"I've got you this time!" Officer Trudge swore on his Duel runner racing behind me.
The speed of my twin tired runner made the tail of my french braided black hair flap wildly in the wind. The tunnel we were dueling in was dimly lit with lights hanging against the walls, some not even illuminating by how destroyed they were. This was the Satellite after all.
The ground zoomed under me as I flew over it. The feeling was exhilarating. I whipped my head around to look at my pursuer through the dark lens of my helmet and laughed loudly like a giddy kid. "How many times have you said that now, Trudge?" I teased humorously. He currently had 500 life points while I had 100. His Handcuffs Dragon was on the field while I had one card face down.
"You wont be laughing for long! I activate the card 'Creature Swap'! And by sacrificing 3 of my speed counters, I can trade out one of your monsters for mine. And I chose that face down monster that you're so keen on protecting." He smiled victoriously at his move. Unfortunately for him, it only succeeded in making me laugh further.
My hand reached up to my duel disk strapped in my runner and set my plan into place. "Very well, Officer. By doing so, you have forcefully flipped my card and activated its effect." My face down flipped over revealing my Toxin Dragon. "When this card is flipped, my opponent takes 500 points of damage!" My card flipped and revealed my dragon who virtually emerged to life. He roared aggressively and leaped at Trudge where he took his damage which forced his duel runner to shut down and screech to a halt.
"Maybe next time!" I patronized as I revved my runner and sped off.
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I made it home where I jumped off my runner and took off my helmet. I sighed in relief as the cool night air hit my face again. I set my protective gear on the seat and pushed my runner up to my garage where I set it up stable in the middle of the room with tools spread all over the ground. I made sure to shut the door behind me and watch my moves carefully as the light from the moon through the windows was my only light since I couldn't risk Security finding me here.
Checking over the specks, I felt another figure behind me in the shadows. Its aura was benevolent so I pretended not to notice it and continued my work. "You know, instead of trying to scare a girl, you could have just asked her if you could come in." I joked playfully as I grabbed a rag and scrubbed the paint work on my runner.
"How do you know I'm not here to take your stuff? Thats definitely a fancy looking Runner you got there." He countered darkly but I could still tell it was a kind voice that sounded close to my age. I wiped my hands with the towel as I turned on my heel to meet the figure. He was taller than me by a good foot, dressed in a long sleeve blue jacket that was open to reveal a black tanktop with a red symbol underneath. A pair of black jeans covered the lower half of his body. Matching boots and gloves covered his limbs protectively. His hair was a black color with yellow highlights. The main black seemed to glow a midnight blue in the reflection of moonlight.
"I'm sure you would've done it by now." I grinned at him. Its been a while since I've had a decent conversation with someone who wasn't chasing after me or trying to take me down for my stuff as it was practically a piece of gold in a ship graveyard.
He huffed in an honest laugh then held out his hand towards me. "The names Yusei Fudo." He introduced.
I threw my towel off to a nearby table and grasped Yusei's hand, shaking it firmly. "Skylar Armina." I replied. "Here, come up with me and you can tell me why you're here." I gestured to the stairs leading to the main house. He nodded and followed behind me as we made our way up.
When he got inside I shut the door behind him and quickly made my run around the room to close all the curtains so I could turn on the lights. I showed him to the couch where he obliged to sit down while I got him a drink of water.
"Theres not a lot of people like you left in the Satellite." He commented as I handed him the cup and took a drink. I shrugged off my denim jacket and sat across from him laying it over the top to air out. It was the chair my mother and I use to sit in together and read books we found around the Satellite.
"Yeah well, I was always taught to treat people like how I would treat myself." My mind took me back to the moments mom would teach me manners and how I should respect others but I quickly pulled myself out of it. "So Yusei, what brings you over to my place? Which I'm kind of curious how you found." I muttered the last part.
"I had heard there was a girl with a newly designed runner picking fights with Trudge and the rest of Sector Security. It was rumored that she easily takes them all down with a deck full of monsters no ones ever heard of before. Oh, and I just followed you here." He stated casually.
My eyes squinted as my brows furrowed and I shook my head in disbelief. "'Cause that does give off a stalker vibe or anything." He laughed at me, leaving my eyes to roll at him. "As for the rumor, yes its true." I paused pulling out my deck from one of the holsters on my side. "These cards had never been played until my mother. She was their original owner, using them to only escape the City and then locked away again until now when I use them to escape the facility."
"Sounds like theres a complicated story behind that." I nodded, returning my deck to their place.
"Very complicated." I whispered. "But enough about my cards, what did you want to ask me?" I calmly snapped, wanting to get to the point.
"You looked like you had a good sense of mechanics when you were working on your Runner earlier. I wanted to ask you for your help on a project I'm working on." I instantly froze as I felt there was going to be something wrong about this yet I had to ask.
"What kind of project?"
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"You want to what?!" I screeched at Yusei.
He had lead me down to an abandoned subway station on the back of my runner where, under the streets, he showed me the duel runner he had been working on for a while now. It looked pretty good on the outside but its the inner works that matter the most. But over all of this, he just told me he want to sneak his way into Neo Domino City!
"Yusei. You know thats suicide, right? I mean, theres no way to get there other than ship!" He didnt seem to be fazed by my outburst as he stroked over his runner and grinned at me.
"Thats where you're wrong." He corrected making me shut up instantly. "See, theres an opening at midnight once a month when Neo Domino sends its garbage here to the Satellite. If I can make it through that opening in time, then I'll be able to get back what I lost." I wanted to question what it was that he lost but by the pain and determination on his face, I decided to leave it and give in.
