Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds

Hold On Forever

By Lucky_Ladybug

Notes: The characters aren't mine and the story is! This is a direct follow-up to A Change in My Life, picking up right where that one leaves off. It looks like it's heading towards going AU, but I wonder if it really will? In any case, as always, Radley is a nice guy, as I honestly see him.

Another Night and Here We Are Again

It was a peaceful evening at Radley's Diner. The television was on as background noise while Scotch happily played Sonic games on his Switch Lite and Kalin and Radley quietly dueled on the table Clint had carved a dueling field into. Others in the Bunch were sprawled on the furniture, cleaning tables, or snacking on leftovers.

Finally Kalin spoke. "How did this happen anyway?" He tapped the dueling field. "I can't imagine you wanted it."

"I sure didn't," Radley said with a grim smirk. "We were just talking about maybe it would be nice to have at least one dedicated dueling table, but since duels were publicly forbidden except at sunset, we couldn't buy dueling mats at the store. The next day I came in and discovered this." He sighed. "At least Clint picked an older table and not one of the pretty new ones. And I can't deny it's been good having a dueling mat that won't easily go away."

"Did you bawl him out?" Kalin wondered.

"I didn't even know which one had done it at first," Radley said. "I gathered all the Bunch together and asked them who did it. Clint finally, sheepishly admitted he had. I did say I didn't wanna see anything else getting carved up. Malcolm's more the type to carve up the furniture, not me. I like to keep things looking nice."

"So you didn't snarl at him?" Kalin asked. "I'm sure I would have."

"I didn't," Radley said. "But they could all see I wasn't happy anyway."

Scotch suddenly looked up from his game. "Man, Nack is so different in this game!" he exclaimed.

Kalin looked over, giving him a blank look. "What."

"Well, he's really clumsy and funny in Triple Trouble," Scotch said. "And then he's not a bad guy at all in Sonic Drift 2 and Sonic the Fighters. But in this game, he means business! He's a real legitimate threat. And he's so mean to Trip!"

Kalin grunted. "Do you like the changes?"

Scotch frowned, pondering the question. "I like that he's not clumsy, I think," he said slowly. "But why'd they change him to be such a jerk to Trip?"

"You could write and ask," Kalin said.

Scotch smiled a satisfied smile. "Yeah. . . . I think I will."

Radley looked amused but also pleased. It made him happy any time Kalin and the Bunch bonded at all.

"I remember hearing about all those loco rivalries between Sonic and Mario fans," he remarked. "I think I saw kind of the tail-end of that, but by then things were shaping up more so that the rivalry was fading away and they were growing more accepting of each other. Then Sega stopped making consoles altogether and just focused on making the games, so somehow Sonic ended up on Nintendo instead of rivaling it. Kinda trippy."

"I guess." Kalin looked back at his cards. "We never had video games growing up. There were a few in the Satellite who did, mostly having repurposed old consoles people had thrown out, but not us."

Radley looked sad but surprised. "I thought Yusei might be one of the ones who'd do the repurposing."

Kalin shrugged. "He was more into computers. We did have some PC games, including a couple of Sonic ones."

"Yeah? Did you have the Sonic & Knuckles Collection?" Radley asked.

A nod. "We had that, Sonic 3D Blast, and Sonic R. Crow didn't like Sonic R because of some creepy Tails plush in it."

Radley chuckled. "I wonder if that's why that game never gets reissued anymore. It seems like almost all the old Sonic games are available for the current consoles now except that one." He leaned back. "Or maybe it's some copyright issue with the music. That's probably more likely."

Scotch nodded. "Yeah! Sonic 3 & Knuckles doesn't sound right at all on the Sonic 3 levels because of how they rerecorded the tracks for Sonic Origins!" He scowled. "Why does there have to be copyright trouble about music anyway?!"

"Oh, there's a whole host of reasons," Radley mused.

"Greed is probably the main one," Kalin intoned.

Radley gave a dark smirk. "I can't deny probably a lot of those reasons stem back to that."

Scotch scowled. "That's just stupid."

Radley could see both sides of the picture, being a businessman himself. But he didn't feel like getting into it, so instead he looked back to Kalin and said, "Did you play the Sonic games yourself? I must admit you don't seem the type."

"We didn't have many others," Kalin said. "There was a fighting game I played sometimes, but it wasn't very good and didn't impress me much. Mostly I played Sonic."

Scotch perked up, intrigued. "Are you good?"

"Yusei and I both managed to beat the final level of Sonic 3 & Knuckles," Kalin said, "but I was the only one who beat it with all the Chaos Emeralds and Super Emeralds."

"Okay, we are totally having a tournament!" Scotch gushed. "You'll be on my team!"

Radley laughed. "You two will probably cream me!"

"You're good too!" Scotch said. "We'll all have a good shot at it!" He bounced up and rushed into the arcade to get things ready.

Radley leaned back in amusement. "You've really got him going now," he said.

"That was a long time ago," Kalin said. "I probably can't still do it."

