Chapter 8
Kal was too busy thinking to pay any attention to the duel between Shylish Mastero and Derek Seffman. He didn’t come out of this trance until Roland began to speak again.
“And the winner of Duel Two is Shylish Mastero!” he roared in his announcer voice.
The crowd went wild with excitement. More excitement than then Kal’s duel….
Clearly they had liked Shylish’s performance more than Kal’s, and had forgotten about him in the process.
Shylish lowered his duel disk and went over to his seat. Derek was still sanding there, stunned.
“Alright everyone! We will have a lunch break for today, and then be back here at 1:30. That is in about an hour and a half!” Roland said.
Everyone dispersed rather quickly. Everyone must have been hungry, like dueling burns calories.
Kal laughed to himself. A pitiful joke, but something to ease his tension nonetheless.
Kal stood up to, looking around for the woman who had glared at him before.
‘I know who you are,’ Kal remembered the voice saying in its sweet, scorn filled voice.
After not seeing her in the crowd, he was wondering if the woman was just an illusion.
Kal started to walk out of the room. He didn’t know why, he had used the rest of his money at the gas station when he was coming here, and for the last two days had eaten all the food he had gotten there.
He couldn’t possibly find anything to eat here. Not for free, and with good quality that is.
Maybe he would go for a walk around the Palmarium, just to see what it is that Pegasus liked about it…
That’s when he overheard a small group of girls walking by.
“… yeah, what a jerk.” One girl said.
“Loser,” the second agreed.
“Yep, that is why I dumped him. So, anyone up for the food court?” the third asked.
“Sure!” the other two agreed.
“The one in the mall or the one here?”
“The one here on the 12th floor. It is way better than the one at the mall…” the third girl replied.
‘Ah so there is a food court..?’ Kal wondered.
He decided to follow the girls to the elevators, because he had no idea where he was going.
He didn’t dare speak to them though, he had never gotten used to any girl around him except Alina…
Kal shook the thought out of his head. He didn’t want to remember his past right now.
When the girls got to the elevator they pressed the button to call it down. Kal slowly walked forward. Maybe the elevator would get there rather quickly so that he could take a second by himself…
To no avail, the elevator had just arrived when he finally got to the elevator doors.
The group of three got in, and pressed the floor button. Kal knew it was for the 12th floor, even though he didn’t see them press it.
Kal stood there awkwardly. Did he walk in, or did he stay there? There was plenty of room in the elevator for them all to have space….
But he didn’t want to intrude, either.
The third girl looked up just when the door where about to close and saw Kal standing there.
She held the door, “Where are you headed?”
Kal hesitated, and then replied, “The 12th floor.” He had almost stuttered his words. Why was he acting like this?
“Really? What a coincidence. We were headed that way just now.” The third girl said, hinting at ‘Come into the elevator.’
“Well, I don’t know...” Kal said.
“Hey, weren’t you the one who won in the first round? Jean, right?” she said.
Kal studied her. She had long, flowing brown hair, and was wearing a beautiful red top with blue jeans. She was very beautiful, and looked surprisingly like Alina…
“Yes, I am.” Kal answered, still unsure on what he should say.
“Congratulations on the win!” she said, the elevator doors kept trying to close in protest.
“Thank you.” Kal said.
“Well, you going to get in the elevator or not? I can’t hold this all day…” she said.
Kal decided it was best not to be rude and just get into the elevator. He walked forward, and thought he saw the brown haired girl smile a bit as he did.
The elevator doors closed and they were on their way to the food court.
The silence was awkward. No one said anything.
Kal decided to break the ice. “Well, now. You all know my name and I haven’t learned yours.” Kal said, and grinned a bit at the end.
The first girl, who had longish red hair and flattering glasses, replied first.
“I am Olivia Torrode, pleased to meet you!” she said and extender her hand. She was wearing a white t-shirt with an abstract design and jeans.
Kal reached out his hand tentatively. “I am Jean, as you knew.”
The second girl looked to the third to see if she would speak. For some reason she would only look at the floor.
The second girl had very short, black hair. She had a piercing on her nose.
“Nadia Rayghar.” She said, to the point. She held out her hand as well. Kal took it and shook. She was wearing a black shirt with random blue lines with a black, long-sleeved over shirt and black Tripp pants.
Now all three of them looked to the girl with the brown hair and red shirt. She was still looking at the floor. Olivia nudged her with her elbow.
She looked up and bit her lower lip.
“I am Zandra Dyniti,” she said. She held out her hand to shake.
Kal took it and shook it as well. “Nice to meet you, too.” Their eyes met.
Zandra blushed and looked away. Olivia giggled and gave her a look. Olivia stopped laughing instantly.
Kal grinned.
The elevator then decided to stop at the 12th floor. Kal had his back to the door, and when he turned around he saw the most beautiful eating arrangement.
It looked just like the lobby, only larger. There were gold columns around the place, and around the edges of the building walls were many different types of fast-food restaurants.
Kal walked out of the elevator to see that the elevator was in the center of the room. It was one large tube that ran from the floor to the ceiling.
Zandra paused to look at him, since he was staring at the whole place. Being secluded in the rat holes of life made him forget how beautiful things can be.
“You coming or what?” Zandra said, seeming to be the same, confident person she surely wasn’t in the elevator.
Kal snapped out of his trance and looked at her. She was only slightly shorter than he was, and she was the most beautiful thing he had laid his eyes upon in a long time.
Zandra grinned and grabbed him by the elbow, “Come on…” she said. Kal let her drag him along.
The pair went to where Olivia and Nadia were seated. They were at a small, circular table just a ways away from the Chinese Food restaurant.
They sat down and Olivia and Nadia were getting up.
“We were actually about to get some food at the Chinese place,” Nadia explained, “You are welcome to join us, Jean.”
“I would, but I can’t.” he replied.
Zandra looked at him and pouted, “Why not?”
“I haven’t any money.” Kal responded.
“That’s okay!” Olivia said, “We can spot you some…”
“I am afraid that would not be fair of my to impose myself like this on you three, we have only just met.” Kal interrupted.
“No, its okay,” Zandra said, “We can spot you.”
Kal didn’t want to give up this information, but he felt that it was his only option now.
“I have no place of employment; I couldn’t possibly pay you back. It would be unfair of me to allow you girls to pay for my food…” Kal trailed off.
That’s when he noticed that Zandra was clinging to his arm; her arm was interlocked onto his.
Kal looked at Zandra. She was staring right back.
“I will be fine, it is only one meal.” Kal told her.
Zandra looked disappointed. “Oh.” was all she said.
“You will stay with us for the break, though, wont you?” she asked.
Kal laughed. “Sure, I will wait here while you three get your food.” Kal said.
Zandra get excited again, Kal could tell in her eyes.
The three of them walked off to the food court, talking about something that Kal couldn’t hear.
He did hear the word ‘Jean’ amongst the chatter though…
Kal sat down in one of the padded chairs. ‘That girl Zandra has fallen for me… great. What would Alina think if she saw that…?’ Kal thought, and he winced a bit when he thought of Alina. Zandra looks a lot like Alina….
Kal shook that thought out of his head too.
He then looked over to the line where the three girls were, and saw that the three of them were staring at him.
When they saw him look over they quickly looked away.
Kal smiled to himself.
“Oh nooooo!” Kal heard someone scream.
Kal turned his head to find where the noise had come from. What he saw almost made him laugh.
There was a giant carrot with glowing yellow eyes and sharp teeth in the room. Where it had come from, Kal was still unsure.
Then he saw a younger kid with a duel disk on his knees. The carrot disappeared, and that is when Kal saw that there was a person behind it.
It was a short, older man with a thin mustache. He was wearing a white chef’s outfit, complete with the hat. You could see short black hair coming out from beneath the hat.
“Ah ha! I have beaten another one!” the man said with a heavy Italian accent. “Does anyone dare come and try to beat me?”
No one moved. However there were a lot of people staring.
“Let me remind you that if anyone can beat me in a duel, they will win free food here in this food court for their entire stay here at the hotel?” the chef said.
‘This might be a great opportunity.’ Kal thought. ‘But I haven’t tweaked my deck yet…’
Kal stood up and raised his arm with his duel disk in the air. “I challenge you.”
His voice came out deeper and more commanding than he had anticipated.
When he said that, everyone in the food court turned to look at him.
“Are you sure?” an older man sitting next to him asked, “He has already beaten four today.”
Kal looked over to the man and only nodded. The man smiled. Something about Kal was just reassuring to people.
Kal put his arm down and started to walk toward the chef. He walked by the line at the Chinese restaurant on his way.
Zandra reached out and grabbed the sleeve of his black leather coat. Kal stopped and looked at her.
“You will win, right?” she asked.
Kal only stared into her deep blue eyes and said one word. “Yes.”
She smiled and released him.
Kal continued his walk to the empty space cleared for the duel. The chef raised his duel disk.
Kal raised his.
They each drew five cards.
“Duel!” they each declared.
“The chef always has precedence in the kitchen! So I will begin.” The chef said, and he drew his card.
“Ah ha! I will summon my Ingredient – Carrot to my side of the field!”
The card flipped and out sprung a lively little carrot with a smile on its face. It was actually sort of cute. ATK: 300 / LV: 2
“Now don’t let it fool you, it can be quite devastating! Now this one is a bad carrot, and needs to be thrown out.” The chef said, “And by releasing him, I can get two more Ingredients from my hand or deck!”
The carrot slowly started to fade colors. When it was green and sickly it fell apart into a pile of dust.
Two cards flipped up, and out of them came a cow and a funny looking chicken.
“I summoned my Ingredient – Beefy Cou, and my Ingredient – Chiken.”
Beefy Cou: ATK: 1600 / LV: 4
Chiken: ATK: 400 / LV: 3
“And do to my Beefy Cou’s effect I can place one Melk Counter on him. That ends my turn.”
Kal was curious as to the point of this deck. Food? Fitting for the environment around them, but completely weird to be using…
Kal drew his card in silence. He could feel Zandra’s eyes on his back.
“I summon my Legion’s Dimensional Splitter, in attack mode!” Kal said.
His card flipped and out came a humanoid beast with sharp fangs and claws. ATK: 1700 / LV: 4.
“Now I will attack your Beefy Cou!” Kal said.
The Dimensional Splitter created an orb of glowing blue energy, and thrust it at the Cou.
The Chiken didn’t like that. It jumped right in the way of the orb. When the orb hit it was turned inside out, and was then gone.
“What just happened?” Kal asked.
“You can only attack my Chiken. Therefore my Cou is safe.” The chef replied.
“Well, that’s your loss. You lost more Life Points that way.” Kal said.
“I don’t care about my Life Points; they are only a means to and end to me. As you will soon see.” The chef replied.
“Your Chiken was removed from play by my monster’s effect, though.” Kal said.
This made the chef a bit mad. “Not only incinerated, but the ashes are gone as well…” he said.
“What is your name?” Kal asked.
“My name? I am Onio. Chef Onio to you.” He said.
“Well, Chef Onio, you just lost 1300 Life Points.” Kal said.
Kal: 8000
Chef Onio: 6700
“I will place one card face down and end my turn.” Kal said.
“All right, tis my turn now.” Chef Onio said. He drew his card.
“I place one more Melk Counter on my Beefy Cou.” Chef Onio said, “And I also summon my Mystic Chef – Waitress!”
The card flipped up and revealed a woman with a serving tray. ATK: 800 / LV: 3
“This monster can attack you directly!” Chef Onio said, and that was exactly what the waitress did.
She threw her tray like a Frisbee at Kal, and it hit him right in the face.
Kal: 7200
Chef Onio: 6700
“That will end my turn.” Chef Onio said.
Kal drew his next card, wondering what else that waitress could do.
Kal had a bad hand. Where was his Samurai? Where was his Magician of Tricks? Where were any of his better monsters…?
Kal had something else that could help him though.
“I summon my Legion’s Card Relocater to Vector 1 of the Stack with my Dimensional Splitter in it. “ Kal said.
A red fiend appeared in front of the beast with fangs after the card flipped. ATK: 600 / LV: 3.
“Now with its ability, when it is summoned to the top of the Stack it is instantly sent to the bottom.”
Chains shot out of the ground and twisted around the red fiend’s arms. The Dimensional Splitter took a step away as the little creature was dragged to the back of the line.
“What does he do? And what is a Stack? Why are they in the same card space?” Chef Onio asked.
“A Stack is a pile of monsters on your side of the field. My Ally Monsters ‘Stack’ on top of each other to gain special abilities. Vectors refer to which place they are in from the top of the Stack, Vector 1 at the top. They are in the same space because I summoned my Card Relocater there, as they are allowed too.” Kal explained.
Chef Onio thought about that for a moment.
“Makes sense.” He said.
“Good. Now I will attack your Beefy Cou.” Kal said.
“Wrong. You will attack my waitress.” Chef Onio said.
“I get to choose my attack targets, Mr. Chef.” Kal said.
“Not while the Waitress is on the field. She allows me to choose your attack targets.” Chef Onio explained.
‘I knew that there was something else about her…’ Kal thought.
The Dimensional Splitter launched another orb of blue light at the Waitress, removing her from play.
Kal: 7200
Chef Onio: 5800
‘I wonder what he wants that cow for anyway…’ Kal thought.
“I end my turn.”
Chef Onio drew his card. “Now everything is in place. I put one last Melk Counter on my Beefy Cou, which allows me to activate his effect! By removing 3 Melk Counters from him I can Special Summon 2 Ingredient – Melk cards from my Deck!”
Two cards flipped up, and out came two identical milk cartons with eyes. ATK: 500 / LV: 3.
“Now I can release my two Melks to Advance summon my Mystic Chef – The Boss!”
The two cartons disappeared as quickly as they came, and in their place came a grouchy looking man with two knives and a cigar in his mouth. ATK: 2600 / LV: 7.
“And when the boss is summoned, he gets free reign of the supplies! So now I can summon my Ingredient – Potato, in attack mode!”
Another card flipped, and out came a brown spud with red wings. ATK: 100 / LV: 3
“Now my Boss, attack his Dimensional Splitter now!”
The boss made his way, rather slowly, to the beast. The beast was taller, more muscular, and more agile than the old man. But the beast was no match for a knife in his chest.
The Dimensional Splitter was destroyed into a thousand shards.
Kal: 6300
Chef Onio: 5800
“You activated my trap! Allied Vengeance!” Kal said.
The card flipped up, and it resembled a glowing shield with a sharp weapon penetrating it.
“When my Ally is destroyed, the monster that destroyed it goes too.” Kal explained.
A sharp, blue weapon shot out from the card and right into the Boss’s chest. Vengeance had been served.
“Fine, I end my turn.” Chef Onio said.
Kal drew his card in silence, hoping for something good…
Kal was happy with what he got.
“I activate the Spell Card Recruitment!” Kal said, “This allows me to Special Summon 1 Ally from my deck to an empty card Zone! And I choose my Legion’s Samurai!”
The Spell flipped up and glowed for a moment. Then it disappeared, replaced by a card with a black card frame. An Ally Monster card frame.
The card glowed and disappeared, leaving behind a warrior in black armor and holding a sharp staff. ATK: 1500 / LV: 3.
“Now I can activate his Special Ability. I can move him to Vector 1 of a Stack. So I move him to the top of my Card Relocater.” Kal said.
The Samurai walked over one space and stood in front of the red fiend.
“Now I can activate his main ability. I release my Legion’s Card Relocater to destroy your Ingredient – Beefy Cou!”
The Card Relocater evaporated into a red mist. The mist was attracted like a magnet to the staff the Samurai was holding. The staff glowed red.
The Samurai flung his staff, releasing the energy at the Cou, destroying it into a thousand shards.
Now I can attack your Ingredient – Potato!” Kal said.
The Samurai ran over to the tiny spud and sliced right through it with his sharp staff.
Kal: 6300
Chef Onio: 4400
“But his sacrifice won’t be in vein!” Chef Onio exclaimed, “For when my Potato is destroyed I can replace him with two new ingredients from my deck! So I Summon two copies of my Ingredient – Tomato!”
When the Potato was gone two cards flipped. Left in their place were two identical red tomatoes with eyes. ATK: 300 / LV: 2.
Kal looked in his hand for something that might help, but found nothing.
“I end my turn.” Kal said.
Chef Onio drew his card, but he had been ready for this moment without it, “I release one of my tomatoes to Advance Summon my Mystic Chef – Le Butcher!”
One tomato left; one creepy guy in a white coat armed with a pair of menacing shears arrived. ATK: 2100 / LV: 5.
“Now he can attack your Samurai, and my Tomato can attack you directly!” Chef Onio said.
The Butcher sliced his shears right through the Samurai, destroying him instantly. The Tomato followed behind, then jumped and bumped into Kal’s leg. It looked pitiful.
Kal: 5400
Chef Onio: 4400
“That will end my turn.” Chef Onio said.
Kal looked at his deck hoping for a miracle. When he touched his deck he felt a jolt of electricity. That was unusual.
‘Just static…” Kal thought to himself.
Kal drew his card, and it truly was a miracle.
“I summon my Legion’s Time Keeper, in attack mode!” Kal said.
The woman in the blue armor with a saber and a clock rose. ATK: 1300 / LV: 4. The clock hand moved forward to 1 o’clock.
“Why’d it do that?” Chef Onio asked.
“When an Ally Monster is Summoned, like she is, she gains 1 Ally Counter. The clock is just a neat way to keep track.” Kal said, “Now I can activate the Spell Card known as Ally Consolidation. It allows me to place 3 Ally Counters on the field, and I will place all of them on my Time Keeper.”
The clock hand moved forward to 4 o’clock.
“Now I release three of those counters to activate her special ability! I can now Special Summon 1 Ally Monster from my Graveyard. And I choose the Dimensional Splitter!”
The Time Keeper raised the clock into the air. The clock hands started to spin in opposite directions; the clock face glowed blue. Abruptly the hands stopped at the 1o’clock space, and a beam of blue light burst into the air.
The ground started to crack, and crawling out of it was the beast with fangs sharp claws. ATK: 1700 / LV: 4
Now I can activate my Spell Card called Ally Mercenary! If I release a monster I control whose defense points are lower than a monster on your side of the field’s defense points, the monster is destroyed. My Time Keeper has 1400 defense points, and your Butcher has 0. Your Butcher is destroyed!” Kal said.
The spell card flipped up and glowed. Then it released a burst of energy that went through the Time Keeper and into the Butcher, destroying both.
“Now I can attack your Tomato with my Dimensional Splitter, removing it from play.”
The Dimensional Splitter released another orb of energy that engulfed the Tomato.
Kal: 5400
Chef Onio: 2800
“I end my turn.” Kal said.
Chef Onio drew his card.
“I summon a monster in defense, and then I end my turn.”
Kal wondered what that was…
Kal drew his card. He liked it. And now it didn’t matter what the Face Down card was.
“I summon my Legion’s Blocker Daemon in attack position.” Kal said.
The card flipped and out came a skeleton that resembled a dog with wings. ATK: 0 / LV: 1
Now I activate the Field Spell Ally Force – Judgment!”
Kal played the Spell in the Field Spell Zone of his duel disk, but it didn’t change the area.
“What does it do?” Chef Onio asked.
“If I release an Ally of mine, like the Blocker Daemon, I can take control of a monster you have. Like your Facedown monster!” Kal said.
The Blocker Daemon disappeared in a column of blue light, and the face down card moved from Chef Onio’s side of the field to Kal’s.
Kal flipped the card face up, and what arose made him very happy.
When the card flipped over, a boy with blonde hair who was wearing a green outfit with a chef hat appeared. ATK: 1000 / LV: 4.
“It says here that your monster gains 200 points for every Mystic Chef and Ingredient monster on the field, and since he is the Mystic Chef – Master of Wonder, he counts in his own effect.” Kal said.
ATK: 1000 ~ 1200.
“Now I can attack you with the Dimensional Splitter and the Master of Wonder for game!” Kal said.
The Dimensional Splitter and the Master of Wonder each attacked Chef Onio, and together dealing 2900 damage to him, ending the game in Kal’s victory. Or rather, Jean’s Victory.
Kal: 5400
Chef Onio: 0
The whole food court erupted into shouts and screams of admiration, for Jean had been the only one to beat the obnoxious Chef.
Kal put down his duel disk and returned the card to the Chef.
“And my prize?” Kal asked.
The chef handed a gold piece of rectangular plastic to Kal.
“This will allow you to eat anywhere in the establishment until the end of your stay. Activate it down on the lobby floor. Congratulations on your win.” Chef Onio said.
“Thank you very much, sir. You didn’t do too badly yourself.” Kal said.
“Well, I try. I try.” The Chef said, and then he walked off.
Kal was then embraced from behind be someone. He had a feeling of who it could be.
Kal turned around to see Zandra standing there, looking into his eyes with admiration.
“That was really something out there.” She said.
“Was it?” Kal asked.
“Yes. I thoroughly enjoyed it.” She replied.
The way she worded her sentence made Kal know that she was well educated. She didn’t look any older than 20, so she must have learned a lot from high school.
Zandra was still staring at him, then, a daring leap of faith, stood on her toes to kiss him.
Kal put a hand on her shoulder, blocking this from happening.
She landed back on her feet, a look of confusion on her face.
Kal had never kissed anyone, that he can remember, and surely not a girl that he had just met. He wasn’t like that.
“I don’t think it is the right time for this.” Kal said.
“Why not?” Zandra asked.
“I just met you, Zandra. I don’t think we knew each other well enough to make out.”
“I love it when you say my name, Jean.” She said.
Kal froze. That wasn’t his name. Zandra fell in love with a ‘Jean Amicus’ that doesn’t exist. This realization made Kal feel strange on the inside.
“You okay?” Zandra asked the female sixth sense of always knowing when something was wrong kicking in.
“Yes, fine.” Kal lied.
Zandra believed him instantly.
“Alright. Come on; let’s go activate that card he got.” She suggested.
Kal went along with her to the elevator.
Monday, April 13, 2009
Chapter 9
Chapter 9
The elevator ride down felt a little awkward to Kal. For one, he was pretending to be someone that he wasn’t. Jean Amicus. He was beginning to feel that he developed another personality, like when he met Zandra Dyniti he became someone knew. And this new person was called Jean Amicus.
