Yu-Gi-Oh! Fallen Hope (IC/Accepting/PG-13)

[Yuya-Kun]

Chapter 1: The Puzzle

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A cold wind gust through the tomb. A young man, with red hair and a cigar burning in his mouth walked through the entrance. He looked around, the cave writings signified the game that he was a champ in, Duel Monsters. With his limited knowledge of the area, he found these writings an intriguing find, and quickly noted what he saw. A hieroglyph was a very familiar face. "No way, Yugi Moto!" He noted in astonishment. He then noticed what he was looking for, a huge doorway that was blocked off by a stone mummy. The man looked at it. "A weak defence mechanism, they wouldn't stand a chance!" He sneered. He pulled out his duel disk and set it on. "Alright, solid vision, I activate, Smashing Ground!" He roared, and a huge fist slammed into the mummy, blowing it to smithereens. He then entered the chamber, and saw it, the thing he WANTED. He went into the withering room. It's walls were covered in moss, and it had cracks all over the wall. There were rock splattered on the ground and big holes in the wall. There was a tomb-esc structure on the ground in front of him. He looked at it. A triangle shaped puzzle was in the middle of it, with a huge eye staring at him. He picked it up and put it on. A golden light filled the room, and a huge roar could be hear through crumbling walls that were becoming unstable. "YU-GI-OH!" suddenly a huge bang was heard through the cracks and the pyramid collapsed. But when the smoke cleared, the man was still standing there. "Yessss! YES!" He roared. "I feel the power!"

 

[spoiler=OOC]Really, in this chapter, everyone should introduce their character and start the story of whats happened that caused them to go into a rebellion or what the rare hunters did.

 

[PopularWannabe]

Jake wiped his brow. "I think I've lost 'em," he panted. He looked at his deck and smiled. His buddies helped him out again. He slowly walked into the base and was greeted with a roar of applause. He held up his prize. A card. Not just any card though, a special card. An integration monster. This card would allow Jake to get his cards back. He could still remember the day his deck was stolen. He was beat and left for dead, until the Zarc gang found him. They trained him, made him stronger. And now, he's brought his trophy home. It's time to duel, and win.

[0PxPz0]

"Hey wait up! I'm a duelist not an athlete you brat!" Alex had been chasing the kid for what felt like hours, sure he was half Alex' size but man was this kid quick. "Come on, one duel, I just wanna see that Xyz in action!" that of course was a lie and anyone who'd ever dueled him knew it, Alex Soloman, age 17, known in his home town as "The Fighting King" for his ferocious 100 Kings archetype, anytime he beat someone in a duel he'd take a card, usually they're most valuable but as long as he didn't have one he wanted it. Most people were smart enough to stay away from him but younger duelists couldn't resist the chance to get their hands on his card hoard, this kid was different though. this stubborn little eight year old just walked up to Alex, showed him an Xyz he'd been searching for for over a month, then ran off without saying a word, which brings us to our current situation. "Just let me look at it or something, we can trade if you want!" this was serious, Alex would almost never part with even the weakest of his cards. Eventually the kid lead him to a dead end near some building no one went in anymore "Alright, so what did you bring me here for?" The kid just grinned and ran through a side door into the abandoned building, Alex rushed after him, it was dark inside, Alex couldn't see any sign of the kid "Come on, this isn't funny!" suddenly Alex heard footsteps all around him. Hands grabbed at him, trying to take his duel disk as well as the cases full of valuable cards he kept inside his jacket at all times, he was able to fight them off until suddenly he was hit in the back of the head with something big and metal, Alex fell to the ground, unable to get up as the hands stripped him of all his precious cards. he finally blacked out.

[Yuya-Kun]

Thomas woke up. Dark, cold. They were the first things that popped into his head. His scarf was in shreds, and his jacket had been cleaner. He remembered he had been searching for a friends card, when guys in hoods caught up and beat him. He still had his friends card in his hand. "Drizzle Street - Blizzard" He mumbled to himself. "s***, thats MY card!" the realisation hit him like a rock. "He stole my card, the bastard!" He roared. He groped his surrounding until he made it to a handle. He pulled it and a light burst in the room. The light stunned him temporarily but he made his way out. His surroundings shocked him, a desolate place had appeared in front of him. Houses crumbling, with on lights. Cars crashed into walls and fences, and roads with cracks rupturing them. He felt sick, his home city was in ruins! "That bastard!" He thought to himself. As he walked down the road, he felt like people were staring at him. He saw movement ahead and stopped dead. He listened carefully, any sign of who. or what that was would be a big help. But suddenly a hand grabbed his mouth, the other grabbed his arm, and pulled him back. He felt his deck being ripped from its box, and felt tears running down his cheek. "That's my dads old deck!" He screamed, but was muffled by the hand. But then the hunters looked at what he was holding. "Oooh, you've got a Secret Rare here, i'll be taking that!" A rare hunter smirked as he took the purple card. Thomas had had enough, he gripped the hand holding him and threw his leg under the man before tugging him, causing him to fall over. He then pulled the other towards him and slapped him before shoving him, making him land on the other. "Piss off, never take my stuff again!" He screamed. The 2 hooded men were dazed and groaned in pain. Thomas left the scene as quick as possible. 

[The Frost King]

Skyler woke up lying on a hard tile floor. Slowly getting up from the floor, she looked around. The place she woke up in appeared to be a lab, but it had seen better days. Pieces of broken glass were all over the floor. Several tables were either broken or flipped on their sides. Some of the ceiling lights were flickering. She did not know anything about where she was, or who she was. The only thing that Skyler did know at that moment was that she had to go to the restroom. Looking through the lab, she found a restroom. When she opened the bathroom door, the smell of something burnt hit her.

 

Scattered all over the restroom floor were pieces of ash and burnt paper. Stepping into the restroom, Skylark noticed something move to her right and looked over to see a girl with two animal ears on the top of her head. Skyler backed up a bit and the girl also backed up. For a few minutes, both Skyler and the girl stood still and said absolutely nothing to each other. Skyler did a slight wave and saw the girl do the same thing. Skyler was about to say hi when she realized that she was staring at a mirror, and the girl she was staring at was herself. Looking at herself more closely in the mirror, she noted two things. The first was that she had two animal ears on her head. The ears looked like they should have belonged to a fox or some other kind of animal. The other thing she realized was her hair and her eyes. Her hair was slightly pink and hanged all the way down to just above her knees, while her eyes were a bright red. Putting these facts aside, Skyler realized that she still had to use the toilet.

 

1 hour later, Skyler was sitting on the floor. In front of her was a briefcase and some burnt files. After she had used the restroom, she had searched the entire lab. The briefcase and the burnt files were the only thing she could find that were not completely destroyed. Deciding to look into the briefcase first, she opened it. Inside it was a pink duel disk and a deck. Both items felt familiar to her, but she did not know why. Skyler picked up the duel disk, attached it to her left arm, then picked up the deck and inserted it into the duel disk. She noticed a button on the side of it and pressed it. Instantly the duel disk started shuffling the deck, while Skyler stared in amazement. When it finished shuffling, she looked at the burnt files and picked them up. She flipped through the pages of the files and noticed that most of them were severally burned, making it impossible to read them. She stopped on one page that was only partly burned and looked at it. On the top part of the page was a name and under that, a picture. Skyler recognized that the name was her name, but the picture, which looked familiar, was of a girl with brown hair and blue eyes. Underneath the picture was the word ‘Experiment 27’ and under that was a single word, Success.

