And so it happened that the Deltas ended up in the park once again.
Looking around, they could see that the park – as well as the surrounding buildings - had been repaired since Matt's chaotic duel with Hideo, as well as the later damage caused by Katie's duel with Keane. The buildings looked practically brand new, and the park was packed with kids and teenagers, all dueling as if they didn't have a care in the world.
As they moved across the park, looking for someone to duel, Matt reflected back on the day he'd first received his Number. In a lot of ways, that had been the worst day of his life. He'd badly injured a lot of people, and he hated himself for it. Still, he couldn't help but wonder – what if it had never happened?
'I know the answer to that…' he thought to himself. 'I'd still be miserable. I'd still be stuck in exactly the same day-to-day hell I was suffering before I got my Number.' He stopped to allow a kid to run across the path in front of him. 'That may have been a horrible day, but if it hadn't happened, I would never have met my new friends, and we would never have become-"
"Matt! Hey, Matt!"
Matt was snapped out of his reverie by the call. He saw that all four of the other Deltas were staring at him. He turned red. How long had he been standing there, frozen like a fool?
"Are you ok, Matt?" Katie asked. "You seem a bit daydreamy today."
"It's nothing, I'm fine," Matt assured her. "I was just remembering the last time I dueled here."
Katie nodded in understanding. Of course, she and James had been there at the time, so they knew exactly what he was thinking. Dan and Leah hadn't been there, but they had listened to descriptions about the day, and were looking just as sympathetic.
"Hey, c'mon Matt," Dan said, "there's no need to be thinking about that stuff. We're here to have some fun, remember?"
"Yeah... it's ok, I'm not moping," Matt replied. "I was thinking about something else actually."
"What's that?" Leah asked.
Matt was about to respond, but a man's shouting interrupted him. "There you are! Hey! Over here!" The five of them turned to look at the source of the shouts, and without exception, they were all surprised.
It was Jad. And beside him was one of his pupils, Kodoku.
Leah squealed with delight to see their friends again, and ran over to say hi. Dan had to smile. They had originally met Kodoku a few weeks ago. He had come looking for help because his teacher, Jad, wasn't acting normal. As it turned out, Jad had been infected by Number 10: Terra Storm, and had caused severe damage to a local school building. Leah had been the one to defeat him and extract Number 10 from him. It was pretty clear that she had no bad feelings towards him for what had happened.
One by one, the Deltas took it in turns to shake Kodoku and Jad's hands, and exchanged cheerful greetings. "So how've you been?" Leah asked. "How did things go at the school after we left?"
Jad laughed. "Smoother than I would've thought, actually. The authorities arrived and questioned me and the other children about what happened. Not one of us remembers what happened, but we've all agreed that there must've been a terrible natural disaster." He looked off into the distance. "The authorities agreed that, besides a bomb, a harsh weather condition is the only thing capable of causing such damage. And since they found no explosive residue, they decided to let me go."
Matt nodded, secretly relieved. The Deltas had made the decision not to tell Jad about his possession, and had urged Kodoku to do the same. It was good to see that Jad hadn't gotten into any trouble over something that wasn't his fault.
Leah grinned happily. "So you weren't arrested. That's good at least. How've you and the kids been since then?"
"The kids are recovering nicely," Jad replied. "Myself: not so much. I feel very guilty. I was the only adult present in that room at the time the weather disaster hit, so I was technically responsible for those children. I'm ashamed of myself for not being able to protect them better."
"Don't be." Dan asserted. "There's nothing you could've done to prevent it."
"Nothing at all." James added. "I mean, what exactly are you supposed to do against a tornado or whatever?"
"Exactly," Dan said. "So stop beating yourself up about it. You're certainly not in the wrong for what happened." The other Deltas nodded in agreement. Kodoku looked away sheepishly.
Jad smiled kindly. "Thank you, all of you," he said. "It's very kind of you to try to make me feel better." Then he clapped his hands, making them all jump. "Aaaaaaaaanyway, we didn't come here to talk about such unpleasant topics. We came here to duel. More precisely, I have a request for you kids."
"Yeah? What's up?" Dan asked.
"You see, ever since that day, Kodoku has been going on and on about you kids." Jad explained. "He idolizes all of you. And ever since that day, it's been his goal to duel one of you. So, I promised that I would take him to find you kids, so he could issue the challenge. It would mean a lot to the both of us if one of you – any one of you – would accept this duel."
The Deltas looked at each other, deciding who would go first. None of them said anything. Finally, if only to break the silence, Katie stepped forwards and put her hands on Kodoku's shoulders. "Hi there," she said kindly. "My name's Katie. Are you ok for me to duel you?"
Kodoku glanced at Jad, who nodded. He then eagerly nodded to Katie. "Yeah, you guys are awesome! I've wanted to duel you for ages."
Katie smiled. "Then let's get started straight away." The two duelists put some distance between each other, and prepared their D-Gazers and duel disks. As the augmented reality surrounded them, a few of the nearby bystanders became mildly interested in the duel, and tuned their D-Gazers in to watch it.
