Disclaimer: No I do not own Yugioh GX.
The Infinity Chronicles; Second Semester Arc
Chapter 37: Infinity Awakening (Part 2)
Now that he could hear that voice clearly, the half demon narrowed his eyes dangerously. "You're not who I thought it was, are you? You bastard, who are you?"
"Heh, you wanna see?" They grasped the tarp and pulled back the part of it that was covering their head, letting a headful of dark blue hair drop down around their shoulders. A pair of similarly colored eyes smirked cheerfully.
Ichigo's right eye started twitching again, and he bared his fangs. "A…girl?"
"That's right, you get a cookie." The female duelist ran a hand through her hair slowly and smiled slightly, revealing a pair of elongated canine teeth. "Now then, 'Ichigo', I think the rain of the Blood Wolf is on the verge of ending right now."
"The end of my reign? Hah!" Ichigo pointed at her. "Don't think yourself so good because you somehow managed to evade my attacks! I can easily destroy you during the next turn!"
The girl placed her hand gently on the top card of her three card deck. "Draw!"
("She currently has seven cards in her hand. However, it doesn't matter what she does because my set card is Absolute Guard. When I activate it she won't be able to attack or damage me this turn. All I have to do now is wait for her to activate a magic or trap card while my card is the only face-down on my field.")
Ichigo glanced at his hand cards and smirked. ("I am invincible compared to every single being here. I am Ichigo Pilkington, the future and forever king of this academy.") "Come then, whoever you are. I will not sit here and let you mock me."
The girl placed a monster face-down on her disk. "I set one monster face-down and end my turn."
"That's it?" Ichigo drew. "Oh well, it's your funeral then! I activate the magic card Scrap Treasure. You draw the top card of your deck, and if it's a monster then I send three monsters from my deck to my graveyard. And of course that card will be a monster, since the only two cards in your deck are monsters anyways."
The girl drew and held up Infinity Traveler Inferno Brawler. "You are correct."
"Then I will send three monsters from my deck to the graveyard." Ichigo slid three cards from his dwindling deck into his graveyard and then fanned the rest of the cards in front of him. "Now for the fun part. Scrap Treasure lets me, at the cost of two trap cards from my deck, activate one continuous trap from my deck. Also, just for kicks, I can discard two monsters from my deck to copy that effect. Therefore…" He emptied five of his seven remaining deck cards into his graveyard slot. "I'll activate two continuous traps."
"I'd point out that you no longer have cards in your deck, but I'm assuming you're ready for such a thing." The girl watched the two continuous traps appear on Ichigo's field and she found her assumptions confirmed. "Armor-Piercing Upgrade and Ultimate Trapmaster, as I thought."
"That's right." Ichigo pointed at Armor-Piercing Upgrade. "As long as this card is face-up on my field all of my machine type monsters in play can deal damage through defense. However, the cost is that as long as I wish to have this card in play I have to skip my draw phase. Since I have no cards left in my deck, that shouldn't be a problem."
"And Ultimate Trapmaster lets you sacrifice trap cards in your graveyard as if they were machine monsters." This is what the girl had seen coming. ("Chimeratech Overdragon will be coming out shortly.")
"Cyber Dragon, attack the set monster on that fool's field now!" Ichigo's metallic dragon howled and released a blast of blue fire that stopped when it was inches away from the girl's field. "Negate Attack, correct?"
The girl nodded and pulled the trap out of her disk. "Negate Attack does just what it says. It negates your attack and ends the battle phase."
"Thank you for explaining the obvious!" Ichigo's face-down card flipped up. "Go Absolute Guard! During this turn all damage to me is zero and you cannot attack!"
The girl sighed and closed her eyes. ("Chimeratech Overdragon destroys all other cards on his field when it is summoned, so first he'll protect those traps.")
"I activate the magic card Titanium Frame!" Ichigo's two Cyber monsters shattered. "This card lets me destroy machine type monsters on my field to add a counter to one face-up card on my field per destroyed monster. I choose to add one counter to each of my traps." Bands of steel appeared around his continuous traps. "As long as these counters are on those cards, when those cards would be destroyed they are not and the counter is removed instead. And then I'll activate Power Bond! Also I activate Cybernetic Fusion Support! At the cost of half my life points I'll remove monsters from my graveyard for this fusion!"
Ichigo- 1800
Girl- 1700
He clicked his tongue against his teeth and held up almost half of his graveyard. "Ultimate Trapmaster lets me remove the traps in my graveyard as well, and in total that is nineteen cards. Therefore I remove nineteen machine monsters to summon Chimeratech Overdragon!" Once more his ultimate instrument of destruction appeared, but this time instead of five or ten heads, it had nineteen. (15200/15200) "For every machine monster offered in the fusion, this monster's original attack and defense is increased by 800. And then, thanks to Power Bond…" (30400/15200)
"Holy unnecessary displays of force, Batman!" Griff had already fallen out of his seat when the Overdragon had been summoned. "Is it really necessary to summon that thing again?"
