I'm back!
So, if anyone's been wondering about a new chapter, I've just been working on other projects. As far as updates go, I'm still gonna try to update this story as much as I can, because I'm having a lot of fun writing this, and because I wanna make this project be as awesome as I can make it. But I will not be able to update every 2-5 days like back when I started writing on this site, but I will try to update at least once a month, if not more.
So, if you find that you wanna read more, and I haven't updated this story in a long while, there are three possible scenarios. Either, 1: I'm dead, 2: I'm really busy, or C: I have REALLY bad writers block going on (this one being the most unlikely of the three. Have you seen the stuff that goes on in my mind!? When I'm asleep, I dream of wrestling T-Rexes inside of Volcanoes, for crying out loud!).
But other than that, I'll be trying for regular updates on all of the projects that I wanna work on.
So, with that out of the way, ON WITH THE NEW CHAPTER!
Janine stood there, in the small alleyway, waiting to see what her opponents would do to her. She wasn't sure how it happened, but she ended up almost getting mugged, and now she was surrounded by about 10 guys. Keeping her fists close to her face, in a similar manner to a boxing stance, she readied herself for a fight.
Three charged at her at once, the first of them throwing a punch, which was caught by Janine, who then hit him with a right hook that sent him straight to the ground. The next of the three had a similar method, and was taken down as well, this time by way of double leg takedown. And the third of the three idiots was no smarter, and she ended up kicking him to the ground. The guy clutched his stomach, and said "God damn! Those big legs can kick!" To this, she chuckled.
She had particularly big hips and thighs, and had legs looking similar to Chun-Li's from 'Street Fighter'. But, like Chun-Li, it was because of how muscular her legs were. It was times like that, she was thankful Yuna had talked her into taking weightlifting class last year.
But she didn't exactly have time to reminisce on how Yuna had helped her. She was fighting, and that was what's important now.
At least once she realized they were trying to rush her again. Bracing herself, and preparing to counterattack, she was certain she could do this. Until of course, the muggers had thought to rush her, instead of going one at a time.
For a normal person, this would have overwhelmed them, but luckily, thanks to Janine's skill as a fighter, she was able to keep up with the ten, until of course, one of them snuck behind her, and caught her in a full nelson, while another hit her in the stomach with a baseball bat. It hurt a lot, and the pain only kept coming.
The mugger with the bat continued to hit Janine in the stomach, to the point where she felt like she was about to vomit, or cough up blood (she wasn't exactly sure which). She thought she would have to find a way out, but apparently she didn't have to, as she heard a voice behind her.
"I can't leave you along for 30 minutes, can I," the voice said, sounding cocky, and quite familiar. Looking behind her, she saw the trademark smirk of Brandon, with his shades covering his eyes, and his hands in his pockets.
"Now, gentlemen," Brandon said, obviously trying to talk down the muggers, "Can't we solve this without the need fo-" But he was cut off, as another of the muggers hit him in the back of the head with a similar baseball bat, and then dropped said bat and tried to stab him with a knife. That was the biggest mistake that mugger could have made, and he didn't even realize it yet.
Brandon caught the knife between he finger and thumb, while his other hand was still holding onto the back of his head, and stared at the mugger with annoyance in his eyes. "You know," Brandon said, his voice hoarse, and his anger evident, "A blow like that could kill a normal dude. So you must have attacked with intent to kill." The guy quickly realized his mistake, but was too shocked to do anything.
"I was GOING to let you live. But now, I think that's passed."
Before the guy could even react, Brandon snapped the blade of the knife, with only the two fingers he had on the knife, and stabbed the guy in the back with it. "Anyone else got the guts to try?"
Two more muggers approached Brandon, being stupid enough to think that rushing him was a good idea. They were quickly proven wrong as Brandon took them down effortlessly, performing a backflip, and kicking both men in the jaw at the same time. Even Janine was impressed, and she was busy fighting her own set of idiots.
"Now," Brandon said, "I'm gonna give you guys one last chance to give up, and walk away breathing." And it was easy to tell by the tone of his voice that he was 100% serious. But sadly, they just thought it was another bluff, taking their attention from Janine, and all nine of the remaining ones charged at him. It was a slaughter…
And they were the ones being slaughtered…
Brandon had hit one with a spinning hook kick, knocking him out, and quite possibly snapping his neck from the sheer force, and then moved on to another, grabbing his arm, and snapping it almost effortlessly, and then stomping on his head. Two more approached, and he slammed their heads together, making them hit each other so hard that they started bleeding absurd amounts. Two more approached, and Brandon slammed one into a wall, and the other into the ground, likely killing them both with one move. And one final one approached, who Brandon snapped the neck of as if it was nothing.
