C.1 - Hiring Agents

"Sooooooo…" Jayden slowly drawled as he crossed his arms over his chest. "You're offering to be my agent, for practice and if I agree you'll find me a lot of duels?"

Jayden had been spending his afternoon after class bored out of his mind. He'd come to this school for one thing only, duels, but it seemed his reputation for defeating that one teacher in the exam and the rumours of him defeating Chazz had spread… that last one wasn't even something that happened, yet still it spread like wildfire.

He'd love to duel Chazz and actually finish a duel with him. That'd be spectacular. His last duel with him was a rush like none other-

Ah! He was getting sidetracked!

Disregarding how people found out about him and Chazz's duel, the point was that people were now afraid of him. Some thought he was just a cheater who tricked his way to success, others believed it and feared him like he was some evil villain.

Either way he found it hard to find a duel with people outside of his friend group. He'd almost resigned himself to stop going around asking for duels for the day when something odd happened.

That odd thing was the black haired girl standing before him, she was wearing the Obelisk girl's uniform which meant she was a student, though she was probably the year above him if he had to guess off of her looks. She wore squared glasses and carried a set of folders underneath her arm. Her Duel Disk strapped to the side of her bag which hung off one of her shoulders.

"Do ya want me to repeat myself." She asked in her countryside accent. "Geez, I hope you're not intentionally ignoring me." A twinge of bitterness entered her tone as she finished her sentence.

He quickly raised up his hands in his defence. "No way, I was just… okay, I don't exactly know what an agent is, and you don't look like the spy type, so I don't think you're that kind of spy."

"Astute." She commented. "My name is Carey. When I graduate from this academy, I'm looking to become a Duelist Agent. I want to practise here at school, noticed your dilemma through the school's grapevine and decided, hey i could help."

He wnet to say something when Carey just spoke over him.

"What is an agent, technically an agent is everything. See, an agent is someone you hire to do something for you. Think of it as an independent contracted worker. What does this mean for you?" Carey then plucked out a folder and opened it, pulling out a pen from somewhere she clicked its end and smiled at him. "In the duelling world an agent would find tournaments you'd want to participate in or opponents to fight, I could look for future business ventures for you, like if someone wanted to offer you a sponsorship, you could get me to talk to them." She then coughed and cleared her throat.

"Sorry, I'm over-explaining. My point is, I can find and set up duels for you."

"Oh?" That last part was what he was interested in for sure! "Can you get someone to duel me?"

"Yep!" Carey said with a shining smile. "I could find all sorts of people in this place, no matter how strange their deck or personality may be. It won't be a problem for me. And! Since this is all practice, I just need you to sign something for me and I wouldn't need to charge you a single dollar, it's all for free."

She stretched out her hand holding out the pen and a paper contract.

"I see no downsides to this!" Jayden grinned before taking the pen and paper, quickly signing his name at the bottom.

Carey sighed dreamily. "I love it when a customer just signs it. Now then, predicting that you would say yes, I already have a duel set up for you."

"Really! Wow! You're efficient." He praised them.

"I'm glad you think so. Meet up at Duel Arena six in thirty minutes." Carey declared whilst she stowed away her folders and the paper Jayden had given back to her in her bag. "Bring some friends, let's celebrate your chance at duelling again."

Jayden smiled and nodded. "Sounds great, I'll head off now then. Maybe some of my friends would like to watch me duel."

"I'm sure they do. See you soon Jayden."

"So Jay, who are you even duelling?" His buddy Syrus asked as they entered the right duel arena.

"I don't know." He shrugged.

"Wh-what? You said you were about to have the best duel of all time, refused to elaborate and just left." Syrus complained. "And you mean to tell me that you don't even know who you're going to be duelling?"

"But Sy, every duel is the best duel." Jayden jokes.

His buddy continued to narrow their eyes at him until he could do nothing but chuckle lightly under his gaze.

"Look, Sy, it'll be good. I promise. I found this Agent lady and she said she'd find me someone to duel." He tried to explain.

