When dawn rolled back around, the dry storm had coated the landscape in dirty shades of yellow, brown and orange. A gentle breeze was already starting to sweep away the top layer but thick coatings lingered on smooth surfaces. From a distance, the huddled collection of Duel Runners beside the truck looked like a collection of misshapen rocks beside a fallen obelisk.
With soft white clouds obscuring the morning sun, Obake carefully examined the pills sitting in the palm of his hand. For the last few years, he had been forced to live in the splendid confines of the New Domino Scientific Research Centre. Working in the utility tunnels hadn't been the easiest job around but it was productive and allowed him long stretches of completely avoiding people. Obake had attempted to integrate with the main hub of personnel advancing their fields at the SRC but couldn't shake the paranoid sensation that any one of them could be reporting his every move back to Yliaster. Coupled with a painful aversion to light, he had simply retreated beneath the ground and literally buried himself into his work.
A quiet sound disturbed his musings as Luna emerged from her pod at the far rear of the truck. "Hey," Perching on the edge of one side the lengthy booth, she refrained from fully committing to sitting opposite him. Pity could only take so much edge of being taken hostage.
"Hello." Eyes remaining hidden behind his glasses, Obake could see the lines under her eyes where Luna had slept poorly.
"I looked up nitric oxide." With the sum total of human knowledge at their fingertips, any internet sleuth could quickly become an expert in any field overnight.
"Did you now?" Placing one pill at a time into his mouth, Obake dryly forced them down his throat. "I suppose you realised why I have to take it."
"Most people use it as a supplement." According to rumour, it was a super-vitamin that cured everything from erectile dysfunction to some forms of cancer.
"Most people produce all they need from a good day in the sun." Following a slight accident by one of the astronomy teams – involving an explosion, a prototype telescope design and far too much red tape – one of the SRC rooftops had been uninhabited and unobserved for a few days. After just an hour in the sun, Obake could literally feel his skin starting to burn. For the next week, it would blister and peel in increasingly painful waves. "I am sorry," Slipping the sugar pill between his molars, the Englishman crushed it slowly. "About yesterday." Society raised children on the simple belief that an apology can overcome any wrong. Clearly, most of the parents had never had a knife on their throat.
"I understand why you reacted that way." She didn't really though. There was still a piece of the puzzle Obake hadn't shown her and had no plans to show her. "But it's going to take a lot more coffee before you earn my forgiveness."
"Well then," Sliding out from behind the table, Obake hunted down an immobile kettle. "I should probably get started on breakfast." Drawing some water and leaving it to boil, he opened the voluminous fridge to find something to eat. "I know it might sound mad," Balancing a pot of crab in one hand, he piled various vegetables on his arm. "But we should probably wait here for a bit. There's something I think you'll be surprised to see."
"Really?" Suddenly remembering the rush of exhausted bodies from the night before, Luna tried to think of a way to explain the four extra passengers to Obake.
"It won't make up for my behaviour yesterday." Piling the ingredients across the worktop, a rolling jar almost fell to the floor before it was snagged by a quick hip pressing against the counter. "But I thought it might ease the tension slightly." As he began slicing cold potatoes into a pan, the lower-centre pod behind him opened and Jack emerged into the light of day, escalating Luna's own tension exponentially.
"I can explain!" Grunting non-communicationally at her outburst, Jack stalked his way into the small bathroom and closed the door behind him.
"That sleeping pill must really be something." Following a cowards escape plan perfectly, Obake had been seen the night before taking a pill from the medicine box before going to sleep. It appeared to
"What do you mean?" Adding in some greenery on the verge of going bad, he dribbled a small amount of oil into the pan and set it on a low heat.
"This is all just a dream caused by stress and drawing on my plans for the day." Content with his explanation and the idea everything was fictional, the delusional cook continued to sprinkle and prod ingredients. "In an area the size of a continent, the odds of two people crossing paths by accident are staggeringly low. It makes more sense that I'm still dreaming."
"Is that food?" With abilities beyond mortal understanding, Crow somehow managed to detect the sweet aroma of cooking from inside his hermetically sealed pod and poked his head out. "I can smell food." There are some things that an imagination simply cannot dream up and the hungry look in his eyes was one.
"Er, yes." Seeming to come back to reality, Obake switched to autopilot as his hands continued to cook and eyes began to widen. "Bubble and squeak. Traditional English." Mind overloading slightly, he turned to see Leo hammering on the door to the bathroom as Jack began causing a backlog. Even his most disturbed nightmares didn't involve such bizarre circumstances.
"Never heard of it." Sliding from his berth, the ginger Duellist was wrapped in that loose dressing gown he had found in the storage container beneath the mattress. "What's in it? Where did you get the beds? Is there any soda?" Opening and shutting cupboards until he found plates, the energetic flow of conversation was starting to unnerve Obake.
"Various vegetables. Came with the truck. None left." Grabbing a jar of preserve, Obake tried the final defence that a sleeping mind rarely detailed a label. Staring back at him in corporate blandness, a list of ingredients dispelled the last shred of hope he had left that this was all some drug-induced horror. "Umm, Luna?" Reaching for his last point of sanity, he didn't see Akiza sneaking behind him towards Yusei's bunk. Sliding inside, she carefully removed the cerebral inhibitor from his forehead before anybody else could uncover his condition.
"They also came with the truck?" Force into waking by a cruel and uncaring physician – or simply woken up when he would have preferred a few more minutes silence – Yusei was just in time to overhear the hopeless excuse.
"Is there any coffee?" Finally emerging from the bathroom, Jack wondered if it was possible for a strong enough odour to actually curl paint. "I need coffee."
"Found the coffee!" Rifling through cupboards, the brothers caused mess equal to a small tornado hitting the truck. Yusei could tell, having actually seen the footage.
"What was your surprise?" Having to shout over a brewing argument, Luna tried to divert attention away from the ongoing civil war.
"There were sightings," Flashing back to The Pig Incident, Jack and Crow instantly redoubled their fighting in an attempt to bury the memories. "Of your friends yesterday!" Already struggling to be heard over the noise with his weak voice, Obake began distracted them with a plate of cooked vegetables each.
"What is this?!" About to launch into some tirade about vegetables and 'proper food', Jack was stopped before he could begin as Obake wedged a cup of coffee powder in his spare hand and topped it off with boiling water from the kettle, stirring it erratically before turning back to the gently smoking pan.
"Nice truck." Swallowing the still steaming vegetables, Crow slid himself into the booth opposite Luna.
"It is, isn't it?" Having quietly observed the commotion from behind, Yusei finally spoke up as Obake finished dividing up the piles of breakfast on plates.
"Professor Fudo." Freezing in place, various fall-back plans that involved false identities and hidden money floated across Obake's mind. "What a lovely surprise!" Slowly turning around, he eked out every possible second to think of something, anything, that could get him out of this predicament. Various neurons permanently fizzled out as they failed to produce any results.
"You know what it really reminds me of?" Graciously accepting one of the plates, Yusei put on his stern face. "It looks just like the new Grayston prototype they just finished testing at a facility certain people don't have clearance to know about." That criteria included just about everybody within a two-hundred-mile radius. Yusei himself was only allowed to know for diplomatic reasons and because the leader of said facility was a professional admirer. "But it couldn't be, because the Grayston is highly restricted and there's no legal way you could have gained permission to use it."
"It's funny you mention that." Not ones to miss out on drama, Jack and Crow craned their necks around as their brother passively made a show of enjoying his breakfast. "There was a computer crash at the SRC recently." Remembering the time Abi had sucked up all available processing power to help advance Akiza's research, the two scientists remained carefully quiet. "Afterwards, I set up a server for a visiting research team." A slight stress on the vague phrase indicated Yusei would know which one Obake was talking about. "They asked if there was anything they could do and I mentioned my upcoming vacation."
"Which I expect to hear more about," Keeping both eyes focussed on Yusei, Obake carefully made a mental note to ask Yliaster for a quick death instead. "Just as soon as we get back to New Domino."
