Cipher 001: A Good Day

One night, when not even the astronomers would expect it, a piece of the sky fell. And the town below was none the wiser. It had come without the brilliance or noise, as nothing more than a streak of light across the night. Few would witness it at this hour, and even fewer would not see it as a trick played on their eyes. But still, there was one, one individual who knew something had actually just taken place. Through the window of his room he saw how close by it landed and how quickly it did so. What he did not know was if its landing had caused any damage or injury. And so he decided to investigate. There was no time to call the authorities, they probably would not even believe him. But he did believe his own eyes. It was more than a curiosity, he had to see this. He had to know what this was. So he left his apartment, ran the quiet and desolate streets. 'It' had crashed somewhere south of the river, he was already across one of the bridges. He could feel he was getting closer, the air got heavy and grew less dark. Though nothing showed yet, no sign of impact or activity. Nothing.

Just when he figured he had taken the wrong course, a flash of light appeared on his left. "It was there?" He felt the heavy air moving, back towards the river. He returned there as well, and stopped as he reached the bridge. The force however came from the east, from another bridge. "Who..is that?" From that distance he could make out a speck, a shape. Whether it was just one or many persons, he could not say. But someone was there. And even though it was a normal sight by itself, the force that followed that shape was not natural. He kept staring at them as the stranger started walking. He never felt safe enough to do anything else, as if the other knew he was here, looking right back at him. Still, he could not avert his eyes. Not until another piercing light shone across the sky, after which came sounds of a fierce wind. The awful force was gone now, and so was the shadow. If he had gone anywhere, it was back in town. He did not see the shape again, not for a long time.

"So you did see it, Azar?"

One weekend later, a curious student had come to ask the witness about that incident. "I did. But I found nothing." He finally replied. "Nothing?" Repeated the enthusiastic redhead who stood just a few inches away from Azars desk. "Nothing. Whatever it was, it did not leave any mark. The town is still the same." Of all the students at school, he lived closest to the supposed impact zone. This made the curious types flock to him. "Nothing at all?" But he would end up disappointed; Azar did not consider it necessary to tell him about the mysterious figure he spotted that night. "You should know better than to encourage his delusions, Azar." A scolding voice interjected. "Did you even see this thing yourself, Shin?" The owner of that voice was an irritated blonde sitting at the front of the class; Natasha. Also known as the school directors daughter. "Well..no.." Shin had to admit dejectedly. "There you go. You're just being paranoid." She scoffed. "It's not paranoia, Natasha! Azar saw it! Others saw it as well, its all over the internet!" He replied insistently. "They say it could not have been a simple meteorite or shooting star, something secret or super-cool fell down! There are too many witnesses for it to be a minor thing! I bet the government is trying to cover it up!"

"Pff. He shouldn't even be out that late." Natasha snapped to a new subject. "I shouldn't?" Azar did not understand what she was referring to. "You haven't heard about all those late night attacks? An increasing amount of people have been found injured by unknown attackers, in cities close by here. Some even were rendered comatose." She sighed. "I knew I should have dad make it a schoolwide announcement, and put a curfew on every student." Natasha happened to be the daughter of this schools principal, so usually her words had a lot of power there. "I have heard it was the doing of monsters." Shin abruptly proclaimed. "What." Natasha said flatly. While some other classmates in the background started to snicker. "Monsters?" Azar was giving him the same look by now. "Yeah, like giant insects or underwater snakes. That's what I heard. No human could have hurt people like that." In return, Natasha expressed her annoyance with a sigh. "Shin. You either spend too much time playing games or with the other no-lives on the net. Take your pick."

"Game?" Shin shrugged off the remark. "Oh that's right! There's gonna be another local tournament." He turned back to Azar. "You should join in, you were pretty good at it." Shin could see Azar did not catch his meaning entirely. "You know, card dueling?" So he clarified himself. "Dueling? People still do that?" It was a well known card game that he spoke of. One of the most popular in these parts. He did 'duel' in the past, and it had been fun while also profitable. "That was a long time ago." He was not sure if he would be so good at it now. "Oh don't worry about that. Not much has changed. What with you always doing well on exams. I am sure you wont have any problems adapting to the new banlists, new archetypes the whole extra deck thing." Shin went down a long list, until he came to a simple resolution. "I can always hook you up with the best cards if you need them. Update your game so to speak." He smiled. "No, but thank you. I can manage it on my own." Azar said as politely as he could. "But it does sound interesting.."

