Yu-Gi-Oh GX 1. Humble Beginnings

For those of you who may, or may not, have read my first GX fan-fic, which was in itself a fail, it was also a learning experiance. I sort of struggled to get to grips with which 'Point-of-View' to use. However since then I have settled down, so enjoy this fic, and feel free to llok back on my old one, despite how bad it may have been in my own opinion, now, read on, read on, a world of adventure awaits you ... and don't forge the Duels, that's why people read these Fanfics.

* * *

There are things in this world … that cannot be explained by the preacher in his sermon, occurrences, disappearances, hatred, destruction. There are also things that cannot be proved by the scientist in his laboratory, historical events that 'never happened', do aliens exist?, alchemy, existence of the soul. And then there are things that can neither be explained nor proved.

That is when we come to the Shadow Realm.

* * *

Things were far from normal, after all, today was _the_ day. Chris was up early, for once, normally he slept-in until about 10 o'clock on a Saturday, but this wasn't a normal Saturday. After a quick shower, he looked in his wardrobe, deciding on what to wear. There was the allure of wearing green, but something didn't quite seem right about wearing green, not today, so after several minutes, he _finally_ settled on a pair of neat black jeans, held up by a similarly colored belt and a blank purple t-shirt.

He looked at himself in the mirror, he looked O.K, although he wasn't sure whether the black really went with his hair, a brilliant, almost platinum, blond. His eyes were blue and matched the hair to a tee, giving him what would have once been considered as an Aryan-style look, his hair was windswept and, in places, stuck-up in awkward directions, especially towards the back, whereas the front was gently slopped toward one side, often referred to by his mother as the worlds most unpopular 'wig'.

After an even quicker breakfast, he went back to his room to start packing his bag. The room was a small, yet enough room for him to be comfortable, his bed was on the left side of the room and his desk was on the right, a small, sturdy wooden desk that his grandfather had given to him after his old age caught up with him and his legs gave up on him.

The room was painted a pale blue, like the sky, supposedly calming, and on the wall above the desk was a picture of the current King of Games, Jaden Yuki. Yugi Moto having long retired from the face of Dueling, although he was still undefeated, he left his Title after claiming to need a rest, leaving the Dueling world devastated at his loss. Not what everyone expected, but everyone had predicted Jaden Yuki would easily take his place, and he did, he had been on top of his game for almost a year now.

Chris opened one of the drawers on his desk, or tried to, it was a little stiff, however after a successful yank he pulled it open. Inside lay what can only be described as a mess, filled almost to the brim with cards, Chris gave another heave and pulled drawer loose of the desk, before upending it onto the desk with a slightly gleeful expression on his face. There was a rush of air and dust as dozens of cards poured out onto the table, occupying the previously empty space, Vorse Raider, Kuriboh, Molten Zombie, Trap Hole and dozens more tumbled onto the veneered wooden surface with impunity.

At the bottom of the drawer was a small plastic box, hidden beneath the sheer amount of cards that had been pied on top of it, Chris pulled it out and after a quick check to make sure that it was not damaged in any way, pocketed it, before carefully scraping the cards back in the drawer and replacing the drawer in the desk as best he could. Now he had his Deck, now he just needed his Duel-Disk, another thing his Grandfather had given as a birthday present, an authentic Mark IV, just like the old King of Games ... there wasn't a single person who didn't have one, even if just for the kicks of wearing it and imagining that your are Yugi Moto himself.

He found it .. eventually, after spending a frantic 10 minutes absolutely tearing his room apart to find it, it was under his bed, behind a box of books, an old trunk and several other ... things, hiding from him. He hurriedly stuffed it into his rucksack, along with his lunch, a good book in case he got bored, and last but not least, his deck. NOW he was ready.

* * *

The Train was late, Chris was sitting on one of the red metallic benches that seemed to be on every train station, like silent guardians. There was that fresh, cool breeze that always seemed to flow through the station, Chris took a deep breath of the clean air, letting it out with perhaps the slightest hint of regret.

The station was empty, barren, desolate, and every other used to describe the words devoid, vacant and destitute. He was the only one there, slightly odd, normally on a weekend, this station would be packed, he had used to ride this train to school, but now he was riding it one stop further, into the center of town, rather than the edge.

Then there was the faint pitter-patter of feet, Chris glanced to his right, where the steps down from Platform 2 opened out onto Platform 3, the sound grew slightly louder as a figure emerged from the metal and glass tube.

She was small, perhaps no bigger than a meter and a half at the most, maybe a little more with shoes, with black hair that, under the sunlight, appeared to have the slightest hint of green in it. She had eyes that were the faintest brown, making them appear almost pale amber or maybe faint crimson. Her hair was tied back with a massive red ribbon that was almost the same size of her head and the edges pocked out from behind it like the sun behind the moon on an eclipse.

She was wearing what appeared to be a school uniform of some kind, involving the combination of a white formal blouse and a light black cardigan that went from collar to waist and was done up with a pair small gold buttons. From there on she wore what can only be described as a short skirt, eye-twitchingly, perhaps almost illegitimately short, perhaps 6 or 7 inches, hopefully more, followed by a pair of thick nylon stockings, the same colour as the cardigan, and some small, black slip-on shoes. On her back she was carrying a rucksack similar to the one that now lay at Chris's feet, black and grey and green, the kind of bag that would cost very little and would last a long time and would carry almost anything that was about the size of an A4 sheet of paper if not larger, the perfect jack-of-all-trades bag.

She looked out of breath, most probably have done the same thing that Chris had done, run straight from wherever they had come from to the station, thinking that the were going to be late for the train, and the look of relief on her face showed that, just like Chris, for once she was actually glad that the train was late.

She slumped down onto one of the benches, panting heavily, she looked at the clock on the platform and sighed.

At that point, almost out of nowhere, the train arrived, suddenly, almost as if it had been withheld until that very moment. There was the familiarly high-pitched shrill _shriiiiiiiiiiek!_ of metal-on-metal-on-metal as the train screeched to a halt. Chris picked up his bag from at his feet, swung it over one shoulder non-chalently, and change his focus from the girl to the stopped train.

Hitting the button on the side of the train, as the doors opened, Chris was blasted with a sudden burst of hot air from the inside of the train, stepping up from the platform and onto the train. It was packed with people, most of them between the ages of 14 and 16 and most of them chattering excitedly between themselves, others sitting alone gazing out of windows, and even some couples sitting together just ... talking. It didn't really matter, everyone was going in the same direction so that was one topic of conversation out of the window.

It took Chris approximately 5 minutes to find an empty seat, or rather seats, a four-square of chairs with a small table in the middle, almost at the back of the train. Here it was slightly less crowded, since everyone wanted to come off as close to the stair as they could so that they could be first there, leaving everyone else up at the other end of the train. Chris took his bag off his back and sat down on the chair closest to the window, placing his bag next to him on the available chair, and looked out of the window and watched calmly the scattered buildings of houses and the odd bungalow mingling with the greenery of trees and open grass spaces as Space shot past at.

After a little while, like a lot of people on their own on a train, he grew bored, and so he turned his view from the outside world, closed his eyes and wriggled back in the chair in an attempt to gain some comfort. The train ride would be about an hour, maybe less, depending on how many delays and stops there were, it changed every day. Some days there would be 1 stop, others 5 or 6, it all depended on a schedule that he really just couldn't be bothered to look up at all, so he was just going to wait for the announcement.

He wasn't sure how long he dozed for, although it was probably no longer than about 10 minutes or so. When he awoke he rummaged in his bag and pulled out his deck and started flicking through the cards, slowly, observing each one as if he had just seen it before. He had made several decks, then taken them apart and remade them, adding new cards, gingerly removing older ones, computing new strategies, working out new combos, exploring new themes, then he had calmly ripped them apart again, merged them, hated it, taken them apart again and remade this one. This one was his favorite, of all the decks, most of the themes and of all the combos he had ever explored, he used it rarely, but today it would get a proper introduction.

It was quite a common theme really. A lot of people seemed to like it at the moment, although he knew it was nothing more then what he liked to call, and his Grandfather referred to, as a 'Phase'. Decks went in fashion, and out of fashion, depending on the Ban Lists and the new cards which were released. Go back a year or two and EVERYONE had an Elemental Hero Deck, because of their flexibility and because the rising star Jaden Yuki had them. Go back a year or so before that and EVERYONE had Spellcaster Decks, because Yugi Moto had made his comeback tour and because they had so much potential, so Spellcaster's immediately came back in fashion.

There was the sound of the doors between carriages opening and then closing followed by the pattering of feet, as Chris gazed out of the window again, his cards still held loosely in his hands. From his view through the train window he could now see grey clouds on the horizon, maybe signaling rain, or thunder and lightning, or maybe something else? ... or he was just being ominous as always.

Then there was a small, _ahem!_ from behind his field of vision, he half turned as someone standing behind gave a polite cough. His eyes widened slightly, ever so slightly, as he recognised the figure standing there, it was that girl from this morning.

"Excuse me, may I sit here" she asked, indicating the seat opposite him, her voice was small, and there was a slight timidity to it. Chris blinked, the slight tiredness from having woken up still in his head momentarily disorientating him,

"I think she want to sit there?" his thoughts said

"Oh … Duh!" came the reply

"Yes" he said, slightly hesitant as she tossed her bag onto the opposite chair and sat down across from him, giving him a nod of thanks. Chris turned his attention back to his cards, although he couldn't help but glance up at her every few minutes or so, just out of instinct, there was … something about her that almost drove you to look at her.

She spent most of the journey staring out of the window, humming a strange tune softly to herself. It's notes were not like anything Chris had heard before, although he quickly lost interest in it as his mind began to wander.

As the train pulled into the fourth station, people stood, swinging bags and suitcase in hands or on backs. Children and Adults crowded around the door, each eagerly wanting to get off the train for a variety of reasons.

* * *

The streets were crowded, it was a weekend, people were shopping, children were running around, chasing each other, blowing bubbles in parks and chewing on sweets and adolescents were doing ... whatever adolescents do in their spare time.

Chris ducked under a tree, the park was, surprisingly, almost empty, despite the crowds surging like blood through the streets, maybe that's why they built the Academy Test Center there in the first place.

Situated in the middle in a park surrounded by grass, flowers and trees, almost picturesque, with a sprawling complex, with a small arena of sorts, with 6 different areas each for a different duel, open to the elements. The rest consisted of a single story examination room that was massive, with perhaps enough space for a couple of hundred people, maybe slightly less. However the Green party weren't particularity happy about having a building in the middle of a Green Belt, but for some reason they'd stopped complaining after a while.

There was a small waiting area before the Exam room, crowded to the brim with people, mostly teenagers, meaning it was hot, stuffy and very noisy. Chris glanced at his watch, it was 10:30, they had half an hour before the exam _actually_ started, so why were they all here early? It was a rhetorical question, but he had to ask it, to himself at any rate.

Someone at some point had obviously invested a small amount of money in putting in several of those tables that you would find in a park, a pair of benches and a table made of wood and joined together with solid planks. It was around these that people mainly crouched around, watching the frantic exchange between those who couldn't wait for the duels at the academy and were already taking names or those that could and just wanted a warm up.

Chris sat, leaning back against the table, watching a pair of boys face off, this pair both had duel-disks, Mark IV, just like his. One of the boys had black hair that reminded him more of a mane than of hair, whereas the other had brown hair that just defied physics and stuck-up in every direction like the quills of a porcupine, becoming a hedgehog towards the front. On the brown-haired kid's field, 5 goblins clad in shiny metal armor and armed with swords stood in attack position as well as a Continuous Trap, whereas on the black-haired kid's field, a huge warrior with a wolfs head instead of a human one and bearing a large Axe and a wooden shield in each hand, also stood in attack position with a Black Amulet around its neck, and behind it was the image of the equip spell which the Wolf bore.

"Now, Elite Goblin Attack Force, attack his Wolf Axwielder, with **_Goblin Swords_**"

The 5 goblins charged toward the big Wolf-warrior, who swatted two of them with his huge axe before getting swarmed under through strength of numbers as their swords pierced his body and he gave a great howl before he exploded in a blast of pixels.

Black-Hair – 500 - 50 = 450

"Nice move, but did you forget about **Black Pendant**" The black-haired kid said as he plucked the cards from his Duel-Disk and slid the pair of cards into his Graveyard "now when this Equip Spell is sent to the Graveyard, it deals you another 500 points of damage"

There was a small explosion as a black light shone from the black-haired kid's graveyard, striking his opponent

Brown-Hair – 1000 - 500 = 500

"Well those may have been nice moves, but I still have my trap card, **Goblin Charge**, so my Goblins don't change battle position during my End Phase, so now I end my turn"

"My … Draw" he paused for a second, studying the 4 cards he held in his hand,

"Now I activate the Ritual Spell card **Synthesis Spell**"

Suddenly a huge mechanical cage appeared between the pair, throbbing with electricity, two smaller cages appeared on either side of the larger cage.

"So now I sacrifice my _Silver Fang_ from my hand"

A huge Silver wolf appeared, with yellowed eyes, then it began to glow with a red aura

"and I also sacrifice my _Wolves Servant_"

A diminutive man appeared, with black eyes that had no pupils and wearing tattered clothing. He too began to glow with a red aura

"and Ritual Summon, my Lycanthrope"

Both monsters were sucked into the smaller cages, and the electricity flowed into the smaller cages and both monster howled like the Axwielder before them before they dissolved and were absorbed into the larger cage, which suddenly began to shake … until it exploded outwards, and out of the cage bound a huge werewolf, with vicious sharp claws and a strange device attached to its chest like some form of cybernetics connecting to its arm. Around its waist was clad the remains of a pair of blue shorts. (2400/1800)

"Now Lycanthrope attack his Goblin Elite Attack Force, with **Lycan Shadow Dance**"

The huge werewolf looked hungrily at the 5 goblins before giving a huge roar and running towards them, the goblins immediately dropped their swords and ran for it, however the Lycanthrope soon caught them all and tore them to shreds.

Brown-Hair – 500 - 200 = 300

"That doesn't matter, I still have enough points to finish you off next round"

"Not quite, you see there isn't going to be a next round, because Lycanthrope has a special effect, when he deals damage to an opponent, like he just did, the opponent loses lifepoints equal to 200 points times the number in my Graveyard, so just in case Math isn't your strong point, that makes 1000 points of damage"

Lycanthrope gave a long howl, as five small orbs of blue, spectral light appeared, it gave another howl and they slammed into the Brown-Haired kid, blasting him with energ

Brown-Hair – 500 - 1000 = 0

The Hologram of Lycanthrope faded with a final victorious howl and the brown-haired kid picked himself up off the ground and shook hands with his opponent, there, right there, that was just that tiny little bit of sportsmanship that you got from people who didn't play in the big leagues or even prep schools, people who dueled for fun instead of for respect or to prove that they were better, basically, people who weren't elitist snobs.

Then there was the sound of a bell, from the examination building, the bell for the exams, at that point everyone immediately stopped dueling, either claim draws or promising rematches, and hurried towards the Examination building.

* * *

The Exam was an hour, a long, hot and slightly boring hour, and there was questions on EVERYTHING. This was not the kind of thing that you could revise for, each paper had different questions and each question was worded differently of contained different phrases or circumstances. From how to counter combos to favorite cards and even opinions on strategies and deck archetypes. At least they were thorough, Chris was sure that he hadn't done _too_ badly, although he was sure that he had slept Research as Research and left out that question about Royal Decree since it had made absolutely no sense to him at all as well a few others for varying reasons.

Now they were all outside on the grass, enjoying the cool breezes after an hour of being broiled alive inside a tin can. Duels had either resumed or started again and people were slowly getting up and heading over to the stadium for their duels. Chris pulled the small laminated card out of his pocket that had his name and duel time on it. He glanced at the card, feelings its plastic, tacky surface before pocketing it and getting up and started making his way toward the arena.

It was modern looking, almost like a small stadium or coliseum, with stands for those people who wanted to watch to see what people could do or just to enjoy watching the duels. It was opened topped, so the fresh sunlight filled it with an almost mystical quality, making Chris feel slightly light-headed due to the amount of adrenaline he was now feeling pumping through his veins like a fire.

The rows and rows of chairs were almost like the kind you would find at a cinema, with seats that had to be pulled down and would annoyingly flip up if you stood up.

Chris was waiting in a small room just off the arena floor, this was where everyone waited to be next on, waiting for their names to be read out by a reedy faced woman who would come in and signal them that they were next into the arena.

Chris was nervous, pumped full of adrenaline and as high as a kite, but nervous all the same. Another name was called and another person left and another person came back through the room, either heavily relived, or heavily emotional, or sometimes both. Overjoyed with victory or broken in defeat.

"_Christopher Andrews_"

When Chris heard his name, he almost collapsed out of sheer excitement, calming himself, he breathed in slowly … and then out again. He could feel the blood pumping in his ears beating like a drum. This was his chance for potential.

He walked out into the arena, the stands were reasonable crowded, although there was some rather large gaps in places. Every now and again there was the odd splash of red or blue or yellow as some of the actual students had come to watch.

He had a strange feeling of foreboding as he stepped up onto the arena, it was time … time to duel. ... that sounded cheesy didn't it?

* * *

So ... opinions please? Good, Bad or Flame, bring on the Reviews, please?


	2. Driving in the Wedge

There was a gentle breeze that combed the arena floor, Chris's face was set, this was his time to shine. The Proctor opposite his was tall, at least a good two feet taller than Chris was, maybe more, his eyes were shielded behind a pair of sunglasses and his hair was jet-black and tumbled over his shoulders like a small river.

Chris wordlessly handed over the laminated card he had been given earlier, they had all been given them before the exam, you had to the exam AND the duel to get in and the card proved that you had at least turned up to the Exam.

The man studied the card for several moments before returning it to Chris, who nodded respectfully before pocketing it again and taking his place in the arena.

The Proctor coughed slightly before beginning

"Now then, the Lifepoint score will be 4000, first one to reduce his opponents lifepoints to 0 automatically wins, there are no other restrictions" then he flicked a switch on his duel disk as it blazed into life, and the duel was underway.

"**Lets Duel**"

Chris: 4000

Proctor: 4000

"Now I'll take the first move" the proctor cried, grabbing the top card off his deck, "I draw"

"And I summon Soul Tiger (0/2000) in defence mode"

A strange tiger-shaped beast appeared, wisps of a spectral vapor poured off its arms and body like something that had been pulled from a fridge, in lay down, rest it's head in its forepaws and apparently asleep, followed by the silhouette of a face-down card

"then I set 1 card face-down, your turn!"

"Good, I'm up" Chris said, "I draw" he glanced at the cards in his hands, allowing himself a small smile, perfect

"And I summon my Blackwing – Bora the Spear (1700/800) in attack mode"

A huge humanoid bird appeared, its face similar to a vultures, its first set of claws it held a massive black spiral-like spear or maybe a lance and its big black wings carefully held it aloft, flapping slowly up and down in order to keep it in the air.

"But that's not all, now I activate the Special Ability of the monster in my hand, known as _Blackwing – Gale the Hurricane_, now I can special summon him to the field so long as I control a monster with 'Blackwing' in its name, now rise, Blackwing - Gale the Hurricane (1300/400)"

Out of a small twister a blue bird burst, with a green head and neck feathers, he gently fluttered down next to Bora.

"Now I activate Gale's other special ability, now I can half the ATK and DEF of one monster you control, and I choose your _Soul Tiger_"

Gale suddenly started flapping its wings faster and faster, throwing up a huge barrage of air, the vapors surrounding Soul Tiger weakened slightly as his defensive power was cut in half.

(0/2000) - (0/1000)

"Now Boar the Spear, attack Soul Tiger, with **Blackwing Lance**"

Bora lowered his spear and fired a black ray at Soul Tiger, the Tiger opened its eyes and had just enough time to give a small meow like a kitten before the blast took it square in the face, sending it flying backwards and exploding.

Proctor: 4000 - 700 = 3300

"I'm going to guess that your Bora inflicts piercing damage to monsters it battles with, since that seems to be the only reasonable explanation as to why I took damage."

"Now I set one card face-down, your turn"

"Why thank you, now I draw, and activate this spell card, **Ancient Rules**, this spell card allows me to Special Summon a Level 5 or higher Normal Monster from my Hand, and I choose this monster, my Zoa (2600/1900) in attack mode"

A huge gangly blue creature, with golden claws and big, red ears appeared, it had massive eyes and a twisted mouth that made it seem almost comically evil.

* * *

The stands were packed, with students, with applicants and with even a few teachers who had just come to watch. There were little clusters of color, red, yellow and blue, among the more varied dress of the applicants, showing students. There was an especially blue patch up towards the top, in the east side of the arena, all watching the duels, there was one in particular Obelisk who was watching this duel with increasing intensity, she lent forward in her chair, as the Obelisks around her all chuckled to themselves, they knew what was coming next, they'd all seen this strategy before, and the Professor was no push over.

