Chapter 7: The Number Hunter
When Alice awoke the next morning she still felt tired "okay no more late nights" Alice said before getting up, when she left her room Dan and Shun were eating breakfast with Dan looking a little gloomy "is something wrong Dan" Alice asked as he just stared into his bowl "he's being a drama king because I beat him yesterday" Shun said as he had to deal with it the night before "oh, well umm have you looked though your deck and made some strategies yet" Alice said trying to cheer him up "no, not yet, okay then let's get too it" Dan said getting his energy back before taking out his cards and looking though them "ah would you mind taking a look you were better at this side of things" Dan said passing his cards to Alice "alright" she said before looking though her self
After looking though for a few minutes she ran a hand though her hair "well, got any suggestions" Dan asked while she sighed "well how do I put this, your decks terribly balanced and Drago would, well is the only card you'd be winning any matches" she said worried what Dan's reaction would be "what does that matter as long as I got Drago by my side I'll be fine" Dan said while Alice didn't know whether she was relived or not, it was at that point Shun stepped in "you can't just depend on Drago to win Dan, because it's not going to work, you lost to me twice in less than an hour" at this point Dan was fuming "okay then, what's your deck like" he said before Shun relented getting deck out and giving it to Dan "I don't see what the big deal is, my deck got all these types of cards" he said before Shun corrected him "that's not all you have to look at it's how your cards can work together, why don't you let Alice explain it" at this point Dan handed the deck to Alice 'come to think of it I've only seen three of shuns cards' she thought going though it while Astral also got a look as she went, after finishing Alice spoke "I have to agree with Shun, his deck most of his monsters have effects that allows them to be Summoned rapidly to the field allowing him an easy way XYZ summon and not just Skyress but others to, I do have to say it's an interesting deck but did you have these cards from when you got here" Alice ended with the question as Shun answered "yes" as Alice she got out her cards looking though both before handed him his deck back "it is a bit odd that Shun and I got well rounded decks and Dan didn't but since it is Saturday maybe we could go to the mall, find a place where you could strengthen your deck" Alice suggested as she remembered seeing a few places that could help Dan "yeah I'm in" he responded before turning to Shun "how about it, you want to go" he asked as Shun shook his head "no thanks I got stuff to do" Shun said as the now egger Dan dragged Alice out the door "it starts today, doesn't it Shun" Skyress asked him "yes it does, my work as a number hunter begins today"
Arriving at the mall Alice started showing Dan a few places where he could find what he needed, but meanwhile Shun had gone to Heartland Tower to meet Mr. Heartland "ah Shun I'm glad you made it here okay, you did read though the package we sent you right" he said as Shun nodded in acknowledgement before continuing "today were sending you after Number 70 I believe you've already seen it right" he asked as Shun answered "I saw it my first day here" at this point Heartland passed Shun a wrist mounted device "yes that's right, now the device I just handed you will allow us to send you the details of any number cards and their owners that you can pursue, I did say the first time we meet that you're not the only one looking for them so if you get a lead I'd recommend pursuing it, secondly it also connects to a duel anchor you can use to keep your opponents from running off and lastly once you obtain Number 70 that device will allow you to activate a special field where you can perceive 1 second as 10,000 of course this field is only available to those with number cards so you'll need Number 70 first, but once you have you can use the field to duel and acquire numbers without outside interference" he finished as Shun turned to leave "is that everything" he asked before going out the door "yes, your all set to go" Heartland spoke as Shun had left by the end of his sentence
