OP1: "Raining" by Art Of Dying
Chapter 7: "Fire"
"My name is Aeron Mortimer, and I won't ask you again: where the hell is Michael Harper?"
Danny stared down the caped man before the girls, arms spread wide as he suppressed the urge to tremble under the weight of the stranger's presence. Behind him, Marina's body had given in, standing petrified as her lungs went on strike.
Violet, however, felt her body shaking not from fear, but surprise. Though he looked like a set of walking red flags that spelled "danger," she couldn't help but sense a strange familiarity as she convinced herself he was who she thought.
She edged down the concrete stairs and began approaching Aeron while Danny gawked at her, whispering, "Violet, what are you doing?!"
But she ignored him, stopping a short distance away from Aeron as his eyes caught hers. She saw nothing but cold indifference in them, reminding her of Mike's when he'd first come home. It only pushed the assumption in her mind closer to the truth:
"You," she said. "You're the one who called Mike last night, aren't you?"
Aeron's eyes narrowed. "I am," he said. "And if you're his friends, you should be able to tell me where he is."
Violet felt her heart dive into her stomach. "Actually, he ran off on his own this morning," she said. "We don't know where he is."
Danny lowered his arms as Marina caught her breath, and they stepped down to join Violet on the ground as they wondered: how did he know they were Mike's friends?
"Where do you think he is?"
Violet shook her head before pulling Mike's note from her pocket, holding it out to him. "He only left this."
Aeron stepped forward to take the note from her hand, examining the text with a huff. "Of course he did," he muttered as he handed it back.
"What?" Danny asked. "You know what he's up to?"
Aeron's eyes flickered to him. "He's currently looking for a man named Louis Costanzo," he said. "Someone we believe took a friend of ours."
Violet felt her heart turn heavy at those words. So this was about the girl that Mike had spoken of.
"Okay, well I don't care about the who's, the what's, or the why's," Danny said as he moved to stand before Aeron. "If what you're saying is true, we gotta go help him find this guy!"
"Out of the question."
Their faces twisted with confusion as Aeron continued: "Even if you knew where he was, the man he's looking for is a dangerous individual. At best, the three of you would just get in the way. Or at worst, get caught in the crossfire."
All eyes went wide between them as they processed Aeron's words. Danny, however, wasn't so easily dissuaded, balling a fist in one hand while pointing the other at Aeron. "Look, I don't know who you think you're talking to, but if my best friend is out there possibly in danger, there's no way I'm gonna just sit around here while he might need help!"
Aeron's expression steeled as he stared back at Danny, while Marina and Violet glanced between the two. While they understood the burning desire Danny had to go to Mike, Aeron seemed to be trying to prevent Danny from rushing into danger.
Eventually, Aeron's eyes softened. "You're his best friend?" he repeated. "Then that must make you Danny, the eccentric one who likes skating."
Danny gaped at him as his arm dropped. "Wait... you know who I am?"
"I do," said Aeron. "Mike spoke very highly of the three friends he longed to return home to."
His gaze turned on the girls next. "So, which one of you is Marina?"
Marina hesitantly raised her hand and said, "I-I am."
Aeron nodded. "So you're the younger one," he said. "The 'voice of reason' of the group."
Marina raised a hand to her cheek as her face turned pink, as though thinking, did Mike really say that about me?
Danny glanced to her, suppressing a chuckle at the sight of her flushed face while Aeron turned to the last girl. "And that must make you Violet," he deduced. "The one he holds affection for."
Instantly, Violet felt as though all the air had been driven from her body. Aeron's words had caught Danny and Marina off-guard as well, causing them to glance at their friend as she looked like she might faint. But she managed to keep herself together as she stammered, "w-wait, you mean he... he actually said that he—?"
"Cares very deeply about you," Aeron finished. "He has for a long time."
All at once, the rest of the world seemed to fall away from Violet as warmth consumed her. Gone was her speculation for how Mike might've felt towards his missing companion, forgotten in the wake of knowing he had said aloud the words she'd always craved.
Aeron spread his gaze across the three of them again. "I understand that you want to help him," he said. "But he's faced off against much worse than this guy over the last two years, so he's more than capable of handling this situation on his own."
"Yeah, well that wouldn't exactly ease my conscience knowing I let him go at it alone!" Danny said.
Aeron zeroed his gaze on Danny. "And what if you were to get yourself hurt, or worse, in your attempt to do so? Would you really want that on his conscience for the rest of his life?"
Danny opened his mouth to speak, but found himself short of a response. Much as he wanted to continue rebuking Aeron, he could think of nothing to justify his desire to assist Mike that didn't come off sounding selfish.
He looked back to the girls to back him up, but they averted his eyes. Aeron's words had already convinced them that aiding Mike's pursuit wasn't worth the risk.
And then it hit him:
"What if I showed ya what I'm capable of with a duel?" he said. "If I win, then you gotta let me come along with you to help Mike!"
Aeron's head tilted as he considered the challenge, while Marina and Violet both stared at their friend with parted lips. Though his bravado didn't surprise them, Aeron had made it clear that what was going on was on a scale far beyond any of their capacities.
But eventually, Aeron said, "fine, then."
With a swift motion of his arm, he whipped out the revolver-duel disk from its holster, placing it on his left wrist where it latched onto him as it activated.
"Let's see what you're made of," he said as he leveled his arm.
A grin came to Danny's face. "Oh, I'll give you my all and then some!" he said as he too activated his duel disk.
The both of them dealt five cards, before yelling out, "LET'S DUEL!"
