Beta-ed by xenosaiyan
"I draw!" Torchwick announced, pulling his card and pointing the ramshackle machine sputtering next to the ancient and reverent Gateway of the Six. The crackling, half-baked machine instantly accelerated the spinning of its six white spheres. "Standby Phase time, so it's gambling time. Dangerous Machine Type-6 rolls a six-sided die and–oh, darn it. It's times like this I wish there was a way to load dice in a duel. Stupid ancient laws of Remnant."
Weiss grinned as each of the gambling spheres stopped on four. "Yes! A four means the opponent draws a card. Blake! You're our turn player!"
"Right!" The Odd-Eyed Bandit called, claiming the top card of her deck and building her hand to two cards.
Adam snarled as the cat faunus drew, his masked eyes flickering toward his teammate. "You are useless."
"I didn't hear you complaining when it kept you from having to deal with a four thousand-point monster," Torchwick scoffed at his supposed ally. "I activate Pot of Greed."
Thanks to the staple utility spell, the gangster drew two more cards. His grin grew to match Weiss' at the sight of them.
"Perfect. I activate Polymerization!" he declared, sliding the spell into his duel disk. He smiled at Rune-Eyes Pendulum Dragon as the fusion vortex warped space in front of him. "My turn, ladies. I fuse Barrel Dragon and Blowback Dragon from my hand! Fusion Summon! Level Eight! Gatling Dragon!"
The two dragons with guns for heads flashed onto the gangster's field, instantly yanked into the swirling vortex. The mechanical parts pulled apart, the flow of the spacial whirlpool reshaping them together, forming a new mightier machine.
Atop a chariot of red and black, its wheels spiked for Battle, it roared with all three heads. Long tubular necks branched off from the armored steel of the main body, its jaws and eyes built from a trio of whirling gatling guns (ATK 2600/DEF 1200).
Three golden coins, one before each artillery head, appeared in front of the new firearm behemoth.
"Care to take a gander at what this one does, Ice Queen?" Roman taunted.
"This is a Fusion Monster you personally forged. How am I supposed to know what it does?" Weiss snapped.
"Just some good old process of critical thinking. It's a combination of the material monsters after all," Torchwick cackled. "Once per turn, I can toss a coin three times. And then monsters are destroyed equal to the number of heads."
Weiss gnashed her teeth together, her eyes nervously flickering toward Performapal Skullcrobat Joker and Rune-Eyes Pendulum Dragon in front of Blake. The latter monster had the highest attack points on the field, but if it was destroyed by effect, Gatling Dragon could blow away the acrobat clown and then, provided Great Shogun Shien consented to be commanded by someone other than Adam, Torchwick could attack for the win with his partner's ace.
If even one coin landed on heads, they were finished.
"Coin flip one!" Torchwick shouted, snapping his fingers.
The coin sped up, flying up towards the dueling car's ceiling. Weiss shut her eyes and rubbed her palms together, desperately praying for the disk to land on tails.
The coin fell. The side facing up – tails! One of Gatling Dragon's whirring minigun heads drooped to the floor, its energy zapped away.
Weiss started rubbing her hands faster. If praying was working for once, they needed all the help they could get.
"Coin flip two!"
The gold disk flew. And when it came down?
Tails. Another of Gatling Dragon's minigun heads drooped to the floor, its barrels no longer spinning.
"Huh. Guess that's what I get for dueling a black cat," Torchwick joked, reaching for a button on his duel disk as he snapped his fingers again. "Coin flip three!"
The third golden disk flew, the train's fluorescent lights glinting off its flat surface. Weiss squeezed her eyelids shut, whimpering as she wrung her hands together. If it landed on heads, Rune-Eyes Pendulum Dragon was a goner and they wouldn't be far behind. And after them, all of Vale.
The coin fell to the floor, clattering and spinning until finally, it collapsed.
Collapsed… with tails facing up!
"Yes!" Weiss cheered, pumping her arms as she leaped for joy. "Yes! Yes! Yes!"
