The Rise and Fall of History II: Opposing the Present

by Medigo

The world of dueling has reached its climax. Many stories have been told through these cards, and the final story brought everyone together. People are united and yet, an unknown world suffers in their shadow. The fallen one returns in the midst of their peace, pursued and still a stranger to those around. There is not much time to save both his home and his friends.

16. More than a Friend

Redux 75: More than a Friend

The group was all ready to go, but they had some loose ends to discuss while keeping said loose ends out of earshot. "And what are we going to do with him? Can we just leave him here? Wont his boss be very mad at him?" Alice asked softly as she looked at the man in the forcefield cage. "Your fate will be ten times darker than my own." Flake cursed as he could still see them talk. "Can it!" Stonewell shouted. "The Order wouldn't do anything serious to a scaled up duelist like him. He will just go down three or four scales; nothing to lose sleep over." He just wanted to keep moving. "I can leave my old dueldisk behind. It has enough power to last three hours. That is how much it takes for the station to open to the public again." Iria claimed. Flake was not the one they had to worry about by that time. "Stonewell's right, we can talk as we walk." Uno said. "Agreed." Adamant took the lead with the map in one hand and the dueldisk as a lightsource in the other.

And so they walked down the escalators, unto the platforms and down into the railway tunnels. "We aren't gonna get run over are we?" Alice spun her head back and forth to look out for any bright lights coming towards them. "I think we're good. Nothing runs at this hour, right?" Eric claimed as he caught himself glancing behind as well. "There is a curfew for most citizens around this time. I mean, you can go outside at night, but you risk Templars randomly dropping in on you to 'evaluate' you." Stonewell had seen that happen occasionally. "It wouldn't matter either way. We will not be following the tunnel the entire way." Adamant stopped. "Here is where the old tunnels begin... Rise Falcon." He materialized a monster card with his dueldisk and let it blow a hole in the wall. "Oof! Mind giving a warning next time?" Uno coughed. The rubble and debris scattered everywhere. "It was necessary. The entrances were all filled in with concrete." The XYZ-duelist dismissed his Raidraptor and scouted the inside of the hole. "Looks like the map matches what we see and the tunnels have held up. Keep following me. No matter what you do... stay close."

The journey continued at a steady but slower pace. Nobody wanted to risk a cave-in or getting lost. There were tunnels underneath and above, it would also be very easy to get trapped here forever if you ran too far. "You say your group took care of the templars outside?" The further they got, the more apprehensive Iria grew about this entire journey. "If you want the details, one of my comrades faked a network disturbance for the Templars in Skyheart to chase after. Nobody is gonna notice what happened to Flake until his shift ends." Stonewell received the brunt of her demands for information. "You mean your hacker friend?" Alice remembered one of the Limbos bragging about his online talents. "Yes.. my 'hacker' friend. He's done a lot for us. He even checked my cards and deviced a way to obscure the tracers inside. So no, I will not get us all in hot water again if I duel with these cards." Stonewell knew what Iria's next question was going to be, so his answer beat it to the punch. "Couldn't you just use something else?" Eric had his own obvious questions. "Hmph.." Stonewell still found it weird to have to answer to 'himself'. "I cannot go back, it would make me weaker.."

"By the way, what are you going to do once you get to the city?" Stonewell now returned the interrogation favor. "We're looking for someone, a woman. Someone the Inquisitor is intimidated by. She might want to help us." Uno explained. "That sounds like a lot of maybes to me." The igknight duelist grumbled. "You did not need to come with us, you know." Eric snapped back, getting tired of his counterparts complaints again. "I do. This is my only chance to save Tory. The longer she stays in their prisons, the higher the chance is that she comes back 'wrong'. Sometimes they release the people the templars capture, but there is always something wrong with them. Like they forgot what made them hate the union in the first place." Stonewell spoke with clenched teeth and a balled fist. "Did that happen to people you knew?" Alice asked him. "To people my classmates knew, while I still took class. I stopped going there once I figured out they were only teaching us crap." He said with a wry grin. "Wait.. so Tory was her real name?" Alice had one more question. "What? Oh.. Purgatory." Stonewell scoffed at first and then chuckled. "Yeah. I always told her 'Purgatory' was a flimsy alias. But she knew the young me liked those kinds of stories." He got quiet after that, sighing to himself.

