Duellum Museum, unsurprisingly a Museum in Duellum city, felt rather eerie at night, the lack of any cars in the parking lot or around the place at all definitely felt off to Allan at the very least... not even one for a night guard? 'Must have quite the security system if they don't keep any people around at this time.' Allan thought, 'Though I guess I shouldn't complain, might make this go smoother then I was hoping for.'
Yuki-onna appeared to Allan's left asking, "You sure some of our fiends are here?"
"Nope." Allan said bluntly, "Just that it is possible. Since you guys created a little myth about the house you were all kept in, I figured checking out other places that have rumors of the supernatural behind them may be a good place to look." Allan then silently thanked the internet for allowing such ease of access to all sorts of info... even if some of it was... questionable.
"Then lets get going." Lantern said as he and the rest of the Ghostricks appeared around Allan. "Race, ya." he then added as he and Specter shot forward... only to slam face-first into the glass wall Allan suspected they were planning on phasing through.
"Huh, Guess that Barrier thing works in reverse." Allan stated, remembering what Jiangshi said about what it was liked when inside the haunted house.
"Guess that explains why I kept getting yanked in and out of buildings while exploring whenever you were headed someplace." said Chinese Vampire then commented.
"Oh, that was a thing?" The human of the group asked, "Sorry about that." he then added as he unconsciously started to scratch the back of his head some.
"It's fine," Jiangshi said with a shrug "anyway, back on track, how do we get in?"
"That shouldn't be to hard," Ghoul stated "if we can get Allan in, the rest of us have free range right?"
"Yeah, IF we can figure out how to get him in." Witch commented.
"First up, do I NEED to go in." Allan interjected as he walked closer to the building, "I could already get into enough trouble if my Parents learned I sneaked out at night and walked this far from the house. I'd rather not walk in, set off any alarms, and add in trouble with law enforcement to that."
"Agreed," Alucard added, "Besides we don't even know for sure if any of out old friends are here anyway, so it could be a risk all for nothing."
Finally peeling himself off of the glass window alongside Lantern, Specter asked, "So, anyone got a plan?"
Stein then looked at Allan, who seemed to be inspecting the borders of the doors, "I guess coming in the day, when this is open, is out of the question?"
"Unless I can find a time when I can come here with my ever busy parents, Which seem to be even busier then normal on days I don't have school, yes... unfortunately." Allan replied. Then, as his eyes caught something, by the foot of the door, a small gap between the bottom of the door and the floor, without anything stopping a breeze from slipping underneath said door. Allan grinned as he pulled out his deck, "Now here's an idea." he then added as he pulled out Jiangshi's card and began slipping in through the gap.
"Huh? What are you-" Jiangshi started but was cut off when he felt himself get pulled forward and through the glass of the doorway and onto the other side, "Wait... that was..." he looked down and saw that the card was about 3/4ths of the way past the door.
"Perfect." Allan stated as he shifted the card back and forth a small amount to confirm he could still pull it back with only about a quarter of it on his side.
Ghoul face-palmed, "Duhh, it's the card's were bound to, not Allan. We can all go in just by having the cards in there."
"And not even all the way by the looks of it." Allan added, "though I don't want to have to many of your cards here, in case something happens. Not that we should need all of you to scope out the building and find out if any of your friends are here." It wasn't a particularly large museum after all.
The Ghostricks all started to look at each other, the same thoughts forming in each of their minds, "Looks like we now have a plan then." Alucard stated.
Linebreak
Witch floated through the hallways of the Museum. Jiangshi, Lantern, Specter, and her were the ones that had entered to search the place, and they decided to split up to cover more ground. The search would probably be easier if she knew which exhibit had entered the building when the "hauntings" started, "Ugh, couldn't Allan have given us a hint to know where to look, would have cut down the search time."
"I probably wouldn't have helped much." came a voice from behind her.
"WHA-" Witch shouted brandishing her broom and turning around behind her, only to stop before swinging once she saw who it was. "What the- Jiangshi? I though we split up. Why are you here?"
"I finished my section, this place ain't that big," he replied "so I thought I would come and help."
"Oh, uh, thanks, what do you men it wouldn't help much?" Witch asked, making her broom vanish, it's purpose not necessary.
"I caught Allan doing research on this place last night," he began, "looks like finding Ghoul gave him the idea of finding the rest of us and while I didn't stay for long, I read over his shoulder for a bit and learned that this place swaps out some of it's exhibits every week, chances are, whatever exhibits came here when the haunts started left long ago."
"Oh great." Witch commented as she floated forward, continuing her search, "Well, he could have told us that."
"Why would he?" The vampire duel spirit asked following her, "No one asked him." After a few seconds of Witch not answering, he sighed, floated in front of her and said "You just don't like him all that much, do you?"
Witch sighed, "I know he's a good person... and being with him is infinity better then being trapped in that haunted house doing nothing while we hope that someone comes along day after day, but... Ugh, I don't know."
"Wish something about him were different?" Jiangshi asked. "That would be understandable, since we could be stuck with him for the next few decades... I for one would appreciate if he left the house more often for things other then school. As of now, it is looking like weekends and holidays may not be much better then it was back in the old haunt."
"Maybe that's it." Witch commented, "or maybe it has to do with this feeling of mine that he is only helping us find the others because of all the things we can give him through our Duel spirit abilities, like control his draw during duels or setting up pranks that can never be pinned on him."
"To be honest, it would not surprise me in the slightest if that was a contributing factor." Came the vampire's reply before his ears picked up something, "Wait, do you hear that?"
The spellcaster blinked, "Hear what?" she asked before putting a hand to her ear as she tried to pick it up.
"It sounds like..."
"Crying?"
"Yeah... and it sounds kinda like..."
They both blinked and smiled before shooting forward in the direction they hear the crying before their suspicions were confirmed when they made out the words "I MISS YUKI-ONNA!" among the crying.
Mini-line break
"I MISS YUKI-ONNA!" Cried out a ghostly Yeti-like creature, who's tear ducts seemed to function as Geysers at the moment, spewing out the spiritual tears at such a rate that the whole building would have been flooded by now if they were physical tears.
