Chapter 14: The Twins

Bastion is true to his word, awakening me at half past six in the morning by the means of tossing Dr. Pepper onto my bed—and let me tell you, that tortoise is heavy. As the shelled reptile lands on the bed, the force enacted by the shelled reptile tosses me a few feet into the air before I land back down, eyes wide open and staring, my fight or flight instincts kicking in.

As I gasp and look around wildly, not quite registering my surroundings, I hear a noise that starts to infuriate me—that old bastard is laughing. He's trying to hide it, but behind his wrinkled old hand he's snickering and doing his damnedest to not burst out into guffaws.

In response, I sit straight up, and slug him in the arm. Halfway into the punch, I remind myself that he is not as young as he was the last time I saw him, and try to stop but nonetheless I connect—with hard muscle. And then he loses control, dropping his hand from his mouth and laughing even harder, even doubling over at some point.

When he finally stops his raucous laughter, though still chuckling to himself every now and again, he tells me, "Come on Ben, it's time to get up. New Domino traffic in the mornings is quite terrible."

Still in the process of waking up, I reply groggily, "Then… why don't we just leave later?"

In my sleep-addled brain, his response sounds something like, "Well, we need to get there before the coconuts do."

My sleep-addled brain then questions, "Are you suggesting coconuts migrate?"

He looks at me weirdly for a moment, snickers again, and then walks out, calling over his shoulder, "Dr. Pepper, I'm tasking you with getting the boy up." He chuckles again and comments, "And I thought the elderly were supposed to be so… sprightly in the mornings. Hehe."

After the old man has left the room, I turn m gaze upon Dr. Pepper. The tortoise looks back at me silently, his remaining eye unblinking.

"Did he just call me old?" I ask the shelled reptile.

Of course, he doesn't answer, but I swear that through my half-open eyes, I can see a flash of exhaustion in his one good eye.

As soon as I'm sure Bastion is down the hall, I roll over onto my side and nestle back down into my plush pillow, closing my tired eyes.

"Now that he's gone, I'll just close my eyes for a bi—OW!" I yelp, sitting up and cradling my elbow while Dr. Pepper sits there with something akin to a smug look on his face. An angry red welt is rising at my elbow. "Did you just… bite me? Tortoises can bite?"

For some reason, it had not occurred to me that anything besides a snapping turtle could bite. I can't say if it's normal or not though; after all, Dr. Pepper has proven to be a very unusual tortoise.

[Cue in second opening theme: "Sorairo Days" by Nathan Sharpe/NateWantstoBattle (English cover of the first opening for Gurren Lagann)

Ask if you can hear the sound, of my voice through the cold hard ground,

Our first sight is a shot of the Satellite and the City, a diagonal slash dividing the two. Ben and Bastion appear, Ben in the Satellite, Bastion in the City; they face away from one another, facing to the left and right respectively. They reach their hands in front of them, grasping for something off-screen, and close their eyes. The screen is constantly flashing black, and after their eyes shut the screen stops flashing and becomes solid black.

I lost it while searching for you, I screamed into the dark,

We open back up on a shot of Ben's eyes opening, before zooming out to find him overlooking the City at night, the lights of the buildings shining like thousands of tiny stars. He's all alone, until Shapeshift appears behind him, with several other Heroes joining in further behind.

If the world we're living in, has a single soul that you love,

Cut to Bastion's house, the living room. The old man and Dr. Pepper sit next to one another on a couch, a photo album propped open before them. We pan over the various pictures, most of the faces obscured by well-placed glare from lights—until coming to a stop on an image of Ben and Bastion in their younger years, dressed in Ra Yellow uniforms with their arms tossed around one another, both grinning.

If it holds a shred of meaning, well, then it's worth every fight!

A wrinkled hand glides across the photo, before the book is shut. We zoom up on Bastion's face, and for the briefest of moments, he appears youthful again, a flash of determination in his eyes.

And when all that we know comes to push and shove,

The other characters begin to appear in quick succession, appearing in various poses with their Signer dragons beside or behind them as we begin to pan across the sky. Starting with Yusei and Stardust Dragon, we go next to Jack and Red Dragon Archfiend,

Then we will pierce the heavens!

