The arena was packed with people waiting to see who would rank where in the houses of the new school. Since graduation, a lot of things within the world had changed. A card game filled with ancient magic had arisen. All artifacts had been collected and put under protection by Celestia and Luna. The principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna founded a new mandatory curriculum within the academy. This ancient game would need to be trained into their youth to prepare them for any dangers that may yet be unseen.
The supervisors to each clan within this school stepped into the arena, each representing a style or skill level. Sunset walked in dressed in red, her smile betrayed slightly by a sweat drop. She had been put in charge of the lowest level of students, not due to lack of power, but because she insisted. She was still uncomfortable with being considered a hero. She had friends but when the offer came, she stepped down from the spotlight. There was still a lot to answer for and she was glad to see that the crowd liked the idea of her in this position.
Then Twilight stepped out, clothed in yellow, waving to the crowd while she carried a book under her arm. She had studied the rules carefully and at this point felt sure that her deck could handle most opponents, even if it seemed a bit boring to the outside. She carried herself with confidence, even having worked with spike to make the holographic system they were using for the duels. She had been trying to understand something about the game that had escaped her up to this point. A term that was recurring in the history of it. A term known as the heart of the cards. The book she carried was all of her notes on the matter.
Finally, Cadence stepped out, dressed in blue. She may not have had a deck that would seem very effective, but for reasons even celestia only barely understood, she could always draw what she needed. She and Shining Armor had worked hard to put both of their own personalities into the deck. She looked at it fondly before putting it into the arm machine Twilight had built. With all three of them combined, there was no way she could lose. She grew more serious as she arrived at her arena, making sure to pull no punches and give it everything she had.
As the candidates rolled in, there was the usual contenders, Diamond Tiara, Silver Spoon, The Crusaders, and even Snowblind came to duel. As they all rolled into the arena and had their matches, each of the supervisors gave them a grade based on their skill and potential. For the most part, those with more money or influence in order to get stronger cards tended towards Cadence's house, while those without as much tended towards Sunset's house.
As the tryouts came to an end, three final listed recruits were called out. "In Cadence's Arena, we are calling for Button mash. In Twilight's arena, we are calling for Griff Hawke. Finally, we are calling for Masquerade Lulamoon." Trixie could be hear cheering insanely loud at the last name even shouting some rather offensive words towards Sunset. Sunset rolled her eyes, knowing that it was only because Masquerade was her little brother.
Cadence looked in confusion at the lack of a duelist coming out to face her, but before the ref could call it a forfeit she held up her hand, "No, Give him until the other ones finish." She could tell if he was nervous. No one had beaten her all day, even if they did put up a good show. She figured he needed some time to cope.
She pulled out two tablets to watch the other duels as she waited. As she did, She saw Masquerade walk into the arena… or what was supposed to masquerade. Instead, the duelist was wrapped in a cloak, red eyes glowing from under the cowl. Sunset smirked, already knowing the kind of opponent she had to be facing. A powerful force without mercy. She had been having a blast and had lost a few times, but truly a duelist like this was going to be more than enough for her.
As he stepped into the arena, throwing the cloak off to reveal… A sentai ranger? The boy posed a few times convincingly and shouted, "I, Masquerade, Shall show you the true power of justice, Miss Shimmer. Prepare yourself." She blinked a few times but shrugged as the audience laughed. Trixie seemed unfazed by this rather embarrassing entrance. Sunset then noticed their notorious older sister watching from the VIP seats. Even while her partners in 'business' laughed she smirked with an evil glint.
Sunset knew better than to underestimate an opponent, no matter how silly they appeared. She drew nodding, "Fine, Masquerade. Show me what you've got. I will start I summon Amazoness Fighter in attack mode and set two cards face down."
The masked figure drew and sighed, "You don't even know what you're getting into, do you? Do you think a weak opening like that will gauge me?" He held up a card and spoke with power, "It wouldn't matter if you summoned something three times that size. You see, heroes don't look for glory, but they always beat the odds. Now, let's respond to an amazon attack, shall we? E – emergency Call!"
