Arc 1: The Crystal Tourney Chapter 1: Rife Human Life
“Blast it! Hey Victor, does Allen have any ketchup?”, yelled a male British voice out from the kitchen.
The person who he yelled for was sitting on on the davy's gray living room couch with his feet crossed and propped up on top of a simple rectangular beech-wood coffee table. He wasn't wearing any shoes so the pale white skin of his pedicured feet were out in the open air of this old two bedroom one bath house which had lime green wallpaper that peeled away from the walls and worn wood floors.
“Richard, he used it all when he tried to recreate that ketchup food from that one episode of Cow and Chicken.”, he replied to the voice.
“Are you bloody serious?”, Richard asked in an exasperated tone.
“I am.”
“Ugh.”, Victor heard the facepalm all the way in the living room.
Victor was seventeen years old and skinny. His skin was pale white and he wore his brown hair long and straight. His eyes were dark brown and stared from behind black Ray Ban glasses that had a tendency to slide down the bridge of his nose.
He wore black dress pants and a black hoodie three sizes too big for him that had holes in the ends of the sleeves over a white dress shirt and black tie. His pale white manicured hands gripped between his thumbs and pointer fingers the sides of a newspaper, which hid his face as he contemplated over the crossword puzzle. He had already solved it but he often tried to solve them in a different language to up the difficulty, but so far nothing has worked.
The main article on the cover of the newspaper had the headline “First Unicorn To Win Magician of the Year.” The article had a picture of a blue unicorn with a magic wand cutie mark smiling and standing with Penn and Teller the hosts of that year’s World Magic Awards. Ever since the discovery, newspapers and news shows have done reports and articles on more “happy” things because they have started to sell more than articles about “sad” things, due to the new audience of ponies they had to cater to, and simply because of this fact people and ponies are happier with the human world and less paranoid. Well some of them anyway.
His 4G droid phone was at his right side with headphones in it, he was listening through the right earbud to Happy Song by Voltaire and hummed along to it.
“Remind me again, why am I still friends you two?”
“Well Allen is dating your sister, and as for me.” He paused while he contemplated it. “Habit, would be my educated guess.”
“Habit, right.” Richard walked into the living room from through the door located to the left of the couch. In his right hand he carried a plate of freezer fries, and in the left hand he had a bottle of Tabasco’s new rainbow hot sauce. Richard was twenty years old and caucasian but he definitely has gotten more sun than Victor did, not to the point of looking like he belonged on Jersey Shore but his skin did look healthier than Victor’s. He had green eyes and medium length unkempt red hair.
On both hands he wore leather finger-less biker gloves, he always went everywhere with them on. He was wearing a zipped up red jacket with the design of a large blue dragon breathing fire on the front of it and a white T-shirt underneath it. He had blue jeans and a belt made of snake hide and white socks and black new balance tennis shoes on the lower half of his body.
Victor put the newspaper down as he heard Richard enter the room.
“You think you can handle rainbow hot sauce?” Victor asked with a raised eyebrow while he pulled out the earphone and eyed the hot sauce as Richard sat down on the couch to his left.
“Yes I can handle it. I’m not the one who passed out after eating a pepper.” Richard snapped back.
“Okay. Another question, do you think you can handle it without a beverage? Also for your information it was a Trinidad Scorpion Butch T pepper that I ate, it is the second hottest pepper known to the known sentient beings.”
“Okay you may have a point, and you don’t need to get all defensive.”
“I wasn't being defensive I was merely stating a fact.”
“Riiiight.” He looked at Victor’s feet that was on the coffee table in front of them and let out an annoyed and sickened groan “Can you move your feet so I can put my plate down, I don’t feel comfortable putting it next to your feet.”
“ Fine.” He moved his feet and Richard put the plate of fries down and went to the kitchen.
As he was in the black refrigerator in the green and white checkered linoleum floor kitchen with baby blue walls and wooden cabinets, there was a loud bang with a bright green light came from the living room quickly followed by an extremely girly scream.
Richard heard this and ran into the living room, and left the refrigerator open.”Victor are you alright?!” He screamed.
All that he saw in the room was a large burn spot where the coffee table used to be and scroll that floated in mid air. “Victor!”
He poked his shaking head from behind the couch and eyed the scroll with hate in his eyes.
“Are you okay, and what in the name of bloody hell is that?” Richard asked as he motioned toward it with his left hand.
“Yes I’m fine.”
Victor got up from behind the couch, still shaking from the adrenalin that was rushing through his body. He brushed his pants off and walked to stand beside Richard to get a good look at a scroll. He looked at it while he took several deep breaths to calm himself.
“It is an Equestrian scroll.”
“Well how did it get here?”
“They can travel vast distances by being lit on fire. And from what I understand about them, dragonfire allows for further and faster transportation, but it isn't supposed to be anywhere near that violent even with an adult dragon doing it.”
“Ah.” He gave the scroll another once over and noticed the seal of a large six pointed pink star with five smaller stars around it. “Hey that seal on it looks familiar. Isn't it that one princess’ cutie mark? Her name is Dusk Shine or something.”
“Twilight Sparkle and yes that is her cutie mark. Oh and thank you Richard.”
“Thank you? For what?”
“If it wasn't for your hatred of feet I wouldn't be standing right now.” He replied nonchalantly before he walked closer to the scroll with his hands behind his back.
