POV 1 Yusaku
I barely avoid falling off my D-Board as a tower begins to reappear out of nowhere. Maybe I would simply be inside the building and have to leave like it was a normal building, but 1. That is too much of a risk for too little of a gain 2. It could take a lot of time to actually exit it. 3. I could be trapped altogether.
And the most important thing is that this building reappeared in the first place. Us using CCE in the duel against Roget, Aoi and Chihiro had the ground rebuild as a side effect, so someone out there with unbelievable amounts of it is reconstructing parts of Link VRAINS. Whatever Hanoi hoped to unearth by destroying this area might be covered up again very soon.
However, I see someone from afar, who wore a half-grey, half-paintings of weather-phenomena coat with a D-Board like a color palette . It has to be Neo Weatherman, in fact you could recognize most of the Charisma Duelists from a distance. I instantly use my ally gather function to alert Shoichi of this.
"Took you long enough to find one.", he says, appearing as AX3, having a relatively generic shape of a sci-fi-fighter in Blue Armor for his avatar, it's not like he will duel all to often.
"So you can shuffle around your allies as you please? And of course they just keep growing.", Neo Weatherman scoffs, "And don't even think you can convince me to temporarily band up against Hanoi, there is no reason to trust you, you still took an important object of SOL. Even if it isn't related to destructive plans like those that obliterated the part of Link VRAINS we're in right now."
"Important fact to note: He does not have that AI anymore. And why would it be so bad to erase the bigger threat first?", Shoichi counters.
"We barely know anything about you. Tell me, would you willing to reveal all the details SOL needs to fully trust you?", Neo retorts.
"No.", I answer, "In that case, your suspicion's are not unfounded, but what if SOL isn't as pure and clean as you think?"
"Is that supposed to be the armour-piercing and mind-changig question? Any company that is very succesful has done some dirty stuff in their past, that's how the world works kid."
"And you unconditionally support this 'dirty stuff'?", Shoichi asks.
"It's very cynical, but as long as there is no huge scandal revealed or the evidence of it is within my reach, then I won't do anything.", he says, "But I won't directly take part in anything."
"Cynical indeed.", I grimace, maybe all hope is lost with this one. Should I think like this so soon? Then, if Kirito really became part of Hanoi, I can't snap him out of whatever lies they told to brainwash him...
"-for someone with such a bright outfit. Maybe we can enlighten him in our duel, what do you think Playmaker?", Shoichi asks.
Yes, maybe that is the way. Though will it work better than it did with GO, Mayoi, or Kaede Urashima?
"If you're not even bothering to cook up a lie and just stay silent about your intentions, I doubt, there'll be a change of hearts for me. And your team-up will be pointless.
I choose for you to share Life Points and field. Since you likely don't have the same deck, this should be very crippling. Each of your can use their own skills once, but I get to use 2 skills and a turn between each of you."
"Not like we have a choice, but you should also know, that Hanoi has already taken the AI off me.", I reveal.
"I won't believe you're not smart at concealing it unti-", then he receives a message on his duel disk, "Ts, GO told me that Hanoi revealed this to him. But still, with all these suprising new ally appearance, who's to say you really are the smaller threat, regardless of that one loss?"
"Let's just begin.", Shoichi says.
Action Field: on
Crossover Accel
Shared Field Tag Duel
Neo Weatherman (4000lp) vs Playmaker and AX3 (4000lp together)
"Action Duel, I wonder what this sudden tool actually means in particular.", he then rides ahead of us, and turns around, it may look silly, but it could actually turn out to be a decently effective way of blocking us from getting any for ourselves.
"What a good thing these don't work like real vehicles.", he says, sliding left on the tracks and right to see if an Action Card would fly towards him, which of course, happens, "I activate Star Cut, I reveal The Weather Painter Aurora in my hand and halve her level from 6 to 3 and then normal summon her.
Aurora's effect allows me to place a Weather spell or trap card on my field, I choose Cloudy Canvas and place it left of my center spell and trap zone."
The Data Strom we are riding on turns into a picturesque track made out of clouds.
And this deck why I said 'decently' effective, since his deck runs a lot of continous spell and trap cards, his zones would get too clogged, preventing him from activating Action cards to free his hand and steal a new one from us. So one of us two will be able to get one and we'd easily find away to get around this blockage by utilizing our numerical advantage.
"And then I activate my first skill, into the grave, as I control 2 cards and have no monsters in my GY, I can mill anything. I choose the Weather Painter of the Sun, I revive him by sending Cloudy Canvas to the GY, he allows me to place any Weather spell or trap from my hand onto the field, obviously I choose a trap card, in this case, I pick the Auroral Canvas and place it in the middle."
Our field becomes surrounded by a tunnel made of northern lights.
"This way you can empty our deck by one card when we would pick up an Action Card from the Storm, but it also costs a monster.", I note, "Although the Weather Painters all return in the next standy phase."
"So I am not fighting someone who doesn't know anything about me.", then he picks up another Action Card flying past him, "Did you anticipate this somehow?"
"He clearly just read the texts of your cards." Shoichi answers.
"Except he did not use the screen function of his duel disk just know, so he does posses some familiarity with my archetype. And even if, I could recognize whether he was reading it for the first time.", Weatherman says, "I finish my turn by setting two cards."
Futaba did tell us about a troop of Charisma Duelists. I hope they don't connect her and Mayoi. However, then it would be very difficult for Roget to not face immediate punishment, even if he's sending out an impostor to duel for him in this moment. But no, even with that, it wouldn't be desirable outcome.
"Of us two, I'll go first, draw.", Shoichi declares, flying closer to Neo Weatherman, as he is unable to pick up a second one and most likely set those two cards since his Action Card was useless and therefore hard to get rid off without any discard costs, he doesn't bother to restrain him from flying right into the path of another Action Card. Then I follow up on his example.
"I'll save it for later. I activate the Field Spell, Hidden City, searching for Subterror Guru, not activating Auroral Canvas yet?"
"Obviously not. You are visibly less experienced, if you didn't notice that were wasn't even the sound effect of him opening up the card verification menu, in layman's terms, you're not going to be too capable with your search effect, so I better keep Aurora's 2200 ATK as a shield against big monsters of yours, at least for the time being."
"Are you sure your not a secret third member of the teacher duo?", Shoichi scoffs, "I set Guru and use the effect of Hidden City to flip him face-up. Now I get to search through my deck for any Subterror monster, I choose Subterror Voltelluric."
"Of course I never said anything about not banishing Sun. I will do so now, so Voltelluric is banished as well and you draw a new card."
"I can still use Guru's second effect, turning him and your Aurora face-down. Then since I had one in my hand all along, I special summon Voltelluric (ATK: 1900) via his own effect. Then I activate the spell card Flip Off, by paying 200 Life Points for each level a flip monster on my field has, in this case 1800 for level 9 (AX3&Playmaker LP: 4000-2200) to change him to face-down defense position and immediately back to attack position."
"Which will not work as I activate Lose a Turn, this way Voltelluric's effect will be negated this turn, since he wasn't summoned in a previous one. And he has 100 less ATK than Aurora has DEF, so you shouldn't attack. Especially since I would be able to use the effect of my hypothetical 2nd Canvas I have face-down."
"I set two cards and end my turn. How come you act far more arrogant here than in official duels?", he asks.
"I see no reason to keep the style I pursue in front of the world wide web while in this serious battle.", Neo answers, "I draw and in my Standby Phase, Sun returns to the field. I summon the Weather Painter Rain."
"I activate Grand Book of the Blue Moon. I discard my Action Spell and change Aurora and Rain face-down."
"I activate Shut Line, which was in the exact column you set your spell, now it's effect is negated. Time to show yourself, Canvas of Nature's Art! I arrange my pallete with the Blue Weather Painter of the Rain, the Red of the Sun and the Green Northern Light as this one needs to be painted with three colors. LINK SUMMON! Come forth, Link 3, the Rainbow Weather Painter! (ATK: 2400 Markers: Bottom-left, Down, Bottom-right)"
All of his monsters turn into a color tube of the color he just mentioned, then a female angelic-looking painter with rainbow-coloured streaks, holding a palette and a brush appears with tubes of the remaining colors and the vibrancy of the color in her auroral canvas and even Lose a Turn increases.
"But in the end you couldn't resist a more artistic summon chant.", I note.
"Yes, some habits don't die easily. But don't think you can sweet-talk me because of that. I activate the Action Card I collected earlier, Restore, Lose 1 turn is negating the effects of my own monsters as well, but this card lifts that problem. I normal summon the Thunder Weather Painter and sacrifice Lose 1 turn for the Cloudy Weather Canvas. Then I attack the face-down Guru with Weather Painter Rainbow."
"I use Hidden City's effect, changing Guru face-up to negate your attack.", Shoichi counters.
"I can negate that by banishing Thunder, as he is granted that ability, since Rainbow Points to him, so Guru will still be destroyed."
