It was very early in the morning, just after six.
The current duel had been going for about fifteen minutes, and the Number had still yet to show up. In the meantime, Dan was being extra careful not to Summon his own Number unless he absolutely had to. His reasons were obvious. The Numbers were incredibly dangerous, and he had no desire to use it on Harrison. If he could win without either player Summoning a Number, then he would.
Harrison was a fellow pupil at Dan and Leah's old school. He had always talked a really big game, but his skills always seemed to let him down when it mattered. He wasn't a bad duelist by any means, but made critical errors at the wrong times. But in this duel, things were different. He had yet to make a single error or slip-up – Dan suspected it had something to do with the Number.
When they had first got there, there had been a brief dispute between Leah and Dan over who should duel Harrison – everyone agreed that it should be one of those two because they both knew him. Eventually they settled on a coin toss, and Dan won.
Now, fifteen minutes after that, the duel was approaching its conclusion. Harrison had come out strong with his Insect-type Deck, quickly inflicting some unexpected damage to Dan. However, Dan had recovered quickly, and fought back fiercely. The results were evident. Dan had taken no damage since then, and had managed to Summon one of his strongest Synchro Monsters, as well as another Defence Position monster and two face-downs. Harrison, on the other hand, was low on life points, had no cards in his hand, and only controlled the Verdant Sanctuary Spell Card. It was his turn
Dan LP: 2700
Polaris Dragon Lord Skhulglyss: Dragon-Type/Synchro/WATER/Level 6/ATK 2600/DEF 1200
Twin-Headed Behemoth: Dragon-Type/WIND/Level 3/ATK 1000/DEF 1000 – 1 Polaris Counter
Harrison LP: 800
"It's my turn, draw!" Once again, Harrison made his move with uncharacteristic decisiveness. "I Summon Infernity Beetle!" The oversized stag beetle appeared.
Infernity Beetle: Insect-Type/Tuner/DARK/Level 2/ATK 1200/DEF 0
"Next I'll use Infernity Beetle's effect. By tributing it while I have no cards in my hand, I can Special Summon two more copies of it from my Deck." The beetle distorted and faded away, only to be replaced with two more identical insects.
Infernity Beetle: Insect-Type/Tuner/DARK/Level 2/ATK 1200/DEF 0
Infernity Beetle: Insect-Type/Tuner/DARK/Level 2/ATK 1200/DEF 0
"Both Level two Infernity Beetles, Overlay!" The beetles morphed into purple blobs of energy, and shot upwards. Where they had been, a portal opened.
"An Xyz Summon!" Leah gasped, suddenly alert. "Dan, be careful!" He nodded in response.
The two Xyz Material Monsters spiralled down into the portal. "I use these two monsters to construct the Overlay Network! Xyz Summon!" The portal exploded. "Be born, Number 20: Blue Firefly!"
A glowing, bright purple symbol – the number twenty – appeared on the side of Harrison's neck. Out of the portal rose a cluster of massive insect eggs, joined to look like a single cohesive, yet quite disgusting unit. One of the eggs burst, showering the field with slime, and revealing part of a blue exoskeleton. One by one, each of the eggs burst, revealing more and more of the deep blue insect inside. With a great heave, the insect unfurled its wings, which were thin and bat-like, and let off a screech which seemed to dislodge the remainder of the smile coating its body. It had a single horn on its head, and the glowing light-blue of its body was visible beneath the darker blue of its skeleton. It was orbited by two red Overlay Units, which made for an eerie contrast.
Number 20: Blue Firefly: Insect-Type/Xyz/FIRE/Rank 2/ATK 1500/DEF 1500 – 2 OLU
Dan was concerned by the Number's presence, but not terrified. In the past few days, he had seen two of his comrades take down Numbers much stronger than this, and that had offered him a sense of perspective. He had no doubt that he could repeat the feat.
"Blue Firefly's effect activates. By detaching one of its Overlay Units, I can change the Battle Position of any face-up monster." One of the Units broke orbit and flew into the insect's horn. The firefly brought its wings together, as though embracing the air in front of it.
Number 20: Blue Firefly: 2 → 1 OLU
Harrison pointed a finger at Dan's field. "I target Polaris Dragon Lord Skhulglyss!" The Number formed a glowing golden sphere between its wings, which seemed to be made of a whirling vortex of fireflies. It launched the sphere at Skhulglyss, who opened its mouth as though to eat it. The moment the sphere made contact, it expanded rapidly, completely encasing the dragon in gold light, and forcing it down to the ground and into Defence Position.
