Tagging Up 16

After being introduced to Professor Wade and exchanging PDA contact details with him, Yarden and Zane left the academy behind and made their way towards the Slifer Red dorm.

"You know, it's been a long time since I've been here," Zane mused as the pair of them walked up the stairs to the second floor of the small dormitory building, "I walk by it nearly everyday when I head down to the docks, but, I've not actually came here in a good two years now."

"You should probably visit it more then considering your little brother lives here." Yarden pointed out.

"I suppose so." Zane nodded.

They came to a stop in front of Jaden's dorm and Yarden rapped his knuckles against it.

A few moments later, it swung open to show a short, blue haired boy clad in the academy track suit, "Oh, hey Yarden, we were just talk-" Syrus began, only to trail off when his eyes looked over Yarden's shoulder and caught sight of his companion. The short boys face paled and his eyes went wide behind his spectacles, "B-big bro?" he stuttered, almost fearfully.

Zane almost flinched at the reaction, but he mustered all his self control not to, "Hello Syrus," Zane shot the boy a small smile, "Do you have a little bit of time? I've just realized I've not checked in on you yet, so I figured I'd come see you while Yarden was visiting."

Syrus just stared gobsmacked.

"Sy?" Jaden called out to him worriedly from the room, walking over, "You okay?" he touched his shoulder gently.

Syrus gave a flinch as he snapped out of his gobsmacked daze, "Y-yeah I'm fine Jay," he gave the brown haired Slifer a shaky smile, before swallowing heavily, "O-okay big bro." the short blue haired boy replied to Zane, stepping out of the room.

"Good, good," Zane nodded, "I know a good quiet place we can chat privately and catch up." he directed the boy to walk alongside him.

"The heck's going on?" Jaden gave Yarden a worried look as he eyed the short boy walk off with his older brother.

"Just an idiot that needs to sort out some issues he caused," Yarden snorted, waving him off, "Don't worry about Syrus, that's his older brother."

"I figured with him saying Big Bro and all, still an odd reaction," Jaden pointed out, "A weird way to act when your brother comes to visit."

"Like I said, Zane just needs to sort out some problems he caused for Syrus that he didn't think through properly," Yarden replied, "So how's things mate?"

"I'll take your word for it bro," Jaden nodded lightly, casting one last glance at the small back of his blue haired friend before beckoning Yarden to follow him inside, "Things have been pretty good actually, I was looking into the cards you told me about and they're sweet as heck bro. Though, I feel like I should be the one asking you if things are okay."

"Good to hear, with both types of Elemental Heroes your deck is gonna be amazing," Yarden grinned, before giving him a confused look as the boy closed the door behind them, "And what do you mean?"

"Bro, you're dueling the Paradox Brothers with Alexis right? And if you lose you're getting expelled, course I should be the one asking you if you're alright," Jaden rolled his eyes, "Hell, that's on top of some freak attacking you and Alexis last night!"

"Don't worry about it," Yarden laughed as he walked over and took a seat on one of the computer chairs, his eyes glancing at the huge covered up lump atop the bunk bed and the snoring coming from it, before focusing back on Jaden, "Me and Alexis can take them easy. Especially with the card you gave me. I just used it earlier to take down a bunch of Obelisk's at once when they were running their mouths at me."

"If you say so bro," Jaden took a seat beside him, and then grinned at him, "So you trashed a bunch of them with Five Headed Dragon? That's sweet, tell me about it!"

Yarden proceeded to explain how his morning went. How they were all pissed off at him and how the rumors were all about how things with Alexis possibly getting expelled were his fault.

"Ah man, if only I stuck around last night for a bit longer," Jaden clicked his fingers in annoyance, "I could'a helped you guys out."

"And got put on the chopping block alongside us." Yarden pointed out in amusement. Or, probably rather than them since Crowler would be eager to shift all the blame to Jaden.

When he got to the explanation of the duel and how he summoned Five Headed Dragon on his first turn, and then proceeded to use Ring of Destruction and Rainbow Life to take them all out the second his turn ended, Jaden erupted into laughter.

"Man that's a good one!" he wiped a tear from his eye, "I'll need to be on the lookout for that. I've not got many cards that could deal with that."

Honestly, Yarden would need to get his hands on something for that as well. Kuriboh would work as a hand trap, but didn't really fit his deck. It might be worth it just to deny getting dabbed on like that though.

