Annex 070: My Kingdom for an Escape Clause

"There's been a change in plans." Zach informed Uno as the two were still on their way back. "Change in plans?" Uno noticed that the helicopter was . "Yes. We will not be flying back to Dreamworld HQ. Now do not be alarmed, nobody got injured. Silver just told me that there was an incident at the tower. Adamant infiltrated the building with some of his men, " Of course how could one not panic after hearing something like that. "Incident? Adamant? Why? How did he even get inside?" Uno thought his friends would have been safe inside Dreamworld. . "As far as they could tell, the XYZ-guild used the tunnelsystem underneath the building to get in. Dom admitted that putting entire networks underneath everything he owned was perhaps not the best idea. Adamant was captured but ultimately, it was decided that it would be better to relocate to a secure position. Everyone is going to Arawn Castle now." So would they. "The Castle? Cassius' place? I guess they will need this then too." Uno looked at the printer.

...

"Welcome back old friend." One long trip by car later, Cassius could finally reunite with his guild. Gareth, Akai and several others greeted him at the gates. "I am glad to be back, Gareth. Has everyone been doing okay while I was gone?" The last time he saw any of them had been the morning before the big incident. "Some bruises here and there, nothing serious. A lot of them aren't here though." In the wake of the battle, a lot of duelists had called it quits. Cassius could hardly blame them. "We at least stayed, chief." Akai and the others were some who felt they had to keep fighting. "Thank you. That is more than I could have asked for." A they talked, more vehicles arrived, carrying the cardmaker and his security detail. "Cassius I am glad you pulled me out of there. It was just in time, dreamworld is up to its neck in government agents and news reporters buzzing about the place. They'll think twice before looking here." Dom himself left his company in the hands of his lawyers and directors. He was technically the chairman, but he let them handle the legal affairs usually.

"We have no problem with you, but what about your entourage?" Gareth scoffed as he saw the man being led out of the car; Adamant. "We're keeping him here?" The former champion was not exactly beloved among the synchro duelists. "We are. We need to ask him a lot of questions, so we are putting in an isolated room." For the time being, they would have put up with it. "He hasn't said a word so far, not about why he only charged in with such a small group or how he learned about the network. Ichirou couldn't have figured all of that out. And what could the XYZ-guild do now?"

"Clearly Adamant is not not leading them anymore. Whatever the backup plan is, it can't be too good if even Adamant wanted to avoid it. Roma is now in charge.. and I can't tell how far he is willing to go." Cassius barely knew Roma. Before this week, he had just been one of Adamants interchangeable elite duelists. "Well, they apparently don't know yet that the Fusion Guild has one of the three dragon cards, so with our luck they are going to keep coming after us." Dom said gloomily. "Then I suggest we turn our attention to each of their facilities. They abandoned them in a hurry, relevant matter could have been left behind." Iria was talking about places like the golfcourse that the Guild had transformed into a training camp. "So you've given up on the mass arrest plan?" Cassius inquired. "I did not give up on it or suddenly start feeling sympathy for their lower ranks, if that is what you were wondering. The plan is simply no longer needed now that we have captured their former leader."

...
Alice and Emily went to a different part of the castle, where they could call their father in peace. "You're staying? And Aaron is fine with that? What did your mother say? I can come over there if you need me. I am coming over there. They can't stop me." Though they had updated him early in the morning and the night before that, James' own anxiousness hadn't gone anywhere during the in-between hours. "Dad, dad. Slow down. What are you saying? Who wants to stop you?" It sounded like there were complications on his end now. "You don't know? Emily, the country is going wild. They're sending the army everywhere, they even posted a few soldiers in our region. I couldn't go to work. They put traffic in lockdown, no airplanes are coming in or out and all borders are closed. It's all over the news."

"The news? I had no.. Dad. Just stay where you are." She put the phone aside. "Em? What's the matter?" Alice could tell that her sister was troubled. So their father was likely troubled too. "I don't think dad is gonna come any time soon." Emily said. "What!? Why!?" Alice let out a disappointed cry. "More people making things complicated for no reason.. Does this castle have a TV anywhere?"

In a matter of minutes the whole guild was watching the screen. Local and international channels were talking up the attack on Doms amusement park. The whole country knew of the XYZ-guilds misdeeds. "They are not pinning this on us, are they?" Akai griped, once she noticed that no names were mentioned. The reporters made it sound as if the very act of dueling had gone too far. "It's worse." What had been rumors before were now harsh claims from the minister of defense himself. The dueling network was shut down and dueldisk duels were forbidden in public. "This can't be good for the business." Dom was absolutely miserable. First the investigations and now this. "It isn't. A lot of shareholders are getting cold feet." And Iria revealed the next setback. "Not helping, Iria." The cardmaker groaned. "I am sorry sir. But I warned you that this could happen. If other companies catch wind of this, they might try to negotiate a takeover of Dreamworld with the board. We are losing money as we speak.." The future of Doms company was bleak, and so was his mood.