"Uno... I do not think Stonewell needs to know everything. He wont be with us much longer." Adamant talked with Uno as the two pulled away from the rest of the group for a bit to check ahead. "I am not so sure about that." Uno responded with a smile. "You may be comparing him to Eric too much. You have to realize both of them are vastly different people." Adamant stated the obvious. "But he's still Eric. He still had the same family growing up, just a different environment." Uno was sure there were a lot of 'Eric' qualities inside of Stonewell. "Besides. I thought you believed in destiny?" Adamant had always sounded more like he'd be on the nature and not nurture side of things. "I believed my destiny was to be the ultimate duelist. Instead I find myself here with you in an underground tunnel wading through dirt and grime. I think some destinies aren't meant to come true." He claimed, causing Uno to raise an eyebrow. "Was that a joke?" Adamant was not usually the one to bring in humor. "A cruel one, perhaps." Adamant sighed. He had been out of his comfort zone for too long now.

"Wait." Adamant held his hand up. "We're stopping here? Do not tell me you lost your place." Iria could see a three-ponged fork in the path ahead. "That's not the problem. The problem is these openings should not be here yet." On the map the tunnel crossing was filled in. "Someone has been here already." Human hands broke down the blockades. "Someone? Who?!"

"Awww. You ruined the surprise.""Adamant never wants to let us have our fun." A melodic pair of voices escaped the shadows. Instantly Eric felt a chill crawl up his spine. "I am not hearing that.." Those weren't two people talking, it was just one. "Dame Phoebe!" The two-faced leader of the fusion guild emerged from the left tunnel. "Correct! You win the grand prize.. Me." She poked her cheek with her left finger. "And me!" Her right hand clenched into a fist. "Huh... What did you do?" Alice saw something that was clearly new about her appearance. Her black outfit and purple hair now covered the right half of her body, while the left had the white dress and blonde curls. "I had to do a make-over. I mean this is the mirrored world. Duh." The girl giggled. "Who is this?" Stonewell asked. "Dame Phoebe. The new Leader of the fusion guild that I told you about." Adamant said with a weary sigh. He understood why all of this was happening. "It was you. Your people raided our compound. But you left the maps behind because you knew I would show up to find them. It was bait for your trap."

"And you took it. I am so glad you did!" The Dame clapped her hands together. "But I had help. First and foremost from your friend. He showed me where to find your pretty little gate." Adamant did not need guesses to find out who this friend was. "Ichirou." His own subordinate sold him out to Roma once before. It was well within that mans character to betray the XYZ-guild too. "He's useful, but a coward. He didn't feel like joining me on this little expedition. Good thing I have another pal." Phoebe licked her finger and to let the sound of new footsteps come in. "It's that guy!" A young man with oily black hair stepped out of the darkness of the right tunnel. His body was covered from neck to foot in leather bonds. "Hello." He greeted them with a sleepy echo. "Martel! That's the guy who hypnotized me!" Eric pointed at him. "I was, until you stopped being my puppet." He wagged his finger. "As I see it, with the XYZ-guild integrated into my own, I had every right to take your machine, Adamant. The loyal ones fought bravely for it, but we defeated them all. And now here we are." Phoebe smiled.

"So all of this was a trap to lure us here? Why? What do you need? How did you even get in this timeline?" Uno thought their business with them would have been over once they got all the dragon cards. "And.. and where's Emily? Where's Aaron and Zach? What happened to everyone else?" Alice had her own questions. She had no idea what the other world went through in the last few days. When they left, the country had been taken over by the guilds and sent into a state of chaos. "Ah, so many questions. So little time. You don't need to know what we want from you, we will take everything you got!" Dame Phoebe cackled. "As to how we got here? Well we didn't use Adamants gate. We took that from this side. Martel can tell you how.. and how your friends are." She shared her smile with her cohort. "Yes. I will show you. One of them is right here." Martel reached into a pocket strapped around his waist and took out a flat card. "No.." Alice shuddered. He flipped the card around... It had Zach's face on it. "He was your friend, wasn't he?" That was the final straw. "You did that!?" Iria activated her dueldisk and drew five cards.

