Hey guys, this is GreedyMattymo, and this is my third Fanfiction, but second about Yu-Gi-Oh! This version is for VRAINS, the reason for starting this now, instead of waiting for the anime to end is that I'm really liking the Anime right now… so that's the reason behind that.

This story, like my other Yugioh Fanfiction will also have OC's the info to submit one will be at the bottom of this chapter.

So I'll see you at the bottom…

"Speaking"

*Noises*

"Thoughts"

Link Markers (will be shortened to LM): ↖ (Top Left), ⬆ (Top), ↗ (Top Right), ⬅ (Left), ➡ (Right), ↙ (Bottom Left), ⬇ (Bottom) and ↘ (Bottom Right). Just doing this to make it easier by shortening them. (this part has been edited)

Den City, (Five years ago)

Den City, a bustling city that was far more advanced than most other cities, due to it's invention of the Link VRAINS, which stood for Link Virtual Reality Artificial Intelligence Network System.

The system itself was a far more advanced but similar to the real city, to give the people a feel that it's almost life like to them, but it also had famous landmarks from around the world to make it interesting.

Most Duels now took place within Link VRAINS, which made the system much more popular than what it was. However…

Cyberse World

This world was within the deep confines of the LINK VRAINS Server, where unique and special being inhabited the world… Such as shame that…

"Be gone Cyberse!" the Avatar of someone declared, an Avatar was what people use when in Link VRAINS, why this one was in this deep was unclear. But they seemed to be up to something.

This Avatar was a man with dark crimson hair with red highlights, there ears were pierced with a stud on each side, connected to a blue diamond and a golden bulleted connected to those. He also wears a visor, which on the forehead, were 4 white circles in a diamond formation that was linked together, each having a red dot in the centre of each of the circles, within the middle of this pattern was a white dot.

His eyes were complete yellow and featureless, his clothing was a white jumpsuit that had a elongated black T going from the bottom to his chest upwards. On either side of his torso were red ovals were overlaying black ovals. He also has a green like belt that was a V-shape.

He had a trench coat that seemed to fit the feel of the rest of his clothing, it's colours were mostly White, Red and light green. This man… Avatar was named Revolver, and currently he was ordering a mechanical dragon to destroy this world, this monster was called Cracking Dragon.

While Cracking Dragon was in the progress of destroying the world, the inhabits of said world were a bit tied up, having been caught by a program that Revolver had set up, just so they didn't get in the way.

Six out of the seven were currently captured, where they were trying to escape their confines.

"The Knights of Hanoi's attacks have made it to the Cyberse…!" the glowing yellow inhabiant cried out, another one, an orange one, who had sizeable bulk to it, was really struggling to get out, "But we're unable to fight while we're sealed!" it said.

"What's that?! A blue, almost female like being said, while confined to it's… her seal. What she was on about was that a black and purple being, similar to them had appeared, the main body was black, while purple circuit like lines covered it's body, it's eyes were glowing yellow.

"Sorry for the wait! But your saviour is now here"! it said excited, then looked to where the others were being held captive, "Oh my, you sure did a great job at getting yourselves trapped." it added with condescension irked in it's voice.

"Being hated truly does have it's advantage's in times like this, yep!" it added, "And seeing that no one else can do it, I'll just save you all!" it said, then flew off. "Don't let him escape!" Revolver ordered the mechanical dragon, clearly the being did have a gender.

Cracking Dragon then gave chase after it's small quarry, "What are you going to do?" Blue asked, "You'll see, here we go!" Purple said, breaking though the sky, and kept going, just until he was in place.

As the sky seemed to repair itself, he laughed, and then seemed to execute something, whatever he did was starting the make the Cyberse World to vanish.

"What!? He's severing the connection?!" Revolver said shocked at what the being was doing. "It can't be… He's planning to hide this place from the outside world?!" the red being exclaimed, "But if he does that, he won't be able to return!" the green one said.

"It's better than letting the Knights of Hanoi destroy this place instead!" a silvery grey one said, making the others think about this.

While this happened, the vanishing or hiding progress was finally finished, all that remained was a piece of data, that then flew into the purple being's right eye and then absorbed. "Piece of cake!" he said, rubbing his no existence nose.

A roar suddenly distracted him from he earl celebration, the roar coming from Cracking Dragon… who was right behind him, he panicked, and tried to fly away, but the dragon was right on him, opened it jaw, where the being was now in.

He screamed as the dragon snapped it mouth shut, however, his eye was all that escape, in pain, he fled.

The Knights of Hanoi's base

Upon returning back to their base was Revolver, clearly frustrated that his attack had failed, "Search for his remains!" he quickly ordered, hoping to catch the being… or what was left of said being.

"The only being who now knows the location of the Cyberse World it that Ignis!" he said, dubbing the beings Ignis. "We must end their threat..." he muttered…

The present, Link VRAINS, (6:13 AM)

As mentioned before, Link VRAINS was designed to look just like Den City, to give it the feel that it was a whole new, but similar world. There were many things to explore within this virtual world, again, it was mostly used as a Duelling Grounds for Duelist, Duelling itself and changed and a new profession was started, Charisma Duelist.

Whose Duels are broad casted to the outside world, they were basically idols of said world, of course other professions still exist and have evolved to fit into this world…

Speaking of other professions…

"Hurry up!" a data thief told his comrades, the group were currently hiding out back of a digital bank, trying to steal bank accounts, to of course steal the money from. "We're going as fast as we can! Don't rush us, or we'll make a mistake." one of them whispered back.

"Just keep an eye out for the drones… not like they could stop us." the other said, confident in their skills in hacking. This went on for a few moments, when… "I'm in!" they said, having finally broken through the firewalls for the virtual bank… however none of them realised they had sent something else off, something that wasn't installed by the bank programmers…

Den City, Café Haru, third story

*Beep! Beep!* An alarm went off in someone bedroom "Damn, just a few more minutes..." a groggy voice muttered, having just been roused from his slumber, "What is it?" he asked no one in particular, getting up he went over to his computer, the origins of the noise. After going through his computer, he found out why it was going off.

"Finally, didn't know how long it would take those knuckle heads to strike again..." he said, typing some commands into his computer, with it then executing said commands, "Right, let's get this over with..." he said, getting up going back to his bed, to his night stand, where his Duel Disk was located.

His Duel Disk was the newest and latest version released by SOL Technologies… Of course the young man had modified it slightly, It was a dark chrome in the middle, with light grey on either side of it, in the centre was a small green hexagonal screen plate. Normally this version came with a built in AI system that helped their Duelist in their Duels… and sometimes emotion support. But the man had removed said AI, not really a fan of having a computer help him. That and the security for the device was now a lot more stronger.

He then slipped it over his left wrist, "*Yawn* Into the VRAINS!" he said, and with these words, a sphere of light with data floating around it enveloped him.

Link VRAINS… (5 minutes later)

Back with the data thieves. "And… Done! We've got the most important banking details for the richest accounts now!" the one doing the hacking said grinning, thinking what he could do with his split, when he transferred the money through several dummy accounts just so they couldn't trace it back to them.

"Right let's get the hell out of her-" the one guarding said, walking but suddenly hit something solid, "Ouch! What the hell was that?!" they exclaimed, holding their virtual nose in pain, the Avatar's in Link VRAINS can still experience pain, a bit numbed down, but it can still hurt.

The other that was helping the hacker of the group was accessing some data, "We're trapped!?" they shouted, shocking his two comrades, "We triggered something when we breached the firewalls." they said.

"And the thing is, the program wasn't made or installed by the company." he said, "But who mad-" the guard went to say, but… "About time you lot showed your ugly virtual faces!" a voice declared from above, shocking and making the thiefs go quiet. "It can't be..." one muttered.

They slowly looked up to spot a figure standing at the end of rooftop, the figure in question was a man of 5'11, wearing a dark blue and grey bodysuit, with dark green lines running across it, on his forearms, feet to knees, hips, and upper chest was slightly thick black high tech like body armour, like that of a SWAT team member. One of these arms housed his Duel Disk, which housed a hexagonal panel. On his back was some sort of collapsible drone.

His skin was fair in colour, but most of his face was covered by a helmet, the helmet was made from the same material as the armour, on each earpiece was a circular pad, that the person used for communications. His eyes were covered by a visor connected to said helmet, but his eyes were a dark oranage. At the top of the helmet were two slits going from the front to were the head connected the neck, this of course let the man's hair sprout out in two mowhawks that were segmented, they were white starting at the back changing to a silvery grey.

"It's Codebuster!" they exclaimed at the same time, Codebuster as the man was now introduced as was a known Cyber Bounty Hunter working for SOL Technologies, independently though, he was also known as the 4th ranking Charisma Duelist, though he hardly Duels in public due to his line of work, he of course does it for the fun.

"Good thing you know who's about to kick your asses and send you to SOL Technologies." Codebuster said, "What did you do? And how did you know where we were?" the guard of the group asked.

"Simple, you sent off my program, I knew you'd eventually get greedy again, so I sent a trap up for when you did strike again." he answered, "I've caught you about what, 3 times doing the same thing before." he added He then jumped down to their level.

"And I know it's you lot, you may have made new Avatars, but your patterns are the same, from our last encounters you've gone for the same thing everytime, just with different banks." he added.

"Why can't we log out?" the hacker of the group asked, as he had tried to log out multiple time, but gave up, "This Security Field I designed is to keep anyone from logging out for about 10 hours." Codebuster explained, shocking them.

"But if you can beat me in a Duel, then it will disperse, that or you could try and hack your way out, but that just take too long, so..." he added, lifting his Duel Disk up.

"Fine, I'll Duel, and when I win, I'm going to gloat to the whole world that I beat you!" the guard said, as he too readied his Duel Disk, his was the version before the new one.

With both opponents getting ready, a layout for the Duel appear, this layout was for a Master Duel, however with recent improvement in Dueling, the Layout was also changed, the most notice difference were the two new zones called Extra Monster Zones.

Any player can use any unoccupied Extra Monster Zone to Special Summon one monster from the Extra Deck, your opponent will take the one that you didn't use, and you can only control that monster in that zone and no more Extra Deck Monster in the now called Main Monster Zones… but there is way around this.

"DUEL!" both opponents shouted, drawing five cards each.

Guard's LP's: 4000

Codebuster's LP's: 4000

Turn 1

"You two try and de-activate the field, I'll try and finish this quickly!" the guard said, "I'll take the first turn!" he said, not drawing a card, due to the rules.

"I'll start by Normal Summoning Black Veloci!" he said, placing the card onto the blade his Duel Disk created. This caused a dark velociraptor to appear in the middle Main Monster Zone of his side of the field.

Black Veloci: EARTH, Level: 4 [Dinosaur/Effect] ATK/1800 DEF/300

"And then I activate the Spell, Double Summon! This let's me Normal Summon again, and now I Tribute my monster to Tribute Summon Super-Ancient Dinobeast!" he said, and the Black Veloci burst into particles, and taking its place was an even larger Dinosaur, it was made out of a strange metal.

Super-Ancient Dinobeast: EARTH, Level: 8 [Dinosaur/Effect] ATK/2700 DEF/1400

"And then I place a card face-down and end my turn!" he said as a card appeared then faded. "Let's see what the famous Codebuster can do." he said, smirking, now that he had a strong monster on his field. "How you doing guys?" he asked, while said guys were typing away at trying to de-activate the program.

Guard's hand x 2

Turn 2

"My turn! I Draw!" Codebuster drew his card when the ring on his Duel Disk appeared and he took it, "Since only you control a monster, I can Special Summon Cyber Dragon from my Hand!" he said, normally with the new Duel Disk, the cards would float in front of him, but he modified the Duel Disk to let him hold his cards, that and he created a blade for his cards as well. Appearing on his field in the middle Main Monster Zone was a silver mechanical serpent with a metallic roar.

