If the JFK assassination is the most widely-spread conspiracy theory in America, the 9/11 terrorist attacks are a close second. There are almost as many theories about that as there are about Israel (and the two aren't always mutually exclusive sadly). This would take too long to explain in one entry, so I'll explain the "how" in this one and the "why" later.
"Truthers" as they're called, often claim – to give a very abridged version – that the Twin Towers were not destroyed by a collision with hijacked airliners, but done so by explosives planted in the buildings themselves, along with thermite charges in their support beams. In most stories, the evil organization behind it broke in the night before, cracked open the walls, planted the explosives, rebuilt the walls, and then covered their tracks well enough to avoid being seen, all in a single night. The planes, meanwhile, were remote controlled.
Now, Truthers also claim the Pentagon, the other target, was hit by a cruise missile, not an airliner. They point to the lack of debris at the crash site and say that the hole made in the side of the building was too small to have been made by an airplane.
It seems unlikely that any group of saboteurs could pull this off (and actually, the hole was exactly the right size), but they think it makes more sense that two planes being strong enough to knock two skyscrapers down.
In short, that's the only "proof" Truthers have, that the reported cause of 9/11 is impossible because a skyscraper would not have collapsed if hit by an airliner; they believe such a huge structure of steel and concrete could have withstood it. These people are scientifically ignorant and know very little about engineering and architecture, or they site "evidence" or the "sabotage" that does not exist.
Here's the actual truth, as far as scientific fact is concerned. First, fire softens steel asymmetrically, which causes the beams to buckle and bend, dramatically reducing structural integrity as a result. In fact, a sufficiently large fire would actually cause less buckling, which would make it less likely for the Tower to collapse had the fire actually been larger. Two, this is the first and only time a steel skyscraper has been allowed to burn internally for that long without any water or, indeed, any attempt to control the fire whatsoever. The water pressure to the area had been cut off due to the actual damage to the buildings, preventing the internal sprinklers from mitigating heat build-up on the inside of the building and preventing fire-fighters from fighting the fire.
Still… They won't admit they were wrong. The reason is, they believe the plot of deception that they accused the government of had evil motives, which I'll get to in my next entry.
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CHAPTER THREE
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Big Shot
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It was five PM, Mountain Time. The dinner hour was just starting in Lucky's Burger and Brew, a popular restaurant in Roswell.
Most restaurants had a strict "no dogs allowed" policy. This place, where the décor was obviously designed by a dog-lover, encouraged you to bring such pets. Not only would they let Man's Best Friend in with you, they'd feed him.
Of course, the place did sell human-food, and it had some rather well known entrees among the standard burgers, fries, and hot wings. The fried pickles were a big draw, along with the specialty burgers, such as the Russian Wolf Hound (sauerkraut, melted Swiss, and Thousand Island) the Poodle Chaser (melted brie, caramelized onions and Dijon mustard), and the very popular Undertaker (Applewood smoked bacon, two slices of American cheese, a fried egg, fried onion straws, and mayonnaise; it was probably best to skip lunch if you wanted to order one).
Still, it was hard for Edgar and Maddie to concentrate. They had moved Yolanda to the hospital wing at Shadowchaser Headquarters, but a call to them a half-hour ago didn't report anything new. She was still unconscious.
Edgar nonchalantly read through the menu slowly.
"They must buy their napkins in bulk here…" he muttered. "I didn't even know there were this many kinds of hollandaise sauce…"
"So… You don't suppose there was an off-chance she was telling the truth?" asked Maddie. "I mean, who knows? With all the stuff we've seen, maybe Little Grey Aliens have come here."
"I'm certainly not a skeptic, Maddie," said Edgar, as he put the menu down. "I've seen goblins, dark elves, death priestesses, zombies… I've seen dark elf death priestesses commanding mobs of goblin zombies, even…
"I've fought an erinyes temptress from Hell, outwitted another, and I think I might have dated another… Fought in the Hall of the Vanquished both as a prisoner of the place and a second time because I was invited…
"Basically, I've seen pretty much everything Shadowkind has to offer, and while I admit I'm open minded, I've never seen any Little Alien Greys."
"You told me once that your mentor, the Shadowkind wildlife expert, said the very idea of a lycanthrope who turned into an animal that wasn't at least partially carnivorous was absurd," said Maddie, with a mischievous smirk. "There was the case of that were-gorilla they found in Niger…"
"Okay, point taken…" sighed Edgar, "although that guy was special, he was… under a rather odd ancestral curse. The point is, Maddie, the Shadowchasers just don't have anything on file about Little Aliens Greys. And think about it… If aliens were going to come to Earth and talk to a human, why would they choose someone like Yolanda and ask, of all things, to paint her portrait?"
"Yeah, I see what you mean…" sighed Maddie. "Not exactly the purpose of an interplanetary mission. You know, my brother once told me that if aliens had visited us, the reason they've never revealed themselves might be because they have one of those… What's it called? They had one on Star Trek…"
"Prime directive?" asked Edgar. "Well, if that's the case, they're much better at following it than they were on the show, that's for sure."
They laughed for a minute, and then they were cut off…
"Edgar McDonald!" shouted a voice.
Edgar and Maddie stood up as the front door to the restaurant was literally kicked open. Everyone stood up, as a muscular young man who was about Maddie's age stormed in.
This was hard to believe. He was another fire genasi, with the same bronze skin and fiery hair. He had strong Latino features, and was wearing a pair of jeans and a tank top that suggested he had been exercising. Heavily, from the look of it, and a duffle bag slung over his shoulder with the Nike insignia supported it further.
What it the… thought Edgar.
"Ramón, I told you never to come in here again!" said a waitress at the door.
"And like I told you, Flo," he replied, "I don't give a damn."
Then she shrieked as he made a backhand slap, knocking her aside, and then stormed towards Edgar. However, Edgar was more than ready for him.
"Stop right there, fellah," he said, "or you're going to find out what happens when you try that to someone who hits back."
"Where's my mother, you freak?" threatened the genasi.
He had been exercising, all right. And he hadn't showered before coming here, if the odor about him was any indication.
"Lower your voice!" demanded Edgar. "If you mean Yolanda, I think she would benefit more at this point if you looked into finding a lawyer. And maybe a psychiatrist too, she's kind of…"
"Crazy?" he interrupted. "You want to step a little closer and say that?"
Edgar shook her head as he covered his eyes with his hand. He realized everyone in the place was watching, and he knew that the guy probably wouldn't like it if he took him up on that…
"Come on, big guy, think you're tough?" asked the younger man. "I should warn you, I was able to knock out a hill giant once…"
"Please!" laughed Maddie. "I've seen Edgar knock out a fire giant."
The guy stopped. He looked at Edgar.
"Uh… In all honesty, he was pretty drunk at the time…" said Edgar.
"I'm not asking you two," said the genasi, slowly backing up. "Mom and I are very close, and one way or another…"
He looked to his side, where a woman was holding a small and very frightened corgi.
Then he grabbed the dog and shoved her as she screamed.
"HEY!" shouted Edgar.
The genasi lifted his free hand. The dog yelped as a fireball formed in his palm.
"Why don't we take this outside, big guy?" said the genasi.
"Okay, this is way past the fine line!" shouted Maddie. "You want to fight, mister, uh… Ramón, was it? I'm game…"
She lifted her fists.
"Please, I don't fight girls…" he said.
Maddie laughed a little at this.
"Oh, chivalry, huh?" she asked. "You've already hit a lady twice in the past ten minutes, and it seems that you have no problem hurting defenseless animals either."
Meanwhile, Edgar was helping the waitress stand up.
