Shadows of the Small
Chapter 2 – Trial by Darkness
"If they give you ruled paper, write the other way." – Juan Ramon Jimenez
Timothy
Our lives descended into routine boredom after that Saturday. On Sunday what seemed like half the dueling population of West City had showed up bright and early around the Duel Station. Everyone wanted the chance to duel using holograms. There was no way of our getting through that crowd to duel again unless I played the poor little cripple again. And seeing how that had been played out last time, I wasn't looking forward to it.
So instead we lounged around the house indulging in our various past times. Mary cooked every meal and occasionally experimented with various tidbits. Having pasta with mustard seed in it for dinner was an interesting experience.
Mel was playing various instruments throughout the day, her green hair cut short so as not to interfere. She had gotten quite good with them over the years. This meant that her room was the place of choice for Anna, who read. Anna was a veritable book worm. Most of the time she read a book a day. The days she didn't she read more than one. She was the public library's best friend.
Cari was glued to her computer screen. Aside from surfing the web, she was a wizard with computers. She could write programs (and viruses though she never released those except for the one time when she sent one to Mr. Dongard from an alias) and design web sites. Actually she had designed the web site for the orphanage in order to encourage donations. Needless to say we didn't get many.
I did a little bit of everything. I would help Mary with some of the simple things in the kitchen, or be an audience to Mel. I've always been a sucker for Brahm's Waltz when it's played right. And if I stuck around for long enough I'd hear the Four Seasons too. Occasionally I might read some, but the number of books that Anna recommends has always been more than I have time to read.
Monday was regular. We struggled through home schooling for most of the day. On Tuesday I had one of my bad days. The doctors don't know quite what it is, though they suspect one of the recently discovered relatives of epilepsy. I don't exactly have seizures, but I'll be delusional and unable to move in a controlled fashion for prolonged periods of time.
During the day at least one of the girls was by my side at all times. Each brought her talent to the room. Mel would play calming music, or sing. Mary brought in tomato soup that she spooned into my mouth during my more lucid moments. Anna would read to me in that quiet voice of hers. Cari generally avoided playing nurse, but that day she brought in the laptop and had it play my favorite songs that Mel couldn't replicate and worked on the orphanage web site, feverishly taking pictures of me on a digital camera she'd gotten for Christmas and adding them to the website.
I was better by the next day. In addition, the website had caught the attention of a wealthy local family. The name had a habit of slipping out of my head every few minutes, but they were a middle-aged couple, no children. They were considering making a large donation to the orphanage. That couldn't hurt, not by any means.
In addition to all this, Rachel announced a field trip. The plan was for us to go down to a warehouse of fine plastic products and learn about storing methods, as well as visit the accounting office to see how books were kept. Evidently they expected us to pay attention. No idea why though.
In any case, we went on Friday (the only reason we had agreed to it was because Elli had told us that we could duel using the projectors afterward, so we brought our decks along). The ware house was absolutely full of opaque automatic sliding doors. I hated to think what might happen if there was a power outage, and I said as much to our guide. Elli told me not to ask impertinent questions. Rachel was at her morning job and not with us at the moment. The guide however laughed an answered anyhow.
"You have a very good point young man. Actually, all is accounted for as we have our own back up generator both supplements our electricity on a regular basis, and that would power the doors in case of an outage."
The tour progressed through the administrative section of the building and on into accounting. There we were assaulted by an hour long explanation of every program they used (this interested Cari to some extent though I could tell that she had a more efficient way just waiting to burst out of that red head of hers), as well as a 'brief' explanation of the mathematics behind it all.
When that was over Elli stayed to talk to the accountant and we were told that or guide was awaiting us on the catwalk over the warehouse. They gave us the directions and they walked, and I was pushed along in my wheel chair by Mary, out one sliding door, down the hallway, and through another sliding door entered onto the catwalk. The sliding door hadn't responded for a few seconds, but then it had opened anyhow.
We looked down into receding darkness. As it faded a red haired woman was revealed at the center. We assumed that she was our guide and Mel waved. That got her attention alright. She looked right at us and all of a sudden we wished that Mel wasn't so friendly. She called out to someone we couldn't see.
"Sanchez!" The shadows began to re-appear and the automatic door wouldn't open. A wiry young man came along from the other side of the catwalk and led us down the stairs to the main floor at knife point, Sanchez rolling my wheelchair. Five people came out from under the catwalk where we had stood. Four of them were male, the other female by lack of other options. All wore black.
It was clear that the red haired woman was in control of the situation. "It looks like I couldn't have asked for better test subjects. Am I correct in believing that all five of you duel?" We were too shocked to respond. Sanchez put the knife to my neck from behind.
