VCR_CAT

Aria "You don't want to let your soup get cold." Tegur interjected, and while his calm voice helped visibly put Aria at some ease, her unwavering glare remained fixed on Cyan. "I think it might be much better if you to go back to your bowl and eat. Eating is good. Warms the soul. Keeps you going. Not at all like fighting." "I said I'd like.." Cyan fired back, slamming his head against hers. "...to see you try, shrimp!" His voice became sharper, smoke coming out of his mouth as he spoke. His eyes glanced over to Tegur and, as they did, he backed off from the girl. "Try to have a tantrum somewhere else, kid. I actually like this fuckin' place." Aria almost leaped from her stool to plant a fist right into Cyan's face, but all that was stopping her was another look from Tegur. She growled, then shouted back at Cyan as he left. "That's right! Run away, you coward! Just you wait until our next match, I'm gonna blast you into next WEEK!" At this point, however, he was long gone and couldn't hear her. Grumbling, she turned around back to the rest of her ramen and continued to eat, albeit at a faster pace. Just as she was soon about to finish, her watch notified her of an incoming message. She read through the message, her mood still stewing until she saw that it was from Masaru. Almost choking on her ramen, she opened the message with haste, but her excitement immediately died down when she read that the message wasn't meant for her. "Who the hell is 'Little Slime'?" She muttered to herself, before typing out her own response. Hey Masaru, this is Aria. Looks like u sent ur message to the wrong person. Im at Tegur's atm and u just missed mauvache. i dunno wat u mean by 'lil slime' so i dunno if i can help, but mb some1 can help u get in tuch with mauvache? i dunno, gud luck! ? "That last emote was probably a bit much. Oh well," Aria said, returning to her ramen.

Itsuki Watanabe "If anything other than your hands are hurt, I can carry you somewhere safer." Diana rubbed the back of her head. "It's the least I can do if I hurt you. That's fine, right, Yuuka? Shoshiki?" "Nah, 's good," Itsuki said, his speech becoming a little less slurred but still rough around the edges from the slang. "I'll prolly be fine carryin' my stuff anyways." "well, that sounds fine by me. Watanabe, was it? Do try to be less underhanded with your fellow classmates." Yuuka said, which seemed to slightly annoy Itsuki. "Hey hey hey, whaddya call this, then?" Itsuki said, pointing at the spot on his head where he was punch. No doubt by now a bump was forming. But, she turned around anyways and addressed her group, especially regarding the issue of badges. Itsuki sighed and stepped into the circle. "Hey, for not killin' me or whatever, I guess I could share. There's a building a coupla' blocks that way," Itsuki pointed down the way he had come, "that had at least one badge in there. Maybe more, I dunno. It looked like it could fall over any second, though. Seemed like too much trouble so I let 'em stay. I haven't told anyone yet so, if you wanna go that way go for it. Too much work for me anyways."

Eighteenth

Flail is a real good boy!

Aria "That's the spirit, my dear. You might want to start with the young witch though. She could use it." Aria joined Mauvache in giving Morgan a look of distaste. "Whatever, hag." Morgan muttered. Then, to Aria, "You can try but the only thing you'll ever beat me in is an ugly contest." She tossed her hair and turned towards Tegur. "I'd like a drink, pumpkin spice latte, and some apple pie. On our gracious host." "I'd love to see you try, shrimp!" Cyan said, even though he really shouldn't have. "The hell you just say?" Aria snapped, slamming her hand down on the counter, causing some amount of broth to splash out of her bowl. "Say that to my face, asshole! Say it right now! See what happens!" The look she gave him betrayed her murderous intent, and Cyanthrax would need to choose his words carefully before he found out why Aria's fist was clenched so tightly.

