"Why am I doing this again?" fifteen-year-old Danny Fenton asked as he sat across from his archenemy Vlad Masters. The two of them were seated in a helicopter that was currently flying over miles and miles of ocean.
"Because, Daniel, you won't let me teach you chess," the elder halfa replied. "I figured that you would rather learn this more popular strategic game, and learn lessons about tactics in the process." Danny pulled out the deck that Vlad had given him and began looking through his cards. He froze once he saw one of the fusion monsters.
"You didn't," he growled through gritted teeth.
"What are you talking about Daniel?" Danny held up the card. Vlad smirked.
"Oh yes, I did. Tell me, is the illustration accurate?"
"Too accurate. How could you do this? You know it'll never come to pass."
"Not in the real world, but in the realm of Duel Monsters, anything is possible." Danny sighed as he put the card back into the deck and stowed the deck away. He opened his mouth, about to tell Vlad to get a cat, when suddenly the helicopter began making its descent. "Oh, before I forget, you'll be needing this," Vlad said as he handed Danny a duel disk.
"The chopper landed and both halfas climbed out onto the landing area. Danny stared in awe; they were on top of a massive building with three domes, one blue, one yellow, and one red. There were a few obelisks surrounding the building, and Danny could see a few additional buildings, probably dorms, sticking out from among the deep foliage that covered the majority of the island. He turned around and jumped back in surprise when he saw the massive volcano just a few miles away. Vlad nudged him and he turned his gaze back to the tarmac and noticed two men approaching him. One was tall and broad, and wearing a red blazer. He was bald but had a beard that covered most of the lower part of his face. The other was also tall but wiry. He wore his blonde hair in a mushroom cut, and had a long, lumpy face. He wore a pink shirt underneath his blue blazer, and it looked as though he was wearing purple lipstick and eyeliner. This guy could give Sam a run for her money as far as Goth make-up goes, the young halfa thought to himself.
"Hello and welcome to Duel Academy, Mr. Fenton!" The first man said. His booming voice indicated to Danny that he was strict, but kind. "My name is Chancellor Shepherd, and my colleague is Dr. Crowler. He'll be one of your teachers here." Both men shook hands with Vlad, then Danny. "I'd like to tell you that we'll immediately give you your uniform and dormitory assignments, but here at Duel Academy it's not that simple. You see, Mr. Fenton, students here are ranked based on their aptitude, so we'll have to see you in a duel before we can assign you." He turned to Vlad. "You're welcome to stay and watch if you like."
"Thank you, I look forward to seeing Daniel duel." The four men descended the nearby stairs and walked through the halls to the main arena. They entered it and saw that it was packed. Danny, being the naturally shy kid that he was, immediately became nervous at the prospect of having to duel in front of all of these people.
"Excuse me, but can I please go to the bathroom first? It was kind of a long flight."
"Of course, the restrooms are down the hall, third door on the left," Crowler replied.
"Thanks," he said and ran off. After doing his business, he sat down on one of the benches and held his head in his hands. "How am I gonna be able to do this?" he exasperatedly asked himself.
"Hey, don't worry," a voice said. Danny looked up and saw a student about his age standing in front of him. He had messy brown hair and brown eyes. He was wearing a red blazer over his black shirt, and also wore red shoes.
"Who are you?" Danny asked.
"My name's Jayden. What's yours?"
"Danny. Danny Fenton."
"What are you so worried about?"
"Well, I have to go out into a packed arena and duel an experienced duelist even though I have no experience whatsoever and I'm afraid of being the center of attention."
"Hey, don't worry about it. As long as you believe in your cards, you'll do fine. And as for the crowds, just imagine them in their underwear. It always works for me!"
"Thanks, I'm feeling a lot better now." He got up and shook Jayden's hand.
"Well, I've gotta go, I've got a duel also and I don't want to be late!" Jayden ran off in the direction of the arena. Danny sighed and looked at his deck one more time. He flipped through it and saw a couple of cards. He gave a small smile as he saw the magic card and the monster that were looking back at him. His smile turned to a look of determination and he headed out to the arena.
"Great, you're back, Danny. Now we can begin! You're opponent will be a Slifer slacker, Jayden Yugi!" Crowler informed him. Danny started as he looked at the stage, where his new friend Jayden was standing on one side.
"Hey, Danny!" he called and waved at the hybrid. "Looks like we'll be dueling each other. Isn't this great!"
"Yeah, at least now I know the person I'm up against!" Danny shouted back.
"You two know each other?" Crowler asked.
