Yu-Gi-Oh! Skies [IC/PG-16]

[LordCowCow 840]

“We’re going to want the Skull Servants and the Familiars to set up a perimeter, I don’t know how big they can manage or even if they can stand being away from you, Gabby, but that’s- if we’re making a sanctuary, we have to establish its boundaries. People should be able to come in, and other monsters need to stay out. Can you do that for me?”

Gabby stared for a moment. She was honestly shocked at how commanding and in control the girl seemed. It appeared that Melissa had been thinking about this a lot. She was glad, though, to find out that she didn't have to try and figure out what to do. She was frankly at a loss from the start of this and was just stumbling about.

"Once this is all over perhaps I should name you tactician of the realm." Gabriela said, giving a nod. Then, in response to the request, "I can most certainly do that!" Somehow.

"be sure to give your skeletons a rousing speech, Princess!"

Gabby felt herself clenching as Jun said this. Right, a speech. She had to figure out what to say to the...Skull Servants. It wasn't as daunting, in a way, as speaking in front of a crowd of people. Yet also it came with the worry that they'd attack if she said something wrong.

Then again these monsters seemed to believe in her more than most people did. Perhaps if they truly thought of her as some royalty she could actually put it into action.

With that thought in mind she took a deep breath. Then she spun to face the small horde of skeletons and bats that were before her. "Look around you! This is my territory! Which means this is your homeland now! For you are my servants and anywhere I claim as mine is also yours! And so the time has come to protect your homeland! These vile creatures who try and invade my territory, our land, must be cast out and kept out! Lest they ruin the land we now call our own! So go, spread out, keep these wicked intruders from defiling our kingdom!"

She paused for a moment then, slightly stuttering, added in "But those who look like us humans can be allowed to pass. Do not harm them...Just the other Monsters!"

With that said the Skull Servants seemed to wait for a moment. Gabby worried they didn't understand. But then, one by one, they started to spread across the area in groups of two and set themselves up as sentries.

Gabby let out a half sigh before catching herself. Turning to Melissa she said, voice filled with pride, and a hint of disbelief, "it is done!"

[Zai 26]

 

"Once we're in here, we should be able to cut through a couple of halls and get to the duel team office. Say, what is your plan, anyway?" Elizabeth asked as she ushered Yushiro toward the annex.

"I wanna see if those duel disks are in there. If I'm right about what's going on and someone really has activated a bunch of disks all over campus, then we might be able to do something about it ourselves with duel disks of our own." He paused a moment. "Unless of course they're the root cause, in which case we'll know what to look for... though I'm kinda hoping there's at least one or two. It'll be easier if I can use the cards in my deck to help us out." There was another huff from Kuribohrn in his hair. "Not that I don't appreciate the healing magic, buddy. You're a lifesaver, but I don't think you can keep me on my feet and fight off a bunch of monsters at the same time. Not without help." The word of thanks seemed to appease the moody little puffball for the time being, which was good, since they were now next to the locked door and underneath the overhang- safely out of sight for the time being.

Yushiro's heart was racing, though not in the good way it usually did when he was with Elizabeth. The possibility of getting his skin melted off really drove home how dangerous the situation was, not to mention the dull ache in his shins- Kuribohrn's magic could only do so much to something that wasn't actually dead, it seemed.

"Stay calm kiddo. Panicking won't help anyone."

"Gee, thanks. You try not freaking out a little at a time like this."

"Could be worse. You're not alone, you know."

He was right. At least Elizabeth was here. Yushiro had probably never been more thankful for her presence, actually. Except maybe when he dueled Hiraku. Instinctively, he reached for her hand, hoping she'd reciprocate.

"You scared?" He asked, finally looking at her a little sheepishly. It was plainly obvious that he'd left the "because I'm a little scared too." unsaid.

 

[radio414 907]

May he give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed. May we shout for joy over your victory and lift up our banners in the name of our God. May the Lord grant all your requests.
-Psalm 20:4-5 (NIV)

---

”It is done!” Gabby said. And it was! People were coming in from all around. Most of the people who’d braved the outdoors were not people Melissa recognized, and the people she did were largely out of happenstance. Over here was a classmate. Over here was someone who lived on the same floor as her. Over here was -

“Melissa!”

Over here was Connor. “Hey, you’re okay!” he said. “Saw these messages, uh, that was you who started that, right? Do you know what’s going on?”

Melissa shook her head no. No, she didn’t know what was going on. She’d never figured that part out. But that wasn’t the point behind the messages. The point was she was trying to keep people safe until someone did find out. She searched Connor’s face for any sort of indication that he understood, and, finding none, was about to verbalize it to him when her phone’s alarm went off. Thirty minutes was up, and she left Connor with a simple “I know what I’m doing, though,” before finding Jun and Gabby again.

“Duel disks on,” she told them. “Ready?”

Souji, too. His disk was already on, Melissa assumed, but she still waved him back to the safety of the Skull Servants. “Thank you. We need you here now,” she said.

She’d kept mum on exact details of the plan so far, mostly out of fear that it wouldn’t work and not wanting to inspire any sort of false hope, but also because, well, telling a crowd of people her plan was the end result of the plan itself. This was the final step: convincing everyone that things were going to be okay.

Under normal circumstances, it was a terrible plan. After all, its culmination lied in her -- of all people, Melissa Ashforth’s! -- ability to give a speech. But these weren’t normal circumstances, and as she walked back to the center of the area, instead of a yawning pit opening up in her gut, she actually felt confident. Or, if not confidence, at least a sort of serenity she’d hardly ever felt before.

There wasn’t any stalling or double- and triple-checking of the circumstances. When Melissa reached the spot, she simply took a breath and began to speak. “Hello, everyone. My name is Melissa Ashforth.

“I know things are scary right now, so I wanted to thank you all for putting your trust into some random text messages and avoiding all these duel space-generated monsters to get here. As you can see, we’ve cleared the area, and these Skull Servants and Vampire Familiars are going to keep it that way. You can thank Souji Kazuraba and Gabb- Gabriela Von Draculesti for that.” Melissa motioned in their direction when she said their names, and a few of the audience gave a halfhearted applause.

“The final step in making this a safe place to be is to believe it so. That was why you might have noticed Jun going around checking in on everybody, making sure you were thinking ‘good thoughts.’ I know that sounds silly, but this is duel space. It’s will made manifest. That’s how Gabriela’s been controlling the perimeter, and I’ve seen other phenomena happen besides.

“Duel disks help -- if you have yours, I encourage you to turn it on -- but really, I imagine manipulating duel space might be like finding out you’re in a dream and, because you’re in a dream, doing whatever you want. That doesn’t mean you can do anything in duel space, but if enough people think it, it might just happen.”

Melissa brought her hand over to her duel disk and turned it on. Its hum provided an additional comfort, and already her duel field was spreading beyond where it’d gone back in her room. “I got this idea because I saw these things happening, and wondered if there was a way for me to do the same. But I don’t have especially exciting dreams. I don’t think I’m a superhero or anything like that. I can’t even say all my dreams are good.

“But my best dreams, the ones I’m asking for your help in realizing now, are the ones where everything turns out alright.”

[Skaia 578]

Jun smiled widely as Melissa had gotten in front of everyone and told her of their plan. To impose their will on duel space and force it to become safe for them. A plan so bold and daring and spoken at a volume then Jun didn't even have to strain to hear! Every moment that had passed made Jun all the more sad the girl wasn't on her duel team, though couldn't help but feel that this was exactly the kind of plan an entertainer would come up with. Letting out a sigh, Jun muttered, "well, I can't just lose like that." Smiling brightly again the girl shouted, "you heard her everyone! We gotta show the world the wonders of duel space!" 

Bringing out three cards from her deck, Jun engaged her duel disk. Playing the field spell in her duel disk, the sky above everyone soon turned from the usual tinged red to one of an innumerable amount of stars. As the stars began to twinkle a swirling vortex of what could only be described as space stuff above them. As the light show happened, the girl then placed two more cards in her spell zone, both being Yang Zing Path. From the center of the cosmic vortex above two bright lights formed. Then, after awhile they both arced down from their positions, creating a large glowing arch that stretched from either end of their safety circle. Smiling at the crowd, the girl shouted, "so everyone, let's show those monsters what's what and have some fun!" Looking over to Souji with a smirk on her face, the girl said, "don't let me show you up, Hero." 