"But my partner also still gets to search another Subterror.", Neo Weatherman may have figured out that Shoichi doesn't duel often and is more of a watcher. However he might also grealy overestimate the detriment this makes to his dueling skills.
"But I won't end this turn without getting a new Action Card.", he says, re-using the methods that brought him his first one, however, despite Action Dueling for the first time, (though It's only my 8th after the brief test, the tag duel with Shoichi against Mayoi and Yuya, the 1v2 of me and Mayoi against Yuya, the duel against Chihiro with our dummy decks the duel of me and Yuri against Mayoi with Shoichi intruding, the 1v2v3 against Blue Angel, Roget and Chihiro, and the 1v1v4 with Izuku, Naoki and Yukari against Chihiro and Aoi) he collects and uses his Action Cards very well.
My turn, draw, I summon Bittron and use it to summon Link Spider. Since I control a Cyberse monster I can Special Summon Backup Secretary and Cyberse Converter from my hand.", he could banish his Rainbow at any time to negate the summoning of a monster, however it seems have to bait it out, since I have nothing to destroy him. At least Rainbow will return to the field in the Main Monster Zone, so she cannot grant other Weather Painters the ability to banish themselves to negate anything, "Then I use all of my monsters except Voltelluric for another Link Summon. Forceful Messenging Knight of the Heat, intercept the enemies barrage and launch a counterattack! Link 3! Powercode Talker!"
"Seriously, what has turned you into this speech-giving romantic? I banish Rainbow to negate the summoning of Powercode Talker and destroy it."
"I set two cards of my own, then I attack directly with Subterror Voltelluric. I flip up my partner's face-down Subterror Final Battle. I choose the effect that combines Voltelluric's ATK and DEF with each other. That makes 4900!"
Volltelluric let out a huge cry as it grew by about half its size, and unleashed a ray completely engulfing Neo Weatherman.
"I activate Zero Penalty. Your monster's ATK is Zero now! (Voltelluric ATK: 4900-0)", Neo yelled through the blinding light.
"Fortunately of us, he can still go to 3000 ATK next turn.", Shoichi says.
"Yes, and now Voltelluric, block his path!", I and Shoichi race past him, he rams Neo Weatherman out the way briefly and Voltelluric blocks the path between us so I can collect an Action Card from the Data Storm undisturbed. Sadly, it's only Damage Draw, which could let me draw 2 cards should I take 2000 or more points of damage, but I wonder whether Neo Weatherman really would deal this much at once unless with a direct attack of his ace monster. I guess I have to discard this for an effect.
"I end my turn now."
"Of course, the apperance of one's monster would be very important for these.", Neo notes, "IMy turn, draw! I activate the Quick-Play Spell Large Sky Canvas, this allows me to banish Weather Painners from anywhere on the field to activate a Canvas, and If I have at least one Canvas already, I draw a card Rainbow and Thunder return to the field, and I sacrifice the Cloudy Canvas to revive Sun. With Sun's effect I place the Weather Rainbowed Canvas from my hand on the field.
Then I arrange my palette with the Red Painter of the Sun and the Yellow Painter of thunder, as this painting is simpler and only needs two colors. LINK SUMMON! Come fort, Link 2, the Weather Painter Admix! (ATK: 1600 Markers: Up, Down)", this Weather Painter resembles an armored guard, using a Palette as a Shield and a Brush as a lance, "When summoned, he bleaches and restores a previously used Canvas. I choose Cloudy. I banish Weather Painter Rainbow for Cloudy's effect. By halving Admix' ATK, I allow him to attack directly this turn! (Admix ATK: 1600-800)"
"What?", I gasp, "Wait, no. You have something to bring him back immediately, don't you?"
"Indeed. But first, when a card Admix points to is banished for a Canvas card, I draw one card. Then I activate my other skill, Second Sketch, to bring back Rainbow. I activate the Field Spell Caste Link to swap the positions of Rainbow and Admix. Then I summon the Weather Painter Cloud (ATK: 1500)
Now I attack directly with Admix. (Playmaker&AX3 LP: 2200-1400) Then I attack Voltelluric with Cloud."
"We still use Final Battle. Will you negate it?", Shoichi asks.
"Obviously. I banish Admix to negate and destroy Final Battle. The attack resumes.", Neo pushes onwards, his painter sending a blood-red drop of paint towards me.
"I still have Drop Frame Wedge, I discard my Action Card to halve the damage from this fight. As I discarded only one card to activate it, it will be destroyed at the end of this turn, however, until then, you cannot attack.", I counter.
"I'll negate that too by banishing Cloud. Then I attack directly with Rainbow! Final Artwork!", Rainbow paints an elaborate artwork of a life point counter with the number zero on it and magically throws it into my direction and everytime I dodge it, she creates a new one, but Shoichi throws himself between us, since he isn't the one of us who previously had a turn, it won't matter if he gets hit. Looks like the ruling system does work against Neo for once. And this move does pay off, as I eventually find an Action Card below me that I can pick up.
"I activate Otherworld Tenacity. I summon a Token with 0 ATK in attack position.", though unfortunately it definetly isn't the perfect card for this moment.
"Fortunately, while getting painted, I could grab one of my own. I activate Miracle Choice, I choose to halve the battle damage!". Shoichi adds.
"I choose not to use the other effect of Otherworld Tenacity to protect the token. (Playmaker&AX3 LP: 1400-200)", I guess I got lucky after all.
"Since the whole Sky is now my Canvas I banish Rainbow to activate the effect of her namesake Canvas, I banish her to replace her with Aurora and attack directly!
Second Sketch can actually revive that monster a second time, though it cannot attack after that."
"I activate Call of the Haunted, reviving Powercode Talker."
"Ts, I have no way to boost her, so I'll end my turn."
"My turn,draw. I activate a new Hidden City to search for Subterror Fiendess and summon her. I use her effect to put her face-down and revive Guru face-down.
Since I flipped a monster face-down and have no face-up monsters, I summon Umastryx from my hand. (DEF: 2700) Then with Hidden City, I flip up Guru, adding another card to my hand.
Now, with both of my Flip Monsters, I Link Summon Subterror Behemoth Fiendess. Since she was summoned with Subterror monsters, she gains 100 ATK for each of her material's level (ATK: 2000-3100)"
"I banish Rainbow for her own effect to negate this.", Neo counters.
"However, now you have to give up one revival next turn.", Shoichi says, "And while you got used to Action Cards quickly. You can't play them now, while we can easily pick up one, play it and get a new one again.", which Shoichi instantly does, "I activate the Action Card Draw. And I use the drawn Mystical Space Typhoon right away, destroying your Field Spell. And since you control three cards now, I activate Playmaker's Three-Strike Barrier, I choose the effect to increase our Life Points by the amount of damage we deal this turn."
"But your Fiendess is face-down.", Neo says.
"Not for long. I place another Hidden City over my current one, and search for a new Subterror once more. Then I use its effect to flip up my Fiendess again."
"I thought I should say a thing to interrupt that speech.", Neo adds boredly.
Shoichi then goes for another Action Card and Neo blocks his way, snatching it from him, but of course, he can only foil one attempt again, and has to let Shoichi burst the second card bubble unimpeded.
"It's good enough, I activate Fire Crystal boosting my Fiendess by 800 ATK. (ATK: 800-1600) Then I attack your directly! Fiendess Wing Wind Blast! (Neo Weatherman LP: 4000-2400 Playmaker&AX3 LP: 200-1800) I end my turn."
Fiendess creates several burning rocks and sends them towards Neo Weatherman, but he barely flinches.
"My turn, draw. I choose to let Rainbow, Aurora and Cloud come back. I use all of them to summon a New Rainbow. I Normal Summon the Weather Painter Snow and revive Sun once more, by sending the Cloudy Canvas to the GY. I use the Action Card Draw as well.", then he sends his monsters to block out path while he looks for the next Action Card,"I activate the Action Spell Crush Action, causing all Action Cards to be destroyed for one turn."
"I activate the effect of the second Fiendess in my hand, I discard her, change the one on my field to face-down defense position and negate this effect!"
"Really, during one of the rare moments I can take advantage of them as well, oh how bad!", Neo says sarcastically, "Oh wait, I remembered that I can banish Sun to negate this card. This also prevents you from summoning the Stygokraken you hold in your hand, since turning a monster face-down isn't a cost unfortunately.
I attack your Fiendess with Aurora!"
"I activate my skill, Hidden Shield! I negate Fiendess' destruction by battle and change her into face-down defense position. (Playmaker&AX3 LP: 1800-400)
And I do get to summon Stygokraken (DEF: 2600)", below the ground a sea suddenly appears and with a huge roar and brightly glowing horns; Stygokraken rises.
"I attack your Fiendess with Rainbow.", while Stygokraken has high stats, his flip effect is only to destroy face-down cards on Neo's field for each Subterror that we have and has only 1400 ATK, so it would make sense not to negate his summon and attack Fiendess instead, whose effect is far more useful.
