Chapter 2: Card Games. On… Motorcycles…?
Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise, not counting various copies of handheld games, DVDs and old VHS tapes, as well as several copies of various Salamangreat cards which I hope to use some day.
Somehow, the plaza area that the alley leads into is even more claustrophobic than the place where I had dueled Rally.
Where the trash that swarms the streets like pestilence incarnate is pushed to the sides in that area, the moment I step from the alley it is as if I were playing a game of hopscotch where if I misstep, my foot will become covered in something foul-smelling or bug-infested. The tall, crumbling buildings that formed a barrier blocking out the horizon now press close together in a disorganized army of decrepit skyscrapers and squat hovels that seem to have been practically blown apart by some grand explosion. The skeletons of long-rotted wood crates lay splintered and plundered while their sturdier cousins made of plastic and metal rest in the shade of the buildings, years of neglect rendering them blackened and smelly, forcing me to wonder what sorts of objects could be hidden inside—though another part of me advises me to not inquire further.
There's something in me that makes my heart ache from the idea that this jungle of garbage had once been a city known as Domino. Something about that name resonates with me, but… I can't place it.
It looks like Ben's back, I think to myself, glancing around at shattered windows, smashed doors and exposed sections of walls that electrical wiring must have once run through. But who exactly is Ben? All I have is a name, and only the first name at that…
It might be that dueling could help me regain my memories, even if it's only small bits and pieces. The duel with Rally reminded me of my name, maybe dueling his friends could give me something to go off of, at least.
Taking steady, calculated steps, I make my way through the labyrinth of the long-discarded and long-picked-over. I look around, my eyes taking in this ruin as I suddenly realize how empty it is; nobody peeks out from broken windows, or watches through the long-removed peepholes in what remains of doors, or stares cautiously from beneath a slightly tilted manhole cover.
I am alone.
Or, I was—until I spot him.
Easily six feet tall or more, this rather rough-looking fellow stands cross-armed in front of what can only be the entrance to the old subway Rally told me about. He wears a white shirt with a high collar over a green shirt with a somewhat smaller collar, and a blue bandana is tied around his head, revealing only little triangles of brownish hair that jut down to his ears.
A pair of cautious brown eyes fall upon me as I approach, pushing aside a can whose label was destroyed years ago. "What do you want?" he asks in a cold voice, uncrossing his arms and letting them fall to his sides—allowing me to see the Duel Disk glinting with sunlight on his arm.
"Uh, hi," I say at first, a bit put-off by the cold reception. "My name's Ben. I'm a friend of Rally's."
"Oh yeah?" he asks, turning his full body towards me as I halt my approach. He takes his eyes off me for a moment, just long enough to glimpse my own Duel Disk. "Well, Rally's not here right now. How about you come back later and we'll see if you're telling the truth."
I bite my lip; Rally had said that if I just mentioned his name, they'd let me in, but… I suppose in a landscape like this, you had to be protective of your friends and property. I should have known it wasn't going to be so easy.
After a moment's pause, I counter with, "How about a duel, then?" He raises an eyebrow, as if saying, 'Go on.' "I win, you let me in. I lose, we wait for Rally to get here. Deal?"
For a moment, it doesn't seem like he's going to go for it. He looks me up and down, crosses his arms over his chest once more, and finally says, "Deal. But when I pound you into the pavement, I don't want to see you hanging around here until Rally gets back, got it?"
"Got it," I reply, feeling the anticipation bubbling up inside me again as I step back a few paces, each of us raising our Duel Disks.
Let's see who gets pounded into the pavement, huh? Gaia seemed to do the trick against Rally… I think to myself.
"By the way, name's Nervin," he calls out to me.
"Well Nervin, let's get this started!" I reply.
"DUEL!"
[Cue in opening theme: "Imagination" by Caleb Hyles feat. Gareth West (English cover of the first opening for Haikyuu!)]
As the sweat rolls down my face, sweltering heat comes in waves
We open on a shot of Ben's face, staring up at the sky as the shadow of a cloud passes over his face. As the cloud drifts past and the sun beams down on his face again, he begins to smile.
I hear our voices echo, as we're standing side by side!
The camera begins to zoom outward, revealing that standing in a circle around Ben is each of the Omni-Heroes; in no particular order, Escuridão, Great Tornado, Absolute Zero, Nova Master, Gaia, and The Shining.
An open window lets in light, I turn my eyes up to the sky,
Now the camera shoots down to the ground, looking up at the assembled group of heroes and their leader as the urban sprawl of Skyscraper shoots up above them
Questionings if to someone will come our way, Mr. Future
Ben's face focuses in on the camera as we see the shadow of someone's legs stepping in front of us. We can see Ben grin as his heroes fall in line beside him.
(Oh come on, come on) If there is still a chance…
A sudden swift upward shift from the camera, and we're viewing Ben and his heroes from above, and in the shadows of Skyscraper, dark figures begin to form, faceless phantoms that stand to oppose our hero.