- DUEL -
[Danny - LP: 4000] VS [Aeron - LP: 4000]
Marina and Violet paced backwards to stand a good distance behind Danny. The insanity of what he was trying to do through this duel aside, another thought came to their minds: they were about to see what kind of duelists Mike had been surrounded by over the last two years.
"Since you're the visitor here, I think I'll let you take the first move," said Danny.
"Then I'll draw," Aeron said as he pulled a card, before scanning his hand. "I'll start by activating the Zombie World field spell."
He placed the card in a small tray that protruded from the edge of the duel disk, causing the construction yard around them to morph into a bleak forest of the dead. Lifeless trees twisted into unnatural shapes grew around the landscape, and the area surrounding Danny and Aeron took the form of a blood-red pond that they stood upon the surface of. A collection of skulls and bones littered the ground below everyone's feet, causing every small movement of the foot to come with the racket of cracking marrow.
"I've never seen anything like this before," said Violet as she stared at the sight of this new field, her jaw slack.
"I'll say," Marina replied with a shiver. "Freaks me the hell out, though..."
Violet turned to her best friend with raised eyebrows. "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 continued: "now I'll set one card face down, and end my turn."
Danny's eyebrows knit. He played the creepiest field spell card in the world, and then set only one card face down? What kind of an opening move was that? He'd put the mannered facade on to let Aeron take the first move because he wanted to get a read on his strategy and skill level. But apart from now expecting a zombie theme, his recon strategy had delivered next to nothing of use.
Oh well, he figured. Just keep the brave face on and come out swinging harder!
"If that's all you're gonna do," Danny said 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!" [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!"
Aeron stayed silent as he watched Danny toss his card, before continuing: "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!" [LV: 7/ATK: 2500]
"And now I'll take advantage of my Scrap Recycler's other effect! With it, I can take two level 4 EARTH machines from my graveyard, like my Gadgets, and shuffle them back into my deck to draw another card!"
He reached for his duel disk's graveyard, however the moment his hand made contact with it, the small area emitted a spark of black electricity. He winced as he felt his brain bounce around in his skull. "What the hell?" he said. "Why can't I touch my graveyard?!"
"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 effect," he said, pointing towards Danny's graveyard, "you couldn't because you don't actually have any machine-type monsters in there at all."
Danny growled. For all he'd learned about taking better control of his deck's abilities from his last duel with Mike, Aeron had effortlessly shot down his attempt to do so. But he refused to let it rattle him.
"So you 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: 4000→3100]
"Now I'll call on my heavy ballistics!" Danny cried out, "Machina Fortress, fire at will with Ballistic Blaze!"
Machina Fortress swung its mounted cannon to aim straight at Aeron, before firing a blast that engulfed the man in a surge of brilliance for only a moment before fading away. Aeron looked like he didn't even bat an eye. [Aeron - LP: 3100→600]
"And THAT'S how it's done!" Danny said with a pump of his fist. "Now I'll throw a card face-down and call it a turn!"
As his set card took form, the two girls behind him both blinked repeatedly. "Wow," Violet said, "I didn't actually think his attacks would go through."
"Me neither," Marina agreed, absentmindedly clutching her thumb between her teeth. "But he looked pretty damn good declaring those attacks, didn't he...?"
Violet turned to her friend with a smirk. "You really have fallen for him, haven't you?"
Marina, only now realizing what she'd said and where her thumb was, whipped her arm back to her side before turning her back to Violet. "A-as if!" she retorted. "I have higher standards than just looking good in a duel!"
"Right," Violet said as the two turned their attention back to the duel, where Aeron cocked his head and stared at Danny's Machina Fortress.
"I see," he said. "You recently re-strategized for this monster to be your ace, didn't you?"
Danny's eyebrows flew up. He hadn't told anyone about his recent decision to change his strategy from summoning Machina Force to relying more on Machina Fortress. He'd had a one-track mind for so long with wanting to get Force out, but after his duel with Mike he'd realized that he needed a more accessible ace if he was ever going to pull off any victories.
"I also sense a lot of repressed anger inside you," Aeron continued, "as evidenced by your willingness to immediately go on the offensive so recklessly. But more than that, it tells me that you're not just trying to prove yourself to me, but to yourself as well."
Danny began to quiver. Never in his life had he felt so exposed to someone, yet this Aeron character—after ten minutes—had somehow managed to dive into the deepest recesses of his heart and laid out his every insecurity.
"How could you have possibly figured all that out?" he asked with an unsteady voice.
Aeron's eyes narrowed. "A true duelist can see into their opponent's heart and soul through their dueling," he replied. "So in that one turn, you laid yourself out bare before me, allowing me to read you like an open book."
On the sidelines, Violet and Marina looked to their friend, their chests clenching. It made sense to them that Danny longed to become stronger, especially after seeing the heights that Mike had managed to achieve in his dueling after he'd returned.
Eventually, Danny managed to quell his trembling before his gaze locked with Aeron's again.
"Well lemme tell ya something," he said as his one empty hand clenched into a fist. "There's one thing you're wrong about: I know exactly how strong I am! And the only thing I'm trying to prove here is that I'm more than ready enough to go help Mike find this guy he's after!"
To this, Aeron chuckled. "You're a poor liar," he said. "Your eyes give it away—that anger I mentioned before, it reflects the state of your soul, proving everything I've up to this point is true."
"And what makes you so sure about that?" Danny shot back.
"Because I've seen that same truth in Mike's eyes before," said Aeron, causing silent shock to spread across Danny, Marina, and Violet's faces as his eyes closed in remembrance. "Only his had reflected fear, not anger..."
- Two Years Ago -
Mike felt as though his anxiety was trying to break free of his body from several points, threatening to tear him apart as he marched along with the Frontier Haven crowd.
