Chapters YGO-EQG 9.5- Alternate Endgame
With their final days in high school coming up, each weekend Burst spent with his friends became even more precious. After all, everyone would have to become adults soon. Despite all of this, there was no time Burst wanted Inferno to drop the same tired subject until now.
"I mean, it's still a mystery to me how your relationship is functional! How do either of them not ever have an issue with each other?" Inferno said to Burst as the two of them walked down Sugar Cube Corner.
"I don't know. We just have it good. I love them and they both love me back." Burst answered for the millionth time since the relationship began.
"How is a guy like you so lucky..." Inferno responded with a sigh.
"What? Are you implying you're jealous?" Burst couldn't help but tease his friend.
"N-No! I could never even think of having any girl but Rarity in my life! In fact, that's why I can never understand you having those feelings for more than one girl."
Inferno suddenly realized he was walking alone. He turned around and saw that Burst was staring across the street, a serious expression on his face.
"Burst?" Inferno asked as he approached his friend.
"Do you feel it too Inferno?" Burst responded, his voice stern as he looked straight into the crowd walking by across the street.
Inferno was about to ask what's meant when suddenly a wave of fear washed over him. It was obvious that someone, or possibly something, was reeking of evil intent. This was different from their past enemies however, less focus on malice and darkness and more on chaos. Pure, destructive chaos.
From his deck case, Inferno heard his partner ask "Blue Eyes... it can't be him... can it?"
Blue Eyes White Dragon responded. "It can't be... he was forbidden from ever returning... we made sure of that."
"What do you guys mean?" Burst asked. Suddenly, the group of passersby seemed to clear up, revealing a single girl staring back at the two young men with a sinister grin.
She looked to be close to Burst and Inferno in age, maybe a bit younger, with long, messy blue hair tied into a braid in the back. Her skin was a pale white, and there was a mischievous gleam in her red eyes that seemed to match the desire to burn all existence that was radiating off her.
Burst weighed his options in his head. Though she didn’t look like much, she had to have a powerful deck if the monsters within scared even Blue Eyes. He wasn’t given much of a choice for how to approach this duelist because she seemed to vanish as soon as another group of people passed between them. This scared the two boys, who still felt the presence of this person’s deck nearby.
“Hey there.” a playful voice asked from behind, “Watcha doin’?” Burst and Inferno turned around, shocked to see the girl standing right behind them, it was obvious from her slight giggle in her words she didn’t care and was doing a poor job at acting like she didn’t know. Neither of them responded, shocked at how she appeared behind them like that. “Hello? Buuurst? Infeernoo? Are you theeeere?”
Burst finally gathered his words. “H-How do you know who we are?”
“Well it’s not like you two aren’t celebrities who would have fans walking the streets looking for your autograph or anything… I mean, yeah, it’s not how I know you but you shouldn’t be surprised that I do from that assumption.” She responded “I was put here to be a challenge for you.” She answered a question as Burst was about to ask it. “My name is Aneris, Aneris Ouroboros, but since the author is going to be lazy you can just call me Ann.”
“You said you were supposed to be a challenge to me? What does that mean?” Burst asked, ignoring the fourth wall break.
“How about this: I’ll tell you and give you this duel disk if you beat me in a duel.” Ann said as she activated a Red-Eyes themed duel disk she slipped on her arm. The duel disk looked familiar too… almost as if…
“Hey wait a minute!” Inferno shouted. “That’s mine give it back!”
“I said I would after this duel with Burst, besides you need to go and get your deck back.” Ann said to an angry Inferno. Sure enough, he turned around to see his monster partner fully materialized and desperately trying to collect some cards flying everywhere. Inferno shot the girl a glare and ran off to chase after his deck.
“Sorry about this bro, but the author needed us alone for this and thought this would be a good establishing character moment for me.”
“Whatever, let’s duel.” Burst said, activating his own duel disk.
Burst – 8000
Aneris – 8000
Aneris took the first turn “I summon Card Trooper and activate his effect to send the top three cards from my deck to the graveyard to increase his attack points to 1900, then I’ll set a facedown trap. That will be all.”
