【16 - Again, Disciple versus Lieutenant! A Gateway to other Worlds!?】


The two enemies stared each other down with a fixed gaze. Timothy in his casual clothes, standing on a heap of cement rubble and looking below with hateful eyes. Lieutenant Dojo's white samurai kimono was ripped and there was blood on his face, but he'd been the victor of the previous duel. He stared back with an emotionless neutrality. Timothy stepped down until he was inside the damaged building, broken machine parts surrounded the scene.

He walked closer to the casualty, his brown eyes saddened as he recognized beyond a doubt it was his fellow disciple. First Wembley and now Iwate. The Samurai turned and paced away, holding that huge sword. When he was at an acceptable distance he stabbed the katana into the ground and faced Timothy once more.

"You fucking bastard!" the teen roared.

"I am loyal to General Urobach and the gatekeepers of the outer path." He spoke back with both humility and resolve. His white eyes remained as emotionless as ever. "Your friend put up an honourable fight. I gave him an honourable death."

"You won't get away with this!"

"Kettou da. It was foolish to come here alone. I will give you the opportunity to avenge your comrade, and if you lose I will have killed two duellists today."

"Yoshi." Timothy pulled out his deck, his hand already glowing white. "Heidi told me you were the one who exploited Penelope, I'm not going to let you hurt anyone else!"

Dojo lifted his arm with the torn sleeve, swishing the back of his hand so it was level with his face. It ignited with red energy and two tables appeared. The combatants stepped up and got their decks ready. Timothy felt blinded by hatred, he didn't even have the sense to know he should calm down.

"Ikuzo."

"Koi!" he shouted back in challenge.

Ten teal panels sprang forth and Dojo slapped down fire mana, then waited for his opponent. Timothy furiously drew and surveyed his options. All his cards were too cost heavy, he had no choice but to add water mana then end.

"I charge light mana." Dojo again passed it back to Timothy.

"I charge light mana and summon Marine Flower!" Blue tentacle claws wormed their way out onto the field as their Kaijudo energy made the first creature manifest.

Dojo drew with agile swiftness "I charge more mana and end."

Both of us started with slow hands, Timothy thought while grinding his teeth. His hand trembled as he drew. He'd been concerned for Heidi and managed to convince Soroban to split up with him after reasoning they weren't likely to be targeted. He'd headed back into the city after the sounds of Iwate's duel demolishing the factory boomed across the streets. Where's Narciel? Hopefully Soroban had found Heidi by the beach and they were okay.

"I charge and summon La Ura Giga, Sky Guardian!" he slapped down the card and a silver spaceship swerved into place beside his cyber virus. The factory groaned around them, plinks and falling dust. "I still haven't drawn a creature that can attack him…" Timothy growled in fury.

Dojo drew and swiftly added mana. The cards turned "I summon Samurai Lupia." With a chirp the rainbow-civilization fire bird appeared, a black burning silhouette in shogun armour.

Timothy was so full of righteous fury he'd forgotten the lieutenants used future cards. He forced himself to take a breath. This duel's had a slow start… what I need is a creature I can attack with! He drew "I summon Emeral!" Two mana tapped as his third creature appeared, the amphibian cyber lord with the gold headset. He replaced a shield with a card in his hand, even though he didn't have a shield trigger. At least I have something I can attack with now.

"Thanks to Samurai Lupia's effect I can reduce the cost of this next creature." Five cards on Dojo's table tapped "I summon Bolmeteus Samurai Dragon from the DM-24!" Energy raced outward as a white slim-bodied dragon in steel shogun armour spread its wings and roared. The energy of the huge 6000 power beast was too much for the flimsy factory to take. Its walls crumbled and Timothy cried out as dust spewed into their vision and blinded them. The ground shook and sunlight flooded the space. Timothy's eyes stung and eventually the clouds cleared, Dojo stood behind his two fiery creatures. His straw hat had blown off, revealing dark hair tied back at the nape of his neck. "This beast is the one who dealt the final blow to your friend, I wonder if you'll fare any better. Turn end."

