Everyone inevitably had a 'Do I smell toast?' moment around Leo. It could be sooner rather than later, it could take a couple of weeks, but it was an unavoidable certainty. Around minute eighteen of spinning wildly on the floor, Jaden had developed such a 'toast' moment that he could practically smell the butter. Or maybe that was the carpet burn gently grinding a bald spot on his temple. "How often does he do that?" Violence was an inherent part of his nature that Jaden kept tightly restrained. Being turned into a human spinning top long enough that he was still staggering an hour later was enough to push that patience to the limit.
"If I have my way?" Although for a far shorter duration, being pinned to the penthouse wall had left Luna with muscles so stiff that she was walking like a toy soldier. "Never again." Even the usually placid Phantom had been irate with Leo. From her limited vantage point on the wall, Luna had watched her twin undergo the most articulate lecture of exactly how his thoughtless disregard for the severity of what he was experimenting with would render the penthouse mystically unprotected for at least the next week. It was the most bizarre reaction she had ever seen from someone currently having their legs confiscated (Musume holding both overly-trusting teacher and suicidally-impatient student equally in need of punishment).
In lieu of straining tempers or piling additional punishment atop the likely fatal reprimand coming Leo's way, the wiser twin and honoured guest had lurched awkwardly in pursuit of fresh air and freedom. Now they were stumbling through the streets with all the grace of two young people recovering from too exciting a night before. "Urp." Jaden abruptly pressed one hand over his mouth and leaned against the nearest wall in the universal sign that he was trying to retain his breakfast.
"Disgusting." Snorted a precision-tailored suit passing by.
"He has motion sickness." Luna shot back with her usual calm becoming unusually pointed. "What's your excuse?"
"I'm alright." Jaden tried to wave down her concerns until another wave of nausea forced him to focus on maintaining steady breaths. "Maybe a couple of minutes?" He smiled weakly.
Smoothing down the back of her cardigan, Luna quietly leaned against the wall as Jaden held his forehead against the cool surface. It was a nice day out. Sunny skies, warm air, cool breeze. Enough clouds drifting idly past to break the monotony. And, most importantly, gravity returned to the correct constant it had always been. "Yubel, how are you feeling?" The floating being sneered down from above before pointedly disappearing. It was understandable – Spirits rarely encountered any barriers and being rendered helpless had infuriated Yubel to the point that (had Musume not been present) Leo could have been in lethal danger.
"Urgh." Slipping around, Jaden joined his companion in admiring the weather. There were a couple of darker clouds growing in places. Maybe a refreshing rainfall could alleviate some of his queasiness. "What good am I even doing here?" Depression and despair weren't his usual band of emotions these days but it was nice to finally let out his real feelings.
Luna took one look at him as her expression hardened into the most stubborn glare that side of granite. Locking his arm in beside her own, she wordlessly began dragging him at a steady pace down the street. "Please," He begged instantly. "Not too fast." Dizzy as he was, a newborn kitten could have steered Jaden and Luna was irate enough to ignore the power imbalance. Stopping at the nearest bus stop, she forced him through the doors in time to delay the departure and forced him into the nearest empty pair of seats after taking the window for herself.
A guy across the aisle noticed Jaden's visible discomfort and casually closed the distance in a stretching yawn. "Do you need help?" He whispered low enough that Luna wouldn't hear.
"What?" Jaden felt an instant rush of gratitude for the stranger. "No, I'm fine. Getting over some motion sickness." Which wasn't even a lie to feel guilty about. "We're on a schedule and my friend doesn't want us to be late." Although where they were going or when they were getting there was information he hadn't been made privy to.
Mr Concerned Citizen glanced between the pair. Jaden was swaying along with every motion of the bus and Luna had a quiet determination most royals couldn't match. "Sure you're safe with her?"
"Ten thousand per cent." Jaden instantly shot back.
"That much?" Luna's reflection muttered back to them from the shaking window. Jaden and his would-be saviour froze in place as their covert discussion was revealed. "Come on, it's quicker to walk from here." Calling the bus to stop, she shooed Jaden towards the doors. "Thank you for looking out for others." She nodded politely to the intruder. "I'm just having a stressful day."
"We've all been there." The returning smile was slightly less certain than hers had been. Spitting the pair out onto the edge of a pristinely designed gap between several equally precise buildings, the bus soon pulled away and left the duo back on their unsteady feet.
