Chapter 2: The Pioneer

Hello everyone, welcome to Chapter 2! If you recall from the last chapter, Judai had just kicked Cronos' butt. Now it's Gregory's turn. Now on with the Chapter!

No new characters to mention.


Gregory continued to make his way to the duel field where Judai just was and saw him heading this way.

"Good luck, Gregory," said Judai. "He seems to hold us in high regard."

"Or he wants to make sure we don't pass," Gregory said. "But I have a feeling he'll make the same mistake he did with you."

"What's that?"

"Underestimate me."

Gregory passed Judai and took his spot on the dueling field with Cronos standing there quite agitated. He looked up to see his new opponent and tried to calm himself.

"Buongiorno," he greeted.

"Greetings," said Gregory, "I'm Gregory Duke. A pleasure to make your acquaintance, Cronos-sensei."

"Well you're certainly more polite than the other examinee, Signore Gregory," said the instructor. "Hold on, are you the same Gregory Duke who possesses the new monster type?"

"Yep, that's me," said Gregory. "And if all goes well, I might even use them in this duel."

"Well, I look forward to it."


"New monster type?" Sho asked curiously.

"I've heard rumors about a new monster type that was given to the creator's son to test before releasing them to the public," said Daichi. "I have no idea what it is, but I think we're about to find out."

Judai returned from his duel and stood next to Sho.

"That was an awesome duel Judai," Sho exclaimed.

"It was nothing," said Judai. "I just made sure I had fun."

"Judai, you've seen Gregory's deck, yes?" said Daichi. "Can you tell us anything about the new monster types?"

"Now why would I spoil the fun?" Judai said with wink. "All I can say is that it's like nothing you've seen before."

Daichi gave the passing examinee a curious, yet amused look and turned back towards the field. This will definitely be an interesting duel.


Asuka and the older, blue haired student watched from the balcony with curious and observant eyes. Both wanting to know what the rumors were all about.

"Do you think we'll be able to see these new monsters?" Asuka asked.

"I hope so," said the blue haired male. "Though, this kind of reminds me of my exam duel when no one had heard of my Cyber Dragons until I used them in the duel."

"So this duel is also giving you a sense of nostalgia, Ryo?" said the blonde.

The older male gave a small smirk. "Something like that."


Asuka and Ryo weren't the only ones curious to see the new monster type, everyone was eager to see it.

"Now this is exciting," said one of the blue students.

"Even if this kid doesn't win, we might get to see what the new monster type is," said the other student. "What do you think, Manjome-san?"

"For once I agree," said the raven haired student with a smirk. "If this duel goes well, I might consider getting those monsters myself."


Cronos and Gregory activated their dueling devices as they drew five cards from their decks. The life point meters both reading 4000.

"Get your game on!" Gregory shouted. "Age before beauty."

"I'm not sure if he's being polite or insulting me," Cronos thought as he drew a card.

"I summon Ancient Gear Soldier in attack mode." A smaller version of Ancient Gear Golem with a gun on it's right arm appeared on the field, showing off 1300 attack points. "I'll set one card and end my turn."

"Then it's my turn," said Gregory as he drew a card. "I activate the spell card Final Flame from my hand, this deals 500 points of damage to my opponent."

Flames began to shoot up around the makeup wearing teacher, reducing his life points to 3500.

"Now I summon Speed Warrior in attack mode." In front of the American duelist, a an in lite grey armor, roller blades, and a pilot's mask appeared on the field with 900 attack points. "Now attack Ancient Gear Soldier."

The armored man skated across the field towards the monster

"You must be crazy," said Cronos. "That pathetic monster can't even dent my Soldier."

"It can thanks to it's effect," Gregory replied. "During the Battle Phase on the turn Speed Warrior was summoned, his attack points double."

Cronos faltered at this fact as Speed Warrior's Attack went up to 1800, destroying the mechanical soldier. This caused Cronos' life points to drop to 3000.

"I'll end my turn with one card face down." Speed Warrior's attack points returned to normal.

"Impressionante," said Cronos. "You showed no mercy in drawing first blood."

"That's my style, hit hard and fast."

"But now it's my turn," said Cronos as he drew a card. "And I activate my face down, Call of the Haunted. This allows me to bring back my Ancient Gear Soldier from my graveyard." The mechanical monster had appeared on the field. "And now I'll play a Confiscation from my hand, and I'm sure you already know what this does."

Cronos' life points dropped to 2000 as he looked at a holographic projection of Gregory's hand.

"It seems that the new monsters aren't in your hand yet," said Cronos. "In that case, I'll send Marauding Captain to the graveyard."

Gregory complied and sent the monster card to the graveyard.

"Now I'll activate the field spell Gear Town," said Cronos bunch of medieval style buildings with giant gears attached to them surrounded the two duelists.

