Sekhmet: Sean Schemmel makes my ears bleed.
Susano-o: We should have cut Gerard, again script sticking hurt us here.
Sekhmet: Yeah. Too late for kick turn.
Susano-o: Also height of Rose's insanity for this season, that was fun.
Sekhmet: Yeah. Readers will see. I can't talk about it but they'll see.
Susano-o: To this day I'm conflicted about it, but let's go.
Duel 14: Big Trouble in Hero City, Part 1
The day was upon them, today was the day the final selection for the Inter School Duel representative, all the staff and the top third year students of each dorm where meeting in one of the conference rooms of the main building to discuss who they would choose.
"Well I think we should pick Zane," Crowler said with a sycophant smirk. "He's been our representative for the past two years so why try to fix what isn't broken?"
"Zane is our best, but he's a third year student, and North Academy is using a first year," Chancellor Sheppard explained.
"Why are they doing that?" Crowler screeched.
"Who knows," Chancellor Sheppard laughed. "In the spirit of competition i think we should as well, you understand don't you Zane?"
"Of Course," He nodded.
"Well then, the only question is who will this first year be?" Chancellor Sheppard asked.
Zane thought for a moment, he considered all the options, then he remembered that Rose had a battering ram and no common sense, so she would probably freak out if she wasn't nominated. "Rose Warren," He suggested.
"What!" Crowler yelled.
"I agree," Professor Banner said smiling. "Rose is our best new student, even if she is a bit eccentric." Pharaoh meowed in agreement.
"Oh well if the cat agrees," Crowler snarked.
"I also agree," Midori said glaring. "She's good...even if she's a little odd," She finished looking away in chagrin. "She'll make the school proud trust me."
"What about Bastion?" Sartyr said from the other side. "He tested higher than any first year he'd be great representative."
"I agree," The random Ra Third Year agreed, because that was all he was there to do.
"I also agree!" Crowler said quickly. "And that's 3 votes to 3 votes, so I guess Rose won't be our representative!" He said in a poor attempt to confuse everyone and ignore the rest of the people in the room who had yet to vote.
"I have a better idea," Chancellor Sheppard said. "Why don't we have a duel off?"
"A duel off?" Midori asked.
"Yes, we'll have Bastion and Rose duel to see who will be our representative!" He said happily.
"I agree that is the most fair way to decide this," Zane said nodding.
"Rose will go for it," Midori agreed with Banner and Pharaoh nodding as well.
"Bastion will cream her!" The Ra third year said slamming his fist down.
"Well I suppose I've been outvoted," Sartyr said with a sigh.
Crowler growled, but once he realized that Bastion had the best chance of beating Rose he gave the group a Grinch like smirk. "SURE!" He said happily. "Sounds like a plan!" The rest of the people their split their votes, but in the end it was decided the duel would happen. Midori smiled as she stood up to leave. "Well I'd better tell Rose the good news, I'm sure she'll be excited."
….
Rose was in fact, very excited. "Victory Screech!" She yelled letting out a warbling war cry with her hands in the air.
"Congratulations on getting nominated." Yuko said, relieves that she wasn't picked after all.
"Aw yeah Rose! You might be in the School Duel!" Syrus exclaimed.
"Someone's finally gonna show everyone how good us Slifer Red's are!" Chumley said happily grabbing everyone drinks and snacks.
"Yeah!" Rose said happily dancing around the room. "Come on, lets go raid the card shop then get Alexis to help us talk strategy!" She yelled somehow managing to grab everyone's hands at once and drag them all towards the main building. "Now that we're men! We can do anything now that we're men!"
"But I'm not a man." Yuko said.
"Rose I think a different song may be better," Midori said obviously trying not to sing along.
"Oh fine," Rose said rolling her eyes. "Who can catch lightning in a bottle! set fire to water
Comin' out the nozzle on the fire hose! flyer than swatters! Cinderella man! Cinderella man! Cinderella man! Cinderella man!" She chanted as she stomped out the melody. "Smash an hourglass, grab the sand! Rakes his hands and cup 'em! Spin around to freeze the clock, take the hands of time and cuff 'em! Cinderella man! Cinderella man! Cinderella man! Cinderella man!"
"Nice raps." Yuko said. She didn't know Rose could sing.
"I have perfect pitch," Rose explained. "And a huge range, I took singing classes when I was younger, actually I tired out a lot of things when I was young before I got into dueling."
"Cool. If dueling doesn't work out for some reason, you could easily be a pop star back in Japan." Yuko said.
Rose shuddered at the image of her in some sort of J-Pop outfit. "No I'll head back to the states for that," she said chuckling.
"Alright." Yuko said, not really having much more to add.
