Review Responses
Darkfrost) I grasped your meaning initially, though I appreciate you clarifying regardless.
TheSupremeKingFangirl06) I intend to do so; likewise, I intend to take it places you will never expect. Also, I'm male.
...
Yeah, from here, the story's just gonna alternate between what the Supreme King's up to in Ch3 / Ch5 / Ch7 / Ch9 / Ch11 / Ch13, and the Duel Monsters, 5Ds and Zexal gangs training together in Ch4 / Ch6 / Ch8 / Ch10 / Ch12 / Ch14.
If you're just reading this thing for one of those storylines and loathe the other, well, now you know where to check.
Universe 24, Yu-Gi-Oh Timeline 03, 2007, The Darkness World, Castle of the Supreme King
From the doorway to his throne-room, the Supreme King watched both Duels that were unfolding.
In front of the staircase, Aster was busy finishing off Guardian Baou, all of Plasma's twenty-seven-hundred attack points brought to bear for the purpose of wiping away a measly eight-hundred Life-Points, and with them, the final Duellist of Death.
In another part of the room, Syrus stood guarding a doorway, taking on any monsters that came along, currently embroiled in a fierce Duel with the Emissaries of Darkness, Gorz and Kaien, landing the finishing strike with what he'd called 'Solidroid Alpha', a card that Jaden's memories didn't show the blue-haired teen to ever have used before.
"Evidently," The king mused to himself, amused by their puny efforts. "These humans are less cowardly than I thought..."
However, it didn't matter much; whether craven or courageous, the Supreme King mused to himself that they might prove to be suitable replacements for Skull Knight and Chaos Sorcerer.
"Need a hand, Syrus?" Aster offered. Syrus shook his head, preparing to take on Elite Goblin Attack Force. Before he could do so, however, a winged monster appeared and stopped the bespectacled teen.
Behind Aster, another monster appeared. This one was as burly and heavyset as the winged monster was lean and slender. The monsters were the Evil Heroes, Inferno Wing and Lightning Golem, though neither of them recognized the fusions as such.
The Supreme King glanced down his nose at them, eyeing them derisively. In the depths of his soul, he felt a faint, almost imperceptible stirring from Jaden, presumably caused by the presences of his friends, the monarch surmised, deciding to correct it, lest it were to prove debilitating to his psyche.
"Your trespassing in my castle ends here!" The Supreme King proclaimed loudly to the two Duellists. Syrus felt his eyes grow moist, realizing that Zane had to be gone, if the Supreme King was able to be here. "You will surrender your decks, and be taken to a dungeon, until I decide what to do with you."
"Yeah, I don't think so, Jaden," Aster shot back, as his Duel Disk assumed its active state. "Now, we're gonna Duel!"
The monsters disappeared immediately, as though unable to weather the icy-cold tension that had suddenly arisen in the chamber. On the sidelines, Syrus and the Supreme King's armies watched, awaiting his response to the challenge.
The Supreme King glared at Aster as his own Duel Disk was readied for use. In truth, he'd rather wanted to avoid this Duel, as the Destiny-Hero wielder could prove useful as a Duellist of Death, but using Aster to test out his newly-empowered deck on wasn't a waste.
The monarch was quick to draw his starting hand, getting Interplanetary Revenge, Evil Hero Revenge Procedure, Infernal Hound, Evil Hero Behemoth, Evil Hero Malicious Edge and Dark Fusion.
Aster's hand contained a prime line-up of Destiny Heroes; Doom Lord, Defender, Diamond Dude and Dasher, with Drain Time as his only non-monster card.
"First, I shall summon Evil Hero Behemoth, in attack mode!" Haou declared, placing the card onto his Duel Disk's third monster zone.
Before him appeared a creature that in no way looked human. Its head was a red orb and its remaining body was made entirely out of grey-brown stone. [800/2000]
"Jaden, that's Elemental Hero Clayman," Syrus exclaimed in shock at seeing the earth-giant. To his further surprise as well as Haou's, Aster suddenly snickered.