Richard’s face went white at the thought of how close his friend came to becoming seriously injured or worse. He quickly became filled with anger at that princess for endangering his friend.
“I can only guess at what caused this explosion.” He motioned at the burn spot in the middle of the floor, “But I think it might have been when it traveled through the portal to get here, the magic in the portal must have super charged it. But then again that is just a guess, and I am no unicorn.” With the last word he rubbed his forehead and sighed.
With the idea that it may have been an accident softened his rage, though only slightly, he still had a few censor worthy words he wanted to use to tell that pompous, at least in his eyes she was, princess off.
He thought to himself, ‘The only friends she has ever had have probably been paid or ponies that wanted to be higher up in the class system.’ He, like most humans, was very opposed to any and all forms of royalty, that and his parents were in a British punk band for the majority of their lives.
While Richard was lost in thought Victor grabbed the scroll. It started to glow purple and a black spark of magic jumped from it up his hoodie sleeve unnoticed by either of them. The seal on the scroll broke and it flew open. After he read through it the first time he frantically read it multiple times before he dropped it and stared blankly at the wall with his mouth agape.
“Victor what does it say?”
Victor didn't answer. He just pointed at the scroll on the floor.
Richard picked it up and read it out loud.
Dear, Human(I hope that we can become better acquainted)
I am Princess Twilight Sparkle and I used a spell on this scroll so it can find the best duelist there is, because I need your help. I would like to ask for your help in arranging and participating in a tournament for the human game Duel Monsters here in Equestria. I have seen this game first hand and it has great potential for harmony and friendship, and I hope that by hosting this tournament it will become more popular here in Equestria. To send me your answer write your answer and how many friends you will be bringing on the back of this scroll(Assuming your answer is yes of course.) and set it on fire, the magic in it will take care of the rest.
Sincerely,
Princess Twilight Sparkle
“Whoa.” Was all that Richard could say after he finished reading.
“Tell me about it.”
“Yeah, according to Equestrian magic you are the best duelist. Congratulations.”
“What, not that! She wants me to be in and help organize a tournament! You know how much I hate and fear making mistakes, especially in front of people. I can’t risk it, it is too much pressure I’m telling her no. Besides you know how bad my social skills are. Not to mention I've never been to a tournament before, and I plan to keep it that way.”
“You have to go. You seem to have an okay time talking to me.”
“No I can’t. That is only because I know you. I know what you do and do not like in social situations, all those ponies that I’ll have to talk to will be new, and I won’t know anything about them.”
“Why do you have to treat all social interactions like they are a complicated chess game where one screw up earns you nothing but a checkmate?”
“Because in my experience they are.”, he dead panned.
Richard sighed, that was the most annoying thing he had found about Victor, his dad’s perfectionism really did a number on him. He hid it very well, to an outside observer he would be any other normal happy highly intelligent person, but underneath he was filled with somber self loathing and a drive to never make mistakes. “Tell you what, since Allen should be here any minute now anyway, why don’t we just tell our friends about this before sending the answer in the negative?” He rolled up the scroll and put it in his jacket pocket.
“Fine tell them, but my mind is not going to change on this.”
“Lawrence might disagree with that.”
“No. He won’t.”, he stated with finality in his voice.
Just then they heard the sound of a car horn from outside, they grabbed their backpacks from the right side of the couch in front of the door and slung them over their left shoulders. Victor’s was electric blue and had neon green straps and zippers, Richard’s was white with black straps and zippers. Victor slipped on his socks that were inside his black durango boots beside the couch, then put the boots on. Richard opened the old creaky wooden front door and headed out followed by Victor.
“Oh I almost forgot two things.
“Forgot what?”, Richard asked with a raised eyebrow. Before he got his answer Victor ran off through one of the doors to another room of the house from the living room and came back carrying his neon blue with neon green trims duel disk and backpack in hand. The duel disk was constructed so that the two metal plates that made up the five field zones laid blade up horizontally of each other and when worn with his forearm. The circular part that they were fashioned to had a track underneath the small screen that held the life points, so that they could open and turn when in use. There was no immediately noticeable graveyard, but set lower than the track beside the life point counter there was a large enchanted spherical equestrian gem, it is what powers the holograms during a duel. Magi-Tech Wrist Mounted Dueling Assistant was the full name for the device, however most just called them duel disks.
He placed his disk into his backpack and put it back on himself, “Aaaaand, I call shotgun.”
“Bloody hell.”, Richard facepalmed.
They walked down the stairs of the simple wooden porch of the dirtied green suburban house with dented rainwater chutes. They walked across the lawn heading toward the beat up black 1967 Ford Thunderbird Fordor Landau with suicide doors parked on the side of the road. There were scratches all over it and the back left tire was just a spare. Passenger's side door was missing its handle and the hood of the car was covered in dents.
The driver had short buzz-cut brown hair and freckles all over his face. He was wearing a black trench coat black denim jeans and a black shirt with the words “ Saucy hand drawn image from japan free for 5 days and counting.” printed on it, except the 5 days was crossed out with red and above it written in red was “3 minutes”.
“Hey guys.” He said with a smile and wave through the open window of the passenger side door.
“Hey Allen.” Victor and Richard said in unison.
“How is your leg?” Victor asked him, motioning to his broken left leg. he isn’t supposed to be driving, but he does anyway, he isn't one to follow rules.
“My leg is doing better. How have you two been?” He asked as they got into the car, Victor had to reach into the car window to open the door. He placed his backpack between his legs and Richard placed his beside himself in the back seat.
