World 028: Shallow Waters
Not everyone joined the hunt for Echo's circle of friends. The good doctor Scarlet stayed behind in her own laboratory to bring her nightmarish imaginations to life. And pretty soon she received the first visit from 'Void' himself. He also preferred to keep his hands clean. "What do your eyes see now, Scarlet Fever'?" He counted on her Medusa to see for him in his absence. "You want a dry summary? Very well. Void. Khan, Donna and Acrates have already found their targets. Zettai is closing in on another, while Schwarzwald is distracting the remaining champions. Wagnerok seems dedicated to hunt down poor small Crescent, and Scura is.. well doing her own thing it appears. Only Vigionair is giving me the slip so far. The old man is a wily one. The plan worked better than I could have imagined it." She showed a little excitement at the end of her summation.
"Did it?" Void did not share her enthusiasm. "Where is Echo herself? Why has she not been found yet?" His desire for destruction focused on just one entity. "Were the portals not pre-selected? She should be in one of the chosen locations." Scarlet did not see what could cause the issue, or how a girl with no functional legs could escape on her own. "Something interfered and threw them off course. Something that was there at the Arena. I sensed it, like a chill in the air." Void did not like not knowing the answers to every mystery in STHEREA. "That sounds like an interesting force at work. Perhaps it could be the same force that made my ADIs glitch out on me? Could it be the 'the third entity?'"
"No! Not that. It should not have that kind of power, and it's never interfered with me before. Whatever this was... It felt familiar."
...
Charles' LP: 8000 Fisherman's LP: 8000
-TURN 02-
Elsewhere, in a very much unselected part of STHEREA, the familiar dueled the unfamiliar. Charles Adami defended himself against a mistrusting ADI. "Hiding wont do you any good, Void!" The Fisherman mistook him for someone else. Situations like these were exactly what Charles hoped to avoid with his current appearance. Of course how could he have known that an ADI of all things would be the first to immediately accept that Void and Charles were one and the same. And this one seemed determined to protect Echo who was just out of his reach. Or perhaps it was merely programmed to be this way. "My turn! I special summon White Stingray by discarding one water monster!" It still used a lot of familiar cards like the discarded White Moray Eel and the summoned white Stingray(4/1400/1000) [Zone 1] from his hand. "And then I normal summon Deep Sea Diva!" However his next monster(2/200/400) [Zone 2], a mermaid with a pink scaled seaserpent's tail and fins for hair, was a new face. "More new monsters?"
"I have improved myself, Void. The Diva is just as famous as I, perhaps even moreso. Alas we could not give her the same life I was granted, so this is my way of doing right by her." Most duelists also did not need to be told her effect, the singing Diva could special summon one level 3 or lower sea serpent from the deck. "She summons Deep Sea Sentry from my deck! When he appears, he discard two cards from my deck to add one water-monster from the graveyard to my hand!" More water surged across the field, and a stern-faced merman knight(2/400/2000) [Zone 3] rose up from the rippling stream. He poked the deck with his trident to shave off two cards: a Legendary Ocean and Torrential Tribute. In turn he added White Moray Eel back to his hand.
"Now is the time! Synchro summon White Aura Whale!" Not only could the Diva sing, she could be the tuner in a synchronization process. She, White Stingray and the Deepsea Sentry pooled eight stars together and made a big splash in the sea. "?" Charles did not see the synchro monster... yet. It waited for its orders below the surface. "Aura Whale! Attack!" Only after the command got issued, did the great many-finned white whale(8/2800/2000) [Extra Zone 1] show its splendor by leaping into the sky. With its massive body it slammed down on top of Charles' tiny electric sheep: ROM Cloudia(4/1800/0). "Rgh. That's right. Piercing damage." He took a hit to his lifepoints despite his defenses, this was the way it attacked in Sundowns duels as well.
Charles LP: 5200
"But when ROM Cloudia is destroyed, I can special summon one cyberse from my deck! I choose Defcon Bird!" Charles also remembered that the White Whale could attack two monsters each turn, so he would need even more defense. His cyber-bird(3/100/1700) [Zone 3] with foldable radar wings had that in spades. "Defcon Bird doubles the stats of a cyberse monster that gets attacked? Is defending all you can do?" The Fisherman was forced to cancel his other attackplans. He placed one card face down and ended the turn.
