Episode 94. - Shrouded In Mist And Mystery

Another large gathering of duelists. One of the qualifying events for the North American Championship which was due to be held in about four weeks. A surprising place to find Sniper Randnum, since the young man was not only a genuine, and often self-proclaimed, misanthrope... but he was also not eligible to qualify for the tournament.

He sat quietly in one corner of the room, scanning the groups. Normally, he disliked crowds immensely, but recent experience in using his Kaijudo had made him aware of a certain special ability he possessed. One that was currently in full use. He sipped tea from the cuplike cover of his thermos, and watched, waiting. He wanted other duelists with Kaijudo to test himself against. To increase his power.

It was not too long before such a source of Kaijudo arrived. In fact, such a powerful source that he wondered if it could really be only one person. Keeping his eyes on the spaces between people, and carefully 'watching' the movement of that power, with his own, he soon spied the apparent wielder of that psionic field, and his face took on an expression of slight surprise and disbelief, until he recognized the face when she turned. Arielle Dumas.

Her eyes locked with his, and she instantly smiled mischievously and started to head in his direction, to the surprise of her older brother, who caught up to her an instant later and instinctively grabbed her hand.

"Where you goin' so fast, Elle? I've told you not to dash off like that."

"There's a guy over there I wanna du-el!" she pouted, tugging her arm out of his grip. Her brother looked in the direction she was indicating, and though his eyes rested directly on Sniper, for some reason, he still asked...

"What guy?"

Arielle scoffed and pulled him along, realizing that he was not going to let her go. She pushed through the bigger duelists when she needed to, occasionally simply startling them with Kaijudo spikes to get them to move out of her way. Sniper watched, confused, as she approached. He was not quite ready to challenge her yet, but she seemed to be headed right for him, and there were not too many others near him.

"How bothersome..." he noted to himself, activating his Kaijudo field at full power. This did not seem to deter her at all, much to his surprise, until finally, she slid into the seat opposite him, and smiled at him, holding her hand out to her brother, for her deck.

"Hello! Kettou da!"
Her own aura of psionic energy pushed his back, until her brother looked over at him, almost startled. He tilted his head, regarding Sniper with complete confusion, before finally admitting that he had not even noticed the youth in the trenchcoat. Sniper nodded, inwardly thinking, for a moment, that that was how it was supposed to be. Somehow, the little one in front of him had totally disregarded his ability.

Finally, he spoke, having drank the last of the tea from the thermos cover. He now carefully screwed it back on and slid the container into one of the large deep inner pockets of his coat, before taking his deck out of one of the others and exhaling slowly.

"I accept, Miss Dumas," he said as his hands began to shuffle. Arielle had let her brother shuffle for her, as usual. Even though she had learnt to handle the shuffling of the cards herself, she still preferred to have her older brother involved in that.

He handed her deck to her, and she deployed her shields, Sniper doing the same moments later. Across the room, a strange 'vacuum' point blipped, in the collective Kaijudo, causing both Sniper and Arielle to instantly look in that direction, before turning their attention back to their imminent clash.

"Dark Reversal to mana," Sniper began. His Kaijudo pushed forward, but did not actually link with hers until she charged her own first mana. Divine Riptide. Sniper found himself cringe for some reason at the sight of the card. The vision of dawn about to break over a forest. An eerily quiet forest.

"Rumble Gate to mana," he continued. This did not seem to affect much in their dual mindspace. Arielle drew a card, and seemed to consider for awhile. Her hand was 'odd', but the young champion was relatively used to that by now. Finally, she decided to put her Tekorax into her mana zone, and ended her turn.

Sniper placed a Thrash Crawler into his mana zone, causing an odd ripple effect in their mindspace, as if somehow the world was 'deciding' whether or not this was reason to form an ocean. In the end, it did not, resulting only in a lake. From that lake, gentle ripples heralded the arrival of an Aqua Hulcus.

Arielle drew her Ancient Horn, the Watcher. Her little eyebrows furrowed. The Hulcus could easily attack, and holding onto the card would not help if that happened. More importantly, she needed Nature mana for what she wanted to do. It was not something she hesitated on for very long. Into her mana zone the Ancient Horn went, and in the silence of their shared 'morning', a Bronze-Arm Tribe 'awoke'. The card that went into her mana zone caused her Kaijudo to spike. Tangle Fist, the Weaver.