Blake let out a sigh of relief, sharing a small smile with Rune-Eyes Pendulum Dragon and Performapal Skullcrobat Joker. The final, central head of Gatling Dragon drooped down to the floor.
Meanwhile, Adam shook with rage.
"You insipid, incompetent, human wretch!" The Blood-Soaked Bull roared at his teammate, even Great Shogun Shien sneering at the dapper gangster. "To think I would be saddled with a conviction-less cur who can't even win his own gamble–
PING! PING! PING!
The three coins on the ground suddenly flipped over. Gatling Dragon's three heads whipped back into the air, their artillery barrels whirring like helicopter blades.
Weiss's eyes widened in horror. Torchwick pulled his bowler hat over his face, hiding all but a slick, devilish smirk.
Gatling Dragon's heads thundered, bullets shrieking from its steel maws. Rune-Eyes Pendulum Dragon and Skullcrobat Joker were shredded to pieces by the lightning bombardment, their previous assumption of safety torn away. Even Great Shogun Shien was blindsided by the storm of rounds, the Samurai warlord wiped away by more modern weaponry.
When the smoke cleared, Weiss and Blake could only gape in shock at their cleared field. Adam stared at the spot his ace had stood mere moments ago, reeling from the sudden destruction of the card he had tied so much of his self-image to.
The button Torchwick had pressed earlier expelled a trap card from his graveyard slot. The thief held it up and wagged it at Weiss.
"Guess I've got your old man's card to thank for the last-minute jackpot, Ice Queen," He taunted her. "If you hadn't used your Galaxy Cyclone to take out my Gun Cannon Shot last turn, it wouldn't have been in my graveyard to save me now."
"Gun Cannon Shot?" Weiss paled.
It was a trap card made to support Barrel Dragon. When banished the graveyard in response to an effect that flipped two or more coins, it allowed the duelist to treat all results as heads.
Great Shogun Shien may have gotten caught in the crossfire, but now, Team RWBY was wide open!
"You destroyed my shogun!" Adam snapped at his partner.
Torchwick shrugged. "Sorry. Three heads. Three monsters. That's the rules."
"How dare you sacrifice my monster!?"
"You literally just did that with my Orgoth last turn. Far more wastefully, I might add, since you didn't even bother to use its effect," Torchwick groaned. He turned toward Weiss and Blake with annoyance in his gaze. "I cannot wait to be off this train. Gatling Dragon! Attack them directly! Gatling Gun Cannon Shot!"
The mechanical behemoth turned its trio of forearm heads on the huntresses. Weiss' breath hitched in her throat as a swarm of bullets screeched across the field, the SDC heiress completely unable to stop her doom.
"Reveal facedown! Illusion Balloons!"
It was lucky then that she wasn't alone.
Blake snapped her fingers and her spell card rose from where it'd laid in wait before her. Just like in her duel with Weiss back in their first semester, five colorful balloons swarmed onto the field. Gatling Dragon's horde of lead rapier wasps popped them one after another until the last one's destruction revealed a new Performapal, this one a blue bull in a suit with an antique scroll phone for ears (ATK 1600/ DEF 1200).
"You're not the only one who can gamble. On the turn one of my monsters is destroyed, I can excavate the top five cards of my deck and summon a Performapal from among them. And wouldn't you know it, I found Performapal Longphone Bull," the Odd-Eyed Bandit revealed, another card popping out from her deck for her to snatch to her hand. "Due to his effect, I can add a non-Pendulum Performapal Monster from my deck to my hand when he's summoned. I choose Performapal Springoose!"
"Wonderful," Torchwick sighed. "Hey, bullhead! Don't suppose your facedown will counter hers?"
"It will summon no monster low enough to obey your commands," Adam tersely replied. "Even if they were, I doubt you could subvert her defenses, and that would cost us the duel."
"Double-Edged Sword Technique then?" Blake guessed.
