Chapter 12
Kal slept like a rock. All of the things that he had done in the past week were starting to wear him out.
He could just remember how just one week ago he had been fighting scum from the alleys of Aequitas. He could remember fighting in the police force before that. He could also remember his Food Vender, Alina.
Oh how much he missed Alina. He missed her more every day, and hanging around with Zandra wasn’t helping.
Kal decided to sleep, even though he didn’t want to. He soon began to dream.
He went to his house, the two story house that was in Aequitas, but now the house wasn’t run down. It looked brand new.
Kal was running off of the school bus toward his front door, excited. It was his first day of Duel Academy – Pre School. He had made a lot of friends, and was already trading cards. He wanted to show what he got to his parents.
Kal burst in through the front door, “Mom? Where are you? I have something to show you!”
“In the kitchen.” His mother said half-paying attention.
Kal set his backpack down on the floor next to the front door, and then crossed through the living room to the far side to enter the kitchen. He walked passed the cooking area to the small island, where his mom was sitting reading a magazine.
“Hey, look what I got today!” Kal said, raising his hand with three cards in the air as high as he could, trying to get his mother to see.
Kal’s mom put down the magazine. “Cool, honey! But your dad knows more about Duel Monsters than I do, so go show him.”
“Okay!” Kal said, being the happy-go-lucky kid he was.
Kal half-ran passed the kitchen and through the living room to get back to the front entryway. He walked up the staircase that was in front of the doors toward the second story of the house.
Off the hall was Kal’s parent’s room, and farther down from that was Kal’s father’s office.
Kal walked down to the office and pushed open the door. “Dad?”
“What is it, Son?”
“Look at the cards I got today at school.” Kal said, walking in with the cards raised.
Kal’s father took the cards and looked through his glasses at them.
“These are common normal monsters, Kal. What did you trade for them?”
“Well, I traded that shiny card you gave me yesterday.”
“What?!” Kal’s father exclaimed, throwing the cards. They fluttered to the floor. “You traded that for these miserable things?”
Kal started to shrink into his shirt.
“Yeah…”
Kal’s father took off his glasses and ran his fingers through his long, black hair.
“Son, I am not angry with you, but you must understand the premise of a fair trade. The people you traded that card with ripped you off today.”
Kal started feeling a tad better. He understood where his father was coming from.
“Now I don’t want you to trade a holographic card for commons anymore, alright? And don’t ever get normal monsters unless you truly need them in a deck build. Effect monsters work much better.”
“Understood, Sir.” Kal said.
“Good, Lad. Now go run along, I have some work I need to do.” Kal’s father said.
Kal walked out of the room, not bothering to pick up the worthless cards his father had thrown.
…
“I don’t understand why you would talk to a five year old boy like this…” Kal’s mother said.
“We must teach our son the ways of the world, Maria.”
“I know that, but he is only five years old! He doesn’t need to know yet.”
“If we don’t teach him now, what is going to stop him from being ripped off in the future? You saw how easily it can happen; it was his first day of school! Don’t you think it is about time we explain to Kal just how bad things can get?”
“No! He is an innocent young life; we don’t need to taint him with the realism of the outside world just yet. You have told him his mistake, but we don’t need to go into any greater detail with it…”
“But we do, Maria. We do. I didn’t have the privilege of learning early, and I had a rough time growing up because of it. I think we should teach him early so he can know how to defend himself in time of need, and know what to do when.”
“But in so doing you are robbing him of his childhood! Nothing can get that back.”
Kal’s parents were having a conversation in the living room that was nearing an argument. Kal’s father usually stayed calm during these things, where as his mother would tend to overreact.
Kal was listening in the kitchen, wondering what they were talking about.
“Robbing him of his childhood to preserve his innocence and life is worth it.”
Maria looked shocked, like she couldn’t believe he had said that.
“Maria, look, I…”
“Save it. You and I may have differing points of view on how to raise a child, but I believe that robbing Kal of his childhood it just plain wrong! No matter how you spin it, you won’t convince me that what you want to do is right.”
Maria stood up and ran out of the room and up the stairs, headed toward the master bedroom. There soon was a sound of a slamming door.
Kal’s father’s head fell.
…
Kal was suddenly 18 once more, standing in a realm of nothingness. All he could see was black, and a thin layer of fog that only came up to his waist.
It was almost like the movie had ended, and this was where the credits were supposed to begin. After no text started running up the screen, Kal began to wonder where he was.
Until the pain began.
Kal’s chest began to glow blue, and hurt like someone was stabbing him with a thousand hot knives at once.
Kal began to scream in agony, as if that were going to help. He fell to his knees, clutching at his chest to try and alleviate the pain.
The pain only got worse. The light flashed brighter. Kal had no idea what was going on.
Was this part of a dream?
Kal was now lying on his back, wishing for the pain to go away. Or for himself to wake up.
Kal noticed something in the background move against the fog.
“Not again…” a deep, raspy voice said, annoyed.
Kal’s eyes grew large as he saw a black, formless figure step out of the darkness.
He raised a lump where a human hand would be. He lump grew crude fingers, and then a black mist started falling from his hand. It swirled in the air, enveloping Kal in its eternal darkness…
…
Kal woke with a start.
‘Was that a dream, or was that real?’ Kal wondered.
A buzzing noise came from beside Kal’s bed. It was the alarm clock, signaling that it was time to get ready for the tournament.
Kal shut the thing off and rubbed his face. Maybe he would never know what that dream was…
‘It was kind of strange that a formless thing was in my dream. That was just like Talia had described…’
Max woke up in the other bed in the room.
“Jean, you awake?” he grumbled.
“Yeah, I am.” Kal said. He wished someone would call him Kal once again.
“Well, time for us to get ready for the tournament. Today we will find out who gets into the semi finals.”
Kal grumbled and nodded his head. Max seemed satisfied with that answer.
Max went to take a shower, and Kal went and got his duel disk. He wanted to do some adjustments to his deck.
Max came out of the shower ready to go duel, and when he saw Kal surrounded by what seemed like thousands of cards on his bed he could only wonder why?
“Jean, what are you doing?” Max asked.
Kal didn’t answer; he was too deep in thought. Max left him alone, and he exited the room to find some breakfast…
…
Kal managed to end up in the stadium right on time. Roland was about to close the doors when Kal arrived. He took his seat. Sitting next to him were the other competitors in the final eight:
Max Aufero, Talia Memourn, and Shylish Mastero, Kal had learned to know. Conner Brisser, Crystel Tompson, Bob Remdi, and a character calling himself Ununoc, Kal didn’t want to know about.
They were each sitting in a line; Kal was in the first seat like he always was. Next to him was Max.
“Hey, what were you doing this morning with your cards?” Max whispered to Kal. All they were missing was Roland’s daily speech that they have heard too many times.
“I thought of an interesting build this morning, and I want to test it out.” Kal replied.
Max thought for a moment, “Why? Your deck has beaten everyone here… why change it now?”
“That is exactly why. People are beginning to notice my dueling strategies, so I decided to change it up a bit.” Kal said, ginning.
Max had to grin at that. “You truly are a genius.” He said, “I hope we aren’t going against each other.”
“Neither do I,” Kal said, “But if we do, may the best man win.” Kal extended a hand.
Max took it.
Kal heard the last bit of Roland’s speech, “…and so without further ado, the next round will start off between Jean Amicus and Shylish Mastero!”
The crowd started roaring with applause and praise for Jean. Kal walked out onto the floor. Shylish walked out to the other side.
The slender boy with the dark brown hair stood opposite Kal and drew five cards. Kal knew this duel was going to be interesting.
“Duel!” They said, and Kal drew his hand.
Kal: 8000
Shylish: 8000
“I will start.” Shylish said, drawing his card. “I Summon my Musical – Flute, in attack mode!”
The card flipped, and a silver flute appeared. Surrounding it in a ghostly shape was a thin, grey mist. ATK: 1850 / LV: 4.
“Then I place two cards face down and end my turn.”
‘This guy means business…” Kal thought to himself. He drew his card.
“I activate the Spell Card called Recruitment! Since you have more monsters that I do, I can Special Summon 1 Ally Monster from my deck!” Kal said, “So I summon my Legion’s Power – Super Kid!”
A grayscale warrior with a long sword appeared on Kal’s side of the field. ATK: 1000 / LV: 4.
“Now I activate the Spell Card called Hand Destruction!” Kal said, “This makes us discard two, and then we draw two!”
‘Hand destruction?’ Talia thought, ‘Why does Kal have that? It isn’t Ally Support…’
Kal discarded his two cards, and then drew. Shylish looked pleased with what he drew as well.
“Now I release my Super Kid, to activate the special ability of my Legion’s Fallen General – Stazlban! When he is in the Graveyard, like I sent him there with hand destruction, I can Special Summon him by releasing a monster I control. So now I Special Summon him!”
A warrior with dark, rotting skin came crawling out of the ground. He wielded a similar weapon as the Legion’s Samurai. ATK: 2200 / LV: 6.
“I still haven’t Normal Summoned yet, so now I Summon my Legion’s Mercenary – Lusato!”
A gorgeous woman in red armor appeared on Kal’s side of the field, next to the Fallen General. She carried a sword in her hand, ready to strike. ATK: 1700 / LV: 4.
“Now I can activate the ability of my mercenary! She can remove the top card of your graveyard from play!” Kal said. “By paying 500 life points.”
Kal: 7500
Shylish: 8000
“This could not get any better!” Shylish said, “The top card is my Musical Note – Sol. When he is removed, I can add a Musical Note Monster from my deck to the Graveyard, and I choose my Musical Note – Do. When he is sent to the Graveyard, I can add another one to my hand!”
Shylish made the adjustments, adding 1 card in his deck to his hand, and sending the other to the Graveyard. Then he put the first card in his shirt pocket, his removed from game zone.
“Well, now that the card was a monster, my Lusato has a second ability! Since it was a monster she removed, an Ally Monster can attack twice this turn, and I choose my Stazlban! Now my Fallen General will attack your Flute!” Kal said.
The General walked forward and slashed his sword through the flute… only the flute remained.
“I activate my Trap Card, Distortion! Now my flute can’t be destroyed by battle this turn.”
“You still take the damage though.” Kal pointed out.
Kal: 7500
Shylish: 7650
“Let’s use that second attack to take out another 350 Life Points.” Kal said.
The General slashed his weapon once more, but again the flute seemed untouched.
Kal: 7500
Shylish: 7300
“I place 1 card face down, then end my turn.”
Shylish drew his card.
“I activate the Spell Card, Soul Prison! I can send 4 Fairies to my Graveyard to destroy 1 facedown card!”
“I chain to that my Legion’s Magma Stone – Standlach! Now that it is face up, it is Summoned to the field, and your card can’t resolve, so the effect disappears. However, you must still send those cards to the Graveyard.” Kal said.
A Giant, red rock appeared in front of Kal. ATK: 1400 / LV: 5.
Shylish sent his cards, but he didn’t look disappointed.
“I activate the Special Ability of my Standlach! Now I can Special Summon a level 3 or lower Ally Monster on top of him, so I choose my Legion’s Samurai! Plus, if he is Special Summoned like this, he gains 700 ATK!”
The Samurai appeared in front of a burning piece of stone, and then he glowed red. ATK: 1500 ~ 2200 / LV: 3.
“Fine, but I Summon my Musical – Violin!” Shylish said.
A violin appeared next to the flute, and a gray mist wrapped around it. ATK: 1600.
“Now I can activate the ability of my Violin! By removing two cards in my Graveyard from play, I can destroy your Samurai!”
The Violin started to play an assortment of sweet notes; actually it alternated between the same two, over and over.
“I remove my Do and my Mi, and by my Mi’s effect I gain 200 Life Points for each Musical Note Removed from play, giving me 600 more!”
Kal: 7500
Shylish: 7900
The Violin stopped its playing, and then a beam of light was released from the instrument toward the Samurai.
“I activate the special ability of my Fallen General! Whenever an Ally Monster would be destroyed, he is destroyed instead. But when he leaves the field, I take 500 Life Points of Damage.” Kal said.
The Rotting Knight stepped in front of the beam, destroying himself instantly.
Kal: 7000
Shylish: 7900
“Fine, I guess all I can do now is attack and destroy your Lusato!” Shylish said.
The Flute started to play its own musical notes, and then released a beam of light at the Mercenary.
“Wrong.” Kal said, “I activate the Trap Card called Barrier of the Departed Ally!”
His card flipped up to reveal a monster in front of a red seal.
“This card allows me to Special Summon an Ally Monster from my Graveyard to the bottom of 1 Stack, and then negate the attack of your monster. So I Special Summon my Legion’s Card Relocater!”
“How did that get in your Graveyard?” Shylish asked.
A red demon appeared out of no where. He held his hands in front of the beam, which was vanquished in thin air. Then the Card Relocater was drug behind the Mercenary by his chains around his wrists. ATK: 600 / LV: 3.
“I have to end my turn, then.” Shylish said.
Kal drew his card, and then he drew another.
“Hey! What are you doing?” Shylish asked, perplexed.
“The effect of my Card Relocater allows me another draw in my Standby Phase.” Kal said, “And now I can Special Summon my Fallen General back from my Graveyard by releasing my Card Relocater.”
The red demon with chains disappeared from behind the Mercenary, and then beside her the Fallen General rose once more. ATK: 2200 / LV: 6.
“Now that I have a level 5 or higher Ally Monster on my side of the field, I can activate Ally Draw! This allows me to draw two cards.”
Kal drew his two cards, now having five in his hand.
“I activate the Spell Card called Reinforcement of the Allies! This card allows me to add an Ally Monster from my deck to my hand, and then I can activate a following ability. So I add my Legion’s Techno Knight to my hand.” Kal said as he added the card to his hand, “Now I can activate the Spell Card’s second effect to destroy a Spell or Trap Card on the field! So I can discard 1 card…” Kal discarded an Ally Monster from his hand, “…to destroy that face down that you have had there since the first turn.”
Shylish didn’t look happy about that. He sent a card known as Musical Shield that, no doubt, would have protected his monsters this turn.
“Now I can Summon my Techno Knight that I just added to my hand, which triggers his ability! By discarding 1 card I can summon another Ally Monster from my Graveyard.”
A golden knight appeared next to the red stone. ATK: 1500 / LV: 4.
Kal discarded another card, lowering his hand to one card, and all of a sudden a giant robot that would have rivaled the old card Ancient Gear Golem appeared. ATK: 0 / LV: 6.
Shylish had to crane his neck to see the top of the magnificent creature.
“This is the Legion’s Thought Bender, a creature that I hadn’t found in my card box until this morning. When I found it, I was surprised at first that I hadn’t seen an ultimate rare like this before.” Kal said, thinking to himself, “his effect is that when he is summoned, he gains counter equal to the amount of Ally Monsters that I control. Including him, I control 5 Allies, since Standlach doesn’t count.”
Five orbs built into the machine glowed at once, signifying the Ally Counters.
“Now he gains 700 ATK for each counter, bringing him up to 3500!”
ATK: 0 ~ 3500.
“That is one heck of a power boost…” Shylish said.
“That it is. I activate the special ability of my Legion’s Samurai, allowing me to release the Magma Stone and destroy your Flute.”
The Stone evaporated into a red light, which was attracted like a magnet to the Samurai’s staff. The Staff glowed red, signifying that it was ready. The Samurai flung his staff, releasing the power it contained straight at the flute. The musical instrument was broken into a thousand shards.
“You have nearly all of your Life Points, but watch as they all will fall.” Kal said, “I attack your Violin with my Mercenary – Lusato!”
The beautiful woman with the sword walked forward and slashed though the instrument with ease, destroying Shylish’s last defense.
Kal: 7000
Shylish: 7800
“Now I will attack you with my Legion’s Fallen General!”
The Zombie walked forward and delivered his powerful slash of his weapon.
Kal: 7000
Shylish: 5600
“And now my Samurai!” Kal said.
The black-armored warrior walked forward with his staff, then slashed it through Shylish as well.
Kal: 7000
Shylish: 3400
“And now my Thought Bender can finish you off.”
The giant machine didn’t even have to move. It raised its giant fist into the air and pulverized Shylish. If it weren’t a hologram, Shylish would be dead. It was a truly magnificent sight, seeing the giant machine finish off the enemy. It probably didn’t look that way on the other side of the field.
Kal: 7000
Shylish: 0.
The crowd was stunned silent for a moment, but they would stay that way for long. Soon they were on their feet, applauding the spectacular event that they witnessed before them. They probably thought that they were witnessing some spectacular event that would make history. For all they knew, it could.
Kal half-expected Shylish to break down just like his other opponents, but he didn’t. He actually started walking up to Kal.
Kal had a tiny thought that he was about to be clobbered by this guy, but he stood his ground. Just in case.
When Shylish walked up to him he didn’t punch him, but he held out his hand.
“Good game.” He said softly.
Kal took his hand and shook it. “Thank you.”
Shylish looked him in the eye, “If you ever need something, never hesitate to contact me. I feel that you will need it one day.”
“Thank you, I will remember that.” It wasn’t the first time he had been told that, Xyle Fortress had said the same thing so long ago in the alleys of Aequitas, after they had dueled.
Kal didn’t wait for a crowd of people to come his way this time. He decided to leave the stadium before they had the chance.
Kal decided to go down the stairs to the room below the floor, the one with the clear ceiling that the people below could see the duels from below with.
When Kal got there, he read on the door that it was called the “Observation Room.”
He opened the door and walked in. Several people wanted to scream in excitement.
Kal put a finger to his lips to signify ‘quiet.’ No one made a sound.
The duel had already started above. It was Max and his Deserter Knights against Conner Brisser and his “Silver” creatures.
On the field, Brisser was winning. Max controlled nothing except a facedown, while Brisser had three monsters.
Life Points told a different story. Brisser had already lost half of his Life Points. Good old Max with his Deserters. Kal hoped he wouldn’t have to go up against him soon…
Kal pulled up an empty chair and watched the duel from below. The chairs were made a special way as to let the person sit in it lean back, although it was only a simple, plastic chair.
Soon Kal was comfortable watching the duel. Without the people from above asking for his autograph, he was at ease. No one dared ask him for his autograph in the Observation Room, they all seemed afraid of him.
Kal was watching as Max wiped the floor with Brisser. He knew he would. Now the both of them were in the semi finals.
Talia was about to step up for her round when the doors of the stadium burst open. There were two DFP officers with their guns raised coming through.
Kal could barely hear though the floor, “Nobody move!”
Kal hadn’t been gone from his home town for longer than a week, but he still hadn’t seen these two guys for over six months. It took him a moment to realize who they were.
It was the Chief and Lance Brodorn. His surrogate father and old boss, and his best friend.
Unfortunately they weren’t there for a visit. Kal was a fugitive, and they were there to arrest him.
Kal silently got out of his reclining chair and walked out of the Observation Room. He had to get out of there as fast as possible. If he didn’t, he would be stuck in jail and forced to forfeit the contest.
Kal couldn’t handle that thought.
Kal used the power of his unfinished Cyborg legs to bring himself to the elevator as fast as he could. He pressed the button to get the machine in motion.
He stood out in the open, constantly checking over his shoulder to see if they were coming out of the room.
Luckily, Kal didn’t have to wait and find out. The doors opened and Kal walked inside. He pressed the button for his floor, anxiety getting the best of him.
_____
The Chief and Lance walked out of the elevator and onto the floor with the duel tournament.
“You think he is here?” Lance asked.
“Of course he is here. When we got to that gas station I saw a flyer for it. No doubt Kal saw it too. He must be here.” The Chief said, wishing he was right.
They walked up to the closed door. They waited for the duel to be over before they went in. They were duelists, and there was a precedent among duelists that no one interrupts a duel.
