Disclaimer: I don't own YGO 5Ds
Galen didn't need to search too far to find Vincent, he knows the man better than the back of his hand. At the time, Vincent had intrigued him, and he had kept close tabs on the man ever since he first heard of him five years ago.
Satellite seems to have an endless supply of heroes. Each new generation of naive teenagers eager to take their place in the spotlight, lying in wait until the old batch is washed up, only to be replaced by whatever group comes after. Right now it's Yuki, 2 years ago it was Team Satisfaction. 5 years ago, it had been the Magicians, or rather, Vincent Foxwell. Theirs was a much simpler story, without magic, monsters, Destiny or even involvement of the Director of Neo Domino City. Simple, common, and a tale as old as time.
Vincent wasn't much smarter than Chaos back then. It takes aspecial kind of stupid for a single teenager to adopt three kids and raise them as his own. By the time Teddy turned 8, Vincent decided those three were old enough to fend for themselves, so he was free to devote the rest of his life to what he loved, the people of the Satellite.
Galen was just finishing up grade school back then, and the public school teachers belittled Vincent as they do all Satellite rebels. By the growing venom in their words, Galen could tell Vincent was really getting somewhere with the population. Maybe somebody in the Sector got fed up, maybe a bureaucrat somewhere was concerned or maybe the Vice Director decided the protests are beginning to affect his publicity, whatever it was, Vincent was arrested on the truly innovative charge of 'Interfering with Public Safety'.
Rewards were offered to satellites who would testify to Vincent's various criminal activities in the Satellite, the Sector described it as a reward for their courage. Many rewards were collected by satellites who testified. None showed up to testify on Vincent's behalf. Felice and Cyril shouldered as much of the blame as they could, and Neo Domino was happy to oblige. Divided between the three of them, they only got 3-5 years each. The Sector was more than pleased to have Vincent back into the Satellite as living proof of what happens to rebels.
As it is, Vincent has very few places to go that doesn't bring up bad memories.
"You're a not hard man to find, buddy." Galen hit the brakes on his duel runner, stopping directly in front of Vincent. "Now that I got you, let's duel! You owe me a real duel after that ridiculous game you played with Yuki."
"I have better things to do with my time than playing with you, I'm looking for Atlas," Vincent dismissed.
"To defeat him? You know when all Signers are defeated, the Ruler of the Netherworld would rise to destroy this world!" Galen pressed, "Even if you don't care about us, what about Felice, Cyril and Teddy?"
"Roman promised to convince them to leave the Satellite with me after I destroy Atlas. As for the new era, the other Magicians would be safe under my protection," Vincent replied. Roman's power to 'convince' people was legendary. "So if you don't mind, I want to get out of this dump yesterday."
"You'll have to get through me first!" Galen challenged.
"I really don't." Vincent deadpanned, he lifted his duel disk, but instead of agreeing to the duel request, summoned a monster. A blue cloth-armor emerged from the ground, easily swiping Galen aside, allowing its master passage.
"Wait!" Galen called out, dusting himself off as he got up again, "Do you really trust Roman?"
"I trust you even less than I do Roman." Vincent replied without a hint of sarcasm.
"There is a plane near our old dorms, the rest of the Magicians will be waiting for us there. Duel me, defeat me. When you do, that plane will land in Neo Domino." Galen adjusted his strategy accordingly.
"See, I don't trust you because you say crap like this," Vincent discarded the solemn demeanor of the Dark Signers, reverting back to his old Satellite self, "what the heck are you talking about?"
"Industrial Illusions gave us a plane the other day," Galen explained with a sheepish laugh, realizing the lack of context in his previous offer, "As a sign of good will after they tried to kidnap Chaos again." Actually, they tried to kidnap Cyril and Felice, who were responsible for production and sales respectively, but Galen decided it's probably not a good idea to set Vincent off right now.
"Anyway, so we did some Momentum testings on top of their headquarters, then they send us a bunch of stuff. Yuki even got a couple of blank cards, they said we could design it however we like."
"Nice!" Vincent said automatically, before remembering he was a Dark Signer, "I mean, whatever. Let's go, I'll play you when we get there."
X
Most of my team, by which I mean those who didn't have anything to do and bothered to show up, were gathered around Mina in our Duel Simulator as she explained the plan to defeat the Dark Signers, Rex Goodwin's plan to defeat the Dark Signers.
"Every five thousand years, the Crimson Dragon," Mina began.
"We all know about this already, Mina" Jack interrupted, "Get to the point, we have no time to waste."
