Trading Game (Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V SI)

"Hey Ryo, you good?"

The blue haired duelist turned to look at his roommate, who was none other than his friend Fubuki, and slowly nodded his head. 

His friend saw how uncharacteristic his response was, as evident by how unusually silent he was, far more silent than how he usually was, or perhaps he simply noticed by how soulless and unenergetic he seemed to be and frowned. 

But he continued nonetheless, "Alright, if you say so. Well… how long do you think this lockdown is going to last?" He asked, changing the topic of the conversation, falling back first onto his soft and comfortable bed with a loud sigh.

"I mean, they even delayed the whole tournament! Jeez, and it just had to be when I was about to meet Asuka and my mom and dad too!" The brown haired duelist whined, obviously displeased by the sudden situation that was sprung up to all of the occupants of the Academia.

"... Your sister decided to come?" He asked with a raised eyebrow, and his friend latched onto his sudden interest with vigor, springing up to sit up straight cross legged on his bed as he began to blabber.

"Yep! Asuka's always been interested in coming to the Academia! She's been sulking a lot ever since she didn't get accepted early like Mei and Serena did, so she's been reeeaaally looking forward to coming here and watching the tournament." He started out.

The boy stopped for a bit, turning his head slightly. "Well, I say that, but wasn't he going to come here too? Your brother that is."

"Right… Sho wanted to come and watch the tournament…" The reminder that his little brother would have reached the Academia already had it not been for the sudden lockdown soured his mood even further, and said feeling was further enhanced when he remembered that even if his little brother would come and watch the actual tournament, he wouldn't be one of its participants.

And that sour feeling of his turned into something more bitter and burned stronger when he remembered one of the participants who would be participating in his stead, one of the duelists that defeated him and his partner.

Of course, he was not talking about Yuuna, the red haired girl was a worthy adversary, an incredibly respectful duelist, one of incredibly high caliber, even higher than himself as seen by her track of having defeating him several times.

In truth, he looks up to the girl. Her dueling ability was top notch, the strategy that she uses are incredible to watch unfold and duel against, and not to mention her capability of using multiple decks, and piloting each and every single one of them to their full potential.

And he was indebted to her, the cards that she had given him were strong, incredibly so. He was quite sure that he had only gotten that far in their class' own tournament simply because of those cards, and he couldn't thank her enough.

But… her partner however, was a whole different story.

There were many things that one could dislike about Yuri, especially as he himself was a person who believed in the soul of dueling, along with the belief of how a duelist should treat their opponents, and their cards, with respect.

Yuri checked the last box of course, the amount of respect and love that he has for his cards was what he respected of the boy, and, though bitterly, he admitted that he was an incredibly strong duelist in his own right.

But what he does not like of the purple haired boy was, of course, how he treats his opponent and his way of dueling.

Multiple times had he seen the boy show blatant disrespect towards his opponent, belittling their strategies and their belief, the way that they duel, and that was not even mentioning his rough style of dueling that would lead to his opponent getting injuries.

And that was something that he disliked, no, outright hate, about the boy. 

And it was also why he couldn't quite forgive the boy for having beaten him, in that last important match.

He glanced downwards towards his hand, frowning ever so slightly as he saw how they trembled as he was reminded of his loss at the hands of the Predaplant duelist. He was reminded of the sting of pain that he felt from the boy's final attack, the deranged smile that the boy held as he dealt the finishing blow.

And… that gave out a conflicted feeling to him.

His master, the one who had taught him the Cyber-style of dueling, has always instilled into him how a strong duelist is one who truly believes and respects their cards, respects their opponents, and it was a belief that he took deep to his heart.

But the purple haired boy was someone who stood for the opposite of his belief, he contradicts most of what he stood for.

And mirroring him was none other than Yuuna, a duelist who was the complete opposite of Yuri, a kindhearted and strong duelist who respects her opponents, no matter who she was facing.

And it shook him, his resolve, the two were exact opposites, and yet they were quite close to one another, good friends who would duel one another on a daily basis. Both were great duelists in their own right, and that made him wonder…

Was the path that he was following, was the way of dueling that his master taught him correct?

Yuuna showed him what he could be, how strong of a duelist he could become if he continued to follow the path that his master had already carved out for him, but Yuri, a duelist who was at the same caliber of Yuuna, showed him the opposite.

And even though both Yuuna and his master was someone who he looked up, people who completely embodied the belief that he has hold dear ever since he had been training on the Cyber-style of dueling, the shadow of Yuri and his smile, of those Obelisk Blue and the Obelisk Force duelists who looks down on other, always seemed to loom over him.

"Why'd you think they even had a lockdown anyway?" Fubuki suddenly said, snapping him off from his thoughts. He took a glance towards his friend, who laid in his own bed comfortably.

"...Who knows." He answered, completely in the dark just like him. But he did bring up quite the question.

Exactly why was the whole of Academia on lockdown?

