welcome to chapter 2!
DISCLAIMER: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh 5Ds, only this story (which isn't for profit) and it's characters.
"So you live in an abandoned hotel?" Carly asked incredously. Kat nodded.
"Crazy, huh?" she smiled. "We all live there; me, my brother, and our friends."
Kat was showing the girls of Team 5Ds to the old hotel she called home, the Robin. It was located on the outskirts of Sherwood and had been closed down for ten years.
Now, Kat and her gang lived there. She had also been telling them about things in her world; like how there was still Duel Monsters, but how it was called Yu-Gi-Oh instead and how it wasn't as important as it was back in their world.
"Just you and your friends?" Akiza asked. "What about your parents?"
"Oh, we don't have any." Kat replied nonchalantly. "We're all orphans. Well, except for Jem, but his mom and dad spend a lot of time in Egypt for excavations."
"Oh, I'm so sorry." Akiza looked down. Kat just smiled and patted her shoulder.
"It's no problem, Akiza. I don't really remember my mom anyway. And we all look out for each other, so we're more of a family than our actual ones. Yeah, we're one big, insane family!" Kat smiled and flapped her cape around, getting a giggle from Luna.
"Kat, why do you have that anyway?" The young girl pointed to the swishing fabric. Kat smiled mischievously and pulled one end across her face.
"Because, my dear," she replied with a cheesy vampire-accent. "Halloween is in a few weeks. This is part of my costume that I got fixed from the costume shop by where I work sometimes." Kat erupted in a fit of laughter at the though of her perfect costume. Carly jumped up excitedly.
"Halloween, really? That's awesome!" she exclaimed. Carly loved Halloween. It was one of her ultimate favorite holidays. "What's the costume gonna be?"
"Uh-uh-uh! That's my secret!" Kat winked. "Oh, look! There it is!"
She pointed down the street where an enormous building stood, surrounded by trees. The building was about the width of four houses and had three floors. The walls were painted a light shade of green, with brown shutters, and almost blended in with the leaves of the pine trees around it. A long cement driveway led up to the entrance, which was a large wooden door painted brick red flanked by two massive rosebushes. Other plants, such as daffodils and lilies, seemed to grow despite the fact that it was autumn. It was also decorated for Halloween, complete with jack-o-lanterns and fake cobwebs.
"So pretty!" Luna exclaimed as she looked at the deep red roses. Kat nodded.
"Yeah. One of the people who lives here, Cassandra, can grow just about anything no matter what time of the year it is. It's kind of the running joke around here that she's part plant or something. Anyway, welcome to the Robin Hotel!"
Kat flung open the door with a theatrical flourish, revealing a quaint foyer. A small clerk's desk sat against the cream-colored wall, next to a comfortable-looking navy couch.
"Hel-lo!" Kat called. "Anybody home?!"
As if on cue, a young girl walked into the room. She looked about the same age as Luna, with long blond hair that curled at the ends. A chunk of her bangs were dyed red and hung over her eyes. She had her hands shoved in the pockets of a baggy, blue sweatshirt and shuffled bare feet along the floor. Dark blue eyes stared calmly at the others.
"Huh. I guess my feeling was right after all. Something strange did happen." She said in a calm voice. Kat stood beside the girl and ruffled her hair.
"Guys, this is..." she started.
"Hi." The girl interrupted. "I'm Erzabeta Romani, but everyone calls me Erza. Hey, Kat? Why are there cosplayers in the house?" Erza looked calmly up at Kat, her face looking less curious than she actually was. Kat scratched the back of her neck.
"I've got some explaining to do." She said. "Anyone else home? It might be easier to do this all of this at once."
Erza shrugged and pointed down the hall. "Just me and Vlad. But he's in a bit of a jam."
"Kat? A va ajuta!" A young voice shouted. A few threw confused looks at the last phrase, unable to tell what it meant.
As Kat sprinted towards the direction of the voice, Erza bowed politely to her company. "Hello there, nice to meet you…You aren't cosplayers, are you?"
Akiza shook her head. "No, sorry. Do you know about us too?"
Erza nodded. "Yep. Akiza Izinski, psychic duelist, uses plant-based deck. Carly Carmine, reporter, uses Fortune Fairy cards. And then there's you Luna. You use fairy-type monsters and you're a student at Duel Academy along with Akiza." She looked back behind her. "Well, it is probably better if we go after Kat. Come on, I'll show you the way."
