Chapter 2: Is this what's kept me grounded?

Everything faded in and out, all Yukon could see when he came to was what he thought was his guardian angel before he lost consciousness again.

Trey on the other hand woke up to a sensation of feeling dragged by his arms out of a vehicle and felt a hard thump as he and Yukon hit the floor in what felt to be a puddle. Face soaked in murky water he jolted to a smell that sank into his very core. The smell reminded him of animal feces and meat that had been off for months. Struggling to get up Trey's face started to ache, unable to move his eye he looked into the puddle and saw a shining black eye that could resemble a crater on the moon. He sighed, and laid back down and looked at the bright sky above him. "I wonder how long I've been out for?" He turned his head to Yukon next to him and the guy was flat out unconscious. "He needs some serious medical attention". As he struggled to get up he stumbled his way over to Yukon so he could pick him up when a sudden sensation of pain flew across his cheek and he collapsed on to his hands and knees. This really wasn't their day.

"What the hell were you going to do with him?! What happened to him?! Answer me!". The loud shrieking voice of a woman piercing his ears.

"Will you shut, the hell up?! - I was going to pick him up and take him to the nearest hospital so he could get treated for being nearly electrocuted to death." She took a step back looking at the poor boy in shock.

"What the hell happened?" Trey proceeded to explain to the Scarlet haired woman everything that happened to Yukon and himself in the underground with the Sacred Beast Triad. Though he never explained why he was there in the first place to which she picked up on.

"First, we look after Yukon." She commanded, "then you're going to explain to me why you were there Trey."

"I don't have to explain shit to you lady! I have my own reasons why I was there, just as Yukon was there to pay off his debts and I don't know about you, but me and Yukon have a score to settle with the Triad."

"Are you seriously intending to go back?" She looked at him incredulously "You'll die if you do".

"Damn straight I'm going back, I want my fucking money back and I'm going to win it from them." Head buried in her hands from frustration. She decided to leave the conversation and pick up Yukon, to her surprise he was quite light due to his small frame but he still bogged her down to a slow-ish pace. His arm over her shoulder. Trey stood there surprised that she just gave up on him and the argument they were having. Strutting behind them, hands in his pockets whistling away. He was really beginning to get on her last nerve.

"Why the hell are you following me, weren't you going to get your money back from the Triad?!"

"Well… For a few reasons, reason number one is that I need Yukon as he knows where they are specifically and how to get there. Two heads are better than one is what they say after all, right?" A vein was about to burst in her head. "Reason number two is because I feel bad for Yukon and I want to see him recover." She wasn't convinced. "Last but not least, reason number three. It's because it annoys you. Am I right?"

"Alright, alright if you're so concerned you can at least help me carry him so it doesn't a million years to actually get him back to my place so I can help him recover." Trey stood for a second and wondered why she wasn't going to the hospital. After realising the police would possibly get involved, he would lose his money forever and possibly be hunted down by both, the police and the triad for snitching. He smiled with a cheeky grin.

"Your wish is my command milady." He replied sarcastically. She spotted him an evil glare as he sprinted to catch up, he took Yukon's other side and took his arm over his shoulder and as she felt the weight lift off her, she was relieved that she could now walk properly again.

"So… You got a name?" Trey inquired.

"Kia" her rebuttal was short and to the point, to Trey it felt targeted but to Kia. She just wanted to get home after work that day. She travelled to and from work by foot everyday and today just weren't a day for her either. Her family had visited Kia to see how she was getting on, only to criticize her life, stating that everything about her living arrangements and workplace, were almost peasant like. It's the way she loved to live though, it was small and comfy. The fact that her family were born into their riches and had that spoilt attitude that could rival even the most bratty of children really grated on her and she had to escape from that kind of lifestyle. As she walked home from work today and met Trey and Yukon, she couldn't help but feel for them and what they had just gone through. Yukon had almost died just to pay off his debts and to that she could relate to him strongly. He probably works for next to fuck all in terms of wages and he was stuck in an endless contract forced to duel for entertainment values like he was some circus animal locked in a cage. Kia never blamed Trey for wanting revenge and getting his money back. Despite how much of a stupid idea it was. She would have felt the same way.

"So how long had you two known each other prior to this incident?" Kia was nervous now considering she had not long ago landed a bruising punch and someone who was trying to help the person she was currently helping.

"I don't know him but after what he just suffered, the fact he had almost died our situation meaning I would have been killed off as well. There was nothing I could have done about it. Neither of us were in a good enough condition to even duel the boss of that arena to even fight for our freedom so I paid the guy off in an attempt for us to live a little longer and come back another day and take them on together." Kia looked into the sky, she almost felt inspired by how smart this guy actually was. She brought her head down and noticed how Yukon looked so peaceful in his coma like state.