Once the duel was over, they opened the door and raised their guns.
“Nobody move!” the Chief said.
The crowd began to scream. They thought they were criminals, there to crash the party.
“Hold your horses, everyone, we are DFP. We are looking for a fugitive that we believe is participating in this tournament.” Lance explained.
In the back corner of the room was a man in a large-brimmed hat and tan overcoat. The man stood up and walked toward the men.
“Who are you looking for?” the man said, as he let the coat and hat fall to the floor, revealing a red suit and long grey hair that covered one eye. Maximillion Pegasus.
For a moment the two officers were astonished that they were actually seeing the creator of duel monsters, but the nature of their business there snapped them out of it.
“We are looking for Kal Iszarc.”
Pegasus thought for a moment. “No one here in the tournament is under that name.”
The Chief looked downhearted, but had one last idea. He holstered his gun and took out a photo of Kal from 6 months earlier. It was a picture of right before he had stormed out of the police station after he was fired.
Pegasus looked at it for a moment then replied, “I have never seen this person.”
“Thank you for your cooperation, but may we look through the crowd, just in case?” Lance asked.
“Well, sure, Gentlemen! Stay for the next duel if you like.” Pegasus said. He picked up his coat and hat and walked over to Roland.
“It seems my cover has been blown.” Pegasus said to him, “I think I will call it a day.”
Pegasus shoved the clothing into his hands, and then walked out of the room.
Roland had no idea what to do with the coat and hat, so he just sat them on an empty chair.
The two DFP officers went around the place, searching through all of the faces of the crowd to no avail.
They left the room, and went to the elevator to find that the doors were just closing. Pegasus was heading up.
_____
Kal closed the door to his room. He had gathered his bag and remaining cards and was heading to the food court to get some free food for the road with his card that he won.
He turned toward the elevator to find a person was in the way.
It was Pegasus. He was standing there with his arms folded, looking down at him with his one eye with disdain.
“Pegasus! ... hi…” was all he could say.
“Hello, Kal.”
Kal freaked. He hadn’t been called Kal in so long that he felt that he was Jean, permanently. Being called Kal brought up distant memories he had of his family, of his old job, of his friends he once had, of Alina.
“How did you…?” Kal asked.
“Your police friends arrived. They were looking for you, and they called you Kal Iszarc.”
“What did you tell them?” Kal asked.
“Don’t worry; I haven’t alerted them to your existence here. As far as they know, you were never here. No one knows who you are except me. Though, you are a fugitive. For that reason, I must ask you to leave.”
Kal looked at Pegasus, “You don’t understand why I am wanted…”
“I am sure I don’t need to know. Nonetheless, you are wanted by the law, and I don’t appreciate my tournament being interrupted by police looking for the likes of you.”
Pegasus was talking with scorn. He didn’t know anything of him, yet he hated Kal that much. What did he have against him? That he was a criminal? That couldn’t be all… It was just this morning that he was telling Kal that he was his favorite contestant, now Kal was lower than a bug?
“Fine, I will leave at once.” Kal said, shuffling toward the elevator.
“Kal…”
Kal turned back to the creator of his favorite game, of his life.
“You give up that easily?” Pegasus looked at him, trying not to smile.
Kal looked at him with chagrin, “Well, I have been looked down upon for the last month. I have been looked at as a criminal, though what I am wanted for is helping the community and making the police force look bad. I have been living under a broken roof and in a cave before I came to this all-expense paid vacation. If you told me to leave, I would have given up, because this was only a dream in the first place. I knew it wouldn’t last forever.”
Pegasus started laughing.
“I can’t believe it! The greatest duelist I have ever laid eyes on gives up when he is told to leave!”
“Pegasus, do you want me to go or not?” Kal asked, impatient.
“No, I don’t want you to leave.” Pegasus said, calming down, “I just wanted to see how you would react.”
Pegasus walked over to him and put his arm around Kal’s shoulders.
“I have seen many Duelists, and some of them are at the top. Yugi Muto has got to be the best duelist I have ever seen, and the first to top anyone in the game. Seto Kaiba is second, only ever losing to Yugi. I think you have nudged your way into third place. I can’t tell you to leave the tournament.”
Kal felt relieved. He could stay!
“However, tomorrow you are going to need to reveal who you are, your true self. I will not disqualify you for being truthful. I can keep the guards off of you as long as you are in the tournament, but when you win I can’t guarantee anything.”
Kal caught something in his sentence, the word ‘when.’ Pegasus fully believed that Kal was going to win, hands down.
That made Kal feel great. Tomorrow he could truly be himself, and he still had people that were hoping for him to win.
He just hoped that he would be the winner of the tournament. He wanted to win this so badly. For so long he had spent his time in that decrepit house, watching it fall to pieces. He needed to win this penthouse, not only for himself, but for his parents. They would have wanted him to live somewhere nice too.
He also hoped that he wouldn’t get caught by the DFP also. After this tournament, he was heading off to find Joel Karne. He needed to bring him to justice.
Maybe after he did, he would get his job back, and then be transferred over to the Succurro DFP. His life would then be back to normal.
But then he would have to find Alina and bring her to Succurro as well. He would finally get up the courage to tell her just how much he felt for her.
All of this was going to happen after the tournament. He only had two more rounds in his way of a perfect life.
Kal will not be beaten.
Monday, April 13, 2009
Chapter 13
Chapter 13
Kal slept soundly that night. At least that is how it started.
He dreamed dreams of his life after the tournament, and what he might find. Soon his mind traveled back to Aequitas and to a familiar street vender…
Alina.
Kal had been friends with her ever since she got home from his seclusion in the cave that he found.
When he was tired of the wild berries he gathered, he came home and tried to capture criminals in the nighttime. A person needs energy to hunt the bad guys, and to run from the good ones.
That was how he met her.
One crisp morning, Kal was walking around the back alleys of Aequitas. He hadn’t eaten anything in a few days, and he was looking for anyone to duel for some food. This early, there wasn’t anyone about.
A woman with long brown hair came around the corner pushing a cart. She was dressed in a tight-fitting, red top and blue jeans. Kal could tell from even as far away he was that she was beautiful.
But the more important thing to him at the time was that she had a food cart. Kal half-ran up to her without hesitation to see what she had that morning.
She set the cart down on the side of a stone courtyard that all the familiar alleys backed into from streets all around. It was a popular hangout for all the lower class citizens, as it blocked the view from all the streets, and it was accessible from all parts of the lower city.
The woman bent over behind the cart to lock the wheels in place, and when she stood up Kal was standing right in front of her. She almost had a heart attack where she stood.
She put her hand over her chest. “You scared me…”
“I didn’t mean to frighten you.” Kal said. He sounded honest. The woman looked like she trusted his answer. “First time?”
The woman gave him a look, “For what?”
“For carting the Lower City Courtyard, of course!” Kal said.
“Well, this is actually my first time in this part of town… I was assigned to this post just yesterday.”
“Are you afraid of the residents here?” Kal asked, putting his arms on the counter.
The woman looked at the machine attached to his arm in awe. “You are a duelist?” She asked, wide eyed.
Kal looked at his duel disk, “Yeah, I am.” Kal smiled, “You didn’t think there were any down here, did ya?”
Her eyes told the truth.
“Well, there are. More than you would think. Truth is, that is all we can do here. Sometimes we duel over conflicts, instead of physical contact. We also duel for food, sometimes…”
The woman stood there, thinking. It looked like she wanted to ask a question.
“What?” Kal asked.
“Well…” she said, unsure, “I don’t know how to duel.”
Kal thought for a moment, and then his stomach rumbled. The woman realized why he must be standing there at her cart.
“Tell you what.” She said, taking control of the situation, “I will give you free containers of food if you teach me how to duel.”
Kal didn’t even need to think about that one. He said, “Agreed,” and extended his hand.
She took it happily. They stood there grasping each other’s hand for a moment longer than needed.
“Well…” she asked, “can I have my hand back?”
Kal grinned and let her hand fall. She grinned back, and looked at her feet.
“I’m Alina.” She blurted out, digging a hole in the dirt with her toe.
“I’m Kal.” He replied, “Nice to meet you.”
Alina grinned, she looked really happy.
“So… Dueling one-oh-one?” Kal asked.
All Alina did was nod.
Kal taught her for the next hour on the basics of how to duel, starting with the bear minimum amount of information about the game. She seemed to enjoy having Kal there more than having him teach her about the game.
In return, she gave him a week’s worth of artificial food. Kal was eternally grateful.
Kal continued the dream until this part, but then things started to get strange.
Kal was again staring into nothingness. There was only a small layer of fog that reached up to his waist. He was inside his own mind.
He was aware of his subconscious.
Kal turned around and around, trying to find something in this cavern of nothingness.
“So... You managed to walk into your own mind?” a deep, raspy voice asked.
Kal turned to where he thought he heard the voice but found nothing.
“Who’s there?” Kal asked.
“You’re the big boss here, find me.” The voice said.
‘How am I supposed to do that?’ Kal thought. Kal was amazed that he heard his voice echo from all around him.
“You don’t realize that all your thoughts revolve around here? Any thought will echo. Nothing is a secret in your own mind.” The raspy voice said.
Kal was getting ticked.
“Show yourself!” he said. For a moment, the fog began to swirl, and it looked like the darkness itself started to bend and warp. Soon it was back to normal.
The raspy voice began to laugh a cackling laugh.
“You are strong.” It said, “I was hoping for that.”
“Why?” Kal asked, “Who are you?”
The darkness twisted like fabric, settling back into its place after a moment.
“I am a protector of your mind.” It said plainly.
“A protector?”
“Yes, a being that walks into a person’s mind and keeps the other lookers away.”
Kal felt instantly on edge. He didn’t want someone prowling around in his head, especially when he wasn’t invited.
“I can feel that you don’t want me here.” The being said. It stepped from the shadows, revealing its formless body. “But I feel that it was necessary.”
“If we all did things that we felt were necessary, then we would be living in anarchy.” Kal said to the creature.
The being laughed again.
“You think you would be safe without me in here?”
Kal wondered that for a moment, but nothing in words. He didn’t want that to echo in his mind.
“You are learning to control your thoughts, even from yourself. That is good…”
The creature began to pace around where Kal stood.
“No one told you to move.” Kal said. Instantly the man stopped. It was obviously against his will, as he struggled against invisible bonds that kept him from moving.
“Release me.” The creature commanded.
“As you said, I am the big boss around here. I believe you will stay stationary.” Kal said.
“Huh, you are an assertive one, aren’t you?” the creature asked, “You feel that you have the power to restrain me?”
Kal nodded.
The creature’s face twisted about, almost like a formless smile.
“Let’s see then.”
The creature expanded. His arms and legs all grew to twice their size, breaking the tethers holding him down. He raised a foot over where Kal stood.
Kal decided to move. He rolled off to the side, out of the way of the creature’s foot that came crashing down.
Kal leapt into the air; after all, this was still a dream. Soon he was above the creature’s head, some 100 feet above the ground.
Kal held a hand toward the creature, palm facing out.
“Be gone!!” he said, and he forced his energy from his hand.
The creature began to twist into a shapeless blob of a dark substance. Tan walls began to appear from the darkness, and light began to illuminate the space.
Soon the whole cavern was filled with stone walls instead of the black nothingness. They seemed to go on forever, never ending in a maze of doors and stairs.
The creature shrunk back into its formless body, curled up on the floor in the light. It didn’t seem as menacing when it was the darkest thing in a very light room.
Kal took his foot and nudged the thing over. It stared up at him with its blank face.
“Who are you?” Kal asked.
It laughed again, its face stretching to signify its mouth moving up and down.
“You would like to know?” it asked.
Kal bent over and pulled him up from the lapels, looking him straight in the face.
“Reveal yourself.” He whispered commandingly.
The edges of the black exterior began to shake, falling apart at what would be the seams. It began to shrink into itself, revealing a man.
It was a man just over six feet tall. He was muscular, but not too much so. He was a little pudgy as well. He wore a thin, white tank top and loose fitting jeans.
It was the man the clerk from the gas station that had told him about the tournament!
“You’re Bill Utilis!” Kal said, awestruck.
The man laughed, his voice was the same as he remembered it from the store.
“Yes, that is my name.”
“How are you in my head….?”
“That is a secret for me to know. You may find out eventually, but why would it be for me to say?”
Kal looked at him for a moment, and then punched Bill in the face. It didn’t look like it fazed him at all.
“Tell me what you are doing here! Why did you disappear when the organizers of the tournament needed more information from you?”
“Come now, Kal, I thought you would have connected the dots by now.” Bill said.
Kal paused for a moment.
“What dots?”
“You still think this has to do with the tournament?”
Kal nodded an unsure nod.
Bill laughed.
“Its not.” He didn’t care to elaborate.
Kal was getting sick of this guy.
“You can’t make me leave. I know you want too, but you can’t do anything until you are strong enough.”
“I’m not strong enough?” Kal asked, “Then what is this?”
Kal put his palm in Bill’s face and concentrated. It then seemed like wind was coming from his hand, blowing so hard that all of Bill’s body began to be squeezed into a two dimensional view.
Kal stopped the energy flow and Bill popped back into 3-D.
“An obvious sign of you not being strong enough.” Bill answered.
Kal suddenly got an idea. Bill knew it at the same moment Kal thought of it.
“No you don’t…” he began, but Kal was quicker.
Kal knew that he couldn’t get rid of Bill, so he decided to chain him down, making him unable to do anything else in his mind.
Kal drug him over to one of the doors. He put his hand on the door and waited for a moment. Light shined from behind the door.
Kal opened the door and threw Bill into the space, which was now an empty room.
“Hey…what…how… you…” Bill was flustered.
“Have a nice stay at Iszarc Estates.” Kal said, and slammed the door shut.
Kal could hear him pounding on the door from the other side. Kal snapped his fingers and the door disappeared, leaving only a smooth, stone wall in its place. Bill was trapped until Kal released him.
Kal opened his eyes and felt different. Before he had fallen asleep, he had felt empty inside, like he hadn’t even scratched the surface of who he was, even though he was 18 years old.
But now he felt energized, like he had finally gotten somewhere. He actually saw the inside of his mind! He would have to tell Talia soon…
Kal got up and got ready for the tournament. There were only four people left: Talia, Max, Bob, and Kal.
Kal only hoped that he wouldn’t face Max. Not because he was a powerful duelist, but because if they faced each other one of them would be eliminated. Kal didn’t want that.
Nevertheless, Kal walked to the dueling room with the clear floor alone. Max had already gone up sometime before Kal had woken up. Max always seemed to get up early.
When he got there, Kal saw that there were only four chairs. All of the other competitors were already there, and Kal was forced to sit in the only empty chair. It happened to be at the end next to Talia.
Kal sat next to the gorgeous red haired girl, who was dressed in a black top with pink designs, and plain black pants.
Talia acknowledged him, but nothing more than that.
Kal thought-probed a message to her.
‘I had an encounter with the being in my mind.’ He sent.
Talia looked at him, and then thought back, ‘What??’
‘I fought him in my mind.’
‘You are able to go inside your own mind now?’
‘Yes, I seemed to have learned it in my sleep.’
‘Interesting… What happened between you two?’
‘I banished the darkness blocking my mind, and I locked him up.’ Kal didn’t bother to tell her that the man was the same person who sent him to the tournament. That would have started a series of questions that would never end.
‘You did? Single handed? You didn’t have help….?’
‘No, Talia. I did it on my own.’ Kal though back. Why she thought he was weak was astounding.
‘Huh….’
Just then Roland stepped out in his usual business suit and microphone.
“Today is the Semi Finals!” he said.
The crowd burst out cheering.
“Your top four competitors have made it far. And here they are!”
Roland motioned toward the set of four chairs on the floor. The crowd in the bleachers almost went nuts.
“And I would like to announce a special guest! You all have heard of him before, the creator of Duel Monsters himself, Mr. Maximillion Pegasus!!”
The doors opened and in walked Pegasus in his usual red suit. His long grey hair covered one eye.
“Hello, everyone!” Pegasus said.
The crowd went nuts.
Pegasus sat down in a fifth chair that Roland sat next to Kal.
“Good luck today, Kal. Don’t forget to tell everyone who you really are.”
“Understood. Thank you, sir.” Kal said.
“Don’t thank me. There is nothing that needs to be thanked. But thank you for showing me the power of these cards that never went on the market. What say we remake them after the tournament is over with, eh?”
Kal turned to him.
“You would do that?”
“Why not? I own them anyway…” he said.
Roland started talking once more, cutting the two of them off.
“And now, I would like for you all to see the first in the last three duels of this tournament!”
The crowd cheered him on.
“The first competitor is... Jean Amicus!”
Kal had already walked over to his usual position. He always went first.
“And the other competitor is… Max Aufero!”
The crowd cheered him on as he walked out onto the floor. Kal could see the disappointment in his eyes. One of them would be going home before the finals.
“Hey, Jean? Play it tough, alright?”
Kal looked over at Max. He meant every word he said.
“I will.” Kal said. Then he addressed everyone in the forum. “People of Succurro!”
Everyone quieted down at once, wanting to hear what he was going to say.
“I have told you this entire time that my name is Jean Amicus. That is incorrect.”
Murmurs spread through the forum in wonder.
“My real name is Kal Iszarc.”
A member in the stands stood and shouted, “Hey, you’re that guy that the DFP officers were looking for!”
The stands quickly turned into a mob session.
Kal looked over to Pegasus. He stood up.
“Good people, haven’t we all lied in our life?”
Everyone turned silent once more, thinking about what he had said.
“Keep in mind that this is Jean Amicus, the same duelist with the same deck. He is no different than he was, just what he is called by. Does that make you hate him?”
Some quietly said no, while others shook their heads.
“I didn’t think so. Now I hope that you treat Mr. Iszarc with the respect you all gave him before.”
Pegasus sat back down in his chair, obviously done with standing up for Kal.
Kal turned back to Max, who stood dumbfounded.
“You ready to duel, Max?” Kal asked tentatively.
“Sure, Jean. I mean, Kal.”
“Duel!”
Each player drew five cards.
Kal: 8000
Max: 8000
“I believe that I should go first, after pulling that on us.” Max said.
“Fine by me.” Kal said.
Max drew one card.
“I summon my Deserter Knight – the Paladin, in attack mode!”
A woman in a skimpy outfit with pink wings appeared, holding a long staff. ATK: 1700 / LV: 4.
“I set one card face down, and then end my turn.”
Just before Kal drew his card, a hologram of a card appeared above the Paladin. This card looked just like the Paladin’s card.
The woman on the field started to evaporate at the edges, and she flew into the card above her. The card glowed black, and a dark haze surrounded the card.
“The Paladin was removed from play, due to her own effect.” Max explained, although Kal already knew what it did.
“My turn.” Kal said. He knew he had to finish it quick; otherwise these cards would take him by force.
“I activate the Spell Card, Reinforcement of the Allies! The allows me to add one Ally Monster to my hand, and then I can Special Summon it with the cost of 1000 Life Points. So I Summon my Legion’s Time Keeper!”
The familiar woman in blue armor with the saber and clock appeared. ATK: 1300 / LV: 4 / Ally Counters: 0
Kal: 8000 ~ 7000
Max: 8000
Since an Ally Monster was Summoned, she gains 1 Ally Counter.
The clock hands moved forward to the 1 o’clock position. Ally Counters: 0 ~ 1.
“Now, I Normal Summon Legion’s White Mage – Cerlia!”
A white magician on a broomstick appeared. ATK: 700 / LV: 3.
The Clock Hand moved forward one more place. Ally Counters: 1 ~ 2.
“Now her effect is activated. Since she isn’t on the bottom of the Stack, she is destroyed and I have to discard 1 card from my hand.”
