Annex 050: On Equal Terms
"Why has all the stuff gone out?" Many people had many questions about the state of the amusement park, nobody had an idea about what was going on inside the amphitheater, not even Uno. "It seems like a power outage. Maybe it is something local?" Mrs. Brandt went with the logical assumption. Wide-scale power failures could start from the slightest of errors. "I do not think so. This place draws energy from one of our own Dreamworld generators. And.. my earpiece is dead." One guard tapped the side of his ear, to no effect. "Mine too. The phone is out as well!" This was such an uncommon and worrying development that the guards broke out of their stoic demeanor. "Everything? So it's like.. an Electromagnetic Pulse?" Alice guessed. "EMP? That's not something you get by accident. Someone wanted this to happen." Uno got up and moved towards the exit of the room. "Sorry, sir. We still cannot allow you to leave." The two guards obstructed his path. "This is not the time! Who knows what could be happening out there?" Uno implored for them to reconsider. But the guards refused to budge. "We have our orders. Until we get new ones, we will follow these."
"So much for thinking on your own." Uno muttered.
...
"What is the matter, tough guy?" Dom taunted the XYZ-Guild leader as his own XYZ dragon stood tall over all the other monsters that the guild had summoned. "You have a look on your face that says 'oh how did he do that?' Good thing I had a short speech prepared for this occasion! Ahem.. With proper manipulation of light and energy fields, any hologram can be made solid. Of course you can't really call them holograms anymore at that point. Obviously I figured it out way faster than you did, but it's good to see you got the hang of it eventually. Or bad.." He said with mocking laughter. "That is not the issue here, Dom." Roma kept a stern face, yet his twitching hand betrayed his irritation. "No, it isn't. Is it? Let me tell the audience how you managed to put them in this position. Given that my dueldisk and your dueldisks are unaffected, we can rule out an EMP-device causing this ruckus. It'd probably be too heavy for you to carry around. So you must have uploaded some virus to cause a local system shutdown or whatever the technical term is. Anything online was glitched out. Real clever; I didn't take you for the hacker types. Luckily I had a disk of a friend, one that is not an official part of the network."
"That is not what we mean, Cardmaker. You are one duelist. You managed to find a functioning dueldisk, but you cannot stop all of us." There were hundreds of XYZ-troops in the theater, each with at least one solidified duel monster. The odds were on their side. "Exactly! So I made it so that I do not need to. Because I said the magic word 'duel'." Dom patted Uno's dueldisk. "You didn't think I would leave a few fail-safes in a device that could potentially unleash pure destruction? You worked your way around some, but not all of them. Perhaps that is even why you want full access; to have a complete understanding of my hologram technology. You cannot get that from ." Not even the people at Dreamworld understood how the disks worked. He had designed the disk and programmed the machines that created the hardware. Human hands never entered that process. "The Duel." Adamant spoke up. He understood what Dom was saying. "As long as we use the dueldisks, we must accept a challenge. That is his final failsafe."
"Must we?" Roma tested it out with his own disk. "Apparently so." He could not visualize a new monster. Every monster within close proximity was put on standby. This cut their effectiveness in half, since they failed to smuggle actual weapons into the park. "Any threat that comes near you is suspended. But with this, only you are protected." If Roma wanted to, he could direct his holograms towards some spectators. "It is me you want, not them. You just need to defeat me, and all your problems will go away." Dom all but dared the Guild to face him in a fight. "Ichirou." Roma at first thought about simply having his second in command take care of this pest. "..." That he did not even ask Adamant, did not escape the former champions notice. "Wasn't talking about them, Roma-man. I was challenging you. You're not scared of me, are you?" That comment got a reaction from Roma. He detached the cape from his uniform and inserted his full deck into his dueldisk. "Ichirou. I will deal with this man. You and Adamant will go to secure the Disciples."
Doms LP: 8000 Roma's LP: 8000
"That is a yes then." Dom also prepared his cards. "Yes. Once this duel is over I will release these bystanders, the nonduelists do not concern me. But do not misunderstand; there is only one thing I fear and it is not you. You will not defeat me, so the outcome is the same regardless. Draw your cards, Cardmaker." Roma was confident enough apparently to hand his opponent the first turn. "Way ahead of ya!" Dom drew his five cards. "There is one good thing coming out of all of this. At least everyone will get to see my new Performages in all their glory! There are no monsters on the field, so I can special summon Performage Stilts Launcher from my hand!" A redhatted circus magician(6/2200/0) walked to the stage on massive stilts. "Or some level of glory." Without the enhancements from the stage and the screen, only the people up close could tell what was going on. That was a pity. "Your turn, pal."