"AR Vision – link established."
"Good luck babe!" James called from the side-lines. The others joined in his cheers, and Katie gave them an excited grin.
"DUEL!"
Kodoku LP: 4000
Katie LP: 4000
"Feel free to take the first move, Kodoku," Katie offered.
"M-my turn, draw." Kodoku drew his card shakily. He had seemed fine earlier, but it appeared that Kodoku was suffering from a bit of stage fright from dueling in front of people. He evidently wasn't used to it.
'Oh well,' Katie mused, 'he'll be fine once he's had a few turns.'
"I... um... I Normal Summon Manju of the Ten Thousand Hands." A silver-coloured monster appeared, with a colossal number of arms, and even two hands poking out the side of its cheeks.
Manju of the Ten Thousand Hands: Fairy-Type/LIGHT/Level 4/ATK 1400/DEF 1000
"I activate Manju's effect, so I can search my Deck for a Ritual Monster or a Ritual Spell Card, and add it to my hand." Kodoku spent a long time looking through his Deck, trying to come to a decision. "I... I guess I'll choose Aquabot Clench." He took the Level 4 Ritual Monster from his Deck and placed it in his hand. "I end my turn. How was that, Miss Katie?"
Katie nodded. "A good opening move, well done." Kodoku beamed in delight. "It's my turn, draw! For my first move, I activate the Spell Card, Future Fusion. With this, I reveal a Fusion Monster in my Extra Deck, then send its Fusion Material Monsters from my Deck to the Graveyard. After that, during my second Standby Phase after activation, I can Special Summon that Fusion Monster." She sifted through her Extra Deck and pulled out a single card to show Kodoku. "I choose Superalloy Beast Raptinus! Its required Fusion Material Monsters are two Gemini monsters, so I'll send King Pyron and Phoenix Gearfried to the Graveyard." She sent the two cards straight from her Deck to the Graveyard. Kodoku watched her moves with thinly-veiled awe.
Future Fusion: Turn 0
"Next, I Special Summon Woodland Archer." A heavily bearded, blue-skinned monster took to the field. It had long horns like a mountain goat, and was carrying a green bow.
Woodland Archer: Beast-Warrior-Type/EARTH/Level 3/ATK 1400/DEF 1300
"I can Special Summon this card from my hand if I have at least two Normal Monsters in my Graveyard," Katie was explaining. "Since Gemini monsters count as Normal Monsters while in the Graveyard, they satisfy the condition. Now I'll use Woodland Archer's effect. By Tributing it, I can add a Gemini monster from my Deck to my hand." The Archer distorted and vanished. At the same time, Katie's duel disk extracted a card, which she added to her hand. "I choose Solstice Armed Mage, which I'll then immediately Normal Summon!" She placed the card straight onto her duel disk. A pale-skinned magician appeared, wearing a dark red trench coat and carrying a long staff. At the end of the staff was a sculpture of a dragon wrapped around a crystal ball.
Solstice Armed Mage: Spellcaster-Type/Gemini/FIRE/Level 4/ATK 1800/DEF 200
"Battle! Solstice Armed Mage, attack Manju of the Ten Thousand Hands!" The Spellcaster charged a fireball at the end of its staff, and fired it at the many-armed monster. The fireball exploded in contact, destroying the diety-esque creature and making Kodoku stagger back.
Kodoku LP: 4000 → 3600
"I'll end my turn there." Katie declared. A look of concern came over her face. "Hey, Kodoku, are you ok? That wasn't too much for you, was it?"
Kodoku shook his head. "Nah, we deal with tougher things than this at school. I can handle it."
Katie was silently impressed by this kid's determination. "Alright then, it's your move."
"I draw... um, I guess I Normal Summon the Ritual Monster, Aquabot Clench!" Katie tried not to laugh too hard at Kodoku's mistake – attempting to Normal Summon a Ritual Monster was quite an error indeed. She began to explain Kodoku's mistake to him, but gasped in shock as his duel disk accepted the card, and the monster materialized on Kodoku's field in a swirl of water. It was an amorphous blob of bright blue fluid shaped vaguely like a humanoid, with a ton of circuitry and wires running through its body. One of its hands was huge – it looked ridiculous in proportion to the rest of its body. Running along its chest was a line of text. It read CODE: 92451D32.
Aquabot Clench: Machine-Type/Ritual/WATER/Level 4/ATK 1500/DEF 1900
"What on earth?" Katie breathed. "How did you Normal Summon something that can only be Ritual Summoned? More to the point, why did your duel disk accept it? Is it broken?"
Kodoku shook his head again. "These Ritual Monsters can be Normal Summoned as well as Ritual Summoning. I can choose to Summon then either way." He grinned sheepishly. "That means that if I mess up and try to Summon one without Ritual Summoning it, it doesn't matter so much…"
Still not believing what she was hearing, Katie cycled through options on her D-Gazer to bring up Aquabot Clench's stats. What she saw baffled her completely. The first line of text on the card was: 'Can be Normal Summoned (from your hand). You can Ritual Summon this card with any…'
"Can…?" She muttered to herself. That word – that one, tiny word – changed things completely. She was now facing a Deck that undermined the very foundations of Ritual Monsters, a Deck that ignored the key rules that she'd become used to over the years. 'Who knows what else this Deck is capable of…' she wondered.
"I activate Aquabot Clench's effect!" Kodoku said, startling Katie out of her thoughts. "When it's Normal Summoned, I can add any card with the word Aquabot in its name from my Deck to my hand. I choose the Ritual Spell, Aquabot Liquid Armour." Clench's massive hand clamped down on Kodoku's Deck, then flicked upwards, throwing a single card into the air. Kodoku reached up and caught it as it came back down.
"A Ritual Spell Card?" Matt wondered, before addressing Jad. "Is Kodoku planning what I think he's planning?"
Jad grinned. "Just you watch."
"I activate the Ritual Spell, Aquabot Liquid Armour!" Kodoku declared. "With this, I'll Tribute the Level four Aquabot Clench, to Ritual Summon the Level four Aquabot Ruin!" The Spell Card appeared, and in response, Clench began to shimmer and ripple like a stone dropped on water. With a flash of light, the circuitry inside it vanished, so all that was left was a blob of blue slime with a code on it. The blob shifted back, and in a burst of spectral lights a new monster appeared where it had been. This one bore a similar appearance – a blue mass of slime filled with circuitry and a code written on the front of it. The difference was in the shape it took. Instead of a humanoid, this one formed itself into a stationary gun turret, with immaculate detail. This line of text on its front read CODE: [)35720'/32.
Aquabot Ruin: Machine-Type/Ritual/WATER/Level 4/ATK 1900/DEF 0
But it wasn't over yet. With a glooping, bubbling sound, the blob of slime that had once been Clench expanded and fell forward, engulfing the new monster, seemingly mixing them into one being. Once things had settled, Ruin looked basically the same as before, but its blue colour was much more opaque (making its inner circuitry harder to see) and the oversized hand that had belonged to Clench was now attached to Ruin's back like a grotesque scorpion's tail. The code for Clench was now visible directly below the code for Ruin, making two lines of text.
"What on earth are these things doing?" Katie breathed.
Kodoku grinned, apparently pleased to have her on the back foot. "You'll see. Aquabot Ruin's effect activates. When its Ritual Summoned, I can destroy one card you control!" The gun turret rotated to face Katie's only monster, and launched a volley of glowing blue bullets. The Spellcaster covered its face from the barrage, but eventually succumbed to it and exploded. "Now go, Aquabot Ruin, attack her directly!" The turret's aim shifted again, and fired its rounds at Katie. She cried out as they hit her, and she staggered backwards, shocked at the sudden turnaround.
Katie LP: 4000 → 2100
Author-made cards:
Solstice Armed Mage
Spellcaster-Type/Gemini/FIRE/Level 4/ATK 1800/DEF 200
This card is treated as a Normal Monster while face-up on the field or in the Graveyard. While this card is face-up on the field, you can Normal Summon it to have it treated as an Effect Monster with this effect: ●This card's original ATK becomes 2400.
Aquabot Clench (credit to Superjad)
Machine-Type/Ritual/WATER/Level 4/ATK 1500/DEF 1900
Can be Normal Summoned (from your hand). You can Ritual Summon this card with any "Aquabot" Ritual Spell Card. When this card is Normal Summoned: Add 1 "Aquabot" card from your Deck to your hand. If this card is Ritual Summoned: Send 1 random card from your opponent's hand to the Graveyard. A monster that is Ritual Summoned using this card cannot be destroyed by battle.
Aquabot Ruin (credit to Superjad)
Machine-Type/Ritual/WATER/Level 4/ATK 1900/DEF 0
Can be Normal Summoned (from your hand). You can Ritual Summon this card with any "Aquabot" Ritual Spell Card. When this card is Normal Summoned: Send 2 "Aquabot" cards from your Deck to the Graveyard. If this card is Ritual Summoned: Target 1 card on the field; destroy that target. A monster that is Ritual Summoned using this card gains 1200 ATK.
Aquabot Liquid Armour (credit to Superjad)
Ritual Spell Card
Choose 1 "Aquabot" Ritual Monster in your hand, Tribute monsters from your hand or field whose total Levels equal the Level of the chosen monster, and Ritual Summon the chosen monster from your hand. If this card is in the Graveyard: You can banish 1 "Aquabot" card (except this card) from your Graveyard; shuffle this card from the Graveyard into the Deck.
Fun Fact #4: Yep, it's Jad and Kodoku, back for a brief cameo. Everybody applaud. Are you applauding? Good.
Fun Fact #5: Yes, those codes on the Aquabots do have some significance. No, we aren't going to tell you what it is.
Fun Fact #6: It's surprisingly difficult to describe the Aquabots in all their detail. If you want a better idea on what the Aquabots (Clench in particular) might look like, have a look at the character Chaos from the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise.