with Syrus on his British friend's other side as they were waiting for the last few people to arrive before the written portion of the test began. Hearing the sound of someone taking the seat next to him he looked over, expecting to see Alexis but, to his surprise, he saw a shyly waving Missy as most of the nearby students turned to look at them in surprise. "Hey," Missy said with a smile as she began unpacking her bag, ignoring the shocked stares from the other students who had expected the girl to try and snag the seat next to Zane "thanks again for your help earlier with my, uh, problem."
"Like I said, what are friends for?" he answered with a grin as he tried not to blush when he thought back to her kissing his cheek.
"Well, this is a surprise," Alexis said as she sat down next to Missy, a strange frown on his friend's face "I expected you to sit next to Zane and try to get him to give you date…again."
"I just wanted to talk to Jaden," Missy said with a blush "and thank him for helping me out with a problem last night."
"Last night, was it?" Bastion asked with a teasing grin "Are you holding out on us old chap?"
In response he slapped his British friend upside the head and pointed down at Professor Banner who was beginning to hand out the tests "Test now, question later." He said as he fought to contain his blush, something that he was ashamed to admit that he failed at as the rest of his friends, and Zane a couple rows up, noticed easily.
Thankfully the tests were then handed to his row so he was spared from the questioning, temporarily at least, as he focused on his written exam, trying to answer what he could in the hour time slot he had been given. "Now students," Professor Banner began as their hour-long time ended "the written exam is over. Please walk, do not run, to get in line for the new rare cards."
"They're here?!" a Ra student asked excitedly as people began shooting to their feet.
"Oh dear." Banner muttered before a stampede resulted as almost every student rushed towards the card shop. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed Chazz sending off flunky one and flunky two as he looked at the rest of the sponsor group.
"You guys gonna try to get any of the cards?" he asked as he calmly handed over his test to the professor.
"Not me," a rather calm Bastion said with a smirk "one errant card would throw off the delicate balance of my deck."
"I don't need them." Zane said with a shrug.
"I'm happy with what I have." Alexis answered calmly as she packed her bag, Missy nodding in agreement.
"Mr. Wheeler is having me focus on what I already have before we try to incorporate new cards." Syrus explained with a sigh.
"I gotcha," he said with a nod "well, I'm gonna head down there to see if there's anything that would fit my deck. See you guys at the duel test."
"I'll come with you." Alexis said quickly as he blinked in surprise for a moment before shrugging as they made their way down to the card Shack. "So," Alexis began as they walked down the hall "what 'problem' did you help Missy with last night? Must have been serious cause while I know you two get along, I've never seen her pass up the chance to sit by Zane."
Laughing sheepishly, he explained to her what had happened with her latest attempt to get with Zane, "So I let her use my bed while I crashed on the couch," he said with a shrug "told her that what goes on between her and Zane was their business, not mine."
"Only you Jaden." Alexis muttered in fond exasperation as he laughed in agreement before getting to the card shack.
"Hey Rebecca," he said with a wave to the counter girl who worked the shifts he didn't "how's it hanging?"
"Hey Jaden," his coworker said with a grin "it's pretty good. You here for anything specific?"
"Just browsing Bec," he shook his head, "wanted to see if there were any supports for dragons or my cyber darks that would help. Or any monsters that would fit."
"I wish I could help Jaden, but we got cleared out." Rebecca frowned as Jaden finally took a moment to look around and see how empty all the shelves were, "Some asshole somehow got in before the gates raised and bought every one of the new rare cards. Then the other students, desperate, bought all the other regular packs and single cards but a couple low tier packs."
"Shit, seriously?" Jaden gaped, having a bad feeling about the 'asshole' in question, "Damnit. I guess I'm not updating my deck today."
"I wouldn't be so sure." Miss Dorothy sing songed as she walked out from the back, "I actually got a separate shipment. Most of the sponsors have given cards to their pupils already if they were going to do so. But yours was waiting on Pegasus to finish these that he was apparently working on even before you got Slifer. They were sent just for you." As she spoke, the kind woman handed over an envelope where he could see two cards waiting for him.
"Thanks Boss." Jaden grinned at the woman who ran the card shack, "You guys are the best."
"You know it Jaden." Rebecca grinned back, "Now go kick ass and take names in your duels. Gotta give the card shack crew a good rep after all."
"You got it." he promised with a laugh as he slipped the cards into his deck without looking at them, trusting in the 'heart of the cards' like his mentor had told him.
An hour later he stood in front of Chazz as he was informed by Bonaparte that Chazz was to be his opponent as he fought the urge to sigh at the small man. Ever since he had beaten Crowler and been sorted as a 'Slifer' the little man had been out for his blood, the situation only getting worse when he consistently beat Obelisk Blue students in duels. At least he was fairly sure that was the issue, Bonaparte was difficult for him to get a read on.
