Annex 007: Crosswords at Crossroads

There they were, sitting on a bench in a big empty sport center. "This is not a good idea. What if he loses too?" There was not a single thing that Emily liked about this plan. "And what if those people come.." Her eyes drifted to the window all the time just for fear of Dreamworld goons turning up outside. "He'll make quick work of them. They won't see what's coming once he uses those Pendulum cards." Considering how fast Eric lost once Uno performed his pendulum summon, he could not see the duel ending any other way but with Uno's victory. "But the last time he pendulum summoned..they found our town. He knows that, so he might not even want to use those cards." Emily had not seen many of the Performapals tricks. But she did not think they could not stand up to something of Jets caliber. Who knew what Boris was using. "He didn't have to do this.. I said I was fine with it." Alice whimpered to herself. She did not feel she was worth it.

When it came down to it, none of them had the answer or the ability to get Uno off of his path. He was going to do this for them, for Alice. And it was all for one simple reason. They were his friends now. They had been for some time, but it was not until today that he completely acknowledged that fact. Though he slept only for a handful of minutes in that truck, he did dream... a normal dream. They were all in it. His life was a complete blank, except for them. He did not want to see them upset or lose them. If these guildpeople had not been around, Uno would have told them that right now. For now, it was showtime.

Boris' LP: 8000 Uno's LP: 8000

"Hey, I finally found the button that changes my name on the screen!" He waved to Eric and the girls in the crowd. "Already one step closer towards a perfect duel!" They did not look to enthusiastic. He would have to fix that. "Youre finally ready? Uno? You have the first turn." Boris, the opponent, was waiting. "Ready as I will ever be!" Uno drew five cards. "Allthough I suspect you guild guys just hand out first turns, so you can take the first draw and battle phases all to yourself. Well, I am gonna keep the crowd on edge!" He placed one trap card face-down and summoned a new monster. "Today our feature presentation will begin with a waterdancer.. on solid ground. I summon Performapal Skeeter Skimmer!" It was an orange boatsman insect(4/500/1600), with a literal boat on its back. Naturally this Performapal had a dashing top hat as well. "That ends this turn."

"The hell is that?" Boris did not know whether to laugh or to be disgusted. The main thing to take away from this was that the Guild seemed to be unfamiliar with Performapals. "It's weaksauce! Kill it, Boris!" Jet shouted from the sidelines. "That will not be hard. But.. its destruction will just be the tip of the iceberg." Boris' turn now; he normal summoned a horned fiendish knight(4/1900/1000) in silver armor, with a flowing red cape. "This guy is XX-Saber Boggartknight. His effect lets me special summon a X-Saber-monster from my hand. Which I'll be happy to do." What Boris special summoned was a small dragon lizard knight(1/200/300). "The Tuner monster, X-Saber Palomuro." He let the realization sink in for a moment, that he had the materials, before he initiated the process. "Boggartknight joins with Palomuro, and that makes X-Saber Wayne!" The tuned stars of the Beastly warrior and the reptile, synchro summoned a half-mummified cowboy(5/2100/400) in a tattered blue coat. "Of course, if you can't synchro summon on the first turn, you shouldn't be in the guild anyway."

"But why stop at one? X-Saber Wayne summons a level 4 or lower warrior!" The trigger effect of Wayne made him fire a shot at one card in Boris' hand. The card, a green armored knight(4/1800/800) with a frog-faced mask, was brought down to the field. "This time it's X-Saber Galahad. Since you are new to Sabers, I will explain his effect to you too. He gains 300 attackpoints when he fights another monster. But we aren't there yet! Since I control two Sabers, X-Saber Faultroll an summon himself from my hand!" Boris special summoned a futuristic knight(6/2400/1800) in neon cyber armor. "Ugh. Those knights are all over the place." Eric did not like these cards, or the fact that they kept coming. "Is that what you think? Wait until you see how well they work together! Faultroll can summon an X-saber from the graveyard!" The Cyber warrior planted his sword in the ground and dug up the X-Saber Palomuro card. The reptile tuner took form again. "And I synchro summon a level 7 monster from my extra deck!" Palomuro was combined with Faultroll. Their bursting stars gave life to a bare-chested brute of a knight(7/2500/1600). "X-Saber Souza!" Just like Jet before him, Boris had brought out two synchro monsters in just one turn. "That's the way!" Jet roared.

