Author's note: Hmm...not exactly the story I expected to update, but this will do for now anyway. I have so much idea for this story anyway, so I can't help it. Hope you enjoy.

Disclaimers: You know the usual.

Chapter 3

Glass Shadows

The storm began to rage around Satellite, and some people weren't lucky enough to get into shelter on time. The same can be said for the small girl who is somewhere nearby the beach shore, running for her life.

She seemed to be five years old at most, with short blonde hair and blue eyes, and she had a terrified expression on her face. It wasn't because the storm was getting worse and that she need to find shelter quickly. No, it's because she was being chased by someone...or rather something.

The blonde girl accidentally lost her footing and fell down, face flat to the ground. She quickly sat up, spitting out the sand that entered in her mouth. Then, she heard a growl, which made her froze in fear. She slowly turned around, and her eyes widened to see the thing that was chasing her.

Because it was dark, she shouldn't make much out of what it looked like, but she could tell that it was definitely not human. For one thing, has some sort of crystallized spikes around its body and bright, red eyes that was glowing in the dark. No pupils was shown. The little girl could hear it snarled very hungrily.

For some reason, she couldn't scream for help, but she did whimpered a little and shut her eyes closed, praying that someone would come by and save her.

Fortunately, her prayer was answered. The creature launched itself to the the little girl as if to catch it's prey, however it missed its target, because another dark figured appeared between them and managed to snatch the girl away from the creature and disappeared into the darkness.

The dark creature punched the ground in frustration and let out a roar.


"Dammit. How did it get this worse, already?"

A young woman with long, scarlet hair and brown eyes wiped the blood from her lips and tried to wash out the remaining ones that she spit out on the sink. This woman is Hitomi Akane, and like Crystal and Yuna, she is also a Crimson Star Guardian, who possessed a star mark on her right arm. Lately, Akane hadn't been feeling well, and it was proven to get worsen due to the fact that this is the first time she started coughing blood. As serious as this is, she knew of the situations that she and her friends had to deal with now, and she doesn't want anyone worry about her right now.

I got to stay calm. I can't let anyone else find out about this, Akane thought, Besides, this is probably one of the Satellite flu that some people have lately.

The scarlet head quickly swished the water in her mouth and then spit it back into the sink, repeating the process few more times to get rid of the coppery substance in her mouth. By the time she's done, Akane made sure that there were no trace of blood in the sink and quickly left the bathroom. She heard a 'pitter patter' sound against the window and looked up to see that it was raining heavily outside.

"Looks like the storm is brewing, today," Martha pointed out as she walked into the living room, noticing that the red head had finally gotten out of the bathroom, "Are you feeling okay?"

"I'm fine," Akane quickly waved it off and attempted to change the subject, "Are the others back, yet?"

As if to answer her question, the door opened, revealing the four familiar figures completely drenched.

"We're back!" Crow called out as they entered inside.

"Whoa, you guys are soaked!" Akane pointed out, "The weather got you there that badly?"

"You could say that again," Yusei replied as he took off his wet jacket and placed it on the coat hangar, "Apparently, it delayed our work on the bridge."

"I'm afraid this would happened. All four of you head to the shower now!" Martha ordered, "I'll bring you warm towels later."

Those who got wet obeyed. However, it turned out that only two people can go at a time because...well, there's only two bathroom. One for boys and one for girls. Yuna managed to get her shower done without any hitch, assuming that the kids got their bath times already. For the guys, it's a different story. Jack and Crow ended up bickering like little kids, arguing on who should get in first. Yusei stared at his two foster brothers and sighed, heading inside the bathroom himself without either of them noticing.

In the meantime, Akane continued to watch over the kids, who were either playing board games or Duel monsters to keep themselves occupied before dinner. As the thunder began to roar in the sky, the scarlet head looked out the window with the worried expression on her face.

"Just where are those two, anyway?" she wondered.


"Dang it. It the times like this?!" Crystal sighed in frustration and pulled the hood over her head. She was in the market place of Satellite and all of sudden, rain started to poured down heavily, causing everyone in the market district to close and head for shelter. Thunders struck the sky, which made the purplenette nearly jumped up.

Crystal isn't particularly fond of thunderstorms, especially since it gave her the reminder of that incident that she would rather forget. But that was the least of her worries right now, because it seemed that she still could not find her childhood friend and the storm is about to get worse for her to find him.

"Aoi, where are you?" she muttered.

Suddenly, she felt the chill on the back of her spine and looked around. Something cold, dark, menacing...this is something she hadn't felt for the long time. Not since the Dark Signer were defeated. So why is she feeling them now?

Before she could pondered about it, the purplenette yelped once she felt someone almost ran into her, grabbed her hand, and dragged her away.

"Hey, what the-?!"

"Quick! Get out of here while you can!" Crystal looked up to see a woman slightly older than her with short brown hair grabbed her hand earlier, forcing her to run. She could tell that she looked terrified of something. But what?

"Hold on! What's going on?" The purple hair girl asked the older woman, trying to pry her hands off of hers.

"Just get out and run as fast as you can!" The brunette replied, "Otherwise, that...that thing will get you!"

'That thing?' Crystal thought in confusion.

Just then, a pair of giant, long, sharp, translucent glass-like shard appeared in the air out of nowhere, and before Crystal could react, they jammed into both sides of the older woman's neck. The latter's eyes went wide and let out of gasp, just before her body became transparent as a glass, and fell into the ground, lifeless. Her transparent head hit the ground pretty hard and was shattered like glass in contact.

