Annex 039: Justice must be Taken

Adamant's LP: 5200 Kyle's LP: 8000

"My turn." Adamant drew his card. "If you made me your target, I trust you to at least have done your homework and on my previous duels. The following moves should be unsurprising. I summon Raidraptor Vanishing Lanius." Adamant called out his mechanical blue and green bird(4/1300/1600). With its summon, another Raidraptor could follow it from the hand. "..Raidraptors Mimicry Lanius and Fuzzy Lanius." A new raidraptor was special summoned with the effect of Vanishing Lanius. Mimicry Lanius was a yellow/purple mechanical bird(4/1100/1900) with a large radar dish for a tail. Another Fuzzy Lanius(4/500/1500) could special summon itself as long as a Raidraptor was already on the field. "Of course I know about you! I know your ace, Raidraptor Rise Falcon! It can't harm me!" Kyle only had one defending monster, U.A. Goalkeeper(6/1000/2800). High defense was the best way to combat Rise Falcon, who could only steal attackpoints. "...Then you have not seen all there is. Otherwise you would know to be afraid." Adamant chained a continuous trap card to his own summon.

Raid Raptor - Lock Chain, Continuous Trap
Once per turn, if a "Raidraptor" is special summoned to your side of the field: you can change the battle positions of all monsters your opponent controls.
If a monster(s) is special summoned from the extra deck, while you control a "Raidraptor" monster card, you can switch that monster to face-up or face-down defense position.

Lock Chain, in conjunction with Fuzzy Lanius' special summon, affected the Goalkeeper and forced him into an attacking stance. "It is not time for XYZ-monsters yet." Sooner than expected, Adamant started his battle phase. Vanishing Lanius flew across the stadium and towards the Goalie. "I was ready for that too! Trap card: Battleguard Howling!" The Ultra Athlete howled loudly at the incoming Raidraptor. The Battleguard trap would send a monster that attacked a warrior like Goalkeeper, back to a players hand. But first it would inflict damage equal to the attacking monsters attackpoints. "Swallows Nest." However if the target disappeared, then nothing would happen. Adamant activated a quickplay spell card from his hand to remove his attacker. "Sharp Lanius." Swallows Nest sacrificed Vanishing Lanius to special summon another level 4 winged beast from the deck; a red metallic bird(4/1700/1000) with a bladed beak and talons. "Continuing.." Sharp Lanius assumed the original path of attack, his target had stopped howling. "Damn it! I activate Goalkeeper's effect!" Even in attack mode, U.A. Goalkeeper could use its effect. It negated the destruction of one Athlete for one turn; itself in this instance. Though Sharp Lanius pierced the warriors knee deeply with its beak, the wound was not fatal.

Kyle's LP: 7300

Unfortunately, that wound was enough to trigger the effect of the attacker. "I bring back Vanishing Lanius." Raidraptor Sharp Lanius could special summon Raidraptors from the graveyard after it inflicted battle damage. Vanishing Lanius was now resummoned, so a fifth Raidraptor could be summoned from the hand if his master wished to use that effect again. "Sheesh. It's that easy for him?" Emily found it almost unbelievable how Adamant had gone from nothing to this. "Now it is time." At last, in the second main phase, Adamant performed his XYZ-summon. Except he only overlayed two monsters, Fuzzy Lanius and Sharp Lanius, and he summoned the new Raidraptor in defense mode. "Not Rise Falcon?" This was a card Kyle hadn't expected; a mechanical owl(4/100/2000). "Raidraptor Force Strix..." The duelist had to check his own dueldisk to see what it could do. "Force Strix gains 500 ATK and DEF for each other Winged Beast he controls. It can also detach a material to fetch a Level 4 DARK Winged Beast-Type monster." Force Strix(1100/300) powered up twice.

"Another Mimicry Lanius." Adamant used the effect of Force Strix to add a second Mimicry raidraptor to his hand. Vanishing Lanius allowed it(4/1100/1900) that bird to be summoned to the field. At the same time, Adamant used the effect of Raidraptor Fuzzy Lanius that he had detached from his XYZ-monster. It searched and retrieved the third Fuzzy Lanius card from his deck. "Is this more in tune with what you expected?" At last the champion performed the final XYZ-summon. Both Mimicry Lanius raptors were placed on top of Vanishing Lanius. The three became XYZ-materials for the devastating winged beast of war; Raidraptor Rise Falcon(4/100/1000). "Go." Adamant removed one of the attached Mimicry Lanius cards to activate Rise Falcons effect. It copied the 1000 attackpoints from U.A. Goalkeeper and added it to its own energy reserves. Rise Falcon(1100/1000) would keep this power permanently. Still there was no end in sight, as Mimicry Lanius used its effect too. Because Adamant had sent it to the graveyard, Mimicry could add a Raidraptor card from Adamants deck to his hand. "Raidraptor Readiness!" He took a trap card. That card, along with another trap, was placed face-down. "That.. was my turn. Show me what you plan to do against this, Independent Guild."

