Cipher (1)35: And All that Is, Must End
"Azar. Can you get us out of here?" The place was gonna blow. Dakar knew only one person who could save them now; the duelist with all the Numbers in his arsenal. "I must be. I do not even know what half of these Numbers can do, but I could access their power. But..that may not be enough." Most Numbers could not leave through the satellite barrier around this location
"Prometheus!" Shin snapped his fingers. "That guy said he could be anywhere he wanted to be, remember?" The Ninth had been annoyingly talkative, and he remembered that being one of the things Prometheus proudly spoke about. "Yes. Good!" Azar took Number 9: Dyson Sphere. "If this does not work.." He took a deep breath and waited for something to happen. This though gave Ariel time to wonder. "With that, can we not save Kincaid?" As a teleport like that could get them beyond the wall as well. "I do not know if we have enough time to convince Kincaid. The closer the catalysts get, the more they interfere with our Numbers powers." Subito already had difficulty getting a feel of Number 107. "Kincaid made his choice." He looked at Korose who seemed most torn between the two choices. But his silence implied that the agent accepted his directors fate. They could not save themselves and Kincaid as well.
"Anywhere I want to be..where we want to be...Home."
And then Azar exhaled... and everyone else disappeared.
...
Dantes' LP: 5600 Pandora's LP: 4500
"Your friends.. they have all fallen. They all have become part of us." Pandora looked down at the mountains where the choppers has crashed. The Catalysts had taken the duelists and their pilots. They had not done so to save their lives, but to preserve hosts for the Numbers. "Who are you calling friends? They're just my coworkers." Dantes was the last agent still dueling. And it was no longer his turn. "I will know if you truly feel that way, soon enough. An expression of confidence does not persuade me." Pandora special summoned the Heraldic Beast Amphisbaena(4/1700/1100) from her hand by discarding a card from her hand. And then she activated the spell card, Monster Reborn, to revive Laval Lancelord from Dantes' graveyard, to her field. "My monster? You can not Xyz-summon anything with that!" Dantes knew she had other Numbers, but they were supposedly rank 4 Xyz monsters. "Ignorance is bliss." Pandora normal summoned a new Heraldic Beast, an azure-blue falcon(4/1000/1600). "Heraldic Beast Bernards Falcon. Change his monsters level." This Falcon had an effect that let it lower all levels of five and higher, to the fourth level. "!" Two stars of his Lancelord(4/2100/200) faded away. "That takes care of the problem, doesn't it?"
Pandora removed the three cards from the field. Amphisbaena, Berners Falcon and Laval Lancelord shot into an Xyz-summoning portal, and the spike-pincered bone-white devil(4/2600/1400) descended from the other world as a crest of light formed beneath its legless torso. "So..that is Number 69: Heraldry Crest." Dantes half-smirked. "You are already familiar with it?" Pandora asked, though she did not sound surprised. "Your last duel in our headquarters was recorded. I took the time to study the footage. I must be the only one to actually care enough to do their job properly. And with the other agents indisposed, my fee should more than triple." Dantes would not even be here, if Kincaid had not promised him all the money the director could afford "I know what Number 69 does. Its power is useless against my Xyz-monster!" Basiltrice(3500/1800) had 5 xyz-materials right now. Thus it could not be destroyed or targeted by card effects; including Number 69's effect stealing power. "Your faith is fragile, Dantes. Because what drives you is shallow." Pandora took a spell card from her hand. "Something like that needs to evolve... or disappear! Spell card: Numeron Force!"
"What?" This spell however, Dantes had not expected. "I thought only the Ninth had access to that card!" It was the same as with Prometheus, Pandora evolved Heraldry Crest into the next rank, and at the same time Numeron Force negated the effects of Dantes' cards. "The Ninth is also part of me, Dantes. Through him, my sisters and his brothers have gained the blessing of Number 100; the power of Numeron evolution." The Heraldry lord(5/4000/1800) had become a sickening yellow and purple monster, with its claws and horns lenghtened and its red flesh exposed. "Number Order 69: Heraldry Crest of Horror. He shall reflect all power within another Xyz-monster; its abilities and its strengths." The Horror Crest(7300/1800) added Basiltrice's original 2500 attackpoints to itself, and also gained 200 attackpoints from each of its 4 attached materials. "What was that ability again?" She asked him as she detached one material from Number O69(7100/1800). "Banishing any kind of monster from the field.." Dantes listlessly stated. Heralrdy Crest of Horror turned the Hazy Flame's own petrifying effect against it, turning it to a pile of dust with a glare from its eyes. "Yes." Pandora started her battle phase. "And now, Dantes, you will be part of me." The yellow demon cut the helicopter in half with its spiked claw.