Reason two was that he was alone in an elevator on a long ride down to the lobby with Zandra. He still felt a little insecure around her. He hadn’t got to know her more than her name and what she looked like. And that she liked to eat Chinese food.
And reason three was that she was totally obsessed with him. Several times she tried to make a move on him, but every time Kal refused and pushed her away. But Zandra had enough self esteem to not be hurt by this, and she didn’t give up.
When the door finally opened Kal felt a wave of relief pass over him. Like the relief you feel when you come out of a sauna after an hour and feel the cool air once more.
That’s exactly what it felt like in the elevator for some reason, like a sauna.
Kal walked over to the lobby’s main desk; Zandra clung to Kal’s right arm, opposite his duel disk.
When Kal got to the desk the woman behind the counter looked busy, ruffling with papers and such. She seemed to be looking for something.
Kal just waited. He knew that in situations like this he couldn’t try to rush the woman. She would just blow up in his face.
She turned her head in way that allowed her to catch a glimpse of the two standing there, and when she did she nearly had a heart attack.
“Gracious, me! I didn’t hear you walk up…” she said. Kal read her name tag ‘Janet.’
“It’s alright, Janet.” Kal said. “We were just wondering if you could activate this gold card…”
“I love it when you say we...” Zandra chirped.
Kal tried to raise his arm, but attached to it was Zandra. He wouldn’t have his arm back until he went to his room, most likely. At least he hoped he would there…
Kal switched the card into his left hand and handed it to her.
“Ah, I see the final competitor has settled in quite nicely.” She said, taking the card from him.
She swiped the card through a slot next to the computer and typed in a series of numbers. Within seconds Kal had the card back.
“Thank you,” Kal said. But he remained.
“Something else?” Janet asked, looking anxious to get back to work.
“I don’t mean to intrude, but I noticed you were looking for something…” Kal said.
Janet looked slightly at ease to put her burden upon someone’s ears.
“Well, it seems that Mr. Pegasus has requested the I.D. numbers of all the scouters for the tournament so that he could log the amount of people they recruited and pay them equally, but there has been a small problem with your scout, Bill Utilis…” she said, a bit faster than was necessary.
Kal had a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. “What is the problem?” he asked, keeping his voice level.
“Well, it seems that we cannot find any trace of him. He has had no record with our department, or Mr. Pegasus’s. All talent scouts are required to sign up, so we can give them their pay, but there is no registration form for this ‘Mr. Utilis.’”
“What does that mean for me?” Kal asked. He was only worried about being kicked out of the tournament because of this ‘talent scout.’
Janet looked at Kal, “You are safe, if that is what you mean. Mr. Pegasus has been watching the tournament closely, and he said by name that ‘Jean Amicus it not to be sent home from this mix up.’”
Kal felt relieved. Zandra wrapped her other arm around him and said, “That’s good.”
“But I was assigned to find this paperwork, and it just might be here. But the thing is that I filed that fax that told us of your entry, and even that is gone!” Janet exclaimed.
‘That’s weird…’ Kal thought. ‘Who is this Bill Utilis, and why did he want me in the tournament?’
“Well, I think we will let you get back to your work.” Kal said, and waked off, forcing Zandra to let go of his body. But she still managed to keep a firm hold of his arm. He wondered how he would duel in round 2….
Kal went over to the elevator and pressed the button, dreading the sauna that awaited him but wanting food bad enough to endure it.
…
Kal and Zandra ended up eating alone, for Olivia and Nadia had finished and went back to their hotel room to relax until the next duel.
It was uncomfortable to Kal, but he endured it. He didn’t want to break Zandra’s heart, and he wanted that Chinese food.
They stayed talking there at the table up until the last minute before the next round started, and then they walked over to the elevator doors to go back to the duel stadium.
When Zandra pressed the button to call the elevator, call heard the voice again.
‘I know who you are,’ rang through his head in an angry, female tone.
Kal turned around, and only five feet from him stood that beautiful woman with the short red hair. The scorn the enveloped her face was unnerving. Then her eyes flashed blue.
‘Leave this place, imposter,’ rang the voice.
Kal tried to play the game her way. He tried to move his voice from his mind to hers. Hey, if he could fly and pick up buildings with his mind, couldn’t he do this?
‘Who are you?’ he managed to send. The woman looked startled, as if he had done something she had not expected.
The power needed to do this was more than Kal had anticipated, and soon the world was closing in around him.
And all went into nothingness.
…
Kal woke up. But not in a quiet, calm way of only opening your eyelids. He woke up unexpectedly, and he was screaming as he did.
After a moment he stopped, reality sinking in that it was a ridiculous thing to do. That is when he took in the surroundings.
He was in a hospital ward, where he didn’t know. There were monitors beeping, and that weird smell that always seems to come from one were there. Everything was well lit, saying that the lights were off. This must mean that it was sometime in the day.
The same day? Or the next? Or some day that was far in the future? Had he slept off the tournament?
Within moments, Zandra was walking through the door. She looked frantic.
“Don’t you ever do that to me again! Hear me?” she said, finger pointed, like he was being scolded.
“Right, next time I feel like passing out I just will just say ‘No.’” Kal said, joking.
Zandra grinned. “You know I can’t stay mad at you...” she said, giving him a hug.
“Where are we? And what day is it? When is round two? Has it started? Is it over…?” Kal started asking.
She held up a finger to silence him.
“It is still the same day! And you are on the bottom floor of the Palmarium. It also serves as a hospital.”
‘So round two is still going to happen…’ Kal thought, ‘I haven’t missed it.’
“Round one ended a few moments ago, it was spectacular I heard. Round two starts tomorrow, so you have plenty of time.”
“What did Roland say about my absence?” Kal asked.
“He said that he was disappointed, but understood. He didn’t need you there anyway; your duel was already done.” Zandra pointed out.
“Alright. So when do I get out of here?” Kal said. He really wanted to get to the card shop as quick as he could.
“The doctor has said that when you wake up you are free to go.”
Kal threw the blankets off of him and stood up.
“Let’s go then.” Kal said.
Zandra laughed and hooked her arm around his.
…
Kal went to the card shop with Zandra. She had never played the game, so she was looking around at all of the cards in awe. Soon she had gone over to looking at all the pointless rare cards with pretty pictures. This gave Kal time to talk to the manager.
A man was sitting in the back corner of the store on a stool. He could see everyone from that one spot. Kal went up to him.
“Would you happen to have any cards that support Ally Monsters?” Kal asked.
The manager gave him a blank look.
“Do what? What did you just ask?” he said. He was a burly man with dark skin and a thin mustache. He knew this game well, and it also looked like he knew some combat skills.
“Ally Monster Support. Got any?” Kal rephrased.
The man burst out laughing.
“What is so funny?” Kal asked.
The man tried to calm himself. “You mean you don’t know?” he asked.
“Know what…?”
“Ally Monsters, the guys that stack on top of each other? They don’t exist! There is no such card that has a black card frame that is registered, and no pack collects them. Pegasus has never released such a set.”
“For these cards not existing, you sure seem to know a lot about them.” Kal said.
“Everyone does! And you are the second person today to ask. These myths about these cards started coming around from tournaments some years back, maybe ten to fifteen years ago. They were small tournaments, but they had some fabulous prizes. In one, it was said that this man won a black motorcycle grand prize. His deck was filled with an assortment of cards with black frames and they were allowed to be put in the same places as other monsters. But no card was ever found.” The manager said.
‘That is strange.’ Kal thought, ‘then the cards I have in my deck are fabled?’
Kal thought it was best not whip out his deck and prove to the ignorant man that the Allies did exist. It might not get him anywhere.
“Wait, you said I was the second. Who was the first?”
“A man about your height with very short, platinum blond hair hidden under a tight, black Beanie. He seemed to press the issue that they were real, and then I looked them up in our server and proved to him that they do not exist. He seemed annoyed and left.”
Kal pondered this for a moment.
“Do you have any suggestions for a deck filled entirely with dark monsters?” Kal asked.
“Do you have Allure?” the man asked immediately.
“I have one…” Kal asked back.
The man sighed and stood up off his stool. He walked over to a glass door under the display table and picked up a Spell Card. It had a picture of a duel deck in the middle of blackness.
“Allure of Darkness should always be run in pairs in a dark deck. I would say three, but they semi-limited it. So, this should do you.” The man said.
“How much will that cost me?” Kal said, remembering that he has no money.
“I sell and trade here. Take out your cards for trade, and I will see if there is anything here I like.”
Kal liked this man. He had brought his rare cards just in case, but he wasn’t for sure they would take them. He just had one more question.
“Do you buy?”
“Yeah, the good stuff.”
Kal was happy. He didn’t have anything like the Dark Armed Dragon or Judgment Dragon everyone went crazy about a few years back, but he did have some amazing rare cards.
Most of them he never used or planned on using because they never fit in with his Allies. But now he found a use for them.
Kal ended up walking out of the store with more money than he had seen in a long time, and with that Allure. He was going to set up a brand new deck for the next round. Next round was going to be interesting.
…
He and Max spent some time talking to each other that night. Not too much time, but Max told him about the duel he had. He had won it, and he said it wasn’t that close. Max had won easily.
“That is one perk about these Deserter Knights is that they cannot be destroyed by attacks. They are removed at the time!”
“Yeah that is something.” Kal said. He was a bit distracted at the moment. He was surrounded by cards, Allies especially.
“How is that deck coming?” Max asked.
“It is coming. I think that I have come up with the perfect balance of Monsters to Spells and Traps. I have added Tuners and some Synchros to my deck; it should be easy to tune them with my field swarming abilities…” Kal said, almost to himself.
Max laughed a bit, “Oh, okay. Just don’t let me know your secrets. If someone comes pressing me for information on your deck I don’t want to know.”
Kal had to laugh at that.
“Well, I am going to get some sleep for tomorrow. Good luck with that deck, Jean.”
“Night.” Kal said, trying to decide between adding a third Legion’s Samurai to the deck.
Max laughed one last time, and then turned his back to Kal in his bed.
_____
The next day, Kal was sitting in his designated seat. Zandra was forced to sit away from him, and he knew that that annoyed her. She was truly crazy about him.
Kal had finished his new deck last night, and not too late. He had gotten plenty of rest.
All Kal wished was for three things to happen.
Number one was to hopefully not see that girl with the red hair. He didn’t want to get freaked out before his round.
Number two was he hoped that he could learn more about this ‘power’ that he seems to have. With being able to levitate, pick up buildings, predict his own victory in an amount of turns, and send his thoughts to others’ minds he wondered just how much he could do. And if there were any limits. And if he could control it.
Number three was simply to win. He couldn’t afford to go home, not after being shown the awesome sight of the Palmarium. He must win at all costs.
“Ladies and Gentlemen! I hope that you all got a good night’s sleep?” Roland asked over the microphone.
The crowd shouted a very loud jumble of different noises, most of which were either ‘yes!’ or ‘not really…’
“Well, today is the second round! And to start the new round is Jean Amicus vs. Aren Assim!”
The crowd shouted approbation, and when Kal walked onto the floor there was an entire section of fan girls shouting his name.
Only his name was Jean here. He was starting to wish that he hadn’t done that, now his win will be fake… It won’t be a win for him. It will be for Jean.
Kal raised his duel disk and waited for his opponent.
But no one came. The duel field was empty, except for Kal.
Suddenly a man with long brown hair in dreadlocks came running through the doors of the room. He was wearing a black turtle neck sweater and black slacks. He was wearing a duel disk.
“Sorry if I am late, I hope I didn’t interrupt a duel in progress.” The man said.
“Well, you are just in time. And you didn’t interrupt anything at all. In fact, we have all been waiting for you.” Roland said, “You are up.”
‘This is Aren Assim?’ Kal thought to himself.
“Oh! Well then…” he said, stepping up to his side of the field, “Let my end this quick.”
“That confident?” Kal asked.
“Yes, I studied you from the last round, and you almost lost a few times. You can’t rely on lucky draw’s to win you the duel this time.”
‘That’s what you think… well, this time things will be different.’ Kal thought.
“Duel!” they both said, and drew five cards.
“You may go first.” Aren said.
So Kal drew his card. Aren thought he knew his deck, but he doesn’t. Kal may not have been able to find new Ally Monster Support at the card shop, but he did manage to find a new Ally that was in his box of cards. Why he hadn’t seen it before amazed him.
Kal liked his hand, it was sure to be a nice match.
“I summon my Legion’s Attack Power – Yin and Yang in attack mode!”
A set of opposite fiends with one wing apiece appeared; one white, one black. ATK: 1500 / LV: 4
“Then I place two cards face down and end my turn.”
“I draw!” Aren said, “And I activate the Continuous Spell Card Valhalla, Hall of the Fallen!”
The card flipped up to reveal an empty throne. The same throne appeared behind Aren.
“This Spell allows me to Special Summon a fairy from my hand if I control no monsters, like now. So I Special Summon my Chaos Angel of Death LV 6 from my hand!”
The throne glowed, and suddenly a creature with black wings and holding sharp weapon appeared. ATK: 2400 / LV: 6.
“Now I activate the Spell Card Level Up! This allows me to tribute my LV 6 to get a LV 8!”
The creature disappeared, then in its place appeared a creature with bigger black wings, a larger weapon, and looked a lot stronger. ATK: 2700 / LV: 8.
“And now I can Normal Summon my Chaos Angel Magician in attack mode!”
A little girl dressed in black was summoned to the field after the card flipped. ATK: 1700 / LV: 4.
“Now, attack his Yin and Yang my Magician!” Aren said.
The sorceress poised for the attack, then launched an orb of purple light at the fiend pair.
But the black fiend walked forward and swatted the orb back, and it hit the Magician.
Kal: 8000
Aren: 7900
“WHAT?” Aren exclaimed.
“It is the effect of my Yin and Yang. It changes from attack mode to defense mode if it is attacked. And it just so happens that his DEF is 1800, 100 more than your monster’s ATK.”
Aren growled, “Fine. Then I will just attack you with my Chaos Angel of Death LV 8!”
The monster angel picked up its weapon and sliced it through the air. It went strait through the two fiends, tiny in comparison to the weapon. It broke into a thousand shards.
“You triggered my trap! Allied Vengeance! Now that my monster was destroyed, your monster is destroyed as well.” Kal said.
The trap card flipped up and a blue, sharp object was shot straight into the Chaos Angel. It was destroyed into a thousand shards.
Aren growled more. “Fine, I place one card face down and end my turn.”
Kal drew his card in silence. He felt a spark of electricity, but instead of trying to force it away he embraced it this time. In his mind he saw a card that he hadn’t drawn before, and it was ready to be played.
“I activate the Spell Card called Reinforcement of the Allies! This allows me to add a level 4 or lower Ally Monster from my deck to my hand, and then Summon it by paying 1000 life points!”
Kal picked out the card, and then placed it on the field. His life points decreased to foot the bill.
Kal: 7000
Aren: 7900
“So I summon my Legion’s Power – Super Kid!” Kal said.
A little kid with a sword in monotone grey colors appeared. ATK: 1000 / LV: 4
“Now I activate my Trap Card, Legion’s Magma Stone – Standlach! He is a Trap Monster, so when he is activated he is summoned as a monster!”
The face down card flipped up, and out of it rose a giant red piece of rock. ATK: 1400 / LV: 5.
“And when he is Special Summoned, I can Special Summon 1 level 3 or lower Ally to the top of him, so I Summon my Legion’s Undertaker – Rentskel!”
A girl with long red hair appeared holding a sword. ATK: 1200 / LV 3.
“Now I can remove my Super Kid and my Undertaker from the field in order to Special Summon my Legion’s Overlord – Lokeyrr!”
The two creatures left the giant stone, but in front of him came a giant angel with a scepter. ATK: 2700 / LV: 12.
“I Stack him on top of my Magma Stone. And my Lokeyrr gains Ally Counters for the amount of creatures sent to the grave by his effect, so he gets 2 counters! And his first effect activates, letting him gain 100 ATK points for each!”
Lokeyrr gained two Ally Counters, so his ATK increased by 200. ATK: 2700 ~ 2900.
“Now I remove all of my Allies in my Graveyard to Special Summon my Final Card, Legion’s Dark Lord – Detlitwar!”
The ghostly images of the three Allies disappeared from the ground to the sky, and then a monster arose.
This creature was covered from head to toe in black armor that resembled feathers. He had giant, black wings that stretched around him. He had a sword to match his armor, and the blade glowed blue. ATK: ? / LV: 9.
“Now his ATK equals the combined levels of all the Allies I sent, times 200. Since I had my level 3 Undertaker and my two level 4s, Super Kid and Yin and Yang, his ATK is 2200.” Kal explained.
Detlitwar: ATK: ? = 2200.
“Now my Detlitwar will attack your Magician!”
The black armored monster with wings raised his sword and rose in the air. He came down, and swung his sword through the little girl. She was defenseless against him. She broke into a thousand shards.
Kal: 7000
Aren: 7400
“You triggered my Trap Card! The Battlefield of Chaos! Since you destroyed my monster, I can summon another from my hand!”
Aren played the last card in his hand, which was a monster with wings and a sharp weapon. ATK: 1500 / LV: 4.
“I summoned my Chaos Angel Theo – The Guardian of the Graveyard.”
“Well, I will attack your new monster with my Lokeyrr!”
The Overlord raised his scepter into the air and let out a bolt of energy straight into the air. The wave came crashing down upon the monster like a thunder bolt.
Kal: 7000
Aren: 6000
“Now I activate the Special Ability of my Detlitwar! By lowering his ATK by 1000 until the End Phase, I can add 2 Ally Counters to Cards on the field! And I add them to my Overlord!”
Legion’s Dark Lord – Detlitwar: ATK: 2200 ~1200
Legion’s Overlord – Lokeyrr: ATK: 2900 ~ 3100
“I end my turn.” Kal said.
Legion’s Dark Lord – Detlitwar: ATK: 1200 ~ 2200.
It was strange. Both Kal and Aren had no cards left in their hands, but they both had cards on the field that allowed them the ability to win.
Aren drew his card.
“All I have is a monster in defense.”
A face down, horizontal card appeared.
“I end.”
Kal drew his card.
He liked it.
“I activate Allure of Darkness! Now I can Draw 2, then remove a Dark monster.”
“I know how it works, just get on with it.” Aren said. He was getting petulant.
Kal didn’t mind though. He drew his two, and was amazed by it.
“I remove my Legion’s Chained Daemon, and by his effect when he is removed from play I gain 1000 Life Points.”
A ghostly figure of the humanoid with chains around him disappeared into the sky, and Kal got back that 1000 Life Points he had spent last turn.
Kal: 8000
Aren: 6000
Now for my other card, I Summon my Legion’s Daemon Monarch! He can be summoned with no releases for the cost of not attacking with him.
A monster with skeleton limbs and wings appeared. ATK: 2000 / LV: 10
“Now even though he can’t attack, he can activate other effects, like adding another Ally Counter to my Overlord Lokeyrr. That adds another 100 ATK points.”
Legion’s Overlord Lokeyrr: ATK: 3100 ~ 3200
“Now my Dark Lord will attack your face down monster!”
Detlitwar went forward with his saber and slashed right through the card. It revealed to be a normal monster with only 1000 DEF points.
“And now my Overlord will attack you directly!” Kal said.
The Overlord raised his scepter into the air and released another wave of light. The light came down upon Aren himself, inflicting 3200 points of damage.
Kal: 8000
Aren: 2800
“Then I will add two more Ally Counters to my Overlord with my Dark Lord’s effect.”
Legion’s Dark Lord – Detlitwar: ATK: 2200 ~1200
Legion’s Overlord – Lokeyrr: ATK: 3200 ~ 3400
“I end my turn.” Kal said.
Legion’s Dark Lord – Detlitwar: ATK: 1200 ~ 2200.
Aren knew that he was defeated. There was nothing left that he could do.
He drew his card anyway, but then his eyes brightened.
“I don’t believe it!” Aren said.
Kal was confused. ‘What had he drawn?’ Kal wondered.
“I use the effect of my Valhalla to summon my ultimate monster! I summon my Chaos Angel of Death LV 12!”
A woman in a cloak appeared with her own scythe. ATK: 3200 / LV: 12.
“Now I can attack your Dark Lord – Detlitwar!” Aren said.
“No you don’t.” Kal said.
“What? Why not?” Aren said.
“My Overlord has 7 Ally Counters on it. When he has 6 or more, you can only select him as an attack target.” Kal explained.
Aren looked downhearted. He had actually made a comeback from a stroke of luck, and even that was taken from him.
“I end my turn.” He said sadly.
Kal drew his card, even though he didn’t need it.
“I activate the ability of my Legion’s Dark Lord to place 1 Ally Counter on your Angel of Death and 1 Ally Counter on my Overlord.”
Legion’s Dark Lord – Detlitwar: ATK: 2200 ~1200
Legion’s Overlord – Lokeyrr: ATK: 3400 ~ 3500
“Why did you put one on my creature?”
“Because I can now activate the effect of my Daemon Monarch. He can destroy a card with at least 1 Ally Counter on it, and your Monster fits the bill.” Kal said.
The Daemon Monarch activated its second effect and released an orb of black energy.
The energy destroyed the Angel, breaking it into a thousand shards.
“Now I can attack you directly for game!” Kal said.
The Overlord attacked directly, sending a bolt of energy straight into the air. It came crashing down upon the opponent, dropping his Life Points to 0. It was quite an epic ending in one sight, and pitiful in another.
Kal: 8000
Aren: 0
The crowd burst into excitement at the end, and everyone started talking immediately about the newest win from Jean Amicus, the early favorite.
_____
Sitting in his office, the police chief was staring at a photograph on his wall. The photo was of entire force at the beginning of the year.
“Where are you Kal?” he wondered aloud.
Just then there was a knock at the Chief’s door.
“Come in.” he said.
The door opened and in walked one of the Cyborg Officers.
“Well? What have you found?” the Chief asked.
“We have traced the gas exhaust from the motorcycle driven off that night three nights ago to a gas station just outside of Succurro. But after that the trail goes cold.”
“Succurro? The next town over? Why would Kal be going there?” the Chief asked.