On the one hand, he still couldn't quite grasp the concept of the result if he lost the duel he was headed into. The thought of not knowing whether or not he'd still be alive before the day was done was unsettling enough. Yet somehow, the idea of what would follow if he managed to emerge from the duel victorious hung even more heavily over him.
As he walked, he'd tried to change his perspective of the situation to justify the need for such a dire course of action. Unfortunately, despite his efforts, it didn't seem to matter at the center of his core how evil Keir really was. The idea of taking another human's life remained an unfathomable task to him, whether for better or otherwise.
He looked back into the crowd behind him. The girl he'd met earlier had been shuffled a few paces behind him. Casey. She caught his gaze before managing a weak smile, as though she were trying to give him some kind of reassurance.
Before he could try for a meek smile of his own, he suddenly felt a firm hand grasp his right shoulder. He looked up to see that the hand belonged to Aeron, who was looking down at him.
"How do you feel?" he asked.
His eyebrows rose. Never once during their time training had Aeron seemed to express any interest in Mike's emotions. And the fact that he was only doing so now, before his life potentially ended, only added to the weight of the dread on his shoulders.
Mike heaved a sigh. "Fine, I guess," he said flatly. "Just... mentally preparing myself."
Even from the odd angle he was looking at Mike from, he could see the lie clearly in his eyes. They weren't reflecting the thoughts of a man who was preparing for a battle, but of a boy terrorized with uncertainty. It almost made him feel remorseful for what he was about to do.
He reached behind himself, unclipping a deck case from his belt before extending the arm to Mike as he said, "here."
Mike looked to the black box Aeron was offering to him, before looking back up at his mentor with a raised eyebrow. "What's this?"
"An old deck of mine," Aeron explained, averting Mike's gaze. "Samael wants you to use it for your duel."
Mike stared at his mentor incredulously. "You're kidding me?" he uttered with disbelief. "He expects me to duel with my life at stake using a deck I've never even seen before?!"
Aeron hesitated before replying, "if that's how you feel about it, you best start looking through it now while you still have time."
Mike's parted lips closed as he looked at the box in Aeron's hand. Why would Samael put a deck he had no experience with in his hands for a life-or-death duel, when he seemed intent on riding the freedom of Frontier Haven on Mike's victory? It made no sense.
But then, as he thought about it, he remembered the fact that he'd managed to hold himself against Aeron during their training sessions. Perhaps a different, stronger deck was in order for him to be able to walk away from this alive. Even if it meant parting with one of the last remaining ties he had to his old life.
With that thought, Mike took the box from Aeron's hand, flipping and pulling the deck out before beginning to skim through it as his mentor watched with surprise. He didn't actually think that Mike would accept this request.
But whatever his reasons for doing so, Aeron was glad that he had. In all the years 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 Mike this deck. He just hoped it was enough to give him a fighting chance.
After some time, Mike clasped the deck case on his belt, before pulling out his revolver-shaped duel disk. He took his own deck from it and replaced it in the other deck case on his belt. He then placed the new deck in the duel disk's muzzle, before holding the device out in front of him as he eyed it uneasily.
"Aeron," he said, "when you said this duel disk isn't just shaped for its looks... is this what I'm expected to kill Keir with?"
Aeron was quiet for a time before averting his gaze again. "If he's not already dead by the end of the duel, then yes."
Mike's eyebrows arched at this ominous response. "Wait, why would he be—?"
Mike cut himself off when he noticed Aeron's eyes had narrowed at something in the distance, and he turned his head in the same direction to see another western-style town like Frontier Haven coming into view. But while its visual appearance seemed to echo the settlement he'd just departed from, this one gave off a different feeling—a menacing, disconcerting air that made the hair on his back stand up. As though it were the residence of the Devil himself.
Aeron and Mike made their way to the front of the pack, joining Samael as he held a hand up to signal that everyone behind him halt as they stood a fair distance from the town.
"Saddlebury," he growled quietly. "This wretched hive where Keir and his Romans have been holed up... all while holding our lives at gunpoint."
He turned to look at Mike with a stare that pierced right through his 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 put on a confident face. "Right," he said as he looked to the forbidding town. "No pressure or anything."
For a moment, Samael's eyes turned downcast, before hardening his features again as he raised his hand. "Onward!" he shouted, before he and the rest of the Frontier Haven crowd continued, stepping into the town.
As they marched down the barren streets, Mike took in the sights of Saddlebury. They were all essentially the same kind of structures that aligned Frontier Haven's roads, with shops, saloons, and homely structures with porches out front. However, some of the buildings looked blackened, as though the wood that comprised them had been burned sometime before.
Aligning the streets of the town were some of the most roguish people he'd ever seen. The majority of them were dressed entirely in black, from leather jackets to boots to jeans. They all brandished the same waist-bound holsters that the people of Frontier Haven did. And though he saw these people aiming their cold stares towards the general Frontier Haven crowd, he couldn't help but feel like some of the eyes were locked onto him specifically.
He tried his best to ignore this feeling as he looked to where they were headed, but the sight in front of him didn't look much more inviting: gathered in what must have been the town's center was an assembly of more black-clad scoundrels, all waiting on the arrival of Samael and his townspeople.
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 silver, slicked-back hair reached down to the middle of his back, and his sterling eyes looked like they were held up by the bags beneath them. He was probably around 5'10".
As the Frontier Haven crowd stopped a good distance away from the opposing crowd, the brown-jacketed man stepped away from the gang of rogues to stand between everyone.
"You're late, Samael," he jeered. "You know I don't like to be kept waiting!"