"Oh My God! Can we go ONE DAY without this!?" came out a reply as a what appeared to have been a Young woman started to materialize in the reflection of the glass of a nearby exhibit. "Ugh, wake up the whole flipping neighborhood why don't you?"
"If only... then maybe someone that can get us out of here will come." A small snowman-like creature said.
Another figure walked up, or rode up as it were, on his ghostly white horse, "Actually it may do better if we avoid disturbing any other Forces that are laying dormant in the various artifacts." he then said with an Irish accent, despite not having a mouth... or even a head to have the mouth be on. "Jackfrost, Nekomusume, can you please?"
At the request, both the small snowman and a small cat girl that was next to the horseman floated over to the crying beast. "It's Okay Yeti," the cat girl said grabbing a shoulder of the beast to begin comforting, "We all miss her, she was even my Yokai-buddy, we will get through this, and we can all reunite with everyone eventually."
"Yeah, besides, we got it easy." the small snowman said, "We still got two thirds of our Icy-Trio right here, but she doesn't have any of her closest connections with her, if any of us Ghostricks are accompanying her at all."
Yeti stopped crying, "You're right..." he replied, before suddenly jumping up (spooking Nekomusume in the process) and exclaiming, "We've got to find her then! And ensure she has her friends nearby!"
"Shame we can't do that right now."
Yeti, started balling again.
A decently large corpse wrapped in bandages then looked at the crying beast, "Oh, wrong thing to say?" It then asked.
"Gee, you think?" The woman in the reflection commented.
"Ehh, cut 'em some slack Mary." A skeletal figure in a cloak then stated, "It's not like it's his fault our chances got blown away." it then said, putting emphasis on the last two words before chuckling, "he he, get it? 'Blown away'? Because-"
"Yes, we get it." The headless horseman said.
"We don't... explanation please." came a voice.
The skeletal figure grinned, saying, "Well you see-" but then paused at seeing who spoke, "Witch? Jiangshi?"
There was a brief pause as everyone else registered those names, before turning and saying "What?" Only to spot the two Duel spirits right by a doorway.
"So, it's been a while, huh?" Jiangshi said.
There was another brief pause as everyone was registering that it was in fact those two right in front of them, then a tiny bit of Chaos broke threw.
"Where were you two?"
"Are the other's Okay?"
"What are you dong here?"
"How did you get here?"
"IS YUKI-ONNA WITH YOU!?"
"DAH! Back!" Witch exclaimed as she summoned her broom and smacked Yeti with it do to him getting WAAAAY to close to ask that question.
"Okay everyone back up." the Horseman said as he tried to break the the crowed that had instantly formed around the two, "Give them some space."
"Whew, thanks Dullahan" Jiangshi said as the insta-crowed backed off, "Okay, so, for us... we were in an abandoned house for a lot of years alongside Specter, Lantern, Alucard, Stein and Yuki-onna before a human that can see us pulled our cards out of there to help build his Ghostrick deck." he then began counting off the questions as he said the answers "We don't know about anyone else, beyond those that were mentioned and Ghoul that joined us yesterday, but everyone accounted for is Okay. We're here to find you all and any other Ghostricks that may have been nearby. We got here with the help of that human, his name is Allan by the way. And Yes."
"YES!" Yeti exclaimed, still crying, but now the tears were joyful.
"Just what we needed to lift our Spirits." The cloaked skeleton said.
"Huh, that one actually wasn't half bad." the bandaged mummy replied.
"Soo, where is the human? And what dose he want with us?" the snowman asked.
"Allan is by the front door, probably reading a book." Witch said, "As for what he wants, it seems like he just wants to help reunite the whole gang, but I feel that there is more to it then that. He also has rules he expects us to follow through with, and he will probably expect the same for you if you want to join up with him."
"Yeah, he doesn't mind us launching pranks, but our options for them are limited." Jiangshi added.
"If it means getting out of here, I am sure we can work within his limitations", Dullahan responded, "Right everyone?" He then added, turning to the rest, with very little of them giving any complaints.
"I just have one, VERY IMPORTANT question." The Cat girl stated.
Witch and Jiangshi both signed before saying in perfect unison, "Yes, he has a cat."
"I! AM! IN!"
Line Break
Allan was... surprised, to say the least. Sure the first seven Ghostricks and Ghoul were found by a stroke of luck while he was around, but he didn't expect that to carry on when he actually tried looking for more Ghostricks. So to not not only find one, but seven more, in the FIRST place he tried looking was a thing he had trouble believing even when all 7 of them showed up in front of him behind the glass... or in the glass in the case of who he assumed to be Ghostrick Mary. Well believing it or not, while waiting for the report to come in, his brain did think of what to do should he needed to go in there and once some pleasantries got exchanged between the two groups of Ghostricks he got to work.
"Okay, Stein, I'm going to need your unique touch with technology to get in there." Allan said, slipping Stein's card under the door after pulling everyone else's out.
After getting shot through the doorway Stein grabbed his head and said, "Okay, but how?"
"If I am going to enter without raising an alarm, I need the alarms off." he answered, "Preferably the whole security system." he then turned to the group that was trapped in the museum and said, "I take it at least 1 of you could lead him to the security office so he can shut down the system?"
The bandaged wrapped duel spirit, Ghostrick Mummy, then spoke up saying, "I'll do it."
"Okay," Allan said before turning back to Stein, "Also, I know you can't quite pick and choose how your electricity effects things, but when you get there, could you also try to hit the memory of the cameras, if someone comes in in the morning and sees the security system was down, I don't want them to be able to see that I've been hanging out by the front door for a good while before everything cut off."
"Oooo, you've got this all thought through, don't you?" The cloaked skeleton, appropriately names Ghostrick Skeleton, "Ain't that a shock?" he then added as Mummy and Stein headed out.
"Was that a pun?" The human of the group had to ask.
"Yep, do you have a problem with them?" Skeleton asked.
"Not as long as you don't work yourself to the bone trying to force them in everything," he replied, "you get practically no payoff doing that."