"You okay?" he asked.
"I'll be fine…" she said. "Maybe we should call the…"
Edgar opened his coat slightly, flashing a badge-like object as he did.
"We can handle it…" he said. "Just calm down…"
It wasn't an actual badge, but one with a weak enchantment that usually satisfied any Mundanes who wanted to see one. They had already called in a favor after the incident at the museum, and the last thing they wanted to do now was cause a scene and need another one.
Meanwhile, Maddie was, indeed, handling it.
"And you only took that hostage when I told you that the giant Edgar knocked out trumped yours in terms of strength. Why don't you tell everyone here the truth? You only have a problem hitting girls if you're sure they can hit back and make a fool out you."
Ramón stopped and looked around at everyone. Maddie looked at the duffle bag.
"You got one of these in there?" she asked, pointing to her Duel Disk. "Why don't I meet you halfway and you let the poor dog go?"
"Why?" asked Ramón.
"Well, first of all," said Edgar, "trespassing, since you refused to leave when you were told to by the restaurant staff, then assault and battery, cruelty to animals, and well, I'm not exactly sure how to define charging into a restaurant and threatening everyone in it, but I'm sure it's a crime. Right now, I'm very close to giving you what you came in here to get, in which case you'll be in much more trouble than your mom is…"
Ramón stopped for a minute. Edgar looked at him hard.
"You came here because you wanted to defend her honor, right?" he asked. "Didn't she teach you anything when you were growing up?"
Ramón slowly put the dog down, and it ran to its master with a frightened bark. Then he unzipped the duffel bag, and took two steps backwards.
"Very well…" he said.
Everyone stepped away as Maddie turned towards him. The D-Gazers activated, forming the VR link, and they drew.
(Maddie: 8,000) - - - - - - - - - - (Ramón: 8,000)
"You sure you want to do this, kid?" he asked.
"I'm twenty-four years old!" shouted Maddie. "Now are you gonna move, or do you want an engraved invitation!"
Ramón drew a card, and as he played one, a sound of a bell came over the restaurant like that of a…
…boxing bell? thought Maddie.
Then she turned and saw the monster he had summoned, which was indeed, a boxer. A hulking one, about six-foot-four, with green skin, white shorts, and black gloves. He wore a full-face mask (she assumed) made of black material with red eyes and a white bridge where the mouth and nose would be. (2,000 ATK)
"So, what do you think of Battlin' Boxer Glassjaw?" he asked.
"Yeah, I'm… Sure there was absolutely no reason his name is 'Glassjaw'," said Maddie.
Truthfully, while she knew what it meant when a boxer has a glass jaw (it meant he couldn't take it, even if he could dish it out, more or less) she was more nervous about this guy and Ramón than she was letting on.
"I have one Battlin' Boxer on the field," said Ramón, and while boxing isn't exactly a team sport, you can't spar by yourself, so I can Special Summon Battlin' Boxer Sparrer."
There was a loud grunt, and another boxer appeared, smaller than Glassjaw, wearing a silver, padded suit, a helmet that covered his entire face that was vaguely cubical and made of some sort of plastic, yellow gloves, and red forearm pads. (1,200 ATK)
"Your move…" he said, smugly.
"So who is this guy?" asked Edgar, turning to the waitress.
"Well… he and his mother moved here two years ago," said the waitress. "For about a year they were no problem… She was just a massage therapist and he… he was an instructor at the gym. He was actually coaching pee-wee football, for heaven's sake!
"Then… Something with them changed… Something really weird."
Maddie drew her sixth card, and then her hand hovered over them for a minute before she picked one.
"I use the Spell Card, Take Over Five," she said, as she played it. "I'll send the top three cards from my deck to the grave…"
She discarded the cards – Skull Servant, The Tricky, Mokey-Mokey, Mystical Space Typhoon, and Stray Lambs. Then she took two more of her cards.
"I'll set some more cards," she said, placing them, causing one reversed card to appear in her Spell Zone and one behind it. "…and then it's your move…"
"Watch this, people!" laughed Ramón. "This is the good part! First I draw…"
He pulled a card from his deck.
"Then Sparrer attacks! Get it!"
The boxer shifted his feet, then made a right hook towards the set card. A young woman in a pink dress and… a bonnet with blonde hair in ringlets shrieked before the blow hit her and she shattered.
"Well that was unusual…" he said. "Eh… Now to show you how a jab works! Glassjaw, attack directly!"
What happened was hard to watch. The punch from the Warrior that hit Maddie directly in the midriff was so fierce that almost everyone watching it (those who were, a few forced themselves to look away) had the breath drawn from their mouths, and some could actually feel part of the strike. The woman holding the dog Maddie had saved let out a small squeak as she watched with complete horror…
The only one who was unfazed was Edgar, who was watching with his arms crossed over his chest…
(M: 6,000) - - - - - - - - - - (R: 8,000)
The whole restaurant was in complete silence. Maddie was bent over double, holding her stomach with her free hand…
"How's that?" laughed Ramón. "Your move, princess…"
Then a Spell Card on her side of the field appeared out of nowhere as Maddie slowly looked up, with perspiration pouring down her forehead…
"What? Scapegoat?" shouted Ramón.
Four puffy, cute sheep floated out of the card, orange, blue, pink, and red. (0 DEF x4)
"How…" he said.
"Remember that monster I had?" she asked. "You activated Pink Shepard's flip effect, but it doesn't come into play until now… I was able to take a Scapegoat from my deck and activate it at the End Phase…"
She coughed a little, and then discarded the Spell.
"Something screwy is going on," he said, "but… You can go…"
"Oh, I will…" said Maddie.
She stood up straight, held her stomach for a minute, and then drew a card.
"First, I'll use the effect of Take Over Five, and banish it to draw a second time…"
She drew once; then, the other set card stood on end, then turned 180.
"I'm using the Nightmare Archfiends Trap Card," she said. "I'll sacrifice one small Token, then send three big ones to your side of the field."
"Say what?" he asked.
One Sheep Token disappeared in a rainbow orb of colors, and then three gaunt, skeletal ghosts with long claws and long, white hair resembling fright wigs flew out of the card with loud cackles. Then flew around Ramón and his two pugilists, one of them laughing horribly in his face before positioning themselves beside the Battlin' Boxers. (2,000 ATK x3)
"What's the point?" he asked.
"This," replied Maddie. "I summon Parasitic Ticky."
She played a new card, and a tall, thin, and a… rather disgusting-looking cross between a tick and a human, appeared, with a quarrel full of iron spears on its back.
"I tell ya, babe, you are much better looking than your monsters…" he said. "A tick? Not sure he'd be very welcome in a place like this…"
Maddie looked at him. Then she "got" the joke quickly.
Yeah, right… she thought. Dogs wouldn't exactly be fans, I suppose…
"This monster's Attack Score is 500 times the number of Tokens on the field," she said. "There are six of them, so…"
(3,000 ATK)
"Let see how tough Glassjaw really is! Gouging Hell Siphon!"
The large insect hurled the javelin it was holding, trailing a strand of fibrous material behind it and impaling Glassjaw through the chest. He fell backwards, shattering when he was halfway to the floor.
(M: 6,000) - - - - - - - - - - (R: 8,000)
"She's certainly… exuberant," said the waitress.
"She always is," replied Edgar.
Still, he thought, if there's one thing that motivates her, it would be people like this…
He looked over at the corgi. It was still whimpering softly as its owner was petting it softly.
