Yu-gi-oh
No Limits
Chapter 39- The Destitute
By
By Kevin Jones
"All right, we're going on an adventure!"
"Damon, don't look so happy. People are going to think we're up to something."
"How can I not be happy? The 2 of us our going on a spy mission, while 1 of us protects the precious cargo, 1 tracks down leads and the other is on a secret assignment."
I think the only secret here is that I'm the getting the desire to kill. "For the last time, Vanessa is simply going to stay with Maggie back at the apartment until we know what to do next. To find out what to do next, you and me are going back to the tunnel we found Maggie in to get the spray paint cans and see if we can get some clues off them; while Toni looks online for any information relating to homeless children here in New York."
"Well then where's Kai?"
"I don't know where Kai is. I assume he's somewhere where he can have peace and quiet." That being said, something does seem to be bothering Kai; before we all separated last night, Kai told us that we had to tread carefully. He wouldn't tell me why, just that we had to be careful. "Way I figure it, if he knows more than he's telling, than he knows we're not getting involved in something we can't handle."
"Are you sure about that?"
"After all we've been through; I highly doubt spray paint and homeless people can hurt us."
I'm serious, there's no way this can get crazy. We're looking at the tunnel now and I don't see any duel spirits, disembodied brains or FBI Agents.
"Geronimo," says Damon as he sprints towards the entrance. I follow him. He pauses as he enters the tunnel. "Wow, that little girl did all this!?"
"Yup, this Damon is what one can accomplish when one uses their brain. Maybe one day, you'll know what that feels like."
"I hope so."
Yup, everything is definitely norm…what the…where'd they go?
"Chase, have you got them yet." Damon says this as he catches up to me.
"No…there gone." I'm standing right where I was yesterday but the cans aren't here.
"Maybe they got knocked over. A lot can happen in a night."
"They were bright white, so I'd notice them here on the floor." The dampness of the tunnel keeps the decaying road beneath my feet an eerie black.
"Well maybe someone took them. Probably a homeless guy who thought he could eat it."
"I guess that's not impossible, but it was almost below freezing last night and considering how wet it is in here, it would definitely be too cold for this place to seem attractive."
"Well I don't see anything up ahead, people or paint cans." Debris Dragon has just materialized next to me. "Personally I think that cop probably came back here and took the cans so he could get evidence against you and Maggie."
"I'm with Arrow on this one."
"He didn't seem like the kind of cop who'd go out of his way for something as little as a vandalism cas-wait a second!? Debris Dragon, did Damon just agree with you?!"
"Well yeah, Arrow's idea makes sense. The cop was convinced Maggie was doing all this and we both know that cops in this city like to prove that there right."
"Yeah, yeah, but how can you 2 be communicating?!" This is where things get crazy.
"Apparently he can communicate with us duel spirits."
"Since when?"
"Since I noticed you talking to Arrow a while back."
"Then why didn't you say anything about it when you first saw us talking?"
"It looked like you 2 were talking about something important and I didn't want to interrupt."
"After you did your usual ignoring me once I say what you want to hear, I noticed that Damon looked like he was staring at me. Then I waved my hand, he waved back and we've been hanging out ever since."
"What do you mean by hanging out?"
"Well," starts Damon, "a few days ago we went to the movies, and we both like to go see the school football games. You know guy stuff."
Did I just here Damon call him hanging out with a ghost dragon guy stuff? I turn to Debris Dragon and say, "but you said you can't be more than a couple feet away from me?"
"I thought so to but apparently since Damon can see me, I can be around him and away from you."
"And neither of you thought to tell me this because?"
"I thought Arrow was going to do it."
"I thought Damon was going to do it."
"Well clearly…wait a second, Damon, why do you keep calling Debris Dragon Arrow?"
"Because that's my name, don't you remember me telling it to you the night we met?"
Oh shit.
"Wait a second, did you forget my name? I thought you were just calling me Debris Dragon to remain professional!"
"Well…it's not like your names written on your card."
"My names not written on a card, but you know I'm Damon."
