Holder, Hunter, Seeker, Whisperer
Welcome all to my rehash of my former Yu-Gi-Oh! ZeXal story; Number Three Musketeers. I hope this updated version will be better well-received. Some traits from the previous version will still be prevalent in this one… such as Rio having already healed from her accident and undergoing physical therapy, my OC being able to talk with the Numbers, ALL the Numbers appearing even if just briefly, etc.
Disclaimer: I don't own ZeXal. If I did; Shark would've started collecting Numbers starting with Number 19: Freezadon in the tag duel.
Chapter 001: Infection Baal Zebul
The new student waited outside the classroom door for the teacher, a man named Mr. Kay, to introduce him to the class. His mother had suggested he start school on Friday so he could meet some new friends and have something do his first weekend in a new city, not to mention a new country.
The youth in question was thirteen-years-old and had just moved overseas from the US to Heartland City in Japan, due to his mother getting a promotion at her office job that required her to change branches.
He blew a strand of brown hair that had come loose out of his face and proceeded to gather his chocolate-colored locks that grew just past his shoulders, as if he were putting his hair into a ponytail, to make sure it looked good. Giving a sigh, he looked over his attire… a uniform.
Mom just had to enroll me in a school that had a uniform, he thought, rolling his green eyes; taking in his brown shoes, white socks, blue jeans, and white short-sleeved dress shirt with cuffs that matched his necktie in color. Said color identified what grade you were in; red (or pink for the girls) for first year, green for second year, and blue for third and final year. He wore red.
"You may come in now," Mr. Kay called from within.
The boy opened the door and walked to the front of the class, taking in everybody looking at him, noticing some of the girls giving him small smiles.
He bowed, "my name is JT Griffin. As Mr. Kay may have already told you, I'm from America. I look forward to getting to know my future friends and classmates."
"Now, does anyone have any questions for JT?" Mr. Kay asked.
"Ooh! Me! Me!" an excitable boy with weird-looking black and red hair waved his hand in a rather hyper matter.
"Yes, Yuma?" the teacher asked.
"My name's Yuma Tsukumo and I was wondering; do you duel?"
Some of the other kids snickered. Really? Practically everyone dueled this day and age.
JT smiled. Hello class clown, he mentally observed before answering the inquiry.
"I sure do," his smile changed into a smirk, "and if you're challenging me; I'll see you in the courtyard by the main entrance after school."
Yuma returned the smirk. "It's on!"
After school…
JT blew his nose, pocketing the used Kleenex, "stinkin' pollen. Stinkin' hay fever."
"Hey JT!" a familiar obnoxious voice called out to him.
JT turned to see Yuma with a very large boy with spiky black hair under a backwards red cap and a cute girl with green hair done in a bun with a pink ribbon.
"Brought your friends, have you?" JT noted.
"You bet I did!" Yuma replied, "these are my best pals, Bronk Stone and Tori Meadows."
The big guy, Bronk, smiled and raised his hand, "hey."
The girl, Tori, smiled, "nice to meet you. Welcome to Heartland."
JT nodded, "thanks. So Yuma, you ready for our duel?"
"I'm always ready!" Yuma arrogantly declared.
JT grinned, "I like your style. Let's duel it!"
"I'm gonna feel the flow!"
Both duelists readied their duel pads and duel gazers. Yuma's was red and his gazer was yellow and white with a green lens. JT's was dark green with a dark green and black gazer sporting a purple lens.
"Let's duel!" they both cried.
AUGMENTED REALITY VISION LINK ESTABLISHED
JT-4000/Yuma-4000
"You made the challenge so you can have the first move," JT nodded as he and Yuma drew their opening hands.
"Don't mind if I do," Yuma drew, "I set a monster in defense mode and end my turn."
JT made his first draw, "I think I'll summon Skull Meister."
Before him materialized a black-haired man adorned in red and black robes with white fur trim. Sticking to sections of his raiment were various skulls, some human and some not. (1700/400)
"Attack his face-down monster with boneyard blitzkrieg!"
Skull Meister waved his arms, causing the skulls he wore to fire blasts of black magic towards Yuma's monster, which revealed itself to be a reddish-brown knight protected by a pair of blue shields with gold lining. (0/1800)
"Sorry JT," smiled Yuma, "but Ganbara Knight has more defense than your Skull Meister's attack."
