Hey look, it's Max! I like Max. Depending on my mood, he's my favorite amongst all of the characters that I've written. We'll get to know him a lot better as the series progresses, so I won't say too much here, but let's just say that Max is beautifully damaged, and a badass. I mean seriously badass. He did just take down two members of the Duel Force with no effort, and one of them is Jen!
Mysterious Arrival
I’m not one for exposition, but in the case of my life lately, I don’t see any choice but to catch you up. So here’s how it is. My name’s John. I have an attitude, I have a bad habit of finding trouble, especially when I don’t want to, and I’m bound and determined to make a difference in the name of all things good. If I were less modest, I’d go so far as to say that I’m a hero. You see, I’m a Duelist, which is to say I play the collectible card game Duel Monsters, and I play it well. Until recently I thought that Duel Monsters was just a game, but I was wrong.
I’m sure you’ve heard of Duel Monsters, unless you live under a rock. Believe it or not Duel Monsters is really the modern form of an ancient contest that started back in ancient Egypt, or even further back, that allowed sorcerers to settle disputes or even to wage wars against each other. They did so by invoking the Shadow Games through the use of magic artifacts. Those artifacts still exist today, and so modern Duelists have revived the Shadow Games to further their own goals. But that’s not really what my story’s about. Heck, I didn't even know all of that stuff back when I started writing all of these events down.
What I did know, what I'd learned only recently, is that I have a destiny. Not just me, but my friend Tucker, my cousin Jen, and my sister Sarah, and eight other people who are supposedly tied to me. I’m supposed to bring together the four of us with the remaining eight so that we can defend twelve unique artifacts, the Duelist’s Souls, from the group that wants them for their incredible power. Not only that, but we’re supposed to keep protecting the Souls until the original bearer of the first Duelist’s Soul is revived from the dead to take back his powers and defeat his evil half, and if that’s not enough, before any of that could even begin the four of us had to go all the way to Egypt to release the Souls into the world, facing mortal danger along the way.
Crazy, I know, but true.
Anyway, it had been a few weeks since my team and I, the Duel Force, had returned home from the previously mentioned quest to Egypt and begun searching for the recipients of the remaining eight Duelist’s Souls. We were surprised when another of my family, mine, Sarah’s, and Jen’s youngest cousin Amanda, was already in possession of the green crystal, the Soul of Wind.
As soon as we found out about Amanda’s Soul, I sat down with her and explained the situation. She was very young, but also very smart for her age, and very mature. I figured that she would be able to understand the situation, and she did, even before I was finished explaining things.
I told Amanda the story of the Forgotten Duelist as we’d heard it from Duel Monsters creator Maxamillion J. Pegasus. I told her how he fought his evil half many times, finally ending up backed into a corner with no way out. To save himself, he’d given up his entire life force and the memory of all of his good deeds to cast a spell that would split his Duelist’s Soul, preserving his power, and send he and his evil half, Blackheart, forward in time where he’d have a second chance to win the fight. I went on to tell Amanda all about our roll in things, as guardians of the twelve Souls, and about our enemies, the members of the underground group, the Duelists of the Order of the Divine Cards, who wanted to defeat us and take our Souls back to their mysterious master. Amanda immediately understood the situation, taking it calmly in stride and declaring that she knew she’d be okay as long as me and the others were around. Amanda’s also a Duelist, and as a Duelist there was one sure fire way to make sure we were always around to protect her.
So that’s how Amanda became the fifth member of the Duel Force.
Amanda, Sarah, and I were all sitting together at the game center at the mall. The game center is like a combination restaurant and arcade dedicated to Duel Monsters. Jen and Tucker were up on the Duel Disk arena in the center of the large, high-ceilinged room. They had been dominating the Duelists in the game center in two-on-two Tag Duels all day. While they played, I spoke with Sarah about ways to discover potential wielders of the remaining Souls.
“So far the Souls seem to represent different attributes, like wind, water, and fire,” I said. “Pegasus told us that we would meet up with all of the Soul Wielders eventually, so it makes sense that they would be people we know, or people that we would have a chance of meeting normally. The Soul attributes also seem to be related to the preferred attribute of the Duelists that they belong to. If we wanna find other Soul Bearers, we should try to find the best Duelists around with attribute specific decks.”