"Not that I'm worried about a kidnapping," Since he was staying in her apartment and was decades away from anyone else to call for help. "But can I know where we're going now?" His grasp of Old Domino's geography was enough to give him a vague idea of where they were but New Domino had completely redesigned the area.
"In there." One arm was already dragging him across the bustling square towards a glass tower, Luna acted as both slave driver and pillar of support.
"Good morning!" Trilled a brightly smiling comb over. "Welcome to the"
"Hi." Luna brushed off the greeting with the authority of someone who knew exactly where they were going at speeds indicating trying to stop her would result in being trodden into the floor. Jaden had barely enough time to wave and mouth an apology before he was thrown into an emptying elevator. "Floor eighty." Huh. Voice-activated lifts. Go figure.
'If we spend more than an hour in here, I will cause an evacuation.' Yubel wasn't one for hyperbole. Exactly how she would cause the building to empty could range from a pulled alarm to a seemingly spontaneous explosion.
"Luna," Jaden tried to subtly draw her attention. "Yubel would much prefer to be outside."
"We're almost there." Uncanny. An elevator the size of a student apartment and she managed to glance directly to where the floating spirit should only have been visible to Jaden. "How are you doing?"
Jaden's partner made herself marginally less invisible. "I'm unused to being stuck in a room." She growled. In proximity to Jaden? Always. Confined? Never. "Your brother gets one pass." If only. Leo had an unfortunate habit of getting second-last chances and infinite second chances. "Now, where are we going? I want to be back outside."
"Don't worry about that." The lift doors opened exactly on cue. "We're here."
'Here' was a bustling observation deck. Even in the lull right before lunch, groups of tourists and schoolchildren were thronging around the open view that curved all the way around the building. Telescopic viewers were sprinkled around the circumference, shorter ones for children closer to the ground. Yubel took advantage of the sweeping windows to materialise on the other of the glass and begin freely swooping around the outside of the building.
"You wanted to know what good you've done?" Dragging Jaden by the hand, Luna pulled him to the edge of the floor as his eyes struggled to adjust back to the shining daylight outside. "None of this would be here without you."
From the tower, it was possible to see the entirety of the city spread out like a map. KaibaCorp dominating the skyline, the Duel Dome far away in the outskirts, and Satellite Island no longer as remote as the moon. Jaden could even pick out Luna's building from the sweeping vista, barely able to see the penthouse at its zenith. From the sweeping mountains in the west to the endless oceans in the east, everything was bustling beneath the growing clouds overhead with the vibrant throng of people living life who didn't know and wouldn't believe the efforts that had gone into protecting them across the years.
"And look over there." Guiding the viewpoint without seeing through it was difficult except for this target. A bit to the right, a check to the angle, down a little bit. "See that?" Being one of the larger clear areas in the city made it easier to locate from any altitude as she nudged her companion to look through the grimy lenses.
"Duel Academy?!" That boyish energy filled his grin again. "When did they build a branch in Domino? How many new ones did they build? Does every city have one now?"
"That's not a branch." She leaned on the barrier and stared out for herself. A lot of good times had happened in those halls and she was still in intermittent contact with Miss Bartlet. Having Patty drop back into her life (no matter how brief) had stirred a lot of old memories. "They relocated Central Academy here shortly after..." Keeping secrets from someone so open was difficult but they couldn't let Jaden know about Zero Reverse. An event that fundamental to their timeline couldn't risk becoming foreknowledge. "Anyway, it was just in time – Academy Island suffered a major volcanic eruption a few months later. Now, it's right in the same city the Kings of Games come from."
"Oh." His tone remained steady and his face concealed by the viewer. "Good timing."
Luna took another look at the situation. She hadn't thought this all the way through. "I'm sorry." Duel Academy had been the home to many lost children over the years. Jaden was more at home on the remote land than he was in the city. Hearing it had become uninhabitable must have been as bad as the first time Yusei had heard about Zero Reverse.
"Was anyone hurt?" A slight glimmer on the glass reflected Yubel on the other side as she sensed his hurt and instinctively came to protect him.
"Nobody at all." She placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. "After the main branch relocated to New Domino, the old academy was emptied out. KaibaCorp planned to renovate it as a private retreat for elite Duellists and they took architectural scans, topological surveys – every inch of the island was recorded for the planning process." Nowhere near as good as the original. More than enough to create a faithful memorial. "There's a holographic recreation they put up sometimes. I always like the bluff out behind the Slifer Dorm."