(Oh come on, come on) Go and get… it!
Taking the first step, Ben leads the charge as his heroes run forward at the shadow figures. Great Tornado streaks through the sky, a bright green wind trailing behind him as The Shining appears alongside him, bright light emanating from his body. Absolute Zero and Nova run right beside Ben, leaving trails of ice and fire in their tracks, respectively, while Gaia stomps alongside, and Escuridão dodges from shadow to shadow, as dark as darkness itself. Just as they reach the figures and begin to fight, a bright light suddenly consumes the screen.
You can't move me, you can't break me!
The light dissipates and shows the heroes at battle. First, we see The Shining lashing out for a punch, his fist enclosed in a blinding bright aura as it smashes into the stomach of Crab Turtle. Next we see Great Tornado blasting away a slew of Spellcaster monsters, namely Endymion and Breaker, among others.
You will always look right through me!
Nova Master appears on screen next, its full body aflame as it lunges toward Frost and Flame Dragon, Absolute Zero combatting the Flame half as Nova Master prepares to strike the Frost half.
I will falter, I will stumble, but I'll keep on suffering!
Gaia raises a massive boulder above its head, hurling it at Doom Dozer as the insect is restrained by shadow tendrils courtesy of Escuridão.
Never give up, never give in—I can't let it end in failure!
We spin to view Ben now, his fist clenched in anticipation as we begin to rotate, revealing that all the battles are going on simultaneously. Finally tired of seeing his heroes fight at his command, he charges into the fray as well—focusing specifically on one shadow figure.
Oh, my imagination's fighting to believe—
Ben throws a punch of his own as he reaches the character, the air around his fist blurring as he strikes mere shadow—though as the figure disappears, we get a sudden glimpse of gray hair…
Believing in something!
The shadows, Skyscraper, and the heroes all disappear at once, leaving Ben standing in the subway tunnel with Rally and the rest of the Satellite crew, looking at him hopefully.
Oh-oh! Believing in something!
Ben mounts his Duel Runner, pulling his helmet on and giving them a grin.
Oh-oh!
And on the last note, he speeds off down the tunnel, the shot fading to grayscale on his friends waving him off. The title, "Stardust Accelerator: A Hero in Time" appears in bright gold lettering, standing out against the gray as the form of the Crimson Dragon wraps around it.
After spending a second to find the activation button, the life point counters on my Duel Disk climbs up to 4000, the tarnished blue dome flares up vibrantly once more, and yet again the cards shuffle themselves and provide me with my Hand.
"I'll take the first move!" declares Nervin, drawing a card from his deck and adding it to his hand, mulling over his selection.
Ben: 4000 LP / Nervin: 4000 LP
As he stands there brooding over his choices, I take a moment to examine my own hand. Four of the orange monster cards flank a single green one, two on either side: Phantom Magician, Elemental Hero Heat; then the magic card called Rose Bud, which depicts a blue flower crowned with a greenish-gold bud, from which some sort of white energy flows from; and the other two monsters, a returning favorite in Elemental Hero Woodsman, and lastly Elemental Hero Bubbleman.
"To kick things off, I'll summon Tiger Axe in attack mode!" he declares proudly, practically slapping the card down onto his Duel Disk. At once, a green portal opens in the ground in front of him and a massive orange tiger appears, armored in heavy steel and carrying a huge battle axe with a wickedly curved blade. It stands on its two hind legs, heavy muscle pulsing beneath its fur, two large black steel pauldrons resting on its shoulders with a bit of extra steel extending down to its midsection; it glares at me with predatory eyes, and roars angrily. (Tiger Axe: Level 4, EARTH, Beast-Warrior-type; 1300 ATK/1100 DEF)
"Hi there, kitty," I say, feeling a bit unnerved by the way the monster stares at me. I know I shouldn't feel so afraid—not only is it a hologram, but Elemental Hero Heat can dispatch it easily—yet I can't help it. I imagine that anyone would be considering soiling themselves if they were face to face with a muscular tiger man with an axe.
"This kitty's getting a weapon upgrade!" Nervin announces, holding up two magic cards for me to see. "Two, to be exact! An axe upgrade, in the form of Lucky Iron Axe"—the double-edged axe disappears in a flurry of pixels, replaced by a single-bladed axe with a length of cloth tied around its shaft and gold etchings on the head—"and Fairy Meteor Crush! Now, my Tiger Axe gains 500 ATK, and whenever he battles one of your defense position monsters, you'll take damage equal to the difference!" (Tiger Axe: 1300 ATK 1800 ATK)
Well, that more or less decided my move for me. There's only one monster in my hand that can hold up against his Tiger Axe now, and that's Woodsman. Nothing else has enough ATK or DEF to stand defiant against this ferocious feline and his shiny new axe. If I had that one magic card though, Polymerization…
"I'm going to end my turn there! I can't wait to show off his new axe!" Nervin comments, smirking at me.