Or he could go with Damage Polarizer. Here, it could be activated from the hand as long as the user had no cards on the field and it would let him draw a single card.

"I'm grabbing a Damage Polarizer to deal with it myself," Yarden replied with a smile, "You should grab one to."

"Never heard of it," Jaden shrugged, "But I'll look it up later."

It would go a long way to helping Jaden out if he ended up dueling with Nightshroud. Yarden would rather go after him, himself though. He wanted those Red-Eyes cards.

Honestly, there were quite a few specific cards others used that he wanted to get his hands on. Like the underworld deck, and specifically, the Cyber Dark Dragons. He already knew how to tame them, and they didn't fit Zane's deck.

How to convince Sheppard to let him take them though, was the problem. Even him bringing up about knowing them shouldn't raise a lot of eyebrows. The Cyber Style school was pretty famous after all.

"So how are the new cards treating you?" Yarden asked, this he was very interested in. The second half of the Elemental Hero archetype would provide Jaden with a massive boost much earlier.

"Oh, they're really sweet bro!" Jaden's eyes positively lit up, "Elemental Hero Stratos and Prisma are something else! And all the support traps and spells and combos I can make are absurd. I've not even figured out all I can do with them yet!"

"I'll need to test you out in a duel then, see how well you use them." Yarden grinned at him. He had a feeling facing Jaden with his newest Elemental Heroes at his beck and call would make for the hardest duel he'd faced yet, by a mile.

"I'm ready to throw down whenever you want bud!" Jaden pumped his fist into the air excitedly, then calmed down and frowned a small bit, "Though, there is one card I couldn't find at all. All the other ones you told me about were there, but Elemental Herro Terra Firma wasn't, and Miss Dorothy had never even heard of it either."

"Weird," Yarden frowned, was it possible Terra Firma wasn't out yet? "I could've sworn I heard Terra Firma was basically like the boss monster of the Elemental Hero cards." he evaded lightly.

"Eh, it's cool bro," Jaden waved him off, "So you got one card wrong. You were spot on with all the other ones. I hadn't even heard of them until you brought them up with me."

"I suppose s-"

Yarden was cut off when he was replying by the sound of his PDA ringing. "One sec mate." he pulled it out of his pocket and flipped it open.

He had a text message. From Alexis.

'Hey, would you mind meeting up with me and the girls? I know we strategized a bit just last night, but I'd feel better if we went over things a bit more thoroughly.'

"Who was it?" Jaden asked when he looked up from the screen.

"Alexis," he replied with a shrug, "She's wanting to meet up and strategize a bit more tonight for the tag duel coming up."

"That would be the smart thing to do," Jaden nodded, and then grinned, "Then again, you are a former Slifer, you even still wear the jacket. Smart doesn't come as naturally to us reds apparently."

Yarden snorted, "Trust me, beyond the dorm building and food, it isn't that much different from here," he replied, "They're all dumbasses as well."

"Oh yeah that's right!" Jaden smacked one of his fists into his palm, "You get access to all that sweet amazing Obelisk food. Bro, why haven't you invited me to get a meal there!"

Hmm, he hadn't actually, had he?

"Come over whenever you want mate," Yarden shrugged, "You can eat as much as you want."

"Sweet! I'll definitely take you up on that!" Jaden pumped his fist into the air again.

A thought came to mind.

"Why don't you come with me when I go meet up with Alexis?" he asked, "We can't exactly chill at the girls dorms, boys aren't allowed, but girls are allowed at the boys dorms. So we'll probably head back to my room."

"Yeah count me i-" he began eagerly, before pausing and sighing, "Actually, rain check bro? I should probably wait for Syrus to get back, something tells me this little chat with his big brother might be a bit heavy on him."

Yarden nodded. Yeah, it most likely would be, "Sure mate, just let me know when you want to hang out and if I'm not busy you can come over and munch on the Obelisk food till you burst."

"I don't think I've ever heard a sentence more beautiful!" Jaden laughed, Yarden getting caught up in his pace and laughing along with him.

It wasn't long later that he bid the hero user goodbye so he could go meet up with Alexis. He was in a pretty good mood when he left though. Jaden was great at bringing the enthusiasm and making things fun.