The Dark Scorpions

Ryan woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of his PDA ringing. Still groggy he reached out to grab his PDA and noticed that his room was unusually cold as he did so.

He grabbed the PDA and noticed what time it was. It was 2:30am.

'Who's calling me at this hour.' Ryan thought as he answered his PDA.

"Hello." He said rather groggily.

"Ryan, Ryan this is terrible. They're gone. They're all gone." Alexis's voice said. She sounded panicked.

"What are you talking about?" He asked, a little more awake.

"The spirit keys. They're all gone. Someone's stolen them." Alexis said.

"Not mine." Ryan told her.

"What?" Alexis sounded surprised to hear this.

"Before I went to sleep last night, I removed my spirit key from the hiding place that was suggested." Ryan explained.

He then turned around and saw that his balcony door was wide open explaining why his room was so cold.

"What's the plan?" He asked.

"Chazz called me and he said to look around our rooms for any clues, then he said to meet him at the Slifer dorm. I think he's trying to figure out who did this." Alexis said.

"I'll be over there shortly." Ryan replied.

He then began searching his room.

Less than an hour later all of the key keepers had gathered at the Slifer dorm. Detective Magure was also there to help them find the thief.

Thanks to everyone having to rush in order to get here most of the group was still wearing their bedtime attire. Ryan was wearing black pajamas, he had thrown on his shoes and was also wearing his finger-less gloves.

Alexis was wearing a sky blue nighty and a pair of fluffy white slippers. Jaden was only wearing his boxer shorts and his Slifer red jacket and Chazz was the only one who was fully dressed.

"I'm sorry children I've searched the area and I can't find any clues." Magure said.

"That's because we've already searched the areas ourselves." Chazz said.

"Oh I see, did any of you find anything?" Magure asked.

"I did." Alexis answered.

"I found this press on nail in my room." She said as she presented a shiny red nail.

"Isn't that yours?" Magure asked.

"I don't wear fake nails." Alexis said, sounding slightly offended.

"Good, did anyone else find anything?" Chazz asked.

"Well, there was this huge hole in the wall in my room." Jaden said.

"You didn't hear someone creating a hole in your wall?" Ryan questioned.

"Someone could kick Jaden's door down and he wouldn't wake up." Chazz stated.

"Did you find anything in your room Ryan?" Alexis asked.

"Yeah, a piece of metal on my balcony. I think someone used it to pick the lock on my balcony door." Ryan said as he showed the group a piece of broken metal.

"So detective do you know who did this?" Jaden asked.

"I'm sorry, but there's simply not enough evidence and we don't have any suspects. I'm sad to say that it looks like the thief got away with it, but at least none of you got hurt." Magure said.

No one seemed satisfied with this conclusion, least of all Chazz.

"It's funny that you say that, because I already have a few suspects. In fact they should be arriving any minute now." Chazz said.

At that moment the group was joined by the Slifer student Chick, the cleaner Gorg, the nurse Meanae and the security guard Cliff.

"What are they doing here?" Magure asked.

"I told them that you wanted to meet with them here." Chazz said.

"Wait this was a trick." Meanae said, sounding a little worried.

"Chazz, do you really think that these four would steal your keys." Magure said.

"It makes sense. One of them was there when each of us hid our keys." Chazz explained.

"He's got a point. They're the most likely culprits." Ryan said.

"True, and Meanae does sometime wear fake nails." Alexis stated.

"Be that as it may, there still isn't enough evidence. You can't accuse someone without knowing the truth." Magure said.

"Which is the fact you can't be trusted." Ryan suddenly said. He then pulled his spirit key out from beneath his shirt. "I took this out of it's hiding spot before I fell asleep last night."

"That's not all. While you were searching your rooms I called Chancellor Sheppard and asked him about this detective that he hired, and do you know what he said." Chazz said.

Jaden didn't seem to understand what Chazz was talking about, but Ryan and Alexis quickly figured it out.

"He's never heard of him." Ryan stated.

"Exactly Chancellor Sheppard never hired a detective to help us." Chazz said.

Everyone stared at Magure with accusing looks on their faces. He tried to think of an excuse but got nothing.

"Well Chazz you've certainly proven that you're smarter than you look." Magure said.

"Wait, so you really are behind this." Jaden said.

"Of course I am." Magure said as he turned to Meanae, Chick, Gorg and Cliff.

"So team, should we show them who we really are." He said and the others agreed.

Magure, Meanae, Chick, Gorg and Cliff all ripped off their disguises revealing that they were all wearing matching grey and red uniforms underneath, they all had the same tattoo of a scorpion on their right arms.

