Author's Note: So as it turns out, I was able to finish the latest assignment for my online class a lot sooner than I thought I would. So without further ado, here's the next chapter.
Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL.
Chapter 4: Brimstone
Cleo and the others had decided to stop and take a break before the ruined castle to have a late breakfast, which many of them had failed to have before leaving on the boat. As they ate in the shadow of the large bronze statue of Sonja, Cleo couldn't stop trying to figure out why the statue had her face. One theory Cleo had was that the statue was some elaborate scheme of Dante's to mess with her head. The only problem she had with that theory though was that the statue also had a very familiar symbol carved on it. And it didn't seem likely to Cleo that Dante would know anything about that particular emblem.
"Am I the only one who thinks it's weird that the hunk of metal we're eating under looks like Cleo?" Thomas asked, breaking the long silence that had been hanging over the group since they sat down to eat.
"I'm just as shocked as all of your." Dante told them. "I've studied long and hard on the legends of Sonja the Scarlet Empress and I never had any idea that she bore any resemblance to Cleo."
"Maybe Cleo is Sonja's reincarnation." Iris theorized. "It wouldn't be the first time we came across something like that."
"The Crimson Dragon!" Michael suddenly spoke, getting everyone's attention.
"The what now?" a confused Thomas asked.
"That symbol that's carved on the statue's stomach." Michael explained. "I've been trying to remember where I've seen it before. This one book I read once talked about a sort of deity called the Crimson Dragon. The seal of the Crimson Dragon is what's carved on the statue."
"We find an old statue that looks like someone we know and you focus on a carving?" Thomas asked.
"Now, now Thomas. Your brother may have found a clue about what we've just found." Byron pointed out.
"I've heard of the legend of the Crimson Dragon as well." Kazuma revealed. "Most of the legends say that the dragon's a protector of Earth and often chooses a group of people called Signers to help carry out its work."
"It's no legend." Cleo suddenly revealed. "I guess I might as well show you all now."
With that, Cleo took her jacket part of the way off and revealed her bare right arm to the others. On her forearm was a prominent red mark resembling a pair of wings.
"So you got a tattoo. Big deal." Thomas indifferently responded.
"It's not a tattoo, you dolt." Cleo told him as she put her jacket back on. "It's more like a birthmark. Of course I'm not really sure it can be called that either."
"That mark looked like the wings of that dragon symbol on the statue." Rio quickly realized.
"It's one of the marks of the Crimson Dragon." Cleo explained. "Those of us who have them are called Signers. As Mr. Tsukumo just said, they're a group of humans who're chosen by the Crimson Dragon to help protect the world from evil. Each Signer is marked with a different part of the dragon. I have the wings, and my cousins possess the marks representing the other parts of the dragon."
"How long have you been one of these Signers?" Rio asked.
"My cousins and I were chosen by the Crimson Dragon about two years ago to help fight a powerful enemy that had risen." Cleo explained. "I've been one ever since. Before me, my father was the Signer who bore the wings of the Crimson Dragon on his arm."
"So does this mean that Sonja was one of these Signers too?" Iris asked.
"I honestly have no idea." Cleo replied. "The only one I know who has the full seal of the Crimson Dragon is my younger cousin, Robin. But she has it on her back."
"This does shed some light on another part of the legend of Sonja." Dante interjected. "It's said that Sonja ended up as a slave because she had been born with a mark that people at the time thought was a sign of evil. But if the legends of the Crimson Dragon are indeed true, than it seems that those ancient people were mistaken. For all we know Cleo, we may be looking at a statue of an ancestor of your and your father's."
"Whatever." Cleo responded.
"Well, in any case we may be able to uncover the mystery behind this statue during our search for what we came here for." Dante assumed. "For now though, let's save this matter for another time."
Brimstone watched the group through a pair of binoculars from atop a nearby hill overlooking the castle. Splicer meanwhile was lounging on the ground, leaning back against a large rock.
"Well, is our target there?" Splicer asked.
"Oh yeah, she's there alright." Brimstone confirmed with a grin. "There's also some younger girl there who looks just like her, but with green hair and different eyes."
"Does Fairbanks want us to catch her too?" Splicer asked.
"If he does, he'll have to pay us double." Brimstone replied as he put away the binoculars. "These kidnapping gigs are hard enough with us having to nab just one person. I'll stick with catching the blue-haired girl."
"I can help, if you want." Splicer asked.
