Whee... entertainment galore!
To All the Aspects: I've checked. Wow, how nice to have someone nitpick. I think it's fine like this since people'll probably be curious enough to read on :D Thanks though!
Enjoy!
Insert standard disclaimers here.
Turn One: Full House
Oliver Queen was not having a good day.
First, he had come to Vegas for a bit of fun, but was now scrambling for pocket change as player number sixty-nine divested the table of what looked like two million in one fell swoop. Second, he had a suspicion that player sixty-nine was suspicious, since the sheer fortune they were earning was just growing, and the player's luck didn't seem to be abating soon. If this was a laundering scheme, it had to be the worst thought in history.
Shaking his head as the dealer motioned if he would continue, he stood up. Best for Green Arrow to know his target first, he decided as he walked towards player sixty-nine. He blinked as his eyes met empty air where the average head was before he looked down.
His first thought was, Wow, that's short. This was followed by Is that hair natural? And then the crowning glory: Black in Las Vegas?
"Is there something you need?" the man, boy really, asked, voice as low as it was possible in a casino, a low baritone that sent chills down spines and promised things that hid in the darkness, things sweet like a cyanide kiss as crimson eyes like pools of blood turned onto him.
It was not lost that cyanide was a poison.
Both Green Arrow and Oliver Queen felt that thrill down their spines that spoke of hidden dangers and screaming for him to run away. "Er... I just thought... you're damn lucky," he lamely bit out. If any good was to come from this it would be Viva Las Vegas. What happens in Vegas damned well stayed in Sin City.
"Ah," player sixty-nine folded the round. "If that is all, I suggest you leave now."
Ollie Queen found himself halfway out of the main game hall when the explosion sounded.
Bakura, the previously nameless Pharaoh of the Shadows and now Pharaoh of the Shadows, darkness of the Shadow Lord Yuugioh and King of Games, having lost the title of King of Duellists happily to his partner, known to all who knew him well enough to merit it as Yami, absently thought as the aftershocks reverberated about the hall. He was the only one calm, as far as he could tell; even the casino management were getting restless. Happily, or sadly, depending on the perspective, living within city limits of both Tomb Keepers, not to mention the Thief King Bakura, had inured them pretty much to explosions not within the immediate vicinity.
There would be cackling if the Tomb Keepers were involved, Yami decided. Cackling I can hear from all the way here... yes, the Tomb Keepers are elsewhere.
What was that? Light filtered into his mind, small comfort to the Pharaoh.
I would guess it was Bakura, he mentally whispered to his eternal partner and light Yuugi Mutou.
If it were, Ryou would be panicking, Yuugi pointed out.
Not unless Bakura really carried out the plan to roofie him, Yami absently replied. Or if Ryou was unaware and someplace else. I highly doubt that Bakura would risk leaving Ryou near anything he could be hurt.
… Bakura considered a roofie?
Yami was saved from answering as another explosion sounded.
… What was that? A presence of darkness made itself known in his mind.
I thought that was you, the Pharaoh sent off to the Thief King.
I'm playing roulette, the thief grumbled. And Ryou's here with me. Otherwise I'd have filched the entire table twice over already.
Those two, both darks agreed.
Yeah, it's Marik and Malik, Yuugi agreed. Are you sure it's safe?
We should be more worried for the poor sap facing them, Bakura dismissively replied.
I hate to agree with the thief, but he is correct, Yami reluctantly communicated.
The dead of night holds little relevance for Las Vegas. You can see just as well in a Vegas street at night as in the day, maybe better, since there are so many neon lights glaring into your face. That was why, when the van drove through the shatter-proof glass doors of a Vegas bank, it took only a minute for the teller to press the silent alarm.
One of three jumped out of the car, swaggering, while another chose a more normal means of egress and the third stayed behind the wheel. Behind them trailed a floating portrait with arms sticking out and a woman with wings on either side of her head, dressed in a green smock. Some screamed as the woman turned her head to reveal normal features, distorted only by the large third eye upon her forehead which blinked in greeting.
"Let's move," the leader muttered. "The Portrait's Secret, you think you can rip the door open?"
"What do you take me for?" the floating painting sneered, a cold voice that caused some of the management's skins to crawl as its claws dug through steel easily. "No wards about... pitiful security..."
Occupied with the creaking of the three-inch steel doors, they never noticed the swirls of purple mist that accompanied the two newcomers, nor the erupting mists that hid from sight the ensuing scenes in the bank...
"I agree," a high, cold voice echoed behind the group. "For a place to keep valuables, this is pitiful. Any keeper would at least inscribe basic wards about. It would definitely keep out low-level trash like you idiots."
