Let's see if third time's the charm. This is my most recent attempt at a fanfiction. Hopefully, this is my best, as I'm giving it all I've got. Reviews will definitely be appreciated, but flamers are not welcome.
From how I thought of this, cards that are very rare or unique in the Anime are a lot more common, but still considered rare. Also, for the most part, this fic will be real life cards only. If I do decide to use cards from the anime or created cards in a chapter, I will say so here. In addition, unless I say that the disks are customized, they are the standard disks from the GX era.
Disclaimer: Yu-Gi-Oh is not mine, it's the brain child of Kazuki Takahashi. If it was mine, then 4kids would never have gotten their hands on it.
Prologue
It was the finals of the Sun, Moon, and Stars Exposition, a wide scale tournament for Duelists of the Light attribute. All around the arena the crowd cheered; excitement had been building up to this moment, when one finalist would fall and the victor would become the champion for that year. On one side of the center platform, dressed in faded blue jeans, a black t-shirt, and an open, dark blue Letterman Jacket, was Aaron Marshall. He was a tall, brown haired guy, who looked about 17 years old, with a slight tan. On his side of the field was a shiny pink dragon, Seiyaryu (2500/2300), in Attack position and a dragon that looked like it was constructed out of rough diamond, Hyozanryu (2100/2800), in Defense position. Plus he had four cards in his hand and 5800 life points left.
His opponent, Alex Marmaduke, was also male, but was definitely older, with darker hair and dressed in a grey pinstripe business suit. He had just drawn a card, so his hand now totaled five cards, with an even 5000 life points left. He had a face-down card, a Pyramid of Light trap card, a Precious Cards from Beyond magic card active, and two blue and violet bipedal sea serpents wielding golden spears in one hand and a shield the same color as the monster in the other, Kaiser Sea Horses (1700/1650), in Attack position on his field. Both had standard duel disks and a pyramid made out of translucent blue colored walls surrounded them.
Crossing his arms, the youth said, "Give it up, you geezer. You haven't shown me a monster with more ATK than Soul of Purity and Light (2000/1800) and I defeated her when I brought out my Seiyaryu. That Radiant Spirit (2000/1500) didn't help you out at all either."
The older man replied curtly, "Those monsters were only in my deck because I had to have something to take the place of the monsters I had to take out so I could enter." He started to smile. "However, you won't be ahead of me for long, now that my Pyramid of Light is active and my true strategy is revealed."
He picked a card in his hand and shoved it into his disk. He shouted as the card's image, Gazelle, King of Mythical Beasts and a man engulfed in lightning, appeared in front of him, "I activate Double Summon! This card allows me an extra normal summon this turn only. So I'll now tribute both of my Kaiser Seahorses," his two monsters dissolved into spheres of light, "and I'll set two monsters face-down." The spheres formed the backs of two duel monster cards as they sat there in defense position.
Grinning, the man said as he reached for his deck, "The two monsters I set were two tribute monsters, so my Precious Cards from Beyond activates twice, allowing me to draw four cards."
He quickly drew them, and his grin got wider. Plucking one card from his hand, he exclaimed, "I now activate Book of Taiyou!" The card image was a book with a large sun on its cover. "This lets me flip a face-down monster into face-up Attack postion, so say hello to my Andro Sphinx (3000/2500)!"
A monster appeared before Alex, a large bipedal lion wearing blue armor, and it gave out a bone-shaking roar, but the man was not done as he picked another card from his hand. "Now for my other monster; I'll first use this card: Magical Stone Excavation! By discarding two cards from my hand, I get to reclaim one magic card from my graveyard, so I'll choose my Book of Taiyou."
A shovel appeared as the man played the card and dropped two cards into the graveyard. It started to dig, but stopped quickly when it hit a small patch of glowing crystals with a thunk. The man's graveyard began glowing in tandem with the crystals and a card popped out of it. Picking the card up, he immediately placed it into his disk again. As the card reappeared, the face-down monster flipped over, revealing a grey furred lion with wings and a female face, that would have been equal to the other one in height if it stood on its hind legs. The man started laughing as his monsters roared in unison with each other, before calming down enough to say, "You're the one who should give up, Aaron. You're no match for my two sphinxes. Isn't that right, Sphinx Teleia(2500/3000)?"
