C.7 - Random Supernatural Encounters
He shouldn't. Yusei knew he shouldn't say yes to this stupid plan.
Raid a prison for a deck of cards. That was Kalin's plan and it was clear to him his friend wasn't going to listen to him if he asked for him to drop it. He'd been trying to get him to do that all week and it hadn't helped in the slightest.
If anything he had only convinced himself that this plan wasn't as bad as he first thought as Kalin just kept explaining more and more of his plan and back-up plans whenever he was asked what would happen if this went wrong. Or this. Or whatever, but still. He had to keep them from doing anything stupid.
Someone had to be the reasonable one here.
He didn't want to lose his friend again. He didn't know what he would do if only Roman came back or if neither of them returned from their trip to the Facility.
"Hey, Yusei."
The Junk Duelist looked up as the voice of his friend broke him out of his thoughts. For a second he saw the leader of the Enforcers in their prime. Back when they weren't half-starved, when the light in their eyes wasn't burning with a barely contained crazy glint.
But that moment passed and he saw Kalin as he is now. He'd recovered slightly. He filled out the dark grey leather jacket he wore slightly better than when he wore it a week ago.
"Yusei," He repeated. "I need to get that Deck back, i know its stupid. But I refuse to leave it behind." His old friend pumped his fist.
It only shook a little bit this time, Yusei noted to himself.
"I know." The Junk Duelist admitted. "You'd jump off a building to save me, in a way I don't think this is much different. You're just as reckless as you were. They couldn't take that away from you in the Facility, but still."
"Then why do you want to stop me? We can take on the world. Just like before." Kalin smiled wildly.
The hesitation gripped Yusei's heart. "That's what got you captured in the end didn't it." He reminded his friend solemnly.
Kalin paused for a brief moment, staring off into space as if he had forgotten how he was arrested all those years ago.
Roman shuffled slightly in the silence. Silently letting the two talk. Yusei appreciated that at least.
"I…" Kalin tried to say. He struggled with himself, he reached a hand up and grasped at his head like a headache was suddenly flaring up. "I get it." He shot out. "You're right about this. Maybe this is crazy, but again, that's why you need to come with Yusei. You're calm, you can keep me in check, what's a sheriff without his partner? With you I know we can do this the right way."
Kalin smiled genuinely at him. Yusei didn't know how he was supposed to say no to his friend when he was asked like that.
"The right way? You're still not taking no for an answer?" Yusei asked with ample trepidation.
"Yes. But if I do it with your guidance, then it won't go wrong. Look, I can tell you my plan until the end of eternity and why it is a good plan, but I know that won't convince you, but i need you to know that with you there…" The ghost of a man choked on his own words briefly but kept going. "With you it will not be like my last plan…"
Kalin looked like he was on the verge of tears. He clenched his fist and slammed it into a nearby table dramatically. "Yusei I'm sorry for almost getting you put in the Facility. Same with Jack and Crow."
"Kalin.." Yusei tried to reach out.
Kalin shook his head. There was a long pause before he continued. "If you'd have all listened to me, we might've won, but we also might have all been locked away because of me. I've been thinking about that while I've been here. I admit I messed up, but you Yusei, you've grown since then. You can help me! So please, please help me. I know that you can get me through this. Yusei, I need you by my side."
The Junk Duelist was at a loss for words. He couldn't say no to this. It was clear to him now. This was more than just about a Deck. Mind you the Deck was still important, but Kalin also wanted to win back his trust, just like they themselves had wanted to win back his trust.
"Stop treating yourself like you're beyond redemption. You're my friend Kalin. You don't need to do this to win my trust." He told his friend. "But if you want to go to the Facility.. I'll need to talk to some of my friend's first, to make sure they can be good without me for a few days."
"Hm?" Kalin tilted his head. "So does that mean you're coming."
"I guess so.." Yusei sighed. "You convinced me." He reached out a closed fist towards Kalin.
The ghost of his friend smiled back and happily returned the gesture. Life seemed to fully come back to his eyes, if ever so briefly.
With the Fistbump completed, Roman stepped forward. "You won't need to go tell your friends it'll be more than a few days, we will be back before the night is over."
"Still, I'll leave a note just in case, they're probably asleep or something at this hour anyways." Yusei explained to the giant of a man before turning towards the exit of the tent. He didn't manage to get to the doorway before he spotted his four friends as they opened the tent flap. It seemed they'd all been there waiting for him.
"Guys?" He asked slightly confused as to why they were still here. "I didn't know you were still up."
His friend Nervin was the one holding the tent flap open whilst Blitz, Tank and Rally were all hunched behind the studiously and relatively thin man as if he was a piece of cover.
"Hey Nervin why'd you do that, he didn't know we were listening in!" Blitz let out an exasperated sigh.
"Because eavesdropping is rude." Nervin reprimanded the other boy. "Anyways it doesn't matter, Yusei was going to look for us either way. There is literally no point"
"Tch, Still think we should've just backed off. I don't know what the other two will think of it," Blitz gestured vaguely at Roman and Kalin. "I still don't exactly trust them."
"Guys.." Tank groaned. "No arguing, it's like just past midnight, it's too late for this kind of noise."
"Yea, do it in your own time." Rally added before crossing his arms over his chest.
"Well if you heard everything, i don't have anything to tell you." Yusei explained.
"Well I don't think you should go." Nervin replied instantly. "This is a stupid idea."
"Well, I think you should definitely go." Rally contradicted his friend, earning a sideways glare from Nervin.
"What!" He shot back.
Rally immediately yelled back. "His deck got taken away, he has to get it back. Nothing can stop Yusei! And he isn't even going alone, he has those two."
"Assuming they don't just jump Yusei or leave him for dead at the Facility." Blitz added sarcastically. "Oh wait, that's totally what's going to happen."
"Enough." Yusei stopped the group from descending back into another argument he could just feel was starting to happen again. "I'm going with them, it's decided. Roman says we won't be out that long, I'm sure we'll get back before dawn."
"Hmph, maybe one of us should go with? Just to make sure you have back-up." Nervin added. "Because I agree with Blitz somewhat, you shouldn't be alone with these guys."
"I'm right here!" Kalin shouted with offence from the other side of the room.
"I do not recommend any more. Three is far more than enough. We're trying to sneak in, not go in guns blazing." Roman explained to the group.
"Wait? We are?" Kalin gasped at Roman. The Infernity Duelist looked generally shocked. "Damn, there goes some of my plans."
"You failed to mention guns when you were explaining your plans to me." Yusei added.
Nervin gestures at Kalin. "You understand why I'm so stressed about this right?"
"I can see your point of view." Yusei nodded. He had to admit to himself that this night definitely had a high chance of going sideways, but he'd deal with that as it comes.
"There won't be guns." Roman assured them.
"Aw man, I really wanted to come with you." Rally batted away a lock of red hair out of his face and pouted.
"I'll bring a souvenir." Yusei added as he gave a thumbs up to Rally.
"Heck yea!"
He actually had to bring something back now, didn't he? Yusei sighed at the thought.
Yusei turned back around to Kalin and Roman and started to walk over to their side. "Alright, let's go."
"Finally. I was about to start puking from sweetness if this went any longer." With that said, the man raised up both of his arms, a ring of black shadows rose up around Roman, Kalin and himself. His eyes widened at whatever it was that was happening around him.
His friends at the opening to the tent gasped. Nervin immediately shouted out in panic. "What the hell is that!"
The shadows danced around him, raising up and flickering like fire would. "Roman!" Yusei growled at the questionable things happening around him. He then coughed as he accidentally took a breath of the smokey darkness.
"You act like you've never seen magic before." Roman chuckled darkly. "Now Onwards to the Facility."
The ring of shadows all raised up, completely engulfing the three of them and blocking his view of his other friends. From the other side of the shadows he could hear a tomboyish voice call out to him. "Yusei!"
The scuffle of footsteps raced towards him.
"Rally, don't touch that!"
Then Yusei's ears popped and the flames faded to reveal someplace else.
In retrospect maybe she shouldn't have left the safety of Goodwin's penthouse.
