Disclaimer: I do not own Yugioh or any of its affiliates.
Warnings: Violence.
Chapter 2: Headphone Agent
NEXT Laboratories. A company with several different research buildings in Neo Domino city, and even more buildings in Sattelite. It is a mysterious company with practically no public reputation or any trace of sorts. None whatsoever.
As a result, it was baffling for law enforcers to find a way to hit the company for several illegal activities. They had no power when it came to dealing with NEXT Laboratories, no solid evidence ever presenting itself. And when evidence did pop up, it would always mysteriously disappear before it was brought to court. NEXT was legally immune to everything.
That`s why he was assigned to the task force. If legal legislature couldn`t get them pinned, sometimes a deal with the devil was necessary.
Clang! The metal grating fell to the floor easily as Erik propelled himself out of the air vent, listening carefully for any alarm that might have triggered. His ears underneath his black headphones were alert, taking in every sound that was around the building. No signs of alarm. Good.
His face illuminated only by the glow of blue computer screens, Erik Hastings bent over the keyboard in the dark room and began typing basic commands into the computer. His black hair spiked upwards, so he didn`t need to blow it out of his face or anything. His long sleeved black and red jacket would impede his typing, but his two grey wrist devices prevented them from doing so. His boots, despite being made of a metallic compound, made no noise on the floor as Erik dropped to his knees, his black eyes carefully searching and finding a USB port.
"Found the port. Expect the firewall in a few seconds," Erik spoke out loud, making sure his small microphone was still attached to the upturned collar he wore. "Confirm?"
"Confirm," A voice told him from his black headphones. "Ready to receive."
"Inserting now." Erik held his right hand to the port and rotated the corresponding ring with his left hand, careful to select the one with a USB sticking out. He clenched his hand and the device shot from top of the ring and into the port. Perfect shot.
"Got it. Breaking through firewall now." Erik nodded in satisfaction and retracted the USB, the virus filled device stored safely in his wrist ring.
"I should get going…" The infiltrator muttered, looking around for any other important clues he may have missed. Seeing none, he took it as his cue to leave and grabbed the edge of the air vent.
Without any warning, an alarm blared to life and a metal curtain slammed shut on the air vents. And onto Erik`s gloved fingers.
"Ow!" Erik whispered, quickly removing his digits before they got severed. "The heck happened Cora?"
"Oh, breaking radio silence are we now? Turns out that they found the guy Desmond knocked out in the back entrance. They`re going to find me soon. Get out of there now!"
"Got it!" And with that, Erik slammed out of the server room, his eyes blinking in surprise at the bright white hallways. However there were no guards despite the alarm annoyingly blaring through his headphones. Strange. But he took it as coming down to luck as he ran. Hopefully, his luck would hold.
"Hey you! Intruder! Hands in the air!" A guard that oh-so continently walked through the hallway in front of him had spotted Erik and was now standing in the way, holding one hand up with the other on the holster
"Bah!" Erik snarled and turned around, intent on finding another exit.
"What the-? Stop!" Great, more guards behind him. Time for a distraction.
His left wrist gauntlet activated as his right hand pressed it and ejected two minute canisters at the floor at Erik`s feet. Immediately, Erik brought his headphones downwards so that the thick top covered his eyes from exposure as the flash bangs went off while the speakers themselves still covered his ears. And of course, he closed his eyes as his two flash bangs went off.
"Argh! My eyes!"
"I can`t hear anything! What a noise!"
"Where`s the intruder?!" The guards who were all glaring at Erik a few seconds ago were now stumbling around, trying to find some form of orientation. Casually, Erik returned his headphones to the originally position and ran, unfazed by the loud noise and bright light.
Of course, the guards soon recovered and chased after Erik`s dark figure through the bright white hallways of NEXT. But not for long, as Erik slammed through a grey doorway and emerged into an alley of Sattelite. Well, it wasn`t an alley as much as it was a dead end, fences on either side of him. Brick wall in front of him, angry guards right behind. No escape but upwards. Sounds fine to him.
"Give up!" The guards had finally caught up to Erik, but it was too late. Erik had already activated his gauntlet again, deploying two more miniscule canisters. The guards, learning from his last trick, immediately shielded their eyes and covered their ears.