The monster gave the boy a savage grin, bearing fangs that looked like they could crush solid rock. He merely looked bored at this display as he started motioning with his hand for the man to continue. Frowning at the apparent lack of concern on the boy's face, the man picked a card in his hand and activated it, "Behold as I play this card, Block Attack. Antiquated, I know, but it's very useful for my sphinxes as you'll soon see. I can now switch one monster on my opponent's field in Attack position to defense position, so say good night little dragon."
Waves of energy shot out from the card, struck Seiyaryu, and caused the shiny dragon to land on the ground, shielding itself with its wings. Grinning at his opponent's misfortune, Alex pointed at his opponent and exclaimed, "It's time to tear down your defenses right before your eyes! Sphinx Teleia, it's feeding time!"
At the command, the monster launched herself onto the grounded Seiyaryu, biting deeply into the dragon's neck and shattering it to pixels. When the dragon shattered, the giant beast looked at the duelist and let out a deafening shriek, his life point counter decreasing to 4650 as the harsh sound waves washed over him.
As Aaron was recovering, the man swept his hands in a grand gesture and shouted, "Your turn Andro Sphinx; kill his Hyozanryu!"
The armored beast shot forward and grabbed the diamond dragon between its claws. With a quick tug of its hands, it pulled the dragon apart before it shattered. Like Sphinx Teleia before it, Andro Sphinx glared at the younger duelist and roared, his life points again decreasing to 3600 as the powerful sound waves brought him to his knees.
Standing straight up after a short recovery time, the younger duelist demanded an explanation. "How did I lose life points when they destroyed my monsters?"
The smirking Alex was happy to reply with, "That's their effect...When Andro Sphinx destroys a monster in defense position, half of the destroyed monster's ATK points come out of your life points, while Sphinx Teleia's effect does the same thing for DEF points. Oh, by the way, it's your turn."
Drawing his card quickly, he froze for a second as he looked it. A grin began to spread over his face as he kept the card in his hand while he took two other cards from his hand and placed one of them on his disk, declaring, "I summon my powerful Kaibaman (200/700) in Attack Position!"
A man bearing a striking resemblance to the famous Seto Kaiba, wearing a helmet shaped like the head of a Blue-eyes White Dragon, appeared in a flash of light, crossing his arms in a gesture that seemed to make him look down on the opponent of his summoner. This was lost on the man and his beasts, though, as they busted out laughing. Kaibaman didn't like that apparently, as he scowled furiously with his hands dropping down to his sides in clenched fists. While his opponent was laughing, the younger duelist picked Kaibaman's card off his disk and replaced it with the other card he had picked from his hand with it, saying as he did so, "Laugh all you want, because I'm activating Kaibaman's effect."
Kaibaman smirked before being engulfed by a column of intense light, as his duelist continued, "By tributing Kaibaman, I can special summon a very powerful monster from my hand. Come forth, my proud Blue-Eyes White Dragon (3000/2500)!"
The column of light expanded as a roar that caused the ground to tremble emanated from it. When the column faded, a powerful looking dragon could be seen; shining blue-white scales, claws and fangs that looked like they could tear through steel with little effort, and eyes that seemed to pierce the soul of whoever it was staring at. Both sphinxes cowered under its gaze, as if its very presence sent fear into their hearts. Their duelist wasn't faring much better, as anyone could tell from his wide eyes and his hanging mouth.
When he realized his mouth was open, he shut it quickly. Then he shook his head and demanded in an aggressive voice, "How in the world did you acquire a Blue-Eyes White Dragon? The only known duelist with them in his deck is Seto Kaiba, all of the other known copies of that card are in the hands of super rich card collectors."
The Dragon duelist smirked a little at this question, his gaze flickering to the audience, before responding, "I have a friend to thank for that. It's too bad that he decided not to enter into the tournament, he said he had wanted to stay out of the limelight for a little while. Besides, since when is it a crime to own rare cards?"
Holding up the card that he had drawn, he continued, "Anyways, while I could just take out Sphinx Teleia, you might decide to suicide your Andro Sphinx to take out my Blue-Eyes then attack me directly with a newly summoned monster. So, to avoid that, I'm using this card: Burst Stream of Destruction! I can only activate this card when I have a Blue-Eyes White Dragon face-up on the field, but since I do, this card acts exactly like Raigeki, destroying all monsters on your side of the field!""
