Stacking The Deck - 21.2

Yarden perked up as he heard noise coming from not far away, grunting and heavy breathing and the sound of the rapid pitter patter of feet on the ground.

'Thank fuck, this means things won't last much longer.' he mused. And then he could get back to class and asleep.

Or well, since he had already skipped class maybe he could just return to his room and claim to be sick? He was practically Crowler's new golden boy and the man would go out of his way to make sure he wasn't in trouble.

Actually, thinking on that thought reminded him of what would happen once Crowler took over next year. And the fact that he would be trying to promote students to fame achieving heights to promote the schools reputation and his own.

Ignoring the crap with the Light of Destruction, that might be worth taking advantage of. 'Wait, if I kick Aster's ass first in a duel, will that mean Jaden won't get the Neo Spacians?' Yarden blinked as the thought came to him.

That could be a problem. Because from what he'd learned since arriving here, while kind of shit to use normally, that didn't factor in here, not really and they really increased the weight class that Jaden could punch at as far as spirit shenanigans went.

Also, Neos was totally needed for all the crazy powerful monsters would fuse with it to make later. Rainbow Neos, Neos Wiseman, Divine Neos. Jaden would need that kind of power later down the line to deal with Darkness or Nightshroud, or whatever he called himself.

'Could I take care of him through Atticus?' Yarden wondered. He doubted it. Jaden sealed off his soul in a shadow game and he still just came back. Darkness was basically a concept really.

He honestly wasn't sure who was stronger, Zorc Necrophade or Darkness. And he was sure Darkness couldn't measure up to the Light Of Destruction.

"Hey look, over there, in the bushes!" Alexis suddenly spoke up, breaking the discussion between Jasmine and Mindy below and Yarden from his thoughts, "Something's moving!"

Yarden gleefully put that crap out of mind for now. There was no point thinking on it right now after all, not when he lacked the fire power to walk up and punch them in the nose after all.

"Chazzy?" Mindy perked up and looked at the bushes.

"Yeah it's gotta be," Jaden grinned, happily changing the subject, "Games over scrub boy, time to come on back and face the music."

"Let's just get this over with and head back," Jasmine rolled her eyes and took lead walking forward to the bushes, "I'm soo done with this nonsense."

Alexis grunted and followed behind her, while Syrus just shrugged and fell in line with the rest.

'..Wait...wait now that I'm seeing this happen, are you people stupid?' Yarden's jaw fell. Why the hell in all that was holy in the land of dragons and busty magical girls, did they seriously believe that Chazz Princeton, Chazz the rich brat born with a golden spoon in his mouth would be rustling about in the bushes deep in the jungle?

You'd think at least Alexis would be more thoughtful in regards to danger after the Titan incident.

'Am I, me of all people, seriously gonna have to lecture people on common sense?' Yarden literally gaped. This really was an absurd world.

...Honestly, he could nip this in the bud right now and put an end to it. But you know what? They totally needed this. At least to hammer in some more common sense into their empty heads.

Maybe one of them getting kidnapped by a monkey would actually let them develop a danger sense?

Or not and he could just win some brownie points playing the big damn hero. Either way, he came out ahead. 'All I do is win.' Yarden nodded.

As they got closer to the bushes, a brown and grey blur shot out towards them and they froze up. Screams of shock erupted from the mouths of Jasmine, Mindy and Syrus as the blur bowled them all over.

Except Jasmine.

She found herself hoisted up into the air by their mysterious assailant. Who was a monkey decked out in technologically advanced gear, a helmet covering its head and some form of chest plate over its torso.

Yarden had to resist the urge to jump down and put an end to this nonsense here and now. Instead, he just continued observing as Wheeler turned and bounded back through the bushes and jumped into the trees and began swinging away one handed, carrying Jasmine in the other.

'You know now that I think about it, Wheeler is fucking strong.' Yarden realised. Monkeys were not that strong to his knowledge. Nowhere near actually.

What the hell did they do to that monkey when experimenting on him?

"...Well it was a close resemblance but that wasn't Chazz." Alexis stared after the fleeing monkey in a daze.

