Episode Five: That's 'Captain Jack'!

It had been a week since Ark's rematch with Dr Beckett in the Botanical Gardens but things weren't weird between them... in fact they were better. She'd stopped giving him a hard time in class but she hadn't made him out to be her favourite either. He was glad with the way things were going, he was starting to fade into the background which is where he wanted to be, he knew he could do much better than most of the kids attending and wanted to give them a fair chance, besides his real project was to help his new friends get through the year with better experiences than they first imagined... Quentin in particular. The little blue fox was growing on him and looked at him as somewhat of a little brother, he'd grown a little over the last week, he no longer stared at the floor everywhere he went... he still shied away from most of the conflict and competition but it was a start. Jack on the other hand...

The guy had one hell of an ego but he was good people, he insisted that everyone call him 'Captain' Jack, Ark never asked him his last name but would so slap the guy if it was 'Sparrow'.

He was a semi-decent duellist, had skill but not much forethought, he played for the moment and didn't plan ahead for a possible counter attack, Ark had tried pointing it out subtlety but it seemed to go over his head most times.

Today was the first time Ark's dorm master Mr Gill was going to be teaching their year and he was interested on what he was going to teach, the guy looked a bit unorthodox.

The rest of the guys rolled up before the lecture started pulling up alongside Ark and McKenzie.

"S'up guys?" McKenzie asked in his usual chipper disposition,

"Awesome, won yet another match against some kid from Red this morning. Fell to the overwhelming power of the seven seas and the feared Captain Jack." Jack boasted.

A group of Sapphire Blue students sat a row up and over started to snicker which Jack took immediate offence to, and like any good pirate would, went looking for a fight.

"What's so funny if you don't mind me asking." Jack grumbled through clenched fists and teeth,

"You, you're hilarious. Overwhelming power, the feared... hahahaha, you're a joke." The blue cried with laughter,

"I've won lots of duels, so you can't say nothing." Jack said still with clenched fists,

"I bet they were all kids in red too. Like i said you're a joke." The blue said pointing an accusatory finger at him,

"Not all of them..." Jack said feeling a little uneasy,

"Just as i thought, the 'feared' duellist picking on the defenceless. Just like your uniform indicates... a coward."

After he'd finished talking the group of blues started laughing again, Jack tried to keep his cool but looked about ready to crack. Ark quickly spotting a volcano about to erupt jumped in between them and tried to calm things down.

"And just like blues to think of themselves as high and mighty, you guys are nothing but losers to me you know." Ark almost growled trying to switch attention to himself,

"Bah, you're no fun. Trust you to need to run to your boyfriend to defend you." The blue said seeming to lose his enthusiasm.

Ark just gave them a look when he heard a noise from behind him, he turned to see Jack with his fist slammed into a desk. Without a word he ran out of the lecture hall, everyone looked stunned for a moment as the Blues once again burst into laughter.

"Now you've done it buddy." McKenzie said not showing the smile he always wore,

"Dang it..." Ark said as he went after him.

Ark managed to catch up with Jack in the centre of the quad by the monument with the clock. He didn't know what he was going to say but he had to make amends for butting in when Jack obviously wanted to stand up for himself.

"Jack, i'm sorry okay." Ark apologized,

"Yeah well you should be... you think its good for me to have you rescue me from those assholes?" Jack raged, but not entirely directed at him,

"My fault i know, but you shouldn't invite digs like that." Ark said,

"I've beaten tons of duellists here... i deserve a bit of respect." Jack grumbled,

"I've seen your matches, you've faced red and yellows but never above. You claim to be feared but you don't tread into deep water." Ark said trying to make him see the truth,

"I could beat anyone, anytime, any day! I'm Captain Jack!!!" Jack yelled,

"Fine, lets put your theory to the test... lets see you take me down Captain Jack!" Ark said pulling out his duel disk from his bag and strapping it to his arm.

Jack looked a little shaken by Arks sudden challenge but reached for his own duel disk. They both readied their decks and drew their hands.

"Game on!" They both said.

Back at the lecture hall the others were wondering what was taking so long, it'd been 20 minutes since Jack had stormed off and they were worried about their friends. They'd all exchanged glances now and then as the lesson had progressed until McKenzie received a message on his PDA, one of his dorm mates had sent him a message;

"Dude, your buddies are duking it out in the quad... it's freakin' awesome."

He quickly showed the message to Tara who was sat next to him, she nodded and prodded Quentin nodding her head towards the door, they both took off running with McKenzie in tow but before he could reach the door Mr Gill spoke up.

"I hope at least one of you will be staying to make notes Mr Mckenzie?" Mr Gill asked quite politely,

With a defeated sigh McKenzie returned to his seat, "Yes sir."

