Nexus 006: No Power on Earth
The world looked so strange, quiet. Uno made sure to absorb his surroundings as he was taken to the Circle's hideout. And he made note of how desolate the roads were, there was nothing for miles. Did they get to everyone here already? How long had this been going on? The city they headed into was much the same; not a sign of life anywhere and all power was shut down. The truck drove into an underground parking lot right next to a movie theater. That was their destination. "I don't like it here. It's not safe." From time to time Nephilim showed up to make her feelings clear. There was little Uno could do about it right now. "Were you followed?" Two duelists quickly flanked the trio after they stepped out of the vehicle. "Not as far as we know. But.. we lost Dana." Jet told them, while casting a glare at Uno. "That is unfortunate news. But you made it out with him." The 'guards' inspected the new arrival as well. "Come with us, Vesper is waiting for you."
Further into their 'lair' they went. The whole group was hiding inside the big screen hall of the theater.. "You are.. the Circle?" Or what was left of them. Uno saw a few familiar faces like Akai and ex-minister Cardell. But he expected more than a couple of dozens. "Yeah. We lost many friends already.. Cassius, Boris, Lambert." Emily sighed. "We lost more than that." And at the back of the crowd was the brain behind the operation; Lady Vesper. "We lost our other halves. You took that from us, Lord Nisell." She sat in her wheelchair, on top of the podium, surrounded by machinery and equipment. "Vesper. You don't get to play that card." Uno sighed. "You attacked me, you tried to destroy the pendulum, you tried to force Emily's other half into your group. And you know that Synchronization would never have worked. Either way, I did not take that from all of you." Uno did separate the woman's connection from her counterpart in the other timeline. Yet there were still many like her, last time he checked. "Didn't you? Then why can we not reach them?" Cardell cursed. "What?"
"They say something major took place in the other timeline yesterday that made all these Circle guys desync. I guess. I wouldn't know since I didn't let them synchros-scramble my brain." Akai came forward to explain. "It's true. I can't reach Amelia." Not that she wanted too, but even then Emily's halfway link was broken too. "Yesterday. That must be.. Tempus' doing." Uno concluded. Though he did not yet understand the 'how' and 'why'. "Tempus? You mean.. your deceased father? You expect us to believe.. that he came back?" Vesper scoffed. "It is true. He returned. He took the pendulum crystals from me and from Decembers band, and cast us out. The only reason I am here now is because.." Uno placed his hand on his chest. "Because.." If he was going to tell them about his new crystal, he would also have to tell them about Lavender. "Don't." Her opinion on that matter was clear.
"Cast you out? Like Emily's sister and Eric.. You said Dom and his disciples went somewhere safe.. But what about Adamant?" Jet asked, his tone slanting towards anger. "Adamant.."
"He didn't make it." That was all Uno could say. The entire story was too insane to reveal all at once. "No." Emily gasped. "You say that as if we should care. He was our enemy." Cardell did not sound saddened, neither did many of the other duelists. "He was not! Not anymore. He helped us many times. He saved my life!" Uno would not har such talk. "He began this madness, him and Phoebe. Because of them we have been on the run for days now, Lord Nisell. Do you even know what's been happening here, while you pranced around your own kingdom? Just this day alone, half the country has been reduced to nothing but images of frozen horror. And that is all thanks to the technology you invented! First you damn this world with your pendulum, than you conquer another and make its people suffer with your machines.. If you had let us destroy your crystal, the guild would not even be a threat to us anymore. So tell me, why shouldn't we see you as the enemy too?"
"That's not fair! He didn't know all that! He's someone else now!" Emily shouted. "Emily. That doesn't change what I did. And I do remember.. now." He remembered why he created the templars and why it all went so wrong. "So? I don't care that you're Lord Christopher Nisell or whatever. You, Uno, you're a good guy!" She'd seen evidence of that many times, too many to count. "Milady. There is truth to that. He vouched for the life of my counterpart, when he had no need to." Someone else vouched for Uno too. "You.." It was the bodyguard from the citadel, the one who attacked him a few nights ago. This was her true body. "I never introduced myself, the name is Ruth. And I can see that whatever you may have done, you are not opposing us now. Milady, we did bring him here to become our ally, did we not?" She made a more reasonable point. Though few listened. "We brought him here because Emily wanted it. Look what it got us.. we lost one Dana in exchange for a guy who lost his powers!" Jet, least of all. "There is more to me than just the crystal. Jet."