Samael sniffed. "Don't start with that crap, Jared," he said. "You're your boss's right hand, not the boss himself. You don't get to address me like that."
The taunting smirk on Jared's face turned to a scowl before changing the subject: "So, who's your heroic sacrifice going to be this time?"
Samael glanced to Mike behind him, who took that as his cue to step past him, hoping that his ribcage was strong enough to keep his thumping heart from bursting out.
"I am," he blurted out, trying not to sound as terrified as he felt.
A wave of snickers coursed through the Saddlebury crowd behind Jared, while the latter looked Mike up and down as though observing the cracks in a fragile vase.
"Man, it looks like he really picked a dud this time," he said with a curled lip. "You wander into Frontier Haven by accident, kid?"
Mike said nothing. It wasn't so much that he didn't know what to come back with, but rather his fear had tightened its grip around him to the point that he couldn't find his voice. Behind him, Casey had managed to push herself to the front of the crowd to better see what was occurring.
Jared turned his attention back to Samael. "So, who's the kid's opponent gonna be?"
"He's challenging Keir," said Samael.
Jared went wide-eyed as he looked back to Mike, before a smirk spread across his face followed by sniggering laughter. The rest of the leather-clad rogues around him also broke into uproarious chortles as Mike seemed to shrink. Samael's eyebrows were knit as he felt his teeth grind.
Eventually, Jared composed himself as he pointed a finger at Mike. "You can't be serious! He looks like he wouldn't last three turns in a duel with Keir!"
"Well if your leader isn't the coward I've always believed him to be," Samael shot back, "then he'd take the three turns he'd need and accept this challenge."
Jared's expression turned into a sharp glare. "You watch your mouth, Samael" he snarled, "no one calls Keir a coward and gets away with it—!"
"That's enough, Jared."
The voice that cut Jared off came from behind the wall of scoundrels huddled together in the town's square. It had been smooth yet deep, as though it had belonged to that of a god whom the rogues behind Jared parted for.
Jared looked behind him to watch as their leader stepped towards the front. He stood at about 6'1". His duster was colored only a slightly lighter shade of brown than Jared's, but it was as long as Samael's. Beneath that was a white shirt that was ripped slightly down the middle from the top. His legs donned navy-blue jeans, and his feet wore boots matching the color of his duster. The same holster carrying a revolver-duel disk was slung around his waist.
The man's black, matted hair looked unkempt yet sophisticated. His face had a few less wrinkles than Samael's, which told Mike that he had to be somewhere between his mid-to-late forties. The man's emerald eyes were calm, and his face sported a cocky half-grin. The air of confidence he gave off made Mike believe that he really was as powerful as Samael and Aeron had described.
As the man stopped to stand beside Jared, his attention shifted to Samael. "So, you've finally found someone you believe is worthy of challenging me?"
"Not just someone to challenge you, Keir," Samael said with confidence. "But someone to defeat you."
Keir sniffed the air before flitting his eyes to observe Mike, who remained petrified where he stood. "So you're the one Samael chose to play Frontier Haven's great savior, eh?" He jeered. "I'm afraid I have to agree with Jared, he doesn't look like much of a fighter."
Samael's eye twitched as he watched Keir look his chosen opponent up and down. "I'm guessing you're new to these parts," Keir continued. "But I'm sure Samael and his lapdog wasted no time painting a bloodthirsty image of me in your head, right?"
Aeron looked about ready to put a bullet in Keir's head for being referred to as a "lapdog." Mike, meanwhile, finally found his voice as he steeled himself. "I know you've been subjugating these people with terroristic threats," he said. "And it doesn't take a degree in history to know that those kinds of people are usually the bad guys."
To this, Keir chuckled. "I see why Samael took a liking to you," he said, his hands clasping behind his back. "You share in his idealism. But I'm afraid he's only shown you half the picture. I'm not nearly as cruel as he would have you believe. Which is why I want to offer you a choice."
Mike's eyebrows rose as Keir continued: "If you so desire, I will spare you from your challenge against me. There will be no duel, and you may live to die another day. However..."
He then pointed a finger towards the crowd gathered behind Mike. "In exchange for this mercy, you must choose one person from Frontier Haven to die. By your own hand."
Mike felt as though a shock of lightning had coursed through him as he took in Keir's words. His attention was then caught by the sound of panicked murmurs behind him, making him turn to watch as some of the crowd tried to run back towards the edge of Saddlebury. However, a wall of Roman thugs had already taken shape to block their way, with revolvers drawn to keep them from making any regretful decisions.
"The choice is yours, of course," Keir's voice rang out, bringing Mike's attention back to him. "But in all my years out here, if there's anything I've learned, it's that most people will put a bullet in their own comrade if it means another day on this godforsaken rock. It's the most depraved nature of humanity, to want to survive."
"I guess that means I'm not 'most people,' then."
Keir's eyes widened as he met Mike's gaze. "What you're offering isn't mercy," he said. "It's just another scare tactic to trap these people in their own fear. But I won't have it!"
He then pulled his revolver-disk from its holster, allowing it to attach to his wrist before protruding its dueling field. "So I'll be damned if I don't at least try to put an end to your tyranny over Frontier Haven today, even if it costs me my life!"
All who were gathered found themselves taken aback by this declaration. Samael remembered how he'd told Mike that he couldn't duel the same way as he did for his friends if he wanted to survive—that he had to fight for himself. But now it looked to him that this boy had found his strength for this duel in a third option: by fighting instead for the people of Frontier Haven, just as he had fought for his friends.
Keir's face, meanwhile, turned to a sneer. "So, you've chosen to die with your idealism then," he said. "All the same to me."
