FS93: Hey look! I have my laptop back! Virus free!
EK94: (Sarcasticly) She's not at all excited...
FS93: If any of you happen to know my brother-in-law, Paul, then thank him. He fixed it for me! ...And you're in Utah.
EK94: Welcome to the 21st century, my friend. This is the Internet's doing.
FS93: ...
Chapter Seven – You're Under Arrest!
Dusk was falling once again over Satellite. Naomi and Elodie walked quietly through the shadow-filled streets. They had left the bridge quite a while ago, and Naomi thought their time of parting was near. Thank Yami for it, too – she was sick of the psychic and her cryptic words and unbearable truths. She just wanted to get away from her.
"So, Naomi," Elodie finally spoke again, breaking the silence. "What do you think?"
Naomi scoffed. "I think that was the biggest waste of a day ever."
Elodie stopped and turned to the girl, her expression solemn and serious. "You don't mean that. You're not going to forget what you learned today, Naomi. One day, you will thank me."
"I'm sure," Naomi snorted.
Elodie gave Naomi one last, sad look before sighing deeply and turning away to leave. Naomi turned on her heel and headed in the opposite direction, but, as she did, she couldn't help but feel guilty and conflicted. She shouldn't have been so harsh – no matter her feelings on the subject. Elodie had only been trying to help, after all.
'But I don't need her,' Naomi thought stubbornly. 'I don't need anyone. I learned a long time ago that the only one I can depend on is myself. I don't need any so-called friends.'
But then why did she feel so alone?
Naomi sighed and shook the feeling out of her mind. It didn't matter now, anyway. Chances were that she would never see Elodie Kumari again. She might as well forget it all happened and move on with her miserable life. It was over.
Or so she thought.
Just then a startled cry of pain split the night air. Naomi whirled around in alarm. Elodie was out of sight, but that cry had definitely been hers.
"Elodie?" Naomi called, taking a few steps back the way she'd come. There was no reply. Naomi tried to push away her growing anxiety, but the then she thought about what Trudge had said, and the gang form the night, and Elodie's dreams…
Naomi took off after her.
"Elodie!" Naomi cried when she rounded a corner and found the psychic on her knees in the street, clutching her head. Naomi ran toward her and knelt in front of her, concern written all over her face. "Elodie, what's wrong?"
Elodie couldn't reply. She was gasping in pain, her whole body shaking. Naomi had never seen Elodie have a vision, so she had no idea what was happening to her or what to do. Suddenly, Elodie's head jerked up, and Naomi saw her eyes glowing bright amber.
"Crow!" Elodie shrieked, her eyes wide with fear as they returned to hazel.
"What's wrong?" Naomi asked again, trying to swallow her own growing panic. "Elodie, what just happened?"
Elodie blinked in surprise. "Naomi?"
"I heard you cry out. What was wrong with you just now? Was that a vision? 'Cause, really, that was creepy…"
Elodie leapt to her feet. "Crow's in trouble. I think Trudge was right about that rebellion he was talking about. Crow's being arrested right now!"
Naomi felt as though a stone had been dropped in her stomach. Images of her past flitted through her mind, memories of her best friend and brother being forced into a police car, her other best friend being shot as one officer took his helmet off and smiled guiltlessly…
"I'm coming with you."
Elodie narrowed her eyes suspiciously at Naomi as the latter got to her feet. "Why do you want to come? I thought I was a waste of you time. I thought you didn't trust me."
"I don't," Naomi replied coolly. "But I know how it feels to have your best friend arrested. You can count me in."
"Understanding dawned in Elodie's eyes, and she nodded. "Alright, then, come on! We have to hurry!"
So Naomi and Elodie took off through the streets, running as fast as their legs could carry them. Elodie used her powers to keep track of where Crow was, her heart pounding against her ribs as she ran, the adrenaline pumping anger and terror through her veins. 'Not Crow,' she thought. 'Please, not Crow. If I lost him, I don't know what I would do…'
The two girls heard Crow before they saw him. "Let GO of me! What the deck do you think you're doin'? I haven't done anything wrong!"
"Get in the car, Hogan!" another voice ordered. "You're under arrest!"
