In a foolhardy attempt to stand up for both her friend Chuck and her caretaker Nanny, Sarah faced the famous Duel-fluencer Lemon_Drop. The older girl had full lifepoints, a field spell, and four monsters on her side of the field: Trickstars Holly Angel, Narkissus, Lycoris and Candina. Sarah had no cards on her field and had only 2600 lifepoints, now 2200 when she ended her draw phase. It was nothing short of an uphill climb.
Thankfully, the card Sarah drew would tip the scales in her favor.
"I activate Harpies Feather Duster!" with that declaration, Lemon_Drop stopped paying attention to her chat and focused her attention on the duel with clear worry. A massive wing appeared and swept over Lemon_Drop's side of the field. In an instant, Light Stage evaporated, returning the scenery to it's original state. Magical Laurel disappeared as well, and Candina returned to the graveyard per the spell's effect. Sarah braced herself for something she expected. Strangely, nothing happened beyond her play.
"Hey, how come I didn't take any damage?" she asked. Candina's effect deals burn damage to the opposing player whenever he/she played a spell card.
"It's because of Magical Laurel," Chuck explained, "Candina left the field because Magical Laurel was no longer in effect. Therefore, she couldn't activate her effect when Feather Duster resolved."
"Oh, I see," Sarah replied. Chuck smiled in response. She was willing to sacrifice lifepoints if it meant gaining an advantage. She wouldn't have done that earlier.
"Don't start acting high and mighty just because you got a lucky draw," Lemon_Drop remarked with a childish pout. That statement took Sarah aback with how confrontational it was. Regardless, she continued her turn.
"For my next move, I set one card and summon Melffy Fenny," Melffy Fenny (Lv. 2, EARTH, Beast, Atk. 100, Def. 300) was a green fox creature that looked like it popped right out of a children's book. Like all Melffy monsters, it had a heart shaped patch of fur on it's chest and a flower shaped fur patch somewhere on it's body, "Next, I play the spell card, Obedience Schooled. This card lets me special summon three level two beast type monsters with different names straight from my deck. The monsters I choose: Melffy Puppy, Melffy Catty, and Kalantosa, Mystical Beast of the Forest."
In order appeared the pastel brown and pudgy Melffy Puppy (Lv. 2, EARTH, Beast, Atk. 300, Def. 100), the orange and round Melffy Catty (Lv. 2, Earth, Beast, Ak. 200, Def. 200), and lastly Kalantosa, Mystical Beast of the Forest (Lv. 2, EARTH, Beast, Atk. 200, Def. 1400), a white hedgehog creature with plant life in place of spines.
"That was way too easy!" Lemon_Drop accused, "There has to be some sort of drawback."
"Monsters summoned with Obedience Schooled have their effects negated and are destroyed during the end phase," Sarah explained.
"Yeah, but you're just gonna go for an extra deck summon anyway, so what's even the drawback at all?" Lemon_Drop whined. The little girl seemed hesitant to continue, as if she was worried the older girl would snap at her. She didn't regain her confidence until Chuck put his hand on her shoulder.
"Don't let it get to you," he assured, "Just keep playing the game," and Sarah did just that.
"I overlay level two Melffy Puppy, Catty, and Kalantosa," all three critters materialized into golden wisps before coalescing inside of a dark vortex, "With these monsters, I build the overlay network. Gentle spirits of the forest, come together to show your true abilities. Xyz summon! Joyous Melffys!" (Rank 2, EARTH, Beast/Xyz, Atk. 2000, Def. 500) Joyous Melffys, true to it's name, was a collection of Mellfys joyfully surrounding a table full of various fruits.
"Joyous Mefflys attacks Trickstar Narkissus!" with that command from their child master, the various Melffys left the table to bomb rush Narkissus, wildly flailing their limbs as the pop idol gave into their combined charge. Lemon_Drop's lifepoints fell for the first time in the duel, dropping to 7000, "I end my turn."
