Yu-gi-oh/MLP Season 1 Chapter 5
The Hunt is on!
Twilight stared at Ruby as she worked on her duel runner in the garage. She wanted to ask so many questions about last night. How did Ruby make her cards real? Where did she learn how to duel like that? Where was she from? But at the same time, Twilight was too scared. She was partly scared of Ruby, but also scared of losing a friend.
"Yes!" Ruby cheered as she finally got her duel runner working. "I'm taking it out for a test drive. I'll be back home in time for dinner." "Have fun!" Shining said as she drove off. "You okay, Twilight? You look live you've seen a ghost." Twilight looked over at Starswirl, but his expression made it clear that he didn't have any answers either.
"How much do we know about Twilight, really?" Thinking about Twilight's question, Shining shrugged his shoulders. "Not much I guess. But she'll tell us when she's ready. Of course, if you really want to know, you could do the simple thing and ask her." As Shining walked back into the house, Twilight smiled. He had a habit of pointing out the obvious when she couldn't see it right in front of her face.
...
"Get away from me!" The pursuer ignored his pleas, continuing her eerie whistle. "You want my number card? Well, you'll have to take it from my cold dead hands!" The pursuer smiled. That could easily be arranged. The two readied their duel disks and duel gazers. It would be over very easily.
...
Ruby raced along the streets of Heartland City, feeling more free than she's felt in a long time. She needed this, that was certain. Turbo dueling was a part of her, like breathing. Now if only she had an opponent. As if on cue, she heard someone behind her on what sounded like a duel runner, piquing her curiosity. She turned to look back and what she saw was...quaint by her standards. The vehicle was clearly not running on Ener-D, and it lacked certain parts, but it certainly looked like a duel runner, in that if-you-closed-one-eye-and-squinted kind of way.
The pilot was certainly interesting. Riding in a traditional track suit and ginger hair, she easily weaved past the cars to meet up with Ruby. Instead of a duel gazer, she seemed to have a tattoo over her left eye. "The name's Spitfire. My master would like a word with you." Ruby smiled. "That so? Well, let's see if you can catch up." Ruby accelerated, blazing through the traffic, and Spitfire gave chase.
Ruby had to give credit. Whoever this Spitfire was, she was no amateur. She was certainly keeping up with Ruby, though without an Ener-D power source, she was always going to be slower. Eventually, Ruby slowed down to meet with her pursuer. "Alright. You can ride. Now, let's see if you can duel." With that, she activated Speed World 2 on her duel runner, and much to her surprise, it activated on Spitfire's duel runner too.
Elsewhere, a dwarf watched the events with excitement as his peons kept track of the prototype's systems. It was time for the fun to begin. "I'll go first. I draw!" Spitfire declared. It's a shame we don't know more about this Speed World, Spitfire thought. Without knowing how to create Speed Spells, I'm down to only monsters and traps. "I set a monster and three cards face-down and end my turn."
"I draw!" Ruby could barely contain her excitement at being able to turbo duel again. (Spitfire 0-1, Ruby 0-1) "If you control a monster and I don't, I can summon Dryadic Destroyer from my hand." (Level 6/1800) "I then activate the effect of Brain Strain from my hand, reducing the level of Dryadic Destroyer by 2 to special summon it." (Dryadic Destroyer Level 6-4) (Brain Strain Level 2/600) "I then summon Phoenixian Seed." (Level 2/800)
"I tune my level 4 Dryadic Destroyer and my level 2 Phoenixian Seed with my level 2 Brain Strain! Minds gather everywhere to culminate in the perfect expression of beauty! Synchro summon! Appear, Arcadia, the Ever-Evolving Bloom!" (Level 8/2500) "Arcadia, attack his face-down with Psycho-Burst!" Arcadia readied an energy ball at the end of his staff, then fired it at the face-down.
"I activate my face-down, Negate Attack!" Spitfire replied. "It not only negates your attack, but ends the battle phase!" The energy ball disappears mid-flight. "I set a card and end my turn." Let's see how turbo dueling is like in Heartland, Ruby thought. "I draw!" (Spitfire 1-2, Ruby 1-2) "I flip summon Rai Rider!" Spitfire's face-down is revealed to be a man riding a motorcycle. (Level 3/1200)
"I then summon Boost Trolley!" A bus powered by rockets flies in. (Level 4/1000) "When Boost Trolley is summoned, I can increase the level of Rai Rider by one." One of the rockets detaches from Boost Trolley and attaches to Rai Rider. (Rai Rider Level 3-4) "Then, since I control two level 4 monsters, I can special summon Hitchhiking Devil from my hand." Atop Boost Trolley, a small devil appears. (Level 4/1300)
"I use my three level 4 monsters in order to build the overlay network! I xyz summon Number 12: Full Throttle!" A massive hybrid between a motorcycle and a three-headed dog appears. (Rank 4/3200) Ruby looked, but couldn't see the glowing number on Spitfire. So there's more than one way to control these numbers.