"I draw!" is my only reply as I take the top card of my deck. It's not Polymerization, but it is a magic card—Skyscraper, a field card. "I'll start out by activating the card I just drew, Skyscraper!" A small slot pops out of the blade of my Duel Disk closest to the deck slot and I slide the card into it.
At once, the garbage-strewn streets of Satellite are replaced by tall skyscrapers. The sky turns dark, almost completely black but for one singular star gleaming bright white. Yellow light blooms forward from windows on the buildings, and two streetlights fall on myself and Nervin, but other than that, the city is dark.
Nervin looks around at the cityscape that blossomed forth around us, no doubt feeling displaced by the sudden change of scenery. Something about this field makes me feel at home, however, almost as if I belong here. Part of me wonders if this is what the Satellite looked like before… whatever happened to it happened.
"Next, I'll summon Elemental Hero Heat in attack mode!" I decide, changing my mind from the course I had previously set. The moment the card is placed into the slot, he appears on the field through a similar green portal—a tall man wreathed in tongues of flame, his red and orange suit seeming to be made of fire itself. His skin is yellow, and he wears a set of white armor over his chest painted with fire. "But there's more—Heat gains 200 ATK for each Elemental Hero monster on my field, including himself!" (Elemental Hero Heat: Level 4, FIRE, Pyro-type; 1600 ATK 1800 ATK/1200 DEF)
"So what? You still can't beat over my Tiger Axe without losing your monster too!" Nervin snarks, smirking at me.
"Maybe not. But neither can you," I point out, hoping desperately that I was right and he did not have an out to the most powerful monster in my hand. A risky bluff, but the alternative is to destroy his monster, deal a bit of damage and hope he doesn't have another monster and more equips.
Granted, neither of the options are particularly good, but I had to choose one, and so, "I end my turn there."
"Is that all you've got? Now I know you're lying about Rally's friend!" he says, drawing another card. "I play my Spell Card, Hidden Armory! By sending the top card of my deck to the Graveyard, I can add an Equip Spell to my hand—and I'm choosing Mage Power, which I'll equip to Tiger Axe right away, giving it 500 ATK for each Spell or Trap on my field!"
An eerie black aura surrounds Tiger Axe, the Lucky Iron Axe in its hand and the Fairy Meteor Crush in its other hand begin to glow brightly as the monster seems to grow a bit in size. It roars loudly with pride. (Tiger Axe: 1800 ATK 3300 ATK)
Not good. I knew that I wasn't in a good position to begin with, but this is an unexpected issue. Equip cards can be powerful tools, especially when stacked up like this. Even with the effect of Skyscraper, I can't stop his Tiger Axe now.
"Lucky for you, by the effect of Hidden Armory I can't Summon this turn, so I'll just go straight to the attack! Go, Tiger Axe, chop him up with your Lucky Cut!"
At his master's command, the massive tiger springs forward with all the ferocity that an apex predator like him should possess—perhaps a bit more from the magical enhancements. Heat tries to mount a defense, crossing his arms over his chest and forming a wall of fire, but Tiger Axe's axe begins to glow brighter as it slices through the flames. Heat stumbles back, but the Beast-Warrior follows through and cuts down my hero and scatters him toward me in a storm of pixels.
"Gah!" I grimace as the remains fly toward me; they sting as they fly past me, and I can practically feel my Life Points reducing as Heat is dispersed.
Ben: 2500 LP / Nervin: 4000 LP
The grin that Nervin gives me is enough to make me utter a few choice words under my breath as I try and figure out what I'm supposed to do next.
"Alright, I'll let you go this turn. Enjoy it, because next turn I'm finishing you!" Nervin taunts.
I bite my lip, drawing a card. Is this how Rally felt when I was about to crush him with Gaia? Is this… despair?
No, not despair. Never despair. There's something deep in my gut that's telling me that I've been in worse positions than this, all I have to do is power through it.
As I look at the card I drew, I realize that I'm just getting started. Traps are always welcome sights in situations such as this, and this one seems like I was meant to draw it.
"I'll place a monster face-down, then I'll set another face-down!" I say, setting the cards as explained. The image of the monster card materializes before me in defense mode, and as it does Tiger Axe seems to look at me mockingly. "I've got nothing else, so I'll end it there."
"Don't feel like delaying the inevitable, I see! Alright, I'll draw!" Nervin calls out, then immediately slaps the card he drew down onto his Duel Disk. "I summon Armored Lizard in attack mode!"