Then, without warning, Keir whipped out the same long, steel cable that Aeron had pulled on Mike from his duster, throwing it so that the cuff at the end latched onto the latter's duel disk, eliminating his last chance to turn and run from this duel.
"That same mercy you just rejected?" he said as an evil smirk spread across his face. "You'll soon be begging for it."
Though fear still gripped him, Mike held tight his conviction as Keir attached the other end of the cable to his own duel disk arm. Behind him, Samael and Aeron stood with intent gazes as they watched on. From the front of the crowd, Casey held a hand up to her heart as she felt it beat with an intensity she hadn't felt since the first time she'd fought for her life in this same town.
Keir then activated his duel disk before he and Mike dealt their first five cards as they called out, "LET'S DUEL!"
- Present Day -
Aeron's eyes fluttered open again, meeting Danny, Violet, and Marina's wide ones as they stared at him.
"The fear in his eyes," Aeron said as he looked to Danny, "it was as clear to me as the fire that I see in yours now—burning with the desire to become stronger."
Danny felt his teeth grind as Aeron drew his next card. "They say the strongest swords are forged within the hottest of flames," he said. "But while your fire is hot, you've yet to even begin tempering the steel.
"So allow me to show you," he said, lifting the first card from his hand, "what a well-crafted blade can really do.
"I'll start by activating my continuous spell card, Call of the Mummy!" he began. "With it, I can special summon one zombie-type monster from my hand when I control no monsters.
"Now rise," Aeron growled as a large, menacing form surged upwards from behind him. "Despair from the Dark!" [LV: 8/ATK: 2800]
Both girls on the sidelines took a step backwards as they gaped at the towering monstrosity. Danny, meanwhile, swallowed hard as he swallowed a fearful yelp. He'd expected Aeron to come at him hard, but he hadn't prepared for him to call out a high-ATK monster at the height of the turn.
"Next I'll use the effect of the Marionette Mite in my hand," Aeron continued as he placed it in his graveyard. "By discarding it, I can take control of any monster on your field that's zombie-type.
"And as I'm sure you remember," he said with a finger pointed at Danny's field, "my Zombie World field spell makes every monster on the field zombie-type, which means your Machina Fortress is fair game!"
Danny watched Fortress roll from his field, crushing the bones and skulls beneath it with a sound that made the girls on the sidelines cringe.
"Well, 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 a card vanished from his hand, but his unchanged expression gave Danny the impression that he was unscathed by this move.
"What a shame," said Aeron. "If you'd discarded the right card, you might've had a chance."
Danny hissed as Aeron then went on: "Now I summon the Pain Painter Tuner monster!" [LV: 2/ATK: 400]
"And with this monster's effect," he explained, "I can turn two zombie-type monsters on my field into level 2 monsters! So since both my Despair and Machina Fortress are zombies, their levels drop!"[Despair from the Dark - LV: 8→2] [Machina Fortress - LV: 7→2]
"With that, I'll now tune those two with my level 2 Pain Painter!" Aeron cried as the tuner became two emerald rings, through which the other monsters transformed into four white orbs before morphing into a tower of black flame.
"Synchro Summon! Let all that breathes perish in your fire, Doomkaiser Dragon!" Aeron exclaimed with a raised hand as a winged creature with haunting red eyes emerged from the pillar with a bone-chilling roar. [LV: 6/ATK: 2400]
Violet and Marina stood petrified at the sight of this new monster. Danny, however, found himself eyeing the dragon with confusion as he scrambled to perform internal math.
"So lemme get this straight," he said, "you offered up a 2800 ATK monster and a 2500 ATK monster, to summon out a weaker 2400 ATK monster? What's the deal with that?"
"The 'deal' is that this monster has more to offer than those other monsters ever did," Aeron explained to him. "For instance, upon its Synchro summoning, I can bring back any one zombie-type monster from my opponent's graveyard to my side of the field!"
"Oh, come on!" Danny muttered exasperatedly, before he watched as his Machina Fortress erupted through the floor of the Zombie World once again on Aeron's side of the field, launching a flurry of bones towards the girls that caused them to flinch. [LV: 7/ATK: 2500]
"Now for you to feel your monster's wrath!" Aeron said as he pointed towards Danny's lone monster. "Machina Fortress, take aim and destroy your former ally, Scrap Recycler!"
Machina Fortress moved to repeat the same attack it had mounted against Aeron earlier, the large cannon mounted atop it taking aim at the puny bucket on wheels that let out a fearful whine.
Danny reacted quickly: "I reveal my face-down card, Damage Diet!" he countered as his set card flipped. "Thanks to this card, every bit of damage I'm about to take this turn is gonna be halved!"
He finished speaking just as Machina Fortress's turret fired, engulfing Scrap Recycler in a light that eviscerated it within seconds. [Danny - LP: 4000→3200]
"But you'll still take damage all the same," Aeron said as he leveled his pointed finger at Danny. "Doomkaiser Dragon, attack him directly with Hell-Firestorm!"
Doomkaiser Dragon flew before Danny with a sweeping motion, before unhinging its skeletal jaw to let a blast of purple flames erupt from its depths that engulfed the young man. But while he braced himself from the blinding light of the attack, he quickly realized that this was no mere holographic projection of fire: what started as a stinging sensation quickly turned into burning all across his skin.
As though the flames were actually burning him.
He wanted to cry out in his confusion, but he couldn't find himself to form words between his screams as his pain receptors fired off, bringing him to his knees. [Danny - LP: 3200→2000]
As the flames died down and Doomkaiser Dragon floated back to Aeron's field, Marina and Violet took notice of Danny's suffering as they realized what had happened. Though the fires looked just like any other holographic fire they'd ever seen in a duel, the anomaly was the fact that they had never before felt heat emit from such flames.