"Not for long," JT retaliated, "I use the quick-play spell card, Forbidden Chalice. This card increases his attack by 400." (1700/400=2100/400)
The streaming waves of darkness ripped through Ganbara Knight like a hot knife through butter.
"I'll end my turn there," announced JT, Skull Meister's score resetting itself. (2100/400=1700/400)
"My move!" cried Yuma. He quickly checked his hand, "I summon Gagaga Magician!"
A navy blue and crimson-clad sorcerer decked out in chains appeared in front of him. (1500/1000)
"I also equip him with Wonder Wand, which increases his attack points by 500!" (1500/1000=2000/1000)
"Attack Skull Meister!"
Gagaga Magician aimed the wand, firing a greenish blast of magic at his foe, overwhelming and destroying the opponent's monster.
2000-1700=300
JT-3700/Yuma-4000
"Your move," Yuma gestured.
JT drew, "let's see what I got… I summon Effect Veiler."
Appearing on the field was a super cute girl with turquoise hair in twin-tails wearing a red choker, white sleeveless dress with red trim, detached white sleeves, black thigh-high stockings, and red ballet flats. (0/0)
"She's cute," Bronk commented.
"And since I've normal-summoned, I can special-summon Turbo Booster!" JT played another card. This one was a yellow machine with massive boost rockets for arms. (0/0)
"Both his monsters have zero attack," said Tori.
"But they're the same level," Bronk noted, "he must be going for a Xyz-summon."
JT made a sound like a buzzer, "wrong. I tune my level one Effect Veiler with my level one Turbo Booster…"
"Did he just say tune?!" Bronk yelped as Effect Veiler turned into a green ring while Turbo Booster passed through, becoming transparent with a star in it.
"… racing night and day, rev your engine and assist me in this duel. Synchro-summon! Ready, set, go, Formula Synchron!"
Replacing the two monsters was a red, green, white, yellow, but mostly blue Formula-1 race car with robotic arms and legs. It crouched down to indicate it was in defense mode. (200/1500)
"Holy cow!" cried Bronk, "a Synchro monster! Do you know how rare those are?!"
JT smiled, "and there's more. When Formula Synchron is Synchro-summoned, I get to draw a card."
He did so, raising the number of cards in his hand to four, "I'll set one card face-down and end my turn."
Yuma made his next draw. "Your toy car doesn't scare me! Gagaga Magician; attack!"
"Then how about my face-down card? I activate Forbidden Lance! One monster on the field loses 800 attack points and I choose your magician!"
Yuma gasped as Gagaga Magician's points dropped. (2000/1000=1200/1000)
JT smiled, "and there's more! Any monster affected by Forbidden Lance is immune to spell and trap cards for the turn… meaning your monster temporarily loses the power boost from Wonder Wand!"
This time Bronk and Tori joined Yuma in gasping. (1200/1000=700/1000)
The magical blast rebounded helplessly off Formula Synchron's casing.
1500-700=800
JT-3700/Yuma-3200
Yuma grabbed a card in his hand, "I'll play this face-down and end my turn."
Gagaga Magician's score reset. (700/1000=2000/1000)
"Back to me," JT announced, "I summon Eco, Mystical Spirit of the Forest."
Spouting from the ground was a cross between a woman and a tree. (1700/1000)
"Now I tune my level two Formula Synchron with my level four Eco…"
"Again?!" Bronk gaped as Formula Synchron become two green rings and the Mystical Spirit of the Forest turned transparent with four stars within her.
"… prowling through the darkness, great beast born from a bite. Synchro-summon! Howl, Celestial Wolf Lord-Blue Sirius!"
Tori and Bronk took a step back beholding the savage beast that now loomed on the field; a fearsome bluish lycanthrope sporting menacingly spiked silver armor with extra wolf heads where the hands should have been. (2400/1500)
JT pointed at Gagaga Magician, "tear his monster apart with Midnight Laceration!"
As the great beast got set to lunge, Yuma pressed a button on his duel pad.
"Your mutt ain't 'lacerating' anything! I activate Negate Attack!"
"Your turn, then. Let's see if you can soothe this savage beast," JT smiled.
