Chapter 8- Fight at the Airstrip

"Okay." Keith said. "So now we have to deal these Shadows and the, um, Shadow Mutts?"

"Well, we may as well call them that." Matt said. "Otherwise it'll be difficult to know what someone else is talking about if we don't standardize the terminology."

"So, we call them Shadow Mutts?"

"Yeah." Matt looked around a corner and quickly pulled back. "We've made it to the airstrip. Only thing is, there's a reception committee."

"Okay, that's not too hard." Drake said. "Can't we just shoot them from here?"

Matt smiled sadly. "Alas, we cannot. There are four of them that have rocket launchers."

"ROCKET LAUNCHERS?!?" Drake shouted. Matt backhanded him across the face. "Ow, what was that for?"

"Shut up. I don't want them to here us." Matt peeked around the corner again. "Okay, here's the plan. I'm going to go ahead through the trees, you all will stay back here, peek out once, and fire three times into the group. Then you will run as far away from this corner as possible. Don't do anything except for defend yourselves until I get back."

"How will we know it's you?" Bentz asked.

"He has a fair point, with these 'Shadows' roaming around now, we have to be careful about splitting up." Keith said.

"Hmm…" Matt said. "I'll send good Matt and evil Matt to bring you out. I won't come back."

"Okay." Keith said.

"Ready?" Everyone nodded. "Okay, go!" There was a quick whoosh of air as Matt jumped up into the trees and began to leap from one to another.

"Okay, ready?" Keith asked. Drake cocked his rifle.

"Yeah."

"I'm good." Julie said. She was holding her rifle. Each of them got close to the tree nearest to the edge of the path.

"Ready…" Keith said, his hand held up for stillness. Drake held his rifle steady. "Now!" Drake whipped around the tree and pulled the trigger three times without aiming, then quickly ran back around the corner.

"Run!" He said to Bentz, who had been standing still near the corner. He turned and followed Drake. Drake could hear Julie and Keith following him. They ran for about thirty yards, then stopped.

"And now… we hope that those fiends don't get smart with their rockets." Keith said. A rocket exploded at the place where they had been moments before.

"I don't think they will be." Julie said. "I think they lack the brains to do it."

"Hello."

"Ah!" Evil Matt had snuck up behind Julie and whispered in her ear. "Don't do that!"

"He can not help it, he is evil." Good Matt said. "Matt is done killing all those monsters."

"Already?" Bentz said.

"Of course." Evil Matt said. "He's fucking Matt, he can do shit like that."

"Well, I see." Bentz said, starteled by Evil Matt's foul language.

"Let us go then." Good Matt said. They all followed them (Him?) to the airstrip. Matt was scavenging among the dead corpses.

"Hello." Matt said. His other souls vanished. "I presume there were no problems?"

"Nope, we were good." Drake said.

"That's good. Grab some ammo and let's move out."

"Not yet." Came a voice from the other end of the airstrip.

"Intelligent fiend." Matt said lazily. "I'll take him."

"Ha! I'm stronger than you!" the fiend said.

"Prove it." Matt said, and pulled a duel disk out of nowhere.

"Let's duel!"

Matt: 4000

Fiend: 4000

"I shall begin!" said the fiend. "I activate Card Destruction, with which we must both discard our entire hands, and then redraw new cards!"

Matt yawned. "Basic." He slid his hand into the graveyard and drew five new cards. "Now what?"

"I set a card facedown and a monster in defense mode! That's all."

"Okay." Matt drew a card. "I will summon my Mpirian Knight (Light/Warrior/Mpire, 1900/1700) in attack mode. Then, I'll activate my Mpirian Trap Check card. I can only activate it when I have an Mpire monster on my side of the field. Then, I can activate this card. I take one of your facedown cards and look at it. You cannot activate it. If it is a trap, then it gets destroyed. Else, it returns facedown and you cannot activate it for the remainder of the turn. Of course, it was Mirror Force…" The card was destroyed. "And I have a pretty good idea of what your facedown monster is, so I will not attack."

"Why would he not attack?" Julie asked.

"Because it might be something that he would regret attacking, like a monster that allows the fiend to search his deck for another." Bentz said.

"Oh."

"Instead, I will lay a facedown and end my turn."

"Grr… I'll kill you!" The fiend shouted.

"Really?" Matt said. "Hehe… I- ow…" Matt's hand moved to his heart.

"Ha! You'll die from the shadow game!"

"No, not today…" Matt said under his breath. "Why did it have to come active today?"

