Nebulous Intentions
The two avatars, or A.I.s, or whatever they were raised their blasters and fired at the three of us. I closed my eyes and held my arms around my head defensively. I didn't expected my existence to come to such an absurd ending and somehow… it didn't. Instead of blaster shots tearing through my digital body, I felt myself raising off the ground. In a way, I was correct about it, opening my eyes, the first thing that come into view was how the ground below me the two shooters that stood there were getting farther and farther away from me.
PhantomFire, whose avatar turned into its adult form, was holding both me and Ghost Girl by the waist and landed on one of the floating billboards before absurdly dropping us down. It didn't seem like he cared that we could have missed the chance to grab onto something and fell down.
"Stay here, I will be back in a moment." He told us and pounced toward a nearby building.
What happened next however was so surprising and amazing that I wished there was a camera for me to record it! Using the building's wall as a platform PhantomFire leaped over the two shooters he made a front flip mid-air and fired some purple energy threads onto their weapons before landing behind the attackers. He pulled the strings, causing the two to accidentally aim and fired at each other. The blasts carved a hole in each of the shooters' chest and they collapsed on the ground before turning to static and disappeared.
Once it all ended, I and Ghost Girl climbed back down and went to join up with PhantomFire again. He waited for us next to the burning building with his body back to its child-like appearance. I stopped for a moment to look at where the shooters had stood just a minute ago and how quickly they disappeared.
"Are they dead?" I asked PhantomFire. Did he just made two people shot each other in cold blood?
"I wouldn't bet on it." PhantomFire crossed his arms and kicked away some piece of metal that lied before his feet. "Those weapons were coded from a different virtual world so I can't analyze them. No worry though, even if they are dead, I could still find their avatar's history and cheek out if they had anything important on them."
"How can you tell me not to worry when we could have killed someone?!" I yelled back at him.
"Your partner is really oblivious about how this job goes, isn't she?" Ghost Girl commented from the side while she kneeled down and looked at some piece of metal.
I turned back toward PhantomFire looking for an explanation about what the woman meant by those words. What was I oblivious about? I knew that what we came here to do wasn't right, making business with some criminals and paying them for the data of other people was absolutely wrong, but just how deep was that corruption going? Although he didn't do it directly, PhantomFire shot two people in the chest in cold blood. Was that a part of the so called 'job' that Ghost Girl mentioned? To kill others… No, I would never accept that hurting others could lead to something good happening!
"This isn't some sort of game, as you might like to think, Proxy." PhantomFire divulged. "What we are doing here, what Ghost Girl is doing every day, there are people that wouldn't mind to try and kill us just to stop us from getting what we need. There are psychopaths out there that would turn a normal cube into a bomb meant to kill a bunch of people just because they can do that! When it comes to saving someone from those madmen I don't have time to stand there and think if my methods are going to put the attacker's life in danger or not!"
"You will have time to do the right thing if you care about it!" I shouted back at him. He could have used the strings to force the shooters to blast their weapons instead of each other, but he didn't put that much thought about it because he didn't care! "There were several other ways that you could have used to stop them, weren't there? You simply went with the easiest one to pull off because you didn't felt like trying to make a difference!"
"I'm making a difference!" PhantomFire protested and grabbed me by the collar of my suit. I yelped and tried to break free, but his avatar was far too strong for an 11-years old; probably because of his true appearance. "All that you are is just some naive little kid who thinks that hugs and kisses would save the world! I got no interest in being a hero, being the nice guy that everyone adores and other crap like that! All I'm looking for is finishing this madness as quickly and effectively as possible, do you get that?"
I narrowed my eyes and put a hand over his. "When I saw you and Avice showing up to protect me from Picaro, when I saw you standing all night look searching for a cure to save Blaze Rose, all the way until just fifteen minutes ago, I did adore you. I did look up to you and believe that you would be able to teach me how to be a hero! I'm… I'm such a fool to think that you were a good guy!"
"I'm not a good guy!" PhantomFire pulled me forward and then threw me against a fallen metal platform. I yelped when my back hit it and collapsed on the ground, but he just turned away from me. "If you think that I'm truly the evil guy here, then leave. I will find the cure by myself."
I took a few deep breaths and looked up at him while he walked away. I could do like he suggested and log out, leave him on his own accord, but I just wouldn't do that because of three reasons. First, I knew that I wouldn't be useful to him anyways and that by logging out I wouldn't prove anything, Second, this wasn't about me nor him, we were here to find a way to save Picaro's victims from eternal coma and bickering among each other would just make us take longer to reach that goal. Third, if PhantomFire was truly fine with killing off people just because he doesn't have time trying to save them, there should be someone to stop him from hurting those people.
"Hey, if the two of you are done arguing, there is something I want you to help me with." Ghost Girl called out and crossed her arms.
"I expected you to leave after the target of your job got blown up." PhantomFire walked over to her and crossed his arms. "You never stay for the encore after mind blowing performances like this one."