* * *

"Now I reveal my face-down card, **Metalmorph**, this card equips onto Zoa, boosting his ATK and DEF by 300"

(2600/1900) - (2900/2200)

"Oh and did I forget to mention that when a monster equipped with Metalmorph attacks another monsters, it gains ATK equal to half of the monster it is attack, Now Zoa, attack Gale The Hurricane"

Zoa reared itself on its hind-legs, forming a giant X-shape of energy,

(2900/2200) - (3550/2200)

"with **_Glimmer Strike_**"

Zoa released the hued X of energy, sending it flying across the field toward the diminutive Blue and Green bird.

Chris flicked a switch on his duel-disk, "Hold Up!, reveal my face-down, **Urgent Tuning**, Now I can send 1 tuner monster and 1 other monster to the Graveyard and conduct a Synchro Summon, so Now I tune _Gale of Hurricane_ with _Bora the Spear_, come on guys its time to Synchronize"

Gale blinked once before vanishing, turning himself into 3 rings of light, Bora spread his wings before flying through the wings, becoming almost completely translucent, revealing 4 lights tumbling in his stomach, they then straighten out into a single line and a massive light shone, obscuring Bora from view.

_Blackwings bear emotion in their hearts, wings unfurl to give way to the sky, Synchro Summon, Blackwing - Armor Master_

(I know that sounds sad but I really liked the idea of the chants used in 5d's, besides, remember that chant, because it will become important later on)

The Figure burst from the light, landing lightly on its feet, it was an impressively armored figure, clad in black armor with red designs on it, it's helmet consisted of a large purple screen-like visor and on its back a huge pair of black wings, each with 3 blue orbs set in them, were unfurled behind in. (2500/1500)

"It doesn't really matter, Zoa, continue your attack"

(3550/2200) - (4150/2200)

The huge X of energy slammed into Armor Master, fling up a huge cloud of dust and smoke, obscuring him from view as Zoa grinned evilly, then there was a sudden pulse, and the dust and smoke vanished in a single flap of his armored wings.

Chris: 4000

"Well … that was unexpected, so your monster cannot be destroyed in battle AND you don't take any damage from any battles its involves in?"

"Yes that's correct"

"Hmm… then I will end my turn with 1 card face-down, your turn"

"Thank you, now then, I draw, and I summon Blackwing - Elfen of the Pitch-Black in attack mode, you see, I can summon this Level 6 monster with no sacrifices when I control a 'Blackwing' monster, so rise, Elfen of the Pitch-Black"

There was a black flash, and then another bird appeared, pitch-black feathers covering every inch of his body, with black clawed feet and hands, he wore blue and white trimmed armor on his chest and his face was a cross between a wolf and an eagle. (2200/1200).

"Now Armor Master attack Zoa, with **_Blackwing Mastery_**"

Armor Master flew up into the air, then he dive bombed Zoa, slamming a clawed fist straight into his stomach, Zoa flinched and retaliated with a hevay blow, knocking him back, but the damage was done, there was a small black spike embedded in Zoa's chest.

"What was the point in that, they'll just battle to a draw, and you won't lose any lifepoints due to his effect"

"Not quite, the point wasn't to cause damage, but the battle itself, you see when Armor Master battles with a monster, after the battle he leaves a little present behind, known as a _Wedge_ counter, now by removing all of the wedge counters on the field, I can reduce the ATK and DEF of the monsters that have wedge counter to 0, now Armor master, activate **_Wedge Force_**"

Armor Master slammed his hands together, and the wedge driven into Zoa exploded, causing him to begin to crack and crumble in places as his power was weakened.

(4150/2200) - (0/0)

"What!"

"Now Elfen of the Pitch-Black, attack Zoa, with **_Pitch-Black Power_**"

Elfen dived into the air, unfurling his wings and showering the weakened Zoa with hundreds of pitch covered black feathers, causing him to explode in a shower of pixels.

Proctor: 3300 - 2200 = 1100

* * *

"Dude! Did you see that, he just took down Zoa" that same statement was becoming apparent all over the stadium, although only to those who actually knew.

"Maybe he's actually as good as I was told" she said to herself

"Maybe not" some smart-mouth behind her said, "the Prof. still has his face-down remember!"

* * *

"and now I can activate my face-down **Machine Zoa Ritual**, now I can remove from play 1 Zoa and 1 Metalmorph in my Graveyard, like those which you handily just sent there"

A pair of silhouettes appeared, one of Zoa and the Other of Metalmorph

"and now I can Special Summon this, my _Metal Zoa_ from my Deck ignoring the summoning requirements."

The two cards glowed with a yellow light before being merged together as a new being was formed, this one was different from Zoa, its body was more square and defined, it was also completely mechanical and a strange mixture of blue and gold. (3000/2300)

"I place 1 card face-down, you turn"

"Now then, my Draw, and I activate the Equip Spell card known as **Zoa Force**, now when a Zoa or Metal Zoa I control attacks a monster firstly, it gains 1000 ATK until the End Phase and if it attacks a monster in Defence mode, the differences comes out of your lifepoints, now Metal Zoa, attack Elfen of the Pitch-Black, with **_Hardened Glimmer Strike_**"

(3000/2300) - (4000/2300)

Metal Zoa took on a bright blue glow as it raised itself onto its hind legs with a whirl of gears and the screech of machinery, then it began to take on a pale blue aura as its power increased to maximum, then its huge claws fired a blue X-shaped blast at Elfen, who tried to shield himself with his wings before exploding into a ball of smoke and feathers.

Chris: 4000 - 1800 = 2200

"Now I set 1 card, and End"

(4000/2300) - (3000/2300)

"My Draw, and I summon Blackwing – Foehn the Steel Chain (500/800) in attack mode"

There was a sudden flurry of feathers as the next Blackwing appeared, the one stood tall on its hind legs and hands its wings crossed in front of it in an almost human like fashion and it wore a head back and kerchief around it face, obscuring it from view.

"Now I reveal my Face-down card, **Icarus Attack**, now by releasing 1 Winged-Beast on my field, I can destroy up to 2 cards that you control, so I release my _Foehn the Steel Chain_, now Foehn, activate **_Icarus Attack_**"

Foehn leapt into the air, surround by a corona of fire, then he dived down upon the Proctors cards and upon Zoa, showering them in fire.

The proctor pressed a button on his duel "Now I reveal my face-down, **Metal Reflect Armor +/-**, now this card equips onto Metal Zoa and by selecting the '-' effect, I can make Metal Zoa immune to the effects of all Traps, and since the '-' effect has been selected, Metal Reflect Armor also can't be destroyed by the effects of Trap Cards, anything else?"

"Fine, Armor Master, attack his Metal Zoa, **Blackwing Mastery**"

Armor Master repeated his earlier performance, this time dodging both of Metal Zoa's claws and bury a fist into its chest, leaving behind another Wedge counter, before being thrown back by Zoa's defences.

"Now I set 1 card, and finish up for this turn"

"My turn, I draw, and activate a spell card known as **Mystical Space Typhoon**, now I can destroy 1 Spell or Trap card on the Field, and I think I'll choose to destroy your face-down card"

A blue typhoon suddenly appeared out of nowhere, lightning crashed and wind howled as the storm hurled itself down on Chris's face-down card before both the card and the storm vanished.

"You just destroyed my **Black Feather**, and when this face-down card is destroyed, it lets me draw 2 cards If I control a 'Blackwing', so that's 2 cards for me"

"Well I don't think you will be needing those cards, because now I activate the equip spell, **Effect Shatter**, and equip it onto Metal Zoa, now by discard 1 card from my hand, I can negate the special abilities of all monsters that are currently on the field, so I'll discard another _Zoa _from my hand and negate the effects of Metal Zoa and the Effect of Armor Master, but that isn't all, now I activate **Zoa Empowerment**, so now I can remove 1 'Zoa' or 'Metal Zoa' from my Graveyard and increase 1 'Zoa' or 'Metal Zoa' by the removed monsters attack, now Metal Zoa, attack with **_Hardened Glimmer Strike_**!"

(3000/2300) - (5600/2300)

* * *

She left her seat, turning her back on the duel, maybe she had been wrong for once, it would be a first ... ever, she carefully threaded her way toward the end of the row and onto the stairs, she paused at the top of the stairs, there was a sudden cheer from the crowds, not all of it, but some of it, leaning on the rail, she turned abound and saw that he was still in the duel, maybe she'd stay for a few more minutes, this might not be over after all.

* * *

Metal Zoa slashed its claws in an X-shape, sending a giant X of energy flying toward Armor Master, who vainly tried to protect himself with his arms, the energy cut right through him, causing him to explode.

Chris: 2200 - 1700 = 500

"I'm sorry, but I'm sure you should have lost more lifepoints than that, the difference between 5600 and 2500 is 0, you should have lost"

"Not quite, you see whenever a 'Blackwing' monster I control battles, I can send this card, _Qal'at of the Moonlight_ to my Grave to activate his effect, boosting the ATK of 1 monster I control by 1400 point until the End of the Turn, meaning that my damage is reduce by 1400 points."

"So that explains it an interesting card… I end my turn"

"Good, now I draw, and I activate the Quick-play Spell Card **Wedge Storm**, now I can either place 1 'Wedge' counter on a monster that you control, or I can take 1 away and make your monster ATK and DEF 0 until the end of the round, and I'll choose the second effect."

The Wedge counter buried in Metal Zoa last round exploded as it was set off by the spell card, Metal Zoa began to crack, leaving gaping holes in his metallic shell and sparks flew like a flight of birds.

(3000/2300) - (0/0)

"And now I summon Blackwing – Shura the Blue Flame"

A bright blue ball of fire appeared on Chris's side of the field, then it exploded in a mixture of blue flames and blue feathers, this Blackwing was taller than most of his predecessors, he had large Black wings that would almost be angelic if not for their color. (1800/1200)

"Now Shura, attack Metal Zoa and end this duel, **_Blackwing Blue Flame_**"

Shura clasped his hands together and let out a fierce cry, conjuring a ball of blue, simmering fire in his hands before hurling it at Metal Zoa, Metal Zoa tried to back away but the blast caught it right in the chest where the wedge counter had been, causing it first to crack, then to explode in a fiery ball of mechanics and microchips.

Proctor: 1100 - 1800 = 0

There was a pause, things seemed to hang still, the combination of adrenalin and awe surging through his veins, could he believe it … maybe, he closed his eyes, surely this was all a dream, and any second now something stupid and completely out of place would happen and he'd wake up in bed with a large groan.

He opened his eyes, nope he still hadn't woken up yet, then something caught his eye, the faded glint of sunlight upon silver, just in the corner of his eye, he half-turned his head, and caught a glimpse of black and green hair, he paused, trying to think where he had seen that hair before, but he soon forgot it as the Proctor walked back over to him, in one hand he was carrying a small stamp, which he pressed against the pass that Chris had given him at the start of the Duel, he then handed the card back to Chris, The word 'PASS' was stamped on it in big red letters, Chris blinked again, still not believing he had won, he looked up at the proctor, his eyes wide.

"Are you sure this is correct?" he asked, pointing at the red lettering,

The Proctors face seemed puzzled for a second, before it broke into a small grin and he chuckled to himself,

"Yes son, you did win, now hurry along, we have lots of other people to test" he said, giving Chris a gentle push toward the Exit.

He didn't need anymore encouragement, he dashed across to field and into the passage way which lead out of the arena, he paused, looking around to make sure no one was there before punching a fist into the air.

"YES!" he thought very loudly, he had done it, a major hurdle in his life overcome, and he was into Duel Academy. He frantically yanked his phone out of his pocket and hit the 3 button, activating the speed-dial.

"Hello … Hello Mum?"

"_Hello dear, did you get in? did you pass?_"

He sighed, she could have been a little more … subtle, maybe perhaps slipped it in after a 2 minute discussion about the weather and a few other things, rather then go straight for the point and allow him to build up the suspense.

"Yes, of course I got in, did you think I would _really_ waste my big opportunity"

There was a sudden pause, then there was a cheering noise in the background, and he blushed, obviously his Grandparents had heard the news, then his mother started talking eagerly to his Grandfather, in short, telling him how proud she was of him and how he was just like his-

At that point he folded the phone down, cutting of the call, the last thing he needed was him Mother embarrassing him whilst he was still on the other end of the phone. He pocketed his cell-phone and walked out into the sun, a gentle breeze playing with his hair as he attempted to keep it under control, although he wasn't much of a hair 'freak', he just like having it a certain way. He went back over to the smaller Exam room and picked up his bag and gave the small card he had received back over to the Woman at the front desk, she then handed him some paper work and a letter containing all of his paperwork which contained things like dates, times and a few other things, he thanked her before tucking it all neatly in his bag and leaving, closing the door gently behind him.

The park was quiet now, the next lot of people had just gone in to do their exams, so it was deserted, he slung his bag down a-top one of the tables and sat down, fishing his lunch out of a side-pocket.

Sandwiches, specifically cheese, wrapped inside tin foil trapped within a Perspex container, not exactly a nice lunch, but it was filling, and that Duel had really helped him work up an appetite. He popped the lid and unwrapped the sandwiches, it was brown bread, and the cheese was slightly damp, due to its sweating in the foil but he didn't mind, he wolfed them down rather quickly, savoring the bland flavors before swallowing them.

He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand before taking a small drink of water from a near by fountain, before returning to his bag and returning the Perspex box to his pouch before slinging the bag back on his back, he glanced at his watching, checking the time before breaking into a sprint, he was going to miss the train if he didn't hurry up, not a good end to the day if he was late for dinner, mainly because he didn't want to miss those _superb_ Yorkshire Puddings that his mum made when his Grandparents visited.


	3. Sleeping in Shadow

He dashed for the Train, running as fast as his feat could carry him, which was quick sine he was running on a large amount of leftover adrenaline, he sped through the park, down the High Street, past the shops, across the road, narrowly avoiding a bus, passed the road-works that seemed to be taking forever and jumped over the fence leading around the back of a restaurant, ran down a back-alley, made a left, a right, crossed another road and ran into the Train Station followed by a huge cloud of dust.

He ran straight down the stairs, crossed the platform using a bridge and just managed to make it through the trains doors before they snapped together behind him with a sharp _hissss!_

He stood there, leaning heavily on one of the thin orange poles that jutted out here and there for people who enjoyed standing up on a train to lean on. He took several long deep breaths of good-old, sweet oxygen as he attempted to catch his breath back as the train pulled of the platform and sped away from the center of the city, towards the green countryside and … home!

The Trains motion lulled him into a small state of tiredness, his leg muscles burned as if they were on fire as the muscles begged for rest, which they justly received, as he felt the small, niggling pain vanish as oxygen relieved the pain.

"Another note to self, never EVER be late for a train again, especially with Mum's cooking" he thought, thinking quietly to himself, allowing the rest of his brain to take five, especially the duelling part, it had worked hard today, especially hard, but they had done it, and the euphoria still made him tingle with excitement, from the tips of his fingers to the nails on his toes.

* * *

When he got off the train, he stretched, wincing slightly as several vertebrae clicked somewhere in his back and neck. Then he relaxed, and began the slow work home, he had used up most of his energy racing to the station, so he had decided that a nice calming walk would help him regain his energy.

The pace was tedious, slow, deliberate, and he lets his mind wander as his eyes focused on the path in front of him and his ears ignored almost all of the sounds around him, except the odd glance up to make sure that he didn't crash into anything.

The walk took him … about 10 minutes, down the hill, past the Primary school, past the shops and through the mall, coming out of the other side and making a right, veering away from the school and making a left down his road. It was reasonable crowded with cars, as it always was, no one really had anything even slightly resembling a garage so they parked their cars in front of their houses.

He climbed the steps to the door and fished his keys out of his pocket, twisting the lock and handle at the same time, he was greeted by what he can only describe as FOOD!, his stomach gave a rumble and it was at that point that he realised just how filling his lunch hadn't been.

Removing his shoes and shutting the door quietly behind him, he was greeted by a small cheer as he entered the living room, it was a largish room, painted in fading green and filled with furniture and shelves containing books, his mum was an avid reader, and had encouraged him to read as well, he didn't mind reading, it had given him something to do between school and bedtime.

It had an oddly shaped sofa, in was an L-shape that fitted neatly into one corner with a book shelf behind it, and up the other end was a pair of arm-chairs, both of these were a jade-green with little frills around the bottom and light green arm-covers. On the L sofa sat his Grandparents, from his mothers side of the family, he had never met his Fathers parents, indeed there was very little he knew about his father at all, just that he had disappeared when he was young, to young too remember at any rate.

His grandparents were both old, and spoilt their only grandson rotten, although he didn't really mind, it was good to be spoilt every now and again, it lets people know their remembered, and in return he repaid them by helping them out around their house whenever he and his mum came up to visit.

His grandfather was a tall man, about 6 and a half feet, maybe slightly more, with a small, jovial grin and a mass of grey hair that seemed to resemble what his wife referred to as "Formerly the worlds worst Wig", coming second compared to Chris's own hair, which was even worse in its own right, he had pale blue eyes which his daughter had inherited, but his spoke of a great wisdom which is supposed to come with age, although he rarely displayed because his sense of humor was so great.

His Grandmother on the other hand was a short, neat woman, just like her daughter, with blonde hair that was piled up atop her head almost like a turban, she have deep grey eyes which matched her hair, which was starting to grey as well, she was a woman of understanding and a great listener as well.

They were both very happy to see him, after all, it had been a couple of months since their last visit and they were both very eager to here how they day had gone for him, as most Grandparent are when a pivotal event happens in their Grandchild's life.

Later that evening, after his grandparents had departed after extracting a promise from him that he would come and visit during the holidays, and after a very large dinner, which had been what he was patiently waiting for, since he had been STARVING, he would have to pack more for lunch next time.

He sat on the Sofa, a huge heavy book in his hands, its name worn almost completely off the spine, although there was still the remnants of the gold lettering in places, his mum had a massive collection of old books, although she had never told him why, she had hinted at times of having a great interest in Ancient Egypt and its history, this book was just one example of her collection.

Chris enjoyed mythology, all of these different gods and deities for different parts of life, it just … seemed to make sense in having more than one divinity to share the load rather than to lay all of that work in the lap of one god, he must have a real rough time trying to get everything done and balance out the different task plus, he must get lonely.

All of this was juggling around in the 'thinking' part of his mind, when his mother interrupted his train of thoughts,

"Do you know when you have to leave?" she asked him, as his head snapped up from his book, his thoughts of gods and demons broken,

"Hang on a sec. and I'll go and check" he said, quickly, folding the corner of the page he was on and closing the book, dropping it onto the sofa next to him as he ran to get his bag.

She watched as he sped out of the room, he reminded her so much of his … father, she glanced at the book shelf which was to her right, hidden in the shadows of an alcove lay a single picture, framed in dark wood and covered in dust. In it she could just make out the shapes of two people, a guy and a girl, they had both been so young back then, and in the background, the Duel Academy itself, it had been upgraded a little since, but from what she heard not much had changed, all of the professors had probably moved on since then. It was a shame, it made her kind of jealous, it would have been fun to strap on a duel-disk again but … at the time she had had other obligations, and even now she still did, maybe one day …

At that point Chris came back with the envelope, he plonked himself down on the arm of the chair next to his mother and opened the envelope, with her peering over her glasses at it.

Enclosed were several bits of paper, on one was a list of dates and times, on another was a list of things he would have to bring with him, it wasn't too big, a third sheet enclosed his Timetable and a Map of the Island, and there were a few other things for his mum to sign, these he handed over her as he began to pour over the rest of it, his eyes absorbing the information like a sponge.

Indeed that was all he did for the rest of the evening, reading over and over again the same sheets of paper, part of his _still_ didn't believe that he had done it, but it was true, he had and he was about a week away from going to one of the most prestigious Dueling Schools in history so far, he could feel the euphoria from early today being eclipsed by the euphoria he felt now, he defiantly wouldn't sleep too much tonight, he would be too busy thinking.

When it came to his bed-time, at about 9 o'clock, he got dressed into his pajamas and brushed his teeth before going to bed, leaving his mum alone downstairs, she waited for a few second, until silence rained again, or as close to it as you can get with a bookworm in their bedroom, before she lremoved the photo from its secluded location and wiped the dust from it with a finger before looking at it with the utmost fondness.

It was a certain irony really, Duel Academy had been where they had all met, and now their son was going there. The girl in the picture was dressed in a neat yellow blazer and had soft dirty blonde hair with jade coloured eyes, whereas the guy behind her was tall, about half-a-head taller than her, his hair was spiked over and black, he was wearing a red blazer and his eyes were a deep blue, something their son had in-part inherited, along with his calmness and collectiveness and her brains and courage, a strange cocktail of the two, the guy's face was bent into a small, friendly smile, he had one arm around the girl's shoulders who was laughing in the picture and had two fingers held up in a little 'V for Victory'.

The picture was signed by the pair of them in her simple neat handwriting and his cursive scrawl, which the teachers had nicknamed 'hieroglyphics' since it was so hard to read, but he had gotten by, just. _Soph. and Zack _was written in biro across the bottom, she smiled, that had been their … third year at Duel Academy, they had been 17, and enjoying it very much, then…

She gave a small sigh, his actions still affected her today, in more ways than, although she missed him greatly, he had always been a shoulder to lean on ... then he had disappeared, leaving no trace, no contacts, no nothing. She glanced to the place where the photograph had been, there was a small leather case there, she knew what was on it, did it scare her, it had at first, but now?, she wasn't sure, could she control that power, the power of that Deck, not unless she had to, and hopefully that day would never come, all of that ran through her head as she replaced the picture in its allotted space, obscuring it from view.