Unfortunately for them, this was not a flash bang. It was a capsule full of coughing gas.
Loud coughing was heard as Erik disappeared in white smoke, the guards completely helpless as they tried to find him in the white cloud. They couldn`t because he was already gone.
The moment the smoke cloud deployed, Erik was already spinning his right wrist ring, changing it to a small grapple hook. He pulled his collar upwards with his left hand, carefully covering his mouth from the coughing gas. Aiming at the nearby civilian building, he shot the grapple upwards. The hook and rope easily snagged onto the targeted rooftop ledge. Once secured, the wrist ring began reeling the rope in, bringing Erik upwards as he was the path of least resistance. The boy shot out of the cloud and landed on the rooftop like a cat.
"Way too easy..." Erik muttered, unhooking his grapple from the side and letting the reel complete its action. "Cora, I`m out. Come to the … south building. I`ll meet you there."
"It`ll take some time! I`m…dammit! Reveal three Spellbooks! Priestess, special summon!"
"Oh great. I`ll see if-" As if he expected, Erik dodged the sword slash nimbly, using one hand to flip himself backwards as the new enemy growled sinisterly at him. Expecting to see a heavily armored guard or something, Erik got ready to dash past the attacker.
Unfortunately, he didn`t see the crack in the earth until it was too late. Dark energy blasted at Erik from below, knocking him backwards into the air from the sheer force of the attack.
"Ngh-!" Carefully twisting, Erik managed to land back on his feet despite the sores all over his body. His vision got blurry and there was the taste of iron in his mouth. Dammit, his senses was going to shut down soon.
Instinctively, Erik reached into his pocket and took out a small white medical syringe. Without any hesitation, he plunged it into his right arm and pushed, letting the medicine flow in before discarding the medical tool. The iron taste disappeared, his ability to see cleared up, and that was when he got a good look at his opponent.
Evilswarm Catastor in the flesh. Well, this escape just turned into a giant mess.
"Who are you?" An electronic voice asked. Behind the living duel monster, a masked and hooded figure stepped out into the line of sight. The clothes were all black like Erik`s, but unlike him they were pitch black, with no other color. The only item of any color on the new opponent was their mask, a white mask with weird black markings. Only crimson yellow eyes shone naturally through the disguise. "Identify yourself and surrender." Evilswarm Catastor growled and raised its blade to add emphasis to the order.
"Bah. As if," Erik`s muffled voice responded, his mouth still covered by his large collar. Seeing no other way out, the headphone wearing boy sighed and activated his right wrist ring, spinning it to the last item: a deck.
He took out the deck from his right wrist ring and slammed it into a corresponding slot in his left gauntlet, activating the device`s final function. The outer side of the gauntlet popped out and extended itself, creating a wedged shape field. The slots from which his smoke grenades and flash bangs came from widened up and narrowed, forming his graveyard. Within seconds, his left gauntlet had transformed into a duel disk.
"Come on. Let`s duel," Erik growled, his right hand already hovering over the deck.
"Challenge me? A foolish and effort wasting maneuver." Nonetheless, Evilswarm Catastor disappeared and the robed figure revealed a duel disk on their left hand. "I accept."
"DUEL!"
Erik: 8000
?: 8000
"I`m going first!" Erik drew his top card and his eyes narrowed. Perfect! "I set three facedown cards and summon Card Car D!"
Three facedown cards appeared on Erik`s front, left, and right sides as a small flat car roared onto the field, barely stopping for enough time to see its stats (ATK/800 DEF/400). "Now rev it back up Card Car! Effect activate!" Erik shouted and the vehicle responded by driving back off in the direction it appeared. In the smoke haze it left behind, Erik drew two cards and passed the turn over to his mysterious opponent.
"What a weak turn. I draw." The cloaked figure took the card with precise movements and stared at it. "I summon Rescue Rabbit."
A small white and grey rabbit appeared on the field and blinked, its hard hat tilting sideways a bit (ATK/300 DEF/100). "Activate effect. Rabbit banishes itself and two level four monster of the same name will be special summoned." The cute monster blew a whistle around its neck and disappeared, replaced two not-so-nice looking monsters (ATK/1950 DEF/650).
"I summon two Evilswarm Heliotrophes," The enemy calmly said and held out their hand. "XYZ summon! I overlay both Heliotrophes for a higher monster: Evilswarm Ophion!"