"Might I ask how you found us?" Passing a plate to Akiza, Obake began rummaging through cupboards for various condiments. Under other circumstances, being discovered in the middle of nowhere would have been terrifying but he hadn't accounted for the distracting presence of Jack and Crow. "The ... makers didn't spend a small fortune making this truck all but physically invisible for nothing." Per international laws that most people didn't even know existed, all countries had unanimously agreed not to pursue certain projects such as teleportation, miniaturisation or human cloaking technology. Otherwise, a certain American agency – which could disavow all knowledge of the vehicle – had built it to contain every gadget and gizmo they could think of.
"That's classified." With a full night's induced coma and a plate of warm food making headway towards his belly, Yusei was back on the top of his game and ready to tussle with the best. "Do you think you can keep up with us if we decided to stay together?" After their first conclusive encounter with a Yliaster Agent, he wasn't eager to lose track of his friends so quickly.
For his part, Obake was sidelined by the question. He hadn't originally planned on an actual conversation, especially on the morally/legally grey area of his use of the truck. Being put on a leash was a bad sign of upcoming punishment. "There are several other competitors in the area I was hoping to attend to." With a depleting hold and finish line in sight, Obake was keen to shift as much of his remaining resources as was possible. "We can try and stick close. The truck has a Deacon engine and Monroe suspension. We won't be more than an hour away."
Hearing the sort of equipment the van had installed, Yusei almost choked. Deacon-class designs had once been used in the American space program and the most worrying thing about Monroe designs was the way they tended to outlast any other component. After a while, the designers had started work on classified projects that only got more and more sophisticated and secure. With such levels of technology in it, the truck was a veritable goldmine. If the owners heard Yusei had his hands on their invention, heads could have rolled.
"Okay. Just try and stay close." Putting his plate to one side, Yusei did a quick headcount and came up one person short. "Wait, where's Leo?"
Slipping out of the small bathroom, all eyes watched the futile attempt at surreptitiousness fail dramatically. "Do not go in there." Breathing deeply in the fresh air, four days without a real toiled had unwound all at once.
"Please tell me you opened a window." With a cloying stench irrevocably staining the robe Leo was wearing, Crow could almost see the odour lines rising off him.
"There's a window?" As the rest of the group began arguing and shouting, Obake thanked whatever particular force had guided his life that he had showered early.
"Wow!" Spotting the comfortable cockpit area, Leo sprinted the short length of the truck to fawn over the controls. "Is there where you drive it?" Growing more concerned with the constant fiddling of switches, Obake sidled closer to the inquisitive young man as Crow bravely took one for the team and braved the stench of the bathroom to open a window and spray some air freshener. "Cool, can you play games on this?" Tapping away at the computer screen, Leo was quickly browsing maps of America, Legend of Duellist Kingdom statistics and even a vast array of external cameras.
"Is he always like this?" Pushing the fried vegetables around her plate, Luna tried to tune out the overwhelming enthusiasm of her brother as Akiza watched Obake edge closer.
"Awesome!" Bouncing in his seat, the group watched Leo test the steering wheel and jiggle the gearstick until the top lifted up to reveal a hidden button.
"No!" Diving for the control, Obake cupped his hands over the red lump before it could be pressed.
"Is that?" Nobody really needed to hear the end of the sentence to imply the words 'self-destruct button'.
"Only if I didn't rewire it properly." Carefully capping the button again, a polite but firm grip on Leo's shoulders escorted him away from their collective untimely demise. "A leftover from the previous design." A couple of shotguns had also been found by the reconstruction crew alongside several pounds of explosive. There had been so many hidden compartments in the original truck it was a wonder that anything had been found.
Forced into the booth, the young man edged away from the uncomfortable superior air Luna was projecting. "Don't say anything." She didn't but that snobbish air seemed to grow thicker. As Yusei berated his subordinate for possibly driving around with a probably live explosive device somewhere on board the vehicle carrying his friends, the other three Duellists slowly cycled through the bathroom to take a shower and make use of the other facilities. It was a long lecture.
"We'll head towards Kentucky." The next state across, it was a straight shot towards the finish line and the most obvious route to take. Unless Yliaster was thinking in the paradoxical style of 'the most obvious is too obvious, they won't do it' – which was not entirely outside the realm of possibility – they would hopefully be able to eliminate a few Agents and rack up the final few points they needed at the same time.
"Imagine a scribble on the map." Sticking to the shade to avoid unwelcome sunburn, Obake was throwing out unhelpful information as the rest of them gave more heartfelt farewells. "There's no telling exactly where the Duellists will be but that's where we're going."
"Try not to get into trouble." In fairness, Obake had survived two years with what he could immediately get his hand on. With the temporarily stolen truck and two sane minds keeping him under control, the pale man might not attract as much attention this time.
"Professor Fudo, I would never." Placing a hand on his heart, the group instantly tuned out the practised lies.
"Take care of Leo for me." Reaching up to hug Jack, Luna whispered the command with a slight tightening of her arms.
"It's okay." Scowling less – his particular version of a beaming smile – Jack continued to stare down the road with palpable impatience. "I'll throw Crow at them." Somewhere else in the world, a minor prophet probably sat up in confusion and realised their big moment had just slipped by.
"Take care of the idiots." Wrapping her knuckles on Yusei's helmet, Akiza tried to not be worried. Yliaster was producing Shadow Cards – and it was anybody's guess how – but Team 5D's was completely powerless in response.
"Don't we get a tearful farewell?" Leaning on his handlebars, Leo was moping at Crow with the trained emotional state of a young adult.
"If there's one thing a real lady knows," Adjusting his gloves, Crow was as anxious to leave as Jack. "It's how to completely ignore your existence."
"Try heading for Columbia." Appearing like a pale ghoul (Crow unable not to think 'vampire' after Luna's description of a pale man she had never seen sleep who avoided sunlight), Obake seemed incapable of an actual emotion as his face remained perfectly still. "Most Duellists will skirt the major cities and congregate on the smaller ones." It was true, Team 5D's was guilty of the same tactic. Going through a large city was like begging to be swamped by fans and stuck in traffic. In smaller ones, they could breeze through and occasionally encounter an opponent.
"Already got it covered, thanks." It wasn't that Crow disliked the young man but he didn't like him either. "You guys ready yet?" Craning his neck around, Crow received a welcome thumbs up. "You might want to step back." Turning to warn Obake about the departing Runners, Crow was unsettled to see him leaning against the truck again. "Man, that guy creeps me out." Edging out into the road, he tried not to focus on the unblinking gaze that even the sunglasses couldn't completely mask.
"See you later." Giving his shoulder one last squeeze, Akiza watched her old friends ride off to another day of Duelling and danger. Part of her wanted to go with them and fight the good fight. Another part was just as happy putting it all behind her and getting on with helping others.
"Team Black Baron was just spotted in Warsaw." Plugged into all kinds of social media, Luna's ability to keep track of different trends was serving her equally well in hunting down Legend of Duellist Kingdom participants.
"Let me guess. A small town somewhere near here?" Colonial settlers had been lazy and unoriginal naming their settlements. Europeans could land on the west coast and easily find a dozen familiar names before dinner.
"And Team Mantis has been sticking to the south roads." Following her older friend back into the truck, she didn't even notice Obake was already in his seat. "They should probably converge around Lebanon. We can catch the Duel if we hurry." They were both more open to accepting the speeds that the truck could go now that Yusei had explained it basically had a rocket booster hidden beneath the bonnet.
Calmly listening to the various directions and decisions the women seemed to have taken over entirely, Obake carefully led the truck in the opposite direction to the four Duellists. Even if they headed for each other at respective top speeds, it would be at least an hour before they were able to make contact. Whatever challenges they would face that day, it would be on their own.
Drifting slightly south as they headed mostly west, the group encountered little traffic on the backroads and continued heading towards the finish line with barely a word. Trying to hold a conversation was difficult in the monotony of the drive. Even eight years of separate history wasn't enough to fill the silence after three days of oversharing. As they entered another undefinable stretch of road between control of towns and cities, the group finally found something to talk or, rather, complain about.
"Is it me," Clenching as they rode over a series of potholes and bumps in the road, Jack broke the monotonous silences of driving past endless fields. "Or is this entire country just one big series of small towns?" More accustomed to large cities, the relaxing atmosphere had faded after thirty seconds and was starting to drive his already low patience into reverse.