"Jayden gave me a few words of encouragement back in the locker room."
"Oh. Very well, now get on stage and start your duel." Danny climbed onto the stage and placed his deck inside his duel disk.
"DUEL!" he and Jayden shouted as their disks morphed and got ready for the duel.
"Since you're the guest here, you should go first," Jayden offered.
"Thanks! In that case, I'll play Box Lunch (200/300), but sacrifice her to summon Technus, Ghost Master of Science and Electrical Technology (2000/2000). I'll also play the trap card Lightning Rod, which gives him an additional 1000 attack points, bringing them to a total of 3000 for one turn." He placed the cards on his duel disk and a hologram of Technus 2.0 holding his signature weapon appeared in front of him.
"Good move." He drew. "Sweetness! I'll use Polymerization to fuse elemental heroes Sparkman and Clayman to form elemental hero Thunder Giant (2400/2200). And he has a special ability-on the turn that he's summoned; he gets to automatically destroy any monster whose original attack points are lower than his own. That means that even though Technus has 3000 attack points, since before you played the magic card he only had 2000 so he still gets destroyed." Thunder Giant formed a ball of electricity in his claw-like hands, and threw it at Technus, causing a large explosion. But when the smoke cleared, Technus was still standing. "Hey, what gives?" he asked.
"Technus' special ability. All other monsters whose special abilities involve electricity don't affect him. Now, Technus, attack his Thunder Giant!" Technus whacked Thunder Giant with his lightning rod and destroyed him, lowering Jayden's life points to 3400. However, since Lightning Rod's effects only last for one turn, it disappeared right after and Technus' attack points went back to 2000.
"In that case, I summon elemental hero Rottweiler (1200/1000) in defense mode, and throw down a facedown." The mechanical dog appeared in front of Jayden, as well as a facedown card.
"Well, since we're both dog lovers, I'll summon Cujo the puppy (0/200), and a facedown." A small, green, ghost dog and a facedown appeared in front of Danny. "But I'll attack your Rottweiler now with Technus." Technus charged up a green cloud of binary and cast it at Rottweiler.
"Not so fast! I activate my trap card, Monster Switch of Doom! It lets me put one of your monsters on the receiving end of an attack instead of mine, and also destroys the monster that sent the attack!" Cujo yipped happily and ran over to Jayden's side of the field, where he was hit by the beam of zeroes and ones. Technus began shaking violently and then he exploded, lowering Danny's life points to 2000.
"Thanks for that. When Cujo the puppy is in my graveyard, I can activate the spell card Chew Toy, which allows me to summon Cujo the guard dog (2000/1500)!" Danny's facedown rose up, revealing a card illustrated with Cujo's little pink squeaky toy. The card exploded in a flash of blinding green light, and out of the light stepped Cujo's larger, more imposing form. "Cujo, attack Jayden's Rottweiler!" The beast complied and destroyed the smaller dog.
"It's me who should be thanking you. You see, when Rottweiler is destroyed while it's in defense mode, I can bring back one elemental hero and Polymerization." Sparkman and Polymerization were both ejected from Jayden's graveyard. "I'll play Sparkman (1200/1000) in defense mode for now, and end my turn."
"In that case, I summon Skuker, the Ghost Zone's Greatest Hunter!" a hologram of Skulker appeared in front of Danny (1400/2200). "First, I'll destroy Sparkman with Cujo." The large ghost dog tore Sparkman apart, leaving Jayden defenseless. "Then, I'll attack you directly with Skulker!" A missile launcher popped out of Skuker's armor and fired half a dozen missiles at Jayden."
"AAAH!" he screamed as they made contact and lowered his life points to 2000. He slowly got up from the floor, panting, but smiled once he saw the cards he drew. "I play elemental hero Bladedge (2600/2200)! Bladedge cut Skulker down to size!" Bladedge destroyed Skuker and brought Danny's lifepoints down to 800.
"I sacrifice Box Ghost (500/700) to summon Plasmius, the evil halfa (2500/2200)!" And when I play him in defense mode, his special ability, duplication, activates and Plasmius duplicates appear in all of my empty monster card slots." Four Plasmius duplicates appeared in front of Danny, all of them crouched down in a defensive position. "I'll put Cujo in defense mode and end my turn." The large ghost dog sat on his haunches and awaited further orders.
"Great, because I just got another great draw! I got Wildheart, who I can fuse with Bladedge to create Wildedge!" The elemental hero (2900/2500) appeared before Jayden. "Wildedge, attack a Plasmius duplicate!" Wildedge sliced one of the duplicates in half and destroyed it.