"Every five thousand years," Mina huffed, glaring at Jack, then continued, "the Crimson Dragon battles with the Ruler of the Netherworld via their proxies, the Signers and Dark Signers. The Zero Reverse incident had tore open a portal between our world and the world of the Shadows, and it has grown large enough that the Ruler of the Netherworld may cross over very soon."
"How soon is that?" I asked skeptically.
"I don't know," Mina replied, "It could be hours, days or weeks. I don't think Director Goodwin knows either. But the only way to prevent the Ruler of the Netherworld from entering ours is to defeat all Dark Signers."
I nodded, Kalin mentioned something like that before.
"At each corner of the Satellite, will be a tower, each tower will only be unlocked by a Signer Dragon. After the towers are unlocked, the Dark Signer guarding that tower will emerge. We must secure all the towers to stop the Netherworld monster!"
I couldn't help chuckling. Mina had summarized the situation extremely well, all the better to illustrate the absurdity of the situation. The entire thing sounds like a video game: go to assigned location with required item (usually a specific card in the YGO universe), unlock duel opponent, defeat opponent, save the world. Of course, you heard all of that from a helpful NPC you barely know, but whose credibility you do not question (e.g. Mina).
Now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure more than one YGO game actually do follow this plot line.
While stuck in this world, it's hard to miss how utterly ridiculous Roman's setup had been.
"Not quite." Felice commented. She had rushed in just before the meeting and is now sitting crosslegged in her swivel chair. "I just defeated Misty while she was wandering around Satellite. She's one of the Dark Signers, right?"
"So Goodwin lied again," Cyril shrugged, "What else is new?"
I'm not so sure if Roman or Rex Goodwin are lying, since this was their plan from the anime. I'm not entirely sure if they changed their minds, or if the Dark Signers had gotten out of control. Either way, we hired enough scouts to locate Dark Signers anywhere in the Satellite. Scouts are easy to hire because they don't need to be literate, just being able to move quickly which most satellites have had a lot of practice doing. Most of our other positions have a number of vacancies, but that's another story.
"Um," Mina fidgeted nervously with the pendant on her new necklace in the shape of a large Red Dragon Archfiend, "maybe he made a mistake? But he's not lying, these duels really are very important!"
"Wherever they're hiding, we will find and defeat each Dark Signer," I agreed with Mina.
"Who's dueling Dark Signers?" Chaos pushed the door open roughly, letting it bang against the wall, not hiding his distaste at having acted the part of the babysitter, "What's Goodwin's lackeys doing here?"
"Jack?" Yusei followed inside, freezing when he saw our visitor.
"Hello, Yusei," Jack stood up, moving towards the man who used to be, no, still is his best friend.
"Welcome back!" Yusei took a couple of steps to close the distance between them and drew the blond into a bear hug.
Akiza slid past both of them, rolling her eyes. Only Yusei would forgive somebody after they betrayed him and got him thrown in jail. "Anyway," She coughed, turning towards Mina, "Luna and Leo are still trapped in the Satellite. Do you Goodwin lackeys know how to get them out?"
"Goodwin lackeys? Why you-" Trudge fumed, though quieted down at Mina's admonishing look.
"If I'm not mistaken, they're in Sayer's hands." Mina informed the Black Rose cautiously. Goodwin had given her complete access to all security information to be released at her discretion while she's in the Satellite, as long as she completes her missions. Since Luna is a Signer, she would need to be in the Satellite to defeat the Dark Signers. If the Black Rose wants to get her here, all the better.
"I have to go to Neo Domino," Akiza said tersely, pushing Jack into Yusei as she headed towards the exit again. At hearing Sayer's name, that's the only thing left on her mind. The room turned towards her, then quickly away. Akiza was the one who had set Sayer free after his capture, no doubt (arguably rightly) concerned what we would do to him if he fell into our hands again.
"Akiza..." Yusei trailed off at her determined look, and said instead, "I'll come with you."
Chaos snorted, Akiza spoke before he could say anything.
"Sayer, Arcadia, they are my cross to bear. For years, Arcadia was the only place I called home, Sayer was my only friend. If they need to be stopped, at least let me be the one to do it." She turned towards me, " You can reach me on my phone. I can get back in twenty minutes if I fly alone."
I must have looked reluctant, Akiza continued, "Yuki, please. I need to do this, for myself."
"Good luck." I relented. "I'll get Blizzard to contact Lazar and set things up from the other end in case you run into any trouble. At least for now, we're on the same side as Goodwin."
"You have got to be kidding me," Chaos looked at me exasperatedly for letting Akiza leave when we might need her any second. "Kids," He muttered under his breath as he moved aside to let Akiza leave.