"I am not your pal... I normal summon Super Quantum Green Layer." Roma brought out his kind of monsters. The first was a masked wind-elemental spellcaster(4/1600/1400) who wore a caped outfit much like the Guildleader. This one had the color green as its name demanded. "When I summon Super Quantum Green Layer, I can special summon another Super Quant-monster from my hand." Roma special summoned a second Super Quantum Green Layer(6/1600/1400) "I XYZ-summon." Little time was wasted with him. He overlayed both Green Layers to create a rank 4 XYZ-monster. "Super Quantal Mecha Beast Aeroboros!" The Quantums piloted their own machine, a green mecha-bird(4/2200/2400). It jumped into the air and stayed there to loom over Dom. "Aeroboros can switch one monster to face-down defense position." By absorbing one XYZ-material, the Mecha Beast created a tornado of green winds. The Performage was robbed of his stilts and knocked to the floor. "Additionally. When Green Layer is sent to the graveyard, even as an XYZ-material, I can discard one Super Quant card to draw a new card." Roma discarded what appeared to be the level 3 variant of the Super Quantums, in order to refresh his hand. Now that Stilts Launcher was in face-down defense position, Aeroboros could kill it. "Attack!" The Green Mecha barreled downwards and tore the Performage in half with its razorsharp teeth and claws. After that, Roma placed a trap card down and ended his turn.
At this turn, Adamant and Ichirou arrived at the skybox. "You are still here." Zach was not there, but Iria was. She would not leave her master out of her sight a second time. "I can see why. This place looks comfortable, fit for a king." Ichirou placed his hands on the soft couch in the back. Iria felt an outburst welling up inside her, but she kept her lips sealed. "You do not want to talk? I understand. This must be very difficult for you. Normally you would have trapped us wrongdoers in your barriers. Well we couldn't allow that." The XYZ-duelist went on to check out the rest of the room. Adamant was scanning the room too, for a more essential purpose. "The other, where is he? Answer me." Everyone had to be accounted for. "I do not know. You cut our communications. He could be anywhere by now." Iria gave him his answer. It was an inconvenience, but also the truth. "Tch. He would be wise not to try anything. If he is inside this building, he is not getting out. Just play along, and you will all go free."
"And then what will you do?" Iria inquired. "...That is our concern." Adamant said nothing more on the matter.
Back at the duel, Dom stalled his drawphase. "Quants eh? Didn't see that coming from a serious guy like you." Dom was as familiar with these cards as he was with any other. He'd have to be if he had to review every single creation in his company. "The shape matters not. The function does. Get on with your turn, Dom." Roma muttered impatiently. "Yeah yeah; its all business with you guys. That's a shame, you miss out on a lot of fun that way." Dom had some fun ideas already "Hmm. I summon the Mathematician!" This time it was not a performer, but an scholarly wizard(4/1500/500) with an immensely long beard. "Thanks to the Mathematician I can send one level 4 monster from my deck to the graveyard. I am sending this guy here, Performage Damage Juggler!" Dom cast the juggling performer into the grave. From there its effect could be activated. "I banish the Juggler, to add another Performage from my deck to my hand!" In this case Dom went with Performage FlameEater. He added that monster to his hand. "I set a monster and two spell or traps! There, that was my turn."
"You could have gone with any deck, and you chose something like that? You're trying to trick me somehow." Roma did not know what Doms strategy was yet, these cards were too new. "Super Quantum Blue Layer." Roma normal summoned the second member of the Quantum rangers, the female psychic in blue(3/1200/2000). "Oh come on. You can't anounce a name like that! You gotta add flair and drama!" Dom sighed. "Be quiet. I activate the effect of Blue Layer. Once per turn, it can add a new Super Quant-card from the deck to my hand when it is summoned." Now a level 5 variant was added to Roma's hand; Super Quantum Red Layer. "Then I activate XYZ Energy. This spell destroys a face-up monster by detaching one XYZ-material I control." Aeroboros detached its last material by firing it at the Mathematician like a missile. The old wizard blew up before he knew what hit him. "I discard Quantum Red Layer." As a result of another Green Layers trip into the graveyard, the discard/draw effect was reused. Red went into the grave, one new card came from the deck.