Cyber Dragon: LIGHT, Level: 5 [Machine/Effect] ATK/2100 DEF/1600

"Then I activate the Spell, Identity Match! When I control a monster Summoned from my Hand and have another monster with the same name in my Hand, I can Special Summon the one in my hand!" he said as a second Cyber Dragon appeared to the Main Monster Zone to the left of the first.

"And now I Normal Summon Proto-Cyber Dragon!" he said as a smaller mechanical serpent appeared to the right of the first.

Proto-Cyber Dragon: LIGHT, Level: 3 [Machine/Effect] ATK/1100 DEF/600

"I now Overlay my 2 Level 5 Cyber Dragons!" he declared as his Duel Disk sparked with energy, unleashing it into the air, and causing a blue data cross to appear, in between the crosses intersection were small sideways squared, connected to them were red glowing circles. Trails of data were beaming upwards. "With these two monsters, I build the Overlay Network!" the two Cyber Dragons turned into data, and were absorbed into two of the circles, these then created two red beams to created a rift.

"Xyz Summon! Come forth Rank 5! Cyber Dragon Nova!" he shouted, with the card appearing from his Extra Deck part of the ring, him grabbing it, and placing it over the card's material. Which were moved to the Extra Monster Zone to his right. This caused a larger mechanical dragon with sharp wings and a red core with energy to disperse around its body to appear with a screech while two Overlay Units orbiting behind its back, one going clockwise, the other anti-clockwise.

Cyber Dragon Nova: LIGHT, Rank: 5 [Machine/Xyz/Effect] ATK/2100 DEF/1600, OLUs: 2

"Seriously? You're using that outdated Method? Lame!" the guard with a laugh, while Codebuster just stayed silent, "You done, cause I'm not! I activate Nova's effect!" Codebuster shouted, "By using 1 Overlay..." he said as one of the units was absorbed into Nova red energy core. Nova's OLUs: 2 – 1 = 1.

"I can Special Summon 1 Cyber Dragon from my Graveyard! I Summon the one I just detached from Nova!" he said, as one of the Cyber Dragons appeared again, right under the Zone Nova was in.

"Battle! Nova attack his Dinobeast!" he ordered, with Nova roaring, opening it mouth, and started to charge up a beam of red energy. "And now I activate Nova's other effect! Once per turn, I can banish a face-up Cyber Dragon on my field or 1 that is my hand..." he said as the Proto-Cyber Dragon whose effect treated as a Cyber Dragon while on the field vanished.

"Nova gains 2100 ATK until the of the turn!" he explained shocking the guard, Nova's ATK: 2100 + 2100 = 4200.

"It's doubled it ATK!" the Guard yelled, Nova then released its beam vaporising the Dinobeast. Guard's LP's: 4000 – 1500 = 2500."That will do Nova, I place a card face-down and end my turn!" he said as a single card appeared on his field then faded.

"With it ending Nova's ATK returns to normal." he added as Nova powered down to normal. 4200 = 2100 (Nova)

Codebuster's hand x 1

Turn 3

"Fine then, I draw!" the guard yelled out, "I discard 1 card in my Hand to activate the Continious Trap, Fossil Excavation!" he sent the Spell, Big Evolution Pill to the Graveyard, "This Trap allows me to Special Summon 1 Dinosaur from my Graveyard with it's effects negated. I Summon Back Dinobeast!" he said as the monster appeared once again.

"Then I Normal Summon Rescue Rabbit!" he said as a small rabbit wearing rescue equipment appeared.

Rescue Rabbit: EARTH, Level: 4 [Beast/Effect] ATK/300 DEF/100

"And then I banish it to activate it's effect!" he said as the rabbit started to borrow itself into the ground. "By banishing that monster, I can now Special Summon 2 Level 4 or lower Normal Monsters with the same name from my Deck!" he said as two cards ejected themselves from his Duel Disk.

"I Summon two Sabersaurus!" he said as he placed the cards into his blade, with a red Triceratops and a red hippopotamus dinosaur like monster appearing on either side of Super-Ancient Dinobeast.

Sabersaurus: EARTH, Level: 4 [Dinosaur/Normal] ATK/1900 DEF/500 (x2)

"Now to show you what a true summon looks like! Appear! The Circuit leading to the primal past!" he declared throwing his arm into the arm, where sparks of energy appeared, shot into the air, where a portal appeared, around this portal were eight triangle marker points all pointing out a different direction.

"Arrowheads confirmed. The Summoning conditions are 3 Dinosaur Type monsters! I set Super-Ancient Dinobeast, and two Sabersaurus in the Link Markers!" he shouted as the monsters in question turned into twisted that matched their colours, they soared into the air, where they then each hit one marker each, which hit the Bottom Left, Bottom and Bottom Right.

"Circuit Combine!" he said as the hit markers glowed red, with this making the portal brighter, "Link Summon! Appear! Link 3! Primal Rage Rex!"

Appearing from a constuction of red energy which burst of the monster, was a large grey Tyrannosaurus Rex, but all over it's body was circuitry, it legs were robotic, and it's arms were also mechanical and longer than what they should be. It was summoned to the Extra Monster Zone to the Guard's Right, just opposite of Nova Dragon.

Primal Rage Rex: EARTH [Dinosaur/Link/Effect] ATK/2600 LINK/-3, LMs: ↙⬇↘

This was a Link Monster, designed to make use of the new Master Duel Layout, as the Link Markers of the Link Monster point to different Zones, this one points to three Main Monster Zones. The benefit that Link Monsters offer is that they can allow for more than one monster Summoned from the Extra Deck to be summoned, but only to a zone that a Link Monster points to.

Another thing that makes Link Monster different, is that they don't have a Level, or even a Rank to be exact, what they have is a Link Rating, which determines how many monsters are needed to summon one, this Link Rating replaces the DEF of monster, so they are also unaffected by cards that affect DEF, they themselves cannot be placed in face-down or face-up Defense, and must always be in face-up Attack position.

"Since Super-Ancient Dinobeast lefted the field as summoned by Fossil Excavation, it is destroyed." he said as the Trap destroyed itself.

"I now activate the Spell, Fossil Dig! I can add 1 Level 6 or lower Dinosaur monster from my Deck to my Hand! I'll add Frostosaurus!" he said adding the card in question to his hand. "And Rage Rex's effect now activates!" he said, as the middle Bottom Link Marker of the Link Monster glowed.

"Once per turn, I can Normal Summon a Level 7 or lower Dinosaur monster without tributes in addition to my actual Normal Summon, but it must be to a Main Monster Zone that Rage Rex points to." he explained.

"I Normal Summon Frostosaurus!" he said as appearing in the Zone directly under Rage Rex was a Dinosaur, completely made out of ice.

Frostosaurus: WATER, Level: 6 [Dinosaur/Normal] ATK/2600 DEF/1700

"I activate the Trap, Attack Reflector Unit!" Codebuster said, activating his face-down, "I tribute Cyber Dragon..." he said, with Cyber Dragon bursting into particles, "And now I can Special Summon a Cyber Barrier Dragon from my Hand or Deck! I choose my Deck and Summon it in DEF!" he said as the card ejected itself from his Deck, he took it, and placed it in the Zone to the left, of the Zone right under Nova.

Appearing on the field, was a mechanical silver serpent, similar to Cyber Dragon, but around its neck was a device.

Cyber Barrier Dragon, LIGHT, Level: 6 [Machine/Effect] ATK/800 DEF/2800

The Guard frowned at this, "It doesn't matter as I wasn't going to attack that Cyber Dragon. Before I attack, I tribute Frostosaurus linked to Rage Rex, to activate it's effect!" he said, as the Ice made dinosaur burst into particle.

"Now Rage Rex gains 200 ATK times the Level of the tributed monster until the end of the turn!" he said, Primal Rage Rex's ATK: 2600 + 1200 = 3800.

"Battle! Primal Rage Rex attack Cyber Dragon Nova! Primal Extinction!" he ordered, with Rage Rex opening its jaw, and releasing a stream of red hot fire, which hit and melted Nova. Codebuster's LP's: 4000 – 1700 = 2300.

"Now look whose losing. HA!" he laughed, then turned to his comrade, "How's it going?" he asked them, "Not good..." the hacker said, making the Guard sigh "Fine, I guess I'll just have to beat you then. I end my turn!" he said, "With it ending Rage Rex's ATK returns to normal." 3800 = 2600. (Primal Rage Rex)

Guard's Hand x 0

Turn 4

"My turn! I draw!" Codebuster drew his card, "I activate the effect of Identity Match from the Graveyard!" he said as the card appeared on the field, "When this card is in the graveyard and there are two monsters with the same name in there as well, I can banish both of them and this card to Special Summon 2 monsters with the same name from my Deck!" he said.

"I banish Identity Match and 2 Cyber Dragons..." he said as the cards were banished, "And Special Summon 2 Proto-Cyber Dragons from my Deck!" he said, as two Proto-Cyber Dragons appeared, each one on either side of Barrier Dragon.

"Now its my time! Appear! The Shining Circuit that will decide my Fate!" he yelled as the Link Portal appeared, "Arrowhead confirmed. The summoning conditions are two Machine Type monster, with one of them being Cyber Dragon!" he said.

"Because Proto-Cyber Dragon's effect treats it as a Cyber Dragon this works. I now set the two Proto-Cyber Dragons in the Link Markers!" he said as the monsters turned into silver and grey twisters, with them hitting the Left and middle Bottom Link Markers, turning them red.

"Circuit Combine! Link Summon! Appear Link 2! Cyber Dragon Zeiger!" he said, and appearing from the portal was a new Cyber Dragon, this one was decked out with tech. Along its body was blue circuit like energy. It appeared in the Zone that Nova was in before.

Cyber Dragon Zeiger: LIGHT, [Machine/Link/Effect] ATK/2100 LINK/-2, LMs: ⬅⬇

"And now I activate Monster Reborn! I Summon back Nova!" he said as Nova appeared right in the Zone that Zeiger pointed to.

"And now I activate an effect from my Extra Deck!" he said shocking the guard and his two comrades." Y-Your Extra Deck!?" the guard got out.

"Correct! Said effect allows me to Overlay Nova into the Overlay Network!" Codebuster said as Nova shot into the air, turning into the Overlay Network that appeared. "Xyz Summon! Appear Rank 6! Cyber Dragon Infinity!" he said, the Xyz Card ejected itself from the ring, he grabbed it and placed it in the Zone that Nova was in, which happened to be the Zone that Zeiger pointed to.

This Cyber Dragon was similar to Nova, but was different, it was more longer, and appeared to be more menacing.

Cyber Dragon Infinity: LIGHT, Rank: 6 [Machine/Xyz/Effect] ATK/2100 DEF/1600, OLUs: 1

"Infinity gains 200 ATK for every Overlay Unit attached to it." he said, Infinity's ATK: 2100 + 200 = 2300.

"Time to end this!" he said, "I switch Barrier Dragon into Attack position!" he said, "And now I activate Infinity's other effect! I target 1 monster in face-up Attack, and attach it to Infinity as an Overlay Unit!" he said, shocking the Guard.

"That's right, I target your Link Monster, who must always be in face-up Attack..." he said smirking, one of the major weakness of Link Monsters was that they could only be in one position, ATK. Rage Rex then collapsed in on itself, turning into a yellow Overlay Unit, that then flew and orbited around Infinity, whose ATK increased. 2300 + 200 = 2500. (Infinity)

"Battle! Barrier Dragon attack him directly!" he ordered, the device around the mechanical dragons neck hummed with energy, with the dragon shooting a funnel of energy at the Guard, who was pushed back from the attack. 2500 – 800 = 1700. (Guard)

"Your turn Infinity!" he said as Infinity charged up energy in its mouth, then released it as a torrent of light, knocking the Guard over, who screamed in pain. 1700 – 2500 = 0. (Guard)

Codebuster: WINS

Guard: LOSE

"Crap!" the two trying to hack swore, as their line of defence had fallen, "That was a waste of time..." Codebuster said, lifting his none Duel Disk arm out, which housed a hole, that then shoot out three beams, each hitting their marks, the thiefs.

