The Rise and Fall of History: A Past Unseen

by Medigo

The world of dueling has reached a standstill. Many stories have been told through these cards, and the final story pits every side against each other. It is a game no more. Duelists are divided, and an unknown enemy watches from afar. In the midst of all this chaos is one man who brings a new power that can forever end the conflict; a stranger to this world and to himself.

11. Accept no Substitutes

Annex 011: Accept no Substitutes

Uno did not sleep well that night. New figures occupied his dreams. June, Iria, the guilds; their faces floated in the dark like a murder of angry crows. One was after him, he was after the other, and the rest controlled the lands. What was with this world, why did nothing look like he expected it to? He did not know himself. Yet he knew how things worked. The earth changed.. but when?

The next morning, everyone met for breakfast. Despite the mainframe's best efforts, further searches came up with nothing. "Maybe we can ask mom? She knows people who would know everyone." Alice proposed the to-them-familiar government angle. "They would?" Uno snapped out of his trance when he heard her. "Yeah. Not because they asked us nicely, either. Five years ago they passed some kind of law to put every man, woman and child in a special registry. I didn't even know what a passport was, and now I had to get this." Emily did not have fond memories of that time. "Mom was there to help. Without her.." Alice cut her words short. "..I hope we get to see her soon. We're going soon arent we?"

"But what about that woman? She's important, for Uno!" Eric had a different topic. "If we run into her again, we'll need better cards! We should get them from a guild, or the shops!" He was no longer blaming himself for his failures, but his cards. In his mind, if he had stronger cards like synchro or fusion monsters, he would definitively have beaten June. "Who says we want to run into her again? Better question, why not just deck her in the face if she shows up again?" For certain problems, you just needed to be straightforward. That was Emily's recommendation. "But do you think it is a coincidence?" Uno finally voiced his concerns. "She shows up the night that we arrive here. And we know that she can somehow delude people, make them forget they ever saw her." Eric was evidence of it, the entire guild was. And if that was true, he had to find out if she caused his amnesia. "But how does she do it? Can she hypnotize people? Maybe she can do magic?" Uno wondered. "Yeah no." Emily was not even going to entertain that theory. "I think you should just stay away from her. Or else you might forget everything a second time."

"Good morning." Cassius now joined the four. "I hope you slept well. This may not be a five-star hotel, but we never get complaints." He tried to give them a calming welcome, but his voice sounded a little slower than usual. "Aaron. What are you doing?" This usually meant that he had practiced what he wanted to say. "..I tried to put you in the right mindset, Em, so you wouldn't panic." Cassius sighed. "I think saying 'panic' is enough to start a panic, if you ask me." In his own way, Uno urged Cassius to spit it out already. "I suppose you have a point. It's like this. The other members of the guild and I decided to inform Dreamworld about the invasion, which I did just a few minutes ago. They may be able to do something that we can't. I didn't tell them about you though." They hadn't asked, so he couldn't be called a liar. "But?" Cassius still sounded apologetic though. Probably because things were never that easy. "They still wanted to send people over here to search through the area. They might still think that you were here tonight." If anything, Dreamworld did not inquire about the four, because the company wanted to catch them off guard. "Then we have to go, don't we?"

"No. You don't have to do anything. This is not a black and white case. If you stay here, I can protect you." Cassius reached out to them, to Emily in particular. "You trust me, don't you Emily? The guild respects me, they will work with me to talk some sense into people like Iria." He wanted to hear her answer. He was waiting. "Aaron. I.. I do trust you. But I don't want to get you in hot water." She did not know what she wanted. Her sister already said that she wanted to go, Eric wanted to get revenge, and Uno wanted answers. But Uno didn't want the guild to get in 'hot water' either. "Emily, if the choice is too hard. Let me make it. I could stay. Or we could do it the other way around. Cassius.. Did Dreamworld say anything about this case to you?"

