Cipher 011: Shock and Awe

"What took you people so long? How could you not notice what was going on here?" An angry woman yelled at the cops as soon as they arrived at the mall enters. "Calm down lady. We did not receive an alarm until ten minutes ago. Plus our forces were stretched thin throughout the day." The unlucky officer had to deal with her and many other angry customers. "They were busy? Busy doing what?" When he told them about their network breaking down, and a large number of crank emergency calls, they still were not placated. Some were even calling out to sue the mart, or the police, or both. Even though in the end nobody had gotten seriously hurt, aside from one tazed guard who was already receiving medical treatment. "You can't reason with masses." Azar sighed as he watched from a distance. He had not yet had the chance to take of his helmet. There were too many wandering eyes in this district, and pretty soon there also eyes in the sky in the form of police helicopters. "I need to find a hiding place." He could not walk around like this forever. "This whole day was a mistake."

Elsewhere..

This man before him, this was the real Number Hunter, he admitted it! The one the D-Creeper had dueled must have been a decoy, he never summoned any Numbers after all. "So, was I what you expected?" The hunter took off his shades to reveal a piercing blue stare. "You are not as short as I expected. But still what I'd call a runt." D-Creeper had been found out, by this man. Jet Cooper was caught, all because he used too much energy on the wrong person. "Guh!" He took off, headed for the other door. Of course he had another exit from his hideout, he was not going to be captured now. "What, no comeback? Sorry to tell you this, kiddo. But you will not get far that way." Before Jet could even open his door, he crashed head first into something he could not see. "Argh, what?" He was pushed back by the force. It was like a wall of static energy had been erected to stop him. "Yeah, that will do that to you, if you try to make a break for it. Hunters don't leave home without their nets." The hacker crawled back up, and touched the wall behind him again. "A net?"

It was a shield of energy, one that extended across the entire garage. "Can't have you skip town before I get a chance to snare your numbers." Jet turned around. "A duel?" And he could not help but feel slightly relieved. "Of course, you can not take mine without a fair game." He could still win this, and tae this guy's Numbers to boot. He just had to stay calm about it. The man was still going to use a D-pad, a standard looking model at that, it would be child's play for Terrorbyte to connect him to that machine. Then he would be able to see all cards in the Hunters deck and hand , displayed on his own visors. "This was not how I would have liked to duel you, hunter." Jet took one Duel pad from a nearby pile of devices and put it on his arm. "But I see this as a second chance, one I will not let go to waste." He activated the device. "This will be your first duel in real life, wont it? Hope you can stomach that." The hunter activated his pad as well, the game was on. "I take the first turn." The Hunter drew six cards. "Go ahead. It wont.." Jet did not care if he did, he would just read his cards and prepare for them accordingly. "Wait." At least, he would if he could. "Take your time.." The hunter chuckled to himself. "You. I can not.." He could not do it, his Number could not break through!

Jets LP: 8000 Hunters LP: 8000

"Impossible." There had never been a security net before that could stop him. Terrorbyte was more than a virus, it was pure electrical will force. "You caught on. My D-pad here is protected." The Hunter tapped his device. "You won't draw any info from this thing." He started his turn proper by placing a card down in his magic/ trap zone. "But don't think too hard about it. I am about to show you half of my hand anyway." The duelist normal summoned a bearded trident wielder(4/1800/1200). "Trident Warrior can special summon a level 3 monster from my hand when it is normal summoned." He then special summoned a short white knight(3/1000/1800) with glowing blue manes. "Constellar Leonis allows me to normal summon one more 'Constellar' monster this turn." And finally he summoned normally again. "Constellar Kaus." It was a white armored centaur(4/1800/700) this time. "Constellars? Zodiac cards?" Jet did not know this deck. This Hunter had his own set of cards as well. "You've seen nothing yet."

Kaus aimed its bow at Leonis. "Constellar Kaus can add or remove one star from a Constellar monster I control." The knight of Sagittarius shot another star towards the knight of Leo(4/1000/1800) to boost its level. "And here it is." Along with Trident Warrior, the two Constellars were overlayed. "A triple rank monster, in the first turn?" Jet could not believe how fast his opponent had summoned an XYZ-monster. And not just any XYZ monster. "Number 16: Shock Master!" A red cube appeared, whose sides kept unfolding until they formed a mechanical masked angel(4/2300/1600). "This is my main guy: Shock Master who rules over all colors. Green, Purple, Orange." One material was detached from Number 16. "Monsters, spells and traps. I choose spells." The stone-faced angel covered the room in blue light. "Now neither you, nor I, can use spell cards until my next turn." This news did not please the hacker. "No spells?" As his general strategy relied heavily on spell cards. Now he could not touch them without getting shocked back. "Your move."

