Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon. It is the property of Tajiri Satoshi, Sugimori Ken, Nintendo, Creatures Inc., Game Freak, OLM Inc., TV Tokyo, 4Kids Entertainment, and the Pokemon Company International. Neither do I own Yu-Gi-Oh!. It is the property of Takahashi Kazuki, Shueisha, Viz Media, Toei Animation, 4Kids Entertainment, and Cartoon Network. I'm just borrowing them for some non-profit entertainment.

Inheritance Duel

Chapter Eight:

"Son of a- grr!"

Jessie awoke to the sounds of frustration coming from the bathroom. She opened her eyes to see the bathroom door hanging partially open, and James in front of the mirror applying his eyeliner.

When he noticed she was awake, he decided to include her into his struggled. "Ya know how you can get the wing on one eye absolutely perfect, but when you go to apply the other wing you end up looking like the villain in a bad 80s fantasy drama!"

Groaning, Jessie climbed out of bed. "James, your eyes are supposed to be sisters, not twins. Its okay if they're not absolutely perfect."

She crossed the bedroom and entered the bathroom get a better look at him.

He looked stunning.

The foundation and concealer hiding every blemish, sun-spot, freckle, or sleep-shadow. His sink looked flawless and immaculate, like a porcelain doll. Onto this immaculate canvas of flawless perfection, he'd added contouring cream to soften his features, make his face appear less masculine. Smoothing sharp, angular lines into smoother and more gentle curves, making him look dainty and feminine. His lip-liner and lipstick were a shade of red that was both elegant and provocative and gave Jessie the urge to lean in and kiss him -she didn't, of course! The eyeshadow was in tones of green that accentuated his naturally emerald eyes, making them seem so much brighter and bigger.

The only thing that was left still out of place was that one eye had a perfect wing of eye-liner accenting it, while the other eye was still modestly naked in that respect.

Jessie took the liquid eye-liner brush out of his hand. "Here. Let me help you with this part."

She closed the space between them, their faces so close together they could feel each other's breath on their skin. The inexplicable urge to kiss him reared up in her again, but Jessie squished it back down. The fact that they were teammates and it would throw off the team aside, she didn't want to smear his make-up. Taking an unconscious breath to steady her sudden nerves, Jessie put both her hands over his ears and tilted his face up.

"Look up and don't blink."

Did his own breath catch when she grabbed him? Maybe. But that was no reason to assume he was also feeling the same kind of inexplicable tension she was experiencing. James had, at one time, had an abusive fiancee that was not shy about using physical force against him. It could be that her sudden grab and command reminded him of Jessebelle. Jessie let go quickly. When James didn't back away from her, she cleared her throat in an effort to deflect from the awkwardness.

She slid the brush along the waterline of his lower-lid. Then repeated the motion for his upper eye-lid, flaring the line up at the end in a delicate wing that was almost identical to the one James had already drawn. She blew on the corner of his eye to help the liner dry so that it didn't smudge if she had to grab him again.

He giggled involuntarily. "Jes, that tickles!"

"But your wings look amazing." She took a step back to look at him.

Make-up so perfect he looked better than a Vogue model. He left his hair natural, no product to give it extra bounce or make it look sleeker. It framed his face in shades of periwinkle, hiding the rougher, more masculine corners of his chin that even the best make-up artists couldn't hide fully. For clothing he had gone for a sleeveless black turtleneck, not very different than what they both wore under their Team Rocket uniforms -except this one was made from a shimmery knit that showed a wine-red when the light hit it. Under this shimmery red-black top he had put on a pair of fake breasts. Bigger than Jessie' own, but with enough weight, bounce, and softness to them that made them seem real. His lower back would be killing him by the end of the day. Below the shift was a tight skirt made from red leather that hugged his hips and ass, and was criminally short.

Jessie raised an eyebrow. "What are you wearing under that?"

James just shrugged. "Fashion tape."

She flushed at the idea that, beneath his skirt, there was nothing between her and all of James' well groomed and manscaped maleness but a few strips of cosmetic tape keeping him tucked between the legs. Her whole body grew hot as she felt her heart hammer against her rib-cage. And there was no reason for it. It wasn't like she'd ever seen James' naughty bits before.

"Don't- don't you think you should, I donno... put something on under there?" She suggested, hoping to cover up her true feelings.

James only shrugged. "I mean, its not like I'm gonna be kicking up my legs much. I'll just be playing a card game, which involves mostly just standing there. If someone see's up my skirt, they're the ones that are doing something wrong, not me."

