Duel Distractions

*Academy Island...*

Bastion stood on a cliff and stared out to sea as the sun rose into the sky.

After doing a few stretches, he resumed his gazing out into the horizon, thinking about past events as he did. *'Ever since that duel with Camula, things have been eerily quiet. Too quiet if you ask me… When the next shadow rider arrives, it could be my turn to duel.'* He then interrupted himself for a moment, taking out his spirit key and staring at it with a solemn expression for a moment. 'And with already two spirit gates opened, it's more important than ever that I be prepared.'

"Fortunately." He said to himself, putting away his spirit key and taking out one of his six decks from his jacket, going over the cards in it. Then to his surprise, he came upon 'White Magician Pikeru.' "Where on earth did this card come from?" He wondered. "… Silly distraction," he said after a moment's pondering. "Well, nothing distracts me. Anyway, I think I'll head over to the Slifer dorm to wake up a few specific students."

Bastion went into the room where Jaden, Syrus and Chumley were still snoring away peacefully. He pulled out and activated his duel disk, setting a Barrel Dragon card on it, the holographic image of that specific monster appearing in front of him.

"Alright. Ready…" Bastion said. "Get set… and fire!" Barrel Dragon then fired off a shot from each of its cannons, which was more than loud enough to wake up the three Slifers.

"Hit the snooze button." Chumley complained.

"More like the snooze trigger." Syrus added.

"That's getting up with a bang." Jaden said, having fallen onto the floor. Laughter from him caused them to look in his direction. "Bastion?"

"Anyway, now that were all awake, how about some good old fashioned daybreak dueling exercises?" Bastion suggested.

"Sure… whatever." Jaden said.

"One, two, draw! One, two, draw! One, two, draw! One, two, draw!" Bastion was now standing outside over around at the cliff he'd been at earlier, with Syrus, Jaden and Chumley standing opposite him. All of them had their duel disk on and decks at the ready, repeating the same motions, following Bastion's example.

"Wasn't this worth getting up for?" Jaden asked, sarcasm obvious in his voice.

"Quiet, you'll make me lose count." Syrus spoke up.

"Is that Thunder Nyan Nyan?" Chumley asked his short friend upon catching a glance at a particular card, with the image of a red headed young woman wearing tiger skinned clothes, sitting at a set of drums.

"Yeah it is. I got her a while ago. I kind of have a bit of a card crush on her."

"Card crush… that's so lame, at least for that card. Check out mine." Chumley held out a copy of Dian Keto the Curemaster."

"Yeah… she's… real pretty Chum." Syrus said, though obviously not convinced.

"Totally reminds me of my girlfriend back home. Her name's Sally… no wait, Adrianna."

"Hey, do you guys have any card crushes hidden away in your decks?" Syrus asked.

"You'd better believe it." The brunette Slifer answered. "They bring loads of luck."

"Beg your pardon!" Bastion spoke up indignantly. "But I thought we were training here! And training gentlemen… and lady, does not comprise of standing around and talking about birds!"

"Did he say birds?" Syrus asked Chumley.

"You know what? I think that Bastion doesn't have a card crush."

"A crush on a card? Of course not! That's just plain irrational, illogical, unreasonable and ridiculous!" A slight blush came to his cheeks as he thought about the White Magician Pikeru card.

"Why are you blushing then?" Jaden asked.

"I'm not… Let's just get back to our dueling exercises… alright?"

"Sure, but I do have plans to play solitaire with Thunder Nyan Nyan in about 15 minutes." Syrus said.

"WHAT!" Bastion shouted, shocking Syrus and Chumley into falling down. "You'll be breaking that date, and soon breaking a sweat. Now… back to our duel training."

"And into the dog house for me." Syrus moaned. "She hates it when I cancel on her."

"Somehow, I think she'll understand." Jaden said.

"You think?"

Later in the day, the three Slifers and Bastion were now sitting in Banner's class. Syrus, Chumley and Jaden were sitting together, all three with their heads down and snoring away, while Bastion was by himself.

"There certainly are a lot of absences today," Professor Banner spoke up at the front of the class. "Hmm… must be a bug going around."

*'None that I've heard of.'* Bastion thought to himself. *'There's definitely something strange in the air. Well… besides all of that snoring.'*

"I don't like this." Kaoru muttered.

"May I help you?" Banner said when he saw a young woman walking through the door behind him.

"Well… do you recognize this bag?" She asked, showing him a blue gym bag she was carrying.

"Yes, it belongs to one of my students. Why?"

After the particular piece of news had come in, Banner had set out into the woods, along with Jaden, Syrus, Chumley, Chazz, the Shiba siblings, Ryan, Bastion and Alexis. "I wonder why that pack was left all the way out here." Jaden wondered.

"Indeed." Bastion agreed. "And where it's owner is."

"Is the next Shadow Rider involved?" Ryan asked.

"Unfortunately, that might be the case." Alexis said.

"My, my… I hope that no one is hurt." Banner worried.
The group of ten continued walking through the woods, calling out for people, but not actually receiving any answers. Not too long afterwards, they came to a large cleared out space, where they could see an awe inspiring coliseum standing before them, like out of the roman empire.
"I'm going in." Bastion said resolutely, starting to run towards it.

"Wait up." Syrus moaned.

"Aw, running." Chumley complained as they followed the Ra boy. A moment later, they came into the center of the arena, from where they could see a horde of students in red, yellow and blue jackets at work lifting rocks, putting them in place and doing other such things.

"That guy's from class." Syrus pointed out to one of the working students.

"Yeah, and so it she." Chumley added.

"CROWLER!" Chazz exclaimed, his eyes bugging out at the sight of the Obelisk Blue headmaster trying to move a heavy block with a crowbar. "What're you doing here?"