"Pala Olesis, Morning Guardian, to mana. Cast Crimson Hammer on your Bronze-Arm Tribe."
Arielle made a slight sound of panic, as her plan had been to summon her Fighter Dual Fang as quickly as possible. His Hulcus moved swiftly through the forest to break the first shield.

Since it did not trigger, his turn was automatically over, and Arielle drew another Bronze-Arm Tribe, causing her face to light up gleefully as she continued on her original course, charging her Aqua Knight to mana and summoning the new Bronze-Arm. The creature was at mild risk as well, but Arielle was never one to deviate much from her course based on her opponent's possible counters. The Bronze-Arm sent her Poisonous Mushroom to mana, another useful event, since the cards were far more use to her, early, than later.

Sniper put a Spiral Gate into his mana zone, and cast Energy Stream. It did not seem that he drew anything that could be used in the same turn, and so, his turn ended, the lake rippling as the energy of the spell died away.

"Bronze-Arm, evolve into Fighter Dual Fang!" she laughed. Without playing any mana, she had reached her goal. The great Beast Folk Champion appeared in shining green light, facing the lone Aqua Hulcus. It stood silently, despite its ability to instantly attack. Sniper noted that the silence would mean it was his turn to move. He charged mana. Galek, the Shadow Warrior. Pala Olesis, Morning Guardian, appeared over the lake.

The next addition to Arielle's potential forces caused her Kaijudo to spike so strongly that the odd vacuum effect on the far side of the room was annulled for a few seconds. Her second Tangle Fist. Now, she seemed to double-check with her avatar on her current course.

"It is fine. Dual Fang lives. Reverse it."
She grinned devilishly at Sniper now, instantly imprinting on his mind what was most likely to follow such a grin. Water mana entered her mana zone, then it all began to unravel. Divine Riptide. The lake drained, the forest receded, as each tree seemed to go from adult to sapling and finally into the earth again. Pala Olesis, Aqua Hulcus, and Fighter Dual Fang, all stood now in what seemed to be a void. Sniper winced. His head hurt now. Arielle, on the other hand, was quite gleeful, though Dual Fang did not attack yet.

"Galek, the Shadow Warrior, to mana. End turn."
Now, the distant 'vacuum' activated itself again. Sniper was not able to notice it, but Arielle definitely did, and this time, she observed it carefully as she charged her avatar to mana. As her own Kaijudo spiked yet again, the nature of the 'vacuum' became clear. It was very much like the tiny effect she often felt when using her Kaijudo on the mind of a non-duelist, but far more pronounced. She considered momentarily if she should tell Sniper what she had felt...

"It may be better if we leave him out of this for now. He did not seem to want to be noticed, and we have already broken through that."
Arielle nodded, and commanded Dual Fang to attack. Pala Olesis did not intercept, and with two swings of his mighty weapons, the Beast Folk shattered two of Sniper Randnum's shields.

"Shield Trigger. Ghost Touch."
The howling energy took away one of the many cards from Arielle's hand. An Aqua Hulcus. She shrugged mentally. It was not vital to her intention. The other shield did not trigger.

"Phal Eega to mana. Summon Sol Galla, Halo Guardian."
The craft flashed into being, as the sun began to rise. There was still no sign of the lake reappearing as yet. Arielle charged water mana and summoned her Poisonous Mushroom, placing her Ancient Horn as her third mana card for the second time that duel. The Halo Guardian blocked the follow up attack from Dual Fang, and was destroyed easily by a crushing blow, despite Pala Olesis' assistive barrier.

Sniper exhaled again, placing an Aqua Hulcus into mana, the pressure on his mind decreasing now, as the bottled up power that existed due to the backflow of all his mana energy, slowly returned whence it came.

"I'm so going to regret this..." he sighed, as his lake reappeared, and he prepared to cast his Spiral Gate spell on her Fighter Dual Fang. Arielle paused, then said simply to him...

"Then don't do it."

Sniper stopped, confused. Though he had not yet placed the card, his lake was already churning with the energy he intended to use. Her words were simple, but had cut directly into his patterns of thought. It raised a legitimate question. Why make a move one felt so strongly that one would regret, just because it seemed like the logical one?

"Summon Pala Olesis, Morning Guardian."
The second one shimmered into being beside the first, over the lake, and he nodded the end of his turn. Arielle drew a Cannon Shell and placed it into mana, her attention again focused on the strange phenomenon in the room, to her right. Shtra now rose up, and swirled that Cannon Shell back to her hand, forcing Sniper to pick up one as well.

