FallingStar93: Guess what! I'm finally posting this story!
ElodieKumari94: *claps sarcastically* Congratulations! It's only been almost a year and a half since we starting writing this!
FS93: Yeah, yeah, yeah... Anyway, in case you haven't noticed, I have a co-writer for this story!
EK94: So, in other words, it's helpful if you've ready my story The Crow and the Dove before you read this.
FS93: Although it's not really essential... You pretty much get a recap in the first few chapters. However, if you haven't read Angels and Devils, you might be a little more lost.
EK94: ...But now that I think about it, neither are really necessary for understanding... Just helpful.
FS93: ...Ya know, that is true...
EK94: Okay, now we're just rambling. Go read the story.
FS93: Wait! We haven't done the disclaimer yet!
EK94: ...Well? What are you waiting for then?
FS93: Right. Neither of us owns Yu-Gi-Oh 3D's, just our OC's. The only two who appear in this chapter are Elodie Kumari and Naomi Mori. However, more come in later, and we still own them.
Both: Enjoy!
Chapter One: The Loner
The last sliver of sunlight was just cresting over the western horizon, casting long shadows across the silent streets of the Satellite Sector. Only one lone figure remained out in the streets, walking towards a destination not even she knew. She denied the beauty and the serenity of the twilight sky as she walked, searching for a place to settle down for the night. In her mind, the cold cruelty of the world she lived in shut out any sort of beauty.
So she kept walking, just as she had the night before, and the night before that, and, you guessed it, the night before that as well. It was always the same for her. She was always searching for something, whether it was food, or a place to sleep, or something she knew she would never find, something she had lost hope in finding long ago. It never changed, and as far as she knew, nothing would ever change, no matter how hard other people tried to make it change; like the whole deal with the new bridge being built to reconnect Satellite with new Domino City, for instance. Whose crazy idea had that been? People were saying that it would bring everyone together again, give everyone a new chance and new hope, and that it would change society for the better. Yeah, right. As far as the loner knew, nothing could fix a world already so broken by hate and war, and it was ridiculous to even try.
Whatever, she thought to herself as she turned into yet another dark ally. Let them dream. They will realize soon enough that what they are attempting is impossible.
The loner walked down the ally and found herself at a dead end. She decided this would do for tonight. There was a pile of old, long-forgotten flour sacks in the corner; they could be handy in making a nice enough sleeping place. It was early summer, so the night wouldn't get too chilly, so she didn't need to worry about being cold or anything. The loner set to spreading the bags out in the corner of the ally, in the shadows, where she wouldn't easily be seen. When she was satisfied, she lay down and stretched herself out over her makeshift bed, ready for a good rest.
The loner was just about to fall asleep when a strange noise reached her ears. She opened her bright green eyes and sat up, listening intently, a confused frown creasing her brow. Yes, the sound was definitely footsteps - footsteps of someone in a hurry. Someone who was coming closer. Coming from... above her?
A dark shadow passed over the loner as someone leapt from the rooftop behind her. The figure hit the street as light and silent as a cat, and the loner barely had time to register the figure before it shot off like a bullet without looking back. The loner watched as the stranger ran out of the ally and into the open moonlight, coming to a halt in the distant street. She realized that the stranger was a girl about her age, with long, chocolate brown hair pulled back into a ponytail, dressed in dark jeans and a maroon-red leather jacket, with a thick black choker around her neck. The girl turned her head to look down the street, and the loner saw the side of her pale-skinned face and one of her large, hazel eyes, wide and dilated with fear and adrenaline.
The hazel-eyed girl turned and started to head down the street, but then she skidded to a halt, turned, and sprinted in the other direction, all in about two seconds, as a distant voice cried, "There she is! Get her!"
The loner got to her feet and watched from the shadows as a small group of black-clad men ran passed the alley after the girl.
"There she goes!"
"After her!"
"She won't get away this time!"
As their footsteps and shouts faded away, the loner crept forward and peered down the street in the direction they had gone. There was no sign of the girl or the gang. She stepped out of the ally and stared down the street, folding her arms over her chest as she thought about what had just happened. Those men were chasing that girl for some reason.