"My target wasn't Blacloud, but something that was in his possession." Ghost Girl shook her head. "People don't usually hide their treasures in plain sight, do they? I think your avatar's data manipulating skills could be of huge help here."
"I'm getting what you ask me to do." PhantomFire closed his eyes and raised his arms toward the destroyed factory.
Purple data formed in his palms and then shot out to cover every piece of the destroyed building, creating a complete holographic copy of it. Those copies flew off and put themselves back in the places where they were supposed to be, effectively creating a replica of the destroyed factory. After a few moments, some new care formed at the sides of the door and the two bots that guarded it were recreated as well; a perfect copy.
"Keep this up, I and the kid are going to look inside." Ghost Girl stated and looked over at me.
I glanced at the holographic replica of the building, despite the fact that its destroyed state was right underneath the fake one, we would still be able to enter it without a problem. I don't know how that worked, but we were in a virtual reality after all, here the rules of the real world didn't apply that much. PhantomFire didn't show any sight to be against the idea of me going with the woman, so I complied with her request and follower inside the building. I didn't know what program Phantom must have used, but it was able to recreate the insides of the place as well, or so I thought since I didn't get to walk inside before it got blown up.
"What exactly are we looking for in here?" I asked Ghost Girl. The place didn't seem so special, in fact, there were no machines or anything that would make it look like a functioning factory.
"Anything useful." Ghost Girl replied and began to scan the place with her Duel Disk. "I'm jealous of Phantom's coding skills, if I was able to create perfect replicas like he does, my job would have been so much easier."
"How long have you known PhantomFire?" I asked her. Ghost Girl and PhantomFire seemed to be able to easily work together, so they should have known each other for a while.
"For a year, or less." Ghost Girl shrugged to my question. "He is a cutie in the real world, but his personality is no better than what you see here. Such a letdown, but at least he always has well paid jobs for me."
I wasn't sure what good it would be to talk about this with that woman, everything she seemed to care about is making profit, so she wouldn't be able to understand me.
"What Phantom told me earlier. Is this what you work is like?" I still asked her the question that was on top of my mind. "You know, fighting against people that want to kill you and… finish them off like how he did? Sorry if I'm being annoying, I just can't understand why anyone would take such a dark job willingly."
"I get a good profit out of it and it's actually a fun job." Ghost Girl replied. "Well, my job as a Treasure Hunter at least is. Your partner's job is… a little different from mine, so I can't talk about it."
"I see…" I lowered my head and followed.
We walked through the empty replica, trying to find anything useful, but there was absolutely nothing. Someone must have cleared the whole place before we even showed up. The only thing that was there for us to inspect was a hologram of that Blacloud guy before the explosion and… well… his decapitation. The avatar, not whole and not just a head, was pretty huge and had the appearance of a cyborg with a gas-mask over his face and some jets on his back. In his left arm, he was holding an open cube, upon closer inspection it was empty.
"That's interesting." Ghost Girl raised her left arm, scanning the hologram with her Duel Disk. "Hmm, like I expected, he is holding an old communicator. He must have talked with someone before the assassins blew him up."
"The explosion has torn his whole body apart." I reminded Ghost Girl. "Do you think he is hurt in the real world?"
The woman turned to look at me and then sighed, her shoulders dropping a bit. I already had the feeling that the response she was going to give me wouldn't be a good one, so I braced myself for the news, or at least I tried to. Remembering how much damage I took from duels alone, I couldn't begin to imagine what it would be like to get blown up to pieces and probably buried under a burning building.
"I'm not sure how to tell you that, but he is probably… dead." Ghost Girl finally answered to my question.
I held a hand over my chest, feeling it getting tighter and harder for me to breathe. Even though I was trying to mentally brace myself for such answer, it was hard to prepare to hear that someone died. Even less after you saw their body. I could remembered that head's empty stare, the horror that it must have witnessed in the last second of existence, trying to imagine all of that made my hands tremble in fear.
"Why must I do the babysitting?" Ghost Girl walked over to me and put a hand on my shoulder. "You can cry later, Phantom won't be able to hold up the projection for much longer, we should leave."
I took a deep breath, trying to cleanse the horrifying thoughts that invaded my mind and followed after Ghost Girl. But even giving my best to forget, I couldn't stop thinking about how, the way things were going on, I could one day be in Blacloud's place. Not like I hadn't been in dangerous situations before, my first contact with the Hanoi, the first duel with Picaro, then the duel with Blaze Rose and Rocketeer's reveal all had put me in situations that I could have gotten seriously injured or even killed. No matter how many things I went through, accepting the dark possibilities was something that I was always scared to do.
We walked outside and PhantomFire dropped his arm, the holograms that he had created all disappearing once after another to leave only the true ruined state of the building. I walked up to him along with Ghost Girl and though I wasn't sure how knowing that Blacloud has talked with someone before his demise would help out with the investigation, there was some curiosity to find out what these two had in mind.
