For those of you kind enough to click on this story, you have my thanks. I don't kind constructive criticism but I will not tolerate flames. Also if I create any cards feel free to use them so long as you ask me first.
In terms of names I'll be using the Dubbed names, mostly, so long as they aren't terrible I don't really mind them, and I'm Canadian eh. I'll also be using the TCG names, unless they totally suck like well what they did to poor Saviour Star Dragon.
Other than playing by Traditional Format I will follow the rules of the OCG and TCG to the letter, and I'll try to avoid using the anime version of Card of Sanctity, unless absolutely necessary.
Sorry if I'm rambling and so begins A Black Rose by Any Other Name.
New Domino City, once called by the former director of Sector Security to be a utopia, but was that true? Well for the five Signers it was anything but.
After defeating the Dark Signers and saving the world, they breathed a sigh of relief and tried to go on with their lives. But three mysterious persons appeared and began a dark plan. In the end these three were defeated and their evil Machine Emperor cards reduced to ashes.
So the Signers once again started to move on with their lives. Yusei Fudo and Akiza Izinski settled down and got married. Jack Atlas and his girlfriend Carly Carmine also got married, even before Yusei and Akiza.
Crow Hogan and his delivery business Blackbird Delivery eventually became the largest delivery company in all of New Domino and Japan.
Luna and her brother Leo who seemed to almost share the same position as hind claw Signer both graduated from Duel Academy, Luna in the top of her class, Leo he just graduated. Luna went on to become a teacher, instructing the younger students at Duel Academy.
Leo went on to join the Junior Leagues and after much blood, sweat, tears and hard work he managed to move up to the Pro Leagues, which seemed to surprise the other Signers.
It has been twenty years since the Signers and Leo hung up their Duel Disks to be used to smite evil, they've settled down but something they were never told, was evil never truly dies.
A Black Rose by Any Other Name
Chapter One: A New Rose Blooms.
In an office building in New Domino a long figure sat in a pitch black office, the only source of illumination came from the computer screen the person was sitting in front of.
Their face was hidden by the glare from the screen. They dragged their mouse over to a folder and double clicked, a moment later the folder opened.
There were six documents in the folder, they clicked on one of them opening it. A picture appeared on the screen, it was a Duel Monsters card, with a white background, the card image was of a white Dragon with blue markings on it and an elongated head.
"Stardust Dragon, currently in the possession of Yusei Fudo, it possesses an extremely useful effect but for its level it has low attack points," the figure muttered before opening another document.
This one brought up another card, this one ressembled a bird crossed with a Dragon, with large wings with what looked like blade shaped black feathers. "Blackfeather Dragon, currently owned by Crow Hogan, it possesses a potent anti burn and point lowering effect, not truly suited for Mr. Hogan's Deck, but he's managed to use it well."
They clicked another document bringing up the picture of a serpentine Dragon with blue scales, wearing a red mask and red bracers in its arms. "Ancient Fairy Dragon, it resides in the hands of Luna the youngest of the Signers, again for her Deck type it is not well suited, but she rarely duels herself," the person said.
They clicked another document bringing up the picture of a black scaled Dragon with most of its body covered in rose petals and two thorny black vines sprouting from its back. "Black Rose Dragon, it was formally owned by the Black Rose Witch, Akiza Fudo formally Izinski. It now rests in the hands of her and Yusei's seventeen year old daughter Reina."
At the same time the person was looking up files on the Signer's Dragons, four teenagers were in Muto Memorial Park. Two of them were dueling and two of them were sitting on a bench nearby.
The two dueling were both boys, one of them had messy orange hair with dark brown eyes, and he was donned in an orange blazer with a red t-shirt underneath, he wore a pair of khaki cargo pants with a belt with two Deck boxes on the back.
His opponent had silver hair and light green eyes and had a bored expression on his face. He wore a black jacket with a white t-shirt underneath. He wore a pair of blue jeans.