The card image appeared, a close-up of a Blue-Eyes charging up an attack, and his monster followed suit, launching a powerful ray of energy, which struck right between the two sphinxes and destroyed both of them in an explosion that rocked the arena. Even as the smoke cleared, though, laughter could be heard throughout the arena. It was the older duelist's laughter and the reason he was laughing was soon apparent. Standing in the middle of the clearing smoke was an even larger monster; a centaur-like hybrid of the two previous sphinxes. The bottom half was like Sphinx Teleia while the top half was like Andro Sphinx.
After the laughter had stopped, with a grin plastered to his face, Alex declared, "I should thank you. After all, I can't pull this beast out unless both of my sphinxes are destroyed at the same time. Of course, there is a small price of 500 life points, but that's insignificant. So why don't you greet him – Theinen the Great Sphinx (3500/3000)?"
The giant beast let out a massive roar that almost toppled Aaron. It was when he was recovering his footing that he noticed his opponent's life point gauge showed him at 4500, which started to down some more, to 4000, as Alex continued, "Also, I can pay 500 life points when I special summon Theinen the Great Sphinx to increase his attack by an awe inspiring 3000 points until the End Phase of the turn!" (6500/3000)
Shaking his head to clear it of distractions in the face of this monster, the younger duelist aimed his next comments at his opponent. "Well, you wasted those life points, because even if I wanted to attack, I can't attack with a Blue-Eyes White Dragon after activating Burst Stream of Destruction."
His opponent shook his head, and replied, "I didn't need to anyway, as Theinen has 500 more base ATK points than your Blue-Eyes. However, I have an unbeatable combo here that will assure success when my turn comes around. Face-down trap card open, reveal Interdimensional Matter Transporter!"
A strange device appeared above the giant monster, which was transported into the machine like something out of Star Trek before the machine disappearing. Triumphantly smirking at his opponent, the older duelist decided to reveal what happened to the rest of the stadium. "As you can plainly see, my Interdimensional Matter Transporter has transported my Great Sphinx off the battlefield and he'll be there until my End Phase, when his effect should wear off, but because he won't be on the field for it to wear off, he'll get to keep it. In case you don't know what that means, boy, it means that I'll be able to wipe out your life points as soon as you end your turn."
Glancing at his hand for a second, the young adult shot back, "Well it's still my turn, and I'm sure I can turn this around somehow. As they say, 'It's not over until it's over.' I'll fight until my life points are gone and I'll never give up while I still have cards to play."
He swiftly took one of the two remaining cards in his hand and stated, "Like this one: I activate Trade-in! I have to discard an 8-star monster to activate it, but it lets me draw two cards."
He placed the last card in his hand into the graveyard and quickly drew two cards from his deck. Giving them a once-over, he picked one up and set it into his disk, then waved his hand to end his turn. The strange device from before reappeared and Theinen rematerialized from it. Standing there a bit disappointed, the older duelist drew his card.
Not even bothering to look at it, he tucked it into his hand, then pointed toward his opponent and said, "Seems that you failed...Time to end this, Theinen..."
Aaron hit a button on his disk with a flourish, "Face-down trap card open, reveal Call of the Haunted! Bring back Cyber Valley (0/0)!"
The facedown card flipped up, showing a bunch of gravestones surrounded by violet smoke. Emerging from the card was the same kind of smoke shown in its image, which formed into a small, gleaming metal serpentine creature with some sharp, spike-like edges along its sides. It settled by the much larger dragon with a screech directed towards the opposing duelist. Confusion flooded Alex's mind when he took in the stats of the new monster.
"Why did you bring back that thing? With your life points so low, you'd risk it with a monster that weak?"
A smirk spread across Aaron's face, but he remained quiet. His opponent began to think, This kid's crazy. Risking the duel on a monster like that...It's got to have some effect that makes it worth bringing back, but what kind of effect would it have that would be worth being brought back on my turn? Maybe some kind of self-sacrifice? I've heard of some monsters that have such an effect, it being destroyed in place of an other monster. Gah! I'm giving myself a headache just thinking about it.
Swiftly pointing at the serpentine machine, he commanded, "Theinen, call his bluff and wipe out his newest monster, along with the rest of his life points!"