Immediately everyone but me nodded. Mary was quick to answer for me. "He duels too."
The red haired woman nodded and Sanchez took the knife from my throat. "Good. And I take it that you have your decks with you?" Again we all nodded.
"Excellent." She turned to the five that had come from under the catwalk. Sanchez had joined them. "Students, pick an opponent, all of you. Sanchez, you have somewhere to be, no? Hurry up. We don't want our little champion to get away and you haven't gotten the pictures yet. I'll take the knife." Sanchez left the knife in her hands and walked off to an emergency exit. The darkness had almost fully formed around us by now. No alarm rang despite the barely visible warnings by the door.
The woman picked the lock on one of the large storage cases that littered the warehouse and opened the door. She then cut open one of the card board boxes and began taking out what looked like duel disks, already extended. From the labeling they were cheap imitations, children's toys. Each of the five took two. They each put one on. The others they brought to us. The one girl brought me mine and stood helped me get it on, roughly shoving my arm through it. I put my deck in myself.
The woman addressed them one more time. "You know the way back. Your final test will be getting out if you can defeat the children. If you don't beat them you won't have anything to worry about." She took a duel disk with her and headed out the same door as Sanchez.
By this time the darkness was so all encompassing that I couldn't see my friends. I turned to the girl.
"Why?"
She giggled. "You look so funny when you're angry. It doesn't matter. I'll even let you start the duel. Just don't ask too many questions, kay? All you need to know is that if you win, you'll be set free."
Tim: 8000
Girl: 8000
I started it off. I had no idea what the hell was going on, but I knew that I wanted to get out of there pronto. And if the only way to do that was to win, I was going to try to win.
"I set a monster face down and set a card down behind it. End turn." Impossibly, the cards appeared face down in front of me.
"This is going to be too easy. I play Nobleman of Extermination on your face down card, removing it from play. If it's a trap- well, no need to worry about that." She said as my face down was revealed to be Machine Duplication.
"I'll summon Vorse Raider (1900/1200) and attack your face down monster." A small sphere appeared and attached to the beast. I had just begun to take the inexplicable images for granted and explained.
"Adhesive Explosive (1000/1000) attaches to your monster and destroys it during your next standby phase."
"I can deal with that. But my life points are safe in the interim. Take your turn."
I almost forgot the stakes, that's how much I was starting to enjoy the duel. Then I heard someone cry out in the dark. It could only have been one of the girls. I gritted my teeth. "I wouldn't be so sure of that. I summon Drillago (1600/1100) and attack your life points directly." The drill composed monster dodged around Vorse Raider and drilled into one of her arms.
Tim: 8000
Girl: 6400
She cried out in pain and the wound bled. Not as much as such a thing should have, but some. "How?"
I was shocked at her injury. How was that possible? None the less, I explained my part. "Drillago may attack directly when all monsters on your side of the field have 1600 attack or greater. I set a card and end my turn."
As soon as she had drawn Adhesive Explosive went off and destroyed Vorse Raider. "First I play Smashing Ground to destroy your monster." The ground shook and Drillago disappeared. "Then I summon Newdoria (1200/800) and attack directly." The pink monster came towards me. I could smell its stinking breath as it wrapped its hands around my neck and squeezed.
Tim: 6800
Girl: 6400
I coughed and tried to regain my breath as the girl smiled maliciously. "Doesn't feel so good when you're on the receiving end, now does it? I'll set a card down and end my turn."
I picked up my card for the turn and tried to come up with a plan. I have found that when I've just been strangled by a creature that shouldn't actually exist except in nightmares this can be harder than I had previously thought.
"I'll set a monster and end my turn."
"You mean to say you can't do better than that?" She sneered at me. "Well I most certainly can. I summon Mad Dog of Darkness (1900/1400) and attack your face down with it." She growled when it revealed Roulette Barrel (1000/2000).
Tim: 6800
Girl: 6300
"Take your turn."
I drew and looked towards Roulette Barrel. "I will use my machine's ability. Go, die roll." No die roll came. Evidently things worked differently here than with Kaiba Corp.'s relatively tame holograms. Instead side chambers opened on the monster. On one side, two wires came out. On the other were four.
"I choose level four and will destroy Newdoria." The four wires plugged into the barrel which promptly shot at and destroyed Newdoria.
The girl seemed unaffected and just continued to sneer at me. "Foolish boy, you should have destroyed Mad Dog of Darkness. It's stronger."