“If there is a Soul of Darkness,” Said Sarah, “there will be a Soul of Light too.”
“And,” Amanda said, pitching in absentmindedly as she watched two kids Dueling at the table beside ours, “I have the Soul of Wind, so there should be a Soul of Earth.”
“Then those are the ones we’ll look for first,” I said, “the best Earth and Light Duelists in the area, and as quickly as possible. The Order won’t stay away forever, and we could really use the added numbers.”
As I finished speaking, Jen and Tucker finished thrashing another pair of Duelists.
“Oh yeah,” Tucker cried in true Tucker fashion, “two more down! Anyone else want to take on the dream team?”
Everyone in the audience began to murmur and turn away. None of them wanted to face the Duel Force. We were well on the way to making a name for ourselves.
I was torn away from my conversation, excited to see what would happen next, my gamer’s spirit getting the best of me. Then suddenly the Soul spirit Hiro, the only remaining part of the ancient Duelist’s spirit, appeared from his home within my Soul of Darkness in the form of a ghost that only I could see. John, he said, someone…strange has just arrived, with more power than anyone that you or your team has faced before.
As Hiro finished speaking, someone in the back of the crowd spoke up. “I’ll take you on. Both of you, at once.”
The crowd fell silent, turning toward the source of the voice. I looked, as the crowd parted to let the challenger through. He was about my height, wearing blue jeans and a large, almost black hooded sweatshirt, the hood of which obscured his face in shadows.
“I’ll take you both on,” the hooded kid repeated as he stepped up to the opposite end of the arena, his hands in the pouch on the front of his shirt. He was, of course, wearing a Duel Disk on arm.
“Before we start,” he said, “let’s make things interesting. I happen to have a few of my spare cards with me.”
He held up seven cards, ‘Masked Beast Des Gardius’, ‘The Masked Beast’, ‘Curse of the Masked Beast’, ‘Melkid the Four-Faced Beast’, ‘Grand Tiki Elder’, ‘Mask of Brutality’, and ‘Mask of Remnants’. Seven rare cards that made up a powerful and highly sought after combo.
“If you win,” the kid said, “I’ll give you these seven rare cards. But if I win, I get the two strongest monsters from each of your decks.”
“We can’t lose,” said Tucker, his eyes flashing behind bright red bangs, “and those cards will be worth a mint in trade value!”
“You’ve got a deal,” Jen agreed, brushing her long brown hair behind her ear and flashing the mystery opponent a confident smile. Jen is usually a careful person, but even she couldn’t say no to such an offer when the odds were clearly in her and Tucker’s favor.
Jen and Tucker re-shuffled their decks from the last duel and re-placed them in their Duel Disks. The hooded kid activated his Duel Disk and faced them down.
“I’ll move first,” said the ever-impulsive Tucker (LP: 4000), drawing his first cards, “and I’ll begin with one monster in defense mode and a face-down card.”
“My move,” said Jen (LP: 4000). “I’ll do the same.”
I sat back, They aren’t pulling any punches, are they?
“Then it's my turn,” the hooded kid declared (LP: 8000). He picked up his opening hand, and even though he had to have an idea what Jen and Tucker were up to he didn’t seem worried at all. “I begin the slaughter with the Spell card ‘Call of the Mummy’. Now, if I control no monsters, I can Special Summon any zombie from my hand. So I Special Summon ‘Ryu-Kokki’,” a creature with the body of a snake and the torso of a man, all made of skulls and bones appeared (ATK: 2400), “and then I normal summon the deadly shadow, ‘Fear from the Dark’.” A man-sized creature made of shadows appeared alongside the first monster (ATK: 1700).
“Now,” said the hooded kid, “I’ll place three cards face-down and attack both of your monsters!”
I was surprised, Either he doesn’t know what they’re up to, or he’s far more confident than he has any business being. Unless he’s really that much stronger than both of them.
The shadow, ‘Fear from the Dark’, reached forward and slashed through Tucker’s monster, a large green turtle with a UFO for a shell. ‘Ryu-Kokki’ slashed Jen’s monster, a large gray rat with piercing red eyes and long bony claws.
