Leaderboard

And do not grumble, as some of them did -- and were killed by the destroying angel. -1 Corinthians 10:10 (NIV) Melissa eyed Fen’s cards with the same suspicion that Fiona did, but at least Melissa didn’t swear about it. For one thing, Fen had mostly managed her board state better than Melissa had. But she still had to do something. As she drew her card, she realized she could do a few things, actually. “Okay, I’ll set a monster here, and then activate this Sol and Luna we know about. It’ll flip my monster face-up and your Goblin Attack Force face-down again. I think I misspoke last time, sorry, um, my Magician of Faith should have been in Defense position before, but you played Final Attack Orders, so it all worked out in the end. This time, though, it’s this little guy.” She flipped the card over to reveal a Skelengel, whose Attack was boosted just as her Magician’s was by Terrors in the Hidden City. “And he has an effect that lets me draw a card, too.” She dutifully obeyed the clause of Final Attack orders before drawing her card. Before she could do anything else, though, Fiona jumped in. “You can have your card, but there’s no way I’m letting you keep that monster,” she said. “By discarding this cute little monster, I can destroy your… angel.” Fiona showed both Melissa and Fen her Ghost Ogre and Snow Rabbit, and it was Melissa’s turn to stare. She knew about hand traps, of course, but how many people actually played with them? It simply wasn’t done. Well, except for Kuriboh, of course, but that was a special case. Still, she dutifully put her Skelengel in her Graveyard and went back to staring at her hand. Without a normal summon, things just got a whole lot trickier. All of a sudden, Melissa felt extremely vulnerable. “I’ll set some more spells and traps, then,” she said. “Two of them. I guess that’s it for me.” Fiona smiled, “Alright, draw-” “Oh, but I do have an effect in your Standby Phase,” Melissa quickly jumped back in. “One of these face-downs is Acid Trap Hole, so we flip over your monster, and if its Defense is 2000 or less, we destroy it. Goblin Attack Force’s Defense is, uh, it’s zero, right?” Gone was the smile. “Almost poetic,” Fiona grumbled. Melissa didn’t know what that meant, but she nodded along all the same. “Sorry, um, you can continue with your turn now.” Fiona looked back at Melissa’s empty board and that wide smile came back. “I’ll summon a second Self-Destruct Ant,” she said. “And I’ll play this Gaia Power, raising its attack to 2000.” Melissa double-checked her Life Points. “Ah,” she whispered to herself. Fiona was coming after her after all, and in a way that technically kept her hostage in the game for as long as Fiona wanted. “Wait a second,” She reread Gaia Power and checked Fen’s board again. “Oh look, Fen, it affects your Nettles, too. It’s all the way up to 2200 Attack now.” Of course, Fiona wasn’t attacking the 2200 Attack Nettels. “I’ll attack Melissa directly,” she said. “Okay,” Melissa said. “But, um, the other Trap card I prepared was Waboku.” She revealed her other card, featuring maidens who some bully would have probably called Melissa’s long-lost sisters if Melissa ever frequented a public area where a bully might be present. They briefly materialized on the board with a heavenly song before disappearing, taking what remained of Fiona's battle phase with them. Fiona’s eyes just narrowed. “Wow. I guess that’s all then. I end my turn.” It wasn’t perfect, Melissa thought, but she was still in the game. It felt like they were on the cusp of, well, the cusp of something, at least. It was still possible that Fiona would just slam the door on both of them. Either way, Melissa still found herself enjoying it all, and she awaited the next few turns with bated breath.

After a friendly chat and interrogation with Hellhound, Sibyl made her way over to the main meeting place where everyone was chatting about what to do next. While Sibyl was wondering once more why she was here at this round table discussion, not usually enjoying the nitty gritty of treaty talk and diplomacy between the various factions, she perked up at the idea of having to deal with an S-Class. Sibyl always had a passing interest in Caesar, after all he was also a gang boss and had a host of interesting people around him, the fact that he escalated to this status made her all the more interested. She didn't really know if he was actually any more threatening then before or if they just decided he was a threat that needed dealing with now. Not that the specifics mattered, the idea of a full out war with another gang war was enticing enough to her as it was. However, the discussions about what to do to fight them seemed to not come to an immediate conclusion. Lachesis frowned. "Even putting aside the logistical issues -- and don't say you'll just do it yourself, Aeon -- the public wiki's got enough hearsay and best-guesses on it, there'd be no way to be sure everyone tagged on there really has a Gibbons affiliation," she said. "The moment you're wrong about that kind of stuff, the whole operation's a failure. And putting aside all of that as well, it's just the same plan again, but you say you're targeting the people directly instead of their houses, and we already said we're not doing that." "'We' meaning you," Victor said. "And my sisters, at the very least." Lachesis gestured to Clotho and Atropos, who both waved. "Don't people normally have to pay you to get your protection? Isn't that your whole racket?" "I like the isolation idea," Stanley said, desperate to smooth over the brewing argument. "Caesar's power does require other people around him. I don't think Legion will be going anywhere, but Hellhound's capture demonstrates a willingness to deploy his other higher-ups. If we spread out and start enough conflicts at once, we could draw those out. That has its own logistical problems, of course, and still doesn't answer the main problem of how we find Caesar after that, but it's a start." "Well, just beating up random people isn't really my style anyway," Sibyl spoke up as if that mattered to the whole crowd. "Random violence is pointless, but I guess it's better than putting out a government notice to use that as an excuse to beat people up and burn down their homes or something." The girl chuckled to herself saying, "Lach is right, you don't know how these people think. The plan lacks both soul and a way to make people care, right? No one's gonna care if some stuffy suit comes in saying "hey get out or get killed," or something. So, when you need a lot of misanthropes to go where you want there's only one thing to do." The girl gave a bit of a pause, as if to add for some dramatic flair. "An event! You gotta speak to them in a way they know and a party, an exhibition, a show case, a street brawl, a riot anything like that. You're only gonna get people out of their homes if you give them something fun to look at, and when you do, that's when the sanctioned violence happens."