Payton Anderson

Payton Anderson (ペイタﾝ・アﾝダーサﾝ Peitan Andaasan) is the younger sister to Jesse Anderson, daughter of Tyler Masen and Raelyn Anderson, the step-daughter of Christian Anderson and the step sister of Ryan Anderson. She is also the love interest of Jaden Yuki. Payton's main Duel Spirits are Red-Eyes Black Dragon and Starlight Vulpecula, though she is able to see and communicate with all her Starlight monsters.

After getting the "Starlights", Payton and her brother began to find a school to attend; Jesse found North Academy for him, for Payton they did find Duel Academy, but due to Payton's age, she wasn't able to go, so instead, she traveled with Ryan and his girlfriend Taylor as they did the Pro League. Two years later, Payton enters Duel Academy as a transfer from America, even though she never actually went to a dueling school. Just a few months before going to Duel Academy, Payton did go to a school in London but quickly dropped out due to how all the students acted.

Physical description
Payton is a young girl of average weight and height, standing about two inches shorter than Jesse, with long dark reddish brown hair-which looks like dark red when in the sunlight-and light blue eyes.

She wears a light grey off the shoulder sleeveless shirt, with dark blue pants and black, calf-length high heeled boots. She also wears a purple belt around her waist with a blue deck case attached. She also has a pair of silver hoop earrings and wears a purple and blue bracelet on her right wrist.

Personality
Payton is free-spirited young girl who loves to duel and hates people who flaunt their money or snobs and worries about losing those that she is close to. She cares very much for her cards and won't tolerate someone that calls them weak just because they have low attack. Payton tries to not let anyone know of her fear of heights but it’s sometimes hard. Whenever she sees her fear she turns into another person. Payton is very protective of those that her close to her, especially her family. She will not take kindly to those that taunt or mock or even talk bad about them.

Powers

 * Duel spirit communication: Payton can see and communicate with Duel Spirits. Two years to the start of Dark Shadows, Payton didn't have the power to see Duel Spirits. She gained the ability after she gained the "Starlights". In addition, she is is somehow able to understand her Red-Eyes' growls and roars.

Skills

 * Dueling proficiency: Payton is a skilled duelist, able to work with anything she has on hand.
 * Adaptability: Payton able to quickly adapt and change her current plan if needs be. Normally not dueling in pairs, Payton is quickly able to adapt if she has to duel with her brother.

Weaknesses

 * Acrophobia: Payton has a severe fear of heights and doesn't like it when she is high up on things.
 * Brothers: Payton is very close to her brothers. Though she is much closer to Jesse, and often does things with his consent. In addition to being close to Jesse, she is also protective of him and vise versa. Because she is so close to them, someone can easily use them against her.

Equipment

 * KaibaCorp duel disk: Payton uses a KaibaCorp edition duel disk.

Prior to the series
Payton was born to Tyler Masen and Raelyn about ten months after her brother, Jesse. However, after her birth, her parents started to drift apart. Finally, after four years of her parents arguing fighting and whatnot, Raelyn filed for a divorced and her mother brought Payton and Jesse to their neighbors, Carter and Valerie Morganson, where their daughter, Madelyn babysat them while their Raelyn finishing up some things.

Months later, Payton's name was changed to Tyler, her mother's maiden name along with Jesse. She lived with her brother, mother and aunt in Huston Texas, and attended the local schools along with Jesse. When she was around nine-years-old, and Jesse being ten, the two started to see their mother acting different towards one of the Huston SPCA investigators, Christian Anderson. It did not take long for Payton to realize that her mother was falling for the investigator.

Both Payton and Jesse knew that Raelyn didn't to commit to someone that could possibly cause Raelyn to drift from her and Jesse. After seeing both end up having awkward moments, Payton and Jesse, with help from Crystal, and Christian's son, Ryan, set Christian and Raelyn up for a date. And eventually they started to date. Payton grew close to Christian, who started to help Raelyn with her and Jesse when Crystal could not and Raelyn was busy/stuck at work, and began to see him as her father.

Finally, after two years of dating, Payton, Jesse, Ryan, and Crystal began to ask when Christian was going to pop the question. Of course, both Payton and Jesse gave their blessings, Crystal gave a big one: hurt Raelyn and Crystal would not hesitate to beat the crap out of Christian. Ryan was all for it, since despite being almost 19, he would finally get the mother figure he wished for. Christian and Raelyn married a few days after he popped the question in court, as Raelyn did not want to have go through another wedding.

