and here's the next chapter! this time, we see things from the guys' perspective and meet some more of the OCs
DISCLAIMER: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh in any way, shape or form (well, except for the cards that i bought). I just own the story and the OCs. Enjoy!
"Hey, Yusei. You got any idea where we are?"
"No I don't, Crow. Jack, do you recognize this place?"
"Hell no. I've never been here in my life!"
"What I want to know is where the girls are…"
Three older teen boys and one younger teen boy trudged their way down a trail set on a hill. Each surveyed their surroundings, looking for anything even remotely familiar. They had no such luck.
One of the teens, the one called Crow, ran a hand through his wild orange hair. He had storm gray eyes and his face was covered in strange, gold tattoos. His other hand was crammed into the pocket of his tan cargo pants as he kicked a stone with a combat boot covered foot. His shirt was slightly tattered, but not as much as the vest over it. He looked around in bewilderment as he and his friends tried to find out where they were.
From the looks of it, they were by some town surrounded by forests. Crow thought they might be in the outskirts, because of the lack of buildings. He could hear the sounds of engines, so they must be near some roads.
Besides the change in scenery, there was another thing off. Everyone had woken up bumped and bruised. Not to mention their clothes were a mess! Anyone looking at them now would think that they had just gotten out of a war or something.
Crow had found Yusei earlier. After waking up sprawled on a park bench, Crow had discovered his old friend passed out a little ways off on the ground. He had been pretty easy to spot with the black hair with the yellow streaks. His jacket had disappeared and there were a few holes in his pants, but Yusei had been relatively unharmed aside from a bruise on his forearm. A few moments later they found, or rather were found by, Jack and Leo.
The younger teen, with his hair half-way out of its standard pony tail, had found them first. Leo had been wandering around looking for his sister. Of course it wasn't until he found Crow and Yusei that he noticed how trashed his blue Duel Academy uniform was. His tie had been torn in half and the sleeves from his blazer were both missing. Holes in his pants revealed scuffed and slightly bloody knees. A few minutes later they found Jack Atlas.
The blond had woken up leaning against a tree with a massive headache. After stumbling around for a bit, the former Master of Faster discovered with outrage that his favorite jacket was in tatters and he was missing the choker from around his neck. His duel disk, while slightly battered, was at least still fixed on his arm.
That was another thing. Everyone' duel disks had barely taken a beating compared to their owners. Only a few scuffs and cracks, easily repairable. But that was in the back of the boys' minds at the moment.
Where were they? Where were Luna, Akiza, and Carly? What happened to their clothes? Naturally, they all wanted answers, so the only way to get them was to look for 'em.
"Let's go this way." Crow suggested, pointing in the direction where he heard the engines. Where there are engines, there are people. The others nodded and hung a left to another hill. After a few minutes, the engine sounds got louder.
"What do you suppose that is?" Leo wondered. The noise got louder and louder as they got closer. Suddenly, there was a loud bang, and Leo could see metal flying up in the air just over the hill and…Was someone yelling?
The teal-haired boy, his curiosity aroused, ran up the rest of the hill and stared in wonder at the chaos down below. When the others joined him, they too stood speechless.
"Run!" a voice shouted from down below.
A scuffle was going on as a group of teens were running and jumping out of the way as some sort of haywire monstrosity on wheels zoomed around, tearing up grass and sending mud and dirt flying everywhere. The strange contraption looked like a cross between a three-wheeled bike, lawn chair, and a lawn mower. An engine was fixed behind the lawn chair, and there was another teenager struggling to reign in the metal beast. Yusei could see the teen hammering away with screwdrivers and wrenches as he desperately tried not to get thrown off. The teen shouted very colorful curses over the roar of the engine.
The Signers watched wide-eyed as the contraption narrowly missed crashing into a boulder, veering off to the right. To their horror, the machine then began to thunder up the hill, directly at them!
"Heads up!" Crow shouted. He grabbed Leo's arm and leapt to the side as Jack and Yusei sidestepped the machine. When it whirred by, a shower of tools were thrown off and pelted the boys. The rider on the machine pounded on the engine once more and the thing bucked, throwing him off and down the hill.