Meanwhile, Danny managed to bring himself back to his feet as he assessed his condition. His red hoodie was decorated with scorch marks, while the seams of his jeans were slightly seared.
How the hell did he do that...? His mind raced to process the moment. Is he able to make the damage real?!
"I'm afraid I'm not finished with you just yet."
Danny was snapped back to the duel as Aeron continued: "you may have stopped yourself from losing from those last two attacks by halving your damage this turn, but it won't be enough to save you. I reveal my face down card, Assault Mode Activate!"
Danny felt his heart skip a beat as Aeron said, "you wanted to know why I would call on a weaker monster like my Doomkaiser Dragon? Well, you're about to see why as it evolves into a new form that will bring this duel to an end!"
Danny, Marina, and Violet watched as Aeron's dragon suddenly underwent a harrowing transformation: its chest morphed into a terrifying skeletal face, while skeletal arms protruded from its sides as the dragon roared, though whether it was a cry of victory or of pain from its transformation was impossible to discern.
"Drag all into their graves so that they may find new life beyond eternal damnation!" Aeron exclaimed as his dragon's mutation reached its completion. "Be reborn, Doomkaiser Dragon/Assault Mode!" [LV: 8/ATK: 2900]
Danny felt his blood run cold as he eyed this new form of the creature that nearly burned him alive. Though it was the same dragon in identity, it was also a brand-new monster on Aeron's field, which meant that it would be able to attack him again—and possibly deal him more real damage.
"Now, for my dragon's new and improved effect," Aeron said, his words cutting through Danny's petrification. "Despite the fact that Machina Fortress returns to the graveyard when Doomkaiser Dragon's base mode leaves the field—" Machina Fortress sunk back into the skeletal depths of the Zombie World once more. "—his evolved state, upon its special summoning, can revive as many zombie-type monsters from either player's graveyards as I want!"
Realization flashed across Danny's face as the ground before Aeron once again burst open, this time creating an even larger fissure to allow a multitude of monsters join his dragon on the field: his own Despair from the Dark, and Danny's Machina Fortress, Green Gadget, and Red Gadget. [LV: 8/ATK: 2800] [LV: 7/ATK: 2500] [LV: 4/ATK: 1400] [LV: 4/ATK: 1300]
Danny was rendered breathless as he stared at the lineup of monsters opposing him. Aeron had amassed an army of monsters with more than 10,000 ATK points between them, all with nothing stopping them from attacking him directly. An onslaught he wouldn't survive, even with Damage Diet in effect.
"This is the end," Aeron declared the final move of the game. "All my monsters, unleash your fury and finish this duel!"
The five gathered monsters made their assaults: Green and Red Gadget each took turns punching through Danny's stomach, which he didn't feel any pain from. Then there was Despair from the Dark, which hurled its giant fist hurling down at Danny, which upon collision only passed right through him, leaving him unharmed once again. Then there was Machina Fortress's attack, which blasted him with a beam that, while intense to his eyes, neglected yet again to harm him.
But then came the final attack from Doomkaiser Dragon/Assault Mode: like before, the dragon's jaw unhinged and let loose a purple wildfire at Danny, who began to writhe and scream in anguish as every pain receptor in his body turned scarlet. The flames enveloped him and completely set his sleeveless hoodie ablaze, forcing him to rip it off so that he didn't share in its misfortune.
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: 2000→0]
- DUEL OVER -
[Winner: Aeron]
"Danny!" Marina and Violet cried out as they ran over to their friend, standing wobbly-legged as his head spun from the pain. 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 all right?!" Marina asked.
After a few moments, Danny finally shook his head clear of the dizziness before looking at each of the girls in turn, saying, "It's okay, I'm good... I think."
"You sure?" Marina asked him as they released his arms, letting him stand on his own before he looked to her as he chuckled.
"Yeah, don't worry," he said with a smirk, to which Marina could only look at him wide-eyed, as though she were thinking, he almost gets burned to death, and he's SMILING?
Danny then looked to Aeron, who had approached to stand before the three again, with a bemused stare. "A'ight, you've got some explaining to do," he said sternly as he pointed at his opponent. "Why the hell was I able to feel those attacks?"
Aeron met each of the three sets of eyes glaring at him in turn, before letting out a sigh. "Well first of all, if I told you how the damage was real, you wouldn't believe me.
"Second," he said, his expression seeming to soften a bit, "you have my apologies for that, as I never intended to use that power on you during this duel."
Danny's face lit up with confusion. "What do you mean by 'power'?" he asked as he lowered his arm.
"You could call it a curse, in a sense," Aeron said. "A curse that I've borne for as long as I can remember. One that I've had little luck learning how to restrain."
"And you think that makes it okay that you just nearly burned one of our friends alive?!" Marina shot at him outrageously.
"No," Aeron replied. "But if anything, you ought to take it as a demonstration of what kind of danger Mike is currently up against, as the man he's looking for also possesses that power."
That sentence washed over the trio of friends with the force of a riptide, especially Danny. Aeron watched the realization come to the young man's downcast expression, seeing the fear for what he'd just experienced push his inclination for self-preservation slowly over his desire to go to his best friend's aid.
Finally, he looked back up to Aeron. "Earlier, you said that Mike had dealt with worse than this Louis Costanzo guy before, right?"
Aeron only nodded in return. Danny sighed.
"Well, if you're really Mike's friend from over the last two years, then I guess that's good enough for me," he said, somewhat reluctantly. "And the same applies as far as the whole accidental-damage thing goes, too."
