Acceleration Glory: Chapter 1

Acceleration Glory!
Chapter 1: Afternoons and Coffeespoons


"You're going to hate me for what I'm about to do!" Andre yelled, his deep voice only barely louder than the harsh whipping wind. Everything he said was a struggle to make heard at this speed. "I summon Koa'Ki Meiru Urnight!". He shook his head for a second, ensuring his riding goggles weren't coming undone. He could already feel his helmet slipping around his mid-length curly brown hair.

The Solid-Vision processor near his arm distinctively started heating up when his Urnight's card hit his disk. He would have to finish this soon. Last thing he needed was his Solid-Vision projector overheating and melting again. In practices, he would get by just fine, but once the tournament season started, getting his D-Runner fixed would be an extra expense he didn't want to have to bother paying. His money was tied up enough already.

A bright blast of light temporally lit up the air as Koa'Ki Meiru Urnight finally took shape. Sleek plates of golden armor over a white chain shirt reflected the sun as Urnight valiantly charged forth, bladed lance in hand. Urnight's lower half resembled that of a horse, four small legs of a majestic blue color hit the ground with a near perfect speed before Urnight began his majestic gallop, keeping in near perfect pace with the SIGMA CoRE. Andre nodded his natural nod of respect towards the creature. Even though it was nary but a series of optical light refractions projected to resemble a knight, one would be lying if they denied the majesty of Urnight's golden armor  and sleek gallop.

His hand clutched almost instinctively around the Iron Core of Koa'Ki Meiru in his hand. He would be revealing it in just a second, and Andre would be damned if he ever let it out of his grip, even for a moment. At this speed, were it to even slip for a second, the Iron Core would be lost forever and his shot at keeping himself afloat with this season's prize money would vanish. More than it already had.

"I activate Urnight's Effect! By revealing one Iron Core of Koa'Ki Meiru in my hand, Urnight may call for another Koa'Ki Meiru monster in my deck!" Andre roared out Urnight's effect. His opponent probably knew, but at this point, Andre was lost in a world of style. Anyone who had seen Andre duel ever knew Urnight's effect, but each time Andre used it, he would be damned if he didn't top his last presentation of it. "Now, call forth another of your brethren! Children of the Iron Core, unite under me!" Andre roared as his arm-mounted deck-holder extended a single card, slightly warm from the search it had just undertaken for said card.

"Come forth to smite my enemies! Go forth into battle! Warrior of the Iron Core! Strike: Koa'Ki Meiru Powerhand!"

The cheesy introduction did Powerhand more justice than it's appearance really merited.  A second bright flash of light, near identical to that of Koa'Ki Meiru Urnight crossed the field as Andre put Koa'Ki Meiru Powerhand onto the field. The familiar maddening sound of drilling filled the gust dominated air as Powerhand finally came into solid projection, his two arm-mounted drills spinning as a frighteningly fast speed. "This is game! Powerhand, Crush what stands before you!" Andre exclaimed, his normally ridged eyebrows now sharpening and giving his light blue eyes an intense stare.

The Armed Dragon that stood between Powerhand and the player didn't really stand any chance. Before it could even rear its head back for a counterattack, Powerhand's drill was already through its stomach. The small orange dragon let out a single screech before shattering into a collection of brightly colored shards, each of which in turn vanished.

Andre was a tad disappointed when his opponent didn't react at all to the 700 damage. His brightly lit display on the front of the SIGMA CoRE confirmed the lifepoint hit, dropping his opponent down to 1700 life points.

With no monsters to defend himself with.

"Finish this, Koa'Ki Meiru Urnight!" Andre ordered, designating the opposing player as Urnight's target. "And to ensure Urnight's success, Reverse Card Open! Reckoned Power!" Andre flipped one of this three set traps face up and tapped it, causing it to manifest on the field and activate. "By tapping into the power of one Iron Core of Koa'Ki Meiru in my hand, I can destroy all face down spell and traps you control!"

Andre caught a slight twinge on his opponent's part. Good. He must have hit something important. The twinge widened to a shake when Urnight's attack connected.

Andre shifted his attention from the field itself to his now flashing display. VICTORY lit up the lifepoint display in bright letters as Urnight's 2000 attack dropped his foe to zero.

