Author's notes
English is not my first language. However, it is my second, so I just hope you don't mind some weird sentences or grammatical/spelling errors now and then.f
Also, I'm far from finished watching Yu Gi Oh GX, but I'll try my hardest to make everything I write seem correct in canon.
Card chronology may not be 100% right, but seriously, adding in 5D's cards can make it that much more fun. Also, quite a lot of cards will be made up by me. That's fun, try it out.
Thanks for reading!
PS: Yes, I'm fully aware that the title is lame.
Chapter 1: First Monster, Last Attack
Alec Haven looked out of the boat window. Duel Academia was in sight. The 16-year old boy leaned backwards on his chair a little. The boat was just a small level below that of a cruise-ship, but the teenagers who were about to start their first year in Duel Academia enjoyed the fullest of luxury.
He was already wearing his Ra Yellow uniform: it was sent to him three weeks ago, together with his boat ticket and official ID as a member of the academy. As he looked around him, he saw people who, like him, already wore the colored coats, but also people who refused this, wearing their own clothes, as was made popular by people like Manjoume "Thunder" Jun. Duel Academia decided to officially allow this, as long as these people still wore their dorm's badge.
Bored out of his skull, Alec decided to walk up to some other new students to chat. There were two of them. A girl with brown hair wearing the Osiris Red badge, and a tall, Asian boy who wore his Osiris Red coat as if it were some kind of cape.
"Hey." Alec muttered. He never really was the type to start a conversation.
The boy and girl looked at him. The boy said:
"Ra Yellow? Wouldn't you rather talk with people from your dorm?"
Alec replied. "I never was one for ranks and all."
The girl shrugged. "Suit yourself."
"Alec Haven." Alec said.
"What?" The boy replied.
"My name."
"Ah." The boy replied. "I'm Yasutaka Masaki. Just call me Masaki."
"And I'm Lea de Vries."
Alec noted. "Exotic names."
"Masaki here's Japanese. I'm Dutch. I take it you're American?"
"Yessir."
Duel Academia was still known as the most prestigious of all Duelling schools. Two years ago, they decided to hold entrance exams over the entire world, so the greatest talent of all Duel Monsters players would be found right here. Unfair competition? Maybe. But it made for a diverse list of students.
Alec tried to keep the conversation alive. "So, what were you guys talking about?"
Lea said: "We were talking about what kinds of Decks we play. Deck building got interesting these years. There's so many different archetypes!"
Alec smiled. "Well, what kind of Deck do you guys play, then?"
Masaki whipped out his deck: It was about 80 cards!
"Eighty cards?!"
Alec couldn't think of a strategy that would fit in 80 cards: there'd be too many cards and you'd never get all the cards you need to finish your combos.
Masaki grinned proudly.
"Darksea. The cards center around drawing more and more cards. I'll show it to you guys one day. Lea, show him your deck. Yours rules too."
Lea took that cue with pride.
"I play with a Time Travel Deck. A monster-type, Chrononauts, can be Normal Summoned from the Deck with the correct tributes. Always. And that's not counting my spells and traps."
Alec looked through her deck. "Whoa, that IS a nice deck!"
Lea snickered. "Want to play against it? Actions speak louder than words, as you know. And then, we instantly know your deck, too!"
Masaki was all for it. "Great idea! There's Duel Fields on the deck!"
Alec was a little surprised by the idea. "Do we have time for this?"
Masaki waved the problem away. "It's still half an hour until the boat enters the academy. It's not even moving right now. Extra time so everyone gets to know each other."
Alec realized he couldn't talk himself out of this, so he followed Masaki and Lea to a Field. There were Duel Disks being borrowed out. It's a miracle they were vacant. The Duel Fields were right in the middle of the deck, so they were treated with the sun, the bright blue sky, and bystanders to watch the duel.
Duel: Alec VS Lea
Lifepoints: 4000
Lea called the first turn. "Let's take out a Chrononaut immediately! I sacrifice 500 Life Points to Normal Summon Chrononaut Quattor from my Deck!"
After sacrificing her Life Points, a card popped out of her deck, and she summoned it out on the field. A woman wearing futuristic clothing, a gun, and a visor appeared on the field.
(Chrononaut Quattor: 1500 ATK, 1700 DEF)
(Alec: 4000/Lea: 3500)
Also, I'll set a card. That'll do for now.
Alec's turn was next. "So, you want to see what kind of deck I have? Well, you'll see. I Summon Armed Hero Crimson Flame!"
