“Maybe this card will help? Or perhaps this one? Hmm….Dash is an Obelisk Blue, so I gotta be on my toes during this duel.”, I said while looking over the cards in his deck.
“Don’t you mean WE’LL be on OUR toes during this duel, Onix?”, Crystal replied, who was sitting on her bed looking over her deck as well. I sighed and said, “We were able to get in the Academy by dueling Prof. Kaiba at the same time, Crystal. But I seriously doubt Dash is gonna take us both on, sis.” Crystal chuckled and said, “We won’t know that until Dash sends us the message, now will we?” She nodded as she put her deck into her Duel Disk. Mikey was staring at both me and Crystak with a worried look. "Don't you think that this is a bad idea? I mean, Dash is in Obelisk Blue, and I bet his deck is no joke either!", Mikey exclaimed.
"Relax, Mikey. We can't say if Dash is a good duelist until we duel him. And remember: being an Obelisk Blue doesn't mean anything. It's just a rank.", I said, finishing up my deck. Mikey looked at me with a bewildered look, shocked I even said that. "How could you possibly say that being an Obelisk Blue doesn't mean anything!? It means he is a better duelist than us, makes better grades, and lives in a better dorm than us as well!", he exclaimed.
"Chill, Mikey. The Slifer Dorm is great. I have my sister here and my best friends are here too. And let's not forget: me and my sis totally creamed Mokuba Kaiba in the entrance exams, so that counts for something, right?", I replied. Mikey nodded and said, "Yeah, you're right. I don't know what I was thinking. You guys can totally beat Dash in this duel!"
Crystal giggled at the two of us, and then both our PDA's went off. She looked at her's and saw Dash's face show up. "Hey, where's the other Slifer slacker!? I wanna speak to him directly!", Dash exclaimed. "Anything you wanna tell my brother you can say to me. Are we dueling or not?", Crystal replied. Dash chuckled as my sister said that. He flicked the bangs hanging over his left eye and said, "Meet me in the Obelisk Arena #4 at exactly 9 o'clock tonight. And you better bring your A game, cause I don't plan on throwing any punches. It's time to put you two in your place."
"But, won't you have an unfair disadvantage? It's two against one!", Mikey asked. Dash laughed coldly and said, "I know that. I haven't even said the rules. Considering that I will be dueling the both of you, I get to start the duel with 8000 points instead of 4000. Also, I get to play two turns in this order: First me, then Onix, then Crystal, then back to me. No one gets to attack on their turns until it gets back to me on my second turn. I'm sure you two will possibly be able to work around that....key word in that sentence is POSSIBLY."
"Just worry about how fast that counter will drop when we throw down, Dash. Obelisk Arena #4, 9 o'clock. We'll be there.", I said, walking over to his bed. He strapped on his Duel Disk and wrapped his belt with his Deck around his waist and walked over to his sister. "You ready to go, sis?", I asked. Crystal nodded as she closed out of Dash's video call, grabbing her Duel Disk as well. Mikey frowned slightly and said, "Something tells me this is gonna end badly, I can feel it. Maybe you two should just stay here..." Both of us looked at him and said, "FORGET IT! Our parents has always taught us to never back down froma challenge if one is given to you! You can never succeed in life if you do that! Now let's get going!"
Mikey's eyes widened when that happened. With a knock at the door, Crystal opened it to see Jessie standing there with a wide grin. "Are you guys going to duel Dash now? Can I come?!", she asked. Crystal smiled and patted Jessie on her head. "Certainly. But you gotta tone the voice down a few notches. If people found out that we were doing this, we'd all get in big time trouble. Now let's go.", Crystal said, walking towards the elevator. I joined her, Mikey and Jessie walking in last as the two electronic doors slid to a close. Jessie hummed softly as the elevator descended to the last floor, the doors opening wide for us. Mikey sighed and said, "If we're gonna do this, we need to prop the door open. Those doors are normally locked from the outside, meaning no one can enter once they are closed."
I winced slightly when Mikey said that. "That would indeed be a problem, wouldn't it? How are we gonna keep that door open so we can get back in after the duel?", I asked. Crystal and Jessie both put a look of thought on their faces when Mikey replied, "Simple. I can use this." He reached down to his own deck case and pulled out a single card. I tilted my head when he showed a card that goes by the name of Nanobreaker. "The Nanobreaker monster card? How can that help? Wedging that in the door would only rip it.", I asked.
