World 055: All Irons in One Fire
It had been several days now, when one day already felt like too much. But they would not let her out, they intended to keep her where they could see her... even if she never saw them. This was supposed to be her room: a room designed like it belonged to a princess. But it was far too large, far too pristine and she rarely could change it in any way she wanted. They owned this whole area, like they owned her. She rarely met anyone or received visitors. She was not allowed to go to a public school and had to be privately tutored. And whenever she wanted to go to any place that was not just the family garden, she had to be accompanied by several bodyguards. Now she was not even allowed the one she liked, now they did not even want her to go outside. The only people she saw now where the maids tending to her meals and clothes, who might as well have been robots. But now.. after all this time wasted, a man showed up. "How does it feel to be back here, Nakana Shintaro? Or do I call you Yoro-Himiko still?"
"You." Nakana recognized the voice of this man standing outside the front door. "You are mister Hikaru." It belonged to he who came down into STHEREA. "I am surprised that you bothered to remember my name." He laughed bitterly. "What is the meaning of this? Why are you here now? Have I not been punished enough?" She growled at the man, finally being able to shout her anger at someone who deserved it. "Not as far as they are concerned. You spent far too much time in that world, 'Himiko'. You did not only disobey Shintaro, you endangered them with your questions." Hikaru chided her. "Then it was their mistake for allowing me to enter in the first place. Because I finally saw how mistreated I had been once I saw more than their world!" Nakana shouted. "A mistake? How dare you question their judgment. Every action they take has been part of a greater plan that you are too ungrateful to see." He snapped. The man barely restrained his own anger at this point as well. "Is that why you are here? To lecture me on this masterplan of theirs? As if I was ever more than a cog in their machine?"
"Heh. I am here to tell you that your 'friends' will be coming for you." He answered. "My.. friends? How.. How do you know this?" The very thought of it seemed impossible to her. "You will see soon enough. Just like you will see your parents soon enough. Practice some patience, Himiko. Everything is going the way they had planned."
...
In another part of the world, one more duelist tried to make a connection with the family he rarely saw. "Hellohello. Who is this I am speaking too." The voice that came through the phone brought back memories he did not even know he still possessed. "Gwen... Mom.. it's me. Charles." It'd been so long, it felt odd to talk to her on a first-name basis, even if that's what he'd been doing in the past all the time. "Charlie? Oh my god. It's been.. Are you alright? We got so many stories about you, but we never..." She naturally seemed to be overwhelmed, which she was not often. "I am fine. Honest... I was just busy. What.. what stories did you hear about?" He could not imagine what she'd gone through. "Huh? Oh. Some big company called us.. Exeter, right? They told me you were recruited for some special assignment. Arthur said it had something do to with your dueling skills. I'm sorry that he's not here right now." She explained. His father had always been a little more interested in the games he played than his mother, despite his busy work schedule. But either way one thing was clear... Exeter had not told them the truth. "You could say I was recruited yeah." It was probably better that way.
"So that's what is keeping you busy? Charles.. I dont know how to feel about this. Arthur was proud, but it sounded strange to me.. I know a lot of bizarre things have been happening lately. And they did not want to answer too many questions, those people. You are not in any trouble are you?" Of course, she was perceptive in other ways. She could likely tell how her son felt due to the way he talked. "It's nothing I cannot handle. We cannot handle. I have friends to help me now." He assured her, downplaying the reality of the situation. He could not ask her to help, what good would it do? "I just thought you wanted to hear from me. I do not have a lot of time otherwise. You're doing alright too I hope?" That part at least was true. "Of course. Everything is okay here. But gosh, it sounds like you're doing something actually important. It's nice to know that you're making new friends there at least. I am sure they know more about this stuff than I do. But if you ever need anything, or if you ever just want to talk. You know how to get to us."
"I know. Thanks.. Mom." Charles sighed. He really did wish he could have told her more, or just stayed on the line longer... Because he did not know if he would be coming back from this next 'mission'. And he did not have a lot of time left before it started...
"Well that was not so hard, was it?" Cherry mumbled as Charles walked out of the communication room and met with the duelist outside. "You heard that?" He winced. "Only the sappy stuff." She replied, rolling her eyes. "Heh. Well you are welcome to use it yourself." He offered, slightly aware of her family situation. "What? Those fakers? Thanks but no thanks. They don't care about me. They let those jerks arrest me in the first place. Besides I am not the one going on a suicide mission." She laughed. "You are not? I though the lab managed to create a new avatar for you. Are you staying with the champions then?" Charles knew that of the four champions, two had decided to stay behind and supervisethe remaining duelists within STHEREA. Only Heleil would be joining their journey into Shintaro's closed world. "I'll think of something to do. You'll see. Besides you have Tycho to back you up. I am sure that will go swimmingly."
"I..hope so. Just keep in mind that STHEREA itself is not very safe right now either. You heard what happened to Donna right?" The fact that Static had tried to steal the Armor back while everyone was distracted with his 'demands' did not surprise him. But what happened as a result still came as a great shock. "Oh yeah. Donna. That was messed up. Did anyone checked in on her? Or Scura and Vigionaire for that matter?" Cherry was at least concerned about them. "Apparently the dueltainer club has told Exeter that Donna got expelled from the network just a while ago. She's in a deep sleep, with no signs of waking up, so we do not know if she suffered any major sideeffects from.. well the way that last duel ended. Giganoto is heading there personally to watch over her. As for the others, they are still trapped inside the STHEREA barrier. And according to all the experts here, there is no way to safely remove them without giving them permanent braindamage. But Echo has promised to take care of that.. If Hydra turned out alright, then there must be a way to save them too. Though.. at this point I do not know if I would want to save all of them..."
...
"Zettai? Were you not... Hey?!" Scarlet fever barely got sentence out before the ace duelist grabbed her by the collar and slammed her against the wall. "Did you know what would happen to Donna?!" Zettai yelled in her face. "I see you have been informed." The vampire duelist answered callously. "Answer the question! Or I will start shooting!" Zettai tossed her to the floor and took out her cannon. "Oh dear. And I thought Donna had a bad temper." Scarlet sighed, crawled back up and dusted off her coat. "No. I had no idea that my treatment would have caused the exact opposite of what I wanted to happen. It was intended to suppress the ego of Donna, to contain her human self in case her virtual self weakened. But the willpower of the mind is stronger than I anticipated, the feedback overloaded her avatar and caused it to collapse."
"Then what happened to her? Where is she now?" Zettai asked with narrowed eyes and even narrower aim. "I do not know. It is likely that her consciousness has been reintegrated with the real Donna, who will soon be waking up back in their world. It is truly regrettable that it came to this. I told her that I wanted to do more tests, but she insisted on using the treatment first." The red woman shook her head. "Regrettable? You do not sound like you mean that. Why would you care, you got more of your precious data out of this." Zettai spat and finally dismissed her weapon. "Hm, and you did care for her. How very curious, but perhaps also admirable. Staticmay have freed your inhibitions, but compassion does not seem to be one of them." A fascinated Scarlet stared the ace down. "You will not make me into your next subject, Scarlet. And if I find out that you have been lying to me, I will be back.. to make sure this never happens again. I thought that we would have been able to face the new future together, that our only enemy would be the inhumane and artificial." Zettai turned her back towards the former doctor. "But I see now that I was mistaken about that..." She left the dungeon to prepare for her new purer mission.
...
Static Void opened up the world of hyperspace with the power of the Ark, and expanded the twisted dimensions around his Arena Beyond. "Have they arrived yet?" There Zettai re-appeared, others already waited for her: everyone from Schwarzwald to Wagnerok. None of them seemed broken up about Donna's defeat either. "Nope! I bet you can't wait to join them eh?" Khan sneered at the ace duelist. He still could not believe that she had accepted the Black Barons proposal of going with the heroes into this new unknown world. "Are you trying to imply disloyalty? Your own supposed allies tried to take us down, those friends of the forums." Zettai shot him a scathing look back. "Oh you mean that rabble outside? They just need an enemy. Half of them still think this is all some new game. Not everything has to be serious."
