Ride 5: Angel of Roses
"You want me to do what?" Gally asked, staring down at Nova with disbelief.
They were on the way to the City, Nova's nanobots fashioning a broken down and obsolete D-Wheel into a makeshift motorcycle, with Gally driving the white craft as Nova sat in the sidecar, eating his flan.
"Find the thing driving that man's Karma." Nova repeated. "What did you say it was? That "Stardust Dragon" you mentioned the other man stole? I want to analyze it."
"What does one playing card have to do with anything?" Gally asked, squinting as she maneuvered through a tight opening in the crowded street. It was mid-day and they'd been driving since morning.
"Really now, I'd imagine you'd want to know. There's more to these things here in this world than just effects and card statistics." Nova said. "Here they are the catalysts of change and the way of combat – much like your own Panzer Kunst is for you in our world."
"But what makes this Stardust Dragon so special?" Gally asked, raising an eye at the card art that Nova projected on the visor of her purple helmet.
"For one, it's one of a kind. And for two, it was stolen by the current champion of the City, so it's obviously tied to the karma-" he was cut off as Gally swerved the D-Wheel in the already tight line, causing Nova to yelp as some of his flan spilled from the craft. "-Hey!" he yelled.
"If you say "Karma" one more time I swear I'm going to disconnect this side-car. Then you'll see just what your own resulted in." Gally stated bluntly.
"Hmph. And you wanted to know why it was so special. Anyway, it also belonged to that Yusei, so that means his own personal – bonds – are attached to it, as are those of this 'Jack Atlus' person." Nova pouted and looked to the cracked streets.
"In any rate, we'll have to get to the City by way of alternate transport. There's a garbage chute that could get us their but the chances of getting through that are slim. I vote we use fake identification to get through." Nova said, pressing a button and displaying two fake ID's on the inside of her visor.
"Hey! Driving! Warn me about that next time!" Gally said, steeling herself as she saw past the projections to focus on what she was doing. At the moment they were going towards a Security station, to see how hard it would be to travel to the City.
It took some doing, but with the right connections and a black tank top, pants, and a beige trench coat, Gally managed to pass as a regular person. Nova's eccentric behavior was more difficult to hide, but the absence of Markers on their faces meant that they could still make a ferry to the City. Gally looked to her fake I.D. , the name 'Alita 'Gally' Yoko' next to her own face, staring at herself with large eyes. Gally took the time to hide the silver streaks that the Imaginos body produced from her neck to her cheeks – they could be mistaken as Markers.
And Nova simply remained himself, with a false record of working for an MIDS before some natural disaster cut the project's funding and further research.
They'd arrived and the getting off point was busy in mid-day, all kinds of people flocking to them to ask if they needed a new duel disk, a D-Wheel, a guide, or any other services.
Gally sighed and flashed her ID as a broad-chinned Security guard looked at the ID and then her face, scanning it with a beep and letting her pass.
Gally and Nova walked ahead once Nova had gotten his luggage cleared (Gally made sure he didn't bring any brains with him) and they heard sounds of a duel up ahead.
"Skull Flame, attack!" A man in black leather and sunglasses with an orange goatee and fire-red hair declared, directing the monster to attack his opponent.
Skull Flame in question was a tall shaman, with flowing robes and flames trailing off of his form. With a blazing uppercut, Skull Flame burned through his opponent's monster – a blue-armored warrior carrying a trident. The damage was conducting and the man in black laughed as he'd won the match.
"That's right! Nobody can beat Enjou Mukuro! I'll be facing Jack Atlus in two days, and then I'll be the King!" Mukuro said with a long laugh.
The man's opponent slinked away and the people in the area were all lined up for the winner's autograph.
"Something's wrong here." Gally said, pausing as the very air felt sick to her.
"Ah, detecting something with the Imaginos body, now are we?" Nova asked.
Gally shook her head. "No. This just feels wrong. Like something's going to happen here." She said, looking around the cracked streets in the mid-day sun. The lazy day was about to become frantic. She could practically sense the malicious intent that was coming their way.
Suddenly gusts tore through the area as dark red rose petals started to blow through the air. The petals carved whole chunks out of the streets and Gally heard people screaming as they ran away.
"The witch is here!"
"The Black Rose Witch! Let's get out of here!"