Iria's LP: 8000 Martel's LP: 8000

"Yes." Martel did the same, drawing five cards and only placing one of them down in the monster zone. "I guess we are doing this after all." Dame Phoebe wiggled her fingers together and stepped aside. "Iria! This has to be a trap!" Uno tried to warn her. Of what he didn't know. "I don't care; they trapped us already!" Iria drew her sixth card. "I will take us out!" She activated both the field spell, Domain of the True Monarchs, and normal summoned Eidos the Underworld Squire(3/800/800) from her hand. The Domain spell reduced the level of a Mega Monarch in her hand by 2, and Eidos allowed her to tribute summon one more monster. So she sacrificed the Squire for the demonic black emperor; Caius the Mega Monarch(6/2800/1000) "Banish it!" Whatever Martels single card was, the shadow mega monarch would remove it from play and inflict 1000 points of damage to him at the same time. "A mistake. This is not just me anymore." But then Martel placed a card on the dueldisk that did not come from the hand, nor did it hit the field. "Wha?" Out of nowhere, Mega Caius' effect was negated. "WHAT?!"

"But.." Uno saw him, they all saw him. He was not a card anymore. "Zach!?" Zachary Creffield had been summoned to support Martel in the duel.

Zach's LP: 8000

"He.. recreated him?" Stonewell could not believe it. It was possible to undo the effects?! "And he is dueling too now?" Adamant was more concerned with what Zach did. Zach rematerialized with his dueldisk and cards already by his side. He had drawn five cards too and discarded one, Effect Veiler, to negate the effects of Iria's monster. "Creffield... Zachary! Why are you..helping him?" Iria shouted. This could not be happening. "..." He did not answer her, he did not even seem alive. "Zachary is mine now." Martel coldly explained. "Yours?!" The other disciple cringed. "He..brainwashed him." Alice gasped. "Like those people at the stadium and the museum.. and me!" Eric cursed. He was the one responsible for all of that. "Return him!" Iria could attack on her turn, and she did not want to hurt Zach. Instead she had Mega Caius destroy Martel's facedown monster; a purpe hedgehog(3/800/200) attached to strings. "Shaddoll Hedgehog?" Somehow Uno already knew what this card's name was. "Shaddoll Hedgehog. You flipped it. Now I may add one Shaddoll spell." Martel used the death of his monster to add a El Shaddoll Fusion card to his hand.

"You do not see. This is not just us. If you duel me, you duel all of me. Zachary is part of that." Though Iria ended her turn during this speech, it was Creffield who drew a card afterwards. "It's his turn?" The other disciple activated a field spell; First Movement Solo, to special summon a Melodious Diva Serenade(4/400/1900) from his deck. It appeared he still owned all of his old cards. "I collect and save. He was unique. I wanted him." The dark one further clarified while his puppet normal summoned a Crystal Rose(2/500/500). "Meridians card? Did the fusion guild modify it to work with the Melodious?" Uno pondered while Zach kept going. A special summoned Serenade allowed a second normal summon of a Melodious monster. Serenade also counted herself as two tributes for Melodious monsters. Therefore, Zach could immediately sacrifice it to tribute summon Mozarta the Melodious Maestra(8/2600/2000). "The field spell?" Domain of the True Monarchs blocked all extra deck summons, including fusions, when only its controller was the only duelist with a tribute summoned monster on the field. Now that Zach controlled Mozarta, that field effect was negated. "Zach stop this!"

But he couldn't, and he didn't. First he used Crystal Rose's milling ability to send Soprano a Melodious Songstress from his deck to the graveyard. Next he activated Mozarta's effect; special summoning the Melodious Maestra Shopina(7/2300/1700) from his hand. Shopina's effect was used last to retake Soprano from the graveyard. "He duels like he normally would." Adamant noted that Martel was not giving Zach any instructions. The 'puppets' retained their intelligence but not their free will. "We have to do something!" Alice didn't want to see this anymore. "Oh you are all welcome to dip in. This is a battle royal, with some special rules." Dame Phoebe chimed in as she re-appeared from the tunnel on the left. Zach's turn ended when he placed one spell card face-down. "What!?" Now it was Phoebe's turn. "Too bad you are a liiittle too late."