All that was left were two muggers, who were now smart enough to FEAR Brandon, instead of trying to attack him. "You two have five seconds to run away, before I leave you two for the coroner to find. One… Two…"
If it wasn't clear by the expression on their faces that they were scared of Brandon, the fact that their pants were now wet would attest to how afraid they were.
"Three…"
The two muggers turned on their heels, and ran as fast as their legs could carry them, but it still wasn't enough. Because when Brandon got to five, he pounced. He ran past them, jumping in midair, and grabbing the back of their heads. And when he landed on his feet, the two moron's had their heads embedded into the ground, only for Brandon to pick them up, and slam their heads together, with twice as much vigor as he did with the two before.
And as an added bonus, he had left a completely dumbstruck Janine there, unable to believe what she had just saw.
Brandon looked over, and said "What? Is there something on my face?" Internally, he actually knew why she was so shocked, but he figured he might as well act all innocent. Knowing Janine, she was going to say what was so crazy about the situation. Which she did.
"What was THAT!?" She exclaimed, "Where did you learn how to fight like that?" All he did was smirk and say, "I could ask you the same thing."
"Well… I learned from my grandpa. He taught me everything I know. You?"
Brandon looked down for a moment, and a nostalgic smile came to his face, just out of the view of Janine. "You might say," He said slowly, "That I was inspired by a legend. Someone who not only fueled my drive to become a great fighter, but to become a great Duelist…"
*BEEP!BEEP!BEEP*
Janine pulled her phone out of her pocket, noticing she had received a string of texts from Kano. "Well, well," She said, "Looks like Kano's facing someone called the 'Ultimate Gambler'. Sounds like a match I wanna see! You coming or what?"
"Sounds like fun."
To say that being challenged by 'The Ultimate Gambler' (as the guy called himself) was high on the list of things Kano expected to happen today would be a lie. But regardless, that was his current situation.
('The Ultimate Gambler's LP: 4000)
(Kano's LP: 4000)
"I'll go first," Kano said calmly, drawing his card, "By setting a face down, and ending my turn."
The 'Ultimate Gambler' laughed, before saying "That's a weak first move, little man. I thought you said you gambled. Loved to take risks and what-not." And then continuing to laugh.
He barely saw Kano smirk, confident in his 'weak first move'. But he did see it, and it annoyed him. "Fine then, little man," He said, "Let me show you a real first move. I'll play the spell card Scapegoat, to special summon 4 Sheep Tokens, and then use the Trap Card, Big Win!"
(4 Sheep Tokens appear on the field. ATK: 0)
Kano was confused. "What does Big Win do," he asked, "I don't think I've heard of that one."
"Just more proof you aren't a gambler. But allow me to expla-"
But sadly, Kano was already looking it up on his D-Pad, so the man didn't even get the chance. "Okay, I get the gist of it. So you call a level, we each toss a coin, and if both heads, then all your monsters become said level."
"That's about it."
"Then let's get on with it."
"Agreed, and I choose the Level 12!"
"Uh…"
And with that, two giant holographic coins appeared in the air. As each one flipped high up into the sky, the anticipation was exciting them both, as if the entire duel rode on what the coins landed on…
And in a sense, it kind of did…
Both coins had finally crashed to the ground, and the result was clear. Instead of two 'heads' symbols, like the 'Ultimate Gambler' was expecting, it was two tails symbols…
"Oh… well then. At least I still have four Sheep Tokens to defend my Life Points."
"Uh…" Kano said, "Your Life Points are gone."
"What?"
"Yeah,' Kano replied, "If both coins are tails, then you lose Life Points equal to the level you chose times 500."
"Wha- No! You lie!"
"I do not. Read it and weep."
And it was clear by the look on his face that he had realized the truth.
(The Ultimate Gambler's LP: 0)
It was at this point that Brandon said the first thing since the duel began. And all he said was "Whoo boy! A One-Turn Suicide! I didn't think such a thing was possible."
"Neither did I," Replied Kano, before looking to the 'Ultimate Gambler', "What did you even need four level 12 monsters for anyway?" And all the guy did was pull out an Xyz Monster from his extra deck, by the name of 'Cxyz Beast of Legend'.
