Disclaimer: I don't own any of the names of both the characters and the cards. I do have original characters.
Chapter 2: Salvaging
"Kokoro…" I heard a female voice calling my name, but I ignore her. "Kokoro… Kokoro… WAKE UP ALREADY, YOU LAZY GIRL!"
That yell in my ears woke me up. I jerk my upper body off my bed as I look at the person who yells. That person is Silent Magician; she's a little girl in white-blue sorceress outfit and she has a cute staff in her hands. But she's not a real person, she's a Duel Monster Spirit. Duel Monster Spirits are ghosts that come from the card game and apparently, they also have another world parallel to Earth. They sometime come out to meet their human partner if that partner can see them and such. Currently I'm not the first to have Silent Magician as a partner as she often compares me to my predecessors, including my mom, though she spoke more about my great-great-grandmother who was her first partner.
"You don't need to yell," I responded in a solemn tone as I got up from my bed.
My hideout has a shower area that I use to take a bath. I remove my clothes and pull the shower curtains to cover my naked body so I can take a bath. During that time, Silent Magician and I started a conversation.
"How's your little project going?" Silent Magician asks as if she's trying to provoke, which works.
"It's not 'little'!" I snap. "Once I find the right parts, my Duel Runner can help me get out of this place and into New Domino City!"
I can hear her sighing. "Chasing after your mother is not a good thing, you know. But when you finish making your Duel Runner, what can you say to the people who have supported you?"
"You mean my subordinates…?" I did think about them for a while. Even though I don't know their names, I'm always grateful for their work. There's also the children who are staying in this place. Thinking about them has sadden me.
"You're going to make a lot of people sad," Silent Magician comments. "Speaking about people, what about your new friends, the Enforcers? Don't you care about them as well?"
"It has been only a couple of days since we've become friends. Now that I think about it… I've never seen them since then. They're probably busy taking over another territory somewhere."
Then we heard a ringing sound that is coming from my computer. I turn off the shower, put on a towel to cover my body, and walk up to it. It turns out to be a friend is calling me via video phone. The name of the person who is calling me in the caller id is Misty Tredwell, a starting fashion model from New Domino City. I met her on this video chat during my Internet testing of my place and we've become good friends after we chat about our lives and such. We even made plans about living together as soon as I got out of Satellite.
I answer the video call that stops the ringing sound. A small window appears in my screen that shows a young woman who has black hair and a face that makes her look cool. She also has a gem on her forehead that is probably tied somewhere on her head.
Misty smiles as she said, "Morning, Kokoro. I see that you've just gotten out of the shower."
"Hey, Misty," I greeted back with a smile. "You wouldn't believe what Silent Magician has told me." By the way, Misty is the only person who knows about Silent Magician's existence even though she can't see spirits.
I explain to her about the conversation as I change into my clothes. I put on my red shirt, navy blue vest, brown shorts, black knee-high socks, and brown boots. After I'm done telling her about the conversation, all I could hear her giggling in response.
"What's so funny, Misty?" I ask with an eyebrow raised. "We're talking about me leaving this place! It's sad for me to break some hearts if I did that!"
"Then why not just tell them and hear their feelings." That idea didn't occur to me until Misty suggests it. "How will they take the news is up to them."
Her last words made me worried a little. I decided to change the subject by asking, "Why are you calling?"
"I'm calling to tell you that I found a nice apartment for you and me to be living in as soon as you leave Satellite. I'm thinking of buying it, what do you think?"
I shook my head. "Not now. I'm still busy to find the date when the city dumps its trash in this place. That and I'm busy searching for the parts for my Duel Runner. So, it's going to be a while." I bring out a tin cup of water from my sink and I took a sip from it before I continue talking. "You know, I'm glad that you're the first person from New Domino City to think of me as a friend."
Misty smiles when she heard me say that. "Me too. I'm a bit surprise that you didn't show any resentment towards me when I told you that. I thought the discord between the people runs deep that it couldn't be repair."
That is true. The people living in Satellite are in extreme poverty and the only way to survive this place is to work or steal. There's also Sector Security causing problems or just straight up ignores the people, but they are continuing their jobs by locking up innocent people because of reasons. It's because of these terrible living conditions that made the residents here to hate the people in New Domino City. In fact, most of the officers in Sector Security here are from New Domino City and they keep giving the people a bad attitude, including name calling. It's surprising to anyone who knows about this to see that I, a resident from Satellite, has befriended someone from New Domino City via video phone.
"I can't blame everyone in New Domino City about my living conditions," I said a mature tone. "It's easy to blame someone, but when you think about certain factors, who can you truly blame. The world is never fair to begin with."