As she spoke, the sound of heavy panting echoed and a trio of men came running into the clearing they were in. Two large heavily muscled men in dark suits and sunglasses, one carrying some form of rifle while the third was an incredibly short squat man not much taller than Syrus with heavy dark hair and a beard of the same make.

"Tch, he's gone," one of the dark suit wearing men clicked his tongue, the bigger of the two in fact. He was so large he could give Titan a run for his monkey, "What now?"

"After him obviously!" the shortest man barked and they chased Wheeler into the bushes and through the forest.

It took the group of teens a moment to realise what was actually going on and they shot to her feet, "Did that monkey just kidnap Jasmine!?" Syrus shouted in shock, "And what the heck! Who were those guys!?"

"No idea, shady though," Mindy commented and looked up into the trees where Jasmine's screams were still echoing, "It's what she always wanted though, some guy to sweep her off her feet."

Alexis gave her an odd look before shaking her head, "Yeah, some guy, probably Yarden nowadays, not some monkey!" the blonde retorted before chasing after them herself, "C'mon we have to go save her!"

Mindy blinked, "Oh right!" she gasped in realisation and followed the blonde.

"Oh man, do we have to?" Syrus trembled fearfully.

He was forced to run after them when Jaden grabbed his shoulder and dragged him along with him, "No backing out now Sy!"

"Damnittt!" Syrus' defeated wail echoed almost as loudly as Jasmine's screams of terror.

Yarden shook his head as he hopped lightly through the trees above, "Zane should really show that guy how to work out, it'll do wonders for his confidence once he puts on a little muscle." he mused.

"Too bad Yarden didn't come along, we could really use him right about now!" Alexis complained from the front as she struggled to catch up.

'Yeah well maybe you'll listen to me speaking sense in the future.' he rolled his eyes as he easily caught up to her. He made sure not to overtake her though.

Why? Because running as wildly as she was provided him quite the view in that short skirt and the way her voluptuous chest heaved and bounced with each deep breath as she ran.

And it was times two as well with Mindy along.

This was even better than the physical education classes.

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The more time she spent at Duel Academy, the more times Alexis felt her world view being tossed topsy turvy.

A renowned professor of duelling like Crowler being beat by some no name kid? Some new kid just picking up discarded cards and crushing everyone and anyone in view.

The unbeatable Zane whom even her brother couldn't defeat, utterly demolished by the same kid using discarded cards.
The way her heart fluttered in her chest around said kid after spending all the time she had with him and what he'd done for her.

Then the mythical suddenly became real and Duel Spirits were revealed to her and she finally had a clue as to what happened to her brother.

Only for secret experimental duellist monkeys to suddenly be a thing. Trained and experimented on by a shady organisation working out of Duel Academy Island no less!

Alexis didn't know what to think anymore, 'Could it have been them?' she bit her lip, eyeing the suited men worriedly. Could her brother and the others of the Abandoned Dorm have come across their experiments somehow and have been made to 'disappear'.

The thought clawed at her mind.

She obviously knew of test animals that were experiment on and exposed to drugs before humans to make sure they were safe and such. It was cruel, but a needed thing, she'd been forced to accept that.

This though? the way the short heavy browed man almost gleefully bragged to them about how amazing a duellist Wheeler was and how he would never make the same mistake because if he did the monkey would be heavily punished, and 'poked and prodded' at until he learned his lesson.

It was horrifying, cruel and inhumane.

She still couldn't help the sigh of relief that left her as Wheeler kept his promise and let Jasmine go free after losing to Jaden.

Wheeler to his credit was incredibly skilled as a duellist, better even than many Obelisk's she had seen. But Jaden was just that good, especially now that like her he had apparently gotten some advice from Yarden and enhanced his deck with even more heroes.

The duel only lasted all of four turns and Jaden won decisively, but it was not at all a demerit to the monkeys skill as far as she was concerned. After all, Jaden had beaten her before he upgraded his deck after all. And her duel with him only lasted around the same length at that.

"He reeked of bannana's!" Jasmine sniffled as she hurriedly ran over to them.