"So… who won the duel then?" Trey blushed in embarrassment this time.

"Yukon is pretty intense when he's dueling he's incredibly talented".

"That wasn't the question I asked, but considering how you flawlessly dodged it, I'm guessing it would have been Yukon." Trey never responded, he never entertained her with any kind of look either.

"He would have won in the end if it weren't for them. They had rigged it for him to lose via knockout or disqualification. So when he comes to, I want a legit duel with him when I can."

As they both carried Yukon out the filth ridden valley they got dumped in around the corner Trey found himself in an unfamiliar area. There were skyscrapers all over the place, the sound felt claustrophobic to what he was used to and he felt his dirty suit didn't fit the part where they were located. It was off putting to say the least. Noticing his terrified gaze Kia got curious.

"Have you never been to Duo Domino City before?"

"I haven't, I had always wanted to come here but I had never had the funds to actually travel until recently." Now she was more curious than ever considering the fat load of cash he was walking around with just the night before. Speaking of which, another thought popped into her head.

"How much cash do you actually have right now?"

"Considering how much I gave the Triad." His blood dropped from his face and her anticipation growing higher. "I probably have about ten grand sitting in my savings right now."

"Savings?!"

"Yeah I worked and dueled for my savings for about 5 years now to try and cure my family of an illness that could lead them to be terminal." His fixated gaze on the city suddenly grew sharp as he just blurted out his reasoning for being where he was last night. His embarrassed beetroot face had shown and he looked away to save his pride. A few moments went before Kia broke out into laughter.

"What? What's so funny?" Trey was really confused at this point.

"You that's what. Just before you got really defensive and secretive about why you were in the underground and here I thought you were some snobby rich kid in it for the thrill when you actually have a heart of pure gold. To be honest it's kind of sweet that you're actually like that and I can that you're genuine now." Trey was the one kind of getting pissed off now at the sound of her sarcasm she was portraying at that moment. He genuinely looked at Yukon and thought about whether it would be worth it or not to keep a hold of him and just follow her instead.

"Where is your place anyway now that we are out of the alley way?"
"Oh it's just a few blocks this way to the left." She responded after recovering from her small fit of laughter.

"What? In one of these apartments?" He points to a really tall building with a grand design and a lot of expensive decoration.

"Yeah except my place is not as grand as these" They carried on further down the street until they came across a ran down building odd looks darted their way. All the while on the the journey there Trey couldn't stop looking up at the entire city. It really was a new experience for him. He had come from a much smaller city. Roads were just as big and busy. But a lot smaller in population, landscape and height. Kia and Yukon on the other hand had grown up around here their entire lives. So from Kia's point of view. She never saw a big deal but she understood how overwhelmed he might be feeling. Considering how obvious he was making himself out to be.

* * * * *

It wasn't long before they made it into her apartment on the fourth floor of the building. They quickly rushed him through the narrow hallway into her bedroom, which was the second door to the left, and laid Yukon down carefully onto the bed. He still had his biker gear on at this point and both of them were scared on how bad his injuries would be underneath it. They both paused for a moment and looked at each other in a way that was very awkward.

"So." Trey started turning around.

"Oh, no no no. You get back here, you're going to check his wounds, not me."

"Why the hell should I undress him I don't want to see the guy naked."

"Oh come on it's just a guy, I don't want him waking up to find me undressing him and giving him the wrong idea."

"Exactly it's just a guy." He retorted back in a mocking tone in his voice. "I'm sure he would be happy to see a fine woman such as yourself undressing him. Besides if he doesn't swing that way I'm sure he wouldn't care either way." He had her cornered until something crossed her mind. It sparked a wonderful idea and her Navy blue eyes lit up.

"How about we just take off his jacket. That will give us a good idea on whether we should be worried or not. That way we don't have to give him a 'thorough' examination." He liked where she was coming from with this. He decided to adamantly volunteer to it and slowly started to unclasp the buckles on his jacket. Slowly to make sure the leather wasn't stuck to his skin, considering the nasty shock Yukon got the the night before. Trey really did feel sorry for him and somewhere in the back of his head wished that neither of them were ever in this situation in the first place. In a few moments he managed to lift the jacket from his shoulders smoothly, his skin bright red and stains down his top from where he bled out of his nose and mouth. Which sparked an idea. Trey lifted up Yukon's top to check his stomach… No bruising or shortness of breath.

"Man this kid is one hell of a lucky bastard. Getting away with a nasty shock and a coma." She nodded in response to her agreement a tad flustered from what she had just witnessed.

"So if he's sleeping in your room where am I sleeping then?"

