Yugioh: Rise of the Shadow Hunters
By: Basketballdude51
(I don't own Yugioh or any of its affiliates. But I do own the plotline, OCs and original cards.)
Original Character's First Appearance in Story
Julian
Name: Julian Endchild
Age: 22
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Hazel
Harrison
Name: Harrison Smith
Age: 19
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Brown
ENDCHILD ENTERPRISES, NEW YORK CITY
Two uniformed guards were sitting at a security desk; one watching football highlights on the television idly while the other was watching the security feed from the cameras.
"Hey Bart you gotta take a look at this touchdown run by Adrian Peterson!" The first guard exclaimed to the other. "74 yards with three broken tackles man he's gonna make it in the Hall of Fame at this rate!"
Bart sighed. "Terrence, you never can focus during your shifts can you?"
"Nothing ever happens here Bart, you know that." Terrence shrugged. "It's the same thing every night. You check the security feeds thinking that some psycho with a machine gun is gonna pop up at any moment, while I catch up on any missed football games. Jeez buddy you need to relax, here how about after this shift we go to the bar and get a few drinks and…" Terrence stopped midsentence as suddenly the power in the building went dead.
"Oh crap!" Bart cursed, glancing at the security feeds again only to find blank screens. "Shit none of the building's security systems are online anymore!"
Terrence paled. "Okay so maybe you do have the right to worry a little bit. But it's probably just some malfunction or…" Terrence suddenly stopped talking, as he fell dead a throwing knife embedded in his skull!
Bart bent down, taking the knife out of Terrence's skull. He slipped the knife into his pocket, and then he stood up, drawing his revolver, looking for the hidden assailant. "Whoever you are, come out with your hands up! I warn you I'm not afraid to shoot!"
Suddenly he heard a chuckle. Pointing his gun in that direction, Bart yelled "Come out slowly, and maybe I won't have to shoot you!"
"Forgive me if I startled you, but I really think it would be in your best interest to drop the weapon," a cool voice replied.
From the shadows a figure walked out. He wore a black trench coat over a black undershirt and black pants, but the most distinguishing characteristic about him was the fact that his entire face was covered by a flesh colored mask, making it look as though he had no eyes, mouth, nose, or any other facial features! Around his wrist he wore a metal device, with a screen and buttons.
Bart turned ghostly white. "No…you're one of them aren't you?"
The figure laughed. "I could be anything. For all you know I could be the janitor dressed in a Halloween costume." He said, still advancing towards Bart.
"No stay back! I'll shoot you, I really will!" Bart's hands were shaking, as he aimed the weapon right at the masked man's head.
The person stopped for a moment. Then he said, "I don't wish to kill you, so simply drop the weapon and I will let you walk away unscathed. Otherwise, you will end up worse than your friend over there," he said, motioning to Terrence's corpse.
Bart shook his head. "No! I know what you and your organization wants to do! If I let you do that we'll all be dead anyways!" And with that he pulled the trigger.
Suddenly, with superhuman speed, the masked person side stepped the gun shot and ran forwards, knocking the weapon out of the security guard's hand with a kick. He followed that up by a lightning fast punch to the face which sent the guard to fly back a few feet into the wall behind him!
Bart weakly looked up, as the figure stood over him. Blood was leaking from the corner of his mouth, but in an instant he stood up, thrusting the knife used to kill Terrence right into the masked man's face.
For a second both of them stood there, the man motionless, and Bart waiting for him to fall dead. What he didn't expect was for the masked figure to grab Bart by the collar and slam him into the wall!
"How…how…is that possible?" Bart stammered, more blood dripping from his mouth. "I stabbed you in the face…how are you not dead?"
The figure laughed. "How can you stab me in the face, when I have no face?" And with that he placed his right hand onto Bart's face, causing the guard to scream in agony as suddenly the flesh on his face started to melt, sliding over his eyes and mouth, while his nose melted as well!
Finally the man let go of Bart, letting his body fall to the ground limply. Bart's flesh had now completely melted over his face, so that his "face" now resembled the figure's mask.
"I swear, even though I've seen you do that so many times already, it's still as disturbing as the first time Masque," a girl's voice said disapprovingly.
