All right, raise your hands if any of you out there are fans of Yu-Gi-Oh 5Ds.
Now, keep that hand up if any of you have recently watched "The Legend of the Three Caballeros".
Now for those who lowered those hands, you might be thinking "What do card games on motorcycle and Donald Duck have in common?"
I am so glad you asked.
For those who watched the first show I mentioned, many fondly recall the tales and tragedies of the Dark Signers, souls who died with some unfinished business and revived by the Earthbound Immortals, beings represented by the famous Nazca lines found in Peru.
And, coincidentally, our Three Caballeros adventure to Peru and have an encounter with the Nazca lines, although not in the magnitude of darkness that the 5Ds world had to deal with.
So, with people making connections, I decided to take it to a logical conclusion...which is the work you see in front of you. This will be my first time to ever write something Disney related, but I am no stranger to Yu-Gi-Oh stories.
So yes, there will be duels taking place in this story, and for those who have never read my other works, let's get guidelines up.
First, all duels will start with 8000 lifepoints.
Second, cards from all series will appear, but I stop at Pendulum Summons for the Special Summon gimmick.
Third, some cards will be using anime effects when applicable. Card of Sanctity, I am looking at you.
As for the Dark Signers, when a new one gets formally introduced, I hope that the reader has watched the movie/show that they come from so as to get a sense as to the fate that could have been for them.
And, my last bit of info...keep an open mind. You never know what you'll run I to next.
With that, I only own the plot and nothing more. And I ask that you sit back, relax and let the show begin.
Centuries ago, I, Xandra, the Goddess of Adventure, teamed with the Three Caballeros to fight off against the evil Lord Felldrake and the monsters he unleashed upon this world.
But just before a decisive victory was at hand, I was sealed inside the Golden Atlas, while both Felldrake and the Caballeros vanished into history.
Then, one day, I was called upon once again by the descendants of the Legendary Three Caballeros, Donald Duck, José Carioca and Panchito Gonzales. And, while I was skeptical at first, they showed resolve, ingenuity and courage to stand up to Lord Felldrake and his descendant, Baron von Sheldgoose and their attempts to have Felldrake manifest a physical form. I truly underestimated them in a sense.
It ended with a final battle against Felldrake in his true form, and against all odds, they were successful. Lord Felldrake was defeated for good, Baron von Sheldgoose left for parts unknown, and the Three Caballeros had a new home where they could relax and no longer worry of the Sheldgoose line harming anyone ever again.
And yet...I sense that something was wrong.
As I recalled all of our allies who helped fight against the forces of evil, I always felt that there were more and more evils out there. If not from this world, then perhaps from another world. Would the Three Caballeros be able to stand up to them? Would I be able to help them?
I had no answers to those questions, but the thought of unknown evils would eventually manifest and drag all of us into a war we were not ready for.
And the weird thing was, the war was unlike one I had ever seen. Yes, people fought and battles were intense and fierce...but it was the weapons that were used that confused me.
And those weapons...they consisted of nothing but cards depicting monstrous images the likes I had ever seen.
So gone were swords and shields and soldiers in battle with one another. In this war, everyone used the same weapon to settle disputes...
And that weapon was known as "Duel Monsters".
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The Legend of the Three Caballeros:
The Dark Signs of the Sun
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By Green Phantom Queen
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Prologue:
Call to Adventure
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Donald Fauntleroy Duck had everything.
In the span of one day, he had gone from a descendant of the legendary Three Caballeros living in a run-down cabana filled with magnificent artifacts that would make any collector green like the dollar bills they count, to obtaining a good-paying job, a magnificent house, a loving girlfriend and a family that he wouldn't trade for the entire world.
If someone were to tell him on his birthday, after he had lost his job, girlfriend and house, that he would end up a lucky man within the span of a few months, he would have thought they were putting salt in his wounds.
But now? As he was sitting at his office (even after all this time, he could hardly believe he even had an office), working through some important documents for an upcoming event in regards to a book signing, he felt like life couldn't be any better.
"Donald!"
Donald looked up to see a familiar site. Daisy, his long-time girlfriend, rushing into the office with a pile of envelopes in hand.
"Thank goodness I found you!" she said. "Look what you got in the mail!"
"What is it this time?" Donald muttered, moving a stack of papers to the side. "Another letter from Uncle Scrooge asking me to sell some priceless artifact to him?"
"No, something even more mysterious," Daisy answered, handing Donald a letter from the top of the pile. "This came from someone calling themselves Mono in Peru."
At that, Donald immediately snatched the letter and opened its contents with a letter opener. Mono, the monkey who helped guard the gyrosphere underneath the Nazca lines...Donald hadn't seen or heard from Mono or his friends in a long time, not even when Xandra summoned their allies to fight off against Lord Felldrake's arsenal of evil.
This had to be serious.
Pulling the letter out, Donald read through the letter once...twice...three times…
And three seconds later, he raced down the hallway, quacking like a madman with Daisy close behind him.
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In the gaming room, Xandra narrowed her eyes as she looked at the cards in her hand. She then looked up to see Jose grinning at her from across the table, a smug smile on his face that would be have been completed if he was puffing on a cigar or the like.