"Hey what's going on up there?" Midori asked as she watched a fellow Red get pushed around by some Blues and a Yellow. "Oh well that's not gonna fly," She glared breaking out of Rose's grip and walking over. "What is going on here!" She boomed making everyone flinch.
"Feh, just putting this Slifer Slime in his place." One Obelisk said.
"Yeah, what's it to you?" The other said.
The Ra gulped. "Wait a minute, you're…"
Midori's glare intensified. "I'm Midori Hibiki!" She yelled shoving her way into the face of the tallest one. "Third Year Slifer Red and I will not let you insult one of the students in my dorm!" She yelled jabbing a finger in his chest. "So unless you're willing to put your cards where your mouth is, I suggest you move along!" She ordered pulling out her duel disk. "Understand?" She asked with a 「Menacing」smile.
"Right, sorry!" The Ra said, running off.
"Whatever, he wasn't worth our time." The second Obelisk said, and the two walked off.
"I'd suggest you two watch your backs!" Rose yelled smirking. "I'll be coming by tonight to remind you of your place!" The two Obelisks broke into a run at that, remembering the last time Rose paid a visit to their dorm. "Little piece of advice," Rose said turning to the new Slifer. "Blues are pussies, so feel free to beat the snot out of them, no one is gonna give a fuck," She said smiling.
"Umm thanks," The student said rubbing the back of his head.
"They didn't hurt you, did they?" Yuko asked.
"No, but thanks for asking," He said dusting himself off. "I'm new so I'm still learning the ropes."
"Oh wow you're old," Chumley said before Midori's glare cut him off. "Umm I mean, umm."
"It's fine," Midori said smiling. "Just means he started his journey a little later than us."
"Yeah welcome to the academy!" Rose said excitedly slapping him on the back.
"Yeah, what's your name?" Yuko asked.
"Gerard," He said before quickly covering his mouth in shock. "Umm yeah Gerard, Gerard Keith."
"Pleased to meet you." Yuko replied.
….
"Ok!" Rose said happily. "My deck is ready for tomorrow!"
"You didn't do anything," Midori deadpanned. "You just looked at it and then fell asleep watching SNL."
"Because that's all I needed to do!" Rose said happily.
"Are you sure? It the scope of your self interests, this is pretty high stakes, right?" Yuko asked from her bunk.
"Oh please I beat Chazz and Zane, Bastion's good, but I got this," Rose said dismissively.
Gerard said nothing as he scoped out the dorms stealthily, like he had done this before. "So guys, what's up with the rumors about students going missing?" He asked.
"Hmm? Yeah, but you don't wanna look into it. It's more trouble than it's worth, trust me." Yuko said.
"Yeah that dorm was the home of ManBearPig," Syrus said nervously.
Rose debated for a second about telling Syrus she had made that up, then she saw how funny his reaction was so she decided to lean into it. "Yeah, ManBearPig lives in the abandoned blue dorms, it's super cereal."
Gerard shivered slightly at the sound of that, but his journalist nature compelled him to go check it out (this is why Lois Lane keeps getting in trouble). "Ok I won't go check it out, better than watching some stupid duel," He muttered thinking no one would hear him, unfortunately Rose's hearing when duels are mentioned is powerful enough to hear flies in Africa.
"I'm sorry could you repeat that?" She said with a small evil smile, Syrus was immediately terrified.
"Oh boy here we go." Yuko said.
"Umm sorry, I don't really like dueling, I'm not good at it," Gerard said quickly.
"Oh well it's not that hard," Rose said happily.
"Yeah, if you know what you're doing, dueling is easy." Yuko added.
"How about you come watch Rose's match tomorrow?" Chumley suggested.
"Maybe," Gerard said walking away.
…
"Rose's deck is indeed formidable. There's Contrast HERO Chaos, who can negate 1 card's effect once per turn. Then there's Masked HERO Dark Law, who banished any cards instead of sending them to the Graveyard while it's on the field. Finally, there's Masked HERO Acid, who destroys all the opponent's Spell and Traps when it hits the field." Bastion has been at this analytical bullshit for a LONG time. "I could design my deck around these, but that would be way too specific. Think Bastion, think!"
As of by some miracle, his last two unoccupied brain cells came together to form a pathway to the solution he needed. "I got it! Rose Warren, I've cracked your deck's code!"
…
"Welcome to the school duel!" Crowler yelled as a spotlight shined down on him. "Today we decide who will decided who will represent our school in the Inter-School Duel!" He yelled over the cheer. "In this corner we have, from the Ra Dorm, Bastion Misawa!"
The crowd let out a healthy cheer for Bastion as he entered the arena.