Some people think that picking on smaller, weaker creatures impresses people. Well, they don't get respect that way. It might make them feared for a while, but it also makes them hated. And as soon as someone stands up to this sort of person and knocks him down, the attitude towards them goes from fear and hatred to disgust and hatred, as folks wonder just why they were so scared.
"Well, now you know why he's called Glassjaw," said Ramon. "He may have 2,000 Attack Points, but if he's attacked by a monster with even one Attack Point, he hits the mat. Fortunately, neither player takes any damage when that happens, so my Life Points are untouched."
"I'm setting one more card face-down…" said Maddie.
The two set cards formed behind the three Sheep.
"And then… I'm moving these three guys to Attack Mode…"
The three Sheep woke up, opening their eyes. (0 ATK x3)
"Your move, handsome…" said Maddie, smiling sweetly.
"I… see…" said Ramón.
He drew a card, then covered the lower part of his face with his cards.
Sure, sure, couldn't possibly be leading me into something right? he thought.
He looked at the three Nightmare Archfiends, and then shook his head. He had a Rank 6 monster he was dying to try…
If I could use them to summon it, I could pound her into the ground so hard they'd have to use the Jaws of Life to pick her up, he thought. But I can't Xyz summon using tokens… Uh…
"I'm moving my monsters to Defense Mode, beautiful," he said.
Sparrer lifted his gloves in a parrying stance (1,400 DEF) and the three Fiends curled up into sitting positions. (2,000 DEF)
"Then I'll just set a monster and end," he continued, as a reversed monster appeared. "How dumb do you think I am?"
"I really don't think you want me to answer that question…" replied Maddie.
She drew, then tapped three spaces on her Disk, causing the three Sheep to retreat back into Defense Mode. The Ticky threw the javelin again, skewering Sparrer.
"Look, seriously, Ramón, I get that you're trying to stand up for your mother, but… Understand, she's…"
"What, insane?" he asked, interrupting. "She's a loon? A nutcase? A fruitcake? Basket case? Whack job?"
"Uh, one way to put it…" replied Maddie.
He clenched his fist and looked away.
"I get that a lot…" he said, somberly. "Ever since her and my dad, well… He and I, uhm…"
Maddie looked at him closely. Did she hit a nerve?
"I take it they aren't married?" she asked.
"Their relationship was…" he muttered. "Uhm… Complicated…"
"It turned bad?" asked Maddie, her voice calming a little. "He cheated on her? Left you two? Is he some sort of deadbeat? Was it all some one-night stand?"
"Well, sort," replied Ramón. "I guess technically, he kidnapped her…"
"Huh?" said Maddie, in surprise.
"…and he didn't visit as often as we would have liked…" he added. "A couple years ago, he stopped altogether…"
As strange as the first comment was, the second was even stranger. Maddie had heard about Stockholm syndrome before, how a kidnap victim befriended or even fell in love with her abductor… But… it wasn't as common as some would believe.
"Uh… I'm just gonna set this and end…" said Maddie, quickly, rather anxious to change the subject now.
She flipped a card into her Disk, and a new card appeared in her Spell Zone.
"You know…" said the waitress, "come to think of it, he never mentioned his father at all… It's just something that's never come up…"
"Any time you want to call this off and talk about it, that's fine with…" started Maddie.
"Ah, cram it!" he shouted as he made a draw.
"I've always felt that actions speak louder than words! I'll summon Battlin' Boxer Headgeared!"
The boxer that appeared this time looked a lot grimmer, with metallic, grey skin, red gloves and boots, black trouser which appeared metallic, and as his name suggested, a red, padded boxing headgear. (1,000 ATK)
"I can use him to send a Battlin' Boxer from my deck to my Graveyard… like Battlin' Boxer Counterpunch here…"
He took the card and ditched it, as Maddie watched suspiciously.
"I'll move these guys to Attack Mode too…" he said, as the Archfiend Tokens leapt to their feet and bore their claws. "Then they'll attack those Sheep. Chow time!"
The three demons hissed, and flew across the field, tearing their claws into the three Sheep Tokens and tearing them apart.
I don't get it… thought Maddie.
She looked at Ticky, which had been reduced to a Score of 1,500 with those Tokens gone.
How does he plan to…
"Headgeared, wallop that tick!" shouted Ramón, as the pugilist put up his dukes, "and with Counterpunch in my Graveyard, I can banish him to give this punch some extra kick!
"Uh, not literally, of course… That would be an intentional foul…"
Headgeared snarled, and made a charging jab at the Insect, socking it on the jaw as his Attack Score rose to 2,000…
"I'll give it more kick yet," he said, "with the Spell Card, Flaming Knockout!"
Ticky staggered under Headgeared's left, but his right was even worse. The fiery punch blew it to residue, and Maddie felt it, hard…
(M: 4,000) - - - - - - - - - - (R: 8,000)
Ow… she said, holding her jaw.
"Well, at least you've lasted longer than McNeely did against Tyson, so I guess that's something," he said.
"What…" started the waitress.
"You'd be too young to remember…" sighed Edgar.
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Several hundred miles to the north and east, in Montreal, it was bitter cold. A lone female figure in a handmade wool coat hurried down Saint Jacques Street towards her destination. She pulled back her hood when she got there, revealing a lovely face with pointed ears, much like Philips, only more pronounced. She was a full elf. And she felt very out of place.
Red Feather sighed as she walked into the old restaurant. She didn't like eating in public, or even spending time in large cities at all. Nor did she like being around other people in general. Folks who knew about her technophobic reputation thought she didn't know how much had been written about her online… And how many "deviations" were done in her "honor" on deviantART.
Well, other Shadowchasers knew about them all, and sometimes, even second-hand descriptions told too much.
Still, she was beautiful, even if she was turned off by the fanboys with their silly fantasies. Her silky, raven hair and wild-looking hazel eyes stood out against her woven tunic decorated with a multitude of feathers.
She had almost regretted accepting this invitation… Their last meeting had nearly led them both to a horrid doom…
"Over here!"
Red Feather turned and saw Penelope standing by a table in the corner, waving and smiling sweetly.
"Sorry I was late," said Red, softly, walking to the table, which had been strategically located in the far corner of the place. A smell of hot tea with sarsaparilla and specially cultivated elven mint herbs came from a teapot at the side.
"It's okay," said the half-elf. She poured the tea and the delicious smell became stronger.
"It's not like I had anything better to do. Ike can probably cover if an emergency comes up. I just wanted to talk. It's been a while since we worked together…"
"Worked together?" asked Red, with a small grin. "You say that as if we had a choice. But… I guess that was probably the first time I ever actually worked with a partner. I guess you've been thinking there's a lot you don't know about Red Feather…"
"Uh, to be honest, Red…" answered Penelope, "I don't know anything about you."
"Oh…" said Red.
She sipped her tea slowly.
"Well, where to start…"
They looked at each other for a tense few minutes.
"Red, uh…" asked Penelope. "What is it like? To suddenly find yourself on Earth, being pulled here by… Whatever does it?"
Red took little sips and then looked into the cup for a few seconds.
"You never asked your dad?" she asked.
"He just said that it's 'hard to describe'," replied Penelope.
Red put the cup down, nodding.
"Imagine…" she said. "You're waking up with words in your head that you don't recognize. You talk and you don't understand your own words. Eventually, they become clear, and you understand them… but the real surprise comes when you look in a mirror…"
She motioned to her pointed elf-ears.
"…when you notice you aren't the same as everyone else, and it's a shock. It takes a while for you to realize what you are and what happened. In my case, all I could do was hide in a corner and cry like a little girl until someone realized I had 'just come through', so to speak, and offered to help."
Penelope nodded.
