Alright, I've got chapter 5 here after another long delay.
Chapter Five - Prey
The City was so different at night compared to how it was during the day. The air stilled, every single black alleyway looking like the hungry mouths of a foreboding beast, every blank window looking like the rolled-up eyes of a malevolent wraith. Ruka shivered, not from the cold, but from the sudden realisation that she was plunging headlong into a world she had never entered before. Keeping a tight hold on her deck, ready to summon a monster as soon as something happens, Ruka guided the Duel Board slowly forward to where Fairy Archer had told her the unknown D-Wheel had finally stopped.
Ruka quickly hid behind the corner of a small shop front when she heard voices ahead of her. Carefully edging forward, she saw two dark-coloured D-Wheels parked on the pavement of the silent and abandoned street, the two riders conversing in hushed tones.
"…Two?" Ruka wondered in confusion. She had not been told, nor did she anticipate, this. But she forced herself to get these irrelevant thoughts out of her head and concentrated on trying to discern if Patty was around.
There. In between the front wheels of the two D-Wheels, Patty's small body was barely visible from the angle Ruka was looking. The blonde girl was lying face down on the pavement, her green wig lying to one side. Ruka chocked back a stunned cry.
Steady, Ruka. Regulus's strong paw caught her as she wobbled.
Ruka was certain she saw blood on the ground around her friend's body. Tears tumbled down her face as she pressed her hand hard against her mouth, trying her best not to make a sound.
Hold yourself together, child. Regulus whispered beside Ruka. The lion leaned down, supporting Ruka's torso. I think someone else is coming this way too.
Startled, Ruka lifted her tear-stained face. True enough, the loud rumbling of a D-Wheel could be heard at a distance, and it was growing steadily louder all the time.
The sound wasn't missed by the two riders. After a nervous glance behind them, they quickly started their engines and made to ride away. Ruka caught a clearer glimpse as they passed beneath a streetlamp. One vehicle was black, its inky body decorated with a few bands of yellow, its rider sporting an ebony, winged helmet. The other machine was also dark, but intertwined with patterns of navy blue together with a round helmet for the rider. As they moved rapidly away, leaving Patty's body prostrate on the ground like a snapped puppet doll, Ruke espied the rider with the winged helmet turning around. For a split second, she could have sworn that she saw something glistening on the man's face.
She had impulsively wanted to follow them, but the newcomer had already arrived. Yusei's crimson D-Wheels roared past her in the split of an eye, hot in pursuit of the two mysterious D-Wheelers. As soon as Yusei was far enough so the sound of his engine was no longer deafening, Regulus spoke again.
Wait here a bit longer, Ruka. Your brother is also coming.
"Rua?" Ruka looked behind her surprisingly. "But I told him to wait for me at home…"
Regulus shook his head. I'm afraid that's not the case. Here he comes.
True to that, Rua soon came into view. He had evidently tried to catch up to Yusei, but his Duel Board was no match for Yusei's enhanced D-Wheel. He disconnected his Duel Disk and ran off his Duel Board when he saw his sister and ran towards Ruka.
"Ruka! Are you alright?" His heart jolted when he saw the tears gleaming on his sister's face.
"Yeah, I'm… fine." Ruka hurriedly wiped the tears away. "But Patty… she's…"
Following the direction of Ruka's gaze, Rua turned and walked cautiously towards their friend. Ruka, after disconnecting from her own Duel Board, went with him. The twins couldn't make out Patty's face. The girl's long blonde hair, smeared dark with blood and clinging to the ground like the stubborn vines of crumbling ivy, formed a macabre sight under the monochrome street light. Ruka's legs wobbled; she didn't her best to swallow down the bitter liquid that welled up at the back of her throat. Beside her, Rua asked in a weak voice.
"Is she… is she…"
She's still alive. Gravely, Regulus answered Rua's unspoken words.
"Regulus says she's still alive." Ruka replied to her brother through tightly clutched teeth. Rua nodded and took one step gingerly forward, as if he had made up his mind to pick Patty up.
However, he was saved from that attempt by a car skidding to a stop beside them and a loud, familiar voice.
