Shadowchasers: Conspiracy

by 0ccam's Razor

A fanfic of the Shadowchasers by Cyber Commander. Odd things are happening, and Shadowchasers all over the world are encountering criminals with strange and peculiar goals. Is a conspiracy afoot, or is some deeper plot in the works?

34. Wipe Out

Hello everyone! I'm not dead. To those who were worried, thank you for your concern, and to those who had their hopes up, you know who you are, tough luck.

Writing this chapter has been brutal. In order to keep the gameplay and storyline segregation to a minimum and the required willing suspension of disbelief on the relatively low side, I had to rewrite the duel outline no less than four times to get it to work, due to the rather unique nature of the cards used by both duelists. There was a lot of math required, and I often had to use two calculators at once. (I'll confess, I never went farther than trig in school, and only then because it was a prerequisite. I hate math.)

However, I know that a lot of things that could have been good to be ruined because people rushed on them (like Soul Caliber V and Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness) so I decided to take my time.

Before we start, I'd like to thank 7th Librarian, Metal Overlord 2.0 for their help with it all.

So anyway…

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

One reason the Shadowchasers try hard to keep Shadows hidden from humans is because humans are, as you call them, "control freaks". They don't like the idea of not being in charge, and don't like it when someone's around who has the authority or power to tell them what to do. Shadows don't exactly have the authority, but they do have the power. Almost every species of Shadow, as Ray Carr found out quickly, are stronger, pound for pound, than humans. They have better inherent skills for magic, most are physically stronger and tougher, and most have better senses of vision, smell, and hearing, if not superhuman powers. If they ever discovered that they were not only sharing the world with other species but several that could potentially take their place as the dominant species, it would cause problems.

Of course, Shadows have this same problem too when dealing with stronger beings. The Athar reject the authority of the gods themselves, saying that power alone does not give them the authority to rule over mortals, and that they only do so via a "might makes right" system. And they may have a point.

Of course, by this logic, during the war between humans and vampires centuries ago, the latter should have been able to easily claim victory, but were instead pushed to the brink of extinction on Earth. Why? The war was poorly documented, but there is a growing theory that what humanity lacks in inborn skill compared to Shadows, they make up for in the potential to adapt and surpass their enemies when in dire straits.

Which is, again, why the Shadowchasers are needed. If there was no such authority, "might makes right" would indeed be the factor determining who would rule over others on your world.

But sometimes even then, the strongest of Shadows would be reminded that there were always bigger fish in the ocean than them.

0-0-0-0-0

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Chapter Thirty

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Wipe Out

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

0-0-0-0-0

Not many things surprised Terra Ironhoof. She was a Shadowkind after all, and not only a rare species but someone who would be considered unusual even for minotaurs.

Still, while she hadn't been naïve enough not to consider Addams being a Shadow, this, well, this had been kind of farfetched.

Casting aside the disguise to assume his true form had added almost a foot to his height and likely hundreds of pounds to his weight and body mass. His chest muscles, biceps, and triceps were as toned and muscular now as a male minotaur. But despite the Adonis-like frame, he didn't have a handsome face to go with it. His face had turned fierce and bestial, with fangs, diabolical horns, and a mane of red hair. His skin was bronze, and not "bronze" as in with a tan, but bronze as in metallic.

Terra was starting to regret that burst of anger, but she wasn't going to back down.

"You know, Ms. Ironhoof," he said, his voice much like it was before, but deeper, "my feelings are a little mixed." He slammed his right fist into his left palm, and Terra backed up a step, balling her hands into fists. "You broke into my office, robbed it, made the place a wreck, scared the bloody hell out my employees, made me break about a dozen traffic laws to get here, and just made me destroy my best suit."

He was cut off as her fist slammed into his face, but he quickly returned the favor, punching her back hard.

"Still," he continued, "I haven't been able to really cut loose like this in a long time."

"Glad to oblige," she said. She aimed another punch, only to get one in the teeth. Her next blow, which was lower, slugged him in the stomach.

As she started to sweat and breathe hard, she realized that this guy was not going to be a pushover.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Six blocks away, Mr. Z was running down the street, towards the fight in hopes of breaking it up, tossing his formal jacket aside as he did and wondering, again, why he had suddenly picked now to come back to Liverpool.

He'd wonder that several more times in the next hour or so.

As he crossed the next street, he there was a loud crash and the sound of shattered glass.

What in the world? he thought. Then he was startled by was sounded like gunfire and several loud expletives.

That cussing sounds awfully familiar.

It wasn't hard to track the source of the commotion, Z merely had to follow the sound of breaking glass and swearing. Someone had apparently smashed their way into a liquor store and from the sound of it was tearing up the place in a hurry.

Letting the intruder's actions cover the sound of broken glass crunching underfoot, Z peered around a stack of wine bottles his eyes widening in surprise. Standing behind the counter over something that may very well have been a customer at some point was Joka, stuffing wads of cash from the register into his pockets with one hand and emptying a bottle of vodka down his throat with the other.

It was clear he had seen better days, the assassin's coat was torn almost to ribbons and there were dents and scratches all over the parts of his chassis that were visible. Worse yet he reeked of everything from whiskey to motor oil to heaven knew what else.

"Three... four... five-hundred and twenty-seven dollars," Joka sighed stuffing the last of the register's contents into his pocket. Then after considering it for a moment he casually smashed a glass jar with change labeled tips and scooped the remains in as well. "And about eighty seven cents, whoop de fucking doo."

"So now we're resorting to petty theft, Joka? I thought even people like you had some shred of professional pride as criminals."

"CHRISTONACRUTCH!" Joka screamed almost leaping up like a startled cat before whirling around and spraying everything in front of him with bullets before the weapon built into his arm coughed and stalled out.

Joka gave his arm a couple of whacks before he started slamming it against the counter. "Stupid piece of defective shit... what the hell else is going to go wrong today?" He hopped over the counter and drained the last of the vodka bottle smashing it to the ground. "Okay asshole, I don't know if you're the neighborhood watch or just some wino with a death wish but come on out now and I'll leave enough of you to bury."

Walking through the bullet ridden shelves Joka swept his gaze back and forth not noticing Z grabbing one and starting to heave. By the time Joka realized he was there the Shadowchaser gave one last hard pull and an entire shelf wall toppled over and buried him beneath several hundred pounds of steel and glass with a horrendous shattering crash.

"The only one getting buried is you Joka." Z said dusting his hands. "I don't know who paid you to come crawling out of your hole but –"

The rest of Z's sentence was abruptly ended by the shrill snarl of a chainsaw blade bursting up out of the debris, sending shards of glass and shrapnel everywhere forcing him to dive for cover as Joka slowly carved his way up out of the wreckage.

"Took me a few seconds to remember your stupid accent Z," Joka growled almost with the same intensity as the chainsaw jutting from under the sleeve of his coat. "This is NOT the time to put me through this crap, I already got reamed up the ass after my last job went south and I'll be lucky if I can break even hitting a few more shops on the way back."

With a roar Joka charged with his chainsaw raised, Z drawing his sword and deflecting every savage swing the assassin made, his weapon kicking up sparks and chewing through what was left of the store around them as Z was slowly forced to retreat.

Finally seeing an opening Z stepped to the side and made several quick slashes with his sword, the chainsaw's blade coming right off as the chains snapped and flung through the air. Joka barely had enough time to blink before Z's foot slammed into his chest sending him back skidding.

"We've done this dance before Joka," Z said shifting his stance. "And from the looks of it you're already running on fumes, so why not make this easier on both of us and surrender? You have to have some sense left in what's left of your brain."

"Bite...my...rusty...metal...ass!" Joka hissed through clenched fangs, but as he lifted his hands whatever mechanisms he tried to trigger simply squealed and stalled out.

"Dammit... Figures. Of course, the only thing that's still working would be this." He slammed his arm against the wall and his sleeve tore as the blade of a Duel Disk shot out suddenly, looking like it had been cobbled together out of a muffler.

"Don't you think were a little past that Joka?" Z asked arching an eyebrow. Then Joka gave a very unpleasant laugh.

"Depends, you ever seen a bomb go off in some poor bastard's mouth before?" came the reply. Seeing the look of confusion on Z's face Joka jerked his thumb over to the corner of the store.

An old man – presumably the clerk – was tied to a chair with duct tape, unconscious and with a large lump on his head, but still alive. A lot of duct tape had been used to cover his mouth, but even from here Z could see something blinking with a red light illuminating his mouth.

"I stuffed a home-made bomb in his fat face before I tied him up, figured if someone like you did show up I needed an ace in the hole. Know what a dead-man's switch is?"

Z waited a moment. He knew what it was, and hoped Joka would make some gesture indicating where it was. Unfortunately, he did not.

"So unless you want me to trigger the bomb and blow half the guy's teeth up into his brain, I don't think you've got much of a choice now do ya?"

"Bastard..." Z hissed, but deep down he knew Joka was neither kidding nor bluffing. Still, why go through the trouble of dueling when he could have simply used the bomb threat to escape? Something didn't add up here, and there was only one way to get to the bottom of it now.

"So, I was right," he said. "You always have wanted to duel me since that little, ahem, incident in Panama."

"You gonna duel me or are you gonna yack all day?" asked Joka.

"My pleasure," said Z.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Several leagues to the east, Jalal held his head as he rode down an elevator. So many things were happening at once, so quickly, but he wasn't about to let a headache slow him down.

The elevator opened into the infirmary, and he straightened his jacket as he made a beeline for a woman in a white jacket with glasses, her haired tied in a bun.

"Claudine," he said, "how's Ms. Witt?"

"Uhm, as far as I know she's still in Zone Yellow," she replied, not looking up from her clipboard.

Jalal was very surprised. "Why the devil is she there?" he asked, quickly.

Now Claudine looked up to face him fully. "Uhm," she said. "You… Didn't get Dr. Khol's message?"

"If I did, I didn't have time to read it," snapped Jalal. His headache had suddenly gotten worse. "Why is Sofia in Zone Yellow?"

"Dr. Khol had her transferred a few hours ago," said Claudine, slowly. "Her and these individuals…"

He handed him the clipboard, moving her thumb to part of it. Jalal had no idea how anything could be so serious that Sofia would have to go to the quarantine ward of the detention center, or Zone Yellow as it was called, one of the most secure medical wards ever built. It was specifically designed to contain and prevent a diseases of supernatural origin from spreading, while allowing the victim to get treatment at the same time.

When he read the names of the other victims who were moved, the pain in his head started to change to dread and worry. All were prisoners who had given them trouble recently. Yolanda and her son, Drummer, and Ezekiel.

"I'm not sure why," continued Claudine. "It might have something to do with why he also ordered a Level Nine Scan of the Twin Cities."

"He did what?" shouted Jalal.

"Uh," replied Claudine.

"The entire city?" asked Jalal. Without waiting for an answer, he dropped the clipboard on the desk, and stood up. "Tell him I'm on my way."

As he took a breath, he held his head again briefly, then pushed the button on the elevator.

Level Nine? he thought. What did he find?

Ordering a Level Nine Scan was not something you did lightly. To explain briefly how serious a potentially dangerous supernatural threat would have to be, well, there was no Level Ten Scan. And while Dr. Khol was within his authority to order one without consulting anyone else, being the member of the Council in charge of medicine and medical research, he rarely did so.

Something was very wrong.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

"Duel Gazer, ON!" shouted Z.

"Duel interface set," announced the computerized voice, as the grid appeared. "Augmented reality vision link established." The walls of the liquor store digitized and dissolved, turning into a virtual plane.

"Yeah, yeah, very pretty,"said Joka. "Let's see if you've got anything in those pants of yours besides an asshole."