"On the couch, in the living room. I'll grab you some covers and a pillow. I'll be staying in the spare room." This time it was Trey who just nodded in agreement. Kia had allowed them both to use the shower, bearing that in mind for when Yukon eventually wakes up.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the city. Some time had passed and the midnight air was cool, the traffic had calmed down as people made their way home from work. Not for Ryoji though. Slick back hair, navy blue shirt coated with a blazer, jeans and a pair of smart shoes, his piercing heterochromatic gaze focused on his path ahead. He patrolled through the dark streets of Duo Domino City to a certain destination he had in mind. The Underground, he needed money fast. His father's company had been losing profit for a while now, and if he didn't do something about it. They would lose everything, so his last resort had to be to duel for cash. He had crossed through the back alley streets for a shortcut to get to his destination, much faster than he had anticipated, it didn't take long for him to reach the underground. Walking past a blue sports motorcycle with the name 'Legacy' on the side of the bike. "That will be a decent get away bike if I get into any trouble while I'm here." Moving on from the bike he turned a corner to hear a deafening explosion, catching Ryoji off guard he instantly deployed his duel disk out. Slashing right out of his arm mechanically and at a breakneck pace, somebody had noticed him.

"Hey! Who are you?" This guy had a mechanical cybernetic arm, a biker leather with military combat trousers with pretty neatly polished black boots. Ryoji instantly thought military when he noticed a 'Raviel' logo on his leather.

"My identity is none of your concern." He calmly stated, although in his head his anger was seething and he wanted to explode. "All that should concern you right now is that you have a customer who wants to take part in your games."

"Oh, and what's in it for us, for you to take part in our games. You have to offer up something in return otherwise you don't have a chance in getting in." The Triad member had stumped him and one could only assume from previous experience with his father. That he might have meant money being involved, but due to his sheltered life-style. He never took money with him wherever he went.

"Well, if it's money you're after I don't have any to give." The Triad member went from amused to dumbfounded this time.

"Wait, wait. Hold on, you waltz up to our front door. Asking to take part, in our games, with a chance of winning cash only to have no cash to bargain for. How dumb can you get." Ryoji's veins started to pop at the slight toward his intelligence. He thought of an idea on what he could bargain on. It would be a big risk but Ryoji was confidence in his skills to not lose.

"How about this. I'll bargain my state of the art duel disc that hasn't even been officially released yet. You know, the one that 'Kaiba Corp' are currently advertising right now." Confident in his idea to bait these goons into letting him play, suddenly a mechanical sound had just radiated across Ryoji's ears and a blade had closed in on his neck. The Triad member was pissed off this time, Ryoji's face in shock that, that idea had completely backfired on him. His breathing had calmed all the while this soldier's patience had clearly started to run out when he just came out and said it. "Alright, alright. How about this." Quickly thinking on his feet considering his neck was about to be sliced Ryoji proposed an offer he couldn't refuse. "How about a duel with you, if I lose I come work for you guys and you, personally, get my deck. If I win, I get to take part in your games and I get your deck." This time the Raviel member was legitimately considering his proposal.

'If I get his deck then, that's my deck upgraded and a win for me might end up with a promotion plus another goon working for us for free.' The offer was tempting even for a lot of the senior members. "Okay you've got yourself a duel, but you ain't getting past me. You better get your lame on loser."

'Get my lame on? What kind of insult is that.' The insult believe it or not actually calmed our hero down, right to the very core. Each opponent stepped back as they prepared to duel. With 8000 life points flashing on their duel discs, the duel was on.

"I'll be going first" The triad member drew his 5 cards and smirked with what he believed would be the god opening hand he believed in. "I'll play allure of darkness, draw 2 and banish a dark monster" Ryoji noticed he banished his battle fader and considering his opening hand he was perfectly fine with it. "Next I'll play the field spell Magical Meltdown, when this field spell activates I get to add an Aleister the Invoker to my hand. Next I'll normal summon aleister the invoker to the field." The Raviel member summoned it in front of Ryoji's right extra monster zone. "When this card is summoned I get to add invocation to my hand."

'That's right keep adding cards to your hand.' Ryoji wishfully thought. His heterochromatic gaze intensifies as he plays invocation from his hand and fusioning summoning his Aleister on the field and Queens bodyguard from his hand. Into the exact zone he wanted to him to play, thus setting him perfectly for when his turn would come.

"Out you come Invoked Magellanica, feast your eyes on this magnificent beast. It boasts a wonderous 3000 attack points and 3300 defence points the second largest monster in my deck. Before finishing my turn I'll set 1 card." That was it, he couldn't have set Ryoji up more perfectly than this. Ryoji maintained his composure though, he had to otherwise he might activate his face down on him and negating anything he could bring out. So with this in mind he started his turn.

"My draw, first I'll activate terraforming as well."

"Oh, interesting." The nameless antagonist hissed in sarcasm.