Enjou Mukuro was the first to leave, jumping on a motorcycle of his own and flooring it, leaving his adoring public in the dust. Meanwhile Gally heard screams as two duelists who dared challenge this witch were blown backwards by invisible winds, falling on their backs, their life-points hitting zero instantly. The impacts – the damage they'd taken – they looked real to Gally.
The cyborg narrowed her eyes as the source of the petals was a woman clad in a dark robe with a sinister hood, wearing a white mask that covered her whole face – only showing red locks of hair that revealed themselves over the top of the mask.
This witch walked forward at a brisk pace while everyone in the area took cover.
"If you wanted a time to test what that new body of yours can do, now would be it." Gally heard Nova's voice say in a speaker she'd switched on in her head.
"Nova, get back." Gally started to say, but then realized that the man was already gone.
"Learn your place!" The witch said in a cold voice, pulling out a white card from a magenta and red duel disk of her own.
From a huge pillar of purple, a tall dragon appeared, black and thorny with two large wings of red rose petals, protruding from a central group of red petal-like scales around the dragon's chest. It was wyvern-like in appearance, with a long body, stumpy arms and legs barely visible from the petals that guarded the dragon's body. It had a red mane of sorts, made from rose petals, and savage yellow eyes inset into pink looked around the area for its first victim (7/2400/1800).
The dragon let out a roar and Gally sized it up. Comparing it to her enemies, it was bigger than Makaku and Zapan, but smaller than Den. With her Imaginos body, she should be fine even if it dwarfed her by size alone.
The dragon announced itself with a thorny black whip protruding from under its wing, speeding towards Gally. The cyborg was quick to act, somersaulting to the side and leaping away as the whip stuck where she previously was, puncturing through the hard ground.
"What are you doing out here?" Gally yelled to the witch.
"Fast, aren't you?! Black Rose Dragon, again!" The person yelled, extending out a black glove from the folds of her robes to point at Gally with.
The dragon roared and re-doubled its efforts, sending multiple vines this time. From the impact the first one caused, Gally could guess that it was no hologram. She didn't have time to question why, only that this was an enemy in front of her that demanded her attention.
Three vines, all targeting where she was, and her immediate left and right. So it could plan ahead with its attacks. Gally hid a smile on her face and leapt back as far as she could, flipping up to perch on top of a nearby food stand.
Then she heard three thuds as the tendrils bored into the ground, sending up clouds of dust.
"You're not a duelist." The masked witch remarked, gesturing for the dragon to attack again. Gally decided to go on the offensive this time, leaping down to dash as fast as she could. Gally was faster than she gave the Imaginos body credit, turning her sprint towards the dragon into a front flip that ended with a double kick to the dragon's neck. She felt a big impact and a yell of pain from the witch as her blow connected, the dragon recoiling and staggering backwards.
Gally followed up propelling herself away from the dragon with a lighter, second kick to push off of her target, doing a three-point landing in the pavement to look at her handiwork with a grin.
The dragon was writhing, eyes wide now as the focused solely on her. And further back, the witch was shaking.
"You – hurt Black Rose Dragon!" She exclaimed like it was an uncommon occurrence.
"Yeah, and if you keep up this tantrum I might hurt you too!" Gally said, pointing at the woman as she threw off the tattered trench coat, letting the witch see what she really was as she clenched the coat in a hand.
"What are you?!" The witch yelled.
"I'm a cyborg, but if you're the Black Rose Witch, then call me the Killing Angel! Now it's your turn to show your true self to me! Take off that mask and stop hiding at the world!" Gally yelled, pointing at her with a metal finger.
"Don't lecture me with your words! Black Rose Flare!" The woman cried out, raising up an arm, returning the point to Gally.
With that, the dragon of hers' opened up its mouth, firing out a stream of purple and black energy from it. Gally saw the attack and moved as fast as she could, feeling the beam's impact as it shook the entire area. The blast wasn't done yet, and Gally feverishly ran into another leap as the beam tore through the food stand she'd been perching on just a moment ago, reducing it to burning and broken floorboards amidst a dusty crater.
The dragon was like a turret in a ways, tall and with legs planted to the ground while the long neck gave it lots of room to fire off the attack with and few blind spots to exploit.
It would make attacking it up close a difficult task.
Gally found herself grinning at the challenge as the dragon readied itself for another attack.