“Well Victor is doing really well.” Richard replied.
“Really? So what is Vicy? You finally get a girlfriend...or a marefriend?” He teased.with a wink.
If there was one thing Victor hated more than making a mistake it was being embarrassed. He hated that feeling with an all consuming fiery passion because he viewed it as the ultimate loss in interbeing communications. He punched Allen in the shoulder. “What have I said about calling me Vicy?”
“Relax dude I was only joking. Besides Richard here already knows fat bottomed mares make your dueling world go round, don’t cha Richard?”
“Unfortunately.”, He grimaced.
“Say it for the entire neighborhood, why don’t you?” He said with his now scarlet face in his hands.
“Say, that isn't a bad idea.” Allen took a deep breath ready to yell.
“Wait what?! No please I’ll do anything, just don’t do that.” Victor begged while the gripped the collar of of Allen’s trench coat.
“Anything?”
“Yes anything.”
“Then draw!” He yelled as he pulled his phone out of his right jean pocket and unlocked it and had his finger hover over the gallery app, all in the matter of seconds.
Victor recognized immediately what this was and pulled his own phone out of the front pocket of his hoodie, unlocked it, and had his finger hover over his gallery app.
Richard just facepalmed. “Really, the both of you are doing that now?”
Their foreheads met and they stared into each other’s eyes with determined expressions on their faces and their phones at the ready. They both started to count down.
“Three.” Victor licked his lips.
“Two.” Allen’s left eye twitched.
“One!” They both yelled and touched the gallery apps of their phones and opened them.
Allen held out his phone and said, “Three hundred and four, beat that.”
Victor held out his, “Five hundred and twenty-one.”
Allen grabbed Victor’s phone out of disbelief and started to look through his gallery. He reached at it to get it back to no avail. “Heeeey some of this is real...and its equestrian stuff...Fleur De Lis mostly, she’s kinda hot...ohhh a gryphon.”
Richard facepalmed even harder than last time.
“Fine, I only have 413 pics, I still won.” Victor said with a pout as he tried to get his phone back, but Allen kept it out of his reach.
“Oh hey Richard look some dragons too.” He said while he held the phone so Richard could see.
That got Richard angry, “How many bloody times do I have to tell you? I. Do. Not. Have. A. Dragon. Fetish!”
"Yeah, they are just the only thing you draw, you have a jacket with one on it, and your room is covered with posters of them.", Allen laughed and tossed Victor back his phone.
“Oh hey were you able to get in contact with Mollie?” Allen asked Victor as he put his phone back in the pocket of his hoodie.
“I haven’t talked to her in probably as long as you have.”, he replied.
“Damn, I do miss her.”
“Me too. I hope she’s alright.”, Richard said from the back seat.
“Yeah.”
“Enough of this moping we gotta get to the library. Lawrence and Dick are probably getting sick of waiting.” He started the car and started to pull away from where it was parked. “Wait hold up.”
“What?” Victor and Richard asked.
“Put your seat belts on, the both of you.”
“You tell us to but our seat belts on, yet you are driving with a broken foot?” Richard asked bemused.
“My car my rules.”
Victor and Richard begrudgingly complied with two distinctive clicks. “Thank you.” He pushed a button on his CD player he had installed in the car, Last Ammunition by Deathstars came on and he started tapping the steering wheel and nodding his head with the music.
As they were driving driving down the road of their medium sized town Allen and Richard talked about various topics ranging from Call of Duty to strategies for dueling, Victor just looked out the window at the scenery as they passed it. He always got inwardly reflective and non talkative during car rides.
As they neared the county courthouse located in their town traffic was slowed to a crawl because of a protest that was held outside of it. A gryphon and human couple walked out of it and were yelled at by a bunch of worthless bigots with IQs comparable to that of a rock with down's syndrome that had signs that read things like “God hates Xenos”, “Thank god for broken legs”, “You’re going to hell”, and “It was adam and eve not adam and Seabiscuit”. There was also a counter protest held by a bunch of ponies and human duelists with signs that read things like “Celestia hates bigots”, “Xenophobes are ruining happiness”, “You’re going to the moooooooon!”, and “God may send dead sinners to hell, but Celestia sends living zealots to the moon”.
Victor smiled to himself as he noticed that there were more counter protesters and that most of them were duelists.
The gryphon was male and the feathers on his head was shaped into a devilock that had emerald green tips and the feathers around his eyes were also green. He wore fitted for gryphon tripp pants with chains and a black t-shirt with holes for his wings, the human laws required that beings from Equestria wear clothes. The female had short straight black hair and wore jet black denim pants, dark gray biker boots, and a black shirt with a large white skull on it underneath a leather jacket. Her head was hidden behind a black helmet with visor down. Both of them had black duel disks. In her right hand against her chest she held what appeared to Victor as their marriage license.
The gryphon looked like he wanted to attack them and half lunged before she put out an arm to stop him. He nodded before he said something to her, she said something to him before she leaned down and held him in a tight embrace. That put the baptists, who hailed all the way from Topeka Kansas, into a frenzy and they started to yell and scream at the couple even more.
She just sashayed over to her D-Wheel that was parked on the side of the street in front of a parking meter. It was a silver Dyna FLD Switchback Harley, with a unicorn enchanted windshield that prevented the turbulence from blowing away cards during a turbo duel, beneath the handlebars above the gas tank there was a slot to put her duel disk for turbo duels.
