According to his sister, John was NOT grounded.

He was just taking a mandatory break from the mind warping playing cards.

And kicked out of the hotel room so she could take a nap and he could 'get some sunlight'.

Not to mention, he wasn't allowed to open more packs until Grace had time to review some stuff and Temptation adjusted the 'proactive defensive modules' to be a bit more lethal to anything that didn't exist that attempted to poke her master.

Plus he wasn't permitted to Duel anyone at all until he was 110% SURE that he wouldn't accidentally open portals outside the current layers of reality, potentially infect the locals with spectral playing cards that no one could actually touch or interact with except for during specific periods during a Duel, or turn his opponent into a Duel Monster playing card or something.

Which, to be FAIR to that last argument: John conceded she might have a good point there!

It still FELT like he was grounded though.

At least the company was nice.

Grace at his side was basically skipping; she was so happy! "My Lord, it is a BEAUTIFUL day for a picnic!"

Sigh. "Please call me 'John', Grace. At least in public."

Temptation was still pushing herself against his side as they walked, so tightly that he was basically caring her at this point. "Why would anyone find our terms of endeavor strange… My Master!"

Then she gave a wide smile and a wink to the passersby. "After all, my Master owns me entirely, to possess my everything as he desires and…"

Grace, blushing like the sun, snagged her sister. "KIDDING! She's just joshing around, having a jape! Our personal interactions with our Lord and Creator is completely normal and certainly not of a sinful nature, nor is it in anyway inappropriate nor interesting!"

John ignored the growing number of stares, giving her a thumbs up! "I'm pretty sure that nailed it! Good job Grace, I don't think anyone will suspect a thing!"

She smile right back at him! "Thank you my Lord!" Temptation began struggling in her grip, but she held strong. "The park should only be a bit down the street, then we can have a lovely little… Did you just lick my hand?"

"Murph murph murph mer!"

She glared at her sister. "Well, please don't do that! Only my Lord may lick… Uh…"

And now she froze, realizing the number of people watching was a bit more than she could handle right now.

In fact, considering where Temptation's hands were about to wander… It might be best to act as a distraction. "Is that the park up ahead?"

Grace grabbed the lifeline with her dignity on the line! "YES! YES IT IS!"

Then she dragged her sister as fast as possible, ignoring her snickering, as she escaped forward to having a lovely sunny day picnic with loved ones. As well as away from embarrassment and all these witnesses, conveniently enough.

John idly followed, still not entirely sure what the appeal of having a picnic was supposed to be.

After all, he could easily Craft any food he wanted, and unlike the hotel there was no air conditioning or easy access to facilities like the bathroom or a refrigerator…

But the girls were super into it, and he loved the way they got enthusiastic when exploring new ideas and scenarios… So why not have a lovely little picnic with the three of them? Just a relaxing bit of time to unwind and not think about all those awesome cards just WAITING for him to unwrap and…

Temptation bounced back into view, having escaped somehow. "Master! I'm ready to serve your every fine dining need! Perhaps even more!"

Then a white delicate hand snagged the tease and YOINKED her back out of sight.

John couldn't help but smile as something tight inside unwound a bit, just watching the two girls goof around and do their little slapstick routine.

Fine.

Let's give this stupid 'picnic' thing a real shot, shall we?

Even if it turned out to be a terrible experience with ants and sunburn and whatever, at least it would be a moment shared with people he cared about.

That sounded good too.

~~~Pocket System~~~

Weevil Underwood felt himself flinch again as some hungry MONSTER walked past somewhere nearby… Close to the park?

Whatever, every insect in his DECK was screaming to avoid that horror show, and he wasn't going to just walk right up and punch himself in the face by avoiding common sense today.

He could just FEEL his Perfectly Ultimate Great Moth STRAIN to avoid that entire area! His Insect Queen could detect MANY small but dangerous foes just waiting to hunt him down!

And when his insects felt THIS level of fear, he got out while the getting was good!

Forget challenging more of those kids to Duels for some easy gambling money, it was time to spend some of this loot and go on an impromptu vacation THANK you very much!

~~~Pocket System~~~

John blinked at Substitoad's faint disgruntlement. Something about a tasty buggy snack getting away? Strange. "Do you think our cards can eat stuff too?"

Temptation snorted. "Well I am not giving my cake to any of them, that's for sure." Her eyes flickered to his lips… "Though I may be willing to share with a certain someone…"

Grace happily opened another basket, hiding the fact that she was accessing stuff from the Pocket that she made earlier. "Oh no need for that, we have plenty! I made sure to make ALL our favorites this time, so everybody just eat up!"

John chuckled a little at Temptation's exasperation as her sister torpedoed ANOTHER of her innuendos unintentionally.

For example: Oops, I dropped my fork, why don't we use our fingers and feed each other?

'Don't worry, I brought extras!'

Or: Oh it is so hot, if only some sexy Master could rub me down with some sunscreen…

'No need, I've already adjusted our defenses to block the ultraviolet light! We can just enjoy it all!'

At this point John was at least 20% sure that Grace was messing with her sister, because the possibility that ANYONE could be THIS dense to ongoing teasing and hidden meanings felt fairly unreasonable.

Whether or not she was doing it to help him feel better after being dunked in the pond, metaphorically, or if Grace just liked to tease her more outgoing sibling was still up for debate though.

~~~Pocket System~~~

Jessica leaned back in her chair, absently shuffling her deck.

Idly, she considered the cool feeling of the protective plastic sleeves protecting each of her agents, and how impressed they were that such protection methods were possible without obstructing the connection between the Duelists and the Soul fragments. After all, everyone else just had to rely on the subtle enhancement by reality on the cards to resist wear and tear...

But thanks to her brother and Grace, especially their tendency to over engineer things, her entire deck could ignore being boiled in lava or shot by bullets while still allowing her to communicate directly with the concepts and monsters behind it all like normal!

That sort of ingenuity had caught the attention of her cards, and Jessica was still feeling out her opinion on that.

Overall though? She felt that there was a growing amount of understanding between her and these defenders. There was a very familiar sense of adaptation and overcoming endless obstacles, a strong reminiscence of her own career.

After all, the agents didn't just sit back after defeating the invading species way back when.

Nor did they disband after several vicious but secretive wars.

SPYRAL went proactive...

They infiltrated other domains.

Agents had explored other territories, in other dimensions and under other rulers… Some Egyptian necromancers or Goblin merchants, others living machines or scrap.

And as they wandered and gathered intel, they also trained and enhanced their own abilities. This was just a basic fact, something Jessica knew in her bones: Stealth was critical. Information was key.

It was at least partially why she could just relax here in the hotel room like normal, while her brother seemed to partially summon the atmosphere of a calming swamp under the moonlight.

Although which sort of swamp and which moon seemed to change from moment to moment, at least while her brother remained unaware of the phenomenon, the effect itself for him was obvious and ongoing.

But thankfully not for her. If anything her agents made her seem to blend into the background better than before, to slip and slide away from attention and the focus of others.

According to Grace's notes, all of her brothers issues were simply a small side effect from how closely John had bonded with his Duel Monster, and their people. After all, her brother LOVED having family, and at some level was VERY willing to expand said family at the drop of a hat.

But her agents felt it was something more than that. Especially after he put together his Extra Deck 'workaround', and enabled the new module within the Pocket.

Because now that unknown, unseen not-quite-a-deck existed for both him AND her, and the new place of rest for said unstable cards now resided within a VERY defined place: John's Pocket.

It had caused some shifts, in both of them as brand new Duelists AND in their decks… Some stability alterations, a few potential possibilities unexpectedly realized, to the extent that a few cards had suddenly changed!

Now her personal Extra Deck had its own little stowaway… SPYRAL Double Helix.

Not an XYZ, or 'Ex-seas' monster like her brother had… No, this was a 'Link' monster.

Something completely different, according to her monsters.

These Link monsters didn't have level OR rank, so couldn't be used for Tribute, Ritual, or XYZ summoning. They had no defense value, and were fundamentally unable to ever take a defensive stance even if they wanted to!

Even more oddly, there were arrows on these Link cards. SPYRAL Double Helix, her new Earth Warrior with 1,900 attack, only had two arrows: One pointing to the left, and the other pointing down towards the Duelist.

While the first Link monster could be summoned to the 'Extra Monster Zone', any OTHER Link monsters could only be summoned in a space that prior ones pointed towards… Some restriction due to how oddly these Soul fragments connected with this reality, it seemed like.

She put her focus back towards her Inventory, at the Extra Deck and her new Duel Monster now resting within and apparently feeling happy to finally have a more stable home.

Double Helix could be called forth by sending two SPYRAL monsters to the grave. No other requirements or restrictions, no other setup required.

In return, this agent would INSTANTLY go undercover, acting exactly like his name was 'SPYRAL Super Agent' while on the field. That ability alone would allow all those other abilities and effects to activate and trigger, but that wasn't nearly the end of what her new agent could do.

No, the biggest benefit to her new, nearly unlocatable Duel Monster card?

Once per turn, Jessica could make a guess. Trap, Monster, or Spell.

Then, she could reveal the top card of her opponents deck to see if her prediction was correct.

If she was wrong? Then she now had actionable intel from her opponent for SPYRAL Master Plan to be aware of.

If she was correct? Then Double Helix would allow her to call forth any SPYRAL agent from her deck OR the grave, and bring them to her hand or directly onto the field for active duty…

Assuming that one of the spaces his arrows pointed to were available and not taken by someone else.

A powerful ability, but more than that… Her agents were thrilled just knowing this particular Duel Monster was still active and out there following leads.

Apparently, just as she and John had issues interacting with said 'Extra Deck'... The monsters themselves had similar problems.

They had assumed that SPYRAL Double Helix had met a bad end, to the point where none had urged Jessica to find him while opening other booster packs.

An entire organization had given up hope.

Of course, NOW they were all VERY active in Jessica's network of Soul fragment connections and apparently going through ALL the old mission briefings and reports to see if any OTHER agents might have simply gone VERY far afield instead of being lost to the gnashing teeth of an unseen war, and it didn't look like they were going to calm down soon.

Which was frustrating, because while Jessica didn't have to worry about ribbiting in her sleep like her brother did, she DID get to enjoy an absolutely LOVELY headache.

Worst of all, she couldn't even bring herself to complain… Because if SHE could have found some of her lost teammates back in service, then she'd have done the same.

So she shoved her brother out of the hotel room, locked the door and shut the curtains, turned off the lights, and just… Sat here.

In the dark, trying to relax and let her odd Deck do what they had to do.

After all, anyone left behind when John moved onwards couldn't be brought back into the fold at some later date. Not without making some local contacts and giving them the ability to send her brother letters via another of his odd mailboxes.

…Grandpa Solomon would probably love to be penpals with her brother, wouldn't he?

Might even have some sort of solution for his new froggy issues.

Maybe some sort of Soul painkiller for this headache of hers?

Jessica winced once more as her Duel Monster partner sent apologetic feelings through the strained network. That only a little more analysis and a few additional workarounds would drastically reduce the load and strain that she was undergoing.

…She'd look into all that later.

For now: A nice and calm bit of relaxation in a dark room. At least for a little while.