"With this card, I can summon any 'Ancient Gear' monster with one less tribute."

"I think I see where you're going with this."

"Indeed," said Cronos with a smile. "I tribute my Ancient Gear Soldier to summon Ancient Gear Golem." The small mechanical monster disappeared as the larger, monstrous one took it's place.


"He was able to bring it out again!" Asuka said in amazement.

"Let's see if this kid can bring it down as well," said Ryo, still focussing on the examinee.


"Oh no, looks like Gregory's going to lose," said Sho.

"Well he did score higher that Judai, so I assume he will pull out some miracle," said Daichi.

"Your right Misawa," said Judai. "This duel is far from over."


"Now Ancient Gear Golem, destroy Speed Warrior."

The mechanical giant released a devastating punch that crushed the roller bladed warrior into pieces.

Gregory's life points fell to 1900 but he just smirked and said, "Now things are getting interesting."

"Do you wish to surrender?"

"After coming this far? No way! I activate my face down, Jar of Greed." Gregory's face down card flipped up to reveal an image of a red jar with a wide, golden grin. "Now I'm allowed to draw one card."

He drew and heard a, "Kuri kuri." Gregory looked at the card he drew and saw it was the card he got from Yugi, Clear Kuriboh.

"It seems you'll save me just like your winged brother," he whispered.

"Whatever card you drew won't save you," said Cronos. "I end my turn."

"My turn." Gregory drew his card and found it to be Rose's card.

"About time you drew me," said he spirit as it appeared next to him.

"Yep but you're going to have to wait for me to summon you." Gregory turned back to Cronos. "I summon Hayabusa Knight in defense mode and end my turn."

A humanoid eagle with purple feathers, white armor, and a green cape took a defensive stance on the field, showing 1000 defense points.


"What is he doing?" Daichi asked confused." Ancient Gear Golem has a piercing effect and that monster has no damage altering effect."

"He's got something planned," said Judai. "Just wait and see."


"Seems you're not as clever as I thought," said Cronos. "Ancient Gear Golem, end this duel!"

The mechanized giant punched the feathered knight and created a cloud of smoke. Everyone in the arena believed the new examinee was done for. Cronos gave off a fit of laughter.

"Well at least I kept one slacker from getting in."

"Are you sure about that?" said a voice from the smoke.

Cronos looked towards the smoke and was surprised to see a giant purple Kuriboh appear as the smoke faded and split in two to reveal Gregory inside with his life points untouched.

"But how?"

"Judai isn't the only one with a Kuriboh," Gregory explained. "I activated Clear Kuriboh's effect from my hand. If my opponents monster activates an effect that would inflict damage, I can send him to the graveyard and negate that effect."

"So you got lucky," said Cronos, crossing his arms. "I'll end my turn for now, but next turn it's arrivederci."

"We'll see. I draw." Gregory drew his card and saw it was the one he was looking for.

"Yes, I play The Warrior returning Alive to bring back the Marauding Captain you had me discard and summon him." A blonde man in shiny armor appeared on the field, showing 1200 attack points. "And thanks to his effect, after being successfully summoned, I can special summon another level 4 or lower Warrior-type monster from my hand. I pick the Tuner Monster, Rose, Warrior of Revenge!"

Rose then appeared next to the captain.

"Man it feels good to be out," she said. Though only Judai and Gregory could hear her.

Everyone but Judai was puzzled by what Gregory just called the monster he just summoned.

"Tuner Monster?" Cronos asked.

"It's one of the new monster types my dad let me use," Gregory explained.

"Wait, 'one of the new monster types'?"

"That's right, and now I get to summon the other type," Gregory proclaimed, "by Synchro Summoning."

Everyone was even more confused.


"Synchro Summon?" Asuka asked. "What's that?"

"I think we're about to find out," said Ryo.


"What's Synchro Summoning?" Sho asked, he and Daichi looking at Judai for answers.

"Synchro Summoning is a brand new method that can only be used if a Tuner monster is on the field," Judai explained. "You tribute one Tuner monster with any number of non-Tuner monsters and summon a Synchro monster whose level is equal to the combined levels of the monsters tributed."


"Allow me to demonstrate," said Gregory. "I tune my level 4 Rose, Warrior of Revenge with my level 3 Marauding Captain!"

Both monsters jumped in the air as everyone watched. Rose split into four, cybernetic, green rings as they formed a tunnel for Marauding captain to pass through. As he did, the captain vanished and three stars took his place, before forming a straight line.

"Great warrior who lives for danger, appear before us and show us what drives you," Gregory chanted. "Synchro Summon! Come forth, level 7, Driven Daredevil"

A green beam formed in the rings, eventually swallowing them. Then, a man with white hair, green and black armor, a black mask that covered his mouth, and two katanas emerged from the beam as it disappeared, displaying 2400 attack points.