Then Misty notices the time as she told me that she must end the call since she needs to get to work. We say our goodbyes and hung up the video phone. Just as I'm about to look for some information inside the World Wide Web, someone came bursting through the door. That person is one of my subordinates who came in here running and I notice that Silent Magician is nowhere to be seen.
I ask, "What's wrong?"
He pants heavily for a while until he says, "We found a junkyard that we believe have the parts that you need for your Duel Runner!"
By the way, all my subordinates know the Duel Runner that I'm working on. But they don't know the reason I'm building it. They assume it's for a countermeasure against Sector Security just in case they want to attack this place.
"So, where is it?"
"They're in the junkyard of Sector D!"
Sector D… I thought to myself. "Isn't that the Magician's Four's territory? I know that they're a small group consisting of four people, but they're tough people."
"You don't need to worry about them! Apparently, the Enforcers are planning to attack them within thirty minutes from now! We have to hurry!"
I stop him before he starts running ahead. "I want you and the others to stay here and protect the place." My subordinate refuses since he, just like the others, don't want me to go alone. "But it'll be suspicious if you guys come with me. The lesser the people, the better for infiltration. I promise I will come back unscathed, so please."
When I made a sad face, my subordinate has no choice but to accept my idea. He went out of the hideout to tell the others about what we discuss. I grab my list and backpack and I leave after him.
I arrive at Sector D, which is another part of a poorly urbanized neighborhood that has an abandoned factory. Of course, getting here wasn't easy because I have sneak pass a lot of people. I sneakily walk around the place, hoping to find the junkyard. To be fair, I would have brought the subordinate who have gotten the information, but I don't want to risk being caught by the Magician's Four, a gang governing this territory. I was hoping to hear some battles to be going on since the Enforcers are attacking them, but the place is quiet. In fact, it's too quiet.
The quiet atmosphere is starting to get to me. I've become nervous as the tension builds up. I can feel my head sweating and my hands shaking with anticipation of being caught. I'm starting to feel afraid of going around any corners in the neighborhood, but with no sight of any people around, I take my chances.
Just as I am about to turn a corner, I heard someone yelling, "GET HIM! DON'T LET HIM ESCAPE!"
I quickly hide back into the corner and I took a slight peek to see Crow being chase by the Magician's Four. I can tell they're the Magician's Four because they wear strange clothing that belongs to a circus. Though seeing them chasing after Crow worries me, but I can tell that he's going to be fine.
My mind is too focus on finding that junkyard. I eventually found it in a large square in the middle of some buildings, but it looks like I'm not the only one who does. I saw a small girl who has brownish, long bushy hair; she wears a yellow knit cap, a blue long coat, an orange dress, and brown shoes. She also has a Criminal Mark, which means that she has been branded as a criminal by Sector Security.
The girl notices me and she said, "Hello! I'm not stealing or anything!" She seems to be wary of me, which is one to be expected from someone who enters someone else's territory.
I reassure her by saying, "Don't worry about it. I too am an outsider like yourself."
"Huh? How come you know that I'm an outsider?"
"Your reactions," I bluntly answer as I point at her. "If I were you, I should learn how to keep on a poker face."
She scratches her head bashfully. "I'm sorry for my behavior! My name is Rally Dawson!"
"Nice to meet you, Rally!" I smile at her. "I'm Kokoro Fernandez. So, what's a cute girl like you doing out here?"
"Well—!" She stops talking as if she realizes something that I have just said. "Wait… do you just call me a girl?" I nod my head in response and that got her mad as she puffs out her cheeks. "I'm not a girl! I'm a boy!"
Those last words froze me for a second as if my brain just shuts down. When my brain starts working again, the words that came out of my mouth is "You're a boy?!"
Rally nods his head. I guess you can't judge a book by its cover, especially someone's appearance. What's more shocking to notice that he is cuter than me, which I consider it to be a defeat for me.
Then Rally explains to me why is he here. Apparently, he is a friend of Yusei's and he wants to find some parts of a Duel Runner for him. It seems that Yusei is also working on a Duel Runner like me, which made me want to talk to him about it. Rally figures that the parts Yusei is looking for may be here and he times it right when the Enforcers made their move to distract the Magician's Four. Of course, he didn't tell the Enforcers about his plan and even if he did, they wouldn't allow Rally to do it since he will probably be a hindrance to them.
"Well, do you want me to help you out?" I ask in a big sister-like tone.
"Really?!" Rally gasps. When I nod my head, he becomes extremely happy and his smile is too cute.
