Yu-Gi-Oh! GX - Episode 039

The Dark Scorpions, known as Detective Thunder vs. The Black Scorpion Grave Robber Group in the Japanese version, is the thirty-ninth episode of the Yu-Gi-Oh! GX anime. Chazz Princeton duels the fourth of the Shadow Riders, the spirit of the "Don Zaloog" card, who leads the rest of the Dark Scorpions.

Summary
In a dark cave, a group of people remark that their boss in en route, and they vow to complete their task by adhering to the "Laws of Stealing", as they are the Dark Scorpions. As three of the seven Spirit Keys have already been lost to the Shadow Riders, Professor Banner calls for a professional police inspector. Upon finding out the everyone is keeping their keys on their person, he decides they should hide the keys in separate places, well away from each other. Chazz Princeton opts to hide his under the sink in his room, and the detective questions who the man outside is. Jaden Yuki responds that it's the janitor, Mr. Gorg. Jaden hides his in his deck drawer, and they find a boy named Chick eavesdropping outside. Syrus Truesdale walks by and remarks that Chick has a tendency to mix up which room is his.

Alexis Rhodes hides her key in her jewelery box, and one of the school's nurses, Meanae arrives, and the detective immediately suspects her as well. Banner places the final key in a safe located in the teacher's conference room, and they are interrupted by a security guard named Cliff, who the detective also suspects. That night, each of the keys is stolen. Despite this, any attempts to use the to open the Spirit Gate fail, and the thieves are unable to understand why. Upon discovering this, the group gathers in Chazz's room to discuss the situation, and the detective arrives as well, all of his "suspects" from earlier in tow. Chazz eventually deduces that the detective's "suspects" from earlier were all involved, as he left one of his Ojama cards in each hiding spot, and the spirits of them reported the culprits to him later. The rest of the card spirits contained in the cards in his room confirmed the culprit of the theft from his room.

The detective reveals himself as Don Zaloog, while his "suspects" are the remainder of his criminal Dark Scorpion group. Zaloog states he had taken the job to steal the Spirit Keys years earlier, and had the rest of his group arrive at Duel Academy undercover until the time came. Chazz reveals that the reason the keys aren't working is that they must be won in a duel. Chazz volunteers to duel him, and Zaloog accepts. The duel begins, with Zaloog playing "Golem Sentry" in Defense Position. Chazz activates "Fiend's Sanctuary" and Tributes the "Metal Fiend Token" Summoned through it to Summon "Armed Dragon LV5". It destroys "Golem Sentry" and evolves into "Armed Dragon LV7" during his End Phase. Zaloog combats this by Summoning himself (when he does so, he literally moves onto the field) and using "Mustering of the Dark Scorpions" to Summon the other four Dark Scorpions. Using "Dark Scorpion Combination", Zaloog deals 2000 damage to Chazz, inflicts a variety of negative effects to him and even returns "Dark Scorpion Combination" to his hand. Chazz strikes back by using "Level Modulation" to Special Summon "Armed Dragon LV7". He uses its effect to discard "Despair from the Dark", destroying all of Zaloog's monsters. However, Zaloog saves them with "Dark Scorpion Retreat", returning them to his hand. Regardless, this leaves him open to a direct attack. Zaloog Summons himself again and attempts to use a second copy of "Mustering of the Dark Scorpions" to Summon the rest. Chazz activates his face-down "Ojama Trio", Summoning three "Ojama Tokens" to Zaloog's field. Thus, Zaloog can only Summon one more monster with "Mustering of the Dark Scorpions". He chooses "Dark Scorpion - Meanae the Thorn" and activates "Dark Scorpion - Tragedy of Love, Tributing her to destroy "Armed Dragon LV7". He is then able to attack directly, reducing Chazz to 600 Life Points and forcing Chazz to discard the final card in his hand - "Ojamagic. However, this is beneficial, as it allows him to add the three Ojamas to his hand. He fuses them using "Polymerization" to Fusion Summon "Ojama King" and then plays "Ojamuscle" to destroy the "Ojama Tokens" and increase "Ojama King's" attack to 3000. This is enough to defeat Zaloog, and he all of the Scorpions vanish upon defeat, leaving his Shadow Charm eyepatch behind, which was what granted the five Duel Spirits the ability to physically manifest in the human world.

Zaloog's turn

 * Summons "Golem Sentry" (800/1800) in Defense Position.
 * Sets a card.