"If that's how it is, then I'm done going easy on you," Lemon_Drop said darkly, "You think your fleabags are safe because they have the same attack as Holly Angel? Think again! Watch this! I'll use Holly Angel to attack, then I'll discard the Trickstar Corobane in my hand to double her attack power. That should cut you down to size," with the attack declared, Holly Angel swung her flail towards the Melffys.
"I won't let you!" Sarah declared, "Joyous Melffys' effect activates. Now I can return an Xyz monster to the extra deck, then I can special summon level two beast type monsters from my graveyard, up to the number of materials the monster had."
"What? You don't have any other Xyz monsters," Lemon_Drop pointed out.
"I'm returning Joyous Melffys back into the extra deck," when the Melffys all scattered away from danger, the card returned into the extra deck, it's three materials transferring into the graveyard, "Now I can summon back three monsters from the graveyard: Nimble Beaver, Melffy Puppy, and Kalantosa," all three of the materials all returned to the field in defense position.
"So what, you just summoned a bunch of weak monsters," Lemon_Drop waved off, "What can they do against me?"
"That's right! They got nothing on Lemon_Drop's monsters!" Sid hollered in a daze.
"Who's side are you on?!" Aella screamed with dwindling patience.
"It has to do with Kalantosa," Sarah answered, "Whenever he's summoned to the field by the effect of a beast type monster, I can target one card on the field and destroy it, just like your Link monster,"
"Nooooo," Lemon_Drop screeched in distress as Holly Angel evaporated on the spot.
Sarah, you're beginning to show promise, Chuck smiled.
"Now since Nimble Beaver was summoned to the field, I can summon another one from my deck," as Sarah attempted to perform this play, her duel disk flashed a holographic projection reading 'ERROR!', leading to her confusion, "Hey, what's going on? Did I do something wrong?"
"Sarah, Chuck said Nimble Beaver's effect activates when it's normal summoned," Aella explained.
"Oh…" Sarah flushed, feeling very silly at the moment.
Then again, you still have alot of work to do, Chuck frowned.
Back to Lemon_Drop, she was absolutely steaming, "You're really starting to annoy me, ya know that?! Whatever, I can still send one of your dumb pets to the vet with Lycoris. Attack that dumb fox thing!"
"Melffy Fenny's effect activates!" Sarah declared, "Whenever one of your monsters declares an attack, I can return this monster to my hand and special summon one beast type monster from my hand," Melffy Fenny ran back towards it's master and vanished on the spot, returning as a card in Sarah's hand. The monster that took Fenny's place was a second Kalantosa in defense, "That in turn activates Kalantosa's effect, destroying another card you control: Lycoris."
Lycoris evaporated the same way that Holly Angel did. Now Sarah was the one with four monsters and a set card on her field while Lemon_Drop had nothing. The older girl went from steaming to fuming.
"No. No way am I letting this happen!"
"Oh, my dear sweet angel," Sid spouted, tears in his eyes, "Just hang in there!"
"I'm going to hit you!" Aella threatened, nearing on the verge of popping a blood vessel.
She was far too hasty to attack Sarah's monsters, Chuck observed, Lemon_Drop is playing considerably worse now than at the start.
"I'm done playing games with you," Lemon_Drop continued, "You might have stopped me from discarding Corobane, but you can't stop me from summoning Trickstar Rhodode. When she's summoned to the field, she brings back a Trickstar link monster, like Holly Angel," this next Trickstar had purple hair and wore a green dress with a skirt resembling rose red petals, Rhodode (Lv. 4, LIGHT, Fairy, Atk. 1400, Def. 1900).
"Before that happens, Melffy Puppy activates it's effect," Sarah declared, "You summoned a monster, so now it can return to my hand."
"What?!" Lemon_Drop screeched.
