Chapter 4: Legend of Thanatos
After a very unique experience with JAXA's Teleportation technology, the six of them arrived Thousands of miles away in Japan. The teens couldn't help but take in every bit of technology in their young minds as what they saw was utterly mind-blowing.
"You seem surprised…" Shotarto told the group. "You've never seen this stuff before?"
The group of teens spun around and shook their heads almost in sync.
"I see…" Shotaro confirmed. "Well in that case, how about a tour?"
"I'm in." C.J. nodded. Jamie nodded as well.
"Definitely; this place is so insane I can't wait to see more stuff!" Dylan exclaimed, still having a nerd implosion.
Jake and Karon shrugged their shoulders, keeping in mind that they were here for a reason. They also figured that a few minutes wouldn't hurt anything.
"In that case, follow me." Shotaro took the teens and walked out of the room.
On the Security Camera, Tachibana watched the clip of them emerging out of the portal. He sighed and thought about Shotaro's Recruits. "He can't be serious…" he got up from his chair and threw his jacket on, walking out of his office.
Meanwhile in the Kaijin No Sekai, Marcus and Vanessa knelt in front of the Captain of the Ship's throne as he stared the Duo down.
"Mars… Venus…" He said coldly.
The two were afraid to look up; on top of that they didn't know what to reply with.
"I commend you for awakening your respected Planets… As of now, Both Mars and Venus are beginning to align."
"Thank you sir…" The two replied sort of relieved.
"However…" his tone didn't change. "This doesn't dismiss the fact that you failed to retrieve those Gears…"
"But sir;" Marcus looked up. "Those duelists aren't just ordinary People!"
"SILENCE…!" he yelled at Marcus who got quiet almost instantly. "I know exactly how powerful they are… I've resided in this world for fifteen Long years… I know the incident with Neo Bolshack Dragon, and the Vortex Wars between them and the Avatar of Doom… However, you are supposed to be My Elite! I've trained you since you arrived in this world, to become the ones who will rule beside me in the new world. Thusly, Failure is NOT an option… Do I make myself clear…?"
Marcus and Vanessa nodded. "Yes sir."
Master Ryuusei nodded and crossed his legs and his arms. "Mercury… Your time has arrived."
"Really…? I just started on the 4th chapter of my new book. One of the new antagonists was just introduced."
Marcus and Vanessa turned their heads away from the doorway, as Michael Manning walked into the room. He had black hair, blue-rimmed glasses and was dressed in a blue shirt and black NOVA uniform as his companions. In his hand he carried a blue book with an ice shard – looking bookmark.
"Read on your own time." Master Ryuusei remarked.
"As you wish; I promise however that I will succeed where these two 'Geniuses' have not…"
"Why you little…!" Marcus jumped up to reach for Mike, who just smirked.
"Cross Over…" Mike said as a white dome-like structure blocked Marcus' path.
"Like it? It's a Cross gear that I stole off of some Cyber Lords on the beach; Like taking candy from a Baby." Mike smirked, his free hand sparking Blue lightning.
"Enough of this…!" Master Ryuusei shouted, thoroughly annoyed. "Just get out of my sight, all of you!"
Vanessa nodded, even though she didn't do anything in this situation. "Yes sir." She stood up and walked out of the room, not wanting to be associated with either Mike or Marcus, let alone be in her Master's line of fire when he lets loose on them.
Marcus and Mike went their separate ways as Master Ryuusei sighed. "Kids…"
"Um, Dr. Inoue…" C.J. raised his hand as the group of teens began to wrap up.
"Yes C.J.?"
"Mind telling us what's going on exactly; I mean… What are we going up against?"
"I could explain that…"
C.J. turned his attention to Tachibana who walked up behind Shotaro.
"You have some explaining to do…" Tachibana whispered in his ear.
"Greetings Team Kaijudo Generation; I am Doctor Keisuke Tachibana, Head Scientist JAXA, it's a pleasure to meet you."
C.J. nodded; "Pleasure to meet you as well sir."
"I'm sure you have a lot of questions as to why you're here. Follow me and I'll explain. That means you too Sho-kun."
Shotaro snickered. "I'm not a kid anymore; I'd wish you'd stop referring me by that."
The group found themselves in Tachibana's office as he got to his desk and typed in a code which unlocked the video of Both Mars and Venus flashing in space, Venus glowing with a bright yellow light. He turns the screen over to show the group.
"What's going on with the planets?" Dylan asked. "They're glowing."
"Which two specifically…" Tachibana asked.
The group of teens looked at the two flashing planets, when it finally hit C.J. and Jamie.
"Mars…" C.J. said.
"Venus…" Jamie added. "Those were the name of those Galaxy Vortex Evolution Creatures that we went up against!"
Tachibana nodded. "Exactly; the planets are awakening…"
"Awakening…?" Karon raised an eyebrow.
"Maybe I should explain after all…" Shotaro cleared his throat. "As you pointed out, yes, I was one of the Astronauts from Fifteen years ago who survived the Black Hole Incident. But the reason why we survived… was because it was never a Black Hole to Begin with…
"Never a Black Hole…?" Jake repeated. "What do you mean by that?"
"I mean, it was a literal gateway into what you know as the Kaijin No Sekai…" He confessed to them.
"You mean… You went into the Creature World?" C.J. realized.
"By Accident;" Shotaro added. "During a routine space expedition, the Portal suddenly opened and forcefully pulled us in. It was Four of us: Kengo Watanabe, Yuki Suzuki, Gentaro Kurosaki, and myself: Shotaro Inoue. When we arrived in the world, we were intercepted by the Natives, who spoke our Native Tongue of Japanese fluently along with English to our surprise. With our ship totaled beyond repair, they allowed us to stay with them until we were able to rebuild."
Shotaro walked over to the window and tugged the blinds a bit, looking outside. "The Nature Civilization is my favorite of the five. Full of peace and tranquility… The longer we stayed, the more opportunity we had to explore the Five Civilizations, each learning about the creatures that lived in this mysterious world. It was truly an unforgettable journey. However that's when tragedy struck us.
The mood of the room slowly shifted as one by one Team KG began to sense the depression coming from both Shotaro and Tachibana.
"Gentaro discovered what brought us there: Thanatos…"
"Thanatos…?" Jake asked. "Isn't that the Greek Mythological Personification of Death…?"
"It's different in the Creature World…" Tsume replied as he and Flare materialized from C.J.'s deck case.
"Thanatos is a legendary monster in the Kaijin No Sekai, believed to originate in this Universe, over 6,000 years ago." Flare added. "Legend has it that in the Beginning, there were two Beings, like a Yin/Yang relation. Thanatos was the Yin, Embodiment of Destruction, and the Yang, was Ixion, Embodiment of Flames. The two were in constant battle with each other, both evenly matched, and both unable to destroy the other. Ironically, with every battle, came a new object in their battle field called 'The Universe.' One battle created the Stars. Another Created planets, so on and so forth. Thanatos, ready to rid Ixion from the Universe, retrieved 9 planetary objects and turned them into its Supernova Warriors. The nine beings defeated Ixion, easily overpowering him. However, as a last ditch effort, he sealed himself and Thanatos with his remaining power, the ensuring explosion split one of the Planetary Objects, and they became the Core of the Kaijin no Sekai. With no power source, the Nine Supernovas fell, and became the nine Planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. Just to be safe, Ixion created five Guardians to make sure the Planets don't reawaken, and if they do, to be able to stop them.
C.J. pulled out his Ground Comet Card. "The Elemental Comets…"
Jake nodded. "That sounds just like what Brian told me when we dueled last time…
[Flashback]
Brian drew his card and laughed hysterically. "Oh, you're gonna to enjoy this." Brian put a mana card down as all eight of them tapped.
"Before I do this, I'll tell you a story: around 6,000 years ago, an unknown phenomenon caused our dimension to split, creating a second one. The second Dimension was known as: Kaijin no Sekai: The Creature World. The Kaijin no Sekai was a World with only one continent. On this continent, lived all different types of Creatures. The Fire Civilization was the industrial Country, the Water Civilization was the Metropolitan Utopia, Nature was the Tropical Paradise, the Light was the peace enforcing Government, and the Darkness was the Swamplands that experiments would take place if deemed, too dangerous.
[End Flashback]
"The Prize at the tournament was the Elemental Comets right?" Shotaro asked.
"They were actually." C.J. replied.
