Finally, the abandoned amusement park came into our view. Over the top was the mark of the lizard, giving me a small amount of hope that Aki was going to finish in time.
We pulled up on either side of Mina's Security car, and I looked up at the sign for 'Monster Town', "At least the duel has started. I was worried."
Trudge crossed his arms, "But do we know where the tower is inside of this place? We won't be able to see it from the ground."
"I hate saying this, but divide and conquer. My luck is completely gone right now, and I have a bad feeling in my gut. You three go together, and I'll go by myself."
All three of them nodded, heading off to the left. I popped my neck, bracing myself before heading off to the right.
I walked past booths, looking at the games that used to be played here. There were so many, and I didn't know what a single one was.
What is 'goldfish scooping'? How is that a game?
"Look out!"
My instincts threw me forward, rolling as something crashed behind me. As I stood back up, I saw an old sign that was now just splinters.
Twisting around, I saw a man nearby wearing a trenchcoat, fedora and sunglasses.
Well, if that doesn't raise red flags, I don't know what does.
"Are you okay?"
Re-adjusting my duel disk on my arm, I nodded, "Yes, thanks to your warning. But what are you doing here?"
Reaching into a pocket of his coat, he pulled out a badge, "I'm with the Security Bureau, Director Goodwin sent me."
Taking a step back, I took a deep breath, "That's nice and all, but it's too dangerous here. You should really be back in the city."
Placing one arm over his chest, he bowed to me, "I know that, and I don't care. I am here to make sure that Aki-san wins her duel."
My suspicion grew, but I pretended to blow it off, "Then let's find out where she is."
He followed me, "How powerful are the Dark Signers?"
"I've nearly died at the hands of them and their minions more than once. Not only that, but they have personal vendettas against one of us, making it so that they would die trying to kill us. Then they can summon creatures called Earthbound Immortals, which the average duelist, or even a good duelist, would be destroyed by."
His footsteps stopped for a second, "Then how is Aki-san supposed to win?"
Barely even slowing down, I glanced at him, "She'll win because she wants to protect the people of New Domino City."
"You seem to have a lot of faith in her."
Shrugging, I kept walking, "In her, I see a kindred spirit and a friend. It's kind of hard to not trust her."
"Kindred spirit?"
I nodded, "We both had to raise ourselves in difficult environments."
Once again, he stopped walking, an over dramatic reaction slipping out of his mouth, "What was that?"
Matching his energy, I whipped around, "What is it?"
Pointing at a nearby building, he claimed, "Someone moved over there!"
Running into it, I found that the ground was made of metal grating. I almost stopped looking before I saw Jack's assistant on the cement floor beneath the grating, "Mina?"
A small click came from behind me, and I rolled to my left as a fireball crashed where I had just been. The man was walking towards me, "I knew that you had gotten in the way of my plans. If you want to survive, you'll need to fight with all of your might."
He placed another card on his duel disk, and a green sword appeared in his hands.
Oh, freaking heck. This has got to be that bastard!
The man charged me, and I barely managed to put up my duel disk as a line of defense. Shoving back at him, I sent him tumbling backwards. And then he summoned another fireball, "Are you insane? What are you doing?"
"Aki needs no one in her life except me!" he yelled as the sword came back.
Yup. Knew it. Good thing I got the jump on him last time.
"If she doesn't close the tower by sunset, there won't be a world left to live in!"
He charged me again, and as I put my duel disk back up in defense, he change course and slammed the hilt into my stomach, "Not my problem."
I curled up to protect the stitches that were still in my gut, and he kicked me backwards, sending me flying to the cement floor.
As I tried to sit up, he slammed the door that I had fallen through shut, welding it closed with one of his fireballs, "Aki will shine in the world that I have in store."
I rolled over, "Mina, wake up!"
She didn't stir.
As I tried to wake her up, water started to pour into the bottom half of the building, He's trying to kill us!
Carefully, I pulled her up as I got to my feet, holding her to my chest so I could keep her head above water if it came to that.
The water was rushing in so quickly, that it wasn't long before my knees were covered in water. As the water progressed, Mina stirred, "Yusei?"
"Hold on to me, Mina. Someone trapped us down here, and the water is rising fast."
She nodded, clinging onto me as the water covered our waists, "Why is it rising so quickly?"
"Not sure. Can you scream?"
Her eyebrows narrowed, "Why?"
I looked away from her, "Trudge out there, and he like-likes you. If he hears you scream, he'll be in here in the blink of an eye."
Nodding, she sighed, "Thank goodness for city girl 101, how to scream high enough to break glass. Brace yourself, because you might want to cover your ears."
I let her go, covering my ears as she clung tighter to me. She let out a scream that nearly deafened me, even with my ears covered.
Within a couple of minutes of her screaming, the door burst open violently, "Simington-san?"
Glancing up, I saw Trudge, "Down here!"
The second he realized what was going on, he grabbed a pipe and started trying to break open the door to our 'cage'. But he was struggling.
An idea abruptly occurred to me, and I whispered to Mina, "Call for Jack."
Her smile matched my own for a second, and she started screaming, "Atlas-sama! Atlas-sama!"
Both of us nearly went deaf from the volume of the door bursting open.
Mina clung to me as I got under the opening for the grating. As we continued to rise, Trudge reached down and pulled Mina out. As she made her way to the door, he reached down and lifted me out.
As the two of us joined Mina outside, she grabbed my arm, "What did that guy want?"
Shaking the water out of my hair, I grunted, "I think he might be the leader of the Arcadia Movement. Everything I noticed about him would fit."
