Hero Brother, Barely Known: Axel Powell Brody

Greetings again, GX fans! My goodness! This little set of fics has quickly become my most-reviewed collection! I'm honored! You now have made a peach wookiee turn a lovely shade of pink! Anyway, I love your reviews so keep sending them in, and if you're so inclined, please review my other fics! Thanks to all of you!

So now we come to Axel Brody. I'd love to know if any of you can guess the significance of his middle name. It's special, but not because of its meaning. Axel is yet another character whose background hasn't been fleshed out, but we do know something about him. He's another army brat whose father is dead (seemingly on a mission with Viper) and he likes fire-type monsters. I thought of a different plot point for Axel, though and it probably violates canon completely. Axel is going to have a brother who served with the Army Rangers. This isn't going to be a happy fic, but it's definitely a brother story…

This story is respectfully dedicated to our soldiers who have fought and died for our freedom.

Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh GX or the US Army. I just know somebody whose son served as an Army Ranger in Afghanistan He came back home safely.

Axel Powell Brody ran through his backyard and his personal obstacle course, though he called it his training area. At the tender age of six, he knew exactly what he wanted to be when he got old enough…He wanted to be a dueling soldier. Yes, you heard right. Axel Brody wanted to be a soldier and he also wanted to be a duelist. He wanted to play the wildly popular game, Duel Monsters, and be great at it. About a year or so previously, strange things had happened and Duel Monsters had actually roamed the earth. When Axel found out that the monsters were real, he hoped that one of the dragons flying around would home in Osama Bin Laden and eat him for breakfast (leaving a little evidence, of course, that the terrorist leader was now dragon chow).

Little Axel made that wish because his older brother, Asher, was stationed in Afghanistan, fighting the War on Terror. Asher was an Army Ranger, a member of a very elite group of soldiers. They were in the mountainous region of the Middle Eastern nation, searching for the evil man that had ordered the attacks on America when Axel was just a baby. Asher was 19 when Axel was born, and the War on Terror had just started. Occasionally, Asher got to come home and see his parents and baby brother, but mostly, Axel grew up seeing his brother through pictures and videos. And because Axel's dad was also in the military, the little boy grew up idolizing both men. Perhaps this was why he wanted, more than anything, to be like his brother and dad, and was now running through his personal training area.

Axel ran through an obstacle course of tires, crawled underneath an area covered over in an old volleyball net, and then worked on climbing up a climbing wall his dad had helped him build. He always had trouble with the ropes, but on this day, he made it over the wall. I wish Asher could see me right now, the six-year-old thought, smiling. Someday, I'm going to be in the Army Rangers just like you, big bro, and maybe you'll be home when I do!

Axel then decided to take a rest and climbed into his tree house. He had a great view of his neighborhood and the front yard as well. He picked up his "rations," a bottle of water and a granola bar, and munched. His mom was inside the house making lunch while his dad was in the garage, tinkering with a project. Axel then noticed a shiny black car coming down the road. "I wonder who that car belongs to," he said to himself, picking up a pair of children's binoculars. He looked at the car's plates. "One of ours," noting that it was a government vehicle.

He climbed down from his perch, and got into the house. "Mom, Dad, I just saw a government car. I wonder who's coming?" His mom and dad had come into the living room to sit down for a bit, and they didn't have time to answer him because the doorbell rang. Mrs. Brody went to the door and outside stood a young man in a US Army uniform. He was carrying a flag folded in a triangle. Even before the young man opened his mouth, Axel knew what had happened. His hero, his brother had been killed in action.

YGOYGOYGOYGOYGOYGOYGOYGOYGOYGOYGOYGOYGOYGOYGOYGOYGOYGOYGO

Years passed. Axel continued to train, but now his training was more determined. And then his father was killed. And later, he had to fight for his own life at Duel Academy West and Duel Academy Central. He found some fighting brothers at Duel Academy Central, and decided before he went back to West Academy to take his new friends to meet his brother…

"Hey, Asher, hey, Dad," Axel said, saluting their graves. "I wanted you to meet my buddies. This is Jaden, Syrus, Bastian, Chazz, Jim, Jesse, Alexis, Blair, Hasselberry and their duel spirits and Shirley the crocodile."

"Hi, Mr. Brody, hi, Asher. I'm glad to meet you guys. I just wish I could've met you when you were here," Jaden Yuki said, stepping up to the graves and talking as if it was the most natural thing in the world. "My mom's up there with you, so maybe you guys meet up and talk about us. Axel's a great guy and a good friend."

Then Syrus stepped up. "Hi, Mr. Brody. Hello, Asher. Thanks for serving our country. I…I wish I was brave like you…"

"You're braver than you think, Syrus," Bastian Misawa said. "And Mr. Brody, Asher, I can tell you were inspirations to Axel. He is a good man and good warrior."

Each of the kids said hello to the late Brody men and saluted. Tyranno Hasselberry saluted and played "Taps" for the late soldiers. They bade goodbye to their fellow fighting brothers and left together.

I hope you all enjoyed this story of Axel and his brother. I think Axel is an only child, but for the purpose of this story, I wanted him to have a brother that he looked up to. Read and review…