"Are you duelling this girl?" Syrus asked.

He just shrugged. "I don't know, maybe, all I know is she's going to find me someone to duel against."

They finally walked out around the stands and in view of the main stage. A mechanical stage that was supposed to make the effects of your holograms your Duel Disk creates larger and better than what it could alone. Standing near the steps that lead up to the stage he spotted three people.

One was quite clearly Carey, who now stood without her many folders or her bag. Beside her however was a ginger boy who looked like they were a part of some kind of sports club based on how fit he was. He was dressed with a Ra Yellow Jacket.

Looking at it made Jayden glad he was in Slifer, he could never stomach wearing mustard yellow every day to school.

And besides the both of them was a food cart. With several fanciful platters with glass cases over them. He could see frosted cakes inside of the cases. The girl behind the food cart was obviously manning it, she had shot but curly blonde hair and was noticeably quite thin.

Looking at the cakes made him feel hungry all of a sudden.

As he approached the group Carey called out to them. "Hello there, Jayden and…" She looked down at Syrus for a moment and paused. "Zachery?"

"It's Syrus."

"Aren't you Zane's brother?" Carey asked curiously.

"Y-yes, but that doesn't mean all our names start with Z."

"Huh, well anyways, this is my younger sister Carol." Carey pointed to the Obelisk Blue girl behind the food cart. "She's fundraising, would you like food?"

"Would i?" Jayden said with a grin before going forward and pulling out the school's PDA out of his pocket. Carrol seemed to try and speak and say something to him, but nothing more than a mouse-ish squeak escaped her lips before she gave up and just reached her own PDA forwards over the counter.

Her PDA scanned his and 100 points were transferred, she then handed him a paper plate of a cake slice of his choice. He couldn't help but pick chocolate.

Sometimes the classics were the classics for a reason.

Behind him Syrus spoke up. "Can't help but feel like this was an elaborate ruse to sell more of your sister's cakes."

"Nah." The ginger Ra Yellow kid with a mouth full of cake said, slightly muffled by said food in his mouth.

"Oh it totally." Carey smiled as she looked pointedly at Syrus. "But if you don;t want cake, suit yourself."

"Wh-what, who said that." Syrus then walked up and bought some cake of his own. "I don't have a lot, but it's totally worth it."

Once everyone present was finished eating their cakes Carey stepped towards Jayden. "So, Jayden, I brought you your competitor. Samson from the Newsletter Club. He's a Tier 10 Ra Circuit Duelist."

"A whosawhatsit?" Jayden repeated.

"It's…" Carey just waved her hand. "If you still care about it after today, i'll explain it, but it doesn't matter at this moment. All you need to know is that this will be a best of one duel. Best of luck."

The duelist in question Samson walked up. His thick arms crossed over his barrel-like chest. "I've heard a lot about you Jayden. Can't wait to see if the rumours hold up."

"Come at me with all you got man!" Jayden insisted as he raised his arm, the one already attached with his Duel Academy Duel Disk. "I've been itching for a duel for days. So I want this to be a good one."

Samson smiled. "Well then, let's do this."

The set-up was swift. Carey had them both swap decks to shuffle then return. Then there was a game of Roshambo. Which he won.

Scissors never fails!

Winning let him choose who went first, he couldn't wait to play so he just chose first. They then stood on their spots, which were marked out on the stage. As well painted lines for each player's five monster zones and five spell/trap zones.

Once there he locked eyes with Samson across from him, grins growing on their faces. For a brief couple of seconds everything went quiet. The air still, the audience on the sidelines stilled, but despite all that he could feel an eclectic energy just beneath his skin that buzzed through his fingertips until they were numb.

Then everything came undone like a floodgate opening.

"Let's Duel." They both shouted, both of their Duel Disks coming to life and extending to their active modes.

Samson (4000LP) VS Jayden (4000LP)

He drew his hand, including the sixth one he'd obtain when he started this duel. His eyes quickly scanned through the cards before he went and plucked two from his hand. "I'll set a monster face-down and a single card behind him." He explained as he set the cards on his Duel Disk.

