Well, I've decided to do a Yu-Gi-Oh! GX fic, after getting inspiration from various others, and cancelled the Virtual Realm version I was planning. Why? Well, I just couldn't draw anything from that medium (favourite excuse!). So, instead, I've decided to do a three-part story chronicling my character's years at Duel Academy.
Just to clear some matters up; Aaron Kairyu, Ryan Duskheart, Aster Carroll, Damon Clark, Warren Eragon and the Order of the Phantasm are my OC's and OT; Original Team. Star Skyler, on the other hand, is Katie Legends. If you wish to submit a character into the mix, send it into the new forums and I'll judge if it's good enough. Many will enter; few will exit…muahahaha!
I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! GX. I also do not own Duel Academy, or any other related propaganda.
/------/------/------/------/
Chapter 1: Entrance ExamIf you ever openly exclaimed that you liked doing tests, you would be beaten up so badly you'd resemble some of the great boxers of our time. It's common knowledge that no-one likes exams, tests, whatever you want to call them; they contain facts you aren't prepared for, facts you aren't clear on, facts you don't even know and make you think the exam's fixed. However, even if you don't like 'em, some will admit it's easy if you've done some revision.
One such was Aaron Kairyu whom many of his friends said could match Bastion Misawa in hard studying. Aaron had the appearance of someone who had done a lot of growing in a small space, like a houseplant that hadn't gotten much sunlight. His amethyst hair was cut short and spiked with hair gel that could have come from the "Shōnen Protagonist Range" at any good shopping mall. His current attire was a dark blue denim jacket, a dark red shirt, black denim jeans and camouflage Converses, in favour of the Duel Academy tryout uniforms provided; he said he would like a dweeb. His eyes were blue, but had hardened as he was focusing on the test. Turning over the paper, he now read the last question:
37. Name the effect of the Spell Card Mirage Of Nightmares; it's downsides and a combination used to eliminate the negative side effect.
'Is that all?' Aaron sighed mentally. He wrote down his answer, 'Mirage Of Nightmares occurs during your opponent's Standby Phase; you draw until your hand contains four cards. The downside is that during your Standby Phase, you have to discard from your hand the amount of cards equal to the amount of cards drawn. An effective combination to remove this side effect is to use the Spell Card Emergency Provisions; for every Spell or Trap Card discarded, you gain 1000 Life Points. By using Mirage Of Nightmares as the card to discard, you can increase your Life Points and cards in your hand without discarding any card at all.'
"Time's up," Came a cold metallic voice. The source was a loud speaker in the centre of a large wooden desk (the kind made to impress), flanked by two duel proctors. You may put down your pencils and hand in your test papers. You will be given a duel card identifying where your practice duel takes place. Please do not lose them as you will not be given a replacement." The two proctors began moving swiftly through out the exam hall, taking each exam and No.2 pencil and leaving behind a duel examination card. Upon receiving his, Aaron read what was written on it.
AARON KAIRYU
DUELIST #: 115
ARENA: C
With the card now stowed in his pocket, Aaron left the room, occasionally hearing other guys and girls talking about the exam ("That exam was rigged! Who the hell is Joey Wheeler?" "Why did they add that section about how you could win with monsters that have 0 ATK points? They're useless!"); not that Aaron cared. He found it all to be a cinch. Now this left him with more time to look through his deck and make sure he was ready for the practical.
However, he did stop to check out what the other duelists were doing, as some were beginning their practicals. One duelist in particular, wearing a dark jacket with a strange 'H' on the right, battered jeans and red shirt, his brown hair cut short and kept neat. The monster he had out on the field was an Elemental Hero; Flame Wingman (2100/1200), who looked more like an anti-hero than a superhero. His head was tall, with glaring red eyes and coloured black on the top, interspaced with a scarlet flame design; his body was black-and-green, and muscular, a single eagle wing protruding from his back; his right arm was a scarlet dragonhead and from his back whipped out a red, spiked dragon tail. Now Aaron understood what the 'H' was; it was from the Hero Signal Trap Card.
The monster he was facing down was Infernal Incinerator (2800/1800) a many armed creature with a red tail, spiked armoured back, an eyeless face with an open mouth; upon it's head was a small skeletal figure with a red tattered cape. Its owner smirked.
"So tell me, duelist, how can you expect to beat my Incinerator with your puny hero?" The duelist merely gave a sly grin. Whoever hired these proctors had a sense of sadism.