Mindy smothered a smile that Alexis noticed and hugged the girl, "There there you're safe now." the black haired girl comforted their friend.

Alexis sighed and rubbed her forehead, today really had not gone how she expected. 'I should have just listened to Yarden, or followed his head.' she groaned inwardly.

Or maybe just skipped class and asked him to join her. He most likely wouldn't have disagreed. And it would surely have been more productive than...this.

She needed to speak to him about duel spirits after all. And how they could possibly have tied into her brothers disappearance.

Jasmine pulled away from Mindy and smiled at Jaden, "Thanks for saving me," she smiled gratefully. Alexis blinked a bit surprised. Jasmine after all, wasn't really a fan of Slifers. She was possibly just that scared before, or possibly because of Yarden being a former Slifer she supposed, "But...what's gonna happen to Wheeler now?" she looked at the monkey with a worried frown.

"He shouldn't have snatched me, but...I don't think he deserves to be dragged back with these cruel needle poking shady thugs." the auburn haired girl cast a disgusted look at the three suited men.

"Spare me you're childish feelings you annoying brat," the short older man snorted, before pointing at the tech clad monkey, "Get this failure now! I can't believe he lost to a Slifer of all things. Clearly we need to be much more thorough with him."

"Roger sir!" the tranquilizer wielding suited man nodded and he and the huge mountain of muscle that reminded her of Titan in sheer size began to step forward towards Wheeler.

"Hold it!" Jaden stepped in front of them and spread his arms wide to block them, casting a glance at the group of monkeys watching from the tree line, before turning back and narrowing his eyes into a glare aimed at the men, "Wheeler doesn't belong with you. He belongs out here in nature, with his family! So that's where we'll be leaving him, got it?"

The men stopped, giving surprised noises and looking at him as if he were an idiot, "Kid, what kind of hippy crap are you smoking?" the larger of the two demanded.

Syrus was apparently emboldened by Jaden's stand against them, "It's alright Wheeler, we won't let them take you!" Syrus called over grinning.

Alexis eyed the huge suited man and bit her lip again. She knew from experience now some people just weren't going to play ball the same way lawful people like her did.

"If they try it, I'll call the T.V stations!" the blonde still added on after Syrus though. If things turned violent, there was little they could do here as they were, but she still had to try.

"And I'll call the newspapers!" Mindy added.

"...I'll call Yarden?" Jasmine added after looking between the two other girls and thinking for a moment.

Alexis blinked, 'I should have done that while the duel was going on!' she almost smacked her for her foolishness.

Things would be a lot different with him here. He'd already shown the ability to handle people like Titan easily after all.

And she'd feel a lot more confident with him here.

In response, the fist of the largest man lashed out and caught Jaden in the cheek smacking him to the ground.
"Ah!" Jaden gasped, grasping his face.

Alexis heart leapt in her chest as Jasmine and Mindy squealed in shock. She was afraid of this.

"Enough of the nonsense you brats out of the way," The shortest man snorted walking forward and up to Jaden as the gun toting suited man aimed at Wheeler, the monkey locking up in fright, "Please, you think your threats scare us? You're just some useless kids. You should run along now before we have to hurt you." he laughed.

Alexis' mind raced a mile a minute. What to do in this situation? Her eyes flickered to Syrus who had totally frozen. He was the only other boy here, but he wouldn't exactly be a help here.

"Is that right?" a familiar voice suddenly spoke up from behind them.

"Yarden, you're here?" Jasmine shouted happily before Alexis managed to turn. But when the blonde did, it was amazing how the rapid beating of her heart calmed down when she caught sight of him casually reclining on a tree branch overlooking the cliffside they were on.

'..How long has he been there?' Alexis wondered idly before putting it out of mind. She didn't care right now, it wasn't important, she was just glad to see him

"Oh you guys are like seriously in for it now." Mindy went from fearful to grinning in an instant.
It was almost absurd how much faith her friends had in Yarden. Alexis would probably have questioned the validity of it all, if she weren't under the same effect.

"Oh great, some other brat here to whine at us about how cruel were are." the rifle wielding man snorted.

