Yu-Gi-Oh! ZD: Rise Of The Dragons (A Yu-Gi-Oh! Fanfiction) - Chapter 32

Where are they?

Drake was almost frantic with worry as he scanned the streets from the roof of a warehouse.

When he had discovered the truth from Wyvern, that the real target of New Order was Yuma and Astral, he had rushed to catch up with them. He would have liked to interrogate the Black General to find out what else she knew but before he had a chance, she had slipped away with her shadow magic.

Having studied the area when planning his rescue attempt earlier Drake knew the shortest routes from the warehouse where they had split up to the more popular areas where Yuma and the rest would likely been safe from further pursuit.

But even moving at his best speed along that route he had found nothing.

So he had back tracked, looking for clues, for signs of their passage, still nothing and night had truly fallen making things even more difficult.

After leaving the grounds of the Sport stadium his communicator had reconnected with the cities network and he had tried several times to call them without success. He had also tried to contact Kite directly with his own communicator, but the number he had called was no longer in service. He knew it had been a long shot ever since he had lost contact with Orbital 7.

So now he was here, standing atop a warehouse in the middle of the night trying to expand his senses as far as they would go. Hoping to find even a trace energy that he could track, whether it be Astral’s unique energy body or the power of an active Seal of Orichalcos.

Calm down, think!

Around him was a mix of warehouses, High rise office blocks and construction zones. All of which were practically empty at this late hour. Drake knew that New Order must have somehow herded them to somewhere isolated, somewhere hidden where it would be difficult to notice any disturbances caused by a duel.

But there were far too many such places around here for Drake to check them all.

Could he find them through the Network?

Obviously New Order would be using their Network Blocker technology to not only keep Yuma and his friends from calling for help, but also to make sure Dr Faker couldn’t take any advantage. But was there a way to track such interference? Or at least narrow the area he had to search down? Drake didn’t know, he was a Duellist not Tech support. And the only people knew here with such skills would be the now unreachable Kite and… Akari!

She would probably kill him after learning what had happened. But better that than the alternative!

*Ring, Ring, click*

“Investigative Reporter Tsukumo here, what you got?”

“Akari.”

“Drake? What’s wrong? Why aren’t you two back yet?” She demanded.

Drake tried to explain the situation to her as quickly and efficiently as possible. She did not take it well.

“You promised to look after my brother! If anything happens to him Drake I will-”

“We don’t have time for this now, instead of blaming me please help me find them.” Drake interrupted.

“…How do you expect me to do that?” She understood time was short.

“New Order usually operates Network Blockers to isolate their duels from the city network. Is there anyway you can track something like that?”

“Maybe…”

On the other end of the communicator she was already fast at work. She even got in touch with any of her ȧssets that could help and set them on the task. Meanwhile all Drake could do was wait.

5 minutes… 10…

“Drake, we might have something.”

“Where?” he asked.

“A construction site, sending you the location now.” She replied.

“How sure are you?” Drake asked as he read the data, it was some distance away. If this lead was wrong it would waste a lot of time.

“It’s all we have found so far, but we will keep looking. Drake… please bring my brother back…”

“I will.”

*Click*

—

Drake rushed down the lamp lit streets and through the darkened alleyways as fast as his legs would take him. And as he got closer, the surer Drake was that this was the correct location. He still couldn’t feel the energy of the Orichalcos, but he instead felt something else.

A thick and heavy presence. It was unnatural and overpowering like a heavy perfume that blocked out the smell of everything around it. Even Drakes sense of the veil between worlds, a constant muted hum that always existed throughout the city, was completely obscured by this strange feeling.

Soon he confirmed this definitely was the place, he lost his Network connection and while his energy sense was blocked, his enhanced hearing and sight could pick out the sounds a duel and flashes of the light.

With a sinking feeling Drake knew he had been too late.

But he still had a chance!

Either those two had Yuma’s soul with them, or else they knew where New Orders Headquarters were located. So no matter what he had to stop them from escaping, save Astral and find out what where Yuma’s soul was now.

