Soul of the Dragon

Chapter 6: Locked Up Part 2

"There's no way you've got the skills to take me down," Tanner bragged. "Do you have any idea what you're gettin' into, kid?"

"Bring it on, and find out!" Yusei challenged. His stoic face remained unchanged.

"Well, at least you've got the whole attitude thing covered," Tanner commented.

"You're gonna duel with the old guy's deck?"

"Guess you're lookin' to be embarrassed by Tanner as well!"

"They are bunk mates, maybe Crazy's contagious."

Tanner's posse was good at insults, but not for long.

"You don't have to do this, ya know!" Yanagi told Yusei worriedly.

"If I don't step up, I'll never live it down." Yusei shook off the offer.

/

Lise was still fast asleep in her small room. Dreams good and bad swam through her mind.

A doctor was inside cleaning things up while the others scribbled half-heartedly on their clipboards behind a protective barrier. The only reason why that one doc was in there was because he picked the short straw.

Suddenly Lise's eyes whooshed open. Bright red light erupted across her marks and eyes. The shackles holding her down shredded to pieces and she hovered several feet off her bed. She was still asleep, but the dragon inside was wide awake. Anything that wasn't rooted to the ground soared everywhere in self-created wind. In the part of Lise's mind that was still awake, she murmured indiscernible words.

/

Yusei cringed when his mind's ear picked up on Lise's panic. Luckily for him, Tanner and his gang hadn't noticed. Yusei put a hand to the spot that flashed with pain. Was that Lise? What did she say? In the back of his head, he could feel a sort of storm, or hurricane, blowing around. Almost like some kind of warning. Lise...something's wrong...

"You lose a duel in here, rookie, and no one's gonna respect you. And trust me, around here you survive on respect," Tanner reminded him.

Yusei brushed off the pain and activated his temporary duel disk. "Well then you better hope you don't lose."

"Let's do this!"

Yusei: 4000

Tanner: 4000

Tanner started things off. "Seniority rules here; I'm going first! Lemme introduce you to my little pet, Geri Gumo!"

(Geri Gumo: Atk: 2200 Def: 0000)

Yanagi recoiled in horror. "Spider!"

"What's wrong, Gramps? Creepy crawlies giving you the shakes? Come on Tanner, get him!" Tanner's supporters cheered him on.

"I place two cards face down and end my turn. It's your move, kid. How's the old timer's deck lookin? You gonna throw some garage sale rejects at me?" Tanner yelled.

Yanagi looked doubtful, and wished he was somewhere anywhere but there.

"Hey Yanagi, don't listen to anything these guys have to say. They don't know what they're talking about," Yusei assured him.

"But you saw me duel! Everything blew up in my face! I had my own butt handed to me!"

"Well let me show you what these ancient relics of yours can do in the right hands."

/

A fat police officer previously picking his nose, picked up the phone. He been watching everyone, and planned on watching this soon to be far more interesting duel.