His opponent smiled, approving of the classic T-Set move.

"Your turn!" Jayden grinned.

"Draw!" Samson called out. "I'll begin this by summoning Giant Rat in attack mode! From there, we'll battle, attack that face-down." A large human sized rat holding a skull in its hands appeared on Samson's field, its teeth chattering together before it leapt forward at his set card. (A:1400/D:1450)

"Rise up!" Jayden called out as his face-down monster revealed itself. A massive stone arm reached out and snatched the rat out of the air, the rocky hand's fingers slipping around their neck before it shoved the rat to the floor pinning them. The rest of the brown-beige clay golem with the red head appeared. It's massive body almost blocking Jayden's view of his opponent in the process.

"Say hello to one of my favourite heroes, Elemental Hero Clayman!" Jayden cried out, his smile threatening to stretch past the limits of his face. "Oh, I've missed this so much." (A:800/D:2000)

Clayman then let go of the rat and kicked with its large leg, sending the rat tumbling backwards on Samson's field. Samson winced as the recoil damage lowered his life points.

Samson (3400LP)

The clay golem then kneeled down and crossed its arms over their chest.

"I'll set a pair of cards face-down and then end my turn." Two face-down cards appeared between Samson and his monster.

"My move." Jayden announced as he drew a card. "And I'll take this duel up a gear. Say hello to Elemental Hero Sparkman." Appearing in a flash of light an armoured human, plated with neon blue and gold appeared on the field. (A:1600/D:1400)

"Battle, Sparkman, attack the Giant Rat!" Jayden ordered. His monster raised both it's arms parallel to each other, as they did electricity coursed up the arms until a sphere of crackling electricity appeared in their hands which they then threw towards the rat, impacting against and and causing them to explode.

Which Jayden assumed must be normal for rats to do when struck by lightning.

Samson (3200LP)

His opponent winced slightly at the holographic smoke before gesturing a hand forwards. "Since my rat was destroyed by battle, I can special summon any earth monster, straight from my deck, as long as they're summoned in attack mode and have less than 1500 attack points."

A tornado of wind and light appeared over Samson's field as he searched his deck and summoned a card onto his disk. "Replacing my rat, I summon Excadrago Excavate!" The wind broke apart revealing a new monster that moved around on caterpillar treads like a tank, its body was made of chipped construction site yellow metal. A metal scooping arm goes out of its front and has a dragon-like head design to its scoop.

Its main body had a cockpit and inside of it was a silhouette of a person. The dragon machine turned to face him, the scoop head then opened its mouth and roared. (A:1300/D:1100)

"Huh.." Jayden hummed as he looked at the card. "You weren't kidding when you said you'd find me some weird looking cards to fight." He chuckled.

"Glad you like the results." Carey smiled from the sidelines.

Jayden then pointed towards his opponent. "Okay then Samson, show me what you've got. I end my turn there."

"My turn!" Samson declared. "Now! During my main phase, I'll activate Excavate's effect, begin Excavation!" He shouted out. His machine went to work smashing its head into the floor. As it did, electronics on the machine's cockpit lit up like a disco globe.

"Now, I get to excavate a number of cards from the top of my deck equal to the number of machines I control. Which at the moment is only one."

Samson then did so. "Aha!" He grinned. "I just sent Excadrago Jackhammer! When they're excavated, their own effect activates, giving all my machines 500 points in both attack and defence."

Mover's roared as power coursed through its system. (A:1800/D:1600)

"Next, I'll Normal Summon Excadrago Bulldozer." Samson continued. A new machine appeared. Another draconic piece of construction equipment. This time a bulldozer, it's front-shover equipped with a dragon's face painted on it. Separate shovel plates come out of its sides and flap like wings. It has four legs made from caterpillar tracks. (A:1800/D:1700)

"Hey!" Syrus called out from the sidelines, earning both duelist's attention. "That monster isn't a level four card, you need to Tribute Summon to summon it."

