Disclaimer: No I do not own Yugioh.

Vanguard Generations

Chapter 10: Something completely different

The sound of footsteps echoed down the dark alley as a young man of about twenty-three years of age walked across the dark concrete, the moon hanging his head like a reminder it was too late for people to be walking the streets. He had long brown hair that was tied up in a ponytail, and a pair of fierce ice-blue eyes. Pulling his coat around his body to ward off the coming chill of winter, he sped up his pace a little bit as he walked down the alley. When he reached about halfway down the alley, he turned to look back the way he had come. "You've been following me for the last ten blocks…is there something you wanted?"

A dark form stepped out into the soft moonlight. It was a dark-bearded man wearing a black coat. On his arm was a black duel disk, the material pushing away light as if it hated it. "You're very perceptive to notice me that quickly."

"Any particular reason you were following me?"

The bearded man rubbed at his chin. "Don't try and hide your true identity, Vanguard." He pulled back the wrist of his coat to reveal a black wristband with some dark red symbols etched in it.

The man tilted his head to the side a little bit, looking perpetually amused by a joke only he knew about. "Oh? Has even this Duel City become a place for the civil war between the three sects of the Vanguards?"

"Indeed it has, and I know about every member of my sect that is here. And you're not one of them…" The man's deep voice echoed down the alley, sounding like it belonged to a great warrior. "Bring out your deck, outsider."

"Outsider?" The man chuckled and brushed back some of his hair that was hanging over his ear. "Actually, my name just happens to be Kuruske, but then again I guess you don't really care." He reached into his overcoat and pulled out a portable duel disk that he strapped to his arms, its body folding out to reveal a full duel disk system. "Anyway, since you won't let me go without a fight I'll just have to humor you. However, it will be a Vanguard duel, so I hope you don't intend to remember what it's like to be a Vanguard after this duel ends!"

"You haven't even seen my deck yet and you're already talking trash like the game is yours…you will fall to the hands of the mighty Amun!"

Kuruske- 4000

Amun- 4000

Kuruske seemed to be moving as he drew, air blowing around him and moving his coat. "I begin, draw!" He glanced at the drawn card and nodded. "I place one card face-down on the field, and then I'll summon my Giant Rat (1400/1450) to the field in defense mode!" A giant grey rat appeared in play, its large paws sitting atop a skull. "End turn."

Amun's huge hand placed two fingers onto his deck. "Before I begin, just what sect are you part of? Are you part of the Humanity Cross…or maybe a member of the New Century…"

"Enough questions. Were you here to interrogate me or beat me?" Kuruske spoke evenly, though he still had that bemused look on his face.

"Defeat you!" Amun drew. "I summon my mighty Death Kaiser (1800/1500) to the field!" A black-armored demon with a long forearm blade strapped to each arm appeared on the field. "Your Giant Rat, if destroyed in battle, lets you special summon a monster from your deck with an attack of 1500 or less that is an earth attribute…"

"Thanks for the explanation, you saved me some trouble." Kuruske shrugged innocently. "You can just not attack then, and I could take my turn."

"What makes you say that?" Amun slowly took a card from his hand in between his index and middle finger, its back to Kuruske. "I just wanted to let you feel a moment of hope." He turned his hand so the card he was holding revealed itself. "Share the Pain forces both players to sacrifice a monster." Death Kaiser and Giant Rat both vanished in a flash of light. "And when my Death Kaiser is sacrificed, I can draw two cards."

Sliding two more cards off of his deck, he slid one of them into the graveyard and then held up one of the cards in his original hand. "I activate Return of Tribute. This card, by discarding one card from my hand, will return a monster that was sacrificed to the field until the end of the turn." A shadow formed on his field, and when the blackness faded his Death Kaiser was revealed. "Now you're in for it…direct attack with Blades of Darkness!" The demon howled and charged right at Kuruske, blades up to strike.

Kuruske crossed his arms across his chest and smiled calmly. "Is that so?" His face-down card flipped up and his Giant Rat reappeared on the field. "A beautiful beast to you, I say. Animal Kingdom's Superiority revives one monster from my graveyard with an animal's name in its title." Then the Death Kaiser's blades slashed right through the Giant Rat, blowing it apart.

Amun snarled and crossed his massive arms across his chest. "Well, what are you waiting for? Hurry and summon your monster."