Dantes' LP: 0
"Curse it all!" Thomas saw the last remnant of the agency fall out of the sky, another agent had become a slave to the Numbers. "This was pointless after all.. this.."
Thomas' LP: 2100 Fifth's LP: 3900
"No. Not even now. Never surrender! My deck shall not let me down!" Thomas could not quit, he could not give up. But everything depended on his next draw. "Inzektor Dragonfly!? I knew it. fate has not abandoned me!" Thomas immediately summoned the keycard of the Inzektors, Dragonfly warrior(3/1000/1800). And he equipped it with the spell Inzektor Bow - Inzektahawk, which stopped any effect that tried to negate Dragonfly's(1500/1800) own effects. "Gigaweevil, join with Dragonfly!" From his hand Thomas activated another monsters effect. Gigaweevil could equip itself to an Inzektor under Thomas' control, and give add its own defense points to that monster(1500/2600). "Armor Blast!" But Thomas would not keep it the equipped weevil. "I destroy one equipped Inzektor, to destroy two cards!" Dragonfly(1500/1800) shed its new armor through a violent explosion, and GigaWeevils shrapnel embedded itself in Blackwing Gram the Shining Star(5/2200/1500) and Blackwing Silverwind the Ascendant(8/2800/2000), to kill them both.
"..." So The Fifth flipped his quickplay spell card, Swallows Nest. "Blast!" That spell tributed Gram for another equally-leveled winged beast from the controllers deck. The redbearded crow mage(5/0/2300), Blackwing Hillen the Tenguwind, appeared. As a result, Armor Blast only managed to destroy the silver samurai. "So be it!" At least Dragonfly could activate its effect, now that it had de-equipped an Inzektor. "Dragonfly, choose your ally!" The Inzekt fighter special summoned another Inzektor from the deck, the stinging Inzektor Hornet(3/500/200). "Hornet, take Ant's power!" Thomas made his new Inzektor equip Inzektor Ant from the graveyard to itself, adding the Ants status points and level stars to itself(6/700/800). "Gigaweevil, revive yourself!" When an equipped Gigaweevil was sent to the graveyard, it could special summon any kind of Inzektor from that graveyard; including itself(6/0/2600).
"Together you shall stand strong! I overlay Gigaweevil and Hornet, to xyz-summon Inzektor Exa-Beetle!" The two Inzektors fused into one warrior, a a large knight(6/1000/1000) in golden beetle armor. "Exa-Beetle can equip any monster in the graveyard to itself! And gain half its attackpoints!" The new Exa-warrior stabbed the ground with his lance and dragged the Blackwing Silver Ascendant out of its tomb. That synchro monster was equipped to Exa-Beetle(2400/1000). "Exa-Beetle can also send one card on both sides of the field, to the land of the dead!" The Exa-knight detached one material and took Dragonfly's Inzektor Arrow equip spell away, and threw it towards Hillen the Tengu Wind, to tear that Blackwing to pieces. "..." The Fifth still did not display any reaction to his losses.
"I will get you to acknowledge me! Dragonfly can still equip a monster himself!" Through its own power, the Dragonfly claimed Inzektor Hornet from the cemetery. An equipped Inzektor Hornet could sacrifice itself to destroy a card as well. "Hornet, the last threat..is his set trap card!" Dragonfly fired the Hornet away and let it shoot through Fifth's trap card like a stinger missile. "Now the enemy is.." But the following outburst spread further than Thomas had anticipated. The flames rushed across the mountains and knocked Thomas back. "Grah!"