It was down to the last card. She only had one chance to finish this off.
Sitting at the sidelines were Daisy's nieces (April in yellow, May in orange and June in purple), Ari, the groundskeeper, Humphrey, the bear rug containing the Spark of Life in his stomach, and Panchito Gonzales, who was keeping time.
"This isn't over!" Xandra declared, slamming a card onto the table. "I set one card face-down and end my turn!"
Just try and attack me. Xandra thought with a smirk hidden behind her cards. My Mirror Force will make short work of your Harpies. And then, my Amazons will grant me victory!
José chuckled as he fanned out his hand of cards. He looked at Panchito, who was keeping score. Xandra had 2000 lifepoints left, while he was at a mere 1500.
Then he looked to the table. He had a Harpie Lady 1, a Cyber Harpie and a Harpie Queen on the field compared to Xandra's Amazoness Paladin, Fighter, and Queen along with her face-down card.
Victory was his.
"I draw!" he announced, drawing a card. He smirked. "And now, I play my Mystical Space Typhoon to destroy your face-down card!"
"What! No!" Xandra exclaimed, having no choice but to send her face-down Mirror Force to the graveyard.
"And now, the finale!" José dramatically announced. "I play the Spell Card Harpie Lady Phoenix Formation!"
The female triplets "oohed" at the Spell Card. Ari tossed popcorn into his mouth while Humphrey licked honey off his paw.
"This Spell Card lets me destroy as many monsters that you control equal to the number of Harpie Ladies that I control," Jose explained. "And then, you lose lifepoints equal to the highest original attack of your monsters."
"B...but my Queen has 2400 attack points," Xandra gasped, staring at the scoreboard. "That means…"
"Game, set, and match," said Jose, while Panchito wiped off all but one '0' underneath Xandra's name. He then began to move a pile of snacks over to his side.
"No way!" Xandra scowled, slamming her hands onto the table. "Best of five! Winner take all!"
"Sorry, but that's gonna have to wait!"
Everyone turned to see Donald enter the room, panting for breath as he collapsed onto the floor. Daisy arrived seconds later.
"What's wrong, Donald?" asked Panchito, helping the duck stand up. "Has Lord Felldrake returned?"
"I don't think so," said Xandra, unstrapping the Golden Atlas off her back. "We haven't heard anything from him, or Baron von Sheldgoose, in months."
"It involves something about Nazca lines and a gyroscope," Daisy explained as Donald sat in a comfy armchair. She took the letter out of Donald's hand as everyone else approached them. "Here, it says…
"To the Three Caballeros,
"Thank you for your help guarding the Nazca gyroscope all those months ago. Handsy and I have just returned from our trip around the world, and we have heard about how you managed to stop Lord Felldrake for good!
"Unfortunately, bad news has struck. Clementine awoken to tell us that a strange dark force had been detected within the gyroscope! And worse, it seems as if the darkness has a similar magic to that of the Nazca land itself!
"We ask you, brave caballeros, to uncover the source of this evil before it upsets the balance and cause the Earth to be destroyed! Handsy and I have given you some clues to get you started while we try and keep the gyroscope stable.
"You are our only hope."
Daisy handed a collection of photographs to Xandra (the duck still had to get used to the fact that this was the Goddess of Adventure in front of her) who looked through them one by one.
"These are all based on the Nazca lines, but these can't be right," said Xandra. "They're so...so dark!"
"Let's have a look," said April, taking the photos from Xandra. "Hmm...what do you think, girls?"
"Looks like some crummy CGI," May noted, searching on something through her cellphone.
"There's seven of them," said June. "A giant, a monkey, two birds, a lizard, a whale and…"
"A spider!" Panchito shouted.
"Yeah, that's right!" said June. "How did you know?"
"I didn't!" Panchito answered, pointing outside. "Look!"
Everyone rushed toward the window and gasped. Black storm clouds appeared in the sky and thin purple lines stretched out like a spider web. A sigil of a purple spider could be seen within these clouds. People outside began to scream and race towards their homes as a bolt of lightning struck the middle of the street.
"Didn't the news say it would be sunny the entire week?" asked Daisy.
"This is no ordinary storm, that's for sure," said Jose, pulling out his trademark black umbrella. "Hold on, I think someone is coming out!"
When the lightning faded, a tall black cloaked figure stood. The cloak was lined with red like blood coursing down one's veins, and they wore a white mask with red lines to obscure their face. The figure raised their arm...straight at the window!
"Hit the deck!" Xandra cried, preparing a golden arrow of light.
A black stream of shadows swirled around the figure before it struck the window. Xandra fired an arrow that pierced through it...but only temporarily, as the shadows repaired itself and went straight after Daisy, wrapping around her waist like a python.
"Donald!" she cried, stretching her hand out.
"Daisy!" Donald replied, grabbing onto her hand. "Hold on...I'll save you!"
Following Donald's example, everyone held onto him and pulled while Xandra fired more and more arrows. However, the shadows were smarter and split themselves apart like cells and latched onto Panchito, Jose, and the triplets, flinging them towards the walls, and knocking down the poker table and dartboard.
Ari and Humphrey were back to back, swiping at the shadows with all their might, but to no avail. Instead, the shadows formed large hands that slammed the two onto the floor.
"Ugh, these things are like ants!" Daisy exclaimed, trying to flick a shadow off her. No, it didn't look like a shadow...more like some sort of bug.
"What do they want with us?" asked Jose, swiping at the "shadows" with his umbrella.
"Maybe it's not us they're after!" said April, sitting behind the upturned poker table. "This might be a distraction for…"
She reached out for her cellphone and pulled out an app. With a few button swipes she found what she was looking for.
"The cabana!" she gasped. "They must be searching for something there!"
"Girls, get going!" said Xandra, firing more and more arrows. "Take Ari and Humphrey with you! And get the amulets of the Three Caballeros while you're there!"
"Roger!" The triplets replied before racing out of the mansion, Ari and Humphrey behind them. Meanwhile, Daisy's grip on Donald was weakening, and she was slowly slipping out of his hand.
"Hold on!" Donald exclaimed, struggling to pull Daisy by his side. He was not going to lose her after this entire adventure he had gone through just to prove to her that he loved her! And especially not after they kissed before the end of the world!
The masked figure frowned and thrust both arms into the air. More of those strange shadow bugs zipped toward them, forming dark vines. Panchito leapt over one and spun his lasso over his head before hurling it towards Daisy. She grabbed onto it and struggled as best as she could to hold on.
"Almost...got it…" Panchito grunted. "Almost…"
But an attack from behind knocked the rooster off of his feet and Daisy was thrown out the window.
"DAISY!" Donald screamed, watching Daisy being thrown towards the cloaked figure…
Only to be saved by a blur of light grabbing her at the last second. Everyone looked in confusion as Daisy was gently set down on the front yard of the manor.
"Are you all right?" asked a voice.
"Yeah, I think I will be," said Daisy, looking up. "And...who are you?"
The figure smirked as they stood up. From their attire, they certainly weren't from around here. They wore a long silver coat that flared out with black belts wrapped around the elbows. They wore a helmet shaped like a white dragon with a long mane of red hair that fell towards their waist. Their hands were covered by long black gloves and strapped to their right arm was an odd device that was shaped like a dragon's head, also colored white.
"I am the shining warrior of the light!" The person began. "I am the one who traverses across these many world to protect those who dream of Hope and peace. Through darkness and mirrors, I seek the pure and worthy to join me! I am…"
At this, he stretched his arms out as a shining aura radiated from his very being, causing everyone to step back as he declared,
"The Monarch of Illusion, Kaibaman!"
When the light faded, everyone watched as this strange dragon person gestured with his right arm and the device turned on. It extended and formed a tray in the shape of a dragon's wing as they drew five cards from a deck of Duel Monster cards. The masked figure snarled and tugged on their left sleeve, revealing a device like the one Kaibaman wore, except it was black with red lines and modeled after a spider, and also with a deck of Duel Monster cards.
"Stay out of our way!" The white masked figure stated. "You don't know who you're dealing with!"
Kaibaman grinned, baring his teeth.
"I deal with guys like you on a daily basis at home," he boasted. "Now, if you want to do this the hard way, at least state your name for our audience."
"...Tadashi," the figure spoke after a moment of silence. "Tadashi Hamada."
"Interesting…" Kaibaman chuckled. "And that Duel Disk...I wonder how you would fare in combat with me?"
"I have no time for this!" Tadashi snapped. "Hiro, where..."
Tadashi stopped when he saw a dagger made of light flying towards him. Thankfully, it was caught by a shadow vine just an inch away from his face. The dagger faded as Kaibaman wagged a finger at his opponent.
"Now, now," said this Monarch of Illusion. "You'll be seeing him after you and I have a little talk. I don't know why you want to darken this world, but I'll make sure to see you out the door after I have my way with you."
Tadashi clicked his teeth as he stared at the slithering shadow vines around the broken window. Then, with a nod of his head, they receded, flowed back to him in reverse before they became vacuumed into his cloak.
"If you are an obstacle to our plan, then so be it." Tadashi drew five cards from his deck as the device from his arm activated. "I won't let anyone hurt me again...not after last time."
Meanwhile, Daisy scrambled into Donald's arms as they, Panchito, Jose and Xandra looked in awe.
"Are they going to duel?" asked Xandra, staring at the scattered cards on the floor.
"It seems that way," said José. "Although, I don't think they're dueling for fun…"
Donald stayed still as he held Daisy closer. He hadn't gotten so interested in to Duel Monsters like everyone else did, but he did learn about their origins...how priests from Ancient Egypt summoned them in displays of power and skill, before the priests' ambition for power nearly caused these monsters to consume the world.
Was this like the legends he had read? And if they were, would he be able to stop it?
For now, all he could do was watch and see how this would all unfold.
"Let's duel!" The competitors shouted.
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Next time: What is this threat to the Nazca gyroscope? Who are these two duelists and what are their motives? And what is to come for the Three Caballeros?
Find out in the first sign of this adventure, "Master of Illusion", coming soon.