"They did not give me much. They're working under the assumption that this June person was part of a black market organization. Dreamworld has has problems with counterfeits lately. Maybe that is how June broke in, with a forged pass." And with the data from the mainframe, one could copy a lot more things that were supposed to be unique to the Synchro guild. "Then maybe, they're the ones. That woman, or whoever she works for. Maybe she tried to frame me.. somehow. I should be the one to look into it. I should leave."

"If Uno is leaving, I want to leave too." Alice made a choice too. "I know what you are going to say, Em, but I don't want to. I want to help Uno. He helped me too.." Nobody was going to talk her out of it. "Alice.. you can't..." Her sister wanted to tell her that she should know when to let go. But Alice would only fight her more on this. She looked to Uno for help. He got the hint. "Alice. You're nice, and I am glad you want to help me. But we shouldn't take this too far." Uno's plan was to compromise. "I will take you to your mother, like I said I would. If, along the way, something pops up. Then you, Emily and Eric, can back me up. Is that okay?" That is how far he was going to take it. And he knew the girl wanted to see her mother as well. "Okay." Though she sounded disappointed, Alice went along with it.

"Then you are all going to be needing these." Cassius could see where this was headed. He handed Uno and the girls three synchro-guild class dueldisks. "It will be less noticeable than your model, Dreamworld will just think you're temps from the guild if you log on to the network. This way you can defend yourselves." Eric already had his abd Cassius had something to tell him. "Eric. If you want to become a better duelist, you can always try out here for sign-up duel. Or at any guild-sponsored location..Keep the ID-tags. Our doors will always be open." Eric did not open his mouth but he nodded appreciatively. For now, he was okay with leaving. "Thanks for everything, Aaron." Emily shook his hand. "I did what any friend would do. It was nice seeing you and I hope we meet again.. soon and under better circumstances."

...

All was said and done. The gang departed in their own pickup truck, returning to the big roads. Despite Uno's forecast, getting into the city was largely uneventful. Aside from being unable to contact either of their parents, there were no problems. Eventually, they found a place to park, all the way downtown. "Okay it's a bit far off, but this is the best we can do." The hotel where their mother stayed was a dozen blocks away, but at least they didn't have much to carry. "We're going there in a straight manner. No distractions.. Alice, that means you too!" Emily shouted at her sister as she started chasing the first cat she saw on the streets. "Aw, but.. it wanted to play." Alice couldn't ignore something that cute. Especially not when the Brandt family never had any pets of their own. "We will see plenty more cats, I bet my cards on it. But Emily is right. We need to make progress." As Uno was talking, he meditated on his options. "Do you think she'd want to meet me?" This could have been a moment to part ways, even if he did not prefer to do so right now. Emily agreed. "We'll see about that when we get there. Plus, you'd get lost if you wander off now."

So they walked down the roads, using the map on the dueldisk to find their destination. Uno was worried at first that they'd draw attention. But to his astonishment, they were not the only ones walking about like this. "This game is that popular huh?" Duelists were in every city block, walking around with all kinds of dueldisks. Uno saw a lot of wondrous things in this large metropolis, but that was the strangest of all.. After a while, the hotel was in their sights. Yet once they were inside, a new obstacle presented itself. "Brandt. B-R-A-N-D-T." Emily checked with the desk clerk. He told them that nobody was registered here under that name. Then his manager showed to tell everyone to wait. And so on. "You don't think anything happened, do you?" Alice did not like not knowing where her mother was, and that this hotel didn't seem to know either. "No. I think this place is just inept. Nothing we can do about it." They just had to sit and wait. The hotel just had to sort oit out.

"Hey..If we can't do anything here, can we go to the shop?" Eric spotted cardgame shop, The Vice, a few streets back. But he didn't want to bring it up until now. "What did I say about distractions?" Now that they had gotten this far, Emily did not want to backtrack. "You can stay. But I want to go and see it." It was not as if she could tell him what not to do, he felt. It was his allowance to spend. "I'll come with you. I can help you decide what cards you should buy." That was probably the last thing Uno could do for his friends. "..Well. Only one of needs to stay." Emily considered it for a moment. "Thanks sis!" But Alice, Eric and Uno were already taking that as approval and checked out. "Hey!"

