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The Belts, as an old friend once described it to me 'The closest you can get to living hell, without getting burned', we're above those in the Satellite, but below those in New-Domino, although it's not always that hot, life there can be pretty grim. But there is hope, there are those of us who like the Belt, mainly because we are free, there are only a couple of rules here, the rest is just courtesy and respect, lots of respect. And then there the Securities, we have respect for certain members of this force, not because of their authority, or because of the fancy uniforms and clean Duel-Runners but because they are just like us, people trying to get on in the world, and decent duellist's to boot, which is always comes in handy, especially on pay-day. Then one day everything changed, you see, it was round about that time when the new Head of the Belts Security, Mr. Makova, decided that it was time for all duellists in the Belt should be 'encouraged' to put down their Duel-Runners and Duel-Disks so that they could find a new line of work, of course, there were protests and riots, but he quietly hushed them up, either through brute force or covertly 'removing' those he felt were 'responsible', until we reach the present, where Duel-Runners were worth their weight in gold, and in the Belts, Gold is very hard to come by.
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Alex walked down the street, he was one of the lucky ones, he was a survivor, he had some contacts, and he made sure that they stayed alive, and they made sure he got what he needed to survive, because without friends, life can be grim.
He made a left at the crossroads and glanced at the setting sun, he cut a strange figure, 5' 11, wearing black jeans and a fading purple T-shirt,, his hair was cut short and a pale blue, his grey eyes shone out from behind his glasses. His belt was broad and black, with a small deck-holder built into it, everyone had them, although not many actually carried decks, it was more for show than for practical use, he could feel the heat radiating off the sun as he walked down the hill and made a right into one of the back-alleys, followed by another left, until he was confronted with a row of door's, he moved between them counting them slowly in his head, "7 … 8 … 9, here we are", He twisted the handle of the door with a dulled '9' on the front, and it opened to reveal a flight of stairs, carefully shutting the door behind him, he made his way down, relishing the cool breeze that cam wafting up the stairs, the light above him flickered on and off, until he came to the foot of the stairs, which opened up into a huge basement, a pair of Duel-Runners lay propped up by various bits of hardware and tools, illegal Duel-Runners, although Security hadn't quite got round to outlawing Duelling itself, they all felt the time was coming close, then he was greeted with a billow of smoke, as it cleared he noticed that his friends were here, there was Axel, their Black-haired and wiry-limbed mechanic and old friend, next to him was Sash, a blonde haired, blue-eyed, girl who had had a nasty run in with a Security in New-Domino, so she had got sent here, then standing confidently off to one side, duel-disk held low was Chris, he was their leader-of-sorts, short, Impulsive and over-zealous, with deep brown hair and pale blue eyes, he was everything a good leader should be, across from him, shaking his head to clear the dizziness was Clair, she was a quiet girl who was a reasonable duellist and very pretty, with long red hair and amazingly clear green eyes that sparkled whenever he walked in the room.
From the looks of things, Chris had decided to take to beating his own team again, not out of fun, but more out of a sense of loyalty, he felt that it was his job to keep them on their toes, and they obliged him, although he lost more often then he won, they still all had a good laugh, and in the hot summers duelling was about all they could do, as Clair stood up shakily, she gave a little squeal of delight and ran over to Alex, embracing him.
"What Time do you call this?" she asked sweetly, staring him right in the eyes
"Securities have been keeping tabs on me, you know how they feel about Suspected Duellist's" Alex replied "so I had to lie low for a few days, besides you didn't miss me too much did you?" he asked, returning her embrace with only the slightest hint of embarrassment, they had known each other for a few years, so they were reasonable friendly with each other, out of the corner of his eye he saw Sash staring daggers at Clair, he sighed inwardly, eventually he would have to sit them both down and have a long talk with them, but for the moment, that would have to wait.
Chris came over to him, his face seemed smug for some reason "Securities are starting to really clamp down on Illegal Duel-Runners, did you get the parts that we needed" he asked placing his hands in his pockets
"Hey, did you think I'd come back without them, one of my contacts managed to get through the Security Blockade, so he sent down what parts he got" Alex replied, something wasn't quite right here, Chris normally didn't bother asking questions
"Oh!, that explains all of the mail we've been getting, come have a look" Chris led Alex over to one of the desk, strewn all over the desk were various letters and packages all addressed to him, "Recognise any of the names?" Chris asked raising an eyebrow,
"Other than the fact that there all addressed to me, No, but we may as well find out what's in them" Alex grinned, rubbing his hands with glee, if there was one thing that they all liked doing it was working on or modifying their Duel-Runners, the parts that they had ordered would allow them to finally finish them, Alex carefully picked up a small letter-knife of the bench and carefully slit the tape around the edge of the box, puling the lid off, "It seems he really did pull it off" Alex thought, gazing at the 2 Duel-Disk's, slightly older than the more modern ones, they ere reminiscent of Battle-City, lying in the Box, wrapped in Cling-Film and bubble-wrap, ever since his last Duel-Runner had been impounded, he had been working on a new one, and now it would finally be finished, he lifted one of them out and began taking it apart, piece by piece, until he had finally removed everything that he didn't need, your average Duel-Disk could be very heavy, and he didn't need that weighing him down, especially when he was trying to out run the Securities, he could hear the excited voices behind him as he carefully removed the last bolt, and placed it in a container to his left, now to get started on the Hologram projector.
After about an hour he had finished, so he carefully took the Duel-Disk and slotted it into it's appointed place in the Runner, "alright then, time to start connecting it up" he thought, removing one of the plates, revealing a huge array of wires and switches, he began linking these together carefully, one-by-one, he had just finished the last cable and replaced the plate when several klaxon's began sounding somewhere above him, giving out a long wail, every stared around, a sinking feeling began to descend on Alex,
'This is Sector Security, Give yourselves up, we have you surrounded'