"Be quiet!"
Atlas looked up from his desk at the belligerent detention proctor. "But I wasn't even –"
"Shh!" The detention proctor responded quickly and angrily.
Atlas put down his head and let out a barely audible sigh.
"That's it funny guy! Since you refuse to sit in silence you can stay an extra hour."
"Are you fu—"
"Two hours," the proctor interrupted. "Would you care to try your luck and see if you can get more?"
Atlas hung his head in defeat as he pulled out a notebook and started working on his Dueling Strategies 213 homework. As he started answering a question on why Solemn Warning was considered a staple card a shadow loomed over him. He looked up to see the detention proctor glaring down upon him.
"What do you think you're doing," the proctor asked to which Atlas only raised his eyebrows. "You can speak now," he said while rolling his eyes.
"Well I'm getting my homework done so this isn't a complete waste of my time," Atlas explained.
"No, no, no, no, no. Not in Professor Hickok's detention," The proctor now identified as Professor Hickok exclaimed. "Detention is meant to be a waste of your time. No talking, texting, doing homework, or anything productive. What would be the lesson learned if you just did homework and were able to socialize and what not after you get out?"
"That's insane," Atlas cried out.
"Three hours," Hickok said calmly.
"But you asked me a question!" Atlas said anger quickly rising in his voice.
"Four hours now. I never gave you permission to speak after I was done," Hickok said with a smug look of satisfaction painted across his face.
'This teacher is crazy,' Atlas thought as Hickok walked back to his desk. 'With these four extra hours tacked onto my regular time I'm going to have to stay here until midnight. I wonder how many extra hours I'll get if I drop kick him…'
As the hours went by Atlas sat in utter silence becoming restless as his mind wondered to a desperate place. A sharp knock on the door brought him out of his thoughts of homicide. As soon as Hickok answered the door, Atlas's brows raised as he recognized two familiar faces and one unfamiliar face.
Oscar and Dalton stood at the door beside a short male Osiris Red with black hair covering one of his eyes.
"Your knights in shining armor have arrived," Oscar shouted out pointing at Atlas who responded by putting his face in his palm.
'What the hell are they doing here,' Atlas thought to himself. 'They're about to get me even more hours of detention…I'm going to be here until tomorrow morning.
"I'll make you a wager," Dalton said to Hickok as he reached for his duel disk. "I'll duel you for Atlas's freedom."
"And what's in it for me," the insane proctor asked with a raised brow.
"Ummm…how about the thrill of the duel," Dalton said with a cheesy smile as he shrugged.
"No, if we duel then you must share Atlas's detention fate."
"Ahh that's a bit risky…" Dalton said as he put his duel disk up. "I think I'll just let Atlas serve out his sentence."
Atlas shot Dalton a death glare. 'I wonder how many hours of detention I'll get for murdering two IDIOTS!'
"Well that's a shame," Hickok said. "Real good friends you are."
"I'll duel for his freedom then," came a voice with a slight French accent. Atlas looked to see that it belonged to the Osiris Red that he didn't know.
"Benoit, you know you'll be stuck here if you lose," Oscar added.
"Oui," Benoit answered as he pulled out his duel disk and walked to the other side of the room. "I guess it's my turn to be the hero of the day."
DUEL
"A hero, huh?" Hickok said. "Well I guess that makes me the bad guy." Hickok activated his duel vest then motioned to Benoit to allow him to take the first move."
"Merci," Benoit said while smoothly drawing the top six cards of his deck. "Let's get straight to it then. I activate the field spell known as Clock Tower Prison." Benoit pressed a button on his Duel Academy issued duel disk and a slot on the side slid out. He promptly placed his card in the slot and the room started to change to a courtyard with a cloudy night sky being overlooked by a large clock tower.
'So he uses Destiny Heroes,' Atlas thought to himself as it now looked as if he were sitting on the walls blocking off the courtyard instead of at a desk. 'For both of our sakes, I hope he knows how to use them.'
"Now that that's out of the way, I'll summon Destiny Hero – Disk Commander (300/300) in defense position."
A thin warrior in a skin tight gray suit appeared kneeling with his arms crossed over his chest. Hickok looked on with a look of displeasure on his face as he stared at the weak monster.
"Now I'll set one card, activate Card of Safe Return, and pass the turn over to you."
