All characters are owned by me. So please ask before you use them. I will say yes.

Author's Note: I would like to announce that there will be a "movie" version of Card Master: Vanguard. But first I have a couple of story arcs to go through first.

Area 51

Taiki and Ross walked into the office of Colonel Valiant. His back was turned as he looked out the window into the night, and watched the patrols guarding the base.

"Uhh... Colonel...?" Taiki said. "I'm sorry I ran off with Ross. I know you're angry and all..."

"I'm not angry... Just relieved you both came home before those black suit wearing fools caught you..." Valiant said, as tears streamed down his eyes. "Please don't do that again."

Valiant looked up and not only did he see X and his group return, but also saw Air Force One has landed on the runway. "This is odd... Air Force One just landed here in Area 51."

XXX

Leo personally went out to greet the President of the United States on his surprise visit. However what greeted him was a arguing President and Agent X.

"Further more Xavier! The next time you decide to try and intimidate one of my fine soldiers, please don't... In fact I'm surprised you took it this far!"

"Dad... You know well as I do that I have the best interests in national security at heart."

"Xavier! Please don't say another word! This conversation is over! I've made my decision and you're going to abide by it like a good servent of this great nation!"

The two looked over at a very dumbfounded Leo, Taiki, Ross and Collins.

"What are you looking at? It's not like you have never seen a father and son arguing." President Romsfield said.

"Awkward..." Taiki quietly said to Ross. Who merely nodded his head in agreement.

Come on!

Come on!

Come on!

Let's duel!

Come on!

Come on!

Come on!

Let's duel!

Come on!

Come on!

Come on!

OH YEAH!

We're broadcasting live around the world

I'm handling a deck of trading cards everyday

My dreams are super sized

I just can't get enough

Come on! Let's duel!

Living a normal is just not for me

I want to be a Card Master...

So let's go!

Being normal is meaningless

Don't act like big hot shot, just because you have won a lot of duels

I'm strong!

Bring on the challenge!

I'll take down all road blocks with my hands!

(Come on! Let's duel!)

A lot better than yesterday!

(Come on! Let's duel!)

Going around the world with my friends!

Out to be the very best!

(Come on! Let's duel!)

It's the start of a incredible journey!

(Come on! Let's duel)

Can't stop fighting!

These are exciting innocent days!

Come on!

Come on!

Come on!

Let's duel!

Come on!

Come on!

Come on!

Let's duel! YEAH!

Episode 3: The Era the Earth Stood Still

"What can I say Colonel? I'm disbanding Majestic 12." Romsfield said. "No more Men in Black to cause headaches for you."

"What am I supposed to do now dad?" Xavier asked. "I'm now out of a job because of you!"

"I have a good idea in mind, but first let's here the story from these two, shall we?" Romsfield points to Taiki and Ross.

The two explained all that happened a few hours ago. Every detail was told, leaving nothing out. Including the part about the tattoos mysteriously appearing on their forehead and hand respectively.

"Sounds like a lot has happened... Plus this goes along with the reports that the gang young Taiki defeated single handedly was saying about aliens and card monsters doing physical damage. Naturally they were considered crazy and could not account for the massive hole in the wall at the scene."

"How are we going to cover this up Mr. President?" Collins asked. "Surely you can't let the story get out like this."

"Well none of us may not have a choice in the matter." Romsfield sighed. "Surely you know a story like this is hard to cover up. Plus we have the issue with that mysterious tattoo on Mr. Saruwatari's hand. The question is there more of those things out there? And if so then how many innocent people have them and will misuse their powers for evil?"

"Well I will have to explain more about the actual origins of the Nazca Lines themselves." Ross said.

Ross clears his throat and begins his story...

It started many, many years ago... Around the time humanity has begun to evolve through the slow process of evolution... Back then humans didn't really have the means to hunt food or perform other tasks for their survival properly. Until the Watchers arrived on Earth...

Several UFOs appear near the summit of Mount Hermon. The barely intelligent humans stared up into the sky and wandered what they were looking at. They mostly communicated through grunts and hand gestures. As they have no written language or even verbal language as of yet. Humans in this era are more or less still monkies.