Monsters Super Express Bullet Train x3 Heavy Freight Train Derricrane x3 Symphonic Warrior Miccs x1 Quickdraw Synchron x2 Infinitrack Roadheader x2 Infinitrack Trencher x2 Infinitrack Rock Anchor x3 Flying Pegasus Railroad Stampede x3 Symphonic Warrior Guitaars x3 Infinitrack Harvester x3 Symphonic Warrior Basses x1 Spells Revolving Switchyard x3 Monster Reborn x1 Tuning x3 Urgent Schedule x3 Sky Striker Engage x3 Hornet Bit x1 Extra Deck Wind/Fire/Earth Sky Striker Trio Infinitrack Goliath x2 Platinum Gadget x1 Anger Knuckle x1 Qliphort Genius x1 Infinitrack Reverstorm x1 Big Eye x1 True King of All Calamities x1 Infinitrack Earthshaker x1 Number 81: Superdreadnought Rail Cannon Super Dora x1 Number 35: Ravenous Tarantula x1 Number 77: The Seven Sins Before it's asked: No I do not have the space for: Terraforming or another Sky Striker spell. The maindeck is packed fairly tight and I use everything. I wish there was something better to run engine-wise than Sky Strikers, but alas: Terrortop is still limited. Other fun facts: Harvester + Level 10 = Number 77 and can use the banish nuke immediately. Goliath can attach itself to any Xyz (including VFD). The deck has a lot of instances where it looks like you open lack-luster but has a lot of opportunity for maximum galaxy-brain combos.

Summoning from-hand is nice and all, but the deck is too resource intensive to really justify having something that doesn't help keep the economy rolling. This did get me thinking, however, and I did replace the Symphonics to bring Gearframe back, though I'm not fond of having another normal summon in the deck to use. At least with him I can bring Machina Fortress out for some more economic setup and a bit more versatility what with the 2500 beatstick I can search. Running Summon Sorc is too much Extra Deck commitment. I'd need to run one more Sky Striker Ace to make that combo work, and I don't exactly have links to spare. Summon Sorc combos with machines are only especially worth it within the Needlefiber combos anyways, and this deck doesn't have the space to run the tuners to make that work very well. With the Symphonics removed and another Sky Striker spell in, I think I'm down enough 1-of's to justify bumping the deck to 42 cards w/ Desires. That's more or less the best you can do with good draw power, outside the Roadheaders I put in. If I had more space I would want to fit Scrap Recycler back in, though. Not enough space to really fit a 3rd Called in. I went with Afterburner since Widow Anchor is only really good if you have three spells in the grave already, and this deck isn't great at getting them in there efficiently. At least with cards like Urgent Schedule I at least have a potentially easier time going second. In testing, I might just end up cutting Afterburners for a third Called, though. Also, misc. change because I forgot it existed: switched out Megaton Gale (looks like an awesome card but too impractical to summon with these combos) for Demiurgear, because that's a much easier card to summon with still a solid impact.

Monsters Night Express Knight x2 Speedy Express Bullet Train x3 Heavy Freight Train Derricrane x3 Machina Fortress x3 Infinitrack Roadheader x2 Machina Gearframe x3 Ruffian Railcar x3 Flying Pegasus Railroad Stampede x3 Spells Revolving Switchyard x3 Pot of Desires x2 Terraforming x2 Urgent Schedule x3 Special Schedule x2 Monster Reborn x1 Called by the Grave x2 Sky Striker Mobilize - Engage! x3 Sky Striker Maneuver - Afterburners!! x1 Sky Striker Mecha - Hornet Drones x1 Extra Deck Number C9: Chaos Dyson Sphere x1 Superdreadnought Rail Cannon Juggernaut Liebel x1 Number 81: Superdreadnought Rail Cannon Super Dora x2 Superdreadnought Rail Cannon Gustav Max x1 Number 35: Ravenous Tarantula x1 Number 11: Big Eye x1 Infinitrack Reverstorm x1 World Regalia Demiurgear x1 Double Header Anger Knuckle x1 Qliphort Genius x1 Sky Striker Ace - Kagari x1 Sky Striker Ace - Kaina x1 Sky Striker Ace - Hayate x1 Infinitrack Goliath x1 Honestly still very much annoyed by how Infinitrack turned out. I'm pretty desperate to replace Symphonics and Sky Strikers in this case, but really if you want self-summon EARTH Machines your pool of options is painfully slim. Unless anyone has better ideas, this is what I'm working with.

