Cray's newest fighters

an unexpected turn of events

I looked back at Giovanni. "What does that mean? Why is he becoming the vanguard for Aqua Force?"

"It turns out that his father was the orginal. He is now filling in for him."

"But who will be the vanguard for the paladins now?"

"That would be me." I spun around.

"You!" It was the kid that I had faced earlier, at cardshop PSY.

"Yes, me. Hi, my name is Bryant, and I am the new vanguard for the paladins. Well, at least the shadow paladins."

"But they would only chose you if-"

"If their old vanguard was no longer their vanguard." I slumped to the floor.

"But how? How can this happen? How can you just suddenly change?" I looked up at Bryant. "And how are you the vanguard for the Shadow Paladins if I creamed you while you were using that deck?"

"They told me to let you win."

"Let me win!"

"Yeah. They told me that you needed to win that fight." 

"Well you wouldn't have been able to actually win if I had used my true deck." I mumbled under my breath.

"Yeah yeah yeah. Now, what does it mean for me to be a vanguard?"

"I'll take this one." I looked at Giovanni.

"Please do."

"The vanguards are the humans that a clan, or multiple clans choose, to help lead them. It is normally in a time of great strife that the vanguards are chosen. But, all has been at peace, as far as I can tell."

"Thanks. I was ready to strangle the kid." Bryant took a step back.

"So what is it that I have to do as a vanguard?" 

"Help lead your clan. Being the vanguard means that you are the one that bring victory to your clan."

"So... I now lead the Shadow Paladins?"

"Yup."

"Cool! What clan do you run?" He directed that question at Giovanni.

"I am the leader of the megacolony."

"And you? What clan do you run?" I just glared up at him.

"I think you mean what clans. I run the Pale Moon, Oracle Think Tank, and Murakumo."

"Wow. So many different clans."

"Yeah, well, it was who I was mean't to lead." 

"Who was the original leader of the Shadow Paladins?"

"A guy named Chris. He seems to be the new Vanguard of Aqua Force, who was our enemy not too long ago."

"Why were they your enemy?" I looked up at him.

"They tried to end both Cray and Earth."

"Oh." 

"Who is your avatar?"

"Why does that matter?"

"It seems that you can fuse with your avatar. That is only upon the death of said avatar though."

"Well, mine is origin mage, ildona." 

"That limit breaker huh. I guess that makes sense." I glared at Giovanni.

"What is our next move?" 

"We need to get Chris to join back with us, if we can. Otherwise, we just need to forget about him." I turned around. "I know that you and he were close, but you need to be able to let him go if you need to."

"Fine." I went back to Earth then. "Why? Why did Chris have to go and die? Why did he have to forget about who he was, and what we acomplished together?"

"Because, he needs to start the next leg of his journy." I turned around.

"Suiko!"