Aeron cocked his head as Danny stepped toward him, before then extending a hand to him as a grin came to his face. To this, Aeron cracked what looked like a half-grin before grasping the teenager's hand in return.
Though Marina crossed her arms and shook her head, she couldn't help but let a smile come to her face. It had always amazed her, Danny's ability for compartmentalizing the worst of a situation and being able to embrace the best of it. A trait he'd never lost since she'd met him in middle school.
Meanwhile, while Violet also bore a smile at the newly-forged friendship between Danny and Aeron, it then occurred to her: "If you don't mind me asking," he said, earning Aeron's attention as his and Danny's hands parted, "since you knew Mike over the last two years, is there any chance you can tell us anything about what he's been through?"
Aeron's eyes seemed to flicker at the question as the others looked to him as well. Finally, there was a chance to hear just what happened to their friend.
"No."
The girls each blinked with surprise, while Danny immediately switched back to outrage. "The hell do you mean, 'no'?! We're his friends, we deserve to know the truth, damn it!"
"It's because he wants to forget about the last two years."
Danny's expression fell once more as Aeron explained: "the whole reason he decided to return to his home here was because he wanted to escape what he had endured, and resume a normal life. And he believed the only way to do that was to pretend like the last two years never happened. So I'm not at any inclination to say anything, out of respect for that wish.
"But I will say this," he said, his tone turning notably darker. "The fact that he decided to pursue the man who took our friend, tells me he hasn't quite escaped the grasp of those years just yet."
Violet felt her heart pang at those words. So despite the fact that she had managed to help him acclimate back to more normal living in County Dame, it sounded like it would take more time to mentally bring him the rest of the way home than she initially thought.
Eventually, Marina piped up with a question: "So, what now then? Are you planning on going after Mike?"
"Yes," he replied. "As much as Mike is capable of taking on this Louis Costanzo on his own, the one he took captive was my friend as well. So I have no intention of letting him do this alone."
He spread his gaze across the three friends again. "In the meantime, I suggest you each get yourselves home. I don't know what will happen when I reach him, but I promise I'll make sure he makes it back alive."
The three friends each nodded. Though they had been reluctant to leave Mike on his own for his pursuit, it put them at ease to know that someone as strong as Aeron would be backing him up.
"Right, well I'm gonna hold you to that," Danny said with one last pointed finger at Aeron. "Be safe out there."
As Aeron nodded, Danny walked past him towards the site's gate to head back home. Marina quickly followed suit, sparing a glance at Aeron as he said, "it was nice meeting you," before walking through the gate as well.
Aeron, whose eyes had followed the two as they had left, turned to Violet, who was staring down at the ground.
"What is it?" he asked.
Violet, only just realizing that she'd spaced out, shook her head as she looked to Aeron. "I just wanted to thank you."
Aeron raised an eyebrow. "For what?"
"For telling me how Mike feels for me," she replied, raising a finger to wipe a tear from the corner of her eye. "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. She was afraid that he might deter her from pursuing him that way, saying 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 over the last two years," he said. "I think he deserves to be with someone who makes him happy, even after everything 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 lungs. Finally, she felt that she had the confidence to do what she'd been longing to for so many years.
"All right," she said as she wiped another tear from her eye. "Thank you, again."
Aeron turned his head away as he nonchalantly answered, "don't mention it."
Violet stepped past him, and he watched her as she walked back into the city. Once she was out of his sight, he too emerged through the gate, looking around as he pondered which direction to go first in his search for Mike.
However, unbeknownst to him, there was one person who'd been walking along the streets who had noticed the interaction between him and the three teens. He'd been standing there for the last ten minutes, witnessing everything that had happened from afar—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 caped stranger cautiously. "Yes, hello?" he said into his phone's receiver. "This is Dr. Skeldon Crawford. I need to report an assault on a student of mine."
4:55 PM. Mike could hear seagulls cawing out over the water as he finally approached County Dame Pier.
As he walked onto the concrete, he felt his body suddenly shiver as the heat leached out of his leather jacket. Even with June around the corner, the later hours were still chilly, and the fact that the ocean was spraying against the sides of the nearby docks didn't help. It even created a thin shroud of mist that immersed the Pier.
It set an unnerving atmosphere for Mike, but he ignored it. He kept his focus on finding Louis Costanzo. The clock would soon turn into the 5 PM hour, when his shift would supposedly end. He only hoped that Louis's boss wasn't the type to let his employees out early.
He stepped onto the wooden docks, taking in his surroundings: to his left, large cargo crates were stacked one on top of the other in neat order, next to a large crane. In the water was a rusty freight ship, upon which was a vast assortment of cargo crates just like the ones on land. He could hear the voices of workers shouting to each other on board. To his right, the docks stretched out into the ocean, where a number of identical warehouses were aligned side-by-side. All of their slide-up doors were marked numerically, with a majority of them sealed shut save for one.
Straight in front of him was what must have been the operations center for the place. Aged cameras hung from the sides, though their lights were dead. This was good. Windows lined the whole of the building, allowing Mike to see that it was empty. Also good. A short, stocky man wearing a reflective vest over his dirtied clothes was leaning against the 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 creased face marked him somewhere in his late forties.
Mike steadily approached the man, who took notice of his presence as he looked up from his clipboard with narrowed eyes. "Sir, this is private property," he said with an assertive tone. "You need to leave."
"At ease," Mike said with raised hands. "I'm just looking for somebody who works here, name's Louis Costanzo?"
The dock worker's expression darkened. He knew exactly who Louis was. "Sir, I don't like repeating myself. Either leave now or I'll call the cops to do it."
