Last of My Kind

Some Family Secrets

        "Do you think this is funny?!" She retorted.

        "I don't even know what 'this' is."

        Rio admonished that Shark couldn't make decisions for her. Though Bronk tried to weave in, Rio shot him down. Her brother was about to walk away when Rio teased, "Too scared? I know how you can get scared sometimes. It's like your strange fear of onions; maybe I'll have Flip blog all about it."

        The very mentioning of it flipped the switch on Shark, and made him glare at his sister. He growled threateningly, "I'm serious Rio. Not. Cool."

        Rio returned the glare, "Well if you don't want the whole school knowing about that, then you've gotta duel me."

        Astral appeared next to Yuma and commented, "A battle between brother and sister; we should wear ear plugs."

        I laughed slightly at the last part; he probably just wanted to make a joke. The twins readied their d-pads, and everyone fired up their d-gazers to spectate. I teleported to the roof of the building to get away from their nauseating thoughts that kept replaying. Once I was sitting on the roof, I also synced into the duel.

        "You've never beaten me in a duel," Shark reminded, "That's not gonna change; not today."

        He had first draw and summoned lvl 3 Big Jaws. He also special summoned lvl 3 Shark Stickers from his hand, overlaying his monsters to Xyz summon rank 3 Aeroshark. Yuma was pretty surprised that Shark Xyz summoned on his first turn. Shark used an OLU to deal Rio 400 damage for each of his four cards. He added, "This is what happens when you bring up the onions. Go Torpedo Take Down!"

        Rio brought out her lvl 4 Guard Penguin to shield her from the effect and stick around. Shark played his Aqua Gate spell to negate one attack for every facedown on his field. He ended his turn with two facedowns and a very impressive defending tactic.

        Rio took her draw and summoned lvl 4 Blizzard Falcon, overlaying it with her Guard Penguin to Xyz summon rank 4 Zerofyne. She activated its ability Perfect Freeze, using an OLU to negate all faceup card effects until the start of her next turn. And for every frozen card, Aeroshark lost 300 atk for each of two cards, lowering its atk to 1300. She stopped to think, Wait, this is too easy. Shark had to have known I'd summon Zerofyne. Is Aqua Gate a decoy? Of course, I've gotta switch gears and focus on those two facedowns. She equipped Wings of Silence onto Zerofyne, bringing its atk to 2300 and protecting it from spells and traps. She ordered her Ice Beast to attack Aeroshark with Icicle Storm, destroying it and lowering Shark's LP to 3000. Shark activated the Ghost Salvage trap to bring back the Submersible Carrier, along with Big Jaws and Shark Stickers without their effects. He then activated Full-armored Xyz, helping him automatically Xyz summon even if it wasn't his turn. He overlaid Big Jaws and Shark Stickers again to Xyz summon rank 3 Black Ray Lancer. Unbeknownst to everyone else, the Beast-Warrior turned to me and saluted, as I remembered him. Full-armored Xyz also allowed Shark to equip Aeroshark to Lancer and combine their atk, raising it to 4000. Definitely unnerved, Rio ended her turn with one facedown.

        Shark drew and activated the Break Stream spell, preventing Rio from activating any cards when Lancer attacks. With Aqua Gate's effect still on ice, Rio had no way of shielding herself. Shark had Lancer attack Zerofyne with Shimmering Spear Slash. He then activated Break Stream's other effect, to get rid of Rio's facedown when Zerofyne was destroyed. Shark remembered that Rio needed him to build her deck when they were kids. Rio wanted to prove that she didn't need his help to duel anymore. She activated Ice Fire egg: the card that was destroyed by Break Stream. It activated when it was destroyed and let Rio bring back Zerofyne without its atk and def and changed it to lvl 5. Shark placed a facedown to end his turn.