"In this case, yes." Nikolai rubbed his chin with a hand as he watched the bands around the two traps on Ichigo's field shatter in place of the traps themselves. "Now he has a 30400 attack monster that can attack nineteen times and every one of its attacks can deal damage through defense. I believe that is probably just enough in his mind to defeat this opponent."
"I think that what you think is insane." Adriel kicked up his legs against the chair in front of him angrily. "This is just Ichigo being insane, that's it."
Back on the field, Ichigo sneered and bowed to his opponent mockingly. "You cannot win. At the end phase of my turn Power Bond would deal me 15200 points of damage, but Absolute Guard stops that. Now during the next turn you will be completely overwhelmed. Therefore, I end my turn."
The girl rubbed the back of her head and grimaced. "Okay, you're really angry at me huh? Well, I guess so, considering that thing." She drew the last off of her deck. "It's a shame I'll have to brush it aside like this."
"Brush…it aside?" Ichigo motioned behind him. "Take a good long look at my monster and say that again."
She looked at it for about a minute, and then looked right at him. "Yup, brush it aside just like this." She held up a card. "First I activate Sibling Bonds! This magic card lets me special summon all Infinity Travelers in my hand to the field!" She held up four cards. "Come out now, everyone!" Inferno Brawler, Amplification Maiden, Null Entity, and Forward Runner appeared on her field. (1000/100) (0/0) (100/200) (500/400)
"She summoned four monsters at once…" Eri glanced at the set monster on the girl's field. "Now the real question is just what exactly is that set card?"
"Reverse monster open!" The girl smiled as the monster that appeared was a pink-eyed being made of pulsing light of the same color. "Infinity Traveler Micro Mistress is summoned!" (300/300)
"Mitosha's power?" Eri felt a chill run down her back and she remembered that duel against the craziest Travelers she had met. "However, her effect must be useful to this situation."
"It is." The girl pointed at the Chimeratech Overdragon, which suddenly shrank in size. "Once per turn I can cut the attack of one monster in play in half!" (15200/15200)
"Oh no, my monster is only 15200 now." Ichigo said this mockingly, a hand on his hip. "I don't think cutting my monster down to size will be enough."
("Forgive me, but I have to use you as a sacrifice Erian.") She pointed at Null Entity and Forward Runner. "I offer these two to summon the Final Shadow Infinity Chaser in my hand to the field!" (2000/1000) The dark blue suit of power armor appeared once more. "And now I activate the field magic card Infinite Palace!" All around them a huge palace made of dark blue crystal appeared in play. "As long as this card is in play, all Infinity named monsters gain double their original attack points!"
"Double?" Ichigo's eyes widened and Inferno Brawler and Infinity Chaser both disappeared within a swirling vortex. "And now you activate Contact Fusion?"
"That's right!" The girl's new monster was an orange-streaked version of the Infinity Chaser that slowly lowered onto her field and roared out a battle cry. (4000/1000) "Final Shadow Inferno Chaser!"
"What can that weakling do against me?" Ichigo pointed at his mighty fusion. "This monster is the ultimate in power, and I am Ichigo Pilkington, Kaiser of this academy! You can't beat me!"
"Stop shouting my name like it's yours, you…" The girl stiffened and glanced up at the stands. Luckily it seemed none of them heard her. "Anyway, go Inferno Chaser! Show him that evil is dumb and loud, while good at least doesn't shout at you about stupid stuff!" The monster sweat-dropped and then launched into the air, charging right at the Chimeratech Overdragon. "Amplification Maiden doubles the original attack of Inferno Chaser!" (8000/1000) "And now…I activate the quickplay magic card Infinity Mind! From your graveyard, I copy one card effect!"
Ichigo gasped as Limiter Removal was spat out of his graveyard slot. "No! That means…" (16000/1000) "My revenge against the Travelers…"
"Was nothing but a stupid temper tantrum!" The girl's supercharged Inferno Chaser plowed right through the center body of the machine monster and it was destroyed.
"Also, you take the attack of that destroyed monster in damage to your life points, thanks to the effect of Inferno Chaser!" Then Ichigo disappeared within a screaming explosion of power that shook the arena.
Ichigo- 0
Girl- 1700
Even Nikolai looked surprised by this. ("She…beat him? Who is this girl?")
"Ichigo!" Eri hopped from the stands to the dueling arena and ran into the smoke cloud to make sure he was alright. A few moments later she came running right back out with fangs bared at the dark blue-haired girl. "What did you do to him?"
The girl giggled as the smoke cloud cleared to reveal an empty set of the crimson clothing that Ichigo had been wearing. "Don't worry; I didn't do a thing to him. He didn't actually exist in the first place."