Because now instead of being lost there, now she's lost in New Domino as a whole. Mina had taken her to the front door and then, well she'd been too awkward to actually talk to the secretary and instead just left.
She's been lost this entire week. She was now most certainly starving. She hadn't eaten for almost a week and she still didn't know where the heck she was supposed to go!
Where in the world even was her apartment again? Well Roman's apartment.
Still it's where she was sleeping before the penthouse and maybe it's her desperate need to feel like she's still in control of her life, but she's feeling attached to the floor of that one room she'd stayed in while waiting for the acolyte of the spider to actually send her out.
Wow! Did she actually just think that? Man, she must be way more stressed than she realised.
In her defence the floor was really comfortable. Maybe. She felt warm at the very least. Which compared to the apparent cold night of whatever month it currently was that she was currently experiencing would be most appreciated.
She sighed loudly in the middle of the sidewalk. Cars busily drove by and pedestrians walked the city in crowds despite the late hour. Seriously, where was she!
She threw her head skywards out of frustration. That's when she noticed that she was still right next to the Skyscrapers of the main part of the city. Her place was more on the rundown outskirts. She was nowhere close.
It'd just been an entire week of not being close.
At this point she was starting to feel a little crazy from the stress. Even if it's New Domino, walking these streets at night isn't exactly much safer than what she expected. She's sure something has been following her, but she can't tell because she's felt like this all week ever since she left the penthouse.
"Come on!" Sora sniffed. "I just want to sleep, this is like the latest I've ever stayed up! I just want to eat, this is the longest I've gone without eating, life sucks in general! How am I supposed to help anyone like this!" Her belly rumbled in agreement.
They wished they had money, but Sora Raptor, whoever they were, did not have any on her. It was probably in her bag she had when she first awoke in this body. Unfortunately she'd left that at the apartment. Maybe she could trade for it.
"Actually that might be a good point?" She mumbled. Next they placed their hand over her deck slotted into her duel disk. "How much were cards worth in this world? Since this place seemed so centred around it, it had to be more than in her regular world, not to mention how did the Duel Disks even read the paper when they're placed on said device?
Was there a chip or something inside them, not to mention sometimes in the show the cards would be used like throwing knives which implied they were made from more than paper potentially.
She wished she could find out, perhaps she could even part with one or two of her cards for a meal if it turns out her cards are expensive.
At that thought she flinched, causing her to take her hand off her deck immediately. "Ow!"
She swore for just a moment she felt something pulse up her arm and sting at the back of her mind.
She shakes her head before placing a hand on it. "What the?" She looked down at her cards. "Alright… maybe that's a bad idea."
Were her cards alive? Well obviously in this world duel spirits and stuff existed. That was a fact. But her cards didn't come from this world, she hadn't considered that they'd be alive now. If what she felt right now was indeed the Duel Spirits of her cards then that pain was more than enough proof that her cards didn't approve of her trading idea.
"Fan-Freaking-Tastic, back to square one i go." Sora groaned, earning a glare of some random passerby she'd just walked past and promptly decided to ignore.
She kicked her feet at the ground, before reminding herself she really shouldn't throw a tantrum in public. But she is so over this! So screw social norms.
"Where am i! Seriously, what am I doing anymore, because even I don't know what I'm doing." She could keep yelling out tirades like this all night long, but she was actually starting to lose energy.
She kept walking down the street, until a pair of doors she walked past slid open, she hissed at the bright light that hit her eyes, temporarily blinding her. Quickly, she reached up her hand to block the light.
"This was the person you were talking about? She doesn't look special." A kiddish voice spoke, obviously referring to her. She groaned, she'd spent about a month in this world and who knows how long it's been since she last watched the actual show, but she'd recognise that almost painful amount of child squeakiness from anywhere.
"Yes it is, it's her." Another childish voice, this one distinctly more feminine and softer than that other voice.
Sora rubbed her eyes, eventually they had adjusted enough that she could see now and what she saw didn't surprise her. Those mint green heads of hair, one tied back into a ponytail and the other tied into a pair of Antennae. Which… was a weird hairstyle to choose in her personal opinion.
"Hey, it's rude to talk about someone, when you're standing directly in front of them." She commented towards the children.
The twins that had been conversing with each other looked up at her. Luna had a curious look, while Leo stared at her with an absolutely legendary amount of scrutiny. They couldn't be more opposite to each other, she quietly thought.
Luna was quiet and definitely looked the part with her body folding inwards, she had a slight slump to her stature, which only made her look even smaller. She looked like the definition of frail. Her arms were crossed over her chest weirdly too, like she was carrying something invisible.
Which she probably was, now that she was thinking about it. She could see Duel Spirits. There probably was something there, something she couldn't see.
Leo on the other hand, looked confident. Arms firmly planted on his hips. She could've probably guessed how protective he was of his sister just by looking at them. Though as the show proved, Leo was terrible at duelling at the start of the series. Before Yusei came around and taught the boy how to think through his moves.
"This has been a fun staring contest and all but…" She muttered, the twins seemed to realise the uncomfortable silence, Luna spoke up, breaking it promptly.
"You, I could sense you. I've been having dreams and… you keep appearing in them, not to mention I was told to meet you." She explained softly.
Sora nodded, then clicked a pair of finger guns up. "That's cool, anyway I should get going. Please ignore any dreams about me." Seriously, all she set out to do in this world was help prevent some of the bad things that happened to the Signers, like Akiza… well mostly Akiza, maybe Jack. After getting to meet the man, he only infuriated her. Yet also made her feel sad for him.
Yusei is probably fine.
Perhaps she could send Yusei his way sooner than normal, but that wasn't either here nor there. The twins for all intents and purposes did not need any major saving. Luna goes into a coma several times, but she will be okay if everything goes according to canon.
She didn't need to meet them.
She didn't need to screw up again and somehow make things worse. The last time she did that she'd received death threats from a monster of a man.
That's all she's been doing, she doesn't want that to be the only thing she does. But still, as much as she didn't want to help…
"She said you needed help." Luna revealed to her.
"I don't need help from your dragon friend!" Sora stated instantly. Thoughts flew around her head wildly, she had to come up with a decision. Stay and help or leave for the better. She needed an answer now.
"How did you know I dreamt of a dragon?" Luna asked, staring knowingly at her.
That, wait. No. Damn it.
"Well…" Sora gulped and then paused as she tried to think of a believable lie. "Because you look up to your brother and he uses a dragon?" She lied, terribly. She knows she lied terribly. That was perhaps one of the worst lies in history. Of course it would be from her.
"And you know my brother uses a dragon because?" Luna continued.
"Well, actually it's a machine monster." Her twin brother Leo interrupted.
"See, i don't know anything, why would he even use a dragon, he plays a machine deck."
"Which kind?"
"Morphtronic- damn it. Stop asking me questions!" Sora immediately groaned as she covered her face with her hands. She could practically hear her brain shutting down and rebooting. She shouldn't have said any of that. "Why am I so bad at this! I'm being interrogated by toddlers!"
"Hey, we're not toddlers!" Leo stuck up his nose at her.
"You're shorter than me, so you're toddlers. I, on the other hand, am a completely responsible adult!" She placed her hand over her chest as she tried to look convincingly like what she said she was. Then her stomach rumbled yet again and ruined what she had going, she could feel her cheeks getting even more red than they already were.
"If you come inside, I'll get you something to eat." Sora knew Luna had seen her opportunity, she shouldn't have underestimated the child Signer, even if she isn't exactly important in the grand scheme of things since Yusei and Jack do most of the duelling for her, that didn't mean she wasn't at least halfway intelligent.
Wait, isn't she a duelling prodigy? She remembers the show mentioning that, but that fact must've been buried away because, she can't for the life of her actually remember a single duel Luna participated in except one, and that doesn't count because Leo did most of the heavy lifting in that duel.
"You know what." She started, bringing her hands down from her face, she glared at the two. "I shouldn't be talking to strangers." The irony of her saying that to two children who couldn't be any older than ten or eleven wasn't lost on her, but she just wanted to leave.
"Who even are you? Luna, why are we inviting this strange lady into our house? Seriously, she smells horrible." Asked Leo.