"We are the Dark Scorpions." They all said together.

"The Dark Scorpions? Do you mean that small series of duel monster cards." Alexis said.

"Now I know where I've seen this detective before. He's Don Zaloog, the leader of the Dark Scorpions." Ryan recalled.

"True, although it doesn't matter now. We have most of the keys and with them we can free the Sacred Beasts." Zaloog said.

"Actually there's something I wanted to tell you about that boss. You see the keys don't work." Meanae said.

"What, but how." Zaloog said.

Chazz started to laugh.

"How stupid are you? Didn't you know that you have to beat us in a duel for the keys to work." He said.

'Chazz, why would you tell them that.' Ryan thought.

"That's right. Kagemaru did tell me that." Zaloog said.

"So you have no choice but to duel them." Meanae said, sounding a little worried.

"Don't worry I can handle them." Zaloog said as Gorg handed him a duel disk.

"Can we do this later? It's 3:30am and I didn't bring my duel disk." Ryan said.

"Yeah, I left my duel disk in my room as well." Alexis added.

"And I'm tired." Jaden yawned.

"No need, I'll duel right now on behalf of the four of us." Chazz said as he attached his duel disk which he had brought with him.

"Wait, I didn't agree to that." Ryan said but it made little difference.

"Great, this means that I only have to beat you in order to get all of the keys." Zaloog said.

Chazz and Zaloog activated their duel disks.

"Don't worry Chazz, I won't take your soul or anything. The Dark Scorpions never hurt people, we just want the money that Kagemaru is paying us." Zaloog said.

"Well at least Chazz doesn't have to worry about getting hurt in this duel." Jaden said sounding relieved that the thought.

"I'll go first." Zaloog said as the duel started.

"I summon a monster in defense mode and play one card face down, now I end my turn." He added.

Chazz started his turn.

"I summon Lancer Lindwurm in attack mode and I'll use him to attack your monster." Chazz said as Lancer Lindwurm attacked and destroyed Zaloog's monster which was revealed to be Sangan.

Lancer Lindwurm ATK 1800 DEF 1200 LV4 WIND Dragon.

Sangan ATK 1000 DEF 600 LV3 DARK Fiend.

"Lancer Lindwurm's effect allows him to deal piercing damage so you still take damage even though your monster was in defense mode." Chazz explained.

Zaloog LP 4000 - 1200 = 2800

"That doesn't matter, because you've activated Sangan's effect. When he's sent to the graveyard I can add a monster with 1500 attack or less from my deck to my hand." Zaloog said as he added Dark Scorpion - Chick the Yellow to his hand.

"I'll play a card face down and end my turn." Chazz said.

By now the other three key keepers were feeling the effects of fatigue from their lack of sleep, and they were all struggling to stay awake.

Zaloog's turn started.

"I activate Graceful Charity. This will allow me to draw three cards and then discard two." He said as he drew three cards and then discarded Bacon Saver and Nightmare's Steelcage.

"Next I'll activate Reinforcement of the Army. This card will allow me to add a level 4 warrior monster from my deck to my hand." Zaloog said as he added Dark Scorpion - Meanae the Thorn to his hand.

"I hope that you're ready, because I summon myself to the field." Zaloog said as he stepped onto the field.

"Next I'll activate Mustering of the Dark Scorpions. Since I'm on the field this spell card will allow me to summon one copy of each of the other Dark Scorpion monsters from my hand." Zaloog explained as the other four members of the Dark Scorpions stepped onto the field.

Don Zaloog ATK 1400 DEF 1500 LV4 DARK Warrior.

Dark Scorpion - Meanae the Thorn ATK 1000 DEF 1800 LV4 DARK Warrior.

Dark Scorpion - Cliff the Trap Remover ATK 1200 DEF 1000 LV3 DARK Warrior.

Dark Scorpion - Chick the Yellow ATK 1000 DEF 1000 LV3 DARK Warrior.

Dark Scorpion - Gorg the Strong ATK 1800 DEF 1500 LV5 DARK Warrior.

"Now I activate my trap Dark Scorpion Combination. Since I have all five of us on the field this card will let us all attack you directly but we'll only deal 400 points of damage each." Zaloog explained.

All five members of the Dark Scorpions attacked Chazz directly dealing a total of 2000 points of damage.

Chazz LP 4000 - 2000 = 2000

"But that's not all, since we just dealt damage to you all of our effects activate." Zaloog said.