* * *

Upstairs Chris lay on his bed, staring at the ceiling, the curtains were drawn and the light was off, so he was staring into blackness, it felt … strange, his mum had said she had gone to Duel Academy, although she didn't talk about it too much, maybe it was because she didn't want too, but if she had been to Duel Academy, that must mean that … she had a deck?, but he had never seen it, or seen her Duelling and none of her friends who had come round had never mentioned her duelling, it was all rather strange really, he rolled over and buried his head in his pillow, trying to get to sleep.

* * *

8 days later…..

* * *

Chris went for a walk, nothing too complicated, this was his last day at home, 8 days had flown by really quickly, too quickly for his liking, in his mind he had already said his good-byes and was ready too leave, but in his heart he didn't want to go, he would miss his mum, but that was a natural reaction, and she wouldn't want that to hold him back.

The town was reasonable crowded for the time of day, early afternoon, there was an especially big crowd over by the front of the mall, so he sauntered over to take a look, he managed to worm his way to the front of the crowd, and then he saw what everyone was looking at.

It looked like someone had come down with a giant spoon and scooped a circle out of the ground, a perfect hemisphere, perhaps thirteen feet across, maybe more, its surface was silvery and gently caught the light, spilling it out in all directions, it had defiantly been there yesterday, Chris had walked over it. There was a cordon around it to prevent people from falling in and off to one side Chris could see a pair of Policemen conversing in low tones to each other.

There was a sudden commotion as a man pushed himself through the crowd barging roughly past Chris, almost knocking him over before ducking under the barrier and literally throwing himself into the center of the silvery hemisphere, he was old, his face and hands wrinkled and his pupils clouded over until his eyes were completely white, his hands and feet were bare and he was garbed in a ragged black robe that seemed torn and travel-worn, on his arm he wore a chipped duel-disk that appeared much older than it looked. He scrambled to his feet, his hoarse voice crying out for all to hear

"_Repent!, Repent sinners all, Repent or Darkness shall swallow you all, Repent!_"

He shook his ragged fists in the air, his yellowed nails digging cruelly into his own hands, one of the policemen looked at his companion before jumping the barrier and slid down the edge. On his arm was a duel-disk as well, one of the police-issue ones, it unfolded from being a simple arm-brace into a whole duel-disk he stepped towards the old man, he was about a foot taller than him and his blue uniform looked like it hid a well muscled body, his voice was loud and authorative

"Excuse me Sir, but I'm going to have you to ask you to leave"

The old man appeared not to hear him because he continued to babble on,

"_Repent!, Repent! I say or the Darkness shall swallow you all away!_" he cackled horribly as he slammed a deck into his Duel-Disk, Chris felt the hairs on the back of his neck begin to tingle.

"Now you, sinner shall pay the ultimate price, for the Shadows hunger for your flesh and more, the Darkness shall take you for evermore" he gave another cackle as the surface of the Hemisphere began to crackle with strange black energy that began to seal the hemisphere with a crackling black dome, through the closing gap, the policeman on the inside's face was set, and the Policeman on the outside back away from it as did the whole crowd, then they scattered, screaming as a huge wind began to pick up, forcing everyone away from the dome, everyone that is, except one.

Chris stood there, his eyes zoned out, his mind filled with strange thoughts and his ears filled with a sharp buzzing noise, he could feel his heart pounding his chest like a bass drum and he couldn't tear his eyes away from the dome of energy, one hand stretched out, as if to touch its surface,

"_Its calling me_"

He took an indecisive step forward and the wind howled even harder, yet it did nothing to hinder his progress, something within the dome seemed to shift as it began to stretch out to meet his hand. he would have taken another step if a sudden yank hadn't broken out of the trance, it was the policeman,

"This is no place for a Kid, now get out of here whilst the Police handle this"

He had to shout to make himself heard over the wind, at that point Chris ran, fear and adrenalin flooding his body, what had just happened, that feeling it was … strange, and oddly familiar, yet he couldn't remember where he had felt it before. Chris ran until he reached the small park that was near to his home, his heart still thumping and his breathing coming in big ragged gasps, in a sort of daze he sat down on a bench, clutching at his head, he could still here that buzzing noise ringing in his ears, he felt sick and he had a strange taste in his mouth and his mind felt a huge pressure being applied, like someone was smacking it with an oversized hammer, something wasn't … really wasn't right .

Fresh air filled his lungs as his breathing began to slow and the pressure began to relieve itself, he still had that strange taste in his mouth though.

He stood up, his knees were shaking, his hands were trembling, and he still felt breathless, but he soon recovered,

"What happened?" was at the forefront of his thoughts, it was like … that dome had been calling him, beckoning him closer, closer, tempting and … he couldn't resist, he shuddered, that was freaky, he silently decided he wouldn't tell anyone about this, mainly because they would think he was insane, and with him leaving tomorrow, he did not particularly want to end up in a mental institution, he might miss the boat. Now that made him laugh, his own sense of humor inherited from his Grandfather, although he didn't really exercise his as much, he was much more sensitive to humor that most other people, finding some of the simplest of jokes hilarious.

* * *

He spent the rest of the day in his room, staring at the ceiling, his mind felt blank, thoughts starting and then petering out into nonexistence, something as wrong, he could feel it, deep inside his heart, there was … something wrong, that dome, it had moved toward him, what was it like, one of these rumoured 'Shadows Duels' it was the kind of things that school kids would discuss in hushed voices in quiet corners and that older kids would boast of being in to win street credit, although no one ever believed them.

The ceiling before him seemed to ripple gently, just like the surface of that black, black dome had, depthless,

"_What would happen_" he wondered "_If you fell in_?"

Then he felt his drift off to sleep that buzzing noise still ringing in his ears, its formerly gentle hands dragging him down into a world of nightmares in iron-clad chains. There was fear and doubt and anger here, impatience and greed and lust and avarice and vengeance and hatred, so much hatred, the emotions of what religion would define as 'Sin', each word more binding than the chains that held Prometheus to his mountain peak and stronger than the adamant doors to the Underworld.. yet still he struggled against them, as they cast him down, down, down, down.

There was another shape down there in the darkness, winged and clawed and black as the darkness itself, if not black, yet instead of resisting, it fought, golden claws and teeth cut through the darkness like flickering lights, severing chains and shattering figures with fire and fang, on its head glowed two deep red eyes as another black creature dove out of the darkness before crumpling like paper in its ferocious claws before being thrown back into the void.

There was a sudden scream as something pierced the very blackness itself, but this was something from the outside, if there was one. A giant line traced itself through the void, a single golden thread, that wove its way hither and thither among the shadows, its surface pulsating gently, almost calmly, as the dark figure around it recoiled at its radiance, it approach him, and yet again he felt himself drawn to it as if he were under a spell, he reached out a hand and he could feel the warmth of the strange golden light under his palm … was this real, or was he dreaming?

* * *

It was at that point he woke up, cold sweat drenched his forehead and he hand one hand firmly grasping his quilt covers in a vice-like grip. The other hand had fallen of the bed a was now lying in the sunlight that now stream through the window. He felt better, a lot better than he head done, his head was clearer and that buzzing sound had vanished completely, and he enjoyed a moment of silence before jumping out of the bed.

He shook his head, letting his hair shake itself out of its lopsidedness from where it had gone flat from his lying on his side for too long. He checked his watch … and his eyes almost dropped out of his head as he leapt up in shock, _4 o'clock_, he had been sleep for … 5 hours! In an afternoon! … All at once!, And he wasn't even in School! ... or a Lesson! he must have been ... tired?

He blinked, before sitting back down on the bed,

"Great! A whole afternoon wasted just because I felt sleepy" he groaned to himself, clutching his head in his hands, his last day here and he end up sleeping through most of it … _brilliant_!

There was a gentle knock on the door as his mother peered around the door,

"Chris, are you okay?" she asked, her expression worried, her voice with a level of subtle understanding, Chris looked at her, before staring at the floor.

"Yeah, I'm fine" he said, shrugging off any attempt she was making at trying to comfort him, she gave a small shrug,

"We're having dinner early, so … see you in about half an hour"

The door silently shut behind her, and he gave another groan as he emptied his pockets onto his desk, tossing his keys, some loose change and a small piece of metal that he immediately ignored, then he reached around the back of his belt for his deck ... and his hand found an empty space and his heart froze.

He paused, before giving his desk a solid, hard kick which his instantly regretted, stubbing his toe, but he was so angry with himself that he really did care. He kicked the desk again, with the other foot this time, he didn't really want to but he had to do something to vent his frustration.

"THINK! THINK! THINK!, where did you last have it" he thought angrily to himself, mentally re-winding his day in his head

_I had it__ this morning when I went out, then I had it when I went into town, I had it when … and I had it then so that must mean…_

Chris felt the blood drain from his face, dripping out of the bottom like … well blood obviously, as he remembered, through the haze:

_A __ragged old man pushed himself through the crowd barging roughly past Chris, almost knocking him over, one wrinkled hand instinctively seeking the one things he needed, lifting from his belt as he barged past him before throwing himself into past the barriers, deck in hand._

At that point, Chris indulged himself in some slightly more colorful language

"Bastard" he muttered darkly to himself, kicking the side of the desk again, and still muttering to himself, ignoring thinking about what his mum would say if she heard him using language like that.

Then two thoughts came to him, both at the same time, the first one was that he was hungry, but he discarded that one, the second being,

"_Where's my spare deck?_"

"_Dunno?_" came the response

"_Yeah, real helpful_"

"_Oh will you shut UP!_"

At that point he stopped thinking to himself before he went nuts and started looking, after several minutes of fruitless searching and emptying a large portion of his room onto the floor, he had what you might call a 'eureka' moment and stopped dead, smacking the palm of his hand on his forehead,

"Duh!" he said to himself before yanking open his cupboard, it was a small cupboard that held all of his clothes, mostly on hangers, but there was a drawer at the bottom, but there was one very important thing about it, one of the planks at the bottom was loose, wrenching the bottom draw out of its slides, he dumped it on his bed before levering out the loose plank, inside were a few bits and pieces, all the normal things that a 14 year old has, a few *ahem* 'magazines' or a certain natures, a couple of precious photos, some money, a manga and … most importantly, a small leather pouch, that was what he was after.

He replaced plank and drawer before giving his room a quick tidy-up, he had always wondered where he had put this deck. It made sense, in a way, he had a theory on stuff like this, when you lose something, you'll always find something else. SO in this case, he had lost 1 deck and found another. He flipped the catch, blowing the dust off the cards as he carefully pried them out of the pouch.

Their surfaces were well looked after, he had treasured them like anything, although the Blackwings had been his first cards, this deck he had constructed himself, his Grandfather had helped him with the Blackwings, and no matter what he did to the deck, he always used them, it was a sense of … dishonour perhaps, that he had had someone else help in designing something so … personal, however he didn't have that feeling with this deck, not once.

He gave the deck a quick shuffle, removing most of the dust, before taking a quick roll-call of the card, before slotting it back into its pouch and attaching it to his belt in the same position whee the original had been, then he put on his coat before going down stairs, where he dragged his Duel-Disk out of his bag and strapped it on, before he fabricated a quick-note for his mother, waffling on about needing some more air, before leaving, the fires of vengeance burning in his eyes.

* * *

He was now officially mad, in both the anger and the sanity sense of the word, could he really go up against someone who could potentially start a Shadow Duel , whatever that ireallywas, there were so many rumors, some said that when you lost the Duel you lost your soul as well others said your cards came to life, the latter he was more inclined to believe, after all, one of the books that his mum had spoke of the Ancient Pharaohs of Egypt using monsters and demons of great power to do battle, so it would make sense if some monsters came to life, although he had absolutely no idea how it would work … maybe magic, although he wasn't really much of a believer in magic, although he wasn't much of a believer in the power of 'science' either.

The town was almost completely deserted, which was to be expected, it was getting late, the sun was beginning to change the sky from blue to yellow to red and eventually to black, people had gone home to enjoy their dinner, like he should be.

There was a sudden breeze and he tightened his jacket around his neck, trying to keep warm. He was retracing his steps, that giant ice-cream scoop out of the ground was still there, but the barricades had been removed, replaced with a simple warning sign and a safety net to stop people falling in and injuring themselves.

Chris could just imagine the scene from earlier, he had been standing ... he took a few step around the edge of the hemisphere … just about here … and with one finger he traced the route the old guy appeared to have taken, shoving his way through the crowd and the bumping into Chris, then he tried to figure out how he could have done it without Chris actually noticing.

He was still pondering this question when there came a hideous cackling sound that split the night like a knife, as a card arced out of the blackening sky, landing at his feet. He blinked as another cackle followed the second, ever so slightly freaked-out, he reached down for the card that lay at his feet, he held it up to the light, and at that point, almost dropped it in shick.

"Gale!" he whispered to himself, before looking around glaring,

"Alright who's there?" he shouted, apparently at empty air, he couldn't see anything but … he could feel it, and that cackling noise had to have come from somewhere.

There was another sudden wind, this one stronger, firmer than the first, as it blew his hair in all directions, he shielded his eyes with his arms and Duel-Disk and then closed them, still remembering the burning sensation from earlier that day.

When he opened them, he almost screamed. Have you ever seen that look on someone's face, when they are so utterly scared of something that they can't move, but their expression remains the same, and the things that they happen to believe is scary, looks completely harmless or normal, well in a nut-shell that was exactly how Chris felt.

Where once … nothing had been, stood someone familiar, it was that same man from this morning. Nothing appeared to have changed, he was still garbed in the same tatty robes, albeit with a few more holes, his feet were still bare, and his duel-disk had a few more chunks taken out of it and his face was twisted in an even more insane look, apart from that, everything was normal about him.

In one gnarled hand he held up a silver colored card, which he waved back and forth gently, almost teasing Chris like you would a dog with a treat or a bone.

"Looking for this _boy_" he drawled, his voice sounding sarcastic, as it dawned on Chris just who the card in his hand was.

At that point, a stream of good, warm anger spilled into his veins, melting the ice cold fear that had been slowly gnawing at his heart, he felt his hands ball into fists.

"Give me my Deck back!" Chris demanded, even though part of him knew that asking or demanding was probably not going to do anything here, he began to see red, there was absolutely no way he was going to let this guy get away with this, he, AND his Blackwing Deck, were going to Duel Academy, even if he had to plough his way through every duelist in the world to do it, that is how belligerent he was feeling.

The old man waggled his finger at Chris, which infuriated him even more, his voice was now reedy and high-pitched compared to the deep, bass tones he had sounded earlier,

"No!" he said shrilly, shoving the card in what resembled a pocket, then he paused, an evil glint coming into his eye

"Make me!" he then added sarcastically, now an evil grin appeared on his face as he began stroking the duel-disk on his arm as if it were alive like a cat.

Chris blinked again, his mind silently putting 2 and 2 together and making … 4, eventually, then his face turned a mixture of scarlet and alabaster, as fear and anger collided, with justification in the anger and logic in the fear and a huge cloud of emotional steam began to build.

In a single, fluid motion he almost tore his deck from the back of his belt and slammed in into his Duel-Disk, at the same time activating it as its arms swung around, ready for battle.

"Lets Duel old man" Chris said, masking his niggling doubt and fear behind anger and bravery, then old mans grin widened, to almost sadistic proportions.

"So be it" he said quietly, slotting a deck into his own battered duel-disk

"**Lets Duel**" the both said in unison, as the shadows around them seemed to flicker and coalesce, although to the Anger-filled Chris, nothing really mattered at the moment, except retrieving his stolen cards, from the clutches of a nutter.


	4. The Storm before the Calm

Last time of Yu-Gi-Oh Gx:

_Another note to self, never EVER be late for a train again, especially with Mum's cooking_

_She wasn't sure, could she control that power, the power of that deck, not unless she had to_

_Repent!, Repent! I say or the Darkness shall swallow you all away_

_Lets Duel old man_

_So be it_

_**Lets Duel**_

* * *

In a single, fluid motion Chris almost tore his deck from the back of his belt and slammed in into his Duel-Disk, at the same time activating it as its arms swung around, ready for battle.

"Lets Duel old man" Chris said, masking his niggling doubt and fear behind anger and bravery, then old mans grin widened, to almost sadistic proportions, he looked at the card he was holding in his hand, Gale the Whirlwind.

"Don't worry pal, I'll get our friend back" he thought to himself as he shuffled Gale into his deck, maybe a little bit of luck would go a long way in this duel.

"So be it" he said quietly, slotting a deck into his own battered duel-disk

"**Lets Duel**" the both said in unison, as the shadows around them seemed to flicker and coalesce, although to the Anger-filled Chris, nothing really mattered at the moment, except retrieving his stolen cards.

Chris: 4000

Old Man: 4000

There was a sudden pulse, so faint that Chris almost didn't hear or even see it, the lights around them seemed to face, although they could both still see, Chris could feel the hairs on the back of his neck beginning to rise, something was wrong here.

"The first move is mine" the Old Man said

"I shall draw, and then I will activate the spell card, **Summon Storm**, so now I can select a Level 4 or lower Wind-Attribute monster in my Hand, and I can special summon it to the field"

A huge hurricane materialized, coming down out of the dark clouds that had gather above, spinning quietly around and around and around as the Old Man selected a card from his hand and tossed it into the hurricane,

"And I happen to have just the card for the job _boy_, my Whirlwind Prodigy (1500/1600) in attack mode"

The hurricane suddenly exploded silently as a figure jumped out of its midst, he was a small boy with brown hair and eyes, and the air near his hands seemed to jump and spin as if he were somehow controlling it.

"But that _boy_ is just the calm before the storm, since I can now release my Whirlwind Prodigy to advanced summon my great bird"

The Whirlwind Prodigy blinked once, and a strange expression came over his face as he vanished, for a few seconds … nothing happened, then there was a massive squawk above him as a huge bird began to descend, it was bright green and its wings and feathers sparkled in the dark lights, its tail feathers were massive and each reflected a different array of colors.

"_Boy_ meet my Simorgh, Bird of Divinity (2700/1000), and I'll play him in attack mode, then I will activate the continuous spell card, **Leveled Summon**, now as long as this card is on the field, to summon a monster we must each pay 100 lifepoints x the level of the monster, so then I will set 1 card, and now that we have reached the End Phase of a turn, now my Divine Bird's effect activates, dealing each player 1000 points of damage"

The huge green bird flew up into the air as it began rapidly flapping it wings, creating two huge whirlwinds which flew at Chris, then something that he didn't expect happened, they threw him back, until he collided with something invisible yet _painfully_ solid, he groaned as he picked himself up, his vision swimming slightly,

"_Ouch … that hurt! … wait a second! ... that hurt?, but that means … that means the rumors of the shadows aren't rumors at all_" he thought, shocked, and then he gulped as he watched his Lifepoint counter reduced.

Chris: 4000 - 1000 = 3000

"Hey!, what just happened, firstly why didn't you take any damage?, and second, what the hell was that?" Chris said, slightly confused

The Old mans grin widened even more, if that were even physically possible,

"You seem to have gotten in over your head _boy_, my Divine Bird's damage effect is reduced by 500 points for each player for each Spell or Trap control they control, I have two so my Lifepoints are safe" he said triumphantly, then his pitch lowered,

"And to answer your second question, this duel has now been taken" the old man raised a finger in the air, pointing at something that only he could see,

"to the Shadows" he finished dramatically as Chris cocked his head to one side,

"_Okay! …. This duel officially just hit 10 on the weird factor_" Chris thought

He gulped again, this duel was not going to end pretty "Its my turn"

"I draw …" he paused, looking at his cards, it had been a while since this deck had even seen the light of day, forget a duel, but he was confident he could pull through, despite some of the downsides that losing would bring.

"and now I'll give up 100 lifepoints in order to summon my Winged Kuriboh (300/200) in defense mode"

A small brown ball of fur appeared, it had big brown eyes and small green arms and legs with 3 little claws on each one, on its back were a pair of small angels wings, giving it an angelic appearance, all it needed now was a halo, if gave its wings a little flutter as it settled on top of its card that had appeared sideways on the field.

Chris: 3000 - 100 = 2900

"Then I'll activate the Equip Spell, **Ribbon of Rebirth**, and I'll equip it onto my Winged Kuriboh"

A small blue and white ribbon appeared in front of the Angelic monster who looked at it as the ribbon wrapped itself around its forehead, like a bandana, before tying itself in a knot at the back.

"_Now if I play this, then that should be enough to keep his Divine Bird away from my lifepoints … for this round at any rate_"

"I'll place 1 card face-down and then I'll call it a turn"

"_Good_, _now I'm_ safe" Chris thought, confident he could at least survive this round

Then Simorgh began flapping his huge wings, but the cards of both players rose up and deflected the huge tornado, shielding them both from the blast.

