And this is it for book two. Now every main character has been introduced, and while one of them still needs to take her place along with the others, this marks the end of a brief era of introducing new members of the Duel Force. I kinda wish I'd drawn this period out a bit longer, as I miss it going forward. I do eventually revisit it, though.
Oh, and seriously, Max's life sucks. I revisit that later, too.
Chapter EighteenMax’s Story
Max
When I was young, my parents died. That’s when Death and I first became acquainted. I was put into a foster home. My foster parents treated me like dirt under their feet. All I was to them was a monthly government check and something to kick around. They were in tight with the social worker that was assigned to me, so they got away with it. It was like a living hell. I wanted to die. I was seven, and I already wanted to die, but I was too scared to kill myself. I had walked the border between life and death for awhile, and Death and I had come to know each other pretty well. That was my life until I was nine, when the state finally found out what was going on.
They arrested my first foster parents and placed me in a second foster home. My new foster parents were great, but the damage was already done. I was weird. Jittery. And I would talk about death and dying, because I didn’t know that I shouldn’t. Nobody had ever taught me any different. My new foster parents were afraid of me, thinking that I might be a sociopath or something equally distasteful. They gave me up, and when Social Services were unable to find another home for me I landed in an orphanage. There wasn’t a single kid there who would give me the time of day.
Then I met Randy. I was twelve when he was only eleven. We were on our way to the school down the street from the orphanage where we attended when some kids my age, Mark and Thomas, started bullying him. They dumped out his bag and started tossing it around, just out of Randy’s reach. It reminded me of the way I’d been treated for years by my original foster parents. It hurt me to see it happening. I stepped in and helped Randy fight the bullies away. Then I started helping Randy pick up his stuff, and I saw something that had been in his bag, something that changed my life for the better.
“What are these?” I asked, handing him the pile of cards that had fallen from his upturned bag.
“Those are Duel Monsters cards,” Randy replied. “I have a ton of extra ones hidden in my room. When we get back after school I’ll show you. You can build a deck of your own and I’ll teach you how to play if you want.”
“Alright!” I said, excited for the first time that I could remember. I knew that he was just trying to be nice, to pay me back for helping, but still, no one had ever wanted to hang out with me. Even if Randy didn’t really want to be my friend, it couldn’t hurt to pretend that he was, just for a day, right? What harm could it do? I went in thinking that I was in for an eventual disappointment, and in the weeks to come, as Randy and I became real friends, all I seemed able to feel was surprise. I had a friend! I couldn’t believe it, and it took a year for me to finally realize that Randy wasn’t going anywhere.
It wasn't long before we heard about the Order. As far as we knew, it was just some club where duelists could escape their real lives and focus on becoming better at the game. The Battle City Tournament had recently ended with the duel between Yugi Muto and Marik Ishtar and their Egyptian God cards. The game had reached its prime. Everyone wanted to get as good as they could. So we joined the Order, Randy becoming a star in the Order’s ranks, and me, the rising star that stood by his side. By that point he’d even taught me a bit about how to correctly interact with other people. We were like the closest of brothers. Nothing could separate us.
For a while everything was great. We hung out in the hidden Order Refuge in our sector and picked up on new combos and the like. We watched as new Duelists joined every day, proud that we were some of the first.
Then we started hearing strange rumors about the founder of the Order. That he was always hidden in the darkness, that he was sending Duelists to capture strange ancient items from all over the map, and that anyone who stood up to him was never the same again. They were changed, still similar to who they had been, only darker, with an intense desire to do anything that Master Yami said, even if it meant that they had to kill, or die, in his name. We also heard that the mysterious Yami was moving from Refuge to Refuge to inspect the members of his Order, and that the next stop on his route was ours. Randy formed a wild theory, as he tended to do, that Yami was reshaping the minds of the Order members, brainwashing them into the perfect soldiers. I didn’t believe it, but I agreed to come along with him to confront Yami. Randy was confident. We were both confident, too much so. We were both strong, but we had no clue how powerful Yami was or what dark magic he was capable of.
We decided that we would meet Yami head on the morning after his arrival, but I was late, and Randy was too impulsive. He went to face Yami on his own. When I arrived they were already dueling in the first Shadow Game that I’d ever seen, and the worst. Randy was an amazing, undefeated Duelist, but Yami was so much better.
Yami had ‘Gravekeeper’s Curse’ (ATK: 800), three face-down cards and twenty-four hundred Life Points. Randy had the monster card ‘Dark Assailant’, a thin swift-looking humanoid Duel Monster wearing a skull mask marked with an eye, carrying a set of throwing knives (ATK: 1200). He also had a face-down monster, and a face-down card. His Life Points were lower, at only sixteen hundred.
“I activate ‘The Inexperienced Spy’,” Randy announced, “letting me see the last card in your hand.”
The shadowy form of Yami placed his last card on his duel disk and a hologram of it appeared, revealing it as ‘Guardian Sphinx’.
“Perfect,” said Randy, his confidence apparent. “Reveal ‘Cloak and Dagger’. Now, when you summon your ‘Sphinx’, even by Flip-Summon, your ‘Sphinx’ is destroyed and removed from play.”
“Then I’ll have to counter,” said Yami in a thick raspy voice, his lack of concern just as apparent, “with the Counter Trap ‘Seven Tools of the Bandit’, paying one thousand Life Points to disarm and destroy your Trap (2400-1000=1400).”
“It doesn’t matter much,” said Randy. “I’ve got you. When I win I’ll give you one of those Penalty Games you were talking about. I’ll banish you from this dimension and turn everyone that you’re controlling back to normal. I Flip-Summon ‘Night Assailant’ to destroy ‘Gravekeeper’s Curse’!” A cloaked figure with a short blade in hand appeared, lunging toward the monster.
