World 043: Where Stars and Mountains Meet

"You have all waited for this, but now the time has come." Static began his address at the top of the Tower Beyond with the legacy items at his side. "The power of the World Wand will complete this arena, so that it truly can go beyond!" Almost all the duelists of his inner circle were present: from Scarlet Fever to Chiaroscura to Veyron and so forth. "It will pierce the boundary between thought and matter, making this world as solid as the one you came from. Then all your desires will truly be realized. Ezra's mistake was to build a new paradise. The real kingdom of treasures lies up there!" The clouds parted above his head, revealing the planet earth. "And it is ours!" He grabbed the World Wand and shot its energy down into the floor. "The game is over! We have won!" The whole place began to rumble as it rose upwards, dozens of levels were added underneath to lengthen this reverse tower of Babel. They got closer and closer, until the bright blue globe dominated the skies.

And then... it stopped.

"...Soooo, are the worlds merged now?" After a long period of silence, Chiaroscura decided to open her mouth. "Because if that's what a world fusion looks like, that was kinda lame." She had wanted to see a kind of apocalypse the likes of which no man could imagine. But outside of the tower's growth spurt, they got nothing. "No it has not happened yet." Scarlet Fever did not detect anything different with any of her tools either. "There is some local build up distorting energy, but it has about the same qualities as one would get when they activate the World Ark by itself. There is no chance of a global merger this way."

"I knew it. It was all a big big of nothing!" Donna growled. "No. The legacy items should be doing something when they are all together!" Wagnerok protested. "But they are not, are they?" Khan glared at the one who had caused them to lose the Chalice. "We did not need it anymore. Or were you wrong, Static?" And Schwarzwald passed the mystery on to the one at the center of the seven items.

But Static did not hear them. "Damn you." He was lost in his own anger, and vented it out into the open. "When will you be satisfied! When will it be enough to end this damn game of yours!" Because Static knew He would listen. "Who has to be satisfied? The Creator?" The other Item wielders like Veyron still knew little about the one who made the seven items. "That guy still exists? Why aren't we going after him to beat him up then?" Donna grinned, preferring the the simplest solution as always. "He is beyond our reach. And this is his game. I have never understood his demands. Does he want the seven to be together after all? Are there more than seven items after all? Do you need to win them instead of trading them? It does not matter. I will do anything to win, starting with the retrieval of the chalice." Right now Static could only assume that Charles counted as the true owner of the Chalice. And at the very least, he could pay him a more thorough visit now that the Arena Beyond had been upgraded..

...

"Echo! Echo!" Cierze cried out her name in distress the same way one would shout in the middle of a long deep cave. "They have Olympia!" The Harpy and Tycho safely returned to Pandemonium's Ghostrick museum... Only they returned.

"We know." And when they came back they were met with equally miserable faces. "Huh? What is that supposed to mean? What happened?" Tycho asked the one person who did not seem to be silenced by recent events: Scarlet Rose. "We saw your duel with mister Hikaru. While you were gone, the Shintaro family sent their envoy to come and make a bargain for the life of the Fire Princess. I advised against making it, but Echo agreed. You only just now missed the envoy warping away with it." She explained. "With what? What did she agree to give up? What did... No, don't tell me.." The fiery duelist quickly caught on to what item had been removed from the area. "You gave them the Chalice!?"

"I had to! I could not lose Olympia as well. She finally found her own name... I care more about her than I do the legacy items." Echo wistfully stood by her decision. "So you just handed it off to them in exchange for her? Why did you think they would you think they'd honor their end of the deal?" Tycho could not believe this: the Legacy Item would have been their best bargaining chip. "Why would they lie?" Cierze nevertheless fully supported Echo's decision. "I do not see her, do you?! "Tycho was less naive and more frustrated. "They said they will return her, once they are certain that the chalice I gave them is the real one." Echo told them. The Shintaros had to get some assurances, seeing as how some of the items had been forged before."Rgh. You practically gave them that weapon for nothing!"

"It was not nothing." Another mans voice interrupted him. "They got me out of it." The voice of a gunslinger in chains. "Mephistar! You came back!" Cierze happily discovered. "I did not come back. Those people captured me after I lost the duel with the black baron. But they released me again because they said they would get more use out of the Fire Princess. Nothing happened the way I wanted it to." Mephistar stated gloomily.