Adam's gaze turned back toward his former partner, the cat faunus shaking with fear, but managing to hold her ground. "Indeed. Just as you've got the Inflater Tapir combo ready to go. You wouldn't be stupid enough to summon Longphone Bull in attack mode otherwise."
Weiss pursed her lips. That was both the advantage and disadvantage of the situation. Blake and Adam had fought side-by-side for years. He'd helped Sienna Khan train her and she'd idolized him even before they'd gotten together. Aside from any cards they'd acquired since the Odd-Eyed Bandit ran to Beacon, they knew each others' decks and strategies front to back. Even her restored bond with Fusion Monsters wouldn't provide Team RWBY with the element of surprise.
It would be up to Weiss to supply that. Now that her partner had pushed back against her fear to put them in striking distance, the heiress had to finish the job and hammer their opponents. Before the train struck Vale, she needed to win on her next turn!
"Battle!" Torchwick called. "Gatling Dragon! Destroy that clown!"
"I discard Performapal Inflater Tapir from my hand!" Blake shouted, slipping the monster card into Gambol Shroud's graveyard slot. "Due to its effect, neither of us takes damage from his battle!"
A bright purple tapir flashed in front of Longphone Bull, inflating itself like a giant balloon to block Gatling Dragon's barrage. The rain of rounds couldn't pierce the violet beast's flesh, but it could stretch it enough to still strike and destroy Blake's monster.
"Well, that's annoying. Two cards facedown and I end my turn," Torchwick groaned. "You know, ladies, this train is going to hit Vale any second and then we're all pancakes. Any chance you'd be willing to call it quits here so we can all run for our lives?"
Weiss ignored him, drawing for her turn. When she saw she'd pulled Pot of Greed, she immediately played it and drew two more cards from her deck.
Meanwhile, Adam looked like he wanted to strangle Torchwick. "Your lack of conviction disgusts me."
"Hey, I've got plenty of conviction, horn head. I just don't put it towards silly things like dying for a cause. I'm in this for important stuff like me, myself, I, and Neo," Roman shrugged. "The Ice Queen gets it."
"I activate Graceful Charity, letting me draw three cards and discard two–what?" Weiss squeaked, confused why the thief was drawing a commonality with her as she discarded Phantom Knights of Torn Scales and Phantom Knights of Silent Boots. "You and I have nothing in common! You're a thief."
"And you're the princess of thieves, given who your daddy is," Torchwick smugly shot back. "Or is it 'just business' when he fleeces people and you live off the spoils? I mean, whatever helps you sleep at night when all those people on the street come begging for payback."
"You're trying to sick the Grimm on Vale!"
Like before, a flicker of distaste and even regret passed over Torchwick's face. "Again, really not my call."
"Yes! It is," Blake piped up, as if suddenly realizing something. "Get out of our way and let us stop this train. Ozpin offered me a chance. He can protect you from the scorpion."
Weiss cocked an eyebrow at giving Roman Torchwick of all people a genuine offer of protection, but she couldn't say he and Blake hadn't been party to similar crimes, if for vastly different motives. And with the mountainside growing closer by the second, a swift end to the duel was their best way to stop the train.
She watched as Adam adjusted his stance, the Blood-Soaked Bull readying himself for an attack even from his teammate.
Unfortunately, he needn't have bothered.
"Scorpion? Wow, kitty cat," Torchwick darkly chuckled. "You ran away from The Fang too soon. Otherwise, you might have the slightest idea what you're up against."
"We know you two are scum!" Weiss snapped. "Just scum we need to wipe off our shoes."
Adam's masked face tipped towards the heiress, a snarl of utter loathing lighting his lips.
"Quite the spirit for someone who has options, rich girl," Torchwick denounced. "Like I said, this ain't the schoolyard. It's kill or be killed. You, me, your paps, our furry friends here? We all pick the same. Hell, it's what you're going to school to do! To be killers!"
"To be huntresses!" Weiss roared.
Torchwick merely shrugged. "Same thing."