Masaki interrupted.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. A Hero deck? Seriously? Sure, it was cool when Yuki Judai played one, and the Destiny Heroes had their sort of charm, too, but after a while, the Heroes kinda grew dated, man. We've got Legend Heroes, Armed Heroes, Shadow Heroes, Anti Heroes, need me to say more?"
Alec snickered. "You obviously don't know about the Hero Link strategy, do you?"
Masaki shook his head. "Heroes never were my cup of tea, and these days, they're just plain silly."
Alec continued.
"Well, maybe one day you'll see it in action. But right now, I'll be satisfied using only Armed Heroes. As I said, I summon Armed Hero Crimson Flame!" A man, armed in red plastic-like armor entered the fight.
It was obvious Armed Heroes were modeled after old Super Sentai/Power Rangers characters, and that didn't help make it look more intimidating. As Masaki said, it looked kinda silly.
(Armed Hero Crimson Flame: 1700 ATK, 500 DEF)
"Now, Crimson Flame, attack!"
Crimson Flame jumped towards the Chrononaut with his trademark Burning Flare Kick!
"Not if I can help it!" Lea activated her Quick-Play spell card: Book of Moon.
"Book of Moon allows me to-"
"Yeah yeah, flip a monster in face down defense position. We get it." Alec didn't like useless exposition speeches.
Lea continued: "Anyway, I flip my Chrononaut Quattor in Defense!"
The attack and defense were equal, so the attack was useless.
"Good one." Alec noted. "I'll set two cards, and end my turn."
Lea smiled. Not kindly, though. "I have you right where I want you. My turn!" After drawing a card, she immediately activated a Spell Card.
"I activate Double Summon, allowing me to Normal Summon twice this turn!"
Alec knew that this could end very bad for him.
"First, I'll summon Chrononaut Unus from my hand!" A small, filthy child with a visor similar to Quattor appeared.
(Chrononaut Unus: 500 ATK, 500 DEF)
"Next, I throw away a Trap Card and sacrifice 1000 Life Points to be able to normal summon from my Deck one of my most powerful Chrononauts! His name is Chrononaut Viginti, and his Attack is equal to the amount of monsters tributed when he is summoned! And guess how many I'm going to tribute?"
Alec had exactly the response for this. "Oh... That's not good."
"That's right! Two!"
Her two Chrononauts disappeared in a flash of light. When the light was gone, Chrononaut Viginti was on the field.
The monster Lea summoned to the field was a large man, again in futuristic wear. His gun was about as large as his torso, and that meant it was very big.
(Chrononaut Viginti: 3000 ATK, 2500 DEF)
(Alec: 4000/Lea: 2500)
"Time to blow you away, Alec Haven!"
Lea ordered the attack command. Viginti fired his gun at Crimson Flame.
Now it was Alec's turn to smile. "I activate a Trap Card: Armed Backflip!"
Lea looked puzzled. "Not everyone studied Armed Heroes. What's it do?"
Alec explained: "Simple. Your attack is dodged. End of story."
Crimson Flame did an overly cheesy backflip and evaded the Chrononaut's blast.
Lea grumbled. "You won't survive forever with that weak monster, you know."
Alec grinned. "Oh, we'll see, Lea. We'll see. In fact, let's make a small bet!"
Masaki was enthusiastic: "Oooh, this is getting interesting!"
Lea: "What's the bet?"
Alec: "I'm going to win this duel. And the one hacking away your final Life Points will be Crimson Flame. If you win, I will pay you one booster pack, every month, for as long as we walk the halls of this school!"
Masaki noted: "He sure know how to bring it in a fancy way."
Lea stroked her hair in an arrogant, taunting way. "Very well, O, bringer of poetically described bets! It's your turn, so have fun with your Hero!"
Alec drew his next card. "Oh, I'll have fun alright. I summon Celtic Guardian!"
(Celtic Guardian: 1400 ATK, 1200 DEF)
"We won't be looking at him long, though. I activate a Spell Card from my hand: Morphin' Time!"
Masaki felt the need to comment: "Why do your Armed Hero cards basically SCREAM "I'm cheesy!"?
Alec just said: "That's their appeal," and went on.
"With Morphin' Time, I can Special Summon from my deck an Armed Hero with equal level to the one I just summoned!"
Mildly insulted, Lea said: "Oh, so now you're stealing my strategy?"
Alec, however, ignored her and summoned his next Armed Hero: Sapphire Current. A man wearing similar clothing to Crimson Flame appeared: However, this one was blue.
(Armed Hero Sapphire Current: 1500 ATK, 1500 DEF)
Obviously not intimidated, Lea let out a sarcastic "Whoop-tee-doo" while Alec ended his turn.