“Then why did you play her?” Max asked, confused.
“You’ll see.”
The Magician spontaneously combusted, and was rid sent off the field.
“Now the card I discard is my Legion’s Defense Power – Earthen Brute. But by his effect, that Special Summons him to my side of the field.”
A big, round, green rock with one eye appeared in front of Kal. DEF: 2100 / LV: 4.
Yet again, the time was moved forward on the Time Keeper’s Clock. Ally Counters: 2 ~ 3.
“Since an Ally I control was destroyed, I can send my Legion’s Fallen General – Stazlban from my Deck to the Graveyard!”
Kal filed through his deck and found the card he was after. He placed it in the Graveyard slot of his Duel Disk.
“Now I can Tribute 1 monster I control to Special Summon this from my Graveyard!”
Kal tributed the rock, and in its place appeared a zombie with a long, menacing weapon. ATK: 2200 / LV: 6.
The Clock Hands moved forward another hour mark. Ally Counters: 3 ~ 4.
“Unbelievable! Kal used his own monster’s fault to his advantage, extremely well played.” Roland announced. Kal looked at him. He shrugged.
Kal turned back to the game.
“Now I attack with my Legion’s Time Keeper!”
The Time Keeper walked forward, preparing for battle.
“You should have summoned that Legion’s Elf Sorceress that you have to destroy my face down, but you didn’t. So I activate my Threatening Roar!”
The face down card flipped up, revealing the attack-stopping Trap Card.
A shockwave was sent through the air, scaring the Time Keeper back to her line.
“I place 1 card face down and end my turn.” Kal said. Hand: 2 cards.
“I draw.” Max said. He grinned. “I said I would give it my all.”
Kal wondered what he drew to make such a bold statement.
“Since I control no monsters, I can Special Summon my Deserter Knight – The Grandmaster!”
A short man in a dark robe appeared in the middle of the field. ATK: 2000 / LV: 6.
“Now I can send the Paladin that is removed from play to my Graveyard to Special Summon my Deserter Knight – The General!”
A woman in tight armor appeared holding a sword. ATK: 2300 / LV: 6.
“Now I can Normal Summon my Deserter Knight – The Dispirited!”
A woman with long, grey hair wearing armor appeared, holding a large sword. ATK: 1300 / LV: 4.
“In one turn, Max has managed to get the upper hand on the monster strength!” Roland commentated.
“Now I can attack that Time Keeper of yours with my Grandmaster!” Max said.
The small man started to walk forward.
“You aren’t the only one with a trick up their sleeve.” Kal said, “I activate the face-down Trap Barrier of the Departed Ally!”
The card flipped up, revealing the Trap.
“This allows me to negate your attack and end the battle phase, as well as placing an Ally of mine on the bottom of a Stack I control. I choose to Summon my White Mage to the bottom of my Time Keeper’s Stack.”
The man stopped walking, and then he retreated back to his line.
The White Mage appeared once more, and flew behind the Time Keeper. Ally Counters: 4 ~ 5.
“My Mage also has the ability to power up the monsters in its Stack, so Cerlia and my Time Keeper get an extra 500 ATK.”
Legion’s White Mage – Cerlia: ATK: 700 ~ 1200.
Legion’s Time Keeper: ATK: 1300 ~ 1800.
Max frowned. “I place one card face down, and end my turn.” Hand: 1 card.
The three monsters on his field each had a card appear above them, and then the slowly disappeared into them. Each one had a dark haze around them. Kal noticed that when the Paladin went to the Graveyard, its card wasn’t one of the one’s up there.
Kal drew his card, increasing his hand size to three. He definitely had hand advantage.
“I activate the Spell Card Reinforcement of the Army! This allows me to add 1 Warrior in my deck to my hand, as long as it is a level 4 or lower.”
Kal searched his deck once more and added a card to his hand.
“I add and Normal Summon my Legion’s Guardian of Justice – Iserith!”
The monster that bore a startling resemblance to Kal appeared on the field. ATK: 1800 / LV: 4.
Time Keeper: Ally Counters: 5 ~ 6.
“Now this card gains 200 ATK and DEF for each Ally Monster I control, but he doesn’t count. Since I have three other Allies on my field, he gains 600 ATK and DEF.
ATK: 1800 ~ 2400
DEF: 1000 ~ 1600
“Now I can activate his effect, and I can add an Ally Monster to my hand from my deck.”
Kal again searches through his deck to find another card to add to his hand.
“Now I can activate the Special Ability of my Time Keeper. By removing 5 Ally Counters, I can speed up time and Special Summon the card I just added, my Legion’s Thought Bender!”
Time Keeper: Ally Counters: 6 ~ 1.
A giant machine appeared in its own card space. It was so large that it took up almost a quarter of the field by itself. ATK: 0 / LV: 6 / Ally Counters: 0
“When this card is Summoned, I add Ally Counters to it equal to the amount of Ally Monsters I now control. Since he is included in this, I now have 5 Ally Monsters. So he gets 5 Counters. For each counter he has, he gains 700 ATK.”
Ally Counters: 0 ~ 5 / ATK: 0 ~ 3500.
Iserith: ATK: 2400 ~ 2600.
Max looked calm, but not too calm.
“I attack with my Stazlban once more.” Kal said.
The dead warrior stood up, walking toward Max. There was no way that he had another Threatening Roar, it just wasn’t that likely.
“I activate Threatening Roar!” Max said, smiling.
‘What???’ Kal thought.
The card flipped up to reveal a second Threatening Roar, negating the attack and ending the battle phase.
“The third battle phase in a row, and no one had gotten though the other’s life points!” Roland said.
‘Exactly right, this is aggravating.’ Kal thought.
Kal placed one card face down, lowering his hand to one card.
“I end my turn.”
Max drew his next card. It seemed to be just what he wanted.
“I activate the Spell Card Allure of Darkness! This allows me to draw 2 cards, and then remove 1 Dark Monster in my hand from play.”
Max drew two more cards, hand size increasing to three, and then placed a monster in his pocket, his removed from play zone. A monster card didn’t appear with the other three cards floating above the court.
“The monsters need to be removed by their own effect in order to be in the Sky.” Max explained. “Now I have the card I needed, I activate Deserter Launch! This Spell Card allows me to send one Deserter Knight from my deck to the removed from play zone, and treat it as it were removed by its own effect!”
Max searched his deck for a monster, and then placed it in his pocket. A monster card appeared above the field in the ‘Sky.’
“Now I Special Summon my Deserter Knight – The Grandmaster by sending my Dispirited to the Graveyard.”
One card disappeared, and from one card came a shower of dark mist. It swirled around a point, turning into a rough column. Then the mist disappeared and the small man reappeared. ATK: 2000 / LV: 6.
“Now I Special Summon my Deserter Knight – the General from the removed from play zone.”
The woman with the white armor appeared, in attack mode. ATK: 2300 / LV: 6.
“Now my General’s Special Ability activates! When she is Special Summoned, she gets to allow another Deserter Knight to attack twice this turn, so I choose my Grandmaster.”
The General held her sword in the air, and a blade shot from it into the air. The Grandmaster caught it.
“Now I can Special Summon my last monster from the removed from play zone, the Deserter Knight – The Strength!”
The last monster card that was there released its mist, and let the monster appear on the field.
It was a very small figure, the size of a small child. It was carrying two small daggers in its hands. ATK: 100 / LV: 3.
“Now his effect activates. This allows one of my monsters to double their attack points this turn, but the monster is destroyed at the end of the Battle Phase. So I double my Grandmaster’s ATK to 4000.”
“Whoa, in one turn, Max has managed to get out a 4000 attack point monster that can attack twice!”
Kal was dumbstruck.
“Now I attack your thought bender with my Grandmaster!”
The Grandmaster raised his empty hand and created an orb of light. He threw it at the Thought Bender.
The Thought Bender was destroyed in a brilliant crash; falling pieces of metal flew in all directions overhead.
Kal: 7000 ~ 6500
Max: 8000
“You triggered my Trap Card, Allied Vengeance! This card destroys the monster that destroyed an Ally I control, so your Grandmaster is no more!”
A shield-like object appeared and was launched toward the small man, destroying him instantly into a thousand shards.
“Fine, now I attack your Time Keeper with my General.” Max said.
The General raised her sword into the air, poised for the attack.
“My Stazlban’s effect activates! He takes the hit, rather than the Time Keeper.”
The Time Keeper was hit, but the zombie was destroyed instead.
“I take 500 life points of damage when he leaves the field.”
Kal: 6500 ~ 5500.
Max: 8000
Iserith: ATK: 2600 ~ 2200
“I remove my two monsters from play, place one card face down, and end my turn.” Max said; his hand size now down to zero.
“I draw.” Kal said. This has to be the toughest opponent Kal has had to face to date. He can’t even destroy the monsters his opponent is using, since they are removed from play instead of being left on the field.
Kal drew his card. Hand: 2.
“I activate the effect of my Legion’s Guardian of Justice – Iserith to add another Ally Monster in my deck to my hand.”
Kal searched his deck and placed a card in his hand.
“I can tribute my Legion’s white mage to Special Summon my Legion’s Fallen General – Stazlban back to my side of the field.” Kal said.
The white mage disappeared, and in an empty card zone appeared the zombie warrior. ATK: 2200 / LV: 6.
Time Keeper: ATK: 1800 ~ 1300
“Now I can Special Summon Legion’s Counter Daemon to the bottom of Time Keeper’s Stack, because of its effect.”
A humanoid skeleton appeared behind the Clock Bearer. ATK: 0 / LV: 2.
The time moved forward on the Time Keeper’s Clock by one. Ally Counters: 1 ~ 2.
Iserith: ATK: 2200 ~ 2400
“Now I can pay 300 Life Points to add 1 Ally Counter on Time Keeper, by Counter Daemon’s effect.” Kal said.
Kal: 5500 ~ 5200
Max: 8000
Ally Counters: 2 ~ 3
“Since my Legion’s Time Keeper has three Ally Counters on it, I can remove them to Special Summon my Legion’s Thought Bender back from the Graveyard.
Ally Counters: 3 ~ 0
The fallen metal pieces on the ground reformed themselves into the large metal beast that was there before. ATK: 0 / LV: 6 / Ally Counters: 0.
“I have 5 Allies, so he gains 5 Counters, 700 ATK points for each.”
Ally Counters: 5 / ATK: 3500
Iserith: ATK: 2400 ~ 2600
“I’m sorry, Max, but this is the end.” Kal said.
“What? How?” Max asked.
“With this Spell Card.” Kal revealed one of the last cards in his hand. “I activate Ally Assault! This Spell allows me to destroy a number of cards on the field equal to half the amount of Vectors in a Stack I control. Since I control a Stack of 2, I can destroy 1 card on the field. So your face-down card is gone.”
The Time Keeper and the Counter Daemon released their energy into the air, and it fell down upon the card. It was the Trap card Deserter Knight Barrier.
“Now I can attack you directly, with my Thought Bender, Stazlban, and Iserith, you are finished.”
ATK: 3500 + 2600 + 2200 = 8300
Kal: 5200
Max: 8000 ~ 0.
“And the first contestant to make it to the finals is…. Kal Iszarc!!” Roland said, “What an amazing ending that was!”
Kal felt really good now that people were chanting his name in victory, and not Jean. But the mood really got low when he looked over at Max. There actually was a tear streaming down his cheek.
The monsters disappeared as Kal walked over to him.
“You alright?” Kal asked.
“It’s not the loss that makes me sad.” Max said, “I feel that I lost a friend. Jean Amicus was all I knew of you, and now that you have beaten me it feels like that friend is gone forever.”
“He isn’t. I’m not. I am standing here in front of you now. What does it matter who won? I would have wanted you to win just as much as I wanted myself to win.”
Max looked into his eyes, “You would have?”
“Yes.” Kal said.
Max looked like he believed him.
“Jean, I knew that I didn’t lose you!”
“Well, I would prefer if you called me Kal from now on.” Kal said, laughing.
“Sure, sure.” He said, mocking.
“And now will the players leave clear the field, the next round of is about to begin!” Roland said.
Kal walked back to his seat with Max, Talia and Bob were already walking to the field.
“Good Job, Kal.” Pegasus whispered.
“Thank you, sir.” Kal said, “But I don’t feel like staying and watching.”
“Suit yourself. I find this set of cards that Talia uses to be quite interesting as well. They are a brand new concept that we came out with, and I am pleased that she is using them so well.”
Kal left before he could rope him into a long conversation about Talia’s deck.
Kal had beaten his own best friend, and his roommate, in a duel before the two of them could get to the finals. Most likely they were going to battle anyway, but beating Max in the semis felt like he stole something from him.
Kal just wanted to be alone for a while.
He went to the food court and got some food, free with his credit card for the Palmarium.
After that, he walked back up to his room. He didn’t know what to do, so he just paced around in there for a while.
He got bored, so he turned on the television. It happened to turn on right when a news bulletin came on.
“A state-wide manhunt has been issued against Kal Iszarc. He has been acting as a vigilante in Aequitas, just a few miles from here. The Police won’t stand for this to happen any longer, and they need your help to find him. Here is a photograph of him.”
A picture from Kal exciting the Police Office the day he was fired was posted on the screen. He looked angry and out of control, and the leather coat just added to the ‘bad’ look.
“If you have seen this man, contact our hotline at the number below on your screen. We are now accepting calls about this man that we will put on air, right now.”
Almost instantly, a call came in.
“Hello, you are on News 5 in the afternoon. What is your comment on this fugitive?”
The voice of an elderly man spoke, “What exactly is the reason for his arrest?”
“He has been charged with being an unlawful vigilante.”
“And can you tell me why that is wrong?” the man said.
The news caster’s jaw literally dropped.
“You don’t know? Neither do I.” the man said. He hung up, and all you could hear was a dial tone.
The news anchor got her bearings back. “Next caller.”
This time the voice of a young adult, maybe in his early twenties, spoke, “Yeah, with what the earlier caller said, how vigilantism is bad?”
“I … don’t know.” The anchor said.
“I think that the cops only want Kal behind bars because he can do their job better than they can, and it is making them all look bad.”
All of a sudden, you could hear multiple phones ringing in the background of the news station. From the amount of noise, you could guess that there were twenty phones, easy.
“We have to cut to commercial, come back after the break.”
Kal turned off the TV.
They have issued a manhunt for him. They have gone so far as to try and get the help of the citizens of Succurro and Aequitas to look for him as well.
But people were standing up for him. Just because of the thought of that one elderly man, he had allies on his side. Now people would start fighting for him, instead of against him. This TV broadcast might just be their downfall…
Kal would not run away. Pegasus said that as long as he was in the tournament, he would be safe from being arrested. But what happens after tomorrow? The tournament ends, and then what?
He would just have to figure it out when the time comes. What he needs to prepare for now is the final duel tomorrow, and it is bound to be difficult.
Kal slept soundly that night. At least that is how it started.
He dreamed dreams of his life after the tournament, and what he might find. Soon his mind traveled back to Aequitas and to a familiar street vender…
Alina.
Kal had been friends with her ever since she got home from his seclusion in the cave that he found.
When he was tired of the wild berries he gathered, he came home and tried to capture criminals in the nighttime. A person needs energy to hunt the bad guys, and to run from the good ones.
That was how he met her.
One crisp morning, Kal was walking around the back alleys of Aequitas. He hadn’t eaten anything in a few days, and he was looking for anyone to duel for some food. This early, there wasn’t anyone about.
A woman with long brown hair came around the corner pushing a cart. She was dressed in a tight-fitting, red top and blue jeans. Kal could tell from even as far away he was that she was beautiful.
But the more important thing to him at the time was that she had a food cart. Kal half-ran up to her without hesitation to see what she had that morning.
She set the cart down on the side of a stone courtyard that all the familiar alleys backed into from streets all around. It was a popular hangout for all the lower class citizens, as it blocked the view from all the streets, and it was accessible from all parts of the lower city.
The woman bent over behind the cart to lock the wheels in place, and when she stood up Kal was standing right in front of her. She almost had a heart attack where she stood.
She put her hand over her chest. “You scared me…”
“I didn’t mean to frighten you.” Kal said. He sounded honest. The woman looked like she trusted his answer. “First time?”
The woman gave him a look, “For what?”
“For carting the Lower City Courtyard, of course!” Kal said.
“Well, this is actually my first time in this part of town… I was assigned to this post just yesterday.”
“Are you afraid of the residents here?” Kal asked, putting his arms on the counter.
The woman looked at the machine attached to his arm in awe. “You are a duelist?” She asked, wide eyed.
Kal looked at his duel disk, “Yeah, I am.” Kal smiled, “You didn’t think there were any down here, did ya?”
Her eyes told the truth.
“Well, there are. More than you would think. Truth is, that is all we can do here. Sometimes we duel over conflicts, instead of physical contact. We also duel for food, sometimes…”
The woman stood there, thinking. It looked like she wanted to ask a question.
“What?” Kal asked.
“Well…” she said, unsure, “I don’t know how to duel.”
Kal thought for a moment, and then his stomach rumbled. The woman realized why he must be standing there at her cart.
“Tell you what.” She said, taking control of the situation, “I will give you free containers of food if you teach me how to duel.”
Kal didn’t even need to think about that one. He said, “Agreed,” and extended his hand.
She took it happily. They stood there grasping each other’s hand for a moment longer than needed.
“Well…” she asked, “can I have my hand back?”
Kal grinned and let her hand fall. She grinned back, and looked at her feet.
“I’m Alina.” She blurted out, digging a hole in the dirt with her toe.
“I’m Kal.” He replied, “Nice to meet you.”
Alina grinned, she looked really happy.
“So… Dueling one-oh-one?” Kal asked.
All Alina did was nod.
Kal taught her for the next hour on the basics of how to duel, starting with the bear minimum amount of information about the game. She seemed to enjoy having Kal there more than having him teach her about the game.
In return, she gave him a week’s worth of artificial food. Kal was eternally grateful.
Kal continued the dream until this part, but then things started to get strange.
Kal was again staring into nothingness. There was only a small layer of fog that reached up to his waist. He was inside his own mind.
He was aware of his subconscious.
Kal turned around and around, trying to find something in this cavern of nothingness.
“So... You managed to walk into your own mind?” a deep, raspy voice asked.
Kal turned to where he thought he heard the voice but found nothing.
“Who’s there?” Kal asked.
“You’re the big boss here, find me.” The voice said.
‘How am I supposed to do that?’ Kal thought. Kal was amazed that he heard his voice echo from all around him.
“You don’t realize that all your thoughts revolve around here? Any thought will echo. Nothing is a secret in your own mind.” The raspy voice said.
Kal was getting ticked.
“Show yourself!” he said. For a moment, the fog began to swirl, and it looked like the darkness itself started to bend and warp. Soon it was back to normal.
The raspy voice began to laugh a cackling laugh.
“You are strong.” It said, “I was hoping for that.”
“Why?” Kal asked, “Who are you?”
The darkness twisted like fabric, settling back into its place after a moment.
“I am a protector of your mind.” It said plainly.
“A protector?”
“Yes, a being that walks into a person’s mind and keeps the other lookers away.”
Kal felt instantly on edge. He didn’t want someone prowling around in his head, especially when he wasn’t invited.
“I can feel that you don’t want me here.” The being said. It stepped from the shadows, revealing its formless body. “But I feel that it was necessary.”
“If we all did things that we felt were necessary, then we would be living in anarchy.” Kal said to the creature.
The being laughed again.
“You think you would be safe without me in here?”
Kal wondered that for a moment, but nothing in words. He didn’t want that to echo in his mind.
“You are learning to control your thoughts, even from yourself. That is good…”
The creature began to pace around where Kal stood.
“No one told you to move.” Kal said. Instantly the man stopped. It was obviously against his will, as he struggled against invisible bonds that kept him from moving.
