Duel Spirit voice

Thought voice

Chapter 17

Martha's Orphanage

Everyone was seated or standing near the dining room table, the youngest of the group fidgeting while the elders looked impatient or worried. Blister had already shown the group the map of a tunnel that led directly to the Ener-D Reactor. But after that, Martha chose that moment to deliver some shocking news to the group (well not shocking for the two interlopers).

"So what happened, Martha?" Yusei asked.

"They vanished," His foster mother began, sighing. "They just weren't there anymore. Fortunately, the fog didn't come here, so we were safe, but I'm afraid everyone else. . ." She sighed heavily.

"We haven't seen or heard from Rally, Tank, Nervin, or Blitz since this happened." Added Blister with a grimace.

"Seriously?" Asked Yusei.

"I'm worried that something terrible has happened to them." Martha almost shivered, her voice trembling.

"Who're those people, Yusei? Are they your friends?" Asked Rua, getting a nod in return.

"You're that Dark Signer Yusei's been talking about?" Martha asked Ben, breaking the awkward silence.

"Yup," Ben answered, "Guilty as charged."

"Thank you for helping Kiryu." Martha smiled

"Anytime Ma'am." Ben said

"My, aren't you just the gentleman." Martha grinned. "Now then, you all should make yourselves at home while I prepare something to eat."

"Shouldn't we be heading for the Reactor?" Kiryu asked

"We'll go, right after we've eaten." Crow said. "Can't go about fighting Dark Signers with an empty stomach."

"Can't argue with that logic." Ren said

"I'll be at the back." Ben said, before walking out

"I'll make sure he doesn't do anything stupid." Ren said, walking after Ben.

Backyard

As Ben is staring silently into the stormy sky, Ren starts approaching the Dark World Duelist, before starting a conversation.

"Hey man, you okay?" Ren asked

"No." Ben said. "No I'm not."

"Thinking about Sayer and Rugder huh?"

"No." Ben said, shocking Ren slightly

"What do you mean?"

"Before arriving at the hospital, I technically encountered another Dark Signer." Ben said

"Another one?"

"I didn't really see them par say." Ben continued. "Probably because they left before I could see them."

"So you didn't really see or duel them?" Ren questioned. "Then what's got you thinking?"

"I encountered them at home." Ben said

"Home as in, Misty's residence?" Ren asked, causing Ben to nod. "Still I don't think you should worry yourself. It's just a Dark Signer."

"A Signer we know nothing about." Ben said

"Dude you've beaten Yusei and Jack, I'm sure a new Signer won't be a problem." Ren said

"I guess you're right." Ben signed. "Guess all that's left is to wait for Rugder to come here."

Kitchen

Somehow along the way, Martha had managed to round up Kiryu and Tetsu into kitchen duty with her. Kiryu himself was cutting the vegetables for the soup.

"Smaller pieces, Kiryu. Those will be too thick for the water to boil." Martha said.

"I don't think I'm as good as I used to be." Kiryu signed

"Why don't you just watch the kids with Blister?" She suggested, Kiryu nods as he walked out the backdoor.

"If only he wasn't locked up, Kiryu would have cooked us something special." Martha signed

"Hold on that guy can cook?" Tetsu asked. "Guess even criminals have skills." A sharp dish rag slapped the back of his head and he cried out, glaring at Martha from the corner of his eye.

"Kiryu is no criminal, he just made some bad decisions." Martha chide. "In fact, you two are similar in some ways."

"There's no way I'm anything like him." The office muttered back, switching his view to the opening door and the boy from before walking in with a smile, washed vegetables in hand.

"Hey, mister, want me to wash these for ya? I already have Martha's done." He said, placing said vegetables down. The cop smiled a little.

"Sure. The potatoes and the lettuce, yeah?" He asked, chuckling silently as the boy took the veggies eagerly and rushed outside to wash them up. "What a weird kid."

"Hasn't being active and helping someone else taken your mind off things, Officer Tetsu?" Martha asked, watching the crestfallen look take over Tetsu's face. "The best way to deal with a broken heart is to stop dwelling." He blushed then, realizing that she was talking about his crush on Mikage. "Get it out of your head and make yourself useful. You see, here in Satellite, we've had to become very good at finding ways to cope with sadness and loss." At that moment, the boy ran back in, waved at the both of them with a smile, scooped up a bag of potatoes, and raced outside once again. "Take that boy for example. When he was younger, he lost his home and family to a fire. But he was so grateful for the Security officers who did everything they could to help, he never forgot their kindness. He decided he wanted to grow up and become a Sector Security officer himself." Martha smiled kindly. "That's how he deals with his sadness. By trying to be helpful." She sighed dreamily.

"So that's why he keeps following me around," Tetsu said, amazed. He then shook his head and gave Martha an astonished look. "But Martha, the rules say that people from the Satellite can't become Security."

"In this crazy world of ours, nothing is impossible," The foster mother returned to the rest of dinner, though giving an expectant look at the bewilder officer.

Garage

Yusei, Jack and Crow are all currently busy working on their runners, with Akiza watching them from the entrance. While this is going on, Misty decided to quietly approach Akiza.

"Do you have a minute?" Misty asked

"Sure." Akiza answered. "Let's leave the boys to there toys." She said, before leaving the garage with Misty.

"I wanted to apologize." Misty started, as they walked through the orphanage. "For blaming you for my brother's death."

"You don't need to apologize." Akiza said. "You didn't know, plus the movement was still responsible for his death so I'm not completely innocent."

"Still, let me make it up to you ." Misty said. "I would like to know you better, if you're okay with it?"

"I am." Akiza smiled, but that smile suddenly vanished as she started getting a sharp pain from her hand, courtesy of her Signer mark glowing viciously.

