Cipher 004: ..but Part of a Whole

Azars LP: 2300 Lucy's LP: 5600

Lucy had no idea what was happening to Azar. From her point of view nothing could have caused a change. "Thank you Lucinda. I needed that, more than you can ever know." But there he was, speaking with renewed vigor, with a sudden and entirely new drive. "Lucinda? What are you my mom now? I..." But while she did not really see much difference, her visor did. "Huh?" It could not measure the process, merely the new results. "Hey, that is wrong." Now scans indicated his extra deck held multiple monsters. "You had just 1 xyz monster and 1 fusion monster before now! How did you do that?" She checked again, and still the visor was saying that his extra deck contained those monsters and always had. "Do what? Maybe you saw it wrong, maybe you suffer from delusions yourself." A satisfied smirk framed his face. "Anyway. It's my turn isn't it? I activate Common Charity." He flipped his trap card. "It banishes one normal monster from my hand, and draws two cards from the deck." He banished his Hunter Dragon and added two new cards to his hand. These two cards, along with the one he drew this draw phase, were not from his standard deck. These were the blank cards which the D-pad did not accept until a moment ago. These were of the swarm.

"Because only you control monsters, I can special summon Steelswarm Cell!" Azar brought forth a tiny black beetle(1/0/0) from his hand. "Then I play the quickplay spell: Inferno Reckless Summon. When I special summon a monster with 1500 attackpoints or less, both players can special summon all copies of 1 monster they control!" Two more Steelswarm Cells(0/0) appeared. At the same time Lucy special summoned a second Beetron(4/1600/900) from her deck. "And I sacrifice two of them!" And then he performed a tribute summon, as he had not normal summoned yet. "Level 8 monster: Steelswarm Caucastag!" In their place was now a large black insectoid, a stagbeetle demon(8/2800/0). "Even if you have 5 insects now, Caucastag destroys all other monsters if it is tribute summoned with only Steelswarm monsters as a sacrifice!" The conditions were met, so Caucastag unleashed a violent dark storm. "What are these things?!" Lucy activated a trap card. "Compulsory Defense Device, I will protect my Number!" A barrier surrounded Giga-Brilliant(2400/1800) and the last Steelswarm Cell.

Compulsory Defense Device, Continuous Trap
Select 1 monster you and your opponent controls. The selected monsters can not be destroyed as a result of card effects, while this card is face-up on the field.

Caucastags destructive effect only wiped away the Beetrons, Armored Bee and Bachi Bee. Number 20 and the Steelswarm Cell remained untouched. "Heh, what was this you said about Numbers being immortal to non-Number monsters?" Azar ordered an attack on the ant. Even if Caucastag could not dent its silver carapace, it could still inflict battle damage to Lucy. "Effects work too. But in battle, only Numbers can kill Numbers. Not your weird demon insects!" She yelled back at him. "And I have sealed destruction effects anyway!" The turn moved to her, after Azar placed two traps down on his field. "What is going on with you? With your deck. Since when did you have.. those things?" For the first few turns his cards seemed to be about dragons and vanillas, now he was running dark-attribute fiends? "I compare this power power to the one that gave you and me my Number. Something beyond simple machines and cardboard."

Lucy's LP: 5200

"That is your answer? That makes no sense." His response left Lucy even more confused. "What-ever, you are still going to lose!" She entered her battle phase. "Did you stop to think why I let your weak little monster survive?" Giga-Brilliant marched towards the last Steelswarm Cell. "When I XYZ-summoned my Number, I used BachiBachiBachi as one of the xyz materials! And if Bachi becomes an xyz material, that xyz monster can inflict damage to defensive monsters! From this attack you will take 2400 piercing damage!" The ants pincers were about to dig into the tiny insects body. "I know off that effect, Lucy." He flipped a trap card face-up. "Last step of Infestation; I destroys a monster my opponent controls." Steelswarm Cell fired back with a beam of darkness. "Giga-Brilliant can not be destroyed!" Said beam was deflected by her Defense Device. "Let me finish." And subsequently the Cellular fiend retreated to a safe distance, to Azars hand. "The spell also requires me to return Steelswarm Cell to my hand."

Last step of Infestation, Normal Trap
Return 1 face-up level 4 or lower "lswarm" monster you control to the hand to target 1 monster card your opponent controls; destroy that target.

