Hello Hello again! I have returned and am now completely illness free which is good because I really felt awful. Anyway, I would like to thank FiringShootingStar, Magdalene Thorne, Flameflinger Girl and all the anonymous reviewers! Also to the Anon about Alturas; I have considered that idea many times and am currently fiddling around with a possible character for that might work but probably won't be brought in until later into the story. I am also glad we got that misunderstanding cleared up!
Disclaimer: I own only my OC's and the plot!
Jack Atlas sat impatiently on his duel runner outside of Raven's apartment, she clearly wasn't there. So instead he tried calling her, a number he would never admit that he had stolen from the girl, but to no avail. The blonde was not a patient man, especially so right at this moment.
He had talked to Yusei the night before and got an update from him on what happened the previous day. Due to that information he decided he needed to find the girl as soon as possible, but her being no where to be found made that rather difficult.
He growled,
"Where the duce is she?! You'd think she would be at her own house right now but-" he was cut short from his ranting to himself as a black and yellow duel runner pulled up next to him,
"Jack? What are you doing here?"
He scoffed,
"None of your business bird brain! Tell me where the duce your little girlfriend is!" Even from beneath Crows visor Jack could tell the guy was blushing.
"She isn't here?" he said worried.
"Of course not! I wouldn't be asking if she was!" Jack was getting annoyed and a little worried too. And seeing the guilty I took a cookie from the cookie jar, look his suspicions were correct and he glared at the shorter male.
"What did you do now?!" he asked knowing the red head had to of said something to the dark haired girl.
He glared at the blonde and Jack just sent it right back, a voice interrupted their staring contest.
"Oh! It's the nice delivery boy! How are you?" A wrinkled old lady with snow white hair and a shawl over her blue dress was hopping down the steps of the apartment toward them; Jack was surprised a lady of her age was still roaming about without a walker.
"Oh, hey Ms. Carrie, you haven't seen Raven have you?" the woman thought about it,
"I'm afraid not dear, I'm a little worried. She hasn't been back for a few days, she's such a sweet girl. She's not from here right?" they nodded, "Oh dear, I hope she wasn't driving that duel runner of hers last night. A bunch of the roads got iced over, it's better now thanks to the city but I heard accidents were happening left and right with all the ice on the road. If it's bad for people from Neo Domino I can't imagine how she would fare."
The woman pointed her finger toward them, "You boys better take good care of her! She may not understand a lot of what's going on around town but she knows what it's like to be out of control. She needs you boys to give her some stable ground to stand on." With that the woman hobbled away humming a strange tune.
Jack and Crow glanced at each other,
"Look, I put my foot in my mouth again. Can you help me find her?" Jack stared into his friends eyes, and sighed.
"Fine, but only because I, Jack Atlas, need her for something important."
Crow looked confused but nodded his head,
"Call me if you find her." And with that they both sped away in opposite directions, Jack going faster than normal. He had a reason to find her quickly and right now he was running out of time.
~0~0~0~
Jack had driven up town, with no luck. Now as he drove down the scenic route back toward her apartment he was almost hyper aware, looking for any sign that she might have gone this way. 'Knowing that dimwit she's probably lost and crying somewhere.'
As he headed down the incline he noticed one of the guard rails that over looked the rocky beach was broken outward, his deep purple eyes narrowed as he slowed his runner down to a stop, sliding on the remaining ice a bit.
The blondes eyes widened again as he stared into the distance, something was sticking out of the rocks by the shore, not believing what he was seeing he rode the incline down to the shore and ran over to the rocks, his breath catching in his throat. Sitting on them was a black and purple bird like runner, though sitting wasn't the right word for what that runner looked like.
It looked like someone had gone full speed into the rocks and even then still hadn't stopped, Jack guessed she had slid down the incline and landed against the rocks were her runner bounced to a halt. The only thing missing was….Raven herself!
He looked around the area a bit expecting to find her with her skull cracked open against the rocks, but, though he would never admit it out loud, she was thankfully no where in sight. This left just one question;
"Where the bloody hell is she?" he yelled into the sky as a wave crashed against the rocks.
"Jack, who are you yelling at?" a voice said from beside him, he looked down to see the dark haired girl perfectly intact and unharmed. The blonde jumped down and hit her hard across the head,
"How dare you make me, Jack Atlas, worry about you!" She rubbed her head and smiled but it fell quickly,
"Why were you worried about me? What are you doing here Jack?" said blonde narrowed his eyes, as he looked into her once bright blue ones, now just dull and lifeless.
"Why doesn't matter! I should be asking you that!" he pointed at her, she glanced at the remains of her runner.
"I crashed my runner, and it was so icy I couldn't walk up the hill again. So I just kinda stayed here, and breathed."
'What the devil does that mean?!' he thought as he thought back to what Crow had said, then he knew what Crow had meant by what he said earlier. It made him angry to see what his friend had done to this once happy girl.
He vaguely wondered why it mattered so much to him, but he had more important things to worry about right now.
"Whatever, just come with me. I need your assistance." With that he picked her up by her waist and got back on his runner tossing her over his lap so her head was against his chest and her legs hung off the side of the armrest as he started the engine.
"Wait! Jack, what about my runner?" she sounded nervous and wrapped her arms around his torso,
"Calm down, I will get Bruno to come pick it up. I'm sure that dimwit Crow will be happy to repair it!" Jack took off up the hill with a scream from Raven as she held on tighter.
"Jack! You're insane, this can't be safe!" Jack laughed and went faster,
"Nonsense! Just don't fall off!" he said as they took a turn onto the highway back into the city. He quickly called Bruno on his runner's phone and told him where to get Raven's runner, the blue haired mans face was a mix of surprise and happiness, a sentiment the blonde himself secretly shared after seeing what remained of her duel runner.
"W-Wait Jack! Does that mean you found her? Is she alright?" he asked concerned, Raven took this chance to speak,
"No! Raven is scared to death right now! Plus to add insult to injury he's kidnapping me!"
Jack rolled his eyes, and people called him a drama queen?
"Don't you worry about her. Just tell Crow and Yusei she's fine and come get her runner!" and with that he hung up. The blonde noticed that she was staring at something behind them,
"What the duce are you staring at?"
She blinked curious,
"It looks like we're being followed." Jack glanced behind them seeing a man on a pure black duel runner with a matching suit and a dark green SUV following after them.
"They friends of yours?" he asked her, she shook her head.
"I've never seen them before, but they came up behind us while we were talking to Bruno." Just then the man on the dark runner sped up right next to them coming up on the side where her feet where hanging off. Jack couldn't see his face, but his bright green eyes stuck out behind his visor.
The man reached out and tried to grab her leg, but Jack swerved just out of his reach making her squeeze his chest even tighter.
"What the hell do you want? Go away you creep!" Raven said, though Jack could tell she was scared.
"Jack Atlas! Give me the girl and I won't have to hurt you!" the man said pointing to Jack now. The blonde scoffed,
"You? Hurt Jack Atlas? Stop fooling yourself and go away!"
The man growled,
"Fine! Looks like we are gonna have to do this the hard way! I challenge you Jack Atlas, I win you give me the girl." Jack nodded and activated his duel disk.
"Let's duel!"
Raven freaked out,
"Are you insane?! You can't duel with me riding piggy back! Jack stop!" said blonde just stared straight ahead,
"Trust me." Her eye's widened and she looked away, her bangs hiding her eyes.
"You better win." She mumbled.
Jack just smiled,
"Jack Atlas never loses! Now, I'll start things off by using the effect of my Vice Dragon which allows me to summon him from my hand in attack mode!" A very muscled purple dragon appeared with 2000 attack points and 2400 defense points.
"Then I will summon my Dark Resonator in attack mode!" A monster holding a tuning fork jumped next to Vice dragon, "Now I tune my two monsters together, the ruler's heartbeats will now file through here! Take witness to its creation-shaking power! Synchro Summon! My very soul, Red Dragon Archfiend!"
Jack saw Raven smile at the sight of his dragon, he would never say it but he was happy to see her smile again.
"Now I place three cards face down and end my turn!" He noticed his mark start to glow but paid it little attention as the man next to him took his turn.