Well, it sucks to be her then, the loner thought as she turned to go back down the ally. It's not my fault she ticked those guys off. She'll have to escape on her own.
But the loner stopped again as she remembered the fear and anger she had seen in the girl's eyes. She remembered when that had been her, running for her life from people who wanted to do her harm. What if the men caught the girl? What would they do to her?
Not my problem! the loner told herself fiercely. She took another step down the ally, but her conscience made her stop again. She couldn't get the girl's face out of her mind. She suddenly felt herself flash back to when she had been the one trapped and desperate for a way out, and someone had come just in the nick of time to save her...
Someone else will help her, the loner tried to console herself. Why should I do anything?
But that was just it: If she didn't do anything, who would? Who else would be there to save that girl from whatever fate those thugs had planned?
The loner sighed furiously... then turned and ran down the street.
Elodie knew she was in trouble.
She had a huge gang coming at her from all sides, and it seemed as though no matter where she turned, they were there. On top of that, they had stolen her duel disk, so she couldn't use her powers to defend herself. Her friends had no idea where she was or even that she was in trouble, and her phone was dead, so she couldn't call them for help. This just wasn't her night!
Elodie turned another corner only to find herself in at a dead-end. She turned to run back, but she could sense that the gang was closing in on her. There was no way she would be able to get out of there without them catching her. She looked around for a ladder, a trap door, somewhere to hide, and found nothing. She was trapped like a cheese-hunting lab rat.
"Fan-tastic!" Elodie growled as she pulled her pocket knife out of her boot and turned to face her enemy. The gang members snickered as the crept towards her; they knew she had no where to run. Elodie gave her own furiously snarl as she held the knife out in front of her and got into a defensive position. They weren't going to take her without a fight.
"We've got you now, little witch," the leader sneered, stepping forward. He was a large, brutish bald man with Criminal Marks all over his face and tattoos on his beefy arms. Backing him up was at least half a dozen other thugs from the streets. Elodie figured she could take maybe a couple of them in hand-to-hand combat, but that wasn't going to be enough to get her out of this. There numbers were too large. The gang leader knew this, and his evil smile widened as he laughed loudly.
"There's no where for you to run now!" he cackled as he and his fellows advanced. "You can't take all of us at once with that little stick of a blade, and you can't use your witchy hocus-pocus without your duel disk! We are going to stop you and your stupid friends from finishing that bridge, Witch, no matter what it takes!"
"Then what are you waiting for?" Elodie snarled, bracing herself for the attack. The chances of her getting out of this one unscathed were very, very slim, but she had to try. No way was she going to lay down like a dog and let these thugs trample all over her; especially since she was fighting for something she so strongly believed in as the bridge.
The gang leader chuckled again. He and his friends rushed forward, weapons and fists held high, and Elodie prepared herself for the attack...
"Did someone here order a duel disk?"
Elodie's head snapped toward the sound of the voice, and the gang stopped their charge to turn and see who had spoken. There was a small, black-clad figure standing at the mouth of the ally, half cloaked in shadow. All Elodie could see of her was light brown, shoulder length hair beneath a navy-blue stocking cap and bright green eyes that glittered dangerously through the shadows.
"Who are you?" one of the gang members demanded. "What are you doing here?"
The girl raised an eyebrow. "I thought that was obvious. Not the brightest crayon in the box, now are we?"
"You'd better scram, little girl," the gang leader growled. "This does not concern you!"
"Get out of here!" Elodie mouthed at the girl, waving frantically at her to go away; she didn't want her to get hurt for her sake.
But the stranger just shook her head and declared, "I'm not going anywhere."
The gang leader smiled devilishly at her. "Fine, then. We'll just take you down before we get the witch! Get her, boys!"
"No!" Elodie cried as the thugs rushed at the girl, but she needn't have worried. The girl ducked and weaved around her attackers with expert precision, occasionally landing a will-timed punch or kick of her own. It was obvious that she was experienced in fighting, but there were still too many of them. Elodie ran forward to help, and the girl saw her coming.
"Outta the way, you over-grown turkey!" she barked at a gang member as she shoved him out of the way. Then she threw something into the air towards Elodie.