As Drake rushed by he shouted to Yuma’s grief stricken friends.

“Look after them!” He didn’t have time to say anything else.

Sword of Wisdom! The duel disk on his arm immediately morphed into its true form and without care of the power it would cost Drake he immediately activated its power.

Tyrant Wings!

The trap card dispersed into a huge swarm of light particles that gathered around his back and transformed into a set of blue/grey dragon wings. With mighty flaps, Drakes new wings swiftly carried him into the sky after the two New Order agents.

As magical constructs Drakes wings were far faster than what nature or physics would permit, allowing him to swiftly catch up to his targets. He was furious and couldn’t hold back his rage any longer. He might need these two to tell him what he wanted to know, but that didn’t mean they had to be in one piece for them to do that. And he had a very sharp sword.

Drake took aim at the larger one, the one that had taken something from Yuma’s body, and charged forward with a slash of his sword.

*Slash!*

He just missed as his target managed to dodge his strike at the last moment.

“If you two think you are going anywhere, it had better be to the Grave!” Drake snarled.

Drake had to give the two of them credit, they didn’t hesitate at all as they split up and made a break for it. Since even Drake couldn’t be in two places at once, he made a split second choice. To chase the one he had tried to slice and dice just now. Not only had Drake seen him take something from Yuma, but the drones carrying Astral seemed to be programmed to follow him.

Proteus cursed his luck as he fled, wasn’t Wyvern meant to take care of this annoyance? And how could he suddenly fly in the sky like a bird? Not to mention that it was illogical that such a wing design could produce speeds comparable to his latest in personal jet propulsion systems.

And Drake was following him!

Proteus wanted to try and lose Drake in the steel lattice of the unfinished buildings girders, relying on his advance navigation systems to safely fly a path through. But he soon realised that he had made a mistake. Drakes wings allowed him to maneuver with far greater agility than Proteus could achieve with his jet pack. Meanwhile the close quarters and tight turns here actually limited Proteus from achieving reaching his top speeds.

*Slash*

With a swing of Drakes sword, a light blade shot out in front of Proteus and cut through the steel beams and dropping them in his path, forcing Proteus to swerve. If he wanted to try and out run Drake, then he needed to get out of here and into open skies.

His ȧssistant, Tesla, was on his private communication line. Although he had escaped before when they split up, he was already on his way back now with ȧssault drones for backup. After all, everything of real value to the mission was with Proteus. The Golden Key, Astral and the Seal holding the soul. If he didn’t escape the entire mission was for naught.

Changing direction Proteus shot straight up as fast as he could and Drake followed close behind, firing off the occasional blade light that Proteus was forced to dodge. But the following drones carrying Astral were not so lucky. Twice their evasion programs were a tad too slow and they suffered a score across their casing.

A little deeper and it would have caused some actual damage.

Proteus burst out from the top of the incomplete framework with Drake following, only for Drake to be met by an ambush from Tesla and his ȧssault drones.

Gunfire burst out in rapid fire, forcing Drake to dive back down and take cover behind a beam. But Drake knew that he couldn’t waste even a second here, Proteus had not stopped and was even now racing away.

He retrieved a card from his deck and launched himself once more after the fleeing General.

“Open Fire!” Tesla commanded the ȧssault drones as they tracked Drakes movements.

“Mirror Force!” cried Drake as he infused the trap card into the Sword of Wisdom.

A screen of prismatic light appeared between him and the incoming bullets. Its magic stopping the hail of metal cold, before it blasted back outwards. Tesla had already escape upon realising just what was about to happen, as the storm of magic and metal tore the high tech drones to scrap that fell to the distant ground below.

Drake ignored this and focused on increasing his speed to catch up with Proteus.

If Proteus was capable of feeling fear, he would be feeling it now as Drake was closing the distance between them as the two of them were jetting across the city skies. Proteus wasn’t going as fast as he could, but he was going as fast as the following drones that held the captured alien were capable of.

