Calm Before the Storm

"At the moment...?" Kisa felt his hand under hers...supporting and strong, as always. It was warm, and a kind of sanctuary that she'd come to love since they'd started dating so long ago. "At the moment, there's not much, other than what you are already doing." She smiled lightly at him, not sure of what else to say. In all honesty, there wasn't much that either of them could do until the tournament. All they could do now was just pray...and enjoy these final peaceful hours before the tournament began.

She was sure that chaos would erupt with the start of the competition.

"Well, then I'm always here to do what I do for you." He'd chuckled lightly and stood up over the table to give her a gentle kiss, returning to his crepes soon after and finishing them off slowly, savoring each bite. By now, Wiz was done with his milk and was lazing around next to Lumis in the booth, laying there and waiting for his master to pick him up to go. Lumis looked at the TV and then at the time on a clock that was hanging on the wall. Should they go out and meet the man waiting for him? Did he leave? Lumis couldn't be sure of the entire matter, but perhaps he could supply answers that they needed. Waiting for Kisa to finish her omelette, he'd signed to the waiter that they were going to take their check now.

Kisa put the deck away once more and began to eat her omelet. "what are you thinking, Lumis?" she asked as she finished and he signaled for their check. "What are we going to do after breakfast?" She waited patiently for the waiter to clear the table and deliver their check.

Lumis pulled out his wallet and handed the waiter his card, the waiter nodding his head and walking away to charge the card. Once the waiter was gone, Lumis turned his attention back to Kisa and said, "Well, there was that man that approached us earlier... I want to see what else he knows. Any information could be valuable, after all." He thought it was a good idea, at least. If he was a being of darkness, then he was sure that Kisa and himself could have taken on the man easily. If he was an ally, though...

"Oh...right." She'd forgotten about that guy, and she realized he was probably waiting for them to finally come out. "Yes, I suppose we shouldn't keep him waiting too much longer." She packed up her cards and placed them in a shoulder bag and got out from her bench. She straightened her jumpsuit and waited for Lumis to join her. Ever since she'd gotten that d-wheel, she'd been wearing jumpsuits, just so she could ride at a moment's notice. Of course, at home she tended to be a bit more casual, and wore skirts and such, but out in the city, she had to be ready.

Lumis nodded in agreement as he'd gotten up and waited at the table for a bit for the waiter to return with his card. Wiz took this chance to hop onto the table and up Lumis' back to take his resting place at his master's shoulder. Thanking the waiter and giving him a generous tip, Lumis had taken his wife's hand in his own and walked her out to the door, opening it up in front of her in the most gentlemanly way possible and looking around to see if their "source" was still around to talk to them. "By the way, I don't think we talked about it in the restaurant, but what was that card that he'd showed us before he left...?"

The man was waiting for them.

"Took you long enough. I guess that's how you enjoy a meal though." He started moving towards the parking lot where the duel wheelers of Kisa and Lumis were parked.

"You may go at any time, although I ask that you do hear me out, regardless of how crazy this is going to sound. My name is Drake. I'm from the future. In my future, POD has taken over the world and has twisted it using the powers of the shadow realm." He sighed.

"I fought for so long in that twisted world, along with many others. I've lost so many friends....." He sounded so sad. He pulled himself together and spoke again.

"The tournament is where it all begins. They've set it up so that they've gathered their enemies there to brainwash them into being their servants. They've lured a opposing group, the Chaos Knights, into coming there. And they've gathered all the people who could possibly oppose them, including you two. They have their best agents there participating there to get rid of you guys, and the duel champion is their strongest Soul Modifier. POD may look like an organization that manages pro duelists, but it is much more then that. They want to twist the world into a place that they will rule over for all eternity." He sighed again.

"It worked perfectly. They got rid of all who opposed them in that tournament. Except for Lumis. You Kisa, were twisted into the darkness again. And you didn't ever return to normal. Soon after that they took over. everything, waging an all out war over everything. With the powers of the gods on their side, nothing stood in their way. All we could do at the time was hide. But there was some hope left. Kisa was pregnant with twins. We found out about it and launched a rescue attempt. We recovered her daughter and inflicted some damage on them, but the boy was taken away before we could do anything about it. Me and your daughter grew up together fighting them. We almost got an edge. But then their leader showed up..." Tears were appearing in his eyes.

"The person who was behind it all was a woman. That other POD leader was just a front. I had no idea who she was. She was a powerful sorceress though. Lumis went and dueled her, but..... she had all 3 Wicked Gods. There wasn't anything he could do against them. We ran. But hope still remained. We built a time machine. We couldn't do anything to change that particular future, but I hoped that somehow I could change this one, and find a weakness in the Wicked Gods so that we could defeat them. I'm not the only time traveler; someone from another resistance group came back to get the Sacred Beasts. He's probably left fake cards in their place. Well, except maybe Rafiel; he would disrupt time if he took the real version of that card." He looked at Kisa and Lumis.

"Look, that's my story. I know it's crazy. And I know you don't know that you're pregnant Kisa, but it's in the early stages right now; I had to tell you. There's too much at stake here. We must defeat them at that tournament."

Kisa was not surprised when the man stepped forward and began walking with them. She silently listened to his story, and her worry grew with each passing sentence. Firstly, she had to determine that he was telling the truth...but the story was so insane that it had to be true. It was too detailed to be made up.

The part that really struck her was the part about her being pregnant...and with twins no less. She looked at Lumis when this came up and subconsciously moved her hand to her stomach as if reaching for the unborn children.

