Annex 013: X Marks the Spot
Their encounter started unusually, so naturally it could only end unusually. After all that drama and maltreatment, Uno was given an invitation to their tournament instead. "Well. That was that." They did not even want Uno's cards or dueldisk. Zach did however place a monitoring device inside the disk, permanently connecting it to Dreamworlds network. "It wasn't my first choice for settling this." The disciple could tell Uno wasn't happy with it. Iria was already seated in her limousine, so he had a chance to say farewell by himself. "It will be over after the tournament. Just be glad that you can do what you want now. You're not in Kansas anymore after all." Zach dropped a line out of nowhere. "Huh?" It was meant to be a quote from a famous book. Uno did not recognize it. "Interesting. You don't even remember that? Iria sees that amnesia as a cover, but I think you are on the level." Zach had made enough excuses for Iria's behavior the last time. "Thanks." Uno began to see why it was Zach who usually did the legwork. Under different circumstances, they could have been friends. "I wish I could help out more. But the Masters orders are absolute. That's life."
The disciples were gone the next minute, the gang was free. They did not feel free. "A tournament. Why would he want you to enter the tournament?" Emily had no luck trying to figure out their logic, nor did she want too. "It sounds like fun though, seeing all those people duel." Alice wanted to see it for sure. Whether she would accept the invitation was another thing. Uno was the only one who actually had to enter. Though he would not be the only one if Eric had his way. "Seeing? I want to be in those duels!" He had scrounged up as much info as he could in the last hour. "The date and location will be announced at the capitol, it should be starting within the next three weeks. Makes sense, that's where Dreamworld Technologies has its main office." A lot of duelists called it the heart of all dueling. "In three weeks though? That'd mean you have to duel a lot of people, or join a guild." Alice remembered that Zach had left instructions as well. Only 64 duelists from the whole country could enter this tournament. Each guild alone had over a hundred members. This would not be easy.
"Em? Isn't that.." A catchy beat was playing inside Emily's jacket. It was a special ringtone that only she and her sister knew at heart. "Mom!" Emily hurried to answer the phone. "Mom? Is that you? Where were you?" She had so many questions and things to say. Their mother was quite overwhelmed. ["Honey, darling. Calm down. I was at a conference. I only heard about what happened just now. I would have called sooner if I knew."] Her voice alone steadied most of her daughters nerves. "Oh. It was work after all.." She passed the word to the others. The Brandts could breathe easy now. "Wait. You heard the story? How? Was it dad?" Emily guessed. ["No, it was your friend, Aaron. He called me to tell you about your new friend, Uno."] Mrs. Brandt revealed. "Aaron?" The fact that Cassius was making such calls and that her mother remembered Aaron from all those years ago, were both very surprising facts. "What else did he say?" Emily listened intently.
"Em? Can I talk to her too? Please?" Alice buzzed around her sister, waiting for her chance. "Of course." Emily handed the phone over after a while, and Alice chattered on about every fascinating detail of their adventures so far. Emily had to talk things out with Uno. "Mom says that dad didn't want to call us because his phone has been tapped. But Aaron claims that Dreamworld can't legally spy on conversations from the guilds, so he could reach out to both mom and dad." Without his truck, James could not do much of anything. "So your friend is helping us again." Uno had not expected that much out of the guy. He figured Cassius would be too busy with the guild. "Yeah. This means that if we want to talk to dad, we should call from one of the synchro guilds' hotspots. Mom could meet us there too." They couldn't go back to the castle, the sun would have set by the time they drove back there. "Then it sounds as if you have a plan." Uno was glad to hear it. "Sounds like it. What about you?"