"STOP!" Elodie yelled as she and Naomi sprinted around the corner. Crow was pinned to the side of a white Security car, lights flashing, with his hands handcuffed behind his back, surrounded by three Sector Security Officers.
"Elodie!" Crow cried in surprise, his grey eyes wide, his face stark white against his spikey, orange hair. The three officers turned as Elodie approached them, her eyes glowing again and her expression livid.
"Who are you?" the officer just behind Crow demanded. By the symbol on his jacket, he was obviously a captain.
"I'll be the one asking the questions here, captain!" Elodie snarled, getting into the man's face. "By what authority are you arresting this man?"
"What's it to you?" the captain demanded. "Move along, girl. This has nothing to do with – hey!"
Elodie had grabbed the front of his shirt and swung him around so his back smacked against the car door. She was virtually nose-to-nose with him as Crow and Naomi winced, and the other two officers stepped forward to intervene.
"You'd better watch your tongue, copper!" Elodie snarled. "I have friends in very high places, like in the Security Bureau, and they are at least three times your rank! Now I demand by the right of Habeas Corpus* to know who ordered the arrest of this man and what the charges are!"
"Uh, Elodie," Crow warned, "maybe you should tone it down a notch or two –."
"Shut up, Crow," Elodie advised, still glaring daggers at the furious captain. "I'm trying to save your butt!"
"Uh, captain?" one of the other officers spoke, holding up a hand-held profiler. "You might wanna take a look at this."
The captain pushed Elodie roughly away from him and stepped over to the officer's side, taking the profiler and reading it. As he did, a small smirk spread across his lips. "Ah, I see," he murmured. "That changes things."
Suddenly, he lowered the profiler and pointed at Elodie. "She's one of them! Arrest her!"
"NO!" Crow yelled as the third officer moved to attack Elodie. Pushing himself off the car, Crow rammed his shoulder into the officer's body and shoved him away from his friend. "Elodie, get out of here!" he ordered. "NOW!"
"But what about you?" Elodie cried, her voice cracking with fear.
"Don't worry about me!" he called back still struggling with the officer. "Just go, and warn the others! I'll be fine!"
"C'mon, Elodie!" Naomi cried, grabbing Elodie's hand and dragging her away. The captain was already calling on his radio for backup as the other two officers took off in pursuit. Elodie threw Crow one last panicked look before tearing off down the street after Naomi.
"Don't let them get away!" the captain yelled behind them.
"We've gotta lose them!" Naomi growled as she and Elodie raced through the streets, the two officers hot on their trail.
Elodie had already taken out her cell phone and had hit the one of the speed dials. The call was answered after the first ring.
"Hello?" came Yusei's quiet baritone voice.
"It's Elodie! You've got to get Jack and the kids and get away from the apartment, ASAP!"
"Why?" Yusei asked, his voice alarmed. "Elodie, what's wrong?"
"Sector Security's turned against us! I just saw them arrest Crow, and they're coming after me now! You guys have to get away; I'm sure they'll come after you too! Take the kids to Martha's, then you and Jack get the h-e-double-toothpicks OUT of there!"
"Alright," Yusei replied. He knew things had to be serious when Elodie Kumari started cursing, even if it was slightly indirectly. "Call me once you lose the cops."
"Got it," Elodie said shortly before snapping her phone shut.
"Where do we go?" Naomi called over shoulder.
"I've got an idea! Follow me!"
The two officers were still on the chase as Elodie took the lead, racing through the maze-like streets she knew so well. But the men were older than and not as fast as the two teens, so they soon started lagging behind. Elodie and Naomi disappeared around a corner and, by the time the cops had reached it, their quarry was out of sight.
"Where did they go?" one of them shouted. They had reached a fork in the road, and they had no way of knowing which direction the girls may have taken.
"Split up," the other spoke. "We'll communicate by radio if we find them."
"Copy that," agreed the first cop with a nod, and the two men parted ways. But neither of them would find Elodie and Naomi down there.
"That's the funny thing about Security," Elodie muttered with a sly smile as she and Naomi watched from a nearby rooftop. "They'll look down every ally and around every nook and cranny in Satellite, but they never think to look up."
