Chapter 14- A Bitter Return
Matt walked off the stage amidst the stunned silence.
"Are we ready to leave, Chancellor?" he said.
"Yes, I suppose we are." Jacobs said. He turned to Shepherd, who was still staring at the duel stage with his mouth hanging open. "Well, it's been nice, Shepherd, but we must be leaving. I guess we win."
" 'I guess?' You beat my best duelist! How?"
"With my best duelist. That's Matt. Watch out for him. He's really good."
" 'Really good?' He just beat a pro league-bound duelist without breaking a sweat! Where did you dig him up?"
"Chancellor." Matt interrupted forcefully. "I would like to get out of here. As soon as possible, please."
"Oh, yes."
"People are beginning to stare at me. Let's go."
"Don't you attract a lot of stares with just the head bandage? Why don't you take it off?" Julie asked.
"There's a good reason for me wearing this. You'll probably find out sooner or later, and when you do, you'll ask me to never take them off again." With that, they walked out of the duel arena and boarded their plane, leaving a room full of stunned Duel Academy students behind.
Three hours later they had arrived back at Duel Academy. It was fast approaching dark, but Drake could still make out the shadowy outline of a figure on the runway.
"Who's that?" Drake asked.
"I don't know." Jacobs answered. "I never told anyone to wait for us." The plane skidded to a halt. The door opened. The figure moved over to the open doorway.
"This is ominous." Keith said. "Mysterious figure on the runway? Great." Drake walked down the ramp formed by the open door. He could now make out the figure at the bottom. It was his mom.
"Oh…" Drake began, but never finished the thought. His mother grabbed him by the arm and started dragging him away. "Hey!"
"You're coming home. I told you that you weren't coming here, and you didn't listen to me. Now, let's go!" she began to pull harder. Flynn walked up to her.
"And what are you doing?" he said.
"I'm talking my ridiculously stupid son home, where he belongs."
"Why do you think that? I would say, from what I can see, he belongs here." Flynn's voice was icy.
"And since when do you know what's best for my son?"
"Since I watched him duel Prof. Bentz."
"Ah, so you're another one of those stupid duelists? I'm not listening to you. Get away from my son."
Matt had just got off the plane and walked over next to Flynn. "His mother's trying to take him away?"
"Yeah, how'd you know?"
"Lucky guess from reasonable deduction."
"Is this another one of your friends?" Drake's mom asked Drake disdainfully.
"Yeah. Don't bother him."
"My point is proven. This stupid card game has pulled you in with a crowd of freaks!"
This did not sit well with Matt. "Who are you calling a freak, woman?" he asked in a voice filled with venom. His good eye fixed itself on hers.
"You, you scum." She responded. His eye narrowed. The same panic that had filled Chazz when he had insulted Matt after they had arrived at Duel Academy now seized hold of Drake's mother. Her trembling hands lost their grip on his arm and she collapsed.
"Go away. Leave your son alone. He's very good at what he does. Don't you dare try to change that." Matt said. With that, he turned and walked away. Drake joined Flynn in staring at him as he walked away.
"How does he do that?" Drake said.
"Gotta be the concealed eye." Flynn said. "There's something bizarre about it, otherwise he wouldn't keep it covered."
"Yeah." Keith finally realized that something was happening and came over.
"What happened?" he asked.
"Oh, my mom doesn't approve of my dueling. So she came her to try and get me out, and Matt struck her with panic and walked away." Drake said.
Keith shook his head. "He's a fiend, that Matt. But not in a bad way."
"That's a fair way to put it." Flynn said. "Let's go." And with that, they said their goodbyes and each went to his own dorm.
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The next morning Drake woke up late. "Oh, great, now I'm late for class!" He sprung up out of bed and then realized it was Saturday. "Oh, yeah. No class on Saturday. Gosh I'm stupid." He threw on some clothes and his jacket, grabbed his duel disk, and let himself out of his room. He found Keith and Flynn hanging around the main building doors. "Hey guys, what's up?"
"Just so you're not surprised, that 'master of machines' is challenging you again." Flynn said. "What was his name again?"
"Oh, him? I think it was William." Drake said. "Hmph. I could take him in my sleep. Especially with this new deck."
"Don't bet on it. It's going to be a tag duel." Keith said. "You might want to go pick up Matt so you can have the unfair advantage."
"Oh, come on, do you think I would let you go get that freak?" sneered a voice from behind them. It was (big surprise) William.
"No, but that wouldn't stop me from trying." Drake said. "And who did you bring with for this tag duel? Hopefully not someone as big and stupid as you."
"Who are you calling big and stupid?!?" William said.
"Well, I would assume that he is calling you that." Flynn said. "As none of us are that big, and we're all pretty smart."
"Well it doesn't matter! Meet Benjamin, he'll be my tag partner for my absolute demolition of you."
"Where is he?" Drake asked. "I don't see him." A small boy wearing a red jacket peeked out from behind William's mass.
"I-I am B-Benjamin. I-I-I w-w-will b-be d-dueling y-you. A-are y-y-you r-r-ready?" Benjamin said. His voice was quiet and nervous.
"So, who's going to be your partner?" William said. Drake looked from Flynn to Keith, and from Keith to Flynn.
"Hmmm… well, in the absence of Matt, I guess I'll have to go with-" At that moment, Julie came running up and tripped over her own feet. She skidded across the ground and landed in front of William. He started to laugh.
"This is your partner? Ha! Ha! Hahahahaha…" He continued laughing. "You picked a green to be your partner? You're stupider than I thought!" Julie got to her feet and looked at Drake, confused.
"What's he talking about, Drake?" she asked. Drake scowled.
"You klutz! I've got to tag duel him, and you just interjected yourself into the position of my partner!" Drake yelled. Julie looked into his eyes, tears welling up in hers.
"B-b-but… I thought I was late for class…"
"IT'S SATURDAY!" Drake said.
"Oh…" she sniffed. William laughed again.
"Come on, let's get this going! I want to humiliate you so I can laugh at you some more, and pay you back for humiliating me on the ship!" he said.
"Hey, I never said she was my duel partner." Drake said.
"Too bad! She volunteered herself when she tripped on in here."
Drake looked at Julie with venom. "Come on. Get your duel disk ready so I can end this."
"F-fine…" she slowly readied her duel disk and slipped her deck into the slot.
"Let's do this with 8000 life points per team, eh?" said William.
"No, 4000 life points a person." Drake said.
"Whatever. It makes it easier for me to take you down." Four duel disks clicked on.
"Let's duel!"
Drake: 4000Julie: 4000
William: 4000
Benjamin: 4000
"I'll go first!" said William. "Oh, yeah, and you're allowed to attack the people who go before you!"
"Good. Then I can wail on you faster." Drake said.
"I set two cards face-down, then summon my Battle Footballer (Fire/Macine, 800/2200) in defense mode. That's all."
"I'll go next." Said Drake. He drew and smiled. "Now witness my nice new deck. I activate the spell card Call of the Mummy! Now, whenever I have no monsters on my side of the field, like right now, I can Special Summon one Zombie-type monster from my hand. So, I'll special summon Ryu Kokki (Dark/Zombie/Effect, 2400/2000). Then, I normal summon my Regenerating Mummy (Dark/Zombie/Effect, 1800/1000) in attack mode. Ryu Kokki, destroy the Footballer!"
"No, you won't! I activate Mirror Force, which will destroy all the attack mode monsters on your side of the field!"
"Hmph."
"And you call me bad." Julie said. "You walked right into that."
"Shut up! I'm not done yet. I activate Premature Burial, which allows me to bring back Ryu Kokki at the price of 800 life points."
Drake: 3200Julie: 4000
William: 4000
Benjamin: 4000
"Not really, because I activate Magic Jammer. Now I discard one card from my hand and negate and destroy that card."
"God! He's using too many traps. Guess I'll just place a face-down and end my turn."
"M-m-my t-t-turn." Said Benjamin. He drew a card. "I-I-I s-s-summon E-E-Exarion Universe (Dark/Beast-Warrior/Effect, 1800/1900) in a-a-attack m-m-mode."
"His stuttering is going to drive me crazy by the end of this duel." Keith said.
"Got that right." Said Flynn.
"E-E-Exarion U-U-Universe, a-a-attack D-D-Drake directly."
"I activate A Hero Emerges! Now, you have to select one card from my hand, and if it's a monster, I get to summon it. But since I only have one card in my hand, let's get on with it. I Special Summon my Vampire Lord (Dark/Zombie/Effect, 2000/1500) in attack mode."
"I-I-I p-p-place a f-f-face d-d-down. T-t-that's a-a-all."
"My turn, I guess… though I don't know why I should take it." Julie said.
"What are you talking about? Drake asked.
"Well, it's clear that you don't want me here." She said.
"Whoa, chill out."
"No! You chill out! You're the one who was yelling."
"It's not my fault you cut in!"
"And it isn't mine!"
"STOP BICKERING!!!" came a voice from behind Flynn and Keith. "YOU KEEP BICKERING LIKE THIS, YOU ENDANGER YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING!" Drake spun around. Matt was standing behind Keith and Flynn, and he looked livid.
"What are you talking about?" Drake asked. Matt seemed to regain his composure.
"This is a tag team duel. If you do not play as a team, you cannot win. Simple as that. And I would not say you are acting much like a team, with some unity." He answered.
"Alright. I get it." Drake turned to Julie. "Sorry for being so brusque earlier. It's not your fault."
"It's okay. I was late, I can't put all the blame-or probably any of it-on you." Julie said.
"Are you two gonna just stand there, or are we going to duel?" William said.
"We're going to duel!" Julie said.
"And we are going to kick your asses!" Drake said.