He groaned, muttering something, as the slight pain in his head returned. Dual Fang's thundering charge did not help the matter any, even with the Pala Olesis' interception.
"We can hold out. Protect the shields for as long as you can."

He charged mana, a Crystal Memory, and followed the directions of his avatar. Another Crimson Hammer descended on the Poisonous Mushroom.

"Aqua Knight to mana. Cast Faerie Life twice!"
Now, she was seriously using her Kaijudo to investigate the swirling vortex. The vacuum had now become more obvious, and Arielle let her excess Kaijudo swirl easily into it, along with all the other streams that it now seemed to be gathering, fueled by her own.

Two more cards obviously entered her mana, and she smiled at what they were. Another Poisonous Mushroom and Cannon Shell. Both nice, but not totally useful to her in the current plan regardless. Dual Fang did not strike this time.

"Hesitation? Or is she planning something?" Phal wondered. Arielle did not seem to be paying a very large amount of attention to him anyway, at this point. Sniper began to track the movement of Kaijudo in the room, and finally extended his own out to the point where he could feel the tug on it. There was something 'pulling' the Kaijudo waves of the room, into some strange funnel, and Arielle seemed to be happily, purposely, feeding that vortex.

"What is she... doing?" came Phal's thought to him. Arielle's extreme perceptiveness picked up on the communication between avatar and human.

"It is easier to figure out what it is, by making its effect bigger," Tangle Fist answered. Sniper placed his Aqua Hulcus back into his mana zone, and cast Dark Reversal, reviving his Halo Guardian, and letting it reappear over the lake. Arielle's acceleration of the growth of her forest had put her far ahead of him again, and now she showed the reason.

"Ancient Horn, to mana. Cast Abduction Charger!"
Pockets of energy appeared around Pala Olesis and Sol Galla, then unceremoniously dumped them both back into Sniper's lake, causing Phal to have a reaction much like a groan, despite the fact that Sniper himself laughed at the imagery.

"Dual Fang, ikei!" came the next command. The first shield shattered without trigger. The second activated his teleporter. Crystal Memory. Arielle thought about it for a moment, as she watched Sniper search his deck, but gave up on trying to figure out what he would be searching for at this point, and turned her attention back to the vortex, abruptly withdrawing her energy from it, reducing her output to only what was needed to sense it.

"Shtra, ikei!" she laughed, breaking the last shield. Sniper hesitated here. Considerably. Arielle's curiosity made her squirm in her seat. She was dying to know what the card was, that would make him think so long about using it, but she had promised herself not to use her Kaijudo to actually look into other's minds unless necessary.

To distract herself, she focused on the vortex, which had returned to being merely a mild vacuum. She frowned. It did not make enough sense.

"Maybe it is a person with a very strange ability. I cannot think of anyone or any creature that could do what it seems to be doing, right now..."

Arielle made a face. Somehow it did not quite seem like a person. They would be too unresponsive, too unchanging. Yet, it was fairly obvious that only people could have Kaijudo. She decided to break one of her self-imposed restrictions.

The power of her Kaijudo slipped through the gaps in the other minor sources of the energy, in the room, and began to weave around the pocket of energy absorbing space on the other side of the room. It did not react. There was no 'person' there to be affected by her mind ensnaring abilities. The eerie feeling of it would have been very unnerving to another duelist, but Arielle Dumas was one who was seldom surprised by anything.

Sniper finally seemed to decide what to do with the card, picking it up and placing it into his hand. He waited a few moments for Arielle's official gesture to indicate the end of her turn, but received none, and eventually just took the initiative, placing his own avatar card into his mana zone. The Morning Guardian and Halo Guardian rose up again out of the lake, the water dripping off their alloyed exteriors as they did.

The Aqua Hulcus slipped into the trees again, tracking Shtra down quickly, and the two engaged in combat. The Hulcus' body transformed into blades, and Shtra began to manipulate the matter around herself. An intense battle ensued, even between two creatures of such relatively low power. Every slash of the Hulcus was met by a decompiling from the mind of Shtra, until finally, the Cyber Lord fell.

The Hulcus took three steps away from the puddle-body of its fallen opponent, then collapsed itself, the final directive of Shtra's insidious code completing. Dual Fang alone now stood against the two Guardians.

