Yusei almost didn't hear the door slam open this time over the buzz of his power tools. A face popped around the side of the machine, and he swore. It took every bit of his discipline to make sure he didn't jump, and send sparks into Rally's face.

Yusei quickly turned off the tool as Rally jumped back a little bit.

"Goddamn, Rally, you should know better than that," Yusei said, his heart thwumping in his chest.

Rally blushed.

"Sorry, Yusei," he said. "I just wanted to see what you were working on! You said you were going to clean out the sub section today, right? See if that cleared out the interference?"

Yusei's stress filtered out now that the tool was turned off, and he had to smile. Rally was always dropping over to ask questions about Yusei's work—he kept saying that he wanted to be a mechanic like him and the others when he grew up. Yusei liked answering his questions; and besides, he really did like seeing Rally in that Duel Academy uniform. It fit him just right—he looked like he had spent his whole life in the City by now, with a nice glow to his cheeks that showed that he had finally been getting decent meals. It was always a welcome sight, a reminder of how far they had come from Satellite.

"Is it done?" Lua's voice called down the stairs. "How far are you, Yusei?"

Yusei laughed softly as Rally looked up to wave. Lua and Luka both appeared around the arcade machine, Lua's eyes as bright as ever, and Luka with that little, curious smile of hers. Rally scootched out of the way so that they could see the open back, with all of its wires.

"Well, I think I'm about ready to try and turn it on," Yusei said. "Looks like the only thing that was down was the sub section, everything else seems in pretty good order."

Which, he added privately, was a good thing, because these machine innards were the most complicated he had ever seen. None of the manuals about arcade machines that he had picked up from Taka or from the library could label half of this shit. He was thinking after he let the kids play with it for a while, he'd try taking it apart and seeing what it was made of. It would be a good side project to let off some steam—he was stressed enough as it was over this stupid engine program, and Crow didn't have a lot of time to help him now that he was tied down at two jobs.

"I want to play first!" Lua said.

"Oh, calm down," Luka said, shaking her head. "Everyone's going to get a turn."

Yusei laughed as he finished putting in a screw, then he closed up the sub section, and stood up, dusting his hands off on his jeans.

"Rally, you want to plug it in?" he asked, nodding to the auxilary cord.

"Yeah!"

Rally grabbed the end and ran over to the power strip, plugging it in. Yusei reached up to the top of the machine to fumble for the switch.

"Let's see if that did it," he said.

He pushed the button in. Immediately, he heard the buzz-crackle of static, like an old television turning on.

"Oooh, it's on! Look, it's on!"

"We have eyes, Lua, we can see," Luka said, with a roll of her eyes.

Yusei smiled as he leaned around to see the screen. Lua was already hovering over the controls, his face almost too close to the screen. Luka pulled him back slightly by his collar, so that Rally could also squeeze in around it.

The screen was fuzzy, and there were some lines of static running down it, but otherwise, it was making noise and the picture was visible. The title screen looked like a pixelated starry sky, with a big white moon in the center. Fancy font read Callisto in English letters, and below it, the subtitle of "a shoot-em-up puzzle adventure!" in Japanese.

"Whoaaaa!" Rally and Lua said almost at the same time. "Dibs!"

"Guys, you'll both get to play," Luka said. "Ugh. Yusei, tell them that they shouldn't fight over it."

Yusei chuckled.

"You're going to need a coin to use it anyway," he said, digging in his pocket for some change. "How about this—you guys can flip a coin for who gets to go first?"

"Okay!" Lua said. "I pick heads!"

"That sounds fine!" said Rally.

Yusei nodded, pulling a coin from his pocket. He flicked it into the air, catching it easily and slapping it down on the back of his other hand. He lifted his hand away to reveal the coin underneath.

"Tails," he said. "Here, Rally, you get to go first."

"Yay!"

"Awwww," Lua said, although he didn't look too disappointed. "Switch me in if you die, okay?"

Rally nodded, and then the three kids both crowded around the machine—even Luka looked interested despite her previous affected disinterest, her eyes shining as Rally fed the coin into the slot.