"With my face-down," He replied, "And a pretty nice one too; Soul Union." Aaron hadn't seen a face-down; but then again, he was more focused on the Wingman. The duelist's face-down flipped up to reveal an image of the Elemental Hero Sparkman covered in a light blue aura; he seemed to be reaching for something. "With this card, I can increase my Wingman's attack points by that of a monster in the Graveyard. And I'll choose Elemental Hero Clayman (800/2000)!" Just as he called it out, the spirit of the hero covered the Wingman's form, before turning into an amethyst flame. The Wingman pointed his dragonhead skyward, and let the flames gather there (2900/1200).
"Now Flame Wingman! Attack his Incinerator with Infernal Rage!" The hero lowered his dragonhead at the Incinerator and fired a gust of crimson and sapphire (from the Clayman) fire at the Incinerator, destroying it instantly. Oh, the irony.
Proctors' LP: 1600.
"And remember my Flame Wingman's ability: go Superpower! Now you take damage equal to the attack points of the destroyed monster!" Even before the smoke cleared, the Wingman hovered over to the proctor, dragonhead pointed toward him.
'Well, I know where this is going,' Aaron thought. Now walking away from the battle (and just missing the proctor get holographically roasted), Aaron decided to re-evaluate his deck. Much time passed until:
"Attention. Would Aaron Sasuke please come to dueling arena C, your practical duel is about to begin." A little surprised at this, Aaron hurriedly put his deck back together and hurried to the arena marked C. His examiner was a tall man wearing a white shirt and crimson tie; his salt-and-pepper hair cut short and his glasses horn-rimmed.
"Welcome, Mr. Kairyu," He began, "I am Professor Lumic, and I will act as your examiner for this duel. Be warned, though. This isn't a friendly game. Here everyone plays to win and duels hard to boot. I am no exception. Can't cope with it now, and you have no chance." Aaron merely shrugged.
"Don't worry, Professor, I can more than cope with the standards you set." He snapped his Duel Disk into place on his right arm, inserting his deck into the open slot. It whirred to life, the Disk opened up to reveal the Graveyard, and all five of the monster slots lit up and the counter set to 4000 LP.
"We'll just see about that, won't we?" Lumic said in a deadly whisper, activating his Duel Disk too. Both of them drew out the first five cards from the top of their decks; this made up their current hand. In unison the two cried out:
"Duel!"
Aaron's LP: 4000
Lumic's LP: 4000
"Rules state I am required to let you go first," Lumic said shortly. Aaron nodded and drew out another card from the top of the deck. Looking through, he then made his first move.
"I summon Rapid-Fire Magician (1600/1200) in attack mode!" Placing the card face up on one of his monster slots, a tall figure materialised with long purple hair hidden underneath an indigo-and-gold hat, a short-sleeved cloak and trousers of the same colour and two clawed staffs with an orange orb in the left and a green orb in the right. "Next I lay one card face down and end my turn." Lumic drew a sixth card as well…and grinned like the Cheshire Cat.
"I play the Spell Card Confiscation," The card materialised in front of him, revealing the image of an armoured knight about to walk off with a treasure chest; or he would've, were there not a maiden clinging on to his leg. "By merely paying 1000 Life Points, I get to see your hand. Then I select one card in your hand and send it to the Graveyard."
Lumic's LP: 3000
Reluctantly, Aaron turned his hand around, the hologram versions emerging in front of him. Lumic studied each card carefully, and then made his decision.
"The card I shall destroy is…Dark Hole!" The holograms all faded away, bar the Spell Dark Hole; it instead shattered into millions of shards, prompting Aaron's sending it to the Graveyard. "Next, I summon in attack mode Gazelle the King of Mythical Beasts (1500/1200)!" The monster he chose looked like a lion that had been trained to stand on it's hind legs; except this lion had a horn sticking out of his head and his eyes were the colour of sunset. When Summoned, it didn't crouch on all fours but rather hunched forward, it's front paws hanging limply from its sides.
"Thirdly, I play the Spell Card Wild Nature's Release," He continued, revealing a card whose image depicted a large bear roaring, the sound waves showing up on the card. "With this, I can add the DEF points of one Beast-Type or Beast-Warrior Type to its ATK points for this turn!" The effect clearly showed up on Gazelle, an aura of deep orange surrounding it's figure; the strange thing was, it actually increased in being feral, its muscles expanding, its frame growing, its fangs and claws turning sharper. Finally, it emitted a large roar, causing Aaron and even his Magician to hold their ears in pain (2700/1200).
