What Lies Within

by Rebellious_Requiem

Fascinating and Deadly: The Threat is Revealed...?

"Hey."

A Canterlot High student named Micro Chips wearing one of the event's "Volunteer" badges jumped from his seat as he was approached by a broody-looking boy at the competitors' booth. "C-can I help you?" he asked, caught off guard by the boy's sudden appearance and nasty tone.

"My name is Hemlock," the boy continued. "I should be on the list."

"Oh! Right." Micro Chips shuffled through some papers before finding that the name "Hemlock" was indeed on the list. "Here you are. Here's your bracket," he continued as he handed the boy his sheet. "Let the T.O. -- that guy that was on stage earlier, Onyx -- know you're here and maybe you'll be the next to Duel. You have quite a show to follow up, though!"

Hemlock snatched the sheet and grumbled a quiet "Sure do," before turning and walking away from the booth, leaving a miffed Micro Chips to mutter to himself about his "rudeness."

A strange wave of something that resembled excitement passed through Hemlock's body and he had to work to restrain himself from shivering. It wouldn't have been as strange if the excitement had been his own, but as had been the case every so often for a few months now, this feeling had come from an outside source.

Hemlock ducked away behind a clump of lush, green bushes as to avoid running into any of the other attendees. He fished a violet-colored card from his Deck and glared at it. "Hey," he hissed. "I know you're ready to go, but you need to relax. I appreciate not trying to split my head this time, but mind-melding with me out of nowhere isn't really an acceptable alternative. We're almost there now. Hold on a bit longer. We'll both get what we're after, soon."

Hemlock rose from the bushes as naturally as he could, making the excuse that he had dropped a few of his cards when a passerby gave him a funny look. He moved with purpose across the park toward a certain person he knew he would have to face eventually: Ashen Onyx. The time was drawing ever nearer.

---

Onyx had split off from the girls once Rainbow Dash had been sufficiently congratulated so he could continue to do his T.O. work while the others checked out the side events and the vendors now that the event had finally gone fully underway with the first Duel under their collective belt. Imagine his surprise when the figure he saw staring at him not very long ago marched straight up to him, revealing himself to be a boy about his age -- possibly a year younger than himself, but still older than the...

... magical high school girls he hung out with? Onyx made a mental note to try not to think about that too much, or his head would probably explode. He couldn't have that, at least not today. He had a job to do.

"How can I help you?" Onyx asked with a smile as Hemlock approached him. Hey, he thought, getting a closer look at him. This is the guy who came to the store when the girls were there to tell me all about the magic stuff. I didn't recognize him because he didn't have this weird attitude about him back then. Wonder if he was trying to scout out the competition..?

"There's no supervisor breathing down your neck. You don't have to play the perfect cashier for me this time," Hemlock scoffed. "Whatever. My name is Hemlock and according to this thing," He waved his bracket sheet around a bit before letting it fall back to his side, "I have to Duel someone named 'Rumble' to get past the first round. You don't care about the order as long as both competitors are actually here, yeah?"

"That's right," Onyx replied, the corner of his eye twitching slightly at Hemlock's clear disrespectful tone. He could tell a number of things about him, just from this conversation alone. The first being that he didn't like Onyx for some reason, and the second being that he was entirely convinced that his first round Duel -- and probably any other Duel before the finals -- was going to be a waste of time. He pushed these thoughts to the back of his mind... for now, at least. "I'll check to see if Rumble is here. If you'd like to go and wait by the stage for me, that'd just be swell!"

Hemlock narrowed his eyes and grunted before leaving to do so. Onyx felt something else before he got too far away, but was unable to put his finger on what exactly he felt. A brief flash of an idea came into his mind for a moment before he dismissed it as being too ridiculous.

It only took a few minutes to find the contestant named Rumble: a kid -- or young teen, rather, who had been taught the game by his older brother Thunderlane after the younger boy had dragged the elder into the store one day on their way home from school. The two were discussing a card that Rumble had just purchased from an on-site vendor when Onyx approached the two.

"... and the fact they had it here is just too perfect! I'm gonna use this card to beat that Rainbow Dash chick's Synchro Dragons into the ground, no matter how cool they are!" Rumble said excitedly as he clutched the card tightly. "I gotta sleeve it right away!"

