"You... Let him escape?" - The deep, angered voice broke the several seconds of silence in the briefing room at Lima after Striker explained the critical mission failure that ensued not much earlier.
-"It was a one in a million chance, sir. It will not happen again." - He replied, keeping his composure. He couldn't back down in front of the person he took all his orders from, especially now that the risk of losing his place was higher than ever.
-"Of course it won't happen again..." The ominous voice raised the tension in the small, darkened room. "...because mistakes of this kind will not be tolerated in the slightest any longer."
-"I understand, sir", Striker nodded determinedly. "If I may have your permission, I wish to send troops down to the planet and scout for the runaway as soon as possible. He is heavily injured and couldn't have gotten far", he added, remembering the damage done to Axel by Junk Warrior.
The person in the darkened corner of the room groaned deeply and audibly. -"And now I have the arcanes of all things asking me to let them transport down to the planet like it's not a thing... The device wasn't used in two centuries, some brat and his father start making a mess in Lima, get inside the most secluded area in the city, sneak in past the imbecilic guardsmen and suddenly everyone should start flying down and go sightseeing along with them, is that the case?"
It was very unusual for him to speak in such a visibly upset and condescending way. The general was usually very stoic and mostly treated his subordinates with a kind of passive respect. Tonight, on the other hand, he held anything but respect for the officer.
-"Sir, it was never confirmed that Simon Orvis left Aether. There is absolutely no records in Kare-"
-"Simon Orvis escaped the city", he interrupted Striker. "I don't know how he did it completely unnoticed or why the Grand Council came to a conclusion that his search should be held off indefinitely, but that man is not in Aether anymore. But his son's endeavours might just be the lead we needed to go after him..." His voice was getting progressively calmer as his thoughts went on, as if he was slowly realizing what would be a good next step to take. "You said his coordinates got deleted as soon as he vanished?"
-"That's right, sir", the officer replied, now a bit calmer himself. "We are in the process of tracing back the interference signal to whichever terminal was used to tamper with the relays. The culprit is as good as found."
-"Good, good... Obviously, heading down to the planet after him with no coordinates would be insane, but maybe we can get some leads from the person that helped him. Striker?"
-"Yes, sir?"
-"Gather your A-Team for the next mission. Because if you fail once again, you'll be nothing but an addition to my deck. Don't forget your arcane roots and what they entail."
-"...I understand, sir." His voice sounded more worried than before, and for a good reason. He saluted his commander and left the room quietly.
The man slowly walked out of the shadow, the steel boots of his genetic power-armor clamping against the floor with the sounds of pumping cylinders following each step. He looked with his lifeless mechanical eyes through the window onto the lower part of Lima, pondering on the future of the city in relation to recent events. He sighed and turned back around, thinking to himself, "I miss when the world didn't look so... green."
Axel started slowly regaining consciousness. He blinked his eyes open, not quite sure if it was dream or reality he just lived through. However, as soon as he attempted to move his muscles and the pain from the injury set in, he figured it definitely wasn't a dream.
The surface he was laying on felt strange and alien to him - it was like a sort of prickly but oddly pleasant-feeling carpet. "I could lay here for a while..." - he thought to himself, feeling a breeze gently blow against his hair. "...but I really need to get going." - he reluctantly admitted, wanting to spend a bit more time relaxing on the strange ground he was on. He pressed his arms against the surface and lifted up his upper body, fully opening his eyes - gazing down, he noticed the funny surface was indeed prickly, and quite green as well. He ran his fingers across it, still getting used to the out-of-place feeling it gave off. He then lifted his look up in front of him, seeing that the surface spreads out far in front of him, forming slopes and inclines. This was all a very bizarre sight for Axel, as nature, let alone regular grass, was not present anywhere in Lima, so the contrast between the two worlds was apparent at first sight.