"Me? Well, I still need to drive you, don't I?" Uno said quickly. "I don't want us to hold you back. We can take a cab if we have to.. Besides, shouldn't you at least go to a hospital?" They had put that off for days because of them being pursued. Now Uno had all the time in the world. "Ehhh.. I don't think that is going to do any good. What are they gonna tell me? I'm sorry but hitting yourself in the head with a hammer is not going to work?" Uno was not a simple case, and he had too many doubts. "Maybe you should try some hypnosis? I dunno, just an idea." Eric randomly suggested. "If you believe in that." Emily shook her head. She saw what really was going on here. "If you want to stick around with us, you only have to ask, Uno." She could tell he wasn't saying what he wanted to say. "I must be losing my touch if I am that obvious." Uno laughed. "Yes.. I do. I need time to figure out what I want to do." If this Master-person wanted him to enter his tournament, he would have to become close with one of the three guilds anyway. It might as well be the one that was already trying to lend him a hand.
...
On the map, only a few miles north of the city, was a golfcourse and clubhouse that the Synchro guild was a sponsor of. It would only take them a couple of minutes to get there with the pickup. On that trip Alice managed to run out of conversation material, and finally said goodbye to her mom. Eric still had plenty to talk about tho. He couldn't stop gushing about the tournament, and about Iria and her cards. "Okay, we're here!." Emily finally got away from all the talk, once they arrived at their destination. "Busy day.." A lot of cars were parked here, Uno noticed. "Are they going to let us in?" Ahead was the clubhouse. It looked really fancy, so much so that Alice was worried they didn't fit in. "If we show these ID-tags, they will have no choice." Emily trusted Aaron. He said that these Tags would work for every establishment. "Let's go.." The gang headed for the front door and Emily flashed the tag to the doorman. "Hi. We're with the guild. Can we use your phone? Uh, can we please use your phone?"
The doorman looked oddly uncomfortable when he saw the Tag. "Oof. You came in at quite a bad time, ma'am." He tried to hide it, but he was clearly troubled. "What kind of bad time?" Uno inquired. "Weeeelll.. there's a dispute going on. Did nobody tell you? I do not know how you duelists do this.." The doorman diverted their gaze to the scene that was taking place at the golf course. The lawn was covered with duelists. "This morning, several members from another club came down here to challenge those that were already here. I usually do not mind the duels, but these people are especially disruptive to the other customers." The doorman coughed. "I've said too much. You may enter, but I am not sure if you are allowed to stay for very long. This second club is talking about taking over." He opened the door for them. "Another Club? What club?" The answer was right in front of them. Looking through the window they could see several dozen duelists who all wore the same black uniform. On their shoulders was the winged symbol of the XYZ-guild. "Oh."
"Excuse us. Do you know what is happening here?" Alice approached one of the men in uniform. "Huh? More of you? Haven't you had enough yet?" The man sneered at them. "Hey if they want to take on Adamant, let them." Another XYZ-duelist chuckled. "Adamant?" Alice tried to spot who they were talking about. The crowd had formed a circle around an ongoing duel. "You haven't heard of him? Are you kidding me?" The first member said as if Alice had acted the greatest crime known to man. "I should've? Can you teach me who he is then?" This guy he must have been important. Maybe he was their 'Cassius'. "I can't believe you have to ask that! Adamant is our leader!" The duelist was getting tired of being offended, so he just walked off. "Their leader? Damn, we gotta see this!" Eric used the opening to push onwards. "Eric, wait!" Emily groaned. They did not need another distraction, but she could not let him run around. The four made their way to the center. Here they finally saw some synchro-guild duelists; one of which was squaring off against the highly acclaimed Adamant.
Adamant's LP: 5500 Lambert's LP: 7500
Several turns had passed. On one side was Lambert, a man with a simple look. His white buttoned-up shirted contrasted heavily with the mob around him. The XYZ-leader wore the same color as his followers. However his uniform was more stylized and decorated. It resembled body-armor with various gold stripes and medals. His hair was grey and long, and his eyes were fierce yet dull. Most striking of all; his opponent was standing yet he was sitting. The leader had claimed a lawnchair as his own and conducted the duel from there. "You are taking this too easy, XYZ faction!" Lambert had gone as far as to overlay his entire field of level 2 monsters with a level 1 tuner to create a castle-sized and shaped rock giant(9/2900/2800). "Giganticastle gains 200 attackpoints for each non-tuner synchro material I used." The castle-sized synchro monster(3700/2800) enjoyed four powerboosts."I will be the one to stop you!" Giganticastle threw its fist down to the ground, all the way from up above, bringing Adamants lifepoints down by a significant amount.