The beams then forms bands around their arms trapping them, shocked they of course tried to break free, but then all three bands linked together and pulled them altogether where they further struggled. While this happened, the security field dematerialised.

Codebuster sighed, and called for someone, "Hey SOL Technologies! I caught the bank theifs..." he said, "Thank you for calling Codebuster. Drones will arrive to your location soon." an operator said back to him.

He waited for about five minutes, which during that time, the thiefs tried to scuffle away, but of course were stopped by him, the drones had arrived, they confiscated the data the thiefs stole along with the other accounts that the thieves stole before, and told Codebuster that they would return them to the correct owners, and that he'd receive his payment soon.

"Good, and make sure they stay out of Link VRAINS..." Codebuster said, about to log out, "I'm tired of always dealing with those idiots..." he muttered to himself as he fully logged out.

Meanwhile…

Within Link VRAINS somewhere else, on top of the tall stone tower, where stone gargoyles rested, stood two figures, the two were in a Duel.

One was a Knight of Hanoi, dressed a white jumpsuit, with a white trench coat, lined with green all over, and a grey metallic mask with one red lens with yellow marking over it.

The other being was wearing a black and green bodysuit, with a golden stripe going across his body, and a grey belt at his waist. His hair was spiked up and was yellow and red, with pink accents in it. He was wearing the white, red and blue Duel Disk, the Deck Insert version before the new one.

Each of them controlled a monster, on the Knights side was a worm like creature, that was dark grey with some dark gold here and there, it had two floating pieces close to it, and was covered with green energy across its body. This monster was called Hack Worm.

The other monster was a yellow, darkish red brown armoured man with the appearance like that of a lion. It was also wearing a red cape, with orange glowing eyes fixed into the lion like helmet, and also wore gauntlets that had glowing blue energy in the shape of a blade. This one was called Linkslayer.

"Linkslayer, attack his Hack Worm! The one controlling Linkslayer ordered, with the monster charging forward bringing it arm up, "Shooting Star Break!" He said as Linkslayer brought his energy blade down in Hack Worms skull, which wriggled in pain as it was then exploded, taking the rest of the Knights Life Points.

"Why you-!" the Knight said, bracing himself against the explosion, "Why are you getting in the way of Hanoi!?" he demanded from his opponent, "Just who are you!?" he asked, meanwhile none of them notice that the right eye of one of the gargoyles blinked.

"Knight of Hanoi!" the figure said, "Wherever you choose to run rampant, I will appear!" he added, "My name is..." he paused, "Playmaker!" he said, introducing himself as Playmaker.

Café Haru, third story (6:27 AM)

Back in the real world, with the sphere of data disappearing, sitting on his bed was a male of 19, his skin was fair, eyes were dark blue, and his hair was spiked and pale blonde, at the ends of some of the spike tips was a light green. In his right ear, he had 3 small piercings.

His clothing, having woken up was a set of a pale blue long Pyjama shirt with the sleeves being black, his bottoms were baggy and grey. This young man was Matoyia Guriddo, the alter ego to Codebuster.

"*yawn* Not much point in going back to sleep..." he said annoyed, looking at his alarm, "Might as well go make breakfast." he said, getting up and making his way to the kitchen.

10 minutes later, in which he had made himself some pancakes, with a glass of Orange Juice to go with it, another resident of the building was waking up.

"Matoyia? What are you doing up early?" a woman asked him, suppressing a yawn. This woman was Asuka Haru, the owner of Café Haru, she was 23, standing slightly taller than Matoyia, her hair was a garnet colour put into a loose ponytail that hung over her right shoulder, there was also bits of dark and light blue here and there in it. Her eyes were orange, she also wore glasses. As she had just woken up, due to Matoyia. She was wearing a tight pink non sleeve Pyjama shirt, with one of the strands falling over her shoulder, and also wearing a small set of green shorts.

"Those thugs for that contract finally showed up again..." he said after swallowing some pancake, "Oh thank god… You were going a bit crazy around here, having to wait for that program of yours to go off." she said making her way over to the stove to make herself and her little brother some breakfast.

"Hey! You know I'm not one for patiences, that's your thing, for me, I like things done fast and quick." he retorted, "Just like your last relationship with that girl!" she countered, making him blush and stumble at that, he tried to think of a comeback, but couldn't, "Shut up..." he muttered while she laughed.

"When's Aito getting up? He has school..." he said, talking about her little brother, "In about five minutes..." she said quietly. "Did he have that nightmare again" he asked quietly, knowing what the boy had gone through back them.

"No..." she said quietly relieved at that, but she then clenched her hand tightly, "I still can't get over it… Why did they take him away from me back then..." she said frustrated. "It's not fair to him… He was such a sweet boy… he still is… but he's just not the same anymore." she finished.

"I know how you feel… Well, not exactly how you feel, but you two are my best friends..." Matoyia said staring at his plate, "I hate seeing him so hurt, I wish I could've seen him before the incident that you talked about, to see what he was like before." he added.

"But I'm going to help him as much as I can..." he said, looking directly at her, she to looked back at him, and smiled, "I know you want to help, that's why I gave up on not letting you pay for therapy for hi-" she said, but then the door opened, making them go quiet.

"Morning..." a quiet voice said slowly from behind to door, they then slowly walked into the kitchen, the voice belonged to a young man of 16, This was Aito Haru, Asuka's little brother.

He was smaller that Matoyia, standing at 5'7, his build was very lanky, he skin was pale, his hair was a pale garnet like his sisters, mixed in was some light blue, the length of his hair reached slightly past his chin. His eyes were the same as his sisters, but lighter slightly but also a bit dull. And like the other two residents of the building, he had just woken up, so he was in his Pyjamas, which was an orange shirt, and black bottoms with a white line going down them.

"Morning bud!" Matoyia quickly said, hoping he hadn't heard them talking about the past. "Hey Matoyia..." Aito said with a weak smile, Aito had always seen Matoyia as an older brother, and the other way for Matoyia who saw Aito as a little brother.

"We didn't disturb you did we?" Asuka asked Aito, as she put down a plate of pancakes for him, he usually stays in his room for a few more minutes before getting out here. "Yeah… Just wondering what Matoyia was doing up at this hour..." he weakly said sitting down.

"Had to take down those thugs for that contact..." Matoyia answered, Aito also knew about him being Codebuster, mainly because Aito picked out his name for him, which he loved by the way.

"Really? Did you Duel?" Aito asked smiling slightly, his eyes also seemed to light up a bit, "Yep! And of course your truly won!" he said smugly, "Could you tell me how it played out?..." the young man asked the older.

Matoyia then went into detail about his Duel with the Guard, with Aito listening to every word, this went on for about 20 minutes, as Matoyia lengthened it for Aito. "Alright you two, that's enough. Aito you need to get ready for school!" Asuka said. Aito having finished his pancakes a bit before, nodded and proceeded to make his way back to his room to change.

"He seems to always love hearing about my Duels..." Matoyia said when Aito was back in his room, "True, but he also loves watching the live Duels taking place in Link VRAINS." she said back, smiling, thinking back to when the two would watch Codebuster Duel someone, she would always look to see that Aito was sporting a genuine smile on his face, something she hardly sees him do nowadays.

"So what are your plans for today?" she asked, "Help you with the Café for bit, I've fulfilled my contract, so I'll wait for the next one." he said, drinking the last of his OJ. "Also some of my friends are coming today, so I'll hang out with them for a bit after I help." he added, taking his utensils to the sink, to help her wash up.

Den City High School (10:14 AM)

A little while later, At Den School High School, which was like that of a University, in classroom 1-B, was Aito in his School Uniform, which was a slated coloured jacket with a light blue trim over a white dress shirt. He also had on black trousers, and unlike the other boys who wear the same uniform, he wore the his dress shirt done up and buttoned.

The first period which was advanced calculus had just finished, so the students were putting their Electronic Notepads, which they used for the lessons, back in their bags, Aito was one of the last to leave, another was Naoki Shima, who was slightly overweight, had green hair, and had the biggest smile on his face.

Just as Aito lefted the room, Naoki noticed that someone was just waking up, this person was a boy of 16, his eyes were green, his hair was dark blue, with a patch of light blue going across as a bang, it also had pink accents mixed in. He too was wearing the same school uniform.

This young was Yusaku Fujiku, freshman in the school, "Woah! You're awake!?" Naoki yelled, "Say your Fujiku right?" he asked, "Listen, class ended a while ago..." he added.

Yusaku slowly got up and looked at Naoki, "Who are you again?" he asked, shocking Naoki, "Oh come on! School started a month ago you know!" he said to Fujiku, "But you still haven't learned the names of your classmates?!" he added.

"So that must mean you don't have that many friends… right?" he asked, "Thanks for noticing." Yusaku finally said something, and sitting up properly, "My name is Naoki Shima!" Naoki said with a weird laugh.

"Say, do you have anything to say about this?" he said, lifting his left arm up, to display his new Duel Disk, that was blue, "Not really..." Yusaku said, shocking Naoki, "How about this then!" he shouted, shoving the Duel Disk right near Yusaku.

"Oh that. The new Duel Disk that SOL Technologies developed right?" Yusaku asked, making Naoki smile, "Oh, so you did notice!" he said, Yusaku then decided to get up and pack up his stuff, but Naoki noticed something.

What he noticed was Yusaku's Duel Disk, which was the version before the new one, it was mainly white, with red at the top, and a blue screen like device at the side. "Your Duel Disk is an older version that needs cards, huh?" Naoki asked, feeling a bit superior to Yusaku about the difference in the two Duel Disk.

He then decided to further show off his 'superiority' to Yusaku, "Mine comes with an AI installed that helps me during Duels, as well as emotional support!" he said, "Good day to you!" his Duel Disk spoke to Yusaku.

"Hey there..." Yusaku said back, not interested anymore… well he wasn't really interested before, he just wanted to get back to- "This AI can directly connect to SOL Technology's Cloud and allows you to use cards in data format!" Noaki said, "It can even access the Virtual Reality Network Space, LINK VRAINS!" he added.

"So then have you gone to Link VRAINS?" Yusaku asked, "No you Idiot!" Noaki got out, shocked that Yusaku would dare say such a thing. "Idiot" is a forbidden word!" Naoki's Duel Disk said to him.

"Link VRAINS is a sacred place, where only the greatest of veteran Duelist gather!" he said, "There are Charisma Duelist there too!..." he added, "It's not the easiest place to just walk into as you think it is!" he further added.

"True..." Yusaku said, "But if you go, you might be able to run into a Charisma Duelist like Codebuster, Blue Angel, Go Onizuka… or the Playmaker!" Naoki said, being a huge fan of both the first three and the rumored Playmaker.

"Playmaker?" Yusaku asked, "The most popular Duelist in Link VRAINS right now!" Naoki explained, "He's also been taking out the evil hacker group known as the Knights of Hanoi, single handedly!" he added.

"And Codebuster, while the number four Charisma Duelist, is also known for being a bounty hunter, taking out many other criminals with Link VRAINS!" he added, "Do you have footage of Playmaker? Or Codebuster?" Yusaku asked.

"On Codebuster, Yes! On Playmaker, No! but why would I? He's cool, but because he's so unknown!" Noaki said, who then raised his arms in the air, "I want to become a Duelist of Justice like Codebuster or Playmaker someday!" he declared.