"Anything useful in there?" PhantomFire asked, crossing his arms while he spoke. He was definitely trying to act intimidating, but it was hard for me to feel any sort of intimidation from his young self.
"I believe that this could categorize as such." Ghost Girl replied and showed him a copy of the hologram we saw inside.
"An old communication device?" PhantomFire narrowed his eyes and rubbed his chin in thought for a bit before nodding. "Yes, that's indeed very useful."
"You are going to use the communicator to trace whom he called last?" I guessed.
"This is just a hologram so I can't do that." PhantomFire shook his head. "But if there was someone that he had to call, then I know the one person who would be able to give me the names of all his possible contacts."
I sighed, so we were going to get deeper in the illegal stuff that this server was infamous for. I was starting to see why PhantomFire told me that he liked the place so much when we first came; it suited him and Ghost Girl so well. Nevertheless, I nodded and followed after the two older duelists toward the deeper levels of the server.
"It's none of my business, but I think you should get yourself a better sidekick if you plan to work in team from now on." Ghost Girl said to PhantomFire while the two walked in front of me. The boy turned around to look at me, but I glanced to the side to avoid making eye contact with him.
"If it's her usefulness that you are concerned with, I didn't choose to take her with me because of that." I clenched my fist; he was practically saying that I was useless, wasn't he?! "I just thought that it would be about time to teach her a few things about being a grown up."
"But I'm just fourteen!" I finally yelled at him. "What am I supposed to learn from you? How to kill people without remorse? If you take me here to show me how cruel this game can be, then it's a waste because I already know!"
I had felt it first hand; the pain, the fear, the betrayal. I might have been in LINK VRAINS for just two weeks, but I had already seen enough to know that this reality had two faces. It might be naïve of me, but was it wrong to want to make things better?
"There was no need to start yelling." PhantomFire made a grimace and put a finger into his ear. "They aren't dead, don't worry about it! Geez, fine! I won't talk to you about it anymore! Is that ok with you?"
I blinked a few times to register his words. The men that he indirectly shot down weren't dead, but that didn't change the way he was treating the subject. Even then, I felt a little ashamed of myself for starting to yell at him like this. Even if he wasn't right, shouting at him wasn't helping prove my point that I could do better.
"I'm sorry." I lowered my head and apologized to him. "I'm sorry for raising my voice toward you, please forgive me."
PhantomFire stopped walking and turned back to face me. He put both of his hands on his hips and shook his head muttering something under his breath. After a few moments he looked up at me and reached out, grabbing my hand out of the blue. I was unsure what he was going to do, but didn't try to pull my hand away, so I just watched him pulling my arm forward before putting his own on top of it. After doing that he looked up, his purple eyes staring at my own while his mouth opened to say something.
"I don't really care what you think about me and my methods to handle things. If you hate me, that would be fine since I'm anything but a good person. There is only one thing that I'm going to ask from you, one simple request that I'm sure you will be able to fulfill, right? All I'm going to ask from you is to just stay with me until we get the program. You would do that for me, right?"
I looked down on PhantomFire, unsure how to respond to that request of his. In his child form I could see something that I wasn't able to see in the grown up version of his avatar, nor in Evan himself. It was weird, but I saw loneliness in his eyes, like, it looked so real that it was hard for me not to feel bad about him. It was extremely hard to tell if this lone look was genuine or he was using his child-like appearance to trick me, but I was still going to stay with him until the end of this journey.
"You have my word, but only under one condition." I told him. "Try to act more like a hero from here on, ok?"
Little PhantomFire narrowed his eyes after hearing my condition and pulled his arm away from mine, using it to fix his oversized hoodie. My request toward him seemed to have ticked him off because he grunted before continuing to walk ahead of me. At least I tried and hoped that he would listen to me, even if he didn't want to do so.
"Just letting you know, the person we are going to meet with isn't the most willing to talk for free data dealer, so let me take the lead for this one." PhantomFire informed the rest of us.
We had just walked out of an elevator that led us deeper into the strange server and to a more… darker part of it. And I don't use the word 'dark' metaphorically but literally. There was a significant lower amount of lights on this level, its total height was around 14 foot and because of that all the buildings in this region were very small.
"If that's so, why don't I use my charming personality to make him sing?" Ghost Girl winked.
"Yeah… I'm definitely going to be the one doing all of the talking." PhantomFire narrowed his eyes and walked past us.
"Is that how working together usually turns out for you two?" I whispered to Ghost Girl. From my point of view they didn't seem to be getting along all too well, but it could be just a temporal thing so I didn't want to jump to conclusions yet.
"We don't usually work together." Ghost Girl replied and moved ahead of me, leaving me to follow them both from behind. I asked myself why I kept trying to have a normal conversation with those two and there was no logical answer.