“Release me.” The creature commanded.
“As you said, I am the big boss around here. I believe you will stay stationary.” Kal said.
“Huh, you are an assertive one, aren’t you?” the creature asked, “You feel that you have the power to restrain me?”
Kal nodded.
The creature’s face twisted about, almost like a formless smile.
“Let’s see then.”
The creature expanded. His arms and legs all grew to twice their size, breaking the tethers holding him down. He raised a foot over where Kal stood.
Kal decided to move. He rolled off to the side, out of the way of the creature’s foot that came crashing down.
Kal leapt into the air; after all, this was still a dream. Soon he was above the creature’s head, some 100 feet above the ground.
Kal held a hand toward the creature, palm facing out.
“Be gone!!” he said, and he forced his energy from his hand.
The creature began to twist into a shapeless blob of a dark substance. Tan walls began to appear from the darkness, and light began to illuminate the space.
Soon the whole cavern was filled with stone walls instead of the black nothingness. They seemed to go on forever, never ending in a maze of doors and stairs.
The creature shrunk back into its formless body, curled up on the floor in the light. It didn’t seem as menacing when it was the darkest thing in a very light room.
Kal took his foot and nudged the thing over. It stared up at him with its blank face.
“Who are you?” Kal asked.
It laughed again, its face stretching to signify its mouth moving up and down.
“You would like to know?” it asked.
Kal bent over and pulled him up from the lapels, looking him straight in the face.
“Reveal yourself.” He whispered commandingly.
The edges of the black exterior began to shake, falling apart at what would be the seams. It began to shrink into itself, revealing a man.
It was a man just over six feet tall. He was muscular, but not too much so. He was a little pudgy as well. He wore a thin, white tank top and loose fitting jeans.
It was the man the clerk from the gas station that had told him about the tournament!
“You’re Bill Utilis!” Kal said, awestruck.
The man laughed, his voice was the same as he remembered it from the store.
“Yes, that is my name.”
“How are you in my head….?”
“That is a secret for me to know. You may find out eventually, but why would it be for me to say?”
Kal looked at him for a moment, and then punched Bill in the face. It didn’t look like it fazed him at all.
“Tell me what you are doing here! Why did you disappear when the organizers of the tournament needed more information from you?”
“Come now, Kal, I thought you would have connected the dots by now.” Bill said.
Kal paused for a moment.
“What dots?”
“You still think this has to do with the tournament?”
Kal nodded an unsure nod.
Bill laughed.
“Its not.” He didn’t care to elaborate.
Kal was getting sick of this guy.
“You can’t make me leave. I know you want too, but you can’t do anything until you are strong enough.”
“I’m not strong enough?” Kal asked, “Then what is this?”
Kal put his palm in Bill’s face and concentrated. It then seemed like wind was coming from his hand, blowing so hard that all of Bill’s body began to be squeezed into a two dimensional view.
Kal stopped the energy flow and Bill popped back into 3-D.
“An obvious sign of you not being strong enough.” Bill answered.
Kal suddenly got an idea. Bill knew it at the same moment Kal thought of it.
“No you don’t…” he began, but Kal was quicker.
Kal knew that he couldn’t get rid of Bill, so he decided to chain him down, making him unable to do anything else in his mind.
Kal drug him over to one of the doors. He put his hand on the door and waited for a moment. Light shined from behind the door.
Kal opened the door and threw Bill into the space, which was now an empty room.
“Hey…what…how… you…” Bill was flustered.
“Have a nice stay at Iszarc Estates.” Kal said, and slammed the door shut.
Kal could hear him pounding on the door from the other side. Kal snapped his fingers and the door disappeared, leaving only a smooth, stone wall in its place. Bill was trapped until Kal released him.
Kal opened his eyes and felt different. Before he had fallen asleep, he had felt empty inside, like he hadn’t even scratched the surface of who he was, even though he was 18 years old.
But now he felt energized, like he had finally gotten somewhere. He actually saw the inside of his mind! He would have to tell Talia soon…
Kal got up and got ready for the tournament. There were only four people left: Talia, Max, Bob, and Kal.
Kal only hoped that he wouldn’t face Max. Not because he was a powerful duelist, but because if they faced each other one of them would be eliminated. Kal didn’t want that.
Nevertheless, Kal walked to the dueling room with the clear floor alone. Max had already gone up sometime before Kal had woken up. Max always seemed to get up early.
When he got there, Kal saw that there were only four chairs. All of the other competitors were already there, and Kal was forced to sit in the only empty chair. It happened to be at the end next to Talia.
Kal sat next to the gorgeous red haired girl, who was dressed in a black top with pink designs, and plain black pants.
Talia acknowledged him, but nothing more than that.
Kal thought-probed a message to her.
‘I had an encounter with the being in my mind.’ He sent.
Talia looked at him, and then thought back, ‘What??’
‘I fought him in my mind.’
‘You are able to go inside your own mind now?’
‘Yes, I seemed to have learned it in my sleep.’
‘Interesting… What happened between you two?’
‘I banished the darkness blocking my mind, and I locked him up.’ Kal didn’t bother to tell her that the man was the same person who sent him to the tournament. That would have started a series of questions that would never end.
‘You did? Single handed? You didn’t have help….?’
‘No, Talia. I did it on my own.’ Kal though back. Why she thought he was weak was astounding.
‘Huh….’
Just then Roland stepped out in his usual business suit and microphone.
“Today is the Semi Finals!” he said.
The crowd burst out cheering.
“Your top four competitors have made it far. And here they are!”
Roland motioned toward the set of four chairs on the floor. The crowd in the bleachers almost went nuts.
“And I would like to announce a special guest! You all have heard of him before, the creator of Duel Monsters himself, Mr. Maximillion Pegasus!!”
The doors opened and in walked Pegasus in his usual red suit. His long grey hair covered one eye.
“Hello, everyone!” Pegasus said.
The crowd went nuts.
Pegasus sat down in a fifth chair that Roland sat next to Kal.
“Good luck today, Kal. Don’t forget to tell everyone who you really are.”
“Understood. Thank you, sir.” Kal said.
“Don’t thank me. There is nothing that needs to be thanked. But thank you for showing me the power of these cards that never went on the market. What say we remake them after the tournament is over with, eh?”
Kal turned to him.
“You would do that?”
“Why not? I own them anyway…” he said.
Roland started talking once more, cutting the two of them off.
“And now, I would like for you all to see the first in the last three duels of this tournament!”
The crowd cheered him on.
“The first competitor is... Jean Amicus!”
Kal had already walked over to his usual position. He always went first.
“And the other competitor is… Max Aufero!”
The crowd cheered him on as he walked out onto the floor. Kal could see the disappointment in his eyes. One of them would be going home before the finals.
“Hey, Jean? Play it tough, alright?”
Kal looked over at Max. He meant every word he said.
“I will.” Kal said. Then he addressed everyone in the forum. “People of Succurro!”
Everyone quieted down at once, wanting to hear what he was going to say.
“I have told you this entire time that my name is Jean Amicus. That is incorrect.”
Murmurs spread through the forum in wonder.
“My real name is Kal Iszarc.”
A member in the stands stood and shouted, “Hey, you’re that guy that the DFP officers were looking for!”
The stands quickly turned into a mob session.
Kal looked over to Pegasus. He stood up.
“Good people, haven’t we all lied in our life?”
Everyone turned silent once more, thinking about what he had said.
“Keep in mind that this is Jean Amicus, the same duelist with the same deck. He is no different than he was, just what he is called by. Does that make you hate him?”
Some quietly said no, while others shook their heads.
“I didn’t think so. Now I hope that you treat Mr. Iszarc with the respect you all gave him before.”
Pegasus sat back down in his chair, obviously done with standing up for Kal.
Kal turned back to Max, who stood dumbfounded.
“You ready to duel, Max?” Kal asked tentatively.
“Sure, Jean. I mean, Kal.”
“Duel!”
Each player drew five cards.
Kal: 8000
Max: 8000
“I believe that I should go first, after pulling that on us.” Max said.
“Fine by me.” Kal said.
Max drew one card.
“I summon my Deserter Knight – the Paladin, in attack mode!”
A woman in a skimpy outfit with pink wings appeared, holding a long staff. ATK: 1700 / LV: 4.
“I set one card face down, and then end my turn.”
Just before Kal drew his card, a hologram of a card appeared above the Paladin. This card looked just like the Paladin’s card.
The woman on the field started to evaporate at the edges, and she flew into the card above her. The card glowed black, and a dark haze surrounded the card.
“The Paladin was removed from play, due to her own effect.” Max explained, although Kal already knew what it did.
“My turn.” Kal said. He knew he had to finish it quick; otherwise these cards would take him by force.
“I activate the Spell Card, Reinforcement of the Allies! The allows me to add one Ally Monster to my hand, and then I can Special Summon it with the cost of 1000 Life Points. So I Summon my Legion’s Time Keeper!”
The familiar woman in blue armor with the saber and clock appeared. ATK: 1300 / LV: 4 / Ally Counters: 0
Kal: 8000 ~ 7000
Max: 8000
Since an Ally Monster was Summoned, she gains 1 Ally Counter.
The clock hands moved forward to the 1 o’clock position. Ally Counters: 0 ~ 1.
“Now, I Normal Summon Legion’s White Mage – Cerlia!”
A white magician on a broomstick appeared. ATK: 700 / LV: 3.
The Clock Hand moved forward one more place. Ally Counters: 1 ~ 2.
“Now her effect is activated. Since she isn’t on the bottom of the Stack, she is destroyed and I have to discard 1 card from my hand.”
“Then why did you play her?” Max asked, confused.
“You’ll see.”
The Magician spontaneously combusted, and was rid sent off the field.
“Now the card I discard is my Legion’s Defense Power – Earthen Brute. But by his effect, that Special Summons him to my side of the field.”
A big, round, green rock with one eye appeared in front of Kal. DEF: 2100 / LV: 4.
Yet again, the time was moved forward on the Time Keeper’s Clock. Ally Counters: 2 ~ 3.
“Since an Ally I control was destroyed, I can send my Legion’s Fallen General – Stazlban from my Deck to the Graveyard!”
Kal filed through his deck and found the card he was after. He placed it in the Graveyard slot of his Duel Disk.
“Now I can Tribute 1 monster I control to Special Summon this from my Graveyard!”
Kal tributed the rock, and in its place appeared a zombie with a long, menacing weapon. ATK: 2200 / LV: 6.
The Clock Hands moved forward another hour mark. Ally Counters: 3 ~ 4.
“Unbelievable! Kal used his own monster’s fault to his advantage, extremely well played.” Roland announced. Kal looked at him. He shrugged.
Kal turned back to the game.
“Now I attack with my Legion’s Time Keeper!”
The Time Keeper walked forward, preparing for battle.
“You should have summoned that Legion’s Elf Sorceress that you have to destroy my face down, but you didn’t. So I activate my Threatening Roar!”
The face down card flipped up, revealing the attack-stopping Trap Card.
A shockwave was sent through the air, scaring the Time Keeper back to her line.
“I place 1 card face down and end my turn.” Kal said. Hand: 2 cards.
“I draw.” Max said. He grinned. “I said I would give it my all.”
Kal wondered what he drew to make such a bold statement.
“Since I control no monsters, I can Special Summon my Deserter Knight – The Grandmaster!”
A short man in a dark robe appeared in the middle of the field. ATK: 2000 / LV: 6.
“Now I can send the Paladin that is removed from play to my Graveyard to Special Summon my Deserter Knight – The General!”
A woman in tight armor appeared holding a sword. ATK: 2300 / LV: 6.
“Now I can Normal Summon my Deserter Knight – The Dispirited!”
A woman with long, grey hair wearing armor appeared, holding a large sword. ATK: 1300 / LV: 4.
“In one turn, Max has managed to get the upper hand on the monster strength!” Roland commentated.
“Now I can attack that Time Keeper of yours with my Grandmaster!” Max said.
The small man started to walk forward.
“You aren’t the only one with a trick up their sleeve.” Kal said, “I activate the face-down Trap Barrier of the Departed Ally!”
The card flipped up, revealing the Trap.
“This allows me to negate your attack and end the battle phase, as well as placing an Ally of mine on the bottom of a Stack I control. I choose to Summon my White Mage to the bottom of my Time Keeper’s Stack.”
The man stopped walking, and then he retreated back to his line.
The White Mage appeared once more, and flew behind the Time Keeper. Ally Counters: 4 ~ 5.
“My Mage also has the ability to power up the monsters in its Stack, so Cerlia and my Time Keeper get an extra 500 ATK.”
Legion’s White Mage – Cerlia: ATK: 700 ~ 1200.
Legion’s Time Keeper: ATK: 1300 ~ 1800.
Max frowned. “I place one card face down, and end my turn.” Hand: 1 card.
The three monsters on his field each had a card appear above them, and then the slowly disappeared into them. Each one had a dark haze around them. Kal noticed that when the Paladin went to the Graveyard, its card wasn’t one of the one’s up there.
Kal drew his card, increasing his hand size to three. He definitely had hand advantage.
“I activate the Spell Card Reinforcement of the Army! This allows me to add 1 Warrior in my deck to my hand, as long as it is a level 4 or lower.”
Kal searched his deck once more and added a card to his hand.
“I add and Normal Summon my Legion’s Guardian of Justice – Iserith!”
The monster that bore a startling resemblance to Kal appeared on the field. ATK: 1800 / LV: 4.
Time Keeper: Ally Counters: 5 ~ 6.
“Now this card gains 200 ATK and DEF for each Ally Monster I control, but he doesn’t count. Since I have three other Allies on my field, he gains 600 ATK and DEF.
ATK: 1800 ~ 2400
DEF: 1000 ~ 1600
“Now I can activate his effect, and I can add an Ally Monster to my hand from my deck.”
Kal again searches through his deck to find another card to add to his hand.
“Now I can activate the Special Ability of my Time Keeper. By removing 5 Ally Counters, I can speed up time and Special Summon the card I just added, my Legion’s Thought Bender!”
Time Keeper: Ally Counters: 6 ~ 1.
A giant machine appeared in its own card space. It was so large that it took up almost a quarter of the field by itself. ATK: 0 / LV: 6 / Ally Counters: 0
“When this card is Summoned, I add Ally Counters to it equal to the amount of Ally Monsters I now control. Since he is included in this, I now have 5 Ally Monsters. So he gets 5 Counters. For each counter he has, he gains 700 ATK.”
Ally Counters: 0 ~ 5 / ATK: 0 ~ 3500.
Iserith: ATK: 2400 ~ 2600.
Max looked calm, but not too calm.
“I attack with my Stazlban once more.” Kal said.
The dead warrior stood up, walking toward Max. There was no way that he had another Threatening Roar, it just wasn’t that likely.
“I activate Threatening Roar!” Max said, smiling.
‘What???’ Kal thought.
The card flipped up to reveal a second Threatening Roar, negating the attack and ending the battle phase.
“The third battle phase in a row, and no one had gotten though the other’s life points!” Roland said.
‘Exactly right, this is aggravating.’ Kal thought.
Kal placed one card face down, lowering his hand to one card.
“I end my turn.”
Max drew his next card. It seemed to be just what he wanted.
“I activate the Spell Card Allure of Darkness! This allows me to draw 2 cards, and then remove 1 Dark Monster in my hand from play.”
Max drew two more cards, hand size increasing to three, and then placed a monster in his pocket, his removed from play zone. A monster card didn’t appear with the other three cards floating above the court.
“The monsters need to be removed by their own effect in order to be in the Sky.” Max explained. “Now I have the card I needed, I activate Deserter Launch! This Spell Card allows me to send one Deserter Knight from my deck to the removed from play zone, and treat it as it were removed by its own effect!”
Max searched his deck for a monster, and then placed it in his pocket. A monster card appeared above the field in the ‘Sky.’
“Now I Special Summon my Deserter Knight – The Grandmaster by sending my Dispirited to the Graveyard.”
One card disappeared, and from one card came a shower of dark mist. It swirled around a point, turning into a rough column. Then the mist disappeared and the small man reappeared. ATK: 2000 / LV: 6.
“Now I Special Summon my Deserter Knight – the General from the removed from play zone.”
The woman with the white armor appeared, in attack mode. ATK: 2300 / LV: 6.
“Now my General’s Special Ability activates! When she is Special Summoned, she gets to allow another Deserter Knight to attack twice this turn, so I choose my Grandmaster.”
The General held her sword in the air, and a blade shot from it into the air. The Grandmaster caught it.
“Now I can Special Summon my last monster from the removed from play zone, the Deserter Knight – The Strength!”
The last monster card that was there released its mist, and let the monster appear on the field.
It was a very small figure, the size of a small child. It was carrying two small daggers in its hands. ATK: 100 / LV: 3.
“Now his effect activates. This allows one of my monsters to double their attack points this turn, but the monster is destroyed at the end of the Battle Phase. So I double my Grandmaster’s ATK to 4000.”
“Whoa, in one turn, Max has managed to get out a 4000 attack point monster that can attack twice!”
Kal was dumbstruck.
“Now I attack your thought bender with my Grandmaster!”
The Grandmaster raised his empty hand and created an orb of light. He threw it at the Thought Bender.
The Thought Bender was destroyed in a brilliant crash; falling pieces of metal flew in all directions overhead.
Kal: 7000 ~ 6500
Max: 8000
“You triggered my Trap Card, Allied Vengeance! This card destroys the monster that destroyed an Ally I control, so your Grandmaster is no more!”
A shield-like object appeared and was launched toward the small man, destroying him instantly into a thousand shards.
“Fine, now I attack your Time Keeper with my General.” Max said.
The General raised her sword into the air, poised for the attack.
“My Stazlban’s effect activates! He takes the hit, rather than the Time Keeper.”
The Time Keeper was hit, but the zombie was destroyed instead.
“I take 500 life points of damage when he leaves the field.”
Kal: 6500 ~ 5500.
Max: 8000
Iserith: ATK: 2600 ~ 2200
“I remove my two monsters from play, place one card face down, and end my turn.” Max said; his hand size now down to zero.
“I draw.” Kal said. This has to be the toughest opponent Kal has had to face to date. He can’t even destroy the monsters his opponent is using, since they are removed from play instead of being left on the field.
Kal drew his card. Hand: 2.
“I activate the effect of my Legion’s Guardian of Justice – Iserith to add another Ally Monster in my deck to my hand.”
Kal searched his deck and placed a card in his hand.
“I can tribute my Legion’s white mage to Special Summon my Legion’s Fallen General – Stazlban back to my side of the field.” Kal said.
The white mage disappeared, and in an empty card zone appeared the zombie warrior. ATK: 2200 / LV: 6.
Time Keeper: ATK: 1800 ~ 1300
“Now I can Special Summon Legion’s Counter Daemon to the bottom of Time Keeper’s Stack, because of its effect.”
A humanoid skeleton appeared behind the Clock Bearer. ATK: 0 / LV: 2.
The time moved forward on the Time Keeper’s Clock by one. Ally Counters: 1 ~ 2.
Iserith: ATK: 2200 ~ 2400
“Now I can pay 300 Life Points to add 1 Ally Counter on Time Keeper, by Counter Daemon’s effect.” Kal said.
Kal: 5500 ~ 5200
Max: 8000
Ally Counters: 2 ~ 3
“Since my Legion’s Time Keeper has three Ally Counters on it, I can remove them to Special Summon my Legion’s Thought Bender back from the Graveyard.
Ally Counters: 3 ~ 0
The fallen metal pieces on the ground reformed themselves into the large metal beast that was there before. ATK: 0 / LV: 6 / Ally Counters: 0.
“I have 5 Allies, so he gains 5 Counters, 700 ATK points for each.”