“Alright then,” Burst said “I draw, now I summon Maiden with Eyes of Blue and end my turn.”
“My move” Ann looked at her hand and smiled “I’ll mill three more cards with Card Trooper, and since one of them was Eclipse Wyvern I can banish Dark-Armed Dragon from my deck! Now I’ll banish one Blackwing Zephyros the Elite and Eclipse Wyvern to summon Chaos Sorcerer! Also, since I banished EW I can add Dark-Armed Dragon to my hand! Now I’ll activate Chaos Sorcerer’s effect! Banish his Maiden!”
Chaos Sorceror walked up to Burst’s maiden “Hello there.” He said in a scratchy voice. He then touched the Maiden’s forehead with his index finger and she began to fall to her knees, but by the time she would have hit the ground, she had vanished.
“You activated her effect however!” Burst responded, “I get to summon one Blue Eyes from my hand, deck, or graveyard if she is targeted by an effect” Blue Eyes White Dragon appeared on the field.
“Well it’s a good thing I have this spare trap card here. Activate Phoenix Wing Wind Blast! By discarding one card from my hand I can send your Blue Eyes to the top of your deck! Now attack him directly Card Trooper! I’ll end my turn after one more face-down, your turn.”
Burst – 6100
Aneris – 8000
Burst’s turn then started. “I’ll play Trade In and discard the Blue Eyes I just drew to draw two new cards, then I’ll play Cards of Consonance and discard one White Stone of Legends to draw two more cards! Now I’ll reveal a second Blue Eyes in my hand to summon Blue Eyes Alternative Dragon! Now I’ll activate his effect and destroy your Chaos Sorceror! Then I’ll destroy your Card Trooper! Now since it’s my end phase I’ll summon the third Blue Eyes from my deck! Your move!”
Burst – 6100
Aneris – 5400
“All right then! I get an extra draw since Card Trooper was destroyed! Now I’ll play Solar Recharge and discard one Lightsworn in my hand to draw two cards! Then I’ll send the top two cards from my deck to the graveyard! Now I’ll banish that Lightsworn and one Darkflare Dragon to summon Lightpulsar Dragon, but summoning him triggered my trap! Torrential Tribute! I’ll destroy the field and since Lightpulsar left the field I can add one level 5 or higher DARK Dragon monster from my graveyard to my hand” Ann’s smile grew to a point where it could not be wider. That destructive aura blasted Burst full force as his opponent took two monsters in his graveyard and removed them from play. “I special summon Chaos Emperor Dragon- Envoy of the End!” he said as he summoned the monster retrieved from the grave.
“But CED is forbidden! You shouldn’t even HAVE one!” Burst said, shocked as the source of that destructive aura stood before him, glaring at the duelist with red eyes that matched its owner’s.
“Well I do! I’ll pay 1000 life points to have us discard our entire hands! And You take 300 damage for each card discarded!”
“Since I had a White Stone of Legends in my hand, I get to add one Blue-Eyes monster from my deck to my hand!”
“Fine then! But I still get to attack you directly! Now End Phase!”
Burst – 1300
Aneris – 4400
Burst shot Ann a confident smirk as he drew his next card. Even though he just lost his entire hand, including his Harmony Absolute card to summon his ace, he still won the moment those White Stones went to the graveyard.
“I’m going to banish White Stone of Ancients from my grave to add a blue eyes monster back to my hand! Now I’ll show him to you to summon the Blue Eyes Alternative White Stone of Legends got for me. Next I’ll play Return of the Dragon Lords to resummon one of my Blue-Eyes!”
“Hello milord,” Blue Eyes White Dragon sarcastically said to CED.
“So it’s you… I’ll tear you apart for what you did to me! I swear on it!” CED threatened back.
“Not this time CED!” Burst’s partner told the larger dragon.
Burst gave his final commands to finish the duel. “I’ll trigger Alternative’s effect and destroy CED! Now I’ll finish you off! Blue Eyes, hit him with two white lightnings for game!”