Mikey giggled and said, "This card is a card that Maximillion Pegasus and my father made ESPECIALLY for me. It is indeed a dueling card, but this one also has a small chip embedded in it. I can use it to hack into the security system of the door and keep it unlocked for exactly two hours. No more, no less. If it goes past two hours, the energy of the card runs out and we are locked out for the night." Crystal gasped when Mikey said that. "That's right! Your father works in the field of androids! Remember, Onix? Prof. Yami said that in our class earlier today.", she said.
I groaned when Crystal said, gripping my face from feeling Yami's stylus hitting me earlier. "Don't remind me. Getting hit like that wasn't pretty. My face is still tingling from that attack. He has a killer pitcher arm, and I bet he could easily be on a baseball team with that kind of throw. Anyway, Mikey, do your stuff. We're gonna be late.", I said. Mikey nodded and walked right up to the door, placing the card on a silver panel on the door. The card glowed slightly, astonishing me as well as Crystal and Jessie in the process. Mikey eyed the card intendedly, hoping that his hacking skill wasn't gonna fail him. The card stopped glowing and Mikey smiled as he removed the card to show an imprint of his face with a wink and thumbs up on the door.
"All systems are go, guys. Let's move out.", Mikey said, opening the door with a simple push. "Remember, only two hours. You gotta beat Dash before then.", he continued, the three of us walking out as he closed the door silently. "Alright, understood. Now, off to the Arena!", I said, heading towards the main building.
Like shadows in the night, me and the others headed to the main building. When we arrived, we noticed that the door to the campus was unlocked. Talk about a lucky break! What's even weirder was that most of the lights were still on. Was someone else other than us and Dash in this building? Who knows?....
"Ok, am I the only one that finds this weird? The only people that can open the doors and turn on the lights in this building is Jaden Yuki, Joey Wheeler, and Triston Taylor and each of them were in their dorm rooms for the night!", Mikey exclaimed. "Yeah, I have to agree with Mikey on this one, guys. Even I have to wonder about this.", Jessie said, walking beside Mikey. Crystal looked back at the two with a smile and said, "Maybe one of them forgot to lock up? You gotta remember who we are talking about."
"She has a point, guys. But, let's not worry about it at the moment. All that matters right now is that we get to the Obelisk Arena in time.", I said. "I thought you four would be here. No wonder Anderson was in the Arena at this time of night with a angry look on his face.", a voice from the hallway corridor rang out.
"Who's that?!", Onix said, looking directly down the hallway the voice came from, seeing a sillhouette of a person standing there, obviously male from the build. "Wait a minute, guys! I know that voice!", Jessie said, running towards the shadow and hugging it tightly, a slight grunt escaped from the being in the hallway. The moon crept emerged from a cloud, giving enough light to show that Jessie was hugging her older brother. "Ben? What are you doing here?", I asked.
"I could ask you the exact same question, Sairenji, but I know why you and your sister is here already. You're going to face off against Dash Anderson tonight.", Ben said, flipping through a rather large book in his hand. My ears wilted slightly as a look of impatience crept on my face. "We all know why WE'RE here. I'm still waiting for an answer to my question.", I replied. Ben closed his book and looked directly and said, "Well, I didn't sneak in, if that is what you are referring. I asked Prof. Atlas if I could spend some extra time here to brush up on my studies. So, I've been in the library for the last five hours studying and working on my homework."
"Homework?!", I said astonishingly. "Five hours!?", Crystal chimed in, just as astonished as I was. "Wait, you're a Ra Yellow. Why are you in THIS campus ground? Doesn't most Ra Yellows go to the other campus specifically for Upperclassmen?", Mikey asked. Ben shook his head gently and looked at Mikey and said, "No. All new students attend this campus. Once they have a high enough grade, they advance into the Intermediate classes, which classify as a normal High School. The Advanced classes are only eligible for students who are already at a Professional level of dueling, and they will have a score of 85 percent or higher, which would be the College level. So, even if I am a Ra Yellow, I am still a beginner student, so I am in this campus."