"Nah, I think I can handle this on my own." Brimstone told him. "Seems like a pretty easy job. Probably won't take me more than four or five minutes."
"Whatever." Splicer replied.
"Just sit back and take it easy." Brimstone told him. "I'll be back in a flash."
As Cleo and the others began to pack things up and begin their exploration of the castle, they suddenly heard the loud noise of what sounded like an engine. The looked and saw Brimstone speeding towards them on the back of a motorcycle with a front end styled to look like a dinosaur skull that had browned with age. The masked man laughed manically as he came toward them.
"What the hell's going on?" Thomas wondered.
"That motorcycle he's on looks like a D-Wheel!" Cleo noticed.
"Let's rampage, Jurrac Velo!" Brimstone called out as he placed three cards on the duel disk consul of his vehicle.
Suddenly appearing to run alongside Brimstone's vehicle were three identical creatures that resembled velociraptors. They all had light-green bodies with blue feet and hands and red heads that showed off the features of their skulls. The three raptors picked up speed and ran towards the group and began to shoot fireballs at them. One of the flaming projectiles struck an old pillar and caused it to break in half.
"What the… how can he summon monsters to do real damage?" Michael asked.
"Damn! He's a psychic duelist!" Cleo realized.
As the raptor pack split up the surround the group, one of them shot another fireball that went straight for Rio's head. Cleo saw it coming and quickly pushed Rio to the ground to get her out of the way. The fireball continued past them to hit the ground. Meanwhile as Rio and Cleo fell, Cleo hit the side of her forehead on the side of a fairly large rock.
"Cleo!" a concerned Rio called as she tried to shake her awake. It was clear that she was out cold.
Meanwhile, Brimstone's three dinosaurs suddenly vanished almost as soon as they had finished surround Cleo and the others. Brimstone stopped his vehicle and began to walk towards them.
"Well damn! Looks like I got a little carried away again." Brimstone spoke as he approached. "Wouldn't be the first time, I guess. But if I had accidentally killed the girl I was supposed to nab, I wouldn't get paid."
"Who the hell are you?" Thomas demanded to know.
"The name's Brimstone." The masked man replied. "And I'm here to take that girl there." He then pointed at Rio.
"Why are you after me?" Rio demanded to know.
"Hey, I'm just a hired gun." Brimstone replied. "The guy who paid me didn't say why he wanted you, and in my line of work I've learned not to ask too many questions."
"You won't get away with what you're trying to do!" Dante declared.
"As if you chumps could do anything to stop me." Brimstone scoffed.
"If you're after Rio, than you're gonna have to get through me!" Thomas declared.
"You wanna take me on, punk?" Brimstone asked. "Fine with me. I might as well have a little fun while I'm here. Let's do this!"
With that, Thomas activated his D-Gazer tattoo while one of the red lenses of Brimstone's skull mask turned yellow. The others activated their D-Gazers as well and the color of the surrounding area quickly changed. As soon as Thomas and Brimstone activated their duel disks, they were ready to begin.
"If you don't mind, I'll start this party off." Brimstone declared as he drew his first card. "First I activate the Spell card, Fossil Dig to add a Dinosaur monster to my hand. And now I'll summon that very same monster to the field in Defense Mode. Say hello to Jurrac Stauriko!"
Materializing on Brimstone's side of the battlefield was a fairly small blue and green dinosaur with a long neck and tail. On its back were three ridges made of red flames.
"That ends my turn." Brimstone announced.
Meanwhile as the duel progressed, Dr. Faker went over to check on Cleo. Rio was finding it hard to concentrate on the duel with Cleo unconscious.
"Is Cleo going to be okay?" Rio asked.
"As far as I can tell, she's just been knocked out." Dr. Faker answered. "She should wake up in a bit."
"Cleo got hurt trying to protect me." Rio spoke as a tear came to her eye. "I'm not sure if I could take it if anything happened to her."
Back in the duel, Thomas drew his first card. "I summon Gimmick Puppet Egg Head in Attack Mode!"
Appearing on Thomas's side of the battlefield was a strange-looking marionette with a red egg-shaped body and a face on the front. It had slender white arms and legs, and on top of its body was a piece of brown hair that could be considered a fancy wig.
"What the hell is that thing?" a noticeably disturbed Brimstone asked. "That monster of yours is as creepy as hell!"