Next are Leo and Luna sharing the screen, Power Tool Dragon and Ancient Fairy Dragon behind them. Next is Akiza, her face obscured by her Black Rose Witch mask, Black Rose Dragon roaring and spreading thousands of red petals behind her.

The colors we see are new to you and me when we see the sky—

The Dragon Star shines brightly in center frame now, red and pulsating. Clouds swirl around it, gray and purple and black, before a sudden burst of red from the star blows them all away. The camera slams downward to see Rally staring up at the sky, and smiling.

As we began to run,

Jump cut to Ben and Bastion in a Duel Runner, the old man sitting in a side car as they rocket toward the camera, both of them grinning maniacally.

So we can finally feel the sun,

We zoom out a bit to find ourselves in the Kaiba Dome, with Goodwin watching on from his booth with his back turned.

Finally, you and I feel so alive, I feel your beating heart!

We now see Yusei and Jack riding alongside one another, Stardust and Red Dragon locked in combat as Ben and Bastion speed between the two. The camera zooms in on Stardust Dragon's wing, using it as the segue into the next scene,

If you believe in me, we'll find where we were meant to be—

Ben and Akiza in a ground duel appears next, Elemental Hero Shapeshift somersaulting and cartwheeling around the field as Black Rose Dragon attempts to slash at him with its vines. Ben and Akiza's eyes meet, and the rage in Akiza's eyes softens a bit.

Now who cares about tomorrow, if today we are free?

Leo and Luna walk beside Bastion now, wandering through his immense garden. The old man says something, causing Leo to start laughing as Luna smiles brightly. She looks off to the side and sees Kuribon bouncing along with them.

My answer is always "Yes,"

The cast now stands assembled in front of Bastion's mansion in a freeze frame, centered around Ben; Bastion is to his immediate right, Akiza to his left, Yusei to Bastion's right, Jack to Akiza's left and so on. Rally, Leo and Luna are chasing Dr. Pepper in front, and over Rally's head Ben's face is just barely visible.

That I will always be with you.

One final cut puts our focus back on the old photo of Bastion and Ben. This time, however, it's elderly Bastion and Ben standing together, still smiling as bright as ever.

I'm not sure why, but as we drive down the highway at approximately 23 miles per hour, I start to question if the reason New Domino's traffic is so bad in the mornings is because of Bastion. Riding in a car, in an enclosed space watching the city roll by like the backdrop of a movie, evokes memories of my experience on a Duel Runner—as well as reviving the guilt of losing said Duel Runner that I had buried deep down, telling myself that it wasn't such a big deal in the face of the whole 'I'm actually almost ninety years old' thing.

It's a very nice car, sleek and shiny, and not too angular like some of the others that I've seen about that look as if someone put a triangle on wheels. The way the sun shines on its metallic paint makes it difficult to discern its true color, so for now I'll be considering it dark blue. I quite like dark blue.

Oh, and did I mention that I'm sitting in the back seat while Dr. Pepper rides shotgun? Yeah, that kind of hurts my pride.

An upside to this whole, 'going to live with my elderly best friend' business is that I've been given actual clothes to wear aside from the gray sweats and shirt, though as I sit here in this multicolored tie-dye shirt, I can't help but feel a little ridiculous. The black jeans are nice, and the sneakers are top of the line, but despite Bastion's reassurances that I used to wear tie-dye all the time in our younger years, I find it a bit more likely that he's pulling some sort of elaborate prank on me.

He's also taken the liberty of giving a bit of maintenance to my old Duel Disk—as well as informing me that it's a miracle that it's even working, as it's seventy years old, a remnant from our days at the Academy. After applying a bit of elbow grease, it shines as if it were brand new.

We roll on down the road in no huge hurry, the radio blaring an "oldies" station that plays lots of music from when we were young. As a rock song about a young man who insists that he is just a kid and his friends don't want to hang out with him concludes, I pry my eyes away from the passing scenery and look up front. My eyes meet with Bastion's in the rear-view mirror, and though I can't see his mouth, I can tell he's smiling by the way the corners of his eyes crinkle.