[Chaos Sonic 443]



Souji was surprised by the little speech that Melissa had brought forth, namely due to him figuring she was just the quiet one of the Entertainment Duel Club, but then again, he also figured this would definitely be something that would help her break free from that bit of those shackles of shyness. And once she spoke, Jun was first up...either trying to impress him with the display or to try and one up him. Regardless, Souji watched Jun, seeing her looking over at her.

"don't let me show you up, Hero."

"Heh, show me up? Please..." he smirked, stepping forward some as the young man began to crack his knuckles. "Don't get left in the dust." Normally, this was something he and his Entertainment Duelist persona were able to utilize fully to their advantage, putting on a bit of an action show and make it as flashy as possible. At this point, he wished that Sai's little costume project idea was up and running now and not something he cooked up and told him about today. Alas, he wouldn't be able to take it to that level...but...

Souji removed his deck from the Duel Disk for a moment, taking out a few cards and immediately replacing them with a few other things. If he couldn't go full action hero mode now and make a full display of his athletic abilities, then he'd go for the next best thing: presentation.

Finally putting the deck back into the Duel Disk, he removed a few cards, with a smirk. "First off...Feather Shot!" An immediate play of two cards had a series of feathers appear, definitely being sent out as a bit of protection for the students. But this wasn't the only thing done. "Next...Bubble Illusion!" With a snap of his fingers, bubbles began to appear around him and the group, being lifted up to coincide with the feathers that appeared. "And now...Feather Wind and Bubble Shuffle!"

At these two cards being played, the feathers and bubbles now began to shift and be swept up into the air, now leaving the safety area the students were in as the emerged outside, definitely creating what Souji would describe as some basis of protection for them. And although some of the feather popped the bubbles, they did so in quite a elegant fashion to which it did quite some awe in it's display. But the Duelist wasn't done with just these four cards. "And now...just for that extra bit of protection for us, as well as some extra flair...Mirror Gate." Another card was played, thus cause quite a number of mirrors to appear around the group's safety circle. The mirrors faced outward, definitely not just reflecting his own work with the feathers and bubbles, but also the work that was done due to Jun's display.

"Heh, well...guess using these old cards here aren't as bad...only when it comes to it visually." Souji thought, smirking as he glanced back at Jun. "You were saying?"

[Cappuccijoe 17]

Elizabeth tapped her foot nervously, looked behind them often to check for monsters, which still appear to have not discovered this entrance, or do not care to occupy it. She looked at her phone, then into the annex, then to Yushiro:

"Scared? A bit. This day certainly trumps anything I've seen in a while." she folded  her fingers in between Yushiro's, looking back up to the annex.

Cmon Ash... what's taking you so long? You should have been here by now. That thought alone sent a harsh shiver up Elizabeth's spine; a mixture of fear and deja vu.

--

She could still remember the scent of the air when she first realized something was wrong. It was thick with the scent of menthol; she really only smoked casually at parties these days, but as her anxiety grew, she felt herself chewing through the pack a bit faster than one would consider "casual".

"Come oooon Beth! The party is inside! They probably just hit another party, we'll see them later, come on!" Ashley was hammered, tugging sloppily on Beth's arm, trying to get her back inside.

"What? Ash, no, come on, stop. They both took a few stumbled steps in towards the door, causing Ashley to slosh some ghoulish mix of low-shelf liquors and lemonade powder to the concrete that floored the patio outside, facing the street. Elizabeth stuck her cigarette hand out far to their side, to avoid burning either one of them. Beth pulled back, resisting her best friend, "Stop!" Beth stood up fiercely, in protest of her friend's lackadaisical attitude towards the situation at hand.

"If it was just Kyata I would agree with you; he's probably just looking for a chance to black out and **** anyway. But Todd never takes this long to answer me. Ever. Something's wrong. Just...go back inside or something if you want to party, okay? I can't be arsed to have a good time right now. I'm just going to sit outside and wait for them so I can be the first to give them an earful when they show up." Elizabeth turned back around, walking back up to the railing that outlined the perimeter of the patio and leaning on it. She did not have ears open for Ashley's rebuttal; instead her eyes stayed fixated on the pavement, waiting for the dimly lit headlights from Kyata's car to show up on the street, moving towards the party. There had only been three cars on the street in the last 20 minutes; in a way the scarcity of vehicles made the anticipation of one arriving more agonizing. A burst of hope, only to be immediately dashed by the unfamiliarity of the vehicle crossing by.

"Ooooookay Lizzy! I'll come get you later!~" Ashley stumbled back inside, blissfully unaware of what was going on. Her reappearance was met with a loud roar of hello's and approval, as if she had not already been there drinking her brain away for the last hour. Beth tried to avoid being cynical but the carefree attitude of the party while Kyata and Todd were missing disgusted her, in a way. Was nobody else worried that they were 90 minutes late, and nobody had heard from them? The other party was hardly 20 minutes away, and they were the ones that wanted to move locations. Well, Kyata had been drinking and..

Elizabeth shook her head, trying to expel the thought from her brain. They were fine. They probably just hit another party real quick; it was like them to bounce from spot to spot. Especially with as popular as those two were, it was more likely Todd was drowning in under-dressed girls and too busy to look at his phone. But even still, she sent the signal. Todd never ignores the signal. Neither of them did. That was their promise after Todd got stuck in a tree for 3 hours back when they were kids. At the time, it was funny, so Elizabeth just laughed at him and walked away, but when he got down they swore to always spring into action if they ever said Pear Tree. It was the sort of thing they could slip into a conversation naturally, but the other person would understand. If Beth was at a party or a bar and someone was getting too handsy, or if Todd was about to get caught cheating on his arithmetic exam, really any kind of emergency of varying severity.

Beth looked down at her phone, glancing over the text messages sent over the last hour or so: 

Spoiler

He hadn't even read them. The mixture of cheap vodka and nicotine in her bloodstream had made her nauseous beyond comprehension, and coupled with the anxiety, she felt like she could probably vomit at any moment, but her stomach simply kept churning instead of producing anything. It was a miserable feeling, being drunk in the middle of an anxiety attack; it was like being ripped away from the controls on your own body. Unable to control anything, even her eyes would occasionally betray her as the shots of liquor worked their way through her body. She was afraid, but it was not the kind of fear you feel when you are worried you failed a test, or broke a bone even. This was deeper; she knew that something was very wrong, and had no way to fix it.

Come on Todd, what the hell is taking you so long? You should have been here by now. Beth sat there, being bothered every now and again by a wayward partygoer attempting to pull her back into the excitement inside, or to lean over the railing to her left and empty the contents of their stomach, for about another half hour. It was then that her phone rang; the caller ID said "Mum", leaving Beth's face completely pale; What reason would Mum have for calling me at 11PM? It has to be...

Beth quickly answered the phone, and before she could say anything, was quickly met with the panicked voice of her father, "Elizabeth, where are you? Are you okay? Were you with your brother?" His words were coming out of his mouth faster than she could answer; all she could hear was an onslaught of words from her father and the distant sounds of her mother wailing in the background. Elizabeth felt the pit of her stomach drop, like she had just come off the peak of a roller coaster's hill.

"I'm at a frat house, maybe 10 minutes off of campus, is Todd...?" Elizabeth choked up; she couldn't finish her question but she knew the answer. Something had gone wrong as she feared, but every fiber of her being was just holding on to hope that he was alive, just hurt.

"Stay right there Elizabeth, do not go anywhere I am coming to get you right now, okay?! Your brother was in an accident, we are on our way now to get him. Elizabeth Olivia Hall, I mean it do not move an inch from where you are! I love you dear, see you very soon."

"Wait Dad I-" he had already hung up the phone. Her hands started to visibly shake as the gravity of what that phone call meant fell on her shoulders. It was like being crushed by the plate of a hydraulic press, trying to force her into the floor to be pulverized into nothing. She didn't know if he was okay, or if she would feel stupid later, but Elizabeth simply started to cry; mouthing various questions to nobody in particular with no sound coming out from her mouth.

Ashley stumbled out once more to entice her best friend, only to be stopped in her tracks by the sight of her best friend crying, "Heeeeeey, Beth! Are you alright?! Why are you crying??" Ashley plopped herself onto the ground; her brain felt like slop, and her ears were ringing out of control from the amount of liquor in her system, but she tried her best to listen, knowing something was wrong.

Elizabeth didn't pick her head up from her hands, choking out a few words, "It's T-Todd. They.." Beth was unable to finish the sentence, and continued to weep.

--

Ashley whipped open the door, waving the other two inside, "Get in here, quick! Sheesh, I'm glad to hear you two are okay."

Elizabeth looked up from her daze to meet Ashley in the eyes, her first words were: "Did you get my texts? Why didn't you answer me?" followed by quickly rushing inside.

