Chapter 12: Poisonous Petals

Yuri was sitting on a ledge overlooking one of Duel Academy's many gardens. He was reminiscing about recent events. Having escaped from Duel Academy once again, this time to the Synchro Dimension, he had decided to watch the tournament called the Friendship Cup, when the voice that had always been in his head decided to be louder than ever, leading to a period of time where Yuri had little recollection of. As far as he could remember, he had stolen a 'Duel Runner' as they were called, and then had intruded on the duel between the two competitors who had a striking resemblance to him. After that, his memory truly restarts when he was being held by a man claiming to be from an organisation called 'Sector Security' who was trying to handcuff him for who knows what. A quick elbow to the stomach and manipulation of the momentum generated by said strike later, and he had escaped, quickly returning to the Fusion Dimension, and thus, Duel Academy.

Not long after he had returned, he was taken to the Professor's throne room, because that is what it was, and was scolded even harder than when he escaped to Standard. He had intended to bring back the girl that the Professor was after to lessen said scolding, but due to some interference, he had been unsuccessful in that endeavour. Taking his Starving Venom Fusion Dragon out from his extra deck, he started to muse out loud,

"Oh, Starving Venom, why must the Professor force us to do this? For how much longer?"

The response from his dragon came swiftly. He was used to this. All his life he had heard the spirits of his cards, none louder than his Fusion Dragon.

'I'm not sure master,' the dragon rumbled, 'Hopefully soon we can be reunited with my brethren, and those doppelgangers of yours.'

Yuri sighed. He'd been expecting an answer like this. Returning Starving Venom to his extra deck, he jumped down from the wall, startling a few students who were in the garden. He made his way back to his room, 'No, prison cell', he reminded himself, and sat down on the plush bed, removing his deck from the deck holder, and spreading the cards over the mattress, then noticing something strange. A few of his cards had changed since he last looked over it, which had been before his escape. Now his Predaplant Bufoliculia and his Predaplant Spider Orchid had a weird border, half the effect monster orange-brown and half the teal of a spell card. That wasn't the strangest thing though. They now had another text box, flanked with two gems with a 0 and 8 above them for Bufoliculia and Spider Orchid respectively. The card typing box now said that they were also 'Pendulum' monsters. 'Pendulum. Where have I heard that before?' Yuri thought before remembering the reports that the spies Sora and Dennis had made, both making reference to a new summoning mechanic, Dennis even having some cards of his own. Apparently, the Professor had later requested to borrow the pendulum cards from Dennis, allegedly to study them for deployment in the field. Yuri vaguely remembered the explanation on how it worked, as he had been there, by the Professor's side, when those reports were made. 'So, if I place these cards on either end of my Duel Disk's blade I can summon as many monsters from my hand as I like, as long as their levels are between the numbers on the gems? Thus, I can summon from levels 1 through 7?' Yuri asked himself, before picking up his cards, and heading out of his room to challenge a random duellist to a duel to test out his new cards.

A few hours later.

Yuri had been searching for an opponent for a few hours now. It turns out that when the public sees you as the Professor's left-hand-man, the honour of right-hand-man going to a creepy guy called the Doktor, they get scared and don't wish to accept your challenge. Yuri, not wanting to resort to this, decided to call out "If someone doesn't accept my challenge, I WILL card each and every one of you!". This, of course, worked, and soon a small crowd had appeared for Yuri to choose from. He picked a meek looking boy who didn't seem like he'd be a challenge and readied his duel disk to duel the boy, named Michael, who replied in turn.

"Let's duel!" Both boys called, starting the duel.

Yuri: 4000 LP

Michael: 4000 LP

Turn 1: Michael

Wanting to test his new monster's power to the fullest, Yuri had allowed his opponent to go first. "I will start things off by activating the Union Hangar field spell! This allows me to add my Y Dragon Head from my deck to my hand. Then, I activate my Frontline Base continuous spell, which allows me to summon my Y Dragon Head from my hand!" A red dragon appeared on Michael's field as the surroundings got a lot more mechanical, doors marked A through Z towering into the sky.