"My move now, I draw, and I'll set 1 card, now Simorgh, attack his Winged Kuriboh, with _**Ancestral Mastery**_"

The huge green bird flew into the air as it summoned a massive hurricane with a sudden flap of its wings, sending it spinning straight into Winged Kuriboh, who gave a small cry as both monster and card that it knelt on were blown away before shattering into dozens of Pixels, as was the ribbon it wore.

"Now I'll prove to you the power of my Simorgh, because now I will allow him to play with the weather by activating my Continuous Trap Card, **Storm Force**"

There was a flash of lightning and a silent boom of thunder as dark storm clouds began to gather over head inside the dark dome that was beginning to form, as they began to swirl ominously overhead.

"so whenever a Winged-Beast-Type or Wind-Attribute Monster I control destroys a monster on your field, you lose 400 lifepoints, however, when you destroy one of my cards, I lose 400 lifepoints, but that won't be happening any time soon, so now, Storm Force _**Activate**_"

The trap card shot up a shot a blast of compressed air at Chris, knocking him back a step, but this time he was prepared for the pain, but it still hurt.

Chris: 2900 - 400 = 2500

"Then I'll end my turn, so now my Simorgh's effect activates, so since you _boy _only control 1 Spell or Trap, you lose 500 lifepoints, such a shame, your starting to run out of lifepoints"

Simorgh gave a squawk before flinging up another huge wave of air, which knocked Chris back, slamming him into that invisible barrier again, Chris winced again as the wind cut at his eyeballs, each blow was stating to get ever so slightly more painful.

Chris: 2500 - 500 = 2000

"Now I'll play a card effect of my own, you see when the monster Equipped with Ribbon of Rebirth is destroyed, then I can special summon it during the End Phase of the turn it was destroyed, so now my Winged Kuriboh comes back in defence mode"

The was a bright flash of Light as the Angelic version of Kuriboh reappeared, its bright eyes looking relieved and its wings flapping slightly as it resumed its position its card, minus the ribbon it had been previous wearing.

"I'll just crush it again with my Simorgh"

"But that'll have to wait for now, because it's my turn, I draw"

Chris added his next card to his hand, he was beginning to see a strategy form in his mind's eye, it might take a few turns, and cost him some more points, but it would be worth it.

"Now I set 2 card's face down on the field" Chris plucked the two cards he needed at slotted them into their allotted places on his duel-disk as their silhouettes appeared on the field.

"Turn End"

Simorgh started his deadly wind assault once again, although now both players face-downs again shielded them from the furious winds.

The old mans grin began to widen as his turn began,

"I draw, and I will pay 400 lifepoints in order to summon my Frenzy Bird (1800/1000) in attack mode"

A strange yellow-feathered bird appeared it was about a meter in height with red bloodshot eyes and chunks of its feathers were missing, it looked mad.

Old Man: 4000 - 400 = 3600

"Now Frenzy Bird, take down his fluff ball, and when my Frenzy Bird attacks a monster in defense mode, the difference between his Attack points and the Opposing monster Defense points is dealt to you directly as damage, now attack, with _**Frenzied Feather Flurry**_"

The frenzied bird attacked, and when I say attack I mean attempted to rip to shreds Chris's Winged Kuriboh, which promptly exploded into a ball of smoke and shredded feathers.

Chris: 2000

"I activate my Trap Card, **Shadow of the Lost Soul**, so now, at the End Phase of this turn, I can add all monsters that I lost due to battle this turn to my hand" Chris picked his Winged Kuriboh off of his duel-disk and slid it into his Graveyard.

"_Don't worry pal_" he though "_you won't be there for long_"

The frenzied bird then flung itself at Chris, shedding feathers like leaves as the all were flung in his direction, suddenly Chris was surrounded by a shield of white light that protected him from the attack, deflecting all of those yellowed feathers and scattering them in all direction.

However it didn't stop the blast from Storm Force, which Chris just managed to block, using his Duel-Disk again as an improvised shield.

Chris: 2000 - 400 = 1600

"What, that's impossible, you still should have taken damage due to Frenzy Bird's piercing effect"

"Not quite, you see in the turn that _Winged Kuriboh_ is destroyed, then I take 0 battle damage for the rest of the turn which means" Chris pointed a finger at Simorgh

"the attack of you Divine Bird is now completely useless, and since I have 2 card protecting me, I'll take no damage due to his effect, but you on the other hand will be"

Chris tapped a button on his Duel-Disk as the trap card popped up,

"I reveal one of my other face-downs, the trap card, **Dust Tornado**, now I can destroy 1 Spell or Trap card that you control"

Chris paused for a second, considering his move,

"_If I destroy his Leveled Summon, then that means that I won't lose any more lifepoints when I summon a monster, but then again, if I destroy his Storm Force the I won't be able to use it's effect to my advantage_"

"I choose to destroy your Leveled Summon" Chris said, pointed at the card

The trap card sent out a rugged and dusty blast of air that caused his Spell card to explode

"which now only leaves you with 1 card for you to defend yourself with, as for me, I play the other effect of my Dust Tornado, now I can set 1 card from my hand which replenishes my defenses, and protects me from your Simorgh's effect"

Now Simorgh began to flap his wings again, this time however Chris was completely protected and it was the old man who was taking the damage as a spiraled gust of wind caught him in the chest.

Old Man: 3600 - 500 = 3100

"That was a .. decent move boy" the old man said, his facing creasing slightly, "but it won't protect you from damage, because now I will activate my face-down, the quick-play spell card **Hyper Wind**"

Another huge storm began to brew, this one however looked much more fierce, and appeared to be much more than wind, there was a faint rumbling in the clouds above as they began to blacken.

"now Hyper Wind forces me to give up any number of Wind-attribute monsters I from either my field or my hand, and then I can deal you 500 points of damage for each one, so I'll release my Simorgh, Frenzy Bird, and the 2 monsters I have in my hand, to deal you a total of 2000 points of damage, this duel is over"

Both Simorgh and Frenzy Bird took on green aura, as the spell card sucked them in, then the old man tossed two more cards into his graveyard, causing them to be absorbed as well, the card pulsed once before unleashing a massive blast of wind that shot across the field in Chris's direction.

"I activate the effect of the monster in my hand, _Hanewata_, so now I can send this card from my hand to the graveyard and then I can reduce all effect damage that I take from card effects right down to 0, so Hanewata can shield me from the effect of your Hyper Wind"

As Chris slid the card into his Graveyard a small translucent image of a creature appeared, it had a body and shape perhaps similar to that of Watapon, except that it had pale orange fur that looked rather nice and fluffy, it had a pair of antenna on its head each with a fully ball on the end, it had big brown eyes and two little angel wings, just like Winged Kuriboh.

It placed itself right between Chris and the incoming blast, it took the full brunt of the damage, causing the huge amounts of cascading wind and energy to bounce back and collide with itself, causing the power to dissipate, leaving Chris completely safe.

Chris: 1600

"And lets not forget that since it's now the End Phase, my little Winged friend now returns from my Graveyard to my hand."

Chris plucked the card out of the slot as it popped out, he then placed it in his hand and drew his next card.

"I draw" a small smile crossed his face.

"Now I re-summon my Winged Kuriboh (300/200) in attack mode"

The small angelic kuriboh reappeared for the third time, this time however he looked a little relieved to be out of the Graveyard and also a little happy to be back on the field.

"And now here's my second surprise of the Duel, my **Berserker Crush**, so now I can remove-from-play 1 monster card in either of our Graveyards, and then my Winged Kuriboh gains Attack and Defense equal to that monster, now I select _your_ Simorgh, Bird of Divinity"

A silhouette of the Green Bird shot from the Old Man's Duel-Disk, then Winged Kuriboh opened his tiny wings and began to absorb it's strength as he began to take on a greenish aura.

(300/200) - (3000/1200)

"He's got 3000 attack points!"

"Yep, and now he's going to use them, but first I'll set a card, now then ..."

At that point the old man started gibbering, he fell to his knees and started mumbling something under his breath, unfortunately for him that put him right in Winged Kuriboh's reach as he flew across the field in blur of white and brown and green.

"-Winged Kuriboh, let him have it, **Divine Berserker Crush**"

The supposedly angelic Kuriboh suddenly didn't look too angelic anymore as it balled its tiny claws into fists, before dealing him a vicious punch to the stomach, sending him flying backwards a short distance into the invisible barrier that surrounded them.

Old Man: 3100 - 3000 = 100

The Old Man slammed into the barrier with a serious degree of force

"_I can't hold on much more, I need to end this quickly, my energy won't last much longer_" the Old Man thought as he heaved himself up onto shaking legs, then he grunted as he gently touched his ribs, feeling a huge bruise beginning to form when the Kuriboh had struck, who knew little fur balls could be so … tough.

(3000/1200) - (300/200)

"_This boy is strong, to make such attacks so powerful, but he doesn't know it, which put this duel much more in my favour then he realises, soon I'll leave his soul dangling in the depths of the Shadows_"

"I Draw" it took him 3 attempts to grab the card off the top of his deck his hands were shaking so much.

"and now, I summon **Falchion Flacon** (1500/0) in attack mode"

This next bird of his looked almost human, only its face was distinctly bird like, the rest of it was made up of a muscular body with a loin cloth wrapped around the waist, in its hands it carried two swords, one distinctly longer and thicker than the other.

"now during the round that my Falchion is summoned, when he attacks, during that Battle Phase I negate all monster Special Abilities, but that's not the only trick I have in my book, because now I activate an Equip Spell of my own, known as **Wind Shot**"

A small gust of wind blew in from behind his Falcon, causing him to spread the large wings he had clamped to his back, that would give him more momentum if he attacked.

"The monster equipped with Wind Shot gains 400 Attack Points if he attacks a monster, so now Falchion, attack his Fluff ball and bring me victory in this duel. **Falchion Featherstorm**"

The bird-like solider drew his twin swords into a wide arc before charging at the Winged Kuriboh, who blinked as it began to glow a sickly green as its effect was canceled out and its expression made it appear as if it were about to be sick.

(1500/0) - (1900/0)

The bird flung itself on the Kuriboh, attempting to shred it with its swords however, the Kuriboh began to glow, brighter and brighter, then it was suddenly engulfed by a furious fire, then it leapt straight towards the Falcon, who swept his sword down, which passed harmlessly through him as Winged Kuriboh went straight through his chest, causing him to explode, then Kuriboh headed straight for the old man, who tried to shield himself from the Attack, but to no avail, Kuriboh collided with him and then Exploded.

"Due to the Trap Card **Chaos Burst**, I can inflict 1000 points of Damage and destroy any attacking monster by releasing my Winged Kuriboh" Chris said calmly as the Kuriboh blew up in his face.

Old Man: 100 - 1000 = 0

There was a sudden blast, a mixture of fire and shadows and monster asduelist collided, then there was another pulsing sensation, Chris watched, helpless as that huge shadowy dome that had invisibly surrounded them began to descend.

The Old Man began gibbering as the shadows descended like spectral hands, wreathing them both in a dark layer of mist, there was another flash of lightning as the cloud above began to swirl, almost like a giant vortex. There was a sudden, intense flash of light that forced Chris to cover his eyes, followed by a furious heat, a deathly cold, a howling wind, each more loud and more angry and more vicious then the next.

There was another lightning flash as lightning slammed itself into the ground, sending chips of debris flying everywhere as it slammed into the ground, the vortex above began to spin faster and faster and faster, Chris could see glimpses of shapes in the mist, hands, people, monsters of incredible height and stature. There was a surge of wind, as it began to pull everything in the vicinity towards it, the vortex above began to descend in a single tube, a tornado, but instead of blowing, this one was sucking, a scream filled the night sky, and Chris was slightly surprised to find that it sounded male, there was another gust of wind and Chris firmly planted a hand on his deck, yanking it out and tucking it back into his spare pouch, he defiantly didn't want to lose anymore cards today, 1 Deck was enough.

Then a single bright sphere of light shot straight into the air and exploded, bright, white light filled the whole of his vision, there was a sudden heat, it might have been fire, or it could have been something else, but through the whiteness he wouldn't have been able to tell and then there was a final desperate scream and then … and then…

He sat up suddenly, his head spinning like a top, his vision was slightly unfocused as it began to adapt to the sudden darkness, he looked around, it was almost completely black, something had caused all of the street lights to explode, broken glass and metal lay everywhere, at that point he realized that he was alone, so where had the old guy gone. He pulled his phone of his pocket, attempting to use it as a torch, it worked, the small light was just enough to allow him to scramble around in the dark, but at least he wasn't completely blind.

In the darkness he could now just begin to discern shapes, vague outlines of where things should be, despite this he still groped his way around, using his hands more than his feet.

Then he tripped, sent sprawling by something that had entangled itself in his feet, and his nose caught a sudden whiff of that burning smell you get from wash out a burnt, fatty pan that's been lying out in a greasy oven for several days, not exactly pleasant, and he was almost sick right then. He dropped his phone, causing his only light source to spin off into the darkness as he felt fear and that stench flood through his veins like poison, he knew exactly what it was and he had too clamp a hand over both his mouth and his nostrils, the smell was that overpowering, as he attempted to extricate his feet from the tangled remains of cloth.

Gingerly, almost grudgingly he untangled the ragged material from around his trainers, letting it drop onto the hard surface with hardly a sound, or at least that's how it was going until there was a sudden, _clack!_ of metal on stone that made his heart skip a beat.

Another had moved its way along the cold stone, warmed by his touch until it touched hot metal which made him recoil suddenly at it's heat, just enough to singe, there was a faint orange glow of red-hot metal on the ground, rapidly cooling into black, its orange outline fading fast.

Chris's mind, slowly, slowly, put two and two together, and then he suddenly retched, not actually being sick, but even thinking about it made him want to puke, now he knew what it was, he shuddered, his spine tingling and a sudden chill enveloping the air around him.

"_Oh God! please … please … please don't let that be what I think it is,_ _ please_" he prayed desperately, each silent 'please' becoming more desperate as both fear, and the sudden desire to throw up clash in his mind and in the pit of his stomach.

He reached out into the darkness and somehow managed to find his phone, hitting a button, he illuminated the area where moments ago that orange glow had been, it was the reasonable well melted remains of an aged duel-disk, in the deck-holder lay the burnt remains of an entire deck, all charred beyond recognition.

Then the other thing came into view, a blackened robe, its gaping and ragged surface now charred in places, in other it was damp and in other worn through completely, areas of it were even frozen.

"_What the hell happened_" he thought, gingerly patting the robes down until his hand again touch cold metal, this time it with-drew quicker, not through it heat but through its cold, it was as cold as ice, if colder, so cold in had chilled him with less than a touch.

A quick lunged dragged whatever it was out from the tangled robes, the stench still hung in the air like a smog of fumes but he had adapted to it slightly, it still made him queasy but it was bearable, just.

The container was metallic, is surface studded with some strange black insignia that the light from his phone would not illuminate, it was sealed with some sort wax, and it was a strange yellow color, almost like sulfur, it crumbled easily in under his touch, turning into a glowing yellow sand which scattered itself like dust on the wind. Suddenly the entire seal crumbled, vanishing like it had never been and the two halves fell open, before they two vanished, turning to sand as well, Chris paused.

"_That was freaky_" a small voice in his mind said

"_Agreed_" said another

"_Why am I talking to myself?_" asked a third

Chris shook his head before flicking another button on his phone as the light had begun to dim, in his hands now lay a small bag, plastic strangely enough, one of those small, cheap plastic bags that you could find anywhere if you looked hard enough, it tiny surface flapped in the wind.

Carefully he unwrapped what lay inside, layers of plastic unfurling at his fingertips, almost as if welcoming him, which would be strange. As that last layered cover fell away, beneath the luminescence of a cheap cell-phone light, brightness maxed out, lay the familiar glint of black on a white background, two thoughts ran through Chris's mind as he chucked the bag away, pocketing the deck he had just discovered:

"_Just what the hell is going on?_"

Then he glanced at the light on his phone, checking the time, then several thoughts ran through his head at once as he blinked, just checking to make sure he wasn't seeing things, the first being:

"_Bugger_"

And the second being:

"_Bugger_"

And then a third one came along, deciding to join in to prevent a lack of repartition:

"_I am so dead!, if I get caught_"

* * *

Ok this is Chapter … 4 completed, I know it's a little … odd perhaps, there might be another word for it, but this is edition 2 of 6 and it's the one I felt did justice to the … situation, the other 5 weren't as good, the main reason it took me so long is because I couldn't decide on what sort of deck to give him, anyhows, do ReadxReview and enjoy,

~Siranzan


	5. Trouble during Boarding

The next morning was not good, for a number of reasons, the first one being that he had had about … 6 hours sleep, probably less, and the second being that he had had to get up early so that he wouldn't miss the boat, in fact he almost did sleep in, until his mum had come in armed with a bucket of icy water and threatened to dump it on him unless he woke up promptly.

So at that point he did get up, and literally dragged himself into the shower, it was probably one of the few things that actually could wake him up in a hurry, apart from icy cold water obviously. As the hot water drained away his drowsiness, his mind wandered as if in a daze, his vision hazed with sleep, he couldn't quite remember how he had got home, nor how he had got in the house, dragged himself up the stairs, changed his clothes and got into bed, it was all just a blur of color and lights and scattered thoughts and shocked feeling.

He heaved a deep sigh before turning the heat of the water up, trying perhaps to wash away the memories of last night, he still had he faint vestiges of that smell in his nostrils, and even thinking about it made his just a little queasy.

He touched his fore arm gingerly, the skin was bruised and tender from where the holder from his duel-disk had pressed into his arm when he had attempted to use it as a shield, well he certainly wouldn't be doing that again in a hurry.

* * *

The sun was hidden behind a grey wall, most of it cloud, keeping both the light and the warmth hidden behind its pale blanket. Chris stared out of the window, for once his expression was something other than excited, ecstatic or happy, the first change in expression in about a week, this one was more … somber.

He was … unsure of what to say, or to do, it would be a while before he came back, after all it was a boarding school, to give it its technical name, so you were expected to stay there pretty much all of the time, with the odd trip home at the holidays and maybe a weekend every now and again. He heaved another sigh, before turning back to his wardrobe, now what would he wear?

For once he wasn't sure what to wear either, he didn't want some too flashy, but he also didn't want something too dull, he agonized over every little individual piece, blue or black?, red or yellow? Jeans or tracksuit?, it was stupid really, he had already decided what he had wanted to wear a couple of days ago, but each few decisions meant a few more seconds at home.

Eventually he managed to break the annoying deadlock, slipping himself into a clean pair of grey jeans, and a slightly out-of-place purple shirt, completely blank on both sides, a shade darker then the one he had worn to the Test Center, he liked it that way, it had been a gift from his grandparents for his birthday last year, and something about it made him feel … safe, if that only scratched the surface.

He took a last look around the room before throwing his last few things into his bag and doing the zip up. It was a big green hold-all that was reasonably full already, almost to brimming point, filled with just about everything that he absolutely HAD to take with, and maybe a few other things which he did not need ias well, things like books, spare clothes, stationery and everything that an aspiring student needs, most of it brand new, since it had only been brought this week. He took one last, long look around the room before dragging his bag out of the door and closing it behind him, a firm grip on his emotions.

He almost killed himself getting his bag down the stairs, he tripped over the rug that had been there for about 10 years and almost fell over, however the thick wooden banisters he went into didn't budge, which was very helpful, otherwise he probably would have ended up going straight over the end and then his bag would have promptly followed.

"TWO _Notes to self, Note 1: get a bigger notepad, Note 2: be nicer to banisters from now on, those just saved my neck _"

He sighed again, before carrying the bag the rest of the way down the stairs and dumping it very unceremoniously at the front door before glancing at his watch. Only an hour or so until he had to leave, with a heavy heart he wandered through into the Living Room, his mind playing back memories like a Film.

It had been in here his mum had first introduced him to Duel Monsters, something he would probably never forget, ever, after all, its not everyday that you discover something that will engross you for the rest of your life.

_

* * *

A__ small boy, of about the age of 5, going on 6 in a few weeks, sped into the room like what can only be described as a car, in one hand clutched a thin envelope addressed to himself, his face was lit up with excitement_

"_Mum, look!, look what I found!" he said excitedly, holding up a small leather holder, its edges sheathed in protected metal and its cover sealed back with a single popper._

_She looked up from her newspaper, 8 years hadn't done much to ease the lines on her face and forehead, and there were the faint dark circles under her eyes that showed just slightly the stresses of being a single mother._

"_What have you found dear?" she asked, looking at the object in his hands before he offered it to her for her inspection._

_With a grave that only came from women she plucked it fro his outstretched hands and looked at it, examining it from all angles, a finger tracing the biro letter that had been written into the bottom, two of them, S.A._

"_What is it Mum?" the small boy asked, his head cocked to one side and his voice with just a note of curiosity in it, the same note that all young boys have, his eyes sparkling._

_She blinked as she popped the popper with a finger,__ flicking back the cover to reveal the top of a yellow card, a faint smile touched her lips as she turned back to him._

"_Where did you find this Chris?" she asked gently, as he looked at her with that *I'm Innocent* look on his face._

"_In a … a box, with all these paper thingys and … and books, lots of books" he said pausing now and again to think, that look still plastered on his face._

_She smiled at him gently he was an inquisitive boy, maybe and hopefully that would wear off with age__._

"_Their called Duel Monster card__s" she said, pulling one out for him to look at, glancing at the familiar monster before placing it in his outstretched hands, his head still cocked to one side, he looked at it, his forehead creased in concentration, but his eyes wide with fascination_

"_Cool!"_

* * *

It had also been here that he and his Grandfather had devised all of their strategies, their combos, they say two minds work better then one and they were right, between youthful inexperience and aging knowledge had been a great contrast sot hey had both thought, Chris almost instinctively touched the holder on the back of his belt, he seemed to be doing that a lot now, just making sure that it was there, he defiantly didn't want to lose either of them again, but also because of the additional weight, after all, not many people carried two decks around with them.

He gave a small smile, so much time had passed, duelling had gone from being a game, to a hobby, to an obsession, but that wasn't surprising really, it was hard not to get into something like that, and there had always been someone to duel, even at school, even at one point missing half of a class just to finish a duel, that how obsessed some of them had become with it, although the extra homework had never really helped.

There was a faint sound behind him, which jerked him out of his fading memories, bringing him back to reality ... it was time.

* * *

The car journey was silent, spent in contemplation, Chris didn't know what to say, it felt like he was coming to 'the crossroads in his life' as his grandmother would say, one of those important turning points in a persons life where it eithersinks or swims.

Buildings passed by like a grey blur, then sun was just beginning to pear out from behind the grey clouds. There was nothing to say, nothing that could be said, and nothing that might be done that could shift the … uneasiness in his heart, his mind was torn right the way down the middle, a crisis of interest, he REALLY wanted to do this, but at the same time he REALLY didn't, he was scared, deep, deep down in the bottom of his being, hidden beneath absolutely everything else you can possibly think of, he was scared out of his wits, he could almost feel it squirming in his heart, so much fear.

But that was to be expected really, he had expected himself to be afraid, after all, he wasn't used to being alone, by himself, with no one to ask for help, its would be … different, but he also had a sense of dread?, why he had no idea, surely he should look forward to school for once, after all, how often do you get to go to one of the most prestigious schools of duelling in the world.

* * *

The car pulled to a stop, Chris opened his eyes, he had closed them, mainly because he was trying to think, although he had an ulterior motive, he was ever so slightly tired, so even a few seconds with his eyes shut made him feel tired again.

Chris opened the car door and heaved himself out of his chair and out into the outside world. There was that salty tang in the air that you always got when you were near the sea, and there was that gentle sea breeze that could chill you to the bone if you weren't careful enough, Chris shivered, glad that he had brought an extra coat with him.

It was one of those 'mother-son' moments, a grievous parting, all the words were put into a silent embrace between the two, the last that there would be for a while.

She took his head in her hands and gently kissed his forehead, almost as if in some solemn ritual, it was a tender moment between the two, then she embraced him again

"Good Luck" she whispered in his ear "I love you"

He nodded briskly, trying to keep his emotions under control, he felt like crying, he really did, it was one of those heart-felt moments that always got to him. Then he went and got his bags out of the car, before silently trundling away, glancing at the piece of paper that he had dug out of his jacket pocket, trying to ignore that nagging feeling in his heart and absolutely refusing to look back, then he would probably break down and cry ... now that would not be very manly would it?.

"_Let me see…_" he thought, "_da, da, da, da, dah, no that doesn't apply, no, no, nope, never, zilch … none, never, that doesn't apply either, Jeez they could have made this much simpler_"

He moved a finger down the shortening list until he reached the part that he was looking for,

"_Ah, here we go, New Students … Departures … hmmm, so that means I should take a left right about …. Now_!" he thought, turning down one of those long corridors formed by two huge warehouses that always appear on a dockside.

Then he stopped … and gaped, he hadn't seen many boats in his life, but this one was ENORMOUS, they had said a cruise ship, but this looked more like one of those cruise liners that went around the world, MASSIVE and GINORMOUS only just described it is small terms.

It was pearly white and took up a large portion of the pier, the letters D and A were sprayed onto the side, in red and blue respectively, the main body of the ship looked almost like a giant knife that could cut through waves like butter.

It took him several seconds to take in all of this grandeur, he could feel a well of self-confidence beginning to grow, roughly about where the fear had previously been, maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all.

It reminded him of going through an Airport, people in uniforms and people dressed in all sorts of clothing everywhere, there were people occupying tables, talking and chatting and dueling and just having a drink, there was a big TV screen on one wall that displayed some kind of new Duel-Disk that had just been 'NEWLY RELEASED' and that it was 'THE THNGS TO HAVE' Chris rolled his eyes, they really had to advertise these things on such a grand scale to a bunch of kids, it was such a cruel thing really, more for the parent of those kid rather than the parent themselves, after all, parents brought their younger children with them to say good bye to their older brothers and sisters, and at the same time they were bombarded by advertising, so the younger siblings spent the next few months asking for things.

He dumped the majority his bags at the designated area, where according to the staff there they would be loaded on board the cruise ship, so until then they were expected to wait, of course, this normally led to tension, after al, your keeping over 400 people, both students and newcomers inside 1 building, most of them hormonal, challenging, and aggressive 15-year olds of both sexes, so there was bound to be clashes, and unfortunately, one of them involved him.

Have you ever met one of those people, you know the kind, the ones that you instantly dislike, and vice-versa, hate at first sight and so on, not exactly the best base for any form of future friendships.

He was one of those average-ish people, about the same height as everyone, same build, same weight, unfortunately for him that was where the similarities ended, he had these weird bluish-brown eyes that were round and cold and hard, he was dressed in jeans, pretty much like everyone else, except that they were almost completely ripped down at the heels, his shirt was hidden beneath a thick leather jacket and his face was one you would always remember for all of the wrong reasons.

He was leaning put against one of those concrete pillars that seemed to be dotted all over the place, probably more for decoration then for structural support, his face was bent into a weird cross between a smirk and a sneer and his expression clearly showed to everyone around him that he was in a bad mood, so everyone was giving him a wide berth.

One glance between the pair of them was all it took to cause a spark, which in turn ignited the powder keg that was simmering rather violently.

* * *

Alexander Howell was, to say the least, BORED OUT OF HIS MIND!

Now normally this wouldn't have been much of a problem, he always had someone to talk too, that was one of his many … talents as he would put it, there was a gentle sigh from beside him as he looked out over the rail, this place was packed full to the brim with people, and he knew almost none of th-

"_Aleeexxx, I'm Booooooooooooooored_" the voice was male, although its pitch and tone were quite young and it almost would have appeared female if it were not for the fact that Alex knew who it was, now it was Alex's turn to sigh.

"Yes, I know Striker, but I told you to stay with the others and you didn't listen" Alex said, silently groaning to himself, why did he have to be so … difficult all of the time, he was always running off and getting lost or separated or in trouble or … Well the list goes on.

Striker, well specifically Spell Striker, pouted, going into that 'sulk' mode that children are so good at, his blue-colored armor clinking gently, he was only a young spirit, although how young Alex had _no_ idea, but it was really becoming apparent now.

"__"

Alex turned back to look at the crowd below as someone else called his name, floating up towards him was another spirit, this one was much cuter than Striker, she was dressed orangey-red robes and she was wearing a tall purple hat that looked more like it belonged on Dark Magician then on herself, it was almost as big as she was, in one hand she clutched a small staff and her green hair gently flowed as if it were constantly been blown around.

"_Alex, Alex, wefoundhim, wefoundhim, wefoundhim, wefoundhim, wefoundhim, wefooooooooouuuuuuuuundhim._" She said ecstatically, flinging herself at him, Alex ducked, as she shot over his head and screeched to a stop, her blue eyes massive and speaking volumes.

"Found who?" Alex said, standing back up again, wary of anything else she might do as the obviously excited spirit gave her response.

"_Chris!_" Card Ejector said proudly, puffing out her chest, until she accidentally knocked her hat to one side and it fell over her eyes causing her to spend several seconds trying to free her head from its depths as Striker laughed and Alex's face brightened, at least there would be _someone_ he knew now.

"Where was he when you saw him Ejector?" Alex asked the embarrassed spirit, who had finally managed to extricate herself from her overly large hat and was blushing deeply as she put it back on her head.

"_This way!_" she said, floating off in the direction of the stairs, as Striker and Chris ran after her, he hadn't seen Chris in a while … well, if by a while you mean a few weeks then yes, it had been a while.

* * *

Alex paused, sniffing the air, Striker and Ejector paused, looking back at him,

"_What is it Alex?_" they both asked in unison as he continued to sniff the air, his eyes bright,

"I smell a Duel guys!" Alex said, before turning around and running off in completely the opposite direction to where they had originally been going, with Striker and Ejector trailing behind him,

"_Bu-, bu-, but, Chris is this wayyyyy_" Ejector said, attempting to stop him, and failing miserably as he just ran through her.

"True" Alex said, "but if I know Chris, and I also know that there's a 99.9% chance that IF there is a duel, _Chris_ is involved in it somehow"

The crowd began to compress so Alex had to stop running and start squeezing between people, muttering apologies and excuses as he did so, not wanting to gain any enemies just yet, he could wait until he actually got to the academy first.

The people were all crowded around a pair of people, forming a rough arena, Alex squeezed his way to the front, his hunch had been 100% correct, Chris _was_ involved, not surprising, that guy just couldn't resist a duel.

"Chris … hey Chris!" Alex shouted, getting his blonde haired friends attention, Alex looked at him, he hadn't changed much, but his eyes … looked very, very, very angry indeed.

"Hey Alex" Chris said, despite his eyes he was calmly strapping his Duel-Disk onto his arm, having pulled it out of his bag.

"Buddy are you Okay?" Alex asked, Chris was a _very_ hard person to annoy, although he had a few buttons which were a little to easy to push.

"Yeh, I'm fine, just need to take care of something" Chris replied, pulling his deck out of it's holder and shuffling it carefully as he spoke, Alex raised one eyebrow.

"Sure, you'd say that if you were bleeding to death, now what is it?" he asked again as his friend slotted his deck into his duel-disk, before turning to face his opponent.

"To cut a _very_ long story short, he just said several things about various members of my family that I found to be very insulting and rather inappropriate, so now I'm going to kick his ass into next year because of that" Chris said calmly, flicking a switch on his duel-disk as it activate and its arms swung into position, and Alex silently groaned _why_ did he always have to take stuff like this so personally, then he peered out of the crowd to see who his opponent was.

* * *

Chris was now _officially _pissed, he normally liked to use a good duel to relax, but now, this was personal, Alex was a nice enough guy, although perhaps a little on the weird side, after all he said he could 'see' monster spirits? Not the kind of thing you'd expect someone in a right state of mind to say, maybe he was slightly unhinged, but if he was, at least it made him good company.

The look on his opponents face was smug, smug self-gratification, that same self-assurance of someone who had already won the duel, despite it not having started yet.

"Your can have the first move" he said as he drew his first 5 cards, his voice was slightly nasally and he was putting on an extremely high, sarcastic pitch.

"Gee … _thanks!_" Chris said, biting viciously into the last word as he drew his first 5 cards, and then his sixth.

Chris: 4000

Opponent: 4000

"I Draw"

Chris looked at the cards in his hands, surveying them, he wasn't much of an irrational duellist, he liked to at least have some sort of strategy planned in advance, and he could see at least two in front of him now, he picked out one of his cards and placed it on his duel-disk.

"Now I summon my Kuriboh (300/200) in defence mode"

There was a sudden _pop!_ As a small bundle of brown fur popped into existence on Chris's side of the field, then a pair of small green feet and little paws appeared, each on had 3 small claws. It also had big Purple eyes that spoke volumes about his personality, he blinked once before giving a small growl

"_Kuri_"

"then I'll set 2 cards, your move!" Chris slotted two cards into his duel-disk before relaxing slightly, his strategy was in place, now lets see what this guy had.

Well his first comment was much of a start

"You really think your little dust buddy can stand up to my deck, Please, I Draw"

He didn't even pause too look at his hand again, as he slapped the card he had drawn onto his duel-disk.

"I summon my Jurak Protapus (1700/1200) in attack mode"

There was a crashing sound as the monster burst out of the ground from a large fissure, and there was a momentary glimpse of fire n the ground below before the crack it had emerged from faded from view. The dinosaur was a mixture of light orange and deep blue and it closely resembled a Protoceratops, having a massive ridge of bone before its neck and it toward above the little Kuriboh.

"Now due to my Protapus's special effect, he gains 100 ATK for every monster you control"

Jurak Protapus: (1700/1200) - (1800/1200)

"But that's not his only trick, because I'm going to give him another one, with this Equip Spell , **Fairy Meteor Crush**"

The fiery dinosaur began to glow with a strange green aura as it gained a new power, then it opened its mouth and gave a huge roar, breathing out smoke and heat.

"Now when the equipped monster attacks a monster in defence mode, the difference between my Monsters attack points and the defending Monster's defence points comes out of _your_ lifepoints, so let him have it Protapus, attack with _**Fiery Bone Rush**_"

The huge dinosaur gave another roar, before it lowered its head and charged at Kuriboh, intending to claw at it with it's beak like jaw, it slammed into the Kuriboh, who then proceed to explode into a cloud of smoke and the other kid grinned at that.

When the smoke cleared however, his grinned faded, for there was now **5** Kuriboh's on his field instead of 1 all of them blinking, then there was a reasonable chorus of "_Kuri's_" from the multiple fluff balls.

"What?... How?... What?"

Chris smiled to himself, this guy obviously wasn't exactly the brightest spark, or at least he didn't appear to be at the moment.

"When your Protapus attacked, I activate my face-down card, known as **Multiply**, now to play this card I have to tribute my Kuriboh, but in return I get a 'Kuriboh' token times the number of Monster Zones I have free, that's 5, so I get 5 tokens in total."

Kuriboh Token (300/200) x5

"So now your attack has no target, so pick a Kuriboh, any Kuriboh, any one will do"

"Fine then, Protapus, attack his middle Kuriboh Token, _**Fiery Bone Rush**_"

The Dinosaur charged straight at the middle kuriboh token, bowling it over and causing it to explode into a fiery ball of smoke and light.

Chris flicked a button on his duel-disk, completely prepared for a situation like this

"I activate my Trap Card, **Force Barrier**, Now when I would lose lifepoints due to a battle, I can reduce all of the damage that I would take to 0, and then I can select a level 3 or Lower monster in my Graveyard and add that card to my hand"

Chris plucked his Kuriboh out of his Graveyard slot as it popped out, and he added it to his hand, his opponent was now looking wary, but also just a little confused.

"Now I'll set 1 card, your move!"

Chris frowned, before drawing for his next turn, Kuriboh was safe, but he was out of face-down cards, and his opponent had a face-down card of his own, that could be a worry, so it was time to solve that problem.

"I Draw, and I'll activate a Spell Card, **Detonating**, now I can destroy any number of cards with 'Kuriboh' or 'Kuriboh Token' in their name, and then for every 1 I destroy, I can destroy 1 card on your field"

Chris gestured to two of his Tokens, which suddenly began to glow with a blue aura, they both gave a small "_Kuri_" before they shot across the field and slammed into both of his Opponent's cards, causing them to shatter and then explode violently.

"And Now we both lose 300 points x the number of cards from your field I Destroyed."

Chris: 4000 - 600= 3400

Opponent: 4000 - 600 = 3400

"Now I'll summon my Winged Kuriboh (300/200) in attack mode"

There was another _pop!_ as another Kuriboh appeared, this one looked almost the same, except that this one had big chocolate colored eyes and two small angelic wings on its back.

"Now I'll also switch my Kuriboh Tokens into attack mode, and then all three of my Kuriboh's will attack you directly"

First up was Winged Kuriboh, who flapped her wings and flew straight towards his opponent, scratching at him with her sharp claws.

Opponent: 3400 - 300 = 3100

And then it was the turn of the two tokens, who both tackled him at the same time, knocking him back a step.

Opponent: 3100 - 600 = 2500

"Then I set 1 card, and I'll take a break, your move"

His opponent was now wearing an expression similar to what Chris's had been several minutes ago, clearly showing he was now angry, which was good, angry people made stupid mistake, most of Chris's original anger had faded and was now replaced with a cold fury and an icy inner-rage.

"Your Dust buddies are going to pay for that. I draw, and I'll summon the tuner-monster Jurak Monolov (1500/1000) in attack mode"

This next dinosaur was much smaller, about as twice as big as Kuriboh with a blue body and a head that was beige and flecked with red in places, as was the rest of its body, on its tail flickered a small flame.

"Now I'll play the Spell Card **Pride of Rebirth**, so now I can resurrect my Jurak Protapus (1700/1200) in attack mode, but there's something in it for you too, you now get to Draw 2 Cards, and then my Protapus will gain 1000 ATK during my next Standby Phase"

The same monster that he had played last round burst out of the ground again to take it's place beside its Jurak comrade, as they both gave a roar together as Chris picked up two more cards from his deck

"Now my Jurak Monolov will attack your Winged Kuriboh, with _**Fiery Jurak Slash**_"

The small dinosaur moved as fast as lightning, sipping across the field before slashing its small claws into the angelic kuriboh, causing it to explode.

"Now my Jurak Monolov's effect activates, allowing him to attack all of the monsters that you control during the Battle Phase, so attack both of his Kuriboh Token's, with _**Fiery Jurak Slash**_"

Now the small Jurak dashed towards the two tokens, who sweat-dropped before they too exploded into two more balls of smoke.

Chris: 3400

"I think you need a new Duel-Disk, that one seems to have a busted lifepoint counter, you should have taken 3600 damage"

"Not quite, you see in the round that my Winged Kuriboh is destroyed and sent to the Graveyard, I take no Battle Damage for the rest of the turn, which means that all of those 3600 points of damage is reduced to 0"

"Then I'll set 1 card, your turn!"

"I Draw"

Chris picked his next card up from the top of his deck, his opponents graveyard was devoid of a strong monster, indeed of any monster what-so-ever, so he left off using his draw card, Berserker Crush and Winged Kuriboh were out of the question for now, however, one of his other cards could be more useful.

"I set 1 more card, then I'll leave it at that, your move again"

His opponent has a slightly puzzled look on his face, he had obviously been expecting some form of counter attack, but what he wouldn't be expecting was sitting right in front of his eyes.

"I Draw, and now due to _Pride of Rebirth_, my Protapus gains 1000 ATK"

Jurak Protapus: (1700/1200) – (2700/1200)

"Then I'll play my face-down card, **Level Retuner**, now I can reduce the level of my Jurak Protapus by 2"

Jurak Protapus: 4 - 2

"Now I tune my Level 3 _Jurak Monolov_ with my Level 2 _Jurak Protapus_ to Synchro Summon…"

The Small figure of Monolov began to glow as it turned itself into three small rings, which arranged themselves around Protapus who began to glow as his entire body turned into two bright twinkling stars as a massive column of energy descended.

"_Rise up from the fiery depths, Jurak of Fiery Speed and Swift Fang, _Synchronise, Jurak Velhipto (?/?)"

There was a sudden burst of fire as the Jurak burst form the column of light, it was about the same size as Monolov, if not slightly bigger, its body was a strange mixture of purple and red and green, on the top of each of its feet there was a hooked claw as it gave a small, almost feral, growl as it glared at Chris, who suddenly felt just a little scared, despite the fact that it was only a hologram.

"and my Jurak Velhipto gains both ATK and DEF equal to the monster used to Synchro Summon it, Protapus had 2700 ATK and 1200 DEF, whereas Monolov had 1500 ATK and 1000 DEF, that makes 4200 ATK and 2200 DEF"

Jurak Monolov: (?/?) - (4200/2200)

"with that done, now my Jurak Monolov will launch a direct attack, go!, _**Fire Slash Kick**_"

There was a flickering as the image of Velhipto flickered once before vanishing, Chris suddenly ducked as a massive clawed foot came out of no where, then there was a sudden and very brave "_Kuri_" as Velhipto's foot slammed into Kuriboh, who promptly exploded into a massive cloud of smoke.

"Now, I can send Kuriboh from my hand to the Graveyard, to reduce all of the damage I would take from one attack right down to 0, which means I'm safe your attack"

"That may be, but from my hand I activate the Quick-Play spell card, **Quick Attack**, now 1 monster I control can declare an extra attack, but in return I have to skip my Second Main Phase, but it's worth it, now Velhipto, Atta-"

However, in mid-attack, he was interrupted by a sudden crackling noise from the overhead speakers.

"_THIS IS A MESSAGE TO ALL DUEL ACADEMY STUDENTS, THE SHIP TO DUEL ACADEMY IS NOW BOARDING, PLEASE COLLECT ALL LUGGAGE AND REPORT TO THE DOCK. THANK YOU!_"

The speaker abruptly cut off as rapidly started, both duellists glared at each other before Chris angrily flicked another switch on his Duel-Disk, as did his opponent, as the duel-disk shut themselves off, returning to their stand-by position.

"Just you wait" Alex heard the pair of the mutter quietly to each other, before separating, Chris's opponent melting into the crowd and Chris himself picking up his bag and plonking it onto a bench before sitting down himself as seeing to his duel-disk, flicking the switch that would regurgitate his Graveyard, Alex approached him warily, unsure of what his response would be.