"Having fun back there, Ben?" he asks, turning off of the main road and onto a curving bit of pavement that leads onto a lower section of the highway going westward. Despite driving so slow on the straight portion of the road, he seems to hit the gas real hard here, tossing me against the door on my left and causing me to thank the powers that be for seatbelts. He then resumes his snail-like pace after merging back onto the highway.

"Er… yeah," I say, rubbing my neck a bit where it slammed against the neck rest during the turn. "Why am I in the back again?"

"I told you, Dr. Pepper called shotgun," Bastion explains simply.

"Well, yeah I heard you the first time, but…" Dr. Pepper can't talk…

He cuts me off before I can finish that thought. "Then I don't need to explain it again, do I? You know the rules—first one to call shotgun gets to ride shotgun. That's one of the Ten Commandments, I believe."

I don't think that's exactly correct, but I don't know enough about these "Ten Commandments" to argue the point. Instead, I ask a question that I haven't thought about in days, but comes to mind immediately as I see the façade of the Sector Security building in the distance.

"Hey, Bastion? When am I gonna meet this… Goodwin guy?"

"Who?"

"Goodwin… er, Director Goodwin, I guess. The judge at my trial said that he gave me a personal pardon, and that someone who worked for him would collect me," I explain, recalling the details of that odd trial where the judge was utterly baffled by the contents of my file. "That was you, right?"

"Oh, yes. I suppose I did tell them that on the phone," Bastion replies absently. He changes lanes, then clears his throat and says, "It is true that I worked with Director Goodwin several years ago, shortly before I retired, but I haven't spoken to the man in quite some time. I admit I don't have the slightest clue what he'd want with you."

I frown slightly. "So… did you like, hack the system or something?" I ask, a bit nervous at the potential blowback if Sector Security discovered such deception, but also impressed that the old man could have cracked what must be an amazingly secure system.

"No. Well, partially. I did, ah… 'correct' a misspelling on the name of the person who was going to be sent to collect you," he responds. "That is, they completely misspelled the name 'Bastion Misawa,' so I fixed their mistake for them."

I can't help but laugh at this, finding this all a bit ridiculous. After a moment, I inquire, "But… how did you know it was me? There's gotta be dozens of people named 'Ben West' out there, it doesn't sound that unusual…"

Bastion starts to laugh at this question. "Well my young friend, Ben West certainly does sound like a common name. However, I've never met another person whose name is exactly the same as yours."

"What do you mean? Exactly the same?" I repeat, furrowing my brow.

"Well, surely the judge told you? Your name isn't just 'Ben,' of course, it's Benj—" a loud horn from behind us cuts off his sentence. The old man grumbles something about impatient drivers, and I can't help but feel a bit of déjà vu coming on in that moment.

"Benj—what, Bastion?" I ask, trying to get him to finish his previous statement.

Something that's bothered me this whole time is not knowing what Ben is short for; if it weren't 'Benjamin,' nobody would be making such a fuss, right? So what the hell could my parents have named me that it's such a hassle to get people to tell me?

"Right, sorry about that. Rude city drivers and all," says the old man going slightly more than ten miles an hour in a fifty-mile zone. "Anyway, it's Benj—oh, we're here! Excellent timing!"

I can almost hear Shapeshift laughing at me as I contemplate smashing my head into the back of Bastion's seat.

It sits atop the very top of a tall skyscraper, which Bastion has estimated to be one of the highest places in the city. We have to park in an underground garage, and I can't help but feel a bit claustrophobic as I'm reminded of the cramped space of the Pipeline. I find myself thinking of Rally and the rest of them, living the semi-subterranean life in that old subway tunnel. The guilt from losing my Duel Runner comes back then.

An incredibly fast elevator takes us up to the penthouse, in a district of New Domino referred to as the Tops. We're hardly in the elevator for a minute before it opens up to bright sunlight, and giving us a view of a house that's even larger than Bastion's.

Even though it's only two stories tall, the space it occupies on the top of this skyscraper more than covers the size of Bastion's house, though he has more property. Just like everything else in New Domino, the building looks very clean; whitewashed walls, polished windows, flat, tiered roofs and a manicured lawn. It forms a long rectangle around an hourglass-shaped pool, full of shimmering blue water, with tall shrubs and trees and even a few palm trees here and there.

"This whole place is theirs?" I wonder aloud, looking around in awe.

