Ride 4: Riding Duel
Gally was shorter than Yusei by a few inches and she was grateful for her size as she clung to his back while he drove them through the fog. His D-Wheel, which Rally had named the 'Yusei-Go' was working well.
They'd driven for about half-an hour now and Gally noticed something white and spotless – a work desk placed in the middle of the wastes, a half-finished bridge hanging in the background, like an arm grasping at the City, trying to reach it despite the distance between the two.
As the D-Wheel got closer, Gally could see the man himself smirking, the inset silver-white goggles in his face gleaming. Desty Nova himself. Beside him stood the same headless cyborg body, just the right shape for Gally's head to sit atop of.
"That's him?" Yusei asked.
"Yeah." Gally responded. "Let me talk to him." She said as Yusei stopped the new D-Wheel.
"Welcome Gally! And her new friend! It only took about twelve hours, but here you both are! We may yet see something good come out of B.A.D. after all!" Nova said, laughing hysterically at his own joke for a few seconds as Gally dismounted off of the machine and took a few steps towards him.
"As you can see, I have the Imaginos body right here! It's even stronger than your old Berserker body!" Nova said, pointing to the shimmering frame of lean cyborg muscle standing at attention even though it lacked a head of its own.
"Nova. What's your condition for me getting that body?" Gally asked.
Nova looked up. "Oh, I don't know. Tell me why the City doesn't like this place? Just kidding! Kya-ha-ha! How about the condition that you don't attack or try to kill me after this point?" Nova asked her, raising a finger to the sky like he was posing a difficult question.
Gally sighed. At this moment having a functional body definitely outweighed laying a finger on the impish professor.
She pulled the Damascus Blade from its holster on her back, tossing it with her one arm into the center of Nova's workspace, blade first.
"Yeek!" Nova yelled as he scooted away from the desk.
"Fine. Here's my sword and I won't attack you. Now keep my friends out of this." She said, taking a step towards him.
"You have my word that I won't touch them." Nova replied.
Gally turned to Yusei. "It should take about twenty minutes for my head to sync up to the body, so be careful. He's dangerous, so keep your distance." She said and the stoic man nodded.
She approached Nova and he pushed a button on the desk. A frame made of metal tube segments sprang up, a blade on the end of it.
"A TUNED body, huh?" Nova asked and chuckled. "Ironic considering the circumstances."
"Just get this over with." Gally said.
Nova smiled. "As you wish."
With a slash, the blade separated Gally's head and core from her body, Nova neatly catching the connected parts. He placed her head and core near the neck of the Imaginos body as cables and tubes automatically extended it, folding out with the chest to consume the exposed internals of Gally's core. Then the neck closed around the robotic spine, connecting Gally's head to it. Her good eye was closed and Nova opened it, shining a light in it.
Gally could hear Yusei yell out her name – no doubt surprised by Nova's methods. Then it all went dark, yet she felt some components of the new body begin to connect with her core. Then there was a light and she could hear again, though she couldn't move around in the body quite yet.
"Ah, we can see, can we? That's good!" Nova's voice said. "Now hold on – the Imaginos body should be able to grow you a new eye once you're synced to it properly." As he said that, Nova picked up the Damascus Blade from the desk, stabbing it into the abdomen of the Imaginos and pressing a switch on his deck. The blade melted and flowed inside of the body's abdomen, sealing the wound as if it had never been there.
"As for him, I would leave this man be, but you see, a man who saw the cyborg I'd brought with me left this device behind, and I wanted to test it out. I see this man has one as well" Nova said, pointing to Yusei's red D-wheel and, pushing a button on his desk.
A panel flipped over, revealing a Duel Disk with a deck already shuffled into it. Gally's eye was wide from the initial shock of the incision and she could only watch as the Imaginos body's connection sequence was keeping her occupied at the moment.
"Now I modified this desk to use these 'Speed Spells' the man I met was going on about he met my mindless cyborg puppet." Nova said, turning to Yusei. "Perhaps you could educate me on this 'Duel Monsters' with a first-hand Riding Duel?"
He gave Yusei a smile and the other man kept his same stoic gaze.
"That's all you want? A Riding Duel?" Yusei asked.
Nova nodded. "I'm curious to see the way people in this world settle things – it seems much more orderly than smashing someone's brains in with a cyborg arm!" As Nova said that, his goggles grew a white mesh around the back of his head, hardening into a white plastic helmet that covered his curly white hair.
Next the work desk warped as the man's nanomachines converted it from a stationary desk to a white trapezoid shaped D-Wheel.
"Fine then. I need to give this machine a trial run in any case. We'll have a Riding Duel while Gally's connecting to that new body!" Yusei said, activating his machine and throwing his crimson helmet upon his head.
"Riding Duel, Acceleration!" Yusei yelled out as the duel began. The Yusei-Go took off, Nova following at a slower speed.
TURN 1: YUSEI: 4000, NOVA: 4000, SPC: 0 / 0
"My turn! Draw!" Yusei yelled as he pulled a card from his duel disk.
He looked at his hand and tisked. "I'll set three cards face-down and end my turn!" Yusei said as the turn was passed over to Nova.
TURN 2: YUSEI: 4000, NOVA: 4000, SPC: 1 / 1
"Alright then! I draw. Let's begin the experiment!" Nova said, pulling a card gently from the top of his deck.
I'll begin with what I'm studying at the moment! A Speed Spell!" Nova said, playing the card. "Count-Up!"
"And I'll discard three cards to get six Speed Counters!" Nova said. He placed three cards into his Graveyard – Cyber Demon, Cyber Ogre, and Cybertech Wyvern – as he sped past Yusei's D-Wheel (SPC: 1 → 7).
"Just two cards left in your hand – what are you planning, Nova?" Yusei asked, looking ahead to the mad scientist's back.
"Hmph! You'll find out!" The man said, his white lab coat flapping in the wind.
"Now I'll use Overboost to get even more speed – but at the End Phase, my Speed Counters will be reduced to a mere one!" Nova said, playing the card as his speed was now maxed out on the first turn. He yelped as his lips blew back from the increasing speed, flying far ahead of Yusei with the effect of the spell card.
"Twelve already!? The maximum speed!?" Yusei said out loud, impressed at Nova's use of Speed Spells in his first Riding Duel.
"And now I'll call on this card – Cybernetic Cyclops!" Nova cried.
In front of Nova, a green skinned cyclops appeared, its singular eye covered in a metallic visor. The monster let out a roar and screamed to the heavens as it spread two arms – wrists outfitted in silver gauntlets that matched with a mechanical chest plate (4/1400/200).
"And next I'll play this Speed Spell – Accel Draw! If I have twelve Speed Counters, I can draw twice!" Nova said as he did so.
"But I'm not quite done! Now I play this card – Speed Energy! This will give my Cyclops two-hundred more attack points per Speed Counter! And since I have twelve, which means he'll be at thirty-eight hundred attack points!" Nova finished.
His Cyclops glowed in a green aura as it powered up from the spell (4/1400 → 3800/200).
"And then I'll set my last card face-down and conduct a hypothesis! If I attack you directly, I'll win!" Nova said.
"But I'll still have two-hundred life-points remaining." Yusei said.
"Kyahaha! Look again at my creature!" Nova said, pointing to his Cyclops, who let out a roar, flexing at it powered up once again (4/3800 → 4800/200).
"Over four-thousand attack points." Yusei observed, his eyes wide at Nova's aggressive increase in attack points.
"Indeed. If I have no cards in my hand, my Cyclops gains one-thousand attack points!" Nova explained.
"Now I proceed to battle! And to the attack! End the experiment!" Nova said with a gesture.
Cybernetic Cyclops leapt into the air, landing ahead of the crimson D-Wheel and slamming it's claws down. The monster roared as something struck it's helmeted head, knocking the hologram backwards – the active trap card having struck the monster – and then Yusei ran straight through the hologram, the cyclops flailing about as he did so.
"Trap card – Iron Resolve!" Yusei said as the card faded from his field. "I pay half of my life-points but in exchange, I take no damage for the rest of this turn!" He explained as his points were cut in half (4000 → 2000).
Nova slumped, exhaling in disappointment. "A trap card? I didn't expect that in a battle of speed."
"But in this game, speed isn't the only variable." Yusei said. "Even with no monsters, I did my best to keep my field fortified. Now you may have that Cyclops, but other than that you'll just have one set card on your field. And in addition, your Speed Counters will drop to one at the End Phase."
"Hmph. Perhaps it's my own karma, being so hasty to win at this game. So my hypothesis was incorrect it seems." Nova remarked. "Well then boy, on with it! I end my turn!"
As Nova declared that, his Cyclops stood back up and lumbered back to Nova's workstation, slumping over as it's attack points fell from Speed Energy wearing off (4/4800 → 2400/200).
Then Nova's speed drastically fell as Overboost wore off as well (SPC: 12 → 1). Nova gasped as the loss of speed made him lurch forwards in surprise as Yusei moved gradually ahead of him.
TURN 3: YUSEI: 2000, NOVA: 4000, SPC: 2 / 1
"It's my turn!" Yusei said as he drew his next card.
Gally felt something click as the Imaginos body finished connecting. She felt phantom pain from so much of her body being replaced, but knew it would pass at some point. She processed the game ahead of her, unsure of what would happen now. Then her eye started hurting and she remembered that this body being as advanced as it was might have a self-recovery function. She felt Nova's nanomachines growing tissue in the eye socket as the mass squirmed around slightly making her want to itch it. Yet she couldn't move yet as the body was still connecting to her core. Gally kept her vision on the red bike that zoomed past in another lap.
"My turn!" Yusei said, drawing. Now he had four cards in his hand.
"First I'll set this!" Yusei said as a fourth set card appeared on his field.
"I'll use this card! The Speed Spell – High Speed Crash!" One of Yusei's set cards revealed itself as the Speed Spell he'd mentioned. "This lets me destroy a card on my field and one of yours, so I'll destroy this!" Yusei said, gesturing to the card he'd just set and pointed to Nova's own set card.
The cards shattered, Yusei's Limiter Overload and Nova's Dimension Wall, and then Speed Warrior appeared beside Yusei (2/900/400), skating alongside the crimson D-Wheel.
"And when my Limiter Overload trap card is destroyed, I can summon out Speed Warrior from my hand, deck, or Graveyard!" Yusei explained.
"Hmph! That's all? A malnourished Motorball player?" Nova asked.
"Not quite. This time, I'm not done! Next I summon this! The tuner monster – Junk Synchron!" Yusei declared, playing another card.
Ahead of him, a diminutive and orange robot appeared, with an engine on its back and large eyes giving Nova a glare (3/1300/500).
"A Tuner? And a Motorball player? Please tell me this is a joke." Nova said, looking away from his cards to take a bite of his flan, taking advantage of the decrease in speed to risk it.
"I'm not done." Yusei said, waving out an arm. "I'm now tuning my Speed Warrior with my Junk Synchron!"
As Yusei said the word 'Tuning', Nova looked up from his meal.
Junk Synchron broke apart into three emerald rings, flying into the sky and circling around Speed Warrior until they aligned in a parallel fashion. Then Speed Warrior leapt into the rings, his body fading away – replaced by an orange outline as two stars could be seen in his body.
"Clustering stars call on a new force!" Yusei chanted.
The orange framework faded and the twin stars aligned with the three rings, forming a pattern.
"Become the path its light shines upon!"
The formation of rings and stars flew higher into the air as Yusei spoke.
"Synchro Summon!"
Then as he uttered those words, a green pillar of light split the sky, piercing through both the rings and stars in a parallel line. The edge of his helmet and visor glowed green from the brilliant reflection.
"Appear now, Junk Warrior!"
The light faded away – a bulky purple monster in its place. Junk Warrior as the name suggested was a fighter built from scrap, a larger right arm clenching studded knuckles and a smaller left arm's fingers hanging open as it soared through the air on faded white jet wings. Its legs had large skates on each foot and its small rounded white head was covered with a purple shell on the sides and back, and red goggles on the front. Finally an engine similar to Junk Synchron's was on the creature's back and it had a white scarf that billowed in the wind. Junk Warrior stuck out its larger fist as lighting crackled off of it (5/2300/1300).
"Interesting! So that was your plan!'" Nova said, leaning forwards to look at the new monster.
"And now, we battle! Junk Warrior, attack Cybernetic Cyclops!" Yusei yelled, waving back an arm for emphasis.
Junk Warrior grunted, its engine igniting as it flew towards the Cyclops, larger fist drawn back in a punch.
"And then here's a trap – Synchro Strike!" Yusei yelled, revealing the card, ironically showing his current monster and the monster's he'd used to create it.
"Synchro Strike will give Junk Warrior five-hundred attack points per monster I used to Synchro Summon it with until the end of the turn!" Yusei explained as Junk Warrior's eyes glowed, it's attack power rising (5/2300 → 3300/1300).
"Scrap Fist!" Yusei yelled as Junk Warrior boosted around in a loop and threw its best fist forwards at Nova's monster.
The fist slammed into the Cyclops and it shattered with a shriek. Nova frowned as he took some of the damage (4000 → 3100).
"And now my final trap – Synchro Over-limit!" Yusei said, waving back an arm as the card in question revealed itself.
"This card will let a Synchro monster that attacked get a second attack, but it's destroyed at the end of the turn! Now attack him again, Junk Warrior!" Yusei yelled as his monster flew directly at Nova, striking him with a holographic fist.
Nova sighed as the attack didn't physically damage him, but it did affect the duel (3100 → 0).
"Hmph. Not bad." Nova said as Junk Warrior faded away, his own D-Wheel stopping before Nova converted it into a plastic white work desk once again as his helmet faded away, leaving only his goggles behind. Then Yusei stopped the D-Wheel and pulled off his helmet, walking towards Nova with confidence.
"Now keep your word! Is Gally safe?" He asked, glancing over to the Imaginos body she was now a part of – standing perfectly still.
"Oh she'll be just fine." Nova said with a frown, sliding his Graveyard back into the Duel Disk and pressing a button, flipping it back under the workstation.
Gally grunted as the eye finished growing and she had to blink for a moment before she could see clearly out of it.
"That was interesting. That Junk Warrior of yours looks like it would be a tough opponent in a game of Motorball or otherwise." Gally said with a smile.
"Motorball?" Yusei asked and Nova smiled mischievously.
"Don't encourage the man with an even more ridiculous sport than this Riding Duel. Though I can see that he'd be a promising candidate if he had a cyborg body of his own."
Gally sighed. "Don't even think about it, Nova." She looked down to where her old body lay, surprised as the Damascus blade was now gone.
"Oh, I'm sorry. I used the blade's rigidity to re-enforce your body while you were synchronizing up to it. It's a part of you now." Nova said.
Gally frowned and her eye twitched at the news. "What gave you the right!?" She yelled, slamming a fist into the workstation and leaving a sizable dent in it.
"Easy, easy! You can conjure it from your own body in time with enough will power! That body is designed for feats like that!" Nova said, raising his hands in peace and stepping away.
He was quickly disappointed as Yusei picked him up by his collar and glared at him.
"You turned an innocent person into a cyborg and then attacked Gally and my friend with it. And then you think we'll just let you go?" he asked, still keeping a cool exterior despite what he was doing.
"Hmph! Fine then! Hit me! Run me over with that motorcycle if you wish! My restorer robots will just bring me right back!" Nova said.
Gally looked to Yusei. "I did give him my word I wouldn't hurt him."
Yusei dropped him and Nova tisked, patting his own back. "Treating an old man like this! I thought that you had some measure of respect!"
