Disclaimer: I do not own YGO 5ds.
A/N: When the details of a card is included, it would be (in brackets and italic), more detailed information about decks are separated by …, so you can skip those if you like. They're more for reference than anything else.
And how do I put chapter name in quotations? The name of this chapter was supposed to be "Street Gangs"
"This is not going to work," I decided after two minutes of trying (and failing) to haul an over-packed bag up the stairs, "Isn't there any type of transportation we could use?"
"It's almost 10pm, vehicles attracts too much attention this late at night," Nervin informed me patiently, as though talking to a child (which he technically was, but I'm ignoring that), "even this is risky."
"I can duel us out!" Galen exclaimed, "And even if I can't, Yuki can do it!"
Nervin looked to me to confirm.
"Well, I definitely can't walk home carrying this," Walking or card games, it took me a split second to decide, "And I'd like to get home before dawn."
"It's your choice," Nervin relented and miraculously dug out, from under the trash, several familiar-looking metal contraptions, which he proceeded to assemble into an adult-sized tricycle. The non-electric kind. I've only seen adult tricycles once before in a farmer's market, and immediately googled it to confirm their existence. I honestly didn't think I'd see another one so soon, or ever.
"Cool!" Galen was apparently not being sarcastic.
"I'm afraid you guys would still have to walk, it won't be able to hold three people" Nervin said apologetically, "the City keeps a pretty tight control over motorized vehicles, and it just isn't worth the risk."
"That's fine," I added setting up Uber in the Satellite to my to-do list.
...
"Hey!" We didn't get more than half a mile before I heard a loud shout came out of nowhere. I cringed and grabbed Galen despite myself. A manhole cover was lifted, and several people crawled out. I cringed further away, they stank. In hindsight, they probably came from a bomb shelter, a step up from our humble abode because they at least had a door (man-hole cover).
"You're not going anywhere with that," their leader said, I tried to look as polite as I could while holding my breath. "Leave your bike and we'll let you go."
"I can take them," Galen stepped up proudly. I patted him on the back for encouragement. Even though he lost to me, he had won a district in the past, so he was reasonably reliable against these night-walkers. I was certainly glad to avoid these people for the sake of my respiratory system.
"Here, use this," Nervin offered his duel disk. "I never use it anyways."
"Awesome!" Galen jumped in excitement, "my own duel disk again. Finally!"
"Hehehe, you're sending the kid to duel?" The leader of the Sewage Squad (I'm calling them that for now) sniggered darkly. "Too afraid to face us yourself?"
"Actually, yes." Nervin replied unabashed, "there's no way I'd win."
Finally, a man with his priorities straight, I wanted to dance in merriment. Learning technology to improve the livelihood of the general populace is much more important than a trading card game.
"I guess I'll duel the kid," said the squadron leader after some confused mumbling.
"Great!" Galen replied. "You guys just watch, I'm gonna kick his butt!"
Nervin looked so relieved I had to turn away so he didn't see my smile.
"Battle City rules?" Galen asked.
"No." His opponent replied, "Winner take all." That, I learned, meant betting away all your cards on the duel.
I heard gasps from his gang, apparently, that was rare even for these street duels. Must have thought we were easy pickings.
More nightwalkers began creeping up, surrounding us in a loose circle.
"Oh, this doesn't look good." Nervin looked petrified, "this doesn't look good at all."
"It's not that big a deal," I shrugged. If the Magicians could handle a district, I had little fear for these people who can't even get their own territory. "It does look like there's going to be a lot of them though, do you have a deck?"
"Huh?" Nervin was startled out of his trembling, "yeah, of course. Here, take it."
"Take it?" I blinked, "no, I want you to use it. I'll have to duel, but you might be forced into a duel as well." As with any attack, they'd obviously start with the weak. In this case, weak in dueling skills, a fact I still can't completely wrap my head around.
"I can't! I'll lose everything." Nervin insisted.
"You'll lose everything anyways," A larger group walked out of the abandoned looking apartment off the side of the road. There were ten of them in all, looking more like a large family than a street duel gang (*snigger*).