"Indeed. Come on, they're expecting us. Well, me, and Dr. Pepper. You're a bit of a surprise guest," Bastion replies.

Speaking of Dr. Pepper—did you know that in this city, someone decided to make a business selling front carriers for tortoises, like how people carry their babies? Yeah, neither did I, until I got stuck carrying the heavy beast on my chest. Bastion insists it's because Dr. Pepper doesn't do well in elevators; I think he's full of it, and is working out seventy years' worth of overdue teasing.

As we step out of the elevator and onto the cement, I unlatch the carrier and ease Dr. Pepper down, sighing as the weight is removed from my body. "How can something with a vegetarian diet be so heavy?"

"Well, he's a tortoise. He doesn't do much," Bastion points out, waving to get me to follow him.

We walk around the edge of the pool, and I lean down to scoop my hand through the water. It's cool to the touch, and now my hand bears the scent of chlorine. It's a weirdly calming smell for some reason, easing my nerves at the prospect of meeting the twins Bastion had spoke of.

After climbing a small set of steps, Bastion steps up to a pair of double doors and rings the doorbell. The chime resounds loudly throughout the building, and after a few moments I can hear excited footsteps running toward the door.

"Ben, stand here please," Bastion says, placing his hands on my shoulders and guiding me into his spot, before taking the spot I had just stood in.

"Grandpa B!" the voice of a young boy yells out, flinging the door open with such force that it would probably send someone flying if they got hit with it.

It's then that I realize why Bastion just made us switch places. Right when the boy barrels headfirst into my stomach, knocking the wind out of me and sending me rolling, stopping just short of falling into the pool.

And all the while, that damn old man is just laughing his wrinkly butt off.

"H-huh? Who's that?" the boy says in confusion, staring down at me for a moment, and then looking to Bastion. "Grandpa B?"

After Bastion calms down, which takes a good few seconds, and even then he's still straining to keep from bursting into laughter again, he explains, "Leo, this is Ben. He's, um…"

I roll onto my back and slowly sit up. In that moment, I realize that we never took the time to come up with a cover story for why a teenager (or someone who looks like a teenager) is living with an old man. We don't look enough alike for him to call me his grandson, and if this kid's parents were close enough to Kaiser, they've probably met Bastion's other kids, and possibly grandkids too.

"He's my young ward." Bastion says finally. "Yes, that's right. My young ward. Like Batman and Robin."

The boy scratches his head. "I don't know who that is, but whatever you say, Grandpa B." He runs down the stairs to me and holds out his hand. "Sorry about that… are you hurt?"

I take the offered hand and rise to my feet. "A little bruised, but I've had worse," I reply. "Thanks. So, you're Leo?"

"That's right!" he says, grinning at me. "Nice to meet ya!"

I can't help but smile. The way his big green eyes shimmer with excitement, the youthful lilt and his difficulty standing still all remind me of Rally. He wears a short-sleeved white jacked over a dark blue tank top covered in gold markings, his ensemble rounded off by a pair of white shorts held up by a dark blue belt. His hair is long and bluish-green, tied up in a large ponytail with two long bangs that go down well past his chin. On his left arm, he carries a mostly blue Duel Disk, trimmed here and there with a bit of gold, but it's way too big for him; the body of the device is bigger than his head!

"Yeah, you too," I say, rolling my shoulders and giving the old man a pointed look. He grins at me in response. "So, I guess we're here to watch you then?"

"Mmhmm! Me and my sister, Luna," Leo replies. "She's inside. You wanna go meet her?"

Bastion claps his hands together. "Yes, let's all go inside for a meet and greet. Have you two had breakfast yet?"

"Nope!" Leo says with a grin, making me recall the enthusiasm with which young me informed young Bastion that I couldn't read in that memory. "We were waiting on you to get here, you're the best cook Grandpa B! …And I don't know how to turn the oven on."

"That's probably a good thing," Bastion replies, waving us all into the house.

Somehow, the inside is even more impressive than the outside; a massive entry/living room greets us as we walk in, the opposite wall made up of a single curved window, so tall that it reaches to the upper level and gives a view of the city outside. The upper level has its curtains drawn, but for us, the lower one is open to the city beyond, letting in a yellowish glow from the sunlight.