Moments later they were at the alleged shop. "Hmm.. Now I feel bad about leaving sis. Maybe I should..oooooh. Look at all the stuff." The inside provided so much visual stimuli, that any guilt was quickly shoved to the back of Alice's mind. It had everything duel-related; from boosterpacks and sets to duel monster figurines and DVDs. "There are shows about this?" Uno was not even surprised anymore. "Oh hell yes. I hope they sell extra deck monsters here. The disk didnt show this place on the map." Eric did not know where to begin, or how much to spend. Inevitably the storekeeper caught on to his enthusiasm. "Ahoy there. What can I help you with? Or are you just browsing for now? That's cool too." He looked like a jovial fellow in his mid-twenties. Allthough his punk-styled outfit fit more with a man who was only trying to be 'hip with the kids'. "Do you have Synchro monsters? Or Fusion monsters!?" Eric knew what he wanted, and when he wanted it. Right now. "I do. See that?" The man tapped at his table, revealing three plates with symbols on it. "This store is guild-sanctioned." The first symbol they recognized; the white dragon of Synchro. The XYZ-plack had an symmetrical black symbol with wings. The Fusion symbol was a purple vortex with an eye in the middle.

"Awesome!... Maybe I should go for fusion? What would be practical?" Fighting fire with fire was the phrase Eric was working with. It'd also help him understand his enemy's dueling style better. "Don't you want something that looks cool too?" Alice knew Eric wouldn't want to play with something like fairies or heroes. "We can do both. Hey, storekeep?" Uno had a new plan. "Please, call me Vice. And yes?" The keeper replied. "Do you have a back-room for duels?" He assumed that people could also come here to fight each other. He never saw any duels on the streets. "I'll do you better... I got a basement."

Vice led everyone to the floor below. This level was for storage, but also for practice. "Do you want to just use cards, or try out the newest disk model?" There was an arena big enough for the kind of duel most people were used to. "We have disks already. I just want to try out some cards and see how badass they are in 3D!" Eric was, if nothing else, entirely overt about his desires. "Hmm. Fusions are not as generic as other cards.. so. Maybe some zombies will do?" Uno saw a testdeck that Eric would find interesting, it was cheap enough too. Almost too cheap. "Yes. Yes!" Eric bought it in a heartbeat. "Can I try too?" Alice did not need a testdeck herself. She was satisfied with her Mermails. But she did want to have some fun. "Sure." Vice opened the arena for them. He also gave Eric his cards. "Sweeeeet." Just holding new actual cards was such an exhilarating sensation. Gone was the Stonewell who needed to scrounge together a deck, now he could be a real duelist.

Alice's LP: 8000 Eric's LP: 8000

"I will go first. So you can attack first." Alice smiled. She did not really mind how this duel would begin or end. "I summon Mermail Abysslinde and I set a trap card face-down." Her one Mermail(4/1500/1200) would be his target. "Your move, Eric." Uno said. He hoped the kid had drawn what he needed already. "Okay! Fusion monster, check." Eric first made sure what fusion monsters he had. "This one needs two zombies as materials." Those were easy to acquire, but Eric was not sure how to get them on his field. "Wait. I remember." He looked at a spell in his hand. "I need this, Polymerization!" His disk was telling him that he could play it, so he did. "You got it. June fused her monsters in a different way. Every other time, it is done with a fusion spell." Uno explained. "So.." Polymerization was activated and Eric could throw any two of his monsters into it. "I guess I will combine Skelesaurus with Mezuki!" An oni-zombie and a dead dinosaur were mixed together. "I fusion summon Dragonecro Nethersoul Dragon!" Eric took the card from his extra deck slot. A snake-like hell dragon(8/3000/0) with clawspikes all over its body was formed. Now this was up his alley.