"Gah!" Giga-Brilliants pincers cut through thin air. "I call off my attack!" And with just Caucastag standing before Azar, she could not continue the battle phase. "Do not get cocky! My trap still protects my monster, even if yours is gone!" She ended her turn, confident the Defense Device would keep on defending Giga-Brilliant. "So it does. In which case, I should follow up on that 'Number against Number' principle." Her eyes widened. "You mean." He nodded. "To bring 'him' out. First I will summon Tour Guide from the Underworld." A redhaired fiend, donning a tour guide uniform(3/1000/600) entered the forest. "Tour Guide special summons a level 3 fiend from my deck." The demon girl called upon a ghoulish bus, which transported a Steelswarm Sentinel, black cockroach(3/1000/600) from Azars deck. "Tour Guide has the same level, so I shall use both." The two were drawn into a black hole, becoming materials for his special xyz monster. "This is my Number, Leviathan Dragon the seventeenth!" From the seas of the cosmic portal, the water serpent(3/2000/0) surfaced.

Lucy looked with awe at the Number. "Your face." And also at Azar. Rather than him getting a burning mark shaped of the number 17, like she expected, a single line was etched across his forehead. "It detaches a material, to give itself 500 attackpoints!" Azar immediately used the Leviathans(2500/0) boosting effect. "Now be gone, Giga-Brilliant!" And with just 100 points more, his Number could reduce hers to silver dust. "You.. did it." Leaving her stunned as the Ant perished. "My Number is.." She looked at her own hand, which still held the mark of the twentieth number. "No! It's not over yet!" Before she received a direct attack from Steelswarm Caucastag, she activated another trap; Spiders Egg. "As long as match is not decided yet, the ownership of the Numbers is undecided as well. Those are the rules!" The trap intercepted the direct attack with an egg, which created three spider tokens(0/0) when it was destroyed. "The rules? Who made those rules?" Azar asked as he let his turn end. "We are not alone, Azar. Our Numbers are more than just cards. If I win this, Number 20 will choose not to leave me. Only through a duel does it choose its companion. Number 20 came to me because it shared my interests."

"But what can you do to my Number, without yours?" Now Azar was on the good side of the 'Numbers can only be destroyed by Numbers' argument. "I do not need to destroy it, I just need to destroy you!" She activated the spell Monster Reborn, reviving Beetron(4/1600/900) from her cemetery. And Beetron used its effect, tributing the continuous trap, DNA surgery, to revive Armored Bee(4/1600/1200). "I can still inflict damage!" The bee sent its stinger into the Leviathans neck, halving its(1250/0) attacking power until the next turn. "Now. Dreadscythe Harvester!" She tribute summoned a preying mantis(8/2300/1600) by offering 2 of her 3 spider tokens. "Dreadscythe powers itself by harvesting other insects I control!" The Harvester cut down all of her remaining insects (Armored Bee, Beetron, Egg Token) and it (3800/1600) gained 500 attackpoints for each. "And I will end you!" One swing from its scythe would deliver more than enough damage to the Leviathan to deplete Azars remaining lifepoints. "That would have worked under normal circumstances, Lucinda..."

"But I am afraid you put too much into that one attack!" Unfortunately for her, Azar still had one card waiting on her. "Trap card: Battle Break! When my opponent has no monsters in his or her hand to discard, this card will destroy an attacking monster and end the battle phase!" Dreadscythe's weapon was blocked. "It will do what?" And sent it back towards the mantis, it literally cut in half by its own scythe. "You lost control of the duel the minute you lost your Number, Lucinda. You can not win anymore. This is another reason why you do not deserve that Number. You are just too small-minded. Thinking just of minor thefts, using something as strong as your Gigant." She had no other cards to play or set, so Azar just pushed into his turn. "The strength of your deck lied in numbers, that was why I chose to wipe your swarm all out at once." Caucastag and Leviathan Dragon(2500/0) had enough attackpoints between them to defeat Lucy. "But before I claim your number, answer me one thing. How did you get your Number?" Lucy's expression changed from horrified to perturbed.. "What? The same way we all did...why do you. Unless." ..to actually being amused. "You were not chosen by your Number! That's it, isn't it?".

"You just came across someone like me and somehow managed to take their Number from them!" Her laughter came back as well. "How I got it, does not matter. I defeated the last wielder and now you as well." Azar did not like this feeling, because she was right. "You know so little, and still you try to take my number? At first I thought it was Ariels brother who was going around taking Numbers away, but it was you, wasn't it? Ahaha, do you do know what you have gotten yourself into?!" Her cackling was like scratching on a chalkboard. "Just tell me everything you know!" His patience had run out. "Until you actually beat me, Azar, I do not have to do anything!" She showed her marked hand once more. "You want this, come and get it!" And that was the last straw. "Caucastag and Leviathan, attack!" The steelswarm demon and sea serpent struck at last, whittling her lifepoints down to zero. Lucy braced herself against the impact and uttered one final warning. "Not even I would dare to do what you think of doing. Who knows, how many of us there are." She smiled and dropped to the ground.