"Me too." He turned away to look in the direction of the island beyond the limits of the horizon. Ruined now, rugged beauty in his long-ago tomorrow. "You can see the whole island from there." A deep sniff later and he could look her in the face again. "I appreciate the gesture, I do," He hurried to reassure the point despite his pinkening eyes. "But what I meant earlier was what good am I doing here? 'Now' here, not 'here' here." Time travel – making grammatical tenses obsolete since next year. "We agreed to sub in for each other. Yugi's probably doing great teaching the Slifers, Yusei knows so much about history that he could be back any day now. But how am I meant to be in Yusei's place?" Genuine concern was hidden behind his jovial tone.
"Don't worry too much about that." Even before he'd had to start rationing sleep, Yusei was smarter than nearly anyone else in the country. How was anyone meant to keep up with that? "If Yusei had been here until we found out what Yliaster was planning, do you know what he'd be doing? Spending time with Akzia or his brothers, coming to see Leo and me to hang out. And then, once we figured out what had happened, he'd have gone right back to save you and Yugi." She slyly glanced over a shoulder for reinforcements. "How is that any different from where we are now?"
'She has a point.' Yubel spoke in the voice that nobody else could hear. 'These people coming after us would target Fudo wherever he was. Simply recognising you being here will make you enough of a target.' As always, her raw take on reality left a bittersweet aftertaste.
"A god went through the effort to tell Yusei we were in danger." Jaden's endless optimism was only matched by his reluctant effort to move past his own mistakes. "Why would they do that if Yusei was going to save us anyway?"
"Please. Gods aren't all that." Luna struggled to remain the more mature twin. "How much has Musume told you about her new friend?"
"Phantom?" Jaden was far from an atheist but he carried a healthy scepticism that belied his innocent acceptance of all people. Still, no matter how unusual the vantablack armour was, he doubted a deity lurked within.
"No." Even she had to smother a grin at the notion. "Some other 'divine being' is passing through the neighbourhood and decided that it was best to let Musume know in advance." Jaden was coincidentally distracted by the imposing skyline at the same time he tried (and failed) to hide a smirk. "What?" She elbowed him pointedly.
"Nothing." Little could break his game face but it was crumbling under the humour of the situation. "I wish I knew someone grumpy enough to impress gods." Laughing felt good after feeling the pressure of his role here. Then a thought occurred. "Hey, do you think I could ask Musume to take me back when I leave? I reckon Alexis could give her a run for her money."
"Oh." Talk of leaving threw Luna slightly. Even though the whole point was to preserve the natural order of time, she'd unconsciously started to think of the journey as a far more permanent arrangement. "I'm sure Musume would enjoy the competition." Any awkwardness was instantly dispelled as her phone rang. Like some ancient curse, it appeared that saying her name three times summoned the pinnacle of anger. "What a coincidence." She eyed Jaden pointedly. "We were just talking about you."
From his position, he couldn't make out actual words beyond the subtle murmur of a worried voice. What Jaden could see was the blood drain from Luna's face faster than her smile. "What?" Heads turned to the pair as Luna shouted down the phone. "What do you mean Leo's run away?" Continuing at a lower register didn't alleviate her alarm in the slightest. "What did you say to him?" Huddling up on the other side of the phone, Jaden could barely hear the reply.
"What makes you think it's something I said?" So followed a long pause as they all reflected on the inanity of the question. "Fair point." Musume conceded without even needing to hear it articulated. "But this one isn't on me. I was taking a shit, Phantom was taking a swim. I came down, his phone was thrown on the floor and he wasn't here."
"So much for a quiet day away from my brother." Luna sighed and rolled her eyes at Jaden. Even though he had matured over the years, Leo's emotions still tended to get the better of him. It looked like his magical screw-up and subsequent punishment had pushed him to a breaking point. "We'll try his favourite spots, you start making calls and disable his Runner if it's still there. Have Jack and Crow ask Trudge to check his recent purchase and travel history. Akiza needs to keep focusing on her research a priority but I'll give her a call if we've not heard anything by tomorrow morning. Carly can get the word out if we need her to."
If he hadn't heard about her fashionably funded charitable exploits, Jaden could have easily mistaken her for an experienced search and rescue operator. "How did you get so good at this?" Duelling in this era taught many skills he'd never have thought of but surely this couldn't be standard.