"Works for me." Skeleton replied before something occurred to him, "Wait... 'work yourself to the-'" he then started eyes Allan and asked, "Was that intentional?"
Allan didn't answer, instead he just looked a Skeleton with a smirk before tuning to another Ghostrick in the group... who happened to be the small snowman, Ghostrick Jackfrost, and said, "So, anyone mind filling me in on the exact situation with the cards?".
Mini line break
"Sooooo, how did they get there again?"
"A kid got really pissed that he kept loosing to the deck's owner, so when said owner wasn't looking, he picked up the deck, including all the cards we were bound to, and tossed it in the vents, where they have been ever since." Dullahan answered.
"I don't know what disappoints me more," Allan stated, "The fact that that is the reason for you all being trapped here, or the fact that I believe it."
"Regardless of the reason for them getting there, getting them out will be an issue." Alucard said rising from the ground, along with Ghoul. "Even with Ghoul's help, I cannot pick up the cards or move them in any meaningful way, in fact I think I just accidentally bound myself to the copy of my card that was in there."
"You can jump from card to card?" Allan asked.
"As long as it is a copy of the card we represent, any duel spirit can." Mary stated, "Part of why I was hoping you had copies of us already in your deck, seriously? Not one of any of us."
Allan pinched the bridge of his nose muttering "And here I thought having bad luck with pack openings was only a pain to the wallet." He then walked to the wall and started leaning on the glass separating the hallway from a display of jewel and gold encrusted weapons from the ancient days before guns (and latter cards) were the go to for personal defense.
"Okay, so lets see here," Allan said as he started to think out loud, "Without the ability to directly move the cards, we would need to either indirectly move them through another object, or clear out the stuff between me and the cards so I can grab them myself, like at the old house." As Allan said this, the artifacts behind him started to glow in a strange way that cannot be seen by normal human eyes.
"The former is the more preferable option," Allan continued, completely unaware of what was going on behind him, something not true for the Ghostricks present, "The museum staff would already be in a small panic upon seeing the security has been dropped, and the latter would mean more obvious destruction of things that would cause even more problems." The jewels on the weapons started to glow as well, unnerving the Ghostricks, as some sort of energy started to flow out of them and take a shape.
"Uhh, Allan?" Ghouls started, though the intended recipient didn't seem to notice.
"Maybe Yuki-Onna could go a wind thing to blow the cards through the vents? Provided she can get Yeti off of her back long enough to do so... wait, she can only do that after a duel is won can't she?" Allan was mumbling his thoughts now, going through options and fully unaware of what was now a translucent human figure with no distinguishing features taking shape behind him and then turning it's "head" toward Allan and started reaching out with it's "hand".
Not wanting to take any chances, and taking advantage of whatever boosted strength he still had from Ghouls ability, Alucard zipped toward Allan's side, started pulling an arm and almost shouted, "Allan! Move!"
Not aware of the reason, but definitely picking up both Alucard's demand and the urgency in his voice, Allan gave no resistance to the pull, after stopping he looked briefly to Alucard and then to where Alucard's attention was focused, where he was just a moment ago some glowing hand of sorts was clenched in what would have been the perfect spot to grab onto his neck had he not moved. "What the-" He almost said a word he knew his parents would not appreciate him saying, though that detail, nor the task he was just thinking about, were not what was on his mind right now.
"Allan, get back." Dullahan ordered as he and Alucard took a stance in front of him, something Allan was more then willing to obey on as the translucent figure walked through the walls and glass into the hallway and turning back to Allan.
"Wha- What is that?" Allan asked as he took more steps backwards, a thought occurred to him saying he might get a clue if he read the exhibit it came out of, but now was probably not the time to do that.
"Excellent question." Dullahan responded, "As far as I know, this hasn't happened in the Museum until now."
"Would you like to introduce yourself to us?" Alucard then said to the translucent figure.
The figure didn't say anything, instead a golden burst of light came out from it's body, briefly causing everyone present to cover their eyes to prevent damaging them, and when the light faded, some sort of cage made out of the same energy as the figure, but a different color, seemed to line the entire hallway. And the figure was now wearing a golden duel disk with jewels encrusted on it.
Allan didn't mind the figure's new accessory, his only thought was to get out, seeing that some bars of the cage were behind him, he first tried to get his hand through the bars, hoping that their translucent appearance meant he could go through them as easily as he could stick his hand through a duel spirit. Sadly, he could not. "Bleep, bleep, bleep." he started to mutter to himself, breathing getting more frantic as he started scanning the bars, pulling at different points to see if any part of it will budge.
"Allan relax." Alucard said, grabbing Allan's shoulder, "Remember what I said yesterday about supernatural and cosmic forces?"
Allan looked toward the figure, and more specifically the duel disk on it's 'arm'..."That all disputes with them must be done through the game." he then answered... not that it made him feel up to duel against something that seems like it just tried to grab his neck not even a minute ago. "What if I decline the challenge?"
"Then it counts as forfeiting and the result is the same as if you lose."
Gee, that was just comforting.
"I left my duel disk at home." Allan stated.
"That may not matter." Alucard replied.
Allan felt like asking, but with that thing in front of him, he wasn't sure how much time he had for questions. He gulped, grabbed his deck, tried to quiet down all of his nerves (he failed at that last bit... but it probably looked like he succeed at that from the outside... probably), and said, "Well, then I guess it is time to duel." As he said that, a golden light shone from his left arm for a brief second, dieing out to show a golden duel disk, identical to on the figure had on, had materialized on his arm. 'Oh, so that's why it doesn't matter.' Allan thought, before putting his deck in the deck slot.
"One more thing." Dullahan, said before the duel could begin, "Of all Ghostricks here, Allan only possess half of them in his deck." he spoke out to the figure, "I would like myself as well as the rest of the other half to be joining our allies and Allan in this fight. Is that fine my you?"
The figure still didn't say anything, but it gave a nod with it's head. Dullahan then turned to Allan and asked, "Allan, is that fine my you?"
