YGO: AM

[Stanley]

After what seemed like an eternity, the match began. Both Duelists drew their hands as their life point meters filled and the gray haze formed around the Dueling Arena. Trish took the initiative and went first.

That wasn't a good thing for Dante and his strategy. For him, going first was a good advantage to have. But oh well, he could still go through with his plans.

Trish finally decided on how to start this Duel off. "I'll place a card face-down, and then summon my Burning Beast!"

A large molten monster soon jetted out from the ground.

"That's it. Your move."

Dante drew his sixth card. The face-down was more than likely a trap, but that wouldn't be a problem if things went well.

"I'll set a monster in defense mode, then I'll activate Magical Mallet!" A large mallet soon formed from the haze.

Dante smiled. "Now I can... huh?" The spell hadn't worked like it normally did. Instead, the hammer came down on all but one card in Dante's' hand, and then replaced with new ones. That was just wonderful; the Magic got rid of the cards he wanted to keep.

Seems these new rules wouldn't make a Burn Deck so easy to be used. He'd have to make some adjustments when this was over. "I'll end with a face-down" As the boy placed the card on the Dueling board, a large face-down formed on the field.

Trish's' turn. As she drew, Dante could tell she was thinking about every move she made. This Duel was either going to be interesting, or slow.

"I'll set a monster in defense mode, and have my Burning Beast attack your face-down monster!"

The monster destroyed was the Magician Of Faith.

However, the only Magic card Dante had so far was the Mallet.

"Well, that ends my turn." Dante drew with a bit of disappointment. This was getting nowhere fast.

Thankfully, he'd just drawn a card that should speed things up a little. "I'll do the same thing I did last turn. A face-down and a set monster." "Boring!" Zacarias commented from the stands.

Trish simply giggled at the comment before drawing. "I summon Blizzard Dragon!" The elegant dragon swooped down from the skies, then, using its powers, froze Dante's' face-down monster in place.

Dante was shocked; In one small summon she'd totally ruined his plan! "Now Lizard Dragon, attack his face-down!" The monster destroyed was the Dice Jar, but it made little difference now.

"Next, my Burning Beast will attack you directly!" But this simply triggered Dante's' trap card "Dimension Wall!"

The Burning Beast had been sucked into a portal, then shot right back out at Trish. Trish however, had a trap of her own. "Driving Snow!"

A Freezing Beast was summoned and combined with the Burning Beast.

Not only that, but this combination was different.

The combined Beast acted like two. When attacking together, they had stats of 1900/1300, but separate; their own values.

Seemed Dante had let his guard down. Out there, she seemed like a bumbling girl, but here, she was cold and calculating, considering the new rules to her every advantage.

But atleast he could fight back. "Take this quick-play, Chain Strike!" For each Trap flipped, a chain lashed out from the darkness, binding to Trish and lowering her life points to 1200.

[Stanley]

Dante's' turn now. He drew, and the card he'd picked up wasn't particularly helpful. Granted, there was the face-down trap he'd layed a while ago, but it wouldn't be of much help, especially not right now. Sure, he had the lead, but this girl made him nervous.

Not to mention he had no monsters. How was he to be sure his cards were to work the right way? Well, only thing to do is give it a shot anyway. "I place a facedown and activate Restructer Revolution!"

Soon, things seemed to turn in Dante's' favor. All of the cards in Trish's' hand flew into the air and revealed themselves.

Dragon Ice, Driving Snow, and Cold Wave.

Not even close to what the original card did, but still.

That is, it seemed like a great advantage until all three cards started to react to one another.

Soon, a fearsome wind of frigid ice began to form, soon going on to cover the entirety of the testing room the Duelists were in. The actual temperature of the building had changed as well.

Professor Winter was quick to get a sample of the snow that had suddenly formed, while most of the other Duelists began to whine about it all. That wasn't all either, the Dueling Field had been ripped apart by the blizzard.

Now, the only thing left was Trish's' set monster, which soon flipped itself up in face-up defense mode. What was once her Aqua Madoor had transformed into Neo Aqua Madoor.

Flipping his hair out of his eyes, Dante looked on with a bit of dread. There was nothing in his deck that could pierce that monster's' defense.

Trish had a nice laugh at the whole thing. "Give up! Any attacks you have will be useless with all this ice around!"

