Yu-Gi-Oh! Stirring from Within

[Welche the crab]

[center][size="7"]Yu-Gi-Oh! Stirring From Within
[/size]
The whole of creation is filled with infinite universes and held within each is a different story.. In this one, Signers and Dark Signers never existed. The Crimson Dragon? Earthbound Immortals? They were all vanquished before the dawn of time in a battle the threatened to destroy not just this universe, but the rest of them. The Beast was defeated by the Elemental Beings, creatures of Fire, Earth, Wind, Water, Light and Darkness. This was the first and last time all elements, light and dark, earth and wind, fire and water, would join together to fight a common foe. The battle raged on for thousands of Earth years with neither side giving up. It was not until the Elemental Beings joined all their power together into one final blow that they were able to defeat this monster. They locked it away in the center of a huge ball of fire and hide its power in a large rock that circled this plasma ball. This ball is known as the Sun and the planet has gone by many names, although the current word of choice is Earth.

But everything is changing. A group calling itself Disciples of the Daemon have learned of the Beast and have begun communicating with it. The Beast is awakening with a fiery passion for destruction. It has given out cards of awesome power to the Leaders of the Cult. The Beings are long dead and their power has been sealed away into 6 different Yu-Gi-Oh cards whose power cannot be released without endangering everyone around it. Shadow duels will rise again. The Earth needs protecting, the universe needs help, time itself needs to find a hero. But who?[/center]

[spoiler=Notes]
The chapter marked coming soon is a work in progress. Don't read it as it is not finished.
[/spoiler]

[spoiler=Chapter 1: Harold]
This story begins with the tale of Harold. Harold was a good duelist, great is you asked the right person, but he was nothing special. He was 16 years old living in Domino City with his two parents in a downtown apartment. His mother stayed home while his father had a job that kept him travelling all around the world. As for a description of Harold there is not much to say. He was not particularly tall, nor particularly athletic. He was perhaps a tad skinny but nothing that made him stand out. You would not notice him walking down the street. He used a few different decks, but generally he liked burn decks the best. His personal hero was Axel Brodie, the person who had popularized the style of burning your opponent and also a powerful duelist who, legend says, defeated a king of darkness. In short, Harold was an ordinary teenager who lived an average life. Not some one you would expect to be called upon to save the world.

Harold was walking home after a long day at his school. The school he attended was for gifted duelists and so it was fittingly named Kaiba Academy after the legendary duelist who was nearly undefeated with the exception of Yugi Moto, but no one would consider themselves to be so great as to name their school after him. Harold was a relatively strong duelist. He was one of the best in his class and never had trouble advancing to the next year. As for marks, he was bad at most subjects with the exception of Duel History. He loved to learn about great duelists from the past. He loved to learn about when and how different deck types were popularized. He loved to learn about ancient Egypt and the secrets it held. Basically he loved to learn history. Even then he didn't have an aptitude for this. He studied history more then the rest of his subjects combined and yet could never actually get a grade over 90%. He told himself that it's because the teacher never asked the right questions.

This particular day he had been set up for a challenge duel. In Kaiba Academy, a student needed to win 2 out of the 3 challenge duels they had each year to advance to the next year. If they stayed in the same year for more then 2 semesters then the student would be expelled. As always, Harold passed the test, winning easily. Harold was a fantastic duelist if he wanted to be. He could think fast on his feet so even if he was at a disadvantage he could turn the duel in his favor most of the time.

He arrived home and after eating a quick snack of microwaved nachos, one of his favorite, he went to his room to just relax. When he got there he saw on his pillow that his parents had gotten him his weekly 3 booster packs. This was something they always had done since before he could even remember. This is because his father had grown up in a family that had banned duelling even though he really want to. When he got married to Harold's mother he told her right away that their child would be a duellist and a fantastic one if he had any say in. At first she said she would think about, but Harold's father just kept asking until his mother was forced to say yes just to get him to stop talking.