"Jalal once mentioned a rather despicable Turkish noble in the 15th Century," she said slowly. "He realized how confused new arrivals were, and organized a squad of soldiers to hunt for them.
"Turned out to be a pretty bad idea, actually. When his Shadowkind slave market was discovered, every single Shadowkind clan in the Ottoman Empire was ready to call a truce and more than willing to burn Constantinople to the ground to get him if they had to. That was one of the few times elves and orcs ever agreed on anything. And you don't even want to know what happened to this guy when the sultan found out.
"But since then, Jalal has made sure that anyone who tries something like that again will regret it.
"Still… It can be hard to think about a Shadowkind émigré, and what might go through his or her head. They never know just what they left behind back in the Homeworld of Shadow. They never know if they had loved ones back home… Wondering what happened, wondering if…"
"No-one is mourning for me, Penelope," said Red with a sigh.
Penelope looked at her.
"Trust me," said Red, "if someone, somewhere was crying over a lost daughter, or sister, or betrothed, and it was me… I'd know about it. I'd feel it in my gut."
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"Ugh…" said Maddie.
"And… Yoink!" laughed Ramón.
He punctuated the remark with two cards in his Disk, which appeared behind his monsters.
"Turn over…" he chortled, "so Counterpunch's effect is over too, so I guess this is the end of round one…"
The bell dinged again, and Headgeared relaxed a little. (1,000 ATK)
Okay, here we go… thought Maddie.
She drew, and the bell rang again. Headgeared put his dukes up again, but then, one of her Trap Cards lifted up.
"I'm using the Remove Brainwashing card," she said, "and that means I get to take those three Tokens back!"
"HUH?" said Ramón.
He shuddered a little as the three Fiends flew back to his opponent's side of the field, then looked at him and giggled.
"The workout's over," said Maddie, who was smiling even less pleasantly.
The other Trap lifted.
"This is called Token Stampede, and its effect is rather… Dramatic…"
(3,000 ATK x3)
"Three monsters with 3,000 Attack Points?" he shouted.
"AND they can't be destroyed in battle," she replied. "So let's see him bob and weave past this!"
The first Archfiend flew at Headgeared with a scream. The Boxer did raise his hands in a defensive block, and Ramón's Quickplay Spell lifted up.
"I use Burial from a Different Dimension!" he screamed. "I'll send Counterpunch back to my Graveyard, so I can banish him a second time!"
He fumbled with the card, but managed to discard it, and then Headgeared rose to an Attack Score of 2,000, grunting loudly as the first Fiend slammed into him.
He was intact, but breathing very hard.
"And Headgeared's own effect prevents him from being destroyed once a turn…"
"Then I doubt he can block this one," replied Maddie.
The second Fiend flew at the Boxer, smashing thought him like broken china. Finally, the third Archfiend slammed into Ramón's chest, knocking him on his back.
"He's down for the count!" said Maddie.
Indeed, that seemed the case. As the Nightmare Archfiend backed off, a ghostly looking man wearing a referee outfit appeared next to Ramón and started counting off.
"One… two… three…" he said.
"GAH!" said Ramón.
He bounced up, and the ref vanished.
(M: 4,000) - - - - - - - - - - (R: 3,000)
"I'm not done yet…" he said.
"Then by all means…" said Maddie.
I'm getting a little tired of this… he thought, as he made his draw. She wants to play rough, huh?
"I'm using the Dark Designator Spell Card!" he shouted.
Oh boy… thought Maddie. This is always death…
"Uh, isn't that the card that…" said the waitress.
"Yeah, it forces your opponent to take a card from his deck of the user's choice," replied Edgar. "But there's always a catch to it."
"I'm going to play it safe and name Parasitic Ticky, assuming you have a second one," he continued.
"Uh, yeah…" she replied. "But…"
She found the card in her deck, and took it.
"Now I activate… Insightful Card of Reversal!" he shouted.
His Trap Card flipped up.
"Ever hear of it?"
I have… thought Edgar. It's the sort of card I'd expect someone like Jack Atlas to have… Not a guy like this… But then… The cards his mother had… They sort of came as a surprise too…
"Since you just took a card from your deck in a way other than drawing," continued Ramón, "I get to draw one for each card you have…"
"WHAT the…" said Maddie. "Right, like this is fair…"
"Yeah, well, as you'll see…" he said.
He paused to draw four cards.
"…I've been doing it the fair way up to now… Time to start playing the way other boxers do. I use One Day of Peace."
He used the card, and it flashed in front of him as a bell rang. A young, blonde, busty woman in a bikini strode into the center of them, holding a sign with the number "3" above her head with a big smile. A dog barked from the tables behind them.
"Okay, Jill, okay," chuckled Ramón, as she walked away. "We each draw once, but no-one takes any damage this turn…"
This is the craziest duel I've had in years… thought Maddie, making a draw.
"No more undercards!" he shouted. "Time to bring out the champion! Here comes Battlin' Boxer Switchitter!"
This one had the same emotionless expression as the others, and was wearing a brown sweatshirt with a grey hood over a brown wool cap, blue shorts, and white boxing gloves. (1,500 ATK)
"And before you ask, no I'm not talking about him."
The Boxer shifted his right leg forward, and then lifted his right fist while shielding with the left.
"That's called the orthodox stance, but being a switch-hitter, he can shift to southpaw stance on a dime…"
The Warrior shifted quickly his position, switching his left foot with his right and doing the same with his fists.
"…as you can see."
"And?" asked Maddie.
"I'll use this guy's effect to summon his friend Glassjaw from my Graveyard…" he continued.
A glowing, red pentagram appeared on the floor, and Glassjaw rose out of it again. (2,000 ATK)
"Then… I build the Overlay Network!"
As the portal opened, the room darkened, and some very familiar music sounded over the restaurant…
Figures… thought Edgar, who remembered hearing from way back when it was popular.
Still, he was much more worried about the giant ogre that was looming in front of Maddie now, a hugely muscular pugilist standing almost nine feet tall, with red shorts that looked vaguely like a kilt and an iron mask. Of course, the most prominent feature were the shackles on his wrists that were linked to tight chains around his torso which, in turn, were bound to large, thick, metal beams the size of girders. He looked at Maddie and grumbled a little. (2,200 ATK)
"Aw, scared?" asked Ramón. "Well, don't be… Battlin' Boxer Lead Yoke is just a big teddy bear. Unfortunately… He's been known to crush to death real bears who he thought were teddy bears. See, that thing he's wearing prevents him from using his full strength… He's just TOO strong without it!"
"I should know this why?" asked Maddie.
"Because," he replied, "each time he battles, I can detach an Overlay Unit to protect him from being destroyed, and when he loses them, he gains 800 points for each."
And he's not even wearing gloves… thought Maddie.
Ramón smirked at her.
"I'll set one card, then pay 1,000 Life Points to activate the Field Spell, Ring of Fire!"
The set card appeared first, then, to Maddie's shock, four ring posts with turnbuckles appeared around them, but with no ropes… Then three flames shot from one post to the other in a stream, then from that one to another, forming a fiery boxing ring.
"Your move…" he said. "Can't believe I forgot to have someone tape this… Mom would love to see it…"
(M: 4,000) - - - - - - - - - - (R: 2,000)
"You're just as crazy as she is…" grumbled Maddie.
"Hey, watch it!" he snapped. "Like I keep saying, she is not crazy!"
"Yeah?" yelled Maddie. "Most insane people deny it, Ramón. Come on, really, she says she was the model for a painting, that…"
"Look, I can vouch for that!" he shouted, interrupting. "My dad painted it!"
Maddie stopped. She looked at him for a minute.
