Here's the next fun chapter. Enjoy!
Yugioh 5D's: Bruno's Beginnings
Chapter 10- Past Encounters
When Bruno told Max and Ali what happened, they were speechless for a while. "Accel Synchro? What's that?" Ali asked. "Whatever it is, it sounds awesome!" Max replied. Bruno nodded in agreement. "I'm sure it is. Man I can't wait to use my next deck against Dracono! He'll wish he never attacked my family!" he said excitedly.
After the successful training session, Bruno and his friends decided to take the rest of the day off. "You know, I think I'll start hitting those exercise machines. I feel like pumping my body after my last ride." Bruno said. "You want to join me?" he asked his friends.
"Actually, we plan to head up and get our D-Wheels adjusted, grab some supplies, things like that." Max said, pointing to himself and Ali. "You sure you guys will be okay? After what Calvin said yesterday…" "We'll be careful. It's you that needs to stay out of sight." Ali said. Bruno agreed. "Right…until I do something about my appearance." "Your appearance?" Max and Ali asked.
"Yeah. If I'm going to fight and defeat Dracono with everyone watching, I can't return as "Bruno Tanaka". Diego wanted to make sure my whole family was dead. If he found out I survived, he might target the next closest thing to family to get to me: You guys." Max and Ali hadn't thought of that as they looked stunned.
"So I need to come up with a new identity when I face Dracono. No one but you two can know about the "real" me." "We got it man." Max said with a nod. "We'll be back soon." Ali said as they left through the security door. "Later guys." Bruno said as he headed towards the bench press machine.
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Without being spotted coming out of the trap door, Max and Ali went into some nearby bushes where they hid their riding suits and D-Wheels. Before they headed out, they made sure their D-Wheels were not tampered with.
They rode into the city looking for fresh supplies. Max bought some spare parts for their vehicles while Ali shopped for some food. As they met up an hour later for lunch, they bumped into a friend. "Hey Ali! Been a while, huh?"
It was a girl with short black hair, dark eyes, and had a tattoo on her left arm that said…something inappropriate. She wore clothes that would make her fit in at a rock concert. Ali smiled as she hugged her. "Hey Mona. Sorry about being a no show lately. Max and I have been really busy." "With what?" Mona asked as she turned to Max curiously. "Oh you know…this and that." he said vaguely. Mona shrugged.
"Can we hang out for a bit?" "Sure." Ali said. "But shouldn't we be getting back?" Max whispered to Ali. "Later." she whispered back. "What are you two whispering about?" Mona asked. "Just saying that we both wouldn't mind hanging out for bit." "Cool."
They then went to a nearby café for lunch. After having some burgers and sodas, Mona got the conversation going. "So, how are you two holding up?" "What do you mean?" Max asked. "You know…about your friend." Max and Ali immediately made convincing looks of sadness.
"It's only been days since Bruno's accident. Losing a close friend like him…takes a lot more time than that to move on from." Ali said heavily. Mona seemed sympathetic. "He really meant that much to you guys, did he?" she asked. Max and Ali nodded.
"Are you kidding? He and I have been best buds since day one…" Max said as he recounted the day he met Bruno.
Flashback
A young Max lay on the ground in the playground, coughing and covered in bruises. "Enjoy the dirt, dumb guy." "Yeah, if you were smart, you will stay down." The bullies said as they walked off, laughing until they were gone.
Max sat up and remained there, crying. He never felt so miserable. He wished it would end. It was then that he heard someone approach him. "Go away! Leave me alone!" he said, feeling angry and resentful. "Are you ok?" Max looked up to see a boy with dark blue hair and grey eyes looking down at him. He seemed concerned.
"It's none of your business." Max said as he turned away. The boy shook his head. "I heard what those guys said. It wasn't right of them to treat you like this." Max snorted. "Why would they pick on you?" Max wiped his eyes.
"I'm not smart." he simply said. The boy seemed surprised. "What makes you say that?" he asked. "I get bad grades in all my classes, and those guys think I'll never be as intelligent as them." The blue haired boy grunted.
"That's no reason to use you like a punching bag." he replied. "Doesn't matter. It'll never end." Max said as he lowered his eyes to the ground. The boy then had a hard look and held out his hand.
"If you want to be smart, then I'll help you." Max looked at the boy like he just told a bad joke. "Great, so you're mocking me too, huh?" "No, I'm serious. If you're suffering that much in classes, then I can tutor you. I'm pretty smart, but I'm nothing like those jerks that left you here." Max continued to stare at him.
"Why would you help some dunce like me?" The boy smiled. "People should help one another. I want to do just that. Besides…you can use a friend." "Friend?" Max couldn't believe his ears. "No one's offered to be my friend before." "Then you haven't met the right people." Now smiling and crying tears of joy, Max took the boy's hand and stood up.
"Thanks. I'm Max." "Nice to meet you Max. My name is Bruno."
End Flashback
"From that day on, Bruno and I were tight. He helped me get much better grades, and I stood by him no matter what. No one could ask for a better friend than Bruno Tanaka." Max said proudly. Mona looked touched.
"I can't imagine the pain of losing someone like that." Max sighed as his smile vanished. "It's really hard. I don't think I'll ever meet someone else like him." "You never know with time." Mona said as she turned to Ali. "How did you meet Bruno?"
