Note: There are people in this story who are named for and loosely based upon people who I know, mostly members of my own family. Please understand going in that the names and familial relations of these characters are simply in place because I am lazy, and not because these are intended to be fictionalized versions of real people.
Also note that this is old. Very very old.
Chapter OneGather the Duel Force
It was a Friday morning in Checker Township, Ohio, the suburbs of Cincinnati, in the northeastern United States. I was sitting at one of Old Man Wilson's card tables in his game shop, just down the street from my house. Across from me sat an older and larger boy. We were competing in a game of the Trading Card Game Duel Monsters to decide which of us would be allowed to buy Wilson’s last pack until Monday. Old Man Wilson stood behind the counter, watching our duel and scratching his nearly-bald head. I was behind, but Wilson, who had seen me duel many times, knew exactly what was coming.
My opponent had seventeen hundred Life Points and three cards in his hand. On the field he had ‘Armed Samurai - Ben Kei’ equipped with three Equip Spell Cards, increasing its power and allowing it to attack three more times per turn (Attack Mode, ATK: 2600), and one ‘Sheep Token’ (Defense Mode, DEF: 0). I had four hundred fifty Life Points, four cards in my hand, and nothing left on the field at all. It would take very little to reduce my Life Points to zero should my opponent get another turn, and then I would lose.
“Well,” I said, sighing, “looks like this duel is over.”
“Oh yeah!” said my opponent. “I knew I’d win, wimp!”
“Hold on buddy,” I said, a bit condescendingly, “I said the duel was over, not that I was giving up.”
I sighed, annoyed, but also amused by my opponent's behavior, Amateurs. They always underestimate me. Every time. But not for much longer.
I took a deep breath and sighed again, letting my annoyance abate.
“Since you have two more monsters on the field than I do, I can Special Summon my favorite card, ‘The Fiend Megacyber’ (ATK: 2200). And I'll also activate the Spell card ‘Darkness Approaches’, discarding two cards to flip your monster face-down into face-down attack position. Since it is face-down, all of your Equip Spells equipped to him are destroyed (ATK: 2600-2100=500). Now I attack ‘Ben-Kei’ with ‘Fiend Megacyber’ and take all of your Life Points (LP: 1700+500-2200=0).
“What? That’s impossible!” said the kid, holding his ragged blond hair in his hands as I picked up my cards and walked away.
I walked over to the counter to buy my pack, “Just because you didn’t see my move coming doesn’t make it impossible.”
My opponent, however, didn’t listen, crying out, "Don't sell my pack to that cheater!"
“Actually,” Mr. Wilson said, trying his damnedest to prevent an altercation, “every one of Johnny’s moves was completely legal.” He chuckled and squinted his eyes behind his inch thick eyeglasses.
I picked up my booster pack and handed Wilson the money for it. Then I slid the pack into my Deck Box, pocketed it, and turned toward the door, only to find the larger boy blocking my path, his hands clenched into fists.
“I think you have something of mine,” the kid said. “Are you gonna give it to me, or do I gotta take it from ya?!”
“You don’t wanna do that pal,” said Mr. Wilson, sounding a bit desperate now.
“Shut up old man!” the larger kid yelled. He took a step toward me and took a swing at my head. I ducked underneath and stepped back, taking my hands out of my pockets.
“Here it is,” said Wilson, frustrated, burying his face in his hands as the kid took another swing at me. I caught his wrist, thrust my palm upward, listening to the welcome sound of popping ligaments in his elbow, and then pinned his arm against his back.
“Ow ow owowowow!! Fine! Keep the pack. Just let me go!” I let go of the kid’s arm and he shot out the door at warp speed.
“So, John,” Mr. Wilson asked with a laugh, “how is it that a relatively quiet fifteen-year-old kid like you gets into more fights in my store than punks like him?”
“Must be my charming disposition,” I said with a smirk, and Mr. Wilson laughed again, a wheezing sound. “See ya later, Will,” I said, waving back at my friend with a laugh of my own. “And be happy that I didn't accidentally flip this one onto one of your tables like last time.”
That's how I was though. Trouble seemed to follow me around, like something dangerous was creeping up on me, just out of sight. I'd learned to take it, as well as all of the other oddness in my life, in stride, but I had always wondered if I had bad karma or something. I'm not going to lie. I get mad pretty easily, and I get annoyed even easier, but I’ve got that under control. I don’t go looking for jerks to beat up anymore. There was some other reason, and I never would have guessed back then just how close I was to finding out what it was.
From Mr. Wilson’s shop I walked home. My house is pretty nice, but I never really think about it. I only use it to sleep and store my cards and, well, I can sleep anywhere, and all of my cards would fit in my big duffel bag. I guess the best thing about my house is that I live pretty close to all of my friends. My best friend lives about ten minutes away walking, and my three cousins (two from my mom’s older sister, and one from my mom’s younger sister) live ten minutes away driving, or twenty-five to thirty minutes away by bus. Not to mention that I live pretty close to the mall.