She tossed her leg over it and sat down on it, her gryphon groom flew over and sat behind her and wrapped his talons around her waist. The human stuck the key into the bike and turned it to start it and merged into the traffic and Victor lost sight of them.
After a few minutes the stopped traffic began to move at a slow pace, Victor got the feeling that he knew the woman that was with the gryphon from somewhere, but he didn't see her face so he couldn't know for sure. He pushed thoughts her out of his mind and focused on what Twilight asked of him, the more he thought about it the more he dreaded the thought of messing up something like a tournament in front of an entire country like that.
Allen saw the look on Victor’s face out the corner of his eye. “You okay Vicy?”
“Yeah I’m fine.” He lied.
“You know you are a bad liar.”
“And you are a good liar. Which is really worse?” He asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Point taken.”
“I’ll tell you what's bothering him once we meet up with Lawrence and Dick.” Richard said from the backseat.
“I get it, it's kind of a group thing, okay.” Victor turned around in his seat and glared at Richard. Richard just ignored him.
They started to come up to the public library after that short conversation. It was a large two story building with stone steps outside the front of it with the statues of two gryphons on either side of them. There were two people standing in between the statues in JROTC(Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps) uniforms. The one on the left was taller than the other and was heavily built, he was overweight but a good amount of it was muscle, on his left arm there was a white and gold duel disk. The other was short and stocky, and like the person beside him most of his bulk was muscle but there was weight there, his hair was blond and military cut. His duel disk was a left handed one strapped to his right arm, it’s only colors were graphite and black.
Near the handicap parking was a ramp that went behind the left statue for the disabled to be able to get into the bibliothèque.
They parked in the handicap zone closest to the stairs.
“Hey Richard can you hand me my crutches?”, Allen inquired as he looked into the rear view mirror at Richard.
“Sure no problem.” Richard unbuckled his seatbelt and bent down grabbed the crutches and after a bit of trouble getting them to maneuver properly inside the small car he handed them to Allen. Victor was already standing outside the car with his backpack on and his hands in his hoodie pocket at this point.
Allen put the crutches on the ground and used them as to pull himself up and closes and locks the door behind him. Richard also got out, his backpack slung over his right shoulder.
“About damn time you got here!”, called a voice over to them. It was the blond haired person from the stairs, he and his friend walked down the stairs when they noticed that Victor and gang pulled in. The tallest of the two walked with his hands behind his back and a serious expression on his face that he always seemed to wear.
“Shut up Dick.”, Richard responded to his exclamation. The person beside him slapped the back of his head to provide extra meaning to Richard’s command. Dick just shrugged.
“Its been awhile hasn't it Lawrence?”, Victor rhetorically asked as he walked up and gave him a bro handshake hug.
“Its been about a month or so. How have you been Victor?”, he asked breaking the hug.
“Work mostly.”, he curtly responds with a feeling of dread that now seeped into his gut, ‘Lawrence will not like the fact that I am going to refuse to help someone.’
Lawrence noticed the look on Victor’s face, “What else is up?”. He asked it in in an accusing tone that Victor could not escape from if he tried.
“Richard, you want to show them now?”
“Yes I do.”
“Yes! My curiosity was killing me.”, Allen said with a smile as he sat on the hood of his car, crutches can be murder on the armpits.
“So what happened? Did I get invited to be in the world tournament?”, Dick inquired.
Allen reached and slapped him in the back of his head with one of his crutches. Dick rubbed the back of his head and got Allen acquainted with a particular finger of his.
Richard presided to pull out from his jacket the letter from Twilight Sparkle, and read it aloud.
Allen, Dick, and Lawrence just stood there with their mouths agape for a bit.
Lawrence was the first one to speak up, and as if he knew the problem already, “You are going Victor.”
“No.”, he responded.
“I’m not going to let you ignore someone who needs help Victor.” He then brandished his duel disk, “If you refuse to go I’ll just have to make you go.”
"I'm with Victor on this one.", Dick interjected,"I heard that those princesses..", he looked side to side, "Summon humans to them so that they can molest them." He was promptly slapped on the back of the head by three hands and a crutch.
"Ow.", he rubbed here they hit him with both hands.
Victor scoffed, “Anyway, fine I'll duel you over it, if I win I don’t go, if you win I'll go.” He extended his right hand. “Deal?”
“Deal.”, Lawrence took his hand and shook it. Victor set his bag down off his back and got out his duel disk, and he clasped the metal wrist clasp around his wrist. He took his deck box out of the front of his backpack and stuck his deck into the disk as he clipped the deck box to his belt.
“Whoa, cool. Lawrence and Victor, you two haven’t dueled each other for a while now. This is going to be good.”
Richard nodded in agreement and Dick yawned.
“We all know that Victor is going to win, he always does.”
That earned him a slap on the back of the head from a crutch and a British hand.
“Don’t you remember Lawrence is the only one of us that has ever been able to beat him, this could go either way.”
They began to march over to the relatively large grassy area between the library and the basketball court beside it, ponies and humans were playing each other in it but soon stopped to watch the duel soon to take place. The area of grass was just large enough for the duel that was to take place.
Richard, Dick, and Allen walked over to the fence separating the court and leaned on it, to get a good view of the action that was about to go down. Lawrence and Victor stopped in the middle of the grass forty feet away from each other and both of them looked the other in the eyes.