"Now I can summon a beast type monster from my deck, Valerifawn, Mystical Beast of the Forest," a small fawn with a flower bush on it's back appeared in place of Melffy Puppy, Valerifawn (Lv. 2, EARTH, Beast/Tuner, Atk. 400, Def. 900). After this happened, Rhodode's effect resolved, brining back Holly Angel.
"Okay, what did that do? That's worthless," Lemon_Drop insulted, "You just traded one weak monster for another. How scary."
The fact you saw that as a worthless play shows how weak you are as a duelist, Chuck thought. Thinning the deck was always a worthwhile venture.
The streamer girl continued, "Whatever. Since I couldn't discard Corobane before, I can just summon her to the field thanks to her special ability. Oh, and don't forget about Holly Angel, who deals you 200 points of damage whenever a Trickstar monster is summoned. Now I'll combine Rhodode and Corobane to Link Summon Trickstar Bella Madonna," the two trickstars flew into a a link gate in an extra monster zone directly above Holly Angel. The link circuit's arrows pointed up, right, bottom left, and down to bring forth Trickstar Bella Madonna (Link - 4, LIGHT, Fairy/Link, Atk. 2800), a green haired woman in a pink and purple gown wielding a mighty battle axe. Holly Angel's effect activated activated twice this turn; Sarah was now down to 1800 lifepoints, "What do you think about that? Stew on that when you make your next turn."
Sarah put on an unconvincingly brave face, "I draw. I activate the field spell Closed Forest. When this is active, all beast type monsters on the field gain 100 attack points for every beast in the graveyard," the scenery morphed to accommodate Sarah's field spell, creating a thick and dark canopy of trees with numerous branches. Sarah had two monsters in her graveyard, Mine Mole and Nimble Beaver, so her monsters received a 200 point boost in power.
"Say, this is a little too dreary for my taste," Lemon_Drop complained.
"Now, I'll overlay all four level two monsters on my field," all four critters jumped into a black vortex, "With these monsters, I build the overlay network! Matriarch of the forest, let your children bask in your warm embrace. Xyz Summon! Melffy Mommy," Sarah's ace monster Melffy Mommy (Rank. 2, EARTH, Beast/Xyz, Atk. 1000, Def. 1000) was a big and fluffy pink creature with a unicorn horn atop her head. Truly an intimidating entity. Due to the effects of Closed Forest, she gained an extra 200 attack.
"That stuffed animal is even lamer than the last Xyz monster you summoned," Melffy Mommy seemed to understand what Lemon_Drop said, as she furiously flailed her limbs in outrage, "Aww, did I hurt it's wittle feelings?"
"I'll show you what she can do! I activate Melffy Mommy's effect. I can take a beast type monster in my hand and add it to this monster as material," Melffy Fenny from Sarah's hand was placed underneath Melffy Mommy, making her total Xyz material five, "Melffy Mommy attacks Trickstar Bella Madonna! Cuddly charge!" everyone aside from Chuck felt their minds go into a tizzy at that declaration.
"Wait, what? Why is she attacking?" Aella questioned in shock.
Melffy Mommy slammed into Bella Madonna, harmlessly bouncing off the armed diva and flying back to her position on the field. All of a sudden, a blast of energy shot from Bella Madonna into Lemon_Drop, draining her lifepoints to 4200. Needless to say, the older girl was dumbfounded.
"Hey, what gives? What just happened?"
"Melffy Mommy's effects are dependent on the number of Xyz material she has," Sarah explained, "Since she has five, she can't be destroyed in battle and neither of us receive battle damage from attacks involving her. Also, when she attacks a monster, you take damage equal to that monster's attack points."
"Say what?! You don't even need to do basic math to deal damage to me?" Lemon_Drop complained, "Dueling is such blatant garbage!"
Chuck took in her statement. She demonstrated greatest the defense mechanism of a weak duelist, complaining.
"I end my turn," Sarah announced. As she did, Melffy Puppy's second effect activated, re-summoning itself to the field in defense.