“We cannot even confirm that Kal Iszarc was the person on the motorcycle riding out of town, but there has been a small group of Cyborg Officers sent into Succurro, and we are looking for Mr. Iszarc as we speak.”
“Good.” The Chief said, although he wasn’t satisfied. Kal was the best officer he had ever had on the force. He had to let him go because of his defeat from Joel Karne, and how that had affected his work.
The Chief had known Kal for some time, ever since he was six. That is when Kal’s parents had their accident. At least that is what the Chief had told him, and Lance. The truth was more unnerving.
The Chief at the time was only a common Police Officer, never even bothering to try the game of Duel Monsters. He had been called to the seen of a brutal homicide.
The Chief went to young Kal Iszarc’s house to find his mother dead, shot. She had been dead for only a few hours, and Kal wasn’t home from Battle Academy yet.
The father ended up missing, but he was never considered for the crime. CSI had found enough of his blood around the house to declare that he would be dead. They never found his body.
When Kal got home that day, his mind couldn’t process what was going on. The Chief put him into the foster care system, but no one would take him. As a result, Kal ended up growing up in the Police Force’s care.
Kal really enjoyed the duels featured from Battle City, and that is when he really got into the game of Duel Monsters. At that time he was only ten.
Kal’s dad had been a very good duelist. No one knew his secret, only that he could win in any situation. He was the talk of the dueling world before Yugi Muto appeared.
Before they had died, they had gotten a will drawn up just in case something would happen to them. Kal’s dad insisted.
In the will they left everything to Kal as is, everything in the house was not to be moved in any way. There was enough money in their bank to pay for the house and utilities for a decade, so they knew it would be alright.
Kal’s dad left his deck to Kal as well, that that is where Kal had gotten his Allies.
Kal was young when this ordeal happened, and as a result he didn’t remember much about it. Only that his parents had been in an accident and that his dad’s cards where now his.
_____
Kal was happy that night. He had successfully gone through round two, and the rest of the duels that day were great.
Except this one duel. Roland had called out the names of the next opponent’s to duel.
“Alright, that was something, right?” Roland said.
The crowed cheered.
“Alright! Well, the next duel is between Allen Undleer vs. Talia Memourn!”
A teenaged boy walked up to the duel field and readied himself.
Then a beautiful girl with short red hair walked up to the field. Kal’s heart stopped. It was he girl who could speak in his head, and who had the unbelievable scorn for him.
She looked over to him, but this time she had a smile on her face, and not a scowl. He eyes flashed blue.
‘I know who you are.’
The elevator ride down felt a little awkward to Kal. For one, he was pretending to be someone that he wasn’t. Jean Amicus. He was beginning to feel that he developed another personality, like when he met Zandra Dyniti he became someone knew. And this new person was called Jean Amicus.
Reason two was that he was alone in an elevator on a long ride down to the lobby with Zandra. He still felt a little insecure around her. He hadn’t got to know her more than her name and what she looked like. And that she liked to eat Chinese food.
And reason three was that she was totally obsessed with him. Several times she tried to make a move on him, but every time Kal refused and pushed her away. But Zandra had enough self esteem to not be hurt by this, and she didn’t give up.
When the door finally opened Kal felt a wave of relief pass over him. Like the relief you feel when you come out of a sauna after an hour and feel the cool air once more.
That’s exactly what it felt like in the elevator for some reason, like a sauna.
Kal walked over to the lobby’s main desk; Zandra clung to Kal’s right arm, opposite his duel disk.
When Kal got to the desk the woman behind the counter looked busy, ruffling with papers and such. She seemed to be looking for something.
Kal just waited. He knew that in situations like this he couldn’t try to rush the woman. She would just blow up in his face.
She turned her head in way that allowed her to catch a glimpse of the two standing there, and when she did she nearly had a heart attack.
“Gracious, me! I didn’t hear you walk up…” she said. Kal read her name tag ‘Janet.’
“It’s alright, Janet.” Kal said. “We were just wondering if you could activate this gold card…”
“I love it when you say we...” Zandra chirped.
Kal tried to raise his arm, but attached to it was Zandra. He wouldn’t have his arm back until he went to his room, most likely. At least he hoped he would there…
Kal switched the card into his left hand and handed it to her.
“Ah, I see the final competitor has settled in quite nicely.” She said, taking the card from him.
She swiped the card through a slot next to the computer and typed in a series of numbers. Within seconds Kal had the card back.
“Thank you,” Kal said. But he remained.
“Something else?” Janet asked, looking anxious to get back to work.
“I don’t mean to intrude, but I noticed you were looking for something…” Kal said.
Janet looked slightly at ease to put her burden upon someone’s ears.
“Well, it seems that Mr. Pegasus has requested the I.D. numbers of all the scouters for the tournament so that he could log the amount of people they recruited and pay them equally, but there has been a small problem with your scout, Bill Utilis…” she said, a bit faster than was necessary.
Kal had a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. “What is the problem?” he asked, keeping his voice level.
“Well, it seems that we cannot find any trace of him. He has had no record with our department, or Mr. Pegasus’s. All talent scouts are required to sign up, so we can give them their pay, but there is no registration form for this ‘Mr. Utilis.’”
“What does that mean for me?” Kal asked. He was only worried about being kicked out of the tournament because of this ‘talent scout.’
Janet looked at Kal, “You are safe, if that is what you mean. Mr. Pegasus has been watching the tournament closely, and he said by name that ‘Jean Amicus it not to be sent home from this mix up.’”
Kal felt relieved. Zandra wrapped her other arm around him and said, “That’s good.”
“But I was assigned to find this paperwork, and it just might be here. But the thing is that I filed that fax that told us of your entry, and even that is gone!” Janet exclaimed.
‘That’s weird…’ Kal thought. ‘Who is this Bill Utilis, and why did he want me in the tournament?’
“Well, I think we will let you get back to your work.” Kal said, and waked off, forcing Zandra to let go of his body. But she still managed to keep a firm hold of his arm. He wondered how he would duel in round 2….
Kal went over to the elevator and pressed the button, dreading the sauna that awaited him but wanting food bad enough to endure it.
…
Kal and Zandra ended up eating alone, for Olivia and Nadia had finished and went back to their hotel room to relax until the next duel.
It was uncomfortable to Kal, but he endured it. He didn’t want to break Zandra’s heart, and he wanted that Chinese food.
They stayed talking there at the table up until the last minute before the next round started, and then they walked over to the elevator doors to go back to the duel stadium.
When Zandra pressed the button to call the elevator, call heard the voice again.
‘I know who you are,’ rang through his head in an angry, female tone.
Kal turned around, and only five feet from him stood that beautiful woman with the short red hair. The scorn the enveloped her face was unnerving. Then her eyes flashed blue.
‘Leave this place, imposter,’ rang the voice.
Kal tried to play the game her way. He tried to move his voice from his mind to hers. Hey, if he could fly and pick up buildings with his mind, couldn’t he do this?
‘Who are you?’ he managed to send. The woman looked startled, as if he had done something she had not expected.
The power needed to do this was more than Kal had anticipated, and soon the world was closing in around him.
And all went into nothingness.
…
Kal woke up. But not in a quiet, calm way of only opening your eyelids. He woke up unexpectedly, and he was screaming as he did.
After a moment he stopped, reality sinking in that it was a ridiculous thing to do. That is when he took in the surroundings.
He was in a hospital ward, where he didn’t know. There were monitors beeping, and that weird smell that always seems to come from one were there. Everything was well lit, saying that the lights were off. This must mean that it was sometime in the day.
The same day? Or the next? Or some day that was far in the future? Had he slept off the tournament?
Within moments, Zandra was walking through the door. She looked frantic.
“Don’t you ever do that to me again! Hear me?” she said, finger pointed, like he was being scolded.
“Right, next time I feel like passing out I just will just say ‘No.’” Kal said, joking.
Zandra grinned. “You know I can’t stay mad at you...” she said, giving him a hug.
“Where are we? And what day is it? When is round two? Has it started? Is it over…?” Kal started asking.
She held up a finger to silence him.
“It is still the same day! And you are on the bottom floor of the Palmarium. It also serves as a hospital.”
‘So round two is still going to happen…’ Kal thought, ‘I haven’t missed it.’
“Round one ended a few moments ago, it was spectacular I heard. Round two starts tomorrow, so you have plenty of time.”
“What did Roland say about my absence?” Kal asked.
“He said that he was disappointed, but understood. He didn’t need you there anyway; your duel was already done.” Zandra pointed out.
“Alright. So when do I get out of here?” Kal said. He really wanted to get to the card shop as quick as he could.
“The doctor has said that when you wake up you are free to go.”
Kal threw the blankets off of him and stood up.
“Let’s go then.” Kal said.
Zandra laughed and hooked her arm around his.
…
Kal went to the card shop with Zandra. She had never played the game, so she was looking around at all of the cards in awe. Soon she had gone over to looking at all the pointless rare cards with pretty pictures. This gave Kal time to talk to the manager.
A man was sitting in the back corner of the store on a stool. He could see everyone from that one spot. Kal went up to him.
“Would you happen to have any cards that support Ally Monsters?” Kal asked.
The manager gave him a blank look.
“Do what? What did you just ask?” he said. He was a burly man with dark skin and a thin mustache. He knew this game well, and it also looked like he knew some combat skills.
“Ally Monster Support. Got any?” Kal rephrased.
The man burst out laughing.
“What is so funny?” Kal asked.
The man tried to calm himself. “You mean you don’t know?” he asked.
“Know what…?”
“Ally Monsters, the guys that stack on top of each other? They don’t exist! There is no such card that has a black card frame that is registered, and no pack collects them. Pegasus has never released such a set.”
“For these cards not existing, you sure seem to know a lot about them.” Kal said.
“Everyone does! And you are the second person today to ask. These myths about these cards started coming around from tournaments some years back, maybe ten to fifteen years ago. They were small tournaments, but they had some fabulous prizes. In one, it was said that this man won a black motorcycle grand prize. His deck was filled with an assortment of cards with black frames and they were allowed to be put in the same places as other monsters. But no card was ever found.” The manager said.
‘That is strange.’ Kal thought, ‘then the cards I have in my deck are fabled?’
Kal thought it was best not whip out his deck and prove to the ignorant man that the Allies did exist. It might not get him anywhere.
“Wait, you said I was the second. Who was the first?”
“A man about your height with very short, platinum blond hair hidden under a tight, black Beanie. He seemed to press the issue that they were real, and then I looked them up in our server and proved to him that they do not exist. He seemed annoyed and left.”
Kal pondered this for a moment.
“Do you have any suggestions for a deck filled entirely with dark monsters?” Kal asked.
“Do you have Allure?” the man asked immediately.
“I have one…” Kal asked back.
The man sighed and stood up off his stool. He walked over to a glass door under the display table and picked up a Spell Card. It had a picture of a duel deck in the middle of blackness.
“Allure of Darkness should always be run in pairs in a dark deck. I would say three, but they semi-limited it. So, this should do you.” The man said.
“How much will that cost me?” Kal said, remembering that he has no money.
“I sell and trade here. Take out your cards for trade, and I will see if there is anything here I like.”
Kal liked this man. He had brought his rare cards just in case, but he wasn’t for sure they would take them. He just had one more question.
“Do you buy?”
“Yeah, the good stuff.”
Kal was happy. He didn’t have anything like the Dark Armed Dragon or Judgment Dragon everyone went crazy about a few years back, but he did have some amazing rare cards.
Most of them he never used or planned on using because they never fit in with his Allies. But now he found a use for them.
Kal ended up walking out of the store with more money than he had seen in a long time, and with that Allure. He was going to set up a brand new deck for the next round. Next round was going to be interesting.
…
He and Max spent some time talking to each other that night. Not too much time, but Max told him about the duel he had. He had won it, and he said it wasn’t that close. Max had won easily.
“That is one perk about these Deserter Knights is that they cannot be destroyed by attacks. They are removed at the time!”
“Yeah that is something.” Kal said. He was a bit distracted at the moment. He was surrounded by cards, Allies especially.
“How is that deck coming?” Max asked.
“It is coming. I think that I have come up with the perfect balance of Monsters to Spells and Traps. I have added Tuners and some Synchros to my deck; it should be easy to tune them with my field swarming abilities…” Kal said, almost to himself.
Max laughed a bit, “Oh, okay. Just don’t let me know your secrets. If someone comes pressing me for information on your deck I don’t want to know.”
Kal had to laugh at that.
“Well, I am going to get some sleep for tomorrow. Good luck with that deck, Jean.”
“Night.” Kal said, trying to decide between adding a third Legion’s Samurai to the deck.
Max laughed one last time, and then turned his back to Kal in his bed.
_____
The next day, Kal was sitting in his designated seat. Zandra was forced to sit away from him, and he knew that that annoyed her. She was truly crazy about him.
Kal had finished his new deck last night, and not too late. He had gotten plenty of rest.
All Kal wished was for three things to happen.
Number one was to hopefully not see that girl with the red hair. He didn’t want to get freaked out before his round.
Number two was he hoped that he could learn more about this ‘power’ that he seems to have. With being able to levitate, pick up buildings, predict his own victory in an amount of turns, and send his thoughts to others’ minds he wondered just how much he could do. And if there were any limits. And if he could control it.
Number three was simply to win. He couldn’t afford to go home, not after being shown the awesome sight of the Palmarium. He must win at all costs.
“Ladies and Gentlemen! I hope that you all got a good night’s sleep?” Roland asked over the microphone.
The crowd shouted a very loud jumble of different noises, most of which were either ‘yes!’ or ‘not really…’
“Well, today is the second round! And to start the new round is Jean Amicus vs. Aren Assim!”
The crowd shouted approbation, and when Kal walked onto the floor there was an entire section of fan girls shouting his name.
Only his name was Jean here. He was starting to wish that he hadn’t done that, now his win will be fake… It won’t be a win for him. It will be for Jean.
Kal raised his duel disk and waited for his opponent.
But no one came. The duel field was empty, except for Kal.
Suddenly a man with long brown hair in dreadlocks came running through the doors of the room. He was wearing a black turtle neck sweater and black slacks. He was wearing a duel disk.
“Sorry if I am late, I hope I didn’t interrupt a duel in progress.” The man said.
“Well, you are just in time. And you didn’t interrupt anything at all. In fact, we have all been waiting for you.” Roland said, “You are up.”
‘This is Aren Assim?’ Kal thought to himself.
“Oh! Well then…” he said, stepping up to his side of the field, “Let my end this quick.”
“That confident?” Kal asked.
“Yes, I studied you from the last round, and you almost lost a few times. You can’t rely on lucky draw’s to win you the duel this time.”
‘That’s what you think… well, this time things will be different.’ Kal thought.
“Duel!” they both said, and drew five cards.
“You may go first.” Aren said.
So Kal drew his card. Aren thought he knew his deck, but he doesn’t. Kal may not have been able to find new Ally Monster Support at the card shop, but he did manage to find a new Ally that was in his box of cards. Why he hadn’t seen it before amazed him.
Kal liked his hand, it was sure to be a nice match.
“I summon my Legion’s Attack Power – Yin and Yang in attack mode!”
A set of opposite fiends with one wing apiece appeared; one white, one black. ATK: 1500 / LV: 4
“Then I place two cards face down and end my turn.”
“I draw!” Aren said, “And I activate the Continuous Spell Card Valhalla, Hall of the Fallen!”
The card flipped up to reveal an empty throne. The same throne appeared behind Aren.
“This Spell allows me to Special Summon a fairy from my hand if I control no monsters, like now. So I Special Summon my Chaos Angel of Death LV 6 from my hand!”
The throne glowed, and suddenly a creature with black wings and holding sharp weapon appeared. ATK: 2400 / LV: 6.
“Now I activate the Spell Card Level Up! This allows me to tribute my LV 6 to get a LV 8!”
The creature disappeared, then in its place appeared a creature with bigger black wings, a larger weapon, and looked a lot stronger. ATK: 2700 / LV: 8.
“And now I can Normal Summon my Chaos Angel Magician in attack mode!”
A little girl dressed in black was summoned to the field after the card flipped. ATK: 1700 / LV: 4.
“Now, attack his Yin and Yang my Magician!” Aren said.
The sorceress poised for the attack, then launched an orb of purple light at the fiend pair.
But the black fiend walked forward and swatted the orb back, and it hit the Magician.
Kal: 8000
Aren: 7900
“WHAT?” Aren exclaimed.
“It is the effect of my Yin and Yang. It changes from attack mode to defense mode if it is attacked. And it just so happens that his DEF is 1800, 100 more than your monster’s ATK.”
Aren growled, “Fine. Then I will just attack you with my Chaos Angel of Death LV 8!”
The monster angel picked up its weapon and sliced it through the air. It went strait through the two fiends, tiny in comparison to the weapon. It broke into a thousand shards.
“You triggered my trap! Allied Vengeance! Now that my monster was destroyed, your monster is destroyed as well.” Kal said.
The trap card flipped up and a blue, sharp object was shot straight into the Chaos Angel. It was destroyed into a thousand shards.
Aren growled more. “Fine, I place one card face down and end my turn.”
Kal drew his card in silence. He felt a spark of electricity, but instead of trying to force it away he embraced it this time. In his mind he saw a card that he hadn’t drawn before, and it was ready to be played.
“I activate the Spell Card called Reinforcement of the Allies! This allows me to add a level 4 or lower Ally Monster from my deck to my hand, and then Summon it by paying 1000 life points!”
Kal picked out the card, and then placed it on the field. His life points decreased to foot the bill.
Kal: 7000
Aren: 7900
“So I summon my Legion’s Power – Super Kid!” Kal said.
A little kid with a sword in monotone grey colors appeared. ATK: 1000 / LV: 4
“Now I activate my Trap Card, Legion’s Magma Stone – Standlach! He is a Trap Monster, so when he is activated he is summoned as a monster!”
The face down card flipped up, and out of it rose a giant red piece of rock. ATK: 1400 / LV: 5.
“And when he is Special Summoned, I can Special Summon 1 level 3 or lower Ally to the top of him, so I Summon my Legion’s Undertaker – Rentskel!”
A girl with long red hair appeared holding a sword. ATK: 1200 / LV 3.
“Now I can remove my Super Kid and my Undertaker from the field in order to Special Summon my Legion’s Overlord – Lokeyrr!”
The two creatures left the giant stone, but in front of him came a giant angel with a scepter. ATK: 2700 / LV: 12.
“I Stack him on top of my Magma Stone. And my Lokeyrr gains Ally Counters for the amount of creatures sent to the grave by his effect, so he gets 2 counters! And his first effect activates, letting him gain 100 ATK points for each!”
Lokeyrr gained two Ally Counters, so his ATK increased by 200. ATK: 2700 ~ 2900.
“Now I remove all of my Allies in my Graveyard to Special Summon my Final Card, Legion’s Dark Lord – Detlitwar!”
The ghostly images of the three Allies disappeared from the ground to the sky, and then a monster arose.
This creature was covered from head to toe in black armor that resembled feathers. He had giant, black wings that stretched around him. He had a sword to match his armor, and the blade glowed blue. ATK: ? / LV: 9.
“Now his ATK equals the combined levels of all the Allies I sent, times 200. Since I had my level 3 Undertaker and my two level 4s, Super Kid and Yin and Yang, his ATK is 2200.” Kal explained.
Detlitwar: ATK: ? = 2200.
“Now my Detlitwar will attack your Magician!”
The black armored monster with wings raised his sword and rose in the air. He came down, and swung his sword through the little girl. She was defenseless against him. She broke into a thousand shards.
Kal: 7000
Aren: 7400
“You triggered my Trap Card! The Battlefield of Chaos! Since you destroyed my monster, I can summon another from my hand!”
Aren played the last card in his hand, which was a monster with wings and a sharp weapon. ATK: 1500 / LV: 4.
“I summoned my Chaos Angel Theo – The Guardian of the Graveyard.”
“Well, I will attack your new monster with my Lokeyrr!”
The Overlord raised his scepter into the air and let out a bolt of energy straight into the air. The wave came crashing down upon the monster like a thunder bolt.
Kal: 7000
Aren: 6000
“Now I activate the Special Ability of my Detlitwar! By lowering his ATK by 1000 until the End Phase, I can add 2 Ally Counters to Cards on the field! And I add them to my Overlord!”
Legion’s Dark Lord – Detlitwar: ATK: 2200 ~1200
Legion’s Overlord – Lokeyrr: ATK: 2900 ~ 3100
“I end my turn.” Kal said.
Legion’s Dark Lord – Detlitwar: ATK: 1200 ~ 2200.
It was strange. Both Kal and Aren had no cards left in their hands, but they both had cards on the field that allowed them the ability to win.
Aren drew his card.
“All I have is a monster in defense.”
A face down, horizontal card appeared.
“I end.”
Kal drew his card.
He liked it.
“I activate Allure of Darkness! Now I can Draw 2, then remove a Dark monster.”
“I know how it works, just get on with it.” Aren said. He was getting petulant.
Kal didn’t mind though. He drew his two, and was amazed by it.
“I remove my Legion’s Chained Daemon, and by his effect when he is removed from play I gain 1000 Life Points.”
A ghostly figure of the humanoid with chains around him disappeared into the sky, and Kal got back that 1000 Life Points he had spent last turn.
Kal: 8000
Aren: 6000
Now for my other card, I Summon my Legion’s Daemon Monarch! He can be summoned with no releases for the cost of not attacking with him.
A monster with skeleton limbs and wings appeared. ATK: 2000 / LV: 10
“Now even though he can’t attack, he can activate other effects, like adding another Ally Counter to my Overlord Lokeyrr. That adds another 100 ATK points.”
Legion’s Overlord Lokeyrr: ATK: 3100 ~ 3200
“Now my Dark Lord will attack your face down monster!”
Detlitwar went forward with his saber and slashed right through the card. It revealed to be a normal monster with only 1000 DEF points.
“And now my Overlord will attack you directly!” Kal said.
The Overlord raised his scepter into the air and released another wave of light. The light came down upon Aren himself, inflicting 3200 points of damage.
Kal: 8000
Aren: 2800
“Then I will add two more Ally Counters to my Overlord with my Dark Lord’s effect.”
Legion’s Dark Lord – Detlitwar: ATK: 2200 ~1200
Legion’s Overlord – Lokeyrr: ATK: 3200 ~ 3400
“I end my turn.” Kal said.
Legion’s Dark Lord – Detlitwar: ATK: 1200 ~ 2200.
Aren knew that he was defeated. There was nothing left that he could do.
He drew his card anyway, but then his eyes brightened.
“I don’t believe it!” Aren said.
Kal was confused. ‘What had he drawn?’ Kal wondered.
“I use the effect of my Valhalla to summon my ultimate monster! I summon my Chaos Angel of Death LV 12!”
A woman in a cloak appeared with her own scythe. ATK: 3200 / LV: 12.
“Now I can attack your Dark Lord – Detlitwar!” Aren said.
“No you don’t.” Kal said.
“What? Why not?” Aren said.
“My Overlord has 7 Ally Counters on it. When he has 6 or more, you can only select him as an attack target.” Kal explained.
Aren looked downhearted. He had actually made a comeback from a stroke of luck, and even that was taken from him.
“I end my turn.” He said sadly.
Kal drew his card, even though he didn’t need it.
“I activate the ability of my Legion’s Dark Lord to place 1 Ally Counter on your Angel of Death and 1 Ally Counter on my Overlord.”
Legion’s Dark Lord – Detlitwar: ATK: 2200 ~1200
Legion’s Overlord – Lokeyrr: ATK: 3400 ~ 3500
“Why did you put one on my creature?”
“Because I can now activate the effect of my Daemon Monarch. He can destroy a card with at least 1 Ally Counter on it, and your Monster fits the bill.” Kal said.
The Daemon Monarch activated its second effect and released an orb of black energy.
The energy destroyed the Angel, breaking it into a thousand shards.
“Now I can attack you directly for game!” Kal said.
The Overlord attacked directly, sending a bolt of energy straight into the air. It came crashing down upon the opponent, dropping his Life Points to 0. It was quite an epic ending in one sight, and pitiful in another.
Kal: 8000
Aren: 0
The crowd burst into excitement at the end, and everyone started talking immediately about the newest win from Jean Amicus, the early favorite.
_____
Sitting in his office, the police chief was staring at a photograph on his wall. The photo was of entire force at the beginning of the year.
“Where are you Kal?” he wondered aloud.
Just then there was a knock at the Chief’s door.
“Come in.” he said.
The door opened and in walked one of the Cyborg Officers.
“Well? What have you found?” the Chief asked.
“We have traced the gas exhaust from the motorcycle driven off that night three nights ago to a gas station just outside of Succurro. But after that the trail goes cold.”
“Succurro? The next town over? Why would Kal be going there?” the Chief asked.
“We cannot even confirm that Kal Iszarc was the person on the motorcycle riding out of town, but there has been a small group of Cyborg Officers sent into Succurro, and we are looking for Mr. Iszarc as we speak.”
“Good.” The Chief said, although he wasn’t satisfied. Kal was the best officer he had ever had on the force. He had to let him go because of his defeat from Joel Karne, and how that had affected his work.
The Chief had known Kal for some time, ever since he was six. That is when Kal’s parents had their accident. At least that is what the Chief had told him, and Lance. The truth was more unnerving.
The Chief at the time was only a common Police Officer, never even bothering to try the game of Duel Monsters. He had been called to the seen of a brutal homicide.
The Chief went to young Kal Iszarc’s house to find his mother dead, shot. She had been dead for only a few hours, and Kal wasn’t home from Battle Academy yet.
The father ended up missing, but he was never considered for the crime. CSI had found enough of his blood around the house to declare that he would be dead. They never found his body.
When Kal got home that day, his mind couldn’t process what was going on. The Chief put him into the foster care system, but no one would take him. As a result, Kal ended up growing up in the Police Force’s care.
Kal really enjoyed the duels featured from Battle City, and that is when he really got into the game of Duel Monsters. At that time he was only ten.
Kal’s dad had been a very good duelist. No one knew his secret, only that he could win in any situation. He was the talk of the dueling world before Yugi Muto appeared.
Before they had died, they had gotten a will drawn up just in case something would happen to them. Kal’s dad insisted.
In the will they left everything to Kal as is, everything in the house was not to be moved in any way. There was enough money in their bank to pay for the house and utilities for a decade, so they knew it would be alright.
Kal’s dad left his deck to Kal as well, that that is where Kal had gotten his Allies.
Kal was young when this ordeal happened, and as a result he didn’t remember much about it. Only that his parents had been in an accident and that his dad’s cards where now his.
_____
Kal was happy that night. He had successfully gone through round two, and the rest of the duels that day were great.
Except this one duel. Roland had called out the names of the next opponent’s to duel.
“Alright, that was something, right?” Roland said.
The crowed cheered.
“Alright! Well, the next duel is between Allen Undleer vs. Talia Memourn!”
A teenaged boy walked up to the duel field and readied himself.
Then a beautiful girl with short red hair walked up to the field. Kal’s heart stopped. It was he girl who could speak in his head, and who had the unbelievable scorn for him.
She looked over to him, but this time she had a smile on her face, and not a scowl. He eyes flashed blue.
‘I know who you are.’
Chapter 10
Chapter 10
That evening Kal was sitting in his room. Max had gone to the food court to celebrate his entry to the next round. Max had invited him to go with, but Kal didn’t feel hungry.
Kal was left there to his thoughts.
Talia Memourn. The girl with the red hair who seemed to have a personal vendetta against Kal. Why? What had Kal ever done to annoy her?
The Chief. The man that had been there all Kal’s life. He had taken him into foster care, but now Kal is being hunted by him. How sad is that?
The Card shop manager. The one who had told him that Ally Monsters don’t exist. But they do exist; Kal’s deck was full of them. Where did they come from?
Bill Utilis. The Talent Scout that got Kal into the tournament in the first place. There was no record of him being a talent scout, and now he can’t be found. What does that mean?
Joel Karne. The one person ever to beat Kal at his prime. He also happened to be the most wanted crime boss in the country. When would Kal get his vengeance?
All these questions and more rattled inside his mind. He couldn’t let them go on his own, so he turned on the television.
After only finding boring new stations he turned it back off, left to his thoughts once more.
Kal was happy to know that he wasn’t being splashed across the news with big “Wanted” signs.
Kal decided to look up his Ally Monsters online. At least there he might be able to find some info on them.
Kal got up off his bed and walked over to Max’s laptop that he brought with him. He said that Kal was free to use it, as long as he didn’t download anything or mess it up.
This wasn’t violating any part of the agreement.
He opened up the search engine and looked up: “Duel Monsters Ally Cards.”
He hit enter, and then it started searching.
One, and only one, result appeared. Kal clicked on it.
When it opened, it was a page from an Industrial Illusions Corporate e-mail. How he had found this, he was unsure. But he decided to read.
“Mr. Pegasus,
I have found a new way to revolutionize the game. It would be based on monsters that Stack on top of each other to get effects. They can manipulate the spaces of the game board by allowing more than 5 monsters on one side of the field, but only the one on the top can attack!
The cards would have a black frame. This way it would be so easy to write the rules for them and say that they apply to these cards. We wouldn’t then have to write it on every card.
And they would be the start of a new archetype: the “Legion’s” archetype.
I feel that they will be a major success, and the team and I will get started on production when and if you say the word.
Future manager,
Bill Amlund.”
‘Bill Amlund?’ Kal thought, ‘Who is he? He was the one who invented the Allies?’
Kal scrolled down the page to see the response e-mail. It was from Pegasus himself.
“Mr. Amlund,
I believe that is a wonderful idea!
Oh, I have always wanted to do something this revolutionary with my game, but this idea was beyond me!
Get them into production immediately, and you will see the benefits of this idea soon.
Maximillion J. Pegasus.”
At the end of his signature he had a dancing pink bunny rabbit with a goofy smile.
‘Pegasus initiated the production of the Allies, but why did they never go into the market?’
Kal scrolled down, but there was nothing left. Nothing left except one word: “Evidence.”
What that meant, Kal did not know. But he was for certain that Bill Amlund had something to do with the unreleased set he created.
_____
The next day, Kal was waiting in his seat for the next round to begin. Zandra looked like she might explode from not being next to him, and Kal found that a little funny.
Soon Roland was walking out onto the floor with his microphone.
“Well, exciting first two days, right?” he asked.
The crowd started screaming at the top of their lungs. Whistles were heard, and cheers for random competitors were shouted. Kal didn’t hear anyone say, “Go Jean Amicus!”
“Alright! Well, as we go into round three we only have 32 competitors left, which means 5 more rounds!” Roland said.
Not too many people were as enthusiastic about that as they were for the last one. The thought of such a long tournament wasn’t too appealing.
“Alright, let’s get to the main attraction, shall we? In the first duel of round three is Jean Amicus and Siegfried Takaskos!” Roland announced.
The crowd got excited again. Kal stood up and walked to his usual spot. Then a man dressed entirely in black came out. He had long, grey hair and greenish blue eyes. That must be Siegfried.
“Duel!” they each said, and they drew five cards.
Kal: 8000
Siegfried: 8000
“I will start things off.” Siegfried said, and he drew his card.
“I will set one monster in defense, and end my turn.” Siegfried said. Soon after a horizontal Duel Monster Card back appeared in front of him.
‘That is strange; I wonder what that could be…’ Kal thought.
Kal drew his card in silence. His deck preparations seemed to be paying off.
“I Normal Summon my Legion’s Time Keeper, in Attack Mode!” Kal said.
The woman in the blue armor appeared, brandishing her saber and clock. ATK: 1300 / LV: 4.
“Now that I have a Stack started with an Ally, I can Special Summon my Legion’s Counter Daemon to the bottom Vector.” Kal explained. He took the card out of his hand and slid it under the Time Keeper that was already on his duel disk.
His card flipped up behind the Time Keeper, and a humanoid skeleton with leathery wings appeared. ATK: 0 / LV: 2.
“Due to my Counter Daemon’s effect, I can pay 300 Life Points to place 1 Ally Counter on the field. This means that if I pay 900 Life Points, I can add 3 Ally Counters to my Legion’s Time Keeper.” Kal said.
His Life Points decreased, and then the clock hands started to spin in opposite directions. They both landed in the 3 o’clock position.
Kal: 7100
Siegfried: 8000
“Now, due to my Time Keeper’s effect, I can remove those counters to Special Summon a Monster from my hand. So I Summon a new monster, my Legion’s Guardian of Justice – Iserith!”
The Time Keeper raised the clock into the air; the clock hands moved in opposite directions and soon became a blur. All of a sudden they both stopped on the 12 o’clock position, and a beam of blue light shot into the air.
A card appeared, and it flipped up. When it disappeared, in its place stood a tall warrior. He had black hair, and wore a black jacket with a white shirt underneath. He carried a long, black sword, attached to his hand with a chain. ATK: 1800 / LV: 4.
Except for the weapon, he looked very much like Kal. If Kal were a monster card, that is.
All of a sudden the ATK points of this new monster increased.
Iserith: ATK: 1800 ~ 2200.
“How it do that??” Siegfried asked.
“It is his effect. See, he gets 200 ATK points for each Ally on the field, except himself. He also has a second effect: Once per turn, I can add 1 Ally Monster from my deck to my hand. So I add my Legion’s Blocker Daemon to my hand!”
Iserith raised his sword in the air and it glowed. Kal moved the card to his hand.
“Now I can pay another 900 Life Points to add three more counters on my Time Keeper, only to remove them and summon my Blocker Daemon.” Kal explained.
Kal’s Life points decreased and another skeleton appeared on the field.
Kal: 6200
Siegfried: 8000
This increased Iserith’s ATK by another 200 Points. ATK: 2200 ~ 2400
“Now I can attack your face down with my Time Keeper!” Kal said.
It was a risky move. He didn’t want to waste the high attacker for a face down that was most likely a weakling, but he hoped it didn’t have a DEF of 1350 or more….
The Time Keeper went forward with its saber and sliced through the card. The Monster had 1000 DEF.
‘YES!’ Kal thought as the card broke into a thousand shards. But then, out of no where, a penguin appeared and launched straight forward at Kal.
Kal: 5700
Siegfried: 8000
“When you destroyed my Private Prinny, he inflicts 500 damage to you.” Siegfried explained.
“Fine.” Kal said. At least he had gotten rid of the monster.
“I attack you directly with my Iserith!” Kal said.
The man walked forward and slashed his sword through Siegfried, inflicting 2400 points of direct damage.
Kal: 5700
Siegfried: 5600.
“Unbelievable! Jean, even though he paid all those Life Points in the beginning managed to still pull ahead of Siegfried, even with his sneak attack!” Roland commentated. Kal looked over to him. He hadn’t done that before… What if there was a reason for it?
“I will place 1 card face down and end my turn.” Kal said.
Siegfried drew his card.
Kal started to feel weird. His arms started to feel heavy, and he was getting light headed. The same way he had felt when he fought against Dagoris in the alley and was shot by the Cyborg….
He couldn’t let that happen again this time. There were too many people here.
But he didn’t feel like he was going to levitate. It felt like something else.
That time in the alley he had felt like his feet were glued to the pavement, and then he levitated. Something about whatever power that was about to happen wasn’t levitation.
It had something to do with his mind.
All of a sudden, Kal was looking at a hand of cards. Not his hand, he only had two. This hand was filled with six.
Siegfried had six cards.
‘What is going on…?’ Kal thought.
Siegfried just about jumped out of his skin.
“What the hell??” He said, looking around.
Kal started looking through his own eyes. Siegfried was freaked.
‘Nice job, Kal.’ Kal heard in his mind.
Kal nearly jumped out of his skin too, but he knew who was speaking this time. Talia Memourn.
‘What job?’ Kal thought back. He managed to stay standing when he did so.
‘You have figured out to barge into people’s minds. Congratulations.’
‘I did what?’ Kal sent back.
‘You don’t know?’ Talia asked, perplexed, ‘You honestly don’t have a clue what you are doing?’
‘Enlighten me.’ Kal said.
‘I have been doing research on this thing that we can do, this little mind trick. It isn’t called ‘telepathy’ or anything like what you would see in the movies. It is called projection.
‘This projection is the ability to send your mind and soul into other places, such as another person’s body. They don’t know that this is happening to them unless you make yourself known, like you did with speaking.’
‘That is what you are doing right now.’ Kal said, not as a question but as a fact.
‘Correct. I have traced this power to Ancient Egypt, where there were projectionists everywhere. That is the source of all magical power, Ancient Egypt. Back then they used their power to call upon beasts from stone tablets, and the loser was sent to the…’
‘Realm of Shadows.’ Kal finished. ‘We all know the story, and then Pegasus found these tablets and created a game. Duel Monsters was reborn into a card game.’
‘Yes, that is true. But that is not where I was going.’ Talia said. ‘The Ancient Egyptians had a pharaoh that was one of the most powerful projectionists there was. This was because of the powerful weapons they possessed that exponentially enhanced their powers. These were called the ‘Millennium Items.’ There are 7 in all, and they each did something different for your projection abilities.
‘The eye allowed you to pass into other people’s minds at will, which is much easier then trying to do it yourself. As you can tell, it puts a strain on you to keep doing it.
‘The rod was very similar, but instead of reading minds, it allowed you to control them, and even speak through other people.
‘The necklace even allowed the user to project them into the future to see events before they happen.
‘We all have these abilities, and the stronger you are the more you can use them. These millennium items just gave the owner’s unparalleled strength, thus greater abilities.’
‘So, I am reading Siegfried’s mind, like the eye does?’ Kal asked.
‘Correct. And you are projecting yourself into his mind, just like the key does. And it also seems that you have the power of foresight, like the necklace does.’ Talia said.
Kal thought about this. Did this really happen to him? How did this happen? Why did he have these powers of projection?
That is when Kal realized that he knew what Siegfried was doing, even though he hadn’t paid attention to the round this entire time.
He had summoned a monster known as Rune Master, and had played Swords of Revealing Light. This Spell Card increased Rune Master’s attack by 200, bringing him up to 1500 ATK.
“Now I can attack your Time Keeper!” Siegfried said.
“Wrong.” Kal said.
“What?” Siegfried said, perplexed. The Rune Master wasn’t moving either.
“My Counter Daemon also prohibits all attacks against the monster in Vector 1 of his Stack, which is the Time Keeper.”
“Well, then I will attack your Blocker Daemon then! It has 0 ATK, more damage to you!”
“Wrong again.” Kal said, “All damage to Blocker Daemon is reduced to 0, and he comes back to my field again next turn. You would essentially be accomplishing nothing.”
Siegfried growled, “Fine, then I end my turn.”
Kal drew his next card. It didn’t help much, but he already had all that he needed to win.
Kal could see Siegfried’s hand, even though he didn’t want to. But he could see that he had a hand with 4 level 12 monsters in it. He needed two releases to summon any of them, and he only had one. He would have to wait two turns before he could summon one, if he were lucky. He was relying on swords to protect him, but that wouldn’t work.
Kal has the monster Legion’s Elf Sorceress, and even though she is not on the field or in his hand Kal can bring her there with his Iserith.
This was the easiest duel yet!
“I activate my Iserith’s special ability, which allows me to bring my Legion’s Elf Sorceress to my hand.”
The Warrior raised his sword into the air, and Kal pulled the card from his deck.
“Now I can activate my face down card! My Legion’s Magma Stone – Standlach! He is a Trap Monster, so he is instantly Special Summoned as a monster!” Kal said.
The card flipped up and moved forward. It glowed for a moment then disappeared, leaving behind a giant red stone. ATK: 1400 / LV: 5.
“Now I his ability activates! I can Special Summon one level 3 or lower Ally from my hand, my Elf Sorceress doesn’t count as she is a level 4, but my Legion’s Magician of Strength does!”
Kal placed another card on the field on top of the Stone. The monster appeared, and he was just a simple man with longish white hair and a long navy blue coat. ATK: 1200 / LV: 3.
“Now that he has been summoned, he gets a power boost from Standlach!”
The Stone glowed, and then the Magician did too. ATK: 1200 ~ 1900.
“Now I can Normal Summon my Legion’s Elf Sorceress to Vector 1 of my Stack with my Blocker Daemon.” Kal said.
The Card flipped, and yet another monster came. This one was a svelte elf with green clothing. ATK: 1700.
“Ha! If you could attack you would win! But my Swords have taken care of that!” Siegfried said.
“Wrong again.” Kal said, lowering his head, “You have lost.”
“What do you mean?” Siegfried asked, hesitant.
Kal looked up through is army of monsters, three on his right, four on his left. “If I release my Blocker Daemon for the effect of my Elf Sorceress, then your Spell is destroyed.” Kal said.
Siegfried’s jaw dropped. It actually dropped. He fell to his knees, and it looked like he was close to tears.
What Kal couldn’t get out of his mind was how easy it was to defeat him. How had he gotten this far?
_____
Talia was getting bored of sitting in the bleachers. She already knew that there was no way Kal was going to lose this one. She decided to have some fun.
She projected herself into Kal’s mind completely, leaving her body. To everyone else it would look like she fell asleep at the duel, which was fine by her.
She wanted to look around in his mind, just like the millennium key’s power. When she got there, she appeared in a wide open space. A blank, black canvas. Nothing was there, not a wall, a door, and there was barely a floor. Just above her ankle was a thin fog.
‘Interesting…’ she thought to herself, ‘I have never seen a mind like this one.’
She walked forward a ways, then saw a human body, standing upright, that looked like Kal.
That was Kal’s mind.
He was just staring at nothingness, as far as Talia knew, he hadn’t tapped into his brain. All he knew was what he could see, and he had never tried to come inside his mind to decorate.
Talia walked around him, sizing him up. He looked innocent here, unlike the hardened version of him on the outside. He looked, at peace.
‘That too is odd. Usually people looked stressed here…’ Talia thought.
Then Talia noticed something move out of the corner of her eye. When she looked over, all she saw was fog and empty blackness.
She turned back to look at Kal one last time, then she turned to see more of what he had in his mind. Somewhere was his deck list, which wasn’t a bad thing to find.
That is when Talia swore she saw something move again. She turned around, and what she saw surprised her.
_____
“I release my Legion’s Blocker Daemon to destroy the Swords!” Kal said.
Siegfried didn’t protest. He had given up.
The skeleton disappeared into a glowing energy, which was then attracted to the Elf Sorceress’s arm.
She raised that arm into the air and released abeam of energy that hit all of the swords at once. They were all destroyed.
“Now that I have two more Ally Monsters on my side of the field, my Iserith gets a 400 point boost.” Kal said.
Iserith: ATK: 2400 ~ 2800.
“Now my Elf Sorceress will attack your Rune Master!” Kal said,
The Elf Sorceress pointed her arm at the small man on the other side of the field. She let out a small burst of energy that hit him in the chest, and he fell into a thousand shards.
Kal: 5700
Siegfried: 5400
“Now I will attack you with my Magician of Strength, Time Keeper, and my Guardian of Justice Iserith for game!” Kal said.
The combined might of the three creatures was more than his Life Points, and after they delivered their attacks, Siegfried was left with nothing.
Kal: 5700
Siegfried: 0.
The crowd burst into excitement as the monsters started to fade. Siegfried was still on his knees staring at the ground.
Kal felt a little sorry for him, but that feeling was instantly gone when Zandra arrived. She could distract him from any thought at all.
“Jean! That was amazing!” she said, hugging him tightly.
“Another win for the amazing Jean Amicus!” Roland said over the microphone. That got the crowd cheering the loudest they ever had throughout the tournament. Even the crowd down on the lower floor could be heard. Kal was definitely having a good day.
_____
Talia looked over and saw something that surprised her.
A ghostly black figure flew across the fog and wrapped its arms around the body of Kal’s mind.
“What are you?” Talia asked.
The figure turned its head and looked over to her. He didn’t expect someone to be here.
“Answer me!” Talia commended.
“I cannot do that.” The creature said. It had a raspy voice, but it was unmistakably male.
“Then what are you doing here?”
“I could ask you the same thing.”
Talia was getting no where fast with this creature.
“Kal doesn’t know the full potential of getting into someone’s mind. But I do. I have no limitation’s here, like I do in my own mind.” Talia said. She raised her hand, which started to glow and form an orb shape. “I command you to reveal who you are!” her voice echoed through the empty space.
The shape laughed, “You think I will reveal to you who I am with that neat light show? Honey, you have no idea who you are messing with!”
“That is exactly my point.” Talia said.
The creature let go of Kal’s mind, and walked forward.
“I cannot tell you who I am, but I can tell you what I can do. And it isn’t going to be good for you in the end.”
Talia was actually starting to get frightened by this guy.
“S-stay back!” she said, holding her hand up in front of him.
He still walked forward, and he raised his hand. It was formless for a moment, but then four identically sharp talons grew out of it.
“I think you should go back to where you belong now, young lady.” The creature said, “I have business to attend too.”
Talia didn’t need to be told twice. She let the light fade away and then she disappeared from that place, leaving Kal with the menacing black form.
_____
Talia awoke from her ‘slumber’ and rushed over to meet Kal and tell him what she saw, but when she stood up she saw that he was surrounded by an entire crowd of people.
They were asking questions left and right about how he learned to duel like he does, and where he got his neat Ally Monsters.
She frowned and projected her voice into his mind, ‘Kal, we need to talk, badly. When your fan club is through with you, meet me outside the doors of this room.’
Kal glanced her way and gave her a nod. She walked outside the room to wait.
When she got out there she almost ran into a man, who was standing right outside the room.
“Excuse me,” she said.
“Indeed. I assume the match is over? I didn’t want to interrupt…” the man said.
“Yes, it…” she started, but she stopped short when she noticed who it was.
The man was wearing a red suit and white shirt, and a thin black string tied around the collar of his shirt in a loose bow.
It was Maximillion Pegasus.
“How do you do? I am Maximillion Pegasus!” he said, extending his hand.
“Pleased to meet you!” Talia said, shaking his hand, “But I must ask why you were sitting outside the room? We would have all welcomed you in with no problem I am sure.”
“Well, I didn’t want to make a fool of myself, showing up late and barging in to my own tournament!” he said, “Say, is that this ‘Jean Amicus’ I have been hearing about?” he asked, looking through the door toward the crowd of people.
Roland was trying his hardest to get them all to their seats, but was failing miserably.
“Yes, that is him. What have you heard?” Talia asked.
“Only the best about Johnny-Boy!” Pegasus replied, “Although, you certainly get a different perspective of the duel when you are outside the room.”
“I would think so.” Talia agreed.
After several moments of no one talking, Talia decided to ask him a question. “Sir, I have never heard of these cards that Jean is using, when did you make them?”
Pegasus thought a moment, and then replied in a detached manner, “A long time ago.”
Talia thought that his answer was strange, and he wasn’t acting like his usual self when he said it.
“Well, what are you standing out here for?” he asked.
“I am waiting for Jean to come out here. I need to speak with him very urgently.”
“That is a coincidence, so do I.” Pegasus said.
‘What about?’ Talia thought, and she looked over to him again.
Kal was having such a fun time being noticed and recognized. He enjoyed the spotlight, and didn’t mind that all of these people were looking at him like he was a dueling god.
‘What would the master of Duel Monsters want to talk with him about?’ she thought.
That evening Kal was sitting in his room. Max had gone to the food court to celebrate his entry to the next round. Max had invited him to go with, but Kal didn’t feel hungry.
Kal was left there to his thoughts.
Talia Memourn. The girl with the red hair who seemed to have a personal vendetta against Kal. Why? What had Kal ever done to annoy her?
The Chief. The man that had been there all Kal’s life. He had taken him into foster care, but now Kal is being hunted by him. How sad is that?
The Card shop manager. The one who had told him that Ally Monsters don’t exist. But they do exist; Kal’s deck was full of them. Where did they come from?
Bill Utilis. The Talent Scout that got Kal into the tournament in the first place. There was no record of him being a talent scout, and now he can’t be found. What does that mean?
Joel Karne. The one person ever to beat Kal at his prime. He also happened to be the most wanted crime boss in the country. When would Kal get his vengeance?
All these questions and more rattled inside his mind. He couldn’t let them go on his own, so he turned on the television.
After only finding boring new stations he turned it back off, left to his thoughts once more.
Kal was happy to know that he wasn’t being splashed across the news with big “Wanted” signs.
Kal decided to look up his Ally Monsters online. At least there he might be able to find some info on them.
Kal got up off his bed and walked over to Max’s laptop that he brought with him. He said that Kal was free to use it, as long as he didn’t download anything or mess it up.
This wasn’t violating any part of the agreement.
He opened up the search engine and looked up: “Duel Monsters Ally Cards.”
He hit enter, and then it started searching.
One, and only one, result appeared. Kal clicked on it.
When it opened, it was a page from an Industrial Illusions Corporate e-mail. How he had found this, he was unsure. But he decided to read.
“Mr. Pegasus,
I have found a new way to revolutionize the game. It would be based on monsters that Stack on top of each other to get effects. They can manipulate the spaces of the game board by allowing more than 5 monsters on one side of the field, but only the one on the top can attack!
The cards would have a black frame. This way it would be so easy to write the rules for them and say that they apply to these cards. We wouldn’t then have to write it on every card.
And they would be the start of a new archetype: the “Legion’s” archetype.
I feel that they will be a major success, and the team and I will get started on production when and if you say the word.
Future manager,
Bill Amlund.”
‘Bill Amlund?’ Kal thought, ‘Who is he? He was the one who invented the Allies?’
Kal scrolled down the page to see the response e-mail. It was from Pegasus himself.
“Mr. Amlund,
I believe that is a wonderful idea!
Oh, I have always wanted to do something this revolutionary with my game, but this idea was beyond me!
Get them into production immediately, and you will see the benefits of this idea soon.
Maximillion J. Pegasus.”
At the end of his signature he had a dancing pink bunny rabbit with a goofy smile.
‘Pegasus initiated the production of the Allies, but why did they never go into the market?’
Kal scrolled down, but there was nothing left. Nothing left except one word: “Evidence.”
What that meant, Kal did not know. But he was for certain that Bill Amlund had something to do with the unreleased set he created.
_____
The next day, Kal was waiting in his seat for the next round to begin. Zandra looked like she might explode from not being next to him, and Kal found that a little funny.
Soon Roland was walking out onto the floor with his microphone.
“Well, exciting first two days, right?” he asked.
The crowd started screaming at the top of their lungs. Whistles were heard, and cheers for random competitors were shouted. Kal didn’t hear anyone say, “Go Jean Amicus!”
“Alright! Well, as we go into round three we only have 32 competitors left, which means 5 more rounds!” Roland said.
Not too many people were as enthusiastic about that as they were for the last one. The thought of such a long tournament wasn’t too appealing.
“Alright, let’s get to the main attraction, shall we? In the first duel of round three is Jean Amicus and Siegfried Takaskos!” Roland announced.
The crowd got excited again. Kal stood up and walked to his usual spot. Then a man dressed entirely in black came out. He had long, grey hair and greenish blue eyes. That must be Siegfried.
“Duel!” they each said, and they drew five cards.
Kal: 8000
Siegfried: 8000
“I will start things off.” Siegfried said, and he drew his card.
“I will set one monster in defense, and end my turn.” Siegfried said. Soon after a horizontal Duel Monster Card back appeared in front of him.
‘That is strange; I wonder what that could be…’ Kal thought.
Kal drew his card in silence. His deck preparations seemed to be paying off.
“I Normal Summon my Legion’s Time Keeper, in Attack Mode!” Kal said.
The woman in the blue armor appeared, brandishing her saber and clock. ATK: 1300 / LV: 4.
“Now that I have a Stack started with an Ally, I can Special Summon my Legion’s Counter Daemon to the bottom Vector.” Kal explained. He took the card out of his hand and slid it under the Time Keeper that was already on his duel disk.
His card flipped up behind the Time Keeper, and a humanoid skeleton with leathery wings appeared. ATK: 0 / LV: 2.
“Due to my Counter Daemon’s effect, I can pay 300 Life Points to place 1 Ally Counter on the field. This means that if I pay 900 Life Points, I can add 3 Ally Counters to my Legion’s Time Keeper.” Kal said.
His Life Points decreased, and then the clock hands started to spin in opposite directions. They both landed in the 3 o’clock position.
Kal: 7100
Siegfried: 8000
“Now, due to my Time Keeper’s effect, I can remove those counters to Special Summon a Monster from my hand. So I Summon a new monster, my Legion’s Guardian of Justice – Iserith!”
The Time Keeper raised the clock into the air; the clock hands moved in opposite directions and soon became a blur. All of a sudden they both stopped on the 12 o’clock position, and a beam of blue light shot into the air.
A card appeared, and it flipped up. When it disappeared, in its place stood a tall warrior. He had black hair, and wore a black jacket with a white shirt underneath. He carried a long, black sword, attached to his hand with a chain. ATK: 1800 / LV: 4.
Except for the weapon, he looked very much like Kal. If Kal were a monster card, that is.
All of a sudden the ATK points of this new monster increased.
Iserith: ATK: 1800 ~ 2200.
“How it do that??” Siegfried asked.
“It is his effect. See, he gets 200 ATK points for each Ally on the field, except himself. He also has a second effect: Once per turn, I can add 1 Ally Monster from my deck to my hand. So I add my Legion’s Blocker Daemon to my hand!”
Iserith raised his sword in the air and it glowed. Kal moved the card to his hand.
“Now I can pay another 900 Life Points to add three more counters on my Time Keeper, only to remove them and summon my Blocker Daemon.” Kal explained.
Kal’s Life points decreased and another skeleton appeared on the field.
Kal: 6200
Siegfried: 8000
This increased Iserith’s ATK by another 200 Points. ATK: 2200 ~ 2400
“Now I can attack your face down with my Time Keeper!” Kal said.
It was a risky move. He didn’t want to waste the high attacker for a face down that was most likely a weakling, but he hoped it didn’t have a DEF of 1350 or more….
The Time Keeper went forward with its saber and sliced through the card. The Monster had 1000 DEF.
‘YES!’ Kal thought as the card broke into a thousand shards. But then, out of no where, a penguin appeared and launched straight forward at Kal.
Kal: 5700
Siegfried: 8000
“When you destroyed my Private Prinny, he inflicts 500 damage to you.” Siegfried explained.
“Fine.” Kal said. At least he had gotten rid of the monster.
“I attack you directly with my Iserith!” Kal said.
The man walked forward and slashed his sword through Siegfried, inflicting 2400 points of direct damage.
Kal: 5700
Siegfried: 5600.
“Unbelievable! Jean, even though he paid all those Life Points in the beginning managed to still pull ahead of Siegfried, even with his sneak attack!” Roland commentated. Kal looked over to him. He hadn’t done that before… What if there was a reason for it?
“I will place 1 card face down and end my turn.” Kal said.
Siegfried drew his card.
Kal started to feel weird. His arms started to feel heavy, and he was getting light headed. The same way he had felt when he fought against Dagoris in the alley and was shot by the Cyborg….
He couldn’t let that happen again this time. There were too many people here.
But he didn’t feel like he was going to levitate. It felt like something else.
That time in the alley he had felt like his feet were glued to the pavement, and then he levitated. Something about whatever power that was about to happen wasn’t levitation.
It had something to do with his mind.
All of a sudden, Kal was looking at a hand of cards. Not his hand, he only had two. This hand was filled with six.
Siegfried had six cards.
‘What is going on…?’ Kal thought.
Siegfried just about jumped out of his skin.
“What the hell??” He said, looking around.
Kal started looking through his own eyes. Siegfried was freaked.
‘Nice job, Kal.’ Kal heard in his mind.
Kal nearly jumped out of his skin too, but he knew who was speaking this time. Talia Memourn.
‘What job?’ Kal thought back. He managed to stay standing when he did so.
‘You have figured out to barge into people’s minds. Congratulations.’
‘I did what?’ Kal sent back.
‘You don’t know?’ Talia asked, perplexed, ‘You honestly don’t have a clue what you are doing?’
‘Enlighten me.’ Kal said.
‘I have been doing research on this thing that we can do, this little mind trick. It isn’t called ‘telepathy’ or anything like what you would see in the movies. It is called projection.
‘This projection is the ability to send your mind and soul into other places, such as another person’s body. They don’t know that this is happening to them unless you make yourself known, like you did with speaking.’
‘That is what you are doing right now.’ Kal said, not as a question but as a fact.
‘Correct. I have traced this power to Ancient Egypt, where there were projectionists everywhere. That is the source of all magical power, Ancient Egypt. Back then they used their power to call upon beasts from stone tablets, and the loser was sent to the…’
‘Realm of Shadows.’ Kal finished. ‘We all know the story, and then Pegasus found these tablets and created a game. Duel Monsters was reborn into a card game.’
‘Yes, that is true. But that is not where I was going.’ Talia said. ‘The Ancient Egyptians had a pharaoh that was one of the most powerful projectionists there was. This was because of the powerful weapons they possessed that exponentially enhanced their powers. These were called the ‘Millennium Items.’ There are 7 in all, and they each did something different for your projection abilities.
‘The eye allowed you to pass into other people’s minds at will, which is much easier then trying to do it yourself. As you can tell, it puts a strain on you to keep doing it.
‘The rod was very similar, but instead of reading minds, it allowed you to control them, and even speak through other people.
‘The necklace even allowed the user to project them into the future to see events before they happen.
‘We all have these abilities, and the stronger you are the more you can use them. These millennium items just gave the owner’s unparalleled strength, thus greater abilities.’
‘So, I am reading Siegfried’s mind, like the eye does?’ Kal asked.
‘Correct. And you are projecting yourself into his mind, just like the key does. And it also seems that you have the power of foresight, like the necklace does.’ Talia said.
Kal thought about this. Did this really happen to him? How did this happen? Why did he have these powers of projection?
That is when Kal realized that he knew what Siegfried was doing, even though he hadn’t paid attention to the round this entire time.
He had summoned a monster known as Rune Master, and had played Swords of Revealing Light. This Spell Card increased Rune Master’s attack by 200, bringing him up to 1500 ATK.
“Now I can attack your Time Keeper!” Siegfried said.
“Wrong.” Kal said.
“What?” Siegfried said, perplexed. The Rune Master wasn’t moving either.
“My Counter Daemon also prohibits all attacks against the monster in Vector 1 of his Stack, which is the Time Keeper.”
“Well, then I will attack your Blocker Daemon then! It has 0 ATK, more damage to you!”
“Wrong again.” Kal said, “All damage to Blocker Daemon is reduced to 0, and he comes back to my field again next turn. You would essentially be accomplishing nothing.”
Siegfried growled, “Fine, then I end my turn.”
Kal drew his next card. It didn’t help much, but he already had all that he needed to win.
Kal could see Siegfried’s hand, even though he didn’t want to. But he could see that he had a hand with 4 level 12 monsters in it. He needed two releases to summon any of them, and he only had one. He would have to wait two turns before he could summon one, if he were lucky. He was relying on swords to protect him, but that wouldn’t work.
Kal has the monster Legion’s Elf Sorceress, and even though she is not on the field or in his hand Kal can bring her there with his Iserith.
This was the easiest duel yet!
“I activate my Iserith’s special ability, which allows me to bring my Legion’s Elf Sorceress to my hand.”
The Warrior raised his sword into the air, and Kal pulled the card from his deck.
“Now I can activate my face down card! My Legion’s Magma Stone – Standlach! He is a Trap Monster, so he is instantly Special Summoned as a monster!” Kal said.
The card flipped up and moved forward. It glowed for a moment then disappeared, leaving behind a giant red stone. ATK: 1400 / LV: 5.
“Now I his ability activates! I can Special Summon one level 3 or lower Ally from my hand, my Elf Sorceress doesn’t count as she is a level 4, but my Legion’s Magician of Strength does!”
Kal placed another card on the field on top of the Stone. The monster appeared, and he was just a simple man with longish white hair and a long navy blue coat. ATK: 1200 / LV: 3.
“Now that he has been summoned, he gets a power boost from Standlach!”
The Stone glowed, and then the Magician did too. ATK: 1200 ~ 1900.
“Now I can Normal Summon my Legion’s Elf Sorceress to Vector 1 of my Stack with my Blocker Daemon.” Kal said.
The Card flipped, and yet another monster came. This one was a svelte elf with green clothing. ATK: 1700.
“Ha! If you could attack you would win! But my Swords have taken care of that!” Siegfried said.
“Wrong again.” Kal said, lowering his head, “You have lost.”
“What do you mean?” Siegfried asked, hesitant.
Kal looked up through is army of monsters, three on his right, four on his left. “If I release my Blocker Daemon for the effect of my Elf Sorceress, then your Spell is destroyed.” Kal said.
Siegfried’s jaw dropped. It actually dropped. He fell to his knees, and it looked like he was close to tears.
What Kal couldn’t get out of his mind was how easy it was to defeat him. How had he gotten this far?
_____
Talia was getting bored of sitting in the bleachers. She already knew that there was no way Kal was going to lose this one. She decided to have some fun.
She projected herself into Kal’s mind completely, leaving her body. To everyone else it would look like she fell asleep at the duel, which was fine by her.
She wanted to look around in his mind, just like the millennium key’s power. When she got there, she appeared in a wide open space. A blank, black canvas. Nothing was there, not a wall, a door, and there was barely a floor. Just above her ankle was a thin fog.
‘Interesting…’ she thought to herself, ‘I have never seen a mind like this one.’
She walked forward a ways, then saw a human body, standing upright, that looked like Kal.
That was Kal’s mind.
He was just staring at nothingness, as far as Talia knew, he hadn’t tapped into his brain. All he knew was what he could see, and he had never tried to come inside his mind to decorate.
Talia walked around him, sizing him up. He looked innocent here, unlike the hardened version of him on the outside. He looked, at peace.
‘That too is odd. Usually people looked stressed here…’ Talia thought.
Then Talia noticed something move out of the corner of her eye. When she looked over, all she saw was fog and empty blackness.
She turned back to look at Kal one last time, then she turned to see more of what he had in his mind. Somewhere was his deck list, which wasn’t a bad thing to find.
That is when Talia swore she saw something move again. She turned around, and what she saw surprised her.
_____
“I release my Legion’s Blocker Daemon to destroy the Swords!” Kal said.
Siegfried didn’t protest. He had given up.
The skeleton disappeared into a glowing energy, which was then attracted to the Elf Sorceress’s arm.
She raised that arm into the air and released abeam of energy that hit all of the swords at once. They were all destroyed.
“Now that I have two more Ally Monsters on my side of the field, my Iserith gets a 400 point boost.” Kal said.
Iserith: ATK: 2400 ~ 2800.
“Now my Elf Sorceress will attack your Rune Master!” Kal said,
The Elf Sorceress pointed her arm at the small man on the other side of the field. She let out a small burst of energy that hit him in the chest, and he fell into a thousand shards.
Kal: 5700
Siegfried: 5400
“Now I will attack you with my Magician of Strength, Time Keeper, and my Guardian of Justice Iserith for game!” Kal said.
The combined might of the three creatures was more than his Life Points, and after they delivered their attacks, Siegfried was left with nothing.
Kal: 5700
Siegfried: 0.
The crowd burst into excitement as the monsters started to fade. Siegfried was still on his knees staring at the ground.
Kal felt a little sorry for him, but that feeling was instantly gone when Zandra arrived. She could distract him from any thought at all.
“Jean! That was amazing!” she said, hugging him tightly.
“Another win for the amazing Jean Amicus!” Roland said over the microphone. That got the crowd cheering the loudest they ever had throughout the tournament. Even the crowd down on the lower floor could be heard. Kal was definitely having a good day.
_____
Talia looked over and saw something that surprised her.
A ghostly black figure flew across the fog and wrapped its arms around the body of Kal’s mind.
“What are you?” Talia asked.
The figure turned its head and looked over to her. He didn’t expect someone to be here.
“Answer me!” Talia commended.
“I cannot do that.” The creature said. It had a raspy voice, but it was unmistakably male.
“Then what are you doing here?”
“I could ask you the same thing.”
Talia was getting no where fast with this creature.
“Kal doesn’t know the full potential of getting into someone’s mind. But I do. I have no limitation’s here, like I do in my own mind.” Talia said. She raised her hand, which started to glow and form an orb shape. “I command you to reveal who you are!” her voice echoed through the empty space.
The shape laughed, “You think I will reveal to you who I am with that neat light show? Honey, you have no idea who you are messing with!”
“That is exactly my point.” Talia said.
The creature let go of Kal’s mind, and walked forward.
“I cannot tell you who I am, but I can tell you what I can do. And it isn’t going to be good for you in the end.”
Talia was actually starting to get frightened by this guy.
“S-stay back!” she said, holding her hand up in front of him.
He still walked forward, and he raised his hand. It was formless for a moment, but then four identically sharp talons grew out of it.
“I think you should go back to where you belong now, young lady.” The creature said, “I have business to attend too.”
Talia didn’t need to be told twice. She let the light fade away and then she disappeared from that place, leaving Kal with the menacing black form.
_____
Talia awoke from her ‘slumber’ and rushed over to meet Kal and tell him what she saw, but when she stood up she saw that he was surrounded by an entire crowd of people.
They were asking questions left and right about how he learned to duel like he does, and where he got his neat Ally Monsters.
She frowned and projected her voice into his mind, ‘Kal, we need to talk, badly. When your fan club is through with you, meet me outside the doors of this room.’
Kal glanced her way and gave her a nod. She walked outside the room to wait.
When she got out there she almost ran into a man, who was standing right outside the room.
“Excuse me,” she said.
“Indeed. I assume the match is over? I didn’t want to interrupt…” the man said.
“Yes, it…” she started, but she stopped short when she noticed who it was.
The man was wearing a red suit and white shirt, and a thin black string tied around the collar of his shirt in a loose bow.
It was Maximillion Pegasus.
“How do you do? I am Maximillion Pegasus!” he said, extending his hand.
“Pleased to meet you!” Talia said, shaking his hand, “But I must ask why you were sitting outside the room? We would have all welcomed you in with no problem I am sure.”
“Well, I didn’t want to make a fool of myself, showing up late and barging in to my own tournament!” he said, “Say, is that this ‘Jean Amicus’ I have been hearing about?” he asked, looking through the door toward the crowd of people.