Adamant's LP: 1800
But Adamants only reaction was to let out a yawn. "It would seem all you have to offer is numbers. You still have not learned that the more you build, the more you have to lose." Adamant slowly drew a card from his deck. He gave it a glance and frowned. "It is already decided. You cannot win, surrender with dignity while you can." He spoke with in inescapable authority. In his eyes this duel could only end one way. "I will never surrender! You will not take this place from us! You people don't even care about it!" Lambert refused him, and would keep doing so with every last lifepoint. "We don't. All that matters is the location, not the content." Adamant took that as a sign that Lambert wanted to be completely beaten down. "As you wish."
Adamant normal summoned his monster, a mechanical one-eyed bird(4/1300/1600), made from green and blue metal. "Maybe this time you will remember. I've summoned Raidraptor Vanishing Lanius. If it was normal or special summoned, I can special summon another Raidraptor from my hand this turn." Through the effect of the first Raidraptor, a second was summoned. "Raidraptor - Fuzzy Lanius." This time it was a dark metal bird(4/500/1500). Soon Adamant activated a continuous spell. "I shall use Raidraptor Nest. I take a third Raid Raptor from my deck, if two are already on the field." The spell added a second Vanishing Lanius from the 'nest' to Adamants hand. "Now comes a quickplay spell, Swallows Nest. One winged beast on the field is tributed for another in the deck, with the same level." Swallows Nest targeted Fuzzy Lanius and sacrificed it to special summon a third RaidRaptor Vanishing Lanius(4/1300/1600). "The next move requires little explanation." With the Third Vanishing Lanius' effect enabled because it was summoned, Adamant could special summon the second Vanishing Lanius(4/1300/1600) from his hand. "And this move.. less than that." Adamant placed all his monster cards on top of each other. "XYZ-summon.."
"He's doing it!" Eric got all excited. A lot more than Adamant himself appeared to be. "But how does it work?" This process was unusual even for extra deck monsters. All three Raid Raptors turned to energy and jumped down into a spatial vortex. "With XYZ-monsters you take monsters with the same level and place them on top of each other. That is called 'overlay'." Uno could again be depended on to summarize everything. Even this knowledge came naturally. "Then the Xyz-monster is summoned and placed on top of the pile. They become its Xyz-materials. Xyz-monsters have no level, they have a rank equal that needs to be the same as its material. In this case, that would be rank four." The vortex stabilized, as enormous streams of light escaped it. "Trap card: Bottomless Trap Hole!" Lambert though, did not intend to go down without a struggle. He attempted to banish the summoned XYZ-monster in a endless trap hole. "You are living in the wrong future, Synchro guild." But Adamant countered immediately with a counter-trap card, without even looking at what Lambert's trap. "Raptors Gust. I control a Blackwing. Your trap is negated." A sharp gust shattered the Bottomless trap. "Damn it!" The new beast was unharmed and unveiled, a machine-falcon of war(4/100/2000) emerged from the smoke. Its four wings carried missiles, its claws could break steel and gunturrets flanked its head.
"There it is! Raidraptor - Rise Falcon!" The crowd roared and yelled. Adamant did not need to introduce his own ace card anymore. "Only 100 attackpoints?" Still, it did not look very threatening in Erics opinion. "...Heh." Adamant briefly turned his head in the gangs direction. "He heard me?" Eric quickly shut his mouth. "There is one, who can still be surprised." Adamant turned back to the duel. He special summoned another monster to his field, a second Fuzzy Lanius(4/500/1500). "I do not need to tell most of you, but when fuzzy Lanius was sent to the graveyard, a Raidraptor that shares its name was added to my hand." Fuzzy lanius # 1 had activated its effect when it had been Swallow Nested, so to speak. "And Fuzzy Lanius can special summon itself if a Raidraptor is already on the field." These effects could only be used once, but before now he had only summoned the black bird with the effect of Vanishing Lanius. "The End.." Adamant withdrew one of the cards below his Xyz-monster.