Ashley stopped in her tracks a little bit, examining the expression writ on Elizabeth's face, "I left my phone in the office, so I could run straight here and open the doors." Ashley frowned, expressing some guilt, "Sorry Beth. I should have answered. That's really thoughtless of me. Why are you guys headed there, anyway? Wouldn't it be safer to go the student council offices? I was going to lock myself in there until I was given the clear until you called."

Elizabeth quickly ushered Yushiro into the building, and began walking at a brisk pace towards the general vicinity of the Duel Halls, "Yushiro here says he has a plan to fight back against these things. Noble enough that I thought we would give it a shot. Do you have a deck on you? You should come along. Who knows what this thing is going to look like."

Ashley shook her head, bewildered, "Why on Ambrosia would we take care of that instead of letting campus security do it, we're just a bunch of students! Aren't there any adults around here?!"

Elizabeth gestured towards the empty halls, "When is the last time you noticed any adults in the immediate vicinity to help us out with a problem? Come on, we've got to go."

Ashley simply shrugged, "Fair enough, but I call getting to hold on to Elizabeth if we're vaporized by some sort of Duel Monster related neutron bomb." she looked directly at Yushiro, and continued to walk with the group.

Edited May 11, 2020 by Cappuccijoe

[Zai 26]

"Fair enough, but I call getting to hold on to Elizabeth if we're vaporized by some sort of Duel Monster related neutron bomb." 

Ashley's comment caused Yushiro to let go of Elizabeth's hand, partially from her intimidating presence, but also out of a slight feeling of embarrassment. "Well there won't be anything of the sort, so no one's gonna need to hold onto anyone for dear life."

"Smooth. Nice comeback, kiddo."

"If you're not gonna be helpful, then would you please just shut up?" Yushiro grumbled internally as the trio arrived at the annex-side entrance to the duel team offices. "Alright, lets see if we can find those spare disks." He said as Ashley unlocked the door. Luckily for them, the spare duel disks were all more or less stored out in the open, and it took less than a minute of rummaging for Yushiro to locate them. Quickly, he clipped one that was his size onto his arm. "Doesn't come in my color, but it'll do." He smirked, trying to muster up a bit of confidence to steady his nerves and maybe possibly convince the girls that he was, perhaps, at least somewhat on top of things. Then he slid his deck into its slot and went toward the front door.

It seemed, however, that several other people had already beaten him to the punch.

Outside was... well the monsters were gone, and in their place a crowd had gathered. Everyone was bathed in a soothing, white light, and several people had duel disks and were playing cards. The displays were spectacular to behold, and it was plainly obvious that what had been a dangerous area a few minutes before had now become a sanctuary of sorts. HE stepped through the doorway to get a better look.

"Hmmmwaaaah!"

Kuriborhn jumped off of Yushiro's head and started to fly off. Yushiro braced himself for the pain in his legs to return, but was pleasantly surprised when the burning stayed mild. Perhaps the duel space field he was in had a similar effect? He looked around for a moment, and was about to run back inside to get the girls when he spied a familiar looking hat on the head of what could only be its owner.

"Hey, Juju!!!" He called out to Jun as Kuribohrn floated on over toward her general direction. "What is all this stuff?!"

 

 

[LordCowCow 840]

Gabby tried to think good thoughts. She really did. But she was struggling to find them between all the bad. She thought about the night with Melissa but that was interrupted by remembering how angry Hiraku had looked after losing, and the awkward picture taken of them. She tried to think of winning her first duel in the tournament, all on her own, but that just reminded her of the way her final duel had gone.

Anything before that was entirely a no-go.

But still, she tried, and thought, and was able to remember patches of good feelings that she hoped helped whatever it was Melissa was building.

The soothing light issuing from Melissa's duel space served to aid in that. She even managed to laugh at the ridiculousness of the skeletal creatures standing guard outside such a holy looking space.

The Monsters seemed intimidating at first to those approaching but, as they didn't so much as move in any human passing by's direction, the fear was easily overcome. It was only when a Monster would appear that any of them would so much as stir.

Which is why Gabby was surprised to see the bats, Vampire Familiar, suddenly dive down from the sky towards...something. Gabby held her breath as she moved towards where they were going. Hoping they hadn't decided to go after a student she hurried her way over....to find them diving at some kind of white fluff ball. Was that a Kuriboh? It looked like one, though notably different, and it seemed the small creature wasn't doing much to fight back as the bats swarmed around it.

She felt an urge to stop them. Yes, that was clearly a Monster, but it looked harmless enough...right?

If she was wrong this could go very badly but the girl approached and stood as tall as she could. Gabriela let out a sharp cough. "Familiars, halt! This Monster is...er, such a small creature is no great threat to our nation! There is no need to destroy this one. Go back to your post and look for a real threat...." The girl hesitated then, "But if I call for you come post-haste!"

Once they had scattered she carefully approached the Monster, keeping a hand near her Duel Disk. "Um....hello?" She said to the fluff ball. It was no Wretched Ghost but it still was rather cute in its own way.

[Skaia 578]

Jun rolled her eyes as Souji made his display of card game theatrics. Shaking her head she then followed with, "thinking of practicality before enjoyment is why you're losing face as an entertainer. But well," looking at the glittering water and refracted light from the mirrors in the air, she said, "I'll give it a pass for now. Besides, the one you've really gotta watch out for is her." Jun smiled as she nodded towards Melissa. As she began to look through her cards once again to figure out what else to add to the spectacle, her thoughts were broken by a familiar sounding voice cutting through. Seeing one of her juniors from the dueling team run over, the girl gave an excited wave back shouting, "Shiro!" 

Before the girl could say any more, she watched in amusement as the Princess of Darkness had to deal a small puff ball trespasser.  After a brief chuckle, she turned back to Yushiro saying, "well, all this is our great plan. Well, her great plan." Yet again Jun motioned to Melissa. "She wanted to get us all to have happy thoughts so we could use duel space to stop the monsters. I don't know how, but it's duel space I'm sure it'll work out." The girl waved that last comment aside before brightening up and gesturing to the sky, "so yes! Welcome to our great starlit palace of happy thoughts! Be sure to have fun and happy!" 

[radio414 907]

Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children
-Ephesians 5:1 (NIV)

---

Not explaining her plan until the eleventh hour seemed to work out in Melissa’s favor, she thought, or at least the improvisational efforts of her schoolmates seemed to do well enough. She did wonder a little bit about whether everyone’s safety was more because of the actions of Souji and the Skull Servants who had kept the perimeter, or if it was because of the duel fields and good thoughts, but she decided not to think too hard about that. The important thing, again, was that it worked.

Even better, people were still coming in! Most of them were people Melissa didn’t know, but across the field near Taylor Hall were some faces Melissa did recognize. One was just the duelist she and Gabby had watched at the dance (his name was Yushiro, right?). Next to him was Ashley Rendleman, and Melissa supposed it was a good thing she was alive to do whatever she needed to on campus. The third face, though, was Elizabeth’s! She was okay! Or rather, she was as okay as anyone could be at the moment. Melissa gave her a wave to welcome her inside, though Jun jumped in to start answering questions before Melissa could go any further than that. Not that she begrudged Jun for it. It was what she’d been assigned, after all, and she seemed to have a bit of rapport with Yushiro already.

When she turned around, she saw Gabby interacting with a monster -- a Kuriboh, or something like it. That was on purpose, right? That it had made it through Gabby’s barricade? She seemed friendly enough with it, so maybe? And yet, at the same time, Melissa recalled her first monster experience of the day, a horde of seemingly cute Mokey Mokey who had crashed their way into her history classroom. It made her uneasy just thinking about it.

But she wasn’t supposed to be thinking about things like that, so Melissa tried to think about something else. She turned back around and went over to Jun, Yushiro, Ashley Rendleman, and Elizabeth. “I’m really glad you could make it,” Melissa said (to the group in general but Elizabeth in particular). “I don’t know what’s going on, but at least we can all ride out the storm together now. Oh, and --” she motioned to their duel disks “-- it would help if you turned those on.”

Edited May 18, 2020 by radio414

[reparoni 161]

 

"So this was Blue Yonder Academy..." Kai said, his bag slung around his right shoulder and his Duel Disk on his arm as he stood in front of the prestigious school. Technically he wasn't suppose to be here until tomorrow to officially start his first day as a transfer, but he decided he'd scope out the place ahead of time. Get an idea as to who's ass he needed to kick. He expected to see a bunch of losers walking around their daily class day, or maybe to meet face to face with the best kid around the block for a duel.

