One bite. A single solitary bite was enough for him to enter a blissful heaven. Chuck wanted to at least return to his destination before eating his pizza, but the duel before made him hungry. He thought he snag a slice on the street on his way over. The symphony of flavors graced Chuck's taste buds, from the zest of the sauce to the crunch of the pepperoni. It was culinary nirvana. At least it would be without the angry voice from nowhere.
"Hey, you!" Chuck stopped his food based escapism to see two figures approaching him, one a child and the other a teenage girl about Chuck's age. She had sky blue eyes and windswept chestnut hair with cloudy white bangs. She wore a brown jacket with tan fur lining the inside, black gloves, tan cargo pants, brown furred boots, and aviator goggles around her neck. The teenager was red in the face as she stomped forward.
Chuck forced himself to swallow before responding, "Can I help you?"
"Yeah, you can help me alright!" the teen shouted, "You can start by telling me what you did to my little brother!"
"Your brother?" Chuck repeated. Upon closer inspection of the child, something clicked in Chuck's head, "Wait, you're that kid from before."
"That's right!" The teen girl pointed her finger at Chuck, "Parker told me all about how you cornered him into a duel and said all those nasty things about him! You think it's fun to pick on little kids like my brother!?" so the kid's name was Parker. Not only that, now he's got his sister backing him up.
"I could ask the same of Parker over there," Chuck casually responded.
"What?!
"I didn't corner Parker into a duel. Your brother stole a little girl's cards after he dueled her. I dueled him so I could get them back. After I won, he up and tossed 'em on the ground after he said he'd give them back," no one could notice because of the sunglasses, but Chuck was glaring angrily at the boy. Desecrating another duelist's cards—outright unforgivable.
"Shut up! I won't put up with your lies!" in a fit of rage, the sister overturned Chuck's pizza box. Chuck's entire sense of time seemed to move in slow motion as he saw his pizza plummet to the floor. Time only returned to normal when the pie splattered on the sidewalk. Chuck's eyes dilated, unable to bear the sight laying before him. He only recovered slightly when the girl spoke again, "Let's duel! In the name of justice, I will defeat you!"
"Okay, fine," Chuck responded. He was already late, but who was he to let this cuisine murderer off scott free, "But can we find a better place to play than the middle of the sidewalk?"
"Fine!" The older sister agreed begrudgingly. The two of them made their way to the same public park as before, duel disks at the ready. Chuck had to borrow Parker's since Chuck still didn't have his own on him. Parker wasn't very happy about it. The girl placed her goggles over her eyes as each player drew their opening hand.
"Let's duel!"
"You get to go first," Chuck offered. Going first was overrated anyway.
"Alright then," the girl looked at her current hand before deciding what to play, "First, I set one card face down. Then I'll summon Sky Striker Ace - Raye!" the first monster of the duel appeared on the field, Sky Strike Ace - Raye (Lv. 4, DARK, Warrior, Atk. 1500, Def. 1500), a monster with the appearance of a young blond woman wearing black and white military garb wielding a katana, "Raye's effect activities. I can tribute this monster and summon a Sky Striker Ace monster from my extra deck in the extra monster zone, ignoring it's summoning conditions," Raye disappeared as the girl spoke further, "Defensive armaments online! Link Summon! Sky Striker Ace - Shizuku"
In the extra monster zone appeared a grey gate with eight hollow arrows surrounding it. A red orb of energy flew into the arrow on the upper right, allowing the gate to open. Out of the gate appeared a link monster, Sky Striker Ace - Shizuku (Link - 1, WATER, Machine/Link, Atk. 1500), which was just Raye wearing futuristic blue armor with wings and an arm blade. Link monsters were tricky cards that had a variety of effects, especially if their arrows pointed to another monster. Sky Striker Ace - Shizuku had an arrow pointing to it's upper right.
"During my end phase, Sky Striker Ace - Shizuku lets me add one Sky Striker Ace spell card from my deck to my hand, so long as I don't have a copy in my Graveyard," She reached into her deck and searched until she found what she was looking for. She gave a devious smile as she added it to her hand.