"Couple of my colleagues have been held for ransom." She whispered back. "Still got some dangerous places in the world." Even another hundred years wouldn't be enough for society to solve all problems but fashion designers moonlighting as hostage negotiators? Jaden was looking forward to the coming future. "Phantom's sonar... what else do you want to call it?" For the second time, her companion was visibly amazed by the shift in conversation. "Phantom can search a much larger range than we can once she can come out of the pool. Wait there until she does and in case Leo comes back."
"Yeeeaaaaah." Echoed the phone in a universal intonation of someone about to admit their mistakes. It clearly wasn't regarding Leo because the problems would all have stopped if he was walking back into the apartment. "About that."
"Musume." Hearing Luna turn stern only reinforced that latent commander beneath the surface. "What happened to Phantom?"
"After I came downstairs, I found Leo's phone on the floor and a chair knocked over. He wasn't in his room and I thought 'Hey, how about asking that freaky radar in the swimming pool to take a quick look'?" From the description of it, there were enough clues to indicate a silent abduction. With another war against Yliaster brewing, nothing was impossible. "We talk it over, she agrees to go looking. Said that the clouds look like a lightning storm coming and the rain would be enough to cope with being outside once it got going."
"Leo's run away, Phantom's run after him, Jaden and I are across the city, and this is all in the last couple of hours?" Yubel pinwheeling past the window in gleeful freedom underscored the insanity of the day. "Is there anything else that could go wrong?"
Across the city, Musume glanced at her reflection in the full-length windows. Storm clouds made a wonderful backdrop and she had a perfect reflection of her face. Glowing Marks, gleaming eyes, impressive wingspan and curling tail all perfectly reflected in the glass. "Not much." A couple of teeth seemed sharper than normal this time. What was worse, she couldn't exert any real control over the transformation. "I'll let you know as soon as I hear anything." Truthfully, Phantom had taken one look at her and told her the plan. Even if she could fly across the city in minutes, how would she locate a single person among the hundreds of thousands below?
Stepping up to the barrier, she couldn't even bring herself to touch the surface lest it shattered under her strength. Was this how it happened? A single incident, and she was stuck in a permanently malformed existence with the creatures inside starting to burst out?
A faint noise drew her attention back across the apartment as the elevator doors dinged open outside. Phantom would have announced herself in advance and the rest of her family were too far away to have come in time. It could only be whoever was responsible for Leo's disappearance and Musume was glad for her monstrous appearance. In a single leap, she soared across the intervening space and tackled the intruder beneath her spectral talons.
"LEO?!" Musume shouted in panicked relief. How the fuck did parents cope with children full-time? Her uncle stepped out for a stroll and it had nearly caused the death of her. "Where have you been?" Grabbing him by the front of his shirt, she wrestled them both upright.
"I thought about what you said and thought everyone's been really stressed lately and could do with a" He was instantly buried in wings and arms as Musume smothered him in a relieved embrace.
"Why didn't you tell anyone where you were going?" A struggling pat caught her attention and she reluctantly released her quarry.
Sucking in heavy deep breaths, Leo stopped resembling an overripe tomato as he waved for forgiveness. "I text Luna." Fumbling through his pockets, he resorted to the ancient dance of 'Where Are My Keys'.
"Looking for this?" Tossing over the handset, she slowly felt her spectral appendages recede. It was easier when she wasn't fearing for the lives of her family. Earlier must have been a blip. "It looked like it had been thrown across the room." Presumably dropped in the same struggle which had overturned the chair.
"I tripped putting my shoes on." A headache began for anyone within the usual two metre radius of Leo's innocent stupidity. "Oh, that explains that." Toast already? That was fast. "Sent it to Luke instead of Luna. Right beside each other in my contacts list. Completely addendum."
"Adjacent." Pulling out her own phone, she made sure to scroll to the correct number. "I'll call your sister and let her know it's alright."
"At least Phantom got to sleep through this one." Leo laughed in relief. Two mistakes of this severity in succession would spell the end of his budding magical lessons.
There was an awkward pause as the dialling tone filled her ear. "Yeeeaaaaah," Musume muttered in perfect time for Luna to answer the call.