Thunderlane chuckled as Rumble struggled to sleeve his new purchase with a little too much excitement. "Slow your roll, bro. You're gonna rip it clean in half if you keep going like that."

Rumble's eyes went wide and he froze completely for a moment. He returned from his statue-like state slowly, as he slid the card into the sleeve as gently as he found himself able to.

"You might wanna pull back on the boasting, too," Onyx chimed in as he found his place to intrude on the brothers' conversation. "Rainbow's tough, and you might be too, but neither of you are in the finals just yet. You are Rumble, right?"

Rumble grinned and puffed out his chest. "That's me! Since you're here, does that mean my opponent is here, too?"

"Sure is. He should be waiting by the stage," Onyx replied, keeping the As long as he didn't just up and leave... to his thoughts. "You ready to go?"

"Sure am! It's time, bro! Come watch me kick this guy's butt!" Rumble called as he sprinted off toward the stage, waving back at Thunderlane as he went.

Thunderlane laughed and waved back at him. "I'll be right behind you, champ!" he called back. He sighed and smiled proudly. "Little dude just might make a good track star yet," he muttered. "Just like his brother."

Onyx leaned against the counter of the vendor booth. "He's pretty excited about this, huh?"

"He's done nothing but talk about it since we nabbed one of the flyers from the store. He was a little down since we couldn't find a copy of the card he wanted at a decent price since you guys didn't have it as a spare single at the store, but we got lucky looking at all these booths you got set up here. This is a cool little thing you got going on today, man," Thunderlane said as he looked around the park. "All this for a bunch of newbies. I think this'll be a good first experience for him."

"I hope so. As long as that guy doesn't try and ruin things for him."

"What do you mean?"

"Oh, uh. The guy he's going up against has a nasty attitude. It's kind of like... like he doesn't think anyone else here is worth his time? He seems like a bit of a jerk."

Thunderlane laughed it off and started walking toward the stage with Onyx in tow. "You heard the little man, he's too excited to let that guy get to him. And as long as he pulls off the combos I know that he can with the skills he learned from yours truly and honed himself, there's no way he's gonna drop round one to some jerk!"

Onyx couldn't help but laugh too. "Gee; I wonder where he gets all that confidence from."

"Beats me," Thunderlane replied with a shrug. "Don't you have a job to do?"

"Yeah, yeah. I got it!" Onyx said as he caught up to an impatient Rumble, who stood by the stage, bouncing in place with a frown on his face.

"That took forever! What were you two talking about?"

"You can ask your brother later. For now, we've got work to do. You sure you're one hundred percent good to go, kid?"

"Yeah!"

"That's what I like to hear," Onyx held out his fist and Rumble clacked his own knuckles against it. "It's show time!"

Onyx hopped up on stage, donned his microphone and gave his cue to Vinyl, the volunteer audio tech, to let him ring out across the park. "Hello, people!" he called once he had gotten the signal. "It looks like everyone is having a good time so far, and that's just great because that means I'm not going to have to go job hunting once today is over!

"Anyway; it appears that two more contestants have arrived and are ready to throw down with each other, so why don't we all give them a big round of applause before they come up here?"

The attendees near the stage and any others who had been draw in by Onyx's amplified voice cheered and clapped for a few seconds before quieting down. Out of the corners of his eyes, Onyx could see both Rumble shaking with glee -- and probably nerves -- and Hemlock, who seemed incredibly calm, all things considered.

"Yeah! All right, folks, I hope everyone out there is ready for a rumble -- because I know for sure that our first competitor is! It's all right there in his name, isn't it? Please welcome our first Duelist of the second match of round one as well as our youngest Duelist today if memory serves: Rrruuummmble!"

Rumble popped up and practically ran up as soon as he heard his name, waving frantically to the whole crowd at first, but then very specifically to Thunderlane, who had pulled up a folding chair and plopped down right in front of the Duel Field.

"Our second Duelist in this match is named for a poisonous plant, so let's see if this young man has the venom he'll need to conquer little Rumble here and make it to the second round. Here he is: Hemmmmlooooock!"

As Hemlock walked onto the field as his name was called, Onyx noticed that he quickly adopted a different facade. It more closely resembled the face he wore when he spoke to Onyx at the store for the first time as opposed to the bitter look he had been wearing all day today.

