World 071: Do Not Open Before Doomsday

"Maaaaaaaan! Where did everyone go?" Chiaroscura's voice echoed throughout her club. "We were having fun, weren't we? Why you all gotta be such killjoys?!" Hours earlier she'd been heaving the party of a century with the wildest duelists this side of the planet. They could drink anything they wanted, do anything they wanted. STHEREA would make it all and nobody could stop them. Yet now there were none to be spied within her domain, not a single hunk or sap. "I think you chased them away, Chiaroscura." Only he remained: Khan.. the greatest buzzkill of them all. "Youuuu. You did this? How? You aren't everyone's friend!" Chiaroscura rasped, nearly slurring her words due to her self-induced stupor. "Heh. I did not do anything. They wanted to strike out on their own. I only gave some of them a bigger and juicier target. And now I have finally found the motherload. We hit paydirt!" Khan experienced his own euphoria, and he had not even touched her various liquors or 'opiates'. "Meh. So did you just come here to gloat and throw big words at me?"

"No. I came here to give you a chance to do something worthwhile for once, Chiaroscura. We have all the time in the world to party. But we can also make a change in the world. They are still trying to smother us, and we have a chance to stop them! And a chance to break them wide open! So what do you say? If you help me, Static might even let you wield a Legacy Item again." Khan said as he held up the Chalice just to taunt her. "Yeah right. What is in this for you?" She did not trust it. Even right now she could tell he would never be this generous for no reason. "You're the only one of these fools I can actually tolerate. That's all." He replied with a condescending sneer. "Ha! You flatterer. Well alright, I am game.. So where are we headed?" She rolled off her couch and started laughing. "Heheh. To the motherload.."

...

"You know we were just about to come look for you, Bionis." Blanche said as she and her friends finally found himself in the presence of the real Bionis Khan. "Well you took too long. But I get it." He in turn cast a bitter glare towards Jenna/Scura in the background. "Some people are more popular than others. Let me guess, you even visited Zettai before me. Typical.. Then again, maybe I didn't want you to come drop by my place anyway. Next thing you know you'll want to know my real name too."

His glare was not the only one to be cast around the room however. "You should be glad our lady planned to visit you at all, after what happened." Cierze hissed, speaking for herself and Olympia and the Fisherman. She would not mention his name, but it was clear to whom she referred. "What? That wasn't me who did it! That was Khan! I didn't even know that really happened until I showed up back here! What do you want, an apology?" Bionis did not quite know how to handle their obvious resentment.

"Bionis, we know you are who you say you are. But you were about to say something about Khan. What is he up to? And how you do know about it? Because of your memories?" Charles reminded Bionis. Echo and him had not come all the way down to Exeter HQ just to hear him complain. "Memories? No, the last thing I remember before waking up was dueling you Charles. No wait.. you're calling yourself Charles right? I'll never get used to that. Ah whatever.. Khan incited all of my former buddies from the forums into a raiding frenzy. And they've been hitting place after place, slowly working their way up towards bigger governmental and military installations. Like I said, I am not sure what the endgoal is here, but I can promise you that it wont be anything good. As for how I know? Well that's easy... His pals are idiots. And I still have access to that seedy side of the network" Khan held up his phone. "This guy has announced every step on his blog. Tch,... IlluminatorOfTheDeep. I am always telling that guy to stop blabbering. But he never listens."

"And this is still happening right now?" Charles checked the blog for himself, everything seemed to match Bionis' claims. "Yeah, so the less time we spend talking about it, the better!" Bionis snapped the phone away again. "The people here have been taking action, Bionis. The investigation team has alerted every duelist and every branch of government. Exeter has called upon the help of tens of thousands of scientists and programmers to see if they can reverse what's happened." To be honest, this situation had gotten bigger than all of them combined. "Are you just gonna let them handle everything then? You think the feds or the cops can take down lunatics who can summon dragons and demons?" But Bionis could not accept that, not when it involved people he knew. "No. I was not saying that. But we cannot just interfere either..."

