Heart of a Dragon 2

Chapter 2

-Joey-

Grunting he opened the bedroom of his new apartment and dropped his briefcase onto a table, collapsing into a chair as he stifled a yawn. All throughout the boat ride back to Domino the others, apart from Yugi, had been pestering him about his new job with Pegasus as they wanted every single detail. Yugi, thankfully, was willing to let him have some peace after making sure that he actually trusted the deal. "What the…" he muttered as he noticed something off about the briefcase lid before prying back what was apparently a removable panel and found a stack of cards with a note. Shuffling through the cards his eyes went wide as he read the note and laughed happily, oh this was going to be fun.

"You alright there gramps?" he asked as he caught the elderly Motto when the old man started to stumble, the group having just picked Solomon up from the hospital as they were taking him home.

"I'm alright Joseph." Solomon assured him, "I'm just a little stiff.".

"Just promise me you'll take it easy," he asked as he helped right the man who was like a grandpa to the whole group "I'd rather not see your wrinkly old but get sent back to the Hospital.".

"Is that so you whipper snapper?" Solomon Motto asked but he could see the amusement in the old man's eyes "Don't forget that I could school you in a duel any day of the week my young apprentice.".

"Of course Darth Grandpa," he said with a snort "but in the meantime it's bedtime and prune juice for you.".

"Why you little!" Solomon exclaimed before the group dissolved into laughter.

"Hey!" a little voice called up as he turned to see a small blonde girl with a teddy bear standing next to a cart full of luggage, "I've got something to say to you. That is, if you're who you think you are.".

"This is not gonna be good." He muttered, getting a bad feeling from the situation as he wished he had finished his new deck.

"Are you Solomon Motto?" the little girl demanded as she pointed at Gramps who nodded in hesitant confusion.

"I am…and who might you be?".

"Who might I be?" the little girl asked in the 'innocent' voice that conveyed she was pissed "I might be Rebecca, and I might have just arrived here in town, and I might have been waiting for you to show up. It's not nice to keep a lady waiting you know." As she finished she waved her finger chidingly at the group.

"Did you call ahead to let us know you were coming?" he asked as she blinked in surprise "If not then you have no room to complain. And what are you even doing, a little kid like you travelling by yourself. You could get hurt.".

"Well I can take care of myself," the girl said arrogantly "and even still I have Teddy to protect me. Isn't that right Teddy?" she cooed at the bear as he face palmed.

"She's lost it." he whispered to Tristan who grimaced.

"I doubt she even had it to begin with." His friend whispered back.

"Rebecca," Solomon spoke up gently "what is it you even want from me?".

"I want my blue eyes white dragon back!" the girl demanded angrily as she thrust her hand out, "You have my card so give it back to me!".

"There's a slight problem with that." Tea muttered with a wince.

"The Blue Eyes White Dragon is an Ultra Rare and Powerful card that only belongs in the Deck of a True Champion. I, Rebecca, am a True Champion, having beaten many top duelists while you were away." The little girl spoke up with a cocky smirk.

"You aren't even in the top ten little girl," he said with a snort before turning to Solomon, ignoring the outraged brat "can I borrow your phone gramps? I think we should call child services to take the delusional little girl away.".

"How dare you?!" Rebecca yelled, stamping her foot in outrage, "Just because you got second place in Duelist Kingdom doesn't mean anything as first place is the only place that matters.".

"Do you know nothing about the international ranking systems kid?" he asked with a raised eyebrow and, when he saw even his own friends staring at him in confusion, he sighed and reached into his satchel, pulling out his laptop as he set it up on the wall and pulled up a page. "Industrial Illusions keeps a list online of the top one hundred duelists in the world at any given time." He explained as he pulled up the list, "And since Duelist Kingdom It's been updated. Yugi here's ranked number one, as one would expect, but Pegasus his placed myself as number two in the world, himself at three, Mai Valentine at four, Bandit Keith at five, Seto Kaiba at six, Weevil Underwood at seven, Rex Raptor at eight, Mako Tsunami at nine, and the Paradox brothers share slot number ten. If you're the Rebecca I'm thinking of then you're ranked fourteen behind Ethan Shark, Vivian Wong, and Balfry Ginger.".

"He placed you above himself?" Tristan asked in surprise "I figured that you would be place number three if they did something like this as you lost to Yugi and didn't' duel Pegasus.".

"Hey don't ask me, I don't make the list." He shrugged before closing the laptop and turned back to the fuming little girl "Now are you going to behave or are you going to leave?" he asked with an uncaring shrug.

"I demand the right to duel for my card!" the girl yelled.

"On what grounds?" he asked irritated "Gramps here got that card decades before you were born and all you've done is demand his property. What could you possibly offer to make that a fair bet?".

"My entire deck!" the girl said haughtily "Now duel me you coward!".

Growling he turned to his mentor, "Gramps," he said seriously as his teacher looked back at him "let me take this one and teach this little brat a lesson in the heart of the cards as well as real life. I promise that I won't let you down.".

Solomon was silent for a moment before nodding, "I trust you Joey." Solomon said "Show her the truth behind the heart of the cards.".

An hour and a half later he stood inside one of the Kaiba Land Duel Rings, Mokuba having pulled some strings to get them in while the two Kaiba brothers sat at the top of the arena to watch the duel or, as Seto put it, 'massacre'. "Nice Duel Arena," Rebecca sneered "a bit small though.".

"Hey brat," he called out from his platform "get into your duel tower already or do you need time for your afternoon nap with 'Teddy'?".

At that comment Rebecca growled angrily "It doesn't matter how you're ranked internationally this is still pathetic you against genius me so you don't stand a chance!" Rebecca yelled before she jumped into her duel tower. "I'll start out by summoning witch of the Black Forest in attack mode!" (Attack: 1100, Defense: 1200) Rebecca called out as the monster appeared and he had to resist sighing in exasperation at the move.

"You done yet?" he asked bored as she growled but nodded, "Then allow me to show you a real opening move! I know you only summoned that card to use its ability after it was destroyed but is it really worth loosing thirteen hundred life points? I summon my Red Eyes Black Dragon to the field in attack mode!" (Attack: 2400, Defense: 2000).

"What?!" Rebecca yelled wide eyed as his dragon rose up with a fearsome screech.

"Inferno fire blast!" he called out as the crimson orb of destructive power blew apart Rebecca's witch and over half of the girl's life points.

"My move!" Rebecca snarled angrily "And when my Witch is destroyed then I get to add another monster with fifteen hundred or less defense from my deck to my hand and I'll choose my Sangan before summoning him in defense mode!" (Attack: 1000, Defense: 600).

"And when Sangan is destroyed you can add a monster with fifteen hundred or less attack to your hand," he said with a small snort "you done?".

"Yes." Rebecca growled "You just wait, I'll beat you in this duel and then I'll sick Teddy on you!".

"I summon the Flame Swordsman!" (Attack: 1800, 1600) he called out "And attack your Sangan with my Dragon!".

With a screech his dragon once again blew apart the girl's monster as she yelled in shock, "That's it, no mo playing around!" the girl yelled as she took a card from her deck "Thanks to Sangan's ability I can add one monster with fifteen hundred or less attack from my deck to my hand and I choose my Millennium Shield and I summon it in Defense Mode!" (Attack: 0, Defense: 3000).

"My go then!" he called out "And I'll play the spell card Double Summon to give me two summonings this turn! I'll use them to bring out Swamp Battleguard (Attack: 1800, Defense: 1500) and Lava Battleguard (Attack: 1550, Defense: 1800), each one gaining five hundred attack points with the other on the field.".

"It doesn't matter," Rebecca sniffed disdainfully "none of them can go up against my Millennium Shield.".

"Not quite," he said with a smirk "I play the spell card Shield and Sword to switch the attack and defense points of every monster in play for this turn before destroying your shield with my Red Eyes!".

"No!" Rebecca screamed as the shield shattered. "Fine then!" Rebecca yelled "I'll play dark hole to destroy every monster on the field!".

"No!" he heard Tristan and Tea yell in panic while he remained stone faced at the move, silently thanking his monsters as he moved them to the Graveyard.

"Joseph," Solomon spoke up as he looked over to see the grinning old Motto "I can tell you're planning something so make it count.".

"It doesn't matter what he plans because without that Red Eyes he's worthless!" Rebecca called out cheerfully "Now I'll play my own double summon to bring out my Cannon Soldier (Attack: 1400, Defense: 1300) and my Shadow Ghoul (Attack: 1600, Defense: 1300) which gains one hundred attack points for every monster in my Graveyard!" (Shadow Ghoul new attack: 1900)

"My move then," he said calmly as he drew before smirking as he decided to play one of the cards he had gotten from Pegasus and another he had gotten from Rex along with Red Eyes "and I'll start out…by summoning my second Red Eyes Black Dragon!".

"Second one?!" Rebecca yelled in shock, a sentiment that was shared by his friends and the Kaiba brothers.

"That's right," he smirked as his fearsome dragon rose up with a screech to avenge the first fallen red eyes "and then I'll give her a little manicure with the spell card dragon nails which will raise her attack by six hundred points. Now, Red Eyes, wipe out that cannon solider!". With a fearsome screech the red eyes fired and destroyed the monster, taking away the last of Rebecca's life points as the duel holograms faded away, "Thanks Red Eyes." He said to the card with a grin, sure he could hear a screeching roar returned in kind.

"I don't care that I lost!" Rebecca yelled before running over to Solomon "I demand my card back right now!".

"Rebecca that's enough!" a stern, disappointed, voice called out as a tall elderly man walked in "I am very disappointed in your behavior.".

"G-grandpa?" the shocked girl as she stared at the man.

"Hello Arthur," Solomon said with a smile while walking over "it's good to see you my old friend.".

"Likewise Solomon old friend." The tall man said happily "And would I be correct in guessing that you trained that young man who just dueled my misbehaving granddaughter?".

"Yes I did," Solomon said proudly "I've only trained Joseph and my grandson Yugi but now they're ranked as the top two duelists in the world and I couldn't be prouder!".

"B-but grandpa," Rebecca said wide eyed "that man stole the Blue Eyes.".

"No he didn't Rebecca and I don't know where you got such a ludicrous idea." Arthur Hawkins said with a frown before telling them all the story about the dig in Egypt where the two old timers had met and where Solomon had saved Arthur Hawkins' life. "And so I gave him my Blue Eyes white Dragon as a sign of our friendship." Arthur explained to them all, "And now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to take my granddaughter home. It would seem that I still have much to teach her.".

After shaking hands with the man he and the others watched as the two Hawkins family members drove off, "While Arthur may still have more to teach his granddaughter I can't think of much more I can teach you Joseph," Solomon spoke up "you have truly become an excellent duelist and an excellent man.".

"Thanks Gramps," he said with a smile as he shook hands with his mentor "that means a lot to me.".

"Why I think this calls for us to all go out and celebrate!" Solomon said happily, the old man thrusting his arm up into the air before groaning and doubling over at a cracking sounds.

"How about you celebrate at home in bed with some prune juice?" he suggested as they all laughed happily and helped the old Motto back to the card shop.

AN: Okay everyone as you can probably tell from this chapter I really don't like Rebecca all that much so sorry if you're a fan of her. Anyway, next chapter is going to take place a couple weeks before Battle City and will be a few months after this chapter is set (don't worry, what happens will be explained in flashback) and you'll also get to meet Joey's love interest so later everybody!