Yu-gi-oh
No Limits
Chapter 30- The Hero and the fairy tail
By Kevin Jones
With a toss, a turn, and a small groan, Vanessa slowly begins to wake up. Her eyes lids are opening slowly as she begins to scratch the top of heard. She then sits up; rubs her eyes and begins to slowly scan her living room. She does this for another few seconds before she pauses at an unusual sight in her kitchen.
"Chase what are you doing?"
"Making breakfast," before anyone jumps to any conclusions, I've been here all night. Oh wait… not like that either. After Vanessa became, for lack of a better term, possessed, I decided the only thing I could do was watch her. Thing is, she only remained in that state for about a minute before she passed out on the couch.
"Why are you making break- you know what, before you answer that, tell me what happened last night. The last thing I remember was you saying your little voodoo spell."
"You passed out on the couch and you've been out like a rock ever since." It sounds like she doesn't remember anything she said while under the trance. Clayman didn't think she would, so all we did next was check her pulse, opened one of her eye lids to see if her eyes were back to normal and plop a seat and wait for her to wake up. I then fell asleep a little later and when I woke up, Clayman was gone, Sleeping Beauty was drooling and I was hungry.
"So why are you making breakfast?"
"Because I'm hungry and I assumed you would be to."
"Wait so you didn't go home last night?"
I don't answer.
Vanessa is now standing up and examining her clothes. "All my clothes look intact so I know you didn't do anything perverted which means that you stayed here because you we're worried about me."
"Actually it's because you were used as a pawn of Segas and since this is there big day, keeping an eye on you might give me an idea of their plan."
What was a smirk has now been replaced with a blank stare. "O.K. then, so… what are you making?"
"Omelette au fromage, I figured it would be more filling than Cocoa Puffs."
"O.K. then, so… what are you making?"
I roll my eyes, "a cheese omelet."
"Oh that sounds good- wait a minute since when do you cook, or speak French?"
"Since before I've known you. Hey could you turn on the T.V. I'd like to see if there's any more rain planned for today."
"Sure," Vanessa then turns on the T.V. and begins flipping through channels.
Meanwhile, as I cook breakfast, I scan the kitchen. According to Clayman, once I fall asleep he returns to my deck and either Debris Dragon or another card in my deck should pop up to come help me. I've been up about an hour and I haven't seen anything.
"Oh my god," I look up to see that Vanessa is frozen solid and staring at the T.V.
"What's wrong, did the Mets lose again?"
"Chase, that Ortega guy had white hair and glasses right?"
"Yeah… oh crap did he actually get a news network that would take him seriously?"
"No… not exactly."
"What do you mean not exactly?"
"You're going to want to take a look at this."
With that, I turn the burner off and walk into the living room. "What the, what the hell?"
"That's right Tom, the police have confirmed that the man who was somehow able to get over the guard rail on the observation deck of the New Empire State Building and jump to his death at around 6 a.m. this morning was investigative journalist and Queens's resident, Ralph Ortega. Now at this time nothing else is known about Mr. Ortega but as this story unfolds we will be there to keep all our viewers informed. From the Neo Empire State Building, I'm Tina Rivera, Fox News."
The only noise in the room now is coming from the T.V. Both me and Vanessa are too shocked to even understand the news, it all just kind of sounds like white noise to me.
"Did he… did he seem suicidal? I mean, I know you only knew him for a few days but at any point did something seem off about him?"
"He was a nosey, creepy; know it all who was obsessed with chasing down a half ass cult, of course he seemed weird but this was not suicide."
"What makes you thing that?"
"Ortega thought of himself as a super sleuth. He was convinced he was on the verge of discovering all of Segas' secrets. Even if he had any form of depression, there's no way he would go to his grave knowing he was one step from securing his name in history."
"Wait…so, do you think Segas killed him?"
"Yup, at some point yesterday he found something out that they didn't want him to know. They decided to kill him and turn it into a message for all of us."
I switch my gaze from the TV to Vanessa who appears to be in deep thought. She then says, "Segas wants you, me, Kai, Toni and the whole FBI to know that if we don't do things the way they want us to, then they'll do to us what they did to Ortega."
…
"So, Segas likes to do more than just move the city forward."
It's about 11:39 in the morning. Toni, the one who just stated the obvious, and Kai showed up a few minutes ago. Naturally, we've informed them of the mornings…well, events.
"Did you try calling the FBI?" While saying this Kai is glancing back and forth from us to the door, after all it's almost noon which means the last Segas riddle is about to appear.
"I tried but apparently Mustang didn't inform anyone important about us."
"Well," begins Kai, "either they know about Ortega and are assessing the situation or they don't know about Ortega in which case there preparing for later."