"Wait? Mephistar? Sundown Mephistar? One of the Pandemonium duelists?" Tycho vaguely recognized the former Musketeer duelist. "That is who I used to be.. " He had changed a little since then. "Tch. But those people, do you know anything about them?" Tycho had heard from Charles that Sundown's story was complicated, but he did not care about that as much as he did about the Shintaros. "No. I was in the dark the whole time while they did their strange tests. I never saw a face or heard a voice.." The chained duelist could say little. "And they just let you go? Doesn't anyone see anything wrong with that?" Tycho growled.

"The question you should be asking, Tycho.. is how they knew where to collect the item in the first place." The Fisherman spoke up this time and stared at Tycho with wary eyes. After all, the chalice had traded hands many times in the last few hours alone, neither Sundown nor anyone on the outside should have been able to guess that Echo currently possessed it. "What? You think I told them? How? I didn't know you had it until I met you! And Cierze was with me the whole time! Charles did not tell them about the chalice either!" Tycho could at least vouch for that. "Unless..." But who he could not vouch for.. were the people that let him come here in the first place.

"...Scarlet, remove the program." Tycho raised his arm and showed the 'doctor' his bracelet. "Oh? You know that you can activate it yourself, can't you?" Before Tycho took off he had asked Scarlet Rose to see if she could remove the bracelet from his arm. He got no luck there since it seemed to be a permanent part of his new avatar. Still, she could still place a blockade program on top of it that would prevent outside signals from triggering the escape function too early. And he had an inkling that he'd been holding back such a signal for a while now. "Yes, I know. Don't know when I'm coming back however. This has been... educational, but where I am going you cannot help me with." He had to see if if he had in fact pushing back his departure from STHEREA. "Oh I would not be so sure of that." Scarlet Rose smiled with her fused lips and terminated her program with a single button push. "Wait, what does that..."

...

"...Mean?" Experiencing his most jarring transition yet, Tycho found himself back inside the VR pods of the science base. "Hm? Did you say something?" Renner and a few other scientists were there in the room with him and they opened the pod doors for him. "Nothing.. where are the others?" Tycho did not like being alone with these people. "Back in the restroom, they needed to rest and recover. So do you. You should know that we have been trying to call you back for a while now, we were worried your avatar had malfunctioned." One of them exposited, making it sound as if they had no idea that the bracelet had been tampered with. He knew better. "Oh?" He knew not to run his mouth right now either. "Well I will tell you all about what happened, once I am back with them." He did not know what Scarlet Rose hinted at, but he figured that it would happen soon. So he had to buy time. "Ah, you still do not trust us completely. That is fair." At the very least his paranoia did not seem more odd than usual to them. "We will show you."

Along the way Tycho made note of several facts. One: people were staring at the screens a lot more than usual. Two: there were less guards in the hallways, and only one of had the time to escort him and Renner. "Did I miss anything?" He playfully asked. "Hmm, yes you might have noticed some increased activity. STHEREA has been giving off a lot of strong readings lately, as has our pocket network. We expect more incursions from our friends in the virtual world, inexplicable as they as of yet are. But fear not, we have spread out our security to defend our critical areas." Renner gave a clear enough answer. Was that the thing Scarlet referred too, would Static strike again soon now that he had the seventh item?

Either way, he would share his thoughts with the only ones he could trust. "Tycho!" Charles and Cherry were indeed there inside the great white room, safe and sound. "That was shorter than expected. I thought they would have to drag you out." Cherry snarked at him as usual, while Charles could tell that Tycho had a serious look on his face. "Something has gone wrong, hasn't it?"

"More wrong than right. Blanche got out, and so did Crescent. There, that was the good news. The bad news is that Veyron went and joined your old friends in the Static club, so now he has the World Wand as well. Then Zettai came along and kicked my ass, even though I managed to regain some of my old cards. And she says Static is planning to use the power of the legacy items to merge both worlds together or something like that." At this point, Tycho could actually believe that part. "That part was real?" Cherry most certainly did, and she would have liked that notion if it did not also mean all the bad people in STHEREA coming along for the ride. "You dueled Zettai? And she let you get away?" If anything, that part sounded the least likely. Charles knew Zettai as a woman of extreme measures, he could not imagine her moral-free counterpart to show mercy. "Yes! She seems to be the only one of them who's smart enough to question having to work for Static. She just teleported away after.. the other thing happened."

"What other thing?" Renner spoke up.

