Chapter 3- The Second Wave

Drake woke up. Everything around him was white, a blinding white, and very blurry. Someone came in. Still nothing was in focus. He looked blearily around. He was connected to some machine and he felt like absolute crap. He was sore all over, especially his head. The person sat down next to him, draped a wet rag over his forehead, and gently pressed it to his skin. He felt weary and fell asleep again.

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Drake woke again, still in the white room. He couldn't remember anything. Someone was sitting on a chair next to the bed he was on. There was a rhythmic beeping sound coming from somewhere. Drake blinked and Julie's concerned face came into view.

"What… what happened?" he asked. He noticed that Julie's face was streaked with tears. "Where am I? My head hurts…"

"Well, when you walked over to 'cut the decks,' William just hauled off and punched you in the head. We were all stunned, we know he didn't like you, but we didn't expect that. So, naturally, we had no clue what to do. He kept hitting you and you eventually went down on the ground. I think you were unconscious, but he didn't seem to care. He got down over you and kept punching you. Flynn reacted first.

"What did he do?"

"Well, he jumped up, ran over, pulled William off of you, and gave him a good one across the jaw. It must have really hurt, because it got the same reaction out of William that about ten of William's punches got out of you. He came after Flynn, who just absolutely destroyed him, despite the fact that William's so much bigger than Flynn. Chancellor Bentz and two other teachers pulled them off each other- well, more like pulled Flynn off of William; William wasn't doing much. They rushed you up here, the school hospital. I don't know what happened to Flynn and William. Keith and I had no clue what to do, so I came up here and came in as soon as they let me. Keith was here with me for a while. He went to find out what happened to Flynn a few minutes ago."

"Wow… and ow…"

"Yeah, the doctor are trying to figure out exactly how bad it is, but they say that you're incredibly tough. He said that you should probably be dead, William must have hit you at least fifteen times in the head."

"And believe me, I'm feeling all fifteen right now."

"At least you're not dead… I was worried that you were." The door opened and Julie turned to see who it was. "Oh, it's Nurse Jen."

"I'm sorry, Julie, but you need to leave. Drake needs rest, he's already short on sleep, and he has some fractures in his skull."

"Oh, okay." Julie stood up. "Sorry I have to go."

"Don't worry. I'll be fine." Drake said. Julie walked out of the room. Nurse Jen walked to Drake's bedside.

"I have to give you one of these. It's just a sleep aid, but a very strong one." She was holding a needle. She picked up Drake's limp arm and stuck the needle in. Drake felt very tired almost instantly. He was asleep in less than ten seconds.

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Drake spent the next four days in the hospital. He would be there for two weeks, and he was already sick of feeling so weak and useless. Julie hadn't come back to visit yet, nor had Keith or Flynn. He wondered what had happened to them all. The doctor had told him that he had multiple small cracks in his skull that would heal with time, and that he had a few small chips in both of his arms. Nothing incredibly threatening, but it would take time. Drake was already sick of it.

Nurse Jen came in twice a day, at 10 to inject him with some vitamins, and at seven to inject the sleep aid. Other than that he had no company. They hadn't even bothered to give him his cards to look at.

The door opened and Chancellor Bentz walked in. Finally, Drake thought. Someone besides that Nurse. Nurse Jen was nice, but having only her for company 24 hours a day was boring. The Chancellor sat down next to Drake.

"How are you feeling, Drake?" he asked.

"Like I got hit by a car." Drake said. Despite his first impressions about the Chancellor, Drake actually had come to like the man. He was probably the only person besides Professor Helen that believed the whole story.

"Too bad. I need to talk to you about what you want to do about your schoolwork. As you probably could have guessed, just because you went absent doesn't mean that the school stops running."

"I would have guessed that."

"I can give you two options for this: one, I can have someone deliver all of your work to you in this hospital, and then it will be due two days after you get back. Two, you can get it all when you get back, and then you will be given a number of days equal to the days of your absence to complete it all."

"Give it to me now." Apart from being the obviously better choice, there was the prospect of company.

