Annex 003: The Theater comes to Town

Bobs LP: 2400 Eric's LP: 6200

"How the hell did you do that?" Nothing added up here; from the monsters that acted like spells to the return of Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon(7/2500/2000). Uno had summoned three monsters in one turn. The dragon was flanked on both sides by Performapals, a pink mole(2/600/1000) in a cheerleaders outfit and Whip Snake(4/1700/900). "I remembered what my deck was meant to do. This is Pendulum summon." Uno pointed to both ends of his field, to the pillars of light. Stargazer the white magician and Timegazer the darkred magician. "The Gazers are pendulum monsters; half monster/half-spell. I can summon them to use their monster effects or activate them as spells in their very own pendulum zones." The Magicians had a number printed besides their spell effect text, a blue and red scale. "Stargazer on the left has a scale of 1, Timegazer on the right has a scale of 8. When I control two scales, I can Pendulum Summon monsters as long as their levels lie between the scales." He had summoned monsters from the 2nd to the 7th level.

"So a special summon then?" Emily was beginning to understand. Uno nodded. "Okay, then why is the dragon back? I killed it" Eric could accept summoning cards from the hand, but reviving monsters at the same time was too broken. "Because it never died. Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon is a Pendulum monster as well. When a Pendulum monster on the field dies, it is not sent to the grave but to the extra deck. There it waits in face-up position. You see, a Pendulum summon can also resummon any Pendulum monster in the extra deck." Uno directed his finger towards Eric. "That was the exposition, now for the action!" Performapal Whip Snake activated its effect. Volcanic Doomfire(8/2400/1200) was hypnotized by the serpent, and its(1200/2400) defense and attackpoints were switched around. "Newcomer Performapal Cheermole, show them your dance!" The mole did her own routine, waving her pompons. This motion made the lava devil(200/2400) even more drowsy. "Cheermole can give or take away 1000 attackpoints, to a monster who already had its points messed with!"

"Guh." Erics mighty devil was as helpless as a baby now. Especially in front of this Pendulum dragon. "I 'm glad for your participation, Eric! But the show has reached the climax! Odd-Eyed, attack the Volcanic Devil!" The orbs on the dragons wingspiked began to gather energy and power. "Oh no. There is still room for one surprise! I will not lose now!" Desperate, Eric moved his hand over his trap card. "I am gonna.. gonna..why isn't it working?" But try as he might, he could not reverse the card. "Sorry, Eric. I kept one trick in reserve! The gazer magicians have effects while they are spell cards too! When Timegazer Magician is set as a scale, my opponent cannot activate trap cards during a Pendulum monsters attack!" Uno said, just before his words were drowned out by the furious blast from the Pendulum Dragon. "No!" Volcanic Doomfire did not survive the forceful attack, it was returned to the earth. "And.." Eric took the 2300 points of battle damage twice over, due to the effect of Odd-Eyed Pendulum Dragon.

Eric's LP: 1600

"My pals, have a taste of success!" The decisive blows were given. Performapal Cheermole buried Erics Watchdog(1/0/0) under her pompons and the Whip Snake slapped Erics lifepoints away with his heart-tipped tail. "Aaand that's a wrap!"

Eric's LP: 0

"What did you...that was.." The duel had finally wound down, all holograms created by the disk faded. "That was amazing!" Alice yelled and started clapping. This topped everything she had seen today already. "Uh.. yeah." A slightly dazed Emily said. The spectacle of it all outweighed the fact that she'd barely followed the moves he made. "Duels look like this now?" Needless to say, this was the first Pendulum summon any of them had ever witnessed. "You.." Then there was Eric, the one who had to suffer the power directly. "Uno, you showed me something. I thought I was good before. I was wrong as hell. No wonder I couldn't win!" Two emotions burned inside; rage.. and desire. "Teach me how to do it. I want it! I want to do the things you can do! A power like that can take the tournament scene like a storm!" His eyes gave his passions away. He was not looking at the present anymore, but at a future filled with glory. "Ah, well. There is a problem. I know how to use these cards, not where I got them from. I don't have any more than what I got."

"Emily, Alice! Is everything okay in here?"

Before the matter could discussed any further, Mr. Brandt entered the house, looking like he had run from a stampede. "Dad? Oh.. you saw the.." Emily could imagine what got him this spooked. "The light that came through the windows? Of course I did. The whole town did." Apparently Uno's lightshow had been catching a lot of attention. "Eric, what were you doing?" James picked a few pieces of the puzzle right there; Erics presence and the dueldisks that were being worn. "Don't blame the guy. I was the one who started the duel. I don't think we had any collateral damage." It was not as if holograms could physically interact with objects, the living room was still the same. "And I feel more awake now. I'm getting the hang of this." That vibe that ran through Uno's body throughout the duel; that was the power of admiration. To dazzle the audience, to shock them. That filled him with joy. He could forget his own forgetfulness in such times.