Weiss snarled, tearing a card from Myrtenaster's graveyard slot, a card she'd once been too fearful to play. "I banish Galaxy Cyclone from my graveyard to destroy one face-up spell or trap on the field! Obliterate Gateway of the Six!"
The cosmic typhoon of her father's support spell shrieked out of her graveyard and smashed the archaic religious shrine that gave Adam such power. The winds of the great galaxy shredded the faunus warrior's key card, the archway and altar obliterated.
It was then that Weiss felt adrenaline and power rush through her, a glance across at Blake showing that she too was suddenly standing up straighter, her body's shivering ceased. And since both of their Pillar Dragons were in the graveyard, one of the others must have summoned theirs. And it felt like…
'Rally! Team RWBY!'
Weiss grinned. "That dolt."
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"Fusion Summon! Level Seven! Amazoness Pet Liger!"
Ilia's fusion vortex spat out a battle-scarred tiger with the pale yellow fur and regal gold mane of a lion (ATK 2500/DEF 2400). As it took to the Extra Monster Zone, a smaller pure tiger cousin lowered its hunches on a sideways card, huddled in defense mode (ATK 1900/DEF 1500) as it's effect boosted its attack by four hundred points from both its own and the fusion monster's presence.
From the Pendulum Zones, Amazoness Golden Whip Master and Silver Sword Master spread sparkles of dust over their monster compatriots. Each of them boosted the beasts of battle by a hundred attack points for each of their levels. Amazoness Tiger fortified its defensive position (ATK 2700) while Amazoness Pet Liger let out a fearsome roar (ATK 3900).
"Your move!" Ilia shouted across the racing train car roof. "But both my monsters have effects that keep you from attacking any other Amazoness monster. With Amazoness Pet Liger and Amazoness Tiger out, you can't attack any of my monsters."
"I know. I know!" Ruby muttered under her breath, yanking the top card of her deck for her turn. "I know!"
Something was wrong. Weiss and Blake should have been able to shut down the train already. Was Torchwick holding them off somehow? Had the grunts put up more of a fight than they'd expected? She'd felt Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon's adrenaline before, but it'd disappeared before long.
Were her friends even alive?
"Since I have no cards on my field, I can activate Infinite Impermanence from my hand!" Ruby exclaimed, crackles of electricity streaking over Amazoness Tiger. "Your tiger's effects are negated and so is your attack lock!"
"One of those new Atlas traps that can be activated from the hand," Ilia frowned. "We found some in the military shipments we hijacked. I suppose the Schnee got you yours?"
"Do you really have to call her 'The Schnee'? She's really nice when you get to know her. Or, you know, mostly nice," Ruby replied, imagining some of her partner's more prickly moments. "Look, please, just surrender. Help me stop this train, or everyone in Vale, human and faunus, is going to die–"
"Not this again," Ilia rolled her eyes. "You want to keep this train from hitting Vale, take your turn. Better than wasting both our time. Unless you're just stalling to save yourself from a bad hand."
That last accusation certainly wasn't it. Ruby ground her teeth and glanced down at her hand, noting that she could easily use what she had at her disposal to summon Black Rose Dragon and blow away the field. But she wouldn't have needed to use Infinite Impermanence to break Ilia's attack lock if that was her optimal path to victory.
'Unleash me!' Starving Venom Fusion Dragon's hunger emanated from her Extra Deck. 'Unleash me!'
The worst part was that Ruby shared her Pillar Dragon's excitement for the duel. Ilia had forced Pyrrha into a corner even when The Invincible Girl had Number 86 out. Even discounting the Over One Hundred Number hidden away in her Extra Deck, she was a kickass duelist that the leader of Team RWBY would love to have a match with under normal circumstances.
But these were not normal circumstances. And yet, Starving Venom was not the average monster.
"I summon Twilight Rose Knight. And due to his effect, I can special summon a Level Four or lower Plant-Type when he's normal summoned. I choose World Carrotweight Champion!" Ruby announced, her two faithful dark attribute monsters flashing onto the train car roof. The Beacon duelist reluctantly fingered a spell in her hand before sliding it into Crescent Rose. "Then I activate Left Arm Offering! When I have two or more cards in my hand, I can banish my entire hand to add one spell from my deck to my hand. I can't set spells or traps the turn I use it."