The giant centaur sphinx pulled back its right arm, then the machine vanished into a portal that just appeared underneath it. Theinen paused in confusion, settling into an alert stance for a few moments, before deciding that the enemy was gone and folding his arms to say it was done. Blinking in surprise, his duelist muttered, "Okay...what just happened?"
"Allow me to explain, then," the younger duelist declared, as he was drawing a card. "My Cyber Valley has three effects, all of which involve it being removed from play. The effect I used can only be triggered when my opponent declares it as an attack target. Then, after it has removed itself from play, it ends the Battle Phase and allows me to draw a card."
Clenching his teeth, the older duelist looked ready to blow a gasket, which only got worse as Aaron continued condescendingly. "Don't feel too bad, I would have used one of the other two effects if you decided to attack my Blue-Eyes. One would have removed Cyber Valley and one other face-up monster I control to let me draw two cards, while the other would have removed Cyber Valley and one card in my hand to place one card in my Graveyard on top of my deck. Anyway, I believe its my turn, unless you want to take your second Main Phase."
A furious wave of his hand indicated that he ended his turn, allowing Aaron to start his. Drawing his card with confidence that many people would not have in the face of Theinen, he added it to his hand before giving them a once-over. His eyes widened when he realized what the monster he had just drawn was. Ever so slowly, his confident smirk changed into a happy smile as he placed his hand with the card he had just drawn and used one of them.
"It's time to bring down your ugly kitty there. Behold the Dragon's Mirror! This card allows me to Fusion summon a monster by removing the material components on the field and/or in the Graveyard from play, so here comes a monster that has brought several duelists to their knees with its presence – the Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon!"
A massive, gold-rimmed mirror appeared behind the BEWD as golden light shot out from Aaron's Graveyard. The light faded to reveal two more White Dragons, roaring proudly as they floated beside the one that was already on the field. His opponent just stood there staring in shock and surprise at the three dragons. It was while the dragons were being pulled towards the mirror that his mind registered what was about to happen. Letting out one last unified roar, the three dragons vanished into the mirror.
Silence reigned for a moment, the whole audience holding their breath as they waited for something to happen. They didn't have to wait long, for the mirror shattered into thousands of fragments as a burst of light filled the arena. Everyone had to look away to keep from getting blinded by the intense light. Moments passed before the light ebbed, revealing a massive form where the light used to be. Even bigger than Theinen the Great Sphinx, with three heads and a brilliant white hide; the Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon (4500/3800) certainly lived up to its name.
"And if you liked that, then you'll love this! He may be called the Ultimate Dragon, but his form can continue to grow stronger, as I can tribute him to summon his most powerful stage yet! Evolve Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon, into the unstoppable Blue-Eyes Shining Dragon!"
Hushed whispers began to spread over the crowd as the dragon itself fell silent. It was in this state that the cracking along the dragon's hide became audible. Smaller cracks soon became bigger as light began to pour out of them. Like shattering stone, the dragon seemed to burst outward from within and from the remains emerged a streamlined shape, almost like a jet. As if it had just awoken from slumber in a cramped space, the new dragon stretched itself out; revealing its streamlined, metallic hide, covered with lines of shining blue light. (3000/2500)
"And, get this: for each Dragon-type monster in my Graveyard, he gains an additional 300 ATK points. So let's count them up." He pressed a button on his disk that revealed what was in his Graveyard and counted. "Hmm… There's a Mirage Dragon (1600/600), two Divine Dragons Ragnarok (1500/1000), the Kaiser Glider (2400/2200) and the Magna-Slash Dragon (2400/1200) you made me discard earlier. My Different Dimension Dragon (1200/1500), my Seiyaryu and Hyozanryu dragons, and finally, the Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon...all told that's nine dragons in my Graveyard, for a grand total of 5700 ATK points." (5700/2500)
His opponent breathed a quick sigh of relief as he noticed the ATK score of his opponent's monster was quite short of his sphinx's 6500 ATK. Feeling like rubbing it in, the older duelist retorted, "You fail at math or something? Your dragon is 800 points weaker than my Theinen."
Aaron's smile never left his face. Picking up the last card from his hand, he shouted, "I activate, Burial From a Different Dimension!"
Depicting a greenish metal capsule-like coffin, the card appeared on the field beneath the Shining Dragon as Aaron's Graveyard glowed with ominous light. Hitting the button that revealed his Graveyard information, his smile widened when it showed the three Blue-Eyes White Dragons in his Graveyard.
