Testament 55: At the Gates of Atlantis

The front doors opened, they left the docking bay. "What in the world?" Until now this place, this tunnel, all had been a construct of glass, steel and plastic. Yet now they could clearly see through the glass, what was in the middle of this network. A complex of deepsea pressure tunnels all surrounded it, hidden on the low levels of the ocean, an ancient ruin. "This was the site that they found, eher they dig up their Orichalcum?" In the distance there were drills, and even powerlines. But still the ruin stood out most, parts of it were breached by drills, other sections were connected to the tunnels. It appeared that this one led directly into the heart of the ruin. "Where are we?" They had never been more confused, something like this one only saw in a phantasy tale. "Atlantis would be my guess." It was unusually light in this area, in spite of their current depth. Aside from the neon light posted every mile, there was a greater lightsource at the center of the ruin, a large glowing rock on top of what looked like a pyramid. "Hmmm."

The tunnel became wider as they walked through it, they could see more as they got closer to the pale green stone. "I think that would be the entrance." They could see it at the end, a large hall lied in waiting. This was the connection between modern science and ancient technology. "Oh!" The hall stopped with a large gate, which looked remarkably advanced for a door that was supposed to be god knows how old. "So, how do we open this one?" He banged the door, but all the response he got was a loud echo. "Maybe Tumaga added this door, it does not look like a ru..wait." She heard a faint sound. "Step back, now!" He quickly retracted his hand, as the two doors opened outwards, the grinding sound they made against the floor was almost deafening. "We did not remake this door, it was like this to begin with." A loathsome voice cut through the opening, and from the green light came the corrupted woman herself. "Atlantis had things that we can only dream off." Simone greeted them with a smirk.

As soon as she had entered the hall, the doors started to close down again. With her in the way, they could not get near in time. "Only two, I am quite surprised by this. Were the others delayed?" She smiled. "None of your business." Caine retorted. "Wait, what did you say? This place has what?" Sairve was more interested in this confusing city then in her. "I should hope that I have not been talking in another language, kid. I said that Atlantis had technology that is better then ours in many ways. In fact when my father found this place, he also got rich with reverse engineering. Most of modern convenience, you can thank on this place." She tapped a dueldisk on her wrist. "It is just too bad that both my father and this site, shared a similar fate." She gave them a look, that dared them to inquire further. "I will regret asking this, but ..what fate?" Sairve said. "They both died by the same element: Orichalcum." The two duelists flinched. "Its a blessing and a curse, he died of radiation poisoning..over-exposure to the mineral.

She did not look at all sad as she recalled this. "Since then we ensured reduction of its daily output, to negate the radiation." The large green stone in the background did not seem all that innocent anymore. "But enough about that. I am here to say: this is as far as you two shall go. Children can not be allowed to touch this hallowed metropolis." With that disk of hers, it was obvious she wanted to duel the intruders.. "You keep calling us children, but you are like what...21, 20?" Cleo hissed, and was about to pull out her own disk. "Oh no no no, this one I want..." Colin grunted, and activated his own device. "What? I have a better chance of beating her, with my.." Just then the goth noticed her bare finger. "Oh..right, damn Jacob." She was not so sure that she could take on Simone without the ring of fortune. "But since when are you courageous?" She asked him. "I came here to take care of her, remember? I gotta do something sometime." He activated his own dueldisk. "It wont matter, neither one of you can beat me."

Colins LP: 8000 Simone's LP: 8000

She drew five cards from her deck. "I have been buying cards since before I became part of Tumaga Inc, and with the allegiance of Outerdeck and my business, I collected for myself enough to build the fiercest decks in the dueling world." Colin just yawned. "So you wont mind if I go first?" He pulled out his cards. "Oh wait, wrong stack." He grinned and placed back his Tarot deck, accidentily dropping one card to the floor. Then he took out his duel monsters at last. "Here I go, draw!" He drew six cards. "Tsch, what a hand, no Greed, no Golems, nothing." He decided to play low for now. "I set a monster card facedown, and end my turn." Creed looked hardly impressed by this action. "Is this all boy?" She also drew, but her face had an expression of discomfort, she did not have 'it' yet. "You seem upset yourself." Cleo said with glee. "Thats because unlike cheaters like you, normal humans dont always draw trump cards on their first turn. You are lucky Colin, the Seal wont be activated yet...Instead, I will show you my theme."