Instead he was greeted by the sight of various monsters causing havoc around the school. "...what the hell is going on!" Kai was in disbelief as to what he was watching. It took him a second to recognize some of the monsters running around - they were duel monsters, specifically level 1 ones. This was the all mighty Blue Yonder Academy? He had to double check that he was in the right place on his phone. "Yep, this is the place." With an annoyed sigh, he started walking forward. He didn't understand why there were a bunch of holograms walking around the place, nor did he know why they chose Level 1 monsters of all things. 

He was stopped, however, when something bumped into him. "Hey! Watch where you're go-" He was about to shoot down the moron that bumped into him, but was caught off-guard when instead of a kid it was some sort of scarecrow with a booster. It took him a second to process what had happened, but he realized these things weren't holograms. Or at least, they were some kind of solid holograms. Either way, Kai walked back a bit, staring into the sunglasses of the mechanical man.

"Boy, don't tempt me!" The scarecrow shouted in a gruff, metallic tone. The metallic man raised his club before putting it down. "You're lucky, brat. I've got places to be. People to see. Don't got time to mess with some low life."

"Who the hell do yo-" Before he could finish his sentence, however, the scarecrow jettison off. "Hey! Why you..!"  In a fit of rage, Kai chased after the scarecrow. He wasn't sure what he could do to the monster, but he wasn't about to let some rust bucket talk to him like that.

After casing after the scarecrow, and evading the other monsters, he found himself in front of what seemed to be some sort of skeleton mosh pit. In the pile of bones were the first actual people he had seen since he got here. In a huff, he made a dash towards the group of kids and the skeletons, which seemed to not be attacking them? This was so confusing. He had also lost the scarecrow at some point, which wasn't helping with his mood.

"Hey!" Kai shouted towards the group, waving his arms in the air to catch their attention. "Is it always like this here!?" He stopped when a pair of skeletons gave him a particularly nasty glare. Or at least he thought they were, it was hard to tell since they didn't have eyes. Either way it was creeping him out. "Yo, are we cool with these skeletons? Please tell me we're cool with the skeletons."

This was going to be an interesting school year, he could tell.

Edited May 23, 2020 by God of :eyes:

[Cappuccijoe 17]

The girls stayed largely silent on their way to the duel team offices, save for a few quips and idle conversational pieces that would serve few, if any, to repeat. It wasn't until they reached the offices themselves that Elizabeth started rummaging through her bag for two deck boxes; one was significantly more ornate than the other.

"Ash, take my deck. I'll use... the tournament deck. You know, just in case." Elizabeth shot a look over at Yushiro, whose back was currently facing the girls while he rummaged through the pile of spare disks.

"What?? Liz no you can't use that deck it's-"she paused to observe her best friend's eyes, now coming around on the coded language, "For tournament use only, and you swore that you would only take that deck out for really, really important stuff. You should use your deck."

Elizabeth rolled her eyes and scoffed, "What, exactly, would you consider to be more important than our current situation? The Yonder Cup? Mate. Honestly. The Yonder Cup?" she gestured out towards the doors, and up towards the ceiling, for good measure.

Ashley shot a plenty descriptive stare back, "I put a lot of work into you and those tournaments, you know." she begrudgingly accepted Elizabeth's deck, practically snatching it out of her hands, and accepting defeat, ceding the fact that they had no time to argue.

As they walked over to the duel disks and picked out some dinky looking disks that clearly had not been as well cared for as their budget suggests, Ashley could not help but grab Beth's arm and look her in the eyes, whispering just quietly enough to keep Yushiro from hearing as he ran towards the doors, "Be careful with that thing, okay? Todd's memory is worth more than some holograms. I don't care how much you want to pretend you're doing it to protect me. You'll never forgive yourself if something happens to them."

Beth removed her arm from Ashley's grip and gently placed Todd's deck in the slot, sending a brilliant light through to the end of the disk, "I'd prefer having no memories over two. Hopefully I'm just being dramatic. Let's go." Elizabeth immediately, and seriously, made her way to the doors herself

Ashley rolled her eyes in return, lazily following behind, "I think we're well past the point of drama, babe."

All perceptions of danger and looming battles, however, quickly dissipated after opening the doors to reveal somewhat of a crowd, both monstrous and human. Elizabeth couldn't help but stare in amazement that Melissa, of all people, appeared to be the leader of the aforementioned circle. 

Geez, sure wish comforting myself had the power to assemble a small riot. Elizabeth thought to herself as she approached the generally sheepish girl. Ashley followed quickly behind, genuinely speechless for maybe the first time in her entire life.

"She wanted to get us all to have happy thoughts so we could use duel space to stop the monsters. I don't know how, but it's duel space I'm sure it'll work out." Jun was walking the group through the protocol before Melissa spoke,

“I’m really glad you could make it,” Melissa paused and looked directly at Elizabeth. Strangely, she felt slightly blushed; was Melissa waiting for her to arrive? 

"I'm happy to see you're safe, Melissa. Quite a plan you've put together in a crisis. I was a bit worried about you, among others."

“I don’t know what’s going on, but at least we can all ride out the storm together now. Oh, and --” she motioned to their duel disks, causing Beth to look down at her arm, now remembering what was at stake, “-- it would help if you turned those on.”

Elizabeth nodded, flicking her forearm to the side, causing the wings of the duel disk to unfold and display its power in all the juicy, dramatic glory she could muster. Ashley snickered quietly and simply hit the button on the side that did the same thing.

"I just don't feel quite right about dueling, mate."Ashley mimicked her best friend quietly, out of Elizabeth's earshot, who quickly entered a deep focus, trying to find some source of happiness to avoid dooming them to whatever degree she could.

It was worth admitted that... this took some work. At first, in her search for happiness, all she could find were the things that she carried daily: fear that she had lost purpose, anxiety that this was her last year, loneliness for... well, a million reasons, truly, followed by some degree of powerlessness, leading her right up to what had just been said a moment or two ago: memories.

It was true that Elizabeth was terrified of losing her memories; she spent far more of her free time than she'd like to admit writing things down, trying her best to make sure she would never lose what she had left of say, her brother, but also times with Hitomu, Ashley, and others. But in the same way that the thought of forgetting those memories terrified her, it also made them that much more special to her. She felt blessed, almost, to have had those laughs, those cries, 3AM fried food on a school night with her brother because they were watching a really good show and couldn't put it down. Those memories were her happiness, and the thought of them warmed her body from the inside out. Her fingertips began to glow with the energy created by the positive feelings, much in the same way their circle had done for the others.

"Yo, are we cool with these skeletons? Please tell me we're cool with the skeletons." An unfamiliar voice shot Beth's eyes open, and she turned to the one person who would know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, who that was that interrupted her concentration.

"Ashley, who the hell is that?" she looked up and down the male figure, examining him.

Ashley groaned, "Pretty sure that's my 3:30 meeting. What a day for him to show up on campus. Hey, kid! Come over here!" Ashley hollered over to the new kid, waving her hands and motioning for him to come closer.

Elizabeth simply blinked and waited for something to happen next, "A new student...?" she looked over at Melissa, "Have you met him yet?"

[Zai 26]

 

"Hmmmwaaaah!"

Kuribohrn responded to Gabby the same way he responded to, well, everything. Then he added to it by tipping his hat to her, only to remember that the hat was what was keeping him aloft as he fell toward the ground. He hurriedly put it back on before he crash landed, and hovered back up to eye level with her, playing it off like nothing had happened. 

---

"She wanted to get us all to have happy thoughts so we could use duel space to stop the monsters. I don't know how, but it's duel space I'm sure it'll work out." Jun waved that last comment aside before brightening up and gesturing to the sky, "so yes! Welcome to our great starlit palace of happy thoughts! Be sure to have fun and happy!" 

"Happy thoughts, huh?" Yushiro said, scratching his chin for a moment. As strange as it sounded, that was exactly what seemed to be happening around them, and it was working quite well! Sure, there were some stray monsters who found it wise to try and make a move against the students, but any that weren't promptly dealt with by Gabriela's collection of Skull Servants would meet an equally swift defeat at the hands of the various HEROs Souji had assembled for his own display. Quite the successful defense!

"Gonna join in or what? I don't see any good thoughts in here."

"You know what?" Yushiro thought back, a sly little grin appearing on his face. Quickly, he flipped through his deck and took a couple of monster cards out. As he did, the sky above started to take on a slightly more blueish tint, and if one looked closely they could see gold lines running through it.