Roland was trying his hardest to get them all to their seats, but was failing miserably.
“Yes, that is him. What have you heard?” Talia asked.
“Only the best about Johnny-Boy!” Pegasus replied, “Although, you certainly get a different perspective of the duel when you are outside the room.”
“I would think so.” Talia agreed.
After several moments of no one talking, Talia decided to ask him a question. “Sir, I have never heard of these cards that Jean is using, when did you make them?”
Pegasus thought a moment, and then replied in a detached manner, “A long time ago.”
Talia thought that his answer was strange, and he wasn’t acting like his usual self when he said it.
“Well, what are you standing out here for?” he asked.
“I am waiting for Jean to come out here. I need to speak with him very urgently.”
“That is a coincidence, so do I.” Pegasus said.
‘What about?’ Talia thought, and she looked over to him again.
Kal was having such a fun time being noticed and recognized. He enjoyed the spotlight, and didn’t mind that all of these people were looking at him like he was a dueling god.
‘What would the master of Duel Monsters want to talk with him about?’ she thought.
Chapter 11
Chapter 11
Talia stared into the face of the creator of her favorite game. His long, grey hair covered one eye, as it always did. This only added to how mysterious he was.
All of a sudden the door burst open, separating Talia and Pegasus. Pegasus happened to be on the side of the door that blocked him from view.
“Alright, I am here. What is it that you wanted to talk to me about?” Kal said.
The door swung shut. Kal turned to see what had made it do so. Standing there was a man in a red suit with a black ribbon bow tie. His grey hair fell over one eye.
It was Maximillion Pegasus.
“I need to speak with you as well.” He said.
Kal was dumbfounded. He had no idea what to say. Admiration and confusion flooded his mind.
Thoughts like: ‘Why had he kept the Ally Monsters from being made?’ And ‘This was the guy who made Duel Monsters!’ kept his mind busy.
All Kal could do was raise his trembling hand and say, “How do you do?”
Pegasus grabbed it with more enthusiasm then necessary. “Just fine!” he said, “Though I really need to speak with you.”
Talia stood there in front of them, feeling a bit out of place.
“Um, Kal? Have something important to share with you…” she said.
Kal looked from person to person, not sure of who to talk to first.
“Ladies first.” Pegasus said, breaking the silence.
Kal turned to Talia. She seemed at ease now that she had the floor.
“This needs to be a private conversation.” she said. She grabbed his hand and led him down the hall, and around a corner.
“So… what is it that you want to tell me?” Kal asked.
“When I entered your mind before, I saw something there…” she began. Then Kal cut in.
“You did what?” Kal asked.
“Don’t be such a baby. You will be glad I did. Anyway, as I was saying, when I went in there I saw a ghostly figure.”
Kal paused to think. What was this creature? Why was it in my head? Was this a trick by Talia to psyche him out?
“What did it look like?” Kal asked.
“It was relatively formless, though it looked like it had the build of a human. It was entirely black. It had no features though. No eyes, mouth, fingers, anything like that. But it could shape shift. It grew daggers for fingers to threaten me out of your mind.”
This was either a very elaborate trick, or she was speaking the truth, Kal decided, but what would he do about it?
“Thank you for telling me.” Kal said. He then turned to go find out what Pegasus wanted. Most likely it wouldn’t be as bad as a specter in your mind.
“Wait, you aren’t going to do anything about it?” Talia asked.
Kal turned back. She looked like she really cared what happened to him. Her large, green eyes looked deep into his. It was then that Kal realized how beautiful she was. Her eyes were perfectly set off by her red hair and her deep maroon top.
If he wasn’t with Zandra, he would have considered her.
But he wasn’t even with Zandra…
“What could I do about it? I can’t go into my own mind, and you aren’t strong enough to do anything about it on your own.” Kal said.
Talia’s caring side instantly evaporated.
“What makes you say that?”
“If you were strong enough, you would have said that you took care of it. You are not the kind of girl to let others take credit for your work.” Kal said.
Talia stood agape.
“Now I do believe that we shouldn’t keep Mr. Pegasus waiting any longer.” Kal said.
Talia nodded and walked with him back down the hall.
Pegasus was leaning against the wall with his arms folded, staring at something on the floor. There wasn’t anything on the floor, Kal noticed.
Pegasus noticed the two of them walking down the hall and he stood back up straight, looking like his usual self.
“Ah, ready to hear from me now, eh?” he asked.
Kal snickered. “Yes, I guess I can.” Kal felt strangely at ease in his presence.
All Pegasus did was stand there though, waiting for something. Eventually he turned to Talia.
“You planning on heading back into the stadium sometime soon?” he hinted at.
“Oh!” Talia said, “Yes, sorry.” She immediately walked back into the room where the duels were taking place. From the sound of Roland’s voice, the next duel was about to start.
“Good thing my duel is over.” Kal said to himself.
“Now, we can get to business.” Pegasus began, “I would like to know where it is that you got that interesting collection of cards.”
“Oh?” Kal said, “You want to know how I got them?”
Pegasus sighed, “You know already.”
“Yes, I know. I know that these cards so far don’t exist! Yet everyone can see they do. How I have them, I don’t know.” Kal said, then added, “But I would like to know why you stopped them from being made.”
Pegasus looked at him with his one eye with genuine confusion.
“What?” he asked.
“I read the email. Bill Amlund created this idea, then you said to put them out in the market. But for some reason they were never released. Only you have that power to keep cards out of circulation, like your Toon Monsters.”
Pegasus didn’t like to be accused of things he didn’t do. That was obvious.
“Listen to me, Jean. I was told that they were put into circulation. I had no part of their disappearance.”
Kal still felt weird when he was called Jean.
“Then who?” Kal asked.
Pegasus paused, unsure if he should continue.
“When Bill Amlund created the idea, I was amazed. I had never thought of something that creative before. That was exactly why I had hired him. I knew that he would do great things at Industrial Illusions.
“Then when he showed me a practice duel starring these cards, I was amazed even further at how they could keep up with, and even beat every top tier deck we could find.
“I told him to send them out into circulation immediately, and he started their mass production. This set was going to be huge!
“The next day, a worker in the printing department came to my office. He said that there was something I had to see down there.
“Of course I went; I had to find out what was going on in my factory. When we got there, all of the machinery was fine. But when he showed me the computers, they were totally fried.
“We could get all that information back, so it wasn’t a problem. We got IT on that immediately.
“But through this I could sense that there was something wrong. It wasn’t until a few hours later that I had thought about Bill Amlund. I hadn’t seen him around anywhere for a while.
“For that entire day to be exact. I went down to his office to find nothing. Then entire thing was bare, except for a pad of paper and a pen with no ink.
“I asked around, but no one had seen him. I soon got paranoid. I went down to the printing department once more.
“When I got there, the computers were almost online. Those computers store the memory of all the cards we have ever printed. Including the new Allies.
“I told the workers to find every Ally card that they had printed and to look up the cards on our servers. They turned up nothing.
“We hadn’t has time to back up the files of the new Ally creation yet, and then the computers fried. All of the cards were gone, and their creator went missing. There was no way that we could reprint them, and no way to prove they exist.
“I decided to just let it go. We would have made some major cash from those cards. But ever since that incident I haven’t seen Bill, and no one else has either. I believe he stole his creation and sabotaged the information on them. But no one had ever found activity of the cards until this tournament.”
Kal had to think about that one. Had Bill Amlund stolen his idea? Then how did the cards he stole get into Kal’s hands? Kal had an idea, but didn’t want to consider it at the moment.
“How did you get these cards?” Pegasus asked, growing impatient.
Kal looked him straight in the eye, “I don’t know.”
“Not likely.” He said, “Let’s reveal what you are hiding!”
Something from underneath his hair started to glow bright yellow. It was wear his eye would have been…
Kal took a step back.
“What is that?” he asked, confused.
Pegasus chuckled.
“This is my Millennium Eye! It allows me to enter into a person’s mind, to see their thoughts. From the most recent to the most latent, I will know everything there is to know about Jean Amicus!” he replied.
Kal’s first thought was, ‘A Millennium Item?’
His second thought was, ‘How ironic, there isn’t much to know about Jean Amicus…’
Pegasus’ hair started to billow, as if there were a breeze coming from right underneath him. Kal could then see what was hidden behind his hair.
It was a golden eye, clearly Egyptian. It was glowing as bright as can be.
As much as he wanted to, Kal couldn’t look away.
Soon the room went dark. Nothing looked familiar.
“I have transported us to the Shadow Realm. This will keep away wandering eyes.”
‘Shadow Realm?’ Kal thought.
All of a sudden a beam of light was released from the eye, straight onto Kal’s forehead.
It didn’t hurt a bit at first; there was only a bit of pressure. But soon it started to burn, and it felt like his head was going to split open.
“What is going on?!” Kal screamed as he fell to his knees.
Pegasus looked down at him by only moving his eye. Why was his eye not penetrating his mind’s barriers? What was going on?
This reminded him of the final battle of the Duelist Kingdom tournament, when Yugi had his friends shield his mind.
But no one was here to help Jean. No one. How was this happening?
Pegasus tried harder. Kal screamed in response.
“It hurts!”
‘Inconceivable! How could this little kid block the power of a Millennium Item?’
“You…will…surrender…your…thoughts…to…me!” Pegasus said, the pressure getting to him.
Kal’s eyes started to glow blue. His head went back, making his face point up. Light started pouring out of his eyes and fading into the black abyss that was above them.
“The Shadow Realm puts a real toll on a person’s body, unless they are accustomed to it. I am accustomed. You are not.” Pegasus said.
Kal started to tremble, almost like a seizure. Kal was no longer there.
All of a sudden Kal fell back, flat on the ground. His power was gone.
Pegasus laughed his menacing laugh as he entered into Jean Amicus’ mind.
_____
Pegasus was transported in there like Talia was, though with his Millennium Eye his body didn’t react by falling asleep. Pegasus looked totally normal on the outside.
Or as normal as you could look standing in the Shadow Realm.
Pegasus looked around Kal’s mind. All he saw was an endless sea of black. There was a thin fog hanging around the floor at about waist height.
“Strange. I have never seen a mind like this one.” Pegasus said.
“That is what the last girl said.” A deep, raspy voice said.
Pegasus turned around. Standing with his back turned to him was Kal’s mind in the form of a smaller version of himself.
“Excuse me?” Pegasus said as he walked around him.
Kal was staring into nothingness, completely unaware of what was going on inside his mind.
Pegasus was confused.
“What are you looking for here?” the same, raspy voice called.
Pegasus turned around once more to find a black, formless creature walking up to him. It was of human build, but it had no face. No fingers. No anything.
“And you would be?” Pegasus asked.
“I could ask you the same question.” He said, “If I didn’t already know who you were. Pegasus.”
Pegasus’ jaw dropped.
“Surprised? I thought you would be. It has been almost 10 years now.”
Pegasus paused for a moment.
“It’s YOU!” Pegasus said, genuinely happy. Then he turned dark. “Where have you gone?”
“That is not of your concern. I look after this mind, and I am wondering what it is that you are looking for here?” the raspy voiced creature said, matter-of-factly.
Pegasus didn’t like being treated as an equal, and perhaps inferior, by this creature.
“I am looking for the source of this child’s cards. Where they came from, and how he got them.”
“I am afraid I cannot allow that.”
Pegasus glared.
“It doesn’t matter what you say. I will find what I am looking for.” He said, “Now reveal the walls of this kid’s mind!”
His Millennium Eye started to glow and send rays of light though Kal’s mind.
The shapeless creature sighed and raised his hand. A mist of blackness spewed from it, neutralizing all of the light that Pegasus was creating.
“You are going to have to do a lot better than that.” It said.
Pegasus growled, “You will reveal to me the answers I seek!”
“And why should I do that? You think that little trinket in your head is going to make a difference?”
Pegasus could only look at him with scorn.
“Let me show you the power of true magic. Magic untainted by the ancient power of the nameless pharaoh.” The creature said.
His body seemed to turn into vapor. He could have disappeared if it weren’t for him being a black mist over a bunch of white fog.
The mist started to wrap around Pegasus, trapping him there.
Pegasus tried a few times to use his Eye, but to no avail. He gave up.
“You have seen nothing here.” The creature said, “You have found nothing. You couldn’t even penetrate Kal’s mind! You will exit this place with no knowledge of this incident.”
“Wait, Kal? Who is Kal?” Pegasus asked.
“I have said too much. Be gone, Pegasus! Leave this boy in peace!”
“I will not leave until I have my answers.”
“Then I will force you out.”
The mist got closer to Pegasus. It was almost touching him.
Pegasus groaned in pain as it felt like his body was being crushed.
“What is going on?!”
“You have been banished.”
_____
Pegasus woke up lying on the ground outside the duel stadium. He looked up and saw Kal lying there as well.
“What happened?” he wondered out loud.
He got up and walked over to Kal.
“Jean?” he asked, hoping he would wake up.
Kal rose almost instantly.
“What? Huh?” he said, not sure where he was at first. When he got his bearings he said, “Why am I on the ground?”
“I am not sure. Do you remember anything?”
Kal thought for a moment.
“No.” he answered honestly.
“Hmm. I cannot help but think this is my fault.” Pegasus said. He paused to think for a moment. “Do you like coffee?”
…
A few moments later they were sitting in the coffee shop of the Palmarium. It was on the floor below the Penthouse, the prize for winning the duel tournament.
They were sitting by a window. Pegasus was looking out of it, marveling only at only the height they were at.
“This is what did it for me.” Pegasus said, sipping some of his plain black coffee, “Sitting in this very spot I knew that this building was something special. That is why I wanted to host a tournament here.”
Kal took a swig of his Caramel Macchiato. He wasn’t afraid to splurge on the coffee; now that he had that card that allowed him free food and drink that he won.
“You like tall buildings?”
“No, not just tall buildings. I like what power they show, and when you look out the window you just feel sort of… alive. Like you own the world.”
Kal thought this was an interesting way to spend his afternoon; sipping coffee with the creator of the one thing he was good at doing.
“May I see those Ally Monsters you have?” Pegasus asked.
“What for?” Kal countered.
“Don’t worry, those cards are yours. I wouldn’t take them from you and disqualify my favorite competitor in my tournament!” Pegasus laughed, “I just have never seen them, what with them being stolen, and all.”
Kal could understand that, but he felt flattered when Pegasus said he was his favorite.
Kal raised his left arm and took the deck of cards out of their slot in his duel disk. He fanned them out on the nearly empty table.
Pegasus put his coffee cup down on his saucer and set it on the table.
“Exquisite.” He said, marveling at the cards. He reached for one.
Kal felt a little strange for Pegasus to be touching his cards so freely, like he was touching a part of his soul. Kal ignored the feeling.
“Legion’s Samurai…” Pegasus read out loud. “Pretty good for an Ultra Rare card, if I do say so myself.”
Kal laughed, “You really have never seen these, have you?”
“Never. I have only heard the concept.”
“Well, it’s not everyday that you find that the creator of your favorite game knows less than you do about your deck.” Kal said.
They both had to laugh at that.
“Well, thank you for the coffee. But I must be going.” Kal said.
“Oh?” Pegasus said.
“Yes, I must. I am afraid that I am keeping up too much of your time.”
“Jean, you seem to have a familiar personality. Were you a police officer?” Pegasus asked.
Kal stiffened. He knew it was only a matter of time before someone noticed.
“N-no…” he stammered.
“Well, you just seemed to act like one, always considerate, and whatnot.” Pegasus said, “I do need to take some time for work though, not that you were taking it up.”
After he put his cards back in his duel disk, Kal stood up and said his farewell. Then he left toward the elevator, drinking the last of his Macchiato.
_____
The next day, Kal was waiting in his seat, ready for his match to begin. He had gone first every day, and he didn’t think that Pegasus would have it any other way.
Through the clear floor, you could see that the room beneath them was packed. Everyone was getting excited about tournament.
By Kal’s count, there were only eight competitors left in the competition. Kal, Max, and Talia were just three of them.
Roland stepped out onto the floor with his microphone. Kal suddenly wondered what life for him would be like if he didn’t have one.
“Good morning, contestants and guests! There are only four rounds left in this tournament!”
The crowd cheered, just to appease Roland. They wanted to see a duel.
“Well, why don’t we see the first duel of the day? The first duel is Jean Amicus vs. Carlson Salter!”
The crowd cheered louder now that they knew a duel would soon begin.
Kal got up off of his seat and walked out onto the floor. About two thirds of the house just roared when he did. You would think that Jean Amicus was a rock star.
Carlson Salter walked out onto the floor as well. He had short brown hair, and he had blue eyes. He wore a black t-shirt with an abstract design, and dark jeans that looked brand new.
Kal had watched him duel before. He does it quite quickly. No wonder he was nearing the semi-finals.
“Duel!” they said, and they each drew five cards.
Kal: 8000
Carlson: 8000
“I will start.” Carlson said as he drew his sixth card.
“I summon my Shining Angel, in Attack Mode!”
A male angel with big, golden wings appeared on the field. ATK: 1400 / LV: 4
“Then I will end my turn.”
Kal drew his card. He knew Shining Angel was a recruiter, and if he destroyed it he would most likely bring forward a monster that he could use next turn. He didn’t expect Kal to get two monsters in the first turn, so that is why he didn’t lay any Traps. Kal started to feel confident. It also helped that he started off with a nice hand.
“I summon my Legion’s Time Keeper!” Kal said. It was starting to be a staple for him to use Time Keeper. It was just that useful.
A woman in blue armor, holding a saber in one hand and a clock in the other appeared. ATK: 1300 / LV: 4.
“Now I can activate the ability of my Legion’s Counter Daemon in my hand! When there is another Ally Monster on my side of the field, I can Special Summon it to the bottom Vector of that Stack!”
Kal slid the card underneath the Time Keeper’s card on his duel disk, and when the card flipped it was behind her. A humanoid skeleton with purple leathery wings appeared. ATK: 0 / LV: 2
The hand on the Time Keeper’s clock moved forward an hour.
“When an Ally Monster is Summoned, she gains an Ally Counter.” Kal explained, “But I can pay life points in multiples of 300 to add another counter on her, by the effect of my Counter Daemon. So I pay 1200 to increase the time to 5!”
Kal: 6800
Carlson: 8000
“Now I can remove these five counters to speed up time, allowing me to Special Summon 1 Ally Monster from my hand! So I Special Summon my Legion’s Final Commander, in Attack Mode!”
The time went to 12 on the clock face, and then it glowed blue. The card flipped and a warrior in black armor with a deadly scythe looking weapon appeared. ATK: 2400 / LV: 7.
“But that is a level 7 Monster!” Carlson complained.
“My Time Keeper does not have a limit to what she can Special Summon from my hand. As long as it is an Ally, and I have 5 Ally Counters that I removed, I can Special Summon anything I like.”
Carlson looked over to Roland for a ruling. All he did was nod his head saying Kal was right.
He might have been disappointed with what he was facing, but Carlson accepted it. He already had a plan.
“Now I will attack your Shining Angel with my Final Commander!”
Carlson stood and watched as his only card was broken into a thousand shards.
Kal: 6800
Carlson: 7000
“Now I recruit another Shining Angel from my deck, using the previous one’s effect!” Carlson said.
After the shards had started to disappear they started going in reverse, back to their origin. They all formed back into a Shining Angel. ATK: 1400 / LV: 4
“My Final Commander’s effect activates. When he does damage to you, he adds two Ally Counters to a card of my choice, so I choose my Time Keeper!”
The hands on the clock moved from 12 to 2, then the clock face glowed blue for a moment.
“My Time Keeper isn’t strong enough to beat your Angel, so I have to call it a turn.”
Carlson drew his card.
“I attack your Final Commander with my Shining Angel!”
“What?” Kal asked aloud.
The Angel flew up to its target and spontaneously combusted into a thousand shards.
Kal: 6800
Carlson: 6000
“My Final Commander did damage to you, so I get two more Ally Counters on my Time Keeper. You are aware of that?”
“Of course. But this means that I get to recruit another monster. So from my deck I summon my Neon – the Robot Prototype!”
The shards of the angel started to re-forge, forming a small machine with glowing yellow eyes.
“With his effect, he is treated as to tributes for the summoning of a Machine monster, so I release him to Special Summon my Neon – the Robot Reborn!”
The way that he said the name of his new creature made it sound like it was the key to his deck. And that he cherished it very much.
Carlson sent the top five cards of his deck to the Graveyard, then Special Summoned the monster.
If was a much larger form of the prototype, but it had very slender limbs. ATK: ? / LV: 7.
“My monster’s ATK is the amount of cards left in my deck, minus the cards in my hand and graveyard, x100. I have currently three cards in my graveyard, but with the five I had to discard for my summoning I now have eight. And now there are three in my hand. I had 40 cards to begin with in my deck, which makes my monster’s new ATK 2900!”
‘That is an interesting strategy.’ Kal thought.
“Now I activate the Spell Card, Neon Spark! This allows my monster a 200 ATK boost, and since there is 1 less card in my hand it gains another 100 from that as well!”
Neon – the Robot Reborn: ATK: 2900 ~ 3200.
“I will also activate the Field Spell, Neon's Abandoned Laboratory! And with one less card in my hand, Reborn gains another 100 ATK!”
Neon – the Robot Reborn: ATK: 3200 ~ 3300.
“What does the field spell do?” Kal asked.
“You will see.” Carlson replied. “Now attack his Time Keeper!”
“You can’t.” Kal said. “The Special Ability of my Counter Daemon makes her invisible to your Monster.”
“Fine, then I will destroy your Final Commander!” Carlson said.
The robot shuffled over to its target. It was clearly out of shape.
But that didn’t stop him from clobbering the Commander into a thousand shards.
Kal: 5900
Carlson: 6000
“I end my turn.”
Kal drew his card. He got exactly what he had hoped for.
“Now the ability of my Neon Spark! activates. You to discard the top card of your deck to the Graveyard.”
“Fine by me.” Kal said, taking the card off of his deck. He truly didn’t mind at all that that card had gone. It was better for him to have it in the Graveyard.
He didn’t want Carlson to know that, though.
“Alright, now I summon my Legion’s Guardian of Justice – Iserith!”
