I grinned as I sent my second to last opponent's life points down to zero.

"And it seems that Ryan has beaten down Morris and is advancing to the finals against Maddy." The announcer of this event said into his mic.

I waited in my spot for my cousin to take her place on the other side of the dueling ring. "This is going to be a great match, folks. We have crowd favorite, maiden of the blue eyes, Maddy Rosa, facing off against the guy with gemini, Ryan Drak. The prize for this duel is a chance to face off against duel monsters champion Jack Atlas!" The announcer was hyping up the crowd as Maddy stood in her corner.

Maddy smiled at me. "Just like when we were kids!" She laughed.

"Except now we're on an even playing field." I said as I shuffled my deck and put it into my duel disk.

"Maddie is taking the initiative and going first." The announcer said as we started.

"I set a monster and one other card." Maddy said as she did her move.

I looked at my hand and smiled. "I play Catalyst field and summon Evocator Chevalier twice, and equip him with Supervise." The flaming warrior sprouted up in front of me and his fists ignited with his second summon. "I activate his effect and send Supervise to the graveyard to destroy your trap." I explained as I destroyed her mirror force. "And now Evocator Chevalier will attack your face down monster. Burning sabre fist!" I yelled as the card flipped up and the white stone was cut in half. "I end my turn." "And that lets me summon a Blue-Eyes to the field in attack mode." She said as the shining dragon flew upwards from the ground. "And it's going to attack Chevalier. White Lightning." She said as the Blue-eyes decimated my monster.

'Well, this isn't great.' I thought to myself. I looked to my hand for something. "I play Crusader of Endymion in attack mode and summon him again." I played the monster and his large armor pieces burst off his arms and floated nearby. "I end my turn."

"I summon my own Crusader and now I attack with Blue-Eyes." The Crusader fell and I took the damage. "Now, Endymion, attack directly." The monster reeled back its hand and sent a barrage of glowing magic circles at me, dropping me down to zero.

"And that, folks, is why you don't mess with dragons." The announcer said. "Maddy will be moving on to the final round against Jack Atlas!"

I sighed sadly. "Well, this sucks." I said. "Good luck." I told my cousin.

"Thanks!" She yelled back excitedly.

"She'll need it." Jack said as he started to climb up the stairs to my side of the dueling platform.

"Jack is entering the ring, folks! The champion is here!"

I got off the platform since I'd just as well screw it up.

"I'll take the first move." Jack said. "And I'll summon Mad Archfiend in attack mode. That's my turn." The monster burst out of the ground in front of him.

"I set two cards facedown and activate Stray Lambs, summoning two lamb tokens to my side of the field." Two fluffballs with horns and sleepy smiling faces emerged on Maddy's side. "Now I'll activate Wonder Balloons, discarding two cards to make your monsters 600 attack points weaker. I'll end my turn."

"I summon Twin-Sword Marauder in attack mode." Both his monsters were covered in balloons. "And he's gonna make some lamb chop. Now, twin-sword slash!"

"Not so fast, your Marauder is getting destroyed with your archfiend because of my mirror force." The wall of energy between the monsters sparked and blasted away the Twin-Sword Marauder and Mad Archfiend.

"Oh well, I special summon Cyber Dragon from my hand since you have monsters but I don't." The mechanical dragon was swarmed by balloons when it came onto the field. "Your move, Maggy." "It's Maddy!" She said agitated. "And I play a monster in defense mode before ending my turn."

"I'll set a card and then attack your lambs with my Cyber Dragon." The dragon slammed against another barrier.

"Sorry, had two." She held up two fingers.

"Then I guess I'll special summon my Vice Dragon in attack mode and pass it on to you."

"I'll flip over my Lemon Magician Girl and summon Crusader of Endymion. Now, Crusader, slay that dragon!"

"Not so fast. Have a taste of your own medicine." Jack said as he activated his own Mirror Force, destroying the spellcasters.

"What the hell?!" She tried to mumble. Tried. She actually yelled.

"Not too fond of yourself now, are you?"

"Your turn." She said annoyed.

"I'll set a card and sacrifice my Vice Dragon for a better one. Now, those lambs have been around too long, destroy one!" The dragon flew up and impaled one of the lambs on its massive claws, and it shattered into shards of light. "I'll end my turn there."

"I'll set one card and end my turn." Maddy said, grinning.

"One card won't be enough to save you. Vice Dragon, kill the last lamb!"

"I activate Sakuretsu Armor." A suit of spiked armor appeared on the lamb and stabbed into the dragon before it could land an attack.

"Well, I'll special summon another Cyber Dragon then and end my turn."

"I'll set one card and end my turn once again."

"I'll set a monster and then Cyber Dragon will attack your lamb."

"I have another one." She taunted him as his dragon was destroyed by a field of energy.

"Your deck is extremely aggravating."

"I know. That's the point! I activate wonder balloon and discard a card to depower your monsters even more. That's it."

"Is this a joke? Do you know who I am?"

"A rich guy who became an ass like the rest once he became 'the best'."