“You destroyed my ‘UFO Turtle’,” said Tucker. “That means that I can summon any Fire monster with low attack from my deck. I summon ‘Flame Ruler’.” A bare-chested man wrapped in an aura of fire appeared (ATK: 1500).
“Also,” said Jen, “because you destroyed my ‘Giant Rat’ I can summon a low attack monster of my own. I choose ‘Pinch Hopper’.” A large dog-sized green grasshopper appeared at Jen’s feet (ATK: 1000).
“Next,” Tucker said, “I reveal ‘Backfire’. You take five hundred Life Points worth of burn damage whenever a Fire monster is destroyed.” A pocket of air near the hooded kid’s chest exploded (8000-500=7500).
“And now, since it’s my turn again,” said Tucker, “I draw, and then I sacrifice my ‘Flame Ruler’ to summon the mighty ‘Tyrant Dragon’!” Tucker’s secret weapon, a huge copper-scaled dragon, appeared behind him, roaring triumphantly, taking the place of Tucker’s weaker monster (ATK: 2900).
“The jewel in my monster’s forehead makes him immune to targeting Trap cards,” Tucker explained, “so don’t even bother trying to counter this. ‘Tyrant Dragon’ attacks and destroys your ‘Ryu-Kokki’, and then, using his ability, destroys your ‘Fear from the Dark’, Tyrant Burst attack!”
Flames burst from the dragon’s mouth, incinerating the hooded kid’s monsters (7500+2400-2900+1700-2900=6300).
“Now for my turn,” said Jen. “I reveal my Spell card ‘Multiplication of Insects’. This split’s the one ‘Hopper’ into two, and activates its ability, letting me summon any Insect from my hand.”
The one grasshopper became two, and behind Jen appeared an insect with a massive thorax, a humanoid torso, and long, strong insect legs. “Meet the rarest insect in my deck,” said Jen, “the ‘Insect Queen’ (ATK: 2200+(200x3)=2800)!
“I sacrifice my ‘Hopper Token’ (2800-200=2600),” Jen continued, “to attack you directly.”
The token monster disappeared, and the ‘Queen’ spit venom at the kid (6300-2600=3700).
“So, Hoody,” Tucker taunted, “how was that? One more round, and you’ll be dead.”
“Wrong,” said the kid, chuckling. “You can’t kill me. I am Death. Death cannot be overcome, outrun, or destroyed. Death is coming for you!
“I draw, and I activate the Spell card ‘Card of Demise’, letting me draw until I hold five cards, as long as I give up my hand in five turns.”
The hooded kid drew, and grinned, “Next, using the effect of ‘Call of the Mummy’, I summon ‘Spirit Reaper’ and his faithful steed, ‘Nightmare Horse’.”
“You’ll summon what and what?” Tucker asked. For once I couldn’t blame him for his confusion. I’d heard of the cards, but I’d never seen them, and I only knew generally what they could do.
On the kid’s field appeared a floating ghost-like creature wearing a long dark cloak and carrying a scythe. Beside him appeared a blue ghost horse wrapped in tattered bandages.
“These are companion monsters,” the hooded kid explained pridefully, “able to merge into the very instrument of death. I play ‘Polymerization’ to fuse my two monsters into ‘Reaper on the Nightmare’!”
‘Spirit Reaper’ flew over and settled onto the ‘Horse’’s back. The ‘Nightmare Horse’ neighed, and the ‘Reaper’ raised his scythe high (ATK: 800).
“Now, ‘Reaper’,” the hooded kid commanded, “attack the Fire Duelist directly.” The ‘Reaper’ flew right past Tucker’s monster, to Tucker’s surprise, and slashed him with his scythe (4000-800=3200).
“Hey,” Tucker protested, “you can’t do that!”
“I can,” the kid argued. “My monster has that ability. And because he successfully attacked you my ‘Reaper’’s second effect activates and you discard one card randomly from your hand.”
Tucker shuffled his hand and picked a card without looking, his ace monster ‘Legendary Flame Lord’. He placed it into his Graveyard.
