Chapter 24: Card Network ONLINE!
A section of the Heartland Hospital is dedicated to dueling itself, where people have fun dueling against others. In fact, a duel is taking place inside and is about to be finished.
"Go, Volcanic Hammerer (2400/1500)!" a boy commanded to his monster, a massive dragon-like being standing on its two legs and made out of rock and magma. "Direct attack!"
Fireballs appeared above its claws and threw them and the boy's opponent, a girl who is also wearing a hospital garb like the boy. She gave out a painful grunt as she fell to the floor from the explosion. The winner's bell rang in the air as AR Vision ended.
Boy: *WINNER*
Girl: 0
"Haha!" the boy grinned. "Looks like I win again!"
"No fair!" the girl cried out. "You always use those Fire monsters to deal burn damage and then attack with your strongest monsters!"
"But a duel's a duel, right?" the boy asked as he looked around the crowd that was watching. "So who else wants to duel me?"
"I will."
The boy turned around to see someone stepping out of the crowd. Unlike the girl, he wasn't wearing any hospital garbs and looks just like a civilian. The only thing that sticks him out from a crowd is that he has spikey silver hair. His already had his Duel Disk on, but the boy didn't mind it as he reactivated his Duel Disk.
"That's cool," he said as the two wore their Duel Gazers. "You ready?"
"Whenever you are," the mystery boy smiled as their Duel Gazers flashed. "I'll let you have the first turn."
Boy: 4000
Mystery Boy: 4000
"Let's go! Draw!" the boy shouted. "I'm setting a monster facedown followed by three more facedown cards!" Four facedown cards digitalized in front of him, creating some sort of barricade.
'The monster I set is Fox Fire,' the boy thought. 'At the end of the turn when its destroyed by battle, it can be revived. That's good with the three Backfire cards I set, which deals 500 points for every Fire monster that's destroyed by battle. With a single attack, he'll take 1500 points of damage!'
"I'm ending my turn like that," the boy concluded.
The mystery boy silently drew. "Since I do not control any cards on my field, I can special summon Roaring Express Train Rocket Arrow (5000/0)!"
There is a loud whistling sound as a portal opened up above his head. A track shot out of the portal and a massive train with a jet on top appeared.
"No way! 5000 attack points?" the boy shouted as he and the others gasped.
"Do not worry," the mystery boy shook his head. "When I special summon this, I can't attack. But…what I can do is summon Generator Force SUMMON (0/0)!" Appearing on top of the massive train is some sort of large black generator. Inside is a glowing ball of light.
"I now activate my Generator Force's effect," the mystery boy continued. "By negating the effect of a monster on my field, I can target your monster and force it to return to your hand!"
A beam of light suddenly shot out of the generator, hitting the facedown monster which then flew back towards its owner's hand, which began glowing.
"Next, I can look into your hand. Besides the one that is returned, if there is another monster, that is special summoned, ignoring its summoning conditions. If there is not, my monster gets destroyed and I take damage equal to its attack points. Now let us see what's in your hand…"
Holographic projections of the boy's cards appeared in front of him. There is another monster…Volcanic Queen (2500/1200). Its card shone as a massive dragon covered in flames appeared. Fused on top of the dragon's head is a woman ablaze, though isn't flinching from the fires.
"Since Rocket Arrow's effect is negated, that means it is free to attack. Go!"
The rail tracks continued straight through Volcanic Queen, piercing right through the dragon's body. It let out a roar of pain, but was silenced when the massive train ran over it, creating a large explosion that sent the boy to the ground. He quickly got up, however, as he tapped his monitor three times.
"I'm activating my three Backfire Traps!" he declared. "When my Fire monster's destroyed, you take 500 points. Since there's three, you take 1500!"
All three Traps belched out a stream of fire at the mystery boy. He only grunted slightly as his Life Points fell close to the boy's.
Boy: 1500
Mystery Boy: 2500
"Even so," the mystery boy began as he waved off the flames and picked up a card. "This duel is over. Usually when Rocket Arrow is on the field, I can't activate or set cards. But since its effect is negated, I'm able to now, so now I play the Spell Linear Accelerator Cannon!" Behind him several feet away appeared a giant high-tech cannon operated by a humanoid machine with a cannon for a head.