-TURN 03-
"You should ask me that when I actually get a battle phase." Charles objected. "Which will be soon enough. I summon Draconnet! This card can special summon a normal cyberse from my deck!" He would show this ADI just what he could do now with a certain the grid-eyed cyberspace wyvern(3/1400/1200) [Zone 1]. The old Draconnet summoning a Bitron(2/200/2000) [Zone 2] combo never failed him before. "Then I link summon Talkback Lancer! And also Flame Administrator! The link material is a level 2 or lower cyberse for the first and two cyberse monsters for the second!" It also felt good to just pump out two link monsters in a row. Bitron became the lance-wielding green/blue cyberknight(1200/LINK 1) {Down} [Extra Zone 2], Defcon Bird and Draconnet transformed into the red block-shaped security robot(1200/LINK 2) {Left/Downright} [Zone 4].
"Flame Administrator adds 800 attackpoints to all link monsters. So you want to fight my water with your fire?" The Fisherman seemed to enjoy the poetry at work. "Not just fire, Fisherman. I have control over all the elements. Even water!" Charles said as he activated the effect of a Water monster in his hand. "I can use Code Radiator in my hand as a link material, if I want to summon a Code Talker monster! So I will link summon Shootingcode Talker!" Briefly a blue cyberspace serpent could be seen embracing the Flame Admin with its four spiked wings. Those two cyberse monsters turned into link materials for the aquatic blue archer Shootingcode(2300/LINK 3) {Up/Left/Down} [Zone 4] "The Code Talker of water? What!?" Charles' enemy received a double surprise, since the arrival of the Link 3 monster caused his own White Aura Whale(0/2000) to lose all of his attackpoints. "Heh, Code Radiator caused that! It nullifies the attackpoints of a monster summoned from the extra deck if its used to summon a Code Talker." Charles happily explained. He did not have these Code support cards before in either world, but in his current state he could prepare whatever card he wanted without having to buy them first.
That did not mean he would forget about the cards that brought him this far though. "Oh and I also activate Cynet Cascade!" His trap would help by reviving one link material from his recent summon: Flame Administrator [Zone 3]. Now both it(2000 atk), Talkback Lancer(2000 atk) and Shootingcode Talker(3100 atk) recovered the 800 ATK boost. "And my spell, Link Party! Since I control three link monsters with different elements: Fire, Water and Dark, I can activate this spells first three effects!" At once, Link Party recovered 1500 of Charles' lifepoints, added 500 attackpoints to all of his Link monsters (Talkback/Flame Admin: 2500 atk, Shootingcode: 3600 atk) and took 1000 attackpoints away from opposing link monsters. Though the final effect obviously did not apply here. "Now, here is that attack you ordered!" Either way, the Talkback Lancer could put enough power in its thrust to harpoon the great whale and send it sinking to the depths.
Charles' LP: 6700 Fisherman's LP: 5500
"Yrgh! Great Aura Whale can revive himself by banishing one water creature from my graveyard!" Just as the synchro disappeared below the seas, it regenerated its wound by absorbing the spirit of Deep Sea Diva and came back (2800/2000) [Zone 2] in attack mode. "I thought it might. But Shootingcode can still destroy it!" Though the archer(3200) lost 400 attackpoints whilst attacking the last monster on the opponents side, his shot still managed to pierced the heart of the reborn whale.
Fisherman's LP: 5100
"I can revive it again!" Fisherman cursed as he banished his Deep Sea Sentry to special summon the attack-position White Aura Whale for the third time. "And Shootingcode can attack again! He shoots once for each monster linked to him! He has two attacks left!" Charles simply made Shootingcode release a second shot through the Whale's chest.
Fisherman's LP: 4700
"Then I will do it a third time! And a fourth, and a fifth! I will do it as many times as I need to! I will never stop! Just like I will never stop guarding Echo!" Now the last water monster, White Moray Eel, vanished from the grave to facilitate the return of the Mighty whale. "You cannot keep that up! I can help you!" Shootingcode aimed his final arrow straight at the head of the mighty whale, thinking that his opponent had no more Water monsters to banish. "No, you can not!" But he did. He revealed the Burial from a Different Dimension quickplay spell and unbanished all three monsters that recently got banished. Just in time for him to re-banish White Moray Eel as the Whale experienced its fourth death.