---

 

"What did you just do?" Kazu asked as he glared at the fit, well built teenager who was presently putting on a Blue Yonder uniform in front of him. The other boy finished stuffing himself into the sweater, his spiky red hair poking out of the top like some sort of fiery hedgehog for a moment before he spoke.

"Hey prettyboy. Just livening things up a bit, is all."

"The macro disk is not to be tampered with, you know that."

"Relax Kaz. Its just level limit area B. Wouldn't wanna make things too easy for the kiddies."

"I set up the macro disc with mystic piper precisely because the situation would be easy to defuse. We can't afford to overtax it and risk a malfunction- it was designed to work in Ichor, not Ambrosia."

"Same damn thing. That's why we're here in the first place. Besides, its not gonna break from one extra spell card."

"We can't be certain of that."

"You worry too much. And what's it matter anyway?"

"It might cause more damage than I intended."

"Good." A predatory slash crossed Trey's face. "Give em a taste of what home was like."

"Why Chou placed her trust in a bloodthirsty brute like you, I'll never understand."

"Because." He walked forward and placed his hand on Kazu's shoulder, gripping it too tightly for it to be at all pleasant. "Even after everything you two had to go through, you're still too soft to do what needs to be done. You're a weakling, and why she makes an exception for you, I'll never know."

Kazu brushed his hand off. "There is more than one way to show strength. She's always been able to recognize that. You, apparently, still can't. But fine, you can have it your way. Attempting to dissuade you is a fool's errand anyway."

"You've learned to pick your battles, at least. Good. Now lets get outta here."

---

"Wait, what are you-"

"Synchro Summon! Clear Wing Synchro Dragon!" Yushiro called out, going through the summoning motions on his borrowed duel disk, and expelling Zetsuei from his mind and out into reality. The dragon appeared above the gathered crowd, roaring angrily. There was more to it than just getting back at his companion, though. Yushiro had summoned him above them for a specific purpose, and as the light from Melissa's duel field began to shine upon his wings, it became clear. Reflected and refracted through Zetsuei's crystalline wings, the light shone in a beautiful rainbow of colors, bathing the whole area in a spectacular brilliance that seemed to energize everything it touched.

"Yes!" He shouted. "With all these people here, looks like the duel field can even support something as big as Clear Wing!"  He flashed a thumbs up in Melissa's direction and called over to her. "Hey! Your plan's working great!"

Or at least, it was. Until a deafening and prolonged toot could be heard from within the procession of duel monsters making its way through the area. The mob stopped, and after two shorter toots, split open to make way for what must have been the leader. He sure didn't look like a leader.

He looked more like a clown, what with that strange blue hair, his gaudy outfit, but most important was the shiny golden flute he was carrying as if his life depended on it. Once he had stepped fully out of the crowd, he gave the assembled students an introductory bow, but his cheery expression didn't do much to hide some frustrated body language.

"So, you're the ones making a muck of my machinations," the piper hissed. "Can't have that, no sir!" He took a deep breath, then blew into his flute with all he had once again. The golden lines in the sky lit up, and suddenly, Clear Wing fell from the sky. Similarly, all of the HEROs present dropped to the ground, as if something was pinning all of the stronger monsters in the area to the ground.

"Now, why don;t we even the playing field, little munchkins?!"

He blew into the instrument one more time. This time though, from the other end of his flute, something other than noise emerged. A black creature, that seemed to stare right into the students with its singular eye, slipped and squeezed its way out of the flute That mirror in the middle of its body didn't do a very good job of reflecting anyone, either.

"Now, eeny-meeny-THAT ONE! GET HIM, RELINQUISHED!" The creature's stalk eye locked onto Zetsuei, and as its arms reached out, a vortex appeared, sucking the dragon into the mirror in its body. After Clear Wing dissapeared, the creature's fleshy wings folded over itself, and a moment later the form of the monster it had absorbed appeared there, grotesquely fused to the flesh. "Now, everyone, get 'em!"

Another big toot from the flute, but this one was quite a bit shorter. As the piper continued playing away at his flute, it seemed the gathered mob of monsters all agreed that strength in numbers was the way to go, as each and every one of them made their way toward the students and their defenses.

---

"Hmmmwahh-wah!!!"

Contrary to what one might expect, Kuriborhn didn't look the least bit terrified. Instead, he fluttered over and tugged on Gabby's arm, urging her toward the oncoming hoard of monsters. Maybe he had an idea?

[radio414 907]

Melissa followed where Elizabeth was pointing, though she wasn’t entirely sure why Elizabeth thought she knew anyone, especially people who, if Ashley Rendleman was correct, had just arrived at Blue Yonder that day. He was significantly taller than Melissa was; even at a distance she guessed that he was probably even taller than Elizabeth, and Elizabeth was pretty tall. But that -- well, that and the “cool with the skeletons” comment -- was the only information she had on him; there was no recognition at all, and she looked back at Elizabeth and shook her head to indicate as such. The pit in her stomach combined with Ashley calling them over combined to say she was about to meet him soon.

And yet, she felt like she was supposed to? Everyone kept pointing to her as “the leader” and just because she thought there were some pretty heavy scare quotes around that particular title, it wasn’t like she hadn’t been acting like it. It had been her plan, after all.

But before she could act on either impulse (that was to say, either meet the new kid or dig a hole, hide in it, and never talk to anyone ever again), something else caught her attention. Something bigger. Yushiro had summoned a huge dragon. It didn’t just draw her eye because of the size, though, nor because of how it interacted with her duel field (though that was more a part of it than the size), there was something intangibly alluring to the Crystal Wing Dragon that Melissa didn’t quite have the words for.

Awe, maybe? Could it be that? Melissa had sometimes wondered what it was like to be awed, especially when reading descriptions and analyses of shepherds being confronted by a host of angels. What she was experiencing now couldn’t be exactly like that, obviously, but the fact that she was associating the two at all meant that the feeling was at least a minuscule fraction of what they must have felt.

“Hey,” Yushiro said. “Your plan’s working great!”

And then, of course, it wasn’t.

---

While people are saying, “Peace and safety,” destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.
-1 Thessalonians 5:3 (NIV)

---

Oh, of all the problems that Melissa could have foreseen (and she had thought about a lot of problems), a waddling man with a flute was not one of them. The horde that accompanied him, okay, that was to be expected, but also the emotional barrier they had created was supposed to provide some resistance to that, right? And failing that, there was the extra actual barrier of bats and skeletons whose job was literally this.

Her confidence was shattered, though, when the Crystal Wing (not to mention Souji’s HEROes, though Melissa hadn’t been paying as much attention there) was suddenly pinned to the ground. Worse still, when the piper summoned a Relinquished to absorb the dragon. Suddenly, Melissa felt a whole lot more vulnerable.

What had she done, really, in the face of what was happening? She’d done nothing but promise good vibes as if that was going to do anything in the face of this, and gathering people together felt like leading lambs to the slaughter now. Relinquished loomed large over everything, even as the rest of the monsters began to charge, and the flute playing in the background now sounded like a battle march. The drumbeat was her own heartbeat, pounding in her ears and nearly drowning our everything else. Covering her ears didn’t help -- nothing did.

Her duel field, too, faltered, flickering out of existence for just a moment before coming back dimmer than before. Closing her eyes didn’t help ignore that either, and she sure did try. But what more could she do? She so wanted to just wake up in her bed and have nothing that happened today happen at all.

you have already done so much good. just a little more.

That wasn’t her thought. It came from her head, yes, but it certainly wasn’t hers. She didn’t sound like that, Melissa knew that about herself. And yet, her concern for her own wellbeing was overridden by the comfort and reaffirmation the thought brought to her. It was such a small push, and yet, once she’d gotten it, she just kept moving. “What do I do?” she mumbled to herself.

She knew the answer even before she got it. the first step is talking to your friends. everything should come together after that.

Right. “Gabby!” Melissa called out. That was step one, making sure the one with still-usable monsters already out was aware and knew where to direct her forces. Next was all the friends already in front of her, and yes, Yushiro and Ashley Rendleman counted for these purposes. “Okay, first, this is going to work. You need to think that or the sanctuary won’t stay up. We’re still okay,” she said. “Probably. We just need to find something that works.”

Melissa pulled out a card and slid it into her duel disk. “Desire…” she mumbled to herself. “Does this work?” No, the Darklord stayed kneeling on the ground, unable to pull herself to a standing position. “Ukoback?” Melissa said as she slotted another card in. And that one… did! The little fairy flitted around awaiting orders. “Is it low levels? Three or less?” she said, louder this time. “Would Xyz work? Hey!” Now she was looking up and around. “I guess I don’t- I don’t really know what anyone plays. Does anyone with a duel disk and some Xyz cards, can we try those?”