"Oh, you probably can," Radley smiled. "I really am surprised, though. Getting the Emeralds takes a lot of patience. I didn't think you had much of that back then. That's what you've always said, anyway."

"It also takes skill and strategy," Kalin said. "I was good at strategy."

"Touché," Radley said. "Well, I am definitely looking forward to seeing you in action."

"You'll probably see it soon," Kalin remarked as Scotch ran back into the main room, announcing a video game tournament. The rest of the Bunch was game and eagerly headed for the arcade.

Radley chuckled, watching them. "If you just had PC games, I suppose you didn't ever play Mario," he said.

"Not until I was in the Dark Signers and we had a Nintendo console." Kalin looked embarrassed.

That brought a raised eyebrow. "Really? It's hard for me to picture Roman Goodwin buying you guys one," Radley said.

"He didn't." Kalin's look deepened into guilt. "I stole it. I decided the world owed it to me that I'd never played video games before and I was determined to have the chance to do it." He started to get up from the table. "I made Carly and Misty play with me. Devack refused."

On some level that sounded funnier than it really was, but Radley didn't laugh. He laid a hand on Kalin's shoulder as he stood too. "How did Roman feel?" he wondered.

"He felt that if it increased morale and our determination to conquer the world, it was a good thing," Kalin said. "We played a lot of Mario Kart and some of the regular games. We tried Mega Man too, but it's harder and more frustrating since you can't jump on enemies."

"Yeah, that does make it pretty hard," Radley said with a sage nod.

"It's easier playing Bass!" Scotch offered. "I always play him in Mega Man & Bass, even though he's a jerk. That Duo guy thinks Bass has a strong sense of justice!"

"What Duo guy?" Kalin asked as they all headed for the arcade.

"He's from a game that was never released here until just a couple of years ago!" Scotch said. "He's a space police robot!"

". . . Oh," Kalin said, not sure what else to say.

"Bass is confusing," Scotch rambled on. "It seems like he really only cares about being the best and nothing else matters. But that one game seems to be set up like Duo's ideas about Bass are the truth and not that he's delusional or something. So Bass must be better than he seems.

"Sometimes I like him better in the Battle Network verses. He's a really deep character with a tragic backstory. But sometimes he seems too dark there, especially in the manga version."

"He sounds more interesting there," Kalin said.

"I have a lot of those games!" Scotch said. "They finally released a bunch of them for the Switch! You can play them!"

"Thanks," Kalin said.

"So, I mean, in the end there's things I like and dislike about Bass in every verse," Scotch said. "I'm not sure which one I like best."

"I'm not sure if Kalin would really enjoy seeing him in the Battle Network verses," Radley interjected. Looking to Kalin, he added, "Bass is so dark, he might remind you of yourself in the past."

Kalin grimaced. "In kids' games?!"

Radley gave a sad smile. "Kids' media can be pretty dark, surprisingly."

"The anime did him differently than the games and manga!" Scotch said. "That one might be okay."

"Maybe," Kalin said.

"So do you like Sonic or Mario best?" Scotch eagerly asked as they entered the arcade.

"Sonic," Kalin said. "At least as far as gameplay goes. If you're asking which character I like best, I don't know."

"They're both pretty nice characters," Radley said understandingly.

"And they both have annoying traits," Kalin added. "So they're both fairly realistic."

Radley had to chuckle at that.

The Bunch whooped as they approached, greeting Kalin and Radley as they prepared to begin the tournament. Radley smiled easily and returned the greeting, while Kalin just gave an awkward nod.

A video game tournament was certainly the last thing post-Dark Signer Kalin had ever thought he would be participating in. And he definitely never thought the Bunch would consider beating him the final challenge of the tournament. But it was good, clean fun and not terribly competitive, as Dark Signer Kalin had been with his insisted tournaments. Everyone was just having a good, happy time and enjoying being together.

In the end, also to Kalin's surprise, he won. Radley smiled at him, pleased and proud. "See? I told you you'd still remember how to do it."

"I never thought I would," Kalin said. "It's been so long."

"Now you can decide what epic thing we do next!" Scotch said.

"I . . . have no idea," Kalin stammered.

"We can think about it tonight and perhaps discuss it tomorrow," Radley said kindly. "It's pretty late by now."

"Yeah! Our champion needs to sleep!" Scotch said.

Kalin flushed a bit, but he couldn't deny he was tired. The adrenaline rush from the tournament was wearing off now, leaving him more and more exhausted from the long day. "We should all sleep," he said as he got up.

"We will!" Scotch chirped.

Soon they were all heading to their respective homes. As Kalin and Radley went to theirs, Kalin couldn't deny he was feeling pretty good about how everything had turned out. It was pleasant . . . satisfying, even . . . to have won honestly at something, even just a friendly video game tournament.

Radley smiled at him as they parked and headed up the driveway. "That was nice, huh?" he said.

"It was," Kalin admitted. "I liked winning."

Radley chuckled. "I think most people like that."

"I still wonder if we did the right thing by giving up on entering the WRGP," Kalin confessed. "And yet I know we weren't ready."

