Disclaimer: I still unfortunately don't own Yu-Gi-Oh if I did I would retain Number 100 Numeron Dragon to work with the galaxy archetype.
Mindy pov
Dr. Crowler's class starts off normal enough, it isn't until about fifteen minutes before the end of class that an announcement is made about a project. I ended up getting paired with Ben Poole. Lovely just lovely Jasmine gets to work with Alexis and I end up with the social pariah of Obelisk, figures. Looking up a couple of rows he was looking through his deck seemingly not paying attention to anyone. If his performance in our shared classes was anything to go off of he was really smart, so assuming he was willing to work with me this should be easy.
" Don't be nervous Mindy." Alexis said picking up on my hesitation to go over to Ben. "He's not as bad as some of the rumors make him out to be."
" And how would you know that?" Jasmine asked her suggestively, doubtlessly wondering when Alexis had met him.
" He helped me avoid campus security on the first day when I snuck out to watch Chazz duel Jaden." Alexis replied before continuing. " Interestingly enough he seemed to know Chazz."
" What was he doing breaking curfew?" Jasmine asked. I was more interested in the fact Ben and Chazz seemed to know each other. They almost certainly weren't in the same social circles.
" The same thing I was, he went to go watch the duel." Alexis answered Jasmine. " He's got a bit of an ego but overall seems ok."
" Given his performance here his ego probably isn't unmerited ." I remarked. " In all the classes I have with him the teachers tend to use his work as an example, Ms Midori especially seems to use his work in English."
" Yeah, it's the same in math class with Professor Sartyr." Jasmine chimed in. " Cute and smart, it's just too bad he's such a pariah otherwise he'd be good boyfriend material."
" Is that all you think about?" Alexis asked clearly tired of us bringing up boys around her.
" I don't know Lexi he is kinda cute. Want me to scope him out for you?" I asked in a teasing manner.
" I'm only interested in him as an opponent." Alexis responded. " Though I want to try and beat Jaden before I duel him."
"Alright I guess I better go." I said as I got up realizing I would have to go up to him, walking up to where Ben was sitting, as I reached him I introduced myself as nicely as possible. " Hi Cutie. I'm Mindy and I guess we'll be partners for this project."
Ben looked up from his deck startled. "I'm Ben, but since you came over here you probably knew that already. I'm sure it'll be a pleasure working with you." He awkwardly stumbled out in introduction.
" Alright now that everyone has paired up please send one of you up to draw a paper containing the type your group will be assigned." Said Dr. Crowler.
"I'll go up." I said as I was still standing, I spun around and walked back up to the front of the classroom.
I grabbed a paper out of the bowl and was handed some papers by Dr. Crowler and given a brief explanation of what each one was, I then jogged back up to where Ben was while scanning the papers.
" Crowler said that this paper outlines what the presentation requires." I explained as I passed Ben one of the papers Dr. Crowler gave me.
" What type did we get?" Ben asked as he read through the paper.
" Machine type." I replied. " Don't suppose you know a lot about them Cutie?"
" Unfortunately beyond this guy I don't know much." Ben said while pulling out a card and showing it to me.
Imaginary Actor was the card's name. It was the one of the cards he'd used to fuse his cyborg snake monster. Looking at it's stats I noticed it was a level 1 normal monster with 500 attack points and 500 defense points. Not a very powerful card on its own.
" Class dismissed." Came the voice of Crowler as students began exiting the classroom.
I headed back down to where Alexis and Jasmine were still sitting so I could grab my stuff.
" I'm gonna go to the library with Ben to work on the project." I said to them while grabbing my stuff.
" Did you remember to tell him that?" Jasmine asked. Quickly reviewing our conversation I came to the realization that I had not in fact informed him of my plan. Turning around I saw that he was already gone.
" Mindy you really need to start telling people when you make plans involving them." Alexis chimed in. " He just got out the door if you hurry you can probably catch up. "
" See you two back at the dorms later for the sleepover." I said as I jogged out the classroom door. Thankfully Ben hadn't gone too far and I could still see him.
" Hey Cutie wait up." I called out to him. He turned and stopped long enough for me to catch up. "Come on let's go to the library to work on the project."
"Alright," he said after a couple of seconds then started walking in the direction of the library.
"So Cutie, how did you end up in Obelisk?" I asked wanting an answer to the question most Obelisks had. " I mean you didn't go to duel prep school like the rest of us."
" I don't know the actual reason why I ended up in Obelisk." Ben said as we turned a corner.
"So you have no idea how you ended up in Obelisk? " I said mildly surprised.
" I didn't say that." He replied. " There's a couple of potential reasons but it probably had something to do with my internship which was ran through the Kaiba corp."
"What kind of internship?" I asked as we entered the library, I spotted an open table and led us towards it.
