World 038: Whenever They're Ready
Home. His home. Here in this simple cabin, on the outskirts of civilization and surrounded by trees: the real Vigionair built his safe zone. Sometimes Asterisk visited him
The real world offered mane safeties and also comforts. The man who called himself Vigionair never appreciated most of them until now. His head had always been lost in code and information, but spending more than a day's worth of time on the inside of a virtual network proved to be a good way to kick that habit. Just the sensation of waking up with a crick in his back and stiffness in his joints felt better than anything STHEREA offered. Yet the encrypter could not relax for too long, work had to be done. Once his body and mind both felt equally up to the task he dove back into the world of programming and updating. Thanks to his sources he learned what had changed during his absence. Alas, Asterisks condition was not one of those changes; his condition had neither improved nor worsened. They kept the agent duelist at the nearest hospital, treating him while he himself slept without end. He should not have thought about it, he could do nothing for him now because that was simply not his area of expertise. This was.
But while there were stirrings and murmurs in the software circles, nothing major had reached the outside world. As far as most were concerned, STHEREA had been offline for three days now due to the damage caused by Millennium. Nobody could say anything about the heroes of Pandemonium with any certainty, or about the fate of Exeter. In hindsight he regretted leaving those kids so soon, but he could not risk going back again without the proper equipment. He would get his chance to ask Void what exactly happened to him later. Someone had to have helped him get back online. Of course he could request assistance from the investigation team itself. Back when this all started they handed him a contact number. Only, using said number would expose his location to them and he hadn't been ready to trust them yet at that time. Things were different now, and perhaps it would soon be time to swallow that bitter pill and accept that there were just some things he could not do alone. Asterisk even suggested this early on. "I should have listened to you from the start." Vigionaire sighed. "Heh, I am talking to myself already."
It would be likely that they would need his help soon as well. "Hm?" Two factors were at play, one came to him up front via an emailed file transfer that bypassed all of his protection. No ordinary spam or malware could pull of a feat like that, and yet this seemed to be completely innocuous. "A gift? From whom?" The file merely labeled itself as a gift for duelists worldwide and had no source address. Vigionaire could not even trace the source, all he could do... was open it. The encrypter made sure to disconnected his current computer from all networks before he even got close to touching the file. Only when he opened it, could he analyze the nature of this gift. But it already made its purpose obvious with a single sentence. "Lifetime Access to STHEREA at the click of a Button?"
That was the gist of it, an access-point to the network.. a free access-point. He could tell that everything about this file was genuine, and if he got one then this file could have been forwarded to any duelist with an email address.. or even to any human being with a link to the net. The world of code would definitely not remain quiet after this.
...
Echo did not like this place: Pandemonium. The streets were bathed in an unholy green light, and the red skies filled with lightning and thunder. The very color palette of this sector served to induce stress in any visitor. She could not see herself making this a new home. "Do you think they will return?" But moreover she did not like the silence. She did not like not knowing what her new friends were going through. She could not sense Charles, Blanche and Crescent like she could sense her closest companions. Yet she considered them as friends nonetheless. "They have the ability. But you are wondering if they have the desire." She also considered Scarlet her friend, at least this version with her stitched up face.
Though that feeling did not extend towards the others. "Why would they not have the desire? This is the only place where they can hide!" The Fire Princess shouted. "Perhaps because they do not trust her? You should remember that we are not the same as them. They can still run to their reality, should this world prove to be too hazardous." But Scarlet Rose remained polite in her dealings with the elementals, though she did not refrain from the truth either. "Not trust her? How could anyone not trust her?" A truth that the Fire Princess and those like her just could not comprehend.
Now would not be the time to solve that naivety either, as company came their way. "Ah." Scarlet Rose detected a signal on her security grid, which could only have been triggered by a select few. "Wow!" Madam Blanche was the lucky visitor in this case. She took in a pocket of digital air as soon as she landed square in the middle of the city. "Hello, Madam Blanche. I see you managed to activate my recall protocol. But I do not see the others." Scarlet greeted her with her crooked grin. "Huh? Oh.. give me a sec." The white haired girl rummaged in her own coat just to make sure that she was still carrying the Chalice. "Ah, good. Yeah. I am fine. Barely. We ran into a little trouble.. a little big trouble. We found Hydra, but so did Wagnerok and Scura. Things did not go well for him either."
"Oh no. Did everyone make it out okay?" A worried Echo asked. "Crescent did, thanks to some chalice water. But Charles suddenly blinked out of existence, and I do not like the way that happened. I really dont trust those people that he's working with." Blanche muttered and Scarlet Rose gave a silent nod of agreement. "At least everything seems normal here. Normal-ish. That's good, because I didnt feel like leaving this behind. I give this to you, Echo" She placed the Legacy Chalice down. "You are.. leaving?" Echo figured out that Blanche wanted them to hold on to the Chalice since it also could not to the real world. "Just for a little bit. There's just some things I cant do here. I promise you that I'll be back soon. I promise. And I'll bring my friends too. Then you can shake hands with all four champions!" Blanche gave Echo an assuring pat on the shoulder. "Oh..okay." The girl did not try to stop her. "I just wish, I could go with you."
