Zane soared over the city towards the Dueling District where he would hopefully find someone who could give him information on Alexis's whereabouts. If what he heard about the Aeons was true, they could have been lurking in the lower levels of the city. But he would rather not go there unless he had to. He hated to admit it, but even with the exoskeleton, he would have a whole lot of trouble down there. But he was so desperate to find Alexis, that he felt he would brave the dangers of the underground slums. He had known her since she was just a little girl.
The memories of her frolicking through the castle in her short white dress came to him and warmed his spirit. He recalled how cute she was, and how small. She had a giant white bow in her hair. The diamonds around her neck shimmered like a thousand stars. Her eyes sparkled with purity and innocence. And her laughter, ringing like silver bells.
She was picking flowers in the garden and giving them to him.
"Thank you, Princess," the young Zane said, bashfully taking them from her.
She giggled, hiding her smile behind her hand as she hunched her shoulders. Her cheeks flushed into a cotton candy pink. "You're welcome," she said. "Now will you marry me?"
"Huh?"
"Well, I'm a Princess after all and you're the one everyone says I must marry, right?"
"No!" he said at once. "You've got it all wrong, Alexis. I'm not a prince!"
"Who says you have to be?" Alexis replied with a twitter. "Mama says you have to be at least a Lord to marry a Princess. You're going to be Steward of Eredas. You're the right hand of the King. That's just as important as a prince if not more."
"I uh...I can't Alexis. It's not right."
Alexis smiled, closing her eyes as she tilted her head to the right. "Maybe this will change your mind," she said, leaning forward and then planting him a kiss.
Zane dropped the flowers and ran away. "Mama!" he cried, running down the halls. "MAAAAAAMAAAAAA!"
He chuckled remembering that. It was embarrassing, to say the least, and recalling such a memory made him feel like he had a vice gripping his chest. She was still his friend after that, becoming somewhat of a sister to him, but she stopped pretending to be in love with him, so she said.
It left him wondering if her behaving so lovingly towards him that summer was actually real affection. He would never know because after that she never handed him flowers or toyed with the notion of kissing him again.
He soared over the wall that divided the Dueling District from the King's District. He saw numerous arenas and the lavish skyscrapers that housed the top players in the city. Countless playing fields dotted the world below. He could see monsters doing battle with one another. How he wished to be doing that himself. Just playing a quiet game with Alexis by the fireplace. If he had listened to his instincts and ignored her pleas to be rebellious, that's probably what they would be doing right now. He felt like such a fool for evading his personal guard. At eighteen years old, Alexis was old enough to drink and enter the lavish nightclubs of the Dragon Garden's District.
He blamed his wonder of her affection in the past for allowing her to be rebellious this night. If the Queen of Lorin found out it was he who allowed her to leave the towers of the House of Gray that night, she would no doubt have his head. He needed to atone for that and find her at once.
Nel-E alerted him of wrongdoing below.
"I see Aeons mugging a young man in Cornerwood Street. Teach them a lesson, sir!"
"You got it. Maybe they might know something about this Dargon character." He soared eastward.
The Prototype was ready for battle and let out a loud screech, following Zane to the alleyway where the mugging was taking place.
"HELP!" the boy cried out. He was a student from Rosenkruz Academy. He held his arms over his face to keep the Aeon's punches from smacking him in the face. There were two of them. A skinny punk and a very stout one with a green mohawk. They were trying to take his cards and his money and beat him to a pulp for the fun of it.
Zane sailed towards them at full speed. He snatched the skinny one and tossed him like a ball at a dumpster, knocking him out cold. The stout one pulled out a switchblade from his leather jacket. Zane grabbed him by the wrist before he could move. He squeezed with all his might until the Aeon's wrist shattered. He squealed and smacked Zane's arm with his good hand, begging him to let go.
"Get out of here!" Zane commanded the student.
The boy nodded and ran away.
"What the hell?" wailed the Aeon. "It's true. You're that cyber guy or something...ahhhh!"
"Shut up!" shouted Zane. He sniggered, squeezing the broken wrist even harder. "Do you know anything about the kidnapping tonight?"
The Aeon sneered despite his great pain. "That's right. I was there when it happened. Princess Alexis and Zane didn't even know what hit them. I suppose you're here to get me to spill the beans on her location, eh? Well, too bad for you. I ain't gonna talk."
Zane squeezed the Aeon's broken wrist again. He leaned forward until his visor touched the tip of the punk's nose. "You want to act like a tough guy, I'll treat you like a tough guy. Don't test me, punk! You're in no position to be pulling off theatrics with me."
"Okay, okay, okay! The warehouse thing was just a diversion. We had our boys waiting for you cops so we could ambush you...accck!"
"Do I look like a cop!" Zane shouted. "I know about the warehouse. Your friends are all dead."
"No way, man!"
"Way," Zane replied. He held up his fist. Layers of metal stacked up against one another until they formed a longsword. The weapon stopped forming as the tip touched the tip of the Aeon's nose.
"OH SHIT!" cried the Aeon.
"You're going to be next if you don't start explaining things. Where did they take Alexis? Where is the Princess? Tell me or I'll gut you like a pig!"