Maybe the Kaijudo energy they were both exerting kept them safe from the collapsing building, Timothy couldn't be sure. The factory's rubble had piled through its fence borders against other buildings and spewed out onto the street. Everything was hazy, the view of the city around them cloaked in white clouds. Timothy drew and found another card he couldn't use yet, furiously he slapped it down as mana.

"Emeral ike! Break his shield!" The cyber lord zipped over atop its machinery. Frying a shield to pieces with a bolt of energy; a card popped off the table and Dojo caught it.

"Hmm Light-Water versus Light-Fire…" the samurai mused "But you're not off to an impressive start. I hope you're not letting your emotions blind you?" his speculative tone turned assertive as he yelled his command "Bolmeteus Samurai Dragon attack Emeral, ike!" the tall dragon lurched and before Timothy could turn a card his enemy swept his sleeve "By burning a shield I can also destroy an additional creature with 6000 or less power when my dragon attacks. Also, thanks to Samurai Lupia's effect I get to add a card from my deck to my shield zone whenever Bolemeteus attacks. A good combination, no? Destroy La Ura Giga as well!"

"Marine Flower protects Emeral, block!" Timothy shouted, the generative heat was making his forehead sweat. Electric-blue fire flooded the arena with a dragonic screech. Both of Timothy's blockers were burnt up and wiped out.

"Samurai Lupia break a shield, ike!" the serious fire bird blazed forth and carved through a panel with an overhead swing.

Timothy added the shield to his hand and drew. He finally had enough mana to bring out his trusty mecha thunders. "I summon La Guile, Seeker of Skyfire! Emeral break another shield, ike!" Another large creature entered the fray, a gold-torso above a cloudy body. With 7500 power Timothy now had the strongest creature. His cyber lord whizzed forth and cleared another panel.

Dojo drew Reverse Cyclone and added the spell to his mana zone, giving him seven cards. Then he dove straight to the action "Samurai Lupia, break a shield ike! Bolmeteus Samurai Dragon double break, ike! Shield burn to wipe out Emeral and Samurai Lupia replaces the shield from my deck!"

The ferocious fire bird sliced apart a shield, then leapt back to avoid a searing pillar of electric-blue. Bolmeteus swerved its long neck to burn through one shield, another and then Timothy's squealing cyber lord.

"He had to fight that… Iwate…" Timothy shielded his face from the heat, sweating harder as his hands clenched "I'll start avenging you by wiping out that card!" He had only one shield left after that onslaught but plenty of options, drawing from his deck "I evolve La Guile into Kuukai, Finder of Karma!" A gold rider mounting a Chinese lion landed and reared in the sunlight, sparking lightning beneath its armour. With 10,500 power it was Timothy's strongest creature. "And I play another Marine Flower! Kuukai destroy Bolmeteus Samurai Dragon!" The evolution mecha thunder charged and used its bolt sword to cut down the dragon, steel armour and all.

Dojo drew as his card bounced off the table "I cast Samurai Decapitation Sword… destroy your blocker." A purple dragonoid lowered its ornate katana onto the wriggling blue cyber virus. It hissed and vanished in a burst of light. "Samurai Lupia break his final shield, ike!" The burning black bird moved on quick feet, hopping up and breaking Timothy's centre shield and his last line of defence. Glass pieces burst around him and he felt pain, but didn't remove his stare from his enemy as he lowered his arms.

"You lieutenant bastards are gonna get what's coming to you, even if I have to hunt every last one of you down!"

"You have no shields while I have three. It's like I told your friend," the samurai dipped his head "without future cards you could never hope to beat us."

Timothy drew, he had five cards again and wasn't going to throw in the towel yet. He added mana then "I summon Unicorn Fish and bounce Samurai Lupia back to your hand!" A bony fish unfurled itself and a flash of blue flicked Dojo's card high, the samurai swept his hand and caught it. "Kuukai double break his shields! Ike!" The ground shook from the charge, the lieutenant held onto his table as teal pieces tore through the air around him. Bouncing and settling before vanishing.