He opened the first pack, but found nothing of interest. This was a common occurrence for the past few years as Harold was developing his decks and only small changes were every necessary. except for those rare times when a new booster pack was released in which case there were almost always new cards he could use for each of his decks. He proceeded to open the next packet, which was just as disappointing as the first. Then came the third and final pack that Harold has to open. He teared it open nervously and looked at the cards. The first card was nothing special, but he pulled it up to reveal the next card. Again disappointment. Disappointment was followed by an even worse card. In fact non of the cards were any good at all. Harold threw the packet down on the ground and lay back on his bed.

"[i]Whatever[/i]" he thought to himself, "[i]My deck doesn't need any additional power.[/i]"

Then he stood up and bent over to pick up all the cards. Harold's room had two closets. One for his cloths and the other was for his for his cards. Since his parents had been showering him with cards for the past couple years he needed a place to store them all. Together with his dad he was capable of creating an simple storage system for all his cards. It was organized into the obvious categories (monsters, spells and traps) and each of these were subdivided themselves. Monsters were organized by class, so normal, fusion, synchro and effect. Next effect was divided into tuner, gemini, toon, union and regular. After they were divided into these categories they were separated by their level. Spells were divided into five seperate groups: normal, quick-play, continuous, field, and equip. Traps were divided into continuous, normal and counter. Once you reached the lowest level of divisions, it was simply organized alphabetically.

Harold put the cards away as always. This was something he could almost do blindfolded, that was how often this process was repeated. Then he turned around and surveyed the rest of his room. It was not very big, but it was perfect for Harold. He had a nice sized bed which he spent a lot of time on. He also had a desk that housed his duel simulator. This machine let him select a difficulty setting, insert his desk and he could duel virtually any deck type. The difficulty setting was a percentage and could get very difficult with a setting of 100% meaning the computer would get an amazing hand each time and would hardly even make a mistake. Harold was hardly able to beat a 76% and had never beat a 77%.

Then he walked towards the window over his desk and looked out. As he was looking down, he thought he saw a man who was gazing upwards, as if towards Harold.

Out of no were Harold turned around and the same man was looking at him. The man was short and very round. From what harold could see the man was probably around 45.He had on a nice suit and a top hat and was holding a cane in his hand.

"Wha, what are you doing in my room?" asked Harold his voice shaking.

The newcomer remained silent, but not still. He held out his hand and within was a card. Harold couldn't see it very well, but he could tell it was a monster card. a fusion monster. From what he could see it's artwork was red, like fire, and it had a huge number of stars.

Harold regaining his confidence asked again, "What are you doing here?"

The man pointed behind Harold, which caused him to turn around. When he turned back fractions of a second later he said "What's over.." Before the question could be finished though, Harold realized that the man was gone. The card he had been holding was slowly falling to the ground. Harold reached down and snatched out of the air to get a closer look...

[/spoiler]

[spoiler=Chapter 2: Brittany]
Brittany had never been out of her home without her parents before. She was home-schooled her whole life and had never needed to go to the store. This made the arrival of the small round man in the top-hat all the more surprising. Leading up to this even had been one of the most exciting days of her life. It had all started when she woke up that morning. It was any old Friday when she awoke. She got out of bed and slowly walked down the hallway of her large house. It was in the heart of the residential district that was located just outside of downtown Domino City. Her parents had both inherited a large sum of money and as such neither of them needed a job so they both stayed home.

Brittany's parents had both been very passionate duelists and therefore they decided that their child ought to be a powerful duelist, if not the best. Brittany had met their hopes and more. On her own duel simulator she had consistently beaten 90% and once even beat a 92%. Despite this skill, her parents were keeping her a secret. She rarely left the house and as mentioned before when she did it was always with her parents. They were planning to only unveil her skill when she turned 18 and at the moment she was only 16.