"Heh, he's just like this little pansy hippy, don't mind him," his huge friend snorted while waving dismissively at Jaden who was rubbing at his jaw and glaring up at the man, "I'll deal with him, we'll see how confident they are when I smack him around too." he claimed and began making his way over towards the tree Yarden was in.

In response, Yarden slipped out of the tree and landed in front of it casually, "Is that right?" he snorted and began walking over to meet the man, not at all bothered by the seeming near one foot in height the man had on him, "You know though shit head?"

"Know what brat?" the suited man asked.

"That's ma pal yae just punched, A' hope yae don' hink am gonnae let yae get away wae tha'." a familiar thick Scottish brogue suddenly left Yarden's mouth.

The man stopped, and his brows furrowed confusedly over his dark sunglasses, "Wha-?"

That was all he got the chance to say though before Yarden suddenly rushed forward seemingly clearing the last few feet between them in the blink of an eye. The huge suited man gagged and doubled over as Yarden's fist was suddenly in his stomach.

His sunglasses fell from his face and landed in Yarden's hand as he pulled back and then his knee came up and Alexis winced as the sound of bone crunching rang out throughout the area.

Loudly.

Blood sprayed into the air from the huge mans sudden broken nose and he fell backwards, limp.

"Who's a fuckin' pansy new' ya stupit' wimpy wee cunt?" Yarden snorted, casually slipped the sunglasses on over his eyes and turned his attention to the last two men, "Right, new' you two are next fer yer shite." he threatened the remaining two men and literally walked over the top of the huge man he just knocked out, stepping on his face, broken nose and all as he began making his way over.

How savagely brutal.

There was utter silence as everyone stared at him gobsmacked. But despite his utter brutality, Alexis found herself enraptured at the way he swaggered forward, a snarl on his lips. A smile grew on her own lips.

Her eyes flickered to the two remaining men that were staring at Yarden in horror, "W-what are you doing! D-Deal with him!" the short older man gave a sputtering order to his subordinate.

The rifle toting man took his aim from Wheeler and aimed at Yarden. Yarden in response just continued walking forward, not afraid at all, "Go fer it ya' poncy wee bitch'," he snorted, "It's goin' up yer' arse though if yae' dae'."

The tranquilizer gun trembled in his grip. A moment later, the suited man threw it down and sprinted away to the other side of the clearing, "I don't get paid enough to deal with crazy freaks like this!" he shouted before disappearing into the jungle and vanishing from sight.

"Joshua, get back here you co-" the older man shouted after him, but by then Yarden had already reached him and grasped the man by his collar and absurdly, lifted him into the air one handed.

"Awrite' there old timer?" Yarden bared his teeth at the older man.

"N-now boy, think this through, you don't want to go making an enemy of us, in fact we could use-"

"Shut it," Yarden cut him off, "A don't gee' a shit. Fae new' oan' though? The monkey, he belongs tae me. And a' say ay' can stay in the jungle way eez' faemily, awrite?"

"Y-you can't, do you have any idea what-"

Yarden casually tossed the old man to the side and the grunted as he slammed into the ground, "A just told yae' a don't gee' a shit," Yarden jerked his chin threateningly at the old man, "Yer lucky am' no rippin' yer heed' aff after yae got ma pal hit ya stupit' old poofter."

The Scottish teen took a threatening step forward towards the old man, "New' if yae' go anywhere near ma monkey an eez' faemily, al know, awrite? An I'll fuckin' hunt yae' doon' and kill yae, noo' beat it!" he snarled.

The old man gave a trembling shout before pushing up onto his trembling little legs and running away, leaving his unconscious subordinate behind.

Yarden stared after him for a moment before turning to Jaden and walking over to him, holding a hand out to the brown haired boy, "You alright mate?" he asked, the thick accent suddenly gone.

It was almost eerie how quickly he could turn that off and on.

Jaden stared at him stupidly before shaking his head and laughing, "Ah, it isn't bad bro, it'll just bruise a bit," he accepted the hand and let Yarden pull him to his feet, "But sheesh bro, you sure were brutal there. Not that I'm complaining, you sure saved our butts there."