"Haha." Samson chuckled. "For each time a card or cards were excavated this turn, some of my Excadragos will require one less Tribute to be Normal Summoned, so since I've already excavated once this turn, my level 5 Bulldozer can be played without tributing."

"Ah… okay." Syrus shrunk in on himself.

"Hey, don't worry Sy, I don't even know what his cards do either." Jayden tried to reassure his friend.

Samson gestured his hand forwards. "Anyways, I'll use Bulldozer's effect, this time sending two cards from the top of my deck to the graveyard." As he did he sent one trap card, Draining Shield and one monster, Marauding Captain. But neither triggered any effect like Samson's last monster so he simply continued his turn.

"Next I'll play Fissure to destroy the monster with the lowest attack points on the field." A hand broke up from the earth and grabbed hold of Clayman before crushing them into sand in its grasp.

Jayden winced. "There goes my defence."

"And now say goodbye to some life points. Battle!" Samson charged ahead. Mover then tackled Sparkman, destroying them before Bulldozer then bulldozed into him.

Jayden lowered his arms from guarding himself and let out a sigh of relief.

Jayden (2000LP)

He let out a short huff. "Good hit, but I'm not down and out yet. When Sparkman was destroyed by battle you triggered my trap card. Hero Signal, letting me summon any Hero monster straight from the deck. So say hello to Elemental Hero Avian." A green feathered wind hero appeared on the field before Jayden, their arms crossed as they gave the field a stoic lookover. (A:1000/D:1000)

Samson grinned. "Glad to hear you're not down and out just yet. It would've been too easy otherwise. Your turn Slifer."

"And I'll gladly take it, let's go!" He shouted out with excitement. As he ripped the top card off of his deck in a wide arc. He tilted the card slightly towards himself to take a look at it. A wide open smile then appeared over his face.

"Alright! Now that's what I'm talking about. I play Fusion Sage, which lets me grab Polymerization straight from my deck to my hand. It's about time we crack open the good old extra deck. Prepare yourself Samson!"

"I'll get us started by playing Polymerization!" Jayden cried out as he slotted his favourite spell into his Duel Disk. "Now I can take any two of my monsters and put'em together to make something even better than before. Now with Avian and the Wildheart in my Hand, I'll use them to summon Elemental Hero Wild Wingman!" (A:1900/D:2300)

A spinning vortex appeared above Jayden and absorbed his monsters before spitting back out a tattooed warrior with green feathered legs as well as wings sprouting out from his back.

"See Wingman's effect is that I can discard a card to destroy up to 2 spell or trap cards on the field. I'll use that right now." Jayden explained as he discarded a monster, Elemental Hero Neo Bubbleman, from his hand. His monster then flapped its wings, creating a gust that blasted into the pair of set cards on Samson's field.

"I'll activate one of my set cards. Good Goblin Housekeeping, which lets me draw cards equal to the number of copies of itself in my graveyard plus one, afterwards however I have to place a card in my hand on the bottom of my deck." Samson drew a card before placing some mystery card at the bottom of his deck.

The tornados then continued their course from where they had frozen in the air, smashing into Good Goblin Housekeeping and the other set card which turned out to be something called Blasting The Ruins.

"Now i'll battle!" With Jayden's command, Wild Wingman dived down and dive bombed straight through Excadrago Excavate, crushing it flat before flying back to Jayden's field.

Samson (2600LP)

"I'll set another monster face-down and that's my turn." Jayden said as he finished.

Samson drew from his deck before immediately playing the card he drew. "I'll activate my Field Spell, Gaia Power. Gifting all Earth monsters 500 attack points at the cost of 400 defence points. Now it's my monster who is back on top."

"Check again man." Jayden countered. "Though my guy is throwing around tornados, he's a certified Earth Monster. So nothing's actually changed."

"Huh?" Samson winced as he looked back down at the cards on his Duel Disk.