"My turn, I draw!" Chuck dramatically pulled out a card from his deck and examined it. His face was unreadable. What could he be planning? "I play Mathematician!" on Chuck's side of the field appeared a goofy looking spellcaster monster with a long white beard wearing graduation garb, Mathematician (Lv. 3, EARTH, Spellcaster, Atk. 1500, Def. 500), "When Mathematician is normal summoned, I can send a level 4 or below monster from my deck to the graveyard," chuck's duel disk emitted a holographic screen displaying a list of appropriate monsters for Mathematician's effect. He made his selection and the card automatically slid out of his deck. He put it into his graveyard zone as his duel disk then shuffled his deck, "I end my turn."
"That's it?!" the sister started laughing, "Dispensing justice will be easier than I thought. I draw," a quick look at the card she drew made her consider her many options, "I activate the spell card Sky Striker Mobilize - Engage! If I control no monsters in my main zone, I can add one Sky Striker Ace card from my deck to my hand, except this one," Shizuku was placed in the extra monster zone, meaning the teen's main zone was free of any monsters. She searched through her deck once again and added a card to her hand.
"Too bad you can't take advantage of that card's other effect," Chuck said, "If you had three spell cards in the graveyard, you could've drawn an extra card."
"Don't patronize me you clown!" the older sister yelled, "Since my spell card was sent to the graveyard, Sky Striker Ace - Shizuku's effect activates. For every spell and trap card in my graveyard, your monsters lose 100 attack and defense points," Mathematician glowed red for a second, indicating a change in his stats. Per Shizuku's effect, Chuck's monster dropped from Atk. 1500 to Atk. 1400.
"Now Sky Striker is stronger than his monster!" Parker yelled excitedly. Despite the situation, Chuck didn't appear worried.
The sister continued her turn, "Next, I play the field spell Sky Striker Airspace - Area Zero," a compartment on the side of her duel disk popped open, and the sister placed the field spell inside it. The scenery around the duelists changed to accommodate the spell, tirning into a digitized space with depictions of military aircraft and various other assets, "With this, I can excavate the top three cards on my deck and if I get a Sky Striker Card, I can add it to my hand."
"But in order to do that, you have to target one card you control and destroy it if you get your desired card," Chuck informed.
"But I'm not activating that effect," the girl revealed with a cheeky grin.
"Huh?!
"I play the continuous spell card, Sky Striker Mecha Modules - Multirole. Once a turn, I can target one card I control and send it to the graveyard. Furthermore, you cant activate cards or effects in response to my spell activations until the end of my turn. For what card to destroy, I choose my field spell," the digitized space surrounding both duelists dissipated, "When Area Zero is sent to the graveyard, I can special summon one Sky Striker Ace card from my deck, and I choose Sky Striker Ace - Roze!" the sister searched through her deck to find what she was looking for. Afterwards, Sky Striker Ace - Roze (Lv. 4, LIGHT, Warrior, Atk. 1500, Def. 1500), materialized onto the field. She was a katana wielding young woman similar to Raye, only she wore all black and had long silver hair. Roze had a multitude of effects, but none were applicable in this situation, "Also, your monster loses more points due to Shizuku's effect," Mathematician's attack dropped further from Atk. 1400 to Atk. 1300.
"Now I normal summon Planet Pathfinder," Planet Pathfinder (Lv. 4, EARTH, Machine, Atk. 1000, Def. 1000) appeared on the field, a monster resembling the Mars rover, "When I tribute Planet Pathfinder, I can add one field spell from my deck to my hand," Planet Pathfinder exploded into polygons as the teen siphoned through her deck, "Now I get another Sky Striker Airspace - Area Zero," she didn't play it. She saw no reason to, "Now, Sky Striker Ace - Roze attacks your Mathematician. Striker Slash!" Roze lunged forward and slashed Chuck's monster her her sword, who exploded into polygons, dealing 200 points of damage to Chuck. Now he had 7800 lifepoints.
