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.

72. Eliminate the Impossible

Annex 072: Eliminate the Impossible

"Look, Adamant. If you tell us who you're afraid of, and if you are willing to work with us, we may be able to come to some understanding between us and the guilds. I know not everyone is on board with Roma." Once more, the ex-XYZ-leader was 'interviewed' by Cassius and the disciples. His jail cell was a 'repurposed' training room. "Adamant, do you know anything about the possibility of another dimension or timeline?" So Cassius just dropped that theory into the session to catch him off guard. Even that did not get him to talk. The three fell back to another room. "Perfect. Now he believes us to be insane. This is leading nowhere. We have to get more forceful." Iria's patience had evaporated. "That sounds an awful lot like a push for painful interrogations, Silver." Zach shook his head. He would rather not sink to that level. "We should be prepared for the worst, Creffield." She did not see what else they could do right now. "What we should do is use what UNO gave us. If he is from the same world as this powerful enemy, and if that enemy has aligned itself with one of the guilds, then we need the new cards." The printer was fully integrated into the system by now. They could start creating their weapons whenever they wished. "I agree, I want to start training as soon as possible." Cassius nodded. "Well, see who volunteers then.."

...

That volunteer turned out to be Akai. She asked for new pendulum monsters and got them. She also got Boris to duel her in one of the training rooms, while Cassius, Zach watched from the sidelines. "Oh. You started? Did any of them use pendulum cards yet?" Uno joined in after a few turns. "Yes and no." Cassius answered swiftly. "Good.." Uno had to see this. These cards could very well draw a reaction from his crystal.

Akai's LP: 8000 Boris' LP: 8000

It was Boris' turn, he had previously synchro summoned X-Saber Souza(7/2500/1600). "Slice it up!" It attacked Akai's face-down monster; Symphonic Warrior Sizerrs, a keytar playing soundsynthetizer robot(4/1200/1900). It was smashed to pieces. "Was that one of the new cards? Not very impressive." Boris let out a chuckle. "It did what it had to. It has a flip effect, well had. I can add one new Symphonic card from my deck to my hand, I take Symphonic Warrior Guitaar." The added card was half monster and half spell. "Yeah I remember pendulum cards." Boris glared at Uno. "I still don't see how they'll help us beat the XYZ-guild." Boris placed a trap card and passed the turn to her. "We all need to change sometimes. Better to start as early as possible." Akai activated the field spell, Amplifire and normal summoned a tuner, Symphonic Warrior Basses the Bassguitar(1/600/400). Each Symphonic tuner had an effect that could modify Symphonics, including themselves. "Basses will increase its level by one star for each card in my hand." The machine strummed his guitar four times, once for each card in his duelists hand. It(5/600/400) gained four levels. "Now allow me; I set the scale!"

Their dueldisks already had been updated to include pendulum zones. Guitaars was a scale 7 monster, so she placed it in the red zone. "The field is holding." Cassius smiled. "They work just like any other card.." Uno looked at his own pendulum. It did not react to these pendulums after all. Just what made his cards so special? Was it that they came from another time? "Now I need the other one to start a pendulum summon, right?" Akai looked at the disciple for answers. "Correct." Zach told her. "Ah. But, I should still be able to use its effects by itself.. " Akai activated the spell effect of Guitaars. "Guitaars discards one card, to special summon a Symphonic Warrior from my deck!" Akai discarded a Symphonic Warrior Piaano to special summon a Symphonic Warrior Miccs(5/2300/1100), a pendulum monster based on a microphone.

"Thanks to the monster effect of Miccs, I can normal summon another Symphonic Warrior." Akai continued her turn and summoned Warrior Drumss(2/700/700) the drumming machine. "Drumss is going to target Basses." Drumss changed attributes instead of levels. The bassguitar robot's attribute was turned from Wind to Dark. "Then I banish Symphonic Warrior Piaano from my graveyard." Symphonic Warriors could also use their powers from the grave. In this case the selfbanished Piano tuner targeted the Drum tuner. "Piaano turns Drumss into a fiend-type monster." The drummer transformed into a more demonic fleshy machine. "Then I activate the effect of Symphonic Warrior Sizerrs from the graveyard too. It banishes itself to special summon a Symphonic Warrior that was banished." The only applicable target was Piaano(3/900/1300), who was quickly revived from the other dimension. "I will use Piaano's effect again!" Now that it was on the field, Piaano could target Miccs. The microphone non-tuner machine was also demonized into a fiend-type.