"That's genius!" Naomi chuckled, backing away from the edge of the flat roof. "So what do we do now?"
"We're going to rescue Crow," Elodie replied firmly, taking her phone out again. "But first, I'd better call –."
Suddenly Elodie gasped and dropped the phone. Her whole body went rigid as her eyes glowed amber once again.
"Elodie?" Naomi's eyes widened.
But as soon as the glowing started, it stopped again, and Elodie's eyes returned to hazel.
"Darn it, Jack!" she snarled. "I told you guys to get away!"
"What happened?"" Naomi demanded as Elodie picked up her phone and stood. "What did you see?"
"Change of plans," Elodie said through gritted teeth as she and Naomi jumped into the street. "We're going to go to the apartment and save Jack's butt from Security! I swear, if they don't get him, I will KILL him!"
She and Naomi raced off again, this time heading towards the apartment complex. The sound of police sirens was the first thing to greet them as they entered the yard and saw Jack standing on the front steps, his fists clenched and a defiant look in his eyes, surrounded by half a dozen security officers.
"We've got you surrounded, Jack Atlas! Surrender now, or get chock blasted!"
"You punks think you can take Jack Atlas?" Jack demanded, holding up his fists, a determined fire in his violet eyes. "Well, bring it on!"
"Heads up copper!" Elodie yelled as she sprinted forward. One of the cops turned around just in time for Elodie to smash her fist into his face, cracking his visor and making him stumble into the guy next to him. As she jumped onto the steps with, Jack, Naomi leapt from the other side and kicked down another officer.
"Don't just stand there, idiots!" one officer yelled. "Shock 'em!"
The other officers had barely raised their guns when Elodie whipped out a card and slapped in onto her duel disk. "I'll give you a shock! Go, Thunder Unicorn!"
A high-pitched whinny cut through the night air as Elodie summoned a great blue unicorn with a thunder bolt for a horn. The officers cried out in fear as the unicorn tossed its head and reared, letting out another blood-curdling scream, its thunder-bolt horn flashing.
"Go!" Elodie ordered Naomi and Jack. "Inside!"
The two teens did as they were told, and Elodie followed, dead-bolting the door behind her, letting her unicorn hold off Sector Security for a while.
"Get to the kitchen!" Jack cried. "Use the back window!"
Jack, Naomi, and Elodie raced into the kitchen. As Jack threw the window open and helped Naomi out, the officers started shouting and banging on the door.
"Go, go, hurry!" Jack rallied, helping Elodie through the window before jumping through himself. He and the two girls took off running, but one of the officers spotted them.
"There they go!"
"After them!"
"What now?" Naomi called as Security set off in pursuit, some of them on duel runners.
Elodie's mind raced, searching for a solution. Then she cried, "I got another idea! And, Jack you won't like it!"
"Great," Jack grumbled.
Elodie lead them around corners and through dark allies until they reached the edge of Satellite. Naomi realized what she was thinking when she suddenly saw piles of trash and scrap metal towering like mountains over them just beyond a chain-link fence.
"The dump? You were right when you said I wouldn't like it," protested Jack, wrinkling his nose at the smell as Elodie and Naomi both scaled the fence like monkeys.
"Of course!" replied Naomi. "No one knows the dump better than us Satellite street rats!"
"Security will never find us in this place," stated Elodie as the three of them dropped over the fence. "Now come on!"
Jack unwillingly followed the two girls as they delved deeper into the junk yard. The smell was barely bearable, and they were constantly tripping over things in the dark, but their trick had worked. Security tried to follow them, but they were soon lost and scattered amongst the heaps of garbage.
"Over here!" Naomi whispered, pointing out a small gap between two half-crushed cars. Elodie and Jack squeezed through and found themselves in a cave-like space with walls of junk. Naomi stayed out for a while to keep watch.
As Jack sat back with a heavy sigh, Elodie crawled over to him, glaring furiously. "I oughta slug you!" she snarled. "Why didn't you leave with Yusei the kids?"
"I was going to!" Jack snapped back defensively. "But the cops arrived before they all got away, so I stayed back to hold 'em off."