"Dan, look out!" James shouted. "He's going after your monster!"
"Yeah, I got that," Dan replied, not taking his eyes off the Number.
"Battle! Blue Firefly, attack Skhulglyss! Firefly flare!" The Number formed a second sphere and launched it again. Once more, it expanded on contact – but this time, the fireflies were red, and the dragon roared in pain before exploding. Dan covered his face as the dragon exploded, but it had been shifted to Defence Position, so he remained unharmed "That ends my turn! Not so tough now, are you!"
A few choice retorts of his own occurred to Dan, but he stifled them and started his turn. "I draw. I activate the Spell Card Gathering of the Polaris! So by banishing two WATER monsters from my Graveyard, I can add two Polaris cards from my Deck to my hand." He removed Blizzard Dragon and Polaris Dragon Rhetta from his Graveyard, and his duel disk extracted two cards from his Deck, which he took. "I choose Legacy of the Polaris and Polaris Dragon Yve. Now I'll play the Spell Card I just chose, Legacy of the Polaris! By discarding any number of Polaris cards, I can distribute three times that amount of Polaris Counters among face-up monsters. So I'll discard two copies of Polaris Dragon Yve to place six counters on your Blue Firefly!" Six orbs of light shot out of the card and affixed themselves to Blue Firefly's skeleton, then solidified into lumps of ice.
Number 20: Blue Firefly: 0 → 6 Polaris Counters
Harrison had seen what those Counters could do, and was getting nervous.
Dan continued. "Now, I activate the effect of Polaris Dragon Lord Skhulglyss from my Graveyard. By removing six Polaris Counters from the field, I can revive it!"
"What?" Harrison cried, suddenly afraid.
Dan grinned; this would seal the deal. "I'll take five Counters from your Firefly, and the last one from my Twin-Headed Behemoth!" The six chosen Counters turned back into orbs of light and, similar to an Overlay Unit, flew straight into Dan's Graveyard.
Number 20: Blue Firefly: 6 → 1 Polaris Counter
Twin-Headed Behemoth: 1 → 0 Polaris Counters
"Revive, Polaris Dragon Lord Skhulglyss!" With a flurry of snow and a roar of triumph, the icy dragon took to the field once again.
Polaris Dragon Lord Skhulglyss: Dragon-Type/Synchro/WATER/Level 6/ATK 2600/DEF 1200
"Go, Skhulglyss, attack Blue Firefly! Blizzard force stream!" The dragon had been waiting for that. Rearing back, the dragon took in a huge breath, and let of a blast of icy, glittering wind. The Number was engulfed, and dissipated almost instantly. Harrison was thrown back. Dan knew that that had to have hurt, but Harrison shouldn't be complaining. Compared to what Katie had suffered through a few days earlier, that was nothing.
Dan LP: 2700 [WINNER]
Harrison LP: 800 → 0
The remaining monsters faded away with the augmented reality field. Dan removed his D-Gazer and gave the thumbs up to his friends. Leah came running over and congratulated him, they pulled each other into a hug, both glad that the duel hadn't escalated much further than that.
"Nice one Dan," Katie said. Dan grinned at her, then yawned widely, which set her off too. The Deltas never usually got up this early, but they had received a rather rude awakening. Professor Usur had installed a very loud alarm in the Delta's apartment, and with good reason. Twice now, the five teenagers had missed an alert on a stray Number that had just been played in a duel, and Professor Usur wasn't going to let it happen again. The alarm was loud, obnoxious, and generally a pain, mostly because it couldn't be switched off from inside the apartment. But it had done its job. It had got the Deltas up in time, and they had located the Number with relative ease.
"So," Dan said, "was I amazing, or was I just plain awesome?"
Leah gave him a friendly punch on the arm. "Don't gloat," she grinned.
"Yeah," Matt added, "especially when you haven't actually finished the job yet."
Dan looked at him, confused. Matt raised his right hand, the metal band on his wrist glinting in the rising sun. Dan gasped and quickly turned back to Harrison to extract his Number... then stopped.
Kneeling next to Harrison was another man. As the other Deltas also turned to look at him, he stood up and turned to face them. He was a tall man in his mid to late twenties, maybe even his early thirties. He had untidy green hair and a grey coat that went to his knees, but was kept undone to reveal a white t-shirt and jeans beneath it. The coat had thick black things along its stich-lines that seemed to be wires, or thick pieces of string. Wrapped around his left hand was a bandage, but it was his right hand that caught the most attention.
It was a robotic hand.
It was impossible to tell how far up the metal extended, but it went right into his sleeve, past his wrist-line. Looking at his face, they also saw a scar that stretched across his left eye. He had startlingly blue eyes, and they were staring at the Deltas with a look of mistrust.
Dan broke the silence. "Who are you?"
The man didn't answer him, but rather turned back to Harrison as though he'd forgotten about them. Reaching down, he rested his robotic hand gently on Harrison's chest.
"Hey mister, I'd get away from that boy if I were you," Leah shouted. "He's dangerous!"
The man took no notice of them, but instead moved his metal hand up to Harrison's neck. The boy stirred and moaned, as if in pain. The glowing number twenty on his neck glowed a bright purple colour through the man's metallic fingers, and a ring of light encircled the Number's symbol. The man frowned, concentrating.
All of a sudden, there was a bright flash of white light. It blinded the Deltas very briefly, but in that time, they heard Harrison let out a horrible, ear-splitting scream. When they opened their eyes again, the man had stood up, and Harrison's neck was no longer glowing. He was lying there, still unconscious, but with a pained expression on his face. The man was clutching his own cybernetic arm, and also appeared to be in some pain.
"Hey," Dan shouted. "What just happened there? We told you to stay away from him. He has..." Dan stopped, thinking it best that he didn't mention the Numbers. "He's dangerous, ok?"
The man looked at them once again, and finally spoke with a calm yet commanding voice. "I am well aware of the power of the Numbers, you foolish Delta."
Dan gasped. Beside him, Matt stiffened, ready to put himself between this man and his friends if necessary. Leah stepped up next to them. "But then... did you just...?"
The man gestured towards Harrison. "You wish me to step aside? Then go ahead, attempt to extract his Number. But I warn you now, I am certain that you won't be able to."
Dan was wary of this man. He seemed too confident; one step ahead of everything. As if to prove him wrong, Leah reached out a hand and extended the tendrils of light from her own band into Harrison's body. The stranger watched the tendrils closely, a look of concealed fascination on his face.
"Well?" James asked after almost a minute had passed.
Leah paused, then shook her head. "It- it's not here. There's no Number in him." With a sense of detached disbelief, she pulled the tendrils back.
"But there has to be!" Dan insisted. "I just dueled him. He definitely had one-"
"Looking for this?" the stranger asked calmly. The Deltas turned to look at him, and were shocked to see the man holding up a card for them to see. It was the Number card they'd just witnessed. Number 20: Blue Firefly...
Polaris Dragon Lord Skhulglyss
Dragon-Type/Synchro/WATER/Level 6/ATK 2600/DEF 1200
1 WATER Tuner + 1 or more non-Tuner Dragon-Type monsters
You can Special Summon this card (from your Graveyard) by removing 6 Polaris Counters from the field. Once per turn: You can pay 600 Life Points; distribute Polaris Counters among face-up monsters, equal to the number of "Polaris" monsters in your Graveyard. Negate the effects of all face-up monsters your opponent controls with Polaris Counters on them.
Number 20: Blue Firefly
Insect-Type/Xyz/FIRE/Rank 2/ATK 1500/DEF 1500
2 Level 2 monsters
This card cannot be destroyed by battle, except by a "Number" monster. You can detach 1 Overlay Unit from this card, then target 1 face-up monster; change that target's Battle Position.
Gathering of the Polaris
Spell Card
Banish 2 WATER monsters from your Graveyard; add 2 "Polaris" cards (except "Gathering of the Polaris") from your Deck to your hand. You can only activate 1 "Gathering of the Polaris" per turn.
Legacy of the Polaris
Quick-Play Spell Card
Activate 1 of these effects. ●Remove any number of Polaris Counters from the field; add 1 "Polaris" card from your Deck to your hand for every 3 counters removed. ●Discard any number of "Polaris" cards; distribute 3 times that amount of Polaris Counters among face-up monsters.
Fun Fact #1: Harrison will not be a main character in future stories. The strange man, on the other hand, will be. Pay close attention to him.
Fun Fact #2: Some of you are probably wondering how Polaris Dragon Lord Skhulglyss was able to destroy Number 20: Blue Firefly in battle despite not being a Number. Or if you weren't, then you probably are now (or you already know, either way). Remember, Skhulglyss negates the effects of monsters with Polaris Counters on them, and Blue Firefly still had a Counter left on it.
Fun Fact #3: Yes, the stranger did just take Harrison's Number. Yes, that does make him a Number hunter. However, you'll soon find out that this man's method of extracting Numbers is a bit less... refined than the Deltas'.