"Now I activated six Symphonic effects this turn. Check my field spell if you don't believe me, it collected six Symphonic counters." Amplifire gained counters whenever a Symphonics power was used. Basses, Guitaars, Sizerrs, Drumss, Piaano; all of them had contributed. "All Symphonic Warriors gains 100 attackpoints for each counter." The six counters powered up Basses(1200/400), Drumss(1300/700), Piaano(1500/1300) and Miccs(2900/1100). "I'm liking what I'm seeing. Time to attack!" Miccs fired a sonic blast from his mike. "Not so fast, Akai. Just because we're testing this out, doesn't mean I have to let you waltz all over me!" He in turn activated the trap card, Gottoms Emergency Call. While his X-Saber monster was still alive, the trap could special summon two Saber-monsters from the graveyard; XX-Saber Boggartknight(4/1900/1000) in attack mode and XX-Saber Fullhelm Knight(3/1300/1000) in defense mode. "Fullhelm Knight negates the attack of one monster on the field!" The saber warrior deflected the sonic blast with its bladed whip.

"Oh you always make things about you, Boris. This is not about rankings anymore." Akai, frustrated, had Warrior Piaano destroy Fullhelm Knight and called her other monsters back. Then she removed five symphonic counters from Amplifire. "By using up five counters, I can inflict 300 points of damage for each Symphonic Warrior on the field!" The four Symphonists in the monster zones and Guitaars in the pendulum zone combined their instruments to unleash a storm of sound. "Gah." Boris lost 1500 lifepoints. "And now I will synchro summon Dark Highlander!" For a final move, Akai synchronized the tuner Drumms with Miccs. They had both been turned into fiend-types for this purpose. The scythe-wielding hell king(7/2800/2300) could only be made from demonic synchro materials. "Not cool, Akai." As long as it was on the field, neither player could synchro summon, much to Boris' annoyance. "Just admit it, with these pendulums it is a lot easier to synchro summon. Look at what happens to the materials." Miccs, as a pendulum monster, went to the extra deck instead of the graveyard. This way synchro materials could continuously be recycled.

Boris' LP: 6500

"Exactly. we could even create pendulum tuners, if I min/max some traits." Zach said proudly. "If that is the case, why not just print cards that can win us the game in one turn? It is not as if the XYZ-guild can get their hands on them now." Boris asked the obvious question. "The device does not work like that. UNO made it so that cards still have to be balanced." There were rules, not even Dom or the disciples could break those. "Hmph. If this is a war then who gives a damn about what's fair? Point is, these new cards aren't that good. You could have done better without them!" Boris took his turn and activated a spell card, Saber Slash. "Like this! With this card I'm gonna destroy two of your cards, because I have two Saber monsters!" The swords of Boggartknight and Souza began to glow. They made waves with the blades that slashed through Symphonic Warrior Piaano and Dark Highlander. "Synchro monsters are our advantage. I wont let anyone stop that!"

"Torapart." Boris normal summoned the palindrome warrior tuner(2/600/600). He tuned it with Boggartknight to create the Kabuki demon warrior; Goyo Predator(6/2400/1200). "Goyos? Now you're using Gareths cards against me?" Akai remembered Boris taking that card as an Ante during a previous duel. "Everything goes, Akai. Time to be destroyed!" Goyo Predator attacked and destroyed Basses(1/700/400). The Predator could take control of those it killed, so the Basswarrior(1/600/400) was summoned back to Boris' side. "By the way Chief; what about the other thing? Shouldn't we be training against solid vision? I was there, and those attacks hurt." Though his attack did decent damage, Akai felt nothing of it because the holograms were not solidified. They could try to turn that function on. "Our guild does not harm people, Boris. We'll find other ways to defend ourselves. " Dom had actually offered it before, but Cassius had said no then and he held the same position now. "If you say so." Boris continued the battle phase, X-Saber Souza attacked Akai directly. "Maybe it's not the cards..." In his second main phase, Boris tuned the stolen Basses with Souza to synchro summon Colossal Fighter(8/3200/1000). "..maybe it's the player." Then he placed a trap card down and ended his turn.