“Duel accepted!”, they both shouted as their duel disks opened and a thin magical light the same color as the gems in their respective disks spread from the gem to either side of the duel field blades, this gave them the appearance of wielding magic energy crossbows on their wrists.
“Field Set!” They pointed their devices straight in the air and both sent out a beam of gold light that traveled eighty feet in the air before they stopped and spread out to form a bubble around them that was able to completely engulf the basketball court inside it.
“Duel Disks Set!” The blades on their disks then closed together fully forming the five space field, and spun on the track to be parallel with their arms and space opened where they stopped where they stopped for the graveyard. The automatic shuffle system then shuffled their decks and they drew their five cards.
“Duel”
“I’ll start this off if you don’t mind Lawrence. Draw!”
At this Richard's phone rang with Heroes Of Our Time by DragonForce, but he ignored it and let it ring as they got ready to watch the clash of two titans of this game.
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Duel: Lawrence Vs. Victor
Victor’s turn:
He activities pot of duality; it lets him reveal the top 3 cards of his Deck, and add 1 of them to his hand, then he must shuffle the rest back into his Deck. However he cannot Special Summon a monster(s) during the turn he activates it, it reveals: Psychic Commander, Serene Psychic Witch, and Emergency Teleport.
He chooses Emergency Teleport.
He sets 1 card face down, and 1 monster face down and ends his turn.
Life points: 8000 Hand: 4 Field: 1 s/t 1 face down monster
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“Is that all he’s going to do? Heh this might be an easy win for Lawrence after all.”, Dick said in a tone as attempted to seem smarter than he was, he was slapped in the back of the head by Richard.
“It is the beginning of the duel anything can happen.”
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Lawrence’s turn:
He activates the spell card E-Emergency Call, with it he can add 1 Elemental HERO monster from his deck to his hand, he adds Elemental HERO Stratos.
He Normal Summons Elemental HERO Stratos(Wind Warrior-Type/Effect Level 4 1800 ATK) and because it was Normal Summoned its effect activates which lets him add one HERO monster from his deck to his hand. Victor chains Bottomless trap hole to Stratos’ effect banishing Stratos because it has more than 1500 ATK points.
Stratos’ effect still goes through adding Elemental HERO Neos Alius to his hand.
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“You know Victor I was hoping to show you my new card before we dueled, but this better now that I think about it.”
“What card?”, Victor asked with genuine curiosity.
“This one!”
Lawrence presses a button on the back of his disk and it opened a hidden slot for field spells right beside the first monster zone. He placed the card in it and closed it.
Immediately the ground underneath them changed from grass to a green grid pattern, the edges of a swirling purple and white vortex can be seen beneath them, the center of the miasmic vortex was behind Lawrence. The earth ponies were perturbed with the idea of standing on nothing, but they quickly regained themselves.
“Fusion Gate!” Victor just grimaced, he knew exactly what this meant for him, and he was in trouble.
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Lawrence activates Fusion Gate, it lets both players Fusion Summon a Fusion Monster without using "Polymerization", but the Fusion Material Monsters are banished instead of being sent to the Graveyard.
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“I fuse Elemental HERO Bubbleman and Elemental HERO Neos Alius!", he pointed to the sky, "Now descend from the sky, the embodiment of the light inside all men's souls! Elemental HERO The Shining!”
A faceless white and golden humanoid figure that was wrapped in light descended and pierced through the dark of field spell that was active. Several of the ponies half bow before they realize that the majestic and imposing god like figure wasn't Celestia, they came up coughing and muttered things about their missing contact lenses.
“Wow Shining his first turn, Victor has his work cut out for him.”, Allen observed as Richard and Dick just nodded their heads. The people and ponies behind them payed even more attention than they were before due to the massive spectacle that was before them.
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He uses Fusion Gate to banish and fuse the Elemental HERO Bubbleman and the Elemental HERO Alius in his hand to Special Summon, Elemental HERO The Shining.(Light Warrior-Type/Fusion/Effect Level 8 2600 ATK)
Do to its own effect it gains 300 ATK for each banished HERO monster, 3x300 Shining (2600 ATK>3500 ATK)
Lawrence attacks Victor’s face down monster with Shining, the face down is Serene Psychic Witch(Earth Psychic-Type/Effect Level 3 1200 DEF) (3500 ATK - 1200 DEF) Psychic Witch is destroyed.
Victor uses the effect of Serene Psychic Witch that when it is destroyed and sent to the Graveyard, he can banish 1 Psychic-Type monster with 2000 or less ATK from his Deck. During his next Standby Phase, he can Special Summon that monster. He banishes Esper Girl.
Lawrence sets one card face down and ends his turn.
Life points: 8000 Hand: 2 Field: 1 monster 1 s/t and 1 field spell
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Despite what was on the line for him Victor smiled.
“Excited?”, Lawrence asked.
“Very, this might be my toughest duel yet.”
“Them lets go then.”
“Gladly. Draw!”
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Victor’s turn:
During his Standby Phase he Special Summons the banished Esper Girl in attack mode(Earth Psychic-Type/Tuner/Effect Level 2 500 ATK) and activates its effect, when it is Special Summoned while banished, he can banish the top card of his Deck face-down. When Esper Girl is sent from the field to the Graveyard, he can add the card banished by this effect to his hand.