"With this Spell, I sacrifice a monster on the field and half of its original attack points turn into damage at you."
"What?" the boy grunted in surprise. The rail tracks slowly became rusted and crumbled into dust. Rocket Arrow glowed brightly and shrinks in size as it changed into a shining ball, which then flew into the cannon as it rumbled to life. The cannon soldier operating it punched a button on a console and ran. Seconds later, a massive beam of light shot out of the weapon and the boy was lifted off of his feet as his Life Points dwindled…
Boy: 0
Mystery Boy: *WINNER*
The entire crowd was stunned as the winner's bracket rang out. The mystery boy removed his Duel Gazer and smirked.
"Who else wants to duel?" he asked.
'I've been thinking about it for a long time…how I did not lose my soul during my duel against Jin. After several hours, I came up with several theories.'
'When I first defeated Crystal, the Number Card that I took from her tried to possess me. However, I brushed off its influence and the Number Card took form from Crystal's hidden side and tried to kill us all. It was defeated of course, but Number 30 didn't return to its card, but instead flew into Crystal. And now that I think about it, when I now hold Number 30's card, it felt normal, unlike the others who holds it.'
'Photon Hand steals the Number Cards away from its Holder as well as their soul. The darkness that the Numbers put upon their holders corrupts them. Perhaps the source of the darkness is in the soul, and Photon Hand was design to specifically capture it to draw out the darkness and the Number. That could explain how Photon Hand could not affect me, as Number 30 no longer holds any darkness or influence within it.'
'Then there's what happened during Halloween. The drink that I was given…was it normal liquid, or…I shudder the thought that it is possibly the elixir to eternal life. The substance made from the pain and suffering from the children. But if I did drink it, then it might be possible…'
'There are many different reports of human experimentation throughout the history. With the ban on experimentation around year 2000, many criminals now have to do it in secret or illegally. Estimating the possible time of research that the doctors experimented on the children, I would conclude that most likely they have barely enough information to confirm about the effects of the elixir. What those children did to the doctors…destroying their bodies…placing their hearts inside dolls…perhaps the elixir simply causes the drinker's soul to stay on our world? Enough to shake off the effects of Photon Hand? I do not know…'
'But I am only glad that I'm still okay, but weakened greatly. I now lost my Number 30: Acid Golem of Destruction and I am currently recovering in a hospital. Today is January 12. I should leave the hospital pretty soon now when I finally got back my strength.'
January 12, 2434
Akane's Heartland Duel Disk beeped as the download finished. Akane, who was reading a book in her hospital bed almost jumped at the sudden sound before calming herself down. She turned to the monitor sitting on the table next to her as she put the book down, named 'Paradox: A Time Travel Theory.'
Besides using it to duel, the Heartland Duel Disks also functions as a portable computer for full time use. On the monitor is a download window at full, which is named 'Card Network ONLINE!' Mr. Daisuke earlier has left behind a disk for a MMORPG centered on dueling and the download is now complete. She pressed Finish on the window and double-tapped the icon of a Duel Monsters card.
About a minute later, a game window opened up…
"Welcome to the world of ONLINE,' the message wrote as the silhouettes of two figures, a boy and a girl appeared. 'In this game, there is a Story Mode, and it is important that you select the gender of your character. While the basic storyline is the same, they each have different events and perspectives. But which gender that you want, how their appearance will be as well as their personalities and their decks, it is your own choice…"
'Choosing a male or female character, hmm…?' Akane thought as she looked at the two silhouettes. 'I guess I will go with the female character. And now to name her…'
"Hey! Kaizodo!"
Akane's avatar suddenly turned around to see a boy running towards her. Her avatar, which she named 'Kaizodo Tane,' looks exactly like Akane. The boy in question is not someone's avatar, but an NPC in the game. He is a boy the same size as Kaizodo, with short black hair and sandy brown eyes. They both have on school uniforms: Kaizodo has on a red jacket with a bow tie of the same color and a long black skirt while the boy has on a dark blue jacket over a white shirt and a black tie and pants.