Without anyone at the controls, it continued down the side of the hill away from everyone and until it smashed into another boulder. Yusei and Jack rushed down after the rider, who was laying face-first on the grass.
"Hey, are you alright?!" Yusei shouted as he knelt down by the boy. An arm twitched, letting him know that the boy was at least still alive.
With a grunt the teen (who looked about Yusei's age) turned himself over, revealing a fair-skinned, fairly muscular, boy. Rust-red hair was flung around in a shaggy mess as freckles dusted over his nose. Olive-green eyes gazed blearily out of a pair of old and batter goggles. The teen pushed himself up and ran a hand over his other wrist, checking at a few wristbands and charms that hung from it. For a brief second, the dazed and confused look on the teen's face tugged at Yusei's memory. Something about that expression was vaguely familiar.
"I…I think I'll live to see another day." The boy replied. "Thanks…Uhg, that didn't go as planned…"
"What the hell was that thing?!" Jack shouted.
"Jay!"
Jack whirled around to see the other two teens, followed by Crow and Leo, race down the hill with panicked expressions plastered on their faces. One of the strangers was a teenaged girl wearing a flowy purple tank-top and skirt that showed off her curvy figure. A dark red scarf hung around her neck as lots of jewelry, mostly odd pendants and talismans, swung around on their chains and cords. Gold hoop earrings matched a set of gold bands around her forearms and her ankles and she was barefoot. Long, wavy chestnut hair streamed down her back as she rushed down at break-neck pace. Her appearance reminded Jack of a gypsy.
Trailing behind her was another male with deeply tanned skin, like that of an Egyptian. He wore his black hair cut short with the longest strands hitting his chin. Chocolate brown eyes wide with panic stared at them all through the thin frames of a pair of glasses. What shocked Jack the most was the fact that the teen was rushing down the hill in a silver and green wheelchair. He picked up speed with his momentum and for a second, Jack thought he was going to overturn his wheelchair. Then at the last second, the teen made a quick turn and his chair skid next to them with practiced grace.
"Man, are you alright?!" the raven-haired boy exclaimed.
"You scared us half to death, Jay!" his female companion added, throwing her arms into the air. The redhead sighed and waved lazily.
"I'm fine, really. I've taken harder hits in the ring anyway…" he shrugged.
"What was that thing?" Leo asked, his eyes focused on the smoking heap of metal. The muscular teen with the red hair sighed.
"Well, you see, my friends and I were trying out a…" His voice trailed off as he got a better look at Leo. His eyes widened as he bent down and stared at the young boy. The other two looked around with wide and confused stares as well.
The girl stood up and walked slowly over to Yusei, wide eyed.
"Um…Mind telling me who you are, chico?" she asked.
"Yusei…Fudo. Do you, uh, mind telling me what you're doing?" Yusei leaned back as the girl stared at him intently. Her brow furrowed as her eyes, with irises the color of a shiny new penny, fixated on him. Her critical gaze shifted from the disheveled state of his clothes, to his hair, and then finally on his arm. Yusei lifted and eyebrow as she narrowed her gaze and, following her eyes, fixated of his Signer mark. Unconsciously, he gripped the mark in his fist and looked back at the girl with level eyes. He didn't like the way she was starring at his mark.
"Come on, Cassie, you're scaring the guy. Lay off the Look." The red haired teen joked. "So, Yusei Fudo, you and your friends here for a convention or something?"
"A convention?" Leo asked. "For what?"
"Oh. Then you guys are just cosplaying then. Cool."
"Cosplaying? Why the duce would we be doing that?" Jack glared at the teen, who quirked an eyebrow at him.
"Well, I'll give you guys' points for staying in character so well. But really, what…"
"They're the real deal, Jay." the girl interrupted suddenly, transferring her stare from Yusei to the teen. "I don't know how, but it's really them."
All of the boys let out similar gestures of confusion. The girl just walked over and sat down next to the dark-skinned boy. She pointed at Leo and then Yusei.
"Those are too real to be wigs, and I can't see any trace of anything hinting hair dye or hair gel. And look at the mark. Can't you feel the weird vibe coming from that thing? The aura?"