"That's different…I don't have anything else to call you besides your name," Other than pest.
"Wait," starts Deb-I mean arrow, "So if Kai or Vanessa wore a shirt that said Rudy every day, would you start calling them that?"
"Well…" damn that's actually possible. "That would never happen so let's get off it."
"I'm worried now," says Damon.
"I know your name, I have processed that information and- I think I know where she should go next."
"Where," asks Damon.
"Purgatory."
…
"Here we go." Kai says this as he walks through what's left of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.
Long ago, this 52-acre area was a beautiful paradise that featured more than 200 cherry trees of forty-two Asian species and cultivated varieties, making it one of the foremost cherry-viewing sites outside of Japan. The garden also prided itself on its large rose collection which contained 5000 bushes of nearly 1400 kinds of roses.
Today however, many of these beautiful plants are long gone. During the war, many people both normal citizens as well as deserters found refuge from the fighting by hiding in this place of serenity. When the warring factions realized this, they set the garden on fire. Neither side took responsibility for the fire but it was obvious that neither felt bad about it.
When the war was over and the city began to rebuild, many people wanted the garden brought back to its former glory but that takes time and money and when a rebuilding city wishes to put all it's time and money into making a new home for its rich and mighty, it's so much easier to just sell the land to a private owner with a large check.
That was 20 years ago. Now the garden is nothing. Half of it is to desolate to attract tourists, while the second half is dominated by a large green house. The green house itself is well kept and clean, granted no one is ever seen coming in or out. Well, nobody nice looking.
Kai, however, is unfazed by all these things. He knows the stories as well the rumors surrounding what goes on in the green house but none of this scares him. He has something important to do and he knows that he has no time to let scary stories get to him. He has the fear of facts instead.
Kai is now standing in front of a big stainless steel door. He knocks on it and says. "Open up, I'm here to speak with Vergara!"
Kai can now here a voice coming from a speaker above the door. "There's no Vergara here kid. You're on private property no get out of he-"
"Oh save it. I know there's camera's zoomed in on me and I know there telling you right now who I am."
"Let's assume there's any truth to what you're saying kid. Why would anyone here want to even talk to you?"
"Because Vergara hates me and I hate him. So he and most likely all of you know that I'd only come here for a good reason."
"And what reason is that."
"If you must know, I have a friend who is getting a little too close for comfort to one of your big deals. I'm simply here to tell Vergara that my friend is not trying to mess up your operation, he's just trying to help a little girl."
"Well I'll be sure to relay-oh wait…it would appear the man you're looking for was listening into our conversation and he just sent us a message for you."
"Oh Christ," Kai says under his breath.
"The message reads: Kai my old friend, as you were informed the other day, there are no hard feelings on my end but I have a business to run and believe it or not, beautiful Miss. Maggie is essential for my plan and I can't let your little friends screw it up. Because of this we are beginning procedures to make sure your friends never interfere with our plans. Once again it's nothing personal, it's just business."
Kai doesn't wait to hear what the man has to say next. Instead he begins to run back to the main road; Once he is out of the garden, he pulls out his cell phone and begins to dial Vanessa's number; all the mean while saying to himself; "I should never have let Chase talk to this kid."
…
"Damon, how much do you know about what World War 3 did to this city?"
"Uhm," I can tell this is not Damon's area of expertise. "Oh wait, after the war, they created the Satellite Sector and the Tops Sector."
"Basically, but right now were standing on one of WW3's after affects you don't see in the history books." Right now the 3 of us are in an old sewer tunnel that got rerouted after the war. Because of this no water goes through here but the tunnel is too unstable to be used as an actual subway route. It runs right along the East River so if anything, like another war, were to hit the city; this tunnel would most likely flood. I seriously doubt the paper thin metal sheets that cover the entrances to the tunnel, which include an unlocked door, would stop major flooding for very long but hey, city's got to cut corners somewhere.
"So what are all these people doing down here?"
"These are society's destitute and forgotten. There homeless but they don't want to get thrown into the Satellite Sector, so they basically built a community down here."
"Why don't they just leave the city?"
