... duel you. "Huh?" Lyall was roused up from the doze he had fallen in while observing the other duelists form tag teams. You'd think that someone who had apparently been energized by the restful sleep they had gotten would have been more alert and unable to fall asleep again, but... what can you do you know? He rubbed his eyes as he came back into full awareness, looked up, and noticed a strange, black haired girl with an eye patch staring at him expectantly. Was she looking to be partners or- She is challenging you, rang a familiar voice within Lyall's head. Kerykeion. Lyall stood and assessed the girl once more before nodding his head in recognition of her challenge. Hopefully she would be a more worthy and skilled duelist than the Archfiend loser he had faced last night. He walked around the table to be on the same side Ava was on, then took several paces back to provide a reasonable size for the dueling field. Extending his arm, his duel disk activated and ceased to look like a bracelet. "I suppose this is a good way as any to scout for partners. Challenge accepted, let's duel." Be wary around this one, Kerykeion spoke again, I sense a powerful darkness emanating from this girl. The source of this undoubtedly lies within her own deck... Lyall silently nodded at his monster's words while he drew his starting five cards. According to the holographic coin flip, he'd be taking turn one for the duel. Fine by him, his current hand was great and would easily allow him to summon one of his aces this very turn. Lyall smirked as he played his first card. "Let's start things off quickly! I'll summon Evilswarm Castor to the field in attack position!" The air before them shimmered as a tall and bulky monster appeared on the field, the one visible eye on its face glowing a fierce red as it raised its weapon to create a hazy portal in the air. A second monster known as Steelswarm Sting flew out from it at the exact moment Lyall played its respective card on his duel disk. "In case you're wondering how I normal summoned two monsters during the same turn, Castor provides me with the additional summon of an Lswarm monster whenever he hits the field. My summons won't just stop there however, I'll go ahead and create the Overlay Network to bring forth a new monster more fearsome than these two! Castor, Sting!" The portal in the air grew larger as Castor and Sting jumped into it, changing its color from a murky purple to an ominous black, blue, and red. A chill seemed to sweep through the area as black fog curled downwards from the portal, partially obscuring the draconian creature emerging from it. Two icy wings flapped strongly to clear away the mist, and with a belligerent screech, Evilswarm Ophion proudly announced its presence as odd looking ice began to spread out onto the field from under its body, a sign of its first ability coming into play for the duel. The mirror on its back sparked with power as Lyall detached the XYZ material, Steelswarm Sting, to use Ophion's second ability to search out an Infestation card from his deck. As Sting headed to the Graveyard, it made the motion of tossing one card to Lyall, and the duelist revealed the card to be Infestation Ripples. He set three cards on the field, leaving only one remaining in his hand. The infected Ice Barrier Dragon, Ophion. A wise choice, the girl better hope to have a response to it... and to whatever other surprises you laid down on the field for her... "That'll mark the end of my turn," Lyall said as he crossed his arms. --- It seems like a challenge to overcome that kind of a monster. That dragon is a unique foe...but its power is only worth noting while it keeps your plays limited. Remove it, now. Understood. Drawing her own five cards, plus a sixth for the draw of the turn, Ava looked over her hand. Not good stuff. This was a set-up hand at best; only one monster didn't help that much. Setting the cards down as she called them out, Ava said "I'll start by placing one monster in face-down defense position. After that, I will set two trap cards, then activate the spell card Foolish Burial." The image of an empty grave appeared on the battlefield, as Ava explained. "This card lets me kill off one monster directly from the deck, and I choose Mezuki." As the card ejected from Ava's deck into the graveyard zone, the holographic image of Mezuki fell from above, into the empty grave before it filled in with dirt, then vanished. "Your turn." --- "Activate trap card, Infestation Ripples!" Lyall shouted at the end phase of Ava's turn. His lifepoints dropped from 8000 to 7500 as a small amount of energy was flowed from Lyall to Ophion, prompting the creature to turn to the right and slash its sharp