"Since Mathematician was destroyed in battle, I draw one card," Chuck informed, pulling a card out of his deck.
"Like it's gonna help!" Parker's sister boldly declared, "Sky Striker Ace - Shizuku, attack this bully directly with Skydive Plummet!"
Shizuku flew up in the sky before diving towards her target. She stabbed forward with her arm blade, deal direct lifepoint damage to Chuck, who flinched back from the impact. Chuck's life points were now 6300.
"I end my turn," the girl informed with a triumphant smile on her face. Soon, justice will be met out and her family name avenged.
"My turn, I draw," Chuck declared, pulling a card out of his deck, looking at it with a smirk on his face, "Since I have no face up cards on my field, I can play the spell card Lightning Storm."
Parker's older sister recoiled when she saw the spell's card hologram appear, "Not that one!"
"With this, I can chose between destroying all your attack position monsters or all your spell and trap cards. I think I'll chose to destroy your monsters," a tremendous typhoon of electricity emerged and enveloped both Sky Striker monsters. The two of them writhed in pain before exploding into polygons.
"Because Shizuku was destroyed, I can bring back Raye from the graveyard," Chuck's opponent informed, gritting her teeth. Her card slid out of the duel disk's graveyard slot. Raye appeared back on the field in defense position.
"Now I normal summon Junk Synchron," Junk Synchron (Lv. 3, DARK, Warrior, Atk. 1300, Def. 500) appeared on the field, "Now I activate his effect. Junk Synchron summons a level two or lower monster from my graveyard in defense mode. I bring back Junk Converter," a third monster appeared on Chuck's field, Junk Converter (Lv. 2, EARTH, Warrior, Atk. 400, Def. 200).
"Wait, when was that in your graveyard?" the sister suddenly remembered. Mathematician sent a monster from the deck to the graveyard on Chuck's previous turn, "Oh, yeah, never mind."
Seeing as how his opponent had no objections, Chuck continued his turn, "Now, because I successfully summoned a monster from my graveyard, I can special summon Doppelwarrior from my hand," Doppelwarrior (Lv. 2, DARK, Warrior, Atk. 800, Def. 800) appeared as the third monster on Chuck's field, a monster resembling a secret agent with an SMG in hand; yet, despite the amount of forces he had, Chuck was only getting started.
"Now, Level three Junk Synchron tunes level two Doppelwarrior!" Junk Synchron converted into three rings, which Doppelwarrior jumped into without question, "The stage is set. Now with your power, we will vanquish evil! Now, Synchro Summon! Come forth! Junk Speeder!" Junk Speeder (Lv. 5, WIND, Warrior/Synchro, Atk. 1800, Def. 1000) appeared proudly on the extra field, leaving four spots on the main field unused.
"That's the same monster he used against me!" Parker yelled.
"Now Doppelwarrior's effect activates. When it's used in a synchro summon, I can summon two level one Doppel Tokens on my field," Two token monsters similar in appearance to Doppelwarrior, only smaller, appeared on Chuck's field (Lv. 1, DARK, Warrior/Token, Atk. 400, Def. 400), leaving only two empty slots on his main monster zone.
"Now Junk Speeder's effect activates. I can summon as many tuner monsters from my deck to the field as possible in defense mode. Since I have two spots available, I bring in another Junk Synchron along with his buddy Cyberse Synchron," a second Junk Synchron appeared on the field now filling up Chuck's field along with Cyberse Synchron (Lv. 1, DARK, Cyberse/Tuner, Atk. 100, Def. 100), a tuner monster resembling a white ring surrounding a white head with two glowing LED eyes in the very center, "Now this Junk Synchron tunes level two Junk Converter. With this, I Synchro summon a second Junk Speeder!"
"Another one?!" a second Junk Speeder appeared on the field, happening much like the first.