I sighed in defeat and strode over to his computer that held the structure of the Runner in its files. "Fine. Let me take a look." He backed up and let me do my thing as my fingers danced over the keyboard. I hummed looking over the schematics and accessing a plan to establish the right equivalence throughout the runner to get Yusei outta here.
About 10 minutes later, I groaned as I tried my last plan on the simulator yet still coming out in a failure. "I'm sorry, Yusei, I can adjust the circulation of the wheels and install a new power router to the main engine to give you some more speed but with the acceleration chip you have now, it's not gonna be enough to get you even close to the door."
Yusei looked like he grew a little agitated as his eyes closed and he took a heavy breath as he leaned against his runner. When he opened them again he looked back into my hues with a sense of stubbornness. "Would you mind making those adjustments nonetheless?" He asked.
I nodded and grabbed the first wrench I could find. "Definitely." He grinned slightly as I started working on the wheels first.
"Hey, Yusei!" A new voice echoed out. I stopped my work and saw that both of us looked to see three guys come out of the shadows. One was fairly thin with purple hair ties up in a ponytail, another was fit nicely with a teal bandanna around his head and the last was quite chubby with brown hair stretching out in every area. Each one of them had a sector security tag somewhere on their face.
"Hey, Tank, Nervin, Blitz!" Yusei called back. They must be friends of his. They all locked eyes with me and grew a shocked and confused expression on their faces.
"Yo, Yuse, what is this chick doing down here?" The one known as Blitz asked pointing to me. But before either of us could answer, the two others gasped and breathed a 'Whoa'. I followed their eyes and looked back at my runner that was parked securely off to the side and out of sight from up top. When my vision was back at them, I saw their muscles tense to rush at it. My hand reached into my deck and shot a card out in font of their eyes. It stuck itself into a crack in the wall beside them and I saw sweat forming on their foreheads as they instantly halted.
"Dont. Even. Try." I warned darkly as I retrieved my card. I felt kind of bad since I just gave off a weird first impression but I am very protective of my Runner and I didn't want people I dont know just rushing up to inspect it head to toe.
"Guys, this is Skylar. Shes helping me upgrade my Runner." Yusei introduced as I moved onto the router portion to install.
"So this is the girl that's been making a name in Sector Security, huh?" Nervin accused. "The Green Dragon?"
I smiled as I continued my work knowing that's what Trudge and the rest of Security was calling me because I always refused to give them my name and I don't have a record of any kind. "Yeah........not very original, wouldn't you say?" I mean, my runner and deck had the color green in them compared to the plain black and white colors that designed with it and my deck consisted of mainly dragons.
"There, all done." I stated getting back to my feet and starting up the runner to rev it a few times. You could definitely hear the newfound power that I had given it. I heard all the guys gasp loudly at the new sound. It purred like a dream. "Am I good, or what?" I complemented myself playfully.
"Wow, Skylar, this is amazing!" Yusei exclaimed happily. A small laugh left my lips as I tossed him his helmet.
"Go ahead, take her out for a lap or two." He didn't waste any time in taking my advise as he got on his runner and sped off down the railways.
"Hey, I just remembered! That championship match is on today!" Tank yelled with excitement. I got curious as to what he was talking about and followed the guys into the small tent that was pitched up to the side. Tank turned on a small TV that was pitched up by a table and on the screen showed the image of a expensive looking, panning in, duel arena. "Duelists young and old, professional and amateur alike, it's the moment you've been waiting for! So make some noise for the #1 ranking turbo duelist in the world, Jack Atlas!!" Hyped the announcer as the camera shot a smoke covered entrance. Suddenly, a runner leaped out and flew through the air in dramatic effect.
At first glance at the rider, I could tell he wasn't the kindest guy you'll ever find. In fact, he seemed kind of high and mighty. "Let's say we kick this turbo duel into overdrive!" He yelled that echoed into the TV. His voice laced in a British accent.
"So this is the Champ, huh?" I muttered to myself. I never knew who that Champ was, I just knew how to play the game. It had never bothered me to actually watch a legitimate match before. So I watched with over excitement as this Jack Atlas and Hunter Pace man went at it as the duel continued. It had quickly come down to Hunter having 300 LPs and Jack having 2100. Hunter had played a trap that allowed him to summon one of his stronger monsters. Though Jack had a smirk on his face that suggested his move was worthless.
Like I thought, he used a tuner and a normal monster to summon a dragon that was nothing but amazing. "Red Dragon Archfiend" The Champ called it. I couldn't take my eyes off its black leather skin, piercing red horns, and noble spread wings. Something about that dragon just....called to me. And as I leaned forward into the TV, my chest suddenly burned like a hot iron stove. It took the breath out of me so fast that I couldn't even inhale air when I gasped in shock.
My hand reached for my chest, gripping my shirt tightly over the scorching spot. My teeth gritted together to refrain me from screaming. But I almost did when I looked down to see a red light emanating through my shirt. I stumbled back in freight, accidentally jostling a table full of equipment.
"Skylar!" That voice...it was Yusei's. I didn't even hear his duel runner come up. In an instant his was at my side with his blue eyes scanning over me in worry. And by the way he continued to look for an injury, it looked like he couldn't see the red light I could. It was only then did the other guys see what was going on and start to panic.
"W-whats happening?!" I wheezed tightening my grip on my shirt.
Then in a flash, it was gone. The burning sensation vanished and the red light disappeared. I took a large breath and began to slowly calm down. However, I felt a hold on my arm and looked to see Yusei's gloved palm wrapped around my hand that was still clasping my shirt.
"Are you alright?" He asked quietly, like something-anything- would make me have another attack like what just happened. I shook my head slowly in a way that almost didn't convince my own self that I was okay. But as Yusei's gaze was locked with mine, I could only as myself one thing.
What was that?