We spend about an hour of searching through the junkyard to find the parts. All we keep finding were useless scrap metal and other junks. We manage to find the parts we need underneath the piles of junks; however, there's one part that Rally is still searching. That last part is a Duel Runner CPU, which is extremely rare in Satellite. I found my CPU by sheer luck after I beat up a guy who is trying to sell me Duel Runner parts that don't work. I told Rally to give up since we don't have enough time to stay here.
"But we can't give up now!" Rally retorts. "I have to hurry and find it!"
I grab hold of Rally's hands and look him at the eye and said, "I understand that you're doing this for Yusei, but wouldn't that worry him if you're not around when he got back. Please think about your friends' feelings before doing something so reckless."
It seems like my words got to him as he nods his head in agreement. Just as we're about to leave, we heard footsteps of someone coming to this direction. Judging from the sound, I believe it's someone running. It's the leader of the Magician's Four and he looks like the Duel Monster called the Dark Eradicator Warlock; he's a red version of the Dark Magician with a purple cape.
The Dark Eradicator guy notices us and shouts, "WHO THE HELL ARE YOU GUYS? ALSO, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE? ARE YOU GUYS WITH THE ENFORCERS?"
I answer his questions with another question as I ask, "Why are you running? Are you running away from Kalin and the others?"
He steps back a little when he heard Kalin's name. "So, you guys are with the Enforcers! Well, it's thanks to your friends that my gang got busted! I guess they won't mind if I use you two as hostages!"
I pull out my Duel Disk and rope out of my backpack. I toss my rope at him as the end of the rope wraps around his arm where his Duel Disk is. When he notices the rope on his arm, he knew it was too late since this means that he won't run away from me.
"Who are you?" he asks in a panic tone.
"You can call me the leader of Team Butterfly!" I answer in proud tone.
Both he and Rally are shock to hear what I just said. "Y-you're the leader of Team Butterfly?" The Dark Eradicator guy points at me. "The same leader who makes an alliance with the Enforcers?"
"The very same!" I have a devilish smile on my face when I say that. "I don't like being used as a hostage, so you're going to pay! It's time to Duel!" We activate our Duel Disks and draw five cards from decks.
Kokoro's Life Points: 4000
The Dark Eradicator Guy's Life Points: 4000
I let the Dark Eradicator guy to start the Duel off as he draws a card from his deck. "I summon Rapid-Fire Magician in attack mode!" A male mage in a black outfit appears in front of him. This mage wields two staves in both of his hands and he glares at me as if he's ready to attack me.
Rapid-Fire Magician: Level 4, Dark
ATK: 1600 DEF: 1200
He ends his turn by placing a card facedown. The card appears behind his magician.
Then Kalin and the others show up with Crow screaming, "DON'T RUN AWAY! GET BACK HERE!" When they arrive to see my Duel against the leader of Magician's Four, they are shock to see me and Rally. I think they're confuse to see me Dueling since I'm the gang leader who chose not to attack anyone.
Kalin asks, "Kokoro?! What are you doing here?"
Then Yusei follows up by asking, "Rally, why are you here?"
Rally couldn't answer Yusei's question. I guess he is afraid to get scolded when he told them his reason. I wonder if that's because of his Criminal Mark, but I don't want to pry information about their lives.
I point at them and I exclaim, "Just shut up and watch my Duel, boys! It's my turn! Draw!" I draw a card from my deck. "I activate the Field Spell, Skyscraper!" The whole area becomes an urbanized city in night and active lights around. "Next I summon Elemental Hero Wildheart in attack mode!" A man who looks he's from the wilds with a big sword strap onto his back appears in front of me.
Elemental Hero Wildheart: Level 4, Earth
ATK: 1500 DEF: 1600
"Wildheart attacks your Rapid-Fire Magician! Also, thanks to Skyscraper, Wildheart gains 1000 attack points because he's weaker than your monster!"
Elemental Hero Wildheart: ATK: 1500 + 1000 = 2500
As soon as Wildheart charges with his sword, the leader of the Magician's Four activates his facedown card. "You activated my trap card, Sakuretsu Armor! This trap negates your Wildheart's attack and destroys him!"
Rapid-Fire Magician has encased in the most deadly-looking armor ever. It looks tough for my Wildheart's sword to cut through. However, it's not tough as Wildheart easily cuts through the armor with ease and kills Rapid-Fire Magician. Seeing this happen has made the owner of that monster surprise as his jaw just drops.
The Dark Eradicator Guy's Life Points: 4000 – 900 = 3100
Elemental Hero Wildheart: ATK: 2500 – 1000 = 1500
"N-no way!" he stutters. "How can that be? My trap card should have protected my monster! It must be a trick! It has to be!"