PhantomFire lead us through a large corridor inside the level itself and not some sort of building. There were several players around that place, some of them were sitting on the ground, others were standing next to the walls, all of them seemed to stop whatever they were doing and turned to look at the three of us. Their stares toward us were anything but well-meaning and some even reached to something hidden behind their backs. To tell you, I completely freaked out and tried to alert PhantomFire but he just pinched my arm when I tried to touch him.
"Just ignore them and no one is going to do anything." My eyes widened a bit at how he knew exactly why I was trying to get his attention. I bite my lip, ignoring those stares was harder done than said, but I nodded and followed the older duelists.
Like how PhantomFire said, no one tried to do anything to us as long as we ignored them and luckily I was able to keep my eyes away from those cold stares until we reached an opening followed by a corridor which lead to some room.
"There he is." PhantomFire turned around to look at me and Ghost Girl. "This place here is the hideout of Wakandot, a sealer of information and among the lowest kind of criminal scum that you could find in this server, or the entirety of LINK VRAINS. He is a rat that would sell you to the reapers of you don't watch your back, so we have to move and speak with extreme caution around him, understood that?"
"You are saying all of this like that Wakandot is some big shot despite calling him the lowest kind of criminal." Ghost Girl pointed and crossed her arms. PhantomFire's words indeed sounded to contradict at a few places.
PhantomFire rolled his eyes instead of responding and walked inside. The room was filled with all sort of broken gadgets that were probably more for decoration than anything else. Something among the broken pieces of technology began to move and a rat with a red cybernetic left eye came from underneath all of the trash.
"Hey, hey!" the animal jumped down in front of us and waved its arms. "You can't just walk in here like you own the place! Get out! Shoo!"
"You were serious when you called him a rat." Ghost Girl commented and took a step back. "Ok, I'm going to let you handle this one."
"Now you are starting to make sense." I saw a small smirk on PhantomFire's face before he pulled his right leg back and kicked the rat in the face, sending it rolling across the room like a football ball.
"Hey! You promised me!" I reminded PhantomFire. He promised me to try act a bit less violently!
"Come on, he was asking for it." PhantomFire walked over to the rat and grabbed him by the tail before raising it up to his eye level. "Did you already forgot me, Wakandot? It hasn't been a week since I last destroyed this place."
"Last desto-! Ah, I get it, I get it! It's you that Phantom guy!" Wakandot screamed and began to throw his arms around while also trying to point at PhantomFire. "I gave you all the data I had, why did you came back?"
"I want from you to tell me where I could find someone who has data about Hanoi."
"The only person who has access to such delicate information are Blacloud and his syndicate. But they are too dangerous for even someone like you!"
"Not after their leader got killed." PhantomFire threw Wakandot back into the trash before taking a step back to lean against a nearby wall. "Someone seems to have gotten annoyed with Blacloud because they blew him up less than half an hour ago. His brain-dead body is probably rooting somewhere within the city right now."
"You are joking." Wakandot jumped out of the trash. "Blacloud is a ghost, almost an urban legend. No one expect for his men knows where he is, or what his avatar looks like! You must have been tricked."
"If only his people know where he could be found then it's possible that someone betrayed him." PhantomFire crossed his arms. "I know what I saw Wakandot, I would be able to recognize that bastard's avatar even if it was blown up to pieces. And I'm saying that because he was indeed turned to small bits by an explosion."
"Ha! Even if I believed that what you said is true, I still don't have a reason to tell you anything!" Wakandot crossed his arms. "So if you don't mind, leave this place before I call someone to kick you all out! Shoo, shoo!"
I sighed in defeat. That man wasn't going to tell us anything, it was a waste to come all the day to down here. But PhantomFire didn't seem so convinced because he turned to look at me with a small smile on his child-like face. We didn't say a word to each other during that short moment in which our eyes meet, but the message that he wanted to send to me was clear. I didn't want to agree to his silent suggestion, but both Gloomy Ruby and Blaze Rose's lives were on the line, so I had no choice but to agree and give him a nod for confirmation.
The hat hood merged with his head and the fabric of his hoodie became fluffier within a moment as in the place of the little kid appeared the demonic looking black and purple cat. The animal jumped onto the trash and with two leaps it landed right on top of Wakandot, pushing down the rat with its claws before opening its mouth to take a bite.
"Ok, ok! I'm going to talk!" The data sealer raised his arms in defeat and PhantomFire's jaws stopped a millimeter away from his head. "The floor below this one! There is a huge area with giant buildings and what not, you couldn't miss it! I heard that after the Knights of Hanoi tried to get rid of him once, Blacloud turned that place into his personal fortress! A big fish like him surely wouldn't keep all the data he has on himself so it would be most logical if he used the fortress as a storage room as well!"
PhantomFire jumped off the trash and landed on the ground in front of me before transforming from cat to little kid once more. He dusted his jacket once more and turned back to face Wakandot once more.
"See? It wasn't that hard now, was it?" I put a hand on PhantomFire to pull him away, he didn't need to gloat over this small victory.
"Come on." I said, trying to pull him out of the room, building, whatever Wakandot's hideout was.
