Training at the Syndicate (Fujiwara Twins)

The night was young and Neo Domino city had seemed to not slumber at all. Bright lights made it seem like the sun had not set at all, but rather transfered it's power to the city below.

All except one.

One large building stood alone, darkened by the natural shadow around it. A large sign had recently been placed on it, the emblem of the american gaming company Drakemore Syndicate glowing on the front of it.

Inside, on the top floor sat the man who had inherited the very company named after his bloodline, Seth Drakemore. Seth sat upon a large leather couch looking out the massive window to the city below. He closed his eyes as some light classical music danced in his ears. It was a good night............a rarity in his life.

"...Are you sure this is-"

"Yes."

".....Are you really su-"

"Yes."

"..........Really?"

".....I think so......"

The twins stared up, just outside the door of the huge, dark building. Despite their arguing, both knew that this was the right place. At the same time, they had a hard time believing it.

The two continued to simply stare, mentally debating with each other what they should do.

"You two..........I assume you are the guests Mr. Drakemore had informed me of?"

A man in a suit stood at the large doorway into the building, a less than caring look upon his face. Seth never had any vistors, was never the social type. He didn't like this change.

"I am Pierre, Mr. Drakemore's personal assistant. Please.............follow me."

He rolled his eyes as he held the door open, expecting the twins to follow.

Ko noticed the man's annoyance but didn't respond besides a nod. His sister, on the other hand and as per usual, did not notice at all and gave a far more enthusiastic response. "Wow, he knew we were coming? That's cool! I mean he did give us that paper, but still...oh, and thank you!"

She went inside and followed the man, and her brother followed her. Ko shot an apologetic smile to Pierre for his sister's...well, being her.

Pierre did nothing but sigh.

"Why me?"

He spoke to himself under his breath as the door behind him closed. He made his way ahead of the twins, leading them down a long hall with black marble floors lined with what could only be indentified as gold. He pointed to an elevator at the end of the hall.

"Mr. Drakemore's suite is on the top floor, just take the elevator there."

With an extremely fake smile and nod, Pierre went on his way, losing the facade as soon as he past them.

The twins, being rather shocked again by the rather immodest display of wealth, blinked when they reached the elevator. Ne then smiled and waved goodbye to the man, while Ko just gave another apologetic smile.

The female twin pushed the up button on the elevator, and both siblings entered when it opened. Ne pressed the button that let them go to the top floor, and the twins waited while it went up. It wasn't long before they were there, and the doors opened to reveal the room that Seth was in.

"Hello sir." Said Ko as both he and his sister stepped out of the elevator.

Seth didn't move from his spot, rather raise his hand to the twins as the entered the room.

"Welcome to my humble home, Ko and Ne Fujiwara."

He laughed lightly, like he had done before. He then stood up, turning to face the twins. As opposed to his usual dress, he now wore a pair of black dress pants and a button up shirt. He bowed to them.

"I assume you've met Pierre? Lively fellow, is he not?"

Both twins started at the use of their last name. How did he know that? They had never told anyone. Ne recovered a lot more quickly than her brother, grabbing his hand as mental support. Just because he knew their surname didn't mean he knew anything.

"Yeah, Pierre seemed really nice!" Said Ne aas she waved back with her other hand, oblivious to how Pierre really acted.

"I'm sorry, allow me to explain. I have my team monitoring duelist information, the basic resgistration. I know your names, decks, etc. Nothing more. Oh, how rude of me."

Seth bowed his head, his hand outstretched.

"I've never formally introduced myself. My name is Seth Drakemore, a pleasure to meet you both."

Ko admittedly relaxed a bit at this, though he still was somewhat worried as to what "etc" was referring to. He squeezed his sister's hand and let's go, to show her that he was grateful and that he was fine. The girl smiled at her brother.

"Nice to meet you." He said to Seth, smiling. "You know us though, so I'm not sure if we should bother to reintroduce ourselves, but I'm Ko."

"And I'm Ne!" Said the girl.

Both twins bowed in return, though not as formally.

"Well, now that formalities are out of the way......."