"So … good duel?" Alex asked, sitting down beside him, Chris seemed to glance up at him, but then he returned his gaze to the cards that were coming out his graveyard, putting them into a neat stack before shuffling them back into his deck carefully.

"I guess it was" he said

"although I was about to win you know" he finished, plucking one of his set cards out of the Duel-Disk and tossing it to Alex, who caught it deftly in his hand,

"_Flute of Summoning Kuriboh_, how would that have helped?" he asked, looking at the picture on the card, a Kuriboh and a Winged Kuriboh either side on a flute.

"Because after I'd used it to summon Kuriboh from my deck, I'd have played this" he said, plucking out the other card before tossing it over as well, Alex glanced at it.

"A second _Detonating_? …so you'd have played Detonating to destroy Velhipto by tributing Kuriboh and then you both lose 300 points … then what?"

Chris rolled his eyes, before tossing him what remained of his hand from the last round.

Alex's eyes widened, in his hand Chris had had:

Draining Shield

Flute of Summoning Kuriboh

Winged Kuriboh

And Berserker Crush

"Now I get it, You'd have summon Winged Kuriboh and played Berserker Crush, removing his Velhipto from play and giving its ATK to Winged Kuriboh, am I right?" Alex said as Chris took the cards back off of him and shuffled them before slotting them back into their pouch before putting his duel-disk into his bag.

"In a nutshell, Yes, now what say we go get out bags?" Chris said, his face brightening slightly as he shouldered his small bag as the two friends went to get their bags from the area where they had left them, it was time … to Board.

* * *

The boarding process was easy enough, all you had to do was show them the small ID card that had come with Letter, the Card itself just had a number and a name on it, after that you swapped it for another card which had your room on it and was also the key to get in, just like a hotel. Both Chris and Alex were ecstatic to find that they were only a few doors down from each other, Chris in Room 104 and Alex in 101, which, according to Chris, 'Suited his mental state perfectly' which almost earned him a nasty clout in the face as he was laughing so hard he almost walked into a door.

After dumping their bags, Alex shot off for something to eat, it was of the 'Commandments' of their so called Religion', The first of three, the First being EAT, The second, SLEEP and Third and Final being DUEL!, a good religion for the pair of them, although they were considering adding a fourth, being something along the lines of CHAT UP GIRLS, although that was still on the drawing boards as of yet.

Chris was now alone in his room, it was rather spacious, well this was a cruise liner after all, it was about the size of his lounge at home, with a small En-suite bathroom, a bed and a wardrobe, desk and a couple of chairs, almost like a small bedroom of sorts, the bed was fresh made, Chris unzipped one of his bags, pulling out various bits of clothing before opening the wardrobe, placing some of them on the hangers available and others in some of the drawers that were available on the bottom.

When he had finished he neatly popped his empty bags onto of the wardrobe and went out into the corridor, closing the door behind him, which automatically locked, and he paused, breathing in a deep breath, this was it, there was most definitely no turning back now.

There was the sudden _pitter patter!_ Of feet as someone came down the corridor behind him, Chris turned too look, it would be good to at least have some company, however when he turned round he blinked sharply.

Standing in front of him was a girl, one who looked all to familiar to him, she hadn't rally changed much, she was still wearing that same uniform he had seen her in almost a week ago, maybe longer, and her hair was still tied back by that same red ribbon, on her bag was what appeared to be a school bag and over her shoulder was a much larger bag containing … whatever it is a girl would normally back, and for some strange reason, just having her in front of him now made him feel ever-so-slightly fuzzy on the inside, although if he told Alex that he'd probably never here the end of it.

"Excuse me" she asked politely, holding up a card similar to the one the Chris had been issued earlier "could you tell me where this room is?"

Her voice was soft, almost musical and it had a very subtle undertone of peacefulness to it, Chris felt slightly nervous as he took the card from her and glanced at it once before handing it back,

"Room 103, is riiiiight, _here_!" he said, gesturing to the door opposite his with one thumb, she gave him a small smile and Chris sudenly felt his heart skip a beat,

"Thank you" she said quietly, using the card to unlock her door before carrying her bags inside and shutting the door again, Chris exhaled, unaware that he had been holding his breath expectantly, then he gave small sigh before walking back up the corridor, Alex had probably devoured most of the 'All-you-can-eat' buffet and was probably moving on to the drink right about now, which meant either Chris would have to A. Hurry UP! Or B. STARVE! And B was not an option!


	6. Pool Days

The dining hall was big, at least the size of a tennis court, maybe more, up at one end was several tables crammed to breaking point with food and a few drinks machines, one entire wall was taken up with an impressive glass screen with doors at regular intervals which led out onto the deck, on which could bee seen a swimming pool and several deck chairs. Up at the other end there was an array of chairs in varying shapes and sizes, and in the middle was a huddle of tables, chairs and small crowds of people, all chatting away together.

When Chris found him, Alex had seated himself up at one end of the dining room, in a circle of red plush chairs, he had obviously finished eating and had moved onto drinking, although he had a fading red mark on his right cheek, concealing a smirk behind one hand, Chris sat down across from him, the chairs were comfortable and the room was reasonable crowded so he was surprised that no one else was there, then he realised that everyone else was probably more hungry that leg-sore, so really it made sense.

"I still think we should make it Number 4" Alex said defensively, taking another sip of his coke as he cuddled his wounded ego, Chris was trying not to laugh.

"I didn't say anything!" Chris said as he tried even harder not to laugh, seeing his friend predicament.

"You didn't have to" Alex said, gingerly touching his cheek and giving a small exhale as he did so, it looked sore.

"Tell you what, we'll make it Number 4 the day YOU end up not getting slapped" Chris said as Alex tenderly touched his cheek again, then he sighed,

"How come you never get slapped?" he queried, taking another sip of his Coke, looking at Chris oddly as if expecting to hear some 'words of wisdom', Chris gave him a small grin

"All in good time, my young Padawan" he said sarcastically, tapping the side of his nose with his index finger, as Alex's face grew slightly annoyed.

"That's not fair I'm older then you"

"Yeah, only by 3 weeks"

"Still makes me older"

"True … but I'm smarter"

"Hey! That's not true!"

"Okay maybe not that much smarter, but it still makes me smarter"

Alex gave him a small glare before they both relaxed again, they were always having this argument, and they really couldn't be bothered to sort it out, after all, if they did they wouldn't have anything to argue about when they got bored and it helped to pass the time.

Alex put his glass back down on the table, before looking up as a familiar spirit came into view, Card Ejector hovered ever so slightly above people heads peering around left to right, as if she were looking for someone, then she spotted Alex and shot over like a bullet from a gun.

"_Aaaaaaalllllleeeeeexxxxx_"

Alex groaned as the brightly dressed spirit hovered beside him and Chris looked up at him, his expression curious.

"What is it?"

"Spirits!"

This time it was Chris's turn to groan, Alex was always going on about his 'Monster Spirits', personally, Chris didn't believe him one bit, but that didn't shut him up.

"Spirits?"

"You still don't believe me don't you?"

"No!"

"Why?"

"We've already had this argument!"

"True … but this is where we stopped last time, so I'd like a reason!"

"It illogical" Chris said shortly, now he was in the defensive instead of the offensive.

"Why?"

"WHY! … it just doesn't make any sense!"

"**You** don't make any sense, you used to believe me when we were younger"

"_Oh … grow up_!"

"_Make me!_"

It was at that point that hey both realised that they were shouting, and that there was quite a lot of people staring at them, there was one of the awkward silences where everyone is either too embarrassed or too busy staring to say anything then someone near the back of the room coughed, breaking the silence, and the atmosphere returned to normal, and the pair of the flushed, embarrassed, then Alex murmured something about 'needing some air' before vanishing into the crowds, moving toward the doors.

Chris sighed, kicking one of the chairs as he did so, for some reason he felt really pent-up and … and frustrated, which was very unlike him, maybe it was just more nerves, he didn't particularly want to fall out with his best friend over something as trivial as whether or not Duel-Monster Spirits existed or not, it reminded him of their childhood argument of whether or not Trees had a consciousness, which in the end they both forgot about, and Chris was hoping that Alex would forget about this one as well.

* * *

"_5 minutes until Departure to Duel Academy … 5 minutes until Departure to Duel Academy_

"

The voice sounded out over the intercom, ringing gently through the corridors so everyone could hear, echoing in every room and lingering in stairwells and bathrooms.

She gave small sigh and finished running the small red brush through her long black hair, before placing it back down on the table and picking up the long red ribbon that was laying near-by and tied her hair back to its usually position, brushing back a few stray strands back behind one ear.

She glanced at her reflection in the mirror, taking in just how she liked her hair, she was going to have to find a new way to wear her hair, this one was getting used just a little too often.

She reached out and picked up a small hair clip, sliding that into her hair as well, it helped to keep most of those stray hairs out of the way, and stopped them getting in her eye-line, which could be very annoying.

Her room was reasonable spacious, with enough room for her to easily spread herself out, so long as the rooms at D.A were like this she would be perfectly content, the bed was bouncy enough and there was enough pillows, all of those small details which she had silently worried about were now perfectly fine.

She had two tables in her room, although one was more of a circular desk then a table, and the other was small and round with a single wicker chair, with a glass surface, not really ideal but hey! not everything could be perfect.

She carefully rummaged around in one of her bags, she had dumped most of them on the bed so it was a little cramped and every now and again 1 would fall off, causing her to pick it up off of the floor and put it back on the bed, and then start the cycle all over again until she found what she wanted. Buried at the bottom of one of her smaller bags, under several books, a magazine, various bits and pieces, some CD's and 2 DVD's she found her Deck.

She had never considered herself much of a duellist, indeed, she had only duelled about … 7 or 8 times, and that had been several months ago, so she was a little rusty, and she had lost her entrance duel by a long shot because of that, she silently made herself a promise, get some practise, after all, if your going to a School for Duelling, it would help to at least be a semi-decent duellist.

She spent a few moments just flicking through her cards, remembering and familiarising herself with them, before she began to carefully place 1 card face-down on the table, until she had eight of them all in a row, then she repeated it, 5 times, until she had 8 piles of 5 cards. Then she took two piles and combined them together before giving them each a quick shuffle, now she had four piles, then she combined two more piles together and shuffled, then did it again, so now she had two piles, before finally shuffling both piles together, giving her 40 exactly!, it was good to see that none of them had gone missing, otherwise she would have had to improvise.

She carefully gave her deck a final shuffle before fanning it out, face-down in her hand.

"Okay Alice, time to find out your fortune for today" she muttered to herself as she selected a card at random, pulling it out before flipping it around so she could see it, glancing at the name and the image before reading the text on the card one finger tracing itself under the words.

"Fortune Telling Witch Fu … now lets see … so-so? … so I guess that means that … everything's going to be Okay? Normal?"

She shrugged, slightly confused, but still confident, before she shuffled the card back into her deck and slotted it neatly into her duel-disk. It was a slightly recent model of duel-disk, although it was still old-fashioned when you compared it to the newer and even some of the older, academy-issue ones.

She carefully slipped the duel-disk onto her arm, tightening the strap around her forearm, before standing up and slipping her shoes onto her feet, tying the laces carefully into a small bow before opening the door and carefully closing it quietly behind her, however there was one thing that she had forgotten.

* * *

The top deck of the ship was crowded with people, all of them waving, there was tears and handkerchiefs a plenty, and there was even some last minute baggage going from shore to ship in a small tug.

Parents and younger sibling lined the quarry, also waving to their children or siblings, both younger and older as mothers attempted to cry quietly with watery eyes, and failing miserably.

There was a sudden, massive noise like a fog horn which drowned out all other sound with its power as there was a sudden surge in motion which momentarily caught everyone off balance as the huge engine slowly stirred into life and began to turn the massive propellers at the back of the ship, slowly, almost tediously, it gained momentum, it was the start of a 3 day luxury cruise, there was last minute 'I Love You''s been shouted back and forth, and still yet more tears, from both sides, they were off, to Duel Academy.

* * *

The evening air was warm, much more so then anyone was used to, the day had been very warm, so everyone had sort of expected a cooler evening than what had come, the sun had turned the sea a vibrant orange. Chris leant against the railing, staring out at the gentle that made the sea seem to appear afire, and there was that small haze that really did make it look like a fire, he sighed, today seemed to be a very … awkward day, to say the least, although perhaps the word crap would come closer to the mark, because that's exactly how he felt inside at the moment.

His attention was distracted temporarily from the majesty of the ocean by the sound of raised voices below him, he walked to the edge of the railing on his right and looked down, the covers of the pool had been pulled back at some point and the 5 or 6 people who had been swimming now sat at the edge of the pool, watching the spectacle unfolding in front of them.

Balancing rather ungainly on two large inflatable beds in the middle of the pool, were a pair of duellists, one of them was male, rather tall, taller then most, with thick brown hair and are thick forehead, although any detail of his face was lost over the distance. His opponent he recognised however, it was that girl … whatever her name was, from earlier, and she did not look happy one bit, although Chris couldn't tell whether it was anger or sadness because her back was too him.

There was a gentle cough beside him, and he glanced at the person who was now standing next to him, as it gestured to the pair of duellists.

"They've been arguing since we left port" Alex said "Something about some card he kept going on about that he didn't like, so he ripped it up, then she just lost it"

He glanced back at the scene

"Looks like a Duel" he finished, as the boy had a duel-disk thrown at him by someone on the edge of the shore, fishing decks out from somewhere inside their clothes, the Duel was on.

* * *

"**Lets Duel!**

"

Girl: 4000

Boy: 4000

"The first move is mine" the girl said quietly "I Draw"

As she complacently took the top card form her deck and added it to her hand she felt herself become a little nervous, this was her first actual duel for a while, but … she also felt the excitement as well, and the anger. This guy had _really_ got on her nerves, ripping up cards … what a jerk.

She selected a card from the opposite side her hand, opening the Field Spell zone with a flick of a button as she slapped the spell card in its place as the section closed again.

"I activate the Field Spell card **Fortune Bazaar**"

There was a brief flickering, then the entire field turned into a sprawling square, with 6 stall set up, three on either side of the field, at each of the stall a different witch was trying to peddle different goods, each stall was colour-coded to its individual, as were the goods.

"And now I summon Fortune Telling Witch En (0/0) to the field in attack mode"

A small red witch jump out from behind her stall, she was dressed in red, and her stall displayed a variety of hair ribbons, all in various reds, pinks and so on and her stall was decorated with two big red stars. She fluttered across to her side of the field with a small wand in her hand, looking determined.

"And with that I activate my Bazaar's effect, allowing me to Draw 1 card since I control a Fortune Telling Witch at the end of my turn"

She picked up her card and relaxed slightly, although she felt prepared … sort of, there was still that miasma of uncertainty which only fuelled her adrenaline, and she finally realised just what she had been missing.

The boy balancing on the other floating bed smirked,

"0 attack points, that's just crying out for me to attack it, so I'll oblige it, with this, my Gene-Warped Warwolf (2000/100) in attack mode"

With a fierce howl a strange beast burst out of the water, its fur was snow white and it had four massive arms, it stood on its hind-legs and it wore the remnants of armor and had a pair of black horns on its head.

"And with 2000 more points then you Witch, he can send her packing without even breaking sweat, Warwolf attack!"

The wolf bounded across the field, pummelling the unfortunate witch with his fists and claws, there were gasps from the witches on the other stalls as their red counterpart vanished, shattering into thousands of pixels. As she did so, her stall vanished, and a single orb of red light appeared in its place, at the same time, a witch on the other side of the pool, dressed in brown and selling black leather shoes, vanished as well, leaving a glowing orb of brown light in its place.

Girl: 4000

"Now the _other_ effect of Fortune Bazar activates" she said in her quiet voice, "now I can send a Fortune Telling Witch from my Hand or Deck to the Graveyard, and I can reduce all of the Battle Damage I take from an attack to 0, meaning my points are safe"

The boy made a _hrumph!_-ing noise, and mumbled something about cheap tricks before he slapped a card face down into his duel-disk, before signalling her move.

She picked up her card for her turn

* * *

"Well I didn't see that coming" Alex commented, watching as the Girl coolly avoid the damage from the attack, "Although I wonder what that Bazaar card really does"

"Really does?" Chris asked, his face confused

Alex pointed at her field spell "Mmm, look, see those orbs on the field, they vanished when she sent her Witches to the Graveyard, now they wouldn't be there if they had no purpose which means …"

"She wanted them there?"

"Exactly!, which means her avoiding his damage is nothing more then a stalling effort, she's waiting until she can play something big, probably using an effect from her field spell to help"

"Which is …."

"I dunno, I haven't figured that bit out yet"

Chris rolled his eyes, "and your supposed to be the smart one"

Alex made a flapping motion with one hand,

"Shhhhhh, its her turn again"

* * *

"I summon Fortune Telling Witch Hikari (0/0) to the field in attack mode"

This time it was the yellow which who responded, she stepped out from behind her yellow stall, decorated with a massive yellow star and dozens of shiny charms, a smile plastered on her face, and she fluttered onto her field as a silhouette of a card appeared behind her.

"Now I place a card face-down, and activate Fortune Bazaar again, so now I draw 1 card, your move"

The boy grumbled some more, as he picked up his next card, although she couldn't hear his words, she really didn't care what they were anyways.

"I summon my Emissary of the Afterlife (1600/600) to the field in attack position, now attack her new Fortune Telling Witch"

A strange creature, dressed in long black robes and hefting a strange looking scythe appeared, its greyed hands and face taut, in a sudden motion in vanished. Hikari looked around, her happy demeanor gone, replaced with one of surprise as the Emissary appeared directly behind her and swung its scythe with all its strength. The witch toppled forwards, before shattering into thousands of pixels just like her predecessor, at the same time, her stall also disappeared, turning into a yellow orb of light.

"Now I send _Fortune Telling Witch Fu_ to the Graveyard to reduce the damage to 0"

The final stall on the left side of the pool began to dissolve, the witch on it was dressed in green, and her stall had a variety of green plants in different shapes and sizes, she gave a small wave and then vanished, being replaced with a shining green orb, that meant there was now only two left now. The boy grinned, this girl was running out of shields, soon she would be wide open … but for now.

"Gene-Warped Warwolf, attack her directly, _**Thousand Pummel Fists!**_"

The four-armed wolf leapt over the waters, landing just in front of the girl, and then laid his holographic fists into her, the impact nearly threw her off balance and into the water, but she regained her balance just in time.

Girl: 4000 - 2000 = 2000

She glanced at her Duel-Disk, and felt most of her previous confidence evaporate like pouring water into a volcano, that attack had cost her half of her lifepoints, another attack like that and she was finished … and wet.

She picked up her next card, and nearly dropped it she was shaking so badly,

"I … Draw" she said slightly dejectedly, before she looked at the card, although it was almost like reading hieroglyphs, she didn't want to lose but … she was finished, even if she summoned one of the monsters in her hand, then he would take it out next turn and then finish her off … what could she do?

* * *

"Uh-oh" Alex murmured to himself, Chris's head whipped around quickly,

"Whats up?"

"She's froze!"

"She's what?"

"Froze, she's not sure what to do, that direct attack just shattered her confidence, now she's scared stiff" Alex nodded towards the girl, even from behind it was easy to see how nervous she was, he could see her shaking from her and the mask of her troubled expression stretched right the way around her face.

"… uhhhhhh How do you know all this stuff?"

"What can I say Chris, what you make up for with Natural Talent, I make up for with skill and knowledge"

Chris cuffed him lightly

"Alright then _Data Brain_, lets help her out then"

Before ALex could say another word, Chris had started.

"_HEY, CUMMON! WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR, YOU'VE GOT HIM RIGHT WHERE YOU WANT HIM, NOW FINISH THIS_!"

Alex's face turned red as everyone looked at them, he edged away from Chris slightly, why did he have to do stunts like this, of all the-

Almost on instinct his eyes flicked to the girl, her expression was different now, she was smiling, her look of troubled confidence now replaced with enthusiasm

* * *

She looked behind her, acknowledging the support with a nod of her head, then she turned back to the duel.

"I'm going to enjoy this" she said quietly.

"From my hand I activate the Spell Card **Hand Destruction**, now I can send 2 cards from my Hand to the Graveyard, and then draw two more cards"

She selected two cards form her hand and placed them in the Graveyard slot, as they vanished the two remaining stores vanished, The Blue Witch gave a sad wave before her blue stand covered with umbrellas vanished, being replaced with a Blue Orb. The Purple Witch made an evil grin as her stall selling purple sunglasses vanished too, being similarly replaced with a Purple Orb. All six orbs began to glow ominously, as if something was about to happen as she picked up two new cards and added them to her hand.