"No need to pull me like I'm some little kid." PhantomFire put his hand on top of mine, removing it from his shoulder. "Seriously though, you really lack any sort of understanding how conversations in this server go. To get some info here you must either pay them some huge amount of money, or push them against the wall like just how I did."
"Yeah, I will make sure to remember that for next time." I lied to him; the last time I wanted to learn from PhantomFire was how to treat other people. "But now that we have a location, how do you plan for the three of us to infiltrate it."
"Two." Phantom raised two fingers before me. I titled my head in confusion about what he meant by the word two. "There is only the two of us here."
"What do you mean, Ghost Girl-!" I stopped halfway through my sense when I noticed that the older woman was nowhere in sight. Did… did she just abandon us in the middle of the operation?!
"She is a treasure hunger, so obviously she left right after Wakandot said the location in order to get ahead of us. She got her own job to finish there after all, though if I know her half as good as I do, she might try to steal the Hanoi program as well in order to sell it to me for some extra money. That would be so much like her to do."
I bit my lip while listening to PhantomFire's explanation. There was no way to be sure that she was going to try and bargain with us for the program instead of selling it to someone else. Heck, she might even go give it back to the Knights of Hanoi; I'm sure that they wouldn't want one of the removal programs for their virus going around LINK VRAIN. If such a scenario would be to happen then the last chance to cure the still infected Charisma Duelists would be as good as gone!
"What are we waiting here for then?" I asked PhantomFire and grabbed him by the arm. "We must get there before Ghost Girl does!"
"I told you not to pull me around like some little kid!"
After using another elevator, the two of us found ourselves in an area made of huge builds which stick out from the dark abyss that was the lowest part of this server. I had absolutely no idea what could lie down there and honestly, I didn't want to find out as well. I noticed that the lower we got, the worse everything around us seemed to get and this level was no exception to this rule. There were huge piles of junk and broken machines, some of which were drones and such. The whole place looked like a junkyard put in the middle of the city. In addition to the junk, there were also some platforms that stick out from the buildings. I was just lucky that whoever designed these levels didn't make them smell as bad as they looked.
We walked through one of those platforms that was put to be used as a bridge to the other side of the abyss where a large building, that could probably rival the size of a skyscraper if it was above ground, was located. Unlike the higher levels, this one didn't have any lights or billboards to illuminate it, so the only source of light we could count one were the lights of the buildings in this area. The front door of 'Blacloud's fortress' was side open and no one seemed to be standing on guard there. Heh that was going to be easier than expected.
"So, are we really going to enter through the front door?" I asked PhantomFire. Since he had more experience than me, it would be easier for him to figure out if this was a trap.
"My Duel Disk is currently scanning for other entrances." He replied showing me his Duel Disk. "But since the front door is open, we could as well use it."
"I wouldn't be s-s-so s-s-sure!" The two of us raised our heads as some guy with green skin jumped in front of us. He had a hunched stance with claws at the end of his fingers and a metal mouth shaped like that of a snake. Right after that next to him landed two bulky white robots with a single blue dot on their heads.
I bended toward Phantom's smaller statue and whispered into his ear. "Ok, this is the weirdest thing I have seen all day."
"Who are you?" PhantomFire crossed his arms while facing the snake guy that was standing in front of us.
"My name is-s-s Toxic, but that's-s-s not important right now." The snake guy (name Toxic) stepped aside to let a hologram show up where he stood just a moment ago.
The projection showed a large man covered in red armor and robotic parts that were ingrained into his body. The right part of his head was completely robotic with a green circular eye, he had a gas-mask over his mouth and no hair on his head. Seeing this avatar took both me and PhantomFire by surprise, I even took a step back in both awe and shock, because the hologram that stood before us was of Blacloud himself!
"I take it back, this is the weirdest thing that I have seen all day long." I pointed at the hologram.
"It seems we met once again, PhantomFire." Blacloud seemed to ignore me for the moment and instead he turned toward Phantom. "Although… You seem shorter from last time that we met."
"Ha-ha, very funny." PhantomFire stepped forward and raised his arm toward the hologram in a gesture that left the rest of us wonder what he was doing. "I came here to buy data about the Knights of Hanoi from you. So, might we come in to make the deal?"
"Do you really think that I'm as naïve as to let you come inside?" I turned toward PhantomFire with a questionable look; what was Blacloud referring to?
"I don't think I get what you mean. I saved your life from the Knights of Hanoi during our last encounter, so you are indebted to do that much for me!"
"That might be true." Blacloud nodded before crossing his arms behind his body. "But I really hate being indebted to others and I got a recording of you destroying one of our spots at the higher levels of the servers, so letting you in after seeing you destroying my stocks would be stupid, right? Instead of that I think to give you something else in return. Toxic, make sure neither of them gets way alive!"
With that said, the hologram disappeared and the large door that Toxic was blocking our path toward suddenly closed itself with a few gears clicking to show that it had locked itself after which some sort of red energy field also formed around it. The platform we used to come here also shrunk back, leaving no path to escape either.