"I will not use Hidden City's effect to negate.", Shoichi says.
"Unless he is suddenly playing a Link Monster that can only be summoned with Cyberse monsters, you should have left it there as Link Material.", Neo says, "Or is there a secret Action Card immune to Crush Action, I could have gotten, that would have turned this attack into a winning move?"
We both are silent at this. Maybe Neo Weatherman is too smart for his own good. Though I can't really tell whether he actually believes this or not.
"But just to be sureee...", he waits until he spots an Action Card and dashes ahead and so did Shoichi and I, "I end my turn!", he says a second before catching the Action Card. The same goes for us.
"My turn. I activate the Action Spell Guard Switch on Stygokraken, it switches its ATK for its own or another monster's DEF, I choose swapping Stygokraken's own stats."
"I activate No Action, negating your card's effect."
"I acticate Encore, this lets me reactivate Crush Action from the GY.", Shoichi says.
"If you are this afraid of me turning your special weapon against you, then perhaps you should try to recreate Hanoi's Self-Insert.", Neo says.
"I activate Stygokraken's effect to turn itself facedown. Then I normal summon Cyberse Gadget and use its effect to revive Bittron. With Gadget I summon Link Disciple and get a 0 ATK and DEF token. With the token and Bittron, I summon Honeybot at Link Disciple's marker."
"Oh, is Subterror Stygokraken that important? When even my trap cards can be activated from the hand?"
"I end my turn.", I say, again with a timing that would let me catch an Action Card, right as Crush Action expires.
"And back to me. Aurora and Sun retu-"
"Sorry, but Anti-Exile allows me to put Aurora back into the GY, preventing her revival.", I counter.
"And I activate Last Escape, this turn whenever our Life Points are about to hit 0, they will be doubled before the reduction hits.", Shoichi adds.
"I summon Thunder in that case (ATK: 1700). And with him I attack Link Disciple, the damage would be higher than your Life Points times two, so Last Escape is meaningless!"
I can activate Hidden City's effect, but maybe I can get an Action Card to do more than negate this attack. I order Honeybot to intercept the attack and Link Disciple to follow me, to give me some extra time. I see, one above me, jump and land on the D-board again.
"Needless acrobatic, I use my Rainbowed Canvas, banishing Sun, your Action Card and make you draw one instead!", Neo counters.
"I drew Rescue Interlacer, I discard him and negate the damage. And at the end of the turn I can summon him."
"And while he did that, I waited for one to float by on my level.", Shoichi reveals,"will you banish Thunder to get rid of that too?"
"No, keep it."
"Should've, I use Prevent, so Rainbow cannot attack this turn.", he says.
"How ironic, I negated the exact wrong one. I end my turn, summon your Rescue Interlacer.", Neo Weatherman says, gritting his teeth, he tries to align the timing of his turn ending, but here I ram him out of the way and catch it instead.
"I activate Replacement Rebirth, When a monster on our field was destroyed this turn, I can revive a different one with 0 ATK in the same spot! I choose to replace Link Disciple with Link Spider!"
"My turn, draw. I flip up Stygokraken. Now, Arrowheads confirmed! Circuit combining past, future and present, show yourself! The summoning conditions are two or more effect monsters! I set the Link Markers with Subterror Stygokraken and Honeybot! I Link Summon Transcode Talker!"
"How-, wait, your partner gave you monsters that he could not run for your Speed Duel!"
"Yes, an obvious tactic and with that, I revive Powercode Talker with Transcode Talker's effect! I tribute Link Spider and Rescue Interlacer to set a monster."
Then we all race for another Action Card. As there is no attack in progress, there is no need for Neo to prevent us from getting one, so each of us pick the first one the storm sends towards us. I receive Double Potion, I look at Shoichi's hand and he only has Double Bomb, which immediately would negate the impact of Double Potion.
"I activate Double Potion. (Playmaker&AX3 LP: 400-1200 Neo Weatherman LP: 2400-3200)"
"Maybe you all should have just attacked, because now I activate Bi-Attack on Rainbow (ATK: 2400-4800)"
"That boost will cease in the End Phase. And with Transcode's effect, he all monsters co-linked to him gain 500 ATK. (Trans-/Powercode ATK: 2300-2800) And my set Subterror isn't one with less than 2400 DEF either, if you checked the last time I searched something. So next turn, you won't be able to attack either unless you get Encore or Bi-Attack. Playmaker can go for another card before I end my turn."
Deciding to get his own Action Card without resistance as opposed to blocking me, we both receive one very easily, I have Underworld Avoid, but I can't activate it with a full Main Monster Zone and I don't think Shoichi will or should use Double Bomb, as the 800 Life Points gained with Double Potion could be crucial to surviving Neo Weatherman's next strike.
"Once more, Sun and Thunder come back. Time to arrange the pallete with the Yellow of Thunder and the Red of Sun once again, but mix them in a different way! LINK SUMMON! Come forth, the Weather Painter Submix! (ATK: 1600 Markers: Up, Down)", this monster looks like a mischievous rogue wielding two dagger, one of course looks like a color palette, the other like a brush, "I attack your face-down monster with Rainbow! With 3200 Life Points, this can't be a suicide attack!"
"Maybe I lied about its DEF. But I can use Hidden City's ability to negate attacks by flipping up my monster anyway! Go, Subterror Stalagmo! (ATK: 2800)"
"I could negate, but I activate the effect of Rainbow that Submix granted to him! I banish him to increase Submix' ATK by his own! (Submix ATK: 1600-4000) Since a monster from Extra Monster Zone that Submix pointed to was banished, he also moves there.
An opponent's monster Submix points to can be banished to lower the ATK of all your monsters by theirs, bye bye, Stalagmo.
(Powercode/Transcode ATK: 2800-0)"
He is getting greedy and impatient. He should have negated. Then he makes the opposite mistake as the 1200 LP damage from a fight against Transcode would be enough to finish us off and to make it worse, he begins looking around the storm to gather another Action Card.
"I activate Underworld Avoid. Since you freed up Stalagmo's zone, I summon another Statless token there.", I say.
"Unfortunately that'll work against you. I activate Supreme Cry, this destroys every monster weaker than Submix and inflicts you 300 damage for each! (Playmaker&AX3 LP: 1200-300)"
The blast nearly knocks me off my D-Board, but Shoichi quickly catches me by the wrist and I jump back on, but not before quickly picking up an Action Card
"I activate Zero Penalty on Submix! (Submix ATK: 4000-0)"
"Ts, I end my turn.", Neo says, gritting his teeth.
"My turn, draw. I activate Aurora Draw. I have to say, this ends here."
"Are you that convinced I will be unlucky with my next Action Card?", Neo scoffs.
"You didn't just duel us with your deck, but also with the style of duel you choose. And even though your deck doesn't mesh well with either Speed or Action Dueling you gave us trouble and utilized both styles functions very well. But in the end you rushed and waited at the exact wrong points."
"I don't need backhanded compliments from a vigilante!", he yells.
"However, your attitude, to what this conflict might entail, while not supportive of any crime or idealistically ignorant or blinded or anything else, is nearly apathetic and that is not something I can condone and I won't bother trying to change what can't be changed."
"Seriously, what's turned you into a speechmaker? Even then, you need some practice in that regard. And in case you didn't see, I have my Action Card now! And one more thing, keep comdemning my viewpoint all you like, but I'm not the only one who sees things this way, even if everyone else won't admit it."
"Maybe your cynicism isn't entirely wrong and you're definetly not the only one to think that way, but I will fight to reveal the truth of 10 years ago! I summon Draconet and with his effect, Bittron from my deck. I use Bittron to Link Summon Link Spider, and with Link Spider's effect, I Special Summon Digitron. (ATK: 1500)
Draconet attacks Weather Painter Submix! (Neo Weatherman LP: 3200-1800) then Digitron attacks directly. (Neo Weatherman LP: 1800-300)"
"It seems you didn't get the right Action Card, didn't you?", Shoichi taunts.
"Find out.", he challenges me.
"I attack directly with Link Spider!"
"Ch You're right, it was Tenacity. It couldn't have saved me. (Neo Weatherman LP: 300-1000=0)"
"Stop Virus activate, no movement until every member of SOL logged out."
"As a warning, Hanoi possesses the same ability, GO recently took it and gave it to all of us.
But we probably have better security against stealing programs.", Neo says.
"Doesn't matter. My ally informed me, that they have defeated a Hanoi member. Utilizing the program for ourselves will be easy.", I say.
If it goes both ways though, then there is no need to briefly leave and transfer right now. And I can duel just fine with the skills I have for the time being.
After a few more seconds, Neo Weatherman is behind us.
"Hey, Playmaker. I know my brother, if he is alive and didn't return to us, is probably brainwashed into Hanoi or SOL.", Shoichi says.
"That is why have attempted to become, as Neo Weatherman put it 'a speechmaker'.", I answer, "though the final one was needlessly corny, even I was a natural one."