Mike sighed. "That's what I was afraid of."
With one swift motion, he pushed the man with his left hand, spinning him so he could land the flat edge of his right against the top of his spine, rendering the man an unconscious heap.
Mike quickly dragged him into the building, a single room aligned with built-in desks and chairs. As he did, he mused over the idea of the man calling the cops on him when he was the one protecting a real criminal.
After depositing the unconscious body, Mike examined the perimeter as he recalled Adam Marker's words: Louis had taken a position as a warehouse worker, meaning he was likely inside one of the numerous buildings along the stretch going into the ocean. Thankfully, the only human presence seemed to be the yelling he could hear on the freighter, so he hastened towards the docks.
He made for the only one whose door was slightly raised, number thirteen, and rolled under it to make his way inside.
As he stood up again, he realized just how dark it was in the warehouse. For having been open, the lights hanging from the ceiling above were all dark. The entirety of the space was filled with cargo crates of various shapes and sizes, making the place like a maze. No one in their right mind worked in a place like this with no light.
Something was wrong here.
Mike started from the left side of the warehouse and made his way over to the right as he searched, hugging the walls of the building and containers alike to help him avoid detection. Luckily, most of the crates were positioned to allow for easy maneuvering around, so he was able to breeze through the warehouse with practically no impediment.
Finally, he rounded a corner along the right side of the warehouse, and had to hold a hand over his mouth to muffle his stunned gasp. There was a man wearing the same yellow reflective vest and clothes as the dock worker from earlier, wearing the same yellow hardhat.
And he was lying dead in the center of the walkway. In a pool of blood.
Mike immediately rushed his way over and knelt beside the corpse, inspecting the name of the badge on the vest. It was Louis Costanzo.
Mike swore internally as he looked over the body. Parts of Louis's face and hands had already turned blue, and his eyes were foggy. He had to have died within the last few hours. There were multiple stab wounds scattered across his chest, which explained the massive puddle of blood.
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.
He decided to 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.
But he only found one thing in the man's right-hand jacket pocket—a small, folded up piece of paper that read:
We have her.
- The Romans
Mike felt his heart stop. His hands shook to the point that they nearly lost their grip on the note. The Romans had done this? But he could've sworn that he'd put a permanent end to the Romans long ago, after having run all of the remaining members out of Frontier Haven and Saddlebury.
What does this mean? he thought frantically as he continued staring at the lifeless body before him. Someone had to have known I was going after him. But how could—?
"The hell's goin' on here?!"
Mike's thoughts were interrupted as he swiveled: another man, similarly dressed, stood at the other end of the walkway between the cargo crates, shining a flashlight on the scene 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 taking a walkie-talkie from his pocket as he rushed: "Attention all units! There's been a—!"
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 smoking from its muzzle.
Mike then charged at the dock worker, kneeling down onto his chest before landing the butt of his firearm into the man's head, rendering him unconscious.
He replaced his revolver-disk in his jacket as he sprinted back the way he came through the warehouse. As he reached the left side, he noticed an emergency exit door.
He took out his weapon again and shot at the cable-line to the alarm. No way he'd be caught now. He burst through the door and took a hard right, running through the gap between the warehouse he'd just exited and the next one over. On the other side, he could see the edge of the concrete dock where it met the ocean. He sprinted on, reaching the edge of the dock before diving straight into the ocean, disappearing beneath the dark waters.
He managed to reach twenty feet beneath the surface before he started shedding his disguise, ripping the glasses, gloves, bandana, and leather jacket from himself. Though he felt bad about abandoning the clothes he'd "borrowed" from Bulbous, he needed to look as little like the man who'd just infiltrated a private Pier as possible. He'd even let go of his revolver-disk, leaving him down to his black shirt, pants, shoes, and his newly-built duel disk upon his arm. He couldn't believe that the waterproof modification he'd made had come in handy so soon.
Mike swam back up, breaking through the surface of the water with a long gasp as he looked up to the warehouses above. Thankfully, it seemed that no other dock workers had picked up his trail, as he heard nothing.
But then, a familiar noise echoed from 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. Perhaps the alarm had a failsafe, or one of the workers he'd knocked out had already regained consciousness and called the cops. 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 fully clothed. There was no coming up with an alibi for that. The most he could do was keep himself in the water, and hope beyond hope that the cops wouldn't notice him floating around in the dark.
However, none of his predictions came to pass: instead, the sirens that had only gotten louder and louder as they'd approached suddenly became quieter and quieter, as though they'd passed by the docks without paying them any mind at all.
Mike cautiously swam back to the beach nearby, dragging himself across the sand as he felt his shoes squelch with every step. He glanced down the road to see that, sure enough, two squad cars were racing their way towards the main city.
He managed to stumble back onto the sidewalk, before starting in a sprint after the cop cars as he thought, I've got a bad feeling about this...
ED1: "Behind Blue Eyes" by Limp Bizkit
Author's Notes
Geezus, writing these last few chapters have felt more like I'm writing a spy thriller rather than a YGO fic. Regardless, they've been fun, and now we've officially got Aeron acquainted with the friend group! Hooray! Unfortunately, bad things appear to be brewing both at present and in the background. And the flashback story has finally pitted Mike against Keir! Whatever will happen? Maybe consider following the story if you haven't already to find out!
Until next time y'all, I'm signing off. Stay safe and stay awesome.
Recommended Works
"White TV Room," by iAnneart: Ever wanted to know how the characters of the original Yu-Gi-Oh! series would react if they saw their lives 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.
REMASTERED ON: 11/11/2020