Overall Thoughts: - Harvester - Can't complain, just generally a fine card to start with and use. - Rock Anchor - Not AS good, but not bad. - Cancer Crane - Now that we know what Expand does, don't... run this unless you're actually using that, but Expand isn't that great. - Drag Shovel - Spin Turn isn't good. Cya. - Trencher - Hey this is pretty good! Too bad it only summons Infinitrack monsters, but hey whaddya gonna do. - Roadheader - This is a pretty snazzy card, and I welcome it with open arms. - Reverstorm - Good card! Great show! - Colossal - zzzzzz - Earthshaker - okay but why though - Goliath - Great when used with Reverstorm - Megaton Gale - Dios mio - Outrigger Expand - Nothing spectacular or worth paying attention to unless we suddenly got a rank 10 Infinitrack. - Spin Turn - zzzzzzzzzzz My complaints: - This deck is desperate for a self-summon playstarter. It's what was really needed, and all the level 5's needing to tribute for their special is just... it makes me wonder why I would ever want to summon them normally and not just use them as discard fodder or summon with other effects. Really that self-summon is nothing more than a -1 to make a body on your field to be level 5. - Gonna be thinking of a compact engine of Harvester/Trencher/Roadheader to put into Machine decks, 'cause that wouldn't be too bad for EARTH ones if they're fine with that extra normal. I'm thinking something along the lines of 3/1/2? - I'm really hoping the extra support they get in a future main set makes up for this deck's weaknesses. These are so close to revolutionizing EARTH Machine decks, but just... fall short. - Hurts that Symphonics are WIND.

Tora Mori Right after Tora had agreed to rooming with Leiko for the night, Zirco approached and confronted her about wanting to quit the program. With each passing second the scene became more and more heated, and Tora found herself shrinking away from the crowd little by little. Shannon had done her best to calm the situation and come to Leiko's help, but her efforts were in vain as a duel was agreed to. Soon enough, a few of them were making their way to the garage. Tora felt a sinking feeling in her stomach, having hoped to spend a more calm time in the garage and not having to deal with such drama around what would soon be her work space. As their D-Wheels were pulled out, Tora had taken a moment to circle around each quietly, examining them closely and even going as far as popping the hood briefly on one of them. They were both much larger models than her own with bigger engines. While they could both reach faster maximum speeds, they sacrificed both their handling and their acceleration to achieve this. The D-Wheels might be appropriate for the oval-track, and do exceptionally well there; but for the varied track, they would find themselves slowly to a crawl with each hairpin. Tora made a mental note to remind herself of this if ever the situation arose. The work done on them was good, though. Both vehicles were clean inside and out with shining, new parts, and this worried Tora greatly as she stomped over to her Crosswhip and started examining each part. She popped the side open and looked closely, rummaging through the shining, new parts, and her growling frustration could be heard growing louder and louder. "Gil!" She shouted. "What the hell did you think replacing the model 5 booster with a model 7?! You better have not thrown out the model 5!" "Hey hey hey! Don't be so quick to judge!" Gil said, rushing over. "That model 5 was at the end of its days, I had to replace it before it blew out your whole engine mid-ride!" "The model 7's a piece of crap and you know it! Besides, all that rust was nothing but aesthetic damage! I'll have you know I kept that piece in mint condition! Besides, that model 7 puts out way too much power! You'd have to reinforce the wheels and frames to keep them from shattering, and if you did THAT then all you're doing is adding more weight! This isn't a drag racer, GIL. If I can't make a turn because the momentum carried me into the wall then it's on you!" "Hold on a second there! That might be true for a run-of-the-mill garage, but this is Kaiba Corp! We used woven carbon nanotubes to reinforce the wheels and frames! The bike's much lighter than it was before and are more than ready to handle the extra beef this engine has to offer!" Tora growled even louder than before. "When that duel's over, I'm going for a test drive. I swear to god, Gil, if I have to relearn how to ride all over again because you specc'd the Crosswhip to be an oval racer WHEN IT CLEARLY ISN'T I'm gonna be so pissed!" "How much you wanna bet you'll love it more than ever? I breathed some new life into that old budget piece, and I think you'll be surprised at how many new tricks it has up its sleeves!" Tora stared daggers at Gil before crossing her arms with a loud "Hmph!" as she returned to the bike and continued to rummage around its insides.