"I'm going to have fun with this-s-s." Toxic replied and clicked a button on his Duel Disk which caused the two large robots to charge straight at us.
"Phantom Mode activate!" The grown-up version of PhantomFire shouted as some purple coding came around my body and suddenly both robots began to change at only him.
"W-what did you do?" I asked. Seeing that neither of the machines had any interest in attacking me, I could guess that he used some sort of concealing code.
"This program is going to protect you from being noticed by the A.I.s!" PhantomFire shouted back at me. "I can use only one though, s-"
Before he could finish the sentence however one of the robots was able to slam its metal fist into his chest and launch him off the platform on which Blacloud's fortress was staged. But that did just as much because PhantomFire fired the same red strings from the back of his wrists against the walls of the buildings and pulled himself back in, kicking one of the robots in the head with so much force that it slammed against the wall.
"Ok, let's dance then, bitches." PhantomFire wiped his mouth with the back of his right hand as the torn parts of his jacket raised up and turned into the four insect legs that he used to tear Picaro's arm off not too long ago.
"You friend s-s-seems-s-s pretty good." I turned back to face Toxic who had raised his Duel Disk toward me. "This-s-s door won't open unles-s-s-s-s-s I get beaten in a duel. Mind trying your luck?"
I glanced toward PhantomFire from the corner of my eyes, seeing him blocking a strike from one of the robots with the insect legs before throwing the machine away. As soon as he did that, the he had to jump into the air as the second robot slammed its fists into the ground. He was too busy dealing with the machines to duel, so that part would fall down to me.
"Ok then." I nodded and activated my own Duel Disk. "Let's go!"
"DUEL!"
『Proxy LP: 4000 Hand: 4 (VS) Blaze Rose LP: 4000 Hand: 4』
"My turn!" The cards appeared before Toxic and he pressed one of them, making it disappear and then reappear once again on his field. "I Normal S-s-summon Goblindbergh (Lv.4, ATK: 1400)!"
A green humanoid piloting a red airplane appeared on Toxic's field carrying a large box, which it then dropped on the ground between me and my opponent.
"When Goblindbergh is Normal S-s-summoned I can S-s-special S-s-summon a Level 4 or lower mons-s-ster from my hand by changing it to Defens-s-se Pos-s-sition! I S-s-special S-s-summon Goblin of Greed (Lv.4, DEF: 1800)!" A monster in red and yellow clothes with purple pants appeared on the field holding two pots with faces on them; one green and one red.
"Wait, you are playing goblins?" I titled my head in confusion. "Don't take me wrong, there was nothing wrong with that, but with all the hissing and the snake appearance I expected something… more reptilian?"
"It's-s-s a long s-s-story s-s-staring with a lack of money to buy a better deck. I have gotten us-s-sed to this-s-s one though." Good think that my deck was for free then or otherwise I would have ended up using something with only normal monsters. "Back to the duel, I activate Goblin Thief!"
I suddenly felt a pain in my back and yelped while some sort of light shined on top of Toxic and the amount of our Life Points changed in an instant, putting him with 1000 points ahead of me from the start!
『Toxic LP: 4000 + 500 → 4500』
『Proxy LP: 4000 – 500 → 3500』
"W-what just happened?" I winched, still feeling the after effect from the damage that I took. It wasn't fair, I haven't ever drawn my first card yet!
"The effect of my S-s-spell Card happened. When Goblin Thief activates-s-s the opponent takes-s-s five hundred points-s-s of damage and my Life Points-s-s get increase-s-sed by the s-s-same amount! I'm going to s-s-set a card and end my turn."
"My move then, I draw!"
『Turn 2 [Proxy] LP: 3500 Hand: 6』
I looked at the card I got along with the five in my starting hand. I almost never have a Master Duel unless it was against and A.I. and even then I was never been able to score a win. With the larger field and the existence of Main Phase two, I had to forget everything I knew about Speed Duels and focus exclusively on the rules for Master Duel.
Currently, neither of the monsters I had access to were very strong and because I didn't drew many Level 3 or lower effect monsters it was impossible to call forth my ace at the moment. Even so, this hand wasn't all that bad and there were a few moves that I could still do.
"First off, I'm going to start by Activating the Continuous Spell, Water Hazard!" A card whose artwork depicted waves of water raising up appeared on my field. "With this Spell's effect I can Special Summon a Level four or lower WATER monster from my hand! Using this effect, I will Special Summon BrioGear Wave Crusade (Lv.4, ATK: 1700)!"
My familiar warrior monster appeared on the field and swung his blade before putting it to rest on his shoulder. Wave Crusade had the ability to increase its attack by 300 points at the cost of discarding a WATER monster from my hand. With one discarding I could make him stronger than Goblin of Greed's defense!