"They're here." Void raised his voice. He sensed a handful of duelists entering his domain: Charles, Crescent, Tycho, Heleil and the Fisherman. "So some of you decided to come after all. Not the whole bundle, but I did not expect that coward Echo to be here anyway." He clapped his hands to greet the heroes and their one ADI friend. "Lady Echo has entrusted this mission to me. I will act in her stead, Static." The Fisherman proclaimed. He too agreed with what Olympia said before, that this area seemed far too dangerous to let her venture into. "A great terror waits for us out there, something more heinous than Static. Of all the memories Echo could see, she never found one about Himiko's mother or father. That has to mean something."
"Yeah it's not as if this guy is all that terrifying either. Heh! So you're the bastard Charles keeps talking about eh? You should have stolen a better face." Tycho snapped with more than half a mind to give the dreaded Static Void a good first impression. "And you are Alpha the Conqueror and the First Flame. Such fancy titles. But what have you accomplished so far? If you are here, that must you are not yet satisfied." Static took an interest in this newcomer to the beyond, though the man did not reciprocate. "I know what you are selling to these people." Tycho scoffed at him and his 'allies'. "But I do not need it, I am Tycho and always will be. I am only here because you are going to bring us to the people at the heart of Exeter's corruption. We will deal with you later."
"What does that say about you, if you intend to make use of our supposedly vile powers? Everyone is corrupt, Tycho Rivers. You cannot escape that." Veyron suddenly spoke up. "Veyron?!" Charles gasped, as it had been the first time he saw the speed duelist in days. His appearance shocked Blanche and Crescent as well. "Do not act too surprised. We have all evolved." He now wore a fully black racing suit and had grown a thin black beard. He looked a lot more like his brother now. "Yeah but did you have to hurt Sigment?" Blanche snapped at him. "To obtain this? Yes." Veyron countered by revealing the Wand. "I wanted to share my power with someone who knows how to channel it now. Zettai would have been my choice, but it would seem she is headed into dangerous territory. Instead I let Void use the Wand with me. And together we have found your target." He and Static chuckled simultaneously. "What? You have?" This news surprised Charles. "It was a simple thing. The World Wand records every sound ever spoken in STHEREA. We simply focused on all conversations that involved the Shintaros, Mister Renner and Exeter. Eventually it lead us to one location.."
"That one!" Static took over the Wand and pointed it at the sky, together with the power of the Ark and the dimensions of hyperspace he could open a portal to their destination. Even without the Chalice, he could maintain this local opening for some time.
"My turn!" Wagnerok used his own power of the World Shield to add solidity to what everyone was about to see. And that turned out to be a large Japanese-style castle. "That's it? That's where Himiko lives?" Crescent had no idea what to expect, but this seemed extravagant even for her. It looked bigger than a castle of that type could reasonably be. "Hahaha! It is just like you to take everything at face-value. But what you are seeing is not real, Aurora." Wagnerok guffawed. "Those people have their own virtual world, and it automatically defends anyone or anything from trying to reach them digitally. They wanted us to find it! It is a scary place, right? You do not have to go there, Aurora! You can stay with me! You know you wont be of any help there anyway!" He was in a good mood, but Crescent did not let that get to her. "I helped Therese. I am going to help Himiko. And you too, Wagner... Zettai." She tactfully declined his offer. "What? If you keep spurning me, maybe I should go with you too?!" He did not take it well.
"We have already decided that it would be me who goes with them." Zettai cut him off. "Whatever she believes will happen does not matter. We have wasted enough time talking." She hissed at him and everyone else who looked ready to break out into a duel. "Yes. Let's get this done with." Charles could agree with Zettai on that, at the very least. "We will be going now. But mark my words, Static. We will be back. We will find a way to stop you too."
