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.

36. Too Good to be True

Redux 55: Too Good to be True

She met two strange and magical ladies, she saved Uno's life from a mysterious assassin, she crossed time and space in a matter of seconds to break out her own father; It all sounded like a magical adventurous dream. "uhn.. huh?" And that was almost exactly what Alice thought it was... "No.." ..when she woke up in the same bed that she had been in before it all happened. "That's not fair." She was back in the palace where the dream started. "What's not fair?" But that wasn't a dream. "Dad?" Because James Brandt was right there in the room with her. "DAD!" Within seconds she jumped out of her bed and into his arms. "Oof! Whoa.. there. Go easy on your old man." He chuckled. "Dad.. it's you.. isn't it?" Alice interrupted her own exhilaration briefly to check if she was had the right James Brandt. "Of course. Oh you mean.. No no. Don't worry. I am the right guy, heheh." There was another James Brandt out there, James was told. Frankly he did not need that kind of confusion on his mind right now. "Thank you.." Alice felt like she could cry and laugh at the same time. "Hey. I should be thanking you.."

From outside the room, Eric was watching their little happy moment. His own mother chose to take a nap in his room, as she sorely needed it after all those near sleepless nights in Phoebe's prison. "What is happening here?" A palace guard approached him at this point. "Oh.. nothing. Just a little family reunion." Eric replied. "I see; your friend woke up. A bit of a coincidence." The man said. "Coincidence?" Eric raised an eyebrow. "Yes. Your other friends at the infirmary are waking up too, one of them asked for Iria. I could not find her though." So he came to them instead. But Eric could not exactly tell him when Iria was coming back. "Oh! And they aren't going crazy?" The guard shook his head. "Ah. That's good news then! I don't know where Iria is. But I can go check them out." Eric was definitely curious now. It seemed safe to go. Maybe they really were free from the fusion guild's influence now. "I wish. With those guilds, you never know."

...

"Hey, she did it to herself, there's nothing you could have done." For a while now, Adamant gazed down at the world below. The leader of the fusion guild was somewhere down there, and she was, in all likelihood, no longer alive. "Why was there no barrier to catch her?" The fact that this airborne base lacked no measures to prevent such accidents mystified Iria. "Probably because people don't work here! Case in point." There was a reason Stonewell was trying to get Adamant to move. The defenders of the Ark; the Templars, were closing in on their position. "Where's the door anyway?" There had to be an entrance to this place. There wouldn't be a landing strip here if they didn't sometimes get human visitors. "They will show us." Iria walked the other way, towards the flying drones. "They will have to." She held out a card for all of them to see and scan. "Wha.. they stopped?" The Templars froze in mid-air as soon as the lead drone had analyzed the card in Iria's hand. "MILLENNIUM SEAL IDENTIFIED. ACCESS GRANTED." They turned around and flew back to wherever they spawned from. "That card again?"

"Uno gave it to me." Iria showed them the golden non-dueling card with the eye of Wadjet as its image. "So it actually worked this time?" Last time it didn't Uno many favors. "It is still the royal symbol for the Union and its key officials. We should be immune to the templars.. most of them." The two that attacked before were clearly aberrations. "I believe it will also.." Iria traced the card across a panel on the wall. ".. give us passage into the heart of the Ark." Hidden computers scanned the Millennium card and slid a previously undetectable door open. "Adamant. Are you going to stay here, or come with us?" Iria didn't want to be delayed, he could stay and guard the plane if he wanted. "With you." He decided. The duelist knew he couldn't do any good with inaction. "What's done is done."

So they went through the gate, through a long corridor and arrived at what seemed to be the core. Behind one door was a large round chamber, with a massive computer at the center. It was connected to glowing tubes that spread out across the ceiling like tree branches. "This must be it." Iria approached one of the consoles and switched it on. A large screen above showed up, revealing bars, graphs, stats and the image of one inmate. "?" It was the woman who tried to steal the pendulum. "Their latest inmate. It seems they finished a memory scan on her and could not find anything incriminating. She is scheduled to be released later today." That was good news, but not what they came here for. The disciple dove into the data. "August is stored in here too, indefinitely." She saw his profile once she flipped back a few pages. "But what about Tory? Is she here?" Stonewell did not think they needed anything from whoever that guy was. "There is a 'Tori Santos' here. She was sent to physical interrogation." Iria said as she checked her status. "That's her! What does that mean?"

