Academy Days

Chapter 1

DISCLAIMER I OWN NOTHING... WELL, EXCEPT FOR THE ORIGINAL CHARACTERS, CARDS, AND STORYLINE, I OWN THAT!

Russell Figgins looked up at the ceiling of his tiny dorm room and sighed. He should have been happy, he'd been accepted to Duel Academy, but; unfortunately, he was placed in Slifer Red, instead of Ra Yellow or Obelisk Blue like his brothers had years before. His red jacket was tossed over on the desk chair, he couldn't stand to look at it. He was tall, around 6'1, with short brown hair that shaped his face.

"Why? Why was I put in this dorm?" he asked aloud.

"Because, it's where all the best duelists come out of here," Sitting up he looked to see a skinny, Japanese teen with long black hair tied in a loose ponytail, a yin yang necklace was the only difference between their uniforms. "I'm Bren Tenkage, I'm a first year too."

Bren shut the door and walked over to the desk chair, removed Russell's jacket, and tossed it up to him on the top bunk.

"A student should never be without his jacket," Bren said, as he sat down at the desk. "So, who are you?"

"I'm Russell Figgins," he replied.

"No way! Your one of the legendary Figgins brothers?" Bren exclaimed, before a confused look cross his face. "But, shouldn't you in in the Yellow or Blue dorm?"

"I should, but I don't know why I got put here," Russell said.

3 days earlier

In the main academy building professor Crowler was going through the student identification papers. He stopped when he got to Russell and scowled.

"Another one?" he muttered. "I hate those Figgins brats, just a bunch of cocky punks, just because they made it into the Ra Yellow and Obelisk Blue they think they can walk all over me! Wait… I have an idea."

Pulling Russell up on his computer Crowler scrolled down to the dorm Russell was to be placed in.

"Blue dorm, no surprise there," he said, glancing around quickly he backspaced until the dorm line was blank and changed it to Slifer Red and printed it out, throwing the original paper in the shredder he put the phony into the pile and began to chuckle. "Lets see how mister Figgins likes dealing with a bunch of Slifer slackers, he'll be crying home to mommy and daddy before day one is through."

Present

"That does sound strange Russ," Bren said, standing up. "Lets go for a walk around campus."

"Yeah ok," Russell said, hopping off of the bed the two grabbed their duel disks from the closet and slipped their decks inside before exiting out into the sunshine. Walking around the two saw a lot of students dueling each other. Russell's bed feeling about being put in Slifer red were fading, he'd just have to work really hard to get promoted to one of the other dorms.

"Well look what we have here," a voice said, the two turned to see a tall boy dressed in an Obelisk blue uniform, with spiky red hair. He stood with two other blues. "A new batch of Slifer slackers."

"Who are you?" Russell asked, as Bren leaned over to whisper in his ear.

"That's Darius Walker, a second year Obelisk blue," Bren said.

"How do you know that on your first day?" Russell asked.

"I read it in the school ranking system on one of the library computers earlier," Bren said.

"I'm gonna make an example out of one of you losers right here and now," Darius said, cutting into the conversation. "You on the left your going to duel me right now!"

"Uh… ok," Russell said, activating his duel disk. "I'll let you go first, upper classman."

RF: 4000

DW: 4000

"I summon Bionic Beetle(ATK: 1450 DEF: 1200) in attack mode," Darius said, as a large beetle that looked half robot appeared on the field. "And I place two cards face down and end my turn."

"Alright, I summon War Hound(ATK: 1800 DEF: 1000) to the field in attack mode," Russell said, as a large black hound covered in scars and clenching a sword in it's teeth. "I place three cards face down and end my turn."

"I play the spell card Stop Attack. Your monster is moved to defense mode," Darius said, watching as Russell's monster switched positions. "Now Bionic Beetle attack his War Hound now!"

"Sorry, I activate Despell, destroying your Stop Attack, putting my monster back into attack mode!" Russell said, his hound switched back to attack mode and destroyed Darius' beetle.

RF: 4000

DW:3550

"When my Bionic Beetle is destroyed two beetle tokens appear on my side of the field," Darius said, as two beetles appeared on his side of the field. "I place a card face down and end my turn."

