Sarah’s clone stood seething as the smoke spread into the sky consisting of brush strokes above the sea. Not too far, Meltlilith paced back and forth, a worried expression would surely have painted her face, if she had one.

“Terrence, our associates are just outside, if we just stall for a bit longer, we-”

“Shut the FUCK up, Melt!” The alien flinched as the second short blonde girl continued her tirade, “I am not fucking weak! I can end this fucking bitch no problem if you weren’t FUCKING nagging every fucking second!”

Standing behind her four shields versus her opponent’s now three, Sarah crossed her arms and watched the meltdown.

“Seriously! What the FUCK does Miranda see in this bitch?! She’s not worth the fucking paper she uses to wipe her shit with! I’ve been her for 30 fucking minutes now and don’t see what the big fucking deal is!”

Melt held her head within her spindly fingers, shaking it as her partner finished his shrieking, “Are you done? Look, just hold on for a second and we-”

“NO!” He continued to shout as a card manifested within his grip, “I’m not going to wait and get saved only to get fired or fucking worse from that bitch!”

Holding a card out, he let it shatter from his outstretched hand, “I know exactly what I’m fucking doing! I’m going to summon Meltlilith, Artificial Justicar!”

Both Sarah and Melt looked at him as a halo of light lit up underneath the ACE creature. With a sigh, the woman in azure stepped onto the battlefield. Alighting her palm and sweeping across her opponent’s creatures, each knelt as their power left them. Between Leilah, Bhuran, Oracle, Storm Silver Compass and the Scrapper Sarah had since the start of the duel, Ripper received five new cards to his hand.

“Thanks for the draws, love!” Despite his wild grin, only one last pearl of light hung around him as summoning Melt took six of them. “I’ll go ahead and pass it back.”

As the card appeared within Sarah’s hand, a loud pop echoed through the space. The painted seafloor they found themselves in fled to their right, similar to a table cloth being yanked clean off the table it decorated, leaving them back in the white void.

“Whew!” A feminine voice sang out, “It’s like they keep tightening the security on these things to stop us from getting in!”

A door of pure light swung in beside Sarah, causing her to jump nearly two feet to the side. Before she knew it, a pink haired person walked into the void followed shortly by a man with the most voluminous afro she had ever seen.

“Aww shit! What da’ fuck are you two doin’ ‘ere?!” The accent coming out of Sarah’s clone felt forced.

Filing into the room behind the two, a Japanese man with a tight black haircut and a tasteful shock of grey above his ears immediately fixed his cold gaze onto the losing contender, “We’re here because you willingly stepped out of line.”

Meltlilith looked between the invaders and her partner, beads of sweat forming on the fleshy bulb she called a head.

“You were told to observe and here you are engaging the target. What excuse do you have this time, Terrence?” The man delivered the indictment with frozen authority. One would have a better chance of finding a drop of water within this interdimensional space than finding a hint of emotion on his face.

“I-” He stuttered, still looking like his opponent, “I… She was the one who challenged me! I was doin’ a great job observin’ ‘er like Miranda said and she just up and challenged me to a duel!”

As the man in the jet black suit turned to look at Sarah for the first time, Jesse ran out from behind and into the void, “Sarah! Sarah, we need to get out of here!”

Jesse threw her arms around the shorter girl and lifted. “This might be our only chance to-!”

Squirming herself free, Sarah landed and quickly scrambled herself onto her feet, “Not yet! I’ve fucking got him on the ropes!” She held the card she drew for the turn, “I’ll cast Beltran Street Special, negating your Starlight Palm!”

Cut by the mysterious blades, the strange fungal tree shrank back down to its size upon its summoning. The effect stopping creatures with under 2 attack points was negated.

“I’ll spend my last 9 play points to call forward my Strike Leader, High Prosecutor, Judgement!”

The base white void remained as the gigantic suit of armor strode onto the battlefield once more.

“Whoa! That’s a big fella!” The pink haired person remarked.

One of the dull lights forming a chain around Sarah popped, it’s remains flew into the blade the massive mechanized monster wielded, “I’ll destroy one of my play points to pop your Meltlilith!”

