Author's note: Okay, I've more or less come to a decision about what to do. However, I should warn you that most of Gohan's cards are OCs. Such cards will be highlighted in bold unless they are mentioned in dialogue, so just keep an eye out for that.
Chapter 4: Gohan's First Duel
Gohan was falling, all the while regretting his lack of interest in Duel Monsters. He was sure that when those men in suits said they were going to duel everyone, they were talking about playing that game. He could see somewhat of an irony here: the one who helped bring down Raditz five or so years ago, the one who had an enormous power that could literally demolish mountains, the one who just for a second brought down Frieza, the one who essentially sent Garlic Jr. back to the Dead Zone, was going to meet his end at the hands of nothing deadlier than a deck of cards.
Eventually, the seemingly bottomless pit disappeared with new scenery emerging, and Gohan fell to what looked like a rocky red plateau in the middle of nowhere. The only thing special about it was the fact that it had featured a few nests of some kind and what was probably a rather large cave. However, he found out quickly that he wasn't alone. There was a loud screech and then, what looked like Mai Valentine's three Harpy Lady Sisters lunged at Gohan, following him as he took to the air. He tried to reason with them that he didn't mean to intrude, but they just kept attacking him and screeching. After five unsuccessful attempts to calm them down, he decided that if they wanted to play rough, he'd oblige them. One Harpy took a kick to the stomach and immediately fell from the sky onto the plateau, unable to cope with the pain. Gohan then appeared right in front of another Harpy and delivered a strong uppercut to the creature's chin, whereupon it also fell to the plateau. The last Harpy, which had the longest hair, took another swipe at him, but quickly found itself being spun around by its hair for a good while until Gohan let go and sent it flying right into the cave. After that came a roar and then flames were seen sprouting from the cave moving towards Gohan, who immediately fired a ki blast at them. The flames were promptly extinguished and the cave exploded, revealing an unconscious red dragon that had smoke rising from its body.
Gohan then tried to sense where Yugi and everybody else was, but the results were confusing: if what he was sensing was right, they were all there next to him. He had no time to try and figure out what else to make of this information, because there were suddenly many more Harpies appearing, coming from the slopes of the plateau. Gohan decided to fly to a point above the plateau and wait for them to charge him, and it worked; the Harpies were closing in, all bunched up together. When they were close enough, he disappeared and reappeared at another point above the plateau. Then he put his hands above his head, his left palm on the back of his right hand, and then charged energy in his hands. "Masenko… HA!" he shouted, thrusting his hands forward and shooting the energy at the Harpy Ladies. All of them were caught in the explosion that followed the energy projectile connecting with its target, and with that, Gohan turned around and flew for a few meters until he spotted a very confused-looking bird which had apparently observed all this. "Hey little guy, it wasn't the fact that they were strong, it's just that dealing with them individually would have just been too bothersome and time-consuming, neither of which I can afford right now," he told the creature, after which he continued flying, hoping to find Yugi.
After what seemed like hours of flying, Gohan still had no luck finding Yugi. The only person he managed to find was Tea, who was at the time ascending a flight of stairs to what looked like a palace with a statue of penguins on the outside. He immediately landed beside her, and they continued to walk up the stairs together. Inside, they were confronted by a talking penguin introducing himself as Crump, who immediately challenged Tea to a duel. She asked Gohan if he had any dueling experience, and after he told her he had none, Crump suddenly demanded that the two of them face off against him, as he suspected that it would be far easier to gain the bodies of people who hadn't dueled at all, but it would be more fun to defeat two people at once. Tea and Gohan agreed to the challenge, albeit the latter did so somewhat reluctantly, and all of them were taken to a frozen area to duel.
An interface then appeared in front of Gohan, after which he was told to construct a Deck from the cards shown in it. This was it, the time when all those years of not paying much attention to the game finally come back to bite him in the ass. Gohan tried to choose the best cards he could think of, keeping in mind some of the rules he knew and tips Yugi gave him: he couldn't let his Life Points reach zero, there were often sets of cards that worked best when used together, he'd also have to keep an eye on his enemy's strategies and tactics and use them to his advantage, but above all else he had to have fun, which at the moment was sort of out of the question.