He pulled out a monster and played it instantly, "Come on out, Stratos!" As the hero hit the field, he called out, "With that, I can add another HERO monster to my hand. We aren't finished yet. I put a card face down, and then attack with Stratos!"
Sunset nodded, shaking a finger, "Hardly. I activate Amazoness Archers!" The trap flipped up and the female archers appeared, their arrows striking Stratos as he tried to dodge, leaving him open to be struck by the Fighter's Fist. "You see, it robs your monster of 500 attack. That means he just can't cut it. It also forces you to attack so there was nothing you could do about it."
Even though his monster was defeated, the figure didn't seem to react. The helmet may have been helping to hide his poker face, but it was impossible to tell. As his life points dropped, he played another card, "Fine by me, I play A Hero Lives! By sacrificing half of my life points to summon, Elemental hero Bubbleman from my deck in defense mode. Your turn."
As he sat at 1700 points, She wondered what his plan was, but she figured he was just a rookie putting on an act to try and distract her. He had a single facedown and a very weak monster in defense mode. She drew and shrugged, "Fine, then I will just have to keep you on the defense so you can't do a thing. I summon Amazoness Swordswoman. Now, Fighter, clear that little bubble machine off the field."
She ran over, punching the fragile hero, knocking him over and shattering him. It was after this that she saw a signal go up, "That is right, Miss Shimmer. You see, heroes never fight alone. Even if one should fall, another will come to fight in their memory. My Hero Signal Trap card allows me to summon a level 4 or lower Elemental hero from my deck. And I choose Elemental Hero Clayman in Defense mode!"
She saw the wall of a man appear in the place of the old and laughed, "Well, it won't help you much. My Swordswoman Attacks, and her ability activates. Any damage I would take from battle with her, you take instead. GO!" As the sword struck Clayman, a small portion of his ceramic body chipped off, hitting Masquerade. Sunset didn't mean for it to happen, but the ceramic bit broke the visor on his helmet. He didn't seem to react as his life points dropped, but now she could see his eyes. She didn't see what she expected from a goof like this. There was a strength to his eyes. She couldn't define it but it's mere existence put her on edge. She had never been this excited by the test duels with Twilight. This kid was different.
He drew, and looked it over and nodded, "Just what I needed. I start by playing Hero Mask! With this I can send one of my elemental heroes to the graveyard and make one of my monsters have the same name. In this case, I choose Sparkman!" Clayman was surrounded by a phone booth for a moment, and in a flash of light, he appeared as Sparkman. "And now I activate Polymerization. By sending my Avian and Burstinitrix to the graveyard, I can summon Phoenix Enforcer! He cannot be destroyed by combat. I attack your Amazoness Swordswoman, and though I will take 500 damage from it, it removes her from the field." The swordswoman's sword broke on Enforcer's arm, the blade flying towards the sentai breaking the helmet further, fully revealing his eyes and even a slight amount of his light blue hair.
She nodded, "You really are a lot like your siblings aren't you? A flare for the dramatic and an unshakable confidence in your own ability. Still, unlike your sister that I've met, you seem to have the skills to back it up." He placed a card down and ended his turn, Clayman pulling off the Sparkman attire and returning to his old appearance.
She drew and smirked, "Well, I'm going to have to surprise you. I sacrifice my Amazoness Fighter to summon Amazoness Queen." As the royalty rose from the flash of light where the fighter once was while sitting upon a throne, Sunset continued her move, "I then use her to attack your Clayman!" The queen leapt up quickly, slashing the sturdy warrior in half. As she did Sunset's facedown popped up, "I activate Queen's pawn. I use it to summon Amazoness Tiger!" With this she pet the holographic Tiger as it appeared. "You see, as long as my queen is on the field, my tiger cannot be destroyed and as long as my tiger is on the field, you cannot target my queen. He may not look like much now, but he gains 400 attack for each Amazoness monster on the field. He is 1900 right now, but as I summon more, that will shift more in my favor. In the meantime, I end my turn."
