Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL Shark Strikes!

Shark - Chapter 1

I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! ZeXal. All rights go to 4kids Entertainment and all other respective owners. I am making nothing off of this. Thank you.

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Reginald Kastle was standing on his sand dune at Heartland Beach. It was not his exactly, but he guarded it as if he was a dog and this was his territory... Or rather, a shark. He loved the ocean and the beach and they were some of the few things that would bring a true and genuine smile to his face.

"Not everyone is as lucky as I," he thought to himself. He was not "lucky" and he did not have a perfect life. His parents left him and his sister when they were young. He raised his sister, Rio, all on his own and provided for her... Even if it meant he had to steal or work with a gang. He would put her above himself.

A lot of people would say that he and his sister were "poor things", but he always said about how they were lucky. "You have the snow of winter and Christmas, and we are always warm during this time; I have the ocean; and, most importantly, we have each other."

At first, Rio would look at him as if he was mad and get angry with him. Lately though, she would just smile and nod her agreement. "There are those out there who have nothing to bring them comfort... Right, Shark?"

At this, he would simply nod his head and smile.

Shark was not really one to care about style. He and his sister had, for a while, only two changes of clothes and none of their clothes really matched. However, they had clothes and for this they were thankful.

He had brought him and his sister a long way since then. It all changed one day when he and his sister had been noticed dueling. Among the kids, they were known to be some of the best duelists around, but Shark had always wanted to play in the pro tournament or "Go Pro" as he heard many people say. He wanted this for two reasons. Firstly, he and his sister needed the money, but secondly he just really loved dueling. On this day, Shark and Rio were noticed by a man who was a recruiter of sorts. He watched their duel in awe. Despite both being pre-teens, their skills rivaled many of the "minor league" dueling celebrities. When they finished their duel, the man approached the winner of the duel, who was Shark, and asked him if he wanted to duel for a living. Shark, who had matured faster than many others his age agreed at the thought of having a steady paying job to take care of his sister. That night they spent living in a high-rise penthouse suite on top of one of the nicer apartment buildings in Heartland.

With their newfound wealth from the dueling skills of this "child prodigy", they were able to wear some "Celeb Status" clothing. Shark now wore a dark blue and purple colored outfit. Dark blue slacks, a dark blue undershirt, and a lighter purple jacket over his shirt normally completed his look. He had also stylized his hair to resemble octopus tentacles, and dyed the longer "tentacles" a rich purple, and then dyed the shorter "tentacles" a light blue color.

Rio would wear an outfit that was almost the inverse of Shark. This was fitting as they were almost complete opposites. These two used vastly different play-styles and approaches when it came to life and dueling.

Shark turned out to be an exceptionally great duelist. He used a WATER based deck and was notorious for being one of the top duelists in the Junior Professional Dueling Division (or JPDD as everyone called)… But that all changed one day.

Shark had been in a fairly tough match against another great duelist, Quattro Arclight. For some reason or another, Shark had been off his game lately. His opponents were tougher now and it seemed that some of his rivals had suddenly gotten much better… Either that or someone was out to get him.

He was going up against Quattro in the finals of the tournament, and was feeling rather tired and sluggish. So he entered the lounge to get a soda when he somehow knocked down Quattro's deck… That had been "carelessly" left on the edge of a pot in the lounge area. Unable to resist ensuring his victory, he put Quattro's deck back together and somewhat inspected each card as he did so.

This proved to be a fatal mistake. Right before he made his winning move, pop-ups appeared all over the place informing Shark that he had been disqualified from the tournament and thus lost. Also that one, little mistake cost him his reputation and he was not rehired by anyone else. However, what made him angrier than anything else to this day was what Quattro said afterwards… Or rather how he said it. "Well who would've thought that the once mighty Shark would stoop so low as to look at his opponent's deck before a match," Quattro said with a sly smile gracing his features. Then he walked off chuckling. Shark was stunned. "He set me up!" Shark angrily thought.

Shark shook those thoughts from his head. This was supposed to relax him. He looked at his watch. 6:28 pm it read. "Almost time for the sunset. Then I need to head home," he said to no one in particular. He looked out over the water. The sun had seemingly grown in size tremendously and had begun to disappear under the horizon. He watched it descend until it disappeared, his eyes shimmering as the big, red orb slowly descended until it had completely disappeared.

He gathered his things before he took one last look at the sea. He closed his eyes, breathed in one last breath of the salty sea air, and then turned and started his trek home.

It was a nice, little stroll from the beach to his house. Along the way, he would pass the higher ups and their beautiful households. He and his sister now lived in a small apartment building, both having to work most days after school to pay for it, but today was their day off and Rio was spending the day at a friend's house. So he had the apartment to himself. It had been a long day and he wanted to catch up on some sleep… That and he needed to wake up a little bit earlier than normal for his next job tomorrow. So he ate a small supper, cleaned up and went to bad.

