Chapter One

Uninvited Guests

Jake and his three cohorts pulled up in front of the house. They walked up to the front door with their fingers crossed. Corbak had told them that this was most assuredly Carl's house, but they had no way of knowing if he was right or if he had given them the right directions. On the bright side, though, if Corbak was wrong, Jake would know.

Jake had met Carl before. Both of them were in the Boy Scout program, and they were in the same troop during the National Jamboree. That was how Jake had gotten his favorite deck. Even though he only knew the bare minimum of the Yu-gi-oh card game, Carl had been willing to let him play with them. ("Them" refers to Carl and his two dueling friends from the Jamboree, Malcolm Siefermen and Derek Macready.) It helped that Carl had brought so many extra decks; it seemed as though one could play using any theme.

During one of their duels, Jake had found that he had a natural talent with Carl's Fiend Deck. He used it continually and never got an unlucky hand. He and the Fiend Deck just seemed to fit together, and when Carl's friend from the next troop over, some guy named Michael Stone, organized a miniature Yu-gi-oh tournament, people in Jake's troop were literally placing bets that he would win. Carl had actually said that if Jake won, he could keep the Fiend Deck for free, even though it had taken him a long time to build it. And it was working too. Jake defeated everyone who challenged him, until only three competitors were left: himself, Michael Stone, and another guy called Ryan Montague from Michael's troop.

That was when things got bad. Jake didn't actually do anything in the tournament that caused his getting kicked out. Rather, the adult leaders got wind of… other things he had done during the Jamboree, things that were more serious than he'd realized. The adult leaders had forbidden him from finishing the tournament as part of his punishment. But Carl had felt compassion towards him. When Jake had sufficiently recovered from the initial shock of learning the magnitude of what he'd done, Carl came to him, and he told him. "Here, take this. It belongs with you. You've mastered it better than I did in just two days, and I'm the one who built it! Besides, I was going to give it to you even if you didn't win, and I truly believe that, despite the dangerous competition you would've had in the final round, you would have won."

On that same day, Jake and Carl had parted company, and Jake had not seen him since. Up until the point Corbak found him, Jake had been under a sort of house arrest. His parents, displeased with what he had done at the Jamboree, took him out of… pretty much everything, even public school. But somehow, there must have been someone, somewhere who remembered him and mentioned him to Corbak, because Corbak had found him. Corbak, upon hearing this story was ecstatic. Determined to see this natural dueling skill, he had one of his Orichalcos drones duel Jake. Jake won, and Corbak was frantic with excitement. "No one could have defeated one of my Orichalcos drones in a duel without magic," he had said, "unless that person was one of the chosen duelists."

At that point Jake was offered a job as Corbak's second-in-command. It took a lot of convincing, but in the end Jake accepted the offer. Since then, Corbak had been going crazy trying to find Carl. But by now Jake was fully aware of what his job entailed and why finding Carl was so important; he was the Deck Builder. By his sixteenth birthday, the Deck Builder would have some sort of relationship, friendly or not, with all of the chosen duelists, and even though many of the chosen duelists build their own decks, many more chosen duelists would not realize their true potential until they got their hands on a deck built by the Deck Builder. Finding the Deck Builder and winning his allegiance was critical, because it would give Corbak a direct route to finding the other chosen duelists.

Now, Jake was here, in front of what supposedly was Carl's house. He was about to smash the door in with his newfound powers, but he was stopped by one of his cohorts. "Please, can we please do the one where we knock politely and, when they open the door, say, 'Hi we're here to kidnap your son?'" Another one of Jake's cohorts groaned and said, "Come on, no. That's the corniest bad-guy-joke in the history of bad-guy-jokes."

Jake rolled his eyes. They did this every time. Then they'd put it to a vote. It would be a tie, and the owners of the household would open the door out of curiosity long before they had made up their minds. This time, Jake had no intention of letting the others hold him back. He knew that this was just another one of Corbak's guesses and he could easily be wrong, but something about this felt different. Jake felt that this time Corbak might have picked right, and he refused to let this routine quarrel hold him back when the prize was so close. Jake's fist started glowing and he punched the door, which almost completely disintegrated at his mystical attack.