[LordCowCow 840]

Gabby looked in shock as the dragon was summoned. Compared to everything else they had seen it was absolutely huge. Was that really on their side? She supposed it must have been otherwise it would be attacking them right then. She saw the Skull Servants start to approach the dragon and she started to move to stop them. Which was when a horn sounded. It caused her to jump and look around wildly for where it came from. Then she saw...

Oh no.

There were suddenly more monsters attacking them. Led by one who looked, honestly, pretty harmless compared to some of the things they had seen so far. Everything that followed proved that just wasn't the case. A horrific beast was summoned right in their supposed sanctuary. One which soon absorbed the fierce dragon that someone had summoned.

She started to back away. They had to run, right? If this place wasn't safe then they had to just run as far as they could. Surely outside of the school it was safe.

Then she heard her name being called. Turning in the direction of the voice she saw Melissa. Who quickly began talking with other people. Making plans. Not plans to run it didn't seem. Which meant...that she couldn't run either.

She looked back at the monsters. Fearful. What could she possibly do in this situation? She was just some powerless girl. Some poor child who didn't even deserve to be in the school to begin with.

Wait...no. That wasn't right.

That was who she was before coming here. But wasn't she supposed to be different now? She was supposed to be Gabriela. A proud, confident, princess. Who feared no one and would not allow such an insult to exist.

That wasn't just who she was supposed to be. It was who she had to be.

So gathering her will she stepped towards the monster that was attacking. "Servants! Our territory has been invaded. It is your duty to protect this land, and your ruler, with your unlives! Now go, defeat this heretic at once!"

She directed the scattered Skull Servants to converge on the relinquish. As she did she reached for her deck and summoned three more of them to join the assault.

[Skaia 578]

Jun smiled as Yushiro had proceeded to bust out his dragon monster. As the winged dragon took flight the girl let out a small applause saying, "way to get into it Shiro. Now that's what I call happy." Nodding, everything seemed to be going exactly to Melissa's plans. Now all that was left was...well, Jun wasn't exactly sure what Melissa's end goal was in doing this, but it was fun so Jun figured she'd keep going along with and try and do more. That was, of course, until the Piper showed up. 

The girl's expression immediately soured as the man seemed to be bent on ruining their fun, and summoned a horde of monsters to come and attack them. Well, that was just rude. Annoyance was plain as day on the girl's face as chaos seemed to start ensuing and the experiment/show that they had been performing seemed to come to a halt. Honestly Jun's mood was so ruined that she had half a mind to just leave and go back to her room and find something else to kill time with as this whole monster invasion thing panned out. She didn't, yet , and was rewarded in her choice as their fearless leader in Melissa had come to them with a new plan. Well, it wasn't so much as a plan as it was, "keep doing what you're doing and attack," but it was enough to make Jun consider what she could be doing here. 

"Well, if it's just levels any XYZ monster should be fine." The girl commented to Melissa. Then, returning to a more pleasant smile Jun waved her hand saying, "but sorry, I don't have really any XYZ on me. Synchro girl at heart. And in my deck." Nodding and chuckling to herself, Jun thought about it more though. "But still, none of my low leveled monsters are particularly strong and I don't even have that many to begin with." It was certainly an annoying  restriction to play with and Jun didn't have many answers that she could think of. Scratching her chin for a bit, the girl shrugged and smiled again. 

Drawing two cards from her deck, the girl summoned Chiwen and Bi'an to her field. Pointing at the Piper the girl yelled, "if it's a fight you want then you better be ready to duel yourself." With that, the girl used her two monsters to summon Phonon Pulse Dragon. Once it took the field, it seemed to be inhibited by whatever was causing the other monsters to take a defensive posture. However, above the dragon four bright colored lights appeared. The four combined into one and dropped onto the dragon, seeming to revitalize it, the beast letting out a roar as it began to take flight. "And now that my dragon is level 1, get him boy!" The dragons wings of purple flame roared to life as the beast dove straight at the mystic piper.

[Chaos Sonic 443]



Things were going good...until it wasn't. Sure, Souji had his defenses up via the Avian and Bubbleman Spells and Traps, along with Mirror Gate and even his monsters...while that Yushiro kid had out the Crystal Wing, to which the summoning of it really intrigued him just for how elegant it was. However, then things went wrong...very wrong.

"So, you're the ones making a muck of my machinations. Can't have that, no sir! Now, why don;t we even the playing field, little munchkins?!"

Souji watched how the dragon immediately was grounded, but oddly enough...so were his HEROs. Solid Soldier, Blazeman and Ocean all ended up dropping down, as if they were being pinned. "...you've got to be kidding..." he muttered, watching how some Pied Piper just simply brought all of their monsters to a grinding halt...and now had a Relinquished taking the Crystal Wing for their own.

...how the hell did he make...? Souji thought, trying to rationalize how this was possible. Then something hit him, the moment he heard Melissa ask about Xyz Monsters, which made everything click. That has to be it...if these things are still under the effects and rulings of Duel Monsters...think Souji! The young man looked around, trying to get his thought process going. Only things I can assume...is that it's either Gravity Bind or Limit Area B. Cause if only low levels, like Melissa's Uroback can work...wait...if Jun can attack with...then it's definitely that!

A smirk appeared on Souji's face, as he removed the three monsters from the Duel Disk and removed the other cards for a moment. "Just give me a sec guys...I got a bit of a plan." he said, removing his deck again before swapping a few more cards in it and immediately slamming it back in. "Can't believe I'd be going back to pretty much the basics at this point. But...it's better than nothing."

With a few motions, Souji played a few cards. "Polymerization! Burstinatrix and Clayman! Fusion Summon! Elemental HERO Rampart Blaster!!" he shouted, as now Rampart Blaster came forth in the kneeling position. "I'll get around that little trick of yours one way or another! Summoning up...Elemental HERO Burstinatrix, Knospe Avian and Ice Edge!" At his calling, four new HEROs emerged within the span of seconds, bursting forth from fire, the ground via a plant, a gust of wind and a wintry breeze. "Heh...good to see you guys again...but our bit of a reunion will have to wait."

Now with his new line up, Souji adjusted the brim of his hat some as well as his tie. "Now, let's give Jun's Phonon Pulse Dragon and the Skull Servant Squad a bit of a hand...with some heroic flair." he said snapping his fingers slightly. "Burstinatrix! Get on in there and let your fire burn! And with a little help thanks to Burst Return!" He slid another card onto his Duel Disk, watching Burstinatrix flare to life and jump into the fray. "Knospe! Ice Edge! Go for helping each other out and take out the enemy!" Knospe and Ice Edge nodded before rushing forth as well.

"As for you Avian..." Souji paused, before pulling out Feather Shot and Feather Wind. "Since your out now...this'll work even better. Avian! Go on, Feather Shot and Feather Wind as well!" Avian took off in flight, the quills and feathers from his wings launching out and practically performing exactly what the Spell and Trap did before...but with a better fervor than before. "Last but not least...Rampart Blaster...FIRE!!" The young man pointed forward, to which the Fusion simply remained in it's knelt state before unloading a serious of fire in the direction of the opposition.

[reparoni 161]

 

Kai crossed his arms, giving the skeletons one last nervous glance, before turning to the blonde women that was calling him over. "I'm takin' that as a yes!" He said, making his way towards the group. Turns out they were, in fact, cool with the skeletons. Which just made all of this even stranger. "So I'll take it this ain't where we doin' our little meeting?" He said, turning around towards... whatever the hell was happening. They were dueling a monster, and now there was some sort of clown with a flute? It seemed like they were able to play cards and impact the field, as if it was a duel. Turning towards his duel disk, he got an idea. "Sorry, can't stay to chit-chat. Got a school to save." He said, his disk coming to life as he drew cards from his deck.

"Cute cards you Blue Yonder lot have..." He said, making his way next to the duelists. "Amateurs! I'll show this clown how a real duelist does it!" The girl in the hat He raised one of the cards in his hand up into the air. "First, I use the effect of Galaxy Soldier to Special Summon it in Defense Position by sending Cyber Dragon Herz to the Grave!" The metallic soldier came on the field, already in Defense Positon. "Now that I sent Herz to the Graveyard, I can add a Cyber Dragon to my hand from my Deck! I can also add another Galaxy Soldier thanks to my Soldier's effect!" After searching for the two cards in question, he smirked. "Now, I activate the effect of Cyber Dragon Nachster! By discarding the Cyber Dragon I added to my hand, I can Special Summon it!" The small robotic worm appeared on the field in Attack Position, seemingly unaffected by the binding effect around them. "Now I use the effect of Nachster to Special Summon the Cyber Dragon I just discarded!" On command, the Cyber Dragon came onto the field, before quickly being bounded by the effect on the field. However, this didn't matter, as Kai's grin got wide. "With Galaxy Soldier and Cyber Dragon, I Xyz Summon Cyber Dragon Nova on the field!" The two monsters combined in a flash of light, leaving the sleek black cybernetic dragon in its wake. Kai wasn't done though.