"I won't be sticking around for this one -- even I need a break sometime -- but I'll be in the audience if anyone needs me. If you two are ready, let's get this thing going. Duel start!" Onyx concluded as both players activated their Duel Disks and the Duel Field's systems kicked online.

"I hope you're ready to lose!" Rumble taunted as he pumped his fists to hype himself up.

Hemlock raised his left arm before him and a small, but distinctly not genuine smile formed on his face. "Yeah. This'll be over quick," he said as the system gave Rumble the first turn. "Go ahead, Rumble. Looks like you're up." Hemlock drew his opening hand and waited for Rumble to do the same.

Onyx made his way away from the field to the girls and Braeburn, who he had seen from up top when Trixie and Pinkie had started waving to him halfway through his announcement. "How's it going, guys?"

"It's going great!" Pinkie replied loudly, cutting Trixie off before she even got the chance to say a single word. "We saw some really cool stuff while we were looking around. We were just coming to find you before we saw you get up there and do your thing. Ooh, ooh! Who do you think is going to win?!"

"Pinkie, dear," Rarity said. "You don't even know if he's met either of them before today. Not to mention these things tend to go back and forth for some time before they end. Just look at Rainbow's match! How could he possibly think to know who will win already?"

"Well, I do know who I want to win," Onyx replied as he turned back toward the Duel. "But... I have a bad feeling about this."

"A bad feeling?" Sunset asked, briefly sharing a glance with Twilight. "You said that earlier too. Something about, ah, having a bad feeling about something during set-up?"

"I did, didn't I?" Onyx mused as he continued to watch Rumble and Hemlock. "Let's hope it was nothing."

“DUEL FIELD: ONLINE;
SINGLE GAME -- ONE ON ONE;
SOLID VISION SYSTEM FUNCTIONING NORMALLY;
DUEL START.”

TURN: ONE
RUMBLE -- 4000 LP
HAND: 5

Rumble took a moment to gloss over his hand once his turn had fully commenced. "Haha, nice! With this hand, I'll be able to show you how it's done -- just like my brother taught me! First: the Spell Card, The Melody of Awakening Dragon!" Rumble declared as he slotted the card into his Duel Disk. "By discarding one card from my hand, I'm allowed to search my Deck for up to two Dragon-Type monsters with at least three thousand Attack Points and up to twenty-five hundred Defense Points!"

The Melody of Awakening Dragon
Normal Spell
Discard 1 card; add up to 2 Dragon monsters with 3000 or more ATK and 2500 or less DEF from your Deck to your hand.

Which narrows down the Deck you're playing to a handful of options. Hemlock mused as his opponent placed a card into his Graveyard and brought up a display screen from which to choose the dragons from his Deck. I think I can guess which it is. This should be simple enough.

"More dragons?" Applejack asked, observing the Duel from afar with the rest of the group. "Shoot; does every Deck have to have one o' them things in it for it to count?"

Onyx snickered. "Honestly; it's kind of funny just how accurate that is. Random Dragon-Type boss monsters in Decks that otherwise have none is actually a bit of a common thing in this game."

"Of course it is," Fluttershy muttered as she placed herself strategically at the rear of the pack, as far away from the imposing beasts as possible.

"The two dragons I'm adding to my hand are," Rumble paused for dramatic effect as the display screen disappeared and two cards ejected from his Deck. "The awesome Blue-Eyes Alternative White Dragon and the unstoppable Blue-Eyes Chaos MAX Dragon!"

Blue-Eyes Alternative White Dragon
Level 8
LIGHT Dragon/Effect Monster
ATK/3000 DEF/2500
Cannot be Normal Summoned/Set. Must first be Special Summoned (from your hand) by revealing "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" in your hand. You can only Special Summon "Blue-Eyes Alternative White Dragon" once per turn this way. This card's name becomes "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" while it is on the field or in the GY. Once per turn: You can target 1 monster your opponent controls, destroy it. This card cannot attack the turn this effect is activated.

Blue-Eyes Chaos MAX Dragon
Level 8
DARK Dragon/Ritual/Effect Monster
ATK/4000 DEF/0
You can Ritual Summon this card with "Chaos Form". Must be Ritual Summoned, and cannot be Special Summoned by other ways. Cannot be targeted, or destroyed by, your opponent's card effects. If this card attacks a Defense Position monster, inflict double piercing battle damage to your opponent.