Hiraku Tsukino "A Dueling Team? Wow... I didn't know we had one of those here!" Hoshiko said, letting out a small giggle as she clasped her hands together. "It sounds like a lot of fun, but..." She scratched her cheek slightly. "I was kinda hoping it'd be something more casual. I don't think little ol' me would do well on a team like that." She slightly shrugged. "I'd love to cheer you guys on when you duel, though!" She gave the boy a sincere smile. Hiraku stared at her with the most exasperated expression that a human being could muster. "Neat," he said simply. "Do that. Go check out other clubs, then." In all honesty, it was taking a great deal of effort to keep his patience in check. It wasn't even that just he had no time for casuals like this, this mindset was the exact opposite of what the duel team should be. If anything, he had half a mind to tell her to piss off and stop wasting the team's time. Granted, he kind of did, but if he had to say it again there was little chance that he would be as polite as he was before.

Itsuki Watanabe "I am Itou Yuuka, a pleasure to meet you Watanabe," Yuuka said, but Itsuki had only time to open his mouth in reply before a fist slammed into the side of his head, sending him flying towards the ground. Instinctively, Itsuki threw down a barrier just where he would land. With such little time he wasn't able to make one properly strong enough, so the sickly yellow barrier was barely visible with how weak it was. He threw out his arms reflexively, and as they hit the barrier there would be a brief flash of light as it broke into a million tiny pieces. Then, Itsuki impacted against the hard pavement hands-first. A sharp pain lanced through his left arm, but he was at least able to stop his head from hitting the ground hard. Then everything went black for a moment, and he was awake on the ground as if he had just nodded off. He could make out Yuuka's voice, but could only hear enough to really get the gist of what was going on. ...king at least one though, after all, if we didn't at least confiscate something from him it would simply be a random act of violence." At that, one of them reached down and Itsuki could feel hands patting down his pockets to find where the medals were. As their hands went for the one where all three would be found, their fingers would bounce off a faint pane of yellow light. "Hey hey hey... at least buy me a drink first... don't I get a say in this?" Itsuki said, his voice slurred as he pushed himself to more of a sitting position. A wave of dizziness washed over him and he felt, for a moment, as if he would throw up. Tentatively he tested his left wrist, but the pain was too much for him to try and see if it was broken. He reached over with his right arm and gingerly squeezed the bone, feeling pangs each time. From what he could tell it wasn't broken, but at the very least it was one hell of a sprain.

Aria "My my, Aria." Mauvache said, causing Aria to visibly twitch before freezing in-place. "I see the day off hasn't doused your fire for combat now has it! I look forward to seeing how you'll fight when we come back to it tomorrow. But for now it's time to relax. You all have something in common after all, no need to be so unfriendly. Isn't that right, Cyanthrax?" "Of course!" Cyanthrax replied, looking over at Aria and scoffing, causing her face to turn a little red as a low growl began to escape her throat. "Can't blame her, though. I tend to bring that sort of attention. Everyone wants a piece of the champ." "Well what do we have here? You didn't tell me you were having a party, Cyan. Aren't you the popular one," a familiar and unwelcome voice soon followed. "What can I say? You get a little famous when you're numero uno!" "Yeah, forgive me if I have a little trouble relaxing around these two," Aria said bitterly. Thanfully it wasn't long until one of the robot waiters returned with a big bowl of steaming ramen, and the smell alone was almost enough to quell the annoyance and anger that Aria felt. However, as she pinched one of the eggs with her chopsticks and slurped it up noisily, she had hoped that the food would be a good enough distraction from the stressors around her, but she was wrong. "You better watch yourself, though," Aria growled barely coherently between mouthfuls of golden noodles. "I'm gonna knock you both right down a few pegs, just you wait!"