Allan thought the answer should be obvious, he blurted out a "Please!" without thinking and right as he said that, a dark stream of energy came out from the floor and made contact with Allan's deck, sating there for a second before dissipating.
"And with that, the cards we were all bound to, as well as some of our support cards from our old deck, have been added to your deck." Dullahan stated, "Don't worry about how close you are to the upper limit, we'll make sure it won't hold you back."
"Okay." Allan said, deciding to ask about this latter if he remembered, but guessing that the enemy being supernatural or cosmic had something to do with it. And if that was the case, the ideas of what might be happening in this duel did not bode well for him. "Lets do this." he added stepping forward.
"DUEL!"
The figure, made some movements Allan could identify as playing cards from it's hand, and then three set cards appeared in front of it positioned vertically. Afterward a ding came from the Duel Disk Allan was wearing.
"Umm, you know, the rules state that you have to clearly call out what all of your moves are." Allan stated, "Could you, actually, you know, do that?" Sure he was able to tell that the thing set 3 cards and then ended it's turn, but with how quickly his heart was beating at the moment he was worried he might miss something.
"He doesn't seem to be much of a talker." Dullahan replied, "Hmm, though the magic in this duel should force him to abide by that rule anyway... maybe it's mute? If so the magic would probably try to accommodate that and allow you to always know what moves it makes, spoken out or not."
Boy was Allan hoping that "Rule Enforcement" was the only thing the magic here was doing, everything he had ever read about duels that take some sort of magic in them was rearing it's way into the forefront of his head, and he REALLY didn't want to see how closely this game followed the rules of the rumored Shadow games.
"I Draw." Allan declared, grabbing a card and looking at his hand.'Defense Draw', 'Ghostrick Ghoul', 'Spirit Reaper', 'Ghostrick-Go-Round', 'Ghostrick Mary', and 'Kinka-Byo'. 'Mary and Go-round are new' He noted, 'Good thing I already know how they work...' "Okay, I set one monster face down and set 2 cards behind it." he declared as he did exactly as he said, "Your move."
During the End Phase, the figure raised a hand before hitting the center face-down which then flipped itself up to reveal itself as 'Artifact Ignition'.
"Ignition? It's laying an Artifact deck?" Allan stated, sounding surprised but also somewhat calmer.
"You know this deck?" Dullahan asked.
"Yeah, Artifacts are an archetype of Level 5 monsters that can set themselves as spells in the users back row..." Allan began, "and when the Artifacts get destroyed in the back row during their opponent's turns, they can summon themselves, also when they are summoned outside of their own turns, a different effect that varies from monster to monster can go off... Ignition there allows they to destroy destroy their own back row to do this themselves and set another artifact from the deck." He was now able to take a deeper breath, now knowing what he was up against, " because they need to reserve back row spaces for their monsters, they often lack any actual threats back there, and since the effects can only go off during the opponent's turn, there is little to nothing they can actually do during their own turn."
A beam came from ignition, hitting another of the figure's back row, vaporizing it as another card formed to take it's place, showing itself briefly to be 'Artifact Achilleshield '… then a Staff erupted from the ground, and an Orange translucent figure, not to dissimilar from the one controlling the cards, appeared and picked the staff up, assuming a battle stance with it.
Artifact Caduceus... Attribute:Light, Type:Fairy, Level:5, ATK:1600 DEF:2400
"We'll need to get rid of that card." Allan stated. "It doesn't do anything on it's own Special summon, but it dose allow a card to be drawn for every other Artifact that is called out on my turn while it is out."
The figure drew a card, starting it's turn, It then played a card, one that was identified as the spell card 'Artifact Blast' when it's image appeared before it.
"What the- 'Artifact Blast'!?" Allan stated as he saw the card, "That's not one of the cards they have." He knew his information of other deck's cards was limited, but when he knows about a deck, he knows at least the basics and the names of every card in it, but this card was brand new.
"You won't be able to rely on just what you humans know of the deck." Alucard said, "being tied to the supernatural end of the game means that being can conjuror up cards from outside of what you humans have discovered or made."
The Artifact Ignition in the figures graveyard got banished as a beam of energy came out and struck Allan's face-down monster, vaporizing the poor Spirit Reaper.
'Not Good.' Allan thought to himself, before turning to Alucard "Any chance you or any of the other Ghostricks can pull a similar move for me?"
"Sorry," Alucard stated, "But Angel is the only one among us that can do that."
'Angel? Must mean 'Ghostrick Angel of Mischief'... I guess it makes since that the best searcher of the deck could do it, Regardless I have a decision to make now.' Allan thought as the opponent entered the battle phase, 'I have no monsters out, I can block a direct attack with 'Defense Draw' or I can let the attack through and use Mary's effect.' The latter would be the better play, duel wise, but given the nature of this duel, letting anything hit him may be a bad idea. The opponent then "declared" a direct attack with 'Artifact Caduceus' and Allan made his decision 'How bad could it be?'.
Allan's LP: 8000 - 6400
Turns out, it was VERY bad.
"Allan!" Alucard shouted as heard the scream... a scream that Allan would probably not even realize he gave out, a scream that could be heard all throughout the entire Museum, a scream that caused Alucard to realize an obvious fact he, and the other Ghostricks, overlooked. Allan was a child, even by human standards, he most likely had never encountered any situation that could be even remotely comparable to this. Duels like this can often result in someone dying if the wrong play is made, even the winner, on occasion. And Allan, a pre-teen in middle school, was shoved into one with no way out and no one outside of the Ghostricks around to help. He should have remembered this, he should have reminded the other Ghostricks, and they should have given Allan a hand that could be played optimally without letting any attack come near him.
Once the scream stopped, Allan fell to a knee, and Alucard rushed to his side, taking advantage of the duels situation to make him more "solid" then usual as he tried to keep Allan from completely falling over, "Allan, Allan, some on, stay in there." Alucard said as he tried to keep the duelist steady.