"That's the way!" Thunderlane cheered from the audience, whooping and pumping his fists. "Let him have it, bro!"

Hemlock's eyes widened in mock surprise. "Oh?" he asked, feigning ignorance. "Those are some powerful monsters you've got there! What are you planning to do with them?"

"You'll see soon enough, there's no need to be hasty! But first, the effect of The White Stone of Legend that I sent to my Graveyard will activate -- letting me look into my Deck once again and bring my ace monster straight to my hand! Come to me: Blue-Eyes White Dragon!"

The White Stone of Legend
Level 1
LIGHT Dragon/Tuner/Effect Monster
ATK/300 DEF/250
If this card is sent to the GY: Add 1 "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" from your Deck to your hand.

Blue-Eyes White Dragon
Level 8
LIGHT Dragon/Normal Monster
ATK/3000 DEF/2500
This legendary dragon is a powerful engine of destruction. Virtually invincible, very few have faced this awesome creature and have lived to tell the tale.

"Now that all of my dragons are gathered together, things are about to really kick off! I activate my Alternative Dragon's effect," Rumble declared as he flipped White Dragon around to show it to Hemlock. "Which allows me to Special Summon it to the field if I reveal Blue-Eyes White Dragon in my hand here first."

As Rumble placed his card on the field, his new monster erupted in a glorious burst of light. As its name -- and the name of its related cards -- implied: Alternative was a massive, jagged stark white dragon with bright blue glowing eyes. Similarly; light blue lines cascaded through its body, giving it a sleek and nearly high-tech or mechanical look to it. It roared as its important stat was displayed on the Duel Field: a whopping 3,000 ATK.

Rainbow whistled as she gave Rumble's monster a quick once-over. "Wow. A monster that strong for basically free? That's intense!"

"And if he added Chaos MAX to his hand," Onyx said. "That's probably just the beginning. I should really record this Duel and give a copy to Buster -- this is how you build a Deck around a tough vanilla monster."

"Vanilla?"

"Er... it's another term for a Normal Monster. Don't worry about it."

Rumble plucked another card from his hand, Onyx and Rainbow's conversation unheard. "I activate this: the Ritual Spell Card, Chaos Form!"

Chaos Form
Ritual Spell
This card can be used to Ritual Summon any "Chaos" or "Black Luster Soldier" Ritual Monster. You must also Tribute monsters from your hand or field, and/or banish "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" or "Dark Magician" from your GY, whose total Levels exactly equal the Level of the "Chaos" or "Black Luster Soldier" Ritual Monster you Ritual Summon.

"I can use my Chaos Form to Ritual Summon one of my most powerful monsters! All I have to do is Tribute the White Dragon in my hand to fulfill the conditions," Rumble continued as he placed the monster into his Graveyard slot. "And now that the contract is complete: I Ritual Summon the Level Eight Blue-Eyes Chaos MAX Dragon!"

A massive ritual circle opened on the ground, resembling some manner of alchemical transmutation circle into which a ghostly version of the Blue-Eyes White Dragon flew into, causing a burst of light to erupt from the symbol. Out of this a new dragon emerged, a brilliant white like its brethren with glowing blue eyes and covered in sharp, angular edges coated in separate and layered blue panels that span its entire wings. It lets loose a mighty howl, resonating with immense power. Its Attack Points appeared above its figure: standing at an absolutely astounding four thousand.

As the girls' --minus Trixie -- jaws hit the floor at the sight of Chaos MAX, Onyx couldn't help but grin at the memory of seeing a flash of blue and white as Rumble carefully sleeved this same card right before the Duel began. No wonder you were going to use this to beat Rainbow. Good on you, kid.

Rumble laughed as he took in the sight of his own towering monster. "Oh man, that was even cooler than I thought it was gonna be! But why stop there? I activate one final Spell from my hand: the Quick-Play Spell Card, Silver's Cry!

Silver's Cry
Quick-Play Spell
Target 1 Dragon Normal Monster in your GY; Special Summon that target. You can only activate 1 "Silver's Cry" per turn.

"This card here lets me bring back the monster that I used to Summon Chaos MAX. Come back to the land of the living, Blue-Eyes!" Rumble called as a portal to the grave opened on his field and one last draconic form emerged from the depths.