Phoebe's LP: 8000

"Edge Imp Saw!" Phoebe slammed a monster down on her field, the buzzing and figure-framed saw demon(4/500/1000). Its effect discarded a Fluffal from Phoebe's hand, Fluffal Wing, and returned a card from her hand to the deck. In return Phoebe was allowed to draw two new cards. One of them was Polymerization. "Heheh! I activate the fusion spell!" Polymerization targeted Edge Imp Saw on the field, along with a Fluffal Rabbit in her hand. "Come out my lovely little lion!" The fluffy rabbit was shredded to tatters by the imps saws, and their contrasting bodies were fused together to summon a lion beast(7/2400/2000) of deadly saws from the extra deck. "Frightfur Leo! Make Caius bleed!" Upon its summon the lion could toss its saws at another monster to destroy it. "Look out!" Uno yelled as he nearly took a hit himself. The blades spun everywhere, cutting in the floor and ceiling. Mega Caius was sliced into countless pieces. "Ugh!" And now Iria would take damage equal to that monsters attackpoints. "Gah!" Caius exploded and the blast knocked nearly everyone to the floor.

Iria's LP: 5200

Phoebe activated a continuous spell card. "Frightfur Factory! I banish one polymerization or fusion spell from my graveyard, to fuse two monsters into another Frightfur! I choooooose... Polymerization!" Earlier, when Fluffal Rabbit turned into a fusion material, its effect returned another Fluffal card to Phoebe's hand. The Factory spell now targeted that card, Fluffal Wing, to fuse it with Edge Imp Frightfuloid in her hand. "...What is she.." The disciple was still in pain from the last attack, and her opponent already put a new death-toy on the field. "Frightfuloid is so cute its scary. Making him a Frightfur too! Good thing! A Frightfur and one or more Fluffals are the ingredients for my precious Frightfur Sabre-tooth!" The pale lion transformed into a purple tiger(8/2400/2000); its saws became teeth-like blades. "Sabre Tooth makes all my Frightfur more terrifying! He can special summon one dead but lovely Frightfur!" A portal opened to the graveyard and the customized Edge Imp Frightfuloid(4/1300/1300) was alive once again. Both it(1700/1300), the Lion(2800/2000) and the Sabre-toothed tiger(28000/2000) gained 400 attackpoints. "Battle.." Frightfur Leo could not attack directly during the turn it used its effect. But Edge Imp Frightfuloid could use its second effect to copy the attack and defense points of a Frightfur on the field. It(2800/2000) imitated the form of the Lion and slashed Iria with his new saws. "Ngh!"

Iria's LP: 2400

"Looks like we will be getting our second disciple soon!""Another." Phoebe moved her finger across her neck and sent Frightfur Sabre-Tooth. There was nothing at Iria's disposal that could stop the rampaging Frightfur. "NO!"

Alice's LP: 8000

She had to be saved by another. "Sphere Kuriboh!" Alice activated the orb-Kuriboh from her hand, discarding it to switch Frightfur Sabre-Tooth to defense mode. "Guh.. You.." Iria was saved. The last attack could not reach her now. "You wont take anyone else!" Alice screamed. It wasn't her turn, but she could still use the cards she had in her hand. "Yeah. We're through with your games!" The others were back up as well. Eric drew his cards. "You will have to duel all of us." Adamant followed the lead. "And when we win, you will tell us everything." Stonewell stood at their side. "Martel, Phoebe. Whatever you want, we will not give it to you." Uno took the frontline. They had to get through this together, they had little time to waste.

"These ones work well together. And there is one more than anticipated." Martel said to Phoebe while his lazy eyes gazed at Stonewell in the back. "Then we will take them apart and pick them off one at a time." The fusion leader made a snipping motion with her hand. "Yes." A very wide smile formed on Martels face. "What are you going to do?" Uno held the other back. "Play a game." Martel placed four more cards into his dueldisk. "There's more?" Uno stammered as four more people materialized, draped in cloaks. "You hide.. we seek!" One of the puppets summoned a large monster, while Phoebe and the others all climbed on top of their own solidified monsters. "Wait!" Adamant saw it hit the ceiling, the thing was too big for the area. "Everyone, get.." It was too late to get away. The monster made the whole floor break apart and crash down in separate directions. "Whaa!" They all fell down, and the light faded. "Eric, Alice!" The last thing Uno saw were the shadows of the fusion guild jumping down after them. He landed in the pitch-black depths.

(To be Continued in Redux 074: Puppetshow)

New Cards used by Iria Silver
Caius the Mega Monarch

Cards used by Martel
Shaddoll Hedgehog

New Cards used by Zachary Creffield
Effect Veiler

New Cards used by Dame Phoebe
Fluffal Wing

-
Frightfur SabreTooth

-
Frightfur Factory