 

Suddenly Skyler had a flash back. She was laying on the cold floor of a dark jail cell. She was shaking, not because of the cold, but because of the pain that she felt all over her body. A male voice could be heard outside of the cell, “Experiment 27 is a success! Go tell the boss.”

 

The flashback ended as quickly as it had started. What was that? A memory?, she thought. Skyler shook her head, quickly dismissing the thought. She continued looking through the pages but found them all burnt until she got to the last one. The last page was brand new and was not burned at all. On the page was a picture of a golden triangle with a single eye in the middle of it. Under the picture were the words ‘The Millennium Puzzle’ with about several paragraphs underneath that.  Reading through it all, the paragraphs mentioned about a boy named Yugi Muto who had The Millennium Puzzle a little more than a hundred years ago. It mentioned about how it had magical powers and because of it, Yugi became one of the greatest duelists ever. Magical powers?, she thought, Maybe if I get this ‘Millennium Puzzle’ I can get my memories back!

 

Suddenly a voice echoes through the hall outside of the room that Skyler is in. “Hello? Is there anybody here?” Skyler’s animal ears shot up at the sound of the voice. Looking for a place to hide, Skyler spots a desk in the corner and hides behind it, hoping that the person behind the voice is friendly. However, what she heard next did not support her hopes. “If someone is here then you better watch out! Cause we’re going to take your deck and leave you for dead!” 

[0PxPz0]

When Alex woke up he was lying on some old beaten up couch, his cloths and duel disk were missing, replaced by an admittedly comfortable set of pajamas. Alex looked around, he was in a halfway decent apartment, based on the decor Alex easily figured he was in the south side of the city "Did I really chase some kid that far out and not even get the card?" Alex panicked and jumped to his feet, still somewhat dizzy from his altercation with whoever knocked him out "Hey! whoever brought me here, give me back my cards right now!" While Alex was busy throwing a tantrum his presumed kidnapper had been cleaning his cloths and making him a bowl of noodles which he then brought to Alex once he heard he was awake "Geez, calm down kid, that's no way to treat the guy that saved you." the thirty something year old man placed the bowl on a nearby table and sat on the couch as if this was a normal occurrence. "And before you have another fit, you duel disk is in the other room, you cloths we filthy so I did you another favor and washed them." Alex sat down, very confused by his kidnapper turned savior "Whatever, I could have gotten out of there." the man raised an eyebrow "Ya, alright kid, you know who those guys were? Rare Hunters. Even if you had been conscious enough to fight them you would have lost pretty fast." Alex heard something ding and the man walked off, coming back with his duel disk and cloths "You sure carry a lot of rare cards with you, or should I say you used to, I was able to save your deck and a few cases of commons but that's about it." the man tossed Alex his cloths along with his duel disk, which he immediately looked through to see what was missing "They took my Monarchs and Frightfurs! Those are my good luck cards!" Now he was furious, no one took cards from Alex Solomon and got away with it, the last time it happened Alex was ten, one of the kids that lost to him tried to take their card back so Alex stole their entire deck. "Well that's what you get for being stupid enough to walk around with all those cards, it was bound to happen eventually." the man just shrugged and sat back down "Ya? well who are you to be all high and mighty anyway?" Alex just watched as the man took a single card from his pocket, The Flame Swordsman, Alex had six copies at home "Someones gotta keep those Rare Hunter thugs in line, figured i might as well do my part." Alex had heard of guys like this, they were separated into groups by sector, the man that saved him was a member of one of those groups against Yukotsa, The Flame Swordsman Rebellion.

[The Frost King]

 

Pain. That’s what Kyle was feeling all over his body at the moment. That pain was being caused by the rare hunters that were beating him up while he was lying on the ground. Kyle’s vision was blurry because his glasses had fallen off and been crushed when the rare hunters had ambushed him. Close by, Kyle heard a familiar voice cry out in distress. “Kyle!” The voice belonged to his girlfriend, Stacy, and he would have called her name back if he was not getting beat up. “Let go of me, you thugs!” He heard Stacy scream, “Kyle, help!” The next sound he heard was the slamming of a car door and then a car driving off at high speed. After the car left, the rare hunters slowly started to stop beating him up and he felt one of them pulling his deck out of his back pocket. Kyle slowly picked himself up from the ground, even though his body told him to lie down. When he got onto his feet, he reached into his jacket and pulled out a back-up pair of glasses.

 

Putting on the glasses, his vision instantly cleared and he saw two things. First, his girlfriend was gone and most likely kidnapped. Second, the rare hunter that had stole his deck looked pissed. Throwing the deck at Kyle, the rare hunter yelled at him, “You have the worst deck I have ever seen! You had all commons and not a single rare!” He then pushed Kyle, making him almost fall down. “Tell me where you keep your rares!” Kyle looked at him with a fake, but pretty convincing, confused look. “Rares? I don’t have any rares!” The rare hunter then grabbed Kyle by the shirt. “Your either lying or you’re the worst duelist ever!” Letting go of Kyle’s jacket, the rare hunter then punched at Kyle. Barley dodging the punch, Kyle backed up a few feet, his hands in the air. “Alright, alright! I tell you where my rares are!” Reaching into his jacket, he pulled out a puzzle box. Quickly solving the puzzle box, Kyle reached in and pulled out a deck. Kyle’s face broke into a smile.  “Here is my actual deck, while that one that you took from me was a decoy. “ The rare hunters smiled evilly at the sight of Kyle’s deck.   “But to get my deck,” Kyle reached into his jacket, pulled out his duel disk and attached it to his arm, “you will have to beat me in a duel!” The rare hunters laughed when he said this. “Alright then we will duel you, but you’re stupid to think you can win a 5 on 1 duel!”

 

15 minutes later, all five rare hunters were lying on the ground, defeated. Kyle got a good look at them all before he turned around and walked away. I have to get Stacy back, he thought. But I can’t do it by myself, so I should probably join one of those rebellions I have heard about, but which one? Kyle stopped walking and looked at a nearby brick wall. Painted on the wall in spray paint was graffiti version of Red-Eyes Black Dragon. Red-Eyes Black Dragon, that’s the rebellion I’ll join.

[Yuya-Kun]

Thomas was confused. First of all, why was he lying down in a bed in a creepy looking warehouse, second of all, why were there different Dark Magician cards everywhere, and lastly Why where their 6 guys in a corner having a conversation. Thomas tried to make a sound but nothing came out. He started to look around his surroundings. The walls were concrete, the floor was broken floorboards, and the ceiling had many holes, but their was something like another layer on top of it, so he took no notice. He tried to move his arm, but still he couldn't move. "HEY!" He managed to whisper. 1 of the guys noticed them, and turned around to face him. "yo, whats wrong?" He asked. Thomas beckoned him closer. "Where am i?" He asked the man. The man pulled down his hood and it revealed the face of a young man. "You were found by rare hunter's, they took everything. We fought them off, and retrieved this deck box, and a card, called "Drizzle Street - Blizzard". Thomas looked, in utter shock. "My card's!" He whispered in a shaky voice. He grabbed the deck box and flipped it open. "Phew" He sighed in relief, his father's deck was still there. He closed his eyes and drifted off

[ChampionZero]

Percy swore. Loudly. A wrench clattered to the concrete floor as Percy sprang back from the old Duel Runner he was working on.