"You're wrong~!" I shook my head when I say that in a teasing tone. "Wildheart has this special ability that makes him immune by the effects of trap cards. It's common knowledge for everyone to know about Wildheart's ability, yet you activate that trap way too early. If it were me, I would've save it for a more powerful monster."
My words seem to get to him. I can see him seething with rage. This make me wonder how the Magician's Four got control of this territory.
"I end my turn by placing two cards facedown," I said as two cards appear behind Wildheart.
The leader of the Magician's Four draws a card from his deck. "I summon Skilled Dark Magician in attack mode!" A dark blue mage that has two orbs on his shoulders appears. The mage wields a staff that has the same orb like the ones on his shoulders.
Skilled Dark Magician: Level 4, Dark
ATK: 1900 DEF: 1700
He orders his Skilled Dark Magician to attack Wildheart. The mage fires a bolt of dark magic from his staff at the bolt hits Wildheart's chest. The power of that magic has killed my Elemental Hero.
Kokoro's Life Points: 4000 – 400 = 3600
However, I reveal one of my facedown cards. "I activate the trap card, Hero Signal!" A huge light beam with an H in the center hits the sky as if we're watching a superhero movie. "If one of my monsters gets destroyed in battle, this trap card allows me to special summon an Elemental Hero from my deck if that Hero is level 4 or below. I pick Elemental Hero Ocean in attack mode!" A blue warrior who looks like he came from Atlantis appears in front of me as soon as the light beam disappears.
Elemental Hero Ocean: Level 4, Water
ATK: 1500 DEF: 1200
He ends his turn by placing one card facedown. That card appears behind his sorcerer.
I notice that Kalin and the others are talking as I listen in on the peanut gallery. Crow said, "Kokoro is doing good, don't you think?"
Jack shook his head. "It's not that. It's just her opponent is weak! I'm glad that I didn't deal with this small fry."
"By the way, Rally," Kalin spoke that got Rally's attention. "What are you doing here? And with Kokoro? Is there some 'secret meeting' going on behind our backs?"
Rally's face turns red when he heard Kalin suggesting that. "What are you talking about?! Kokoro and I just met! There's nothing going on between us!"
"Right… keep telling us that. But it finally happens, you have become a man!" Kalin is smiling. It seems like he's enjoying teasing Rally.
Yusei look at his friend and said, "Kalin, please stop teasing him. Let's focus on this Duel and we'll talk about this afterwards."
I notice that the leader of the Magician's Four is seething with rage again. I guess he couldn't take the atmosphere that has been going on in the peanut gallery.
"My turn! Draw!" I draw a card from my deck. Then during the standby phase, Ocean's ability activates. I said, "I can target one Hero monster on the field or graveyard and send it back into my hand. The card I pick is Elemental Hero Wildheart!" Next I use the card that I drew, which was the spell card, Pot of Greed. This spell allows me to draw two cards.
But it's thanks to my spell card, Skilled Dark Magician's ability activates. Whenever I use a spell card, that magician gains a Spell Counter. He can only hold up to three and when that happens, Skilled Dark Magician would be problematic.
Skilled Dark Magician: Counter – 1
"I summon Elemental Hero Wildheart in attack mode!" Wildheart appears next to Ocean as the two heroes look at each other with a smile. "Wildheart attacks your Skilled Dark Magician! And thanks to the power of Skyscraper, Wildheart gains 1000 attack points!"
Elemental Hero Wildheart: ATK: 1500 + 1000 = 2500
Wildheart swings his sword at the Skilled Dark Magician. But the Dark Eradicator guy activates his facedown trap card, Mirror Force. It's a trap that negates any attack and destroys all the opponent's attacking position monsters. As a thin shield-like mirror appears to protect the magician, my Elemental Hero cuts through the shield and kills the magician. However, the shards from that shield flies towards Ocean and kills him. I end my turn without placing anything down.
The Dark Eradicator Guy's Life Points: 3100 – 600 = 2500
Elemental Hero Wildheart: ATK: 2500 – 1000 = 1500
The Dark Eradicator guy draws his card. When he looks at his card, he laughs maniacally. "Now I got the card I need to defeat you! I pay half of my life points to activate the spell card, Dark Magic Curtain! This card allows me to summon the Dark Magician from my deck! And I'll summon him in attack mode!"
The Dark Eradicator Guy's Life Points: 2500/2 = 1250
A skeleton monster with a long black cape appears in the field. Then coming out of that cape is a silver hair man wearing a red magician's outfit and he carries a green staff. The skeleton disappears as the magician landed on the ground as he looks at me all sinisterly-like.