There was various oohing and aahing from the crowd.
"Give me your cards," I told Nervin, he complied without question.
As quickly as I could, I went through his deck. He actually had quite a decent deck, by 5Ds standards, even with 3 synchro monsters. He must have put an unhealthy amount of time and money into this, I don't understand why he doesn't play.
"I have more over there," Nervin dragged me by the arm to our duffle bags and opened the top one. At the very top was a metal tin, which he opened to reveal stacks of duel monster cards.
Well, if there was any chance they'd let us leave before, that's certainly out of the question now. We'd be lucky if we can get out after winning the duels. So we'd better win.
…
I added generic spells and traps, the advantage, or disadvantage if you like, of a gadget deck is that it doesn't have a lot of support spells or traps (not good ones anyways), so it's quick to put together. I was also more familiar with this build, so the whole thing took no more than five minutes. It's not a great deck by any means, but it was decent enough that even Nervin could at least take on Gavin or the Magicians, and that's really all I expect of him.
I wanted to adjust my deck also. I saw quite a few good cards but I didn't have time, the crowd was closing in, adjusting my deck now would just throw it off balance.
"Duel now or surrender," the newest gang to show up cornered us, "it's all the same in the end."
I just noticed the surrounding crowd had gotten a lot quieter.
"The Bringer of Chaos!" Nervin gasped, I think I heard that being said earlier, but didn't pay attention.
"What is that?" I asked, "Like a card or something?"
Wasn't the fusion of three god card called the Bringer of Light? Maybe?
"No." The leader of the pack stepped up, "I am Chaos."
'Wow' was the only thing I could think. This guy was easily the largest man I've met so far, considering Vincent was 6'3 and looked like a body builder, that's saying something. Even his biceps towered over me by at least half a foot. Even by anime standards this can't be natural. Steroids, I decided, from all the pollution in Satellite food and water (though he later insisted I was wrong). He had purple hair in a taper cut (a normal hair style!), and dark blue eyes that looked like it could blend into the darkness of the night.
"Nice to meet you," I hesitated but didn't hold out a hand; if he so much as have a muscle spasm, my hand would be crushed. "Since there're so many of you, what would you say to a tag duel?"
"Tag duel?" Chaos repeated, "I think that would be acceptable."
"Tag duel?!" Nervin repeated, "Are you out of your mind?"
"Think about it this way," I grabbed him aside and whispered quickly, "You're gonna have to duel tonight, so this way, if you mess up, I can hopefully carry you."
Nervin gulped loudly, then nodded.
"Only one person from each group I'm afraid," I looked through the gathering crowd, "So we can get through everybody."
"Pretty sure of yourself, eh kiddo?" I recognized the owner of that voice amongst the second group that showed up, "first come first serve, so I think I have the chance to do the honors. I think we can finish this duel before the other one."
"Suit yourself, Blizzard" Chaos spoke. He had some authority within these crowds and the protests died down.
"All-in?" The man named Blizzard said more than asked.
"What else?" I flashed a quick smile. "All duels tonight will be all-in." It's not like I had another choice, if we lost, they'd take everything anyways.
I snuck a peek at Galen's duel, his life points stood at 3400 while his opponent's had dropped to 1200 LP. The pink-haired kid was maybe half-concentrating on his own duel, glancing over to our side whenever he has a chance.
"It's time to duel!" I put the duel disk Nervin provided onto my wrist, and stood still facing the two older men. The three men spread out to appropriate distances, then activated their duel disks also. Half of the crowds drawn by Galen's duel dispersed to our side, with murmurs of Chaos' past conquests
Turn 1: Blizzard's Turn, Blizzard/Chaos 4000, Nervin/Yuki 4000
"I'll start." Blizzard picked a card out of his hand, "I place one card face-down, and summon The Six Samurai - Zanji (lv4, 1800/1100) In attack mode. And I think that's it for my turn."
I looked a little grim, a Six Samurai deck would not be good news right now.
Turn 2: Nervin's Turn, Blizzard/Chaos 4000, Nervin/Yuki 4000
"Yuki!" Nervin said, panicking. "What do I do? What do I do? Tell me what to do!"