The redhead laughed raucously. Leaning forward, he smirked at his friend. "Come on, Cass. Is now really the time to be spouting that Gypsy hocus-pocus? Or are you just messing with us again?"
Ignoring him, the girl turned to her other friend. "Jem, I think that theory you told me about could be true. The Multiverse one." She turned to nod at her friend, whose eyes went wide.
"But that's not possible!" he exclaimed. "I mean sure, the idea of different universes is totally possible, but they shouldn't converge on each other! That's impossible! And of all things, Cassie, really? Them?"
"Whoa, whoa, wait." Crow held up his hands for a time out. "What are you talking about? What the heck is a Multiverse? And what do you mean by 'them'?"
The green-eyed teen rolled his eyes and sighed. "You've got to be kidding me. This is one really lame joke, man…"
Before Crow and the other redhead could start an argument, Jem motioned for everyone to sit down. He pulled out a cloth from his pocket and wiped dust from his glasses before sighing.
"Right then. Are you aware of the concept of multiple universes?" Everyone nodded. "Good. The idea that different universes, some parallel, some completely different from each other, being connected to each other by invisible walls is what I call the 'Multiverse Barrier Theory'. Many different realities, all separated by the barriers of Time and Space, all connected to each other like a brick wall. The bricks, obviously, are the universes. Time and Space act as the cement, holding them together but also cutting them off from one another. They shouldn't be able to interact with each other, but since some might be in close proximity with one another, certain things cross over. Got it?"
Yusei nodded. "Separate but equal, connected but inaccessible. Solid theory, but…What does this have to with anything?"
The answer came in the form of the red haired teen, Jay, pulling out a laptop from a shoulder bag on Jem's wheel chair. He opened it up and typed something into the search bar. With a curt nod, he found what he was looking for and flipped the screen around so everyone else could see.
"Bear in mind here that all of this is just because Four-eyes there reads too many comic books and watches too much Doctor Who. Seriously, anyone else here think this is nuts?"
"Thank you Jay…Part of this theory is that some universes are aware of others by unorthodox means, like in the forms of stories." Jem continued. "If what Cassie here is implying is correct, not only is my theory correct, but you guys have just crossed over into another reality. Multi-dimensional travel. If you don't believe me, and I don't blame you if you don't, take a look at the picture. Look familiar?"
Leo leaned over and peered at the screen. His jaw dropped and his eyes popped.
"That's…US!"
And it was true. There on the screen was a picture of him and his friends, all lined up together. In the background were all of their Signer Dragons and the Marks were glowing over their respective persons.
"In this universe," Cassie pointed at the screen. "You guys are part of a cartoon, or I guess I should say anime, and manga series. Yours is called '5Ds' but it originally was a spin off from another one called 'Yu-Gi-Oh'. We all watch it, so we know who and what you guys are."
"That's crazy!" Jack fumed. "I am NOT part of an anime! I am…"
"I'm with 'Jack Atlas' here." Jay shook his head. "This kind of thing only happens in fanfiction. What did you guys run into; more Dark Signers? Or maybe it was Yliaster."
The blonde stared at Jay with wide eyes and a slightly gaping mouth, causing the redhead to smirk. Jay was about to snap off another clever taunt when a key-ring bounced off his head. As the keys clattered to the ground, he fixed Jem with a pointed glare.
"Now's not the time, Jay." Jem nodded to the side. "Go grab the truck, will you? We can all head back to the Robin or something and see what we can do to help out."
As Jay nodded, Leo sprang up. "You mean you'll help us?" Jem turned to the teen with a twinkle in his brown eyes.
"Of course. It's not like we can just leave you guys here, stuck in a world that's different from your own, now can we? I'm Jem by the way, Jem James. It's a pleasure to meet you." He flashed a peace sign.
"And I'm Cassandra, but please, call me Cassie!" Cassie chirped with her hands behind her back and smiling sweetly. Next to her, Jay waved nonchalantly.
"And I too, am a Jack." He smirked at the blonde Jack. "Short for Jackson, but don't call me that. People just call me Jay. Be back in a few." He turned on his heel and sprinted off down a trail.
Well, that's it for now. Read and Review!