"But you don't have to do this yourself. You may have accepted a few of your allies because they happened to know your secret and didn't want to spurn them into becoming Hanoi members, but they can help us in more ways than dueling."
"Then maybe I shouldn't have let that other person join. I just became irrational as his friend pointed out.", I say.
"And you wouldn't have watched that duel with them if you didn't think getting friendlier with them would help you fight better alongside each other.", Shoichi adds.
"I get what you mean. I won't become a lone wolf and forget you or my other newly gained allies. And if this fight is over, I'll think about letting those other 2 join."
Though I wonder what Kaede Urashima will do with Yuya in that case. Will she merely withdraw him from this world? Or go further and become vengeful towards all of us?
"Yeah, you got it. I'll go back in my room, waiting for the others to call me.", Shoichi says as he briefly locks out.
But in this case, I really hope neither Yukari or Naoki turn out to be traitors and not just for Mayoi's sake. That might prevent what Shoichi told me from getting through.
POV 2 Mayoi
I still can't believe that Yukari is back. Unfortunately in this situation I have to worry that she might betray Playmakers mission.
And then we have another person that might sacrifice themselves for me...
But do I really have a right to complain here? I may not have held Ai in the duel we actually did lose, but in the duel with Yuya against Revolver, had Yuya not taken most of the damage for most of the duel, then Ai would have been gone even sooner...
"Hey, I know our reunion was under, let's say akward circumstances.", Yukari says, "But... Ugh, I don't actually have something to cheer you up in mind, b-but I would have certainly wanted to!"
"It's the thought that counts here.", I say, "Let's duel and hope for the best for a while."
"Oh, and I just realized, I probably should change my nickname while fighting Hanoi online.", Yukari says.
"Right now, only the enemies will see you and they'll probably think the number of Playmaker's allies are even bigger if you change it later.", I argue.
"Yeah, that's what you'd say.", Yukari says.
"I still talk like a little kid? We met each other last 10 years ago.", I try to sound fake offended, but I doubt it works as intended.
"No. And I don't think little kids would usually say that.", it sound like she gets it, even if my joke was terrible.
Fortunately before our akward talking stretches out even longer, we encounter Machinarex and another Knight of Hanoi.
"Time for your first test!", I say.
We both race towards the two.
"Hmp. Sadly we can't send another footsoldier towards them as a distraction.", non-Machinarex says.
"And he didn't even manage to take that other guy out.". Machinarex grumbles.
Action Field: on
Crossover Accel
Self-Insert Accel
Battle Royal Light
Machinarex (4000lp) and Spectre (4000lp) vs ScytHeart (4000lp) and Crystal Princess (4000lp)
"No other mode?", Yukari asks.
"Sharing fields makes a little too 'all-or nothing'. And the Super Team Work option is only useful if there are a lot more duelists on one side or both partners play similar decks.", 'Spectre' says.
"I'm not here to chit-chat with you runts. I open with my skill Machine Reconfiguration. This replaces the Spell Polymerization, as long as I fuse into a Machine using only Machines.", Machinarex says, "I fuse the Ancient Gear Chess Monsters Queen, Knight, Bishop and Rook! Honored game of the kings, Tower, Rider, Advisor and the Ruler's bride, form the centerpiece of this battle! FUSION SUMMON! Come forth, Level 2, Ancient Gear King! (DEF: 600)"
"But he sure has time to whip up a dramatic incantation.", Yukari mutters.
"I activate the effect of Ancient Gear Chess Queen, I banish her and the rest of materials used for this Fusion Summon. Now their effect for banishing material will be combined! Rook, will boost the Defense points of my monster for each material banished. (DEF: 600-3800) Knight will give him and equip spell for each card banished, sadly, I can only give three out of 4, I choose Fusion Weapon, Imperial Armory and Mage Power, both of these spells grant him 1500 DEF and Armory doubles that! (DEF: 3800-9800) And finally Bishop inflicts 800 points of damage per banished material.
Of course, these 3200 points of damage go to the older ally of Playmaker."
"Fortunately, I have HorReaper ShaMask to discard against that.", I counter. How does he keep summoning monsters with incredible ATK that easily?
"That looks powerful, but it needed a very specific hand to happen.", Yukari notes.
"If your criticisms were true and you were a smart duelist, you would have been silently happy about it. Never interrupt your opponent when he makes mistakes.", Roget says.
Isn't that advice too? And it seems like he really, REALLY wants us to know that he made that friendship speech just so we would be disgusted at someone like him making one. Not that we ever believed it.
Also, Roget's next move is to race towards me, I dodge and then he obtains an Action Card that was behind me.
"I summon the Action Monster Toon Ancient Gear Golem.", he immediately repeats his trick for another one, "Unfortunately impractical. I end my turn and have to banish it and lose 1000 Life Points. (Machinarex LP: 4000-3000)"
"Y-yeah right, the others had their own Action Fields somehow.", Yukari remembers, "Anyway, your King might be immune to a lot of stuff, but his armor is only immune to destruction, so I only need to activate Crystal Abundance. I begin setting it up by summoning Sapphire Pegasus, who places Shungite Urchin from my deck in my backrow. I activate my own skill as well, Crystallize Link! Any Link Material Crystal Beast can, but does not have to, be placed in my backrow instead of going to the GY. So, I use Pegasus as Link Material for Lodestone Lich, put him in my backrow and actually keep Shungite Urchin there for now.
I use those I already have in my backrow as free Link material for Kunzite Giant, which causes my skill to expire."
Amazing. She managed to get the one combo that could overcome this invincible monster immediately. However, judging from our last duel, he might have another incredibly strong card to compensate for the loss of this formation or even to punish us for managing to defeat it.
And with her being a tiny bit nervous at the beginning, she maybe isn't the traitor. But then again, how good am I really at discovering lies? If only mom's intuition worked on a non-crazy and over-the top story.
"Now for the card you've been waiting for, since I control 4 Crystal Beasts, I can activate Crystal Abundance, all cards on the field except King go to the GY!"
The Crystal Beasts on Yukari's field turn into their Crystal Form and start to glisten brightly and melt away all of Chess King's equip spells and afterwards shatter themselves.
"Ts, with such a premature AND specific declaration of how she would counter you, she should've been thwarted.", Spectre complains, and attempts Roget's Action Card gathering trick, Yukari races after him and Roget does as well.
"Oh and since it worked, I get to revive Pegasus, Shungite and Kunzite.", she and Spectre manages to obtain one Action card from the edge of the stream each.
"I obtained Rebuilt Ancient Gear earlier, I get the Toon Golem back."
"I activate Link Turn, this moves Kunzite's markers one step clock-wise, now they are top-left and top-right."
"Ch, I only have Dicing Zone, I activate it right away. Now we have to assign each possible zone our monsters can be summoned to a mostly even number of dice results and if we roll one, place it in that zone.", Yukari grumbles.
"I though this kind of randomness could be fun. Too bad Action Monsters aren't set or I would've put in Cyber Jar or Morphing Jar #2.", Spectre says.
"Maybe, I can get a better one.", Yukari speeds forward, kneels down and grabs one lying on the stream, "Not easy with a dress in the VR design.
I attack him with Shungite and negate it with Avoid, time for another one. Then I destroy King with Pegasus.", Yukari says.
"I guess Playmaker has been really desperate while looking for allies, if he's willing to recruit an obvious beginner.", Spectre says.
"Shut up! I almost made a Charisma Duelist pay for his cockiness!", Yukari argues.
"And then lost because you intentionally repeated the same mistake against him. Truly, you did not deserve to give them this much trouble.", Roget scoffs.
Yukari attempts to take another Action Card, but it quickly turns out she shouldn't have done so.
"I end my turn and this card was absolutely nothing. (Crystal Princess LP: 4000-3000) Apart from that, how was I?", Yukari asks.
"Even if the skill that time had been genuine, you shouldn't do everything you can to expose yourself as a novice in serious situations.", Spectre interjects.
"You easily dismanteled a strong formation. It was good.", I say.
"However-", Spectre says as he draws his card, "placing Shungite Urchin in attack mode was a tiny bit too hasty."
"Since Kunzite and Dicing Zone are in one column and Rebuilt Ancient Gear and Toon Golem also share one, I assign 1-3 to the first and 4-6 to the latter column."
"Do you know a deck that works like that?", Yukari asks.
"I doubt she does.", Spectre says as a rotating holographic dice lands on a 4, "The monster I summon is Mekk-Knight of Indigo Eclipse (ATK: 2400) however his effect allows me to move him into an empty zone, I choose the column I couldn't have summoned him in."
"True, I'ver never heard of this archetype.", I say.
"But have you ever dueled Playmaker?", Yukari asks.
"I have, but I never used Mekk-Knights as until this point, as he was only ever able to achieve minor and meaningless victories against us. I will now show you my second Mekk-Knight Blue Sky, and this time, the randomizer tells me to summon it to Kunzite's column as you have placed two cards in this column, I add 2 cards of my archetype to my hand. I choose Green Horizon and Purple Nightfall. I summon Horizon the last free zone. Now, Arrowheads confirmed!