A bit of regret flickered in Radley's eyes. "Yeah." He unlocked the front door and stepped inside. "We really weren't. We planned to try to be ready for the next one, but it's really not the same, is it?"

"No," Kalin said. "It would be nice to be part of that momentous experience marking the Satellite's reuniting with the City. It really was one of Yusei's and my dreams."

Radley laid a hand on Kalin's shoulder. "Do you still wanna try?"

Kalin reached up and gripped his hand. "Even if I felt ready, would you? And could we even enter so late? It starts tomorrow."

"I think they allow entries right up to opening day," Radley said. "And honestly, Kalin, if you still wanna try for this, the last thing I want to do is hold you back. I'll do my best to be ready. I'll admit, I kinda thought this might happen when we got down to the wire and it really became real that we were almost letting it pass us by."

Kalin smiled faintly, but still looked unsure. "We wouldn't get any more time to practice," he said. "We'd have to go right to the City in the morning. And we'd need to tell Scotch right now."

"I'm sure he'd be so excited he'd bounce off the walls," Radley chuckled. "He's been really understanding, but I know he badly wanted to go."

Kalin nodded and sighed. "He even got one of those racing suits, just in case."

Radley reached for his phone. "Should I tell him? This will have to be our final decision, you know. We can't change our minds again."

"I know." Kalin hesitated, but only for a moment. "Call him."

Radley nodded and dialed.

When Scotch came on, he didn't look sleepy at all. "Hey!" he exclaimed. "What's up?"

"Well . . ." Radley looked to Kalin. "We came to an important decision just now."

"I'm not ready to give up the WRGP," Kalin admitted. "Can you be ready to go to the City in the morning?"

Scotch's whoop nearly shattered their eardrums. "Heck yes! I'll get everything together tonight so it's all ready! And I'll tell all the guys!"

Radley laughed. "Just be sure to get some sleep too. We have to be well-rested for this to work."

"I'll sleep!" Scotch promised. "Yes! This is going to be so amazing!"

Kalin had to smile a bit. He really was hyped.

Radley looked to Kalin as he hung up soon after. "No regrets?"

"No," Kalin said. "This is right. I know it is. This is what I want."

Radley smiled. "I'll see if I can register us online so we get in for sure." He went to the computer and was soon bringing up the WRGP's website. "Here it is," he announced. "They do have a Register Online option."

"And it's still open?" Kalin said in hopeful disbelief.

"It is," Radley said when he clicked the link. He swiftly typed, their team name appearing on the screen. Team Satisfaction Town. When he clicked Submit after filling out the whole form, a notice popped up that they were registered and that an email would be sent with their registration number for them to show in the morning.

Kalin stared at it. This was it; they had really registered. They were doing this. He gripped Radley's shoulder. "Thank you," he said quietly.

"Hey, I'm looking forward to doing this with you and Scotch," Radley smiled. "Maybe we won't make it far, but at least we'll know we gave it everything we had."

Kalin nodded. "Yeah."

"Are you going to tell Yusei beforehand or let him be surprised at the racetrack?" Radley asked.

"At this point, I'll probably let him be surprised," Kalin said. "It's late and he needs every chance for sleep he can get. I know him too well; he'll be staying up working on his Duel Runner. Crow will be trying to get him to rest."

"And Jack?" Radley chuckled.

"Jack will probably already be resting," Kalin said.

"Which is what we had best do too," Radley said. He got up from the computer.

"We'd better," Kalin agreed.

Kalin was deep in thought as he settled into bed some moments later. It had been such a peaceful, almost idyllic, day. They had patrolled to make sure everything was safe and then had relaxed at the diner, serving customers and enjoying each other's company. And of course, there had been the video game tournament. Kalin had never thought he could have such a nice day or that he would even want it. He had been so restless as the leader of the Enforcers, always looking for the next challenge. Beating Dr. Eggman's newest scheme wouldn't have sufficed.

Did he really deserve such nice things?

Of course, he still felt he didn't. But Radley and Yusei and the Bunch were always quick to insist otherwise, and Kalin longed to believe them. He was taking each day as it came, and for the most part, said days were very enjoyable. Satisfaction Town was put back together now and the people continued to work to make it better. It was fresh, it was new, it was exciting. Seeing how they came together to build up a better town was what he had wanted to see in the Satellite.

And now, on the morrow, he, Radley, and Scotch would be entering a whole new chapter in their lives. They were really going to the WRGP. It seemed an unbelievable dream. What would happen? How well would they do?

. . . Would they have to go up against Team 5Ds?

He frowned a bit, not sure he wanted to think about that. He and Yusei would stick to good sportsmanship, of course, but still, they would be facing each other in a competition and not just a casual duel. Was he ready for that possibility? Especially when the last time they had faced off was something that still gave Kalin nightmares?

He would have to be ready now.

It wasn't likely Team Satisfaction Town would make it that far, really, not when they'd be up against professionals who had been training for months.

But still, he had to think about it, at least a little bit.

It was amazing when he finally slipped off to sleep with so much still to think about.