(Mr. Z: 8,000) - - - - - - - - - (Joka: 8,000)

"I really hate you, you know that?" replied Z. He made his first draw, and then played a card. "I summon Valkyrie Dritte!"

As he used the card, there was a shout as a Valkyrie on a pure, white winged horse flew from behind Z. She had short, auburn hair, crowned by a tiara with silver wings, decorated silvery armor, and a blue cloak that flew in the wing. (1,000 ATK)

The burning orbs in Joka's sockets somehow went flat at the sight of Z's monster. "Oh for crying out loud, these things again? Okay Z we get it you have a hard-on for Wagner, but would it kill you to try something new for a change?"

"Hmph!" said Dritte. She closed her eyes and turned away from Joka.

"To end my turn, I'll activate the Spell Card, Soul Absorption," continued Z. He used the card, and a Continuous Spell Card appeared behind the Spellcaster. "Your move, scrap heap."

"You got it!" laughed Joka. He made a draw, then made a decision quickly. "Let me show you a real monster! Here comes Rocket Arrow Express!"

There was the roar of a loud engine as a silver portal opened, and out charged an express train with a jet plane mounted on top, the tracks forming in front as it thundered forward. Z was startled for a second or two, as was his monster, but the train swerved and missed them, racing around the field and circling behind them over the road as the tracks continued to form. (5,000 ATK)

Z and his Valkyrie watched as it made a full circle, then turned back to his foe. "Same old Joka," he said, "still trying to overcompensate,"

"Joke's on your asshole," replied Joka, "I don't even have anything left down there to compensate for!"

There was an awkward silence following this as both Z and Dritte gave him strange looks.

"...I'm starting to wonder why I thought that was a good comeback." Joka sighed rubbing the back of his head where his spiky red hair was jutting out beneath his hat, then changed the subject quickly. "I can't use any other cards cause I summoned that, so it's your move."

"I have no idea what you're planning with that thing," said Z. He drew his next card. "But I'm not waiting around to find out. I use the Spell Card, Swan Maiden, to Special Summon Valkyrie Sechs."

A new Spell Card appeared, and a beautiful swan rose from the ground. It turned to Joka and winked, spread its wings, and started to grow…

Then there was another savage battlecry, and another fierce Valkyrie joined as the swan faded, a blonde with plate armor, a helmet with serrated wings, and a shield with a red tower on a blue field. (2,000 ATK)

"Moving right along, simply by summoning Sechs, I can banish another Valkyrie from my deck. So I'll banish Zwei. Then I'll sacrifice Dritte to summon Valkyrie Funf."

The short-haired Valkyrie disappeared, replaced by one with brown hair, a ponytail, and bronze armor, a green serpent on her shield. She had a long spear. (1,400 ATK)

"Kill da wabbit, kill da wabbit…" hummed Joka to himself.

"Very funny," said Z. "Laugh at this. First of all, my Soul Absorption card gives me 500 Life Points every time a card is banished. Next, because I Tribute Summoned Funf, I can Special Summon the one I just banished."

There was an even louder cry, and Valkyrie Zwei flew onto the field on her mount, her white teeth flashing as she started to sing a wordless battle chant, her violet hair flying in the breeze behind her. (1,600 ATK) Then she flew towards the giant express train as it swerved again, drawing her sword as it barreled towards her.

Amazingly, with one slash, there was a fierce cutting noise, and the giant Machine exploded, sending a fiery rain of debris falling on the street as Joka covered his head.

"Bigger isn't always better, especially when you're up against Asgard's warriors. These ladies have been battling the frost giants of Niflheim for centuries. They like fighting enemies bigger than they are. It's what they do.

"They handle the occasional troll now and then too."

"Say what?" asked Joka.

Z shook his head as he held his hand over his eyes. Witty insults are wasted on the lowbrow, he thought.

"Can you understand this?" he asked. "Attack him directly!"

"GAH!" shouted the assassin, right before Zwei's sword slammed into his chest and he toppled over onto his side. "Oof, ugh," he grunted. She looked down at him, and her horse whinnied.

(Z: 8,500) - - - - - - - - - (J: 6,400)

"You're gonna get it, bitch," he said. "Say hello to Tragoedia!"

The horse neighed loudly as he used one of its cards bucking as the ugly-looking demon appeared between it and Joka, spooking it. Zwei quickly steered it away as Joka stood up.

"Like him?" asked Joka. "This guy has 600 points for every card I have left, and I have four left!" He lifted up his hand of cards to emphasize it as the Fiend's Attack Score rose to 2,400.

"You didn't really think it would be that easy, didja?"

"Now that you mention it, no," replied Z. "I end my turn."

I should have known it would have been something like this, he thought.

"Finally, I'll play a card called The Fountain in the Sky."

He used another Continuous Spell, and it faded away as a mist of water vapor rose. The mist thickened and then parted to form a marble dais surrounded by crumbling arches with a pool of cool, clear, sparkling water in the center.

"I'll end for now."

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Jalal wanted to rush. After all, it wasn't every day a Shadowchaser had to be quarantined, much less in Zone Yellow. However, getting into a place designed to foil even the smallest virus couldn't be done fast.

Zone Yellow could only be accessed from a the most secure part of the detention facility, where the most dangerous lifers were held, and even that required getting past five checkpoints with no living guards – only golems acted as sentries. Once you got there, there was no manual entrance to Zone Yellow, a special portal was used to teleport in, once whoever requesting entry was thoroughly scanned for any foreign substances that might be a threat to anyone inside.

And the process for leaving it was harder. This was why the only Zone Yellow was accessed via the prison and not the infirmary, because prisoners tended to require it more, and it was far too expensive to build a second one.

Fortunately, seeing as Jalal was in rather good health, the scan "only" took about twenty minutes, and he was able to get to the large and impeccably clean – but still rather empty – medical laboratory inside Zone Yellow where Dr. Anthony Kohl, current member of the Shadowchaser Council in charge of the division of the organization that could be considered the Shadow equivalent of the FDA and Center for Disease Control, not as large, of course, but just as important, if not more so. This place was always rather empty, as it was rightfully the type of facility they needed to have, but prayed they wouldn't need to use.

After all, the plagues that Zone Yellow had contained and prevented in the past… The estimated potential casualties of some of them could have made the Ebola outbreak look like a classroom of kids with chicken pox.

Dr. Kohl himself was a tall man who seemed about forty, but was actually much older. He had slate grey skin, cloudy eyes, grey hair; well, almost everything about him was grey. His skin was worn, and tough, his eyes sharp, and sometimes bloodshot, often due to the long hours he had spent reading and researching. His long history as a doctor, healer, medic, and supernatural investigator had several highlights, but those are for another time. For now, he was the Shadowchasers' highest authority on medicine, and someone Jalal counted as a friend and a college.

Not that Jalal wasn't going to let him off easily.

"Tony, what the hell is going on?" he demanded.

"Jalal, calm down, I," started the doctor. He had been crouched over a device on a counter as the leader of the Shadowchasers stormed in.

"Where is Ms. Witt?" demanded Jalal. "What is wrong with her?"

"Don't worry, she'll be okay, probably," said Tony, in an assuring tone. "In fact, this whole mess may have given us a few answers. She's here for observation until the scan is done. You see…"

"Yes, about that," added Jalal.

"I'll start at the beginning," said Tony. "The doctor ran all the standard tests on Ms. Witt, and she started talking, and then she started to describe some things that sounded a little familiar. I overheard, and did some advanced tests, along with some new stuff I came up with myself and well… Here, see for yourself."

He pointed to the device on the table. "This is a special fluorescence microscope. I have her blood sample in it. Take a look."

Jalal was a little nervous. He slowly looked into the eyepiece.

Indeed, it looked like a blood sample, magnified by super-resolution, so much that individual cells could be identified. But there was something else too. Several odd objects were among the red and white cells.

These were the general shape of bacteria of some sort, but didn't look quite organic. They were robots.

"Nanomachines!" he gasped.

Tony nodded. "Worse," he said. "These are incredibly advanced nanomachines. I'm starting to wonder if these may not be a prototype of something called an Hourman Virus."

"Uh, I'm not familiar with that," said Jalal.

"Sit down then, this is going to hit you hard," said Tony.

Jalal sat on the nearby stool, wondering now if his assurance not to worry was appropriate. He was starting to think he wasn't worried enough.

"The Hourman Virus has long been simply a theory, named after something that appeared in a short-lived science fiction franchise about a decade ago, but from what I've read about this theory, it would suggest exceptional nanomachines. You see, nanotechnology is supposed to have medical applications, and controversy over it concerns how that might be used, uhm, well…"

"In the wrong hands?" asked Jalal.

"To quote a cliché, yes," replied Tony. "A colony of nanomachines is about as smart as a bunch of drones – which means, dumb as a box of hammers – and blindly follow their programming. Thus, if programmed to act like benign bacteria, some believe a slight alteration in programming could turn them into dangerous viruses or even a biological weapon. Possibly even a contagious one that could spread and cause a pandemic.

"The hypothetical Hourman Virus is worse. It works like both a biological virus and a computer virus, and it's contagious both ways."

Jalal simply rubbed his chin as he listened, and Tony went on.

"Imagine this," said the doctor. "You're on the web, maybe googling something or ordering through Amazon, when you click on a link, one which is unknowingly infected. You view a video, and just by watching it, you catch this odd 'disease'.

"And much like any disease, it has an incubation period that takes a while to let itself be known. Until then, you could spread it to other people by sneezing, kissing, through food or drink, that sort of thing. Just like you would a cold.

"But because it's a computer virus too, you can spread it to computers and computerized equipment simply by using them. Though ATM machines or cash registers, anything computerized. And they can spread it to more people, the nanomachines altering the of infected programs by themselves to do so."

"And if it's a computer virus, it would make computers 'sick' too," added Jalal.

"Exactly," answered Tony. "An Hourman Virus could crash computers on a global scale or even usurp control of them. Imagine the Y2K bug and the Andromeda Strain combined. Well, to use a rather trite analogy."

A light went on in Jalal's head. "Is this why you had Yolanda and the others brought here?"

"I was getting to that," he said.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

"Draw!" laughed Joka, making his move. "Now we're talkin'! Yo! Twinkle-toes! Look at what I got!" He flipped the card around, a Machine-Type monster called Maverick Droid."

"Uh, sorry, never heard of it," said Z.

"S'okay," said Joka. He discarded the Monster Card. "At least it's Level 5."

Z knew what he meant, but he couldn't do anything to stop it. Tragoedia turned into a huge, demonic shadow and Valkyrie Zwei screamed as a dark claw grabbed her and her mount, dragging them over to Joka's side.

"Finally, a dame who does what I tell her to," said Joka.

"Crazy…" said Z.

"Heard it before," said Joka. "Really don't care anymore. Tell it to Night Express Knight."

He played the card, and a robotic knight in shining armor with a full-head helmet and a shining, steel sword appeared. (3,000 ATK) –) (0 ATK)

"I'm able to summon this one with no sacrifice, so long as I cut its Score to zero. But the Score written on the card is the one that's gonna count, once I sacrifice him and my other monsters…"

The ground started to shake and tremble. Zwei screamed and her horse buckled, and a flaming crack opened in the pavement. Z watched as hellish geysers spouted, and flaming demon claws seized Tragoedia, Zwei, and Night Express Knight.

It crawled out of the pit, an even bigger, stronger-looking demon, a huge thing with a body structure that didn't quite work. It was like an ogre-sized, muscular cross between and ape and a man-shaped bug, its flesh more of a carapace, with long, dirty, stringy hair covering its arms, of which it had four. The same hair clung to its hips and thighs. Its face was bug-like too, with three beady eyes and a small, toothy mouth, the same stringy hair clinging to its cheeks and temples. It had huge, membranous wings.