 

"Language!" A woman's voice called from the doorway.

 

"Sorry, mom." Percy's apology came with some perfunctory. He didn't like to swear, so he tried not to.

 

Angela was, put bluntly: The girl you go to the gym to watch work out. 6’2”, and cut like marble, with hip lines and a six-pack that could put the most -if not all- of the gang's men to shame. Her short, blonde hair has two long, thin braids that dangle in front of her ears, and one at the back each one has the end wrapped around iron bands. Icy-blue eyes stare disapprovingly through a fair, lightly tanned face. Since she’s so athletic, in casual and dueling environments, she wears running shoes, biker shorts, a cropped athletic tank top, and a thin hoodie, all mostly white with blue and yellow stitching and edging. Boyish and revealing clothes, no doubt, and with a body  like hers, no-one would blame her.

 

So when her scolding expression became flustered and confused, Percy was slightly proud and also confused.

 

"Percival, do NOT call me that. I'm not that old!" She strode over, arms folded.

 

"MOM!" He teased, grinning.

 

"No!" She said sternly, but she was still flustered.

 

"MOMMY!" He squealed, and her embarrassed response was to kick him over

 

***

 

"Gonna cry to your mommy, kid?" The man taunts, as Percy reels from the kick to the chest that sent him sprawling. The thug was alone, but he was bigger than Percy and a total prick.

 

He stands shakily, and marches right back to the garage door, planting his feet at the edge, standing face-to-face with the Rare Hunter. The man seems... eccentric, let's say. A young white male, eighteen, maybe twenty, dressed (of all things) in black jeans, heavily buckled boots, a purple shirt, black trench coat, sunglasses, and a purple fauxhawk.

 

Yeah. Really.

 

Just before the man`s foot could cross the threshold into the garage, Percy's forearm slams into his chest, shoving him back.

 

"NOT. ANOTHER. STEP." He warns. "You're not coming in here." He insists, putting his Duel Disk on his arm. It's a circular, black model, with a large screen. Locking his deck into it, Percy raises his Disk as a curved purple blade flashes into existence across the front. "You stay out of my house, rat."

 

The man chuckles and produces a Duel Disk of his own, also black, but rectangular and with a wicked, scythe-like blade instead. "You can't beat me, kid. It's more painless to just lie down and give up."

 

Percy scowls, an unbecoming expression on his face. "Not likely. The Soldiers fight to the last man. That's me."

 

"You're brave, I'll give you that." The hunter chuckles. "But you're nothing against the Master of Puppets."

 

Percy cringes visibly. "Wow. Really? The m- The master of- of- The master of pup- pup puppets? The Master of Puppets?" He snorts, suppressing his laughter with extreme difficulty. "Wow. I'm sorry, you deserve a beating just for that." He apologizes, wrapping his headphones around his head.

 

DUEL!

 

 

Percy's arm swings out, his drawn card trailed by violet light. "I'll go first!" He declares.

 

Scanning his hand, Percy selects a monster and holds it out. "I control no monsters yet. So I can Special Summon Nightmare Golem from my hand in Defense Mode!"

 

The ground rumbles, and his monster comes rising from the ground, made of black bricks and jagged metal: a tall, faceless humanoid figure.

 

Nightmare Golem

Level 5 ~ DARK ~ Spellcaster/Effect

1200 / 900

 

"Next, I summon Nightmare Witch from my hand!" As Percy places his second card on the Duel Disk blade, a sinister giggle echoes through the alleyway.

 

From the roof above, a shadowy figure drops down. Stepping into the light is a masked, wicked-looking young woman. An iron staff props her up, a blood-red bow tied just below its flanged mace-head. Her pale skin is painful to look at in comparison to her black clothing, a dress with a jagged-hemmed skirt, and long black gloves that run from her hands to her biceps, leaving her neck and shoulders exposed. A pair of red eyes flicker dimly and out of sync with each other from behind the black curtain of hair.

 

Nightmare Witch

Level 3 ~ DARK ~ Spellcaster/Effect

1000 / 1000

 

 

"I activate the effect of my Nightmare Witch! By discarding one Nightmare monster, I can summon another Level 3 DARK Spellcaster from my Deck! And what is a witch..." Percival slides a monster from his hand into his grave, and another card ejects from his Deck. "Without her black cat? I summon Nightmare Kitten!" grabbing the card from his Deck, he slaps it onto the blade, and from the shadows slinks out a little black cat with glowing red eyes and bright white teeth. In the shadows behind it, a larger pair of red eyes lights up, mimicking the smaller creature's movements.

 

Nightmare Kitten

Level 3 ~ DARK ~ Spellcaster/Effect

1000 / 1000

 

"When Nightmare Kitten is Special Summoned by the effect of another Nightmare monster, I get to draw a card!" Percy announces, slashing his arm outwards with his new draw. With a glance, he grins at it. "Well, that'll do the trick." He throws one hand forward, fingers bent into a claw. Nightmare Golem raises its arms over Nightmare Witch and Nightmare Kitten. "With Nightmare Golem's effect, I can raise the level of every other Nightmare monster I control by 2! Meaning I now control three level 5 monsters, which I can use to build the Overlay Network!" Raising both arms over his head, the three monsters turn into brilliant silhouettes of violet energy. The three of them shot up like soaring birds of prey, and a set of concentric red circles lights up the ground, spinning rapidly. "Raise your starry eyes and set your sights on your next victim!" Each spirit dives into the center, which immediately bursts into lightning.

 

***

 

"Starry-Eyes Dream Dragon!" Percy cheered, slapping his card down on the table in front of him. The room exploded from tense waiting to everyone shouting "OOOOOOOH!"

 

The gang member he was dueling cursed... sorta.

 

"Shi--" He glanced to the side, where Angela was staring at them both with one of her dangerous, unreadable expressions. "--itake mushrooms!" He said angrily. "Now you're gonna..." He rolled his hand in front of him.

 

Percy, at the mere age of ten, missing a tooth in his jaw, dirty and wearing stolen jeans and a t-shirt, reveled in the freak-out of his Ace hitting the field before declaring his next move. "...activate his special ability! Since your White-Horned Dragon has 3700 ATK, more than my Dragon's 3000, I can remove two Xyz Materials to steal up to 1500 Attack points from the monster on the field with the highest Attack! And since there's only one choice... I'm taking all those Attack points your White-Horned Dragon gained with her effect for myself! Dream Eater!" He crowed, as one of the gang members used his phone to add up the points. "This Duel's gonna end with your monster's destruction!"

 

"Little Dude," He said, kneeling next to him. "Now it's 4500 versus 2200, meaning even if you attack--"

 

"I'll only deal him 2300 points of damage, and leave him with 900. I know." Percy patted him on the shoulder. "That's not a problem." He assured the older man.

 

The room got quiet. "Why not?" Someone asked.

 

The scrappy kid plucked two cards from his plentiful hand. "I attack your monster with Starry-Eyes Dream Dragon, but I activate a Quick-Play Spell from my hand: Stop Hammer!" The duelists around them leaned forward to see the card.

 

The card art was of an accordion-like red hammer with a golden handle, and the word STOP on the front like a STOP sign.

 

"When an attack is occurring during the Battle Step, I can use this card to negate the attack, and the monster who attacked loses 500 Attack Points!"

