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Episode Three: Duel Academy

It had finally arrived, the first day at Duel Academy, upon arriving at the island all the students were greeted by some of the Academy Proctors some of which Ark had seen at the entrance exams. The island was everything he expected it to be, thick canopies of trees covered the majority but unlike Central Academy this one seemed to have what seemed like a town dominating the centre. The main academy building was clearly discernible from the rest being a very large dome shaped building amidst the rather normal looking town structures. They were all led to a building near the front entrance with the sign 'Uniforms all sizes' out front and guessed this was where all new uniforms were issued or replacements were acquired.

An orderly line was formed in front of the counter with each student registering their name and getting their uniform. Ark looked back and wondered when the last time he ever wore a uniform was until a sign caught his eye, after glancing it over he found that only the jackets were essential parts of the uniform but other items could be collected here also.

It wasn't long before he made it to the counter and stood before a friendly looking middle aged man with short brown hair and a well kept moustache.

"Hello friend, would you please give me your name so i can enter your details and find your apprpriate uniform." He said with a smile,

"My name is Arkwright..." Ark began to say before he was cut off,

"Ah, the one who beat Dr Beckett. Me and some of the other guys here in town had a bet on whether you could beat her, made a pretty decent pot. So if you ever need anything just ask for Arty." Arty said as he turned to his computer terminal and entered the details, "Ah here we go."

Arty turned back to the woman stood behind him and asked for a numbered item. A few moments later she appeared again with his academy issue.

"You've been placed in Emerald Green, here is your issue. Any replacements need to be logged here and replacements can be acquired. Good luck to you Arkwright." Arty nodded as he handed over the package,

"Thanks Arty, see you around." Ark said as he turned to leave.

As soon as he got outside he decided to swap his casual jacket for his new uniform, no point waiting until later. As soon as he'd finished he heard a voice calling him over, looking up he saw McKenzie waving at him. As he strolled over he flicked he his head around taking in the sights of what would be home for a while.

"See you got into Green, not bad, not bad. Got into Amber Yellow myself which is pretty good for me" McKenzie said,

"What are the dorms here anyway... i thought they were based off the Egyptian God cards?" Ark asked,

"At Central Academy maybe, each academy does ranking and stuff differently here at Newlande Academy we go by the Crystal Beast system." McKenzie explained,

"System... you sound like a robot." Ark mocked,

"Shush you. The four dorms are from best to worst with Sapphire Blue being at the top followed by Emerald Green. Amber Yellow is next and Ruby Red comes in at the bottom." McKenzie continued,

"Well at least it's kinda the same... just with an added tier." Ark summed up,

"I guess... you think you'll ever bump into Sable again?" McKenzie asked,

"I hope so... but first i gotta prepare, so hopefully its a way off yet." Ark replied.

As they finished talking an announcement came over the PA system asking all new students to proceed to the main hall for the opening brief from the Academy Chancellor.

The main hall was all it could be, it was very, very big. A large monitor dominated one side with a stage set underneath it. Rows of seating that could easily fit nearly 500 people spread around the other half in a big semicircle in front of the stage. All the new students took seating nearest the stage at the bottom of the rows. A tall thin man of advancing years stood upon the stage waiting for everyone to be seated. He wore a blue uniform which meant he belonged to the Sapphire Blue group but the orange sash he wore across it meant he was something more.

"Alright settle down. My name is Professor Gerald Dekkard, i'm the Academy Vice Chancellor and i'll be the Dorm Headmaster for you Sapphire Blue students. I'm also head of the Disciplinary Committee so for those of you who constantly break campus rules we will be seeing a lot of each other." Dr Dekkard began.

As he was talking another man entered the room, he was much more heavier set than Dekkard and sported a dark goatee beard and short greased back hair. He took the stage behind Dekkard until he was done talking.

"Now, now Dekkard. We don't want you scaring our students before the day has even started now do we?" He asked with a pleasant smile etched on his face,

"Not at all Chancellor, i didn't think you were able to make it." Dekkard asked,

"Nonsense, i enjoy meeting my new students." He said walking past Dekkard to the front of the stage,

"Greetings students i am Chancellor Victor Redmond and will be the head of the Ruby Red dorm although you will have a different faculty member overseeing your day to day feel free to come to me with any questions you may have as my door is always open." Redmond said easing the nerves of the younger students from Dekkards earlier remarks, "Today is a free day where you will get to know the campus layout and meet your fellow peers, classes begin tomorrow according to your set schedules, which of course are accessible on your student PDA's which have been issued to you and left inside your dorm rooms. Please take a few moments to familiarise yourselves with these devices as they contain answer to most questions you might have. Welcome to Duel Academy."

Once Redmonds welcoming speech had ended all the students were shown to their respective dorms. As Ark arrived at the Emerald Green dorm he wasn't overly impressed, it seemed to be a fairly plain apartment building of some sorts. Once inside his mind changed, the rooms were fairly large although just a single room with an off bathroom.

