Copyright ownership of the canon characters of Yu-Gi-Oh!: Duel Monsters is claimed by Kazuki Takahashi and those with permission.
Here I present to you, the next installment of the Yu-Gi-Oh!: Duel Monsters 2 saga, The Oddysey of a King
o.O.o.O.o
Rome, Italy; First Person POV
Italy, they say here is one of the most influential countries in the world. With its first-class culture, trend centers of fashion and cuisine and of course the Roman Catholic Church, here is a place that is in the know of what is happening around the world.
In both the good sense and the bad.
Few people don't know, or at least, have never heard of the Mafia. I myself don't know how it started, but rest assured, utter this word to anyone in Italy, or perhaps all over the world, and you'll be followed by stares, murmurs and gossip. At its first hearing, the word 'mafia' automatically associates to murder, plunder, guns, blood, what have you.
I guess with this said, I can begin.
It was raining that night, that memory stayed in my mind the most. Strange though, it was during that night I revealed something that would trigger a whole lot of other things for me and everyone I work with.
I remember the heavy raindrops pounding against the window, cascading against the heavily tinted glass. My companion and I were travelling off road, and even though he was driving, I was the one feeling most of the bumps.
"Hey, Are you sure it's this way?" I asked him. "I think I'm gonna be sick..."
"If you're gonna hurl then do it outside, I just re-apolstered this car." He replied, keeping his eyes up ahead. I don't understand why though, it was pitch black outside, and the headlights weren't doing much, we might as well have been driving blind.
After a few more minutes of rough driving, one of them involving having my head reach the ceiling because of a particularly hard bump, we finally reached our destination: a very out-of-the-way mansion on top of a hill in the Italian outskirts. You really can't see it right now, but I've been here once or twice before, and it is quite grand, if you ignore the numerous cracks in its handsome marble exterior.
As we drove into the grounds and rolled up to the (thankfully) covered entranceway, we were greeted by a line of men, all wearing black suits.
"Welcome. You are expected in the main lobby." They greeted, bowing as we came closer. It was the usual welcoming comittee of this household, so my and my companion weren't uncomfortable, but still the numerous scars on each of their faces sent chills up my spine as a scanned them on the way in.
Once inside the main lobby, the door was immediately closed behind is, drowning us in darkness for a moment until the large chandelier lit up, sending a yellow hue all around the room. In the right light, this place would've been marvelous. Gorgeous marble adorned the parts of wall not covered by luxourious oil paintings of people of the past, a fireplace off in the corner gleamed at me with bronze and brass ornaments, and the lush pearl white shag carpet masked my footsteps.
"You always like things flashy don't you...?" I asked into what little darkness remained.
My reply was a simple chuckle coming from my left, along with a smoothly drawled "It's as if you don't know me at all..."
We turned toward the voice, and there an ominous sight greeted us. In an ornate, plush, undoubtedly expensive wingback chair sat a short, portly man, flanked on either side by a couple of men in suits, armed with shotguns and rifles. The man in the chair was casually smoking a cigar, his ring-adorned hand grazing through his pearly white slicked back hair.
"It's been a while since I saw you last..." The man said, letting out a puff of smoke from his mouth as he rested his chin in his hand, observing the two visitors with a steel-grey stare. "What things have you to report...?"
That was when I stepped forward and opened my briefcase. "Something very interesting for you..."
Everyone kept silent as I took out a small Disc and placed into into an awaiting DVD player attached to a wide sceen. "I was finally able to get a small glimpse on what that Minister was talking about..."
Anticipation grew as the player loaded the disc. Most of it was coming from me, as the anxiety of knowing the guns are aimed directly at the back of my head made my entire body grow numb in the painfully long moment.
Finally, I let out a breath when I saw the screen flicker to life. I turned to my audience, shook off a few shivers and began to speak.
"Whilst on my trip to Japan, as I've said, I chanced upon a secret testing of the new 'weapon' that the Japanese were dropping clues to."
I waved my hand to the monitor, which was showing a barren desert, under a dim night sky, with the moon and stars the only illumination. From what the camera could provide, there stood a lone man, a scientist by the looks of the long coat waving in the night breeze, standing a long distance away from a massive armored tank.
"So, it's a tank. I don't see what all the ruckus is about..." Drawled the fat man in the wingback chair. Taking their cue, the two armed bodyguards readied their weapons.
"Wait!" I called panickedly. "The tank isn't the weapon!"
The guards relaxed their trigger fingers as the portly man leaned closer, putting out his cigar on a nearby ashtray that looked like it was made out of genuine ivory. "Then what is this new 'superweapon' that the Japanese have been boasting?"
I simply pointed to the sceen, and watched on as the scientist straightened his left arm towards the tank. In the moonlight, something metallic gleamed on the man's forearm, reflecting into the camera. At the camera angle, it was almost impossible to tell exactly what it was, but from what was visible, it looked sort of like an axe blade strapped to his arm.
"Test Firing, Prototype number 032, Heavy Armor Target." The scientist declared, moving his free hard in a motion suggesting that he was loading the 'weapon'. "In Three...Two...One..."
What happened next happened in approximately ten seconds, according to the time interval on the DVD player. The 'weapon' started to activate, letting out an ominous 'whirr' sound, before unleashing a blinding white flash that engulfed the camera, blanking the screen. Next came crackling of electricity, the telltale sound of something charging. Then, an earsplitting twinge of a laser discharge bleeped into the speakers, the sonic screech afterwards left the audience covering their ears.
When the screech subsided, the camera began to fade back to its normal picture. Little by little detail began to return to the screen, and what they saw left them speechless.