"Now, I overlay my Cyber Dragon Nova with Cyber Dragon Calamity!" Nova let out an ear piercing screech as it too was surrounded by a flash of light, leaving a much more darker and organic looking Cyber Dragon. He turned his attention towards the Relinquished, which now had a good number of skeletons on it. "Move, you boney freaks!" He commanded, pointing towards the monster. "Calamity! Null Terminal Pulse!" On command, the oozy dragon let out a roar, sending a pulse of dark, purple energy towards the monster. Any of those skeletons that didn't heed his warning would be caught in the explosive attack as Kai cackled. "THIS is how it's done!"

Edited June 10, 2020 by REP ?

[Cappuccijoe 17]

 

Sigh. That's your date, Beth. Out there being the hero. Elizabeth wore a look of exasperation as the piper not only brought a majority of the group's monsters to their knees, but empowered his own beast with Yushiro's dragon. A sense of despair washed over the group; it was a feeling she could detect immediately. Elizabeth looked around, waiting for someone to react; in a strange way, she felt pressure mounting on her shoulders, as if her seniority over the group somehow made her responsible. She swallowed the lump in her throat, scanning her deck with her brother's deck with her mind, trying to remember what was in there. It had been a while since she looked at it with any intention of playing cards from it.

Just as she began to open her mouth, the others sprung into action, bringing a wave of relief along with them. She was perfectly content to be a bystander in this situation, ready to pounce as somewhat of a last resort. She thought to herself that perhaps Hitomu should have been here for this, but then again, he would have nothing to play anyway. She had to remind herself to get back on him for that. What was a Duel King without a deck? Preposterous.

Most of what was happening was pretty standard; so much so that it had been somewhat predictable to her inside of Elizabeth's mind. She was hardly paying attention to anything except for the piper, examining his moves to try and get a hold of what exactly it was they were planning. That was, until the new kid started playing some awfully familiar looking cards. Elizabeth couldn’t help but smile, “Oh wow…” she looked down at her wrist, where the same skeleton of cards lay in a 40 count stack, “Nice card he’s got there.” He even had his own flare on the archetype. She knew it was foolish to assume Todd would be the only one with such a deck, but it was entrancing nonetheless. Something about it felt... warm? It was bizarre. His energy, his cards, they had a familiar feel to them.

She had to know his name.

---

"Bloody hell, mate. Another new boyfriend? Third one this week I wager. Should I even ask his name?"

"Don't be so dense, Todd. He is not my boyfriend, it wasn't even a proper date. Just tea. Besides, I've got no bloody idea what his name is."

Edited June 19, 2020 by Cappuccijoe

[Zai 26]

 

"Skeletons, Dragons, and Superheroes. Oh my!"

The Piper laughed manically as the gathered students switched from defense to offense and came at his hoard with everything they could muster. For his part, Yushiro spent a good few seconds stunned at the sudden turnaround and the loss of Zetsuei to Relinquished. Clear Wing was his best, after all. What was he supposed to do now?

"You're going to have to do better than that!" The piper played another note, and on command a hoard of Explossums, probably the rest of the same group that had burned Yushiro's legs, rolled up and dove into the path of as many of the oncoming attacks as they could, exploding on contact with any projectiles or lowly monsters. As for the rest, Relinquished didn't seem fazed in the slightest, probably thanks to all the power it had absorbed from Clear Wing. "Take the big one with the gun next!"

On command, Relinquished absorbed Rampart blaster this time, her agonized form appearing opposite Clear Wing on its membrane shell. It seemed about ready to rear up and attack, were it not for another large threat appearing before it.

"Calamity! Null Terminal Pulse!"

A grotesque mechanical dragon had appeared on their side- powerful enough to give Relinquished pause with a blast from its gaping maw. As the smoke from the impact began to clear, Yushiro trailed the cyber dragon's movements back and found the person who had summoned it a few more feet back. He didn't look like anyone Yushiro had seen before... a new student? And then Liz caught his eye again.

She was staring at him with a look in her eyes that, in some part of his mind, he would have hoped she'd reserve for him. Jealousy wasn't exactly foreign to him, but in the context of the situation it certainly felt alien. Why should it matter? Especially at a time like this. The pulse of a laser blast snapped him out of his haze before he could dwell on it further, though.

Relinquished's eye beam hit Cyber Dragon Calamity with tremendous force, sending it careening back through a crowd of students and skull servants. Some jumped out of the way, but others weren't as lucky, and found themselves knocked down and bowled over by the semi-real hologram... Wait, that was it!

Yushiro began sprinting through the crowd toward, dodging bones and minor fiends and anything else in his way until he found a familiar face. Kuribohrn's, in this case. As he ran, pandemonium erupted around him. Studendts started screaming and running for their lives in panic, and it seemed even more monsters were coming out of the woodwork.

"Hmmmwaaaah!"

The little puffball let out his trademark cry to  let Gabby know that Yushiro was approaching. "Hey, princess!" He'd forgotten her name, but the impression Gabby had left on Yushiro was much harder to forget. "We have to pull that thing into the duel field!"

Gabriella looked at her skinny arms then back at Yushiro in surprise. "I can't pull THAT!"

"Your Skeletons can! You practically have an army of them! That Cyber dragon got less solid when it entered the duel field. If we pull relinquished and the piper in here, it'll do the same to them!"

"A-ah right. Of course! Get them, my minions, so that I may...enact my punishment directly!"

It took them a couple of seconds to process what Gabby meant by "Get them" but thanks to duel space the gathered skull servants did as they were told, and began to converge on Relinquished. Yushiro looked back toward Elizabeth for a moment, then to his duel disk, and finally to the one monster that he still had. He wasn't gonna sit this one out.

"I'm gonna need your help too, pal." Kuriborhn nodded, understanding what Yushiro's plan was without him having to say it. Then he landed back on Yushiro's head, and without another word, they took off running again. This time toward the Piper himself. Kuriborhn's magic would keep the pain from the burns at bay after they left the field, but Yushiro would still be open to further harm from the hoard of low level monsters. Still, he had to get close. He only had one shot.

"Now, then, munchkins, care to keep playing?!" The Piper cackled, playing his instrument again and bringing forth an entire hoard of Fungi of the musk. As the killer shrooms shambled forward, the Skull servants threw themselves at relinquished, doing everything they could to drag the behemoth closer. Through this mess Yushiro ran, hoping the others would pick up on what he was trying to do. There hadn't been time to explain in full to Gabby that, if they could get Relinquished into Melissa's duel field, they would likely be able to destroy the monsters within it, making it weak enough to defeat. They were treated as spell cards right now, after all. If he could just get in close enough to the piper, maybe he could distract him long enough for everyone else to handle relinquished, or at the very least toss a mystical space typhoon at Zetsuei and try to get him out of that thing.

Another blast from Relinquished to knock Cyber Dragon Calamity around some more. Somehow, it wasn't down yet- it was a tough bag of bolts, that was for sure. As for the rest of the students' assembled monsters, the fungi were on them now, and they would have to deal with the hoard first if they wanted to help the skull servants dog pile relinquished.

 

 

 

 

Edited June 26, 2020 by Zai

[radio414 907]

At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other.
-Matthew 24:10 (NIV)

---

Melissa had told everyone “we all need to think this will work or it literally will not,” and yet, as the Relinquished absorbed another monster and the rest of the horde came closing in, well, she wasn’t exactly practicing what she had been preaching. Of course, because it was her duel field that was holding everything together, such thoughts had deleterious effects on the space she had created. It didn’t flicker out of existence like last time, but her light did go dimmer. Up above, storm clouds rumbled in, the kind that were especially dark and grey. No rain yet, but surely soon.

Her fellow students either must have noticed or had already gone down that same mental drive off the cliff of misery, because that was when the panic started. People Running About was already one of Melissa’s least favorite cards just on concept alone, and seeing it in the flesh wasn’t particularly soothing either. It took a lot of effort for Melissa to not follow suit, or worse, lose control of her breath and be unable to.

Some people hadn’t budged yet, though. Gabby, bless her heart, kept up the skeleton assault in the meantime, and- actually, everyone Melissa knew knew, was still around, either avoiding the uproar where they could or not even paying it any mind. The new kid, whatever his name was, hadn’t moved yet, either. Yushiro was, though, running at Gabby and screaming something about… pulling the Relinquished into her duel field?

It wasn’t exactly the sort of thing that made sense to her, but then again, Melissa considered, her plan probably hadn’t made much sense when she’d said it out loud either. Besides, Gabby seemed to manage okay. But if that plan revolved around her duel field still being up, she had to do something about the people it was supposedly protecting.

What was she supposed to do, though, to quell such panic? There was really only one thing Melissa could think of, and she still took several moments trying to think of another. She took a few more breaths, then summoned her best impression of Jeremiah. “This is what the LORD God Almighty, the God of Israel says: ‘Listen!’”

Of course, she didn’t actually have any follow-through, but a few of the people who hadn’t immediately left the sanctuary did turn around at least. Oh, she remembered why she hated this. How did she manage to do this before?

when there’s a plan, there’s hope, right?

It was silly, and it sounded a bit too much like a platitude, but the voice in her head did give her some amount of encouragement. Just enough to prompt her to continue on with her own. “It’s going to be okay,” she said. She said it again, just to be sure. “It’s going to be okay. I realize it might be hard to focus on, uh, ‘good thoughts’ right now, but at least start with that. Everything else, uh, to be honest, everything else hinges on that. Or if that’s too much, um, we’re still here, right? We’re all still trying. How about that?”

The sky was starting to brighten again, so that was something, at least.

[LordCowCow 840]

Gabby didn't know what she was doing. This was far beyond anything she had expected when coming here. She wasn't some kind of hero, nor did she want to be, and she certainly wasn't prepared to be fighting against actual monsters. She had thought her only concerns would be getting people to like her and keeping up her act...no, her transformation. But she knew she had to keep doing something. Especially as it didn't seem like many other people, despite their numbers, felt fit to do anything about the problem.

But she just kept seeing the Skull Servants crushed by the rampaging Monster. Many of whom barely so much as laid a finger on the beast.

Then it hit her. If this truly was Duel Space, wouldn't that mean....

Gabriela drew in a deep breath and pulled the card from her deck. "You may be strong, vile beast, but my dominion is eternal! And such a grand kingdom deserves an equally grand king. And today you will meet him!" She then placed the King of the Skull Servants card onto her duel disk.

At first what emerged looked to be not much different than a Skull Servant. But then an energy came off of the piles of bones that were previously walking skeletons and flowed into the Monster. With every one he grew in size until the King towered over them. "Bring that Monster to my feet at once; our kingdom is being mocked!"

With a chattering noise and a low moan the skeleton surged forward. Ignoring anything else in an attempt to reach Relinquished and grab hold of the Monster.

[Skaia 578]

Jun frowned as the explossum hoard all dog piled onto her dragon and knocked it away. Shimmering with an a brown aura the dragon didn't seem too injured by the attack, roaring as it seemed to set its sights back at the Piper. However, before it could begin its charge again, Jun looked over to see that there was something else going on. The Relinquished only seemed to be getting stronger as the fight went on, now absorbing one of Souji's monsters,  and so everyone was looking for a way to stop it before it got too out of control. Jun definitely wanted to go and defeat the Piper, thinking that it was definitely the source of the problem, but if the rest of her underclassman were doing something it was her job as temporary captain to go and help them. Scratching her chin, seeing the fungus army charge the skeleton one, Jun figured that just one dragon wasn't enough. Drawing out three cards from her deck, the girl said, "alright, let's help out gang!" 

Placing two monsters down she said, "Suanni, Chi'wen, get ready to synchro summon! And bring out Denlong!" As she declared this, the wyrms vanished as soon as they appeared, turning into a single ring of light with four blazing stars inside the ring. After a burst of light, the two were replaced with a much larger golden dragon. As it appeared, it seemed to be bound by whatever was restricting the higher level monster's powers, though Jun didn't seem bothered by this. Taking out Bixi from her deck, the girl tossed it into the graveyard, causing the dragon to shimmer as its level changed from five to two. "And now let's add a little bit more oomph to you!" Playing Yang Zing Prana, a golden wave of energy pulsed out from Jun, continuing to rhythmically pulse. As it did, her new Synchro monster seemed to gain strength from it, as well as her field spell and Suanni, turning the 0 ATK Denlong into a 1300 ATK monster. 

Raising her hand, the girl shouted, "now Phonon, Denlong! Go! Torch those shrooms!" The two dragons roared, making their way towards the fungal army. Denlong let loose a golden flame into the swarm, whereas Phonon Pulse Dragon simply dived into them, moving to destroy all it passed through with its flaming wings. 

[reparoni 161]

 

Kai grinned as the beast was struck by his Cyber Dragon's attack, waiting for it to be destroyed. However, he was caught off-guard when not only was it not destroyed, but it retaliated with a blast of its own, sending Calamity reeling back and crashing onto the ground. "Impossible!" Kai exclaimed, gritting his teeth as he turned towards the Piper. His Dragon was struck with another blast, wearing it down. He wasn't sure if the duel space was playing fast and loose with the rules, or if Calamity was surviving due to its effect. Either way, Calamity was now far too weak to do much of anything.

"If you think I'm done, you haven't seen anything yet, punk!" He exclaimed, drawing a card from his deck. Looking at the card he drew, he smirked. "Let's get the ball rolling! First, I'll use the effect of Galaxy Solider once again, this time discarding Cyber Dragon Drei, and adding my last Galaxy Solider to my hand!" Just like before, the Galaxy Soldier appeared on the field in Defense Position. "Now I Normal Summon Cyber Dragon Core, using its effect to add Cyber Revsystem, which I will activate immediately to summon the Drei I discarded!" The two Cyber Dragons appeared on the field, although it wouldn't be long before they'd leave. "With Drei's effect, I make my Core and Drei Level 5! And with that, I Xyz Summon Cyber Dragon Seiger using Cyber Dragon Core and Galaxy Soldier!"

The soldier and the metalic worm disappeared from the field, being replaced by a large silver dragon. The Relinquished was already being attacked by a rather menacing looking skeleton. Kai decided it looked like it needed help. "Now, I will use Seiger's effect on itself to grant it 2100 extra attack!" A white light started charging in the dragon's mouth as it got ready to fire a beam. "Now, Seiger, strike down that abomination!" Normally, his opponent wouldn't be taking battle damage, but right now that didn't matter. What mattered was that they needed to destroy this thing. He glanced over towards the fungi army. The girl seemed to have things under control, but just to be safe, and to show off, Kai decided to help. "Calamity! Help those two dragons deal with the mushrooms!" The more eldrich of the two mechanical dragons fired another purple blast, this time towards the group of fungi Jun was dealing with. With any luck, Calamity would be able to gain strength from destroying some of the fungi and get stronger.

Edited July 11, 2020 by ? REP ?

[Zai 26]

Dragons and even more dragons tore into the hoards of fungi with their attacks, and from behind them came shambling forward a massive skeleton king- a worthy challenger for Relinquished at last. The repulsive demon fired yet another blast from its eye, but the King shrugged it off and continued to advance, grappling Relinquished when he at last came close enough. Yushiro weaved in and out of the crowd, trying to inch closer to the piper. His legs hurt, and occasionally he came close to getting caught by an attack from a monster, but he soldiered on as the battle raged and the students began to rally. Then a blast from one of the cyber dragons shook relinquished, and it was enough for the King to win out of the moment, hoisting Relinquished into the air and moving it back toward the duel field.

"You munchkins think you have the strength to defeat us?! Absurd!" The piper yelled, angry that he seemed to be losing some ground.

"Now's my chance!"

Seizing the moment, Yushiro dove at the piper, tackling him to the ground and knocking the pipe out of his hands as Kuriborhn flitted in and snatched it up. The pain from the burns came searing back into his shins as Yushiro and the piper struggled on the ground, and Yushiro gritted his teeth. Still, they had managed to succeed for the moment.

The hoard immediately lost cohesion now that the magical instrument was no longer controlling them. Fungi turned on each other, possums exploded, d boyz went flying, and soon all hell broke loose as the one unified force of low level monsters morphed into a free for all, giving the students the perfect chance to clean house. The piper, however, was stringer than Yushiro was, and soon he overpowered the boy, rolling on top of him and tightening his hands around his throat.

"You'll pay for that, impudent brat!"