As I expected, Yunagi barely lasted three rounds, total. Tanner barely even tried when dueling him, which meant that he wasn't going to have any respect here. And from what I had heard through the grapevine, you needed respect in order to survive the Facility.
Tanner strolled over to our side of the field, with the cruelest smile that I had seen in a long time, "You weren't kidding that it was a rare deck. It was so rare that most people would have just tossed it in the garbage. And that's right where it's going."
Time seemed to slow down as my body kicked into motion. A massive boot stomped on the cards, while I silently moved towards my target. One hand went on his shoulder as my leg swept his feet out from under him. He hit the floor with a deafening boom, while I gently gathered the cards, "Only those who have lost all respect treat another person's prized belongings like trash. I'm going to use this deck for my duel."
Yunagi looked up at me in shock, "But my deck isn't all that good!"
My face was filled with a smile as I responded, "There's not a deck on Earth that I can't win with."
As he smiled, Tanner stood up, glaring at me like a bull in a ring, "You have a death wish Satellite. I am going to tear you to shreds."
Sliding on the duel disk, I popped my neck, "Respecting what cards come our way is something that is unique to Satellites. We don't get to pick and choose our cards like you people here do."
Pulling myself to my full height (which, granted, wasn't that much), I put Yunagi's deck in the disk, "You need to learn the difference between being a duelist, and a bully."
He scoffed, "And you need to learn to respect your betters."
"You only earn my respect through a duel, not by being born in a certain place. And it doesn't even matter if you win, just how well you treat your deck and your opponent."
If looks could kill, I would be mildly burned by the 'threatening' glare he sent my way, "Shut up and duel."
Alright, deck. I know I am a stranger to you, but we need to work together to cheer up Yunagi. These people have made his faith in you falter, and we need to show him that he was right.
To no surprise, Tanner took the first turn, "I summon Jirai Gumo in attack mode, then end my turn."
Jirai Gumo-2200
Scanning the motley assortment of cards in my hand, I read what each of them could do.
Okay, I'm just going to assume that this is the only way to win with this deck.
I looked at the other cards in my hand. And if I play this card with Crystal Skull, it will decrease HIS life points instead of MINE.
Looking up with a straight face, I put a card down, "I summon Crystal Skull in defensive mode."
Crystal Skull-2000
His lackeys all laughed like I said the funniest joke in the whole universe, meanwhile I stuck the next card on my duel disk, "And then I play the Curse Reflection Doll trap card."
Silence reigned as they stared in shock as the doll absorbed the attack and sent it to Tanner instead.
Life Points Tanner=3000
He clearly didn't expect something like that from this deck.
Somehow keeping my face expressionless, I raised an eyebrow up, "You didn't know that the trap card I played turns any damage I should have taken from an ability to you?"
"Shut up. I release Jiral Gumo in order to summon Ushi Oni."
Ushi Oni-2150
Ah, one of those people who use the same two or three strategies to win. No small wonder that he couldn't make it in the big leagues.
"I release Ushi Oni in order to summon Giant Ushi Oni!"
Giant Ushioni-2600
The urge to roll my eyes was overwhelming, but I managed not too.
Predictable at best. And with Stonehenge in my hand, he will only get rid of Crystal Skull for one turn.
"Now take out that Crystal Skull!"
All of the lovely inmates cheered as the skull shattered, while he puffed up and smirked, "When Giant Ushi Oni destroys a monster in battle, he can attack again. I think I'll attack you directly."
Life Points Yusei=1400
"I place two facedown cards and end my turn."
Joy bubbled up inside of me as I saw another of the cards that I needed, "I summon Ashoka Pillar in defensive mode and place one card facedown."
Ashoka Pillar-2200
"Then I play the spell Stonehenge, which allows me to summon another card in defensive mode from the graveyard if it has no attack points."
Crystal Skull-2000
Once again, they all laughed like I said the funniest joke in the history of jokes as my life points dropped.
Life Points Yusei=400
Tanner turned to them, "Shut up all of you! Giant Ushi Oni can only attack twice! But...I've heard of that pillar thing. It deals damage to the owner, right?"
I nodded, realising what his plan would be, "Two thousand."
"Giant Ushi Oni, attack that Ashoka Pillar!"
My facedown card flipped up as I spoke, "My trap card activates, Totem Pole. It can negate your attack up to three times."
He smiled, "Just what I was waiting for. My trap card activates! Spider Web Castle! If any of your monsters attack, their attack points will be cut in half."
Fighting the urge to smile, I closed my eyes, Did he forget that this whole deck MAYBE has 50 attack points total? Seriously, it's the spells of this deck you have to beware, in case you haven't noticed that yet.
He continued, "I place one card facedown, and let you have a turn."
Come on deck, help me out!
A smile slipped onto my face when I saw what I drew, "I activate the Piri Reis Map spell card. This allows me to draw a monster with no attack points. And I am going to summon it, Cabrera Stone."
Cabrera Stone-0
"Of course, using this spell cuts my life points in half."
Life Points Yusei=200
"Then, I activate a spell called Triangle O."
My smile only grew as the card completely decimated everything on the field, "So, in case you didn't know, this card destroys every singe card on the field, and all damage that would have been taken by me, such as Ashoka Pillar and Cabrera Stone, is dealt to you instead."
Life Points Tanner=0 Defeat!