"Patience is a virtue, wise men say." Kuruske removed a card from his deck and placed it onto a monster zone on his disk. "I special summon Delivery Catroid White (1000/1000) to the field in attack mode." There was a flash of light and a curious monster appeared on the field. It was about three feet tall, and was wearing an odd outfit that seemed kind of like armor, but not really. It had a box strapped to its back as well, and it was a…humanoid cat with brown fur?

Amun just stood there, jaw hanging open in amazement. "W…W…"

"Is something the matter?" Kuruske crossed his arms across his chest. "Or have never seen an Animalroid before?"

"You…you would mock me with such a bizarre monster?" Amun slammed his right foot into the earth and then slammed a card into his disk. "Go Mystic Wok!" Death Kaiser shimmered away, and he drew two more cards.

Kuruske- 4000

Amun- 5800

Kuruske whistled in amazement. "Five card draws in one turn…you must be desperate then?"

"Fool, you'd mock me for drawing extra cards." Amun slid two cards into his disk. "I place two cards face-down on my field and then activate the magic card Black Heart. One demon type monster in my graveyard will be special summoned to the field!" Death Kaiser reappeared once more in play. "End turn!"

Kuruske sighed and made a little exaggerated helpless motion with his hands. "You're a hopeless cause." Then he drew. And his short little mechanical cat did the strangest thing…it ran off the field and out of sight.

Amun just stood there, his right eye twitching. "What was that?"

Kuruske caught a card that was spat out of his deck. "During the standby phase of one of my turns where I have one my Delivery Catroids in play and you have a monster in play that's stronger than it, I may send it to the graveyard to add a special monster card from my deck to my hand." Shuffling his hand a little bit so Amun didn't know which one was the added card, he waved his hand out across the field. "Ready for my attack?"

"I'm prepared for anything you've got." Amun knew that his two face-down cards were more than powerful enough to stop anything this foolish duelist had.

"Then here it comes!" Kuruske opened his field magic card slot and snapped up his duel disk-wearing arm so that he could both show the card he was about to activate and activate it at the same time. "Field magic card, Secret Headquarters!" From behind him a giant building formed. It looked like some kind of old Edo era Japanese building, except that it had all different kinds of high tech gadgets all over it.

Amun gaped up at the building, slightly intimidated by such a strange structure. "What does it do?"

"It allows me to summon some assistance, but before such a powerful group of warriors would appear, there must be a threat worth summoning them for." He slammed a card into his disk. "Activate continuous magic card, Threat upon the City! This card only works if you have a monster in play. I can now special summon my ultimate fighting force from my hand to the field!" He threw a card down onto his disk and the building behind him shuddered and began to change. A large cannon-like structure pushed free of the building's body and aimed towards the Death Kaiser. "Launch!" There was an explosive blast of white smoke, and a white fireball crashed into Amun's field, sending up dust everywhere.

The giant man coughed and covered his face with a hand. "What is the meaning of this? I'll…" He was cut off by a powerful laughter that came from everywhere at once. "What's going on?"

"When danger threatens, the heroes are called in!" The voice yelled out, and the dust settled to reveal the same white Catroid from before. But something was different about it…its once non-existent armor was replaced by a powerful suit of much stronger armor, and it had a katana strapped to its belt, though the fact that it was still only three feet nothing didn't make it incredibly intimidating.

Kuruske smiled wistfully. "A beautiful evening, wouldn't you say, Super Catroid White?" (2300/1600)

"Indeed it is, though I don't think our shadow loving friend would agree with us on that." The little mechanical humanoid cat pointed at the Death Kaiser. "Not that it matters, because even in the pitch of darkness I'll be able to stop you…because good always triumphs over evil!"

Amun sneered coldly. "Then come and prove it."

"Super Catroid White, attack Death Kaiser with Saber Slash!" The robot cat leapt through the air towards the demon, sword drawn menacingly.

"Reveal Death Slash! When a demon type monster on my field is attacked, I can destroy the attacking monster!" A blast of energy flew from the trap card and struck the mechanical monster like a black wave…which was parted with a single swing of the cat's little blade. "What?"

"Did I forget to mention that when Super Catroid White is targeted by a trap card, that trap is negated." Kuruske sighed as the Death Kaiser was chopped down. "Silly me."

Kuruske- 4000

Amun- 5300

Kuruske took a card from his hand and gingerly slid it into his disk. "I'll place a card face-down on the field and then I'll end my turn."