Ally Counters: 5 / ATK: 3500
Iserith: ATK: 2400 ~ 2600
“I’m sorry, Max, but this is the end.” Kal said.
“What? How?” Max asked.
“With this Spell Card.” Kal revealed one of the last cards in his hand. “I activate Ally Assault! This Spell allows me to destroy a number of cards on the field equal to half the amount of Vectors in a Stack I control. Since I control a Stack of 2, I can destroy 1 card on the field. So your face-down card is gone.”
The Time Keeper and the Counter Daemon released their energy into the air, and it fell down upon the card. It was the Trap card Deserter Knight Barrier.
“Now I can attack you directly, with my Thought Bender, Stazlban, and Iserith, you are finished.”
ATK: 3500 + 2600 + 2200 = 8300
Kal: 5200
Max: 8000 ~ 0.
“And the first contestant to make it to the finals is…. Kal Iszarc!!” Roland said, “What an amazing ending that was!”
Kal felt really good now that people were chanting his name in victory, and not Jean. But the mood really got low when he looked over at Max. There actually was a tear streaming down his cheek.
The monsters disappeared as Kal walked over to him.
“You alright?” Kal asked.
“It’s not the loss that makes me sad.” Max said, “I feel that I lost a friend. Jean Amicus was all I knew of you, and now that you have beaten me it feels like that friend is gone forever.”
“He isn’t. I’m not. I am standing here in front of you now. What does it matter who won? I would have wanted you to win just as much as I wanted myself to win.”
Max looked into his eyes, “You would have?”
“Yes.” Kal said.
Max looked like he believed him.
“Jean, I knew that I didn’t lose you!”
“Well, I would prefer if you called me Kal from now on.” Kal said, laughing.
“Sure, sure.” He said, mocking.
“And now will the players leave clear the field, the next round of is about to begin!” Roland said.
Kal walked back to his seat with Max, Talia and Bob were already walking to the field.
“Good Job, Kal.” Pegasus whispered.
“Thank you, sir.” Kal said, “But I don’t feel like staying and watching.”
“Suit yourself. I find this set of cards that Talia uses to be quite interesting as well. They are a brand new concept that we came out with, and I am pleased that she is using them so well.”
Kal left before he could rope him into a long conversation about Talia’s deck.
Kal had beaten his own best friend, and his roommate, in a duel before the two of them could get to the finals. Most likely they were going to battle anyway, but beating Max in the semis felt like he stole something from him.
Kal just wanted to be alone for a while.
He went to the food court and got some food, free with his credit card for the Palmarium.
After that, he walked back up to his room. He didn’t know what to do, so he just paced around in there for a while.
He got bored, so he turned on the television. It happened to turn on right when a news bulletin came on.
“A state-wide manhunt has been issued against Kal Iszarc. He has been acting as a vigilante in Aequitas, just a few miles from here. The Police won’t stand for this to happen any longer, and they need your help to find him. Here is a photograph of him.”
A picture from Kal exciting the Police Office the day he was fired was posted on the screen. He looked angry and out of control, and the leather coat just added to the ‘bad’ look.
“If you have seen this man, contact our hotline at the number below on your screen. We are now accepting calls about this man that we will put on air, right now.”
Almost instantly, a call came in.
“Hello, you are on News 5 in the afternoon. What is your comment on this fugitive?”
The voice of an elderly man spoke, “What exactly is the reason for his arrest?”
“He has been charged with being an unlawful vigilante.”
“And can you tell me why that is wrong?” the man said.
The news caster’s jaw literally dropped.
“You don’t know? Neither do I.” the man said. He hung up, and all you could hear was a dial tone.
The news anchor got her bearings back. “Next caller.”
This time the voice of a young adult, maybe in his early twenties, spoke, “Yeah, with what the earlier caller said, how vigilantism is bad?”
“I … don’t know.” The anchor said.
“I think that the cops only want Kal behind bars because he can do their job better than they can, and it is making them all look bad.”
All of a sudden, you could hear multiple phones ringing in the background of the news station. From the amount of noise, you could guess that there were twenty phones, easy.
“We have to cut to commercial, come back after the break.”
Kal turned off the TV.
They have issued a manhunt for him. They have gone so far as to try and get the help of the citizens of Succurro and Aequitas to look for him as well.
But people were standing up for him. Just because of the thought of that one elderly man, he had allies on his side. Now people would start fighting for him, instead of against him. This TV broadcast might just be their downfall…
Kal would not run away. Pegasus said that as long as he was in the tournament, he would be safe from being arrested. But what happens after tomorrow? The tournament ends, and then what?
He would just have to figure it out when the time comes. What he needs to prepare for now is the final duel tomorrow, and it is bound to be difficult.
Chapter 14
Chapter 14
Kal seemed to be going out of his mind with excitement.
He almost got no sleep because of it. He was busy moving around the room, pacing about his deck and the duel for tomorrow.
Since there was only one duel, the tournament didn’t start until noon. This gave Kal enough time for everything that he needed to do.
After some last-minute preparations to his deck, he slid it into the deck slot of his duel disk, slipped into his familiar black leather coat, placed the disk on his arm, and left his hotel room.
He decided to go to the food court to get food first. This was the last day that his gold card that he won would work for free food, so he took full advantage of that power.
While he was there many people stopped to wish him luck or to get his autograph. Many people asked him if he could beat Yugi Muto, but Kal really didn’t know much about this kid to say if he could beat him. Pegasus talked a lot about him, which meant that he must be a good duelist.
Kal ate with a soon full table of people, the lucky first comers getting to sit at his left and right. On his right was Zandra.
She had lost a lot of her craziness around him. In fact, she seemed to have lost all enthusiasm at all. She wasn’t as clingy as she was, she just…. was.
Kal didn’t mind this at all.
After he had finished, he left for the tournament. He walked out onto the crystal clear floor of the room, surrounded by the now empty bleachers. In a few minutes the room would be crammed full of people cheering his name.
At least half of them would be. The other half would be screaming for Talia.
Her win yesterday was spectacular, but that didn’t help Kal’s esteem much. More than likely she would have changed her deck last night, like Kal did.
He decided to take his seat and wait. Soon his level of sleep caught up with him. He seemed really tired all of a sudden, and he couldn’t keep his eyes open. Sleep overcame him.
----
Kal was inside his mind once more, the familiar ancient stones of his thoughts tracing back a ways. But something there seemed different.
He checked and saw that Bill Amlund was still there in his cell, trapped for as long as Kal needed him there.
Yet something still seemed different.
Kal looked out at the walls of his mind. They seemed farther away then the last time he was there.
His mind had grown.
Why it had, Kal hadn’t the faintest clue. All he could do was watch as more stones appeared and laid themselves together, creating an infinite space.
But was that really possible? Could his thoughts and dreams stretch to infinity? Even Talia didn’t know much about this dream world, and she had been working in this field for a long time.
Soon Kal began to feel that his world was falling apart at the edges. Kal struggled to stay asleep so that he could marvel at this site, but he could feel himself being pulled awake.
----
“…tournament is coming to a close!” Kal heard Roland saying over his microphone that he was sure was glued into his hand, “And we have finally gotten to the final duel!”
The crowd began to cheer. They were psyched.
“And here are your contestants!” Roland motioned for Kal, freshly awake, and Talia to walk out onto the stage.
“Kal Iszarc was the immediate favorite of the tournament after he won the first round of the tournament with his very interesting assortment of cards, the Ally Monsters! Remember that they work very fast, stacking themselves on top of each other so that they can fit many of their troops into the field.”
The crowd went nuts. They just ate up all of the things that Roland shouted out of his microphone.
“And he is going up against Talia Memourn! Talia was the apparent strongest competitor in the competition since the first round! She duels with her interesting deck full of Vacant Monsters, ones that fill the field with a bunch of monsters that aren’t really there! They control the opponent’s moves, and give her the slight edge in a winning strategy.”
The crowd went nuts again.
Kal stood on his side of the room as always; Talia stood opposite him.
‘You ready for this, Kal?’ Talia thought-projected to him.
‘You bet.’ Kal replied.
“Duel!” they said, and they each drew five cards.
“I will go first.” Talia said. She drew one card from her deck. Hand: 6 cards.
“I summon my Vacant Blaster!” she said as she placed a card on her disk.
A card flipped, and a machine creature with a gun appeared in front of Talia. ATK: -- / LV: --.
“Since I Normal Summoned a Vacant Monster, I activate my Spell Card, Revelation of the Divided Vacancy! In three turns, this effect is activated.”
The card flipped, and then it disappeared.
“I end.” Hand: 4
Kal wondered what she could be planning.
‘You’ll see.’ Kal heard in his head.
Kal was starting to really hate this ability that he and Talia share.
Kal drew his card in silence, as usual. Hand: 6
“I activate the Spell Card Recruitment! This allows me to Special Summon an Ally from my deck since you control more Monsters than I do.”
Kal searched through his deck and placed a card on his duel disk. A holographic card appeared in front of him. Out of the card appeared a small, grey, humanoid figure. ATK: 300 / LV: 3.
“What is that?” Talia asked. She had studied every duel he had done, and this card was never played. She was perplexed.
“I realized last night that I had to come up with some new strategy that I hadn’t done before, and I looked in my father’s old box of cards. Stuck in one of the folds of the material was a card that I hadn’t noticed before, and it was this one you see before you.”
Talia looked at the little grey creature with interest.
“This card, is it a Tuner?”
Kal ginned half a grin.
“Yes, it is, and one of the more powerful ones. But to activate its Tuning abilities, I need to discard 1 card.”
Kal sent one card in his hand to the Graveyard. Instantly a giant, round creature with arms and one eye appeared in front of Kal. DEF: 2100 / LV: 4.
Talia took a step back. “H-how’d that happen?”
Kal grinned again. He hadn’t thought about his move, so she was taken off guard.
“To turn my Legion’s Synchron into a Tuner, I needed to discard one card. The card I discarded was my Legion’s Defense Power – Earthen Brute. His ability Special Summons himself when he is discarded by the effect, or cost, of an Ally Monster’s effect.”
Talia clenched her teeth together.
‘Good move.’ She thought to him.
‘Better yet, I haven’t used my Normal Summon yet.’ Kal sent back.
“Now I can Tune my Level 3 Synchron with my Level 4 Earthen Brute to Synchro Summon a new creature!”
The Synchron jumped up into the air and burst into three glowing rings. These rings surrounded the giant, round rock, parallel to each other. The Earthen Brute broke apart, and left 4 orbs of light in his place.
The three rings and 4 orbs glowed and shrank into each other, and in their place left a glowing silhouette of a creature. Soon it came into focus, and what was left was a woman in a nurses’ hat and carrying two guns. She had wings out her back. ATK: 2300 / LV: 7.
“I have never seen these creatures of yours…” Talia said. She was completely taken off guard.
“That is why I built a deck around it.” Kal said simply, “Now the effect of my Legion’s Health Itinerant – Lusel activates! By removing an Ally Monster in my Graveyard from play, I can resurrect an Ally Monster.”
A portal of darkness appeared above the field, and a translucent figure of the Earthen Brute floated into it. After that, the Synchron appeared back on the field, next to the Health Itinerant. ATK: 300 / LV: 3.
“Unbelievable! Kal managed to get a powerful monster onto the field, and he got back the tuner he did it with!” Roland commentated. The crowd called their approbation.
“That’s not all that my Health Itinerant does! My Synchron’s level becomes the level of the Monster that I removed.”
Legion’s Synchron: LV: 3 ~ 4.
“Now I can Normal Summon the Legion’s Guardian of Justice – Iserith. And by his effect, I will add an Ally Monster to my hand.”
The card flipped and revealed the warrior with the long sword that bore the resemblance to Kal. ATK: 1800 ~ 2200 / LV: 4.
“My Iserith gains a 200 point boost for all other Allies on the field, as usual.” Kal explained. He also fished through his deck and added another card to his hand. Hand: 4.
“I discard one more card to treat my Synchron as a tuner, so I will discard the card I added to my hand just now.”
He discarded another card, and the Synchron glowed for a moment.
“Now I Tune my Level 4 Synchron with my Level 4 Iserith to Synchro Summon another new creature.” Kal said.
Talia was beginning to dread her move. She had always seen him start off slow, and then get faster as he went. He seemed to change that up a lot.
‘My Ally Synchro deck is ridiculously fast, isn’t it?’ Kal thought to himself, particularly for Talia’s benefit.
The look that she gave him was priceless. It was somewhere between anger and frustration, and it illuminated her brilliant red hair nicely.
The Synchron broke into 4 glowing rings, which encircled Iserith in parallel lines. He broke into 4 orbs of light, and they shrank into each other. They left a silhouette of another creature, which soon focused. It was a woman dressed in a skimpy, purple outfit, holding a long sword. ATK: 3000 / LV: 8.
“This is my Legion’s Marquis – Gorudaye. She has a very interesting ability, and works hand in hand with my Lusel. You will see her power soon.” Kal said, “So, I will attack your Vacant Blaster with my Gorudaye!”
“You can’t.” Talia said.
‘Why not?’ Kal thought.
“When my only monsters are vacant monsters, like this one, you can’t select it as an attack target.” She explained.
“Alright, I will attack you directly with my Gorudaye.”
The woman with the sword walked forward and slashed her weapon though Talia.
Kal: 8000
Talia: 8000 ~ 6500.
“Why did I only lose 1500 Life Points? Your Creature has 3000 ATK.” Talia wondered.
“Any damage that Gorudaye inflicts is cut in half, to allow for her ability.” Kal said, “For the amount of damage that she inflicts, I can Special Summon a monster from my Removed From Play Zone whose level is equal to or less than the damage, times 200. This means that I can summon up to a level 7 monster for the 1500 damage that I inflicted. Since the only removed monster I have is my Defense Power, I will Special Summon him in Defense Position.”
The round rock appeared again next to the woman with the long sword. DEF: 2100 / LV: 4.
“Now I can attack you with my Lusel.” Kal said.
The nurse raised the bigger of the two guns and shot a burst of energy from it, hitting Talia right in the chest.
Kal: 8000
Talia: 6500 ~ 4200.
‘This is the last time you will touch my Life Points this duel, Iszarc.’ Talia projected.
‘You think so?’ Kal thought back.
‘I know so.’ She said.
“I place 1 card face down, and I end my turn.” Hand: 3.
Instantly, a little skeleton creature that looked like a dog with wings appeared behind the Earthen Brute.
“How’d that happen?” Talia asked.
“The card I discarded for the second Tuner ability for my Synchron was my Legion’s Blocker Daemon. If he is in the Graveyard during the Main Phase 2, which we just passed, it is Special Summoned.”
“Fine.” She said.
Talia drew her card petulantly. Hand: 5.
“I Summon my Vacant Foul Force.” Talia said.
A man appeared next to the machine. It appeared to have no emotion, no feeling. It just was. ATK: -- / LV: --.
“Now that I have two Vacant Monsters, I can activate my Spell Card The Acquisition of Recognition! Now I can remove one of your monsters from play, and I will remove your Gorudaye.”
The darkness portal appeared again, and the woman with the long sword got sucked into it.
“Now its second ability. I can select one of my Vacant Monsters, and as long as they are on the field, you can’t declare an attack.”
‘Urgh…’ Kal thought.
‘Told you so.’ Talia thought back.
“If I can’t destroy your monsters by attacking, then I will destroy then by effect.” Kal said.
“Vacant Monsters can’t be destroyed by Monster effects, but they can by Spells and Traps.” Talia said.
‘Great, now my Samurai can’t work.’ Kal thought.
‘Exactly.’ Talia thought.
“I select my Vacant Blaster for this ability, and I end my turn.” Hand: 3.
Kal drew his card in silence. Hand: 4.
‘I have nothing in this hand that can stop that ability, but I can set up a defense at least.’
‘That is what I predicted, Kal,’ Talia thought.
“Since my Iserith isn’t treated as an Ally Monster when he is in the Graveyard, I can’t activate the Special Ability of my Lusel to get back my Synchron. So I end my turn.” Kal said. Hand: 4.
Talia drew her card. Hand: 4.
“This is the third turn after I activated the Revelation of Divided Vacancy Spell Card. This allows me to remove 1 Vacant Monster in my deck from play, and then Special Summon another one from my deck in the Field Spell Zone.”
The black portal to the Removed From Play Zone appeared, and in it went another human creature like the one on the field. On the field appeared another copy of the Vacant Blaster. ATK: -- / LV: --.
“Now that I have a Vacant Monster in my Field Spell Card Zone, I can summon my monster, The Great Vacancier!”
A monster appeared on the field. It was wearing a long black robe, and it carried a staff. ATK: 2000 / LV: --.
“Its ATK is less than your monsters’ DEF and ATK, so I can’t do anything about that. I end after I place one card face down.” Hand: 1.
Kal drew his card; Hand: 5.
“I activate the Spell Card called Ally Draw. Since I have a level 5 or higher Ally Monster, I get to draw 2 cards.”
Kal drew his two new cards. Hand: 6.
Kal frowned.
Talia smiled.
“I place another card face down and end my turn.” Hand: 5.
Talia drew her card; Hand: 2.
“I activate my face down card, Interdimensional Proclamation!”
The card flipped, and then it got sucked into the black portal.
“What did it do?” Kal asked.
“This trap removes itself from play. As long as it is removed from play, I can place Vacant Monsters in my Spell and Trap Card Zones. When I have 11 Vacant Monsters on my field, I win.”
Kal’s jaw dropped. A win condition? Only 11 monsters? 11 monsters that I cant get rid of by attacking or by monster effects?
‘This sucks.’ Kal thought.
‘Got that right.’ Talia thought back.
“I currently have 4 Monsters on the field, so only 7 more and I win.” Talia said. “So to bridge that gap, I Summon my Tolo – Vacantic Striker.”
A mysteriously dark figure appeared on the field in the Spell and Trap Card Zone behind the Vacant Blaster. ATK: 1600 / LV: 4.
“Now this card’s ability is activated. I can attack directly and then shuffle my deck and flip it upside down. Depending on the card, I gain another ability.” Talia said as she started to shuffle her deck.
The monster attacked Kal directly, bypassing the monsters in its way.
Kal: 8000 ~ 6600
Talia: 4200
She turned her deck over to show a monster.
“This allows you to Summon a Monster from your hand.” Talia said.
“Alright then…” Kal said, and he placed a card on the field.
A card flipped up behind the Earthen Brute, and a red creature with chains on its arms appeared in front of it. It was then drug behind the Earthen Brute and the Blocker Daemon to the bottom of the Stack. ATK: 600 / LV: 3.
“That was my Legion’s Card Relocater.” Kal said.
‘I thought that you would place it in the open, but I underestimated the power of your cards.’ Talia said.
‘I will take that as a compliment.’ Kal replied.
“I end my turn.” Talia said. Hand: 1.
Kal drew another card. Hand: 5.
“By my Card Relocater’s effect, I will add my Iserith to the top of my deck.” Kal said as he slid the card on top of the pile of cards.
‘My hand is horrible.’ Kal thought.
‘All duelists come up against that problem. It just depends on what you do with it.’
‘Yeah, I know.’
“I Summon my Legion’s Daemon Monarch. It may be a level 10 Monster, but it can be summoned without tribute if it chooses not to attack.”
A skeleton lord appeared in its own zone. ATK: 2000 / LV: 10.
“Now I can activate its ability. I will place 1 Ally Counter on your Vacant Blaster, so that next turn I can destroy it and lift this attack ban.” Kal said.
“Good luck with that.” Talia said.
“I end my turn.” Hand: 4.
Talia drew her card. Hand: 2.
“I Summon my Yuido – Arched Foul Idol. Since I have a Vacant Monster removed, it can attack directly.” She said, “So I attack directly with my Yuido and my Tolo!”
