“Fluttershy, what happened yesterday at that duel with Kaiba, Luna and Leo?” Joey asked looking at the girl before him with deep concern, her break down the day before had made both Basil and Joey very concerned but having made the decision to allow her to rest. They’d spend the night discussing ideas for how to help her but over breakfast they’d gotten nowhere and now time was marching on before the tournament would start afresh “I mean this doesn’t make any sense…it was just one monster attacking another?”
“Does this have anything to do with that bally Serpentera? You have to jolly well push past it, if that’s the case and help us save Sweetie Belle” Basil said in an understanding tone but looking Fluttershy in the eye with a sharp determined look “Today…you’ll win your first duel…we got your next opponent all lined up as soon as the bell rings”
“Um w…who is it?” Fluttershy asked timidly as she looked around and spotted Jack walking up to them and she shook her head “N…no please Basil…I’m not ready” but at that moment the bell rang and Jack activated his duel disk “Please…Jack”
“Enough talk! It’s time to start this duel!” Jack said as he bet his star chips “I’ll bet my four for the four of yours and…” but before he could finish he noticed Fluttershy only had one star chip “Where are the other three?” he asked confused “I thought you said Basil, she beat you last night and won your chips?!”
“Oh she did, that Kaiba fella and I used fake cards to train her on how to use my deck” Basil said as he switched the decks, while handing her the star chips and added “Don’t give me that look, Fluttershy! You need to have dashed confidence! Believe in yourself!” and with that he walked away.
“Well if we’re all ready…let’s get this duel started” a man said walking up to the group and holding up a blank piece of paper “I am Whis’, replacement Mr Smith” he smiled and said “Now let’s see our two, competitors shake hands and let’s have a clean duel?” Fluttershy and Jack shook hands but when Mr Smith offered both refused “Oh well, Jack won the coin toss so he goes first and I want to see you both give it all you got”
“Hang on!” Jack said “I want Fluttershy to go first” he smiled and added “Besides it’s the polite thing to do, right Basil?”
“Absolutely” Basil said happily
Fluttershy drew her hand and looked at it with a desperate look but as she held the cards in her hand she looked at Joey for advice but only found a firm stare “I summon Cornflower the kind in defence mode” the little mouse maid appeared on the field, her defence points set to 1200 and smiled back at Fluttershy “I then set a card face down” the card appeared and Fluttershy added “I’ll end my turn”
Jack looked at his hand and said “I summon Mad Archfiend in attack mode! I’ll also play a card face down. Now Mad Archfiend attack Cornflower with your cruel crush and Fluttershy, I should say that when my Archfiend attacks a monster in defence mode…it deals piercing damage!”
At the order of attack, Basil closed his eyes and whispered “Forgive me…I am so sorry” he felt a single tear leak down his cheek. Mad Archfiend flew forward, grabbing Cornflower round the neck picking her up and in a sickening sound of crushed bone Cornflower was destroyed “AHHHH!” Basil screamed tears streaming from his eyes as Cornflower disappeared and he began to cry “No…I let her down!” Basil sobbed as Joey put an arm around him “I should...have…I don’t know” Fluttershy’s life points dropped to 3400 and Basil sniffed “Sorry Joey…old chap”
“It’s okay” Joey soothed but then snapped “Fluttershy…your turn, counter attack time!”
Fluttershy thought to herself, that it were easier said than done but as she drew her card, she saw found something surprising and smiled back at Joey “I play the spell card, Star Blast! Now for every five hundred life points I give up…I can reduce the level of a monster by one and I give up 1500!” her life points reduced to 1900 and she then said “I then play double summon and summon Red eyes Black dragon!” the huge dragon appeared spreading it’s wings and roaring “Thanks Joey and Basil this next one is for you! I summon Mathias the Warrior!” she then smiled as the mouse warrior appeared and got ready for battle.
“I have to say, Fluttershy…that is a very impressive force you have assembled but it won’t be enough to beat me!” Jack said with a cocky grin and added “I activate my trap card, Shadow spell” the chains from the trap wrapped themselves around Mathias, dragging the mouse warrior to a knee under the weight of the chains and Jack smirked “Looks like your mouse is in a mouse trap”
Fluttershy’s eyes flashed angrily “That….isn’t funny! You big Meanie!” she yelled “Red eyes…inferno fire blast!” the black dragon roared and fired a volley of fireballs at Jack’s monster, Mad Archfiend dodged the first fireball but the second and third and fourth struck it “Keep…going!” the attacks kept striking the fiend monster before it finally disappeared “I end!”
“Good grief! Fluttershy is scary when she’s angry!” Joey said with a smile "But that must have felt good. I wonder what Jack’s got up his sleeve because with 3400 life points…he’d both in a great and terrible position” he paused and added in a dark tone “This turn could decide the outcome of the duel” he looked at Fluttershy hoping she’d emerge as the winner but Jack was as skilled as they came.
“I’ll Special summon Vice dragon and then I’ll normal summon Dark Resonator!” Jack exclaimed and smirked “Dark Resonator is now going to give Vice Dragon a little tune up!” dark resonator struck it’s tuning fork and stick together, before disappearing into three circles which formed round Vice dragon but then the two monsters disappeared in a bright flash. The claws of a massive dragon emerged from the flash and Jack yelled “Behold, Red Dragon Archfiend!” the roar of the dragon shook the building.
No one noticed Mr Smith whisper “So those are two of them then?” he smiled and watched with glee.
“Red Dragon Archfiend! Attack with Scorching Crimson Flare!” Jack ordered as Red Dragon Archfiend powered up its fire ball and targeted Mathias who braced himself “No matter what that mouse does…he’s still going to wind up ashes!” suddenly three tiny blurs passed by the dragon who looked around confused as one clashed with it's head and the dragon began to snap at it with it bared teeth “What the?!”
“I activated the Trap card! Attack of the Sparrows!” Fluttershy said with a small smile “At the cost of half my life points and my entire hand, three effects take place, first it stops one attack and none of my monsters are harmed” as she spoke one of the sparrows flying round the dragon’s head was destroyed “Next I get to destroy one spell or trap card…Mathias is free!” Mathias broke the chains and the second sparrow was destroyed “I then get to summon a monster who equals the level of the weakest monster my opponent controls but since you only have Red Dragon Archfiend…I summon Captain Snow the Owl” the third sparrow burst into flames but no monster appeared.
“Hello mouse!” suddenly from above them flew down a majestic white owl as large as Red Dragon Archfiend. Captain Snow’s attack points registered as 3000 “It’s been a long time…I’m still under oath never to eat any mice…and shrews!” he said looking a little annoyed “So what kind of mess have you gotten me into?”
“Ask Basil” Mathias answered with a smile as the owl spotted Basil but didn’t seem all that keen on asking “Alright time to slay the dragon!” Red eyes gave a mournful growl and Mathias laughed “No of course not you. I meant the bigger dragon” he shrugged and Red eyes growled again “Oh I’ll tell him, um which one of you is Joey?” Joey waved and Mathias smiled “He just wants to say thank you for making him feel so lucky to be your monster” Red eyes nodded with what could only be assumed to be a grin but then Mathias added "He also says he smells like an old leather boot!" Red eyes shot a small spurt of flame at Mathias' tail in response.
“Wait how do you understand my dragon?” Joey asked clearly confused but then he smiled and shook his head “Your making it up!”
“No...I swear!” Mathias said as he turned to Red Eyes as he tried to dodge the flames “He seems quite proud of you. You understood him right Basil?” but Basil shook his head and then another growl from Red eyes “Oh…apparently I can understand him because I’m a…duel monster?”
Fluttershy smiled and said “My turn?” Jack nodded smiling but he sighed looking sadly at the ground, his hand only had monsters, in truth it’d been a bad draw and he had gabbled but now he knew it was all over as Fluttershy drew a card “I play the field spell Redwall Abbey!” the abbey rose behind them, giving Snow and Mathias a 400 point boost “I’m sorry, Jack, Captain Snow attack with diving claw pummel!” Snow launched into the air and came down like a bullet, right onto Red Dragon Archfiend’s neck and the dragon still raised its head but an arrow from Redwall shot it. Fluttershy mumbled “Mathias attack with silver blade slash!” Mathias struck at Jack’s life points and then Fluttershy whispered “Red Eyes inferno fire ball!” Jack’s points hit zero as Red Eyes finished the duel.
“That was a very good duel…one more star chip and you’ll be in the final” Jack said with a smile “I get the impression you’ll challenge Akiza to a rematch?” to which Fluttershy nodded “By the way where’s your friend Twilight?”
“I saw her with Yugi last night” Basil said concerned but then he shrugged “We both know she can handle herself…jolly good show…woah!” as he spoke a spinning purple object spun between Basil’s ears “Who has the bally guts?”
“Opps, should have aimed lower…the name’s Ian!” a short boy with spikey blue hair and a green rifle “Our boss says we have to take out any Equestrians we find! So are these the guys, boss?” but if the Ian boy seemed like a threat the man that stepped out made Joey shake with fear and the man was followed by three more boys “Meet my team, Bakura, Bryan, Spencer and Tala!”
Joey snapped “There’s no way…you can’t be back!”
“So good to see you, Joseph” Bakura said with a cruel smirk and activated the device attached to his wrist “Now…time for revenge! You thought the ghost of revenge would allow me to stay buried forever!” he laughed “I summon Diabound! Crush them all!” the huge monster appeared, the room grew darker as Diabound surrounded the group of intruders.
“Who are you working for?!” Joey snapped as he drew a card from his deck and shouted “I summon Gilford the Lightening!” the warrior monster appeared with a yell of rage and Jack also summoned his Red dragon Archfiend but Diabound swatted both monsters with its tail
“Damn it!” Joey snapped frustraited.
“Oh our master isn’t fooled by Beerus’ tricks and lies!” Bakura explained as he turned to the corner “Our spy informed us when his little training routine began on Equestria. Flash come and take your credit” Flash Sentry stepped out in a battle armoured uniform but his face bore an unmistakable grin “We were send to take out the key to his plan! She is merely the start!”
Fluttershy mumbled “I summon…Mathias the Warrior!” but the cards refused to work and she said “What’s wrong?!”
“You need to say it with conviction!” Beerus explained landing amongst them “Sorry for this little pantomime but you still need to get the cards for the hostages to pass the training” he stood smiling as he send a blast of energy at Diabound but the monster dodged the blow and a man standing behind the group of enemies caught the attack “Hmm looks like I shouldn’t have used the illusion version of you”
“I was flattered you used a training dummy of me but let me show off my full power” Aizen said with a sinister smirk.
“Oh this isn’t jolly good!” Basil said in a worried tone.