"Ah!" Luckily the noise of spinning helicopter blades cheered him up. His other disciple and Uno arrived at the castle at this hour. "I am so glad to see you!" The master ran up to the two... and grabbed the printer to gaze at it. "Excellently done, Zachary..and Uno. This is a turning point!" He could not wait to try it out. "You're welcome sir. But isn't it too late? They shut down the network." Even their radio the sky had received the declaration of the minister. "Hey we can duel offline can't we? They only said we can't duel in public." Uno saw plenty of loopholes in this decree. "Exactly. I doubt the XYZ-guild or even the Fusion Guild is gonna play along with these rules. We need to be prepared.. You said this printer could give us any card we wanted?" Cassius liked these tidings. "If UNO did the groundwork then sure. I can make new synchros, pendulums, you name it! I just need to update each dueldisk so that they can accept these new cards." Without the network, he would have to do it manually. That would naturally take time. "That reminds me, I need a new dueldisk." Uno looked at Cassius. His old one was gone now after all. "Of course. You can take one of ours. Glad to have you on board, Uno."

A little while afterwards, Dom and the disciples separated from the others. Setting up a temporary station just outside the castle. "I don't know why he said that, Zachary. I told UNO everything about you and Iria." There Zach had the chance to ask his master about the strange fact that UNO did not recognize him as Doms student, at first. "I believe you sir. But why would he lie? Was he tetsing me all along?" Zach couldn't really figure it out. "Sir. I would like to make a request too." Iria was there for her own reasons. "Okay? Let me have it." The master responded. "It relates to the topic of card creation, and my current deck. I would like to make some changes."

...

"Hey Em, Alice. How's it hanging?" Uno looked for the Brand sisters and found them at the cantina. "We're fine. It's everything else that's crazy." Emily had lost count of how many people came by to ask them about how they were feeling. "What about you?" Alice turned the question back to him. They hadn't gotten the chance to talk much today. And after everyone else had left, she was starved for some company. "... Honestly. Drawing a blank." He sighed and sat down at the table. "I feel like I am this close to the truth. Every time I'm not here, I want to get back. As soon as I get back, people keep making me to think about the past..w UNO, the Zodiac Guys."

"Oh! That is a good name!" Alice giggled a little but she stopped herself. "Sorry..go on."

"That is it really.. . Where do I go next? There's so many problems, I don't know where to start. It all feels part of the same mess." Something tied the guilds, the time travelers and even the Prophecy sisters together. He simply could not see what that was yet. "Well, December and his friends are after you. That's enough of a headache. You shouldn't have to worry about anything else.. Like the Man said; dueling is not a game anymore." Emily was perfectly willing to let the national forces handle The XYZ-guild. "But I am in the middle of this too. I don't care where or when I'm from, I don't want to run from anything that affects you too." Could he run? Probably; if he figured out his pendulum crystal. That was not the point. "Well, we're not going to leave you either." Alice claimed loudly. "No. You've proven that. I don't remember if I thanked you yet for what you all did for me." He said with a smile. "I'm sure you did that a thousand times already. At this point, we're in for the long haul." Emily wanted to know his secret too, but they would get there in their own time. One step a time.

Uno wouldn't take more steps today. The hour was late and he was tired. Dom was busy with updating the dueldisks and printing new cards from UNO's database. The search for the XYZ-guild was out of their hands. Right now Uno had nothing to do and nowhere to go. He probably couldn't drive anywhere with his cards anyway, and he wasn't going to leave those behind. The castle was one of the few places where he did not feel restrained where he could sleep freely and close by his friends. After dinner he excused himself and secluded himself in his room to hit the hay. "Finally got me.. eh Sandman?" He said to himself as he plopped down on the bed and slowly closed his eyes. He wondered if he would dream of the Sisters again. His consciousness did not linger on that thought for long, as he passed out within the minute. In dreamland he got nothing but opaque images. Just one segment stood out, a glowing symbol peered through a golden haze. It felt like thin claws were scratching the sides of his temple, attempting to crack him open like an egg. It hurt.

"Gwhah!" Uno rose with a start as the whole picture came into focus. A person stood at the end of his bed, a woman. "June?!" Dream or no dream, this was not a presence to brush off. "If I told you that this was a nightmare, would you believe me?" She pulled back thehand which she had stretched out over his head just a second ago. "I wouldn't count on it." Uno wouldn't mistake reality for imagination again. "Oh don't worry. If I wanted to kidnap you, I would have done it already." June assured him as she saw his eyes travel to the dueldisk besides his bed. "That's very... My pendulum!" Uno quickly reached for his chest. The crystal was still there. "You didn't take it.. Or couldn't?" She had been given plenty of time to steal it, if that was what she was after. "What do you think?" She queried as she moved to the back of the room. "I pick Answer B. Whatever these pendulums are, they cannot be used against each other. You said it yourself; you would have taken me long ago otherwise.. So why are you here?"

"To get answers. I believed I could scan your deepest thoughts while you were not awake. I was mistaken; my prodding merely woke you up. Well, there is always the original method." June picked up her own dueldisk and switched it on. "A duel? What do you need to soften my brain up too?" June had said something to that effect back when August battled Iria. "But you do know that there is a ban on dueling going on now right?" He joked. It was unlikely that she would care to follow the law. "Really? Does your country think that that is going to end their problems?" She had a good laugh about it at least. "Well, you and me are not from this time anyway. So that can't stop us. Sorry, Uno, you are not getting out of this one. I wouldn't try to call for help either, I made sure that nobody can hear or see what is going on in this room." June was not that patient. She had already prepared her cards and drawn five of them. "Besides, I can sense your desires right now. You want answers too."