"Shinji?" Kaizodo tilted her head when the boy caught up. "You seem tired. What's up?"
"C'mon, you thought I forgot about your birthday?" the boy named Shinji asked as he dropped his school bag to the ground. Moments later, he retrieved a Duel Disk and handed to her.
"Wha-?" Kaizodo gasped. "Shinji, you realized how much this cost, though?"
"So? I've seen you hanging around the school park, watching duels. And besides, last week you said that you wanted a deck as a birthday gift."
'That's true…' Kaizodo thought. 'But he didn't have to give me a Duel Disk.'
"But like you said, I wanted just a deck, not a…"
Shinji suddenly held out a box containing a deck inside and gave it to Kaizodo. "Then what would I buy the Duel Disk for?" he asked. "It's an afterschool day, so why not start a duel D. Park?"
"Well…alright," Kaizodo shrugged.
Several minutes later, the two arrived at a large, grassy park. There are already many people here, dueling against each other with Duel Disks on. The two stepped away from each other a good distance away as they activated their Duel Disks.
"This is your first time dueling," Shinji said. "You wanna have a quick rundown on how duels work?"
"I guess so."
"Right. Now then, both of us start out with five cards. When their turn comes…"
"I know how to draw, at least!"
Kaizodo Tane/Akane: 4000
Shinji Kano: 4000
"Alright, I'm going first!" Kaizodo shouted as she drew.
"Alright now. Listen up, because I'm not going to repeat myself," Shinji began. "There are several phases in a turn: draw phase, standby phase, main phase, battle phase, main phase two and end phase. You're currently on the main phase, which you can now summon, set, or tribute summon a monster as well as special summoning one. You can also play Spells or Traps and change the battle position or flipping a monster from facedown to face-up on your field."
"Okay," Kaizodo nodded. "In that case, I summon Sabersaurus (1900/500)." A blue portal opened up in front of Kaizodo and a massive red dinosaur with blade-like horns appeared.
"Also, unless of certain conditions, you can only normal summon once per turn. Also, the first player cannot conduct the battle phase, so you can choose to end your turn or set a Spell or Trap facedown."
"I see, so in that case…" She looked down at her hand before picking up two cards and inserting them into her Duel Disk.
"…I set two cards facedown and end my turn."
Shinji drew. "I'm going to activate the effect of a monster in my hand," he began. "If my opponent has a monster and I don't, I get to special summon Neo Knight- Lancelot (1000/1200)!"
A portal opened above him and a white figure flew out of it. It is a tall, knight-like robot with white armor and yellow stripes. It held a tall blood red sword in its hands.
"When a monster is special summoned, it doesn't count as a normal or tribute summon. That means if you haven't already normal summoned a monster, you can still summon one. I now bring out Knight Frame- Glasgow (1500/1700)!"
Appearing besides Lancelot is another robot, though this time is dark brown and wields a rifle.
"Alright, now I place a card facedown and end my turn."
Kaizodo drew once more. "I activate the Spell, Tribute of the Doom," she began. "I discard one card from my hand to destroy a monster that you control, and the monster is your Glasgow."
Under the giant robot's feet, bandages suddenly shot out. They wrapped around its legs and slowly dragged it into the abyss below. Shinji grunted as he watched it get destroyed.
"Next, I summon Speed Warrior (900/400)." A skater-like figure in light gray body armor with a blue visor appeared. "When Speed Warrior is summoned, its attack points are doubled until the end phase."
Speed Warrior: (1800/400)
"Now, Speed Warrior battles with Lancelot!" Kaizodo declared. Racing through the ground, Speed Warrior jumped into the air and raised a foot at the white robot.
"I activate my Glasgow's effect!" Shinji declared. "By banishing it, I can negate the destruction of one of my monsters!"
A wormhole opened up and the Glasgow appeared…only to be kicked back in by Speed Warrior.
Kaizodo: 4000
Shinji: 3200
"But I still have Sabersaurus. Battle!" Let ting out a roar, the massive dinosaur rammed into Lancelot, piercing it with its tough horns.