"This activates the effect of Quantum Red Layer! As it is sent to my graveyard, It special summons another Super Quant-monster from the graveyard. I special summon Super Quantum Blue Layer!" A second female blue ranger(3/1200/2000) popped up from the ground. "I XYZ-summon Super Quantal Mech Beast Grampulse!" The blue duo joined as one. They commanded not the skies but the seas, as they were attached to a twin whale-submarine(3/1800/2800). "By detaching a card from Grampulse, I may destroy one spell or trap card. The target is obvious.." One of the Blue Layer pilots left the Mech Beast and was fired off like a torpedo of blue energy. "You really want to do that? Hey, your funeral." It turned out that it did not help Roma, because this was a trap that could be chained to his monsters effect. "Ring of Destruction!" Dom activated the ring of grenades that clamped around the neck of the green Mech Beast Aeroblast. "We all remember this one, yeah?" The grenades exploded, and the rings victim died with it. First Dom took damage equal to half the monsters attackpoints, and then Roma did as well. "Kff.. so that's what that feels like." The blast did not reach the players directly, but the heat and pressure felt overwhelming.
Doms LP: 6900 Roma's LP: 6900
"Ring of Destruction? Awesome! Wait, wasn't that banned?" Eric was surprised to see an old classic in holographic form. "It was remodeled, so that it could be sold again to the masses." Meridian explained. That was how money and cards worked these days. "Be quiet up there." The XYZ-trooper closest to them shouted to end their small talk.
"That trap has lost its sting, cardmaker. You're only making us weaker as a whole with those erratas.. Hmph." Roma ordered his remaining Mecha Beast to attack. Granpulse rushed towards Dom, surging through invisible water. "On the contrary, I make duelists stronger! If I did not change cards all the time, the power would creep out of control!." Dom casually deflected the attack by discarding a second Performage Damage Juggler. "!?" Damage Juggler could reduce the next battle damage in a turn to zero if it was activated from the hand this way. "Your cards are adept at survival, that is true. However we need more than that, we need a way to fight back."
"Fight back? Against who? The guilds? If you ask me you're taking the game a bit too seriously. I think the audience would agree!" Dom shouted loudly. Without the sound amplifiers, he only had his own voice to work with. "The real enemy is everywhere, Cardmaker. Words must be spoken carefully. You do not even realize who you are working with. But we do.. we waited a whole year for this, ever since you created the perfect cards for us to start our guild." Roma ended his turn. "Ever since eh? Maybe XYZ-monsters were a mistake. On the other hand, it's not the card but the duelist who's to blame." Dom banished the second Damage Juggler from his graveyard, to add a second Performage FlameEater from his deck to his hand. "Well.. Fight fire with fire, they always say! I summon Flame Eater!" The first flame eating wizard(4/1200/1600). "And that pun was not intentional! Now when I summon Performage FlameEater, both players take 500 points of damage. However!" His second FlameEater(4/1200/1600) appeared after the first. "FlameEater can also negate effect damage to special summon himself!" The fire-blasts of the first were devoured by the second Eater. This Mage instead inflicted 500 points of damage to each player. "Oof. Watch the coat." The flames that came out of Flame Eater were of course flammable now. They nearly singed his priceless yellow-gold outfit.
Doms LP: 6400 Roma's LP: 6400
"Can't handle the burn?" Roma chuckled. He was used to this kind of pain. "Oh so you can laugh. Well Roma. You liked the first hit so much.. here's some more! While there's a Performage the field, Performage Stilts Launcher banishes himself from the graveyard to add 2000 points to effect damage that was dealt already!" The stilts that lied on the ground started to tremble. "What?" Both exploded around Roma's feet and cut even more lifepoints away. "Gggh!" This time Roma was more than just irritated by the damage.