"I normal summon a Venom Serpent(1000/800) in attack mode, and target your facedown monster" She called out a twoheaded green snake, which lashed out and bit Colins set card. "Ha! He can not chew that!" Yet the snake coiled backwards, as the Marshmallon (300/500) bounced face-up. It could not be killed in battke "That little thing." She cursed, as its effect activated and she lost 1000 LP. "Well I have just the cure for that." She entered her main phase 2, and activated a field spell card. "I set a trap card and then I activate: Venom Swamp." The holographic generators reacted to the card, and projected the image of a festering swampforest all over the hall. "What now?" And then to his dismay, he saw that Marshmallon was sinking into the red ooze. Its attackpoints were decreased somehow (0/500). "This is the power of Venom, Colin. In every endphase all monsters except venom monsters gain a venom-counter from the swamp, and certain Venom monsters can also inflict venom counters.

Simone's LP: 7000

The swamp then reduces their attack by 500 for every counter, and if it gets below zero, the monster dies." Marshmallon was completely swallowed by the swamp. "This is my deck, child, the Vennominaga deck." Her turn ended. "Venom counters huh, thats kinda bothersome. But you will have to summon something bigger then that small fry, if you want to impress me." He summoned a warrior to the field, wearing tattered clothes and bearing several scars. "Say hello to my beatdown card: Hunted Agent(2200/0). Its attack are high for a level 4, but when it is summoned, you can summon one monster from your hand." Simone glared at the card. "We have an agreement then." She called a three-eyes reptile: Venom Boa (1600/1200) from her hand in defense mode. "And now my agent slays your "Venom Serpent!" The first reptile was cut to pieces. "Hmmhmm, a small cost to pay. For now I will, as you say, chain my trap card." She smiled and flipped a continuous trap. "Damage equals Reptile!"

Simone's LP: 5800

Hunted Agent **** 2200/0 Dark/Warrior
You can not set this card. When this card is normal summoned, your opponent can special summon a monster card from his/her hand.

Colin flinched, that card reminded him of Jacksons trap card: Damage Equals Soul Energy. Only that was a normal trap, this effect was permanent. "When you damage me, I can summon a reptile from the deck that has just as many attackpoints or less." And while Colin did not think it was possible for her to call anything threatening with 1200 given damage, she did it anyway. "Venom Snake (1200/600) in attack mode." An dark snake with red stripes and a spiked tail showed up. "Exactly 1200 attackpoints, how nice. If you keep coming with these snakes, I will feel like I am in a bad B-movie." He moaned and ended his turn. Then at the end of his turn, the swamp took effect. "Oh bloody hell." Hunted Agent sank into the murky water, his feet were already gone (1700/0). "Great, it works during both endphases." Cleo cursed.

"Yeah thanks." Colin said sarcastically. "My turn." Simone drew. "Heh, also...my cards bare the name 'venom' for a reason." Suddenly the Boa leaped and bit the Hunted Agent. "What the? It is still stronger!" But then he saw that the snake had poisoned his agent, giving it two more venom counters. "My reptiles can make counters remember, Boa leaves two of them behind. But it has to skip its attack to do so.." This blow weakened the warriors resistance against the swamp, and he sank even further. (700/0) "And now for the coup de grace." Finally she sent Venom Snake for a normal attack, which killed off the monster for good. " I could also have killed your monster by only using venom counters. But the Snake also has to skip a battle phases if it makes venom. You would still stand in front of me, undamaged. I can not have that." She placed a trap and ended. "Gee thanks." He drew again, it was a Gilasaurus. He already had one of those actually. "Well then, if you like swarming, you get swarming."