"Good luck with that!" Yusaku said having picked up his stuff and was now leaving, "Hey wait!" Naoki said, "Want me to teach you how to Duel?" he asked, "No thanks!" Yusaku replied, "I've analysed you, and found three reasons on why you don't seem very strong." he added, while holding up three fingers.

"One: You've bragged about your Duel Disk, but don't seem concerned with what cards you have in your Deck." he said, shocking Shima.

"Two: You haven't gone to Link VRAINS yet, most likely due to a lack of confidence in your own skills." he added, further shocking him.

"And three: How can you call yourself a Duelist, if you're judging someone's skill, based solely on their appearances?" he asked, again shocking him once again, "However, you've got three good points going for you." he said.

"One: Only a person, who talks this much about his Duel Disk or Deck, must really love the game itself." he said, but Naoki was still in shock about what he said before.

"Two: By having the latest Duel Disk, it shows that you keep track of current events." he added.

"And three: You went out of your way and time, to talk to an isolated and possibly lonely person like my self. So you can't be a bad guy!" he finished, but Naoki was now frustrated, "What the hell man! Why are you criticizing me about there three things or whatnot!?" he asked. "You know what? Screw you! Go Duel by yourself!" he said, then took off, leaving Yusaku to himself.

"Oh yeah, I didn't think of that… Wasn't there three specific rules about the Main Monster Zone?..." he said to himself, "Oh well..." he said then took off, to go to break.

Café Haru, first story (13:32 PM)

The first story of the building was of course the built in small restaurant, it had a nice feel to it, the business was doing quiet well, seeing that with each purchase, you'd get the password to the restaurant's router, thus getting free Wi-Fi for a while, making it an Internet Cafe. Of course this password was changed everyday, just so people couldn't cheat out on paying for a meal.

At one table was Matoyia, with some of his friends, having changed out of his pyjamas, he now wore a black T-Shirt, with an image of a pixelated green alien, from the classic game of Space Invaders, over this was a grey leather jacket hoodie, with the inside lined with some kind of fur. His bottom set was a pair of beige jeans, held up by a brass coloured metal clip belt. In one of his pockets was a silver chain, his shoes was a set of red sneakers.

There was Sora Goto, 19 and male, he was the muscle of the group (along with some brains) he towered over the others, at about 6'3, his skin was tanned, his hair was brown with a slight afro. He wore a black and gold shirt that read 'Go Onisuka' with an image of a monster called 'Gouki the Great Ogre' in front of the name, clearly a fan of this person. He also wore denim black jeans. He too had the latest Duel Disk, it was brown in colour.

There was also Hiroshi Akiyama, the quiet one of the group, next to Sora, he was thin and lanky compared to him, his skin was fair, his hair was brown with gold mixed in, he wore a red collar shirt, with dark blue khaki shorts with tie up green sneakers. His Duel Disk was a version that was used long ago, from somewhere called Maiami City, but the Duel Disk itself had been modified to be used in the current generation.

And then there was Yui Funai, the girl of the group, as well as the funny one, her skin was also fair, and her hair shoulder length and light blue with grey accents. She wore a white vest with purple heart on it, wore a light blue jean jacket over that, the bottom half was a pleated skirt, and she wore black leggings, as well as sandal like shoes. she also had the latest Duel Disk, that was pink and purple.

"What do you call fake spaghetti?" Yui asked them, "An Im-pasta!" she said, this made Matoyia and Sora laugh, while Hiroshi just chuckled slowly. "*Sigh* So you guys hear about this morning?" Sora asked, "Yeah, Codebuster took down those clowns again!" Yui said exictedly, having been a fan of Codebuster's for a while.

"What I'd give to be a Charisma Duelist like him… or Go Onisuka for that matter!" Sora said, "What do you think Matoyia?" he asked him, "He's alright, not as handsome as yours truly!" he said smirking, while Sora and Yui laughed.

"Hey! Now that just uncalled for!" he scolded them, "Why don't you go to Link VRAINS Sora?" Hiroshi asked the giant, "I have… but I'm a bit worried to do so now, what with the Knights of Hanoi about." he answered, "I've haven't gone in awhile, safer in the real world then in there." he added.

"True, but think of all the exciting Duels that take place there, sure that you'd make you go, just to see them up close." Yui said, "Speaking of Duels, you hear about the Duels taking place tonight?" Matoyia asked.

This made Sora nodded, "Yeah. Go Onisuka is one of them, Dueling someone trying for his title. While the other is Blue Angel!" he said, "Wonder if Playmaker will show up?" Hiroshi said suddenly, while Sora gave a cold glare.

"That coward? Ha! As if..." Sora spat out, clearly not a fan of Playmaker's. "What's with the attitude?" Yui asked him, "Playmaker is nothing more that a simple coward! I mean why is he hiding for?" he said and asked, making them think.

"I don't think he's a coward. I think he's brave, for taking on the Knights of Hanoi all by himself." Hiroshi said, "Then why is he rumored to be deleting his log activities? He shouldn't hide anything against those scum!" Sora argued back, with this making the two get into an argument.

"What do you think about Playmaker, Matoyia?! Yui asked, leaving the two to their argument, "I don't really mind to be honest, what he wants to do is his choice..." he said, "But it makes you wonder though… Why is he fighting Hanoi?" he asked himself, the two other boys heard this and also thought for a while…

Suddenly someone's phone went off, the ringtone happened to be- "Is that the Tetris theme?" Sora asked as Matoyia got his phone out. "Sorry gotta take this." he said getting up and going behind the counter into the back.

He made sure no one else was around before answering. "Hello?" he asked, altering his voice slightly, reason being that the Tetris theme had a program (which he installed) to make the call encrypted, as this was for when someone wanted to speak with Codebuster. Having the call encrypted meant no one could track him or eavesdrop for that matter.

"This is Codebuster yes?" a male voice said back…

SOL Technologies, same time

Within an office on the building that was SOL Technologies sitting behind his deck, was a man of 26, he had fair skin, his hair was blue and teal swept to one side, he had pink eyes. And his clothing was a suit, that consist of a blue coat with a darker one underneath, a white shirt and a black tie, as well blue trousers and black dress shoes.

This man was Akira Zaizen, the Security Manager for SOL Technologies, and he was currently on the phone, "Yes, this is him!" Codebuster who was on the other end said back, "Oh good, listen, Bishop-sama would like to request you for something." he said to him.

"Sure I'm free, what do they want?" Codebuster asked, "He would like it if you could go into Link VRAINS tonight and help with some scanning for the company?" Akira asked, "Scanning? What are you scanning for?" he asked back, "That's classified, but the pay you'll get for this will be deceit, higher than for what you got this morning." Akira told him.

There was about a 30 second before Codebuster replied, "Fine, when do you want me there?" he said, not to sure if this was a good idea. "10 to 8, just before the Duels that are set to take place tonight!" Akira said, happier now that he had Codebuster involved like the Higher ups wanted, he was said to be good at his job as a bounty hunter. Maybe he could help capture the-

"Very well, talk to you later!" Codebuster said, ending the call. Akira then put his phone away, having done what Bishop had requested, but was slightly annoyed by the request, he believed he alone would be enough to retrieve the Ignis. But Bishop didn't put all his eggs in one basket.

"Let's hope this is over and done with fast..." he sighed out and returned to his work.

Back at Café Haru

Having just put his phone away, he started to make his way back to his friend, he then told him that something came up so he couldn't come to watch the Duels, that the three had planned while he was away with his call.

"God these lot seem to makes plans without me, then try and rope me in last minute." he thought smiling as Yui made another joke. He then got to thinking, "Now what would Bishop need so bad that he needs to call me in?" he asked himself.

However he couldn't think of an answer, due to the fact he had no idea what he was actually helping to find, "Oh well… I find out later tonight." he added, then got back into the conversation.

The Knights of Hanoi base (30 minutes later)

Standing within the base was Revolver, going through some data, that would hopefully help in finding the Ignis that got away, and when he got his hands on that AI, he would-

"Master Revolver!" someone called for him as they teleported in, Revolver turned to greet them, and there standing was man of fair skin with grey hair and blue eyes, he wore a white suit with yellow outlines, a black stripe on his chest and white shoes.

"What is it Spectre?" Revolver asked, this was Spectre, another Knight of Hanoi, and Revolver's assissant. "We've found traces of the Ignis, and I've also just received a report from Ares." he said.

"If SOL Technologies gets hold of the Ignis, then the Cyberse will be reborn." Spectre said, "And if that happens, our efforts will be for naught." he said, "What was Ares's report?" he asked.

"Ares has reported that SOL Technologies will be scanning Link VRAINS later on during the Duels that are to take place!" he said, "Hmm.. the Ignis must have resurfaced recently without us noticing." Revolver said turning back to the screen. "Anything else?" he asked.

"Yes, Ares has also created a virus that will help to disrupt the scanning, he only needs your-" Spectre, but then Revolver cut him off, "Very well, let him unleash it, when they begin the scanning only, and tell him if he has sight of the Ignis capture it and bring it back here!" he ordered.

"I'll tell him now… But before I go, I need to tell you something else!" Spectre said, "What?" Revolver asked, "An individual, going by the name of Playmaker, has been hindering our efforts." he said.

"An agent of SOL Technologies, perhaps?" Revolver asked, "No… Knowing them, they'd make moves against us publicly." he retorted himself. "He has skillfully blocked all of our tracking methods, and erased his activity from Link VRAINS's log. Quiet the adept hacker." he said.

"Interesting… but leave it alone for now, if he or anyone gets in the way… Valcry or Ares can deal with them… Searching for Ignis is more important than that!" Revolver said. Spectre nodded then took his leave. Letting Revolver get back to his thoughts. "Soon… this will end soon..." he said to himself.

Den City Square Plaza, 19:49 PM

It was now dark out, with people now gathering within the square to look at the giant screens, that were mainly used to watch Duels take place with Link VRAINS.

"Thank you!" Yui said, having paided for her meal from a mobile food truck, getting a chilli dog, fires and a coke. "Come again!" the owner of the truck, Shoichi Kusanagi said. he was about 23, had purple hair with small goatee with the same colour. He was currently wearing an apron, having just served a customer.

"Shoichi, are you done?" Yusaku asked, having hidden in the corner of the truck while Shoichi dealt with the customer. "Yeah." he said, as he then shut everything up, while Yusaku typed something into a panel, that booted up a computer system.

"Right let's get back to this trap!" Shoichi said as he sat down, "Did you really have to serve her?" Yusaku asked typing away, "Sorry about that, but that girl sure was persistent." Shoichi said.

"We need to get this ready before its too late, otherwise SOL Technologies or Hanoi will get the AI!" Yusaku said.

"Between the two groups, which do you think will get it, if not us by chance?" Shoichi asked, "Hanoi! Their equipment is probably more advanced then the other..." Yusaku said, not taking his eyes away.

"Well I hope it's SOL, after all, the information also said that Codebuster would be helping out with the scan!" he said, "Codebuster, he's that bounty hunter, right?" Yusaku asked. "Yeah, and he's quite good at it, but I think you could handle him should you duel him." Shoichi said.

"I've no reason to Duel him, unless he gets in the way." was all Yusaku said. "Still I wonder what Codebuster is thinking about right now?" Shoichi said to himself.

Link VRAINS (same time)

"Man this is boring!" Codebuster thought with a frown, as he was standing a top of a virtual building, where a bunch of drones were floating about. "Still, at least I know that we're looking for an AI called Ignis!" he added.

He managed to find out what they were looking for, quite easy to be frank, all he did was ask one of the drones, it wasn't smart enough to know that he wasn't allowed to know, and just told him. And if that didn't work he would've hacked their systems for the answer.