And at this point, Xerxes, Kano's 'Black Magician', appeared out of nowhere, and had only one thing to say:
"We will be taking those two cards, as you are clearly incapable of using them properly."
"Wha-No! That is NOT how that works," The man said as he pulled out a handgun and pointed it directly at the back of Kano's head. In response, Kano did a spinning hook kick, knocking the gun straight out of his hands, and sending it to Brandon, who caught it, popped the bullet in the chamber, and then proceeded to break the gun over his knee.
"And in exchange, I give you these two rare Gambling Cards, as well as these three rare monster cards. If you want to be the 'Ultimate Gambler', like you claim you are, then I would recommend you start out small. I hope that's a fair trade. But let's get ONE thing clear…"
Suddenly, Kano seemed to change. It was a subtle changed, but not one unnoticed by Brandon, or by the man. It was Kano's eyes…
They had turned pure blood red…
"If you pull a gun on me again," Kano said, his voice quiet, and sounding shaky (but not in a shy way; more in a mentally unstable way), "I won't be as merciful as I am now. We were having fun, until you decided to threaten me…"
The guy began to back away, the five cards in his hand, and the only thing he was willing to say was "Okay. I'm sorry," Before walking away slowly.
It was only then that Kano's eyes returned to their usual amethyst color. "Whoa," Brandon said, awestruck at what transpired "Since when have you been so intimidating?"
"I… don't know…"
Later on that same day, Kano had went back to Yuna's uncle's house, hoping to see his best friend there. Once he entered the house, he saw the wild blonde hair of Aaron and the messy black bedhead of Jabari. Looking over, he saw the two sitting at a table, and talking about Duel Monsters strategies, but no sign of Yuna anywhere. This seemed especially odd, considering that Yuna was so excited about seeing them.
"Hey," Kano said to the two younger boys, "Have either of you seen Yuna?" The two shook their heads, before Aaron said "Not since last night. We saw him wander out of the house at about 9, and then come back at about Midnight."
To this, Kano nodded. Yuna often got to bed early, liking to be up early, and make the most out of the day from the very beginning. 'And it's funny,' Kano thought, 'Because Elaine sleeps like a rock. Well, that and I've heard she's a blanket hog.' But quickly, he realized he was forgetting what he was trying to do. Getting back on topic, he asked the two, "Well, did you happen to see where he went?"
"No," they both replied, before Jabari told him, "But when he came back, he had a bunch of gold pieces with him. They looked like a puzzle of some sorts."
"A puzzle, you say?"
The three children looked back and saw that Marik was standing there with a ladle in one hand. "How much did you hear, Grandpa," Aaron asked, and Marik answered with, "I've been listening in since you said something about Yuna leaving. I knew he had, but I had no idea he had returned around midnight. What happened when he returned?"
"Well," Jabari looked to his great uncle Marik, and told him, "He wrote down a quick note, saying that we aren't allowed to mess with the pieces, and then he went to sleep. But before he did, I got a glimpse of his left eye, and it was purple… Kinda like Kano's but a little more… confident."
"Is that the case," Marik inquired, crossing his arms, and stroking his beard, "Well, I'm not sure what to make of that. Yuna may be the kind who loves to explore, but he's not the type to go off doing something secretive in the middle of the night. Do you three think you can go find him?"
"Wait," Aaron asked, "Why does Kano have to go? Yuna's our cousin."
"Because he's going to regardless of if I say anything anyway. And Yuna's practically his brother already."
No one was able to disagree with that statement…
Having no more objections, along with taking along their D-Pads, and their Dueling Decks, the three boys headed out to search for Yuna. And knowing how many crazy things Yuna got into, this was going to be one hell of a day for them…
Yuna wandered aimlessly out in the desert, his duel disk on his arm, while he was holding a golden trinket in one hand, and a small piece of gold in the other. Taking a look at the intricate shape of the piece, as well as the voids in the trinket, he was able to deduce where this piece likely went. Taking it, and placing it where he thought it would go, a smile formed as the piece fit snugly into place, and he grabbed another one out of the pocket of his hoodie.
Yuna had made the assumption that these pieces were part of a puzzle this morning, and has been considering every option for putting it together since. Now, in any normal situation, he would've wondered why his body went after the pieces (as he knew that he 'blacked out', and likely went to find all of the pieces he has), while he was out searching for an opponent, but right now he was too engrossed in solving the puzzle to worry about it.