"I summon Xaldin The Mage(ATK: 1700 DEF: 1400) in attack mode," Russell said. A monster that resembled the Dark Magician, except without the armor or staff, appeared on the field. "And I equip him with Book of Secrets, raising his attack power by 500 points, giving him a total of 2200."

A book appeared before Russell's Mage, who opened it and flipped through the pages.

"Now, I'll take out your beetle tokens with my monsters," Russell said, as his monsters attacked, Darius smirked.

"Stupid rookie, I activate Mirror Force," Darius said, the trap card activated and both of Russell's monsters were destroyed. Darius drew a card and smiled. "I sacrifice my tokens, so that I can summon Hunter Destroyer Mantis(ATK: 2500 DEF: 1500) in attack mode, and I'll attack you directly!"

"I activate the trap card Soldier Of Fortune, this allows me to bring a level 3 monster from my graveyard to the field in defense mode, so I bring back my War Hound!" Russell exclaimed, as his monster appeared on the field in attack mode. "What the? It was supposed to be in defense mode"

Russell watched as his monster was destroyed.

RF: 3300

DW: 3550

"I activated my magic card, Reverse Effect, it takes the card you just activated and reversed the effect, so instead of your hound coming back in defense mode it came back in attack mode," Darius said. "I play Pot Of Greed, so I draw two cards. I summon Hercules Grasshopper(ATK: 1500 DEF: 1300) in attack mode. Now I'll attack with Hercules Grasshopper!"

Bren watched as the Grasshopper on steroids attacked Russell.

RF: 1800

DW: 3550

"Now it's time to end this Slifer slacker, now Hunter Destroyer Mantis attack him directly!" Darius ordered, his smirk fell away as his monster turned away from it's charge at Russell and destroyed his Hercules Grasshopper. "What? How?"

RF: 1800

DW: 3550

"I activated a trap, Reversing Mirror, this allowed me to change your monsters target from me, to your other monster," Russell said. "Now it's time I ended this duel. First I play the magic card Monster Reborn to bring back my Xaldin, and then I play the equip spell Time Turner, this card jumps the duel five turns into the future, your monster looks a little worse for the wear Darius."

Darius looked at his Hunter Destroyer Mantis to see that it's body was withered and weak, and that it's attack points had dropped to 1000.

"Oh no," he said. "But what about your monster?"

"My Xaldin The Mage returns older and wiser, allow me to introduce Xaldin the Arch Mage(ATK: 2400 DEF: 1800)," Russell said, his monster reappeared on the field, it looked older, and it's robes were red and yellow instead of purple. "His special ability allows me to bring a monster back from my graveyard to the field as a zombie monster, so I bring back my War Hound."

The ground erupted as Russell's War Hound, now rotted and decaying crawled up out of the ground.

"I attack your monster with my War Hound!" Russell said, as his zombie monster destroyed Darius' Mantis. "And now I attack you directly with Xaldin the Arch Mage!"

RF: 1800

DW: 0

"Alright you won!" Bren shouted, as he ran over.

"How…. How could I lose to some Slifer reject?" Darius asked aloud. "Who are you anyways?"

"I'm Russell Figgins," Russell said. "People call me a prodigy and a genius."

"So which are you?" Darius asked, dropping to his knees in shame, his cards spilled out onto the ground. "A prodigy or a genius."

"I'm just a kid that loves Duel Monsters," Russell said, turning around he walked off followed by Bren. "Lets go to the school store, I wanna build my own deck."

"You mean that wasn't your deck you used?" Bren asked.

"No, it was my brother Anthony's," Russell replied. "It's full of spell casters and magic cards that strengthen them up and weaken their opponent. That's not my style."

When they finished both returned to their dorm room. After putting his brother's deck away, Russell sat on the floor and opened the packs of cards he bought. Piling them up he soon had two decks built.

"Why do you have two?" Bren asked.

"Well, if I enter a tournament people will expect me to use one deck," Russell said. "And they'll build their decks to combat it, so I'll use the other one."

"Good plan," Bren said, reaching into his pocket he pulled out his own deck and looked at it. "I wonder if I'll be able to duel against you one day?"

"Of course you will," Russell said, as he stood up and put a deck in each pocket. "It's time for dinner."

"Alright," Bren said, standing up as well.

END CHAPTER 1