The screen flickered a few times as Rally put his hands on the joystick and the other buttons.

"How are you supposed to press the ones around the joystick?" he said, frowning. He rolled his hand around the joystick, but couldn't quite reach the buttons around it. "That seems weird."

"I'll push 'em for you if you need them," Lua said.

"Lua, don't crowd," Luka said. "Let Rally play himself first!"

Yusei hung back, folding his arms to watch the game unfold. The screen was black for a few seconds, with just a flicker of static. Then stars appeared again, like the title screen, and there was a slow zoom in on a moon. A short, pixelated old man with a white beard appeared on the screen, and a yellow word box appeared beside him.

"Welcome, hero!" the words read across the screen. "I am Jupiter, the head of the Galactic Council of Arcas! You have been summoned for an urgent mission on the moon Callisto—the princess Diana has been kidnapped by the evil lord Lycaon, and you must save her!"

"Another save the princess game," Luka said, sounding disappointed. "It better be fun to play, at least."

"Luka, don't be a killjoy," Lua said.

The screen flickered again and a tiny hero in red appeared on one end of the screen, a white and gray background with platforms coming into place around it. Rally pushed a few buttons experimentally, and the character jumped, moved back and forth, and fired off a small blue ball of energy at the touches.

"It looks like Castlevania," Rally said. "Okay, let's try this..."

He edged the character forward. A little black pixel shape that might have been a bat appeared,waving up and down the screen towards him. Rally jumped over it, and moved forward to another enemy, a little green blob. He fired the blue ball at it a few times, but nothing happened.

"There's no tutorial at all," he complained. "Um..."

He moved his hand off of the joystick to try a few more buttons. It caused a couple more effects, including a little white energy disc and a glowing green whip, which actually destroyed the blob. Grinning with his success, Rally took the joystick again and moved forward through the sidescrolling game.

"Where's the puzzle part?" Luka said, frowning. "And this isn't really much of a shoot-em-up, either. It's a sidescroller..."

"Luka, you're doing the killjoy thing again," Lua said.

It looked like standard arcade fare in the end, despite its strange inner workings. Yusei nodded to himself as he saw the screen flicker again, a little afterimage flickering in the right corner. Probably some feedback in the visual readers, he'd have to clean that out a bit.

He was about to step back and leave the kids to their game when Rally's character jumped onto a red button, and the screen went black.

"Huh?" Rally said, moving the stick back and forth. "What happened? Did it short out?"

Yusei frowned. He took a step forward to see if he could figure out what was the problem, but Lua moved first.

"Here, hang on, let me try!" he said, grabbing the joystick from Rally. "Oh! It came back on!"

What? No it hadn't—the screen was still black.

"Hang on—oh, this is the puzzle part! Don't worry, I got this!"

"Lua, there's nothing on the screen, stop joking around," Luka said.

"Don't distract me, Luka!"

Lua's fingers flew over the buttons and manipulated the joystick with a speed that seemed well beyond what he should be able to do. His hand moved around the buttons around the joystick so fast that Yusei could barely see what he was doing.

"Ah! There!"

The screen suddenly flickered back on, and the little red hero was standing to the right of the big red button.

"Ah! Sorry, I didn't mean to steal it from you, Rally. Go ahead."

Lua let go of the joystick. Rally didn't take it back, though, looking at him with his nose wrinkled up.

"What?" Lua said.

"I didn't see anything happening on the screen," Yusei said. "What exactly...were you doing there?"

"Huh? What are you talking about?" Lua said, turning over his shoulder to look at Yusei. "You didn't see all of that? There were...there were..."

His words trailed off, his lips parting as his eyes glazed over for a moment, confused.

"I...there was something going on, I remember. Lots of...stuff. Huh. That's weird. I can't remember it."

For a few seconds, no one said anything. Yusei stared at the machine behind Lua's head. It flickered once more. Something must be really wrong with the visual cords...right? That was why it kept flickering, wasn't it?