Thomas' LP: 1100
"Blackwing Boobytrap." He discovered which trap he had destroyed, after he realized how much life he had lost and after The Fifth drew a new card from his deck. "When destroyed it damage the opponent and lets the controller draw a new card." Thomas had only made things worse for himself. "Yet you are defenseless. That is all that matters!" Dragonfly had sent another one of its equipments away, so it could again special summon another Inzektor from the deck. This time Thomas chose the green mantis warrior; Inzektor Gigamantis(6/2400/). At the same time, Thomas used the effect of Inzektor Gigacricket in his graveyard. The Cricket banished Inzektor Ant from the cemetery to revive itself(5/2000/1300). "Inzektors: for the sake of those who have fallen and those who placed their hopes in us, strike him now!" Gigacricket charged in first with its drill-fingers. The Fifth special summoned another Blackwing Ghibli the Searing Wind(3/0/1600) from its hand because of this direct attack. But the Cricket managed to kill it. "End this duel!" Then Dragonfly and Gigamantis landed their hits on the Fifth with laser gun blasts and scythe swipes.
Fifth's LP: 500
Exa-Beetle would have delivered the finishing blow. If Blackwing Hillen the Tenguwind had not re-appeared, along with Ghibli, in defense position. "No! I forgot its effect!" Hillen would bring itself and another level 3 or lower Blackwing back to life, after its master took 2000 points of direct damage from one attack. Like Gigamantis' attack. "No choice! Press on!" Thomas did not want to know what Fifth intended to summon with those two monsters. They had to be destroyed. Exa-Beetle jabbed the Tengu with his lance. But it could not pierce its body. "Blackwing - Jetstream the Blue Sky?" Hillen was alive because the Fifth discarded a card from its hand, which negated the destruction of a Blackwing in battle. "That was.. the card you gained..with Blackwing Boobytrap?"
The Fifth drew his next card. It did not need Thomas to declare the end of his turn anymore. It knew Thomas was out of attacks and out of effects to use. "..." It then sacrificed Ghibli to tribute summon Blackwing - Boreas the Sharp; the red bandana talon fighter(5/1300/900). "It is even worse than I imagined." The catalyst had two level five monsters. For 'the Fifth' that could only mean one thing. "Five." And the enemy uttered its first word ever, as it abandoned its headless form and absorbed the two blackwings into a new body. Fifth xyz-summoned itself; Death Chimera Dragon.
Number 5: Death Chimera Dragon, 5/1000/1500 Dark/Dragon
2 or more Level 5 monsters
When this card is Xyz-summoned: target the top card of either players deck; attach it to this card as an Xyz Material.
This card gains 500 ATK for each Xyz Material attached to Xyz monsters on the field.
"Like the four horsemen of the apocalypse.." Before Thomas stood a great winged serpent(5/3000/1500), with dark scales as fine as feathers and a golden crown. "So you have revealed your true form to me." Thomas lowered his arms. He knew it would be futile to resist him now. The trap that he had set, Inzektor Gauntlet, would not protect him from a straight-up attack. "I just do not understand your kind. I can deal with people who just give in to their own sins and weaknesses. But you.. your thoughts are on a completely different level." In the end, he lost because he expected the catalyst to fight like a fiend, because he could not get a read on this entity. "I always knew things could end up like this for me. From the very first day." He remembered experiencing his first taste of heroism like it was yesterday, and that was just tracking down the neighbors missing cat. He had certainly come a long way. "I just hope I made someone proud. If not my father.. then maybe the friends I made." Thomas closed his eyes. "Do it."
...
Kincaid stared at the machine before him, he had done all he could with it, and was now just waiting out the last few minutes he had left..
"Kgh!" Time was up. A force struck him form behind, and made him kneel down. "You..have arrived." A metal barrier like that was of course not enough to keep them outside, not the catalysts. They were all here, except for the Fifth. Lucifer had attacked him with something.. was it a Number? Probably, there were thousands swirling around them. "But you are too late." He turned to them, but found himself unable to get up. "You can not make us late, Kincaid Carpenter. Your time has no hold over us. And your actions are clear to us." Cain started to say as his masked face turned upwards to gaze at the generator. "That machine draws energy from the wound you created, you would destroy us with our own limitless energy. Nothing you create can harm us, this is your only solution." They could not destroy the generator, that would only set it off prematurely.
"A Number is already inside you. As are they in all your agents. Would you sacrifice them as well? Now that you finally have what you desired?" Babylon asked. "Not just them. Soon, those who suffered from our Red moon will return as well. Some of them are stored here, Morgana remembers. Could you sacrifice innocents?"