"Uh…" she said. "Okay… She also said that the guy who painted it was an alien…"
Ramón nodded. Maddie looked at Edgar.
"You're confirming that too?" she asked.
Ramón nodded again.
"Well, that was unexpected…" said the waitress.
"Okay, let's put two and two together, shall we?" said Maddie. "Given what we know so far… Your mom believes she was a victim of an alien abduction, the alien in question painted her portrait and then they fell in love, and she bore his child, and you believe you're that child, the old, uh…"
"The old 'alien baby daddy' thing, I think?" added the waitress, trying hard not to laugh, although some other customers were snickering.
"You say that as if it were a bad thing," replied Ramón, who clearly didn't think it was funny.
Of course, Maddie seemed to think it was even less funny.
"Ramón, I was willing to give your mom the benefit of the doubt and say she was confused," said Maddie, "but I was wrong… She is… an absolute nutcase!"
"You…" said Ramón.
He turned to Edgar.
"Don't look at me!" he replied. "I would have said it if she hadn't! This is the craziest claim I've ever heard, and you're talking to a guy who's fought his way through the Bedlam House of Jangling Hater!"
The waitress turned to him.
"You don't want to know," he said, lower.
Maddie shook her head, and reached for her deck.
"You said it was my turn…" she said, drawing.
Whoa… she thought.
"I use the Token Sundae Spell Card!" she shouted. This destroys all of my Tokens, and then destroys one of your cards for each!"
The three Fiends broke into jagged shards of glass.
"Usually, destroying them would hurt me more than it helped, but… Thanks for that One Day of Peace!"
The hot shards darted towards Lead Yoke…
"I use Forbidden Lance!" shouted Ramón.
His Quickplay Spell lifted, and a long, metal spear appeared in Lead Yoke's hands as the shards bounced off of him, despite his Score falling to only 1,400.
"Now he can't be destroyed… Smart, huh?"
"Your Field Spell survived too..." she muttered.
"That's because you can't destroy it if I have at least two regular Boxers or at least one Xyz Boxer," chuckled Ramon. "After all, you can't have the fight without the ring, now can you?"
Maddie looked at Lead Yoke, then at the spot where her Tokens had been. She gulped.
"Ah, heh…" she said. "I think I'll… I'll use my Magic Planter…"
Vines shot from the Spell Card, crumpling up the Remove Brainwashing card and crushing it. Maddie drew twice. She took one of those cards and another, a monster card, and a non-monster card from her hand, set them, and then said, very quickly, "I'll-set-those-and-I'm-done-now…"
"Well babe…" said Ramón.
He drew a card, and Lead Yoke's Score edged up back to 2,200 as the Lance disappeared.
"Like I said, no more playing the 'nice' way like Glassjaw and Switchitter do… Now we're playing the other way…
"…dirty! I summon Battlin' Boxer Rabbit Puncher!"
This boxer was much skinnier and less muscular than the others, with a red headgear, black shorts, oversized shoes, and large, yellow gloves. He also had long, carrot-red hair down his back. (800 ATK)
He aimed a punch at the set monster, causing a mad scientist in a lab coat and goggles – Kozaky – to appear on it. Then he savagely punched the Fiend in the neck with a horrifying snap that made the whole place gasp. Kozaky fell face first, and shattered.
A rabbit punch… thought Edgar. An incredibly dangerous and illegal maneuver in boxing that has been known to be lethal… It seems a few of these boxers don't play by the rules.
"Now for you, princess…" said Ramón.
Maddie nervously backed up… Then she realized what she was about to back into…
Not a good idea… she thought, looking at the flaming ropes.
What came next was savage. Lead Yoke's fist hit her with a crushing blow to her midsection that shook the room.
"You like that, bitch?" asked Ramón.
Maddie fell on her side, and groaned a minute. Lead Yoke backed up, and the referee appeared again, this time on her side.
"One… two… three…"
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
Red Feather and Penelope giggled a little, and Penelope was very surprised. She had never heard her laugh, nor heard anyone else report it.
"Red, you ever hear the story of Jack Redboots?" she asked.
"Can't say I know him personally," replied Red.
"No, he hasn't been around in a few years," replied Penelope. "He was a verbeeg."
"I already don't like him," sighed Red.
Verbeeg were a race of Shadows with a very bad reputation among civilized races. Strangely related to both fey and giants, they were as big as ogres, and just as strong, and while they were powerful enough to take what they wanted from people by force, they much preferred to make a living by tricking people out of it through clever scams and deception, just to prove how smart they were. The old saying "there's a sucker born every" minute, which P.T. Barnum admitted he did not make up (although he also claimed he wished he had) may have actually been coined by one of these creatures.
"I know," said Penelope. "Anyway, Jack was one of the worst. His 'trick', so to speak, was to sit by a bridge over a river in the forests in Romania, a place with a close connection to the Feywild, and charge anyone who came by a rather expensive toll for crossing. But they'd only have to actually pay it if they came back to his side of the bridge. If they promised to do so, he'd let them pass.
"Of course, this was a trap. If they fell for that, then once they were halfway across, he'd grab hold of the rails of the bridge – which was secured to his side by a hinge so it could tip upward – and then do exactly that, causing the victim to fall back towards him."
"At which point he'd make the guy pay him, I suppose," sighed Red. "Clever. Dare I ask what happened to him?"
"As you might expect, he conned the wrong person," replied Penelope. "One day, his mark was a beautiful young elven maiden, who told him she didn't have any money, but asked if he would accept a kiss as payment."
"Uh oh…" said Red. "Temptress demon or ermordenung?"
"Ermordenung assassin, actually," replied Penelope. "A friend of a friend of some elven noble he had conned. Suffice to say, his brain malfunctioned, and he accepted that as payment. Last mistake he ever made.
"I guess the moral might be 'crime doesn't pay', but…"
"But maybe a better moral would be 'there's always someone better'," replied Red, "seeing as he was tricked by an even better trickster. So what brought this up?"
"Uh, the ermordenung," replied Penelope. "I ran into her the other day… We were friends from school… Like you just told me Red, nobody's perfect, and she and I can relate. I knew a lot of folks at school like that…"
"That would be… The 'prep school' your parents had you go to?" asked Red.
Penelope sighed a little.
"Longest four years of my life…" she muttered. "Anyway, I knew a guy in the same grade who thought he was God's gift to women. Guy was a chick magnet with hormones coming out of his ears. They used to call him Pieter '100 Percent' Patterson because of how easy it was for him to score."
"I know the type," said Red. She leaned on her arm. "He hit on you, I take it? What happened?"
"I finally dated him just to shut him up," replied Penelope. "You know, I kind of feel sorry for him…"
"How come?" replied Red.
"Well, after that," replied Penelope, "he could honestly only call himself Pieter '99 Percent' Patterson."
They both laughed.
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
"GET AWAY FROM ME!" screamed Maddie.
She shoved the ref away from her and stood up, just as he reached the six-count.
"Still have some fight left, huh?" asked Ramón.
"Take a look," replied Maddie.
(M: 5,800) - - - - - - - - - - (R: 2,000)
"What… I…" he said.
Then he noticed the Trap Card, and someone next to Maddie. It was Second Goblin, holding a plastic sports bottle… The label was the same as the one for Nutrient Z.
"Thanks…" said Maddie. She wiped her mouth.
"Show off…" replied Ramón. "Now I'll have to bring out someone who really fights nasty…
"I use one effect of my Ring of Fire Field Spell; since my Xyz did damage, I get to summon another Battlin' Boxer, so long as it has a Level less than Lead Yoke's Rank. So I choose Rib Gardna."