"That's a two-way street, right?" Yusei asked and Nova grunted in distaste.
"By the way Nova, how are we here?" Gally asked.
The scientist stopped sulking and pushed a button on his desk, revealing a projector screen.
"As you can see, this is the universe that we come from." Nova said, showing a blue model of a star system.
"And this one is the one we're in now." Nova said as a red one appeared next to it.
"Karmatron Dynamics refers to an infinite number of possibilities depending on how one reacts to one's own karma. Now look here." Nova said, zooming in the model to show a small area where the two universes intersected, both overlapping areas a bright purple.
"This is how you managed to pass through, Gally." Nova said. "You fell into a dimensional overlap – just as my bomb was set to explode. I studied the machinery left there by the Nova you decapitated days ago and found that it was a possibility, no matter how slim or impossible it seemed. Probability can often work in ways like that for those such as yourself, Gally. Those who conquer their own karma tend to gravitate to things sort of things."
"I still don't understand the most of it." Gally said, crossing her new arms. "Even if that's true for me, how were you able to follow me?"
Nova chuckled. "Easy. The other Nova left notes on the kind of signatures he picked up from the dimensional rift. And this dimension's barrier was pretty pliable – it's my guess some major time or dimensional travel will occur on a larger scale here at a later date."
On hearing this, Yusei's face was disbelief. "Time travel?"
"That's right, boy! You're going to be a big catalyst of it! At least that's what my instruments tell me!" Nova said, bringing up a holographic chart full of variables that Yusei didn't understand. Yusei looked at him in confusion.
"That's not for you to tell him, Nova. Now, can we leave? I want to see Figure. And Lou. And Ido." Gally said, counting on her new fingers and giving Nova a grim look.
"Not quite, Gally!" Nova said with a grin. "You see, this dimension's power source is something I don't understand quite yet called Momentum. I'll need to harness that and apply it to my studies if I want to take us back to our home dimension." The scientist finished. Then he clapped his hands and the work desk he'd set up dissolved into a swarm of nanobots, flying up into the atmosphere. From the interior of the desk fell the duel disk. Nova grabbed the device and fit it on his arm.
"Hmm, it's clunky." The man said, feeling the heft of it. "In any case I wanted to join you to the Imaginos body as soon as possible – we'll have the highest chance of survival here if you're in your strongest body yet!" Nova said.
Gally looked at the old core of the TUNED body. "You're sure it's not overkill? And that one, are we just leaving it here?" She asked him.
"Oh no. I wouldn't say it's overkill if we don't know what things exist in this dimension just yet. And as for your old body, I figured you could incinerate it with your new body's control of plasma." Nova said and Gally frowned.
"That was my old body for ten years! I'm not just about to cremate it like that!" She protested.
"Hmph. Fine then. Be sentimental about it." Nova said, waving his hand and breaking the materials of the TUNED body down with more nanobots.
"There. This bots will inject your Imaginos body with the material from your TUNED body if you need a quick repair. Does that work for you?"
Gally frowned but still nodded to Nova. Then she looked to Yusei. "I'm going to go with him. He's too dangerous to be left here doing whatever he wants." The cyborg said and Yusei nodded back to her in agreement.
"Where are you going to travel then?" Yusei asked.
Nova scratched his head of curly white hair. "Well anywhere that can make Momentum, feasibly." The man said. "But the City seems like it would have the best materials for my work."
Yusei narrowed his eyes. "Be careful leaving Satellite. Security is very careful on who they let in."
Nova smiled. "Boy, I assure you that we will be fine! One way or another! Kyahah-" He was cut off as Gally created a plasma jet from her finger, heating it up enough to startle the scientist.
"We'll be careful, Yusei. And good luck with your own dream." Gally said to him. "Make sure it doesn't give you tunnel vision. Some peaks are too high, even for the most idealistic people." She said as she ceased the plasma jet and watched the trail of smoke linger in the air.
Yusei nodded and extended his fist. A warrior's salute. Gally smiled and returned the gesture, the two of them bumping fists before they went their separate ways.