"It was a request by Mr. Roman." Shotaro confirmed.
"Mr. Roman?" Karon raised an eyebrow. "If that's the case then did he intend on us getting these in the first place?"
"Shortly after the tournament ended earlier, we found out about the planet Mars awakening. We got in touch with Mr. Roman and he specifically recommended Team Kaijudo Generation to aid us, since he and his Team, Kaijudo Monarch recommended you guys due to your efforts with the Neo Incident and the Vortex Wars." Tachibana explained.
"What happened to Gentaro…?" Jake brought the topic back up.
Shotaro's demeanor decreased again as he stared at the floor. "Gentaro learned about the Core of the Kaijin no Sekai and Thanatos. Attempting to awaken it, he betrayed all of us, and created an army of Creatures, with the same ideals as his. His lust of power, got the better of him; he was convinced that Thanatos called him to the Kaijin no Sekai to free him from his eternal prison; We thought he was going crazy; But that's when we realized…"
"Realized what?" Jamie spoke up.
"That Gentaro was long dead; Thanatos took over Gentaro's body, like a puppet, and controlled all of those creatures into searching for the only tools strong enough to cause a catastrophic meltdown: The Jewels of the Avatars."
The Five of them froze as Shotaro uttered those words.
Flare nodded. "That's the reason why we gave you five the Catastrophe Gears after the Incident with Drake. With NOVA making itself known while we were here on earth, we couldn't let that kind of power fall into their hands; Despite that, it ended up in Drake's hands. In a way, that was better; at least we knew where they were…"
"Do you know how Thanatos will Awaken?" C.J. asked. "Maybe we can stop them!"
"The Planets…" Shotaro admitted. "The awakening Planets are aligning. Once that happens it'll take the Five Gears to act like Keys to the Ignition, to unleash enough energy to break Ixion's seal. If you can somehow defeat all nine Supernovas, and keep the Gears from falling into their hands, we might have a chance at stopping them!"
Tsume smirked and cracked his knuckles. "Well then, when do we get started…"
"How about now…?"an unfamiliar voice echoed on the loudspeaker
An explosion suddenly went off out in the hallway as the group ran outside, covering their faces from the building smoke and flames.
"Everyone get out of here!" Tachibana ordered.
The group and the other faculty ran to the nearest escape route and found themselves outside on the roof.
"What the hell was that?" Dylan asked.
"I don't know…" Shotaro replied.
"And so, after the explosion occurred, the group found themselves OK, their clothes reeking of smoke. They look up, realizing that a Mysterious man stood before him, reading a book describing a similar situation to what they were facing that very moment. That fact alone made them feel uncomfortable, wondering who he was, let alone why his voice sounded so similar to the voice on the loudspeaker, seconds before the explosion. It was then one of them spoke up."
"Are you the one who caused the building fire?" C.J. asked.
"The man smirked and stopped reading, not moving his eyes from it. 'What if I am?' he asked calmly. 'Are you the ones who have what I'm looking for?'"
"You mean the Catastrophe Gears don't you; well you're not getting them!"
"The Man... turned the page of his book, seeing it coming to an end at this chapter. 'I see…' The man replied. I Guess I'll just duel you for the object then: Kettou Da…' How I hate cliffhangers; always make you wanting more, don't you agree?"
"Who are you…?" C.J. said, his hand sparking red and green lightning.
"I am Michael Manning; The Frozen Supernova of the NOVA Organization. I've come for the Neo Wave Catastrophe Cross Gear. I know one of you have it…" He turns to Dylan. "It's you isn't it?"
Dylan drew his deck and his hand sparked blue and yellow Lightning. You should know… It'll be a cold day in hell before I give this over to you…"
"Is that so…" Michael replied. "In that case, I'll make sure to not hold back then…" Michael's hand Sparked Blue, Yellow and Purple Lighting.
"Three Civilizations…?" C.J. realized.
Michael smirked. "This is over before it started…"
Dylan chuckled. "I couldn't agree more…"
Metal bars suddenly rose from under their feet as the floor under them pushed itself upward where the Half K-Terminal resided. Dylan and Michael set their decks on their respected sides as they used their Kaijudo Energy to generate their Five Shields.
"DUEL START!" they announced…
[END]