He activates the spell card Psychokinesis which lets him Destroy 1 card on the field while he controls a face up psychic-type monster but he takes 1000 damage.
He targets Elemental HERO The Shining, it is destroyed.
Victor’s life,(8000 LP>7000 LP)
Lawrence wasn't the least bit worried at the loss of his ace, because of its effect.
Lawrence activates Shining’s effect, when it is sent from the field to the Graveyard: He can target up to 2 of his banished "Elemental HERO" monsters and add those targets to his hand. He chooses Elemental HERO Stratos and Elemental HERO Neos Alius.
Victor activates Emergency Teleport letting him Special Summon 1 Level 3 or lower Psychic-Type monster from his Deck. However during the End Phase of this turn, he must banish that monster. He Special Summons Hushed Psychic Cleric in defense mode.(Earth Psychic-Type/Effect Level 3 2100 DEF)
He activates Hushed Psychic Cleric’s effect by sending 1 card in his hand to the Graveyard, he can select 1 Psychic-Type monster in his Graveyard, and banish it. When Cleric is sent from the field to the Graveyard, he can Special Summon the monster banished by this effect. He sends Esper Girl in his hand to banish the Serene Psychic Witch in his grave.
He tunes Esper Girl and Hushed Psychic Cleric (2+3=5) to Synchro Summon Magical Android in attack mode. (Light Psychic-Type/Synchro/Effect Level 5 2400 ATK)
Since Hushed Psychic Cleric and Esper Girl were sent to the graveyard their effects activate, adding the banished face down card to his and and Special Summoning the banished Serene Psychic Witch in attack mode.(1400 ATK)
He Normal Summons Psychic Commander, (Earth Psychic-Type/Effect Level 3 1400 ATK) and tunes it with Serene Psychic Witch (3+3=6) to Synchro Summon Psychic Nightmare in attack mode. (Wind Psychic-Type/Synchro/Effect Level 6 2400 ATK)
He activates Psychic Nightmare’s effect to pick 1 random card in his opponent's hand and call what type of card it is (Monster, Spell or Trap). If he calls it right, Psychic Nightmare gains 1000 ATK until his opponent's next End Phase.
He calls monster, the card is Elemental HERO Stratos, Psychic Nightmare (2400 ATK>3400 ATK)
Psychic Nightmare attacks Lawrence directly. Lawrence life, (8000 LP>4600 LP)
Magical Android attacks Lawrence directly. Lawrence life, (4600 LP>2200 LP)
Victor ends his turn. The effect of Magical Android activates, During his end phase he gains 600 Life Points for each face-up Psychic-Type monster he controls. (2x600=1200)
Life points: 8200 Hand: 2 Field: 2 monsters
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“This isn't looking good for Lawrence now.”, Dick observed.
“Give him time, he still has plenty of hand advantage over Victor.”, Richard said in reply, his eyes never left the duel in front of him.
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Lawrence’s turn:
He Normal Summons Elemental HERO Stratos and uses its effect to add Elemental HERO Heat to his hand.
He activates the spell card Miracle Fusion which lets him banish, from his side of the field and/or Graveyard, the Fusion Material Monsters that are listed on an "Elemental HERO" Fusion Monster Card, then Special Summon that Fusion Monster from his Extra Deck.
He banishes the Elemental HERO The Shining from his Graveyard and the Elemental HERO Stratos from his field, to Fusion Summon Elemental HERO Great Tornado. (Wind Warrior/Fusion/Effect Level 8 2800 ATK)
When Elemental HERO Great Tornado is Fusion Summoned all of Victor’s monsters’ ATKs and DEFs are halved. Psychic Nightmare, (3400 ATK>1700 ATK) Magical Android, (2400 ATK>1200 ATK).
Lawrence banishes Elemental HERO Heat and Elemental HERO Neos Alius from his hand with Fusion Gate’s effect to Fusion Summon Elemental HERO Nova Master in attack mode.(Fire Warrior-Type/Fusion/Effect Level 8 2600 ATK)
Nova Master attacks Psychic Nightmare, (2600 ATK-1700 ATK), Psychic Nightmare is destroyed. Victor’s life points (8200>7300). Nova Master’s effect activates, when destroys an opponent's monster by battle: Lawrence can draw 1 card.
Great Tornado attacks Magical Android, (2800 ATK-1200 ATK), Magical Android is destroyed. Victor’s life points (7300 LP>5700 LP)
Lawrence ends his turn.
Life points: 2200 Hand: 3 Field: 2 monsters 1 s/t 1 field spell
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“Wow this duel, its going back and forth like a paddle ball game!”, exclaimed one of the human onlookers.
“Yeah, its almost dizzying.”, added one of the ponies.
Victor and Lawrence just stared into the other’s eyes, neither one was going to give the other what he wanted, he had to take it. Both were dueling for their own deeply ingrained internal reasons, they weren't going to lose without a fight.
“I am not going.”, Victor stated simply, he was too focused on the duel to say anything else.
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Victor’s turn:
He sets 1 monster face down and ends his turn.
Life points: 5700 Hand: 2 Field: 1 face down monster
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"That's not good, Victor is about to take a whole heap of damage.", Allen turned to Richard.
"Maybe, but knowing Victor it wouldn't be without reason.", Richard crossed his arms, he was rooting for Lawrence to win but he knew victory would not come easy when the opponent is Victor. 'Come on Lawrence, win.'