“Interesting move,” said Tucker, “but you made a big mistake. By leaving your monster in attack mode, you made yourself vulnerable. I draw, and I attack your ‘Reaper on the Nightmare’ with ‘Tyrant Dragon’, Tyrant Burst‘!”
Behind Tucker, the mighty dragon inhaled and exhaled, spewing flames across the field, engulfing the ‘Reaper’ in a torrent of fire.
Something feels strange about this, I thought.
I agree.
I was surprised to hear Hiro’s voice in my mind, as he usually didn’t stay outside of the Soul for very long, Hiro? You’re still watching?
Yeah, Hiro replied, and I saw him again hovering at my side, I am, and you’re right. There’s something strange about that ‘Spirit Reaper’ card. It’s surrounded by the enemy Duelist’s aura, and I get the feeling that it’s a lot more powerful than it looks.
I watched as ‘Tyrant Dragon’’s flames faded. At first it seemed like there was nothing left of the ‘Reaper’, but then I noticed a cloud of black smoke. Something began to form from the smoke. “What?” Tucker said, as before his eyes, the ‘Reaper on the Nightmare’ reappeared, completely unharmed.
“I told you, you can’t overcome death. In keeping with this rule, the ‘Spirit Reaper’ cannot be destroyed by battle.”
“Yeah,” said Jen, “but you still take battle damage.”
“Not thanks to this,” the hooded kid replied as his face-down card revealed itself. “My ‘Spirit Barrier’ Trap protects me from all battle damage that I would receive while I control at least one monster.”
“Then how are we supposed to win?” Tucker asked, agitated.
The hooded kid smiled wickedly, “You’re not!”
“Calm down Tuck,” said Jen. “His combination is good, but just because his monster is invincible in battle, it doesn’t mean that it can’t be destroyed using Spell and Trap card effects. I activate the Spell card ‘Offerings to the Doomed’. By giving up my next Draw Phase, I can destroy any monster on the field.”
Mummy wraps burst up out of the ground beneath the ‘Reaper’, reaching toward him, but as they were about to ensnare their target a strange mask appeared over the ‘Reaper’’s face. A red light emanated from the mask, and the wraps were disintegrated.
“Reveal,” the kid said, “the handy Trap card ‘Mask of the Undead’, negating the effect of a card that specifically targets a Zombie.”
“You mean you have rare cards like that at your disposal too?” Jen asked, sounding somewhere between intimidated and impressed.
“Your deck doesn’t have many openings,” Tucker asked, “does it?”
“My deck,” the hooded kid replied, his voice full of pride, “is unbeatable. And now to further demonstrate why.”
The hooded kid drew a card, giving him three, “My only move this turn will be to attack again with the ‘Reaper on the Nightmare’.” The ‘Reaper’ flew straight at the ‘Insect Queen’. She slashed with her sharp exoskeletal fingers, but the ‘Reaper’ slid to the side like smoke and carried on past her, reforming in time to slash Jen with his sickle (4000-800=3200). Jen discarded one card without looking, a thoughtful look on her face.
“Your turn’s over now,” said Tucker. “That means I have another chance to defeat your combo.” He drew, and he smiled at his newest card. He looked up at the kid and said, “And it looks like I drew into just the way to do it! I play ‘Mystical Space Typhoon’.”
A powerful wind picked up, threatening to tear the hologram of the kid’s ‘Spirit Barrier’ card apart, ending its effect.
“Nice try,” said the hooded kid, “but I have another Trap card protecting me, the Counter Trap ‘Magic Drain’. You must discard a Spell, or the Spell you played is negated.”
“Crap! I don’t have another Spell,” said Tucker, and the whirlwind died out. Once again my team and the kid had skirmished, and once again the mysterious hooded kid had come out on top. From where I was standing, it didn’t look like there was much that Jen and Tucker could do.
Jen and Tucker took turn after turn, but they were unable to draw into anything capable of beating the hooded kid’s combination. Meanwhile the hooded kid continued to alternate attacking Jen, then Tucker, then Jen again, turn after turn, destroying their hands and preventing them from forming any combos of their own, until it came down to one final move.