"I.." Kincaid looked at his hands. He was holding a card now: Abyss Splash. But it was no longer the original, it was Number 173.. the first copy of 73. "I did not want it like this.." He could not move his body. Either the catalysts were forcing him down, or the Number itself was. Yet his thoughts and desires were his own, for now. "The blast will not reach the agents, and the rest have been relocated. It will only destroy what I created, here under the ground!" He yelled, and felt his body spasm as it tried to limit his movements. "You can not fight against the Nine. Whatever you have planned, we can make you undo it, Kincaid." Lilith stated as she casually placed her hand under his chin. "Heh." But Kincaid smiled right in her unseen face. "Not even I can stop this now." The Generator released sparks and the room started to rumble. "I have only started the chain reaction, the machine takes care of the rest. I have accepted my fate, have you?!"
Yet all that build-up.. only led to a power shut down, across the entire area. "What?!"
"You may not be able to shut it down. But I can.." A voice that had always been so soothing to his ear, now terrified him to his core. "...E..Esther? No. You?" But he was not speaking to her, he was speaking to Pandora. Her voice was the same as Esthers. Had she used that to force the computer to go into a full system shutdown? Even the barrier around them was deactivated. Only the generator was still running. "You..you are..Astrid?" Kincaid did not know what was going on anymore. Were was Esther, who was this catalyst? Was this really the person he used to love? The mask hid her face, but her voice.. that had to be her. "No. Not her either.. they could not save her." Pandora seemed be genuinely saddened by Kincaid's misplaced feelings. Yet that soon turned into a terrifying hope.. "But.. we can save you. And we will, if you want us."
...
A large blast made the the mountains tremble. And moments later, several of the Catalysts re-appeared above the surface. The barrier had indeed been disposed of, now the Numbers flew everywhere across the mountain range. "Fifth." Cain noticed his brother down below. He had been victorious, as was expected. Yet his opponent was nowhere to be seen now. "You have finally come to terms with a host." Cain and Iscariot landed on the rocks. Their brother had changed, a full head was now behind his mask, bolted together with five iron spikes. "The very first human you find, and you take him! When before you refused to even leave the shadow world. How predictable!" The latter seemed particularly peeved that Fifth chose the least difficult path. The Fifth had always done so. "Fourth, control your anger. Such feelings should not be exchanged between our kind. Unless you wish to end up like the Ninth." Cain held the Fourth at bay and stepped up to his other sibling.
Lilith joined them as well at that time. "Have you given yourself a name yet, Fifth? Or shall I choose one for you?" As with all catalysts, the concept of naming themselves did not enter their thoughts.. until they had gained a humans memories. Though Lilith had chosen most of their names.
"No." The man who was once Thomas.. spoke his first new word as a reborn man.
"I am Death.."
...
"It worked!" Ten people that had on the other side of the world, had travelled an imposible distance in the span of a second. "I knew you could do it!" Before he looked at a dark and cold metallic hallway, now he saw the comfort of his own home. Shin finally felt like he could breathe. "I get how we got here. But where are we?" The only who had never been inside the Artega manor was Rita. "This is our home." Subito said. Though he himself was surprised that Azar had taken them here. ".." As if this was closer to home now than whatever apartment Azar had lived in before, let alone his birthplace. "Do you think it worked? Do you Kincaid.." Claud could not help but think about the man they left behind. "It would be nice to think that he succeeded. Even if that does mean he is gone. But I think we should be prepared for the worst." Dakar had learned one thing by now, that life did not always take the easy road.
"He did fail." This perspective was still brighter than hers. "They survived. There is no End for them anymore." Necara struggled and broke away from Korose. "We are far away. We are safe here for the time being." The agent tried to put her at ease and explain where they were. "No! That is not true! You are not safe, none of you are! There is nowhere to hide, nowhere to run!"
"They will be here, they will be everywhere."
(To be Continued in Cipher (1)36: Six Billion to Go)
New Cards used by Pandora
Heraldic Beast - Berners Falcon
Number O69: Heraldry Crest of Horror (+)
-
Monster Reborn
Rank-Up-Magic: Numeron Force
(+ Chaos 69 renamed to Order 69 for story purposes)
New Cards used by the Masked Raider/Thomas
Inzektor Gigaweevil
Inzektor Exabeetle
-
Inzektor Crossbow - Inzektarrow
-
Inzektor Gauntlet
New Cards used by 'The Fifth'
Blackwing - Hillen the Tenguwind
Blackwing - Jetstream the Blue Sky
Blackwing - Boreas the Sharp
Number 5: Death Chimera Dragon
-
Swallows Nest
-
Blackwing Boobytrap