"Hey. Here is what what I don't get." Jenna spoke up. "Why is Static bothering with using duelists when he could be going after the big targets himself? Imagine what he could do if he converted a general or a worldleader." That's how she would have handled it, if she had that kind of power and no moral compass. "I would rather not imagine... But you have a point." Charles could not conceive of any reason for Static to be holding back now: when the whole world waited just outside his doorsteps. "He would draw too much attention to his plans if he did this himself, so maybe this is just a diversion. But that does not explain why we haven't heard of more cases like Ulysses or Victor. And every duelist so far has only gone after other duelists. It's almost as if... As if it only works on them. We were the ones that created him: the players of the network. Perhaps he needs people who have STHEREA avatars, who have a virtual body that he can control. And besides the Exeter staff, that is.. mostly us duelists."

"Interesting theory. That is an approach I would need to look at." Scarlet Rose interjected. "Meanwhile I have learned some facts of my own, with the help of Victor's data. The treatment miss Fever has given him took a lot of time and resources to make. That is also why the spread is stagnant, it is less like a disease and more like a poison. It wont be long though before she perfects her manufacturing system and removes the flaws from said poison." She estimated a rapid rise on victims at that point. "Well then it's a good thing we have her biggest flaw right here with us, eh?" Jenna laughed. "You could phrase it that way. Unfortunately even with all of the data this place has to offer, and a thousand minds to bounce ideas off of, it may not be enough to properly unravel the mysteries of STHEREA. Only the inventor knew how everything worked, and we do not know where he is right now." Scarlet sounded near melancholic as she spoke those words. Of all people, her respect went towards this mysterious Creator the most. "A thousand minds? Is V one of them? Has he woken up yet?"

"He was fine." Echo answered the question. "I found mister V after I visited Zettai. But I did not want to startle him or ruin his privacy. He's really keen on keeping his identity a secret." She felt bad for coming that close in the first place. "I can respect that choice." Scarlet Rose nodded. "I look forward to his future input at any rate. Either way, Bionis is correct. You cannot wait for results from our side, and we are still better equipped to deal with this new threat than anyone else.. In addition to that, Bionis may be essential to this mission."

"Him? Is this because Khan himself is causing this mess? Can't Echo just silence him? Why not let us have him?" Cierze asked, as she was pretty sure her mistress in blue could still control Khan with a single command. And she seemed intensely eager to see that happen. "That would stop him, but not the people around him. And we need a more permanent solution. I am not a hundred percent sure either, but they should be weakened significantly if they are taken down by the same duelist that created them. Additionally, I would ask Echo to join me on a different experiment. To test how her power interacts with someone like Victor or people like Zanbatou. But only with her approval of course." She would explain it in more detail if they had the time for it.

"Zanbatou? You think I can help him? I would like that." Echo would have visited Nakana's place sooner, but her friends advised her to not visit systems that were directly under Continuum's control. This however sounded like a good plan. "I don't I get a say in this, eh? Well beating me up is good enough for me I guess." Bionis sighed and checked his own phone. "Alright, Illuminator you big oaf, where are you headed?"

...

Large electrically charged fences and round-the-clock security forces surrounded what seemed to be just an ordinary small village. But those that entered this place on purpose knew better. Outside these defenses lied nothing but desert terrain. Beyond were patches of grass, planted trees and constructed homes of the same size and color. All of it hid a a more destructive purpose, all of this had been created to cover up the many weapons buried beneath the surface and to test their potential. Nobody was allowed inside unless they had the right clearance, the world at large had never even seen anything beyond the guarded gates.

"Who goes there?" Yet today, on this already turbulent day, they would see more visitors in a single hour than they had ever received over the years. "Me." That alone would have been strange enough, but the first one to show up had somehow managed to cross the road in a wheelchair. And she was nothing but a young girl with bright blue hair. "What? How did you..." The soldiers were so taken aback by her harmless appearance, that they almost let their guard down. "With the help of my friends." But her smile preceded a terrifying entourage. "!?" The guards looked up and saw a number of monsters fly down out of the sky: dragons, demons and creatures plucked right out of their own worst nightmares. "What is this!?" Some of them opened fire on sight, only to discover that their bullets were not harming these creatures at all. They immediately fired back with blasts of unholy magic and infernal flames. "Eeeyaaah!" Most of them decided to run for safety after that, if they were not blown across the hills first. Only their commanding officer maintained his position. "Stand your ground! Alert the.. Ah!"