"Now let's do some bug hunting. I'll make this quick." The battle phase commenced. X-Saber Galahad(2100/800) plunged his spear into Skeeterskimmer. "Not that quick! This is not a one-man show, Boris!" Uno responded with flair, as he raised his arm above his head. "The crowd wants to see some of my tricks too! When Skeeterskimmer is attacked, he can negate the attack by switching himself to defense!" Skeeterskimmer closed the wings on its backs to form a sort of shield that deflected the masked warriors spear. "Yeah right. That is the kind of effect I'd expect from a bug. But it can't switch positions again!" Boris clenched his hand and ordered the second attack. "Wayne!" The cowboys guns fired several bullets at the Skeeter insect, ripped it open from the inside. Stars splattered everywhere. "Straight line." Uno was left for the X-Saber Souza. The brutish warrior shot forward with both his swords, towards a seemingly helpless Uno. "Uno, are you gonna let him hit you?!"

"Already on top of it, Emily!" Uno waited til the last possible second to reveal his trap card. "I activate Performapal Call. With this trap I may negate one direct attack, and add two Performapals from my deck to my hand. Their combined defense points cannot be greater than what the attacking monster's attackpoints. So who is down for some math?" Souza froze in its tracks. "I add Performapal Helpprincess and Hip Hippo!" The two monsters Uno added had 1200 and 800 defense points respectively, 2000 defense points combined. It fit the criteria of being lower than 2500 attackpoints. "Fancy that! Instead of losing one card, you helped me gain two whole new ones! Nothing to worry about." He hoped Emily was a bit more at ease now. "You're annoying to predict. That works in your favor, Uno." Boris placed one card down in the spell/trap zone. That was it for his turn. "But how are you at fighting back?"

"Oh. Want to get to the bigger stuff so soon? Maybe I should oblige." Uno drew a card. "..?" It was Timegazer Magician. "No.. not yet." Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon was already in his hand. It too had a scale, so it could be combined with Timegazer's scale to allow a pendulum summon. But he could only summon one card that way, and right now he did not want to use it. There should be enough in his deck to win without pendulums, he told himself. Unless X-Sabers had more secrets to show off. "I summon the Performapal Hip Hippo." The Pink Hippo(3/800/800) took center stage once more. "This time he will be joined by Performapal Helpprincess! She can special summon herself when I normal summon a Performapal." Uno's show had human guests too, Helpprincess was a peppy young demoness(4/1200/1200) with purple hair, purple dress and bowties all over. "Hip Hippo meanwhile.." Uno sacrificed both his monsters. "Added this twist. With his effect I can normal summon a level 7 monster, I summon Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon!"

"Now we're talking." Boris was a bit more thrilled to see a monster like the red dragon(7/2500/2000). It stood head and tail above his Sabers and the Performapals. "Nothing less for you, Boris. Here's the scoop. Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon doubles any battle damage when it fights another monster!" So to do the most damage, Uno targeted X-Saber Galahad. Galahad's own effect weakened it(1300/800) by 500 points if he was attacked by another monster. "Attack!" Odd-Eyed fired a blast of flames towards the warrior, burning it down to ashes. "Did you say.. Double the damage? That'd be 2400 points. Hah, pretty funny." Boris took the damage and immediately afterwards he flipped a quickplay spell card. "Saber Reflection! I heal the damage I take while I control a X-Saber-monster. And you lose those lifepoints instead!" The fire changed colors, from red to blue. "Uh oh." Uno became the victim of his own offense, as the flames returned to him. "Oh no. He couldn't even hit him with Odd-Eyes!" Eric was aghast. Things did not normally go that bad so fast. "I knew it." Emily was already imagining a loss at this rate.

Uno's LP: 5600

"Saber Reflection has a second effect. Kinda like a bonus. I can add a new Saber spell from my deck to my hand." Boris used this effect to add another Saber Reflection spell to his hand. "One more thing, Uno. When you destroy an X-Saber, a X-Saber Palomuro in the graveyard can be revived. It only costs 500 lifepoints." The guild duelist special summoned his reptilian tuner back to his field. Uno couldn't do much about that either. "Hmhmm. Turn over, I suppose."

