Warning: Mature themes abound.
The summoners here were inspired by the world created by The Singing Sword na dthe lore of the Yu-Gi-Oh 1st season from the stone tablet duels summoning the souls of the monsters!
Prelude
The dripping sound of blood intercalates with distant screams amidst the darkness, Zane's heavy eyelids open and close, there are muffled, hectic voices in the air, his ears have this most annoying buzzing sound impeding him from hearing it clearly. He can barely feel his palms while supporting himself on the ground to sit down, the whole scenario around shakes and blurs.
His confused vision roams, every object having its shape distorted as his eyes scan the surroundings. There are explosions and people scampering, yells, the big holographic screens set in all four directions blinking in an almost convulsion-inducing pace, running out of power, a mayhem.
The buzzing on his ears doesn't stop. All those sounds and this taste of iron in his mouth cause a headache. He covers his ears for a moment, while standing up, stumbling a step to the side, small rocks and dust coming off his dark clothes, his fingers sliding down his face, tainted in red. There's a trail of blood coming out of his ear holes, the explosion surely damaged him.
Senses hazed, he staggers until a sharp pain stings on his torso, gliding his hand there, he can feel a big open wound, his palm soaked in his own red fluids. The debris. He remembers something flying at him when that Red-Eyes Black Dragon blew the stadium with its flames, blowing up the stadium's power source and causing massive chain explosions, igniting a mess.
Who was the Red-Eyes summoner? He only caught a glimpse. The guy had a mask concealing his identity, but he has the impression he has seen the dude before. He presses the wound, but a trail of blood droplets is left as he walks towards the dinosaur-like Dragon with purple skin and greenish tiger stripes on its back, also known as duel monster Trakodon. It headbutts the ruins leftover of the stadium and terrorizing people.
"Cyber Dragon…" He takes out a card from his pocket, his other hand still holding tight the wound, his breath ragged, suffocating the pain of his wounds inside his throat. "Come forth!"
From the card a light emanates, and a metallic dragon materializes roaring to the skies. He smirks, pained by the bruises and scratches on his face stretching, his feet almost failing to move, a faint, grainy line of dark specks emanates from Zane and floats towards the Cyber Dragon that becomes solid real by absorbing it.
"Take care of that big fossil, make sure no one else gets hurt."
Without a second thought, the Dragon darts floating and attacking the big dinosaur monster, surrounding it like a snake and smashing it, restricting its movements.
"Crap. I can't hold much longer… My duel energy is…"
He faints, a mechanism of his body to conserve as much energy as possible, a gem pendant flops out of his shirt, it's a blue turquoise shaped roughly like a thick drop and it shimmers abnormally bright, the Cyber Dragon slowly absorbs its energy to fight back the other monster.
As the power flows through its metallic body, it howls at the skies, his cry is a tribute to the unconscious master.
Days later,
The sound of the TV zapping from one channel to another wakes him up, it stops on the news, he can faintly hear the voices of reporters on the side. His eyes opening to see the plain white ceiling with small circular LED lights imbued in it.
Fickle stripes of sunlight come across the bed he's on, from the man-sized glass windows half blocked by plain dark-grey blinders.
A TV is located at the far left of the decently sized room, supported on a dark-brown table, a two-seater padded white couch in front of it, far enough from his bed he'd have more than enough space to walk, if he could. He blinks, listening to the low volume produced by the device.
[The terrorist attack at the stadium a few days ago is said to be organized by a group called the Shadow Riders. An auto-proclaimed anarchist group that wishes to free all monsters into the world. The explosions killed dozens and hurt hundreds of people, some are still missing-]
Zane sighs heavily, covering his eyes with the back of his hand, impeding the stubborn sunlight to hurt it. His whole body aches, he isn't sure if it's feasible to move much more than his arm right now.
"Not this again." He mumbles irritated.
"I'm not amused you are alive, but they really took you by surprise."
A familiar voice approaches. It's a short young man, he adjusts the glasses with a finger, his brow coiling up worriedly as he looks from above at his older brother.
The younger sibling drags a chair on the grey, shiny ceramics that reflect his image, sitting beside the bed and the fake pot-plant.
"Shou…?" He sits up, but the sharp pain makes his body instantly lose balance and hit the plump, soft bed sheets again. "Ah… I feel dizzy."
