Chapter 9: Something Fishy

A few days had passed by since the accelerator chip incident, and life had settled into peace and quiet. Sector Security had backed off, allowing Yusei and Akiza to continue making preparations for their escape. Currently, Akiza was waiting at an abandoned subway station with Rally, helping Yusei perform the latest speed test. Rally held a stopwatch, keeping track of Yusei's time. They didn't wait long, for soon Yusei came speeding into the platform, coming to a quick and easy stop. Rally stopped the watch, nodding impressively at the time.

"Alright, that's your best time yet!

"You'll easily get through the pipeline with a time like that!"

Yusei, however, wasn't so sure.

"I'm going to go again. Time me!"

Yusei sped off, Rally resetting the watch so that he could record the new attempt. Akiza, tired of watching him, headed back to the main hideout, expecting the other three members of their group to be back by now. They were, but not in a state she would've liked them to be in. Cuts and bruises adorned their body, and Blitz was walking with a noticeable limp.

"Oh my, what happened?"

"Nothing, Akiza. Just got into a bit of a scrape."

"A bit of a scrape? Tank, your face looks like a slab of lunch meat!"

"Well, they started it!"

Akiza sighed, and grabbed the first aid kit. As she patched them up, she got Nervin to fill her in on what had happened.

"Somebody tripped us on our way home, then blamed me for scuffing his shoes. One thing led to another, and…"

Akiza just shook her head, pressing the alcohol soaked cotton ball down Blitz, making him hiss in pain.

"You guys can't go around picking fights with people. I can only do so much."

"Hey, someone has to stand up to him!"

Before their argument could escalate, Yusei and Rally came in, pushing the duel runner. Quickly, they broke up their argument to go greet their friend.

"Yusei, you're back! How'd it go?"

"It was amazing! He was going so fast I couldn't keep up!"

"Do you think it's enough?"

Yusei poked his head up from the runner, and simply shrugged.

"It'll have to be. This is my only chance, and if I miss it then I'll have to wait another month before they perform maintenance again."

"Well, we believe in you!"

"Ah, how touching. Too bad that duel runner is coming with me!"

Just then, three men around their age stepped out from the shadows. One had blue hair and a criminal mark and was flanked by his two lackeys. On his right was a shorter one with brown hair and glasses, while on his left was the shortest of the three. When they saw who it was, the three injured members of their group backed away in fear.

"And who might you be?"

"Easy, Akiza. These are the guys who beat us up!"

"What do you want? Haven't you tortured us enough?"

"Let me think about that, no. But tell you what, give me that duel runner and I'll forget that you owe me a new pair of shoes."

"Forget it! That duel runner belongs to Yusei. It's going to help us accomplish our dreams!"

"Dreams? Since when did you Satellites have rights to any dreams?"

"I got news for you buddy, you're a Satellite too."

The leader scowled, touching his criminal mark scornfully.

"Not by choice! Get into one scuffle at The Facillity cafeteria, and the next thing I know I'm shipped off to this dump of an island. But that Duel Runner is my ticket out of this joint! Or would you rather I tell Sector Security that you're hiding an illegal Duel Runner down here?"

Yusei had another idea, pressing a button on his duel runner to detach the duel disk.

"How about we duel for it? You win, and it's yours. But if I win, then you leave us alone."

The blue haired guy smirked, and raised his own duel disk in acceptance.

"I like the way you think, punk. Alright, you're on!"

"Crush him, Lenny!"

Akiza scoffed, and rolled her eyes.

"This won't take long."

"Hey girlie, maybe you should have more faith in your boyfriend!"

"I do. He'll demolish your pal there easily."

This made the bespeckled lackey snarl, and raised his own duel disk.

"Think you're a wise guy, huh? How about we throw down as well?"

"Fine."

"Name's Lug. Remember it as the guy who gave you the worst defeat of your life!"

DUEL!

Lug: 4000

Akiza: 4000

"Winners first! To start, I'll summon my Oyster Meister (1600/200) in attack mode! Next, I'll activate A Legendary Ocean, giving him an extra 200 attack and defense points (1600-1800/200-400)! I'll end my turn with two cards face down."

"Alright then, my turn! I summon Botanical Lion (1600/2000) in attack mode! And for every Plant type monster on my field, including himself (1600-1900)!"

"Nice monster, too bad you won't get a chance to use it! I activate Torrential Tribute!"

Akiza grimaced as both her Botanical Lion and Lug's monster were washed away by a giant tidal wave.

"And since Oyster Meister left the field without being destroyed by battle, he leaves behind an Oyster Token!"

A small scallop shell formed where the fish monster originally stood (0/0).

"Fine. I'll set one card face down and end my turn."

When Lug saw what card he had drawn, he smiled wickedly.

"Time I showed you a real monster. I sacrifice my Oyster Token in order to summon Levia Dragon- Daedalus (2600-2800/1500-1700)!"

The massive Sea Serpent swam out from the depths of the ocean with a mighty roar. Rally was puzzled, however.

"Hey, that's a level 7 monster! You need two tributes to summon it, you cheater!"

"No, he doesn't. Thanks to his field spell."

"The girl is right. Thanks to A Legendary Ocean, the levels of all water monsters, be it on the field or in the hand, are reduced by 1, so my level 7 is now a level 6. And if you thought that was impressive, then watch this! By sacrificing my Levia Dragon, I can call forth its upgraded form. Say hello to Ocean Dragon Lord- Neo Daedalus (2900-3100/1600-1800)! Attack her directly!"

"Not so fast, I activate my Scrap Iron Scarecrow!"

"Nice try, but I activate Seven Tools of the Bandit! All it costs is a 1000 life points and my attack goes through."

Lug: 3000

Akiza braced herself for impact as the massive blast of water hit her.

Akiza: 900

"Akiza!"

"I'm fine."

"Not for long, you won't. I activate Neo Daedalus's special ability! By sending Umi, or A Legendary Ocean in this case, to the graveyard, all other cards on the field and in our hands get sent straight to the graveyard!"

"What? But that'll leave Akiza with nothing!"

"I guess that's the plan, Tank."

Akiza said nothing, just silently disposing of her cards into the graveyard, her opponent doing the same.

"I'll end my turn there. Good luck coming back from that."

But Akiza wasn't worried, especially when she drew her next card. Lug didn't know it, but he had inadvertently helped her with that play.

"I'll start by activating Spore's effect from my graveyard! By banishing Hedge Guard, I can special summon it."

"What? Since when were those cards in your…oh."

"And since Spore was summoned this way, it gains levels equal to the number Hedge Guard had (1-4). Next, I summon my Botanical Girl!"

"So what? Neither of them can beat my Ocean Lord."

"Then why don't I change that? My level 4 Spore tunes with my level 3 Botanical Girl! Rise forth, Black Rose Dragon!"

Their audience cheered as Akiza's ace monster appeared. Lug, however, was less impressed.

"So what? My Daedalus is still stronger."

"I'm not done! I activate Black Rose Dragon's effect: by banishing Botanical Girl, your monster's attack points are reduced to zero!"

"What?!"

Black Rose Dragon shot out tentacles from her body, which wrapped around the Sea monster, cutting its attack points down to zero (2900-0).

"Now Black Rose Dragon, attack!"

Akiza's dragon let loose a storm of flowers and thorns from its mouth, ripping the Ocean Lord to shreds.

Lug: 600

"I'll end my turn there."

Lug groaned, knowing he was in a losing battle. His next card didn't help much either, but at least it was something.

"I set one monster face down, and end my turn."

As long as I set my monsters, she won't be able to use her dragon's effect on them. And when she runs into my Mother Grizzly, I'll be able to summon another one from my deck in case she has another monster. It's not much, but at least it'll buy me some time.

"I activate my Black Rose Dragon's effect once more!"

"Huh? But my monster is face down! Your dragon can't affect Face Down monsters!"

"When did I ever say that?"

Lug opened his mouth to retort, but stopped when he realized she had a point.

"So by banishing Botanical Lion, your face down monster is flipped into face up attack position!"

Lug could only watch in horror as his Mother Grizzly was forced into attack position, not that it could do much attacking (1400-0).

"Black Rose Dragon, end this duel!"

With one swift flick of her tentacle, Black Rose Dragon sent the ensnared grizzly hurtling up into the air, before it crashed down onto the ground and exploded.

Lug: 0000

Lug sighed, and looked down at the floor for a minute. After composing himself, he smiled and offered a handshake to Akiza, which she accepted.

"Not bad, for a Satellite."

Akiza just smirked. At the same time, Lenny approached them, also having been defeated.

"Come on guys, a deal's a deal. We'd best get going."

With that, the trio left, leaving Yusei, Akiza and their friends to their own devices.

"Well, that happened."

Yusei walked back over to his duel runner, inserting it back into the duel runner before taking out his laptop. After running diagnostics on it, he seemed pleased with the results.

"Good, everything's set for tonight."

"What's the plan, Yusei?"

Yusei tapped a few buttons on the keyboard, bringing up a map of the pipeline.

"This is the pipeline connecting Satellite to New Domino City. Ordinarily, it is flooded with garbage, but once a month at midnight they shut it down to perform maintenance. That gives a person a three minute window in which they could drive from one end to the other. And that's my escape route."

"Are you sure you can make it, though? Three minutes isn't a lot of time."

"If I'm going to get my revenge on Jack, then it'll have to be."