Episode 2: Welcome to Domino City! Part 2
Calvin was most definitely not ready for today.
When he had woken up that morning- at least he thought only a day had passed- his plans for the day had essentially extended to watching the Dawn of the Duel marathon, and maybe playing a game of Calvinball if Dad remembered to get him and Hobbes a new volleyball. Instead, he had been sucked into another universe through a dimensional rift along with Hobbes, Susie, and Moe, and now the only way to find them a place to stay was for him to win a card game he had never actually played all the way through before. Currently his opponent's Xyz Monster was staring him down, Calvin had only one sickly-looking dragon on the field, and his opponent, the Manager, was showing no sign of mercy.
"I don't understand!" protested Calvin. "That card is an Xyz Monster! Those aren't supposed to exist for years!"
"What are you talking about, kid?" asked the Manager.
Calvin's mind was racing. "Do you know about Synchro Monsters?" he asked.
"What are you, stupid?" snapped the Manager. "Of course I do!"
"How about Pendulum Monsters?" asked Calvin.
"Duh! What do you think those slots on the side of your Duel Disk are for, holding your juice box?"
If Calvin's mind had been racing before, now it was in overdrive with 12 Speed Counters hurtling towards a ramp. "What about Dark Synchros? Have you heard of those?"
"Dark Synchros?" asked the Manager in confusion. "The hell are those?"
Calvin nodded, slowly piecing things together. Dark Synchros had been anime-exclusive, used only by the Dark Signers in 5Ds, so it made sense that the Manager would never have heard of them. But nothing else involving the situation made any sense.
"What's going on?" protested Hobbes. "This is the original series era; he should only have Fusion Monsters! How can the summon mechanics from a show as recent as ARC-V be involved?"
Calvin considered this. He had no answers, and at the moment he had much bigger questions to deal with.
"I don't know what garbage you're talking about," the Manager exclaimed, "but now it's time to bring on the pain! You see, by absorbing her two Overlay Units, Olympian Warrior Athena gains 1000 Attack Points!"
Athena reached out her hands and caught the two golden spheres orbiting around her. Her entire body began to glow with energy as her ATK grew to 2600.
"Now then, Olympian Warrior Athena," exclaimed the Manager, "lay waste to his pathetic dragon with Divine Wisdom!"
The giant woman bowed her head and cupped her hands together. A ball of light began to form between her hands. After a moment, a beam of pure energy shot from the ball, slamming into Spirit Ryu. The dragon let out a pained moan and disintegrated into golden light, which quickly faded. The beam then swept forward to Calvin, who flinched involuntarily. The hologram was so realistic Calvin could practically feel the wind blowing him back.
"Now then," said the Manager, "during my End Phase, if Athena attacked during my turn, she loses 400 Attack Points. But I think it's a price I'm willing to pay to do so much damage to you!"
Calvin looked up. The screen displaying his Life Points had just dropped from 4000 to 2400. Calvin winced: nearly half his Life Points gone in one turn! He had to step up his game if he wanted to win. Looking back at Athena, another screen displayed that her ATK had dropped from 2600 to 2200: still formidable, but not quite as terrifying as before.
"Alright kid," laughed the Manager, "let's see if you can last the next round without dropping your cards...or wetting your pants!"
"Alright!" exclaimed Calvin. "Looks like it's my turn!" He drew another card from his deck.
"Now then," he said, "first I activate a little Spell Card called Ookazi! Thanks to this card, you automatically take 800 points of Direct Damage! Hope you can take the heat!"
Calvin slammed the card into the third slot. A person-sized replica of the card appeared on the field, depicting a wooden building on fire. Out of the image emerged a ball of flames, which swooped past Olympian Warrior Athena and struck the Manager full in the face, knocking him backwards. Calvin still wasn't quite sure how the hologram system was physically affecting the two of them; maybe it was just so realistic that people couldn't help but react, or maybe they were just playing along. On-screen, the Manager's Life Points dropped to 3200.
"And next," exclaimed Calvin, "I'm gonna activate my Continuous Trap: Call of the Haunted! Thanks to this Trap Card, I'm allowed to Special Summon one monster from my Graveyard! And I choose Armed Dragon LV5!"