"Damn... This is pretty new already..." - he spoke his thoughts to himself, slowly getting up and holding his injured chest with his left arm. Seeing nothing of particular interest but large patches of grass and rocks in front of him (even though they looked extremely foreign), he turned around, looking for any clues as to where to head next.
What he saw looking down from the cliff he was on was a gigantic, sprawling landscape filled with ancient trees, massive hills and canyons with wooden bridges spreading all across, all bathing in the light of sunrise that turns the sky from complete black to various pleasant shades of rose. In the distance could be seen a forest that seemed to spread infinitely, with a huge arch-tree in the middle that cast a shadow the length of at least a mile. Axel almost lost his breath for several seconds, being utterly overwhelmed by the amount of beauty before his eyes, the kind he could never imagine, if he hadn't seen it right there. All he could do in this moment was fall on his knees and start laughing, completely enchanted by the majestic splendor of the unknown world in front of him.
"Why... Why were they hiding this from us...?" - he wondered, gazing at the colorful horizon. He looked up at the sky, seeing an odd moving white glow accompanied by an audible roar, suddenly disappearing after a few seconds. Axel shook his head and started looking for a way to go.
"Ah, damn it, this is too tall... The drop would kill me in this state", he realized upon looking directly down from the cliff. "...wait, what's that?" - he added, squinting while looking at an odd shape that seemed to be moving upwards from the bottom of a nearby canyon. It kept getting closer quickly, and suddenly Axel fell back on his behind again as a rosy spear-headed drake almost hit him in the face upon ascending from the canyon. It landed in front of him and snarled, screeching menacingly. Axel dragged himself back, waving his hand, trying to keep the creature away.
"Hey, hey, h-hold it! I'm not gonna do anything!" Naturally, the beast did not react in any way but moving closer towards him, the blade on its head now dangerously close to his torso. Axel wanted to engage an attack against it, but he was too weak both physically and mentally to materialize his deck. However, as soon as the creature lifted the weapon, a nearby voice stopped it.
-"Corcesca! Caught something already?" - a female voice with an accent highly unusual to Axel could be heard behind the nearby rocks. "What is it, girl?"
The drake pulled back from its target and flew over to where the voice was coming from. Axel turned around and saw a dark-skinned red-haired girl, standing on one of the rocks with the drake on her shoulder, looking down at him perplexed. His reaction was similar - he stared quietly at her, confused about meeting a human being this soon upon landing on the planet.
-"Uh... Hey there." - Axel confusedly muttered, but at least he knew they spoke the same language, albeit with a very different accent.
-"Who are you?" - The girl said curiously, looking over the injured Axel. "Your robes don't resemble any tribe I know. You aren't with the Primordials, are you?"
Even though she spoke very clearly, Axel had trouble understanding exactly what she was talking about. "Tribes" and "primordials" weren't exactly familiar concepts to him.
-"No, uh... I am from Aether. You know... Up there?" - he replied, awkwardly motioning upwards with his index finger. The girl raised her eyebrow and looked at the sky, confused.
-"Up where?" - She said, looking down to Axel again, doubtful.
He then looked up at the sky himself, and to his massive surprise, there was absolutely no sign of a gigantic, massively populated utopian city anywhere among the clouds, let alone anywhere else. You'd think something of that size would be easily noticeable.
-"What the hell... Are they hiding the actual city from anything outside seeing it as well? But how..." - Axel spoke his thoughts aloud, hoping to give the puzzled girl a bit of insight into what's going on.
-"...are you okay? There is no city in the sky, boy." - She said, slowly approaching him. Axel looked over her - she seemed to be around his age, wore some simple frayed clothes, and had several red markings on her arms and face - something like tattoos, but these seemed to be made completely handmade, without any assistance of technology.
"I'll ask you again, and you should think before you answer, because I may or may not help you out with that injury depending on what you say. Who are you and where did you come from?" She seemed very determined to get answers out of Axel, having a stern and focused look on her face.
