Tagging Up 3

lexis watched the three Slifer Red's, Jaden, Syrus and Chumley make their way back towards their dorm. She was sticking around before leaving to make sure they didn't double back and do what they shouldn't be.

It was against the rules after all, for students to enter the Abandoned Dorm. A sigh left Alexis when they disappeared back through the forest and the blonde turned back around to stare at the decrepit building behind her.

'Brother.' She bit her lip. She'd been here for nearly three weeks now at Duel Academy, yet, she wasn't any closer at all to finding out about what happened here, and how the students that were here at that time, her brother being one of them, disappeared.

It didn't matter who she asked, they were all incredibly tight lipped about it. And every record of the abandoned dorm had been wiped clean.

She was beginning to lose hope that her brother was a alive at all. But, Alexis had steeled herself. If nothing else, she could never be at peace until she found out what happened to her brother. He couldn't rest in peace until whatever or whoever done this to him was exposed and dealt with.

'Well, at least my time here hasn't been bad.' Alexis mused softly, eyes closing as she recalled the past few weeks. It had honestly been a bit of a wild ride, from a Slifer beating Crowler, to then herself, to then another Slifer defeating Zane and jumping up to Obelisk Blue within a single week.

'Yarden.' a small smile tugged at her lips as she thought of that interesting boy. He'd caught her eye since that first time she saw him duel on the first day of classes. The bold, swaggering confidence, the way he stood up to the Obelisk Blue's and showed them that the derision for a person just because of the color of their jacket was the height of stupidity and the dorms truly weren't the best way of measuring peoples talent as duelists.

She'd been spending a lot of time with him lately. So much so Jasmine seemed to be getting a bit jealous. But, it was fun being around him. Relaxing even, she didn't need to be on edge around him. And she generally only felt like that around Jasmine and Mindy.

Eating together, chatting about cards, decks and duels, learning from the combo's and plays he just casually dropped as if they weren't important, even just shooting the breeze and idly talking about whatever came to mind. Even the way he was constantly trying to one up himself in one turn killing the guys who bothered him for hanging out with her was amusing to her now. Yesterday even for instance, he one turn killed someone using his Petit Dragon by using Gift Of The Martyr to give it Five Headed Dragon's attack points.

He was bold as brass and had a crude, yet flamboyant way of going about things that she was sure her brother would just love. 'Considering how much he loves flirting with me, Jasmine and Mindy, they'd probably connect well on that to.' she snorted a little in amusement. Her brother and Yarden were cut from the same cloth that way.

And things had been going so well for her lately as well. She'd finished making the tune ups to her deck from Yarden's advice just three days ago. She'd spent all her DP and dueled quite a lot to earn more for the rest of the cards needed. And, her deck had definitely become more powerful. She was always better than most, but now, it felt like she'd reached an entire new level with the tactics she'd learned from Yarden. And Hoshingen had been surprisingly useful. She always drew it at the best possible moments for empowering her light monsters or weakening dark monsters.

"Well now, I don't think girls like you should be out alone at this time of night." A deep, intimidating voice suddenly spoke up from behind her, breaking Alexis from her thoughts.

Jumping in fright at the sudden voice, heart hammering in her chest Alexis whirled around on instinct and her eyes went wide. Standing there, was a huge barrel chested man dressed from head to toe in deep black clothing, a silver half mask covering his eyes and nose and a sick looking grin on his deeply tanned skin. He had to have at least a foot on her in size

"W-who the heck are-" Alexis tried to calm her racing heart, before he suddenly surged forward, massive arms going towards her, one of them clad in a metallic silver gauntlet.

One of his hands grabbed her around the face, cutting her voice off while the other grabbed her around the waist and hoisted her into the air.

Alexis struggled and kicked with all her might, but fit and athletic as she was, that didn't mean much when this man was just so much more massive than her.

"Go to sleep little girl." His voice rumbled and through narrowed eyes, she caught sight of some golden pyramid-like thing held on a chain being held aloft in front of her eyes.

At that moment though, blinding golden light suddenly appeared out of nowhere, and despite how bright it was, it didn't hurt Alexis' eyes at all.

The man attacking her however, let loose a roar of pain, letting go of her and stumbling back to clutch at his eyes, "W-what the hell is this!?" he demanded.

Alexis was incredibly surprised by the sudden turn of events and she had no idea what was going on. She couldn't see anything that could be putting out this golden light that felt warm on her skin.

She wasn't going to bother questioning it though. She turned on her heel and sprinted off as fast as she was able in the direction of the girls dormitory.

As she ran, her hand went to her pocket and she pulled out her PDA. Her first thought, was the boy she'd just been thinking about. She selected his name, and cursed the fact that she hadn't thought to bring her cellphone with her. She'd have to settle for a video message.

"Yarden, I'm sorry about this! But I need your help!" she apologized first, she didn't want to get people involved with anything dangerous, but if nothing else, Yarden was tough and reliable, and she needed him right now, "I'm out near the Abandoned Dorm running back towards my own! Some huge guy just came out of nowhere and he tried to grab me! I-" something hit her in the small of her back and she tumbled to her knees, hissing as she scraped them, blood beginning to ooze form her kneecaps. She ignored it though even as she fell forward and hit the send button.

A huge hand grabbed onto her wrist and lifted her into the air easily. She yelped in pain, it felt like her arm near outright got dislocated from the rough treatment, "I was merely going to knock you out you little bitch," the huge man snarled angrily at her, bloodshot eyes glaring at her through his mask, "I don't know how you pulled that stunt with the light, nor do I care. But I'll be taking your deck as retribution before I leave here."

She stilled. Her deck? The deck that was made with cards that at first her brother had given her? The deck she'd worked on for years. The deck Yarden had so graciously helped her with, and containing the card he stressed as incredibly precious?

Alexis ignored the pain in her arm and legs and glared at him, "Like hell you will!" she lashed out with a kick that caught him in the stomach, but it was her that gave a cry of pain as her foot hit something hard and metallic.

He gave a dark, rumbling chuckle, "Oh, I think I will." he sneered, and then jerked his arm and tossed her to the ground. Her back ached as she was slammed into the stone path they were on, and the air was driven from her lungs.

His huge meaty hand reached down and grasped at her deck box on her belt. She feebly struggled, but couldn't put up much of a fight as he ripped it off her belt, winded as she was, it was hard even to take shallow breaths.

"Hoh, these aren't bad," the man mused as he flipped the box open and started rifling through her cards, "White Night Dragon? You Duel Academy brats sure are privileged to be able to buy cards like these off the shelf for as cheap as they are here. I could get a good five thousand dollars or so for this, if not more."

He wasn't just stealing her deck, he wanted to sell her precious cards as well!?

"Is that fucking right now?" a familiar voice suddenly snarled.

The huge man paused, looking towards the source of the voice, as did Alexis. It was Yarden, clad as always in his red jacket, even as an Obelisk he hadn't stopped wearing it. But, he was different from usual in a way.

His lips were pulled back, baring his teeth almost ferally at the huge man, and his eyes were narrowed into glares of bloody murder as he stomped over towards them both.