Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Kal woke up the next morning on the floor. He was still in the awkward position from the previous night, after the strange series of events….

‘That must have been a dream.’ Kal thought, ‘there is no other way to explain it…’

Kal went down stairs to eat the second out of the four jars of artificial food. The real food wasn’t given out to venders outside the innermost part of Aequitas. It was part of marketing business in Aequitas to give the poorer food to the poorer people on the outskirts of the town.

They wouldn’t be able to buy it anyway.

Kal sat down in his one chair and began to eat one of his ArBurs. He had left one ArBur and one ArChi in his refrigerator, which has turned into a simple ice box.

With out ice.

But Kal only kept the food in the fridge for nostalgia. The artificial food’s only perk was that it never went bad, mainly because there wasn’t anything in it that was real enough to spoil.

Kal looked at his pocket watch. 4 o’clock it read, and judging by the sun it meant in the afternoon.

‘I sure did sleep a lot,’ Kal thought, ‘Maybe I hit my head too hard when I was coming down…’

When Kal finished the ArBur, he set the empty jar on the floor next to the many other emptied jars in the pile. He had no trash can here, and he had never gotten around to leaving the house just for the trash. Besides, the stuff never went bad. What was the furry to dispose of it?

Kal went back upstairs for his duel disk. He decided that he was going to finish the duel training with Alina today. He thought it was unfair how short he cut their time yesterday, and thought it would be only fair to give more information on how to duel. It was only fair…

Once he got back up the stairs he started to fell dizzy.

‘That’s strange,’ thought Kal.

Kal could only barely reach the edge of his bed before he fell over. He flopped onto the bed, passed out cold.
_____

“Time to leave,” Kal said to no one in particular.

He went and picked up his bag filled with artificial food and water bottles, and walked out of the apartment, never to return to it.

He went to his garage on the outside of the house. He unlocked the door and raised it to reveal his mode of transportation.

It was a sleek, black motorcycle. It was a gift from his father from before their accident…

Kal shook that image from his mind. He needed a level head for his riding.

Kal got on, started the engine, and drove away. Leaving all that he knew and all that he had for a secluded life elsewhere…

Kal drove out of the city and into the country. Outside the major cities, there wasn’t much life. All of the action was in the city, who needed to be far away from it?

At the time, only Kal Iszarc needed to get away. And that wasn’t very hard because once he drove a few miles he was surrounded in dense forests, just barely paved with concrete for delivery trucks, and the occasional wanderer.

…

Kal went as far as half his tank of fuel would let him go, just far enough to get back to the city if he needed to.

He happened to stop in the middle of absolute nowhere. No place had any sign of life, nor did it look like it was ever touched. Everything here was wild.

Kal found a small path that was just big enough to fit his motorcycle down. He turned off the engine and began to push the machine down the path.

He soon came upon a small cave. It wasn’t too large, but it was deep enough to hide himself in the case someone happened upon the same cave.

Kal pushed his motorcycle down to the end of the cave, so that he could have the most room as possible in his new apartment.

He later found berry bushes and small game outside the cave entrance. There was a river that flowed next to the cave, and the water seemed to be fresh. This he could use for drinking, cooking, and bathing water for as long as he needed.

He would use the artificial food for as long as he needed to fashion crude weapons to hunt with, and he would live in this land for as long as he could.

He just needed time alone. His spirit was crushed today when the one thing he had in his life was pulled out from underneath him like a rug.

He just needed time to think. Sort out the series of recent events that had occurred, and on top of that get better at dueling again.

From then on, Kal would wake up and gather water with a bowl that he took from his house. Then he would try to hunt. If he couldn’t find any small animals, then he would spend his time gathering wild berries in his empty backpack. He would then cut firewood with a small machete that he brought from home.

Then he would practice dueling. He would change out cards in his deck by the minute, refining his cards until he had something he thought would be good.

He would practice duel by himself, and imagine the opponent and what sorts of cards they could pull out on him.

He would then change his deck accordingly, taking out the cards that didn’t help him much and putting in new ones that he though could help in a tight spot…

This continued for the next four months, until Kal decided that the daily routine he was living was getting to be too boring for him.

He took his bike back to the shallow road and rode home, soon to find a run down home of his.

