OP2: "Back Again" by Daughtry
Chapter 21: "Ghosts - Part 2"
Ciro crouched on the balls of his feet about halfway down the stone stairway, his eyes following Mike intently from the moment he'd begun his descent.
He had made sure to stay well-behind him, shadowing him until he'd reached the cavern floor, whereupon he remained in the shadows to stay out of his pupil's line of sight. His only role at that point was to keep watch over him, as he didn't want to distract him from encountering the yūrei. From there, he'd watched as Mike wandered the cave for a short time, swatting away the larva that had dropped on his shoulder. He'd then watched as Mike's posture suddenly stiffened, before turning and slowly pacing towards the icy sheet that adorned the opposite wall. Once he'd been close enough for Ciro to see the reflection of Mike's face, he saw that his eyes had been completely glazed over, devoid of any consciousness. The sign that indicated when one fell into a yūrei's trance.
Before long, his duel disk arm steadily moved to rest before him in a dueling position, though the disk itself remained unactivated. From there, he'd remained unmoving for the last ten minutes, during which Ciro's eyes remained plastered to him. But as he sat there observing his student, he struggled to fend off a tension that had been threatening to tear his chest apart. He'd done his best to compartmentalize his apprehension with this method of training, even though it had been his own. But the prospect of what could happen if things went wrong only heightened his perturbation.
He could only pray that history wouldn't repeat itself.
"From your silence, I take it your turn has reached its end," the phantom said, before waving a hand over its set card that flipped up. "In which case, I'll now reveal my trap card, Cyber Scavenger! During the end phase of a turn where two or more of my 'Cyber Dragon' monsters were destroyed in battle, I'm allowed to draw a card for every 500 points of damage I took in total from those attacks. So since I lost 1800 points to your Draco Berserker, that lets me draw three cards!"
The phantom replenished its empty hand, before drawing an additional card as it said, "now it's my turn again, and I'll start with activating my Scavenger's other effect in the graveyard: with no other cards on my field, by banishing it and discarding a 'Cyber Dragon' monster in my hand, like my Proto-Cyber, I can draw the same number of cards I drew with its first effect last turn!"
Mike's eyes widened as the thing dealt itself another three cards, filling its hand to six. "Next, I'll summon my Cyber Dragon Herz to the field!" [LV: 1/ATK: 100] "But he's not sticking around for long, because by releasing him—" the monster vanished from the field as quickly as it appeared, "—I can special summon Cyber Pharos from my hand!" [LV: 1/DEF: 2100]
"And when my Herz is sent to the graveyard, its effect lets me add my third Cyber Dragon from my deck to my hand," it went on, pulling the card from his deck. "With that done, I'll use my Pharos' effect, allowing me to fuse any monsters on my field or in my hand to Fusion summon a machine-type monster!"
"Think again," Mike said, pointing to Pharos, "'cause my Draco Berserker's effect banishes your Pharos before its effect can be carried out!"
Draco Berserker rushed forward, towering over the miniscule machine before flattening it outright with its fist, causing it to shatter.
The phantom seemed undisturbed by this. "Well, with that little dream crushed, I suppose all I can do is special summon the Cyber Dragon my Herz added to my hand out for defense." [LV: 5/DEF: 1600]
"Lastly, I'll throw two cards face-down," it finished, the set cards materializing. "That ends my turn."
"Then I'm up!" Mike said as he drew, looking at his card. "Since I just drew my Infernity Archfiend with no other cards in my hand, I can special summon it directly to the field!" [LV: 4/ATK: 1800]
"And with his special summoning comes his other effect, meaning I can add another 'Infernity' card from my deck to my hand!" he explained, taking the card that had popped out from his deck. "And I'll activate it right now: the continuous spell, Infernity Launcher!"
The phantom grinned as Mike went on, "this card will come in handy later, but in the meantime I'm taking my Archfiend and tuning it with my third Beetle!"
Once again, the Beetle became two emerald rings that engulfed Infernity Archfiend, turning it into four orbs that were then consumed by light. "Synchro summon!" Mike exclaimed as a more decorated version of his fiend emerged. "Condemn all with your touch, Infernity Doom Archfiend!" [LV: 6/ATK: 2200]
"Quite the looker of a monster," the phantom said, "but hardly a threat."
"Maybe you'll change your tune once you witness Doom Archfiend's effect," replied Mike. "See, once per turn, it can nullify the effects of any monster on my opponent's field. And then, if there are no cards in my hand, that monster is destroyed!"
