‘It’s Time To Duel!’

(NOTE: This fic was written as part of a ‘Guilty Pleasures’ edition of an ‘Iron Chef’ challenge.)

Andrew Landon stood at one end of the Lawndale quarry, small wisps of rock dust swirling around the long, stylized charcoal-gray duster he wore as he smiled a thin, determined smile that almost held a trace of perfect malice. He looked at the group of three adults that stood across the terrain from him, and laughter spilled from him as he tried to take them seriously.

'You're a fool, Morgendorffer. Do you really expect for me to take YOU, let alone any of your silly friends seriously?'

It almost surprised Andrew to hear the strength and conviction in Jake Morgendorffer's voice as he spoke. 'Mock my friends if you want, Landon, but know this: nothing that you say has any meaning when t comes to my friends. I know that they'll be here to support me - but who'll be there for you?'

'You tell him, Jakey!' Rita Barksdale chirped, and Tony DeMartino pushed her off to one side. 'Hey-!'

'You talk a lot of TRASH, Landon, but I'LL put you IN the trash if you keep talking!' DeMartino shouted out.

'Oh, be quiet, DeMartino, and sit there like the whipped dog you are,' Andrew snarled. 'Enough talk, Morgendorffer. Let's finish this.'

'You're right about that,' Jacob shot back, pulling out his deck of 'Duel-Monsters' cards and loading them into his wrist-mounted dueling-deck. 'Today - one shall stand, and one shall fall!'

As one, Andrew and Jacob called out, 'IT'S TIME TO DUEL!"

Off to one side, Helen Morgendorffer looked at Michelle Landon and sighed. 'Boys and their toys, Michelle. Boys and their toys.'

18 May 2003