"I look forward to it. But before you go, why not show yourself Hydra?" Static Void turned his attention to a figure on his left. "Hmph. I guess it was too much to hope for a free passage." The invisible duelist gave up on his stealth approach and jumped down to the middle stage. "Of course. Why did you think you could fool me in your current state, when even your proxies could not? You have only gotten weaker, Hydra. But I will allow to join in on the hunt. I assume my dear Schwarzwald will lose no sleep over your future." Static gave the baron a glance, and he passed a smirk back to his master. "No I thought not. We have ourselves a party then. I hope you have fun." Static placed his hands together and started gathering energy inside the Ark. "Do not have too much fun yourself, Static." Hydra handed out one last taunt before an explosion of light consumed him and the others. The Ark moved beyond the hyperspace world and into the Shintaro's closed network.
...
The duelists safely made their way across thousands of miles before they could even blink. All seven set foot on the outside of the Shintaro castle at the same time. "I guess he did not feel like giving us a heads-up." Heleil cursed, feeling slightly disoriented from the trip. "We made it. That is what matters. Now we need to find a way inside." Charles began investigating their surroundings. Behind them lied nothing but white mountains and gray hills stretched out underneath a hyperspace skyline. In front of them sat a giant moat and high walls to defend the stronghold. "Is there even a way inside? It's not like we can just log off and expect to pop out in whatever place they use to log in." Tycho knew a thing or two about going into closed systems, but this felt different.
"The ark is still in effect, waiting for us to dispose of this barrier. As soon as we can shut it down, we should be able to phase into reality with the powers we currently have." Zettai stepped forward onto the bridge and glared at the closed gates. "These will not stop us..." A castle's defenses meant nothing to one who could fly. "...?" And that she could no longer do. "My mods?" The second she ventured further into their territory, she lost control over all of her own modifications and every power she'd gained since joining Static. "What is happening?"
"It is not just you." The Fisherman muttered, having failed to manipulate the flowing water in the moats below. "The very nature of this place contrasts with that of STHEREA or the subconscious realm." He imagined that none of them would be able to do much more than a normal human could. "Yes. We can see that." Hydra had his own kind of malfunction. His invisibility shorted out and left him as a faceless featureless blue-eyed avatar standing among the others. "This place reminds me of the fake cities that Exeter guarded, a virtual world created to imitate real life as closely as possible." He might have been able to keep his cloak up if he'd been able to use his proxies instead of his own spirit body.
"I know what you are referring too. I feel the same. I wonder what came first, this place or those sectors Hansen showed us." Heleil sighed. Just a few weeks ago she'd been helping Exeter cover it all up. "My comlink has also gone down. But.. at least we still have these." She touched the dueldisk attached to her arm. "If this is supposed to be a trap, it could have been worse."
"Maybe we should split up and look for a way in. I do not think whoever owns this place would want us to stand outside their door forever. We can go in teams of two to three." With a count of seven duelists and a lot of corners to inspect. "I knew one of you would come up with an idea like that. Well, I am going one way and if anyone wants to follow me. That is their choice." Tycho had his own idea on how to get inside and stormed off. "Tycho!" Charles tried to get him to stop, but that worked about as well now as it did any other time. "It's fine. I will go with him." Crescent offered freely. "I guess. Just keep in mind that he is a bit on edge right now." He warned her. "He just wants to find answers. I can understand that. I can take care of it." She smiled back and pursued the hotheaded duelist.
"You are fortunate that I have allowed this, Charles Adami. But I know you would not do anything to destroy this truce." Zettai scoffed. "There is only one I do not trust right now. The rest can do as they please as long as they report back to me when they find a way in or anything else that can be useful." The ace approached the Fisherman. "I see your hatred for my kind has still not abated." The ADI said with a grimace. "Charles Adami. This arrangement suits me as well. We will return shortly, hopefully." He did not know if they could find anything, but he would check out the area behind the castle. If Zettai wanted to come, she could be his guest.