Fisherman's LP: 4300
Charles reached the limit, his Flame Administrator could not give the White Whale [Zone 3] its fifth death. On the other hand, Shootingcode Talker would now draw one card for each monster it destroyed this battle phase. "Echo. What is she to you?" Charles drew thrice and wondered if that would be enough now. He'd under-estimated this ADI's willpower. "My world, my life, my everything. I owe her nothing less than my very existence. You would not know what that feels like." The Fisherman scoffed, still seeing Charles as the heartless enemy Void. "I think I would. There are people I would protect with my life too." His friends, his family if it came to it: there were plenty to cherish. "For them, and for Echo too, I want to do the best I can. Right now, that is just this.." Charles placed two cards face down on the field, and performed a final link summon with Shootingcode and Talkback Lancer as the materials. "I summon the Firewall Dragon!" Now he could reunite with a card he had missed in a lot of his previous duels: the red and white cyberse protection dragon(2500/LINK 4) {Left/Up/Right/Down} [Zone 2].
-TURN 04-
"You wont trick me, Void. We have seen what you do with your comrades. Your words are hollow to us all." The sea-faring duelist started the turn known to all masters of the water: Salvage. He used that to redraw the two WATER monsters with less than 1500 attackpoints: Deep Sea Diva and White Stingray. He discarded the his White Moray Eel to special summon the Stingray [Zone 4] from the hand again. "So I will crush you with all the powers I command! Including my skill card: Mythic Depths! I activate Magellanica the Deep Sea City from my deck!" An oceanic duelist would never stray far from field spells that were treated as 'Umi' cards either. And Magellanica created an entire ancient city under the sea, complete with temples, open-air theaters and a large protective dome above. Charles was beginning to see why Static sent a monster like the Spiral Serpent before. People would naturally think Echo sent it, if her most important ADI favored the water this much. Though he also noticed that the ADI was using his original skill card.
Mythic Depths, Skill Card
Activate "Umi" from your deck.
"Hmph, impressed? This is just what Magellanica looks like. What it does is send one WATER monster to the top of my deck. Not that that that helps me.. because I summon Deep Sea Diva again! And this time she special summons Deep Sea Minstrel from my deck!" The singing mermaid [Zone 2] swam to the theater stage and performed for the deep sea court. She was soon joined by a merman(1/0/500) [Zone 1] in loose white pants, with a blue fishtail growing out of its fin-eared head. "When the Artisan is summoned, one card is discarded from the top of my deck to revive a level 4 or lower Water-monster! But their effects will be sealed!" The current show gained its third player: the reborn Deep Sea Sentry [Zone 3]. "Now, watch this Void. This is my own link monster: Mermail Abyssalacia! The materials are two Water monsters!" A powerful vortex escaped the link circuit that swallowed both Deep Sea Minstrel and Sentry. The merman pair link summoned a wavy and purple-haired woman(1600/LINK 2) {Downleft/Downright} [Extra Zone 1] with armor on her chest, legs and arms and a transparent fin-skirt. Each WATER monster Abyssalacia pointed at, like White Whale(3300/2000), gained 500 attackpoints.
"But I know that wont be enough. You are tenacious like no other. So I activate my field spell's remaining effects. Magellanica raises the level of a water monster by one! And when I synchro summon a Water monster, I can banish one card from your hand for one turn!" He made his Deep Sea Diva undergo the level-up, so that she could tune with just White Stingray and summon a pale white mermaid(7/2000/2700) [Zone 1] with multiple pink and purple fins on her tail, waist and head. "I Synchro Summon the tuner, Deep Sea Prima Donna! She returns one of your banished cards to the hand, to special summon one Water monster from the graveyard." While the field spell did banish one card (Widget Kid) from Charles' hand, the Deep Sea Synchro restored it with her graceful singing. The song of Prima Donna also resurrected the card that Deep Sea Sentry had discarded: Deep Sea Minstrel(3/1200/1500) [Zone 2]. The blue-scaled, yellow-finned and tan-skinned mermaid backed the queen of the Deep Sea up with a relaxing harp melody. Together they would perform the final act for another creature in the extra deck. "Synchro summon! White Aura Bihamut!"
"So there it is. Your strongest monster." Charles shuddered a little, as he saw what he had to deal with now. The two-headed white dragonwhale(10/3800/3000) [Zone 1] not only gained more power from Mermail Abyssalacia, it also created a Divine Dragon token(10/3300/3000) [Zone 2] as soon as it appeared. This 'second head' would keep reviving the main body, and Bihamut could restore the token each turn. At least it had to be summoned in defense mode, but that hardly dulled their potential for damage. "Yes, they are already greater than your Firewall! But I take no chances, I will ruin the very land you stand on! Spell card, Rage of Kai-Ryu-Shin! Since I control Umi, I can destroy one of your monsters for each highlevel water monster I control! And the zones those monsters occupied cannot be used for two turns!" The fury of the sea reached its absolute height, as the White whale and Bihamut went on a rampage.