"Alright you lot!" he said, gaining the drones attention, he then made a 3D map of the virtual world appear, then pinpointed a certain area, "The Ignis was last seen in this area, so I want you lot to spread out in a ring formation to begin the scan in that area, then move onto the next area, understood?" he said, they beeped, signalling yes.

They then started to make their way to their designations for when they were given the go sign to begin. "Time for me to do my part." he said, as he started to jump to the next the building, however, he was unaware that another figure was about.

This figure at about 6'3 ft, his hair was spiky and mainly red that had some hair hanging over his left eye, there was also black mixed into his hair, over his face was a grey mask with a red X for the right eye lens, his mouth was free of this mask and he sported earrings in the shape of gold suns. His clothing was a white jumpsuit, with some streaks of blood red here and there. On his left arm was the new version of the Duel Disk, that was gold in colour.

This being was Ares, a member of the Knights of Hanoi, currently waiting for the scan to do his part of his mission. "It would be nice if SOL would hurry it up right about now!" he muttered to himself, stuffing his hands into his pockets.

"Still it will be nice, until all the carnage starts!" he said smiling to himself. While he waited, he started to hear an announcement.

Den City Square Plaza (20:00 PM)

"Are you all fired up for this?!" the MC asked the crowd, as spotlights had started to turn on, with crowd cheering at this, "The exciting Duels by the Charisma Duelists are about to begin in Link VRAINS!" the announcer said.

On one of the screens showcased a man of 19, he was built bulky and was tanned, he had two tone hair that was flattop or a hi-top, brown from his forehead down to his chin, that had a neatly trimmed beard on it, and at the top was blonde, that was the flattop part, with red striped highlights.

For clothing he wears a greenish-grey jacket with no sleeves and it exposed his chest, and wore a gold animal head shaped necklace. He has a lot of gold plating on his legs and armbands and stomach area, for his belt it is also gold and has a red G on it. This man was Go Onizuka, known to many as the King of Link VRAINS.

Go Onizuka's location within Link VRAINS was the Paris Las Vegas Hotel, and within the crowd was Sora, whistling for Go Onizuka, while Hiroshi was a bit moody and Yui just ate her meal.

On the other screen was a girl… a magical girl to be exact, she has blue hair mixed with some lighter blue, it was tied up into two strands by blue ribbons with this making two hearts. These strands frame her face. On her back were two pure white wings with a pink heart and a lavender clovers on each wing. On her right cheek was a green clover, her eyes were also lavender and she had two heart shaper earrings with a wing on them.

For clothing, she wears a white sleeveless shirt with a blue neck tie, underneath this she wears a blue and pink dress with some wing shaped frills, as well as dark blue thigh-high stockings and her shoes were similar. This was Blue Angel, the second ranked Charisma Duelist, and due to her popularity, she is also consider Link VRAINS's cover girl. Her location was on top of some rooftop, that was somewhere in Florence, Italy.

"In Area #1, we have our rough and tough hooligan, who uses the Gouki Deck. Heres... Go Onizuka!" the MC declared with the crowd cheering at this, "And in Area #2, we have the lovable, hug-able and the sweetest girl you'll ever meet. Our cover girl for Link VRAINS who uses the Trickster Deck. Blue Angel!" he said and the crowd (mainly the obsessive fans) cheered for her.

"Hey there!" Blue Angel said waving at the audience. "Now everyone who can access Link VRAINS, come on in! And for those out here, keep your eyes on the screens!" he said, "Go! Go Onizuka! Blue Angel!" Naoki said from the crowd, holding in each hand a fan, one for Go Onizuka, the other for Blue Angel.

Café Haru, second story (same time)

The second story was the living area and kitchen of the building, currently in this part was Aito lying down on the floor with a pillow to rest his head and arms on, Asuka was sitting down looking on her notepad for something.

"Shame Matoyia can't watch with us..." Aito whispered out, a bit saddened that Matoyia was in his room, currently in Link VRAINS. "Yeah… but hey, at least he's in Link VRAINS!" she pointed out to him, "I guess so..." he said as he waited for the Duels to begin.

SOL Technologies, Monitoring Room (same time)

"MSD Verson 99671 most recent update, complete!" an operator said while others went over other systems required for the scan. Within this room was Akira, watching over all this, "Good, now begin!" he instructed.

In Link VRAINS, Codebuster was just given the clear, "Begin!" he shouted, with the drones beginning their scans, he was however a bit concerned, "With all the scanning that's now taking place, the security for the system will be lower than usual…" he thought looking about. "I just hope this all goes according to plan." he added.

Meanwhile with Ares, he was currently looking at a bar of some sorts, which happened to be monitoring the security for Link VRAINS this bar was slowly going down, "55, 46, 34, and… 30%!" he said, then smirked, "Perfect time for the beginning… to the end!" he shouted, snapped his fingers, triggering something.

While that happened, the Ignis was running away, trying not to be caught in the scanned areas, "This is bad! I don't have anywhere to run now!" he yelled, then took off.

Back with SOL Technologies, one program of the server was started to glitch… which then started to spread to the other program, thus comprimising the entire thing, "IPA 078388, there's an intruder in the system!" an operator said, trying to sort the problem out.

"The firewall is about to break!" they said.

Link VRAINS…

"What the hell is happening!?" Codebuster shouted, trying to call for someone from SOL Technologies, but all he got was static. He then looked to the sky, were he spotted an area where the firewall was starting the breakdown, it shattered, and flying through was a Knight of Hanoi, riding on top a Cracking Dragon, then another appeared.

"The Knights of Hanoi are attacking!" Codebuster said, again all he got was static, "*sigh* Looks like I'll have to sort this out!" he said running to where the Knights were heading to…

Meanwhile, in the real world, the screens showing the Duels were acting up, with the lot in Link VRAINS noticing this as well. "What the heck is happening!?" Naoki shouted.

And within Cafe Nagi, Shoichi and Yusaku were pinpointing what was happening, "This program… It's the Knights of Hanoi!" Shoichi said, "There here now, huh?" Yusaku said, feeling something strange, "What is this feeling." he muttered.

Where Go Onizuka was, the two Knights of Hanoi on there Cracking Dragon broke through where he was, they flew past, then flying past Blue Angel's location. "What is that?" she said in shock and confusion. "Excuse me!" Codebuster said rushing passed her. "Codebuster?" she said.

"Where is the Ignis!?" one of the Knights said to themselves, he then looked to the other, "Crush all that stand in our way!" he ordered, the other nodded, and ordered his Cracking Dragon to start destroying the area, some people were caught in this, and their accounts were then deleted.

"Damn it!" Codebuster swore, he couldn't do anything to save them, "What the hell are the Knights looking for the Ignis for?" he muttered to himself, "I know right, why can't they leave me be!" the Ignis said, having been next to Codebuster.

"Yeah, why can't they-" Codebuster went to say, but stopped…

…

…

…

He slowly turned to his right, and saw it, the Ignis… well, what was left of it, which was it's eye, that was looking back at him. "What!?" it asked, however Codebuster didn't respond, and just lifted his none Duel Disk arm.

"There you are!" Codebuster shouted, then shot at the AI, who took off, "Ah! What the hell are you shooting at me for!?" it yelled as it ran. As Codebuster gave chase, it's shouting attracted some unwanted attention, "I've found you Ignis!" the Knight said as his Cracking Dragon destroyed some debris.

"Where's my way out!?" Ignis said, phasing out, then back in somewhere else, "Where… Where… Where is it?!" it asked, while it two pursuers gave chase, "Get out of my way!" the two shouted at the other.

Suddenly the blue rail beam appeared out of nowhere, shocking the two, "Found it!" Ignis said, jumping onto the rail. "Where is it going?" Codebuster asked. Then they tried to follow the rail.

Back within the Florence area, which had now been partially destroyed was Blue Angel running for her virtual life, while the other knight loamed over her.

Den City Square Plaza...

Back in the real world, Yusaku, having caught the AI with his trap program, was watching from the screen, "We're running out of time, let's go!" he said, running back into the mobile trunk, "Go? Go where?" Ignis asked, "Link VRAINS!" Yusaku said running into a sealed chamber. "But I just got away from there..." it whined.

He then took his Deck out of his pocket, "Deck Set!" he shouted, setting the Deck into his Duel Disk, "Into the VRAINS!" he said, as he was then shrouded in a data sphere. A few moments later, after a transformation, Yusaku had now become Playmaker. He then flew into a portal leading into the virtual world.

With Codebuster…

He was currently giving chase after the Knight he was with when they discovered that the Ignis had vanished, "Where do you think your going?!" he yelled to the knight. But then he spotted the other Knight and his Cracking Dragon, said monster was about to unleash it flame on Blue Angel. "Be Gone!" the knight said, as the dragon released it's flame.

"No!" Codebuster yelled, but then, just before the flames could touch her, a figure came out of nowhere and rushed her out of the way. "Who is-" he went to say, shocked that someone was brave enough to risk their virtual life for someone else in this situation.

"We really came back..." Ignis said, annoyed by it being back in here, "The Ignis!" Codebuster shouted, then rushed over to them, "Crap! It's the crazy shooter!" The AI yelled, "Who are you?" Codebuster, Blue Angel and the Knights asked the stranger.

"My name is Playmaker!" he declared, shocking them, "So that's Playmaker, huh?" Codebuster thought, "And the thing that you're looking for is right here!" he said, lifting his Duel Disk up to show the Ignis off.

"Stop your attack on Link VRAINS! Or I'll delete this right here and now!" he said, shocking his captive, "Wait! Hold on a second!" Ignis pleaded, "Your holding your saviour hostage!?" it asked annoyed with Playmaker.

"The Program has been changed into a Duel Program!" Playmaker explained, "If you want to get your hands on it, you'll have the beat me in a Duel!" he added, "Wow didn't know Playmaker was capable of something like this..." Codebuster muttered to himself.

"Very well! I'll have you learn what it means to make yourself an enemy of the Knights of Hanoi!" one the knights said, with the two getting ready to take on Playmaker together, "Oh no you don't!" Codebuster yelled, shooting the second one's Duel Disk, linking them, "What!?" the second said shocked.

"It's unfair to tag team against one person..." he said, then turned to Playmaker, "I'll take this one, you deal with the first..." he said, then walked closer to the second to start his Duel. While the first knight jumped down from his dragon.

"This doesn't look good..." Ignis said, having gone through Playmaker's Deck, "That dragon is really strong, and I don't think you have anything in your Deck that can beat it!" it said, "Says you. If I lose this Duel, you'll fall into the hands of Hanoi." Playmaker as heard explosion take place, most likely from Codebuster's Duel.

"So you better pray that I win!" he added, "AI's don't pray! They only make calculations to win!" it said, its eye then lit up…

With Codebuster, he was in the middle of his Duel, both Duelist had their Life Points untouched, it was the third turn of the Duel, on his field he had two Cyber Dragons and a face-down, on his opponent's side, the knight had a monster called Jack Wyvern. "I activate my Jack Wyvern's effect!" the knight said.

"I banish it, and Special Summon 1 DARK monster from my Graveyard!" he said smirking, as his wyvern burst into particles, "I Summon Cracking Dragon!" he said, with the mechanical dragon appearing with a roar.

"Great, this just got-" Codebuster said, but then the ground started to shake, "Huh?" he said confused, he looked around just to see a purple beam of light end, suddenly a purple and blue data wind picked up flowing around everywhere.

"This wind… It can't be a-" the Knight said in shock, "A Data Storm!?..." Codebuster finished for him, as the two braced themselves against the wind. As this happened, Playmaker now on a D-Board, a vehicle that came with the rest of the data that the AI releashed.

"Grab the wind Playmaker!" Ignis said, while Playmaker got the hang of the ride, Codebuster punched in a command on his Duel Disk, which made the drone on his back fly off, "Follow and record them!" he ordered, the drone beeped taking off after Playmaker.