"The next few turns will decide the duel," Chuck said. Every spectator was fully behind the frightened but determined child, aside from a lovesick Sid.
"Don't worry my sweet angel, I'll cheer for you until the end of—" a loud and meaty bonk reverberated throughout the entire area with enough kinetic force to make the windows vibrate violently. Suddenly, Sid found himself sprawled on the floor with a steaming bump on his head, his limbs twitching despite losing all consciousness. Chuck stared incredulously at the assailant.
"I've been listening to that simpleton drone on and on this entire time!" she simmered. Aella looked on, her arm pulled back as if she were ready to deliver a punch, over to Nanny, whose steaming fist was clenched with fury.
"Nanny's scary when she's angry," one of the kids whimpered.
Lemon_Drop drew her card, her face contorting into a wicked grin when she saw what it was, "Lady Luck must really love me. I just drew the winning card! I win! I play Forbidden Chalice. This handy little baby lets me target a monster you control and negate it's effects for the turn. Sure, it gives your monster 400 points, but it's gonna be worth it," Melffy Mommy's attack rose to 1600, but her protection ability was no longer in effect.
In a panic, Sarah immediately went to activate her trap card, but something stopped her. She recalled a few days ago when she was in a similar situation. During practice with Sid, she made a move that completely decimated his board. She felt wonderful when she pulled it off. Despite this, Ren was quick to point out:
"You were too greedy. There was a superior play to make."
"But… what does that matter? I'm winning now, aren't I?" Sarah pointed out.
"It does matter," Ren said, "You were too rash and did not see all possibilities presented to you. If you do not play in the best possible manner, your opponent can always come back."
"Not this," Sid retorted, "How do you expect me to come back from this?" like it typically did, Ren's bokken flew in front of Sid's face, startling him so much he fell on his back.
"DO NOT SASS ME, BOY!" Ren hollowed with a tone that would instill fear into a god, a tone that made Sarah screech in terror.
As Sarah contemplated that memory, she thought over to all the possibilities that could happen. One stuck out in her mind. Was it the right choice? Wether or not it was, she needed to do something. This was her battle to finish.
"Now that that overstuffed toy can't do anything, I'll use it to wage an attack on you and end this!" Lemon_Drop declared.
"Before that happens, Melffy Puppy's effect activates. He now returns to my hand while a level two beast type monster takes his place," Sarah special summoned Melffy Catty in defense.
"Like that's gonna help!" Lemon_Drop taunted, "This duel's over!" Bella Madonna reeled back her axe and took aim at Melffy Mommy, intending to cleave her in two.
"Not good!" Aella panicked, "If this connects, Sarah loses," thankfully, the little girl had the perfect plan to stay alive.
"Activate trap card! Melffy Playhouse! This trap lets me remove as many materials from a beast type Xys monster as is possible, then I can return an equal number of cards you control to the hand," Sarah removed all five of Melffy Mommy's Xyz materials. Strangely, Sarah elected to only return Holly Angel back into the extra deck, an act that broke the streamer girl's brain.
"WHAT?! Are you stupid? Why would you only get rid of Holly Angel? The pressure's getting to you."
"Melffy Playhouse has another effect," Sarah responded, "All beast type Xyz monsters gain 500 attack points for every material detached. Since I sent five materials to the graveyard, Melffy Mommy gains 2500 attack points, plus another 700 from closed forest," Melffy Mommy's attack points reached 4600. Lemon_Drop's face went pale as a result. Bella Madonna's axe swing backfired as soon as it made contact with Melffy Mommy, obliterating the former in the process. This interaction left Lemon_Drop with 2400 lifepoints, "Bella Madonna is destroyed!"
"Sarah! That was brilliant!" Chuck exclaimed, Your beginning to understand how to best utilize your cards.