Boris' LP: 7500

Boris drew his card and thought about his next move. "If I had known I would draw this card. I wouldn't have bothered with a second Saber Reflection. You're in luck, Uno." Boris normal summoned a green chameleon knight(1/200/1000). "XX-Saber Ragigura. When I summon this beastwarrior, a X-Saber card in the grave returns to my hand." Ragigura's effect retrieved X-Saber Faultroll. "No traps or spells either, so who needs Hyunlei? Why don't I make it a triple union!" Both Ragigura and X-Saber Wayne were removed, along with Palomuro. The three Sabers tuned into yet another X-Saber Souza(7/2500/1600) synchro monster. "Faultroll!" Boris could special summon the Cyberknight6/2400/1800) from his hand again, as he controlled two Saber monsters. And as soon as it was on the field, the X-Saber used his reviving ability to summon X-Saber Ragigura from the graveyard. "Let's try this again." Ragigura's effect could be used as many times as he wanted, so Boris took X-Saber Boggartknight back from his graveyard. "Now, you're just repeating yourself." Eric yelled. "Boohoo. I am not in this to show you new things, I am in this to win!"

As if to punctuate his sentence, the door to the hall slammed open. "!" Emily spun around, expecting to see a dozen bodyguards or cops to storm in. Instead it was just one man in biker gear. His face was obscured by his helmet. "Someone new? Did he come here to exercise?" It was what Alice expected of a place like this. "Ah.." Jet and Boris had a different attitude to this stranger though. "Chief.." One of complete awe and trepidation. "Chief? He's part of the same guild?" Emily looked closer now. His outfit had the mark of the Synchro Guild as well.

"Dueling only matters when you win? That's a sorry attitude to take, Boris." Said the man as he leaned against the wall. "I heard there was some noise down here. What have you two been up to?" His voice was light and quick. There were hardly any pauses between his words. "...?" It was strange. Emily thought he heard someone talk that way before, but she could not tell who this guy was as long as he kept the helmet on. "We did everything by the book, chief! They challenged us!" Jet tried to justify their current circumstances. Their Chief listened and shrugged. "That is your side of the story. What is theirs? Hey, friend. What is your name?" He asked Boris' opponent. "Uno. What is yours?" Uno returned the question. This guy was interesting. "They call me Cassius, or chief. You can use the former." He folded his arms and nodded his head. "And don't mind me. If this is on the level, I am sure it will all work out. Go on." He sat down. All he would do was watch. "Cassius eh? I guess you're the leader of this guild."

Though clearly unnerved, Boris returned to focusing on the duel. "I gotta amp it up now. I'll use something only a synchro duelist like me has access too; I activate Angel Baton! I can banish one card from my hand to draw two new cards!" Boris sent the reclaimed Boggartknight away into another dimension, and claimed his new cards. Neither of them were helpful to him right now however. "Hmph. I activate the effect of X-Saber Souza! When I tribute one X-Saber for him, he can destroy any monster he fights before damage calculation!" The first synchro Souza sacrificed the life of XX-Saber Ragigura. This tribute added an eerie glow to his swords. "So even though our monsters are equally matched, only yours will be going to the grave!" The brute charged into the fray. Souza cut down Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon with the glowing swords and ran right through him. "Too bad you don't have a trap this time, Uno!" The other X-Saber Souza and X-Saber Faultroll took out their weapons. They surrounded Uno and slashed at him from both sides. "I will set three cards face-down in my spell/trap zone. You will not like them." One of those had to be the second Saber Reflection he had added to his hand. "You'd be dead already if I had known the duel would be this easy!"

Uno's LP: 700

Angel Baton, Normal Spell
Activate only when you control 1 or more Synchro monsters.
Banish 1 card from your hand; draw 2 cards. You can only activate 1 'Angel Baton' per turn.

"Hold on." Cassius spoke up again. "Did neither of you notice?" He was homing in on something unique. "What do you mean?" Jet hadn't noticed. Neither did Boris. "You saw?" Alice knew what he was talking about though. When Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon died, it did not go the graveyard. "His monster went into the extra deck, and the dueldisk allowed it. Furthermore. That monster was colored oddly." Cassius had a keen eye. he had seen the orange and blue borders of the dragon. "Your monster was half-spell. I have never seen something like that, and I am a guild runner. What is going on here, Uno? You seem to be full of surprises."