A new boxer appeared who looked even taller and more hulking than Glassjaw, but not as muscular; more like "stout". He wore an orange headgear, very large red gloves, and true to his name, a full-body rib guard sparring suit. (100 ATK)
"A boxer with only a hundred Attack Points…" muttered Edgar. "I take it that this is another cheater, the type who takes a dive to rig a fight."
"True, but you give them too much credit," replied Ramón. "These guys are too dumb to fix a match on their own… To actually plan such a thing, well… I'm building the Overlay Network again…"
As the vortex opened a second time, the heroic music stopped, and a sinister cackle echoed through the restaurant. The two Level 3 Boxers dissolved, and a figure emerged who didn't seem dressed to fight at all. It was a seedy, suspicious looking fellow wearing a black trenchcoat, a red bow tie, sunglasses, a derby hat, and lots of bling. He held a bullhorn in his left hand shaped like a demon's head and slung a cane with a clawed tip over the other. (0 ATK)
"Meet my Battlin' Boxer Cheat Commissioner," said Ramón.
"Figures," said Edgar, with a frown. "When a match is rigged, don't blame the boxers, blame the guys running the business… Only in America…"
"You're learning," replied Ramón. "And he can do some neat tricks too, but before he does…"
He used a new Spell Card, and the vortex turned gold.
"…I'm using Xyz Gift, which I can do because I have two Xyzs. I just have to get rid of both of Lead Yoke's Overlay Units…"
As he discarded Glassjaw and Switchitter, Lead Yoke grunted, sweat, and strained… The yoke restraining him started to crack… Then he let out a horrid roar as it crumbled and collapsed into broken pieces of metal and wood, and his muscles seemed to double in size. (3,800 ATK)
"Oh, that's right…" said Ramón. "Because he lost both Units, he gains 800 Attack Points for each. And Xyz Gift lets me draw twice!"
He drew two cards, then quickly used two of them.
"I think I'll end by setting these two cards…" he said, fitting them in his Disk. "You're up, but next turn, the Raging Bull is gonna walk all over you!"
"Oh please," replied Maddie, as she drew, "you aren't Robert De Niro, hell you're not even Glass Joe!"
Edgar chuckled softly at this.
"Uh, who's Glass Joe?" asked the waitress.
"Uh, he's…" said Edgar. Then he stopped. "Aw, never mind… Suddenly I feel even older…"
"Besides," continued Maddie, "I don't know if anyone told you this, but that weasel Commissioner of yours had better find a bodyguard. Lead Yoke may be pretty strong, but Commissioner…"
"But his Score is zero, right?" asked Ramón. "True, but he does have a bodyguard. You can't attack him with Lead Yoke standing here. He has another effect too… All of your monsters have to attack, if they can. And in case you're thinking of defending…"
One of those two Traps lifted.
"I'm using Final Attack Orders!"
Mandy slowed down…
This is just going from bad to worse… she thought.
Then she took two of her cards, and set them, causing them to appear in her Spell Zone.
"Go ahead…"
"Well then…" said Ramón, as he drew. "I guess I can…"
"I use my Call of the Haunted card!" exclaimed Maddie.
Her card flipped up, and a rather bizarre monster leapt out of the floor, a jester with a green and black striped harlequin suit and cap, and blue cape, and red question marks covering his face and his chest. (2,000 ATK)
"Then, I use Tricky Spell 4," she said.
Her other card, a Quickplay Spell, turned on end, and rotated around. The Tricky faded into a blur, and the blur turned into two duplicates of himself. (1,200 DEF)
"This Spell sacrifices the Tricky to summon as many Tricky Tokens as you have monsters. They may move to Attack Mode…"
(3,000 ATK)
"But my Token Stampede applies to them too. And by the way, they can't attack."
"You think you're so smart, do you?" asked Ramón. "Well, I have news for you, my Ring of Fire has more than one effect. The only catch is, I can only use one of those effects per turn.
"I'll use the second effect this time… When one of my Boxers attacks, his target's Score will be reduced by half."
"Oh boy…" said Maddie, as the now even larger ogre lifted his fists.
Then the Cheat Commissioner snapped his fingers and grinned.
"What's he doing?" asked Maddie.
"Using his effect," replied Ramón. "Since a battle was just declared with one of my Boxers, I ditch both his Overlay Units, and if your hand has a Spell Card in it, then I get to take it and set it on my side of the field."
"You cannot be serious…" said Maddie.
He clearly was, because he discarded Rabbit Puncher and Rib Gardna, and the Commissioner cackled and aimed his bullhorn. The cards Maddie was holding started to emit green smoke, and then five large images of cards – Inferno Reckless Summon, Atlantean Pikeman, Axiomatic Alarm, Oh Tokenbaum, and Parasitic Ticky – appeared in front of her.
"Fate can be so cruel…" he said, disappointed. "Guess that will do…"
The bullhorn glowed again, sucking the Infernal Reckless Summon card through it like some crazy dustbuster. It quickly materialized flat behind the Commissioner.
Then, Lead Yoke finally socked the Tricky Token on the left, its Attack Score falling to 1,500 as he did so. Maddie grunted a little and held her stomach, but she had taken worse.
(M: 3,500) - - - - - - - - - - (R: 2,000)
"Fate can be so cruel?" asked the waitress.
"Well, he had to set that card, meaning he can't use it right now," replied Edgar. "If he had been able to use it this turn, well…"
Well, Maddie would have been in big trouble, he thought, not saying it out loud. For his deck, that's a pretty dangerous Spell Card…
"Again, I'm done," he said. "Getting tired? I'd hate to win by technical knock-out… Although… I'm really not sure what the hell that means…"
"Well, don't pull a muscle in your brain trying…" she replied, drawing again.
Uhm… she thought.
It was a very powerful Spell Card, but not one that she could use at the moment. She took the other two non-monsters in her hand and set them, then turned to him and waved her hand.
Hopefully, I can last for a few rounds more… she thought.
"My move again…" chuckled Ramón. "You know, funny… All of a sudden, I'm not so angry anymore…"
He drew a card.
"This is actually kinda fun! I play Battlin' Boxer Spirits! By sending a card from my deck to the Graveyard, I can summon Switchitter back in Defense Mode…"
The Warrior appeared again, kneeling. (1,400 DEF) Now Maddie was almost sweating, because she knew what was next.
As she expected, her Inferno Reckless Summon lifted up, and two duplicates of the Boxer appeared, giving him five monsters total. (1,500 ATK x2)
Then, finally, the Overlay Network opened again.
"Dear God, a three-monster Rank 4 Overlay?" exclaimed Edgar. "This is serious…"
"You bet it is!" laughed Ramón. "This guy may not be the true champion, but… Like they say, he's a contender… I summon Battlin' Boxer High Octane Haymaker!"
The dogs in the restaurant cowered at their owners' feet or shuddered in their arms at the new Warrior, who was truly a titan. This one not only stood head and shoulders above Lead Yoke, he seemed to be made of bronze, literally, wearing a helmet made in the style of a Corinthian helm (but much newer) and boxing gloves with spikes on the knuckles. (2,000 ATK)
"And because I have a Field Spell, he gains 300 more points for each Xyz Monster on the field!" he continued. "Isn't this fun?"
(2,900 ATK)
"Yeah, fun…" said Maddie, with a huge sigh. "A boxing match is turned into a brutal, bloody slugfest, but it sure is fun…"
"First off, I'll attack one of your Tokens with him, and I'll use my Ring's effect to cut its Score in half."
(1,500 ATK)
"You still can't destroy them…" added Maddie.
