ACT 01: FOUNDATION

Mark 001: Day of Games

Today was not just another ordinary day, this day came only once a year. It was on May the 31st that the entire country celebrated the birthday of their first lord, a man that had inspired many once. Though that position had long since been abandoned, and through several centuries of changes only the original tradition remained. This day was a holiday for all countrymen, a day of games and joy. As the lord was known by all as 'the king of games' due to his love for sports and puzzles, this day was called 'the Day of Games'. Not the most original of names, but such was its charm. And as such many events were hosted around this time of the year, growing more and more organized each time. And now in 2011, a well-known company had decided to sponsor a tournament, bringing something to the table which had not been used on such a large scale before. The theme of the day was a specific card game which shared its name with the former lord; a worldfamous phenomenon known as 'Yu-Gi-Oh'.

And this day would not just be another 'day of games', this was just a prelude..

For this tournament large sections of cities in the four corners of the country were sectioned off, only the chosen could go beyond the set up borders. They called themselves duelists, gamers that specialized in the card game. Few could resist the competition; the rate was like a hundred for every passing hour. So naturally one arriving a bit later than usual would expect to see a thriving near-chaotic gathering of gamers in the middle of a duel. Yet when one such latecomer showed up at the perimeters, there was not a sound or shade on the horizon. There weren't even any guards standing at the entrance anymore.

"Reliable security set up here.. Did they run out of manpower?"

The man, a redheaded youngster who couldn't be any older than 20, spoke out loud as if he wanted to bait the unseen guardsmen. To no avail, as the only noise heard were his own echoes. "I suppose I can check myself in." He did not feel the need to bother with looking for them or ask around. Instead he took out two packs of cards from his trenchcoat and slid them across one of the card readers installed along the perimeter. You couldn't enter this tournament with illegal or forbidden cards after all. Both his decks checked out and he went on his way, entering the quiet parts of this city. That was the curious thing about this tournament; every registered duelist was invited and received an personal keycard. Yet that was all the information given, once you were inside you had to seemingly figure out the rest by yourself.

He would not have it any other way..

Still this silence would not do, the sun was already high up in the sky and he had games to win. "Might as well..." Next he placed down his bag and took out a device, a technological shield that could be strapped to his wrist. But before he could even put it on, his attention was drawn by another. "You..are a duelist?" At last another face, a young man who had a similar device attached to his arm. "Please, duel me. I need one last chance." The latecomer stared at this character, and noticed something was out of place. "Your dueldisk is black." He pointed at the disk, whose highlights were blacked out as if the thing was out of batteries "No. Its just a glitch, I am still in the game.." He whined and shook his head. "Oh? Then show me your card." But the readhead did not buy into that excuse. "What? I.." And the other flinched. "I lost it somewhere. It's all so unfair, you have to believe me!" He could not produce his own ID-card, which could only mean one thing. "So that's how you get eliminated. Heh. Thanks for telling me." He smirked and turned around. "No. Come back, I have to win! The prize, I.." And all those pleas fell on deaf ears, for he could gain nothing from those duelists who had lost everything.

Walking through the desolate streets, the young man thought about his options. "So its these cards I need. I wonder how many.." He noticed now that his name was not actually on it. All it had was a series of numbers, a code perhaps? Either way he needed to find a proper duelist, before more improper ones got in his way. And for a second he thought he saw one in the corner of his eye. [i]"What?"[/i] But what he saw disappeared before he could get a good look at it. If this was someone's idea of toying with him, they would not get away with it. Whoever that was he or she could only have gotten out of his sight by crossing the bridge nearby, so that was where he headed for. "I would not go that way if I were you." Until another voice intruded. "Says who?" And this time he turned to see an actual challenger. "Heya. The name's YQ." Behind him stood a kid who looked to be a few years younger than him, wearing an almost uniform-like shortsleeved coat along with, oddly, a captains hat. "I was just warning you..."

"Across that bridge are just more Zero's; duelists who have lost all their key-cards and disk-save files." The latecomer noticed he was holding on to a suitcase. "I see.. so I take it you are a duelist too. And YQ stands for..?" He asked as he pulled out a paper sheet, which held a list of names. "What? No thanks? Well if you must know, its short for Yale Quincy." He sighed. "It's a long story but suffice it to say that I never got into..and hey.. are you listening?" The redhead seemingly ignored him in favor of finishing the list. "You aren't on here." He put it back in his coat. "But I registered..I think." Yale replied without too much confidence. "It is not that kind of list. Look, I appreciate the tip but I need to be dueling elsewhere." He said as he tried to walk away again. "Oh I think you will see things differently." But instead the disk suddenly came to life, so to speak. All lights turned on and all screens gave off data. "This is a dueling hotspot, and two duelists have met eye to eye. We have to face each other now, Urizen.."