June's LP: 8000 Uno's LP: 8000

"No point in lying to you, is there?" Uno moaned and got up. "I expected you a lot sooner than this actually." He grabbed his cards and his synchro-guild dueldisk. Seeing that new device reminded him of why he lost the old. "You made Dom demand a meeting with UNO, and then you never show up... Now it's just you." The second turn was hers, so he drew his five cards and did nothing else. "Even we have our limits. We cannot ask too much of the pendulums. Since the cardmakers friend never showed up, we did not see it as necessary to intervene. So I return to you. Before you dueled December, your mind went somewhere that I could not follow; outside of time. I cannot see the memory of you restoring your pendulum" June revealed. "Really?" In fact Uno was actively thinking about 'the answer' right now. It was definitely weird that June could not pick that up. "Now I wonder, would you timetravelers happen to have met a trio of fortune telling sisters who go by the name of Veronica, Cloe and Margot?"

"Excuse me?" June appeared utterly confused by his question. "They are the ones who helped me fix my crystal. I met them in my dream." Uno had hoped June would know anything about the prophecy sisters. Sadly that appeared to not be the case. "Uno, that would be impossible. No life can exist outside of time. I think your mind was playing tricks on you; a coping mechanism to deal with your lost memories. We did not take them, but perhaps there was something in there that did not want to be found by us. We will find out once we undo the damage to your mind." As she spoke, Uno's heart started beating faster. "Undo the damage? You can do that?"

"Only if you fight back. A duel must be pure to draw out the pure mind. What I want you to do, Uno.. is to survive." June summoned her first card. "Ritual Beast Tamer Elder." An elderly wizard(2/200/1000) in green and brown robes appeared from a column of wind. "Since I normal summoned him, I can normal summon another Ritual Beast." She normal summoned the bird of thunder(4/1400/600); Spiritual Beast Cannahawk. "Cannahawk will banish Ritual Beast Tamer Lara from my deck." With its electric effect, the hawk removed one of June's decked Ritual Beast cards. "And now, the next level." The woman banished the Tamer and Beast; contact-fusing the two to create Ritual Beast Ulti-Cannahawk(6/1400/1600). "Then defuse." The fusion beast split up and returned to the extra deck. Tamer Elder and Beast Cannahawk were special summoned back to the field. "Eh?" Now Uno was the confused one. June did not even use Ulti-Cannahawks effect. Instead she reused regular Cannahawks effect to banish Spiritual Beast Rampengu from her deck. "Stay with me." Then June contact fused Cannahawk and Elder all over again, summoning the same Ulti-Cannahawk from the extra deck.

"You see, when you have dueled as long as I have, you find every weakness in the rules. Ulti-Cannahawk can return two banished cards to the graveyard to add another Ritual Beast card from my hand to my deck." As her fusion monster selected Cannahawk and Tamer Lara in the banished pile, it started to destabilize again. "Yet Ulti-Cannahawk can defuse first and the other effect will still resolve!" The fusion beast split up and returned to the extra deck. Only the Spiritual Beast Cannahawk was sent to the graveyard while Tamer Lara(1/100/2000) was targeted alongside Spiritual Beast Rampengu(4/1600/400) to be placed back on the field. Ulti-Cannahawks first effect then placed a Ritual Beast Bonds spell in June's hand. "And now you can fuse it again.." Uno expected her to bring another Ulti-beast to the field, which was technically correct. "But I wont." She instead activated a spell card, Emegency Teleport, to special summon a level 3 psychic from her deck. The third Ritual Beast Tamer, Wen(3/1500/1000), was put on the field. "?"

"It's like this; Duelists like you and me grow stronger with our cards. Fusion is my power, and my greatest fusion brings out my full potential. It requires one Spiritual Beast, one Tamer and one Fused Beast. I have two of those.." June activated another spell card; Fusion Tag. "Now I will have three! Fusion Tag changes a monsters name into that of a fusion monster in my extra deck!" June revealed Ritual Beast Ulti-Pettlephin and placed the cards name on the metal tag. The tag was given to Tamer Wen who hung it around her neck. Now she was an 'Ulti-Beast'. "Contact Fusion!" June clapped her hands together. "Ritual beast Ulti-Gaiapelio!" In one turn, before Uno could even make a move, she created the ultimate Ritual Beast. Tamer Lara rode in on the armored lion(10/3200/2100) of the elements. "Geez.." Gaiapelio gave off an intense aura that weighed down on Uno. The entire room felt heavy and hot. "This is your test, Uno. Destroy this card. If you cannot do that, than you cannot find the answers and I will be forced to tear them out.. no matter what damage it does to your mind."

(To be Continued in Annex 071: White Screen)

New Cards used by June
Ritual Beast Tamer Elder

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Emergency Teleport
Fusion Tag