"You try living in the street for the better part of a week, see how well you smell." She sassed back.
Leo flinched before looking back at Luna. "Correction, why are we letting a homeless lady into our house."
"Screw you, I'm not homeless, just extremely lost." She corrected the young boy.
"Leo, I'm not exactly sure why Ancient Fairy Dragon wanted me to help her, but she was very insistent. I can hear that she is in pain whenever she tries to contact me, but despite that she keeps reaching out to me, I don't know why, but this woman must be important if it's worth all of that pain. I'm her chosen Signer" Luna admitted.
"Are you sure it wasn't just a weird dream?" Leo asked. Luna stared back with a betrayed expression.
"Oh Signers and Dark Signers exist, it isn't some game kid, you better be sure you're strong enough to protect your sister." She smiled menacingly at the small boy.
"Don't doubt me! I can protect her." The boy reacted just as she wanted him to. The idea had just kind of popped into her head as the boy doubted his sister. If she could warn him, he wouldn't be like Jack, this one would actually listen.
Especially if she acted a bit more threatening than usual. She just had to embody that mean and monstrous aura.
Like the one Roman seems to permanently have.
"Sure you can." She shrugged. "Well, I'm sure you could spout hot air all day about how you could. But what about in a duel. Have you ever actually beaten your sister?"
"Um, well." Leo faltered, he quickly looked to his sister for reassurance, Luna just stared back at him, her expression remained neutral. She didn't say anything. After a moment he turned back to her. "I must've beaten her at some point."
"Well then," She smiled dangerously back at him. "I guess you wouldn't mind duelling me then, after all the people who might hurt her are much stronger than me."
"What, of course I'll accept your challenge. Come at me! Let me just get my Duel Disk and then I can destroy you." Leo bragged before dashing off back inside of the building.
Sora reached out a hand to try and stop him, but he was already gone. She didn't realise what she'd basically unwillingly agreed to until it was too late, judging by the pleased expression on Luna's face, she also realised what they'd just done. "I just invited myself in, didn't i?" She asked Luna.
The girl nodded. "I'll see you at the top floor. I'll see if i can make something" Then she turned and ran away.
Sora was left alone for a brief moment.
Of course she could just leave, but that would make her look like she ran away from a fight. There was no way she could live with herself if she ran away from a duel with Leo of all people. She had to stay and fight.
One day she'll think one of her plans through.
Clearly that isn't today.
She sighed and went inside of the building.
At night the Facility was cold. Chilling.
But it wasn't exactly unwelcome. He'd been here enough times that 'The mighty, imposing, impenetrable fortress' had long since lost its wonder. So just like any long night when he couldn't fall asleep easily, he started to whistle.
A harmless little tune, soft enough to not wake anyone in the other prisoners, yet still able to keep him preoccupied.
"Hey." A voice directed towards him.
Well at least he thought his tune was soft enough to be harmless. He pushed himself up off of his bed and looked through the bars to see Billy. One of the guards who worked here. He'd made sure to eventually come and learn all of the guards' names.
Helped pass the time.
Billy was a lot more amiable than a few other guards. He was at least willing to do more than yell at him.
"What's wrong Bill?" He asked, leaning his chin into his palm lazily.
"Crow, please be quiet. Massive headache today." Billy sighed as he cradled his head.
"Oh! sorry man, what happened?" Crow asked out of genuine concern.
"Ugh, a lot of work. That's what. A high class prisoner had apparently broken out, well, more like disappeared like a ghost." Billy groaned quietly. "Seriously i don't know what i'm supposed to look for, none of my boys do. There is nothing there. There might've been no-one there all along. The records definitely don't say anything about there being a prisoner in that cell. It's paranoia inducing, I'm telling ya."
"Disappeared like a ghost? How so?" He tilted his head a little in thought. He definitely hadn't heard about a break out. If it happened it must've been the quietest one in all of the history of break-outs in this prison. If it'd happened recently, he would've heard about it. He was caught and moved here only three weeks ago.
"The jail cell was locked, the cell was also untampered with, no escape tunnels like you'd see in some moves, I don't know what to tell you Crow. It's freaky. Just a couple sensors going off in the hallway outside of it. That's all I have to work with, I swear it was probably just a rat or something and the higher ups just forgot that that cell was empty. Nothing about the cell looked like someone was even living in it for months, I swear." Billy crossed his arms and threw his head back. "Man i just want a good sleep, i hate pulling double duty like this."
"I can sympathise, i've worked long nights and days running around Satellite plenty of times to know how it screws with ya, anyways best of luck. I'll try to keep it down a little." Crow shrugged as he dropped back into his bed.
"Mhm, actually i meant to talk to you earlier, but couldn't so i haven't had the chance to ask. How long are ya in this time?" Billy asked him out of curiosity.
Crow closed his eyes. "Hm? I think it was only two months this time. Maybe a third, maybe it won't matter and i'll be let out early for good behaviour." He gave the guard his best smile.
The guard actually let out a tiny goodhearted snicker at that.
"Well, it'll be nice to talk to ya during that time. I'll be honest, I actually look forward to our talks Crow. Much more interesting than anything else I do on my shift." The guard then turned and recomposed himself back into something somewhat professional and intimidating looking. "Anyways, I'll talk to you again when I come back around the loop and you're still awake."
"Actually?" Crow started as he stood up in his cell. "I don't think I can fall asleep right now. Do you mind if I go for a walk or are the other guards keeping too tight a watch tonight?"
"Hm? Despite the break-out I think you're fine. Just make sure you get back before my shift ends okay? I don't want to lose my job. You're a good guy Crow." Billy stepped forward and pulled out a card which he calmly used to unlock the criminal's cell.
"I'll keep all that in mind." Crows waved as he walked through the door of the cell, both arms behind his head as he stretched. "Oh yea! That's a lot better. Thanks man."
"No worries, just remember what I said. I don't have to remind you this will cost me my job if you're caught outside of your cell at this time. It goes doubly because of the breakout recently." Billy couldn't stress the seriousness of the consequences any harder than he already was.
"Mhm." Crow nodded as he slowly began to wander down the hall.
Ten minutes passed in a blink of an eye as he moved around the area, unseen and unreported. He didn't plan to use the opportunity to escape or anything. After all, Billy was a pretty nice guy, he'd hate to have betrayed his pal's trust like that.
Not to mention he had a habit of just getting caught again whenever he tries to smuggle cards to his young ones. He'd wait out the months it would take for him to be booted back to Satellite. It's not like he hasn't done this a dozen times already.
Another ten minutes passed, unlike before something interesting did happen. Crow rubbed his eyes, thinking they were playing tricks on him. It looked like the shadows were bleeding. The strange inky blackness spread out from the corners of the empty hallway around him.
The ceiling seemed to drip with the stuff.
"What the-"
Then the darkness of the hallway seemed to grow closer and closer, blackness filled his vision. Afterwards four people popped out of nowhere and bumped head first into him.
"Ugh!" he grunted as he immediately shoved the three people on top of him off, the action was immediately replied to by a swift punch to the gut. Crow looked up to see a ghost, their fist pulled back as if to send another punch at him. "K-Kalin! What the heck!"
"Crow?" The ghost tilted his head to the side slightly. He did not lower his arm immediately. Briefly it seemed like the ghost didn't recognise him, but then after a few long seconds passed a spark seemed to light from deep within them. His frown gave way to a smile "Crow, how have you been? Keeping the kids out of trouble?"
"Um, ugh, y-yeah!" He smiled back, slightly caught off guard by the casual way the ghost had asked him that. This wasn't what he expected to happen when he met a ghost, but now Jack owed him five bucks, Ghosts were real!
Wait, that wasn't important right now.
"What are you doing here Kalin! Did you die here, are you haunting this place? Man, I'm sorry I wasn't able to save you if that's the case. If I knew, I would've done something. Shit, this isn't how I imagined we'd meet again." He spoke quickly and completely sporadically, he didn't know what to say, he just had to say it.
"Um. Thanks Crow." Kalin looked down at himself. He turned to look behind him. "Hey Yusei, am I alive?"