Upon the declaration, the three intruders sprung into action. The Japanese man vanished into thin air as the other two began to run towards Sarah.

“Terrence…” Melt turned as the suit of armor charged it’s blade, “Please don’t blame yourself.”

Ripper reached out, his disguise fading to reveal a short, bald man. His denim jacket’s sleeves were ripped, letting loose his well built arms which reached out towards his partner, “Melt… You can’t-”

“Don’t forget, my dear…” The beam of light flew towards the alien, “You’ll always be my treasure…”

As the blast connected with the woman, the sharply dressed man appeared beside Sarah. Grabbing her wrist, she lifted her arm. Just as he was about to say something, he screamed, “Ahhh! Shit!”

Sarah hit the ground with a thud, landing on her butt. Turning to the man, she saw Carbuncle hanging off of his other hand. “Okay!” She quickly stood once more, “Sixth Storm Oracle, break his shield!”

The shaman dashed forward, breaking one of the three shields with a strange club.

“Woah baby, slow down for a second!” Dressed in white leather, the 70’s throwback of a man widened his stance as he slowly drew close to the girl he towered over, “Let’s just give eachother a nice handshake and head home!”

Thrown to the ground, Jesse toppled the man jumping utop of him, “Keep going! Finish it!”

With a nod, Sarah pointed to the now revealed Ripper, “Leilah, break another shield!”

Quickly throwing a dagger through the glass pane, only one shield protected the serial killer from losing the World Game. He slumped to his knees, his eyes fixed to where his partner once was.

“Hey! Just hold on!” The pink haired person was the last to surround Sarah. Wearing a pink and black bodice and skirt, they tried to be as imposing as their aesthetics would allow, “If you don’t stop, I’ll- I’ll slap you!”

The strange person began slapping the air in front of them, whiffing each strike, showcasing their strikes in a weird slapping shadow box display.

Biting her lip and clenching her fist, she stepped towards the final obstacle. “Bhuran, down his last shield!”

As the wolf man shot the final pane with a harpoon gun, Sarah strode towards the strange individual. With every step closer, their anxiety grew, their strikes more frequent. “I’m tellin’ ya! I will slap you! You’re not gonna like it!”

Finally nearing striking range, Sarah planned to go for a clean hook across the jaw, a relic of her time spent with her dad’s boxing phase, but seeing their wide stance while wearing a skirt gave her a more devious idea.

“Bring it, bitch!” Dashing forward, she slid under the hand flying towards her face and lifted her leg. With Aubrey’s old sneakers, she found perfect purchase within their groin.

The knees buckled. The air flew out from their lungs. Their voice squeaked as they tried to daintily slap one last time. Dropping onto the cold white ground, their pink hair flared out around the strange individual, cupping what remained of their precious jewels.

“Now, Scrapper…” Sarah turned to face the man left protected by neither his ACE nor his shields. A smile crept to her lips, the taste of victory. “Finish him off!”

Imaishi broke free of the rodent’s bite and dashed towards the soon-to-be victor of the match. Wrapping his arms around her, he held her in a Full Nelson, “Call it off! Call off your attack!”

The lanky man armed with a rusted tool dashed across the field, speeding towards the already defeated man. With a leap, he crashed into the man, throwing them both into a pile rolling across the void.

Sarah had emerged from her second World Game victorious.

With the game over, the white void began to contort and shift. The shields and creatures faded.

Dropping Sarah, Imaishi shouted to the others in the bubble with him, “We need to get out of here NOW!”

Carbuncle, who picked himself up after being thrown by the bitten man, shimmered with an ephemeral green light. “Squeak! Squeak!” A column of energy fired upwards into the space above, emanating from the diamond shaped hole in his head. After a moment, the white void faded from around them, leaving the collective group back in the barren field behind a card shop on the edge of St. Louis, Missouri.

The strange assortment of people looked around, dumbfounded.

“So, uh, is anyone gon’ tell me what happened?” Clyde picked himself up off the ground, dusting off his white leather jacket.