The scientist was lowering his arm, the 'weapon' now deactivated. In the distance, the tank was now a smoldering pile of superheated molten metal, sending a few arcs of electricity into the air.
The scientist calmly raised his free hand to what looked like a clip-on microphone connected to his stiff collar. "Test Fire accomplished. Estimated Damage Inflicted 75-80 percent. Power Output required 70.20 percent. The SV2M is a success."
At that the video ended, and I cleared my throat again.
"As you can see, the Japanese Prime Minister was serious when he said that he would 'make it so that war would never be the same again'. With that superweapon at their disposal, no other country can stand a chance."
o.O.o.O.o
Las Vegas, Nevada, USA; Third Person POV
He always hated airports.
Or rather, he always hated places which gathered surplus amounts of noise, sometimes in more amounts that a building's capacity could possibly contain. Yet here he was, stuck in the bench filled lobby of the Las Vegas airport, seated in one of the benches, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. Why was he here? Well, like all other things that a man would do against his usual personality, it was all for a woman.
In fact, this particular woman was coming up to him right now, with a bright smile painted on her tanned lips.
"It's finally here!" She half-exclaimed, bounding up to him like an overly-compressed slinky toy. "His plane is about to touch down!"
She grabbed the light purple handbag next to him and excitedly raced toward the large, floor-length window facing the asphalt tarmac. "Well, are you get off your butt or not, Preston?"
Rolling his grape-like eyes, he reluctantly rose out of his seat and moved over to her side, looking up at the horizon. "Where's his plane anyway?"
Lavander eyes followed their dark purple companions skyward. "There it is!" She exclaimed, her jewelry-adorned hand raised, pointing at a small black dot against the bright blue.
"Why'd you have to drag me along for this again?" Preston drawled, running his hand along his golden-blond hair.
"Come on! My dad's at his meeting and the driver's off-duty. I didn't have anyone to take me to the airport!" The girl whined, her lavander eyes looking up at her companion's lean, shy-six foot frame through silvery-blond bangs.
"What am I, your motorbike monkey?"
"Yes, Preston J. Atlas, that's what you are."
Before Preston could let loose his retort, the PA system let out a chime.
"Private Flight 6052, from Domino City, Japan now landing at Gate 12."
Almost on cue, the girl bolted down the length of the airport lobby, racing toward Gate 12 like her life depended on it.
"Wait a sec, Imaru!" Preston called out, before reluctantly running after her.
o.O.o.O.o
At Gate 12, Preston's POV
I let out a sigh as Imaru almost literally bounced her way up to the gate, watching the private plane land. I held back a little, leaning against a post nearby her.
We're neighbors, her and I. She was just across from my house, living in a large luxury estate in a well-to-do subdivision. My house was big,but nowhere near hers. Me and my father, a computer technician stationed in Italy, moved in when I was around 7 or 8, and both Mark and Imaru were my first friends. We go to the same high school, but she's a Sophomore where I'm a Senior already. We've been friends for a long time now, so naturally, I already knew why she was so excited.
There weren't a lot of times wherein she was separated from her brother Mark for long. Even during last year's Cyber Games, they entered together, usually played near each other, heck she was even on stage with him when Mark was crowned.
I smiled to myself. Heh, Imaru was really tight with her brother, and anyone else she looked up to like a brother. It's probably why she keeps hanging out with me. My friends say that she has a crush on me, and often tease me about it. But as I keep telling them, I already have a girlfriend, Melanie Valentine. You can tell by her name she's a great find: rich, but not snobby, fun-loving, drop dead gorgeous...what more can a guy want?
"Preston...Preston!" I heard Imaru call me. "He's getting off!"
"Alright, alright." I retorted getting off my post and striding up to her. Scanning the long hallway leading off to the plane's dock, I kept a lookout for a very large, very overgelled head of silvery blonde hair, not unlike guys from that very old anime, Dragon...something. Sure enough, I spotted that head, mingled in with a few other people.
"Imaru..." I began, tapping her on the shoulder. "Who're those guys...?"
Imaru stopped bouncing and looked up at me with those round lavander eyes. "Oh, this year's Cyber Games is supposed to be a Team Version, so the Director had Mark scout out for some teammates in Japan."
"Why Japan...?"
"I dunno, Japan has a good rep for producing Gamers?"
I snorted in response to that. True, the Japanese have always had a knack for being superior when it came to anything technologic. Half of the previous Cyber Games Champions have been, or have had some Japanese descent. Also, it has been rumored that the Titan could have also had Japanese blood. It didn't really matter to me though. I myself am about 75 percent Italian, and the only game I can call my forte is Tekken, so good in fact that my friends call me 'Paul-minus-the-hair-gel'.
"Mark! Over here!" I called to him, waving an arm. The silvery-blond hard began twisting around before it stopped in my direction.
"Imaru, Pres! Glad you guys could make it!" Mark called running over to us, a little awkwardly since he was still carrying his luggage.
"Of course...Imaru couldn't wait, and I'm her little motorbike monkey." I replied hotly, sending the aforementioned girl a mock glare, which was replied to by a sharp elbow into my ribcage. "By the way, Mark..." I added hastily, massaging my chest. "Who're your friends?"
The silver-haired American turned around and called them closer to us. "Well, these are gonna be my teammates for this year. Oh, and you're not gonna believe this, one of them's actually--"
Mark was interrupted by a particularly loud growl coming from his midsection. "Uh, can we discuss this later after some grub? We can all have a get together and we can discuss there."
I looked back to the (were there 8 of them?) people still in the hallway, talking amongst themselves in Japanese. "This was going to be a very long talk..." I groaned softly.
o.O.o.O.o
Like I said, please enjoy this new story and Saga, which I will make sure is more exciting than the last.
Until next update!