Doom Archfiend floated towards the lone Cyber Dragon on the phantom's field, placing the tip of one of its lanky fingers upon the monster. Before long, the monster seemed to rust over and rot from the touched spot, before disintegrating into dust upon the unseen plane of their battle.
As the phantom watched its monster die, it smirked. "How appropriate for you to use such a monster," it snarled. "The perfect allegory for your life: how everything you touch seems to die, leaving you to stand there holding nothing to show for your efforts."
Mike staved off the urge to retort by clenching his fist. He just needed to attack, and this would be over. "Doom Archfiend, attack him directly with Doomed Decay!"
The robed creature set forth, this time reaching its hand out towards the phantom, ready to do to it what it had done to its last monster.
But it was ready: "I reveal my trap card, Born from Draconis!"
The trap card flipped, and time suddenly seemed to stand still as a set of stars appeared far above the phantom's head. The Draco constellation.
"With this card, I banish every last LIGHT machine monster I have from my field and graveyard," it said, proceeding to pull the six monsters from his graveyard, "in order to special summon a high-level LIGHT machine monster in my hand!
"Now descend from on high!" the phantom exclaimed as lightning struck behind him, allowing Mike to see the large, dragon-like face emblazoned upon its floating body and multiple sentry heads before it fully emerged from the inky darkness. "Cyber Eltanin!" [LV: 10/ATK: ?]
Mike struggled to keep his nerves steeled as he eyed this new monstrosity, while the phantom continued: "there's two things you should know about my Eltanin. The first is that its ATK is equal to that of the number of monsters banished to summon him times 500 points!" [ATK: ?→3000] "The other is that when my monster is special summoned, it automatically sends every other face-up monster on the field to the graveyard!"
"Not with my Draco-Berserker's effect in place!" Mike countered. "Go and banish his Eltanin!"
The creature rushed forward, nothing standing in its way as it leapt upwards to land a finishing blow on the ginormous monster's face... only for the shockwave of the punch to disperse across the thing's exterior to no effect.
"What?!" Mike gasped.
The phantom's grin broadened. "I suppose I should've mentioned, thanks to being summoned with my trap, it's completely impervious to all other effects aside from its own!"
Mike felt as though that previous lightning bolt had crashed down upon him as he watched his Berserker tentatively retreat, only for the floating heads around the monster to unhinge their jaws and fire multiple laser beams through it and his Doom Archfiend, dispatching the both of them instantaneously.
Mike growled. He'd completely disregarded the yūrei's set cards and charged in with reckless abandon. Once again, he'd allowed himself to be caught in the heat of his emotions, and was staring down a nigh-impregnable behemoth as a result.
But this time, thankfully, he had a contingency in place for such an event.
"I'll move into my main phase two and use my Infernity Launcher's effect!" Mike said as he took his card. "With no cards in my hand, I can send it to my graveyard to call two Infernity monsters back to my field! So I'll revive my Doom Archfiend and one of my Beetles!" [LV: 6/ATK: 2200] [LV: 2/DEF: 0]
"And with them back, I'll now tune my level 2 Beetle to my level 6 Archfiend!" he said, throwing a hand to the sky as another pillar of light absorbed his monsters, only this time it turned into a vortex of flames from which his new monster flew out from.
"Synchro summon!" he said as the dragon descended to float menacingly above him. "Burn all before you to ash, Void Ogre Dragon!" [LV: 8/ATK: 3000]
The phantom eyed Mike's new creature with interest. "So you're going for the stalemate angle," it figured, "since my Eltanin can still be destroyed in battle. But I'm afraid it's a meaningless effort."
"We'll see about that," Mike shot back. "I end my turn."
"Then I draw," the phantom said, looking at its new card and grinning.
"I activate the spell card, Cyberload Fusion!" it said, throwing the card into its disk as a swirling vortex opened behind it. "With it, I can Fusion summon a monster that requires Cyber Dragon as a material with my banished monsters by shuffling them back into my deck!"
Mike's eyes widened. Was the phantom aiming for Cyber End Dragon? He couldn't let it happen. "I activate Void Ogre Dragon's effect! With no cards in my hand, once per turn I can negate and destroy one spell or trap card you activate—!"
He was cut off when, from out of nowhere, his dragon was suddenly bound by black chains that seemingly flew at it from out of nowhere, catching his beast in a tight hold that made it roar with defiance.
"Did you really think I'd let you ruin my fun that easily?" the phantom said as it pointed to its other formerly-set card. "I reveal my Fiendish Chain trap card, neutralizing your dragon's effects and ability to attack or change battle modes!"
Mike growled as it pulled its banished cards from its deck case: "now I'll return my three Cyber Dragons, as well as my Proto-Cyber, Nachster, Nova, Drei, Herz, and Pharos to their respective decks!"
Nine monsters?! Mike panicked as he watched flash-images of the monsters appear on the phantom's field, each being absorbed into the vortex behind it one after another before erupting in purple light, from which emerged what looked like a body chassis with holes where heads should have been.
"Fusion summon!" the phantom shouted. "From many, form the herald of destruction! Chimeratech Overdragon!" [LV: 9/ATK: ?]
"And like my Eltanin, this monster's ATK is determined by the number of monsters used to summon it, times 800 points!" the phantom explained as nine long-necked metal dragon heads emerged from the chassis. [ATK: ?→7200]
Mike's face lit with terror as the phantom continued: "Also like my Eltanin, Overdragon sends every other card on my field to the graveyard upon its summoning. But with my Eltanin impervious to all other effects, he's spared from that wrath, unlike my Fiendish Chain."
The chains that had ensnared Void Ogre Dragon suddenly shattered, freeing Mike's monster and allowing it to spread its wings to full span again.
"Now then," the phantom said, "my Cyberload Fusion only allows the fused monster to attack on the turn it's activated, but it'll be more than enough to finish off your Void Ogre Dragon and this duel along with it! Chimeratech Overdragon, attack with Omni-Cannon Burst!"
The many heads of the dragon all reeled backwards momentarily before letting loose a barrage of blinding white beams towards the opposing black and red dragon.
Mike stretched out his hand towards his set card. "I reveal my trap—!"
He was cut off by the impact of the blasts connecting with his dragon, shooting straight through as it roared with pain before violently erupting with a force that quaked the dark plane they stood on. Mike felt as though the ground was being pulled from under his feet, barely maintaining his balance as he saw the phantom watching him struggle with a devilish smirk, undisturbed.
Then something hit him from above. He barely had time to look up before his face was met with another fragment of the void they stood in, followed by another. And then another. Over and over, he was assaulted, staggering him to the point that he could no longer stand. Whatever dark matter that had comprised the realm they were in was collapsing on top of him, burying him alive.
He mustered the strength he had left to try and swing his arms to move the debris, but more just descended upon him, eventually crushing him to the point he was rendered immobile beneath the fragments of his mind.
And then—
"Mike, no!"
That voice... a female voice. Screaming, but muffled. Distant. Somewhere beyond the layers he was buried under.
There were sounds of a struggle. And then a man's voice: "Tie her hands. Boss said he wanted this one alive."
"Get off of me! Mike, help—!"
"Quiet!" He heard the sound of a body hitting the ground. The girl had been shoved, likely face-first into the sand as he heard her gasp from impact with the ground.
Another man's voice, sounding reserved, said, "y'think he's really dead?"
"If not, won't be long 'til he can't breathe no more anyway."
More sounds of shifting bodies, and the girl's voice rang out again: "Mike, get up! Please don't be dead, please!"
But her pleas were going unacknowledged. He felt his heart beginning to ache. He knew what this was. When this was. Who that was.
"Get her on the horse, we need to move. Now!"
"Right!" He heard the second man scuffling as he dragged the girl away, her cries getting more distant but her volume only rising.
"LET ME GO! MIKE, THEY'RE TAKING ME! PLEASE, DON'T BE DEAD—!"
"I SAID QUIET!" A slapping sound cut the girl's voice off this time, seeming to stun her. Mike then heard the sound of hooves shifting in sand as they prepared to move. "Yah!" the man shouted as both their steeds began to gallop away.
As they retreated, all Mike could focus on was the girl's desperate pleas: "MIKE, PLEASE! HELP ME! MIKE! MIKE!"
Over and over he heard her shout his name. Further and further away she was taken, until eventually he heard her no more. When it had happened before, he'd been completely pinned and all life had nearly been driven from his body. But that wasn't the case this time, he realized. This was his chance to change the outcome.
He wouldn't let them take Casey again.
Finding almost superhuman strength, he swung his arm upwards, feeling his hand break through splintered wood to reach the air outside. He managed to grasp something solid to help pull himself through the remains, feeling sharp corners of the wreckage scratch at him but ignoring it as he finally breached the surface.
Immediately, he was blinded by the sun's intense light after being consumed in the darkness of his temporary tomb. He looked around to see the wreckage that no longer resembled the covered wagon they had rode in. He kicked away the last of the debris that had trapped his legs and separated himself from what was left of the vessel. It was only then that he realized: he was now wearing his Frontier Haven attire again. The black duster. The holster with his revolver-disk. The tattered shirt and boots.
He looked to inspect his surroundings, hoping he might be able to spot the thugs that had taken her this time, or at the very least track them. But beyond broken wood and the brown horse that had been their courier laid dead towards the front of the wreck, all he saw was sand for miles, entirely unmarked. No sign of the captors, their direction, or Casey.
His body began to shake. Not again.
He eyed a medium-sized stone in the sand by his feet. With a swift motion, he kicked it from its place across the dunescape as he released a primal cry that echoed across the barren land. His heart felt five times heavier, the weight bringing him to his knees. This had been the nightmare that plagued him ever since his return home. Some nights he'd dream of different memories, but most nights had been this. But never, until now, had this one felt so lucid in experience. This hadn't been just a memory. He had just relived his worst failure in life in the most excruciating detail he'd ever been able to recall.
"What a sad sight."
Mike looked up. There stood Liam, also returned to his Frontier Haven guise with the brown leather jacket, long ponytail, and lack of spectacles. He looked down at him with torturous glee.
"I must admit, the horrific amount of tragedy you've managed to absorb without breaking in such a short lifetime is nothing to sneeze at," he said, beginning to pace around Mike and the wreckage. "To be so powerless, forced to listen to someone you'd fought alongside for so long get snatched up like that, must have left a hell of a psychological scar."
He came to a halt as he turned to Mike, who instinctively met his eyes at the motion as he spit sand from his mouth. "And yet, even with how much the memory of this day torments you, I can tell that it's only another barrier to keep the darkest memory you possess locked away. The memory that set you on the path that led to all this."
Liam raised his arms and performed a spin as he spoke, while Mike felt a wave of cold course through his body as his eyes narrowed to slits. "You think I'd ever let you get that far into my head?"
Liam's smirk grew broader. "To be fair, your compliance isn't a factor." His arms dropped back to his sides, and Mike watched his duel disk re-materialize again, only this time it was his revolver-disk.
He looked down to his own arm. A revolver-disk had also replaced his modern one, but the cards in play remained the same. Looking back up to the field, he then noticed that Eltanin and Overdragon had returned to Liam's field. The duel was still on.
"I won't waste any more time, then," Liam said as he shifted into his duel stance again. "Though admittedly, I'm surprised you're not already finished after my last attack."
"That would be thanks to my trap card, Shock Reborn," Mike answered, returning to his feet as he gestured at his revealed card. "With it, not only was the damage from your Overdragon's attack halved—" [Mike - LP: 4000→1900] "—but now I also get to call back a monster in my graveyard with ATK less than or equal to the damage I took. So I'm bringing back my Archfiend in DEF mode!" [LV: 4/DEF: 1200]
"And just like before, when he's special summoned with no cards in my hand, another 'Infernity' card is called from my deck to my hand," he went on, pulling another card from his disk, "like my Randomizer!"
Liam scoffed. "Not bad, but I'm afraid your Archfiend's on borrowed time," he said, "you see, my Chimeratech has the ability to attack monsters you control as many times per round as the number of monsters used to summon it!
"So finish what you started and destroy his Archfiend!" he declared, prompting the dragon to once again unleash a barrage of blinding lasers that engulfed Mike's monster.
The shockwave sent the remains of the wagon around Mike flying past him as he held his arms up, shielding himself as best he could against the splintered pieces of wood and cloth that flew into him from the impact. He was just glad that he'd brought his Archfiend back in DEF mode, meaning this attack bore no threat to his life points.
As the attack ceased, Liam huffed. "Now, if you're all done with throwing out fodder for my Overdragon to pulverize," he said, "I'll finish my turn with one more face-down card."
Mike watched the set card materialize. Whatever it was, he couldn't let it shake him from his next course of action. Whatever it took, this duel needed to come to an end. Now.