Erza led the girls down the hall to a large meeting room of sorts. There were lots of books arranged neatly in bookcases and lots of couches and chairs arranged all over the place. When the girls walked in, they found Kat staring unbelievingly at the ceiling.
"What are you looking…Oh." Luna looked up in shock to find a boy hanging from the ceiling.
He looked a lot like Erza, with short blond hair that had a few curls sticking up here and there. Part of his hair was even dyed too, only it was a streak of blue. He seemed to be hanging from his belt on the ceiling fan and was flailing around like crazy. When he caught sight of people watching him, his face turned a deep shade of red.
"A little help here!?" the boy shouted. Next to her, Erza sighed.
"I came in and found him like that, Kat." she shrugged. "Luckily, you came in as I was heading to the phone."
"Erza, how can you be so calm?!" the boy shouted. "I've been hanging here for 30 minutes! Get me down!"
"How did you get up there?! What on earth we you trying to do, Vlad?" Kat exclaimed. The boy shrugged and pointed to the bookshelf.
"One of my cards got stuck on top. I tried to get it back by climbing up on the other bookshelf and…This happened…" Vlad hung his head in shame.
"You mean this one?"
Everyone turned to look up at Erza, who sat on the top of the bookshelf with a card in her hand. Vlad nodded emphatically and Erza hopped down. Kat sighed.
"Okay, that's one problem solved. Um, Carly. There should be a ladder in the closet next to you; can you grab it for me?"
Within a few minutes, the girls had gotten Vlad down from the ceiling. He slumped on the couch and sighed heavily, thankful to be back on the ground. Then he jolted back up, eyes wide with curiosity as he stared at the strangers.
"Uh, Kat? Erza? What's going on?"
Kat pointed to the duelists. "See those girls, Vlad? They're the real deal. Say hello to Akiza, Luna, and Carly."
Vlad glanced at Kat with a bewildered expression. His head tilted to the side as he transferred his stare to the others. An eyebrow raised itself and he leaned forward, observing them carefully. Then he smiled and laughed.
"Haha! Very funny, Kat!" he leapt off the couch and marched over. "Very funny! Cool costumes you guys, where'd ya get them? And the duel disks too, they look so life-like!"
Luna cocked her head to the side, watching the boy with interest. He seemed interesting, maybe a little impulsive (judging by the way that he was sticking his face close to her duel disk), but interesting. She understood why he didn't believe them, so she tried to explain things. She even pulled out her deck and showed how they looked different from his card. But he didn't seem to believe her.
"Um, look. I hate to be rude, but those could easily have been custom-made. But I give you props for being so into your costume."
"No, we really are real!" she insisted. "I don't know how we got here, but we need some help! See, our friends our missing and…" Luna turned when she felt a hand on her shoulder. Erza shook her head and gave her an apologetic smile, snatching her brother's card from his hand.
"Sorry about my frate." She apologized. "But he might need some more convincing on this. Miss Akiza? Could you help out here?"
The blond girl motioned for Akiza to come close and she whispered something in her ear. The psychic duelist listened carefully and nodded, smiling slightly. Her eyes glinted with mischief as Luna quirked an eyebrow curiously. She took the card Erza placed in her hand and smiled at Vlad.
"You know, I don't know any other way to convince you" the redhead drawled. "Maybe a friend can help you change your mind."
Akiza activated her duel disk and slapped down a card. The air around her seemed to buzz and whip around as a small ball of light appeared in front of her. The light then shattered, revealing a small furry creature with big eyes blinking at them. It bounced around and emitted little bell-like noises. Kat gasped while Erza and the 5Ds girls smiled gleefully. Vlad? Well, his jaw dropped to the floor.
"Kuriboh?" he choked out, eyes bugging out. The Duel Monster floated forward and made excited noises at him. Vlad reached out a shaky hand and touch the monster, even more surprised that his hand didn't pass right through it. He took his hand back and stared at it in shock. Erza walked up and waved a hand at him.
"Vlad?Frate, you're not broken are you?" She said hesitantly. Her eyebrows furrowed at the uncharacteristically blank look on her twin's face. Everyone stared at him curiously, wondering what his reaction to this would be. Would it be panic? More shock? Erza wondered if she would see him faint for the first time in their lives.