What he really meant was that the game was as good as any other thing to kill the time. Even counting his weekend job he wanted more to occupy himself with, to keep his mind active. In part it was because he wanted to stop lingering on a feeling in the back of his mind. The dread of that night, as quick as it passed, was still strongly rooted in his memories. And one day.. that feeling became physical again. "It's come back!" It was on the next weekend, as the sun set, that he experienced that unmistakable pressure once more. "Do they not feel it?" This time the town streets were populated with people, shopping and conversing as if nothing was going on. Was this because only he had felt it once before? "I must know..". Azar moved towards the source, to where the air was heaviest. He reached the south edge of the town, back to the river and the bridges. "This is where it first appeared!" This time he knew which bridge to cross. And once again there were shapes on the bridge. Only one was no longer standing.

"Ggh." A man lay on the floor, moaning and motionless. Looming over him stood another. "Who are you? How did you find us?" He, a young kid with a tattoo on his hand, was quick to notice the new arrival. "Why did you do this?" Azar returned the question. The man on the floor did not look injured, yet he was clearly in pain. "What happened here?" This lanky looking person could never have overpowered the older man on the floor in a straight fight. "It was his fault." The boy answered with no hint of remorse. "He came after me first, came after something that was mine! I would not let him have it!" He said clenching his fists. "I showed him I was stronger. He was so weak, he could not even finish the duel!" He closed in on the other person. "Wait. I think you have done enough!" While Azar did not understand why this had happened, he knew that it was wrong to go after a guy who could not even move anymore. So he placed himself in between the two. "What would you know!? Get.." The boy's eyes darted downwards. "You!? You are one of them!"

"What?" Azar saw him gesture frantically at his pocket, where Azar kept his cards. "You are a duelist too!" The kid activated a device strapped to his wrist, a sleek tablet computer which unfolded itself. "A D-Pad?" This kid had the latest equipment in dueldisk technology, a pad that visualized the cards, taking 2D images to the third dimension. The other guy had been wearing one too. "You want it as well. I wont let you!" The boy claimed with a maddening glint in his eye. "It? I do not know what you are talking about!" Azar replied. "Liar. You came here for a reason, you could not just have stumbled upon us!" He inserted a pack of cards in the D-pad, which began shuffling them. "It is too late to deny it now. You can not run. Or will you leave this man to his fate?" He calmed down a little and started smirking. "If you don't duel me. I will.." But before he continued Azar took out his own deck. "Okay." And he picked up the unconscious mans dueldisk as well. "I will not let you hurt more people. I will duel you." He knew how the D-pad worked generally, so he could insert his deck and set his lifepoints.

Azars LP: 8000 Opponents LP: 8000

"Good. That is how it should be...I will begin!" The opponent started their duel by taking three of his six cards. "I set a card in my monster zone and two cards in my spell/trap zone!" The cards virtual representations materialized just above the bridge floor. "Holograms.." Azar had seen this system before, and he felt something was off. "Are you going to make a move or what?" The boy asked impatiently as he ended his turn. "Tsk." Azar looked at his hand and chose one card he could normal summon. "My turn, I summon this monster." Before him appeared an Alexandrite Dragon, a winged dragon(4/2000/100) with scales of crystal. "Just a nilla monster?" It was also a monster with no special abilities. "What kind of duelist are you?" He snorted. Azar was not in the mood to answer. "It attacks." Alexandrite struck the opponents defending monster. "Fool." Which turned out to be a mistake. What was flipped face-up was the Jar Turtle(4/200/2100). "His defense is higher?" Alexandrite could not penetrate its vase-shaped shell. "Do you always attack without thinking?" Because the dragons offense was weaker than the Turtle's defense, Azar lost lifepoints equal to the difference. . "..I end my turn." This attack failed, and he had no other cards to play at the moment.