Once the initial awe wears off, I realize that despite the impressiveness of the window, the sitting room itself is rather bare, with only a blue couch and chair, and a floor lamp between them. I look to Bastion, and he mouths, "Not much company."

Leo runs forward, cups his hands over his mouth and yells, "LUNAAAA! GRANDPA B IS HERE!"

"I know, Leo. I heard you the first time you yelled it," a young girl's voice says from an adjoining hallway to the left.

A girl who can only be Leo's sister emerges. As twins, they admittedly look pretty similar; the only differences I can spot right away are her clothing and her hair. Admittedly, her clothing is almost exactly the same as her brother's, just in different colors; the jacket is pink, her shirt and belt are red, and her shorts are purple. Instead of one ponytail from the back, she has two jutting out of the front like horns, though the bangs are the same. She smiles at us.

"Hi, Grandpa B," she says happily, walking over to us. "Who's this?"

"This is Ben!" Leo introduces, slapping me on the back—well, as high up on my back as he can reach, seeing as he's much shorter than me. I wince a little bit, feeling the sting of his hand on one of the spots where my back slammed against the stairs when he bowled me over a few minutes ago. "He's Grandpa B's young ward! Whatever that means!"

"That means Grandpa B is watching him too. Kind of like how he's watching us," Luna explains. She then leans in to whisper something into Leo's ear, and he gets really sheepish. I can swear I hear her mention something about "family."

"Right, well, come along everyone! Let's get breakfast going. What shall we have?" Bastion asks, leading us all through another hallway into a large kitchen.

"Cereal!" Leo trumpets.

Bastion seems to deflate at that. "I thought you just said that I was the best cook, why do you want cereal?"

"Maybe he doesn't know where the milk is?" I offer, feeling a bit of kinship with this boy.

"Yeah! I don't know where the milk is!" Leo agrees.

"It's in the fridge, Leo…" Luna says, her voice a bit exasperated.

"Oh really? Well you tell me which one of these is the fridge!" Leo says, sweeping his hand around the kitchen.

The appliances are all modern and very… boxy, for lack of a better word. Solid, square, a lot of them, and either black or white to contrast with the checkerboard floor. The counters are black, countertops white, and everything on them some variation of the two colors. It feels like I've stepped into a black-and-white movie, except we're all in color.

Yeah, I can't really tell which one is the fridge—at least, not until Bastion walks up to a particularly tall box and opens up the door, revealing the innards of a fridge.

"Oh. Right."

"How about burritos?" Bastion suggests, pulling ingredients out of the fridge without even waiting for a response. "Yes, burritos sound very good. What say you, Dr. Pepper?"

I almost wait for an answer, but then I remember that it's Dr. Pepper we're talking about, who is a tortoise. Tortoises can't talk.

And then, I realize that Dr. Pepper isn't even in the room with us. "Where's Dr. Pepper?"

Meanwhile, outside, Dr. Pepper sits on his hind legs, lightly tapping at the front doors with his toes, and lamenting the day Ben came back into his long life.

While Bastion and Leo begin working on breakfast, Luna and I hurry to the entryway to let Dr. Pepper in. He seems very annoyed as he tromps in, throwing his head about moodily to avoid looking at us.

"Come on, Dr. Pepper! We said we're sorry!" I shout after him as he moseys down the hall. "Stupid tortoise… well, come on, Luna. We'd better get back before they set something on fire… what?" I ask, turning my head to see Luna staring at me—more specifically, my Duel Disk.

"Sorry… this is going to sound weird, but… can I see your cards?" she asks suddenly, folding her arms behind her back.

"My cards?" I repeat, not fully grasping the question at first.

"Just for a second. I'll give them right back," she promises. The way she looks at me with those eyes so similar to her brother's… I find myself handing the cards to her before I even realize what's going on.

She takes the cards gently, running her small hands over them, touching them. Several different emotions flash across her face before she shakily hands them back to me, her expression unreadable.

"What's the matter?" I ask softly, reaching out a hand to steady her.

Luna hesitates for a moment, and then says quietly, "I don't know if you've been somewhere, or if you've been sick or something, but… your deck… your monsters… they miss you."

