Yu-Gi-Oh 5Ds: The Judgement of the World
Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
What had started out as an early evening stunt had carried on a little longer than intended. Natasha was incredibly curious about the whole swimming pool affair, but she finally did climb out as Archfiend soared into proper view.
'Proper view' meaning he looked more like a slow moving meteor of molten veins.
The sharp clop of her hooves was softened by the rivulets of water that dripped down her legs to her hoofs. They cushioned the sound as she began the process of getting out of the pool. Making sure to leave a very noticeable puddle of water as she hoisted herself up and out of the pool.
"I like these, just not the smell, if the twins opt to stop using it I'll be more inclined to make use of the pool!" She announced cheerfully before grabbing one of the towels Momoe had been holding. She had minded the warning for her hair, but the rest of her body needed a good drying so she began working on that before walking into the condo.
As the script instructed.
All the while Archfiend hovered as gently as he could so he could put Carly down. He had carried Wheel of Fortune in his one hand but the sliding door to the outside was too small for the D-Wheel. Knowing Jack would have to use the elevator thing, Archfiend didn't even bother beyond letting Carly climb down from his hand. Rua and Crow jumped down on either side of her, a strange little honor guard but well intentioned all the same. Then he sank down to the ground carrying both Wheel and a very put upon Jack.
It was Aki who came out after Natasha got in to receive Carly, Ruka at her heel.
"I'm glad you're safe," Aki announced as she gathered up one of the suitcases that Carly had clung to. While the glow of the cocoons created golden dancing lights illuminated the sterile white condo lights with life.
"Hi again Aki," Carly greeted with a faint smile before turning her gaze down to the smaller Dragon. "Thanks for hosting us Little Ruka."
"You're always welcome big sis Carly!" Ruka beamed cheerfully, 'Ok Natasha I hope you're in your spot...' Moving all that equipment had taken far too long. Nuts and bolts, screws and wires, the laptop and more parts than she knew what the names were for.
"I just worry about these people now. I mean sure we might be safe here but they could just go after regular folks around town too." Carly pointed out before lowering her voice, "and I still can't get over how Asuka's group is supposed to deal with this themselves."
"Well it was Judai's fault," Aki reminded the older woman, though her lips twisted in such a way as to give no credence to disdain. "Yusei and I have talked and he's of the mind that Judai was just a little kid. I could argue but he said 'in the eyes of God we are all children' so its not really any different. Our view of a kid verses an adult doesn't really matter."
Rua was taken aback as he got close to his sister by the sight of the cocoons. They looked thinner to his eyes, the shells a little less woven. But just blurting it out would draw unwarranted attention until he got his sisters' confirmation. It didn't take much, a small poke from him and Ruka looked at him then followed the gaze of her twin. Blinking in mounting hope and excitement she stepped closer and even grabbed Rua's hand.
"What are you two grinning about?" Aki asked noticing the twins at their side, eyes shinning like twin moons rediscovered.
"Nothing Big Sister," they sang out then, of all things, dashed away giggling.
Aki was left with Carly and Crow scratching his head as he finally felt it was ok to approach.
"I've learned not to bother asking," Crow remarked with a shrug. "I'll help with the other suitcase, sooo did you guys figure out condo assignments yet?" Crow asked as he lifted up the suitcase that he knew carried the clothes. Carly was holding hers and Jack's most precious artworks and figures, Aki had yet more clothes.
"We chose to wait to see what you were interested in doing, not fair to let Asuka and gang take over a floor without you getting a say." Aki explained as they moved toward the light.
In the distance they could see Natasha standing where the D-Wheel was, performing the deception. People were walking about as well, bags and suitcases were lined up in the further distance, from this distance it was almost like an evening party...
"So what do we do about Momentum?"
The question was posed away from the condo, as the dragons settled in and observed everything from the top of another building.
"It needs positive emotions to remain stable, and the one here is the main one," Stardust noted.
"I'm sorry, its been so long and I never did really ask for details about the system..." Ancient Fairy apologized as she turned to study the direction the massive machine resided in.
Stardust was sitting on seemingly nothing, just floating on thin air, "oh its fine... Well Yusei's father made a device that... well basically harvests the emotions of man and channels that energy back out in their 'limitless energy source'. Which is how they power everything now, though all it 'requires' is emotion, positive or negative are really irrelevant." His head snaked back a bit, while his tone went from exposition to uncomfortably apologetic. "Ideally it wants positive emotions because it spins in one direction, going in reverse doesn't end well..."