One of the trap cards on Calvin's field flipped upward, revealing an image of a cemetery. Purple smoke poured out of the card, forming a vast cloud through which nothing could be seen. As the smoke began to dissipate, a new monster could be seen: a massive red-and-dark-gray dragon covered with nasty-looking metallic spikes. A purple aura continued to surround it as its stat screen appeared: 2400 ATK / 1700 DEF / LVL: 5. A trail of purple energy connected the dragon to the card.
"And," added Calvin, "since I summoned Armed Dragon with a Special Summon, I can still use my Normal Summon for the turn! So from my hand I bring out Luster Dragon!"
The circle of light appeared, and another dragon rose out of it: a bluish-purple dragon with scales that looked to be made of solid crystal. Its stat screen appeared: 1900 ATK / 1600 DEF / LVL: 4.
"But before we get to the dragon attacks," added Calvin, "I think this would be a good time to draw your attention to the other face-down card I have on my field. I reveal a Spell Card: Wave-Motion Cannon!"
At Calvin's word, his other face-down card flipped up. This time, instead of the card disappearing into light, a large holographic object appeared: a strange green cannon with a wide barrel, lifted on a set of golden legs.
"You see," said Calvin, "now that I've activated this card, it will remain on the field until I send it to the Graveyard. And when that happens, you'll be hit with Direct Damage equal to the number of Standby Phases that have passed since I first activated the card times one thousand!"
Susie leaned over to Hobbes. "What's a Standby Phase?" she asked.
"It's the phase of battle immediately following your draw at the start of a turn," said Hobbes.
"Oh, I get it!" exclaimed Susie. "So each turn, Calvin's cannon will get stronger until he finally fires it!"
"Yeah," said Hobbes. "That's his plan, alright. Now we just have to hope that the Manager doesn't rip up his plan by the roots."
"And with that," said Calvin, "it's time for a DEATH BATTLE! Armed Dragon LV5, take out Athena with Infernal Roar!"
The dragon reared back and let out a devastating blast of energy straight for Olympian Warrior Athena. For a moment the goddess resisted the blast, but ultimately the dragon won out and she vanished in a burst of light. The Manager gave Calvin a stone-cold glare as his Life Points dropped to 3000.
"And now that she's out of the way," exclaimed Calvin excitedly, "my Luster Dragon can go in for a direct attack! Luster Dragon, devastate the Manager's Life Points with..." He blinked. "'Breath of Fire'? Really, that's the whole name of the attack?" He considered this, then shrugged. "Well, I guess I can't be picky when commanding a dragon. Luster Dragon, attack the Manager directly!"
Luster Dragon drew back and unleashed a torrent of white fire from its mouth. The Manager leapt backwards from the flames, but the holographic blast still engulfed him. As Calvin watched, the Manager's Life Points dropped from 3000 all the way down to 1100.
"Oh yeah!" exclaimed Calvin. "I so totally have this duel in the bag! Now with that, I end my turn. Let's see you recover from that!"
"Oh, I'm gonna do more than that," hissed the Manager. "When I'm through with you, you're not just going to leave my hotel forever; they'll have to carry you out on a stretcher!"
Hobbes blinked. "Well, that's a little intense," he remarked. "Did a grown man just threaten to grievously injure a six-year-old-boy over a card game?"
"Pretty much par for the course with Yu-Gi-Oh! from my perspective," said Calvin with a shrug. "Incidentally, how are you holding up, Moe?"
Moe gave a sort of noncommittal grunt indicating that he was totally out of his depth but was coping the best he could. Calvin was rather surprised how much Moe was able to convey with one grunt, especially considering that he would certainly not have been able to convey a thought that complex with actual words.
"Now then," exclaimed the Manager, "my turn!" He drew a card from his deck; upon seeing it, he smiled.
"Don't forget," remarked Calvin, "since your Standby Phase has now passed, my Wave-Motion Cannon starts to charge up!"
He pointed to the cannon positioned on his field. The barrel was beginning to crackle with blue-white energy.
"Whatever," muttered the Manager. "I'll deal with that soon enough. Now, since Olympian Warrior Athena is in my Graveyard, I can banish that card from play altogether in order to Special Summon a monster from my hand, as long as it has less than 1000 Attack Points. And I choose Olympian Attendant Hermes!"
A new circle light appeared on the field as the Manager placed a new monster onto his Duel Disk. Out of it rose a scrawny winged man in a white toga. Calvin stared in surprise at the status screen: 500 ATK / 800 DEF / LVL: 3.
"Wait, what?" he exclaimed. "Why would you choose to summon a monster with less than a thousand Attack and Defense points?"