"Oh yeah, about that." I grinned, "I lied."
"What? You said you'd carry me!" Nervin protested, anxiety all but seeping out of him.
"I told you, I lied." I replied matter-of-factly. "I saw your deck and I believe you have a good chance. So play well, or else we'll lose."
"Yuki!" Nervin looked like he was about to have a nervous breakdown.
"Do you trust me?" I looked him in the eyes, Nervin nodded reluctantly, "Then duel. You can win this. You might not, but your chances are good enough to warrant a fight, so that's what you need to do."
Truth is, I couldn't care less about the duel, I mean, if we lose, we lose a number of children's trading cards. I'm more concerned about any legal restrictions on the company we're gonna start, and how to avoid any scrutiny from Goodwin. If I can use this game to help Nervin become more confident, it's probably the only good thing that can come out of this card game in the middle of the night.
"So I summon Machina Gearframe (1800/800)," Nervin said shakily.
I waited, and waited, and got impatient about 3 seconds later. "And?" I prompted. Okay, I'm not known for patience.
"And what?" Nervin asked.
"And Machina Gearframe is an effect monster." I reminded him.
"Right! I can bring one Machina Fortress into my hand!" Nervin exclaimed excited. "So I discard Red Gadget (Lv4) and Yellow Gadget (lv4) to special summon Machina Fortress (lv8, 2500/2200), in attack mode!" Nervin's volume had reached that appropriate for a street duel, "in attack mode!"
Machina Fortress could have counted in its own 8-star special summon requirement, but I decided against raining on his parade.
"Now I can attack. Machina Fortress, destroy his warrior! Electric Pulse Destruction." He apparently knew the name of the attacks.
The armored knight was duly defeated.
"Now Machina Gearframe, attack his life points directly."
In this tagged duels, life point was shared between the two duelists on the same side, with a total of 4000. So their collectively LP dropped to 3300, then 1500.
I noticed Blizzard beginning to sweat, and Chaos gritting his teeth so that a vein popped out of his forehead.
"And I'm not done yet! I activate Machina Gearframe's second special effect and equip him to Machina Fortress! This way, the next time Machina Fortress would be destroyed, it would be protected by Machina Gearframe!" Nervin swiped his left arm dramatically, "I lay one card face-down and end my turn!"
"Nervin, are you okay? You look a little... high?" Maybe this wasn't a good idea.
"Don't be ridiculous, I'm only high with success!" Nervin assured me, which really wasn't very reassuring.
Chortles and guffaws rose out of the onlookers, previously silenced by our unexpected success.
Turn 3: Chaos's Turn, Blizzard/Chaos 1500, Nervin/Yuki 4000
"That was a good turn," Chaos agreed. "But now, I play Heavy Storm, to destroy all magic and trap cards on the field."
The card Nervin had on the field? Mirror Force.
"Well, at least my monsters are safe. Wait, what happened to Machina Gearframe?" Nervin stared, horrified at having only one sole monster left on the field, "I never should have equipped that card! I told you I'm can't play, I'm not good enough!" I ignored him.
"Now, I play Foolish Burial, to discard one card from my deck to my graveyard, and I choose to discard, Summoner Nova (light, 1400/1200)."
"F*ck" I mouthed. Six-Samurai Zanji was a dark monster, and when the guy's name is Chaos, it's really not hard to figure out what he's trying to do.
"I banish both Six-Samurai Zanji and Summoner Nova from my graveyard, to summon Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning (3000/2500). Next, I summon Envoy of Chaos (lv4, 1500/0). Black Luster Soldier, attack his heap of metal!"
At the first attack, Black Luster Solder destroyed Machina Fortress and 500 of our LP, bringing us down to 3500 LP.
"I'm not done yet," Chaos laughed, "My monster has a special ability. You see, when my soldier destroys a monster the first time, it can attack again."
"We're gonna lose!" Nervin pointed shakily at the monster clad in blue armor. "I don't have anything close to that kind of power! My field's empty, I have nothing else to use! We're gonna lose! I knew my cards weren't good enough! I never should have listened to you! You're nuts, your whole idea is nuts!"