"Before you ask me what happened, my Burial From a Different Dimension lets me choose up to three monsters that have been removed from play and return them to the Graveyard. So, the three Blue-Eyes that I removed with Dragon's Mirror are now back where they belong. That gives my Shining Dragon 900 more ATK points, which means that your Theinen is no longer the strongest monster on the field!" (6600/2500)
The sphinx was now looking frightened as it tried to take a step backward, but couldn't with the little room that was left on the platform. His duelist was no better off, his remaining cards falling from his limp hand. The crowd was cheering and chanting Aaron's name as he gave the command, "Blue-Eyes Shining Dragon, Shining Neutron Blast!"
With a powerful roar, blue energy collected in the Shining Dragon's mouth to form a sphere, which launched as a torrent-like stream. The blast hit Theinen head on, punching a hole through its chest before it shattered into pixels with a cry of pain. Hardly anyone noticed the duelist's life points fell by 100 points to 3900, even the duelist himself. He was in too much shock that his strongest monster, in its greatest form, had been beaten in battle. Sinking down to his knees, he weakly raised his hand, holding it over his deck, and said, "I surrender."
With the tournament finally over, Aaron and his friends were raiding various food stands of the expo as a way of celebrating Aaron's victory. Passing through crowds of people that wanted to talk to and congratulate the new champion, he and his friends found a diner-esque stand that served ice cream. While they were waiting for their order, Aaron took a good look at his friends, two stood on his left while the other stood on his right. The female on the left was Maev Orlan, a girl with short, dark red hair and two differently colored eyes, one chocolate brown and the other a golden amber. She was wearing a denim skirt, a white t-shirt and a jean jacket to match her skirt. Standing next to her was the tallest of the group, Laird Douglas, an androgynous male with platinum blonde hair and dark green eyes in uniform gray slacks and long-sleeve shirt. Both had deck holsters on belts around their waists and duel disks on their left forearms.
The young man, James Maverick, also known as Legion to his friends and most people in the dueling curcuit, on his right was definitely not the average duelist. Dressed in mostly dark colors, it was hard not to notice the bandoleer across his chest or the pair of belts crisscrossing his waist, all of which were packed with deck holsters. On his right forearm was a custom-ordered duel disk, cobalt blue metal with a tray shaped like a U sticking out perpendicular to the base. His black hair was long compared to an average guy, so it was hard to get a good look at his face from the side. Aaron took his attention away from his friends when the ice cream came.
Where most friends would celebrate a tournament win, this group simply sat in silence, eating their ice cream. At least, that's how they were in the eyes of the public, but when they get back to the hotel room they were staying at, their true personas would appear. After polishing off their ice cream, the four friends quickly set out for their hotel, only a few blocks away from the Expo. As they entered, they acknowledged the clerk behind the front desk and made their way to the room they all shared. Laughing could be heard through the door as the four of them celebrated the victory. Maev was giving Aaron some major hugs, almost squeezing his guts out while Laird was taking pictures of the two with a digital camera he always kept with him. Sitting on one of the beds, Legion merely smiled in amusement at the antics of his friends.
After they all calmed down and were all sitting down somewhere, the girl said with a small drawl in her slightly Irish accented voice, "Seriously Aaron, I thought you were a goner when he brought out that sphinx. You don't see monsters with that level of power all that often and for you to take it down with so much confidence was quite the shock to us."
While he was scrolling through the pictures he had taken, deleting some as needed, the blonde male spoke up in a voice that sounded almost as feminine as it did masculine, "Are you doubting him, Maev?"
Whirling to face the speaker then waving her arms defensively, she replied, "That's not it at all, Laird. I just didn't want him to lose. This is one of the few tournaments that he was able to duel in where Legion here, "she pointed to their dark clothed friend, "decided not to enter."
Legion looked at his friend, seeing her face clearly, as he leveled a gaze at her two colored eyes. One chocolate brown eye and one golden amber eye blinked back at him when he looked over at Aaron. His voice was relaxed when he stated, "You don't have to thank me for not entering. Some of my probation decks were starting to act up, so I had to focus on them. Besides, my decks always come through for me so I have yet to lose, even to you guys."