Roma's LP: 4400
"Anyway. Where was I? Oh, of course. The proverbial fire!" His Performages were attached to each other. "I can only summon Performages once I special summon a FlameEater. So let me introduce everyone to the rank 4 Performer! Performage Trapeze Magician!" The masked trapeze artist(4/2500/2000) came down from the sky, spinning all the way. "Go forth, Trapeze Magician!" The Magician grabbed its trapeze bar and swung it as if it were a staffweapon. With one swift hit, it destroyed Mech Beast Grampulse. "I'll give you and your people one thing, Roma. I cannot deny that these monsters are very effective!"
Roma's LP: 3700
"They are." Roma subdued his pains and took the turn that came to him. "Some more than others... I control no monster cards, therefore I can special summon Super Quantum Red Layer." At last the leader of the Super Quantums arrived, the masked warrior(5/2000/800) in red. "When Red Layer is summoned, a Super Quantum card from the graveyard can be returned to my hand." The Red Quantum slashed the grave apart with its clawed gauntlet and dug up one of the Super Quantum Blue Layer cards. "I normal summon Blue Layer!" The female Quantum joined the red leader. With her effect, she placed a new Super Quantum card in Roma's hands; a field spell. "I place Super Quantum Mecha Ship Magnacarrier on the field!" A massive carrier ship popped up below the clouds. "By giving up one card, Magnacarrier can use one Super Quantum monster as a material for the XYZ-summon of a Super Quantal monster that has the same element! You have seen Wind and Water. Now you will see Fire!" Roma discarded one card to activate the field spell. The Magnacarrier targeted Super Quantum Red Layer, dragging it inside.
"I XYZ-summon Super Quantal Mech Beast Magnaliger!" Red Layer came out of the Carrier, as he now piloted a a red mechtiger(5/2600/2000). "You are probably already aware of the fact that Mech Beasts cannot attack without XYZ-materials, and to compensate for that they can attach Super Quantum cards to itself; one from my field or hand." The Super Quantum Blue Layer on the stage was converted into energy and pulled into orbit around the Red Super Quantal as a second XYZ-material. "Cardmaker, you failed to show everyone the true power of your XYZ-monster. I will remove it with mine! Magnaliger can destroy one monster card on the field each turn!" The blue material was detached and absorbed. Magnaliger released a jet of flames from the tigers mouth. The Trapeze Performage was consumed by the fire. The colliding energies caused an explosion that sent real smoke out into the theater.
"Oh man. That's noisy." Dom could be heard coughing inside the smoke. "But you wanted to see the powers of my XYZ-monster? Well you're in luck!" The smoke cleared.. "What the.." ..and a new Performage now stood where Trapeze Magician had once been. "When Trapeze Magician is destroyed by my opponent, he special summons a new Performage from my deck. In defense position obviously. Say hello to Performage Trick Clown." It was a colorful clown(4/1600/1200). It stuck its tongue out at Roma as it balanced itself on a ball with its hand. "When will you take this seriously, cardmaker? Rgh! I Attack it!" Magnaliger bounded towards the performer clown and ripped it into explosive confetti with its metallic claws. "Time for another trick! When Trick Clown goes to the graveyard, another Performage will be special summoned from that graveyard! While I take 1000 points of damage!" The damaging confetti caused enough confusion to sneak one Performage Flame Eater back unto the field. Of course it also inflicted its effectdamage to each player as it was summoned. "More and more of these pests.. are you trying to buy time with them?" Roma placed a trap card down and ended his turn.
Doms LP: 4900 Roma's LP: 3200
"Wasting time?" Dom chuckled to himself. Roma was only half-right. The master was buying time, for his other disciple to do his work. "Almost there." On the inside of his mask was a status-screen that showed a lading bar. It was two-thirds done. "Then you're gonna get the show of a lifetime."
(To be Continued in Annex 051: An Exact Change)
New Cards used by Dom
Performage Stilts Launcher
Mathematician
Performage Trick Clown
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Ring of Destruction
Cards used by Roma
Super Quantum Green Layer
Super Quantum Blue Layer
Super Quantum Red Layer
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Super Quantal Mecha Beast Aeroboros
Super Quantal Mecha Beast Granpulse
Super Quantal Mecha Beast Magnaliger
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XYZ Energy
Super Quantum Mecha Ship Magnacarrier