"Enough already, Resurrect," the other mentioned. "So these are the little pests K– Bishop mentioned. They really don't look much."
"What the –?" one of them yelled. "Portrait's Secret!"
The floating painting reached out a ghostly claw, only for the hand to be tightly grasped by floating silvery slime that quickly coated the painting and consumed it whole.
"Did you have to do that, Life?" Resurrect, the one with dark skin and blonde-grey hair stuck up in spikes pointing mostly in all directions and cold laughing mad red eyes growled in the same tone that suggested that he was not displeased in the least, far from it. "I want to destroy them..."
"What are you?" the other growled, producing a gun and pointing it.
"Goddess with the Third Eye," the one called Life, a more gentle and neat facsimile of his partner, murmured as he looked towards the cowering female Duel Monster. "You have lousy taste, if this is the most your chosen aspires to."
"Don't hurt him," the witch mouthed. "Please..."
"Revival Jam?" the leader blinked, suddenly wincing in pain. "Lord, I feel awful..."
"Three hundred point difference," the one called Resurrect rolled his eyes. "You don't duel much, do you? How the hell you got chosen I have no idea at all."
"Goddess," the second bank robber implored. "Help me..."
"Run," the fairy shook her head. "Run... You can't defeat them like this..."
"Let's play a game," the one called Resurrect laughed.
"I've had enough of this shit," the driver muttered, revving the engine and accelerating towards the two blondes.
Both of them shared a look. "Makyura," the one called Resurrect growled.
A hulking warrior appeared in a flurry of shadows, slashing claws of metal down to separate engine and steel body with a single slice. Half a ton of steel body stopped just short of them. At the same moment, the silvery slime latched onto the fairy, trapping her despite the magics dancing on her fingertips. "Run!" the fairy screamed before the slime overtook it completely. The second robber winced.
"And it's over so quickly," the one called Resurrect shook his head as the monster called Makyura the Destructor towered and lifted the cowering driver by the edge of its claws. Gunshots rang out, to be intercepted by the silvery slime monster.
The click of the hammer on an empty chamber brought home the reality of the situation to the would-be robbers.
"I do hate being shot at," the one called Life blandly said.
"I agree, habibi," the one called Resurrect smirked. "Welcome to the Shadow Realm, fools."
And darkness descended upon them as the fireworks began.
"Pests exterminated," Marik Ishtar called into a secure cell-phone line far away from the bank an hour later. "Also, can I change my nickname? Why can't I get something cool like you, Ka– Bishop?"
"I already told you," Even made tinny by the voice scrambler, the biting tone was obvious. "The code reflects our personal style. Yours is because your monsters are so damned persistent, Resurrect because he overuses that card."
"Yours doesn't reflect your style!" Marik whined. "I thought you'd be more a Knight than a Bishop, really."
"My reach, as you notice, extends pretty far," the dry tone was noticeable even with the voice modulator. "And we all know the thing about denial."
"Just can't win," Marik mutinously muttered. "Do we mail the pests to Sanctuary, or what?"
"Leave them in the prison," Bishop replied. "Tell Pharaoh. We'll decide at the gathering."
"Gathering? What gather–? You're not serious?"
"Perfectly," the sneer was audible even despite the best efforts of technology. "You're in America, you people can make it anyway."
"We're on the wrong damn coast!" Marik yelled to a dial tone. "Dammit, he hung up on me!"
"Damn that contraption!" His other, Malik, snarled. "Stupid cameras... stupid anonymity... not-stupid bloody games..."
Marik turned an incredulous look to the dark. "For that, you get to be the one to tell Pharaoh."
"What! Habibi!" Malik cried. "Why?"
"Because I say so," Marik nodded sagely. "And because you set the vault door on fire during the game. There's only so many ways to explain away melted slag, Malik. As well as burnt cash."
"Meh," the dark shrugged.
"Targets?" Marik meaningfully asked.
"Somewhere... in the Shadow Realm..." Malik looked away.
The other Egyptian sighed. "You explain to Pharaoh."
Green Arrow was not having a good day either.
He had arrived to the supposed explosion site to see a bank with all glass windows broken, the vault door melted into so much steel slag, and, amazingly, the action quickly over. Worse was the fact that nobody seemed to remember who was responsible for cleaning up the action so quickly, and neither hide nor hair of the supposed bank robbers had been sighted all over Sin City.
Even worse, the cash in the vault, part of federal reserves, was singed, if only slightly. What this meant for the economy, and in turn Queen Industries, was rather bleak.
"Arrow to Watchtower," he communicated to the League earpiece while scrolling through the security tapes filched after only two hours of work. "Bank robbery went wrong, bank robbers disappeared into thin air, no idea who's responsible, just two hours ago in Las Vegas."