"Oh, I get it.", Mikey said. He blinked and looked around, noticing that Jessie, Onix, and Crystal were gone. "Hey, where'd they go!?", Mikey exclaimed. Ben then said. "They left for Obelisk Arena #4 already. I think that I bored them." Mikey's jaw dropped when Ben said that. "Well, what are we waiting for?! Let's go!", Mikey replied, grabbing Ben by the back of his Ra Yellow jacket, dragging him all the way to Arena #4. "You don't need to drag me! I CAN WALK!", Ben exclaimed to no avail.
Finally, after a short jog, Mikey and Ben rejoined Jessie in the stands that overlooked Crystal and Onix's side of the duel field...
"Well well, what do you know? Right on time! There may be some luck for you Slifer slackers after all!", Dash sneered. "Well, we just couldn't be late for a duel. That'd be wrong!", Crystal said. She looked over at me and winked, both of us smiling confidently. Dash growled when he saw that we weren't gonna back down easily. "You two won't be so smug once I send you running away with your tails between your legs! Now let's duel!", he said, strapping his Duel Disk on. The holographic projecters in the ceiling activated in the ceiling, me and Crystal's Duel Disks activating at the exact same time. "Well then, Dash! You're up first!", I said, looking over to the opposite side.
"Don't toy with me, Onix! I'm gonna hit you two hard and fast! I draw!", Dash said. He added the card he drew to his hand and skimmed over his cards, pulling three cards from his hand. "And I think I will play Luster Dragon in attack mode, and place two cards face down! Your move, dweeb!", he concluded, playing his cards. "Alright, here goes! My move!", I replied, drawing as well.
"Here we go. Their first duel here at the Academy is against an Obelisk Blue. The odds couldn't be any riskier.", MIkey said. Jessie laughed and patted Mikey on his back. "You worry too much, Mikey! Onix and Crystal have this in the bag!", Jessie said. "I wouldn't be too sure about that. Look at Dash's face, you two. I don't think he is going to make this easy on them.", Ben replied, looking directly at Dash with a look of concern. "What, you think they will lose!?", Mikey said. "I'm saying that the odds are definitely high against them, Mikey.", Ben said.
'Those guys should really calm down. It's only the first turn. And like the last duel, I plan on starting big.', I thought to myself, looking over my cards. "And to do that, I think I am gonna play Polymerization to fuse the Bladedge and Wildheart in my hands to Fusion Summon the Elemental Hero Wildedge in attack mode!", I exclaimed, seeing my monster appear right in front of me. "I'll also throw down two cards face down and call it a turn. You're up, sis!", I said, looking over at my sister. She nodded and said, "My move! I draw! And from my hand, I'm gonna summon my Magician's Valkyria in attack mode! I'm also gonna place three cards face down and call it quits. We've played our hands, now you play yours, Dash!"
Dash chuckled as he drew his next card. He looked at it and I could swear I could've seen his facial expression grow twenty percent colder. "This next card is gonna blast your minds away, with the emphasis on BLAST.", Dash said. He turned his card over and both me and Crystal were shocked that he was holding the Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon monster card. "I'll sacrifice my Luster Dragon in order to Special Summon one of my most powerful creatures: The Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon!", Dash said, a gargantuan of a monster landed right behind him, it roared rather loudly at us.
"Well, that is quite the beast. But me and my sister are ready for anything you can through at us!", I said. "Well, let's just see if you can back those claims up! Red-Eyes, attack Crystal's Magician Valkyria!", Dash said. His dragon shot a fireball at the mage with a low growl, only for Crystal to say, "Hold it! I activate my trap Magic Cylinder! It'll redirect your attack and send right back at you!" Dash chuckled and said, "It would IF I didn't have my Seven Tools of the Bandit trap card on the field. Now all I have to do is pay 1000 of my life points in order to negate your trap and continue with my attack! Eradicate that mage, Red-Eyes!"
"Sorry, Dash! That isn't gonna work! I activate my trap Negate Attack! Now, your attack ends this turn!", I said, a vortex appearing in front of my sister, swallowing the attack whole before it could connect with my sister's monster. "Thanks for that, bro! I needed that!", Crystal exclaimed. "He's not gonna make this easy, so you best keep on your toes, sis!", I replied, looking over at Dash. Dash snarled as he played a card facedown. "She was lucky this turn. She won't be so lucky the next time! Your move!", he sneered, ending his turn.