A humanoid creature that resembled a cat with wings appeared. ATK: 1400 / LV: 4
Both of them slid right through the monsters in their way, against their protests. They slid through, and released their power on Kal.
Kal: 6600 ~ 3600
Talia: 4200.
“Now my Monster’s effects are activated. My deck shuffle ability, and my ability to see a card in your hand.”
Kal revealed a card, it happened to be Legion’s Attack Power – Yin and Yang.
“Now, since that card you revealed was a monster, a Vacant Monster gains the ATK points of it.” Talia said.
The Vacant Blaster in the Monster Card Zone gained 1800 ATK.
Talia began to shuffle her deck, then she flipped it over. This time it was a Spell Card.
“What do Spell Cards allow your Tolo to do?” Kal asked.
“It doubles the damage that you took.” Talia said, pleased.
Kal: 3600 ~ 2000.
Talia: 4200.
“Incredible! In one turn, Talia has managed to get a lead on Kal, having double the Life Points of him. She may not need to have 11 Vacant Monsters to win after all.” Roland commentated.
His voice had broken the silence in the crowd. Everyone had been holding their breath as they saw this epic duel go back and forth, and right now Talia was passed the buck.
“I end my turn.” Hand: 1.
Kal hoped for the best. He knew what he was going to draw; he put it there last turn. But what could he do after that?
Talia had prohibited him from attacking. And she is attacking him directly with a bunch of monsters that are allowed to do so, even though he has all his powerful monsters out.
What did he have left?
This was the most powerful opponent he had ever faced. It showed in his Life Points, the only other time he had dropped this low was against Joel Karne all those months ago.
That time he didn’t escape, and he ended up losing. Would that happen here?
Kal didn’t know what he was going to do, but he trusted in his deck, and he trusted that he would find away out of this mess he got himself into.
He would win the tournament at all costs.
To be continued.
Kal seemed to be going out of his mind with excitement.
He almost got no sleep because of it. He was busy moving around the room, pacing about his deck and the duel for tomorrow.
Since there was only one duel, the tournament didn’t start until noon. This gave Kal enough time for everything that he needed to do.
After some last-minute preparations to his deck, he slid it into the deck slot of his duel disk, slipped into his familiar black leather coat, placed the disk on his arm, and left his hotel room.
He decided to go to the food court to get food first. This was the last day that his gold card that he won would work for free food, so he took full advantage of that power.
While he was there many people stopped to wish him luck or to get his autograph. Many people asked him if he could beat Yugi Muto, but Kal really didn’t know much about this kid to say if he could beat him. Pegasus talked a lot about him, which meant that he must be a good duelist.
Kal ate with a soon full table of people, the lucky first comers getting to sit at his left and right. On his right was Zandra.
She had lost a lot of her craziness around him. In fact, she seemed to have lost all enthusiasm at all. She wasn’t as clingy as she was, she just…. was.
Kal didn’t mind this at all.
After he had finished, he left for the tournament. He walked out onto the crystal clear floor of the room, surrounded by the now empty bleachers. In a few minutes the room would be crammed full of people cheering his name.
At least half of them would be. The other half would be screaming for Talia.
Her win yesterday was spectacular, but that didn’t help Kal’s esteem much. More than likely she would have changed her deck last night, like Kal did.
He decided to take his seat and wait. Soon his level of sleep caught up with him. He seemed really tired all of a sudden, and he couldn’t keep his eyes open. Sleep overcame him.
----
Kal was inside his mind once more, the familiar ancient stones of his thoughts tracing back a ways. But something there seemed different.
He checked and saw that Bill Amlund was still there in his cell, trapped for as long as Kal needed him there.
Yet something still seemed different.
Kal looked out at the walls of his mind. They seemed farther away then the last time he was there.
His mind had grown.
Why it had, Kal hadn’t the faintest clue. All he could do was watch as more stones appeared and laid themselves together, creating an infinite space.
But was that really possible? Could his thoughts and dreams stretch to infinity? Even Talia didn’t know much about this dream world, and she had been working in this field for a long time.
Soon Kal began to feel that his world was falling apart at the edges. Kal struggled to stay asleep so that he could marvel at this site, but he could feel himself being pulled awake.
----
“…tournament is coming to a close!” Kal heard Roland saying over his microphone that he was sure was glued into his hand, “And we have finally gotten to the final duel!”
The crowd began to cheer. They were psyched.
“And here are your contestants!” Roland motioned for Kal, freshly awake, and Talia to walk out onto the stage.
“Kal Iszarc was the immediate favorite of the tournament after he won the first round of the tournament with his very interesting assortment of cards, the Ally Monsters! Remember that they work very fast, stacking themselves on top of each other so that they can fit many of their troops into the field.”
The crowd went nuts. They just ate up all of the things that Roland shouted out of his microphone.
“And he is going up against Talia Memourn! Talia was the apparent strongest competitor in the competition since the first round! She duels with her interesting deck full of Vacant Monsters, ones that fill the field with a bunch of monsters that aren’t really there! They control the opponent’s moves, and give her the slight edge in a winning strategy.”
The crowd went nuts again.
Kal stood on his side of the room as always; Talia stood opposite him.
‘You ready for this, Kal?’ Talia thought-projected to him.
‘You bet.’ Kal replied.
“Duel!” they said, and they each drew five cards.
“I will go first.” Talia said. She drew one card from her deck. Hand: 6 cards.
“I summon my Vacant Blaster!” she said as she placed a card on her disk.
A card flipped, and a machine creature with a gun appeared in front of Talia. ATK: -- / LV: --.
“Since I Normal Summoned a Vacant Monster, I activate my Spell Card, Revelation of the Divided Vacancy! In three turns, this effect is activated.”
The card flipped, and then it disappeared.
“I end.” Hand: 4
Kal wondered what she could be planning.
‘You’ll see.’ Kal heard in his head.
Kal was starting to really hate this ability that he and Talia share.
Kal drew his card in silence, as usual. Hand: 6
“I activate the Spell Card Recruitment! This allows me to Special Summon an Ally from my deck since you control more Monsters than I do.”
Kal searched through his deck and placed a card on his duel disk. A holographic card appeared in front of him. Out of the card appeared a small, grey, humanoid figure. ATK: 300 / LV: 3.
“What is that?” Talia asked. She had studied every duel he had done, and this card was never played. She was perplexed.
“I realized last night that I had to come up with some new strategy that I hadn’t done before, and I looked in my father’s old box of cards. Stuck in one of the folds of the material was a card that I hadn’t noticed before, and it was this one you see before you.”
Talia looked at the little grey creature with interest.
“This card, is it a Tuner?”
Kal ginned half a grin.
“Yes, it is, and one of the more powerful ones. But to activate its Tuning abilities, I need to discard 1 card.”
Kal sent one card in his hand to the Graveyard. Instantly a giant, round creature with arms and one eye appeared in front of Kal. DEF: 2100 / LV: 4.
Talia took a step back. “H-how’d that happen?”
Kal grinned again. He hadn’t thought about his move, so she was taken off guard.
“To turn my Legion’s Synchron into a Tuner, I needed to discard one card. The card I discarded was my Legion’s Defense Power – Earthen Brute. His ability Special Summons himself when he is discarded by the effect, or cost, of an Ally Monster’s effect.”
Talia clenched her teeth together.
‘Good move.’ She thought to him.
‘Better yet, I haven’t used my Normal Summon yet.’ Kal sent back.
“Now I can Tune my Level 3 Synchron with my Level 4 Earthen Brute to Synchro Summon a new creature!”
The Synchron jumped up into the air and burst into three glowing rings. These rings surrounded the giant, round rock, parallel to each other. The Earthen Brute broke apart, and left 4 orbs of light in his place.
The three rings and 4 orbs glowed and shrank into each other, and in their place left a glowing silhouette of a creature. Soon it came into focus, and what was left was a woman in a nurses’ hat and carrying two guns. She had wings out her back. ATK: 2300 / LV: 7.
“I have never seen these creatures of yours…” Talia said. She was completely taken off guard.
“That is why I built a deck around it.” Kal said simply, “Now the effect of my Legion’s Health Itinerant – Lusel activates! By removing an Ally Monster in my Graveyard from play, I can resurrect an Ally Monster.”
A portal of darkness appeared above the field, and a translucent figure of the Earthen Brute floated into it. After that, the Synchron appeared back on the field, next to the Health Itinerant. ATK: 300 / LV: 3.
“Unbelievable! Kal managed to get a powerful monster onto the field, and he got back the tuner he did it with!” Roland commentated. The crowd called their approbation.
“That’s not all that my Health Itinerant does! My Synchron’s level becomes the level of the Monster that I removed.”
Legion’s Synchron: LV: 3 ~ 4.
“Now I can Normal Summon the Legion’s Guardian of Justice – Iserith. And by his effect, I will add an Ally Monster to my hand.”
The card flipped and revealed the warrior with the long sword that bore the resemblance to Kal. ATK: 1800 ~ 2200 / LV: 4.
“My Iserith gains a 200 point boost for all other Allies on the field, as usual.” Kal explained. He also fished through his deck and added another card to his hand. Hand: 4.
“I discard one more card to treat my Synchron as a tuner, so I will discard the card I added to my hand just now.”
He discarded another card, and the Synchron glowed for a moment.
“Now I Tune my Level 4 Synchron with my Level 4 Iserith to Synchro Summon another new creature.” Kal said.
Talia was beginning to dread her move. She had always seen him start off slow, and then get faster as he went. He seemed to change that up a lot.
‘My Ally Synchro deck is ridiculously fast, isn’t it?’ Kal thought to himself, particularly for Talia’s benefit.
The look that she gave him was priceless. It was somewhere between anger and frustration, and it illuminated her brilliant red hair nicely.
The Synchron broke into 4 glowing rings, which encircled Iserith in parallel lines. He broke into 4 orbs of light, and they shrank into each other. They left a silhouette of another creature, which soon focused. It was a woman dressed in a skimpy, purple outfit, holding a long sword. ATK: 3000 / LV: 8.
“This is my Legion’s Marquis – Gorudaye. She has a very interesting ability, and works hand in hand with my Lusel. You will see her power soon.” Kal said, “So, I will attack your Vacant Blaster with my Gorudaye!”
“You can’t.” Talia said.
‘Why not?’ Kal thought.
“When my only monsters are vacant monsters, like this one, you can’t select it as an attack target.” She explained.
“Alright, I will attack you directly with my Gorudaye.”
The woman with the sword walked forward and slashed her weapon though Talia.
Kal: 8000
Talia: 8000 ~ 6500.
“Why did I only lose 1500 Life Points? Your Creature has 3000 ATK.” Talia wondered.
“Any damage that Gorudaye inflicts is cut in half, to allow for her ability.” Kal said, “For the amount of damage that she inflicts, I can Special Summon a monster from my Removed From Play Zone whose level is equal to or less than the damage, times 200. This means that I can summon up to a level 7 monster for the 1500 damage that I inflicted. Since the only removed monster I have is my Defense Power, I will Special Summon him in Defense Position.”
The round rock appeared again next to the woman with the long sword. DEF: 2100 / LV: 4.
“Now I can attack you with my Lusel.” Kal said.
The nurse raised the bigger of the two guns and shot a burst of energy from it, hitting Talia right in the chest.
Kal: 8000
Talia: 6500 ~ 4200.
‘This is the last time you will touch my Life Points this duel, Iszarc.’ Talia projected.
‘You think so?’ Kal thought back.
‘I know so.’ She said.
“I place 1 card face down, and I end my turn.” Hand: 3.
Instantly, a little skeleton creature that looked like a dog with wings appeared behind the Earthen Brute.
“How’d that happen?” Talia asked.
“The card I discarded for the second Tuner ability for my Synchron was my Legion’s Blocker Daemon. If he is in the Graveyard during the Main Phase 2, which we just passed, it is Special Summoned.”
“Fine.” She said.
Talia drew her card petulantly. Hand: 5.
“I Summon my Vacant Foul Force.” Talia said.
A man appeared next to the machine. It appeared to have no emotion, no feeling. It just was. ATK: -- / LV: --.
“Now that I have two Vacant Monsters, I can activate my Spell Card The Acquisition of Recognition! Now I can remove one of your monsters from play, and I will remove your Gorudaye.”
The darkness portal appeared again, and the woman with the long sword got sucked into it.
“Now its second ability. I can select one of my Vacant Monsters, and as long as they are on the field, you can’t declare an attack.”
‘Urgh…’ Kal thought.
‘Told you so.’ Talia thought back.
“If I can’t destroy your monsters by attacking, then I will destroy then by effect.” Kal said.
“Vacant Monsters can’t be destroyed by Monster effects, but they can by Spells and Traps.” Talia said.
‘Great, now my Samurai can’t work.’ Kal thought.
‘Exactly.’ Talia thought.
“I select my Vacant Blaster for this ability, and I end my turn.” Hand: 3.
Kal drew his card in silence. Hand: 4.
‘I have nothing in this hand that can stop that ability, but I can set up a defense at least.’
‘That is what I predicted, Kal,’ Talia thought.
“Since my Iserith isn’t treated as an Ally Monster when he is in the Graveyard, I can’t activate the Special Ability of my Lusel to get back my Synchron. So I end my turn.” Kal said. Hand: 4.
Talia drew her card. Hand: 4.
“This is the third turn after I activated the Revelation of Divided Vacancy Spell Card. This allows me to remove 1 Vacant Monster in my deck from play, and then Special Summon another one from my deck in the Field Spell Zone.”
The black portal to the Removed From Play Zone appeared, and in it went another human creature like the one on the field. On the field appeared another copy of the Vacant Blaster. ATK: -- / LV: --.
“Now that I have a Vacant Monster in my Field Spell Card Zone, I can summon my monster, The Great Vacancier!”
A monster appeared on the field. It was wearing a long black robe, and it carried a staff. ATK: 2000 / LV: --.
“Its ATK is less than your monsters’ DEF and ATK, so I can’t do anything about that. I end after I place one card face down.” Hand: 1.
Kal drew his card; Hand: 5.
“I activate the Spell Card called Ally Draw. Since I have a level 5 or higher Ally Monster, I get to draw 2 cards.”
Kal drew his two new cards. Hand: 6.
Kal frowned.
Talia smiled.
“I place another card face down and end my turn.” Hand: 5.
Talia drew her card; Hand: 2.
“I activate my face down card, Interdimensional Proclamation!”
The card flipped, and then it got sucked into the black portal.
“What did it do?” Kal asked.
“This trap removes itself from play. As long as it is removed from play, I can place Vacant Monsters in my Spell and Trap Card Zones. When I have 11 Vacant Monsters on my field, I win.”
Kal’s jaw dropped. A win condition? Only 11 monsters? 11 monsters that I cant get rid of by attacking or by monster effects?
‘This sucks.’ Kal thought.
‘Got that right.’ Talia thought back.
“I currently have 4 Monsters on the field, so only 7 more and I win.” Talia said. “So to bridge that gap, I Summon my Tolo – Vacantic Striker.”
A mysteriously dark figure appeared on the field in the Spell and Trap Card Zone behind the Vacant Blaster. ATK: 1600 / LV: 4.
“Now this card’s ability is activated. I can attack directly and then shuffle my deck and flip it upside down. Depending on the card, I gain another ability.” Talia said as she started to shuffle her deck.
The monster attacked Kal directly, bypassing the monsters in its way.
Kal: 8000 ~ 6600
Talia: 4200
She turned her deck over to show a monster.
“This allows you to Summon a Monster from your hand.” Talia said.
“Alright then…” Kal said, and he placed a card on the field.
A card flipped up behind the Earthen Brute, and a red creature with chains on its arms appeared in front of it. It was then drug behind the Earthen Brute and the Blocker Daemon to the bottom of the Stack. ATK: 600 / LV: 3.
“That was my Legion’s Card Relocater.” Kal said.
‘I thought that you would place it in the open, but I underestimated the power of your cards.’ Talia said.
‘I will take that as a compliment.’ Kal replied.
“I end my turn.” Talia said. Hand: 1.
Kal drew another card. Hand: 5.
“By my Card Relocater’s effect, I will add my Iserith to the top of my deck.” Kal said as he slid the card on top of the pile of cards.
‘My hand is horrible.’ Kal thought.
‘All duelists come up against that problem. It just depends on what you do with it.’
‘Yeah, I know.’
“I Summon my Legion’s Daemon Monarch. It may be a level 10 Monster, but it can be summoned without tribute if it chooses not to attack.”
A skeleton lord appeared in its own zone. ATK: 2000 / LV: 10.
“Now I can activate its ability. I will place 1 Ally Counter on your Vacant Blaster, so that next turn I can destroy it and lift this attack ban.” Kal said.
“Good luck with that.” Talia said.
“I end my turn.” Hand: 4.
Talia drew her card. Hand: 2.
“I Summon my Yuido – Arched Foul Idol. Since I have a Vacant Monster removed, it can attack directly.” She said, “So I attack directly with my Yuido and my Tolo!”
A humanoid creature that resembled a cat with wings appeared. ATK: 1400 / LV: 4
Both of them slid right through the monsters in their way, against their protests. They slid through, and released their power on Kal.
Kal: 6600 ~ 3600
Talia: 4200.
“Now my Monster’s effects are activated. My deck shuffle ability, and my ability to see a card in your hand.”
Kal revealed a card, it happened to be Legion’s Attack Power – Yin and Yang.
“Now, since that card you revealed was a monster, a Vacant Monster gains the ATK points of it.” Talia said.
The Vacant Blaster in the Monster Card Zone gained 1800 ATK.
Talia began to shuffle her deck, then she flipped it over. This time it was a Spell Card.
“What do Spell Cards allow your Tolo to do?” Kal asked.
“It doubles the damage that you took.” Talia said, pleased.
Kal: 3600 ~ 2000.
Talia: 4200.
“Incredible! In one turn, Talia has managed to get a lead on Kal, having double the Life Points of him. She may not need to have 11 Vacant Monsters to win after all.” Roland commentated.
His voice had broken the silence in the crowd. Everyone had been holding their breath as they saw this epic duel go back and forth, and right now Talia was passed the buck.
“I end my turn.” Hand: 1.
Kal hoped for the best. He knew what he was going to draw; he put it there last turn. But what could he do after that?
Talia had prohibited him from attacking. And she is attacking him directly with a bunch of monsters that are allowed to do so, even though he has all his powerful monsters out.
What did he have left?
This was the most powerful opponent he had ever faced. It showed in his Life Points, the only other time he had dropped this low was against Joel Karne all those months ago.
That time he didn’t escape, and he ended up losing. Would that happen here?
Kal didn’t know what he was going to do, but he trusted in his deck, and he trusted that he would find away out of this mess he got himself into.
He would win the tournament at all costs.
To be continued.
Chapter 15
Chapter 15
“I don’t understand how this keeps happening!”
“It isn’t our fault sir.”
“Then who’s is it?”
The chief was angry. He had been looking for Kal for many months now, and nothing had turned up. It didn’t help that he was now being forced to look for him for bad reasons. He thought that all their problems could be solved by putting Kal on the news, which had been done, and the whole city could be looking for him too. 100,000 pairs of eyes and ears should find something, right?
They found something, all right. A flaw in the logic of the police force.
That day that the DFP office had put a picture of Kal Iszarc on the news was a day of tragedy. People began to show up in front of the police station, showing up for their support of Kal. No one understood why the police were after a person that was helping keep their streets clear.
Many DFP officers arrested those that were helping Kal. They were stuck into the jail cells only 100 feet from where they were standing. Only there soon wasn’t enough space for all of them. And not soon after the word had spread about what was happening, more people began to go to the Police Station and invoke their right to assembly.