So far, since he had left this morning, he had managed to almost completely put it together, so he could tell it was in the shape of an upside down pyramid, and had a rusty chain attached to the top of it (which he would likely have to change soon), looked to be made of pure gold. 'It looks very nice,' Yuna thought to himself, 'Almost like…'
"This is the Millennium Puzzle," Marik said, "But why would a creature that looks like you have that? Only the Pharaoh had the connection to such an item…"
Yuna stopped dead in his tracks, having a sneaking suspicion that what the puzzle he had nearly completed this day was the same item around the neck of his card, 'The Knight with Five Souls'…
Taking the remaining two pieces out of his hoodie pocket, and placing one on a corner, and the other in the center; the only remaining place without a piece. And when he did, he saw something that struck him as familiar, despite the fact that he had never seen it:
He saw the Eye of Wdjat…
And he saw that it was indeed the Millennium Puzzle…
"Well well," Yuna heard a voice say, suddenly fearing for his life, "So the boss was right. You do have the puzzle!"
Looking over to his right, he saw the voice, one of whom was in front of a lake, and the other of whom was leaning on a palm tree. Yuna looked at the puzzle, and then back at the men, realizing he had wandered out to the Millennium Fields, and didn't even realize it. But that was not what was important. What was important was the two men.
The one in front of the lake was the shorter man, looking to be in his mid-20s, with a buzz cut, and a five o'clock shadow, dressed in a black cloak. The one leaning on the palm tree was the taller of the two, looking to be in his late-20s, possibly early-30s, with a similar buzz cut, and a bushy beard, and dressed in an identical black cloak. And they both shared a look of arrogance, that showed they wanted to hurt Yuna.
"What do you guys want," Yuna asked, placing the puzzle in his hoodie pocket. The two began to approach, but Yuna stood where he was, but not of his own free will. "We want to duel," the shorter one said, "But it will not be any sort of duel. It will be a Shadow Duel!"
Yuna was frozen in place, for whatever reason, as if hearing 'Shadow Duel' was striking a certain nerve. "And why do you think I would accept," Yuna asked. The older of the two told him, "Because a Shadow Duel can't be refused. If you do, your soul will be banished to the Shadow Realm."
"Oh…" Yuna was extremely dishearted by this fact, "Then I suppose I'm forced to fight one of you?"
"Both of us, actually," The shorter of them said, "But there is an added risk and reward to this challenge. If you win, you get a card from each of us, but if you lose, we get your Dueling Deck."
"An entire deck for two cards? Hardly seems worth the risk, but I suppose there's no way to back down."
"Oh, but it's actually pretty worth it," the taller of the two said, "Because we can offer any two cards in the world. Ask, and you will receive, but only if you win. And if we can't offer you the cards, that is one of the only cases where you do not have to accept. Now speak."
"Very well then… I guess I'd like Thunder End Dragon, and Lucius, Ranger of the Silver Divines."
And there it was. He had requested two cards that he was certain they would never have, because of how rare they were. First off, 'Thunder End Dragon' was one of the rarest dragon-type Xyz monsters in existence, and secondly, only five copies of 'Lucius, Ranger of the Silver Divines' existed. There was no way they would have them…
"It's a deal!"
The two held up the exact cards that Yuna had been thinking of, and he knew that meant he had to accept their challenge. But before he did, he felt something run through his mind, saying 'put on the puzzle. You need to do so.' And not feeling like he should disagree with this inner voice (considering that it has never led him astray), he took out the puzzle, put it around his neck, and said, "I accept your challenge."
"Very well then," the shorter of the two said, "You may call me Grey, and my associate is known as Raven. Now with introductions out of the way, let us begin." With that said, Yuna activated his duel disk, while the other two activated theirs. And all it took was two little words:
"LET'S DUEL!"
(Yuna's LP: 4000)
(Grey's LP: 4000)
(Raven's LP: 4000)
"I'll be starting us off," Yuna said, drawing his card, "And I'll start by discarding my Silver Divine: Disciple of Sin, to draw two new cards." And doing exactly that, he saw that he drew the exact card he needed. "And I'll start by playing The Knight with Five Souls!"
(In a flash of brilliance, The Knight with Five Souls appears on the field, with five orbs of energy orbiting around him. ATK: 1600/DEF: 1200)
"And I choose to activate the special ability, and make it unable to be destroyed by battle."
(An orb of amethyst colored energy enters the creature's Millennium Puzzle, and its left eye turns a similar shade of purple.)
"And with that, I set two cards face down and end my turn."