"Watchtower to Arrow," J'onn voice filtered in. "The news was very informative indeed. Most of it directed at the League's ineffectiveness at responding to this threat. Indeed, many news channels are questioning if the focus of the League was already shifting somewhere else."
"Three guesses for where," Arrow muttered. "Oh, right, today in Vegas I saw a kid cleaning out the poker tables. Are there any magic users in Vegas at the moment? Because that kid's luck is plain abnormal."
"There are no detected Homo magi except for Zatanna within the Las Vegas city limits," J'onn replied. "As far as we can tell. However, who knows, really?"
"Either the kid's too damned lucky or it's the worst laundering scheme I've ever seen," Green Arrow remarked. "The kid draws attention with his looks already, he doesn't need anymore with his luck."
"Either way, I would recommend you meet Zatanna and ask," J'onn pointed out. "If there is a malevolent magic user within the city, it would be best for us to investigate this first."
"Right," Green Arrow sighed. "If I get turned into a frog, I blame you."
"This is a very interesting show," Yuugi clapped as the magician pulled an entire sashimi platter from her hat. "How does so many things fit inside?"
"Mahaado would probably know all the tricks," Yami gave a meaningful glance to the man sitting by them.
"The basic mechanics is possible in theory," the disguised Black Magician nodded. "In practice, one must practice this trick many times to perform it flawlessly. Stage illusion is one thing most true magicians do not truly understand; one requires flair to pull it off."
"So if I were to ask you to pull an impromptu magic show?" Yami smirked.
"True magic or sleight of hand?" the magician murmured. "Nevertheless, it truly is an enjoyable magic show, despite the performer's nerves. Whoever this Zatanna Zatara is, she truly shines in the spotlight."
There is no threat, there is no threat... no obvious ones, at least...
Aren't the things that hide in shadows the most dangerous?
Get out of it, the sensible part of her mind scolded as Zatanna Zatara manipulated the hat and table to float. You're on the stage. You're in control. No one is crazy enough to attack you in public... yet.
Get out, Bruce.
There's no magic in Vegas, she reminded herself. No Homo magi settling in Vegas. Only roulette wheels and card tricks and the occasional three-monte exist in Sin City. No true magician here...
Her eyes wandered through the audience, mentally celebrating the full house tonight before cerulean eyes landed on blood red orbs.
There were times when Zatanna envied normal humans' ignorance of terror and monsters around them. Fear coursed through her veins like a lightning bolt as crimson eyes brought forth visions of horror and darkness and a lot more things only mentioned in passing in the library of Shadowcrest. Fear may be brought about by a lack of knowledge, but any magic user worth their salt knew that the very same knowledge prized by them brought terrors no sane person would ever wish to see. Lovecraft was a kid trying to be grown up compared to true terrors of the night that hung there waiting and watching.
To her credit, she continued the show and managed the solo portion fantastically. It's just a funny eye colour, she focused. It's just a boy with odd-coloured eyes. That inspire fear for some equally crazy reason. You know magic; you're a true magician.
"For this trick, I'll need a volunteer," she called to the crowd dramatically.
Many hands were raised, but she took her time to choose. Let the illusion last, let the suspense build, and then– "You."She pointed to the man with long lavender-coloured hair tied in a loose ponytail, dressed in a white shirt and jeans sitting right by the –she did a double-take then– twins.
The man blinked. "Me?"
Smirking, the female magician jumped into her top hat, only to appear right beside the man in a burst of white smoke. "Hiya, handsome," she smirked at the surprised man. "What brings you to watch the show alone?"
Do not react, do not react, it's just a random guy with red eyes...
Said eyes narrowed.
They're still scary...
"Er... I could only afford one ticket?" the man hazarded.
The boy with red eyes shared a look with his shorter, amethyst-eyed counterpart, both of them barely hiding their snorts. "Djer!" the boy with red eyes exclaimed. "If you're going to lie, at least do it properly!"
"Well, that'll do," Zatanna nodded understandingly. She herself had been shocked at the ticket prices her agent had presented to her before. "First time in Vegas?"
"Oh, yes," the man nodded.
"We'll make this an experience you'll never forget," she nodded. "tropeleT!"
"Will he be okay?" Yuugi nervously asked as they watched their shared monster disappear and appear on the stage.
"Probably..." Yami paused. "I don't know, really."
"He's taking it well," the light observed as the Black Magician fished out several coloured hankies tied into a rope, one large cream pie and a chihuahua, still barking, from the proffered top hat.