True. All Dante really had left was Magical Mallet.

Wait, that was it! Magical Mallet!

It was a bit of a stretch, but it'd have to do. 'Well let's see if lady luck is on my side!" he announced before slapping the card down.

The Mallet formed again and whacked the last card in Dante's' hand, then replacing it. The card the boy drew gave him a nice smirk. "Well, I'd say you're on thin ice but..."

Trish got a confused look as Dante raised his new card high above his head. "Tremendous Fire!" With a great light from the Spell Card, a mighty blaze raced across the battlefield.

The flames grew high enough to incinerate Neo Aqua Madoor, as well as the rest of Trish's' life points. Dante had won. Soon, everything faded, as though nothing had happened.

Even Winter's' sample faded, but he'd gotten enough data to make a freeze ray anyway.

Trish walked and Dante returned. Now only one Duel was left.

[Stanley]

"Duelists." Winter had began an announcement to all still in the room. "After this recess will be our final match. Wren vs Nerwel. Those of you who have won today will be given a day's' rest, and then the second round of our secret tournament will begin."

Zac raised his hand, prompting an annoyed response from Winter. "Yes? What is it now?" The kid rubbed the back of his head, smirking. "Hey, yeah um, when do we get the free food?"

Winter promptly whipped an eraser at the youth's' head. "Any other stupid questions?" No one said a word.

"Good, then you are all dismissed for ten minutes. Be glad you get it."

Everyone was secretly hoping Wren would lose, obviously.

However, an oddity occurred in that no one was conversing. Even Nerwel, the kid nobody had gotten to know, seemed spaced out.

The clock ticked down, second by second. Eventually Wren got impatient. "Augh! I can't stand it! Can I just beat this loser and go home already!" She stomped over to her soon-be opponent.

"Hey! Let's go. I don't care if the professors gave us permission or not." Nerwel remained staring at the ceiling in response. "HEY!" Not one to be ignored, Wren kept up her loud attitude, but to no avail. This amused many, but annoyed others.

Meanwhile in the lab, Winter and Kai were actually making small talk for once. "I still don't believe it." Winter stated. "There's no way Ancient Egyptians were solely responsible for these cards like Pegasus claimed." Kai raised an eyebrow, confused.

"Think about it. One of the types of cards commonly used in these parts are Machine-types. Were there advanced mecha back in those times? No chance."

Kai simply chuckled in response, as he couldn't help but imagine Ancient Egyptian Mechs. "Pegasus was always a thespian."

"All I'm saying is that there must be more to it, if he held any truth."

"Right, although apparently some believe that Duel Monsters live in a dimension all their own."

"It's ridiculous, but if we're to find any truths at all, our experiments must go exactly as planned... Why are we even talking about this?" Winter stood up. "Ugh, I've been around them all too long."

He was of course referring to the band of Duelists, whose types in these times were actually few in number. Just as the game's' popularity had died down, so had the spirits of those who once played. Winter was no exception in this regard.

"Still, I have to wonder." Kai began. "If any of these rumors we've been hearing from people like Kaiba hold any sort of ground, what then? Surely some madman would be bound to come along at that point and try something stupid."

Winter scoffed. "There's the problem. It's not like these projects are self-funded and... augh, I'm doing it again. Maybe I really am getting old with all this expository banter."

"Before you go though, did you hear about that other guy? Fudo I think his name was?"

"Yes. His ideas are some of the stupidest I've ever heard."

And with that, Winter left to go announce the start of the last Duel.

Wren and Nerwel both had prepared their Decks and were ready and waiting at their stations of the Duel Arena.

The golden orbs glew across the edges, and the light gray fog settled all around them. As their life points filled to 2000, everyone could be seem anxiously waiting.

"Duel!" Both players drew five cards and the match had officially begun. "Now we'll get to see if that hot-head can actually learn from her mistakes." Luke commented. Everyone else nodded in agreement. Nerwel drew his sixth card, taking the first turn.

[ProjectEgax]

Ok, I want in on this...

Name: Thomas "Trilby" Hisui

Appearance: White hair, Short-Brimmed Fedora, Black Dress jacket with white shirt underneath, Black pants and black shoes.