"Unfortunately, I can't activate Junk Speeder's effect twice per turn, but I won't need to. Level one Cyberse Synchron tunes level one Doppel Token," much to the girl's chagrin, another Synchro summon commenced, this time there was only one ring with one star, "When the threads of fate intertwine, be the chariot that rides us to victory! Now, Synchro Summon! Ride, Formula Synchron!" Formula Synchron (Lv. 2, LIGHT, Machine/Synchro/Tuner, Atk. 200, Def. 1500) zoomed onto the field. This hybrid between a robot and a formula one race-car was no ordinary Synchro monster, it was also a tuner monster, "After Formula Synchron is Synchro summoned, I get to draw one card," Chuck reached into his deck and drew his card, but he didn't even bother looking at it.
"Hey, are you done with all these Synchros yet?" the girl complained, "I can make a sandwich in the time it took you to do all that!"
"Sorry, but I'm not done yet," Chuck informed, his face drawing a smirk of triumph, "I have everything I need."
"W-what do you mean?" the older sister stammered, clearly looking worried.
"One tuner Synchro monster and two non-tuner Synchro monsters," Chuck elaborated, "Time for the grand finale! Level two Formula Synchron tunes both level five Junk Speeders!" Formula Synchron dissipated into two green circles as both Junk Speeders flew inside, dissolving into ten stars. All the while, Chuck held up his right fist in the air, "The stars align to bring forth the power of creation. The great beast of the cosmos soars once again!" a great pillar of light shone down onto the field, blinding everyone present, "Synchro Summon! Arise, Shooting Quasar Dragon!"
In all it's majesty appeared Shooting Quasar Dragon (Lv. 12, LIGHT, Dragon/Synchro, Atk. 4000, Def. 4000), an outright magnificent dragon whose white scales shone brighter than the stars themselves and whose roar was as mighty as it's size designated.
"That thing's huge!" Parker cried, feeling very lucky he didn't face this thing. His sister was looking just as worried. But she had even more to worry about.
"I activate the spell card, Synchro Blast Wave," Chuck announced, "When I have a Synchro monster on the field, I can target one monster you control and destroy it!"
"Say what?!" the sister yelled. A burst of green energy emerged from Synchro Blast Wave's card hologram, colliding into Raye and destroying her, "No, I'm wide open!"
"Shooting Quasar Dragon attacks you directly! Cosmic Devastator!" Chuck's dragon roared and gathered energy into it's mouth. It breathed a terrific beam of pure white energy directly towards Parker's sister. However, there was still hope, her set card.
"I activate my trap card, Call of the Haunted!" she panicked, "This trap lets me summon one monster from my graveyard."
"Shooting Quasar Dragon's effect activates," Chuck retaliated, "Once per turn when a card uses its effect, I can negate it's activation and destroy it!"
"Say what?!" Call of the Haunted's card hologram went gray before it exploded. The white stream continued on it's course, colliding with it's target as Parker's sister flinched back, her lifepoints dropping from 8000 to 4000.
Chuck spoke, "I'm not done yet. Because I used two non-tuner monsters to summon Shooting Quasar Dragon, he can attack twice in one turn!"
"Wait, what?!"
"Shooting Quasar Dragon, attack again and end this! Cosmic Devastator!" Parker's sister could only scream in terror as Quasar Dragon blasted another stream of energy towards her, flinging her on her back and reducing her remaining lifepoints to 0. Therefore, Chuck won the duel.
"Good game," Chuck said as the holographic displays powered down.
"I lost," Parker's sister muttered, "I can't believe I let this bully beat me," tears threatened to spill out of her eyes, "I was weak… I couldn't bring out justice because I was weak!" the world felt dim. What was the point of dueling if evil people like this could get away with whatever they wanted?
"That's not true!" Chuck declared, bringing the girl back from the brink of despair, "You're not weak at all. You dueled greatly. You say you couldn't meet out justice, but that's because there was no need to."
"What are you talking about?"
"I told you before, I dueled your brother because he took away a little girl's deck," Chuck took a glance at Parker, who was looking nervous at the moment, "You thought you were fighting for a good cause, but your reason for fighting was built on a lie. That's why you lost."
"A lie?" the girl considered, standing back up.