"And in the other corner we have someone from the Slifer Dorm," He said to the empty entrance.
"Where's Rose? Did she chicken out? Figured that Slifer wouldn't show…" and other such confused chatter made its way across the audience. While students of Ra and Obelisk were confused, the students of Slifer awaited their cue.
(Andrew W.K. Ready to Die)
That lights then dimmed till the entire arena was shrouded in darkness, and a single banjo rift started playing calmly, then it exploded into an intense rock song. A spotlight swirled around and pointed at Rose as she walked out of the entrance with her head down and her hands in the air pointing at the Slifer Students on either side of the entrance.
"This is your time to pay! This is your judgment day! We made a sacrifice! And now we get to take your life!" They sang in unison. "We shoot without a gun! We'll take on anyone! It's really nothing new! It's just a thing we like to do!"
Rose raised her head with a smirk as fireworks started exploding on either side of her along the walkway. "You better get ready to die! You better get ready to kill! You better get ready to run 'Cause here we come! You better get ready to die!" The Red's chanted as Rose turned around and started hyping the crowd up stomping along to the beat as she did.
"I can't believe Rose got the whole dorm in on this. I mean it's damn awesome, but where'd she get half these supplies?" Yuko thought.
"Where'd she get outdoor fireworks?!" Syrus thought frantically, trying to keep up with the song and shield his body from cascading sparks above.
"Why am I dating her?" Alexis asked herself, her words lost in the deafening explosions of the fireworks.
"I hope this display, while rather impressive, is not where Rose put all her effort into. I want this to be a good duel." Bastion thought, covering his ears.
Rose smiled widely as the songs second verse started up by this point she had made it to the edge of the arena and another round of fireworks leading all the way back to the entrance was going off again stopping just long enough for the singing to be heard again. "Your life is over now! Your life is running out! When your time is at an end then it's time to kill again! We cut without a knife! We live in black and white! You're just a parasite now close your eyes and say good-night!" Rose sang along as she pointed at Bastion. "You better get ready to die! You better get ready to kill! You better get ready to run 'Cause here we come! You better get ready to die! Get ready to die! You better get ready to die, get ready to die!" They continuously chanted as Rose pulled out a t-shirt cannon out from behind her and started firing into the crowd as the fireworks started going off again.
"Oh fuck!" Yuko shouted, and tackled Syrus as she dove to the ground as a t-shirt narrowly missed her head.
"Where'd she get a t-shirt cannon?" Zane thought incredulously as a t-shirt landed near him, showing that they had a photo of Rose and 'Contrast Hero Chaos' on the front giving a wink and a thumbs up à la Vault Boy.
"This wasn't in the plan!" Chumley thought. "Oh man the festival committee is gonna hate her for using up so much of their supplies."
"Been a long time coming! Now you better running! And you better get ready to die!" The students finished as the song came to an end with one last giant fireworks display that nearly deafened the crowd. Although the crowd was silent at first, it quickly erupted into a cheer that was almost as deafening as the display.
"Well," Rose said with a chuckle. "That went better than I expected," She said taking a bow towards different parts of the crowd.
"What was that!?" Crowler yelled as he stood up from here he had hid after the fireworks went off.
"Crowler, Crowler, Crowler," Rose chuckled shaking her head. "You don't understand the difference between a duelist and a champion duelist," She said smirking.
"Oh and what is that?" He asked grinding his teeth to the roots.
"Presentation!" Rose yelled spinning around to face the entire crowd, who roared in approval.
"Yes!" Yuko roared as loud as she could. Syrus was a bit speechless at the moment, as the two still hasn't gotten up from the floor yet.
"Absolutely!" Midori said, clapping.
"Well it was certainly an entrance," Bastion said raising an eyebrow. "Hopefully you put as much effort into our duel as you did into that display," she joked.
"Oh don't worry about that," Rose said with a laugh. "I put 100% into that entrance," She said pulling out her duel disk. "And 1000% into dueling!"
"I look forward to that," Bastion said smiling as he activating his duel disk, Rose activated hers as well.
"Umm can someone help me down!" Brandon yelled from the rafters.
…
"Lets duel!" The two yelled.
"My move," Rose chuckled drawing her card. "Oh that's a good one, I play E-Emergency call!" She yelled. "Now I get a 'Elemental Hero' from my deck to my hand," She explained adding the card to her hand. "I'll set two cards face down and summon 'Elemental Hero Sparkman' (1600/1400) in attack mode, and end my turn."
"Alright then," Bastion said drawing his card, he sneered slightly as he looked at it. "I play 'Oxygeddon' (1800/800)!" He yelled as a dinosaur made of pure wind came together with a roar. "And I'll play one card face down and end my turn."
