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.