At which point everything went dark. And while everyone else let out a cry of surprise, Tycho realized that this was his chance. He grabbed that chance by tackling the one enforcer. "What?! Tycho, stop this at once!" Renner shouted. But by the time the emergency power kicked in and the room got filled with red lights, Tycho had knocked out the guard and taken his gun away. "Sorry. No can do. Now why don't you be nice and get us out of here." He snickered as he pointed the weapon at the two researchers. "You do not make the demands here, Tycho." Renner, unlike his colleague, refused to be intimidated. He had a 'weapon' of his own by his side. "Huh? Are you deaf or stupid? What is that thing gonna do?" Tycho saw the scientist hold up a dueldisk and scoffed.

"Hey hey hey! What the hell is going on? How the hell did you do that?" The standoff left Cherry utterly bewildered. "What? I actually train my body, unlike some people." He'd managed to overpower the enforcer with sheer brute force. These people were too dependent on their technology to put up a proper fight. "Not that! The power outage!" The trickstar duelist yelled. "Oh that. Well that surprised me too. I figure its something your friend Scarlet came up with to help me get the upper hand. To help us."

"Scarlet." Charles grunted. He could have figured she had a hand in this. "But why now? We need this place." If the power had gone out permanently, they would have lost their chance to go back to STHEREA. "Because these bozos have been using us." Tycho growled as he kept the gun pointed in their direction. "Some guy named Hikaru showed up, and took away one of Echo's friends. The Fire Princess. Then some other big wigs called Echo and forced her to trade the Chalice for the life of her friend. And the only way they could have known all of that, is if these people have been spying on us for the whole trip. So they lied to us! They arent working for any official organization! They're chumming it up with the Shintaro family!"

"The Shintaro family?! Himiko's family?! It wasn't enough that they kidnapped their own daughter?" Cherry cursed. She'd heard about Himiko's unfortunate fate from Charles. "I knew there was a catch. It was too convenient for them to recall me at the exact right time." Charles shook his head. Tycho'd been right all along. "Then the game is up."

"Yes your friend did quite some damage. She inserted a basic virus into Tycho's avatar and that was enough to infect our network when he returned. We should not have under-estimated her current capabilities." Renner said as he finished looking at his dueldisk to analyze what exactly had gone wrong. "I told you to put that thing away. Or else.." Tycho pulled the trigger, intending to fire a warning shot. "What the!?" Instead the laser that came out ricocheted off of an invisible barrier. "You were saying?" Renner smirked. "I suggest you sit back down. Coms and cameras are down, but people will come in to check on us soon enough. I am willing to overlook this transgression for now, if you behave." He seemed to have the situation under control.

Charles' LP: 8000 Renner's LP: 8000

-TURN 01-

"What if I dont feel like behaving?" Charles said. "Huh?" Every head turned to him. "What? Am I supposed to ignore a dueldisk when I see one?" He grinned as he sent the challenge towards Renner. "Dueling me would be quite pointless, mister Adami. This is not STHEREA, there is no outcome to this that would force me to follow your wishes." Renner claimed. "Yet you were awfully quick to grab your own cards when danger presented itself, mister Renner. So maybe there is some pressure to create here after all. Though I am surprised you even know how to wield that thing." So he normal summoned the four-armed cyberse AntiAlian(4/1900/600) [Zone 3] to his field with no explanation at all and placed a spell card face down. "See my theory is that your forcefield only stays up as long as you can duel, sorta like an anti-interference barrier. That and.. I have felt very this strange urge to use my cards ever since Tycho got back. Something has changed, and you know it. Renner. So this is happening whether you want it or not."

-TURN 02-

"Heh. Easy is not what this will be. Or did you think that 'dueling' would not be a part of our overall study?" Though the rather stiffly moving Renner did not seem to be used to holding or drawing cards, he did clearly know what to do with them. He normal summoned his first monster with little difficulty: an armored samurai(5/2100/1000) [Zone 5] with a white fox helmet and nine red foxtails behind his back. "I believe you normally you need a tribute for a level 5. However, Tenma the Sky Star, can be normal summoned without tributes when my opponent alone controls a monster. And when it is summoned, it allows me to special summon one warrior-type monster of the earth attribute." The warrior from above created a platform of light for the warrior from below: a spear-wielding samurai(5/2100/1000) [Zone 5] wearing wolf's fur and blue armor. "And this is Hayate the Earth Star, who allows me to special summon one warrior-type monster of the light attribute." The wolf warrior pointed his spear down at the earth and prepared it for the next warrior from above. "I choose Kaiki the Unity Star. When this card is summoned, I may pay 500 lifepoints to start a fusion summon." Kaiki(5/1000/2100) [Zone 1] appeared on the other end in his purple samurai armor. A demonic face marked Kaiki's chestplate and he carried a cross of great arrows on his back. "I fuse Tenma the Sky Star in my hand with Kaiki to summon Idaten the Conqueror Star!"