"Now let's get back to our Duel..." Codebuster said.

With Playmaker, he was just riding the Data Storm, "This wind, this is a Speed Duel!?" he asked, "By the way Playmaker-sama, do you know the difference between Speed and Master Duels?" Ignis asked.

"No, tell me and keep it short" Playmaker said, "My, you're acting pretty bossy to someone trying to teach you..." the AI said, "You need to remember to I have you hostage." Playmaker reminded his captive.

"Fine, I'll keep it short..." Ignis said, then explained the rules. During a Speed Duel, the major difference to the layout is that there only three Main Monster Zones, same with the Spell/Trap Zones. And that each player starts with 4 cards instead of 5 for a Master Duel, and like a Master Duel, the player who starts the Duel cannot draw a card, and there is no second Main Phase after the battle phase.

"And that's pretty much it." the AI finished, "Sounds simpler than a Master Duel, huh?" Playmaker said. "Exactly!" Ignis said, just then the Knight, the one that was to Duel Playmaker, appeared on his own D-Board.

"A Speed Duel, huh?" he said smirking, "Interesting..." he added, "Hmm… Looks like he knows how to Speed Duel too..." the AI said, "If you want, I can give you some support." it added, "That won't be necessary!" Playmaker said.

"Hey! I'm trying my hardest to stay alive here too you know!" the AI retorted, "Quiet! I need to concentrate." Playmaker said, "Let's go!" the knight said, soaring past, meanwhile Codebuster's drone caught up and was now recording.

"Speed Duel!" the two shouted, drawing four cards each.

Playmaker's LP's: 4000

Knight of Hanoi's LP's 4000

"That punk! He's standing out more than me!" Go Onizuka said, having gotten onto the rooftops, where he was then joined by Blue Angel.

Café Haru, Second Story...

"Speed Duel?" Aito asked his sister, "I've heard a rumor about another kind of Dueling, but I didn't believe it..." Asuka said, watching the Duel, "Dueling, while riding the winds within Link VRAINS!" she said. Aito looked back at the screen now more interested in the Duel.

"Speed Duelling… Huh?" he said smiling.

Back to the Duel.

Turn 1

"I'll be taking the first turn!" the Knight said, "My turn!" he said, waving his hand to show his cards floating in front of him, he smiled, having gotten a good first hand.

"The perfect hand! With this I can come at you full power from the very start!" he said, then waved his hand away.

"I Special Summon Hack Worm!" he said, as data merged together and form the monster, it was a worm like creature, that was dark grey with some dark gold here and there, it had two floating pieces close to it, and was covered with green energy across its body.

Hack Worm: DARK, Level: 1 [Machine/Effect] ATK/400 DEF/0

"I can Special Summon this card from my Hand, when you control no monsters!" he said. "Special Summoning a monster with 400 ATK?" Playmaker muttered, "So you're planning to bring out a high Level monster!" he concluded.

"Correct!" the knight said, "I now Special Summon another Hack Worm!" he said as a second Hack Worm appeared.

"This is bad… This may mean he'll bring that thing out..." Ignis said a bit scared, not having any good memory with said thing. "Playmaker, with this card, your hero act comes to an end!" the knight said.

"I release my two Hack Worms..." he said as with a wave of his hand the monsters in question vanished, "And… Advanced Summon! Level 8! Cracking Dragon!" he said as the mechanical dragon with a similar design to the Hack Worms appeared with a roar as it was Summoned to the knights Left Main Monster Zone.

Cracking Dragon: DARK, Level: 8 [Machine/Effect] ATK/3000 DEF/0

"And then I end my turn there..." he said.

Knight of Hanoi's Hand x 1

With Codebuster...

It was now the fourth turn, however, due to Cracking Dragon now on the field, Codebuster lost 900 Life Points last turn, as the knight had attacked and destroyed a Cyber Dragon, it was now his turn.

Draw!" he said, drawing his card, making the amount 2, "I Normal Summon Proto-Cyber Dragon!" he said, as the miniature mechanical serpent appeared. This made the Knight smirk, "Fool! Cracking Dragon's effect now activates!" he said.

"When you Normal or Special Summon exactly one monster, that monster loses 200 ATK times it Level!" he said, Cracking Dragon roared as the smaller of the two mechanical serpent curled inwards, losing 600 ATK. "And that's not all, you then take damage equal to the ATK that that monster lost! Crack Fall!" he said, as the roar pushed Codebuster back, as he lost 600 points, making him now have 2500.

"Great… I now activate the Quick-Play Spell, Photon Generator Unit!" Codebuster said, "I tribute two Cyber Dragons..." he said, as the two Cyber Dragons, technically one but Proto-Cyber's effect treated it as a Cyber Dragon, burst into particle.

"This allows me to Special Summon 1 Cyber Laser Dragon from my Hand or Deck!" he said, this caused a similar mechanical serpent to Cyber Dragon to appear, but at the end of its tail was a device. It was Level 7.

"Ha! Cracking Dragon's effect once again! Crack Fall!" the knight said, the dragon roared, lowering Laser Dragon's ATK to 1000, and making Codebuster take 1400 damage, leaving him with only 1100.

"Laser Dragon's effect! Once per turn, I can destroy 1 monster with ATK or DEF equal or higher than this card's ATK!" Codebuster said, shocking the knight. "I'll take out your Cracking Dragon!" he said.

While Laser Dragon destroyed the monster in question, "Let's see how Playmaker is doing..." he said, waving his hand, making a screen appear, showing live feed from his drone. "Great… the other knight has his Cracking Dragon out..." he muttered. He then turned back to his opponent, "Battle! Laser Dragon, attack him directly!" he said.

The dragon charged its tail up, releasing a beam at the defenceless, hitting him for 1000 damage, leaving him at 3000. "I end my turn!" he said, then turned back to the video, "I hope you can get out of that like I did..." he thought with concern.

With Playmaker...

Turn 2

"It's already here!" Ignis cried out in slight fear, gazing at the Cracking Dragon, "A monster with 3000 ATK on the first turn..." Playmaker thought, looking at his Hand, he was deep in thought, "Hey! Playmaker-sama!" Ignis said, "Shut up." Playmaker said.

"Look out! In front of you!" the AI shouted, making him look up to see that they were headed for a building, he turned to the right, dodging it, his opponent did the same… his monster however rammed right into the building destroying it.

"Be careful. In a Speed Duel, there are obstacles to watch out for." the Ignis said, "Also, if you take too much damage, when you leave Link VRAINS, there's a feedback effect… And you'll take mental damage!" it said.

"Say. You said that I couldn't win with my Deck, but you seem to recognise that monster..." Playmaker pointed out, shocking the AI, "Finally you seem to understand." it said, Playmaker then went to draw his card, the lining on his suit glowed.

"My turn! I draw!" he said drawing his card, which he flipped to see what it was, "This will do nicely..." he thought, then took two cards from his Hand, "I Set two cards!" he said as two cards appeared face-down before fading.

"Then I Normal Summon Cyberse Wizard!" he said, with this causing a wizard in a white-green outline coat, black skintight outfit to appear, he had bright green hair that covered the left side of his face, he also had green eyes. He wore grey shoulder pads with blue gems fitted into them, along with grey boots that were lined with grey lighting. He was Summoned to the Middle Main Monster Zone.

Cyberse Wizard: LIGHT, Level: 4 [Cyberse/Effect] ATK/1800 DEF/800

With Codebuster he was just looking at the screen, then looked back at his opponent, but then did a double take at the screen, "Is that a Cyberse monster!?" he yelled in shock and confusion. "I haven't seen one since..." he said, but stopped himself, he didn't want to bring up old memories.

Playmaker's opponent's interest had been peeked, "To think that he uses the Cyberse archetype..." the knight said, having been told by Master Revolver, that most, if not all of them had been wiped out. "This is unexpected, but it's still powerless against Cracking Dragon!" he said.

"I now activate its effect!" he said, "When you Summon exactly 1 monster during your turn, Normal or Special Summon. That monster loses 200 ATK x it Level, then you take damage equal to that lost ATK!" he said.

"Crack Full!" he shouted, as Cracking Dragon unleashed a strong wind, pushing Playmaker and Cyberse Wizard forward. Cyberse Wizard's ATK: 1800 – 800 = 1000, Playmaker's LP's: 4000 – 800 = 3200.

"He lowered Cyberse Wizards ATK!?" Playmaker gritted out at such a powerful effect, "But, now I activate its effect!" he said, this made Cyberse Wizard bring his hands together, to create a simple long staff.

"Once per turn, I can target 1 monster you control in Attack Position, and change it into Defense! Cyberse Algorithm!" he said, as the staff lit up with data, this then made Cracking Dragon kneel down as it was placed in Defense.

"Oh!?" the knight said smirking, "And on the turn Cyberse Wizard uses this effect, all Cyberse-type monsters can deal piercing battle damage!" Playmaker added, ""Battle! Cyberse Wizard, attack Cracking Dragon! Illusion Spike!" he ordered.

The Wizard's staff started to spark with electricity, which hit Cracking Dragon causing an explosion, "All right! Playmaker took out Hanoi's dragon!" Naoki yelled from the real world.

But all the knight did was laugh, as when the smoke cleared, Cracking Dragon was unharmed, the knight however did take damage as he glowed yellow. Knight of Hanoi's LP's: 4000 – 1000 = 3000.

"Too bad, but Cracking Dragon cannot be destroyed by a monster with a Level equal or lower than its own!" the knight explained smirking.

"What!? It had such an effect?! Has the enemy evolved as well?!" Ignis shouted in shock, "So that explains that..." Playmaker said, "You don't seem very surprised Playmaker-sama." it said, "Yeah. He didn't look at all disturbed that I used Cyberse Wizard's effect. So that meant he had something planned." he said.

"Huh? You don't even let your opponent's reactions pass you do you?" it asked, "I now end my turn there!" he said. "With it ending, Cracking Dragon's effect ends too!" he said as Cyberse Wizard's ATK returned to normal. 1000 = 1800. (Cyberse Wizard)

Playmaker's Hand x 2

Back with Codebuster…

"Laser Dragon, Proto-Cyber Dragon, attack him directly!" he said, it was the sixth turn of the duel, the knight had passed his turn, seeing that he clearly didn't have a good card to use, Codebuster drew another Proto-Cyber Dragon, summoned it, and with Laser Dragon's ATK back to normal, he decided to end to Duel right here right now.

His opponent having been hit directly twice, was flown backwards and hit a wall, where Codebuster shot his wrist shooter at the falling knight, containing him with a brace locking his arms and pinning him to the wall. "There. A gift for SOL Technologies!" he said, then looked at the screen.

"Now let's see if I can- Oh! They're close by..." he said, pinpointing where his drone was, and it told him that it was circling by soon, "Need to get close then follow them!" he said running off, jumping onto the rooftops. "I need to speak to Playmaker before he gets away, I need to know where he got that card..." he thought.

Back with the Duel…

Turn 3

"An ATK of 3000, and it can't be destroyed by a monster with a Level equal or less than 8!? That's too much of an advantage!" Naoki said concerned as were most of the other civilians in the crowd, "I hope Playmaker can get out of this..." Hiroshi said.

Next to Naoki was Kusanagi, who was looking at Yusaku on the screen, "Please do something, Yusaku..." he thought with worry.

"My turn! Draw!" the knight said, "It looks like the match has been decided here… I'll now be activating my Skill!" he said, "Skill?" Codebuster said watching from his feed, his Duel Disk then showed him something, "A Skill, an ability that can only be used within a Speed Duel, and can only be used once during that Duel..." he read.

"I activate the Skill, Double Draw!" the knight said, drawing 2 cards instead of one, "This Skill lets me draw 2 cards instead of one when I activate it!" he said, "No way!?" Playmaker yelled, "I've never heard of a Skill like that! Hanoi made it themselves!" Ignis said.