"Any spell?" Ilia murmured. "That's one powerful searcher."
It was, even with the restrictions. It was a rare, relatively obscure spell, one Ruby had found during one of her expeditions through pawn shops full of card catalogs that could have anything you could think of and likely much more. She'd wanted to play it for years. Yet, using it now felt like she really was chopping off her own arm.
If she unleashed Starving Venom on Ilia and defeated her, there was no guarantee that she could keep it under control. Her Pillar Dragon saw the chameleon faunus and her Amazonesses as worthy opponents to duel against, and that meant it would try to devour her. And despite what she was now inadvertently assisting, Ruby believed that Blake and Pyrrha's assessment was accurate, that the Emperor of Number 103 didn't deserve to be eaten like Perry almost was.
Ruby's hand suddenly started to shake as she pulled her chosen spell card from her deck, the thought of Perry leading to darker images clouding her mind. Images of his body in her arm, of the red leaking out the back of his head. Red like roses.
She remembered her words to Lil' Miss Malachite. She was a hunting duelist. Part of the job was killing when you had to. But in her mind, in all of the lectures she'd had at Signal, in all of the stories Dad and Uncle Qrow had told her, that meant the unfortunate reality of killing in the heat of battle. Death wasn't a stake wagered on the duel anchor binding her and Ilia, neither of them would be killed by a loss unless the other took action after they were out of aura. Yet, if Starving Venom was unleashed and was on the field when the chameleon faunus' life points hit zero, Ruby didn't know if she could stop him again.
Stop the bad guy in front of her. That was what she'd told Weiss. But even if Ilia was a bad guy, she wasn't a 'bad guy'. Stopping her shouldn't include killing her. But if Ruby didn't stop her, all of Vale was in trouble, and she absolutely could not allow that! So why was she hesitating?!
She signed up to be a hunting duelist! Why wasn't she dueling?!
Sssshhrrrriiieeeekkkk!
Ruby's attention was diverted from her opponent to the grinding shriek of tires against the rock. She and Ilia both turned their attention to a short distance behind the trap, where Yang was not hanging back to act as a bottleneck to the Grimm as ordered, but instead engaged in a Turbo Duel with, going by her and Weiss' previous descriptions, Neopolitan.
And Bumblebee was spinning out, Torchwick's sidekick yanking on the duel anchor connecting the duelists to send the golden runner, and its rider, hurdling toward the unforgiving tunnel wall.
"Yang!" Ruby shouted, fear lighting her soul at the sight of her sister's peril.
Her shaking hand instantly stilled, her mind realizing exactly what she had to do to help her kin.
"What is that gremlin doing?" Ilia growled, her eyes narrowing at Neo. "We don't need her toying with a straggler, we need her helping her boss keep this thing on course–"
"I activate Polymerization!" Ruby yelled, slamming the spell she'd seized with Left Arm Offering into Crescent Rose. "I fuse two Dark Attribute monsters on the field! Twilight Rose Knight! World Carrotweight Champion! Combine!"
"Fuse?!" Ilia exclaimed, her head whipping back to the duel as her opponent's monsters flooded into the same kind of swirling vortex she'd used to summon her Pet Liger a moment ago. "Blake taught you to fuse?!"
"Beautiful flowers with alluring fragrance! Scatter your petals and disclose the nightmare hidden beneath! Disclose your blood! Red likes roses!" Ruby frantically chanted, slamming her palms together. "Fusion Summon! Level Eight! Starving Venom Fusion Dragon!"
A hungry, hellish roar shook the train car as a thin body of ivy green and royal purple emerged from the fusion vortex. The Pillar Dragon's scarlet eyes gleamed when it sighted Ilia and her Amazoness Pet Liger, ravenous golden sap dripping from its jaws as it licked its razor-sharp fangs (ATK 2800/DEF 2000).