Kaizodo: 4000
Shinji: 2300
"I end my turn," she finally concluded as Speed Warrior's effect dies down.
"Jeez, already you dealt some serious damage to me," Shinji groaned as he drew. "But now I'm not holding back. I activate my facedown Continuous Trap, Call of the Haunted! Trap cards cannot be played in the hand and must be set first. However, you will have to wait a turn to play it, and since this type of Trap is a Continuous, it stays on the field."
"Now then, Call of the Haunted's effect, I can revive a monster in attack mode, so come back, Lancelot!" A portal appeared and the white knight appeared again.
"Next, I tribute my Lancelot to summon Neo Knight- Gawain (2500/2500)!" There is a burst of light and replacing Lancelot is a much larger robot. Its armor is black with yellow stripes. It doesn't have a sword like Lancelot's, but built on its shoulders are two cannons. On its back are wings made of what seems to be green light.
"For tribute summoning, it requires a certain amount of monsters to use to summon a monster higher than level four. Level fix and six requires just one, but level seven and above requires two. Gawain is a level six monster, so I just need to tribute one to summon it."
"Now then, I activate Gawain's effect! Once a turn…I can destroy a monster on the field!"
"What?" Kaizodo gasped as the cannons of Gawain's shoulders opened.
"Hadron Cannon!" Shinji shouted. Two blood red beams shot out, engulfing Sabersaurus. It let out a weak cry as it was disintegrated into nothing. "Now then, attack Speed Warrior!"
Gawain held out its metallic hands. Suddenly, its fingers shot out, one of them instantly crushing the small warrior due to its large size.
Kaizodo: 2400
Shinji: 2300
"I end my turn," the boy concluded. "Do mind that if you don't have anything powerful, you can simply set a monster in facedown defense position. Monsters in defense position don't take damage unless of certain conditions, so use that to your advantage."
"My move," Kaizodo said as she drew again. Looking at her drawn card, she smirked.
'Perfect.'
"I summon the Tuner monster Junk Synchron (1300/500)," she began as a small creature wearing dirty orange armor appeared. Around its neck is a white scarf and on its back is what seems to be an old car engine. On one of its metal boots is a lever.
"Tuner…" Shinji muttered.
"When I have a Tuner monster, I can special summon this monster, which I have sent thanks to my Tribute to the Doomed. I revive Quillbolt Hedgehog (800/800)!" A furry hedgehog with green eyes appeared. On its back are a series of bolts.
"I now activate Junk Synchron's effect," she continued. "When it is summoned, I can special summon a level two or lower monster in my graveyard, so I bring back my level two Speed Warrior."
"Next! I tune my level three Junk Warrior to my level two Speed Warrior!" she declared. Junk Synchron pulled the lever on its boot and the engine on its back rumbled to life. There is a burst of light and three giant green rings appeared. Speed Warrior jumped through the three rings and its body grew transparent as two stars appeared inside of it.
"Spiraling stars, from two come one, call out a great force! Become the light that guides the roads!" Kaizodo chanted as a burst of light filled the rings. "Synchro Summon! Appear…"
The light subsided and floating in the air is a warrior in purple body armor. His face is hidden under a white mask with two red goggles and he wore a much longer scarf around his neck. He had on two gauntlets and he punched the air with one of them.
"…Junk Warrior (2300/1300)!"
"A Synchro Summon requires a Tuner monster and one or more non-Tuners," Shinji explained. "By tuning those monsters together, you can bring out a Synchro Monster whose level is equal to the combined total. I'm impressed that you didn't ask about this."
Kaizodo sighed. "Well, let's finish this. I activate my two Continuous Traps: Minimize and Graceful Revival. With Minimize, it lowers the attack of one of your monsters by 1000!"
Neo Knight- Gawain: (1500/2500)
"And next, Graceful Revival special summons a level two or lower monster in my graveyard in attack mode, so welcome back once again, Speed Warrior!"
"Finally, Junk Warrior's effect activates. When its Synchro Summoned, its attack points increase equal to all level two or lower monsters on my field. Quillbolt Hedgehog and Speed Warrior are both level twos…"
Junk Warrior: (3900/1300)
Shinji gulped. "Well this isn't good."