"My turn," he said, dealing his next card and looking at it. There was potential for a comeback in it, but it would require a perfect sequence of cards along with a little more luck. "First, I'll set a card face-down," he said, placing the card in his disk, "and then I'll summon my Infernity Randomizer!" [LV: 1/ATK: 900]
"And with its effect, having no cards in my hand means I get to draw another card," he explained. "If it's a monster, you take damage equal to its level times 200 points. But if it's a spell or trap card, I'll take 500 damage instead."
Randomizer began to spin rapidly as he drew again, and a smile started to form at the sight of his pull. "I drew my Infernity Avenger," he said, "which has a level of 1, meaning you take 200 points of damage!"
The spinning Randomizer on his field came to a stop, one of the barrels that comprised its torso aimed straight at Liam before firing a large bullet through him without warning, causing him to stumble despite how little damage it dealt. [Phantom Liam - LP: 2200→2000]
Liam glared back at Mike as he continued, "now I'll activate the effect of my Synchro Transmission trap that I discarded earlier with Inferno: by banishing it from my graveyard, I can return Void Ogre Dragon to my extra deck and draw another card!"
He followed through with the effect, before raising a hand over the set card on his field: "next, I'll reveal my Pot of Avarice spell! Now I get to take five monsters in my graveyard and shuffle them back into my deck, then draw another two cards!"
"That's an awful lot of drawing for a deck that relies on having no cards in your hand," Liam mused as he watched Mike pick the three Beetles, Archfiend, and Mirage to return to his deck.
"But it'll all be worth it!" Mike shot back as he dealt his two cards, hoping his front of confidence would be rewarded.
And when he glanced at what he'd pulled, the smile grew broader. It was all coming together.
"Now I'll activate the spell, Magical Stone Excavation!" he said. "By discarding two cards, I can return any other spell in my graveyard back to my hand, like my Infernity Launcher!"
At the cost of the two, the one emerged from his graveyard that he replaced in his hand, before continuing: "now I'll set another face-down card, and then activate my Launcher once again! And with no cards in my hand, I'll send it to the graveyard to bring back my Doom Archfiend and the Avenger I just discarded!" [LV: 6/ATK: 2200] [LV: 1/ATK: 0]
"And just like before, my Doom Archfiend sentences your Overdragon to a life in the scrapyard," he said, "because not only are its effects negated, but with no cards in my hand, it's also destroyed!"
Doom Archfiend's elongated finger reached out and touched Overdragon's chassis, causing the thing to corrode and wither into nothingness like the Cyber Dragon before it.
"Now all that's left is to tune my level 1 Avenger tuner to my level 1 Randomizer and level 6 Archfiend!" Mike declared as the hatted gunslinger became a singular emerald orb, encircling the others before once again forming the vortex of fire that had birthed his monster before.
"Synchro summon!" Mike exclaimed as his beast emerged once more. "Return to me, Void Ogre Dragon!" [LV: 8/ATK: 3000]
For the first time in the entire duel, Liam gawked at what Mike had managed to accomplish despite how he'd been pressed against the wall only minutes before, but his composure remained the same. "I might have underestimated you," he admitted. "Your persistence seems to match your capacity for punishment."
"Well I've got a little bit of punishment right here for you," Mike shot back as he flipped the last set card in his disk. "I reveal the equip spell, Infernity Retribution! By equipping it to my Void Ogre Dragon, at the cost of its effects, it's allowed to attack twice during each battle phase!"
Liam's smirk returned. "It won't last long enough to use that second attack if you send it to attack my Eltanin."
Mike smirked back. "Let's test that. Void Ogre Dragon, attack with Calamitous Inferno!"
The dragon swooped upwards as its jaw loosened, revealing a ball of black fire beginning to form within that looked like it doomed anything it touched to turn to ash.
Liam threw his arm forward as he commanded, "Eltanin, counterattack with Eclipsing End!"
In turn, the large dragon face emblazoned across the thing's body began forming a ball of brilliant light before it, compounded by the other sentry heads floating around it firing smaller beams into the orb, charging it.
Before long, both creatures fired their respective blasts towards each other, one blaze of pitch-black flame colliding with an electric beam of pure white in the center between them, each struggling for dominance over the other.
"You may destroy my Eltanin with this attack, Mike," Liam shouted over the hum of the blasts, "but you'll be left with nothing to show for it!"
"That's where you're wrong."
Liam raised an eyebrow as he watched Mike pull a monster from his graveyard. "By banishing the Infernity Patriarch that I discarded earlier, an Infernity monster I control can't be destroyed in battle!"