"Come on man, it's a card game." I couldn't help myself. The comment earned me a round of disapproving looks from the crowd, Nervin only looks more agitated. "Look, Nervin, do you remember Machina Fortress' special ability?"
One major difference between dueling in this world and reality is that in this world, nobody seems quite clear what each card does, even though they clearly spend more time studying the game.
"Right! Special ability!" Nervin immediately recalled the effects of his cards, "I activate Machina Fortress' special ability, when it's destroyed by battle, I can destroy one card on the field, so I can destroy your Black Luster Soldier!"
The crowd grew dead silent this time, recognizing Nervin as an actual strong duelist (snigger) instead of somebody who just got lucky.
"I still have Envoy of Chaos, attack!"
"Whew, we made it to the next turn," Nervin took a deep breath and let go slowly, looking calmer than he had since the beginning of the duel.
"I lay two cards face-down and end my turn." Chaos said through clenched teeth, laying both cards he had onto the field.
Turn 4: Yuki's Turn, Blizzard/Chaos 1500, Nervin/Yuki 2000
"Don't let me down now," Blizzard grumbled repeatedly, staring at the facedown cards with a crazy look in his eyes.
"Be careful," Nervin looked even more nervous than Blizzard, "I bet he has something really powerful under there, like Mirror Force or something."
"Let's see," I drew, and looked at the card surprised- Double Summon. Maybe in this world, decks really do respond to what you need. Though to be fair, I've felt that way in my reality too.
"Well?" Nervin searched my face for any sign of good news, "Can you beat them? Can you? Cause if you don't, we're probably going to lose. So please beat them soon."
"I guess," I admitted a little hesitantly, but I wanted Nervin to beat them so he could hopefully become more confident and less like a scared sewer rat. On the other hand, losing probably wouldn't help his self-esteem either.
"Then what are you waiting for?" Nervin finally snapped, "Please, please just win. I don't want to lose again."
"Alright, I play fissure to destroy your monster. Next, I summon, Ancient Gear Knight (lv4, 1800/500). The spell card, Double Summon, this card lets me summon Ancient Gear Knight again!"
"Now, I use my Ancient Gear Knight to attack you directly!"
"Not so fast," Chaos shouted, "I activate my trap, Magical Cylinder, it reflects your attack right back at you!"
"Oh well, at least it's not Mirror Force!" Nervin let out a breath he had apparently been holding.
"Not quite," I replied, "Ancient Gear Knight's special ability allows him to be summoned a second time, and when he is, his effects are activated, so that no spell or trap cards can be activated until he has completed his attack."
"But, but that means," Chaos looked unsure for the first time since I've met him.
"That means our life points go to zero!" Blizzard squealed higher than the capabilities of my current body.
"It does?" Shocked by his own victory, Nervin still looked uncertain.
I shrugged, anything I say would just anger them further. Instead, I stretched out my neck to look at Galen's duel, his life point was still at 3400 while his opponent has dropped to 750LP. Blizzard was right, our duel did finish before his. But I didn't say that for fear of angering the mob.
"It does." Chaos managed to collect himself in that time, and walked up to me, still looking very impressive. I was at eye level with his eight-pack, maybe a little taller. I stared at his abs, then looked up at a chest that must have been at least a 40E, large enough that I didn't think I could cup it in one hand, though a part of me really wanted to try.
"You've earned this," he got down on one knee to look me at (roughly) eye level and handed me his deck.
It seemed wrong. It was wrong, wasn't it, to take the last joys from their life away. I mean, in my defense, as far as they knew, they tried to do the same to us, yet it still seemed inappropriate. I think I didn't want to, within less than a day of coming here, to stoop to their level. On the other hand, I really needed that deck. With his Chaos deck, and a couple of light-attribute dragons, I could build a chaos-dragon deck for Galen, which would actually be usable in a real duel. Especially with limited spell cards in turbo duels, the dependence on effect monsters in a Chaos decks could come as an advantage.
"I can't," I finally said, "how are you going to survive on the street without your deck?" And in this world, that's a legitimate question.