"What is he doing now?" Alice asked this time. One of the glowing orbs that floated around Rise Falcon was absorbed into its beak. "He is using the Xyz-material to activate its effect. Most Xyz-monsters can only use their powers a limited number of times." Uno said as the effect in question resolved. "Gh-yikes." Out of nowhere, the Falcon(3800/2000) became the most powerful monster on the field. "Rise Falcon gains the attackpoints of the strongest special summoned monster." One of the XYZ-followers was all too eager to boast about the Falcons impressive powers. "That guy's synchro never stood a chance!" Indeed. Rise Falcon flew upwards and sent a volley of missiles into Giganticastle. "Damn it!" Nothing remained of the giant after such an infernal barrage.
Lambert's LP: 6900
"That was supposed to be the End?" Lambert had lost his strongest card, but he himself however had plenty of life left in him. "I would not take any hope from this, synchro guild. I activated Nightmare Archfiends some time ago." Adamant nodded towards his one trap card, which tributed Raidraptor Fuzzy Lanius to fulfill a cost. "Presently, you own three Nightmare Archfiend tokens." Lambert was given a trio of terror demons(6/2000/2000), in attack position. "Crap! Rise Falcon can attack each special summoned monster once!" The synchro guild knew the score. The XYZ Raptor was already restocking its weapons. "And..those tokens." Reality hit Eric as well, because he knew the Nightmare Archfiend trap card. A destroyed Archfiend token would inflict 800 points of damage to its controller. "He really is going to.." Rise Falcon fired three consecutive bursts and killed all three Nightmares. "Gaahhh!" Lambert took 1800 battle damage and 800 effect damage; three times.
Lambart's LP: 0
"Now, Synchro guild. That was the last of you." Adamant did not wait for the finishing touches. He shut down his dueldisk as soon as his win was recorded. "My name is Lambert!" His opponent spat out as a last act of resistance. "I cannot be bothered to remember the names of all those who failed before me. None of you made a difference. And I have better things to do now." Adamant beckoned for one of his followers to step forward. The man held up an official contract. "Sign these. This place is now sponsored by the XYZ-guild. Tell all your people to leave within the hour." Adamant got up and left the guilds to do the rest of the work.
As he walked back to the clubhouse, he met Alice along the way. "You're sending these people away? Why? Did they do something mean to you?" He was caught off guard by such an obvious question, that he stopped without thinking about it. "This is our way. Their mistake was joining the wrong side." Adamant saw Alice's tag. He also saw that she had friends with her. "You carry the synchro symbol, but you are not members." He could tell the difference between a guestpass and an official membership pass. "Why are you here?" He was intrigued now. The duelists that came before had been such a bore. "None of your business." Emily was quick to brush him off. "Alice. Let's go." She wanted nothing to do with this guy or his club, even if it meant finding another place to call from. "Oh..okay. We have to go too mister. Goodbye." She and the others tried to walk away. But at the last second, Adamant grabbed Uno by the wrist. "Hey!?" He pulled himself free. "What's the big idea here?"
"You. You are the one I heard about. You were called.. Uno, I believe." Not just Adamant, but half his guild was now staring the pendulum duelist down. "You heard about me? I am flattered and a bit freaked out." Uno tried to play it cool. He sure as hell would like to know who told this guild about him. "Words spread fast. The news about the attack on Synchro's main base was passed along to all Guilds." A smile almost crossed Adamants lips. "Hmm. Yes. This could be good. If the rumors are true, you might actually be a worthwhile opponent." The XYZ-leader clenched his hand and raised it towards Uno. "I have a proposition for you. Defeat one of my top men, and the Guild will assist you in any way you wish."
(To be Continued in Annex 014: Another Unknown Soldier)
Cards used by Adamant
Raidraptor - Fuzzy Lanius
Raidraptor - Vanishing Lanius
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Raidraptor - Rise Falcon
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Swallows Nest
Raidraptor - Nest
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Nightmare Archfiends
Raptors' Gust
Cards used by Lambert
Giganticastle
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Bottomless Trap Hole