Seth stood up, his smirk infectious as he walked to the giant window overlooking the city of Neo Domino, one of the favorite pieces to his home. He looked down to the streets, before turning back to them.

"It intrigues me how you simply enjoyed watching the duel yesterday, though you told me you're..............not very good. How is that?"

He sat down on his chair again, inviting the twins to be seated as well.

"How does enjoyment come without victory?"

The two looked at each other as they sat down, a bit confused at the odd question. Sure they weren't good. No one was good when they first began something. But that didn't mean it wasn't fun.

"Well..." began the male twin. "We just started, so yes, we're not very good. But there are a lot more things than winning when it comes to enjoyment from a duel."

"Like knowing you tried your best." Began Ne.

"Knowing that anyone watching is entertained."

"Learning what you can do next time to improve."

"Meeting new people."

"Making new friends!"

"And playing a game that you love." The two said the last and the next thing in unison. "What's not fun about that?"

Seth simply looked at the two, trying to grasp what they were saying. He never got the "love of the game" so many duelists spoke of. He never had the chance to appreciate the game. He was never given that option. His eyes went blank as he thought about moments of his past. The training................the pain. He then snapped back.

"I'm sorry, a strange question but one I had to ask. Now for another one. Why did you decide to come here?"

He smiled to no one in particular.

"Aside from my invitation, of course."

Ko noticed the look in his eyes, but chose not to comment. "Well, one reason was curiosity. Were you really the person with the dueling company? Why were you dueling that person before? It didn't seem like it was a normal duel. This was Ne's reason for coming."

Ne was oblivious to the Drakemore's memories. "The second was you said you could help us get better. Dueling is amazingly fun, winning or losing, but that doesn't mean we don't want to be able to challenge someone to their very limits! Will you help us get better, or were those empty words? This was Ko's reason for coming."

Again, they began to speak together in their identical voices. "And the last was we wanted to duel you. This was our reason for coming."

Seth nodded to them, acknowledging their many questions and motives.

"Well then, allow me to give you the answers you seek. Yes, I indeed am the CEO of the Drakemore Syndicate. As for Mr.Wheeler who I had dueled earlier. He and I share common a bound. We're both...........gifted. His duel was an attempt to revenge from a previous loss. I wanted to teach him something out of it."

He had hoped the context of their true power would have not been so easily seen. It would be too hard to explain things..........and to bring up events he'd rather forget.

"As for helping you two become better duelists, that is simple. I can supply everything yu both need to reach your full potential."

Seth stood up, his smirk now drawing in his sense of competition.

"As for the duel, I'm more than ready to begin whenever you are. What better way to train, than to duel?"

"Sounds good!" Said Ne as she stood up as well, followed by Ko. Both were a little surprised that he answered their questions with no hesitation. Even Ne thought that he seemed to be a private man. Still, they were happy that he told them.

"Who should battle then?" She asked the company owner.

Seth continued down the hall without saying a word, stopping at a very large steel door.

"Welcome to my sanctuary."

He pushed the doors open, revealing a large room, almost hollow, made up of large concrete slabs, except for one point where a red sphere-like object was placed. Large lights turned on overhead. Seth walked to the middle, taking in the room, before walking to a small container on the side. Entering a combination, the container opened, a few decks of Duel Monster cards rising out of it.

"I think I'll use....."

He looked back at the twins, then back at the decks. His eyes caught one in particular. A deck he hadn't seen in a long time. The perfect deck for their training. The deck that trained him.

"This one. My Cyber Dragons are too much for you to handle."

He stood, facing them.

"No offense."

Ne was glancing around the room in fascination, so her brother opted to answer for them.

"None taken." He said with a shrug, knowing it was very, very true.

Seth had brought his duel disk to his right arm, attaching it, and replacing the deck inside with his newly selected one.

"Now I believe you may have better luck with the other two decks inside the container. You can decide between yourselves who gets what."

"Eh?" Questioned Ko. "Is that really alright? You don't mind?"

His sister, on the other hand, practically skipped over to the decks, if just to sate her curiosity. She looked through both, giggling at some of the pictures. "Hey Ko, come look! This one has a dinosaur on it!"