Lea drew her next card, and noted:
"Viginti's effect states that, while he's out on the field, I cannot summon any more Chrononauts. Them's the breaks. But now, I'll attack Crimson Flame with Viginti! Hope you brought enough money, 'cause there's quite a few booster packs waiting for you to pay!"
As Viginti readied his attack, Alec just smiled and said: "This duel is over, miss. I won."
Lea didn't understand. "What? I don't know if you noticed, but I'm winning over here."
Alec activated a Trap Card: Armed Rescue.
Masaki was interested. "What's it do?"
Alec explained. "It allows me to change Viginti's target to Sapphire Current!"
Sapphire Current blocked the blast aimed at Crimson Flame. Sapphire didn't survive this blow, though.
(Alec: 2500/Lea: 2500)
Alec continued: "And with Sapphire Current destroyed, I can add one Spell Card from my deck to my hand!"
He took out his deck and searched for the card he wanted. Then he locked the deck back into the Disk. The auto-shuffler took care of the rest.
Lea was interested in seeing how this turned out. "Well, go on, then! It's your turn."
Alec just smiled, and then he drew his card. "Also, I just want to tell you Crimson Flame's effect. It gains 200 attack for every Armed Hero that has been defeated during battle while Crimson was on the field."
(Armed Hero Crimson Flame: 1900 ATK, 500 DEF)
"Now, I activate Unstable Evolution and equip it to my Crimson Flame!
From now on, if my Life Points are lower than yours, my Crimson Flame's Original Attack becomes 2300! However, if my Life Points are higher than yours, it goes down to 1000."
Lea noted: "But it's a tie. The Attack Points won't change."
Alec snickered: "And that's where my next card comes in. I activate another Spell Card: The Vengeful Heart!
If an attack target was changed to another monster on the same side of the field, by tributing half my life points, I can attack the opponent directly using that monster.
At the end of the turn, that monster will be destroyed, though.
Lea immediately looked surprised. "So, when you used Armed Rescue to change targets to Sapphire Current, Crimson Flame didn't get attacked, so now he can attack me directly through that Spell Card?"
Alec replied: "That's right. But first, I'll need to tribute half my Life Points."
(Alec: 1250/Lea: 2500)
Alec continued: "And I think you know what that means."
Lea, realizing she was going to lose, just said: "Unstable Evolution..."
"That's right! So now, my Crimson Flame has 2300 ATK, plus the 200 that come from Sapphire Current who got destroyed while Crimson was on the field, and that's a total of..."
(Armed Hero Crimson Flame: 2500 ATK, 500 DEF)
Masaki could utter only a single word. "Whoa."
"Now, Crimson Flame, Direct Attack!"
The Armed Hero acted out of pure rage, ignored the giant Chrononaut and went straight for the kill.
He finally had a chance to connect his Burning Flare Kick (now much more flashy and burny due to the attack boost), and hit Lea with all his holographic might.
Which, to an actual human, of course, wasn't very mighty at all.
(Alec: 1250/Lea: 0)
Lea lost. Alec and Masaki walked towards her. "You could have won this," Alec said.
Masaki thought about it for a while, then concluded "He's right, Lea. You could have won it if you attacked Sapphire Current instead of Crimson Flame. Alec wouldn't be able to activate The Vengeful Heart, and your Viginti would still be 1100 Attack Points stronger."
Alec continued Masaki's little lecture.
"Duelling is part psychology. You need to be able to anticipate your opponent's next move. Or steer your opponent into a specific move..."
Lea understood. "The bet! By betting that your Crimson Flame would be the one to defeat me, you managed to manipulate me into attacking him instead of Sapphire Current! If I attacked Sapphire, your combo wouldn't work!"
Alec smiled. "Exactly. I guess you still need to learn a lot about dueling. But then again, that's why you got into Red, I guess."
Masaki and Lea both took that as an insult. "Hey!"
Alec laughed and shrugged his own insult off. "Just kidding. Tell you guys what, I'll buy both of you guys a booster once we get on the island."
Masaki didn't trust it. "Do we have to duel you for it?"
"Nah, no need."
The three burst out in laughter, even though it wasn't particulary funny. They were just happy they met each other.
Out of the crowd, the only person on the entire boat wearing an Obelisk Blue jacket walked away from the scene. The boy noted: "Armed Heroes, huh? Guess I'll need to think of a counter-strategy for those, then."
And with that notice, the boy walked into his cabin. With a little luck, his counter-strategy would be finished right on time for the opening ceremony...