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Lawrence’s turn:
He activates the spell card Parallel World Fusion, he can choose an "Elemental HERO" Fusion Monster in his Extra Deck whose listed Fusion Material Monsters are banished, shuffle the banished Fusion Material Monsters into his Deck, then Special Summon that Fusion Monster from his Extra Deck. However he cannot Summon or set another monster during the turn he activates this card.
He shuffles Elemental HERO Bubbleman and Elemental HERO Stratos into his deck to Fusion Summon Elemental HERO Absolute Zero. (Water Warrior-Type/Fusion/Effect Level 8 2500 ATK)
Elemental HERO Nova Master attacks Victor’s face down, it is Morphing Jar (Earth Rock-Type/Effect Level 2 600 DEF). Morphing Jar’s flip effect is activated, both players must discard their hands and draw 5 cards. Morphing Jar is destroyed and Nova Master’s effect activates.
Elemental HERO Great Tornado and Elemental HERO Absolute Zero attack Victor Directly. Victor’s life points (5700 LP>400 LP)
Lawrence sets 1 card face down and ends his turn.
Life points: 2200 Hand: 5 Field: 3 monsters 1 s/t 1 field spell
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“You are going to help the princess.”
Victor got angry, “No I am not going, I refuse to put myself in a position that I can make a mistake!”, he almost snarled the last bit. This surprised everyone present and caused them to become concerned with his behavior. His stance was much more aggressive now, his face was one that showed rage, this was not the Victor that everyone knew, he was different.
Dick thought he saw a black spark jump around the back of Victor’s head but he choked it up to a bad hologram bubble.
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Victor’s turn:
Victor sneered at his hand, he had drew the one card that can help him, but he wasn't too keen on using it. Something about that card made him uneasy.
“Summon it you imperfect genetically inferior monkey! Look at how they are mocking you, you are nothing.”, shouted a deep raspy male voice in his head that was accompanied by a slight headache when it spoke.
Victor looked over to the crowd and sure enough they were gushing over Lawrence's come back, but he took it as a sign of making fun of his mistakes.
"But don’t worry just summon it and beat him down into nothing, show them you don’t make mistakes!”,
Victor grimaced it because he knew it was right, he had to play it and prove to them he wasn't imperfect. He nodded for the voice and smirked as the pain faded from the assault in his head as the voice took control.
“Victor you alright?”, Lawrence asked concerned.
“Just peachy, but you won't be.”
“What?”, he looked quite taken aback at that.
“I activate Miracle Synchro Fusion and banish Magical Android and Overdrive Teleporter from my graveyard to Fusion Summon Ultimate Axon Kicker!”
His forehead started to glow neon green and the light extended out to the edge of the holo-bubble, it was just an effect of the hologram but it was still unnerving to the ponies and people watching.
A large three clawed appendage reached out of the light, gripped the ground and started to pull itself out. Each of the three claws were approximately the size of an average adult female human, the middle one was slightly longer, and each was a sickly shade of yellow.
When it finally pulled itself free from the light, all of the people and ponies could only stare at it in awe and fear. It looked like a demon that had crawled from the deepest darkest reaches of Tartarus. It was the size of two school buses, seventy-two feet from head to tail.
It had no legs but it slithered along the ground on a snake like tail covered in bone plates the same color as its claws. The skin in between the plates was a clear green, and all that could be seen underneath it was a swirling and circulating green energy. At the place that its torso was connected to the tail, it had to small yellow bone wings with a material similar to its skin between the bones.
Its torso and arms were covered in bone white plates that were aligned with where its bones would be if it was a vertebrate, with the same clear green skin between them. Inside its large chest at the center a large orb of green energy pulsed and spun, it was its heart. Connected to its back were a set of wings like its lower set only much bigger.
Its head was for intents and purposes a skull, it had sharp yellow teeth, two glowing red orbs for eyes, and no nose just the hole where it would be. A large green spherical clear green orb poked out of its fore head and two long oddly shaped extensions from the back of its head that formed a large obtuse angle, like the rest of its body they had bone plates and green skin.
All across its body green electricity cracked and fizzled.
"Whoa, Lawrence is in for it now isn't he?", Dick asked.
"Very much so.", Allen replied.
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Victor activates the spell card Miracle Synchro Fusion, he can banish, from his Graveyard, the Fusion Material Monsters listed on a Fusion Monster Card that lists a Synchro Monster as a Fusion Material Monster, and Special Summon that Fusion Monster from his Extra Deck. He banishes Magical Android and Overdrive Teleporter to Fusion Summon Ultimate Axon Kicker. (Light Psychic-Type/Fusion/Effect Level 10 2900 ATK)
Victor activates Mystical Space Typhoon to destroy Fusion Gate, the area returned to normal.
Ultimate Axon Kicker attacks Elemental HERO Absolute Zero, (2900 ATK-2500 ATK), Absolute Zero is destroyed, Lawrence’s life points, (2200 LP>1800 LP).
Because Absolute Zero was removed from the field its effect activates to destroy all monsters Lawrence’s opponent controls. However due to Ultimate Axon Kicker’s effect it cannot be destroyed by card effects.
Ultimate Axon Kicker’s second effect activates, when it destroys an opponent's monster by battle and sends it to the Graveyard, Victor gains Life Points equal to the destroyed monster's ATK. Victor’s life points, (400 LP>2900 LP)
Victor sets 1 card face down and ends his turn.