Urizens LP: 8000 YQ's LP: 8000

"My name, how did you.." His eyes widened with surprise. "Easy, look at your disk." YQ pointed at the device, which displayed his name and lifepoints. "Oh, right." Urizen grumbled, it had been a while since he used one of these. "Consider this your thanks." Yale opened the suitcase to reveal an equally active dueldisk, into which he placed one of his decks. "Hmph. You know more about the rules than I do." Urizen inserted one of his two decks as well. "Indeed. Did you guess yet, what's on stake?" His opponent nodded and showed the key-card. "Good. I knew you'd have at least one. These dueldisks do not work anymore once you lose them all." He in turn revealed his collection. "Five of them?" Urizen was stunned to see he had this many and yet needed more. "From what I have heard, six is the limit. So if I beat you. I am in the clear." Their decks were shuffled by their disks. "What do you say, wanna bet one for one or take an extra risk?" YQ drew his five cards. "A risk eh? Like betting 2 cards instead of one? That sounds fine by me." So did Urizen. "Very well, if you win I will gave you of my 2 key-cards. But If I win.. you will need to answer a question of mine. Either way I shall start us off!"

YQ drew a sixth card. "Behold Virtual magic! I summon Morphtronic Celphon!" He placed one of his cards on the front slot row, and beams of light emerged from the device and the walls around them. "Because we are in a dueling hotspot, the disk can produce three-dimensional holograms!" On the streets appeared a mobile phone, which quickly transformed to reveal its robotic true self(100/100). "You use Morphtronics?" Urizen knew these cards as a series of miniature transformer machines, that remained morphed as long as they were in defense mode. "So.. one does not impress you. Then let's add triple it!" He played a spell card from his hand next. "Machine Duplication, since Celfon is a machine with less than 500 attackpoints." He was about to explain. "I know what it does, it will summon two more. You even implied as much." But Urizen knew enough about the game to grow impatient with explanations.

"In a rush?" Two more unmorphed Celfons(100/100) appeared from the deck. "Dice app, go!" Suddenly a hologram of a dice appeared. "Celfon picks up cards from the deck, equal to the number of the die roll. And since I have three." Three dies were rolled. "You have an addon just for dice mechanics?" Urizen was surprised they even built those. "Everyone who is up to date, does!" He replied enthusiastically as the results came in. "Three. Five. Two!" He picked up the cards. "If there are Morphtronics among these, I can summon them." Each time he had at least one morphtronic among the pick-ups. "Ugh" So three more were summoned, first came a robot morphed into a magnet(800/800) and an demorphed lighter robot(1200/600). "I will use Morphtronic Datatrons demorphed effect!" The lighter activated its flame. "I tribute a morpher to inflict 600 damage to my enemy!" The Celfon that summoned it was sacrificed and the virtual flames hit Urizen dead on. "Tsk." Finally the third Celfon special summoned a defending Boombox(1200/400)

Urizens LP: 7400

"My turn." He drew a card. "Quite the army of scraps you have there. Now its time to show you my monsters." He activated a field spell, the holograms going as far as to display a large tomb. "Mausoleum of the Emperor." With this card he did not need to tribute cards to tribute summon. "I pay 1000 LP twice, to summon a level 7 monster: Darkness Destroyer!" A winged demon(2300/1800) with claws all over its black hide appeared. "I choose to kill Celfon!" One of its claws stretched out towards the mobile phone morpher. "Then I activate Morphtronic Boomboxens morphed effect! It can negate an attack against a morphtronic once a turn!" The Boombox however pushed the claw away with loud music. "But Destroyer can attack twice a turn!" The demon unleashed its second claw. "Then I use Morphtronic Magnen! It can intercept any attacks!" The claw was magnetically drawn towards the Magnet robot, which was crushed easily. "Hmph. Even if that Magnet was in defense mode, you will be hurt. This demon inflicts piercing damage."

Urizens LP: 5400 YQ's LP: 6500

"Ah." YQ looked on his dueldisk and read the effects of the Destroyer on a holo-panel, another feature Urizens disk did not have. " Yeah.. Ouch, you got me." YQ congratulated him. "Save it for after the game." He placed two trap cards face down on the field. "Its your turn." Yale liked to hear that. "Oh boy. First I reuse Datatron!" The lighter machine sacrificed itself this time, doing another 600 damage to Urizen. "And now.. Time for another round of tele-communication." The remaining Celfons reactivated their effects, the die landing on three and five. Again he picked up two morphers to special summon. "Come out: Radion and Boarden!" This time the robots were a radio(1800/900) and a skateboard(1300/1800) in disguise. "Wait a second. Since when are those things so strong?" Urizen noticed that not only they, but also the initial morphtronics had grown stronger (Celfons: 900/100, Boomboxen: 2000/400). "That is this guy's effect." YQ pointed at the Radion hologram. "It boosts all morphtronics by 800 points while it's unmorphed."