It has been a day since they issued their broadcast, and there was a mob forming outside the station.
“This mob must be neutralized.” The chief said, looking out a slit between his blinds.
The Cyborg standing in front of him nodded his head once then backed out the room.
“I ask, why must we search for Kal?”
Lance Brodorn was sitting in a chair next to the door in the chief’s office. The chief turned around and faced him.
“Oh, not you too.” The chief sat down behind his desk and took off his glasses.
“I have been asking this question since day one. What harm has Kal done to the society for helping us out?”
“It isn’t his place for him to be helping the Police, it is our job, and we can do it.”
“Apparently not very well. If an average man on the street can do this job better than a force of people and Cyborgs, what does that say for the Station?”
“Even more reason to apprehend him.” The chief said with malice.
Lance leaned forward, resting his forearms on his knees and clasping his hands together in front of him.
“But why?” Lance asked.
The chief stared at the tall, thin man. He looked like he were thirty, but that was not true. He was just a few years older than Kal, in his early twenties. They had been raised together in the orphanage, Kal and Lance. It seemed like only yesterday that the chief had been called to the scene of Kal’s parent’s murders, and the day that he had been placed in foster care.
No one wanted him, which was the strangest thing. When expecting parents-to-be came in the offices, they always looked at Kal like he was spoiled goods. No one wanted to adopt a child who’s parents had been taken from him, but they were more than willing to take children who’s parents didn’t want them.
As he chief looked at Lance, he saw that same small, naive boy that was never picked in the orphanage along with Kal. He could never grasp the big picture of things.
“Because he is making us all look bad.”
“I don’t understand why that is a bad thing, chief.” Lance said.
“If Kal makes the people of the city that are supposed to serve and protect its citizens look as if they can’t do their job, then we will be put out of business. We won’t be able to serve the community, as no one will support us. Everything will be thrown into chaos.”
“With people like Kal on the streets, do you really think that it will be thrown into chaos?”
“Well… I…” the chief stammered, trying to come up with an answer.
Lance stood up off his chair.
“That’s what I thought. You are always ready to take a stand against the people that are helping, chief, and are not willing to try and help them help us.”
The chief stood up behind his desk.
“‘Help him help us’?” the chief asked, “I fired him because he couldn’t do his job.”
“And it seems that he still can’t?”
The chief hesitated. Lance looked him right in the eye.
“Kal can win. You never supported him after his loss against Joel Karne. You forced more work on him after that than you had forced on him before. He was only 17! He graduated early from the Continental Duel Academy, even his teacher Joey Wheeler was impressed by his grades and dueling style! But you couldn’t see that he was still a child. He was only a kid, and he was out upstaging you all from the very beginning. You hated Kal, even if you think you didn’t, you did. You despised him for being so good, and when he lost you exploited it. You forced him into a corner, and for that he couldn’t even light a match without feeling that he would set something on fire. For your own actions you made Kal into a nobody, and you forced him out of your city. But when he came back, you knew that he wouldn’t be stopped. And now you are on a vendetta to stop him again.”
Lance stormed out the office. He hadn’t realized that his voice had gotten loud enough for the entire precinct to hear, and they had been listening. After he came out the door, everyone seemed to ‘un-freeze’ when they realized that they were standing there. Immediately everyone seemed like they were busy when they really weren’t.
Lance grabbed his coat from the coat rack behind his deck and went out into the chilly atmosphere of early November.
----
“Incredible! In one turn, Talia has managed to get a lead on Kal, having double the Life Points of him. She may not need to have 11 Vacant Monsters to win after all.” Roland commentated.
His voice had broken the silence in the crowd. Everyone had been holding their breath as they saw this epic duel go back and forth, and right now Talia was passed the buck.
“I end my turn.” Hand: 1.
Kal: 2000.
Talia: 4200.
Kal seemed to be going crazy. He knew what he would draw, but would that save him? Could he pull this off? Could he win after all?
Kal drew his card. Hand: 5.
Talia had 5 monsters on the field, one of them being in the Field Spell Zone. Two of them can be attacked, because they are ‘Vacantic’ and not ‘Vacant’ and the effect of jumping over them to attack directly doesn’t apply to them. But they are still included in the effect of the Acquisition of Recognition, meaning that they cant be attacked until they get the monster off the field that is allowing this to happen, the Vacant Blaster.
The Vacant Monsters cant be destroyed with monster effects, so the effect of Kal’s Legion’s Daemon Monarch would do effectively nothing. That is why Talia wasn’t in a big hurry to destroy it when Kal told him of his ‘plan.’ Kal must be getting better at hiding his powers, because Talia hadn’t even sensed that it was a bluff. That one card that she had must not be a Trap, because she didn’t lay it face down.
But Kal had a plan already in motion, and there was no stopping it.
Kal drew his Legion’s Guardian of Justice – Iserith, because he added that to the top of his deck by his Legion’s Card Relocater’s effect. But the Card Relocater also gives him the option to draw an extra card during the Standby Phase, so Kal took that opportunity.
Hand: 6.
Kal looked through his cards. He only needed one card to fix his strategy, and that was Iserith. He had it. Kal had already won.
He smiled.
Talia decided to take a peak into his thoughts. What she saw made her gasp, but it wasn’t his strategy that she saw.
All of a sudden, the link between their minds became stronger, like two rivers coming together into one stream, mixing their current so they would get faster. They were connected at the core of their minds, everything they thought was heard by the other one without trying, it was just natural.
“What is this?” Kal asked in his head, the representation of himself in his ‘mind form’ speaking the thought.
“I have no idea…” Talia thought.
“What is going on then?”
The world was a light shade of green, and they were in the middle of it. There were no walls. There was no floor. There was no light.
But it was lit.
There were no shadows. Everything just was.
“What happened?” Talia wondered aloud.
“Maybe I can be of assistance.” A deep voice sounded, far away.
Talia and Kal turned to see a man walking up to them. It was Bill Utilis, wearing his thin tank top and loose jeans.
“Who’s this guy?” Talia asked.
“This is the man in shadow, I unmasked him and chained him down in my mind. Somehow he escaped.”
“Indeed I did.” Bill said, “And it had to do with this mind meld between you two. You see, you both have similar powers, and similar strength. Your mind’s signature of this strength is nearly identical to each other, and they connected. You are essentially two parts of the same mind, call it a split personality of each other. This inconsistency broke the foundations of your minds, and they started to unravel. This allowed my release from your ‘prison’ of sorts.”
Kal stood staring at the man, intrigued, but at the same time very confused. Talia seemed to be understanding every bit of it.
“You are saying that we are so similar that we connected, and we are in the process of being sewn together at the mind?”
“Correct. The bricks are starting to be laid now.”
Kal turned and saw an ancient stone appear from no where and land on the floor. Opposite it was a dull orange one that appeared in the same fashion, sitting across from it like a mirror image.
“What does this mean for us?” Kal wondered.
“If you don’t find a way to stop this mind meld, there wont be a way of separating you two. You would be forever connected to each other, no matter where you go. You would still have control over your own body, but sometimes the other will get control…” Bill trailed off.
Talia looked at him, “You seem to know a lot about this stuff.”
“More than you can imagine.” Bill said.
“How do we stop it?” Kal asked anxiously.
Bill looked over at him, “I believe that the only way to stop this is by a break in this repetitive motion. I bet the strain of one of you losing the current duel would stop this from happening, as one would be in grief and the other in delight. This might be enough to pry apart the two parts of your minds from each other.”
Talia looked to Kal, “You know what that means. Its your move Kal.”
“It’s a good thing that I have the winning move.” Kal said.
Talia looked at him with curiosity, “How? Your monsters feature destruction effects and attacking, and I have stopped them both very effectively. There is no way around it.”
“Unless I don’t destroy them.” Kal said.
This time Talia looked very confused, like that was ever going to happen in Kal’s deck.
“I will show you.” Kal said, and he went back to his bodily place. It felt a bit weird for his body to be in one place when he felt that he was in two. He could feel what Talia’s body was feeling: how she was standing, how sweat was dripping down the side of her face, how her arm was so rigid with anxiety that it felt like it was going to snap.
Kal started the end.
“I Summon my Iserith to gain its ability, to add an Ally Monster in my Deck to my hand.”
The monster that looked very much like Kal appeared once more to the field. ATK: 1800 / LV: 4.
Kal searched though his deck to find a card.
‘Curse his ability to search his deck at will.’ He heard in his head. He paused and looked up at Talia with a playful look on his face. She blushed.
Kal added the card to his hand. Hand: 6.
“To summon this new monster, I must tribute an entire Stack of monsters that has at least 3 Vectors. So, thanks to you, I have that. I release my Legion’s Defense Power, Legion’s Blocker Daemon, and Legion’s Card Relocater in the same Stack to Summon the card to your end!” Kal said.
The three monsters started to glow, and they started to merge into one another. The creation turned colorlessly white, and started to morph into a creature with wings. Big wings.
“Meet my newest Ally, the Legion’s Sky Commander – Currasino!”
The monster’s color started to take, and soon it was revealed. A monster that resembled the Blue Eyes White Dragon, only it was a deep shade of green. ATK: 2600 / LV: 9.
Iserith: ATK: 1800 ~ 2400.
“What can that do?” Talia asked. She actually took a step back.
“This monster has an even better ability than the destruction cards. She adds cards on the field to the owner’s hands! By discarding one card, I can send as many cards on the field to the owner’s hand as I have Vectors in the Stack. Since she is in the Stack with Legion’s Daemon Monarch, that is treated as 2 Vectors, so two of your cards are placed in your hand.”
Talia gasped. Kal grinned.
“That is what I thought.” Kal said, “I send you Vacant Blaster and your Tolo – Vacantic Striker back to your hand!”
Talia picked the two cards up off her duel disk, and the two monsters just disappeared from the field.
“Now that the only monsters you control are one Vacantic Monster and a Vacant Monster, I cant attack you directly until I get rid of your Yuido – Arched Foul Idol. So I attack that with my Iserith!”
The warrior raised its sword and slashed it though the monster, destroying it instantly.
Kal: 2000.
Talia: 4200 ~ 3200.
“Now the only cards you control are Vacant Monsters. By their effect, I am allowed to attack…”
“Just finish it already.” Talia interjected.
“As you wish.” He said.
The Sky Commander and the Health Itinerant both raised their hands and attacked Talia with their abilities. There was no stopping the attack.
Kal: 2000.
Talia: 3200 ~ 0.
There was a moment where there was total silence. No one spoke, no one breathed.
Roland looked around and stood up.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, your winner of this year’s Palmarium Tournament: Kal Iszarc!!”
The crowd erupted. It helped that they all stood to their feet at the same time to add to that illusion. Everyone was clapping and cheering for Kal. He felt so … happy. This was definitely the highlight of his last six and a half months.
He couldn’t say the same for Talia. The mind meld was still in place, unaffected in the outcome as of yet. She was falling apart on the inside.
‘You okay?’ Kal wondered, even though he knew she wasn’t.
‘It’s just that I have worked so hard for a place to stay, and now it was taken from me. You don’t know what it is like growing up a child prodigy.’
‘Actually, I do.’ Kal thought.
Talia glanced at him.
‘You do?’
‘Yes. I was some duelist when I was in first grade. I cant remember it, but my teachers were amazed. I was taught by Joey Wheeler in the Continental Duel Academy before I was pulled out to be in the DFP.’
‘That sounds very … prodigy-like.’ She said.
Kal laughed, and Talia with him. Kal walked up to her and pulled her into a bear hug.
“I know what it is like to think you have lost it all. You of all people know that. It ends up good in the end, I know from experience.”
Talia was taken by surprise when this happened, at first unwilling to return the embrace. But she softened and returned the favor.
The crowd was touched by this, and cheered even louder.
It seemed that out of no where Pegasus showed up next to them.
“Kal, very well done! And as your prize…” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a gold key, “…your key to your penthouse suite.”
Kal took it, and looked at it for a minute. He just realized that he would no longer have to go back to his house, the falling apart, almost-shack in Aequitas. He would have this house here, in Succurro. In the Palmarium, of all places!
The embrace and this thought aided together to make Talia’s mind go into separate directions from Kal’s. There minds began to unfold from underneath each other.
It felt like a great tugging sensation, like the pages of two phonebooks shuffled together, so their combined friction aided in their ability to stay together.
It was almost to the point of pain that they were pulled away from each other, secluded in their own minds once more.
Talia actually passed out in Kal’s arms from the pain. Kal had to lay her on the ground so that he could get some help, and soon the paramedics were taking her from the dueling arena to their basement hospital. Kal wondered if this is what it looked like when he passed out here.
Zandra looked at him through the stands with hurt eyes. Even though he never said anything to her about a relationship, she still thought they were in one. She stood up with her two friends and walked out of the dueling arena.
‘So much for ‘it’s not you, it’s me.’’ Kal thought.
Kal sighed, ‘at least I wont have to break it too her.’
----
Kal walked up to his floor. He didn’t feel like riding the elevator. Too short of a ride. He wanted time to think.
What would he do now? Now he had two bases: one in Aequitas and one in Succurro. Nothing tied him to these places other than his things; both places were paid for in full.
Would he finally go after Joel Karne and bring him to justice?
Would he try to reason with the cops and try to get his job back?
He couldn’t do the latter without the former, he decided, so his option seemed obvious to him.
He walked by the coffee shop, he could tell from the rich coffee smell from this part of the stairs. That meant that he was close to the top.
When he reached the top of the staircase, it lead to a door that was locked from the other side, most likely to keep anyone with good enough lock pick skills out of the penthouse. Kal was forced to go back down to the coffee room and enter it from the elevator.
When he got inside the elevator, he noticed a keyhole next to the set of buttons for the floors. This was at the top of the list. Kal assumed that this was what he needed for his entry into his apartment.
Kal took out the key and placed it into the hole. It didn’t need to be turned; the elevator recognized it as the entry key immediately.
The elevator went up the last few feet for the apartment, and then the doors opened.
The apartment was lavish. Lavish wasn’t even a good word for it.
Compared to how he had been living for the last few months, this was paradise.
The entire apartment was the size of the entire floor span of the hotel, which gave him plenty of space. It was like his own personal mansion way above the city of Succurro.
The front entryway had a few lounge chairs and tables. It was very well lit, maybe timed to turn on automatically when the elevator had someone up to the top level?
The hall was straight ahead, so he walked right on through. It wasn’t very long, maybe a few feet. But this hall had a few closets on one side, one for coats and one for linens, and a bathroom on the other side.
Through the short hallway was the entry into the great room.
The kitchen was the closest to the hall, just to your right as you entered the room. It was cut off from the room only by a breakfast bar, but other than that it was as much a part of the room as the couch was.
The living room was straight ahead of Kal, three large couches were surrounding the biggest television he had ever seen.
‘Pegasus went all out on this, didn’t he?’ Kal thought.
The space was large, but there was one more door for him to walk through. Kal knew where that led.
He opened the pocket door and walked into the grand bedroom, about half the size of the great room that he had just passed by.
It had a huge four-poster bed on the middle of the wall, which was the first thing to jump out at you. On either side were matching sets of drawers, empty of course. There was a television in this room too, on the wall to the right. It wasn’t as large as the one in the great room, but it was still a nice size.
On the left of the room were two doors. One lead to a master bath from what Kal could see from the open door, but the other door was closed.
Kal walked over and opened this closed door to find a study.
It was a nicely sized office, with a large wooden desk in the middle of the room. One wall had built in bookcases that had a few books in it already. On the desk was a brand new laptop, the box it came in was still on the table.
“Its brilliant, isn’t it?”
Kal turned and looked behind the door, where a person was standing blocked from his view.
It was a tall man who looked to be in his late twenties. He had thick brown hair that was combed over to one side and hung in his face. He wore a dark green jacket, one that you would see on an officer that went into combat. His lapels were adorned with many awards, showing how high of a rank he was. Only, Kal didn’t recognize those trinkets to be military.
“Who are you?” Kal asked.
“Whoa, take it easy there, Kal…”
“How do you know my name? How are you in here anyway?” Kal asked.
“One question at a time, pal. My name is General Gregory Pravus, of the DPF of Aequitas.”
‘Oh crap, they found me.’ Kal thought.
“What are you here for?” Kal asked, trying to hide his anxiety.
“You. I need you, Kal.”
“What for?”
“I am afraid that telling you is confidential.”
“I am in the DPF.” Kal said.
“No, you were before you were fired and became a vigilante. I do my homework, Kal.”
Kal wasn’t surprised, but he wasn’t going to hand himself to this man on a silver platter.
“Are you going to cooperate?” Gregory asked.
Kal looked at him, confused.
“It seems that he won’t. Drug him.” Gregory said.
Before he knew what was happening, Kal was being grabbed by men that were too strong for their height and age group. Cyborgs.
They pressed something to his neck, and soon he felt drowsy.
“Don’t harm him, and don’t let him lose any of his cards. We will need those…”
His voice trailed off, fading into the blackness.
----
Kal awoke with a feeling that he was hanging on a wall, somewhere above the floor. It didn’t feel like he was upside-down, but his arms were stretched out to their sides and he couldn’t move.
He had trouble forcing his eyes to open, like he was very tired. But his mind couldn’t have felt the most free.
It was almost effortless to think, like things were just laid before him to understand. He didn’t understand how this was possible, only that is was.
“Sir,” a calm, emotionless voice called, “It seems that he is waking.”
“Ah, splendid,” a man said. The voice was familiar.
Kal forced his eyes to open, trying to focus on where he was.
“How was your sleep? I trust it suited you well,” the man said. It was Gregory.
“Where am I?” Kal asked.
Gregory looked like he wasn’t expecting a response. He looked over to a man in the corner of the room, surrounded by computer screens. All he did was stare at Gregory.
Gregory looked over to Kal, “Who programmed you to ask questions?”
Kal glared at him, “What are you talking about?”
Gregory seemed to be caught off guard again.
“Who is screwing around with my project?” Gregory asked to no one in particular.
“The records say that the only one to enter the room was you, sir,” the man in the corner said.
Gregory turned back to Kal, “How are you doing this?”
“Um, speech? The same way you do it, you idiot…”
“No, how are you using your speech at will? You havnt been programmed to do this…”
“Wait, programmed? What do you mean, ‘programmed’?”
Gregory stared into his eyes, “You don’t realize it do you?”
Kal stared back at him.
Gregory sighed, “How do you think you are attached to that wall, when there are no latches or straps?”
Kal looked over to his arms, noticing that he indeed seemed to be floating there. That is when he noticed that he was in a thin shirt and shorts, not the things he was wearing before.
He also noticed something odd with his skin. It was oddly perfect…
“What did you do to my clothes?”
“It is part of the procedure that we provide you with new clothes.”
Kal again looked over to Gregory, “Procedure?”
Gregory sighed again.
“You are attached to an electromagnet. Why do you think that is?”
Kal looked to his arm. It all started to click, and very fast at that. The reason that he could think real fast and easy, the reason that he was attached to an electromagnet, the reason that his skin looked more perfect than normal, the reason that he seemed to be looked at funny when he showed emotion, all started to make sense.
“You get it now, don’t you?”
Kal looked over to Gregory with fear, hoping that his intentions weren’t true.
“Kal, you have been recruited into the Cyborg Program of the DPF,” Gregory said.
Kal dropped his head in defeat.
“I don’t understand how this keeps happening!”
“It isn’t our fault sir.”
“Then who’s is it?”
The chief was angry. He had been looking for Kal for many months now, and nothing had turned up. It didn’t help that he was now being forced to look for him for bad reasons. He thought that all their problems could be solved by putting Kal on the news, which had been done, and the whole city could be looking for him too. 100,000 pairs of eyes and ears should find something, right?
They found something, all right. A flaw in the logic of the police force.