"A man's work." He answered.

"A man's work?" Banner wondered. "My, they must have been running very short on men." Syrus and Chumley burst out laughing at the professor's joke, that is, until Jaden brought their attention towards a huge, one eyed tiger coming into the center stage of the arena from the entrance opposite them. They all instantly started running away screaming as the tiger roared and came after them. As quick as any of them had ever done anything, they climbed up a large pillar out of the tiger's reach, clinging for dear life. "First a coliseum, then a tiger, what's next, a gladiator?"

"Actually, I think she prefers the term Amazon." Crowler spoke up.

"Amazon?" They all wondered.

"Oh boy." Davis said.

"That's right." The group of students, and Banner, looked at the direction the voice had come from, seeing a very well muscled woman dressed in a short green shirt, black pants, with long red hair in a ponytail behind her back. She also had golden bracelets and a golden collar around her neck, and wore a large, bladed duel disk on her arm. "And thanks to your friends, I've been able to finally finish my glorious arena."

"Arena for what?"

The Amazon woman then jumped off the spectator seats and landed in the ring of the arena. "Dueling, of course." She answered. The formerly missing students and Crowler then all lined up before her, as she held out a set of envelopes. "Job well done. I had no idea that Duel Academy students could make such fine laborers. As promised, here's your payment." She said as she started passing out the envelopes to them. "Some rare cards, well deserved, I might add. Until next time."

"Do you mind telling us what's going on here?" Jaden asked.

"What does it look like?" She shot back. "I'm setting the stage, key-keeper, for your defeat. I'm one of the seven shadow riders."

"A shadow rider? Oh man…" Syrus moaned.

"I think woman would be the better description." Ryan said. "Greek mythology says the Amazons are a race of warrior women."

"Wow, you go girl." Alexis said.

"The name is Tania." The Amazon woman introduced herself. "And now that the battle stage is set, it's time that we battle. Now then, which of you big strong men will it be? After all, I would never harm a sister."

"Hey, don't do me any favors." Alexis said indignantly.

"I vote Ryan." Davis said.

"Why me?" He asked.

"You know more about the Amazons than the rest of us." Kaoru remarked.

"And besides you're the least likely to get distracted other than Jaden." Arisa added.

"So be it." He cracked his neck.

"You got this." Kaoru said.

"So who's my opponent?" Tania asked.

"I am." Ryan stepped forward.

"So be it." Tania said. "Follow me into the arena."

"Alright pal, go and get er!" Jaden said.

"And don't go easy on her cause she's a girl." Syrus added.

"Not like any I've seen." Chumley muttered.

"Let's go." He placed a deck into his duel disk.

"I have two decks. One is of knowledge, the other, of courage. Why don't you go ahead and decide which one I use?"

"Knowledge." Ryan pointed to the knowledge deck.

"Nice choice." Tania said as she inserted one of her decks into her duel disk.

"Oh and before I forget, this isn't a Shadow Game."

"Not a Shadow Game, huh? Well that's reassuring."

"Duel!"

Tania: 4000

Ryan: 4000

"Alright then, it's my turn." Tania declared, drawing a sixth card. "And first… I summon the Amazoness Swordswoman in attack mode." A muscular woman with wavy fire red hair, a blue shirt, a fur skirt and more fur clothing at her arms and legs appeared on the field, wielding an impressive curved sword.

Amazoness Swordswoman: 1500/1600

"I'll end my turn by placing one card face-down."

"My move." Ryan drew. "I get rid of a card in my hand to special summon The Tricky."

The Tricky: 2000/1200

"Then I summon Exiled Force to the field."

Exiled Force: 1000/1000

"Now I tribute Exiled Force to destroy Amazoness Swordswoman."

"He's off to a good start." Davis said.

"I'll say." Jaden agreed.

"Now I'll have The Tricky attack you directly."

Tania: 2000

"Well played." Chumley said. "That's what I would have done."

"Back to me. I summon Amazoness Blowpiper in attack mode."

Amazoness Blowpiper: 800/1500

"Go, Amazoness Spellcaster! Now, one Amazoness and one monster you control switch their original attack points with each other." The Amazoness stood a little higher and she increased in strength, while The Tricky lost power.

"This is bad!" Syrus moaned.

"Yeah, now his monster is weaker." Arisa added.

"Amazoness Blowpiper, attack!" The named monster blew into her pipe, shooting out a dart which flew across the field and struck The Tricky.

Ryan: 2000

Chumley and Syrus winced.

"So you did damage. Big deal. We have the same amount of life points and it's almost my turn."

"My move." He drew.

"Say hello to Iron Knight Gearfried."

Iron Knight Gearfried: 1800/1600

"Go, Lightning Vortex. Say goodbye to all your face up monsters." Amazoness Blowpiper was struck by lightning and exploded.

"Now Iron Knight Gearfried attack her directly with Iron Slash."

Tania: 200

"I'll finish my turn with a face down."

"He's about to win." Jaden said.

"You're right." Kaoru nodded. "But the duel's not over yet."

"Who knows what other tricks she has." Arisa added.

"You're good." Tania drew her next card. I summon Amazoness Chain Master."

Amazoness Chain Master: 1500/1300

"And just like last time, I activate Amazoness Spellcaster, switching Chain Master's attack points, with those of your monster."

"Now, Amazoness Chain Master, attack his Iron Knight Gearfried and finish him."

"Sorry, but this duel's over. I reveal the Magic Cylinder trap card."

The remainder of Tania's life points were drained.

"Now that's game." Arisa said.

"Hey, that's my line." Jaden said.

The others laugh.