"Take this then," Chaos pulled one card out of the pack, Black Lustre Soldier- Envoy of the Beginning, "he's my heart and soul, please take good care of him."
"I'll give it back once I build my own deck," I promised solemnly, even I could see the blue-eyed duelist obviously didn't take my words seriously.
I turned around to look for Blizzard also, but he had already disappeared into the crowds.
"This happened to him before," Chaos explained, sounding embarrassed at his tag duel partner's actions, "Ara won his Ice Blizzard deck a couple of years ago."
The deck caught my attention. I looked at Chaos questioningly, he nodded, "yeah, that was why he named himself Blizzard." Wasn't blizzard decks designed for XYZ summon? I wondered vaguely, and who was Ara?
"It's not his fault," I breathed out heavily. "When life teaches you that every bit of possession must be fought for, every bit of income is near-impossible to come by, you value things a little differently."
Chaos looked at me with a strange look in his eyes.
"Hey, we should meet up sometime. I'm trying to fix up my deck and I wanted to trade for a couple of cards." I offered. That was technically true. It was also true that these people were resourceful and a sort of figurehead in their respective communities. I needed to gather information and support from people like these if any of my plans were to work out.
"Sure," Chaos looked like he wanted to pat me on the back, but thankfully stopped half way, "I'll find you."
"Yuki!" Nervin suddenly popped up to my left, utterly disheveled, looking like he just got out of a stampede, or a Black Friday Sale, same thing really. Galen emerged immediately behind him, pushing on the tricycle that Nervin was pulling.
During our duel, the spectators had stayed respectably away. But after the duels ended, while Chaos kept the crowds away from me, Nervin had no such luck. It wasn't until Galen finished his duel that they managed to both escape from the mob with our belongings intact.
"I can get them off your case," Chaos offered.
"That won't be necessary," I turned down the suggestion. I may not be the bravest, or the smartest, or luckiest character on this show, but I wasn't going to be scared away from half-built decks and their half-literate owners. Plus, I needed their decks to build something that could reliably beat Sector Security. "Though if you could keep some sort of order in this place, I would really appreciate it."
"You got it."
"I won this." Galen handed a deck to me, proud as a cub on its first hunt.
"Good job," I resisted the urge to pat him on the head, doesn't work as well when he's taller than me. Everybody's taller than me. "Here, these are Nervin's cards, they should help you out." I handed him two Red-Eyes Black Chick.
"Cool, thanks Nerv," He glanced at the cards and added them to his deck.
Nervin was still in a state of anime-like ecstasy, mostly involving decreased reaction to stimuli from the real world, staring off into space with random laughter, wild purposeless gesticulations and occasional drooling.
I waited for half a minute, then whacked him on the head.
"We won!" He grabbed me and lift me up Lion King-style. He probably would've tried to throw me into the air if not for physical limitations, aka insufficient upper body strength.
"We did win," I agreed, smiling back and inconspicuously moving away before he hurt himself. "Now we're gonna have to win some more." In Yusei's words, it's time to give my deck a tune up.
Crowds continues to gather around us, a faceless horde of greed, fear and hope, thinking their lives would miraculous change if if they just won enough children's card games. Chaos had maybe 15 people, and they were starting to have trouble keeping the crowds at bay.
"Like flies to honey," Chaos said disgustedly.
"We all have to eat," Galen greeted the older duelist with a nod, "We've all been part of that crowd once, hoping for a decent deck and our big break."
Chaos' expression grew stiff, he didn't say another word.
It was past midnight before the rest scampered. Nervin was feeling positively elated by the end of the night, Galen was surprisingly calm and collected.
"I defeated people like this for breakfast back in the day," he said casually, "it's not even a challenge." Which was true enough, his opponents were scared away once they learned his previous occupation (of the Sabaku district).
"Let's just go home," Nervin went back to his beloved tricycle, "we might get some work done tonight if we hurry."
I looked at the moon now directly overhead, it's got to be past midnight already. And no, these high-tech duel devices came with a GPS but not a watch. I told you this world was screwed up.