"Finish this!" Kaizodo shouted. "SCRAP FIST!"
Rising into the air, Junk Warrior raised one of its arms up into the air. It suddenly burst into flames and the Synchro Monster dove down towards Shinji, who chuckled weakly.
"Heh…looks like you won your first duel…" he groaned as Junk Warrior crashed into him. There is a burst of light and…
VICTORY!
The word flashed on Akane's monitor as she gave a sigh of relief.
'That wasn't too bad,' she thought. 'But then again, that duel was a tutorial duel that goes over the basics of dueling…I wonder if I should have skipped it?'
A window opened up over the word. The first thing that showed up is a bar that quickly filled up.
LEVEL UP! Congratulations! As you continue dueling, you will gain Dueling Experience. When you level up, you will gain some DP and a new card. Sometimes you can even unlock a Booster Pack that you can buy later! DP (Dueling Points) is the currency of this game. Depending on how well you duel as well as completing some conditions, you will gain a certain amount. Use them to buy various kinds of cards and accessories!
Under the bar, several words appeared: the skills that she uses in the duel as well as some conditions she did.
Tutorial Completed: 1000 DP
Duel Victory: 500 DP
First Synchro: 500 DP
First Strike: 100 DP
Monster Power Over 3000: 2000 DP
Overkill Finisher: 1000 DP
A new window opened up…
Level Up! Now LV2, Newbie Duelist
Obtained 5000 DP
Obtained Neo Knight- Gawain
Starter Deck: Dawn of the Xyz Unlocked!
Starter Deck: A New Generation Unlocked!
Booster Pack: Knights of the New World Unlocked!
DB Obtained: 10100 Collected
…When the light ended, both Kaizodo and Shinji are back standing at the park.
"Jeez, you really did got the drop on me," Shinji groaned.
"Yeah, but you did have the advantage…for one turn," Kaizodo replied.
"Hey!" the boy groaned and she giggled.
"But seriously, though. Dueling's kind of fun. Are there other people here that duels?"
"Of course there is. This place is a central for dueling. Well, here's what I want you to do: find someone to duel with. When that's done, come back and talk to me. I'll give you something for your work."
The screen faded to black and back in. Suddenly, there are hundreds of people in the park; several of them dueling against each other.
"Oh! One more thing!" Akane saw Shinji talking to her avatar. "The fastest way to duel someone in a crowd is by launching a 'Duel Request.' When going into your Profile in your Menu, you will see a list of Duel Requests of people that want to duel. Do keep in mind, anybody can accept your request, so you can possibly square off against a powerful opponent, so beware!"
Once the conversation is over, Akane tapped the window on top the screen that says 'Duel Requests.' There are already hundreds of requests in the window. Several seconds later, she sent hers in and waits for a result.
"…I accepted your Duel Request."
Kaizodo nearly jumped when a voice spoke behind her. She turned around to see a boy standing there. He has long white hair with red streaks with a white jacket with jeans of the same color with black leather shoes. She noticed that on his neck is the number 69- not the Number Cards, of course- just a simple tattoo.
'69…' Kaizodo thought before a thought entered her head. 'Wait a second…isn't 69 the slang term for s-'
"The name's Aion Mercer," the boy introduced himself. "So you ready to duel?"
"Uh…yes," Kaizodo nodded, still thinking about 69.
The two then activated their Duel Disks…
Aion Mercer: 4000
Kaizodo: 4000
"I'll go first," Aion spoke bluntly as he drew. "I'm going to start by playing the Spell Foolish Burial. With this card, I send a monster card from my deck to the graveyard."
'Sending a monster to the graveyard on purpose?' Kaizodo thought. 'There are multiple strategies that revolves around special summoning monsters in the graveyard…is he trying for one?'
"Next, I summon Red-Eyes Wyvern (1800/1600)." A pitch black wyvern appeared. It let out a loud shriek at Kaizodo before landing on the ground. "I now set a card facedown and end my turn."
Kaizodo drew and looked at her hand. 'Ugh…I don't have anything to counter against his Wyvern…' She looked at Aion, who is waiting impatiently.