"Dinosaurs?" He asked. His own curiosity peaked, he went over to look himself. Smiling as he saw she was right, he added. "That's awesome." He had a childhood love for the ancient that hadn't quite died.

His sister had a triumphant grin as she handed him the deck. "Then you can have this one while I have the pretty flowers."

The male twin frowned, seeing he had been tricked. "Fine, but remember, we're just borrowing these."

"If that's all?"

Seth held up his arm. His duel disk activated, a computerized female voice proclaiming "Duel Disk initiated". The field of his disk, shaped like a folded black wing, extended, unfolding and coming to life with light. Seth closed his eyes, lowering his hand to the twins and pointing at them.

"Don't hold back! Duel me with every ounce of strength you have!"

"You got it!" The twins said in sync, before Ne added. "But I don't believe you said which of us you want to duel..."

Ko looked at Ne. "I think he wants us to tag team against him."

"Oh. Well cool!" She replied, then activated her own duel disk, as did her brother. As they placed in their cards, the girl added. "You first then, Mr. Seth!"

Seth nodded, drawing his first five cards and a sixth to start his turn.

"Duel."

He fanned the hand out, looking through each possible plan and each move.

"It's funny. I've always seen myself as the upgrade to my past generations. The better version. It even reflected in our decks. We always had a flair for Machine-type cards. Just something about them leave the other type in the dust. Machines they're...........heartless, emotionless weapons. That makes them perfect for battle. As you've seen, I have the Cyber Dragons. The pinnacle of modern technology, an upgrade to my trainer's style. Allow me to show you that style."

Seth selected a card in his hand pulling it out with a bit of force before placing it on the field.

"I summon the Ancient Gear Soldier!"

Sparks shot up from the ground before Seth as a new machine monster rose up from them. It appeared to be hundreds of years old, made up of clockwork and stone. It roughly resembled that of a human, one "eye" staring out from underneath a helmet. It's right hand was replaced with a large gun which it held in it's other hand. The machine screeched and clanked, preparing for battle. (1300 ATK / 1300 DEF)

"I now set two cards face-down and end my turn. Now, show me your abilities!"

The last two cards appeared behind Seth's monster. Something changed in the eyes of Seth. It was these cards. Something about them........made him aggressive, just like his Cyber Dragons.

Ne stared at the Ancient Gear Soldier, practically with sparkly eyes. It was a huge cool monster, and she remembered that her brother had used a similar card in their first duel, the one against Fayt. Ancient Gear Knight was its name, she remembered. Since then, the Ancient Gears had somewhat endeared themselves to her. Her brother as well, but Ne was far more, well, her.

"Soooooo coooooool!" She squealed.

Ko chuckled as he watched his sister practically swoon at the machine monster. He couldn't help but smile fondly at the memory. "Since my sister is a tad preoccupied, I'll go next." He drew a card and studied what he had.

He was certainly at a disadvantage, in a sense. He had no idea what was in this deck, or how it would work together. Still, that made it fun, didn't it?

Well, let's try this then...

"First, I summon Jurrac Iguanon (1700/700)." Said Ko. "Then I'll put two cards face down as well, and have my monster attack your Ancient Gear Soldier."

The dinosaur gave a roar as it charged the machine.

Seth observed the large dinosaur charging at his Soldier, then shot his gaze down to the cards on the field.

"Well then, allow me to demonstrate a special rule in dueling. Not all is as it seems, and Monsters are not the only way to win. GO QUICKPLAY SPELL CARD!"

One of the two cards that were face-down infront off Seth rose, springing to life as it revealed itself as Limiter Removal!

"I activate the Spell Limiter Removal! With this the gloves come off, and all of my Machine-type Monsters on my side of the field double their ATK strength, but I must then destroy them at the end of this turn!"

Seth looked on as his Soldier shook, it's power growing as it's ATK rose to 2600.

"READY! AIM!"

Seth's monster took sight at Ko's creature.

"FIRE!"

A beam of energy launched from the barrel, piercing into the chest, blowing it to pieces.