"So where are they now?"
"As far as I know, Yusei took the kids to Martha's. I'm sure they're all safe."
Elodie sat down next to him and sighed, burying her face in her hands. ""I sure hope so."
"What about Crow? Did he get caught?"
"Yeah," Elodie sighed miserably through her fingers. "As far as I know, Security's already hauled him off to the Facility."
Just then Naomi crawled into the small space with them and said, "Security has no idea where we are, but they're still out searching. What the deck are we gonna do?"
"Well," Jack stated, "the first thing we've got to do in save Crow. He need us the most right now."
"But how are we going to do that?" Elodie asked, still talking into her hands.
"You've got your psychic powers, Elodie," he answered, nodding at the duel disk strapped to her arm. "Can't you summon an army of monsters and storm the place all psychic-like?"
Elodie slowly raised her head to give Jack a dark glare. "Jack, you very well know how much using my powers like that drains me. I won't be able to anything if I'm too tired to walk. Summoning Thunder Unicorn back at the apartment was bad enough! I'm still a bit dizzy from it. And even if I could use an army of duel monsters, I wouldn't! A lot of people could get hurt that way, and it would do more harm than good."
"Fine, then," Jack snapped. "We'll have to infiltrate the building and find him."
"How're we supposed to do that?" Naomi asked skeptically. "The only people who can do into the Facility are either prisoners or Security guards."
The three teens sat in silence for a moment, completely stumped and defeated by their situation. Suddenly, Elodie's eyes lit up and a grin spread across her lips. Jack and Naomi could almost visibly see the light bulb turning on in her head.
"Uh-oh," Jack groaned. "I know that look!"
"Do tell, do tell," Naomi encouraged.
"Only Security and prisoners can get into the Facility, eh?" Elodie smirked. "We can arrange that."
"Say what?" Naomi and Jack exclaimed. But Elodie was already looking around her, searching for who-knew-what in the trash heaps surrounding them.
"Ah-ha!" she exclaimed, pulling a tattered, stained overcoat and a pair of farmer's overalls out of a wall of garbage. "These'll work. Ooh!" she cried again as she found an old, wide-brimmed hat. "And this! Naomi, I'll need to borrow your hat."
"What? ! No!" she protested indignantly, crossing her arms protectively over her head. "Find your own stocking cap!"
"Naomi, please, trust me!"
With a heavy sigh, Naomi pulled off her hat and handed it to the psychic. Elodie took it and, flipping her head down, pulled the hat on so every strand of her hair was hidden. Then, to Jack and Naomi's shock, she dug her fingers into the mud beneath their feet and smudged it all over her hands and face. Next she took the wide-brimmed hat and shoved it on over Naomi's stocking cap. After struggling for a couple of minutes in the small space, she managed to pull the overalls on over her jeans and then took off her own red jacket, threw it in Jack's face, and pulled on the overcoat, buttoning it over the overalls.
"Well?" Elodie asked when she was finished, spreading her arms out and smiling at Jack and Naomi. "How do I look?"
Naomi and Jack just stared, mouths agape, wondering if Elodie had completely lost her mind.
"Are you insane?" Jack asked incredulously. "You look like a hermit that just crawled out of the sewer!"
Elodie laughed. "Perfect! Now –."
"Hang on!" Naomi interrupted. "Before you go on with your crazy plan, if I'm going to get involved in this rescue – and you're gonna use my hat – then I have one condition to make."
"What might that be?" Elodie asked with a small frown.
Naomi looked Elodie right in the eye and said, "If I'm going to help you save Crow, then you have to help me save me brother and my best friend."
"Are they prisoners in the Facility?" Jack asked, his eyes wide.
She nodded once. "Yup."
Elodie smiled at Naomi. "You can count on it."
Naomi grinned back. "Alright, then. What's the plan?"
Elodie chuckled softly as she crawled over to the opening. Two men in Security uniforms holding search lights were just about to walk passed the gap. Elodie smiled wickedly and raised her duel disk. "Now we're gotta find a Sector Security uniform that'll fit Jack."
The guards never knew what hit them.