A/N: This is my first Yu-Gi-Oh! 5d's fanfic, actually my first fanfic ever, so…
The summary says that the story is in an AU, actually it starts in Yusei's world then shifts to an AU.
I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! 5d's.
Now…on with the story!
Prologue, Part 1: A Normal Day at the Garage
-New Domino City, 10:00 A.M.-
New Domino City really is beautiful, thought Yusei Fudo, as he took a break from working on his new and improved duel runner program to stare out of the window at the city. Cars and Duel Runners whisked by on the road, the sky was clear and blue, the Kaiba Corporation tower, the tallest building in the city, was as pristine as ever. All was well.
Yusei shuddered as he remembered a time when he had seen the tower from a completely different perspective—a flipped perspective. At the time, he had been dueling Z-one "on top" of the Arc Cradle. It didn't help that he had been flying, doing endless barrel rolls as he sought to overpower Z-one. And then Z-one's mask fell off and he looked just like Yusei and then he declared that he was Yusei—
He shook his head to clear it. He and his friends had saved New Domino from Z-one, and that's all that mattered.
He was brought back to reality when a card spun through the air and embedded itself in his spiky black hair, right next to one of the golden highlights.
Without turning around, he said, "Leo, what have I told you about playing 'Armed Ninja'?"
A small, green-haired boy with a ponytail and a blue shirt came running up to Yusei.
"Sorry, Yusei," he said meekly as Yusei plucked the card out of his hair—Morphtronic Celfon—and handed it to him. "I just thought it would be cool to practice throwing cards…"
"It's not fun for me if the card is thrown at me, is it?" chided Yusei gently.
A girl, identical to the boy except that her hair was in two ponytails instead of one and her shirt was pink, ran up next to him, looking embarrassed.
"Leo drank too much soda last night," explained the girl, Luna. "Even though he slept, he's still working off the sugar rush."
Yusei smiled saying, "That's okay, Luna. Leo, if you're going to play, play safe, okay?" Leo nodded and ran out of the room.
Leo and Luna were twins who were similar in appearance but polar opposites in personality. Leo was loud, hyper, and immature while Luna was quiet, calm, and very mature for a 12-year-old.
"Where did Jack and Crow go, by the way?" asked Yusei.
Luna answered, "Um, I saw Jack leaving to get his coffee about an hour ago…"
Yusei groaned. "We're barely making rent as it is! Why does he have to spend money on unnecessary things like coffee?"
"Because I need to wake up in the morning, that's why!" This answer came from a blond-haired boy with spiky hair, dressed up in only white clothing. He had just entered through the front door. "Do you want me to be stumbling around like a zombie all day?"
"Better to be acting like a zombie with a roof over your head than acting like a zombie on the street, Jack!" An orange-haired boy—Crow—was walking down the stairs, dressed in a brown sleeveless vest, orange shirt, and jeans. "We're never gonna be able to afford the rent if you keep spending money on stupid things!"
Jack Atlas was an arrogant guy who relied almost solely on power, both physically and in his duels. Crow Hogan, the group's "trick star", came up with innovative ways to win duels. For some reason, even though they were good friends, they also tended to blow up minor arguments into huge fights and duels.
"My morning coffee isn't stupid, birdbrain!" replied Jack, offended. They started towards each other menacingly. Their argument might have come to blows had not a red-haired girl walked in the front door.
Yusei seized the opportunity. "Hey Akiza, could you police these two children for me?"
Akiza, who had assessed the situation immediately, smiled evilly. "It would be my pleasure, Yusei."
Akiza Izinski was unique in their group, as she had psychic powers. She could make duel monsters real, and make her opponents feel real damage. Because of this, she was mistreated by many, including her own parents. Then, a man named Sayer had manipulated her feelings and convinced her to join the Arcadia Movement, an organization of psychics. She had been its most loyal member until Yusei had shown her the truth about Sayer through a duel. In the end, Sayer had been eaten by Earthbound Immortal Ccarayhua during the battle against the Dark Signers, and everyone thought that he was dead.