 

Everyone gave Percy a look, including Angela. "Why would you negate your own attack and weaken your monster?" his opponent asked. "Now you're packing LESS Attack Points."

 

Percy grinned broadly, showing off his missing tooth. "So I can use this!" He throws the last card in his hand down, a second Quick-Play Spell. "Double or Nothing: When a monster's attack is negated, this Spell lets them attack again, and if they do, their Attack is DOUBLED during the Damage Step! So I get to deal five-thousand eight-hundred damage!" The previous freak-out was a moderate conversation by comparison, and even the man Percy was Dueling fell over onto the ground and shouted "I'm DEAD!"

 

***

 

The Rare Hunter takes a step back as his Sinister Puppet Master is reduced to 1600 ATK and the beast before him grows stronger, and more wicked.

 

Two bright white eyes shimmer in the dark above Percy, the silhouette of a towering beast above him. Its mouth opens and shadow lances out, shooting through the cloaked puppeteer and releasing an explosion that knocks his opponent off his feet and sent rolling out of the alleyway.

 

Now standing in the alleyway entrance, Percy snaps his fingers and drags his thumb across his neck in a throat-slitting motion, the eyes of his dragon looming behind him. He taunts, as the terrified Rare Hunter scrambled down the street.

 

"Yeah, run home rat! Tell Yukotsa I'm coming for him too," Percy shouts, "And I'm straight outta his nightmares!"

 

Slamming the garage door behind him on his way back in and locking it briefly after, Percy took a moment to consider using a scythe-shaped blade on his Duel Disk, but decided against it. He didn't want to use anything that was approved by that angst machine. Except, he amended, producing the Xyz monster that his opponent had used. Sinister Puppetmaster.

 

"This'll make a nice addition to the Nightmares." He muttered darkly, dropping back into Angela's favourite chair, pulling his headphones down and his fluffy hood up, curling up and savoring the lingering familiarity, like he was laying in his foster mother's arms again as he drifted into a state you couldn't quite describe as sleep.

[Krashkube]

Dennis walked down a sidewalk, eventually seeing an abandoned shop. As he walked in and looked at a mirror, he noticed that his usually clean jersey and Duel Disk holder were now dirty and torn. He quickly remembered that he had no time to look in the mirror and had to go look for the Rare Hunters that stole most of his spare cards. Looking around the store, he eventually came across a few abandoned common cards and shoved them into his deck before hearing two Rare Hunters pass by. "Hey, I wonder if that kid's around here somewhere." one of the Rare Hunters said. Dennis instantly remembered those voices, those were the voices of the rare hunters that stole most of his rare cards. The Rare Hunters eventually walked off, but not before Dennis walked out of the store and ran up to the Hunters. 

 

"Look at that, the kid's back again." The hunters said, smirking and pulling out a small deck box. "Look at all these rare cards we stole from you! You even had a Synchro Monster here! I doubt you'd be able to use it but at least it's in better hands now!" One of the Rare Hunters laughed. "Wow, real funny. What crappy deck do you run again, Infernoids or whatever? Are those supposed to be robots on fire?" he asked. The hunters simply laughed at his stupidity and pulled out two Duel Disks, one fore each of them. "You should know what they are by now, but anyways, fun's over. Gimme all your rare cards - or whatever rares you have left, anyways."

 

----- 5 minutes later -----

 

"And now, I attack your Sand Stone with my Colossal Fighter!" One of the hunters announced, while Dennis was clearly shocked at the fact that Robots-on-fire dude had a Tuner and angry that he was also using the Synchro monster that he stole from him. As his LP fell to zero, the Rare Hunters closed in, eager to take whatever rare cards he had. "Now, show us your cards, we're going to take a lot of them." One hunter pushed Dennis down while the other one grabbed his deck and Duel disk holder, searching for cards. "Hey, if you like my deck so much why don't you just steal it?" Dennis panicked and attempted to grab at the hunter that was holding him down while the other one finished his search of his cards. "Hope you liked your last bunch of rares, because they're ours now!" The rare hunters walked off, cracking jokes about "robots on fire" while Dennis lay on the ground, defeated and stripped of most of his rare cards. He got up and looked around, eventually seeing a Red-Eyes Black Dragon card laying on the street. He picked it up, and decided to join the Red-Eyes rebellion, so that he could defeat those Rare hunters for good.

 

 

[The Frost King]

‘This girl is some sort of monster!’ The rare hunter thought. All around the broken down lab were other rare hunters that were either unconscious or severely injured. Standing in the middle of the room was a girl with pink hair and two animal ears on her head, and she was slowly walking towards him.

 

11 minutes ago, the rare hunters had burst into this lab hoping to find some rares. What they did find was a pink-haired girl who was hiding behind a desk. The girl had challenged them to a duel, so they accepted it, thinking that it would be an easy-peasy duel. But in a matter of minutes, the rare hunters were defeated with ease and the girl had not lost a single life point. Now he was the only rare hunter left standing and he only had 100 life points left. As the girl made her slow walk towards him, he slowly backed away in fear. The girl’s eyes were sharp red and staring straight at him, as if looking through his soul.  A dark aura seemed to surround the girl.

 

In a voice filled with seriousness and darkness, the girl spoke, “Tell me where the Millennium Puzzle is.” The rare hunter was so scared that he couldn’t even speak. He kept backing up until he bumped into a wall. The girl picked up a piece of paper from the floor, walked over to the rare hunter and held it to his face. On the paper was a picture of the Millennium Puzzle. “Answer my question!”, she yelled at him in anger. “Where is the Millennium Puzzle?!” The rare hunter quickly spoke, hoping that if he answered the girl’s question that she would leave. “Yukotsa has it!” he said in fear, “I swear I’m not lying! Please believe me!”

 

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Skyler’s animal ears twitched a little bit at the mention of the name Yukotsa. She had a strange feeling that she had heard that name before. Pushing the thought aside, her mind transferred back to the duel. The rare hunter was on his knees, begging. “I’m sorry if I and the other rare hunters scared you, I really am, so please just leave me alone!” Skyler considered doing what the rare hunter had said, but a voice from a forgotten memory echoed through her mind. “When dueling, you will show no remorse! If you have the tiniest bit of remorse then you have already lost the duel!”

 

She starred at the rare hunter for a few seconds, before heading for the door. The rare hunter sighed in relief. When Skyler reached the door, she looked over her shoulder and spoke, “Tiny Wolves, attack him directly.” Suddenly, a wolf walked out from behind an over turned desk. The wolf was about the size of a house cat, but its size did not make it any less terrifying. The wolf had 3 heads, each with 2 glowing red eyes and a foaming mouth full of sharp teeth. The wolf’s 6 eyes were all staring at the rare hunter and then without warning, the wolf leaped on him. Skyler walked out of the room and down the hall, while the rare hunter’s screams echoed after her. The screams soon ended and a beeping noise came from Skyler’s duel disk. Looking at the screen, she saw the words ‘Victory’ in the middle of the screen. In the right hand corner, she saw the rare hunters life points were at 0. A slight smile appeared on her lips, and then as if someone flipped a switch, her attitude changed.

 

She felt scared and worried. What have I done? she thought in horror. Looking down at her hands, she recalled what she had just done in her duel with the rare hunters. As soon as she had started that duel, something took over her. Every time one of the rare hunters played a card, she somehow knew exactly what that card could do and would counteract it with one of her own. She had defeated each one of the rare hunters ruthlessly, not caring if they were badly hurt or not. The only thing that mattered to her in that duel was for her to win. During that duel, she was not herself, or at least, not the person she was now. She started feeling guilty and wanted to go back to the rare hunters and say sorry. But something inside her told her not to do that and to just leave this lab.