"I add World Legacy Scars from my deck to my hand." He took the card straight out of his deck, put it into his hand and the duel disc shuffled his deck for him. "I play World Legacy Scars, then I special summon my Mekk-Knight Blue Sky since you have 2 or more cards in the same column.

"Okay that's great and all but since your monster is weaker than my monster, attacking me is not what you're going for are you? So what's your plan now?" Ryoji's emotions not even tweaking in response, he simply stated.

"Since Mekk-Knight Blue sky was special summoned this turn from my hand, his effect activates and it allows me to add 2 Mekk-knight monsters with different names to my hand, I then normal summon Mekk-Knight Avram." The Raviel Member was curious now. 'Is he summoning Galaxy-Eyes Photon dragon with those stat lines?' "Now I link summon." 'The hell? He's using a link deck?' "The materials for this monster require a Mekk-Knight, plus one monster. Out you come, link two Mekk-Knight Morningstar!" The nameless Raviel Member was getting scared now. 'He has a column open again to bring another Mekk-Knight out and I assume he brought out Morningstar to actually help him to go into something bigger.' "Once Morningstar has been summoned I can discard one Mekk-knight or World Legacy card to add another World Legacy spell or trap to my hand and I add World legacy Key. I should also let you know that my Mekk-knight's also gain 300 extra attack while they're on the field, but that will come into play later." His opponent stood there speechless with only one face down card and a 3000 Invoked monster on his field he was getting nervous. " I set one card down behind Morningstar and special summon Indigo Eclipse." A gorgeous armoured being with a vibrant indigo shine and a ring behind it's back had come out to duel now. "I'll activate its effect to move into the centre column and special summon 2 more of his friends, Purple Nightfall and Redmoon." Purple Knightfall donning it's own armour with a spear and boasting a huge 2800 attack sank down from the sky like an angel along with it's ally Redmoon. A more bulky armoured unit not far off in attack points from purple donning a huge axe, flexing it's 2600 attack. Staring Megallanica down, no fear shown in Ryoji's eyes. "Finally I'll activate Redmoon's effect to banish a Mekk-knight from my graveyard and destroy Megallanica and attack with all my Mekk-knights for game." At that moment 10400 worth of damage hit the Raviel member Striking him down where he stood. He was cleaned out.

"Alright, alright, you win I had no chance. Fuck, here's my deck and you can take part in our games. I'll let my superiors know what's up. Wait out here."

"Acceptable." Ryoji let out a soft breath, he was happy his deck got a significant upgrade and now he can start earning cash. The nerves almost got to him. That back row could have been anything, but he had another win condition if the attack didn't go through.

Looking through the deck he was shocked to see the full invoked engine with spellbook support behind it. It wasn't the spellbooks Ryoji was after but he could see it becoming useful in the future, and with that in mind he sat down to work on his deck while he waited for response from the Triad bosses.

It wasn't long after after Ryoji had finished his deck when the Triad's leutenant had come out to greet him, and what he was faced with, was a stern man in Khaki trousers, pristine military Doc Martins, a lean tank top with bulging muscles coming out of his huge cask of a chest and a pair of shades covering up his scars around his eyes. Not to mention with the crease coming from the forehead of his buzz cut head proved he wasn't in the greatest of moods tonight. Ryoji swallowed evident fear and spoke up first.

"So am I able to take part in your games to earn cash?" Ryoji's voice croaked as his voice decided to choke up. He never removed his stoic expression on his face. The luetenant paused for a moment, he looked back to the same underling who had his ass handed to him by Ryoji.

"This was the guy who OTK'd you in one turn?" His hidden gaze never left Ryoji what so ever.

"Yeah boss, this is the guy." His underling staring down at the floor in shame.

"One condition. If you want to join this business, we back winners. As soon as you start losing. We cut you loose, no reward, no deck. We take everything, and you're here for as long as you entertain this bloody crowd. You got that?" His commanding voice didn't waver what so ever. Ryoji understood what he was getting into. To him, it was worth it as long as he could help his family. He would practically do anything and at that moment he nodded in agreement. I guess we have a deal then. I'm firing my guy here and I'm assigning him to be your bodyguard forever for disgracing this organisation. His name Simon, but you can call him whatever you want. Simon's expression dropped in protest. "You got a problem with that, low life?" Simon quaked in his boots at this moment in time. He shook his head in acceptance of his fate. "Then we are all in agreement, come on in. We'll get the forms filled out and I'll get you sorted so you can start earning some decent doe.

"Yes sir." Ryoji accepted without a fight. His face dropped in shock that this guy pawned his crew member off to what Ryoji was considered a nobody… A few moments later after the lieutenant had explained all the rules and conditions. They all went inside to get the night going. In the back of his mind, his issues had what kept him grounded the entire time this event had gone on for and he wouldn't forget it at all that night.