Once I was home I sat down on my bed, laying out the cards in my deck. I had been asked by mail the week before to assemble a team of four for an exhibition match of a new form of dueling at the opening of the mall’s new Game Center, now one day away. I was almost ready to go and gather my team for one last practice before the match. I just wanted to check my deck one more time first. I ran my fingers through my unruly brown hair and looked over my cards carefully. They were mostly Dark monsters of the Fiend, Machine, and Warrior types, with some monsters from the Light family thrown in for support. My Spell and Trap cards were carefully chosen to give my monsters the advantage even in the most hopeless situations (I shine in hopeless situations). I had been tweaking this deck since the age of eight, a year after I’d started playing the game. Before that I’d used a different deck that I still have in a box in my closet. I don’t know why, but that old deck feels too important to take apart.
Everything looks good, I thought, flipping through my spare cards. Oh, wait, I remembered, I almost forgot to open my new pack!
I reached into my Deck Box and removed the pack. I pulled it open and removed the nine cards inside. As I flipped through the cards, I only saw cards that didn't fit with the theme of my deck. Some Duelists don't care about that kind of thing, but that's why I'm not "some Duelists". Finally, as I thumbed past the second to last card, I came across a monster with zero Attack and Defense Points. Even though it seemed weak at first glance, I could almost feel that it would be useful to me. It was almost like there was a strange power within it. And it was a Fiend monster. So without even reading its effect, I made a choice.
I don’t know why, I thought, looking down at the card, but I’m putting you in my deck.
Tucker
The next part of the story will be told from my point of view. I’m Tucker, John’s best bud. I have red hair and green eyes. People are always telling John to keep away from me because he is sane, and I, arguably, am not. You see, I have a fixation with fire. I'm not some pyromaniac arsonist, and I don’t, like, get my jollies from it or anything. I just think fire is the coolest thing ever. Period. I guess you could say that I respect it. That's why I always carry a lighter, even though I don't smoke (anything, despite what you may be thinking).
At about this point in the story I was at the local park sitting down on one of the old running trails, dueling a kid for some of his spare Fire cards. John, who taught me to play Duel Monsters, says that I tend to be a little hotheaded, but that I am very good.
“My ‘Goblin Attack Force’ kills your ‘Inferno’ card,” my opponent said, “and then goes to Defense mode (my Life Points: 1700-1300=400; my opponent’s Life Points: 1900; ‘Goblin’’s DEF: 0).”
“Then I summon my ‘Gaia Soul the Combustible Collective’ (ATK: 2000) and attack ‘Goblin Attack Force’. And since my ‘Gaia Soul’ is a Piercing monster I deal you battle damage even though ‘Goblin’ is in Defense mode (1900+0-2000=0).”
“Crap!” my opponent said, running his hand through his longish blond hair. “Then I guess these are yours.” He handed me the cards, got up, and walked away.
When John showed up I was still sitting in the same place, busy fitting the new cards into my deck. I finished just as he reached me.
“Hey Tuck,” he said. “How ya doin’?”
“Awesome,” I replied over my shoulder, “I just won a whole load of sweet stuff! Take a look.”
I handed John my newly modified deck, and he flipped through my cards. As he did I said, "And hey, thanks for the tip. Using piercing monsters against Josh really helped.
John nodded, and then thumbed past the last few cards of my deck. “Excellent,” he said, “Team Beatdown doesn't stand a chance!”
John
From the park, Tucker and I walked the short distance back to my house to get my sister, Sarah, a tomboyish eleven-year-old girl with sandy blond hair and blue eyes who plays many kinds of sports. Her favorite is soccer, where she usually plays Full Back or Goalie. Sarah is the third member of my team. From there we took the next bus to another nearby suburb to my cousins' house. The fourth member of my team is my cousin Jen. She's twelve years old (almost thirteen), tall, with dark brown eyes and long brown hair, though right now she has her bangs died purple and black. She’s a little goth. She’s also the oldest of two sisters. Her younger sister, Kris, is just learning how to play Duel Monsters. She's fine, but a little flaky and spaces out a lot, so she and I don't get along as well as Jen and I do.
Sarah, Tucker and I arrived at Jen’s where her mom, my aunt, let us inside. We walked downstairs into Jen’s basement game room/family room, and the four of us piled onto the two couches.
“So,” I asked, “is everyone ready for tomorrow?”
“I definitely am,” said Jen. “I just finished putting together a few new combinations.”
“I’m ready,” said Tucker confidently.
“I'm as ready as I'll ever be,” said Sarah.
“I’m ready too,” I said, “but I think it can never hurt to practice your game.” No one argued, so we hung out in Jen’s basement for a few hours and ran dueling drills and played practice games until we were all as comfortable about our team mates’ strategies as we were about our own.
“Well, time to sleep,” I finally said in the random way that I do, mostly to be weird, “I gotta go.”
Tucker, Sarah and I were about to leave (my aunt had agreed to drive us home) when Jen stopped us at the door. Jen's the most inquisitive of my friends, so it was no surprise when she asked, “By the way, I've been meaning to ask, what did you decide to name our team?”
I smiled at her in the mischievous way that I sometimes do and said, “Someday our team will be famous, and everyone will know our name. We are the Duel Force!”
Card of the Day:
Darkness Approaches
Played by: John
I never understood why more people didn't play this card back in the day. Flipping a monster face-down has always been a useful ability, and there weren't many cards with the power to do that back at the point in the game when this card was released, and there has never been another card since then which could flip monsters into face-down attack mode.
Fun
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