"You have a great sense of justice," Chuck continued to console the girl, "I don't blame you for trying to avenge your family, but you should see to sorting out your own family first."
"H-he's lying!" Parker stammered, "don't listen to him, sis!"
"Parker," his sister spoke. Parker silenced himself as soon as he heard his sister's tone. That emotionless, neutral tone always suggested she was not happy, "Did you lie to me?" a violent aura seemed to resonate from the girl as she slowly turned her head towards her brother. Her stare alone was enough to paralyze him, "Well..?"
Parker began to sweat buckets, "Uh… well—it's like this."
Before anyone knew it, Parker's sister harshly tugged on his ear, "PARKER!" she screamed, "YOU ARE IN BIG TROUBLE YOUNG MAN! WAIT UNTIL MOM HEARS ABOUT THIS! WHEN WE GET BACK HOME YOU'RE IN FOR THE PUNISHMENT OF A LIFETIME!" she tugged even harder, making Parker squirm and scream in protest.
"And there's enlightenment," Chuck remarked to himself.
The girl took a moment away from scolding her brother to address Chuck, "So sorry about this, sir."
"It's Chuck," he informed.
"Right, Chuck, I hope you can forgive me."
"No worries, you were just standing up for your family," Chuck said, removing Parker's duel disk from his arm before handing it to his sister, "I won't blame you for something like that."
"Well, that's a relief," the girl rubbed the back of he neck, giving Chuck a grateful smile, "Say, do you think we can duel again sometime?"
"It's a promise," Chuck nodded, "What's your name?"
"It's Aella," she replied, "And I'll hold you to that promise," she then turned her attention towards the boy whose ear she still held tightly, adopting a more stern disposition, "As for you, mister, we're going home!"
"No fair!" Parker whined as Aella dragged him out of the park.
Chuck watched the two siblings walk off into the distance. Hopefully, this experience will teach Parker a valuable lesson about humility. So much happened in such a short amount of time, what was he even doing before hand? He suddenly remembered and felt a pit in his stomach. He was late for an arrangement. Now she was going to give him an earful.
Chuck entered a lotted building after another ten minutes of walking. When he entered, he was face to face with a middle aged woman with brown eyes and short blonde hair. She wore a navy blue business jacket, short pencil skirt, and high heels. She also wore a white, long sleeved button up shirt and a red tie underneath her jacket.
"Mr. Ikari, there you are!" confronted, her face red with anger.
"Hey there, Karey," Chuck replied half-heartedly.
The woman known as Karey placed her hands on her hips as she continued to speak, "Where have you been?! You said you were going for a quick food run, but it's been 40 minutes since you left!" well, more like yell.
"Sorry, but some things came up," Chuck responded.
"Did you start dueling random bystanders again?!"
"And why would that be a bad thing? Isn't dueling supposed to be my job?" Chuck reasoned.
"Hey, Charles," Karey spoke in a low voice, "Who's the manager here?"
"You are…" Chuck replied with his eyes drooping. Not this again.
"That's right, and who has more experience in image marketing?"
"You do…"
"Precisely. So when I tell you to wear a disguise when you go out, you shouldn't go around waving your cards around. Someone will figure out who you are and the press will follow us like vultures!"
Chuck rubbed the back of his head, "Look, I'm sorry, alright. I wont let it happen again."
"Yeah, just as I'm sure the last five times you told me that!" Karey resumed yelling.
"Chill out, I'm here now aren't I?"
"That's not the—fine," Karey managed to somewhat calm down, "Whatever, lets just shoot the ad."
"Yeah, but let me get this crap off me first," Chuck went on and removed both his cap and sunglasses, revealing ocean blue eyes and unkempt ebony hair with a golden streak running through the middle. Chuck also tore off his varsity jacket and threw it to the side, revealing a simple white t-shirt. He walked over to a chair where a well-worn hoodie rested. It was black with a broken zipper and numerous Duel Monsters pins attached to the front. Chuck grabbed it and put it on, feeling more comfortable than that stuffy varsity jacket, "Much better."