Well, she couldn't argue with that logic. Certainly she walked around on a semi-daily basis in a criminally short skirt, and she did a lot more than just standing around in it. Running, jumping, climbing trees, posing for their motto, and -of course- blasting off. And to the best of Jessie's knowledge, no one had ever seen her panties. So, if all James was gonna be doing was just standing there, then no one should be able to see his cosmetic tape. And if they did, they were the one doing something they shouldn't, not James.

Jessie cleared her throat. "Alright, then. Let's talk shoes."

…

Yugi was rudely awoken when he was forcefully pulled from his bed by Seto Kaiba whom was demanding another duel.

Thirty minutes later, Kaiba was once again on the floor crying, while Yugi yawned on his way to the bathroom to brush his teeth and start his morning.

Needless to say, he was a tad grumpy when they arrived back at the Industrial Illusions complex not long after. But he wasn't alone in his grumpiness.

Kaiba was also grumpy because he'd lost that morning's duel to Yugi, and -as per Kaiba's terms for them to stay at his hotel free of charge- Joey was wearing the doggie themed fur-suit provided by Duke. So three out of the eight of them were in pretty poor spirits. And Joey's foul mood only increased when they bumped into a familiar face in the lobby.

"Yugi Moto and Seto Kaiba hanging out together!? Is the world ending or are you two secretly dating? Neither would surprise me." The whole group turned to see Mai Valentine standing at the reception desk waiting for her visitors pass. She put a hand on her hip as she surveyed the group. "Joey, are you wearing a furry suit?"

That did seem to surprise her. At least, her eyes seemed to go a bit wider at seeing Joey in a dog-suit than they did at seeing Yugi and Kaiba together.

"Nye! Hide me!" And he practically dove behind Tristan and Téa.

"Joey, she's already seen you." Téa reminded him. "Hiding now's not gonna change anything."

"Chin up, Joey." Bakura grabbed his friend by the paw and pulled him out from behind the others. "The best thing for you to do now is face it head on with courage!"

Mai blinked at the group, watching their antics as Bakura tried to pull Joey in his dog-suit out from behind the others. For a long moment it looked like no one was going to say anything else and that just made things more awkward.

Then the receptionist finished programing Mai's visitors badge. "There you are Miss Valentine. This visitors badge will offer you access to the dueling arenas, building canteen, and other Level-2 security and below areas. Thank you for visiting Industrial Illusions, and I hope you have a nice day!"

It was the exact same kind of visitors badge they all got the previous day.

So, someone felt the need to ask, "What are you doing here, Mai?"

It gave them something to talk about besides Joey's closeted furry tendencies.

"On, well, I heard there was some dispute over the ownership of Duel Monsters since Pegasus bought the farm. So I came to watch the duels. I wanna see who takes over first hand!" A pause. "I assume you're all here for the same reason."

Everyone gave affirmatives in one form or another. All except Duke. He didn't care what happened to the card game. He just wanted to know what was going to happen to his own game. The one he designed and i2 was supposed to be producing. Dungeon Dice Monsters. It wasn't personal. It was -literally- just business.

They all headed to the arena together, Mai being absorbed into the group as if it were the most natural thing in the world. As if she always belonged with them.

Four of Pegasus' sons were already there when they arrived. Yako, Gekko, Richie, and today's Duelist, Depre, were all already waiting when the spectators arrived and took up their seats. But the other Duelist of the day, James, was nowhere to be seen.

"He's late." Yako growled to no one in particular.

"He probably just wants to make another entrance, like yesterday." Gekko offered a possible explanation.

"I swear to gawd! If he pulls any of that fruity crap from yesterday, I'm going to punch him in his stupid face!" Depre informed his brothers.

"I mean... there's no rule against being overly flamboyant and melodramatic." Richie had to admit. No matter how annoying it was, or how embarrassing it was to watch, there was no rule against being over-the-top and showy in Duel Monsters. In fact, there had been times when the late Maximilian Pegasus even capitalized on being flamboyantly melodramatic and over-the-top showy.

Nobody considered for even a moment the possibility that James wouldn't make an absurdly complicated theatrical entrance.

Sure enough, the lights went out, the ventilation fans picked up, and the air was filled with the scent of roses.

"Yesterday was more fun than I expected. Maybe I was hasty when these cards I rejected." James' voice echoed through out the arena chamber. "Depre's up next, and his deck's a space cadet. They say he's a master, but I'll take that bet!"

Just like the last time, a spotlight appeared, illuminating the Duelist. Light shown James' periwinkle hair, but the face that was framed by it was different. Softer, somehow. More feminine. With full pouty lips in a provocative shade of red, long eyelashes and green toned eye-shadow that seemed to heighten the natural emerald color of his eyes. The skin of his cheeks looked smoother, unblemished, like fine porcelain or alabaster. Below the neck was a form-fitting top made from some shiny black fabric that shone red in the light, It stretched over a pair of generously sized and unearthly perky round breasts that he most definitely did not have the previous day. And lower still was a tight red shirt that hugged his narrow hips and showed off his legs. Legs that ended in a pair of pleather boots with slightly less-than-practical 3-inch heel.