"You can get some work done," Galen replied, trudging along, "I'm getting some sleep."
"Do you guys want a ride?" Chaos and his crew of under-aged children was still standing guard, wary of the dispersing crowd.
"Desperately," I answered, "we'll take literally anything."
And that's exactly what we did. Chaos had an electric scooter, the kind you see obese people drive at the supermarket. An electric scooter powered wirelessly by the all-powerful Momentum. This world confuses me sometimes.
"Aren't you concerned this could be seen as a duel runner?" Nervin asked with all sincerity. I laughed at the question, that thing didn't look like it could go 20 miles per hour.
"This isn't hard to build," Chaos answered with the same sincerity, "I've had to abandon several when Security comes after me."
Yeah, because he probably runs faster on foot. I thought I'd be polite and keep that comment to myself.
God how wrong I was.
Chaos attached our tricycle to his scooter, and another cart to the tricycle to accommodate passengers. After we've settled in, he took off. At 0 to 60 miles in under 2 seconds. I must emphasize under because I counted two heartbeats during that time, 2 heartbeats while I was sitting in an open cart with no seat let along seat belt, shoddily connected to a tricycle that was shoddily connected to a scooter that just went from 0 to 60 in under 2 seconds.
We got back to Vincent's place in record time, even after taking numerous side streets to avoid Sector Security. Every single bone of my body felt out of place. Keeping in mind, our make-shift vehicle had no shock absorption, and the roads hadn't been maintained in well over a decade.
Apparently, I was the only one unaccustomed to this method of transportation, everybody else was perfectly fine and not thanking god that they were alive.
The ridiculous-suit gang came outside to see the commotion, still with top hat and all. The Satellite needs better fashion sense, amongst many other things.
"Chester?" Vincent struggled to identify the motorist (are you still a motorist if you drive a scooter?) in the headlight. The rest of us were crouched in the cart to avoid being thrown off.
"Chester?" I repeated, I could finally talk now without fear of chomping on my own tongue.
"It's Chaos now," our driver explained, it was dark enough that none of us saw his blush.
"Right, because you got that card! Hey, congratulations man. It's been a while," Vincent punched Chaos in the arm, "what are you doing in my neck of the woods?"
Chaos managed a smile, remembering the card that was his namesake, which he lost mere hours ago.
"Is he talking different or is it just me?" I asked Galen, who sniggered in response.
"He always talks like that when he's around people he hadn't dueled, he thinks it puts more distance between them." Galen's response rose more questions than it answered, but I let the case rest.
"Galen, Boss" Vincent heard us talk and directly his attention to the attached passengers.
"This is Nervin, umm" I introduced the newest addition to our crew. I just realized I didn't know his last name.
Vincent extended his hand, "Nervin Murray," the redhead informed me, "we've met."
Three (two?) simple words contained such restrained animosity and disgust that it startled me.
"Indeed," Nervin matched Vincent's tone and took his hand. If this were Dragon Ball Z, I'd see their force fields colliding.
"What brings glasses here?" Vincent released the handshake quickly and wiped his hands on his jacket. He turned around and went back inside without waiting for the rest of us, opening the door with such force it bounced against the wall. Chaos grabbed it before the metal gate hit Nervin. Nervin went in next, the rest of us trailed closely behind.
"Nervin's our chief engineer in designing a portable radio for sales," I said warningly, hoping these guys would play nice.
"We're starting our own company" Galen butted in between Vincent and Nervin, at least now I didn't need to worry about physical injuries, "we're going to make small radios that you can wear on your ears."
"Yes," Nervin assented, "we're starting a company that wouldn't move away, one that could start an industry and be catalyst for the formation of numerous supporting businesses right here in the Satellite." We had agreed not to mention the water thing until we have a more solid foothold in the area, to delay Sector Security getting wind of the idea.
Wow, he had far bigger plans for this little venture than I did.
"It'll create hundreds of jobs in the Satellite," Nervin finished with a condescending smirk, "you know, job, the thing you never had."
When Vincent didn't respond, Cyril defended him, "that's because chumps like you bend over backwards so you could get a job sorting garbage."