Her fingers ignited in a plasma jet as the steeled herself for another go around with the creature.
This time the ground erupted and the dragon's tendrils burst from the ground, forcing Gally to move. She leapt over the initial tentacles, slicing a pair in half with her plasma attack, but soon found the dragon's mouth was moving towards her, trying to bite her in half.
Gally's arm found the dragon's snout and pulled up, using the momentum from the dragon's attack to flip over its head and onto its mane of roses down its neck. Gally ran down the monster's back and leapt again, over the monster's tail and lunging at the witch with her hand that was holding her coat and wasn't currently burning with plasma.
The witch yelped and was sent flying from Gally's punch, falling to the ground. Her robe's hood fell, revealing more magenta hair but the white mask stayed on. Gally knew the dragon would attack as fast as possible, and she ran towards the witch to prevent the dragon from using whatever the blast from its mouth was.
The witch recovered, getting on her feet quickly and Gally acted, trying to disable the duel disk on the woman's arm with her plasma fingers. Just a little closer and she'd be able to sever the part holding the dragon card and the main body of the disk.
Then there was a flash and she felt herself ram straight into a crimson barrier. Gally was knocked back from the sudden impact and registered that the woman's arm was glowing crimson, projecting a bubble around the witch, preventing Gally's potentially fatal attack from hitting her.
"What's that!? And what just happened?" Gally thought as the bubble shimmered with a distinct ringing sound.
"Wretched Mark!-" The woman said, sounding surprised as she looked down at it briefly before she looked back at Gally. "Kill her, Black Rose Dragon!" The woman yelled and the dragon roared again, tendrils at the ready.
"Gally! You don't like it, but retreat!" Nova's voice yelled in her ear. The cyborg grimaced but had to agree. At the moment she had no way of assessing the witch's abilities and wasn't about to commit murder just to satisfy her own craving for battle. Not on this world at least.
Gally punched the ground, sending up a cloud of dust from the shockwave from her Panzer Kunst technique – the Hertza Heion.
"Nova! Where are you?" Gally yelled as she ran from the battle, the rampaging dragon and the witch who commanded it lost in the dust.
"Easy! Further in the City! Just get out of there in one piece and then meet me by this bizarre statue!" Nova yelled. For him to call something bizarre it must be strange.
Gally ran as fast as she could, letting the witch resume her swath of destruction. She had to remind herself that getting too involved in the happenings of this world could have consequences.
/
Gally found Nova by a large golden carving of a boy with large spiky hair. It was even stranger than Yusei's horn like segments. This was like a star shaped base with lightning bolt bangs. The boy was smiling with confidence, his eyes narrowed in a permanent gaze.
Gally caught her breath and looked around, grateful no one noticed her cyborg body yet as she shrugged her coat back on under the shadow of the statue.
"That monster I just fought was called Black Rose Dragon. If that witch was able to make it's attacks that strong, do you think-" Gally began.
"Yes. This confirms without a shadow of doubt that these dragons are important to the flow of power dynamics in this world." Nova said, avoiding using the word 'karma' for the time being.
"So what's your plan?" Gally asked and Nova grinned. "Easy. There's a tournament coming up and I'd love to go behind the scenes to see what I can learn about Momentum. Meanwhile you can be our lovely Killing Angel again! Just think of it this way: Riding Duels should give you quite the nostalgia for Motorball!" Nova exclaimed and Gally sighed.
"I really don't want to duel. I'd much rather fight something. Why don't we both go behind the scenes during this tournament?" Gally asked, not trusting leaving the man on his own if she could help it.
"Hmph! Well I suppose we'll have to compromise at some point!" Nova grumbled.
Gally tapped her foot. "Just make a plan with achievable goals. Then we'll achieve them. I really don't care about the details as long as we can go home without trying to detonate anyone this time."
Nova got the hint and adjusted his goggles. "Right. For now let's just focus on this 'Stardust Dragon' and how we can acquire it. And we'll look at Momentum energy and how it can be applied outside of making this disks and D-wheels function. That will be the basis for our return."
Gally could agree to that. "Good, now let's get something to eat." She said, dragging Nova behind her towards a coffee shop as he struggled with his luggage. "Who knows? Maybe they'll have flan!" Gally exclaimed in mock excitement.