Akai's LP: 3400

"Oh? You're going there?.." Akai clenched her hand. "Too far, Boris. I draw!" The next card she added to her hand was another pendulum monster. "I set the scale, Symphonic Warrior Miccs!" In the blue zone the scale 1 microphone machine was placed. Together with Guitaars, it formed a complete pendulum duo. "Let me be the first guildmemberto say.. Pendulum Summon!" Akai pendulum summoned Symphonic Warrior Miccs(5/2400/1100) from the extra deck. "That's the stuff!" Zach cheered. "That is it? Just one monster?" On the flipside, Boris was let down by the climax of all this build-up. "I'm just getting started!" Akai activated three cards from her graveyard. "I banish Symphinic Warriors Basses, Drumss and Piaano from my graveyard to modify Miccs!" The bassguitar added 2 levels to the Microphone(7/2500/1100), one for each card in her hand. Drums and Piaano then changed the wind-attribute machine into a fire-attribute dragon. All the while, Amplifire kept powering up the Symphonic Warrior(2700/1100) with its Symphonic counters. "Guitaars is gonna use its spell effect as well, obviously." Akai discarded a card from her hand and let the pendulum monster summon a second Symphonic Warrior Piaano(3/1400/1300) from her deck. This Piaano activated its effect from the field to change itself(1500/1300) into a dragon-type monster. "I tune Miccs with Piaano to synchro summon Trident Dragion!" Now that both her materials were dragons, she could create the great red three-headed dragon(10/3800/2800) with them.

"Ooh. Impressive." Cassius saw what she was doing. The XYZ-guilds greatest weapon was its diverse extra deck. Akai's use of moldable tuners and nontuners almost matched their capacity. "One more tune." Akai normal summoned a second Symphonic Warrior Drums(2/1300/700). It targeted itself and changed its type into a warrior-type with its effect. "What was that for?" Boris asked her. "Oh. Those who can count would know." Akai nodded at her field spell. "Six more symphonic effects were activated. Seven counters.." She removed all the counters from Amplifire. "Five counters inflict burn damage, but seven.. will let Amplifire banish one of your cards for each Symphonic Warrior on my side!" The spell amplified the sounds of her two pendulum spells and of Drums, their mixed music reached the entire field. "Ugh.." Goyo Predator, Colossal Fighter, his set trap card; they were all banished by the soundwaves. "And Trident Dragion can attack two more times by destroying two cards I control!" The two extra heads of the dragon grabbed both Miccs and Guitaars from the pendulum zone and swallowed them. "Just because it's a war does not mean everything goes, Boris! Someone showed me that duels should be about fun. And I'm going to have a lot of fun with this.. Trident Dragion, direct.."

"My apologies." The direct attack almost became an attack on the hologram of Iria, as it appeared in the middle of the dueling room. "Wha?" Akai's monster froze. "An urgent matter has come up, and I believe sir Cassius and Creffield should be informed. We are waiting at the entrance." Her projection vanished and so did the other holograms. "Hey! I was about to win this!" Akai protested. "Sorry, Akai. But if Iria says it's important, we need to see her. The testrun proved succesful either way." Zach and the others walked out of the chamber. "Too bad, Akai." Boris snickered. Before she could tell him to 'put a sock in it', Uno stepped in. "It proved enough to. You'll make an excellent pendulum duelist, Akai." He said with a smile. "Eh, thanks."

...

Dom, Iria, Zach, Uno and Cassius reconvened at the castle gates; where dire news was shared. "It is worse than I expected. The board of directors and our shareholders have been approached by the Fusion Guild. They are going to accept their offer. And that is not the worst part." Iria stated grimly. "The fusion guild taking over my precious company? What could be worse than that?" Dom did not want to listen anymore. "Dame Phoebe of the guild has sent us an ultimatum. We are to meet her and give her the two remaining cards willingly in exchange for the one she has." She showed them the mail she had sent. "Two for one? That doesn't sound very fair. Why would she even give one of them back?" Uno thought one side needed all three of them. "She probably already copied the part of the decryption code inside the fusion dragon, that clever minx. She doesn't want to have the information for herself, she wants to make us part of her guild. And we can't really argue with the way things are developing. Soon she might own Dreamworld and then the law will be on her side." Dom shook his head. He should never have left the tower.

"Wait a second.. this says that Eric will be there for the meeting." Uno said as he read the last part of the mail. "Eric?" And Emily was standing close enough to overhear that. "Eric is going to be there?" She forced her way into the group. "She could be lying. Even if she isn't, she could be using him as leverage. I see no other reason why she would mention Eric's name so carelessly." Dame Phoebe did not strike Cassius as the type to set up encounters if they did not also benefit her in some way. "Yeah it is a trap, so what? We have to get that idiot out of there!" Emily didn't care what anybody said or would say, Eric was still their friend. He had to be. "I admire your trust, miss Brandt. But even then we can't just give the fusion guild what they want." Dom cheerlessly concluded. "No.. we should give them what they want. Exactly what they want." Uno made a gleeful proposal. "Have you gone mad?" Iria snapped at him. "Far from it.."

...

Though most of Phoebe's terms were non-negotiable, the location was theirs to choose. Zach made the decision; they would see each other inside the grand hall of the national museum of history. It was in a city close by and it was a spot Zach was very familiar with. There were plenty of people and plenty of guards, the fusion guild would not try anything here and the XYZ-guild could not intercept them either. "Hello Dame." He, Iria and several bodyguards were there to represent Dreamworld. "Greetings Zachary Creffield and Iria Silver." Phoebe, Eric and several lawyer figures arrived to speak for their side. "Eric..How are you?" Uno was the odd man out. As much as Emily wanted to be there, Cassius had advised her not to come. They did not want to give away that Dom was partnering up with the Synchro guild, so nobody from that group came here. Uno on the other hand wouldn't let anyone tell him where he could be. "Uno, I.." Eric looked confused, though not harmed. He was not sure why he was here. Phoebe did most of the talking. "Where is Dom?"

"Considering the recent attacks on his person, we decided to take his place. We have the full authority to handle this trade." Zach produced a contract which one of Phoebe's lawyers looked over. "Well. We don't have to be so formal. Nothing is definite yet." She twiddled her fingers. "Eric. You want to be with them, don't you? Show them what you stole." She glared at the kid. He flinched and took a card from his dueldisk. "Yes. I..am sorry for what I did." In his hand was Starve Venom Fusion Dragon. "So you brought your end of the bargain." Iria gestured at one the guards. He opened a suitcase, which carried Dark Rebellion XYZ Dragon and Clear Wing Synchro Dragon inside. "As did you, how sweet! Now we can start the trade! Don't worry, you will get your cards back as soon as he extracted the code. We will have the set and so will you, it will be the beginning of a wonderful partnership." She beckoned for them to come closer with her cards. "Do it." Iria made it happen. "Thank you." Phoebe gave the two dragons to her lawyers, while Eric gave his to Iria. "Eric. What happened? Why did you take that card?" Uno could not imagine Eric would do something so low. "...I.." But Eric was struggling to find the answer. "Well if this is all."

"We're not finished just yet, Dame Phoebe. First we have to verify its authenticity." Iria inserted the fusion dragon into her dueldisk. "Is that necessary? You and I both know that there is only one such card in existence." Phoebe tried to play it cool. "...!?" Alas, she was talking to Dreamworlds chief examiner, a woman who would not overlook the minute details that made one card differ from the other. "This card is a fake!" She had gotten these readings before, way back in Vice's shop. "It was you after all! You were the ones who source of the forged cards!" Only that could explain why she had a 'second' Starve Venom Fusion Dragon. "You were trying to drive us out of business all this time with your faked merchandise. Now you finally got your way."

"Well you caught me redhanded.. eheheh. Eric!" Phoebe snapped her finger. "Urgh..gah! Yes.. Dame!" Eric stepped back and turned on his dueldisk. "I challenge you to a duel!" He entrapped Iria before she could engage Dame Phoebe. "Eric? Why!?" Uno cried. "This is for.. her sake." Eric stood before Dame Phoebe, giving her a chance to retreat. "This is not the time or place for this!" Zach shouted. "It is the perfect time, disciples!" The bodyguards who attempted to surround the two-faced girl, became the surrounded. "Huh?" The museum-going public had swarmed all of them. "It's been lovely, have fun!" Phoebe made good use of this opportunity and waved them goodbye, with the two cards in hand. "Phoebe!"

(To be Continued in Annex 073: Towards the Lowest Circle)

New Cards used by Akai Diaz
Symphonic Warrior Sizerr
Symphonic Warrior Guitaar
Symphonic Warrior Basses
Symphonic Warrior Miccs
Symphonic Warrior Drumss
Symphonic Warrior Piaano

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Dark Highlander
Trident Dragion

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Amplifire

New Cards used by Boris Jenner
XX-Saber Fullhelmknight
Torapart

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Goyo Predator

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Saber Slash

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Gottoms' Emergency Call