Personality: A mellow and laid-back type person who knew Zacarias when he was younger then moved to Neo Domino City now he's back to kick ass and play card games, and he is all out of trading cards. Just about everyone calls him Trilby because of his hat and is annoyed when called other names

Deck: Main: Hero of the Day (Omni Heroes) Every So Often: Shining Finger (Agents)

Duel Disk: K.C. Mass Production Disk.

Character Owner: ProjectEgax

[Stanley]

As the two began their Duel, one of the contenders could be seen sneaking away while no one was looking. The Duelist ran into a nearby alleyway, meeting with some mysterious others. "Is everything ready?" one of them asked.

Denzi responded with a nod. "Yeah, they've got some crazy gear in there. We'll be ready to loot the place soon." The group continued discussing their plans, thinking they were safe, when all of a sudden Professor Winter had arrived on the scene.

"No way. How did you find us!?" Denzi asked, shocked. Winter let out an annoyed groan. "We have security cameras, you fool." And like that, the police soon arrived and hauled Denzi and his group away. Well, that took care of that mess.

The Professor went back inside, able to see Wren just finish the Duel with her opponent. Nerwel left in shame, and everyon gathered in the viewing room for an announcement. "Seems an earlier participant, Denzi, will no longer be able to compete in the tournament."

Naturally, this news perked Wren right on up, and it seemed her bad attitude had all but disappeared. Everyone else, well, they didn't really care. Winter continued his announcement. "As such, I will be pulling in some random punk off the street to fill in his place."

With another sigh, he glanced at Professor Kai, who signaled that yes, he'd taken notes of the Duel, scribbled as they were. "Regardless, you are all done for the day and are officially past the Preliminaries. Go home and rest, for tomorrow you'll have even harder challenges."

There was no need to tell them twice. With great speed, everyone bolted out of the testing hall. By now, it was pretty dark out, and it's not like any of these loser had friends to hang out with or anything. Most went right home and went to bed.

Zacarias, however, was not one of these people. He stayed up, fiddling with his Deck and thinking about the upcoming matches. Then again, what would he need to worry about? He'd crush them all soon enough anyway. With that final thought, he fell asleep.

At the start of the next day, everyone gathered like usual, and Winter introduced their newest fellow Duelist; Thomas. It apparently didn't take much to convince him to stay. But regardless, the match-up board began to once again randomize names.

The next matches were to be as follows; Zac vs Wren, Winter vs Warren, Xing vs Dante, and Luke vs Thomas. Before they would begin though, each had time to prep their Decks. So much for Zac staying up last night.

But hey, this would mean more time to get to know and harass the new guy! Zacarias quickly leaped forward to give his usual greeting. 'Hey there! Your name is Tomtom right?" Thomas promptly ignored the youth, which made Zac sad. Poor Zac.

As the recess came to its close, Winter had one final announcement. "In this second phase of our little tournament, all of you Duel Disks will be modified with one of the Golden Spheres we've been testing. As well, each Duel will now use 4000 life point meters."

Kai went and handed every Duelist a Sphere of their own, and then got to installing them. "As such, things within the Duel Zone might change, so stay on your toes, as the tricks you all managed to pull might no longer count. Now then, let us begin."

[Flamzeron]

Name: Rye Frecker

Appearance: 17 years old, red hair, black school jacket (the usual Yu-Gi-Oh! kind), green jeans, brown shoes, and a dark blue t-shirt.

Personality: Hot headed and reckless. always ready to fight, even when not directly provoked. Generally a nice guy.

Deck: Totally cool fire monster deck with some perks. Favorite card is "Flame Swordsman".

Duel Disk: A Duelist Academy brand that he stole from some student he beat up.

Character Owner: Flamzeron

[Jace]

Name: Kara Hartnett

Appearance: I'll pick a less degrading and less upside down picture later.

Personality: Honest, and bright personality, even when serious always looks to the lighter side of things, even when things get serious. Prudish, gets embarrassed easily, and holds childish grudges that are easily overcome.

Deck: Legendary Water Deck: Runs the all the giga cards, as well as Legendary Ocean and focuses on protecting the and bringing out the field card and then impelmenting its full power with cards like Tornado wall and Legendary Fisherman. And also is Sonic Duck, of course.

Duel Disk: Average looking Battle City style.

Character Owner: Kara