Crystal's blood froze at the scene in front of her. No doubt, the woman was dead, but the way she died completely shocked the purple hair girl. That was not the worse part to happened, though. All of a sudden, she heard a growl behind her. Crystal slowly turned her head around, and she almost screamed at the sight in front of her.

Appearing in front of her was some kind of terrifying, humanoid creature that resembled a lion of some sort. Its body is made out of purple-blackish crystal that almost resembled the color of the stained glass window and its eyes are glowing red. The creature bared its fangs and let out a low growl at the purple hair girl, who was slowly and cautiously backing away from it.

"W-what is that?!" she stammered.

Just then, a pair of giant, translucent shards appeared out of the creature's back, which made Crystal realized that those were the same shards that killed the woman. The crystallized creature aimed the shards at the girl's neck, who quickly dodged in response and roll over to the ground. Then, without the second thought, Crystal ran away.

As she ran, she could feel that same terrifying creature chasing after her, which made her wish that she could've come back into the orphanage a whole lot sooner. At the same time, she could hardly believe that what she saw earlier was real, and that she could be the next victim if she doesn't get away from that monster as soon as possible.

But why is it that the felt presence that she felt earlier from that crystallized creature feels similar to the ones she felt with the Dark Signers?

All of a sudden, her luck ran out, because that same creature managed to catch up, went in front of her, and pounced on her, pinning her to the ground. Crystal struggled to get the monster off of her, but its claws managed to secure her hands tightly, and its weight is way too heavy for her to knock it off. Its red eyes glared at her and fangs snarled at her, making her shook in fear. Then, the same shards appeared out of its back, floating and aiming its sharp point at her neck.

Oh god. Somebody help me! The poor girl begged silently.

Suddenly, her right arm started glowing, causing the creature to roar in pain and let go of Crystal. As soon as the purple hair girl got up, she saw several star-like, glowing objects shot out of no where and stabbed the creature multiple times, causing it to cry out in agony even louder.

"Crystal, over here!" someone else shouted.

The purple hair girl turned around and saw a man a least a year older than her with blue hair and dark brown eyes, with a jagged black tattoo around his right eye, much to her relief. It seemed that he was holding something in his arms with his jacket wrapped around it. This man is Akiyama Aoi. He used to be a Dark Signer who possessed the mark of the wolf, but now after his revival, like Crystal, Yuna, and Akane, he is one of the Crimson Star Guardians who possessed a red star mark on his right arm.

As soon as Crystal managed to ran towards him, the crystallized creature regained its composure and prepared to attack again. Aoi noticed it right away and pulled Crystal behind him. Once the creature draw close, Aoi grabbed a wood plank nearby (where did that come from, he had no idea) and struck the monster in the head, causing it to recoil. The blue hair psychic took his chance and grabbed Crystal by the hand and made their escape from that horrible creature..

It took moments later for the two of them to reach to the front of the orphanage and catch their breathe.

"Aoi...thank goodness you came in time," Crystal said between breathes, "But where were you? You had us worried!"

"Sorry," Aoi replied as soon as he's able to speak again, "But I went out because this issue has to do with that..." he bit his lip, "...that monster we saw earlier. And with her right here."

"...Her?"

Aoi pulled down the hood of the jacket revealing the little blonde girl in his arms, holding her tiny arms around his neck and shivering violently do to the rain. Crystal gasped. She didn't realized that girl nearby the whole time, due to running her life from that crystallized creature who tried to kill her. Whatever that little girl had been through, Crystal could tell that she looked scared.

The purplenette placed her hand on the blonde girl's forehead and hold out her gasp. She could feel that the little girl felt a lot warmer than usual.

"Aoi, I think this girl has a fever."


"Eh?! What did you say?!"

Yusei entered the living room, drying his hair with the towel Martha had given her, and saw Yuna sitting on the couch with a towel on top of her head, possibly still trying to dry her hair, and a phone against her ear. The raven hair could see a shock and worried expression etched on the female psychic's face

"Why didn't you tell us sooner?" Yuna demanded. Her voice sounded calm, but stern at the same time, "Alright, I'll see what's going on tomorrow. Bye."

The dark hair girl turned off her cell phone and sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "What's wrong, Yuna?" Yusei asked her.

The female psychic remained silent. Then, she spoke, "It's Ushio. He just called to notified us about another problem. Apparently, there were some people disappearing around Satellite."

"What?!" Yusei gasped, "When did that happened?"

"I don't know. He didn't say," Yuna replied, "He said that he found out just now. Also..." The dark hair girl took a breathe and her face began to paled, "...Those missing people who were already found...they were dead."

Now it was Yusei's turn to have his face turned pale as ghost. First, that graffiti signs. And now, people of Satellite gone missing and wound up dead. Just what is going on here?

Before Yusei can asked anymore question, the two felt the searing pain on their arms and looked down to see that their marks are glowing. Before, either of them could comprehend on why their marks are glowing, they heard a knock on the door. They noticed Akane getting out of the kitchen and went with her to the front door to see who's outside. Once Yusei managed to open the door, they saw both Crystal and Aoi stepped inside, both completely drenched.

"Crystal! Aoi! What happened?" Yusei asked in concern once he saw how completely exhausted they were.

"Where's Martha?" Crystal asked, shivering from the rain.

"She's still inside the kitchen. Why?" Akane replied. Crystal pointed to the little girl in Aoi's arm, who is unconscious, face turning slightly red and shivering violently due to being out of the rain so long.

"Holy crap..."

Author's note: And this is where I'll be stopping for this chapter. Looks like there are more problems occurring in the Satellite. As for the creature...um, anyone watch Kamen Rider Kiva? That's where I get the idea from.

A-Anyway. R&R?