Dojo examined his cards quietly while Timothy watched. I'm not thinking right after Iwate. This duel was slow to start and neither of us have had any shield triggers. I won't lose…

"I summon Grand Cross "Iron Cleaver" Dragon!" Another 6000-power dragon rose forth, this one in similar shogun armour with three heads and three swords. "Because of its Samurai Generation ability I can generate a cross gear for no cost! Dragon Gear – Samurai Legend!" Black spiked armour appeared in a blaze of red. "Whenever a cross gear enters play my dragon automatically destroys one of your blocker creatures! Your Finder of Karma falls!" Dojo pointed and the giant monsters battled, sword slashes carving apart Timothy's superior creature.

"Oh no!" he yelled.

"Now I could cross my gear, but instead…" his last three mana cards turned "I cast Gatling Cyclone to destroy your other creature!" A turret blaster popped up from the ground and whirled around, gunning down the skeletal fish. A second card flew over Timothy's shoulder. "Since it's a Cyclone card the spell returns to my hand after use if I played a creature this turn, a useful gift from the DM-19."

From across the city Timothy could hear sirens. The police must be leaving the academy to come here! I just have to wait this out… Timothy drew and surveyed the four cards in his hand. He added mana "I tap eight and summon Laveil, Seeker of Catastrophe!" A powerful new blocker on 8500 swept into play, sparking like a storm. The last two cards in his hand were a spell and La Ura Giga, he almost played the second blocker but stopped himself. Dojo had his Gatling Cyclone spell return to his hand, meaning he could destroy La Ura Giga straight away and probably return the spell to his hand again anyway. Instead Timothy let go of the card and lowered his hand back to the table. He needed to save that blocker for later. He announced "Turn end!"

"An 8500 blocker double-breaker that untaps at the end of your turns…" the lieutenant murmured as he drew, seeing as he didn't have another rainbow phantom he added Oracion Mysterious Samurai to his mana zone. "Grand Cross "Iron Cleaver" Dragon is now crossed with Dragon Gear – Samurai Legend!" Dojo announced and powerful lightning streaked across the landscape, toppling distant piles of rubble as his dragon merged with the armour.

"Cross gears… I know how they work from when Heidi duelled Tsukumo before… mostly…" Timothy murmured.

"My dragon now has 8000 power among other abilities!"

"That's still too weak!"

"So I cast Peacock Breath from the DM-35!" the armored dragon was bathed in red, its power shooting up to 11,000. "Ike totomeda!" A monstrous onslaught charged up before the teen, lightning streaking out and further damaging their surroundings.

"Laveil, Seeker of Catastrophe block!" he twisted the card and it lit up yellow. Another mighty collision between powerful creatures. Timothy grunting and holding on to keep from falling over. No wonder this guy beat Iwate, his future cards are too strong! Timothy had no shields or creatures while Dojo still stood confidently behind a single blue panel.

"This is the end, disciple. Have your final turn. You duelled admirably, and I'll reward you with an honourable death."

"Dream on, freak!" Timothy yelled, he was betting everything on this next draw. He whipped out a card and his brow furrowed with determination "I summon La Ura Giga, Sky Guardian!" the silver blocker swerved into play, its jet exhausts humming.

"Did you forget my Gatling Cyclone will simply destroy it next turn, allowing me to attack directly with 8000 power?"

"I'm not done! Next I summon Marine Flower and cast Diamond Cutter!" Timothy slapped down the spell and there was a burst of yellow. "My creatures can all attack you now, regardless of summoning sickness and abilities like 'this creature can't attack players'…" Blue clawed tentacles wormed upward, both creatures becoming more deadly.

"Impossible…" Dojo's eyes widened. The police sirens were suddenly flooding the air around them.