Y Dragon Head: Level 4, Union, 1500 ATK

"Due to Union Hangar's effect, I can now equip my Dragon Head with the Z Metal Tank in my deck, giving my dragon an additional 600 attack points!" A yellow creature appeared, attaching to the dragon, increasing its strength.

Y Dragon Head: 1500 ATK - 2100 ATK

"I now play a face-down and end my turn!"

Turn 2: Yuri

'That's strange, usually Union duellists end with either XYZ or ABC on their field. Did he get unlucky?' the poisonous duellist thought, drawing a card and starting his turn,

"I shall set the pendulum scale with my scale 0 Predaplant Bufoliculia and my scale 8 Predaplant Spider Orchid! Now I can pendulum summon monsters from my hand, as long as they aren't higher than level 7! Bloom, poisonous flowers! I pendulum summon!" Yuri called placing his cards how Dennis had demonstrated and called his plants to the field. As the light generated died down, his Predaplant Moray Nepenthes and Predaplant Ophrys Scorpio appeared, ready to serve their lord.

Predaplant Moray Nepenthes: Level 4, 1600 ATK

Predaplant Ophrys Scorpio: Level 3, 1200 ATK

"Due to my Scorpio's effect, I can discard my Predaplant Chlamydosundew and summon my Predaplant Darling Cobra from my deck! This will allow me to search my Polymerization from my deck!" As his third monster appeared, a copy of the spell card was ejected, Yuri adding it to his hand.

Predaplant Darlington Cobra: Level 3, 1000 ATK

"Now I activate my Spider Orchid's pendulum ability allowing me to destroy your face down! Then I activate 2 spell cards, Polymerization, and my Predapendulum Fusion! This allows me to fusion summon using the monsters on my field, and also using the monsters in my pendulum zones! I fuse the monsters on my field to create my Predaplant Triphyoverutum and the monsters in my pendulum zones to fuse the monster that has only the most poisonous of blooms, the vicious, venomous and voracious, Starving Venom Fusion Dragon!" The two portals bloomed on his field, unveiling a dragon with three heads and claws filled with poison, as well as his ace monster, the various mouths on its body hungry for the life points of its master's opponent.

Predaplant Triphyoverutum: Level 9, 3000 ATK

Starving Venom Fusion Dragon: Level 8, 2800 ATK

"Now my Fusion Dragon will gain the attack points of your Dragon Head!" Tentacles jumped out from Yuri's ace, latching on to monster on his opponent's field, stealing the attack points of the monster.

Starving Venom Fusion Dragon: 2800 ATK - 4900 ATK

"Now I attack your Dragon Head with my Triphyoverutum! Predator's Pruning!" a miasma of poison emerged from the heads of Yuri's second dragon, quickly engulfing the monster, however, due to the effect of the equipped Z Metal Tank, only it was destroyed, which both Yuri and Michael knew well.

Y Dragon Head: 2100 ATK - 1500 ATK

Michael: 4000 LP - 3100 LP

"Now I attack with Starving Venom! Venomous Drenching!" A second miasma emerged, spewed from Starving Venom, and it dissolved the opposing Y Dragon Head with ease, also defeating the Union Duellist, winning the match for Yuri.

Michael: 3100 LP - 0 LP

Almost as soon as the duel field disappeared, two Obelisk Force soldiers appeared, telling Yuri that the Professor had requested to see him, and that they were here to take him there. Yuri dejectedly obliged, knowing exactly what the Professor was going to ask him.

Having been forced into a kneel, Yuri looked up at the throne where the man who he had grown to hate sat. "Yuri," the Professor said, his voice still as smooth as ever, but a hint of condemnation betraying the way he spoke, "Would you please tell me why you used some pendulum cards, and more importantly, how you got them."

"Well, Professor, sir," Yuri started, making sure to lace his voice with the discontent that filled him, "I merely was looking through my deck earlier today, and I noticed that a few new cards had appeared, or even changed, and I decided that I had no choice but to test out my new toys."

"Only the Lancers, our enemies have pendulum cards," the Professor informed Yuri, "How do I know that you didn't defect from me and join them?"

"Because I would never! You know that I am loyal to you eternally!" Yuri said, hoping that the Professor couldn't tell that he was lying. Yuri would love more than anything to defect, especially if it meant that he could escape the prison of Duel Academy.