"Alright, I draw!", I replied, drawing a card from my deck. 'Hmm.....so far, Dash only has his Red-Eyes on the field and two cards facedown. My Wildedge is ready for action in attack mode, and I have the trap card Hero Signal facedown. And I am willing to bet that Crystal's other facedown cards is Magician's Circle and Sage's Stone. That combo is normally her strongest, yet her most expected. And I drew.....the Skyscraper Field spell. This is gonna be risky, but what's life without risks?!', I thought. "Alright, I'm gonna activate the Skyscraper Field spell! With it, every Elemental Hero monster gets a 1000 attack point boost everytime they attack a monster with higher attack points! Looks like the brave warrior is off to slay the dragon! Wildedge, attack Dash's Red-Eyes!"
"Not so fast, dweeb! I activate my trap Sakuretsu Armor! The only thing your Wildedge is getting is an early retirement!", Dash said, his trap card destroying Wildedge in the process. I frowned as my monster was sent to the Graveyard. "Fine, I'll activate my trap Hero Signal. With it, I can special summon one Lv 4 Elemental Hero from my deck to the field, and I choose my Elemental Hero Sparkman in defense mode!", I said, a bolt of lightning escaped my deck and my monster appeared before me. "That'll end my turn. Your move, Crystal!"
"Alright! I draw!", Crystal said, drawing a card from her deck. She eyed the card, realizing it was the spell card Fissure. She grinned and said, "I activate the spell card Fissure! Say goodbye to your Red-Eyes, Dash!" Dash winced as his monster got destroyed, glaring at Crystal coldy. "You're gonna regret that!", he exclaimed. "I doubt that. After all, you're wide open. Now, Magician's Valkyria! Attack with Mystic Scepter Blast!", Crystal replied, the mage dealing 1600 points of damage to Dash. Dash growled, only for Crystal to chime in with her trap card's activation. "I activate the trap Magician's Circle! Since I just called an attack, we both get to special summon a Spellcastor with 2000 or less attack points! And I'm going to choose my Dark Magician Girl in attack mode! Now, Dash. You get to play a Spellcastor. But be warned: I get to attack again, and I will strike your monster down.", Crystal concluded.
"I don't have any....", Dash retorted with a cold look. "Great work, sis! We've got him backed into a corner! Now bring him down to a knee!", I said with an eager face. "With pleasure! Dark Magician Girl, DARK BURNING ATTACK!!!", Crystal replied, seeing her second mage give Dash a devastating blow to Dash's life points, bringing him down to a grand total of 4400. "Now, I'll activate the spell card Sage's Stone! When Dark Magician Girl and Sage's Stone is on the field, I can instantly special summon Dark Magician to the field!", she continued, playing the mystic on the field in Attack mode. "And with that, I'll play one card facedown and end my turn!"
"Do it, Crystal! Show him no mercy!", Jessie said excitingly. Mikey looked at his watch and frowned slightly. 'Come on, guys. You're running out of time! Only one hour left!', he thought to himself. Ben watched the entire duel, thinking silently to himself on how the duel would turn out.
"You'll pay for that, and I'll prove it to you! I draw!", Dash said. He grinned when he saw what he had drawn. "Well, looks like this duel just shifted into my favor yet again. And this is why! I summon my Armed Dragon Lv3 to the field!", Dash said, summoning his monster to the field. I flinched slightly when he played his monster. 'He has a Level monster?! That's not good!', I thought to myself. Dash laughed loudly as he looked directly at me. "Your face shows that you are worried. You should be! Cause, my Armed Dragon Lv3 isn't gonna stay around for long! For I activate the spell card Level Up! to summon the Armed Dragon Lv5!!", Dash said, playing the Spell card he drew, special summoning the second form of his dragon. "What?! That has to be the luckiest draw in the entire duel!", I exclaimed.
"It's only going to get worse! For you see, I have three Level Up cards in my deck, and the second one is right there on the field! So I'll activate my second Level Up to boost my Armed Dragon even farther! From Level 5 comes Armed Dragon Lv7!!!", Dash said, the third form of his monster materialized in front of us. "2800 attack points?! It's even higher than that of my Dark Magician!", Crystal said. "Don't lose focus, Crystal! Don't lose faith, concentrate! This duel isn't over yet!", I said, looking at Dash. "I wouldn't be too sure about that! Armed Dragon, attack Magician's Valkyria!!", Dash replied, his monster making quick work of Crystal's mage, reducing her life points by 1200 giving her a grand total of 2800 points.