Ali smiled now. "It happened after I lost a duel…"
Flashback
In the park, a much younger Ali fell on her knees after losing a duel to someone who annoyed her to no end. "Looks like I won again Ali. Face it, you can't beat me." Ali was frustrated as she stared at her rival.
"Someday I will Sasha! You'll see!" Sasha giggled annoyingly as she turned and walked away. Ali punched the grass with her fist and yelled. "Oh, who am I kidding? I'll never beat Sasha. I'm a terrible duelist."
"I disagree. I thought you were pretty good." Ali looked behind her to see a cute blue haired boy. "You saw everything?" she asked. The boy shrugged. "I like watching duels. In fact, I'm hoping to become a pro duelist myself someday…especially a pro D-Wheeler." Ali got up and sighed. "Good for you." "But this is you we're talking about. You shouldn't get discouraged after losing one duel."
Ali looked like the boy didn't know anything. "One duel? I lost to her 12 times! In a row! 12 times!" She yelled at the boy's shocked face. "I…didn't know that." he replied in a small voice. Ali sighed angrily. "No matter how I play my cards, I just can't win." The boy studied her for a bit. "You think it's because you have a bad deck?"
"The fact that I've never won a single duel kinda makes that obvious, don't you think?" Ali retorted. "I don't know. Could I have a look at it?" he asked as he held his hand out. Ali hesitated for second before handing over her deck to him.
A minute later, the boy gave Ali her deck back. "Go ahead and say it. My deck is pathetic, isn't it?" To her great surprise, the boy shook his head. "Nope. On the contrary, this is a well constructed deck. I believe it can stand up against a lot of other decks." Ali did not expect this.
"If my deck is that good, then how come I keep getting creamed?" "Maybe it is the way you play your cards." "Meaning what?" Ali asked warningly. "Do you focus on your strategies in a duel? Do you enjoy duels?" the boy asked. Ali looked annoyed. "How can I enjoy a duel I'm trying to win?" the boy then understood.
"That's your problem; you focus so much on winning that you can't use your deck to it's maximum. Maybe if you try to enjoy the duel more and have fun, you can focus more clearly." "You think so?" Ali asked. "Sure. Why don't you duel me and find out?" he offered. However, Ali declined.
"That's a nice offer, but I can't." The boy looked surprised. "Why not?" "Sasha's the best duelist in my class, but she is also the most arrogant. She thinks that just because she's the best it gives her the right to belittle everyone else. I thought it was time someone stood up to her. I promised myself I wouldn't duel anyone else until I beat her." The boy was impressed with her goal.
"Wow, you're very determined…I like that." he said kindly. A stunned Ali felt very warm and was unable to speak for a minute. "Are you okay miss?" he asked. Ali shook her head and smiled. "I'm fine. So, you think that's what I should do?"
"I'll be there when you duel Sasha again. I'm confident that next time, you'll defeat her." Ali started to like the boy now. "Well alright then. Next time I will clean Sasha's clock. I'm Ali by the way." Ali said as she held out her hand. "I'm Bruno. Nice to meet you." Ali thought Bruno was even cuter when he smiled.
The next day, Ali and Sasha dueled again with Bruno watching close by. To everyone's surprise (and Bruno's excitement), Ali had defeated her rival. Sasha had quite a tamper tantrum as constantly stomped her feet.
"No, no, no! How could I, the best duelist in the class, be beaten by a rookie!" she asked furiously. Ali smirked. "Simple…I took the time to enjoy myself." Sasha groaned as she stormed away. Ali turned to Bruno, who gave her a thumbs up with a big smile. "That was great Ali! I knew you could do it!"
Ali ran over and hugged him. "I didn't think about winning at all! I just had fun and I don't know…everything sort of clicked! And it's all thanks to you!" Bruno chuckled nervously from the hug. "What are friends for?"
"So, now that I've finally kicked Sasha's butt, how about we duel?" This got Bruno more excited. "Awesome! I'd love to!" And their first duel began.
End Flashback
"Bruno helped me to enjoy duels, and because of him, I became a happier person than I ever was." Ali said as she finished her story. Mona nodded with a smile. "Seems Bruno was quite the guy. Have you two ever dated?" she asked playfully. Ali blushed.
"Uh, no! We were just friends." But within her mind, Ali wished that she and Bruno would become more than just good friends. She wished she could just tell him that…
"So after you both met Bruno, he introduced you to each other?" Mona asked. They nodded. "Oh yeah, Bruno introduced me to Ali after telling me what a great duelist she was." said Max. "After that, we became the three musketeers of dueling!"said Ali.
For a split second, Ali thought she saw a look of jealousy on Mona's face. "Mona, you okay?" Ali asked. "Oh, yeah I'm fine. Just dandy." She then gasped. "I just remembered, I need to get back home or my dad will kill me. It was good talking to you guys. We should hang out more often. Bye!" she then took off without another word.
"Later Mona!" Ali called. She then looked at Max. "She left in a bit of a hurry, don't you think Max?" Max shrugged. "I guess. We should get back too." "Yeah, you're right."
But just as they were about to mount their D-Wheels, someone clubbed them both from behind and they fell, unconscious. They were then dragged through a nearby alley. A nasty chuckle came from one of the attackers.
"Easy as pie. Now it's time for some fun."
To be continued.