Weevil's First Love
Chapter One
The girl who entered the flower shop had jet-black hair, rosy cheeks, and skin as white as snow. She went to the florist at the cashier and asked for some begodias. But she didn't know that a boy had his eye on her.
A green-haired kid with a crew-cut and horn-rimmed glasses stared at her from behind a display of plastic Venus flytraps. He had never seen anything more beautiful, except for Insect Queen, his favorite card. If only he had the courage to approach the girl…ask her her name, et cetera. This was strange, as he had never wanted a girl before. Neither had a girl ever wanted him, he was pleased to say. But this time, things were different.
He took two tentative steps before he chickened out. And then it was too late—she had gone.
Weevil went to the flower shop every day after that, hoping to see the girl again. But she never showed up. After three weeks he stopped going there. What did it matter that he never had a girlfriend? He had more important matters to attend to, such as finally defeating that bastard, Yugi Mutou. Fine-tuning his deck wasn't easy. And as Yugi had defeated him no less than five times already, he had to really be prepared.
One day, he walked into a card shop to get the last card he needed: Doom Dozer. There was no way Yugi would defeat the deck he had cooked up. The mighty power of bugs would overpower the King of Games at last!
But Weevil's mind became clouded as he entered the shop, for standing but a few feet away was the girl he had seen buying flowers. Biting his tongue, he ambled over to her.
"Hi, I'm W-weevil Underwood. Who might you be?"
"Phoebe Whittaker, at your service."
"So, you play Duel Monsters too?"
"A little. But I'm not very good. What's worse is that I only like Plant-type monsters, and everyone tells me Plants suck."
"They used to," Weevil said. "But the new booster pack, Peat Madness, introduced some killer Plants, including Hyper Tuber, which has the effect...." Weevil continued rambling on and on.
"Wow, you sure know a lot about Duel Monsters," Phoebe said, when Weevil had finished.
"Yeah, I used to be very well known amongst fans of the game. Till Yugi Mutou came along and stole my title…"
"Who's Yugi Mutou?"
"You really don't know?" Weevil laughed. Then, seeing Phoebe's expression, he realized he made a mistake. He had to cover up quickly. "Sorry, I've just never met anyone who doesn't know who Yugi is. He's supposedly the undefeated champion of Duel Monsters, though I'll beat him one of these days."
"Will you? What kind of deck do you use?"
"Oh, I specialize in Insects."
Phoebe's eyes got big. "I see. Well, I really must be going. It was nice meeting you, Mr. Overpants." She ran out the door as fast as her legs could carry her.
Weevil thought of chasing her, but he knew that would creep her out even more. His heart broken, he stared at the walls on the shop. There was a poster announcing a tournament. Weevil gasped; he was supposed to be at that tournament! He ran out of the shop.
Half an hour later he arrived at the building where the tournament was being held. Weevil handed his deck to the guy at the registration desk; this tournament only allowed you to use one type of monster in your deck. You could choose any type, but if one of your monsters was a Zombie and nineteen of them Pyro, you were disqualified.
"Everything seems to be in order," the man checking Weevil's deck said. "I see you are using the Insect-type. Good luck, sir. Really, I think you should've gone with Spellcasters."
"Why?"
"Spellcasters have won the first five rounds. The sixth round is currently engaged…Rock versus Dragon. But in each of the previous five rounds, it was Spellcaster versus another type. And Spellcasters haven't lost yet."
"I'll be the one to take them down."
"I sure hope so. Actually, I think only Machines have a chance against Spellcasters."
"Weevil Underwood does not use Machines! Do you know how many bugs die in machines every year? More than you have hairs on your head."
"Hey, don't call me out like that. I'm just letting you know that the chances of you winning this tournament without Spellcasters are slim. Go on into the waiting room, Mr. Underwood." The man pointed the direction Weevil was to take.
Weevil walked through the doorway, entering a room full of benches. He went over to one and sat down. People were watching the current duel on a screen. One duelist had just summoned Exodd. The other had Tri-Horned Dragon.
"Rocks will win," the boy sitting next to Weevil on the bench said.
"But aren't Dragons all powerful?"
"Sure, when your opponent doesn't have 4000 defense points. "
The guy with Tri-Horned Dragon smiled wickedly. "Lookie what I just drew! Stamping Destruction! Say adios to your Exodd!'
"Nooooo!"
"Yes, and now I summon Spear Dragon and have it attack your face-down! And guess what? It pierces, so say goodbye to a lot of Life Points!"
Golem Sentry was visible for a second. The Rock-user lost 100 Life Points.
"Now, Tri-Horned Dragon, finish him off with Triad Spike!'
The holographic dragon drove its spikes into the opponent's Duel Disk. He ran out of Life Points.
"I guess Rocks lost," the boy sitting next to Weevil said.
"I, for one, am glad. I hear that Spellcasters won the first four rounds, and I think Dragons have a much greater chance of defeating them than Rocks."
"Two of the one-type decks that faced the Spellcasters were Dragons."
"Huh? Why is everybody using the same-type Decks?"
"Only a few Decks have potential, most people think. I'm Ernest Weber, by the way," the boy said, extending his hand. "Fairy-type user."
"Weevil Underwood. My favorite type to use is—"
"Insects! I know you,, Weevil! I was a fan of yours when I was a little kid. I never really used Insect Monsters much, though."
Yes, well, I've got this tournament in the bag." They shook hands.