The knight then waved his hand too see his Hand. "Wonderful! Now my strategy is one step close to being perfect!" he said, "I now activate the Spell, DDoS Attack!" he said waving his hand over one of the cards.

"With this card's effect, I send two other DDoS Attack cards from my Deck to the Graveyard..." he said sending two as they were ejected from his Deck. "Then I target a Machine Type monster I control and your dealt 100 damage for each card I sent to the Graveyard times the Level of the targeted monster!" he explained shocking everyone.

"I sent two, and my target will be Cracking Dragon, meaning you'll take 2 lots of 800 damage!" he said, and from the card came a red energy beam, that hit Playmaker, sending him flying off his D-Board as he started to fall. 3200 – 1600 = 1600. (Playmaker)

The audience were in shock at this, so was Playmaker, but out of nowhere, a blue energy thorn whip, courtesy of Blue Angel came out of nowhere, and snapped his D-Board to his direction, he saw this and grabbed the board, getting back on it.

As the Playmaker took off, Blue Angel landed and disbursed her whip, "Playmaker… I've returned the favour!" she said smiling, having paided him back for saving her back then. With Codebuster, he was sighing with relief.

"Thank god! I don't want to have to deal with the other Knight should he die..." he said as he kept giving chase.

"I told you not to let your guard down… If you had taken damage from a fall from that height, your real body would've died!" Ignis said, "Hmm... Looks like you barely survived that one… You're a lucky one." the knight said grinning.

Playmaker was about to say something, but he notice something up ahead, "What is that?" he said, up ahead was what appeared to be a twister, comprised of the Data Storm, "The Data Storm is becoming unstable!" Ignis said.

"So its now a dangerous place huh?" Playmaker said, "I set a card..." the knight said with a wave of his hand, the card was set, appearing on his field, then faded. "Then I change Cracking Dragon into Attack Position!" he said, this made the dragon raise its head and roar.

"Then I activate the Equip-Spell, Air Crack Storm! Equipping it onto Cracking Dragon!" he said, this caused four blue missile like protrusions to appear on Cracking Dragon. "When the equipped monster destroys another monster by battle, it can attack again!" he explained.

"This is bad. If Cyberse Wizard goes, you'll lose!" Ignis said, "Be quiet! I know this." Playmaker said, meanwhile the knight laughed, "With Cracking Dragon on my field, I am the strongest Duelist!" the knight said.

"That's BS!" Codebuster retorted, after all, he just took down one of those dragons in his Duel with the other knight not too long ago.

"Battle! Cracking Dragon attack Cyberse Wizard! Traffic Blast!" he ordered, the dragon turned to face the wizard and charged a beam. "Trap activate! Three Strike Barrier!" Playmaker said as a set card flipped up.

"When you control exactly three cards. I can choose from 1 of this card's effect!" he said as this card's effect were shown to him. "I choose during this turn, that monsters I control cannot be destroyed by battle!" he said.

Just as Cracking Dragon released it breath, a barrier appeared around Cyberse Wizard, protecting it, "But you'll still take damage!" the knight said. "To the right Playmaker!" Ignis said, making Playmaker dodge to the right, avoiding the blast, but still taking damage. 1600 – 1200 = 400. (Playmaker)

"I end my turn!" the knight said, but smiled at what he saw approaching.

Knight of Hanoi's Hand x 0

Turn 4

"It looks like this match has been decided..." the knight said, "Wrong! I still have LP remaining." Playmaker retorted, but the knight just laughed at him, "Fool! You fail to understand the true meaning of my words!" he said, this caused Playmaker to look forward and see that the twister was approaching him destroying several buildings along the way.

Playmaker was then caught up in the wind, screaming to stay balanced, hoping to ride the strong winds. "You'll be consumed by the Data Storm… And meet your end!" the knight said with smirk and laughed as Playmaker was pulled into the Storm.

"Playmaker!" Codebuster yelled to him, slightly out of breath now, having runned to catch up to them.

With Playmaker in the storm, he had just managed to keep himself with his D-Board, having been flung from it before, and was now trying to keep himself in one piece. The Data Storm destroyed several more buildings, one of which Codebuster was on prior. "Man if I was there still, I'd be like that building..." he muttered shivering at the thought.

"You… You led me here on purpose!" Playmaker concluded, "Oh… so you noticed." Ignis said smugly, "And was you telling me about Skills apart of this calculation of yours?!" he said, "Right! That's because this Data Storm is your only chance at beating him!" it said.

"What are you talking about?!" Playmaker said trying to keep his balance again, "Unknown monsters live inside the Data Storm." Ignis explained, "Monsters!?" he said, "Yes! And the more violent the Data Storm, the more powerful the monsters!" it said, however, neither of them realised something was approaching them.

"Now it is time for you to use you Skill, Storm Access!" it said, "If you don't we'll never make it out!" it added, Playmaker took a moment to think about this, "Alright!" he said, "This Skill can only be used when your LP's are below 1000, and you'll be abe to access one card from the Data Storm!" Ignis said explaining how the skill worked.

Playmaker lifted his hand, which glowed from the circuit like pattern, "Now! Grab the wind, Playmaker!" Ignis shouted, Playmaker then held his hand out in front of him, slowly but surely a card was starting to form.

While Ignis watched this, it heard a roar from within the storm, "Hmm?" it said looking around, and then it saw it, a shadow was fast approaching them, "Playmaker! Dodge!" it yelled, causing it captor to look back in shock, and dive to the left, just dodging the shadow which took back deeper into the storm.

"Is that one of the monsters!?" Playmaker said as the card forming in his hand disintegrated, "Hmm, must have been… It must want to get out..." Ignis said, "Nevermind that, quickly try it again!" it said.

Playmaker then once again held his hand up, where another card started to form from data from the storm, it got difficult the longer he held it, so he braced his hand. "Hold on, Playmaker!" Ignis said.

"I have three reasons why I must win this Duel!" he said, trying to his mind off the pain, "One: In order to take back the time that was stolen from me!" he said remembering something from his past. "Two: In order to save Kusanagi-san's little brother from darkness!" he said, thinking of his friend's brother who had gone through the same thing as him, only he was worse off.

"And Three: In order for me to find the one who gave me courage!" he yelled determined as the card was forming even more than before, "Do it now!" Ignis yelled, "Storm Access!" Playmaker shouted as the card was now complete...

Back outside the Data Storm, Codebuster was starting to get worried, coming to a conclusion, "He's gone..." he muttered sad, there goes his hope of finding out why he had a Cyberse card, just like he- "Huh?" he said looking at the storm, which was glowing.

"No way..." he said, shocked, suddenly the storm split apart, as though something had split it, and this revealed Playmaker still alive, shocking the knight. "What!? Impossible! You should've been swallowed up by the Data Storm..." the knight said.

"Not yet! This match is far from over!" Playmaker yelled, "My turn! I draw!" he said drawing his card, "I activate Cyberse Wizard's effect! Cyberse Algorithm!" he said as the staff lit up putting Cracking Dragon back into Defense once again.

"You don't know when to give up! I activate my Trap, Pulse Bomb!" the knight shouted, "When I control a Machine-Type monster, I can set all of your monsters in Attack into Defense!" he said as mines appeared around Cyberse Wizard, setting it into Defense.

"Don't get so flustered!" Playmaker said, "I Normal Summon Stack Reviver!" he said, making a small stack robot to appear, it was white-grey in colour, it had two thin arms, one of either side of the monster, within it stack like body were blue glass like panels, one of these panels was being held by the monster, at the bottom of the stack was a black and grey box like footing. Between this was a line of yellow data, and on the upper part on two black lines, going from the front to the back on the monster were two small green line like eyes. He Summoned it the right Main Monster Zone on his side.

Stack Reviver: DARK, Level: 2 [Cyberse/Effect] ATK/100 DEF/600

"Another Cyberse monster..." Codebuster said, "No matter what monster you Summon, Pulse Bomb will set it into DEF!" the knight said, as Stack Reviver was placed into Defense.

"Fool… You seem to have forgotten Crack Dragon's effect!" he said, "Your LP is only 400… And what you'll take for summoning that monster will finish what's left! Crack Full!" he shouted as Cracking Dragon's effect took affect. Stack Reviver's ATK: 100 – 400 = 0, 400 – 100 = 300. (Playmaker)

"How did you-" the knight said shocked, that should've finished him off. "You don't seem to understand Cracking Dragon's effect..." Playmaker said, "That thing only lowers my LP by the amount of ATK my monster lost! Stack Reviver originally only had 100 ATK, so that's all I lost!" he explained.

The knight having heard this, was annoyed, "So you took a bit of damage just to fortify your defences?!" the knight said, "I'm not that naive of a Duelist." Playmaker said grinning.

"I now activate from my Hand the Spell, Effect Cowl!" he said, "As long as I control a Cyberse-type monster, I cannot take effect damage for the rest of the turn!" he said, "And then I activate the Trap, Cyberse Beacon!" he said as his other face-down flipped up.

"On the turn I take damage, I can add 1 Level 4 or lower Cyberse-type monster from my Deck to my Hand!" he said as a card was ejected which he took, "Then I Special Summon Backup Secretary!" he said.

This made a woman with short purple hair with spiky ends at the back to appear, she had a strange large hi-tech hairpin on the left side of her hair. She wore a black visor that was attached to grey-blue lining headset, as well as a full skintight, latex black-silver and purple dress that had four figures on the front of this dress. There was also a see-through skirt, silver and purple boots, puffy silver shoulder pads and a silver cape, that had two USB cable coming out from behind her back just before the cape. And in her hand was a hi-tech clipboard. He Summoned her in the left Main Monster Zone in DEF Position.

Backup Secretary: LIGHT, Level: 3 [Cyberse/Effect] ATK/1200 DEF/800

"This card can be Special Summoned from my Hand, when I control a Cyberse-type monster!" he explained. "It doesn't matter how many trash monsters you gather, they're all powerless against Cracking Dragon!" the knight said as Cracking Dragon growled.

"Is that knight really that stupid..." Codebuster said, from his Duel, he knew the weakness of Cracking Dragon, however he didn't use one. "Is that so?..." Playmaker said smiling, "I'm about to call forth my trump card!" he said.

"Trump card?! Don't make me laugh. As long as I control Cracking Dragon, who can't be destroyed by a monster with a Level equal or lower than its Level, and that I have Pulse Bomb which will put your monsters into..." the knight said, but then stopped, thinking of something.

"It can't be!?..." he yelled out coming to a conclusion of what Playmaker was about to do. "Come forth! The circuit that will leads to the future!" Playmaker shouted with his hand held in the air. This caused sparks to appear from his palm, that then shot into the air.

This then caused the Link Portal to appear, "Arrowheads Confirmed! Summoning conditions are two or more Effect Monsters!" he said, "I set Stack Reviver, Cyberse Wizard and Back-up Secretary in the Link Markers!" he declared.

This made the monsters in question turn into twisters of their colour scheme. With Stack Reviver going to the middle top, Back-up Secretary to the Bottom Left and Cyberse Wizard into the Bottom Right. When the markers that were hit were red, the portal grew brighter.

"Circuit Combine! Link Summon! Come forth! Link 3! Decode Talker!" he said, and forming and appearing from the portal came a monster with dark blue gold trimmed armour, with the armour not properly connected and covering all the monster, what could be seen of the monster its black body that had purple circuit like lines covering it. The armour itself covered the feet to the knees, thighs, upper chest, shoulders wrist and head which was elongated and two pieces on its back. Each armour piece had purple orbs on it. Its eyes were narrow and purple. In its right hand was a giant unique looking sword. It was placed in the Right Extra Monster Zone, where it soared along with Playmaker.