"Yes Kalin, but Crow doesn't know that. We assumed the worst when we didn't hear about you for the last couple of years. We thought you got the death sentence or something." Yusei explained. The actual Yusei Fudo and if what he was saying was true, then this Ghost wasn't actually a Ghost!
"Wait!" The rider of the Blackbird jumped back up to his feet. He looked between Kalin and Yusei, starting to wonder if he was going crazy. "You're alive, But wait, Yusei what are you doing here!"
The Junk duelist pinched the bridge of his nose. "I'll be honest, I'm not entirely sure. But i'm here to help get Kalin's Deck."
"Wh-what? I'm so confused." Crow's head then turned to face the giant quietly staring from the side, his black cloak made him difficult to see in the dark, shadows seemed to cling to his body like a pervasive mist.
His eyes bore into him, it made him feel uncomfortable. "And pray tell, who the heck are you?"
"Roman." The man answered succinctly.
"Okay?" Crow looked towards Yusei for answers, he shrugged awkwardly back at him. "I don't know Roman that well, he's helping us steal Kalin's deck back, then we're breaking out. However, I wasn't expecting to be teleported."
"Teleported?" Crow gasped and then looked back at Roman in disbelief. The man just sent him an innocent smile.
"Yes, One second I was at my base in the abandoned subway tunnel, you know where me and the guys usually hang out, and the next second I was here. I want answers as much as you do Crow." Yusei also turned to look at Roman.
The man finally deemed it important enough to answer their question. "It's just something I can do, are you seriously going to act suspicious of your only way out now?"
"Should we be suspicious of you?" Yusei asked pointedly.
"Hm," Roman raised a hand to his chin and seemed to ponder to himself. "Maybe." He teased knowingly.
Crow quickly surmised that this man was shady and definitely shouldn't be trusted. He shook his head. "Whatever, you guys shouldn't be here, leave. Wait? Why'd you bring the kid with you?" Crow pointed over at the Red headed boy standing huddled behind Yusei.
"I'm not a kid Crow. Also hey, it's nice to see you again" Rally waved.
"I was just getting to that." Yusei sighed before turning around and acknowledging the young boy. "Rally, why are you here?"
"You were being consumed by weird fire shadow things, I had to help you somehow…" Rally explained their reasoning, they fidgeted with their hands and refused to look Yusei in the eyes.
"So you ran into the Shadow Fire?" Roman asked, a dumbfounded expression growing across their face.
"Well, maybe I didn't think it through.." Rally added with an embarrassed chuckle.
"I like the initiative kid." Kalin cackled loudly. Too loudly. The other three adults all reached out a hand and shushed the Infernity Duelist by covering his mouth. Kalin struggled to pull away from the hands.
"Bleh," Kalin pressed his finger to his lip "sorry. I forgot."
It doesn't matter, I'm fine. Roman, send him back now." The Junk Duelist ordered.
Roman slowly shook his head. "Sorry Yusei, that isn't possible. I can only do this a certain number of times. I admit I was showing off by teleporting between the Facility and your place, but to keep doing it multiple times would be taxing. Do you understand the distance between these two places?"
"I guess?" Crow added, still trying to wrap his head around the idea that magic exists. "The Facility isn't even on Satellite, it's on the main island of New Domino."
"Correct, now while I could probably do it, I would rather save my ability to teleport for when it is needed and no other options exist. I am your only escape route after all, you wouldn't want me to expend my powers too early." Roman explained calmly.
"That's fair." Yusei nodded as he thought over this hitch to his plan.
"Sorry." Rally quietly spoke.
"You should all just leave." Crow reiterated.
"Not without my Deck!" Kalin yelled suddenly, quickly receiving three fingers in his face and a chorus of shushes.
"Can't we at least teleport into the storage room?" Yusei asked. "Why did you take us to some random hallway?"
"A wide open space like this lets us teleport safely, it's also far away from the main body of the prison so I don't have to worry about guard patrols as much, as well as the open space means less chance of accidentally putting us halfway through a wall."
"Ew. That image is now carved into my skull" Crow poked out his tongue. "But wait, let me get this straight." Crow points a finger at Yusei. "You decided to trust a guy you just met to take you into prison? You didn't know he could teleport, so how did you think he was going to get into prison?"
"Honestly, I was starting to run out of ideas about how he could've gotten us into prison. By the end it probably had to have been teleportation or something because nothing else I thought of would work." Yusei shrugged.
"So let me reiterate Yusei. You trusted a man you just met to take you to prison. Seriously man? What if this was a trap! If some guy came up to me and was like hey wanna come into a prison using a way only i know how to? I would've told him to take a hike."
"When you put it like that, I kinda see Nervin's point." Rally added, nodding slowly.
"But he didn't come up to me and said just that. He brought Kalin out of the prison. It's completely different. Why would he break him out just to throw him back in? That's too much trouble and far too smart for him to be a member of Security." Yusei explained.
Crow groaned. "I'm just saying Yusei. Only an idiot would walk into something that had shady written all over it."
Sora sneezed in the elevator that was slowly ascending up to the twin's home. Occasionally she wonders if this was a bad idea, but she shook her head. They were just children, what was the worst they could do.
However, She did hate the crampedness of the small elevator. She wished she'd have just reached the top already.
"Finally," Roman said, bringing the group back to the important topic. "I have no idea where the guards will be, maybe they're guarding the door to the Storage room, maybe they're in the Storage room, maybe they're patrolling all the areas near the room constantly. Point is, it's safer to teleport somewhere they're not looking."
"He has a point." The Blackwing Duelist mentioned to the four people in front of him breaking into the prison. "There aren't cameras in this part of the prison, I've been here enough to basically know where and where not I should take my walks."
"Wait, you're allowed to walk even though you're stuck in prison." Kalin pointed toward him, his face in utter disbelief.
"Y-yea, I just asked if I could one night and they decided, sure, why not?" He answered Kalin's question. "I've been here enough times. I basically know everyone and they know me, I wouldn't cause trouble."
"Could I have just asked?" Kalin whispered to himself. Crow decided that he was not going to look any deeper into that statement.
"Could you lead us to the Storage room without running into these cameras?" Yusei asked him.
"I could but…" Crow groaned. "Ugh, Bill isn't going to like me betraying him like this, you sure you can't just leave?" He'd hate to have to essentially betray Bill. He was one of the few alright people here.
"We've been over this many times." Yusei responded succinctly.
"Alright, guess there isn't any helping it then." Crow sighed as he looked over at Kalin again. "You better thank me for risking my neck out for this."
"Kalin is dead-set on doing this. I promise we won't take long. We'll be in and out and your mate won't have to know." Rally chimed in.
"At the very least this simplifies the plan." Kalin added.
"What if there is an alarm?" Crow asked. "It's a place they'd want to keep away from prisoners, got any plan for that?"
"Not really, we'll just teleport away before they catch us, but if you'd like once you bring us to the room, we can wait a little bit before breaking in and thus risk triggering one until you make it back to your cell." Yusei offered.
He nodded back. "Sounds good. As long as he doesn't get into any trouble because of me, I'll be fine with it."
"Thanks for doing this, Crow." Yusei thanked, putting his hand on his shoulder.
"Don't get me wrong, this is a stupid idea. But you're my friend Yusei, I don't want to see you get captured, none of your friends too, even if I don't know many of them that well." Yusei seemed to get that that statement was more pointed towards Kalin and Roman.
"This won't end like last time." Yusei assured him.
"I really hope not."
"Enough talking, let's get to the room and take back Kalin's Deck." Roman interrupted the moment, gesturing for Crow to take the lead.
"Heck yea! I can't wait!" Kalin cheered quietly, pumping his arm that held his duel disk on his wrist up into the air.
"Guess I'm officially part of the break-in now." The Blackwing Duelist facepalmed before stepping forward to start leading them as close to the Storage room where they keep all the contraband, though everyone in this dingy prison knows it's mostly Duel Monster cards, he couldn't lead them there with perfect accuracy, since by a certain point every hall will have a camera, but he can definitely get them as close as possible.