"Prove it then! Show me what makes you so damn special Or show me why we needed to get your damn cards!" Jet activated his dueldisk and targeted Uno as the opponent. "Jet, what are you doing!? Don't be a dumbass!" Emily started yelling at him. There were others among the synchro duelists like Akai that agreed. "Let him fight. We shall determine his potential without his pendulum crystal." Cardell, Vesper and some of the Circle members took the antagonistic side. "You shouldn't do this, Uno." And Lavender, still acting like the invisible angel on his shoulder, could only warn Uno in her seemingly usual vague manner. "I shouldn't? Why not?" He said to none of them in particular. I have not tested my own limits either. Emily, if I can get the pendulum to awaken.. I may be able to discover where Alice and Eric went. It will be just like the first time." When he first dueled Alice and Eric, his own pendulum crystal granted him more of his former power. Perhaps a duel like this was the key to mastering Lavender/Nephilim's crystal. Perhaps this was worth everyone's time. "Jet, I accept."
Uno's LP: 8000 Jet's LP: 8000
"Then lead the way, Nisell." Jet folded his arms and waited. "Okay." Uno drew his cards. "Odd-Eyes?" Odd-Eyes Pendulum was the very first card that came from his deck. Perhaps the dragon was pleased with Uno, because he returned for it. Or it was just a coincidence. Either way, Uno could not summon it with the pendulums at his disposal. "I set the scale Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon!" Instead he activated his card as a spell (scale 4). "I also set two cards face-down!" One monster and one spell formed his first-turn defense. "During my endphase I can destroy Odd-Eyes to add a new pendulum monster to my hand! I choose Xiangsheng Magician!" The dragon departed for the extra deck, beckoning the female magician of creation to Uno's side. "Xiangsheng? Why not Timegazer?" Emily figured if Uno wanted a scale 8 card, the latter choice would have been preferential. "I .. I can't choose that one. Those cards were my father's.." He tried to recreate Stargazer Magician and Timegazer Magician, to no avail. Only Tempus controlled them now.
"Displaying your decreasing strength. Off to a bad start, Nisell." Vesper cackled. "Hiding wont work no matter what, Uno!" Jet started his turn and activated the continuous spell, Black Whirlwind. Then he normal summoned a tiny Blackwing bird with red and azure feathers, Jetstream the Blue Sky(1/100/800). "You already know, right? Black Whirlwind takes a Blackwing from my deck whenever I normal summon one." The added Blackwing could not be stronger than the summoned one. So for this turn Jet only placed a Gofu the Vague Shadow card in his hand, whose attackpoints were set at zero. "Now, I special summon Blackwing Oroshi the Squall, Harmattan the Dust and Bora the Spear from my hand!" Once he controlled one Blackwing, the pouch-beaked katabatic bird(1/400/600), the dark lancer(4/1700/800) and the sandy curlew bird(2/800/800) were given the chance to special summon itself with their own effects. One of them, Harmattan, used its second effect to take the level of another Blackwing, Oroshi, and add that to itself(3/800/800). "I will show you what strength is! I Synchro summon my Assault Blackwing - Sayo the Rainstorm!"
Oroshi the Squall, the tuner, synchronized with Jetstream the Blue Sky. The two birds flew up towards the ceiling and collided in a flash of sunlight. A masked ninja bird(2/100/800) with sharp talons and red/blue feathers droppeddown in the emptied monsterzone. "Let's see what you were trying to hide, Uno! Oroshi flips your monster!" The Squall bird's second effect, which triggered upon turning into a synchro material, revealed Uno's facedown Handstandaccoon(2/400/600). "Aha. If I destroy that, you bounce one of my monsters." The raccoon possessed an annoying effect which Jet unfortunately discovered too soon. "Too bad!" Jet did not bother with a formal explanation. Sayo the Rain Hider treated itself as a tuner if it was synchro summoned with Blackwings as synchro-materials, which allowed Jet to tune it with Harmattan for a level 5 synchro summon. "I synchro summon Assault Blackwing Sohaya the Rain Storm!" Rain and dust formed one union; one storm. Like a bolt of lightning, Sohaya the longsword-wielding knight bird(5/1500/2000) tore into the field.
"When Sohaya is synchro summoned..." Uno was already looking out for the next move. "Yes Sohaya can special summon an Assault Blackwing from the graveyard!" A circle of lightning opened the graveyard letting Sayo the Rainhider returned to his old spot. Sayo no longer treated itself as a tuner, but Sohaya did. The Rain Storm and Rain Hider shared the ability of becoming tuners when created from blackwing synchro materials. "Synchro summon! Assault Blackwing Raikiri the Rain Shower!" The seventh level stage was set. Sohaya and Sayo were used as synchro materials for the half mechanical purple bird of destruction; Raikiri(7/2600/2000). "I control two Blackwings, so I can destroy two cards with Raikiri's effect! That's all you have, Uno Nisell!" Jet set off the synchro's power. Raikiri filled his sword with thunder and cut through the air like a storm. "Then I will activate one of them first!" Handstandaccoon was destroyed. Uno's set spell also left the field, but only after it was activated. "Hippo Carnival!" The quickplay carnival spell created three hippo tokens(1/0/0) and special summoned them in defense mode.