The monster rose from his card to reveal a warrior with a startling appearance. He looked almost exactly like Kal. He carried a long, blue sword and wore a black jacket. ATK: 1800 / LV: 4.
“Now, by his effect, I can add another Ally Monster from my deck to my hand. So I add my Legion’s Magician of Tricks! Then I will use his ability to Special Summon him right underneath my Guardian of Justice!”
Kal moved the card to his hand to immediately place it on his duel disk. ATK: 1000 / LV: 3.
The summoning of these two creatures rose the time of the clock to 6.
“Now I can remove five of these counters that are piling up to Special Summon 1 Monster from my hand!” Kal said.
Kal took another card from his hand and summoned it next to Iserith. It was Legion’s War Caller, a monster that hadn’t seen much play since it had been in Kal’s deck. ATK: 1900 / LV: 5.
“Now his Special Ability activates! We both select 1 Monster in our hands, and reveal them. The monster with the lowest level goes to the Graveyard, then that player loses 1000 Life Points.” Kal explained. Kal took one of his two remaining cards in his hand and revealed it. It was Legion’s Overlord – Lokeyrr, the strongest card in Kal’s deck. It was level 12.
Carlson only had one card in his hand, and he was forced to select it. He revealed his Neon – the Robot Recycled. It was a level 3. It would have been helpful in his hand, as it would have been Special Summoned when his Neon – the Robot Reborn was destroyed.
Unfortunately for Carlson, that plan was foiled.
Not only was that card sent to the Graveyard, but to add insult to injury he lost 1000 Life Points.
Kal: 5900
Carlson: 5000
“Now I remove all of my Allies from the field.” Kal said.
The crowd could be heard saying things like “what?” “Huh?” “Idiot…”
But Kal knew what he was doing.
“So that I can Summon my Legion’s Overlord – Lokeyrr!”
All five of his monsters, the Counter Daemon, the Time Keeper, Iserith, Magician of Tricks, and War Caller all disappeared at once. In there place came a stunning angel with a staff.
He wore a golden mask, and his wings spread to cover the entire side of the field. ATK: 2700 / LV: 12.
Carlson burst out laughing. “You can’t be serious? After summoning so many new creatures this turn, you manage to throw them all away for this level 12 god-figure that has less ATK than my level 7?”
Just then the ‘god-figure’ got an ATK boost.
Legion’s Overlord – Lokeyrr: ATK: 2700 ~ 3200.
Carlson laughed harder. “Now, you get so far and you still come up short!”
“Don’t be so sure.” Kal said. “I am not done with my turn just yet.”
Carlson stood there dumbfounded. He had thought he would end his turn. What else could he do?
“My Lokeyrr got a power boost for every Ally that left. Five Allies gone, five Ally Counters were added to Lokeyrr. His first ability is to gain ATK for each one, his second ability activates when he has four or more counters. He can remove 1 Ally Counter to Special Summon 1 Ally Monster from the Graveyard. So I can Special Summon my Legion’s Counter Daemon.” Kal said.
Legion’s Overlord – Lokeyrr: ATK: 3200 ~ 3100
Kal removed one counter from the angel, and then the humanoid skeleton came back from the graveyard. ATK: 0 / LV: 2.
“Now I can pay 1800 Life points to add another 6 Ally Counters on my Overlord.” Kal said.
Legion’s Overlord – Lokeyrr: ATK: 3100 ~ 3700
Kal: 4100
Carlson: 5000
Carlson stopped laughing instantly. How Kal had managed to do that was beyond his grasp, but that was incredible.
But Kal had just begun his move.
“I can now activate my Spell Card, Ally’s Distress Call! This allows me to Special Summon 1 Level 2 or lower Ally Monster from my Graveyard to my side of the field.”
“But you don’t have any! Your only level 2 is that counter Daemon there, everything else was a much stronger card.” Carlson said.
“How wrong you are.” Kal said.
Carlson scratched his head.
“Your Spell Card is to thank for this. I Special Summon from my Graveyard the card you made me discard this turn. My Legion’s Underdog – Schavbon!”
The Spell Card flipped, and then a small warrior with a sword arose from the grave. ATK: 0 / LV: 1.
“That little creature? You can’t possibly hurt me with that!” Carlson said.
“Again, you are wrong. By releasing this card I am allowed to Special Summon 1 Ally Monster from my Graveyard. I may not have been able to Special Summon 1 strong monster with this Spell, but by using a smaller person I can do great things. Like get my Legion’s Final Commander back!” Kal said.
The small creature disappeared, as well as the face-up spell, and in their place come back the monster from the previous round. The black-armored, scythe-bearing warrior. ATK: 2400 / LV: 7.
“Now I can attack your Neon Robot with my Overlord!” Kal said.
The angel raised its staff in the air, sending a beam of light into the air. It came down upon the robot on the other side of the field with the force of lightning, breaking it into a thousand shards.
Kal: 4100
Carlson: 4600
“And now my Legion’s Final Commander can attack you directly!”
The warrior slashed his scythe through Carlson, knocking out more than half of his remaining Life Points.
Kal: 4100
Carlson: 2200.
“Since my Commander did damage to you, my Overlord gains two more counters.” Kal said.
Legion’s Overlord – Lokeyrr: ATK: 3700 ~ 3900.
“Thanks to my Neon Spark Spell, I can add the bottom two cards on my Graveyard to my deck now that you destroyed my Robot.”
Carlson added his first two Shining Angels he had to the bottom of his deck.
“That ought to do it.” Kal said when he ended his turn.
The crowd was in shock. Carlson was in shock. Even Roland was in shock. What Kal had just pulled off was extraordinary.
What amazed Kal was that he hadn’t used any powers this time.
Carlson hesitantly drew his next card. There wasn’t a thing that he could do, unless his new card could help.
It could.
“I activate Pot of Avarice! This allows me to send five monsters in my graveyard to my deck, then shuffle and draw two!”
He must have sent at least two monsters from his deck to the graveyard for the summoning of his Robot Reborn, because by Kal’s count he had only had three.
Carlson sent the five monsters to his deck, among them were two ‘Robot Recycled’s, ‘Robot Prototype’, ‘Robot Reborn’, and a monster that Kal didn’t recognize.
He shuffled his deck and hoped for the best.
When he drew, he couldn’t believe what he drew.
“I summon my Neon - the Robot Prototype!” The same small, metallic monster with glowing yellow eyes cam back. ATK: 900 / LV: 2.
“Now I can release him to Special Summon my Neon – the Robot Reborn, since he counts as two tributes.”
The small robot disappeared, and then was replaced with his key monster. He had to discard cards off the top of his deck for the Special Summon. The brought the total of cards in his Graveyard to nine.
The monster also got a power bonus from the Spell Card on the field.
ATK: 3300 / LV: 7.
“It may not be powerful enough to destroy you Overlord, but I can take out that Counter Daemon on your side of the field.
“Wrong.”
“What? His effect only protects a monster above him from being attacked, not himself.” Carlson said.
“That is correct. You still cannot attack him.” Kal said.
“Like hell.” Carlson said, “Attack that puny monster!”
The Ancient Robot shuffled his way over to the skeleton. He raised his hand, ready to pulverize the creature…
Until Lokeyrr stepped in the way.
“What is he doing?” Carlson asked.
“I tried to tell you that you can’t attack my Counter Daemon. Lokeyrr won’t allow it. You see, when Lokeyrr had 10 or more counters on him, like he does right now, you must attack him with every attack position monster on your side of the field. That includes your Robot.”
Carlson went pale.
“That means…”
“That means that you are out of options.” Kal finished.
The Robot Reborn smacked into Lokeyrr’s chest, accomplishing nothing. It raised its head to look up to the angel. One could have pitied it at that moment because of how scared it looked. But it didn’t back away.
Lokeyrr stabbed his staff though the heart of the robot, vanquishing the light that was pouring out of its eyes. It was dead. When it fell off the staff, it broke into a thousand shards.
Kal: 4100
Carlson: 1600.
Carlson was left with nothing. He had no cards in his hand, a worthless Field Spell that now allowed him to add two cards in his Graveyard to the bottom of his deck. Those wouldn’t help him.
His best monster had been beaten. Not only once, but twice! By the same monster, even. Carlson dropped to his knees.
Kal drew his card and discarded the one card off the top of his deck, thanks to his one Spell Card on the field.
“I attack you directly with my Overlord.” Kal said. “Game Over.”
The Overlord raised his staff into the air, sending a beam of light into space. It came crashing down on the broken man, but he didn’t care to notice. All he could do was stare at the floor.
Kal: 4100
Carlson: 0.
The crowd went nuts. They just saw Kal, or rather Jean, their idol, just win another duel by completely owning the entire match. From the first round to the last, he was spectacular to them. Several people came from the crowd to congratulate him, Zandra included. A few went to console Carlson, but he just kept staring into nothing.
Kal couldn’t help but feel sad for the guy.
‘Nice job, Kal. Very good duel.’ he heard in his head. It was Talia mind-talking to him.
‘Thank you.’ He replied, ‘It wasn’t overkill?’
‘Oh, it died so many times it stopped being funny.’ She replied.
Kal turned to the doors of the room to see Pegasus staring at him. He was leaning against the open door for all to see. Except everyone was fixated on Kal, so they didn’t even notice him. Pegasus nodded and winked in encouragement.
Kal grinned back.
Maybe he could win this tournament after all.
There were only three rounds left. The next would be the deciding matches of who got placed in the semi finals. After that was the final match.
Where would he get too? Would he get into semis? Would he lose next round? Would he win the finals?
There were too many questions to think about and too many people occupying his space to think.
Pegasus stood up and walked out of the room, going somewhere alone.
Kal returned every card back into his deck slot and started answering more fan questions. All the while Zandra held onto his arm.
Talia was sitting in the bleachers. She could have cared less about Kal’s winning. All she wanted was to duel and get this tournament over with. But she still wanted to know more about that weird monster in Kal’s mind.
_____
The Chief of police was getting tired of waiting. The Cyborgs had come up empty in their search of Succurro, and the Chief was angry.
So angry that he was willing to go to Succurro himself and look for Kal. He had to find him. Not only for the reputation of the Police Force, but to find the one person that he had taken care of for the last 10 years.
He loved Kal like a son, a son he never had. He had to find Kal to put him to justice, but also to prove that he was still okay.
Lance offered to go with him, and the Chief agreed. Kal’s surrogate father and best friend were on the case to find him.
_____
Kal tried to fall asleep that night, but something kept nagging at him. Something that had to deal with Pegasus.
For some reason he couldn’t remember much of the conversation they had, and neither could Pegasus. Moments before, Talia had told him about a specter that was hanging around in his head. Could that have to do with the memory loss?
Kal didn’t have the ability to go inside anyone’s mind yet, like Talia did. He couldn’t go inside and look around for himself. He didn’t feel comfortable asking Talia either, she seemed truly afraid of what ever it was. It wouldn’t be fair of him to ask.
And then there was the mystery of the Ally Monsters. Kal remembered Pegasus telling him the story of their disappearance and Bill Amlund. What Kal hadn’t relayed over to him was that he got his cards from his father. It was his father’s deck.
The one thing he couldn’t help but think was that Bill Amlund had dueled his father with those Allies and lost, and he was forced to hand over his deck to Kal’s dad.
Then he came back to get those cards and murdered his family. But why hadn’t he got the cards? Why didn’t he take them with him when he left?
Maybe he was a coward. Maybe the killing of a husband and wife really scared him, and he forgot about the cards.
Maybe he tried to get rid of the evidence first and then ran out of time. They couldn’t find Kal’s father’s body. It must have been put somewhere. He might have run out of time to stash his mother’s body and get the cards.
There were many things that could have happened, but all Kal could think about was how his father had died trying to protect something he had rightfully earned.
Talia stared into the face of the creator of her favorite game. His long, grey hair covered one eye, as it always did. This only added to how mysterious he was.
All of a sudden the door burst open, separating Talia and Pegasus. Pegasus happened to be on the side of the door that blocked him from view.
“Alright, I am here. What is it that you wanted to talk to me about?” Kal said.
The door swung shut. Kal turned to see what had made it do so. Standing there was a man in a red suit with a black ribbon bow tie. His grey hair fell over one eye.
It was Maximillion Pegasus.
“I need to speak with you as well.” He said.
Kal was dumbfounded. He had no idea what to say. Admiration and confusion flooded his mind.
Thoughts like: ‘Why had he kept the Ally Monsters from being made?’ And ‘This was the guy who made Duel Monsters!’ kept his mind busy.
All Kal could do was raise his trembling hand and say, “How do you do?”
Pegasus grabbed it with more enthusiasm then necessary. “Just fine!” he said, “Though I really need to speak with you.”
Talia stood there in front of them, feeling a bit out of place.
“Um, Kal? Have something important to share with you…” she said.
Kal looked from person to person, not sure of who to talk to first.
“Ladies first.” Pegasus said, breaking the silence.
Kal turned to Talia. She seemed at ease now that she had the floor.
“This needs to be a private conversation.” she said. She grabbed his hand and led him down the hall, and around a corner.
“So… what is it that you want to tell me?” Kal asked.
“When I entered your mind before, I saw something there…” she began. Then Kal cut in.
“You did what?” Kal asked.
“Don’t be such a baby. You will be glad I did. Anyway, as I was saying, when I went in there I saw a ghostly figure.”
Kal paused to think. What was this creature? Why was it in my head? Was this a trick by Talia to psyche him out?
“What did it look like?” Kal asked.
“It was relatively formless, though it looked like it had the build of a human. It was entirely black. It had no features though. No eyes, mouth, fingers, anything like that. But it could shape shift. It grew daggers for fingers to threaten me out of your mind.”
This was either a very elaborate trick, or she was speaking the truth, Kal decided, but what would he do about it?
“Thank you for telling me.” Kal said. He then turned to go find out what Pegasus wanted. Most likely it wouldn’t be as bad as a specter in your mind.
“Wait, you aren’t going to do anything about it?” Talia asked.
Kal turned back. She looked like she really cared what happened to him. Her large, green eyes looked deep into his. It was then that Kal realized how beautiful she was. Her eyes were perfectly set off by her red hair and her deep maroon top.
If he wasn’t with Zandra, he would have considered her.
But he wasn’t even with Zandra…
“What could I do about it? I can’t go into my own mind, and you aren’t strong enough to do anything about it on your own.” Kal said.
Talia’s caring side instantly evaporated.
“What makes you say that?”
“If you were strong enough, you would have said that you took care of it. You are not the kind of girl to let others take credit for your work.” Kal said.
Talia stood agape.
“Now I do believe that we shouldn’t keep Mr. Pegasus waiting any longer.” Kal said.
Talia nodded and walked with him back down the hall.
Pegasus was leaning against the wall with his arms folded, staring at something on the floor. There wasn’t anything on the floor, Kal noticed.
Pegasus noticed the two of them walking down the hall and he stood back up straight, looking like his usual self.
“Ah, ready to hear from me now, eh?” he asked.
Kal snickered. “Yes, I guess I can.” Kal felt strangely at ease in his presence.
All Pegasus did was stand there though, waiting for something. Eventually he turned to Talia.
“You planning on heading back into the stadium sometime soon?” he hinted at.
“Oh!” Talia said, “Yes, sorry.” She immediately walked back into the room where the duels were taking place. From the sound of Roland’s voice, the next duel was about to start.
“Good thing my duel is over.” Kal said to himself.
“Now, we can get to business.” Pegasus began, “I would like to know where it is that you got that interesting collection of cards.”
“Oh?” Kal said, “You want to know how I got them?”
Pegasus sighed, “You know already.”
“Yes, I know. I know that these cards so far don’t exist! Yet everyone can see they do. How I have them, I don’t know.” Kal said, then added, “But I would like to know why you stopped them from being made.”
Pegasus looked at him with his one eye with genuine confusion.
“What?” he asked.
“I read the email. Bill Amlund created this idea, then you said to put them out in the market. But for some reason they were never released. Only you have that power to keep cards out of circulation, like your Toon Monsters.”
Pegasus didn’t like to be accused of things he didn’t do. That was obvious.
“Listen to me, Jean. I was told that they were put into circulation. I had no part of their disappearance.”
Kal still felt weird when he was called Jean.
“Then who?” Kal asked.
Pegasus paused, unsure if he should continue.
“When Bill Amlund created the idea, I was amazed. I had never thought of something that creative before. That was exactly why I had hired him. I knew that he would do great things at Industrial Illusions.
“Then when he showed me a practice duel starring these cards, I was amazed even further at how they could keep up with, and even beat every top tier deck we could find.
“I told him to send them out into circulation immediately, and he started their mass production. This set was going to be huge!
“The next day, a worker in the printing department came to my office. He said that there was something I had to see down there.
“Of course I went; I had to find out what was going on in my factory. When we got there, all of the machinery was fine. But when he showed me the computers, they were totally fried.
“We could get all that information back, so it wasn’t a problem. We got IT on that immediately.
“But through this I could sense that there was something wrong. It wasn’t until a few hours later that I had thought about Bill Amlund. I hadn’t seen him around anywhere for a while.
“For that entire day to be exact. I went down to his office to find nothing. Then entire thing was bare, except for a pad of paper and a pen with no ink.
“I asked around, but no one had seen him. I soon got paranoid. I went down to the printing department once more.
“When I got there, the computers were almost online. Those computers store the memory of all the cards we have ever printed. Including the new Allies.
“I told the workers to find every Ally card that they had printed and to look up the cards on our servers. They turned up nothing.
“We hadn’t has time to back up the files of the new Ally creation yet, and then the computers fried. All of the cards were gone, and their creator went missing. There was no way that we could reprint them, and no way to prove they exist.
“I decided to just let it go. We would have made some major cash from those cards. But ever since that incident I haven’t seen Bill, and no one else has either. I believe he stole his creation and sabotaged the information on them. But no one had ever found activity of the cards until this tournament.”
Kal had to think about that one. Had Bill Amlund stolen his idea? Then how did the cards he stole get into Kal’s hands? Kal had an idea, but didn’t want to consider it at the moment.
“How did you get these cards?” Pegasus asked, growing impatient.
Kal looked him straight in the eye, “I don’t know.”
“Not likely.” He said, “Let’s reveal what you are hiding!”
Something from underneath his hair started to glow bright yellow. It was wear his eye would have been…
Kal took a step back.
“What is that?” he asked, confused.
Pegasus chuckled.
“This is my Millennium Eye! It allows me to enter into a person’s mind, to see their thoughts. From the most recent to the most latent, I will know everything there is to know about Jean Amicus!” he replied.
Kal’s first thought was, ‘A Millennium Item?’
His second thought was, ‘How ironic, there isn’t much to know about Jean Amicus…’
Pegasus’ hair started to billow, as if there were a breeze coming from right underneath him. Kal could then see what was hidden behind his hair.
It was a golden eye, clearly Egyptian. It was glowing as bright as can be.
As much as he wanted to, Kal couldn’t look away.
Soon the room went dark. Nothing looked familiar.
“I have transported us to the Shadow Realm. This will keep away wandering eyes.”
‘Shadow Realm?’ Kal thought.
All of a sudden a beam of light was released from the eye, straight onto Kal’s forehead.
It didn’t hurt a bit at first; there was only a bit of pressure. But soon it started to burn, and it felt like his head was going to split open.
“What is going on?!” Kal screamed as he fell to his knees.
Pegasus looked down at him by only moving his eye. Why was his eye not penetrating his mind’s barriers? What was going on?
This reminded him of the final battle of the Duelist Kingdom tournament, when Yugi had his friends shield his mind.
But no one was here to help Jean. No one. How was this happening?
Pegasus tried harder. Kal screamed in response.
“It hurts!”
‘Inconceivable! How could this little kid block the power of a Millennium Item?’
“You…will…surrender…your…thoughts…to…me!” Pegasus said, the pressure getting to him.
Kal’s eyes started to glow blue. His head went back, making his face point up. Light started pouring out of his eyes and fading into the black abyss that was above them.
“The Shadow Realm puts a real toll on a person’s body, unless they are accustomed to it. I am accustomed. You are not.” Pegasus said.
Kal started to tremble, almost like a seizure. Kal was no longer there.
All of a sudden Kal fell back, flat on the ground. His power was gone.
Pegasus laughed his menacing laugh as he entered into Jean Amicus’ mind.
_____
Pegasus was transported in there like Talia was, though with his Millennium Eye his body didn’t react by falling asleep. Pegasus looked totally normal on the outside.
Or as normal as you could look standing in the Shadow Realm.
Pegasus looked around Kal’s mind. All he saw was an endless sea of black. There was a thin fog hanging around the floor at about waist height.
“Strange. I have never seen a mind like this one.” Pegasus said.
“That is what the last girl said.” A deep, raspy voice said.
Pegasus turned around. Standing with his back turned to him was Kal’s mind in the form of a smaller version of himself.
“Excuse me?” Pegasus said as he walked around him.
Kal was staring into nothingness, completely unaware of what was going on inside his mind.
Pegasus was confused.
“What are you looking for here?” the same, raspy voice called.
Pegasus turned around once more to find a black, formless creature walking up to him. It was of human build, but it had no face. No fingers. No anything.
“And you would be?” Pegasus asked.
“I could ask you the same question.” He said, “If I didn’t already know who you were. Pegasus.”
Pegasus’ jaw dropped.
“Surprised? I thought you would be. It has been almost 10 years now.”
Pegasus paused for a moment.
“It’s YOU!” Pegasus said, genuinely happy. Then he turned dark. “Where have you gone?”
“That is not of your concern. I look after this mind, and I am wondering what it is that you are looking for here?” the raspy voiced creature said, matter-of-factly.
Pegasus didn’t like being treated as an equal, and perhaps inferior, by this creature.
“I am looking for the source of this child’s cards. Where they came from, and how he got them.”
“I am afraid I cannot allow that.”
Pegasus glared.
“It doesn’t matter what you say. I will find what I am looking for.” He said, “Now reveal the walls of this kid’s mind!”
His Millennium Eye started to glow and send rays of light though Kal’s mind.
The shapeless creature sighed and raised his hand. A mist of blackness spewed from it, neutralizing all of the light that Pegasus was creating.
“You are going to have to do a lot better than that.” It said.
Pegasus growled, “You will reveal to me the answers I seek!”