"You will probably find her above or below. Start looking." Iria tossed the Millennium Seal to Adamant. "I am staying here." She moved to a panel in the wall and pulled it. "What are you going to do?" Adamant inquired. "To see if I can find 'discrepancies'." Rows and rows of cards; the remaining prisoners of this facility stored like digital corpses in a morgue. "Go." She would be busy here for some time. "Alright."

Adamant and Stonewell returned to the corridor went the other direction. "Which way? Should we split up?" There were stairs going up and down. "We are weaker by ourselves. We need to choose.." Adamant closed his eyes and listened. "Upwards." He could hear faint noises in that direction. "You got it!" Stonewell raced up the stairs until he reached a door. "I think you were on to something!" A lot of sounds were coming from behind the door. "Yes." Adamant placed the golden card in front of the door, and it slid open. "Tory?" They rushed inside, coming across a rounded corridor this time. It formed a ring around a large room, which they could look down at through one-way mirror glass. "There!" Down there were two duelists, a templar drone hooked up to a computer, and Tory. "Hey! Tory! We're here!" Stonewell yelled. Yet she did not seem to hear him. "These windows are soundproof." Adamant noted. "Damn it. What are they doing to her? Why are they making her duel?"

Tory's LP: 8000 Chemist's LP: 8000

Indeed they were, two turns passed already. Tory controlled Abyss Actor Superstar(7/2500/1800) and two Abyss Actors in the pendulum zone (Evil Heel, Funky Comedian). The opponent controlled an ox(2/0/2100) made from transparent green plastic and a field spell. Chemicritter Oxy Ox was a gemini-monster, which meant its effects were not unlocked yet. "ACTIVATE EFFECT OF CATALYST FIELD. NORMAL SUMMON OXY OX AGAIN." But by using the power of its electric fieldspell, any controlled gemini monster could be summoned again to unseal its effects. "OXY OX CAN SPECIAL SUMMON ONE GEMINI MONSTER FROM THE HAND, AND EQUALIZE THE LEVELS OF ALL MONSTERS TO THE SUMMONED MONSTER." The beasts ignited its horns of fire and caused water to trickle down. "SPECIAL SUMMON POLY-CHEMICRITTER HYDRAGON." The water was captured within the clear body of a four-headed dragon(8/200/2800). Its level was passed on to the Ox(8/0/2100). "XYZ-SUMMON THE VOLA-CHEMICRITTER: METHYDRACO." The Hydrogen and Oxygen beasts overlayed, merging their elements to form a horned and winged chimeric beast(8/3000/3000) of various colors.

"Now I am no chemist, but that doesnt seem right." Tory quipped. She still possessed some spirit left after all these repeated trials. "WHEN XYZ-SUMMONED, METHYDRACO SPECIAL SUMMONS ONE GEMINI MONSTER FROM THE GRAVEYARD. POLY-CHEMICRITTER DIOXOGRE" A monster that had been played before in this duel came back now; the half ox/crab mutant Dioxogre(8/2800/200). Luckily its usually destructive effect was sealed as long as it wasn't normal summoned again. Catalyst Field could not activate its effect twice in one turn. "BATTLE." Still, Tory's Abyss Actor Superstar(7/2500/1800) was no match for the Methane mutant. It crushed the unfortunate actor with its crab pincers. Meanwhile Chemical Beast Dioxogre smacked its tail into Tory with a direct attack. "Gaahhh!" The enemy was clearly using solid visions. "Tory!" Stonewell couldn't watch anymore and slammed against the glass plate. "It is no use. She cannot hear us." Adamant grunted. This form of interrogation was very irregular.

Tory's LP: 4700

"Tch. You think I will break just from that? Your mistake was giving me a fighting chance, buddy." Tory's turn; she drew one card. "You wanted me to finish this quickly right? Then I will!" She normal summoned another Abyssal Actor, the Sassy Rookie(4/1700/1000). "I activate Evil Heel's effect!" The muscular pendulum demon tributed the Sassy Actor. Afterwards one of the opponents monsters would lose attackpoints equal to the attackpoints of the tribute. "METHYDRACO PREVENTS TARGETING ON OTHER CHEMICRITTERS." The machine explained. "Yeah... yeah I know." She targeted Methydraco(1300/3000). "Just stop talking! I'd rather listen to Silver than you... Pendulum summon!" With Evil Heel (scale 1) and Funky Comedian (scale 8), Tory could pendulum summon Superstar and Sassy Rookie from the extra deck. And she also summoned Abyss Actors Wild Hope(4/1600/1200) and Leading Lady, the purple skinned and blue pigtail-haired diva(4/1500/1000) from her hand. "I activate Superstar's effect!" Thanks to the lead male actor, Tory could get one of their script spells from the deck and set it down. "I choose Abyss Script - Resurrection at the Climax! And I flip it!" The spell affected her entourage. "Here you go, 400 points of damage for each Abyss Actor!" All four monsters released a bolt of lighting that struck the enemy.