Colins: 7500

A prophet monster was his next summon. "I normal summon Herald of Creation(1800/600), and then I use the effect of these two, and special summon two Gilasaurs(1400/400) from my hand." When the dinosaur appeared however, Simone's could revive the Venom Serpent (1000/800), his agent had killed. It was in defense position position, like the Boa. "I will flatten them all." The Herald attacked first, blowing up the Boa with her magic wand. "Hmmhmm, Trap Card: Snake Whistle. When a monster is destroyed as a result of battle, the whistle can call another lv.4 reptile from my deck." To the field came another Venom Snake (1200/600) in defense mode. "Stop that already!" Then the gilasaurs charged, they swallowed the offending Snake and the Serpent whole. The first blow inflicted 200 damage to her lifepoints. "Oho, chain again!" But now she could use the Damage trap. "What? There is a reptile with 200 or less then 200 attackpoints?" Indeed there was, the trap summoned a cobra, a Venom Cobra (100/2000). "Raging..."

Simone's LP: 5600

He had killed 3 snakes, but 2 new ones had been called out. "Fine. Go, use your turn!" The Swamp began to swallow the Gilasaurs (900/400) and the Creation mage (1300/600). "Not time yet." She looked at a card in her hand, but did not want to summon it. Instead she placed a trap facedown, and sent the other Venom Snake to attack and kill one of the Gilasaurs. "Oh thats it." The Gilasaur was as good as dead (400/400), so he tributed it along with the Herald (800/600). "I tribute summon Greed Quasar (2100/2100). Eat this!" Quasar opened its jaws, and tried to ensnare the Venom Snake. "Tsch, your fiend can not handle this taste." But she activated her trap, Ambush Fang. "This trap defends a Venom-monster and leaves behind a counter." The snake coiled around the claws, and sent a jet of venom into Greeds mouth. "What?" Now it too, was infested with the counters, and the swamp began to devour its body (1600/2100) "Oh come the hell on, that was just situational misfortune!" He growled. "I know I am going to win this!" Simone raised an eyebrow. "Why is that? I would love to hear your explanation." She mused, while glancing at the card in her hand. "What do you have that I cant overcome, hmm?" In her hand was Vennominion, the poison king.

On the upper levels, the silence was slowly dispelled by strange events from both the inside and the outside. "What the?" Ned looked up the camera screens, one by one they shut down. "Is this place losing power already?" He shook the screens but nothing happened. "We were not going to find Anima on one of these anyway, were we? The footage from before the system crash was erased.." Christine was not that worried about this loss. "I know my movies, and this kind of shutdown can not be good. If the power failure caused this, its awfully late, dont you think?" Another one went out. "Maybe the tower is conserving energy?" She suggested. "What, it can getting lazy? This place wasnt designed by Carter you know, allthough his brother might say otherwise. How am I supposed to access these files now?" He banged the computer in front of him, but brute force did not help. "Hey that one still works." One camera that was still showing images, it was the one placed in the conference room. "Wonder why."

There Carter guarded Simon Creed with his new gun. "He looks happy with his task."

Carter turned around, and stared into the corners of the conference room "What was that?" There was nothing. "You seem stressed." Simon gloated. "You would be too, I didnt get to sleep since the semifinals of the tournament." He pointed his gun back at the Creed sibling. "And you're not the best of company, I am beginning to regret my choice in tasks." He would say more, but then...

A sharp blow to the head stopped him. Actually it was a mental blow, delivered to the mind, by a certain rod. "Uhn, sleepy.." William collapsed, and started his slumber. "Heh, too easy." And from the shadows, Glyph came. "Oh, and who might you be?" He asked with a pleased tone, seeing the boy fall like that was the best entertainment he had this day. "I am shocked, you dont know me? Maybe your sister forgot to put a name to the face that brought down this place...I am Glyph." Then Creeds eyes widened, and he was less amused. "You..well what do you want?" He asked, as he began to sweat. "Negotiations. Kheheh."

(To be continued in Testament 056: The Inherited)

New Card used by Colin Sairve
Hunted Agent

Cards used by Simone Creed
Venom Serpent
Venom Snake
Venom Boa
Venom Cobra

-
Venom Swamp

-
Damage equals Reptile
Snake Whistle
Ambush Fangs