Tanner walked over to me with a genuine smile on his face, "That was the best duel I've seen in years. You have to be a good duelist in order to win with that deck."
He turned to look at Yunagi, who had taken all of the cards from me, "I'm sorry old timer for stepping on your deck."
Yunagi smiled as he held up his deck, "Isn't it wonderful? For a while you had me doubting how amazing it was, but then I realised that it was me that wasn't so good in a duel, not my deck."
Tanner turned to me, "So, Satellite, do you have a name?"
I nodded, "Yusei."
Just then the doors opened and we all turned around. Two guards marched in holding batons that I knew from experience could give you an electric jolt. One of them was looking right at me, "G2MA2-88, you haven't been fully processed, so we are going to need to take you in for some routine testing."
Oh no, this isn't going to be fun.
Apparently, in order to escort prisoners, it was required to cut off circulation in their arms. Why are they inspecting me again? I already got a check back when I was initially put in the system.
A small amount of panic built up inside of me, Please let the same lie work twice.
I was dragged inside of a room where a few people in strange white coats were milling around, along with a whale of a man. All of them looked over when I entered, and he marched over to me, "I could smell this Satellite trash from down the hall. Don't you scum know what a bath is?"
Decidedly keeping any expression off my face, I acted like I didn't hear what he said.
He didn't appreciate that. My hair was roughly yanked up, forcing me to look at his face, "You respond when I talk to you, Trash."
Using my hair as a handle, he chucked me toward the white coats, "Start the tests."
They dragged me into an empty room, then snapped at me, "Remove your clothing."
Reluctantly I obeyed, silently grateful that I was used to changing in front of people. I removed everything except for my underwear, then put my arms at my side, Just imagine it's one of Martha's check-ups.
Eyes locked on my bandage-covered chest, "What is that?"
"I fell on poison ivy a couple weeks ago. Our doctor told me not to let any other skin touch that part."
Just like the first time, all of them scrambled back. One rushed out of the room, likely to get the big guy, who until further notice was going to be called Whale in my head. Sure enough, he came in with the one who left, "Poison ivy?"
"We don't have soap to get rid of it, and nothing else works. Poison ivy is a life sentence for us."
He marched back out of the room, "Keep it on, I don't want to have to deal with that."
As the door slammed behind him, I mentally let out a breath of relief. First of all, thank heavens for knowing what poison ivy is. Secondly, thank heavens they bought that stupid lie about us not having soap. The rumors against us are way too easy to use to our advantage.
My joy didn't last long.
Every muscle in my body clenched, twitched, or flailed as electricity coursed through me. My brain had given up on processing pain after the third test, leaving me somehow disconnected from the signals that were supposed to be going to my head.
The big guy pulled me off the machine as I tried to get my breath back. Apparently, Securities made it so you didn't misbehave my overloading your system with shocks. First the mark being put on, now this. My body was barely cooperating with me at the current moment.
What little of my brain that was working nearly gave out as he breathed directly into my face, "Just remember this, you little punk: You don't get any rights. Not even the right to privacy. Try anything, and you'll regret it."
I was dropped back down, vaguely hearing his voice above me, "Keep testing him. Tell me if anything interesting happens."
Hours later, they finally decided to stop testing me, and my body gave out on me. I felt my body hit the ground as my world went black.
I came to on the floor of the cell, thankfully fully clothed. I honestly felt like just lying there until the morning, if SOMEBODY wasn't asking me so many questions.
Yunagi was in my face, "What on earth did they do to you? You look awful! Why did they do this to you?"
Every muscle in my body screamed out in agony as I forced myself up, "They are fond of their electricity, that's all."
He hovered over me as I climbed back onto my bed, "But why did they do this to you? Surely they had a reason."
My mind sluggishly pondered over the question, then murmured, "Maybe they thought I had something to do with that giant red dragon that showed up."
Flopping down at my side, he chuckled, "That wouldn't mean anything unless you had a Signer's mark."
I weakly lifted the arm in question, "My arm glowed when it showed up. But once it was gone, so was the glow."
Yunagi reached out a hand, "I know a lot about the Crimson Dragon. Before I talk about it though, we should get you off the ground and onto a bed."
Somehow, we managed to get me back onto my bed, where I immediately laid down and covered my eyes, "Okay, explain what you know about the magic dragon."
My mattress sunk under his weight, "It's a legend from Peru in South America. I once met a tribe from there, who explained it to me, but bear in mind, I'm translating this in my head from their native dialect, so the translations may not be perfect.
"The Crimson Dragon is the protector of the world, who can only be summoned by those who bear his mark. There is always five of them at a time, and from what I understood, those people show up around every 5000 years or so. Each one of these 'Signers' control a dragon themselves, which would protect them until the death."
I looked at him, raising an eyebrow, "Dragons?"
His face lit up, "Yes! You wouldn't happen to have a dragon in the deck they took away, would you?"
"There is a dragon card that I've had that felt different than my other cards, but a former friend stole it from me a couple years ago. I was arrested trying to get it back from him."
No living being should be able to be as loud as him, "That must mean he is one too!"
My arm went back on my face, "I need sleep, Yunagi. Let's talk about this later."
Could it be true?
A/N: Thank you to Nozomi Higuarshi (who told me a funny story about themselves), PipeDream, and Let's-Go-To-Vermont for reviewing on the original version of this chapter!