"What's he talking about?" Julie asked.

"Yeah, he never did something like this before." Drake said.

"I don't know, but I don't think it can be good." Keith said.

The fiend drew a card. "Ha! I sacrifice my facedown Mystic Tomato for Zaborg the Thunder Monarch (Light/Thunder/Effect, 2400/1000)! And when he's summoned, your monster is destroyed!"

"Oh well." Matt said. "My facedown is sufficient."

"Ha, and that's why I'm not going to attack, because I'm not stupid enough to try and get past that! Instead, I set a card facedown and end my turn!"

"Hehe… gah… too bad. If you had attacked, you would have done damage." Matt said. "Oh well. My turn." He drew a card. "And what a card! I activate Mpirian Strike. I select one Mpire monster on my field or in my hand to activate it. Then, I'm allowed the destroy one monster on the field. So, Zaborg is gone…"

"No! He was my strongest monster!"

"Precisely why I destroyed him. And since the Mpire monster I selected was in my hand, now I am allowed to special summon it. So, say hello to King Adam of Mpire (Dark/Warrior/Mpire/Effect, 2500/1800) in attack mode. Now, attack him directly!"

"Ha! I activate Sakuretsu Armor! Now he's destroyed!"

"One interesting little quirk about this king… he cannot be destroyed except for in battle, as a direct result of the battle."

"What?!? That's not fair!"

"Does it have to be?"

Matt: 4000

Fiend: 1500

"I end my turn."

"Fine then!" The fiend drew a card.

"You know, that is kind of cheap." Drake said.

"Who cares? Matt's winning!" Julie said.

"Yes, he's winning, but he looks absolutely terrible." Bentz said. "He's gotten a lot paler than when I first saw him, and his hand keeps moving to his heart."

"Do you think something is wrong with him?" Keith said.

"I don't know for sure."

"Hey, stupids, shut up so I can trash this guy! I set a card and a monster. That's it."

"Hmm. I know what you're trying to do." Matt drew a card. "It won't work. I activate my facedown, Mpirian Speed Summon! This turn, instead of summoning one monster, I can summon two Mpire monsters from my hand. So, first I'll summon Mpirian Soldier, but he won't be hanging around for long since I'm going to sacrifice him to summon Lord Matt of Mpire (Light/Warrior/Mpire/Effect, 2100/2100). And now, I'll attack your facedown monster with him!"

"Ha! Sangan! Now I'll add Kuriboh to my hand."

"Fine then, I attack directly."

"I'll discard Kuriboh to negate the damage."

"Okay. I set a card and I'm done."

"Ha!" The fiend drew. "I win! Nothing can stop me now! I activate Soul Release! I'll remove five monsters from my graveyard, and then I'll activate my Return from the Different Dimension Trap Card! I'll give up half my life points…"

Matt: 4000

Fiend: 750

"…and special summon a slew of monsters! First, Despair from the Dark (Dark/Zombie/Effect, 2800/3000). Second, Zaborg the Thunder Monarch (Light/Thunder/Effect, 2400/1000)! Third, Beast of Talwar (Dark/Fiend, 2400/2150). Fourth, Ryu Kokki (Dark/Zombie/Effect, 2400/2000)! And finally, I special summon my Great Dezard (Dark/Spellcaster/Effect, 1900/2300)! All of them are in attack mode! There's no way for you to survive this!"

"Is there now?" Matt said.

"No! I attack your stupid king with my Despair!"

"First off, he's not stupid. Secondly, I activate my trap, Hero Negated. I can only activate this card when you attack my strongest monster with a stronger monster. Your monster's attack is then negated."

"No! That means that I can't break through this turn!"

"Correction. It means that you will not break through any turn. You see, Adam has the ability to provoke all of you monsters into single combat with him. So now, all of your other monsters must rise up to fight him."

"No! But that means I'll lose!"

"Yes. Now, all of his monsters, attack Adam!"

Matt: 4000

Fiend: 0

The fiend exploded. "Just like old times." Matt said. He grimaced against some kind of pain. "Come on, let's- gaaah…" Matt fell to his knees.

"Matt!" Julie ran to his side. "Are you okay?"

He seemed to ignore her and continued to stare at the ground, his eyes wide. "Why today? Why did it have to come activate today? Why…"

"Matt…" Drake said. He didn't respond.

"We need to get him somewhere where he can rest." Julie said, resuming her role as the medic in the group. "I fear that there's something gravely wrong with him."