Near to them were two girls, one was sitting on a bench watching the duel with a video camera on. She had shoulder length brown hair and seemingly large hazel eyes. She wore a plain white blouse and a denim skirt.
The last person had black hair, with five blade shaped bangs hanging over her forehead, each bang had a thin dark violet line running along it, he eyes with light brown and she wore a red trench coat with a red shirt underneath with the picture of a stylized black rose on the front.
The raven haired girl sneezed. "Are you getting a cold Reina?" the video camera holding girl asked.
The other girl sniffled "No I don't think so Mel," she replied.
"Maybe someone's talking about ya," the other girl said with a slight snicker.
"Hmmm so who do you think is going to win, Zeke or Rob?" Reina asked.
"I'd bet Rob for sure, for once he actually got Zeke backed into a corner," Mel replied.
The silver haired boy currently had 1000 Life Points and held four cards, he had two face down cards on the field but he had no monsters.
The other boy had had 1500 Life Points and two monsters one was a humanoid bird creature holding a black drill shaped spear. The other one was a larger humanoid bird creature with grey feathers. He had a face single down card.
"Ok Zeke, revenge time Elphin go in for a direct attack!" the orange haired boy shouted and the grey feathered creature flew forward.
"Sorry Rob but I activate one of my face down cards, go A Hero Emerges!" Zeke declared and a Trap card showing a superhero jumping forward flipped open.
"You know how this works now you pick one of the cards in my hand and should it be a monster, I get to Special Summon it. So Rob pick your poison," Zeke smirked.
Rob growled "Fine middle right."
"Good choice, for me," chuckled Zeke, "I think you remember my Vilepawn Archfiend, well he'll be coming out in defense mode," a creature with exposed muscle and bone armor, with a sword in place of one hand appeared crouching in a defensive manor. (ATK 1200/DEF 200)
Elphin stopped as if uncertain and looked back at Rob. "Elphin continue your attack!" the bird creature continued forward, but Zeke's other face down card flipped open.
"Reveal face down card, Hate Buster. Now Elphin and Vilepawn bite the dust and you get hit for Elphin's original attack points in damage," Vilepawn pulled an odd looking bomb out from behind its back.
When Elphin got close the bomb detonated taking out both monsters, the shockwave from the blast hit Rob knocking him on his rear and causing his Life Points to drop to zero.
Rob groaned "Damn it! Every freaking time you beat me Zeke, how?"
"Simple Rob, I'm the better duelist between us that's why," Zeke smirked.
"One of these days Zeke Kessler I will defeat you I swear it on my namesake's grave!" Rob declared dramatically.
"Right, Rob and my dad and mom with become Dark Signers again, face it you will never defeat me," Zeke grinned.
Zeke's father had returned to New Domino after the mine in Satisfaction Town collapsed. After that he, with the help of two kids from the former town, West and Nico had set up a large charity organization, it was designed to support orphanages around the globe.
"So girls where should we go to eat since Robert here is the one footing the bill?" Zeke asked.
Both girls rubbed their chins. "Well let's see we could go to that really fancy place about three blocks from here," Reina suggested and Rob looked shocked.
"Ya, except one small detail I doubt we meet the dress code," Mel said. "How about we just go to that burger place across the street," she said pointing to a small stand on the other side of the road.
"Ya, Melissa that's a good idea, let's go there!" Rob shouted jumping to his feet.
Both Zeke and Reina snickered. "Sure sounds fine to me," Zeke said.
As the group walked away they didn't realize someone had been watching them. He was tall with grey hair and slate coloured eyes, in a pair of camouflage coloured pants and combat boots, with a tan shirt. "I see 'em boss what should I do?"
The person was speaking into a cell phone "Well Morton why don't you challenge one of them to a duel, like I've planned," a voice on the other side suggested.
"Sounds good boss, call ya when I crush one of them," the person said snapping the phone shut.
Twenty minutes later the group was sitting outside of the burger stand, Reina was sipping a milkshake, Rob had just finished some onion rings, Melissa was looking over the footage of the duel, and Zeke was stuffing his face.