When those of my race stepped off of their ships and onto Earth's soil. It would be the beginning of the end of humanity. They were just too stupid to even realize it. Humanity also began it's evolution, slowly but surely they were learning how to read, write and even speak. They were taught how to monitor the skies, the weather and the planets in the Sol System. Years pass by after the Watchers have left Earth to continue to see how their wisdom is used by this once inferior race. As time went on humanity flourished, but there were wars over territory, religion or over resources. Which would lead to the Watchers becoming very angry with humanity. Thus a decision was made... A decision too hard to come by...

"We can't let them continue down this road!" a female Grey said. "Humanity must pay for their misuse of our wisdom! We must punish humanity for their insolence!"

"I agree..." said a male Grey. "But to destroy them for this?"

"It must be done!"

Then the Great Flood, spoken in just about every holy book and ancient text you can imagine, began. For forty days and nights a select few of humanity stayed on a ark. Impossible to carry the animals of the world you say? Wel it is... However around this time my people, the majority of Greys that refused the Watchers permission to intervene with human affairs traveled to Earth in order to warn humanity of this terrible punishment. Though not every man, woman and child believed the man named Noah. After the flood, humanity began to rebuild and prosper once more. Though it didn't end the chaos that humanity ushered in before the flood. It continued once humanity. Then it was decided. In order to stop humanity from destroying itself with their knowledge. The Watchers chose to intervene themselves and annihilate humanity once and for all.

Thus began the War for the Future of Humanity... My ancestors, the royal family of our mighty empire, arrived on Earth with their forces to help the humans in this war against the Watchers. The only way to fully fight them was to teach them how to use a special power given to a select few. You may call this power "magic", and you would be right to call it as such. As there are somethings that can't be explained by science. However this power not only granted those selected with a tattoo of what would be the Nazca Lines, but there were another group who received tattoos of the eighty-eight modern constellations. They became known as the Nazca Hunters. Like their name sake they hunted down and stole the souls of the Chosen for fun or some other reason. Who really knows, but anyway. The Chosen had to defeat the Hunters first...

A Pacific Islander warrior with a tattoo of a shark on his chest summons a large sea monster that looked similar to the lochness monster out of nowhere. The monster flew across the land and bit a female Nazca Hunter represented with the constellation of Andromeda in half. Killing the female hunter from the Greek area. Then the Chosen was killed by a light arrow from the Hunter of Orion, who mourned the loss of his fellow Hunter.

Back in the present...

"You mean Armor Duels were around in the past?" Taiki asked Ross.

"Not really... It is a mere coincedence that the Chosen and Hunters were using a strategy similar to Armor Duels. Only these warriors of the past summoned just monsters. However some of the Chosen created various techniques to enhance the monster they summon..."

In the past a monk from the Chinese region of Asia summons the monsters that Taiki would call his Vanguard Fusion cards. However the monk, named Chi, called them by their Chinese names. When he fused them together to create his version of Ouryu. Chi would perform a certain motion with his hands and fingers. Until the four beasts formed a powerful golden beast, named Huang Long the Golden Earth Dragon of the Center. Huang Long then fires a combined elemental blast against a powerful hydra monster, summoned by the Hunter of Hydra. Killing the monster and the Hunter in one single stream of energy.

When all was said and done, the Chosen and Hunters lost so much in their war that when the Watcher returned to Earth. The Watchers thought they could win easily. However the Hunters and Chosen had no choice but put their differences aside to save humanity. With the monk named Chi as their leader, the two forces were more than enough to defeat the Watchers. When the Watchers were defeated, the powers granted to them by my people were returned. As only a member of the royal family can grant these powers. However they were told to memorialize the wars in a cryptic series of carvings. Not on a stone slab like all carvings are done. But instead on the ground. Thus the Nazca Lines were born. The Hunters were told to make stone slab carvings and hide them in a nearby cave by the Astronaut Line. It is there that the carvings of the eighty-eight hunters are located. A memorial to those who once fought against their bretheren and then formed an eternal truce to stop a major threat to the Earth and all of humanity...

