Chapter 37 – Dalton Roars!
"ATTACK!"
KA-BOOM! That was the sound of Dalton's opponent's Life Points dropping to zero. His opponent, Reginald Van Howell (or Reggie) from Obelisk Blue, fell to his knees.
"I guess I lose…"
"You got that right, little man. Next time you want a whuppin', you know who to find!"
"Wow…" Reggie said with a smile. "He's even more awesome than Chazz…"
Inside the Obelisk Blue arena, the crowd cheered as Dalton stepped off the raised platform. Various comments were tossed left and right long after the duel.
"Was that really Dalton?"
"He's changed so much…"
"His deck's way cooler than before!"
"He's like a wild animal!"
Most of these comments reached Dalton's ears as he walked through the halls with a big grin on his stupid face. His bravado was only dimmed a little bit when he was stopped in the hall by none other than Wesley Reddings. A moment of silence passed.
"…What?"
"Dalton," Wesley started, "Dr. Crowler wanted me to tell you that you've redeemed yourself in the area of your dueling skills."
"Well, why didn't he just tell me himself?"
"He says he's busy with paperwork, but I know for a fact that he's ordering a new cappuccino machine. I must say, however, that I'm also impressed by your improvement."
"Yeah! I knew you'd be jealous!" Dalton said with a sneer. "I owe it all to my new buddies: these cards!" Dalton took out his deck and actually gave it a quick kiss, causing Wesley to raise an eyebrow. "…What? You never seen a guy kiss his cards before?"
"Where did you get that glove, by the way?"
Dalton quickly shoved his left hand in his pocket. "I done told you, it's a present from my mom! What, you wanna fight about it?" He suddenly got right up in Wesley's face with a rather threatening aura. "Huh?? Do ya?!"
"…Are you growing a beard?"
"Eh?" Dalton stepped back and rubbed his face. He did indeed feel something prickly under his chin. "Oh yeah. Guess I didn't notice 'til now. I kinda like it."
"I see," Wesley said, pushing up his sunglasses. "Well, good luck with that. I have to get going."
Dalton merely nodded as Wesley walked right past him. Behind those sunglasses, Wesley's eyes kept a sharp watch on the glove on Dalton's left hand. After another left turn in the hall, Wesley met up with Dr. Crowler, who had his arms folded as though he was waiting for him.
"Well?"
"The glove on his left hand fits the description you gave me," Wesley said. "I'm not entirely sure though, because I didn't see any eye on it at all. It's possible that it may be on the palm."
"Well, don't do anything drastic yet until you're certain," Dr. Crowler said.
"Yes, Doctor."
Meanwhile…
Dalton was back in his room which, considering the condition it was in before, was surprisingly spotless. It was as though the place itself was cleaned up by magic. Dalton kept looking through his cards with a manic grin on his face. He suddenly recoiled and nearly spilled all his cards when a pale white hand touched his shoulder.
"Relax. It's me."
Dalton relaxed himself when he saw the woman in red. "Don't scare me like that!"
"Your dueling skills are marvelous! Much better than they were before."
"Yeah!" Dalton flexed his left arm. "And I owe it all to you, lady. By the way, I could use a little more of your…power."
"Don't you worry, Jerome," the woman said, rubbing his cheek with her index finger. "Just keep winning duels and you'll get exactly what you deserve." The woman started to fade right before Dalton's eyes. "By the way, I like your beard."
Those were her last words as she disappeared completely. Dalton rubbed his chin. It definitely felt a little rougher than before. Yup. Definitely keeping this. But enough about that. I think I know exactly who to face next.
Bastion Misawa was writing feverishly in his notebook in an effort to finish his Contemporary Dueling homework. Hanging out in the Slifer dorm had really been a bad influence on him, though he refused to admit it. He was almost finished when his PDA started beeping like crazy. This caused him to snap the lead on his pencil.
It never fails, Bastion thought with a hint of irritation. That thing always goes off whenever I'm on a roll. Bastion went to grab his PDA off his dresser and pressed the Mail button. Dalton's face appeared on the screen.
"Hey brainiac! We've got a score to settle! Meet me at the docks at midnight and I'll give you the beating you deserve! Unless you're chicken, of course."
After that, the screen went blank. Bastion let out a pained sigh and pressed the record button on his PDA.
"Dr. Crowler? It's me."
Slifer Red Dorms. 11:45 pm.
Despite the fall season starting, the night was still beautiful. The moon was hidden behind the clouds. Everything felt calm. Serene. Quiet…
"Fifteen minutes 'til curfew, boys!"
Oh. Never mind. That call was from Professor Autumn who had just called Weevil and Chazz, who were in the middle of a duel. The two were currently tied at 2300 Life Points. Chazz had his VW Tiger Catapult (2000/2100) in Attack mode as well as a card face down while Weevil had his Forest Field Spell in play, which explained the unusual abundance of trees around the Slifer Red dorm, and his Prickle Fairy (500/2200) in Defense Mode. He also had a card face down. Watching from the balcony were Jaden Yuki, Blair Flannigan, and Rex Raptor while Professor Autumn decided to stay down on the ground to referee…at least until curfew.
"Time to squash you!" Chazz said, drawing his next card. "My draw! And now it's time to activate my Catapult's special ability! By discarding a card from my hand, I can switch the mode of your wimpy Prickle Fairy!"
Weevil flinched as his Prickle Fairy stood up, switching to Attack Mode.
"And now, it's go time! VW Tiger Catapult, attack his Fairy! Tiger Bomb!"
Chazz's catapult launched the Tiger mech from its back in order to smash right through Weevil's Fairy. Weevil had to shield himself from the resulting explosion as his Life Points dropped to 600.
"You think it's that easy? I activate my Option Hunter trap! When you destroyed my monster, I'll increase my Life Points by its original attack strength!" And thusly, Weevil's Life Points rose back up to 900.
"So you boosted your Life a little," Chazz said. "Big deal. I'm still gonna wipe you out next-"
"WHERE IS HE?!"
Chazz stopped short and turned around. Everyone looked past him to see Dalton waiting by the lighthouse. With the docks being a hop, skip, and a jump away from the Red dorms, they were easy to see from there. For some reason, Dalton looked rather impatient.
What's he doing out here? Autumn thought to herself. Her eyes soon found their way to his left hand. And is that a Shadow Charm he's wearing? Not long after that, Autumn noticed someone else was coming.
"Hey, it's Bastion!" Jaden said before heading down from the balcony. "You think they're gonna duel?"
"I don't know," Autumn said, "but I have a feeling it can't be good." She then turned to Chazz and Weevil. "I'm sorry boys, but I'm afraid you'll have to cancel this duel for now."
"That's fine by me," Chazz said, turning off his duel disk. "I have a feeling I don't wanna miss this."
"All right, whatever," Weevil replied.
"It's about time you showed up," Dalton said with a sneer. "I thought you were gonna chicken out."
"You have a lot of nerve calling me out this late," Bastion said, folding his arms. "You know full well that dueling past curfew time is against campus regulations. But in a sense, I'm glad you called me out here."
"Why's that?"
"Because I didn't come alone." Bastion stuck his fingers in his mouth and whistled loudly. Before Dalton could register what was happening, he was surrounded by several Obelisk students, including Sara, Alexis, Syrus, and Wesley.
Dalton looked furious. "What is all this?!"
"It's quite simple," Wesley said, putting his hands in his pockets. "We're just here to retrieve that Shadow Charm on your left hand. Dr. Crowler gave me a specific description of the object in question and wanted us to back up Bastion, in case you tried anything foolish."
Dalton growled angrily before his mouth turned to a manic smile. "Heh heh heh. You're the foolish ones. If you were smart, you should've rushed me down the instant you laid eyes on me."
"We have no reason to resort to violence," Wesley replied. "After all, there's nowhere you can run. The four of us have blocked your only way off these docks."
"Just hand over that glove and we'll let you go," Sara said quietly.
"Then I guess I have no choice," Dalton said as the moonlight started to cut through the clouds, "but to rip you all apart!" He opened his left hand and the eye on the palm was glowing brightly. The moon in the night sky was now completely full. And as though on cue, Dalton suddenly hunched over and held onto his head, as though in pain. His so-called "beard" was suddenly growing much faster and a thick coat of brown hair was starting to grow all over his body. Everyone watched in horror as the back of Dalton's blazer started to rip from his bulging muscles. His fingernails started to grow into claws and a long furry tail stuck out of the back of his pants. His face had started to change into something more canine: his teeth grew into fangs, his nose elongated into a snout, his ears were now much more pointed, and his eyes became much more feral. He got down on all fours and howled into the night sky.
Weevil was actually turning blue in the face. "I'm not going crazy, am I? Y-You guys saw that too, right?!"
"That's just not right," Rex said, also turning blue.
"What in the world…?!" Alexis started, but couldn't quite finish her sentence.
"Is he…a werewolf??" Syrus said with a slight tinge in his voice. Sara stared at him when he tried to back away.
"This is astounding!" Bastion said. He wasn't as surprised as the others, as he witnessed the transformation abilities of the Shadow Gauntlet firsthand after Jaden beat Tania the Amazoness in a duel.
"Dalton…" Wesley said as Dalton's snarling reflection appeared on his shades, "…what are you?"
"I'm only gonna warn you once," Dalton snarled. "If you're gonna get in my way, I'll slaughter you guys."
Surprised? That glove was used to transform Tania the Amazon from a tiger to a human. So why shouldn't it work the other way around? And now that I think about it, maybe Dalton Howls would be a better title for this. Hm.
Next Chapter: Majestic Mechs VS Gladiator Beasts