"Zeke, I've seen starving people who eat slower than you, slow down or you're going to choke," Rob said.
Zeke finished his burger and balled up the wrapper. "That's what his fifth?" Reina asked.
"No I think it's his sixth," Melissa said not looking up from her camera.
"Ya that sounds about right, well I'm going to go get another," Zeke said standing with Reina following behind.
The pair walked over to the stand and Zeke made his order, a moment later a girl handed him his food on a tray. He nodded and they began to walk back to their spot.
"How can you possibly eat so much?" Reina asked.
Zeke just shrugged. "I'm a health growing boy," he answered.
"Zeke it cannot be healthy to eat that much fast food, you've had five burgers and six sets of fries, how you don't gain any weigh is beyond me, hell I doubt my dad would understand it," Reina muttered.
Just then Morton walked out and shoved Zeke knocking the tray out of his hand, causing it to spilling it over his shirt. "Hey you jerk watch where you're walking!" Zeke shouted.
"What's you're problem you silver haired freak?" Morton asked.
"You just spilled my food, if I was the one paying for it I'd be really pissed," Zeke growled.
"It's just food Zeke and don't forget Rob's paying the bill so you can just get another order," Reina told her friend and Zeke nodded.
"He should still apologize, especially for wasting perfectly good food," Zeke muttered and a large drop of sweat rolled down the back of Reina's head.
"How about this, I'll make you a deal, if you're friend can beat me in a duel, I'll apologize and pay for the same order I just ruined. If I win then you have to pay for my lunch, sound fair," Morton proposed pointing to Reina.
"Sounds fair," Zeke told him. Reina walked over to her Duel Runner and detached the Duel Disk from the console and attached it to her Wrist Dealer.
"Mind telling me your name plus I'd like to add something to our wager?" Reina asked.
"Fine, my name is Morton Gothwalt, and what would this addition be?" Morton inquired.
"Simple," Reina said glancing behind Morton. Standing a ways off was a girl with black hair, in a green shirt and jeans holding a note pad. "If I win you'll answer I question for me."
"Fine that isn't much I won't even ask anything in return," Morton replied as his and Reina's Duel Disks auto shuffled.
(Reina: 8000) ---- (Morton: 8000)
"Duel!" they both shouted.
"Since last I checked it was the gentlemanly thing to do, I hope you don't mind if I take the first turn?" Reina asked drawing her first five cards.
"I don't really care you'll need it," Morton smirked.
"Ok now I'm sure he's working for Josh, especial since I can see Alexandria spying on this duel. Well then I'll have to make sure I don't use too many of the cards I've added since our last duel," Reina thought.
"I'll set a monster face down and then end with a single face down card," Reina said as a horizontal monster and a single brown backed card appeared in front of her.
"You call that an opening move? My little cousin could make a better opening move," Morton laughed pulling his sixth card off the top of his Deck.
"I activate the Spell card the Allied Force, now for each Warrior or Spellcaster I control Warrior type monsters on my side of the field gain 200 points," he said as the Spell card materialized.
"Now I summon my Marauding Captain in attack mode!" a man with blond hair in plate armor wielding two swords jumped onto the field. (ATK 1200-1400/DEF 400)
"Now thanks to his effect I can call out a level four or lower monster from my hand, so come forth Command Knight," a woman in red armor appeared next to Marauding Captain and drew her sword. (ATK 1200-1600/DEF 1900) (ATK 1400-1600/DEF 400)
"Now thanks to her effect….." Morton began before he was cut off.
"I know all Warrior monsters on your side gain 400 attack points, plus as long as you control another monster I may not select her as an attack target, she's kind of a staple in Warrior Decks, I've seen her a million times," Reina explained. (ATK 1600-2000/DEF 1900) (ATK 1600-2000/DEF 400)
"Even though it doesn't matter which of my monster's attack, I'll have Marauding Captain attack your face down monster," the twin sword wielding Warrior charged at Reina's monster, revealing a loin with skin made of bark and flower petals in place of a mane. (ATK 1600/DEF 2000)
"Meet Botanical Lion and he gains 300 attack points for every Plant type monster on the field, himself included," Reina grinned. (ATK 1600-1900/DEF 2000)
The lion roared and Marauding Captain halted and jumped back to Morton's side of the field.