"But your Void Ogre Dragon isn't an Infernity monster!" said Liam.
"It is thanks to the effect of my Infernity Retribution!" Mike corrected. "Any non-Infernity monster it equips to gets to be treated as one!"
Liam's eyes widened as he realized Mike's gambit, while Void Ogre Dragon's black flame finally pushed straight through Cyber Eltanin's blinding charge, reaching the mechanical beast and consuming it before it finally shattered with a forceful BANG! that even drew sand up from beneath their feet.
Mike shielded his eyes from the small storm his attack had stirred up, feeling the grains fall like rain upon the battlefield before looking to see that his effort had paid off: Eltanin was gone, while Void Ogre Dragon remained, hovering over Liam with hunger in its eyes.
"You asked me before how many bodies I'd dropped with this deck," Mike said as Liam scornfully looked back at him. "Well, now you can count yourself among them. Void Ogre Dragon, finish him off with a direct attack!"
The dragon repeated its attack preparation, before hurling its black flame towards Liam, who barely even flinched as he found himself engulfed in the fire.
There was a moment of silence as the flames crackled across the sand, while Mike watched his opponent's side of the field intently, waiting to see if it was over. As much as he wanted to believe it was, he'd made the mistake of thinking he'd finished things in his last duel with Liam, and he refused to be caught up in his own head again.
And then he heard it.
"Truly a fool to the bitter end."
Mike's eyes narrowed as the flames suddenly dispersed around Liam, bringing him back into view along with his lone trap card: "I revealed my Defense Draw, bringing my damage down to 0 and letting me draw once more!"
Despite his measured expectation, Mike felt his heart sink into his stomach. Of course he'd managed not only to survive, but with the exact same card he'd pulled to steal his victory the last time.
He watched as Liam dealt his card, looking at it before smiling back at Mike. "Shame your Infernity Retribution equip spell cost your dragon its effects. You might've had a chance to defeat me after all."
"Well you haven't won yet," Mike said with a shake of his head.
At this, what startled as a mild chuckle from Liam eventually broke out into uproarious laughter. "'Yet,' he says! Oh, Mike. Even after everything you just witnessed, you still don't get it, do you?"
"Get what?!"
"That you are trapped!" Liam nearly shouted, loud enough for his voice to echo off a distant, mountain-like boulder. "And I don't just mean here in your own head, no. You're trapped by your own past!"
Mike's eyes shot open as Liam carved into him with his words: "This duel could've been over any number of turns ago, but there's one single, solitary reason why everything has gone down the way that it has up to this point. The reason why I'm the form I've taken before you. Why you're using that old deck you got from Aeron. Why I saved myself the exact same way I did during our last duel! Because you are incapable of letting the past go!"
Terror tore through Mike's body as he felt Liam's every word penetrate a vital organ. That was why. Why he'd never been able to shake his reclusive demeanor since returning to County Dame. Why he hadn't been able to put his trust back with his friends. Why, even after they had finally come together, he'd been unable to put his trust with Violet.
Why he was incapable of moving forward with whatever the future laid before him.
Liam set his duel disk arm into position again. "Now, let's see if I can't pull that one last memory out of you," he said as he drew, "the one that's kept you trapped for so long. I once again summon my Cyber Dragon Nachster to the field!" [LV: 1/ATK: 200]
"And then I'll activate the spell card, Machine Duplication!" he said, "which allows me to summon up to two monsters from my deck that share a name with a machine-type monster on my field with 500 or less ATK points. And thanks to my Nachster being treated as a 'Cyber Dragon' while it's on my field, I imagine you know what that means!"
Mike's eyes widened with panic as he watched two genuine Cyber Dragons suddenly emerge onto Liam's field, knowing exactly what he was planning on using them for. [LV: 5/ATK: 2100] [LV: 5/ATK: 2100]
"And with these two returned to my field, I'll once again have them join together and build the overlay network!" Liam exclaimed with a hand raised to the sky, opening a spatial vortex that absorbed his two metal creatures, before they were once again replaced with Mike's least-favorite monster in that deck. "Xyz summon! Return with a vengeance, Cyber Dragon Nova!" [RK: 5/OUs: 2/ATK: 2100]
At this point, Mike was frozen in place. He knew what was coming next, and he was utterly helpless to stop it. And what was worse, the odds of him finding a way to turn things back around in his favor again were slim to none.
