Chapter 10: A Psychic's Revenge; Sayer's Dirty Tactics and Kasumi's Scheme
The day finally arrived; Rafael went to Goodwin's office to accompany him to evaluate the efforts made in The Facility to help the residents be trustworthy members of society and to follow the rules; however a few things turned out yet again and Goodwin had to stay in office for a long time, until almost the night. A member of Sector Security took them there in a car of their group, trying to reach there as soon as possible. Rafael was quite serious, Goodwin was rather cold most of the time and this one was no exception.
"So Rafael, how is the research going?" asked Goodwin interested
"Well, I've found some…troubles getting to Sayer and Akiza, to say the least." He then began explaining the whole situation with the Arcadia Movement, from the moment he first met with Sayer, the job offer, the last threatens, everything. "It seems the guy has a lot of troubles letting things go."
"Well, he's their leader after all." replied Goodwin coldly "In the past few months, his group has been the most dangerous for Sector Security in fieldwork."
Rafael kind of understood, but he had never felt the wrath of a psychic duelist before. "Director Goodwin, I've got a few questions if I may ask them." Goodwin simply expected him to begin. "You see, I felt intrigued by these Signers and the Crimson Dragon that I had to research more on them and I still find a few missing things. Supposedly, the Signers were given the gift to call forth a dragon servant of the Crimson Dragon, between the ones I found they exist we have Stardust Dragon, Red Dragon Archfiend, Black Rose Dragon, and Ancient Fairy Dragon, one still missing." Goodwin kept hearing at Rafael's report of his findings. "Also, they should bear the legendary Mark of the Dragon, an image that resembles a part of the Crimson Dragon."
"And your doubt is?" asked Goodwin amazed of how in a few days Rafael found out almost everything about the Signers and their history.
"Well, how do you plan to confirm if these people are the ones? We know Jack is one for sure, he had the mark after all; this Yusei Fudo may be or not, we're not completely sure at the moment. But Akiza and Luna? Also, we're missing one of the five Signers yet."
"Fear not, he will appear when the right time comes. As for how to confirm if they are or not Signers, only through duels we'll be sure of it, that's this year's Fortune Cup goal."
Rafael still doubted a bit "I hope you're right Director."
"Now, tell me a bit of the Paladins. Have you gathered all of them?" asked Goodwin curious, Rafael simply got astonished of him knowing already of his friends secret, about the legend of the Paladins of Light. "Like you with the Signers, I became intrigued by your marks; we did some research and found out about the hidden war that took place during the Crimson Dragon's fight with the Underworld King."
Rafael was doubtful of trusting Goodwin with this one, something felt strange for him to know about it, but simply answered the basic information, to try to avoid the subject. "For the moment being there are only four Paladins, we never discovered how many are indeed, but we're looking for them."
"You must be prepared." Added Goodwin, noticing his evasiveness of the topic "If what I fear is about to happen, your battles are not too far from today." Then the car suddenly stopped, which meant they had reached their destination, both of them left the car, while Rafael looked amazed at the building's immensity. "Rafael, welcome to The Facility." Said Goodwin, pointing to the odd building, it was inside yet another one, just in case of an escape attempt for its probability's success to stay really low.
Both Goodwin and Rafael were heading to the Chief's office, in hopes of talking with him about Yusei's stay in the facility. Goodwin went ahead, while Rafael was allowed permission to tour the building. He stared at the first level's interns, noticing the hatred and sorrow in their eyes. He also noticed a strange thing, there were a few rooms available in the level, while others had only one intern, Rafael didn't get what was happening until he saw the second level of the Facitlity, which was quite loaded with criminals. "Director Goodwin, you in there?" replied Goodwin, through the communicator in Rafael's wrist.
"I hear you Rafael, what's the matter?"
"You may find this a bit interesting, the second level of the Facility is pretty full of criminals."
"That's only natural Rafael, not only Satellite citizens that try to get to New Domino City are locked in here, but also those of New Domino City that committed crimes."
Rafael got a bit upset when he identified a figure in the levels; it was a young man wearing a blue jacket with orange spheres in the jacket's shoulders, when he managed to see his face he contacted Goodwin once again. "Director, then why is Yusei Fudo staying in there if his file said he would be in the first level?"
Goodwin took some time to answer back "I'm on my way there, it appears something happened with other interns in here."
Rafael sticked around until he saw Yusei with a duel disk in his wrist, he obviously concluded he was challenged to a duel and stayed there to see the skill of the only duelist that beat Jack fair and square, until he realized who his opponent was "What in the world…is that Chief Armstrong?"