Yuma grinned, seeing his draw.
"Be careful what you wish for! First I summon Achacha Archer!"
Standing on the magician's left was a yellow and gray-clad archer. (1200/600)
"When Achacha Archer is summoned, you take 500 points of damage!" Yuma excitedly explained.
JT-3200/Yuma-3200
"I also play a spell card… Full Force Strike! Now when one of my monsters battles one of yours, my guy survives and I take no damage… but your monster isn't so lucky! Achaha Archer; strike down Blue Sirius!"
The archer drew his bow, the arrowhead combusting into flame, and let it fly. The arrow pierced the wolf's gut, causing it to double over and growl in pain before exploding into pixelated nothingness.
"Now, Gagaga Magician; attack JT directly!"
The blast of green light emitted from the Wonder Wand struck JT head on, but to Yuma's confusion; his opponent didn't flinch.
JT-3200/Yuma-3200
"WHAT?!" Yuma exclaimed, "how come you didn't lose any life points?!"
JT pointed. "Take a look at Gagaga Magician."
Yuma did so… and pulled back in shock.
His signature monster's attack points had dropped… all the way to zero! (2000/1000=0/1000)
"What? How?" asked Tori, due to Yuma being too dumbfounded by this revelation to do so himself.
"It's all thanks to my Celestial Wolf Lord, Blue Sirius," JT explained with a grin, "when my feral friend is destroyed; his attack points are deducted from the attack points of one of my opponent's monsters."
Yuma looked at his hand; Dododo Warrior, Mini-Guts, and Stinging Swordsman couldn't help him at the moment, "I end my turn."
"Then it's my turn," JT declared, making his draw. Effect Veiler and Celestial Wolf Lord, Blue Sirius slid out of his graveyard, "I banish a light monster and a dark monster to special-summon Chaos Sorcerer!" Materializing was a grayish-purple skinned man wearing black leather robes and a sinister expression. (2300/2000)
"This duel is over," he declared, "I use the spell card, Double Attack! Now by discarding a monster from my hand, a lower level monster can attack twice. So I'll discard my level eight Beast King Barbaros to give that honor to my level six Chaos Sorcerer. Now… attack Achacha Archer and Gagaga Magician!"
The sorcerer smirked, materializing a wicked-looking sword in his right hand and lunging forth. With a downwards diagonal swing, he cleaved through the archer.
2300-1200=1100
JT-3200/Yuma-2100
Chaos Sorcerer then thrust his blade through Gagaga Magician's chest cavity… all the way to the hilt, all-the-while sporting a malicious grin at his victim's agony until it digitized away.
2300-0=2300
JT-WIN/Yuma-0
"Aw man!" whined Yuma, "I lost… but still; that was a fun duel! We gotta do it again some time!"
"Sounds like a plan," JT agreed.
"I can't believe you have Synchro monsters," Bronk awed, "they're really rare."
"And there's a lot more when they came from."
JT pulled out his extra deck, fanning it out to reveal that, except for a single fusion monster, his entire extra deck was made up of Synchro monsters.
"Ten to be exact," he explained, "one for each level from two to eleven."
"That's awesome!" Yuma praised, "let's keep dueling until you summon them all!"
"I'd love to," said JT, "but I should get home and take care of my homework so the weekend is all clear."
So they said their good-byes and JT headed off while Yuma and Bronk stuck around to do some more dueling.
But that was a mistake.
Bronk had foolishly stepped up to duel the school's resident bully, Reginald "Shark" Kastle, and lost big time, losing his deck in the process due to the previously establish ante rule. Yuma, stepping up to bat for his friend, challenged Shark to win back the deck.
Little did the world know that during that duel, a great power would descend from the cosmos and widespread chaos would engulf the dueling community as duelists the world over would very soon have to contend with a "number" of problems.
And… done! This one's way longer than the original chapter one. Anyways, before you guys accuse me of my OC being a Gary Stu, remember; this chapter is set before the faithful duel. Before Astral and the Numbers; Yuma didn't have any Xyz monsters and his skills were… less than skillful. So, I am merely keeping characters in accordance with this point in the series timeline. Also; anyone care to guess what JT's first Number will be? Anyone who's read my first version might remember. Hopefully, I'll see you next time.