"I activate Full Throttle's special ability! By using one overlay unit, it can attack twice this turn." The three heads of Full Throttle grab and fight over an overlay unit, before the middle one wins and swallows it whole. "Full Throttle, attack Arcadia with Triple Road Rage!" The machine-dog drives forward, all of its teeth snarling.
"I activate Arcadia's effect, paying life points equal to the difference in attack so that Arcadia becomes stronger than your monster. Psychic Development!" (Ruby 4000-3300) (Arcadia 2500-3300) "Arcadia, counterattack with Psycho-Burst!" Arcadia creates another energy ball and throws it at Full Throttle, pushing the monster back, but not killing it since Arcadia isn't a number. (Spitfire 4000-3900)
"I activate my face-down Slipstream Summon. Whenever Full Throttle attacks, a Slipstream token will be summoned after the battle." A wisp of smoke appears behind Full Throttle. (Level 4/1200) "I then activate my second face-down, Crowd Support! Full Throttle gains 500 attack for every other monster I control, but in exchange, my other monsters can't attack." (Full Throttle 3200-3700)
"Full Throttle, attack again with Triple Road Rage!" Full Throttle charged again. "Psychic Development!" (Ruby 3300-2900) (Arcadia 3300-3800) Arcadia again counterattacks and pushes back its pursuer, but still fails to destroy it. (Spitfire 3900-3800) "The effects of Slipstream Summon and Crowd Support activate again." Another wisp appears behind Full Throttle. (Full Throttle 3700-4200) "I end my turn." Ruby smiled. This would be interesting.
...
Twilight was walking home from school on the rainy streets with Spike and Pinkie Pie, but her thoughts continued to be on Ruby. "What's wrong, Twilight?" Pinkie asked. "You've barely touched the ice cream I made for everybody." Twilight looks down, and oddly enough, she was holding a cone of ice cream where she was sure she wasn't before. One of these days she would figure out how Pinkie did that.
"It's nothing." Spike gives a knowing look at Twilight. "Okay, it's not nothing. I'm just not sure how to ask Ruby about where she's from. I don't want to be rude to her, but I don't know if it's a rude question to ask or not. Maybe I'm overthinking it and I should just ask her. What do you guys think?" Twilight looks around and notices that Pinkie and Spike are not only behind her, but frozen still. She walks back and attempts to get their attention, but they didn't budge.
"It would appear that they are not the only ones affected." Starswirl pointed out. Twilight looked and everyone there was frozen still. Even the rain was held in place. The only sound besides Twilight's breathing was a distant whistle getting louder. She looked upwards, towards the source of the sound, and saw a girl in a gray jumpsuit with rainbow hair. The girl jumped down to join Twilight, while a small robotic companion accompanied her.
"Another day, another number. My companion, Orbital, has slowed time down to a fraction of its normal pace so we can duel uninterrupted. Now, are you ready to repent?" The mystery girl declared as her suit turned bright white while she readied her duel disk. Instead of readying a duel gazer, a tattoo appeared on her left eye. "Be careful. Something seems different about this one." Starswirl warned. Twilight readied her duel disk and duel gazer anyway.
"I'll go first. I draw!" The mystery girl declares. "I activate Photon Veil, shuffling three light monsters from my hand into my deck in order to replace them with three other light monsters." She reveals various light monsters only to place them back into her duel disk and pull out three copies of the same monster: Daybreaker. "I then activate the spell card Photon Lead, special summoning a level 4 or lower light monster from my hand that was added there this turn. Appear, Daybreaker!"
A knight in shining armor appears. (Level 4/1700) "When Daybreaker is special summoned, it can special summon another Daybreaker from my hand." The knight crosses his sword before striking it into the ground, causing light to burst out from the ground. A second Daybreaker leaps out of the light. "And of course, the second Daybreaker brings a third out." The process repeats, causing a third Daybreaker to appear.
"Now I overlay my three level 4 monsters in order to xyz summon Number 10: Illumiknight!" Another knight appears, this time riding a steed. (Rank 4/2400) "By using one overlay unit and discarding a card, Illumiknight draws me a card." The knight absorbs an overlay unit into his sword as the mystery girl discards and draws.