And he was promptly overwhelmed by a dozen suddenly appearing men and women, who all wore strange disks on their arms. They were the duelists and the dueldisks would be their weapons. "That should shut them up for a while." Khan laughed. "That was quick! We should have taken them all on ourselves." Chiaroscura grumbled. With the help of a dozen Crown controlled ADIs, they could storm any military base in the real world. But she would rather have taken them out herself. "There is no need to waste good resources." 'Echo' mused with her true voice, the voice of Shaddoll Construct. "Hmph. Just keep those things out of our way, let them guard the perimeter or whatever. The motherload goes to us." Khan needed her, but he always shared the best parts with his co-conspirators. They were in a good mood, they had finally found a site worth investigating. "Come!"

Several minutes and many doors and tunnels later, they saw what they came for. "I knew it!" Large metallic doors were forced open and cold light streamed in to reveal rows and rows of missiles. They stretched out inside this underground silo. "Ha! They told us that they were getting rid off all these weapons eh? In the name of peace? What a sack of crap! These things are not dismantled at all! They did not even remove the warheads!" Khan moved his hand across the metal, admiring it like it were made of gold. "That will suit our purposes just fine." The Echo-Shaddoll even flew up to the top of the missiles and began inspecting their circuitry up close.

"Hey Khan. What are we supposed to do with these? The bigwigs fire these off remotely, don't they?" The conqueror's 'soldiers' wondered out loud as more of them flooded the silo. "Of course. But that is why we have her." IlluminatorOfTheDeep hissed back and pointed at 'miss Echo' just as she disappeared in the shadows above. "Who are we even going to fire at first? I can think of a couple of guys!" Yet another cried out as he imagined the destruction they could unleash. Despite their vastly varying nationalities, they all were looking forward to an explosive show. "Meh, it would be a lot more fun if we could just go after them ourselves. All this war-weapon stuff makes me think everyone is just trying to show off.." Only Chiaroscura was left cold by this sight. Explosives like these just did not excite her as much as close-range physical violence.

She would get a chance for some of that soon enough. "KHAN!" A new voice echoed throughout the missile base, the voice of one willing to fight. "What? You? Here!? Impossible!" Khan and his cronies turned their heads towards the entrance and saw Charles Adami stand in the opening. Blanche, Jenna, Cherry, Bionis and Dyzanthium were all there at his side. "How did you make it past the ADIs? How did you even know we were here!?" Khan cursed as he floated back down to the floor. "It was not hard. Friends of ours distracted the ADIs outside, while your friend in here practically invited us." Charles grunted as he tossed a cellphone at Khan, showing off the various blogposts left by his forumpals. "Illuminator.. you damn moron." Khan hurled the phone at his co-conspirator, who took it right in the face. "Heheh. Looks like playtime is back on the table after all." Chiaroscura snickered in the background.

"Yes. Yes it is! And not a moment to soon. I cannot believe you! Is this what you were planning all along? You're going to start a nuclear holocaust! You cannot be that insane! You can't!" Bionis stepped to the forefront, flabbergasted by the the image his 'counterpart' presented to himself. "So you're here too... William." Khan let out a sneer of pure loathing. "You don't get to call me that." Bionis sneered right back at him. "Why not? That is your name. Do you think you can still call yourself Bionis Khan? Do you think you're still entitled to this name and this reputation, when I have done far more than you ever could!? I am the one who is willing to tear down the establishment! Me! I am the persona you crafted, you are the real pathetic wretch that got left behind! All you ever did was talk big! But now when push comes to shove, you want to stop me? Why would you defend them? I bet half of them are in the pocket of Continuum anyway! The Shintaros are hardly the only one who made use of it!" Khan fumed.