This time, instead of just rose petals, the air was filled with both petals and glitter. So that James was surrounded by a cascade of sparkles as well as roses. It gave the illusion James being a magical-girl princess.

It was all all four brothers could do to just stand there and stare with their mouths hanging open in shock.

"What the hell is this!?" Kaiba snarled at the spectacle.

"Yeah!" Joey agreed with the absurdity of what they were seeing. He balled one of the paws of his dog-suit into a fist. "He was definitely a guy yesterday!"

"His boobs are bigger than Mai's!" Téa observed, one hand conversing her face in sympathetic embarrassment.

"Burn the witch!" Shouted Tristan.

James smirked and stepped up to the dueling podium. "Whenever there's peace in your universe, you'll see me there to make it worse! It might seem a bit cruel, but I don't care. It's time to duel!"

Massaging his templed as if he were already trying to fight off a stress headache, Depre likewise climbed onto his dueling podium. "My gawd, its like being trapped inside a Disney-channel original with you. Can you stop breaking out into spontaneous rhymes with flowers and sparkled for, like, five minutes."

"What? Too gay for you?" Taunted James. He shrugged his shoulders, making those unearthly big and perky breasts of his bounce. "You're welcome to withdraw and go home. If it bothers you that much."

Depre pulled back, leaning away from the podium as if an entire arena of space between him and James wasn't enough. He cringed openly, eyes going wide, and cheeks burning red from the sigh of his brother's breasts bouncing. "You- you- You're sick! Stop that! I- The only reason I'm not going over there and punching your lights out is because its more important that I beat you in this duel!"

James glared at his brother. "Ya know, just for that, I think you should go first."

"That's just fine!" Depre snarled back. "I don't need the advantage of the second turn to take you down! IT'S TIME TO DUEL!"

Depre Scott

Life Points: 2000

James Pegasus

Life Points: 2000

They each drew five cards for their first hand, and Depre spread out his cards to see what he had. None of them were his Cosmic Space field card. He did get his Greed Quasar and Zeta Reticulant, but they were both level seven monster and so couldn't be summoned without tributing. In fact, the only cards he could use on the first turn were his Stormtrooper Aim trap card, and level one monster, Red Shirt Ensign.

"I'm setting a monster face down in defense mode!" Depre narrated as he placed his cards on the field. "And I'm also playing this card face down."

James glared at his brother's cards. One face-down monster -in defense mode- and one face down magic card, but there was no way to tell if it was a Spell, an Equip, or a Trap. Still, he had to put down something if for no other reason than to defend his Life Points.

"I'm also laying a magic card face down." He announced as he took one card out of his hand and placed it on the field. Then he yanked another card from between his fingers and threw it down too. "And I'm playing my Naturia White Oak in attack mode." There was a faint glow as the holo-projectors revved up, before a happy-looking tree with a wide trunk and thick leaves appeared on the field. It was surrounded by insects and flowers, all in a wash of bright colors. All and all, a sweet looking monster card.

Naturia White Oak

ATK/1800, DEF/1400

"And since you don't have any other targets out on the field," continued James, "I'm having it attack your face-down monster!"

The branches of the White Oak shook for a moment, loosening a cascade of oak leaves before the leaves were flung at the face-down monster in a almost perfect reproduction of a grass-type's Leaf Blade attack. But before the attack could connect the leaves went askew, impacting everywhere on his opponent's side of the field except the monster they were aimed at.

"What!?" James gasped, eyes going wide.

"Hm. You activated my trap card!" Depre explained for him, as his face down magic card revealed itself for everyone to see. "My Stormtrooper Aim prevents my enemy's from hitting me. All your attacks will just miss." A sigh. "Unfortunately, Stormtroopers have short lifespans, so this card will only stay in effect for three turns. One for each movie."

"Uh... I'm pretty sure there are eight movies by now." James informed him.

"Shut-the-fuck-up! There are three. There will only, ever, always be three! The prequels, sequels and spin-offs don't exist!" Depre shouted back. "Anyway, your attack also Flip Summoned my monster, the Red Shirt Ensign."

A non-descript human of average build, with a sixties hair cut, wearing a red uniform shirt appeared on the field.

Red Shirt Ensign

ATK/500, DEF/0

"What a uselessly weak monster." Mai commented from the sidelines. After all, the Red Shirt only had five-hundred attack points and absolutely no defense to speak of! "Why would anyone keep that in their deck?"