Ann simply shrugged as her life points went down to zero. Burst, exhausted for some strange reason, fell to his knees. Upon looking up, he saw Ann standing over him. She removed her duel disk and asked.
“Did something feel… different to you Burst? Before I came around, did it seem as if something was off?”
“Yeah…” Burst agreed, too tired to think of why but understanding what his opponent was getting at. He took Inferno’s duel disk and set it down right beside him. Upon looking up, Burst got a good view under Ann’s skirt as a gust of wind blew by, revealing something Burst wished he never saw and knew no amount of Brain-Bleach would remove from his memory. He silently sat there, having pulled a good-old fashioned heroic BSOD.
“Oh come now!” Ann said as he, yes HE, adjusted his skirt, “You visit a magical dimension of talking ponies for Sunday brunch and a trap puts you on a meltdown?!”
Burst did not respond.
“Whatever, just listen very carefully to me,” He said as he got down on his knees and practically kissed Burst’s ear with how close he was to it, “Everything you know… has already come to an end. But your friend blueeyeswhitedragon0, aka the author, didn’t destroy anything in a dramatic enough fashion in the eyes of his friend. So said friend decided to redo the end of everything his way in his own AU… with me created to be the villain. None of this is cannon and you are a fake and clone of the real Burst Stream.” Ann whispered that info, but it went straight out Burst’s other ear.
The trap then got up and said “Well, that was fun. See you around Burst.” Then he walked away, vanishing into the crowd.
“…rst. Burst. BURST!” Inferno said, having shook his friend out of his mental Blue Screen.
“Inferno?” Burst asked
“Burst! Yo! I found you sitting here in the middle of the sidewalk… what happened?”
“I-I was dueling Ann… then I won… but I saw…” Burst shuddered, holding back the urge to vomit in public, “After that I kind of blacked out from shock”
“What did you see?”
“… you don’t want to know… trust me man I wish I could erase that.”
“… okay then, well I got my deck put back together and Red Eyes told me he needed to know if Blue Eyes fought a certain dragon. He won’t specify who.”
“It’s Chaos Emperor Dragon, the former king of dragons… until we overthrew him.” Blue Eyes said, having manifested.
“Oh no! Not him!” Red Eyes said from over Inferno’s shoulder.
“Burst! Inferno! We need you to get everyone together so we can tell all of you something important. Can you guys do that for me?” Blue Eyes asked.
“Yeah sure.” Inferno said as he helped Burst to his feet.
“Come on man. Rock the Dragon?” Inferno asked, trying to get his friend back to the world as he pulled out his phone to send a group text out to all their friends.
Burst gave Inferno a weak fist bump and silently said his catchphrase, “Yeah… rock the dragon.”
A few blocks away, Pinkie Pie was heading to Sugar Cube Corner to do some shopping when she suddenly got a text from Inferno saying to head over to Burst’s house for an emergency. Just before she was about turn around, she saw someone she knew HAD to become her friend.
“Hi! I’m Pinkie Pie!” Aneris suddenly heard as he turned around to see the older girl with a smile about as wide as his during his duel with Burst.
“Uhh, OK. I go by An-“
“Ann huh nice to meet you Iloveyourhairit’ssocuteIhadtocomeuptotalktoyoucanwepleasebefriends.” Pinkie then took in a deep breath, “So can we hang out some time? Pleeeease?”
“Uh, just so you know I’m a boy” Ann said, completely caught off guard despite his medium awareness.
“Oh my gosh! You look so much like a cute girl though! Now we HAVE to be friends you’ve gotta tell me all your secrets for looking the way you do!”
“I don’t think you really want to be around me… but I suppose we can hang out sometime-”
“YAY I can’t wait. Oh! but first I got to meet up with everyone else over at my friend Burst’s house. Shoot! Well can’t wait!”
As the excitable girl ran off, Chaos Sorcerer materialized behind Ann.
“She’s cute.”
“Quiet you!” Ann snapped back, then he turned to face the sky, “And YOU!”