Appropriate to its name, Blue-Eyes White Dragon was just what it said on the tin: a massive and brilliant white dragon with shimmering blue eyes. Unlike the futuristic appearance and jagged lines that adorned Alternative and Chaos MAX, this monster -- on which the others were based, had a smooth and pearl-like quality to its long body. Its head, wings, and shoulders still had a jagged quality to them, its overall appearance was much more organic than the others.

Blue-Eyes did not howl nor did it so much as roar when it appeared. The elegant and terrifying beast took up the side of Chaos Max that Alternative did not and looked down on Hemlock, much as it looked down on any other opponent. After all, what did an "engine of destruction" like itself have to fear?

"That," Rumble said with a smirk, "ends my turn. You're up!"

Hemlock chuckled as he drew a card from his Deck, not intimidated in the least by the three draconic beasts that loomed overhead.

TURN: TWO
HEMLOCK -- 4000 LP
HAND: 6

Heh heh... when I saw Blue-Eyes cards start hitting the field, I thought this would be boring. Maybe something like "Summon Blue-Eyes, end turn" or some trash. Looks like this first round was worth it after all! "Those monsters are pretty tough. It's too bad that they're actually going to help me take you down."

Rumble looked confused. "What do you mean 'help you take me down'? I have a field of powerful monsters, and one of them can prevent itself from being destroyed! How are you going to take me down?!"

"You'll see, no need to be hasty. I'll start by Normal Summoning Evil Thorn from my hand."

Evil Thorn
Level 1
DARK Plant/Effect Monster
ATK/100 DEF/300
You can Tribute this card; inflict 300 damage to your opponent, and if you do, you can Special Summon up to 2 "Evil Thorn" from your Deck in Attack Position, but their effects cannot be activated.

Rumble stared at the new creature, a twisted stem of a plant with two appendages, one wilted pink flower and one black fruit-like pod covered in spikes, somewhat resembling a grenade. Its diminutive appearance contrasted greatly with his own mighty dragons. "What... how's that going to help you?"

"I activate Evil Thorn's effect," Hemlock continued, blatantly ignoring Rumble's question. "Inflicting three hundred damage to your Life Points and calling forth the other two copies of itself from my Deck."

The grenade-like fruit lit up a bright purple and violently exploded, destroying the monster it was attached to and showering Rumble's side of the field with the flurry of shrapnel-like spikes that were launched from its remains. He flinched as the holographic protrusions passed through his body and his Life Points dropped to 3,700. Hemlock picked up the two cards that ejected from his Deck and placed them on the field, revealing them to indeed be the other two copies of Evil Thorn.

Onyx stood among the rest of his friends, intently focused on the Duel before him. What's with this guy? He had that attitude before, but now he seems... confident. Too confident. It's not like Rainbow confident, no -- this is different. It's the kind of confidence that comes with a level of experience that I wasn't expecting to see in any of the Duelists today. I think he means to end this right here and now. Especially since he used Evil Thorn like that. I wonder if he's going to Summon what I think he's going to Summon...

Hemlock chuckled softly, plucking one card from his hand. "You know, kid -- if you had been matched up against someone else, you probably would have already had this match won. Unfortunately for you, though... you got matched up with me. It's feeding time! I activate this Spell Card from my hand: Polymerization!" he declared as he placed the card into his Disk.

As the card materialized on the Duel Field and the slot in Hemlock's Disk opened to release his Fusion Monster, the atmosphere around the arena abruptly shifted. It was as if the young man had released a veritable wave of malice into the air around him. He picked up the card and deliberately took his time in announcing its Summon. "By the effect of this card, my two Evil Thorn shall become one mightier Fusion Monster. Arise: battle-hungry beast wrapped in thorns of hatred, bare your poisonous fangs and fulfill your -- no, our desires! I Fusion Summon! Appear, Level Eight; Starving Venom Fusion Dragon!"

Starving Venom Fusion Dragon
Level 8
DARK Dragon/Fusion/Effect Monster
ATK/2800 DEF/2000
2 DARK monsters on the field, except Tokens
If this card is Fusion Summoned: You can make this card gain ATK equal to 1 Special Summoned monster your opponent controls, until the end of this turn. Once per turn: You can target 1 Level 5 or higher monster your opponent controls, until the end of this turn, this card's name becomes that monster's original name, and replace this effect with that monster's original effects. If this Fusion Summoned card is destroyed: You can destroy all your opponent's Special Summoned monsters.