 

So, dismissing her current thoughts, she started to head for the exit when she suddenly noticed something on the ground. It was a USB flash drive, but she did not know this. Picking up the flash drive, she looked at it carefully. It was in a rectangular shape and was covered in sparkly and silver paint. What is this? she thought, hoping the answer would come to her. When it didn’t, she pocketed the flash drive and walked to the exit. On the way there, several questions flew by in her head. Who was Yukotsa and why did his name sound familiar? What was the small, silver, and rectangular object she found? Who were those people that she had dueled?

 

She reached the exit, a door with a push handle and the word ‘EXIT’ above it. All other questions left her mind, leaving one single question, what was behind this door? Skyler knew the only way to find out was to open it. So, with a quick breath, she pushed open the door.

[0PxPz0]

"Let me duel you!" Alex had burst out of the bathroom after changing, having made up his mind, he would join the Flame Swordsman rebellion and get his cards back. "Hold on there kid, I don't think that's such a great idea. Besides I'm not one to kick someone when they're down." the man, who still refused to tell Alex his name, was sitting calmly on his couch, looking online for news of recent Rare Hunter activity. "Then let me join the Flame Swordsman!" Alex, always the stubborn one, refused to leave without getting what he wanted. "You wanna join? Sure you're in, not much to it, my branch has meeting this afternoon, in the basement of a card shop across the street, show up and we'll give you a mission or whatever." Alex, not expecting things to go that well, awkwardly grabbed his duel disk and rummaged through his deck "Do I need to keep a Flame Swordsman on me or something? like an ID card type thing?" "No, just tell them Akio sent you, it's really lax down there, not much security or anything since we don't get attacked much." Not sure how to end the conversation Alex quickly bowed and left, not sure what to expect when he got there.

[Yuya-Kun]

Thomas stood up. "Tell me, tell me what this bastard has done!" He roared. tears streamed from his eyes, and rage filled his body. He pulled a card from his deck. "WHAT HAS HE DONE!" He repeated, this time sobs echoing in his voice. The men looked at him in shock. Each man stood up and looked at the boy. "Kid, we'll tel you what we know, if you tell us what you know." He indicated to the table and sat Thomas down. "All i remember is my friends card being stolen by his henchmen, so i took off after them and then i woke up on the ground with my card in my hand. Turns out my friend tricked me into going there so i'd get captured, but, i think i fought them off before they could get me, i don't know, it's sorta a blur." He looked at them, and a tear fell. "I know Yukotsa's running the city, i know that my father's gone, and i know my Deck's stolen, the only thing have is my father's deck. Now my question, where did you guys come from, whats your motive, and how'd yukotsa get strength?" The men looked at each other and then at Thomas. "Well......."

[fearen]

Irene looked at the invitation one more time as she walked into the stadium. This is so excessive she thought to herself, but then, here she was. The stands of the re-purposed football stadium were patchily filled with people that she assumed to be members of the Blue-Eyes White Dragon rebellion, as well as others that looked like they were just here for the show. "And here she is!" shouted the announcer over the speaker system, his voice brimming with enthusiasm. "She's taken down rare hunters left and right and even gotten the attention of The Boss himself, and now she's going to duel for her place in the Blue-Eyes rebellion! Make some noise for our new challenger, Irene!" With this, the crowd began to intermittently switch between shouting and booing her, only stopping when the announcer piped up again. "And on the other side of the arena with her signature X-Sabers, well, you know who she is. Who else could it be but the one and only Olivia Exavier!" From the opposite side of the arena, Irene could see someone who she assumed to be Olivia sauntering across the field. As if to confirm her identity, the crowd went into an uproar, clapping and chanting her name. Irene and Olivia met halfway, passing two microphones spaced evenly apart in the center of the arena and locking hands in a gesture of sportsmanship.
 
"So, I just have to duel you right?" Irene asked her soon to be opponent. "Then I get into the rebellion?"
 
Olivia gave a confident smile. "Yep. It's mostly just formality at this point. You got the invitation, so you're in whether you win or not. Just don't get too upset when I beat you, and try to put on a show as you lose."
 
"Gotcha." Irene said as she walked back to her microphone. Sorry I'm gonna disappoint, she thought to herself, the corner of her lips turning up in a slight grin.
 
The two of them settled at their microphones and pulled out their Duel Disks. Olivia looked on Irene's custom model, and a slight grimace came to her face. "Did you get that thing straight from the junkyard?" she asked over the loud speaker, her mocking tone evident. The crowd was surprisingly quiet as Irene fumbled with her microphone, before responding with a small bit of pride, "Yes. Yes I did." A few people in the crowd gave out awkward laughs, but most of them were silent. "Whatever." Olivia said with a hint of annoyance, "Let's just get on to the duel." Irene only nodded, and the announcer took that as his cue to take back the stage. "It seems our duelists are ready to go! For those of you who are new in the audience, we'll be following the classic rules of Duel Monsters, with our challenger going first. So without further ado, let's get started!"
 
 

 

DUEL START!

 

 
 
"I get to go first? This'll be even easier than I thought." Irene said, mostly to herself, but the microphone in front of her shared the comment with the rest of the stadium. The crowd cheered at the absent minded statement that they perceived as smack talk. Her opponent looked at her with a scowl as they drew their opening hands.
 
"Make your play then, I don't have all night." Olivia said as she looked over the cards she had drawn.
 
"With pleasure." Irene said, both her voice and her face taking on a sudden seriousness. The crowd didn't make a sound, as if the tension in the air had stolen their voices. Irene began again, "For my first play..." she let the words hang in the air, as she put her hand on her deck. "I'll surrender."
 
 
 

 

DUEL END!?

 

 
 
"WHAT THE HELL!?" Olivia shouted, the sound being amplified through her microphone. "What about the duel?!?"
 
Irene took her deck out of the Duel Disk and deposited it into its case. "Huh? Oh, you won. Congratulations." The crowd was even quieter than before, as they tried to figure out exactly what had just happened. Not even the announcer said anything. "Anyways, we're teammates now, so please don't shout at me." Irene stated into her microphone, with complete sincerity, before placing it on the stand. She turned around and walked towards the exit, flashing a peace sign over her shoulder as she left the arena.