"It's more empty land." Despondent with no exciting activity to keep his mind active, Leo was quick to quip. "Just nothing, nothing, more nothing. Wait, what's that over there?" With the collective poor joke sense that most men shared, the three brother's didn't even need to follow his pointing arm. "It's more nothing."
"Leo's easier to handle when he hasn't slept." Running on only a half a metaphorical tank, Leo had been as amendable as Crow when offered vast sums of money.
"Good news!" Trying to brighten the mood – and seriously creeping out everybody as a result – Jack nodded at his screen. "We might have company." A tiny signal was just about flickering into range down south as they blasted through the appropriately named Kingdom City. "Who handles them if it's Yliaster?"
"I'll take them on." Still playing the part of the martyr, Yusei was still willing to throw himself onto a literal sword in order to save his friends from the mere risk. "What odds are we taking on it being Yliaster?" As the hisses of poor taste sounded from all around, Yusei tapped out the digits of pi on his handles with the corresponding fingers.
"Yusei, Yliaster want to kill you and banish your soul to a place of endless pain and torture." Jack actually sounded angry enough to take on the entire organisation if they were there at the time. "We're not placing bets." Driving past another two small towns that seemed impractically close together, they let the signal creep slightly closer as St Louis loomed in the distance.
"So, seven to five on?" Catching the withering gaze of his brother, Yusei decided to let the issue go as they pulled into a service road just outside Warrenton. Ten minutes later, they were joined by their chasers, pulling to a halt in a large cloud of dust and skidding tires.
There were only three of them in the team. At some point in the past, it had been four but nobody quite knew what had happened to the lost member. Their Runners were a stark contrast to most machines seen on the road, dented and rusty from lack of care and anything but essential maintenance. Each one was driven by a muscle-bound man wearing equally worn jackets and dented helmets. Arms had been left bare to the elements and were coated with numerous scars of all shapes and sizes. Dozens of Duelling Teams made their names for any number of reasons but the ones attached to the grinning Duellists were all the wrong ones.
"Team Wrecker." Nodding familiarly, Yusei edged his Runner forward into the middle of the road.
"Hear that?" A nasty tinge entered the smile of the coasting leader as he stopped with his front wheel just a few inches from Yusei's "Yusei Fudo knows who we are." Named Sean, Wayne and Craig, the three Americans were an oddity on the circuit. Most Duellists of their nationality were nice, respectable people. These three had criminal accusations longer than Crow's rap sheet but always managed to wriggle out of trouble with expensive bribes. "We was hoping to run into you." Resisting the urge to correct the grammar, Yusei kept his face carefully neutral.
"That's good to hear. Yliaster?" Thickening his Japanese accent for a moment, his brothers put on game faces as caution was thrown to the wind.
"Did I ask who? Is that one of those funny words?" Unwilling to learn new languages, the team knew only a smattering of common words beyond their own tongue and tended to treat them all as unfortunate accidents.
"Just a saying." Smoothing over the ruffle, he tried to move along proceedings.
"We don't want to talk, we want a Duel." Cutting to the chase, the angry face behind the mask already had a victim picked out.
"I'll discuss it with my team." Edging back to his own group, Yusei called his team into a close huddle with a single nod of the head.
"Okay, who wants them?" Grabbing Leo's hand before it could actually raise, Yusei stared at his other brothers. All three knew who they were facing off against.
"Hang on," Straightening up, Jack used the particular glare than indicated he had a plan brewing. Reading his few expressions was a trick his family had quickly picked up. Returning to his Runner, Jack coasted out into the middle of the road.
"We've discussed it amongst higher management." Throwing out the sorts of meaningless phrases that mired endless meetings with imperceptible progress, Jack attempted to negotiate with the aggressive team. "You can Duel our junior member, with us on probation." Equal parts hurt and excited, Leo just sat in emotional turmoil as the other group thought over the offer.
"Fine." Already moving on with the plan, Team Wrecker quickly selected their own representative.
"Crow, you're up." Walking away from the group, Jack sat back down on his Runner.
"Why can't I Duel Team Wrecker?" Full of youthful energy, Yusei had to quickly move his Duel Runner between Leo and the American crew before they noticed his enthusiasm.
"Leo, these guys aren't nice people. Do you know why they call themselves Team Wrecker?" A hopeful theory was because they were quiet, polite people who 'wrecked' parties that got too loud. "They have a habit of breaking apart the Duel Runner of whoever gets in their way. Trust me, this is a not a fight you want to be a part of." Seeing the group in a new light, Leo was afraid. Scars that he had dismissed from accidents suddenly looked like battle wounds. They held themselves not stiffly upright like Jack but looser, swaggering and looking for a fight. And there were lumps beneath their outfits where no sane man would hide something shaped like a large screwdriver... or a small knife.
"Okay." Hanging back with the rest of the team, Leo watched as Team Wrecked sent out their own representative to Duel Crow.
"Name's Sean." Throwing out a crude gesture, he quickly went down in Crow's little book of grudges. "Take the first turn, it won't help." Taking the invitation at face value, Crow sped off before Sean could claim back the advantage.
(Turn 1)
Crow: LP: 4000 SC:1 Hand:6 Field: None Graveyard: None
Sean: LP: 4000 SC:1 Hand:5 Field: None Graveyard: None
Eventually reunited by Sean, Crow tuned out the brutal levels of curses directed his way. "I set one monster and two cards." With Calima the Haze's hidden 1800 DEF and Black Feather Beacon in case he took any Effect damage, Crow was ready to ride out the first retaliatory wave. Joined by the rest of the onlookers, Sean took his turn as they approached the outskirts of St Louis and started having to weave through thicker lines of traffic in the last stretch to the city.
(Turn 2)
Crow: LP: 4000 SC:2 Hand:3 Field: 1 Monster, 2 Spell/Trap Graveyard: None
Sean: LP: 4000 SC:2 Hand:6 Field: None Graveyard: None
"I summon Gene-Warped Werewolf (L4/2000 ATK/100 DEF)!" Walking on two legs and touting four arms, the result of horrific genetic manipulation seemed from removed from the gentle creature it had once been. "Destroy whatever pathetic creature he has hiding." Watching his sturdy defence get blow away, Crow was rocked by strong winds as the depth of his struggle sank in. Gene-Warped Werewolf had the highest attack points of any Normal class monster that didn't require a tribute. "I set one card and end my turn."
(Turn 3)
Crow: LP: 4000 SC:3 Hand:4 Field: 2 Spell/Trap Graveyard: 1 Monster
Sean: LP: 4000 SC:3 Hand:4 Field: 1 Monster, 1 Spell/Trap Graveyard: None
Letting Jack provide a slight barrier between an already celebrating Craig and Wayne, Yusei took the time to fill in Leo on why Jack had picked Crow to Duel them first. "Team Wrecker like to run decks based on Aggro or Beatdown tactics." Up ahead, the super-powered monster certainly seemed more aggressive than normal. "They summon high-powered low-level monsters and stop the opponent from building up any defence."
"Is Crow going to lose?" Making sure Jack was still linked into the conversation first, Yusei let out a loud smirk.
"Blackwing monsters can swarm the field and win a Duel within one turn. It's one of the reasons Jack is worried about Duelling Crow." Up ahead, Jack began shouting and gesturing wildly in the air as Crow took the effort to make a move.
"I summon Blackwing – Vayu the Emblem of Honor (L1/800 ATK/0 DEF) in defence position." Pulling the neck of a black leather raincoat up to hide its face, one of Crow's weakest monsters provided a pivot point for his next step. "Because I've already got another Blackwing monster already on my field, I can Special summon Blackwing – Bora the Spear (L4/1700 ATK/800 DEF) in attack mode!" Wielding a spiral lance almost bigger than its wingspan, the squawking bird was obvious bait in a clear trap.
"Labyrinth of Nightmare, activate!" Cackling skulls formed from the ground as Crow's monsters shifted themselves into new positions while their owner took the I-70 bridge over the Missouri River. "Thanks to my Continuous Trap card, whoever ends a turn has to switch the battle positions of all their monsters." Tall buildings sprang up around them as the two teams entered the city proper.