"I activate Egg Head's effect!" Thomas announced. "By discarding one card from my hand, Egg Head can inflict 800 points of damage!"
Egg Head's mouth opened up and fired a single fireball at Brimstone. The masked duelist was hit in the chest by the projectile and his life points took a slight drop to 3200.
"Now I activate the Spell card, Junk Puppet!" Thomas announced. "With this card I can summon another Gimmick Puppet from the Graveyard. Say hello to Gimmick Puppet Dreary Doll!"
A large black chest resembling a coffin appeared on the battlefield next to Egg Head. The lid of the box came off, and sitting up inside it was a doll that looked like a little girl with curly blonde locks wearing a blue dress. The doll looked Brimstone and the word "mama" escaped its mouth.
"Geez! That's thing's creepier than the egg toy!" Brimstone declared. "You trying to give me nightmares or something?"
Thomas's lips curved into a sinister grin. "Oh, I'm gonna give you a nightmare alright. It's been awhile since I've had to do this, but I'm gonna show you my fanservice."
"Whoa! I haven't seen that look on Thomas's face in a long time." A somewhat unsettled Michael declared. "He's not going to hold anything back in this duel."
"I activate the Spell card, Level Doubler!" Thomas announced. "With this card I double Egg Head's level from four to eight! Now I overlay the level eight Egg Head and the level eight Dreary Doll to Xyz Summon Gimmick Puppet Noble King!"
A large swirling vortex appeared in the middle of the field and Thomas's two doll monsters were pulled in after being turned into balls of orange energy. Rising out of the center of the vortex a moment later was a large mechanical doll made to look like a king. It had an oversized head with a jaw like that of a ventriloquist dummy. Its styled hair was painted to look grey, and atop his head was a tiny gold crown. The puppet had on what looked like a sequined blue coat with a white shirt with frilled cuffs. In his right hand, he carried a large sword, and orbiting around him were two balls made of yellow light.
"Noble King, take out that dinosaur monster!" Thomas commanded. "Royal Trick Sword!"
With a mechanical motion, the puppet king raised his right arm and his upper body rotated slightly to the left. His body then swung back and his arm came down. As soon as it did, the blade of the sword extended and cut Brimstone's monster in half.
"No problem. When Stauriko is destroyed, he leave two Jurrac Tokens in his place." Brinstone announced.
At that point a pair of fairly large green eggs appeared on Brimstone's side of the battlefield. The eggs instantly hatched and two infant versions of Stauriko came out.
"You may get two tokens, but I also get to activate Noble King's effect!" Thomas announced. "When Noble King destroys a monster in battle, I can detach one overlay unit to inflict 400 points of damage for the total number of cards in our Graveyards. Once I detach that overlay unit, we'll have a total of four cards in the Graveyard, which means you take 1600 points of damage!"
One of the balls of light orbiting the puppet king went into the top of the crown on his head. The king's mouth opened up and a cannon barrel extended out. Noble King fired a single shot from the cannon at Brimstone. Half way through the air, the projectile exploded and turned into four small missiles that bombarded the masked duelist. When the smoke cleared, Brimstone's life points had fallen to 1600.
"That ends my turn." Thomas announced.
"You know… you're not half bad." Brimstone admitted with a small chuckle. "You and I seem to share the same style. Don't like those creepy-ass dolls of yours though."
"Just make your move already!" Thomas told him.
"Oh, I'm gonna make a move alright. And it's gonna blow you away!" Brinstone declared as he drew his next card. "I sacrifice my two Jurrac Tokens to summon one of the baddest monsters in my deck! Say hello to Jurrac Titano!"
A massive pillar of red flames suddenly enveloped both of Brimstone's infant dinosaurs. The flames soon subsided to reveal a massive creature that resembled a dinosaur almost similar to a t-rex. Its torso was covered in dark-grey scales that resembled dried magma, and on its stomach was a glowing hot line of molten lava. Its head, arms and feet were all red, and growing from the back of its head were several red spikes. The creature's size was so large that it towered over Thomas's monster.
"Right now Titano has 3000 ATK, 200 points more than your creepy puppet king." Brimstone continued. "But by banishing Jurrac Stauriko from the Graveyard, Titano's ATK goes up by 1000 until the end of the turn!"
A ghostly image of Stauriko flew over the field and went into Titano's body. The line of lava on the giant dinosaur's body began to glow even brighter and it let out a mighty roar.