Once more, a green portal opens up and gives way to a new monster: a massive lizard, seven feet tall or more. Though slender as a young tree, the blue reptile is covered in thick blue plating that protects its soft yellow skin. Its eyes glare red at me as it gnashes sharp fangs angrily, flexing long knife-like claws and hissing like a snake. (Armored Lizard: Level 4, EARTH, Reptile-type; 1500 ATK/1200 DEF)
"Go on, Armored Lizard! Take out his face-down monster!" Nervin orders, and dropping onto its forelegs, the lizard dashes across the field towards my monster and I, its claws making sharp tapping noises as it scampers forward. Once it reaches my face-down card, it slashes its gleaming claws toward it… only to be thrown back as Elemental Hero Woodsman bursts onto the scene, Armored Lizard flying back and crashing into Nervin.
Ben: 2500 LP / Nervin: 3500 LP
Flexing his muscles, my half-green, half-wood hero drops to one knee, crossing his arms over his chest in a defensive manner. (Elemental Hero Woodsman: Level 4, EARTH, Warrior-type; 1000 ATK/2000 DEF)
"Hmph, you've managed to save yourself one turn, but don't get too ahead of yourself! Tiger Axe, give that Woodsman a taste of your axe!" And with a roar of assent, the tiger surges forward with a furious stomping, swinging its axe with ferocious strength.
"Not quite!" I interrupt, my trap card flipping face-up, revealing a swirling blue circle with yellow bolts of electricity leaping from it. "I activate my Trap Card, Hero Barrier! While I have a face-up Elemental Hero on my field, I can negate one of your attacks!"
The tiger charges into the barrier, taking several swings at it before it realizes it cannot break through, even with its lucky axe. Slumping its heavy shoulders, it walks back over to Nervin's side of the field.
"Fine, but next turn your Woodsman will go down!" the man in the bandana growls out. "And with him, your Life Points!"
"We'll see about that, I draw!" I declare proudly, feeling the adrenaline rising in my stomach like a bird taking flight. Now I know things are looking up for me as I see what I've drawn: Elemental Hero Stratos. "In addition, thanks to Woodsman's effect, I can add a Polymerization to my Hand!"
Nervin raises an eyebrow, looking at my hero. "You'd better hope whatever you can fuse comes out to over 3300," he says, smirking at me. "Otherwise…"
"I'm not out of this yet," I interrupt, revealing Stratos. "I summon Elemental Hero Stratos in attack mode! When he's summoned, I can add a Hero to my Hand, or I can destroy Magic or Trap Cards up to the number of Elemental Heroes I control besides him!"
Beside Woodsman, yet another green portal opens up, this one no less green than the rest, and from its center my hero bursts forward. Clad in a blue top and white pants, his face covered by a steel visor, he stretches out his arms to give a full view of the contraption that enables him to fly: metal wings stretch out from his back, with a fast-moving turbine on each wing keeping him aloft. He hovers in midair, the wings now parallel to the ground as he waits for orders. (Elemental Hero Stratos: Level 4, WIND, Warrior-type; 1800 ATK/300 DEF)
"Through his effect, I'm going to destroy your Iron Axe!" I say, pointing at the aforementioned equip card. Stratos raises extends an arm and reveals a gauntlet with several buttons and begins pressing a few of them; in response, his wings now turn so that the turbines face Nervin, and the turbines begin to swirl even faster, and faster, and faster still, until twin whirlwinds burst forth from them, spinning outward and sucking up the axe, tossing it high into the sky. After that, the black aura of Mage Power lessens slightly, and Tiger Axe seems to shrink. (Tiger Axe: 3300 ATK 2800 ATK 2300 ATK)
"You may have destroyed my axe, but you've given me an extra card through his effect!" Nervin replies, drawing a new card from the top of his deck. He doesn't make any sort of face, but the look in his eyes tells me it wasn't what he hoped for.
"Now, I'll play my Polymerization! By fusing Elemental Hero Woodsman on my field and Elemental Hero Bubbleman in my Hand, I can bring forth a new hero with the power of…" I'm about to say Earth, referring to Gaia, but instead something causes me to say, "Water!"
I continue on with, "The hero wielding the life-giving element itself! Rising from beneath the ice to bring justice to a cold world! Appear, Elemental Hero Absolute Zero!"
His whole body seems to be made of permafrost, cold and unbreaking, unafraid of even the sun itself. Pure white armor covers his body, sharp and angular, inlaid with patterns of snowflakes and resting atop a long black full-bodysuit. Sharp spikes of white jut out from his shoulders, and the head resting between them is covered in a helmet from which his burning blue eyes are visible; and from his shoulders hangs a long white cloak that seems to be woven from snowflakes. He turns his head to look at me, and our eyes lock, stormy gray on ice blue. (Elemental Hero Absolute Zero: Level 8, WATER, Warrior-type; 2500 ATK/2000 DEF)
"Here we go! Stratos, take out Tiger Axe with your Turbine Twister!" I say, throwing out my hand and pointing at the big orange beast.
Nervin laughs bitterly. "Can't you do math? Stratos only has 1800 ATK, while my Tiger Axe has 2300!"