What he had not expected was that he would be awoken in the middle night by an intruder. This intruder was closing the door after having placed what appeared to be two Duel Monster cards on his pillow right next to him. He picked them up, briefly looked them over and then chased down this intruder. However, this intruder was simply sitting on Shark's couch waiting for him. This person was a young boy with pink hair and a very calm, almost happy disposition. He wore almost regal robes that reminded Shark of Quattro except they had a pink color scheme. Despite wearing what many would consider a feminine outfit, this person was clearly a male and still managed to carry himself in an unquestionably masculine way. After his initial confusion about why this person wasn't running away and why he was leaving two Duel Monster cards, he angrily asked of the other person in the room, "Why are you here?!"

The other person remained calm and slowly stood up. "I gave you what I was supposed to. Now I have to be leaving." He slowly began walking towards the door, but Shark quickly intercepted him.

"Not until I get some answers! Now, WHO ARE YOU?!"

The person simply smiled in response. "My name is Trey."

Shark asked another question. "I don't know you. Why are you here? And what did you mean be giving me what 'you needed to'?"

"I needed to give you those cards. I was hired by someone to give you these cards. You'll need them for what's to come," Trey said mysteriously.

This only served to confuse Shark more. "What do you mean by 'what's to come'?"

At this Trey did something Shark did not expect. He stopped smiling. Apparently whatever was about to happen was enough to make someone like Trey change his entire disposition.

Trey pointed at those cards he gave them. Then he picked the Number up and gestured to it. "These Numbers influence your dark side with their greed and force you to try and obtain them. However, that other card I gave you will protect you from their influence, and serve to make you an incredible duelist whose strength can only be matched by others on our skill level."

"So then why are you giving me one?" Shark asked confused.

"Two reasons. One: you have a very strong will power. I and… he who sent me, believe that you have a strong enough will power to fight off the dark influence of that Number. Not only that, but that other card will help you fight off the dark influence. These Numbers are made of Astral Energy. This is physically manifested energy that comes from a realm known as the 'Astral World'. The leader of that world, or rather the last remaining person from that realm, is also made of this energy and these Numbers are parts of his memories.'

"Wait. Why are we dueling? I mean, if he created these evil 'Numbers' then why would he give them away? They're so powerful."

Trey closed his eyes. He had thought about this for a while, too. He had his crest which protected him from the influence and it was said that there was another duelist who possessed this power called "ZeXal"... This other duelist was also protected and this power was said to have other capabilities which weren't even tapped into yet.

"We are chosen duelists. 'He who sent me' met someone. His name is Barian and he's able to make these cards that are intended to stop this madness."

"Madness?" Shark questioned.

"Yea. Apparently, in this Battle Royale, if you lose, you're 'terminated'..."

"What does that mean?"

Trey took a deep breath. "No one knows. However, it can't mean anything good, and Barian doesn't want this 'Astral' to accomplish his goals."

"So what? Do we take part in this 'tournament' of sorts and just keep our Numbers separate and away from Astral?"

"Yea. If he wants one duelist to possess all hundred or so of these Numbers, then we just stop that from happening."

"Wait... Did you say a 'HUNDRED'?!"

"Yea. You didn't know? There are a little less than one hundred Numbered duelists, and there's a rumor that he's slowly making more and more join this game. If he collects all of these, then I worry about what will happen..."

"Yea, I understand that. Anyways, what does this card do?" He held up the "Rank-Up-Magic – Limited Barian's Force" card as he said this.

"It's made to counter the Numbers. My crest is made from the same energy. However, yours is more potent seeing as how it is focused into a single card." Trey smiled. "But don't let me fool you. I am nothing to laugh at."

Shark grinned. "Maybe we will meet at the end of this tournament."

Trey turned to leave. "That's why I gave you that card. You, aside from me and my friends, are the strongest duelist here. We need your help and the help of these other 'chosen' duelists." He walked out the door. "I'll see you around... As long as you survive, that is."

Shark nodded. "See you round."

Then he looked at his card. Whatever was happening involved much more than just him now. He was going to help and see what he could stop. If he was going to fight, he needed to be on top of his game.

Yes, he had many questions and almost no answers, but he could not let this 'Astral' go unpunished.

He placed the two new cards into his deck and drifted back into sleep. Even in his dreams he saw the adventure that was about to unfold.

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So this is the first chapter of Shark's time in his "coma"! How did he get like this and what was the card that he received from Trey? All these answers and more in the next thrilling episode of "Yu-Gi-Oh! ZeXal: A Shark's Tale"!

Anyways, this is TheOtherWhiteNerd, signing off.

Sayonara.

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Featured Card

Rank-Up-Magic – Limited Barian's Force

Attribute: MAGIC

Type: Normal

Card Lore

Target 1 face-up Rank 4 Xyz Monster you control; Special Summon 1 "Number C" monster with 1 Rank higher than that target, using the target as the Exceed Material. (This Special Summon is treated as a Chaos Xyz Summon. Xyz Materials attached to that monster also become Chaos Xyz Materials on the new Chaos Xyz Monster).


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Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL