Yu-Gi-Oh! Mark of Death
Chapter 7: "Fire"
Opening Theme: "Raining" by Art Of Dying
Ending Theme: "Behind Blue Eyes" by Limp Bizkit
The sun was beginning to set as Danny, Marina, and Violet stood facing the red-caped man named Aeron Mortimer, staring them down with his crimson-colored eyes.
Danny stood before the girls in a defensive stance, ready to stop this man if he was about to attack them. Marina stood in the doorway of the trailer, petrified with fright at the sight of the deathly-looking stranger. But Violet, however, met Aeron's sharp gaze as realization spread across her face.
She made her way down the stone steps past Danny, who gawked at her surprisingly before whispering in a snap, "Violet, no! Get back!"
But she ignored his pleas, instead stopping a short distance away from Aeron as she looked into his eyes. They looked cold and ruthless, reminding her somewhat of Mike's eyes when he first got back. But there was a noticeable difference between the two: Mike's eyes had only felt hard and cold, whereas this man's eyes and his gaze felt like almost deathly.
"You..." she said nervously, "You're the one who called Mike last night, aren't you...?"
Aeron glanced at her with his penetrating glare. "I am," he confirmed, "And if you're who I think you are, then you should be able to tell me where he is."
Violet's heart sank as she looked to the ground. "Actually... he disappeared this morning," she said, "We don't know where he is."
Danny and Marina had both calmed their postures, but their hearts continued to race. They had no idea how this Aeron character might react to learning that they had nothing to tell him.
Now Aeron pressed: "Where do you think he is?"
Rather than answering, Violet took from her pocket the note Mike had left that morning and held it up to him. "He only left this..." she said.
Aeron now moved to approach Violet, standing only two feet from her before taking the note from her hand and unfolding it to read it. Danny and Marina couldn't imagine how Violet could be so unbelievably calm near this man, since his presence was still making both of them quiver.
He sped through the note before sighing, shaking his head in disapproval. "That idiot," he muttered as he handed the note back.
"What?" Danny asked, "You know what he's doing?"
Aeron's eyes now locked with Danny's. "He's looking for a man named Louis Costanzo," he explained factually, "Someone who took a friend of ours."
Though all three friends fell silent, Violet felt her heart skip a beat as the pieces came together in her mind: the girl Mike had mentioned the previous night—this friend of his and Aeron's that had been captured—they had to have been the same person.
"Well, I don't care about the who's, the what's, and the why's," Danny finally spoke up, now sprinting past Aeron as he made for the construction yard's exit, "I'm gonna go help him find this guy!"
"I wouldn't do that if I were you."
Aeron's words surprised the three as Danny came to a halt, turning to face Aeron again as he explained, "This man that he's looking for is potentially dangerous. What do you think you could do to help, even if you knew where to find him?"
The three friends went wide-eyed in surprise at these details, but only Violet felt unable to catch her breath as she tried to digest that. "Are you saying that this guy... might try to kill him...?" she asked shakily.
Aeron turned back to her. "If you're worried about Mike's safety, then don't," Aeron assured them, "He's handled far worse situations."
Now everyone gathered had looks of utmost confusion on their faces save for Aeron, who took notice of the three teens' expressions. "Let me guess," Aeron inquired, "He hasn't told any of you anything."
The three friends' all locked eyes with each other at least once, their minds flashing back to Danny's duel with Mike to learn about his last two years.
Aeron took their silence as his answer before letting out another huff. "I'm not surprised. The whole reason he came back here was to try and forget about the last few years."
"And just what is it he's trying to forget?" Danny demanded to know.
"That's something I can't tell you," was Aeron's answer.
Now Danny's face regained the fiery anger it'd had before as he stormed towards Aeron, nearly throwing himself into his face as he yelled at him, "Whattaya mean you can't tell us?! He's our friend! We deserve to know the truth, damn it!"
"The bullet holes..."
Everyone's attention was back on Violet again as she addressed Aeron: "The bullet holes in the back of his duster... he's seen things like war, hasn't he? He's been through worse than we can imagine."
Danny and Marina were stunned as it all came together: Mike's reluctance to talk about anything from the last two years; the duel disk shaped like a revolver; the bullet holes that Violet had noticed...
Aeron now gave off what sounded like a small chuckle. "Perceptive," he complimented her, "But I'm afraid I still can't tell you anything."
"Oh, I've had just about enough of this..." Danny growled as his fists balled, "If you don't start giving us some straight answers—!"
"I made a promise."
Danny stopped cold as everyone's expressions turned to confusion, while Aeron looked up to the surrounding cityscape reflectively. "Me, Mike, and our friend that Louis Costanzo took were all supposed to come here together," he explained to them with what they thought was sorrow in his dark voice, "But our plan was compromised. I stayed behind to give them a chance to run on their own. But our friend was captured, while Mike somehow managed to escape."
Now Aeron looked back to the three friends again as his tone turned serious: "All Mike wanted was to return to his normal life here," he said, "And he believed the only way to do that was to pretend like the last two years had never happened. So when we agreed to go with him, he made us promise to never bring up that place again to anyone else."
Violet, Danny, and Marina were speechless, not knowing how to react. But one thing was clicking in their mind now: Mike's bitter attitude towards Josiah and everyone else when he'd first arrived home... no wonder he'd been so stone cold. It had to have been just after his and Aeron's friend had been taken away during their trip to County Dame.
And then there was why he hadn't wanted to talk about where he'd been, where they had tried to force the truth out of him. Violet could see the remorse in Danny's eyes as he reflected back to his last duel with Mike. He had to have felt horrible now, knowing that he'd tried to force his best friend's hand.
But Danny's next words suggested otherwise: "He should've figured that we'd ask..." he said, sounding annoyed, "Who wouldn't ask an old friend where they've been after disappearing for two years without any warning? Did he seriously think he could just come back, and everything could return to normal?!"
Marina's eyes couldn't hide their compassionate stare for Danny as his agitation visibly increased. Violet was speechless at this point.
"It's like your friend said," Aeron broke the tense silence, "Mike has seen things unlike anything you could imagine. He's not exactly in the best state of mind. You think it's any wonder why he doesn't want to talk about the last two years?"
Danny had no comeback for that; Aeron did have a point.
"Then that leaves only one question..." Marina finally spoke up as she made her way down the concrete steps to join her friends on the ground, "If he came here to forget about the last two years... then why is he chasing after this friend of his from there?"
Another good point that got the three of them looking to Aeron to answer. This was especially something Violet wanted to hear, since she knew specifically that this "friend" Aeron kept mentioning was the girl from the dialogue she'd overheard between him and Mike the night before. And whatever this girl was to him, and why it was so important that he chased after her, would reflect on how he might've felt about Violet.
But it seemed even Aeron didn't have all of the answers: "That's something you'd have to ask him yourself," was all he said.
Disappointment adorned Violet's, Danny's, and Marina's faces. It looked like Violet would have to wait to find out the truth about how the boy she'd always loved felt about her.
She didn't linger on that disappointment for long, however, as Aeron then said, "But enough about Mike, now... I want to know more about you three, starting with your names."
This was somewhat of a jolt out of the serious conversation that the four of them had been having. Now this guy was suddenly demanding to know their names; and from the sound of his voice, they had a feeling it would be a bad idea to not comply.
"Alright..." Danny volunteered himself to go first, though now he was looking at Aeron with a quizzical look, as if the way he'd suddenly changed topic made him untrustworthy, "The name's Daniel Stark. Call me Danny."
"So you're the skater kid," Aeron noted, "Mike's best friend."
Danny was taken aback, as were Marina and Violet. So this guy knew them all by name? Mike had actually talked to him about them while he was away?
There was only one way to confirm this: "My name's Marina," Marina introduced herself next, "Marina Livesey."
"The younger, smart one," Aeron recalled, "The voice of reason in your group."
Violet watched Marina go pink in the face, like she was thinking, 'Did Mike really say that about me...?'
Now Danny was looking to her, suppressing a chortle at the sight of Marina's pink face. Little did anyone else know that in the back of his mind, he secretly found it cute.
Aeron finally turned to Violet now, cutting her off before she could speak as he deduced, "And that makes you Violet..."
Violet, Danny and Marina were all now looking towards Aeron as they noticed his tone had changed—as if Violet was special in some way.
Violet could only nod her confirmation, as she didn't know how to react to Aeron's sudden tone shift. Aeron, in response, said, "You're the one he holds affection for."
Violet had to take in a quick gasp as she took in that information. Danny and Marina looked almost panicked, as if they'd have to dive in to catch Violet at any given time if she fainted. But somehow she managed to keep herself together as she stammered, "W-wha...? You mean he...?"
"Cares very deeply about you," Aeron finished for her, "He has for a long time."
Violet couldn't believe what she was hearing. Even her earlier concerns about the girl that Mike must have been out searching for seemed to fade away into her subconscious as the fact filled her mind like a swollen balloon: her childhood crush had shared the same feelings as she had for the same amount of time, and he'd been as secretive about it as she had been.
Danny and Marina didn't know what to do with themselves now. All they could think of was to look to each other, but that quickly turned awkward when they both saw their own affection for each other momentarily before looking back to Violet and Aeron.
Aeron didn't seem to notice or even care that he had dropped a huge surprise on Violet, as he then shifted his attention back to all three of them at once. "Anything else that you all want to share?"
Violet tried to manage the sudden shock of what she had just learned out of her mind to think of something else to say, as did Danny and Marina. But they found themselves at a loss for words, unable to bring themselves to say anything else to Aeron since nothing else came to their minds. He apparently already knew a lot about them as it was—what else was there really for them to tell that he didn't know?
The deathly-feeling man eventually sighed after a few moments of silence, shaking his head as he did so. "Teenagers," he muttered, annoyed, "Even Mike was better conversation than you all when he was younger."
Danny gave Aeron a snarky look at that remark. Marina looked away in embarrassment as he rubbed one of her arms. Violet didn't really care—she was just overjoyed to learn that her lifelong crush really did harbor the same feelings for her as she did for him.
Then Aeron made the move that nobody expected: from his side he whipped out his own revolver-duel disk from its holster, placing it on his left wrist where it latched onto him as it activated, fanning out its five monster and spell/trap zones.
All three friends jumped backwards slightly as Aeron made his swift motion, but as they realized what it was that he had done, they looked to him with confusion as he explained, "If you really have nothing else to say, then what would you say to a duel instead?"
Marina and Violet looked to Danny, waiting to hear his response. Among the three of them there, he was the only duelist in their group aside from Mike.
But what he said instead surprised them all: "You expect me to duel you..." he uttered before his voice turned into an angry shout, "When my best friend is out there, possibly in danger, and needs my help?!"
Violet and Marina went wide-eyed at this. They had almost completely forgotten about the fact that Mike was currently out looking for someone who'd taken one of his friends.
But Aeron only reiterated: "I already told you: Mike has more than enough experience to handle himself on his own. So for the moment, I'd rather get to know you."
"And you think a duel will tell you anything about me?" Danny retorted suspiciously.
"A true duelist can see into the heart and soul of another through their dueling," Aeron explained factually, "So I'll learn more about you through a duel than anything you can tell me with your own words.
"And besides," Aeron added, almost sarcastically, "I need something to do while I wait for Mike to come back."
Violet and Marina looked to Danny as they waited on his decision of whether or not he would duel. He was fired up quite a bit now, so it was questionable whether or not he would go for it.
But it seemed that he was willing to simmer down a little bit for the time being: "Alright," he finally agreed as he activated the duel disk on his left arm, "If you're itching for a duel so badly, I guess I'll give you one!"
Aeron smirked. "You have a real duelist's spirit after all," he said, "Glad to see you're listening to reason."
"More like I REALLY need to get some aggression out of my system," Danny corrected him, "And I can't see a better way to do that right now."
Aeron chuckled at this remark. "Whatever works for you," he spoke as he drew five cards, "Just don't disappoint me."
"I don't plan on it!" Danny shot back as he too drew five cards.
"LET'S DUEL!" was cried between the two.
[Danny - LP: 8000]
[Aeron - LP: 8000]
Marina moved off to the side to join Violet as they looked on, the same thought running through both of their minds: they were about to see just what kind of duelists Mike had been surrounded by for the last two years.
"Since I'm the visitor here, I think I'll take the first move," Aeron decided as he drew first.
He scanned his hand carefully for a time, his eyes darting back and forth between the cards that made up his hand. As he strategized, Danny seemed to be boiling with energy—one filled with a determination that neither Violet nor Marina had ever seen in him before. Despite the fact that he was going up against a duelist whose presence felt more dead than alive, there was a fire that was fueling Danny to the point that he was finally able to hold his composure against this stranger.
Finally, Aeron broke the silence as he came to a decision of how he was going to begin this duel: "I'll start by activating the Zombie World field spell," he started, an area on the edge of his duel disk opening to allow the field spell to be placed in it.
Now the entire environment surrounding them changed into one that sent chills down each and every one of the three friends' spines: it became a forest of the dead, with dead trees in ghostly shapes surrounding the landscape, and a blood-red pond could be seen a little ways away from them. Skulls and skeletons of all sorts of creatures lingered beneath everyone covering the ground below their feet, making every small movement of the foot make a crack in the lifeless bones.
Violet stared in awe at the sight of this new field. "I've never seen anything like this before..." she said, her jaw remaining slightly agape as she took in the sights.
"I'll say..." Marina replied, mildly shaking as she did so, "Freaks me the hell out, though..."
Violet turned to her best friend with a surprised look as she asked, "Really? This kinda stuff scares you?"
"Ever since my dad jumped me in a skeleton costume on Halloween when I was four, yes..." she admitted through gritted teeth.
Meanwhile, Aeron now continued as he said, "Now I'll set one card face down. And with that, I end my turn."
Danny's, Marina's, and Violet's eyes all widened. He played the most creepy field spell card in the world, and then set only one card face down? There had to have been more to his strategy that he wasn't letting on.
"Well if that's all you're gonna do," Danny cried as he drew next, "I'm gonna have an easier time winning this duel than I thought!
"First I'm summoning out my Scrap Recycler!" he began.
[Scrap Recycler - LV: 3/ATK: 900]
"And thanks to its effect, I can take any machine from my deck, and send it to my graveyard!" he explained, "So I'll send my Machina Fortress!"
"I don't see how that's going to help you," Aeron told him as he watched the Machina card get sent to the graveyard.
"Don't worry, you're about to!" Danny said with a smirk, "Now I'll discard my Green and Red Gadgets from my hand, in order to resurrect my Machina Fortress from the graveyard with its effect!"
[Machina Fortress - LV: 7/ATK: 2500]
"And now I'll take advantage of my Scrap Recycler's second special ability!" Danny continued, "I can take two LV 4 EARTH machines from my graveyard, and shuffle them into my deck to draw another card!"
But what happened when Danny went to reach for his graveyard came as quite the literal shock to him: the moment his hand made contact with it, the small section of his duel disk emitted a spark of black electricity, making him wince at the electrocution as his mind filled with confusion. "What the hell...?" he muttered, "Why can't I touch my graveyard?"
"It's because you tried to play an illegal move," Aeron explained, "See, my Zombie World turns all monsters on both sides of the field and in our graveyards to zombie-types.
"So when you tried to take machine-type monsters from your graveyard for Scrap Recycler's ability," Aeron pointed towards Danny's graveyard as he spoke, "You couldn't because you actually don't have any machine-type monsters in there at all."
Danny growled in frustration as he registered what Aeron was saying. Violet and Marina could understand how he felt right now: clearly he'd learned his lesson about hand control from his last duel with Mike, yet his strategy to utilize that lesson had just been shot down effortlessly by Aeron.
Now Danny refocused himself as he looked to his opponent. "You may have made it harder for me to use some of my combos," he shot at Aeron, "But you're still wide open for direct attacks! Go, Scrap Recycler!"
Scrap Recycler wheeled its way over to Aeron and clamped its mechanical jaw down on Aeron's arm, before scuttling back to its owner's side of the field.
[Aeron - LP: 7100]
"Now I'll go and use my heavy ballistics!" Danny cried out, "Machina Fortress, fire at will!"
Machina Fortress took its large cannon mounted upon itself and aimed it straight at Aeron, before firing away at him. The blast engulfed the deathly-feeling man in a surge of light for a moment before fading away, though Aeron hadn't even flinched from the impact.
[Aeron - LP: 4600]
"And THAT'S how it's done!" Danny proclaimed proudly, "I think I'll end my turn there!"
As Danny's turn came to a close, the two girls on the sidelines could only blink after watching Danny's move. "Wow..." was all Violet could mutter with awe in her voice, "His attacks actually went through..."
"Yeah..." Marina agreed almost dreamily, "He looked pretty good while he was doing it, too..."
Violet turned to her friend as she smirked. "You really have fallen for him, haven't you?" she teased her.
Marina refused to meet Violet's eyes as she looked away, only just realizing what she'd said as her arms folded. "Please," she retorted back, "I have higher standards than just looking good in a duel!"
"Right..." Violet murmured as the two turned their attention back to the duel, where Aeron was looking Danny's Machina Fortress up and down with interest.
"I see..." he said curiously, "You only just recently re-strategized for that monster to be your ace, didn't you?"
Danny went wide-eyed at this remark, as did Violet and Marina. Danny's reaction was more due to the fact that he hadn't even shared with anybody that he had changed his strategy completely from summoning Machina Force to relying more on Machina Fortress. He'd had a one-track mind for so long with wanting to get Machina Force out, but after his duel with Mike, he'd realized that he needed a more accessible and effective strategy if he was ever going to pull off any victories.
And the fact that Aeron had dissected his strategy and even came to the conclusion that he had just began using this strategy could only mean that he was, most likely, EXTREMELY skilled and experienced. And that probably meant that Aeron also knew that Danny was still testing the deck too, as he barely knew how to play it as effectively as he needed to if he were to have any chance at winning.
"You seem to have a lot of pent-up anger and aggression inside of you," Aeron continued to analyze, taking the three friends aback at his words, "Your willingness to immediately go on the offensive so recklessly shows me that you've got an urge to prove that you're strong—not just to me, or your friends, but also to yourself."
Now Danny was shaking. He couldn't even begin to comprehend how Aeron had taken all of that from just his opening move. And now it was like his whole heart had been exposed to both Aeron and his friends—and he had a feeling that his heart had already been shown to Mike through their duel as well.
Violet and Marina, standing on the sidelines, began to feel sympathetic towards their friend. They could tell that what Aeron was saying about him had to have been the truth—it made sense that Danny would want to become stronger, especially after seeing how much stronger Mike had become during their duel.
"Well?" said Aeron with interest, "Am I wrong?"
Danny forced his body to stop shaking as his eyes now locked with Aeron's, and for the first time, Violet and Marina noticed a small fire in his eyes—like a burning desire that he'd been keeping secret for so long had been brought up to the surface by Aeron's words.
"You're wrong about one thing..." he admittedly shakily as his one empty hand clenched into a fist, "I AM strong! And if I'm angry about anything, it's that you're trying to distract me from this duel by saying all this random stuff!"
Aeron gave an amused chuckle at this remark. "You're a poor liar," he said matter-of-factly, "Your eyes give it away, too—that everything I've said about you so far is true. There's no hiding that."
"And what makes you so sure that you're right?!" Danny shot back, frustrated.
"Because I've seen that same hidden truth in Mike's eyes," Aeron said simply, making Danny, Marina and Violet freeze at those words as Aeron's eyes closed in remembrance, "Only when I looked into his, he was hiding fear, not anger..."
- Flashback End -
The whole time Mike spent marching amongst Frontier Haven's citizens, he could feel his anxiety welling more and more inside of him.
It was bad enough that he didn't know whether or not he was going to survive this duel to the death that he was trudging towards; but what was even more petrifying to him was what he would have to do if he were victorious. Everyone was expecting him to kill this man named Keir if he came out victorious—an idea that he couldn't believe he even had to entertain.
He'd tried changing his perspective of the situation in an attempt to justify the actions he might've had to undertake: he wasn't dueling this man just so he could kill him in cold blood. Keir's death would mean the end of Frontier Haven's oppression under him. Ending one life to save hundreds of others had to be worth it... right?
Unfortunately, despite his efforts, no different outlook of the circumstances made the idea of taking another human's life away any easier to fathom. In fact, he was sure that nothing in the world could ever make him feel any different about it.
He looked back into the crowd of people behind him. He could see the girl named Casey that he'd met earlier a few paces behind him, stuck in the middle of the crowd. She caught his gaze, and managed to weakly smile at him; as if she was trying to give him some kind of reassurance that he would be okay, yet knew that wasn't very likely.
He tried to manage a smile of his own to send back to her before he suddenly felt a firm hand grasp his right shoulder, and he looked up to see that the hand belonged to Aeron, who was looking down at him.
"Are you ready for this?" he asked.
His eyes met Aeron's. He couldn't tell whether or not there was a sign of sympathy, callousness, or just no emotion at all in his crimson-red orbs. Aeron's expressions and emotions had always been extremely vague to him, and they weren't becoming any clearer to him anytime soon.
Mike turned away now as he heaved a sigh. "Yeah, I'll be fine..." he lied flatly, "Just... mentally preparing myself."
Even from the odd angle he was looking down at Mike from, he could see the lie clearly in his eyes. His ocean-blue orbs weren't reflecting the thoughts of a man who was preparing for a battle—they were the eyes of a boy terrorized with fear. Aeron couldn't blame him in the slightest; after all, every single practice duel that they'd run had ended with Mike's defeat. It almost made him feel remorseful for what he was about to do next:
He reached into a side pocket zipped up on his pants and pulled out a dueling deck, extending it out to Mike as he said, "Here."
Mike now looked to see the deck that Aeron was handing to him, before looking back up at his mentor with a raised eyebrow. "What's this?" Mike asked with uncertainty in his voice.
"An old deck of mine," Aeron explained simply, "Samael wants you to use it in your duel."
Mike stared at his mentor incredulously. "You've gotta be kidding..." he uttered with disbelief, "He expects me to duel with my life at stake using a deck I know nothing about...?"
"If that's how you feel about it, then you better start looking through it now while you still have time," was Aeron's retort.
Mike's slightly-agape jaw now shut itself as he looked to the deck in Aeron's hand. As much as he didn't want to part with his deck for this duel, he had to look at the facts from every aspect: ever since he'd first arrived in Frontier Haven, Samael had said nothing about Mike except for how much he believed that he would be able to overthrow Keir. Now, he was expecting Mike to pick up another deck just before the duel? The absurdity of that idea could be seen no matter how you looked at it.
But then again... what reason would Samael have to make Mike switch out decks so as to make him lose? He—as well as everybody else in Frontier Haven—was counting on him to win so he could free them from the Romans' tyranny. He wouldn't just set Mike up just to fail in the end; there was no sense to that, either.
With that thought, Mike made up his mind: he took the deck from Aeron's hand, and began skimming through it as his deathly-feeling mentor watched with surprise. He didn't actually think that Mike would go through with the idea. He'd expected that the thought of parting with the only reminder of his home and his friends would deter him completely.
But whatever the reason for Mike doing otherwise, Aeron was glad that he had. In all the years that he'd known Samael, Aeron knew that he'd never once been wrong about a feeling he had. That was the only reason that he'd agreed to give his apprentice this deck—he knew that Samael was right when he'd said that Mike's current deck would cost him the duel.
Now Mike clasped the deck in his left hand, using his right to take out his revolver-shaped duel disk, in which was his own deck. He took it and replaced it in the deck case on his best, and then placed the new deck in the duel disk's muzzle as a sudden feeling of dread washed over him.
"Aeron..." he said uneasily, locking eyes with his mentor as he spoke, "You said this duel disk isn't just shaped for its looks... is this what I'm expected to kill Keir with...?"
Aeron looked down to his young pupil with his emotionless gaze for a moment, before looking away again as he answered, "If he's not already dead by the of the duel, then yes."
Mike's eyebrows arched at this ominous response. "What do you mean by that...?" he asked, a slight quiver in his voice.
Aeron was about to open his mouth to answer before his attention seemed to be suddenly taken by the scenery ahead of them. "Looks like we've arrived," he instead said.
Mike looked up to see where Aeron was looking: ahead of them, another western-style town—much like Frontier Haven—was coming into Mike's view. But while it may have looked very similar to Frontier Haven's outward appearance, the vibe he was getting from it was much different compared to how he'd felt in Frontier Haven. The sight of the town alone was somehow enough to make the hair on his back stand up; all he could feel was a menacing, evil sensation pulsing from the settlement, as though the town itself was the residence of the Devil himself.
Now Aeron and Mike made their way to the front of the pack, where Samael was holding up his hand to signal that everyone halt as he came to a stop just before the entryway into the worn-out town.
"Saddleburry..." he growled quietly to Mike, "This is where Keir and his damn Romans have been holed up... all while holding our lives at gunpoint..."
He now turned to look down at Mike an intense stare that pierced right through Mike's core. "Everything rides on you, now..." he said, sounding like he'd been waiting for the day he got to say that for all of his life.
Mike nodded his understanding as he tried to look confident in front of Samael. "Right..." he muttered as he looked into the forbidding town, "No pressure or anything."
Samael grinned at this for a moment, before looking back to the people of Frontier Haven. "Forward, march!" he cried out as he used his hand again to signal that they continue.
Now he, Aeron, Mike, and the rest of Frontier Haven's townspeople began walking their way into the old town, allowing Mike to take in its sights as he walked along its centered walkway: some of the buildings looking severely decayed and even charred in some places, but they were all essentially the same kind of structures that were also in Frontier Haven. Shops, saloons, and homelike complexes with porches out front at their entrances all aligned the town's streets.
But he quickly spotted the major difference between the two towns, as well as the reason he'd felt such malice before: the people that he saw scattered about were some of the most rogue-looking men and women he'd ever seen in his lifetime. The majority of them were all dressed in black, leather jackets and boots, black jeans, and brandished the same waist-bound holsters that the people of Frontier Haven did. He could feel the cold, hard stares of the people that he saw standing around at the front of the old buildings, glaring at the lot of people that had come from their sister town.
He tried his best to ignore them, and instead looked ahead to where they were headed towards. But the sight in front of him didn't look any more inviting than his other surroundings did: gathered in what must have been the center of the small town was an assembly of the same kind of leather-clad scoundrels, all looking as though they had been awaiting the arrival of Samael and his town's citizens.
Standing at the front of this pack was a man dressed much like the others, but with a few exceptions: his leather jacket was slightly longer than the others', and colored dirt-brown. His dark silver, slicked-back hair reached down to the middle of his back, and his sterling silver eyes looked like they were held up by the bags beneath them that showed his age. He stood at 5'11".
Now, as Frontier Haven's residents now stopped a good distance away from the leather-clad gang before them, the brown-jacketed man stepped away from his gang of rogues to stand in the middle of the town's empty center.
"You're late, Samael," he said jeeringly as he grinned, "You know that I don't like to be kept waiting!"
"Shut your mouth, Jared," Samael shot back, "You're only your boss's right hand man. That doesn't give you the right to act like him."
The taunting smile disappeared from the man named Jared's face, replaced with a scowl as he changed the subject: "So... who's your unwilling sacrifice this time?"
Samael now looked to Mike behind him, who nodded before he stepped past him and looked to the man named Jared dead in the eyes, hoping that his heart wasn't about to burst out of his rib cage as his pulse quickened.
"I am," he managed to blurt out, trying his best to not sound as terrified as he really was.
Jared stared momentarily at Mike, as though he was scanning him up and down to find the best way to break him like a fragile vase.
"You don't look like much of a fighter," he observed with a curled lip, "You wander into Frontier Haven by accident, kid?"
A few snickers came from some of the Saddleburry residents as Mike said nothing. It wasn't so much that he didn't know what to come back with; it was more that his fear was tightening its grip around him to the point that he was couldn't find his voice.
After waiting for a time, Jared finally turned his attention away from Mike and back to Samael. "So, who's the kid's opponent gonna be?" he inquired.
"He's challenging Keir," Samael answered sternly.
Jared went wide-eyed as he now looked back to Mike, before a smirk began to spread across his face, followed by stifled laughter. But he eventually burst into a sniggering fit as the rest of the leather-clad rogues around him broke into full-out, uproarious chortles as Mike seemed to shrink. Samael's eyebrows were knit as he felt his teeth grind.
Now, as the uproar of laughter died down, Jared composed himself as he pointed a finger at Mike as he cried out, "You can't be serious! You think that this runt of a kid is even worth our leader's time and effort?!"
"If your leader isn't as much of a coward as I think," Samael shot back, "Then he'll put the time and effort in to accept this challenge."
Now Jared's expression turned into a sharp glare at Samael. "Why, you..." he snarled, "How dare you speak of our leader like—!"
"That's enough, Jared."
The voice that had cut off the brown-jacketed man came from behind the wall of scoundrels huddled together in the town's square. The man's voice left every last person in the town—both the rogues of Saddleburry and the townspeople of Frontier Haven—stunned, as if just the man's voice was a sign that they had suddenly entered the presence of a god.
Now Jared looked behind him to see the leather-clad men and women behind him parting themselves down the middle to let their leader walk through to the front. This man stood at about 6'1". His duster was colored only a slightly lighter shade of brown than Jared's was, but it was as long as Samael's black one in the back. Beneath that was a white shirt that was ripped slightly down the middle from the top; his legs were covered by dark, navy-blue jeans, and his feet with boots matching the color of his duster. The same holster that everybody else had to hold their revolver-duel disks was slung around his waist as well.
The man's black, matted hair looked both unkempt yet sophisticated. His face had a few less wrinkles than Samael, which gave Mike the impression that this man had to be somewhere between his mid-to-late forties. The man's emerald eyes were unnervingly calm to Mike, as was the man's cocky half-grin. The air of confidence that he gave off made it believable to Mike that he really must have been as powerful as Samael and Aeron had made him out to be.
As the man now stopped to stand beside Jared, who looked to his leader with what seemed like a hint of fear in his eyes, he stared into Samael's eyes.
"So, you've finally found somebody who you think could challenge me?" his fierce, commanding voice said to his old rival.
"Not just somebody to challenge you, Keir," Samael said with confidence, "But somebody to defeat you."
Now the man name Keir took his turn observing Mike, who could feel his legs trembling as he was looked up and down. "So you're who Samael chose to play Frontier Haven's great savior, huh...?" he jeered at Mike, who was struggling to keep his confident face on, "Man, it looks like he really picked a dud this time..."
More laughter came from Jared and the rest of the men behind Keir as he grinned widely. Clearly, he loved to get his followers riled up to discourage his opponent before the duel had even begun.
"Go ahead and laugh."
This comment from Mike seemed to suddenly subdue the guffaws coming from Keir's men as they were silenced, listening to Mike press on in his trembling voice: "I may know nothing about how you duel... and I may or may not be strong enough to take you down..."
Now Mike stared Keir directly in the eye as he said, "But I'll be damned if I let you get away with pushing around the people of Frontier Haven any longer! No one should have to live their lives in fear!"
This took Keir, Jared, Aeron, and especially Samael aback. The latter could remember how he'd told Mike that he couldn't duel the same way as he did for his friends if he wanted to win—that he had to fight for himself to survive. But now, it looked to him that this boy had found another way to look at this duel: he wasn't going to fight for himself, but for the people of Frontier Haven; the same way he'd used to fight for his friends.
Keir now wiped the look of bewilderment from his face as his expression returned to a sneer. "Well, say what you want, kid..." he coldly shot back at Mike as they both now took out their revolver-duel disks, "But this isn't one of your typical playground duels. Get ready for the fight of your life!"
Mike could feel his confidence fading as Keir then pulled out the same long, steel cable that Aeron had first pulled on him from his duster, throwing it towards Mike so that the cuff at the end of it latched onto Mike's left arm, eliminating the latter's last and only chance to run away from this duel.
The last of Mike's conviction now slipped away as Keir attached the other end of the cable to his own duel disk arm. There was no way to hide his fear from him or anyone else now. On the sidelines, Samael stood beside Aeron, who could see that Mike's eyes were still the same as they'd been before he'd given him his new deck: filled with the fear of a boy who had strayed far out of his league.
Casey, who had slipped her way to the front of the Frontier Haven crowd, watched on with an intense gaze as she put a hand over where she could feel her heart pulsating. She'd only felt as nervous as she did now one other time in her life: the first time she'd ever had to fight for her life in this same town.
Now, Mike and Keir both attached their gun-shaped duel disks to their wrists. The barrels on each of them expanded to allow the monster, spell, and trap zones to emerge. And as they both drew five cards, they finally cried out, "LET'S DUEL!"
- Flashback End -
Aeron reopened his eyes to see that Danny, as well as Marina and Violet, all had the same confounded expression on their faces.
"The fear in his eyes..." Aeron said as he looked into Danny's intense ones, "It was as clear to me as the fire that I see in yours right now—burning with the desire to become stronger."
Danny felt his teeth grinding as Aeron drew his next card. "They say that the strongest steel is crafted in the hottest of fires," he recited to his young opponent, "Your fire is hot, but you've yet to even begin tempering the steel.
"But I digress..." he changed the subject as he glanced at his hand for a moment before looking back up to his opponent, "I believe I've learned all I wanted to about you. And last I checked, we were in the middle of a duel."
"But I think it's time..." he said darkly as his eyes narrowed, as if locking onto Danny like he'd spotted his prey, "That I brought this to an end."
Danny's, Marina's, and Violet's eyes all went wide at this statement. He wasn't seriously about to end this duel right then and there, was he...?
"I'll start by activating my continuous spell card, Call of the Mummy," Aeron began as he activated the card, "With it, I can special summon one zombie-type monster from my hand when I control no monsters.
"So rise..." Aeron growled as a dark surge of energy burst from the Zombie World's depths behind him, "Despair from the Dark!"
[Despair from the Dark - LV: 8/ATK: 2800]
Danny's jaw hung agape as he looked up at the powerful monster that towered over Aeron. He knew what it was like to summon a giant, towering monster like that from when he'd summoned Machina Force, but he'd never faced off against something like that on his own before.
"2800 ATK?!" Marina yelped as she watched on, "How is Danny supposed to defeat that thing?!"
"I don't know..." Violet replied as she took a step back, feeling her insides having a panic attack from the sight of this new monstrosity, "He's never been good at dealing with monsters with a lot of ATK strength..."
Danny, having overheard that, couldn't argue with Violet's statement. The basic monsters in his deck were already weak in ATK to begin with, and the only way he could ever originally think to gain supremacy in a duel was to summon Machina Force, since its ATK of 4600 was more than enough for almost any monster. But after watching Mike drain all of his Force's ATK, along with completely overpowering his Fortress with a 5050 ATK monster, he'd realized that he needed to add something more to his deck than just an overwhelming brute force.
"Now I'll use the special ability of the Marionette Mite in my hand!" Aeron now explained as he discarded his monster; "By discarding it, I can take control over any monster on your field that's zombie-type.
"And if you remember..." Aeron's dark voice seemed to grow even more intimidating in this moment, "My Zombie World field spell makes every monster on the field zombie-type; which means your Machina Fortress is fair game!"
Everyone watched as the Fortress rolled its way off from Danny's field, over the bones and skulls of the zombie world that crunched beneath its wheels, making the girls on the sidelines cringe at the sound.
Danny watched on as his monster turned on him, not knowing what to do exactly aside from the one thing he could do: "Since you targeted my Fortress for a monster effect," Danny retorted, trying to keep up his confidence, "I can use its effect to discard one random card in your hand!"
Aeron looked down to watch as one card vanished from his hand, but his unchanged expression gave Danny the impression that he was unscathed by this move.
"A meaningless effort," Aeron told him, "You had one chance to foil my plan, and it failed."
Danny's, Marina's, and Violet's eyes all widened at this as Aeron then went on, "Now I summon the Pain Painter Tuner monster!"
[Pain Painter - LV: 2/ATK: 400]
"And with this monster, my victory is secured," Aeron told his young, terrified opponent, "Because with its effect, I can turn two zombie-type monsters on my field into LV 2 monsters! And since both my Despair and Machina Fortress are zombies, their levels will drop!"
[Despair from the Dark - LV: 2]
[Machina Fortress - LV: 2]
"And with that, I tune my LV 2 zombies with my LV 2 Pain Painter!" Aeron cried as the three monsters came together, "And in doing so, I bring forth my ultimate creature!"
The three monsters now morphed into a black, smoky portal, through which the most terrifying dragon they'd ever seen emerged through it and flew onto the field.
"Come forth..." Aeron cried out, "Doomkaiser Dragon!"
[Doomkaiser Dragon - LV: 6/ATK: 2400]
Violet and Marina stood petrified in terror at the sight of this new monster. Never in either of their lives had they seen a more terrifying beast before. Danny, meanwhile, was swallowing hard as he took in the creature's features too, but then he realized a detail that didn't make sense to him:
"So you offered up a 2800 ATK monster, and a 2500 ATK monster..." he figured confusedly, "To summon out a weaker, 2400 ATK monster?!"
"This 'weaker' monster has more to offer than those other monsters ever did," Aeron explained to him, "For instance, upon its Synchro summoning, I can immediately bring back any one zombie-type monster from my opponent's graveyard to my side of the field!"
"Oh, c'mon!" Danny exclaimed exasperatedly as he, Violet and Marina now watched the Zombie World's ground before Aeron rupture in a burst of flurrying bones and skulls, all of which Marina flinched to avoid as the rusted Machina Fortress appeared on Aeron's field once more.
[Machina Fortress - LV: 7/ATK: 2500]
"Now it's time that you felt your own monster's wrath!" Aeron cried out as he pointed towards Scrap Recycler, "Machina Fortress, destroy your former ally: Scrap Recycler!"
Machina Fortress now repeated the same attack that it had mounted against Aeron earlier: the large cannon mounted atop it took aim and fired a blast at Scrap Recycler, which exploded immediately on contact.
[Danny - LP: 6400]
"And then," Aeron declared as he pointed towards Danny, "Doomkaiser Dragon will wage a direct attack on your LP!"
Doomkaiser Dragon's skeletal jaw unhinged itself before a blast of purple flames erupted from its depths, aimed straight at Danny.
"Danny!" Marina and Violet cried out at the same time as they watched the attack.
But Danny was in for more than just a holographic explosion of flames: when the seemingly-fake fires made contact with him, he found himself feeling the last thing he expected to: pain.
'What is this...?!' he wanted to cry out, but he couldn't find his words as he found himself screaming from the fires that had enveloped him, bringing him down to half of his original LP.
[Danny - LP: 4000]
Now Marina and Violet were taking notice of Danny's suffering as they realized what was happening. From where they stood, the fires looked just like any other holographic fire they'd ever seen in a duel before. But what they'd never felt before was actual heat being emitted from said flames like these ones were doing.
The dragon's purple flames died down as the attack ended, and Danny was forced onto one knee. His red hoodie was now decorated with a few scorch marks, while the seams from his ripped jeans were slightly singeing.
'How the hell's he doing this...?!' raced through Danny's mind as he forced himself to stand again, 'The damage... is real...?!'
"I'm afraid I'm nowhere near finished with you just yet," Aeron cut into his thoughts, making Danny's eyes go wide as he looked to his opponent with shock, "Now I activate my face down card: Assault Mode Activate!"
Danny could have sworn his heart had stopped in this moment as Aeron explained, "With this, my Doomkaiser Dragon will now evolve into a new form unlike anything you've ever seen before!"
Danny, Marina, and Violet all watched as Aeron's dragon suddenly underwent an alarming transformation: its chest had formed into a terrifying, skeletal face, and skeletal arms were protruding from its sides as the dragon gave a loud roar, either out of triumph or from the pain of transforming in the way that it was.
"Now be born...!" Aeron cried out as his dragon's mutation reached its completion, "Doomkaiser Dragon/Assault Mode!"
[Doomkaiser Dragon/Assault Mode - LV: 8/ATK: 2900]
Danny could barely find it in himself to breathe as fear completely overtook him. This dragon, which was already intimidating-looking and had nearly burned him alive, had just transformed into something even more horrifying. And what was worse: it was a newmonster on Aeron's field, which meant that it would be able to attack.
"Your troubles don't end there, however."
Aeron's voice cut into the depths of Danny's fear-filled mind, bringing Danny's attention back to the duel as Aeron now explained: "Despite the fact that Machina Fortress was destroyed with the departing of my dragon's previous form—" Machina Fortress now sunk back into the skeletal depths of the Zombie World once more, "—his evolved state has an ability that more than makes up for it: upon its special summoning, I can revive as many zombie-type monsters from either player's graveyards as I want!
"And as I've reminded you, my Zombie World makes all of the monsters in your graveyard appropriate targets!" Aeron cried out as the ground before him once again burst open, this time creating an even larger fissure than before as a multitude of monsters joined his evolved dragon on the field: his Despair from the Dark, and Danny's Machina Fortress, Green Gadget, and Red Gadget.
[Despair from the Dark - LV: 8/ATK: 2800]
[Machina Fortress - LV: 7/ATK: 2500]
[Green Gadget - LV: 4/ATK: 1400]
[Red Gadget - LV: 4/ATK: 1300]
Danny was now completely petrified as he stared at the lineup of monsters opposing him. Aeron had amassed an army of monsters whose combined ATK exceeded 10,000 points. And Danny was absolutely defenseless.
"This is the end," Aeron now declared the final move of the game, "All of my monsters, unleash your fury and end this duel!"
The five gathered monsters all made their assaults: the Green and Red Gadgets each took turns punching Danny in the stomach, which he thankfully didn't feel any pain from. Then there was Despair from the Dark, which sent its giant fist hurling down at Danny, which upon collision only passed right through him, leaving him unharmed yet again. Then there was Machina Fortress's attack, which blasted him with a beam that, while intense to his eyes, still didn't harm him, thankfully.
But then came the final attack from Doomkaiser Dragon/Assault Mode: just like its last form had done, the dragon's jaw unhinged and let loose a wildfire of purple flames at Danny, who began to writhe and scream in anguish as every pain receptor in his body went wild. The flames enveloped him and completely set his sleeveless jacket ablaze, forcing him to rip it off so that he didn't share in its bad luck of catching fire.
He was finally relieved of his pain as the dragon's flames ceased, and the Zombie World field faded away and returned to looking like the old construction yard, while the monsters on Aeron's field disappeared.
[Danny – LP: 0]
[Winner: Aeron]
"Danny!" Marina and Violet cried out as they ran over to their friend, who was a little wobbly as his head spun from the pain he'd just experienced. They each took hold of one of his arms before he toppled over in his daze, keeping him standing up as he struggled to regain his composure.
"Danny! Are you alright?!" Marina asked him hurriedly, the sheer and utter worry clear in her voice.
After a few moments, Danny finally shook his head clear of the dizziness before looking to each of the girls in turn, saying, "It's alright, I'm good."
"You sure?" Marina asked him as they released his arms, letting him stand on his own before he looked to her as he chuckled.