[Yuya-Kun]

Chapter 2: New Age

Thomas looked up from the step he was sitting on. He'd seen some things these past 6 months, the war had begun between rebellions and Rare Hunter's, and soon the city became darker. His face became more dark and grey, his eyes lost their glow, and his face always grim. He stood up and held a card up. "To signify the hope, the magic that will bring the ned to the war, I Summon DARK MAGICIAN!" He roared, and the magician appeared in front of him. "Mahad, i have some questions, i need answers." Thomas told Dark Magician. "My first question, what do you know about Yukotsa, anything that will help me lead my rebellion to victory!" He pleaded. Dark Magician had a determined glow in his eye. "Yukotsa had a troubled beginning, an unknown birth, the loss of his other and the betrayal of his father, he grew up alone. As you may know from Yusei Fudo and Jack Atlas, duelists who start from the streets gain power over time. And yukotsa was no exception. He climbed the ranks of Duelists leagues, becoming a top entertainment, riding and standard duelist. He gained admiration from millions on the streets, and became their hero. Then there was a change, he became more obsessed with dueling, more obsessed with Yugi Moto. He learned about his key to power, and eventually found the whereabouts of the Millenium Puzzle!" Dark Magician announced. Thomas's face became more grim. "So, he's got Yugi's Power?" He asked. The dark magician looked at him solemnly. Thomas buried his face in his hands

[0PxPz0]

"Now, Master of Kings, end this game, Golden Empire Strike!" the golden armored warrior struck down on the Rare Hunter with his mighty spear, ending the duel "Next time you wanna steal cards try to stay away from my territory, got it?" Alex walked over to the defeated duelist and swiped their deck "No, no, no, I don't have that but not what I'm looking for." It had been around six months since he had joined the Flame Swordsman Rebellion and Alex had only recovered ten of his stolen cards despite his constant win streak against the Rare Hunters, most of his missing collection was being held by some incredibly powerful duelists no doubt. "Geez, your pretty useless aren't you? guess I'll take this anyway." Alex took a card from the hunters deck and threw the rest into the air while stepping on their face with his cleated combat boots "And stay away from my area, every time I beat one of you losers in my sector I have to waste time getting a report to HQ, that's less time I can spend looking for more of my cards get it?" the hunter nodded in apology as they quickly gathered their cards and ran out of sight "I hate doing this in person, can't they at least set up an email system or something?" Alex muttered to himself as he walked to his car, nothing impressive but it was better than walking, by the time he made it to headquarters any Rare Hunters would have been gone "Well let's do this." He walked to the door and slid his copy of Flame Swordsman though the key card reader, unlocking the door, and walked into the completely dark room "You guys could probably spend some money on the electric bill you know, it'd be nice to see each other for once." he said sarcastically, knowing their stupid rule about staying anonymous. "Report?" one of the voices said "yeah yeah, I got two today, one in the morning by some kids at a park and one about half an hour ago, nobody got hit and i'm still missing about a hundred thirty five cards." A second council member replied "So you're still in?" the council knew Alex' intentions, he had made them very clear when he joined, he was only in until he found his hoard, as a "fair trade" as they had called it Alex had to in turn stop acting like the rare hunters and stealing cards, of course what they didn't know was he had really just changed his targets to the people he was already dueling instead of going out of his way to duel others for what he wanted "ya, i'm still in your little club, any updates?" "Not yet." the first voice said, more of an automatic response at this point than an answer, they never had more information about Alex' cards. "alright, see you in a week probably." as Alex casually strolled out of the secret hideout of on of the biggest gangs in Di'jayo City all he thought about was "What do I want for dinner-breakfast?"

[The Frost King]

 

 

Kyle’s LP: 800

 

Rare Hunter’s LP: 3200

 

“This duel is over! Five-Headed Dragon, attack him directly!” The Rare Hunter shouted out. The huge dragon with 5 different heads charged towards Kyle. A slight smile appeared on Kyle’s face. The Rare Hunter had fell for it. “Sorry, but that’s not going to happen! I activate the trap, Mirror Force!” Kyle proclaimed. Instantly a giant mirror appeared in front of the dragon and a massive light shot out of the mirror, destroying the dragon. The Rare Hunter gasped in shock, before quickly regaining his composure. “It does not matter that you destroyed my dragon, you only have 800 life points and you have no cards in your hand! I place one card face-down and end my turn!” A brown rectangle appeared in front of the Rare Hunter before disappearing. “When my turn comes again, you’re going down!” The Rare Hunter said with confidence. Kyle cocked his head slightly to the side and looked at the Rare Hunter. “When your turn comes again? That won’t happen because this duel is going to end right now,” he then put his hand on his chest, “with me as the victor.” Drawing a card from his deck, Kyle then pointed to the sky with his free hand.

 

“I banish Cubic Puzzle, Particle Puzzle, Jewel Puzzle and Magnet Puzzle from my Graveyard to Special Summon from my Extra Deck!” Suddenly the surroundings around Kyle and the Rare Hunter started to turn darker. “Shallower of the universe, destroyer of light, come forth! Void Puzzle![ATK: 3500 DEF: 3000]” Instantly a black orb appeared behind Kyle before turning into a swirling void. The void started sucking in plastic bags, newspapers and other small items, swallowing them whole. The rare hunter did not seem to react to the monster’s massive attack points, which meant that his face-down card would be able to counter act Void Puzzle. Looks like I will have to take care of that face-down then, Kyle thought. After placing the card he drew on his duel disk, he adjusted his glasses. “I activate the Quick-Play Spell, Puzzle Break and with it, I destroy your face-down card!” The brown rectangle appeared in front of the Rare Hunter again, before shattering to pieces. The Rare Hunter’s attitude changed from confidence to pure fear in mere seconds. “And now, attack him directly Void Puzzle!” Several beams of black light burst out of the spinning void behind Kyle and hit the Rare Hunter, reducing his life points to 0. On the impact of the black light beams, the Rare Hunter was launched backwards, landing hard on his back.

 

Kyle was by the Rare Hunter’s side almost instantly. Grabbing the Rare Hunter by the shirt, Kyle lifted him off the ground. In a nice and gentleman like tone, Kyle spoke. “I would like to ask you a question, where does Yukotsa put the people that Rare Hunters kidnap?” “I-i-I don’t know” The Rare Hunter whispered out. Kyle put his free hand to his ear. “What? I couldn’t hear you.” “I-I don’t know” The Rare Hunter said a little bit louder. Kyle looked straight in the eyes of the Rare Hunter. “Are you telling the truth?” he asked. The Rare Hunter quickly nodded his head. Letting go of the Rare Hunter’s shirt, Kyle backed up about a foot. “Alright then I believe you, now get out of Red-Eyes B. Dragon territory before I start using my fists instead of my words.” Kyle watched the Rare Hunter run away.

 

When he was sure that the Rare Hunter was out of sight, Kyle reached into his pocket and pulled out his smart phone. The phone’s wallpaper was a picture of Kyle with a blond female behind him, wrapping her hands around his neck. The female was Kyle’s girlfriend Stacy, who had been kidnapped by rare hunters about 6 months ago. Kyle joined the Red-Eyes Black Dragon rebellion and along with helping them take out rare hunters, he has been looking for Stacy. Kyle stared at Stacy’s bright blue eyes in the photo until his phone started ringing. Answering it, Kyle put it to his ear. “Did you put the tracking device on him?” The voice on the phone asked. Kyle put the small duffel bag he had been carrying on the ground and reached into, pulling out an IPad. On the screen of the IPad was a map of the whole city and at the top part of the map was a blinking light that was slowing moving away from Kyle’s location. “Affirmative,” Kyle replied, his grin growing slightly in size. 

 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Skyler was in a dark alleyway, looking at a card on the ground. Instantly, the info of the card popped in her head before she even had a chance to properly look at it. Dark Magician. A Level 7, DARK attribute, Spellcaster type, normal monster with 2500 ATK and 2100 DEF. Skyler had seen a lot of Dark Magician cards today, they were every where in fact.