She had lost her psychic powers a few weeks ago, but she was scary enough without them.
That last thought shot through the heads of both Crow and Jack, who immediately jumped away from each other as everyone laughed at them.
"So, Akiza, why are you here?" Crow asked, trying to cover up his moment of childishness.
"Well, I have a package for Yusei. The thing is, the person sent a big package to me, with a smaller package inside and instructions to give it to Yusei. Why would he go to that much trouble when he could just send it to you straight?"
"That's really strange," Yusei said. She handed him the smaller package, which he proceeded to open. It was a flash drive, of all things.
Crow said, "Obviously someone wants to send you some information, but why couldn't they send it by email?"
"Maybe they wanted to make sure it couldn't be monitored?" guessed Luna.
"Anyway, let's see what it is, Yusei," Jack said.
About a second before he was about to put it in the computer, two things happened.
First, Leo ran into the room and started clamoring to use his computer, not realizing what was going on.
Second, Yusei received an email alert that was marked, "urgent". The email address that the message had been sent to was his work address, and for him, work came before strange packages any day, especially with their dismal financial situation. He put the flash drive on the table.
The message was short. Yusei read aloud, "My car broke down on the road. I don't want my car to be towed, can you please come to Cobalt Ave ASAP? Thanks." It had been sent from a cell phone.
"Alright, I'll go fix this guy's car and then I'll find out what information this flash drive has. Akiza, do you want to come with me? You said you wanted to learn how to fix vehicles, right?"
Crow muttered, "We all know why you want her with you, Yusei…"
"What was that, Crow? I didn't hear you over the sound of me getting a hammer out of my toolbox," Yusei said casually. As he spoke, he tossed the hammer into the air, sending it flipping end over end without even looking at it.
"Nothing, nothing." Crow started backing up the steps. "It's totally fine with me, yes it is."
Yusei shook his head, and as he did, he noticed that Leo was still asking him to use his computer. He decided to set a password on his account so that his important files would be safe from Leo's meddling.
What should I set my password to…?
He suddenly got an idea.
Should I set it to that? No way. I couldn't…No one will know, right?
He blushed as he set his password. The only person in the garage who noticed was Luna, who cocked her head thoughtfully.
He then created a guest account for Leo.
"Ok, Akiza, let's go." Yusei grabbed his helmet and went into the back, where his, Jack's, and Crow's runners were waiting. Akiza went out the front door, picked up her own helmet, and settled into the seat of her runner as Yusei went onto the street next to her. They rode off in silence.
In a bit they were weaving through traffic on the highway as they made their way to Cobalt Avenue. Yusei nearly crashed his runner several times, as his attention was distracted by the girl riding next to him. He thought back to Crow's comment.
"We all know why you want her with you, Yusei…"
Yusei knew what Crow was thinking, but the thing that scared him was that he knew it was true.
Stop. Stop. We're just friends, and I want to keep it that way.
He knew, however, that he would still wait, and watch, and hope. Because clustering hopes became dreams, and dreams came true sometimes, right?
-At the Garage-
Leo picked up the flash drive curiously and put it into the port on Yusei's computer. When he tried to open it, however, he got a message saying that the disk needed administrator access to open.
Then everyone remembered that Yusei's was the only administrator account on the computer.
And he had set a password.
Prologue Part 2: Dawn of a Raid
-Backstory-
Twenty years before these events, Neo Domino City had been a thriving metropolis. Sector Security was kind to law-abiding citizens, fair in its judgments, and merciless to criminals. But a small, underground movement started gathering followers. Isolated at first, this movement spread through the backstreets, gathering followers as it went. When it got big enough, it started challenging Sector Security. At first, the Securities won their skirmishes easily. But then the organization gained many, many more followers and finally managed to take down the Securities and depose the acting Director. Proclaiming themselves the new directors of the city, they started to rule with extreme cruelty, using the new Syndicate Security as their iron fist.