"But uhm.. what will firing missiles at them do now? Zettai cut two of them down, and they still did not die, right?" Cherry pointed out the obvious flaw in his plan. "Neither will we, now! Don't you get how much fun we can have in this new world! We cannot die either, a few bombs and missiles wont hurt anyone." Chiaroscura said dismissively. "No. But they will make them angry.. That is what Static wants, isn't it? That is what you want! You want a global war, and this initial salvo is just a way to get it kickstarted." Charles could see it now, the nations of the world wrapped up in a bitter never-ending conflict that could last far too long with the powers of the mind and the virtual involved. "Oh is that what the plan was? Well, now I can get behind it. You're a better explainer than Khan here is, Charlie boy." Scura cackled.

"Wait? Slow down for a second! Continuum what?" Jenna felt like she'd been absent for a few too many interactions. "Are you... Are you talking about Superior?" On the other hand, Bionis had a few ideas in fact.

"Heh, the thread nickname is a little outdated now. But yeah, Superior.. that is what some of us titled the global mastermind responsible for the new network. We always theorized that there was such a force behind the curtains. And now we know it is true! You mean to tell me you did not share the news with them, Charles?" Khan howled. "We were kinda distracted by the mess you have been making, Khan! If I had known this.. I should never have let you out of my sight." Charles did not feel like justifying himself towards these people. "But congratulations, you just happened to take one correct shot in a million! So what? Even I've heard of nonsense like that, and I am not that special either! You're not even that close, Continuum did not exist until just a couple of years ago!" He shouted back. "Heh, I know what you are doing, Charles. You're trying to get me into dueling you again. But I wont fall for it, I have bigger goals than revenge now! And taking down Continuum is one of them! They're the only ones who can really stop us from getting real answers, real freedom! And I will give it to the people! You wont stop me this time!"

"No I wont." Charles calmly stepped aside. "But they will." So that Bionis and Jenna could walk up and activate their dueldisks. "You? You are willing to fight me, William? Charles could not put me out of commission. What can you do?" Khan reached out for his own dueldisk and stared Bionis in the eyes. "More than he can apparently. This is what the doctor recommended, and I for one am willing to trust the people around me." It felt bizarre to look at ones reflection this way, to say the very least. This volatile background did not seem like the safest place to be here either. But Bionis was not going to let any of that deter him now.

"Wait. Is that why you are here? Are you for real, Jenna?!" Only now did Chiaroscura notice her other half standing in the crowd of duelists, and she picked up on her hesitation all too quickly. "I don't think I have much of a choice here." Jenna sighed. "Heehee! That is always your excuse! I'm surprised the old ball and chain let you do this! You really don't have an idea of what's going on here!" The darkly dressed duelist's cackle evolved into a deranged piercing laugh. "Hey! That's your parents you are talking about too!" That was exctly what Jenna needed to hear to snap into an aggressive mood. "Ha! No they're not! They're your lousy family now! Not mine! I am Scura and just Scura! And I am fine with that! If you want to be me again, you'll have to claw the skin off of me!" Chiaroscura only responded with more mad laughter. "Jenna, remember that she is not you. She's just a mean person that Static created who just happens to have your face and memories and knows all your weak spots." Blanche clarified. "Thanks. Really didn't help."

"Well,I didn't expect Scura to be here either. But maybe we can do this as a team. What would you say about that?" Bionis stepped up besides her with his dueldisk at the ready. "Wait? You're suggesting we team up? What's the catch..William?" Jenna found this to be uncharacteristically generous of him. "The catch is that you can stop calling me that. Also I decide the teamname. Since we're on the side of biology, team Bionis will do just fine!" He finally activated his dueldisk. "You pay attention to teamnames? Heh. Well, I've never been in a team duel before, so maybe this will work after all." It would catch their counterparts off guard at least, Jenna figured. And she did feel a lot more confident in the odds with Bionis backing her up. "Alright, we will do this! It's a tagteam duel!"