"I'll set a card face down and end my turn," Morton grumbled.
Reina drew and smirked. "I activate my face down card, Ivy Shackles, now during my turn all of your monsters are treated as Plant types," vines shot out of the ground and constricted the two Warriors. (ATK 1900-2500/DEF 2000) (ATK 2000-1200/DEF 400) (ATK 2000-1200/DEF 1900)
"And I'm far from done be I'll call out Gigantic Cephalotus in attack mode," a huge Plant monster with the body structure of a dinosaur and the head of a venus flytrap rose onto the field and let out an ear splitting roar. (ATK 1850/DEF 700) (ATK 2500-2800/DEF 2000)
"Botanical Lion attack Marauding Captain if it wouldn't be too much trouble," the lion roared and jumped at the Warrior, in pinned him to the ground and then drove its claws into his chest causing him to shatter like glass. (ATK 2000-1800/DEF 1900) (ATK 2800-2500/DEF 2000)
(Reina: 8000) ---- (Morton: 6400)
"Now I should probably mention my Cephalotus' effect since it gains 200 attack points every time a Plant monster is sent from the field to the Graveyard," Reina explained as the giant Plant monster roared. (ATK 1850-2050/DEF 700)
"Cephalotus attack his Command Knight!" Gigantic Cephalotus roared and devoured the hapless Warrior. (ATK 2500-2300/DEF 2000) (ATK 2050-2250/DEF 700)
(Reina: 8000) ---- (Morton: 5550)
"Now I'll set a card face down and end my turn," said Reina.
Morton growled and drew his next card. "I activate my face down card Call of the Haunted and use it to revive my Command Knight," the red armored Warrior dug her way out of the ground. (ATK 1200-1800/DEF 1900)
Reina cocked and eyebrow. "Now I release her to call out Freed the Matchless General!" Command Knight vanished and was replaced by a man in shiny silver armor with long blond hair. (ATK 2300-2500/DEF 1700)
"Now before you go on about how my General only ties with you lion, in a moment it won't matter, because I activate Lightning Vortex!" Morton shouted.
"Shit," Reina hissed.
"Now I just discard one card and all your face up monsters are reduced to ashes," lightning rained down from the sky vaporizing Reina's two monsters.
"Freed attack her directly with Commander's Blade!" Freed slashed Reina with his sword causing her to stumble backwards.
(Reina: 5500) ---- (Morton: 5550)
"Me thinks their starting to make Solid Vision a tad too solid," Reina muttered to herself while she clutched where the Warrior had slashed her.
"I'll set one card face down and end my turn." Morton smirked.
Reina drew and grimaced slightly. "I'll set a monster face down and end my turn."
"Looks like you can't do much, so I'll use Freed's effect to add another Command Knight to my hand, then I'll summon her," a card slipped out of Morton's Deck and he slapped it onto the tray of his Duel Disk and the female knight reappeared. (ATK 2500-3100/DEF 1700) (ATK 1200-2000/DEF 1900)
"Command Knight attack her face down monster!" Command Knight slashed the face down monster in two, revealing a thin creature with leaves for arms and legs.
"That was my Horseytail and when he bites the big one, you get a Horsetail token," next to Command Knight a thin creature grew out of the ground. (ATK 0/DEF 0)
"It doesn't matter you're about to take a massive hit, Freed direct attack!" Freed ran and Reina who didn't look phased at all.
"Reveal face down card Defense Draw, so now I get to draw a card and all battle damage from this battle is reduced to zero," Freed's sword bounced off and invisible barrier and Reina snapped a card off the top of her Deck.
"Wait why didn't you use that last turn?" Morton asked.