 

 

She didn’t know this, but she was in the east side of the city, where the Dark Magician rebellion was. It had been 2 months since she had left the broken down lab. After leaving the lab, she had found that the city was much like the lab, broken and close to ruins. She had run into some more Rare Hunters in the past two months, along with some people from the Dark Magician rebellion. Most of the time, she would run away from them, too afraid and too shy to find out if they were friend or foe. But the times that she couldn’t run away, she would duel them, and then the ‘other’ her would take over. The ‘other’ her was relentless, ruthless and cared about only 1 thing, victory.

 

 

Skyler had trouble finding food in the last 2 months and would either go on a long quest to look for food, or would sneak into a Rare Hunter or Dark Magician base and steal some of their food. Once, while on a quest for food she had run into some little kids. The kids wanted to play with Skyler, until they noticed that the animal ears on top of Skyler’s head. One of the kids called her a freak, another called her a monster and all of them ran away. Ever since then, Skyler has been wearing a hoodie to cover her animal ears. But because of the hoodie, some of the Dark Magician rebellion people mistook Skyler as one of the Rare Hunters.

 

 

At that moment, Skyler was wearing her hoodie with her animal ears hidden under the hood. Skyler walked out of the alleyway and was about to cross the street, when a voice called out. “Hey you there, stop!” Looking over her shoulder, Skyler spotted two guys running towards her. One of the guys was tall and skinny while the other was muscular and heavy built. Both the guys had their duel disk strapped on and ready. In fear, Skyler turned around and ran like the wind. Taking twists and turns, Skyler maneuvered around several abandoned cars and then swiftly ran down an alleyway. After taking a left turn, she stopped in her tracks. In front of her was a brick wall, a dead end. Skyler turned around but saw that the two guys had caught up and were blocking the only way out. She was trapped. The muscular guy had a chain necklace and on the necklace was a Dark Magician card. “Look what we have here,” the muscular guy said while taking a step forward, “a Rare Hunter.”  Skyler backed up quickly until she ran into a brick wall. “Please, leave me alone before it’s too late!” Skyler warned them in a worried tone. “Before it’s too late for what?” The skinny man asked before him and the muscular guy drew five cards from their duel disks. As if she was a robot, Skyler pulled out her duel disk, strapped it on, and activated the white duel blade. Drawing 5 cards, Skyler then spoke in a serious tone, “Before it’s too late for you to back out…. .Duel start!”

 

 

....................5 Minutes Later

 

 

The muscular guy hit the ground hard, while his life points quickly reached zero. The skinny guy backed up, worry on his face. He had 900 life points, while Skyler had 6500 and it was her turn. The skinny guy reached into his pocket and pulled out a phone, calling someone. When the person on the other side of the phone answered, the skinny guy shouted into the phone. "I need back up! My partner has been taken down by a powerful Rare Hunter and I'm about to be next! Get here now!" In his worry, the skinny man accidentally dropped the phone, which broke when it hit the ground. Skyler looked up at the man, her face emotionless. "I do not know what a Rare Hunter is and I don't care even care. All I care about is where a man named Yukotsa and the Millenium Puzzle is.But everyone I ask says the same thing.......'I don't know'." Skyler's eyes seemed to glow red as she continued, "If you can tell me where I can find them, I will let you go, but if you don't..." Skyler snapped her fingers and up in the dark, cloudly sky above a black dragon the size of lion flew down and landed beside Skyler. "......I will show you no mercy." The skinny guy stared in fear, his mouth gaping open. "Alright then, too bad for you. Tiny Dragon, attack him directly" Before the skinny guy could say a word, the lion-sized dragon shot a red fire ball at him that hit him in the chest, knocking him to the ground. His life points dropped to zero and the dragon faded away. Instantly, Skyler's attitude changed from serious to worried. She walked over to the unconscious bodies of the two men. "Are you okay? I'm sorry, I tried to warn you not to duel me."

 

After trying to wake up the men, she then turned to leave. Skyler walked out of the alleyway and right away some one called out. "Hey!" Looking over, Skyler saw a group of people running towards her, their duel disks ready. They were the back up that the skinny guy had called in. Instinct kicked in and Skyler ran away as the people pursued her.

[fearen]

Irene hadn't done much in the 6 months that she had been in the Blue-Eyes rebellion, other than hunting rare hunters. It did have its perks though: She finally had something to do with the rare cards that she got from her victories. Being able to trade them in for favors and information gave her even more motivation to take down the hunters plaguing the city. It's not like there was much else for her to do in Di'Jayo, so she kept tracking them down, and she kept collecting their cards. Speaking of which, Irene had some cards to collect now.

 

Her opponent sat up against the brick wall of the alleyway, his black hood covering the majority of his facial features. Irene walked over slowly and crouched next to him. Gingerly, she pulled off his hood, revealing his graying hair and beard. She offered a kind smile, to which the man gave a look of confusion. If Irene had noticed his expression, she didn’t acknowledge it. Instead she put out her left hand, with her palm facing upwards.

 

“Your cards.” Irene stated, staring the elderly man in the eyes. The rare hunter realized the irony of the circumstances, but he wasn’t going to let his cards be taken so easily. His eyes darted frantically looking for the best route of escape, until they settled on the glinting object in her right hand. He looked at the knife pressed to his stomach for a long while, before turning his gaze back to his assailant’s calm smile. It was at this moment that he understood what was meant by it: “I don’t want to hurt you, but I will.”

 

The rare hunter slumped in resignation. He began by pulling his deck out of his Duel Disk and handing it to her. She placed it onto the ground next to her without taking her eyes off of him, watching intently as he took out a small box from his coat. As soon as it was in her hand, she sat cross-legged next to him, and her combat knife vanished into her jacket. Irene took the cards inside and began quickly flipping through them, occasionally stopping to look at one more carefully.

 

Without turning her attention from her work, Irene asked her new companion/hostage a question. “Aren’t you a bit old to be a rare hunter?”

 

The man sitting next to her chuckled solemnly. “Why do you care?”

 

“It seems bad for your health.” Irene said, thinking a bit before elaborating “You look tired.”

 

He looked into his hands sitting in his lap. “I am tired.”

 

Irene stopped and looked at him. She didn’t know how to respond to that, so she didn’t. The two of them sat in silence for a while as Irene finished sorting through the cards. She placed them back into the box and held up his deck. “You didn’t steal these, did you?” she asked.

 

He looked forlornly at the cards in her hand before smiling. “Heh. No, I didn’t. How did you know?”

 

“When we dueled…” she started, “it felt like you had a certain bond with them.”

 

He only nodded. Irene didn’t want to delve into the subject, so she instead pulled out a paper and pen and began writing. The old man didn’t have the energy to question whatever she was doing anymore, so he just waited until she finished. “There,” she said as she handed him both the paper and his deck, “It’s an invitation to the Blue-Eyes White Dragon rebellion. The other rebellions usually use cards, but the Blue-Eyes White Dragon is kinda too rare of a card to just throw around.” The old man looked at her curiously as he took his deck and the note. “And what if I don’t join your club? What if I just go back to hunting?” Irene didn’t even hesitate before responding, “Then I’ll find you and I’ll beat you again.” He laughed, unsure if it was because of the audacity of the statement or because he knew she serious. “Fine.” He said, “I’ll do it.”

 

Both Irene and the old man who had been her hostage only a few minutes prior sat smiling, in a slightly awkward but comfortable silence. Irene got up to go, before remembering something and stopping in her tracks. “Oh. One more thing.” she said, rummaging through the box of stolen cards, “These ones are really cute. Where did you get them?”

