Chapter 10: Giovanni

"So...who are we going to see?" Yuya asked as they traipsed across the ruins of the previously spectacular Summerland City.

"Giovanni," Skylar explained. "He runs the day-to-day operations of Infinitas, our anti-Academia resistance organization."

"But you mentioned someone else earlier," Kurosaki remarked. "Scarla?"

"Scarlett," Miruna corrected, slanting an amused look at Skylar. "And yeah, she's the main leader of Infinitas. But she's got a lot on her plate at the moment, and she's not always able to check in on everything herself, so Gio takes care of things for her when she's too busy."

"She's too busy to be involved with her own resistance group?" Kurosaki asked, looking vaguely aggravated.

Skylar opened her mouth to snap back a retort, reminded herself that doing so might blow her cover, and shut her mouth again. "Things are complicated," she said instead. "For now, all you need to know if that Giovanni can help us track down Cherise."

"This," Kurosaki said in disbelief when they finally reached their destination, "is your resistance headquarters?"

"You got something against an extremely secure storage facility as a base?" Skylar asked, arching an eyebrow at him as she typed in the entry code for the front gate. "Is it the high fences that are off-putting to you," she went on dryly, "or the sturdy buildings that can take a licking and keep on ticking?"

He shot her an annoyed look. "I'm not saying it's a bad location," he replied. "It just surprised me. It's actually a pretty good location," he admitted after a moment, his gaze drifting around as they trekked around the complex; his sharp eyes took note of how they'd cleared out many of the central buildings, relocating the contents of those storage units and turning the spaces into living quarters and supply rooms for the members of Infinitas.

"We can't always manage it, but we try to keep most of the living quarters limited to the interior units," Skylar explained, noticing his curious look. "Because while the buildings are secure against physical damage, they don't have anything in the way of heating for cold nights or AC for hot days. We do have on generator installed that's actually working without any serious complications, so there's enough electricity to run little old-school space heaters and some basic lightning, but it's still pretty bare bones here."

"I've seen worse," Kurosaki commented, and it actually sounded like sort of a compliment.

So she gave a wry half-smile in return before leading them into Building G and then down the hall to unti G-37, which was the main strategy and meeting room where Giovannia, Irina, and Skylar as Scarlett held their meetings, usually with Yukito and Miruna in attendance, because they were just as important to the resistance effort as the founders of Infinitas.

"Hey, Gio," Skylar said as she yanked up the rolling door with a rattle and waved to the tall dark-haired man who was bent over an old map of the city.

"Hiya, Sc-" He broke off abruptly as Kurosaki and Yuya followed her inside, along with Miruna and Yukito who had refused to be left behind. "Skylar," he amended, glancing at her long wig for a moment as if using it as a visual cue for reminding himself not to spill the beans on her identity. "What brings you here? And with new friends, too."

"Sorry for the unexpected company," she offered with a shrug, glancing at Yuya and Kurosaki, "but we're dealing with some trouble right now and having them around could come in handy. Yuya, Kurosaki, this is Giovannia deLuca. Gio, this Yuya Sakaki and his teammate Shun Kurosaki; they're from another dimension."

Giovanni's eyebrows shot up and he looked at the two Lancers with increased interest. "Another dimension, huh?"

"Not Fusion," Miruna said hastily, giving Giovanni a reassuring smile. "Yuya's from Standard and Kurosaki's from Xyz."

"Or so they say," Yukito tacked on, his suspicious tendencies apparently amped up from the recent knock upside the head; Skylar couldn't blame him, really. Being jumped from behind and knocked out while someone stole her Deck would have upped her paranoia, too.

Giovanni, meanwhile, was looking at Yukito in concern. "Your color's a bit off," he commented. "You feelin' okay?"

"I've felt better," Yukito replied, a wry smile curving his lips. "But Runa says I'm well enough to run around and stir up some trouble."

"Oh, really? How weird," Miruna cut in, "because I'm pretty sure I remember saying that you should rest and take it easy."

Yukito rolled his eyes. "I can't sit around and do nothing while some psycho is running around with my Deck."

Giovanni made a faint sound of alarm. "Someone took your Deck?" he asked in disbelief.

"Knocked me out and stole it from my Disk," Yukito confirmed, looking disgusted with himself.

"Wasn't your fault," Miruna said softly, squeezing his hand gently. "You trusted Irina to have secured her properly. There was no way of knowing she'd escape."

"She was trapped in a closet," Skylar said irritably. "There was every way of knowing she'd escape."

Giovanni now looked complete lost. "How about you guys start from the beginning," he suggested, "and fill me in on the whole story."

So they did, walking him through how they'd rescued Yugo and brought him back to Fristad, and how Miruna and Yukito had returned not long after. And then they told him about Irina's ill-fated patrol that had led to her bringing the Academia operative Cherise back to Fristad as a prisoner of war. Then they wrapped up their tale with how they'd met the four Lancers and returned home to find one of their generators offline and an ex-Obelisk Force psycho on the loose with Yukito's Deck.

"You have," Gio remarked once they'd finished their tale, "really uncanny timing."

Skylar frowned. "How so?"

"Because I was actually just about to send a messenger to tell you that we'd seen an Academia Duelist, one who happens to match the description of your escaped prisoner no less, meeting with that scavenger guy we've had our eye on...what's his name? Johnny, Jory?"

"Joseph," Skylar corrected automatically, then scowled. "What's one of Erik's scavengers doing working with someone from Academia?"

Giovanni shrugged. "Hell if I know. You're probably going to have to talk to Joseph's boss himself if you want any real answers."

Skylar made a face. "Great. Because this day hasn't sucked enough already." She sighed. "Alright, well, we'll get going, then. Let me know if you hear anything useful?"

"Of course," Giovanni said at once, then grabbed Yukito by the arm as he turned to go. "Here, Yuki," he said. "Take this."

Yukito glanced down at the stack of cards he now had in his hand. "Gio, this is your Deck."

"I know it is," Giovanni replied easily. "But I'm not going anywhere today and you can't go up against the scavengers unarmed."

"I appreciate the thought," Yukito said slowly, "but I have no idea how to win with your Deck."

Gio gave a lopsided smile. "That's fine," he said lightly. "I have the same problem some days. I just want you to have something to Duel with in case things go sideways," he added more seriously, "even if it's an Archetype that doesn't match your usual playing style."

Yukito frowned at him for a moment longer, then nodded at last. "Thank you," he said sincerely. "I'll get it back to your as soon as possible."

Giovanni clapped him on the shoulder. "Be careful out there," was all he said in response, then turned his attention back to the map he'd been studying when they'd first arrived. "Things are getting crazy out there."