Onyx gasped and clutched at his head as he was suddenly aware of an acute, stinging pain coursing through his mind that brought him down to one knee. He could vaguely hear the others call out in concern, but couldn't discern what it was they were saying. He felt his eyes pulled to the field, drawn to the visage of the Duelist and his beast and it was there he met the piercing yellow gaze of Hemlock -- who was looking directly at him, lips tilted up in a silent smirk. He turned slowly back to Rumble, who was in awe at the sight of Starving Venom.

It would have been difficult not to be. Starving Venom stood -- or hovered, really -- tall, proud, and terrifying. It had a long, serpentine body in a deep hunter green studded with red bulbs and jewels, ending in a tail that hooked much as a scythe, evoking the feeling that the beast would reap the soul of any who stood in its path. Much of its body was covered in magenta and brilliant golden organic armor-like structures, and the ones on its back peeled open to reveal their own sets of jagged teeth much like the ones lining the dragon's maw. As it howled out in a fit of rage, its Attack Points appeared on the display: 2,800.

Rumble gulped, but stood his ground like the brave little soldier he was. "Y-yeah, okay -- your monster's pretty scary and all, but it can't beat mine with those stats!"

"Ha ha! Oh, man," Hemlock laughed, shaking his head. "Really? You're just going to glance at its Attack Points and assume it doesn't have anything else going for it? Sorry to burst your bubble, kid -- but the fun's just started. Starving Venom's first effect activates upon being Fusion Summoned!"

"Uh-oh."

"That's right!" Hemlock shouted, looking and acting wilder with each passing second. "Starving Venom gains the Attack Points of one Special Summoned monster you control! Go, Venom: absorb his Chaos MAX Dragon's power for yourself!" Vine-like protrusions shot out from Venom's body and latched onto Rumble's Ritual Monster and glowed a deep crimson as Chaos MAX's strength was used to fuel its own.

"B-but!" Rumble interjected, even as Starving Venom's Attack Points rose to 6,800. "Chaos MAX can't be targeted by card effects!"

"Sorry, kid." Hemlock shrugged nonchalantly. "Venom's Attack-absorption effect doesn't target. Tough break," he said, sounding amused by Rumble's vain attempt to contest the result Hemlock had been shooting for. "You did your best and all, but I think it's time I ended this. Don't you?"

"I don't... understand," Rumble said quietly as he took a step back.

"Starving Venom!" Hemlock called. "Let's battle!"

Rumble took another step back as Venom roared in response before turning on Blue-Eyes White Dragon. "I thought I... I could win."

Applejack grit her teeth. "End this? What the heck's he talkin' 'bout?!"

Twilight shook her head. "When he used Evil Thorn to gather the Fusion requirements for his dragon, he also dealt three hundred damage to Rumble's Life Points, remember?"

"Yeah I do, but -- aw, shoot!" Applejack stamped her foot on the ground. "Because he got that there power boost from swipin' Rumble's monster's power, all he has to do is swing over one o' his weaker monsters!"

Fluttershy squeaked as she gripped onto Rainbow Dash's arm. "Guys. I know this probably isn't going to surprise anyone, but I really don't think I like that dragon."

"Same here, 'shy. Same here," Rainbow replied. "Onyx! You good?"

Onyx did not reply to Rainbow Dash. Instead, he stared at Hemlock and his Starving Venom, both of whom seemed to be enjoying the look of defeat on Rumble's face as the end of the Duel -- and his tournament run -- approached far faster than he could have possibly anticipated. Sunset gasped as she felt a violent wave of rage sweep over her as two sets of emotion truly synchronized as one for the very first time.

A yellow-eyed Onyx snarled at Hemlock's beast with a voice that was not entirely his own. "You..."

"Starving Venom Fusion Dragon! Attack Rumble's Blue-Eyes White Dragon and end this Duel! All-Consuming Catastrophe!" Hemlock commanded, to the apparent delight of his beast.