Open yourself, circuit to the punishing angel! The summoning conditions are 2 monsters, one of which has to be a Mekk-Knight! I set the Link Marker with Indigo Eclipse and Blue Sky! I assign the numbers of 1,4 and 5 to the left, 2,3 and 6 to the right monsters zone! I have rolled a 3!
Now, come forth, Link 2, Mekk-Knight of the Morning Star! (ATK: 2000 Markers: Bottom-right, Bottom-left)"
"Just where, where did you get a deck like this!?", Yukari gasps.
"Don't make this sound like forced drama. But I will kindly tell you that it is not the same source as Playmaker's Cyberse althogh I possess a monster like that. Though, considering how you present yourself so far, I doubt he has told you the truth yet."
True, we didn't tell Naoki or Yukari a lot so far. But we definetly will afterwards. Yukari herself is silent.
"I assume you're just someone who has found out who Playmaker is by accident and has been roped into his operations, like a crazy fan.", Spectre summises.
"Well, not me, but one of them.", Yukari says.
Close, but did their traitor, (if there is indeed one) tell them that?
"However, I don't want to delay this endlessly. I activate Morningstar's effect. I discard one card to add a World Legacy card from my deck to my hand.
I activate the Field Spell, World Legacy Scars! Please, take a good look at its effects."
"300 ATK and DEF for each Mekk-Knight (Green Horizon ATK: 2100-2400 Morningstar ATK: 2000-2300)", Yukari notes, "You can discard a Mekk-Knight or World Legacy card to draw one."
"I'll do that by discarding Red Moon.", Spectre says.
"And you can banish 8 Mekk-Knights with different names to send mine or ScytHeart's hand and Extra Deck to the GY.", she finishes.
"From a dramatic perspective playing along with this is a much better move than the overblown reaction at my new and strange archetype.", Spectre says, "And now I summon Purple Nightfall. And here our randomizer says to choose Blue Sky's former place. However I banish Nightfall for one turn, so I can add Orange Sunset to my hand. Of course, he will enter the battlefield as well. Now, using Orange Sunset and Morningstar as Link Material, I Link Summon again!
Show yourself, Mekk-Knight Spectrum Supreme! (ATK: 3000 Markers: Bottom, Bottom-left, Bottom-right) I'm very sorry for this blatant self-reference.
And to complete the eightfold path of Mekk-Knight, I discard Yellow Star to revive Purple Nightfall, to activate the card D.D.R. Different Dimension Reincarnation. (ATK: 2500-2800)
Now-"
"Nope, I flip up Crystal Conclave, I can send this card to my GY to bounce one of my Crystal Beasts and a card of yours. World Legacy Scars needs to be on the field to resolve its effect, so you better wait a bit here.", Yukari interjects.
"But you can't use it to fix Shungite's situation if you wan't to prevent that and If you use it before I enter the Battle Phase, I can easily restore the state and still take away ScytHeart's extra deck."
"Yeah? Well, maybe luck's on my side here.", Yukari says, she throws all of her monsters in Spectre's and Roget's direction, letting them swirl and dance around them, to look for an Action Card on her own and I follow her
"I guess I have to enter the Battle Phase unfortunately. I attack Shungite Urchin with Purple Nightfall! (Crystal Princess LP: 3000-300)"
"I activate Partner Potion to increase her Life Points. (Crystal Princess LP: 300-1300)", I say and keeping looking for another one.
"Into the backrow with that, also Conclave allows me to summon Amber Mammoth from my deck. (DEF: 1600)"
"Since you will use its effect anyway, I destroy your Mammoth with Green Horizon.", Green Horizon manifests several green beams of light around Mammoth, entrapps it in a sphere and constricts it, leaving only the piece of amber behind.
"This time, I bring back Urchin in Defense Position and Mammoth goes in my backrow."
"I attack-"
"No, here is where I send Conclave to the GY and bounce Pegasus and Spectrum to the hand."
"I will not risk the 1000 life points, at least not until-"then he perks up, "turn end!", an Action Card bubble flies right into his hand and at the same moment, I happen to catch one.
"My turn now, draw! I summon FiguRobe and bring VooDoll from my deck to the field. But I won't fuse just yet. Since I control HorReapers already, I summon PitchFreak from my hand and with that one's effect, I mill KnighTrap, who allows me to destroy World Legacy Scars."
"I just so happened get World Legacy Scars as an Action Card.", he counters.
" Horrible World, this gives all HorReapers 300 ATK and you also cannot save yourself from destruction by HorReaper and the first three cards destroyed by them are banished face-down. I activate VooDoll's effect, I fuse all of my monsters into CronuScythe! (ATK: 2200-2500) I banish PitchFreak, VooDool and ShaMask from my GY to destroy Toon Ancient Gear Golem and Nightfall VooDoll allows me to search for Sudden Horrible Fusion."
"At this points, I activate my Skill Enforcer, which can be used in addition to a normal skill, I force ScytHeart to use Healing Staff.", Roget says.
"What!? That's so BS!", Yukari complains
"Your team would've used Action Dueling before you knew there would be enemies using it.", he says.
"Then why don't just give yourself, Millenium Thousand-Eyes Virus!?", she demands.
"You wouldn't understand. Now, does ScytHeart have this skill or did you edit your selection of three?"
"I unfortunately did not. I gain 800 Life Points and you gain, since you guessed correctly this time 1010. (ScytHeart LP: 4000-4800 Machinarex LP: 3000-4010)
I set 2 cards and attack Mekk-Knight of Green Horizon!"
"I activate Honest, this gives Scythe's power to my Horizon (ATK: 2400-4900) now, strike back!", the green lines of light turn golden and form a doppelganger of CronuScythe, who shatter himself against mine. Then Green Horizon attacks me directly. (ScytHeart LP: 4800-2400)
"I use my Action Card- huh, why doesn't it work?", my Action card kept glitching, before then transforming into Miracle.
"Skill Enforcer probably shouldn't have been used in here.", Yukari guesses.
"I'm sure nohing worse will happen. After all, SOL has started the reconstruction of this area.", Roget says, "Though they probably are to worried to give this little cheat to the Charisma Duelists."
"I'm sure SoldatDelEnfere should care. I end my turn and this Action Card is banished now. (ScytHeart LP: 2400-1400)"
Back to Roget now. In his first duel his strategy was to summon a 9 Attack Megaton Golem in the second he had this overpowered Howitzer and various equip spells, here he uses an invincible beatstick (well, not completely invincible fortunately) with a High DEF. While the second one was somewhat similar to the first, he is using a different, but still incredibly powerful strategy each time, while still playing Ancient Gears, though he didn't use his chess monsters in the first duel, well not as often that is.
"I don't know whatever you are talking about. I draw-"
"Even if it was wrong, you should be aware which Charisma Duelist shares your deck.", Yukari says,"y-ya know."
"Silence. I summon Ancient Gear Hunting Hound, I equip him with Double Arms, since Crystal Princess has has a monster, I can inflict 600 points of damage and Double Arms, doubles this once per turn. (Crystal Princess LP: 1300-100) I think its time now to use 'that other skill'"
"We can still use it at the start of her turn. Let's wait a little, we wan't to deal the highest amount of damage possible.", Spectre says.
He seemed slightly displeased with Spectre not following his plan, but simply sends his hound dog to fetch an Action Card for him.
"I summon the Action Monster Beast King of the Swamp. He can replace any named Fusion Material."
"*sigh*, I was hoping for Mystical Sheep #1, wouldn't it have fit better with your archetype's attribute?", Yukari said.
"Forgive me for indirectly exposing my lack of attribute related cards in my deck, truly you are a master at taunting with constructive criticism.", Roget taunts Yukari.
"Oh, am I annoying?", Yukari asks.
"I activate Hunting Hound's effect, I fuse him with Beast King of the Swamp to create Ultimate Ancient Gear Hunting Hound (ATK: 2800) when he is summoned he halves my enemy's LP. I choose ScytHeart. (ScytHeart LP: 1400-700) I enter the Battle Phase-"
As he is making his moves, Kunzite is ramming Roget and Spectre to distract them allowing to jump for an Action Card bubble that's above me. That one works suprisingly well, even on the second try.
"Speaking of #1 or 2's, I activate Guard Cover #2, this allows me to change attack targets for this turn. So if you don't get a boost card-", I say, "I was gonna force you to attack into Kunzite, but I also can make you attack Spectre since this IS a Battle Royal."
"I'm not going to risk that damage for now, I'll get my Action Card after I end my turn.", he says and uses Spectre's trick.
"Then I activate the skill, Action Bomb, I banish the one Action card in Crystal Princess' GY and the two in my partner's!"
"Uh, what?", I say in a rare moment of suprise.