Lemon_Drop was not happy, "NO! I'm not letting this happen! I'm not letting you have your way, you stupid brat! I activate Trickstar reincarnation from the card graveyard. I can now call up a soloist from the graveyard, just like Bella Madonna!" instinctively, Sarah activated Catty's effect, returning to the hand. The little girl added a level two beast type monster to her hand, "Aww, too bad. And after all that work you put in too. See what happens when you fight with the big kids? Now I can activate Bella Madonna's special ability, which lets me deal 200 damage to you for every Trickstar monster in my graveyard with a different name!" there were six different trickstars in Lemon_Drop's graveyard: Lycoris, Narkissus, Candina, Corobane, Rhodode, and Holly Angel. With this, Bella Madonna swung pink fire from her axe, dealing Sarah 1200 damage. She now had a paltry 600 points remaining, "You might as well not even draw. I have this duel in the bag."
It was now the end phase. The effects of both Forbidden Chalice and Melffy Playhouse fizzled away. Because of Closed Forest, Melffy now had 1700 attack points, but she didn't have any of her effects.
Sarah hesitantly reached for her deck. Despite her best efforts, she just couldn't muster enough strength to make a difference in the end. Once again, it was Chuck who who snapped her back to reality.
"Sarah, believe in your cards! You told me you gathered them together because they called out to you. Your soul is connected with your deck. It will pull through for you in times of need. Now draw!"
Sarah looked back at him and looked into his eyes. They seemed so sure, as if what he said was the absolute truth. With that, she decided to trust him. Sarah tightly closed her eyes and made a very quick draw from her deck. She managed to peek her eye to look at the card she drew. In an instant, Sarah stopped her trembling and widened her eyes as a gasp escaped her mouth. Her face then transitioned to a wide smile, a smile that made Lemon_Drop worry.
"What… what did you draw?"
"The attack points of your monster are greater than the combined attack points of my two monsters. That allows me to special summon Alpha, the Master of Beasts," contrary to all other monsters Sarah played, Alpha, the Master of Beasts (Lv. 8, EARTH, Beast, Atk. 3000, Def. 2500) was an intimidating and massive orange maned lion with spikes jutting out of his body. Closed Forest rose his attack points to 3700.
"You're kidding me!" Lemon_Drop cried, "What kind of luck based garbage was that?"
"Alpha attacks Bella Madonna! King's pounce!" Alpha bared it's fangs before springing towards Bella Madonna, smashing her into the floor with his front paws. Now Lemon_Drop had nothing left to protect her, "Melffy Mommy attacks directly!" the pink fluff ball ungraciously flew into battle, slamming into the older girl, who fell on her back as her lifepoints depleted to zero.
"No way! She actually won?!" one of the kids said.
"Alright! She did it!" Aella cried.
Even Chuck looked on with a smile of pride. The duel training shows results yet again.
Sarah smiled broadly at her achievement. She defeated an older and more experienced opponent. In some form of flattering imitation, Sarah uttered, "Good game."
"Shut up!" Lemon_Drop shouted, shocking Sarah to her core, "Don't act like that was a good game! Dueling is such complete garbage! Even when I play better, stupid stuff like that happens!"
"Sarah played her absolute hardest!" Aella defended.
"Shut up!" the pink girl repeated as she got back up, "You saw how badly she was playing at the start! I'm literally better than her and she gets the win due to dumb luck!"
Sarah began to feel very uncomfortable at this point. To help alleviate the pressure, Chuck decided to speak up.
"To be frank, both of you had an overall poor performance, but Sarah was able to rebound when it mattered. You let your emotions get the better of you and made sub-optimal plays."
"Shut up!" the streamer yelled thrice, "This has nothing to do with you!" something seemed to snap inside of her, because her face slowly grew more manic, "You know what? You can have this stupid duel, because I still win in the end anyway," she ranted, "I'm still famous and you're gonna stay in this dump for the rest of your life! You know why? Because no self respecting adult will ever love a pretentious little brat like you!"