tail along the icy floor. It put its face near the cut and breathed out an eerie, tainted power that seeped into the cut and traveled downwards into the faintly visible body of Steelswarm Sting. The monster was revived by the dark energy, and as the ice broke and shattered, it shot out with a loud buzz onto the field. "Now it's my turn!" Lyall drew his next card, and while it wasn't a bad one by any means, he decided he'd change up his hand a bit. Another face down trap card activated and from it emerged the dead husk of a Steelswarm Cell. A black fog erupted from its body and shot out towards Lyall's hand to snatch one of his cards. "No use for this monster at the moment, so I'll use Infestation Infection's effect to send it back to the deck in exchange for another one of my Lswarms." --- "You'll only get whatever is on top of your deck. Activate trap card: Dark Bribe! This negates your card for the bribe of a free draw. Enjoy your card." From the face-up image of Dark Bribe shot a large coin, which smashed into the visage of Infestation Infection, shattering it, and prompting the top card of Lyall's deck into his hand. --- "Hmph, well done..." Lyall could only watch as Ava's trap card negated the effect of Infestation Infection, causing the Evilswarm Thunderbird enveloped within the fog to be lost somewhere within his deck and essentially leaving him with only one card in hand... at least until the Dark Bribe resolved completely and allowed him to draw a card. "This could come into use sooner or later, actually," he thought as he looked back onto the field. "Unfortunately for you, Thunderbird wasn't the only monster I had in my hand. I usually only summon this one at later points in my duels, but I guess it'll be making an early visit this time around." Am I up? "Obviously. Come, Evilswarm Kerykeion." Kerykeion floated down onto the field and crossed both its staffs in an intimidating manner, staring Ava down with a piercing gaze that seemed to be trying to look directly into her soul. As cliche as that sounded, that's exactly what Kerykeion was trying to do, and what it saw... well, it didn't exactly like what it saw, though at the same time it felt that there was no imminent danger to alert his summoner of. --- "I don't know what that monster does, but I don't trust him. Activate trap card: Breakthrough Skill! This card negates one monster's effects for the rest of this turn, and I choose Evilswarm Kerykeion." --- "Um... okay." Kerykeion looked back at Lyall as Ava activated the trap card, but the duelist simply shrugged and allowed the card to do its thing. The image of a grey, reptile-like beast emerged from the trap and lunged at Kerykeion, slashing at it with large claws that left burning scars across its body. Kerykeion clutched its chest in pain, but was otherwise alright and still capable of fighting. It stood up straight and crossed its staffs in front of itself, awaiting Lyall's commands along with the rest of the Lswarms. There was a very brief pause as Kerykeion looked over at Ophion and Sting, and, sensing that Lyall was about to order an attack, gave a signal for them to prepare themselves. "Reading my mind again, huh?" Lyall commented with a small grin. "If you're so eager then, Kerykeion, attack the face down!" Kerykeion pointed its Cadeucus staff at the face down and fired a fiery beam at it. "And the unfortunate monster is..." --- "The unfortunate monster is my Pyramid Turtle," Ava said as the hologram of the turtle under the pyramid gave in and died on the spot. "But now his effect activates. When Pyramid Turtle is destroyed in battle, I'm able to summon one more Zombie-Type monster directly from my deck. And this time, I choose Plaguespreader Zombie, in defense position!" The pyramid on the turtle's back burst open, and in its place stood a round-bodied zombie visibly emitting a thin purple haze from his body. He was in a defensive stance, covering his small face with his large arms. --- "I've still got two more attacks left to order! Sting, kill the zombie to clear the path for Ophion!" The fiendish wasp flew towards the Plaguespreader Zombie at a high speed, though instead of attacking it head on it darted around the monster at the last second to deliver its sting from behind. Sting's needle tore through the zombie's body before it tossed it aside and flew back to its spot on Lyall's side. "Ophion, your turn...." The infected dragon screeched as it reared up to unleash its poisoned, icy breath upon Ava. The stream struck her head on, dropping her lifepoints by 2550 points and leaving her at 5450. Ophion settled down, and Lyall ended his turn by setting one card face down in his S/T zone. "Your move once again..."