"Finally, I lay one card face down and now, Gazelle! Tear that Magician apart with Feral Lunge!" Gazelle sprang forward, using all fours to tear itself down the arena, its claws bared. It leapt up, preparing to slash with its right claw…
"I activate my face-down! The Trap Card Negate Attack!" Aaron cried out in the nick of time. The Magician held its two staffs together, and instantly a whirlwind formed, knocking back Gazelle. The King of Mythical Beasts, however, circled its body round so it landed like a cat, panting hard. "And thanks to Wild Nature's Release, at the end of your turn, your monster gets destroyed!"
"Or he would be," Lumic said coolly, "Had I not activated Beast Soul Swap. I now recall the first Gazelle, so I can summon another from my hand. I lay three cards face down and end my turn." The first Gazelle indeed recalled back to his deck, while a second emerged (1500/1200). Aaron drew out another card, replacing Dark Hole.
"I activate the Spell Card Pot of Greed!" On the field came a green ornately designed jar with a toothy grin emerging from it. "I'm sure you know what it does. And then I play one of the cards drawn. White Dragon Ritual! With this card, by sacrificing a Level 4 monster, I can summon a very special monster indeed. Now, I sacrifice Warrior Dai Grepher (1700/1600) to activate it!"
'That's odd,' Lumic thought, 'Why didn't he sacrifice his Magician?' There was no time to ponder, however, because the Pot of Greed's lid opened and emitted a blinding light. When the light subsided, a tall, emerald-skinned figure emerged from it, bedecked in white armour with gold markings around it, a white cape billowed behind him and within his hand was a long white lance. But he wasn't alone; he was sitting astride a large white dragon with yellow pupil-less eyes.
"Meet my Paladin Of White Dragon (1900/1200)! And if you're wondering why I didn't use my Magician as the sacrifice, here's why." For from the Pot (before it shattered), there came a white orb of light with strokes of blue here and there. It settled into one of the Magician's staffs, before being fired from it, hitting Lumic directly. He yelled out of recoil, gritting his teeth.
Lumic's LP: 2600
"Wh-What did you do?" He asked painfully.
"It's Rapid-Fire's special ability," Aaron replied calmly, "Whenever I play a regular Spell Card, like Pot Of Greed you get hit for 400 points of damage. And now, my Paladin attacks your Gazelle with Photon Spear!" The Paladin swooped forward upon his steed, jutting his lance in front. It hit home, stabbing Gazelle through the middle, and shattering the hologram.
Lumic's LP: 2200.
"And now, Rapid-Fire Magician! Attack him directly with Magical Roulette!" The Magician raised his two staffs, each glowing in either an orange or green luster. Once they finished charging, orbs fired out in a machine gun burst.
"I activate my face-down; Emergency Provisions! For every Spell or Trap Card I send to the Graveyard, I gain 1000 Life Points!"
Lumic's LP: 3200.
However, the attack still continued, the orbs slamming hard into him, eventually buckling his knees.
Lumic's LP: 1600.
Aaron gave a short growl. "Fine then. I lay one card face down. That will do for now." Lumic drew a card, and immediately played it.
"I activate Heavy Storm! With this, all Spell and Trap Cards on the field are hereby destroyed!" True to its name, a hurricane hit the field, destroying Aaron's Draining Shield and Lumic's Statues of the Wicked. Upon the latter's destruction; three serpentine creatures emerged onto the field (1000/0 x3).
"And since my Statues of the Wicked were destroyed, I can summon two Wicked Tokens to the field. Next, I'll sacrifice one to summon Rude Kaiser (1800/1600) to destroy your magician!" An alligator-like monster emerged, bedecked in grey-and-black armour and wielding a large axe, and immediately slashed the Magician, destroying it.
Aaron's LP: 3600
"Next, I sacrifice my two other Wicked Tokens so I can summon…Jinzo!" The two Tokens shattered, only for the shards to reassemble into a tall humanoid figure, dressed in green armour and wearing a disturbing silver mask with glaring red eyes (2400/1500). "And now, he'll attack your Paladin with Psycho Shock!" Jinzo held its hands together as though conjuring an orb a la Dragonball; that was appropriate, as it fired an orb of electricity at the Paladin, annihilating it.
Aaron's LP: 3100.
"I now play the Equip Spell Amplifier to Jinzo, to block out his ability to negate Trap Cards, and lay two cards face down to end it." A helmet loaded with painful-looking syringes attached itself to Jinzo's head, signalling the end of Lumic's turn. But of course, leave it to Lumic to pull another surprise out of his hat. His Rude Kaiser turned into what looked like a ghostly tail and shot itself at Aaron. He cried out in pain as the spirit hit him, travelling into his body like some sort of ghastly train.
Aaron's LP: 2200.
