Chapter 2: The Good, The Bad, and the Dueling
As Alex and Tom walked out of the school, they were already in deep discussion about different dueling strategies that would work well with their types of decks. Tom favored a Spellcaster deck, with the Dark Magician being the primary focus. Alex, on the other hand, liked to duel with a Dragon deck, his favorite card, the Blue Eyes White Dragon, reigning supreme. They had lost the god cards that they had a few years prior to a couple of creeps in a duel.
"So, you gonna duel her?" Alex asked, poking his friend in the ribs with his elbow.
"I don't know." Tim responded, "I've never actually seen anyone duel successfully with a Fairy deck."
His eyes were now focused on his Duel Disk. It was the newest design called the Chaos Duel Disk. It was a bluish-green color, and had no visible dueling platforms when it was retracted. With the push of a button, however, the device would activate, releasing a side compartment which unraveled a very impressive looking dueling field. The five slots slid out of the primary compartment, creating a menacing looking tail at the end of it, with the field card zone in a hidden compartment on the right side. The magic and trap card zone resided not on the back of the device closest to the duelist's arm, but on the opposite end.
The two friends continued down the street talking about their different duels. Two remained fresh in their minds, however. Tom faced his counterpart. A man who called himself the 'Master of Magicians'. His real name was Tim, and from what he remembered about the news articles and segments about him, he tied in the world championship with a man named Allen, but he along with two others, were the downfall of the men who started stealing the god cards.
Alex, on the other hand, faced off against Allen, the 'Dragon Master' of the dueling world. He faced Allen, just as Tom faced Tim, in the 2nd round out of 9 rounds of the tournament. Both Tom and himself were eliminated as if they were standing still. They still couldn't believe they had the honor of dueling such great people in the tournament, especially since those two were the only ones who were able to control the gods so well.
Suddenly, their chatter was interrupted by a woman's scream. The two friends exchanged glances, almost as if they were trying to figure out if they had actually heard what they thought they did. When another scream rang out, the two burst into action, running as fast as they could down the street towards the woman's voice.
As quickly as they had heard the screams, a thought ran through Alex's mind.
"Hey, Tom," Alex began through pants of breath, "Didn't Kiana head this way?"
"Yea, she did." Tom responded, "That's what's got me so worried."
As the two friends continued in a fast sprint down the street, the screams became more understandable. They weren't just shrill shrieks of terror anymore, they were cries for help and pleas for whomever was behind it to stop what they were doing.
Coming closer they were able to see who all was involved. The female was none other than Kiana. She was laying on the ground in a position that would suggest she was shoved or hit to the point where she would land on the ground. The male figure that was rummaging through her things was Steve. He kept screaming things at her about Tom and Alex, and how she was a tramp to be hanging around with them.
It got to the point where Tom put all his strength into speeding up, and in an instant he slammed head on into Steve, knocking him to the ground and Tom himself barely being able to keep his balance.
"What the hell Corban!? You want a piece of this?" Steve raged, getting to his feet.
"Actually…yea I do." Tom responded, readying his Duel Disk.
"A duel? C'mon Corban. Grow some balls and fight me like a man." Steve scoffed.
"Beat me in a duel and I will." Tom remarked a little too confidently. He wanted to challenge Steve's ego enough to get him into a duel, but not sound so arrogant as to make him realize he's walking into a trap. Tom knew Steve had never dueled using his Duel Disk, primarily because he had only won it at the old fashioned type of tournaments giving them out as prizes last week.
The Duel Disk not only simulated the monsters, but it also brought them, in a sense, into reality. The holograms were so real that when you were struck by them, you actually felt pain. As your lifepoints decreased, so did your will to continue fighting. In a close duel down to the wire, both opponents would be so bruised from the duel that they wouldn't want to fight, but Tom wasn't about to give Steve the opportunity to hit him. He wanted to make sure he was perfectly able to fight if he had to, and leave Steve as weak as he possibly could, in order to get himself, Kiana and Alex out of there before violence broke out.
"So what do you say?" Tom challenged. "Beat me in a duel, and I'll give you the fight of your life, but if you lose, you return the cards you stole from Kiana and leave her alone for good."
"Hmm…how about I just pummel the shit out of you right now and forget the duel?" Steve remarked, coming in to follow through on his threat.
"If you win I'll date you." Kiana blurted out, immediately stopping both of the men in their tracks.
"What?" Steve questioned, completely stunned by her outburst.
"You heard me," She began, "If you beat Tom in a duel, I'll go out with you. That's what you want isn't it? So, do it and I'll do whatever you ask me to."
A sinister smile formed over Steve's ugly face. "Alright." He said, "You've got yourself a deal."
"Kiana what are you doing?!" Tom whispered as the two men took their places opposite each other on the sidewalk.
"Getting us out of here." She answered just as quietly, "Just don't lose."
And with that, her and Alex picked out a spot of grass and sat down, eager to see the duel unfold before them, and find out what the outcome was going to be.