"That's just classic," Aster snorted, amused. "I think I get it now... I actually thought for a second that you were some kind of... heartless demon king who had twisted Jaden's Elemental Heroes into despicable creatures, but I see it now; you're just a cheap imitation of Jaden on a power-trip, with pathetic Evil Hero rip-offs of his cards! I bet you've even got your own Neo-Spacian knock-offs in that deck. That's clever, that's real clever."
"Since I control an Evil Hero, I now Special Summon Infernal Hound from my hand," The Supreme King ignored Aster's speech completely, placing the card on the second monster zone.
From a blaze of white light appeared a wolf-like creature larger than an elephant, giving off a distinct sense of bloodthirst. [2400/1900]
"Next, I will use Behemoth's power, lowering its defense-points and raising its attack-points," He declared, while the mentioned monster suddenly gave off an orange aura, and its stats changed radically, its defense-pointing dropping to zero while its attack-points rose drastically. [2800/0]
Syrus was awestruck by the sight while Aster was less than nonplussed. "Okay, you got me. I have no idea what card you took that effect from."
On the sidelines, the soldiers were astonished by the audacity of the challenger. To mock the king in such a blatant way would have earned any of them a death-sentence.
"I'll end my turn like this," The king concluded.
Aster smirked, seeing his drawn card, Plasma. "Perfect. With this guy, he'll be defenseless." Aster's smirk dropped at the abrubt realization of what had likely happened to Zane. "Damn... So this guy killed Zane too... Axel... Jim... Shirley... Alexis... Hassleberry... Chazz... Atticus... You're all dead because of Jaden's obsession with Jesse... I promise I'll avenge you..."
"I need a strategy to beat the Supreme King... If I used Doom Lord's effect, I can get rid of that Clayman-wannabe, but then that leaves just his rip-off of Wroughtweiler to attack my Doom Lord... That way, I'll have a turn tops with Defender, which puts me on the back-foot..."
"If I use Diamond Dude- No, too risky; none of my spells can destroy monster-cards, and that's two copies of Malicious outta thirty-four cards... You're up first, Doom Lord..."
His train of thought completed, Aster thought for a second that he could feel a comfortable warmth emanating from the card as he placed it onto his Duel Disk. "I'll summon Destiny Hero - Doom Lord, in defense mode!"
The demonic humanoid appeared instantly, taking a defensive position before his Duellist. [600/800]
"Next, he'll send your Clayman-imitation on a little trip," Aster proclaimed. The fiendish Hero sent a golden-yellow energy-chain at the earth-giant, who disappeared in the blink of an eye, though neither the monarch nor the over-sized wolf batted an eye. "And with this, my turn ends."
On the sidelines, Syrus fretted, worried about Aster; he'd only gotten rid of one monster, leaving another to take out Doom Lord, and there was no guarantee that Jaden wouldn't summon another.
With the same constant scowl, the Supreme King glared only at Aster as he drew his next card, his eyes darting down momentarily to inspect the Super Neo-Spacian of Oceans.
"Next I'll summon Super Neo-Spacian of Oceans," The Supreme King proclaimed, placing the monster in the fifth monster zone.
Before the gargantuan wolf appeared a humanoid, physically sexless dolphin possessed of a muscular build, whose skin was dark-blue on its arms and cream-colored on its stomach, a few blood-colored jewels adorning its chest. [900/1100]
Syrus recognized the monster as the spitting image of Neo-Spacian Marine Dolphin, and chuckled. Aster was totally right; the 'Supreme King' really was just a copycat Duellist, no better than Dimitri had been a few years ago.
"Wow..." Aster commented flatly. "Called it! Seriously, bro, standards; get some. One thing is you making twisted parodies of Jaden's cards, but couldn't you even be bothered to make a decent name? You're not gonna get employed by I2 at this rate."