"Want a bet?" asked Ramón. "When any of my Boxers attack, I can use one of Haymaker's Overlay Units, and that monster is destroyed regardless!"
Before Maddie could fully process this, High Octane Haymaker's attack proved to be every bit what his name suggested. His glove burned with fire as it recklessly made a whipping sideways punch, shattering the Token.
Maddie screamed briefly, but Lead Yoke turned towards the other one, and Ramón discarded a second Overlay Unit from Haymaker. Fortunately, the Ring's effect apparently couldn't work twice.
"Gah…" said Maddie. Now she really was getting a little tired.
She almost panicked when his last Trap lifted up. It was Call of the Haunted.
Glassjaw leapt onto the ring again, looking very angry this time. (2,000 ATK)
Don't scream, she thought. Don't scream, don't… Wait…
As it lunged for her, one of her Trap Cards lifted up.
"I use the Trap Card, Axiomatic Alarm!" she shouted.
"What the…" he said.
Then he covered his ears as a loud siren rang though the restaurant. Maddie discarded Parasitic Ticky's card and then looked at her deck.
"I see the 'alarm' part, but…" he said.
"Since you made a direct attack, I get to draw a card," she said. "Let's just say, if it's a monster, this isn't over yet…"
She drew… Then breathed a sigh of relief.
"And it's Water Spirit!" she said. "I have to discard it, of course…"
She chucked it into her Graveyard pile.
"But now, I get to summon one Drone Token for every monster you have, and your attack is stopped cold."
Four little guys flew out of the card, small, sphere-shaped creatures, each with one eye, metal, mechanical limbs, and small wings on their backs made of something that looked like tinfoil.
"Mmf!" said Ramón, trying to stifle a laugh. "They… Actually, those guys are kinda cute…"
"Yeah, well, since Water Spirit is a Level 1 monster, each of them is also Level 1, and they have 300 points apiece for both areas…"
(300 ATK) x 4.
"Good grief, are you taking a dive now?" asked Ramón. "As if that will help… Usually when a fight is rigged that way, both boxers know about it…"
"She's not taking a dive, Ramón," interrupted Edgar. "You claim that boxers are too dumb to rig fights on their own? I'm starting to think you don't give them enough credit. There's more to boxing than punching. Don't you even know about the famous strategy that Muhammad Ali used against George Foreman in 1974?"
Ramón stopped.
"The Rumble in the Jungle?" he gasped.
"Yes, the famous 'rope-a-dope', I believe," said Edgar. "Ali didn't exactly invent it, but he perfected it. You know, defending against your opponents blows until he gets tired and weak? It's not a common strategy, of course… Not many boxers are dumb enough to fall for it these days… Well… Not many, that is…"
Ramón looked at him, then looked back at the Tokens. He chuckled a little.
"Man, this is one in a million," laughed Ramón with a shrug. "I end my turn… Don't see what good those guys are gonna do you…"
Oh, you have no idea… she thought.
(M: 1,300) - - - - - - - - - - (R: 2,000)
"Draw!" she shouted.
She drew, but barely looked at the card. Her other Trap Card lifted up, and a very familiar German holiday tune started playing.
"It's a little early for Christmas," she said, "but hey, I'm using Oh, Tokenbaum! I'll sacrifice all four of my Tokens…"
The four little Drones disappeared.
"And in return, I can summon just as many actual monsters from my Graveyard who match their Level…"
The first monster to appear was Water Spirit, a blob of watery goo with a skull-like face. (400 ATK). Then Kozaky (400 ATK), Skull Servant (300 ATK) and Mokey-Mokey (300 ATK)
"Well, I guess those are a little better," muttered her opponent, "but…"
"Next, Atlantean Pikeman…" she said, as a tall gill-man in armor holding a spear made the team of four a five. (1,400 ATK)
"Very pretty," he started, "but… Oh… shit…"
The sudden change of tone came in response to a Spell Card she was about to use. The very powerful one she had drawn earlier.
"I take it you know how The Law of the Normal works?" she said, her smile turning chilling. "I have five low-Level Normal Monsters in play, so this card destroys every single card we both have…
"All except them, that is…"
Burning, blazing fire appeared in the eyes of the four pint-sized monsters as they looked at the three goliaths. Cheat Commissioner panicked, dropped his bullhorn and cane, and hid behind Lead Yoke.
"You wish, you coward," growled Ramón. Then he turned back to Maddie. "I'm using the final effect of Ring of Fire… by getting rid of half my Life Points, one of my Battlin' Boxer Xyzs, and the Ring itself, I can protect the others…"
Cheat Commissioner disappeared as burning bolts of energy shot from the eyes of the five angry monsters. Glassjaw was nuked quickly, as was Token Stampede and both copies of Call of the Haunted, and what remained of both hands shattered, but both Lead Yoke and High Octane Haymaker stood firm, even if it looked like they had to push against a freight train ramming into them.
(M: 1,300) - - - - - - - - - - (R: 1,000)
"…which means next round, you've had it…" continued Ramón.
"As if, big guy, but you forgot one thing," said Maddie. "No Field Spell means Haymaker loses his 900-point bonus…"
(2,000 ATK)
"…which means this match is about to end in an upset… I Tune my Level 1 Water Spirit with my Level 2 Atlantean Pikeman and Level 1 Skull Servant, Kozaky, and Mokey-Mokey…"
The five minute monsters flew off the ground, forming a ring, then flying upwards.
(*1 + *1 + *1 + *1 + *2 = *5)
"A Synchro Summon?" shouted Ramón. "No fair!"
"They always say that when they're losing…" she sighed, shaking her head. "I Synchro Summon Mighty Warrior!"
Lightning flashed, and a hulking muscular brute appeared in place of the five small monsters. He was just as big as Colossal Fighter, with blue, metallic, cybernetic armor, a square jaw, and robotic arms. (2,200 ATK)
He took some warm up jabs as he and Haymaker looked each other in the eyes.
"By the way…" she said. "When he clocks a monster, you take damage equal to half its Attack Score…"
"Wait… WAIT!" he shouted.
Mighty Warrior refused to wait. It socked the Boxer hard in the jaw with a savage uppercut, knocking him down, knocking Ramón down with him.
The referee appeared again, as Mighty Warrior backed towards its master. He looked at Haymaker and Ramón, then waved his arms.
"KO!" he shouted.
Then he turned to Maddie and her Synchro, and the bell rang one more time.
"The winner!" he announced, as Mighty Warrior lifted its arms in triumph.
(M: 1,300) - - - - - - - - - - (R: 0)
The Solid Visions disappeared, and Edgar, who really had enough of the funny stuff by now, bent over Ramón.
"Is he alive?" asked Maddie.
"Either that or dead people drool pretty badly," he replied.
He shook his head.
"That's it… I'm gonna try to call the boss…"
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
TAKE OVER FIVE (Spell Card)
Normal Spell
Image: A card being drawn from a Duel Disk as five glowing cards fly from the Graveyard.
Effect: Send the top 5 cards from your deck to the Graveyard. During your next Standby Phase, you may banish this card from your Graveyard to draw 1 card. While this card is in your Graveyard, effects that would send cards from your deck to the Graveyard are negated.
Note: "Take Over Five" was first used by Judai in the "Yu-Gi-Oh GX" episode 167.
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
INSIGHTFUL CARD OF REVERSAL (Trap Card)
Normal Trap
Image: Four cards flying through a void, two of them leaving wakes of blue colors, the other leaving wakes of red.