When Jesse was 14, and Payton was 13, an 18-year-old Ryan approached their mother seeing if he could take her and Jesse to Europe (not telling that Jesse had entered a Duel Tournament there). Raelyn was a little unsure, but after some more talking, Raelyn and Christian eventually said yes. During the Duel Tournament, after seeing Jesse duel, Payton was meeting him in their room when something drew her to another room. When she entered, she saw a table with a bunch of blank cards in a semi-circle. But as she neared the cards, a bright light overtook her vision. As she came to, she noticed a bunch of animals, all with similar colors: light grey, white, silver-white, surrounding her. She screamed at first but then one of them, a lioness, walked up and began to explain to her.

Payton was the chosen duelist to control the "Starlights". She was shocked at first and didn't believe. Before she could ask more, she awoke, finding herself in hers and Jesse's hotel room with Maximillion Pegasus standing int he room. She also found out that what happened as not a dream, it was real. That was also when she discovered that she could see Duel Spirits as she could see Starlight Corvus flying near Pegasus' head. Ryan was told of her getting the Starlights and Jesse the Crystal Beasts when he returned to the hotel room and he was shocked as well.

While at the Tournament, Payton is shocked to learn that she can see Duel Spirits and right away begins to try her new gift with her Dragons. When she, Jesse and Ryan return home along with Maximillion Pegasus going with them to talk to their parents about future schooling. Payton was all for it and would have liked to go with her brother, but after learning that the school he was going to, was an all boy school, her parents, Ryan (especially) and Jesse were quick to say no.

Payton did want to go, but Ryan mentioned that it might be hard, due that she was only 14, not the normal age to start a dueling school. Taylor then suggested an idea where Payton just goes with them on Ryan's travels for pro dueling. She would learn more about dueling and be getting out where and she would get to interact with more people. Seeing as it was the only way, Payton agreed. Pegasus then mentioned that once Payton was ready to attend a dueling to give him a call and he would help.

Dark Shadows
Two years later, Payton is ready to go to a dueling school. With help from Pegasus, Chancellor Sheppard and even Seto Kaiba, Ryan was able to get Payton to attend Duel Academy as a third year. But what she didn't know was that Duel Academy was getting students from the other Academies to attend for a year, which included Jesse.

Relationships
Payton has a close bond with her step-father, Christian Anderson and mother Raelyn. She doesn't have the greatest with her birth father, Tyler Masen, since he was always out of the house either working, or after getting laid, getting drunk. Her mother kept her from Tyler to avoid her and Jesse getting hurt. Payton is very close to her step-father and loves him dearly. She often worries when he out saving animals, but knows he does what he loves.
 * Tyler Masen (father)
 * Raelyn Anderson (mother)
 * Jesse Anderson (older brother)
 * Christian Anderson (step-father)
 * Ryan Anderson (step-brother)
 * Michelle Anderson (paternal step-aunt)
 * Crystal Tyler (maternal aunt)

Jesse is Payton's older brother by ten months. Payton has a close knot relationship with her brother. She cares very much for him and vice versa. Jesse does what he can to help Payton with her troubles, including her conflicting feelings with Jaden. She is also incredibly close to her older, by five years, step brother, Ryan. Despite Ryan being a one-night-stand with their step-father back when he was in his late 20's, the two get along wonderfully. Ryan is very protective over Payton and Jesse its like they were always related.

Childhood Deck
Prior to Dark Shadows, Payton dueled with a "Dragon" deck. With her main and ace cards being "Red-Eyes Black Dragon" and "Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon". She still has her Red-Eyes in her "Starlight" Deck.

Current Deck
Payton currently runs a "Starlight" deck, a deck based off a tomb that Pegasus found in Greece. Payton's main strategy is to summon "Starlight Hydrus", who's base ATK power of 3000 increases by 100 for every other "Starlight" monster on her friend. Though, Payton also tends to mix her Starlights with her Dragons - mainly Red-Eyes Black Dragon and Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon - to confuse her opponent with what type of deck she really has.

Trivia

 * Payton is named after the original character Payton Dallas, just spelled differently.
 * Like her brother, Payton has a sight accent.
 * Payton's bracelet is styled after the Z-Ring from Pokémon Sun and Moon.
 * Payton's bun-ponytail was inspired by Zephyros-Phoenix's fan character Latania "Tawny" Jones.