Renner's LP: 7500

"A fusion summon with two level 5 warriors..." Charles's opponent exceeded his expectations already. Kaiki merged himself with the foxmasked Tenma, and merged both light warriors into a samurai(10/3000/2200) [Extra Zone 1] of both the heavens and land. A furlined red cape, long purple dressrobes and a full crimson/purple armor complete with a horncrested helmet gave Idaten a fearsome appearance. "Idaten owns three effects. One, it can add one level 5 warrior from the deck to my hand." Renner said and drew another Hayate Earth Star from his deck. "Two, it can discard cards to increase its attackpoints by 200." He went on to discard Hayate to empower the Conquerer(3200/2200). "Three, any monster with a lower level will have its attack reduced to zero when it battles Idaten. I find these variables acceptable." Renner smirked and, as an added insurance, activated the continuous spell of Supply Squad. "The battle phase will begin! Idaten attacks AntiAlian!"

"And I activate Security Block! This turn I take no damage, and my cyberse cannot be destroyed!" Charles acted quick, and placed the red and green security shield in front of the AntiAlian. Idaten rained down light energy like falling stars, but Charles' monster held its ground safely behind the shield. "And when Antialian battles another monster, I can normal summon one extra cyberse!" Charles shouted as he summoned a cybernetic ant(3/1500/1500) [Zone 4] with a dimensional bottle grid for an abdomen. "A normal summoned Cliant adds 500 points to all my cyberse!" The ant lit up its many lights and bathed itself(2000/2000) and Antialian(2400/1100) in a warm blue glow. "Is that a Klein bottle? Hm, how amusing. I may be the first opponent you have that can appreciate all your cards on a scientific level, mister Adami. That said, I do believe your Security Block only applies to the first monster I attacked." Renner silently ordered Hayate the Earth Star to strike down the Cliant with its sharp spear.

Charles' LP: 7900

However, the tip of the spear disappeared inside Cliant's dimensional light. "Cliant can redirected its destruction to another cyberse in my hand! I destroy ROM Cloudia!" When Hayate retracted his weapon, he discovered that it had killed a black cybersheep(4/1800/0) instead. "Now that ROM Cloudia is destroyed, I can special summon one cyberse from my deck." At this point Charles wanted to test a theory. "I summon.. Cyberse Synchron!" He wanted to see just how much of his virtual deck existed in this world. "The tuner!?" And Renner received a big shock when it actually managed to work, Charles got his hands on a card that should not have existed in this world: the ringdroid Cyberse Synchron(1/100/100) [Zone 4]. That made the researcher slip up, just like Charles had hoped. "So you do recognize it. How can that be, if you lost contact with me by the time I was dueling again?" Charles smirked. "Hmph. So I lied. That is all you will hear from me. I set two cards and end this turn."

-TURN 03-

"Sir, what about me?" At this point the other scientist in the room wanted to interject, seeing as how Tycho still pointed the gun at him as well. Yet Renner ignore him. "Oh. Wait let me guess, that forcefield does not extend towards you." Tycho got a big grin on his face. "Okay then, you and me are going for a little trip!" He approached the man and forced him to raise his hands. "Tycho... What are you doing?" Charles asked as he drew his card. "Not letting you steal all the action is what, chill, I have a plan. We'll be back before you know it." He claimed as he led the researcher out the room. I have no choice, sir." The man apologized to Renner before leaving..

"I dont know what he's thinking, but I cant stop him. I can stop you however." Charles declared and used AntiAlian as a link material for the robot made of floating segments: Link Disciple(500/LINK 1) {Down} [Extra Zone 2]. Then, because Charles controlled a link monster, he could special summon the cyberkite Link Infra Flier(3/0/1800) [Zone 4] from his hand to its bottom marker. "Cyberse Synchron doubles the level of my other cyberse monster! I target the Flier, so I can tune them both!" Once she'd been prepared, the Link Infra kite(6/0/1800) flew through the hoop-body of Cyberse Synchron and transformed into six stars of light. The tuner then formed a tunnel of seven rings where the starlight collided at the end to release the synchro summoned dragon of cyberspace: Cyberse Quantum Dragon(7/3000/2500) [Zone 4]. "Cyberse..Quantum." Renner stared at it with look of awe. "...is even more magnificent in person. Is that what you want to say?"