"I knew it, but I won't let you leave this duel! Hound, counter all of the Blast's until I have my own Action Card!", he orders.
"You weren't on one side?", Yukari.
"It was temporary, though he must have had really good lawyer's to get away with that brief stint for SOL where he used Self-Insert for the first time.", Spectre says "And yes, even Hanoi believes he is SoldatDelEnfere."
"I activate Last 1, I'll allow Crystal Princess to survive with one Life Points. (Crystall Princess LP: 100-1; Machinarex LP: 4010-3401) If we're ending the team-up, you need to eliminated first."
"however Hanoi is 1. thankful for your Action Field and 2. for bringing the much-needed modification to our destruct virus and 3. Playmaker's AI. But you were able to enter our virtual HQ without being given access by a member that allowed you to join, so we'd decided that maybe you need to go before you stab us in the back first.", Spectre says.
"But wouldn't they powerful enough to take some kind of gruesome revenge?", Yukari wonders.
"We don't think so. They could spy on our knowledge and use it against us however, had we send out them with the virus, then of course, we'd be more careful in our preparations against their betrayal.", Spectre explains, "Since we only took from them, it should be fine to just ditch them at the first opportunity."
"Yeah, ut turning on him without defeating us first still seems like a bad idea.", I say.
"If I come out as the winner, there will be no problem.", Spectre says.
"I start my turn. I activate the Field Spell Crystallize Magic Zone, this lets me get rid of Dicing Zone, since that card has nothing to do with Crystal Beasts and if my backrow is ever full, then for each crystallized Beast, I can activate a spell or trap by revealing and discarding it.
I summon my bounces Pegasus and place Crystal Beast Selenite Shark in my backrow, for each Crystal Beast Monster I have at the the start of the turn, he can scare off one attacker.
However, I don't remember agreeing to a temporary pact with Machinarex, which means, I sacrifice Amber Mammoth to attack Ultimate Hunting Hound with Kunzite Giant!"
"You damned brat!", Roget yells as his hound is squashed by Kunzite's fist. (Machinarex LP: 3401-3201), "Do you even know what you're doing!?"
"We don't really have a priority for which of you has defeated first if you're not in the same boat. And if we had, ScytHeart would've told me beforehand.", she says.
"Yeah, you're right.", I realize, "And even if we don't team up with one of you, that would not take away the reasons either of you have for attacking the other one!"
"In Layman's terms, this didn't become a temporary 1v3, it's a permament 1v1v2.", Yukari finishes, "I give the turn to Spectre with that."
Roget reacts by intentionally attempting to ram Yukari of her D-board to get his next Action Card, but she dodges.
"They're not complicated to learn. As long as I can see it coming, dodging isn't a problem.", Yukari taunts him.
"I still got the card I need, I activate the continous Spell Burning Land, this permanently destroys all Field Spells except our Action Fields, and inflicts 500 damage to the turn player in their standby phase." (Spectre LP: 4000-3500)
"I fortunately happened to get the Action Spell Revenge Wound, which destroys a card that dealt damage to me.", he then looks around for Action Cards that were left behind, while Roget makes another futile attempt to ram Yukari off her board.
"I activate Takeover Action, taking your Action Card.", Roget says right as Spectre catches a card, "Looks like I don't need the greatet luck if my opponent has it already for me. I activate Earth Shatter Fusion, from my GY, I banish Beast King of the Swamp, Ultimate Hunting Hound and the regular one. Come forth, Ultimate Weapon, Level 11, Ancient Gear Ultimate Gatling Buster Howitzer!"
"Remind me why only the normal one is banned? Clearly the one material difference and needing a replacer isn't very inhibiting.", Yukari asks.
"I think people like to see SoldatDelEnfere lose inspite of this strong card. And forcing him to play weird-looking non-machines.", I theorize.
"I'd be grateful if you two kept prioritizing him, it's also more sensible at the moment. As Selenite Shark and Kunzite Giant share a column, I special summon Red Moon (ATK: 2300) I banish the yellow Mekk-Knigh for Red Moon's ability, so I can destroy Kunzite Giant, since they also share a column. I attack ScytHeart!"
"Don't negate, Crystal Princess! I activate Horrible Box, since I would take less than 3000 damage, this card absorbs it, and inflicts it back to you, when it leaves the field. I can also send it to the GY to boost a HorReaper's attack power by half the negated damage.", I counter.
"Was his intuition that good?", Yukari wonders.
It must be, since he didn't try to catch an Action Card that would enable him to attack unimpeded.
"Maybe.", I say.
"I attack with Green Horizon!", Spectre continues.
"This time, I'll negate it, Selenite Scare!"
Green Horizon backs away slowly.
"There was always a chance for a critical mistake.", Spectre excuses himself, "I end my turn."
"W-well don't blame me if that ridiculous Howitzer stays on the field! And why he the hell would you destroy Kunzite after laying said duty off to us?"
He attempts to get another Action Card and manages to get it, despite Roget turning his ram attempts against him this time.
"My turn again. I summon HorReaper PsycHex, and revive VooDoll, I fuse the two into BeserKatana (ATK: 1900) I sacrifice Box to boost him. (ATK: 1900-3050)
And Spectre if or should I say, since you are not bothering with a truce anyway; we didn't reject Roget's team up offer to accept yours. I attack Green Horizon with BeserKatana. (Spectre LP: 3500-2550)"
"I activate the Action Card Backstab, inflicting the damage I took to another player, I'll be forgiving and pick Machinarex. (Machinarex LP: 3210-2260)"
"I banish VooDoll for Katana's effect and this time, I add Horrible Ill Fusion to my hand. BeserKatana's ability lets me attack a second time. I'll give you a bit of time for a second chance as well. If I get a boosting card from you that allows me to get over Howitzer, he will be my next attack target."
"Even though I could get something that could end the battle phase entirely?", Spectre wonders.
"You're not gonna use that until I attack you in case Yukari has to bring me the card.", I say, "Or I need to risk it myself."
"Are you blackmailing me?", Spectre asks.
"No, our offer of a temporary team-up is just a bit more difficult to deny than either yours or Machinarex'.", I say with a smirk.
"Yeah, and it would be really bad if I got a bad Action Card making my next turn my last.", Yukari added, "So I and Mayoi are not gonna risk one until yours turns out to be useless."
Spectre starts to laugh. "Ahahaha! Interesting, Interesting, to see what Playmaker's allies are capable of! It's certainly not gonna get boring. Fine, I'm not stupid and let that ugly howitzer continue to exist. I'll be your errand boy for this turn ."
"They can easily defeat you first and then move onto me!", Roget argued.
"Then you better be fast at fetching one for yourself, so they can't just target me.", Spectre taunts.
Spectre and Roget clash several times while racing ahead, but neither manages to throw the other off.
"I want something like that too.", Yukari says, "whatever prevents them from falling off right now. Can we add that or are they alway like that?"
While still stuck to the board, Spectre almost is thrown off the tracks, but pulls himself together, using a card bubble to hold onto. I have to remember that trick for the future.
"I activate Bi-Attack on BeserKatana! (ATK: 3050-6100) And attack Machinarex, or he is gonna get a good card and then neither of us is defeated.", Spectre says.
"I'll do that, cut that thing into pieces!", BeserKatana's sword became a giant blade made of pure darkness and tore off every cannon on howitzer before finally bisecting the machine himself.
"I use his effect and summon two copies of Ancient Gear Golem Ultimate Pound from my deck in Defense Position."
"I banish PsycHex for another attack!"
"I use the Big Escape I got during that scuffle to end the battle phase."
"Am I not your priority target anymore?", Spectre wonders, "She didn't have that many left, you know, so he might as well deal damage and take one out."
"I just prefer to be absolutely sure that I am controlling both of them", Roget says, "And with speed duels not having a second Main Phase, ScytHeart's turn is over and mine begins."
"Remember that I can still negate two attacks. These two don't even prevent backrow from being used.", Yukari says.
"I activate Gold Sacrophagus, banishing Ancient Gear Inverse Fusion, allowing me to obtain it in 2 turns. I will lay low for now and end my turn."
"My turn, I tribute Shungite Urchin to summon Crystal Beast Diamond Snake. I have assembled 7 different beasts among field and GY, so I can Special Summon Rainbow Dragon! I attack Spectre!"
He sends his remaining Mekk Knight after Roget, forcing Rainbow Dragon to change his attack direction, meaning he doesn't need to dodge while looking for something to bail him out, "I activate Destructive Recurrence, I destroy my Red Moon to activate this card and gain another Action Monster that has been played in this duel, I get Toon Ancient Gear Golem and summon him.", he says.
"Then attack that one! (Spectre LP: 2550-1550) And keep I attacking you directly with Diamond Snake!"
"I'll save him with Semi-Attack.", dammit, I should've been looking after him or at least checked his hand,(Diamond Snake ATK: 2100-1050 Spectre LP: 1550-500) "He can trouble you two for one turn extra. And he will, as Rainbow Dragon can provide far more trouble."