"There," Jake said, "the door is open." His third cohort sniggered. "You never could come up with anything original could you?" "Just get in there!" Jake yelled, now overly annoyed by the antics of his underlings. "Stay out of my house!" In all the time they spent arguing, a man, presumably the father of the household, had come to the door and was now trying to block the entrance. Jake grinned. This man had no chance of stopping them from doing what they wanted; after all he wasn't magical. Jake extended his hand to capture the soul of the man.

But nothing happened. He just continued to stand defiantly in their way raising an eyebrow. This could only mean that the man standing before them was another chosen duelist. Actually, that made sense. Carl had said that his dad duels. At the Jamboree tournament, he had intended on taking the win for his father by using his father's deck. He lost in the second round of the tournament… to Ryan Montague, the guy that came in second place overall. To have lasted as long as it had against Ryan, Mr. Colburn's deck must be powerful. And if he was a chosen duelist…

"Tom duel him!" The lackey named Tom raised an eyebrow, but arguing with the leader in the face of the enemy is not a good idea. Tom stepped forward and pulled up the sleeve on his right arm. On Tom's arm was a purple line and upon being exposed it started glowing. Purple-blue flames shot up out of the ground behind Tom and rushed to form a circle around himself and Mr. Colburn.

Satisfied that Mr. Colburn would be stuck until he could defeat all of his minions in duels Jake smashed his way in through a window. As soon as he did so, he saw Carl, along with a woman and a little boy, presumably his mother and younger brother. "Carl!" Carl and his family, who had rushed to see what all the commotion was about, jerked their heads towards Jake. "What do you want?" "Now, now, is that any way to treat an old friend Carl?" Jake asked disarmingly. At this point Carl seemed to recognize him.

"Carl, take me to the room that you keep your decks in, or I'll destroy your family," Jake said, pointing to Carl's mother and brother. At that, Carl's mother moved herself between Jake and Carl. "Oh, no. My son is not going with you anywhere." "Listen, I'm not going to kidnap him or kill him or anything like that. I just want him to take me to the room the Yu-gi-oh decks are in. You can come if you want, but if you do not comply, death, or at the very least something close enough to it, will ensue." "Mom, do it," Carl called in fear. "If not for your sake, do it for Nathaniel's." Carl's mother started, thought, and finally bowed her head in defeat.

Carl pushed past his mother to Jake. "I remember you. You're the guy I gave my Fiend Deck to." "I see you've forgotten my name," Jake observed. "It's Jake, and, as I said before, if you want to protect your family you will take me to the room that your Yu-gi-oh decks are in." Reluctantly, Carl complied and showed Jake to his bedroom. "There," he said. "Now take what you want and go." Jake threw back his head and laughed. "If only it were so simple. But you see, Carl, I'm not here to collect money or some cards; I'm here to collect you."

Carl jumped in surprise. "What?" "My master sent me here to bring you to him. Here's how it's going to work. We're going to duel. If I win, I get to take you back with me. However if you win, my companions and I will leave peaceably." Carl was now thoroughly confused. "But, you told my mom that you weren't here to kidnap me. And wouldn't fighting me be simpler than dueling me? I'm not the best fighter in the world." Jake grinned. "As to your first question, I lied. As to your second question,… well, it's complicated, but suffice it to say dueling is far more effective. You'll get more details later. And here use this."

Jake handed Carl a strange looking disk. After examining it for a moment Carl's eyes widened. "This is a duel disk!" Jake nodded strapping another one onto his own arm. "But these aren't supposed to exist." Jake laughed. "You have so much to learn. But all will become clear in time. For now we duel." Carl, not knowing what else to do, strapped on his duel disk and inserted his Zombie Deck into the deck compartment. "Alright, let's do this!"