"………." Eri slapped her own cheeks a couple of times. "Say that once more, because I must be dreaming. Of course he existed!"
"I'm not saying he didn't, I'm just saying that Ichigo wasn't the real one." The girl turned to look at Rysel coldly. "Why don't you tell them, Rysel?"
The Blood Prince sat in his seat, smiling calmly. "Ah, you must be the real Ichigo. I was wondering if you were going to show up or not. Though I must admit your disguise is rather flawless. I didn't detect that it was really you."
Smiling, the girl brushed back her hair from her shoulder gently. "Well yes, I am a master of disguise." Then she realized that someone was poking her in the chest region. Blushing slightly but not looking away from Rysel, she sighed. "Eri, please stop." The poking stopped. "Thank you."
Eri walked towards the stands and sighed, not wanting to say anything about the fact that Ichigo never purposefully disguised himself as anything. ("Oh well, I'll let him pretend like he's cool for right now.")
Adriel stared at the girl standing on the dueling ring alongside Eri and gagged. "Pilkington, why did you disguise yourself that?"
"……" Nikolai just had his hand over his face and was muttering about how absolutely stupid this was.
Chris giggled. "You look good Ichigo-chan!" Ambience giggled along with her.
Resshin just looked pissed. Then again, he always looked pissed.
Ichigo sighed and looked at Rysel. "Anyway, do you intend to explain or should I?"
Rysel stood up and walked along the edge of the railing in the stands. "One of my most unique talents is that I can create exact clones of those I use my powers on. They are known as my Blood Spores, and I suppose you figured out rather quickly that when they are beaten they disappear."
"Heh, I figured all of that out on my own." She grinned, and Eri face-palmed. "Now then, how about you give it up and take all of your aliens off the planet."
"I must decline that offer." A pair of blood fountains erupted off to both of Rysel's sides. "You must understand that I do intend to protect this planet, but if you won't work with me then I must eliminate you along with all those who help the refugees."
Ichigo glanced back at Eri, and then grabbed her hand. "We're getting the Travelers out of here!" She looked up at Nikolai, Adriel, and Chris. "Guys, I know you're mad at me but please…"
"You don't need to tell us!" Adriel, Chris and Nikolai lifted their hands up at once. "Awaken, Soul of Void!"
"Awaken, Soul of Dreams!"
"Awaken, Soul of Duty!"
Then all three of them disappeared within orbs of purple, pink and dark green light.
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Within his orb, Adriel floated quietly in a deep purple abyss. It slowly swallowed him up like a pool of water, returning to a still surface. Then from within that purple sea a single drop of black appeared, spreading like oil in water. The whole mess started to swirl and from within the center of that swirl an older version of Adriel rose up, a dark purple bodysuit covering his body with streamers of black fluid hanging from it. That black fluid pulled itself around his chest, arms and legs tightly, forming into armored segments.
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Within her orb, Chris was surrounded on all sides by glittering rainbow-colored clouds. One by one they surrounded her body, forming into the shape of a flying angel with her hidden in its center. Then they dissipated to reveal an older girl wearing a pink bodysuit, her red eyes shining enthusiastically. Segments of bright red armoring appeared on her limbs and body one by one in a burst of red light.
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Within his orb, Nikolai was surrounded by thousands of crisscrossing rays of dark green light. All at once those beams shot straight through him, creating an explosion of dark green light. From within the smoke created by that sudden violent action a long black-haired young man with sea-green eyes emerged, an aquamarine bodysuit covering his body. Snapping up his arms, he braced himself as another wave of dark green lasers slammed into his body, forming same-colored segments of armor around his body.
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Griff dropped Erian to the grass outside the stadium and fell onto his back in exhaustion. "How come I'm the guy carrying a whole person on my back when I'm the only one without superhuman strength, huh?"
Resshin glared at Ichigo. "So you're telling me what I dueled was just a clone of you?"
The female demon rested a nail against her chin and thought about it. "Well, actually I think it was…"
"Ichigo?" Krieger glanced at the entrance to the stadium worriedly. "Do you think you could take the disguise off first before you go into explaining all this?"
"……" She turned away and coughed, muttering something.
"Huh?" Krieger started to lean in and was about to ask his friend to speak up.
"It isn't a disguise, and he can't change back because he's not sure how it happened in the first place." Eri noted the fact that Ichigo was now hanging her head. "That's right, you big liar, I already knew the moment you tried acting smug about it."
Griff groaned. "Didn't we have enough of this last year?"
"Anyway!" Ichigo looked at the entrance to the stadium, determination in her eyes. "I need to go help them if I can."
"So no explanation of what in the nine hells is going on then?" Eri shrugged it off. "I can't even fake being surprised anymore by this kind of thing. Alright Ichigo, go save the day."
Nodding, the half demon picked up into a run and charged back into the fray.
To be continued…