(Turn 4)
Crow: LP: 4000 SC:4 Hand:2 Field: 2 Monster, 2 Spell/Trap Graveyard: 1 Monster
Sean: LP: 4000 SC:4 Hand:5 Field: 1 Monster, 1 Spell/Trap Graveyard: None
"This doesn't look good for our little mascot." And it didn't. Sean was quick to summon Goblin Attack Force, a Level 4 monster with 2300 ATK and the balancing effect of switching itself to defence at the end of the turn. Due to the Labyrinth of Nightmare, it would simply switch back and leave him with a powerful line of monsters. "Maybe we should have sent in Leo instead." As Leo threatened to explode with joy, Yusei pondered the wisdom of Jack's statement. A Morphtronic Deck did focus on utilising the special abilities of Effect monsters but there Crow had the edge on summoning them.
"I activate Speed Spell – Book of Moon." Sacrificing two Speed Counters, Crow was able to smother the Goblin Attack Force into a face-down defence position as the pair blasted through a set of red lights and let horns honking behind them.
"Fine, I'll just use my Werewolf instead. Sic 'em!" Pounding across the field, the creature grasped Vayu in all four arms and literally tore it to shreds. "I set two cards and end my turn."
(Turn 5)
Crow: LP: 2800 SC:3 Hand:3 Field: 1 Monster, 1 Spell/Trap Graveyard: 2 Monster, 1 Spell/Trap
Sean: LP: 4000 SC:5 Hand: 2 Field: 2 Monster, 3 Spell/Trap Graveyard: None
"Because I have a Blackwing on the field, I can summon Blackwing -Elphin the Raven (L6/2200 ATK/1200 DEF) without a tribute." Wearing a purple shamans vest, the bipedal bird was in for a short stay in the spotlight.
"Floodgate Trap Hole!" Flapping wings wildly, Elphin the Raven was sucked back into its card by a watery hole. This time, their run through yet another set of red lights met not only horns being left in the distance but sirens sounding up ahead.
"No way!" Floodgate Trap Hole was a rare card that could force a monster to permanently remain in defence position until it left the field. "Even though you managed to stop it from tearing you apart, the effect of my Elphin can still force your Werewolf into defence position." Howling in subjugation, the creature was forced to cower behind four crossed arms. "And now, my Bora the Spear can still take down your Goblin Attack Force." Hiding beneath the card, the powerful pack of goblins had 0 DEF. "Go, attack with Black Spiral!" Spinning around the spear until it resembled a drill, Bora dove straight through the unresisting card. "Thanks to Bora the Spear's special ability, it can inflict piercing damage to any monster in defence position." Rocked by the attack, Sean took a stunning 1700 points of damage.
Despite the retaliation, it was not a good situation for Crow to be stuck in. There was a deluge of overpowering monsters coming to tear him apart and his defence was falling to pieces. His hand only consisted of Speed Spell – Tune Up 123 and the Trap card Gravity Collapse which relied upon a Synchro Monster to activate. As for his set card, it was Down Force, a Trap which would prevent the removal from play of one monster. As Labyrinth of Nightmare turned Bora into a single line of defence, his situation looked bleak.
(Turn 6)
Crow: LP: 2800 SC:4 Hand:2 Field: 2 Monster, 1 Spell/Trap Graveyard: 2 Monster, 1 Spell/Trap
Sean: LP: 2300 SC:6 Hand:3 Field: 1 Monster, 3 Spell/Trap Graveyard: 1 Monster
"Think you're clever, do you?!" Enraged that this pipsqueak of a Duellist was daring to fight back, Sean was driving aggressively close to Crow. "Let me show you what clever gets you." Whipping out his card, Sean held it up in the sort of move that had been mirrored the day before. "Witness the power of growth, festering rage put to use." Gene-Warped Werewolf howled as it was dragged into the graveyard. "Behold, Great Maju Garzett!" An overwhelming feeling of dread surrounded them all as the card was slammed into place. Team Wrecker hadn't targetted them by accident, out of professional rivalry or even petty jealousy – Yliaster had sent them with a Shadow Card.
"Leo, sit-rep!" Unfamiliar with the card, Crow didn't feel like waiting around for a long-winded explanation that would be equal parts gloating and boasting as a puss oozing arm wrapped in damp fur from the wrist began forcing itself onto the field.
"Great Maju Garzett is a Level 6 monster with 0 ATK and 0 DEF." Well, that didn't sound too bad. "It has a special ability that allows it's ATK to become double the original value of the monster used to summon it." Hearing the words he was speaking, Leo decided it was better to fall back a ways, Jack and Yusei doing the same.
Gene-Warped Werewolf was at the top of its category, a high-powered monster under Level 5. With 2000 ATK, it had been a tough creature. What was breaking into their reality with an unlimited fury was a creature evolved to the strength of Obelisk the Tormentor, an Egyptian God monster.
"I don't suppose we can talk about this?" Trying to gain as much space as he could from the emerging monster, Sean was viscously grinning beneath his helmet.
"See, we were told to take out Fudo if we could but any one of you is considered fair game and the kid was just easy pickings." It would make sense that Yusei be the main target of the rouge Yliaster factions. It had been a team effort but they had all seen him play the final cards to destroy their previous leader. "With this monster on our side, you're just a stone to be trod into the path." Rippled horns were forced through the growing hole. An arm, shoulder, teeth fused together. Blue bands of scales, malevolent hair sprouting from beneath the shoulder guards. Twenty feet tall, the creature howled as it tore itself free of concept and became a material being.
"Are you open to bribery?" Ignoring the attempts at diversion, Sean weighed his options. Crow's face-down card hadn't been activated when it could have saved him a large chunk of his Life Points so it would probably be safe. Bora the Spear could inflict piercing damage but was of little use against Great Maju Garzett.
"Great Maju Garzett, destroy his Elphin the Raven!" With a higher ATK than Bora the Spear, Elphin posed a marginally larger threat. Unfolding the oozing arms, three orbs on Great Maju Garzett's head and shoulders began glowing with an intense light.
"Get out of there!" Pushing as fast as his Duel Runner could take, Crow ignored the urge to respond to Jack's superfluous advice as he sought to distance himself from the inevitable fallout. Reaching into the card, a struggling Elphin was dragged into view and held before the mighty creature as helpless as a lamb in the jaws of a dinosaur. Unable to do more than caw in panic, the three orbs adorning Great Maju Garzett unleashed a powerful explosion that shattered the side of the bridge as Crow took a right-angle turn to cross the Mississippi River. Though it would later be attributed to a gas leak and nobody was killed, scenes of people covered in dust and rubble were stuck in Yusei's mind as he was forced to keep up the chase.
"Looks like you left yourself wide open!" Though Great Maju Garzett had double the ATK of Gene-Warped Werewolf, it was still stuck with the printed 0 DEF. When Labyrinth of Nightmare forced it into defence position, Bora the Spear would be able to both destroy the great creature and leave Sean barely clinging to a few remaining Life Points.
"Speed Spell – Mystical Space Typhoon." Taking his Speed Counters to level with Crow's, Sean opted to destroy his own card instead of losing an overwhelming advantage. "And take this too. Speed Spell – Sonic Buster." This was about as bad a combination as Sean could have come up with. In the space of one turn, he had destroyed Crow's strongest monster, stopped Labyrinth of Nightmare from leaving him unprotected and Speed Spell – Sonic Buster had the ability to inflict damage to Crow equal to half one monster's ATK – 2000 points of damage from Great Maju Garzett.
Ducking and weaving across the highway, Crow was barely able to avoid any direct hits but was pelted by fragments of erupting rock and stone as the blast shattered the road.
(Turn 7)
Crow: LP: 800 SC:5 Hand:3 Field: 1 Monster, 1 Spell/Trap Graveyard: 3 Monster, 1 Spell/Trap
Sean: LP: 2300 SC:5 Hand:2 Field: 1 Monster, 1 Spell/Trap Graveyard: 2 Monster, 2 Spell/Trap
Dazed by his brushes with death, Crow tried to focus on his new card. Blackwing – Delta Union. Not a Trap card he was familiar with but it was in his Deck all the same. Special Summon all Blackwings destroyed on this turn. Crow didn't bother to read any further. It was useless right then. But he already had a plan underway. "You know, that monster's really something." Drawing up commands on his screen, he flicked through the history of the current Duel. "I know a lovely old blind lady who could do with a guide dog."