"Bah!" Erik spat as the two warriors transformed into dark black orbs of evil power. The dual orbs circled each other before an evil dragon appeared, roaring as it slammed onto the field (ATK/2550 DEF/1650). "I`ll activate my trap card: Fiendish Chain!"
The dragon that was proud of itself a few moments ago was now wrapped up in green smoldering chains. The two black orbs dimmed as the magical chains snapped all energy from their master. The cloaked duelist watched their monster struggle for a while with amusement before plucking a single card from their hand. "Chain to Fiendish Chain. Activate Infestation Pandemic!"
The green chains on the dragon lost power and fell on the floor, still there but having no effect anymore on the XYZ monster. Thus, the dragon roared once more with no restrictions. "Activate Evilswarm Ophion`s effect! I detach and get to add an Evilswarm card to my hand."
Erik swore bitterly as he saw them add another Infestation Pandemic to their hand. It would throw a wrench in all his plans if this immunity to spells and traps continued. "Alright, might as well activate it now. Waboku! I take no damage this turn."
"Hmph, you`re very lucky. Set two facedowns and end turn." At that word, the green chains rose back up and wrapped back around the corrupted dragon, nullifying its effects once more.
"C`mon, I need something to break that combo…" Erik grumbled, drawing his next card. "I`ll make do though. I summon Armageddon Knight!"
A battered warrior with a red bandanna appeared on the field and brandished his rusty sword (ATK/1400 DEF/1200). "His effect allows me to send one dark monster in my deck directly to my graveyard!" The sword glowed pitch black with darkness and the faint outline of a monster was seen before it disappeared.
"Inzektors…another dark entity…" The figure muttered as they recognized Inzektor Ladybug just sent to the grave.
"Sometimes, the shadows just seem to stretch forever like this combo!" Erik held up another spell card. "I activate Foolish Burial! I send Inzketor Dragonfly to the graveyard! And now, I`ll bring it back using this facedown Call of the Haunted!"
Inzektor Dragonfly
LV 3 ATK/1000 DEF/1800
Once per turn: You can equip 1 "Inzektor" monster from your hand or Graveyard to this card. If an Equip Card(s) is sent to your Graveyard while equipped to this card (except during the Damage Step): You can Special Summon 1 "Inzektor" monster from your Deck, except "Inzektor Dragonfly". While this card is equipped to a monster, that monster's Level is increased by 3.
A faint outline of a man in a dragonfly outfit appeared and was about to disappear, but Erik`s revealed trap card caused the form to gain power and it solidified on the field (ATK/1000 DEF/1800). "It would be devastating…had it not failed. Chain Effect Veiler." The figure`s laughter was heared as they held up the nullifying card.
"DAMMIT!" Erik yelled in frustration as the Light type monster caused his monster to shield itself from its brilliant light, rendering it useless this turn. "I`ll end my turn with two more facedown cards!"
"About time. Draw." The cloaked duelist took their next card and immediately showed it to Erik. "Since you have more monsters than I do, I special summon Evilswarm Mandragora."
A monster plant corrupted by darkness appeared on the field and let out a shriek that would send most people running (ATK/1550 DEF/1450). But then again, Erik had his headphones on.
"I activate my facedown Infestation Pandemic to negate your Fiendish Chain this turn. Then, I shall use Ophion`s effect for the last time this duel." The dragon roared and consumed its last energy orb to give its master once last gift.
"Another Infestation Pandemic…" Erik grimaced outside, but internally, he was grinning.
"Facedown card revealed! Infestation Infection. I return one Evilswarm back to my deck to add another Evilswarm to my hand." Ophion transformed into a ball of black energy as the evilness inside the monster remodeled the creature. However, instead of disappearing, the ball of energy exploded and another monster plant appeared in its place.
"Add and special summon another Evilswarm Mandragora."
"At least Shock Master is banned…"
"I normal summon Evilswarm Thunderbird." A weird mixture of a bird with metallic limbs appeared on the field, screeching yet another harsh cry (ATK/1650 DEF/1050). "XYZ summon! I construct an overlay system using the three LV 4 monster on the field to summon a rank four monster: Evilswarm Ouroboros!"