"No, no, no, no, no. Please, there's no need for that. Dargon, he's the one you want. I know where he operates. I'm one of his top officers, man. Go to the back lot of the Red-X Gaming card shop. There's a payment about to go down back there. The shop's owner is in debt to us for helping him set up the place and keeping those Church boys away from his family. He's a former priest or something like that. Aldric is going to handle some business downtown in the Kaiba Plaza so he's left Alexis's handling to Dargon for the night. They have her locked up in a shipping container. It's orange in color with the Kaiba Corp logo on it. You can't miss it."
Zane punched the Aeon, breaking his nose and knocking him out cold. "You get all that Nel-E?"
"I sure did. I'll mark the location on your map. And look, you're just in time."
She showed him satellite footage with a bird's eye view of the store. Indeed, there was a truck waiting in the back parking lot of the store. Zane asked to get thermal imaging of the area. He saw the white silhouettes of figures standing around. Someone walked out of the shop. It was no doubt the owner.
Wasting no time, Zane took off and followed the arrow on his map leading him to the shop. "I had my fun," he said to his beast. "You feeling frisky tonight, pal?"
The prototype roared then dove down toward the shop to attack the Aeons and stop their racketeering operation.
"Keep the damage to a minimum," he commanded the creature. "Do not fire on the shop. We have innocent civilians in there."
The prototype roared to let the Aeons know it was coming. It fired its yellow laser at two of the gang members, reducing them to ash. The other members ran off into the night, scattering into the night like roaches. The prototype then smashed the truck hauling the shipping container with its tail, killing the driver, and setting the vehicle on fire.
The prototype chased after an Aeon and grabbed him with its mouth. It shook him violently and tossed him miles into the sky. Zane saw that the coast was clear and landed on the parking lot. Two Aeon mages launched balls of fire and lightning at him. He rolled out of the way, barely dodging the attacks, and then struck them both with his laser cannon. He yanked the chain off the container's door and pulled it open. It was horribly dark in there. Zane's visor switched to night vision and a small light on the left side of his helmet turned on to light up the way.
There she was. Alexis was on the floor sobbing. She sat up, blocking the light with her hand. She was draped with a blanket at the back of the container.
"Who?" she wondered.
"Alexis!" Zane shouted.
"Zane?" Alexis cried out. "Is that you?"
Zane took off his helmet so she could see his face and hurried towards her. "What did they do to you?"
"You don't want to know," she said as he broke her cuffs with a quick yank. Her lips trembled and she wrapped her arms around his neck and broke.
Zane patted her back. "Shhh. It's okay. I've got you now."
"I'm so glad you made it. They're going to sell me to the Lord of Level Five."
"Why?"
"He was going to do things to me to persuade King Eldon to surrender his crown to Aldric."
"The hell he is," said Zane. "Once I get you home I'll deal with..."
The container shook violently. A loud screech stung both their ears. Zane looked up and noticed that something was ripping the roof off the container. Something big. Something horrible. When it was thrown off by the monster, Zane grunted in horror.
A Gate Guardian.
The faceless monster loomed over him. It held something in its hand. The prototype. Its body was mangled and twisted. Wires hung from its mouth and sparks flew from openings on its body.
Zane heard someone laughing behind him. A muscular young man with a shaved head, a trimmed beard, and tan skin walked into the ruin of the container. His hands casually tucked in the pockets of his trenchcoat, which he left opened to show off his athletic form.
"Impressive creature you made there, boy-o," he said. "But I'm afraid machines fail in comparison to the might of a REAL Duel Monster." He snapped his fingers.
The wind monster, Kazejin, who made the torso of the beast, blew a fierce wind. Zane tried to stand his ground, but it felt like he was standing in front of a tornado. Then Sanga of the Thunder, who made the head and the arms, unleashed a stream of lightning that mixed with Kazejin's wind attack. Zane felt his body getting fried. He roared in agony, his exoskeleton wailed with warning alarms announcing various malfunctions in the suit.
Alexis stood up and ran towards the man. "No, no, no!" she cried, waving her hands in front of him. "Dargon! Please, stop! Please. Stop! I'll go with you. I promise."
"Good girl," said Dargon. He slapped her, knocking her out cold. She collapsed on the ground. Dargon laughed and put her over his shoulder. He howled triumphantly and smacked her on the bottom, squeezing it. He looked at his monster with a nasty grin. "Kill him. THUNDERSTROKE!"
Gate Guardian growled, ready to end Zane with its ultimate attack as Dargon took Alexis to his car. He tossed her in the trunk and drove off. Just then, something jumped out of the flames.
A Terrorking Archfiend.
He smashed his demonic sword on Sanga's head. Zane, finally freed of the attack, slumped on the ground on his knees. He fell forward, his face smashing on the ground. Gate Guardian roared and tried to swap his new opponent away. Terrorking Archfiend spun out of the way and summoned a swarm of bats that enveloped the monster.
Zane heard footsteps walking towards him. Someone flipped him over. He saw Prince Michael looking down at him. Terrorking Archfiend and Gate Guardian were still engaged in combat behind him.
That was the last thing Zane saw before he was consumed by darkness again.
Alexis...I'm sorry.