Masq was unshaken and nodded, "Yeah, that was about what I figured you would do as soon as I saw that boxer." He drew and nodded, "That was what I hoped for. I activate Miracle fusion. I use it to Summon Elemental Hero Electrum! When he is summoned all cards removed from play are returned to the deck. He also is more than one element at once, but the only one you need to know is he is also earth elemental. And he gains 300 attack for ever monster you control with the same element as him. That puts him at 3500." The golden suited man appeared, the four elemental lights returning to his deck. "And now I am going to show you why I have your number. Attack Electrum! Hit that Tiger with all you've got."As the Tiger was hit and bounced back to his feet, the multi-element attack splashed into Sunset, leaving her at 1400 life points. "Enforcer, back up that attack!" The second hero engulfed himself in flames, charging the tiger, knocking it into Sunset along with knocking off 200 more life points. "And with that I end my turn."
Sunset looked him over and began to realize this kid was very dangerous. His sister's smirk must have been from training him. "I draw, and I don't think you will like my plan. You see, your Electrum is very dangerous. And that ends here. I activate Amazoness Spellcaster! This allows me to switch the original attack of one of my monsters and one of yours. I choose my Tiger and your Electrum! This means your Electrum is at 1700 while my tiger is now at 3700. Quite the switch wouldn't you say? With that, I summon Amazoness Trainee. She will add to both our powers, but I would say your 2000 doesn't quite cut my 4100 would you?" The amazon shaman sat there, chanting her spell as the younger amazon came out. "Tiger, Wipe out his Electrum and end this duel!"
His face down flipped to reveal Hero Barrier. "Not a chance. As long as I have an Elemental Hero on the field, I can negate your attack. You may kill my electrum this turn somehow, but this duel isn't over yet."
Sunset nodded, really getting caught up in the duel, the crowd seeming to disappear around her. This was an amazing kid. "Alright, My queen will kill him then. That will leave you at 400 total life points." Sure to the point, the queen leapt up to slay the hero and went back to her seat. "I end my turn. Show me your final move."
The tiger returned, now having 2300 attack. One more amazoness and it could kill him by attacking Enforcer. He drew and sighed and seemed to smirk. "I apologize for it going down this way, but I don't have much of a choice right now. I activate another Miracle Fusion. You see, there are heroes like electrum that require specific monsters, but heroes are adaptable and sometimes the tools you have on hand are better than the ones for the job. That said, I remove my Sparkman and Stratos from play to call forth Elemental Hero Great Tornado. His ability halves the attack of all of your monsters when he is summoned. That means your cat is a kitten with 1150 attack." A wind covered the battle field as the hero rose, dust kicking up into the eyes of Sunset's monsters. "Tornado Attacks and with no traps on hand, It means I win." Just like he said, the wind blew from the hero, wiping out her tiger and her life points. She stared in surprise as he let out a breath and looked up to see his sisters. It was only as he heard Trixie shout that he seemed to realize his helmet was damaged. He ran back into the entryway, taking shelter from the crowd. He took off his helmet, Sunset now seeing there were headphones on the inside. His face was pure red and he looked terrified.
Sunset smirked, and walked into the entryway to pat him on the shoulder. "You are a good duelist, but I don't think you can wear gear like that in the academy. For your own sake, I'll keep you in my classes."
Masq nodded and stammered, "Y-Y-Yeah, thanks… I… I heard from my sister that I had talent. She gave me this helmet so no one would question my abilities. She might even be able to pay for me to keep using it… but I told her I wanted to do this myself." He was very good, but clearly shy. He then laughed, "You know, I use those heroes because they wear masks. I relate to them. It's like putting on their mask allows them to be who they really are." Sunset nodded and walked him back out of the arena.