"Very well then," Grey said, drawing a card, "I'll start by playing Banner of Courage! Now all of my cards gain 200 attack points during the battle phase. And next, I'll summon Deceitful Swordsman in attack mode!"
(A figure wearing a black hood, and wielding a scimitar, appears. ATK: 1300/DEF: 1000)
"And next, I'll use its special ability to summon another 'Deceitful' monster from my hand. For example, a second Deceitful Swordsman!"
(A second 'Deceitful Swordsman' appears, and nods at the first. ATK: 1300/DEF: 1000)
"And next, I play Double Summon, and summon my Moon Envoy!"
(A man in blue, samurai-esque armor, wielding a crescent pike, appears. ATK: 1100/DEF: 1000)
"And here comes the fun part! I now overlay my three monsters! With these, I build the Overlay Network…"
The three monsters were turned into orbs of energy, and entered into the vortex that appeared on the ground. And out of it came a pillar of light…
"To Xyz summon Gigas Blade Warrior!"
(A very tall and muscular warrior, dressed in dark armor, and wielding a massive single edged sword, appears. ATK: 2600/DEF: 0)
"And with that, I set a face down, and end my turn. Your move, Raven."
The taller of the two, now known as Raven, drew a card, before stating his move. "I'll start by playing the trap card 'Call of the Common', and by paying 1000 Life Points, I can special summon every copy of my Big Shield Gardna."
(Raven's LP: 3000)
(Three warriors with long black hair, kneeling behind very large shields, appear. ATK: 100/DEF: 2600)
"And next, I'll play Dian Keto the Cure Master, to bring my life points back to 4000."
(Raven's LP: 4000)
"And I think that a massive shield would go nicely with the massive blade Grey summoned, so lastly, I overlay these three monsters…"
Once again, the vortex appeared, and the three monsters turned into energy, and entered it. And just like last time, a pillar of light came out of it…
"To Xyz summon Gigas Shield Warrior!"
(Another very tall and muscular warrior, dressed in dark armor, and wielding a massive black shield, appears. ATK: 0/DEF: 2600)
"And with that, I end my turn. Your move, Yuna."
Upon seeing the two massive warriors on his opponent's field, he noted his own monster, and looked to his hand to assess the situation. He was now up against two massive creatures, and in a Shadow Duel nonetheless. 'I know this is a big risk,' Yuna said, 'And I was probably stupid to accept the challenge, but I can't show weakness… I'm strong, and I won't lose to them!'
So Yuna stood his ground. And while he couldn't see it, his left eye was glowing, like a white flame. He did not know it, but he was ready for anything these two 'Shadow Duelists' could throw his way.
To be continued...
And now, I am finally getting into the more serious stuff! Starting here begins the start of the 'Egypt Arc', and I got to get to a lot of things this chapter. The thing I am happiest to have gotten to was the fight scene at the beginning. So, if anyone's wondering about that, I'm making this a little more like the Manga, where it was more violent, and characters were allowed to fight without the freaking dub people censoring everything (and that's why I'm glad that my buddy Thunderoller gave me the character of Brandon to work with)!
I also got to get to a certain thing involving Kano, as well as getting to have quite a few character interactions that were good. And now, we've got a duel going on, and an epic storyline (at least I think is epic) is beginning.
Also, speaking of Thunderoller, I'm giving a shout out to his fic 'Yin Yang Chronicles'. It's a story that I'm helping out on, and it's based on our characters that we created, as well as them traveling across the multiverse. So if you like characters traveling to multiple worlds, extreme violence, and all that kinda stuff, then I reccomend giving it a look. Right now, it's only on like... chapter 4, I think (as I post this chapter of course), but it will be amazing once it's done.
And now that I've done that shameless advertisement... CUSTOM CARDS!:
Deceitful Swordsman (DARK, Level 4, Warrior/Effect, ATK: 1300/DEF: 1000): When this card is normal summoned successfully, you can special summon 1 'Deceitful' monster from your hand.
Gigas Blade Warrior (EARTH, Rank 4, Warrior/Xyz/Effect, ATK: 2600/DEF: 0): 3 Level 4 monsters. Once per turn, during either player's turn, you can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card; increase this card's ATK by 500 until the end of the turn.
Gigas Shield Warrior (EARTH, Rank 4, Warrior/Xyz/Effect, ATK: 0/DEF: 2600): 3 Level 4 monsters. Once per turn, during either player's turn, you can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card; increase this card's DEF by 500 until the end of the turn.
Next Time: Yuna vs Grey and Raven! The battle continues!