Chemist's LP: 5600

Abyss Script - Resurrection at the Climax, Normal Spell
Your opponent loses 400 LP for each "Abyss Actor" monster you control.
If this set card in its owner's control is destroyed by an opponent's card effect while you have a face-up "Abyss Actor" Pendulum Monster(s) in your Extra Deck:
You can special summon 1 "Abyss Actor" monster from your extra deck or graveyard. You can only use each effect of "Abyss Script - Climactic Act" once per turn.

"And that was in fact... the opening act." Tory activated two more card effects. "Wild Hope!" The gunslinging cowboy(2000/1200) gave himself 100 attackpoints for each Abyss Actor on the field as a monster. "Funky Comedian!" The heavyset fiend comedian could tribute one Abyss Actor to raise another Actors attackpoints by the tribute's own amount. "Sassy Rookie leaves the stage again!" The Rookie was sacrificed and the Superstar(4200/1800) was the one who received his power. "Attack Methydraco!" Since the Vola-Chemicritter protected all other Critters from any kind of targeting, it also had to be attacked first. That fit in right with her play. The super actor donned his sassy-rookie clothes and slapped right the XYZ-monster in its horned face.

Chemist's LP: 3500

"Aha! Now you're toast!" Her other Actors sprung into action. "Now that you took a hit, Leading Lady's effect activates! Your monster will lose attackpoints equal to the damage!" The leading lady waved her paintbrush around, splattering stars on Chemicritter Dioxogre. Superstar caused 2900 points of damage with his attack, so Dioxogre(0/200) lost everything once Leading Lady subtracted 2900 attackpoints. "Double attack!" The Heroine finished the double-oxygen mutant off with her right claw, cracking it open like glass. "Get lost!" And with a pinpoint shot from Wild Hope's gun, the remainder of the Chemist drone's lifepoints were blasted away. "How was that? A perfect victory!"

Chemist's LP: 0

"TWO-TURN DEFEAT ESTABLISHED. ADJUSTING LEVELS, MOVING ON TO NEXT TRIAL." But the machine was still not satisfied. "What? No! Come on! How many more of these are you going to make me do? What's the point?" They'd been going at it for hours now, with hardly any time to rest in between. And if she did rest, it was not by choice.

Chemist's LP: 8000

Luckily, that would change. And her stroke of luck took the shape of a large explosion that blew a hole in the wall around her. "Tory!" Her rescuers dashed through the smoke; Stonewell, Adamant and a now missile-less Raidraptor Rise Falcon. "What on earth? Eric? What are you doing here? How did you.. " Tory could not quite process what was physically happening. "It's a long story. I couldn't have done it without some help." Stonewell gave a strong nod to Adamant. "First, let's get you out of this madhouse!" He tried to pull her arm, and his audacity was rewarded with a static shock. "Ngh. I can't.. I am still hooked up to this damn system. If I try to escape this place, I will just turn back into a card." Tory wailed. "What? Damn them!" Stonewell grabbed his dueldisk. "They're keeping you here, just to duel you into submission?" If they wanted a fight, they could go after him first. "I don't know! They don't even ask me questions anymore." Nothing today made sense to her. "This it not just interrogation." Adamant drew his own conclusions. "They're collecting data, duelist parameters." These trials served a different purpose. "This.. is how they create their Templars."

...

"The nerve of you people." Iria was still checking storage, when her darker reflection popped into existence. "Hello Silver." Iria lukewarmly greeted the hologram. The two Silvers had the same way of dealing with long-distance problems it seemed. And Silver had a lot to say. "I told you to stay out of this. One only enters this facility when there's a problem or malfunction the Templars cannot deal with. You only could have gotten in here with a golden seal. So I can only assume lord Nisell decided to second-guess his inquisitor." The Inquisitor narrowed her eye. "What do you think you can do? Really, the sad thing is that you came all this way for nothing. I already checked the database. Everything is where it should be." She scoffed. "Maybe. Or maybe there is something you overlooked, something you cannot find unless you're here in person. Sometimes a hands-on-approach just works better. You can either let me continue, or challenge me. I am sure lord Uno would approve of the latter."