However, Firewall Dragon and Flame Administrator still pointed to each other as it all happened. "Firewall's effect activates! For each of his co-links, he can return one monster on the field to a players hand! I choose Mermail Abyssalacia! Then I activate my spell, Cynet Backdoor! I banish Firewall Dragon for one turn to add a weaker cyberse monster from the deck to my hand!" Only the Flame Admin and its zone were devoured by the monsters of the sea. Firewall Dragon managed to disappear into a backdoor portal to the future but before he pushed the White Aura Whale back to the extra deck with a searing fire beam. Meanwhile the cynet quickplay spell itself added a Balancer Lord card to his hand. "You could have done that all along, why did you wait?" The Fisherman growled. He did not wait for a reply, he entered the battle phase with what remained. Abyssalacia stabbed Charles in the shoulder with her trident, while the Bihamut Dragon released a blast of pressurized water to knock the cyberse duelist back even further. "Because.." Charles winced. "I wanted to see what you could do."
Charles' LP: 1300
"You wanted? What about wanting to win?" Fisherman was taken aback by his answer. "... You are not what I expected you to be. But the Void that attacked us is also not what I expected him to be. Echo spoke about a lot about 'Void', how he was the one to defeat Static with cards like yours. But I do not see how someone like you could have done that." He concluded as his turn came to an end. "Cards like mine? What did the other Void use?" Charles realized he'd never given much thought to how much Static would impersonate him. "The cyberse. But he also has his own archetype now, Mathmechs." The Fisherman had not see that duel, but he heard about it from others. "Mathmechs?" Of course, Charles had never heard of such cards before either. Mathematics had been one of his favorite sciences, but he did not expect Static to use that personal fact to base a whole set of cards around. "Those are just cards; empty lifeless images. Anyone can use them. What makes you the one that the other Void is not?"
-TURN 05-
"I can only think of one answer to that. I have to show you.. you and Echo.. what I learned before Static took over.." As the turn began, Firewall Dragon [Zone 3] returned from the other dimension through the same backdoor. "I normal summon Widget Kid, who can special summon one cyberse monster from my hand!" Two more jumped out to the shrunken field: the blue futuristic visor-wearing youngster(3/1500/900) [Zone 1] in blue neon spandex who special summoned the sword and shieldbearing code knight Balancer Lord(4/1700/1000). "Now let's see if I still have the hang of this, Fisherman. Back when I dueled Millennium, I learned one new trick. I learned to create my own cards. And I came up with plenty while I was stuck in the real world with nothing else to do. Here is one who has to take two cyberse as materials!" Widget Kid and Balancer Lord disappeared inside a more violent than usual link circuit, and the card that came out shared a few traits with the Widget Kid. He(800/LINK 2) {Down/Downright} [Extra Zone 2] was a young greenhaired boy wearing a neonlit wizard cloak, white shirt, shorts and suspenders. "Cyberse Wicckid!"
"Wicckid? This is a card that came from your own imagination?" The Fisherman gasped. "Aren't all cards? Someone created you too, Fisherman. Then again, someone created me too if you want to look at it from a certain angle. But we can get philosophical some other time. Right now I'll tell you what Cyberse Wicckid does! When a monster is special summoned to his linked zone, he can banish one cyberse from my graveyard.. and add a cyberse tuner to my hand!"
Because he controlled cyberse monsters Charles could special summon one monster right now; the visor-wearing purple-haired Backup Secretary(3/1200/800) [Zone 4] with her dazzling cape and transparent skirt. "You created a tuner too?" And Fisherman reacted with shock again, when he saw Charles banish his Balancer Lord to draw a card called Cyberse Synchron. "You helped me a little with my choice, heheh. Anyway, a banished Balancer Lord will special summon a cyberse from my hand. And I choose Cyberse Synchron!" When the tuner(1/100/100) [Zone 5] appeared on the field, with its round monitor face inside a floating cyber ring, Fisherman could no longer deny what Charles could and would do. "And no tuner is complete.. without a synchro. Cyberse Synchron can double the level of another cyberse monster on my field!" The ring robot pointed this power at Backup Secretary(6/1200/800), so that they could synchronize with seven stars. "Here it is! I synchro summon Cyberse Quantum Dragon!"