A thick silence hung in the air. Who could speak after an unhinged statement like that? The only sound that echoed in the alley was Sarah's whimpering. It wasn't long until she began bawling her eyes out, her wails sending a spike into the spectator's hearts.
"How dare you!" Aella yelled in outrage.
"You're scum!" Nanny shouted as she hugged Sarah to console her. The other kids began hurling words of rage as well.
"You meanie!"
"Is that how a grownup acts?!"
"I hope your stream fails!"
That last statement sent a surge of insight and panic into Lemon_Drop. That's right! She was still live. She turned to her camera. The flux of messages coming in was staggering, and none of them positive.
I feel betrayed.
Aaaand unsub
LOL exposed!
"NononoNO! I'm losing hundreds of subs a second!" Lemon_Drop screeched. This was truly her worst nightmare.
"No less than what you deserve!" Aella yelled.
"No no! I was just joking!" the older girl desperately said, "I-it was just a slip of the tongue!"
"You meant what you said!" Nanny accused, "Don't double back just because you're scared for your fame!"
"Yeah…" spoke a struggling voice, still audible through Sarah's wails of despair. It was Sid. He managed to regain consciousness just a little while ago, "Someone who makes a kid cry doesn't deserve attention," he said as he propped up his upper body.
"So even you have common sense?" Nanny remarked.
Lemon_Drop's expression grew increasingly furious, pupils dilating and hair frizzing. It all came to a boiling point when she exploded, "You're all bullies! Every single one of you! It's all because I'm a woman and I'm popular! You're all intimidated by me! You're all scared of me being better than you!"
Betwixt all of the hateful glances she received, one person walked towards her with an air of gentle fury. It was Chuck.
"I've let Sarah fight this battle, but I can't sit still with something like this."
"What do you want, you hobo?!" Lemon_Drop screeched.
Chuck simply responded, "You claimed you could OTK me. Prove it."
"Are you challenging me?" in response to her question, Chuck activated his duel disk, "Okay then, fine. Trouncing you is sure to restore my reputation," despite the flawed logic, Lemon_Drop prepared herself.
For the residents of this block, this day would be remembered for the terrific explosion and tremor felt from the back alley.
As the smoke cleared, Lemon_Drop was seen sprawled on the floor in a daze while Chuck stood perfectly still. The spectators all watched slack jawed as they saw the pro duelist defeat the former streamer in a single turn.
"Good game."
"So she was just hot air this whole time," Nanny commented. She was still holding onto Sarah, who was beginning to calm down, devolving into light tears and whimpers, "C'mon then, lets get back inside."
"Hold on," Aella said. The three teens still didn't get to ask the quest question they wanted to ask when they got here: "We wanted to ask Sarah why she wanted to learn dueling."
"Read the room, you idiot!" Nanny snapped, silencing the conversation, "She doesn't need your badgering right now! I don't know why she would want to learn how to duel with what she's been through, but it's over now. I forbid her to duel! I don't want any of you kids to talk to Sarah ever again!" with that, Nanny lead the still whimpering Sarah back into the foster home. Before she opened the back door, she grumbled under her breath, "duelists are horrid people."
Aella and Sid felt utterly defeated. As for Chuck, he just looked on with sadness, Sarah, you shouldn't have experienced what my world is like.
The Ikari Corner
Aella: I'm looking online and Lemon_Drop disappeared entirely.
Sid: Serves her right. Anyone who falls for her is a complete nut case.
Aella: You should rethink what you just said.
Chuck: She wasn't that strong a duelist, but she might have ruined the game for Sarah entirely.
Aella: What a bully.
Chuck: Now it's time for Ikari Family Trivia:
Samantha Ikari's maiden name is Faust. Her father is highly influential in the dueling hardware sector.
Aella: Wait. Did you say Faust?
Sid: You don't mean THAT Faust, do you?
Chuck: Next time: Sarah's Past.
Sid: And he ignores me.
To be continued…