Lucy's LP: 0

"H-hey?" His frustrations were quickly pushed aside by concern. "Lucinda!?" He ran over to her side. Her eyes dulled, and her breathing slowed. Yet she was alive. "Is she. .in a coma?" It felt more like she was just sleeping very heavily. He also saw that her hand was missing the number 20 mark. Curiosity made him check her D-pad as well, and he saw that her extra deck slot was empty now. "Don't tell me." He checked his extra deck and saw that GigaBrilliant was already inside it. He was not dreaming, the card literally moved itself. "She was right then? The Numbers are alive? They might even have a will." Even if it was something, Azar had not learned as much as he would have liked. However first he had to take care of Luc, she could not be left here. As dusk had already set in, it was not assured that anyone would even find her for a while. He wrapped his coat around her and placed her down on a bench, out of sight of other parkgoers. He took the coat back and called emergency services with the phone function of Lucy's duelpad; reporting her as a possible coma victim with a text message.

It then hit him. "Everyone who loses in a duel to a Number, loses consciousness." For a brief moment he shuddered at the thought of how many times he would have to do this. Azar slipped away as sirens started blaring. He waited in the distance and he examined his his new cards now that they were actually readable. "Numbers, and Swarms." These cards felt just like any other card, no lighter or tougher. "There are at least twenty, though they can not all be in this city." This would be a time-consuming undertaking. Yet the more he considered bringing in help, the more he expected nobody to believe him. They would just call him a crazy kid and send him off. "Lucy was just a minor case. There are far worse people out there than her who could have these Numbers. I need to take them, or..destroy them." He could tear up Number 20 and 17 right now, nobody would ever be able to take advantage of them again. "No. I need these to duel, only Numbers can kill Numbers. The Numbers may not even be destructible like that" He'd be a fool to see these cards as nothing more then cardboard with coding. "I should leave." By now Lucy was found, his job here was done. Azar hid his cards and casually moved away from the scene.

Yet when it came to blending in with the background, it failed to work on one person. "Wasn't that..Azar?" Because of the sirens, Ariel had peered outside the window. And from the first floor she spotted Azar near the park, holding a duelpad that seemed strangely familiar to her. The commotion itself was because of a girl who had been found inside that park. She recognized her as well. "Nataha's friend is here too? And she is hurt?" Lucy looked exactly like her brother, the comparison was haunting. What did it all mean? "!?" Before she was wheeled inside, shaw saw a D-pad strapped to her arm. "It was.. because of a duel?"

...

Back at his place, Azars investigation continued. Why did the swarm and the Number appear when it did? Was it his desperate situation in the duel? The use of Dakars D-pad? He had to find out. At the very least these strange cards remained, they did not revert to a blank state. Though that could always happen later, since he had not been 'awake' the last time the cards reverted.. "The Steelswarm, The Evilswarm. These cards are not registered in any official database. Just like the Numbers." In his extra deck was Evilswarm Bahamut again, along with several Evilswarm Heliotropes. The deck even had a whole set of Steelswarm he had not even used yet. He inspected Heliotrope specifically, it still slightly resembled the Gemknight card it had replaced. "It is like this swarm physically corrupted the original card. Was this the kind of deck Dark was using before he was defeated?" That would explain why there were no cards in his deck slot when he first found him. "I wonder, if I can make more."

Azar did not have a lot of cards, he traded most in his early days as a duelist. But he did have a stash of random spares lying around; cards he could never use because decks did not work with one card of each archetype. "Nothing will probably happen, but..." He placed the swarm cards on top of his pile of random Gustos, Dragunities, Genex machines and everything he could think of. "I knew it." There was no change at first. "Wait!?" And to his utter shock and amazement, the cards reacted to each other. He nearly fell over backwards when he saw a black oil-like substance leak out from his evilswarm cards. "Impossible!" It coated every other card. "And yet, it is happening? How? Why?" When the process was done, many of his random cards had been changed into dark twisted versions of their former selves. All evilswarm cards. "Aahahah." When the initial shock wore down, Azar could only laugh at the bizarreness of it all. "So. This is the power that Dakar had? This is what he obtained from that fallen star?" Azar could no longer deny it. Some inhuman power was at work here. And it was part of him now. Carefully he picked up his new cards. "I guess even if I wanted too, it is too late to turn back now.."

(To be Continued in Cipher 005: My Brothers Keepers)

New Cards used by Azar Helder
Steelswarm Cell
Steelswarm Caucastag
Tour Guide from the Underworld
Steelswarm Sentinel
Number 17: Leviathan Dragon

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Common Charity
Last Step of Infestation
Battle Break

New Cards used by Lucy
Dreadscythe Harvester

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Monster Reborn

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Compulsory Defense Device
Spiders Egg