"Well?" he asked.
'Well…the best thing to do in a time like this is…'
"…I set a monster facedown and end my turn," she concluded.
Aion snorted as he drew. "Is that all?" he asked. "It's a shame that I can't see how well you duel now…"
"What?"
Aion took a card from his hand and showed it to her. "I remove my Red-Eyes Wyvern to special summon this monster…Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon (2800/2400)!"
Red-Eyes Wyvern let out a loud shriek as it disappeared into a black ball that began expanding until it is bigger than the entire field. Its entire body is covered in hard, black metal with red lines running all around its body. Let the other monster, this one let out an even bigger roar.
"I activate my dragon's effect," he continued. "I can special summon a Dragon-Type monster from my hand or graveyard, and the Dragon in my graveyard is…"
Opening its mouth, the armored dragon launched out a blood red beam of light that hit the ground in front of it. It was blown to pieces, and another large Dragon emerged through the rubble. This one, too, has armor-like dark gray scales, though it didn't have lines running all over its body.
"I summon Dark Horus (3000/1800)!"
"No way!" Kaizodo shouted. "How can you get a monster that powerful in the graveyard?"
"Remember Foolish Burial? I sent it to the graveyard thanks to its effect. Since those last two are special summonings, I normal summon Armageddon Knight (1400/1200)!"
A dark-haired warrior wearing a dark red scarf and rusted armor appeared. It wielded a bloody rapier.
"Battle! Armageddon Knight attacks your facedown monster!" The haunting warrior charged forward as the facedown card flipped, revealing to be Quillbolt Hedgehog (800/800) and was stabbed by the warrior's weapon.
"No!"
"Yes! It's over for you!" Both Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon and Dark Horus flew up into the air and opened their mouths. The last thing Kaizodo saw before everything fading to white are two blasts racing straight for her…
Aion: *WINNER*
Kaizodo: 0
Akane winced when she saw her EXP Bar going up by only one. A window opened also…
Loss…
Curbstomp Battle: 100 DP
Epic Fail: 100 DP
DP Obtained: 200 DP
"This is why I hate dueling here," Aion said as the fade subsided. The entire park is now filled with people again. "All it has are a bunch of newbies. I can't see their skills in real life."
"Then why are you here?" Kaizodo asked.
Aion snorted. "That's the type of argument I see around the net," he said. "I would love to, but I'm stuck in the Heartland Hospital after some fight that left a leg broken."
A thought suddenly hit her head. 'Wait…Heartland Hospital?'
"At least I'll be released just in time for the World Duel Carnival," the boy continued. "If you wanna have a rematch with me, come and find me there."
As he turned to leave, she stopped him. "Wait. What about your real name and how you look like?"
"Huh?" Aion turned around. "This is exactly how I look like. My real name's the same here as well. If you don't have any more questions, I'll be leaving."
And he disappeared into the thicket of avatars, leaving Kaizodo standing there.
'So does he really have 69 on his neck?' Akane thought as she switched off her Duel Disk. 'This reminds me of one of my ancestors…Rita Yan Kuroyuki…a Kuroyuki who has said to have several lovers, starting from fifteen to twenty. It isn't a rule in our bloodline to have that many, but the strange part is…all but one have died in mysterious or brutal deaths. It's almost ironic, now that I think about it, that one of the meanings of her name could be true and righteous, but she didn't follow up any investigations on them.'
'But anyways…he said that he is in Heartland Hospital, where I'm in also. But since the World Duel Carnival's coming up in just a few days, I should probably prepare. I think there is an area of dueling somewhere around here. I should probably grab my things and prepare.'
As she took her Duel Disk and Duel Gazer, just before she left her room, she saw her headphones that she kept with her from before. She grabbed them, thinking that she might as well wait for an opponent to come to her if she doesn't find one immediately…
The Dueling Arena is almost empty when Akane arrived with only her Duel Disk and Duel Gazer at hand. In fact, the only people she saw are two people dueling against each other. One of them is a boy wearing one of the many hospital clothing, but the other was a boy wearing civilian clothing. While this doesn't seem odd, she can't shake of the feeling of something strange about him…
"Go, Harpie's Pet Dragon (2300/2500)!" the silver-haired boy commanded to a massive pink dragon wearing a black and red mask. Around its neck is a collar with a chain held by a woman with a blue bodysuit and wild reddish hair and claws. "Direct attack!"