"We've all done that," Vincent patted his friend on the shoulder.
"A man's got to eat," Nervin took that as a sign of reconciliation, "but now we have better options, and I'll need a lot of help with the manufacturing." He looked to me inquiringly, it took me a minute to figure out he was implicitly asking me for consent.
"Yeah, of course," I agreed, "it'd be great if you guys could help out."
"I'll get working on the blueprints for our portable radio," Nervin offered, "it should take no more than half an hour."
I choked on the project timeline, I keep forgetting I'm not in Kansas anymore.
"You need anything?" Felice offered, her eyes never leaving Nervin's laptop. Satellite didn't sell electronics, so anything that use the Momentum are salvaged from the dumps or built from scratch. How can that thing still function though, after the ride we just had, was beyond me.
"I'm hoping to build at least the prototype by tonight," Nervin rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
"I'll see if I can't get some usable parts from storage." Chaos dragged Vincent away, the latter followed without too much resistance, "and he'll help."
"I'll check online to see if we can patent the idea," Felice continued to ogle at the laptop until Nervin relented its control, the young woman immediately started using it like a pro.
"I've been trying to build my own computer for years," she explained seeing my confusion, "nothing lasted more than a week, and eventually, I couldn't find any more parts to use."
"I'll set you guys up a work station," Galen pushed several bar stools a few inches into the dirt floor, then dragged out a collapsible piece of plastic to lay on top of the 'table legs'. I keep forgetting, this used to be his place.
"I'll grab the tools," Teddy offered, digging through a different pile of scrap metals.
"Okay then," I looked at hard-working bunch, a little uncomfortable, but not nearly uncomfortable enough to join them, "I'll go to bed and dream about growing taller. You guys should try sleeping before morning."
"I'll show you upstairs," Cyril motioned for me to follow him. I didn't see Chaos quickly standing up to see me leave, the others slowly followed.
I was led into an obviously make-shift bedroom, I could still see the markings on the floorboard from moved furniture. A bottle (stating it used to contain a drink called K-Jizz) of plastic flowers stood on the night stand, a couple of teen-girl magazines with Jack Atlas on the cover scattered on the chair, and pink flannel sheets; obviously hastily thrown together for my stay. Just grateful I didn't need to sleep on my plastic table top, I fell asleep as soon as I hit the bed, unaware even of Cyril shutting the door behind him, nor when he said quietly, "I think I'll give this a chance."
Downstairs was abuzz with energy despite the late hour.
"How long are you planning on staying?" Felice asked, digging up her storage for functional resisters.
"As long as it takes," Nervin said with a smile while he whacked Teddy on the head for playing with the acetylene torch, whispering to avoid his voice traveling upstairs.
"I thought you're staying with the Hope of the Satellite," Vincent leaned against the work stand, facing away from Nervin, "what happened, finally given up chasing unicorns?"
"He," the spectacled youth paused, "he brings out hope in all of us, that there is hope, that somebody from Satellite can escape. But even if it did happened, it'll only happened to the fortunate few. Even if I get to be one of these people… It's not the same. I thought this might be actual hope for all of Satellite. And a chance to make that hope a reality for everybody."
"What makes you think this one's gonna work out?" Vincent demanded, raising his voice almost to a shout that made Galen look up in surprise, "none of the others did. She's going to win until she loses, then everything we worked for goes up in flames." Had Yuki been present, she would have lamented the lack of property rights in this anarchist system.
"Remember Pearson?" Felice asked before Nervin had a chance to answer, "While he was in the Satellite, if he were still in the Satellite, wouldn't you have given anything to be part of what he started? We all need hope, Vincent, however slim it may look right now."
"Amen," Chaos echoed.
Vincent nodded and began sorting through the box of spares Felice brought. She had a point. Pearson's dead, but his company had sent one person out of the Satellite. Maybe if this idea of Yuki's grew into something worthwhile, it could get four people out.
A/N: That's about all the OCs for now ^_^
Also, duels should get more intense as the available cards improve, though I do try to restrict the number of turns per duel, otherwise I assume everybody gets bored, because I do.