"Maybe it plays into some clever strategy, just like Yugi's Kuriboh." Bakura suggested in his best 'I'm being helpful' voice.

Mai hmph'd and turned her attention back to the game.

James just rolled his eyes. "Whatever. Anyway, a trap card was activated, so I can Special Summon my Naturia Rock from my hand."

He laid another monster down next to his White Oak. A large, round, gray boulder with tiny arms and legs and beady brown eyes appeared on the field.

Naturia Rock

ATK/1200, DEF/1200

"Its my turn now." Depre asserted as he drew a card from his deck. He looked at it and smirked, it was his favorite card, the Field spell on which all of his strategies hinged. Cosmic Space. "I'm glad you attacked my Red Shirt because its effect can only be used when he's Flip Summoned. You see, this card is useless in a Battle Phase, but its effect is that it can count as two tributes to summon a level seven monster. I wouldn't even have been able use this effect if you hadn't attacked my card." He indulged in an open-mouthed laugh before getting serious again. "Now, as my Red Shirt dies with a wilhelm scream, I'm able to summon my Greed Quasar!"

He pulled the card from his hand and slammed it down on the field.

A bone-colored monster materialized on the field. With a cone-shaped head, slitted eyes that glowed red, and sharp teeth. Its torso looked to be a second face, even more nightmarish than the one on its head. A wide mouth stretching with full width of the torso, empty skeleton eyes as deep and black as an abyss, and mecha arms. It hovered above the field, three pairs of pincers where its legs should be.

Greed Quasar

ATK/x, DEF/x

Everyone in the room gasped in mingled shock and confusion.

"What the hell!?" Demanded Joey. "Its doesn't have any attack or defense! How is that a level seven monster? Why would somebody have that? Why would somebody play that?" It didn't make sense! As much as Joey hated Pegasus, he was really starting to hate the man's sons too. He didn't understand their plays!

Kaiba crossed his arms over his chest and glared at the other man. "Shut-up, Wheeler. Haven't you learned about card effects yet? Just be a good boy and sit. Don't bark unless someone says 'speak'."

"Depre, what are you up to..." James ventured cautiously.

"I'm up to this!" Depre announced, holding up the card he'd just drawn. Slowly, with a little dramatic flair of his own, he turned the card around so that it could clearly be seen. "My Cosmic Space card. Its a Field Spell that transforms the whole arena into cold, dark outer space." He laid the card down, and the field was covered in darkness, interrupted here and there by the occasional star, or cloud of drifting space-dust. "And since nothing can survive in space, each monster gets a number of Life Stars equal to its level. Every turn, that number goes down. When a monster runs out of Life Stars, its destroyed. Since your monsters are a level four and a level three, they'll be gone long before my level seven Greed Quasar."

He smirked, as if in triumph.

"Okay..." James had to marvel a bit at the sheer amount of over-powered that field spell really was. "But, your Greed Quasar still shows exes for its attack and defense points. Clearing my monsters is great and all, but at some point you will have to attack my Life Points."

"Ah, I haven't finished." That smirk on Depre's face only widened. "You see, my Greed Quasar's effect is that its attack points and defense points are three-hundred times the level of Life Stars it has. At the moment that's seven."

The computer did the necessary calculations for them.

Greed Quasar

ATK/2100, DEF/2100

Life Stars: 7

The spectators all gasped.

"That's a super-powerful monster!" Yugi exclaimed. It was starting to feel like this Depre guy was bullying James in this game, and that was something he just could not approve of. While Yugi didn't really know either man very well, he found himself rooting for James. If for no other reason than he couldn't stand the idea of a bully winning the duel.

"Good job, Depre!" Yako cheered from his seat. He thrust a fist in the air to punctuate his pleasure. This duel was off to a better start than he expected.

"And now..." Depre focused his eyes on James' side of the field. I'm going to have my Greed Quasar attack your Naturia White Oak!"

The mouth in the center of the Greed Quasar's chest roared, flexing its mecha-arms. Then it charged at James' White Oak, stabbing the tree right in the center of its trunk. There was the sound effect of creaking wood and shaking branches, before the hologram of the tree disintegrated into a million little pixel-pieces.

James Pegasus

Life Points: 1700

Depre smirked again. "You were saying?"

James took a breath to steady himself. This was not shaping up to be as easy as his victory over Gekko yesterday. But he wasn't about to give up. He couldn't let Depre have the satisfaction of beating him.