Tora Mori "But of course. Welcome aboard," Blues said with a smile. That was it? Was it really that easy? "Now, please dear, sit down for a bit. You look like you're going to pass out," Mr. E added, smiling gently. Tora nodded, stepping backward steadily and taking her seat again, practically collapsing on the chair. The others went one by one, announcing their intention of joining, until finally it came down to... Zirco, his name? As would be expected with his degree of anger, he exchanged a few blows with Blues Kaiba. There was a moment of silence before Zirco helped the CEO back to his feet and returned to his own chair. The terms for their "employment" were laid down, and it wasn't long until Mr. E was leading them on a tour of the facility. The first stop was simple: a large, sprawling garage filled with D-Wheels, parts, tools, and equipment. Most of the other signers had a look of disinterest to them, but Tora's eyes completely shone with a light of newfound energy. There weren't many people in there, besides one blonde, young man working on one of the D-Wheels. Mr. E cleared his throat, causing the boy to look up. "Oh, you guys are here!" with a large grin, the new guy walked over, wiping his hands on a cloth. "Wazzup? Welcome to The Signer Haven's garage. I'm Gil, and I'm---," He suddenly struck a pose, raising his hand to his face. "The one that fixes and improves your D-Wheels, the mighty mechanic!" With a smile, he continued. "If you need your D-Wheel fixed, or have an improvement you need installed, feel free to ask me," He dropped his pose and looked further down the garage. "That path leads to the race tracks. We got two, a standard oval track, and a track with a lot of sharp turns and other obstacles. If you wanna race, feel free to, just try to not drive out there too late at night, yeah?" One of the other signers began to exchange a few words with the mechanic while Tora flitted between the D-Wheels and examined the workspace very closely. However, once they stopped talking Tora's voice could be heard shouting, her words echoing sharply in the open space. "Hey!" She shouted, standing next to a sleek and clean, but rather simple D-Wheel. "I swear to god, if you touched the Crosswhip at ALL I WILL kill you!" "Hey! All I did was tune it up a bit and get it all clean! You can relax, this old hunk of j--" The glare Tora gave Gil could stop even Blues in his tracks. "Th-this uhh... fine piece of machinery should work good as new now!" The tour, however, was already beginning to move on. "I'll be back, and I'll be the judge of that!" After the garage they went their way through the rest of the facility, seeing the gym, the kitchen, and finally meeting the researchers they would be working with. The entire time Tora's mind was fixed on the garage, and was more than ready to head back there and spend the rest of the day tinkering. However, the first order of business was deciding who was going to sleep where. Zirco proposed drawing straws to see who would have to share a room with Mr. E, but the thought of that alone was making Tora's skin crawl. Unfortunately, she was never good with this whole "split up into pairs" action, and found herself standing nervously as others were grouping up. "Tora?" Tora felt her heart sing as she was saved from this situation, and she turned to the direction of the small voice to see Leiko. "Could... Could I stay with you, for the evening? It would only be one, you'd have it to yourself after tomorrow." "Yes! Please! Thank you!" Tora said with a huge sigh of relief. "And if you end up joining you can stay with me, no problem!"

Hiraku Tsukino "And who are you calling kid?" The girl snapped back. "I'll have you know that in my country the 'kids' are already far more advanced in maturity than adults of this land. Why, I should be calling YOU kid." Hiraku stepped over, taking in a breath to release a stream of savage comebacks, but Hitomu had stepped in and started talking about interviews and tests, causing Hiraku to let out an exasperated sigh instead. "Friggin' chunni's," Hiraku muttered to himself. "Excuse me," a voice spoke to Hiraku, who at first did not realize that someone was talking to him, but a hint of surprised flashed across his face as he looked over to see Hoshiko standing in front of the booth. "I'm new around here. Is this some sort of Dueling Club?" At first Hiraku felt annoyed, but he let out another sigh. This was a reasonable, normal question. Nothing worth getting mad at. "Yeah this is the Dueling Team. We practice together and represent the school in local tournaments and team matches against other schools. Why, were you thinking of joining?" His demeanor wasn't his usual stand-offishness, and anyone who knew him would find this Hiraku to be much more friendly, but to anyone that didn't he would still give off an aura of unwelcome, or one that gave the impression he didn't want to be there. Which he didn't.

Itsuki Watanabe "well, I'm never one to turn down help from a prospective hero. And, I suppose I don't have much of an idea where anything is here, so yes, I'm lost. Do you know where you're going here?" "Sure don't!" Itsuki replied with a tone that was a bit too cheerful. He folded his arms behind his head, partially because he wanted to and partially to give off the impression that he appears harmless as he walked towards the girl with long, relaxed strides. "But hey, I figured that if I was gonna be lost, why not be lost with a cute girl? Sounds like a much better deal to me." Once Itsuki was close enough, he made the attempt to generate a barrier behind the medals pinned to the girl's shirt. There were a few, small flashes of bright, blue light and the girl would definitely feel something pushing lightly against the medals. "Yoink!" Itsuki said triumphantly, holding out his hand where the medals were expected to fly towards, but there was nothing. With a few more attempts, the flashes of light slowly changed from blue, to green, and then to yellow. "Uhhhhh shit," Itsuki cursed. He underestimated how hard it would be to imagine a proper shape for the barrier to fit between the medals and the shirt and nothing could properly form, with the attempts becoming more fruitless as he got more stressed. "Uuhhhh let's start over? My name's Itsuki Watanabe, pleased to meet you?" He said with a nervous laugh.