"C'mon, you know me," he said with amusement, which earned a roll of the eyes from Marina, as though she were thinking, 'He almost gets burned to death, and he's SMILING...?'
Now Danny looked over to Aeron with a bemused stare. "Alright, much as that duel was awesome, you've got some explaining to do," he said sternly as he pointed at his victorious opponent, "Why the hell was that damage real?"
Aeron saw all three sets of eyes from the trio of friends looking to him with puzzled glares. Clearly, none of them were big fans of his now after he'd nearly cremated Danny, which he didn't blame them for in the slightest.
He let out a heavy sigh before saying, "You have my sincerest of apologies. I never intended to use my powers on you during this duel."
He went silent as he turned his head away in what looked like shame as Danny's face lit up with confusion. "What powers...?" he asked as he lowered his arm.
"The power to make Duel Monsters, and the damage they inflict, real," Aeron explained, "The curse that I've borne for as long as I can remember."
All three friends' eyebrows had risen in ultimate surprise as Aeron continued, "Unfortunately, I've never had the best luck with restraining it. I didn't expect that it to come out during a short duel like this one, believe me."
"And you think that makes it okay that you just nearly burned one of our friends alive?!" Marina shot at him outrageously, "You really think you can do that and just expect an apology to—?!"
"Chill out, Marina."
Marina was stunned silent as she and Violet looked to Danny, bewildered by what their friend had just said as he now made his way to approach Aeron.
"Way I see it," he continued on, "I'm still alive, so I don't see any reason to hold a grudge against you if it really was an accident."
Aeron cocked his head curiously as Danny then began to approach him, while Violet's and Marina's faces remained dumbfound as their friend said, "And besides, you're a friend of Mike's, right? So I can trust you when you say that you didn't mean it."
"After all," Danny stopped in front of Aeron before then extending a hand to Aeron as a grin came to his face, "Any friend of Mike's is a friend of mine, too."
Aeron cracked what looked like a small half-smile before accepting Danny's handshake. Marina crossed her arms, not sure how the boy she supposedly cared for could even consider forgiving a man who had nearly turned him into a pile of ashes; especially when he'd been so aggressive against the stranger earlier. Violet, on the other hand, just shook her head while smiling at how Danny was always able to look to the brighter side of life; a trait he'd never lost since she'd met him in sixth grade.
Now, as Danny brought his hand down from its handshake with Aeron, he caught a glimpse of his wristwatch as he did so, which made his eyes widen in surprise as he realized what time it was:
"Hey, guys!" he wheeled around to look back at his female friends, "Guess what time it is?"
The two girls now took out their phones to see what Danny was talking about. Sure enough, the time read 5:57 PM—just about time for them to head out.
The girls replaced their phones in their pockets as they moved to stand beside Danny, who turned back to Aeron as he said to him, "We gotta head out. You got a place to stay while you wait for Mike?"
"Don't worry about me," Aeron assured them, "I'll be fine."
"If you say so..." said Danny as he then gave a small wave, "Well, see you 'round, Aeron. Later!"
And with that, Danny dashed back into the city towards his home. Now Marina looked up to Aeron with what seemed like a mild, suspicious glare as she said, "It was nice meeting you," before calmly following suit after Danny.
Aeron, whose eyes had followed both Danny and Marina each as they had left, now turned to Violet, who was staring down at the ground shyly.
"Something wrong?" he asked her.
Violet, only now realizing that she'd spaced out, now shook her head as she looked to Aeron. "I just..." she uttered softly, "Wanted to thank you."
Aeron raised an eyebrow in surprise at this remark. "For what?" he inquired.
"For telling me about Mike's feelings..." she answered honestly, her eyes glistening with tears of joy, unable to hide how emotional she was, "I've felt the same way about him for the longest time... ever since we were kids... but I've never been able to tell if he harbored the same feelings..."
Aeron was silent for a moment as Violet awaited his response. He was afraid that he might suddenly remember that he'd promised Mike to never tell Violet how he felt, and that he'd say something along the lines of, 'Don't get your hopes up,' or, 'He's too changed; you ought to stay away from him.'
But instead, Aeron words were just the opposite: "Mike's been through more than his fair share of hard times throughout the last two years," he told Violet, "I think he deserves to be with someone who can make him happy, despite what he's been through. So don't hesitate to let him know how you feel."
Aeron's words felt like a breath of fresh air filling Violet's insides as she took them in. Now, she finally had the confidence to do what she'd been longing to for so many years.
"Alright," she said as she wiped the tears from her eyes, "Thanks, again."
Aeron just turned his head away, looking else ware as he nonchalantly answered, "Don't mention it."
Violet now stepped past him, his eyes following her as she walked back into the city. 'You really DO have good friends here, Mike...' he thought to himself with a small smile, 'I can see why you wanted to return home so badly, now.'
Aeron turned back towards the trailer and began walking towards it. He figured that Mike would have to return to this spot eventually, so he had no problem waiting for him there if it took him a day. If he didn't show up by the following evening, then Aeron would have to go searching for Mike himself.
But unbeknownst to either Aeron or the three friends he'd just met, there was one person who'd been walking along the city streets that opened out to the construction yard that had noticed the interaction between the trio of teens and the dark, shady figure. He'd been standing there for the last ten minutes, watching everything that had unfolded between them—including when Danny had been set ablaze during the duel.
Now, the man pulled out his cell phone, dialing 9-1-1 as he eyed the red-caped man cautiously. "Yes, hello?" he said into his phone's receiver, "My name's Dr. Skeldon Crawford. I need to report an assault on a student of mine."
The time was 5:55 PM when Mike finally reached County Dame Pier, where he could hear seagulls cawing out over the distant waters nearby.
As he walked onto the scene, he found himself wrapping his coat even tighter around himself to keep the cold atmosphere from freezing him. Despite the fact that June was just around the corner, the evenings were still cold enough that they called for extra help keeping warm. And the fact that the ocean was spraying against the concrete sides of the nearby docks didn't help either; in fact, not only did it make the area colder, but it even created a thin shroud of mist that immersed the entirety of the Pier.
But these were only minor nuisances to Mike. At this point, the only concern he had to worry about was whether or not he'd missed Louis Costanzo. The clock would soon turn into the 6 PM hour, when the docks were supposed to close.
Now he walked out onto the concrete docks, taking in his surroundings: to his left, large cargo crates were stacked one on top of the other in a neat fashion, next to a large crane machine that must have been what lifted the heavy, metal containers. The ocean next to that harbored a large, rusted freight ship, upon which was a vast assortment of cargo crates just like the ones already on land. He could hear the voices of workers shouting to each other on board the ship. To his right, the docks extended further out into the ocean, upon which a number of identical warehouses were aligned side-by-side with small gaps between them. Many of their large, slide-up doors that were marked numerically were sealed shut, but a few of them were either slightly agape or completely ajar too.
Straight in front of him, there was what must have been the small operations base where business was conducted. A short, stocky man wearing a yellow, reflective vest over his dirtied work clothes stood leaning against the wall of the small building, scanning the information on whatever papers were on the clipboard in his hands. His bald head was protected with a neon-yellow hardhat, and his slightly aged face made Mike estimate that the man was somewhere in his late forties.
Mike now made his way to approach the man, who took notice of his presence as he looked up from his clipboard with narrowed eyes.
"Can I help you with something?" he asked, though his tone implied that he wasn't in any position to trust this covered-up stranger.
