The Costume Contest

Everyone was ready for the costume party. Jaden was in his room putting his costume on. He had been unable to find any costumes yesterday so he had thrown together whatever he could. Jaden was wearing the hat of Saggi the Dark Clown, the torso of Breaker the Magical Warrior, the boots of Makurya the Destructor, the shoulder pads of Celtic Guardian and the shield of Gearfried the Iron Knight.

Jaden walked out of his room and found Syrus and Chumley waiting for him. Syrus was dressed as Patroid and Chumley was dressed as Des Koala.

"Hey guys those are some sweet costumes. I bet that you'll win the costume contest for sure." Jaden said.

Just then the three heard a loud scream coming from Chazz's room. The three immediately ran into Chazz's room fearing what had happened.

"Chazz are you okay?" A worried Syrus asked.

Chazz was kneeling on the floor with a look of horror on his face.

"Chazz, what's wrong?" Jaden asked.

"It's gone." Chazz said.

"What's gone?" A confused Jaden asked.

"My costume. It's gone." Chazz said.

"What." The three exclaimed.

"Last night I left my XYZ-Dragon Cannon costume here." Chazz said pointing to a drawer.

"But then when I woke up this morning it was gone and had been replaced by this." Chazz said as he held up an Ojama Yellow costume.

The three couldn't help but laugh.

"Hey, what's so funny?" An annoyed Chazz asked.

"This is great. You're going to have to go to the party dressed like that." Jaden said with a smile. Chazz looked down at the ridiculous costume with despair.

'I'm going to be the laughing stock of the whole school.' He thought.

Soon the group arrived at the party and saw that almost the entire school was there and everyone was wearing a costume. Jaden could see people dressed as Marauding Captain, Armed Ninja, Summoned Skull and many more.

"Nice costume Chazz, but what's Jaden dressed as?" A familiar voice asked. The group turned to see Bastion who was dressed as Amazoness Tiger.

"I honestly have no idea." Jaden answered.

"Bastion, why did you dress up as Amazoness Tiger?" Chumley asked.

"It's because he's still not over Tania." Chazz sniggered.

"That's not true. This was the only costume I could get." Bastion said, blushing bright red. However no one seemed to believe him.

"Anyway, what do you think my chances of winning the costume contest are." Jaden asked, posing.

"You don't have a chance." Bastion said, knocking his ego down.

"If anyone's going to win it will be Alexis." He continued as he pointed to where Alexis was.

Alexis, Mindy and Jasmine had dressed up as the Harpie Lady Sisters. Alexis was Harpie Lady 1 and her costume was the most accurate of the three. She had even gone as far as dyeing her hair pink for the occasion.

Alexis was enjoying the party. After everything that had happened recently she was happy to have a change of pace.

"Great costume sis." Atticus said. He was dressed as Panther Warrior. Alexis was about to greet her brother when she noticed that he had his phone out and had taken a picture of her.

"Atticus, what are you going to do with that picture?" Alexis asked.

"I'm posting it online. Wait until Grandma sees this." Atticus said, barely able to hold in his laughter.

Alexis turned pure white. Her grandmother would probably have a heart attack if she saw her dressed like this.

"Atticus give me that now." Alexis said forcefully. Atticus held the phone just out of his sister's reach.

"If you want it you'll have to take it." He said.

Atticus began to run away with Alexis chasing him.

"Somebody please stop him!" Alexis shouted as they ran past many other students.

As the two passed a object was thrown at Atticus' feet, tripping him up.

"You shouldn't be taking someone's picture without their consent."

While Atticus was on the ground, Alexis took the phone and deleted the picture he had taken. That's when she saw who had stepped in.

"Thanks." She said.

"Don't worry about it." Ryan stated.

Suddenly a girl who was dressed as Magician of Faith ran up looking excited.

"Have you heard? Someone came as the Dark Magician Girl and her costume's really good." She said.

"That's a first. No one managed to get the hat right." Ryan said.

"Do you want to go and see? Maybe she's telling the truth?" Alexis suggested.

"Yeah sure." Ryan said.

Ryan and Alexis weren't the only ones who were curious. Most of the others wanted to see just how good this girl's costume supposedly was.

Just as they were all nearing where everyone was Ms. Dorothy jumped out of the crowd dressing as the Dark Magician Girl.

"Hey everyone, great party." She said. Everyone was less than pleased to see her dressed like this. Chazz was stunned into silence and Ryan averted his eyes.

Before he left though Alexis said, "Hey look, there she is." while pointing to the crowd.

Everyone squeezed past the crowd and saw that there was a girl who was dressed as the Dark Magician Girl taking a selfie with some of the other students.

The girl's costume was amazing. She looked exactly like the Dark Magician Girl. Syrus quickly turned bright red at the sight of her.

"It looks like Alexis might not win the costume contest after all." Bastion said.

Ryan stared at Dark Magician Girl as he tried to figure out who she was but he had no idea who was under the costume.

"Do you know who that is?" He asked Alexis.

"No I don't think so." Alexis answered.

Ryan turned to another student who was already present when they had arrived and asked, "Do you know who that is." while pointing to the girl.

"She said that her name's Mana and she's a really good duelist. She's already beaten everyone who challenged her." The student answered.