"I summon my Firebird in attack mode, and with the effect of my King Tiger in my hand I can play him in defense mode as long as I have another beast type on my field." A small red bird and a giant tiger landed on the field each sporting 1000 attack points and 1700 attack points.
"Then I activate my Beast shield spell card! With this on the field you can't attack any beast types on my side of the field." Jack glared at him,
"Now I use the effect of my baby mammoth in my hand to attack you directly with my King Tiger! Go Tiger slash!" The tiger ran forward and slashed away 1700 of Jacks lifepoints; they swerved slightly but Jack maintained control and sped back up again.
"You won't get away with attacking Jack Atlas! I activate Abysmal Designator, now say bye bye to your beast shield!" the card blew up as a shadow wrapped around it,
"Now I summon my Mad Archfiend!" a monster with bright pink hair and a mouth for a torso jumped onto the field with 1800 attack points.
"Red Dragon Archfiend, attack his little song bird! Scorching Crimson flare!" The dragon gathered its energy above its head and sent it flying toward the bird destroying it instantly and taking 2000 of his lifepoints with it.
"Don't think you can win against Pandora boy! We will get the portal, no matter what!" he yelled,
"What the duce are you talking about? What do you want?" the man smiled,
"That girl you have in your arms is more important than you think Mr. Atlas! She is the key to everything we have worked for! Just look at her!"
Jack looked down and gasped, her eyes were glowing a bright yellow as she stared up at Red Dragon Archfiend,
"What the duce?" he looked to the man, "Tell me what you did to her you bastard!" the man just laughed.
"You mean what we didn't do to her! She was created for the soul purpose of bringing that Crimson Dragon to this world! She is the portal for that great dragon you signers keep so precious!" Jack couldn't believe his ears,
"Nonsense! I think you've been sniffing runner grease for too long! I use my Mad Archfiend's special ability to turn your tiger into defense mode! Now attack my Mad Archfiend!"
"Not so fast! I activate my jungle barrier which negates your attack! Sorry about that Mr. Atlas!" Jack glared and ended his turn, glancing back down at Raven. She was still staring up at his dragon with her strange eyes, Jack didn't believe she could be a portal for anything but he had to admit the timing was strange, as he summons his dragon his mark activates and she goes into zombie-mode?
Jack decided to ask her later, as the man made his move.
"First, I activate my Beast Revival to bring back by Firebird with 500 extra attack points!" the bird reappeared on the field in a tornado of fire screeching loudly.
"Then I summon my Tuner cat in attack mode! But they won't be staying long as I tune them all together to summon my Wicked Eraser!" fire engulfed the field as a giant gold armored dragon appeared from the darkness with 2000 attack and defense points.
Jack laughed, "So that's your big strategy? Pathetic! My Red Dragon Archfiend still has 1000 more attack points than your metal monster!" the man smiled in return,
"I'm not done Mr. Atlas! I activate my Rush recklessly to increase my monsters attack by however many monsters I have in my card graveyard by 400 points!" The metal dragon's attack points shot up to 3200, "Now attack his Red Dragon Archfiend, Wicked fire!"
Jack pressed a button on his duel disk and activated a card,
"I activate my Synchro Deflector! It looks like your Eraser is about to get erased because this card destroys any monster that attacks one of my synchro monsters!" the man cried out as his dragon was blown away.
"Jack! That was so cool!" Raven said suddenly, he looked back down and she was back to her normal self,
"Are you okay?" Jack asked, she looked confused "Yeah, my back feels kinda funny but otherwise I'm fine. Why do you ask?" she seemed to have no knowledge of zoning out or the glowing yellow eyes.
"I end my turn Atlas!" the man said, clearly defeated. Jack glared at him,
"This duel is over! Attack Red Dragon Archfiend, Absolute Power force!" a red light surrounded Jack's dragon as he crashed into the man on the black runner, smoke blew out the back as he skidded to a halt, Jack stopping just a few yards ahead of him.
"Don't think you've seen the last of us portal! We will get you back and I promise, your friends might just pay the price, Pandora always gets what it wants!" and with that he turned and drove the opposite direction and out of sight.
"These people are Looney! Honestly just leave me alone." Raven said looking where he once was.
"But that was very impressive Jack; I see why you call yourself the king now!" Jack scoffed,
"Well of course! I was born for greatness! Now hold on, we've got a place to be!" and with that he sped off.
Raven's butt had officially gone numb by the time Jack finally stopped and turned off the engine, as soon as he lifted the arm rest that was blocking her in she jumped up and stretched, groaning at how sore she was.
Jack grabbed her arm and dragged her into an apartment complex,
"Jack! Where are we going? Let go." Jack didn't listen, just dragged her through a small lobby and up about 3 flights of stairs. Finally they came to a door, which Jack shoved a key into and opened before tossing her in and locking the door behind him.
He stared at her for a second; she was a little concerned with hismental status.
"What you are about to help me with, you can't say a single word to anyone about! Got it?" she nodded,
"What-"but he shushed her as he walked to a door down the hall, and opening the first one on the right.
Raven assumed he wanted her to follow so she did, and what she saw was surprising. In the small room was a dresser, a small closet and a bed with a nightstand, that wasn't what surprised her however, it was the figure laying in the bed with black hair that was matted to her forehead from all the sweat, her triangle shaped bangs pushed up away from her face by a wet cloth. And Jack sitting in a chair by the bed this girls hand firmly clasped in his own,
"Carly. Love, wake up." Her dark eyes opened up a crack,
"J-Jack?"
Just saying that caused a round of very painful sounding coughs from the girl; Jack rubbed her back until they passed. Raven placed a hand over her heart, her eyes wide as she watched how he treated this girl, like she was the most precious thing in the world.
"Carly listen, I've bought a friend of mine. She's a good doctor, and will fix you right up." He looked at Raven then who shook her head and slowly walked fully into the room to stand by the bed,
"M-May I examine her?"
Raven was nervous; it was one thing to deal with children who were sick. But to heal someone's girlfriend, especially when that someone was Jack Atlas, was more than a little nerve wracking. He nodded and she quickly began to look over the girl,
"Y-You're the new psychic duelist in town right?" her voice was like sandpaper as she began coughing again the blonde gently rubbed her cheek,
"Shhh don't talk, save your energy so you can get better alright?"
Once she was finished she took Carly's temperature, she was burning way up. "
Jack, how long has she been like this?" Jack looked…sad as he replied.
"Since yesterday, she fainted while we were making dinner. But refused to go to a hospital." Raven nodded, understanding her hesitance to go.
"Alright Ms. Carly, I've got something that will get you fixed up in no time. It just needs to be heated up, so why don't you sleep for the time being?" Carly smiled as her eyes slid shut again.
Raven pulled the water bottle out of her bag; luckily it hadn't been damaged in the crash. Jack looked at the bottle in her hand,
"That's what's going to help her? Some green mush?" she nodded and got up again, she could tell Jack was scared for Carly but was trying his best not to show it.
She looked him right in the eye,
"Trust me." His eyes widened as he stared into hers, he smiled and nodded his head. With that Raven headed off to the kitchen to use the stove.
Not long after, Carly took the medicine but not without some gagging on everyone's part. But she did seem more comfortable as she slept, which bode well for her. She walked out and sat in a chair by the table, completely exhausted. But she fought off the urge to sleep as she heard the door click shut.
Jack walked out a relived look on his face,
"She'll be alright now. It's good that you found me when you did, otherwise we would have been too late and she would have gotten much worse." He nodded and sat down on the couch beside her, well more like fell. He looked just as tired as she felt.
"Long night?" she said jokingly,
"Tell me about it." He replied back, she giggled and sighed burying her head in her arms that she had crossed on top of the table. "I'm serious, tell me about it." Raven looked at him, not understanding.
"Tell me what happened. You just saved Carly, the least I can do you let you vent." Raven sighed,
"Crow told me to go die."
It took Jack less then a second to process what she had said as he jumped from the couch,
"Why the duce would he say that?!" he wasn't yelling but Raven could tell he wanted too,
"that cure I just gave Carly is why. I told him I couldn't give it to the hospitals here." Now the blonde turned his fury on her,
"Why the hell not?! It could help a lot of people just like Carly and those kids! Are you just-" Raven cut him off as she sat up and leaned against the back of the chair staring tat the ceiling.