"Just in time…" Timothy murmured before roaring "You're gonna pay for Iwate! La Ura Giga, ike! Break his shield!" the silver spaceship zoomed forth and shattered his final defence.

Dojo caught the flying card "No trigger…" Neither player had picked up any triggers the whole game.

"Marine Flower, ike todomeda!" Timothy shouted and the tentacles lurched forward, around the impressive dragon and whipped at the bewildered samurai. He was sent flying into a metal shaft, bouncing down and crumpling into the ground. The creatures faded and Timothy packed his cards before his table disappeared. Police cars pulled up from both sides of the ruined lot. Red and blue flashing clearly now that most of the rubble haze had cleared. Timothy stood victorious and vengeful. The sound of doors opening and officers yelling orders and raising guns surrounded the pair.

Dojo stirred before raising himself up to one knee slowly, clutching his side. The Asian man looked up, now bleeding even more so.

"I count… three ribs broken from that attack." He staggered up and limped forward.

"You won't get away!" Timothy yelled "You're going to be taken into custody for what you've done to the academy, to this city, to our friends! I only regret not being able to kill you at the end of our duel like you did Iwate!"

"…I am loyal to General Urobach and the gatekeepers of the outer path…" Dojo repeated as he approached his long katana, now tilted but still embedded in the ground. "I will be executed for my failure… There is only one honourable thing to do in this situation…"

"Don't move!" black-clad officers were shouting from behind visors, guns raised. "Hands in the air!"

The man in the tattered white kimono prized his weapon free, tossed it and then fell forward so as to impale himself on the long sword. Timothy's expression became shock. Blood squirted out the back and trickled down as Dojo staggered, then collapsed sideways into the dusty rubble. He soon died.

The officers hesitated. Timothy looked away from his slain enemy to where Iwate lay on his back. His eyes glistened and he fell to his knees, head drooped. The policemen moved in then.

After being escorted off the premises and complying with his arrest, Timothy was soon identified and handed over to the DMA's personnel. He stepped out the back of a police truck and saw uniformed workers, concerned teaching staff and Principle Engyo. The old man looked dishevelled, to say the least. His blue eyes full of grief within his lined face at seeing his academy collapse.

"Son, it's good that you're alright." As they headed into a facility of some kind Timothy could tell they wanted to dive straight into their questioning.

"Where's Heidi? Soroban? Where's Narciel?"

"We don't know."

"You don't know…?" Timothy's wide eyes lowered as they walked through sliding glass doors. People were busying about. The hook-nosed teacher clutched at her pearls while the walrus-moustached teacher kept his gaze downward. Everyone's grief was palpable.

"The capital is on red alert. We could be expecting another terrorist attack at any moment." Principle Engyo stated. "Heidi and Narciel being missing complicates things. But first Timothy, we have to ask you-"

"I don't know anything." He said regretfully. "After seeing Lieutenant Dojo had killed Iwate… all I could focus on was beating him. That guy was definitely responsible for this but he probably didn't do it alone. He didn't tell me anything important before he killed himself…"

"Lieutenant Kaido Felgrass was previously sighted in the capital and is still not accounted for," one of the workers said to Engyo as they all paced "We already have Lieutenant Urusai Torcan in custody, so he is likely also involved."

"This attack was planned so any number of lieutenants could be involved." Engyo spoke back.

"Sir." Another worker finished a call through his earpiece. "That ship was the Starbolt Cruiser. No one was flying it. Analysis shows that its systems were hacked into and it was remote controlled."

"The cyber security attacks we'd been facing…" Engyo muttered as they pushed through double doors and made their way deeper into the building. "Dammit. We need the director of public affairs and the director chief of the police department on the line. Meanwhile I need to have a meeting with Augus's military generals and governors. Attacking the capital and destroying the academy… Urobach has gone too far this time. This is war."