Hickok drew a card from his deck as two cards appeared in Benoit's back row, one face-up and the other face-down. "If you call that a turn, then this duel will be over quicker than I thought."
"Don't be so sure," Benoit said politely as the hour hand on his Clock Tower Prison rotated from the twelve o'clock position to three o'clock position. "Professeur you should know not to judge so harshly, especially since you've only seen a few of my cards."
"Yeah yeah," Hickok said while making a shooing motion with his hand. "Sounds just like something an Osiris would say, but anyway let's continue on with your defeat. I activate the spell card Second Coin Toss."
"Ah, a fitting card for a gambler," Benoit said in passing as a card showing a wealthy man throwing coins to a filthy goblin appeared in Hickok's backrow.
"How…how-" Hickok started before being quickly cut off.
"Well it's quite obvious that you have a tendency to gamble," Benoit said with a calm demeanor. "You were very eager to accept the challenge presented to you, despite it possibly costing your job."
"And how exactly will this cost me my job?"
"Well, where do I begin?" Benoit questioned as he put his chin in between the crook of his thumb and index finger. "For starters, you have agreed to release a student out of a severe punishment if I win-"
"But you won't win," Hickok cut in. "Now I'll show you why. I summon Twin-Barrel Dragon (1700/200) in attack position!" As Hickok slammed the card onto his duel vest, a blue mechanical dragon with a pocket pistol for a head appeared on the field. The mechanical dragon shot off a barrage of bullets at Benoit's lone monster but they all missed.
"What was that?" Oscar questioned.
"It was the gun dragon's ability," Benoit responded before Hickok had a chance. "When it is summoned he can destroy one card on my side of the field granted that he flips a coin and gets two heads…but obviously he didn't have such luck."
Hickok let out a low growl as the spell card in his backrow began to glow a dull green. "Second Coin Toss activates letting me try my luck again." The dragon fired around of shots at Destiny Hero – Disk Commander once more only to miss once again.
"It seems your luck is rather poor today Professeur Hickok," Benoit added.
"That doesn't mean your monster won't be destroyed this turn," Hickok said. It was obvious to everyone in the room that he was flustered since his effect hadn't gone as planned. "Twin-Barrel Dragon, destroy Destiny Hero – Disk Commander."
For the third time the gun dragon unleashed a hail of bullets, but unlike the first two times the bullets hit their mark, shredding through the weak warrior with ease. "Make you move boy."
Benoit drew a card, his face still calm. "I begin with the continuous spell card Covert Mission." A green bordered card showing a Swordsman of Landstar jumping over a Jinzo and attacking the Jinzo's controller.
"Next I'll summon Destiny Hero – Captain Tenacious (800/800) in attack position." A muscular warrior with long orange hair and two large, black shields appeared on Benoit's side of the field.
"Hey," Oscar shouted at the sight of the monster in attack position. "I think you made a mistake!"
"No," Benoit started calmly. "I don't make mistakes." Moments later the spell card Benoit had activated only moments earlier, Covert Mission began to glow blue as Captain Tenacious started to glow the same color.
"By activating Covert Mission's ability, it allows me to select one monster with attack equal to one thousand or less and allow it to attack directly. Now I select Destiny Hero – Captain Tenacious with Covert Mission's effect and use him to attack directly."
The mentioned monster leapt high over Hickok's monster and slashed down with his jagged shield (Hickok: 3200).
"Surprising," Hickok said with his eyebrow raised high. "First blood is yours. Anything else you have planned."
"No, my turn ends here," Benoit responded.
"Good," Hickok yelled as he swiftly drew a card and Benoit's field card reached the six o'clock position. "Now it's my turn to deal some damage! I summon Fusilier Dragon, the Dual-Mode Beast (2800/2000) without tribute!"
A large dragon-like machine appeared beside Twin-Barrel Dragon and let out a large roar.
"Unfortunately for you, when he is summoned without tribute, his attack and defense are halved," Benoit said his calm expression having stayed intact.
The machine shuddered as it shrunk and it grew weaker (Fusilier Dragon, the Dual-Mode Beast: 1400/1000).
"I was getting to that," Hickok shouted as his face started turning red. "Even in its weakened form, it's still more than a match for your puny hero. Fusilier, attack Captain Tenacious."
