Drakámon: The Dragon Trouble

Trevor flipped over his new Drakiel card onto the table. Max groaned. Max always picked Drazer in blind battles, where players only chose one card to battle. Trevor had been hoping he would do so again. He did.

Drazer had a weakness against electric Drakámon. Drakámons each had a type. flying, fire, electric, lunar, or heart. At this point, Max’s Drazer was a flying type, and its weakness to electric meant that Drakiel would deal double.

If Trevor won, as this was an official battle, he would get to choose a card from his opponent’s deck to keep. In this case, Drazer, because it was Max’s only card.. Trevor smiled, he would be able to get his hands on Max’s powerful Drazer!

“I’ll use Drakiel’s electric shock attack!” decided Trevor.

Drakiel wasn’t particularly strong. Cards had ratings, and it was only rated three stars out of a possible five. Not nearly as groundbreaking as five stars, but it could do the job against most one and two-stars. Those were usually the Drakámon that had to evolve into stronger four or five-star Drakámon. But sometimes the type was more important than the rating.

Electric shock did 80 damage, usually. Of course, Drazer had a weakness against Drakiel, so it did an incredible 160 damage. Now it was Max’s turn. He could use the move tough tremor, which would do 110 damage. Or he could use reckless heal, which would either heal Drazer for 80 health or make him lose 40 health based on a coin flip. .

Max decided to use reckless heal. He got heads on the coin flip, and so Drazer recovered to 120 health, out of his original 200. Drakiel remained unharmed at 150 health. Trevor was winning the game.

“All right, I’ll use electric shock again!” Trevor said, moving in for the kill after a few turns back and forth. With another 160 damage, Drazer was out! The five-star card was now Trevor’s.

“If only if I had enough energy cubes to use maximum tremor!” moaned Max. Maximum tremor was a move Drazor could use if it had three energy cubes. You get one Energy Cube in every single Drakamon Pack, so everyone had plenty. You could play one each turn. “I shouldn’t have agreed to this quick battle!”

Normally, Drakamon battles could last over an hour, but their match had been over in five minutes because it was a ‘quick battle’. Normally, you had to knock out five of the opponent’s Drakamon to win, but in ‘quick battles’ you only needed one. And while item cards were very important in the regular game they weren’t used in ‘quick battles’. Items like healing spray could have saved Max from that situation, or rough claw could have made his Drakámon deal more damage and allowed him to go on the offensive. Items were really useful at times. You could use it to make way for a combo, or just do that extra little damage for a knockout.

At that point, Max had already had one Energy Cube on Drazor, so if he had two more turns, he could use maximum tremor and likely have instantly won the battle. Max left, still upset at his loss.

Taking his new Drazer card, Trevor didn’t know how to use it in his normal decks. It was strong. It had a lot of potential. But it was a flying type Drakámon, and Trevor had few if any of that type. He would need to buy some more Drakámons packs.

Trevor only had three hundred dollars left, as he spent most of his money on his new game console, and the rest on Drakamon cards.

He headed to the nearest Drakámon card shop, Dragamart. He had never been to this shop before, as he was always going to Drakamon Central or Card Center, which was closer to his house. But as his battle with Max was an official one, they had met at the Drakamon Battle House. Trevor and Max mostly just played at the local Drakámon Corner, or at each other’s house. Going to this new shop he didn’t know what to expect.

Dragamart wasn’t too special, a bit expensive though. What would cost two hundred at Card Center would cost two hundred and fifty at Dragamart.

Trevor ended up deciding on a set. The Lunar Dragoon Premium set. It came with five extra Drakamon Packs, and a special Lunar Dragoon card, which was a five-star lunar type. He bought it because it was $198 after a 50% discount from a promotion they were running. Lunar Dragoon was a good card, since Trevor had tons of Lunar Type cards to combine it with. Its ability, lunar boost, increased lunar type Drakamon’s attack power.

Back home, Trevor eagerly opened his box of Drakamon cards, hoping to get some flying types. He took the Lunar Dragoon out first, then took out the packs.

‘Hmm…’ he thought, ‘these are cool packs! Crystal Ruin, Flaming Forge, Heart Z, and two Lunar Battles packs.’

He opened the two Lunar Battles first, and of course, he got a lot of lunar types. Nearly half of the cards he got were lunar. The only good one was Lunalek, a four-star lunar that could reflect damage.

Next, he opened his Heart Z pack. He struck gold. Heart of the Dragons! A Legendary five-star, heart type. His Crystal Ruin pack contained nothing good, then he moved on to his last pack, the Flaming Forge. He opened it and gasped, forgetting all about Heart of the Dragons. There it was, the rarest card in the set—Forgeflame! In its secret Golden Tint, with its flame creation attack that could nearly knock out any Drakamon. He had to show this off to Max tomorrow!