"I thought you would say that." Bentz pulled out a small stack of papers. "This is the work you've been assigned in the past four days. You'll get each day's work at about twelve each day. Goodbye." Bentz stood up to leave.

"Wait a second!" Drake said, and tried to sit up. The pain stopped him. Bentz stopped and turned.

"Yes?"

"What happened to Flynn?"

Bentz smiled sadly. "Unfortunately for him, William Maquine's parents are rich and well-known. They are suing for his expulsion and payment for the harm he inflicted to their son."

"Shit…"

"Yes, that would be an accurate assessment of the situation. It would seem that not only will Mr. Tager be sued and likely expelled from this school, but he will probably be tried for assault in a court of law."

"No way! But William did even worse, what's happening with him?"

Bentz gave him that sad smile again. "Nothing. His parents have covered it all up, paid off all the right people so that their son doesn't get into any trouble. Of course, they cannot pay me off. He will, at least, be given a month's worth of detentions. But the trouble that Mr. Tager will get into will be far greater. We are looking at prison time."

"That's not far!"

"I know, but I cannot do anything about it. There were several witnesses to Flynn beating up William, but none of them saw him beat you up. Too bad, that might be useful in court."

"You can't… huh… okay, thanks Chancellor. That's all I wanted to know. Oh, yeah, could I get something to do in here? Maybe my laptop and my cards?"

"I will have someone deliver them to you. But right now, I've got to get to work. Administrative things, you know. Farewell." Bentz walked out the door, and Drake was left to contemplate Flynn's fate.

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Julie brought in Drake's work the next day, along with his cards and laptop. She looked incredibly sad.

"Have you heard what's going to happen to Flynn yet?" She asked, and sniffed.

"Yeah. I asked Bentz about it… has any of it taken place yet?" Drake asked.

"No… it's scheduled for two days from now." She said. "I don't know what to do… it looks like Flynn's got to go… bye Drake…" She turned and walked out, still sniffling. Drake stared at her retreating back for a while, then thought.

What can we do to help Flynn? Drake thought. Hmm…I need answers… Suddenly, in that moment, the answer came in something Flynn himself had said. "Matt is always the easy answer." He had said. But is this worth contacting Matt for? Drake thought. Hmm… difficult… but, it's our only chance. I have to. But not yet. I'll wait until tonight… that sleep aid gets less effective with each passing night.

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That night, almost in the middle of the night, Drake woke up. One of his nightmares had woken him up, but that didn't matter. He flipped open the laptop and started it up. He checked to make sure no one was up outside his door, then opened up his wireless connections. The school had to have a wireless network somewhere, he knew that the teacher's computers didn't have internet cables plugged in. Sure enough, there was a strong signal from a network called "Duel Academy Wireless Network." There was a weaker signal from a network called "HB Network." Drake connected to the Duel Academy Network and signed into the internet.

He had nearly forgotten the method to contact Matt, but he remembered the website. He accessed and went to the log in space. Drake scratched his head. What was that password again? Something fell outside his room, and there was a light in the room outside of Drake's. He closed the laptop, slid it under the covers of his bed, and pretended to sleep. The light passed through the glass doors of his room, then went away. Crud, I forget that this academy has armed guards! He sat back up, pulled out his laptop again, and stared at the screen. Enter something in the password box… what was it? Phalanx? No, something like that though… oh yeah, Phoenix! Drake clicked on the password box and entered, "Phoenix." He clicked okay.

The screen went blank. Drake scratched his head. Why would Matt give us something that doesn't work? Then color came back to the screen. Three links appeared, "Email", "IM", and "Video." Drake doubted that he would be able to contact Matt instantly, so he clicked email. He was about to start typing when a small white box appeared.

"Stop. Don't bother. I'm right here, what is it?" It said.

Drake hammered away at the keys. "I need to ask a favor of you. Something's happened."

"Hang on." There was a long pause. "I can't talk here. Sign off that network and use the other one."

How does he know that there's another network? Drake thought. He signed out of the internet, disconnected from the Duel Academy's network, and connected to the network labeled "HB Network." He returned to Laazy and contacted Matt again. "What was that all about?"