"Not bad, better than my apartment." Ark muttered to himself.

Ark noticed a small device on the table next to his bed and guessed it was his PDA, which had a message waiting on it already. He shook his head and smiled when he saw the name 'McKenzie' on the message header and it read "Yeah, free text messaging. Oh and online stuff too and..." after that the message seemed to cut off.

"Guess he's excited about his new toy. To be that young again." Ark grinned as he put the PDA in his jackets inside pocket.

_He picked up his bag he'd set on the floor and opened it up and pulled out a large ring binder, a number of years he'd spent collecting this collection of cards of which nearly 1500 different cards were at his disposal all from the very old to the fairly new. He flicked through a couple of pages and remembered how he had acquired each and every one of them. Ark had always been lucky with opening packs of cards, while others he knew always spent a fortune on buying whole boxes to get the one card they wanted he only ever bought two or three and got what he needed. _

He stopped at a very memorable one, as he pulled it out of its page and held it he remembered his reaction. A 1st Edition Dark Magician Girl, he'd gotten it the same day the set had hit the shelves, he'd bought 3 packs and gotten it in the last one he opened and smiled as he thought that was the whole point of the game, the excitement of opening new packs. Sadly he knew it was lost on the current generation who went after specific cards on eBay or its like.

Breaking him out of his reverie was a buzzing noise, he quickly realised it was his PDA so he reached in his pocket and flicked it open, a message that read 'All Green students please head to the Dorm lobby'. Closing his binder and placing it on the desk in the corner he headed down to the lobby.

He saw the collection of Green students waiting in the lobby and guessed this is where he was supposed to be. A man wearing a white shirt with a green tie and a green armband on his right arm stepped in front of them all, he quickly nudged his glasses and waved them all over.

"Hello students, my name is Francis Gill and i'm the Emerald Dorm master. I'm here to set you about on your day to day schedules and also teach several classes as well. Firstly i will tell you a few things you need to know. First, though the academy has a large cafeteria situated in the town you can purchase items for your rooms kitchenette, how this works is simple, each student is given an allowance known as 'Duelist Points' or 'DP' for short. DP can also be acquired through all your duels, the better you duel the more you'll receive, though there is a cap on daily earnings. All stores in town accept DP and other forms of currency are not tendered here." Mr Gill said.

All the students nodded saying they understood the first item.

"Secondly, classes are OPTIONAL. But remember, if you don't attend you don't learn anything and are at a disadvantage to those that do attend. I recommend that all students attend all classes to keep the material fresh in their mind. And lastly, yes the campus has a place to acquire new cards. Though new shipments come every month so if the store runs out don't expect new stock until the next delivery, usually on the 3rd of each month. Okay, with that all out of the way i have one more thing to add, the arena has a procedure you must go through to be able to use it, fill out a request form at the arena administration office and you will be notified. Special requests will be considered if there is backing by a senior faculty member." Mr Gill finished.

All the students looked around at each other and nodded their approval.

"All that's left now is to send you out into the campus, don't forget to visit the 'Tech Shack' and receive your Academy Disk, if you have your own i will ask you to turn it in as you get your new one as each academy disk tracks your DP acquisition." Mr Gill said waving his hands out in front of him as a gesture for everyone to leave.

With all the information set firmly in mind Ark headed out into the campus town centre, students from all the dorm colours were roaming about taking pleasure in their off day before classes began. It didn't look all that different from any mainland town centre and he guessed it was so students wouldn't feel isolated being away from civilization. A hand grabbing his shoulder broke him from his thoughts.

"Had an interesting day so far Ark?" McKenzie asked,

"Well my Dorm head can talk more than you, so i guess so yeah." Ark laughed,

"This place is pretty cool, feels like it could be anywhere. Like any town in the world, pretty weird huh?" McKenzie observed,

"Kinda reminds me of a place i went to once. But then again i've been to a lot of places in my life." Ark said kind of drifting again.

After their observations about the town they headed to a nearby cafe to try out the 'local cuisine' which they found to be fairly packed full of students. There was one table with room and they happily let them join in with them. One of the Red students was a rather timid looking fox with sky blue fur and deep purple eyes and the other was a vixen with the most outlandish pink fur to contrast her dark brown hair, she seemed rather studious. The last was a human boy about the same age as McKenzie and had a playful air of personality around him, Ark probably thought him and McKenzie would become friends because of their personalities let alone they were in the same dorm.

"Hey, my name is Tara. This is Quentin." Tara said pointing at the blue fox who shyly waved a hand at them, "And the other one is Jack."