"Now I'll activate the effect of my field spell, now I can send my Bazaar to the Graveyard in order to deal 500 points of damage to you for each Fortune Telling Witch that got sent to the Graveyard, and since 6 Witches are now in the Grave, that adds up to-"

"3000!" someone yelled out, she flashed the person an irritable look, before glancing back at her opponent,

"What he said"

The six orbs began to flicker as the Field returned to normal, the now empty streets vanishing, but the orbs remained, then they each shot of bolt of lightning towards the Boy. Each one a different colour, Red, Yellow, Purple, Blue, Black and Green, each lightning strike striking him as he used his Duel-Disk as a shield to protect himself from the attack, however he wobbled dangerous on the floating platform and almost fell in.

Boy: 4000 - 3000 = 1000

"With that I place a card face-down, you're move"

A second face-down card appeared beside her first, those now being her only shields against his two monsters, now it was the boy's turn to almost fall off his platform, he teetered on the edge for a moment, then regained his balance.

"You'll pay for that, my move, I draw"

A slightly sinister grin came across his face as he picked up his next card,

"Now I sacrifice my two monster in order to summon **Trap Desecrator** (1000/0) in attack mode"

His two monsters were suddenly sucked into a swirling vortex of black energy, there was a pause, then a mechanical hand appeared as a strange machine dragged itself out of the darkness, it might have been human once, but now all that remained of muscles and sinews was cables and wire, several people jumped as it came into view, the machine flicked its black, greasy hair as its arm moved into a battle position.

"Now my Desecrator's effect allows me to destroy all of the Trap cards on your side of the field, and deal you 500 points of damage for each one, Desecrator, wipe out her face down cards with _**Malice Ascendant**_"

The mechanical creature twirled its arms, then they began to stretch across the field before its fists smashed into both face-down card, causing them to shatter to pieces in a cloud of putrid black smoke, then they exploded.

Girl: 2000 - 1000 = 1000

"Now with your defences out of the way, Trap Desecrator ATTA-" he paused, and stared, as did everyone else, as the girl calmly hopeedoff her platform and onto the edge of the pool.

"HEY, WHERE ARE YOU GOING … THE DUEL ISN'T FINISHED YET!" the boy exclaimed angrily, as the girl looked back at him coolly,

"Actually it is, the Trap Card you destroyed was known as **Fortune Bomb**, and when this card is sent to the Graveyard due to a card effect whilst I have a 'Fortune Telling Witch' in my Graveyard, then my opponent loses 1000 Lifepoints"

There was a pause, then a small holographic explosive with a small chibi image of Fortune Telling Witch Hikari drawn on it in yellow chalk rolled across the field, stopping right at the boy's feet, he groaned, before it exploded and he crashed into the water with an almighty splash.

* * *

"Oh so THAT'S what she was stalling for" Alex said excitedly, "she's a pretty good duelist, don't you think?" he remarked to Chris,

"Mmmm" Chris responded, not really paying attention to a word his friend was saying, his mind was on something else, although he wasn't sure what, with a small sigh he turned and began walking away.

"Hey Chris, where're you going?" Alex called after him

"Back to my room" Chris called back before disappearing down the stairs, Alex turned back to the pool, the boys friends were currently fishing their friend out of the pool, he was soaking wet, and in Alex's opinion, well deserved of it. But there was one thing troubling him, he hadn't seen that girl in the practical Duel Test at all, and he had turned up every day just to check out the competition and she had never dueled in there once, it was all one big … _mystery!_.

"Watcha-thinking-about-Alex?" a voice said rapidly from behind him, causing him to jump slightly,

"Oh its nothing Striker, go away and play" he retorted lightly, as the hyperactive warrior-spirit sped of in another direction, Alex rolled his eyes,

"Spirits!"

* * *

Chris wandered, he wasn't 100% sure of the way back to his room anyway, so he just walked, he felt like he had a massive headache coming on, but he ignored it gallantly as he turned another corner.

So absorbed was he in ignoring his headache that he didn't watch where he was going and slammed straight into someone as he turned the corner, his body reacted faster then his mind did, although it happened so fast he didn't realise what had happened, one moment he was walking, the next moment he was on the floor, but that wasn't the only problem, there was someone else there, the other person seemed to pause, then they ran, as a card floated down, they had dropped it in their quick flight.

It took a few moments for his mind to process what had happened, then he jumped up, spluttering, the person he had bumped into looked very familiar, wasn't she that girl he had helped earlier … yes the was defiantly her, but something was familiar about her hair, something even more familiar … hadn't he just … no, no way it couldn't be her. Noticing the card on the floor, he reached down and picked it up, flipping it over as he did so, Fortune Telling Witch Hikari the card's title text read.

"Déjà vu" he thought and mumoured to himself softly, taking the card and pocketing it. His head felt clearer now for some reason, as if the bump had knocked the fog from his mind, how odd? In that same instance he also remembered the way to his room, which meant that he could also return this card, if she was in that was, feeling a little more happier, he walked away, the incident forgotten already.

He only took his 5 minutes to get back to his room, but to him it felt like an eternity, each footstep dragging itself out as he attempt to reason out the severa amount of coincidence that just happened to be happening, then he realised that he was starting to sound a lot like Alex and dropped the idea immediately, then he spent the rest of that eternity trying to compose how he was going to give that girl her card back, he couldn't just go around and knock on the door, that just seemed a little … crude, and a lot like Alex, so he dropped that as well.

He fished his card out of his pocket, inserted it into the door, and opened it, closing it behind him before he collapsed onto the bed, glancing at the clock before he closed his eyes, he felt like a small nap, he was like that sometimes, after all he hadn't slept too well for some reason, but now he really felt tired.


	7. A New Ship

Chris reach up with one hand, and, hesitating slightly, knocked on the door. There was a brief pause, then the sound of a lock being clicked back, the door opened, about an arms length. The differences were subtle, but very pronounced, she wasn't wearing whatever uniform she had been wearing earlier, instead she was wearing a pair of long silky pajamas that had been turned up slightly at the bottom to stop her tripping over the ends, and which hugged her _extremely_ close in places, revealing that she was very … flat-chested ... not that he was deliberately staring at her in that way, no, no, no, no, no, he wasn't a pervert or anything it was just ... something he noticed in passing. Her hair hung loose, no longer tied back by the ribbon she normally wore and appeared to be damp, and there was a very strong smell of … was it mangoes? or peaches? She had one arm on the door frame, and the other was resting on the outside handle of the door, although she was quite small, she seemed to be almost serene, a quiet angel in a way.

"Well?" she asked quietly, and Chris was surprised at how soft her voice was, it was almost like talking to a completely different person. For a moment his mind went blank, then he remembered an instant later, as he pulled the card from his pocket, and held it out to her.

"This is yours isn't it?"

She looked at the card, her crimson eyes scanning it up and down

"Yes" she said

There was a pause, as Chris waited for her to take it from him, but she made no move to, after a few pain-staking seconds he spoke up again.

"Would you like it back?"

"Yes"

There was another pause, which left Chris mentally rolling his eyes,

"_This is ridiculous_" he thought, then, carefully, he gently removed her hand from the door-handle and plonked her card into her hand, which he noted in passing was very cold. She looked down at the card, and then looked up at him, then looked back at the card, and back at him, and then back at the card, and back at him, and back at the card for a fourth time, and then back at him. By the time it came to the sixth, Chris's patience caved in and he walked off, muttering to himself about why girls had to be so complex, he had just reached his door, and put his hand back into his pocket to retrieve his card for his door when he felt a small tap on his shoulder. He turned, turning his eyes heavenward as he did so, then he looked at her, his eyes widening. There was a firm but gentle tug on his shirt collar, dragging him down about an inch or so as she rose up on her tiptoes, stretching herself to her height limit.

It took him several moments to realise just exactly what was happening, he hadn't even noticed where she was, and in that same instant his brain registered an immediate lack of oxygen. She pulled her lips away from his, breaking the contact, and for a fleeting instant he felt a sting of annoyance, then he realised she was looking at him slyly, then without a word she skipped back to her room. Chris blinked, he felt very light-headed, and just a little … odd, he rubbed his eyes, then pinched himself, and winced slightly, There was an odd taste in his mouth, but what it was he couldn't tell what it was, no he wasn't dreaming … then that meant …. that they had … no … surely not …

* * *

Alex could tell immediately something was not right with his friend when he sat down for dinner, his usual, chipper-self was gone, replaced with a melancholy and day-dreamy self, which was what Alex would have expected if Chris had just spent the whole night up, unfortunately for Chris, this was the evening, so him being able to pass it off as sleep deprivation would be very slim indeed and Alex was just about to sink his teeth into his dinner when a feminine voice behind him whispered in his ear.

"_Alexxxx!_"

Alex almost jumped a foot in the air, attempting to be subtle, he shielded his mouth with a fork full of potato.

"What is it Ejector" he hissed, the miniature Dark Magician Girl was giggling profusely to herself.

"_You'll never guess what IIIIIIII saw eaaaarrrrrrlierrrrr_" she said, giggling some more

"What!"

She bent down and whispered something in his air, pausing several times as she tried to find the words, and Alex's facial expression changed from annoyance, to one of mischievous plotting. He glanced at her,

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking" he asked, she nodded, Alex put down his fork and rubbed his hands together in anticipation, he was never going to let him live this down. EVER!, at that point Alex noted just how evil he was sounding, and almost laughed.

"So Chris" Alex said, around a mouthful of food, "What did you get up to this afternoon, you just disappeared after that girl's duel"

Alex noted the rising amount of red in his friends face as he mumbled something about taking a sleep, then he took a long drink of water.

"_God if this was an anime, there couldn't be a more perfect moment_" Alex noted to himself before his spoke

"So you weren't busy kissing were you" Alex said, crossing his arms with a smug look on his face

That statement was met by an extended of choking, as Chris attempted to drink, and gasp at the same time, his face going scarlet, both with embarrassment, and lack of oxygen. After Chris had recovered he came up looking like a beetroot, a combination of anger and embarrassment and indignation.

"How did you-"

He was cut off when Alex made a small motion with his hand, tapping the side of his nose.

"A magician never reveals his secrets" he said, then he gave a small laugh,

"I've always wanted to say that to someone"

"We'll it looks like you got your chance then"

"Yep!"

There was a pause ….

"Your never going to let me live this down are you?"

"Nope!"

Chris groaned and put his head in his hands, Alex leaned forward slightly,

"Of course you could always pay me to shut up"

Chris looked stricken

"In your dreams"

"No actually in _your_ dreams, in reality I can say whatever I like to whomever I like, and you can't stop me"

That line earned him a very hard look

"I'll get you back for this"

"I know, and I look forward to the day you do, because then I'll just tell everyone that you kis-"

"_Shut … up_" Chris hissed, then began stuffing food in his mouth and chewing it violently in an attempt to stop himself strangling his best friend with his bare hands.

Alex went back to his dinner, then couldn't resist getting the last word, he wasn't sure when he would get an opportunity like this again and he was going to ride this wave for as long as it went.

"What was it like?"

"I said _shut up_" Chris hissed angrily, flicking a pea at him, which bounced off his cheek, although at the same time he felt that unfamiliar taste in his mouth and it made him shudder slightly.

* * *

Chris didn't sleep well that night, he kept tossing and turning in the dark and the soft rolling motion of the ship didn't help much either, he felt … restless, and thought of what had happened today kept coming back to him, jolting him into wakefulness every time he just about dropped off, it was really irritating.

Eventually he grew tired of waking up and went into his bathroom, splashing water in his face in an attempt to wake himself up, if he wasn't going to sleep, he may as well be fully awake, and too think they had another 2 days of this to go … He hoped every night wouldn't be like this, otherwise he would arrive at the Academy looking like a complete wreck, with bags under his eyes big enough to fit a deck in.

He sighed, looking up from the sink at his reflection in the mirror, he felt very … old, mature might be closer to the mark, and he really didn't like it. It was funny really, all these people spent all their time wanting to be OLDER, and as soon as they get OLDER they want to be YOUNGER, personally he never wanted to get old, that way he could keep on doing what he was doing, although he doubted that there would be a day when he would be too old to duel, that would be a sad day in the history of his life.

He sat back down on his bed, rubbing his eyes wearily, before he went over to the desk in the corner, and picked up his deck as he sat down in the chair, flicking through the cards one by one, pausing every now and again at an old favourite or classic. The hours ticked by second by second, as he spread out his cards on the table, until he had 5 rows of 8 cards, then he glanced out of the circular window and the waves that were steadily growing more light and sighed, looking at the clock, which read some stupidly early time in the morning, giving a yawn, he left his cards spread out on the table and went back to bed, maybe now he would be able to get some sort of sleep before breakfast.

… _He felt her pull her lips away from his, her eyes still had that mischievous glint in them, he felt a sudden surge of elation as she beckoned to him with one hand towards her ro-_

He awoke with a small start, before the anchor of sleep smashed through his skull, almost driving his eyes shut again and he sighed again, god that dream was starting to et annoying, he thought as he dragged himself into the shower in an attempt to cleanse himself of the previous days memories, and last nights dreams.

* * *

The second day on the boat was about the same as the first, minus the evening but the weather was grey and rainy, so everyone stayed inside their rooms, but the third was different, the sun decided to come out. Chris spent most of his time on deck on a sun lounger, thinking, and Alex spent most of his day doing what nosey people do it decent weather, listening in on people conversations, or getting other … 'beings' to do it for him, which helped, because it meant he could spend more time in the sun, he had been wanting to get a tan for ages.

The Fourth was the most exciting, the steady build-up of tension, the boat trip was 4 and a half days, meaning they would reach their destination tomorrow, and that meant they would actually start. Even Alex managed to stop eavesdropping long enough to enjoy the thrill of excitement and do some last minute relaxing before the work started. The night, no one slept, so just about everyone spent their time in the dining room talking, both girls and guys, a few people were dueling, but had forsaken the Duel-Disks out of politeness because of the noise it would have made, so they just used the tables instead.

Alex had eagerly integrated himself into the dueling crowd, winning and drawing half-a-dozen or so duels over the course of the evening. Chris on the other hand, was more willing to sit in the corner, reading a book on the History of Duel Monsters. Alex had made several attempts to get his friend to duel but to no avail, and he had then doubled his efforts when everyone surrendered to him en masse to save their own hides, but Chris didn't want any part in it, so that had left a very annoyed Alex plotting a way to get his own back as he stormed off to his room, but he quickly forgot about all of that since he was so excited, and he was out like a light.

The room slowly emptied as people drifted off to bed, soon there was only two or three people left in their, including Chris, who was so into his book he only noticed that he was completely alone, leaving his book on his chair, he opened the doors and shuddered at the sudden chill before he walked out onto the deck in the early darkness. He could just make out the sun beginning to poke a little color over the horizon, it was a picture-perfect moment.

He heard the sound of footsteps, and as he turned around his heart froze in his chest, it was something about the way she walked, maybe it was the way she seemed so slender and small, yet so strong as well. He shook his head, clearing away all of the thoughts that had suddenly rushed into his head, she was wearing the same pyjamas she had been wearing on that evening, two, almost 3 nights ago. She walked across the room to the water dispenser and poured herself a cupful, downing it hurriedly before she walked back across the room and disappeared out of the door. Chris had to slap himself to bring himself out of the trance, then, suddenly feeling thirsty, he went and poured himself some water for himself, drinking half of it, then drenched himself with the remainder, feeling the cold trickle down his back and front, then, shaking his hair like a dog, he picked up his book and went back to his room, and at the same time, he could smell that same scent of mangoes … or was it peaches?

* * *

Everyone was frantic, throwing their things back into bags instead of neatly packing them, and horridly getting dressed and other miscellanea as 1 o'clock drew near. When the call had gone out over Breakfast saying that they would reach the Academy in a few hours, there was a mass desertion from the tables to run and pack. Alex had taken his time however, actually he had packed when he woken up, that way he had had more time to enjoy his toast, but Chris had run off with everyone else, whilst the dozen or so sensible people who had already packed just shook their heads and watched them go.

At the sound of the speaker crackling into life everyone rushed up onto the deck, each one want to catch a glimpse before everyone else, Alex found himself back up on the balcony with Chris. Someone below as a joke shouted 'Land Ho' which elicited mass guffaws and laughs from the assembled crowd as everyone strained to see.

Their first sight of Duel Academy was something no one would ever forget, ever, it was like a palace, a massive building with a sparkling white dome on top, surrounded by three other domes, one in Red, one in Blue, one in Yellow, each representing the common rooms for each Dorm, and surrounding these were about a dozen or so massive stone pillars, some having collapsed or broken on purpose, now THIS was a postcard moment, there were gasps, and squeals of excitements, not just from the girls.

Alex gently punched Chris in the shoulder,

"Now _that_ was worse waiting for hey?"

"Mmm" Chris replied, although they hadn't even got there yet, he couldn't help get that feeling on impending dread.


	8. Decking Issues

Disclaimer: NOT my song, edits done by me, original lyrics belong to … whomever the belong to, just not me.

*Imagine music and bad singing voice*

At first I was afraid, I was petrified  
Kept thinkin' I could never write without this site;  
But then I spent so many nights  
Thinkin' how much you meant to me  
And I grew strong

And I learned how to get along

And so I'm cured *_do do do do_* of writers block *_do do do do_*

You just clicked on this fic to find Me here with this sad look and held against my head: a Glock

I should have changed my stupid password  
I should have made them ban this site  
If I'd've known for just one second you'd come back to review me

*_do do do d_o* Yes, because *_do do do do_* I will survive. *_do do do do_*

I will survive… Hey he-. *is hit by bus*

~R.I.P Siranzan, 2010

* * *

The Decks of the ship remained crowded as they neared the Island, and the tension and excitement grew … and grew … and grew! The hubbub of voices grew louder … and louder … and louder, until Chris felt like he had a migraine coming on. Abandoning the deck he went below, theorizing that if EVERYONE was up on Deck, then the inside of the Ship would be empty, and more importantly _quiet_!

"Where's Alex when you need him" he muttered, his friend had a seeming knock for attracting calm … in the same way that Chris seemed to be able to continually attract or accidentally cause discord, which really annoyed him, just because bad stuff always happened around/to him didn't mean that he didn't want a few minute space every now and again.

Just when he had finally found a nice, quiet place to sit down and think, there was a loud _DING DONG_ sound like a doorbell as the ships Intercom rang out, Chris groaned to himself loudly as he rubbed his temples … was it so much to ask for a few minutes peace and quiet.

"_Ladies and Gentleman, the Vessel will shortly be arriving at our Intended Destination, please insure that all bags are packed and placed on Beds so that they may easily be removed, Thank You._"

There was an odd crackling noise, and then silence, blessed silence, Chris managed to drag himself to his feet, moaning a little like a wounded animal, he half-walked, .. himself to his room … and then the unexpected happened. Even as he reached for the key card for his door as he walked down the corridor, which he had tucked into the back pocket of his trousers, a door crashed open … right into his face, momentarily dazed, he fell back and hit the floor with another crash, his head spinning, and for a moment he could have sworn he saw a dozen or so little Kuriboh's spinning around his head, just like you would on television and it might have almost been comical had his head not been feeling like a drum, but then he shook his head and they were gone.

His migraine was gone … but now his head was pounding for a different reason, rubbing his forehead angrily, he blinked … then felt a very cold sensation run down the back of his neck, he looked up at the doors number … and realised that it was his … bugger!

* * *

As the intercom _clicked_ off, Alex rolled his eyes, well at least it gave him an advanced warning, for some reason he didn't have Chris's sense of organisation. Whereas Chris like everything to be 'perfect'-ly organised and everything to be in place, Alex had more of a sense of … organised CHAOS, and it worked quite well for him, everything had a neat little place where it went, be it in a cupboard in a pile or on the floor, the trouble was that as soon as he, or someone else, tidied his room he could normally never find anything due to the length of time stuff had been lying around, which was a severe pain to say the least.

Alex enjoyed several things, peace and quiet (because being followed by and having to entertain a gaggle of childlike spirits REALLY makes you appreciate it), reading (because he had spent most of his childhood in a Library) and above all things, a little … excitement (although this may be because he spent a lot of time with Chris … which meant that they were always getting into trouble). However, at this moment in time, his moment of peace was rather rudely shattered by a very cold sensation which shot through his back, passed through his stomach and poked out of his chest, and he sat bolt upright , immediately noticing the head which was sticking out of his stomach, flicking his sunglasses up onto his forehead so he could see properly, he was greeted the head with a somewhat calm look, which was rather surprising, normally he had exploded by now.

"_I had to get your attention_" the spirit said, his black hat, not to dissimilar to Card Ejector's but a little smaller, bobbed up and down a little as he spoke. Similar to his sister, he wore robes, except that his were purple and white instead of her orangey-pink ones, his shoulders and head were encased in some sort of armor which matched the black colour of his hat, and loosely in one hand he carried a staff, red in color, with a small orange gem in its top. He gave a small inclination of his head apologetically.

"_Apologies_"

"What's up Flipper?"

"_Chris wants you_"

Alex gave Miracle Flipper an odd look, almost as if he had said something ridiculous

"Chris _wants_ me"

"_Yes_"

"How do you know?"

"_He asked me_"

There was a pause

"He … he ASKED you"

"_Well … not directly_"

"Not directly huh!"

"_Yeah … he sorta just … murmured something along the lines of 'Where's Alex when you need him', and I took that as to meaning that he wanted you_"

"Mmmm hmmm, You did did you"

"_Yes_"

Alex sighed, flicked his sunglasses back over his eyes and lay back down again, flicking his glasses back over his eyes and closing them.