Before Charles had doubts about whether or not he could still do this: summon a card that did not officially exist. But it proved to be even easier than when he created his first XYZ-monster. And this synchro monster did not even base itself on an already existing dragon. Instead the Cyberse Quantum(7/2500/2000) [Zone 5] appeared as a dragon made of pure blue crystal covered from wing to tail in sharp white armor. "But it is weaker than my monsters... What does it do?" The Fisherman could not possibly know what would come his way, so Charles felt generous. "Just one thing right now. If it attacks a monster, he can return it to the hand and make a new attack. I know your Mermails and White synchros will keep reviving if I destroy them the normal way. That is why I chose this card. And that is also why I will do this." He said as activated his One-Time Passcode spell to summon a security token(4/2000/2000) [Zone 4] in defense mode. "I link summon Detonate Deleter, who can automatically destroy any monster he battles with that is not Link 3 or higher!" The token and the Cyberse Wicckid were used as the last link materials of the duel and created the helmeted cyber bombardier(2100/LINK 3) {Left/Downleft/Right} [Zone 4] with the vest full of explosives.
"So.. this is the difference between us." The Fisherman came to a realization as he took count of the power in front of him: Charles would win, and he saw how. Firewall Dragon was co-linked again and had left the field since it last used its effect, so it could and would return White Aura Bihamut to the extra deck. Detonate Deleter would kill the Divine Dragon token despite its superior attackpoints. Finally Cyberse Quantum Dragon would get bounce Mermail Abyssalacia to acquire its second attack. Both the synchro and Firewall could then easily blow out his remaining lifepoints with two direct attacks. "This is all I can do for her, I was not.. good enough." He cursed it, his weakness, his opponents strength and abilities. If only he could have been more like him. "You can go ahead then, finish this fight."
"If I do, what will happen to you?" Void held back on actually attacking, which confused and irritated the Fisherman more than anything. "How would I know? How would you? Why would you care? I am just another program to you! And maybe you are even right!" He yelled and shouted at the top of his lungs. "I did not mean.. I... I was wrong. I see we're more alike than. You are more like me than I thought at first. And maybe more than you think as well" Charles smiled. "We want the same thing too. To stop Static. That is why, I am willing to call this a draw for now." Instead of actually making the final attack, Charles placed his hand over his deck. "A draw?" The Fisherman had both lost and won, without either duelist losing anything.
"Fisherman, please stop."
"Miss Echo!? You can..." The Fisherman gasped as he saw the girl suddenly move across the dried out lakebed without any trouble. "I can walk here. I do not think this is STHEREA anymore. This place feels... more like another part of home." Her feet still hidden by her large dress but she was clearly using them. "I know it in my heart now. I felt no hatred, not even when he made that card. He is not static. He's...human." She assured him that everything was fine before she brought herself closer to the two duelists. "I am sorry that it took me so long to realize. You're him, the one who helped stop him."
"No. I am sorry that it took me so long to come back." Charles let out a sigh of relief. "Everything has gone wrong while I was gone, hasn't it? Not because I wasn't there, but because you all thought I was. But I meant what I said, I am here to help you now, for as long as I can." There was no telling when those people at the science institute would pull him back. "Can you? Can we? Are we stuck in this strange world or not?" The Fisherman did not exactly see an exit. "I know how to move around in here. We should be abe to find a section of the real STHEREA if we focus on it. Then we can find wherever my friends ended up, new and old." Charles had to remind himself that Cherry Anise could still be out there, like so many others.
"I think we can, yes. I still feel them, Fisher. Valkyrion, Cierze, Fire Princess: they're out there." Echo shuddered. She did not want to stay here any longer, even if that meant going back to her wheelchair. "And we will find them, miss Echo." The Fisherman nodded. "Charles, I apologize for before. I do not know if we are worthy.. but we will gladly accept your assistance." He bowed with gratitude. "No I want to thank you for believing me. After all of this time, I needed that. Now.. we can finally start making a difference."
(To Be Continued in World 029: Conquest For its Own Sake)
New cards used by Void
Code Radiator
Cyberse Synchron
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Cyberse Wicckid
Cyberse Quantum Dragon
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Link Party
New Cards used by the Legendary Fisherman
Deep Sea Diva
Deep Sea Sentry
Deep Sea Artisan
Deep Sea Minstrel
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Mermail Abyssalacia
Deep Sea Prima Donna
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Magellanica the Deep Sea City
Salvage
Rage of Kairyu-Shin