"That would be because of its special ability!" the Manager declared with a smug smile. "Thanks to it, when I successfully summon this card, I can add one Field Spell from my deck to my hand!" He quickly removed his deck from its slot and began to thumb through it.
"Field Spell?" asked Susie.
"They're basically Spell Cards that effect the entirety of the duel, rather than one specific aspect," said Hobbes, smiling. "They also typically apply to both players instead of just one."
"I see," said Susie. She blinked. "Wait, why are you smiling?"
"Because," said Hobbes, "if Field Spells work the way they do in the show, things are about to get...interesting."
"Ah-ha!" exclaimed the Manager, finally finding the card he was looking for. "I now activate a Field Spell called Olympian Arena!" He pushed a button on the side of his Duel Disk, causing a small tray with space for a card to fold out of the side. With a smile, the Manager placed the card into the slot, which then slid back into the Duel Disk.
What happened next was nothing short of spectacular.
Instantly the entire landscape around them changed. The concrete circle, the hotel garden, and even the skyline of Domino City faded away. Suddenly the entire group was standing in a dirt arena, surrounded by what looked like ancient Greek temples. Statues of gods and goddesses stood amidst bronze braziers burning with flames.
Susie gasped. "What happened?!" she exclaimed. "How did we get here? Where are we, even?"
"We're still in the same place," said Hobbes. "This is all just a hologram."
"That's not how a hologram works!" protested Susie.
Hobbes shrugged. "It is in this universe," he said simply. "Just go with it."
Calvin was having some trouble comprehending it too, despite having seen Field Spells used dozens of times in the show. He knelt down and felt the ground by his feet. Sure enough, he felt not the dirt of the new arena but the concrete that he had been standing on for the entire duel.
"Pretty impressive," he admitted, standing back up.
"Oh, that's nothing!" exclaimed the Manager. "You see, thanks to this Field Spell, only one monster can attack per turn, and any Battle Damage we take is doubled!"
Calvin's eyes widened. "So I have to choose between attacking with Armed Dragon LV5 or Luster Dragon, AND risk double damage with each turn?" he asked.
"Yep!" said the Manager. "And now," he exclaimed, "I summon Olympian Warrior Apollo!"
He slammed another card into the Duel Disk. This time the monster that appeared was a handsome man with shoulder-length brown hair. His armor was pure gold and gleamed with an intensity that made it difficult to look at. Calvin had to squint to make out the stats: 1800 ATK / 800 DEF / LVL: 5.
"You see," said the Manager, "I can summon this card without Tributing when I have less than 1500 Life Points!"
Calvin blinked, now officially lost. "But wait!" he protested. "You just said you can only attack with one monster! And neither monster you control can scratch either of my dragons!"
"Oh, this monster won't be attacking," the Manager said with a smug smile. "In fact, neither of them will! You see, Hermes over there happens to be something known as a Tuner Monster. Do you know what that means, twerp?"
Calvin's eyes widened. "You're going to Synchro Summon!" he exclaimed.
"Exactly," said the Manager. "I now tune my Level 3 Olympian Attendant Hermes with my Level 5 Olympian Warrior Apollo!"
At his words, both monsters leapt up into the air. As Calvin watched, both monsters underwent a transformation. Hermes transformed into a set of three green rings covered with intricate symbols, while Apollo turned into a golden outline of himself, with five brilliant stars at the center. The rings quickly moved to surround Apollo, now nothing more than a wireframe tracing. A brilliant beam of light shot between the stars, connecting them with a flash of light that momentarily blinded everyone watching. The column of light expanded until it reached the rings.
"Now," said the Manager in triumph, "I Synchro Summon Olympian Warrior Ares!"
When the light faded, the two monsters were gone. In their place was a single monster: a vast man with blood-red skin and clutching a massive sword. The look in his eyes was enough to make Calvin want to start running away as fast as he could. But he couldn't run away now, not when he still had a chance at victory. Calvin gulped when he saw the monster's stats: 3000 ATK / 2500 DEF / LVL: 8.
"Unfortunately," said the Manager, "Ares can't attack on the turn he's Synchro Summoned. But he can activate his special ability: every turn, Olympian Warrior Ares is allowed to destroy one Spell or Trap Card on the field! You see, your Armed Dragon may be tough, but right now it's got a serious weakness: if that Call of the Haunted card is destroyed, it goes straight back to the Graveyard!"
"Oh sure," remarked Calvin. "You could do that. But do you want to?"
The Manager blinked. "What are you talking about?" he asked, for the first time looking disconcerted.
"You see," said Calvin, giving the Manager his own best smug grin, "I happen to have two cards in my Spell and Trap Zones. You could attack Call of the Haunted if you wanted, but that would leave my Wave-Motion Cannon without so much as a scratch. And that means that it's just going to keep on building up charge. Best case scenario, I unleash it next turn and slam you with 2000 points of Direct Damage, leaving you with only 200. That's an awfully precarious position to be in. Or worse, what if I choose not to fire on my next turn? What if I instead wait even longer and slam you with 4000 points of damage the turn after that, instantly ending the duel? Are you really going to gamble the entire duel on the chance that you might draw a card that destroys my cannon next turn? Or on me being patient enough to wait?"
The Manager's eyes widened. "No way," he hissed. "You couldn't have planned this..."
"So what if I did?" challenged Calvin. "What're you gonna do about it, huh? Huh? Come at me, bro!"
"ENOUGH!" the Manager roared. "Olympian Warrior Ares, destroy that Wave-Motion Cannon!"
Ares nodded and raised his sword over his head. Red energy streamed up from the ground and into the sword, causing it to begin to glow. After a few seconds of this the monster swung his sword forward, firing an arc of energy that cut Calvin's cannon clean in two.
"Is that it?" asked Calvin, sounding bored.
"YES!" screamed the Manager. "THAT'S IT! I END MY TURN!"
"Good," said Calvin with a smile. "Because you just fell straight into my trap."
The Manager's eyes widened. "W...what?"
Calvin closed his eyes. Alright, Heart of the Cards, he thought. If you're actually a thing in this world, I could sure use your help right about now.
"I Tribute both Armed Dragon LV5 and Luster Dragon! You see, the monster in my hand is Level 7, which means I need to send two monsters on my field to the Graveyard in order to summon it! So come on out, Red-Eyes Black Dragon!"
Calvin slammed one more card into the Duel Disk. The two monsters on his field transformed into balls of rainbow light which flew up into the sky, where a new, far larger disk of light had formed. Once the lights had been absorbed, Calvin's creature began to descend.
Susie gasped. Moe gasped. Hobbes gave an impressed "Nice." Even the Manager looked awed. Hovering just above Calvin's field was a vast dragon covered in midnight-black scales. Its coat was covered with spiky protrusions, and its eyes glowed red like two hot coals. It let out a Godzilla-like roar as its stats appeared on a screen: 2400 ATK / 2000 DEF / LVL: 7.
The Manager shook his head, apparently getting over his momentary surprise. "Whatever," he said with a shrug. "Your dragon's only got 2400 Attack Points! Next turn my Olympian Warrior Ares will obliterate it! And thanks to his special ability, if he successfully destroys a monster with more than 2000 Attack Points, he can then attack again! And that will be the end of your Life Points and your quest to annoy me into submission!"
Calvin smiled. "Oh, Red-Eyes Black Dragon won't be the one to destroy you! That will be his big brother here!" He held up the remaining card in his hand. "You see, I needed Red-Eyes Black Dragon on the field in order to summon this card. And now that I have him out, I can Tribute him to Special Summon an even more powerful dragon: one which will bring an end to this! Now GO, SHADOW METAMORPHOSIS!"
Calvin wasn't sure where these last words came from. Maybe they had been put into his mind by the card itself, or maybe they didn't do anything at all. As Calvin pulled the Red-Eyes Black Dragon Card off of his Duel Disk and placed an even more powerful card there instead, a pulse of dark red energy shot out from the device. Immediately the dragon was enveloped in a sphere of darkness, the edges glowing with brilliant red light.
"Now come forth, my ultimate creature of destruction and chaos!" exclaimed Calvin. "Come forth, RED-EYES DARKNESS DRAGON!"
The beast that burst from the sphere was like nothing most of the group had ever seen before. Its black scales gleamed in the light of the sun, and its wings and tail featured bright red gems that blazed with a sinister energy. Red lines ran all along its body, making it look like it had just beamed out of the Grid from Tron.
For a moment the Manager stared in horror. Then his horror turned to amusement as he saw the new dragon's stats: 2400 ATK / 2000 DEF / LVL: 9.
"You really can't count, can you?" he exclaimed. "That dragon has the same Attack and Defense Points as your last one! Ares will still crush it like a bug!"
"Yeah, well," said Calvin, "that would be the case if it weren't for my dragon's special ability! You see, my Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon gains 300 Attack Points for each and every Dragon-Type monster in my Graveyard! And I count four! Which means my dragon now has...erm..." He frowned, trying to do the calculation in his head.
"3600!" exclaimed Susie.
"Right!" said Calvin. "3600 Attack Points! And that's all I need to send your Olympian Warrior Ares straight to the Graveyard!"
The Manager stared in horror as Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon's ATK grew 1200 points. The dragon let out a deafening roar and stared at Olympian Warrior Ares with a look that almost seemed...hungry.
"And that's not all!" exclaimed Calvin. "Thanks to the effect of your Field Spell, the battle damage you receive is doubled! So you're gonna be hit with 1200 points of Direct Damage: more than enough to wipe you out! And now, Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon, end this duel!"
The dragon drew back and unleashed a torrent of black fire from its mouth. The flames consumed both Ares and the Manager, destroying the former and knocking the latter off his feet. As the group watch, the Manger's Life Points dropped from 1100 to 0. The arena around them faded away, restoring the view of the hotel gardens as Calvin's virtual screen changed to simply say "YOU WIN!" The holographic jet things flew back onto the two players' Duel Disks.
Calvin walked over to the defeated Manager. "I hope you learned a valuable lesson from all of this," he said.
"But...how?" protested the Manager, pushing himself up on his elbows. "How could I lose to a little kid like you?"
"Simple," said Calvin. "You let me win. And the best part is, you didn't even know it."
The Manager blinked.
"You see," said Calvin, "my entire plan rested on having two Dragon-Type monsters on the field when I drew Red-Eyes Black Dragon. That plan was put in serious jeopardy when you busted out a card that destroyed Traps and Spells, so I had to convince you to take out my Wave-Motion Cannon instead of Call of the Haunted. Then once you did, the stage was set for my victory, since not only did I have enough Tributes on the field to summon Red-Eyes, but having two dragons meant that Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon's attack, amplified by your Field Spell, would be strong enough to end the duel immediately once it landed! You were so flustered after my little speech that you didn't even lay down a Trap Card to protect yourself!"
"But you couldn't possibly have known that your speech would've worked!" protested the Manager.
"Actually, yeah I could have," said Calvin. "Back in the lobby, you were so worried about losing a little profit over us staying in your hotel for a few days while we searched for somewhere else to stay that you were willing to agree to a duel in which you stood to lose far more money from us staying here indefinitely. I knew you would duel the same way you ran a business: willing to risk a big loss to prevent a small loss."
"No way," snapped the Manager. "You couldn't have figured that out so fast!"
"Yeah I could've," said Calvin with a smile. "That's the mistake you made, both in challenging me and in accepting my bluff: you underestimated me. You know who I am? I'm Calvin. I came here from another universe, and right now I'm on a mission to get myself, my friend, and these other two home. And if that means dueling a bunch of losers like you, then I'm gonna keep fighting until the bitter end." Suddenly his eyes widened. "Hey, that's it!" he exclaimed. "That can be my catchphrase: 'Until the bitter end'!"
Hobbes considered this. "A little dark, but it works," he said with a smile.
"Wait," said Susie. "There's one other thing I don't get. Calvin didn't have Red-Eyes Black Dragon in his hand when he tricked the Manager into destroying that card. So how could he possibly have known he'd draw it on his next turn?"
Hobbes shrugged. "I guess he just had faith in his deck. They do it all the time on the show."
Susie smiled. "Well, what do you know?" she mused. "Maybe he isn't quite so awful after all."
Calvin smiled. "Now then," he said, "about that room we agreed on..."
The Manager winced. Sometimes he truly hated his job.
A/N: So there we are, the end of Chapter 2. I'd just like to clear the air: yeah, this duel kind of sucked. The premise of this duel was supposed to be that Calvin's draws would essentially mirror my own: I'd draw cards from my/Calvin's deck and then write the Manager's cards around what I drew. Unfortunately, that ended up not being nearly as entertaining as I thought it would be. By the time Calvin's next duel happens, I promise that he will have a much more interesting deck.
Since I wrote this chapter, I have learned that the catchphrase of Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V is "It's showtime!" It's okay, but I can see why Calvin wouldn't have wanted to use it.