"My name is Kyle. Kyle Warren! You may have forgotten my brother, but you will never forget me!" Kyle took his turn. He summoned U.A. Midfielder(4/1200/1000) back to his field. Since he had normal summoned a monster, U.A. Stadium would place a new Ultra Athlete in his hand. "Ultra Athlete Dreadnought Dunker!" Kyle took the baseball warrior. "He will tag in, along with Mighty Slugger!" Midfielder and Blockbacker returned to his hand to special summon the Ultra Slugger(5/2300/700) and Ultra Dunker(7/2500/1800) from Kyle's hand. "And I activate this spell, Ultra Athlete Signing Deal! To summon Ultra Athlete Perfect Ace! Signing Deal can 'sign' a new Ultra player to come in, if one was already out there on the field!" There were several downsides to this spell; that warriors effects would be negated, synchro and XYZ-summons could not be performed this turn and Kyle would lose 300 lifepoints for each of the summoned monsters levels. "Ngh." Because he brought out the winged cyber-pitcher(5/1500/2500), he lost 1500 lifepoints.

Kyle's LP: 5800

"I will tag Perfect Ace out for Rival Rebounder!" Each Athlete could only 'switch in' once a turn, but Kyle still had plenty of Ultra Athletes in his hand which he could call upon. The warrior that special summoned itself this time was another baseball player(6/2200/2300), the Rival to the Dreadnought Dunker. "This is my answer." Kyle used this special summon as the trigger for his field spells attack-boosting effect. The Dreadnought(3000/1800), the Rival(2700/2300) and the Mighty Slugger(2800/700) all gained strength from the stadiums cheers. "Dreadnought Dunker can destroy a monster one it inflicts damage, and it inflicts piercing damage!" Kyle explained it so that Adamant would know his intentions. "I have him attack your ace XYZ-monster!" Though Rise Falcon was in defense mode, an attack would damage Adamant and allow the Dreadnought to destroy Force Strix(600/2500) at the same time.

"Damn. He is so angry he doesn't even plan for the.." Uno knew there was no chance this attack was going to work. "Trap card." And Adamant proved him right. "Raidraptor Readiness." His raptor trap put up a forcefield. Raidraptors could not be destroyed as a result of battle this turn. "So what? The damage will still.." Adamant did not take the piercing damage either. "What?" Dreadnought Dunker's ball bounced backwards as it touched Rise Falcons wing. "You did not even notice that I banished Raidraptor Readiness from my graveyard? You truly are inexperienced, all you practice is power." The trap he used had a secondary effect if Raidraptors rested in the graveyard along with it. By banishing Raidraptor Readiness after use, it nullified all damage for an entire turn. "You will not hit me again unless I will it, Independent Guild." Adamant declared.

"Kyle. What are you even doing?" Emily shouted all of the sudden. "If you win, how is that going to expose him? You think Adamant is just gonna confess?" And that was if Kyle won. Things did not go smoothly for him so far. "If I win, I will make him say what he did. If I have to lose, I will make it so that he has to push himself to use the card he used to attack my brother. I know how he did it. I always suspected it. But when that one guy attacked Dreamworld last week, I was certain of it. The power to make holograms real exists, and he has it too." Kyle placed set a card down in the spell/trap zone. "Perfect Ace, Midfielder, Blockbacker!" For his final act he called back his entire attack force and special summoned his weaker Athletes back in defense position with their respective effects. "I will force you to your limits, Champion!" His turn was over.

"You at least have the foresight to provide lesser prey for Rise Falcon." Adamants XYZ-monster couldn't do as much damage if he had fewer attackpoints to copy. "Yet you lack any other kind of rationality. Forget about a victory." He attempted to activate Force Strix's effect again, detaching its final XYZ-material.