Evilswarm Ouroboros
Rank 4 ATK/2750 DEF/1950
3 Level 4 monsters
Once per turn: You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card to activate 1 of these effects. Each effect can only be used once while this card is face-up on the field.
● Target 1 card your opponent controls; return that target to the hand.
● Send 1 random card from your opponent's hand to the Graveyard.
● Target 1 card in your opponent's Graveyard; banish that target.
The three Evilswarm monsters transformed into three black power orbs and circled each other in the air, combining their energies. Recognizing the tributes, the corrupted Ice Dragon materialized into existence and slammed down on the field, causing the rooftop to shake. Literally (ATK/2750 DEF/1950).
"Bah! All these are corrupted dragons!" Erik shouted, trying to anger his opponent into attacking. He stumbled a bit when the dragon stomped onto the field, which was weird considering this was only a duel. "You will never truly control them! They will always rebel in some way!"
"I doubt it, especially when I use its effect. I detach one material and use the first effect. I destroy the first facedown you ever had." The dragon roared as it was powered up by the material`s energy. Without hesitation, it spat out a blast of dark fire at Erik`s facedown.
"Now! Trap activate! Threatening Roar!" Erik shouted as the targeted card revealed itself before disappearing. The dark fire blast missed and the mighty dragon shuddered as the trap card took effect. "That`s the attack taken care of!"
"And you as well," The opponent smugly said.
"Huh?" Erik looked down and shouted in panic as pitch black flames began smoldering his boots. He quickly jumped backwards to escape the flames before a column of the fiery magic appeared in where his trap card once was. "That felt…real! What is going on?"
"You live?" The figure took a half step backwards in surprise. "The heat should`ve killed you!"
"Bah, I guess you couldn`t do it. Go on, end your turn with that Infestation Pandemic facedown," Erik said, thrown off by his opponent`s lack of concern for safety. "Next turn, I`ll win."
"Never. One facedown and end my-"
"Mystical Space Typhoon!" Erik quickly revealed his last facedown card. "I target and destroy your new facedown card!"
"!" The figure shielded themselves as the card blew up, unhurt by the pixelated images. There was no Infestation Epidemic on the field now.
"My turn! Draw!" Erik ripped the top card off and smiled. "Game! I summon Inzektor Centipede!"
A man with brown armor and two spiked shields appeared on the field and growled, clashing his shield together (ATK/1600 DEF/1200). "I now activate Inzektor Dragonfly`s effect! I equip Inzektor Ladybug to it!"
Inzektor Dragonfly placed away its small ray gun and picked up two small discs, ready to throw them if necessary. "I send Inzektor Ladybug to the graveyard and give my Centipede a level!"
At Erik`s command, it throws both discs. One of them purposely misses while the other strikes the brown armor, causing it to glow.
"A Rank 4 summon?" The figure mumbled.
"Not yet done! Since an equip card on Inzektor Dragonfly just got send to the graveyard, I use Dragonfly`s effect to special summon another Inzektor Centipede onto the field and equip it with Inzektor Ladybug as well!" Another brown armored man appeared on the field and instead of two shields, he carried two small discs.
"Boost your fellow Centipede`s level up by one!" Erik commanded and the man threw his weapon at the already glowing warrior, causing him to shine a bit brighter. "Centipede`s effect kicks in now! I add an Inzektor Hornet to my hand."
"More adding?"
"Not yet done! I construct an overlay system using Inzektor Dragonfly and Inzektor Centipede for a Rank 3: Number 17, Leviathan Dragon!" Erik shouted and held the card up.
The two monsters had transformed into dual black orbs of power and had summoned a four winged dragon onto the field. The dragon initially resisted at first, but it accepted the dark offerings and cried out as it hovered over the rooftop (ATK/2000 DEF/0).
"Effect activate! I detach and give my dragon a 500 attack boost!" Erik announced and the dragon bit down on the orb, swallowing it whole (ATK/2500 DEF/0). "But I`m not done yet! In my hand is Inzektor Giga Mantis! He can be equipped to an Inzektor monster directly from the hand, and that lucky Inzektor is the last Centipede on the field!"
The glowing brown armored man casually threw away his shields and picked up two blades the size of his body (ATK/2400 DEF/1200).
