Actions

Work Header

Rating:
Archive Warning:
Category:
Fandoms:
Relationships:
Characters:
Additional Tags:
Language:
English
Stats:
Published:
2019-09-07
Completed:
2019-09-07
Words:
1,706
Chapters:
2/2
Comments:
18
Kudos:
113
Bookmarks:
20
Hits:
823

Kill the Sewer People!

Summary:

Although he's reluctant to log on without his friends, Yusei decides to play some video games. It's something he hasn't done in a while, but it's like riding a bike.

Then, suddenly, a message appears in his inbox from N3os, a player from the famous [BBT] network: "pls play w us"

Notes:

ahem so yeah i love titanfall 2
like i can't tell you how amazing and underrated it is. $10 or less too, full game, because the marketing department decided to squish it between two major titles that come out what feels like every year

anyway, i made a post a while back about an au where the protags are gamers. Kitsunephantom added on some fun points for the others, but imma stick to the Big Four. Dunno if I'm gonna add more later, but I'm not planning on it atm

Chapter 1: Log On

Chapter Text

Two months after graduating from college, Yusei finds himself in an empty one-bedroom, staring at a blank TV. He's been accepted into Domino University's engineering program. He's got everything on the materials list. All that's left to do is wait for the semester to start.

Except Yusei's friends are scattered across the world and he's realizing that he hasn't lived alone his entire life. This apartment is his and only his. This space will unlikely be shared with anyone anytime soon.

Maybe he'll meet someone at the next Duel Monsters tournament. That's still months away though.

He turns on his Xbox. It's something social, he supposes, and he needs to do something with his hands that doesn't involve the neighbors banging on his door with another complaint about loud power tools.

He hasn't played since before graduation, when every name in the [5DS] network was active. The system bids him a cheerful welcome as his dashboard pops up.

Yusei picks the first game he sees. Titanfall 2. Popular with his friends. Smiling with nostalgia, he pushes it in.

Out of habit, he picks Invite Network. Winces and goes to find a game.

Start with Live Fire. He could use a pick-me-up.

Yugi and Atem are running late, and Judai's never been patient. He barely reads the go ahead text before loading into a match.

Live Fire, one of his favorites. One minute time, fast-paced, on-your-feet thinking. Yubel huffs quietly from the other end of the couch as Judai cracks his knuckles. The wiggle their feet under his thighs and go back to their book.

The Militia Faction's icon fades in with the map. Judai puts his elbows on his knees.

3...2...1.

Judai's barely reached a wall before a sniper shot cracks.

Stardust (Kraber) frieeeeeeedchicken

Someone is using the Kraber in Live Fire.

How the hell do you snipe on this tiny ass map with everyone running around like headless chickens? Judai's already seen at least two stim players on his team, not including himself.

Another shot.

Stardust (Kraber) PickM3rcY

Judai tic-tacs his character into a U-turn, and there, crouched behind the rocks: a pristine white phase pilot holding a dark blue gun with a Pinocchio nozzle.

CRACK!

Stardust (Kraber) jajajabait

This guy's killed half the enemy team.

They're rushing now. Judai whips around to defend this miracle shot.

A frag grenade explodes on denk maymays. Stardust slide-hops in front of Judai to a different vantage point. Meanwhile, Judai's running around in-game and yelling on the couch, ignoring his partner's light kicks.

Judai gets one kill before the match ends. The final cam has Stardust double-jumping, aiming for half a second, and landing a headshot.

Nah. Naaaah.

Judai opens his sidebar.

Yusei gets three messages in quick succession during the match and three after. The first three are from the enemy team, accusing him of hacking or telling him to kill himself. Nothing out of the ordinary.

The rest, however, are from the one name he'd been floored by.

N3os: dude did u just ace w kraber
N3os: on live fire
N3os: can u play w us?

Titanfall 2's not the most popular game despite its quality, but the community by and large is a good one. A couple YouTubers specialize in it. But no one from N3os' network streams and [BBT] is the most well-known out of them all. Since he'd always played with his friends, Yusei's never been matched with them. Once they'd played against SILENTmagician, one of the admins, and got annihilated.

Yusei sends a sure and dives for his headset. He hasn't felt this excited in a while.

Video games were the right choice.

Stardust joined the party opens up as Judai scrambles to text Atem and Yugi about the addition. With this guy's skills, there's no way they'll mind.

"Hello?" he says.

A quiet, steady voice replies, "Hello."

"Dude. That was awesome."

"Thank you."

"Hang on, I'll invite you out. Feelin' like Brawl?"

"Okay."

"Sweet! Lemme guess: Northstar?"

A quiet laugh. "Yes."

"I can never really decide. Kinda depends on the map, I guess." It doesn't depend on that at all, but Judai wants to make a good impression. "The other guys'll be on in a bit. Shouldn't be much longer. I'm Judai, by the way! I mean, if you don't wanna give your real name it's cool."

"Yusei."

"Yusei! Cool! Japanese then?"

Yusei switches to Japanese to reply, "Yes."

"Oh thank God," Judai groans, "My English sucks."

"No it doesn't," Yubel mutters the same time Yusei says, "It's good."

"Well, it's still a chore! Alright, finally matched!"

Judai probably shouldn't've mentioned the other guys before seeing Yusei's skills in a Titan. But he's pretty sure it'll be fine.

Among the banners, Judai sees Stardust's: a prismatic Northstar mid-rocket barrage in the sky. In the corner, it says G100.49.

Yup. Should be fine.

Northstar feels as comfortable as she always did, despite the new voice in his headset and the emptiness around him. They've gotten Homestead, an open field with two smaller, slightly covered paths on either side, and Yusei sees at least three Monarchs on the other team. Typical.