"I'm looking for somebody who works here," Mike said simply, "Name's Louis Costanzo. You wouldn't happen to be able to bring me to him, would you?"
The dock worker's "I'm-not-trusting-this-guy" expression now seemed to vanish from his face, as if he were relieved to learn that this stranger wasn't there for him. "Ah, Louis?" he repeated the name as he scratched the back of his head thoughtfully, "I don't think he's clocked out yet. Hold on..."
He turned his body towards the right, bellowing out in that direction: "HEY, LOUIS! SOMEONE HERE TO SEE YOU!"
There was a long pause as Mike and the man waited for a response of some kind. But after a few moments quickly turned into a minute of utter silence, the dock worker scrunched up his face as he turned back to Mike. "Yeah, he might not be able to hear me. He works in those warehouses all day; keeps tabs on inventory and such. You can go try and find him if you want. Should be in number thirteen."
"Thanks," said Mike before he turned towards the dock's extension, walking down towards the warehouses as he felt his pulse begin to quicken.
He was literally steps away from finding one of the guys who'd taken Casey from him. He didn't know what to expect, but he at least felt like he was prepared for the worst with his revolver-duel disk hidden at his side, should this Louis Costanzo character put up some kind of fight, or refuse to tell him what he wanted to know.
Now he was approaching warehouse number thirteen, the door of which was completely open as he stepped inside. "Hello?" his voice echoed against the steel walls of the building, "Anyone in here?"
No response.
'Lovely,' Mike thought sarcastically.
It was in this moment that he realized: the entirety of the warehouse was unusually dark, as the lights hanging from the ceiling high above were either off or flickering dimly. That immediately set him on-edge—no one in their right mind worked in a place like this with barely any light, much less didn't respond to the calling of someone else.
The entirety of the space was filled with cargo crates of various shapes and sizes, making the entirety of the place somewhat like a maze. Mike figured he would start from the left side of the warehouse and make his way over to the right as he searched, as it beat just wandering around aimlessly and hoping he ran into him. Thankfully, most of the large cargo crates were positioned to allow for easy maneuvering around, so he was able to breeze through the warehouse within minutes.
But when he finally rounded a corner as he searched along the right side of the warehouse, the sight before his eyes shook him right to his core: there was the man, who must have been Louis Costanzo, wearing the same yellow reflective vest as the dock worker from earlier over the same kind of work clothes, and wearing the same, yellow hardhat.
And he was lying dead in the center of the walkway. In a large pool of blood.
Mike immediately rushed his way over and knelt down next to the corpse. Louis's eyes were still opened, petrified in the shocked expression that they must've turned to just before his death. There were multiple stab wounds scattered across his chest, which explained how the puddle of blood he was lying it was so massive.
Mike felt himself going into panic mode as his mind raced. There was only one person who could've told him what had happened to Casey, and now that one person was dead.
Now Mike did the one reasonable thing he could do: scour the dead man's pockets. If Louis Costanzo himself wouldn't be able to tell Mike where Casey was, perhaps there was a chance that something on his person might be able to tell him what he needed to know.
But among all of the pockets, he only found one thing in the man's right-hand jacket pocket—a small, folded up piece of paper that, inside, read:
We have her.
The Romans
Mike felt his heart virtually stop as he read this; his hands shook to the point that they nearly lost their grip on the short note. He could've sworn that he'd put a permanent end to the Romans well over a year ago, and he'd personally run out all of the remaining, living members out of Frontier Haven and Saddleburry.
'What does this mean...?' he thought frantically as he continued staring at the lifeless body before him, 'Could it be that—?'
"The hell's goin' on here?!"
Mike's thoughts were interrupted as he swiveled to see the man he'd met outside on the docks, standing at the other end of the walkway between the cargo crates, looking on at the sight of Mike kneeling down next to the lifeless form of his co-worker.
His eyes locked with Mike's as his face filled with panic, before he took out a walkie-talkie from his pocket as he rushed: "Attention all units! There's been a murder in warehouse thirteen! Call the—!"
The dock worker was cut off as his walkie-talkie suddenly burst into pieces in his hand, startling him as he stumbled backwards onto the ground. He looked over to Mike, whose revolver-duel disk was now smoking from its muzzle as he aimed it.
Now Mike replaced the revolver-duel disk back in its holster before charging swiftly at the dock worker, kneeling down onto his chest before landing a punch to his face that left the priorly-dazed man unconscious. He didn't need the man to watch him as he got away to tell whoever else showed up where he'd gone.
He sprinted his way through the door of the warehouse, taking a hard left as he ran his way through gap between the warehouse he was just in and the next one over. On the other side, he could see the edge of the concrete dock where it met the ocean. With no other options in front of him, it looked to Mike that this was only ending one way: the moment he'd reached the edge of the dock, he dove straight into the ocean, disappearing beneath the dark waters.
The moment he made it at least twenty feet beneath the ocean's surface, he began immediately shedding any of the excess clothes that he didn't need. While his hat had already flown off of him the moment he'd jumped into the sea, he struggled as he ripped off of himself the large coat, the glasses, the gloves, and the hair elastic—all of the things that had been part of his disguise, as well as everything on him that he didn't need dragging him down to the bottom of the ocean and drowning him. The only things he kept were his clothes, shoes, the holster with his revolver-duel disk, and his actual duel disk upon his arm, which he couldn't believe that his making it completely waterproof had come in handy so soon.
Now Mike swam his way back up, breaking through the surface of the water with a large gasp as he looked around to check that no one had seen him. Thankfully, it seemed that the remaining dock workers hadn't picked up his trail, as he could hear them all yelling and shouting madly at the sight of their two co-workers behind the wall of warehouses.
But then, a familiar noise echoed from further down the road going the other way that set him on edge: police sirens.
Mike growled to himself, beginning to get sick of his run of bad luck. The dock workers must have called the cops by now, and they were on their way to come and investigate the scene of Louis Costanzo's dead body, as well as the other dock worker that Mike had left unconscious. And if his luck wasn't getting any better, those cops would eventually spot him emerging from the ocean, and take him in for questioning as to why he'd decided to go for an evening swim in the sea nearby the scene of the crime with a gun strapped to his waist. There was no coming up with an alibi for that. The most he could do now was keep himself in the water, and pray to whatever divine beings would listen that the cops wouldn't notice him floating around in the dark.
However, it turned out that none of these premonitions of his came to fruition: instead, the sirens that had only gotten louder and louder as they'd approached suddenly became quieter and quieter, as though they'd just passed by the scene at the docks without paying it any mind at all.
Mike finally forced himself out of the ocean as he stumbled onto the sandy beach, his shoes now making squishing noises with every step he took. He looked down the road to see that, sure enough, two squad cars were racing their way towards the main city.
He now managed to get back onto the road, before taking off in a sprint after the cop cars as he thought, 'I've got a bad feeling about this...'
Next Time
Chapter 8: "Marks - Part 1"
Recommended Works
White TV Room, by iAnneart - Ever wanted to know how the actual characters of the original Yu-Gi-Oh! series would react if they saw their series ABRIDGED? Then this is a must-read! I swear to god, every time I read a new chapter of this, I die laughing at least two or three times. Seriously, if you love YGO Abridged, you gotta go read this thing. I promise that you won't be disappointed.
- Last Revised: Dec. 5, 2017 -