By the time we got back, Bastion and Leo had already plated the breakfast burritos and were preparing to move into a sitting room a few doors down. Dr. Pepper is still giving us all the cold shoulder as we enter the comfy-looking room. Again, it has a curved window, smaller than the one in the entryway, but giving a much better view of the City outside, with very little obstruction from other skyscrapers.

Four white armchairs sit arranged in a semicircle around said window, with a large tv resting on a stand in front of it. The walls are a pale pinkish color, decorated with a few paintings that seem a bit out of place but don't draw too much attention. Bastion and Leo have occupied the two rightmost chairs, leaving the other two for Luna and me. I elect to take the one closest to the wall, letting Luna sit next to her brother. Dr. Pepper is sulking in a corner by the window, still refusing to look at us.

"Doc is really mad at us, isn't he?" Leo comments, swallowing a bit of burrito.

Bastion seems to wave it off. "He's not mad at us. Just Ben."

"Why me?!"

"You left him outside!"

"You were the one holding the door!"

Luna giggles softly. "You two fight like Leo and I…"

I look across the room at Bastion, and we grin softly at one another. I suppose that we would argue like brothers, considering our closeness for my entire life. Even though he's an old man, this is something that won't change.

"So Ben, are you a duelist?" Leo blurts out, putting his empty plate on the arm of his chair. "I saw you have a Duel Disk…"

"He is indeed! A very good one at that!" Bastion replies before I can come up with a response. "He's even defeated me a few times! …Eleven times, as a matter of fact."

"I don't remember a lot, but it's a lot more than eleven," I remark. "Eleven hundred maybe."

"It is most certainly not!" Bastion shoots back indignantly, before saying in a quieter, more defeated tone, "…One hundred… and one. But I've won ninety nine times!"

"You've beaten Grandpa B that many times?! You must be a wicked awesome duelist!" Leo says, jumping from his seat and brandishing his Duel Disk at me. It slides down his arm and he quickly scrambles to put it back up to its proper spot. "Come on! Hurry up and duel me!"

I look to Bastion and he smirks at me. I look to Luna, and she smiles and nods a little. I look to Dr. Pepper, and he glares at me before looking back out at the city.

After a moment, I stand up and face him, smoothing down my shirt. "Let's do it. I'll show you just how well a 'young ward' can do, eh?"

"Not here! Outside, you two!" Bastion says sternly. "There's hardly enough room in here for a full duel—it won't be enjoyable in such a cramped space."

After a change of scenery, we find ourselves squaring off at the edge of the pool, one of us on either end of the hourglass and plenty of room between us. Bastion and Luna sit on the steps, enjoying a glass of orange juice in the shade. Dr. Pepper refused to come outside, probably in fear of being left out again.

"DUEL!"

Ben: 4000 LP / Leo: 4000 LP

"How about you take the first turn, Leo? Maybe that'll give you an advantage over my hundred-win streak!" I offer playfully.

"Haha! You'll be regretting that when the Amazing Leo makes his first move! Draw!" Leo declares in a theatrical voice, drawing his first card with the same flair that Bastion drew with when we were younger. "Oh, you're in trouble now! I'm calling out Morphtronic Radion to make some noise!"

The monster appears first as a small radio, with a glowing green screen showing blocky numbers surrounded by hard navy blue plastic. It begins to shake, however, and soon transforms from the small appliance into a slightly larger monster; the display screen forms the upper torso, the speakers forming the lower body and legs, and the plastic covering covers the arms and feet, with a small, reflective black head poking out, with two blinking green eyes and a long antenna sticking out of the head. (Morphtronic Radion: Level 4, LIGHT, Thunder-type; 1000 ATK/900 DEF)

"Now for the coolest part—when Radion is in Attack Position, all Morphtronic monsters on my field gain 800 ATK!" Leo exclaims. "Time to energize, Radion!" (Radion: 1800 ATK)

"To end things, I'll set one card facedown and pass it over to you, young ward!" Leo states.

"My turn then—draw!" I say, picking up the top card of my deck and adding it to my hand.