"Oh partners again, for like one second?", Yukari asks, "Why exactly would he harm us, but not you?"
"Remember this, if you overcome us today, then only because my master had different plans than Hanoi, and because they were very aware of it. If not for this falling-out, you quite literally would've been taken out already."
"Still too inconsistent with your priorities of which enemy should be defeated first.", she mumbles.
"I draw.", he goes to the edge of the course and snatches another risky Action Card, "I activate Monster Reincarnation, discarding this Action Card and adding Red Moon to my hand. I special summon him to Rainbow Dragon's column, I banish Green Horizon for Red Moon's effect to destroy Rainbow Dragon. Selenite still protects you unfortunately, so I'll end my turn."
Looks like he quickly lost faith in her making a very obvious mistake. This time, I glance over to Roget just in tim-, nope, he has the card before I can get close to him.
"My turn, draw-"
"I activate the Action Spell, Un-Spell, destroying Selenite Shark."
I could really need a new fusion monster, but Ill Fusion doesn't allow monsters on the field, sure there is Sudden Horrible Fusion, but I don't have the ideal hand.
I have to risk it before those Golem's take me out or maybe the chance to defeat Spectre is more important? I don't know which card would even be the best, but I scan the tracks for incoming Action Cards. Apparently believing that I would be unlucky, none of them prevent me from collecting an Action Card.
"I activate Dud, destroying my own BeserKatana. I activate Horrible Ill Fusion. I pay half of my Life Points. (ScytHeart LP: 700-350) I shuffle VooDoll, PitchFreak and KnighTrap from the banished cards into my deck. I Fusion Summon CrusaDoom. I activate another Horrible World. (CrusaDoom ATK: 3000-3300)"
"ScytHeart, let me take that risk.", Yukari says.
"What? No! What if it can't be used? I can defeat Spectre now."
"If Roget attacks me, I'll have to take that risk anyway.", she says, counting on her misfortune again, they don't bother stopping her, but she gets a good card anyway, "I activate Wonder Chance, this turn, CrusaDoom can attack twice!"
"I attack Spectre's Mekk-Knight of Red Moon."
"I have Encore and I give it the ability of Guard Cover #2, attack a Golem instead." (Machinares LP: 2260-1960)
"I banish BeserKatana to save the Golem from Destruction and take control of it. However, the monster can't attack this turn."
Yukari taking one for the team would shatter any fears of her being a traitor, but somehow, I can't allow it. What if she is as bruised and wounded as I was after the duel against Revolver or even the one against Chihiro, Roget and Blue Angel? How can I even be sure it won't happen again.
If she is on our side, then she joined something dangerous she didn't need to be a part of in any way. Her family has no relation to SOL. Nothing bad apart from me moving away with Futaba happened to her 10 years ago that would be connected to this conflict.
"I won't take the risk of you making me attack my partner, so I end my turn. Because of Ill Fusion's drawback, CrusaDoom goes back to my Extra Deck.", I say, "You wouldn't want me with 2 Ultimate Pounds anyway."
"Clinging desperately to a friend?", Roget scoffs, "My turn. 1 Standby Phase on Sarcophagus has passed. I equip Ultimate Pound with Mage Power. (ATK/DEF: 3000-3500) I change my plans into now or never and activate Card of Despair. This allows me to draw 3 cards, but sends all cards from my deck to the GY."
"Yep, Definetly need another Action Card.", Yukari says. no attempts to stop her like last time, but even through the mask of her vr form, her expression makes it clear this wouldn't save her, they were right to count on our mistfortune for once.
"I attack Golem", I got another Action Card without problem as Spectre decides to just gather one for himself, but what I get not exactly good either for this particular instance. (ScytHeart LP: 350-50)
"I play the Field Action Spell Array of Revealing Light, should you survive I declare the type of fiend, preventing monsters of the declared type from attacking the turn they were summoned.", Spectre says.
"I discard the second Chess Bishop from my hand for Ulimate Pound to attack again after defeating a monster."
"Over there.", Spectre points to the opposite end of the road.
"I play Last 1, I live with a single life point left as well. (ScytHeart LP: 150-1)"
"Yuya Sakaki's pesky luck has clearly infected you, if not as strongly, and with more variety in Action Cards that save you.", Roget says, he moves around to look for an incoming Action card, but I'm not going to take another risk like that yet,"I'll activate a Wonder Chance and take punish Spectre for saving ScytHeart (Spectre LP: 500-3500=0) and to be sure, I'll head for another.", he grumbles,"unfortunately useless (Machinarex LP: 1960-960)"
"I'm gonna tell you something.", Spectre says as his body is being stunned by the virus, "Your partners have probably informed you about a stop virus that kicks in when you lose. For both sides, deckout and card effect victories like jackpot 7 are the only exceptions. In other words, if you allow him to lose here, he will still be able to move around freely."
"So only two turns left. My turn, draw!", I notice Roget holding an Action Card, he must have gotten it during Spectre's brief explanation,"I drew Larimar Dragonfly and summon it with Diamond Snake's effect! Then I normal summon another Dragonfly from my hand. with both I Link Summon, Howlite Werewolf. Your Golem is in the middle main monster zone, so Howlite turns him into a continous Spell on my field. Battle Phase-"
"I activate Otherworld Encore, this can force you to attack your partner, and as Spectre's Action Card he previously discarded for Monster Reincarnation was Radiant Mirror Force, it destroy everything you have.", he explains.
"And with all the card that have been used you can defeat whoever dares to attack you first.", I mutter.
"I can at least get rid of the Avoid in my hand by negating Howlite's attack, though being in attack position he'll be destroyed either way, so I'll pass onto Mayoi and leave her to destroy that token."
"My turn, I summon GravediGlove. Let's hope you don't have anything like Fine set up.", I brace myself. I only need discard fodder this time, hopefully none of these traps, I mean he wouldn't mix stuff useful for him with self-hindering cards, right? Roget once more decides to walk his own path though he does try to send his Golem after me, however as the Golem tries to punch down an Action Card, the shockwave instead sends it towards me instead.
"I discard Ancient Gear Castle and get two tokens. Now I flip up the Sudden Fusion I have set here previously. I fuse Gloves, CrusaDoom and a token into a second CronuScythe, I banish Doom and Gloves to destroy the otherworld Encore Token, since it can only re-use Action Spells when battling!
I attack directly!"
"Fortunately, I have found Big Escape on my own.", Roget says.
"Don't have anything to negate that.", Yukari mutters.
"Dammit. I end my turn.", I say.
Sure, it won't be a loss. It's not as bad as the duel aganst Revolver, but it will be another victory that doesn't mean a whole lot. I mean yeah, Spectre lost, but Roget getting out of this duel without winning could have unforeseen consequences.
"My Draw Phase begins, but, as my deck is empty, I lose the duel.", Roget says, probably having the smuggest grin under his helmet.
WINNER: ScytHeart and Crystal Princess
"Now you'd better let me leave, or I will use a deck more 'fine-tuned' against the two of you.", Roget says.
"Should we?", Yukari asks, "And why didn't you use it right away? We raced towards you, but if Chihiro told you about my deck, you would have had enough reaction time? And with this area of VRAINS not being fully reconstructed yet, don't you need to leave for a second?"
"He and Chihiro don't have Hanoi on their side anymore.", I say, "This sudden infighting will only harm them."
At least, I hope so.
"Let's hope you didn't get overconfident here.", Roget chuckles as he leaves.
"Yeah, let's.", I say.
I send a brief message to the others, asking about their duels. Yugo tells me Yuto dueled a Knight of Hanoi, almost decked out, but got a new Pendulum Xyz Monster via Storm Acces Pathways, his own evolution of Storm Access. Yusaku dueled and defeated Neo Weatherman alongside Kusanagi.
They were also able to absorb their skill programms, which unfortunately can't be replicated and sent around right now, without leaving Link VRAINS for some amount of time, so Yukari was probably right about Roget's deck switch threat being nothing but hot air.
Spectre didn't have anything special on him, except Action Bomb and Lock. No Counterparts of Storm Access, like Whirwind Gate.", I note and write it back to him.
"Probably assumed he wasn't gonna use them.", Yukari says, "And hey, if we have this teleport programm maybe we should split up after all to cover more ground for the time being.", Yukari says.
"What? But-"
"Do you really think I would have dueled this way if I was someone you shouldn't trust?", she says, "And even if I was, I can't make as much of an impactful betrayal while I'm not with any of you."
"But you might end up dueling alone because we're also caught up with something else.", I mutter.
"While I did mess up my chances with the Chemist duo, that was me getting a bit artsy. Won't happen in serious context.", she promises.
We probably need to do that. I hate letting her fight for herself, but the last 2 duels against the Knights proved it. How does Mom do this? She must be crazy confident, that while heavy injuries and other scary stuff can happen, I also WILL make it out alive.
"Alright. Try not to hesitate to call anyone.", I say, gritting my teeth.
"Thank you for trusting me.", she says as she takes a different path.
POV 3 Kirito
If only SOL could see these duels as well, such a good opportunity to get Data on all enemies, but 'sadly' I can only create these screens inside of Link VRAINS and they wanna stay out of trouble and not go there.
"If only more thought like Neo Weatherman in one versus several duels.", Numen says.
"Ah, but against 8000+ LP like in a video game boss battle is more fun, isn't it?", I argue.
"That's a difference of preference for us.", Numen says, "If we two ever fight 3 or more enemies, you can pick the health boost. I will fight with a bigger opening hand or something like an additional Battle Phase. Maybe multiple draws per turn, depending on how good I predict the opponent's defenses to be."
"Now that would be weird.", I say.
"Ay, but not in an interesting way?", Numen asks.
"It would be an annoying dissonance, yes.", I answer. I look across other screens if any special duel's are about to begin,"Oh look, Revolver and this Dr. Kogami are going to duel soon!"
"Dr. Kogami, why does that name ring familiar?", Numen wonders.
"He worked on the experiment that created you, but then somehow started hating SOL, because they weren't so nice to him afterwards.", I say.
"Ah, yes. I forgot, because it took him this long to create anything resembling a threat to SOL.", Numen says.
"Are you gonna harp on their overconfidence after every couple of duels?", I ask.
"Probably. More importantly, do you think Playmaker could be that one from 10 years ago?", Numen asks.
"Yusaku Fujiki? You mean, because he's suddenly a speech-giver?"
"That is precisely the reason for my assumpton. I believe he is anticipating Dunkelsieg's true identity and wishes to turn you over. Not that I believe such a friendship speech would work."
"Let him try.", I quietly answer.
I was concerned at first about the Action Cards, but when I looked back it didn't feel that uneven, although in duel 2, cards from Spectre's Action Field, didn't show up often enough.
If you wonder about Millenium-Eyes Thousand Virus, someone from Konami once claimed this was the best card in the game and that he was the only one to have it. That's why it won't show up in the card corner.
If I had to give it an effect however, it would be a spell card that would instantly win the duel, no requirements needed. In a subdued version, it would be a completely unrestricted search effect for a single card, or letting you choose between the effects of several banned cards.
I know Spectre would've been a somewhat interesting opponent for Neo Weatherman, but the color theming is kind of a weak reasoning.
Also, he will play a Mekk-Knight/something else-hybrid deck the next time he duels, here he didn't as I assumed Duel Links' deck limit would count in VRAINS, I used it in here and don't intend to change that before the sequel to avoid having to rewrite duels, so in other words it was difficult to make mash-up decks in Speed Duels. Though someone with knowledge in Duel Links can always give me advice.
On a different note (that's gonna be my catchphrase) after this arc, if Shoichi gets another duel, he will receive his canon deck, but the tcg version, so it isn't just an anti-Yusaku deck.
And finally here's the 2 duels of next time
Aoi vs Akira
Revolver (still Rokkets for now) and Dr. Kogami vs 00Spyral and Shining Angel.
OC cards:
Star Cut
Action Spell
Effect: Reveal one monster in your hand, halve its level
Flip off
Quick-play Spell
Effect: Pay half your Life points and choose one Flip monster you control, change it to face-down Defense Position, then to face-up Defense Position.
Grand Book of the Blue Moon
Normal Spell
Effect: Discard one card, then choose 2 face-up monsters on the field, change them to face-down Defense Position.
Restore
Action Spell
Effect: Target one card whose effect is currently negated, it is not negated anymore.
The Weather Painter Admix
Link 2, Earth, Fairy, Link, Effect
ATK: 1600
Link Markers: Bottom-left, Bottom-right
Material: 2 "the Weather" monsters
Effect: When this card is Link Summoned, you can place one "the Weather" spell/trap from your GY in your spell/trap zone. When a "the Weather" monster this card points to is banished, you can draw a card. Once per turn, if this card is banished from the field to activate a "The Weather" card's effect, you can special summon it during your next standby phase.
Offworld Tenacity
Action Spell
Effect: Special Summon 1 "Tenacity Token" (Warrior, Earth, Level 1, ATK/DEF: 0) When it or the only other monster you control would be destroyed, you can negate the destruction.
Guard Switch
Action Spell
Effect: Choose one monster on the field, switch its ATK with another monster's DEF or its own.
The Weather Painter Submix
Link 2, WIND, Fairy, Link, Effect
ATK: 1600
Material: 2 "the Weather" monsters
Markers: Up, Down
Effect: "the Weather" monsters this card points to gain the following effect:
-You can banish this card to choose 1 "the Weather" monster, it gains ATK equal to this card's ATK on the field. If this card left the Extra Monster Zone as a result and you increased the ATK of a monster summoned from the Extra Deck, move that monster into the Extra Monster Zone
Monsters your opponent controls this card points to gain the following effect:
-Your opponent can banish this card to decrease the ATK of all monsters you control by this card's original ATK.
Supreme Cry
Action Spell
Effect: Choose one monster you control, destroy all monsters on the field with less ATK than it and their controllers take 300 damage for each monster.
Ancient Gear Chess Bishop
Level 3, Machine, Earth, Effect
ATK: 900 DEF: 900
Effect: You can Special Summon this card from your hand by shuffling one banished "Ancient Gear Chess Pawn" into your Deck.
If this card is used as Fusion Material, you can banish a number of "Ancient Gear" Fusion Materials to inflict 800 points of damage to your opponent for each.
Link Turn
Quick-play spell
Effect: Choose 1 Link Monster on the field, change its Link Markers one turn clock-wise
Dicing Zone
Continous trap
Effect: Whenever a monster would be summoned, its owner has to assign numbers from 1 to 6 to each possible zone as evenly as possible and roll a six-sided die, the monster is summoned to the zone, the result was assigned to.
Guard Cover #2
Action Spell
Effect: When a player declares an attack this turn, you can choose the target.
Crystallize Magic Zone
Field Spell
Effect: If you have 5 cards in your spell and trap zone and control at least one "Crystal Beast" monster treated as a continous spell, you can once per turn for each of those, activate a spell/trap card by revealing it in your hand and discarding it after it resolves. Once per turn, you can destroy all cards in your spell and trap zone that aren't "Crystal Beast" cards or don't mention "Crystal Beast" in their effect text.
You can banish this card from your GY except the turn it was send there, this turn for each Crystal Beast monster treated as a Continous Spell in your Spell/Trap zone, you can activate 1 Spell/Trap card from your hand by revealing and discarding it.
Backstab
Action Spell
Effect: If you take damage, inflict the same amount of damage to another player.
Un-Spell
Action Spell
Effect: Destroy 1 face-up Spell Card on the field.
Revenge Wound
Action Spell
Effect: Destroy a card that inflicted damage to you.
Dud
Action Spell
Effect: Destroy one card you control.
Large Sky Canvas
Quick-play Spell
Effect: Until the End Phase, you can banish "the Weather" monsters from anywhere on the field to activate the effects of "Canvas" cards. If you control a "Canvas" card, draw one card.
Prevent
Action Spell
Effect: Target one monster your opponent controls; it cannot attack this turn.
Replacement Rebirth
Action Spell
Effect: Choose one monster in the GY, Special Summon it in the same zone as a monster that was destroyed this turn.
Destructive Recurrence
Action Spell
Effect: Destroy a card you control, add an Action Card of the same card type (Monster, Spell, Trap) that was played previously in this duel to your hand
Skills:
Into the Grave
If you control a least 2 cards and have no monster cards in your GY, send one card from your deck to your GY.
Second Sketch
When a "the Weather" monster is banished, summon it back to the field. You can use this effect a second time this turn, but if you do, the monster cannot declare an attack.
Hidden Shield
When a "Subterror" monster would be destroyed by battle, change it to face-down defense position instead.
Machine Reconfiguration
Fusion Summon 1 Machine Fusion Monster from your Extra Deck, using Machine monsters from your hand or field as Fusion Material.
Crystallize Link
If you Link Summon a "Crystal Beast" Link monster this turn, you can place any of its Link Materials as Continous Spells in your Spell/Trap zone. If you use this effect after using "Crystal Beast" monsters treated as continous spell cards as Link Material, this effect expires.
fanfic-effects:
Weather Painter Rainbow
Banishes itself to negate summons, can be re-used after being revived by its own effect.
Crystal Abundance
4 CB cards anywhere on the field are enough.
Drop Flame Wedge
can lower battle damage.
Hidden City
Can activate multiple per turn.
New HorReaper OC cards that debuted in Arc-VOC:
Horrible Box
Continous Trap
Effect: When you would take 3000 or less battle damage, reduce that damage to 0. If this card is destroyed, inflict damage to your opponent, equal to the damage negated. You can send this face-up card to the GY to target one "HorReaper" monster you control, increase its ATK by half the amount of damage negated, until the End Phase.