It looked like the place had been locked up somehow, maybe Lance did it hen he figured out Kal was gone and that his bike was missing.

Kal still had the keys, so he put his bike away and walked into the house.
_____

Kal woke with a start. He couldn’t remember who he was, or what he was doing for some time, but then it all came flooding back in seconds.

Kal sprang up. The only thing he had on his mind was Alina, and the duel practice that he was going to give her today.

He grabbed his duel disk and sprinted towards the door, only to be stopped dead by the sight of pure darkness, only broken by the light from the street lamps.

‘Maybe I can catch her putting up her cart.’ Kal thought and went into a dead run. He was now thankful for his mechanical leg operation, even though it was never finished.

…

Kal got to the vender’s market, only to find that no one was there. No sound was heard except the wind kicking up the random piece of dirty paper.

Broken hearted, Kal started the long walk back home.

“Hey! You, with the duel disk!” a voice called through the darkness.

There was no need to clarify who the person meant. There was no one else around. It must be Kal whose attention he was trying to catch.

Kal turned to see an upper-teen, lower-twenties male with black hair and red streaks walking toward him. A duel disk was on his arm and a bag over his shoulder.

“I see that you duel. That’s a sweet disk that you have there… What say you duel for it?” the man said.

He didn’t look so tough. Kal could have outrun him easy. But dueling would be a nice way to not waste the trip.

“What if I win? What would I get in return?” Kal asked.

The man looked as if he expected this. He took the bag off his back and flung it to the midpoint between the two of them.

“This bag is filled with about $1000 in jewelry and other objects.” The man said.

Kal got interested instantly, “And how would one acquire this amount of goods, and yet still have an ordinary, run of the mill duel disk?”

“I you must ask, I have stolen this loot. I have been saving for a while, and I thought it might just be easier to win a disk off of someone else. Save me the trouble of getting caught in a store.” The man said, trying not to laugh at his own joke.

Kal seized the opportunity, glad that he always goes prepared with rope and handcuffs.

“Alright. I agree to the terms. On one condition: you play by my rules.” Kal said.

“Agreed.” The man said, looking happy.

“Good. Now what is your name?”

“Call me Dagoris,” the man said.

“Dagoris it is then.” Kal said.

“Duel!” they each called, and they drew their hand of five cards.

Kal: 8000
Dagoris: 8000

“You may take the first move.” Kal said to Dagoris.

He grinned, “Thanks. I draw!”

Dagoris drew his card and paused briefly to think about what his move should be.

“I summon one monster in defense, and set one face down. Your move,” Dagoris said.

Kal drew his card in silence.

“Alright, I summon my Legion’s Attack Power – Yin and Yang!”

Kal set the card onto his duel field, and almost instantly a card appeared in crystal clear holographics. The card glowed for a moment then disappeared, but it left behind a fiend, or rather a pair of fiends.

They were a mirror image of the other, only one was black, and the other was white. They each had one wing, and on each wing were a set of three eyes. ATK: 1500

The black fiend took a pace forward.

“My Yin and Yang are powerful together, but for battle they separate. And for the cost of one card from my hand I can trade them off!”

Kal discarded one card from his hand, and the black fiend took his pace back. The white fiend took a pace forward.

“Now for the special ability that comes from trading them off! When my white fiend attacks, it gains 300 ATK points! Now attack his defense mode creature!”

The white fiend left behind the black fiend for combat, and the attack boost wasn’t far behind.

Legion’s Attack Power – Yin and Yang: ATK: 1800

The fiend raised its arm for the attack, almost to the horizontal card back hologram. But before it could reach it, Dagoris activated his face down card.

“Reveal face down: Draining Shield! This negates your attack and ends the Battle Phase! And I also get a Life Point bonus from your monster’s attack!”

The trap flipped up, and instantly a translucent barrier appeared in front of the face down card, preventing Kal’s fiend from coming any closer.

Kal: 8000
Dagoris: 9800

“Fine,” Kal said, “I place one card face down and end my turn.”

Legion’s Attack Power – Yin and Yang: ATK: 1500

Kal set his card and it appeared in front of him.

“My draw!” Dagoris called as he drew his card from his deck.

Kal interject, “You know the card I discard for the effect of my Yin and Yang? Well that is a card called Legion’s Chained Daemon. And during each of your Standby Phases it takes 500 Life Points from you!”

A chain came out from Kal’s Graveyard port of his duel disk and wrapped itself around Dagoris, squeezing the points from him.

Kal: 8000
Dagoris: 9300

“Fine then. I place another monster in defense, and then I activate the field spell Biohazard!”

At the call of ‘field spell’ a slot on the side of his duel disk popped out and gave him the field spell area of the playing field.

Nothing much happened, except a faint green light illuminated the space around them.

“What’s it do?” Kal asked.

“Oh, you’ll see. Until that time, I end my turn.”

Kal again drew his card in silence.

“I will summon to an empty card zone Legion’s Dimensional Splitter, in attack mode.”

The card flipped up and left behind a humanoid beast with fangs. ATK: 1700

“Now all of your cards destroyed by Ally Monsters are removed from play!” Kal said.

“Alright.” Dagoris said calmly. He didn’t seem to think it was that bad.

“Fine. I discard a second Chained Daemon card to activate the effect of my Yin and Yang. Then I attack your first defense with it!”

The white fiend went at its prey from the previous turn.

It was slashed by its wing, but instead of being broken or disappearing it flipped up.

“You activate the effect of my Biohazard 1. Now you lose 100 Life Points for attacking it.”

Kal: 7900
Dagoris: 9300

“Why wasn’t it destroyed?”

“That’s due to the awesome ability of the field spell. It makes it so that no Biohazard monsters can be destroyed by battle.”

Kal groaned, “Alright, then my Dimensional Splitter will attack your other monster.”

The beast with fangs generated an orb of blue light and through it at the last facedown card.

The same thing as the battle before it happened, the card just flipped.

“Do you learn? You just attacked my Biohazard 2, which inflicts 200 points of damage to you. Plus, it isn’t destroyed because of my field spell.” Dagoris grinned.

Kal: 7700
Dagoris: 9300

“Fine, then I end my turn.” Kal said.

Legion’s Attack Power – Yin and Yang: ATK: 1500

Dagoris drew his next card.

“Don’t forget my two Chained Daemons. They take 1000 point from you.”

The chains returned and choked away 1000 points from Dagoris.

Kal: 7700
Dagoris: 8300

“I summon Shadowpriestess of Ohm in attack mode!”

The card flipped, and a sorceress in dark clothing and holding two whips appeared. ATK: 1700

“Now I can activate the special effect of my Shadowpriestess. I can tribute my face up DARK monsters to inflict you with 800 damage for each. So I tribute both of my biohazards to inflict you with 1600 damage.”

The Shadowpriestess cracked her two whips on the cards and the both turned into orbs of pulsing, purple light. The two orbs launched straight at Kal, dealing him 1600 points of damage.

Kal: 6100
Dagoris: 8300

“Now I can attack with my Shadowpriestess. Attack his Attack Power now!”

The Shadowpriestess went to attack, but then something strange happened. The Black fiend walked in front of the white fiend.

“You know, when my fiends switch back, they have an awesome ability. They can change themselves into defense mode if attacked. And it just so happens that their DEF is 1800. Unless you want to ram your Priestess into my Attack Power, I think this Battle Phase is over.” Kal said.

“Alright then.” Dagoris said, “I end.”

Kal drew his card, but then started to feel strange. His arms were starting to feel heavy, and his feet felt glued to the pavement.

He didn’t want to show this to Dagoris, he would continue to get arrogant after that…

Kal tried to shake it off and play.

“I summon Legion’s Power – Super Kid, in attack mode.”

Once the card flipped, a grayscale kid with a tattered cape and a large sword appeared. ATK: 1000

“First I switch Yin and Yang into attack mode, and then I will attack the Shadowpriestess with my Super Kid.” Kal said.

Dagoris burst out laughing. “What? Why would you do that? That Kid has less ATK points! It will be destroyed!”

“Check again.” Kal said.

Dagoris did just that.

Legion’s Power – Super Kid: ATK: 2000

“What?” Dagoris asked.

“Super Kid gets his ATK doubled when attacking a stronger monster.” Kal said, matter-of-factly.

The Super Kid ran at the Shadowpriestess with his sword and sliced her in half. She then exploded into a thousand shards.

Kal: 6100
Dagoris: 8000

Legion’s Power – Super Kid: ATK: 1000

“Don’t forget that the Priestess is removed from play by the effect of my Dimensional Splitter. Now I will discard another card to increase the attack of my Yin and Yang by 300.”

Legion’s Attack Power – Yin and Yang: ATK: 1800

“And I discarded my Legion’s Defense Power – Earthen Brute. When he is discarded by an Ally, he is instantly Special Summoned to the field in Defense mode.”

The card flipped and went into a face up, horizontal position. The Earthen Brute appeared right above it, in a defensive stance. DEF: 2100

“Now I will attack you directly with my Yin Yang and my Dimensional Splitter.”

Together they attacked Dagoris with a combined might of 3500 points.

Kal: 6100
Dagoris: 4500

“I end my turn.”

“I have to say, man, that was pretty cool.” Dagoris said as he drew his card.

The chains of the two Daemons came out once more, taking another 1000 points.

Kal: 6100
Dagoris: 3500

“I play this monster face down in defense, and I end.”

His card appeared in face down, horizontal position.

Kal knew that this had to be another Biohazard monster, and if that was true it wouldn’t be destroyed.

Kal looked at his field. He had enough power to take Dagoris down; he just needed to get the biohazard monster out of the way.

Kal drew his card again in silence, and he was relieved that he got the card he needed.

“I summon the card that will allow me to win! Legion’s Samurai! And I Stack him on top of my Legion’s Defense Power.” Kal said.

The Samurai’s card flipped up behind the Giant Brute, and the Samurai came down from the sky right in front of him. He brandished the familiar samurai staff with the sharp end.

“Now to activate his effect: I can destroy one monster you control by tributing my Defense Power. Plus, your monster is removed from play because of the effect of my Dimensional Splitter.”

The Earthen Brute disappeared and transformed into a wave of green light. The light was attracted to the staff the samurai was wielding like moths to a flame, and it made the staff glow green as well.

The Samurai swung the staff through the air, releasing the light of power at the card. The card was demolished, and then removed from the game.

“No…” Dragoris said, reaching out to the card hologram that disappeared before his eyes.

Kal started to feel strange again. He had no control over what his body was doing. He felt like he couldn’t breathe, and his arms were heavy again.

All of a sudden the small rocks around them started to shake.

Kal’s eyes started to glow blue, and an aura of yellow light started to glow around them.

Kal was no longer there. He saw nothing, felt nothing, and new nothing of what was going on any longer. Someone else was in his place.

“Dragoris.” The person called. His voice seemed to echo, even though they were in a wide enough space to cancel out the echoes.

“W…what are you doing?” Dragoris asked, frightened.

“I send my Dimensional Splitter, Samurai, and Super Kid to attack you directly.”

With the combined might of the three monsters, Dragoris didn’t have enough life points to survive until the next turn.

Kal: 6100
Dragoris: 0

All of the monsters disappeared, but the light didn’t fade.

Kal started to glow even fiercer, and his eyes started to get angry.

The rocks that were shaking started to levitate, and fly up into the sky.

Kal too started to levitate, about a foot off the ground.

“Dragoris.” His voice reverberated over everything, making it unbelievably loud and menacing.

Dragoris turned to leave, but before he had the chance Kal shouted, “You will stay!”

Dragoris stopped in his tracks, not moving.

The sides of buildings started to be effected by the apparent loss of gravity around Kal; the windows started to crack and chip, and the pieces went into the air.

Kal looked to his cards, only moving his eyes, and all of them were sent directly to the deck slot. Nothing had moved them; they seemed to move by themselves.

Kal looked over to a crate lying on the ground. He willed it to move and it did, straight up into the sky with great velocity.

Kal moved his hand, and with his telepathic abilities he was finding he had, he grabbed the building right next to him. He strained the muscles in his hand, and willed the building to move.

Both Kal’s possessor and Dagoris could hear the building groaning in protest: the cracking of rock and cement, the screeching of pulling metal.

Soon the building was raised off the ground, and was levitating just high enough to be over Dagoris’s head.

“You lose.” The reverberating voice called, and moved his hand as if to move the building over Dagoris’s head.

But he didn’t have the chance.

Just before he could move the building over, Kal was shot in the shoulder with an electrocuting dart of some kind.

The electroshock went through his body at an alarming rate, and knocked him out almost instantly.

The result of this was Kal falling to the ground, and all of his power going away without warning.

The building fell, and crash landed on the ground. The force of this was enough to destroy the building.

So piece by piece the building tumbled down, closing the gap between the possessed Kal and the now freed Dagoris.

…

A moment after Kal hit his head on the ground he woke up. He had a faint recollection of what had just happened, but he only felt the memory like it was a movie; like it wasn’t his body that was doing those things.

Kal looked at his shoulder to see a four-inch dart sticking out of it. Kal pulled his hardest to remove it, but it wouldn’t budge.

Kal heard a commanding voice, and a moment later a series of crashing noises.

Kal looked over to the newly formed barricade to see human arms jabbing holes in the rock and metal, one punch at a time.

Kal’s eyes grew wide, “them,” Kal said out loud, and he rushed to get up.

Kal’s arm was still numb, and his body tingled a bit, but his legs were robotic. It was the one thing about him that allowed him to stand, and the one thing that linked him to them to him, the Cyborg Police force.

Kal had been sent into the CPF at a very young age, and at that time he had thought it had been an honor. But that was nearly 6 months ago, and since then he has learned the evil of the Cyborgs.

They were humans, but not any longer. All of them received robotic limbs, just as Kal had received robotic legs, and their minds were attached to a circuit board. This allowed their brains to be programmed a certain way, most of the time to follow the commands of the higher officers.

Kal ran as fast as he could to get away from the Cyborgs, and save himself from the arrest.

Kal’s robotic legs carried him away from the destroyed building, and the Cyborgs, very quickly. The Cyborgs couldn’t even see which way their fugitive had went.

…

The Police Chief walked out onto the other side of the accident; the Cyborgs had cleared the way in a matter of minutes.

“And where did the other duelist go? Then one causing all of this mayhem.” The chief said to no one in particular.

He looked around and saw a card lying on the ground face down. He went to pick it up, and what he saw shocked him.

It was Legion’s Chained Daemon. The black Ally Monster was unmistakable; it had to be Kal’s.

But he hadn’t seen Kal for five months, why would he resurface now?

“Could it be….?” The police chief said to himself. One of the Cyborgs overheard this comment and walked over to him.

“What is it, Chief?” the Cyborg asked.

“I believe this is a card of the other duelist. Check down that way and to the left to see if there is anyone with a duel disk on Casus Drive.”

The Cyborg rounded up a few others and they started the jog to that street.

Deputy Lance Brodorn overheard the familiar street name. He walked over to the police chief as well.

“The street you told the CPF officers to look, that’s Kal’s street, isn’t it?” Lance asked.

The chief turned and showed the Chained Daemon card to Lance.

Lance looked at it in frustration, “Why is he back now? Do you think that he is the reason to all of these recent findings of criminals in the alleys?”

“I believe it is. Counting this guy Dagoris and that makes 10 this month. We must find Kal; He is making the DPF look like we can’t do our own job correctly.”

The Cyborgs came back just then with a report.

“Well?” the Chief asked.

“We saw no one, but there was a faint sent of exhaust in the air, like someone had just left on a small vehicle. A motorbike of some sort.”

“Kal has a motorcycle. He showed it to me one day. He said his father gave it to him for his sixteenth birthday.” Lance said.

“You remember what it looks like?” the Chief asked.

Lance nodded.

Then get it out to the public. We need all the people we can get the scout for this fugitive. Until we catch him, he is #1 on our Wanted List. Got it??” the Chief asked, starting to get angry.

“Yes, sir!’ all the Cyborgs said imperfect formation, and then they all left at the same moment.

_____

Kal reached home, and got to his front door. He had no time for locks, but he needed some gear from inside.

Once he burst through the door he gathered up his backpack, still filled with the weapons and equipment from the last time he ran away, and shoved the last two jars of artificial food inside with the last of his water bottles.

He then rushed outside and to the garage to his motorcycle, turned it on, and drove away again.

‘I guess Alina won’t get her lesson after all.’ Kal thought sadly as he drove through the night to an unknown destination.