"Awesome!"
Vlad's face broke in a beaming smile as he bounced up and down. With Kuriboh following him, he rushed over and shook Akiza's hand furiously.
"It's so awesome to meet you!" he exclaimed. "My name's Vladimir Romani, I'm Erza's twin brother!"
Akiza was at first taken aback by the sudden change in behavior, but smiled and laughed at the boy's excited antics. Vlad then shook Luna's hand just as emphatically, going on about how cool it was to meet her and how sorry he was to have not believed them. He would have done the same with Carly, but the boy was so caught up in his excitement and wasn't watching where he was going. Vlad tripped over his own two feet and flipped forward, somersaulting past his sister to Carly's feet.
"Are you okay?!" the reporter exclaimed. Vlad looked up dizzily and gave her a cheeky grin.
"Uh yeah! Sorry, I'm kind of a klutz when I get excited." He explained as he picked himself up. "This is so cool! You guys are like my favorite TV show ever! But, uh, hey! What are you even doing here?" He looked up wide-eyed.
"That's what we're trying to figure out." Kat sighed. "I kind of ran into them over at Sherwood Park. What did happen anyway?"
The group all exchanged glances. The girl duelists all shrugged. Luna sat down on the couch next to Erza.
"Not exactly sure." She said gloomily. "I don't really remember what happened."
Akiza nodded. "Yeah. I remember that we were at the boys' garage. We were discussing something, but it's all fuzzy…"
"I remember something about all of your Signer marks glowing." Carly added. "Then there was a bright light, and some sort of loud noise…I can't remember what happened after that. Luna found me and she looked like a train hit her. And Akiza too! And m-!" She stopped abruptly and remembered her clothing situation, blushing furiously and fogging up her glasses. "Uh…Never mind that last part…"
Erza and Vlad exchanged curious looks. While his sister analyzed the wrecked clothing, Vlad scratched his cheek and stared up at the ceiling. He knew the kind of things these guys went through was abnormal to begin with, but this really took the cake! And it didn't help that he didn't have all the pieces.
"It's kinda like a…" he mumbled.
"Puzzle, right, Frate?" Erza finished his sentence. "Each of you remembers a little piece of what happened. If by that reasoning, logic would dictate that…."
"Maybe the others know more to this puzzle." Kat jumped in. "We just need to find them. Who else was with you?"
Carly opened her mouth to speak when a loud bell rang, echoing through the halls. The dark haired reporter jumped slightly and saw Kat turn her head with a confused frown.
"Now who could that be? Excuse me for a moment…"
As the redhead walked out of the room, Carly noticed something up with the twins. They had gone very still at the sound of the doorbell, not one peep coming out of either of them. Walking up closer, she saw that their blue eyes were slightly glazed over.
"Uh, hello? Anyone in there?" She snapped her fingers in front of their noses and the two blonds snapped to attention. Vlad rubbed his eyes sleepily and Erza turned her head to the door Kat had walked out of.
"Someone else is here." She said in a monotone voice. "A lot of someones. I think things are about to get very interesting…"
"What do you mean?" Akiza asked, staring at the girl warily. She had seen trances like that before, when she was younger, and wondered if what had just happened was what she thought it was.
"I think we'd better go after Kat." Vlad said hastily. Akiza noticed excitement fire up his eyes. "The others are back, but they're not alone. Come on!" He jumped off the couch and pulled Luna with him. Erza followed suit, waving for the two older girls to follow.
"Um, is it just me, or do those two seem…Different?" Carly asked. She looked over and saw Akiza nod solemnly. While she de-activated her duel disk, a puzzled frown crossed her face.
It's not just that, Carly, she thought. I think we might have a couple more psychics on our hands…
The two rushed out only to be met with a widely smiling Kat. She ran up and grabbed the two duelists' hands, grinning like a Cheshire Cat.
"You might wanna come see this."
Without another word to explain herself, the be-freckled redhead propelled them through the hallway and up to the front of the hotel. The door was wide open and some sort of commotion could be heard out on the porch. The duelists shot Kat glances that demanded her to tell them what was going on. She just winked and nudged them out the door, where their jaws dropped.
"Akiza!"
"Carly!"
"Jack?!"
"Yusei!"
and now we introduce the twins of the group, Vlad and Erza. not much else to say though, so go ahead and leave a review!