"Are you all right?" Misty asked in concern

"It hurts." Akiza muttered under her breath. Unknown to her, the other resident Signers were having similar issues with their marks

Backyard

"Let's head inside, I think they're done with the food by now." Ren said, when suddenly the Giant figure known as, Earthbound Chacu Challhua, appeared a few meters away from the Orphanage with Dark Signer Sayer, standing on it.

"Die!" Sayer yelled, as his Earthbound fired a blast that engulfed the entire orphanage, before an explosion that could be seen from even New Domino engulfed the area.

Right before Chacu Challhua had fired it's attack, Ben had quickly summoned Grapha, who flew Ren out of the blast zone. Gritting his teeth in pain as he was being engulfed by the attack, the last thing Ben saw before falling unconscious was the appearance of the Crimson Dragon…

…Several hours later

What was once an Orphanage for children, was now reduced to nothing but rubbles due to Sayers attack. After being saved by Grapha, Ren and the Dark World Monster returned back to the orphanage ruins to dig up Ben from the rubbles. It didn't take them long to find Ben, but since he was unconscious, Ren tried calling his uncle to send medical help, but for some unknown reasons every service was down, forcing him to watch over his injured rival in hopes that he would wake up. After several hours of waiting, Ben was beginning to stir.

"Easy there." Ren said, as he slowly helped Ben to his feet. "It's a miracle you're still alive after that."

"How long was I out?" Ben groaned, ignoring the pains from his injuries

"Couple of hours tops." Ren answered. "How did you survive Sayer's attack?"

"Plot armour." Ben answered dryly. "But on a serious note, I'm alive probably because of Battle Fader."

"Welcome back to the land of the living Boss." Fader said from his Psychi

"Thanks for the save back there." Ren said

"Don't mention it." Ben said, before looking grimly at the Orphanage, or what remained of it. "Did the others…"

"I saw the Crimson Dragon appear right after the blast." Ren said. "If I had to guess, it transported the others to safety."

"That's good to hear." Ben signed in relief. "And Sayer.."

"The Crimson Dragon chased him away." Ren said, before gazing into the distance

"I should have killed him when I had the chance." Ben said, as he followed Ren's gaze and noticed a Dark Signer Geo glyph in the distance, one he did not recognize. "How long has that been there?"

"About 15 minutes after Sayer's attack." Ren answered. "I'm going to hazard a guess and say that's a totally new Signer."

"Probably." Ben said

"The Geo Glyph looks like that Chaos Insignia from Dissidia." Ren observed (In case you're wondering how the Insignia looks like, it's basically this Fics profile pic).

"If that's there, that means a Dark Signer has been dueling for at least an hour now." Ben said

"You think the others are there?"

"A Dark Signer wouldn't duel a random Duelist when they can just take their souls." Ben pointed out

"Still if that's been out there for at least an hour, that means this Signer hasn't lost yet." Ren said

"We need to go there now." Ben said urgently

"With what, your legs?" Ren asked. "News flash you're injured."

"I'm already healing, besides can't one of your Blue Eyes fly us there?"

"You know, I almost forgot you could make monsters real." Ren said

"I'm quite certain your Duel Disk can also make them real." Ben said, as Ren handed him Deep Eyes White Dragon. "Here goes nothing." Ben muttered as said Monster physically appeared

Meanwhile…

After mounting Ren's Deep Eyes, the flight to the battlefield did not take long. Upon reaching their destination, Ben and Ren were greated with the site of dark purple fire, which swarmed around Satellite, igniting the area and drawing the Chaos Insignia. Up ahead away from the ongoing duel currently happening, the duo also spotted the Ener-D Reactor facility.

"Take us down." Ren said, as Ben piloted Deep Eyes towards the ongoing battle. As the group got closer, they were met with a sight that caused Ben to almost lose track of his flight pattern.

In what could be called a prison dome, many of the Orphans including Martha and Blister are trapped inside, helplessly witnessing the ongoing duel in fear. The battlefield itself had it worse, as Ben saw Rua, Ruka, Tetsu, Mikage, Crow, Akiza and Misty all unconscious on the floor with there respective duel disks deactivated. The only people conscious were Yusei, Jack and Kiryu dueling a cloaked figure. The field currently had Jack's Majestic Red Dragon, Yusei's Stardust Dragon and Kiryu's Infernity Doom Dragon on the field, with three face downs. While their opponent's field had Darkness Neosphere and four face down cards. Their current Life Points…

Yusei: 30

Jack: 1

Kiryu: 200

Vs

???: 7200

"I activate Majestic Red Dragon's effect." Jack yelled. "By negating your monsters effect, It gains attack equal to the negated monster."

Majestic Red Dragon (8000Atk/3000Def/Lvl10/Dark/Dragon)

"Attack his monster." Jack ordered

"I activate my trap, magic cylinder." The Cloaked figure monotoned

"Tch, I activate Book of Moon to flip my monster down." Jack muttered

"That was close." Ren said

"I'll set a face down and end my turn." Jack said.

Turn: 12

"I draw." The figure noted, before noticing Ben and Ren. "You've finally arrived, Strega. I was beginning to think Sayer's stunt had killed you."

"You have got to be shitting me." Ren cursed, as he recognized the figure, Nightshroud. From the looks of things, this Nightshroud was clearly a host possessed by the mask and not the real deal, but something was different about him. Like the Dark Signer mark on his Right shoulder, similar to the Geo Glyph on the field

"Be careful Ben, he is the one I sensed in the apartment." Grapha warned

"A single Dark Signer with this much power." Ccapac hummed. "Impressive."

"Stop complementing the enemy damnit." Fader said

"What do you want?" Ben asked, as he jumped off Deep Eyes

"Isn't it obvious, I'm here for you." Nightshroud said