"True," begins Vanessa, "but if Segas really is willing to kill anyone who gets in there way and they have the means to do it efficiently, then that could mean that there prepared to take out the FBI if they interfere."
"And if that's the case, then the FBI will just be fish in a barrel." Upon saying this, Kai takes a deep breath and pulls a cell phone out of his left pocket.
"Wait," says Toni, "who are you calling at a time like this?"
"Mustang, I'll call his personal number so he knows it's urgent."
"Time out," says a shocked Vanessa, "how and why do you have Mustang's personal cell number."
"He gave it to me a few days ago in case things get too crazy. If a dead journalist really means what we all think it means, then now we can say things are going crazy."
"Hold on a minute," I'm confused, "why would Mustang entrust you with judging when a situation is going to hell in a hand basket?"
Kai then takes his eyes off his phone and is now looking at us. "He gave it to me for 4 reasons." He is now pointing to himself with his thumb. "First of all I'm the oldest." He is now pointing at Toni. "Second, you're a conspiracy theorist with a history of violence." He turns to me. "You're clearly emotionally disturbed and a narcissist." Fair enough and now it looks like its Vanessa's turn. "You're only 15."
"Hey," says an annoyed Toni, "why is her reason only about age?"
"Because"- suddenly we here a knock at the door, "do we even need to wonder who or what is behind that door."
We all walk towards the front door and I open it. On the floor is a sealed envelope.
"Chase, how do they know you're here," asks a concerned Vanessa.
"Beats me, hopefully after today we never have to worry about these wackos ever again."
With the envelope open, we all begin to look at the riddle which reads:
From Russia with Love
[3/1/1][3/2/16][3/3/2][4/1/1][4/2/21][4/3/10][4/4/2][4/5/2][5/1/8][5/4/11][5/5/5][5/6/13][6/2/25][6/3/17][6/3/8][6/3/12][7/5/6][7/6/15] [8/1/2][8/2/7][8/3/4][8/4/19] [9/1/5][9/2/4] [10/1/8][10/2/12][10/3/5] [11/1/27][11/3/29][11/4/9][11/5/4], _ [12/1/17][12/2/5] [13/1/25][13/2/22][13/3/29][13/4/8][13/5/1]
OK, now I'm sure these people are making stuff up. "Do any of you know what these numbers mean?"
"They could be coordinates," says a perplexed Toni. "You know, like longitudes and latitudes."
"No," starts Kai, "I'm thinking there dates. My guess is we have to find out what happened on these dates and they'll lead us to the final duel."
"That could take hours," seriously look at all these dates, "and what does From Russia with Love mean?"
"Well," starts Vanessa, "From Russia with Love is a James- Bond… novel, that's it!"
Suddenly, Vanessa grabs the clue out of my hands and begins to sprint back into the apartment and then into her room.
"OK," starts a confused Kai, "Does anyone but me think that she has an idea?"
The 3 of us walk back into the apartment and close the door behind us. I prepare to walk towards the room and… oh shit.
"You guys should probably come over here because it looks like the Professor is up to something."
It's Elemental HERO Stratos, for those of you who don't remember, he's the one, during that inclaim thing, who said that I still missed- you know what never mind. All you need to know is that he's leaning against the wall next to Vanessa's bedroom with his wings holstered.
The 3 of us walk to the room and look in. It looks like Vanessa is now sitting on her bed looking at a book and… is she writing on the clue sheet?
"Vanessa," begins Toni, "what are you doing?"
"I figured out the clue, these numbers aren't dates. The whole thing is an Ottendorf cipher."
"Wait, wait, wait, what are these magic numbers?"
"Give her a minute to explain Chase," says an annoying Stratos.
"There not magic numbers," she seems confident about this fact. "The whole thing is one big Ottendorf Cipher. You see, From Russia with Love is a book. The way an Ottendorf Cipher works is that the 3 numbers in each set of brackets corresponds to a specific letter on a page."
We're all still silent and I still think there magic numbers.
"Basically, the first number indicates the page we need. The next number is the line on the page and the third number is letter on that line. Are you guys following me on this? So basically the first letter of the first word of the clue is…T, followed by…h… and then e. Once this cipher is complete, we'll know exactly where the last duel is."
And we'll also be walking right into Segas' hands.
…
When Vanessa finished decoding the riddle it read: The final Duel will be held at the BOAT, 42nd street. Only where the 42 is, there was a blank line. For this part of the clue, we, like all great Americans, turned to cheesy old movies that randomly show up on all the random HBO channels at 2 in the morning. According to Kai, the blank line indicated a street here in Manhattan. We then came up with the idea that the reason the clue came almost 20 minutes early then every other clue is because the time is part of the clue. The exact time the clue came was at 11: 42, huge surprise, something big is happening on 42nd street.