"When this creature has buried you, we'll take our measure from your friends." Falling for the taunt, Sean was more focused on his own anger and less on what Crow was trying to do.
"Uh-huh." Finally finding what he was looking for, Crow edged closer to the inside barrier. "Keep dreaming." On the field before him, the Blackwing emblem manifested itself in a ruby glow. "From my graveyard, I activate the effect of Blackwing – Vayu the Emblem of Honor!"Appearing inside the outline, Elphin the Raven let loose a series of harsh caws. "By removing Vayu and one other Blackwing in my graveyard from play, I can perform a Synchro summon." Enveloped in flames and hardship, Elphin was stripped of feathers and garbed in something more fitting its role. "Gust fiercely, Blackwing Armor Master (L7/2500 ATK/1500 DEF)!" Reborn with new intent and metal coating, the Armor Master was still barely half the size of Great Maju Garzett.
"Do the math. There's a lot more of my creature than yours." Self-assured in his own power, Sean had failed to fully account for exactly why Crow had been chosen to Duel for Team 5D's.
"Oh, yeah? Armor Master, take him down!" Soaring across the gap between the two players, a tightened metal gauntlet rebounded off the jewel in the centre of Great Maju Garzett's forehead.
"Wait, why is your monster still standing?" Unphased by the suicide run, Armor Master continued to beat at the steady air with wings of steel.
"Flying, actually. Blackwing Armor Master doesn't take any damage and can't be destroyed in a battle." It made not only for a strong defence but a perfect offence as well. "And when he fails to destroy a monster, he leaves behind a little something for them." Buried in the jewel, a tiny dagger had been left behind. "Of course, every loan has a price and when Armor Master takes back his Wedge Counter, your monster loses all its ATK." Cracks that had formed around the dagger became chasms as it exploded, shattering the gems in each shoulder as part of a chain reaction.
"So what?" Incensed by the damage to his creature, Sean was uncaring of the danger he was in. "You left your Bora-Bora in defence mode. There's nothing else you can do!"
"It's Bora the Spear, not Bora-Bora." Calm with victory on his side, Crow was ready to accept the slight. "I activate Synchro Ring!" Closing the gap to his brother, Jack chuckled as Yusei and Leo fell into a tight pattern behind him.
"If you can't beat them, steal their cards and hope for the best." Some years ago during the Fortune Cup, Yusei had used the exact same Trap in his Duel against Akiza. It was a perfect fit for Blackwing Armor Master.
"When a Synchro monster I control attacks a monster you control but doesn't destroy it, it gets to double its ATK and try again." Swelling into enormity, Sean finally understood his folly.
"It looks like the pipsqueak might be worthy of actually joining us after all." Ignoring his brother's quips on the radio, Crow directed his monster to tackle Great Maju Garzett into the ground and tear it to shreds. As the limbs flailed about in death throes, great lumps of tarmac and paint were flung everywhere. Jack led Yusei and Leo through a narrow path that avoided the worst of the rubble and simply ignored the pieces that bounced off them. Craig and Wayne, who had only been making crude jokes about Crow's death moments before, were caught in the debris and found themselves tumbling end over end as Sean was hit by a limb and his Duel Runner totally destroyed.
(Game Over)
Winner: Crow Hogan
Crawling away from the wreckage of his Duel Runner, Sean was screaming the sorts of words that only very old or very rich people are usually allowed to say. Falling on the ground, a card that had almost cost Crow and several bystanders the gift of life dissolved beneath his fingertips. "Take that back to your bosses." Breathing heavily through a blow to his stomach, Crow was still a formidable sight with the enhanced Blackwing Armor Master hovering behind him. "And tell them we'll take them on any time they want." With the rest of his friends joining him, Crow turned and continued down the highway. "Can they still see us?" Checking behind them, Leo was amazed at the backlog of traffic already forming around the failing Duellists.
"Not unless they can see through three trucks and a dozen bodies." Picking up the pace, Crow chased the end of the traffic ahead.
"Let's get out of here." Coaxing a bit more power from his engine, he gained another notch on the dials. "Because I don't want to do that again."
"We had such high hopes for you." Dryly keeping pace, Jack was semi-sincere in his words. "Any new Yliaster goons get to meet you while the rest of us relax in the shade."
"Nice drinks, a few chocolate bars." Getting the theme of the jokes, Leo was readily accepted into the verbal sparring match.
"I'll call Akiza." Keeping only one eye on the road, Yusei was still a better driver than most people. "Get her to set up a meet." It had been a gruelling match and there was little they could do but rendezvous, unwind and prepare for the next battle.
Crow's turn-around victory had not gone unnoticed. A short distance beyond the curve of the horizon, a face towards the sensation that the sun would never shine again and a sound that could at best be described as 'purplish-black'. Dropping a bloody masked face to the ground, it set a new course, not towards the epicentre of the explosion but a few hundred miles to the west.
In the end, Crow had picked out the perfect place to meet up. Driving westward, he had stopped the group a short distance on the outskirts of a town he had liked the look of. When pressed for a reason, he had simply turned, pointed at the sign behind him and said: "Because Sparta is all about the little guy winning." Unable to come up with a better reason to move on, the four friends had walked their Duel Runners a short way off the road and collapsed from moderate exhaustion. It had been twilight when the experimental truck driven by Obake finally made it to the meeting place just an hour or two after the agreed time.
"It's my fault." Clambering out behind Akiza and Luna, Obake ignored the tearful reunions and opened up the side of the truck. "There was an accident between two teams and it took some time for help to arrive." America believing in the power of money, under-insured foreigners taking part in a competition had the lowest priority. Instead, Akiza had rendered almost frontier medicine insofar as the Grayston truck came more medically equipped than a few of the towns they had driven through in the journey across the land until a real ambulance arrived
Pulling out a large foldable table from the now sparsely stocked innards, Obake dragged out a set of thick covers as well. "There's another storm forecast for tonight." Cleaning their Duel Runners enough to become usable again had been a gruelling task once and the group weren't eager to repeat the process. "How was your day?" Everybody tensed up slightly. Obake was an unknowing bystander in a complicated war between the group and Yliaster. Trying to explain the existence of Shadow Cards was an unnecessary complication they weren't going to have.
"Not bad." Easily the best liar of the group, it was also the most trusted member who spoke up. "We only had one Duel and made some good ground." Tugging the cover into place, Yusei tied it into place around his wheels.
"Of course, Crow almost fouled it up." Struggling to cover his unique Duel Runner with the cloth, Jack waited for Leo's inevitable desire to do anything for Jack to kick in and help him. "Idiot got himself down to 800 Life Points."
"Isn't that still a fifth of the total amount?" Locking the container back up, Obake seemed trying to make an effort to understand.
"It's the principle of the thing." Finally managing to pull the cover over the single enormous wheel, Jack noticed innumerable tiny bumps and scratches in the material that indicated the growing need for a replacement. "Only a Duellist could really understand." It wasn't a harsh statement – Jack had actually been unusually polite in recent days – but it was enough to force Obake to revaluate himself. Despite all his efforts to fit in and the endless help he had given, the group only saw him as another face in the crowd. It was a sobering reminder of his position. Clambering back into the truck, he despondently began picking through the fridge for enough food to sate four starving men.
"Groupie alert!" Barrelling out of nowhere, Crow's reflexes were sharp enough that he was able to throw himself to the floor before Musume could get him in another choke-hold.
"Too slow." Turning to face the slim bundle, he was mortified to see her brown leather jacket lying on the floor as a body wrapped itself and his back and began squeezing the air from his neck.
"I said," Tightening her grip slightly, she waited until one leg collapsed before letting go. "Groupie alert." Snagging her jacket from the floor, she slid it atop the long-sleeved white shirt that covered every inch of her voluptuous frame. "How's tricks?" Reaching down a hand, she helped Crow to his feet as he continued to make noises like 'gak', 'ahr' and the always popular 'skrgl'.
"How did you find us?" Crunching various parts of his throat back into place, he tried to shake the feeling his friends were quietly judging his every move.