"Creepy. What does it do?" Alice hadn't seen this card before, naturally. "Dragonecro.. just listen to that name.. Dragonecro can't kill, because it sucks the soul out of monsters!" That was how he put it. "Also." He went one step further and activated an effect from his graveyard. "I can banish Mezuki from my cemetery, to bring back another undead monster to life!" Eric removed the oni and the skeleton dinosaur(4/1700/1400) was what he special summoned from the cemetery. "Skelesaur is one of those gemini monsters." A Gemini had to be normal summoned after it was already on the field, before it could use its powers. This was what Eric did next. "I resummon Skelesaurus, now he can zombify its victims!" If Skelesaurus fought Mermail Abysslinde now, the mermaid would be special summoned to his field after her death. She would come back as a zombie-type. "Attack!" The Nethersoul Dragon attacked first and hit the Mermail. "Eeh." Abysslinde's soul was sucked out. She was not destroyed, but her(0/1200) energy was drained and her attack and defense points formed a token(4/1500/1200) on Eric's side.

Alice's LP: 6500

"I.." Eric was ready to attack with Skelesaurus, when unexpectedly, his Nethersoul dragon blew up. "Eh..What?" The card was still there, wasn't it? "It wasn't me." Alice had not used any effect to destroy it. "Then..huh?" Now the dueldisk was even giving Eric an error message. "It's rejecting the card?" Uno glared at the shopkeeper. "What? It shouldn't.." Vice was stammering, looking for an answer. But his eyes narrowed when he took a closer look at Eric's dueldisk. "No.. Guild-disks? I thought I caught up with.." He noticed a little too late that everyone was staring at him. "You gave Eric a fake card?" If Cassius' disk was rejecting the card, then it was probably even guild-sanctioned at all. "They don't know what's illegal these days. It's a simple glitch. I can fix it!"

"If you say it, does that make it true?."

"Of co... wait who said that?" The shopkeeper didn't even realize at first that it wasn't one of the kids voices. "Oh no." But it was a voice the kids recognized. That refined tone was exactly like.. "Iria!" .. hers. "She's here?" The woman from dreamworld stood at the top of the stairs, and slowly made her way down. "You children have superb observation skills." She remarked dryly. This time she did not meet them as a hologram, her presence was physical. "You found us?" Eric gasped again, making the woman sigh with frustration. "Is that not obvious? Or are you wondering, how I located you? It was easy to do, we knew a relative of yours was staying in this city." She was referring to Mrs. Brandt. "Mom!? You saw mom? Are you the reason why she couldn't see us?" Alice did not want to think about what had happened between those two. "I was waiting for you at the hotel. But I did not do anything to her. What do you take me for?" Iria then directed her cold stare at Uno. "I did not expect you to divert your path here. Nor... did I expect to encounter.. a counterfeiter."

"Say what? You're accusing me of counterfeiting? Who do you think you are?" Vice huffed his chest in defiance. "Iria Silver, disciple of Dreamworld's Master." The flat response he got from her, quickly deflated his spirit. "Dr-dr-dreamworld?" He started to shiver and walked backwards. "There is no point in escaping. I already placed a barrier around this level." She was still good at making those. They hadn't even noticed. "What are you going to do? Iria?" Uno couldn't tell whether she was here for them or for Vice. "I came to meet you. But now that I find this.. questionable example of a merchant for our materials, I have to perform my duty." The woman unfolded the dueldisk that was hidden in her sleeve. "I do not believe in coincidences. This shop is too close to the site of the incident. There has been plenty of evidence of an illegal circuit in the system. It is time for us find out if you are a part of it, mister Vice." Vice almost seemed to calm down a bit, when he heard how he was being challenged. "You're asking for a duel?"

"If you truly sell official cards. Then you will have no problem using them against me without getting them to 'glitch' out. If not.. then these kids will see what happens to those who cross Dreamworld."

(To be Continued in Annex 012: Elementary)

New Cards used by Eric Stonewell
Mezuki
Skelesaurus

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Dragonecro Nethersoul Dragon

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Polymerization