"Now for my Nova's effect!" Liam said. "By banishing my Nachster that's treated as 'Cyber Dragon' from my field—" the tiny monster disappeared in a shower of silver dust, "—its ATK increases by 2100 points for the turn!" [ATK: 2100→4200]
"Now destroy his Void Ogre Dragon with Astral Laser Stream!" Liam shouted with a finger pointed at Mike's dragon, prompting his own to unhinge its jaw to fire its bright energy beam straight through its target's chest. The red dragon writhed only momentarily before being eviscerated, shattering with an impact that quaked the dunes around them. [Mike - LP: 1900→700]
The same stream of light came to completely engulf Mike, who yelled out from the searing pain as he raised a defensive arm and clamped his eyes shut. But even that didn't seem to be enough, as before long even the darkness behind his lids began to lift, intense white permeating his vision. Was this what it was like to go blind?
But then he noticed that something else had changed: as well as his vision, all his other senses seemed to have failed on him without his notice. He no longer heard the mechanical whir of the dragon as its attack had engulfed him. Nor the heat of the desert sun on his skin. The rotten smell of a horse carcass or the acrid taste of ash from the destroyed remains of his cart. As if the world itself had fallen away.
And then, suddenly, his eyes were open again.
He was looking upwards at a distant white ceiling above calming, sky-blue walls. It held a vague air of familiarity to him, but he couldn't place why or where exactly he was.
As his senses returned to him, he realized he was laying down on something soft. He gently pushed himself up by his elbows, realizing a white blanket was upon him that fell down his body as he scanned the room with weary eyes. It was a broad living room of ample size. A fluffy white carpet spanned the floor, with a coffee table at its center between him and a fireplace in the opposite wall. Above it was a mantle decorated with pictures, telling the story of a family he recognized but couldn't recall. It was overshadowed by a large television, in which he could see the couch he found himself upon. A sliding glass door took up a majority of the wall his feet faced towards, cracked open so he caught the scent of fresh-cut grass, enclosed by a pointed fence being chorused by birds.
It then occurred to him just how big the room actually felt. It wasn't a larger-than-average den, but for some reason it felt somewhat oversized. As though he were in the dwelling of some sort of half-giants. He managed to push himself upright so that he could see his reflection in the empty screen of the television: though it was definitely his reflection he saw, something was... off. His hair was shorter, and his face rounder. His attire had been simplified to a white t-shirt and black sports shorts, and all that adorned his feet were white socks. And he was much shorter now, too; only about 3'9".
He squinted as he observed his reversed image. He could've sworn that he'd been taller, and older, only moments before, and that he'd been through a wild culmination of horrific experiences that he suddenly couldn't remember the finer details of. Had it all been some sort of crazy nightmare?
"Michael?"
His ear wiggled as he slowly turned his head to the left towards the voice. The floor of the den going in that direction led to a two-step tiled staircase leading up to a white door frame. Standing within it was a blonde woman with medium-length hair and blue eyes, not unlike his own. She was garbed in a silver shawl that looked like it had glitter between its threads over a white V-neck shirt, and skinny jeans leading down to brown slip-on shoes. Age was only just starting to take form in her face, with faint age lines across her forehead, putting her in her late early 40s, and stood around 5'8".
It was her. The woman from the photos on the mantle. The woman he had known for all of his short life. His safe place. Everyone else knew her as Miryam Harper. But he knew her by only one name:
"Mom?"
ED2: "Leave Out All The Rest" by Linkin Park
Original Cards
Cyber Scavenger [Normal Trap Card]
During the End Phase of a turn where 2 or more of your "Cyber Dragon" monsters were destroyed by battle: draw 1 card for every 500 points of damage you took from those battles in total this turn. During your Main Phase, while you control no other cards: you can banish this card from your GY and discard 1 "Cyber Dragon" monster in your hand; Draw the same number of cards you did when you applied this card's first effect. (This card must be in your GY after having been placed there upon a successful activation and resolution.) You can only activate 1 effect of "Cyber Scavenger" per turn, and only once that turn.
Infernity Retribution [Equip Spell Card]
Equip only to an "Infernity" Monster or a Level 8 DARK Dragon Synchro Monster. It can attack twice during each Battle Phase, but its effects are negated. If the equipped monster is not an "Infernity" Monster: it becomes treated as one.
PUBLISHED: 4/4/2022