Vanessa is now saying, "so where's the Bank of America Tower?"
That was last part of the clue. Obviously there's no boat on 42nd street, at least not before the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, so we figured BOAT was an acronym. Toni then realized that this most likely meant Bank of America Tower, which brings us to right now at 1 in the afternoon.
"Over there," the BOAT is 1,200 feet high with a 255.5 foot high spire on top. The whole building looks like it's made out of glass and the top of the tower is slanted. It's one of the few buildings to not contain a Tops level, granted there is a transportation road that runs alongside it.
As the 4 of us walk towards the building, I begin to scan around looking for signs that Mustang and his men are here. I don't know what they could do to help but it's better to know where they are for when things go horribly. I've seen the Dark Knight Rises, I know when things get intense, things go wrong.
"Chase," begins Stratos, "look over there, things are about to get serious."
I look to my right to see Judge Taft sitting on a bench next to the building. He appears to be staring intently at a Hot Dog cart across the street.
"Well here goes nothing," I say as we all walk towards Taft.
"So, all 4 of you came." Taft says this without taking his gaze off the Hot Dog Cart.
"Friends stick together," announces Vanessa. Actually, I told them all to stay at Vanessa's place but since they knew where I was going it was hard to lose them when they started following me.
"3 more people viewing the duel won't be a problem, seeing as originally the only viewers were to be myself and my master and before you all find comfort in the idea that your FBI buddies will be there to save you all if things go wrong, think otherwise."
"Mind if I ask why?" As Kai asks this, he is quickly scanning the area for signs of someone or something less than friendly.
"Because, we've taken precautions to make sure all 6 of the FBI agents located in this area never make it to the duel site.
Upon hearing this, we all tense up and quickly begin to frantically look around for signs of anything off.
"Calm down, calm down, I don't mean like that. I simply mean that there's only 1 way to reach the arena and Mr. Hot Dog man over there doesn't know the way."
On instinct, we all look towards the Hot Dog guy across the street. What the, wait a minute…Mustang's the Hot Dog Guy?
"The same goes for that lady sitting I n the coffee shop and the man sitting on the park bench reading a newspaper."
We all begin to look around the area and now that we know what we're looking for, the 4 of us can easily make out agent Hawkeye sitting in the coffee shop, pretending not to be paying attention to us. I can also see agent Havoc sitting on the bench across the street pretending to be reading a newspaper, granted I didn't even know they still made newspapers.
"I bet after the 4 of you deciphered todays riddle, you all thought it would be really smart to give a heads up to your FBI buddies. Thing is, we also thought that was a good idea so we decided to make the location of the duel impossible to be reached by normal means."
"Fine," we may or may not be screwed, "let's stop talking and start dueling."
In response to my ballsy, somewhat stupid but still ballsy, statement Taft gets up off the bench and puts a sinister smile on his mustache face.
"Look in the ally to your left."
We all do as were told and turn our heads towards the left side of the building. In the ally it looks kind of like there's a… a long but narrow platform. The kind you see window cleaners use to clean the sides of skyscrapers.
"You're not serious," says Toni, "there is no way all 5 of us are going to fit on that."
"Oh it's long enough and it can support up to 2000 pounds. By the way Ms. Sorentino, what did I say about wherein a skirt when in my presence."
"Who cares about my pants right now, you want us to stand on a thin sheet of metal that's going to lead to nowhere!"
"Oh I wouldn't say that." Upon saying that, Taft pulls a cell phone out of his pocket. On the screen it shows- what the hell.
"Is that," starts a shocked Vanessa, "Wilson standing on the roof of the tower?"
"Well, you're half right. You see, we've placed a large glass platform on top of the tower. It's the perfect site for your duel. The platform is basically invisible to any one more than a few feet away. Plus it's in such a crowded area that it would be almost impossible to get a helicopter near the site without starting a panic. Plus if you choose not to go to the duel." At that moment, Taft pushes a button on the phone which zooms onto a small black box that is screwed under the middle of the platform.
"Don't tell me," I say, "a bomb."
"You bet, now to the duel."
We all look nervous but we follow Taft to the platform and walk on. We all fit, barely. Kai's at one end, followed by Vanessa, Toni, me and Taft, Taft is now pushing a button that is causing the platform to go up like an elevator.
"Hey," starts Kai, "How were you guys able to put a giant glass platform on top of a well-known building in the middle of Manhattan?"
"It's easy when it's 2 in the morning and you have a service road next to the tower. The whole thing folds together for transport, plus the one end is designed to fit perfectly on to the side of the building. Plus the legs have slots in them that go around the lower corner of the tower."
"Who designed this," asks Vanessa, "Isn't this a bit much for a card game?"
"Ms. Aaronson, I don't think you understand the gravity of the situation. Whoever wins this duel will be in charge of the greatest group in this world's history."
"You can cut the crap Taft, I already figured out that this, so called "group" just consists of you, your boss and maybe a third person but that's it. This whole tournament is a scam for you to accomplish you and your group's evil plan."
"Is that what you think, I assure you boy your wrong. This is a major organization that is just trying to secure a steady growth of humanity."
"Then why are your 2 best candidates for this position under 18?"
"I'll let my master explain all that to you if you win."
…
It's cold up here. It's cold, windy and not even a knife could cut through the tension. Wilson is standing on the side of the platform where the top of the building is. This is also the side the metal platform is on but Wilson has yet to turn around towards us. In fact he isn't moving; it looks like all he's doing is staring into space. I can't even imagine how long he's been standing up here or better yet how he solved the clue. It took all 4 of us to solve the clue and it still came down to the fact that Vanessa had a random book. Come to think of it, how was Taft able to convince this kid to come on to this thing?
"Well Mr. Rhodes, are you going."
"How's about you go onto the giant piece of glass and walk to the edge."
"Now why I would do that, it's not like it's my duel?"
"So in other words, you're all going to stay on the steady metal platform, while I go on flimsy, cracking, thin glass."
"I think you underestimate us."
Hey what the hell! He just pushed me off the platform! "Ow!"
"It may hurt but it's still stable."
As much as I hate to admit it, Taft is right. When I hit the glass I didn't hear the glass make a single noise. I'm now trying to stand up, granted this is the definition of nerve racking.
"Hey Wilson, you ready to throw down?"
No answer, he's still just staring into space.
"Tick tock, tick tock, you 2 don't have all day."
I look back at Taft, granted I know saying anything is pointless. "Here we go."
I walk to the opposite end of the platform and turn on my duel disk. "All right Taft, you want a show, I'll give you a show!
Wilson
"It's my draw," Says Wilson with no emotion, "I summon Forest Wolf (ATK: 1800/DEF: 300) in attack mode and that's it for me!"
Chase
"A wolf dressed like a Grandma… so that means you're playing the fairy tale deck. I don't know a whole lot about it, but I do know the last guy who used that deck loved fairy tales so I guess that means you do to."
Still no response.
"OK then, well I always preferred Super Hero's to magic wolves! I play Polymerization, this card lets me fuse the Elemental HERO Avian and the Elemental HERO Burstinatrix in my hand in order to fusion summon, Elemental HERO Phoenix Enforcer (ATK: 2100/DEF: 1200)! Now Phoenix Enforcer, attack Forest Wolf, Phoenix Claw! (4000-3700) So you don't feel cold or flinch, weird. Either way I end my turn."
Wilson
"I set 1 monster face down and end my turn!"
Chase
"My draw," I got to end this duel quickly so we can get off this building and find the Grand Master. "I summon Elemental HERO Lady Heat (ATK: 1300/DEF: 1000) in attack mode! Now Lady Heat, take down Little Red Riding Hood!"
Lady Heat jumps high into the air and lands on the set card, destroying it and revealing a little girl with a red hood.
"How did you know his set monster?" Taft now seems tense, maybe because he knows I'm right about him.
"Of what little I know about the deck I do know about that card. I also know that now he gets to summon a level 4 monster to the field."
"I summon Forest Huntsman (ATK: 1200/DEF: 800) in attack mode!"
OK, that card I never heard of. I've heard of Forest Hunter and I know that cards dangerous.
"Now I activate Forest Huntsman's special ability! When he's summoned, I can banish 1 face-up Warrior or Spellcaster on your side of the field!"
An arrow has just struck Phoenix Enforcer in the chest, making him fade out of site. "With that I end my turn, which means Lady Heat hits you with 200 points of direct damage!" (3700-3500)
Wilson
"I draw and summon Iron Hans (ATK: 1200/DEF: 800) in attack mode and since I summoned Iron Hans I can special summon Iron Knight in attack mode as well (ATK: 1700/DEF: 700). Next, due to Iron Knights effect he loses 1000 ATK points because Iron Hans is on the field!" (1700-700)
"Chase," Stratos is now next to me. "Look carefully at Wilson's eyes. I just figured out whys he's acting so strange."
"Wait, you're not saying"-
"Oh yes I am. He has red circles around his eyes."
Next time: The unstoppable Trishula
"Now I Banish Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier in order to summon the most powerful evil on the face of the earth!"