"It doesn't have an ability that would come back and destroy one of my monsters if I were to attack it. I sacrifice Roulette Barrel for B.E.S. Tetran (1800/2300). First I will use its ability, sacrificing one of its three counters to destroy your face down card." A small energy blast atomized Sakuretsu Armor. "Then I will activate my own face down, Rare Metalmorph. It will increase the attack of my monster by 500 as well as rendering it invulnerable to one Spell Card. B.E.S. Tetran (2300/2300) attacks Mad Dog of Darkness."
Tim: 6800
Girl: 5900
I chose not to mention that it lost a counter in battle. No need to remind her. She looked somewhat disappointed. Maybe it had escaped her notice. Then again, with her deck, maybe it didn't matter. She didn't pull any punches. "First I will play Fissure, diffusing the protections of Rare Metalmorph. Then I play Offerings to the Doomed. I give up my next draw phase and destroy B.E.S. Tetran." Something exploded within the spacecraft and it sunk below the surface of the shadows. "Lastly I'll summon Slate Warrior (1900/400) and attack directly." The fiend came over and jabbed me in the stomach, casual as could be.
Tim: 4900
Girl: 5900
This time it took me a few minutes to recover. Some say that battle changes a person deep inside. I wondered how deep inside my digestive system that blow had penetrated. At some point the girl must have ended her turn because she was tapping her foot impatiently.
If it wasn't for the wheelchair I would have been knocked flat. At this point I might have been standing up. Instead I drew a card from the faux duel disk and made my move. "I will set a card and end my turn."
Could I take another blow? I had no idea, but I wasn't looking forward to it. She took up her cards. "I will set a card also. But I'm going to attack directly with Slate Warrior as well."
Tim: 3000
Girl: 5900
So I could take another blow. I was fast learning that the more you get hit the less it hurts. At this point I became acutely grateful that the human nervous system worked using differences rather than actualities. Again she was tapping her foot. I took this to mean: "On the off chance you still live, make your move." So I did.
"I'll set a monster facedown and end my turn."
So close to victory my opponent looked warily at both face down cards. "You know, if I destroy that monster, I could win. But somehow I don't think that set card of yours is benign. So I'm going to activate my face down Rageki Break, discarding Hammer Shot to destroy it."
I smiled weakly. "I chain it. Waboku will prevent any battle damage this turn."
"I'll summon a Newdoria and end my turn." She hissed.
I took note of her empty hand. If ever there was a time to act, this was it. "I flip summon Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive, allowing me to draw one card." Perfect.
I had a plan and I had five cards in my hand to carry it out with. "First I will sacrifice Dekoichi for Big Core (2300/1100). Then I play Autonomous Action Unit to special summon your Vorse Raider at the cost of 1500 life points."
Tim: 1500
Girl: 5900
I continued. It was going to take a lot of guts to win this duel now, but I had the knowledge that she had absolutely nothing that could stop me. I hoped. "Then I play Premature Burial to bring back B.E.S. Tetran (1800/2300). Finally I play Monster Gate, allowing me to tribute one monster on the field to pick up cards until I reach a monster, and special summon it. I will tribute your Vorse Raider." I flipped through the top cards of my deck. Rare Metalmorph, Limiter Removal, and…
"I special summon B.E.S. Crystal Core (2100/1000). As the finishing touch, I will play Boss Rush." My three battleships floated imperiously above my now quaking opponent.
"B.E.S. Crystal Core, attack Slate Warrior." Without its counters, the battleship exploded right along with its victim. Emerging out of the smoke another came to take its place (2100/1000).
Tim: 1500
Girl: 5700
"B.E.S. Tetran, attack Newdoria." She had no choice. She took the only one of my battleships that had counters. And as Big Core was destroyed by Newdoria, Covered Core (2500/800) came to reinforce it just as a second Big Core (2300/1100) came behind Tetran.
I had worked myself into a fury. "Attack my battleships. Teach her the meaning of true oblivion!"
Soon the light show ended. My opponent was nowhere to be seen. I couldn't see anyone else. I wondered if they were ok. After what seemed like hours, though it may have been minutes I made out a form coming through the darkness. To my relief it was no new assailant, but Cari instead. I waved feebly to make sure she saw me.
"Cari, you won! How was your duel?"
"I'll tell you about it later. You did as well I see. Have you seen any of the others?" She looked as worried as I felt. Now that she was closer, I could tell that she walked with a limp.
"I heard someone cry out earlier, second or third turn of the duel. Nothing else."
"I heard the same. Let's find them and see if we can't help." Cari took on the task of pushing my wheelchair and rolled me on into the darkness.