"Whatever," he grumbled, annoyed at having to deal with yet another 'scheme' "come on Chazz, I want to just beat you and get this over with. I'll start out," he declared as he drew "I summon Hunter Dragon in attack mode!" (Attack: 1700, Defense: 100) the dragon appeared with a roar, flaring its wings menacingly, "I'll throw down three face downs and end my turn."
"Don't think that worthless lizard has a chance against me Jaden," Chazz growled before drawing "especially with this. Magical Mallet!"
"A what?" he asked with a growl as he didn't recognize the card, it must have been one of the new rare ones that he was positive Bonaparte had snatched.
"It's a redo," Chazz said cockily "I put any card in my hand that I don't want back in my deck, shuffle it, and then draw again. I also get to reshuffle my mallet too and if I redraw it, like I just did, then I get to play it again and again." Growling, he watched as his opponent got to basically hand pick their cards as he hoped his face downs would be good enough. "Now I'll play a little spell card, Giant Trunade, to get rid of those pesky face downs and then I'll summon my V-Tiger Jet!" Chazz said with a smirk as he paled, recognized the card that was being used and, more importantly, what it led to. "But that's not all Jaden," Chazz laughed "I'll add the magic of frontline base which will let me summon another level four or below monster this turn and I'll Choose my W-wing catapult which I'll then merge with my Tiger jet to form VW-Tiger Wing Catapult!" (Attack: 2000, Defense: 2100)
"That's not good." He heard Bastion panic.
"Seriously?" he heard Syrus complain from the crowd "Is this guy's turn going to end sometime this century?"
"Now Tiger Catapult wipe out that monster and put me in the lead." Chazz said with a smirk as the machine blew apart his hunter, lowering his life points to thirty-seven hundred.
"Are you done Chazz?" Jaden scowled as his life points dipped, "Not quite. I play a face down and then use card destruction!" Meeting Chazz's gaze and refusing to back down, Jaden discarded the five cards in his hand, including Slifer. Those watching who could see what he was discarding gasped in horror or disappointment.
"This isn't over yet Chazz." Jaden got his new cards and drew to start his turn, Now, I'll play future fusion to bring out my Five Headed Dragon!" (Attack: 5000, Defense: 5000) a heavy hitter like that was the best card he could play right now with his strategy in mind, "Now I end my turn."
"Big and flashy but all talk, just like you Jaden." Chazz sneered, "Summoning a monster like that when you can't even use it that turn. I'll show you what a real duelist can do! I summon X-Head Cannon and use Frontline Base to special summon Z-Metal tank. But wait, there's more! Now I think I'll activate my face down, call of the haunted! Using it to bring back my Y-Dragon Head and I'll combine my three new monsters to form XYZ dragon canon!". (Attack: 2800, Defense: 2600)
"Of course you had all five in your hand." Jaden frowned. That was an absurdly quick draw time for those five cards and ways to get them out. Either Chazz got absurdly lucky, his duel disk was rigged to cheat, or the heart of the cards was getting involved.
"And it's about to get even worse for you slacker," Chazz smirked "as I combine my two monsters to form the ultimate VWXYZ- Dragon Catapult Canon!" (Attack: 3000, Defense: 2800)
"And let me guess, you're using its ability to remove my five headed dragon from play?" Jaden narrowed his eyes as Chazz grinned gleefully.
"What do you know, you are smart enough to put two and two together! That's right, and now I attack you directly!" Jaden grit his teeth as his life points dropped down to seven hundred, Chazz's remaining untouched.
"I'd say you put up a good fight but that'd be a lie." Chazz scoffed, "Know your place you scrub. Go ahead and take your last turn."
"Gotta say Chazz, I didn't expect you to get that monster out so quickly." Jaden calmly drew the last card of the duel, "But luckily Five Headed dragon wasn't just a monster to destroy yours once it was clear to attack. He was bait for that bucket of bolts out there."
"What?!" Chazz's eyes widened as he glanced down at the lone face down still on Jaden's side of the field.
"I activate my trap card, The Revived Sky god!" Jaden triggered the card.
"I activate my monster's ability to remove your card from play!" Chazz hastily called out only for nothing to happen.
"That's the thing Chazz, this card and its effects cannot be stopped or negated so you just wasted your monsters one use of that ability this turn. Now, this trap lets me summon one Slifer the Sky Dragon from my graveyard and then we both draw till we have six cards in our hand."
"It's fine," Chazz was near shaking as he lied to himself "Egyptian god cards are destroyed at the end of the turn they're special summoned and I still have full life points. This won't end things!"
"Next, I'll play the spell card Thunderforce attack." Jaden placed the second of his new support cards into play "Much like my trap, this one can't be negated. If I have Slifer on the field, then I can destroy as many of your face up monsters as I want. And since I played it during my main phase, then I get to draw one for each." The massive union monster was destroyed as he drew, bringing his hand, and Slifer's attack points, to seven thousand.
"It's over Chazz." Jaden grinned as Slifer began charging up its attack "Game…set…match." And with that, his monster fired, wiping out all of Chazz's life points in a single blow.