Again, Stratos's turbines begin to spin rapidly, quickly returning to the speed which produced the whirlwinds that first destroyed the axe. "You don't know much about Skyscraper, do you? When one of my Heroes attacks a monster stronger than it, it gains 1000 ATK!" (Elemental Hero Stratos: 1800 ATK 2800 ATK)
The same twisters leap forward from Stratos's twin fans, tossing the Tiger Axe high into the air. It shatters, the pixels falling heavily on Nervin, causing him to wince in pain.
Ben: 2500 LP / Nervin: 3000 LP
"Absolute Zero, make that Lizard's blood run cold! Icicle Spear Strike!"
Conjuring a slender shaft of ice with a tip so sharp that I can almost feel it piercing me by just looking at it, Absolute Zero hurls it at the blue lizard. It flies through the air, the ice sparkling in the sunlight as a trail of snowflakes fall behind it. It catches his monster square in the chest, piercing through the thick blue armor and striking out its back as it stumbles into its master and collapses into pixels.
Ben: 2500 LP / Nervin: 2000 LP
Nervin's eyes widen as he sees that his monsters have been destroyed, his equips broken. Three cards remain in his hand, and he'd need something awful strong to wipe out Absolute Zero… of course, that would also come at quite a heavy price for him.
"I end it there. Still think you're coming out of this one?" I ask, giving him a smirk of my own as I stand between Absolute Zero and Stratos. "My best guess, next turn you're finished. I guess that's what you get for giving me the… cold shoulder."
And before you ask, yes, I am incredibly ashamed for that pun—and from the looks they give me, so are Stratos and Zero.
"I… draw!" Nervin says, closing his eyes as he takes the card, as if beseeching some deity that oversees the affairs of card game players for a good draw. He opens them again, and frowns. In that instant, his hand steadily starts moving toward his deck again, until…
"Hey, Nervin! Ben!" Rally's voice cuts through the haze of the duel.
We both turn our heads to see the bushy-haired kid running over toward us, waving giddily as he comes. He grins as he rushes into the field between us, looking up at Stratos and Airman in awe.
"Whoa, how come you didn't use these guys against me?! They're wicked!" he exclaims, before looking back to both of us. "Couldn't wait for me to show up, huh? How badly is Ben kicking your butt, Nervin?"
Nervin drops his hand from his deck, looking back to me. "I had him on the ropes for a while," he replies. "In fact, as it is, I think the duel is over."
"I agree," I say, and with that we both power down our Duel Disks. Our monsters fade away, and again the blue light goes dark again. "So, do you believe me now, big guy? About being Rally's friend?"
"Yeah, I believe ya," Nervin replies.
"Enough standing around here then! Let's get inside!" Rally says, not bothering to wait for us to follow, dashing down into the darkness of the abandoned subway.
The moment the younger boy is gone, Nervin strides over to me and sticks out his hand. "Hey, that was a good duel man. I thought I had you there," he says.
I extend my hand to shake his. "Good game," I agree. "And you would have too, if I hadn't drawn Hero Barrier. I couldn't have gotten my Polymerization if your attack went through… so, what was that card you drew?"
"Nothing that could have helped," Nervin replies, a bit glumly. "Maybe I should have believed you were Rally's friend, then I wouldn't have had to lose like that."
With a small, wry smile, I stick up a finger and wag it at him. "I don't know what duel you just played, but that was a mutual draw. Might be we'll have a definite winner next time," I say, following Rally down into the tunnel entrance.
The first thing on my mind when I begin the steady descent into the yawning mouth of that subway tunnel is, 'Damn this place is dark.'
Once the sunlight from outside dies away and no longer reaches its grasping yellow fingers into the dark, the stairway becomes substantially dimmer. Here and there, lights hang from the ceiling, though their bulbs are either burnt out or shattered entirely, but once every twenty or more steps a soft buzzing accompanies a fluorescent light caked with dust, barely illuminating the cracked cement stairs. Due to the low visibility and the questionable stability of the staircase itself, I go at a steady pace, not hurrying to get down there—wherever there is, because there is still no end in sight.
"Careful there, if you fall I can't guarantee you'll stop," Nervin teases, walking past me with ease.
"Ha ha," I reply sarcastically, grasping onto a rusty metal railing as I kick a chunk of cement and nearly trip. "How much further, exactly…" I begin to ask, before my foot steps on a long stretch of pavement.
"Oh, right about here," he remarks.
"Oh, thank you. I'm so glad."
As we step down onto the platform, my eyes have become a bit better adjusted to the darkness, yet I'm relieved to see the light filtering down through gaping holes in the ceiling. Exposed metal rods and crumbling bits of pavement hang down from the top, and here and there piles of rubble lay in mounds on the ground. Just off the platform, a long-unused train track sits all alone, the steel rails rusted and the timbers mostly rotted away.
And down at the far end of the platform, just before the rails rush off into a round tunnel entrance filled with darkness, a decently large green tent is set up, ripped and patched here and there, not unlike Rally's long coat. Standing in front of said tent is said boy in the long coat, alongside two larger men.