"Ugh, hideous," said Z.

The Legendary Maju Garzett responded with a deep, echoing, evil-sounding laugh.

"Eh?" said Z, looking at the monster. "Oh, right. You're pretty hideous too."

"Keep smiling like that," said Joka, "because to get points you take the points of those monster I just deep-sixed, then add 'em up."

(4,600 ATK)

"Not as much as I wanted, but what the hell. Attack that dame! Sludge Storm!"

The name of the attack was rather misleading. With a loud "BLAUGH!" the demon literally vomited up slime and gunk that cascaded towards Valkyrie Sechs. In the next second, her armor and weapons, now corroded and melted, fell with a clatter. Z held his chest and bent over a little.

(Z: 5,900) - - - - - - - - - (J: 6,400)

When he looked up again, he caught whiff of some rather familiar – and foul – tobacco. Joka was in the middle of lighting one of those awful cigars of his that he remembered from last time.

"Do you mind?" asked Z.

Joka grimaced and took a few puffs on the stogie. "What? You got a problem with this? Z, the stuff this can give ya is the least of my problems now."

"You could probably save money by sucking on an exhaust pipe," said Z. He made a face. "Your Fiend's attack vanquished Sechs, but I can use the Fountain in the Sky to gain back most of the Life Points I just lost and more right now."

Z placed her card in his coat, and shook his head. "With the 500 from Soul Absorption, that's, 2,500 total."

(Z: 8,400) - - - - - - - - - (J: 6,400)

"Eh, who cares," grumbled Joka. He played two more cards, setting them. "Go on. Just fair to warn you, this guy can hurt you even if your guys are defending."

"Joka there are a lot of words that come to mind with you," said Z, "but 'fair' has never been one them." He drew once, and then reviewed all the cards.

He's got a point there, he thought. Okay, let's see, I've got Funf on the field and my Spells, and I have this…

"Take your time," interrupted Joka, with a short laugh. "I got nowhere to go."

He's being awfully patient for a change, thought Z. Then the Shadowchaser realized something. Is he just trying to delay me?

He looked over his shoulder, then moved his D-Gazer up to look out the storefront window. He remembered why he had come here in such a rush in the first place. Some sort of brawl…

Did Joka set this entire thing up to distract him? Before he could consider this, the communicator on his Duel Disk started to beep.

"Yo, Z-man, what's shaking?" said a young female voice.

"Jennifer?" asked Z.

"Who?" asked Joka.

"I'm at the station, Z-man," she continued. "I was wondering if – "

"That your girlfriend?" asked Joka, interrupting.

"None of your business," snapped Z. "Jenn, listen.

"Is she cute?" asked Joka.

"Shut up!" snapped Z. "Jenn, listen, I have my hands full, can you –" Then an idea came into his head. "Jenn, can you check the police band and see if anything is happening nearby?"

"Aye-aye, roger, over," she replied.

Joka was laughing softly as he turned it off. Z wanted to ditch this duel and back Jenn up, but he knew he couldn't. There was a hostage crisis, Joka was a murderer, and he was dangerous. Even turning his back on the man was unwise. Taking this killer down took priority. He had to finish it and hope nothing bad happened to whatever had gotten his attention before.

"From my hand, I send Valkyrie Un to the Graveyard," he said. "By doing so, I can Special summon Valkyrie Vier from my deck."

He discarded his card, and there was a loud cantor right before a new Valkyrie rode on, a younger one with no helmet, and raven-black hair. She had no sword, but carried two shields, each with a black raven printed on it. (2,300 DEF)

"It's your move, Joka," he said.

"Well, let's see," said the cyborg. He drew, and his eyes flickered with small sparking pinpoints.

"Which one this time?" He looked at the two Valkyries. "So hard to choose..."

Of course, the way he was looking at them, and the way his Fiend was drooling, he meant that in the same way a hungry man at a buffet was having a hard time choosing. The three Valkyries clearly weren't very amused.

"Attack Valkyrie Funf!" he ordered.

As Legendary Maju Garzett readied to spit again, Z held up his hand. "I use the effect of Valkyrie Vier!" he announced. "Once per turn, I can banish a Valkyrie from my deck or Graveyard to protect her or another Valkyrie."

The stream of vomit shot again, but this time Vier leapt from her mount, positioning herself between Funf and holding her shields in front of herself. The slime splattered against both of them as she knelt to brace herself and Valkyrie Brunhilde, looking transparent and ghostly, appeared behind her, giving support like an anchor.

(Z: 5,200) - - - - - - - - - (J: 6,400)

Brunhilde disappeared and Vier slowly peaked from behind them, the metal a slight bit corroded, but otherwise intact.

"Yeah, yeah, well, there's always next turn," said Joka. "Go on…"

Z stopped before he drew. He looked down the street. Something was happening down there, but it was much too far away to see what…

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Indeed, a crowd had gathered where Addams and Terra had started coming to blows. Terra's presence always did that when a fight broke out, especially among folks who couldn't see what she really was. As frightened as Steve had been of her back at that bar, nothing scared – and impressed – Mundanes more than when she actually beat the shit out of someone. Especially someone like Addams, who they perceived right now as a mean-looking, thuggish guy about the size and build as Mike Tyson. Of course, that was how Mundanes usually perceived an efreeti.

And Addams had just remembered something. The "good old days" as he defined them weren't all too pleasant. He was realizing this now as Terra's right fist slammed into his teeth right after her bent over in reaction to her left one slugging him in the stomach. And the worst part was, most everyone was cheering for her.

What was I thinking? he thought. They don't do this quite how they used to –

Then Terra's foot hit him. Hit him hard. In a very sensitive place. He fell on one knee.

"I take that back," he groaned, "it's exactly how the used to…"

"What's that?" said Terra. "What's that, big guy? Can't quite hear you. Did you want to apologize?" She leaned over him, then clasped her hands together and lifted them, intending the slam them down on the back of his head. "Well sure, all you gotta do is kiss my –"

Her blow didn't land. Rather, she shrieked as he leapt up, aiming and connecting a punch to the upper-left part of her torso. As in, the soft part. It was playing dirty, sure, but it wasn't like there were any rules here.

"I'm so sorry," he said. "Want me to kiss it and make it better?"

As he had hoped, everyone watching laughed, loudly, and Terra was angry. More than angry, enraged. Like a bull who had just seen red, she howled and charged him – which was just the reaction he had been trying to provoke. He met the charge with a second, higher, and much, much stronger punch with an audible crack. The crowd stopped laughing now; in fact, they went silent.

That was brutal.

But he wasn't done. Now he had an opening, and it was time to take it; Terra had managed to stay standing, but he would fix that by, forcing her down. (And if necessary, crushing her once he had.) He grabbed hold of the part of her that most suggested a handle – her horns – and started to push. A scream from her turned to a grunt and then to a low, bestial snarl, but he held on as she struggled.

"You know, Ms. Ironhoof," he said, through clenched teeth. "In most versions of… the story of Theseus… he always tries this… at least once. Lucky for him the guy had them, huh?"

"EENGH!" she shouted, and hit him higher this time. Then a second time, ripping free. She shook her head as the rage started to go away, only to feel an even harder blow to her jaw.

She spit on the ground, then looked up. He was breathing heavily, but then, she wasn't in such great shape either.

"I hear you're into women's lib, Ms. Ironhoof," he said. He cricked his neck. "I can respect that. My people have no glass ceiling. Both genders are completely equal."

She lunged at him again, punching him in the face twice, getting one in the teeth in return. Then he hit her harder, and she fell on her hands.

"Whether it's in the workplace, or beating them to a bloody pulp."

"Far be it for me to disappoint," she answered. "Catch!"

"What?" Then a handful of sand hit him in the eyes. He said something loud in Ignan – probably a curse word – but then she was on him, her fists hitting his jaw again and again.

When all else fails, she thought, just hit him again and again until…

In the next instant, his hand grabbed her by the throat.

"Enough," he said. "That's enough exercise for one day. By the way, I wasn't planning to kill you at first. I just changed my mind."

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Valkyrie Vier lowered her shields, taking hold of the horse's reigns as she moved to Attack Mode. (1,000 ATK)

"First," said Z, "I'll use Un's second effect, which lets me recover her card by banishing another Valkyrie."

Zwei's card, and then spun off into the shadows behind him as he plucked the card out of midair. Again, he felt the warm energy from Soul Absorption.

"I use the Field Spell, Valhalla, Hall of the Chosen!" he shouted.

He flipped open his Field Zone, and as the card was played, the street was turned into a grand hall as orchestra style music started to play. It looked like the palace from Valhalla Hall of the Fallen, but dimmer; the windows indicated that the sun was going down. Banquet tables were around them, laden with delicacies. Whole roast hams, hens, and roasts were among wheels of cheeses and crocks of simmering soups, along with tankards of beer and ale.

For once, Z had played a card that Joka could admit he liked.

"Hard to believe they could actually make vegetables look appetizing," he said, looking at something made from a gourd or squash he couldn't identify. "All that's missing is the roast pig with the apple in its mouth!"

"Over there," said Z, pointing. As Joka turned and saw it – much to his disbelief – Z went on.

"Since you're clearly no expert in Norse Mythology, I'll explain. Valhalla is the afterlife of warriors. The Valkyries bring them here, and they spend the days outside fighting battles where they can't die, and the nights inside feasting and partying. And before you say it, yes, it is your kind of party. But I doubt they'd invite you.

"As you can tell from the window, the sun hasn't set yet, so they've just brought everything out; until they come in, we have time to kill, and one effect of this Field Spell is to summon any high-Level Valkyrie without a sacrifice. Of course, I have to get one first, but due to another feature the Field Spell, I can banish a Valkyrie, like Funf here – " one of the two warrior maidens in front of him disappeared, "to take another Valkyrie from my deck. Don't forget, I gain 500 points for Soul Absorption."

Again, a card appeared in midair in front of him and he grabbed it. Then he fit it on his Disk, and Valkyrie Erste rode onto the field, her green eyes staring down. Cold, icy green, like seawater frozen in mid-flood. (1,600 ATK)

Joka flinched a little, then she blinked, and smiled. It wasn't a pleasant smile, but it was still warmer than that stare.

"Now I can banish the Rocket Arrow Express from your Graveyard so that she can assume its Attack Score," said Z.

(5,000 ATK)

"Bring it," cursed Joka.

Erste flew towards Legendary Maju and the great beast bellowed, then the sword made a great slice. There was a crash as the demon collapsed, shaking the hall, and it was blasted into scraps of ragged flesh and dusty residue.

Then Vier urged her mount, and it bucked on its hind legs towards Joka using its wings to lift itself.

"Stay back you little," he sputtered. Then the front hooves clobbered into him, knocking him down with a clatter.

"By the way, Joka," said Z, "this Field Spell also lets me banish any monster my Valkyries defeat, so I not only got rid of him, well, you can see the scores, I trust. I banished four cards that turn."

(Z: 7,200) - - - - - - - - - (J: 5,000)

"Good for you," he said with a scowl.

"I don't like your attitude, fellah," said Z. "Make your move."

Joka made a draw, and looked over at Valkyrie Vier.

So long as she's there, he can block one of my attacks per turn, he thought, but only once per turn. So the first thing I gotta do here is get rid of her.

"I summon the dreaded Fusilier Dragon, the Dual Mode Beast!" he shouted.

There was a loud roar of noisy engines, and a robot, well, to be technical, a robotic tank with a few dragon-like features rolled into the hall. A turret on a flexible, multi-jointed neck suggested a draconic head, but other than that, it was clearly a Machine. It whirred to a stop, as blasts of steam shot from its sides and two pulsating laser cannons emerged from its hull. (2,800 ATK) –) (1,400 ATK)

"Of course, because I used no sacrifice, it loses half its Attack Score."