Once more, Aster's jibes were summarily ignored by the Supreme King. "I will now activate my Neo-Spacian's special ability: By revealing a card in my hand," He paused as an enormous copy of Dark Fusion appeared, floating in the middle of their impromptu Duel field, and faded just as quickly. "I can look at your hand, and get rid of any monster I choose."
Aster cursed inwardly as holographic copies of his four cards appeared, giving that guy a decent view. The monarch inspected the cards and their effects briefly, deciding immediately which card to choose. "I will dispatch Diamond Dude."
Aster scowled, but slid the card into his graveyard regardless. "Now, my Neo-Spacian will kill your other Destiny Hero!"
As the king commanded, the Neo-Spacian swiftly complied, sending a roar of sound-waves at Doom Lord. The air in their path became visibly distorted, and Doom Lord splintered into countless fragments.
Aster groaned in pain, before he felt a humid breath on the back of his neck. A split-second later, he felt the wolf's fangs tear into his stomach. For a second, he screamed in agony, before it ceased.
In his pained state of mind, he didn't register his life-points dropping substantially. [Aster: 1600]
Suddenly, amidst a blaze of misfiring neurons, Aster's mind managed to notice something off about this situation. The Supreme King had shown his 'Dark Fusion' card, so why wouldn't he activate it?
Quickly, he recovered from the attack, giving him clarity to think it through. It couldn't be that he didn't have any monsters to fuse, could it, Aster wondered, deeming the possibility more than likely; any Jaden cosplayer worth his salt would use Fusion monsters ASAP.
The more plausible explanation for that, Aster decided, was that this guy didn't have Jaden's drawing skills, and no other 'Evil Heroes'. The other possibility was that 'Supreme King' simply didn't see fit to use a Fusion monster in this sort of Duel, which was nothing short of infuriating; he was a Pro-Duellist, not some rank amateur!
"I shall end my turn now." The brown-haired Duellist stated flatly.
Aster cursed under his breath as he drew his next card. Even though this guy was just a cheap knock-off of Jaden, he was still formidably powerful as a Duellist. He smirked, seeing that he had drawn the exact card he needed to turn this Duel around in his own favor.
"Watch this, whoever you are!" Aster hollered. "I activate the hand-buffing card, Destiny Draw! While it costs is a Destiny Hero in my hand, it gets me two new cards!"
Without hesitation, he placed Dasher in the graveyard zone, and got Graceful Charity and D - Mind. "Next, I'll use D - Mind, bringing out a Destiny Hero from my deck, as long its Level is less than four!"
The spell card appeared on the empty field, and out of it leapt a amply-muscled man with ankle-length red hair, wearing a thong and long boots. As his weapon, he wielded what was perhaps best described as pointed clubs. [800/800]
"Next up, Graceful Charity: It works like Destiny Draw, only I get three cards at the cost of two!" Aster proclaimed, drawing Monster Reborn, Malicious and Disk Commander, sending the two monsters into his graveyard.
"Next up, Monster Reborn calls back Disk Commander!" Beside the stripper-Hero appeared a gray-skinned man that was equally lightly-dressed, though his weapon of choice seemed to be four massively over-sized DVDs. [300/300]
"Now this is where it gets fun: Disk Commander lets me draw two cards more, to celebrate his comeback." Aster explained, grinning widely when he saw D-Force and Dunker.
"Now, by removing Destiny Hero Malicious from my graveyard, I can summon Malicious to my side of the field, giving me the three sacrifices I need to summon Destiny Hero - Plasma!"
The winged humanoid appeared briefly, before all three heroes faded away, and the most powerful Destiny Hero of them all, the ultimate Destiny card, appeared in their place. [1900/600]
"Next, I'll activate D-Force," Aster placed the card atop his deck. "With D-Force on top of my deck, it makes Plasma invincible, to both spells and traps. Not only that, but it also unlocks his hidden power, allowing him to negate all monster effects on your field. All it costs is my draw-phase, but that's a cheap price to pay."