“And why should I do that? You think that little trinket in your head is going to make a difference?”
Pegasus could only look at him with scorn.
“Let me show you the power of true magic. Magic untainted by the ancient power of the nameless pharaoh.” The creature said.
His body seemed to turn into vapor. He could have disappeared if it weren’t for him being a black mist over a bunch of white fog.
The mist started to wrap around Pegasus, trapping him there.
Pegasus tried a few times to use his Eye, but to no avail. He gave up.
“You have seen nothing here.” The creature said, “You have found nothing. You couldn’t even penetrate Kal’s mind! You will exit this place with no knowledge of this incident.”
“Wait, Kal? Who is Kal?” Pegasus asked.
“I have said too much. Be gone, Pegasus! Leave this boy in peace!”
“I will not leave until I have my answers.”
“Then I will force you out.”
The mist got closer to Pegasus. It was almost touching him.
Pegasus groaned in pain as it felt like his body was being crushed.
“What is going on?!”
“You have been banished.”
_____
Pegasus woke up lying on the ground outside the duel stadium. He looked up and saw Kal lying there as well.
“What happened?” he wondered out loud.
He got up and walked over to Kal.
“Jean?” he asked, hoping he would wake up.
Kal rose almost instantly.
“What? Huh?” he said, not sure where he was at first. When he got his bearings he said, “Why am I on the ground?”
“I am not sure. Do you remember anything?”
Kal thought for a moment.
“No.” he answered honestly.
“Hmm. I cannot help but think this is my fault.” Pegasus said. He paused to think for a moment. “Do you like coffee?”
…
A few moments later they were sitting in the coffee shop of the Palmarium. It was on the floor below the Penthouse, the prize for winning the duel tournament.
They were sitting by a window. Pegasus was looking out of it, marveling only at only the height they were at.
“This is what did it for me.” Pegasus said, sipping some of his plain black coffee, “Sitting in this very spot I knew that this building was something special. That is why I wanted to host a tournament here.”
Kal took a swig of his Caramel Macchiato. He wasn’t afraid to splurge on the coffee; now that he had that card that allowed him free food and drink that he won.
“You like tall buildings?”
“No, not just tall buildings. I like what power they show, and when you look out the window you just feel sort of… alive. Like you own the world.”
Kal thought this was an interesting way to spend his afternoon; sipping coffee with the creator of the one thing he was good at doing.
“May I see those Ally Monsters you have?” Pegasus asked.
“What for?” Kal countered.
“Don’t worry, those cards are yours. I wouldn’t take them from you and disqualify my favorite competitor in my tournament!” Pegasus laughed, “I just have never seen them, what with them being stolen, and all.”
Kal could understand that, but he felt flattered when Pegasus said he was his favorite.
Kal raised his left arm and took the deck of cards out of their slot in his duel disk. He fanned them out on the nearly empty table.
Pegasus put his coffee cup down on his saucer and set it on the table.
“Exquisite.” He said, marveling at the cards. He reached for one.
Kal felt a little strange for Pegasus to be touching his cards so freely, like he was touching a part of his soul. Kal ignored the feeling.
“Legion’s Samurai…” Pegasus read out loud. “Pretty good for an Ultra Rare card, if I do say so myself.”
Kal laughed, “You really have never seen these, have you?”
“Never. I have only heard the concept.”
“Well, it’s not everyday that you find that the creator of your favorite game knows less than you do about your deck.” Kal said.
They both had to laugh at that.
“Well, thank you for the coffee. But I must be going.” Kal said.
“Oh?” Pegasus said.
“Yes, I must. I am afraid that I am keeping up too much of your time.”
“Jean, you seem to have a familiar personality. Were you a police officer?” Pegasus asked.
Kal stiffened. He knew it was only a matter of time before someone noticed.
“N-no…” he stammered.
“Well, you just seemed to act like one, always considerate, and whatnot.” Pegasus said, “I do need to take some time for work though, not that you were taking it up.”
After he put his cards back in his duel disk, Kal stood up and said his farewell. Then he left toward the elevator, drinking the last of his Macchiato.
_____
The next day, Kal was waiting in his seat, ready for his match to begin. He had gone first every day, and he didn’t think that Pegasus would have it any other way.
Through the clear floor, you could see that the room beneath them was packed. Everyone was getting excited about tournament.
By Kal’s count, there were only eight competitors left in the competition. Kal, Max, and Talia were just three of them.
Roland stepped out onto the floor with his microphone. Kal suddenly wondered what life for him would be like if he didn’t have one.
“Good morning, contestants and guests! There are only four rounds left in this tournament!”
The crowd cheered, just to appease Roland. They wanted to see a duel.
“Well, why don’t we see the first duel of the day? The first duel is Jean Amicus vs. Carlson Salter!”
The crowd cheered louder now that they knew a duel would soon begin.
Kal got up off of his seat and walked out onto the floor. About two thirds of the house just roared when he did. You would think that Jean Amicus was a rock star.
Carlson Salter walked out onto the floor as well. He had short brown hair, and he had blue eyes. He wore a black t-shirt with an abstract design, and dark jeans that looked brand new.
Kal had watched him duel before. He does it quite quickly. No wonder he was nearing the semi-finals.
“Duel!” they said, and they each drew five cards.
Kal: 8000
Carlson: 8000
“I will start.” Carlson said as he drew his sixth card.
“I summon my Shining Angel, in Attack Mode!”
A male angel with big, golden wings appeared on the field. ATK: 1400 / LV: 4
“Then I will end my turn.”
Kal drew his card. He knew Shining Angel was a recruiter, and if he destroyed it he would most likely bring forward a monster that he could use next turn. He didn’t expect Kal to get two monsters in the first turn, so that is why he didn’t lay any Traps. Kal started to feel confident. It also helped that he started off with a nice hand.
“I summon my Legion’s Time Keeper!” Kal said. It was starting to be a staple for him to use Time Keeper. It was just that useful.
A woman in blue armor, holding a saber in one hand and a clock in the other appeared. ATK: 1300 / LV: 4.
“Now I can activate the ability of my Legion’s Counter Daemon in my hand! When there is another Ally Monster on my side of the field, I can Special Summon it to the bottom Vector of that Stack!”
Kal slid the card underneath the Time Keeper’s card on his duel disk, and when the card flipped it was behind her. A humanoid skeleton with purple leathery wings appeared. ATK: 0 / LV: 2
The hand on the Time Keeper’s clock moved forward an hour.
“When an Ally Monster is Summoned, she gains an Ally Counter.” Kal explained, “But I can pay life points in multiples of 300 to add another counter on her, by the effect of my Counter Daemon. So I pay 1200 to increase the time to 5!”
Kal: 6800
Carlson: 8000
“Now I can remove these five counters to speed up time, allowing me to Special Summon 1 Ally Monster from my hand! So I Special Summon my Legion’s Final Commander, in Attack Mode!”
The time went to 12 on the clock face, and then it glowed blue. The card flipped and a warrior in black armor with a deadly scythe looking weapon appeared. ATK: 2400 / LV: 7.
“But that is a level 7 Monster!” Carlson complained.
“My Time Keeper does not have a limit to what she can Special Summon from my hand. As long as it is an Ally, and I have 5 Ally Counters that I removed, I can Special Summon anything I like.”
Carlson looked over to Roland for a ruling. All he did was nod his head saying Kal was right.
He might have been disappointed with what he was facing, but Carlson accepted it. He already had a plan.
“Now I will attack your Shining Angel with my Final Commander!”
Carlson stood and watched as his only card was broken into a thousand shards.
Kal: 6800
Carlson: 7000
“Now I recruit another Shining Angel from my deck, using the previous one’s effect!” Carlson said.
After the shards had started to disappear they started going in reverse, back to their origin. They all formed back into a Shining Angel. ATK: 1400 / LV: 4
“My Final Commander’s effect activates. When he does damage to you, he adds two Ally Counters to a card of my choice, so I choose my Time Keeper!”
The hands on the clock moved from 12 to 2, then the clock face glowed blue for a moment.
“My Time Keeper isn’t strong enough to beat your Angel, so I have to call it a turn.”
Carlson drew his card.
“I attack your Final Commander with my Shining Angel!”
“What?” Kal asked aloud.
The Angel flew up to its target and spontaneously combusted into a thousand shards.
Kal: 6800
Carlson: 6000
“My Final Commander did damage to you, so I get two more Ally Counters on my Time Keeper. You are aware of that?”
“Of course. But this means that I get to recruit another monster. So from my deck I summon my Neon – the Robot Prototype!”
The shards of the angel started to re-forge, forming a small machine with glowing yellow eyes.
“With his effect, he is treated as to tributes for the summoning of a Machine monster, so I release him to Special Summon my Neon – the Robot Reborn!”
The way that he said the name of his new creature made it sound like it was the key to his deck. And that he cherished it very much.
Carlson sent the top five cards of his deck to the Graveyard, then Special Summoned the monster.
If was a much larger form of the prototype, but it had very slender limbs. ATK: ? / LV: 7.
“My monster’s ATK is the amount of cards left in my deck, minus the cards in my hand and graveyard, x100. I have currently three cards in my graveyard, but with the five I had to discard for my summoning I now have eight. And now there are three in my hand. I had 40 cards to begin with in my deck, which makes my monster’s new ATK 2900!”
‘That is an interesting strategy.’ Kal thought.
“Now I activate the Spell Card, Neon Spark! This allows my monster a 200 ATK boost, and since there is 1 less card in my hand it gains another 100 from that as well!”
Neon – the Robot Reborn: ATK: 2900 ~ 3200.
“I will also activate the Field Spell, Neon's Abandoned Laboratory! And with one less card in my hand, Reborn gains another 100 ATK!”
Neon – the Robot Reborn: ATK: 3200 ~ 3300.
“What does the field spell do?” Kal asked.
“You will see.” Carlson replied. “Now attack his Time Keeper!”
“You can’t.” Kal said. “The Special Ability of my Counter Daemon makes her invisible to your Monster.”
“Fine, then I will destroy your Final Commander!” Carlson said.
The robot shuffled over to its target. It was clearly out of shape.
But that didn’t stop him from clobbering the Commander into a thousand shards.
Kal: 5900
Carlson: 6000
“I end my turn.”
Kal drew his card. He got exactly what he had hoped for.
“Now the ability of my Neon Spark! activates. You to discard the top card of your deck to the Graveyard.”
“Fine by me.” Kal said, taking the card off of his deck. He truly didn’t mind at all that that card had gone. It was better for him to have it in the Graveyard.
He didn’t want Carlson to know that, though.
“Alright, now I summon my Legion’s Guardian of Justice – Iserith!”
The monster rose from his card to reveal a warrior with a startling appearance. He looked almost exactly like Kal. He carried a long, blue sword and wore a black jacket. ATK: 1800 / LV: 4.
“Now, by his effect, I can add another Ally Monster from my deck to my hand. So I add my Legion’s Magician of Tricks! Then I will use his ability to Special Summon him right underneath my Guardian of Justice!”
Kal moved the card to his hand to immediately place it on his duel disk. ATK: 1000 / LV: 3.
The summoning of these two creatures rose the time of the clock to 6.
“Now I can remove five of these counters that are piling up to Special Summon 1 Monster from my hand!” Kal said.
Kal took another card from his hand and summoned it next to Iserith. It was Legion’s War Caller, a monster that hadn’t seen much play since it had been in Kal’s deck. ATK: 1900 / LV: 5.
“Now his Special Ability activates! We both select 1 Monster in our hands, and reveal them. The monster with the lowest level goes to the Graveyard, then that player loses 1000 Life Points.” Kal explained. Kal took one of his two remaining cards in his hand and revealed it. It was Legion’s Overlord – Lokeyrr, the strongest card in Kal’s deck. It was level 12.
Carlson only had one card in his hand, and he was forced to select it. He revealed his Neon – the Robot Recycled. It was a level 3. It would have been helpful in his hand, as it would have been Special Summoned when his Neon – the Robot Reborn was destroyed.
Unfortunately for Carlson, that plan was foiled.
Not only was that card sent to the Graveyard, but to add insult to injury he lost 1000 Life Points.
Kal: 5900
Carlson: 5000
“Now I remove all of my Allies from the field.” Kal said.
The crowd could be heard saying things like “what?” “Huh?” “Idiot…”
But Kal knew what he was doing.
“So that I can Summon my Legion’s Overlord – Lokeyrr!”
All five of his monsters, the Counter Daemon, the Time Keeper, Iserith, Magician of Tricks, and War Caller all disappeared at once. In there place came a stunning angel with a staff.
He wore a golden mask, and his wings spread to cover the entire side of the field. ATK: 2700 / LV: 12.
Carlson burst out laughing. “You can’t be serious? After summoning so many new creatures this turn, you manage to throw them all away for this level 12 god-figure that has less ATK than my level 7?”
Just then the ‘god-figure’ got an ATK boost.
Legion’s Overlord – Lokeyrr: ATK: 2700 ~ 3200.
Carlson laughed harder. “Now, you get so far and you still come up short!”
“Don’t be so sure.” Kal said. “I am not done with my turn just yet.”
Carlson stood there dumbfounded. He had thought he would end his turn. What else could he do?
“My Lokeyrr got a power boost for every Ally that left. Five Allies gone, five Ally Counters were added to Lokeyrr. His first ability is to gain ATK for each one, his second ability activates when he has four or more counters. He can remove 1 Ally Counter to Special Summon 1 Ally Monster from the Graveyard. So I can Special Summon my Legion’s Counter Daemon.” Kal said.
Legion’s Overlord – Lokeyrr: ATK: 3200 ~ 3100
Kal removed one counter from the angel, and then the humanoid skeleton came back from the graveyard. ATK: 0 / LV: 2.
“Now I can pay 1800 Life points to add another 6 Ally Counters on my Overlord.” Kal said.
Legion’s Overlord – Lokeyrr: ATK: 3100 ~ 3700
Kal: 4100
Carlson: 5000
Carlson stopped laughing instantly. How Kal had managed to do that was beyond his grasp, but that was incredible.
But Kal had just begun his move.
“I can now activate my Spell Card, Ally’s Distress Call! This allows me to Special Summon 1 Level 2 or lower Ally Monster from my Graveyard to my side of the field.”
“But you don’t have any! Your only level 2 is that counter Daemon there, everything else was a much stronger card.” Carlson said.
“How wrong you are.” Kal said.
Carlson scratched his head.
“Your Spell Card is to thank for this. I Special Summon from my Graveyard the card you made me discard this turn. My Legion’s Underdog – Schavbon!”
The Spell Card flipped, and then a small warrior with a sword arose from the grave. ATK: 0 / LV: 1.
“That little creature? You can’t possibly hurt me with that!” Carlson said.
“Again, you are wrong. By releasing this card I am allowed to Special Summon 1 Ally Monster from my Graveyard. I may not have been able to Special Summon 1 strong monster with this Spell, but by using a smaller person I can do great things. Like get my Legion’s Final Commander back!” Kal said.
The small creature disappeared, as well as the face-up spell, and in their place come back the monster from the previous round. The black-armored, scythe-bearing warrior. ATK: 2400 / LV: 7.
“Now I can attack your Neon Robot with my Overlord!” Kal said.
The angel raised its staff in the air, sending a beam of light into the air. It came down upon the robot on the other side of the field with the force of lightning, breaking it into a thousand shards.
Kal: 4100
Carlson: 4600
“And now my Legion’s Final Commander can attack you directly!”
The warrior slashed his scythe through Carlson, knocking out more than half of his remaining Life Points.
Kal: 4100
Carlson: 2200.
“Since my Commander did damage to you, my Overlord gains two more counters.” Kal said.
Legion’s Overlord – Lokeyrr: ATK: 3700 ~ 3900.
“Thanks to my Neon Spark Spell, I can add the bottom two cards on my Graveyard to my deck now that you destroyed my Robot.”
Carlson added his first two Shining Angels he had to the bottom of his deck.
“That ought to do it.” Kal said when he ended his turn.
The crowd was in shock. Carlson was in shock. Even Roland was in shock. What Kal had just pulled off was extraordinary.
What amazed Kal was that he hadn’t used any powers this time.
Carlson hesitantly drew his next card. There wasn’t a thing that he could do, unless his new card could help.
It could.
“I activate Pot of Avarice! This allows me to send five monsters in my graveyard to my deck, then shuffle and draw two!”
He must have sent at least two monsters from his deck to the graveyard for the summoning of his Robot Reborn, because by Kal’s count he had only had three.
Carlson sent the five monsters to his deck, among them were two ‘Robot Recycled’s, ‘Robot Prototype’, ‘Robot Reborn’, and a monster that Kal didn’t recognize.
He shuffled his deck and hoped for the best.
When he drew, he couldn’t believe what he drew.
“I summon my Neon - the Robot Prototype!” The same small, metallic monster with glowing yellow eyes cam back. ATK: 900 / LV: 2.
“Now I can release him to Special Summon my Neon – the Robot Reborn, since he counts as two tributes.”
The small robot disappeared, and then was replaced with his key monster. He had to discard cards off the top of his deck for the Special Summon. The brought the total of cards in his Graveyard to nine.
The monster also got a power bonus from the Spell Card on the field.
ATK: 3300 / LV: 7.
“It may not be powerful enough to destroy you Overlord, but I can take out that Counter Daemon on your side of the field.
“Wrong.”
“What? His effect only protects a monster above him from being attacked, not himself.” Carlson said.
“That is correct. You still cannot attack him.” Kal said.
“Like hell.” Carlson said, “Attack that puny monster!”
The Ancient Robot shuffled his way over to the skeleton. He raised his hand, ready to pulverize the creature…
Until Lokeyrr stepped in the way.
“What is he doing?” Carlson asked.
“I tried to tell you that you can’t attack my Counter Daemon. Lokeyrr won’t allow it. You see, when Lokeyrr had 10 or more counters on him, like he does right now, you must attack him with every attack position monster on your side of the field. That includes your Robot.”
Carlson went pale.
“That means…”
“That means that you are out of options.” Kal finished.
The Robot Reborn smacked into Lokeyrr’s chest, accomplishing nothing. It raised its head to look up to the angel. One could have pitied it at that moment because of how scared it looked. But it didn’t back away.
Lokeyrr stabbed his staff though the heart of the robot, vanquishing the light that was pouring out of its eyes. It was dead. When it fell off the staff, it broke into a thousand shards.
Kal: 4100
Carlson: 1600.
Carlson was left with nothing. He had no cards in his hand, a worthless Field Spell that now allowed him to add two cards in his Graveyard to the bottom of his deck. Those wouldn’t help him.
His best monster had been beaten. Not only once, but twice! By the same monster, even. Carlson dropped to his knees.
Kal drew his card and discarded the one card off the top of his deck, thanks to his one Spell Card on the field.
“I attack you directly with my Overlord.” Kal said. “Game Over.”
The Overlord raised his staff into the air, sending a beam of light into space. It came crashing down on the broken man, but he didn’t care to notice. All he could do was stare at the floor.
Kal: 4100
Carlson: 0.
The crowd went nuts. They just saw Kal, or rather Jean, their idol, just win another duel by completely owning the entire match. From the first round to the last, he was spectacular to them. Several people came from the crowd to congratulate him, Zandra included. A few went to console Carlson, but he just kept staring into nothing.
Kal couldn’t help but feel sad for the guy.
‘Nice job, Kal. Very good duel.’ he heard in his head. It was Talia mind-talking to him.
‘Thank you.’ He replied, ‘It wasn’t overkill?’
‘Oh, it died so many times it stopped being funny.’ She replied.
Kal turned to the doors of the room to see Pegasus staring at him. He was leaning against the open door for all to see. Except everyone was fixated on Kal, so they didn’t even notice him. Pegasus nodded and winked in encouragement.
Kal grinned back.
Maybe he could win this tournament after all.
There were only three rounds left. The next would be the deciding matches of who got placed in the semi finals. After that was the final match.
Where would he get too? Would he get into semis? Would he lose next round? Would he win the finals?
There were too many questions to think about and too many people occupying his space to think.
Pegasus stood up and walked out of the room, going somewhere alone.
Kal returned every card back into his deck slot and started answering more fan questions. All the while Zandra held onto his arm.
Talia was sitting in the bleachers. She could have cared less about Kal’s winning. All she wanted was to duel and get this tournament over with. But she still wanted to know more about that weird monster in Kal’s mind.
_____
The Chief of police was getting tired of waiting. The Cyborgs had come up empty in their search of Succurro, and the Chief was angry.
So angry that he was willing to go to Succurro himself and look for Kal. He had to find him. Not only for the reputation of the Police Force, but to find the one person that he had taken care of for the last 10 years.
He loved Kal like a son, a son he never had. He had to find Kal to put him to justice, but also to prove that he was still okay.
Lance offered to go with him, and the Chief agreed. Kal’s surrogate father and best friend were on the case to find him.
_____
Kal tried to fall asleep that night, but something kept nagging at him. Something that had to deal with Pegasus.
For some reason he couldn’t remember much of the conversation they had, and neither could Pegasus. Moments before, Talia had told him about a specter that was hanging around in his head. Could that have to do with the memory loss?
Kal didn’t have the ability to go inside anyone’s mind yet, like Talia did. He couldn’t go inside and look around for himself. He didn’t feel comfortable asking Talia either, she seemed truly afraid of what ever it was. It wouldn’t be fair of him to ask.
And then there was the mystery of the Ally Monsters. Kal remembered Pegasus telling him the story of their disappearance and Bill Amlund. What Kal hadn’t relayed over to him was that he got his cards from his father. It was his father’s deck.
The one thing he couldn’t help but think was that Bill Amlund had dueled his father with those Allies and lost, and he was forced to hand over his deck to Kal’s dad.
Then he came back to get those cards and murdered his family. But why hadn’t he got the cards? Why didn’t he take them with him when he left?
Maybe he was a coward. Maybe the killing of a husband and wife really scared him, and he forgot about the cards.
Maybe he tried to get rid of the evidence first and then ran out of time. They couldn’t find Kal’s father’s body. It must have been put somewhere. He might have run out of time to stash his mother’s body and get the cards.
There were many things that could have happened, but all Kal could think about was how his father had died trying to protect something he had rightfully earned.
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