One is tall and thin like a young tree, the other is shorter and built like a tank.
The taller one wears an olive-green vest over a white button-up shirt, and his face holds a nervous expression as his eyes fall on Nervin and I. His purple hair is tied up in a ponytail of dreadlocks held back by a gray band, and a tiny pair of round glasses are pinched tightly to his nose. He has his hands in his pockets, no doubt fidgeting nervously.
The shorter one wears a sleeveless red shirt lined on the arms with fur, though it seems to be a bit small for him as the shirt is very much unbuttoned toward the bottom, revealing his beige undershirt. He has brownish-orange hair and a confident, yet friendly smile on his face. "Yo, Rally!" he calls out, raising his hand in greeting.
"Tank! Blitz!" Rally says excitedly, dashing forward to meet them.
Nervin hangs back a bit as I walk on after Rally. I step into a large circle of sunlight that filters down through a crevice above, and suddenly feel as if everyone's eyes are on me, as if I'm an actor on the stage illuminated by a spotlight.
And soon, I find out that their eyes are on me—at least, those of the two known as Blitz and Tank. The purple-haired one speaks up first, his voice nervous as he eyes me with wary brown eyes, "So, uh, who's this?"
"Huh? Oh! Ben, come on over here!" Rally hurries over to me, grabs my arm and drags me over to them. "Guys, this is Ben. I found him passed out in that little plaza north of here."
"You mean… you just found him passed out in the street and decided to bring him here?" Blitz sputters, anxiously fixing the glasses that pinch his nose. "A-are you sure that's a good idea…?"
"It's fine Blitz!" Rally replies. "He's a good guy, really! And he's an awesome duelist too!"
"A duelist, huh?" asks Tank, stepping forward with a grin. Though his name hasn't been introduced, I can only assume by his broad chest and heavy muscles that he has to be Tank—naming him anything else would be a crime. "Then how about we throw down then? Nervin let him in, so I'll trust him."
"H-hey! I was just about to challenge him!" Blitz interjects, his face taking a sudden bold expression as he narrows his eyes… though half a moment later, he relents, letting out a sigh. "Actually Tank, you can go ahead. I'll take him on next."
Tank's Duel Disk bursts to life with the sound of humming electricity as he holds it out in front of him. "Let's get to it then! Show me what you've got, Ben!"
Seeing as I have no choice, I activate my own Duel Disk, moving to stand across from him, the shaft of light serving as our playing field. Part of me wants to be exhausted of dueling, but there's another, much more powerful part that wants to do nothing but duel—and that part of me is unleashing trillions of butterflies in my stomach as I see the tarnished blue dome blooming into existence.
"DUEL!"
Neither Tank nor Blitz proved to be as much a challenge as Nervin had.
Tank, though confident, played a deck that heavily relied on stalling for time to build up his Muka Muka, a monster which powered up by 300 points for each card in his hand. Had he gotten it out early, it could have proven difficult to deal with, but by the time he summoned it I already had Absolute Zero on my field, ready to freeze it.
Blitz played a very defensive deck consisting of monsters with heavy DEF; though his Shield and Sword card proved annoying, even granting his Millennium Shield 3000 ATK, I was able to defeat him with repeated direct attacks through the effect of Elemental Hero Ice Edge due to his monsters having rather low ATK normally.
"Looks like it's 4-0, in favor of Ben!" Rally says excitedly as the monsters Blitz and I used fade away. "Me, Nervin, Tank and Blitz all fell to his heroes!"
"Hey, I didn't technically lose!" Nervin points out, though Rally either doesn't hear him, or doesn't particularly care.
"You were right about him, Rally," Tank comments, beaming at me. "He's great! We could use more guys like him hanging out with us."
I have the decency to blush. It feels embarrassing to receive such praise, almost as if it isn't deserved; I can't even tell if I'm making the decisions myself during the duels, or if it's just pure instinct. Something certainly feels right about the deck, and I feel as if I should know exactly what to do, but when I do it I can't explain why.
"It's nothing…" I say shyly, folding my arms behind the back of my head as I feel their eyes on me again. I don't know for sure if these duels helped me remember anything… other than I'm not overly fond of being watched like this.
"It's not nothing! You've got some serious skill, man," Nervin insists, patting me on the shoulder.
"Yeah! After all, you beat me!" Blitz exclaims, trying to do his best to look intimidating again. He narrows his eyes so that he's staring directly through the tiny round glasses, but instead of intimidating it looks more like he's trying to cross his eyes.
Rally scoffs, then grabs the crook of my arm. "Come on Ben, I wanna show you something," he says, pulling me out of the natural spotlight and toward the patched tent. I kick dozens of pebbles and other small remnants of long-laid concrete out of the way as I follow after the smaller boy, who seems to be gliding across the dirty ground.