Inside the building was a host of filming equipment: lights, boom mics, multiple cameras set up for various angles, and other various equipment. There was a set comprising of stone steps positioned behind a green screen. Chuck was seating on the steps with a can of soda in his hand. The crew scurried about getting everything ready with the director sitting in his chair issuing orders.
"Okay, we're ready to begin," the director barked, "And action!"
Chuck cleared his throat and put on the most sincere fake smile he could muster, "Y'now, dueling's thirsty work. Whenever I feel like… uhhh…"
"CUT!"
"Sorry, forgot my line," Chuck apologized.
"You only have a few lines. Didn't you read the script?"
"I did read the script—one time," Chuck admitted, resulting in a round of facepalms from one too many people, "Listen, I needed to work out my new strategy, I forgot about memorizing. Mind giving me a refresher course?"
The director gritted his teeth before he composed himself with a deep breath, "Your line is 'whenever I feel like relaxing, I like to sit down with a refreshing drink of healthy Diet Schmola."
"Right, right, thank you."
The director rubbed his temples in response, "Take two. Action!"
"Y'now, dueling's thirsty work. Whenever I feel like rehabbing, I—pfftt hahahhahahaha! Did I seriously just say that?! Hahahahaha!"
The production crew couldn't help but chuckle at what just happened. The director didn't seem to consider it funny. He only blankly stared at Chuck as he had his laughing fit.
"Cut!" the director screamed, "Will you stop laughing already!?"
Chuck forced himself to stifle his laughter, "Okay okay. I'm done now," he rushed as he took his time to catch his breath, "Alright, I'm ready."
"Are you?" the director muttered under his breath, "Take three. And action!"
"Y'know, dueling'sss—ahahahaha!" everyone resumed laughing. The director, for his part, jumped out of his chair and began throttling his megaphone, all the while muttering obscenities.
"All right, you know what, let's just skip to the scene where you drink the soda," he exasperated.
"Okay," Chuck gave the director a thumbs up, and then stifled a chuckle, still not over his blunder.
"Alright. Scene 27, take one. Action!"
Chuck took a big swig of the can in his hand, needing to brace himself for the terrible taste of Diet Schmola, Chuck suddenly remembered when he felt like rehabbing. He made a violent impulse and sputtered the soda in a fit of laughter. Some of the soda flowed out of his nose. Everyone besides Karey and the director burst into laughter at this scene.
"Oh god, my nose is burning," Chuck said, feeling the fizz burning his nostrils.
"Well, that couldn't have gone any worse," Karey muttered as Chuck was wiping his face clear of residual diet soda. After a ten minute rant from the director, the shooting was canceled.
"Listen, I didn't even want to do this sponsorship anyway," Chuck replied, "I don't even like Diet Schmola."
"This is why I'm the manager and you're just the guy who slings cards around," Karey shook her head, "We need to tap into these popular markets if we want our reputation to increase."
"How in Hell is Diet Schmola even popular?" Chuck muttered.
Karey narrowed her eyes at Chuck and exploded in passionate fury, "Well, if you feel that way, maybe we should cancel the trip to the school after your match tomorrow too!"
As soon as Chuck heard that, his mood shifted immediately, "Absolutely not! I've been looking forward to the school visit for weeks now!"
Karey almost felt a vein burst in her forehead, "Mr. Ikari, you do know what sarcasm is, don't you?"
Chuck's eyes dilated, "Oh… Right…" now feeling silly, Chuck decided to check his phone for anything to distract himself, "Wait, where's my phone?" It wasn't in any of his pockets. Where was the last place he saw it? "Crap! I left it at the pizza place!" Chuck rushed out of the building as fast as he could. Karey almost felt an aneurism coming. This was the third time he lost his phone this week. How on earth was this fool a Duel Monsters champion?
If you need a visual indication of what Chuck's hair looks like, look at the pony oc with the meme face that is my profile picture. And yes, black and gold hair is another Yusei parallel, but I swear that's a coincidence.
Edit: I created a cover image for this story showing what Chuck looks like. I'm happy with how it turned out.