Then abruptly the cannons dimmed as the machine seemed to slump over, bits and pieces of it falling off with a clatter as it seemed to break down slightly. (1,400 ATK)

"Your beast doesn't look much better then you do at this point Joka," Joka parroted in a nasally voice before he flipped his opponent off.

Of brother, thought Z. So now what? Forbidden Chalice? Or Breakthrough Skill?

"I use Alchemy Cycle!" shouted Joka.

"Say what?" asked Z.

One of the cyborg's Traps lifted up, and Fusilier Dragon's Score fell even further, all the way down to zero. It collapsed in a sparking, broken, malfunctioning heap.

"Now that my Machine is pretty much a wimp," he continued, "I can use this little number."

"Machine Duplication!" gasped Z.

"You got it!" laughed Joka.

There were two flashes of shadow with odd texture, and two Fusilier Dragons with their full Scores appeared to each side of the debilitated one. (2,800 ATK x2)

"I got two Machines now, that means two attacks, an' I'm usin' 'em! Attack Valkyrie Erste with De-Fission Laser!"

The first Machine screeched, and lethal rays of death bolted towards Erste.

"I use Vier's effect!" screamed Z.

Z chuckled a little, taking a drag on the cigar as the bolt bounced off Erste's shield. "Fine by me," he said, "but you can only do that once per turn."

I hate it when he gets good ideas, thought Z.

And unfortunately, he was right. Erste tried to block the blast from the second Fusilier Dragon, but ironically, the shield was the only thing that survived, falling to the ground with a clatter as a scorched and smoking piece of metal, after she and her mount were atomized.

"You're a riot, Joka," said Z. "You do realize I not only was able to use the Fountain in the Sky, I was able to use Soul Absorption twice?"

(Z: 9,800) - - - - - - - - - (J: 5,000)

"Yeah, but now for some real fun!" he laughed. "I know you're dying to see what my little surprise is, huh? Well, my little surprise ain't all that little! I use two of my Fusilier Dragons to build the Overlay Network!"

For a few brief moments, Mr. Z kept up hopes that Joka would mess up and Overlay both of the monsters with full Attack Points. Alas, even that was wishful thinking. As the Network appeared, Valhalla started to shake as the busted Machine with a Score of zero and the unscathed one where drawn in.

Then Vier and Erste covered their faces as the roof was torn off revealing an angry, stormy sky, while tables were knocked over, spilling food and broken remains of dishes, silverware and crockery all over the once-clean floor.

The mess was the least of their problems.

Superimposed against the stormy sky was a face with cold, evil eyes and no mouth. It took a few seconds for the Shadowchaser to see the rest of it, but once he had, seeing the face of Fortress Noximus was an experience he wouldn't soon forget…

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

"Come on, come on," said Addams, with a sigh.

By his estimate, he had been strangling her for about three minutes, and yet Terra was still struggling and straining, and still trying to wrest his hands away. While she didn't seem to be in a position to succeed, having no leverage or balance in a grapple that he was continuing to tighten, it wasn't for lack of trying.

"Always takes so long," he mused. "Always so 'defiant to the end' these days. And to think, I remember a time when the Sultans used to call the ones who begged for their lives 'pathetic'. At least 'pathetic' ones could be dealt with quickly."

"Mmpf, mmgh, gld," grunted Terra.

"What's that, my dear?" he asked, a clear tone of sarcasm.

"Grm," she groaned. She opened his eyes.

"What?" he said, looking into her eyes with a grin and moving his face closer. "I didn't quite – "

Then he screamed. Her teeth had grabbed hold of his ear and bit into it. The scream turned into a howl, and he let go as her foot pushed him off.

He tumbled, falling against a metal surface (his car, although he didn't know it right away) holding his ear and cursing in Ignan again. "She bit me," he growled under his breath. "That bitch is batshit cra…"

Unfortunately for him, Terra got up faster than he did, but he didn't know until her fist hammered into his jaw, then another, and another. He struggled to get up as her blows pounded into his face.

"Be a good prick and just go down!" she yelled.

"Lady…" he said.

Terra noticed it was starting to get hotter. Much, much hotter.

Wait… she thought.

"GET OFF MY BACK!" screamed Addams.

The command came as flames erupted from the street, literally, geysers of fire, along with smoke and burning rocks. Everyone watching – those who hadn't ran already – screamed and ran now, ducking and covering their heads.

Addams started to calm down. He looked around. That burst of anger had blasted fiery craters in the street, broken windows, and –

His car. The noise ringing in his head right now was the car alarm. He turned around.

"Terrific," he said. "The insurance company is never going to believe this."

Terra wasn't finished yet, although the blast had singed her clothes, her hair, and more than a little of her skin. She dug into the pockets of the jacket and withdrew two devices out that she had been saving.

Hate to use them now, but, she thought.

A lot of stories about her were rumors, exaggerations, or just plain lies. One common one was that if you tried to fight her, and made any remark that she found derogatory, you'd be found beaten to a pulp with the word "sexist" stamped on your forehead, which is exactly what happened to Jalal in that fateful barroom fight. This one was actually true.

These iron knuckle dusters with that word engraved on them backwards in order to do that, which fit over her hands like brass knuckles, hadn't been easy to get; she had to pay two Norwegian dwarves to forge them, but they helped get the point across.

Addams looked at her, as best he could, seeing as he had a black eye, among other bruises. He didn't say anything, for a second or two.

Then, "Well?"

"You asked for it," she said. She hit the two weapons together with an audible clang, and made a rush towards him, fist first.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

It was hard to say whether this, well, thing was a golem or a robot, or whether it was made of metal, stone, gemstones, or a little of all three. The only certainty was, it was huge.

The thing's face, with its giant, menacing eyes, had no mouth, and jagged scars on the cheeks. A crown made of stone with sharp crystal spires sat above, with a blue gemstone setting even bigger than the huge eyes. Remarkably, there were balconies and windows in the giant crown.

Then Z got a look at the rest of the thing's body. Its arms, giant fists, and torso were made of the same stone and giant gemstones made of the same crystals, a pulsating core in the center and smaller cores on the shoulders and elbows. The stone sections had more windows, along with bulwarks and siege engines. (It had no legs.) Exactly what kept the thing aloft was a mystery. (2,600 ATK)

"Impressive, ain't it?" asked Joka.

"Not gonna argue," replied Z.

"Didn't think so," replied the cyborg. "Now, your Valkyrie there can still survive my attacks, so I'm just gonna have to improb... uh, impov, uh…"

"Improvise?" asked Z.

"Don't interrupt me!" shouted Joka. "I'm gonna have ta improvise! If I use an Overlay Unit, one of my Machines can attack directly that turn."

"You cannot be serious," said Z.

"As a judge," replied Joka. "Course, my Battle Phase is over, so I'll set one card, and we'll wait until next turn for that. Your move, old chum."

Z drew, and looked up at the big mecha again. Then he made the draw.

He used the other card, and a very young Valkyrie appeared next to Erste, unarmed and unmounted, wearing normal clothing (albeit the style of the Norsemen) and a helmet, along with brunette hair tied in braids. (0 ATK)

"I'm so scared," said Joka.

"Hey, everyone has to start somewhere, right?" asked Z. "Besides, I'm not going to attack with her. Because of my Field Spell, I can use the Spell Card, Feast of the Einjerjar. By banishing Un here, I can draw twice."

He drew, then did a quick count. He tapped his D-Gazer, looking at the cards in both Graveyards.

"I set two card," he said, "then use my Field Spell to recover Erste. Then I summon her."

Erste appeared, looking more than a little pissed at Joka. Clearly, even in a grand palace where being killed and reborn was a routine occurrence, some folks had limits. (1,600 ATK)

"Next I'll use her effect, and banish your Night Express Knight so that she can assume his Attack Score."

Erste screamed with berserk furor, and lifted her blade. (3,000 ATK) Thunder rolled, and she rode her steed into the sky at a swift gallop, towards the enormous Machine, sword-first.

"Much as I hate to interrupt such an exciting fight scene," said Joka, "seriously, if this were a movie, I might actually shank someone for tickets. I activate Battle Break!" One of his Traps lifted up. "Unless you can show me a monster from your hand, the one that just attacked is history."

The only response he got was a cold glare. Clearly, the one card Z had was not.

'Eh, too bad," said Joka. Erste shattered into particles.

Vier's shields reappeared as she crouched behind them. (2,300 DEF)

"It's your move," said Z, gravely. "Don't forget about my Continuous Spell Cards."

(Z: 10,300) - - - - - - - - - (J: 5,000)

"Why so upset," laughed Joka, as he made a draw. "You getting upset over some 'children's card game'?"

Then he cackled, as if it was the funniest thing in the world. "As promised, I use one Overlay Unit, and – " An orb of light flew from the underside of Fortress Noximus and was absorbed into its huge core. "Attack him directly!"

The titan started to absorb dark energy into the core as its eyes glowed more and more intensely. Electricity and flames surrounded it like demented halos

"I use the Trap Card, Wotan's Judgment!" screamed Z.

His face-down card lifted, and an old man in a green cloak and robe who was just as big as Noximus appeared in the background, holding a cudgel and making a mighty command with a thunderous cacophony. Noximus' energy absorption halted.

Z flipped the card in his hand – Mage Power – around. "To halt your attack, I have to place this on the top of my deck, then reshuffle and draw a card."

Joka didn't seem all that upset. He just watched as Z's Disk auto-shuffled and the Shadowchaser drew a replacement.

"Ah, well, at least this turn won't go to waste," he said. "I'll drop 1,000 Life Points to use Instant Fusion, and summon Panzer Dragon."

He used the card, and what looked like an odd variation of the "robot dragon" theme appeared, still resembling a tank with a long, multi-jointed neck and vaguely draconic head, this one with a laser cannon in its jaws, and far more armor plating. (1,000 ATK)

"If Panzer Dragon is destroyed by a card effect, it destroys one of your monsters too. And that's gonna happen as soon as I end my turn, cause I used Instant Fusion."

There was a very long pause. "Oh my, the suspense is killing me," said Z, clearly with heavy sarcasm.

"Okay, turn over," said Joka.

The Fusion Monster exploded, and Vier shrieked as the cloud of flames covered the hall, engulfing her with it.

(Z: 10,300) - - - - - - - - - (J: 4,000)

I'd better cut the crap, thought Z. Have to remember how dangerous he is. I hate to give this guy credit, but… Okay, I won't give him credit, but you can't underestimate someone just because he's a lunatic.

"My move."

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

"I take it Yolanda and the others were infected by these nanomachines too?" asked Jalal.

Kohl nodded. "You see, Jalal, most folks, when they think of the medical applications of nanomachines, they think of 'nano-surgery'. It would work something like, uhm, well, to give an abbreviated version –" He adjusted his glasses, cleared his throat, and went on. "A doctor would introduce nanomachines into a patient's bloodstream with a hypodermic needle, and they'd work like highly efficient white blood cells, fighting and destroying viruses, or tumors, kidney stones, anything that couldn't be remedied with simple treatment. It would be like a Fantastic Voyage craft, but an army of them. And they'd replicate themselves, using the patient's dead tissue and those same foreign substances they were combating to build more nanomachines to replace the ones that wore out, which would disposed of by the patient's natural immune system."

"An army of tiny robots in your bloodstream," said Jalal, with a deadpan tone. "Not a pleasant thought."

"Yes, that's why not much serious progress has been made on it," added Kohl. "Several rather unpleasant scenarios have been thought up, but before I get ahead of myself, few realize the potential for 'nano-therapy', the psychiatric applications.