Urizens LP: 4800

"But that's not as cool as Boardens effect." He smirked as he unmorphed the Boombox into its attack position. "What does it do?" Urizen asked as Yale entered his battle phase. "It allows me to attack directly with all morphtronics!" He yelled as the five machines joined together on the jetpowered board and skated off towards their opponent, driving around Darkness Destroyer entirely. "Boomboxen can attack twice, so you will lose 8900 lifepoints in this one turn!" They were about to crash into Urizen when he flipped his trap. "Fiendish Chain!" Chains appeared from the ground, which ensnared Morphtronic Radion(1000/800). "Your radio robot is trapped, and its powers are sealed!" The rest of the attackforce lost its attackboosts (Celfons: 100/100, Boarden: 500/1300, Boomboxen: 1200/400), so their combined strikes did not finish off Urizen. "You had a trap prepared? Then why didn't you use it on Boarden?" Yale questioned his decision, since chaining Boarden down would have prevented all attacks rather than just weakening them.

Urizens LP: 1700

"Well in any case. I discard Gadget Driver to use its effect." He discarded a screwhead machine, which twisted all morphtronics into defense position. "Getting worried I see." Urizen guessed he feared Destroyers counterattack. "Yes but, when Boarden is in defense mode, no Morphtronic can die. So either way, you can not kill my army before the next turn." He placed a trap card and ended his turn. "Is that so?" He drew a card. "This guy disagrees." And payed another 1000 LP. "You're lowering your life even more?" This time he tribute summoned a level 6 demon, an insectoid fiend with large claws on its shoulders(2200/2000). "Gaap, the Divine Soldier. Show him how powerless his army is.." This demon glared at the morphtronics, and his aura alone was enough to switch them back to attack position. "What?" That was Gaaps first power, to lock all monsters in an attacking position. "Now your moombox and skateboard's protective effects are inactive." YQ realized now why Radion had been chained down, so that it could not boost the attackpoints of its allies anymore. "You intend to finish me off on this turn, but you still lack points." He activated another application on his dueldisk, a calculator. "You need at least 400 more attackpoints.."

Urizens LP: 700

"I have 600.." Urizen answered with a smirk of his own. "Oh no." And Yale saw it now on his holo-panel, Gaaps second effect. "I reveal 2 fiend-type monsters in my hand to boost Gaaps power by 300 for each card." The two last cards in his hands were shown; Sangan and Phantom of Chaos. "You leave me no choice!" His last resort was activated. "Trap card: Morphtronic Mix Up! I target two of your monsters when I.." But he did not even get the chance to explain the cards effect. "Dark Illusion." Urizen chained with a counter trap, which destroyed any effect that tried to endanger a dark-type monster. "No way.." And his trap disappeared as quickly as it appeared. "That is the way." Urizen entered his battle phase. "Get as many little machines as you want. In the end.." Gaap(2800/2000) crushed Morphtronic Boarden, inflicting 2300 damage. "Only Power matters." And after that, Darkness Destroyer finally crushed the two phones between its claws, inflicting 4400 damage. YQ was out of life points.

YQ's LP: 0

"I win, you know the cost." They had bet on two, so he expected two. "Dang. I should have expected as much, even with your new deck." He deactivated his disk, the holograms faded away. "What is that supposed to mean?" Urizen did not like his tone, especially not from someone he defeated. "It's not what you think. But I should have expected to lose to an Artani." Urizens left eye twitched. "You knew that too, you recognized me?" YQ merely grinned. "Well not many people have a first name like that, especially a gamer. And it would be very hard to forget the name of the former national champion..."

(To be Continued in Mark 002: Unite and Conquer)

Cards used by Urizen Artani
Darkness Destroyer
Gaap, The Divine Soldier
Phantom of Chaos
Sangan

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Mausoleum of the Deceased Emperor

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Fiendish Chain
Dark Illusion

Cards used by Yale Quincy
Morphtronic Celfon
Morphtronic Magnen
Morphtronic Datatron
Morphtronic Boomboxen
Morphtronic Boarden
Morphtronic Radion
Gadget Driver

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Machine Duplication

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Morphtronic Mix Up