"Duel practice complete. Reverting deck and engine. Closing duel lane", Andre's opponent beeped. Andre did a silent fistpump as the Duel-Practice-Rider he has just beaten began to shut down, it's permanently enjoined body and D-Wheeler now leaving the practice Duel Lane and heading back to the garage. The practice had cost Andre a tad more than he would have liked to normally pay, but he felt like he got a good practice off of this Duel-Practice-Rider. With a cheerful sigh, he switched the SIGMA Core back into normal riding mode, causing his Duel-Disk to fold back into his large representation of the Koa'Ki Meiru symbol in front of him. He switched lanes and took what would most likely be the fastest way back to his apartment, given good traffic. As he wouldn't be actually going fast taking the highway, Andre took his helmet off of his oval shaped and sharply featured head, storing in one of the storage pockets on the side of the SIGMA CoRE.

As the ripping wind at his ears settled to a mere breeze, Andre took a second to look at today's win. He had the theatrics down, quite a bit, something he would probably be scolded for  if he told Niko or Elliot he had rented a robot just to test out his summoning lines. Entering the Prosperity Cup for him wasn't really about winning, it was about finding a new sponsor. And sponsors love it when their duelists put on a show. And he needed a new sponsor. While LPBlast was willing to pay for his Duel-Disk and most of the cheaper maintenance costs on SIGMA CoRE so long as he would occasionally mention how LPBlast was a great drink to have before a set to increase energy (a general fabrication. Sure, the caffeine in it would give anyone enough energy to Shotgun Shuffle single handed, but by the time anyone was actually on their D-Wheeler, the crash would already be hitting. Nobody likes to be asleep on the their opening draw), they only really paid the bills.

While not having to Street-Duel to keep the electricity and air conditioning on was nice, it was just that: a way to survive. Andre craved a sponsorship that would finally put him in front of a crowd, the kind that would finally pay for him to have televised riding duels, or at least fix the somewhat dragging supports on SIGMA CoRE's back two wheels. Perhaps he could find this sponsor at the Prosperity cup. Hell, even if he didn't come close to winning, as long as some section of the crowd cheered for him in one form of another he was bound to wind up with a more prestigious brand name written on the inside of his jacket and slipping its way into his interviews.

Hah. Andre took a second to remind himself he wasn't just in it for the money. Underneath his strangely carefree aura (when he wasn't doing Riding Duels of course. The speed of SIGMA CoRE tended to bring out his wilder side) was a side of him that had a remarkable love of dueling, in some form or another.

Time for inner monologues was over. Andre rounded the last suspended city corner to the Haga apartments, one of the moderate complexes of the city. Grunting, he parked SIGMA CoRE on the outside D-Wheeler lift and hit the button to take the lift up to his room. While probably could have saved himself the trouble by simply parking in the garage, no self respecting riding duelist would be caught dead leaving his D-Wheeler where someone else could get to it.

The small metal lift finally grinded to a stop as it reached Andre's exterior access door, the door he would take his D-Wheeler in through when storing it for the night. This door probably got more use than his front one. Andre grunted again and pushed the SIGMA CoRE off of the lift and into garage of his apartment, finally resting all four of its smooth and dirty wheels on their respective locks. He locked the D-Wheeler in place and turned off the garage lights as he left.

The sun was setting, placing the time a lot later in the afternoon than when Andre planned to get home. By this time, he had already missed the televised card workshop on AcademyTV, so his plans for the night were now up for grabs. He debated catching a rail over to the Academy to pop into Elliot's dorm to nag Elliot for still dueling at the Academy. Oh, and to remind a few select professors that even though he had dropped out that they still couldn't be rid of him. Even after he had so gracefully stormed off after having one of his perfect duels miscounted by the school's less-than-stellar teacher review system.  

Of course, he could also hit the town. Andrew would probably be running one of his little Dueling Seminars right now, Niko would be hitting the city's social underbelly and Jake would be off doing, well, whatever it is Jake does to keep his time entertained.

Andre glanced briefly around the room before finally settling it. He took off his arm shuffler and hung it on his lamp which had long sense had its job reassigned to coat rack. If he needed to duel downtown, he could just use a Duel Terminal  or rent one from one of the Rent-A-Disc kiosks that seemed to have sprung up on every corner with the opening of the Highway.

"Downtown it is", he thought to himself, grabbing his tan overcoat off of his hatracklamp, tossing it around his rather sturdily built body and ducking out the door, which was 3 inches too short for him at six feet. He made sure the door had locked behind him and left the apartments, making the short walk to the public transit station in minutes.