Aria Aria marched into Tegur's bar without paying much heed to her surroundings. With a steady pace she marched up to the bar and practically slammed her fist down on the counter as she sat down on the stool. "Tegur," she said with a strong confidence. "I have a deep fever, and the only prescription is the most robust bowl of ramen you can muster in the 'food from home' category." Aria sat upright, eyes sparkling in anticipation of what she hoped was going to be the largest bowl of noodle soup she could imagine. By chance she looked off to her side and spotted Cyanthrax, and immediately her mood took a turn for the worse. "Feh," she grumbled to herself quietly, though still perhaps too loud. "Wouldn't have come if I knew there was gonna be trash in here."

Tora Mori It wasn't long through their introductions that a loud boom echoed through the room and Mr. Blues Kaiba himself had dropped from the ceiling. Tora leaped to her feet with a startled yelp as the man landed on the floor gingerly and turned his jetpack off. The pleasantries were short as he gave a short history of Project Crimson, teased Tora with the hope of simply being let go free, but stamped that hope quickly as he described the situation going on right now. "Right. So, this is my offer to you all. You work with me for six months as Branded Signers, and help me save the world. When those six months are up, however, you're free. You'll be able to leave, a million dollars in your pockets, and a house provided in any city you want, no rent and no bills. What do you all say?" Blues Kaiba said. A million dollars? And no rent, no bills?! Ideas raced through Tora's mind of all that could be accomplished with that money. No more living paycheck-to-paycheck, and more than enough money that she would possibly need that she could help those around her. Her thoughts then strayed to the Grand Prix, the entrance fee, being able to upgrade a runner, enter and-- No, there was no way she could do any of that. There was no way she could possibly win any of the smaller tournaments as it was. Tora was a terrible duelist; Ms. Katsuki knew this, Tora knew this, and there was no way Blues Kaiba didn't know this as well. Even if Tora helped out, would she even be a help? Were they in danger, would she just be getting herself killed? And if she turned it down... could she go home? The others accepted one by one. Some reluctant, some oozing a confidence that Tora could only dream of having, others insisting they didn't want compensation, and some even daring to drive the deal even higher. Tora wasn't a hero, she wasn't a savior to anyone. She was a girl that just wanted to go home and be with her loved ones, that wanted things to be like they once were... ...But could that even happen? What was she going home to? Hiroto always knew what to do, he never had any doubts. Even when they were kicked out of the orphanage and things looked bleakest, he always seemed to crack a smile and know just where to go, even if it meant working the hardest to get there. "I mean, where else can we go but forward? You don't win the race goin' backwards!" Tora shut her eyes tight and growled. She didn't like any of what was going on and every instinct but one was screaming at her to turn back and go home. But Hiroto wouldn't turn this down, not for the world. "E-excuse me," Tora said tentatively, but the noise in the room from everyone else talking drowned out her voice. "Excuse me!" She said louder this time, but still no success. Tora took a deep breath. "Everyone, shut up!!" She shouted, her face a bright, beet red as she felt every eye turn on her. Fists clenched, she marched right up to Blues Kaiba, arms shaking and knees threatening to buckle at any minute. "L-look, I know I got the mark and the claw and all... but I feel like... the whole thing must be random. I'm not... I'm not a good duelist, I only know the rules and I've never really played much with anyone but my brother. I-- your offer is very, very generous, and... any of us would be stupid to say no. I want to help, but I don't think I will be a help." Tora took a deep breath. "But... but even so! I'm not going to back down easy. So if you'll have me... I'm in!" Hiroto was never someone who turn down an opportunity to help someone else, and for his sake... she shouldn't either.