"I wish you could. Honestly. But I don't know how." The white dragon duelist could only give Echo a smile for now. "I am sure we will figure something out. Just... hang in there." She sighed and logged out.
...
"Why?" Charles Adami cried out. "Why did you pull me back?" He was back in his restrictive reality, wearing his heavy suit and trapped inside their machine. "Didn't you see what was going on?" Now the fates of Hydra, Blanche and Crescent would remain a haunting mystery. "Send me back, now!" He yelled and refused to move out of his pod in spite of it powering down and opening its doors. "Chill, Void. It was for your own good." Only then did he notice Cherry Anise in the same room, already back in her normal clothes. "Cherry? You made it? Where were you?" He was relieved to see her up and about, but that did not change the fact that their timing could not have been worse. "Hanging out with your galpal Scura. She's a real piece of work that one. I barely got out and now I cannot go back for a long while. But while it lasted.. it did feel great."
"I am sure it did, but you had your chance, as did Charles. Now it is my turn." At this point Tycho made his own presence known. "But I was not in any danger. I hadn't even lost a duel yet! I met with my friends, I met with the champions! I saw the damage Static was doing and I was helping them fight back! I even managed to save Bionis! It worked, your machine worked!"
"Yes it appears you have made stellar progress." Renner nodded. "Alas, new factors forced our hand. Pulling you out was my decision, so you can let me bear the responsibility for that. We could not assess the new situation properly and we did not want to risk losing you. It took the device ten minutes to even track and retrieve you." He carefully explained. "Are you telling me you did not know what was going on at all?" Somehow Charles doubted that. "We are. We did not imagine that you would actually make it to STHEREA on your first try, at which point we lost visual contact with your new avatars. However, half an hour ago miss Kelly returned to us and told us of what happened. Then more complications arose and our superiors informed us to withdraw from our test runs for the time being." The masked scientists did not sound too happy about this situation either. "More complications? New Factors? What would those be?"
"You didn't notice anything while you were in there? No new influxes?" The researcher inquired further and Charles shook his head to make clear that he still had no clue. "I see. You must have avoided the major sector. It is better to show you what I have showed them." Renner activated one of the screens in the lab and revealed 'the gift'. "This message was just sent to a million computers and a million households. Within lies a patch update that automatically connects with nearby STHEREA hardware to restore their link with the virtual world itself. Despite Exeter restricting access to the common userbase, they are now countless of duelists who have regained their avatars. It started slowly, they were all forced to use the same entryways. But now there's already more online than the admins can handle, and they will keep flooding the system since there is no limit on how often you can use this tool."
"What the.." Charles was at a loss for words. "How did anyone let this happen?" This was a development he would never have thought about. "Personally I blame Exeters crappy security." Tycho scoffed. "This is not the first time this happened either apparently. Hackers got back into STHEREA and they used their backdoors to take money from desperate kids." Sometimes one could forget that you could also find scum outside of the corporate hellscape. "But then why make it free now? And for everyone at once? There has to be more to it than that." Charles insisted. "There is. We know now because of the video." Tycho revealed. "Video? There's a video?" Charles finally stepped out of the pod-chamber.
"This one. What you see here has been proven to be undoctored." Renner switched on a second screen which showed scenes from inside STHEREA. "What?" Right away Charles caught what made this footage special. The various avatars on display came in contact with her.. with Miss Echo. He could not hear what the girl in the wheelchair said, but she seemed to be giving newcomers hugs and happy welcoming speeches.. "When did this happen?" Charles could not believe it. At what point did Echo get the chance to do this? "An hour ago. One duelist who got in early decided to stream his adventures, and the AI known as Miss Echo was there waiting for him. The theory is that she has used her ability to control this 'hacker' group into releasing free accesspoints into the network. We don't know what happened afterwards, but the whole world has seen this footage and the whole world is making use of it." The scientist concluded. "That cannot be her." And Charles concluded on the contrary.
"Not? You sure? She looks and sounds like her." Cherry pointed out. "I am as sure as I can be. Even though I was not with her at all times, I know she would not do this. Besides, isn't it too convenient that she would let herself be seen? No. This has to be Static's doing. He has the lance, he has Scarlet, they could create anything to fool us." He asserted. If anyone could pull off this mass-email scheme, it would be him and the mad doctor. "Why would Static go through all that trouble to keep you out, only to invite everyone else? That doesn't make sense! Also I of all people don't need to be told what the Lance can do, Void. It shouldn't work on cameras and it definitely cant trick people in the real world. It can only make illusions for anyone right there and then! Besides, isn't this exactly what she wants: To make more friends? Since she cannot come to us, why not bring more people down to her?" That's what Cherry Anise would have done at least. "Also wait? You were with Echo? What if you were compromised? These guys keep saying that she has the power to control people's actions. This sounds like she just wants a whole army of slaves to help her fight Static!"