Chazz's turn

 * Activates "Fiend's Sanctuary", Special Summoning a "Metal Fiend Token" (0/0) in Attack Position.
 * Tributes the "Metal Fiend Token" to Summon "Armed Dragon LV5" (2400/1700) in Attack Position.
 * Attacks and destroys "Golem Sentry".
 * Sets two cards.
 * During his End Phase, he sends "Armed Dragon LV5" to the Graveyard to Special Summon "Armed Dragon LV7" (2800/1000) in Attack Position, as the former destroyed a monster in battle this turn.

Zaloog's turn

 * Activates "Pot of Greed", drawing two cards.
 * Summons "Don Zaloog" (1400/1500) in Attack Position.
 * Activates "Mustering of the Dark Scorpions", Special Summoning "Dark Scorpion - Chick the Yellow" (1000/1000), "Dark Scorpion - Meanae the Thorn" (1000/1800), "Dark Scorpion - Gorg the Strong" (1800/1500) and "Cliff the Trap Remover" (1200/1000), all in Attack Position.
 * Activates his face-down "Dark Scorpion Combination", allowing all of his monsters to attack directly, with their attack points reduced to 400. Each of their effects activates (Chazz 2000).
 * "Gorg", returns "Armed Dragon LV7" to the top of Chazz's Deck.
 * "Chick" returns one of Chazz's Set cards to his hand.
 * "Cliff" sends "Armed Dragon LV7" and "Level Up!" from the top of Chazz's Deck to the Graveyard.
 * "Don Zaloog" forces Chazz to discard a card from his hand; he chooses "Masked Dragon".
 * "Meanae" returns "Dark Scorpion Combination" to his hand.
 * Chazz activates his face-down "Level Modulation", letting Don draw two cards and allowing him to Special Summon "Armed Dragon LV7" (2800/1000) from the Graveyard in Attack Position, Ignoring the Summoning Conditions.
 * Sets two cards.

Chazz's turn

 * Discards "Despair from the Dark" to activate "Armed Dragon LV7's" effect, destroying all face-up monsters on Don's side of the field with less attack than the discarded card. Don activate his face-down "Dark Scorpion Retreat", returning all monsters he controls to his hand.
 * Attacks directly with "Armed Dragon LV7" (Don 1200).
 * Sets a card.

Zaloog's turn

 * Summons "Don Zaloog" (1400/1500) in Attack Position.
 * Activates "Mustering of the Dark Scorpions" to Special Summon all of the Dark Scorpions again, but Chazz activates his face-down "Ojama Trio", Special Summoning three "Ojama Tokens" (0/1000) in Defense Position on Don's side of the field, meaning he can only Summon one more monster. He chooses "Meane" (1000/1000) in Attack Position.
 * Activates "Dark Scorpion - Tragedy of Love", Tributing "Meanae" to destroy all monsters on Chazz's field.
 * Attacks directly with "Don Zaloog" (Chazz 600), whose effect activated, forcing Chazz to discard a card. However, that card is "Ojamagic", which activates when discarded, allowing Chazz to add "Ojama Green", "Ojama Black" and "Ojama Yellow" from his Deck to his hand.

Chazz's turn

 * Activates "Pot of Greed", drawing two cards.
 * Activates "Polymerization", fusing "Ojama Yellow", "Ojama Black" and "Ojama Green" to Fusion Summon "Ojama King (0/3000) in Attack Position.
 * Activates "Ojamuscle" destroying the three "Ojama Tokens" to increase "Ojama King's" attack by 1000 for each one destroyed, to 3000. This also triggers the effects of the "Ojama Tokens", who inflict 300 damage each to Zaloog (Zaloog 300).
 * Attacks "Don Zaloog" (Zaloog 0).
 * Chazz wins

Differences in adaptations
A scene is cut from the English version after Judai asks Asuka where her Spirit Key is. As its concealed under her shirt, this causes Manjoume to blush horribly and tell Judai he has no tact.

In the Japanese version, the interrogation scenes are a homage to Detective Conan. However, Manjoume discards all of the relevant clues himself. He states he checked the scenes himself, and throws out the press-on nail from Asuka's room, assuming it was her's, wiped up the footprints in the conference room since shoes aren't supposed to be worn in there and seals the hole in Judai's room. In the English version, Alexis states she threw out the nail, Banner says he vacuumed up the footprints, and Jaden reveals that he sealed the hole.

The shot of the Dark Scorpions together is shown several times in the Japanese version, as they respond to any and all (even negative) comments with "That is what the Black Scorpion Graverobbers do", which is their collective catchphrase.

Featured cards
The following cards appeared in this episode. Cards in italics debuted here.