Like the last one, this one is mostly setup, but at least this chapter we get some answers. We learn the structure of the game that the mystery man wants to play with the Duel Force, and we learn how he plans to bait John into playing. I meant this to be a big reveal, and I'm a little worried that it is overshadowed by all of the reveals regarding Karen's past. Because we got those too. We know some of Karen's past now, aside from what we learned back in DF2.
Karen also learned some things about Pegasus that she didn't previously know, and before she can continue, she's going to have to confront him. This sets up the subplot of this book: Karen, Monty and Lawrence must all confront their teachers in order to move forward with their lives. Monty's confrontation with Yugi Muto is mostly just for fun, but Karen's confrontation with Pegasus, and Lawrence's confrontation with Kaiba end up being pretty important. These "Other Quests" will be the focus of the next few chapters, and then the main plot will resume. That's why the next two weeks will be Reaper updates.
No duel today, so no card of the day, but can we all agree right here and now that, cards or no cards, Jen is badass? And that it's hilarious that no one is surprised anymore that all of the villains want to kill John?
Chapter Seven
The Card Professors
John
I looked critically at the two new appearances. Both were male, and a
few years older than me. One was taller than me, closer to Tucker’s height,
with almost unnaturally long spiky hair, and the other was a bit shorter than
me, with short black hair and dark circles under his even darker eyes. I didn’t
recognize them, and I was surprised when Karen did.
“Richie,” she exclaimed, stunned, looking from the tall man to the
short man, “and Depre?”
“Hello, Sister,” Richie replied, his tone sinister, “it’s good to see
you again.”
I looked back at Karen over my shoulder, “What does he mean ‘sister’?”
Karen stepped up beside me, a look somewhere between anger and
confusion flashing across her face, ignoring my question and focusing on the
new arrivals instead. “What are you two doing here?” she demanded.
“I’m disappointed, Sister,” Richie replied. “We haven’t seen each other
in, what, sixteen years? And that’s all you have to say?”
“Karen,” I demanded, no longer willing to sit on the sidelines of this
conversation, “who are these guys?”
“Richie Merced and Depre Scott,” she answered, never taking a wary eye
off of the interlopers. “Remember how I told you that I was taken in as a
student by Pegasus after my parents died?”
“Yeah,” I replied. It was about the only thing that Karen had been
willing to tell me about her past. I would never forget it.
“Well,” she said reluctantly, “when I say ‘taken in as a student’ I
mean something closer to ‘adopted along with a bunch of others’. Pegasus is
basically my dad, though he’s perfectly okay with me thinking of him as more of
a teacher than a parent.”
“I, uh,” I replied, “I don’t know how to respond to that.”
“Yeah, well,” Karen said, guilt creeping into her tone, “it gets more
complicated. You could say that these guys are the reason I left Pegasus in the
first place.”
“Wait,” I said, “didn’t you tell me that you left because you felt like
you’d learned all that you could and wanted to test your skills? Was that a
lie?”
She looked over at me apologetically, “Yes, it was. John, think about
how long ago that must have been. I was only seven when I ran away from home. I
lived on the street for two years before the Order found me.”
“I, uh, what?” I was aghast. I’m a witty guy. I can always come up with
something to say to make light of a difficult situation. I consider it one of
my more prominent skills. In that instant, however, I couldn’t think of a
single thing to say. My entire view of Karen, who I thought I knew better than
anyone, had, in a few minutes’ time, been completely skewed, and her entire
life re-contextualized. I didn’t worry, though, that I couldn’t trust her.
Instead I hurt for her.
“It’s okay,” she assured me with a half-smile, “I’m okay now. Any scars
I had from that time faded a long time ago. But it is why I never wanted to
tell you about my past. I didn’t want you to feel like you do right now. I don’t
want you to feel this way, dwelling on the past. I want you here with me, in
the present.
The present, I thought, and I
remembered the two interlopers. I turned toward them again, glaring at them,
speaking harshly, “You want me to focus on the present? Then tell me: how did
these two make you leave? What did they do?”
“That’s a long story,” Richie Merced interrupted hostilely. “See, there
were many of us. Pegasus was teacher to us all, and he loved us like children.
But even though there were plenty of us who showed Master Pegasus more
gratitude and respect, he always favored Karen.”
“He showed her design secrets that he never shared with the others,”
Depre Scott added, sounding less hostile, and more resentful, “and even taught
her his own Dueling style.”
“And you got jealous,” Karen interrupted, returning their hostility, “and
you bullied me. You said awful things, and told me terrible lies. You even
tried to convince me that Teacher was planning something evil, something which
could get people killed.”
Despite the intensity of the situation, I found this interesting, “What
did they tell you he planned to do?”