"But-!" Timothy stopped himself. He wasn't supposed to reveal that Heidi told him everything they knew about the Gatekeepers' supposed power. That apparently they had hundreds more generals like Urobach to send if necessary, and that if need be they could just snap their fingers and Aurellia would be gone like that. The adults were already starting to ignore Timothy, their attention elsewhere as they considered all the important tasks they needed to attend to deal with this mess. He let himself slip to the back of the moving group. Their further discussion drowned out in his mind as Timothy considered his missing friends.

An hour later there'd been no further attacks but also no news. Timothy sat stooped in a plastic chair outside a meeting room. He was anxiously twisting his fingers when from his peripheral someone jogged over. A woman in a lab coat, black hair up in a clip and circular glasses framing dark eyes. Tailee, the sister.

"Hey Sammy! You're dating my sister, right?" she looked out of breath.

"It's Timothy." He peered around, everybody else was busy. "And yeah."

"She's not responding to my calls. Have you got through?"

"Still nothing."

"Dammit!" the woman collapsed into the chair beside him. "If she's the chosen fire duellist you'd think they'd be putting more effort into getting her back!" Then she covered her face and in a teary voice moaned "ohhh Heidi…" as if she were a baby instead of sixteen. No wonder the girl had such an independence streak.

Timothy looked forward and they sat in silence for a while.

"…I heard them say the Starbolt Cruiser was remote controlled and flown full-speed into the school. It was hacked. And Heidi got that suspicious email…"

"What email?" Tailee was suddenly arrowing him with her gaze.

"…Apparently it was from the chosen water duellist. At least that's how it was signed. It said there's a reason none of the other chosens stayed at the DMA, don't trust Narciel."

"Narciel, wasn't he that robed guy I met when we were watching Heidi duel?"

Timothy nodded "He's the leader of the Dawn of the Phoenix, I'm one of their disciples. Narciel's still missing. And now that Iwate's dead he could be held prisoner somewhere, or…"

"Or…" Tailee didn't finish that sentence. She knotted her hands intensely "I hate this!"

"I hate it too." Timothy hunched, copying her posture "This is like with Penelope only worse. Why'd you have to run off again Heidi…"

"Where's Engyo and the others?"

"Still on important calls with national officials. Me and you are no 'chosen duellists' so we're not exactly in the loop."

"I wanted to talk to them about Heidi but also… Timothy I need to know if you can keep a secret."

"What secret?" he blinked at her in surprise.

"It's about the top secret project at the research centre where I work. Come on, I'll show you." She stood.

"Wait, now? Where are we going?"

"The observatory on the other side of the city. Unless you want to stay here, sitting and waiting?"

Timothy looked around before conceding "Yeah alright, let's go."

Plenty of citizens were frightened by the attack, but luckily the two could hail a taxi after leaving the building. They hopped in the back and it sped off, moving through districts. They even passed the narrow streets where there'd been that gold festival when they first arrived a month ago. Before they had that car crash and a run-in with those bad guys. There was less traffic on the roads but it still took them over half an hour to get to their destination.

"What do you want to show me anyway?" Timothy asked as they sat in the back and waited.

"I'd prefer to show Heidi but I can't now. I don't think I could show Engyo without getting in serious trouble since his DMA is a separate organisation to government departments. But I'll have to show you seeing as you might end up seeing Heidi before I do. I trust you Timothy, you seem to be really worried about Heidi too. And you got an innocent face. You come off as more well-mannered than most boys your age, probably cause you're a disciple." She pushed her glasses up her nose and stared out the window.

"Okay… but what is it?"

"I'll tell you when it's safe." Tailee ended in a whisper.

Timothy looked up and saw their curious driver eying them through the rear-view mirror. What could a space observatory be keeping top secret?

When they finally reached their destination Tailee thanked and paid the driver. They hopped out beside a busy square, a fountain spitting water besides a walkway leading to rough granite steps and then the observatory. It was a dome-shaped building with moderate security. The two weaved through pedestrians and made their way up to the entry.