The mechanical tank-like dragon fired a round of shots heading straight for Benoit's monster.
"I applaud your enthusiasm, but I must say your attack will be in vain," Benoit replied as his lone face down flipped face up. Large chunks of rock formed around Destiny Hero – Captain Tenacious as changed into a kneeling position with both of his shields protecting him.
The barrage of bullets assaulted the lone Destiny Hero, but they all bounced off harmlessly causing Hickok to become even more frustrated with his opponent.
"D-Shield can only be activated when an attack position Destiny Hero monster I control is selected as an attack target. It equips to my monster switching it to defense position and making it invulnerable to destruction by battle."
Hickok's eye twitched as he looked down at his hand. "Fine, stall all you want! It will only be a matter of turns before your defense comes crumbling down! Take your turn..."
'I'm hoping you find a way to break through my defense,' Benoit thought to himself, 'then it can really get fun.'
"Come on Benoit," Dalton called from the side. "You're going to have to play more offensively if you want to beat Hickok."
'What is he talking about,' Atlas wondered. 'The rate this is going, Benoit is going to beat this idiot professor without taking a drop of damage. I'm beginning to wonder why he's even an Osiris Red…'
As Benoit drew a card, a smile formed across his face. "I start the turn off by summoning Destiny Hero – Fear Monger (1000/1000)."
The named warrior appeared with what looked like a jet pack on his back and cannon as a right arm.
"Let me guess," Hickok said with a dull expression on his face. "You're going to use Covert Mission to let him attack directly."
"Oui oui, let the play commence," Benoit expressed while pointed his finger directly at Professor Hickok.
Destiny Hero – Fear Monger launched himself into the air completely over Hickok's two monsters hurdling straight towards. At the last moment, the jetpack wearing warrior veered up then unleashed a missile from its cannon arm right into Hickok's face (Hickok: 2200). Shortly after a face-down card appeared behind Benoit's face-down as he entered his second main phase.
"The turn is yours," Benoit said with a genuine smile having completely emptied his hand. "Let us view your amazing duel skills."
Hickok all but ripped the card off his deck as he began his turn. As soon as he did, Benoit motioned to the card he had just set.
"Eternal Dread activates and adds two more counters to my Clock Tower Prison." The large clock tower changed its time from six o'clock to twelve o'clock having gained a total of four counters since it had been played.
"I don't really care about your useless field spell. Now that you left a monster in attack position, I can deal some real damage. Twin-Barrel Dragon, unleash hell on that Fear Monger!"
More bullets shot across the field piercing through the warrior and effectively destroyed him, but much to Hickok's disdain, Benoit didn't lose any life points.
"Check your duel disk," Hickok shouted angrily as the red on his face started to deepen in color. "You should have taken seven hundred points of damage."
"Professeur Hickok, my duel disk isn't malfunctioning. I didn't take any damage because of my useless field spell. You see once it has four counters, all battle damage I would take is reduced to zero."
"You little shit," Hickok said under his breath. "Well, I end my turn." Hickok said loud enough for everyone to hear now. "You're going to have to have one hell of a top deck though if you plan on doing some significant damage."
"Well I would consider the damage I'm dealing you rather significant. You have almost half your life points, but regardless you couldn't be more wrong about the top decking situation."
"What are you talking about," Hickok questioned. "Unless there is something I'm missing."
"There is," Benoit said as he drew bringing his hand to one measly card. As he did, the spots on the left and right of Captain Tenacious began to shimmer as to figures began to form. As the light dimmed down, it could be seen that the two figures were Destiny Hero – Disk Commander and Destiny Hero – Fear Monger.
"What the hell, how did those weaklings come back?"
"Since Fear Monger was destroyed in battle last turn, his effect allowed me to bring back Disk Commander, and Captain Tenacious brought back Fear Monger."
"Well that doesn't remedy the fact that you only have one card in your hand," Hickok spat.
"But it does," Benoit said calmly as he drew four cards. "Now before you question, let me explain Professeur. You see the spell, Card of Safe Return, allows me to draw every time a monster is special summoned from my graveyard, and two monsters were revived so I drew twice."
"Well that explains two cards," Hickok interrupted. "So how did you draw the extra two?"