Before the Duel could begin, the Deck Masters had to be chosen. Crump had apparently already chosen his Nightmare Penguin as his, although Gohan was still a bit confused as to why he and the monster weren't separate. Tea then chose her Dark Magician Girl, and now it was down to Gohan to choose his. He eventually settled on Twin sister of Light, a female in long golden robes with waist-length blond hair, as his Deck Master, and thus the Duel began. Tea let Gohan take the first move, so first he played his continuous Magic Card Galick Gun, and a purple sphere appeared which had an attack point counter of 0, and then he summoned his Lesser Mystic Totem of Healing (0/2500), a four star monster that looked like a long wooden pole adorned with carvings of religious crosses and hearts and featured angelic wings at the top, in Defense Mode, after which he let Tea take over. Tea placed a card face down then summoned Ancient Elf in Attack Mode (1450/1200) after which the Galick Gun's Attack point counter jumped to 725
"Why did the value of your Galick Gun change Gohan?" Tea asked, confused
"When it is in play, whenever a player my side of the field summons a monster, half that monster's attack strength gets added to my Galick Gun's strength."
"Strength? Does that mean your Galick Gun can attack?"
"Yes, but I only get one shot."
"It's my turn now!" Crump shouted. He then summoned a Giant Red Seasnake (1800/800), increased its attack strength by 200 due to his Deck Master ability and played his Cold Wave, stopping Tea from using her set card. The Seasnake then destroyed her Elf, bringing her Life points to 3450 and, for some reason, creating a buildup of ice on her.
Gohan's turn then came, and his Life points jumped to 5000. Both Tea and Crump questioned him, and he revealed it was due to his Lesser Mystic Totem of Healing having a special ability: the owner's Life points increase by 500 for every monster, including the totem, on the field at the start of each turn. He then summoned his Lesser Mystic Totem of Defense {0/500(X)}, also a four-star monster, looking essentially the same as the previous one, but instead having shields and armor carved into it and the tip featuring a large shield, in Defense Mode. It started out with 500 points, but then it jumped to 1500. Gohan revealed that it gained 500 defense points for every monster, including itself, on the field. In addition, it couldn't attack at all, and all attacks on Gohan's monsters get redirected to it. He then let Tea take her turn, whereupon she set a monster, upgrading Gohan's Defense totem to 2000 defense and gave Crump his turn, during which he immediately set two cards.
Gohan had a bad feeling about the cards, and as soon as he took his turn and received 1500 Life Points (6500 total), decided to deviate slightly from his original plan and summon Mira the Eternal Magician (1800/1000) in Attack Mode, also upgrading his Defense Totem's defense to 2500 points and his Galick Gun to 1625, after which he, due to its special ability that enabled him to look at one of Crump's Set cards, revealed the Mirror Wall trap that his opponent had set. Tea then destroyed the trap he showed her with Mystical Space Typhoon, but activated Crump's other trap, destroying her own set Mirror Force card. She then destroyed the Giant Red Seasnake with Offerings to the Doomed, lowering Gohan's Totem's points to 2000, and flip-summoned her Fire Sorcerer (1000/1500), increasing the Galick Gun to a total of 2125 points. She then used its special ability to damage Crump by 800 points at the cost of two cards, then attacked directly, bringing his Life points down to a total of 2200. Crump summoned a Flying Penguin (1200/1400) and boosted it with his Deck Master ability by 200, then with a Penguin Sword Magic Card, bringing the Flying Penguin's total attack strength to 2200. The monster then attacked Tea's Fire Sorcerer, bringing her to 2250 Life Points.
Gohan drew, collected 2000 Life points due to there being his two totems, his Magician and Crump's Penguin on the field, bringing them to 8500. He then summoned his Lesser Mystic Totem of Offense {500(X)/0}, a four star monster that looked exactly the same as the other Totems, but instead had swords and arrowheads carved into it and featured a large sword at the top, in Attack Mode. Both its Attack Power, and the Defense totem's defense points climbed to 2500, and both Tea and Crump made the connection of this increase to the Totem's special ability. The Galick Gun, however, only increased by 250 to a total of 2375 points as the totem's effect of counting all the monsters applied after the summoning, leaving it with a starting total of 500. His next move came as a surprise: he ordered Mira to attack the Flying Penguin. The outcome was predictable; Gohan lost 400 life points, bringing his total to 8100.
"Why on earth did you do that Gohan? You knew that monster was weaker than his!" Tea asked.