"My friends call me Captain Jack." Jack said with a laugh,

"My name is McKenzie and this is Ark." Mckenzie said pointing at Ark,

"Oh yeah the guy who beasted by Sable on the boat... sorry." Jack said suddenly feeling embarrassed,

"No worries, from what i hear there's not many if anyone who's beaten her yet. Though i do intend to before the end of the year." Ark said sitting back in his chair,

"Big claim, i hope it works out for you. Anyone who can beat a blue never mind Sable is good people in my books." Jack said with a nod.

There was silence for a few moments at the table until it was broken by Tara who Ark thought couldn't stand the silence for too long.

"So what's the reason you've all come here. For me it's a chance to finally get good at the game without all the tryhards beating me down every week." Tara said almost drearily,

"I just suck at the game." Quentin quickly said before disappearing back into his milkshake,

"I'm here to get some respect, then everyone will call me Captain Jack." Jack said almost posing at the name,

"I just wanted an experience, and to meet new people to annoy." McKenzie grinned a devilish grin but with harmless fun in mind,

"What about you Ark, you look a little old to be in school?" Tara asked,

"I need an Academy Pass to get back into the World League." Ark said,

"You were a tournament player? Awesome." Jack said almost leaping to attention,

"What's it like in the world league Ark?" Tara asked curiously,

"Like any other game, but the stakes, the competition are fiercer than you could ever imagine." Ark said feeling memories of past matches blow through his mind,

"Tell us about it." Quentin said emerging from his milkshake curiosity burning in his eyes.

All eyes were staring in his direction eagerly awaiting a story of his past glories and defeats to inspire them in the coming year. With a resigned sigh he began to tell them of his last tournament duel.

Both opponents stood facing each other down it was the make or break round of the duel with both opponents forced into a stalemate. Ark stood behind his Red Eyes Black Dragon while his opponent stood behind his Marshmallon.

"Alright my move and there's more than one way to toast a marshmallow!" Ark grumbled as he drew, "I play two cards face down on the back row and play Inferno 'Fire Blast' this card allows my Red Eyes' attack to be deducted from your lifepoints directly... but wait there's more. With my 'Serial Spell' it gains the effect of the last card played which is my Inferno Fire Blast, all i gotta do is toss out my current hand and you get burned for 4800 points of damage!"

_As the two fireballs struck the animation of the marshmallow as a burnt cinder suddenly shaking off to once again reveal a fluffy pink marshmallow with eyeballs. The life point counter now read 500 points for Arks opponent. _

"You almost had me but letting me survive the round is the last mistake you'll make in this tournament." He grinned,

"Not possible." Ark recoiled in surprise,

"Yes it's possible, the monster i played last turn you were too afraid to attack and with good reason. Go Dice Jar!" He commanded.

As commanded the face down monster on his field flipped up to reveal a small jar with a face which spat out a large stone dice.

"Now we each roll a dice and deal 500 points of damage per number on the dice to the player who loses the roll... that's 2500 points of damage." He grinned wider,

"Don't you mean 3000, dices tend to be six sided." Ark observed,

"Normally, but that's the plus side. The one who rolls a six does 6000 damage to the opposing player." He said laughing,

"That's a hell of a hit." Ark grimaced,

"Lets roll the dice shall we." He said as he rolled the stone die and it came up as a 4, "Your turn now."

"Go Dice Roll!" Ark said putting his all into the throw and seeing it come up as a 6, "YES! That's a roll of a winner my friend." Ark said exhaling his held breath,

"Normally yes, but my card says otherwise... i play my Spell of Pain spell card which reverses the direction of the damage hitting you with all 6000 points directly." He laughed again.

With Arks lifepoints hitting zero he was then out of the tournament and his hopes of the world league with it.

Tara who'd been listening intentively suddenly spoke.

"That sucks, one lucky move and that guy steals your spot in the world league?" She asked,

"I should've prepared for that kind of move, my mistake cost me my spot and it's not one i'm going to make again." Ark said finishing his story,

"I hope one day i can be as good as you Ark." Quentin said as he finished his milkshake,

"You probably are, you just don't know until you put yourself out there and try your best." Ark winked at the young fox.

Quentin seemed to perk up at the mere hint he could be a great duelist. For a brief moment each one of them considered what they were going to get out of the year very carefully. Tara was once again the one to break the silence.

"I have an idea, lets stick together this year. Alone we are vulnerable and flawed but together we are the masters of our dueling destiny!" She said almost leaping out of her seat,

"Like a team?" Quentin asked,

"More than a team, we'll show everyone how tough we can be." Tara said a fire setting her eyes ablaze with determination,

"I'm up for that." Ark smiled as he put his hand in the middle of the table,

"Alright, go team." Tara whooped and put her hand on Arks,

"Me too." Quentin said nervously but putting his hand ontop of Tara's,

"You need me or the team has no heart." McKenzie grinned putting his hand in,

"You can't have a team without Captain Jack." Jack said posing briefly before putting his hand in.

And with that they were set on their path, striving to be the best duelists in the academy.