Decode Talker: DARK [Cyberse/Link/Effect ]ATK/2300 LINK/-3, LMs: ↙⬆↘

"What an interesting looking monster..." Codebuster said, amazed at seeing the powerful monster, "Your trump card was a Link Monster!?" the knight said in shock, "Hmm… To think you'd use the card you drew from Storm Access this well..." Ignis said smug.

"As expected of Playmaker-sama!" it added, "Link Monsters do not possess a Level or a Rank!" Playmaker said, "And they can only be placed in face-up Attack Position!" he added, frustrating the knight as both Cracking Dragon and Pulse Bomb were now useless.

"I now activate the effect of Stack Reviver from my Graveyard!" he said, "Once per duel, when this card is used to Link Summon, I can Special Summon 1 other Level 4 or lower Cyberse-type monster from my Graveyard!" he explained, "I Summon back Cyberse Wizard!" he said, as the Wizard was summoned to the Middle Main Monster Zone, which Decode Talker pointed to.

"Decode Talker gains 500 ATK for every monster it points to!" Playmaker said, shocking the knight as his Cracking Dragon also pointed to Decode Talker. "Power Integration!" Playmaker yelled as Decode Talker's sword got longer. Decode Talker's ATK: 2300 + 1000 = 3300.

"An ATK of 3300!?" the knight yelled, "Battle! Decode Talker attack Cracking Dragon!" Playmaker ordered as the Code Talker charged at the monster, "Cyberse Wizard's effect! With it, the Cyberse-type Decode Talker can deal piercing damage!" he added.

"Decode End!" he shouted as Decode's sword hit its mark on the dragon's head, "But Cracking Dragon can't be destroyed by a monster with a Lev-" the knight went to say, but remembered, Link Monsters don't have a Level.

Decode Talker's sword started leaving cracks, ironically on Cracking Dragon, the sword then went though it as the dragon exploded, the knight screamed as he fell off his D-Board, 3000 – 3300 = 0. (Knight of Hanoi)

Playmaker turned his board around to look at the falling knight, "You have no right to call yourself a Duelist!" he said coldly.

Knight of Hanoi: LOSE

Playmaker: WINS

Meanwhile Codebuster sighed, "Thank god… now to get some answers!" he thought running after Playmaker. From another rooftop, Ares just stood there unimpressed. "Hmph! Was that all Playmaker had to offer..." he said, "he was only a grunt of the work force, should he face a true knight, like myself, the result would've been worse... for him..." he said as he logged out.

While this happened, the crowd were cheering for Playmaker's victory… well what was lefted of the crowd, most having run off when the Knights first attacked.

"He did it! Playmaker protected Link VRAINS!" Naoki shouted with joy, "Told you he was amazing..." Hiroshi muttered, "Shut up! This one Duel doesn't prove anything!" Sora retorted.

Kusanagi was very relieved, then made his way back to his truck, where Yusaku would be getting out soon.

Back with Playmaker he suddenly jumped off his D-Board, and landed on a rooftop… the same rooftop that the knight fell onto. "Playmaker..." the knight spat out, "Knight of Hanoi! Who are all of you!" Playmaker demanded.

"Like I'd ever tell you..." the knight spat again… but then grinned, tilting his head up as the red lens in his mask blinked, "Because your going to die here with me!" he said with a laugh, shocking the AI, "Oh no! He's going to take us with him!" it yelled.

Playmaker looked to be panicking, thinking the blast radius would be too big to escape, and that he didn't have enough time to log out either… The Ignis however, took action, it glowed, along with gaining a dark aura, making Playmaker snap out of it, to see a shadowy creature rush out of his Duel Disk, but it was still attached to it.

The creature happened to be the Ignis, having taken a monstrous form that had six tentacles, which then wrapped the knight up, it then created a mouth, that extended and covered the knight's head who screamed as he was turned into data as his account was erased.

After that, the Ignis went back into the Duel Disk, turning back into a single eye, "You… What did you just do?..." Playmaker said slowly, "Protected you, duh!" it said, "If I hadn't done anything, you would've taken the damage from that, and your real body would've been injured!" it explained.

"That was a strange sight to see..." a voice said, making Playmaker turn around to see Codebuster standing there out of breath. "You... have no... idea… how much I ran after you..." he breathed out catching his breath. His drone having done its job, attached itself onto his back.

"Ah! Its the shooter!" Ignis cried out, meanwhile Go Onizuka had joined them, jumping over a rail to get onto the roof, "I found you, Playmaker!" he shouted angry, "Duel me, right now!" he demanded.

"Hold on! I was here firs-" Codebuster said but was interrupted by Blue Angel appearing from the other side of Go Onizuka, "You sure put on a fancy show!" she said, "Not you too..." Codebuster got out.

"Quite impressive! But now… turn yourself over!" she said throwing her arm out, "Sorry but I'm not interested in you three!" Playmaker said as he ran at Blue Angel, Codebuster seeing this knew what he about to do, "Hey wait! I just want to-" but it was too late as Playmaker had already logged out, shocking the other two. "-talk to you about something..." Codebuster finished.

He gritted his teeth, annoyed, "Thanks a lot you two!" he yelled at the two other Charisma Duelists, "Codebuster!? What did we do?" Go defended, "I only wanted to talk to the guy about something, all you two did was make him leave quicker!" he said back, getting in Go's personal space, the two bashed heads.

"And to make it worse, he lumped me in with you two, thinking I wanted to Duel him as well..." he added, "Well sorry! I just wanted to Duel, what did you want to talk to him about?" Blue Angel asked.

"None of your business!" he spat as he then logged out…

Café Haru, Third Story…

Having just logged out, Matoyia having been in his computer chair, opened his eyes slowly, then gritted his teeth as the slight pain from his Duel with the knight took affect, "F*ck! That stings..." he swore as he got up, his jacket had been removed from before he went into Link VRAINS.

"Just when I thought I could talk to him about his Deck..." he muttered, gazing at the bottom draw on his desk for some reason, this caused a memory to re-emerge, but he shook his head, not wanting to think of that.

"*sigh* I need a drink..." he said, making his way down stairs, we reaching the bottom stair, Asuka and Aito rushed over to him, "Matoyia! Are you okay!?" Asuka yelled, grabbing him by the shoulders, "Ah! Shoulders! Shoulders!" he warned her, his shoulders flaring up with slight pain.

"Sorry!" she said letting him go, with that he made his way to the refrigarator, opening it to grab a cold drink, which he opened and guzzled its contents down.

"Are you okay?..." Aito asked, "I'm fine…" Matoyia said, not fooling them one bit with his annoyed looked, "What happened?" Asuka asked. "After my Duel, I ran to where Playmaker was Duelling, followed him to where he was after it was over, went to ask him something, then BAM! Go and Blue Angel appear and scare him off..." he said to them.

"Well… it least your alive..." Aito said, "I know… but still I wanted to talk to guy about something..." he said, suddenly his phone rang, it was the Tetris theme, meaning it was someone for Codebuster.

"Hold on..." he said to them as he went to answer, "Hello?" he said with a lower voice, "Codebuster. This is Bishop!" Bishop said on the other side of the call, shocking Matoyia, "Bishop! What are you calling me for, usually you get someone else to call for you..." he said suspicious.

"Normally I would, but after recent events… I've decided to do this personally." Bishop explained, which Matoyia nodded at, it made sense, "Have you been watching Link VRAINS recently?" Bishop asked.

"Well I was just in there for the Scan… speaking of which, why wasn't I told about the Ignis, it would've made my job easier." Matoyia asked, "Sorry, but we were just being safe, after all your technically still an outsider to the company..." Bishop explained.

"Alright… What did want to talk about?" he asked, "First I'd like to thank you for protecting Link VRAINS, we've gotten hold of your gift for us, the Knight that you captured, you'll start getting pay for every knight you bring in from now on..." he said, shocking Matoyia, but then he smiled.

"That's not bad actually.. that money will help them..." he thought looking at the two, who were being quiet for now. "Thank you sir! What else did you want to speak about?" he asked.

"Yes that… Seeing that you were in Link VRAINS when it happened, I'm guessing you know that Playmaker has now acquired the Ignis..." Bishop said, "Yes..." he said slowly, wondering where this was going.

"I'd like to hire you in the capture of the Ignis from Playmaker!" Bishop said, making Matoyia think for a moment.

"Hire me to capture the Ignis from Playmaker..." he thought, "Actually… if I did take this job, and Duelled him, I could maybe get some answers from him..." he added, wanting to ask Playmaker where he got his Cyberse cards from.

"That and I'm guessing the pay will be huge!" he added, "Alright, I except!" he said, "Thank you… I hope to see from you soon!" Bishop said then ended the call.

With that done, Matoyia also put his phone away, "Who was that?" Asuka asked, "You won't believe what I've been hired to do..." he said grinning, he then explained to them who it was and what they wanted.

While he did this, he was currently thinking about what this could do for him, "I can't be that bad right? I mean what's the worse that could happened?" he asked himself.

End of Chapter 1

There we go, the first chapter for the story, sorry its a bit long, but I needed to get some of the it out of the way. Anyways...

OC cards

(Codebuster)

Identity Match

Normal Spell

Target 1 monster you control, and 1 monster in your Hand with the exact same name, Special Summon that monster. When you have this card and two monsters with the same names in your GY: Banish this card and two other cards with the same name, and if you do, Special Summon 2 monsters with the same name from your Deck.

Primal Rage Rex

EARTH [Dinosaur/Link/Effect] ATK/2600 LINK/-3, LMs: ↙⬇↘

3 Dinosaur-Type monsters.

Once per turn, you can Normal Summon 1 Level 7 or lower Dinosaur-Type monster from your Hand without tributes to a Main Monster Zone this card points to in addition to your actual Normal Summon. Once per turn, tribute 1 monster this card points to, activate 1 of the following effects: 1) Target 1 card your opponent controls, destroy it, but if you do, only this card can declare an attack this turn. 2) This card gains 200 ATK x the Level of the tributed monster until the end of the turn.

I noticed that there are no Dinosaur Link Monsters so I made this one…

If you guys are interested, this story, like my other fanfiction, Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC V: A New Swing At Things, will also include OCs that you make.

Here's the info you need to PM me…

Name: (In real life for the story)

Pseudonym: (For within Link VRAINS)

Age: between 16 -22

Gender:

Design: Again for both in Den City and Link VRAINS (Note: You can have more than one set of clothing for the real world... in Den City.)

Personality:

Likes and Dislikes:

Background: Nothing too serious, (I'll tell you if it's too serious)

Occupation: Student at Den City High School or if they are older and have a job, full time or part time if they go to school. Or if they are a Charisma Duelist and what rank.

Deck: Can be actual one or OC or a bit of both: Pendulum Monsters allowed (max 6 but up to 2 per different monster), Extra Deck: Link Monsters (This is recommended due to how the new layout and rules work) and or 2 Extra Deck methods (Fusion, Synchro or Xyz)

Skill: (For Speed Duels...)

Duel Disk for character: (If you read closely you'd realise that Hiroshi has the same type from the ARC V Anime of the Standard Dimension, something I've done to link the story somehow)

Cards not to be used, Decks (or archetypes) used by the current or previous Protagonists, their Rivals or the Antagonists (Minor or Major) I will tell you if you can't or can use a certain Deck when you PM me, just so we can get on the same page.

There will be eight slots for OC's, 4 for the Knights of Hanoi (1 has already been filled by And then the Sky's character) and 4 for whatever you want… (Again, 1 of these has gone already, to I0-Hopeful Hear Dragon)

Another note, you can make minor OCs for family or friends and stuff to go with your main OC, but you can only submit one main OC once, so no making more than 1 main OC.

That's about all that I can think off at the moment, so again if you're interested, PM me with this info for your character. See ya!