"I wouldn't be so damn sure about that! I'm not gonna let you summon more Raidraptors!" To this Kyle could chain one of his monsters effects. "Perfect Ace! Stop Force Strix!" By discarding a card from his hand during the opponents turn, Perfect Ace could negate the monsters effect and destroy the monster itself. Mighty Slugger was discarded. The Ultra pitcher threw a sphere of lightning at the mechanical owl and shot it down from the skies. Unfortunately Perfect Ace could only do this once a turn. "You look to far ahead. You fail to acknowledge the threat already in front of you." Adamant could not be stopped when he activated his other XYZ-monster's effect. Another Mimicry Lanius was detached and Rise Falcon targeted Perfect Ace to add his 1500 attackpoints to itself(2600/1000). Adamant followed up his threat by special summoning the last Raidraptor Fuzzy Lanius(4/500/1500) from his hand and reactivated Raidraptor Chain Lock. The continuous trap forced all Ultra Athletes into attack-mode. "Hmph.." Adamant sighed and ordered his monster to strike. Rise Falcon flew up, rising far above the stadium. It then shot back down like an earthshattering comet. Rise Falcon could attack each special summoned monster once.

"I didn't think you would fall for it so easily, champion!" Kyle bared his teeth and displayed the spell card he had set, a quickplay spell that could only be used if two or more U.A. monsters were on his field.. "Ultra Athlete Turnover Tactics! I will.." What he wanted to say was that Turnover Tactics would shuffle all monsters into the deck and then replace what he lost with that many different "U.A." monsters from the deck. Adamant wouldn't get to summon a monster himself, since Rise Falcon would go back to the extra deck. "Boring.." Adamant did not need or want to listen. He activated the countertrap Raptors Gust to negate and destroy U.A Turnover Tactics. "NO!" That spell was his best defense, and he shut it down like that. "Blockbacker!" The last thing Kyle could do was make the Blockbacker target U.A. Midfielder. At least that Athlete would survive the next wave of attacks. Blockbacker and Perfect Ace were blown to pieces by Rise Falcon and U.A. Midfielder received dozens of scorch marks. "You have not kept my interest, Independent Guild."

Kyle's LP: 2000

"Damn you. How can you treat duelists like this?" Kyle cursed. "You barely are a duelist. Those cards are like a suit you wear to pass yourself off as one." Adamant set a card in the spell/trap zone and ended his turn. "Damn it!" Kyle drew his card so roughly he nearly damaged it. "!." Kyle stopped. He realized he almost lost control there. "Kyle! That guy likes to get in people's heads! Just tune it out, or you will never get anywhere!" He finally started hearing the things Uno and the others were saying too. "You can do it. You're a duelist, you got this far!" Alice was cheering her on, a lot of people were. They wanted him to win. "You.. all of you." Kyle grabbed his left hand and steadied it. "Yes. I can do this. I can't let my brother down, and I also cannot let his cards down." The rage was still there, but he contain it for now. "I will tribute my monster to normal summon Rival Rebounder!" The Midfielder went to the graveyard and the rebounding Rival(2200/2300) was tribute summoned

Both U.A. Stadium and Rival Rebounder activated their effects at the same time. "Playmaker, I need you!" With his field spell, Kyle grabbed a new Ultra Athlete from his deck. "And you can come back to me, Mighty Slugger!" A normal summoned Rebounder always special summoned one U.A. monster from a players hand or graveyard. The Athlete with the mighty bat(2300/700) was the one who came back to the sportfield. His effect would stop whatever card Adamant tried to activate during his attacks. "You have done enough, Rival Rebounder! Trade with Playmaker!" Kyle swapped the Rival out to special summon the football passer(8/2600/2000). This summon was what U.A. Stadium responded to and the Playmaker(3100/2000) enjoyed a nice powerboost along with the Slugger(3300/700) "This is how it will end, Adamant! With this spell card; U.A. Powered Jersey!" A heavy cybernetic uniform jersey was placed on Mighty Slugger's body. "The Jersey will add 1000 attack and defense points to my Ultra Athlete, and he can attack twice in one turn!" One could literally see the energy crackle throughout the warrior(3800/1700)'s body. "And if he fights a monster, all battle damage will be doubled!"

"I attack!" Mighty Slugger would make the first move. The plan was simple. Kill Rise Falcon, kill Fuzzy Lanius, have Playmaker attack directly for the win. "I activate Playmakers effect!" During the attack, the other Athlete(2500/2000) passed his football of light to Mighty Slugger. "Playmaker can give 800 of his own attackpoints to another Ultra Athlete during the battle phase!" The Slugger(4800/1700) took the ball and slung it far away with his bat. It was hit so hard that it broke through the soundbarrier. It blasted upwards and ripped Rise Falcons left wing off cleanly. The remaining damage was doubled and fell unto the XYZ-duelist. "What did you say again, Adamant? Looks like I did get a hit in after all!"

Adamant's LP: 800

"..." It was at this moment, that Adamant did something unexpected. He stood up. "Aha!" A grin appeared on Kyle's face. "I did it! You see it now, I've beaten you!" Adamant had to be acknowledging Kyle's triumphant move, if he did this. "...Rank-Up-Magic." But that wasn't it. Adamant only rose so he could end things. "Raptors Force!" He activated the set quickplay spell card in between Mighty Sluggers attacks. It could not be negated then. "Rank-Up?" What happened next was a completely new experience to Uno and the rest. "Is this what Aaron was talking about?" They had seen XYZ-monsters rank themselves up. They had not seen spells that could force Rank-evolution, during the opponents turn at that. "If a Raidraptor Xyz Monster was destroyed this turn, you can use 1 Raidraptor XYZ-monster in the graveyard as a material to XYZ-summon a Raidraptor of the next rank." The info was all there on the big screen. "Then.." Rise Falcon turned fiery hot. Minutes before it crashed against the ground, it transformed and flew back up. "Raidraptor Blaze Falcon!" A new XYZ-Raidraptor was placed on top of it; a red-steel Falcon(5/1000/2000).

"Rise Falcon wasn't your ace?" Kyle took a step back. "So what?" He managed to gather his nerves before he took another. "It's just another target!" It would not make it to the next round once Mighty Slugger dealt with it. "You still do not mind your surroundings, Independent Guild. Your monsters cannot attack." Mighty Slugger and Playmaker switched themselves to defense mode. "What!? That trap!" Raidraptor Lock Chain had caused this. Adamant had special summoned a Raidraptor after all. "This is it then.." Kyle had nowhere to run and no monster to turn to. "The End." He did not care. "..Yes, it is. In the end you could only reach the fifth rank. Pitiful." Adamant spat. He detached one material from Blaze Falcon. "Burn it all." Blaze Falcon could destroy every other special summoned monster on the opponents field and inflict 500 points of damage for each casualty. The Falcon fired every laser cannon in its wings and blasted Playmaker and Mighty Slugger with them. The violent explosions caught them and the fire spread across the field and U.A. Stadium. It was a literal blaze.

Kyle's LP: 1000

. "Yes. This is how it has to be." Kyle closed his eyes and spread his arms. He waited for Blaze Falcons direct attack. "I'll be with you, Carl." Yet when Blaze Falcon came, with its metallic talons striking down upon the duelist, he felt nothing. "...where.." The second he lost his remaining lifepoints, all holograms were dismissed. The stadium crumbled away to reveal the rollercoaster in pristine order. The fire had vanished along with Blaze Falcon, it was never real. "Where did it go!?"

Kyle's LP: 0

"Why didn't you.." It hadn't happened the way he wanted. This did not prove anything. "Hmph." The enemy was just walking away, this was just another duel he would forget. "NO!" Kyle suddenly pulled a dinnerknife out of his pocket and ran towards adamant. But he was disarmed and knocked down by two other XYZ-duelists who jumped in to guard their leader. "It can't go like this! You can't walk way from me.. from my brother!" He screamed. With his free hand he grabbed Adamant by the leg. "Pathetic. You could not defeat me fairly, so you resorted to this. What would your brother think of you now?" Adamant scoffed and kicked the leg away. "Take him to security. This is their concern." His men obeyed and dragged Kyle off, flailing and shouting all the way.

"Man. All that talk and he was just another nut." Most duelists who watched the duel were disappointed. The story that Kyle started out with looked like the ramblings of a deluded madman now. "... That poor guy. To lose your family like that.." Alice could sympathize. Anyone could go insane in those conditions. Though was he crazy? That was what Uno wanted to know. "Cassius said something about this too, didn't he? Experimenting with hologram technology to make it real." Something like that had terrifying applications. "Yeah. Maybe it wasn't Dreamworld. Maybe it was those guys who developed that kind of stuff. Heck, they already act like an army." The thought scared her, but Emily could see the XYZ-guild try to make the duel monsters into a weapon. "And Adamant as their commander." Kyle never stood a chance. This Adamant was on a whole other level of dueling; no wasted moves, incredible summoning speed, and limitless adaptation. "One way or another, the guild has not shown its full power yet."

(To be Continued in Annex 040: Neither here nor There)

New Cards used by Adamant
Raid Raptor - Mimicry Lanius
Raid Raptor - Sharp Lanius

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Raid Raptor - Force Strix
Raid Raptor - Blaze Falcon

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Rank-Up-Magic: Raptors Force

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Raid Raptor - Lock Chain (+)
Raid Raptor - Readiness

(+ Heavily modified version of the trap used by Shun in Arc-V episode 75)

New Cards used by Kyle
U.A. Rival Rebounder
U.A. Playmaker

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U.A. Signing Deal
U.A. Turnover Tactics
U.A. Powered Jersey

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Battleguard Howling