"Well, it's your move, and I am the best!"

"I do the same thing as last turn." She said, putting another card in her graveyard.

"How do you expect to win if all you do is send your deck to the grave?" He asked as he drew his card. "Your turn, you DADS duelist."

"I do it again." She said, sending another card to the grave.

"I'll set a card. That's what you can do with these, put them on the field."

"Hey! Shut up! I do what I want!" Maddy put another card into the graveyard. "Wait, no! I wanted that! Shit!"

"And this is why you don't send everything to the grave."

"Fuck off, Atlas!" She yelled.

Jack chuckled. "I summon Twin-Sword Marauder in attack mode." The monster was immediately covered in so many balloons it couldn't move.

"I summon Gishki Natalia in attack mode, now attack the Marauder!"

"I activate Magical Cylinders, sending that attack at you." The blast of water went in one tube and out the other pointed at Maddy.

"And that's the first damage of the match! On the twentieth turn, someone finally got hit!"

"I end my turn, which brings Natalia back to my hand." Maddy said annoyed.

"I summon Sinister Sprocket. Then I flip summon Magic Hole Golem."

"Oh crap…" Maddy muttered.

"Now, I use the three of them for a synchro summon." The Sprocket leapt into the air and down flew the green ring, that went down the two monsters, rendering them into seven small stars. "Let's kick this duel into overdrive! Come on out, Red Dragon Archfiend!" The giant black and red dragon floated over the two duelists. "And now, because of Sinister Sprocket's effect, your balloons are no more!" As balloons tried to attach themselves to the dragon, it swung a chain out and popped them all, before throwing the chain into the wonder balloons card, and making it shatter into shards of light. "Archfiend, that lamb has overstayed its welcome five times over. Finish it." He said and the dragon picked up the lamb and ate it in one bite. "Your turn."

"I set a monster and end my turn." Maddy was very unhappy at this turn of events.

"I summon Creation Resonator. Now, he's going to attack your face down."

"Ha! It's not strong enough!" Maddy yelled as her Natalia was flipped face up.

"Oh, with a little help he is. I activate Prideful Roar. By paying lifepoints equal to the difference in attack between our two monsters, Creation Resonator is boosted to 300 more attack than your monster has." The small demon used his back-mounted fan to destroy the water woman. "Now, Red Dragon Archfiend. Finish this insufferable brat." The dragon breathed in and then shot out a massive wave of crimson fire over Maddy, wiping out the rest of her life points.

"And Jack has done it again folks! He beat the small players with a brand-new experimental deck!" The announcer yelled excitedly for the crowd.

Maddy placed her deck back in its pouch and tried to calmly walk off. She was mumbling to herself. She walked into the waiting area and crossed her arms as she looked at me. "Ready to go?" She asked still partially annoyed.

I sighed. This was not going to be a pleasant ride anywhere. "Whenever you are."

"Race you to the ice cream shop?" She asked as we got on our duel runners.

"I really don't want to get another ticket." I told her.

"I paid for it! It was my fault anyway." She grinned. "I'm surprised Trudge hasn't done anything worse than that to me yet."

"He really does hate you." I said.

"Yeah. I'm just surprised I haven't been arrested yet."

I put my helmet on my head and started my runner. "So which ice cream place we headed to?"

"The one on 7th street." She said and put her helmet on.

"See you there." I said as I pulled out onto the road.

The ride was pretty uneventful, except we saw a really cool red duel runner fly past us in the other lane. "That guy seems to be in a rush." I mumbled to myself.

We got to the ice cream shop and ate our treats out front, watching our duel runners to make sure no one tried to steal them. I chuckled a little bit, thinking of earlier. "Well, sorry about you losing."

"As soon as I get home I want to work on my deck. I do not want to lose another duel!" She said and angrily ate her ice cream. How was that possible?!

"Just try to say 'bubbles' a lot. There's no angry way to do that."

She looked at me annoyed and said nothing. She grabbed a napkin off the table and started writing cards down and possible combos, what cards worked with what, and so on. She must have been really focused on it because she forgot about her ice cream.

"I know you really don't want to lose again, but my deck hinges on two specific cards, three if you're generous." My phone started ringing in my pocket. I pulled it out of my pocket, and answered. "Hey mom."

"Ryan, they took her!" My mom sounded really distressed and like she was crying.

I immediately got up and started to walk to my runner. "Mom, who is they and who is her?"

"Your sister's been taken." She told me.

"I'll be right there." I told her and hung up my phone. "The part is going to have to wait." I told Maddy and got on my runner.

"I'm coming with you." Maddy said and hopped on her runner.

"I don't have time to argue." I said, pulling onto the street and drove home as fast as I could. Once I got in the driveway, I basically jumped off my runner and let it roll to a stop. I ran inside and everything was in disorder. I ran up the stairs screaming for my mom. I found her sitting in the middle of my sister's room. "Mom, who did this?" I asked, kneeling next to her.

"The… The Arcadia Movement came and took Taylor. They think she's a psychic."

"What? She can't even tell what her friends are thinking." "They told me they were doing what was best for her."