What he said was true; even though they always give him a challenge in a duel, he was undefeated in his dueling record. They all doubted that he could have defeated any of the Legendary Duelists, like Yugi Muto, Joey Wheeler, or Seto Kaiba, but that didn't mean that he couldn't give them a run for their money before losing. As for his "probation decks" as he called them, it was well known in the group that he could see Duel Spirits. In fact, every monster in all of his decks were Duel Spirits. Some were merely bored, so their decks acted like an amusement park for the spirits in-between duels. Others were benevolent spirits that wished to do good in the world, so their decks acted like Headquarters for them. Then, there were the malevolent spirits. They're kept in Legion's probation decks, which act like a prison for the spirits with other spirits acting as wardens. Outside of a duel, he kept these probation decks in their deck-cases with sutra talismans on them to keep the influence of the malevolent spirits contained.
The other members of their little group merely nodded at his statement, but then Laird asked, "So, which decks tried to cause trouble this time? Was it the Archfiends again, or did the Dark World Fiends do it?"
Legion shook his head, "Neither this time. The Aliens were the ones that started it actually, with the Arcana Force behind them followed by the Cyberdarks. It's a pity really; the Cyberdarks were doing so well. Oh well, they're still making some decent progress towards becoming good spirits."
Again, his friends nodded to show that they understood, as they knew that he didn't talk about what he'd have to do when the malicious spirits try to get loose. Sitting in silence for a few moments, Aaron perked up as he thought of something to talk about, "Hey Legion, how's the newest probation deck coming along?"
Getting off the bed and walking over to his suitcase, Legion reached in and pulled out a deck case almost completely covered in sutra talismans, except for a single metal lock on it with no obvious way of unlocking it. They all knew what that meant. Whatever malevolent Duel Spirits were in there, they were dreadfully powerful. He had only taken such precautions with two other probation decks, both of which rarely ever saw duel time even now with their malevolence having greatly subsided. The only way to open that lock was magically, and they knew that it would take some powerful magic to force that lock open even after the removal of the sutras.
Legion held up the deck case, "It's not complete enough to contain the malicious spirit, but it's close, just a few more lower level spirits should do it. When we get home, that's the first thing I'm going to do."
Maev sat up ramrod straight and stuttered, "W-wait, you said malicious spirit, as in only one? You mean to tell us that this probation deck you're making is for containing one spirit? There's really a single malevolent spirit that powerful? Why haven't you merely destroyed the card if it's so dangerous?"
Nodding slowly to all of the questions except the last one, Legion placed the deck case back in his suitcase and answered, "Maev, this is one of those kind of Duel Spirits. Even with the power that I have, it's impossible for me alone to destory such incredible evil. The best I can do is contain it in a probation deck and help it gradually let go of its wickedness."
They once again sat their in silence after he returned to his previous seat. Maev broke the silence with a yawn, to which she got out of her seat and stated, "I don't know about you guys, but I'm bushed. I'm going to get changed, then get some shut eye."
Pulling some pajamas out of her suitcase, she swaggered tiredly into the bathroom, confident in her friend's ability to seal things. The guys looked at one another and shrugged, before they went over to their respective suitcases and changed into some sleep-wear themselves before they picked which two would sleep on which bed.
Watching the group's hotel room from a distance away, a figure standing in the shadows of the city lights rubbed his chin. Despite all of the precautions that Legion had taken, he was still able to sense the potent spirit that was dwelling in the deck case, albeit weakly. Taking out a cell phone, he dialed a number and got an immediate response. "Talk to me. Is the spirit we seek there?"
Quietly laughing, as if at an inside joke, the figure responded, "Oh yeah, it's there all right. Even though it had so many prodigious seals covering its prison, I was still able to feel it. Though, you told me that this spirit is awe-inspiring in its level of power, you haven't told me exactly what the spirit itself is."
He could almost swear that he felt the person he was talking to scowl over the phone before it gave him its reply, "That's not for you to know yet. Return to base and let me deal with securing the target. Trust me; this will be well worth the effort."
Author's thoughts:
And that's it. This prologue is done. It took so much more effort than I thought it would, but hey, "if it's worth doing, it's worth doing well". I'm not expecting instant success, but I do wish people will read and review. Constructive criticism will be taken into account, flamers will be utterly ignored, and anyone wishing to provide user characters, just send me the needed information and I'll see what I can do. Here's to hoping that this story is my best yet.