"Now I activate my monster's effect to discard a card from my hand and-! AAAHHHH!" Before I could finish my own Duel Disk suddenly zapped me, forcing a scream out of my mouth while my body stumbled back. I held my right hand over the left one which has gotten stinging from the electricity. "Why… Why were I electroshocked when I tried to use my monster's effect?"
"You don't get it, do you?" Toxic titled his head, then pointed at Goblin of Greed. "While Goblin of Greed is-s-s on the field, neither of us-s-s can activate effects-s-s that require dis-s-scarding!"
My eyes widened when I heard that. My entire BrioGear deck was based around discarding cards, so an effect like this was effectively locking away all of my combos. But if that was so, then dealing with Goblin of Greed would be my top priority.
"If that's so, then I'm going to Normal Summon BrioGear Platosteus (Lv.2, ATK: 300)!" A small fish covered in armor and gears appeared next to my warrior.
"Come forth, circuit of life!" I cried out and opened the portal, flying in with my monster. "Arrowheads confirmed! Summoning requirements is a WATER monster with a Level! I set BrioGear Platosteus in the Link Marker! Link Summon! Link One, BrioGear Lotaxol (ATK: 600, Link-1)!
Calling forth my link 1 monster, I put it in the Left Extra Monster Zone. I had a plan how to deal with Toxic's wall of monsters and then inflict some damage as well, but I didn't want to jinx myself, so I was just going to do my move without any more inner monologuing!
"I activate Lotaxol's effect to Specical Summon BrioGear Platosteus from my Graveyard!" I announced my monster came back from the Graveyard next to my link's arrow. "Platosteus adds a monster with 2000 or more attack from the deck to my hand."
A screen appeared before me to choose which monster I would like to add. There were several good ones, but in order to summon them I would have to either discard them or tribute something so no matter which one I choose, they would most likely be a brick.
"Now… Come forth for the second time, circuit of life!" I pointed in front of me as the familiar circuit formed once again. "Arrowheads confirmed! Summoning requirements are two BrioGear monsters! I set BrioGear Wave Crusade and BrioGear Platosteus in the Link Markers! Link Summon! Link Two, BrioGear Enhance Mermail (ATK: 1700, Link-2)!
Landing underneath my first Link Monster, was a second one. Still not strong enough to take down the defense of 1800, I was getting a little closer thanks to its effect and the remaining cards in my hand!
"I activate my Spell Card, World Legacy Succession! With this Spell, I'm going to revive BrioGear Wave Crusade next to BrioGear Enhance Mermail's Link Arrow!" My warrior raised from the Graveyard once more to join my Link Monsters for the next act.
"I s-s-see…" Toxic narrowed his eyes and rubbed his arms together. "You s-s-summoned three mons-s-sters-s-s, but neither of them is-s-s s-s-strong enough to defeat mine."
"Not for long." I narrowed my eyes and clenched my fist, pointing toward him. "I'm going to activate BrioGear Enhance Mermail's effect! By halving the attack of BrioGear Wave Crusade that she points to, I can increase her own attack by the same amount!"
BrioGear Wave Crusade, ATK: 1700 / 2 → 850
BrioGear Enhance Mermail, ATK: 1700 + 850 → 2550
"Let's go!" I shouted as my mermaid created a bubble of water between her arms. "I attack Goblin of Greed with BrioGear Enhance Mermail!"
"I activate the Quick Play S-s-spell, S-s-shrink! Your mons-s-ster has-s-s its-s-s power cut in half!" Just as my monster threw her bubble of water at the opposing monster, the attack got cut in half.
BrioGear Enhance Mermail, ATK: 2550 / 2 → 1275
The attack hit before I could cancel it and I winched, feeling pain soaring through my body once again.
『Proxy LP: 3500 – 525 → 2975』
"Damn it!" I cursed then pointed toward my other monsters. "BrioGear Wave Crusade, destroy Goblindbergh."
The opposing monster had to switch to Defense Position because of its own effect and its defense values were zero, so that attack easily went though. However, the destruction of that monster didn't make me feel calmer at all since it didn't matter that much anyways. As long as Goblin of Greed lived on, the combos that I could possibly make would continue to decline. I sighed, seeing no other cards in my hand that could be used at the moment.
"I'm ending my turn." I sighed. "During the end of this turn, the effect of Mermail returns all of my monsters' attack back to their original values!"
BrioGear Wave Crusade, ATK: 850 → 1700
BrioGear Enhance Mermail, ATK: 1275 → 1700
"It s-s-seems-s-s that your combo has-s-s failed you." Toxic grinned and drew another card from his deck. "My turn!"
『Turn 3 [Toxic] LP: 4500 Hand: 2』
I heard the sound of something heavy slamming against the wall and glanced to where PhantomFire was fighting against the robots only to see him pushed against a dent in the metal wall, using his arms to try and stop one of the robots' fists from hitting him, while the four insect legs of his suit were unsuccessfully trying to push him away from the wall where he was cornered. Both of us were in a lot of trouble at the moment!