Back at the Mall Alice and Dan had finished up and were wandering towards the food court "since were here why not get something" Dan asked as Alice wasn't sure "wouldn't that be unfair I mean if we eat now, we'll be less hungry later and as a result if I make a smaller dinner without realising it Shun might not get enough to eat" Alice said as Astral spoke to her "so while humans eat, they can only eat a certain amount per day" he asked as she answered "well it differs per person but basically" unaware that Dan was having his own thoughts on the subject "okay I've got it, what if we just get Shun some and take it back and if he's not there we can put it in the fridge does sound okay" Dan said voicing his thoughts "well if your that set on it, I don't think I can Stop…." Alice's words stopped as something crashed in front of them "what the heck was that" Dan asked as their attention was drawn up ward as the police were dealing with some crazy guy with a bat "seems like some hostage situation, this is awful" Alice said as they were near a screen broadcasting the event, as it went on Astral noticed something about the thug "look there, it is a number" he said as the number 56 was on the man's shoulder "we need to get closer" Alice said as she started to make her way through the crowed to the upper levels with Dan following, as they got up a few more levels someone was flying overhead "hey look up there" one person said as another responded "it's some sort of guilder" as the chatter of the crowed continued only silenced when the figure smashed through the glass roof before everyone just stopped, as this happened Alice "what just happened everyone's frozen" she said startled as Dan didn't move either "no time is frozen" Astral said as the two heard whistling "we need to keep going" Alice said finding the situation familiar to when a brawl would occur "your right" Astral said as the two continued going through the frozen crowd, Astral being able to float could see a duel was breaking out between "hurry, a number duel is a foot" astral said as Alice was making her way up the stairs "right I'm hurrying" she said squeezing past the people on the stairs, finally reached the platform only to see the same mysterious figure flying off "who is that guy" she said in surprise not expecting an answer as time restarted "so it is over" Astral said as the police moved in on the man now on the floor after the encounter he had, Alice watched as he was wheeled out on a hospital stretcher as he kept repeating the same words "number hunter" with this Astral tried to absorb the number only to find it already gone "his number was taken" Astral said as Alice looked up to the broken ceiling as Dan's voice called out "hey Alice" at this she turned to him "don't just go running off alone do you see me doing… ah never mind, just give some warring next time okay" he asked "yeah, so take out" Alice asked to remind Dan "oh yeah let's go" he said as they started to walk away from the scene
Halfway across the city Shun was face to face with the man he meet before "I'm here for your number card, so let's duel" Shun said as the man being full consumed by the numbers power excepted the challenge "all right kid duel" he said before he and Shun both activated their duel disk and began
Turn 1: Shun 4000LP
"Frist I summon one card in face down defence mode, next I place two cards face down"
"Is that really all Shun" Skyress asked as Shun replied "his number has the ability to banish any monster so until I can summon you at a point where it won't affect you, I end my turn"
Turn 2: 4000LP
Frist I play the spell double summon this card lets me normal summon two monsters, so I'm summoning two Archfiend Soldiers" Level 4 ATK 1900 "now I overlay my two monster's to XYZ summon I summon Number 70: Malevolent Sin" Rank 4 ATK 2400 "and I'll use it to attack your monster"
Number 70: Malevolent Sin destroys Raidraptor - Fuzzy Lanius Level 4 DEF 1500 no damage
"Because you destroyed my Fuzzy Lanius I can add another one from my deck to my hand" Shun said explaining his cards effect
"it won't help because I attacked your monster Malevolent sin gains 300 ATK points and 3 ranks now I Play one card face down and end my turn"
Turn 3: Shun 4000LP
"I draw, first I I'm gonna play the spell you might find familiar double summon you already know what it does so I'm just going to summon Raidraptor - Mimicry Lanius" Level 4 ATK 1100 "and for my second summon I chose Raidraptor - Vanishing Lanius" level 4 ATK 1300 "his special ability lets me summon another Raidraptor from my hand so I chose another Vanishing Lanius and as you may guess that allows me to summon a third Vanishing Lanius who lets me summon the Fuzzy Lanius I got last turn" Level 4 ATK 500 "now I overlay my 5 level 4 monsters to XYZ summon Storm Skyress" Rank 4 DEF 2800 "now I'll use Skyress special ability to increases it's attack and defence by 300 and end my turn with a face down"
Turn 4: 4000LP
"First I'll draw next I attack with Malevolent Sin"
Malevolent Sin ATK 2700 attacks Strom Skyress DEF 2800 lose 100LP