"It's bigger than that, Fubuki." Jack explained. "Bigger than this tournament. There isn't a living soul in this world that knows my true name. How is it then, in a single night here, The Khan can guess that?" he pointed accusingly at the Injection Fairy Lilly. With a sigh, Jack pushed onwards through the large doors before them. Beyond the threshold was what appeared to be a private casino. Slot machines lined the walls, there were poker and blackjack tables, craps and roulette, and of course The Khan's standard Duel Monster entourage ran it all. In the very center of the room, in all of his masculinity, stood the Khan himself throwing dice. "God damnit, Lily," Jack exclaimed. "This isn't the men's room!" "But sir, you wanted to see the maps!" She shrieked. "Master Khan is the only one who can show you those." Jack caught his face in his palm in a very disappointed manner. The duel monsters had a horrible ear for irony.

Aono looked at the strange woman who just appeared, and another weird boy besides her. "Thats quite a strange girl... I believe i saw her before?" Aono was thinking to himself. As Emily was having her speech, he couldn't help but feel irritated, especially when Miwa ran away. "You know... You can insult me as much as you want... But what you just did to her.." Aono said, as he looked at Emily, full of anger. "What you just did is unexpected!" He screamed, as he sprinted at Emily, trying to punch her, but Emily just stepped aside, and tripped Aono, making him fall face first onto the floor, making her laugh. "Foolish boy... Now go get her ass back here so we can duel!" She ordered Aono, as she turned around, noticing her partner was gone. "Where has he gone..." She asked herself, as he noticed him talking to other duelists in the distance. "Boy, get your partner back if you want revenge for what I said to her... as for me, I am getting mine back.." She said, as she facepalmed, running towards her partner. "Well... I guess I truely have no choice..." Aono thought, as he started to chase Miwa. "Miss Miwa! Calm down, we will take our revenge on her for what she said!" Aono shouted to Miwa. Meanwhile, Emily catched up to Moros. "Follow me, I am sure she will still duel us... Believe me!" She said with a sadistic smile on her face, pointing towards their original location.

His ears attentively listening to Joseph's tips, Kenta nodded and made another mental note, requesting for Laquari to remember them as well in case he forgets. With the other boy standing up, Kenta's enthusiasm switched turned on once more and he was feeling pumped like a kid getting ready for the first day of school. Laquari chuckled, "It's about time...Can't wait to start killing things." The tiger said with a lecherous grin on his face. Everything's all set ready but, where do they start? Who would be viable to fight against? Joseph just said that he's not good at picking duels with people, but neither was he! Scratching the back of his head, Kenta and Laquari looked around and survyed the room carefully...Hopefully there's someone that's free for dueling. "...Eh...Not good with this thing either." Kenta gave a slight chuckle as he turned to Joseph with an embarrassed look on his face. Running behind the halls were watery eyes, Miwa ran and ran past numerous duelists with their monsters. Who was she kidding? The woman was right, her monster isn't worth anything in this tournament. She could have chosen something more fearsome, something that wasn't a plush toy...Stopping her legs for a moment, Miwa panted and heaved, she certainly ran quite a long mile. Catching her breath, the girl looked up at the ceiling, her eyes still teary, "I'm not going to win this thing...I'm so sorry...I've failed you..." Her head hung low as her self-esteem crumpled like a piece of paper. With her mind not exactly focused on her surroundings, Miwa found herself shrieking when a purple-clothed skeleton appeared beside her. Her back against the wall and not having recovered from the events that took place earlier, Miwa was scared. This skeletal being must be a monster of someone, recognizing the zombie as not just Skull Servant but as The King! She didn't expect him to have such a...Refined disposition, it must go with being king after all. The king did nothing but console the girl and reassure her. She still had her laments, not fully heeding his words. She bowed to the skeletal king and thanked him, Miwa slowly walked towards the direction where her room was...or at least she thinks it's the right direction. However, she stopped on her tracks when familiar voices were trailing behind her. A sense of relief filled her when she saw Puddingcess as well as Aono. "Geez. For someone so fragile, you run fast." The princess said, her hands on her hips as she scolded Miwa. The girl apologized to the princess, and to Aono too. He mentioned something about taking revenge for what the woman had said to her earlier but she was reluctant...After all, she was right. "Listen here, Mistress! I didn't come alive for a big crybaby to treat me as some sort of comfort device. You and I shall be victorious! I assure you, so please wipe those tears away." Puddingcess said, her voice in a commanding tone. With her composure having finally recovered, Miwa wiped her tears with her hanky and faced Aono. She still had her doubts but he was the closest thing she had to company at this point, "Revenge is a strong word...But, I'll be your partner." The girl gave a faint smile to the boy, hopefully with their combined efforts, they'll beat that woman.

Moros turned around midway to randomly challenging another group of poeple, "Well okay, but you better not be mean to her again, i liked the little fluffy princess thing." he said excitedly. The vampire lady seemed kind of mean for some reason but maybe he could make her nicer! That would be fun, and he would get to look at all the nice lady's fluffy monsters. Yay!

Ryo frowned a bit at the mention of "oldschool". "At least its usable right?" Ryo replied dissingly, with his tongue stuck out mischievously. "Also, you talk as if you've a better card than mine, which I expected since I just started playing Duel Monsters, guess that this tournament ain't to be underestimated..." "I wouldn't have a problem partnering you, but just wait a bit, I've got a bit of stuffs to settle, I'm pretty busy~" Ryo continued, placing his forks & spoon back onto the plate that he emptied. "Also, you wouldn't want to partner a noob like me ^^' ..."Khan... maybe I can find something about him, I've a bit of questions to that guy... "Blue thing, send me to the president~" Ryo commanded his pet with a signalling wink to Alexander, as the Blue eyes white dragon floated towards the hallway, right towards an oddly-looking door. Putting on heavier steps towards the president's office, he knocked on the door, anticipating what would be happening next~