"No." Tycho interrupted. "No?" Even Charles was surprised to see him seemingly take his side. "I've met miss Echo too. I was the one who found her.. and she just doesn't seem the type to do this. You're gonna tell me that I barely spent time with her, or that she was not who she claimed to be. But I remember her perfectly as just another innocent person caught up in everyone else's mess." Now that Tychothought about it, he wondered if Echo's original backstory had only been created to make her look more sympathetic in his eyes. "Yes.." Charles wondered the same thing, especially given the fact that Echo's deck drew some inspiration from Alpha's Salamangreats. "What this is is just subterfuge. Static wants us to keep looking in her way. But he benefits from this too. If he's taken over Scura and Bionis and everyone else, what is to stop him from doing the same thing to everyone else? He has a thousand new candidates now! We have to warn them! We have to get those people out of there!
"That is not out responsibility. Nobody wants this to continue, but you have to let the right people handle this. This may not be what you want to hear, but you two need to rest and recover. We also need to ensure that you have suffered no lasting effects from your contact with the Echo AI. In the mean time you can give us a proper report on your experiences. After that we may let you do a second run, if you behave." The researcher used a kind tone, but he was not above a little show of force either. Just outside the door stood several enforcers, posted there to remind Charles who pulled the strings in this outfit. "Tch. Fine. But Echo is not just an AI. Heck, I felt more human life from her than I do from any of the people here." He relented for now, since he at least now knew some of his friends were safe. "But since it is your turn now, Tycho. I should at least tell you how we got back to STHEREA."
"No need. I still saw everything that happened inside of that closed system of theirs. All I gotta do is close my eyes and ignore everything around me, right? And then think really hard about some place inside STHEREA." Now that Tycho knew that this approach worked, he could imagine himself pulling of the same trick. "That is all true. But there wont be many safe places left in the network. The city of Pandemonium is one of them, so I would suggest you focus on that." Charles assumed Tycho at least knew what that sector looked like. "And you should also know what you can expect to find..." He did not want him to start attacking Scarlet or Echo, of course. "Heh. Well I am ready to hear your story Charles."
...
The influx of duelists could be seen from far and wide, and many were drawn towards the strange fixtures within the royal capitol. They would have remembered the strange tower arena or the bizarre pyramid in the sky, if they'd been a part of the sector since their last visit. However none of them could get close thanks to a mixture of invisible barriers and entrance-obscuring illusions. If they wanted to start dueling they would have to find their enemies elsewhere. "Whahaha! Look at all that fresh meat! Let me at them! I will give them a welcome worth remembering!" The illusions did not stop those on the inside from looking outward however, and Donna eagerly watched the population of STHEREA grow and grow. "What would be the point? For our purposes it would just be as easy to let them fight ADIs or each other." Zettai meanwhile regarded the crowd with disdain. She was not wrong, already dozens of duelists had taken to renew old grudges and challenged each other. Though plenty were also dueling for fun. Either way, she saw them as impure humans.. not yet cleansed by the power of Static.
Then there was Khan the Conqueror in a category all of his own. "Finally!" The ritual duelist dropped down on the castle's battlements, performing his first successful quickjump in ages. "Khan? Where have you been?" Donna gave him a cold greeting, considering that he had not shown his face since he challenged Charles to a duel. "Tch. That was not my fault. Echo made me waste hours of my time wandering some abandoned out of bounds sector. But it seems her power has worn off!" From the sound of things, it had not gone well for him. "Yes, we figured out she has a time limit when Schwarzwald managed to call himself the best duelist in the world a little while back... But if she got to you, then you must have lost that duel. That is your fault, aint it? I mean, I do not see a shiny chalice in your grubby little hands." The wrestler snickered. "I will get it back again soon enough! It takes more than one setback to crush someone like me! And I only need one victory to destroy them all! We only need one victory!" Khan turned his attention towards the crowd outside and smirked. "But Charles.. I will be the one to destroy him. They can have the leftovers."
"You do not seem surprised by this development." Zettai noted. "I am only surprised that Void started without me! This was my idea to begin with!"