"I was getting there. When Destiny Hero – Disk Commander is special summoned I'm allowed to draw two cards. With my card effects as well as my draw phase, my hand of zero was brought to five," Benoit explained as he fanned out his full hand viewing his cards. "Now I activate the spell Destiny Draw, which allows me to draw twice more at the cost of one Destiny Hero in my monster."
Benoit quickly pulled out the determined card and slid into the graveyard then proceeded to draw two cards from his deck. "Now I'll summon Destiny Hero – Diamond Dude (1400/1600) in defense position."
A man with large crystals emerging from his body appeared in front of Benoit with his arms crossed in front of him while kneeling.
"Once per turn while my Diamond Dude is face-up on the field he can reveal the top card of my deck, and if it is a normal spell card then it is sent to the Graveyard and I can activate its ability next turn, but if it is any other card it is sent to the bottom of my deck," Benoit explained. "But before we get to that, I'll activate the spell card Rigged Draw, and now by sending two cards in my hand to the graveyard I can place one card from my deck to the top."
'With that effect, he can make it so that his Diamond Dude's effect will go off without a hitch,' Atlas mused.
"Now my Diamond Dude's effect activates." As the French duelist motioned to his monster, the large crystal on the mentioned monster's body began to glow a bright blue. "And thanks to my Rigged Draw spell I guaranteed that the top card of my deck is a normal spell."
As he discarded the top card of his deck was sent to the graveyard a hologram appeared over the duel field revealing the discarded card to be Heavy Storm.
"Now that that's out of the way, I'll activate the ability of Rigged Draw in my graveyard. By banishing it from my graveyard I can activate its effect one final time." Benoit quickly found the card he was looking for and placed it on the top of his deck. "Now I'll use the effect of Covert Mission to have Destiny Hero – Fear Monger attack you directly once more."
Benoit's named monster launched a missile hitting Hickok square in the face (Hickok: 1200).
"End turn."
As Hickok drew a card a sly grin split his face in half. "By discarding one card, Cost Down reduces the level of monsters in my hand by two. Now the magic of Double Summon grants me two normal summons this turn."
Hickok discarded his card and then pulled free two cards from his hand preparing to play them. "By sacrificing Fusilier, I can tribute summon Barrel Dragon (2600/2200) and summon my Blowback Dragon (2300/1200) without tribute and activate both of their abilities. Go, Russian Roulette!"
Two large mechanical dragons with gun like heads appeared on Hickok's side of the field complimenting Twin-Barrel Dragon nicely. Without warning, the two newly summoned dragons let out a blast of bullets destroying Destiny Hero – Captain Tenacious and Destiny Hero – Fear Monger.
"It seems your luck has turned around Professeur Hickok," Benoit commented with a smile. "It seems both of your monster's effects were able to successfully destroy their intended effects without the aid of Second Coin Toss."
"Don't patronize me boy," Hickok said with venom dripping in his voice. "This duel has turned for my favor. I'll have Blowback Dragon attack Diamond Dude and Barrel Dragon attack Disk Commander!"
Once more, the dragons assaulted Benoit's side of the field leaving it completely monster free.
"It's your move," Hickok said. "But it's not like you can make a comeback now. Next turn I'll have Blowback Dragon destroy your Clock Tower Prison and unleash hell upon you with my machines."
"Why wait until next turn for you to destroy my field spell when I can destroy it this turn instead," Benoit questioned as he drew the card placed on the top of his deck by the effect of Rigged Draw.
"Are you crazy," Hickok asked bewildered. "Why would you willingly destroy the only card that will prevent you from taking battle damage."
"Because it will herald your demise," Benoit said with a smirk. "Now I'll activate the Heavy Storm that was sent to my graveyard on my last turn to destroy all spell and traps."
Strong winds whipped across the field as Clock Tower Prison was blown to pieces as well as the other spell and traps on the field.
"Foolish boy. If you thought that you accomplished anything, you didn't. My face-down card that you destroyed was Compensation, which when sent to the Graveyard allows me to add the card from the bottom of my deck to my hand," Hickok said as he added the card to his hand.
"I wasn't activating Heavy Storm to destroy your cards…I was activating it to destroy mine." Benoit pulled a card free from his deck then proceeded to place it on his duel disk. "When the clock rings twelve your demise has been sealed! Unleash the demon of the clock tower, Destiny Hero – Dreadmaster (?/?)!"