"Hey, where do you even get all these cards from?" Cherry wondered, seeing as how these cards had definitely not been a part of any physical cyberse packs. "This is not a normal duel anymore, Cherry. Maybe you cannot feel it because your avatar got broken. But I still feel as if I am inside STHEREA somehow, and my dueldisk can create cards that are not physical. I cannot really explain it. That said, not all of my cards are like this." Charles normal summoned the multi-weapon army droid: Launcher Commander(4/2200/1700). Its effect added 300 attack and defense points to all other cyberse like the Quantum Dragon(3300/2800) and Cliant(2300/2300), and it also had an activate-able effect. "Launcher Commander tributes one cyberse to destroy one monster you control! Hayate can negate one attack by lowering its attackpoints, so I will get rid of it first" The Commander took the Link Disciple as a sacrifice fuel for a missile salvo, and each rocket descended down upon Hayate the Earth Star. Though, thanks to Supply Squad, Renner did get to draw a card afterwards.

"Hm. But should you ignore my other cards?" Renner retorted with his own as of yet unseen effect. "Since Idaten has a level higher than 4, and an attack higher then normal, I can activate Kaiki the Unity Star from my graveyard. And during your turn, I can use its fusion effect as well!" The arrow shooting light samurai came jumped back out of the graveyard, and opened up another fusing maelstrom of contrasting elements.

Renner's LP: 7000

"The fusion materials are Idaten and a level 5 or higher warrior monster! I summon Shura the Combat Star!" This new crimson arrmored warrior(12/0/0) [Extra Zone 1] had the traits of all three Stars twisted into itself. Shura wielded a large clawed staff with four arms, carried arrows and black tails on its back, and glared at the field with the six eyes on it demonic and knightly faces. "The Combat Star owns three effects as well. During the battle phase, Shura can set the attackpoints of all monsters to zero!" The fused warrior used its second pair of hands to fire red energy draining blasts at Quantum Dragon(0/2800), Launcher Commander(0/1700) and Cliant(0/2300). "And when it battles, each monster gains 200 attackpoints times its level instead! Even if you destroy it, it will just summon Idaten back to the field!" Everything seemed to be in his favor.

"In that case. I will link summon the Update Jammer! It takes two level 3 or higher cyberse as the materials!" The Commander and Cliant disappeared, as did their powerboosts. Instead, Charles acquired a monster that reminded him of his current opponent: the greenhaired science kid(2000/LINK 2) {Up/Left} [Extra Zone 2] with his green labcoat and radar backpack. "Update Jammer will negate all effects that can activate during damage calculation. And Quantum Dragon can return any monster you control to the deck when it battles them! One way or another, you are trapped!" Charles started the attack. "Tch." Renner triggered Shura's effect anyway, to power down the Update Jammer(0 atk) and Quantum Dragon(0/2000). Yet the Jammer used his equipment to 'jam' Shura's remaining effects once the dragon smashed into him. Cyberse Quantum(2500/2000) and the Combat Star(0/0) would battle with their original attackpoints for this exchange. And when the clash ended, Shura had disappeared. And Renner also took an additional 1000 points of damage, due to the Update Jammer's second effect. "Now I do believe you owe me some information, mister Renner."

Renner's LP: 4500

"Heh. Very well. I admit that we were able to monitor you while you were in STHEREA. We witnessed all of yours, Cherry's and Alpha's interactions and duels. So that we could properly assess the status of the network." Renner stated unapologetically. "Yeah? Then why did you lie before?" Cherry snapped at him. They would have been forced to help them anyway. "Because then you would have warned her, and we did not want her to know who this facility truly serves." Renner smirked. "Himiko's family?" Charles guessed. "Heh. Even they are just a part of a greater system, Charles. You still know so little. But that is already too much. Mister Adami, I am affraid you will not leave this place again."

(To Be Continued in World 044: Take Our Time)

New Cards used by Charles Adami
Cliant

Cards used by Renner
Hayate the Earth Star
Tenma the Sky Star
Kaiki the Unity Star

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Idaten the Conqueror Star
Shura the Combat Star

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Supply Squad