Tucker had just been defeated, and his and Jen’s last chance was for her, her hand empty, to top deck a powerful card. “I draw,” she said, and she smiled triumphantly, relief apparent in her expression. “I activate the Spell card ‘Smashing Ground’!”
An invisible force came down from above. I expected the hooded kid to deflect the Spell, as he had every other, so I was a bit shocked when the force of Jen’s Spell smashed the ‘Reaper’ to smoke that dissipated rather than reforming.
“Now I attack with my ‘Insect Queen’, sacrificing ‘Hopper Token’ to do so,” Jen commanded, glad to finally deal the kid some more damage. The final ‘Hopper’ disappeared, and ‘Queen’ struck (ATK: 2600-200=2400), hitting the hooded kid with her venom (3700-2400=1300). The kid was still completely unconcerned.
“Activate ‘Book of Life’,” he declared almost absentmindedly. “I remove a monster in your Graveyard, your ‘Giant Rat’, from play to breathe life back into my symbol of death, ‘Reaper on the Nightmare’!”
The black smoke reappeared, coming back together to form the ‘Reaper on the Nightmare’.
“Oh come on!” said Jen, real worry in her eyes. “Just stay dead!”
The hooded kid laughed, “I told you, you can’t destroy death. But death can destroy you! ‘Reaper on the Nightmare’, end it, Deadly Slash!”
The ‘Reaper’ flew straight past the ‘Insect Queen’ and slashed Jen across the chest. She fell to her knees, utterly defeated (800-800=0).
In only about twenty minutes, two of my team had been hopelessly beaten by a single opponent. Reluctantly they handed over their cards. Tucker lost ‘Tyrant Dragon’ and ‘Legendary Flame Lord’, two of the few rare cards that he actually had. Jen lost ‘Insect Queen’ and ‘Perfectly Ultimate Great Moth’, monsters that she’d spent years collecting.
As soon as the kid had Jen and Tucker’s cards in hand, he stepped down and headed toward the exit. He stopped a few feet from my table and spoke without looking at me, saying, “When you come looking for me, and we both know you will, listen to your Soul. It’ll know the way.”
With that he continued outside.
He knows about the Souls! I realized, shocked.
He is likely an agent of the Duelists of the Order, Hiro said. We should pursue.
I stood up and looked up at a confused Sarah and said, “I’m going after him.” I concentrated and flared up my Soul reaching out for the kid’s location. He was still moving, making it difficult. I stood there silently for several minutes before I finally found him. I ran through the interior entrance to the game center, out into the open hallway that led to the main area of the mall, intended to run to meet him, but before I could, the shadows along the wall reached out to me, pulling me through them spitting me back out behind the mall where the kid waited at the edge of a small patch of woods, his hands in his shirt pouch. He had already been waiting for me.
“Glad you could make it, John,” said the hooded kid. “My name is Max, and I’m here to test your strength for myself. You see, some of my allies have claimed that you’re too strong for us to fight against.”
“‘Us’ being the Order,” I replied.
“That’s right,” Max agreed. “But you see I don’t believe them. I think that I can prove here and now that you’re no threat to us. I think that I can fight you at only half strength, as I just did your friends, and defeat you as I did them. I think that I can defeat you here and now in a Shadow Game, using magic borrowed from my master, and take your Soul.”
I tried to remain strong in the face of my enemy, but as I stood there alone, having just seen what I had seen, I worried that my opponent might just be right.
Card of the Day:
Reaper on the Nightmare
Played by: Max
Maybe it is a little early to give this slot to this monster, which will be a mainstay of Max's deck for the remainder of the series, but I feel that I have to. This card inspired Max's entire character. His tenacity was inspired by its immunity to battle damage. His ruthlessness was inspired by its ability to destroy the opponent's hand. His attitude of always fighting anyone like they are an enemy (we'll see this in action a lot later) regardless of their alignment was inspired by this monster's uncaring way of attacking, bypassing the enemy's monsters no matter for strong they might be. And his fragile psyche, related to his troubled past (again, more on this later) was inspired by this card's death motif, and the fact that it dies when targeted. Not to mention that both this monster and Max are physically unimposing.
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