Everyone was in awe at witnessing the summoning of the new monster. They had never seen a monster summoned like that before. Even Cronos looked amazed.


"So that's a Synchro Monster," said Asuka in awe.

"I'll admit, even I'm impressed," said Ryo, just as surprised as everyone else.


"Amazing," said Sho. "You were right Judai, I've never seen anything like this."

"However, Driven Daredevil only has 2400 attack points," said Daichi. "Unless this 'Synchro Monster' has some special effect, it doesn't stand a chance against Ancient Gear Golem's 3000."

"Oh it does," said Judai, "just watch."


"While your 'Synchro Summon' was impressive Signore Gregory," said the blonde teacher, "your monster still cannot compare to my Ancient Gear Golem."

"How about I end my turn so you can show me how tough it is?" Gregory taunted, earning a few gasps from the crowd.

"You can't be serious?"

Gregory replied to this by holding out his hand and giving a "come at me" gesture.

"Very well then," said Cronos as he drew his card. "Ancient Gear Golem, attack Driven Daredevil!"

The mechanical monstrosity threw another punch and created a small cloud of smoke as it hit the new monster. Gregory's life point went down to 1300 but gave a big smirk. Cronos was confused by this until he saw that Driven Daredevil was still standing, blocking the punch with his swords, leaving everyone in shock.

"What! How is that thing still standing?" Cronos shouted.

"Driven Daredevil can't be destroyed by a monster with more attack points than him," Gregory explained. "And if he is attacked by a monster with more attack points, that monster is destroyed."

Driven Daredevil released the metal giants fist as it jumped in the air, ready to strike.

"Mama Mia," said Cronos in defeat. "Not again."

The sword wielding warrior slashed through Ancient Gear Golem until it was ruble. Cronos panicked and looked at his hand to see if he could hold off the Synchro Monster, all he had were two Statue of the Wicked, another Ancient Gear Golem, and an equip spell. There was nothing he could do.

"I-I end my turn."

"Then Driven Daredevil, end this duel." Gregory commanded. "Daredevil Slash!"

The warrior took his swords and slashed at Cronos, reducing his life points to zero. Everyone was in awe once again; Cronos had not lost to an examinee once, but twice in a row!


"It seems both of them will be getting into the Academy," Asuka said to her older friend, but when he turned to look at him, he was already leaving.

"I guess he want's to see how well they do himself," Asuka thought.


Manjome couldn't believe his eyes. Cronos had not just lost once, but twice!? He couldn't believe it. But he soon realized that he would actually have some competition when they got back to Duel Academy.


"Alright," Sho cheered. "Looks like you'll both go to Duel Academy."

"That's right," said Judai.

"I look forward to what you and your cousin will bring," said Daichi.

"Right back at you."


And Chapter 2 is done! Not as long as the first chapter but that was mostly because there was the section before the duel. Anyway, next time is everyone's first day at Duel Academy. Stick around because THIS WILL CONTINUE!

But first, it's question time!

Q: Higuchimon Okay, I'm going to point this out to you: if you claim to be going by the GX plot, then why is the 'ship Asuka x Juudai, when Asuka only had a one-sided crush that she never felt strongly enough about to even tell Juudai (and which mostly came about because Juudai's one of the few people who treated her like a human being and a skilled duelist, not a talking pair of breasts for marriage material), and when Juudai genuinely *loves Yubel*?

Also, the reason Juudai sent Yubel into space wasn't because he's "stupid" and making him smarter "fixes this". Juudai isn't stupid at all. Juudai is *impulsive*. Juudai doesn't think things through. He gets an idea and he goes with it. That's what Juudai is. Yubel knows who and what Juudai is: the possessor of the power of the Gentle Darkness. Yubel's task is to *protect him* and Yubel *loves him*.

As for the rest of it: generic "'omg, my OC goes to school with Juudai". It's nothing unusual or even original. Let me guess, he's going to get a Spirit Gate Key, he won't be brainwashed by the Light (heaven forbid!), and anything in season three won't really affect him at all.

You should also *not* reply to reviews in the story. That's what the PM system was invented for.

A: Okay one, despite the first chapter, I'm not going to follow the anime to a tee. Two, I'm going to take the relationship between Judai and Asuka slowly and develop it, not go in and go BOOM they're a couple. Three, I never, EVER said the reason Judai sent Yubel into space because he was stupid, heck I never called Judai stupid at all. What I meant by "smarter" was that Judai would be more aware of certain things as you will see in the next chapter. Four, I know it's not original but it's my story so deal with it. Five, I don't recall saying my OC wouldn't join the Society of Light; then again, I never said he would, you'll just have to wait for Season 2 to find out. And six, I want this information available to everyone so I will decide if it becomes too much and use the PM box.

Next Chapter: Welcome to Duel Academy