_ It didn't take them long to race to the quad, they could see the signs of a duel before they even got there, they didn't know why they were duelling but they would find out._

The field was empty on Jacks side and he didn't look very settled in fact he looked quite broken, like he had looked at himself from the outside and didn't like what he saw.

Ark stood opposite him the usual stoic demeanour as he stood alongside his Silent Swordsman Lv7.

"I hope this duel has shown you exactly what you're capable of Jack." Ark said sounding colder than he meant to.

Jack couldn't say anything, he was just frozen on the spot. Ark just sighed and threw his arm out in front commanding his swordsman to land the final blow. With the swipe of his sword Jacks life point counter hit 0 and the game was over. He fell to his knees and tried to figure out at what point he lost.

Tara and Quentin ran over to Jack to help him up.

"You didn't have to do this to him you know." Tara yelled at Ark,

"Yes i did... he needed to know he wasn't invincible." Ark said walking over to them,

"Did it have to be so rough?" Quentin asked,

Ark just looked at Jack who was finally looking at him, "You don't learn anything by winning. Only through loss do we identify our flaws and grow stronger."

"Losing... makes us stronger?" Jack said slightly confused,

"Anyone can win, but if you can lose with grace and come back stronger. You're the better man if you win or lose." Ark said holding out a hand.

Jack didn't know what to make of Arks words but knew he had a point, after all he was older and had life experience and if anything he respected that. He took the offered hand and got off the floor.

"Trust me Jack, with a few pointers and a little more humility, you'll put those blues in their place." Ark said,

"Any ideas where to start?" Jack asked with a resigned nod,

"A few... time to make you a Blue defeating machine." Ark said as he led them all off.

After McKenzie finally got free of Mr Gills lecture he went running to the quad hoping the rest of them would still be there. The quad was sprawling with late afternoon hustle and bustle but his friends were nowhere to be seen. He sighed and started to find out where his friends had gone until he stopped by a park bench across from the clock tower when he heard two girls talking.

"Did you hear about the pirate guy?" The redhead asked,

"The one who's been outside the blue dorm, like oh ma gawd." The blonde replied,

"He's been taking them out like one by one." The redhead said,

"Like no way, that's like totally rude." The blonde said getting defensive,

"Hey girls, the pirate guy... which way?" McKenzie asked,

"Your like Arks friend, they're at the blue dorm, that way." The redhead replied,

"Tell him i said hi... he's a total stud." The blonde shouted after him as he ran towards the blue dorm.

McKenzie found the blue dorm and there was a fairly big crowd built up around the front lawn, he pushed through to see Ark stood to one side. He ran over to him and spotted Tara and Quentin stood nearby, but couldn't see Jack.

"Where's Jack?" McKenzie said trying to catch his breath,

"Check it out." Ark said just pointing towards a pair of students ahead.

One of them was Jack and he was squaring off with the guy who'd been in the class earlier. They looked ready to duel.

"You think just cos you beat some of these weaklings you can take anyone on. But i'm no weakling if my name isn't Jeffrey Monroe." Monroe said placing his deck in the duel disk,

"Just another name to add to Captain Jacks list of vanquished foes." Jack said doing the same,

"You're never gonna get that to stick you know, just quit now cos i'm going to crush you." Monroe said drawing his first card, "I discard my Thunder Dragon to the graveyard in order to take 2 more copies of it from my deck and add them to my hand, i then use Polymerization to fuse them both together to form my Twin Headed Thunder Dragon."

Twin Headed Thunder Dragon

Lv7 - Light Attribute - Thunder/Fusion - A:2800/D:2100

Material: Thunder Dragon/Thunder Dragon

The huge monster took to the field and shocked the onlookers, not many people threw something so powerful out on their first turn. Jack looked a little shaken by the rash move but wasn't caught unprepared, after all he was Captain Jack.

"Captain Jack taking command." He said as he drew, "My Legendary Ocean field spell is just as legendary as me and decreases the level of water type monsters in my hand and on my field by one star, making them easier to summon... also i play this face down and summon my Amphibious Bugroth in attack mode."

Amphibious Bugroth

Lv4 - Water Attribute - Machine/Effect - A:1500/D:1200

When the field card 'Umi' is in play this monster can attack your opponent directly.

"Oh and by the way, my Legendary Ocean has a fun little effect of counting as the Umi field Spell while on the field... giving my Amphibious Bugroth a free pass at your life points. And with 200 extra attack points its hitting you for 1700." Jack said with a fist pump.

The machine let loose a barrage of torpedoes that flew straight past the Twin Headed Dragon and exploded in front of Monroe which left him somewhat angry at taking so much damage so early.

