//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 // Story: The Elements of Dueling. // by theultimatebrony //------------------------------// I was standing on top of a crystal tower, the duel disk on my arm providing some of the only light. Across the room from me was an empty suit of black armor with a device on its arm similar to Yubel's demon hand. "You will not win," a deep voice above me said. I looked up and saw a black serpent. "I attack you directly." The serpent charged a black beam and blasted me, black fire enveloping me. _________________________________________________________________________________________________ My eyes snapped open and I sat up, sweat covering my body. I looked over at my alarm clock and saw that it was 5:30, half an hour before I was suppossed to get up. I saw a blue light coming from the other side of the room. I grabbed the remote and turned off the t.v., thinking, "Last time I watch Yugi's duel with Dartz before bed. Realizing that I wasn't going to go back to sleep, I took a quick shower and grabbed some breakfast. By the time I was done it was only 5 'til 6. I put my duel disk and holoprojector in a bag and stuck the boxes for my deck and extra deck on my belt. I went to the garage and took off on my duel runner. Even though the hight school was across town I still had 15 minutes to kill before it would open, so I took out my deck and went over strageties. My deck was built to power up and swarm the field with low-level water monsters. Though if that didn't work out I had two strong cards and a couple xyz monsters. As a last resort I kept a double edged sword .in case my back was against a wall. When the school opened, I removed the visor from my bike helmet before entering. Most of the day I set myself to auto-pilot and zoned out through most of my classes. What I thought about was that dream I had. Even though it was a dream I could feel the wind of the tower, the pain of the fire. None of my dreams were ever that realistic, not even my dueling dreams. "Eric. Mr. Sullivan," I snapped out of my thoughts to see everyone in my history class was staring at me. "Yes sir," I replied. "Please tell us the use of duel pad/disk technology in the past 10 years." "Okay. 10 years ago Konami decided to increase popularity of Yu-Gi-Oh by using AR technology to create duel pads and duel gazers similar to those in Yu-Gi-Oh Zexal. They also created duel runners for those who were fans of the 5D's series. Though they didn't create real versions of speed spells. 5 years later they created holoprojectors that replaced duel gazers by making holograms." "Good job. Now-," the bell rang, "We will continue this on Monday." I slowly trudged down the hall to the bane of my physical existance, gym class. After warm-ups, we went outside to the track around the football field. I grabbed my bag because after we run, we can duel. I tried to finish as quick as possible, but it took me 15 minutes to finish the mile and even then I was close to puking. I decided to sit back for a minute, not only to calm down my stomach but to scope out what decks other people were using. I looked at the duel that had been going on the longest, Dirk Wells vs. Savannah Knight. Both were very fast runners and finished in a third of my time. Dirk had his two aces, Red Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon and The Seal of Orichalcos, on the field while Savannah had her Number 39: Utopia on the field. I put on my visor, which I programed to show me the stats in a duel, and saw that even though both players still had 4000 life points(we start with 4000lp at school for time reasons),Dirk had the upper hand. His REDMD had 3300 attack points from the Seal and could summon a dragon from Dirk's hand or graveyard. Dirk might have been a bully and a poor sport, but he had a good stragety. "I draw," Dirk said, beginning his turn, "I summon Kaibaman in attack mode. Now I tribute him to summon a Blue Eyes White Dragon in attack mode. Now I use the effect of my Red-Eyes to bring out another Blue Eyes from my hand. Finally, I use Different Dimension Reincarnation to summon my third Blue Eyes. I attack your Utopia with Red-Eyes." "Go," Savannah called, "Light-wing shield!" One of Utopia's overlay units flew into its chest and it used one of its wings as a shield to negate the attack. "White lightning." One of Dirk's Blue Eyes attack and Utopia negated the attack. "Now destroy that monster," Dirk had a dark smirk on his face as Utopia was destroyed. Savannah Lp: 2500 "End this Blue Eyes! White lightning attack!" Savannah Lp: 0 The bolt of energy hit Savannah right