Allan was no stranger to pain, bullies like Richard had often caused him to experience some form of it on a regular basis, so he was able to get himself to the point where he was able to ignore it when it wasn't a sign of worse problems, and so he could instead focus his efforts to formulating a prank to get back at them. Though this time, ignoring the pain proved to be a humongous task, physical damage or no.
"I... I activate 'Ghostrick Mary's effect from my hand." Allan wheezed out, sounding like he just... well, gave a prolonged scream that the entire museum could have heard. "When I take damage, I can discard her to the GY, to summon any Ghostrick from my deck in face-down defense position." He was about to grab his deck to search for the card, but Alucard grabbed his hand to stop him.
"Just say the cards name, don't waste your energy looking through the deck."
Allan nodded, before saying, "I summon 'Ghostrick Mummy'." As he said that, the card in question magically shot out from the middle of his deck, before placing itself on the Duel disk, and the image of Mummy briefly appeared, where it looked at Allan with a sad look on his face, before turning into the image of a set monster.
Unfortunately, the enemy' turn was not finished just yet, it then activated another card Allan never heard of, a quick-play spell card called 'Artifact Beckoning'. And with it the figure was able to summon another Artifact monster from it's hand, in this case, a spear held by a blue-green figure came up ready to fight.
Artifact Lancea... Attribute:Light, Type:Fairy, Level:5, ATK:1700 DEF:2300
Another motion was made, and Lancea was sent to attack the set Mummy, but Allan wasn't about to have that. "I activate my set card, 'Ghostrick-Go-Round'! Once per turn, I flip one set monster to face-up attack position, and if that card is a Ghostrick, I can force any monster you control to face-down defense position." The Mummy erupted from it's position, catching the Lance and shoving it back, as Lancea was forced into defense position.
Ghostrick Mummy... Attribute:Dark, Type:Zombie, Level:3, ATK:1500 DEF:0
The Figure ended his turn and Allan drew a card to start his, 'Ghostrick Lantern'. Good, he did not need to take any more direct attacks for the rest of the duel... maybe the rest of the week, just to be safe. Allan, then glanced at his opponent, no cards in hand, 2 set cards in the back row, and one of them was an Artifact. He had Go Round up to help block more attacks, so this was as good as any other time to go on the offense. "With Mummy's effect, I get an extra normal summon every turn of any Ghostrick, so I will use that effect to summon 'Ghostrick Ghoul' while I use my usual normal summon to play 'Kinka-byo'." He then said as 2 new monsters appeared, a Ghoul he got just yesterday, and a small, cat-like creature who's 3-D shadow was that of a larger, startled cat.
Ghostrick Ghoul... Attribute:Dark, Type:Zombie, Level:3, ATK:1100 DEF:1200
Kinka-byo... Attribute:Dark, Type:Beast/Spirit, Level:1, ATK:400 DEF:200
"When 'Kinka-Byo' is normal summoned, I can revive one level 1 monster in my GY." Allan continued, "I revive 'Ghostrick Mary'." As he said that, the shadow of the Cat transformed into a Dresser with a large Mirror on it, with Mary's image showing up in the Mirror.
"Stupid, stupid stupid." Mary was muttering to herself as she was repeatedly hitting herself on the head, "Of course this was going to be akin to a shadow game, letting my card be in the opening hand was- Dargh."
Ghostrick Mary... Attribute:Dark, Type:Fiend, Level:1, ATK:100 DEF:1600
"Now I overlay the Level 1 'Kinka-byo' and 'Ghostrick Mary'." He kept going but as the two monsters became a dark stream of energy to fill an overlay network, he forgo-ed the use of a summoning chant, and simply said, "I Xyz summon 'Ghostrick Dullahan'." Dullahan's ghostly image vanished from Allan's side as he erupted from the Overlay Network as a fully solid monster with 2 purple Xyz material orbiting around him.
"By my effect," Dullahan spoke up, allowing Allan to save his breath some. "I gain 200 attack for each face-up Ghostrick card on the same side as mine. Regardless of it is a monster, a spell or a Trap, and this includes myself as well so that makes 4 as of this moment."
Ghostrick Dullahan... Attribute:Dark, Type:Fiend/Xyz, Rank:1, ATK:1000 DEF:0
Ghostrick Dullahan... ATK:1000 - 1800
"Now I target Mummy to activate Ghoul's effect." Allan stated.
A Ball of Light appeared in Ghoul's hand as he decided to follow Dullahan's lead and explain his own effect for Allan. "With my effect, only the target Ghostrick can attack this turn, but that target will strike with the strength of all of us." He then turned to Mummy and said, "Hit 'em hard." before handing the ball of light to him.
"Will do." Mummy said as he accepted the ball of light and transforming. Now his head reached the ceiling and was covered in an Egyptian headdress like what you would expect to be help by the Pharaohs, his flesh was no longer decomposed and was now good as new, with Mussels bursting out of the bandage wrappings, and some of those bandages had their ends floating up and out as though they had a mind of their own.
Ghostrick Mummy... ATK:1500 - 4400
"Mummy attacks Caduceus." Allan declared. Mummy, remembering a comment Allan made about not wanting to cause unnecessary damage to the museum, decided to carry out the attack by commanding the bandages to wrap around the target and bring it closer for a golden aura filled punch to hit it in mid air instead of smashing it into the ground. Not that the wind caused by the punch still didn't knock a few things around and blow the figure back some, but at least this way there wasn't a huge crack in the floor, or a broken floor.
Unknown Figure's LP: 8000 - 5200
The image of 'Artifact Beckoning' appeared as it banished itself, and the destroyed 'Artifact Caduceus' came out of the GY and into the figure's hand.
"I use Ghoul's effect to flip it face down and end my turn." Allan stated, prompting Ghoul to turn into the image of a set monster and Mummy to revert to his previous form.
Ghostrick Dullahan... ATK:1800 - 1600
Ghostrick Mummy... ATK:4400 - 1500
The Figure drew a card, and then set both cards in it's hand into the spell and trap zone, before ending it's turn.