Azars LP: 7900

"Weaklings should just get out of my way." The other duelist activated one of his face-down traps at this point. "Jar of Greed. I can draw a card!" The trap allowed him to get a card from his deck. "Now, look at my monster use an actual ability!" At the same time Jar Turtle's shell produced a card. "Jar Turtle doubles the number of cards I draw when I play 'Jar of Greed'." So he drew twice before his draw phase even began. "Heh. And now I will show you, what is mine!" He seemed pleased with his new cards. "I normal summon Don Turtle!" Another turtle(3/1100/1200) appeared, one that hid in his shell. "When I normal summon Don Turtle, another can be special summoned from my hand." A second Don Turtle(3/1100/1200) joined the Turtle army. "I control two level 3 monsters now. Perfect!" He grinned and stacked the two cards on top of each other. "An XYZ-summon?" Azar had heard about this. "Exactly!" By 'overlaying' two monsters of equal level, a third monster of the same 'Rank' could be placed on top of them.

The two turtles became Materials for an 3rd rank XYZ-monster. They disappeared into a swirl of water. "Come out, my Numbers Monster!" A geyser burst upwards, and the steaming water shaped a new being. First it appeared a bizarre object. "Number 17: Leviathan Dragon!" The object transformed into a great blue serpent(3/2000/0). "What the?" Azar had never heard of a 'Numbered' monster before. "XYZ monsters gain effects by 'detaching their materials." The enemy explained as he removed one Don Turtle from underneath his XYZ monster. "Leviathan Dragon gains 500 attackpoints for each detachment!" The dragon(3/2500/0) powered up. "Then I activate my field spell, A Legendary Ocean!" The river below parted, revealing a sunken city that boosted all Water-type monsters in its domain by 200 points. Leviathan Dragon(2700/200) was one such creature. "And I equip my monster with a spell card, Impure Power." He paid 500 of his lifepoints for the spell and the dragon(3/3400/200) gained even more power. "This doubles a monsters gained attackpoints every turn! Now this is strength! Attack!" The Leviathan destroyed Alexandrite Dragon with a highpressure water burst. "What?" And to Azars utter amazement, he felt splashes from the blow. The water was real!

Azars LP: 6600 Opponents LP: 7500

Impure Power, Equip Spell
Once per turn: You can pay 500 LP to activate this effect; the equipped monster gains ATK equal to the difference between its original ATK and current ATK,

"That's not possible." Yet his wet clothes told him otherwise. There was nothing but a steaming puddle where his monster once stood. "Now do you see?" He laughed and ended his turn. "I do.." This was no normal duel and that was no normal monster. "Could this be..the guy who attacked all those people Natasha and Shin mentioned?" He had to stop this monster in any case. "Hold it! Before I end my turn." But the boy activated his second trap . "Abandoned Shell!" His Jar Turtle retreated into its shell, which started to glow. "I sacrifice a defending monster, to summon a new shield from my hand!" The shell became simpler in shape, as a smaller turtle(1/300/2000) was special summoned. "Testudo erat Numen. It prevents players from special summoning monsters with 1800 or more attackpoints." Azar flinched. "It does what?" He looked at his hand. He had several monsters in his hands which he now could no longer special summon. "I already summoned my strongest monster. How about you?" The kid laughed it up.

Abandoned Shell, Normal Trap
Tribute 1 defense-position monster you control. Special summon 1 monster from your hand, whose DEF is lower than the returned monster's DEF.
That monster can not change its battle position.

"What did I get myself into?" Azar was forced to defend, he placed a monster down and a trap card. "And why am I the only one?" Azar started to question why nobody else had stumbled upon this scene yet. "Looking for a way out? Think again! Nobody will come to save you, and you can not run from this duel!" The kid said while starting his turn. "I can normal summon a level 5 monster without tributes, so I summon Numen Erat Testudo!" Another effect of the Legendary Ocean was used, it lowered the levels of all Water-monsters by 1 star. So now another turtle(4/2000/200) showed itself on one of the city's pillars. "The opposite of its little brother, this one seals all special summons of 1800 attackpoints and below!" Meaning now any special summon was forbidden. "And I am not done yet." Now he detached his Leviathans second Overlay material, and also gave it a second Impure powerboost, boosting it(3/5400/200) even further. "And to finish it." Finally he activated the spell, Stop Defense, to stop Azars facedown monster from defending itself. "As I said, nowhere to run..or hide." Divine Dragon Ragnarok(4/1500/1000), another powerless dragon, was flipped into attack position. Leviathan Dragon easily drowned the dragon as the battle phase began.