"M-my name is Axel... Listen, whether you believe it or not, I am from a city in the sky... I managed to travel down and I'm looking for my father. I don't know what any of these things are, I've never been on the surface of this planet." - Axel spoke with full honesty, trying to convince the girl to believe him. "I'm on a run from the forces of the city chasing after me..."
-"...chasing after you? You mean more people might come here soon?" - The girl asked, curious mostly about that single fact.
-"Uh... They might, but I don't think they know where I am right now."
-"And why are you being chased...?"
Axel thought about how many Aetherean laws he broke to reach C-1 within the span of only one month. Explaining everything that happened would be very complicated for someone in his position, especially to a person who doesn't know if Aether even exists.
-"They're uh... Really bad people." - He awkwardly exclaimed, trying to quickly get the point across. The girl raised an eyebrow again, confused at the whole deal and what to make of it. Axel suddenly flinched in pain again, holding his chest, which the girl noticed.
-"...I don't think I should believe you, but I might as well be humane enough to help you." - She said, approaching and quickly picking him up from the ground, easily holding him over her shoulder. The drake walked on the ground alongside her, this time staying quiet. Axel chuckled at the silly absurdity of the situation and tried to engage her to talk again.
-"So... I told you my name, wouldn't it be nice if I got to know yours?"
She kept quiet for a few moments, but eventually sighed and rolled her eyes. -"I'm Kiva."
-"Glad to meet you..." - Axel smiled and suddenly fell asleep while on her shoulder, completely exhausted.
Cody sat at the table across Striker, bruised and beaten. Striker crossed his arms and sternly looked at the man who was shivering in fear of what might happen to him.
-"If I haven't made myself clear yet", Striker said angrily, "you will suffer a lot worse than your worthless Genex deck if you don't give us Axel's transportation coordinates soon."
He was referring to the duel that they engaged in while Cody was trying to get away from the rest of the forces. The Genex were Cody's own creations which he was very proud of, but the weakness of his soul didn't allow them to be very powerful and he was quickly defeated by the onslaught of T.G. Striker's Synchro monsters.
-"Even if I wanted to...", Cody spoke through the pain, "...I couldn't give them to you. I told you they're deleted already."
Striker got up and threw two document sheets in front of Cody. -"The paper on top is your work certificate from Karea. You're Cody Tyman, one of the assistant researchers to Simon Orvis, Axel's father. Your clearances make it obvious how much you exactly know about the C-1's functionality." He then approached the handcuffed Cody and switched the paper with the one on the bottom. "Which in turn means that you know how to hide used coordinates, but not delete them from the database, like the commander believes Simon did. So to make it short, you better reveal them back or you're getting a lot more than just bruises."
Cody spread his eyes in shock. He didn't realize that security would get this kind of classified information so soon, as the higher-ups are very conservative about letting any knowledge of Karea leave the confines of Oxir's walls. But what Striker said was true - one could still find Axel's coordinates if they knew how to retrieve them.
-"I..." - He muttered, almost sobbing. "I cannot do this to Axel... Why can't you leave him alone? What's so terrible about the world down there?"
-"You are not authorized to know that." But Striker wasn't authorized either - he didn't know exactly why humans are being kept away from knowing about the planet. He was informed on some of its features in case a search needed to be conducted on its surface, but its true secrets remain a mystery even to most of the people that are actually aware of its existence. "Now, before I'm forced to switch to drastic measures, one last time... I'm asking you to show me the coordinates, because if you do, we might just consider sparing you and letting you return your lovely little home in Lima."
Cody sniffed a few times, holding back more tears. -"...I cannot... Do what you want with me. You won't get the code." He said it reluctantly, but he truly cared for Axel and was ready to endure any kind of torture to protect him.