The masked man called Masque turned to see another masked person, this one a voluptuous, blonde female who was dressed completely in a tight black leather outfit, with high heeled boots. Over her hands she wore black leather gloves. Covering her face was a mask which had full lips where the mouth would normally be, and eyes with extremely long and thick eyelashes where normal eyes would be. She wore a belt, with various knives, guns and other weapons hanging from it. Fastened around her wrist was the same device that Masque had.
Masque shrugged, "We have much more important things to do than discussing my ethics Akroma. How much time to we have before the security goes back online?"
Akroma giggled. "Always straight to the point, as always Masque, you could lighten up you know. Maybe I could even help you with that if you wanted." She purred seductively, running a hand up her body.
Masque shook his head. "I know you're called the Blessed One, but maybe if I melted your face then it would be another blessing. Lord knows then you would be so hideously deformed that you would never hit on any male ever again."
"Don't even joke about that Faceless One!" Akroma pouted. "Anyways your name is such a misnomer! You totally do have a face; after all I've seen it!"
"Shut up! As the highest ranked member of the Shadow Hunters I order you to shut up!" Masque shouted.
"I'd like to see you try that!" Akroma countered. "If you give me one more order I'll make you faceless for real, without using Shadow magic!"
Suddenly their watches made a beeping sound. Both of them pressed a button on them and said "what Frost?"
"Um…this argument was pretty entertaining and all, but you two just killed three minutes with that little discussion of yours. So you have about 20 seconds before the security system goes back online and the alarms activate."
Both masked figures looked at each other sheepishly. "Well then…this is a little awkward," Masque said. "Fine Akroma and I will do this the old fashioned way. Frost, if anyone interferes with us deal with them."
"Consider it done," the voice on the other line replied. "I'll see you two in a bit then. Try not to cause unimaginable destruction will you? It's a pain having to cover it up." Then the line went dead.
"I'm assuming we're going to have to fight our way through now?" Akroma said, drawing two daggers from her belt.
Masque sighed. "Try not to have too much fun Akroma. After all we have a mission to do." Then his right hand glowed and a sword with a blade made of a black material appeared in it.
"Don't worry," Akroma nodded, as a deafening alarm started to ring. "I know what's at stake here."
TOP FLOOR OF ENDCHILD ENTERPRISES
Sitting in his office was Julian Endchild, CEO of Endchild Enterprises. He was only twenty two years old, with brown hair and a muscular build.
Endchild Enterprises was publically known as a leading power in the energy, technology, and weapon industries, which lead to it being more powerful and wealthier than any order corporation in the world. However they had one more thing that they did, that was kept from the public eye.
Julian fiddled with his tie nervously. Something doesn't feel right tonight…he said to himself.
Right at that moment a loud siren rang throughout the building. At that moment three black suited men ran into the office.
"Mr. Endchild sir, there has been a security breach!" One of the suits informed.
Julian narrowed his eyes. "It must be the Shadow Hunters. We have to protect the keys at all cost!"
"The Council has already sent reinforcements, they should be here quickly," another of the suits said.
Julian nodded, and then he opened a drawer in his desk, revealing a duel disk, with a deck of Duel Monsters cards already in the deck slot. He motioned to the elevator. "Let's go," he ordered the suits.
OUTSIDE OF ENDCHILD ENTERPRISES
Four black cars were heading towards Endchild Enterprises. In one of them was a brown haired boy dressed in jeans, a blue jacket, and a white shirt underneath, a duel disk on his arm.
"What's our ETA Myron?" He asked the driver, an extremely muscular man dressed in a black suit.
"Less than five minutes Harrison." Myron replied.
Harrison nodded. "We need to get there ASAP, the Shadow Hunters can't be allowed to get their hands on those keys!"
All of the sudden, giant icicles rose from the ground, spreading through the road like wild fire and impaling three of the black cars! An icicle appeared in front of Harrison's car, and when it seemed as though the car would crash into it, a blast of golden energy blew it to smithereens!
The driver stopped the car, turning to Harrison, whose eyes were glowing gold. "That was a close one Harrison."
He nodded, his eyes slowly returning back to normal. "Are the others alright?"
Both of them got out of the car and walked over to the nearest car, which had an icicle sticking straight through the roof of it. They looked through the window and saw the mutilated bodies of two suits and two boys carrying duel disks.