A hint of confusion came and went on Imaishi’s face as he recognized their return. “Looks like we made it back.” He straightened his coat before holding his hand, still sore from the bite from an interdimensional rabbit. For the second time that day, he flashed an emotion, this time shock at the short bald British man who returned with them. “And it looks like more of us made it back than I thought…”

Sarah looked over the rogue’s gallery of strangers who arrived to end her game early. She was already acquainted with the handsy teleporting businessman, and the still floored pink haired crossdresser. She glanced at Jesse who picked up Carbuncle, trying to avoid the eyesight of the groovy looking black man. Looking past Ortelanus, who placed her hands on her hips surveying the eclectic collection of characters as well, Sarah saw probably the worst thing she could have that day.

Rebecca tried to sneak behind the building, however she was too slow to stop her older sister from seeing her.

“Becky!” Sarah immediately took off, “Becky! What are you doing here?!”

The taller girl thought about making a break for it before shaking her mop of blonde hair. Turning to face her sibling, she tried not to look too guilty, “Oh, hey, Sarah.”

Sarah quickly turned to see Ripper on his knees still, making sure one last time that she was actually talking to someone that was not secretly a serial killer. “What the heck are you doing back here? Did you get lost or something?”

For once, Rebecca tried not to cry in front of her older sister, “I’m not lost. I came here with my friends to pick up Ripper.” Looking at the collapsed man, she sighed, “But it looks like I made it a bit too late…”

Sarah blinked.

“What the heck are you talking about? These guys are with-”

“I know. I’m with them working for Miranda too.”

Her heart sank. Both of them tried their best to maintain a straight face.

“But- But, that’s just silly, you don’t have a-”

Rebecca sighed once more, “Cheese and rice, Sarah! Do you think I don’t know anything? I’ve partnered with the Spirit of Rebirth.”

Wait a fucking minute! That’s Freakazoid’s ACE! Sarah looked over her sister once more. Unlike the creature’s previous host, Rebecca actually looked like she could order a coffee without looking like she escaped from an Area 51 lab.

The younger sibling was the first to start walking away, this time towards her associates, “I’m sure you’ve got a thousand questions, but I don’t have all day to play with you, dear sister.”

Sarah reached out, the exhaustion of an entire card tournament, an ACE duel, and now a reveal her beloved younger sister was working for her enemy, finally caught up with her. “Wait, Becky. This is all some big joke, right? You can’t be caught up in all of this too…”

Turning around, Rebecca shrugged, “No jokes. I’ve got to go bring in Ripper since he broke protocol and engaged the enemy on an espionage mission. As Miranda’s right hand, I’ve got a job to do…”

“You’ve changed…” Sarah mumbled, “That fucker is just controlling you! You saw what Freakazoid looked like that one night! Your ACE is just using you like he was him!”

A sphere of light emerged from the side of Rebecca’s head before forming into a strange jellyfish looking entity, floating beside her, “Nothing of the sort. My partner has, frustratingly, resisted my total control. Her rebirth did not take as drastic measures as my previous wielder’s.”

Ortelanus stepped in between the two sisters and interdimensional spirit, “Curious that something as insignificant as you could be as instrumental in this ‘Miranda’s’ plans.” Putting an examininging hand around the ball of light, she chuckled, “Hermes must not be doing too great if he elected a cheap Solarist to his side.”

The Spirit buzzed around angrily, “An unevolved algae eater such as yourself would fail to understand what is required to be victorious in this abhorrent game of ours.”

Clenching her fist around the ethereal being, the Spirit phased out of her pale white grip. “This is going fucking nowhere. Come on Bitch Girl, we need to get out of here before all these Miracle chumps start preaching about their fucking stupid ball of plasma.”

As the glowing jellyfish-like being began to argue back, Rebecca continued her walk towards her cohorts. Sarah’s eyes began to well as her sister never turned back once.

“Come on Sarah, we gotta go.” Jesse joined in alongside her ACE holding Carbuncle.

Sarah’s legs refused to budge. The Japanese man begrudgingly helped up the pink haired individual as the man in the white leather coat restrained Ripper. A portal opened beside the team as a twisted looking Spellbot poked its head from the spatial crack.

As they entered single file, Rebecca looked over at her sister one last time.