Trevor spent all night making his new Drakamon deck. Lunar Flames he called it. It was a lunar and fire-type deck, starring Lunar Dragoon, Lunalek, and of course, Forgeflame!

The next day, Trevor was ready to challenge Max.

They met up at the official Drakamon Battle Center, signing up for an official match again, but not a ‘quick battle’. Max, not knowing about Forgeflame was likely set on trying to win back Drazer. Max had brought his deck, Dragons, to challenge Trevor. It had one of the strongest Drakamons, Draxure, from the Dragons Arise set. Soon whoever won would be taking home a card from the other. Trevor was technically risking Forgeflame, but there was no way he would lose he felt.

They swapped decks before the start to inspect each other’s cards.

“What! You’re risking Draxure!?” Trevor exclaimed, with a hungry look..

Max’s suddenly stopped looking through Trevor’s deck. “What is this? It can’t be! Forgeflame! When did you get this!?” They returned their decks and began, both taking the battle deadly serious now.

Drawing five cards from his fifty-card deck, Trevor looked at his starting opens. One two-star Drakamon, two item cards, and two Energy Cubes, nothing strong.

Trevor’s first Drakamon was only a weak two-star Drakeyflame, but Max wasn’t doing much better. He placed down a one-star Droolex, which was one of the worst cards in his deck. Droolex could however evolve into a much stronger four-star Drakalex if Max had the right card and it wasn’t killed early. Trevor was hoping Max hasn’t drawn Drakalex.

Trevor started first, drawing a card, then attaching an energy cube to Drakeyflame. He used the move tiny flame, doing very little damage at first but setting Droolex on fire, which meant it would take damage every turn for three turns.

Max responded by attaching an energy cube to Droolex. He then used the item burn heal curing Droolex. Droolex had only taken 20 damage from tiny flame and another 20 from one turn of the burn. Droolex’s only attack, for now, was drool storm. It did 30 damage to Drakeyflame.

It was now Trevor’s turn, and he drew a card. He got a lunar type called Lunaris, a three-star. He started by attaching an energy cube to Drakeyflame, then finished off Droolex by using the two-energy attack fire storm, which did fifty damage to Droolex, knocking it out.

Next Max placed down a four-star Drakart, attaching an energy cube to it. Without using any item cards, Max instantly knocked out Drakeyflame with its dragon pulse, which did 70 damage.

Next turn, putting down Lunaris, Trevor drew a card. He got an Energy Cube. In his hand Trevor currently had one energy cube, a healing spray, a flame scarf, a lunar scarf, and a card called deck system, which would let him immediately draw 3 cards.

Attaching an energy cube to Lunaris Trevor used his deck system card, drawing 3 cards. Amazing! He got Forgeflame!

Suddenly, the room filled with a ghoulish red glow Both players stood up sharply in confusion.

“What was that?” Trevor asked. The glow disappeared again.

They ignored it and returned to the game. Trevor decided to use lunar strike, dealing seventy damage.

It was Max’s turn. After attaching an energy cube to Drakart he had no more item cards to use. So he used the chance kart attack, dealing a decent eighty damage, but allowing him to flip a coin. With a successful coinflip, it would deal an extra sixty damage. This would be exactly enough to knock out Lunaris. Trevor hoped that Max would get tails, but ultimately he got heads. Lunaris was out. Trever wasn’t worried though. With great excitement, Trevor put down Forgeflame in all its glory. The art on the card was of an enormous fire dragon. As the card hit the table a loud roaring sound burst forth.

“Wow, this card is so real it even roars!” Trevor said. He had never experienced that before.

“Eh, no, I think it came from over th—” said Max, as they both turned and almost fainted in disbelief. Sitting on a ledge at the edge of the arena was a dragon, Forgeflame, but real. They screamed in unison.

A few people who had been spectating or milling about the arena began to run, while Max just froze with his mouth open. Trevor’s love of Drakámon cards was so great that without thinking he started packing up his deck instead of simply running. Forgeflame roared again, and suddenly all of Trevor’s and Max’s dragon cards turned into their Dragon forms too! The arena was filled with deadly creatures and Trevor realized it was time to run. Trevor ran, turning back briefly to see that but Max was still frozen in the midst of the dragons. Max was his nemesis in the game, but his friend in real life. He couldn’t leave his friend.

Trevor ran to shake Max, and finally, he snapped out of it.

“Wha-what!” he exclaimed.

At this point, no one except for the people inside Drakámon Battle Center knew what was going on. Trevor and Max called for a vehicle to take them home.

“Phew! That was close,” sighed Max.

“What happened? Sad we couldn’t finish the battle,” said Trevor. Max started at him, his love for Drakámon had gone too far.