"I draw." Allan said, drawing a card, '4 set cards in the back row' he then thought, 'and at least two of the are artifact monsters, I should still be good to attack.' He looked at the card he drew, 'Swords of Concealing Light', before making his move. "First I use Ghostrick Go-rounds second effect, I flip a face-up Ghostrick I control face-down to force a face-down monster you control to face-up attack." As he said that, Mummy Turned into a set monster image and the Figure's Lancea was forced up into attack position.
Ghostrick Dullahan... ATK:1600 - 1400
"Then I will flip summon both Mummy and Ghoul." He continued as both monsters erupted from there shadowy forms.
Ghostrick Dullahan... ATK:1400 - 1800
The Figure then took that moment to wave a "hand" toward one of the newly set cards, and it turned up and revealed itself as 'Artifact Sanctum'.
"Bleep." Allan muttered, knowing that card, and it's effect to let the user summon an artifact from their deck.
Erupting from the golden light that came from the Figure's deck was another translucent warrior, this one colored blue and wielding a special type of ritualistic club called a Vajra... fitting as it was named as such.
Artifact Vajra... Attribute:Light, Type:Fairy, Level:5, ATK:1800 DEF:1900
"And double bleep." Allan muttered, also remembering that card's effect to blow up it's user's entire spell and trap zone when summoned, which it then proceed to do with one swing of the weapon, slicing all the other cards the Figure had in the back-row, prompting three lights to come to the Figure's field as the destroyed artifact summon themselves. First came the Caduces from before, then came the Achilleshield that was set earlier, that one being a purple warrior holding out a shield, lastly came a Cyan warrior holding a large sword, 'Artifact Moralltach'.
Artifact Achilleshield... Attribute:Light, Type:Fairy, Level:5, ATK:1500 DEF:2200
Artifact Moralltach... Attribute:Light, Type:Fairy, Level:5, ATK:2100 DEF:1400
"And make that a Triple bleep." Allan commented.
"Caduces let them draw 2 cards right now because it came out before the other 2 right?" Dullahan asked.
"Yep," Allan said, "Plus, Achilleshield can now keep us from attacking any artifact this turn with it's effect, and Moralltach can let him destroy any face-up card on our field."
The figure then pointed at Ghoul, prompting The sword wielder to cleave straight through him, prompting the two halves of the zombie to explode.
Ghostrick Dullahan... ATK:1800 - 1600
"Ghoul!" Dullahan shouted as the Figure drew 2 cards off of Caduces's effect.
"I'm Okay, I'm Okay." Ghoul's ghostly image began to reappear where he stood as a monster, as he literally tried to put his 2 halves back together again "I'll probably still be feeling that in 24 hours, but otherwise I'm Okay. Good thing about being a Zombie, things like decapitation and being cut in half are not a big issue for you."
"Okay then." Allan said with a grimace, now needing a new strategy. Trying to get over 5 artifacts at once would be tough... but maybe he doesn't need to right now. Allan grinned and grabbed the card he drew this turn. "I activate 'Swords of Concealing Light'!" At that, two gigantic black and featureless swords appeared and pinned themselves down by the far ends of the Figure's field. Then a surge of purple lightning came out arching between the swords and hitting all 5 of the Artifact monsters, and they all turned into the image of set monsters.
Allan couldn't help but laugh a bit, not every day you get to hit a near-full board of 5 monsters with that card after all, "That spell forces all your monsters into face-down defense position, and while it stays out, none of your monsters can change their battle positions. I end my turn."
The figure drew a card and ended it's turn.
Allan couldn't help but smirk, looks like he is in a pretty solid position right now. "You guys can get me one of the field spells now, right?"
Alucard snapped his fingers and said, "Consider it done."
"I draw." Allan said as one of the two swords vanished, then seeing that he got 'Ghostrick Museum'... that one's new to his deck, he always thought Mansion was better but he wasn't going to complain right now. "I activate 'Ghostrick Museum'," he said as there soundings took a more cartoonish-y look to them, "face-down monsters cannot be attacked now... but now they also can't stop direct attacks."
Ghostrick Dullahan... ATK:1600 - 1800
"Dullahan, go at him first, Mummy, you go next." Alan said as the two charged over the set monsters and struck the Figure directly, Dullahan slashing with his sword, and Mummy just straight up punching it in the face.
Unknown Figure's LP: 5200 - 3400 - 1900
"Woo! Almost there!" Ghoul commented.
"Due to Museum's effect, monsters get turned into face-down defense position after dealing battle damage." Allan said as he started to take a few deep breaths, despite the fact his Ghostricks were now being forced face-down, where they couldn't protect his Life points, he still had other things protecting his Life points and him from direct attacks. "I end my turn."
The Figure's "fist" seemed to be clenched in rage, as it gave Allan... well it would have been a glare if there were any determinable eyes, and it would have been more effective to him if he weren't a duel arena's worth of distance away right then. It then ripped the card off of the top of it's deck as it's draw, and proceed to grab a different card. Then on of the shadowy set monsters vanished as a pillar of light erupted in it's place and a new warrior appeared, this one being pink or magenta in color and wielding 2 large Chakrams.
Artifact Chakram... Attribute:Light, Type:Fairy, Level:5, ATK:1900 DEF:2000
"Did it just- Tribute Summon an Artifact monster?" Allan asked, blinking in surprise,
"Guess there is a first time for everything." Alucard replied. "It must really want to get around the swords."
The Figure then pointed at Allan as the Summoned Artifact monster lunged forward.
For a moment, It felt like the pain from the last attack started to come back for Allan, but he shook it off, "It makes no difference. I use 'Ghostrick Go-Round's effect! I flip Dullahan to attack and Chakram face-down!" At that, Dullahan erupted from it's shadowy form and rose to intercept the attacking monster, his horse stomping down at that Artifact mid-charge to stop it and then blue fire erupted from where his neck would be that. Said fire then flowed toward the opposing monster and forced it into the image of a set monster.
Ghostrick Dullahan... ATK:1000 - 1600
The Figure then set a card and ended it's turn.