On the screen, an emcee was announcing the next two Duelists: "Rex Raptor, who uses Dinosaur-type monsters, and Swizely Armag, who is fond of the Machine-type, will now face each other in the ring!"
Weevil was counting on Rex to win this duel. If either of them won the tournament, they would split their earnings.
[4000/4000]
'I summon Gilasaurus and Gilasaurus, then sacrifice them for Black Tyranno! Then I activate Doom Bells! This Spell card allows me to discard one card from my hand, and in exchange, you can't do anything during your next turn except set monsters in face-down defense position."
"Ooh, this can get ugly," Ernest said.
Swizely set a monster face-down and ended his turn.
"As you can plainly see, I lured you into a trap. Black Tyranno, attack Swizely directly!"
The dinosaur jumped over Swizely's face-down monster and bit Swizely's Duel Disk. If it had been a real dinosaur, the Duel Disk would've been damaged.
"Ouch, that's got to hurt," said Ernest.
[4000/1400]
"Now I set a face-down, and end my turn."
"I flip up my face-down monster, Gear Bandit! With its effect, I can declare one type of monster. If you have a monster with the declared type in your hand, the monster on your field must switch places with the monster in your hand. I choose Dinosaur!"
"Mr. Armag uses the one-type rule to his advantage! Can he turn this duel around?" the emcee said.
Rex revealed his hand. There was a Uraby and a Raise Body-Heat there.
Black Tyranno jumped back to Rex's hand. Uraby jumped to the Field.
"Why didn't you play Uraby last turn?" Swizely asked.
"I had other plans. Now make your move, hot-shot!"
"Okay, well, I summon Green Gadget! This allows me to add a Yellow Gadget from my Deck to my hand. And now, Gear Bandit attacks Uraby!"
[3850/1400]
"Then Green Gadget attacks you directly!"
[2550/1400]
"I set three face-down cards. Your move."
"Ah, I knew it. Before I draw, I will activate my face-down, Whisphering Gale! This trap card destroys all face-down cards in your Spell/Trap card zone that you set during your previous turn. So you have no Traps, and no backbone. Now, I draw. Activate Reload! The two cards in my hand get shuffled into my Deck and I get to draw new ones. And wouldn't you know it, I got lucky! I Special Summon my third and last Gilasaurus, and since you have no monsters in your Graveyard, you can't Special Summon anything. Then I sacrifice it in order to summon, Driceratops!"
Swizely cursed.
"That's right. Fear me. Driceratops, attack Green Gadget!"
[2550/0300]
"Make your last move, Swizely. And let's hope it's a good one, because I could use a challenge."
Weevil wasn't worried at all. Rex's opponent only had two cards in his hand, three after he drew. He was a goner.
"I summon Yellow Gadget in attack mode, grabbing a Red Gadget from my deck. Then I activate Limiter Removal! Give that Driceratops a few punches Gear Bandit!"
Empowered by Limiter Removal, there was no way Driceratops could survive.
[2250/0400]
"Yellow Gadget, finish it off!"
Weevil gasped. Rex wouldn't win if the attack went through!
Just then, a monster appeared on Rex's side of the field. It had a long neck, causing Weevil to presume it was a brontosaurus.
Yellow Gadget's attack hit the new monster. The latter vanished from the field.
"What the heck was that?" Swizely asked.
"That was Black Apato. I sent it to the Graveyard for Doom Bells' effect. You see, it works like this: if there is a Black Apato in my Graveyard, and there are no monsters on my side of the Field when the opponent declares an attack, I can bring back Black Apato in Defense mode. Its DEF is equal to the number of monsters in my Grave times 400. When it is destroyed on the Field, it gets removed from play."
"Why didn't you use it to block Green Gadget's direct attack earlier?"
"I couldn't have. There's another rule: Black Apato's effect only works when the monster about to attack would take out all of your Life Points if the attack lands. Your Yellow Gadget would've wiped me out, so I could use black Apato."
"Ah, whatever. I end my turn, and my monster's are destroyed due to Limiter Removal," Swizely said.
Weevil relaxed. All Rex had to do was draw a monster, and this duel would end.
"I activate Dimension Fissure!"
Weevil groaned. Rex didn't get a monster after all.
Swizely summoned Red Gadget, getting a Green Gadget from his Deck.. "Attack him directly."
[1150/0400]
"Hydrogeddon, go, take out Red Gadget!"
[1150/0000]
"Well, that's the end of that," Weevil said.
"You'd think someone would be able to use the Gadgets more effectively," Ernest said. "That Swizely fellow wasn't very good."
On the screen, the next two duelists were called. Their faces were on a board. Weevil didn't hear his name, but Ernest nudged him. "Come on, you're up next."
Ernest pointed the way Weevil was to go. He went through a door and entered a dark hallway lit by dim lamps. When he reached the end of the hallway, he went through another door and saw the stage where he was to duel. He walked up the steps.
"Now both our duelists have arrived," said the emcee. "In one corner, we have Weevil Underwood, who uses Insects. And in the other corner, we have Phoebe Whittaker, who uses Thunder-type monsters."
"What in tarnation!" Weevil exclaimed. For he saw that his opponent was the girl he had a crush on. And he must not have heard the emcee properly, for he thought the emcee said she used Thunder monsters, but in the game shop she distinctly said she only liked Plants. Something was screwy here…
"Seems we meet again, Weevil," Phoebe said. "Let's see how you can handle yourself in a duel, chump."
[4000/4000]