"Thanks for opening up one of my monster card slots! Now, I can sacrifice Cujo," the dog whined and then blew up, "to summon Phantom, the good halfa!" A card appeared in front of Danny and out of it rose his ghostly alter ego (1800/2000). "Although, in retrospect, I would've been able to do that without you taking out one of my Plasmius duplicates, but at the same time I love seeing Plasmius get beaten. Enjoying the match, Vlad?" He called over to the stands. Vlad cursed to himself but put on an excited demeanor so as to preserve his secret identity.
"Yes, Daniel, it's very interesting so far!" he replied.
"Why'd you do that? Phantom's not strong enough to beat Wildedge."
"Not yet he isn't, but he will be. First, though, I'm switching all three of my remaining duplicates to attack mode and sacrificing two ofthem." The three Plasmius duplicates all stood up and grinned evilly, their hands glowing with pink ectoplasmic energy, and then two exploded. "Then, I play the spell card Grave Robber, which lets me use one of the spell cards in your graveyard, and I choose polymerization!" a small goblin materialized behind Danny holding Jayden's polymerization. Danny gulped, afraid of the move he was about to make despite the fact that it would win him the match. "Now I'll fuse Plasmius with Phantom to create Dan Phantom, the Ultimate Enemy!" Phantom and one of the duplicates rose into the air and began to swirl around each other in an odd vortex. They spun faster and faster, until the vortex became a huge, gaping black hole. And out of this black hole stepped Dan. He wore an evil smirk on his face and his gaze sent chills up Jayden's spine.
"And for every monster in my graveyard, he gets 1000 attack points." Since Box Lunch, Box Ghost, Skulker, Technus, little Cujo, big Cujo, and three Plasmius duplicates were all in Danny's graveyard, Dan's attack points rose to 9000. "Now, Dan, attack with Ghostly Wail!" Dan inhaled deeply, allowing spectral power to amass in his diaphragm, and unleashed his most powerful attack. Everyone in the room covered their ears as the sonic blast ripped through Wildedge and brought Jayden's life points down to zero. The duel ended and Dan faded out of existence. Everyone in the room stood in awe of what had just happened. Jayden got up and began to clap slowly. Syrus and Chum-Lee joined in. Then Zane and Alexis. Then Crowler, Shepherd, and Vlad. Suddenly everyone in the arena was applauding Danny. Danny blushed slightly and took a bow. Everyone clapped even harder. Danny walked over to the defeated Jayden.
"That was a great duel. You rock!"
"So did you, I can't believe you've never dueled before now! How did you use those monsters so well?" Danny smirked.
"Let's just say I know most of my cards on a personal level." Crowler climbed up onto the stage.
"You're an excellent duelist, Mr. Fenton. The Chancellor and I both think that you should be an Obelisk Blue."
"That's awesome!" Jayden exclaimed, "you get the best dorms, food, everything!"
"Are you an Obelisk also?"
"Nah, I'm a Slifer. Our facilities aren't the greatest, but we get by."
"We can still be friends even though we're in different houses, though, right?"
"Oh yeah."
"Great!"
"Come, Mr. Fenton, we should get you fitted for a blazer. All of your things are already being moved to your room as we speak." Crowler lead him to the doors to the arena, where Vlad was waiting.
"Excellent, Daniel. You've really made me proud."
"I can't believe I'm saying this, but thanks for making me go through with this whole thing."
"You're quite welcome, Daniel. Although I have to say you didn't to sacrifice all of the duplicates in order to win."
"Yeah I know, but like I said, I love seeing Plasmius get beaten. Oh, and Vlad?"
"Yes, Daniel?" Vlad called as Danny was being led away.
"Get a cat!" Danny shouted, then turned a corner and disappeared.
I made up all of the attack and defense points for Danny's monsters, but I tried as best I could to take Jayden's mosters attack and defense points from the TV show, so sorry if I didn't get them all right! Anyway, R&R. This was supposed to be a one-shot, but if you really want more chapters on Danny's life at Duel Academy, who am I to refuse? Although it did take a really long time to get the duel just right, especially considering I had to engineer Danny's monsters attack points just right to get the life points the way I needed them. I probably won't be putting in very many other duels because of that, both that and the fact that I don't know anyone else's mosters attack/defense points.
I just had to make Danny an Obelisk because their jackets match his eyes. God, I sound like a fangirl now. Somebody slap me upside the head, quickly!