"Your friends didn't have the same reflexes as you I'm afraid," a cold voice said.
Harrison and the suit turned around to see a trench coated figure with blonde hair. He was dressed the same as Masque except that his trench coat, shirt and pants were trimmed with a light blue color. His mask was light blue, and made out of a crystalline substance so that it looked as though it was composed of ice. The edges of his mask were jagged.
"You did this!" Evan yelled, his voice filled with hatred. "How could you murder so carelessly?"
The figure shrugged. "I wouldn't say it was careless, I put a lot of effort in making sure my icicles were aimed precisely at the right spots."
Myron snarled drawing an automatic pistol. "You'll pay for killing them!" He fired numerous shots at the masked figure. Instantly the figure disappeared, the bullets just flying by where he used to be.
"Wha-?" The suit managed to get out, before the figure appeared right in front of him and punched the gun out of his hand. The suit recovered quickly, throwing a fist at the masked man, only to have it dodged. The figure grabbed the suit's still extended arm, and turned around, swiftly smashing the suit's elbow over the masked man's shoulder, snapping the arm completely! Then, while the suit's scream of pain still hadn't left his mouth yet, the masked man thrust his wrist into his throat, revealing a hidden blade.
Myron fell dead, as the masked man retracted his hidden weapon. Harrison looked at him, loathing etched on his face. He clenched his fists and then suddenly his eyes glowed gold and he fired a blast of golden energy at the masked figure.
The figure raised his hand, and it started to glow blue, causing a wall of ice to erupt from the ground, absorbing the attack. He lowered his hand, and the wall disappeared instantly.
"Not bad, but still not to my level," he chuckled.
Harrison scowled. "Then try this on for size!" This time the golden glow enveloped his entire body, and he fired an even larger blast of power at the masked person. The person just raised his hand again, and another wall of ice came out of the ground, absorbing the attack once again.
"Still not good enough," he laughed.
Harrison grinned. "Oh really? Take another look."
The masked figure looked at his barrier of ice, and then he gasped as cracks started to form in it! Then it shattered completely.
For a moment he looked at the remains of his wall of ice. Then he laughed. "Well I guess I underestimated you after all. For you to break my ice barrier, well you are quite the impressive little Shadow duelist aren't you?"
Harrison frowned. "I'm assuming that you won't let me by that easily, so I have a proposal for you Shadow Hunter. We have a Shadow Game, the loser loses his soul, and the winner obviously gets to do whatever they want."
The masked figure regarded Harrison for a few seconds. Then a duel disk seemingly made of ice appeared on his arm. "I accept your challenge."
Harrison nodded, activating his own duel disk. "My name is Harrison Smith; remember that name Shadow Hunter because I'll be the one who ends your terror once and for all!"
A dome of ice surrounded the dueling area, as Harrison gasped the Shadow Hunter chuckled. "In case my powers haven't given it away yet, you may call me Frost the Cold Hearted One, as it is my title in the Shadow Hunters. And you interest me Harrison Smith, so now show me your power!"
LOWER LEVELS OF ENDCHILD ENTERPRISES
Masque threw a knife at a suited man, hitting him in the chest, causing him to fall lifelessly to the ground. Another suit fired a shot at him, only for the masked figure to vanish then appear right behind him. The suit didn't even have time to turn around before Masque slit his throat.
Meanwhile Akroma leapt onto a suit who had just aimed his gun at her. She raised her gloved hand, and the suit's eyes widened as metal claws emerged out of the fingers. Akroma thrust her hand downwards, sending the claws into the guard's face.
Another guard fired his gun at her, only for her to spin sideways and take out her own gun from her belt. She fired a shot and he fell dead, a bullet hole right in his skull.
Masque walked over to her, as she replaced her weapon and retracted the claws in her glove. "There's a lot of security here," he remarked calmly.
Akroma shrugged. "Well I don't know about you, but I needed the exercise. Slapping cards on a duel disk is so easy, even a granny could do it! At least this way we don't get rusty."
"Shadow Hunters don't get rusty." Masque said. "We're almost at the keys so let's move."
The two masked figures walked over the bloody corpses of the security, getting into an elevator and going down it.