The elevator door opened Sora found two children, twins, standing side by side, hand in hand. She was sure she'd seen this in a horror movie somewhere. A horror movie she was definitely too young at the time to be seeing, but that's besides the point.
"I feel like I've been in that elevator forever. Are we duelling here?" She asked as she stepped out of the elevator and placed a hand on her hip, tapping away impatiently.
"Yea let's duel!" Leo roared.
"Don't you want food first?" Luna deadpanned.
"Actually yes, let's eat. I'm super hungry." Leo quickly changed his mind. He then not so subtle looked over to Luna who nodded back at him like he'd done something right. They both looked back up at her.
"Feel free to come inside our house before you duel Leo." Luna offered her.
"You two children are starting to creep me out." She pointed out to the pair.
"What? We're just trying to be nice." Luna pouted.
"Yeah, what would we even do once you're inside anyways?" Leo followed up.
"I don't know, you tell me." She threw her hands up.
"Just come inside and eat Homeless lady." Leo deadpanned.
"I'm not homeless! Also my name is Sora!"
"Okay Sora, if that even is your real name-"
"Leo, I swear." Sora and Luna threatened simultaneously.
"If!" Leo interrupted her before she could actually say something threatening. "You aren't homeless then where is your house?"
"It's… Somewhere." She insisted. Should she explain the part where her home might be in a completely separate dimension from this one they were in right now. If anyone would believe her, two children who grew up with access to TV probably would.
"Sure it is." Leo replied unconvinced. "Just come inside our home for a second and I'll believe you."
She just groaned. "Seriously, what makes you think I'd ever want to go into your house just for a duel, we can do that right here. You even have your Duel Disk on Leo." She pointed out, growing increasingly frustrated with the twin's attempts to get her into their house.
Leo hid his duel disk behind his back. Annoying her even further.
"We were gonna order Pizza." Luna added.
"Okay that's a very good point." She muttered to herself as she walked past the twins and into the doorway, on the other side she found a penthouse which looked surprisingly small.
Maybe living in Jack's place for a week spoiled her, but for some reason the wide open space, immaculate kitchen, fancy indoor shrubs, statues and fancy art pieces on the wall didn't faze her like she thought they probably should've.
Behind her she could hear the twins whispering to each other poorly.
Poorly because she could still hear them.
"What Pizza place is open this late? It's like past midnight, I want to go to sleep Lunaaaa!" Leo complained.
"Just hang in there a little longer. Plus our family is rich, one of the perks of that is being able to order pizza at any time. It has to be, otherwise what's the point of all the money?" Luna assured her brother.
The conversation continued, but Sora couldn't care less about what food they ordered, as long as it was good food. "Pizza.." She hummed to herself as she walked towards the dining room table. How long has it been since she's had a Pizza?
The food Roman got her in that apartment was cheap and she may have gotten too used to eating it. She never complained about it, mostly because she knew Roman or any of his Dark Signer lackeys didn't care about her opinion on their food.
"Hm?" Sora was broken out of her thoughts as she looked at all the cut out magazines on the table. A pair of safety scissors laid strewn to the said haphazardly, along with glue. The cut out pictures were taken and glued into a textbook of some kind and there were all sorts of notes scribbled in and red ink used to draw arrows wildly between these notes. These pictures all contained her or specifically of her running from Jack at the Stadium.
Though some were pictures of her she didn't recognise. Were these from before she awoke in this body? These ones definitely depicted her slightly younger. And those photos of her over there had her looking much younger.
Overall It looked like some crazy person was stalking her.
This was mildly creepy, maybe she should leave.
"Hey."
Sora jumped back away from the table. After a second she looked downwards to find Luna standing there innocently, arms out like she was holding her invisible pet monster spirit again.
"Don't do that when I'm being creeped out by…" She gestured vaguely at the photos. "This. This is all just weird."
"That's fair." Luna shrugged. "But now that you're here let's talk while we wait for food." Luna smiled. "I have a lot of things I want to talk to you about." She emphasised.
Sora was about to say something before she heard the front door slam shut and Leo scramble over to her. She paused for a second before finally deciding to reply with "You're very creepy. I'm pretty sure you're not usually like this.."
"True." She stated simply.
"Do you want to elaborate on why you're acting like this and doing all of this?" Sora tried.
"Because the dragon from my dreams told me too, you were listening before weren't you?" Luna asked with a frown.
"Yes, but still." She paused trying to think of a response that doesn't include a swear. "That's far too vague of a bloody answer! There has to be something more to it. Also an answer to why you're so weird would be appreciated. I was under the impression you would be too shy to talk to anyone." She grumbled as she crossed her arms over her chest.
"Well, as an answer to both those questions. The reason why is because everything that's been happening recently has been weird. Including you. You're so weird. Now i don't have enough time to be shy, I need to rescue Ancient Fairy Dragon and you are going to help me!" Luna responded with an uncharacteristic level of bluntness. Or at the very least she thought this level of bluntness was reserved for the brother.
Wasn't she supposed to be nice?
"Don't need to resort to name calling." She huffed at the little girl.
"It's no exaggeration. You Sora Raptor, have been a nightmare to read up on, i've been digging deep into a rabbit hole of information about you" Luna narrowed her eyes on her. "You are by far a complete anomaly. Nothing about you makes sense. My spirits friends do not trust you, they refuse to even look at you or be near you, the only spirits that even bother to stay near you are the ones in your deck. Even then. They're weird in their own right."
"Wow, okay. You must be really stressed." She answered back.
"Heck, I wouldn't be surprised if your real name wasn't Sora." Luna threw her hands up in the air, truely demonstrating how done she was with everything.
"First of all Sora is my real name. I'm pretty sure there is a birth certificate somewhere that proves that."
"Why wouldn't you be sure?" Leo added unhelpfully. She just groaned back
"So ghosts don't like me!" She shrugged as she not so subtly tried to change the subject. "That's fair, I never liked them, but what's that got to do about anything? I'm perfectly normal. Well as normal as one can be when they work for a cult."
"That is an… interesting response." The soon to be wielder of Ancient Fairy Dragon hummed in thought.
She facepalms and immediately bites her tongue. "Damn it. No, don't look into that too deeply. Just live your life like you would've if I had never existed." She waves her hand before starting to walk away from the little girl.
However the attempt was futile as she followed closely behind her.
"You're strange unlike anything else."
"What a weird way of saying I'm special. Could you make it sound like you don't like me any clearer?" She sighed as she walked outside and into the balcony area of the house. Which was much larger than one would think a balcony needed to be.
This balcony also had a pool! What was it with rich people and pools?
Her mini tangent in her head did little to stop the little girl from rambling on.
"It's not that I don't like you, it's that you're utterly frustrating to read about is all." Luna let out an exasperated sigh. "See, most people usually have a history that makes sense. See, I looked up information about you in the news."
"Yeah… the Jack Atlas thing. I know about that. Trust me. There is a very good reason as to why that whole fiasco happened. Not that I'm planning on telling you." She explained to Luna and Leo.
"I'm not talking about the Jack Atlas incident." Luna clarified.
"You're not?" She raised an eyebrow at that. What was she talking about? Has she been in the news before? Maybe her duel with Akiza made it to the news? That's the only thing she could think of and even then she didn't think that would be newsworthy.
"Missing child found." Luna recited as if reading off the news article itself. "Child of eleven years of age was finally found in Satellite. Sources corroborate that the child had been running an illegal Duelling Ring."
"What?" Leo stammered. "You ran an illegal Duelling Ring?"
"First of all, why is Duelling illegal? Second, Don't look at me, I have no idea what I've apparently been doing." She answered before crossing her arms.
"Sora Raptor had suddenly and unexpectedly gone missing in New Domino City at the age of 8, somehow she'd started the Duel Ring all the way in Satellite." Luna continued. "It is unknown how she came to be there as she and her parents refuse to answer our questions on the matter. Security had intended to break up the Ring and capture the leader, however due to the nature of the culprit we can expect a long trial period as they sort this out." Luna finished reciting the article from memory.
"Huh.." Was all she had to say to that.
"So you were a duelling genius just like Luna?" Leo asked her.
"Of course you'd focus on the Duelling aspect." Luna frowned at her brother. "She's a criminal." Then Luna gasped. "I can't believe I brought a criminal into our home."
"Yeah, that's a really bad habit to develop. This is like the second time this has happened." Sora pointed out, earning a confused look from Luna.
"Ugh, if you're like her then maybe I shouldn't duel you..Luna is super good, and if you're like her then.." The user of the Power Tool Dragon flaked slightly, she merely sighed at the little kid's reaction.
"I thought you wanted to prove how strong you were."
"Compared to a genius, I might be a little weak." Leo admitted. "I mean i've never beaten Luna before."
For some weird reason Sora suddenly felt an odd sense of Deja Vu, then she remembered she called herself weak when she'd duelled Jack just last week.
Softly she considered her words carefully. "Hm… You'll do fine, just be strong, I mean" Her tone then changed to a more teasing one. "Don't tell me you're chickening out?" She lightly teased.
"Hey don't call me a chicken!" Leo pumped a fist forward, the Duel Disk on that wrist slipped slightly, it was far too big for his little arm, but the machine understood the input and began to turn on. "Let's go, I can totally take you!"
"I seriously doubt that." She pulled out her own Duel Disk from her bag and slapped it onto her wrist. Hers was actually made for her size so it didn't slip. A rainbow spectrum of colours spread throughout her Duel Disk!
"Let's Duel!" The pair said in unison
Sora Raptor (LP:4000) VS Leo- "Do you want to hear the rest of the story, you two or not?" Luna threatened.
"Yes Miss!" She and Leo immediately quietened down and turned off their Duel Disks.
"You see, that isn't all I found. Because soon after that happened you went missing again." The green haired Signer girl pointed a finger accusingly at her. "This time there was evidence that you'd been the one to escape breaking out rather than someone else breaking in. The news soon became about this strange runaway genius. I've researched this extensively. Your parents are even still looking for you, they even put up a money bounty a year ago." Luna continued to tell her.
"Seriously, that's weird." She added.
"That's what I'm saying!" The small girl threw her hands up into the air, before silently freaking out at her actions and apologising to something invisible.
She must've scared one of her Duel Spirits. Sora reasoned. "Fair enough. But is there anything else? I'm kind of curious about my history now."
"Why do you care? Weren't you there for it?" Leo asked incredulously.
"Eh?" She waved her hand about in a so-and-so gesture.
"There are other things I found." Luna revealed, seemingly uncaring of the fact that the person she was talking to may or may not know their own past.
"But I've given you so much already!" The mint green haired girl pointed accusingly at Sora. "But you haven't given me anything that i wanted to know."
"Like what?" Sora tilted her head.
"Like why did all these strange things happen in your past. I want to know why you made a Duelling Ring, why you kept running away from home, I feel like if I knew that, I would finally have the answer I need. The missing puzzle piece to solve the mystery of Sora Raptor. Why does an eleven year old child even do that? That's not even mentioning the fact that you have something I want." Luna clicked her tongue as she finished her last sentence. "So?"
"I don't know what good telling you will do and I have nothing you'll want. Like seriously. How will knowing my past help?" She asked, shrugging. Seriously though, she couldn't answer that question even if she wanted to.
"It just will! I know it!" Luna insisted. She clutched her invisible pet closer and looked up to her with eyes that bored into her soul.
"Alright, alright." She waved Luna away. That amount of eye contact was starting to give her goosebumps. "But I'll only tell you if you stop doing that."
"Do what?" Luna stared even harder at her.
"Ugh? Stop." Sora quickly turned her head away. "You're being really creepy."
"You're being overly dramatic, gods you're just like my brother."
"No listen here, you can insult my history, insult me, but you never, ever compare me to your brother. I draw the line there!"
"Hey!" Leo shouted in dismay. The three of them paused for a moment, seemingly running out of things to say to each other.
After a moment Leo piped up again, clearly bored of the silence. "Anyways, can we duel already?"
"Leo, I'm trying to get information out of her!" Luna sighed.
"Actually that's a good point, why should I give you information when we can just Duel for it! If we do it like this then I can get my information and whatever else you're keeping from me and you'll have a chance to get what you want from me." She doubted it was even possible to lose to Leo.
"Leo!" Luna reprimanded her brother. "Look what you've done!"
"Thank you Leo." She smiled smugly at the twins.
"I don't know whether i should be happy that i get to duel now or sad that i annoyed my sister." Leo scratched at the back of his head out of confusion.
"Here are my terms, if I succeed in beating Leo and teaching him how to be stronger, then you'll tell me everything you know about my past. If Leo wins, then I'll tell you everything you want to know and maybe give you what you want, if I have it." She offered up to the twins.
"Fine." Luna let out an exasperated sigh as she started to walk away to give the two insistent duelists their space. "If you have to do this.."
"We have to do this!" She smiled smugly as she moved to her starting position.
"Alright let's go!" Leo up to the starting position and raised his Duel Disk, while she did the same across from him.
"Prove to me you could actually be strong and protect your sister in a real Duel!" She ordered, the green haired boy across from her returned with a determined stare.
"Of course I can do that!"
"Duel!"
Sora Raptor (LP:4000) VS Leo (LP:4000)
"My move!" Leo started by drawing a Card from his deck and looking at it. "I'll summon Morphtronic Datatron in attack mode." The kid immediately summoned the card he'd just drawn. In a flash an orange matchbox appeared on the field and transformed into a little robot, complete with a sound effect she felt like she'd heard from somewhere before.
"I think Transformers are going to sue." She sighed. She'd always wanted to through shade on those little cards. I mean, they were literally just Transformers.
"Why does everyone keep bringing that up?" Leo pouted at the comment.
"Either way, are you sure you don't have anything bigger, maybe a robot that's bigger than a literal matchbox?" She suggested as she looked at the robot floating out on the playing field. She could tell that if she was closer she could probably hold the little machine in the palm of her hand.
"That doesn't matter, because I'm activating my monster's effect! By tributing itself my Morphtronic Datatron can inflict 600 points of damage to you." Leo pumped his fist into the air. His monster flew through the air towards her and opened a compartment on its head to reveal a little nozzle. A gout of flames then flowed.
She immediately raised her arms to defend herself, only to remember yet again that these were just holograms and so she wouldn't feel anything from them.
Sora (LP:3400)
After her life took a drop the small robot burst into flames and destroyed itself leaving Leo's field empty.
"Aha! I've managed to inflict damage on the first turn, how are you going to top that?" The green haired boy boasted.
Disbelievingly she turned to Luna who was just casually watching from the side, casually rubbing her eye sleepily. It was quite late, probably past midnight by this point after all. These kids were staying up real late.
She turned back to Leo, still looking utterly proud of himself, his hands planted firmly on his hips and nose pointed up in the air. She felt kind of bad to break this to the eleven year-old. (She assumed he was eleven at least.)
"Is that it?"
"Huh?" The user of the Power Tool Dragon stammered.
"Now your field's empty, i could just attack you next turn and end the duel.." She explained further.
"No you can't." Leo told her.
"Hm? Why not?"
"How are you going to summon a monster with 4000 attack points? You couldn't." The Brother of the Signer said, completely sure he was safe.
She didn't want to explain the things she has seen done in this card game back in her world. But she didn't think that feat would be that difficult even in this era of the game.
"Anyways, try your worst, I'll end my turn there."
She drew for her turn. "When we're done, I'm going to show you a little lesson in deckbuilding." Not that she was good at it herself necessarily. Her deck was originally just something she found on the internet and copied over after all.
But still, that doesn't change the fact that Leo had just finished a completely lacklustre turn.
She wouldn't be able to tell if they were on the same level of skill. Her deck just performed far too differently to what anyone could expect to do in this era. It could easily do 4000 points of damage in a single turn. Assuming she could actually play it right.
"I'll start this duel by activating One For One, by sending a Monster from my hand to the graveyard. I can Special Summon my Level 1 Auto Navigator from my Deck!" In an instant her monster materialised on the field from a wave of computer pixels, brandishing the satellite umbrella.
Upon arriving the little Ai program bowed politely towards Leo.