"Mana? I've never heard of anyone called Mana. What about you?" Ryan asked.

"No she's not in my dorm. Maybe she's in Slifer or Ra." Alexis suggested.

"Alright then, so who wants to duel me next." Mana said eagerly. She had a duel disk on her arm which strangely was modeled to resemble the armor of Dark Magician Girl.

"Hey Syrus you should totally duel her." Jaden said.

"What? No way Jaden, I can't. You know how bad I am." Syrus said nervously.

"Come on. You'll do fine. Besides I know how much you like the Dark Magician Girl." Jaden said with a smile.

"Hey over here. Syrus will duel." Jaden said as he pushed Syrus forward. Syrus wanted to run back to the crowd but Jaden had put him on the spot and everyone was watching him.

"Okay then, are you ready to duel." Mana said happily as she activated her Duel Disk.

"Um sure." Syrus gulped.

"Are you okay? You don't have to be worried, this is only for fun." Mana said sounding concerned for Syrus.

Syrus looked at Mana and when he did he started to feel a little better. She did seem to be genuinely friendly.

"Okay, let's duel." He said with a little more confidence.

Mana took the first turn.

"Okay, I discard one card from my hand. This lets me special summon Apprentice Illusion Magician from my hand." She said as she discarded Palladium Oracle Mana.

Apprentice Illusion Magician ATK 2000 DEF 1700 LV6 DARK Spellcaster.

"And when Apprentice Illusion Magician is summoned, she lets me add a Dark Magician from my deck to my hand." Mana said as she added Dark Magician to her hand.

"Next I'll summon Lemon Magician Girl to the field and place one card face down. Then I end my turn." Mana said with a smile.

Lemon Magician Girl ATK 800 DEF 600 LV2 LIGHT Spellcaster.

Syrus was clearly worried and he wasn't sure if he was afraid of Mana's face down card or the fact that she looked so much like the real Dark Magician Girl.

"Come on Sy, you can do it!" Jaden cheered.

Syrus took a deep breath.

'Jaden's right, I can do this.' He thought.

"I summon Steamroid in attack mode." He said.

Steamroid ATK 1800 DEF 1800 LV4 EARTH Machine.

"And when Steamroid attacks a monster he gains 500 attack points so he'll have no trouble taking down your Magician. Steamroid attack Apprentice Illusion Magician." Syrus said.

Steamroid ATK 1800 + 500 = 2300

Apprentice Illusion Magician was destroyed.

Mana LP 4000 - 300 = 3700

Since the battle ended Steamroid's attack returned to normal.

Steamroid ATK 2300 - 500 = 1800

"Now I'll place two cards face down and end my turn." Syrus said.

Mana started her turn.

"Okay I summon Chocolate Magician Girl in attack mode and now I'll use her effect. She lets me discard a spellcaster monster in order to draw a card." She said as she discarded Dark Magician.

Chocolate Magician Girl ATK 1600 DEF 1000 LV4 WATER Spellcaster.

"Alright Chocolate Magician Girl attack Steamroid." Mana said.

Chocolate Magician Girl attacked.

"And since I declared an attack with a spellcaster monster I can activate my trap card Magician's Circle, this card lets us both special summon a spellcaster monster with 2000 or less attack from our decks." Mana explained.

"Oh man, I don't have any spellcasters in my deck." Syrus said, feeling disappointed.

"That's too bad. I guess I'll just summon mine then." Mana said cheerfully as Dark Magician Girl appeared on her side of the field.

Dark Magician Girl ATK 2000 DEF 1700 LV6 DARK Spellcaster.

Since Mana had a Dark Magician in her graveyard Dark Magician Girl gained 300 attack points.

Dark Magician Girl ATK 2000 + 300 = 2300

Syrus's face turned impossibly red as he looked at Dark Magician Girl.

In the crowd Ryan looked at Dark Magician Girl and then at Mana.

"Her costume is really amazing. She looks just like Dark Magician Girl." He noted.

"I know. If I didn't know any better I'd probably think she was real." Alexis said.

Chocolate Magician Girl continued her attack but Syrus was able to get over his shock at seeing Dark Magician Girl summoned to react.

"I activate my face down card, Supercharge. Since you declared a attack while I only control Roid monsters this lets me draw two cards." He explained as he activated his trap card.

"That's okay. My attack still goes through." Mana said.

"True, but you don't want it to. I activate my other face down, the quick-play spell Limiter Removal. This will double my monster's attack." Syrus said.

Steamroid's attack was doubled but then it lost 500 attack points because of it's effect.

Steamroid ATK 1800 + 1800 = 3600

Steamroid ATK 3600 - 500 = 3100

"Excellent move. Now Syrus's monster will win this battle and deal a large chunk of damage to Mana." Bastion said as Chocolate Magician Girl was destroyed.

Mana LP 3700 - 1500 = 2200

"Well I guess there's nothing else I can do so I'll end my turn." Mana said.

Since she ended her turn Steamroid was destroyed by the effect of Limiter Removal.

Syrus's turn started.

'Come on Syrus, there has to be something you can do.' He thought as he looked at the cards in his hand.

'Wait, that's it.' He thought as he got an idea.