Team Bionis' LP: 16000 Team Conquest's LP: 16000

-TURN 01-

"Meh. Have it your way." Khan agreed to the terms. He and Scura did not have much of a choice anyway. "It will be their funeral. I cannot wait to show them the new me!" Chiaroscura got the first turn and placed one trap card face down and one monster. "Was that supposed to frighten them?' Khan growled at her once it became clear that she would not do much else that turn. "They gotta work for their big reveal, Khan. I never make the first move.. she knows that."

"Hey, Khan! What are we supposed to do?" IlluminatorOfTheDeep complained. He and the rest of the gang were counting on him to order them around. "Oh you can duel us, if you'd like." Blanche replied with a peppy tone. "That would be me, the junior champion Dharma Bonnet. Charles Adami the slayer of the Crown, and Cherry Anise, the deadly star of Millennium. I am sure we can keep you guys entertained. I mean you have dueled before, right? She nodded at her companions and the trio activated their dueldisks in unison. "Eh." Despite them having the advantage of numbers, most of the forumgoers felt little confidence in their chances. They'd always visited STHEREA to see the virtual world itself, not to play the game. "You will never take us!" So they fled or outright quickjumped away, not wanting to lose their new freedom upon defeat. "Typical... Don't let them get away!" Charles and the others immediately pursued the ones that ran deeper into the silo. Blanche saluted Jenna for good luck before leaving. And soon the two pairs were left to their own devices.

-TURN 02-

"What a bunch of clowns.." Jenna received the turn after Scura's. "By the way, Jenna.. Please tell you prepared at least a decent deck for this." Bionis saw her inspecting her hand with a confused look that concerned him too. He did not want to regret his tagteam decision this soon out of the gate. "Hey. I know how this works! You can think of whatever cards you want, right? Don't sweat it, I'm prepared as hell. I just did some last-second mixups to keep her on her toes!" Jenna normal summoned her new monster, a sparkling fairy girl(4/1800/900) [Zone 2] in a green flower dress. "The Spirit of Fallwind! When this card is summoned, I get to pull a flip monster from the deck!" The effect found the Subterror Behemoth Voltelluric and added it to Jenna's hand. "Then the Spirit attacks your facedown monster!" Whatever her opponent set down, its defense could not be that great or else Chiaroscura would not have set it face down. That was the benefit of knowing your opponent as well as you knew yourself.

"Huh?" Or so she thought.. "Hee. You've flipped the Crystal Seer." Yet the card that this battle revealed had never been seen before by her eyes: a red robed fortune magician(1/100/100) [Zone 1] wearing a veil and turban. "Now the next two cards of my deck are excavated, and I can keep one of them. The other is sent to the bottom of my deck." Chiaroscura unveiled a spell (The Hidden City) and a trap (Junk Sleep). She dismissed the latter and kept the former, while the Seer and his crystal ball shattered due to the Spirit's sharp cutting leaves. "You cannot surprise me, Jenna. Even if we are separated now, I can still predict your every move. You may have added some little twists to my deck.. But I have revamped mine almost entirely! Why should I limit myself to one color, when I can master all elements at once now!" She laughed at first, then turned her smile into a scowl. "But to see you summon such a 'cute' creature. How revolting." She spat at the Spirit of Fallwind. "Bah.. so much for mindgames." Jenna sighed, placed one trap card down, and ended her turn.

-TURN 03-

"Hmph. I believe we have all gone through some changes. But we are the only ones who evolved. You have reverted if anything." Khan sneered as his turn came next. "Is that so? In what way are you better than me?" Bionis tried to match his sneer with his own disgusted expression. "I am willing to go where you would never go, William! You were all talk! I am action!" He activated the Eldlixer of Black Awakening, which could special summon one 'Eldlich' monster from the deck or hand in defense position. "Come Eldlich!" Of course he chose his Lich in golden armor: Eldlich the Golden Lord(8/2500/3000) [Zone 8]. "We are the only ones who can lead everyone to the promised lands!"

...

(To Be Continued in World 072: Nothing Beneath Us)

New Cards used by Jenna
Spirit of Fallwind

New Cards used by Chiaroscura
Crystal Seer