“Reveal ‘Quick Summon’,” said Yami, “letting me sacrifice my ‘Gravekeeper’s Curse’ to set a monster.” The ‘Gravekeeper’ disappeared and was replaced by a hologram of a face-down card. ‘Night Assailant’ sailed right over it, landed, and jumped back to Randy’s side (ATK: 200).
“I figured as much,” said Randy, though he was clearly shaken. “Summon, my spirit, ‘Dark Hunter’, the greatest assassin card ever made.” His signature monster appeared, a man in a cloak and a bird-head mask. “I sacrifice my monster to activate his effect, destroying all face-down monsters on the field. Then I’ll attack with ‘Dark Assailant’ and ‘Night Assailant’ and finish you off!”
The assassin monster lunged, preparing to destroy the ‘Sphinx’, but found himself suddenly drained of his power. He jumped back to Randy’s side.
“Reveal,” Yami declared, sounding quite amused, “my final card, ‘Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror’, stripping all Dark monsters of their effects.
Yami laughed, “Wannabe heroes, how I enjoy them so. I draw, and I Flip-Summon ‘Guardian Sphinx’, returning all of your monsters to your hand!”
The three assassins disappeared as the massive stone monster rose up, casting a shadow over the field. “Attack him directly,” Yami commanded, “now!”
‘Guardian Sphinx’ fired his eye beams, hitting Randy dead on. This attack wasn’t some hologram. The beams hit, and my friend was vaporized, his body torn to pieces no larger than bits of dust, and while this was happening, while my friend screamed in agony, Yami laughed.
I was terrified. I was about to run, when Yami said, “Did you enjoy the show?” He was still staring at the spot where Randy had been, but I felt like he was watching me, looking into my very soul.
“Wh-what did you do?”
“I killed him,” Yami replied in a matter of fact sort of way, “something that I will do to you, unless you continue to serve me and my Duelists of the Order.”
Yami looked directly at me, and I felt like all hope was gone from my heart and mind. He was playing with me. Either I’d agree and he’d get to take his time, enjoying every moment of his oppression of me, or I’d refuse and he’d get to kill me. Either way, he won. “So,” he asked, “what will it be?”
John
“So,” Max concluded, “I had no choice. Yami would have killed me. I was afraid. I may be Death, but Yami was my master, The Master of Death. There was nothing I could do. I had nothing. No family, no friends. Only the Order. But no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t bring myself to truly be like Yami. I began to withdraw. I think that’s why Yami sent me after you. Even as I was hoping to defeat you and get back into Yami’s good graces, Yami was hoping that I would be defeated, or that even if I wasn’t, I would get him the Souls before he appeared and finished me off himself. He never expected that I would stand up to him.
“But I’d already decided,” he went on, furious, “after seeing the courage that you displayed in our duel, that I would no longer let myself fall prey to fear. That I wouldn’t let it be my master. That I would instead become its master. I decided that when Yami appeared, I would stand up to him as I should have years ago. That I would die regaining the dignity that I’d lost.”
“Couldn’t you have decided that a little earlier?” I asked, making Tucker laugh suddenly.
“You have a Soul,” said Kimi to a surprised Max, “and that means you’re a good person deep down.”
“Yeah,” I said, “you should join up with us and help us fight off the Order. Try out some of that new-found courage.”
Max looked right at me, his expression purposely blank, unreadable. “You would accept me, even after what I put you through?”
“They accepted us,” said Karen, stepping forward, gesturing to Monty and Lawrence.
“You were only pawns,” said Max spitefully. “I was a willing follower of Yami.”
“I wouldn’t say that,” I said. “It’s like you said, there’s more than one way to control someone.”
“I don’t know,” said Max. “I need some time to think.”
“Take your time,” my mom said from her place beside Rocky and Tucker. “Whenever you decide, know that you have allies here.”
Max nodded thoughtfully. He seemed overwhelmed by the support and forgiveness that we were showing him. After hearing his story I couldn’t blame him. Without another word, he turned, took a step forward, and vanished into the shadows of a half-finished building.
Nearly three weeks had passed since my battle with Max at the construction site (coincidentally, construction resumed the next day). Karen, Sarah, Kimi, Rocky and I were sitting at our favorite table in the Game Center, watching Tucker show off by dueling one powerful opponent after another, hogging the arena. He hadn’t lost a single match so far, but it was Tucker, so it was only a matter of time.
I watched Tucker finish off another opponent, marveling at how quickly he’d improved, going from a hothead to a skilled Duelist that thought his moves through, at least most of the time.
I’d expected to see Max again eventually, but I was surprised nonetheless when he showed up at the Game Center. He stood in the entrance, his hood up, and watched me, as if inviting me outside to have a word. I stood up and followed him outside to the open area behind the mall where we’d had our first battle.
“I’ve decided to join you,” said Max. “I believe that your Soul is the key to everything, and that you are in turn the key to defeating Yami and ending his reign of evil once and for all. I want to be there to aid you in any way I can.”
“Then I guess I should say ‘welcome’,” I said, offering Max a hand. He lowered his hood. He had spiky blond hair and fierce blue eyes. He shook my hand carefully as if he didn’t quite know what to make of the gesture, marking the beginning of a powerful alliance.
But I had experienced Yami's power first hand, and I'd been nearly overwhelmed by it. So in that moment I couldn't help but wonder if our alliance would prove powerful enough.
Continue to Special #1 >>
or...
Continue to Book 3 >>
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