Who me?
“Yeah! Don’t even think of it!”
I promise nothing
“And you’re delivering nothing too! Good thing she didn’t think to trade phone numbers or something.” Ann said as he walked off by himself, pulling out his copy of CED, “I got more important plot points to develop in this story.”
YGO-EQG 9.5- Alternate Endgame
Pinkie Pie knocked on the door and was soon let in by Rainbow Dash.
“Aint like you to be late to the party Pinkie.” She told her friend.
“Sorry, I just ran into a boy on the way and he was so cute I HAD to try to be friends with him” said Pinkie in response.
“Ooh. A boy huh?” Rainbow teased her friend as the two entered the living room, where everyone else had already gathered.
“Yeah! I need to learn how he looks so cute because he gives most girls competition for it. I gotta learn his secret to it!” Pinkie responded, not picking up on RD’s tone despite the fact that the energetic girl kept track of everyone else’s relationships.
“Is everyone here?” Inferno asked. Everyone nodded in response so Inferno continued, “Burst? You back among the living?” From the couch, sitting in between Celestia and Luna, Burst nodded to his friend. “Okay, Blue Eyes? Red Eyes? You guys have something you need to say?”
“Yes. I’ll do the storytelling for us if you’re fine with this Red Eyes.” Blue Eyes appeared from Burst’s deck, staying in spirit form due to how crowded the room was for everyone. Red Eyes did the same and said “Go ahead, floor’s all yours”
“Alright then. We have gathered everyone here today because we have a crisis on our hands. Today Burst and I dueled someone who was in possession of a beast greater than any which a duelist should wield: Chaos Emperor Dragon- Envoy of the End.”
“Wait! Him!” BLS Envoy of the Beginning emerged from Sunset Shimmer’s deck, “It can’t be… if it’s him then that means…”
“Yes,” said Blue Eyes, “There are many legends to how we exist in the monster realm. While the most commonly believed one is that the Egyptian Gods and their Creator of Light are the only divine beings, there was another god. One legend says that this powerful beast set the realm of monsters in motion by releasing its power into two monsters, the Alpha who protected all creation from the chaos of the beginning and willingly allowed his title to be taken by others who were worthy of said title.”
“Such as me,” Black Luster Soldier-Super Soldier said from Steel Edge’s deck. “Myself and the other Black Luster Soldiers took the title to follow the lead of the Envoy of the Beginning if we were declared worthy of it.”
“Wait… BLS you’re one of the oldest duel monsters?!” Sunset knew she possessed a powerful monster, but she never anticipated that he was one of the oldest monsters of legend.
“Yes. I went into hiding for the longest time after CED’s banishment out of fear he would soon return and force me into our destiny. Because I am all about the power of creation I do not like the idea of having all of existence destroyed. It was your heart that called to me after you became friends with these girls which brought me back and in your hands. I have never regretted that choice, but if CED is back then I fear I may have made a mistake by wanting to form a bond.”
“No way! I would never call the time we had together a mistake!” Sunset told her monster. In his spirit form, he gave her a small smile.
“…Anyway” Blue Eyes continued, “There was the Alpha and the Omega, who sought nothing but to destroy all and was said to reawaken the original monster at the moment which the end of times occurs. CED is that Omega. Because of its power, it took the title of Emperor and ruled with an iron fist. He would indiscriminately kill other monsters, even the dragons he led, just to temporarily sate his bloodlust. Eventually, we, the Blue Eyes White Dragons, teamed up with Red Eyes Black Dragons to use a spell by the Dark Magician to forbid him from coming near another monster. Because of his destiny, CED would break the spell, but I never anticipated now would be when the end of times goes into motion.”
Burst had a solemn look on his face. Ann came of as some sort of trickster who could be threatening enough based on his unpredictability alone, but possessing the beast that was going to bring about the apocalypse made him much more of a threat. “We need to find him before he does anything dangerous.” Burst said, drawing everyone’s attention to him.