Excadrago Bulldozer (A:2300/D:1300)

Elemental Hero Wild Wingman (A:2400/D:1900)

"Fine then." Samson finally relented. "It doesn't matter, because I have this! Say hello to Card Trooper!" An old-fashioned science fiction robot tank then appeared on Jayden's opponent's field. Electric lights blinking inside of its lightbulb head. (A:900/D:0)

"I'll then use their effect, sending the top 3 cards of my deck to the graveyard to give Card Trooper 500 points for each card sent, all up that'd be 1500 extra points of power!"

As Samson sent the cards to the grave, Card Trooper's head started emitting sparks wildly. (A:2400/D:0)

"Now it's as strong as Wild Wingman." Syrus gasped.

"Mhm." Carey nodded. "Not to mention, since he sent cards from his deck to the graveyard, that means if any of those cards were his Excadragos."

"This could quickly get out of hand." Carol added quietly.

"But it all makes good data either way." Carey beamed dreamily.

"Data?" Syrus asked before looking over to the Agent.

"Oh, nothing important. Just ignore that." She brushed off. Syrus wanted to ask more, but was distracted as the duel picked back up.

"Yes! Jackpot!" Samson cried out. "I just sent three entire Excadragos!"

"Way to go man." Jayden cheered him on. "But what does that mean?"

"It means three effects are about to go off in rapid succession. First up it's Excadrago Bulldozer's effect in my grave, which lets me Special Summon her to the field." A second bulldozer dragon then appeared on Samson's field (A:2300/D:1300)

"Following that, Excadrago Jackhammer's effect, granting all my machines an extra 500 points!"

Card Trooper (A:2900/D:500)

Excadrago Bulldozer x 2 (A:2800/D:1800)

"Finally, Excadrago Excavate's effect activates, letting me add back any Normal Spell or Trap card from my graveyard to my hand. I'm picking Blasting The Ruins." He plucked back his trap card before setting it on the field and stretching his hand out again. "Now then, I'll use both my bulldozers to Excavate three cards each again."

A total of six cards were then sent to the graveyard, among them that activated their effect when they were sent to the graveyard was, Outstanding Dog Marron which shuffled itself back into the deck, another Jackhammer, giving everyone 500 more attack and defence points.

Card Trooper (A:3400/D:1000)

Excadrago Bulldozer x 2 (A:3300/D:2300)

Then a second Excavate, which Samson activated to add Good Goblin Housekeeping back to his hand, which he also set on his field.

"Now it's time to battle."

Card Trooper fired its arm cannons, destroying Wild Wingman and sending a ball of fire crashing down onto Jayden's field.

Jayden winced at the embers flowing past him. (1000LP)

"Good hit." He complimented.

Samson simply ordered his next monster forwards. "Bulldozer, crash through his last line of defence."

The construction dragon leapt forwards and brought a track claw down onto the set card, as it hit light burst out from the card, a small puffball of brown fur with wings appeared. "Kuri!" The small monster then shattered into pixels.

"Looks like your offence stops here." Jayden chuckled cheekily. "See, When my buddy, Winged Kuriboh, is destroyed then I take no damage for the rest of the turn."

"Lucky break." Samson sighed before ending his turn right there. As he did all of his monsters lost their attack boost.

"Draw." Jayden called out. "I'll begin this by playing Pot Of Greed, letting me draw 2 more cards!" With that he drew two more cards. "Next i'll play Fusion Recovery, letting me add Polymerization and Elemental Hero Wildheart from my grave to my hand. Next i'll use Polymerization immediately to fuse Wildheart with Elemental Hero Bladedge from my hand to fuse a new hero!"

A vortex appeared above Jayden yet again, the silhouettes of Wildheart and the armoured form of Bladedge faded into existence before being thrown into the vortex causing it to detonate and a new silhouette to appear. A muscled warrior with wild hair with golden armour pieces over its head, arm and legs.

"Cut to the action! Elemental Hero WIldedge!" (A:2600/D:2300)

Po

"Another guy." Samson winced. "That's not good."