At the lowest floor of the elevator they got out, and stepped into a hallway, which led to the door of a gigantic vault. Both of them walked up to the door, inspecting it closely.
"Allow me," Akroma said, stepping forward. She took a square device from her belt and placed it on the door. As she pressed a button on it, the screen on the device turn on, numbers flashing through it rapidly. Within 30 seconds the door opened.
"Well, well, well, look at what we have here," Masque chuckled. "The famous Julian Endchild and more useless security."
Indeed, standing there was Julian, and three suits, their weapons trained on the two Shadow Hunters. Behind them was a silver box, placed on a metallic pedestal. "Nice to see you to Masque the Faceless One," Julian replied sarcastically. "And the lovely Akroma the Blessed One, this is quite the honor."
Akroma curtseyed. "You've done well for yourself Julian. All the money, all the power, most people wouldn't suspect that you guard something as powerful as the Eyes of the Cryak."
"I have to guard them from the likes of you Shadow Hunters," Julian said, his voice dripping with venom. "If anyone uses them, the Eyes of the Cryak will destroy all worlds, including this one!"
"You're a fool," Masque said. "You're blinded, just like the Shadow Council is."
"Oh really? You Shadow Hunters kill and destroy, the Shadow Council protects and regulates, considering you Hunters killed most of the people in his building I think my observation is correct!" Julian spat at them.
Akroma sighed. "We didn't come here to have a discussion about ethics with you Julian. We came for the Eyes, so please, step out of the way, or we'll make sure you're never able to take a step ever again."
"To hell with that! Kill them!" Julian ordered the suits. Before they could fire their weapons, Akroma disappeared for a few seconds, then she reappeared in the exact same spot.
"What are you doing? Shoot!" Julian yelled. Then he took a good look at the suited men, they were in the exact same position of almost firing their weapons. But a few seconds later gashes appeared on their faces, chests, stomachs, and throats, causing them to fall dead.
Akroma polished one of her daggers, wiping the recently acquired blood off of it. "Please Julian, give us the Eyes."
Julian grinned. "Unfortunately for you, I couldn't do that even if I wanted to. You want proof, go ahead and try."
"Enough of this!" Masque shouted, walking over to the box. Reaching for it, he stopped when his hand reached an invisible barrier. He tried a few more times, and each time his hand was constantly repelled. Finally his hand glowed with a black energy, and he slammed it onto the invisible barrier, sending a shockwave resounding throughout the vault, causing Arkroma and Julian to stagger back a bit. However, Masque's hand still couldn't penetrate the barrier.
He slowly turned to Julian. "What sort of enchantment have you done on the Eyes?" He said angrily.
Julian smiled. "I didn't do anything. The Council knew that eventually you Hunters would make your move, so they cast a powerful enchantment on the Eyes."
Akroma's mask glowed white for a moment. "Ah I see it now," she said. "The only way for us to get the Eyes now is to win them through a duel, against the assigned guardians of them. The question is who are these guardians that we have to beat?"
Julian frowned. "The Council gave me the task of deciding on who the guardians will be. There will be one for each of the 10 Eyes. However I didn't need to decide on them yet, since there were no attempts to take them yet."
"Hmmm, and I assume now that their safety has been compromised, you need to find the guardians now, or risk us breaking through this enchantment eventually," Akroma pointed out.
"Yes," Julian nodded.
"Then assemble your so called guardians Julian, and know that when you do, we'll hunt them down one by one and take the Eyes. Then we're coming for you and the Council," Masque threatened.
Masque and Akroma turned and walked out of the vault, leaving Julian to stand there amid the bodies of his dead bodyguards.
OUTSIDE OF ENDCHILD ENTERPRISES
A holographic coin appeared above the duelists. "I call heads!" Harrison declared.
Harrison: 8000 LP Frost: 8000 LP
The coin stopped on heads, so Harrison drew a card. "First I play Pot of Greed, which lets me draw two cards!" Harrison said, doing so from his deck. "Next I'll place one card face down as well as a card in defense mode. Your move."
Frost drew a card calmly. "Not bad, but I'll do something even better. I play Samurai of the Ice Barrier (ATK 1800, DEF 1500) in attack mode."