Life points: 2900 Hand: 3 Field: 1 monster and 1 s/t
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"What did I say? I am not going.", Victor's voice now sounded like it was overlaid with a deep raspy male voice.
"You will go, if I have to drag you myself. I am keeping my promise I made to her, I will help anyone that needs it, and I am not going to let you make me break it. Draw!"
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Lawrence’s turn:
He activates the spell card Reinforcements of the Army, it adds 1 Level 4 or lower Warrior-Type monster from his deck to his hand, he adds Elemental HERO Stratos.
He Normal Summons Stratos and activates its effect Victor chains the trap card Torrential Tribute when a monster is Summoned it destroys all monsters on the field, Axon Kicker is unaffected due to its effect.
Stratos’ effect isn't negated so Lawrence uses its effect to add Elemental HERO Ocean to his hand.
He activates the spell card polymerization and sends Elemental HERO Woodsman and Elemental HERO Voltic, that are in his hand, to the Graveyard to Fusion Summon Elemental HERO Gaia. (Earth Warrior/Fusion/Effect Level 8 2200 ATK)
When Elemental HERO Gaia is Fusion Summoned, Lawrence can select 1 face-up monster his opponent controls. Until the end of his turn, that monster's ATK is halved and Gaia gains the same amount of ATK.
Lawrence targets Ultimate Axon Kicker, Gaia attack,(2200 ATK>3650 ATK) Axon Kicker attack, (2900 ATK>1450 ATK)
Elemental HERO Gaia attacks Axon Kicker (3650 ATK-1450 ATK) Victor’s life points: 2900 LP>700 LP
Lawrence sets one card face down and ends his turn.
Life Points: 1800 Hand: 3 Field: 1 monster 2 s/t
"You failure! It seems I have to make you more motivated.", the voice in his head laughed before Victor saw nothing but blackness.
When he was able to see again he found he was inside the house he grew up in, but before he could take in the surroundings a large hand slapped his face and sent him to the ground on his back.
"What have I told you about sitting and not talking when you are spoken too?", the man who towered over him asked in a very angry tone.
Victor could only stammer as he stared up at the man with a shadowed over face and red glowing eyes with purple smoke coming out of them.
"Well?!", the man practically screamed.
"I-I I'm sorry daddy.", was all Victor could say.
"Humph.", the figure reached behind him and pulled something out,
Victor's face showed pure fear and tears poured down his face, "No nononono, please not that daddy please not that." The shadow of a man pulled his hand back ready to strike him with something his sharp white teeth showed as his mouth was curled in a sadistic smile.
Victor screamed but suddenly found himself back in the middle of the duel, tears still rolled down his face.
"Win.", was all it said after that psychological torture, it was a command, a threat and a promise all in one, and the voice punctuated it with a sharp spike in the pain to Victor's head.
Lawrence and his other friends had very concerned expressions on their faces when they noticed him crying.
"Victor are you alright?", Lawrence asked worried for his friend.
"Yes! But after my turn you won't be, draw!"
Lawrence was taken aback by this, 'Something is defiantly wrong with him.', he looked at Allen and group and their faces said they thought the same thing.
Victor's Turn:
He Normal Summons Hushed Psychic Cleric, due to its effect it is changed to defense mode.
He activates Psychic Cleric's effect by sending Overdrive Teleporter in his hand to his graveyard, he chooses to banish Ultimate Axon Kicker from his graveyard. After that Victor activates the Normal Spell card Dark Hole, when Dark Hole is activated it destroys all monsters on the field, Elemental HERO Gaia and Hushed Psychic Cleric are destroyed.
Because Cleric was sent to the graveyard Ultimate Axon Kicker is Special Summoned to Victor's side of the field.
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"Now Ultimate Axon Kicker attack Lawrence directly with Mental Dissension.", his voice now almost completely covered up by the deep raspy one his eyes slightly glowed red. He clinched his right hand in a fist and punched it at Axon Kicker a small black magic spark jumped from him to the monster.
The psychic demon paced both of its large claws on both sides of its head and green electricity started to build up around it.
"This game is over."
"Indeed it is." Lawrence simply stated.
Axon Kicker unleashed its charged energy at Lawrence in the form of a miasma of green mental energy and electricity. As it drew closer to him, it ripped up chunks of the earth as it traveled. Lawrence just stood as if resigning himself to a fate and Victor stood with a look of triumph but that look soon changed to shock and fear when he noticed Lawrence's activated trap card.
"I activate Magic Cylinder.", Lawrence stated. Instead of hitting Lawrence the energy was sucked up inside a Cylinder with intricate red, yellow and black designs on it as well as a blue question mark. There was a similar Cylinder beside that one, that glowed green and shot out the attack that the other one sucked up back at Victor.
"No! NO! NOOO!", Victor screamed as the voice started to pull him back into the empty and somber blackness to torture him for his loss, but it never got a chance to start his psychological punishment.
When the reflected attack made contact with his body he yelled out of physical and mental pain as the force that invaded his mind was vaporized by the attack, it screamed in agony as bit by bit of it was ripped out of his mind. He was thrown back several feet on to the hard ground by the energy which with the mental trauma of having the dark entity ripped out and the electric energy that cracked across his body he started to loose his consciousness. The last things he heard as the darkness took him in were his friend's foot steps as they ran to him and shouted his name and an old lullaby that was sung to him in his much younger days.
Victor’s life points, (700>0)
Lawrence wins.
