C.N. April 2014: Digital Distraction Part 28

“S...Stay away!” Kari stopped mid step at the feminine, frightened yelp, causing Tristan to barrel into her and knock her over. The pair tumbled to the ground, crashing into a tree and ending up in a tangled heap at its base.

“Oh shi...!” A man squawked just before a a bright burst of purple light bounced between the trees. Two men bellowed in pain, and then a girl darted past them, a Duel Monster following her.

Kari recognised the Duel Monster, for all its unusual colouring it looked like a Dark Magician Girl and there was only green variant of that card in circulation.

“Danielle.” Kari called to the player the monster was protecting, wondering what the hell was going on.

The reporter glanced over her shoulder at them, paused, then stopped, her Duel Monster, Maddie, getting between her and them. “I...” She started, frustration obvious as she glanced in the direction she had come from.

“There she is!”

Dani squeaked as a couple of men, these ones dressed much differently from the ones who had tried to grab her on the boat. She recognised them though, or rather their uniforms and she gestured for her Dark Magician Girl to deal with them.

The mooks were prepared, the magician’s attack was sucked into a vortex of wind and disappeared.

Tristan didn’t give them a chance to counter attack, startling Kari by leaving her side and swinging for one of the mooks, taking him out with one powerful punch. Danielle’s Dark Magician Girl blasted the other one, sending him crashing into a tree and making him drop the bleeping object in his hand.

Kari scooped it up, trying to work out what it was. She took two steps back, pacing slightly as she poked and prodded at the touch screen before cussing profusely.

“Kari?” Tristan asked.

“It’s a tracker.” She informed him, showing him the machine, which was clearly tracking Danielle. “I don’t know what the signal’s coming from but...oh...” She turned to Danielle, “The only new thing you’ve got on you is your DimDisk right?”

Dani nodded, taking it off and passing it to Tristan when Kari asked her too. Her suspicions were confirmed when Tristan wandered off and they tracked him down easily only to find he had had to knock out another pair of goons.

“They’re tracking our DimDisks?” Dani scowled, “No wonder I couldn’t lose them.”

“I’m not surprised.” Kari shrugged, “Kaiba’s Duel Disks do the same thing. My boss said it was to ensure that he could find out if any of his players decided to go awol during the tournament or enter any restricted areas.”

“Is it legal?” Dani demanded, angry that she hadn’t known about any of this.

“I assume so.” Kari replied, having wondered that herself and never gotten a straight answer from anyone within the company. “But is this really the time to be asking that?”

“She has a point.” Tristan nodded, “Pass that to me?”

Kari chucked him the tracker and he poked at the screen until he called up the list of Duellists tapped Yugi’s name. The little dot on screen appeared halfway across the island, but not where they had expected it to be. Instead it looked like Yami was heading for the castle.

“Huh.” Tristan showed Kari.

“If Yami’s heading for the castle, we should probably go that way too.” Kari said, thinking aloud, “You don’t have to come with us.” She offered as she looked at Dani, “Since you’re trying to avoid the goons.”

“Oh no, I want to get in the castle.” Dani corrected her, “I just have no intention of ending up as someone’s prisoner again. It wasn’t much fun last time so excuse me if I don’t go for a repeat.”

“Why don’t you stick with us.” Tristan suggested as he started for the castle, Kari in tow. “Though you might want to ditch the DimDisk if you don’t want them following you.”

Dani paused, having not thought of that before now. When she tried to remove her deck from the slot, however, the DimDisk let out a high pitched screech and a metal guard slid up and across to cover the deck, something similar happening to her graveyard, leaving her with only the green Dark Magician Girl available.

“Hey!” Kari yelped when something similar happened to her DimDisk, preventing her from accessing anything that wasn’t in the hand she had already drawn from her deck.

Tristan, who didn’t have a deck and had discarded his DimDisk early into their travels, scowled. “So, just you two? Or everyone?”

“THIS IS AN ANNOUNCEMENT TO ALL PLAYERS.” Kari hadn’t known the island was rigged with speakers until a voice started booming out of them, “WE CURRENTLY HAVE A HACKING ISSUE. ALL PLAYERS MUST RETURN TO THE CASTLE TO HAVE THIER DIMDISK RESET WITH THE UPDATED SECURITY PROTOCOLS TO ALLOW GAMEPLAY TO CONTINUE.”

“Hacking issue my behind.” Kari frowned, “Unless...” She sighed, “Unless my boss is repaying the favour.”

“What do you mean?” Dani asked, well aware that Kari worked for Kaiba Corp.