Effect: Activate when your opponent adds a card to his hand from his deck via a means other than drawing and you have less cards in your hand than your opponent does. Draw 1 card for every card in your opponent's hand.
Note: "Insightful Card of Reversal" was first used by Yusei in the "Yu-Gi-Oh 5Ds" episode 149.
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
PINK SHEPHERD (Monster Card)
Fairy/Light/Effect/Lvl2/800ATK/1,200DEF
Effect: FLIP: Add at the End Phase of the turn, you may take 1 "Scapegoat" or "Stray Lambs" from your deck and activate it, disregarding the required timing of the card. You may banish 1 "Blue Shepherd" in your Graveyard to add this card from your Graveyard to your hand.
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
BATTLIN' BOXER HIGH OCTANE HAYMAKER (Monster Card)
Warrior/Fire/Xyz/Effect/Rank4/2,000ATK/1,800DEF
4 Level 4 Monsters
Effect: If you control a face-up Field Spell, this card gains 300 Attack Points for every face-up Xyz Monster on the field. When a "Battlin' Boxer" you control attacks an opposing monster, you can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card to destroy the opposing monster at the end of the damage step.
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
RING OF FIRE (Spell Card)
Field Spell
Image:
Effect: Pay 1,000 Life Points to activate this card. This card cannot be destroyed if its controller controls 2 or more Leveled "Battlin' Boxer" monsters or at 1 Xyz "Battlin' Boxer" monster player can select 1 of the following 3 effects (if applicable) and activate it, once per turn. A player may only use an effect of this Field Spell once per turn.
If a "Battlin' Boxer" Xyz monster controlled by the turn player inflicts Battle Damage, the player may Special Summon a "Battlin' Boxer" monster at the end of the Battle Phase from his hand or deck with a Level lower than the Rank of the monster that inflicted damage.
When a "Battlin' Boxer" the turn player controls attacks an opposing monster, the turn player can reduce the ATK of the opposing monster by half for the damage step only.
If 1 or more "Battlin' Boxer" Xyz monsters would be destroyed by a card effect, their controller can pay half his Life Points and banish this card 1 face-up Xyz monster; any other "Battlin' Boxer" Xyz monsters that would be destroyed are not destroyed.
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AXIOMATIC ALARM (Trap Card)
Normal Trap
Image: In the foreground, a squad of creatures shaped like cubes with clockwork arms and legs, faces on the front, and metal wings, marching in formation; behind them is a bizarre creature leaning over; a sphere perched on three stout legs with eyes and tendrils around the circumference and a stoic-looking mouth at the top.
Effect: Activate when your opponent declares a direct attack. Reveal the top card on your deck, and then discard it; if that card is a monster, negate the attack and end the Battle Phase. Then, you mat Special Summon 1 Drone Token for every monster your opponent controls. (Fairy/Light/Lvl?/ATK?DEF?) Drone Tokens are the same Level as the monster discarded, and have 300 Attack and Defense Points per Level. Drone Tokens cannot attack. During your next End Phase, destroy the Drone Tokens.
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Jemorille: On one hand, Ramón's story is one that had been seen many times before. The son of two parents who undergo a long and painful divorce that the son has to witness before the court grants his mother custody will sometimes become very attached to his mother, not wanting to lose her as well. But he becomes bitter towards everyone else, angry towards the world. As a result, a slight against his mother is one he will avenge, no matter how small.
The problem was, he not only expanded up Yolanda's absurd story, but he made it even more absurd. The question the Shadowchasers had to ask at this point was whether jail or a psychiatric ward was more fitting. Still… They knew something was amiss.
Next chapter, we move FAR away from Roswell, away from the United States as a whole, and away from the Shadowchasers in fact.
The Conspiracy had more involved than them, even if they didn't know it, and it's time to meet another group of unwitting pawns…
"Nick of Time" is next.
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Shadowchaser Files: Races
The Incantifers
To Shadowkind races that are not skilled in wizardry, they are feared and dreaded as unstoppable forces of nature. To those who are, they are admired, respected, and in some cases, worshipped. Even dark elves grudgingly acknowledge their might. They are so powerful, one of their number, Maskent, is the co-author and co-signer of the Great Treaty and Shadowkind's representative in all matters concerning it, and according to some, the mightiest wizard on Earth and most powerful Shadowkind in the world, period. (Although some would argue on this point.)
According to records at the Origin Universe and the Library Arcanium, the Incantifers were once either humans or members of a human-like race, and began as the Incanterium, a society ruled by wizards on the homeworld of Shadow millennia ago. Drawing upon an energy field that they called the Weave, which they believed to be the source of all arcane magic, they eventually started a daring plan: an experiment to become one with the Weave, which if successful, would amplify their power a hundredfold, enabling them to – dare to say it – rule the world. No records, formulae, or equipment pertaining to the experiment or how it was to be conducted still exist; if any of the necessary components survived after the actual plan was put in motion, it is very likely that they were destroyed later.
Why? Suffice to say, it didn't work quite the way they planned.
Only the strongest of the Incanterium survived the cataclysm that the experiment caused. When they crawled out of the rubble that was once their capital, they found that they had actually achieved partial success. They were indeed closer to the Weave in spirit than they had ever been, and far stronger than before. Still, with their kin dead and all they had worked for all their life gone, it was cold comfort. The survivors parted company, and wandered the world searching for purpose from that point on.
The modern Incantifers that appear on Earth today are all the descendants of those ancient people, either via actual blood offspring or through the occasional apprentice that an exceptionally powerful one is able to endow with the same powers. (If any are the original Incanterium, none are bold enough to make that claim.) All are, without exception, powerful wizards, and strive to understand magic and knowledge to the fullest, discovering the most hidden of secrets.
Typically, Incantifers resemble frail, wrinkled old men and women. This is an illusion, because they are incredibly strong and agile. (After all, it's easy to use magic to appear youthful should the need arise, but most consider using magic for cosmetic purposes a waste of precious resources.) Their eyes have no irises or pupils, and you can feel the magical power emitting from them by just being near them. Incantifers sort of "smell" like magic; it sort of like a stale odor that never goes away.
Most Incantifers are specialist wizards, mainly invokers, transmuters, and illusionists. They tend to carry a lot of useful magical items, like wands, potions, scrolls, and things like rings and other items that give magical protection. As you might expect, they are always armed to the teeth with the best spells, and have lived long enough to discover ones that most wizards have never heard of. Many of them can even research and learn Epic Spells.
At first it would seem that Incantifers are little different pound-for-pound than any other powerful and well-prepared sorcerer. But there is one vital difference: They have the ability to absorb magical spells that are cast at them. This is an inborn ability, and how successful they are at it depends on how skilled they are at wizardry. If it works, an enemy wizard that tries to use a spell on an Incantifer not only fails to hurt him, but the Incantifer only benefits, as the magic feeds his energy.
In fact, magic is how they sustain themselves. It isn't widely known, but they aren't truly immortal; rather, they stay young by absorbing magic. They can live off the residual energy from ley lines and other magical places, but can also drain the power from magical items. Pragmatic or clever Incantifers often drain the power from cursed items like Bags of Devouring or Mirrors of Opposition, destroying dangerous items and feeding themselves at the same time, while those who support the forces of good do the same to evil magic items, preventing beings who would use them from doing so. (This does not hurt them, as they only consume the magic, not the evil power within it.) In fact, Incantifers trapped in dead magic zones have been known to starve. (And it isn't a pleasant way to die for them, as at least one witness can attest; this is one of the few things they are afraid of.)
What is their ultimate goal? If they worship anything, for the most part, it's knowledge. However, most of the civilized world is glad that the majority of them are on Jalal's side.