“He said, he was introduced to the world to serve as a challenge to Burst, so maybe he’s trying to strengthen his deck in order to rematch you.” Inferno said
“But we don’t know what he even looks like.” Said Twilight
“He looks like a girl. He has long Blue Hair in a braid with bows in it, as well as red eyes.”
“So… a guy who looks like a girl…” everyone took a moment to weigh how possible it would be to find him and not an actual girl. Then Rainbow Dash had remembered that she was told about a guy like that.
“Hey Pinkie, didn’t you run into a guy you said looked like a girl?”
“Hm, Oh right! We were gonna hang out some time!”
“Well when?”
“Where?”
Pinkie reached into her pocket to get out the phone number she would obviously have had him write for her, only to be reminded that she didn’t get one.
“Shoot I have no way of getting in touch with him!”
Burst was the first to speak, “It’s fine Pinkie. I say we follow Inferno’s suggestion and tell Discord to keep his eyes out for Ann. He’s bound to turn up eventually.”
“Okay then. Hey I know since we got everyone together right now let’s have a party!” The girl said to try to lighten the mood.
“What are we celebrating?” Someone asked.
“Who cares? Let’s do it! We’re all together anyway!” Someone else responded.
With no decorations, everyone followed Pinkie’s example and enjoyed their time together, all of them simply trying to make the most of their last days together.
YGO-EQG 9.5- Alternate Endgame
Amidst everyone trying to lighten the mood, Celestia spoke up, “Well everyone, it seems now would be a better time than ever for me to announce that I will be training Moon as a teacher at CHS starting next school year.”
Everyone gave support to Moon’s future being cut out for her. The subject of Moon’s plans led into everyone else sharing their plans after graduation.
“Duel Academy recognized its need to get awesomer and sent me an invite to work for them!” Rainbow Dash spoke up.
“Really? That’s great!” Inferno said, “You’ll be working with Burst and I since the both of us got invites too!”
“I’ll also be a teacher there…” Murmured Fluttershy.
“No way! This is great, now all of us who are going to be working there can give my little brother and his friends a hard time when they attend it next year!” Rainbow Dash asked.
“My sisters and I are going to go for a full career.” Said Adagio.
“And we’ll be bringing Fang here as the group pet.” Aria said with a small giggle.
“Hey! I take offense to that.” Night Fang told his girlfriend. She simply responded by patting his head. “You aren’t wrong though,” the wolf-eared boy added under his breath.
“I’m of course going to be travelling with them as well,” Venus Bloomer told the group, “my ability to grow flowers in a short amount of time is going to come in handy to give the girls some of the most beautiful stages when they perform in concerts.”
“What about you Ace?” Inferno asked, noticing his friend stay toward the edge of the circle the group had formed.
Ace seemed reluctant to share. Sonata slipped her fingers between his and held his hand, giving approval to say what he needed to. “Oh, uh. I’m gonna be staying here. I’ll still support Sonata whenever I can. It’s just that-“
“He’s helping me make up for everything I did while under Dark Mist’s control instead of going off to be happy.” Dark Ice cut in from off to the other side. He then clenched his fist and left the room.
“What do you guys mean?” Burst asked.
“Ice has Red Dragon Archfiend, he has his family back, and he got a girlfriend. But before all that he stole other people’s rarest cards, and though he won’t tell me I fear he did more severing than just the bonds duelists had with their monsters. I love Sonata but he needs my help in atoning for all of that. He disagrees with my choice but Sonata and I both know it’s what’s best for him.” With that, Ace and Sonata followed Ice to try to talk to him.
“Er, I’ll be the next to say my plans,” Rarity spoke up to lighten the mood back up, “I plan to have a new clothing line launch by the end of the year.”
“I’m going to be taking over as CEO of Industrial Illusions after my father retires.” Goldenrise chimed in. Everyone in the room expected him to say that, so he received no reaction until Steel cut in with his plan.
“As for me,” said Steel Edge as he stood up to give a corny pose, “BLS and I will be leaving of an epic journey!”
“Journey for what?” asked Gold.
“I dunno. Just to become better as a duelist,” answered Steel as he sat back down.