We walk around the side until we come to an entrance, wide enough for perhaps two of Tank to fit through, and he pushes aside a heavy canvas curtain to reveal the messy inside of the tent.
Run-down furniture, namely two old chairs with lumpy cushions that have yellowed with age sit on either end of the shack, one resting directly beside a tall, cluttered shelf full of tools and materials and exactly seven forks in varying states of rust. Toward one dark corner, a bare gray mattress lays on the ground, with a tattered blanket balled up toward the foot of the bed. Boxes lay strewn across the floor alongside metal pipes and rubber hoses, sheet metal and splintered wood.
And lastly, the desk. It's old and made of rusted metal, half-warped from age, though it's surprisingly the most clean thing in the tent. A computer monitor sits on the table, its dark screen reflecting Rally and I. I stoop to look into the monitor, and can't help but notice how old it is.
"There's a lot of stuff laying everywhere, so be careful where you step," Rally says, looking through a bin on the tall shelf. "Oh, and don't mess with that computer, there's some pretty important stuff on there…"
I gently reach forward and place my hand on the computer mouse, giving it a slight push to wake the computer up. A dark blue screen flares into existence, with a white box inquiring after a password.
"HEY! Didn't I just say not to touch that?" Rally says loudly, hurrying over. "I'm serious—there's stuff on there that we can't really replace!"
Startled, I step back and hold my hands up apologetically. "Sorry. Just… got a little curious," I admit, standing in the middle of the tent a bit awkwardly.
Rally sighs. "No worries, doesn't look like you really did anything besides wake it up…" he says, though he stops before he can say anything else. A high-pitched whirring noise fills the subway tunnel, echoing off the cement walls and bouncing into the tent. Rally perks up. "He's back!"
"Who's back?" I ask, following after him as he bolts out of the tent.
He hurries over to the edge of the platform, practically jumping up and down as a small light appears in the inky darkness of the round tunnel, steadily growing brighter as the whirring noise gets louder.
Blitz, Tank and Nervin rush over to stand beside us too as the light bursts from the tunnel, manifesting as a red motorcycle-type vehicle. It's very angular, with white trimming the front of the vehicle, and a curved seat extends out of the back part, just above the rear wheel.
The vehicle comes to a stop, and the driver sits back in his seat and removes his helmet. Spiky black hair leaps out from beneath it, gold highlighting the spikes toward the back of his head; the upper layer juts upward, and shockingly the lower layer arches downward, as if he had decided not to take care of his morning bedhead.
"Welcome back, Yusei!" Rally exclaims, beaming brightly at the young man in the motorcycle.
"Hey," he greets back, focusing a pair of royal blue eyes on me. There's skepticism there, but it's not the hostile mistrust that Nervin affixed me with when we first met; it's more curiosity, as if he's trying to figure me out. "Who's this?"
Rally grabs my arm again and pulls me closer to the edge. "This is Ben! He's got amnesia. Doesn't remember anything but his name, but he's an incredible duelist!" Rally looks between him and I, then says excitedly, "Hey! Maybe you guys should duel some time!"
The rider now known as Yusei looks over me again, then puts his helmet back on. "I'm going for another ride," he says, taking hold of the handlebars and speeding off.
A moment after Yusei disappears into the tunnel on the opposite end, a sharp jolt runs through my head, not unlike the one that brought back the memory of my name—though this time, much stronger. I drop to my knees, clenching my teeth in pain as my hands slap down on the cold floor.
"Ben!" Rally says worriedly, but his voice fades off into the distance as the memory comes back.
An austere room, bare white walls and dull white floors, furnished with a fancy-looking bookshelf cluttered with magazines and tools. A long metal desk, shaped like an L, with a computer resting atop it. Long rows of wires running from the walls into a pale white motorcycle, similar to the one Yusei had just ridden off on, minus the curved seat.
"…Turbo duel…" a voice says in the back of my mind as I view the room.
"…Speed Spell…" that same voice continues. "…Activate! …Miracle Fusion!"
The vision disappears, and I'm left kneeling on the floor of the old subway tunnel, my hands clenched and covered in dust. Rally, Blitz, Nervin and Tank all gather round me, their eyes wide with worry.
"You okay, man?" Nervin asks.
"Everything alright Ben?" Blitz inquires.
"Are you alive still?" Tank probes.
I sit back on my knees, coughing slightly as I become aware of how dusty the air is. "Yeah, I'm good," I say. "Headache."
Rally perks up. "WAIT! When you remembered your name, you said you had a headache. Did you remember something just now?"
I nod, pushing myself to my feet. "Something about… Speed Spells, and a motorcycle…" I explain, extending my arm holding my Duel Disk, my opposite hand finding another compartment and drawing a card from it. The card is named Miracle Fusion, as my dream had mentioned, depicting a fusion scene like Polymerization; one hero dressed in blue and a hero dressed in red swirl around a large H, a bright white light between them.