"I changed my mind. Despite the dangers to myself and to you and the others, I've decided to give it to the city." Jack looked confused,
"What made you change your mind?" Raven smiled sadly,
"Crow did actually. When he said what he did I thought, 'wow, he really cares about the people here. Enough to ask me to do something like die for not doing anything.' I feel bad that I made him go that far. So if it makes him happy, I will give the cure to the hospitals. But I would also have to leave the city."
Raven wasn't sure why she was telling him all of this, but she just felt like she could tell him and he would judge her and help her.
"You don't need to leave you idiot!" her eyes widened as she looked into his serious purple eyes.
"Yusei, me and that dolt Crow would protect you from anyone that came after you! Didn't I prove that earlier!" she sighed out,
"Jack, I've been beaten to an inch of my life my people I was supposed to trust. I can't just suddenly start relying on people that I've only just met. It wouldn't be right."
He smacked her head again,
"Just shut up! We're all your friends! You rely on your friends to have your back when things get tough! So just get over it and rely on us! Pandora, Gangsters, whoever comes after you, we will protect you!" he said confidently, she stared up at him wide eyed as a tear slid down her cheek; she quickly wiped it away with a smile.
"Right, I will try harder next time." She promised.
"Now, what do you know about this Pandora that the guy mentioned earlier?" Raven shrugged,
"From what I can tell they think I'm this portal thing for the Crimson Dragon, they attacked me and Crow yesterday, and the gangster also said something about them. I've never even heard of Pandora till yesterday, so we're In the same boat here."
Jack looked suspicious,
"And how pray tell, do you know about the Crimson Dragon?" she thought about it,
"I believe it was something called, 'Wikipedia'. It told all about the Crimson Dragon, the Signers, the Dark Signers, and even the portal. So it has to exist right? This person who is supposed to be the portal?"
Jack seemed to be carefully considering this,
"Oh and I know all about the whole you and others being Signers thing. I'm not sure if that's a secret or not but I'm just putting that out there." Jack seemed surprised by this,
"How the duce did you know?"
She giggled, "it's not hard to figure out ya know. The whole red marks things kinda stands out." Jack lay his head against the back of the couch,
"Oh, I forgot to call Crow. We'll let the dimwit suffer for a bit longer; he deserves it for what the bird brain said to you. It's just not something you say to another person, especially you."
Raven laughed again,
"What?" he asked confused,
"N-Nothing…"she blushed,
"Tell me, don't just laugh!" she giggled again,
"I-It's just that you're acting just like an older brother, its sweet." Raven expected him to freak out, or blush. But he did neither, just laid there his arms folded behind his head.
"Good! Someone needs to be your brother; it might as well be me, Jack Atlas!" her eyes widened but she smiled.
"I am honored." Was all she said as she went back to staring at the ceiling.
"So…Do you like Crow?" Jack asks casually, but she can still feel the embarrassment in his voice,
"Of course I like him, he's my friend." She answered simply. 'But for how long remains to be seen.' She thought sadly.
Jack thought for a moment before trying again,
"No, I mean, do you…ya know like like him? As more than a friend?" Raven blushed as she thought about it, she did feel something for the boy but couldn't put her finger on it what it was. She shook the thoughts from her head though as his words played over and over in her mind.
"I wouldn't know if I did Jack, besides Crow probably won't ever speak to me again so it doesn't matter." Her heart hurt thinking about, making every breath she took painful. After all, she was used to people hating her, but this was a person she had become close too so the pain hurt all the more.
"Nonsense! He may be an idiot, and have a hot temper but Crow has a good heart. And he obviously cares about you! Even if the fool doesn't admit it out loud." Raven desperately wanted to believe him but for a person with such a kind heart to say something so cruel wasn't something she could take again.
She stood up now, grabbing her bag off the table.
"I really want to believe you Jack. I do, but I don't know if I can. Not yet…" She looked back at Jack and noticed he had drifted off and was in a deep sleep, she sighed and covered him with the blanket.
"Sweet dreams Jack." And she left the apartment.
And there we have it! I hope everyone enjoys Jack's little duel and I really really hope I kept up with his dueling style. Please R&R with any helpful comments or thoughts or even things you don't like!
Till next time! :3