"We have to go too," Felice motioned to Cyril, "Galen just messaged me, he found Vincent. He wants us to meet him at our old place."
"I-" I hesitated. A couple of days ago, I would have insisted that I be the one to duel Vincent. I would have been the one who's most likely to keep him alive at the end of the duel. My heart raced at the thought of another duel, the palpitations were just enough to rattle my fractured rib cage uncomfortably.
"Why don't you stay here, Yuki," Felice tried and failed to hide her concern, "We need somebody in control at the headquarters anyway."
I nodded darkly as they left to face the evil I was supposed to defeat
"Hey, did you hear? The Factories are hiring!" Tank rushed into their cave, announcing the good news loudly.
Since Professor Zigzix's disappearance (the entire Satellite is confident he was murdered, though the suspects vary depending on who you ask), the pair had technically been unemployed. They were quick to use it as an excuse and get away from the Zephyrs before Sector Security closed in. Neither wanted to go back to working for Neo Domino, and the recent influx of business opportunities had kept them fairly well-off.
"The Factories are always hiring," Blitz dismissed, "What else is new?"
"No, I mean they're really hiring! Good jobs! They're opening up positions to Satellites that were always off-limits, even management positions!" Tank declared, waving his arms around for emphasis, "Plus, they're paying almost double! Double what they paid before!"
By payment, Tank is still referring to the different types of food and necessities Sector offers in lieu of an actual salary.
"Rally mentioned the Sector is cracking down on shipments too," Blitz replied with information of his own, "They doubled the taxes on all imports and have began to restrict none governmental sources of food coming into the Satellite. Neo Domino claims this is to prevent the rich in the Satellite from wasting money on luxuries to encourage them to invest in this town."
By luxuries, they mean meat and chocolate and fruits and vegetables and basically anything that isn't the acid cubes Neo Domino distributes but does not sell to private entities.
"I guess that makes sense," Tank nodded. Having grew up in a Satellite controlled by Neo Domino, he agrees with Neo Domino's definition of luxury for his hometown. "So if the Factories are paying more and Neo Domino is cutting down on shipments, you think it'll be worth it to go back to the Factories?"
"Why do you think Goodwin is doing this?" Blitz asked instead of answering his question.
"To compete with the Development in the Satellite, what else?" Tank replied without a second thought, "they need people in those factories so now they have to make it worthwhile for us!"
"Neo Domino has been doing charity work in the last couple of days," Blitz switched topics suddenly, "Sector Security is doing more around Satellite too, they're actually helping more people than they're arresting."
"So? That's a good thing, right?" Tank asked, confused at the serious expression on his friend's face.
"For us, sure." Blitz said thoughtfully.
"Are we still to hold our ground? The Crimson Dragon Wars have never progressed thusly, we're putting too much faith in Goodwin." A slender figure clad in white complained in a tone very unbecoming of his mysterious outfit.
"Z-One's orders," A smaller, similarly-dressed figure grumbled, "Sit this one out, see what happens. Nothing we can do about it."
"Have patience, Lester," The eldest of the three reprimanded, "We must bade our time."
"I'm tire of waiting, Jakob. We've let things go on for long enough," The first clocked figure asked more to himself than his colleagues. "If these satellites fail..."
"Then we blow up the Satellite and any entrance the Netherworld Monster has of coming into this world!" Lester replied in a disturbingly enthusiastic tone, "I say we should have done that owe begin with but nooooo, Z-One doesn't want to mess with this part of Fate. Primo, you've still got the detonator just in case, right?"
"Of course," Primo replied. "In the meantime, perhaps that clown in Neo Domino can provide us with some reassurance."
Just north of the Satellite, still fairly far away from the Facilities (which is currently being transferred since it's now on private property), small patches of weeds were beginning of grow thanks to the recent gusts of wind sending seeds from Neo Domino outwards. By gusts of wind, of course, I mean the side effects of Earthbound Immortal summoning. For the first time since the third world war, this soil supported life again.
Now that international satellites are a thing of the past, the only one to have witnessed this are the scouts sent out from the Satellite to explore their new land. Their report landed on Yuki's desk (in the form of an email) in record time, only to be deleted just as quickly.
So there's weed, Yuki thought absentmindedly, annoyed to have been distracted from her Dark Signer plans, why are they telling me this?
A/N: Thought I'd write something seasonally appropriate, barely managed to upload t within the holiday season. happy holidays!
Also, please review! I figure I don't ask for reviews enough.
A/N 2: I shouldn't be writing this... I have time free during the holidays but I don't actually have free time, I have so much stuff that needs to be done _
A/N 3: Have now deleted seasonally appropriate content, as they are no longer seasonally appropriate. XD