"Titano, make that puppet king extinct!" Brimstone commanded. "Jurassic Meltdown!"
Titano opened its jaws and let loose a massive stream of molten flames that struck Noble King and caused the top half of his body to explode. Thomas's life points took a drop to 2800.
"So much for your creepy-ass doll king." Brimstone remarked.
"Actually, this looks like this is the end for both of us." Thomas told him.
"When Noble King is destroyed by my opponent, the bomb hidden inside his body activates." Thomas revealed. "That bomb destroys all cards on the field and we both take damage equal to Noble King's original ATK."
"But your king had 2800 ATK points, and you only have 2800 life points left!" Brimstone realized.
"Yep. That means we both lose." Thomas confirmed.
The remaining part of Noble King exploded and destroyed Titano in a blinding flash of light. When the light faded, the life points of Thomas and Brimstone were both at zero. As the duel was at an end, the color of the surrounding area returned to normal.
"You wanna go another round?" Thomas dared.
"Nah. I'm done with this crap for now." Brimstone decided. "But I'll be back! Later, chumps!"
Before anyone could react, Brimstone threw a small smoke grenade from his pocket. As everyone coughed from the smoke they could hear the masked duelist drive away. By the time the smoke finally faded, Brimstone was long gone.
"Looks like he got away." Michael observed.
"Why the hell was he even here in the first place?" Thomas wondered. "And why was he after Rio?"
"Brimstone said that someone had hired him to abduct Rio." Dante recalled. "Apparently he's some sort of paid assassin."
"That brings up the even bigger question though of who would want to abduct Rio." Byron pointed out.
"If you'll all excuse me, I'm going to try and contact the authorities in Obsidian City." Dante told them. "Maybe they can give us some help with this matter."
Brimstone reached the top of the hill to find Splicer standing and watching the group below. Splicer turned as Brimstone dismounted his D-Wheel and walked up.
"That could've gone a hell of a lot better." Splicer noted.
"Ya think?" Brimstone sarcastically replied. "No one told me I'd be dueling a guy who used monsters that looked like the bastard children of Dark Necrofear!"
"C'mon, they weren't that bad." Splicer told him. "But that guy you dueled was pretty good. He could even be a pro. Looks like Fairbanks forgot to mention a few things when he told us about this job."
Suddenly Brimstone's mask began to ring, as did Splicer's visor. Both of them pushed a small button on the sides of their headgear and an image of Dante appeared before their eyes.
"Apologies, gentlemen." Dante told them. "It seems there was a small oversight on my part."
"Dammit Fairbanks, why didn't you tell us that there were some hotshot duelists protecting this girl?" Brimstone demanded to know.
"At the time, I didn't realize who some of Rio's companions were." Dante explained. "Have either of you heard of a duelist known as IV?"
"I have." Splicer answered. "He's supposed to be pretty good."
"You saying that doll boy is that IV guy?" Brimstone realized.
"Indeed he is." Dante confirmed. "I didn't realize who he really was until he used those Gimmick Puppet monsters of his."
"Are there any other hotshots in this group we should know about?" Splicer asked.
"The only other duelist in the group who could pose a threat is the daughter of Jack Atlas." Dante answered. "But she shouldn't pose too much of a problem."
"I knew this job was too damn easy." Splicer declared.
"It seems we're going to need a new strategy." Dante decided. "Meet with me later tonight so we can discuss our new plan of attack."
"Only if you agree to pay us a hell of a lot more!" Brimstone told him.
"Don't worry, Mr. Brimstone." Dante replied. "Money is no object when it comes to my plans."
Author's Note: As far as characters go, Brimstone is actually one of my older ideas. He sort of came to be one day after I had finished reading about the Jurrac monsters on the Yu-Gi-Oh! Wiki. Originally I was going to try to work him into a 5D's story, but he ended up in this one because I needed Dante to have a couple of henchmen. So far Brimstone hasn't turned out quite like I had originally envisioned though. Brimstone being creeped out by the Gimmick Puppets is pretty much a reflection of how I've always felt about them. If the Gimmick Puppets were Fiend-type monsters, they'd be perfect cards for Yami Bakura.
On that note, I ended up having to come up with some new Xyz Monsters for Thomas to use in this story. The only Gimmick Puppet Xyz Monsters that he had used in the anime were Numbers. But since this story takes place two years after the anime, using those cards was pretty much out of the question.
Please review and let me know what you think.