He puckered his red-painted lips and blew a kiss at the other man to get him flustered. "That actually helped me out, Depre, so thank you. Ya see, when my Naturia White Oak is sent to the Graveyard, its Effect allows me to Special Summon two other Naturia monsters from my deck -so long as they're level four or below, of course." His hand went to his deck and he pulled out two cards. "And I choose my Naturia Cosmobeet and my Naturia Strawberry."

He placed both cards on the field in attack mode and holographic projections of them promptly appeared. The Cosmobeet looked like something out of a Miyazaki movie. An all black sphere with big, innocent, round eyes and tiny little arms and legs. Three bright daisies grew out of its head in shades of fuchsia, baby-pink, and white.

Naturia Cosmobeet

ATK/1000, DEF/700

Life Stars: 2

And the Naturia Strawberry was the same as before. An oversized berry with a smiling face, and tiny leaf-like arms and legs.

Naturia Strawberry

ATK/1600, DEF/1200

Life Stars: 4

"As you might remember from yesterday," began James, "my Strawberry's unique ability is that, whenever you Normal or Special summon a monster, my Strawberry gains one-hundred attack points multiplied by the level of the monster you summoned. And, since both of these were technically Special Summoned during your Battle Phase, I'm free to do a Tribute Summon of my own!"

The end of the Battle Phase also meant the end of Depre's turn, which meant that his Greed Quasar lost one Life Star. Since its attack and defense were directly proportional to its Life Stars, the monster's strength also went down. The arena's computer took care of keeping track of that for them.

Greed Quasar

ATK/1800, DEF/1800

Life Stars: 6

James' attention was mostly on his own cards and play strategy. He drew one card from his deck to being his turn and barely glanced at it before adding it to his hand. "I sacrifice my Naturia Cosmobeet, and my Naturia Rock to summon Naturia Barkion!"

Everyone else seemed to love posing with their cards and James did have a flair for the dramatic. So, when he pulled the monster card from his hand, before slamming it down on the field, he first drew it in front of his face, winked at Depre from around one side of it, raised the card into the air, then finally placed it down on the field.

The square on the field glowed for a moment, before a white and taupe serpentine dragon flew up out of it. With a belly of stone and back spines of wood. Moss covered its head and claws. Barkion flew a circle around the field, glaring at Depre and his Quasar with its amber eyes, before finally coming to rest and coil itself above the original square it was summoned from.

Naturia Barkion

ATK/2500, DEF/1800

Life Stars: 6

"And, since Naturia Barkion is a level six monster, he has six Life Stars according to the rules of your Field Spell." James concluded. "That makes my monster stronger than yours. Of course, since you still have that Stormtrooper Aim card out, there's really no point in me attacking. So I'll just place this card face down next to my other face down magic card." He added another card to play.

"Are you ending your turn?" Depre asked, just be clear.

"Obviously." James flipped his hair in a way that made him seem more alluring than any man had any business being.

Depre tried very hard not to let the fact that it was affecting him show. There was no way in hell he was going to admit -even to himself- that he found his brother attractive. Cheeks red and face hot, he instead tried to focus his attention on the Life Star counters. James just ended his turn. That meant that both his monsters lost a Life Star.

Naturia Strawberry

ATK/1600, DEF/1200

Life Stars: 3

Naturia Barkion

ATK/2500, DEF/1800

Life Stars: 5

Depre drew a card to begin his turn. It was Eva Epsilon, and it was a level four monster, so he could easily summon it. But then James' Naturia Strawberry would get an extra attack bonus of one-hundred pints. It would still be weaker than his Greed Quasar, but only just barely and James also had two magic cards face down on the field. Without knowing what those were, it would be foolish to strengthen his opponent's monster just before attacking.

But he also didn't want to attack and then end his turn with only one monster defending his Life Points. Especially not when James had that absurdly strong dragon on his side of the field.

"I summon Eva Epsilon!" He announced. Then added, "In defense mode. Well, Jay, your little fruit might have just gone up to seventeen-hundred, and my Greed Quasar may have gone down to eighteen-hundred, but that's still more than your faggoty Strawberry."

Naturia Strawberry

ATK/1700, DEF/1200

Life Stars: 3

Eva Epsilon

ATK/1500, DEF/1600

Life Stars: 4

Greed Quasar

ATK/1800, DEF/1800

Life Stars: 6

"Can I assume you're done playing cards and just gonna attack?" James asked, flipping his hair agains in that way that made Depre so uncomfortable. It was not okay for a man to look that goddamn attractive as a woman!

"Yeah! I am!" Depre shouted at him across the field, face once again a bright shade of red. "I'll destroy your little fruit and your Life Points will take another hit!"