"Rafael, I asked him to duel Yusei." Said a voice behind him, it was Goodwin just arriving "That is to see if he's a Signer."
Rafael simply stayed serious, turning towards the duel "Well, I'm always in the mood of watching a good duel." Replied Rafael, while watching how the duel was about to begin. When Yusei suffered damage, he was astonished to see how he was hurt with the electric shocks going through the chain connected to his disk. "Was that part of your plan?"
Goodwin simply looked cold, but kind of angry. He indeed gave orders to Armstrong of pushing Yusei enough for him to reveal his dragon mark; he didn't answered until he saw Yusei turning the play against Armstrong and hurting him "I guess that's the payback for him choosing this as his option of testing his skills." Rafael turned as Armstrong began shouting in pain, but he knew the electricity was not running there. Once Armstrong began laughing and babbling all about his duel disk broken, Rafael got even angrier, while Goodwin finally turned angry at him. "And this is how the interns are supposed to rehabilitate? Look for yourself Director, wherever you see there will be a proof of power abuse in here!"
Goodwin closed his eyes and simply smiled "You're right. This place is under the hands of a man that doesn't care a thing about the Facility's true goal. As soon as the duel is over, which I'm sure its outcome will surprise us, Armstrong will be dealt with."
Back in Rafael's apartment building where he stayed, things were calmed down. Blair and her friends were enjoying a night reunion just as they usually did. On the meantime, Sara, Alan, and Emily were preparing a few details of the contract between Alan's company and Sector Security, thinking in the best of New Domino City and the United States. Just outside of the building, a pretty mysterious character was staring at the main entrance, seeing how it was always active while talking to a microphone. "Here K-1, the entrance is still active. If we are to enter, the back door is the only way now, sir."
The boss of the shady character was in his office in the Arcadia Movement`s building, it was Sayer, readying something big for Rafael's friends in there. "Very well, prepare to execute the plan and bring everyone here alive. Be sure to tell K-5 to leave the letter in a place he will see." He then turned off his microphone and turned to Kasumi, while Akiza looked down. "What's next then, Kasumi?"
He simply smiled deviously "Once he arrives, you duel him. When things finally turn around, I'll take what I came looking for." Sayer simply smiled at him.
"Oh, by the way, be sure to leave someone behind to tell him everything." He added, smiling devilish "That way he'll lose focus for anger."
"Yes sir." Replied the shady character, as he allowed a few arcadians into the building and began to head to the apartments were Rafa's friends were staying. They simply broke in with fake IDs knocking down most of the targets, while transporting them to their vehicle towards the Acradia Movements building. Blair as usual did her best to oppose them, which lead the arcadians to choose her as the one left behind. They simply hit her on her head and locked her on a room in her home and left with everyone else already captured, without being noticed.
The duel went on; Yusei fought bravely against Armstrong and almost wiped him out for good, until he was forced to deplete his deck with Armstrong cards effects. Suddenly lights went out and turned back by Yusei's turn, when he dealt damage to the Chief he finally got shocked by his chain, which meant something or someone repaired what Armstrong secured for his fun "It seems his payback time has arrived. His disk is finally shocking him when his damaged."
"You're right." Replied Goodwin, staring at Yusei to find the mark of the dragon but with no success, not too long after that, the guards brought an escapee, the one responsible of the lights going out and Armstrong's disk turning back to normal "I believe the mark won't appear after all, let's just see how things end." Armstrong managed to synchro summon one of his ace cards, Iron Chain Dragon and almost wiped out Yusei with it, until he countered by summoning a strange card that allowed him to activate his last card: Blasting the Ruins, securing his victory in the duel and the bets.
Armstrong began standing up growling furiously "Take those punks into solitary confinement now! I don't want to see them!"
"Wait a second, you promised to leave us!" shouted the man caught by the guards
Armstrong simply smiled angrily "Me? We don't make pacts with scum like yours, fools." He then began laughing madly, until Goodwin interfered.
"Not so quite, Chief Armstrong." He said when everyone turned to see him, as the guards and Armstrong got really nervous of his appearance. "I saw the entire duel, Chief and I can't see how the interns are supposed to rehabilitate when there is no trust bond between them and the guards in here." He then began to leave, turning his back to the Chief until he stopped and said something else "Pack your things Chief Armstrong, you're fired." He then told Rafael to follow him back to the city, as Yusei was freed from the Facility and allowed to roam free in New Domino City. While returning to the city he turned to Rafael. "I assure you that the Chief's behavior won't be forgotten. We'll release the interns and give them another chance, while we find someone else to lead the Facility." Rafael simply agreed with Goodwin when a phone began to ring.
"Director Goodwin, good evening." Said Mina, as her image appeared in the car "Is Rafael with you by any chance?"
"Yes, he is with me, right here." Replied Goodwin, noticing Mina's look "What's the matter?"
Rafael moved to the screen and saw how Mina was looking so down, like something terrible just happened "Mina, what happened?" She was hesitant to answer, until she took some air and answered back.
"It's them Rafael, your friends have been kidnapped." Replied Mina. Rafael simply had a lost face, as he tried his best to keep calmed down to think things straight and decide how to proceed without endangering his friends, for he knew the responsible was Sayer, somehow. He asked the driver to see drop him right on the street, as he pushed a button in his wrist watch, calling for his runner. "I'm sorry Director, but this is a matter I must attend myself." He then turned on the engine and rushed towards his apartment without turning back.
By the moment he arrived, securities were swarming the building, asking for any leads on the criminals or how they got inside. Apparently, no one inside knew what happened in the affected floor and how they got inside, kidnapping the residents. When he reached his apartments floor, he saw how securities were looking for any clues, as both doors were forced from the hall. He then entered a room where paramedics were attending someone, it was Blair. "Blair, you alright?"
"Yeah, thanks for asking." Replied Blair smiling "But everyone else…I'm sorry Rafa, I know I could've stopped them." She said looking down. Rafael simply told her it was not her doing, but his own mistake of dealing with Sayer. He then left her for a moment, telling her he had to check if something was taken from his room.
Rafael opened a closet where he kept a vault; closed with a lock which he carried the key of at all times, it didn't look damaged or forced open, which lead him to think whatever was inside was not taken. Nevertheless he opened it and began looking for something, moving aside a few photographs of his old days in school and things related to Dread and the Paladins, until he took from it a box with another lock, this one electronic. He passed a key card through the lock, opening it and revealing three face-down cards, the ones Kasumi was searching for. He immediately closed all the locks and returned to the vault to its place, leaving to look for Mina.
"Rafael, what's going on?" asked Blair, as she was walking behind him
"It appears Sayer got involved with someone he'll regret ever doing so." replied Rafael when he saw Mina a few steps ahead of them. "Mina thanks for telling me of this."
"You're welcome." Replied Mina smiling, yet looking down "Even so, I'm sorry everyone got kidnapped."
Rafael simply stayed quiet a moment and then turned back at her. "Mina, I need every file Sector Security keeps of anyone named Kasumi and a band called the Shadow Dwellers."
"Let's go look for them." She replied, as they left the building with the remaining securities. She asked Blair to accompany her in a van, while Rafael left in his runner towards Sector Security's headquarters; once there, they began searching for any existing files of Kasumi and his group, finding almost nothing of them in their files.
"Try looking in the entire database, we may find something there." Said Rafael, quite concerned for his friends. Mina did so and the search revealed a single result. It was an old report of a duel gang that challenged duelists into strange duels were if they lost, they suddenly vanished. Kasumi was the main suspect of the case, but for some reason the case was declared dead. It said Kasumi was also linked with the Arcadia Movement and he always carried a strange artifact that shine brightly when he won the duels. Rafael simply got even more concerned, while Mina and Blair had no idea what was going on with the suspect. "Sayer got involved with someone really dangerous, this won't be easy, but I'll rescue my friends somehow."
Mina stood up and turned to him "I'll go with you. Orders from Director Goodwin." She said, looking down once more "I'm sorry, I had to inform him of your marks, but this time I want to help you out."
Rafael simply smiled at her "The past is in the past now. Let's focus on what lies ahead, thanks for your help." He then turned to Blair "Blair, we'll be in need of those Lightsworns for this mission, you want to follow us?"
"Of course I do!" she replied eagerly. The three of them then began to get ready, deciding it would be the best to wait for tomorrow and look for their friends, as well as making the Arcadia Movement pay for their deeds.
Time for a little showdown with the Arcadia Movement! I thought they deserved some spotlight in the scene, that's why they are here right now and soon, in a pretty big mess. Anyways, the Lightsworns are about to hit pretty big in the duels, so I'll be keeping them with Blair (you'll soon see why the Lightsworns stay with her).
See you next time in the next episode of this adventure, which is getting closer!