-

She didn't know how long she had been running, but it must have been more than half an hour at this point. She had made her way into an… even more secluded part of the school, leaving unconscious bodies of Obelisk Force in her wake. 

Strangely enough, she hasn't felt tired yet, even after running what would have normally winded her at this point. She simply chalked it up that it was thanks to the adrenaline that she hadn't felt the tiredness hit her yet, she was quite sure that she would fall into a deep slumber after she managed to find a safe place after this was all over.

The sound of a body falling onto the ground with a thud resounded, a sound that she was becoming all too familiar with with the numerous duelists that she has to knock unconscious today, and the tingling sense of danger faded away from her mind.

She apologized to the unconscious duelist in her mind, and took the key that fell from his pocket, knowing that it would perhaps unlock a previously unreachable part of the school.

Though which door did this key exactly open, was still something that she does not know. And backtracking and finding which of the many locked doors that she had went too will this key open would be too much of a hassle, and she was already on limited time.

So she tried the key onto the nearest locked door in her vicinity, and much to her relief, it opened.

The place that she eventually came too was a secluded laboratory, one willed with tanks of bubbling green liquid. She slowed her pace as she looked around this strange laboratory, thoughts wandering on what exactly the laboratory's purpose was, and what all of the equipment here was needed for.

Her eyes then wandered and landed on one of the many tanks that littered around the laboratory, and her feet stopped moving as she saw exactly what was the item that floated inside of said tank.

It was… calling it a creature wouldn't quite out it, it was a monster, or rather, a monster card that has somehow been manifested into the real world. 

Her eyes widened as she vaguely recognized what exactly the thing inside the tank was, her hand stopped reaching out to said tank and she began frantically opening her System's catalogue of cards and scrolling through it to find exactly what the card that she was searching for was.

And she soon found it, the monster card that shared the most similarity with the monster that was in the tank of green liquid, was a strange card that she has had vague recollection of. Fusion Parasite, a monster that could be used as a substitute for any Fusion Material similar to that of the Hex-Sealed Fusions, and having the effect to Fusion Summon if its special summoned. 

But-how was it even here? How is it that the card is able to be placed inside of a glass tube when it's made out of solid holograms? Just how far ahead is this level of science compared to her previous world? Has they somehow managed to completely create a whole new lifeform based on some children's card game? 

She then vaguely remembered the failure punishment that she would meet should she fail that Emergency Grand Mission, the fate that would befall her should she fail to defeat and stop the Professor.

The System showed two options that she could meet should she lose, and that was Fusion Parasite Brainwash, or being carded. The latter was something that she was vaguely familiar of, having your soul being sealed or sucked into a card was a concept that has already been shown in some of the previous series after all, the only problem was the former, was something that she does know of.

But with the existence of these tanks, tanks filled with a monster card that was printed around the time the anime came out, could only mean that it has connections to it. And it does not instill her with confidence, in fact, the strange alien and horror vibe that it gave her gave the opposite effect.

"Oho? To think that the intruder would be found here of all places."

She snapped herself to the direction of the voice, immediately jumping away and activating her duel disk to prepare herself. Raspy and old, a voice filled with a tinge of madness fitting to that of a mad scientist, and the man that she met checked all those boxes. 

The other figure that was in this strange laboratory was a tall lanky man, with sunken cheeks and bags under his green eyes, his facial features not at all covered by his combed wavy white hair. And like all Academia Executives, he wore a robe, a grey robe that is, one with an orange brown centre that was patterned with yellow lines.

It was the first time that she even saw an Academia Executive other than Cronos on that fateful first tournament, and even then his attire matched more to the attire that he wore during GX.

The man slowly stalked towards her, his arms folded behind his back as his eyes wandered around, but his focus never left her. His hands slowly caressed the many metal tables around them, frolicking his fingers as if checking for the tiniest speck of dust.

"Hmm… for a rat like you to have made it here… it would seem that the Professor's guards are lacking." Then his eyes narrowed, the strange smile that was plastered on his face turned more deranged.

"Or perhaps you were a duelist of the highest of caliber, one whose skills are enough to let you mow through the Obelisk Force with the simplest of ease."

Every single word that exited his lips sent chills down her spine, making her put up her guard stronger than before, her vision became hyper focused towards the man and the man alone.

The man's movements stopped briefly, and as if remembering something, he snapped his fingers and looked towards her intently. "Ah, but where are my manners?" He extended his right arm forwards, and brought his right hand to his chest, performing a mock bow, the deranged smile never leaving his face.

"My name… yes, I am the one who is dubbed the Doctor. A fitting name for a genius such as myself." The man said introducing himself, straightening his back as he finished doing so, though with his lanky and thin build, he does not have an imposing figure. 

She narrowed her eyes under the cap of her hat, shelving the name and running it through her head. The Doctor, just simply guessing from name alone it seemed to be a counterpart to the Professor, the Academia's leader, which would simply mean that the man before her- 

"As you might have guessed, I am an Academia Executive whose authority is only one below the Professor himself. My genius however, is a whole different matter." The man read her like an open book, and she kept her guard up, trying to calm herself through it all.

She said nothing, kept silent through his self introduction, and that seemed to have irritated him somewhat as she saw from how his lips twitched ever so slightly downwards. "A silent one I see. Well no matter. I will get you talking soon enough."

She felt a tingling sensation pounding inside her head telling her to dodgedodgeDodgeDODGE- and she leaped forwards, and in a feat of athleticism even managing to leap even further by using her arm to gain far more distance and turning mid air to look at who exactly had triggered that strange tingling sense of her's.

"Oh! So you managed to dodge! As expected of a high class specimen! You're living up to my expectations already!" He derangeldy exclaimed, spreading his arms wide as he did so. Her eyes wandered to the person who had attempted to attack her, and her eyes went wide.

For it was none other than Cronos de Medici himself, wearing his signature blue coat and specialized duel disk on his chest, but he felt… wrong. That feeling of wrongness was added when she noticed that the Obelisk Blue teacher's flair of dramatics were gone, instead replaced with cold calculating dread.

"Ah, Cronos, he was quite a duelist. A fine specimen." The Doctor started, walking next to the blonde Obelisk Blue teacher, who simply stood there unmovingly like a log, not even blinking as the lanky man approached him.

"It was quite saddening really, that he rejected the grand plan that the Professor had. My the duel that he put up was quite grand indeed! And he gave myself quite the amount of data. Enough for me to use my imperfect parasites on him." The man then giggled to himself, caressing his hands as he started to walk backwards, disappearing into the many metal tubes and pipes that made the laboratory.

"Now then, let's test to see if you truly are a worthy specimen!" the Doctor's voice resounded throughout the entire laboratory, and She turned to where the Doctor was, searching him anywhere near the place where he was last seen, only to find that he had disappeared from the whole premise.

She saw Cronos activating his own duel vest, the strange duel disk letting out a mechanical humm as it activated, creating the holographic blade to where he would be placing his own cards.

There was no flair, no dramatics, none of the theatrics that the man was known for both in the previous anime and from the rumours that she had heard of him, the man was as silent as a mountain and had an eerie thousand yard stare, it was as if he wasn't even aware of his own actions. It was as if he was being controlled, like a puppet tied with strings.

Or more correctly, like a prey being controlled by a parasite.

She brandished her duel disk towards him, preparing herself for the duel against the mind controlled man, not knowing whether or not he would be freed from the parasites control should she defeat him. 

But he now stood in her way, along with that Doctor, and so she'll face them head on.

""DUEL!!""

Cronos de Medici: 4000LP

Red Hat: 4000LP

"I shall be going first." Cronos declared, his voice sounding dead and robotic, his hands going through his cards and picking one, eyes not even moving and kept staring dead forwards towards her.

"I will activate the continuous spell, Ancient Gear Fortress." He said, absently placing the continuous spell onto his duel vest's holographic blade, and behind him, filling the laboratory that they were in, a giant fortress of bricks and gears appeared.

She clicked her tongue, knowing how now her handtraps of choice were insulated with the continuous spell's effect, and thus she couldn't interact with the blonde duelists now during this turn thanks to the continuous spell's effect that gave his Ancient Gear monsters targeting and destruction protection during the turn they were summoned, along with her not able to respond to their effects.

The mind controlled dueling professor then took out another card from his hand, placing it onto his duel vest's holographic blade and played his next card. "I normal summon Ancient Gear Hunting Hound." 

The mechanical hunting hound then appeared on the field, the largest singular gear on its body spinning as it let out a growl, stomping its metallic paws on the ground repeatedly.

Ancient Gear Hunting Hound - Earth/Machine/Level 3/Effect: 1000/1000

"I will activate Hunting Hound's effect. If this card is normal summoned, I can inflict 600 points of damage to my opponent." The blonde duelist said so monotonously, pointing towards her with his right hand. The hunting hound then opened its maw, charging a shot of beam that was then shot towards her.

With no way of interacting with the monster's effect activation due to the continuous effect of Ancient Gear Fortress, she raised her hand and winced as she received the small burn. "Che!"

Red Hat: 3400LP

"I will activate the effect of Ancient Gear Hunting Hound." The dueling professor declared once again. "Once per turn, I can perform a Fusion Summon of an 'Ancient Gear' Fusion Monster from my Extra Deck, using monsters from my hand or field as fusion materials."

The man then mechanically took out two cards from his hand, revealing to her the monsters that he would be using for his Fusion Summon. "I will fuse two Ancient Gear Hunting Hounds."

The twi monsters that would be fused as fusion materials were declared, and they all appeared onto the field. Another copy of the mechanical hound appeared onto the field, both of them letting out their mechanical roars. "O spirits of ancient warriors residing in ancient machineries, become one and show your great power!"

The man raised his hands and clasped them together to bring them down, a show of fierce power from the robotical mind controlled man's tone changed ever so slightly. "Fusion Summon! Appear! Ancient Gear Howitzer!"

The monster that appeared was miniaturized, downsized to fit their current dueling area, but even then the monster was stupidly large, filling the enitrety of the laboratory with its sheer wingspan, its cannon's gears clicking and spinning 

Ancient Gear Howitzer- Earth/Machine/Fusion/Level 8/Effect: 1000/1800

"I will activate the effect of Ancient Gear Howitzer, during the Main Phase, I can inflict 1000 points of damage to my opponent. Howitzer Fire." The blonde dueling professor pointed towards her, and the Fusion Monster shot out its salvo.

"Kuh!" She winced as the solid hologram's attack hit her, her Life Points being drained slowly but surely from the burn damage that was starting to pile up.

Red Hat: 2400LP

"I will equip the equip spell, Ancient Gear Magic Shield to Ancient Gear Howitzer." He said, revealing the equip spell in hand. The mechanical shield then appeared in front of the Fusion Monster, expanding an light purple energy shield ahead of the monster.

"Ancient Gear Magic Shield can only be equipped to an 'Ancient Gear' Monster. It gains 1200 points of defence and it cannot be destroyed by battle." Cronos robotically explained, and her eyes narrowed at hearing the effect of the equip card that she knew was an anime exclusive.

Ancient Gear Howitzer- Earth/Machine/Fusion/Level 8/Effect: 1000/3000

"I will set one card." The mind controlled duelist said, placing his last card face-down right behind his newly summoned Fusion Monster. "And I will end my turn." And Cronos then ended his turn, with an incredibly large Fusion Monster that floated upon destruction and genuinely immune to card effects and destruction, a continuous spell that no longer gives protection, and a singular set card with one card left in hand.

It was… very easily breakable. Especially with the cards that she has on hand. It was a shame that she couldn't have simply used her Ghost Ogre she had on hand to shut the entire combo line the moment he used the on summon effect of Hunting Hound, but it was still a Light target for Invocation, all was still fine.

"My turn. I draw." She declared, drawing her sixth card for her turn, and having already glanced at the cards that she has on her hand, she already had a play in mind already. "I will start by activating the field spell, Magical Meltdown!"

A gigantic red glowing magical circle appeared beneath them, engulfing the laboratory as a whole, a sign that the field spell had been activated, spinning as it does so. "When Magical Meltdown is activated, I can add one 'Aleister the Invoker' from my deck to my hand-!"

"I will activate the continuous trap, Imperial Order." The man robotically declared, flipping his single set card face-up and revealed what it was. Her eyes widened as the holographic projection of the continuous trap card's that shuts down one third of the card games cards shone.

"While Imperial Order is face-up on the field, all spell effects on the field are negated." Cronos said robotically, no sense of dramatics of flair in his tone as he activated the floodgate that essentially kills most of, if not all, Fusion based decks.

The glowing red magical circle that was under them broke off, deactivating as it was negated by the effect of Imperial Order and preventing her from searching for Aleister. She clicked her tongue, IO shuts down a large portion of her deck, but thankfully not all of them.

But it also shuts down his own spell cards as well, meaning that the effect of both the on field effect of Ancient Gear Fortress and Ancient Gear Magic Shield was now negated. Making the battle protection that the equip card gave, along with its added defence points, gone.

The energy shield that was in front of the mechanical Fusion Monster then disappeared, and though the shield still floated ahead of the monster, it no longer had its effects.

Ancient Gear Howitzer- Earth/Machine/Fusion/Level 8/Effect: 1000/1800

"I will set two cards." She said, setting two cards face-down as her backrow. "And I will end my turn." She said, ending her turn with only having set two cards face-down and activating a now negated Magical Meltdown, three cards still remaining in hand.

"I will start my turn. Draw." Cronos then started his turn again, drawing for turn and replenishing his hand to two cards. He then moved to the Standby Phase, where the mandatory effect of Imperial Order activates.

"During the Standby Phase, I must pay 700LP for Imperial Order." The blonde dueling professor said, paying the mandatory maintenance cost to keep the spell negating floodgate on the field.

Cronos de Medici: 3300LP

"I will activate the effect of Ancient Gear Howitzer, during the Main Phase, I can inflict 1000 points of damage to my opponent. Howitzer Fire." Cronos activated the monster's effect once more, pointing his hand towards her as the Fusion Monster shot out its salvo.

She raised her hand to protect herself, but still winced as the weight of the holographic projectile still hit her. "Gh!" She grunted, her Life Points having been reduced to lethal range at this point, if she let this keep going then she would eventually be biting the dust.

Red Hat: 1400LP

"I will summon Ancient Gear Wyvern." Cronos said, placing one of the two cards that was on his hand to his duel vest's blade projection, and the mechanical wyvern then appeared screeching onto the field.

Ancient Gear Wyvern - Earth/Machine/Level 4/Effect: 1700/1200

"If this card is normal or special summoned, I can add one 'Ancient Gear' card from my deck to my hand, however, I cannot set cards for the rest of the turn." He declared the monster's searching effect monotonously, noting the effect that prevents him from setting cards for the rest of the turn.

"I will be adding Ancient Gear Box to my hand." And he went trhough the motions, using Wyvern's search effect to add Ancient Gear Box, and continued to then activate its effect. "Ancient Gear Box's effect, if this card is added from the deck or graveyard to my hand, except by drawing it, I can add one Earth Machine -Type Monster with 500 attack and or defence from my deck to my hand."

The mind controlled duelist then revealed a card from his deck, the target that the dueling professor would be adding through the effect of Box. "I will add Ancient Gear Gadget." He said robotically, and added the card to his hand.

"Hmm? Is this perhaps the limits of your abilities?" She heard the voice of the Doctor resound throughout the entirety of the laboratory, his voice sounding mechanical, having come from one of the many speakers that were seemingly hidden around the room.

"Perhaps I had valued you too highly, no matter. A new specimen for experiments for experiments are always accepted." He said with a slight grin, though his form was hidden as he watched the duel go on from a one sided screen.

"Battle-"

"Before you move onto the Battle Phase, I will activate the trap card, Eldlixir of Scarlet Sanguine! And I will chain it with another trap card, Dogmatika Punishment!" She shouted aloud, chaining the two trap cards' together.

"Punishment allows me to target one face-up monster that my opponent controls and send one monster with an equal or higher attack from your Extra Deck to the GY! And if you do, I can destroy that monster!" She explained the trap card's main effect.

"However, until the end of your next turn after this card resolves, you cannot Special Summon monsters from the Extra Deck." She explain the card's drawbacks, and took out a card from her Extra Deck that she would dump for its effect.

"I will target your Ancient Gear Wyvern, and send Titaniklad the Ash Dragon from my Extra Deck to the graveyard!" She sent the Fusion Monster to the grave, and destroyed the Ancient Gear monster with the trap card's effect.

She then continued the chain, explaining the effect of the other card that she had activated. "Eldlixir of Scarlet Sanguine allows me to special summon one Zombie monster from my deck or graveyard, however, if I control no 'Eldlich' Monsters, I can only special summon 'Eldlich' monsters with its effect!" She explained the trap card's effect and took out a card from her deck.

She revealed it, and it was none other than one of the two off Golden Lord that she plays in her deck. "I will special summon Eldlich the Golden Lord in defence position!" She placed the card onto her duel disk's own holographic sword, and the magnificent Golden Lord of the Cursed Eldland appeared onto the field with his hands spread wide.

Eldlich the Golden Lord - Light/Zombie/Level 10/Effect: 2500/2800

Cronos ended his Battle Phase, and with no other play to perform for the turn, he ended his turn. "I will end my turn." He said, ending his town with two monsters on the field, the numerous spells on his backrow still negated by the Imperial order, and three cards in his hand, one of which was an unknown.

"On the End Phase, I will activate the effect of Titaniklad the Ash Dragon in my graveyard." She said as they moved towards the End Phase. "During the End Phase, if this card is in the graveyard because it was sent there this turn, I can add to my hand or special summon one 'Fallen of Albaz' or 'Dogmatika' monster from my deck."

She took out a card that she would summon with the Fusion Monster's graveyard effect, revealing a Dogmatika monster from her deck. "I will add Dogmatika Ecclesia, the Virtuous to my hand."

The turn then truly ended, and her's then started. "I will start my turn, I draw." She said, drawing her card for turn, replenishing her hand to five, and moving from the Draw Step towards the Standby Phase of her turn. 

"I will receive damage from Imperial Order" Cronos said, paying the maintenance cost for Imperial Order, one which has to be paid for each Standby Phase. She saw that the man was unperturbed as electricity ran up through his entire body, his duel vest discharging it for him receiving damage.

Cronos de Medici: 2600LP

She checked the five cards in her hand, thinking which of them were actually playable, or more correctly usable to push for lethal. The only thing that truly stood in her way of attempting to push to end the game was none other than Howitzer's floating effect, should she destroy it by battle, it would turn into any other Ancient Gear monster, in this case it would be most likely either be the titular Golem or Reactor Dragon, both monsters with 3000 points of attack.

And the problem was that she has no sound outs for those cards, not if she wants to go for lethal this turn that is. But she still needed to out the Howitzer, because otherwise, Her Life Points would be burned for another 1000 points. 

"I will normal summon Dogmatika Ecclesia, the Virtuous." She said, placing her card onto her duel disk's blade projection, and the monster then hits the field, swinging her battle hammer easily with one hand, the ever faithful armoured girl appeared beside her other monster, standing in defence position just like the Eldlich beside her

Dogmatika Ecclesia, the Virtuous - Light/Spellcaster/Level 4/Effect: 1500/1500

"Ecclesia's effect. If she's normal or special summoned, I can add one 'Dogmatika' card from my deck to my hand. However I cannot special summon from the Extra Deck for the rest of the turn." She would have summoned her last turn with the effect of Titaniklad, but as she was under the effect of Scarlet Sanguine that locked her to Zombies, she couldn't exactly do so.

"I'll add Dogmatika Fleurdelis, the Knighted to my hand." And so she added another form of interaction to her hand, a hand trap monster negate in the form of Fleurdelis, or in this scenario, a body that would help her push for lethal.

"I will switch Eldlich the Golden Lord to attack." She said, and the Zombie monster that was on her field, stood up straighter. "Battle. I will attack your Ancient Gear Howitzer with my Eldlich the Golden Lord. Adelantado Veiga!"

The golden lord of the cursed land then struck, its large hand attacking the Machine Fusion Monster, and destroying it with merely a single strike. This, however, triggered its floating effect that triggers upon its battle destruction.

"The effect of Ancient Gear Howitzer activates." The man robotically declared. "If this card is destroyed by battle and sent to the graveyard, I can special summon one 'Ancient Gear' Monster from my deck, ignoring its summoning conditions."

The blonde dueling professor then took out a card from his deck, revealing what card he would summon with the monster's floating effect. "I will special summon Ancient Gear Golem in attack position."

The man placed the card onto his duel vest's sword projection, and the gigantic golem then took on the place where the Fusion Monster was once was. It's large skeletal frame filled the entirety of the laboratory, it's gladiator style helmet scraping the ceiling of the room.

Ancient Gear Golem - Earth/Machine/Level 8/Effect: 3000/3000

She moved on to the second Main Phase, having no other monsters to attack during the Battle Phase that could out the newly summoned monster. "I will activate the effect of Eldlixir of Scarlet Sanguine in my graveyard." She declared.

"I can banish this card from my graveyard, to set one 'Golden Land' spell or trap directly from my deck." She activated the card's graveyard effect and banished it for cost, activating this one effect of Scarlet Sanguine as she could only activate one effect of the card once per turn and only once that turn.

"I will set the continuous trap, Conquistador of the Golden Land, directly from my deck onto my field." She set the continuous trap as her interaction of choice, setting it behind the Golden Lord himself.

But she wouldn't be using the trap's effect anytime soon. Because currently, she has two choices that she could use the trap's effect for. She could either use it to destroy the floodgate that was preventing her from using the Branded Fusion in her hand, Imperial Order, or the equip spell that was equipped on Cronos' Fusion Monster, Ancient Gear Magic Shield.

But if she pops the Imperial Order, then she would not have any outs for the Ancient Gear Howitzer, as it would essentially be immune to card effects and indestructible by battle, and the card that could out it would be Kaiju's or the likes, cards that she did not have in her current possession.

But simply using it to pop the equip spell would simply be a waste, and thus she decided to simply hold it for later. Or more correctly, she would be holding it for the special summon target that would come from the floating effect of Howitzer, as with Imperial Order on the field, whatever Cronos summons wouldn't have the protection of Ancient Gear Fortress.

"I will end my turn." She said, simply ending her turn after dealing with Howitzer, even if it did float into an Ancient Gear Golem. She ended her turn with two monsters on the field, those being Eldlich and Ecclesia, along with a set card in Conquistador and five cards still in hand, Magical Meltdown being activated on the field without effect under Imperial Order.

"It is my turn. I draw." The turn player changed, and Cronos drew his card for his turn, getting his fourth card. The Draw Phase then ended, and on the Standby Phase, he paid the mandatory cost of Imperial order.

Silently, electricity surged through the man's body, and he took it wordlessly, his Life Points being reduced even further, more than half at this point. 

Cronos de Medici: 1900LP

The blonde man glanced at the cards that he had in hand, and took out a card from his hand that he would be playing for the turn. "I will normal summon Ancient gear hunting hound." He said, placing the card onto his duel vest, playing the third and final copy of the monster.

Ancient Gear Hunting Hound - Earth/Machine/Level 3/Effect: 1000/1000

Alarm bells started to ring on her head, knowing full well if the man Fusion Summons another Ancient Gear howitzer, that it would be the end of the game. "I will activate Hunting Hound's effect." He declared. "If this card is normal summoned, I can inflict 600 points of damage to my opponent." 

Cronos said so monotonously, pointing towards her with his right hand. The hunting hound then opened its maw, charging a shot of beam that was then shot towards her. "I will activate the effect of Effect Veiler in my hand! During my opponent's Main Phase, as a Quick Effect, I can send this card from my hand to the graveyard, then target one Effect Monster my opponent controls, and negate the effects of that face-up monster my opponent controls until the end of this turn!"

She pitched her newly drawn handtrap to the graveyard, and negated the burn effect of the newly summoned Ancient Gear Monster, along with negating its effect that would allow the dueling professor to Fusion Summon with it.

But even if she had managed to negate the effect of Hunting Hound, which would not only burn and allow him to Fusion Summon, she still has to deal with the giant Golem himself, a monster with 3000 attack, an Armades effect that prevents the activation of spells and traps until the end of the Damage Step, and deals piercing damage.

Should it attack her Ecclesia, then it would be game. But thankfully she has an out to the giant monster.

The mind controlled duelist narrowed his eyes, checking the cards in his hand and finding none of them useful once again, and so he proceeded to go ahead towards the Battle Phase. "Battle-"

And once again, she halted him. "At the declaration of moving towards the Battle Phase, I will activate the continuous trap, Conquistador of the Golden Land!" She declared so, flipping up the set card that she had set directly from her deck with the graveyard effect of Scarlet Sanguine.

"This card allows me to special summon this card as a Normal monster, then, if I control 'Eldlich the Golden Lord' I can destroy one face-up card on the field!" She explained the continuous trap card's effect of summoning itself as a monster, and the undead conquistador then appeared, riding atop of its golden undead horse, summoned in defence position.

Conquistador of the Golden Land - Light/Zombie/Level 5/Normal: 500/1800

The effect then continues to trigger, as she controls the Golden Lord himself, she can then destroy a card on the field without targeting it. "I will destroy Ancient gear Golem!" She declared her target, and the undead conquistador pointed his rapier, the mechanical giant then exploded, destroying it and turning it into mere motes of light.

And with that, she managed to deal with the imminent threat, and being under his own Imperial Order and having used his normal summon already, Cronos could perform no further actions this turn.

"... I will end my turn." He said, ending his turn with three cards, with only one of them being an unknown, though at this point she guessed that the card was an unusable spell card.

"Then it's my turn. I will draw!" She drew her card for turn, her hand becoming six once more, and as she moved on towards the Standby Phase, the mandatory of Imperial Order activated.

This time, she saw the blonde dueling professor's eye visibly twitch as electricity coursed through his veins, his duel vest sending another jolt as his Life Points got lower and lower thanks to the effect of Imperial Order.

Cronos de Medici: 1200LP

But this game was more or less over, she had already simplified the game state enough, and even though she hadn't used her spell cards this game, she could still end the game.

"Battle! I will attack your Ancient Gear Hunting Hound with Ecclesia!" And she gave her the order to attack, the hammer wielding Spellcaster jumped up high and bringing down the hammer of justice towards the mechanical monster, breaking the mechanical hound and turning it into motes of light.

"..." The mind controlled Cronos didn't react as his Life Points were reduced even further from the excess battle damage, and with his one monster being destroyed, he now had an open field and a low enough Life points that her next attack would end the duel.

Cronos de Medici: 700LP

She fixed the cap of her hat, and pointed towards the brainwashed blonde duelist. "Finish it. Eldlich. Adelantado Veiga." With the last attack order sent, her last monster then attacked directly for game, sending the man tumbling through the air and crashing into some of the many tubes in the laboratory, breaking some on impact in the process.

Cronos de Medici: 0LP

The duel then ended, but she didn't take the card out of her duel disk yet. "Amazing! Absolutely amazing! To think that you would be able to defeat Cronos!" She heard the voice of the Doctor resound throughout the laboratory, and glared towards the source of the sound, the speaker that was in the room.

"You truly are a high quality specimen! I simply have to have you now!" her danger sense tingled once more, urging her to get out of the room as soon as she could, to get as far as she could as soon as possible. 

But she then glanced towards the fallen form of Cronos, the man was unconscious, and she doesn't know whether or not he was still mind controlled, and though she wanted to believe in the anime trope of beating someone back to consciousness, she could not in good nature believe that such a thing would work in real life.

That, and her strange sense told her that the Doctor might have hid something on the unconscious man, and simply looking at the strange parasites that was in the many tubes around the laboratory simply made her not want to touch the man who was under its control.

So she did the next best thing, she ordered the solid hologram to grab him instead. She did so unconsciously, as if she already knew how to do so from the start, motioned towards Ecclesia, and somehow, the solid hologram followed her wishes, unsummoning her battle hammer and walking closer to the man.

Only for her hand to instantly snap towards something that flew closer towards the solid hologram, and lo and behold, on the Spellcaster's hand was none other than one a wiggly insect that was the Fusion Parasite, having come out of Cronos' coat.

"Wha-the solid hologram is moving on its own?! No-it's reacting to an order-but how?! Is it because it was a humanoid card? The duelist themself?! The card's coding?! I must have it! The valuable data!"

But he's wrong, she knows he's wrong, the thing that she was doing, asking and ordering the solid projection of Ecclesia, was what Solid Vision was meant to be used for, it's intended purpose, all helped by what she assumed must be the spirit that resided in the card.

She… honestly never thought that she would be able to do something like this however. Communicating with the spirit of the card that is. But then again, that wouldn't be the correct term, she wasn't really conversing with Ecclesia, merely giving an order that the spirit obliged through the usage of the solid hologram.

Because deep down, she knows that it was supposed to be like this. The solid vision. It was supposed to be a tool used to help people, to help others, the purpose of solid holograms were meant to be used as a way to lighten the burdens of menial and heavy physical activities, and with the evolution of the entertainment industry, the first form that solid vision took was to upgrade the experience of dueling.

… But instead people were now using it for harmful purposes, ways that disgusted her to no end. The Professor who had a whole school filled with indoctrinated duelists whose heads are filled with violence and superiority issues, and now she found out of the existence of the Doctor, a mad scientist whose experiments was bordering on human experimentation and breaking the boundaries between solid virtual holograms and reality.

And he already has casualties under his belt, the prone form of the Obelisk Blue's dueling instructor was a testament to such.

"Eldlich." She said softly, to the still manifested monster. "Adelantado Veiga." And with but a single order from her, the solid holographic projection of the monster stuck.

It was… quite cathartic she admitted, as she watched the solid hologram use its weight to perform actual real life damage towards the property of the many things that resided in the laboratory.

"NOOO!" She heard the doctor screeched, no doubt tearing his eyes out at the scene that he was watching all through a safe distance. "My research! My data! What are you doing to them!?"

"Isn't it obvious?" She said with a bored flat tone as she watched her monster do actual harm to the world all done under her orders.  "I am, as one would call it, cleaning house." 

For what the Doctor was doing was a crime against humanity, creating an abomination that should and must be destroyed. And as a proper person with straight morals, that was exactly what she was going to be doing, even if she had to use their own methods to do so.

So she razed the whole laboratory to the ground, Eldlich's massive frame certainly made the whole task easier than it should have, with a single swipe of the Golden Lord's arms, it had already devastated a large chunk of the machinery that filled the room.

The cries of the Doctor filled her ears as she watched the laboratory, along with the grotesque parasites that all resided in the tubes, get razed to the ground. At one point, the giant golden Zombie had managed to spark a fire from the many electronics and the flammable liquids amongst the things that he destroyed.

With the room thoroughly razed, and a fire starting to spread throughout, she proceeded to leave the room, followed suit by Eldlich who dematerialized himself, and Ecclesia who brought along with her, the unconscious Cronos. 

She took one last look at the burning remains of the laboratory, and stared intently towards the fire that burned and turned towards the speaker where she could still hear the anguished cries of the Doctor.

"After I'm done dealing with the Professor." She started saying aloud, though her conversation partner was still wallowing in the destruction of what was undoubtedly years upon years of research.

"I will be coming for you. Doctor."

-

"Man… What do you think the others are doing?"

"Knowing Yuuna she's probably tinkering with her deck." He answered his friend's question with what he knew of his friend. She was known to do so normally after all, the possibility of her doing that while being stuck in her room was high.

"Ha! That sounds like her doesn't it? But I'm talking about the others you know? Like the twins or Edo." Fubuki waved his answer off, before taking a thoughtful look.

"Huh, now that I think about it, what would Edo be doing in a time like this?"

-

She ran, adrenaline coursing through her veins once more, her determination strengthened after her most recent duel.

She knew that the Doctor was nowhere near the laboratory that she had just left, he must have been watching the duel from a safe place after all, though thinking of the face that the Doctor made while he watched his disgusting laboratory would have been quite the sight.

Was that quite sadistic of her? Yes. But does she think that such a thing would be deserved for a despicable person like him? Also yes.

She had decided, after all, after she had finished her confrontation with the Professor, which of course she thought would devolve into a duel in which she would have to defeat the man and bring his doings to light and stop his plans right in their tracks, she would then confront the Doctor herself.

Or rather she would confront whoever she finds first, be it the Doctor or the Professor.

After all, both of them were unforgivable, their actions, their goals, their methods, they were all everything that she stood against, and she would put a stop to them.

Of course, she doesn't know their full story, for all she knows, the Professor's goals could be something that was noble, the research of the Fusion Parasite that the Doctor was doing could perhaps be used for the greater good.

But even so, even if their goals truly weren't something that was selfish, but was something that was done for the greater good of humanity, of this dimension as a whole-

She would still stop them, because in her selfishness, she could not forgive the methods that the both of them were doing, their inhumane ways of reaching their goals.

She had resolved herself to do so, to stop them, no matter the consequence-

She dodged, crouching suddenly as she ran and performed a roll to avoid the metallic chain that was thrown her way. She skid her roll to a stop, turning her body to look at the one who had stopped her at her tracks, her next opponent that she would face in her warpath towards the Professor.

"Tch, so you dodged it. No matter. I've finally found you." The perpetrator said, and her eyes widened as she saw who it was.

His usual attire of a silver suit which was specially tailored for a boy like him was covered by a regal blue and green cloak with yellow shoulder pads, the chest area being white with yellow decorative buttons.

It was, undoubtedly, one of the cloaks that was worn by a high ranking official of the Academia, one that she had seen briefly worn by some of those duelists who were the leader of the Obelisk Force.

So why-why was.

Edo glared at her, his duel disk activated and the blue sword projection at the ready. "I will have you tell me where you got these cards! The cards that my father has created!"