Chapter 2: Blast from the Past – Old Memories, a Team's Bond

Laying Down the Law: Reprisals and Traps

As Renei and Crow walked to the Enforcer hideout, she asked how Crow had known the way through that crazy maze and how he'd known the name of the duel gang that had kidnapped Itsuki. Crow grimaced.

"This happened before Kiryu recruited you, but the Enforcers had a run-in with Team Dirty Works before. Some of the kids that I looked after at the time went missing. I spent a lot of time on my own investigating until finally, somebody told me about a duel gang that kidnapped street orphans and made them disappear. They snatched 'em up and rode off on their duel runners, and nobody would hear from the kids again. Not many people bothered to look into it, because who cares about some street rat, right?"

Renei nodded somberly. In the B.A.D. Area, people went missing all the time. Because they were the outcasts and scum of society, nobody looked too hard or asked too many questions about such disappearances. If the missing person turned up dead in an alley some time later, Sector Security would show up with a truck and a body bag, take a few snapshots of the scene, and leave without further investigation.

"When I told Kiryu about it, he decided that he couldn't allow something like that to continue, so we started digging. We managed to catch Team Dirty Works right when they went to grab another kid, and chased them on our Duel Runners back to their hideout. After a little Enforcing, we told them that if they didn't quit kidnapping, we'd come back, take their territory, and make them disappear permanently."

Renei asked, "Why didn't you just do that right then? You were already in their territory. You could have busted their Duel Disks and run them out of there."

Crow laughed. "You don't miss a thing, do you? We would have, but we didn't have the duel cuffs with us. I suggested taking them and stomping the things into bits, but Jack started going on about how destroying an opponent's duel disk without also risking our own was not kingly and he wasn't going to join in on it. You know how he does that sometimes. Kiryu agreed and that was the end of it."

Renei nodded with understanding. "Guess they have short memories then. Bet Kiryu's gonna want to bust them next after he hears what happened with Itsuki."

They reached their hideout finally and walked up to the war room, where Kiryu was leaning against the beat-up table and scowling.

"Hey, you're late. Where have you two been?" Kiryu snapped at them with obvious impatience. Renei wondered how long ago Annie had been given the message. Crow was already explaining how Itsuki had been kidnapped by Team Dirty Works and that he and Renei had gone to rescue him. Kiryu's scowl turned to indignation at the news.

"What?! So that's why Annie looked so upset. Is Itsuki alright?!" Kiryu leaped up and clenched his fists, voice filled with outrage.

Crow nodded, and said "Yeah, Renei here saw 'em riding off on their Duel Runners. After that, we chased 'em back to their hideout and got Itsuki back. He's outside playing now."

Kiryu sighed and leaned back against the table. "Well, that's good to hear." He growled, clenching his fist again as he tried to contain his fury. Finally, he burst out, "I can't believe those Team Dirty Works punks! They're not gonna get away with this!"

Crow agreed, face dark at the thought of what could have happened to Itsuki had Renei and he not managed to catch up to the kidnappers. "Yeah, they went too far with this one."

Kiryu let his voice turn casual, though his face still held an expression of anger. "What a coincidence. I was just thinking about who to go up against at our next turf battle... This makes things easy, though." He grinned, though there was no amusement in the expression, then turned and circled an area on the map with his finger. "Dirty Works it is! Let's go crush those guys right now!" He whirled and pointed at Crow and Renei. "Bring your 'A' game for this one! We've gotta make them pay!"

Crow's face lit up and he said, "All right! I'll get ready as quick as possible!" He turned and ran out of the room, leaving Kiryu to glare at Renei and say, "You gotta hurry up and get ready, too! I'll go get Jack and Yusei. We'll be waiting out front." With that, he left the war room as well, though not at the same pace as Crow had a moment before.

Renei lingered for a moment and stared at the map that was mostly black with conquered territory then looked out over the city, which was just as black with dirt and garbage and junk and despair. For the first time, she wondered if Kiryu's goal of uniting Satellite would really fix anything for the island of outcasts. Even if the Enforcers controlled all the turf, would Sector Security stop their brutality and pressing petty criminals into gang labor? Would the residents of Satellite try to clean up their island or stay stuck in their habit of scraping out a meager existence among the rubble of a ruined city? Would orphans be safe from kidnappers like Team Dirty Works?

As she thought more about it, she realized Kiryu had never spoken of any plan of action beyond uniting Satellite. He used to go on and on about making it a better place since they weren't allowed off the island, but he'd never talked about how to make it better. The Enforcers hadn't done much with the territory they'd already taken, and Renei realized that things might not get better even under their control. With such a realization came doubt in her leader, and she began to wonder if Kiryu was even interested in helping anyone but himself.

These thoughts plagued her the whole way to Team Dirty Work's hideout, though she was able to hide her doubt from Crow and Kiryu during the ride there. The ride helped her to put aside her uncertainties and focus on wringing retribution from Itsuki's kidnappers instead. Going into enemy turf with a divided heart and mind would only make her lose, and the Enforcers couldn't afford to give any hints of weakness.

When they arrived on their D-Wheels, there was no sign of any duel gang members. Kiryu dismounted and said loudly, "All right, time for them to get crushed! This is Dirty Work's hideout! There'll be no holding back, clear?"

Crow pumped his fist and responded in a similarly loud voice, "Let's just bust in there and take 'em out!"

Kiryu grinned his feral grin, "Yeah! Even if they hide, drag them out kicking and crush them!" He punched his fist into his palm to make it clear just what he meant by "crush them." In a lower voice, he added "I'll go first. Jack and Yusei should be here soon, so you stay here and fill them in on what's going on."

He ran inside, and Crow huffed impatiently before running inside, saying "I'm goin' with you!"

Renei gave her own sigh of exasperation, but did not follow the two hotheads into the building. Jack and Yusei arrived soon on their own D-Wheels, and as they dismounted, Jack asked where Kalin and Crow had gone. She explained how they'd run in just a moment ago.

Yusei smiled slightly. "They must still be mad about this morning..."

Jack put on an expression of long-suffering patience and said, "I guess we'd better go help them before they hog all the glory for themselves."

Yusei nodded in agreement. "Yeah, those two need to learn how to calm down a bit sometimes. When you get hotheaded like that, it's easy to fall into an enemy's trap like Kalin did last time."

Both Jack and Yusei nodded together as if they were wise old generals. Finally, Jack said "Let's go check things out."

The building was dim inside, but Renei could make out what looked like old arcade games lined up in rows. Light was leaking in from gaps between boards over the windows, and she could chairs scattered around on their sides or tossed in heaps in the aisles. Some of the arcade games were lying on the floor.

Yusei squinted into the dim room and said "I can't see anyone... I've got a feeling there's someone around here, though. They could be hiding."

Jack muttered, "Stay alert. You never know what might happen."

As Jack and Yusei split off to investigate, Renei went over to one of the arcade games and saw it was coated with a thick layer of dust. She walked slowly down the aisle, looking at each one and wondering what games they held. Each had a thick layer of dust and it was obvious that nobody had played these games for quite a while. She made her way to the back of the arcade and found a pair of dingy photo booths. She froze as she saw the dust on the left one was disturbed with smudges. The curtain twitched, and Renei caught a glimpse of somebody inside. She advanced and activated her duel disk before grabbing the curtain and ripping it off to reveal one of the kidnappers from earlier in the morning. The guy yelped in surprise.

"Hey! You're those punks from this morning!" He sprang out, forcing Renei to backpedal. She fell into a defensive stance, duel disk held in between her and her opponent. He grinned at her reaction and said with more confidence than before, "Attacking so soon? You guys are pretty impatient!" He activated his own duel disk and added, "I'll duel ya right now!"

Renei didn't hesitate, but sent the duel cuffs flicking out to attach to his duel disk. He scowled at her, and said "You got guts, I'll give ya that! I'm Kuroe."

Renei drew. "Renei. I don't particularly like people who kidnap little boys. Let's do this."

Five minutes later, Renei was victorious and Kuroe's duel disk was fried. He didn't react with the usual fear and shock most of her opponents did when they realized she'd rendered their duel disks inoperable. Instead, he smirked and said, "We got much more efficient ways of dueling with punks like you than dueling..."

Renei frowned, suspicion rising in her gut and shivers of tension running through her limbs. "What the hell are you talking about?"

Kuroe flashed a grin filled with malice. "I think it's about time somebody fell into our little trap..."

The way he said that made Renei suddenly wonder why she hadn't heard the noise of any other duels so far. Where were her friends? Where was Team Dirty Works, for that matter? She decided that it was time to stop playing nice and get down to serious business. She exploded forward, catching the other duelist off-guard and off-balance. A solid punch in his throat made him reel backward, gagging, allowing Renei to bring her duel cuffs into play. She wrapped a loop of the connecting cable around his neck, pulling it tight. He struggled, but she'd already seized the upper hand in this fight and was not about to give it up. He fell facedown to the ground, face turning purple, and she quickly pinned him in place with her knee on his kidney.

"Alright, buddy, this is how this is going to work. I'm going to let you breath, and you're going to tell me just what you mean by trap."

She gave the connecting cable a little flip, and Kuroe started coughing as he pulled in air. Once she felt he'd had enough, she gave the cable a little tug to remind him who was in charge. "Talk. What trap?"

He squeaked and said hurriedly, "T-the one in the next room! We've got some of the ceiling rigged to collapse! Please, let me go, I don't want to die!"

Renei tugged the cable again, and she held the tension this time, feeling Kuroe's nervous swallow. "Are there other traps besides that one?"

Kuroe was trembling. "Y-yes, but, you got here sooner than we thought you would, so we didn't have time to get anything else into place."

She pressed her knee into his kidney and he gasped in pain. "Why did you kidnap Itsuki? What happens to the kids you guys take?"

Kuroe started crying. "W-we hand them over to another gang. They d-don't fight over turf or anything, th-they just take the kids to the mainland and pay us to get more. I don't know anything more, I swear!"

Renei paused for a long moment, letting Kuroe sweat for a minute longer. Just like Crow, she worked to maintain a certain reputation among the scum of the B.A.D. Area. She wanted this guy to leave with stories of how terrifying she was and how he'd been lucky to get away with his life. The stories would grow, encouraging others to think twice before messing with her. It reduced the amount of fights significantly. Finally, she said, "Who does know more?"

"The boss does! He's in the back!"

She hit him hard on the back of the head with her duel disk, and he fell limply unconscious. After gathering up her duel cuffs and using the ripped photo booth curtain to tie Kuroe's hands behind his back, she made her way cautiously to the back of the arcade, where an arched doorway was framed by giant, dingy bowling pins. One was cracked and lying on the floor, looking sad and broken. She stepped through, looking up at the ceiling for signs of the trap Kuroe had talked about, and saw it off to the left.

Yusei was right underneath it, looking around and completely unaware of the danger he was in. Renei's heart skipped a beat and time seemed to slow as she began to run towards him, feeling as if the air had turned to water around her. A sharp crack resounded through her ears and the ceiling began to fall in.

She slammed into Yusei full force, and they both went sprawling in a tangle of limbs and dust. There was a lot of noise behind them as chunks of concrete hit the ground where Yusei had been just a moment before with deadly crashes. Finally, the downpour of man-made boulders ceased, leaving Renei and Yusei to stare at the jagged pile. Yusei gaped, his normally cool and collected demeanor gone at the near death experience. She extricated her limbs from his and and stood before helping him up. He continued to stare at the trap in shock, probably imagining in great detail what would have happened to his body underneath all the rubble. A trickle of dust and small pieces of debris fell from the hole in the ceiling, rapping out a brief, staccato noise upon the remains.

"Renei... If it wasn't for you, I'd be..." Yusei spoke slowly, as if stringing words together into sentences was one of the more challenging things he'd had to do today. He held out his hand and Renei reached out hers in confusion. Yusei gripped her forearm like he did with Jack sometimes after they'd dueled together, and she returned the gesture, realizing that her place in Yusei's mind had gone from just being a teammate and friend to someone he could trust his life to. They shared a bond now that was difficult to describe, but both felt as if it was more valuable and precious than anything else life had to offer at that moment.

"Thank you."

Yusei looked at her with serious blue eyes, his face intent and focused on only her. She only squeezed his forearm reassuringly in response.

"I got your back, Yusei. We better find the others, though. The gang member who I beat up earlier told me there were lots of traps to deal with intruders. Team Dirty Works doesn't like to play fair, it seems."


Author's Note: This chapter was getting stupidly long, so I broke it up into two parts. Like I said earlier, there is no OCxAnyone in this story, so don't misconstrue Yusei's and Renei's little moment.

I'd love to hear some feedback about this story so far. I guess I'll give you a prompt, to get you started. What do you absolutely detest about this story so far? Leave a review and let me know! I think it's important to know what readers are thinking. This story is for entertainment, and I want to know how to entertain y'all better!