"It's just a theory, but some psychologists believe that the human brain could possibly be manipulated the same way a computer is, and if nanomachines could 'download' memories into a person or delete specific memories, there could be a myriad of possibilities.

"Think about it. A rape victim is so traumatized by what happened to her that she's suicidal. If nanomachine treatment could delete the worst memories of the attack, a recovery that would normally take years would be reduced to weeks. Potentially, these microscopic machines could hold a cure for depression, PTSD, or ADD."

"But in the wrong hands," repeated Jalal.

"Indeed," said Kohl. "I believe Ms. Alva and the others were infected by these malignant nanomachines, these… Hourman Viruses by viewing infected texts from laptops like the broken one we confiscated. These devices used surgically precise programming to delete and replace certain memories from each victim.

"Yolanda claims she met this alien being who abducted her, became her lover, painted her portrait, and fathered her child; we have documented proof that this isn't true, but it's true to her. This unnatural maiming of her mind, has created memories that she assumes have been there her whole life, and she remembers this being the way anyone would remember a lost love. The poor woman."

"This changes everything in the prosecution's case against Drumer," said Jalal. "Do you have any idea how to cure it?"

"Well, that's the proverbial sticky wicket," sighed Kohl. "It may be possible to purge their systems of the nanomachines and prevent any further damage, but so far as reversing what's already been done, well – this technology is decades ahead of us. In fact, if their true memories have truly been deleted, well…" He stopped for a few seconds. "There's no guarantee they've even been stored anywhere."

There was a long silence as both of them started to take this in. It was bad enough how much callous disregard for life this new enemy had shown; whoever it was would take it far greater extremes, for whatever insane reason he had.

This is likely another reason why research into nano-technology is neglected, he thought.

Then he remembered something, and he almost panicked.

"Sofia!" he shouted. "She, she doesn't seem to be acting, uh – "

"If the word you're looking for is 'crazy'," replied Kohl, "that's what I was getting to. I believe she was able to escape the worst of the infection. Whether this is a good or a bad thing, well, look at Ms. Witt's blood sample again."

As Jalal looked into the microscope again, Kohl started turning a device on the console. "Now I'm going to magnify that to about 1500 magnification."

The sample enlarged, to the point where Jalal could see the red blood cells in the familiar "donut Frisbee" shape. He saw the nanomachines closer too, nasty-looking things that looked like bugs. But while the cells were still a little lively, the nanomachines seemed inert and inactive.

"Look closely, do you see any odd markings or insignia on it?"

"Uh, no," replied Jalal.

"Okay, remember that," continued Kohl. "Now, I'm going to switch to Ms. Alva's blood sample."

As the sample changed like the changing of a slide, what Jalal saw came as a shock. This sample had far more nanomachines, and they were all functional, moving among the blood cells.

"Dear Lord," he said.

"The nanomachines in Ms. Witt's bloodstream seem to have all been deactivated, and her autoimmune system is still fighting them like it would any other disease," continued Kohl. "Also, I believe their self-replicating program started to malfunction very early, creating inferior replacements that weakened the colony as a whole and enabled her system to recover faster. In my professional opinion, she'll be over this in a day, and it will be no more damaging in the long run that a small case of a flu bug.

"The others, well, they aren't as lucky. Not only are the nanomachines in their systems still fully functional, their autoimmune systems no longer recognize them as foreign invaders! The number of nanomachines in Ms. Alva's system is almost equal to her total WBC, and she's actually doing better than the other three. Even worse, the self-replicating program is in full effect."

"Wait, wait," said Jalal. He focused his vision on one of them.

"Here, let me magnify it one more time," said Kohl.

The view changed, and the nanomachines looked even bigger. He could see it very clearly now. There was an insignia on these nanomachines. It was a mystic rune of some kind, one that he didn't recognize.

As he looked away from the microscope; Kohl was typing at a laptop. "You see, when Axiomatic magic was mentioned, I remembered this."

He turned the screen towards Jalal, saying, "It's all falling into place. These four symbols are used by practitioners of Axiomatic magic to represent Earth, Wind, Water, and Fire."

Jalal looked at the symbols. The one that matched the one on the nanomachines was the one for Water.

"If Yolanda, her son, Mr. Drumer, and Ezekiel," he started.

"…all are Fire," answered Kohl. "I believe that all four of them were at some point restrained, or at least exposed, to the Water equivalent of the Elysium crystals Sofia was restrained with."

"But they used Fire on her," replied Jalal.

"Because she was Wind," continued Kohl, nodding. "As to why she escaped the brunt of the infection, there are several possibilities. The best case scenario is, the Wind equivalent of their Hourman Virus was either a prototype they had yet to perfect or a model that was inferior to the Water version, and as a result, proved a failure. The second best case is, the Wind model is just as effective as the Water version, but separating Sofia from the Elysium crystals caused them to malfunction before their programming was complete."

"Keep going," replied Jalal.

"The second-worst case scenario is, there's only once version of nanomachine colony, which can program itself to any of the four elements as necessary, but again, separating her from the Elysium crystal caused them to malfunction."

"Worst case scenario?" asked Jalal.

"Sofia may not truly be safe now at all," added Kohl. "If my earlier theory about – "

He was interrupted as a loud beep and something flashing on Jalal's belt went off. "Perfect timing," he said, sarcastically. He tapped the device, activating the Google Glass again. "This better be important, Maskent."

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

"I use Wings of the Swan Maiden!" exclaimed Z.

He used an Equip Spell, and the mystical swan, more transparent and phantom-like, rose from below. "I can use this card to Special Summon a banished Valkyrie, so long as I boost her with it. Zwei, welcome back."

The swan spread its wings, transforming into the lavender-haired Valkyrie, now without her steed, but with beautiful, feathered wings of her own. (1,600 ATK) She looked up towards Fortress Noximus, and lifted her sword, which was burning with green fire.

"Take down that abomination!" ordered Z.

"Uh-uh, not gonna happen," said Joka. "I use Martial Law!"

One of his face-down cards, a Counter Trap, flipped up, and the flame was quenched as Zwei stumbled. She dropped the weapon, then held her arm.

"Not only does this Trap protect my Xyz from being destroyed from that, it protects it from being destroyed by all card effects this turn. Oh, and you get to draw once."

Zwei is hardly strong enough to defeat it by battle, thought Z. He drew a card. But I really have to end this soon. Let's see…

"Again, I'll use my Field Spell's effect, and this time, I'll take Funf. Then I'll summon her."

The card appeared, and Funf emerged, her horse moving at a slow cantor. (1,400 ATK)

"Now, I'll build the Overlay Network!"

The two Valkyries lifted their weapons, and struck them against each other; lightning flashed as the Network opened a second time.

"I Xyz Summon Valkyrie Null!"

The storm started to turn violent as the two vanished, and a cold rain started to fall from overhead. A new Valkyrie rode from out of the shadows, urging a black horse at a slow, steady gait.

While her armor was the same Nordic style and just as fancy, it was made of black metal, and had silver highlights. Unlike the others, she was calm and stoic, looking at Joka with a mellow expression. (2,200 ATK)

"So what does she do?" he asked.

"She keeps your monster from making direct attacks," replied Z. "By getting rid of both her Overlay Units, Null can banish a monster from your Graveyard, and I think I'll banish Tragoedia. Then, for as long as she's here, monsters with the same Attribute as Tragoedia, like that oversized eyesore up there, can't use their effects."

"No fair!" shouted Joka.

Z looked at Joka, then at Noximus and Null again. He was about to say something, but then just muttered "Why bother," and shook his head. "Your move, Joka."

(Z: 10,800) - - - - - - - - - (J: 4,000)

"Before I draw, I'm using this little guy," said Joka. Another of his Trap Cards opened. "Spiritual Dark Art – Greed." The final Fusilier Dragon dissolved into black motes. "Since you obviously have no Spell Cards to show me, I'll just draw twice, and – "

He stopped. In mid-draw, he stopped, and cackled. Z knew that this was very, very bad.

"I use the Field Spell, Fusion Gate!" he laughed.

As he used the card, the Hall of the Chosen, or rather, what was left of it, crumbled into inert dust. The storm overhead cleared, only for a far less natural one to appear over the street.

"First off, remember my Maverick Droid? Now I get to summon him – to your side of the field."

"What?" said Z. "HEY!"

He was startled as a robot with a cubical head dull orbs for eyes, and a thin torso and limbs ending in sharp, clawed hands and feet appeared in front of him. (2,400 ATK)

"What do I do with it?" he asked.

"I don't give a crap!" replied Joka. "I don't intend to let you keep it! I'm using my Trap Card."

The full scope of Joka's strategy hit Z when he saw what the Trap was.

"Chain Material!" he gasped.

"Exactly!" laughed Joka. "And now I'm going to banish these guys to Fusion Summon Blaze Fenix, the Burning Bombardment Bird!"

Two monster cards – Gaia Soul the Combustible Collective and one of the two Fusilier Dragons – appeared above his head and spun away into a void as a new monsters appeared, giant, flaming phoenixes with black metallic feathers.

"This guy is always a real blast because his effect deals 300 points of damage for every card on the field. In fact, why stop at just one?"

Four more cards, Molten Zombie, Royal Firestorm Guards, the other Fusilier Dragon and a Panzer Dragon (the one in his Graveyard, obviously) appeared and subsequently vanished, creating two more of the fiery Fusion Monsters. (2,800 ATK)

"Genius, you just banished six monsters, remember?" asked Z.

(Z: 13,800) - - - - - - - - - (J: 4,000)

"Don't care, because there are eleven cards on the field total," chuckled Joka. "Let 'em have it guys!"

And the world exploded. At least, that's what it appeared to be in the first instance was fire erupted with a deafening roar. But then it kept coming, explosions blossoming off one another in a twisted sequence that was reaching desperately for Z before it died. Propelled by Joka's mad laughter, the explosions filled the space in front of the Shadowchaser and then for a long moment, Z's world was nothing but blazing fire.

The smoke slowly started to clear. Z was on one knee, breathing hard, covered with ash…

(Z: 4,800) - - - - - - - - - (J: 4,000)

"Wait a minute…" said Joka. His foe slowly started to stand. "How is that… possible?"

"Better recheck the math," said Z. "I used Card of Sacrifice right before your three guys opened fire. It not only reduced the card count to ten, it let me draw twice." He held his hand up, which was holding two more cards. "So thanks for Maverick Droid, I needed at least two monsters to use that Trap."

"I meant, how is that possible that you're still standing?" screamed Joke. "Aw, forget it! I'm using my Fusion Gate again, and this time I'm using one Blaze Fenix on the field and Dekoichi from my deck to summon Ignition Beast Volcannon!"

As the card appeared and then vanished along with the Fusion Monster in front of him, a new Fusion Monster took its place, a bulky robot with a mean-looking gargoyle's head with flared metal frills and a beak-like snout with a long horn . It's heavily armored torso was covered with steel plating, had four small arms tipped with three sharp claws each, and two very large howitzer cannon. (2,300 ATK)

"This may be a bad time to mention it," said Joka. The two cannons started to draw in plasma. "But when that Maverick Droid is clobbered by a card effect, so are two of your Spell or Trap Cards. And that's exactly what I can do with this guy's effect, along with dish out damage equal to its Attack Score."

A mighty blast from the cannons, and Z felt like he was punched in the face as it blew the Maverick Droid to smithereens, the Soul Absorption and Fountain in the Sky demolished with it.

(Z: 3,500) - - - - - - - - - (J: 4,000)

Can't take much more of this, thought Z. He had been through a lot in his time and was tougher than most folks thought, but he did have limits.

The Ignition Beast shattered, destroying itself to use its effect, but Joka obviously wasn't done. Its card appeared as a second of the Blaze Fenix monsters started to vanish.