James smirked. His provocative red lips stretching into a satisfied smile. "Okay then. I'll just activate this." He flipped over one of his face down cards. "Thunder of Ruler. A Trap card that cancels your Battle Phase, preventing you from attacking. You won't be killing my fruit this turn, I'm afraid. But thanks for the attack boost. And since you can't take your Battle Phase, your turn is over. This being your third turn, that annoying Stormtrooper Aim card is also gone, leaving me free to attack!"

His monsters also lost another Life Star and -in the case of the Greed Quasar- got weaker.

Greed Quasar

ATK/1500, DEF/1500

Life Stars: 5

James drew a card to begin his turn.

He shrugged again, making those breasts bounce once more in a way that made Depre's face burn, and James couldn't help another smirk of satisfaction when he saw his brother look away. Trying to focus his attention on his cards, on the field, on the Life Points and Life Star counters. Anywhere but on his opponent that had -over night- managed to transform himself from an average (maybe slightly skinny) guy into an oppai babe. It just wasn't right!

"Since your Eva is in defense mode, it doesn't matter which of my monsters destroys it." James was saying. "So I'm gonna have my Strawberry take him down!"

The Naturia Strawberry skipped forward, crossing the cosmic field with its little leaf-like legs. The sound effect for its movement was a child's voice in time with each skip of its knees, 'i-ku, i-ku, i-ku'. It was simply adorable! When it got to the Eva Epsilon, the Strawberry blinked at it for a moment, such a scary-looking and intimidating monster compared to its own brightly colored adorable self.

"Aw! That is just the most adorable thing I've ever seen!" Tea commented. She was really liking these Naturia cards. They were almost as precious as her own Love and Friendship deck.

Then the Strawberry head-butted the Eva with its large, over-sized strawberry head. The Eva staggered backwards before the Strawberry's cute, little smiling mouth split into a wide maw of dripping red juice and sharp strawberry seed teeth. The Strawberry pinned the Eva to the holo-projector, ripped its chest open and ate its heart out. The Eva gave a death-cry that sounded suspiciously like a Japanese teenager screaming 'father, why!?' before it shattered into thousands of holographic shards.

But, as James had said, because it was in defense mode, Depre didn't take any damage from the destruction of his Eva.

Depre Scott

Life Points: 2000

"Now, I'm going to have my Naturia Barkion attack your Greed Quasar!" James announced. He raised his arm up into the air, then brought it down, out in front of his, fingers splayed. Almost as if he were giving an order to one of his pokemon. Almost as if this were a real battle, and these were real monsters. "Now! Barkion!"

The serpentine-dragon gave a terrifying roar. It shook the arena speakers and reverberated off the building walls. Naturia Barkion flew upwards, circled the field one more time, then came down on Depre's Greed Quasar. It wrapped its body around the other monster, squeezing it tight so that little cracks appeared in its bone-like torso. There was the sound of creaking bone and strained metal, before Barkion bit the Quasar's cone-shape head off. The rest of the Quasar hologram disintegrated into formless pixels. Barkion swallowed the rest.

Depre Scott

Life Points: 1000

James snapped his fingers in triumph and did a little hop-skip in place, making his breasts bounce once again. "How ya like them apples?"

All the spectators gasped.

"In one move, he just cut Depre's Life Points in half!" Kaiba exclaimed. Fairly impressive considering that up until that point James had been trailing. Kaiba didn't have any love for the late Pegasus, and he was all ready to extend his loathing to the man's children. But this James guy was shaping up to be a fairly decent Duelist -odd personality quirks and crossdressing tendencies aside. Kaiba wouldn't go so far as to say he was starting to like the man, Seto Kaiba did not do the whole 'friendship' thing. But James was certainly earning his respect as a Duelist. He was no wimp.

But the Battle Phase ended James' turn and that also meant that all his monsters lost another Life Star.

Naturia Strawberry

ATK/1600, DEF/1200

Life Stars: 2

Naturia Barkion

ATK/2500, DEF/1800

Life Stars: 4

Another two turns and his Strawberry would be gone.

Depre drew a card.

And sighed. "That's fine. This is fine." He laid the card down on the field. "I play a magic card, 'Cyborgmen Hivemind'. It takes control of your monsters, and assimilates them onto my side." Everyone watched as both James' Naturia Strawberry and his Naturia Barkion were transformed into robotic cyber-punk versions of a strawberry and a dragon, before dematerializing and re-materializing on Depre's side of the field. "Ha! Resistance is futile, you will be upgraded!"

Cyberman Strawberry

ATK/1600, DEF/1200

Life Stars: 2

Borg Barkion

ATK/2500, DEF/1800

Life Stars: 4

James glared at the monsters that were formerly his as if the holograms had wills of their own and chose to betray him. Just like every Magikarp he ever tried to evolve. As soon as it became a Garadose, it tried to kill him. How dare they!?