"What why would you attack" Shun shouted across the field
"I'll tell you why so I can activate it's special ability once more and increase its Rank by 3 and ATK points by 300, but that won't matter for long because now that Malevolent Sin is Rank 10 I can use it to XYZ summon"
"what he's XYZ's summoning again" Shun said as Skyress turned to look at him "brace yourself" she said knowing what ever came next would not be good
"I summon Number 77: The Seven Sins" Rank 12 ATK 4000
"He has another number" Shun said worried 'and worse I don't have any monsters powerful enough to destroy it and I can't get around it either' he thought
"Yes you see I can summon this card using a Rank 10 XYZ monster as its materials that's where I'll end my turn"
Turn 5: Shun 4000LP
Shun drew thinking of a strategy 'even if Skyress can't be destroyed I got to think of' his train of thought paused as he looked at the card 'Magic Cylinder, but I don't even have this card' he thought before his mind recalled that Alice looked though their decks this morning 'it must be Alice's, what does this do anyway 'when attacked negate the attack and inflict damage to your opponent equal to its ATK points' wait if I use this I can win in one move, it may be risky but even if it fails Skyress can't be destroyed' Shun thought before moving "I place two cards face down and end my turn"
Turn 6: 4000LP
"I'll draw and now I'll use Number 77's special ability I can detach 2 overlay units from this card and banish all the special summoned monsters you control, and just I in case you didn't know XYZ's summoning counts as special summoning"
Strom Skyress Banished
"how, I thought you were protected from monster effects Skyress" Shun asked as Skyress incorporeal form remained "unfortunately I am only protected from effects that target me, so when he activates an ability to banish all special summoned monsters I am included" she said as Shun lamented the fact 'I would say live and learn but if he doesn't fall for magic cylinder or has a way to destroy it the game is over, he has one face down card plus whatever he has in his hand, I was idiotic to think I knew what he would do and how this was going to play out but in the end this all comes down to chance' Shun thought waiting for his opponents next move
The next moments went by in a flash as Number 77 attacked and Shun activated magic cylinder dealing 4000 damage wining the duel and Shun claimed his prize reaching out retiring the number cards as the man's hair turned white and he did not move from the ground "Shun are you Okay" Skyress asked "I'm fine, it can't be helped after all" Shun said crushing the orb in his hand to reveal the two number cards before he turned to go back
Arriving back Shun found Alice and Dan eating some type of take out "welcome back, we got you some as well it's on the table" Alice greeted while Dan kept eating, at this point Shun grabbed the bag from the table along with the drink before pulling out some fries and started eating
When Dan finished first, he was quick on his feet as he was ready to go "alright Shun you and me right now" he said as Shun sighed "not right now" he said as Dan turned to Alice "well how about it" he asked as she shook her head before something came to mind "how about tomorrow we got an arcade, you should be able to find all sorts of duellists" she reasoned as Dan agreed "that's a great idea lets head over there first thing, right Drago" turning to Drago as he finished "agreed going against all different opposition is a good way for your skills to improve" he agreed as Alice had something else to say "if you want go tomorrow then we should head to bed" she said "what why it's only round 7:30" Dan said as he was adamantly opposed to it "well it opens from what I heard around six and if you want head in as soon as it's opened we need to leave here at 5:20 in the morning" Alice said as Dan changed his tune "well I'm off to bed wake me when it's time for breakfast" Dan said walking to the room he shared with Shun "so do you want come" Alice asked Shun "no, make sure he doesn't do anything to reckless, there are dangerous people around" he said as Alice headed in for her room "I'm sure we'll be fine good night" Alice said before closing the door "why did you stone wall him like that" Astral asked "he's just being over cautious, besides we still have work to do tonight" Alice answered as Astral realised what she meant "that other person acquiring number cards" with this Alice nodded "I wanted a strategy ready for when we eventually have to face him because sooner or later we will have to" she said as their conversation continued with