"And go where? The suburbs aren't much better than the city itself and with winter on the way, no one could ever survive a trip to some of the farming areas of the country without money."
"But there living in boxes, damp boxes." Believe it or not, Damon is actually speaking quietly for a change. Most of the people here seem to be keeping to themselves inside there boxes. Granted at the rate the lights flicker, they could easily be pulling out homemade weapons to kill and rob us.
"Better damp boxes than tiny cubicles."
"Huh?"
"Damon, Satellite isn't the small working community people make it sound like. It's a slave trade."
"But slavery's illegal."
"Laws are just words on paper. What happens in the real world is usually decided by the people who understand that fact. Give people money, it's not slavery. Even if that money can only be used in the Satellite Sector and there are giant walls preventing anyone without authorization from going in or out."
"So then why are we here?"
"Because there's someone here who can give us the information we seek."
With that me and Damon begin walking through the middle of the tunnel. The tunnel, like Damon pointed out, is pretty damp. You can clearly tell by the greenish white stains on the walls that when it rains up top, it leaks down here, which gives these people a decent supply of drinking water and from the looks of some of these people who are huddled in boxes it also makes them sick. There are enough rats and other small vermin around here to keep these people fed. Granted I don't intend on getting lunch down here.
"Hey Chase, do you think there are any Alligators around here?"
"Alligators, why on earth would you think there are Alligators down here?"
"Don't you know the story? People buy them as babies and when they get too big, people flush them down the toilet and they grow up down here."
"Damon," starts Arrow, "that's an urban legend. There's no way Alligators can survive down here."
"Actually," I say, "the temperature down here stays pretty consistent. Also, as you can see, there's more than enough food down here to keep a couple of gators alive."
"Oh no, I knew that movie we watched last night was right! We're going to get eaten by Alligators!"
"Great Chase," starts Arrow, "now everyone's staring at us."
"How nice it is to see that being incarcerated didn't take away your twisted sense of humor."
The 3 of us shift are gazes to a little old man who has crept up behind Damon. He is sickly skinny wearing a button upped black coat. He has glassy green eyes and liver spots on his cheeks. He is hunched over and seems to be shaking as he stands. The feature most intriguing is that he's wearing a bandana on his head and above the bandana's knot is large round bump on the back of his head, hopefully Damon won't notice it because that's a conversation we shouldn't be having any time in the near future.
"How do you know Chase?" As Damon says this, the man begins to examine both of us with his eyes.
"Because I know every fact, everything there is to know I have in my head." He's starting to get enthusiastic. "Chase Hussein Rhodes, exact birthdate, day and month unknown but most likely born in the year 2024 due to his current age being 16. 5'11 Height, 140 pounds weight, Aire to th-"
"All right, all right, we get it, you know a lot of information that no one else should."
"Hussein?" Well at least he's not curious about the Aire thing.
"Chase, can we get through this, it's almost noon."
"Anyways, Damon this is Henry Smith. He is someone who has the unique ability to retain every piece of information he comes across."
"Cool," says Damon.
"How," asks Deb-Arrow.
"Aww, that's not important." Henry Smith is happy, partially because we're paying attention to him and also because he knows what I can give him. "What is important is what you came here for. Unless my origin is why you're here for but I doubt that."
"You know me well, Mr. Smith."
"Not as well as I'd like to."
I ignore this. "We're here for information on spray paint cans."
"Spray Paint cans?"
"Spray paint cans and homeless children."
"Oh," he is now rubbing his hands and licking his lips. "What an interesting challenge. That being said, I seem to have heard a few things during my adventures in this city that pertains to what you're asking me. Granted all information I give comes at a price."
"Uh," begins Damon, "I got 10 bucks."
Smith is now laughing loudly and it's attracting the attention of the surrounding people. "I'm not talking money kid, I'm interested in information."
"What can you do with information?"
"Ahh my boy, some people down here have drug or gambling addictions but my addiction is to information. I crave it, I need it, and ever since a young spiky haired boy came down here asking about terrorists, I've been trying to get his information. There's not a lot, which only makes me want to know more."