"That`s still not enough to get over Ouroboros!" The figure shouted, a hint of panic in their voice. Was it possible they knew what he was going to do?
Most likely, yes.
"I equip Inzektor Hornet to Inzektor Centipede using Centipede`s effect!" The dual-wielding-brown-armored man added a new weapon to his repertoire: a small yellow tonfa blade. "And I`ll use it to destroy my own Giga Mantis blades!" With that, the two weapons in Centipede`s hands shattered as the tonfa pierced both of their cores in one hit. How?
Yugioh physics.
"With the blades shattered, I can bring back one Inzektor monster in my graveyard!" Erik grinned and pointed at his Leviathan Dragon. "And since Dragonfly was the monster detached from Leviathan, I special summon Dragonfly back onto the field!" The shards of metal glowed as energy flowed out of them and shaped back into the form of the Inzektor Dragonfly (ATK/1000 DEF/1800).
"Impossible!"
"Also, since my Inzektor Centipede just lost two equip cards, I gain an additional two cards from my deck!" Erik smirked as he added two spell equip cards to his hand. "For the finale, Inzektor Dragonfly will now kill Ouroboros with Inzektor Hornet`s effect! Strike now Dragonfly!"
The man aimed and threw the yellow tonfa with ease, the blade slicing through the dragon`s carapace and into its heart. With a furious final bellow, the corrupted dragon collapsed and disappeared.
Once again, Yugioh physics.
"Dragonfly, once more! Special summon Inzektor Centipede!" The headphone wearing duelist was a blur with his hands now, trying to end the duel quickly. "Overlay system constructed with Inzektor Dragonfly and Inzektor Centipede: Rank 3 summon, Number 30, Acid Golem of Destruction!"
Acid and destruction always go hand in hand
The two monsters disappeared and reappeared as black orbs of energy as a gigantic titan spewing poisonous acids everywhere appeared on the field (ATK/3000 DEF/3000). "Activate two spell cards in my hand: Inzektor Sword – Zektcaliber! I equip them both to Centipede and he gains a boost of 1600 attack points!"
Two gigantic blades for two swords. Sounds fair.
The still glowing brown armored man discarded his shields for the final time and picked up two identical golden swords, arcs of electricity coming out of them both (ATK/3200 DEF/1200).
Hey, look ma. It`s bigger than Blue Eyes White Dragon!
"8700 life point damage…" The hooded duelist whispered in horror. "That`s game…"
"END THIS!" Erik roared and the duel promptly ended as his three monsters attacked all at once.
Erik: 8000
?: 0
"NO!" The figure whipped out a card and Evilswarm Catastor was back in the flesh, bearing down on Erik despite his victory.
"I`d love to celebrate…but my ride`s here!" Erik cheerfully said, dodging each blade slash with ease while moving backwards. Once he reached the edge of the roof on the south side, he smiled and fell off.
While in the air, Erik twisted and turned so that he was facing the ground face first. He glanced up and saw a small figure coming down the street…with at least five black vans right behind her. "Geez, what did you do? Piss them all off?" Erik muttered before he slammed his boots together.
The two black boots activated and immediately, Erik was pulled towards the building. As predicted, there was enough metal in those rusted pipes to get a magnetic attraction. He bent his knees slightly so that the boots got onto those pipes, he wouldn`t break his bones.
Erik grunted as he felt the side of the building scrape against him. Of course, he still was going downwards, but it was now a controlled run down the side of the building. And that was better than ending up as a grease spot on the ground below.
"About time you showed up," Erik casually said as he landed on the ground, the perfectly controlled speed allowing him to avoid all injuries. His fellow operative had finally reached him: a blonde long haired girl. She was hovering in the air using her Duel Board and was holding a small laptop bag…and his prized Duel Board.
"Bet you didn`t have to fight off at least three guards. THEN came the chase and turbo duels!" Cora hastily retorted, tossing Erik his own Duel Board. "You`ve got delay duty this time!"
"Alright, but just to let you know, I just took some medicine," Erik replied, activating the hover function as soon as he got strapped on. The machine shook a while before the metallic vehicle lifted off the ground, responding to the pressure he exerted on the board. "Might get a little sluggish a few times on the way back. Did you hack anything good?"
"No, but Desmond might`ve. For now, let`s get out of here!"