Alice looked over her cards for combo's and strategies "of course if our objectives are the same we will have to face him sometime in the future, so what did you have in mind" he asked as she answered "well since he's looking for number cards his strategy probably revolves around them and he most likely already has a few in his passion as well, going into a duel both him and us have no way to tell what a number's special ability is, so using cards that negate abilities would be an idea" Alice said as Astral listened "so you believe he would have cards like Number 45, yes that is a viable option but is that all you had in mind" he said as Alice nodded "well actually I wasn't planning on using any number cards or an XYZ monster in general" Alice said unsure "yes that would be a way around an offensive designed against number cards" he said as the two continued for another hour before sleeping
Meanwhile Shun was still awake as he was waiting for the chance to be alone to report back activating the his watch "This is Shun there were complications he had two number cards but I acquired Number 70 and Number 77" he said "excellent Shun you really are good, I must say though it took you a while to report in" Heartland said over the line "sorry about that I live with other people from my world and I don't want to get them involved" Shun said his voice conveying a serious tone "I understand, of course this is dangerous work if something comes up I'll send you the details" Heartland said before ending the conversation from his end
The next morning Alice and Dan headed off to the arcade in the morning while Shun slept in drained from the previous days duel
"Did I rock or did I rock" Dan said as they left the arcade 12 hours later "I have to say you were on fire, I think you only lost 4 matches" Alice said as Dan was ridding the hype "yeah I was awesome and who would complain about 11 wins, I swear nothing could ruin today" Dan said before it started to rain "nope not even that" he said smiling over to Alice "glad to see" she said as they came to an intersection as Dan ran over to the other side with Alice took a second to look only spotting a truck far down the road and with that Alice started to cross before "Alice" Astral called as the truck was about to hit her
Alice closed her eyes a moment before getting hit, then nothing happened "Alice, are you okay" Astral said as she opened her eyes to notice everything was frozen "I'm fine Astral but this" she said as Astral already knew "it's just like before, we should go" he said as Alice ran to check on Dan "it doesn't seem he's hurt but that truck shouldn't have been that close was it speeding, I can't leave Dan here but if I stay I'll" Alice stopped speaking as she and Astral heard whistling, before a figure appeared in front of them "there's no time, run" Astral said as Alice turned to run before rope made of energy attached to her arm "don't think you can run, from here on out your stuck on this field" he said pulling his arm back dragging her with it "we can't separate" he added "this is not good" Alice thought aloud as the stranger said "no it is good because now you have no choice, now you and I will duel for numbers" with this Astral said "you can do this" which eased Alice a bit "I thought you wanted to run away" she said "that was when I thought you could run, because we have never faced an enemy like this " Astral answered honestly 'Astral's right, even with a strategy this will be the toughest opponent I've faced' Alice thought before their Duel began
Alice was surprised as not only did her clothing switch to her duel form but her opponent did something similar with his 'Photon transformation'
Turn 1: Kite 4000LP
"There is no escape now my friend you and your number will be hunted down, now allow me to go first won't you, I draw, first I activate the spell Photon veil from my hand, with this card I get to send three light attribute monsters from my hand to my deck and then I can add three light attribute monsters from my deck to my hand" he said picking three off the same card while Alice and Astral waited for his next move
"next I'm gonna activate the power of the spell card Photon lead which lets me summon one of the monsters I just added to my hand in attack mode, and the monster I summon is Daybreaker" ATK 1700 Level 4 "but there's more when this card is successfully summoned I can summon another one from my hand, so that's two Daybreaker's and now the second one's ability activates, so welcome to the field Daybreaker number three"
"three monsters just like that" Alice said in shock at how fast his actions were "and each one share the same level of 4" Astral said leaving Alice with one conclusion 'he's going to XYZ summon a number card for sure'