"Because, Tea, now I can do this," he replied, and then he summoned his Deck Master, the Twin Sister of Light (1500/1500), whereupon a second monster appeared with the same number of attack and defense points, looking almost exactly the same as the Deck Master, except its skin was what appeared to be an extremely pale blue-white color, its hair was instead black, and robes were an extremely dark shade of blue. Gohan began speaking: "Whenever Twin Sister of Light is summoned, I must automatically summon from my deck or hand my Twin Sister of Darkness. I did so from my hand in this case. I shall now activate my Twin Sister of Light's Deck Master Ability: If I gained any Life points this turn, I can target one player and give them the same number of Life Points, but in exchange, that player can't attack for one turn. I choose…" Gohan looked at Tea, who nodded, "…Tea." Her Life Points increased by 2000 to a total of 4250. The Galick Gun then increased to 3875 points due to the combined 750 points offered up by the two new creatures.
Gohan then let Tea have a shot, and she set a monster. Crump attacked and destroyed her monster, Skelengel, after which she used its effect to draw the card she originally couldn't do at the beginning of her turn due to Offerings to the Doomed, as well as add 450 points to the Galick Gun, bringing it to 4325 points.
Gohan collected 3000 Life Points to get a total of 11100 due to his Lesser Mystic Totem of Healing. He then placed one card face down and activated another special ability of his Totems, he can sacrifice two of his lesser ones to Special Summon something else. He sacrificed his Lesser Mystic Totem of Offense and his Lesser Mystic Totem of Healing to Special Summon Greater Mystic Totem of the Vampire (?/0), which was twice the size of its Lesser counterparts, and instead had drops of blood and fangs carved into it, with two large fangs adorning the top, in Attack mode. Gohan informed everyone that this Totem has instead 750 attack points for each friendly monster on the field and 250 for each enemy, giving it a grand total of 3250. The Totem then attacked Flying Penguin, but suddenly Gohan activated his set Turn Jump, skipping three turns, whereupon three carved fangs started glowing. The attack resumed, taking 1050 Life Points away from Crump, leaving him with 1150. All of the fangs then stopped glowing, and Gohan got 2200 Life Points for a grand total of 13300.
Tea and Crump were both lost, and the latter demanded an explanation. Gohan explained that every turn the Totem doesn't attack, it automatically gets a "Hunger counter", and since Turn Jump was played, it got three of a possible nine. Three counters can then be sacrificed in battle so that, if a monster is destroyed by the Totem, then the total of the monster's attack or defense points (depending on which mode it's in) get added to his Life Points. Gohan then activated his Deck Master's ability, increasing Tea's Life Points by 3000 for his one lesser totem, then 2250 for his greater totem's effect, to get a total of 9450 yet forbidding her from attacking her turn. Tea summoned Maha Vailo (1550/1400) bringing her partner's Galick Gun to 5100, but had to end her turn as she couldn't attack due to Gohan's Deck Master. Crump, sensing that, for a first timer, beginner's luck or not, Gohan was frighteningly good, decided to stop ignoring him. His Life Points, after all, were through the roof, and if something wasn't done soon, he was going to lose his chance to take over their bodies, preferably Tea's. He summoned Bolt Penguin (1100/800) in Defense mode, set one card and then activated his Swords of Revealing Light, targeting Gohan.
Gohan began his turn; however, there were no Life Points to collect, as his greater totem could not heal him during his Standby phases. He could see he was in a bind here, so he activated another special ability of his Greater Mystic Totem of the Vampire, sacrificing it to Special Summon Lesser Mystic Totem of Offense and Lesser Mystic Totem of Healing. He then sacrificed the former along with Lesser Mystic Totem of Defense to Special Summon Greater Mystic Totem of the Fortress, {?/500(X)}, which had grey stone walls carved into it and featured a ballista at the top, in Defense mode. The same rules of Attack point calculation applied as with its Vampire counterpart i.e. 750 for all friendly monsters, 250 for all enemy monsters, but defense point calculation was still 500 for every monster, giving it a total of 4000 Attack and 3000 Defense points. As soon as Gohan ended his turn, a stone wall lit up on the totem, and upon request he revealed it to be a Barricade counter, and any time the Totem is attacked, one can be removed to negate 500 points of damage
Tea took over, attacking Bolt Penguin with Maha Vailo, unfortunately triggering Crump's set Revenge Sacrifice in the process. Although his monster was gone, so was hers, and he had just brought out Defender Iceberg (0/2450), so with no monsters, she was forced to end her turn. Crump set a card and summoned a Penguin Torpedo (550/500), and after giving it a 200 point boost, attacked Tea, destroying it and bringing her down to 8700 Life points.