Dark Magician (Red Version): Level 7, Dark
ATK: 2500 DEF: 2100
"Next I activate the spell card, Thousand Knives! If there's a Dark Magician on my side of the field, I can destroy your Wildheart without going into battle!"
The Dark Magician summons a thousand of knives. With a single wag of his index finger, the knives fly towards Wildheart and kills him in a barrage.
The owner of the Dark Magician smirks as if he got me beat. "Go now, Dark Magician! Use your Dark Magic Attack on her!" The Dark Magician fires a bolt of dark magic at me and I can hear the gasps coming from my friends.
"I activate the trap card, A Hero Emerges! You must pick a card in my hand and if that card happens to be a monster, then I can summon it! Are you feeling lucky?"
"The second card to your left is the one I pick."
I couldn't help but smirk when he picks that card. "The card you pick is a monster! I summon Elemental Hero Burstinatrix in defense mode!" A lady in red spandex and long black hair appears in front of me and she crosses her arms.
Elemental Hero Burstinatrix: Level 3, Fire
ATK: 1200 DEF: 800
Burstinatrix protects me from the Dark Magician's attack. The bolt hits her and she explodes like fireworks. Since she's in her defense position, I won't be receiving any damage from this battle. This made the Dark Eradicator guy angry as he ends his turn since he's confident that I don't have any strong monsters in my deck.
I draw a card from my deck. "I activate the spell card, Silent Doom, to bring back Burstinatrix from the grave!" Burstinatrix appears again in her defense position. "Next I summon Elemental Hero Avian to join in the fray!" A male hero who looks a green birdman without a beak appears next to Burstinatrix.
Elemental Hero Avian: Level 3, Wind
ATK: 1000 DEF: 1000
"Lastly, I use the spell card, Polymerization! This spell allows me to fuse together both Avian and Burstinatrix to become the Elemental Hero Flame Wingman!"
A vortex appears in the sky as my two heroes jump inside in. Then a bright light happens that made the vortex to disappear. But coming out of that light is a green hero that has a single white wing, a dragon's tail, and a dragon's head for an arm standing on top of the skyscraper. It looks so cool when he's standing there, especially with the holographic full moon behind him.
Elemental Hero Flame Wingman: Level 6, Wind
ATK: 2100 DEF: 1200
"Flame Wingman attacks your Dark Magician! And thanks to Skyscraper, he gains a 1000 power boost to his attack points!"
Elemental Hero Flame Wingman: ATK: 2100 + 1000 = 3100
"Go! Skydive Scorcher!"
The Flame Wingman did a flying, diving kick at the Dark Magician. The Dark Magician tries to use his magic to block the attack, however, that kick passes through his magical shield and hits his chest. An explosion occurs and the Dark Magician is dead.
The Dark Eradicator Guy's Life Points: 1250 – 600 = 650
The Magician's Four's leader grits his teeth. "You may have defeated my Dark Magician, but that doesn't mean you win this Duel!"
"I did win this Duel," I said with a smirk, which confuses my opponent. "I activate Flame Wingman's ability! When he destroys your Dark Magician in battle, you take damage equal to your Dark Magician's attack points!"
He gasps as Flame Wingman appears, looming over him. The Flame Wingman points his dragon's head at the leader and fires a torrent of flames. It's a good thing that attack isn't real or he would receive a serious degree burn.
The Dark Eradicator Guy's Life Points: 650 – 2500 = 0
The leader collapses down to the ground after his defeat and the holograms disappear. Seeing that I've defeated him, and the fact that the Enforcers are here, he quickly runs away while he's screaming for his revenge. It's quite a site to see a grown man in a costume crying.
As soon as he is gone from our field of vision, Rally and I started to explain to them why we're here. They are shock to find out that I'm working on a Duel Runner just like Yusei and the fact that Rally comes here looking for the parts that Yusei needs for his Duel Runner. I also ask them about their end with the other magicians of the Magician's Four. It seems that time when I saw Crow being chase was part of the plan to lure the Magician's Four into a trap. They manage to defeat them, but the leader runs away and that leads to our Duel.
"Still," Yusei spoke as he looks at Rally, "I'm glad that you're safe, Rally. Promise me that you'll tell us before pulling that kind of stunt again."
Rally nods his head and he smiles. "Yes, I promise."
"But before we leave," said Kalin with a grin, "let's say that this territory belongs to us, the Enforcers and Team Butterfly!"
We all cheer for this glorious day. As we're about to leave, the Enforcers invited me to Martha's place for a victory dinner. I accepted their invitation, though I wonder if I should tell my subordinates about this dinner. I just shrug as I decided to just give them leftovers. But I do wonder how much I can carry back for all my subordinates to eat.