"Don't worry, Mom. We'll get her back." I assured her and grabbed her hand. "I'll be back soon. Love you." I hugged her and left. As I was going down the stairs, Maddy was going up. I grabbed her arm and pulled her back down. "We're going to the Arcadia Building."

"Question… HOW ARE WE GETTING IN?! Is one of us gonna have to act like we're a psychic or something?"

"No, we're going to walk in through the front door." I said, getting on my runner again.

Maddy got on hers a quickly followed.

We got there and I ran to through the automatic doors to the receptionist. "Hi, I'd like to talk to someone about my sister's initiation here and how it was against her will!"

"I'm sorry, sir, but you must be thinking of someone else. We do not induct anyone if they don't want to join."

"Then who else took her?!" I yelled and slammed my fist on the desk.

Two guys in robes on either side of the lobby came towards me, ready to restrain me.

"I thought you all were psychics. Just sweep me out the door with your powers. Unless you're a hoax."

"What?!" The one on the left of me yelled indignantly.

"Do you want us to show you how real we are?!" The one on the right screamed, getting his duel disk ready.

"Bring it on, twats." I said turning away from the receptionist, and having my own extend to be ready.

"Prepare to be beaten in ways you could never conceive of." The left one said.

Maddy ran in just in time.

"Well, let's see how you guys like dealing with a powerful dragon and the power of a constellation." I grinned.

"What the hell did you do now?" Maddy looked at me annoyed.

"Made some friends. Get ready for a duel." I told her.

She chuckled. "Yeah! Let's duel!" Her red duel disk lit up.

"Since you guys were so eager, you can go first." I told the Arcadia Members.

"Good." Right said. "I set a monster and three other cards."

"I set a card and summon Tuned Magician in attack mode." The magician sprang up next to me with his towering hat, cocky grin, and scepter. "Attack his face down card." I ordered the magician. He pointed his scepter forward at the facedown monster and shot a beam composed of green circles at it. The Nimble Musasabi was destroyed.

"No loss for me, but for you, as you take 500 points of damage." The Arcadia grunt said cockily.

The electricity that zapped through my body was real, and really painful. I closed my eyes tightly and gritted my teeth through it as I was electrocuted.

"F-fine." I said. "I end my turn." "Wonderful." The grunt said as he drew. "I activate Soul Taker, destroying your monster and giving you 1000 life points." I could feel what was hurt heal itself as the Tuned Magician flowed into me. "And now I set one more monster."

"I summon Evocator Chevalier." I said as an orange masked warrior emerged in front of me with a curved blade. "Attack the face down with Burning Slash!" He quickly moved towards the card and as it flipped up it revealed a scrawny old man with a hammer and nearly forged sword. The man was slashed in half and burned away.

"Because of that blacksmith you so callously murdered, I get to move an equip spell from the deck to my hand, and I choose Black Pendant." The grunt pulled the card from the right spot without even looking.

"I don't see what good that will do you. I end my turn."

"Well, you will see soon enough." After he drew, he put the card in his hand. "I pass."

I grinned as I drew my card. "Soon as in I'll be out of high school soon or your next few turns soon?"

"It doesn't matter which."

"It will. I summon another Evocator." Another warrior appeared beside me, identical to the first. "Both of you, attack directly." The twin spellswords leaped at the psychic duelist, and cut an "X" across his chest, he staggered backwards and his lifepoints were lowered down to 200 lifepoints. "That 'soon' better be next turn."

He drew his next card. "I'm afraid it will not be. Now strike me down." He opened his arms, ready to embrace what he knew was coming.

"I will. After I normal summon my first Evocator again." The warrior's off hand sparked a ball of flames that covered his fist and he held it in front of himself proudly. "Now, Evocator, finish him with Burning Smash." The Evocator launched himself at the Arcadia member with a blast of flame from under his feet and slammed his fist into the psychic, knocking him onto his ass, winning me the duel.

I grinned and looked over at how Rose was handling the left guy. He was beaten pretty easily too.

"Now then," I said, "where's my sister?" I asked the receptionist again.

"I already told you that no one is taken here and forced to join." The receptionist told me.

"Fine. When's the next time I would be able to see your boss?" I asked her.

"Mr. Sayer's earliest appointment window is in two months, sir."

"Then schedule me for then. If any of his other meetings cancel, let me know immediately." I told her, gave her my name and number, and stormed out of the place.

"That's it?" Maddy asked me annoyed as he looked at the building. "Oh I got an idea, but I might go to jail-"

"What is it?" I asked her.

"You know Uncle Richard's g-"

"We're not going to be shooting or threatening to shoot anyone." I told her.

"I didn't say you had to..."

"That's why I said 'we'."

"Oh! I got this!" She cracked her knuckles. "I'll be back in five."

"You're not going to be charged for assault that many times and not go to the Facility."

"Or you know." She looked over towards the direction Satellite was. "We could find someone from satellite."

"Yeah, because they just love people from New Domino." "But-"

"We'll find her before that woman gets back to me."