Carly raced toward the twins as soon as she jumped out of the car. "Ruka! Rua!" Seeing their startled expressions, the reporter's gaze went to the object beside the twins' feet. "What – what happened?"
Ruka lowered her head and bit her lip. Tears were threatening to tumble out of her eyes again. "Our… our friend was attacked. She… she…"
Carly saw that the twins were finding it difficult to come to terms with the situation. She realised that in order to save Patty, she would have to do something herself, and fast.
"Let's get your friend to the hospital. Ruka, Rua, I'll take care of her. You two go get your Duel Boards and get in the car."
The twins nodded mutely and ran off in unison. Carly approached the little body on the ground and picked the girl up delicately. From the congealed blood on the girl's head, Carly could tell that she has been wounded for some time. But she couldn't afford to think of that now. As soon as Rua and Ruka got in, she hit the accelerator and sped towards the closest hospital.
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Like a blur, an afterimage of the setting sun's final, blinding light, Yusei's red D-Wheel flew after the two dark shadows before him.
They zipped through the night streets, their loud rumbling stirring through the sleepy and soundless block. Yusei was right on the other two's tail. Forced to travel in the narrow streets of this relatively poor part of the City, the two foreign D-Wheels couldn't do much except to follow the twists and turns of the road. They were also obviously unfamiliar with the terrain. They chose to stay together instead of splitting up, which should have been the logical thing to do to make Yusei's solo pursuit difficult.
The King accelerated. The tip of his front wheel was already beginning to brush against the back of the D-Wheel in front of him. Its rider, aware of this, started to shift sideways to avoid a collision. Grasping this chance, Yusei pushed in through the gap that was created and advanced forward, jutting in and riding neck-to-neck with the rider that was originally before him.
He had received a vague outline of what was going on from Rua when he caught up with the little guy earlier on. When he saw these two D-Wheels running away from Patty's body, he had no doubts about whether or not to give chase. A check through the City's D-Wheel database yielded no matches and no registers for these two. As the King of D-Wheelers in this part of the world, Yusei saw it as his personal duty to deal with such rogue D-Wheelers, especially since it appears that Aki… had somehow joined this nebulous underworld.
Plagued by that sudden thought about Aki, Yusei couldn't help but cast a quick glance at the D-Wheel now beside him. However, he was certain that the rider couldn't possibly be a woman, let alone Aki. A young and defiant male visage glared back at him from beneath that black helmet on that yellow-banded bike. The rider's face was full of Markers, scars with microchips imbedded in them that Security places on the faces of criminals to warn the general public of their unlawful deeds and also to trace them electronically when necessary. Had Ushio had his way yesterday, Jack's face would now be crisscrossed with them too. Yusei narrowed his eyes at the D-Wheeler. People with Markers were despised and feared. This man, with his face a labyrinth of Markers, has no place in this City.
Though, the chase's silence was very soon broken.
"Fudo Yusei, isn't it?" A soft, sneering voice, coming from before him, made Yusei snap his head around. The driver of the black-blue D-Wheel in front of him turned his head around just a little to address Yusei, but the sarcasm seeping out of his words were tangible without the need to see his face. "Pity that you had to be Aki's prey, my King."
"What… did you say?"
Although the stunned words slipped from Yusei's mouth, the Marked man next to him seemed to be equally surprised. He accelerated his black-yellow D-Wheel and began to edge forward, breaking away from the King. The sudden howling of his engine momentarily drowned out all other sounds surrounding them, and filled the wind whipping against Yusei's face.
"Out of my way!" Yusei roared. He pushed his machine on, not giving them a chance to escape. Hearing Aki's name spoken so casually hurt his ears. It had been so long since someone had spoken of her as a person, not as a memory, not as a human being shrouded in the past tense. In that moment, the blue D-Wheel was the living proof for him that Aki was still alive. Without a second thought, Yusei pushed over the black-yellow D-Wheel beside him, sending the other rider reeling into the fence of a garden. Yusei paid him no attention. He was completely focused on the other prey. His answer, the answer that may finally lead him back to Aki, was right in front of him.