A/N: So, another chapter out. As the title might have hinted for you, this chapter deal a bit with PhantomFire/Evan's more anti-hero view about how bad guys should be dealt with and how Proxy views those ideas. I hope you didn't mind that I used the chapter to also show a bit more of the various abilities that the avatar PhantomFire has, to showcast them better I also included some action scenes. I'm not sure how those came out to be since I haven't written action scenes in a long while.
Some of you might also wonder why the heck I used a Goblin deck instead of an actual archetype and well, the story is actually pretty funny. I was, literally yesterday, playing Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Generation where I had to duel against a goblin deck and there I found out that there was a card Scrounging Goblin from where I learned that Goblin is an actual archetype. Interesting right? Looking for more info about all the cards inside the archetype I found that there is actually a monster called Goblin of Greed, which just so happened to be a perfect counter to Proxy's entire deck! Because of that, I choose to use this archetype for the duel.
Lastly, I wanted to share with you guys, something weird... I had a dream last night, which was about Soulburner and Blue Girl's duel. It's probably not going to happen as in the dream because there I could only see the duel field which was that for Master Duel and not speed Duel, but I saw something weird in that dream. It was how Soulburner summons a bunch of Link 2 monsters making an Extra Link and then attacks Blue Girl's monsters with all of them, though no monster got destroyed, there was some weird effect damage that dropped both of their LP to 600 after which another effect damage dropped Blue Girl's LP to 0. The weirdest part of this was that in the dream I saw the new Trickstar that was shown in the preview for next episode and it was a Synchro Monster, like, the fuck? While I'm sure that such a thing wouldn't happen in the actual anime, it did gave me a few ideas...
But enough with my nonsenses! There were no new follows or favorites between the last and this chapter, sadly, so I'm just going to jump to the reviews.
ScalchopWarrior: First off, since this reponds to both a part of your and a part of MusicianWish's review, I'm going to put it just here: I want to say that the reason I was planning to stop writting A/Ns wasn't because I felt like no one reads them (though that was a part of the problem and I'm happy it was just my imagination) but because I don't always have something to say. Because of that I will probably stop putting A/Ns in EVERY chapter, but there will be one if I have something to say.
Also, don't worry Scal. You might not be my favorite reviewer, but you are still special for me! (But not really.) Also, funny that you would mention Coruscant, because that's exactly what I based it off. Or atleast I based the server after the lower levels of Coruscant from the game Star Wars the Old Republic which I played for around a month. Funny that you thought about the same thing while reading the chapter, but I'm happy that the reference was able to reach some readers.
D3lph0xL0v3r: Well, although I agree with you about some characters, I'm actually going to defend Blaze Rose and Rocketeer since they aren't that horrible. Although a big part of Rocketeer's reasons to do the things he is doing is a desire to be on top, he also does it because he wants to help humanity evolve into a more perfect species. In Blaze Rose's case, well, the only time she acted "morally depraved" was in her duel against Proxy, but back then she was under Picaro/Rocketeer's control so the things she said and did back then weren't her. I'm not going to defend Evan and Avice because, well the readers aren't meant to like them. I want people to make their own opinion on the characters, if you think their are morally depraved, ok then.
However I will ABSOLUTELY disagree with you saying that Ai is despicable. All he did in the anime until now is pretty understandable and in fact, if I were in his place, I would have hacked into the system and have every single human killed because it was humans that exploited his world (SOL Technology) and then tried to destroy it (Knights of Hanoi). Heck even Playmaker started off by threatening to delete him, which for a computer program is like to kill them.
MusicianWish: Well, Evan and Avice are sort of meant to showcase "contradictory emotions' themselves. They do indeed tell Roxy that it's important to have others, but that is because they want her to grow up as a better human than them. They are neither "heroes" nor "villains" both of them are able to do heroic things, but also be horrific. They are in their own category and it wouldn't be completely true to call them "anti-heroes" either.
I really wouldn't expect them to give Playmaker much credit in the future either, because their critic is toward his dueling skills, which are pretty bad. Even if the anime is trying to play him out as that smart and skilled duelist, as someone who uses a Cyberse deck, I can tell you that his dueling is absolutely horrible.
Indeed, the Blacloud who lost his head last chapter is dead, but his head isn't missing so don't worry about the gore. Damage in VRAINS appears in the real world as mental damage, not real one. If it was the later, then both Playmaker and Revolver would need to put on cybernetic replacements because they both have lost an arm on more than one occasions.
Thanks, I'm happy that you like the characters and especially about Evan and Avice's names since no one else complimented those. In fact, I choose Avice's name because its meaning is "warlike" and well, she is going to fight for what she believes is worth fighting for while Evan was choosen just because it sounds nice next to Avice.
Once again, thank you for all the support that you and everyone else show me either by following, favoriting or just reviewing a chapter.
So, that's all of me for today. Thanks for reading so far and have a nice day.
Diabolic Tracer out!