"It... absorbs the energy of man..." Ancient Fairy repeated slowly... Man was a myriad of human emotions all at once. She tried to fathom how the system would just be able to 'pick' a 'positive' emotion.. "And it runs all the time on..."
"Science?" Stardust ruffled up his wings in a passive shrug, since he didn't understand it either.
"SPACE MAGIC!" Archfiend mocked, "Oh and he didn't tell you the best part Fairy. Yusei's 'brilliant' father kicked off the device by hooking it up to Yusei to figure out those emotions. When Yusei was a new born."
Ancient Fairy felt her scales want to slide off her body and leave, her fins wanted to join them and only her duty as ruler kept her in place. But her hair flatted down and she looked more like someone took a bright blue snake and slapped some fairy wings on her.
"You know... when babies are SCREAMING IRRATIONAL SELF ABSORBED BUNDLES OF KICK BALL!"
"Thank you Black Rose..." Ancient Fairy replied to Black Rose Dragon's shriek of mockery and annoyance.
"Makes you wonder how the planet is still spinning after that brilliance," Black Rose noted, her voice a low hiss of irritation. "And if this stupid device, surrounded now be fearful humans decides to reverse course 'again'..."
"So, with that explained, we should think of a way to stop it from being tampered with. As Black Rose pointed out, the Momentum just needs enough negative emotions to reverse its direction. With Yubel and the others here and becoming active that might just be what it needs to reverse." Fairy observed.
"Perhaps we should talk to Yusei, because while that's possible, there's so few people... Something to keep in mind is that people don't really 'sustain' it, they just give it a push and it keeps itself going," Stardust began. "So with so few people here, regardless of their emotional states they may not have what it takes to force Momentum to full on stop 'and' reverse."
Motes of light drifted from Stardust, caught by a random breeze they were sent dancing through the air away. Far below the streets were empty of any people, with only the streetlights providing any light, while the sky above was a black void of emptiness. For as far as even a dragon's eye could see, sparse was the lights of condos lit by residents or decoys.
"More a spin then? A human hand spins the top and the top keeps spinning on its own power? Like the planet?" Ancient Fairy asked and received a nod from both Stardust and PowerTool. "I see, so the point is to keep the humans from reacting in a way that would grab and halt the Momentum and send it going backwards..." It made sense now to the older dragon. She raised her own 'hands' to look at them and could see the logic of it.
"What of the others though? The other areas of the world filled with humans..." She asked, a spinning top had a point at the bottom that it rested on. Spinning forever in the air? Was it, in a sense, slowly drilling into the earth? Or was it only when it went into reverse that it drilled down... 'hmm self sustaining levitation in one direction thus logically..'
"They are linked to this one like spinning plates. This one serves as the 'hands' that spins the others." Stardust explained as he laid there, "beyond that I don't know much else. I remember what he talked about when he had our cards, but..."
"Fair, though we could possibly put up some... not really 'shields' more akin to warning alarms? So that we know if they try anything... If they can't reverse it, what would happen if they simply destroyed it?"
The dragons looked among themselves, and then swung their heads to look over at the condo. If anyone had a real idea it could very well just be Yusei.
"Any way you bite it, the Project is the source of energy for the world at this point. It goes down, that's a 'lot' of hospitals, vehicles, and essential businesses that will shut down..." Archfiend recognized with a quiet rumble of his voice. "D-Wheels will stop or out right wreck, people being cut up in hospitals will be in dark rooms with no power..."
"Well... we could use the excessive power couldn't we?" Fairy asked growing thoughtful. "If the Project is always generating energy..."
"Fairy?" Rose lifted her head up, her crest rising as well in curiosity.
"Well, Momentum is meant to generate energy, so it builds up and the people of the world siphon off that energy to sustain their own machines..." Fairy began and the other dragons began to focus more keenly on her.
"So if the main one goes down, well you likened the others are sustained by this one, but that means they'll continue generating power for a time. But what if the others are what is destroyed?" her fins flexed as she tried to explain the vision in her head. "Say Yubel and the others destroy all the other Momentums, this one will just continue generating power for this area, but have all this excess would it not?"
It was Power Tool that gave a small series of beeps as it nodded its head in agreement.