"First, I'll destroy your face down card." Cliff said as he destroyed Chazz's face down card which was Chthonian Blast.

"Second I'll send one card you control back to your hand." Chick said as he returned Lancer Lindwurm to Chazz's hand.

"Next I'll send the top card of your deck to the graveyard." Gorg said as he sent Ojama Blue to the graveyard.

"Now I'll send one card from your hand to the graveyard." Zaloog said as he sent Armed Dragon LV3 to the graveyard.

"And finally I'll add a Dark Scorpion card back to the boss's hand." Meanae said as she added Dark Scorpion Combination back to Zaloog's hand.

"And now to end my turn I'll play Dark Scorpion Combination face down again." Zaloog said as he ended his turn.

'Chazz needs to do something quick, or he'll be defeated on Zaloog's next turn.' Ryan thought.

Just then he felt something on his shoulder. He looked down and saw Jaden had fallen asleep with his head on his shoulder. Ryan moved out of the way and allowed Jaden to fall to the ground, although surprisingly he didn't wake up.

Chazz started his turn.

"I activate Cost Down. By discarding one card this card will reduce the levels of all the monsters in my hand by two." Chazz said as he discarded Ojama Yellow.

"Now I can summon Armed Dragon LV5 without a tribute." Chazz said as he summoned Armed Dragon LV5.

Armed Dragon LV5 ATK 2400 DEF 1700 LV5 WIND Dragon.

"Now I'll use my monster's effect. By discarding a monster I can destroy one of your monsters with a lower attack and I think I'll destroy Meanae the Thorn." Chazz said as he discarded Lancer Lindwurm.

The other four members of the Dark Scorpions watch in horror as Meanae was destroyed and disappeared.

"Meanae I'll make him pay for this." Zaloog whispered.

"Now my dragon attack Chick the Yellow." Chazz ordered.

"I don't think so. I'll use the effect of Bacon Saver, by banishing this card from my graveyard I can negate your attack." Zaloog said as Armed Dragon's attack was stopped.

"I'll play a card face down and end my turn." A frustrated Chazz said.

Zaloog drew his card and smiled.

"I activate the spell card The Warrior Returning Alive. This card will let me add a warrior monster from my graveyard to my hand." Zaloog said as he added Meanae back to his hand.

"Now I re-summon Meanae the Thorn in attack mode." Zaloog said. Meanae breathed a sigh of relief as she reappeared on the field.

"Thanks boss, I knew I could count on you." She said.

"Any time my dear." Zaloog said.

Dark Scorpion - Meanae the Thorn ATK 1000 DEF 1800 LV4 DARK Warrior.

"Now it's time to end this duel. I activate Dark Scorpion Combination so we can all attack directly again." Zaloog said as he activated his trap card.

"No you don't. I activate my trap card Threatening Roar. Thanks to this card, you can't declare any attacks this turn." Chazz said.

A very frustrated Zaloog ended his turn.

Chazz drew his card and smiled smugly.

"I activate Level Up! This card will let me send my Armed Dragon LV5 to the graveyard in order to summon Armed Dragon LV7 from my deck." He said.

Armed Dragon LV7 ATK 2800 DEF 1000 LV7 WIND Dragon.

"Now I'll use Armed Dragon's effect. By sending one monster from my hand to the graveyard I can destroy all your monsters that have a lower attack." Chazz said as he discarded Axe Dragonute.

Because Axe Dragonute had 2000 attack points Armed Dragon LV7 was able to destroy all of Zaloog's monsters. Zaloog was sent flying off of the field while the other members of the Dark Scorpions were completely destroyed.

"No, my gang." Zaloog said as he looked hopelessly at his empty field.

Chazz took little notice of Zaloog's despair and ordered his monster to attack. Armed Dragon LV7 attacked Zaloog directly.

Zaloog LP 2800 - 2800 = 0

Zaloog didn't seem to notice that he had lost the duel. Instead he appeared to be crying over the loss of his friends. Slowly Zaloog reached up and removed the golden eyepatch that he was wearing.

"My gang is dead, I should be with them." Zaloog said as he crushed the shadow charm eyepatch in his hand. Seconds later Zaloog disappeared in a flash of light and was gone.

Chazz turned around to face the other key keepers.

"Did you see that? That's how you take out a Shadow Rider." He said clearly pleased with himself.

However none of the group seemed to be impressed. Jaden was laying on the ground fast asleep. Alexis was resting her head on Ryan's shoulder with her eyes half closed and Ryan looked like he could fall asleep at any second.

"Can we go back to bed now?" He asked.