"My move then," Rose nodded as she drew her next card. "Oh lucky me, I play 'Elemental Hero Lady Heat' (1300/1000) and now I'll use 'Double Summon' to summon her main man 'Elemental Hero Heat' (1600/1200) but wait there's more he gains 200 ATK for each 'Elemental Hero' I control (1600-2400), It's time to turn it up 'Heat' attack 'Oxygeddon with Flare Strike!" Heat reared back and threw a punch at 'Oxygeddon' sending a high speed fireball at it.
"You should have payed more attention in chemistry," Bastion said smirking. "Fire and oxygen react rather violently with each other," He joked as the fireball exploded, causing the entire arena to be filled with fire (Rose LP: 8000-7200) (Bastion LP: 8000-7200-4800).
"Well this is an explosive start." Yuko said. "Two turns in and there's been a massive loss in Life Points. At this rate, the duel will be over in no time."
"Yeah, Rose is gonna outpace Bastion if this keeps up." Midori said.
"Still, I can't help but wonder…" Yuko half thought.
"Oh, why did I have to open my mouth and advocate for Bastion?! He's getting creamed, I'm getting humiliated, and worst of all, Rose is looking better than ever!" Crowler shrieked internally, nearly ripping his hair out in frustration.
"Good one," Rose said with a cough. "I'll end my turn, and now 'Lady Heat' deals you 200 damage for each 'Elemental Hero' I control," She smirked as 'Lady Heat' created a small fireball on her finger and flung it at Bastion (Bastion LP: 4800-4200).
Bastion drew his card. "I play 'Pot of Greed' to draw two more cards," He said drawing his new cards, and the tension seemed to bleed out of his shoulders. "I play two cards face down and summon 'Hydrogeddon' in attack mode (1600/1000)," He said as a massive monster of pure hydrogen gas appeared from the ground. "Now I end my turn."
"Ok," Rose said drawing her card. "'Heat' attack 'Hydrogeddon'!" She ordered.
"Not so fast!" Bastion yelled pointing at Rose accusingly. "Go 'Ring of Destruction'!" He ordered as a ring of grenades attached itself to 'Heat's' neck. "Now we both take damage equal to his attack points, or rather you will because I have 'Ring of Defense' He smirked activating his spell card as another ring appeared in front of him just at 'Heat' exploded (Rose LP:7200-4800).
"I thought so." Yuko finished thinking. "They're evenly matched now. This fight's gonna be a knockdown dragout." She said.
"Yeah, but the duel is far from over. Rose is definitely gonna win this, right?" Syrus asked, a little nervous as always.
"It would stand to say that, yes." Yuko replied, not taking her eyes off the field.
"Damn it," Rose cursed. "Ok then I'll end my turn and let 'Lady Heat' get some revenge for what you did to 'Heat'," (Bastion LP: 4200-3800).
"Alright then," He said drawing a card. "Now 'Hydrogeddon' attack 'Lady Heat' with hydro gust!"
Hydrogeddon fired a massive blast of hydrogen gas at 'Lady Heat' who shattered into pieces (Rose LP: 4800-4500). "And how I can summon another 'Hydrogeddon' from my deck," Bastion said as another one appeared from the ground. "-But I can't destroy 'Sparkman' so I end my battle phase."
"Not yet because I play 'Hero Signal'!" Rose yelled as a signal light with a big H on it appeared in the sky. "Now I can special summon a level four or lower 'Elemental Hero' from my deck or my hand, so come on out the one and only 'Elemental Hero Shadow Mist' (1000/1500)!" Rose yelled as she appeared on the field. "And now I get to add a 'Change' quick play spell from my deck to my hand," She said grabbing the right card.
Bastion smirked at that. "I'll end my turn," He said nodding.
"Ok then," Rose said drawing her card. "Ok now then I play 'Mask Change'!" She yelled.
"Objection!" Bastion said smirking. "I activate 'Curse Seal of the Forbidden Spell'!" He yelled activating his trap card and activating his trap card which attached to Rose's with a black miasma. "By discarding a spell card I can negate the activation and effect of a spell card and destroy it!" He explained discarding the a card as Rose's 'Mask Change' shattered into pieces. "And finally you cannot activate Spell Cards with that name for the rest of this duel."
"Wait what?" Rose asked shocked.
"Yes, you can't use 'Mask Change' for the rest of the duel!" Bastion said smirking.
"Oh no!" Syrus exclaimed.
"Not 'Licious." Chumley agreed.
Yuko's gaze narrowed, but she didn't say anything.
"I've cracked your decks code, you have no way to win this now!" Bastion laughed.
←To be continued