"Since I just discarded Lightserpent, I can immediately summon it from my graveyard." A snake with shimmering scales crawls out of the ground. (Level 3/1200) "I then summon Plasma Ball!" A small floating orb with a single eye appears. (Level 3/900) "I use my two level 3 monsters in order to build the overlay network! Appear, Number 20: Giga-Brilliant!" A large insect appears. (Rank 3/1800)
"Two number monsters in the same turn." Twilight whispers in awe. "And she doesn't seem to be affected by them at all." Starswirl points out. "I end my turn." The mystery girl concludes. "Go on and make your turn so Lady Rainbow Dash can thrash you!" The robot taunts. Twilight draws her card with hesitation. "I summon Magician's Valkyria in defense mode and end my turn." (Level 4/1800) "Well, any bright ideas?" Starswirl looks over at Rainbow Dash, trying to get a read on her.
"Pathetic. I draw!" Rainbow Dash taunts. "I activate the effect of Illumiknight once more!" The knight absorbs another overlay unit as Rainbow Dash discards and draws again. "I then activate the effect of Giga-Brilliant, spending an overlay unit to increase its attack by 300." The insect devours an overlay unit. (Giga-Brilliant 1800-2100) "Illumiknight, attack Magician's Valkyria!" The knight charges towards Twilight's monster, skewering it. "Giga-Brilliant, attack directly!" Giga-Brilliant attacks as well, biting into Twilight. (Twilight 4000-1900)
"Now, since I have two monsters with 2000 or more attack, I can tribute both of them for my true ace monster!" Twilight and Starswirl both gasp in surprise that Rainbow Dash is throwing away her two powerful number cards. A large black shuriken appears in Dash's hand. "The galaxy that lurks in the darkness. Become the light of hope and my very servant." She throws it into the sky, where it explodes in a brilliant display of light. "The embodiment of light, now descend! Appear now, Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon!" A large rainbow-colored dragon appears from the center of the display. (Level 8/3000) "I end my turn." Rainbow Dash says with a smirk.
"If she was willing to throw away two number cards in order to summon that dragon, then we must treat it as an absolute threat." Starswirl warns. "You must summon Star Sparkle and use Riryoku to get rid of it." Twilight nods and draws her card. "I summon Necromancer!" A shaman wearing a black robe decorated with bones appears. (Level 4/0) "When Necromancer is normal summoned, I can special summon a level 4 or lower monster from my graveyard." The necromancer performs a mad dance, and Magician's Valkyria reappears from the graveyard.
"I overlay my two level 4 monsters in order to xyz summon! Appear, Number 39: Star Sparkle!" (Rank 4/2500) "I then activate my spell card Riryoku, stealing half of Galaxy-Eye's attack and adding it to Star Sparkle!" The strength from Galaxy Eyes is sapped out and added to Star Sparkle. (Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon 3000-1500) (Star Sparkle 2500-4000) "Star Sparkle, attack with Star Power!"
Rainbow Dash snaps her fingers and Galaxy-Eyes flies forward, dodging Star Sparkle's energy beam. The dragon grabs Twilight's monster and the two of them vanish in a blink of light. "What?" Both Twilight and Starswirl ask, dumbfounded. "Did you really think Galaxy-Eyes would be destroyed so easily?" Rainbow Dash chuckles. "Both of our monsters are banished until the battle phase is over."
Twilight looks at Starswirl, hoping for an answer, but Starswirl's look back at her reveals he is just as confused as her. "Then I end my battle phase." As she does, both monsters return to their owner's side of the field, but with a key difference; Star Sparkle has lost its overlay units. "When Galaxy-Eyes comes back, it gains 500 attack for every overlay unit your monster had!" The two overlay units appear only to be pulled into Galaxy-Eyes. (Galaxy-Eyes 3000-4000)
"I end my turn." Twilight says with a growing sense of dread. "So that is her dragon's power." Starswirl notes. "It is the perfect anti-xyz weapon." "I draw!" Rainbow Dash proudly declares. "Galaxy-Eyes, attack Star Sparkle! Photon Stream of Destruction!" Galaxy-Eyes lets loose a salvo of rainbow-colored destruction on Star Sparkle, not destroying it but still causing obvious pain. (Twilight 1900-400) "I set a card and end my turn."
The robot next to Rainbow Dash laughs cruelly. "Another soul to claim." "Quiet, Orbital." Rainbow Dash chides. "What did he mean by soul?" Twilight asks. "When I extract a number from my victims, I also take their soul." Rainbow Dash explains. "And what happens to the souls?" Twilight asks, not sure what answer would put her at ease. Rainbow Dash shrugs. "Don't know, don't care. Now hurry up and take your turn."