"My Turn. I draw." Allan said as he drew 'Ghostrick Jackfrost', "During my second standby phase after I activated them, the swords of Concealing Light are destroyed." At that the remaining sword by the Figure's field vanished, allowing it to change the battle positions of it's monster's again. "Now I flip summon 'Ghostrick Mummy'." he then added as the monster came out from it's shadowy form next.
Ghostrick Dullahan... ATK:1600 - 1800
"Time to end this." Allan said, "Dullahan, you start."
"Gladly." He stated as he charged.
The Figure held hand out, and it's new face-down revealed itself. It was another card Allan didn't recognize, a Continuous Trap called 'Artifact Assault'. Then one of the shadowy forms of a set artifact vanished and in it's place Moralltach rose again.
"Not good." Allan muttered. It looked similar to how the Tribute summon went out, so that Trap probably had it tribute the set Artifact to summon another... and if it was a summon during Allan's turn...
The Figure pointed at Mummy, and the newly re-summoned Artifact then leaped toward the Ghostrick and cleaved him in two not unlike how It did with Ghoul not to long ago.
"No!" Dullahan stated.
Ghostrick Dullahan... ATK:1800 - 1600
"I'm not stopping this attack just yet." Allan replied, "Dullahan, you know what to do."
"Alright," The remaining Ghostrick on the field said, as it put it's sword in the path of one of the two orbiting Xyz material, just in time for that Xyz material to fly into it and make the sword glow purple, "By using one of my Xyz material, I half the attack of an enemy monster. Begone Moralltach!" Dullahan then declared as it charged straight at the Artifact monster. Two locked blades for a bit, but eventually the Ghostrick was able to cut through the artifact's sword and then it's body, prompting an explosion.
Artifact Moralltach... ATK:2100 - 1050
Unknown Figure's LP: 1900 - 1350
"Museum forces Dullahan face-down again, I end my turn." Allan stated as Dullahan shifted into it's shadowy set form.
The Figure draw a card... and now with the swords gone, it then flipped up all 4 set monsters it had. Artifacts Chakram, Vajra, Caduceus, and Lancea all rose up.
'I got this.' Allan thought trying to push down the easily resurfacing memory of all that pain, 'I can stop all of the attacks.' Chakram attacked first, "I use Ghostrick-Go-Round to flip Dullahan up and Chakram down." Allan declared, as he saw a repeat of what happened last turn unfold before him.
Ghostrick Dullahan... ATK:1000 - 1600
The Figure addressed toward the face-up 'Artifact Assault' and the set Chakram vanished as Moralltach rose again. The Sword wielding Artifact then charged at Dullahan.
"Dullahan, effect!" Allan said.
"This rematch will end the same way." Dullahan said as he absorbed his other Xyz material into his sword and charged to meet the attacking Artifact, with, as he said, the match ending the same as it did last turn.
Artifact Moralltach... ATK:2100 - 1050
Unknown Figure's LP: 1350 - 800
Shadows from the corners of the hallway launched out and grabbed Dullahan, "And Now Museum forces him face down again." Allan muttered to himself as Dullahan had to do just that.
Next came Vajra, "I activate my set card! Defense Draw!" Allan declared as a barrier formed around him to block the incoming attack, "The Damage from your attack becomes zero, and I draw a card." The attack was repelled and Allan drew, but he didn't get the chance before Lancea charged forward, "I use 'Ghostrick Lantern's effect from my hand! I negate your attack and summon Lantern in face-down defense position!"
Lantern appeared right off to the side, hurling itself at the Artifact and deliberately knocking into it to send it of course. "You ain't getting any closer than that." He then said before fading into the image of a set monster.
The Staff of Caduces lit itself up in a bright light, the memory of it's last attack refusing to go away in Allan's mind, almost making the pain come early, But the Ghostrick Duelist still had one last card to play, "Ghostrick Jackfrost's effect also activates from my hand. It summons itself face-down, and your attacking monster goes face-down." Allan declared as a small blizzard erupted, covering the Artifact in snow and Ice before it turns face-down again.
"Ha! That was the last of them! Battle Phase survived!" Jackfrost said as he briefly appeared next to Allan before going face-down on the field.
Allan breathed a sigh of relief, though he new this was far from over. He still needed to do that last 800 damage else the The Figure could send another volley of attacks again on his next turn, and with that Continuous trap, Moralltach can rise again at any point on Allan's turn to pop any card Allan keeps face-up, and with Dullahan out of Xyz material getting over it would be an issue. Still it is only 800 damage he needed... an Ookaizi could do the trick if he ran one. So it may not be to-
A light caught Allan's eye and he looked up to see that the Figure played a spell card, one Allan recognized, a quick-pay spell called 'Artifacts Unleashed'. Wait, isn't that a card that lets the user summon something?
He got his answer when the face-up Artifacts, Vajra and Lancea turned into yellow streams of light and a familiar type of portal began to take shape on the Figure's side.
"It can Xyz summon during the battle Phase!?" Alucard declared/asked as the yellow energy streams went into the overlay network and a much larger sword erupted out of it, held by a translucent figure that was colored in alternating red and blue stripes and with two yellow Xyz material orbiting around it, Artifact Durendel had arrived.
Artifact Durendel... Attribute:Light, Type:Fairy/Xyz, Rank:5, ATK:2400 DEF:2100
Durendel came charging in, it was still the battle phase after all, but Allan didn't have anything left to block the attack. He held his arms up to brace himself, and Alucard went in front of Allan, as though he was going to try and take some of the attack despite his card not being on the field, but rather or not either action had any effect, Allan would never know. All he would know was the pain caused by the attack.
Allan's LP: 6400 - 4000
Allan was launched back by the attack but he never registered it, he never registered the collision with the ground, he never registered his own scream, for the next few seconds, all his mind would register was the pain... He could not begin to describe it, he may never be able to describe it, as despite the attack just being a bit stronger then Caduces's, it definitely felt like it had nearly twice the power as Caduces's...and twice the pain to match.