"Then I suppose it is the three of us who will take the front door. If it even opens up. So no sense in wasting time then." The Pendulum champion took a careful first step across the bridge, anticipating trouble with each passing second. "So far so good." The center stronghold could be reached in a matter of minutes at this walking speed, and they did not have a faster mode of transport currently. "Well if nothing else, it might be good to stretch our virtual legs. Or does it feel different for you two?" Heleil glared at both Hydra and Charles, who could not be considered avatars anymore at this point. "I feel heavier than normal actually, but everything to me feels as real as before." Charles explained. At the start it all seemed like a very vivid dream, but now he could barely tell the difference between both realities.
"It is the same for me. I should know, I spent the last hour actually stretching my legs in the physical world." Hydra confessed. "Wait? You logged off? You can do that? I thought your body got stolen?" Heleil flinched. "Only my virtual self, my identity as the Black baron. But after my duel with Donna, I discovered that I could wake myself up by simply willing it. Or to be more specific, I imagined that the dueldisk I carry now works the same way as a dueldisk attached to a player avatar. That said, I am not sure if that ability still works in a space like this." Hydra was not about to try either. "But I do believe that these people were probably trying to achieve something similar: a world as lifelike as their own... but with none of the hurdles and limits of the physical body. I admit, I would be tempted as well... I was tempted in fact. Exeter, Millennium: they all crave the same... Hold on." Hydra stopped just a few feet away from the gate. "Someone is coming!" He saw a lone figure at the end of the path.
...
The same enemy type popped up in front of Tycho and Crescent as they found a smaller gate in the castle's left wall. "You cannot pass. Return, or face the consequences." A wooden soldier stood at the top of the gate in a tower, observing the two duelists with three mechanical scope eyes. "Karakuri Soldier model 236." Crescent realized that this was guardian was also based on a card. "Is this the best they can do to slow us down? Just one ADI guard?" Tycho could not see this thing posing much of a challenge. "It may be a test instead. A trial to see if we are worthy to go further." Crescent reasoned. "Bah! So they are playing games with us? We aren't worthy at all if they're only sending in drones! Or rather, they care more about these artificial products than the lives of other humans! Or even their own daughter. So maybe mister or miss Shintaro himself will make a peep, when I break their precious toy!" The fiery duelist activated his dueldisk and took out his Salamangreat cards. "But they challenged the wrong guy! Because I am not playing around anymore!"
...
"Excuse me. Got room for one more?" Said Cherry Anise as she invited herself to the virtual Exeter offices. Appearing just in time to see Echo, Cierze and Mephistar preparing to take off. "You?" Therese Hansen was present as well, and she would never have thought to see her face again. "Wow. Rude." The Trickstar duelist fet welcome already. "You will have to forgive me. The last time we saw each other, you were cheering others on to destroy me in a duel." The Exeter duelist had a good memory for events like those. "Oh? Did I? Well, that was more Tycho's idea and not mine. And you let him back in. Or wait.. let me guess, he didn't talk to you yet. Funny, I'd have figured he would love to check this place out." The Trickstar duelist snickered.
"Cherry? Cherry Anise? You've come back?" Echo remembered this girl very well too, in happier terms. "Heh. Yeah yeah, fixing an avatar is easy when you're not part of STHEREA apparently. Had to change my look back to my usual getup all over again though." Cherry seemed rather attached to her bright yet dark punkrock aesthetic. "But I am here to help whatever the not-Tycho and Charles party is doing." She was tired of seeing their faces anyway. "Can we trust you?" Mephistar grunted. "Sure you can! As if I even have any ideas about how to restore Millennium or whatever. That hope's been torpedoed to death. I just don't want STHEREA itself to go down under too." She knew a thing or two about traveling through subconscious layer after all. "Oh. Okay. That is alright with me, Cherry... I am glad to have you." Echo nodded. "Because this time... we will be going where no one has gone before."
(To Be Continued in World 056: In Their Own Image)