"I overlay my three level 4 Daybreaker's to build the overlay network, I XYZ summon Number 10: Illumiknight" ATK 2400 Rank 4
"I knew he'd be good but a number on his first turn and he didn't even have to use his normal summon" Alice said thankful he couldn't attack yet
"that's right and I'm still not done because now I play Illumiknight ability with it I can use an overlay unit to discard one card from my hand to draw one new card from my deck, then light serpent's special ability activates, you see when light serpent's sent to the graveyard from my hand it's then summoned to the field" ATK 1200 Level 3 "next I'll bring out the monster plasma ball" ATK 900 Level 3
"That's another two monsters with the same level" Alice said as the realization dawned upon her as Astral voiced her thought "he likely has more than one number" with this Alice agreed
"I now overlay light serpent and plasma ball, I can once again build the overlay network, I XYZ summon Number 20: Giga-Brilliant" ATK 1800 Rank 3
"I knew it was coming but it's still shocking that he summoned two number cards in one turn" Alice said
"Now the hunt truly begins" he said "now I'll end my turn"
"What a move ending your turn right on" the robot behind him said before he scolded it "that's not a move gear head"
Turn 2: Alice 4000LP
"This won't be easy dealing with two number cards" Astral said as Alice drew looking at her hand 'and to make matters worse I've never even played these cards before' Alice thought looking at the monsters in her hand "okay first I summon Gagaga Sister" ATK 200 Level 2 "and her effect lets me add one Gagaga monster from deck to my hand so I pick Gagaga clerk and when there's a Gagaga monster on my field her special ability lets me summon her" ATK 400 Level 2 "and now I can use Gagaga Sister's other special ability which lets me add her level to Gagaga clerk and all monsters I control become that level so now I have two Level 4 monsters" she said stopping for a minute looking over to Astral "do it" he said as she continued "I overlay my two Level 4 monsters to build the overlay network and XYZ summon Number 39: Utopia" ATK 2500 Rank 4 Alice looked over to Astral as he considered there next play "we still don't know Giga-Brilliant's special ability holding off on attacking until then and play that trap cards face down" he finished as Alice agreed "to end I'll play one cards face down" Alice said as Astral nodded waiting for Kite's next move
Turn 3: Kite 4000LP
"Ah the number has appeared, right then I activate Illumiknight special ability again and use an overlay unit to discard the card I drew and replace it with a new one" he said as smirked at the card he drew "now I play Giga-Brilliant's ability, by using one overlay unit Giga-Brilliant gains 300 ATK points, and now it's time I tribute Giga-Brilliant and Illumiknight, goodbye you two, and hello to galaxy eyes photon dragon" ATK 3000 Level 8
"I don't like the where this is going" Alice said as Kite had just gotten rid of two number cards "I agree while that dragon does have more attack points that the other two the fact he got rid of two number cards just to summon it is concerning" Astral said
"Get ready to meet defeat because my Galaxy Eyes is ready to seek and destroy, now galaxy eyes attack Utopia"
"Activate Utopia's ability" Astral said but before Alice could do it Kite made another move
"And now Galaxy Eyes special ability activates and both our monsters are banished"
"well that's weird" Alice said while Astral was as unsure as her "we may not have Utopia but at least that dragon's gone" Alice said still not sure why he would summon a dragon just to get rid of it 'is this how he deals with Number cards or does that dragon come back'
"And now that the battle is over both our monsters return and if the monster Galaxy Eyes battled with was an XYZ monster Galaxy Eyes absorbs that monster's overlay units and gains 500 ATK points for each" kite said as both monsters returned "and that end my turn"
Galaxy Eyes Photon Dragon 3000 + (500 x 2) = 4000 ATK
Turn 4: Alice 4000LP