Judai's gone with Ronin. He's rushing headlong at the bullets, but handling it better than most reckless players Yusei's seen. While Judai irritates the team, Yusei puts down a tether trap and lines his shot.

When he's noticed, he dashes behind a tree. He calls out positions to Judai, who's already got three kills and a sword core under his belt. Judai's crowing on his mic with warming enthusiasm.

It's genuinely fun. Moving, work and applications have made Yusei forget what that felt like. He hopes Judai keeps him in the party.

Judai's doomed as hell and the respawned Monarch is pissed.

A white Northstar flies in with her flight core and saves his ass. Yusei's secured his spot.

Yugi texts him when the match ends in a proud VICTORY.

Judai misspells at least five times before he gets it out: You guys are gonna LOVE this dude.

Chapter 2: Rise

Summary:

PARTY
N3os  Stardust  SILENTmagician  DARKmagician

Notes:

there's a map on titanfall 2 called Rise. Please look it up before reading, since it's the main map of this piece and inspired the title!

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

PARTY
 N3os  Stardust  SILENTmagician  DARKmagician

A few seconds after the names appear, two new voices fill Yusei's ears.

"Hey, Stardust!" SILENTmagician says, "Didn't we play before?"

Yusei starts. "Yes. Once." He smiles. "You kept killing my friend."

"Ah, sorry. My name's Yugi!"

"Yusei."

"I'm Atem," DARKmagician adds, "Nice to meet you."

"Judai says you're a good sniper," Yugi says.

"He's amazing!" Judai shouts.

Yusei shakes his head. "I do my best."

"And your best is amazing!"

The Searching wheel appears for all game modes.

Atem clears his throat. "What would you like to play, Yusei?"

Judai curses and apologizes. The wheel disappears.

"Oh. Whatever you guys want. Everything's fine."

The wheel comes back. Despite there being four of them in the same party, they get into an Attrition match fairly quickly. Yusei lets their conversation ease the vacancy in his chest.

Losing's out of the question. Atem and Yugi are legendary. Some people even call them Kings. And Judai, though a bit reckless, knows how to fight smart when he needs to, like Jack. Yusei's used to covering that play style.

"Ugh, we got Rise," Judai mumbles.

"It'll be fine," Yugi replies, "We've got a fourth!"

Yusei just hopes he meets their expectations.

MARVN makes cheerful noises as his faction's symbol appears.

3...2...1.

Judai doesn't know where Yusei finds these vantage points, but he never stays in one spot after a couple kills. His callouts are life savers.

Unfortunately, he's on the opposite side of the map when Judai gets killed from—

"Of-fucking-course," Judai hisses.

"Sewers?" Yugi asks.

"Sewers."

CRACK!

"Got one," Yusei says.

CRACK!

"Two. There's a third."

Judai stares wide-eyed at the screen, player paused on a stairwell. "How did you get there so fast?"

"I switched to stim. Third's down. Another's heading up."

"Oh, I got him," Judai snaps, hunching around his controller. Yubel's snickering in the corner of his eye. "Worst damn thing about this map. I hate campers."

"Don't we all," Atem says.

"Ah, sorry," Yusei says, "I killed them."

Judai gapes at the pilot above him. "You're freaking incredible, Yusei."

"I'm dropping," Yugi says. A Scorch lands under the sewers.

"Judai, behind!" Yusei snaps.

"I'll join you," Atem tells Yugi.

Soon, a Monarch and Scorch are shooting at the sewers. For some reason, the pilots just keep going.

"It's the same three people!" Judai shrieks.

"And they'll all die the same way," Atem says darkly.

Yusei dies and—

"Did they just?" Judai says.

Atem gets out of his Titan and grapples into the sewers.

DARKmagician [Execution] REEEEEEEEE

"No one teabags our friend."

Yusei doesn't remember when he'd started smiling. "Thank you."

"Ah, they're finally dropping!" Judai cries.

"It's them," Yugi says gleefully.

"Oh, I'm ready. I have Ronin."

Yusei spawns his Northstar well away from the sewers to start. When he gets there, he shoots a cluster missile at the spot, just to be sure. He gets a kill.

"Someone else went up there."

"I'm done with this entire team," Judai declares. "Is that another Ronin? C'mere."

Yusei watches in amazement as the three enemy Titans are executed around the same time. A fourth tries to help, but Yugi's flame core blows them to pieces. Yusei only got a couple shots in.

The three campers leave the game.

"Well done," Yusei says.

Atem activates his upgrade core and says, "You too. Glad you were on, Yusei."

Yusei dashes forward and punches him. The enemy pilot falls from Atem's back. 

"Very glad," Atem says.

They win by four hundred points.

"No!" Judai yells.

"Yes," Yugi replies.

They've been matched into Marked for Death. On Rise.

"How did we get this map twice in a row?" Judai groans.

Yusei's screen blinks red. YOU ARE MARKED FOR DEATH.

"Protect him!" Judai shouts, sliding into Yusei's view, "No campers are getting you!"

"Thanks," Yusei says.

Atem and Yugi join them. "Judai," Yugi says, "go and get the mark. We'll guard."

Yusei kills a pilot between their heads.

"...we'll stand and watch."

Atem laughs.

Stardust (Kraber) REEEEEEEEE

Judai gasps. "It's them!" And there he goes.

"Yugi, go with him," Atem says, "I'll stick with you, Yusei."

Yusei's chest feels warm. "Okay."

His apartment doesn't seem so empty anymore.

Notes:

listen Rise Scares Me there's a whole bunch of nooks and crannies and sewer people i get into my titan ASAP tbh

anyway, if you guys really like this, please let me know!