Yu-Gi-Oh 5Ds: The Judgement of the World
Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
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Carly's little beetle was useless in this environment, the roads were far too cluttered and useless if she needed to outrace anything dangerous. So they trekked on foot, her with Zalinka, in better street clothes, and Ryu while Junko and Momoe prepped medical supplies. The trio rode down the elevator and left the building and somehow the air just felt more weighed down.
But that was probably Carly.
She didn't often leave without one of the Dragons or with Asuka's group. While Zalinka and Ryu were just, well... Sure Zalinka could summon, but she zoned out pretty hard when she did so Carly wasn't exactly enthusiastic. More over Ryu was both a kid and the son of Lord Kaiba. Just 'hearing' Lord Kaiba's name could make her inwardly flinch in fear since that day. The streets were silent, not even quiet, just silent. Carly spent their arrival to the outside trying to hear something. But no scraping of paper on concrete or rattling of empty cans.
"Come on, we can't loiter..." Zalinka urged as she grabbed onto Carly's wrist and Ryu's free hand. His other hand was holding on to one of three flashlights so that he could see where they were going. It wasn't 'painfully' late, but with the thing in the sky and how the dust blocked the sunlight. No real sun passed through all the buildings, smoke, dust and black thing in the sky, the azure sky above was gone... It just felt gloomy.
The dust and smoke they saw from the roof of the condo wasn't here yet, and once Zalinka got the two moving she began pulling out strips of fabric to begin folding and tying them into crude masks. She had nabbed three pairs of thick strong goggles to keep smoke or dust out of their eyes, stupid big maybe. But better big and Carly could use her glasses, than small and she be blind during a run.
"Ok so when you start smelling 'anything' slap these over your noses and don't forget your goggles." Zalinka ordered as she observed the street ahead of them with almost feline predatory observations.
"Desert training?" Ryu asked politely interested, father had let him visit Egypt but not the desert yet. But he could recall the gear she would wear on particularly windy days.
"Yeah, sand is one thing and sadly this isn't going to be as great as I would like. Dust being smaller than sand and all, but this is the best we got and we want this trip so." From there she began explaining to the pair how to use the fabric to make a square mask. Explaining that it was used by the original Dark Magician to protect his face from any form of dust. Because the original triangle 'was' nice, but it was not good enough when dealing with concrete dust among other possible air borne irritants.
Ryu passed along the flashlights and the trio made their way off towards the Momentum building. Sneakers didn't make a lot of sound on the ground outside of scraping the occasional smaller rock away. But it was something to listen to, as no one really wanted to have a conversation at this point. If there was battle they needed to hear it first not last, if a hostile spirit lashed out an attack against them. Again hear it coming not after the blast.
A small shop had its lights on, but upon looking in no one was visible. So odds were they fled after the boom, or they were hiding behind something sturdy out of fear. Either option would be smart.
Only for the sound of the door to chime causing Zalinka and Carly to stop and turn.
"Grandma? Hey Grandpa? Are you safe? Are you here?" Ryu called out doing his best 'kid voice'.
"Oooh is it safe yet?" An elderly old man's voice called out before a balding head and pair of thick black frame glasses appeared.
"Its safe for now, but you might want to close up early gramps!" Carly answered over Ryu's head as she jerked her head towards the danger area. The old man nodded and his wife appeared and shuffled her steps towards the register.
"I didn't even think to check as we went along..." Carly smacked herself in the forehead after the door had closed behind Ryu. "I'm glad you're here Ryu," she praised with a supportive smile.
"Office training..." He answered with a beaming smile.
The old couple were out with the quickness expected of people who normalized potential disasters. Off into the night they shuffled with their own flash light and chatting about the inventory they would need to buy for the shop. Perfectly normal stuff despite the fact that they heard such a large explosion.
The trio resumed their own journey, this time keeping a better eye out for possible shops still being open. Ryu was the first in the end to pull up his mask, and the women followed suit on principle as the darkness felt worse... It was haunting by that point, the dust drifting into the flashlight beams more insistently. Pipes, trash, anything could appear as a limb or a possible spirit accompanied by the haunting sounds in the distance.
The roar of a dragon being the first.
A challenge, or maybe just defiant announcement it shook the air and even the dust shivered at its raw power. The piercing shriek of Black Rose Dragon they knew like the back of their hands, but the others not so much. Though really Ancient Fairy issuing 'any' roar seemed impossible.
"I bet Ancient Fairy would sound like angry pan pipes," Carly remarked as she wiggled the goggles a little more. They squished her nose or jarred her glasses in a weird way making finding that perfect balance all the more necessary.
"Is there such a sound? Maybe she just sounds like an angry goose?" Zalinka countered, even the idea of such an irrational sound coming out of the dragon didn't make sense. They had stopped walking and she held her flashlight up to help Carly target in her effort with her goggles. 'Wish I had more time but Jack had these in the room with her bike...' "Or just an angry snake or cat like hiss would be better. LifeStream Dragon was meant to look like a wasp right? I imagine a giant wasp coming for someone's face is 'far' more effective than any sound Ancient Fairy makes."
"You got a point, when her card manifested there really isn't a file for her so who knows how she would sound if she hissed in a duel." Ryu admitted as he recalled looking at the massive sound library for the game. "I know its not much but I've sat and watched the process of creating sound files for new cards. Foley work is fascinating, Father and I just sat for several hours and I think it was the first time he did it too. He sounded as impressed as me at their work!"
"What was it like?" Carly asked as she finally tried putting glasses and goggles over the mask only for both to fog up. 'Why me?'
"Well, there's this large room with all these things, pots, pans, whistles, random stuff I was told the sound for certain dragon wings is just a large swath of leather. Originally anyway, now there are recordings for a serious of variations for dragons with metallic wings and other possible sounds." Ryu recounted. He had been five years old when his father had taken him to the Foley studio and he could still recall the space. There had been several long rectangles on the floor, that was explained for when creating sounds for walking on certain surfaces. Large sheets of metal, horns, chimes, rubber tubes sticks of various sizes made from different materials from wood to metal and even glass and crystals!
"Its neat that its still in practice, after all these years and with computers where they are now you'd think they have every sound imaginable and then some." Zalinka observed as Carly went through several various methods to deal with her glasses and goggles conundrum.
"I asked Mother actually, she said that in every nation outside of America its illegal to produce any form of entertainment that does intentional economic harm to the people." Ryu explained while the elders just gave him this flat look.
"Gee your mom sounds like a rule book. Which I know for a fact to not be true," Zalinka retorted before Ryu shot her this look.
"You ever hear of 'White Lion'?" He counter retorted.
Zalinka blinked and exchanged glances with Carly for all the good it did her as the reporter was still working on her goggles problem.
"Black Lion?" She tried.
"Ha sort of. As Mother told me, an American producer wanted to prove the legitimacy of using AI. Then got permission to make a new Black Lion trailer based on the original movie, using all AI. Because the lead had passed away but left enough voice work to allow for an AI to make an exact copy of his voice, he wanted to prove there was no further need for really anyone in Hollywood below producers."
"I remember a bit on this when I was studying being a reporter," Carly recalled, "riot, it caused a riot right?"
"Sure did, he was so confident in AI that he forgot he knew nothing about programming. The AI used old Hollywood movies to define certain... aspects of the movie..." Ryu explained with this mischievous grin that would fit on Crow and his little flocks faces. "So imagine having a young white man with flowing blond hair, playing a 'black' character, with a black man's voice, and a hero cast being reanimated as all white save the token least used character being black. Oh and all the villains are black."
"Is it too late to riot? I 'love' Black Lion." Zalinka grumbled as she tried to imagine the sheer audacity.
"Oh it didn't stop there, Mother said that realizing what happened the guy rushed to the back and claimed it was the wrong copy. So he would show the Chinese release of the trailer and begged to be forgiven for the obvious subtitles and stuff. This time Black Lion was depicted as a Chinese man with a white cast and a token black person in the back."
Carly pulled off her goggles in frustration and held out her arms, "Take me now I'm ready to die."
"Mother said that after that nations made a point of banning AI from the entertainment and political spheres. The only reason Japan receives Hollywood movies is because it was forced into trade deals. Most people go to Bollywood now or American indie movies, but just to be sure any job that uses a person can 'not' be replaced by AI."
Zalinka just stood there trying to imagine Black Lion being done so dirty. "I wonder if Father knew."
"If you didn't I'd say he knew and didn't want you to find out," Carly suggested. "I'm not a movie reporter by nature, but that just..."
A scream, muffled and pulled low by the dust erupted out of the darkness, stealing their conversation as the group went still. A loud roar, perhaps a lion, drowned it out as each person's mind went to the only person who has a large predatory cat duel spirit. Topaz Tiger, one of Jesses' Crystal Beasts.
"Oh no that's a tiger," Carly groaned.
"On the hunt given those screams," Zalinka recognized in mounting alarm.
"What do we do?" Ryu asked, the sounds were bouncing off the walls of the building.
"We have to help whoever they're hunting, just as much for Jesse as for the victims," Zalinka answered.
"Right," Carly answered as she shoved the goggles crudely over her face. "It sounded like it came from that way," she pointed as the pair nodded and followed her.
As they ran, Carly started out in the lead, but as her breathing fogged up the goggles and her own glasses she began to lag behind. Ghosts were starting to form in the mixture of fog and darkness, given life by the glow of the cocoons that were tethered to Carly. Because of them and the bouncing orbs of light from the flashlights the others carried. She was becoming dependent on those lights, gold for her cocoons, white for her friends.
'Poor Tiger, it must be breaking the Crystal Beasts hearts right now. Being forced to hurt people, Jesse has such loyal spirits that he 'has' to be a good kid.' Carly ruminated as she ran, trying to think what her poor fairies would do if she ever 'went to the dark side' as Star Wars would put it. Vehicles loomed in her vision as they ran the odd mixture of yellow and white flashlight beams mingled with the cocoons.
They kept running towards the source with the sound of the screams and roars bouncing louder off the walls. Carly nearly spilled onto the sidewalk having missed the step before resuming her run chasing after the shadows of Zalinka and Ryu. She swung a left at the bobbing shape of them as they disappeared behind a moving truck.
Literally disappeared as she slowed to a stop in dismay as she looked around. Her breathing was already hard enough but without her footsteps she heard... Nothing... "Oh no. Nonono..." Worry filled her as she tore off the goggles. Hanging it off her left arm looked around, her flashlight whipping across the area with the speed of a police car. No footsteps other than her own, with her already loud breathing the only breathing she could hear.
"Zalinka? Ryu?!" Urgency painted her voice as she pulled off her glasses and gave a frantic rub of the lens to clean them of the fog. Shoving them back on her face, Carly looked about and all she could see was the city street that she was on. When had been the last time she heard them? The pounding of their feet on the city street, the breathing... 'how long did I run before I realized I was alone?!'
Another roar rumbled through the air, with enough force that she saw the antenna on the near by truck tremble. It was louder than before, so much so that it raised the hairs on her arms and the back of her neck. Almost as though she got the worst luck because she was separated from her group and yet the closest to the danger.
'Is it worst for me or them? I mean from what Yusei said, Jesse isn't a bad guy. Why would Topaz Tiger be out here after anyone unless it was for Jesse?'
Off into the darkness she could hear the scuffling, it was faint of course, distant and she couldn't tell if it was on the other side of a building or what. But sounds that signaled that whoever Topaz was hunting was still alive. "I owe it to Topaz. I owe it to all the Crystal Gem Beasts to try and stop him. I can imagine how Jesse is going to feel when he's freed... I'd never do the same thing to you fairies. If someone controlled me I know I'd want you to do the right thing no matter what..." She announced to the hovering cocoons.
She looked down at the goggles, jangling uselessly at her elbow where they had slipped down and sighed. The fabric mask that Zalinka had given her was doing good enough keeping the dust from going down her throat or nose so...
Following the sounds of running wasn't easy, the voices, when she heard them, were not the typical elderly voiced couple. But she couldn't place them, the grocery couple wouldn't run, they were the bold pair. The convenience story couple had already gone home, the tailor couple lived in the completely opposite direction... 'It has to be just regular local people..' it was the only thing that made sense. Then she heard a young scared girls' voice. Amid her running her stomach had tumbled out and was left splattered on the road in horror.
'Kill a child and I don't see how anyone could come back from that. Either the Spirit or Jesse is going to die from self loathing!' she thought as fire felt consuming to her, from her legs burning from the constant running to the sharp sensation of air forcing its way down her nose. Sweat was pricking her skin, but nothing was cooling her off after the sound of that small child.
Doubt was left behind with her stomach, it made so much sense to have Jesse send the Spirits out after civilians. Break these kids and their spirits... 'All the while I beat Yusei and the others have their hands full with Yubel and the others.'
Yubel made things so annoying as well, Carly's instinct made her hate Yubel for what they were doing. Yet what Judai told Yusei made them just as much a victim as the Crystal Gems. 'What happened in outer space that could warp anyone so horribly?' she pondered in the back of her mind as she tried to find some sign of the people. Better them than the tiger.
'No catching that tiger by the tail.'