"It certainly isn't. Check this out! Wildedge's ability allows them to attack all monsters you control." Jayden then gestured with his hand. "Let's battle! Wildedge, finish this!"

Jayden's hero flashed forward in an instant before bringing it's armoured fist down over Card Trooper, punching straight through it's armoured shell, causing it to explode from the inside out.

Samson winced as smoke and fire whipped past him. (900LP)

Wildedge then appeared before Bulldozer and charged forward, using his body like a knife, bisecting the construction dragon.

Samson (0LP)

Jayden took a seat on the steps up to the duelling stage and let out a deep breath. "Woo, that was a fun match, just some nice light hearted fun."

Samson walked by him down the steps. "If you'd have given me another turn, I'm sure I could've gotten enough cards in the graveyard to use Blasting The Ruins, then you would've taken 3000 points of damage and my victory would've been guaranteed."

"Hey, better luck next time." He offered.

"It was something, I'll admit that." Samson sighed. "See ya whenever Jayden." With that he turned and left.

Jayden waved at Samson who continued walking, leaving the conversation.

Coming up to him from his side, his buddy Syrus as well as Carey, his apparent Agent appeared quickly.

"Were you satisfied with that duel?" Carey asked with interest.

"Yeah, it was pretty cool, it feels good to duel again without anyone getting on my case or throwing around slander."

"It might've looked cool." Syrus spoke up, placing their hand over their chest. "But I could feel my heart rate rise at every turn. Especially when he managed to get three whole monsters over 3000 attack points on his field. I thought you were cornered there."

"Glad I defied expectations then." He smiled back at his buddy.

"Anyways." Carey interrupted. "If you enjoyed that duel, would you be interested in me continuing on as your Agent, finding you some other duelists for you to face and schedule them."

Jayden shrugged. "Sure, why not. It worked this time."

"That's great." Carey smiled. "It's a pleasure doing business, Jayden. But I got to do homework, so I'll be taking off now." With that Carey spun on her heel and dashed towards her sister's cart, Carey's sister who was manning the cart was slowly wheeling it out of the room, which Carey helped assist in moving.

He turned back to his buddy. "So Sy, you wanna duel now?"

Syrus shook his head. "I don't think it would be much of a challenge, maybe some other time though…"

"Alright, fair's fair. Honestly, that duel made me hungry for more." Jayden admitted as he pushed off the steps to stand up and stretch. "But I guess I'll have to wait until next time, so how about we do something else, we got plenty of time until the sun goes down, wanna play basketball with me?"

"Oh yeah! I could do that!" Sy assured himself

"Then let's head out." Jayden went to move before Syrus stopped him.

"Before that, are you sure about this Agent lady?" His buddy asked him. "She seems a little suspicious to me."

"She said she's just doing this for experience." He shrugged back at his buddy. "If she wasn't good then why would she help me."

"Maybe she has ulterior motives?" Syrus suggested.

"You've watched too many spy films." He retorted before patting his buddy atop his head. "Plus, she's not even that kind of agent. Even if she did have some kind of other motive, it's not like it's affecting me now. She's getting me some duels when I've been unable to get some. If she's got some other business, that's her deal, not something I need to worry about."

"You're not even the least bit curious." Syrus pushed him back a step to stop him from being petted.

Jayden reached his arms up and rested them behind his head and shrugged. "I'm not curious right now. No."

He then started going again, leaving with Syrus and heading back to the Slifer Dorms for a good old round of Basketball.

Ending Notes

I made this within a day. It just popped into my head when i wanted to write a duel that used Custom Cards. Don't let that fool you into thinking there isn't going to be a plot in this fanfic, there will be. It just means i made this wanting to write up a lot of duels. This won't be the last chapter to use completely original cards.

Anyways i hope you enjoyed this. If you want to show that you liked this you can do so by reviewing or something like that. But if that's too much then don't worry i can sense your support regardless.

Have a nice day.