"What do you know about Aki?" He shouted after the rider. The two of them had rode into a small plaza paved in cobblestones. Without a warning, the man in front of Yusei pulled his vehicle sideways and skidded to a stop. Caught at unawares, Yusei slammed hard on the brakes, the faint white smoke that rose from his wheels wafted toward the stars. In the desolate plaza, illuminated by the pallid light of the few lamps scattered about, the white mist rose as twirling shadows before Yusei's face and parted at his breath to reveal the other man in front of him.
Metres before Yusei, the other young man was sniggering quietly. His golden eyes, narrowed in spite, mirrored the mockery in the upturned ends of his thin mouth. His silvery hair was draped over the vertical Marker on the left side of his face and his body, clad in a crimson shirt and a leather jacket, was shaking softly with barely suppressed laughter. "So, my little prince," he leered, "you've finally decided to chase down your damsel in distress?"
Yusei's gloved hands gripped the steering handles with a vengeance. "What do you presume to know about me… about Aki?"
"I know enough," the other man spat on the ground. "I know how you deserted her, I know how you abandoned her, and I know how," his voice lowered to a rasping hiss, "you left her to die."
"I did not! I di –" Yusei's words caught in his throat. "I –"
"You know very well that you did," the other man growled back. "You had no idea how much you hurt her. While you've been in the City, enjoying your kingly throne, Aki has been – she had been –" He paused, breathing heavily, as if suddenly touched by the memory of a nightmare that he never wished to live through again.
Yusei was overwhelmed by this surge of emotions from this stranger, but he didn't get a chance to interrupt.
"I would love to take you down right here," the other rider recovered his voice, and spat back with malice. "I would give up many things for the chance to avenge Aki on you with my own hands. But don't worry. She'll soon come to you herself, Fudo Yusei. She would come for her due. From the City, and especially from you."
"What the hell are you talking about?" Yusei raised his voice. This conversation sounded more and more like a threat for him. "Where is she? What happened to her? And who are you?"
The only reply he received was a pall of laughter and a cloud of smoke as the other started the engine. Yusei made to give chase.
"Don't follow me, King." The man's loud voice drifted back in the wind. "I've had two mis-hits already. Don't tempt me with a real target tonight, Fudo Yusei."
Yusei swallowed and forced himself to stop. He placed one foot on the ground to prevent himself from tearing after the unknown rider in heedless anger. Reasoning that he needs to turn back to the twins, he slowly turned and started to drive back, retracing his steps. On the way back, as a distraction, he checked the spot where he smashed the yellow-black D-Wheel into the fence, but there was already no trace of the bike or its rider. However, as he was driving by, something on the ground caught his eye.
Dismounting, he bent down to have a closer look. It was a Synchro Monster card. It must have dropped when its owner crashed into the fence, and was thus left behind.
Yusei twirled the card in his hand for a brief moment, then put it in his pocket as he stood up and walked back to his bike.
A duelist's habit, he supposes.
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Jack cursed himself for his stupendous lack of foresight tonight. He may have been granted a chance to escape with Carly's key, but he should have at least figured out that he may have difficulties with entering her garage.
Half an hour had already passed after he slipped out of Carly's apartment. All the worse for him, her garage was further down the road. After dodging patrolling Security officers, evading outlaws roaming the streets, and keeping to the shadows, a good thirty minutes had passed since he left Carly's place.
And now, he had been standing in this late summer night for even longer due to the fact that he had been picking at the garage lock with a wire. Jack swore under his breath as he wriggled the wire again, anticipating the small click that would signify his victory in accessing his D-Wheel once more.
He gave another final, hard tug to the wire as he felt the inner riggings of the lock offering predicted resistance. Sweat was already seeping out of his forehead. The rare passers-by were giving him suspicious looks. His white riding suit, donned before he left Carly's place, didn't exactly help him to blend in either. Therefore, he heaved a huge sigh of relief when the lock gave in at last and yield to his incessant prodding. Reaching down, he pulled the garage door up in one move and started to step into it for his machine.
"Yo. Business going well tonight?"
He froze at the sudden, ridiculing voice behind him. With one hand still on the steel door, Jack carefully turned around.
Five burly men were standing in the pavement before him, something that he had apparently missed in his preoccupation with the lock. Jack frowned inwardly. This has to be a gang of riffraffs if he ever saw one. Apart from all being much more heavily built than Jack, two of the gang were also waving baseball bats casually around as if they were swatting flies.
"What do you what?" Jack muttered in a low, dangerous voice, which he hoped would send those men away.
Their leader, a muscular man whose face was already Marked, sauntered forward from behind the two baseball bullyboys. "Nothing much man. We just saw that you're going fine with that lock and popped in to have a look at what you've got. Mind if we step in?"
At that, he started to walk toward Jack, the baseball bats following right behind. Jack stood his ground.
The gang leader stopped when he was only about two metres away from Jack. "Say, man," he squinted at Jack with small, curious eyes, "you're new in this part of the town, are you? You don't look like you know the rules around here."
Jack figured out he had met a team of local gangsters, who were bent on having a share of whatever spoils others may get while on their turf. Their type could be found anywhere on Satellite. Heck, Jack himself was one such man. The present gang had a distinct advantage over Jack with their numbers and their weapons, The Satellite resident figured he had only one chance to get out of this.
Keeping a close eye on the men advancing towards him, Jack readied himself. Then, without a sign, he bolted inside for his D-Wheel.
Shouts instantly rose behind him. He ignored the footsteps getting closer and closer and ran faster into the large communal garage, his purple eyes darting left and right in search of the giant white wheel. He caught sight of it almost immediately. Looming up behind a few private cars, his tall D-Wheel waited patiently next to an empty parking lot for his return. Jack's steps quickened as did his heartbeat. Reaching out his left hand to heave himself up the D-Wheel and start it as soon as he reaches it, he leapt toward his bike –
– And was sent plummeting to the concrete floor by a heavy blow to the back of his head.
Jack groaned and tried to raise himself up. What greeted him was another blow.
"Looks like I really should teach you some manners tonight, kid." Jack felt someone landing a rough kick to his side. "It's impolite not to share."
Jack turned painfully around just on time to fend off a flurry of blows coming from right above him.
He had barely enough time to let out a startled cry before he instinctively raised his arms and curled up to protect himself. The tall young man desperately covered his vitals with his limbs. The only things he was aware of were the unyielding coldness of the concrete on his back, the piercing agony of the blows that landed on his skin, and the throbbing numbness that threatened to take over his body. Vaguely, amid all of that, he heard that a car had driven into the garage and there were other footsteps, and yelling.
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Shocked, Carly jumped off the car as soon as she realised what was going on, not even bothered to stop the engine. Grasping the short time during which the gang members were momentarily dazed by her entrance, she ran toward one man with a baseball bat and tried her hardest to pull him away from Jack.
"What are you doing? Get away from him!"
The man threw her off with a shrug as if she was light as a feather. She landed flat on the ground, the breath knocked out of her lungs, her glasses nowhere to be found. After searching hurriedly all around her for her glasses and putting them back on, she saw the man was glaring at her. He turned his attention back to Jack after throwing a few curses at her direction.
"Wait! You –" A searing ache penetrated Carly's ribs just as she shouted. She gasped and fell back down. There was no way she could save Jack this way. She could still see him by the light of her car, curled into a ball in the middle of that gang. Then, to her surprise, she saw two small figures step out of the car and into the pool of light.
"Rua! Ruka! Don't go that way!"
Ruka heard Carly's cry, and Rua saw the gang's curious, hungry stare that slowly fell on them. But neither turned back. Ruka grasped her brother's hand tight, and Rua stood closer to his sister.
It was the twins who insisted to be driven back to Carly's place after Yusei called them saying that Patty's attackers had fled, but he had picked up a card that they dropped. Ruka, being able to talk to card spirits, was naturally eager to see this card. That was the reason they had driven back after they sent Patty to the hospital and contacted the girl's parents. If it wasn't for that, or the fact that Carly was just a little worried about Jack, they wouldn't have returned so quickly.
And now it seemed Carly's worry had become true. Ruka shivered as the gang fixed their gazes on her and her brother. She knew that neither Carly or Jack couldn't help them, alone and beaten in this dark night. If anyone was to help them, it may just be Ruka herself.
She took a deep breath. Letting go of Rua's hand, her right hand edged toward her Duel Disk that was strapped to her arm.
One of the men was already strolling towards the twins. "Look what we have here, guys." He grinned, licking his lips as he looked Ruka and her brother from head to toe.
Rua gritted his teeth upon seeing that expression. He took one small, determined step protectively in front of his sister.
"Oh? Trying to be a little hero here, are we?" The man kept advancing. Rua must be afraid, but he wasn't showing it. He nudged his sister backward, but at the same time Ruka had already drawn a card, the only card from her Synchro deck.
"Rua," she whispered to her brother, "duck down."
Rua turned his head in surprise. "What –"
"The holy light of protection! Now, associate with life. Synchro Summon! Illuminate, Ancient Fairy Dragon!"
With a screech, the pride and joy of Ruka's deck emerged sparkling from her Duel Disk. The serpentine, cerulean form of a sinewy dragon materialised in the dark garage, cloaked in a golden light. Illuminated by the headlights of Carly's car, the dragon screeched and bared its white teeth at the gang, which was now numb with incomprehension. As if to demonstrate the authenticity of its existence, the dragon reached out an arm and bodily swept away the man who had been approaching Ruka. The man flew off with a terrified scream, which abruptly changed into a whimper when his torso hit the far wall with a solid bang.
The gang leader was by then already shaking with fear.
"She's a Psychic Duelist!" He yelled at the top of his lungs. "A Psychic Duelist! Run, run for your lives!"
All of the ruffians bolted out in seconds, not even daring to cast a single glance behind them. Ruka let out the breath that she had been holding. Her left arm, which was raised at her chest level to steady the Duel Disk, was now lowered as sudden tiredness assailed her after the exertion of physically calling out a spirit.
Ruka, Rua, are you alright?
Ruka smiled at the owner of that motherly, concerned voice coming from above her and nodded at the dragon in reassurance. "Thank you, Ancient Fairy Dragon," she replied. "Thanks for saving us."
If it had a human face, the dragon must be smiling right now. "Don't worry, Ruka."
"Ruka, you – you are a… Psychic Duelist?"
A quivering, terrified voice rose weakly in the now empty garage. Ruka and Rua turned towards the sound. Carly had managed to get up and move over to where Jack was. Holding Jack up, the reporter stared at Ruka with eyes filled with fear and confusion, mixed with something close to mistrust. Jack, rather uncertain about what was going on, blinked at Carly's words and fixed his eyes wearily on the twins.
"Carly, it's… it's alright. Ancient Fairy Dragon is a really nice spirit." Rua, stammering, tried to explain. "You see, Ruka… she can talk with Duel Monster spirits… she's not really a Psychic Duelist. She just calls out monster spirits sometimes and they… er… they help us. It's not what you think…"
It was then that Yusei arrived on the scene. Stopping outside the garage, the blue eyed young man took in the scene before him with a rather puzzled expression. "What happened here?" He asked, bewildered, seeing the twins standing before a materialised monster and Carly, sitting on the ground with Jack in her arms, staring at Ruka as if she had seen the devil.
Wordlessly, Ruka took the monster card off her Duel Disk. Ancient Fairy Dragon shimmered and disappeared after a brief nod to the little girl. The fear deepened on Carly's face as she watched Ruka putting her card back into her Synchro Deck.
Seeing that his sister kept quiet, Rua sighed, and made up his mind.
"Yusei," he began, paused, then went on, "I think we need to explain about Ruka."
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The five of them had moved back to Carly's apartment at once. The twins carried their Duel Boards while Carly walked gingerly beside them. After throwing the thug Ancient Fairy Dragon had dispatched out onto the street, Yusei cruised slowly along on his D-Wheel. As for Jack, he insisted in walking by himself, although anyone could tell that he was pushing it.
Rua and Ruka had diligently explained to Carly and Jack the girl's ability of communicating and summoning spirits after they had reached their destination and Carly had gotten Jack to lie down and rest. Still unsettled with her experience tonight, Carly accepted the twins' explanation wearily. Yusei could tell that because of Aki, the words 'Psychic Duelist' had instilled a certain fear in the black-haired journalist that was hard to erase. And, like a passing cloud that had decided to linger, the words of the mysterious D-Wheeler also returned to Yusei, words full of Aki's suffering, Aki's hatred, Aki's vengeance.
But who had wronged her to begin with? It was she herself who killed and was thus punished. If she had any grudges for this, then it would only be a conceited, selfish vengeance. Yusei sighed. Had she changed into a completely new person in the brief time between her trial and the present, or did he really misunderstand her for all those years?
"Yusei," Ruka was looking up at him, "can you show us the card that you picked up?"
"Oh? Yeah. Sure." Yusei dug into his pocket and took out the card he obtained. "There."
Ruka cautiously took the card from Yusei. Carly craned her neck to have a look too. She read out the name of the card by the light of the lamp beside Jack's bed.
"Black Feather – Lone Silver Wind… Do you know this card, Yusei?" Carly asked after musing over it herself. She considered herself to be quite knowledgeable when it comes to Duel Monster cards, but she couldn't recall ever hearing that name.
Yusei shook his head too. "No, I don't." His blue eyes focused keenly on the person currently holding the card. "Ruka, what do you think?"
The young girl ran a small, tender finger across the surface of the card. "I… I don't know," she replied in a halting voice. "Would it be alright if I take this home with me?"
Yusei gave her a reassuring smile. "Of course, Ruka." While watching the twins studying the card, his eyes strayed to the clock on the wall. A worried look passed briefly across his face. "Ruka, Rua, it's getting late. You've both got school tomorrow. It's probably time for you to head home."
Carly stood up quickly. "I can drive –"
Yusei stopped her. "No, Carly. You've been through enough for tonight. I'll see them home."
Rua pouted at this decision, but Ruka nudged him with her elbow. "It's okay. We'll go back with Yusei on our Duel Boards." She echoed Yusei's words confidently.
At last, Carly assented hesitantly. With words of care, she saw Yusei and the twins out and stood at the window watching, until their figures have completely melted into the black night. Then, turning back to the room, she addressed the only other person left in the room.
"Jack, what do you think about that card?"
No reply.
Concerned, Carly crept closer to his bed. Jack was lying face up, his breathing even and slow, his slanted eyes closed in blissful sleep. His golden hair, spiky even when he was lying down, crowned his head like a rebellious halo. His pale face was peaceful, void of the sarcastic, mocking expressions that he displayed so often during the day. His chest rose and fell at a steady rhythm, reassuring Carly that the sleeper was alive and well.
Carly sighed with relief. Turning off the lights, she quietly left the room. The sound of her pattering footsteps could be heard as she made her way down the corridor and shut the door of her own room.
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Moments after all sounds have ceased in the house, Jack's eyes fluttered back open. The steely glint in those purple irises had not even retained a trace of drowsiness from his feigned sleep.
The Satellite resident slowly sat up in the pitch-dark room, careful not to disturb his wounds, old and new. Frowning a little, he turned towards the window, violet eyes narrowed in thought.
Black Feather – Lone Silver Wind. Yusei may not have heard of that card, but Jack had.
Barely two days ago, although now it felt so far away it might well have been another lifetime, the owner of that card had barged into Jack's audience room. In that crumbling theatre, open to the elements, he had delivered a mysterious warning to Jack. In hindsight, the blond man should have taken that warning more seriously. But what should he have trusted more? His own logic and instincts, or the strange words spoken by an old acquaintance who had not seen him face-to-face for almost three years?
Jack's hand moved to where he knew his birthmark was. His fingers tightened around his arm. Something lay buried within those dark-red lines; something that have, at least for now, tied Jack with Yusei, a person whom he thought would have the least to do with him in his life. All this have started just two nights ago, with his childhood friend's abrupt intrusion into his turf, back at the barren promontory into the murky sea that is Satellite.
"Crow, what are you up to?"
Jack's quiet whisper could barely be heard even by himself. Glimpsed at between apartment blocks, the minute stars above Neo Domino City continued blinking mutely at Jack from the infinite blackness of the unlit sky. It seemed that his question would receive no answers. At least, not for tonight.