"I thought you ended your turn!" He shouted angrily. Lumic laughed coldly.
"I did. But that activated Ectoplasmer. I sacrificed Rude Kaiser and thus, I was able to deal half of its attack points to you directly as damage." Aaron was now beginning to panic. He had come to this duel with a cocky attitude but had underestimated his opponent. If he needed a lucky draw, it had to be now.
'Come on, help me out here,' He drew out his card…and immediately calmed down. This was just what he needed.
"First, I'll play one card face down, and then, I'll activate Mystical Space Typhoon! This allows me to destroy one Spell or Trap on the field; and I think I'll use it on that Amplifier! And when Amplifier's destroyed, the monster it's attached to gets destroyed as well!" The card's holographic version appeared on the field, and from the image emerged a dark cyclone, spiralling its way to Jinzo.
"I activate a face-down! Magic Jammer!" Lumic called out, "Now your Typhoon becomes little more than a gentle breeze for Jinzo!" Aaron smirked.
"Or it would have had I not activated this card!" Aaron's face down flipped up to reveal what looked like a Swiss Army knife but with seven attachments. "Seven Tools of the Bandit! By paying 1000 Life Points, I'm allowed to destroy one of your face up Trap Cards!"
Aaron's LP: 1200
The image suddenly came to life; er, holographic life, I mean; and the Bandit's Tool's corkscrew pierced into the Magic Jammer. Without anything to stop it, the Typhoon spiralled into the Amplifier. Jinzo clutched its head in agony and let out a final metallic scream before it detonated. Lumic growled, and held up his duel disk up in front of his eyes to cover himself up (albeit in vain) from the holographic shards.
"And don't think I'm done yet! I summon one of my favourite monsters to the field: go Blade Knight (1600/1000)! Arise in attack mode!" Appearing in a holographic mesh came a warrior who took after the dragon-slayers of old; covered entirely in silver armour, including helmet, underneath a black vest only just visible, a silver shield and a silver blade, it's helm red with an emerald in the center.
"And note I don't have a hand anymore. Thanks to my Knight's special ability, when I have either 1 card in my hand, or I don't have a hand at all, he gains a bonus 400 attack points!" The sword of the Knight gleamed brightly, covering the whole blade in a ceramic luster (2000/1000). "Now Blade Knight, attack him directly with Valiant Slash!" The Knight charged forward, sword high in the air, moving quite swiftly despite all the armour, and brought the sword down on Lumic, before returning to Aaron's side of the field with a single leap. Lumic fell the ground of knees, panting hard…but gave a grin all the same.
Lumic's LP: 0000
"Congratulations, Mr. Kairyu," Lumic said, now able to get up onto his feet, "You have passed the Duel Academy entrance exam. You certainly have potential to be a great-"
"Nothing personal Professor Lumic," Aaron interrupted, "But that whole 'great duelist' thing is a bit clichéd. Still, you were a tough opponent anyway, so what the hell."
"Yes, yes. Anyway, the results will be up within a few hours once all the exams have been done. But at your standard, it's likely to be pretty good." At this point, both of them switched off their Duel Disks and whereas Lumic was elevated down into the arena, Aaron walked down the stairs.
/------/------/------/------/
Meanwhile, high above the action, two students had been watching Aaron's duel. One was leaning causally on the blue railing while the other was standing tall; both were in Obelisk Blue. The teen leaning on the rails was a first-year, his coat purchased ahead of time (thanks to his nearby friend) and quite handsome. What girl could resist a blond hair and blue eyes combo? His sneakers were jet-black with red laces and his Obelisk trench coat was opened up to reveal a black shirt with a four-point shuriken pendant hanging down. His wristbands were of chessboard design and on his right hand, on his index finger and ring finger, were two rings: white and black respectively.
His friend was two years older, and quite tall for his age. His eyes were like emeralds; that is they were hard and appeared to have seen too much at only seventeen. His hair was fiery red and spiky, so it was thankful his Obelisk blazer was different to his friend's; it would have been a very vivid clash otherwise. Instead, his blazer was white where it should have been blue and vice versa.
"So, he's pretty good to take down Lumic's Beast's Wrath deck," The blond-haired kid noted, "Don't you think Warren?"
"We're just going to have to see, aren't we?" Warren replied coldly, "He's got skill, but it takes more than that to make a mark here at the Academy." The Obelisk then took out his deck and drew a random card from it. It was a dragon, but not just any dragon. Its scales were like charcoal, its wings spread as though to attack, its eyes glowing deep red. "But these things can be wrong."
/------/------/------/------/
And that's the first chapter. R&R and tell me what you think.