"Well … what do you think Flipper"

The monster spirit left his staff hanging in the air, plonking his hat on top, he let his almost girlish, weight-length light blue hair flow out, settling himself in a meditative position, he started thinking.

"Jeez, you don't need to think _that_ hard buddy" Alex said, hopping up "Lets us go and see what my most astute companion is up to"

Removing his sunglasses and tucking them into the top pocket of his shirt. Alex spent a moment attempting to figure out where he was, momentarily disorientated because of the sudden change in thought pattern from _rest_ to _where am I? _However his mind soon adapted itself to this sudden change and he found the correct set of stairs. It seemed darker then usual below deck for some reason, maybe a light had blown or something, whatever it was Alex unsure, but as a result he clearly missed the last few steps completely, which sent him toppling forwards, completely off balance with no way of recovering it at all.

He felt himself hit something, then he realised that he was lying on something soft which had cushioned his fall … wait a second … _soft! _… this is a ship … with wooden floor, correction, deck … so why is there something sof-

Alex got up immediately, wobbling with disorientation and squinting in the near darkness. Soft? … not good, had he just- … yes he must have just hit someone … not good … most definitely not good, very, very bad indeed.

Now, to be brutally blunt and very, very excruciatingly honest indeed, Alex was _not_ a very faithful person when it came to relationships, a fact which Chris rubbed in on infrequent occasions. It wasn't _his_ fault … or that was how he saw it, once again, to be honest about it there was simply too many cute, intelligent or generally nice-looking girls around him for him to even attempt to stick with one. Personally, to him it felt … wrong perhaps, to just stick with one cute girl when he had equal feelings for all of the others as well. This generally meant that Alex's word had eventually degraded into something which was about as worthless as a chocolate teapot, in other words, if he tells you anything which vaguely resembles commitment, it is only valid for …. 5 minutes at best.

Now of course, as the all-knowing and all-powerful omniscient narrator and writer of this story, I can tell you now that with the fullest confidence this was the first time in Alex's life that he had ever considered someone quite like this.

In Alex's personal dictionary of generally flattering word, beautiful was not one he used very often, and indeed he wasn't about to start using it, but this came close as anything. Perhaps the phase 'calmly pulchritudinous' comes to mind over beautiful, exquisite and several other adjectives of flattery, despite the fact that Alex need to get a dictionary out every time he used that phrase just to make sure he wasn't being offensive, it was accurate, to say the least.

Now white is not a natural hair color among teenagers, of any age, by any stretch of the imagination, indeed it is reserved for people about 4 or 5 times older then they are, however this is what you might describe as a 'special' circumstance.

Her hair was a soft, snowy white, which was obviously not dyed, there would have been some hints of alternative colour towards the roots and it was long, very long, and mostly hung loose, apart from two long braids which hung down from either temple, tied in a strange fashion with an oddly red ribbon.

Her expression, even in slight-unconsciousness, was calm, almost serene. Her skin was a pale, almost pasty white, although she was not ill or did not seem it at any rate, her cheeks had a slightly reddish tinge to them and her face was acutely angular and unblemished, which again was odd for a teenage, acne being what it is and all. She was dressed … well he wasn't sure what to call it, it sort of reminded him of a priestess's outfit, yet at the same time it seemed almost like some sort of uniform, but he couldn't quite place it exactly in the middle of one or the other, rather it seemed to move between the two.

Alex actually had to pause for a moment as his mind processed all of this information at about the speed of … crossing the road, so by the time it had come to any form of conclusion, it was way to late too late for him to react what happened next.

There was a noise behind him which sounded like running feet, and he half turned his head behind him to see what the noise was, as he looked down the dimly lit corridor … was that Chris? … it looked like him and was wearing his clothes … and he was shouting something.

"Alex … look out!, stop her!"

Even as his friend shouted a warning, her eyes snapped open, and Alex noticed in passing that they were a pale purple, however, any other rather poetic comments he could have thought of were cut short by a foot making extremely hard and almost vicious contact with the area just below his ribs at a speed which he could not even guess. He paused, shock spreading through his system as he felt like his stomach was being forced up into his chest, he tired to gasp for air, and failed, he hit the ground hard, gasping for oxygen badly as the girl rolled out from underneath and was up and gone before he could recover. Through the moments of struggling for breath, he most definitely heard Chris give an audible sigh even as he stepped up his running pace a little until he was at his side, his face speaking volumes about what he was thinking.

"_Nice job_" he said sarcastically, offering Chris a hand, who accepted it generously as he was pulled upright. They were both panting heavily, Chris because he had just run what was probably about half the length of the ship, and Alex because he had just had the wind knocked out of him, neither a pleasant experience to say the least, however it was Chris who recovered first.

"Which way does this corridor go?" he asked hurriedly, hoping Alex had a better memory of the ship's layout then he did.

Ale's face contorted slightly, his expression contorted in mixed relief and puzzlement.

"It's a dead-end I think, it leads to storage, where they keep all the trunks and supplies and … stuff" he paused, about to ask another question, when Chris, who it seemed had recovered his breath, shot off again along the corridor. Alex closed his mouth again, rolled his eyes, and then set off after his friend.

"Why are you chasing her?" he asked curiously, catching up and keeping pace with his friend with relative ease. In school they had both been marginally fit to say the least, so they both had a good enough stamina and weren't prone to tiring easily as it was.

"Would you believe me if I said she stole my Deck"

Alex looked at him incredulously

"No"

"Didn't think so, but she did"

"Seriously?"

"Yeah, I went for a walk, came back, then the door exploded in my face and the place where I kept my Deck had been ransacked"

"How did she even get in your room without the key card?"

"No idea, but this is starting to become a habit!"

"What, us chasing girls, or you having your decks stolen?"

"You wouldn't understand"

The pair rounded a corner, checking the doors as they went, non were unlocked or open, and there had been no sound of them being opened either, or at least there wasn't at first. Then, suddenly, there was a loud _CLANG!_ and the noise of metal crashing into metal, however they ignored it and carried on, rounding a second corner, they found themselves face to face with three doors. Alex and Chris paused and looked at each other

"Which door?" Alex asked curiously

Chris had a strangely determined look on his face as he marched up to one of the doors and rapped it sharply with his knuckles. There was the dull thumping sound of wood and he shook his head. He cross the corridor to the other door and repeated the process … yet another dull thumping. With a look of victory on his face, Alex set his hand on the handle of the middle door, and was about to open it when he felt Chris's hand on top of his, stopping him from proceeding. Chris rapped his knuckles against this door as well, and there was yet another dull thumping sound.

Chris muttered something he really shouldn't have and stamped his foot angrily with a slight clang on the floor … there was a pause, as both boys to look at each other, the floor was wooden, so why was there metal on the floor. Then they looked down, and noticed the metal trapdoor on the floor.

"Why … didn't we … see that before?" Alex said, his voice a little strained with obviousness

"No idea" Chris mused, "maybe because we're just too dumb to notice" he gave a small laugh, then motioned to the trapdoor

"Help me with this"

Taking a rung in each hand between them, they lifted it clean off the hatchway, revealing a ladder, stretching down into the dimly lit darkness below them.

"After you sirrah" Alex said suavely, steeping back from the hatch "Its _your_ Deck we're going after"

Now it was Chris's turn to roll his eyes, before he mounted the ladder and began climbing down. Alex was tempted not to follow him and instead go and find something to eat, all that running had made him hungry, but then, his sense of curiosity overruled his sense of hunger, he shrugged to himself and mounted the ladder above his friend, pulling the trapdoor shut above them with yet another, although with a little more quieter, _clang!_

When Alex reached the bottom, about 6 feet or so down, he found Chris waiting for him, with his phone out as an improvised torch, well the thing had a damned high enough brightness setting, he could probably kill vampires with that sort of brightness, however now he was quite close to thanking him for it.

"So where do you think she went?"

"I don't know" Chris mused again, and Alex watched as his face paled a little

"Is it me … or does it feel like we just walked into a trap"

Alex looked at him, and felt a slight shiver run up his spine.

"Yes … yes it does" he paused "why do you always drag me into this stuff"

"_Hypocrite_" Chris muttered to himself darkly, as he turned the light of his phone away from the floor and began to shine it around to see what was down here. The bright light the phone emitted revealed crates. Big, wooden ones, stuffed with who knows what, most probably people's stuff or food or something like that, non-perishables and such things, or maybe it was stationary, tons and tons of stationary, who knew?

There was a noise from behind them, a flickering in the shadows, the sound of rapid footsteps, which caused them both to whirl round expectantly, although by the time they had both turned, whatever it was had gone, vanished into the darkness. Alex gave Chris a long, annoyed look.

"If I end up dying down here, I am _so _going to haunt you for the rest of my life"

"Yes Alex, because that _really_ puts a positive light on the current situation _doesn't it_"

"Just stating a fact"

"Thanks"

"You're welco-, HOLY CRAP!"

The next thing Chris knew, Alex tackled him to the ground and he caught a glimpse of something long and metallic smashing into the metal flooring beneath where he had been previously standing before they both his the floor hard, sending Chris's phone spinning out into the darkness, where it bounced off something and somehow luckily landed precisely on its edge, showing them with enough light to see.

As Chris tried to get out from underneath his friend his expression a little miffed, he froze, his expression one of pale horror, Alex noticed this and turned his head behind him to see what was making him look so … scared. Then his face what approximately the same colour. They _both_ stopped and stared.

"… Alex?"

"… Yes Chris?"

"Pardon my French but … SHE'S GOT A FUCKING SWORD!"

"Yes I can see tha- crap, look out!"

Both boys dived in either direction as something else came hurtling out of the darkness, however despite the fact it was metallic, sort of, it was not the sharp sort of pinging noise, but rather a dull, heavy sort of thud and the slight screech of two sets of metal coming into contact with each other, two different sets of metal.

Chris retrieved his phone, whilst |Alex pulled out his own, although the brightness was not _as_ good as Chris's, it was still an extra light ,even if he hand to hold it quite close to the ground. He spent a few moments rummaging around in the dark where he thought the sound had come from, until he found what he was looking for.

"Chris?"

"Yeah?"

"I found your Duel-Disk"

There was a pause

"She took that too?"

"Obviously, else I wouldn't have found it"

There was yet another pause, Alex could almost HEAR the gears in Chris's head break.

"WHY DO PEOPLE KEEP STEALING MY DAMN STUFF!"

Alex chuckled … silently mind you, to himself, where Chris couldn't hear him, because if he'd done it out loud he was pretty sure Chris would have strangled him he was so annoyed, although his silent laughter ended on a slightly curious note, although he kept that to himself too, no point in provoking Chris even further … yet.

"Check one Duel-Disk …" Alex checked the Deck Holder and found it empty "Minus one Deck though"

He heard Chris mutter something as he walked over to him and held up his phone to check for himself as Alex passed it to him. Apart from a few scratches which it had ascertained after several years wear-and-tear, combined with being stolen and thrown around, it was fine, although the Deck Holder looked more like it had been ripped off rather then removed, as most of it was missing.

And then they both jumped out of their skins, metaphorically speaking.

There was the steely sound of someone effortlessly pulling something metal out of something metal, which came almost as a total surprise, which was kind off stupid really, no one throws a sword and does not try and collect it. Both of them spun around and held up their phones, illuminating the area which had previously been behind them.

She looked different now, an almost ethereal grace seemed to surround her, suffusing her, and yet … she seemed angry, well not angry, more like furious, ticked off, or, to use another adjective, pissed. VERY.

The sword in her hand was of a strange design … well, coming from a person who had only really seen swords in Movies, Cartoons, and even more so in Anime and Manga, similar in design and shape to what you might call a short-sword, except perhaps a little longer, maybe something along the lines of a Spatha but with a thicker blade,, and there was some strange sort of block-like pattern engraved into the blade running up the length of the blade, elongating and twisting right the way up to the sword's rain guard.

Of course, they both happened to pick up this rather detailed piece of information because both their sets of eyes were riveted on the weapon rather then anything else which was happening around them … although maybe it was just because either one of them just might end up half way up it!

The blade swung through the air, first pointing at Alex, who's face went and evermore pale shade of white, before circling back around, cutting the air with a faint whistle, before it pointed at Chris, how went about as rigid as a board, before with another whistle it went back to Alex. Back and forth, back and forth, until they both felt like their hearts were currently in their throats and hammering like pair of drums.

The silver blade rotated one last time … and then settled on Chris, who immediately started sweating profusely.

"_Crap_" was about the only thing he could really think in that moment ""

Her violet eyes seemed to take on a hint of steely determination, so much so that they almost seemed to turn to steel themselves as she advanced on Chris like a hurricane, as the sword came up, up, up, above her head, ready to cleave downwards in a great strike.

It was an … odd experience for Chris, to be perfectly honest with you, he had never really been in a memorable situation where he had actually thought 'Oh dear God I might just die here', he was really a bit young to be facing life-or-death situations, and he found that even attempting to consider said consequences rooted him to the spot with fear. He couldn't move, he was paralyzed, as every single nerve, muscle, and brain cell in his body screamed 'RUN YOU IDIOT!' but … he … he couldn't, every muscle in his body was trembling with anticipated motion … and yet … he just couldn't do it, he really just couldn't, as if something had grabbed his soul and anchored it to that very spot in Reality.

She almost seemed like a mountain, bigger, taller, more powerful then a small teenage girl could possibly be, not that he was sexist, just that he had never had an experience at them pointing swords at him very often … correction, not at all.

And then something snapped.

Have you ever felt completely helpless? Ever? Where you don't know what the hell is going to happen next, you are so damned scared and then … SOMETHING, some invisible force, external power or possession of one form of another just … _galvanises_ you into action, forces you to try and do something, anything, to defend yourself.

So Chris did the one thing he could, he threw his Duel-Disk at her.

It was stupid really, a lump of plastic and circuits and metal really wasn't going to stop a sword in any form of way, even in the realms of impossibility it wouldn't have worked, and yet … it did cause something to happen.

Maybe she hadn't expected him to fight back, or maybe she wasn't used to having stuff thrown at her, or maybe, just maybe, somewhere in the depths of steel, she grew perhaps a little afraid, either way, no matter what the cause. She visibly flinched, and her expression momentarily grew scared and the sword drooped downwards a little as if expectant of another attack, but then it settled back into anger as in a whirl of clothing she moved to the side and the Duel-Disk missed, not that Chris had really been expecting it to do anything anyway.

The sword went up again, up, up, up, higher and higher, in preparation for that final, soul-destroying slash.

Mentally, in the back of his mind, Chris gave a long, loud sigh. Bugger. This quite possibly might be his end … and why was he starting to sound like a character in an Anime, no he hadn't lived a good life, parts of it had been pretty crap in places, so he didn't particularly want the whole 'life-flash-before-the-eyes' thing because it wouldn't be very entertaining. Where he religious he might have started praying, but that had always been ineffective in the past and would probably continue to do so, although … just to make sure.

"_Dear God … not sure how this really works … ummm, yeah … basically I'd really like to NOT die here, I don't really think it will benefit people in many ways, except by possibly annoying them, especially the Grim Reaper, however I think … you know, it would help me personally … and if this doesn't work then I'll see you in a few minutes … or not at all … errr … bye?_"

Okay … well maybe he wasn't quite as sincere as that, but give him a break, he's about as close to dying as is possible for a teenager.

"_Well that worked didn't it_?" the slightly biased and atheist part of his mind said dryly.

"_Well it was worth a try wasn't it?_" said another small part of his mind quietly.

Another small part sighed, and he had a momentary flicker of earlier … or was it yesterday … or forever ago … he couldn't quite remember, but it was her smell, that taste in his mouth … it would have been nice to have kissed her again maybe, just once, maybe that was one of his regrets … out of several thousand.

"_WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!_" screamed the supposedly 'positive, calm and composed at all times' part … which really wasn't helping, but was very, very true.

There was a noise, a whisper, which definitely didn't come from his mouth, which meant it must have been hers. Her voice was soft, calm, yet filled with placid anger, placated rage.

"_May the Holy Mother forgive me my Trespasses, and granted salvation to the Damned_"

Yes … that was _really_ going to inspire confidence in his survival.

And then the sword came down … and there was a snapping sound!

…

Wait a second!

A snapping sound?

Not a bony

snapping sound …

A _metallic_ one?

Yes, metallic … not his bones?

Hopefully … unless

He suddenly had

Acquired metal bones

Or

had he become Wolverine?,

… no that

was unlikely

… but

He wasn't in any

Pain?

Why wasn't

He dead?

Surely he had just

Had a sword run through him

Or slice

Him across the chest?

So why was there no

Blood

And

Why wasn't he screaming?

… and why had everything gone dark?

…

It was at that moment that he realised that he had his eyes shut, clamped tight shut as if he was afraid … well he wasn't afraid, more like bloody petrified with a side order of damn scared, but that was beside the point.

He opened his eyes … and recoiled, the sword's blade was less then an inch from his neck, and this time instead of freezing he actually tried to scramble back, and in doing so, he look up, and found that she wasn't look at him anymore, her head was turned and looking directly at Alex.

Alex was standing there, perhaps about half as scared as Chris was, a slightly relieved look on his face … and with _his_ Duel-Disk on his arm, and it was active … so that was what the snapping sound was.

Although he couldn't see her face, Chris could hear her voice, it was … mystified, perhaps a little confused, yet it radiated that self-same calm and steeliness still.

"- and so you would defend the greatest of sinners, not knowing what he is?" she asked, her voice cracked a little somewhere in the middle of the word 'sinner', making it grate out like a rock on a cheese grater and it made him shiver.

On the other hand, Alex just looked perturbed.

"Listen girl, I have NO idea what the hell you are talking about, however if your going to run my friend through with a sword, then your going to have to go through me first, in a duel" he said, with perhaps a little more bravado then he actually had, raising the Duel-Disk slightly.

She removed the sword from Chris's neck space with what you might almost call regret, holding it to the side of her, its tip almost touching the floor. That was when things got cool.

"As you wish" she said, with a deathly note in her voice.

There was a clicking noise, maybe she had flicked some hidden switch or activated a button somewhere on the sword itself, either way, the sword blade seemed to split, in five separate places, as the thinner top half of the sword retreated back into the lower, thick part of the sword, where it almost seemed to lock into place with a slight _clack_. Then there was a series of small click as five sections of the sword raised themselves slightly, revealing the strange markings on the blade to actually have marked out the individual card zones in a silver outline, with a strange sort of rune, almost like a rose, being traced in the middle of them. She made a flicking motion with her left arm and the robes on her arm retreated and slid back a little, revealing a sort of black, metallic rack strapped to her forearm and which with a calm motion, she rested the sword in, where it _clacked_ into place with a possessive sound, obviously there was some sort of magnetism involved and she seemed unaware of its weight. There was yet another click as she gripped the sword's handle and twisted it inwards herself at a diagonal angle as the sword's hilt split, right down the middle, stretching out to either side, creating a Deck holder and from the voluminous robe of her other sleeve, she withdrew her Deck and snapped it into place on the Duel-Disk.

Of course, by now Alex was thoroughly panicked, maybe … maybe this _really_ hadn't been worth it … no wait … that made him sound like an asshole, wanting to leave his friend to die without doing anything … but .. maybe this had been a little … CRAZY, he was engaging in a DUEL with a Girl, a mildly attractive girl might he add, who had a SWORD and seemed just a LITTLE unhinged and had been threatening his friend with it … good, now that he had the situation clear in his mind he could get on with it.

He felt that sort of irreversibly calm buzz which he got every time he started a Duel descend upon him, he was focussed totally upon what was happening now, no distractions, just the Duel, no panicking, just the Duel. He slipped his Deck out of the Holder on his belt and slid it into Chris's active Duel-Disk, hopefully he wouldn't mind if he used it, Chris could be very funny about other people touching his stuff, he was … weird like that sometimes, however the weirdness of his friend was the last thing on his mind, his life was at stake.

"**Lets Duel!**"

Alex: 4000

Strangely-Religiously-Mad Super-Crazy Ninja-Priest-Assassin Girl-with-a-Duel-Disk/Sword: 4000

* * *

Hello … … Okaaaaaay … -_-' well … I AM still alive, despite being hit by that damned bus driver lol, unfortunately I'm stuck in a coffin under six feet of concrete. It's a good thing I asked to be buried with my Laptop and a wind-up charger. I finally made a crack in my writers block enough to continue this story, being 'dead' helps. I don't know how long this stretch on inspiration will last, but hopefully it will allow me to get to at least Chapter 10 before I change track and carry on with another fic. So you had BETTER be review … reviews make me want to write more since I find them gratifying … plus I'm revising for my A2's so if you don't review it makes me feel like I'm wasting my time and no one is listening to me and that I may as well spend my time buggering around with my Psychology book, so PLEASE ReadxReview … that IF I can get out of this coffin in time for the exams, but anyhows give me the power to continue the Story … oh … and if you live near a Graveyard, please look for my Gravestone … I really need a hand getting out of this one … and the air is getting a little thin … please hurry. PLEASE!


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