"Next, I'll use his power, absorbing your doggy!" Aster proclaimed. From behind Infernal Hound and the Supreme King, trails of fresh blood flowed through the air, in defiance of gravity, the forces emanating from Plasma's wings sucking in the liquid as they tugged on the wolf-like creature, destroying.
In the leathery hide of the Destiny Hero's wings, the wolf's paws could be seen as it desperately and futilely tried to claw its way out to freedom. Syrus stood in mixed awe and disgust at the sight, as did the entire army.
With the strength of Infernal Hound absorbed into it, Plasma's strength increased substantially. [3100/600]
"Now, Plasma, get rid of that 'Evil' Neo-Spacian, or whatever he calls it! VENGEFUL RAIN!" Aster commanded. The Hero complied, shooting needles of solidified blood on the darkness-corrupted alien.
The Supreme King barely reacted, even though more than half his life-points were wiped in an instant. [Supreme King: 1800]
"Is that the best you can do?" He questioned to Aster. "Now it has been proven that you human Duellists cannot hope to stand against me."
"What?" Aster and Syrus exclaimed in unison, the latter in shock over the statement itself and the former in shock over the fact that he apparently didn't view himself as human despite being in a human body.
The genocidal monarch ignored them, drawing the Evil Hero Infernal Prodigy card, while Evil Hero Behemoth returned to the field. "Aster Phoenix... This Duel ends now! I'll activate the spell card, Interplanetary Revenge!"
Once placed in the third spell/trap of his Disk, the spell card materialized on the field in a larger form. The card image depicted the six Neo-Spacians in their Extent forms, as well as the six Elemental Heroes who shared the respective attributes, all seated around a large table, seemingly engrossed in a debate.
Aster wondered briefly how the Supreme King, with only Jaden's memories as a possible-though-unlikely source of information, had heard about the Knights of the Round Table, to base his made-up card's image on.
"Since my graveyard now contains a Super Neo-Spacian, I can bring forth an Evil Hero from my deck!" The dimension-ruler explained. Aster resisted the urge to comment that once again, his cards failed utterly in the originality department, this time plagiarizing - or to be politically correct; 'taking inspiration' from - E-N Shuffle.
After searching his deck, a monster that perfectly resembled Sparkman appeared on the field. [1600/1400]
Aster rolled his eyes, not really surprised at the sight. Next, he expected the fusion summon with Sparkman-ripoff and Clayman-wannabe to take place; the Supreme King was nothing if not predictable, provided one knew Jaden's Duel style.
"Now, those two monsters will merge together! I activate the spell card, Dark Fusion!" The armor-clad king proclaimed. Behind the two Evil Heroes, a spiral of blue flames appeared, sucking them both in. Neither seemed to put up even the smallest bit of resistance against it.
From the spiral emerged now a monster that both Aster and Syrus initially believed to be Thunder Giant. However, the differing color-scheme and design left no doubt about the fact that it wasn't. [2400/1500]
The monster took its place beside its master, visibly taller than the Supreme King. "I'll set one card face-down, and end my turn."
Aster blinked, confused by that move. 'Jaden' knew that his monster was powerless against Plasma; its attack and defense points were both lower than Plasma's attack-points, and whatever effect it had (Aster surmised that it involved monster destruction) was negated by Plasma too.
His mind raced, trying to figure out what he was up to; most likely, he decided, it involved that face-down card, but that wasn't a possibility either, as D-Force kept Plasma safe from Spell and Trap cards.
That led him to consider whether the card could increase attack-points; deeming that the answer, he then debated with himself whether or not to attack.
The part of him arguing in favor of that pointed out that he couldn't afford to refrain from attacking, simply based on speculation. The part of him that argued against it reasoned that it was too risky to attack recklessly.
"You're stalling," The Supreme King noted with amusement, golden orbs glowing. "Are you so frightened that you cannot even make a move? You're as pathetic as the rest of them!"