"Be careful. He already tried to get rid of you once."
A smile crept onto my face, "He thinks I'm a guy. Which means he thinks I have romantic feelings for Aki."
While they processed that information, I raced off to find Aki.
Turning a few corners, I finally saw the tower. Following it like a beacon, I found the duel very easily. It helped that the duel was covered by a bubble of what looked like purple stained glass.
Near the bubble was the twins, so I decided to stop next to them, "What's going on?"
They turned around to face me, and Luna looked on the verge of tears, "Something is wrong with Aki. She's using her powers on the Dark Signer, and her metal hairpiece fell out."
Glancing over at her, I noticed everything that the twins mentioned, and then some. Her hair was longer, which she mentioned happens when she's mad.
"Aki…"
A glint caught my attention, taking it to the side of the duel, where I saw him again. This time he didn't have a hat on, so I could tell that it really was The Bastard.
Turning to the kids, "Don't go anywhere. I'll be right back."
Running around the battle, I had barely reached the foot of the building that Sayer was in before a loud screech filled the air, We just got kicked into overdrive.
Shaking away that thought, I slipped up the stairs quietly before busting down the door Jack style.
He whipped around, "So you didn't die."
"Out of all of the attempts on my life, yours is near the bottom in every single factor."
Reaching deep inside myself, I gathered all of my feelings about him, and shoved them into him. For a brief moment, he was stunned, however, he recovered too fast for me to do anything else, sending another fireball my way.
He glared, "An empath? Not a very strong one, but still. Was that why Aki went with you?"
My face quickly gained a glare of its own, "I didn't use my powers on her. I just confirmed all of her suspicions about you."
His face turned to a creepy smile, "I just gave her a place after her family chased her away with calling her a monster. That's what I do best, find people's weakness and use it against them. Like how that Dark Signer is battling Aki because she's convinced that Aki killed her brother."
My glare deeped, "He joined the Movement, didn't he?"
"Of course, but he was too weak."
He charged me with that blasted sword again, and I slid under him. As I got back into a crouch, I pressed the, well, "conference call" button, "So what exactly happened to that little boy?"
Sayer stood upright, "During some routine electrotherapy I discovered that he wasn't anything special, so I had them turn up the machine all of the way. Not the first time it happened. He was completely average, not like Aki. She's the most powerful that I've ever found."
A deep fury burned up inside of me, and I charged him without thinking, "You freaking bastard!"
He easily dodged, and I quickly realized my folly when a breeze from the door hit my back.
Yet again, he summoned yet another of those stupid fireballs, and it shot directly to me, knocking me over the edge of the balcony attached to the front of the building. At the last possible second, I grabbed the edge.
I heard his footsteps approaching me, and I started to laugh as I pulled myself up.
Seeing him freeze in confusion was priceless, "What has gone wrong in your head?"
I smiled at him sweetly, "Oh, simply the fact that I made my duel disk myself. One feature I added was done so I could communicate with my friends when they're in duels. Or in other words, Misty just heard our little exchange."
His whole body spun in the direction of the duel, only to receive a murderous look from Misty, "How dare you!"
To my horror, he spoke directly to her, "What, he wasn't special. Why would I keep trash like that?"
Without a second of hesitation I dropped to the ground, wanting to be nowhere near him when the Dark Signer retaliated for the most insane statement I had ever heard.
A massive hand reached over my head, grabbing him in its fist. My eyes opened wide as saucers as I watched where the hand was heading.
Is the Immortal going to EAT him?
My body was frozen as The Bastard was dropped into the mouth of the Immortal.
Leo screamed from across the duel, "It ate him!"
Wasn't expecting THAT.
Shaking myself out of the stupor, I raced as close to Aki as I could. While I got closer, I started to hear what Misty was saying to Aki, "I'm sorry for blaming you, Aki. I'll surrender now."
Misty reached her hand up to place it on her duel disk, and I knew what would happen.
With no warning whatsoever, she collapsed to the ground screaming, "No, get out of my head!"
Her marks, both on her face and arm, started pulsing with purple light.
I turned to Aki, "Aki, you need to wake up!"
She started to blink rapidly, "Yusei?"
Her head started to shake, then she looked up at her opponent, "Misty?"
Misty screamed, "Aki, you have to defeat me! I can't surrender!"
The words had barely gotten out of her mouth when she stood up, eyes and facial marks glowing the same as her arm.
"You will die Signer."
Aki quickly took over, "Since I activated that spell, I can trade the right monsters for a Synchro in my graveyard. Since the total level of my monsters is 7 and I have a tuner, I can bring back Black Rose Dragon! And since I summoned her successfully, she destroys every card on the field without being in danger of leaving thanks to the spell!"
Misty activated a spell, but due to the hurricane force winds created by Black Rose Dragon, I couldn't hear what it was. But I had a pretty good idea when a torpedo of light shot towards Aki.
Since Aki was closer, I could hear her move, "I activate Nature's Reflection, which sends the damage back to you."
As she activated it, she twisted away so she wouldn't see her spell hit Misty.
I ran to Aki's side, "Aki…"
"Not right now."
She quietly walked forward, picking up a locket on the ground, "I'm sorry Misty."
Quietly, I joined her on the ground, pulling her into a hug. She leaned against me, "Do you really think that my dad would ever want me back now?"
"I don't know, who would want a girl who just helped save the world?"
Her big, tear filled eyes gazed at me, "Thanks for being my friend, Yusei."
A smile came onto my face, "I always wanted a sister. Now I have two."
A/N: Thanks to Lets-Go-To-Vermont for reviewing on the original version of this chapter.