-"Is that so? Alright then." Striker suddenly left the room, leaving Cody inside, scared and confused. He had no idea what could be the next thing that would happen, and his anxiety rose with each passing second. It was a good minute of almost absolute silence in the room, with the only audible sound being his heart beating in panic. Soon enough, the door opened and Striker calmly walked back in, smirking while looking at the disturbed Cody. He then materialized his side of the field in front of him, shortly blinding Cody with its brightness, and placed a card in the monster zone. "Psy-Blocker, Normal Summon."
A metallic humanoid robot with green-glowing stripes along its body spawned in the room from a flash of light. It approached Cody and placed its arm in front of his terrified face, emanating an faint ominous light from its fingertips. Cody's eyes were fully focused on the alluring glow, as he slowly started losing his free will.
"How do we access the coordinates to Axel's transportation, mister Cody?" - Striker asked, realizing that Blocker's ability started working.
-"It's on my terminal... In Lima... The password is... RGenex..." - The hypnotized Cody muttered out. Striker grinned and nodded, pressing Cody's arm against his chest, to force his opponent's surrender in the engaged one-sided Duel. After a few seconds, a faint blue glow flashed near Cody's heart, and the field sides dissipated, along with Psi-Blocker. He blinked a few times and shook his head, unaware of what just happened, but feeling fairly dizzy. "Huh... What did you... do to me?"
-"Not much. Just testing some new security unit prototypes... And this one seems to be working quite well, albeit for a very short time." - Striker replied, chuckling in a smug way. "So in a while, look at the situation you found yourself in and remember you could've very easily avoided it." Striker pulled up the confused, handcuffed Cody and dragged him out the room and through the office's hallway, throwing him into a small flying saucer-like vehicle outside.
-"W-what is this? Where are you taking me?" Cody asked, scared for his life. He never thought he would fall into this kind of situation, and the methods used by the security turned out to be a lot more cruel than he expected.
-"You've landed a lifetime in a lonely cell at the furthest part of Lima's Criminal Response Unit. We just cannot allow an individual like you to try and spread his findings across the citizens of Aether, disturbing the city's utmost peace." - Striker exclaimed bluntly before smirking again. "By the way, just what is R-Genex supposed to mean?"
Cody's heart skipped a beat as he heard Striker say the password to his terminal out loud. He had absolutely no idea when and how he got it, and he might never find out.
-"W-what did you... How... I never..." - Cody was muttering in complete confusion. Striker only followed it up by slamming the saucer hatch shut right in front of his face. The vehicle lifted up and flew off, auto-piloting itself to the CRU.
-"The Psi-Blocker worked, I take it, yah?" - Striker heard a voice behind him ask. He turned around to see a member of Space-Time Police, the small group of elite arcane security units, standing behind him.
-"Exquisitely. The commander ordered that the operation commences as soon as we have access to the coordinates. I take it you're the one they're sending down there?"
-"Yaaah, indeed. I do say, I'm quite excited to set foot on the soil of an alien world for the first time! After all, that is what I was made for, yah?" - The policeman replied with an enthusiastic smile, after which he lift his baton up in the air, covering himself with a few streaks of light, and suddenly disappeared.
-"I hate that speech quirk of his..." - Striker said to himself and walked back into the office.
Axel slowly opened his eyes. It has only been several hours between him departing from Aether and this moment, yet it was already his second time waking up in that period. This time, however, he felt like he had a good night's sleep, and the pain from his injury was almost completely gone. He saw that he was in a dark room, laying on a stone floor with some hay scattered underneath him; of course, he had no idea what that actually was. He got up and saw that his chest and right arm were wrapped in white cloth, and that his torn outfit was laying on the floor near him. In the room was also a brown robe with red patterns drawn across it, and it looked to be his size. He shrugged and put it on, surprised at just how comfortable it is. He put on the pair of moccasins that were laying near the bed, and headed for the wooden door that had a few thin rays of light shining through some of its holes. Pushing it open, he entered a larger room with a table and three chairs set around it. The room was well-lit by sunlight that was coming from the windows - which were, much like the rest of this unusual house, carved from wood and stone.