His train of thought was immediately cut short by the accusation. "Scared of you? No way! And I'll prove it! Plasma, attack his monster with Vengeful Rain!"
The vampiric Destiny Hero complied, as jets of blood hailed down on Lightning Golem. The darkness-wielder barely even seemed to notice as his already-diminished Life-Points dropped even further. [Supreme King: 1100]
"Activate trap card, Evil Hero Revenge Procedure!" The monarch proclaimed. Aster was about to point that traps wouldn't work on Plasma anymore, before he heard the tell-tale sound of his Life-Points changing. He looked down briefly, seeing to his shock that they had dropped to zero!
[Supreme King: 4000] [Aster: 0]
"No way..." He thought angrily, while the tell-tale glow of impending death suffused his body. "Plasma wasn't enough to beat Jaden now? Just what does it take?"
The king deemed it a waste of good energy to simply let Aster be sent to the stars, and took out the unfinished Supreme Inferno Wing card, absorbing the energies into the card, while the Duel Disk fell to the ground.
From the sidelines, Syrus was utterly shocked by what Jaden was doing. All this had began when Brron had tried to sacrifice him, Hassleberry, Alexis, Chazz and Atticus to create that damn Super Polymerization.
Now, Jaden was doing the exact same thing, all for power, making it clear to the bespectacled teen just how Jaden had truly fallen. In that instant, Syrus' faith in him, already weakened from what had recently happened, was irrevocably shattered.
"Why, Jaden?!" Syrus demanded furiously. "WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?!"
"Leave us," The ruler glared at his armies, who were more than happy to comply, lest he turned his fury on them. Soon, only the Supreme King and anger-consumed human were left in the hallway.
"You ask 'why?'?" The Supreme King stared intensely at the scowling teen. "Do you truly desire to know?"
Angry pale-green eyes met icy-cold golden eyes, both seemingly determined not to blink. Syrus felt his throat dry out, when he saw those golden lights that peered out from underneath his helmet.
They were frigid, like a glacier. They were entirely devoid of any of the qualities that Jaden had exhibited. They displayed nothing but virulent antipathy for him. They pierced into the depths of his soul, seeing everything he wanted to keep hidden.
The more Syrus stared into those gold orbs, the more he came to understand why Axel had come to fear him. In a small part of his mind, he eyed an opportunity to move the plot along.
"Yes..." He answered, slowly, wishing with all his heart that whatever the Supreme King was intending, it would somehow fix everything, the way Jaden hadn't been able to.
"It is all for your sake, Syrus Truesdale," The Supreme King answered sternly, shocking Syrus to his core. "Now that I have located you, you'll stay here forever, until I rule this world completely. Once space and time and life and death and the soul and the body are all under my absolute and eternal command, then, you will be free once more, truly free..."
"W-what?!" Syrus gasped in astonishment at the proclamation.
"You heard me, Syrus Truesdale," The Supreme King sneered at him, golden eyes flashing briefly. "I intend to become the god of this world, and once I am, I will bring back all those who have died... Jesse, Jim, Shirley, Aster, Alexis, Chazz, Zane, Atticus... They will all live again, and live forever! Once that is done, Syrus Truesdale, I will ensure their eternal safety, and bring about the end of all other life, the humans, and the Duel Monsters, and the gods, and the devils."
Syrus was breathless, his brain struggling to find the words for such... insanity! Was the Supreme King truly going to do all that? "That's... Y-you... You can't..."
"I intend to become able to, Syrus Truesdale," The king broke into his stammering.
That's three chapters done.
1) I realize that in canon, the Supreme King's motivations never extended further than victory and conquest. Here, I decided to tamper a bit with his long-term plans.
2) As for what 'Evil Hero Revenge Procedure' does and how it allowed Supreme King to win in spite Plasma/D-Force, there's a perfect reasonable explanation, which can be inferred from the card name itself.