“I’ll explain on the way.”

C.N. April 2014: Digital Distraction Part 9

“Excuse me?” She waved her hand in front of the suited man in front of her, “You know, not that I don’t appreciate the free limo ride but I kind of had plans for today.”

“I’m sorry, Miss Green, but Master Pegasus was most insistent that we find you.” The guy did look apologetic at least.

Green went quiet. She was a reporter in the Duelling world, so she had run into the C.E.O. of Industrial Illusions before. He had never had her brought in for a meeting before and she couldn’t think why he would do so now. She had been a little rude about Kaiba Corp’s recent total system failure but she hadn’t belittled Industrial Illusions once the entire time.

“Did he say why?” Green finally asked, looking a little worried.

“He said you would understand if I were to mention ‘four years ago next Sunday.’ He also told me to offer you anything you wanted from the drinks bar.” The goon informed her.

Green paled at the mention of four years ago. She remembered what happened four years ago all too well and she had hoped that no one else had known about it. It had been a little event she had gotten involved with purely by accident and had been the most involved with magic she had ever gotten. It had also changed her world and left her trying to re-centre herself and understand how her world had changed for weeks.

“If we’re going to be talking about four years ago, I’ll take a glass of whatever is the strongest thing he’s got in that bar.” She grimaced, “I’m going to need it.”

The goon chuckled and poured her a glass of champagne. “This is the strongest thing in the bar, enjoy.”

“This glass is probably worth my entire week’s wages.” Green said as she swirled it around gently before taking a sip, “And I probably should have eaten before drinking this.” With that she downed the glass.

“Another?” The goon asked, “We’ll be pulling into Industrial Illusions London in another minute or so.”

“No, one is quite enough.” Green could feel the haze settling in already, helping her relax about what was to come, “Especially with your boss waiting for me.”

The goon nodded and when the car pulled up he followed her, still holding the open bottle and the used glass, both of which he put on the table next to her. “Master Pegasus will be here shortly.” He promised, “If you need anything, I will be right outside.”

“Thank you.” Green nodded to him. There was no need to be rude to the staff when they were only trying to do their job after all.

The goon nodded back and left the room. Green was there for less than ten minutes before the door opened again and Maximillian Pegasus walked through the door.

“Ah, Dani-girl!” He grinned at her cheerily, “Sorry about the pickup, but you see there’s something rather urgent come up and I’m afraid it just couldn’t wait.”

“Mister Pegasus.” Dani shot to her feet and offered her hand, “It’s an honour sir, but...”

“If I thought there was anyone better for the job, I would have sent my men to pick them up instead.” Pegasus informed her, “However, there wasn’t and you’re perfect for what I have in mind.”

“I’m not magical.” Dani shook her head, “Surely there’s someone with magic who’d be better suited to sort out this mess. I can’t...”

“You can and you must Dani-girl.” Pegasus interrupted, “You see, I have a rather large problem and to be quite frank you’re the only person who can get in there and solve it before it turns from a big problem, to a mass murder.”

Dani went very still at that. “Mass? But it only takes one...”

“Not this time, not as far as they’re concerned.” Pegasus shook his head. “And it’s that time again. I know you aren’t normal, Dani-girl. None who are touched by the Shadows as you were four years ago are ever ‘normal’ again. But that isn’t entirely why I asked you here today.”

“Oh?” Dani asked, wondering how much he knew of her ‘changes’ in the last four years and how it had made her job easier.

“I find myself in need of your skills as a reporter and as a Duellist.” Pegasus explained.

“What skills as a Duellist?” Dani pointed out, reminding the head of Industrial Illusions that she was just as famed for her lack of Duelling ability as she was for her reporting skills.

“Not your skills with the game, Dani-girl, but your skills with the monsters.” Pegasus chuckled, “Your deck loves you and you love them. More importantly you talk with them, not to them or at them. When you step into the VirtualNet, they will aid you because of that. That’s what I need. Someone I know I can trust with my secrets, who I know will not rest until she has uncovered the truth and protected as many people as she can and who I know will be protected in turn.”

“What is it, exactly, you want me to do?” Dani asked, confused and curious, “And what VirtualNet?”

“You haven’t heard, Dani-girl?” Pegasus looked far too amused by that, “I thought you were on top of everything.”

“Apparently this slipped through the gap.” Dani grouched, trying not to get mad and wondering if she should have skipped the glass of Champaign if Pegasus was going to talk circles around her.

“Well, Dani-girl, it all starts with a group called the ShadowSwords...”