"No attack points?" Leo gawked as he read the prompt displaying her monster's stats. "Then it must have an effect."
"Correct, see F.A. Auto Navigator lets me add 1 F.A. Field Spell from my Deck to my Hand when they're summoned. I'll fetch F.A. Off-Road Grand Prix. But i'm not activating it yet, i'll first Normal Summon my F.A. Sonic Meister!"
Her Monster appeared, a sleek futuristic formula one race car with jet turbines attached at the side. "It gains 300 attack and defence for each of its levels, so right now it has 1200! But it's going to get more real quick. Now her comes my field spell Off-Road Grand Prix"
The outside area around the three of them warped. The stone tiling became a dirt track, the nearby pool seemed to dry up completely and turn into a pit.
"During my Main Phase all my F.A. Monsters gain 2 levels, also Sonic Meister gains another level since I activated a F.A. spell card! Making their total level 7 now." Just as she said that her monster's ATK and DEF quickly rose to 2100.
The jets on her monster suddenly flashed on as it reached level seven. Not that she needed its effect right now. Sonic Meister could attack twice when it reached level 7 or higher usually, but only against monsters.
She'd have to use a different plan.
Luckily she had one in her graveyard. "I'll activate the effect of my Monster in the grave, the one I sent there with One For One. My second Auto Navigator. By reducing the level of Sonic Meister to its original Level I can Special Summon her and make her level equal to the amount reduced.
"Ah! Maths!" The green haired boy suddenly brought up his hands to start counting on his fingers, but she quickly stopped that.
"I'll save you the trouble. Auto Navigator is Level 3, revived Auto Navigator is now Level 5 and Sonic Meister is reduced to Level 4." A second Umbrella wielding Ai materialised on the Field and bowed towards its double. They then started to converse between each other. Much to her surprise.
But despite the animated way they were talking to each other, the only thing that came out of their mouths was silence.
"Hm?" Luna hummed from the side. "Interesting. I wouldn't have guessed that."
"What's interesting? Do you know what they're saying?" She asked the green haired Signer girl.
"They seem annoyed at being called AI." Luna translated for her. "Sorry, but I'm not used to monsters having a full on conversation in front of me."
"Don't you talk to spirits all the time though?"
"Kuri just kind of squeaks, this is like a completely different level. The only spirit i've actually had a conversation with was something i thought was just a dream until recently."
"Who?" Sora wanted to clarify.
"Ancient Fairy Dragon." Luna answered.
"Oh yea." Sora did a half-shrug. "I sorta forgot you said something like that. What did she say to you?"
"That you have something that belongs to me and some other things about you… I'm not gonna elaborate..."
"I seriously doubt I could do that." She admitted. "Whatever, alright." She interrupted the two Ai who looked back up at her. "Sorry for the interruption, but It's time for a Synchro Summon."
The two monsters seemed understanding. They nodded in sync together.
"Then let's get this started, I'll tune my Level 3 tuner F.A. Auto Navigator with my Level 4 F.A. Sonic Meister." Her Navigator transformed into a bolt of data and entered her Formula car monster which then began to glow. "Let's finish this quickly, Go Synchro Summon!"
Auto navigator broke apart into rings of green which wrapped around her Sonic Meister.
She had really wanted to show off to the kid so with a bright smile she began to chant.
"Escaping the black hole as it reaches critical mass by reaching before unseen levels of speed. A new dawn cracks past its limits!"
Her Sonic Meister changed ever so slightly, gaining more jet turbines, more electronics and its frame becoming slicker and even more futuristic. Her newly upgraded machine synchro revved its engine as her Field Spell granted it 2 more levels and thus even more power. (ATK: 2700)
"Rev it up F.A. Dawn Dragster!"
She hoped Yusei wouldn't sue her for stealing the catch phrase, but you had to admit that her cards deserved she say it at least once.
"Next since I control a level 7 or higher F.A. Monster i can Special Summon my F.A. Dark Dragster from my hand." Her second ace then arrived, its body similar to the Dawn Dragster except for its black and purple colouration instead of white and green. (ATK: 2700)
"We're done here." She finished. She entered her battle phase, as she did her monsters lowered by 2 levels, but that didn't matter because a pair of 2100 attack monsters was still more than enough fire power. Then on cue her pair of monsters raced forward, narrowly missing Leo as they drove past leaving him coughing up a cloud of dust that wasn't really there. "Good game Leo!"
"Not yet!" The brother of the Signer called out as he summoned a monster from his hand. "He's a little trick I learned from watching Jack on TV, Battle Fader quickly, defend me!" A small bat-like fiend with a clock's pendulum dangling from its body appeared and like her monsters had come to a red light they stopped.
"Huh!" She gasped at the field. "Why would you?" She actually felt miffed at having her OTK stopped dead in its tracks. "That's not fair I had you!"
"Don't be such a child about it." Leo teased from the other end of the field. "Since you declared a direct attack, I can summon Battle Fader and completely end the Battle Phase."
"Fine, I don't know what else I could do so I'll just end my turn." Sora relented with a huff.
"My move." Leo drew from his deck. "Now I'll activate my spell card Fissure to destroy one of your monsters!" A giant red hand appeared from out of nowhere and reached towards one of her monsters.
"Not going to happen, I'll use Dawn Dragster's effect to negate your spell card by lowering its level by 2." Her Dawn Dragster respondered and revved its engines, the soundwaves boomed outwards and knocked the hand away.
"Fine, then I'll just have to use Soul Exchange. Letting me Tribute one of your monsters for my Gadget Hauler!"
Sora's eyes widened as she saw her Dawn Dragster easily removed from the field and replaced with a Semi-Truck on Leo's side of the field. "Next I'll banish my Morphtronic from my graveyard to summon Morphtronic Smartfon." Next to the truck a small smartphone transformer appeared.
"Wow, you actually managed to summon more than one monster this turn." She noted. "This is much better than your first turn."
"Thanks, but i'm not done yet, i'll activate my Smartfon's Attack Position Effect to roll a dice and depending on it's result i get to look at that many cards on the top of my deck and add a Morphtronic Monster among them to my hand." A green dice rolled onto the field and quickly landed on a 4.
Leo, having filled his deck with mostly Morphtronics, managed to reveal four entire cards. "I'll add Morphtronic Magnen to my Hand and move onto my big play!" The green haired boy smiled with anticipation. "I'll tune my Smartfon with my Gadget Hauler in order to summon a dragon of both Machine AND Might! Power Tool Dragon in attack mode!"
The mechanical dragon arrived onto the field with a roar.
"THen i'll use their effect to randomly give me a random Equip Spell from my Deck." As he said that a card popped out of his deck, courtesy of his duel disk. As he grabbed the card he cheered and immediately activated it. "I'll equip my United We Stand spell to Power Tool Dragon, bumping their 2300 attack points all the way up to 3900, 800 for each monster I control."
"Alright, we might have a problem now." Sora admitted.
"Attack with your United Might Power Tool Dragon!" Leo ordered and his machine dragon obeyed, it jumped into the air and landed claws first on her car, completely demolishing it.
Sora (LP: 1600) VS Leo (LP: 4000)
"This is quite a comeback, but I refuse to lose to you Leo." She fired back.
"Then come at me! I'll end my turn there."
"Huh, You're doing good Leo keep it up!" Luna cheered from the sidelines.
Sora drew wordlessly. "Don't get me wrong, that was a good play. But unfortunately my deck is years ahead of yours. First I'll activate Monster Reborn to revive my Dawn Dragster from my graveyard." In a flash of light her synchro monster re-appeared. "Then I'll activate The Auto Navigator in my grave to reduce my Dawn Dragster's level by 2 to summon itself as a Level 2 Monster. +2 more levels due to my field spell."
"They have 2 tuners yet again?" Luna looked at the field slightly confused.
"I swear I know what I'm doing. So My Auto Navigator from my last turn is Level 5, Dawn Dragster is Level 7 and Second Auto Navigator is Level 4. What can I go into?" Sora frantically pressed a button on her Duel Disk, letting her look through her extra deck.
"You don't know what you have?" Luna looked at her with utter bafflement.