That day that the DFP office had put a picture of Kal Iszarc on the news was a day of tragedy. People began to show up in front of the police station, showing up for their support of Kal. No one understood why the police were after a person that was helping keep their streets clear.
Many DFP officers arrested those that were helping Kal. They were stuck into the jail cells only 100 feet from where they were standing. Only there soon wasn’t enough space for all of them. And not soon after the word had spread about what was happening, more people began to go to the Police Station and invoke their right to assembly.
It has been a day since they issued their broadcast, and there was a mob forming outside the station.
“This mob must be neutralized.” The chief said, looking out a slit between his blinds.
The Cyborg standing in front of him nodded his head once then backed out the room.
“I ask, why must we search for Kal?”
Lance Brodorn was sitting in a chair next to the door in the chief’s office. The chief turned around and faced him.
“Oh, not you too.” The chief sat down behind his desk and took off his glasses.
“I have been asking this question since day one. What harm has Kal done to the society for helping us out?”
“It isn’t his place for him to be helping the Police, it is our job, and we can do it.”
“Apparently not very well. If an average man on the street can do this job better than a force of people and Cyborgs, what does that say for the Station?”
“Even more reason to apprehend him.” The chief said with malice.
Lance leaned forward, resting his forearms on his knees and clasping his hands together in front of him.
“But why?” Lance asked.
The chief stared at the tall, thin man. He looked like he were thirty, but that was not true. He was just a few years older than Kal, in his early twenties. They had been raised together in the orphanage, Kal and Lance. It seemed like only yesterday that the chief had been called to the scene of Kal’s parent’s murders, and the day that he had been placed in foster care.
No one wanted him, which was the strangest thing. When expecting parents-to-be came in the offices, they always looked at Kal like he was spoiled goods. No one wanted to adopt a child who’s parents had been taken from him, but they were more than willing to take children who’s parents didn’t want them.
As he chief looked at Lance, he saw that same small, naive boy that was never picked in the orphanage along with Kal. He could never grasp the big picture of things.
“Because he is making us all look bad.”
“I don’t understand why that is a bad thing, chief.” Lance said.
“If Kal makes the people of the city that are supposed to serve and protect its citizens look as if they can’t do their job, then we will be put out of business. We won’t be able to serve the community, as no one will support us. Everything will be thrown into chaos.”
“With people like Kal on the streets, do you really think that it will be thrown into chaos?”
“Well… I…” the chief stammered, trying to come up with an answer.
Lance stood up off his chair.
“That’s what I thought. You are always ready to take a stand against the people that are helping, chief, and are not willing to try and help them help us.”
The chief stood up behind his desk.
“‘Help him help us’?” the chief asked, “I fired him because he couldn’t do his job.”
“And it seems that he still can’t?”
The chief hesitated. Lance looked him right in the eye.
“Kal can win. You never supported him after his loss against Joel Karne. You forced more work on him after that than you had forced on him before. He was only 17! He graduated early from the Continental Duel Academy, even his teacher Joey Wheeler was impressed by his grades and dueling style! But you couldn’t see that he was still a child. He was only a kid, and he was out upstaging you all from the very beginning. You hated Kal, even if you think you didn’t, you did. You despised him for being so good, and when he lost you exploited it. You forced him into a corner, and for that he couldn’t even light a match without feeling that he would set something on fire. For your own actions you made Kal into a nobody, and you forced him out of your city. But when he came back, you knew that he wouldn’t be stopped. And now you are on a vendetta to stop him again.”
Lance stormed out the office. He hadn’t realized that his voice had gotten loud enough for the entire precinct to hear, and they had been listening. After he came out the door, everyone seemed to ‘un-freeze’ when they realized that they were standing there. Immediately everyone seemed like they were busy when they really weren’t.
Lance grabbed his coat from the coat rack behind his deck and went out into the chilly atmosphere of early November.
----
“Incredible! In one turn, Talia has managed to get a lead on Kal, having double the Life Points of him. She may not need to have 11 Vacant Monsters to win after all.” Roland commentated.
His voice had broken the silence in the crowd. Everyone had been holding their breath as they saw this epic duel go back and forth, and right now Talia was passed the buck.
“I end my turn.” Hand: 1.
Kal: 2000.
Talia: 4200.
Kal seemed to be going crazy. He knew what he would draw, but would that save him? Could he pull this off? Could he win after all?
Kal drew his card. Hand: 5.
Talia had 5 monsters on the field, one of them being in the Field Spell Zone. Two of them can be attacked, because they are ‘Vacantic’ and not ‘Vacant’ and the effect of jumping over them to attack directly doesn’t apply to them. But they are still included in the effect of the Acquisition of Recognition, meaning that they cant be attacked until they get the monster off the field that is allowing this to happen, the Vacant Blaster.
The Vacant Monsters cant be destroyed with monster effects, so the effect of Kal’s Legion’s Daemon Monarch would do effectively nothing. That is why Talia wasn’t in a big hurry to destroy it when Kal told him of his ‘plan.’ Kal must be getting better at hiding his powers, because Talia hadn’t even sensed that it was a bluff. That one card that she had must not be a Trap, because she didn’t lay it face down.
But Kal had a plan already in motion, and there was no stopping it.
Kal drew his Legion’s Guardian of Justice – Iserith, because he added that to the top of his deck by his Legion’s Card Relocater’s effect. But the Card Relocater also gives him the option to draw an extra card during the Standby Phase, so Kal took that opportunity.
Hand: 6.
Kal looked through his cards. He only needed one card to fix his strategy, and that was Iserith. He had it. Kal had already won.
He smiled.
Talia decided to take a peak into his thoughts. What she saw made her gasp, but it wasn’t his strategy that she saw.
All of a sudden, the link between their minds became stronger, like two rivers coming together into one stream, mixing their current so they would get faster. They were connected at the core of their minds, everything they thought was heard by the other one without trying, it was just natural.
“What is this?” Kal asked in his head, the representation of himself in his ‘mind form’ speaking the thought.
“I have no idea…” Talia thought.
“What is going on then?”
The world was a light shade of green, and they were in the middle of it. There were no walls. There was no floor. There was no light.
But it was lit.
There were no shadows. Everything just was.
“What happened?” Talia wondered aloud.
“Maybe I can be of assistance.” A deep voice sounded, far away.
Talia and Kal turned to see a man walking up to them. It was Bill Utilis, wearing his thin tank top and loose jeans.
“Who’s this guy?” Talia asked.
“This is the man in shadow, I unmasked him and chained him down in my mind. Somehow he escaped.”
“Indeed I did.” Bill said, “And it had to do with this mind meld between you two. You see, you both have similar powers, and similar strength. Your mind’s signature of this strength is nearly identical to each other, and they connected. You are essentially two parts of the same mind, call it a split personality of each other. This inconsistency broke the foundations of your minds, and they started to unravel. This allowed my release from your ‘prison’ of sorts.”
Kal stood staring at the man, intrigued, but at the same time very confused. Talia seemed to be understanding every bit of it.
“You are saying that we are so similar that we connected, and we are in the process of being sewn together at the mind?”
“Correct. The bricks are starting to be laid now.”
Kal turned and saw an ancient stone appear from no where and land on the floor. Opposite it was a dull orange one that appeared in the same fashion, sitting across from it like a mirror image.
“What does this mean for us?” Kal wondered.
“If you don’t find a way to stop this mind meld, there wont be a way of separating you two. You would be forever connected to each other, no matter where you go. You would still have control over your own body, but sometimes the other will get control…” Bill trailed off.
Talia looked at him, “You seem to know a lot about this stuff.”
“More than you can imagine.” Bill said.
“How do we stop it?” Kal asked anxiously.
Bill looked over at him, “I believe that the only way to stop this is by a break in this repetitive motion. I bet the strain of one of you losing the current duel would stop this from happening, as one would be in grief and the other in delight. This might be enough to pry apart the two parts of your minds from each other.”
Talia looked to Kal, “You know what that means. Its your move Kal.”
“It’s a good thing that I have the winning move.” Kal said.
Talia looked at him with curiosity, “How? Your monsters feature destruction effects and attacking, and I have stopped them both very effectively. There is no way around it.”
“Unless I don’t destroy them.” Kal said.
This time Talia looked very confused, like that was ever going to happen in Kal’s deck.
“I will show you.” Kal said, and he went back to his bodily place. It felt a bit weird for his body to be in one place when he felt that he was in two. He could feel what Talia’s body was feeling: how she was standing, how sweat was dripping down the side of her face, how her arm was so rigid with anxiety that it felt like it was going to snap.
Kal started the end.
“I Summon my Iserith to gain its ability, to add an Ally Monster in my Deck to my hand.”
The monster that looked very much like Kal appeared once more to the field. ATK: 1800 / LV: 4.
Kal searched though his deck to find a card.
‘Curse his ability to search his deck at will.’ He heard in his head. He paused and looked up at Talia with a playful look on his face. She blushed.
Kal added the card to his hand. Hand: 6.
“To summon this new monster, I must tribute an entire Stack of monsters that has at least 3 Vectors. So, thanks to you, I have that. I release my Legion’s Defense Power, Legion’s Blocker Daemon, and Legion’s Card Relocater in the same Stack to Summon the card to your end!” Kal said.
The three monsters started to glow, and they started to merge into one another. The creation turned colorlessly white, and started to morph into a creature with wings. Big wings.
“Meet my newest Ally, the Legion’s Sky Commander – Currasino!”
The monster’s color started to take, and soon it was revealed. A monster that resembled the Blue Eyes White Dragon, only it was a deep shade of green. ATK: 2600 / LV: 9.
Iserith: ATK: 1800 ~ 2400.
“What can that do?” Talia asked. She actually took a step back.
“This monster has an even better ability than the destruction cards. She adds cards on the field to the owner’s hands! By discarding one card, I can send as many cards on the field to the owner’s hand as I have Vectors in the Stack. Since she is in the Stack with Legion’s Daemon Monarch, that is treated as 2 Vectors, so two of your cards are placed in your hand.”
Talia gasped. Kal grinned.
“That is what I thought.” Kal said, “I send you Vacant Blaster and your Tolo – Vacantic Striker back to your hand!”
Talia picked the two cards up off her duel disk, and the two monsters just disappeared from the field.
“Now that the only monsters you control are one Vacantic Monster and a Vacant Monster, I cant attack you directly until I get rid of your Yuido – Arched Foul Idol. So I attack that with my Iserith!”
The warrior raised its sword and slashed it though the monster, destroying it instantly.
Kal: 2000.
Talia: 4200 ~ 3200.
“Now the only cards you control are Vacant Monsters. By their effect, I am allowed to attack…”
“Just finish it already.” Talia interjected.
“As you wish.” He said.
The Sky Commander and the Health Itinerant both raised their hands and attacked Talia with their abilities. There was no stopping the attack.
Kal: 2000.
Talia: 3200 ~ 0.
There was a moment where there was total silence. No one spoke, no one breathed.
Roland looked around and stood up.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, your winner of this year’s Palmarium Tournament: Kal Iszarc!!”
The crowd erupted. It helped that they all stood to their feet at the same time to add to that illusion. Everyone was clapping and cheering for Kal. He felt so … happy. This was definitely the highlight of his last six and a half months.
He couldn’t say the same for Talia. The mind meld was still in place, unaffected in the outcome as of yet. She was falling apart on the inside.
‘You okay?’ Kal wondered, even though he knew she wasn’t.
‘It’s just that I have worked so hard for a place to stay, and now it was taken from me. You don’t know what it is like growing up a child prodigy.’
‘Actually, I do.’ Kal thought.
Talia glanced at him.
‘You do?’
‘Yes. I was some duelist when I was in first grade. I cant remember it, but my teachers were amazed. I was taught by Joey Wheeler in the Continental Duel Academy before I was pulled out to be in the DFP.’
‘That sounds very … prodigy-like.’ She said.
Kal laughed, and Talia with him. Kal walked up to her and pulled her into a bear hug.
“I know what it is like to think you have lost it all. You of all people know that. It ends up good in the end, I know from experience.”
Talia was taken by surprise when this happened, at first unwilling to return the embrace. But she softened and returned the favor.
The crowd was touched by this, and cheered even louder.
It seemed that out of no where Pegasus showed up next to them.
“Kal, very well done! And as your prize…” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a gold key, “…your key to your penthouse suite.”
Kal took it, and looked at it for a minute. He just realized that he would no longer have to go back to his house, the falling apart, almost-shack in Aequitas. He would have this house here, in Succurro. In the Palmarium, of all places!
The embrace and this thought aided together to make Talia’s mind go into separate directions from Kal’s. There minds began to unfold from underneath each other.
It felt like a great tugging sensation, like the pages of two phonebooks shuffled together, so their combined friction aided in their ability to stay together.
It was almost to the point of pain that they were pulled away from each other, secluded in their own minds once more.
Talia actually passed out in Kal’s arms from the pain. Kal had to lay her on the ground so that he could get some help, and soon the paramedics were taking her from the dueling arena to their basement hospital. Kal wondered if this is what it looked like when he passed out here.
Zandra looked at him through the stands with hurt eyes. Even though he never said anything to her about a relationship, she still thought they were in one. She stood up with her two friends and walked out of the dueling arena.
‘So much for ‘it’s not you, it’s me.’’ Kal thought.
Kal sighed, ‘at least I wont have to break it too her.’
----
Kal walked up to his floor. He didn’t feel like riding the elevator. Too short of a ride. He wanted time to think.
What would he do now? Now he had two bases: one in Aequitas and one in Succurro. Nothing tied him to these places other than his things; both places were paid for in full.
Would he finally go after Joel Karne and bring him to justice?
Would he try to reason with the cops and try to get his job back?
He couldn’t do the latter without the former, he decided, so his option seemed obvious to him.
He walked by the coffee shop, he could tell from the rich coffee smell from this part of the stairs. That meant that he was close to the top.
When he reached the top of the staircase, it lead to a door that was locked from the other side, most likely to keep anyone with good enough lock pick skills out of the penthouse. Kal was forced to go back down to the coffee room and enter it from the elevator.
When he got inside the elevator, he noticed a keyhole next to the set of buttons for the floors. This was at the top of the list. Kal assumed that this was what he needed for his entry into his apartment.
Kal took out the key and placed it into the hole. It didn’t need to be turned; the elevator recognized it as the entry key immediately.
The elevator went up the last few feet for the apartment, and then the doors opened.
The apartment was lavish. Lavish wasn’t even a good word for it.
Compared to how he had been living for the last few months, this was paradise.
The entire apartment was the size of the entire floor span of the hotel, which gave him plenty of space. It was like his own personal mansion way above the city of Succurro.
The front entryway had a few lounge chairs and tables. It was very well lit, maybe timed to turn on automatically when the elevator had someone up to the top level?
The hall was straight ahead, so he walked right on through. It wasn’t very long, maybe a few feet. But this hall had a few closets on one side, one for coats and one for linens, and a bathroom on the other side.
Through the short hallway was the entry into the great room.
The kitchen was the closest to the hall, just to your right as you entered the room. It was cut off from the room only by a breakfast bar, but other than that it was as much a part of the room as the couch was.
The living room was straight ahead of Kal, three large couches were surrounding the biggest television he had ever seen.
‘Pegasus went all out on this, didn’t he?’ Kal thought.
The space was large, but there was one more door for him to walk through. Kal knew where that led.
He opened the pocket door and walked into the grand bedroom, about half the size of the great room that he had just passed by.
It had a huge four-poster bed on the middle of the wall, which was the first thing to jump out at you. On either side were matching sets of drawers, empty of course. There was a television in this room too, on the wall to the right. It wasn’t as large as the one in the great room, but it was still a nice size.
On the left of the room were two doors. One lead to a master bath from what Kal could see from the open door, but the other door was closed.
Kal walked over and opened this closed door to find a study.
It was a nicely sized office, with a large wooden desk in the middle of the room. One wall had built in bookcases that had a few books in it already. On the desk was a brand new laptop, the box it came in was still on the table.
“Its brilliant, isn’t it?”
Kal turned and looked behind the door, where a person was standing blocked from his view.
It was a tall man who looked to be in his late twenties. He had thick brown hair that was combed over to one side and hung in his face. He wore a dark green jacket, one that you would see on an officer that went into combat. His lapels were adorned with many awards, showing how high of a rank he was. Only, Kal didn’t recognize those trinkets to be military.
“Who are you?” Kal asked.
“Whoa, take it easy there, Kal…”
“How do you know my name? How are you in here anyway?” Kal asked.
“One question at a time, pal. My name is General Gregory Pravus, of the DPF of Aequitas.”
‘Oh crap, they found me.’ Kal thought.
“What are you here for?” Kal asked, trying to hide his anxiety.
“You. I need you, Kal.”
“What for?”
“I am afraid that telling you is confidential.”
“I am in the DPF.” Kal said.
“No, you were before you were fired and became a vigilante. I do my homework, Kal.”
Kal wasn’t surprised, but he wasn’t going to hand himself to this man on a silver platter.
“Are you going to cooperate?” Gregory asked.
Kal looked at him, confused.
“It seems that he won’t. Drug him.” Gregory said.
Before he knew what was happening, Kal was being grabbed by men that were too strong for their height and age group. Cyborgs.
They pressed something to his neck, and soon he felt drowsy.
“Don’t harm him, and don’t let him lose any of his cards. We will need those…”
His voice trailed off, fading into the blackness.
----
Kal awoke with a feeling that he was hanging on a wall, somewhere above the floor. It didn’t feel like he was upside-down, but his arms were stretched out to their sides and he couldn’t move.
He had trouble forcing his eyes to open, like he was very tired. But his mind couldn’t have felt the most free.
It was almost effortless to think, like things were just laid before him to understand. He didn’t understand how this was possible, only that is was.
“Sir,” a calm, emotionless voice called, “It seems that he is waking.”
“Ah, splendid,” a man said. The voice was familiar.
Kal forced his eyes to open, trying to focus on where he was.
“How was your sleep? I trust it suited you well,” the man said. It was Gregory.
“Where am I?” Kal asked.
Gregory looked like he wasn’t expecting a response. He looked over to a man in the corner of the room, surrounded by computer screens. All he did was stare at Gregory.
Gregory looked over to Kal, “Who programmed you to ask questions?”
Kal glared at him, “What are you talking about?”
Gregory seemed to be caught off guard again.
“Who is screwing around with my project?” Gregory asked to no one in particular.
“The records say that the only one to enter the room was you, sir,” the man in the corner said.
Gregory turned back to Kal, “How are you doing this?”
“Um, speech? The same way you do it, you idiot…”
“No, how are you using your speech at will? You havnt been programmed to do this…”
“Wait, programmed? What do you mean, ‘programmed’?”
Gregory stared into his eyes, “You don’t realize it do you?”
Kal stared back at him.
Gregory sighed, “How do you think you are attached to that wall, when there are no latches or straps?”
Kal looked over to his arms, noticing that he indeed seemed to be floating there. That is when he noticed that he was in a thin shirt and shorts, not the things he was wearing before.
He also noticed something odd with his skin. It was oddly perfect…
“What did you do to my clothes?”
“It is part of the procedure that we provide you with new clothes.”
Kal again looked over to Gregory, “Procedure?”
Gregory sighed again.
“You are attached to an electromagnet. Why do you think that is?”
Kal looked to his arm. It all started to click, and very fast at that. The reason that he could think real fast and easy, the reason that he was attached to an electromagnet, the reason that his skin looked more perfect than normal, the reason that he seemed to be looked at funny when he showed emotion, all started to make sense.
“You get it now, don’t you?”
Kal looked over to Gregory with fear, hoping that his intentions weren’t true.
“Kal, you have been recruited into the Cyborg Program of the DPF,” Gregory said.
Kal dropped his head in defeat.
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