"Yours?" That part came as a surprise to the other two duelists. "What? I planned this with Void as soon as he captured those hackers that dueled Veyron. It's what I wanted from the beginning, to bring more of my friends into the network with the tools those faceless people created." Khan gleefully revealed. "Your friends? Or Bionis Khans friends?" Zettai prodded. "My friends! I am Khan! There is no difference! What, did Wagnerok tell you about that other Scarlet? Dont listen to him, he's a moron!" The conqueror did not care what truths Scarlet Rose or anyone else claimed to have, he only accepted his own reality. "He was nonetheless right about certain things: 'Void' confessed his true identity while you were gone. Yet it appears Static still kept some secrets from all of us, including those that involve cooperation with illegal organizations." Zettai bitterly asserted. "So what? They are still human and they do not care about the rules either. For now they're only a means to an end. When we reach that end.. then we will all be equal. And nothing will stop us."
...
Veyron's day got worse and worse. "Damn it! Why isn't it working?" The World Wand would not help. No matter how tightly he gripped it, no matter how much he focused on that which he wanted to hear; no sound came out of the Legacy Item. He got so frustrated that he threw the item down on the floor. "Remember, we have to use it as a team." Only Sigment stayed with him in these chaotic times, because only together could they summon the power of the Wand. The admins were stretched thin across the network trying to deal with the influx of duelists, while they bunkered at a conference room inside the virtual Exeter building. "Tch! Why are we trying to listen on what she is saying anyway? We already know it was her! And we already know those faceless bastards helped her do it!" Veyron cursed as he paced back and forth. He could not just sit there and wait for the Legacy Item to do anything. "While it does seems that way, but we cannot say that yet with certainty."
"I saw her, Sigment! She looked exactly like the girl I met before! Everyone recognized her online too!" This had not been the first time Echo got caught on a stream. Echo had been there with Millennium when they tried to recruit Neo live on the network. Remembering that moment made Veyron also remember that he dueled his own brother because of that encounter. And that only stirred up more anger inside of him. "And how else would she get those accesspoints unless they gave them to her?! I doubt she can create them on her own! Hell, maybe they'd been working for her from the start! Who knows? Either way this proves that we cannot trust her! And we cannot trust them!"
"Veyron, take it easy. Even if Echo did influence them, they will be free of that effect in less than an hour. If Judge Wallace's testimony is anything to go by, her power cannot last longer than two hours at most. If their story remains the same, then we know they are telling the truth." Until that time Heleil, Dyzanthium and Acrates were kept offline and held to a pseudo-form of offline quarantine. Though Sigment fully trusted Acrates' words regardless.
"If that's true? Then why is Giganoto still being kept under observation! Its because they cannot be sure that Echo's power wears off, right?" Veyron rejected Sigment's hopeful conclusions, as it could have been just as likely that Judge Wallace was either lying or that Echo simply did not use her strongest command on him. "I was there, Sigment. I saw her destroy that memory archive and take everything! She can mess with everything we know! The only way to be safe is to stop her! We should not be here trying to get this damn thing to function! If its staying quiet, it must be telling us we are wasting our time!" The way Veyron saw it, the Wand had led them to the faceless men for a reason. "But what if you are wrong? What if she is innocent?" Sigment approached their conundrum from a different angle. "What if this Mister Static did return? What if he is behind all of this? I do not know the answer to that, but I feel like you are letting your personal feelings get in the way of thinking through this rationally. Maybe that is why the Wand will not work."
"Because we are not in synch? Is that is?" Veyron scoffed at first, but he stopped himself and got himself thinking. "Maybe you are right. Maybe the Legacy Item is confused, because what you want is not what I want." He cast a suspicious look at Sigment. "What are you saying?" The synchro champion did not appreciate this new expression. "That maybe.. I cannot trust you either. That maybe it would work better if it was just one of us using it from now on!" Veyron quickly snatched the Wand again and kept it for himself. "Veyron! You know it does not work that way!" Sigment yelled. "Not yet! But maybe it will, once I show the Legacy Item that I can handle it just fine by myself!" The speed duelist put the wand away and grabbed his dueldisk instead. "Sigment, I... challenge you!"
Veyron's LP: 8000 Sigment's LP: 8000
"Veyron? What? Why?" He had actually done it. "Because the wand cannot work as long as we cannot work together. And how could I, when you are far close to those compromised champions then you are to me? How can I trust you when you are so willing to trust them? You would let them have the Wand before me, wouldn't you!" Veyron yelled as the order of turns got set. "That is not true Veyron! I never.." And while Sigment wanted no part of this, it was too late to go back. This duel would happen whether he played his cards or not. Veyron most certainly did, he had drawn a hand of five already. "You really are serious." The synchro champion grunted. "Of course! More than you are! You said that this wasn't personal! But its been personal from the start! These are my friends under attack! My family! That is why we cannot work together! But you can't complain. Because whoever wins will become the sole owner of the World Wand. That would be the best solution! So Sigment, this is happening!"
(To Be Continued in World 039: Asynchronous Artifact)