 

“Funny that you’d ask about those.” The rare hunter said, looking at the two cards in her hand; Fluffal Dog and Frightfur Tiger. “They belonged to The Fighting King.”

[0PxPz0]

"And once again the winner and reigning champion is Alex Solomon, the Fighting King!" the small crowd cheered for Alex as his opponent shook his hand in defiant acceptance of her defeat, while yes Alex is a thief that most people hate he has a small group of adoring fans in the underground dueling circuit held in secret across his part of the city, the origin of his name the Fighting King, competitors hunt each other down in duels until only one remain at which point they come to an abandoned duel arena for a final battle against last years champ, due to his work with the lame Swordsman rebellion he barely had time to participate this year, usually as the current champion he would go around letting people he wanted to duel borrow his cards promising them as rewards should they beat him, just to spice things up a bit and add some stakes to his own duel, this years challenger was a girl he had given a Yang Zing synchro she wanted to boost her deck. "Thank you everyone! Such great challengers this year!" his sarcasm was obvious but they didn't care, it's what they came to expect of their victor, a cruel and rude sore winner they couldn't help but love to hate "Next year I want to go even bigger! So come on, I need a worthy challenge, someone to test my deck and me, push us to the limit! Those of you that know how I play, come see me for your extra boost for next year, I've got some new cards that a sure to help you reach me!" his snide comment seemed genuine to anyone not watching him rip the Yang Zing he had given his opponent a year ago out of her hands. After the crowd had died down Alex headed to his usual spot, one of the arena's abandoned card vendor stands where he was soon crowded by people, each ready to show him their deck and accept his "gift" for the next tournament. "Try this, Rainbow Neos, it's hard to pull of but you have the stuff if you move some cards around. Gravity Bind should help yo control, a lot of people go for high level monsters so this will basically immobilize all their attackers." it went on like that for a couple hours until everyone had left, after a match in the arena Alex always spent the night camping at his vendors stand in case anyone came during the night, eventually, with his cards safely secured in a safe in the back, Alex drifted off.

[Yuya-Kun]

Finally, a vendors, hopefully some cards to rummage. As he did this, the words flew past his ears. "And once again the winner and reigning champion is Alex Solomon, the Fighting King!" Surprised Thomas. "People still duel!" He smiled with excitement. "What if my Dad's there!" excitement practically overflowing from his voice. He ran up the stairway into a huge arena, with enormous lights shining down on a single man. "That must be this Alex person!" He thought. "Thank you everyone! Such great challengers this year!"  That sounded like sarcasm. Thomas immediately felt a strange anger towards this guy. "What a prick!" He moaned. The man rambled on for a while before stopping. the stadium went dark, and he saw the man walk off. Thomas was desperate to give this guy a piece of his mind, and ran out the doorway. He dashed to the ground floor and looked around but to his dissapointment, saw nothing of this Alex character. He gave up and found a vendor. He threw down a sleeping bag and closed his eyes. 

[0PxPz0]

Alex woke up as the sun hit his eyes, got his stuff out of the safe, and began walking to his car to see what was going on around town when suddenly he tripped over a sleeping bag near one of the other abandoned card stands. "Damn it!" he quickly got up and tried to wake whoever was inside "Hey, jerk, get up!" Alex stripped the sleeping bag off of the snoring boy and began violently shaking him "This isn't a hotel kid! out now or I'm calling the cops!" Alex, having encountered similar situations before, found threatening with the police while using a slightly deeper voice usually did the trick, better to scare them off then let them get the police actually called in and have his groups arena demolished or condemned. "You've got till the count of five, one, two, three . . ."

[Yuya-Kun]

Thomas woke with a start. "What the Hell!" He screamed. He just woke up to this Alex guy screaming at him. "Your that fighting king guy aren't you!" Thomas picked up his deck and stared at the guy. "I really don't like you!" He scowled. "your selfish, your mean, and you think of yourself only!" Thomas put his deck in the duel disk. Memories flashed back of his dad, and the stress of his disappearance. "I haven't dueled in 3 Months, i need this." He pulled on his scarf and glared at him. "Give me a duel, smart guy!"

[The Frost King]

Skyler was tired. She had been running for most of the day, trying to get away from the people that had been chasing her. Finally, she had been able to get away but with one problem, she didn’t know where she was. Also, it was nighttime so it made navigating even harder.  So Skyler just wandered around, hoping to find something familiar. As she would walk, Skyler would hide whenever she saw something move. She felt sleepy and decided to find some safe place to sleep.  After what seemed like forever, she had found a stadium which she then sneaked into.

Walking around the stadium, she saw some vendor stands set up. The vendor stands had signs, but since there was little to no light, Skyler couldn’t read them. She then noticed that some people were sleeping near the stands!

 

Oh, I hope their friendly,  Skyler thought while bringing the hood that was covering her animal ears closer around her face.  Now walking slower, Skyler found a open spot near a vendor stand and fell asleep.

Skyler awoke at the sound of a voice. "Hey, jerk, get up!"  Looking around, she saw a guy with light grey hair shaking a guy with blue hair. "This isn't a hotel kid! out now or I'm calling the cops!" The grey-haired guy threated the blue haired guy.  Cops? What were cops? Skyler shook her head to get the any amount of sleepiness out of her system. I should help that blue-haired guy, Skyler thought. So, after checking to make sure that her hoodie was covering her animal ears, Skyler got up and walked over to the grey-haired guy who was beginning to start some kind of countdown. “one, two, three . . ." Skyler lightly tapped the grey-haired guy on the shoulder, before backing up a few feet. “Um, can you please leave that guy alone, um, please..?” Skyler said in a voice laced with a bit of fear and shyness. Then the blue haired guy woke up.

 

After going on some kind of rant with the grey-haired guy, the blue-haired guy picked up a deck which he then put into his duel disk.  "Give me a duel, smart guy!" The blue-haired guy said to the gray-haired guy.  Duel? Skyler thought. No, they can’t have a duel or the ‘other’ me will join in! In panic, Skyler ran up and grabbed the blue-haired guy’s arm which had his duel disk. “No! Please don’t duel! I don’t want any more people to get hurt!” She said while tears started to form in her eyes.

[Yuya-Kun]

“No! Please don’t duel! I don’t want any more people to get hurt!” The girl clinging to his arm begged. Thomas had a pained expression. A million thoughts flew through his head. What would be so bad? Who would get hurt? He had to duel this guy, but he didn't want the girl to get hurt. "Listen...... you have to leave, this duel can't be stopped, but if you want to be safe leave!" He told her in a whisper. He pointed to a small cubby hole-esc thing whispered. "If i win, there's a place you can go." He slipped a Dark Magician card into her hand. "i have to duel, but if you wanna be safe, go!"

[0PxPz0]

Alex just stared while the two intruders did . . . something "Don't I get a say in this?" he walked between the two, first looking at the girl "First, if I wanna duel some stranger isn't gonna stop me, second If you don't want to watch just leave." Alex turned to his crazy challenger "And you, I'm The Fighting King, You wanna duel me come back next year, come over to my stand I'll set you up for the tourney." Alex turned and headed back towards the broken down vendors stand he used "Also you're intruding on city property so you might wanna leave soon, so am I but I know all the hiding places if someone shows up." Alex set up his cards on the vendors stand, each one with a price tag in front of it, each price said tag "Lend - No charge, Keep - Win" "Now then, what'd you got for decks?"