"Well would it be possible that the spirits can use its excess in power to manifest here in the physical world?"
"That's a leap," Archfiend admitted in surprise but it got him thinking.
"But Yubel and the others can manifest already..." Rose noted in enough confusion to sound perfectly sane.
"Yes, but with Jesse turned, so were his Duel Spirits... And lets face it, not 'everyone' has raised ethically compassionate Duel Spirits. Be it intentional or unintentional," Stardust pointed out, "and Fairy's question is a sound concern."
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
"So there's this floor..."
The group stood at the elevator and looked about at the empty condo. In the light of the room, there was 'just' enough light to see the discoloration that came from years of pictures on the wall now gone. There wasn't any furniture, so everyone would be camping on the ground for a night or two until the stuff from the other buildings was brought over.
It was apparent that there had been a rush job and the floor, what with the lack of dust on a good portion of the room. The corners looked sus, but given the few people who were here it was a pretty solid floor clean. While not a one to one copy of the twins condo so people didn't overlap it was still very tasteful and elegant.
Everyone branched out into the condo to investigate it further, Jack stayed with Carly while Asuka's gang flowed together and apart to study everything. Much the way water could be split and reunite down a riverbed. Lights were flipped on, glowing with optimism that after all these months they would be of service. There were no beds or furniture in any of the rooms, clearly the previous tenets took their belongings with them. Asuka, Fubuki and Ryo were studying the room when Asuka made her way to the large window, currently lacking curtains or blinds.
"Its so low, I won't be able to do my visual spot check unless I go upstairs. You don't think the twins will..." She noted as she stared at the window that showed off the rest of the city. There 'was' a balcony outside, but it was purely against the wall of the building unlike the twins whole roof.
With a loud BANG the master bedroom closet burst open! While a white sheet clad form rushed out in a loud 'Aoooooooooooo'!
The two guys lunged towards the door of the bathroom in alarm, crashing into each other as they tried to course correct to turn around to face whatever. Asuka's heart nearly stopped when she saw Ryu just off to the side.
He wasn't amused, he almost looked like Ryo with his flat 'I am the adult here clearly' expression.
While Zalinka pulled the sheet off her before she got more than several steps from the closet. Laughter spilled out of her, along with a very noticeable cloud of dust that rose up from the cloth. For which she then paid a price as she began coughing from the dust.
"Hello, we dusted what we could," Ryu greeted the trio as he walked out of the closet. He began fanning away the dust, but even without Zalinka's cloud they could see he was also dusty from head toe.
Asuka's expression was a fixed attempt at polite pleasantries as Ryu became more visible to the people in the room...
"... Is someone pretending to be a ghost?" Junko called out from inside the guest bathroom, confused and curious, since no one in their current group was 'that' light hearted. Even Momoe at her peak wasn't really about pretending to be a ghost..
"Just Ms. Ishtar and myself," Ryu called out.
"Oh! Hello Mr. Kaiba," Junko replied as she turned her steps towards the master bedroom.
"... ok what did I miss?" She asked, Ms. Ishtars' laughter and coughing was still going on, but Asuka and the guys didn't look amused...
Jack was striding after Junko as Momoe followed suit, her slight shuffle causing him to slow his steps a bit. The air stirred a bit behind him, a small gust of cool breeze that reminded him about how she had a healing wind spirit now.
"What is the meaning of this?" He bellowed out, got a whiff of the dust and began coughing. "Once this is decided maybe open a window or something..." he wheezed out.
"We did originally when we started but..." Ryu gestured towards the sheet on the ground at Zalinka's feet. "She's got mischief in her today."
"You realize we already had a pretty big scare today," Asuka asked, her gaze locked on the Egyptian in the room.
"Yeah, that's why its important to shake you out of it, instead of letting you fixate on it," Zalinka breezily pointed out. "And to be fair, if it had been little Junko or little Momoe I wouldn't have done it at all."
"Thank you," Junko and Momoe replied almost deadpanned from where they stood.
"As for the windows, you're correct but at this point, its pretty clear that surveillance is both necessary and will need more hands." Ryu added as he approached the window, the deck a soft thump against his hip under his school jacket.
"Wait, you're not suggesting you're staying in Neo Domino? Your father will not tolerate that," Fubuki pointed out startled at the implications. What with having the next heir of KaibaCorp in what could be a war zone was not lost on anyone.