“Wait!” Sarah took a step forward, “Rebecca Ann Weatherford, I challenge you to an ACE duel!”

Her sister’s eyes went wide as they darted from the bright yellow ring formed around her index finger to the one who put it there.

“The duel will be a best of three, five shield constructed duel! Date to be determined!” Sarah spit out the conditions as well as she could, her mind still swimming with the events of the day.

Rebecca’s lip quivered as she looked at her older sister. Without a word, she entered the portal.

“Holy shit, I think the suggestion worked a little too well if she’s basically sentencing her sister to death!”

Miranda picked up the freshly filled glass of wine as she meandered around her penthouse suite. With Rebecca in the room, she opted to wear her Dulche and Banana robe, loosely tied around the waist. “I think I accidentally made a monster…”

Rebecca looked out on the last rays of light creeping over the New York skyline. Skimming utop the buildings and landing squarely within their windows, the sunbeams brought a golden tint that immensely brightened up the dark room.

“Hey.” Miranda sauntered over to her friend, lightly flipping up one of the many loose strands of hair that ran free over Rebecca’s scalp, “I wouldn’t worry so much about your sister being wrapped up in the same game of death we’re both in. From where I’m standing, we’re basically on the same team. We’re all trying to end the World Game.”

Finishing the glass in one gulp, she threw up her hands, “And I was only joking about the whole ‘sentencing her sister to death’ thing, Becky! You know I got a plan B if anything goes wrong!”

Rebecca was done for the day.

“What are we going to do about Ripper? He can’t shapeshift anymore.”

Strutting back over to the wine cabinet, Miranda smirked, “True. Normally when we lose someone, it’s the whole kit-and-kaboodle, ACE and wielder. But in the case of the Carbuncle, we have to figure out how to dispose of a liability that knows a little too much about our organization…”

Shaking her head to bring herself back to the conversation, Rebecca fixed her gaze on the black haired woman, “Wait. I thought we were trying to end the World Game to keep as many people alive as possible!”

“Well…” Miranda lounged in her favorite spot by the fireplace, glass now full, “In order to do that, we need to keep our secrets close. We can’t just have a key intelligence officer go around blabbing our secrets if we just let him out on the streets. Besides, see it as finally delivering justice for all the poor souls he killed in cold blood.”

Something did not sound right. “Why deliver this ‘justice’ after he’s no longer of any use to you?!”

Miranda looked up from her perch.

“You alright bro? Why don’t you take the night off and hit the hay early?”

Rebecca looked at the loop of yellow energy that laced around her finger. “Yeah. I think I just need to clear my head a little…”

The droplets fell in sheets against Sarah’s storage closet window. As thunder echoed in the distance, she put the final touches on her newest project. The old laptop she borrowed from Jesse had its share of issues, but she was too far from being a professional in this space for it to matter anyways.

“Squeak?” Carbuncle poked his head up from the tight ball he made beside her.

Eyes burning, she tore herself away from the backlit screen, “I know, I know. I’m going to bed soon, I just want to see how this sounds real quick.”

Hitting the spacebar, the image of her coming into frame appeared on the computer.

“‘Hey guys! This video is for anyone who has picked up a World Game trading card and either heard a weird voice or has fully manifested their ACE creatures. I, Sarah Weatherford, wielder of the Gemless Carbuncle, hereby challenge you to a World Game. Constructed. Best of three. Five shields. The duel will begin upon our mutual agreement when we meet in person.

Give me your location, and I will fly to you personally and kick your fucking ass. If you don’t accept, then I invite you to join me in kicking the asses of shitheads around the world, my treat. You’re looking at the future winner of this whole fucking thing, so it’s your choice how quickly you’re going to get your shit pushed in.’”

Looking away from the script she placed offscreen, she looked around for a few seconds before returning to the webcam once more, “Also Miranda, you’re a fat fucking bitch and everyone hates you. Bye!”

The thunder echoed around them as ‘Buncle looked up to his wielder, skeptical about the idea of challenging the entire world at once.

“Trust me little guy, I’m one hundred percent fucking serious about this.”

“Squeak.”

End of Arc 2