"Somebody blows up half a town, you tend to hear about it." Zipping the jacket back up, she shared nods, crude gestures and cold shoulders with the rest of the group. "Nobody dead but several reports mention a Duel happening shortly before. It doesn't take a genius to figure out somebody hunting Yliaster would be at the centre of it all." As they tried to accept the inevitable logic, Obake carefully negotiated his way down the stairs with about a dozen different containers cradled in his arms. "Two questions," Drawing a knife from up her sleeve – which had been curiously free of knives just a minute before – Musume pointed it at a spot just between a tub of tuna and another of mashed potatoes where the barest hint of a grey shirt was showing. "Who is he and is there anything to drink?"
"Two questions," Carefully unloading the packets, Obake didn't spare her a second glance. "Who is she?"
"That's only one." Grabbing a container of squid, she speared a piece on the end of the knife and began chewing. With two at least partially masked face staring one another down in companionable anger, the situation could explode at any moment.
"How to hide the body depends on how much I like the first answer." Acting as if nothing was out of the ordinary, he continued to unpack the various packs of food.
"Let's all stay calm," Sliding into the stand-off before somebody could be stabbed – that would inevitably come later – Akiza was quick to diffuse the situation. "Obake, this is Musume, an... old friend." With her creepy attachment to Crow, there was no other way Akiza could think of to explain Musume. "Musume, Obake works with Yusei and me at the SRC." A sudden flash of memory crossed her mind. Obake had been present for all of two seconds when Musume broke out of her containment pod and the flying piece of metal risked taking his head off. In the commotion that had, she had completely forgotten he had even been present.
"Okay then." Sliding the slim blade back to places unexplainable, Musume grabbed the rest of the container and began shovelling the food down her gullet with a lack of manners that made Obake shudder.
"I'll get the rest of the food." As the sun fully dipped below the horizon and darkness began settling across the land, they managed to feast on several courses of food that Obake had planned on giving out to a dozen teams over the course of the last day. Musume was reluctantly accepted into the group and it was several tense minutes before anybody even realised their host had simply gone into the truck with a stack of dirty containers and not returned. Unfortunately, that 'anybody' happened to be Musume and she managed to raise enough to care to pause between dishes but little else.
After an hour, Obake returned briefly to bring some short candles, carry away the dirty dishes and containers before coming back out again only long enough to set a small fire and vanish again. With that unsettling way he blended into the background at the SRC, Akiza barely noticed him but realised that he had been there by the impact he left behind. "We should probably turn in." More physically exhausted than mentally – Akiza found her constant worry at Obake's next snap had drained most of her energy and Luna had been drained by having to help set a pair of broken limbs – the pair had decided to turn in early. "It's the last day of the competition and I don't want to miss a minute of it." With three members of the group down, Crow exhausted from his encounter with the Shadow Card, Yusei still tired from his four-day lack of sleep and Leo at the stage where he was constantly tired, only Jack and Musume seemed like even a half-hearted threat. And that was with Musume half-dead from an entire bottle of rice wine as they all schlepped from the table to relax at various points around the campsite. All this and more was plainly in view to the shadowy onlookers.
Wisely assuming that Jack would be the greatest threat, Team Wrecker carefully edged themselves towards his slumbering form, hefting large pieces of wood or wrapping cloth around knuckles. Since their sore defeat earlier that day, all had been waiting hungrily for the chance of getting revenge. "Ready?" Their official leader was Craig. A thug with a face that only a very blind mother could love, he was holding a thick branch picked up near the road. "Now!" Swinging down with all his might on the whispered command, Craig hit Jack with unerring accuracy in the stomach, knocking all the air out of his lungs and cutting off all chances of calling for help. Unable to offer much in the way of retaliation, the world champion was only able to curl into a ball and wait for the rain of blows to stop. After several minutes, Craig grunted the attack to a halt, correctly assuming that Jack must be unconscious by now. Working around the campfire, he pulled the group up next to the second one-man tent. Their plan, simple to the point of idiocy, was proceeding well. After taking out Yusei, he held no doubt that his crew would have no obstacles between them, a good nights feeding, and a veritable trove of unique and powerful cards.
Already sure of his victory, Craig made the worst mistake any criminal could. He relaxed and the bar sank a few inches, catching his victim in the leg. Normally, this would be no problem but the unexpected resistance jarred the bar loose from his hands, Leo waking from his low slumber with a yell. As other blows started to shower, he continued his banshee scream, raising the rest of the camp. Obake was first to react, scrambling out from within his truck and shielding his eyes from the dim light of the banking fire. Seeing the circling threat, he had time to shout a single word before a sturdy punch sent him out into the darkness.
Akiza and Luna tried their best to leave the cabin and help but the door refused to open. Several tugs of the handle and even a few boots against the pane of glass made something clear – they were locked in tight. "Did Obake do this?" Scrambling through the cupboards, the pair looked high and low for anything they could use to escape.
"Just find something to open the door." Outside, Crow and Yusei had managed to engage a Wrecker each. Unsurprisingly, Musume was proving herself easily capable even as Yusei was caught in a strong hold by Craig and Crow managed to trip a charming fellow named Sean over. Returning from the dark like some vengeful ghost, Obake practically flew through the air and grappled Musume's victims from behind.
"Now now," Wrapping both legs tight about the thick torso, he applied a choke-hold strong enough to make even the big man dizzy. "Play fair." Even in the midst of the fight, his impeccable mannerisms refused to slip as Musume watched in bemusement and headed off to help with the other two. Forgoing the idea of 'fair play', his rodeo ride – by the name of Wayne – bucked hard enough to send Obake rolling. Even more unfair, his latest acquaintance pulled out a switchblade knife and held it in a menacing posture. "Nnn," Watching the light glint off the blade, Obake suddenly seemed unable to control a stutter. "How about we go our own ways?" Bravely deciding underhand tricks were perfectly valid, he lifted one leg and tried to kick Wayne in what some people referred to as 'the rocks'.
Back across the banked campfire, Yusei managed to backhand his opponent across the face only to receive a solid blow in return. Running low on sleep already, the blow was enough to split his vision in two for a short time and it was only the heroic distraction of Musume that stopped him from turning into another body in the backroads. Sadly, Crow's fighter also took advantage of the commotion and threw Crow against Yusei, leaving Musume momentarily fighting alone and letting Craig grab Yusei in a tight hold by his neck.
Whilst Musume tried not to break anything vital in her muscle-bound target, Obake was faced with the prospect of a charging rhino and his back to the wall of the truck. His reactions were fast enough to catch the wrist before the knife could sink into his stomach but he didn't spend enough time lifting weights to force it back away. Behind him, Obake could see the struggle Musume and the others were getting in. "Please don't do this." Voice filling with tears, he tried appealing to the better nature. "You don't have to do this." That seemed to give the scarred face pause.
"Nah, but I wanna." With renewed vigour, Wayne slid the blade slightly closer, eagerly anticipating the rising fear in the pale face. When it didn't come, he figured it was because shock had set in. That happened sometimes. Just not today.
"I'll try not to kill you." Dropping his hold on the wrist, Obake smashed his forehead across the bridge of the nose in front of him. An effective manoeuvrer at the best of times, it was aided by pulling down on the shoulders and a slight jump. Blind from the sudden stars, it was impossible for Wayne to see the blow coming to his throat or realise the hold dragging him by one ear and pushing him on the other would result with a painful collision with the truck. Stars gave way to a nebula and Wayne found himself stumbling around dazed. Had his skull been less accustomed to taking heavy blows, it would have knocked cold outright. Instead, he was back upright and heading for Musume with increased levels of anger.
Further out from the caravan, Yusei managed to wriggle the hold on him by punching the soft flesh behind Craig's knees. Craig was a broad man and suddenly having no legs to stand on made him anxious to not smash his face into the ground, even going so far as to drop Yusei for just long enough to regain his footing. Beside him, Sean was taking pleasure in taunting Crow. Whilst the young man had the edge on speed and dodging, any of the blows from Sean could lay him out cold and put too high a risk on getting closer. Musume was fairing worst of all. Unsure of exactly how much pressure she could exert, she was pulling her punches until they were little more than light taps. There was any number of ways she could end this fight but most of them also ended Wayne's life at the same time. She was just solidly taking the blows and waiting for him to tire out.
Heaving himself upright from the ground, Obake fumbled the door with a curse, pushing Luna and Akiza out of his way as he did. Tearing a false panel from the back-panel to the booth bench, he pulled a slim device from inside and tore a tiny sliver from one end. Forcing them all further into the truck, he threw the cylinder through the door and slammed it shut behind them again. Even in the middle of the fight, Yusei recognised the tiny flying package just in time to cover his ears. Crow was smart enough to follow his example, throwing an arm across his face and clamping it down tight. The Wreckers, too ignorant to know what was really going on, followed their instincts and threw up arms against their own eyes. Yusei managed to get off a solid kick into his opponent's torso an instant before the stun grenade exploded, solid walls of sound and light engulfing all the fighters in the area. Musume, Akiza, Luna and their cover were protected, enclosed in their own little worlds. Wayne, slower than the rest, collapsed to the dirt before Musume like some humbled acolyte before his angry god. Yusei fared next worst, his eyes barely a foot from the explosion and the light blinding his vision whilst his covered ears were left only slightly-ringing, the complete opposite of Crow. Musume was quick to finish off her opponent, a well-placed tap to a nerve cluster lapsing him into unconsciousness.
Savouring the triumph, she turned to see a deafened Crow fending off attacks from his opponent as Yusei swung wildly about himself, his own opponent approaching Crow from behind. Time slowed to crawl as Musume launched herself across the distance, screaming all the while. A powerful uppercut sent one Wrecker flying into the darkness, a shattered jaw his memento of the fight. The other managed to knock Crow down into a daze, his arm still raised in the punch as Musume hurtled herself headlong into his chest, propelling the pair across almost several meters as his ribs cracked beneath the onslaught. Punching him relentlessly, she was only aware of what she had done when someone caught an upturned fist and was flung over her shoulder for the trouble.
"Get off." That same someone was quick to tackle her off the comatose body, watching Akiza and Luna set to work on the wounded. Yusei was sitting perfectly still on the floor, occasionally waving a hand in front of his blank eyes. Leo woke up, coughing up his dinner at first but quickly progressing to dry heaving.
"Damn it!" Obake limped over to drag Musume upright by her arm and began pulling her towards the others. Dropping her beside a deafened Crow and directed the pair towards his truck Obake hefted Yusei over one shoulder and kicked the remaining pile of branches into the flaring embers in an effort to renew the fire. Careful not to scare his boss too much, he gently placed him against the thick tire and let Akiza take over medical responsibilities.
"What's wrong with his eyes?" Leo was able to sit up by now but still looked pale and held his head slightly to one side. Akiza gently tied her hairband across Yusei's eyes, knotting it gently at the back of his head before tapping the unresponsive figure on one shoulder. Prodding again, she apparently came to a sound medical diagnosis and pulled back her hand. The sound of a solid slap hitting Yusei's face almost drowned out her apology. The former Signer snapped out of his shock and touched the tender skin on his face and the wrapping about his face with two fingers of his right hand.
"Oh." He struggled to his feet, ignoring Obake's attempts to help him up. "How did we do?" Akiza watched Luna tend to Jack as she talked with Yusei.
"Jack has some abdominal bruising but should be fine." She gently laid one of her left hand on his shoulder and slowly directed him towards the bottom step of the truck, talking in a comforting tone all the while. "Leo took quite a heavy blow to his stomach but only seems to be mildly nauseous as a result and Crow took a nasty blow to the head and maybe lost his remaining brain cell." She gently seated Yusei on the step and crouched down in front of him.
"And then there's me." Yusei tapped his right temple with an index finger, an errant smile playing over his face. "The blind leading the blind." Akiza slowly lifted one side of the bandage and shone a pencil light at Yusei's pupil. Heavily contracted, the eye darted around the socket as Yusei vainly attempted to see about himself. "How bad is it?" Akiza lowered the blindfold again and patted one of Yusei's hands.
"I'm sure that you'll be able to ride in the morning." She threw a quick glance over at the rest of the group. Obake had handed Leo a small bottle of water for him to rinse his mouth out with before moving to help Luna care for Jack and Crow. Crow was conscious but barely lucid and Jack showed little signs of stirring with a healthy snore echoing across the miles. "Everyone else seems to be pulling themselves back together. Come on." She tugged him upright and lead him back into the truck. Gently pushing Yusei onto his bunk, she helped him remove his shirt and tucked him under the covers. "I want you to stay here for the next few hours." Yusei would have wept to see the expression on her face as he reached up a hand toward his eyes. "And leave that there. Doctor's orders." Yusei treated her to his dazzling smile.
"Of course, Dr Izinski." She squeezed his hand once before heading back outside to assess the situation. Obake was vainly attempting to stop Crow from getting to his feet and Leo was practically drooping against the side of the truck in an effort to remain upright. Team Wrecker were, to a man, out cold. Musume was sitting apart from the rest of the group, staring at her shaking hands. Akiza knew that if even a single Wrecker was to awaken, she would be unable to protect the others by herself. Obake had a solution to the problem, swiping two pairs of handcuffs from behind the false panel and clamping Team Wrecker together by the legs.
"Can you hook up the Duel Runners to the back of the truck or something?" Obake turned to his left and stared at the vague silhouettes in the deepening darkness.
"Only if they don't belong to a world champion." Following the shape of the Duel Runners, the problem quickly became evident. Crow and Leo's Runner were basically cuboid blocks but Jack's was a single giant wheel and Yusei's arch would either have to be removed or ride alongside the truck with the rest of the machine. "Patch up two drivers or they're getting left behind."
As the de facto head of the stricken team, Akiza quickly assessed the damage. Jack couldn't stand upright even if they could wake him up, Yusei was blind for several hours at best, Leo was still puking in the bathroom and only Crow was even remotely capable of riding a Duel Runner. The flashbang would leave him with a ringing in his ears until the morning but his sight was relatively fine and a few painkillers from Obake's military-grade supply would leave him free enough to ride. It was not the solution she felt medically comfortable giving but the other options included waiting for another Yliaster-sponsored team to hunt them down, abandon the Duel Runners or get another person just well enough to ride again.
"Luna, help me get Jack and Leo inside." Luna finished patching up Jack before she turned to help her brother.
"On it." Akiza started to pack up the medical kit and threw it carelessly back into the truck in preparation for the off. She hefted Jack over her shoulder with Luna taking his other side. Between the two of them, they managed to load the rest of the group onto the truck. There wasn't enough room for everyone to be treated around the table so Akiza clinically dumped him into the booth to let him sleep it off. As they placed their wounded friends about the truck, Obake loaded the two smaller Duel Runners into the area beneath his truck and sealed it up again. Slipping inside, he dropped their Duel Disks onto one side of the both and snagged a pair of scissors and a roll of tape from beneath the sink before taking his seat in the cockpit.
"Musume will do it." Buckling his way into one of the spare seats at the back, Yusei had come up with the solution to a problem nobody else had wanted to break to him. "She can ride my Runner."
"What?" Still slightly in shock, Akiza had placed the masked woman in the seat across from him. "Why me?"
"Akiza's the doctor, the rest of us are barely alive." Carefully tracing the plugs, he slipped another into the correct socket. "Plainly because riding a mono-wheel takes a lot of practice so Crow can drive Jack's and you can drive mine." It was a minor miracle that Jack didn't wake from his stupor and kill them all as Crow riffled through his pockets for the keys. "Obake, do you know anywhere we can hide?" After avoiding Yliaster for two years by himself, it was a fair bet that the young man wouldn't stop anywhere without having at least one way out and another to hide indefinitely.
"A couple." Hissing through the sound of tearing cloth, he tried to focus on two problems at once. "Make sure your friends don't crash into the back of us – I won't be using any lights." Some particular wanna-be spy had pressed to have several alternatives installed and each one was more unorthodox than the last. One seemed to be a type of sonar and another reacted to movement. "And hide those damn tournament cards in the truck somewhere – I don't want somebody tracking us again." As Luna carefully gathered the unique slips of plastic and stored them safely in individual pods, Akiza made a last round on her patients to make sure they were well enough to take a bumpy ride in the truck.
"Any wooziness, light-headed or pains?" Poking spots on Leo's stomach, Akiza watched him wince and moan. "You got hit in the stomach. Nothing broken, take some painkillers and call me in the morning." Her people skills were only matched by her often cold bedside manner. She usually found it most effective to treat her patients with a touch of bluntness. It saved time in the long run and she could be comforting when they adjusted to their realities. "Crow, how's the hearing?" To his mind, she was just mouthing mean insults at him. It probably spoke volumes about the mind behind the eyes. "Here." Handing him a couple of pills and some water, she pointed towards the door.
Up at the front of the vehicle, Obake slumped down into his seat and looked the length of his transport. "Everybody ready to go?" There was an almost comical groan of suspension as he settled into the biting point, heavily weighed down by the Duel Runners loaded onto his truck.
"How long do you think we have before they wake up?" Luna slowly edged herself up the corridor and folded into the passenger seat as Musume closed the outside door and the twin roars of Jack and Yusei's Runner filled the night.
"A few minutes until they wake up. Maybe an hour or so until they get free." A slight jostle had him hiss and slow back down to a slow jog until they reached an actual road. "I punctured a few tires as well. They're not catching up any time soon." Another lump in the road had him grunt but Luna was too busy trying to bring a map up on the screen to notice.
"Any idea where we're going?" Something crunched under the wheels of the truck as the darkness sucked away all but a few feet of road ahead.
"Away from here." It occurred to the pair that although being passengers on the trip of a lifetime, they only had a cursory idea of where they were. In all the excitement of the tournament, they hadn't paid much attention to where they were going. "Try and get some sleep, you'll need it in the morning." Luna gave a snort, realising that the sheer amount of adrenaline in her system could overcome several mild sedatives.
They drove for just over two hours, stopping infrequently so Akiza could check on her patients' progress or one of them could use the bathroom to vomit. Both happened too often for Obake's peace of mind but he put up with it. In truth, he needed to stop as much as any of them but years of balancing risks put stopping higher than going on. After countless backroads replaced flat country with thickly crowded forest, Obake finally turned on faint foglights to gently guide the group down a winding road between the trees. After another twenty minutes speeding down narrow lanes and twisting corners, the driver gently let the vehicle coast to a nearly complete stop and crept down a dirt track on nothing but clutch control and the lowest controllable gear.
It was a miracle that they hadn't hit anything in the dark but when they finally reached an area safe enough to take a breath the first thing Obake did was collapse backwards in his seat. Luna stretched her tired muscles before fumbling on the centre display to find some command for the lights along the galley. At some point in the drive, her companion had donned the robe-like hoodie again and was covered up like a murder victim at a crime scene as the door banged open far behind them.
"Riding a Duel Runner is so much easier on my legs. I should get one." Tossing the keys towards a blind Yusei, Luna fumbled the catch as Musume settled herself against the counter and looked at the sorry ensemble of passengers.
"How is everybody doing?" Thinking he was whispering, Crow was speaking at a nearly normal volume as he carefully replaced the keys in Jack's pocket and hauled him in the direction of his sleeping pod.
"We're all still in one piece, thanks to Leo." Still dazed by his ordeal, Akiza had ruled out a concussion and sent the young man to bed. "Yusei should be able to ride in the morning and Jack will have a nasty headache but he doesn't seem to have a concussion. Where are we?" Obake pried himself away from the steering wheel and waved one pinned-back sleeve to indicate the trees visible through the front windscreen.
"We're in the Nantahala forest. It's about nine hours from the finish line. Wherever Team Wrecker is, they shouldn't be able to track us." Last time, they appeared to have ditched Sean's busted Runner and followed them by sight but the shadows of night had shrouded their movements this time. "One of the genii who worked on this beast put in signal blockers. Only the people in this truck know where we are." Tensing his muscles slightly, he seemed to stifle a yawn. "I'm going to put covers on the Runners outside, just in case there's a tracker on one of them." Slipping through the group, they waited for him to close the door before talking.
"How much does he know?" First to break the silence was the constantly unhelpful Musume as she unbuckled her antique Duel Disk to add to the growing pile in the booth alongside Jack's own. Under normal circumstances, they would have been left attached to the Runners but the group was on high alert following the attack and unwilling to take the risk of the key piece of equipment getting sabotaged or stolen.
"Obake thinks Yliaster is a religious cult." Rising to his feet, Yusei looked in her rough direction. Everything was starting to become a big dark blur which was better than nothing. "Everything practical is true, everything unnatural is superstition. What about you?"
"Team Wrecker had a Shadow Card." Meeting his blind stare, Musume tried to overpower it but kept sliding off his impassive barrier. "It's no coincidence that you're here trying to stop Yliaster – half of it anyway."
"No." Shocked by the revelations, Luna simply listened as the rest of the group talked amongst themselves. "These rogue factions seem determined to win at any cost. They've infiltrated the competition, supported teams with Shadow Cards and tried to sabotage us at every turn."
"You think this is every turn?" Reaching into a pocket, she withdrew the cracked remnants of countless tournament identification cards. "I've been hunting them all down since this tournament started." Hunting being the operative word. She had methodically picked away at the forces with either sabotage for the lackeys or outright aggression for actual members of Yliaster.
"One of these days," Watching her carelessly sweep them into a pull-out bin, Akiza look moderately terrified and/or impressed. "We're going to have a long talk about... everything." Seeing another handful vanish into the bin, she wondered how much of the competition had been cut down by their wild friend. "Soon."
"For now, everybody should get some rest." Sliding his hands across surfaces, Yusei felt his way towards his pod by memory, ruining his commanding tone slightly. "It's the last day of the competition tomorrow and we have to get to Annapolis by five." It was a ten-hour drive from where they were hiding and that was if they didn't get taken down by a Yliaster team along the way.
Ducking away from the conversation, Luna gratefully collapsed into her bed and was asleep within minutes. After performing one last check on her patients, Akiza left an array of medical equipment laid out across the booth in case of an emergency and flopped erratically into a light doze she had learnt on the night shift. She could be awake and performing first-aid within five minutes, surgery after two shots of espresso and a sandwich. Finding herself a raggedy blanket in the cockpit, Musume threw her Skates onto one seat, folded down the two across the aisle and was asleep within seconds, courtesy of one of many little secrets she had hoped she would never have to share with anybody. After a few minutes, the only sound was the faint breathing of sleeping bodies – and the tiny click of the door opening.
"Okay," Pressing one hand against his stomach, Obake hobbled back into the cabin and locked the door behind himself. "The Runners," A marginally embellished story about doing the work that had taken two men before by himself fell flat as he examined the empty galley. After the damp sweat, hidden tears and literal blood he had shed, the various acquaintances he had given so much for had simply forgotten about him. In the case of three of them, it was not the first time.
Limping slightly to avoid making any undue noise, Obake found that even his attempt to get some little rest was foiled by the same crazy woman who had threatened to stab him simply because he was serving dinner. Not eager to risk his life again, he turned back towards the booth only to see medical equipment laid out against half the booth and Duel Disks occupying the rest. It was evident that one of two things had happened – they simply didn't care or he was so beneath their notice, they really didn't care to remember him. Regardless of their particular apathy, the end result was Obake left standing with a hand to his stomach in the dark hallway and nowhere to sleep. A normal person would have moved the Duel Disks but having spent two days learning about the pride of Duellists and stories about what Jack would do to anybody who touched any of his Duelling equipment made him reluctant to risk his life on a whim. Instead, as with his flight from Yliaster, he found an unorthodox solution.
Lying perfectly still in his bunk, Yusei's adrenaline-infused mind constantly replayed the events of the night. Both ears had been ringing slightly but he could still hear most of what was happening. Something large moved past his head at speed, headed towards the direction he knew Crow was in. From the shouting he had heard as the person rushed by, it was certainly Musume but what she was screaming sounded impossible. "Get away from him!" A sickening crunch sounded that any seasoned Turbo Duellist would recognise as the breaking of multiple ribs. She managed to scream again, just before the door slammed open and the others could return. Turning over in the bed, Yusei pondered the implications of what he had heard. Cracking ribs, two bodies hitting the floor as Musume sought to protect Crow. Bones crunching, knuckles meeting bloody face. And above it all, Musume's damning scream: "Get away from my father!"
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