"I haven't had a lot of time with this deck yet." She quickly defends herself.
"USE ME" Something whispered in her mind, causing her to whip her head up. Judging from the expressions of the twins, Leo hadn't heard anything, but Luna on the side of the bench suddenly covered her ears, wincing.
That voice came back again, more demanding and aggressive than before, she wasn't sure how to describe its sound. It was heavy and loud, yet it also felt like it was talking from a million miles away. "USE ME, LET ME EAT THE DRAGON!" It kept roaring.
She'd question why she could hear it later, she wanted to win this duel and with this card and the Double Cyclone in their hand to get rid of that pesky United We Stand. They could win it quite stylishly as well.
"USE ME."
Well, if the card wanted the spotlight so badly.
A part of her wanted to not listen to the voice, after all in this world who knows if the disembodied voice actually means well. But on the other hand, if this was a duel spirit, then she definitely wanted to summon it. That'd be amazing.
Sora reached out for one of the cards in her extra deck, once she grabbed the right one, the voice howled victoriously.
"Wait, alright, I think I know how to win this. First I'll Normal Summon my Hang On Mach from my Hand who becomes a level six monster as it appears on the field." A rider driving their racing bike entered the field. Their white, green and orange colour scheme shining brightly in the night air. (ATK: 1800)
"Now I'll synchro summon the Level 5 Auto Navigator with the Level 6 Hang On Mach in order to summon a Level 11 Synchro Monster!" Her two monsters turned into wisps of light that floated upwards as they made contact in the air they turned into nothingness.
Leaving the night sky empty above them.
Silence fell upon them, lasting several moments.
"Is something going to happen?" Leo asked.
"I-i hope so?" Sora chimed in. "I mean that should've worked.
"Wait what's that voice?" Luna tilted her head upwards.
What voice? Was her brief thought, she assumed Luna meant the deep voice, but it didn't just talk.
"Why is it saying that?" Luna continued, only making her even more confused. Was it only talking to her or was it that now that it wasn't trying to directly talk to her she couldn't hear it? She thought up multiple answers as to why this weirdness was happening, but without confirmation she couldn't be sure which answer was right.
"I think I do see something in the sky, it's getting closer." Luna spoke up, panic rising quickly in her voice, causing all of them to look further into the night sky. Sora saw it too.
It was gigantic.
She laughed brightly as she called up to it. Now that was a cool looking monster, that card should be her ace! Just look at it. "Hey, what took you so long! Come on Luna, you have to tell me what its saying this is so cool."
A red serpentine dragon with a twisting jaw that was large enough to devour planets floated down towards them. Its body was almost ethereal, patterned on it were spirals and spots of black surrounded by red. Its wings were the night sky itself.
It filled the entire sky over the city.
"I don't like this." Luna cried out. "Turn it off, stop the duel. Stop!" She suddenly yelled out hysterically.
"What!" Leo shouted as he noticed his sister was in pain. He immediately turned away and abandoned the duel to make sure she was okay.
"Luna!" She called out to the little psychic duelist. Had she messed up something again?
Please. Not again.
Not waiting to find out she immediately turned off her Duel Disk. Who cares about the result of the duel? Someone was in pain.
As she turned off the Duel Disk the red dragon in the sky seemed to linger of a little bit as it's eye swivelled in it's socket to stare down towards her and for a brief moment She thought she'd somehow pissed it off before the card faded out of existence a few seconds later.
As she looked back down she saw Leo cradling Luna and patting her on the back.
"Luna, what happened?"
"Don't summon that card." Luna shot back immediately. "It isn't good. It talked out loud, it said it wants to eat everything, take everything, consume everything, everything, everything, everything." She repeated nauseatingly.
"What? Why?" She tried to ask.
"It was alive.." Luna answered her. "It was planning to do something bad, I felt it's malice and it scared me. I-i'm sorry, maybe i acted a bit preemptively, but it was… it was…" Luna paused for a moment. "It made me feel horrible. Whatever it wanted to do, It wasn't going to be good, so don't summon it. Ever. Again."
"It'll be okay." Leo consoled her. He seemed well practised at doing so, which from what she could remember Sometimes Luna's abilities would put her in a similar state. This clearly wasn't his first time helping calm her.
"Al..right." She nodded back, she wasn't exactly sure what to say to that. But if Luna was warning her then she'd be pretty stupid to ignore it. Her Star Eater, the one that had come with her from her world, was clearly evil. She didn't understand how, her cards weren't alive back in her world were they? THey couldn't be magic didn't exist.
Sora looked down at her duel disk and the Synchro Monster on it. Looks like she wasn't going to use Star Eater anytime soon.
Immediately ruining the moment the doorbell rang. "Pizza!"
"Perfect timing." Sora sighed loudly. She needed a break from everything.
A good half an hour and several Pizzas deep the atmosphere seemed to soften enough that even Luna seemed to be back to normal.
"That's not fair!" The child immediately argued as her car cards disappeared and the Field Spell faded away and returned the area back to normal. They'd redone their duel they'd promised and unlike last time, Leo didn't have a Battle Fader to prevent the turn 2 OTK.
"How wasn't that fair?"
"Your cards do so many things!" Leo pouted. "That Navigator thingy let you grab any card you wanted from your Deck and could summon itself from the graveyard. That's overpowered."
"You think that's bad, Dawn Dragster can negate card effects by lowering its level and Dark Dragster can blow cards up for the same cost." She pointed out to Leo.
"I noticed! That's way too powerful." Luna called out from the sidelines. "That's not even mentioning how that Dark Dragster special summoned itself like it was nothing. Nothing in my deck comes close to that power."
Sora also felt more relaxed as she shoved more pizza into her face. She was revalling in how powerful her cards felt to Leo's. After her recent losing streak this was perfectly nice.
"How do those cards even exist, they're way too powerful." Leo murmured to himself.
"No they're not." Actually now that she thinks about it, that might be a bit much for this era of duelling. That kind of sours her victory a little. Now she couldn't help but feel bad for winning. "Well.. sorry about that. Really. But now you see that you need to get stronger."
"Fine, let me change up my deck a little and then we'll duel again." Leo demanded before running off back inside, presumably to fetch more of his cards.
"What? No, I duelled you once, isn't that enough?" She called out to the leaving boy, but Leo shook his head as he continued running inside. In a way, that told her that this wasn't over. Not by a long shot.
She looked towards Luna and let out a long sigh. "Can you at least make good on your promise, I did win after all."
"From the way I remember it. You said you'd teach him to be stronger and beat him. You've only done one of those things so far. Looks like you'll have to duel him again." Luna hummed innocently. She did not find the humming innocent.
"Hey, that was just semantics, you know what I meant when I made the deal. Don't you?"
"Sorry but in my personal opinion, this whole Duel was unnecessary, but since you wanted it to be difficult" Luna shrugged to herself. "Then who am i to stop you two from Duelling until one of you fulfils the goal you outlined."
"You're not being serious.. It's late. I'm still hungry." Maybe she should get them to order a few more Pizzas. This clearly won't cut it. "You're not just gonna make me duel again just because I was trying to have a little fun." Sora bemoaned.
"No, no. That's totally not it. But anyways, I think Leo's coming back down. Good luck in your next duel. I hope your next duel is as exciting as the first." Luna quickly explained before waving her away back towards the duel area.
As she said that Leo came careening out the doorway. "Alright! Let's go! Let's go! Are you ready for this"
"Totally." She lied as she raised her Duel Disk again.
Ending Notes
Hello, Mimikree here
Sorry.
Anyways, this chapter was originally 20,000+ words but i shortened it and when that didn't work i just cut it into segments, now that it's no longer in my draft pile hopefully i can stop worrying about everything and just continue working, working, working.
Sorry for the long chapter and the long wait for the chapter, I didn't think anything could completely derail my planned schedule.
But funerals F-ing hurt. Let's move on. This story is precious to me and i will see it until the end.
Until next time, this is Mimikree signing off for not very long. Like seriously, i have the next chapter written, just need to edit it myself. Maybe i should get a beta or something, but i have no clue how to do that, so i'll just continue doing it myself like i had been already.
Have a perfect day