in the chest and she stumbled back. Dirk caught his holoprojector as it fell and Savannah caught hers. Then Dirk walked up to Savannah and said, "Now give me your Utopia." "No way! I just got it yesterday," she put her hand on her graveyard as if to protect it. "Too bad, you should have thought about that before dueling me. "Stop it Dirk!" I called out, climing to my feet, "It's bad enough that she had to lose to the likes of you, but you don't need to take her card." "What are you going to do about it, you long haired weirdo?" He replied. It annoyed me when people insulted my shoulder length hair. "Duel me then," I slipped on my battle city styled duel disk, "I win, you stop stealing cards and return the ones you did steal." "And what if I win?" I pulled my favorite card, Ocean Dragon Lord - Neo-Daedalus, from my deck, "My favorite card." "Fine." I slipped my deck into my duel disk and walked about 20 yards from Dirk. We threw our holoprojectors into the air and yelled, "Holofield activate!" my duel disk unfolding and Dirk's duel pad constructing itself. Then I said, "Duel sync, activate." Everything that was public knowledge about our duel appeared on my visor. I looked up at the holoprojectors and through the blue holographic aura I could see the sky beginning to darken. "Hope it doesn't rain," I thought. "You can go first," Dirk said. I pulled my hand and drew a sixth card. My hand was pretty good for a starting defense. "I put one monster in defense mode and one card face down to end my turn." [bErik Lp: 4000. Hand: 4 "Pathetic," Dirk muttered, "I summon Red-Eyes Black Chick. Now I banish it to summon Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon and I activate its effect, summoning a normal Red-Eyes from my hand. Now Red-Eyes Black Dragon, attack his facedown." I flipped my monster faceup and revealed it to be Snowman Eater. "I target your Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon to be destroyed," I said, watching my monster latch onto his and pull them both into the path of attack. When the smoke cleared, only one monster was on the field. "I end my turn," Dirk was obviously mad about his monster's destruction. Dirk Lp: 4000. Hand: 3 "I draw. I activate Water Hazard from my hand and use its effect to summon Ocean's Keeper (ATK1500)." "Why did you summon such a weak monster?" Dirk asked as a strange fish with a trident appeared on my field. "I'm not done yet. I summon Abyss Warrior to the field and equip it with Aqua Jet," Its attack points went up to 2800, "Now I attack your dragon with my Warrior." Dirk Lp: 3600 "Now my Ocean's Keeper, attack him directly." Dirk was knocked on his butt. Dirk Lp: 2100 I ended my turn and the attack of my Soldier went back to normal. When Dirk got up, his clothes were slightly tattered and he had a bruise on his arm. Erik Lp: 4000. Hand: 1 "I draw," Dirk sounded tired, "I activate the Pot of Greed and draw two cards. Now I activate Polymerization to fuse the three Blue Eyes White Dragons in my hand to summon Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon (ATK4500)." Even though there was a very powerful monster on the field, I was happy that Dirk didn't use Infernities because he was out of cards in his hand. "I use my Blue Eyes to attack your Ocean's keeper." "Not so fast!" I said, revealing my trap, "I activate Posiden Wave, negating your attack and dealing you 1600 points of damage." Dirk Lp: 600. Dirk's ended his turn. Dirk Lp: 600. Hand: 0 "I draw," the card I drew was the Moray of Greed now I just needed to draw another water monster, "I switch my monsters to defense mode and end my turn." Erik Lp: 4000. Hand: 2 "I draw and attack your Ocean's Keeper. Now I end my turn." Dirk Lp: 600. Hand: 1 The next card I drew was a trap, so I ended my turn. Erik Lp: 4000. Hand: 3 "I draw and equip my dragon with Big Band Shot (ATK5300). Now I attack your Abyss Warrior." I was knocked flat on my back as my life points dropped. Erik Lp: 400 I felt something warm on my cheek and when I rubbed it off I saw that I was blood. "Oh no," I thought, "our damage is real!" "Dirk!" I called, "We have to stop this duel or one of us could get hurt!" "I know," he said, "You will." Underneath Dirk's voice I could hear a different voice. It sounded like the voice from my dream. "Okay then," I drew a card, but before I could see what it was someone yelled, "What is that?" I looked up and saw a large, black hole forming in the clouds. Out of the hole came seven lights; purple, white, green, pink, orange, yellow, and blue. The purple light landed behind me and the rest spread across town. I turned around and saw