"...huh. Guess this is her place?" - Axel thought to himself, looking around the room. "Anyone here?", he added, speaking in a slightly raised voice.
-"I'll be there in a few moments, you can sit by the table", the familiar voice responded from the room across. Axel raised his eyebrow in interest, and walked around the table to look through the house window.
He got a bit startled when he saw that this home was set in the wall of a large canyon, near the very top. There were dozens of similar homes visible in the opposite side of the canyon wall, most of them connected by stone pathways, both natural and man-made. Between the sides were wooden rope bridges, connecting the two walls of the canyon, allowing for crossing between them with ease; admittedly, it's absolute hell for an acrophobic. A few people could be seen off in the distance, crossing one of the lower bridges, and majestic roars could be heard in the distance. Axel smiled at the lovely sight and stepped back to sit by the table. A few moments after, the nearby door opened and Kiva walked in, carrying a plate made of carved stone, with some still steaming food inside of it.
-"...hey." - Axel said, shortly waving.
-"Here, eat this", she replied nonchalantly. "You look like you need some energy."
She slid the plate over to him, along with a wooden spoon. While the food which looked like a fish and vegetable stew was somewhat familiar to him, he didn't quite understand how he had similar stuff to eat in Aether, considering the astronomical difference between the two worlds. Further thinking about it, he realized that nobody ever even asked where the food in Aether comes from.
-"Weird... Uh, sorry, but what is this stuff made of?"
She raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms, a bit weirded out by the question. -"Meat of a common Flying Fish, with some carrots and potatoes. Why, is it unusual?"
-"Uh, no no, I meant more as in... Where did you get it?"
-"...at the shore and in the fields, naturally. You're not the sharpest knife in the drawer, are you?" - She replied, awkwardly chuckling.
Axel swayed his head to the side, thinking to himself. "...are some Aethereans coming down to the planet to get the food? Why did nobody ever wonder what all that stuff is and where it comes from... Why didn't I?"
"Are you alright...? You've been acting pretty odd this whole time."
-"I'm... I'm fine, it's just that I'm really confused by all this. It's my first time setting foot on this world after all..." - Axel said, having a spoonful of the meal.
Kiva sat down across him by the table and put her chin down on her crossed hands. -"So... You're actually not from here at all? As in, some other world we don't know about?" - She asked, still extremely doubtful.
Axel shrugged and nodded. "Yeah. I grew up in Aether, a city that travels through the sky... My whole life, I was taught that humans only live in there, and that we're exploring space for other living beings."
Kiva was still suspicious of his story, but she thought it was at least getting interesting.
"I spent most of my life raised by arcane robots, since I never knew my mother, and dad was in a pretty high place so I rarely got to see him. But one day, I found some notes of his left in my room after I woke up, and... That's the day my regular life at Aether ended."
-"Huh? What do you mean?"
-"It was a bunch of really cryptic messages that in the end came down to there being a hidden part in the city's underground that apparently has a device that leads to another world, with instructions on how to get there and what exactly to do... Which involved me dealing with shady people, getting into restricted areas and getting chased by a lot of security."
-"I presume that's the reason you were injured?" - Kiva asked, now a bit careful since she figured she might be talking to a criminal.
-"Yeah. They had to resort to their big guns of sorts."
-"...what's a gun?"
Axel was about to say something, but Kiva's unexpected question caught him off-guard, making him smirk and shake his head. -"It's uh, like a weapon. But hey, I'm really curious about this place, what's with all the houses in the walls, and the flying monsters and stuff?" - He asked, with an excited expression on his face.
Kiva leaned back on her chair and crossed her arms again, looking through the window. -"Well... This is the Dragon Ravine, home of the Dragunity tribe. There aren't many humans here, it's mostly arcane members of the tribe, dragons and riders alike. You... Know what arcanes are, right?"
-"Of course. They're all over the place in Aether, some people use them to duel for fun as well."