A large muscular man appeared on Benoit's side of the field with an iron mask on and steel broken shackles connected to each of his limbs.
Before Hickok could insult his newly summoned monster Benoit continued. "And when Dreadmaster is summoned via the effect of Clock Tower Prison I can special summon two Destiny Hero monsters from my graveyard to the field. Welcome back Destiny Hero – Disk Commander and Destiny Hero – Diamond Dude. And did I mention Dreadmaster's attack and defense are equal to the combined original attack of all Destiny Hero monsters I control. Go, Dread Roar!"
Benoit's newly summoned monster let out a horrific roar as Disk Commander and Diamond Dude appeared back on the field (Destiny Hero – Dreadmaster: (1700/1700).
"A bit overdramatic for you to only make his attack equal to the weakest monster I control, even with your Disk Commanders draw effect, the chance of you getting anything threatening….is rather low."
"Hmm, you've seemed to have forgotten the card I drew at the beginning of this turn that was already predetermined by the effect of my Rigged Draw," Benoit said as he pulled a card in his hand free. "Now let me show you that card. By tributing my Disk Commander, I can summon Destiny Hero – Dasher (2100/1000)."
Benoit's weakest monster was quickly consumed in a dark flame as warrior in a sleek outfit with wheels for feet appeared on his field.
"Still not good enough," Hickok chimed in.
"You seemed to have forgotten about my Dreadmaster's effect already…tsk tsk." Dreadmaster let out another loud roar as his strength increased due to appearance of the rather powerful Destiny Hero (Destiny Hero Dreadmaster: 3500/3500).
"But wait," Hickok started as he examined the field.
"No more waiting," Benoit said abruptly. "Destiny Hero – Dreadmaster attack Twin-Barrel Dragon. Predator of Dreadnaught!"
The hulking monster lunged at Hickok's monster with his right hand balled into a fist and his left hand overlapping the right one. As soon as Dreadmaster was in range, it smashed its fists down onto the much weaker monster bringing an end to it as well as the duel.
(Hickok: 0)
(Benoit: 4000)
"No," Hickok said crazily. "NO! All of you get detention, how dare you?"
Atlas looked down not surprised at all by the teacher's sudden outburst, but his eyes averted to a woman who was now standing at the doorway and had been for several minutes.
"You idiot Osiris Red! Did you honestly-" Hickok continued before being interrupted.
"Ahem," came the voice of the woman standing behind Hickok.
The look on the professor's face was one of pure terror as he recognized the woman as Chancellor Sato, his boss.
"It seems you made a bet with these children that if this Osiris Red student had won you would let them go and you will stay true to your word," Sato said sternly before placing a firm hand on Hickok's shoulder. "But I would like to see you in my office, right away."
Moments after Sato had dragged the insane professor out of the classroom, Atlas, Benoit, Dalton, and Oscar had began heading towards the main building of Duel Academy for a quick bite. As Dalton and Oscar pulled ahead Atlas turned towards his savior wondering why he had put so much on the line to save him from a month of detention.
"Why," Atlas asked.
"Excuse me," Benoit questioned back, confusion clear on his face.
"Why did you participate in such risky business just to save me?"
"Ah." Benoit pushed the black hair from in front of his eyes as he looked directly at Atlas. "Well I can't challenge you to a duel if you're holed up in detention, now can I?"
Cards of the Duel
Benoit Amherst
Destiny Hero - Dreadmaster - Lv 8, Dark, Warrior, ?/?
If this card is Special Summoned by "Clock Tower Prison": Destroy all monsters you control, except face-up "Destiny Hero" monsters, then you can Special Summon up to 2 "Destiny Hero" monsters from your Graveyard. During any turn this card is Special Summoned, "Destiny Hero" monsters you control cannot be destroyed, and you take no Battle Damage when they battle. The ATK and DEF of this card are equal to the combined original ATK of all other "Destiny HERO" monsters you control.
Professor Hickok
Barrel Dragon - Lv 7, Dark Machine, 2600/2200
Once per turn, select 1 monster your opponent controls. Toss a coin 3 times, and if the result is 2 heads or more, destroy the selected monster.
Nick Forbes has proven time and time again to be a top-notch duelist. Having even defeated the youngest Michaels brother, he might have what it takes to become the best. Catch the next chapter, Enter Kaiser Sebastian.