"Good good," Yarden nodded before turning to look at the other four who were staring at him in various variations of stupefied shock, "And how about you idiots?"

Alexis couldn't help the huff of amusement that left her, crossing her arms and shaking her head, "We're fine Yarden, thanks for saving us." the blonde replied.

"..That was kinda hot." Mindy added before any of the other two making them gape at her.

"Good," Yarden repeated before looking at Alexis and raising his eyebrow at her, "Now what have we learned?"

...He was singling her out for some reason. She didn't know why though, "..If we're dealing with shady guys always have you around to beat them up if they get violent...?" she hedged.

Yarden blinked, "...Well yes...but that's not what I meant," he sighed and gave her a deadpan look, "I mean, how about using that pretty little head of yours and employing some of that common sense? Why the hell were you idiots searching for Chazz in the jungle?"

Alexis opened her mouth to reply, before promptly freezing, "...We were following Jaden?" she replied.

Yarden palmed his forehead.

"You're supposed to be the smart one," he groaned but dropped it and turned to face Wheeler who was just kind of staring at them, head cocked to the side, "Alright monkey boy, Wheeler was it? Feel free to go run off and be with your family now, if those guys come back and bother you just come find me at the academy, you know where that is yeah?" he spoke to the monkey.

It was amazing in a way how he casually just rolled with it and didn't ask any question, just started having a conversation with a monkey.

Wheeler cocked his head to the other side before his helmet flashed, "Understood, Understood! Wheeler thanks you!" the mechanical voice echoed from his helmet as he replied.

"Right, one thing though before you leave," Yarden said and stopped Wheeler in his tracks as he was about to make his way over to his family. The monkey looked at Yarden and cocked his head to the side again and in response, Yarden walked over to them and promptly wrapped his arm around Jasmine's waist and hoisted the girl up over his shoulder, "This is mine, I'm the only one allowed to kidnap her."

Jasmine yelped, "Yarden put me down!" she demanded, her cheeks going red. Then her eyes suddenly widened, "Wait, what do you mean kidnapped, how long were you watching us!?" she demanded.

"Long enough to see how stupid you were all acting." He snorted.

"...Wheeler understands, mate of strong human!" Wheeler nodded, and then turned and made his way over to his family.

"Mate, what the heck do you mean mate you dumb monkey, I never agreed to anything like that!" Jasmine's flush turned neon red.

"Don't you think you're teasing her a bit much?" Alexis raised her eyebrow at him.

Only to yelp herself as she was suddenly tossed his other shoulder, "Yarden what are you doing?" she couldn't help but laugh despite how things suddenly turned.

"Don't think you're getting off scot free, In fact, I should spank you as punishment, I literally told you where Chazz went before you left the classroom and you still ended up in this stupid situation," the Scottish boy retorted, "This sweet booty is now the property of the great pirate Yarden Odhar, anyone with objections should speak up now or forever hold your peace!"

"What about me?" Mindy hopped over and pouted at him before Alexis or Jasmine could retort themselves.

"If I had a third arm I'd claim that booty in the name of the Great Yarden Empire while I'm at it," he replied without missing a beat and Alexis looking over her shoulder could see him grinning, "Well, you can just follow along. Attempting to flee will just result in me chasing you down. Escape is not possible."

Now his name was an Empire!?

"Ah, you say the sweetest things." Mindy beamed.

Jasmine on the shoulder opposite Alexis slumped and just gave up, "You know what, I don't even care anymore." the auburn haired girl simply gave up.

Probably the smartest decision any of them had made all day.

"You know Jae, now that I looked at this, it's obvious," Syrus sighed in defeat, nodding his head, "Yarden is just built different than us."

"That's just cuz he works out bro, maybe we should to!" Jaden laughed and pat the blue haired boy on the shoulder.

Alexis saw Syrus eyes go to her and Jasmine hanging over Yarden's shoulders, "You think so?" his eyes shined hopefully.

It didn't take a genius to realise what he hoped for. 'Well, sorry Syrus but you'll need to look somewhere else for 'booty' of your own.' Alexis snorted inwardly.

Her and her friends were apparently already the property of Yarden Odhar.