"Cat is out of the bag, huh?" There was not much point to keeping secrets now, if this guy had caught on. Especially once Uno drew his next card; Stargazer Magician. "Et tu, deck?" Uno could not turn a deaf ear to his own cards, not along with everything else. "Well, Cassius. You're just in time for the special event!" First Uno normal summoned a monster, Performapal Swordfish(2/600/600). "Swordfish takes away 600 attack- and defense points from each monster on the field!" The fishy swords rained down on the synchro X-Sabers(1900/1000) and X-Saber Faultroll(1800/1200) "That is your special event? What a waste of a normal summon!" Jet laughed. Boris was less cocky, but he did not see an immediate threat either. "Heh." On the other hand Eric was grinning like a madman. He knew better. "He is gonna do it?" Even Alice found herself smiling again, as Uno's plan became clear. "Yes, that was my normal summon.. Now.. I will Pendulum summon!" Uno placed Stargazer Magician and Timegazer Magician in their pendulum zones.

"Pendulum summon!?"

"I can only do it once a turn, so pay attention. The Pendulum monsters are set as spells with special scales of 1 and 8. I will summon any monster from my hand with a level in between those numbers." Eric special summoned a new Performapal, a colorful circus scorpion(6/100/2300) made from toy boxes and kaleidoscopes. "And from my extra deck I can summon any face-up face-up Pendulum monster!" Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon escaped the extra deck, and roared at the enemy. "What..how?" Boris stammered. "That is a Pendulum summon, Boris!" Because monsters had been special summoned to Uno's field, Performapal Swordfish could strike again with its effect. Another downpour of swords assailed Faultroll(1200/600) and the Souzas(1300/400). "Dude, he must be cheating!" Jet stammered. "Apparently not.. Very interesting." Cassius wanted to see where this would go next.

"I activate Performapal Kaleidoscorpions effect!" The scorpion's tail fired off a beam of prismatic light. The beam encompassed all of Boris' monsters and copied their colors. "He will allow one of my monster to attack your special summoned monsters!" The copied colors were drawn across Odd-Eyed Pendulum Dragon, creating an orange and silver-white duplicate. "Monsters? All of them?" Three against three; the dragons were too strong for his warriors. This also meant that it would do him no good to use PX-Saber Palomuro's effect. If Boris special summoned it from the graveyard, Kaleidoscorpion would just give Odd-Eyes permission to attack that monster as well. "Bingo!" Uno pointed his finger at Boris. "Let's dance, Odd-Eyes!" The first duplicate attacked and blew X-Saber Faultroll to smithereens. Odd-Eyes own effect doubled the 1300 points of battle damage.

Boris' LP: 4900

"I still have face-down cards!" The saber duelist waved his hand over his set spell card. Saber Reflection would sort Uno out. "Oh sorry, you can't." Uno was right, neither spells nor traps would respond. "While Stargazer Magician is set in the pendulum zone, no spells can be activated during a Pendulum monsters attack!" Saber Reflection responded after damage calculation. But Stargazer's restrictions lasted for the entire damage step. "Speaking of which. I owe you two more.. " Uno raised two more fingers. "Bang!" Odd-Eyes and the other clone destroyed both X-Saber Souzas. Delivering a double dose of 1200 damage, that was multiplied again by their effects. "And now Performapal Sword Fish will attack directly!" The coup de grace would be delivered by the monster Boris himself had called weak. Saber Reflection was useless against a fatal hit.

Boris' LP: 100

"That's enough of that!." But now that something else was attacking, Boris was free to activate his trap and bring up a defense. "I activate Reinforce Truth to summon level 1 or 2 warrior from my deck; X-Saber Axel in defense mode!" Boris' trap could special summoned a blue armored knight(1/400/200) with the serrated sword. Swordfish was forced to kill that monster instead. "Ooh. Off by a hundred." Uno snapped his fingers. "Well, I think I'm getting what I want in one more turn. Or is this still too easy for you, Boris?!"

(To be Continued in Annex 008: Caught Up til Yesterday)

New Cards used by Uno
Performapal Skeeter Skimmer
Performapal Helpprincess
Performapal Kaleidoscorpion

-
Performapal Call

Cards used by Boris
XX-Saber Boggartknight
X-Saber Palomuro
X-Saber Galahad
X-Saber Faultroll
XX-Saber Ragigura
X-Saber Axel

X-Saber Wayne
X-Saber Souza

Saber Reflection
Angel Baton (+)
-
Reinforce Truth

(+ based on the Speed Spell from YGO 5Ds)