Gohan drew, and collected 2500 Life points, bringing his total to 15800. He set his Mirror Force, Dark Hole and Heavy Storm cards, and then activated Emergency Provisions, sacrificing all three set cards and increasing his Life Points by another thousand for each magic card sent, for a grand total of 18800. Then his Deck Master gave Tea the 5500 life points he earned, bringing her to a total of 14200. Although the move probably wasn't necessary, he needed the space in his hand, and besides, it felt rewarding to keep her in the game, not to mention necessary. He collected a Barricade counter on his greater totem, and then let his partner take the reins. Tea then summoned her own Deck Master, the Dark Magician Girl (2000/1700), which also boosted Gohan's Galick Gun by 1000 for a total of 6100, and equipped her with Magic Formula, increasing her strength to 2700, but due to Gohan's Deck Master Ability's side effect, she couldn't attack. Crump revealed his set card, Ocean of Regeneration, and restored his Penguin Torpedo, which then attacked Tea and self destructed, bringing her to 13450 Life Points, after which he set a card.
Gohan's turn came, and is Life Point total reached 21800 and played Mystical Space Typhoon to destroy Crump's swords. He then attacked his Defender Iceberg with Greater Mystic Totem of the Fortress, which had 4000 Attack points due to five friendly monsters worth 750 each and one enemy monster for 250 points. His Totem was about to destroy the Iceberg, but then Crump triggered Negate Attack, ending Gohan's battle phase. He was about to use his Deck Master's ability to heal Tea, but she objected, saying it wasn't necessary at that point. She attacked Defender Iceberg with her upgraded Dark Magician Girl, destroying it. It was only after this that Gohan remembered: he had his Galick Gun at the ready. He could have fired it ages ago and won, but he forgot about it.
"You got me this time, but I'll still be able to hold out and defeat you!" Crump shouted at Tea, but then Gohan interrupted. "That is what you think, but we have all forgotten my Magic Card. It can be played anytime, like a Quick-Play card, and it works the same as declaring an attack. Now, I target your Life Points. Galick Gun..."
Tea looked on, and Crump braced himself...
"…FIRE!" The purple sphere of energy suddenly shot a large beam at Crump, who was with 1150 Life Points and, with 6100 points of damage incoming, it was over. The beam collided with him, swiftly destroying him, and shot through to one of the background icebergs, annihilating it in a large purple explosion.
More ice shattered towards the west, after which Yugi flew towards Tea and Gohan with a shocked look on his face. After giving the freezing Tea his jacket, he asked Gohan if his eyes were playing tricks on him.
"No, I actually did Duel, believe it or not, and I am really surprised with how it turned out. I thought I'd sink Tea underneath the water with my skill," Gohan told him
"You actually dueled very well Gohan. As far as I could see, there was only one rookie mistake: you forgot what cards you had on the field and from the looks of it this time, it only cost you time, but just remember that in future," Yugi responded
"I have to say though, when Cramp, or what was his name?"
"Crump, I think,"
"…Crump demanded I duel him as well, I thought I was a goner for sure"
"I always knew you'd make a great duelist Gohan."
"It was just beginner's luck Yugi."
"'Beginner's luck' my butt Gohan," Tea started. "If it hadn't been for you healing me like that I'm sure I'd have lost the Duel. You used your cards very efficiently. You held up better than I did, and I could almost swear we would never be running out of Life Points thanks to your little card combination."
"Cramp probably considered me to be too insignificant a threat, but I think had he focused on me, I think I'd have been knocked out."
"No Gohan, you handled yourself great, but remember his name was Crump."
"Still, you guys look like you make a great team," Yugi said. "Although I have to admit, I haven't seen some of the cards you've used."
"Which cards Yugi?" Gohan inquired.
"The Totem cards, the Twin Sister cards and the Galick Gun."
"In fact…" boomed a voice around them, "…that boy is probably the first person in recorded history to use those cards. People haven't bothered with them before." However, the voice spoke no more, and there were other things happening. A doorway had appeared, and Yugi, Gohan and Tea still needed to find the rest of their friends.
End note: The Galick Gun was inspired by the Dragonball Z attack of the same name used by Vegeta, while the rest I just thought up by myself. There was also one scene I really wanted to add: it involved Gohan pointing out to Tea that Dark Magician Girl, because she's female, is actually her Deck Mistress and Tea, Crump and Dark Magician Girl all shouting "NERD!" at him. It was deleted because it wasn't really important to the story and besides, the Gohan "Nerd" joke was originally thought up by Team Four Star.