"CATCH!"
Elodie reached up with her free hand, and as her fingers closed around the duel disk the girl had thrown at her, her eyes glowed bright amber and her powers coursed through her veins. It was go-time!
"The witch has a duel disk!" one of the gang members yelped as Elodie strapped the disk to her arm and activated it.
"Get behind me!" Elodie ordered the girl. The stranger shoved her way through the retreating gang and obeyed the psychic; she had seen the angry, powerful light in her eyes and realized she was not to be questioned.
"Dark Zebra ought to do the trick!" Elodie proclaimed as she drew a card and slapped it face-up on the duel disk. There was a bright white glow beneath the two girls' feet, and before the stranger knew it, she and Elodie were on the back of a huge zebra with black and red eyes. The zebra let out a terrifying scream and reared up, legs kicking wildly over the heads of the duel gang as they all yelled out in fear and fought to get out of the alleyway.
"And I'll be taking THAT back, thank you!" Elodie snapped as her monster's hooves struck a gang member clutching another duel disk. The man fell with a cry of pain, and the duel disk flew out of his hands. The green-eyed girl caught it, and Elodie charged her beast through the panicking gang and out of the alley. The stranger sitting behind her cried out from the breathtaking speed and clung onto the back of Elodie's jacket as the world rushed past her.
"Are they fallowing us?" Elodie called over her shoulder as they galloped down the street.
"I don't think so!" the other girl answered, turning around to check. Elodie nodded and directed her zebra around a corner and down another street. After a couple more turns, Elodie finally slowed her equestrian beast to a stop and jumped off. The other girl did the same, and the zebra disappeared in a burst of stars and returned to Elodie's deck as she deactivated the duel disk. She touched a hand to the choker around her neck, which was special designed to help stabilize her powers, and she felt the psychic energy slowly drain out of her system as her eyes went from glowing gold back to her usual hazel.
"Thanks a lot for that," Elodie said, turning and giving the girl grateful smile as they traded the duel disks back to their owners. "You were amazing back there! And you've sure got great timing."
"Whatever," the stranger muttered with a shrug. Elodie smiled again and walked to the edge of the street, peering around the corner. Using both her eyes and her powers, she checked to see if anyone was coming after them.
"We should be safe now," she said. "I don't think they're going to come after us again. Hey, what's your name, by the-"
Elodie turned only to see the stranger disappear around the corner at the opposite end of the street.
"Hey, wait up!" Elodie called at the girl, running after her. By the time she reached the end of the street, the girl who had saved her life was gone. The moonlit street was alone and deserted, the green-eyed stranger nowhere to be seen. Elodie couldn't even sense her aura anymore. She had simply vanished.
Elodie wasn't sure how long she stood in the middle of that shadow-filled street, staring out in shock as the moon climbed higher into the sky, but the next thing she knew, she both heard and sensed someone riding toward her on a duel runner. With a smile, she recognized who it was, and turned to see a very familiar figure driving a black-and-yellow duel runner shoot around a corner and head straight towards her.
"Crow!" Elodie cried in relief as her closest friend came to a stop beside her.
"There you are, Elodie! What the devil are you doing out here? We've been trying to call you for the past half-hour! We've all been worried."
"Sorry, my phone died a while ago. I would have been home sooner if I, erm, hadn't run into a bit of trouble earlier..."
Crow noticed that Elodie still had her pocket knife clutched in her hand and frowned. "What kind of 'trouble' exactly? Is everything alright?"
"I'm... not sure," Elodie muttered uncertainly, still gazing down the silent street. Then she tore her eyes away, stored her knife back into the sheath hidden in her boot, and climbed onto the Blackbird behind Crow.
"I'll explain when we get back to the apartment," she said. "Let's just get out of here."
EK94: So? What did you guys think of the first chapter? Reviews please?
FS93: Speaking of reviews, I have a little policy about that. And it's different than in past stories of mine, so everyone listen up! Review if you will, concrit if you please, and flame if you must. But, in all honesty if you flame, I will automatically think 'How immature!' and promptly ignore it. If you think this story is horrible at least have the decentsy to tell us how to fix it.
Both: Thanks for reading! ^_^