"That link is heavily guarded. Lots of potential to be detected. There's nothing on this one though. Trust me, I set it up and there's no way that they can change it. My buddy rigged it so that no one except that you, Flynn, Keith, and Julie can 'see' it. Okay, so what did you want?"

"It's kinda hard to explain here…"

"Hard in text, you mean?"

"Yeah, I guess."

"Do you have a video link?"

"Yeah, of course. Who doesn't? After Matt Jurik made it so cheap to get one, everyone who had a computer got one."

"Good. Hang on a minute." Drake's computer went black again. Ten seconds later Matt appeared on it. He was sitting in either a very dark room or a room with all black walls, Drake couldn't tell which. He was wearing the same clothes Drake had seen him in when he had left- a black, hooded cloak, black long sleeve shirt, and the headband, still pulled down over his left eye. The only difference was his left arm. The sleeve had been cut short and it was wrapped in white bandages. "Hello, Drake. You look a little worse for the wear."

"I could say the same about you." Drake whispered. "Try and keep it down."

"I know. Now, what's the problem?"

Drake explained the situation. A troubled look never left Matt's face. "So, Flynn is facing assault charges and possible jail time, as well as expulsion from Duel Academy and heavy fines." Drake concluded.

"This is complicated. What do you want me to do about it?" Matt said. "Do you want me to get the charges dropped, the trial rigged, or get Flynn out of there before he gets put on trial?"

Drake considered the options. "I'm not sure. Which is easiest?"

"I can get any of them done." Matt said. "Each presents a different challenge. Let's see… I think I could probably convince a friend of mine to bribe the jury, but you would have to be there to testify against William. That makes it a case of self-defense, which no reasonable person would go against. Of course, the bribe is just insurance, if you testify, you improve Flynn's chances incredibly."

"Good. Who is this friend of yours, anyway?" Drake checked his door. No one was outside it.

"You're going to laugh, but it's actually Matt Jurik. I've been his friend since middle school, and when he went big, we stayed in touch. He helps me out here and there, and I do the same for him. This is his website we're using, actually."

"Okay, so that's done."

"Is there anything else you'd like to know?"

"Not really… hang on, someone's coming! Gotta go!" Drake quickly shut everything down and stored the laptop again. A massive, hulking form smashed through the door and walked inside. Drake's eyes grew wide as the beast came toward him. It raised an arm that ended in razor sharp claws to slash him, then fell dead on the ground. Julie and Keith were standing in the doorway. Keith's RPK SAW, the one he had picked up in the Shadow Realm last year, was smoking. Julie was bleeding from a gash on her arm.

"Drake, we have to get out of here." Keith said. "The fiends have come back with a vengeance."

"But they won't do anything without a leader!" Drake said.

"I know, Julie told me. That's what makes this so troubling." Keith tossed a rifle to Drake. "There's your gun. We need to go."

"Hang on, let me contact Matt. I was just talking to him, trying to figure out how to help Flynn." Drake said, and rebooted his computer. Julie and Keith moved into the little room. Drake pulled up Laazy again and contacted Matt.

"What is it?" He said. "And by the way, hi, Keith and Julie."

"The fiends are back." Keith said. "They just attacked the academy again, and I think I saw some going toward the old hidden base. Should that make me feel bad, or am I being paranoid?"

Matt frowned. "I need to get over there as fast as possible. And that is bad, that's where the key is. They probably want to dig it up and open the gate."

"That's not good." Julie said. "But shouldn't this be just the same as last time? Apart from the fact that they have a new leader."

"And that's what makes it so different." Matt said. "I'll see you soon. We can discuss this more later." He stood up and the video link closed. Drake climbed out of bed.

"Ow… okay, let's go." He said.

"Are you sure that you're well enough?" Julie asked.

"Yeah, I'll be fine. The important thing is to get out of here and find Matt."

"That's going to be hard." Keith said. "There were a bunch of fiends following us when we got here, I don't think that they've gone away yet." There was a loud banging on the door. The door splintered and fell down.