Brittany herself was rather below average for height, only five feet tall, with short spiky brown hair. Although she herself never went shopping, somehow her mother always knew what would look fantastic on her and so all her clothing fit excellently. She spent huge parts of her day studying schoolwork and the few extra hours she spent duelling either her computer or her parents. Recently the challenge of her parents was disappearing and Brittany had begun pressuring them to let her out in the world to duel a real person who was of her skill level. Still her parents did not seem like they would budge from the 18 year old age they wished to let Brittany compete outside their house despite her best efforts.

Later that day, Brittany's parents were out shopping and they had left her home alone. Although it may not seem like a riveting experience, while they were out there was a knock on her door. She opened the door to see nothing except for a man she didn't recognize walking away, which caused her to think her mind was just playing tricks on her and so she went back to her desk to continue studying. Five minutes later there was once again a knock on the door and once again there was no one outside. The peculiar part was that the same man was walking away, but it seemed he had made little if any progress. She rubbed her eyes to make sure she was seeing straight and when she opened them again, he was gone.

This brings the story full circle as it is only a half hour later Brittany found herself in her room with the short round man, exactly the same man she had seen walking away from her house. He had appeared just as suddenly in her room as he had into that of Harold and he still hadn't spoken a word.

Brittany's mind was working furiously. "[i]How did he get here? Who is he? Why me?[/i]"

"How di-did you ge-get in here?" Brittany stuttered. She was not used to talking to any strangers, let along a man who appeared out of thin air in the middle of her bedroom.

After a couple seconds Brittany was able to calm her mind enough to focus on the situation and so she started to actually observe the man. He was dressed in the exact same way as the man in Harold's room and this was of course because he was the same man. Brittany is more observant than Harold so she was able to see a small scar that stretched from just below the right portion of his lip to just above it.

Once again, the man held out the palm of his hand and within it Brittany could see that he was holding a card. She couldn't make out much of it, but she was able to see that it's attribute was WATER and that is had a total of 10 stars. Then her eyes flicked down slightly to see that the picture was also deep ocean blue.

"[i]Water, that's the same attribute as my Cloudians[/i]" Thought Brittany. Although she used many decks, the one she had honed and refined the most was by far her Cloudian deck. It was with this deck that she beat the duel simulator on the 92% difficulty setting.

The man did not move. He was more still then even a statue and more silent then the dead of the night. Brittany blinked, just for a moment but in that small time, one one-hundredth of a second, the man had disappeared and the only trace of the visit that was left was his card, slowly floating to the ground falling side to side.

Brittany was too shocked to act at first. For ten whole seconds she simply stood in her room unmoving. Then she crumpled onto her bed. It took her a good seven minutes to get over the initial feeling of astonishment at which point she remember the card the man had dropped. She then stood up and look at the floor looking for it but it wasn't there.

"[i]Hmm, I wonder[/i]" she thought. She pulled out her deck and looked through it and as she was shuffling through the cards she passed by the missing card, but her reactions kicked in almost right after and she flicked right back too it. When she looked at it her jaw dropped....
[/spoiler]

[spoiler=Chapter 3: Kevin]
Kevin liked to say he wasn't a duelist. He didn't spend all his time studying it. He was in a school that didn't teach it unless a student really wanted to learn. He just didn't seem to be very into it. Most afternoons he spent with his friends skateboarding or just playing video games. They even mocked the idea of people being obsessed with stupid pieces of paper.

But secretly Kevin was fascinated. He stayed up late at night researching the newest and best dueling strategies. He knew all the big names, Jack Atlas, Yusei Fudo and many others. He had even begun to create a deck for himself that from what he knew of the dueling world was the first of its kind, but unfortunately it was not completed yet. At the present however he used a simple Koala deck. This arch-type he thought was under appreciated and had tons of potential. Although Kevin didn't own a duel simulator, his skill was only about a 47%.