"What the heck is that?" Ilia whispered in terror at the sight of the botanical dragon. Her skin flashed half a dozen panicked colors as the monster's predatory pressure fell over the field, her liger and tiger stretching their claws for a fight at the sight of the more primal hunter.
Ruby barely clocked it, too relieved as she felt the adrenaline rush of bringing out her Pillar Dragon flood through her and, more importantly, her friends.
Most importantly, her sister.
She glanced over at the turbo duel, her heart thundering with worry as she saw Bumblebee near the side of the tunnel. Fortunately, just as she'd hoped, she witnessed Yang's body shoot to attention the moment Starving Venom finished manifesting.
With reflexes boosted to the height of aura's enhancement, her sister was able to regain control of her spiraling mount in an instant. Leveraging her first-rate driving skills and long history of pulling off stunts she probably shouldn't have tried, Yang wrenched up her wheels to catch the slope of the tunnel's wall, the momentum that should have smashed her instead carrying her up the rocky side.
Before her speed fell to gravity, the blonde yanked her runner off the wall, flipping through the air. Bumblebee landed on the opposite side of Neo's duel runner, a fearsome grin on Yang's face as she sped ahead of her opponent. "Nailed it!"
Neo hummed, actually seeming impressed as she set one card facedown. She gifted her golden-haired opponent a bit of applause that was only mostly sarcastic, her cartoonish monsters joining in far more enthusiastically.
"Don't think I'm out of this yet, short stuff!" Yang shouted. "My move! I draw!"
Ruby let out a sigh of relief. Her sister was safe. Safe and back in her duel. If there was anyone she trusted to pull through a duel and kick butt no matter how crazy things go, it was Yang. She'd never failed to keep her promise to her after all these years.
However, when she turned back to her own duel, her worries could only turn inward. Starving Venom Fusion Dragon's flytrap wings were already open, sucking in the essence of Amazoness Pet Liger like vacuum cleaners gobbling up pollen (ATK 6700).
"You couldn't wait five seconds for me to tell you that it was the target?" Ruby queried her monster. "What if I wanted you to gain Amazoness Tiger's attack instead?"
Starving Venom's head quirked to the side, its challenge obvious. 'Were you?'
"Well, no, Liger is clearly the better option but… look! Just don't eat her! Okay?!"
"Eat me?" Ilia repeated, her face warped with confusion.
"Nothing!" Ruby called. "When Starving Venom Fusion Dragon is fusion summoned, it gains attack equal to one of your special summoned monsters until the end of the turn."
She wished her monster had waited for her to declare which monster she wanted to take power from, but his instinctive move was the right call. Unfortunately, it also brought to mind Perry's warning after their duel, of the risk that Starving Venom's hunger might outpace her to the point it attacked without her command, or even against her orders. She couldn't afford such a slip with the stakes so high. So she only had one option.
Keep moving forward, and keep pace with her dragon.
"Starving Venom Fusion Dragon has another effect!" Ruby yelled, her dragon's flytrap wings slithering around its body. "Once per turn, it can target one of your Level Five or higher monsters and copy its name and effects."
"You can copy its effects? You can copy its name?" Ilia gaped, the flytrap wings snapping across her field at the head of long, vivacious vines. "What kind of monster is that thing?!"
"An awesome one!" Ruby proclaimed. "I target your Amazoness Pet Liger!"
The flytrap wings coiled around the scarred golden animal, their botanical jaws opening wide and sinking into the beast's legs. The voracious vegetation sucked up the Amazoness pet's power, a translucent image of the liger forming around Starving Venom Fusion Dragon.
Ruby watched as the text of her dragon's card gained new writing shining over it in violet light.
"Oh! Your Pet Liger's effects are so cool! It gains five hundred attack when it attacks for damage calculation, and when it destroys a monster–No!" Ruby exclaimed, smacking her cheeks. "No time for gushing! Starving Venom! Attack Amazoness Pet Liger! Venom Experience!"