"How did you get that Number? Did you take it from someone else? Or did it come for you?" He placed a monster and two facedown cards. "That's a secret." As his turn began again, he normal summoned a new warrior, the blue armored Blade Knight(4/1600/1000). It gained 400 attackpoints when its controllers had one to zero card(s) in his hand. "You will forget soon anyway." And he then activated a spell card, Mystical Space Typhoon. "What the?" And the cyclone destroyed his set card, Future Fusion. "You were trying to trip me up, weren't you? Setting a spell and a trap at the same time. But I will let you in on a secret. I have mastered Shock Masters gift, like you have your Numbers." He placed one card down and then detached another material from his Number. "How do you think I found you in the first place? It is because I can see the true color of everything, The true color of your face-down cards..." Jets remaining set card was paralyzed by the purple light Shock Master emanated, he had correctly guessed that it was a trap. ".. and also of everything you hid in this house." The path was cleared for a double attack. "I wonder how you will handle direct damage." And he entered the battle phase. Blade Knight(2000/1000) slashed through the hackers facedown roid, Stealthroid(4/1200/0). And Shock Ruler fired multispectral beams of light from its wingfolds, bombarding Jet with all the colors he could imagine. "Gah!" Pain was not the hackers friend, to say the least.

Jets LP: 5700

"Do not underestimate me." He recovered, eventually. "Now I will show you my XYZ monster!" He could at least play spells again this turn. "Card Trooper." He summoned a nonroid machine, the gunner robot(3/400/400). "And I activate Machine Duplication." It had less then 500 attackpoints, so it too was eligible for the duplication spell. It special summoned two more troopers(3/400/400) from Jets deck. "They activate their effects! They all discard three cards from the top of my deck!" A total of nine cards were sent to the grace, five Roids were among them. "They gain attackpoints for each discarded card. But I do not care about that. What matters is that they are level 3 monsters!" The powered up Troopers(1900/400) were placed on top of one another, forming his Number. "Here he is, Terrorbyte!" The mechanical scorpion(3/0/2900) showed itself in an offensive stance. And Jets mark of the 34th digits were carved on his forehead. "So yours is Number 34. But it is in attack position?" A questionable decision, taking into account that its defense was its greatest asset. Terrorbyte had zero attack power.

"Sword and Shield!" Jets solution lied in his spell card. "I switch the attack and defense points of all monsters on the field!" Terorbyte's(2900/0) stats were switched around, as were Justice Bringers(1000/1700) and Shock Masters(1600/2300). "Then I detach one material, to take control of your monster!" Terrorbyte could still use its effect in this form. It temporarily took control of Blade Knight. "Not so confident now are you?!" He entered his battle phase. "Attack Number 16!" The weakened angel was targeted by the strengthened machine. "You are too hasty for your own good, kiddo." The hunter though, played his set card. "Quickplay spell card; Shrink!" This spell halved the attackpoints of any monster, and in this instance it downsized the Terror(1450/0). "No!" Jet could not call off an attack once it was made. He was forced to watch as Shock Master fired back and destroyed his precious Number. "Fraid so." Now aside from another spell he could set, Jet was defenseless. "How? How can you fight so well?" The turn had passed, Blade Knight returned to his original owner.

Jets LP: 5550

"Your Number is an affector type, I have seen them many times begore. In your case, It allows you to get through all kinds of electrical networks, from the digital web to something as simple as a lightbulb." The hunters turn came and so did his chance to use Shock Masters effect. "Then deal with this! Space Cyclone!" However this time Jet had a response ready, his quickplay spell card. "It detaches your xyz material, your last one!" Number 16 had been robbed of its final material. "Alright, you got me there." The Creeper still had that one trap set. "But I don't see any point to holding back." He struck anyway, Sword and Shield had worn off by now, so the damage would be quite severe. "Direct attack." Blade Knight(2000/1000) and Shock Master(2300/1600) closed the distance. "Inverse Universe!" But not in time. "All stats are turned around, again!" Defense and Offense was swapped once more, permanently this time. And Jet received two attacks from weaker (Justice Bringer: 1400/1600, Shock Master: 1600/2300) monsters.

Jets LP: 2950

"Ah. You were saving that for when I would try to counterattack your Number. Pity it didn't stick round long enough." The hunter shrugged and ended his turn. "Stop treating me like I am harmless without a Number!" Jet shouted. "I can crush you without it!" In his turn Jet first activated Monster Reborn, to revive one of his Expressroids(400/1600) that Card Trooper had sent to the grave. "I add two roids to my hand when Expressroid is summoned!" He reclaimed another Expressroid and Steallthroid from the graveyard. "Then I normal summon the other Expressroid!" The second one allowed him to take back two more roids. "Five Roids are in my hand or on the field! I activate my spell card, Polymerization to fusion summon Barbaroid!" All five roids were fused by his spell to create he Ultimate Battle Machine(12/4000/4000). "Double attack!" And it unleashed a salvo on both Justice Bringer and Shock Master. "It inflicts 1000 damage when a monster is destroyed!" The blue knight was torn apart by one cannonblast, and Shock Ruler took hits as well. "Now that was a punch."

