A Dragon's Tale

Volume Four: The Gathering Storm

Disclaimer: Angelic Layer is to CLAMP as this story is to me. Lawsuits bad.

Author's Notes: Woo-hoo! A Dragon's Tale returns with the advent of summer. Apologies all around to everybody (all two of you) that felt let down because I dropped the fanfic. I just sort of realized that I hadn't planned past what I already had written out, and instead of trying to figure out a way to make it work, I just dropped the project, and then school started up and began kicking my butt. Hopefully people are still out there to read this! Read and review, and I'll see you at the bottom!

Serge uttered a low whistle as he saw the line stretching out from the counter all the way to the door of the Piffle Princess. "Wow, quite a number of people signing up for the tournament today."

Dean smiled and nodded. "There's a rumor going around that the winners of the first round of tournaments in America are going to win some special augmentation to their Angels, so you can bet that everyone with an Angel is going to at least enter."

Frowning, Serge glanced up at Dean, "I still don't understand why you and Shawn aren't entering. You two have a pretty good shot at winning this tournament."

Dean laughed, "I'd rather not have my angel torn to pieces like you did to Ian's joke. I'm just fine waiting until I think I can fight you without taking Farah home in several small bags. Anyways, I just want to sit this one out and watch, anyways, since I know if I entered, Shawn would too. Then he would mop the floor with me. I'm just going to be your cheering section for now."

Serge shrugged and craned his neck upwards, trying to count how many people were between him and the registration counter. "I knew we should have gotten up an hour earlier…"

Thirty Minutes Later…

"Well, that was only like pulling teeth. Let's see… my number is 54." Serge glanced at the growing tournament bracket and saw that it was divided up into days. The first day would host the first heat, the second the next two, and the third the last two heats, ending in the championship match between the winner. With 64 participants, the maximum allowed for the tournament, any one person's chances of winning were slightly dismal.

The three friends walked to the layers that had been set aside for the tournament, and Shawn glanced at Serge, grinning. "Lucky we got here when we did, only ten people got in after you. It would have been a shame if you didn't get to scrap some strangers' angels while trying to become even stronger..." He trailed off as he saw one of the only other boys in the tournament seated at a layer, concentrating on beating the pulp out of a young girl's angel. "Uhmm… guys?" Pointing at the boy, he scratched his head with his free hand. "Isn't that…"

"…Aaron Lee," Dean finished Shawn's sentence for him.

Sure enough, it was Aaron Lee at their local Piffle Princess tournament. Aaron was seventeen years old, with sandy blonde hair and green eyes. He seemed like the kind of person that was never in a hurry, eyes half-closed, even during a fight. They had all heard the only time anyone outside of his close friends and family had seen him completely open his eyes was during the final match of last year's Angelic Layer Championship in Tokyo.

Aaron's angel, Sonata, was an attack type, with a secondary emphasis on speed. Her defense was nearly zero, which had cost him the match at the finals, but it was harder to hit her than one would expect. In addition to being a very effective angel, Aaron had a natural talent for playing Angelic Layer, and his reaction times were, compared to those of an average player, several times faster. She was an authentic-looking ninja, wearing a shinobi shozoku, with light but effective mesh under-armor. The only discrepancy was the lack of a hood, as Aaron had opted instead to simply mask her mouth and nose, leaving her hair uncovered. It was a dark red, and her hair fell just above her eyes in the front, although she had a long pony-tail which reached almost to her ankles. It was anyone's guess as to what her element was.

Aaron finished the fight two minutes into it with an uppercut that resulted in a combination KO and ring-out. Then, looking up, he saw Shawn, Dean, and Serge staring at him and smiled, "So, then, are you this Serge I've been hearing so much about? Strange, I would've thought you'd look older."

Serge nodded, somewhat at a loss for words.

"Don't be so surprised. Anyone that gives a hoot about Angelic Layer has already heard about what happened. I came down here to see exactly how good you are. I'm going to go around and watch some more matches since I'm done here for today. I look forward to seeing yours this afternoon, and then to fighting you in the finals. Later." Aaron walked off, the crowd parting slightly as he moved through it.

Dean grinned. "Dude… you're screwed. Oh, it's cool that Aaron knows your name, though." Serge nodded in reply, and opened his mouth to say something when the loudspeaker came on.

"Calling numbers 53 and 54 to layer four. Numbers 53 and 54, your match is about to begin, please report to layer four."

"Well, that's you." Shawn said. "Knock 'em dead. Karsh can do it, you know."

Serge nodded and took a seat at one end of the layer, looking up as he heard a gasp.

A girl who looked to be about twelve had just walked up to the layer, and in her hand she held a strip of paper with the number 53 on it. The slip of paper fluttered silently to the floor, and her eyes widened as she recognized Serge's angel, who was sitting on one of the chair's armrests. She grabbed the sleeve of the layer's emcee and whispered into her ear.

A bit confused, the emcee straightened up and looked about. "Well, folks, I'm sure a lot of you wanted to see what Karsh could do today, but I'm afraid that angel Whisper has withdrawn from the match." She raised her right hand, the one that was closest to Serge. "Therefore, by default, I declare angel Karsh the winner of this match. Karsh will advance to the second round, and we can only hope to see more of him there."

Serge grabbed his things, stuffed them into his backpack, and rose, heading for the door with Shawn and Dean in tow. "Did you see that? That girl was afraid. I didn't want to play Angelic Layer to be feared by the other Dei…"

Shawn tilted his head to the side, "I dunno, Serge. Seems pretty cool to me that you can advance through a tournament without actually having to fight."

Serge shrugged and the three piled into Shawn's car, and headed home.

Meanwhile...

Three figures watched from the shadows as Shawn's car pulled out of the parking lot. Two were boys, one was a girl, and all of them looked to be about 15 years old. The taller boy smiled, "Well, it looks like we've got our work cut out for us."

The girl nodded, brushing a few strands of auburn hair out of her face. "He's too dangerous to leave in the hands of such an amateur."

Just then, Aaron approached them. "I don't know what you're planning, but hold off until I have a shot at him. I'm confident that the problem can be solved before it even begins."

The three figures nodded and turned to head into the store, while Aaron remained outside, watching Shawn's car disappear down the road. "I'm sorry, Serge." Then, he turned and followed the other three in.

End of Volume Four

Author's Notes, Part Deux: Well, guys. I don't know what to say. I can only hope that a near-year of inactivity hasn't had too much of an ill effect on my writing. Sorry to lead everyone on about there being another battle in this volume, but I promise that Serge's next opponent won't be so afraid. I'm going to commit to working on this fanfic a lot more now, so hopefully nothing will happen that results in another 10 month silence from me. Thanks for reading! (Author's notes; v2.0: Something weird happened and my original title for this volume made it through to the actual page, so I've reposted it with the new title. Yarg! I've started work on Volume 5, so expect it shortly!)