A samurai wearing blue armor and wielding a sword with a blade made of ice appeared.
"Before you do anything else," Harrison interrupted him, "I'll activate my trap, Jar of Greed! This lets me draw another card." Harrison grinned as he looked at it.
Frost shrugged. "Fine by me, now I'll attack your monster with my knight!"
The samurai leapt forward, cleaving the monster in half, which was revealed to be a Sangan (ATK 1000, DEF 600).
Harrison smirked. "Thanks to Sangan's effect, when it is destroyed I get to take one moster with 1500 or less ATK from my deck and add it to my hand. So guess what, I'll choose Exodia the Forbidden One (ATK 1000, DEF 1000)!" He said as he looked through his deck and showed Frost the card.
Frost laughed. "So that's the kind of strategy you're pushing. Alright then I'll set two cards face down and end my turn."
Harrison drew another card. "I'll play another card in defense mode, and place another card face down."
"Do you really think that defending will work against me?" Frost asked. "Sure you have Exodia, but I assure you he is nothing compared to what I have."
Harrison smirked. "If I have all the pieces of Exodia in my hand, it won't matter what you have."
"Fair enough, so how about I summon Cryomancer of the Ice Barrier (ATK 1300, DEF 0) in attack mode." Frost said as a man wielding a staff with a crystal made of ice appeared.
"I don't know how that's going to help you," Harrison said. "I know that when you have another Ice Barrier monster out then all level 4 or higher monsters can't attack. But that's more a detriment to you than me here."
Frost nodded. "In his case my cryomancer is a liability, but you forgot to mention that he is a Tuner monster."
Harrison's eyes widened. "Tuner?"
"Let me show you," Frost said. "I tune my level two Cryomancer of the Ice Barrier with my level 4 Samurai of the Ice Barrier to summon Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier (ATK 2300, DEF 1400)!"
The Cryomancer transformed into two blue rings, which passed through the Samurai of the Ice Barrier, turning the rings into six glowing stars. Suddenly a beam of light enveloped the Samurai, and it disappeared. In its place was a giant blue green dragon, hovering above the field.
Harrison stared at it in awe, "So this is one of those Synchro summons I've heard so much about…"
Frost continued. "When Brionac is on the field, I can discard any number of cards from my hand, to return the same number of cards from your side of the field to your hand. So I'll discard two cards to return your two cards back to your hand!"
Brionac glowed, and icicles burst from the ground underneath where the holograms of Harrison's cards were, sending them flying back to his hand.
"Now I'll attack you directly, go Brionac, Frozen Blast!" Frost ordered.
The dragon opened its mouth and fired shards of ice at Harrison, hitting him and embedding themselves into his flesh. He staggered back, blood already starting to leak from the wounds.
Harrison: 5700 LP Frost: 8000 LP
"I end my turn, so make yours, if you're able." Frost laughed.
Harrison pulled a shard of ice that was deeply embedded in his abdomen. "Okay…" he panted. "So that was pretty painful. But I have no plans to lose to you!"
Harrison drew a card and looked at his hand. "I play Graceful Charity! This lets me draw three cards at the cost of discarding two." Harrison swiftly did so. "Next I'll play the spell card Painful Choice!"
Five cards appeared in front of Frost; Left Leg of the Forbidden One (ATK 200, DEF 300), Right Leg of the Forbidden One (ATK 200, DEF 300), Left Arm of the Forbidden One (ATK 200, DEF 300), Card Destruction, and Mystical Space Typhoon.
"Here's how it works, I choose five cards from my deck, and out of those you choose one. Then I get to add that card to my hand while the rest go to the graveyard." Harrison explained.
"Hmm," Frost said thoughtfully. "I choose Left Arm of the Forbidden one."
Harrison nodded, adding the card to his hand while discarding the other cards. "Next I'll place three cards facedown and one monster in defense mode. Make your move Hunter."
With my facedown Backup Solider, I'll be able to add both the Left and Right Legs of Exodia in my graveyard to my hand, Harrison thought to himself. And with my two facedown Break the Seals, I'll get to add the Right Arm of the Forbidden One (ATK 200, DEF 300) from my deck to my hand! All I have to do is activate my traps on his turn and I'll win!