Not this time, Joka, thought Z.

"Say goodnight, darlin'!" laughed the hitman. Another Ignition Beast appeared, and aimed at Valkyrie Null, its eyes flashing in excitement as much as Joka's was.

"I use the Trap Card, Dimension Gate!" he shouted.

The face-down card lifted, and as Ignition Beast Volcannon's artillery fired, a wormhole appeared over Valkyrie Null; she gave Joka a foul look, and then was sucked into it; it closed, and the explosions hit inert pavement.

"What, huh?" said Joka. "Where'd she go?"

"Wherever banished monsters go," replied Z. "Important thing is, your Ignition Beast has no target."

"Meh," said Joka. The second one burst and he grabbed another of his card. "In that case, I'll use this – Advance Draw. This last one isn't going to last much longer anyway, so…"

The third Blaze Fenix disappeared, and Joka drew twice. Then he laughed softly.

"I summon Unknown Synchron," he said.

He used one of the two cards, and there was a series of blips and beeps, as a round probe with two prongs and a red bulb in the center. (0 ATK)

"Now I'll use my Fusion Gate one more time and fuse together the Blaze Fenix I just sacrifices with the Ignition Beast I just destroyed, to summon my third Ignition Beast. See, I can recycle, y'know? Good for the environment."

"Too bad you can't respect human life as much," sighed Z. He watched as the third Machine rose from below. (2,300 ATK)

"Shove it," said Joka. "I'll Tune together my last Ignition Beast Volcannon with my Unknown Synchron…"

(*1 + *6 = *7)

"I summon Dark Strike Fighter!"

Z had really wished he hadn't expected this, but the truth was, he had. In fact, he had been hoping to end the duel before Joka had gotten the chance. Nonetheless, the infamous Synchro that Bommer had used was in front of him, and it looked anxious to fight. (2,600 ATK)

"Well, I could have this guy sacrifice itself to blast you, but that would be a waste of time for now, so it's your move, old chum."

"Joka, listen closely," said the Shadowchaser. He drew his card quickly. "I am not now, nor have I ever been your 'chum'!"

He grumbled and set three of his cards, placing them in his Spell Zone. "Go on," he said.

"Yup, yeah," said Joka. He drew, chuckling again as he did. "How dumb do you think I am?"

You really don't want me to answer that, thought Z.

"If I try to attack you, you'll ditch the Dimensional Gate and bring the gal in the black armor back."

Seeing the look on Z's face, Joka's grin turned psychotic. "You didn't really think I didn't know about it?"

There was always hope, thought Z.

"And this card was a happy surprise, I activate Overlay Evolution!"

As he played the Spell Card that sounded strangely familiar, Fortress Noximus began to change…

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

How much punishment could one man – or in this case, one extra-planar elemental spirit – take? In this case, apparently a lot.

Terra's steel-reinforced fists slammed into Addams' face again and again, bruises and bloody lesions covering his face. Still, for all her savagery, Terra still hadn't knocked him out or even knocked him down.

"Damn you!" she screamed. "How many times do I gotta smash you? Why won't you DIE?"

With that last word, she hit him with a haymaker to the chin that finally seemed to do it, knocking him towards his car again, smashing the window – what was left of it – and sending him crashing to the pavement.

Terra took a few deep, solid breaths. She looked at her foe. "Bastard," she said. She walked over to him. "Might as well finish this…"

She had no idea who he was working for, but after all this trouble, she was certainly going to leave him her "calling card". She straightened the one on her right fist, then aimed a punch at his forehead…

Then her fist was halted – by his hand.

"Ah, ah, AHHH!" she screamed. Addams got up, effortlessly, as his hand started to crush that fist. Then he gave it – and her – a shove, knocking her to the ground.

Terra looked into his eyes, and saw pure, hellish rage.

"You," she said. Then she dodged to avoid his foot, which stomped, aiming for her head. He missed, but the impact made the ground tremble.

Terra's expression changed quickly. She scrambled to her feet, but he was still coming, not saying a word now.

She lunged at him again, aiming her left hook. It wasn't as strong as her right, but –

Again, he caught it, with his left hand, and this time, he squeezed a different way, forcing her down until her legs finally gave out.

He lifted his right fist – then, the last thing she would remember was sudden pain, and cold darkness.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

As hard as it was to believe, the giant mecha was even larger now, larger and nastier. It was covered in black iron metal and no longer had the cores, now its limbs had silver epaulets on the joints, while its chest had a gold crest shaped like a shield with a sword through it, vertically. (3,600 ATK)

"How do you like my Fortress Noximus Omega?" asked Joka. "You see, I don't have to detach an Overlay Unit to attack directly with this guy, he can do it any time I want. Sure, I have to cut its Score in half if it attacks directly at all, but hey, that's all I need."

Z looked at Dark Strike Fighter, and did the math quickly. Think fast, Z, he thought.

"Now, just to be safe," said Joka, "I'll make you use her first." He pointed to the Continuous Trap. "Attack directly, Dark Strike Fighter!"

The Synchro aimed its weapons at Z, who was very upset now. "Like you said," he growled, "by sending Dimension Gate to the Graveyard, I can summon Valkyrie Null back to the field to defend me."

The wormhole appeared again, and Null alighted on her flying horse, scowling sternly at Joka and his monster. (1,200 DEF) Hardly seeming to care, it opened fire, and she was blown to little pieces.

"I use, Tri and Guess!" shouted Z.

"What? Tri and Guess?" asked

"You heard me," replied Z. His Trap opened up. "I name one type of monster that you keep in the Extra Deck, and whoever has more of them there gains 3,000 Life Points. Seeing as you've summoned ten monsters from your Extra Deck so far, I think I'm safe. So I name Xyzs."

Five cards, the remaining contents of Joka's Extra Deck, appeared in enlarged form. Unfortunately for him, aside from one other copy of Fortress Noximus, there was only another Dark Strike Fighter and the rest Fusions. Z, on the other hand, had nine Xyzs and three Synchros.

"Guess I dodged that bullet," said Z.

"Did you now?" asked Joka. "Get im."

What happened next was even worse than the last assault. A volley of missiles and bombs launched flaming, burning death at the Shadowchaser, slamming into him one after another…

Finally, he crashed into the pavement, face-first.

(Z: 4,700) - - - - - - - - - (J: 4,000)

"Get up, you wimp!" goaded Joka. "Come on, I'm not done with you!"

Z groaned, and started to crawl to his feet. "That's right," said Joka. He used last card he had, Re-Fusion, and his one remaining Blaze Fenix from his Graveyard loomed over the field. (2,800 ATK)

"What," said Z. Then the Pyro let out a flaming scream, and seven blasts of fire blew from its beak, each one hitting the weary Shadowchaser.

"That's it, burn baby, burn!" laughed Joka. Then Blaze Fenix disappeared again as Dark Strike Fighter's guns aimed and shells blasted at his foe and through him, the bullets feeling like fiery knives.

(Z: 1,000) - - - - - - - - - (J: 3,200)

Joka looked at Z, who was sprawled on the ground. "S'okay, I'll wait," he said. He took a new cigar from his coat. "Got nowhere to go."

As he started to light it, Z started to get up.

"Best 800 Life Points I ever spent," he said. "I'm done wailin' on you for this turn, but now I can show ya Omega's new effect. It's hard to pull off, but it's a doozy."

As he puffed on the stogie, Z brushed himself off, angry, but listening.

"So long as I have the big guy and at least one other Fusion, Synchro, or Xyz monster, attacking them is dangerous. If my Dark Strike Fighter gets totaled, I can use one of Omega's Overlay units to hit you back for damage equal to Striker's Attack Score."

"Not if I destroy Omega first," replied Z.

"You can try," said Joka, with a shrug, "but seein' as I have the regular Fortress Noximus as one'a its Overlay Units, ya can't destroy it with Spells, Traps, or monster effects, so tough luck.

"So go on. Next turn, if you last that long, you're goin' down and goin' down bad."

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

"Okay, Maskent, okay, I heard you the first time," said Jalal. "Milwaukee?" He listened. "Uh, no, I'm afraid that is completely out of the question." He listened again. "Yes. Okay, tell Philip to hold his horses, we're kind of busy now."

Now THAT was an understatement, he thought, as he hung up.

Kohl was on the phone himself, but speaking quieter. "Understood," he said. "Yes. Okay." He hung the phone up. "Jalal, the scan I had done in Minneapolis came back negative."

"That's good to hear," replied Jalal, "but if these nanomachines had spread to the public, it would have hit Roswell last week, and it would have already been too late."

"So the plan now?" asked Kohl.

"It's a very delicate situation now," said the leader of the Shadowchasers. He stood up. "Hank has to meet with someone who I don't know if I can trust, but I may have to. Now Philip is finally willing to tell us the whole story, but it isn't exactly the best time.

"I do know what to do about one thing, however. Where's Sofia?"

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

"I… DRAW!" exclaimed Z.

Unfortunately, the card he had drawn didn't match his enthusiasm.

Effect Veiler, he thought. Where the hell were you two turns ago? He took the another of his cards and sighed. Well, it's come to this.

"I use Tyr's Gambit," he said, somberly.

"What, Tyr's Gambit?" asked Joka, "what the, ya, ya, YAAA!"

His scream was in reaction to the enormous thing that emerged from the shadows behind Mr. Z, a huge wolf. Or rather, a demon in wolf's form, of that there was hardly any doubt. As Joka looked into its eyes he saw a horrid combination of Hate, Rage, and pure Evil from the darkest depths of Hell…

The great beast roared, and a single word went through Joka's head: Doom…

"What are you frightened of?" asked Z. "You aren't the one he's after."

"What the fuck is that?" shouted his foe.

"Fenrir," replied Z, "and he's exactly what he looks like an unholy abomination prophesized to be part of an Army of Darkness that will bring about the End of the World. Which is why when he and his two siblings were born, the gods judged him too dangerous to run free, for obvious reasons.

"Only problem is, no normal prison would hold him, so they had the dwarves forge a chain nobody could break, because it was made of materials that nobody could find. Except them.

"Of course, that left the problem of how they were going to actually get it on him. So, they decide to go up to Fenrir and tell him 'hey, we got this long cord, how bout we tie you up with it and see how long it takes you to free yourself?' Or something like that."

"You'd have to be kind of dumb to fall for that," said Joka, almost laughing.

Then the huge demon growled, and he stopped quickly.

"True, but unlike you, Fenrir wasn't stupid," said Z, "and he said he'd only go along with that if one of them put his hand in his mouth. Even though that obviously meant giving up his hand, Tyr was the only one of them brave enough to do so if it meant stopping the beast, at least until the apocalypse that was foretold."

"Jesus, you had to shoehorn a lecture in there somewhere didn't you?" Joka groaned, running a hand over his face despite his earlier fright.

Then Fenrir slammed his two front claws to either side of Z, and saliva started to drool from his huge jaws.

"What's going on?" gasped Joka.

"First of all, Joka, I can't increase my Life Points or negate Effect Damage this turn. I get to draw cards until I have five, but at the end of my turn, Fenrir bites, and I lose 1,000 Life Points per card. One way or another, this ends now!"

He grabbed three cards off his deck...

Then his set card lifted. "I use Odin's Hall and Valkyrie Vanguard . We'll get to those in a minute. For now, the Spell Card, Chooser of the Slain brings Funf's card back to me." A wisp issued from his Disk, and it turned into a card.

"Then, by revealing her card, Valkyrie Vanguard summons a Valkyrie Shield Maiden Token."

The Trap hummed, and a female sentinel with a spear and a tower shield was issued from it. Z followed up with a Spell Card, Celestial Transformation, and Funf appeared again, with only 700 Attack Points.