“The battle?! Who cares?! The only important thing is that we escaped alive!” argued Max. “You’ve gone crazy.” Trevor knew Max wasn’t as obsessed as he was. The only reason he played Drakámon was to sell cards all for enough money to buy the new console, the ZBOX-99. He wanted desperately to play the new game Wonder Wizards VII.

After they got back home, Trevor immediately started researching the mysterious goings-ns at Dragamart. He found no example if any other Drakámon card having ever done that.

Trevor found no information about this, only that Dragamart was only rated two-star and their cards were always low-quality and expensive. Nothing about cards turning into dragons.

Trevor decided to take Max with him to Dragamart to investigate. At this point, the dragons were all over the news and authorities were struggling to deal with them. Entering Dragamart, the shop was empty and dark. None of the lights were turned on, but supposedly Dragamart was open! What was going on here?

After walking around for a bit, Trevor & Max found that the mart was completely abandoned as far as they knew. It looked like no one had been there in a long time.

Max headed home. Trevor stayed. “I can’t believe it’s empty.” he said to himself.

“Empty? This is not empty.” said a voice behind him.

Trevor turned around to find a boy around the age of fifteen. Perhaps three years older than himself.

“Wha- what did you do?” asked Trevor, shuddering.

“Well, it’s a long story,” said the boy, “by the way, my name is Logan. It all started when I thought Drakámon was boring.”

Logan began, sitting down at a table with Trevor. “I wanted Drakámon to be more fun, sort of digital, but that didn’t work out…”

Logan continued. “You see, I did a little research and tried to figure out how to make Drakámon more real, more exciting. I tried making my own Drakámon cards and tried to code to have effects in the real world. It never worked. Maybe there was some sort of malfunction or glitch, but I don’t know how, but it didn’t work! Then the next day I saw a weird guy, who was really suspicious, buying my Drakámon cards. Even though the digital function didn’t work, I still sell them. Then the next day, I caught one tiny dragon snooping around Dragamart, and that’s how I found out about this.” finished Logan.

“Why didn’t you inform us?” Trevor asked.

“No one would believe me,” said Logan.

“Do you know how to stop them?” asked Trevor.

“Yes, I made them with off switches in case this ever happened. I can turn them off, but how do we get close to them? That’s the question.”

This was the hard part. How would they get close to the dragons without being seriously injured or prevented by the authorities? At the Drakámon Battle Center dragons were roaming around as well as police.

“Wait. Do you know the first card that turned into a dragon?” asked Logan.

“Yeah. Forgeflame. Why?” replied Trevor.

“Because if you turn off the first one, all the other dragons will turn off too, as Forgeflame summoned the other dragons.”

Getting closer, Trevor and Logan dodged the police and the dragons. Sneaking through the arena’s corridors and various rooms, at last, they saw a glimpse of Forgeflame’s tail.

As they homed in, Forgeflame caught sight of Trevor and Logan and roared.

“Run!” exclaimed Logan, “I’ll turn it off!”

As Trevor ran away, Logan seized his chance to jump on the back of Forgeflame. It roared even louder than before, trying to claw at Logan. Logan slapped his head, “Where is the off button? Where?” he tried to remember. One of the dragons flipped over as the police were attacking it, and Logan realized where the off button was. On the belly of the dragon.

Logan was in a hard position. How would he get on the belly? Logan tried climbing down, but Forgeflame’s claws could be able to slash at him! Logan decided to climb from the tail of Forgeflame, so Forgeflame wouldn’t be able to slash at him. Carefully scaling the tail of Forgeflame, Logan tried touching the belly of Forgeflame. He couldn’t reach it! Logan had to jump. With a big huff, Logan shifted over to the dragon’s belly.

“Please work, please work!” he muttered to himself.

In an instant, Forgeflame let out a cry and zapped back into a card.

“Yes! It worked!” exclaimed Logan, watching all the other dragons zapping back into cards.

Logan ran out before the police caught him. He met back with Trevor at Dragamart.

“Whoa, that was eventful. I can’t believe your obsession with Dragamon led to this.” marveled Trevor. “Maybe I’ve been a little too obsessed as well.” He looked at his watch. “What?! Today is already August 7th? Tomorrow is Max’s birthday! I need to get him a present!”. He was already running off.

“Bye!” exclaimed Logan.

——————————————————————————————————————————

The next day it was Max’s birthday, and the end of the party came.

“It's time to open the presents!” exclaimed Max’s mom.

“Okay!” exclaimed Max, excited.

They all came to a pile stacked high with presents, and Max opened them one by one.

“Some Drakámon cards, an action figure, a board game, some books, so cool!” he exclaimed, unwrapping his last present, from Trevor.

“Let’s see what you got me, eh?” Max said, looking at Trevor. As he saw his present, he gasped. It was a ZBOX-99! “Woah, thanks Trevor! But how did you afford it?”

“Let’s just say I won’t be playing Forgeflame for a long time.”.

Max had a knowing smile on his face.