“They told-.”
“We told her,” Richie interrupted, smirking darkly, “only what we’d
heard: that Master Pegasus was working on a way to revive someone close to him
with dark magic and cutting edge technology. We didn’t believe it either, we
just wanted to make Karen feel the way we felt. We wanted her to feel that
there was something of Master Pegasus that we knew, and she didn’t.”
“But then Master Pegasus actually did it,” Depre added, beaming with
pride. “He found a way to use the magic of Yugi Muto’s Millennium Puzzle and
Kaiba Corporation’s holographic technology to recreate a person from the caster’s
memories. He put in motion a plan to acquire both the Puzzle and Kaiba Corp.
all at once. It was the real purpose behind the Duelist Kingdom Tournament. The
‘leave of absence’ that Master Pegasus took after he lost to Yugi, where people
thought for almost a year that he was dead? Well, he wasn’t on vacation, he was
recovering from a Shadow Game that he lost to Yugi, costing him his Millennium
Eye.”
“See,” Richie added, “Unlike Karen, we never perceived Master Pegasus
as some untarnishable saint. We recognized that, while he was good to us, he
had his demons. That’s why we never judged him for what he did on Duelist
Kingdom, or for making the Egyptian God Cards.”
I was struck. I’d never actually trusted Pegasus fully, or liked him
much at all, and now I knew why. Pegasus was just like me. He had a
darkness in him that he struggled not to show, and he’s done things he
regretted and didn’t want to share.
Karen, however, was focusing on another aspect of the conversation. “The
curse of the Gods wasn’t Teacher’s fault, Richie. Teacher didn’t know that the
Gods would unfairly judge those with weak hearts.”
“Then why did he never destroy the cards?” Depre asked. “And why did he
intend to make more?”
“What?” Max demanded. Until now he’d remained a silent observer, but
this fact had taken him by surprise. One of Max’s worst losses had been to a
God card, and even though he never said it, I knew he was glad that I’d given
the cards to Pegasus to seal away somewhere (a decision which I was dangerously
close to reconsidering).
Still, despite myself, I smiled. “We know about the Sacred Beast,” I
told Richie and Depre, “and we know that Pegasus intended them to cancel out
the curse of the Egyptian Gods.”
“I’m not talking about those false gods,” Depre replied
condescendingly, “I mean a second set of genuine Gods, with powers even greater
than the originals, which Master Pegasus considered making just to witness
their power. He never made them, but the fact that he conceived them at all
says more than enough.”
I looked over at Karen. She was trying hard to hold it together, but I
could see that she was shaken. So much of what she knew had been completely
re-contextualized. It was like what she’s done to me by telling the truth, only
much more damaging. Pegasus had always been the person who she felt she could
trust the most, maybe even more than me. I had to take the focus off of Pegasus
and distract her. I had to turn her focus to something else.
“All of this is beside the point,” I said suddenly. I stepped up between the two interlopers and
Karen, and demanded, “answer Karen’s question: why are you here? It can’t be to
throw all of this in Karen’s face.”
“You’re right, of course,” Richie replied with a satisfied smile. “We
aren’t here for Karen. Getting the chance to torment her was just a bonus.”
“We’re here for you, John Sieger, on behalf of the Card Professors
Guild,” Depre announced, giving Richie a stern look which made me think that
Richie might not be the senior amongst these two. “We’re here to outline the
rules of the game set in motion by the new number one Card Professor.”
“Figures,” I said, “go on.”
“The new number one wants to challenge your legacy, not just you
personally, so he wants to prove himself against you and the team that you helped create. Therefor every Duel Force
member in the continental United States is being extended this challenge: Fight
us, Duel Force against Card Professors. If the Duel Force wins, you, Dark
Duelist, will be allowed the honor of facing our leader.”
I laughed, “Oh this is too precious! The Card Professors have been
reduced to a messenger service?”
“This is no laughing matter!” Richie snapped. He took a step toward me.
“Whoa, okay, calm down,” I said, “I know, this is a big deal. So here’s
a serious question for you. Aside from owing your ‘Number One’ a Mount-Rushmore-sized
beating, what incentive do I have to accept this challenge? What reason do I
have to ask my friends to step out of their lives to fight you and your allies?”
This time I was dead serious, and Depre and Richie could see it. Richie
smiled, “That’s an easy one. You should accept this challenge because, if you
make it to the battle with the new number one, in the final room of Dark
Factory, he will tell you about your father.”
And without another word, Richie Merced and Depre Scott stepped back,
disappearing into the Shadows using their master’s power, leaving Karen and I
alone with Max, Reiko, and a million and one new thoughts.
Sarah
“Who are you dweebs,” I asked the intruders, actively sending hate
waves at their outfits. I was really not in the mood for any crap.
“I’m Mendo Cino,” the taller, more condescending of the two replied,
gesturing to Thing Two, “and this is my associate Klameth.”
“Klameth,” I said, “really? Did your mommy not love you or something?”
“Just my luck,” Klameth mumbled under his breath, “I get sent to the
group with the smartass.”
“We’re Card Professors,” Mendo continued. “We’ve been sent to give you
a message from our new number one. He’d like to challenge the Duel Force to a
little competition. That’s the Duel Force new and old. As we speak, similar
invitations are being extended to every current and former member of the Duel
Force in the States. That includes your brother and his girlfriend. Your
brother is the one who this is really all about.”
I sighed and thought, Isn’t it
always?
“What are the terms of this game,” I asked, watching out of the corner
of my eye as my fellow Duel Force members looked back and forth between me and
Mendo, like a crowd watching a scene in a movie.
“Simple enough,” Mendo replied. “If you beat us, your brother goes on
to the final battle with our boss, and earns the chance to win a prize. I guess
it would technically be your prize
too.”
“What does that mean?” I demanded, but Mendo didn’t answer. Instead he
chuckled, “If you want to know more, get in touch with your brother.”
And just like that, the pair faded away before my eyes. I huffed and
turned to my friends, “Okay guys, this is important. What in the name of Dumbledore
is a Card Professor?”
Jen
“What do you want, James?” I demanded of the young man, who was leaning
against my doorframe, much as Christopher had been only minutes before, but
James was far less welcome. His expression was wicked, and I found it off-putting.
Of course, I found pretty much everything about James off-putting.
James’ eyes flashed aggressively, “What I want is to ruin you for getting me kicked off of Team Beatdown. You
know, defeat you, humiliate you, and maybe cause you moderate to severe bodily
harm. But this isn’t the time for that. Right now I’m here as a representative
of the Card Professors Guild. What do you think of that?”
“I’m sorry,” I told him, chuckling, “but I’m still stuck back on the
part where I got you kicked off of Team Beatdown. Last time I checked, you were
kicked off of the team because you wouldn’t work with the others,
instead only focusing on your own strategies, which weren’t very good.”
James inhaled sharply, “You know, you really shouldn’t push it. It’s
already hard enough not to just skip to the ‘moderate to severe bodily harm’
thing right now. You changed me, Jen. I was successful. I made a good living.
People knew my name, and associated it with a strong team. I had it made. Then,
because of you, the rug was yanked out from under me, and I was forced to claw
my way back to my feet.”
Looks like I pushed the wrong
buttons, I realized. I guess I
shouldn’t point out that it was the association of his name with the team which
got him kicked off in the first place. He was turning Team Beatdown into
laughing stalks!
To my surprise, though, James reigned in his anger and managed to calm
himself, “Well, anyway, I’ve become stronger, and now I’m ready to prove once
and for all that I’m your superior. Play our little game, and I’ll make sure we
fight. If you win, I’ll never bother you again. But when I win, you have to step down from Team Beatdown and admit that I’m
better, and recommend me to replace you.”
“And if I refuse?” I asked, crossing my arms defiantly.
“Then I cause you moderate to severe bodily harm,” James replied. “Seriously,
I thought we went over this.”
“I think that might be a bad idea,” I told him.
He smirked, “And why’s that?”
“Because,” I said, proud of myself, “there are a lot of insect in
manmade structures this size, and ever since I saw you outside my door, I’ve
been using my Soul of Nature to call them together.”
My room was pretty dark, with only faint evening light through the
blinds and the light of the TV and the hall to illuminate it. In other words,
more of the room was dark that it was light. So, you can imagine how surprised
James was when all of that darkness behind me seemed to move forward. He looked
confused, and then confusion turned to horror when he realized that it wasn’t
darkness, but thousands upon thousands of dark-colored shapes. Hundreds of
thousands of insects, moving as one, slowly advancing toward him.
“Just so you know, James,” I told him, “despite the fact that I refuse
to put up with your crap, I accept your challenge. When and where?”
“The Dark Factory,” James replied, eying my advancing army warily, “tomorrow.
I’d recommend getting in touch with your cousin John. This is really all about
him.”
I smiled, “Well of course it is.”
For just a moment, James’ wicked, evil-looking smile returned, despite
that he knew how thoroughly he’d outstayed his welcome. “I’ll see you there,
Jen,” he taunted. “Don’t chicken out on me.”
He took a step back, and he seemed to step behind a veil made from the
shadow of a protruding section of the hallway wall, and he was gone. I looked
over my shoulder, at the legion of insects waiting there, chattering away, and
I frowned.
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