Azars LP: 2500 Opponents LP: 7000

"Is this really all you can do?" Also came an attack from Numen Erat, against Azar who no longer had any monsters to take hits for him. "Just quit now, and I will let you run, you weakling!"

Azars LP: 2500

The attack had knocked Azar to the floor, he lay directly besides the unconscious man. "Ngh. So much power. I never thought..I can not beat that. Yet if I don't.." But as he crawled back up, he noticed something. "!?" The mans eyes were open and his hand reached out to him. "What?" And as the hand touched his leg, for a brief moment all around him went dark. "What is this?" He saw nothing and only heard a garbled voice echoing into his mind. He could neither hear nor respond to it. And the moment passed as quickly as it came. "..." Wordlessly Azar got back up again and looked at his opponent. And continued the duel. "Trap card: Defenders Intersect. In this battle phase, the position of your defending monster is switched." His activated card forced the weaker Testudo Erat Numen into attack position. "Oh, back for more eh? Why even bother with a puny trap like that?" The kid just continued to laugh and ended his turn. "To prepare. Your monsters effect is now sealed." His card: Defenders Intersect also negated the targets effects.

Azar then entered his turn. He paused to look at the card he drew and then continued by normal summoning a tiny rabbit(4/300/100). "Rescue Rabbit. By banishing this monster I can special summon two normal monsters with the same name from my deck!" Azar explained as he removed the rescuers rabbit from the game. "So you at least had one good card. Heh." Rescue Rabbit was a powerful card indeed, Azar had been lucky to even find one. "I special summon these two!" Now he was allowed to summon two Gemknights from his deck. "Wait, those aren't.." Except they(4/1950/650) looked like they were corrupted by dark energy and black steel. "I call these, Evilswarm Heliotropes." He took these two new cards and overlayed them. "Now then, here is my Xyz-monster!." And he took a monster from his extra deck. "You can Xyz summon as well?" Azar called out an XYZ monster of the fourth rank. "Evilswarm Bahamut!" His XYZ monster was a large black dragon(4/2350/1350), which faced the Leviathan. "What the hell is.. "

For a moment the enemy showed concern. "But, that is not a Number! He can not even match my Leviathan!" The moment passed quickly. "I know this." Azar activated a spell. "Faustian Bargain! I tribute a monster you special summoned to special summon a Normal monster from my hand!" The kid cringed, this spell could take away his Number! "No!" However, the deal with the devil spell sacrificed Numen Erat Testudo, to bring out a second Alexandrite Dragon(4/2000/100). "!? But you could've.. Why did you use it on Testudo Erat?" He did not understand. "Because I did not want Testudo Erat." Azar smirked and discarded a card from his hand. "By sending a 'Swarm' monster from my hand to the grave, Bahamut can take control of your monster!" He discarded the card he had drawn this turn, another Evilswarm Heliotrope. "What! No!" And Bahamut used its dark magic to brainwash Leviathan Dragon. "No. It is mine! I am nothing without it!" He cried out as the Leviathan swam over to Azars side. "Yes, you are." Azar stated coldly. "Battle.." The attacks began. Number 17 blasted Numen Erat Testudo apart, Bahamut and Alexandrite attacked directly. "No. My power..my.." The boy's lifepoints were depleted all at once by black and white energy, and he collapsed.

Opponents LP: 0

"Now, you are mine.. seventeen."

(To be Continued in Cipher 002: Living the Dream)

Cards used by Azar Helder
Alexandrite Dragon
Divine Dragon Ragnarok
Rescue Rabbit
Evilswarm Heliotrope
Evilswarm Bahamut

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Faustian Bargain

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Defenders Intersect

Cards used by Number 17's Wielder
Jar Turtle
Don Turtle
Number 17: Leviathan Dragon
Testudo Erat Numen
Numen Erat Testudo

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A Legendary Ocean
Impure Power
Stop Defense

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Jar of Greed
Abandoned Shell