"In case you need a reminder, I can use her effect to summon a banished Valkyrie. Like Un. Here she comes!"

"Yeah, yeah, real dramatic," said Joka. He watched as the small Valkyrie squire appeared again. (0 ATK) "Still waiting for this big plan of yours."

Technically, I'm just making this up as I go along, he thought. He looked around at Fenrir briefly, shivered a little, then continued.

"For my next move, I'm using the effect of Odin's Hall to summon Erste again. I need to sacrifice a Valkyrie first, so I'll use the Shield Maiden."

Joka smirked a little as the 'token disappeared, and Erste rode out again. (1,600 ATK) "Yeah, I remember her," he said. "Gonna banish another of my guys? Go ahead, I dare ya. Double dare ya!"

"Not even if you triple-dog-dared me," replied Z. "We both know she can't become strong enough with her effect to defeat your monster, but I have a better use for her. I use the Spell Card Upshift. This Spell increases the Levels of Funf and Un to 6, that of Erste, which means I can Overlay both…"

The Overlay Network opened again, and the two Valkyries leapt, their swords colliding with a clash.

"I summon Reigenleaf, Right Hand of Odin!"

The card appeared, and a young woman, younger than the Valkyries with fair skin and very long, flaxen hair, leapt from it. Her armor was of similar style as the Valkyries, but even fancier, didn't include a helmet, and included a long, flowing, royal purple cape, the same color as the halo around her sword. (2,400 ATK)

"Whoa," said Joka. "I'd like to take the top off that and take it for a spin."

Z ignored him, and used a new Spell Card.

"This one is called Follow Me, and because I have a powerful Fairy on the field, I can summon two weak ones, so long as they're the same Type and Level, but one has to be from my hand, the other from the deck."

Effect Veiler and a second Valkyrie Un appeared to either side of Valkyrie Erste.

So I'll Tune together my Level 1 Effect Veiler my Level 6 Erste, and my Level 1 Valkyrie Un..."

Effect Veiler went first, soaring into the sky as Erste lent her hand to Un; her mount she spread its wings, took flight both and followed. The morning light turned to twilight and the two monsters into a ring of eight stars.

"Heir to a legacy of a lord of Shadows! Prince and founder with a great destiny! Come to lead your troops into battle once again!"

(*1 + *1 + *6 = *8)

"Synchro Summon... Dragonprince Jalal!"

Joka almost forgot about Fenrir. Indeed, he had wanted this for a long time. Of course, as Jalal's avatar appeared, wearing his armor and holding his enchanted sword, it was obvious that he wasn't as thrilled.

(2,500 ATK)

"Nice," he said," this almost makes up for half the shit I've had to put up with today Z. I always wanted to take a few pot shots at your boss."

"In your dreams," said Z. He turned back to his Xyz Monster. "Reigenleaf here has two effects, but seeing as I have to detach both of her Overlay Units to use one, we won't get to both."

He discarded the two cards, and Reigenleaf pointed her sword downward. Valkyrie Sechs reappeared. (2,000 ATK)

"Remember her?"

Joka actually grinned a little. "Yeah, I remember her," he laughed. "She gains 400 Attack Points per banished Valkyrie. Too bad you just un-banished all of them, you moron!"

(2,400 ATK)

"Well, maybe most of them."

"She has another effect too," replied Z. "By Special Summoning her, I can summon a banished Valkyrie."

There was another halo of light, and Valkyrie Dritte rode onto the field again. (1,000 ATK)

"Don't forget, she gains 100 points for every banished monster. Including yours."

(2,100 ATK)

"Big deal," said Joka. "Does all this have a point? Or are you trying to delay the inevitable?"

Fenrir seemed impatient too. He growled as he loomed over Z like some hungry beast (which of course, he was.) Z tried very hard to keep calm and forget what was going to happen if this didn't work, (trying to remember the whole reason he had this card in his deck in the first place).

"Finally," he said, "I use the three Fortune Counters on Jalal's sword to destroy… Odin's Hall!"

"WHAT?" shouted Joka.

Indeed, Jalal turned to the Continuous Trap, and with one mighty stroke of his blade, sliced it in half.

"When Odin's Hall goes to the Graveyard, every Valkyrie that's in the Graveyard is banished," continued Z. "And as you so graciously pointed out, Sechs gains 400 Points for each."

"Hold on a minute!" shouted Joka.

In the next second, there was a small battalion of Valkyries standing behind Z; Erste, Zwei, Brunhilde, Null, Vier, Funf, and two Uns, all of them clearly furious at Joka.

Sechs, however, was burning with rage. Literally. (5,200 ATK) She wasn't the only one. Dritte was pretty upset too. (2,700 ATK)

She flew, up, up and up, like a fiery comet, towards the giant Machine. There was a massive, creaking groan from the thing right before impact. Joka screamed…

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

"In the name of," said Addams.

He was holding the now-unconscious Terra Ironhoof, and was about to deliver what would likely be the final blow. This was, however, the moment Sechs' attack hit Fortress Noximus Omega, and an explosion turned the sky of Liverpool red from the blast.

Hell with it, he thought, I don't have that much pride. You got lucky, lady.

He threw her on the ground, then grabbed what he had come for, the safe. He quickly looked up and down the street.

It seemed everyone had run for their lives. Hopefully he'd get back to his office with the secret about his species, not to mention Copek's reputation, intact.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

"GAH!" screamed Joka. He covered his head as flaming debris, rock, and residue rained on him.

(Z: 1,000) - - - - - - - - - (J: 1,600)

It still wasn't over, but it almost was. Dritte launched herself and her horse at Dark Strike Fighter, making a clean diagonal cut and slicing it in half.

"Fuck my life…" moaned Joka. That was all he could say. Then Reigenleaf kicked him hard in the chest with her boot, knocking him over.

(Z: 1,000) - - - - - - - - - (J: 0)

Fenrir looked sad briefly, and then disappeared, along with the Valkyries.

If Joka had been in rough shape before the duel had started, he seemed to be even worse off now, sprawled on his back and groaning as Z walked up to him.

"Disarm the bomb, NOW," ordered Z, bluntly, his sword pointing at Joka's neck.

Joka looked up at him with a fierce look, and then let his head flop back and hit the ground with a clank as he sighed. "Fine... fine. Not like killing him's gonna help me any now anyway." His hand fumbled into his pocket and he pulled out a trigger, then broke it in his hand, the light going off in the clerk's mouth.

In spite of everything Z almost smiled. "That's the first smart thing you've done all morning Joka."

"Oh just shut the fuck up already..."

Z carefully bent over the hostage – who had long-since fainted – and started to extract the explosive.

Hopefully there won't be any more nasty surprises now.

Then his Disk started to beep again. "Z-man! Are you there?"

"Jennifer?" he asked. "Good timing, I need an ambulance here right away."

"Uh," she replied, "I was hoping you could call one. This is heavy. Really, really heavy."

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Jemorille: As I view the endless conflict between Good and Evil, I note all too often that Evil comes in many forms. Darkness has many shades, and the cruelest dictator one world can offer might pale in comparison to another in certain ways.

I once knew of a brutal barbarian king who had personally slaughtered thousands of enemy soldiers, and punished disobedient members of his own army by having them flogged or even tortured to death. His most hated enemy was the sophisticated and refined Emperor of a neighboring kingdom, who never got blood on his hands, and regarded his foe as a brutal monster; yet he was reviled by the barbarian lord just as much as he was by his subject for his slave trafficking, not to mention his practice of droit du seigneur. Both rulers were despicable men for different reasons, but who was more evil? It's had to say, as "Evil" is a word that's hard to define.

"Good" is even harder.

Next chapter, the definition of both would be tested, in a chapter I just had to call "Stand By Me."

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

VALKYRIE DRITTE (Monster Card)

Fairy/Light/Effect/Lvl4/1,000ATK/1,600DEF

Effect: This card gains 100 Attack Points for each banished monster.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

VALKYRIE ERSTE (Monster Card)

Fairy/Light/Effect/Lvl6/1,600ATK/1,800DEF

Effect: Once per turn, you can banish 1 monster in your opponent's Graveyard. This card's ATK becomes equal to the attack of the banished monster until the End Phase of the turn.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

VALKYRIE ZWEI (Monster Card)

Fairy/Light/Effect/Lvl5/1,600ATK/1,600DEF

Effect: When this card is summoned, destroy 1 face-up monster your opponent controls.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

VALKYRIE BRUNNHILDE (Monster Card)

Fairy/Light/Effect/Lvl7/1,800ATK/2,000DEF

Effect: This card gains 300 Attack Points for every face-up Dragon and Warrior-Type monster on the field. If this card would be destroyed by battle, you may reduce its DEF by 1,000 to prevent it from being destroyed.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

WOTAN'S JUDGMENT (Trap Card)

Counter Trap

Image: A man in a green cloak and a hood, pointing with a wooden staff.

Card Description: Activate when your opponent declares an attack. Draw one card from your deck, and place one Spell Card from your hand on the top of your deck. Then, shuffle your deck. End the current Battle Phase.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

SWAN MAIDEN (Spell Card)

Normal Spell

Image: A flying swan superimposed over a nymph with her eyes closed.

Card Description: Special Summon one "Valkyrie" Monster from your hand.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

UPSHIFT (Spell Card)

Normal Spell

Image: Constellar Antares, Constellar Rasalhague, and Constellar Siat flying through a void, each surrounded by green auras.

Card Description: Target the face-up monster you control with the highest Level; the Levels of all other face-up monsters you control become the same as the Level of the targeted monster.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

VALKYRIE NULL (Monster Card)

Fairy/Light/Xyz/Effect/Rank5/2,200/1,500

2 Level 5 "Valkyrie" monsters

Effect: You may detach 2 Xyz Materials from tis card to activate the following effect(s):

1: Select 1 face-up "Valkyrie" monster on the field; it gains 100 Attack and Defense Points for each banished monster of each player until the End Phase. This effect may be activated once per turn, during either player's turn.

2: Banish 1 monster in your opponent's Graveyard. As long as this card is face-up on the field, monsters that have the same Attribute as the banished monster cannot use their effects.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

REIGENLEAF, RIGHT HAND OF ODIN (Monster Card)

Fairy/Light/Xyz/Effect/Rank6/2,400/1,900

2 Level 6 "Valkyrie" monsters

Effect: You may detach 2 Xyz Materials from this card to activate the following effect(s):

1. Special Summon 1 of your banished "Valkyrie" monsters or 1 from your hand,
2: Banish 1 "Valkyrie" monster from your hand or Graveyard and select one face-up "Valkyrie" monster you control. The selected monster gains the banished monster's effect(s) while this card is face-up on the field.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

WINGS OF THE SWAN MAIDEN (Spell Card)

Equip Spell

Image: A lovely maiden wading in a pool, covering herself with a shawl, misty vapors behind her forming a rough image of a swan.

Effect: Select 1 of your banished "Valkyrie" monsters; Special Summon it and equip it with this card. When this card is destroyed, banish the equipped monster. When this card is sent to the Graveyard, add 1 "Valkyrie" card from your deck to your hand.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

VALKYRIE VANGUARD (Spell Card)

Continuous Spell

Image: Valkyrie Brunhilde pulling herself off the ground, her armor dented and scorched. Behind her, another Valkyrie shields both of them from the breath of an angry Des Volstgalph.

Effect: Once per turn, you may reveal 1 "Valkyrie" monster from your hand. Special Summon 1 "Valkyrie Shield Maiden Token" (Fairy-Type/LIGHT/Level 2/1,000ATK/1,000DEF) in Attack Position.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

ODIN'S HALL (Trap Card)

Continuous Trap

Image: The hall from "Valhalla, Hall of the Fallen", but with the throne being viewed from much further away, over a banquet table. Two Valkyries stand guard in the foreground and a golden light comes from the throne.