" Eh nothing too interesting." Ben said, " So now that we're here how do we want to do this?"
" Well we should try and collect all the information we can find then go from there." I answered noting that he had dodged the topic of his internship.
" Alright let's start looking, the library isn't going to search itself." He said standing up and moving towards a shelf.
I stood up and walked over to the opposite side and started looking at the books. After about ten minutes of searching I had found a couple of books and decided to head back to our table.
As I neared the table I heard a voice say, " I don't care what Dr. Crowler says you don't belong in Obelisk Blue."
Poking my head around the corner I saw Tom and his friends accosting Ben who was seemingly ignoring them while reading a book.
" Hey Cutie." I said as I walked over to the table. " I didn't know you were friends with Tom."
" It's Tony." The Obelisk boy corrected me. " And we're not friends. He doesn't belong in Obelisk, I'll prove that."
" Well Tom was it, I'm kinda busy working on an assignment so mind doing this later?" Ben questioned while turning the page of his book.
" Listen here it's Tony and we're going to settle this right here and now." Tony said in a raised voice.
" Fine, since we're not allowed to use duel disks in the library how bout we play old school?" Ben said a cocky smirk beginning to form as he set the book down. His smirk disappeared as he turned towards me an odd expression taking it's place. " Assuming you don't mind, Mindy? "
" I don't mind Cutie." I replied, oddly I got the sense that my opinion actually mattered and he wasn't just asking to seem polite.
Ben grabbed a deck out of his brown deck box and both of them began shuffling their decks and then set them on the table. Tony cut Ben's deck and watched as Ben cut his.
" Duel !" They both said as they drew their hands.
" Since you challenged me, I'll go first." Ben said as he drew his card. He looked mildly disappointed with his hand. " I summon Wind-up Knight in attack mode. Then I place two cards face down. Turn end."
" My turn." Tony said as he drew his card. " I'll start by activating Pot Of Greed in order to draw two more cards. Next I'll activate Polymerization to fuse my Pitch Dark Dragon with my Dark Blade to Summon Dark Blade The Dragon Knight. Now I'll equip it with Twin Swords Of Flashing Light - Tryce. "
" Battle! Dark Blade The Dragon Knight Attacks your Wind-up Knight." Tony declared. " And thanks to his equip spell he gets to attack twice."
" Not so fast Tom. You activated my Command Silencer spell with this the Attack is negated and I get to draw a card." Ben declared as he drew his card.
" Not like that matters Dark Blade The Dragon Knight can attack twice." Tony said, " Now end that Knight's tale."
" Wind-up Knight can negate an attack on a Wind-up monster once while it's on the field." Ben said as he negated the second attack. " Looks like my story gets another chapter."
" I'll set two cards facedown and end my turn." Tony said looking annoyed at having his attacks stopped.
" That means it's my turn." Ben said while drawing his card. " I'll start by playing Tribute To The Doomed. By discarding a card I can destroy one of your monsters. So say goodbye to that Dark Blade The Dragon Knight "
" I activate my trap Dimension Guardian. With this my Dark Blade The Dragon Knight can't be destroyed." Tony said flipping up one of his facedowns.
" I switch Wind-up Knight to defense mode. Turn end." Ben said as he switched Wind-up Knight to defense position.
" Can't do anything. Just more proof you don't belong." Tony taunted as he drew his card. " I activate the field spell Sogen. With this all warrior and beast-warrior monsters gain 200 Attack and defense points."
(Wind-up Knight defense:1400. Dark Blade the Dragon Knight attack: 2400)
"Dark Blade The Dragon Knight attack his Wind-up Knight." Tony declared continuing as Wind-up Knight went to the graveyard, " Now attack him directly!"
" I activate Clear Kuriboh's ability by banishing it I get to draw a card and if I draw a monster I get to summon it." Ben said removing a card from his graveyard. " And the attack is redirected to the monster I summoned."
" How did that get there?" One of Tony's friends asked.
[ That must be what he discarded when he played Tribute To The Doomed. Did he see this coming? ]
Ben drew a card and revealed it to be Mystical Elf which he summoned in defense mode. Only to send it to the graveyard as Dark Blade The Dragon Knight destroyed it.
" So what you managed to survive you still can't defeat my Dark Blade The Dragon Knight." Tony declared, " I end my turn."
" My turn." Ben said as he drew. "Looks like this will be the final chapter of this story. I play Pot of Greed."
Ben drew two cards and seemed pleased with what he got. " Now I'll play Graceful Charity to draw three and discard two."
Ben drew his three cards and smirk appeared as he sent two cards to the graveyard. " Thanks to the effect of my Electric Snake I'll draw two more cards. Now I'll play Reinforcement Of The Army to add my Sword Dancer to my hand. Next up is the Spell Double Summon which let's me normal summon twice this turn. I'll summon Sword Dancer."