"Wait, Chase why were you looking for terrorists?"
"That's not important. Now Mr. Smith, how would you like to see my deck in action?"
"I can see that any time. You're going to need to give me something better. How's about you tell me about that scar."
"You misunderstood me. What I mean is how about I give you an insight into just how close I can call a match."
"Continue."
"Here's how this will work. I'm going to duel the kid behind me. I will win by making a move that will have him cowering in fear."
"Interesting… he better not let you win."
"I don't know what's going on here," says an excited Damon, "but I always play to win."
"Alright then, if you can show me something interesting through this duel, I'll tell you everything. If I don't see anything interesting, you'll have to tell me your past, deal?"
"Damon, pull your Duel Disk out of your back pack and let's get started."
Damon
"All right, since I'm completely lost I'm going first. I draw and next I play the Field Spell, Charicific Valley!" All the homeless people and boxes are gone. Damon and I are now in a big valley with a giant dragon's head looking down on us.
"This wasn't in your deck last time I checked."
"I know I made a few changes last night after you went to bed. Now, I activate Charicific Valley's effect! I get to special summon 1 Charmander (ATK: 200/DEF: 0) from my deck in defense mode. With that I end my turn!"
Chase
"Never seen this strategy before, it won't change things but at least it's different. I draw, and next I summon Elemental HERO Avian (ATK: 1000/DEF: 1000)!"
"Hah, this happened during our last duel. Only this time, I remembered to put Charmander in defense mode."
"True, but now I play H-Heated Heart! This will boost Avian's attack by 500 (1000-1500) as well as give him piercing ability, Now Avian attack Charmander, Feather Quill Cascade!" Avian fires his feather's at Charmander, (4000-2500) causing Charmander to explode and send a thin wave of flames at me. For those of you who don't remember, when Charmander is destroyed, I take damage equal to the combined amount of his ATK and DEF. (4000-3800) Yeah it's not much.
"Now here comes the fun part! When Charmander is destroyed, I get to place 1 Char Counter on Charicific Valley." One of the eyes on the dragons head is now glowing red.
"Very well then, I set 1 card and end my turn."
Damon
"My Draw and next I activate the effect of Charicific Valley, only since I have 1 Char Counter, instead of little Charmander, I can summon his big brother Charmeleon!" (ATK: 1200/DEF: 0)
It's another lizard, this one's a little bit bigger and red but it looks like the other one. The only real difference is a dull horn thing coming out of the back of its head.
"What's the matter Chase," says the old man, "not sure how to beat this creature?"
"Chase doesn't get worried, luckily, neither do I. Now, Charmeleon, destroy his Avian, Ember!"
A small blast of fire is heading towards Avian. "Oh no you don't, I activate the trap, Scrap-Iron Scarecrow! This card negates your attack and then resets itself." The ridiculously small blast of flames hit my Scarecrow and my Scarecrow didn't even budge, go figure.
"Fine then, I end my turn."
Chase
"It's my draw, and next I play E-Emergency Call, this lets me add 1 Elemental HERO from my deck and I'm going with Elemental HERO Sparkman! Next I summon Sparkman (ATK: 1600/DEF: 1400) and guess what Sparkman's attacking Charmeleon!" A volt of lightning leaves Sparkman's fingers and zaps Charmeleon. (2500-2100) Now a big plume of flame is heading right for me.
"If you thought Charmander was bad, then check this out. When Charmeleon is destroyed, you take 1200 points of damage!" (3800-2400) "Also," the stone dragon's other eye has now turned red; "when Charmeleon is destroyed I get a Char Counter!"
"Pretty, I end my turn."
Damon
"You won't think it's pretty after it causes your defeat. Observe, now by destroying Charicific Valley, I get to special summon 1 of the most powerful monsters in my arsenal!" The valley is now shaking and cracking. The sky has turned red, and flames are exploding from every corner of this field. Suddenly, I hear a large roar coming from the giant dragon head.