Proteus was sure that he could escape on his own, but abandoning the drones would mean abandoning the mission and his King would surely do worse than kill him if he failed at this stage. So he headed higher into the night sky, higher and higher into the clouds. Where the air is cold and thin.

His pursuer was only supposed to be human after all, with all the weaknesses of a human body. Unlike Proteus himself who was something more, but then again what human could grow wings?

Bursting through the white clouds Proteus finally came to a halt. And waited.

Lifting up his left arm his hand began to split apart, revealing metal, wires and circuitry. This was what made Proteus more than human and what made him so special to be New Orders Quartermaster. He was a cyborg.

His hand continued to reconfigure its form into the shape of a cannon, this was Proteus strongest inbuilt weapon system. A plasma cannon powered through a hybrid fusion of Orichalcos magic and advance science. The barrel of the cannon slowly lit up and cast a yellow glow.

Proteus wanted to get rid of Drake. And as soon as he pierced through the clouds, he would have him.

The reason Proteus had waited until now to act was simple, his plasma cannon was very powerful but had only a short range and was slow to charge. In an aerial dog against a far more agile foe it would be useless. But an ambush?

Where was he?

Seconds stretched on as Proteus continued to scan his surroundings. Where was Drake? He should have caught up by now. His plasma cannon was beginning to overheat as he kept the charge primed.

“Looking for me?” came Drakes voice from above!

*Slash*

“What?!” When had Drake gotten above him?! Proteus thought.

He dodged to the side and blasted out towards the sound of Drakes voice, but this time Proteus wasn’t the target. What Drake was after was Astral.

The short burst of super-heated plasma flew harmlessly over Drakes head as he dived down and his sword cut through all but two of the drones that were holding Astral captive with a single slash. The energy field holding the original Number failed with the loss of those drones, freeing him from his bonds.

After a moment of freefall Astral came too and righted himself.

“Drake! Don’t let him escape! He has Yuma’s soul on him!”

Hearing that a weight lifted from Drake mind, at least he knew he had a chance to save Yuma here and now.

{Get ready Critias} Drake projected to the dragon hidden in his mindscape. To save Yuma he was willing to even reveal the true power of Critias if needed.

{Always.} The dragon sounded eager to battle the forces of the Orichalcos once more.

With a battle cry Drake charged forward with his blade.

Proteus was on the back foot, having just fired his plasma cannon his internal power source had been temporally depleted and his jet pack could bȧrėly maintain his position. But before Drake could strike another figure burst from beneath the clouds and imposed himself between the two of them. Proteus’s ȧssistant Tesla had caught up with them and blocked Drakes strike with an energy shield.

With this distraction Proteus had the two drones he had remaining link up and combine with his jet pack to act as both a booster and external power source before rocketing straight up. Having seen the ease that Drake had cut down those drones just now Proteus was not interested in joining them. If Drake wanted to chase him, Proteus wanted to see just how high he could fly.

10,000 feet… 11,000 feet… 15,000… 20,000 feet!

Proteus had reach the maximum hight his systems could support. And was confident that even Drake would find it difficult to follow him this high. It wasn’t because humans couldn’t live at this hight, after all Mount Everest’s peak was around 29,000 feet high. It was because without special equipment it should be impossible for anyone to adapt to the changes in the atmosphere, temperature and air pressure over such a short period of time.

Proteus turn around to look back down.

Drake and Astral were swiftly ascending towards him shattering his hope and Proteus knew he was running out of options. He knew his abilities; it was his engineering genius that his King valued, not his duel skills.

He didn’t want to duel Drake but that meant he only had one other option for dealing with him now. He had to take Drake down and reclaim the Original Number. He withdrew a silver sceptre from his robes, the same kind of sceptre that Wyvern had once used to break the Seal that was about to consume Shark. What New Order called, an Orichalcos Key.

Holding it up high in the air the sceptre began to glow a familiar emerald light as an enormous power began to build. A dangerous power, ancient and cruel.

“By the power of the Orichalcos and the authority of Order. Let the shadow of the Beast now descend!”