Ross ends his story and takes a drink of water from the glass he was given in the middle of his story.

"You may be wondering just how did we know what kind of animals to be put in the Nazca Lines and the symbols of the Chosen. Well you see my homeworld is a lot like Earth. However we never created humanity. So you can forget about that scientology crap about an alien crashing his ship into an active volcano and creating humanity from it. Because you can't create anything from a volcano, except for crispy fried alien. But we did give the Earth it's life and let evolution do it's work. The universe is a big place and it's over a billion years old. You'll never know just how other signs of life has been living in this massive universe."

"But now we have to worry about over a hundred people who received these tattoos accidently?" Romsfield asked. "Where should we begin?"

"That's the problem." Ross said. "They could be anywhere and we may never know where in the world they are. But there is one way to find them."

"How?" Taiki asked and Ross gave him a devilish grin. "You need to start climbing the ranks in Armor Duels kid. Because that is our only chance to gather all Chosen and even all Hunters in one place. the Card Master World Tournament."

"How can you be sure they're all duelists?" Xavier asked.

"Because a royal family member like me can select a target group for the Chosen and the Hunters. When I chose Taiki to represent the Nazca Hands Then that Midas guy was selected to be the Hunter of Taurus. So I chose the target group to be armor duelists. Please don't ask me for the exact details on how I can do this. I only know that it is how it's supposed to be and that my acnestors selected more than one target group. As it was the first time that they had to do this this technique."

"So your ancestors chose monks and warriors from all over the world?" Collins asked.

"Yes! And for the record, some of the chosen Hunters were from a tribe of Amazons near Greece!"

"Great and just how can I get into the Card Master tournament if I'm not the American Card Master...?"

Now everybody was staring at him. "You don't mean I have to try and earn the right to enter the American Card Master tournament?"

"You're damn right!" Collins said. "Look it may be tough but if you brought a known cheater and juvenile deliquent to his knees and to justice. Not only that but also in the hospital in a coma. You can win the tournament and become the next Card Master of the United States."

XXX

A week has passed and Taiki started to be more active with duels at his school. Everybody noticed a huge change and found a new level of respect for the boy who used to never duel, as he had no deck to duel with. But after news of his duel against the teenage criminal known as King Midas. Things began to look up and up for Taiki Saruwatari.

Speaking of Midas... The kid was released on bond but had to have a GPS microchip injected into his arm. In order for the police to monitor him outside of jail. As he waits for his day in court. Though he was in a coma, he actually came to within three days. With prison doctors within the Las Vegas Juvenile Detention Center making it official that he was merely knocked unconscious. Unfortunately Reginald, Midas' real name, didn't escape the attack unscathed. He suffered a broken arm, a couple of broken ribs and minor cuts from the concrete and metal he was blasted into at high speeds. He's lucky to be alive after a defeat by Taiki and his new found powers. Reggie as he is usually called by his friends in the detention center, continued walking down the street into the Las Vegas strip. When he accidently bumped into someone else.

"Hey watch it!" Reggie said. "Do you know who I am?"

"I know who you are Midas... Or should I say Reginald." said the red headed kid with green eyes and Asian features. "But I've been looking for you for about a week. Where were you?"

"I was in jail. Just got out on bond."

"Good... We can duel... Right here, right now..."

XXX

Taiki returned home from school via black hawk helicopter. When he got home he saw Ross and Xavier researching more oppnents for Taiki to face in order to beef up his rank and get an invitation to the tournament.

"Again? I'm too pooped to duel..." Taiki said exhausted.

"We have to get you into that tournament and we have to find who else was given a symbol of either a constellation or a Nazca line." Ross said. "You'll be done when you're the new Card Master of America."

Taiki let out a groan and left the computer lab. He walks down to the mess hall and says hellp to the cooking staff, before going to the fridge to find something to drink and to eat. He chose a packet of cheddar cheese cubes and a a twenty ounce bottle of Coca-Cola Next Gen, a successful new soda that competes with Pepsi's successful Pepsi Next. he takes his snack to the recreation room and turns on to the local news to check the area wide news and after that the American/International news.