Arielle began to giggle, and this quickly escalated into an almost uncontrollable fit of laughter. Sniper looked at her with slight detached concern. He had never experienced any effect of his Kaijudo making anyone go crazy, and so, he assumed that whatever she was laughing at, it was something genuinely amusing.

"Abduction Charger!" she smirked. Sniper's face dropped back into its deadpan expression. She had only been completely amused by the idea of dumping his guardians into the lake again, which she now did, causing her to gurgle with mirth yet again.

For some reason now, as Dual Fang stood poised to strike, Arielle did not seem willing to declare the final attack. She instead seemed focused on the distant vacuum, still attempting to weave her Kaijudo around it and actually have some effect by doing so. Sniper poked her with his own Kaijudo, and she batted it away with her own, much like a child would do when being annoyed by another in a similar fashion.

"I'm doing something!" she said finally, "Let me keep my power up."

Sniper looked at her, confused, then relaxed himself. She seemed like the type that would warn him before she dealt the final attack, so whatever she was currently 'doing', it was not connected to their duel.

"She is using the power the duel gave her to figure out what that thing over there is," Tangle Fist explained to Phal without hesitation.

Arielle had closed her eyes in order to concentrate more on her ability. By now, it was clear that if the person were actually human, they were beyond strange. They responded neither to the effects of her Kaijudo, nor her normal augmented psychic ability. There were no thoughts to read, no emotions to empathize with. Just nothingness.

Her brother could, by now, sense that Arielle was putting a lot of effort into something. He too, was a duelist, after all, and the vibrant waves of his younger sister's Kaijudo were a phenomenon he was already quite attuned to. Finally, he activated his own, and began to 'help' her. She noticed, smiled, and took his hand in hers. Sniper watched, fascinated, as the two seemed to combine...

"Sorry, I can't seem to feel anything at all either..." came the harmonic hum of Toel, Vizier of Hope. Even the united power of siblings could shed no light on the situation.

"Let's go all the way then!" Arielle finally said aloud, to Sniper, who, in turn, braced himself for what came next; "Fighter Dual Fang, todomeda!"

The Beast Folk made a powerful dash for the shore of the lake, and then with a superhuman leap, took to the air, descending powerfully on Sniper Randnum. Her Kaijudo crashed through the barrier created by his mind, causing him to feel a dizzying pain for a few moments, but he managed to stay conscious. Arielle used the surge in her own Kaijudo to send a wave out through the room, causing many heads to turn. The distant vacuum momentarily vanished altogether, the exact opposite of the effect she had intended.

"Aww..." she mumbled, letting her power recede again, "They left... or stopped."

Sniper was not currently concerned with that. He had another, more serious matter on his mind. She had done something earlier that warranted explanation.

"You were able to notice me before," he said quietly to the girl, "How did you do that? No one else in this whole room could notice me."

"Hm? Oh yeah! You can do a really cool trick! It just doesn't work on me cause I'm special. I think it worked on my brother though, he didn't even see you until we got right next to you!" she laughed now.

Her brother confirmed this with a nod, though he was not quite sure what Arielle was referring to. Sniper frowned. It was not clear what she meant by special, and no one had managed to do what she had done, for quite a while now. He had practiced to make sure of it. Having people randomly able to shrug off the effect he had on their perceptions, could be bad for his plans of actually bothering to go out into crowds.

Arielle got up now, and began to head across the room, leaving her brother to pick up her cards again. He let her go this time. It was obvious where she was going. To find the source of the strangeness. He caught up to her a bit later. A man with a large rectangular black bag was watching two youngsters duel. Arielle seemed to be looking around. There was no sign of the source. The two duelists had nearly no Kaijudo at all, and neither of them seemed to be the type that could cause such an effect.

Noting that her brother was now close enough for what she was about to do, to be 'safe', Arielle tugged on the man's shirt.

"Hey Mister, what's in the bag? Cards? You want to duel?"

He looked down at her, slightly startled, before answering coldly, "No, little girl, I don't want to duel. I'm just here to observe some games and stuff. My bag has... er... recording equipment in it. Just in case I meet some really exceptional duelists and want to... record their skills for one reason or another. Information like that is very... valuable."

Arielle tilted her head, quite tempted to try to open the man's bag, but she knew that would be nothing but trouble. He seemed to be telling the truth, and at the same time, avoiding it.

"Come on, Elle. Don't bother the gentleman. I'm sure you want to duel some more people, right?" her brother asked. She nodded, reluctantly, in response, and followed him away.