Hunters LP: 1600

The hunter took it all with a grin. "But Numbers can not be killed like that." Shock Master was not dead yet. "I thought about that too, hunter! Barbaroid negates the effects of its targets after damage calculation! This turn it survived, but now it has lost all its effects, including its battle destruction defenses!" He could kill Number 16 on the next turn. "Like that other hunter, you are nothing to me You may have saved him, but you can not save yourself!" The blonde hunter blinked. "Other?" But proceeded with his turn, tributing Shock Master. "What?" The ruler of colours was sacrificed for a fairy Constellar, Virgo(5/2300/1600). "Virgo summons another Constellar from my hand, when it is normal summoned." The armored angel special summoned the Libra Machine, Constellar Zubeneschamali(5/2100/1400). "I XYZ-summon, Constellar Pleiades!" He overlayed them to bring out a rank 5 Constellar, a faceless knight of gold and white armor(5/2500/1500). "Pleaides can return one monster on the field, back to a players hand!" The Constellar detached one material, and Barbaroid faded from existence just like that. "What? Wait, you can't!"

Jet had only one resort now; begging. "If you defeat me, all the data on my computers will be deleted. I coded it to dump its drive, as soon as one of my devices registers zero lifepoints! Please. You can use me, I can work with you and the other guy." The hunter shrugged and activated his own Monster Reborn spell card, to revive Number 16(2300/1600) back at full power. "I don't think so." He entered the battle phase. "No! I can do more. I can give you anything you want! Money, information, you name it!" Sweat rolled down his forehead, his heart was pounding like a madman. This had to work. "Anything?" Jets face relaxed with relief, he nodded fiercely. "Okay them, what's with the nickname?" He asked casually. "What?" Jets face fell flat. "D-Creeper? Not very impressive, if you ask me. Was D-Reaper already taken by another hacker? There are so many of you out there, it probably was." Jet was at a loss for words. "Guess I answered my own question. Sorry kiddo. I just can't buy anything you say. Here we go!" Pleaides and Shock Master flew forwards and knocked the D-Creeper flying against the barrier. "N.." He passed out before he knew what hit him.

Jets LP: 0

Within seconds, all computers in the garage responded to his defeat, and started deleting their hard drives. "Oh joy. Looks like he was not bluffing." The hunter took off his shades again. "Quartermaster. This is Agent I." He spoke into a small headset piece on his ear. "The target has been neutralized. But he boobytrapped his computers. Maybe you can see what you can recover." He connected a line from his D-pad to the computer and accessed its logs. The process went slowly. "Come on, speed it up a little!" He kicked the computer, which did not help matters. "Yeah yeah. It's no use talking to a machine." He said to the person he had contacted. "Huh? No, I could not accept his offer. He was just looking for ways out. His type can not be trusted." He sat down and rubbed his forehead. "Something bugs me though. Cooper said something about someone else hunting Numbers here.." The agent waited for a response. "I am the only one in this district? Now that is interesting. Then who was he talking about?"

"What? You are telling me he dueled someone he thought was me?" Quickly he turned on the television and saw the news reports about the incident at the mall. "Well I'll be. Someone did react to that ultimatum Cooper had sent. Do you think you can put a trace on this guy? He could not have gotten far."

Unfortunately for Azar, he had indeed not gotten far. He had escaped the busy streets, but the helicopters were still everywhere in the sky. But a half hour of trying to go unnoticed later, the choppers left. "Guess they weren't looking for me after all." By now he had reached the city suburbs, and in the distance was a subway station. "Perfect." He could use the underground, he could safely discard his disguise. If he could get to it. "Oof!" In between him and the station was an obstacle, and Azar walked right into it. "What on earth?" His hands touched what felt like a wall, invisible to the naked eye. "An energy field of some sort? Where did this come from?"

And then he heard footsteps..

(To be Continued in Cipher 012: Horoscope from another Age)

Cards used by Agent I
Trident Warrior
Constellar Leonis
Constellar Kaus
Number 16: Shock Master
Freed, the Brave Wanderer
Constellar Virgo
Constellar Zubeneschamali
Constellar Pleiades

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Mystical Space Typhoon
Shrink
Monster Reborn

New Cards used by D-Creeper
Stealthroid
Card Trooper

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Sword and Shield
Monster Reborn
Polymerization

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Inverse Universe