I never imagined the day where I'd draw these three cards all in one hand, but here they are—Elemental Heroes Knospe and Poison Rose, and the Magic Card Rose Bud. Nothing I'd particularly like to see together, but since alone, none of my Main Deck Normal Summons can beat over Radion, it's nice to have immediate access to the 1900 ATK Poison Rose. In addition, I have a copy of Miracle Fusion, and Hero Signal, but the card I've drawn is a mystery to me…

"Hero Lantern?" I say aloud, furrowing my brow.

"Oh yes, Ben!" Bastion's voice comes calling from the shade. "While you were out, I took the liberty of adding a few cards back to your Deck! …And a new one, as a late birthday present."

I look over the card; Hero Lantern is a Trap Card, but one that can only be used in the face of a duel-ending attack from the opponent… I decide to hold onto it for now. I'll set it later, if things begin to look bad.

My hand filled, I begin to go over my possible plays; I can immediately go into Gaia and wipe out Radion, but that face-down card could be anything…

"I'll start off my turn by summoning Elemental Hero Knospe, in attack mode!" I shout. "But I won't be keeping him around too long, as I'll be activating the Magic Card Rose Bud, to Special Summon Elemental Hero Poison Rose from my hand!"

In rapid succession, the tiny yellow plantlike hero grows onto my side of the field, and glows brightly, and then begins to grow. The buds that form its head and arms bloom to reveal an actual head and hands, the leaves on its body lengthen into a dress, and she takes on the form of a female humanoid with blue skin. White rose petals trail from her head like hair, and a slim gold tiara set with amethysts rests on her head. (Elemental Hero Knospe: Level 3, EARTH, Plant-type; 600 ATK/1000 DEF) (Elemental Hero Poison Rose: Level 6, EARTH, Plant-type; 1900 ATK/2000 DEF)

"Whoa… that monster's really cool!" Leo says, looking at my rose maiden. "And you summoned her so easy…"

"And just wait until you see her attack! Go on, Poison Rose—Petal Dance! Attack his Morphtronic Radion!" I order, throwing my arm out like a general from a movie.

Elemental Hero Poison Rose raises her hands above her head and begins to balance on the balls of her feet, slowly spinning faster and faster until she begins to pirouette, shaking her mane of wild white rose petals into a swirling vortex. Said vortex glides across the battlefield toward Morphtronic Radion, until…

"Not so fast! I activate Morphtronic Bind! Ha!" Leo shouts as his facedown card reveals itself. A white laser grid blocks the tornado of rose petals, and Poison Rose stops in her tracks, frozen in place. "As long as I control a Morphtronic monster, all Level 4 of higher monsters you control can't attack or change their battle positions!"

I grimace slightly; it's a good thing I didn't waste Gaia's effect, but I don't have an immediate out to that trap…

"I'll set one card face-down then, and end my turn!" I state, placing Hero Signal facedown. "Your move, Amazing Leo!"

"Many thanks, young ward! I draw!" Leo says triumphantly.

I hear Luna sigh. "I'm not so sure it's such a good thing he's playing along…"

"Leo is much like Ben when he was younger, I don't think he can resist the urge," Bastion muses.

"I'll summon Morphtronic Clocken in Defense Position!" Leo declares. "And I'll immediately use its Defense Position effect to place 1 Morph Counter on it!"

A small squarish digital clock, white in color appears on his field, sitting still as a statue next to Radion. Two round gold bells rest at the top two corners, with a small gold hammer resting motionless between them; a black screen reading "00:01" in blocky white letters finishes off its appearance, before a bluish tint washes over the monster. (Morphtronic Clocken: Level 2, EARTH, Machine-type; 600 ATK/1100 DEF) (Morph Counters: 1)

"Next, the Amazing Leo will be activating his Amazing Spell—Morphtronic Accelerator! By returning one Morphtronic card from my hand, I can destroy one card on the field and then draw a card! Can you guess who's going bye-bye?" Leo asks, returning his Trap Card, Morphtronic Monitron.

Poison Rose begins to turn her head to look at me, but she is soon smashed into pixels by an unseen force, and I wince a bit as I see her disappear. We'll get back at him, Rose… I promise.

"Here we go! Radion, make some noise! Raucous Rampage!"

Stomping twice like a sumo wrestler, Radion begins to blare ridiculously loud music as it charges toward me, leaping into the air and delivering a hard kick to my stomach, sending me stumbling backward. "Oof!"

Ben: 2200 LP / Leo: 4000 LP

"And there's more of that just waiting for next turn! Pick your next moves wisely, young ward, for they may be your last!" Leo states in a fake posh voice. "I end my turn!"

Hehehe… looking for me, boss?

Shapeshift? My inner voice calls out as I pick up the top card of my deck. Sure enough, Morphy has come to the rescue. Ha! You're a Level 1—his trap can't stop you!

Yeah, there's that… or you could test out one of B's presents! Shapeshift suggests as I add him to my hand. Use Miracle Fusion to bring me and Poison Rose together, we've got an old friend to call on!

Whatever you say, Shapey!

A grin comes to my face, causing Leo to look confused. "Let's go—I summon Elemental Hero Shapeshift, in attack mode! Hit the field, old buddy!"

On cue, Shapeshift somersaults through the air and sticks the landing, holding his arms out as if waiting for applause. He snickers and smirks at Leo, before looking back at me and giving me a thumbs-up. (Elemental Hero Shapeshift: Level 1, DARK, Warrior-type; 0 ATK/0 DEF)

"Next, I'll play my own Magic Card—Miracle Fusion! By removing from play Shapeshift from my field, and Poison Rose in my Graveyard, I can Fusion Summon…" I pause, waiting for the name to come back to me; my grin widens even further when it does. "Elemental Hero Wildvine!"

The creature that is formed by this merging is… interesting, to say the least. Familiar, but unfamiliar. I can sense Shapeshift's presence in there, but I can't recall ever using this particular monster. Ten feet tall or more, the creature looks a bit like a possessed plant; the body is not unlike a Venus flytrap, its skin rough and colored a lush green. On either side of its one-eyed head, two jawlike protrusions extend out like the flaps of a Venus flytrap, and it has five long, thin vines used as legs. Its arms are also like vines, with four whiplike fingers on each hand, and several black pods extending from its back. (Elemental Hero Wildvine: Level 6, DARK, Plant-type; 2400 ATK/2000 DEF)

"Haha! There he goes!" Bastion yells proudly. "It's Hero time, Ben!"

AND THAT'S WHERE WE'RE CALLING IT! I'm actually really surprised at how quickly I knocked this chapter out, but I guess now that I'm not going hard on the sentimental stuff it's just flowing a lot easier. Much longer than both of the previous ones, and the theme song is back—with a new one this time! Out of curiosity, do you guys actually enjoy the addition of the theme song at the beginning, or would you prefer it not be there? I like it, just because it makes it more enjoyable in my view, but if you guys don't want it I'll stop.

SO! Just as Time Thief predicted, we have our first appearances of Leo and Luna, whose parents were close friends to Bastion's deceased son Kaiser. We also have Dr. Pepper being moody because he got locked out, and the first appearance of one of Ben's new Fusions—Elemental Hero Wildvine! Indeed, it's a Ben 10 reference; interesting fact, before I had Ben using E-Heroes, I was intending to have him use a custom archetype based off of the aliens of the Omnitrix, known as Omnitrix Heroes, but I'll admit that I've played too much of the modern game, and shouldn't design full archetypes for older series.

Oh, and once again, Ben fails to find out what "Ben" is short for.

Also, apologies if the description of Leo and Luna's place is weird. I'm trying to watch as little of the anime as I can so I can put my own original spin on it, but both the wiki and the show don't do very well at describing it. So, I did my best. Hope it's alright.

Anyway, I didn't realize it until I started working on this today, but yesterday, July 3rd, was actually the 1-year anniversary from when I started writing this story! So I figured I'd try and pop this one out quick in celebration. Can't promise such a quick chapter next time, but I'll do what I can! I'm definitely going to try to avoid having a month or more in between chapters this time.

Not going to take up any more of your time. I'll put the various effects and such of Wildvine in the next chapter, when we get to fully show him off~

As always, take care, brrrrush yo hair, I'll see ya when I see ya, PEACE~!

~Chase

P.S.: I can't help but find it extremely funny that I ended this chapter like right at the beginning of the first duel in like 3 chapters lmao

Slight edit: had to reupload, I f'ed up Wildvine's description.