"You shouldn't move, it took Ms. Fontaine a lot of her power to heal your wounds enough for you to survive." He clicks the remote, turning off the TV that became nothing more than an annoying background noise. "How do you feel, dizziness apart?"
"Dead inside." He stares at the ceiling blinking in some sort of boredom.
"That's great. If you're ready to die, I know just what you need."
Pulling a tablet from the small and white chest of drawers side, he slides his finger until the screen reaches some report of sorts, flipping it for his brother to see.
"Urgent news! The great summoner Hell Kaiser is unable to prevent an attack on the stadium with his Cyber Dragons!" Zane reads the headline slowly. "Is he as much of a good summoner as he says? Should his rank stay the same or should the ranking committee revise his current rank as a summoner? It's possible his connections to the underground attracted the unnecessary attention of the Shadow Riders and..." He pauses, huffing. "Are you serious?"
"You were careless." Syrus states as a matter-of-fact, no hint of empathy for the wounded brother. "You don't want attention, then make sure no eyes see you. Or just buy the reporters like we do sometimes."
"You have to be kidding me. We'll be ripped out of money by those worms before I can save anything."
"Don't try to be a hero, then. Because this is what happens."
"I'm not. It was self-defense. I was caught in the middle of it and I had to react."
"Uh-huh." His eyes drop in disbelief, a sarcastic tone on his voice. "When Jaden and others arrived, you were halfway into the hades and your Cyber Dragon was still consuming your duel energy after all the energy from your gem was gone." He sighs heavily. "I shouldn't need to tell you that, but your self-destructiveness amuses me sometimes, in a bad sense. Letting a monster steal your life energy while you're almost dying? Really? Did the underground make you this reckless?"
The scolding was serious, but he appreciated the care of his brother. He makes an effort to sit straight, leaning his back against the head of the bed, his arms tremble and the muscles he forced just made that nice cut on his belly open up, he grimaces, gulping the pain with a low grunt.
"Tell that… To your friends too." He says between breaths, shoving the pained moan inside him through sheer will.
"They're not destroying themselves and they're also your friends, for that matter. My Ambulanceroid had to take you to the hospital after Jaden summoned it."
"That thing is only useful for that anyways…" He retorts begrudgingly.
"Zane."
"I know, I'll be careful next time. Why did the Shadow Riders attack the stadium? Any info?"
"Not yet, probably… It's the prize they were offering."
"One of the Neos cards… What happened to it?"
"It vanished. Whether they took it or someone hid it, we don't know yet. I'm contacting my sources to find out more about it."
"You know what that means? I have work to do."
"No. You have to rest."
"And who do you think they'll call to clean their mess?"
"Not you in this state. You rest." The last part was more an order than anything else.
The dark-haired simply smirks at the thought, as if it was a joke, even though his brother was deadly serious. He stands up with difficulty, the bed sheets slide, revealing his almost naked figure, his body shuddering when his feet touch the icy floor, his legs stumbling each step as he holds a hand to the plain white bandages garnishing his abdomen.
He supports both his hands on the back of a chair near his bed, taking a heavy breath before grabbing the dark coat hanging there. Flapping it open, he wears it over his black boxers underwear.
"I hope you're not intending to go out like this."
"Why? I'm sure the ladies and the media would appreciate it."
"Zane." He has this habit of reprimanding him by calling his name in a tone used exclusively for scolding.
"It was a joke." He almost rolls his eyes. "Not about the ladies and the media, though. I'm going to my apartment and you do your job, find out where the card is and why exactly those rebels were wreaking havoc in the stadium."
"Sheesh…" He gets up, forfeiting to his brother and turning around to his own room.
After a while, the city lights and pavement flash by outside the window of the car, Zane takes a ride on the back of a black limo, his arms crossed and his thoughts apart from the world. The Shadow Riders. This isn't the first time they attempt something dangerous, and not the last if they want all Neos cards.
Why did the Empire offer something as rare as a prize of an unimportant tournament organized only to entertain a silly prince from another country anyways?
Tension stirs in the city, soon the whole country will be trapped in a ferocious war between summoners and the true villains hiding amidst the folks of the Empire, a battle between evil and good. Which side will he support and what role will he play in this conflict?