Starving Venom's baubles glowed a bright purple as its shoulder pieces branched off and bright wings of purple light energy erupted from them and it took off into the air above the field. It opened its mouth wide and a crackle of red lightning formed within its maw -- the energy it had stolen from Chaos MAX powering is attack. After a brief charging sequence it let loose a ferocious roar as the energy spilled from its wide open mouth in a concentrated laser beam that annihilated the projection of Blue-Eyes in less than a second, the force from the attack shaking the ground as Rumble's Life Points fell to zero.

Thunderlane moved quick as lightning to catch Rumble as he tumbled off the Duel Field, having taken one too many steps back in his surprise. His words of comfort and condolences were drowned out by the sound of the Duel Field announcing the results of the match that had just concluded.

DUEL END
WINNER: HEMLOCK

"DUEL C-C-COMPLETE;
POWERINNNN-NG DOWN SOLID VISION SYS-SYSTEM;
NOTE: PLEASE CHECK FOR ERRORS IN SOLID VISION SYSTEM;
DUEL FIELD: OFFLINE."

Hemlock walked off the Duel Field as the projections faded, but if you asked any of the shocked spectators who were watching the Duel, it almost looked as if his Fusion Dragon lingered on the field just a little longer than the rest before flickering out.

A few bystanders clapped slowly, as if they weren't sure whether or not they were supposed to. A few people looked to Onyx, wondering if he was going to get back up on the field and say something. Noticing the stares of these people, he pulled himself off the ground, ignoring the concerned looks his friends gave him as he made his way back up to the field.

"A technician will look into the status of the Duel Field," he stated. "Please wait for further information," he added before stepping down and heading slowly toward one of the staff tents.

Sunset, removed Dark Rebellion from among the rest of her cards and held it gently in her hands. "You didn't like that, did you?"

"Did it -- no. Did you feel it?" Trixie asked, standing beside Sunset and giving the card a once-over. "Or..."

"I think I felt... both of them," Sunset said, looking off to where Onyx was trudging away from the rest of the event. "I'm going to talk to him."

"We are going to talk to him," Trixie corrected, "while the rest of the gang here does damage control. You can all do the detail work yourself, that's not Trixie's job, but someone should go check on the kid and someone else should keep an eye on that Hancock guy. Rest is up to you."

"It's, uh... it's Hemlock," Twilight corrected.

"Gesundheit," Trixie said before turning to follow Onyx to the staff tent.

Sunset shrugged and jogged behind Trixie as the rest of the group, including an incredibly confused Braeburn who decided to stick with Applejack, split off to make sure the event went on, even without Onyx, in spite of Hemlock's devastating rampage. Pinkie headed toward Rumble and Thunderlane, Applejack and Braeburn went to talk to the spectators with Twilight in tow so she could ensure the Duel Field technician could do their work and assist if needed, Rarity went off on her own to make sure the other staff workers were still on task, and Rainbow took a panicked Fluttershy with her to keep watch over Hemlock.

An invisible fog hung thick over the park.

The day's troubles had only just begun.

Author's Note:

Man, these sure do take forever, huh? Hiatus might be over, it might be back on in less than a week. Guess we'll get there when we get there.

Comments

[Darthvalgaav]

Good to see this back

[Rebellious_Requiem]

9131556
Let's hope I can stay back, eh? Maybe I'll get some inspiration at an entirely more reasonable hour next time...

[HeartlessNeoshadow]

Damn, seeing Starving Venom gave me vibes like what the show gave me, even though most of us predicted he was what you would go with.

It was also nice to see Blue-Eyes White Dragon, despite its run being so short-lived; perhaps we'll see more of it if we see Rumble again? I mean, it is one of everyone's favorite archetypes. ;)

And now that I think about it, I wonder if you intend on Z-arc being a part of this in any way, or if you are following your own lore.

Anyway, happy writing! I'll be here for more and will surely comment on anything interesting that happens!

[Noctis Prism]

Well damn, I saw the monster coming and you made it live it’s hype.

[Rebellious_Requiem]

9146473
I did my best to make it appropriately dramatic!
9144814
I'm glad the predictability didn't ruin the reveal moment for you, either. As for Rumble and his Deck, I have been playing with the idea of doing more with the universe once this story ends, (so in like... ten years?) buuuut there's always a chance he might not be out of things just yet. Sometimes some of this stuff ends up wildly different from what I originally planned out.

Thank you both for your support!

[DDDDDDDDD23]

when are you going to return the card!!!