But still, he never duelled and he was not friends with people who did. This Friday he had told his friends after school that he had chores to do and so had to go home right away without hanging out. This said =, he actually snuck into his local card shop to get a few new booster packs. With them in hand he left the card shop. As he left he saw a strange round man, the very same man who had appeared to Brittany and Harold. He paid little attention to him because Kevin did not care much for people outside his circle of friends and family.

Kevin then continued to walk home and he turned the last corner before getting home. Out of nowhere he bumped into the round man he swore was not there when seconds before. Once again Kevin ignored the encounter. He wasn't very observent and simply assumed he had missed the man. He then arrived home to an empty house as usual because his parents were always working late on Friday's. In fact it was for this reason that he always bought his booster packs on Friday. His parents did not know that he played Yu-Gi-Oh and he wanted to keep it like that. They just assumed that he bought food with his money or something of that sort.

When he opened the door the house was as per usual. He put his bag down, kicked off his shoes and ran to his room. Then, he walked to his desk and opened the bottom drawer. Beneath a thin layer of paper he hid all his cards. He then pulled out his two decks and put them atop his desk. After this, he removed the booster packs from his back pocket and gently placed them on his desk directly in front of him. His heart begun to race as it almost always did when he was in this situation. The four boosters he bought were laid out. The second to the right was just calling to him.

"[i]This is going to be wicked![/i]" Thought Kevin as he picked up the first booster. He tore it opened readily bur alas nothing/ Then he reached for the next pack and when he opened it he got excited. Within was held a the third and final copy of Koala Koala he needed to put the finishing touch on his Koala deck. He put it in his extra and continued with the rest of his boosters. Neither held a card he needed and so he just put them in his box with the rest of his cards and put them away.

He then stood up and lay back on his bed thinking about it all.

"[i]I wonder if I'll ever actually duel someone. I mean I can't really just make decks in my room, eventually I need to get out there a play people.[/i]" he sighed, "[i]Oh well, thats a problem for a different day. For know I will just enjoy my new Koala.[/i]"

Then he closed his eyes and dozed off. What felt like moments later he was awoken by a knocking on his door. He kept his eyes closed and though. "[i]I guess Mom's home now.[/i]"

"Come in" Kevin shouted, still no opening his eyes. He heard the sound of the door open, but then nothing. No footsteps, no response, not even any breathing. This confused him enough to cause him to open his eyes and what he saw was no less then flabbergasting.

Standing in the center of his room was the same stout man that he hacked accidentally walked into on the street and the man who was outside the card shop. This man was holding his hand out open.

"Who are you and what are you doing in my house?" Asked Kevin.

Silence.

"I asked you a question. Who are you?" Kevin's voice was getting louder.

Again more silence. Kevin then stood up and his eyes briefly flicked down to the mans open hand. Although Kevin was in no way an observant guy, he did notice that the man was holding a Yu-Gi-Oh card.

"Ok, I don't know who you are, how you got here or what your doing, but I know one thing. You must be some kind of duellist." Kevin had gotten this idea obviously from the card in his outreached arm. "Why don't we just settle this with a duel?"

Silence once again greeted this offer. Kevin was confused so he shut his eyes very tight thinking it might be a dream. When he opened them, the man had disappeared as silently and secretly as he had appeared. As with Brittany and Harold the only trace he left was the card on the ground. Kevin stooped down and picked it up. If he had been flabbergasted with the mans appearence, this was nothing compared to his reaction when he saw the card....
[/spoiler]

[spoiler=Chapter 4: Ann (coming soon)]
Ann did not grow up in a normal family. Her father was the mayor of Domino City and her entire family had tons of money. This meant that scholastics were always important in her parents eyes, giving duelling a much less important roll in her life. Despite this, Ann loved duelling. She was so passionate about it and simply loved to duel. Whenever she was in a duel her heart started to race and the adrenaline coursed through her veins. Even if she was greatly out matched, she managed to enjoy each and every second of the duel.

Her current deck of choice was composed of Gusto monster's, although she also loved experimenting with other deck types. She usually had trouble keeping with a deck for very long because all the cards interested her so much. One day she would open a packet of cards and find one she loved. Then her father would get her the other cards she asked for and her new deck would be made. This deck would generally be able to amuse her for a few days, but very soon after one of her friends would be opening a booster and suddenly she would be obsessed with a hole new deck.

Given all this, it was amazing that her Gusto deck had amused her for nearly three weeks already. She had actually used this deck many many times and was beginning to learn the finner points of using it. Usually when she had just made a deck, it was strong enough to beat the duel simulator on about 52% just over half the time, but recently this Gusto deck had been able to nearly defeat the simulator on 70%.

It was Friday and as always on Friday her school ended at noon. Immediately after school she went to the nearby park with her friends. They were hanging around, talking and having a few casual duels.

"Wow Ann, you haven't given up on that deck yet?" teased her friend, Sue.

"Nope. I don't know why but it is still as fun as it was at first" replied Ann, adding "Plus, I haven't found anything I like more yet."

The group of girls all started giggling.

Ann looked over the shoulder of Sue and saw a man, the same man who met Brittany, Harold and Kevin, looking right at her group of friends.

"Whose that?" she asked, pointing towards the man. Everyone turned around to look where she was pointing but he was gone.

"Haha, very funny." said one of her other friends, Alexandra.

Ann laughed it off pretending she was just tricking everyone, but she knew what her eyes had seen.

"[i]Whatever,[/i]" she thought, "[i]it doesn't matter to me.[/i]" She had no idea just how wrong he could be.

At about 2 PM she decided to go home, so she stood up and waved to her friends as she walked away.
[/spoiler]

[Welche the crab]

First two chapters up. Post reserved for later chapters.

[clmberserker245]

Interesting fan-fic. I got a question on for Harold though, is he Scandinavian or something? His name seems like a Scandinavian name.

[Welche the crab]

Chapter three complete.

[Bahamut - Envoy of the End]

Read the first two chapters about Harold and Brittany.

Regarding Harold, major problem I found to begin with.

[quote]Harold was not a particularly strong duelist in any sense of the term. He was not top of his class. He had never beaten a teacher or even a member of the graduating class. As for marks, he was bad at most subjects with the exception of Duel History.[/quote]

Next paragraph...

[quote]As always, Harold passed the test, winning easily. Harold was a fantastic duelist if he wanted to be[/quote]

In short, pick a lane.

As for the content, some of the description is a bit weak (i.e. a nice bed?) As for the weird fat man, I dunno about you but I don't think I'd react that way to some strange guy just appearing in my room.

For Brittany, it was pretty much like re-reading the first chapter. Setting the scene is all well and good but it's uninteresting. And why does Harold keep getting used as a reference point? Brittany doesn't know Harold, so it just feels awkward. Don't say 'Brittany is more observant than Harold' or whatever personality, let their actions shape them, don't tell us directly.

Sorry but I'm not very sold on this.

[Welche the crab]

[quote name='Bahamut ZERO' timestamp='1307223199' post='5254868']
Read the first two chapters about Harold and Brittany.

Regarding Harold, major problem I found to begin with.



Next paragraph...



In short, pick a lane.

As for the content, some of the description is a bit weak (i.e. a nice bed?) As for the weird fat man, I dunno about you but I don't think I'd react that way to some strange guy just appearing in my room.

For Brittany, it was pretty much like re-reading the first chapter. Setting the scene is all well and good but it's uninteresting. And why does Harold keep getting used as a reference point? Brittany doesn't know Harold, so it just feels awkward. Don't say 'Brittany is more observant than Harold' or whatever personality, let their actions shape them, don't tell us directly.

Sorry but I'm not very sold on this.
[/quote]

good for you. BTW I fixed the problems with Harold. As for the man, these characters aren't you. Also, it's my style of writing so if you don't like it then that's ok.