"Yuri, you know I trust you, and thus I'll allow you to keep those pendulum cards, but if you escape again, I might very well have to card you, assuming, of course, that you return," The Professor sighed, "You are dismissed." And with that, Yuri was escorted out of the audience chamber, the conversation ironically increasing his urge to escape permanently, the plans already running through his head, Starving Venom also returning the sentiment.

After returning to his room, Yuri quickly put up the disguises around it to make it seem like he had gone to sleep, as after all, it was rather late, and he pulled up the maps of Duel Academy that he had saved to his duel disk, pulling out Starving Venom's card so that his dragon could help him.

After a whole sleepless night spent studying the plans of the Academy, Starving Venom interjecting to make a point every so often, Yuri had successfully mapped a route that would get him to the dimensional transporter with the least risk of being seen, especially since all his previous routes would be unavailable due to increased security. He got a surprise, however, when an Obelisk Force soldier knocked on his door at about 7 AM, informing him that his presence was required in the Professor's chamber. Rubbing sleep out of his eyes, and quickly grabbing a coffee, Yuri packed up his stuff, and headed to the all-too-familiar room, where he was surprised to see two young women, one with silver hair, the other with golden hair, but both with the same striking eyes, also in the chamber. "Yuri," The Professor greeted, "I'm sure you are aware of the work that the Tyler Sisters here have achieved in the Xyz Dimension." He gestured to the women, the silver haired one waving somewhat energetically, while the golden haired one just looked in his direction,

"We recently detected a spike of energy in the Xyz Dimension. A level of Xyz energy that we haven't seen before, and also pendulum energy," He informed Yuri, placing a surprising amount of emphasis on the word 'pendulum', "We believe that the Lancers have arrived in the Xyz dimension, and we have decided to send the Tyler Sisters, along with you, to snuff them out."

"With all due respect, sir, why me?" Yuri asked,

"Your new pendulum cards, based on the recording of your duel yesterday, seem rather powerful. We wish to send you to test them against the Lancers. You will be under constant oversight by the Sisters here, and you will be deferring to the commander-in-chief there as well."

"Yes, sir." Yuri said, a bit of venom lacing his voice, obviously displeased with this turn of events.

"You depart now." The Professor informed the three, dismissing them.

Next Chapter Preview: Departing to the Xyz dimension alongside the Tyler Sisters, Yuri is given an opportunity to show his true colours. Will he take the chance and betray all that he has known, or will he stay loyal and attempt to wipe out the Xyz remnants once and for all?

Custom Card:

Predapendulum Fusion

Spell

Fusion summon one Fusion monster from your extra deck (even if face-up) using only the monsters in your pendulum zones as material. You can also use opponent's pendulum monsters with a Predator Counter on them, also cards in the pendulum zone(s) are treated as monsters on the field for this summon.

Hey all, thanks for reading this week's chapter! I hope you all enjoyed my version of Yuri, and I'd like to explain why he is changed for this story. Now all of the Yu-Boys (Yuya, Yuto, Yugo and Yuri) inherited one trait from their predecessor, Zarc, when the dimensions split, being his will to make the crowd smile, his aggression and rage, his wish to be the best and his ruthlessness, which were inherited in the order I listed them earlier. I decided to replace Yuri's trait with the ability to, at the very least, communicate with Duel Spirits, but still keeping Yuri's skill. Now, why? I hear you ask. There is evidence to suggest that Zarc could, in fact, communicate with Duel Spirits, although he only communicates with the Dimension Dragons, but they are the only monsters we see him use, so why wouldn't it carry through to all? Zarc's ruthlessness does still exist, but someone else has it.

Aquatic Dragon - Thank you for the review, and I'm glad you're enjoying the legacy characters. I try my hardest to make sure that the characters are faithful to the originals, while also putting my own spin on them. I hope you continue to enjoy the story.

Thank you all again for reading this chapter, and I hope you all are looking forward to the next chapter where we will return to Xyz with Yuri in tow. If you wish to keep up to date, please do follow, and if you really enjoy my story, I would appreciate it if you considered favouriting this story. I'll see you all next week - NightWingBOI