"Your story....is very wild..." Kisa was obviously regaining her composure as everything began to sink in. "But as I said before: Why should we trust you?" He spoke of knowing her unborn daughter...was it true that she was pregnant? Was it true that she was going to have twins?

Drake sighed. "That news report about the Sacred Beast said that the guy used a XYZ monster, a from of card that has yet to be released. What's more, he used one that the guy said was not under production at all. Negative Number 7, Haden, Lord of Ghosts. It won't exist for quite some time. In fact, it was never made by Industrial Illusions. Look, you have to believe me, POD is going to strike at the tournament and...."

"That's enough of that. I don't believe in your story about the future, but it is eerie that you seem to know about our plans." A woman in a pink dress and white gloves walked forward. She was carrying a black purse and a duel disk.

"All enemies to POD must be dealt with. I'm the 9th ranked Soul Modifier, Linda Scott, and you're going down." She raised her duel disk. Drake just shook his head and sighed again.

"Well this is just great. So you two were being tailed."

Lumis had listened to the man's story and knew not what to make of it. Kisa seemed to be feeling the same. But one part struck him oddly and he'd noticed Kisa reach for her womb. Twins. They were going to have twins. Lumis now had even more reason to keep his wife safe from harm. To save his children. Looking over at the boy, he seemed to be quite genuine about the whole story. He wasn't sure if he should believe it just yet, though. Until what was somewhat expected had happened.

"We were tailed, huh?" Lumis reached towards the Duel Disk attached to his D-Wheel and put on a serious face, glaring at this new girl and clearly seeing that she was the enemy, especially since she'd mentioned POD and was even a Soul Modifier. "It seems she doesn't like our new friend, Kisa."

She frowned. "To tell you the truth I don't like any of you. Chuku has his own way of doing things, and I have my own way. Chuku likes taking things a bit slower. If I had gotten my way I would have brainwashed you if I had been able to duel you. I honestly don't understand how that guy is ranked higher then me. I'll just keep on climbing up the ranks until I take his rank, and then go even higher. I'll start by brainwashing the three of you. The stage is set for my rise to fame! Now then, I will defeat you in this performance and get even higher. It's my time to shine!"

"You're not doing ANY brainwashing." Lumis' continued his fierce glare towards the girl and he waited for her to make her move, clenching his fists as he was prepared to take on the coming battle. He was determined to stop this girl from trying to take Kisa. He would make sure it absolutely wouldn't happen.

She grinned. "POD doesn't lose when we get serious. I was going to crush you at the tournament after all, but I guess I'll do it now. I'm actually glad it came to this. I hate waiting." The woman activated her duel disk. Now then, are you prepared to face the darkness? I'll shine in the spotlight in this duel; you have no chance."

"You underestimate me! You'll wish you waited until the tournament!" His Duel Disk activated as he'd looked at the deck inside. This was an extremely experimental deck, especially since he's used Ancient Gears for a long time. However, he knew that he needed to get stronger and switch to something more current. Something more... futuristic.

Lumis had drawn his first five cards as he kept his eyes on the girl, watching in case of any foul play or any strange movements to awaken darkness. Since he was being challenged, he figured that he should get the first turn. "I'll start! Draw! I set 1 monster and 2 in my back row! I'll end my turn there!"

"My turn, I draw." She grinned. "Don't think that this is going to be an ordinary duel. Time for me to set the stage for my performance. This parking lot is too dull for me." She raised her right hand, which had a ring on it, and the darkness of the shadow realm surrounded Lumis, Kisa, and Drake.

"That's much better. I hope you realize that damage from monsters here is going to be real. Now then, I summon Harpy Lady #1 in attack mode. It increases all WIND monster's attack by 300 points, raising it's attack to 1600. I'll set one card and end."

"I activate Mystical space typhoon, destroying your facedown." A whirlwind blasted the card away.

"I'll end my turn."

*It doesn't matter, ancient gears don't have high attack points. He won't be getting through my monster. The fool doesn't realize that we did intel on his deck. I know your deck already, and have made mine to counter it.*

Shadow Game! Kisa felt a painful and strong twinge in her heart and she nearly doubled over with pain. She fell to her knees as she felt the familiar darkness shroud over them, she could feel it trying to converge on her, whispering to her.

She looked up at Lumis with pain in her eyes...pain and fear. "Be careful, Lumis...please...don't let the darkness prevail here..." Her voice was soft and weak. Being back in the shadow realm had such a strange effect on her right now.

Lumis drew his next card and looked at it, his eyes tracing the field. He'd nodded at the safety of his next move. "I Normal Summon my T.G. Rush Rhino! And I Flip Summon my face down Warwolf!" His two monsters appeared upon the field, futuristic, cyborg animals. Lumis' eyes did not leave the girl who was clearly overconfident in her abilities. What was the reason? What was she planning? Whatever it was, Lumis started his assault. "Rush Rhino, attack the Harpie Lady and Warwolf, attack her directly!" His two monsters had moved in and did their proper jobs, Lumis surprised that there was no trickery behind this. "With that, I'll end my turn."

"Gah!" Linda cried out in pain as the attacks hit her (6400). She stared at Lumis with shock and disbelief on her face.

"But you're supposed to be using Ancient Ge.... nevermind. I'll draw... I set one monster and one card and end my turn." *This is bad! My counters for his deck are almost useless now. I was expecting Ancient Gears, not T.G.s How could the information have been wrong?*