"Sorry, Magician's Valkyria. Your defeat won't be in vain.", Crystal said. Dash grinned coldly and said, "And with that, I end my turn. Your move, Sairenji!" I stopped slightly and looked over at Mikey and saw that he mouthed the words "30 minutes." I nodded as I looked at the card in my hand then looked towards Crystal with a confident grin. "Sorry Dash, but the duel is actually in OUR FAVOR.", I said.
"You must be joking.", Dash said. "Am I? I activate the spell card Monster Reborn! With this spell, I can special summon any monster I choose from either graveyard!", I replied, activating it immediately. "What?! How can this be?! There must be some mistake!", Dash remarked, shocked that this was happening. "Nope! Now return the field, Elemental Hero Wildedge!", I said, my monster reappearing from my graveyard. Dash laughed slightly and said, "Oops, did you slip up in your plan? Wildedge is 200 points weaker than my dragon! Looks like when it came right down to it, you just didn't have enough fire behind your words!"
"Onix, what are you doing?! If you had summoned his Red-Eyes, this would be over quicker! You are running out of time!", Mikey said from the stands. I chuckled softly and looked up at Mikey. "I didn't need to. Dash played right into my hand.", I said to him. "He what?!", Mikey exclaimed. "I did what?!", Dash retorted. "Of course.....Onix's Skyscraper field spell is still in play!", Ben said, his eyes wide with shock. 'I've never seen Ben act like this before! He's actually surprised!', Jessie thought in awe.
"Wildedge, attack! Take down his Armed Dragon Lv7!", I said, watching my monster strike down Dash's dragon, dropping his life points down to 3600 points. "And guess what, Dash?! I'm not through! Dark Magician and Dark Magician Girl, end this NOW!", I continued, watching the two mages bring Dash's life points to zero.
"They did it, they won!", Jessie exclaimed. "I'm impressed. Those two definitely are a force to be reckoned with.", Ben replied. 'Also a threat to people when they duel together. I wonder how they fare on their own? ....Guess I'll figure that out later when I duel them.', he thought, standing to his feet and leaving the arena for his dorm room. "I can't believe it! I lost! To a pair....of Slifer slackers!", Dash said, crouching on the ground in defeat.
"The number one rule of Duel Monsters, Dash: Always think two steps ahead of the game.", I said. "Uh, guys, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but we only have ten minutes left!", Mikey said. "Oh crud, we gotta move! Back to the dorms!", Crystal said, shutting her Duel Disk off and making a break for the door. I did the same, heading for the door when I heard Dash say, "This isn't the last you two will hear from me. We will duel again, and I will win! Understand me?!" I looked back at him with a confident grin. "Just pick a time and a place. We'll be ready.", I said, leaving Dash behind in the Arena.
Meanwhile, in the higher stands of the Arena, two people were watching the entire ordeal....
"Well well, they truly did something unexpected for their first duel here in the Academy, huh Yami? Do you think we should report them?", said the Exodia Purple headmaster. Yami readjusted his glasses on his nose and said, "Kids will be kids, Sanji....and rules are meant to be broken. Let them go. Besides, things are gonna to get even more interesting this semester, and I am certain those two are gonna flip the entire Academy upside down on it's head. Let us return to our dorms now. A new day is upon us, and a new adventure. And I wanna enjoy every last second of it." Sanji nodded, and with a whip of their coats, both headmaster and co-headmaster returned to their dorms.
Back with me and the others, we just BARELY made it back inside the dorm before Mikey's hacking program wore off. We all went to me, Crystal, and Mikey's room for a small celebration. Jessie and Mikey were still excited that we actually beat an Obelisk Blue for our first duel! In the end, Mikey had to carry Jessie back to her dorm room so she could sleep. With a few showers and fluffed-up pillows, we retired to our beds for the night. And yet, something told me this while I slept: things were only going to get harder. I wonder what will happen tomorrow? I don't know, but I know one thing: I'm ready for anything that may come our way....