"I summon Charizard!" (ATK: 2200/DEF: 0) This time around, the lizard has been replaced by a giant orange dragon with a white belly. It has 2 horns coming out of the back of its head, and like the other 2, it has a flame burning on its tail.
"That's it?"
"Not exactly buddy! You see when Charizard is summoned via the effect of Charicific Valley, he gains 1000 ATK points!" (2200-3200)
"Ok that might be a problem."
"Yeah especially because I'm playing Mystical Space Typhoon to destroy your Scarecrow and on top of that, I'm summoning Ivysaur in attack mode!" (ATK: 1100/DEF: 1100)
"A toad and a dragon," says the old man. "Whatever will you do?"
"Now, Ivysaur, destroy Avian, razor leaf!" Leaves are slashing Avian's wings. (2400-2300) "Now Charizard, destroy Sparkman, Blast Burn!" Now Sparkman is on fire. I feel like I'm on Game of Thrones. (2300-700) "Next I set 1 card face down and end my turn!"
Chase
"Is this a duel or a hand held video game? I draw…and next I summon Elemental HERO Bubbleman! (ATK: 800/DEF: 1200) Now because Bubbleman was summoned while I control no other cards, I get to draw 2 more! Next I play R-Righteous Justice; this lets me destroy your set card!" Dimensional Prison, I hate to say it but Damon's starting to get the hang of this."
"Bubbleman can't stop me."
Yet he still doesn't get the whole complex strategy thing. "I play Miracle Fusion! This card lets me banish Elemental HERO's Avian, Sparkman and Bubbleman in order to fusion summon, Elemental HERO Tempest!" (ATK: 2800/DEF: 2800) Tempest looks like Avian only bigger. His costume is blue with green, silver wings, a glass visor and laser gun instead of a right hand. "Now Tempest destroy his Ivysaur," (2100-400) now that's what I call weed killing.
"You still can't stop my Charizard!"
"Just watch because I'm placing 1 card face down and ending my turn."
Damon
"My draw, and next I play the equip spell, Shiny Armor!" Charizard has now turned black. That's too cheesy, who'd ever want to do that to a perfectly fine…well kid friendly looking dragon? "Now Charizard is unaffected by card effects and when he destroys a monster by battle, you take damage equal to your monsters ATK."
"So if that attack destroys Tempest, I'm done."
"You bet buddy!" Perfect, he forgot all about why we're dueling. "Charizard, end this!" A huge blast of flames is heading towards Tempest who has his wings in front of his face.
"Sorry Damon, but this duel isn't over yet." When the flame hits Tempest and explodes, my face down disappears. As the smoke clears, my warrior is safe." (700-300)
"What just happened?"
"Tempest's effect, if he were to be destroyed by battle, I can destroy 1 card I control to negate the destruction," Tempest is smiling, so am I.
"Yeah well Tempest still can't stop Charizard, so I'll just set a card and end my turn!"
Chase
"My draw and next I play HERO Flash! Now by banishing H-Heated Heart, E-Emergency Call, R-Righteous Justice, and the O-Over soul I destroyed for Tempest's effect I get to special summon 1 Elemental HERO normal monster from my deck and he can attack directly! Now, come forth, Elemental HERO Clayman!" (ATK 800/DEF: 2000)
"Nice try, but I also know that HERO Flash let's your normal monsters attack me directly. That's why I'm activating, Fiendish Chain, now Clayman can't attack!"
Clayman is now wrapped in chains. Once again, we're on Game of Thrones, that being said, this makes my victory all the more better. "Hey Damon, remember when you asked me about Sewer Gators?"
"Yeah why?"
"Well, you were lied to. There real, watching you right now and just waiting for a chance to strike."
"Chase," starts a nervous Arrow, "What are you doing."
Perfect, Damon is starting to get nervous. "No there not," he says this, yet he's looking in all directions.
"Just watch, because there here now, I summon Gator Synchron!" (Level 2/ATK: 1400/DEF: 1000) Damon is now trembling as the monsters he's been told to fear, begin to come out of from the shadows. My monster is a green little robotic Alligator. This cute little guy now has Damon screaming.