Rearing its head back, the large dragon let out a fireball that exploded in front of his opponent's feet. He gave a loud cry as he stumbled back and fell.
Boy: 0
?: *WINNER*
"I win," the mystery boy said as he took off his Duel Gazer. "Let's see…that's the tenth duelist I faced?"
"No fair…" his opponent groaned. "How'd you keep changing into different decks after each duel? There's no way you can hold ten different deck boxes at the same time!"
"So?" the mystery boy replied. "So do you want a rematch?"
"No thanks," the boy shook his head. "The others are gone, and besides, its lunch time." He then got up and left, leaving Akane and the mystery boy alone.
"You saw the last bit of the duel." The mystery boy suddenly turned around to face Akane as if he knew she was standing behind him. He walked up to her. Rather a bit too close as he is staring right at her eyes just inches away from his.
"Um…why are you so close?" she asked.
"You know, you can tell people that they are duelists just by looking at them," the mystery boy said. "I can tell that you're one as well- even though you do have your dueling equipment."
"So…are you asking for a duel?" Akane asked.
"If you wish to," the mystery boy said as he shows her his Duel Disk. While his Duel Gazer is a standard model, his Duel Disk is completely different. It is made of shiny black metal and is shaped like a gear cog, with the slots to support the cards on each teeth of the gear. Centered on the Duel Disk are both the deck and graveyard zones with the Life Points Counter on top of it. To Akane, it doesn't even look like a model from Heartland City.
"Alright," she sighed. "Let's get this started."
Spinning her Duel Gazer around her fingers, she placed it on her eye as her Duel Disk transformed when activated. The Life Points Counter on the mystery boy's Duel Disk turned on as a glow flashed in the lines running all over it. The two tapped the lenses of their Duel Gazers as they flashed once.
"Connection between A and B confirmed. AR Vision confirmed. Augmented Duel Reality is now in session."
"Duel!"
Generator Force SUMMON
DARK/Machine/1/0/0
Select 1 Effect Monster that you control. Its effects are negated and target 1 monster that your opponent controls and return it to their hand. If they have another monster in their hand other than the returned card, then it is Special Summoned. If there are no other monsters, then the selected monster is destroyed and you take damage equal to its original ATK.
Neo Knight- Lancelot
LIGHT/Machine/4/1000/1200
You can Special Summon this card from your hand if your opponent controls monsters and you don't.
Neo Knight- Gawain
DARK/Machine/6/2500/2500
Once per turn you can target 1 card on the field. That card is destroyed and sent to the graveyard.
Knight Frame- Glasgow
EARTH/Machine/4/1500/1700
When this card is in your graveyard and your opponent targets 1 monster you control as an attack target, you can banish this card. The attacked monster is not destroyed.
Credits to VORTEX2012 for the character Aion Mercer. Sorry for the weak introduction, but I promise that he will appear again and will still have the Hopeless Dragon deck.
Anyways, just to point out, the World Duel Carnival will come very soon. All OCs that didn't appear yet will appear in the WDC Arc. I'm also accepting OCs just for this story arc and all OCs and any author-created card is messaged to me. Only one User can send in one OC, and like I said, they must be messaged. I'm only accepting them until the 18th.
Also as a minor note, I'm thinking of making a spin-off much, much later about the Card Network ONLINE Chapter, giving it more plot. But like I said, I won't be doing it for a long time since I'm already focused on this. Anyways, onto the Preview!
Chapter 25: The Darkness and Lightness: The Everlasting Shifting Wild Card
Akane and the mystery boy squares off. Even though the boy is a stranger, Akane can't help but admire the dueling skills that he has, who quickly gains the upper hand of the duel. With the random dueling strategy called the Everlasting Shifting Wild Card, the mystery boy launches an attack so powerful that nobody is able to withstand it! Can Akane fight through this power and scrape a miracle?