a purple unicorn. Its leg was bent into a clearly broken position. "Help," it said in a female sounding voice. I was about to go over to her when a black energy rope wrapped around my right arm. I looked and saw that the rope was coming from Dirk's hand. "No leaving until the duel is over," he said darkly. Dirk Lp: 600. Hand: 1 I looked at the card in my hand and saw that it was my Neo-Daedalus. "I activate the Moray of Greed," I said, "Now I shuffle two water monsters back into my deck and draw three cards," I looked to see that I had drawn Deep Sweeper, Atlantean Heavy Infantry, and Harmonic Waves. I was about to give up when I saw a glow coming from my extra deck that gave me hope. "I summon Atlantean Heavy Infantry in attack mode. Now I use its effect to summon Deep Sweeper from my hand. I activate Harmonic Waves to make my Heavy Infantry level four. Now I use my monsters to build the overlay network and xyz summon," I put the card on my duel disk, "Elemental Beast: Aqua Serpent (ATK2500)." The summoning portal for my monster looked like a glowing whirlpool. The monster itself looked like a giant snake made entirely out of water. When my monster was summoned, I heard the unicorn behind me say, "That creature controls an elemental." I didn't know what that meant, but I hoped it was good. I looked at my new monster's attack and saw that it only had 2500 attack points. Then I looked at the effect. "I activate the effect of my monster. I can remove one overlay unit to destroy one monster one the field. Go! Drowning bite!" One of the blue lights around my monster flew into it and it bit Blue Eyes, destroying it. "Unfortunately I can't attack the turn I use this effect so I set one card and end my turn." The card I set was my last resort in case Dirk summoned something. A dark aura formed around Dirk's top card, "I draw. I activate The Seal of Orichalcos." "How could he be so stupid?" I thought in horror as the unicursal hexagram formed around us, "Doesn't he realize that if attack damage is real, wouldn't the effects be too?" "I now activate monster reborn to bring back my Ultimate Dragon. Now attack with neutron blast!" "Oh no you don't," I said, " I activate last turn. Now I remove every card from the field except my Aqua Serpent, and since this is directly sending cards to the graveyard without destruction, that includes the Seal." "No!" Dirk yelled in an inhuman voice, "I use the effect of your card to summon Dark Copy Dragon." I never heard of such a card, but since an xyz appeared in my extra deck it wasn't that strange me." "When Dark Copy Dragon is summoned, it copies the attack of your monster. Now I have a 2500 attack monster. Attack!" Our monsters battled and they were both destroyed. The force of the blast sent both of us flying, our holoprojectors flying with us. I looked at Dirk and a dark shadow left his body before he passed out. I got up and walked over to the unicorn. She had some sort of star tatoo on her flank. "Who and what are you?" she asked. "I'm Erik and I'm a human," I replied, "Who are you?" "I'm Twilight Sparkle. Do you know where my friends are?" Just then my friends; Evan, Brett and Tyler ran up. Evan said in excitement, "Dude, where did you get that awsome card?" "It just appeared," I replied, "Look do any of you have an idea on how to help me find this unicorn's friends?" "If you have a map I can use a locater spell to find them," Twilight said. Tyler pulled out his duel pad's tablet and brought up a map of town. Twilight's horn glowed red and three red spots showed up on the map. Tyler tapped the spots and marked them. "I'm sending you guys the coordinates," he said as he tapped a few more times. A map appeared on the screen of my visor. The points were across town from eachother. "It will be best if we split up," I said. "I'll come too," Twilight said, trying to get up. "No you're not. I'll make you a splint and take you back to my place." "Are you sure that your mom will let you have a talking unicorn in your house?" Tyler asked. "I would," Brett and Evan said at the same time. I heard ambulance sirens coming. I quickly set the leg and tied a couple books to it with my jacket. I picked up the mare, who was the size of a large dog and moved as quick as I could to my duel runner and gently set Twilight on it. "What is this?" she asked. "Do you have bikes in wherever you come from?" "Yes." "It's one of those but powered by electricity." Twilight looked very interested in the runner, but I didn't have time to answer questions. I put my helmet on and gave Twilight my spare. I took off down the road just as the ambulance showed up.