Ben paused and looked at his cards seemingly reluctant to play his next card.
" What good will that weakling do my monster can't be destroyed and has 2400 Attack points." Tony taunted.
" I summon Imaginary Actor in attack mode." Ben said as he set the card down almost as if he didn't want to use it.
[ Imaginary Actor that was the card he used to make the Snake he beat Rodney with. I wonder why he seemed so hesitant to summon it.]
" Witness an intertwined fate, a forbidden existence born from joining." Ben declared with something odd in his voice as he placed a spell face up. " I play Fusion Substitute in order to fuse Imaginary Actor and Sword Dancer. Appear Cyborg type, Metarion Ashurastar."
[ A different fusion, Alexis will be intrigued. Also it's kinda cute he does his little chant even without the holograms present.]
" Even though it has more attack my Dark Blade The Dragon Knight can't be destroyed." Tony interjected.
" Your monster might be safe but your life points won't be." Ben said before continuing, " Fusion Substitute allows me to draw a card."
Ben drew a card before continuing. "Metarion Ashurastar's choice effect by sending the top card of my deck to the graveyard I can destroy a set card on the field or gain the attack of all warrior type monsters my opponent controls. I choose the second option."
(Metarion Ashurastar attack points: 5200)
" Next I'll play the spell Imaginary Arc Turbo." Ben said as he played another card. " This allows me to discard a card from my hand to increase the attack of one Light level nine monster or a light normal monster by 500 points. Then if Imaginary Actor is in the graveyard that monster gains an additional 1000 attack points."
(Metarion Ashurastar attack points: 6700 )
[ If Ben's attack goes through he'll do 4300 points of damage and win. It's an incredible reversal. ]
" Battle Metarion Ashurastar attacks Dark Blade The Dragon Knight! " Ben declared. " ! Impact Radiant Descent !"
" Ha I was waiting for that." Tony declared flipping up his facedown with a smug grin, " I play my trap Mirror Force."
No Tony better not win, not after how much of a jerk he was. I looked at Ben who had a surprised look on his face as he began laughing.
" You triggered my trap card." Ben said continuing to laugh as he flipped up his last facedown. " Bad Aim, when my opponent plays a card that would destroy a card/cards on my field I can choose another card and destroy it instead, and I'm picking your Dimension Guardian."
Tony:0000, Ben:4000
" I'll get you for this." Tony said as he and his friends left.
" Sorry that took so long." Ben told me completely ignoring Tony as if this sort of thing was common.
" You don't need to apologize, Cutie." I told him. " How often does this kinda thing happen?"
" It's a pretty regular thing." Ben replied, shocking me. " Usually there is at least one of these a day sometimes more."
" That's ridiculous! You shouldn't have to deal with this on a daily basis." I exclaimed, indignant on his behalf.
" It's really not that bad." He said with a shrug, " if nothing else I'm earning a lot of Duel Points."
" That's not the point." I said, " the point is that they're bullying you."
" Don't worry about it." Ben said his head tilted as if he were confused. " We have a project to get started after all."
Deciding to let the matter go we started looking through the books and taking notes on relevant facts about machine related cards and occasionally chatting about what we'd each found. Eventually my PDA went off, pulling it out I saw that Alexis was calling me. Without thinking I answered it.
" Mindy where are you? Remember we've Jasmine planned a sleepover?" Alexis asked.
" Still at the library with Ben. I'll start heading back, see you soon." I said as I hung up. " Well Cutie, I've got to go. Message me later so we can work out a time to work on the project."
I dashed out leaving Ben sitting there.
Author's Note:
Well this ended up taking longer than I thought, mostly because I wasn't happy with the duel and some of the dialogue, but also because whenever I have to write a female character pov for the first time I seem to struggle and the next chapter starts essentially in the middle of this one so I had to make sure the changes I made in this chapter lined up in that chapter. Hopefully this turned out ok.
Reader Response:
To Marx- Do you mean like a play? That'd be interesting but I'm not sure which class Ben/Riley would be in that would assign something like that.
To Guest- So yeah I actually assumed that was a class and was going to have something like what you're describing exist, since it would go a long way to explain Chumley's continued attendance at the Duel Academy and his eventual job offer by Pegasus. Now Ben/Riley won't be in the class however because while they combined have many talents/skills drawing isn't one of them.
To yurilatten57- Thanks for the review. I'm glad you like things so far. Interesting that you use the Yuma and Astral comparison, mainly cause I'm a bit of a zexal fanboy. Yeah more rush duel cards are going to be in this since they don't seem overwhelming powerful in a master rules format.
Next Chapter: We get Riley's pov starting from midway through the duel and some extra stuff including but not limited to Chazz briefly showing up and Jaden vs Alexis on the lake.