Amun snarled and drew, then pointed at his other set card. "Reveal Call of the Haunted, which will revive my Death Kaiser." The black demon rose up out of the ground silently. "And now I'll tear your silly strategy apart! Familiar Summon!" He snapped up a card and his Death Kaiser exploded. "Emerge now, my partner!" A black shape formed out of thin air and lowered to the field. It was a dignified-looking man wearing a black tuxedo. "Alfred of the Black Family comes." (1700/1300)

Kuruske pursed his lips and rubbed at his chin. "My, what a strange fellow you've summoned. He looks to be rather harmless, so I'd say…"

"That's where you're very wrong…because when he is summoned he can destroy one monster in play and add that monster's attack to his attack." A blast of black smoke slammed into Super Catroid White and blew it apart. (4000/1300) Amun drew two extra cards and pointed at Kuruske. "Take this, Dark Smoke Doom!" A blast cloud of smoke rushed towards the young man rapidly.

"Reveal Trap Reflector." Kuruske's card flipped up. "I can take a trap card from your graveyard, and my choice is Call of the Haunted to revive my Super Catroid White!" There was a flash of light as his monster reformed on the field just in time to catch the blast of black smoke that shook its body. "At the time that my monster would be destroyed in battle, I can pay 1000 life points to negate the destruction." His entire body shuddered as he took a hefty chunk of damage.

Kuruske- 1600

Amun- 5300

Amun grimaced. "What a stubborn bastard." Sliding two cards into his disk, he pointed at Kuruske. "Alright, I place two cards face-down and end my turn. Now hurry up and summon your Guardian."

Kuruske drew the top card off of his deck. "You're not a very clever duelist, are you? You can't even see you're about to lose?"

"What?" Amun narrowed his eyes. "What are you babbling about?"

Kuruske sighed and held up a card. "Why bother explaining? I activate the magic card Heroic Stance. When I have only one monster on my field, I may increase that monster's attack points by 1500 until the end of the turn." (3800/1600)

"That isn't enough to beat my Guardian…" Amun sneered…

"So hopeless." Kuruske held up another card. "Alright, then I suppose this card is useless as well?"

Amun blinked at the shown card. "W…what is it?"

"It's called Chivalrous Spirit, and it can only be activated when I have a Super Catroid monster in play." Kuruske smirked slightly as energy flared along his monster's body, and the tiny little mechanical warrior took a warrior stance, blade held with both hands. "It's about to end for you. When my Super Catroid White's spirit of chivalry is at its full, he tends to get a bit…angry."

The short mechanical creature glared at Alfred with anger easily evident in its eyes. "You, who would so easily take a life…unforgivable!" A second sword appeared in his hand and he slammed the blades together, lightning flaring from both of them.

"His ultimate technique comes out…and that powers him up by double." Kuruske closed his eyes. "Sorry villain, but you're finished!" (7600/1600)

"Overkill…." Super Catroid White snapped up its sword and then brought them down, a huge yellow crescent exploding from the blades. "Cat's Eye Slash!"

"Overconfident fool, reveal face-down trap card!" Amun got ready to watch the monster explode, but instead his face-down card faded into nothing. "What?"

"When you try to stop the final blow of a hero, you pay. Chivalrous Spirit, during this turn, prevents you from doing anything trap or magic wise to stop the attack. And any attempt to do so simply removes the activated card from the game!" Kuruske snapped up the last card in his hand. "Limiter Removal doubles my monster's attack power by double!" (15200/1600)

The crescent slashed right through the black-suited. He gasped and bent over, eyes wide…and then he dissolved into nothing as an explosion of powerful white light erupted from underneath him.

"Alfred!" Amun screamed in horror, right before his vision was stolen by the white light that had destroyed his Guardian.

Kuruske- 1600

Amun- 0/Vanguard Status Nullified

Kuruske turned and walked away from the kneeling and unconscious Amun. "You've lost, and therefore you'll live the rest of your life free from the rest of this madness that all Vanguard's are forced into." Right as he stepped out onto the street, his eyes widened slightly as powerful pressure pushed against him for a moment. He blinked at a passing taxi cab in amazement. ("What was that powerful energy I sensed?") Turning, he ran after the vehicle as quickly as he could.

To be continued…

To Raine Vindicare: Thanks for the warm return, and sure.

To Darksoulkai: He isn't quite to the tournament yet.

To John: Maybe it did, and maybe it didn't.