"Don't talk to anyone and don't draw attention to yourself." Tailee instructed. "I can get you a visitor's pass, that's enough to get us both to the computer lab but no further. If anyone notices me taking you in and showing you confidential information we're both gonna be in a lot of trouble."

"You Hirazumi girls sure love breaking the rules." Timothy murmured while shaking his head.

They entered through glass doors and Tailee walked straight to the reception. Everything was wide and gleaming, Timothy was tempted to look around but knew he shouldn't draw attention to himself. He tried to keep his gaze on the floor. After speaking with another woman behind the counter Tailee turned and gave Timothy a strap necklace with a big visitor's scan card on it. They both moved off under the watchful gaze of corner cameras. Another pair of sliding doors and then the next barrier was metal, they both needed to scan their IDs before it'd let them through. Tailee scanned her finger and then leaned in so a machine could scan her eye. When the door whooshed open Timothy felt like they were in a spy movie.

There were much less people in here and they were all wearing the same white lab coats. Sipping from mugs and plastic cups, moving between the row of computers. Most of them weren't in use. Tailee went straight to a monitor and sat down, her fingers quickly flying over the keyboard. Timothy sat down slowly on the wheelie-chair beside her, watching the data as it flew across the screen.

"Now take a look at this." She flicked a key and the screen showed… a planet.

Timothy leaned closer. It was just like Aurellia but instead of having two continents there were four. Tailee toggled to another window and showed yet another planet, and then another. These planets had land, oceans and forests in their satellite imagery, but they weren't the planet they called home.

"Are these… exoplanets?"

"No, because if you look closer they each have the same sun and moon as we do. And if you examine the solar systems they are also the same: eight planets. Four rocky and then the outer gas giants. These aren't other worlds, they're alternate ones."

"These lieutenants came from other dimensions…" Timothy murmured.

"Our technology picked up weird energy signatures that appeared around Aurellia. After studying and passing signals through these… vortexes, we were able to get these images from radio waves. By altering the range of wave frequency, we find ourselves seeing other worlds. So far we've found four but there could be no limit to what's out there."

"This could help lead us to the gatekeepers." Timothy realised where the woman's train of thought was going. They stared at each other. He didn't feel like mentioning then what they heard from Urusai. That the gatekeepers were immortal beings that were unfathomably powerful, essentially invincible. He looked back at the photos.

"These planets seem to be other timelines that branched off from ours. Quantum physics proved to us that other timelines existed, but the different circumstances that effected each of these timelines seems to have something to do with how meteorites hit Aurellia and how the resulting land masses formed."

Tailee flicked between the three planets again, one had a lot more desert while one was almost entirely ocean. "These planets have plant life, one has signs of animal life, but the fourth one… and prepare yourself for this Timothy…" Tailee pressed a key and they saw a planet with the most landmass so far "This planet is inhabited by other humans. It has a bigger population than we do. They've called it Earth."

"Oh my God…" Timothy stared at the unfamiliar land shapes. "Another world… with a higher capacity for storing Kaijudo energy… higher DM sets. They probably have their own chosen duellists too."

"This is what our experiments are being based on. This is what we're keeping top secret." Tailee stared at him seriously from behind her glasses.

The implications for this discovery were enormous. Other worlds, other realities. And all of them at risk from these outer path of darkness beings.


AN: Alas alas alas! I have received more reviews and so am continuing with a new chapter. Acumashindorballomu has assured me he's reviewed the last three chapters, and while I can see the review count has gone up FanFiction hates me and won't let me read them yet! It's been almost 24 hours for frick's sake! -o- Either way ShiningAzureEmporer has in fact left me five new juicy reviews to comment on. Perhpas that's what pushed Acuma to move his butt and remain as the most frequent reviewer of this story. I'll have to comment on his feedback next time. I'm glad you're enjoying it Azure. I bet that if the TCG looks frivolous to OCG players, including only a dozen or so more extra sets will still look pretty frivolous... considering there's like a hundred. If I cover god-links and fortresses next arc perhaps this story will be fully up-to-speed by the time it ends...