"You've got a Speed Spell!" Rally exclaims, looking over my shoulder at it. "Maybe you're a Turbo Duelist then, Ben?"
"What's a… Turbo Duelist?" I ask with a frown.
"This is to be expected," Blitz says, straightening up. "Amnesia is a real pain."
Rally points to the card, pulling my hand down so he can look at it straight. "A Turbo Duelist is someone who plays in Turbo Duels! They get on a Duel Runner, like what Yusei has, and they duel using Speed Spells instead of regular Spells!" he explains.
"So they play a card game… on motorcycles?"
"Yes, that's the general idea," Blitz confirms.
"Next time Yusei comes around, you should talk to him about it," Tank comments.
Nervin pauses in thought for a moment, then says, "Aren't the only Turbo Duelists around here Yusei and Sector Security, though?" A murmur of assent goes through the other three, and he continues, "Then… maybe Ben came from the City?"
"It's certainly a possibility," Blitz agrees.
"Ben, maybe if you go to the City you can regain more of your memory?" Rally suggests.
"It's worth a try," I answer, staring hard at the Speed Spell card. There's something in my mind that is attached to it, but the memory is weaker than the others; I don't feel the same pull as I do with my regular cards. "But how am I supposed to get there?"
"You're going to need a Duel Runner," Nervin says, covering his chin with his hand in thought.
Rally claps his hands together and grins at us. "Then we'll just have to go find one, huh? If we all pitch in, we're sure to find one in no time!"
Tank raises an eyebrow. "You sure about that, Rally? We don't exactly have a huge amount of Duel Runners laying around here," he cautions, looking down the tunnel that Yusei had just disappeared into. "It took us forever to find all the parts for Yusei's Runner, I'm not sure how much luck we'll have here."
"Well, we've got to try, Tank!" Rally says, turning to face the heavier man. There's a fire burning in Rally's eyes; he's so dedicated on helping me, a stranger, get to the City, where I may or may not regain my memory. I can't say whether or not I'd be able to do the same in this situation.
I smile at Rally, patting him on the back. "Thanks, Rally," I say, raising my head to look at the others. "I'd be really grateful if you guys would help me. I'll do my part too, but I'll admit, I don't exactly know the first thing about Duel Runners…"
Rally grins back at me. "Don't worry about that, Ben, Yusei can teach you all about Duel Runners! He's the best!" he takes a few steps toward the entrance to the tunnel, turning back to look at us.
"Alright guys!" he exclaims. "Commencing Project Duel Runner in 3… 2… 1… GO!"
And on "GO!" he makes a mad dash for the stairway that leads back to the surface.
Tank, Nervin, Blitz and I are left in his dust—figuratively, and somewhat literally, because I'm not entirely sure who claims ownership over the dust here. The four of us share a look between one another, shrug, and then walk on after him, not in any particular hurry.
AND THAT'S A WRAP! My apologies fellas, I had hoped to have this chapter out around Wednesday, but my grandpa passed away earlier in the week so my wife and I had to fly back to the States for the funeral. We're going back home Sunday evening, so the next chapter, depending on how much time I have now that the funeral's over, will probably be up sometime between Wednesday and Friday of next week. I'm hoping to update every week, though in some occasions it may be every other week.
Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this last chapter. I'm still a bit unsure of how long to make each chapter, because I certainly could have written out Tank and Blitz's duels, though it would have come out much longer, and probably a little boring since neither deck is as aggressive as Nervin's. If you want me to write out every single duel I certainly can, but if not I understand too.
A couple more things: first, I forgot to include that I actually edited the effect of Voltic Spear. In the manga, its only effect was the ATK boost, I tacked on the piercing damage effect. Also, I decided to include a theme song, in the style of Fenikkusumaru, whose original Stardust Accelerator story which sadly is no longer on the site actually inspired me to start writing YGO stories here in the first place. Be sure to let me know if you want me to include the opening every chapter, or if I should just include it when I change it every arc or so.
So! This chapter, we got to see our first appearance of Yusei, as well as revealing another memory, plus getting to see that Ben does indeed have Absolute Zero in his deck—which is my personal favorite of the Omni-Heroes, but definitely NOT his ace card! We're starting to pick up on the story for Stardust Accelerator, and in the next chapter we'll no doubt be witnessing the search for a Duel Runner!
But what will Ben find waiting for him in the City? What if he arrives, and… nothing? Why do I keep asking questions that I know the answer to, but you don't?
Lastly, I just want to thank you guys so much for the reviews, follows and favorites, it's awesome to know you guys are so interested in the story. I know there's a distinct lack of Y5Ds content coming out at the moment, so I hope I'm doing well in keeping you guys coming back for more.
I think I've rattled on long enough about this. So, as always,
Take care, brush yo hair, I'll see ya when I see ya, PEACE~!
P.S. If you guys have any ideas on Ben's backstory, I'd love to hear them! As in, theories, of course—I know who he is and all, but I'd love to see if you guys have any thoughts.