"My turn is over, so lets see what you got." Jack said standing ready,

"You'll regret saying those words. I summon my Giga-Tech Wolf in attack mode and activate my Tribute Doll spell card to tribute my wolf for my Barrel Dragon." Monroe grinned.

Barrel Dragon

Lv7 - Dark Attribute - Machine/Effect - A:2600/D:2200

Once per turn during your main phase toss a coin 3 times and if 2 results are heads then you can destroy 1 monster on your opponents field.

"Time to see how lucky you are." Monroe said as three coins appeared.

_ The three coins flipped up into the air and spun their for a second or two before coming back down to land in front of them. All three of the results were heads._

"Time for your monster to pay the price, Barrel Dragon take aim and FIRE!"

The three barrels charged up and fired a blinding beam of energy which practically dissolved the smaller machine without any effort.

"Now for the direct attack, and both are gunning for ya!" Monroe grinned with glee.

The combined total of the two monsters attack points was 5300 which left Jack with very little life points remaining. But Jack didn't look too shaken by the attack, like he expected some rough counter attack.

"My turn now and i play my Premature Burial spell card to bring back my Bugroth from the Graveyard, it cost me 800 life points but well worth the price when i bring out my dreaded beastie. I sacrifice my monster to summon my Levia-Dragon Daedalus!" Jack said.

Levia-Dragon Daedalus

Lv7 - Water Attribute - Sea Serpent/Effect - A:2600/D:1500

"I send my Legendary Ocean card to the graveyard to wipe the field clean with a tidal wave of destruction!"

With the Field removed from the field the water turned into a huge tidal wave which washed away the Twin headed dragon and the barrel dragon as well as Jacks face down card.

"Now Daedalus can launch his direct attack at your defenceless self!" Jack grinned, "Any last words before he totally toasts your ass?"

All Monroe could do was grumble as the tidal attack hit him full force knocking off another 2600 of his life points, he couldn't believe this guy had gotten two direct hits on him of all people... maybe he wasn't as bad as he first thought. He was a blue and refused to believe an Amber Yellow student could beat Jeffrey Monroe. He drew his next card and grinned a sly grin.

"I play my Card of Sanctity spell card to give us both new cards till we each have six in our hands, i the play my Monster Reborn spell card to bring back my Barrel Dragon and play another Polymerization to fuse him with the Blowback Dragon in my hand to summon Gatling Dragon in attack mode."

Gatling Dragon

Lv8 - Dark Attribute - Machine/Effect - A:2600/D:1200

Once per turn flip 3 coins. Destroy monsters on the field equal to the number of heads.

"Normally i'd be busting out his special ability, but with only 2 monster s on the field and my luck on the coin toss... i'd be hurting myself more than you."

"So we're at a stalemate, our monster are evenly matched at 2600 a piece." Jack observed,

"Maybe so, but i have other plans. I lay two cards face down and end my turn." Monroe said passing the turn over.

Jack didn't know what to make of the tie breaker, both monsters were evenly matched, but he knew bringing out extra defence was inviting Monroe to use Gatling Dragons special ability, but he couldn't sit idly by and do nothing. He hoped for a new field card on his draw but with no such luck, a clean field would have made a huge difference again.

He did however score a Mystical Space Typhoon to try and rid the field of a trap card, he chose to use it on Monroes left most rear guard and was happy to see a Mirror Force pop up and disintegrate, at least he didn't have to worry about that stopping any of his plans. This thinking ahead thing was actually working for him, though he was stumped at how to proceed from his stalemate though, his strongest card was already on the field. He decided to risk a move rather than waiting for a counter attack.

"I summon Mermaid Knight in attack mode."

Mermaid Knight

Lv4 - Water Attribute - Aqua/Effect - A:1500/D:1200

When 'Umi' is face up on the field this card can attack twice per turn.

"Now i attack Gatling Dragon with my Levia-Dragon, here goes nothing." Jack commanded as he put his all into a risky move,

"Nothing is all you're getting, i activate my Limiter Removal, doubling my monsters attack points to 5200." Monroe laughed.

With the boost his spell card gave him it made his monster too powerful for his to beat as well as his life points to take the hit. When his points meter dropped to 0 the holograms vanished and Monroe started to laugh.

"So much for the feared legendary duellist. Told you you were worthless." He mocked.

It was at this moment that something unexpected happened, the crowd started chanting 'Captain Jack, Captain Jack.'

Ark just stood with a grin on his face as he watched the confused Blues before him. Jack was also confused at why they were cheering for the loser of the duel but didn't seem to have a problem as his face suddenly lit up with a childish grin. He threw his fist into the air while the blues walked off muttering to themselves, Jack then took the parade of students away back towards the quad.

"That is without doubt the worst pirate i've ever heard of." Tara laughed,

"At least you've heard of him." Ark said with a smile.