'I get it now even though Utopia's back his overlay units are gone and to add insult to injury Galaxy Eye's attack has been boosted to 4000, come to think of it this is probably his go too card and it's perfect against numbers' Alice thought looking at her face down card "I should have used it when I had a chance" she said doubting her choice as Astral disagreed "no, while it's true the recall Trap card could have negated the effect and destroyed his monster, with the information we had I would not have used it either" he said as Alice drew for her turn 'okay I have mirror force and negate attack in my hand if I play them both I can at worst negate the attack and at best destroy his dragon and since he has nothing in his hand he's got no way to negate them, but if utopia's in defence mode I won't take damage either way' with that Alice began to shift utopia to DEF mode "it's a risky move" Astral said as Alice stopped to listen "he went as far as getting rid of his Number cards so he could summon Galaxy Eyes, he is sure to have a plan in place for you playing a number in deference" Astral said as Alice ended "I throw two cards face down and end my turn"
Turn 5: Kite 4000LP
"My turn I draw, I Summon forth Photon Cerberus and when Cerberus is let off his leash your trap cards are put on them" he said as chains formed around both of Alice's face down cards
"Oh no" Astral said as both he and Alice were worried with the turn of events "so I can't negate your attack" she said letting her strategy slip
"That's right which means you won't be avoiding the damage to your life points, now Galaxy Eyes Attack"
Galaxy Eyes Photon Dragon 4000 attacks Utopia 2500 ATK Alice Takes 1500 damage, Utopia not destroyed
Alice 4000LP – 1500LP =2500LP
"that's not good if this keeps up were not gonna last much longer" Alice said as the robot piped up "that's right and then your number card and your soul go bye bye" it said as Alice took in the information "my soul, wait is that happened back at the" Alice stopped as her own thoughts interrupted
"That's right once the doom card is played the battle is over"
"The doom card"
"Yes Dan the doom card, once you throw it down it sends the defeated Byakugan into another dimension for eternity"
"You're kidding"
"The doom dimension, he's right human a Bakugan can never return from the doom dimension there we met our eternal demise, nothing is feared more"
At the memory Alice's hand started trembling as Kite's wrath turned to his robot "you tin twip, I've got this girl on the ropes and you bring that up, what is wrong with you" he yelled as his robot backed up apologising
"If he knows we have a trap card waiting I doubt he'll Attack with that dragon without a plan, in the meantime if we take out Photon Cerberus we can do some damage to his life points" Astral said before turning to Alice for input, however when he did she was breathing heavily as her whole body was trembling 'this isn't good' Astral thought before speaking "we haven't lost yet, we can still turn this around' however his word were unnoticed as Alice was stuck in her own head 'after everything after hurting so many people as Masquerade and sending countless Byakugan to their demise, maybe I deserve to lose' she thought dropping to her knees "Alice" Astral called destressed at her condition
"Great she can't even draw for her turn, now that you've freaked her out Orbital" Kite said in a mix of anger at Orbital 7 and pity for her 'great now I have to wait until this girl makes her move, which in her state might take some time I suppose I can wait her out until she makes her move' he thought before he felt something wrong "incoming message Master Kite" he said causing Kite to look over as Orbital 7 projected a scene of a young boy collapsed "hart" he said distressed "we'll finish this later, but now I must leave" he said severing rode before addressing orbital "come on, we must hurry" he said as orbital complied Turing into a motorcycle, before the two drove away as time returned to normal as Alice's clothes went back to normal and the rain starting to fall again and the truck passing centimetres away from Alice's face, drenching her with water as it passed "hey slow down" Dan shouted at the Truck as he turned to Alice who had passed out "Alice" he said going over to her "is she okay" Drago asked as Dan responded "she's fine, thank goodness, I guess I better take her back" Dan said picking up Alice shifting her on to his back
An hour later the two arrived back with Alice still unconscious "what happened" Shun asked worried as they came through the door "a speeding truck almost hit Alice I guess she panicked and passed out because the next time I saw her she was like this" Dan explained as Shun was Quick speak "let's get her to her room and let her sleep" he said as Dan complied and they left her in her room "what now" Dan asked "well we should do the same but if she hasn't woken up by morning then we shouldn't wake her up, if it comes to that I'll tell the school she's absent okay" Shun said looking over to Skyress as she nodded in approval of the plan "okay that makes sense" Dan said not wanting to wait but knowing Shun was right about letting her recover first