Frost drew a card calmly. "I'll play…"
"No you don't!" Harrison yelled. "I activate all three of my traps, Backup Solider and two copies of Break the Seal!"
"Fool, I activate my facedown card, the continuous trap called Trap Freeze!" Frost countered.
As Harrison's three facedown cards revealed themselves, they were suddenly encased in blocks of ice! "What is this? What have you done to my trap cards?" Harrison gasped.
Frost laughed. "When I activate Trap Freeze, all of your trap cards are disabled. However they remain on the field unless they are destroyed. Of course if you destroy my Trap Freeze then your traps will activate as normal and I'll lose 1000 life points for each trap my Trap Freeze froze. But I don't think you're capable of destroying it right now are you?"
Harrison frowned. "But that means…I can't summon Exodia!"
"Of course you can't. I know with Backup Solider you would have gotten those two pieces in your graveyard, and with Break the Seal you would have gotten the last piece of Exodia in your deck. But now at the very least I've delayed your strategy, and at best I've just won the duel!"
"It's not over yet!" Harrison said determinedly. "I still have cards to play, and Exodia isn't my only weapon!"
"Bold words; let's see how long it takes for you to take them back. I discard one card from my hand to return your monster back to your hand." Frost said, discarding a card.
The icicles sent Harrison's monster card back to his hand, leaving him wide open for another attack.
"In case you weren't scared enough Harrison Smith, I still have one card in my hand so I'll summon it go Shock Troops of the Ice Barrier (ATK 1500, DEF 800) in attack mode!"
A soldier covered in a blue cloak and wielding a fancy looking blue spear appeared on the field.
"Shock Troops, attack him directly!" Frost said to the soldier. He nodded, running at Harrison and plunging the spear into his abdomen. Harrison fell to one knee, clutching the wound, some blood leaking out of his mouth.
Harrison: 4200 LP Frost: 8000 LP
"I'm not done yet, Brionac attack him again!"
The dragon once again fired shards of ice at Harrison, sending him to the ground, where he lay motionless, ice shards protruding from his body.
Harrison: 1900 LP Frost: 8000 LP
"It looks like I was wrong about you Harrison Smith, you're strength is still nothing compared to the Hunters," Frost sighed.
"Don't…bet…on…it…" Harrison said, slowly getting off of the ground. There were still shards of ice embedded all over his body, and his stomach wound was bleeding profusely. He coughed, blood splattering over the ground, but he still mustered the energy to glare at Frost.
"You have heart, I'll give you that much," Frost complimented. "But heart alone won't win you this Shadow Game."
Suddenly the communicator on his wrist beeped. "Frost, there's been a changes of plans, abort the mission and rendezvous with us now!" Masque's voice said.
Frost shrugged. "Fine I'll be there shortly, Frost out."
The communicator turned off, and Frost looked at Harrison. "Well Harrison Smith, it seems as though you won't lose your soul today after all. If you're smart, you'll never see me again. Then again you seem like the emotional type so I think we will meet again very soon."
"What? No we still have a duel to finish!" Harrison snarled, as Frost seemed to melt into the ground, the ice dome surrounding the field shattering.
Harrison turned around, looking at the destroyed cars and bodies of the rest of his team, the icicles having disappeared along with Frost. He clenched his fists as he looked at the devastation, he didn't expect Julian to walk up beside him and place a hand on his shoulder.
Harrison looked at him, surprised. "Mr. Everchild?"
Julian nodded. "Call me Julian. I see your team had its own problems."
"We couldn't make it in time, did they take the Eyes?" Harrison asked.
Julian shook his head. "That's what I'm here to talk to you about."
Basketballdude51: To any of my old readers, Rise of the Shadow Hunters will be a rewrite of my old (and incomplete) story Yugioh: Rise of the Shadow Knights. So if any of you old readers recognize some characters or themes, then that would explain why. I took all of the criticism into consideration as I planned this rewrite out, and I assure you this story will turn out much better! And to all of you new readers, I hope you enjoy the story!
In the next chapter, Julian observes a familiar duelist from Duel Academy face off against another powerful duelist. Will any of them become guardians of the Eyes of Cryak? The story officially starts in the next chapter: Clash of the Titans!