"You look it. But there is a limit to how much excitement people should get for one day." Brandt pointed out the time on the clock. The eleventh hour was fast approaching. "That's not that late! This is summer, we can stay up as long as we want!" Eric protested. Mostly because he wanted to duel Uno again. "That's not really up to me, Eric. I do not mind that you come to visit but I spoke with your mother. She told me in no uncertain terms that I had to make sure you got back home." He stared at him. "Oh she said that? Ergh. Gotta go." Eric did not need to be told twice. "See ya tomorrow!" He vanished out the door. "He left his coat.." Emily sighed after a brief period of silence.

"You spoke with Mrs Stonewell? Did you ask her too? Did it help, did anyone say anything?" Alice had a hopeful look on her face, while her father did not. "I am sorry.. Uno. I asked everyone. Nobody heard of your name, or seen your face before. The local police hasn't heard any reported missing persons either. You're probably not from around here. Another reason to take you to the city, they'll know more." If the hospital could not cure his amnesia, perhaps city hall could find some records on the man. These days almost everyone's ID was stored somewhere. "Thanks, James. I trust it will work. I mean, I am pretty recognizable!" Uno put his red shades on. He was sure that he had left an impression somewhere. "Who knows, maybe people have been looking for you too." Emily suggested. "Of course they are. He has got to have a family." Alice claimed rather intensely. "..You will find them, or they will find you. That has to happen.. nobody should be without a family."

"Alright, alright, settle down. We'll continue this in the morning. Now you should go to bed, okay?" Dad was putting his foot down. "Okay, dad." After all, no work would get done this late in the day.

...

That same night, in a tall building far from the town, a Master and his two Disciples had a report to discuss. "So they ran every check possible. Whatever caused the distortion, it happened during a duel, to one players extra deck. The first time it was only there for a few seconds, the second time it lasted long enough to scramble the records. None of our divisions have experienced a malfunction of this type before. Since both disks were set to private, we cannot check the duel log. But we can confirm that it wasn't a Fusion, Synchro or XYZ-summon. That was to be expected, as there are no Guild bases in that region." Creffield did his best to explain the situation to his boss as he sat in his swivel-chair, looking over the printouts. "That is a rather poor excuse for them to give up and pass it over to us." The other disciple scoffed. She made it very clear that she was displeased with the results. "There is an explanation for everything. They simply have not tried hard enough."

"Exactly, Silver. There is an explanation." The man in the chair spoke up. There was a strange echo to his voice. "These types of readings are consistent with something that we have been working on." He explained, to the surprise of Creffield. "Sir?" This was the first he heard of that. "Not gonna spoil it yet, Creffield. But I will say that this duelist, whoever he is, shouldn't have been able to get his hands on the cards he played." The master snapped his finger. "Send someone over there, pronto. This demands immediate attention." He claimed. "Yes sir, I will go myself." Creffield got up immediately. "It would be better to send some of the troops, Creffield. It would take you all night to cross that distance." Ms. Silver favored a quicker approach. "And scare the people? Nonsense. Some things you just have to do yourself."

...

The darkest hours came and Uno was vast asleep. Brandt gave him the couch for the night, which was more than adequate. It was no kingsize bed, but as soon as he lied down his body realized how tired it was and he rapidly drifted away into unconsciousness. Uno planned to stay in his dreams for a long long time. The first few moments were pleasant visions. He got images of the people he met, and duels he performed in front of them. It was nice, but he wanted more. He got his wish; an eternity condensed into one flash. A second later, his eyes opened. "..." Uno looked around as if he expected to be somewhere else, to be someone else. He wasn't. "C'mon." Too early, he needed more sleep. Unfortunately his body fought back. All the tossing and turning in the world could not get help him get tired again. He was awake in the dark room, alone with his thoughts. "No.. don't think about it.." Uno had seen something in that dream and he could not pretend that it had been just a dream. He'd been running, from four shadows, and he felt as if there were still chasing him in the real world. Uno clutched the jewel around his neck and took a deep breath. "Ugh." He got up and walked out the room, past the stairs.

"Where are you going?"

He did not get to make another step. Emily? You're up?" How late was it now? He had hoped to avoid being seen. "I heard you make a noise downstairs. I'm a light sleeper.. Now answer my question." She did not sound happy with him. "...I just needed some fresh air. I couldn't sleep." Uno 'answered'. A half-truth was better than a full lie. "Then why are you taking that with you?" It would have helped the lie, if Uno had not strapped the dueldisk to his wrist. "...It feels nice?" His responses started to lose confidence. "...You saw something else, didn't you? When you did that thing with the pendulum." Anyone could see through the lie now, Uno was aiming to leave. Emily could only guess why. "I do not know what I saw." Uno finally told the truth, as best as he could. "I just know, that something wants what I have.. my pendulum. I can sense it. I tried to ignore it and pretend it wasn't there. No luck." Somebody would probably find it funny; how the memories he wanted were things he did not want to know. "I think I should go before everyone wakes up. I can't make a show of me leaving."