When the pain subsided enough for Allan to take proper note of his surroundings again, the magically made duel disk was beeping at him, it was his turn. He tried to move, but his body refused to budge, he tried to speak up, but no words would form. This wasn't good, most duels put on some sort of time limit for the players, and if you took to long, either your turn would come to an end or you are disqualified. Allan didn't know if the rule applied here, but he doubted it wouldn't, and either option wasn't good, he needed to make a move, but at the moment he couldn't move a finger.
He felt a hand on his arm, and Alucard's voice came out saying, "Hang in there Allan, this duel is just about over." Alucard lifted Allan off the ground, and tried to hold him steady, giving constant support, on one side so he wouldn't fall over. He tried to turn to the other Ghostricks, "Hey can someone give him a boost here!? He needs a bit more help."
"Oh, right." Specter said... when did he get there? "Just give me a second." the little Ghost said before phasing into Allan's body. Allan began to feel his fingers start to move a bit and before long he could move his hands and arms with almost no problem. "That should help, but I can't go any further." Specter said as he left Allan's body. "You'll need to get some rest soon."
"That should be enough for now, once we win this,he can rest with no worries." Alucard replied.
Allan tried to speak up, say thanks, announce his draw, but no words would form, and the sound from his mouth sounded really bad, his throat was killing him at that moment, but he couldn't be bothered to figure out why, there was trouble in front of him, and it needed to be gone. He drew his card... huh, ironic that that card may be helpful here... and looked at the field, it didn't change much from what Allan recalled it last, no set back row 2 cards in both players hand, he had Go-Round and Museum out with three Ghosrick face-down, Jackfrost, Dullahan, and Lantern, and his opponent had the 'Artifact Assault' trap card and 2 face down monsters, one of them having 2 yellow Xyz material orbiting around it. 'Museum's effect must have flipped the Xyz face-down.' Allan thought.
Allan moved to activate his drawn card, 'Mystical Space Typhoon', and a small whirlwind appeared. Allan pointed at the 'Artifact Assault' trap card. The the Figure gestured to it as it glowed, the set monster the Figure had, the one without the orbiting Xyz material, vanished and 'Artifact Moralltach' appeared right before the trap got vaporized by the wind. The Figure pointed toward the floor, and the newly summoned monster stabbed the ground with the sword. Museum got destroyed and the surroundings returned to normal... energy cage trapping them not withstanding.
Allan smirked, Moralltach was summoned in attack position, that would be the end of the duel. He played the other card in his hand, the card drawn by Defense Draw's effect, the spell card 'Book of Life.' Card images appeared in front of him, first the monsters he could revive, Ghostrick Mummy and Ghoul, then the monsters in his opponent's GY. He chose to revive Ghoul and banish Caduces. Ghoul reappeared on Allan's field, having properly stitched himself up, and said "It's Over." Allan then flipped up all three set Ghostricks, time for them all to help wrap this up.
Ghostrick Lantern... Attribute:Dark, Type:Fiend, Level:1, ATK:800 DEF:0
Ghostrick Jackfrost... Attribute:Dark, Type:Fiend, Level:1, ATK:800 DEF:100
Ghostrick Dullahan... ATK:1000 - 2000
A ball of light appeared in Ghoul's hand as he turned to Allan saying, "So who get's the boon of my effect this time?"
Allan pointed toward Dullahan, and Ghoul gave him the orb. Dullahan then transformed, any cartoonish elements that were there previously were gone. The Horse changed from white to pitch black, a purple fog emitted from his body and his sword was now radiating darkness.
Ghostrick Dullahan... ATK:2000 - 4700
Allan pointed at the opposing Artifact monster, and Dullahan charged. Slicing through the monster, and releasing an energy wave that cut through the opposing figure, then the monster, the Figure, and the energy cage all exploded into light that quickly vanished.
Unknown Figure's LP: 800 - 0
The duel disk started to vanish, deck moving from it to Allan's deck box on it's own. Allan's eyes started to get heavy, exhaustion coming in so quickly that his only guess for how it could be like that is that maybe there was some adrenaline in his system that was since the danger has passed.
Dullahan, returning to his usual state, yet still somehow very solid put an arm on Allan's shoulder and said, "Our cards are in your deck now and we can get you home. Rest. You need it."
At that, Allan passed out.
Line break
Richard fell back after being blasted by an attack. "What the hell?" He muttered, as he tried to get up and failed. He was using his time suspended from school dueling like crazy, he didn't know what Allan did to him after he won, but he figured the duel had to do with it. So he was dueling like crazy to get as good as possible, and win as many Ante's as possible, so he can clobber Allan when he gets a rematch... whenever that was, he couldn't approach the guy without his body stiffening for some reason.
Richard looked up at his current opponent, "What the hell are these cards you have?" They weren't anything like he had seen before and he was taking a good look at a LOT of cards recently.
The opponent was a boy in a Blue jacket, who's face looked distant, like he wasn't fully there for some reason "It won't matter to you soon enough." he then said, his voice sounded normal to Richard, but those of a special ears could pick up a second voice speaking in unison with the boy's, a voice a LOT more demonic. "You lost, so it is time for the Penalty game." A dark aura emerged around the boy, invisible to Richard.
"What's that suppose to-" Richard began, but was cut off by the darkness he couldn't see. Then, his body vanished into nothing.
AN:
Sooo, remember when I said that I now had an actual story planned out but not to expect but not to expect more frequent uploads anyway... in case you forget (it WAS a year ago) you can just go back to the last chapter's Author's notes and re-read that. Well, as it turns out, upon the decision to try and make this apart of a larger universe full of different ideas I had (ranging from OC characters to AUed versions of characters from non-yugioh franchizes), my brain started bubbling up a lot of the ideas that it wanted to get to work on... but I wanted to finish this First.
So... the past few months I have been doubling down on the various remaining chapters of this story to get them ALL done by October, that's right they are now ALL DONE! But I still need to proofread them so don't expect to be getting any more then once a week, that way the last chapter can come out on Halloween. :)... which also happens to be both Allan's birthday and the day the last chapter takes place during. Something tells me that day is going to be really memorable for him... along with maybe the build up to it, OC cards like those Artifact spells and traps in this chapters aren't the only things that will be appearing to him.