-"...fun, huh..." - Kiva said curiously, seeming a bit irritated with the statement. "Anyway, the only humans allowed to live with the Dragunities are the ones who proved their skill to them, after which they're labeled as Leaders and allowed to use their arcane essence to duel."
Axel smiled, impressed by the strange ways of the members of the planet. Growing up in a monotone no-class system where everyone was mostly treated completely equally, this was already very unusual to him.
-"So are you one of those Leaders? I saw that monster of yours back at the cliff."
Kiva nodded and sighed. -"I am still in training, though. The other few Leaders are much more respected than I am, since their souls have become very powerful over time." She then smiled quickly after. "But I'm doing my best."
-"Ah, alright... So how do you exactly empower your soul here?"
As soon as Axel asked that, a loud explosion followed by a sound of scattering plasma could be heard nearby. Kiva instantly got up and headed for the door, Axel getting up along with her, but quickly getting pushed back down on the chair. -"Stay here. You're still injured and there might be danger outside." Confused, Axel nodded and remained at the chair, but quickly ran outside anyway after Kiva had already run off.
-"YAH! Get lost, ugly winged beasts!" - Space-Time Policeman yelled, waving his glowing baton at the Dragunities that had begun fighting him off. "You haven't eaten my target already, have you?!"
Kiva got up a pathway that leads from her home to the top of the canyon, where the sounds of battle were coming from. She reached the top of the cliff where she found Axel, where she saw an oddly-dressed man fighting against the dragons and a few riders. As soon as she appeared, the monsters pulled back and formed themselves into arcane energy, entering Kiva's soul ready for the upcoming battle.
-"Who are you?! Why are you attacking us?!" - She yelled, pointing at the officer.
-"Oh my... You be a pretty odd-looking monster, young lass! If I didn't know any better, I'd think you're a human, yah!"
Kiva spread her eyes in confusion. -"What are you talking about? I'm a human, you just saw me use arcane energy!"
The officer just laughed and brushed it off. -"Of course, and I'm a majestic eagle, yah? Now before I have to dispense more justice into your face, tell me where the actual human is!" - He yelled, pointing the baton at her.
Axel slowly appeared at the top of the pathway while following Kiva, now clearly visible to the officer.
"OH MY! There he be! Now be a good boy and turn yourself in so we can all go home!" - He yelled excitedly, shifting the baton towards Axel. Kiva turned around, angrily glaring at him.
-"I thought I told you to stay inside!"
-"I-I had to see what was going on!"
The officer quickly dashed towards him, but Kiva immediately generated the duel field, engaging a battle with him.
-"OH MY! What is this? Why would you want to protect this measly little human, a lawbreaker at that?" - Policeman said, stopping to look at her.
Kiva kept silent for a few moments, looking over to the nervous Axel. -"...what exactly did he do?" - She asked with a serious expression.
-"Ah, interested in the details of justice, I see, very good! He trespassed into forbidden territories, disrupted public peace and wanted to reveal Aether's secrets to the public, he did!"
-"That doesn't seem like something worth chasing a person all the way down to a hidden planet for."
-"Ma'am, these are very serious matters, I do assure you."
She kept quiet again, looking at Axel, who now had a sort of pleading look in his face. The officer was getting closer to him, and there wasn't much place to run; someone had to act quickly if he was to make it out alright.
"Thank you for your coopera-" -"Dragunity Aklys!" Policeman was suddenly interrupted by a flash of green light, from which a thin red drake with a blade-shaped head appeared, roaring at him. Startled, he jumped back and looked at Kiva angrily.
-"What is this?! I thought you were a friend of justice, but NAH!"
-"Whatever he did, and whatever you'd consider a just retribution for it", Kiva said while smirking, "I cannot forgive you for attacking and hurting the tribe!"
-"Hmph! So be it! I shall quick work of you!"
Axel smiled as he saw Kiva's fierce combat stance, fully ready to take on his chaser. He knew this was going to be an amazing battle to witness.