"This late breaking news just coming into our newsroom." said the reporter Jack Stoneson. "Reginald Cummings, who is best known as the gang lord King Midas was killed today. Witnesses couldn't get an exact description of the assailant. But they did say he was wearing a hood, looked similar to number one ranked duelist Tobias Daisuke, and had a glowing tattoo on his right wrist that looked like the constellation Orion. Were still receiving developments but from what we're hearing the assailant said something about owning Mr. Cummings soul and then Mr. Cummings quickly decayed rapidly seconds later."

Taiki shivered out of fear. From what the anchor said the mysterious person looked like the number one contender for the Card Master American title, which is currently held by Archer Shadow, the Amazing Spider Man. Not because Archer has powers like the comic book Spider Man, but because he uses a nature elemental deck filled with spider monsters and spider related powers. Taiki didn't think twice. He dropped his can Coke onto it's coaster and tore out of the rec room like a bat out of hell.

"ROSS! XAVIER!" Taiki shouted as he ran full speed into the computer room and stopped to catch his breath before speaking.

"What's the matter kid?" Ross asked.

"I just saw on the news I think a Hunter just stole Midas's soul..."

"What!" Xavier said. "Is that even possible?"

"Yeah... That is what Hunters do. They steal the soul of their defeated opponent. However it can only happen if their opponent had a symbol either Chosen or Hunter."

"What is our next move?" Taiki asked.

"First you perfect your game. While you do that X and I will continue to monitor the situation with our mystery Hunter."

"Okay..." Taiki said as he left the lab and went back into the rec room. Where he sat back down and watched the news in silence, while he finished his after school snack.

Nighttime arrived and the mysterious Hunter known as Orion watched the lights come on all over the city, from the roof of his apartment building.

"I need a tougher challenge..." his voice sounding a bit demonic. "That loser didn't give me much of a challenge and now I don't feel any stronger than when I first noticed this mark."

Orion looks up at a large TV monitor attached to the side of the Digital Duelist Hotel and Casino. It is there adults can gamble their money away, kids can duel against each other and even the adults can place bets on their favorite duelist. Which the latter is illegal in the state of Nevada and anywhere else that has a dueling stadium and casino really. It's against federal law to place bets on armor duelists that compete in these types of places. However all bets are off come tournament time. Orion notices Taiki on the screen as he was interviewed after the Midas incident, and he's been interviewed on his recent success at dueling. Orion really took interest when he noticed Taiki's exposed hand. Which had the Hands symbol on it. Orion chuckles to himself.

"So Mr. Saruwatari has a mark, but this is different than than one I saw on Midas' hand. Maybe this one will give me the challenge I need and the soul of a fighter. It'll make me feel stronger..."

Orion's chuckle turned to a full blown maniacal laugh...

Ending theme plays...

Next Episode: Taiki is challenged by Tobias Daisuke, the number one contender for the Card Master of America title. But Ross notices some strange behavior from Toby that he can't quite put in alien finger on.

Author's Comment: The whole Watchers thing was inpromptu. But I am a firm believer that our acnestors had help building the pyramids and stuff. Even learned how to build Stonehenge, which the method I'm thinking of is definitely possible from watching the recent season finale of Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files. Which was the episode where WWE superstar Kofi Kingston appeared as a guest. In short I am a believer in the ancient astronaut theory. Plus I also believe that some things can't be explained away by science and facts. But should be left unknown and as legends. Because if you try to explain it, you'll be left with a headache from your brain working in overdrive.

This is what I set out to do for Card Master: Vanguard from the very beginning. Involve some sort of a story using the Nazca Lines as marks of chosen characters to protect the world from darkness. Which was inspired by Yu-Gi-Oh 5D's Signers. The whole extraterrestrial part was inspired by Astro in Yu-Gi-Oh Zexal. Don't try to make heads or tails of it. Because there isn't really anything in Japanese animation that can make sense if you really think about it and try to figure it out. An example would be the later story arcs of the original Yu-Gi-Oh series. From the Noah Arc to the Dawn of the Duel Arc. The World Duel Championship Arc is just filler and doesn't really count. As I think it is part of the Battle City Arc.