In Yu-Gi-Oh! R, Deschutes Lew is one of the nicer Card Professors, which is, of course, why I pitted him against Sarah, who is emotional and rude. Okay, so maybe that wasn't too fitting. What was fitting, however, was making this the first duel we see of the Duel Force versus the Card Professors (I'm not counting John v Reiko, since she's kinda defected by this point), since the first Card Professor who Yugi fought was (drum roll, please!) Deschutes Lew!
Yeah, that's really all the reason I have for pairing these two up. As Sarah is a leader now, I could have had her fight Richie, the old leader of the Card Professors, but really Karen just has to fight him, ya know. I could have had her fight Depre, but I really wanted to write John fighting aliens. So Sarah is left with the opening duel of the conflict, with all of the exposition and stuff. Granted she does get some good exposition. Of course, that's mostly just in part two, in two weeks.
Oh, yeah, sorry again for another cliffhanger. Except not. You know the drill.
Chapter Seventeen
Sarah vs. Number Thirteen
Sarah
I walked through the huge, metal door and found myself in a smaller room with a lower, but still high, ceiling. The walls were made of patchwork metal. I could see the irregular seams between them, and I wondered if the walls could open. I looked up and saw several mechanical arms mounted to the ceiling on metal tracks.
Those must be from the assembly lines, I thought, but I wonder what they’re used for now.
“Wondering what the arms are for?” asked the tall, goateed man standing across the room. “I was wondering the same thing. I figure that, back when this place was used to survival train Duelists, those arms were used to make things difficult for them.”
The man looked down from the ceiling and met my eyes, “I’m Deschutes Lew, the number thirteen Card Professor.”
“Oh, great,” I replied sarcastically, “I get the lowest on the totem pole.”
Deschutes smiled, “You know, that saying is flawed. The lowest position on the totem pole was actually the one of the most prestige and honor. Just as you can’t judge so by the totem’s appearance, you can’t really judge us Card Professors by our ranks.”
“Whatever,” I replied, “let’s just get to this. I’m sure there are rules to these duels, so hurry up and explain ‘em.”
I stepped into position across from Deschutes Lew, and I felt a floor panel click beneath my feet. I must have looked panicked (and to be fair, I was), because Deschutes chuckled, “Don’t worry about that, but don’t step back off, either. See, these rooms are set up to force opponents to duel. There are four of those triggers in each room. I have one myself over here,” he gestured to his feet. “If someone steps onto and then off of any one trigger, it locks down the room until someone on the outside resets it. Once any pair of triggers is activated, if any one is deactivated before a duel is completed, it locks down the room.
“That’s what I figure the arms were for,” he continued. “They’d hit you and stuff and cause you pain and try to make you move before your duel was over, and trap you inside. We don’t have to worry about that, though. The Number One just wants to test you guys. We just have to duel, and if you win, when we step off of these panels, the door behind me opens,” he gestured to another sliding metal door past him, “and you go on. But if I win, the door behind you opens again, and you can leave. Simple and harmless.”
I didn’t believe for one second that this entire process would be simple or harmless, but this set-up seemed simple enough. If he’d wanted to trick me, he could have just not told me to stay on the trigger platform. Of course I probably never would have stepped on that exact place on the floor if my opponent hadn’t been waiting for me. And, in the end, it came down to the simple fact that, if I was trapped in this room, my opponent would be, too.
I couldn’t see the Card Professors still agreeing to fight us if that were the case, after everything that John and Karen had said to them. I’m not the smartest strategist out there, but I’m an athlete as much as a Duelist. I know a bad play when I hear one, and trapping himself in here with me seemed like the worst play my opponent could make.
Conclusion: he wasn’t trying to trick me. Probably.
So I shrugged, “Fine, you seem agreeable enough, and that means a hell of a lot coming from me. Let’s get this over with before I change my mind and say some things that you’ll regret.”
My opponent nodded, “Since I was here first, I think I’ll go first.”
I didn’t protest. If these Card Professors were as good as the others said, I had to be careful, and take some time to learn all I could about what he was capable of before I committed any of my more powerful cards against him.
Of course my opponent just had to go and ruin the rapport that we’d built by screwing up my plan, declaring, “I’ll simply set one card, and play a monster face-down in defense mode.”
Well, I thought, so much for getting a look at his cards. I guess I’ll just have to poke at his field and see what happens.
“It’s my turn then,” I declared. “I draw!”
I looked over my hand, and I scowled, No Field Spell. Though I guess it isn’t a total loss. I have other cards that I can use.
“I begin,” I announced, “with the Permanent Spell, ‘Water Hazard’. Now, if I ever have no monsters on the field, I can Special Summon a Level Four or lower Water monster from my hand. So I’ll Special Summon ‘Deep Diver’.”
A hammer-wielding man in an old school diving helmet and suit appeared at my side (ATK: 1000).
“Next,” I continued, “I normal summon ‘Armed Sea Hunter’.”
A fish man appeared at my side, standing opposite my ‘Diver’. He carried a bow made of coral, and a quiver of arrows (ATK: 1800).
“My ‘Hunter’,” I explained, “should be strong enough to clear the field of whatever monster you set. Attack!”
My monster drew an arrow, took aim, and let the arrow fly. I was confident that I could destroy his monster and make a direct attack with my ‘Diver’, so you can imagine my frustration when my monster’s arrow was deflected by the hard metal shell of the robotic shield monster, ‘Gear Golem the Moving Fortress’ (DEF: 2200). My Life Points took the recoil from the attack (8000 -> 7600).
“Your monster makes for a strong first turn offense,” Deschutes taunted, “but that offense is nothing compared to my strong defense.”
You aren’t the only one who can mount a strong defense, I thought. Then I thought about it, and I decided that, until I drew into one of my Field Spells, giving me access to my best combos, I couldn’t let my opponent see too much of my hand. I figured that I’d be okay for now, as long as my opponent was only defending.
“I end my turn,” I announced simply, and I waited.
“In that case,” said Deschutes, “let’s get right to it. I use my ‘Mind Control’ Spell to gain control of ‘Deep Diver’ until the end of the turn.”
What? I wondered. 'Mind Control’ can target any monster, so why would he use it to take control of my weakest monster?
But even as I was completing my thought, I got my answer.
“Next,” Deschutes announced, “I play ‘Creature Swap’, giving you back control of your ‘Deep Diver’ in exchange for gaining permanent control of your ‘Armed Sea Hunter’.”
Before he’d even reached his new place at my opponent’s side, my ‘Diver’ stopped, turned, and made his way back to my side instead, and the ‘Hunter’ moved over to Deschutes.
“My ‘Armed Sea Hunter’,” Deschutes commanded, “attacks the ‘Deep Diver’.”
The archer took aim, firing a single arrow at the ‘Diver’, finding a chink in his diver suit in the neck and piercing him through (7600 -> 6800).
“Not bad,” I told him, “but all you really did was help me out. When ‘Deep Diver’ is destroyed, I can search out one monster and place it on top of my deck.”
I did just that, and then continued, “I draw the card I just placed on my deck, and just for good measure, I play ‘Moray of Greed’, shuffling two of the Water monsters in my hand back into my deck to draw three more cards.”
I shuffled my deck and drew again.
Not bad, I thought, but still not quite what I need.
“I also play ‘Pot of Greed’ to draw two more cards from my deck,” I declared, and I drew yet again. Seeing my newest cards, I smiled.
I said to Deschutes, “I have to thank you for clearing my field of monsters. Thanks to you, I can re-use the effect of ‘Water Hazard’. I special summon ‘Cannonball Spear Shellfish’,” a large clam-like creature with a shell shaped like a spear appeared from a swirl of water.
“Next,” I continued, “I remove ‘Deep Diver’ in my Graveyard from play to Special Summon ‘Aqua Spirit’,” a blue-skinned water spirit appeared at my side in a pillar of foamy bubbles, “and I tribute her to summon ‘Orca Mega-Fortress of Darkness’!”
The ‘Spirit’ disappeared, and in her place appeared an orca whale with a large launcher on its stomach, and several smaller launchers and a crane arm on a platform on its back.
“I load the ‘Shellfish’ into the launcher on my monster’s back,” I explained, “and fire it at the face-down card that you’ve been saving.”
My ‘Orca’ lowered the crane arm on its back and grabbed the ‘Shellfish’, lifting it up and dropping it into place. A moment later, the ‘Shellfish’ was fired off in an arch at Deschutes’ hidden card, destroying both that card and the monster.
“Now my ‘Orca’ attacks the ‘Armed Sea Hunter’, Whale Mouth Cannon!”
My monster opened its mouth, producing a massive cannon which he fired off at the archer, blowing him apart (8000 -> 7700). But despite the turn of events, Deschutes Lew remained confident, even as I made preparations to prevent any counterattack that he might make.
“I place two cards face-down,” I concluded, “and end my turn.”
“I don’t see a Field Spell card yet,” Deschutes said with casual interest, “but you use a deck that could really benefit from a couple of Field Spells that I can think of. Didn’t you manage to draw one when you were drawing you five extra cards past turn?”
“Bite me,” I snapped. I was showing my frustration, but I didn’t care. Being all stoic in a duel is fine and all, but it really isn’t for me.
“Alright,” said Deschutes, chuckling, “I’ll see if I can summon a monster that can oblige. Step one I draw, and I tribute my last remaining monster, ‘Gear Golem the Moving Fortress’, to summon the ‘Total Defense Shogun’!”
A muscular, armored warrior carrying a huge shield, as tall as his body, and carrying a small collection of weapons on his back, appeared in the machine monster’s place, between me and my opponent (DEF: 2500).
“Next,” Deschutes continued, “I equip my monster with the ‘Shooting Star Bow - Ceal’, as equip Spell which reduces my monster’s Attack by one thousand, but allows him to attack directly.”
Light coalesced in the warrior’s free hand, forming a crossbow (ATK: 1550 -> 550).
“And did I mention,” Deschutes asked rhetorically, “that my monster can attack while in defense mode?”
“No,” I told him, “you did, in fact, not tell me that.”
“Sorry,” he replied, as his monster aimed its bow around its shield, and an arrow made of light formed, loaded into it, “it must have slipped my mind. Anyway, I attack.”
I smiled as the warrior let his arrow fly. Clearly my opponent hadn’t noticed that the ground beneath up had changed to the shimmering surface of the ocean.
“Reveal, the Trap card ‘Tornado Wall’,” I declared, as swirling columns of water rose up and surrounded me protectively, deflecting the arrow at the last moment, “which, when combined with my second Trap, ‘Forgotten Temple of the Deep’, protects me from all battle damage.”
Deschutes smiled across the battlefield respectfully, “Not bad. You really caught me off guard with that one.”
I smiled back, “You haven’t see anything yet.”
“In that case,” my opponent replied, “why don’t you show me. I place one card face-down, and I end my turn.”
Card of the Day:
Total Defense Shogun
Played by: Deschutes Lew
I love this card. I used to use a deck based around it back in the day (in one of the video games), and it was always fun to use. Since Deschutes Lew uses monsters which can deal damage while defending against attacks, even though the combos that he uses in the manga (and in part two of this duel) are quite different, I saw an opportunity to include this monster in my story, and I jumped at it.
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