"Those things again!?" Raikiri could not use its power more than once each turn, so Jet would have to settle for regular attacks. "I guess this is how you fight now, like a coward! Bora, Raikiri.. attack!" Bora the black spear wielder could pierce through defenses, so its kill of the orange hippo dancer cost Uno a chunk of lifepoints. "Ngh.." Raikiri's attack was less costly, costing only the blue hippo token its life. "Well now what, Uno? You can't special summon from the extra deck while you control one of those tokens!" Jet activated a second continuous spell, Supply Squad, which would draw one card once each turn if one of his monsters was destroyed. "If you let him talk, maybe he can tell you, Jet!" Emily was getting tired of hearing him yell all the time. "I wont need to tell him. I can just show him." Uno also felt tired, physically. That was not a good sign, this early in the duel. He tried to make sure they at least didn't notice
Uno's LP: 6300
"I activate Sky Iris! It can get one Odd-Eyes monster from my deck if I destroy one of my cards!" His field spell opened a portal in the sky, a blue eye with a red iris. "I destroy my last token and get Performapal Odd-Eyes Light Phoenix!" The Iris sucked up the yellow hippo dancer and spat out a winged beast monster card. "But it wont be his show!" Uno activated another spell, Performapal Recast. It shuffled the phoenix performapal back into the deck and drew two new cards. "It's here! I set the scale, Xiangsheng Magician!" The blue zone was claimed by the pink/orange dressed archer mage(scale 8). "And I activate another spell card, Duelist Alliance! Because I have a pendulum active as a spell, I can grab a 'Pendulum' spell or trap from the deck." The Alliance spell added 'Pendulum Call' to Uno's hand. "Showtime, Jet!"
Uno activated Pendulum Call; discarding a card (Tuning Magician) from his hand to add two pendulum Magicians (Dragonpulse & Xiangke Magician) to his hand. "Dragonpulse Magician!" The red pendulum zone shot out a beam of light once the red-haired swords-mage (scale 1) stepped into it; completing the scale set. "You control more cards then me, so Xiangsheng's scale stays at 8! Now can you guess the magic word?" Uno pulled two monsters from his extra deck and one from his hand. "It's Pendulum summon!" He special summoned Xiangke Magician(7/2500/500), Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon(7/2500/2000) and Performapal Handstandaccoon. "Next..." Uno inspected his graveyard. "We will see if I can remember my other tricks. I special summon Tuning Magician from my graveyard!" Once, while there were two magicians in both pendulum zones, the little tuner mage(1/0/0) of neon colors was allowed to revive herself. However she would be banished once she left the field, and she also took 400 of her controller's lifepoints away, giving them to a slightly confused Jet. "What are you trying to pull?"
Jet's LP: 8400 Uno's LP: 5900
"Wait.. is that a tuner?" Akai noticed, causing a buzz to break out in the crowd. "it is. I made some new friends in my world. Some of you met him already.." Uno tuned the Tuning Magician with Xiangke Magician. "I synchro summon you, Enlightenment Paladin!" His synchronization took eight stars and filled the room with bright green light. A powerful white knight(8/2500/2000) descended from above, holding two temporal blades in his hands. "The paladin." Ruth moaned when she saw the card that helped beat her. "The paladin can reverse time for one of my spells, if a magician was one of his synchro materials! I take Hippo Carnival back from my graveyard!" With his own hand, Uno reclaimed his token spell. Then he clenched his fist. "Let's battle, Jet! Performapal Handstandaccoon attacks Bora the Spear!" The acrobatic raccoon rolled towards the lancer blackwing on his circus ball. "That little weasel?" Bora popped the ball with its spear and destroyed the raccoon along with it. "For its effect, yes!" Consequently, Raikiri the Rainshower decided to leave the field. "Ugh!" The destroyed Handstandaccoon returned it to Jet's extra deck.
Uno's LP: 4600
"Considering your revival effects, I figured it'd be better to use bouncing effects. Now then!" Uno ordered two more attacks. "Whenever Enlightment Paladin destroys a monster, he also does damage equal to that monsters attackpoints." The paladin cut Bora the Blackwing in half, causing a massive explosion. "Damn it." Jet lost 2500 lifepoints in one move. And.. "Direct attack!" He lost another 2500 lifepoints when Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon attacked him directly. "Pfeh. Is that all?" Yet neither attack phased him much. The attacks were merely visual, they could not harm anyone physically. Jet even gained something out of it, as the destruction of his monsters caused Suypply Squad to 'supply' him with one free draw from the deck. "..I set two cards in my spell/trap zone. And I end my turn."
Jet's LP: 3400
"That's what I thought. Maybe you can create monsters out of thin air, but so can the Guild now. And theirs hurt.. yours are just holograms so far." More angered than before, Jet janked the next card off his deck. "Perhaps he believes he can placate us, with synchronic creations." Vesper added with a scowl. "Fat chance! His cant hold a candle to mine! Now, I special summon Gofu the Vague Shadow!" Gofu was a tiny black bird tuner(5/0/0) wrapped up in chains. It could only be special summoned to a duelist's field without monsters. "Here's my tokens!" Once it was summoned, Gofu would create two vague shadow tokens(1/0/0), shadowy cloudwhisps. "I also normal summon Blackwing Tornado the Reverse!" Briefly a twister terrorized the left monster zone, leaving behind a sleek bird warrior(4/1000/1200) with long wings. "Tornado the Reverse brings back one of my tuners! Blackwing Oroshi the Sqall!" Another tornado awoke, targeting the zone next to the Reverser. It special summoned Oroshi from the graveyard. Meanwhile, in the backrow, Black Whirlwind drew Blackwing Ghibli the Searing Wind from Jet's deck.
"Back to this again." Akai figured they were heading for familiar territories now. "Yes. Again! Until one of us wins! Synchro summon!" Jet tuned Oroshi with Tornado the Reverse, synchro summoning a second Assault Blackwing Sohaya(5/1500/2000) from the graveyard. "Special summon Sayo!" The second Sohaya gave life back to the weakest Assault Blackwing in the graveyard. Now Jet controlled his level 2 nontuner and level 5 synchro-turned tuner. Naturally.. "I Synchro summon, Assault Blackwing Raikiri!" He synchronized both Sayo and Sohaya to resummon Raikiri the Rainshower(7/2600/2000). "Now, Uno, the other power of Sohaya turned available as soon as as the second left the field! I can banish one Sohaya from the graveyard to special summon the other!" The Rain Storm Assaulter performed his last special technique, consuming its brothers body to put himself back on the field. "I control three Blackwings, so Raikiri destroys three of your cards! Your monsters and your face-down!" For the second time, Raikiri unleashed its electrically charged sword upon Uno's army.
"I activate Hippo Carnival!" For the second time Uno made the spell summon three tokens(1/0/0) before it got destroyed. "Heh. No you don't. You won't hide from this again." Jet placed his fingers on Raikiri and Sohaya. "Raikiri can also treat itself as a tuner, if its synchro materials were blackwings. I tune Raikiri and Sohaya to synchro summon Assault Blackwing Onimaru the Divine Thunder!" An earsplitting bolt of thunder filled the room. "Gah! Contol your volume, Jet!" While holograms werent solid, they could still make a powerful ruckus. "Level 12?" Even Uno needed to admit that he did not think Jet would take it that high. Onimaru was the ultimate Assault blackwing; a god of thunder(12/3000/2000) in cybernetic bird form. "There's more! You didn't forget about Gofu, did you? Once I banish him and his two tokens, I'll revive a Blackwing synchro with the same level as those three monsters together!"
"Raikiri!?" There was only one choice, much to Uno's horror. "Yes!" Jet let Gofu and the tokens die in a fierce series of tornadoes. The storm then was vaporized by a crack of lightning, and Raikiri returned to the skies of the living. "Raikiri! Destroy his three tokens!" The Rainshower's power was reset once it temporarily abandoned the field, meaning it could again destroy as many cards as there were Blackwings on the field. Two of the tokens were shattered by the destructive effect. The third was slain by Raikiri's attack. Jet saved Uno for the Divine Blackwing. "Is this it, Uno!? Onimaru cannot be destroyed by card effects! And if his synchro materials were all synchro monsters, his attackpoints will double during his attacks!" Onimaru absorbed the ambient energy left behind by the Rainshower and Rainstorm, adding 3000 attackpoints to his(6000/2000) own sword. "He is going to finish your lifepoints if you dont stop me! So is this all you could do?" Onimaru raised his lightning-shaped blade. And Uno.. said nothing. "Ha! I guess your experiment failed! Lord Uno Nisell!"
(To be Continued in Nexus 007: Around in Vicious Circles)
New Cards used by Uno Nisell
Performapal Handstandaccoon
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Duelist Alliance
New Cards used by Jet Darrow
Blackwing - Jetstream the Blue Sky
Blackwing - Gofu the Vague Shadow
Blackwing - Tornado the Reverse
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Assault Blackwing - Sayo the Rain Hider
Assault Blackwing - Sohaya the Rain Storm
Assault Blackwing - Onimaru the Divine Thunder
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Supply Squad