"I figured you'd have another Command Knight in your Deck and that you'd bring it to your hand with Freed's effect, you're not the first Warrior Deck I've faced," Reina told him. "Plus I knew that you're next attack would likely deal more damage," Reina explained.
"I end my turn." Morton growled. (ATK 3100-2300/DEF 1700) (ATK 2000-1200/DEF 1900)
Reina drew and smirked. "I activate my Fragrance Storm Spell card, which allows me to destroy a Plant type monster and then draw a card and if that card is a Plant I can show you to draw again," explained Reina.
"But you don't have any Plants!" Morton shouted.
"No, but you have three, so I'll be using your Command Knight thank you," Command Knight shattered and Reina pulled the top card off her Deck.
"Well I won't get to draw again, because since I added Rose Fairy from my Deck to my hand with the effect of a Spell Trap of monster card I can Special Summon her," a pink skinned fairy with a rose on the back of her head appeared on the field. (ATK 600/DEF 1200)
"Now I release her to summon Rose Tentacles in attack mode," Rose Fairy dissolved into motes of light and from the ground grew a massive rose with eight thorn covered vines sprouting from it. (ATK 2200/DEF 1200)
"Too bad it's not enough to beat Freed," Morton sneered.
"I activate Magic Planter and send my Ivy Shackles to the Graveyard to draw twice," the Trap card disappeared and Reina tore two cards off the top of her Deck. (ATK 2300-2500/DEF 1700)
"Perfect, now I activate Mark of the Rose and remove my Botanical Lion from the Graveyard to gain control of your Freed," a black symbol similar to the one on Reina's shirt appeared on Freed's cheek. His eyes glazed over and he walked to Reina's side of the field. (ATK 2500-2300/DEF 1700)
"Rose Tentacles attack the Horseytail token with Thorn Whip!" one of Rose Tentacles vines shot forward destroying the token.
"Now Rose Tentacles effect activates and you take 300 points of damage plus it can attack an additional time for each Plant on your field," Rose Tentacles vine slammed into Morton causing him to gasp.
(Reina: 5500) ---- (Morton: 3050)
"Freed attack your former master directly with Command Blade!" Freed let loose a battle cry and slashed Morton.
(Reina: 5500) ---- (Morton: 750)
"This isn't over I still have Life Points let," Morton growled.
"You won't in a minute because I'm give Freed a gift. The Vengeful Servant Spell card you now when he goes back to your control he'll hit you for his original attack points in damage, so I end my turn," Reina grinned.
Freed walked over with a bird like creature on his shoulder and slashed his master.
(Reina: 5500) ---- (Morton: 0)
Morton growled "Ok what's your question?"
"Are you working for Josh Atlas?" Reina asked flatly.
"Yes," Morton said while gritting his teeth.
Reina shrugged. "I figured as much," she said before sitting down with Melissa and Rob.
Alexandria who as Reina suspected had been watching the duel was now sitting at a café nearby talking into a cell phone. "Sir, Morton was soundly defeated by Reina Fudo," she said.
"Yes I figured as much, did you get any notes on the duel?" the voice asked.
"Yes sir, she's added a few new cards to her Deck, like Mark of the Rose and Vengeful Servant," Alexandria informed the person.
"Hmmm not much then oh well, keep spying on them, try to find out what her little trash friends have, just in case," the person on the other side said.
"Yes Josh sir," Alexandria said before hanging up.
Zeke: Wells so ends the first chapter of our story.
Reina: Looks like Josh is still refusing to let up.
Melissa: Ya what's up with that?
Rob: I'll be explained later, but the biggest matter is, why didn't we get to see more of my duel!?
Reina: Because in the end Zeke managed to snatch victory from your hands yet again.
Melissa: Speaking of Zeke he gets to strut his stuff in the next chapter, I can't wait.
Zeke: Don't miss, the next chapter called: Ghost in the Machine.
A/N: So folks how did you enjoy the first chapter, if you have any suggestions I'll happily hear them.