"You think we cannot help you? That we do not want to help you? Alice would.. " Emily nearly forget herself and stopped mid-sentence before she got too loud. This gave Uno a chance to speak. "The last thing I want is to see people get hurt. If I stay, that is what will happen." It was not as if he could tell her what scared him, he only had vague premonitions "I am glad for what you all did. You can have the other disk as a gift. But that is all I can do. I will find the city on my own." Uno was not that helpless. He knew the way by now, just from the tour he had taken earlier. You could not get lost in this town anyway. "You do not know.. Tch." Emily saw now that she could not stop him with her words. "Are you going to try and stop me?" Uno would not be surprise if she tried to pin him down though. The girl was tough. "No. I don't want to hurt you. Alice wouldn't want me to. Just go now..don't let her or dad see you. They're worse at goodbyes." If this was for the best, then it had to be done quickly. "Oh and look out for anyone associated with the guilds." She warned him. "Guilds?" Uno had not heard of them before. "They're part of the dueling organization. Sort of like elite clubs. If they know what you can do, they will not leave you alone." That was all the advice she could give him. "Thanks, Emily Brandt. I will not forget it... I hope." He bowed and headed outside. He did not see her again as the door closed behind him...

He did not see Alice looking down at him through the curtains of her room either.

...

"Emily! Emily! Uno's gone! Did you see him!?" Alice's cries could be heard early the next morning. She rushed into her sisters room as if she expected Emily to have all the answers. Mostly because their father was impossible to wake up in the early hours Emily was not getting much sleep today. "Ergh. Course not. Maybe he just woke up early and took a walk?" Now it was Emily's turn to lie. "Or he suddenly remembered something and he had to go check it? It could be that he had to leave.." Alice was not someone you could give bad news straight away. Even if you did, she had her way of denying it. "He wouldn't leave without saying goodbye! That'd just be rude." Alice said with a surly face. "He left his dueldisk here, he is gonna come back for it. I am sure!" As if to emphasize her optimistic viewpoint, the sound of the doorbell followed her words. "See!? That's probably him!" Alice walked out of the room and down the stairs, as the doorbell kept ringing. "How does she get that much energy at his hour?" Emily sighed. She had her doubts about Uno returning as well. But who else could it be?

"I'm getting it! Don't worry!" Alice managed to open the door. "Oh.." Her smile vanished. It was not Uno. It was another man flanked by two bodyguards. "I beg your pardon, little miss. But the melody of your doorbell was just so charming that I had to hear it a few more times." The one who spoke was dressed in formal black attire, and his light brown hair was slicked back. It was as far as one could get from Uno's haphazard appearance. His peculiar accent gave away that he was not just any man. "No problem. Can I help you?" Still, he looked and sounded friendly. "Ah, straight to the point. I like that. I will introduce myself first." He flipped a card out of his pocket. "The name is Zachariah Creffield; Zach, if you prefer. I represent DreamWorld Technologies. Have you heard of us?" Alice took the card and nodded her head. "Of course. You're the guys who make dueling cards." Which duelist hadn't heard of them? "Good. Then you might already guess what this is about. I will be frank. I am doing a survey of the area. Our tech department picked up a strange signal on the dueling network and traced it to this area. Would you know anything about it?"

"Not that we can say." Emily, now properly dressed, came into frame. She still looked quite exhausted. "Ah. Good morning miss. I hope I did not wake you. I was just doing the rounds. I don't mean to be a bother, but may I come inside?" He waited patiently, but he was not deterred by Emily's response. "Why? We already told you.." She was not budging either. Recalling Uno's words, she could not instantly trust this guy. "I'm sure its fine, Emily. Come in." Alice on the other hand readily moved out of his way. "Thank you. I wont be long." Zach made the two bodyguards stand watch outside the door. "Well, what a lovely house you have here." Zach moved in. "I just need to check something. The unusual signal came from an unregistered dueldisk." He raised his arm and a sleek blade of plastic slide out of his sleeve. It was his dueldisk, a green colored model with a curved disc. "My disk tells me the only other disk in town could be found right here. That is why my search began at your doorstep.".

"A dueldisk.." Emily muttered. This was everything but fantastic. This guy knew very well what he was after, but they could not hide it from him now. "Yeah we have one." It would be better to play along. The disk that Uno had left behind lied on the kitchen counter. "Ah. That'd be the one. Is it yours?" He moved towards her. "Yes." Emily instinctively held it close to her chest. She was not going to just hand it over to him. Zach in turn backed away. "Oh. Don't misunderstand me, I just wanted to analyze it. If it is yours, it should stay yours. I am just curious how a duel can take place with just one disk." He inquired, looking at both girls for a reaction. "Uh.. we." Alice did not want to mention Uno, but she couldn't think of a good lie either. "It's not what you are looking for. We haven't dueled with this. You should look somewhere else." Emily had her own solution, she did not want to sell out Uno either. She would force this man away if she had to. "There are many ways we can be doing this, you should know. The easy way would be to let me inspect that device. The hard way would be connect to it in a duel." Zach had not retracted his disk yet for a reason.

"Is that all? The hard way is fine with me." Emily shouted. "Emily?" Alice flinched. "Is this a fight?" The scene suddenlt got very tense. "Alice, stay back. If this guy wants a duel." She grabbed a pack of cards. "He can have it."

(To be Continued in Annex 004: Maid of Iron)

New Cards used by Uno
Performapal Cheermole