"Ho. Now there's the determination I was hoping to see from my supposed counterpart. But it is misplaced. There is nothing that my eye could have missed, that yours..." Silver's eye was drawn towards one card. The same card Iria was looking at. "A card that shouldn't be here, perhaps?" Iria pulled it out from the end of the rack. "That's not possible. The computer has no record on this card.." It was an anonymous card, identifiable only by the face on the image. "Then someone wanted to hide this here, and keep it off the grid." Iria turned the card around. "..!" Her hands trembled. "I knew it.." It was a face only she would recognize, it was Master Dom. "Impossible." The Inquisitor was speechless. "Silver. Tell me how to reverse the process!" Iria wanted to know, now. "Hmph.. insert the card into the top slot of the computer. I will do the rest." Silver shared her interest in this one instance. This card was here, when every digital record said otherwise. "You had better do so." The disciple placed the card inside the machine. The holographic Inquisitor then started some sort of process which made the wires glow orange and yellow. "His energy has been collected, he should appear now."

One of the lights on the ceiling shot a beam down to the floor. Much like how a dueldisk materialized a monster card, a human figure materialized in this beam. "Master.." He was back in all his glory; in his dazzling glitter coat, his flashy gloves and popped collar. All he lacked was his dome-mask. His face was fully revealed, wavy black hair, long mustache and blue eyes. "Master Dom!" She shouted again. He turned to her. "..Master? Why are you calling me that? Who are you?" Her face fell. "Who.. am I? Sir.. this is not the time to make jokes." Dom often played the fool, yet she knew he had a serious side. "Lady. That was no joke. I would know if I met you before." And he was serious. He did not recognize her. "This is the man you looked for all this time? Hah. Now that is a good joke." Silver laughed.

...

"Figures. Finally get some time off, and the thing wont work!" What good was a communicator if the place he was trying to reach could not receive messages? Of course none of them knew that beforehand, but it looked like Uno would not be able to get in touch with Iria until they returned from the Facility. "you look so worried, Uno. i wish you would tell me more about those worries." Naturally, family was never far away. After the tour, Marco returned to the throne room for the latest round of discussions. Anastasia never really left his side. "It's a lot of things really. My friends on one hand, this whole place on the other." This girl had some disarming effect on her. He felt like he could tell her anything she wanted to hear. "I don't think I should try to be what Marco wants me to be. I've lost that." He couldn't remember a single thing he learned today. "that was.. who you were before too. you never were interested in controlling the union. marco is trying to help you in his way, but maybe he doesn't see that your power falls elsewhere." She placed her hand on his chest. "how was it, your duel against that thief?"

"Ehr.. " He backed up a bit. "Okay? I guess? I didn't need the pendulum to win. I still had.. wait." He remembered now. "When I summoned Enlightenment Paladin, I felt strange... groggy. I thought maybe that was because I wasn't using the pendulum at the time. But now I don't know." He took the card out from his pocket. "did this happen before? if the cards are making you feel ill, then they want to tell you something." Her words had a familiar ring to them. "Yeah. When I used an XYZ-monster, the same thing happened. But.." Maybe it was time to come clean with her, about the Prophecy sisters. Now that Alice had seen them too, their secret couldn't be kept for much longer anyway. "you want me to help you?" Anastasia had her own proposal though. "Help me? Like the last time?" It sounded like another duel offer. "like all times. let me do this, uno. i already told you,.. the spiritual road can take you to your past, not the material. father would have agreed."

He looked at her and back at the throne room in the distance. "..I guess I am a lousy prince." He needed more, to learn more about this power inside him and the pendulum. He had to figure out how to do what Tempus could do. Uno was telling himself that, that it was all needed to save everyone. But there was a part of him, that also wanted it. "Let's do it."

(To be Continued in Redux 054: Master and Apprentice)

New Cards used by Tory
Abyss Actor - Leading Lady

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Abyss Script - Resurrection at the Climax

Cards used by 'The Chemist'
Chemicritter Oxy Ox
Poly-Chemicritter Hydragon
Poly-Chemicritter Dioxogre

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Vola-Chemicritter Methydraco

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Catalyst Field