They called themselves the Syndicate.
As is the norm in situations like this, people eventually started fighting back. After about 10 years, a small resistance sprang up in the city, trying to convince people to rebel. But people were scared, and they didn't want to ruin the lives that they had so carefully built under the Syndicate's rule. In the end, the freedom fighters struck out on their own, vowing to destroy the Syndicate using any means necessary. The freedom fighters conducted raids on Security and Syndicate buildings, stealing weapons and trying to get a chance to take out the Director. In the beginning of the revolution, there were about 100 freedom fighters. Years of fighting and running from the Syndicate took their toll, as some died while others simply went into hiding. Ten years after the rebellion started, the number of fighters was down to 6, all teenagers, all of whom had parents who died in the service of the rebellion.
These remaining freedom fighters called themselves the Signers, for reasons that they themselves didn't fully comprehend.
The Syndicate and the Signers fought through both mundane and magical means. All Signers carried concealed guns and other hidden weapons. The Syndicate, of course, armed its forces with the best weapons money could buy. However, they also fought by Summoning monsters. Summoning a monster, then keeping it in the battle, took immense amounts of energy. Some monsters were inherently weaker than others, but a Summoner with a strong will could power up his or her monster. All monsters had special abilities that were also fortified by willpower. Through everyone in Neo Domino had the potential to Summon, only a few people ever tapped into that power. The Signers and the Syndicate were part of those few who could use their power to Summon.
-Neo Domino City, 10:00 A.M.-
Star was looking out at the city, pressing the gold highlights on his spiky black hair to the window while he waited for the other five members of his squad to get dressed. He was joined at the window by a hyperactive, green-haired young boy named Prime. Prime was running around working off his sugar high from the previous day as Star watched and laughed at his antics. His twin sister, Angel, was none too happy about this.
"Prime, you have to be more serious! Today might be the biggest raid of our lives, so can't you settle down for a moment?"
"Don't worry, Angel, he'll calm down when the time comes," said Raven walked into the room, looking like he'd just gotten out of bed. His spiky orange hair was all over the place.
"He'd better, or I'll calm him down with my fist!" snapped a muffled voice from the bathroom.
"Ooh, Prime, I do believe the King is mad at you…" Raven said, smirking.
A softer voice came from the bottom of the stairs. "Guys, can you keep it down? The Securities have new technology that can detect the vibration from sound very accurately. The chances that they'll catch us are low, but still, we don't want our plan ruined before it even starts, do we?"
Star immediately turned away from Prime and looked at the source of the new voice, Rose. She wasn't dressed in her usual red clothing, but instead in one of the four guard's uniforms that they had stolen from the Securities barracks in preparation for this raid.
She looks good, he thought. But then again, she'd look good in anything…
Stop it, Star. That is not a good place to go. What do you think is going to happen between you and her, anyway? Living happily ever after, riding off into the sunset? Yeah, right.
It was true that he had started seeing her as more than a friend, but being on the run pretty much frustrated any attempt he could make to get close to her.
But he would wait, and watch, and hope, because clustering hopes become dreams, and dreams came true sometimes, right?
He looked down, laughing at his own idiocy. Yeah, I'll put that dream behind the one that I've been trying to achieve for years—the downfall of the Syndicate. How could I ever settle things with Rose anytime soon, when we've been fighting them for years and they're still breathing down our necks?
"Earth to Star. Star. Star." He looked up to see Raven snapping his fingers at him. "We're about to leave. You ready?"
Star looked around the safe house, gathered his things. Among the things he gathered were some painted stones, about the size of playing cards. There were interesting designs etched on the stones. He studied one white stone in particular, as if it could give him all of the answers he sought. Finding none, he sighed and pocketed the stones.
"I'm ready."
A/N: And that's the prologue. Hope you guys like it! Sorry that it's kind of boring, but I wanted to set the scene for what's to come. I'm hoping to have Chapter 1 up very quickly. Please review.