Leaving the penthouse had been a risky gamble that was not paying off. Instead of providing a gentle rain to dampen the surrounding cacophony, enough energy was building in the clouds above to sound like an earthquake in the sky and enhancing her regular suffering. Against the odds, Phantom managed to last nearly an hour traversing the city before collapsing in a lengthy alleyway between two rows of buildings. Being bodiless made her untiring, unceasing, and utterly incapable of managing the pain flowing through every corner of her form.
"Are you okay?" She had been so incapable of filtering the mass of information that it was as if the stranger towering over her had simply appeared from nowhere. "Do you need me to call someone?" What must she have looked like, huddled beside a dumpster in greasy overalls? Judging from the suit made from some form of vulcanised polymer, the man in red was a speed freak on his way for that next rush on the roads. With any luck, he would mistake her for another grease monkey and ignore her in the unifying search for a Nirvana of speed.
No. Regardless of intentions, he needed to go. I just need... to focus. Phantom had been trying to put the world in perspective around her body, as every human had done since the dawn of time. But she had no body to centre herself from and filter everything through.
Reddy crouched down beside her and carefully pulled back his hood to reveal a kind and concerned face. "What's your name?" Face and accent indicated American. Yet even with different age, nationality, and build, he reminded her of Yusei. A gentle kindness and grace. An ineffable aura of speed.
I am called Phantom. She could feel the amusement at her reply radiating off him.
"My friends call me 'Flasher' sometimes. Well," He admitted. "Sort-of friends. We've got a complicated relationship." She wanted to laugh but there was a change in the traffic lights two blocks away and people were flowing across the streets in barely contained chaos. A faulty green sent horns blaring and panic washed over her until she could only quake in terror.
"Hey," Holding a calming hand as if to a cornered dog, the kindly samaritan could see that there was more here than met the eye. "Can I tell you how I keep calm?" Both hands were clawing at the back of her helmet but maybe she had managed the nod she was going for. At least, he continued to offer calming words of reassurance. "Find your lightning rod - something that can ground you no matter what happens. That motivation to keep running even when you want nothing more than to give up." Lightning rods? What was this, a physics lecture? Thunder rumbled through the clouds and sent a shockwave running across the darkening skies.
As the storm blanketed the city in a charged atmosphere, she readjusted her perception. Everything was always in constant motion. People rushed past each other, Runners were turtles to each other even as they went zooming around. The man in the red suit was right, all anyone had to do was follow their natural trajectory towards their finish line - their lightning rod that grounded them.
Which is not to say the agony stopped for even an instant. It too, rolled unceasingly like the endless electricity coursing beneath the surface of reality. But Phantom knew now that she could keep apace of it and not let it overtake her. A hand was still waiting to help her up and she accepted the grip. Thank you... Thick gloves isolated both of them but there was a moment when she could feel sparks dancing across the surface of his suit. Charged, focused, like a chorus of lightning echoing in the distance.
"Grant." The scarlet speedster identified himself, seemingly unaware of what she had felt as the contact dropped away. "Are you going to be alright?"
Well enough to keep running. She said firmly. An accident had made her the impossible. What she chose to do with that was her choice. And she still had work to do. Thank you, for your support.
He chuckled while pulling his hood back into place. "People like us are always going to be getting into trouble, right?" Anyone living their lives in the fast lane knew there were things you can't outrun. Even the fastest man alive. Bowing respectfully one last time, she turned to face down the dirty track and began setting one foot in front of the other.
Athletes blessed with good genetics who pushed themselves to the brink with training could reach the impressive speed of 45kph at the extremes of their sprint. Cyclists with precision customised technology and a decent wind behind them might be lucky enough to hit maybe 160kph. They had to worry about the limitations of the human body, she only had to worry about the obstacles in her way and had recently clocked her speed at a fraction over 320kph. It took her six seconds to reach the end of the alleyway and burst out down the road at the far end and she was running faster than ever as she went.
But, as she was still learning, speeds are relative and a red streak blurred past into the distance. For one final instant, she was carried in the fading echo of the lightning. Then it was gone in a flash. And she was running alone.
After 11 years of television, the last episode of the Arrowverse will air tonight in the series finale of The Flash. I still remember friends showing me the leaked CW pilot of The Flash and instantly loving my favourite hero finally getting a show of his own. Spanning multiple shows and sharing an expanded universe unlike anything that has come before, I think we can all agree they've had an incredible run.
Review, readers, review!