“You’re going to get yourself killed.” RD flatly told him.
“Fine by me. Just means you won’t be graced by my visits to duel academy here and there.”
“I hate you.”
“Love you too Dash.” Steel held up his hands in a heart symbol
“Ugh. What about you Pinkie?” RD said to redirect the conversation to the last person not invited to teach at Duel Academy
“Oh… hm… I dunno.” Pinkie said. “I mean once this story is over it won’t reall matter what I’m up to will it?”
“What?! No no no no no. You got to have SOMETHING you want to do after we graduate at the end of the month! Do you plan to just work part-time at Sugar Cube Corner and throw parties for the rest of your life?” Burst said to his friend, finally taken out of his funk by concern for his friend.
“Um… yes?”
“Pinkie… at least sign up for community college or something.” Said RD.
“Look guys. Relax. I’ll have my future carved out in some sort of ‘next-generation of duelists’ story anyway. So just wait until then and we’ll see how the author portrays adult me.”
Nobody was assured by Pinkie’s words, but they all knew she wasn’t going to be wrong so they simply decided to move on.
“Oh well.” Burst sighed. “Hey guys I got a karaoke machine in my basement, wanna try it out?”
The answer was a unanimous yes. Everyone was having fun taking turns singing along to all manner of pop and rock songs, as well as the occasional English cover of an anime opening.
“Darling, shall we have the next song together?” Rarity asked Inferno while handing him one of the two mics.
“I’d love to” Inferno said to his girlfriend as the two got up and sang a cutesy English Vocaloid cover together.
“Inferno Flare. By Ra, you are the biggest weeb I have seen.” Steel Edge taunted his friend after the song was over.
“Ow,” Inferno sarcastically pretended to be hurt, “You have wounded my pride. I am so ashamed. I only hope you can do what you do best and let me know that this was ‘nothing personnel’” Steel blushed in embarrassment, knowing Inferno struck him where it most hurt: Coldsteel Hedgeheg references. Everyone laughed at the two’s antics and continued singing the day away. Even Ace, Sonata, and Ice returned to join in the fun. As the day blended into night, everyone stuck around to keep the party going, intending to make the most of one of their last days all doing so together.
YGO-EQG 9.5- Alternate Endgame
Maximilian Pegasus was used to seeing into the void. Many of the best duel monsters put into circulation were created when they called to him from there.
This time, however, was different.
He often dreamed of one day encountering a monster greater than he should allow himself to, and the Dragon Rulers are proof that he already had, but the beast he saw before him within this void seemed greater than the universe itself. It was as if he had encountered the world of duel monsters in living form and it terrified him. He could barely take in its full form. So he focused on one of its four eyes, though seeing the dark purple contrasted with its glowing orange iris put him at greater unease, it was not enough that he could not contain himself.
"Pegasus
"I require you to give me form My omega is calling for me, I must soon bring about the destiny I promised to all of existence
Pegasus did not understand what this creature was telling him, yet he felt compelled by its order, as if he must obey all the same. He suddenly felt himself being pulled away from the beast, allowing him to take its full form. Words did little for Pegasus to describe this monster's appearance. How could one thing look so repulsive and grotesque, yet so captivatingly beautiful?
Pegasus woke with a start, his son, Goldenrise was in front of him, holding his shoulders with a desperate look on his face.
"Father! Thank the god cards you're awake!"
"Gold." Pegasus quickly pulled his son into a hug.
"You were screaming for nearly twenty minutes... I-I could hear you from my room."
The two pulled away, Pegasus turned to his clock and saw that it was nearly three in the morning. "Thank you, Gold, but I think I'll be fine now."
"Are you sure?" Gold asked, not at all reassured by his father's words.
"I simply had an awful dream of a fearsome duel monster, one that could make the god cards themselves quake in fear, but it was just that. A dream. I will be fine."
Gold soon reluctantly left the room. As soon as he was gone Pegasus got out of bed and headed to his studio. He was compelled to create a new Duel Monsters card unlike any other.