Twilight draws her card, her knees weak and her hands shaking. "Don't worry." Starswirl assures her. "We can still win this. Remember, Star Sparkle is not the only number we have." Twilight takes a deep breath and calms down. "You're right. Let's do this. I summon Height Mancer!" A mage in fancy clothing appears. (Level 4/500)
"I then activate the effect of Height Mancer, banishing a spellcaster from my graveyard in order to increase its level by one." The spectral image of Necromancer appears inside the jewelry of Height Mancer. (Height Mancer Level 4-5) "I then activate the spell Mirror Mage, summoning itself as a copy of Height Mancer!" (Level 5/0)
"I overlay my two level 5 monsters in order to xyz summon Number 61: Volcasaurus!" (Rank 5/2500) "So you're hunting for numbers, too?" Rainbow Dash muses. "I activate the effect of Volcasaurus, detaching an overlay unit to destroy Galaxy-Eyes and deal damage to you equal to its attack. Magma Max!" Volcasaurus consumes an overlay unit and spews it at Galaxy-Eyes.
"I activate my face-down Recall! Volcasaurus' effect is negated and it is destroyed!" The fire is pushed back, destroying Volcasaurus. "In exchange, you get to draw a card." Twilight draws her card, holding down her panic. "I set a card and end my turn." Don't panic, Twilight. With Spacial Fold, she'll get a nasty surprise if she tries to attack. "This hunt is over." Rainbow Dash declares. "I draw! I activate Mystical Space Typhoon, destroying your face-down card." A lightning bolt appears, striking down Spacial Fold, much to Twilight and Starswirl's horror.
"Galaxy-Eyes-" "Lady Dash!" Orbital interrupts. "It's Scootaloo! She's hurt!" Rainbow Dash's expression turns to one of worry. "Next time." She says to Twilight before Orbital transforms into a motorcycle, which Rainbow Dash rides out. Twilight and Starswirl sit there in stunned silence, only interrupted when a car honks at them, alerting them that time has resumed. "Twilight!" Spike cries out as he and Pinkie Pie run towards her. "How'd you get over there so fast? What just happened?" Twilight doesn't respond, still in shock.
...
"I end my turn." Spitfire says. She feels pretty confident, since her field is now full of Slipstream tokens, powering up Full Throttle to 5200 attack. In addition, she's destroyed not only Arcadia, but Crescent Rose with little trouble. Maybe Tron was wrong about her after all. "I was wrong about you." Ruby says.
"You have no idea what it means to be a turbo duelist. Not at all. I draw!" (Spitfire 8-9, Ruby 1-2) "I summon Wilting Willow!" A small, withered plant appears. (Level 2/1000) "I activate its effect, banishing a monster from my graveyard to summon a Willow Token!" Brain Strain is banished as a small leaf appears. (Level 1/0)
"I tune my level 1 Willow token with my level 2 Wilting Willow! Jewel of my eye, soar into the unknown and provide the path of evolution! Synchro Summon! Appear, the tuner monster, Ruby Dragon!" (Level 3/1300) "I activate the effect of Ruby Dragon, special summoning a Fire synchro monster from my graveyard. Reappear, Crescent Rose Dragon!" (Level 7/2400)
Ruby closes her eyes and concentrates. Red lightning starts to spark off her vehicle. "The next branch of evolution appears! Blaze forth, my greatest power! Accel Synchro!" Ruby accelerates to an absurd degree before disappearing altogether. Spitfire barely has time to process what just happened before Ruby reappears behind him.
"Be Born, Silver Eyes Rose Dragon!" (Level 10/3500) "What was that?" Spitfire asks. "Once per turn, I can look at the top five cards of my deck and for every tuner, I can destroy a card you control." Ruby can't believe her luck as she draws five tuners; Rose Synchron, Glow-Up Bulb, Power Seed, Unlocked Mind, and Red Lotus. "Rose Barrage!" Ruby commands as Silver Eyes fires 5 energy orbs from its wings, wiping out Spitfire's monsters.
"Silver Eyes, attack directly with Silver Burning!" Silver Eyes fires a black and white beam of energy, knocking Spitfire off her prototype duel runner. (Spitfire 2300-0) Ruby stops in front of her. "I'll take that number now." As Spitfire gets back up, Tron transmits a command into her ear. "Very well." She throws Full Throttle over, then pulls out another card from her pocket; a blank card in a special case. "Another number, as a courtesy. I wonder how you might fill it out, Ruby Rose." With that, Spitfire drives off, leaving Ruby wondering if she really won or simply played into a larger scheme.