Effect: Once per turn, during your first Main Phase, you may Tribute 1 "Valkyrie" monster you control to Special Summon 1 of your banished "Valkyrie" monsters. When this card is sent to the Graveyard, banish all "Valkyrie" monsters in your Graveyard.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

VALKYRIE VIER (Monster Card)

Fairy/Light/Effect/Lvl4/1,000/2,300

Effect: Once per turn, if you control this card and a face-up "Valkyrie" monster would be destroyed, you may select 1 "Valkyrie" monster from your deck and banish it to prevent it from being destroyed.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

VALKYRIE FUNF (Monster Card)

Fairy/Light/Effect/Lvl5/1,400/1,200

Effect: If this card is Tribute Summoned by Tributing a "Valkyrie" monster or Special Summoned when you control no monsters, Special Summon 1 of your banished "Valkyrie" monsters OR 1 from your deck, except a "Valkyrie Funf". You may only activate the effect of "Valkyrie Funf" once per turn, and if you control this face-up card, you may only summon "Valkyrie" monsters.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

VALKYRIE SECHS (Monster Card)

Fairy/Light/Effect/Lvl6/2,000/1,000

Effect: When this card is Special Summoned, banish 1 "Valkyrie" monster from your hand, deck, or Graveyard. For each player's banished monsters, increase this card's ATK by 400.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

VALKYRIE UN (Monster Card)

Fairy/Light/Effect/Lvl1/0/0

Effect: During your turn, you can discard this card from your hand; Special Summon 1 "Valkyrie" monster from your deck. A monster Special Summoned via this effect cannot use its effect, unless you control no monsters when the effect of "Valkyrie Un" is activated. If this card is in your Graveyard, you can banish 1 "Valkyrie" monster except a "Valkyrie Un" to add this card from your Graveyard to your hand. You may only use 1 effect of "Valkyrie Un" per turn and only once per turn.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

CHOOSERS OF THE SLAIN (Spell Card)

Normal Spell

Image: Valkyrie Dritte on her steed on a battlefield, offering a hand to a battered, bloody, and horribly wounded male warrior, who is only just managing to stand despite terrible wounds.

Effect: Add to your hand 1 of your "Valkyrie" monsters from your hand or deck, or 1 that has been banished.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

FEAST OF THE EINJERJAR (Spell Card)

Normal Spell

Image: The hall in "Valhalla, Hall of the Fallen", but now there is a table with an elaborate and tempting-looking banquet spread out, and a female in armor at the far end. A window shows the sun setting.

Effect: Activate only if you control a face-up "Valhalla, Hall of the Chosen" and/or an "Odin's Hall". Banish 1 "Valkyrie" monster you control or 1 from your hand. Draw 2 cards.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

VALHALLA, THE HALL OF THE CHOSEN (Spell Card)

Field Spell

Image: The scene immediately after the one on "Feast of the Einjerjar"; the window shows it is now night, the banquet hall is now populated by male warriors and by Valkyries Dritte, Erste, Zweite, Brunhilde, and a few unidentified ones. The throne is now occupied by an armored, male figure with a beard and hidden features. All occupants except the one on the throne are jovial and possibly intoxicated.

Effect: "Valkyrie' monsters may be normal summoned without tribute. When a "Valkyrie" monster destroys an opponent's monster as a result of battle, you may choose to banish the destroyed monster instead of sending it to the Graveyard. Once per turn, you may banish a "Valkyrie" monster from your hand or Graveyard to activate 1 of the following effects:
1: Add 1 of your banished "Valkyrie" monsters or 1 from your Deck, Graveyard to your Hand
2: Add one "Ride of The Valkyries" from your Deck to Hand.

The proceeding 12 cards were designed by 7th Librarian; credit goes to him.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

MAVERICK DROID (Monster Card)

Machine/Earth/Effect/Lvl5/2,400/2,200

Effect: If this card is in your Graveyard and your opponent controls 2 or more Spell and/or Trap Cards, you may Special Summon this card in Attack Position to your opponent's side of the field from your Graveyard; if this card is destroyed by a card effect, select 2 Spell and/or Trap Cards belonging to the controller of this card and destroy them.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

FORTRESS NOXIMUS (Monster Card)

Machine/Dark/Xyz/Effect/Rank7/2,600/2,200

2 Level 7 monster

Effect: Once per turn, you may detach 1 Xyz Material from this card and select 1 Machine Type monster you control; the selected monster may attack directly this turn. If you use this effect, only the selected monster may attack this turn.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

CXYZ FORTRESS NOXIMUS OMEGA (Monster Card)

Machine/Dark/Xyz/Effect/Rank8/3,600/2,800

3 Level 8 monsters

Effect: If this card attacks directly (via its effect or otherwise) its ATK is reduced by half. If this card is Xyz Summoned using a "Fortress Noximus" as an Xyz Material, it gains the following effect:
* If you control a Fusion, Synchro, or Xyz monster other than "CXyz Fortress Noximus Omega", in Attack Position, this card can attack directly if your opponent has monsters and cannot be destroyed by Spell, Trap, or Monster effects. If a Fusion, Synchro, or Xyz monster other than "CXyz Fortress Noximus Omega" is targeted by an attack by your opponent and you take damage, you may detach 1 Xyz Material; reduce the damage you take to zero and inflict damage to your opponent equal to the amount you would have taken.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

FOLLOW ME (Spell Card)

Normal Spell

Image: Guardian Angel Joan flying through fluffy clouds with the Sanctuary in the Sky behind her; a Hanewata and a Mokey-Mokey are fluttering behind.

Effect: Select a Level 6 or higher monster you control; Special Summon 1 Level 2 or lower monster from your hand and 1 from your deck. Both Special Summoned monsters must be the same Type and Attribute as the selected monster.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

TYR'S GAMBIT (Spell Card)

Normal Spell

Image: A young man in a tunic with a sword, standing at a cave entrance where a horrid, fanged mouth and hideous, evil eyes appear in the darkness inside.

Card Description: During the turn you activate this card, you cannot activate card effects that increase your Life Points and you cannot activate card effects that counter or negate effect damage from card effects. Draw cards until your hand size consists of 5; at the End Phase of the turn, you take 1,000 points of damage per card drawn.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Shadowchaser Files: Eldritch Locations

The Musée Arcane

"The truth can set you free. That's why the greatest truths are kept locked up."

Althea

Some call her an explorer, an archaeologist, and a scholar who investigates Shadows that puzzle even other Shadows, while others say she's a charlatan and dangerously eccentric. Opinions of the gorgon Althea and her controversial research vary greatly, but one certainty is that she is the curator of the Musee Arcane, a repository of what she claims is dark and forbidden knowledge. Visitors to this museum should keep an open mind no matter what their opinion of her, while still holding onto a healthy dose of skepticism, because Althea proudly claims the secrets she discovered were judged to be things that Man was Not Meant to Know, and many have gone to their dooms trying to prove or disprove her.

Of course, she herself says, "Sadly, I cannot prove one word", but also says, "It doesn't matter, so long as you believe."

Located in Rome, one would think a museum the size of a cathedral would stand out, but like most Shadow-exclusive establishments, it's hard to find if you aren't looking for it. You might round the corner on some street, then suddenly come upon it, and wonder why you didn't see it before.

The architecture seems Greco-Roman, hinting at the origins or gorgons as a species, but made of black marble. Althea lives here, alone other than the three banshrae who work for her as bodyguards. It's rumored she's had one or more boyfriends in the past, and whether they left after a breakup or even left at all depends on your opinion of her.

Entrance to the museum is free, although Althea does not warm up fast to those who make a habit of coming without making donations, and such guests rarely make it to the special exhibition chambers. Her primary income anonymous donors. Althea has a strict confidentiality policy, but as previously said, it is believed her donors include some shady and possibly criminal sources. Of course, it is also rumored that the Knightly Order of St. Bartholomew, the Fraternity of Order, and possibly Dracula herself have invested in the place. With such powerful and wealthy organizations and individuals are interested in Althea's research, it's very possible that she has uncovered a few interesting truths among rumors and innuendoes.

Much of the museum is typical for its type, and similar to libraries and repositories like the Parted Veil. Guests are advised not to touch the books or any documents they wish to peruse; the "ghosts" do that for them. Indeed, these odd spirits come as a shock to most first-time visitors, but one gets used to them quickly; some resemble scholarly old men and women, others playful young children in school uniforms, all of them ghostly and transparent. When a guest sees a document that he needs to view, one of them appears to dictate it. (They're available in the scriptorium too, but it's recommended that guests bring their own notebook and pens, as Althea frowns on the idea of photocopying and flash photography.)

The special exhibition chambers where the heart and soul (so to speak) of the Musee Arcane are accessed by special doors that these specters and Althea herself need to open for a guest, and the lifelike statues that decorate the place and tend to change now and then are used as an example of what befalls anyone who tries to force his way in. Indeed, the rumor that Althea has an agreement that lets her punish thieves and vandals herself is true (so long as she doesn't kill them or charge a disproportionate cost for restoring them) giving any member of the Shadowchasers unlimited access in return should they require it. (Bribery, perhaps, but after the magical wards she formerly used to protect the place caused too many accidents due to thieves that were too stupid to heed the warning signs and get the hint, Jalal decided this was easier.)

The special areas are divided into the following at present:

The Library of Fools: So named because this is where most of the aforementioned incidents involving inability to heed the warning signs occurred. Popular exhibits here include the Codex of the Infinite Planes (or rather, a translated copy of what she claims is four chapters of the dreaded artifact), the Altar of Assurance (which can help someone suffering a crisis of faith, but only if he uses it alone), and the well-known journal she claims is from a scholar at Thoth's Great Library, which claims "scholar" is the same as "prisoner" there.

The Mezzanine of Lies: There are no lies in this wing, or so Althea claims. Rather, she exposes the biggest lies of the cosmos in the essays she displays here. Her much lauded essay Quintessentials can be read here, along with the related essay Darkest Scars where she suggests a relation between primordial reptilian creatures (like dinosaurs) and fiends. (Farfetched, yes, but as she claims, she has nothing to back it up.)

The Dark Hall of Silence: A combination of a library and deprivation chamber, there are no books in this dark, deathly quiet place; a magic spell created by the spirits cloaks the areas in complete silence, preventing talking or any other noise. A guest only has to enter and concentrate on the exhibit he wants to read, and he hears it in his mind. Her most popular – and most controversial – essay, The Day the Angels Fell can be read here.

The Vault of Dark Secrets: Exactly what it says. This dark, gloomy archive hold the darkest of the stuff she's uncovered, and viewing is usually by invitation only. Notable exhibits here include Arkham's Razor, her essay on the rare (and not very popular) theory that insight and wisdom can be gained from madness, and her most well-known (but likely least believable) essay, Deepest Darkness.

Althea's private rooms are located somewhere in the cellars below, and it is highly recommended that nobody try to find them. If she has a personal collection, enemies that are not covered by her agreement with Jalal are likely kept there. Indeed, while Althea claims she desires to expose secrets hidden by Reality itself, she prefers to keep hers under wraps.

Story Ideas: As stated before, Althea's motives depend on whether she is presented as a benign (if foolhardy) explorer like Indiana Jones, or a dark and reckless one like Lara Croft. It all depends on the writer, and the museum, like her, can be made as malleable as the writer sees fit. The potential for story hooks is almost endless; any story that involves an artifact of doom, historic figure, real-life location, or eldritch location other than this one might be mentioned somewhere in one of Althea's works, and something could be gained from it here.

More information on Althea's essays – and the dubious claims she makes – will be covered later.