Depre sighed. "Unfortunately, this doesn't count as battle and your monsters weren't destroyed, so you don't take any damage. But now I've got two strong monsters protecting my Life Points and you have nothing. It's your move."

And, since James' monsters were now controlled by Depre, they lost Life Stars at the end of his turn.

Cyberman Strawberry

ATK/1600, DEF/1200

Life Stars: 1

Borg Barkion

ATK/2500, DEF/1800

Life Stars: 3

James drew a card.

"I Summon the Twilight Rose Knight!" He placed the card on the field.

The sound of violins and castanets filled the arena speakers. A cascade of pink rose petals -very similar to James' own entrance- swirled around the field. The holo-projectors glowed, and a short, humanoid figure that looked almost like a child wearing black armor appeared on the field. A flowing white cape hung from his shoulders, and strands of periwinkle blue hair poked out from under the helmet. The Rose Knight actually almost looked like James as a child -and those watching the game were reminded that it was James' father that designed the Duel Monsters cards and produced the game.

The Twilight Rose Knight pointed his shining sword at Depre and his assimilated monsters.

Twilight Rose Knight

ATK/1000, DEF/1000

Life Stars: 3

"Gawd! More of this gay-ass shit!" Depre snarled. This might be a card game, but he sure as hell wasn't having fun. Between his opponent crossdressing as something out of a porn fantasy, and all these cutesy-looking monsters, it was frustrating enough. But then he just had to pull out that flowery gay knight. It made Depre uncomfortable.

"And," continued James, "my Rose Knight's Effect is that any time he's Normal summoned, I can Special summon a plant-type monster from my hand. So, here's Naturia Marron."

Naturia Marron

ATK/1200, DEF, 700

Life Stars: 3

"Great job, dumb-ass." Depre scoffed. "Or have you forgotten your own monster's effect? Any time its opponent Normal or Special summons a monster it gets an extra one-hundred attack multiplied by the level of the monster. Since they were both level three, that means my Cyberman Strawberry gets six hundred more attack points."

Cyberman Strawberry

ATK/2200, DEF/1200

Life Stars: 1

Depre was actually starting to really like that Strawberry.

"I'm not done yet." James snapped. "Or have you forgotten? All my Naturia cards have Effects. When Naturia Marron is summoned, it allows me to send one Naturia monster from my deck to the Graveyard, pick a monster from the Graveyard and shuffle it back into the deck, then draw a card." He did all of this as he narrated, pausing just before ehe drew his card so that he could make it dramatic and slow. Then he shrugged. "Well, its not the card I wanted, but this will do. Naturia Stinkbug."

Naturia Stinkbug

ATK/200, DEF/500

Life Stars: 3

From the sidelines, Yugi blinked at the playing field. "Just so everybody's clear, he just summoned a bunch of monsters in one turn."

"Hey! He can screw the rules, he has money!" Kaiba reminded his rival.

"I'm fairly certain he managed to do that according to the rules." Bakura commented.

"Nye, shut-up Bakura! Nobody cares what you think." Joey groaned. Nobody cared what he had to say. The only time he ever used his Occult Deck was when he was possessed and trying to kill them all. What did he know about Duel Monsters?

From out of nowhere Kaiba pulled a spray bottle. "Wheeler, what did I say about barking without anyone saying 'speak'!? Bad dog!" And he sprayed Joey in the face. "Bad! Sit, boy!"

"I'm not done yet." James informed everyone. "I also have a spell card. United We Stand. Its an Equip spell that gives an extra eight-hundred attack for every face-up monster I control. At the moment, that's three, so that would be an extra two-thousand four-hundred. I should add it to my Marron since its the strongest, but because I know it would bother you more, I'm gonna add it to my Twilight Rose Knight instead."

Twilight Rose Knight

ATK/3400, DEF/1000

Life Stars: 3

Depre gulped. That was one strong-ass faggoty knight.

James smirked. "I think you know that, no mater which monster I attack, it'll wipe out your remaining Life Points." He drew in a breath. Then shouted. "Go! Twilight Rose Knight!"

An elegantly delicate cascade of roses swirled around the Rose Knight. The music of castanets and violins once again filled the speakers, and the holographic Knight raised his sword to the sky -well, the ceiling- then swung it down in a dramatic arc, striking a theatric pose. He shifted between two more sensational poses before finally charging at the Cyberman Strawberry. It impaled the cybernetic fruit right between its big, round eyes. The strawberry hologram shattered into a thousand fractal shards and Depre's Life Points were reduced to zero.

Depre Scott

Life Points: -200

-glitch-

Life Points: 0

All the gathered spectators gasped.