"Now, the Mystic Box!" Zatanna unveiled the traditional magic box. "Let's see if our volunteer has the courage to step inside!"
Hikari and yami shared looks.
"Do you think we need to remind him not to kill anybody?" Yuugi nervously asked. "It is very similar to the card..."
"I think Mahaado will do fine," Yami observed. "He has done the routine before. Furthermore, he cannot die on this plane, remember?"
Nevertheless, both of them winced as the female magician proceeded to stab swords into the box.
"Now, we reveal..." Zatanna opened the box...
...and two pigeons flew out of it. Both pigeons exploded in a burst of smoke to reveal a panting disguised magician.
"That was close," he panted.
Zatanna quickly recovered from the deer-in-headlights look and smiled. "And that's one trick, ladies and gentlemen! Give this man a round of applause!"
There was a standing ovation.
"My king?" The six-foot-nine magician cringed under the glare from crimson eyes later. "Have I done something wrong?"
"You turned yourself into a pigeon in front of an entire audience." The Black Magician wilted further as the glare intensified. Many of the milling crowds found it easier to give them a wide berth as the trio exited. "At the very least, the audience thought that it was the performer, Ms Zatara, instead of that a random member of the audience was, in fact, a true magician. However, Ms Zatara herself is a true magi, as you well know. We should tread cautiously."
"Enough already, mou hitori no boku," Yuugi sighed. "Besides, we're not staying in Las Vegas. We have to fly tomorrow, remember? Besides, I'm sure Ms Zatara has better things to do than pay attention to people on holiday."
"True," Yami mused. "I feel... something. A disturbance, really."
"Damn," the trio looked to see both Marik and Malik running up to them, Ryou and Bakura following.
"Kaiba was right," Malik dully said. "We have Duel Monsters running about."
"And Malik set the bank vault on fire," Marik added. "Turned it all into slag."
Both tri-coloured haired Duellists could only stare at them.
"We set a trap," Yami shook his head at last. "They're going to target the next international tournament, that is, the sixth Battle City, anyway. In Hero City, we'll meet these rogues once and for all..."
Bakura laughed. It was the full-blown evil laugh that caused anyone nearby to shiver in deep-seated fear from the malicious sound.
"Bakura!" Ryou yelled.
"Ow!"
"Sanctuary is locked up tight for the next week," Mokuba Kaiba cheerfully reported as the brothers' car approached Domino Airport. "Enjoy your trip to Hero City, Nii Sama."
"Metropolis is not Hero City, no matter what that guy says," Seto Kaiba immediately shot back. "Please stop referring to it as that."
"But it's a cool nickname!" Mokuba protested. "We call the KaibaCorp system 'Sanctuary' and Domino 'Skyscraper' anyway, so why not 'Skyscraper 2 – Hero City'?"
"Do you want to curse another city to have real live Duel Monsters?" the KaibaCorp CEO archly replied. "Don't reply, I don't want to know. Anyway, Mokuba, you are sure you packed everything you need?"
The teenaged Vice CEO of KaibaCorp thought for a while. "More or less," he shrugged. "Still, it's the first time we held Battle City in America, isn't it? Domino was the first, Tokyo the second, followed by Berlin, then London, then the last Battle City in Paris. I wonder how Superman will react when we give the traditional announcement."
"Which one?" Kaiba blinked. "The one where I announce on screens linked throughout the city that the tournament begins?"
"Nope," Mokuba shook his head. "The one where you're broadcast as saying 'this city will become Battle City!'"
Kaiba considered it. "Why not? Far be it for me to ignore a classic."
"Zatanna," Green Arrow greeted later backstage.
"Arrow," the magician nodded, before turning to the nearest window. "I know you're there."
The Batman materialised. "I have a few questions for you," he started.
"I just got one question, I go first," Green Arrow started. "There any magic users in the city right now?"
"One," Zatanna nodded. "He was here to watch my performance today. There was a punk with hair in three colours and red eyes beside him."
"Creepy red eyes that looks like it could see through you, leather outfit?" Green Arrow volunteered. "I saw the kid today at the poker tables. Damn well cleaned every casino's poker table of cash. I was about to ask you about him."
"I saw two kids," Zatanna admitted. "Both had the same hairstyle, but one had amethyst eyes. Odd eye colour. I was actually talking about a man, six foot nine, lavender hair and sea-green eyes."
"That punk's hair," Batman mused. "It wouldn't be black and purple spikes with blonde bangs, would it?"
The bow-user and the magician stared at the Dark Knight. "Yes," they answered simultaneously.
"Zatanna," Batman seriously said after a long silence. "How much do you know about Shadow magic?"
And that's the first chapter!
Read. Review. Or the yami come for you...