"Get it away!"
"Damon, it's not re-
"Now I tune my level 2, Gator Synchron and my level 4 Clayman!" Gator Synchron roars loudly as his snout begins to fade away and is replaced by 3 green rings. Clayman flies through the rings and dematerializes into 4 shining stars that fashion themselves evenly among the rings and in a burst of light, "I synchro summon Gator Warrior!" (ATK: 1700/DEF: 1300) A metallic warrior wearing armor that looks like Alligator scales and a metal Alligator head over his right hand has Damon in the fetal position."
"Incredible," says a shocked Henry Smith.
"If you think that's awesome, then watch this. I activate Gator Warrior's effect! Now, I get to select 1 of my banished Warrior type monsters and return it to my graveyard!" A ghost like image of Sparkman has now appeared next to Gator Warrior. "Now by returning Sparkman to my grave, Gator Warrior's ATK increases by that of Sparkman's!" (1700-3300)
"It's going to eat me!"
"Sure, now Gator Warrior, destroy his Charizard, Reptilian blast!" The Gator jaw has now opened and is absorbing volts of lightning. He is now firing those volts at Charizard, annihilating the cheesy looking dragon thing." (400-300)
"Chase," starts Arrow, "you're evil."
"Now, Tempest attack him directly, hurricane blaster!" A blast of energy has hit Damon…who still is in the fetal position. (300-0)
Winner: Chase Loser: Damon
"Incredible," Says Henry Smith. "You set up a perfect example of induced fear. I've been alive for over 70 years, and I've never seen that, how long were you setting that up?"
"Since last night, with a scary movie about giant Alligators, this morning I found an old newspaper in our school library about an Alligator that escaped a zoo a few years ago and I didn't tell him we were going in the sewer till we got here so he never associated the 2 till we got here and I started laying things on thick."
"How did you plan all this so fast?"
"Now it's your turn to talk."
"Fair enough," he says this while rubbing the bump on the back of his neck.
"This is fair." starts Arrow, "you get the cool stuff while I nurse the sidekick back to health.
"Spray paint cans…orphans…homeless children…you…ahh yes! Have you ever heard of the 12 Diamonds?"
"A bunch of big name drug dealers. What do they have to do with this?"
"The head of their New York division, Antonio Vergara, is testing a new method of drug trafficking here in this city."
"Fascinating, and that has what to do with paint?"
"That I'm not sure, but it has something to do with a little girl named Maggie. Apparently she's a good artist and Vergara has teamed up with a man named Cole Reese. That's all I got."
"So drugs, a major criminal organization, and a mysterious guy, per-
"Oh and this morning while I was hanging around a diner where these guys like to hang out, I heard something else. Apparently, Vergara already knows what happened to the girl and where she is. He's probably sending someone after her now."
"Wait…what?" Oh god what have I done.
"Damon we have to go now."
"But the gators!?"
"Damon, we don't have time for this, Vanessa's in danger!"
…
Vanessa is lying down on her sofa reading a book while Maggie is pacing around the living room.
"When can I go?"
"Right now we're waiting on everyone else to come up with a lead. Until then we will stay here."
"You make it sound like you've have done this before."
Vanessa, without taking her eyes off her book says, "That's what it's starting to feel like."
"So then this is what you do? While everyone else does the dirty work, you just sit back and wait for when someone can use you?"
Vanessa puts down her book but before she can say anything, her phone vibrates. She pulls it out of the pocket on her red hoodie and pushes a button revealing a text message.
"Good news Ms. Prim, Kai says that she's sending over a social worker who knows you and he should be here in a couple of minutes."
…
A man is knocking on Vanessa's door. He here's a lock click open and the door open a little.
"Hello there," says Vanessa from the crack at the door. "Are you the social worker here about Maggie?"
The man smiles and says, "yes, my name is Ernie Cardenas. Mind if I come in?"
Vanessa puts on a big smile and says, "sure, make yourself at home."
Next time: Cat and mice
Kai falls to the ground hard. He then hears, "bang, bang"