Yako leapt to his feet, knocking over his folding chair in the process. It clattered to the floor with a loud, metallic, clang. Adding a bit of punctuation to his exclamation of disbelief. "Hacks! I call hacks! Jaime cheated! He had to! He hasn't played this game in years and Depre's a master! Jaime isn't even a real Duelist!"

Gekko also stood and put a restraining hand on his twin's shoulder. They didn't want to appear petty and excitable in front of the CEO of Kaiba Corp. Besides, as much as Yako might not like it, they were all watching the duel. James won fair and square. It was a legal win. Just like his win against Gekko the previous day was a legal win. James might not have played in year, but he still knew how to play, and -like he said- the cards all had descriptions that told a person wha they did right on them. All a Duelist needed was to be able to read to play the game.

"Calm down." Gekko soothed.

Yako grit his teeth and muttered some very rude expletives under his breath, but he didn't shout anything else to the open room. So that sort of counted as 'calming down'.

Depre, on the other hand, was anything but calm.

He jumped down from his podium and sprinted to the opposite end of the arena.

James was just gathering up his cards when Depre grabbed him by the arm, pulling him down from his own podium. Cards were scattered everywhere, clattering to the ground in a chaotic mess. Depre shoved the other man up against the side of the projection field so hard that James' breasts almost hit him in the face they bounced so much.

"What kind of fucking bullshit is this!?" He demanded.

James just glared at him. "You lost. Seems pretty straight forward to me."

"There is nothing straight about this!" Depre roared back. "This-! This wasn't even a duel! This was a circus! You're ruining Duel Monsters, Jay! You- you- you're a fucking cunt!"

He raised his fist, arm pulled back. James knew what was coming. He'd certainly been punched by Depre enough times as children to recognize the posture. He clenched his jaw and forced the muscles in his neck to relax and prepare for the impact.

Richie was up and out of his seat in moments, but he just didn't seem to get to them in time.

Depre's fist collided with James' face. The back of his head slammed into the side of the area's holo-projectors with an uncomfortable kunck sound. His make-up smeared. James saw stars behind his eyes and his vision swam. But he did not pass out and his feet stayed under him. Then again, over a decade of being beaten-up by monsters and blown up had raised his tolerance for pain and resistance to damage considerable.

When James didn't go down from the first punch, Depre raised his fist again. But this time Richie was there to stop him. Wrapping one hand around the other man's wrist, he held back the second blow. "That's enough!"

"Richie!" Depre snarled, voice dripping with betrayal at his own brother stopping him from putting this uppity little faggot in his place. "Who's side are you on!?"

"The side of someone who thinks maybe we shouldn't assault LGBTQ Duelists right in front of visiting executive from a rival company." Richie informed him curtly, then nodded to Seto Kaiba and his younger brother still seated with the rest of their entourage. For the most part, Kaiba himself actually looked fairly entertained, but the others were absolutely horror-struck. "Its bad PR. Also, it was a fair duel. We were all watching. You're being petty and a sore looser, right now. If Father saw you now he'd be disappointed."

"You don't get to decide how father would feel!" Depre snapped back. He spun around and aimed a second punched, this time at the brother restraining him. But Richie caught that one too. "Hey! Lemme go!"

"Nope. You're done here. It's time for you to go." And with that, Richie shifted his position, let got of one of Depre's hands, and hooked his arm around the smaller man's body, and lifted his brother up over his shoulder like an uncooperative sack of potatoes. "You're not fit to be around people until you can calm the hell down." He moved to leave the area, carrying a still struggling Depre over one shoulder, but paused. He turned back to James, glaring at the other man. "I'll be your next opponent, Jim. I hope you react better when you lose."

James was still a bit woosey from the blow to the head, but he still managed to growl out, "I won't lose."

Richie smirked at that. He was a bit older than the others when he was adopted and took longer to connect and bond with the others. It wasn't so much that he and James 'never got along', so much as they weren't really around each other enough to get to know each other before James left. But, from what he'd seen thus far, James had grown into the kind of man who didn't give up. You could knock him down, beat him, or blow him up, but he'd still keep coming back. He was stubborn and determined. Two qualities Richie liked having in both his opponents and his friends.

"We'll see." He carried Depre out of the arena.

That was when James finally slumped down. Sitting on his knees (because he was still wearing a tiny skirt) in the center of a halo of scattered cards. His head was killing him from where it'd hit the wall, but he tried to ignore it as he started picking up his cards. The first one his hand touched was his mother's card.

Cecelia Pegasus.

For half a moment he'd forgotten it was still in his deck. He still didn't even know what she did.

James wondered what would have happened if he'd played her.

…