Then Rally's hand slipped off of the side of the machine.

"Um, I think I'm done playing for now," he said. "Yusei, can I see what you're doing with the D-Wheel?"

Yusei blinked out of his reverie.

"Oh...sure," he said. "Are you guys done too?"

Lua's eyes slipped over to the machine.

"Is it okay if I try it a little longer? Before you shut it down?"

Yusei felt a sudden, odd crawling run down his arms. He should say no, he thought. He should definitely say no.

"Sure," was what came out of his mouth instead. "Just be careful. Let me know if the screen goes out again."

"Okay!"

Lua jumped eagerly back to the controls, starting to move his little hero across the screen. Yusei hovered for a second, his hands limp at his sides. He could see Luka hanging off to the side of the machine, her hands seeming to be halfway to reaching for each other, but never quite making it there. She looked concerned as she shifted from foot to foot.

Then Yusei remembered that Rally was waiting over by the D-Wheel, and, reluctantly, he took his eyes away from the screen.

It was nothing, right? It was just a weird old arcade machine.

Just...just an arcade machine.

. . .

"Lua-kun, are you all right?"

Lua's head snapped up from his desk to the sound of quiet snickers from his classmates. He blinked a few times, brightly colored shapes flickering over his vision. Where was he? Oh—right, classroom. He was in the classroom. His book was propped up in front of his fact, and his cheeks hurt. He must have been sleeping, or something.

He flushed when he realized the teacher was staring down at him.

"I—I'm okay," he mumbled.

"Are you sure?" she said, raising an eyebrow at him. "Do you need to go to the nurse's office?"

"N-no, ma'am, I'm fine," Lua said. "I'm sorry."

The teacher's lips pressed together for a moment, but then she moved on down the aisle. Lua ducked his head back to his book, trying to remember what he as supposed to be doing. What was the assignment they were working on again? His head was spinning a little. He blinked a few times—was it because he had just woken up from falling asleep? He didn't feel groggy, though. He felt straight up dizzy.

He tried to swallow and found that his throat was dry, his tongue thick in his mouth. Ugh, what was wrong with him? Every time he blinked, brightly colored shapes flared over his vision. It was like he was playing the puzzle parts of that game again, even though he couldn't...quite remember how they went.

It had been kind of like Tetris, right? Or no, it was like those games where you had to match four in a row. Or something? Ugh, it was hard to remember exactly what had happened and yet it was spinning over his eyelids anyway, it was like that time he had played DDR for three hours straight and the arrows had continued to flash past his vision whenever he closed his eyes.

Maybe he had played for a little too long. It had been almost two and a half hours before Luka had basically had to drag him away from the console. He had been so close, too—right? Or was he forgetting again? The story line of the game was starting to get hard to remember too.

Maybe he should go get a drink of water or something. Or maybe he did need the nurse's office. Come to think of it, his heart was starting to pulse really fast and he was feeling kind of hot and cold in waves. He started to sit up slightly and raise his hand, his mouth opening.

And then the entire room lurched. Everything was shaking, oh, god—earthquake? Was it an earthquake? He felt his shoulder hit the ground and his head hit against the floor and stars exploded in his eyes. He heard someone scream his name—Luka? Was Luka okay? If there was an earthquake and she had an attack she could hurt herself, he had to get up and make sure she was alright—

He tried to lift himself onto his elbows but there was no feeling in them, he couldn't—oh god, he couldn't feel his arms. Where were his arms?

That was when the world went black.

. . .

Blue and red lights swirled over the white hospital walls as Yusei burst through the doors, breathless and winded. For a moment he was so dizzy that he couldn't process the room, but then his eyes found Aki sitting on one of the benches in the waiting area, hugging a crying Luka to her chest.

Yusei jogged over to them, his skin skittering with ghostly chills. Aki's head jerked up at his approach, her hazel eyes wide and frightened.

"I just got the call, what happened?"

Luka didn't seem able to stop crying, and Aki just pulled the girl closer to her, stroking her hair gently.

"Lua had a seizure in the middle of class. He's unconscious—they think he's going to be all right, but he might have gotten a concussion when he fell."

Her voice was clipped and tight, almost mechanical. It was that cold, detached voice that she used when she was stressed and trying to keep it under control.

"A seizure? Why?"

Aki shook her head.

"They don't know. It might be a late appearance of the same problems Luka has."

Yusei's eyes flickered to Luka. Her fingers were curled up into Aki's Duel Academy jacket, tight and white around her knuckles. He stepped forward and dropped to one knee.

"Hey...hey, Luka. Look at me. Look at me, okay?"

Luka swallowed thickly. Her face shifted against Aki's chest so that she was looking at him, her eyes thick and watery with tears.

"It's going to be okay," Yusei said. "Lua's going to be fine."

"What if it isn't?" Luka whispered. "What if he's asleep for a month like I was? What if he's asleep forever?"

Yusei put his hand on top of hers, drawing it towards him and cupping it between his hands.

"We won't let that happen," he said. "He'll be okay. I know he will. Just try to breathe."

Luka gulped a few breaths, much faster and deeper than he thought would be helpful, but at least she was trying.

"Okay," Yusei said soothingly, rubbing her palm in a slow motion. Martha used to do that when they were kids and they hurt themselves in the junkyard, trying to calm them down. "Did anything happen with Lua earlier today? We should probably tell the doctors if there was anything out of the ordinary that could have triggered this."

Luka sniffled, ducking her head down as she thought.

"Um," she started, tentative, nervous, her voice shaking a little. "He...he woke up...early this morning. He never does that. And he was...weird."

"Weird?" Yusei prompted.

"He...he had this weird look in his eyes. And he didn't respond right away when I talked to him. He was...mumbling to himself. I don't think he was completely awake."

Her eyes cast down for a moment.

"And his hands were...they were moving around like he was still playing that game..."

Yusei's lips parted. The game? She meant—of course she meant Callisto. His mind cast back to the moment the screen had gone black, and the way that Lua had seemed to think that there was something happening there anyway.

"Game?" Aki said, her eyes narrowing. "What game?"

"T...The arcade game that Yusei was fixing," Luka said.

Aki's eyes lifted to Yusei, her brow furrowed and head tilted in a silent question. Yusei's mouth opened, but words wouldn't come to his lips. How was he supposed to answer? What was he supposed to say?

This couldn't...be because of the game, could it?

"Luka, did the screen ever go black again while Lua was playing yesterday?" he said.

Luka sniffled again.

"A...a few times, when I happened to look up."

"And he was still playing as though he could see what was happening?"

"Y-yeah...I thought maybe I just couldn't see from my angle? The screen is kind of weird from where I was sitting..."

"What game?" Aki said again, even though her question had already kind of been answered. "Yusei, what are we talking about?"

Yusei stood up, his pulse suddenly racing tangibly in his neck. Aki looked up at him, her eyes wide and her face pale.

"I think we need to check something," Yusei said.

. . .

The screen blipped. The sound echoed across the stark white walls and slick metal surfaces, bouncing over the room to the two men on the other side of the room.

"Hm? What was that?"

"Dunno. It's not important—get back to work."

"No, no, no, wait, look at this—has this screen ever turned itself on before?"

The white-coated man waved at his partner as he walked towards the computer.

"Goddam—get back over here, we're in the middle of—"

"It can wait, just look at...oh my god."

"What?"

The man leaned over the table, barely noticing that he was staining the surface with his bloody latex gloves. His eyes widened at the screen readout.

Callisto Project Area 1342 online. Scanned: 2. Prospective Subjects Defined: 1.

The man looked up from the screen back at his partner.

"The Callisto Project has just been reactivated."

. . .

Where...am...I?

I can't...see...what is all this? Dust...? Ugh...it smells like...sulfur...cough...cough...

What—what was that? Something screaming? I can't—oh my god—Luka—Yusei—s-someone—

I—

RUN.