Starving Venom Fusion Dragon let out a jubilant laugh, recalling its flytrap wings to its body, the phantom image of Amazoness Pet Liger letting out a ferocious roar around it (ATK 7200). Blazing crimson vines exploded out from the maws of the dragon's wings, crisscrossing through the air as a web of fire. Azure orbs lit up at a dozen intersections and erupted with sapphire beams of energy.
The real Amazoness Pet Liger was cut to pieces by the hail of botanical fire, letting out a last defiant roar as it was carved apart. The defense mode Amazoness Tiger dashed in front of Ilia, shielding its duelist from the blast of the aftershock, even as Starving Venom's stolen effects reduced its attack by eight hundred (ATK 1900).
Ilia Amitola: 700 Life Points
Starving Venom Fusion Dragon threw back its head and howled with joy. Despite her earlier fears, Ruby felt herself in sync with her Pillar Dragon's glee. A rush of purpose flooded through her, more satisfying than even the adrenaline rush of bringing forth her mighty beast.
This was what she was good at. No fancy magic, no complicated leadership stuff she never wanted, no extra battlefield dancing on death stilts, she was a duelist! She was a hunting duelist! Whatever the stakes, whatever the danger, she just needed to shove them aside and keep dueling. To keep moving forward!
She raised her arm in the air, knowing exactly what she had to do: beat the bad guy in front of her and save Vale.
It was that simple.
"Rally!" she roared, Starving Venom chorusing her cry with its own shriek. "Team RWBY!"
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Yang cackled like a maniac as Ruby's war cry echoed through the air and their Pillar Dragon link. Adrenaline pumped through her as Hot Red Dragon Archfiend echoed Starving Venom Fusion Dragon's roar, duelist and ace ready to take revenge for Neo nearly splattering them against the wall.
Her and her Toon monsters.
"They can't attack directly if they're a pile of ashes!" Yang called. "Absolute Power Blaze!"
Hot Red Dragon Archfiend slammed down its claw, its special ability thrusting a wave of hellfire toward Toon Barrel Dragon and Toon Buster Blader.
Neo's facedown flipped up, revealing a trap card. Toon World's pages glowed and banished the Synchro Monster's infernal assault, the harsh light barreling toward Yang's ace, only for the golden wings of Follow Wing to cut it to pieces.
Yang glanced down at her duel runner's display, scowling at the information her opponent had just beamed over. "Toon Terror. Standard Counter Trap omni-negate when you have Toon World and a Toon monster out."
But due to Follow Wing, her dragon hadn't been destroyed by the counter. The aggravating crook couldn't destroy her ace. She couldn't destroy her pride.
"I activate Pot of Greed! I draw two cards!" Yang yelled, yanking them from atop her deck. Her opponent had her down to less than a thousand life points, so they needed to be good.
She flipped them over… and smirked.
"Perfect. Hot Red Dragon Archfiend! Attack Toon Buster Blader! Molten Scarlet Flare!" Yang commanded, her dragon throwing its head back as its shining golden wings grew. "I activate Follow Wing's effect! When Hot Red Dragon Archfiend battles your Level Five or higher monster, it destroys that monster and gains its attack points until the end of this turn!"
Hot Red Dragon Archfiend flicked its enormous wings forward, Toon Buster Blader's crimson eyes comically bugging out in panic before it was cut to ribbons. The slain animation's essence was sucked up by Follow Wing, Yang's ace bulging its muscles as its attack power soared (ATK 6900).
"Your Barrel Dragon stands alone. But my archfiend doesn't," Yang taunted her foe, slamming a spell into Bumblebee's back row. "I activate Monster Reborn and revive your Toon Buster Blader to my field!"
The intricate symbol of revival flashed onto Yang's field, soon replaced by the armored purple warrior she'd just destroyed (ATK 2600/DEF 2300). The cartoonish puffed up its chest to a comical degree, its power rising due to the Blue-Eyes and Red-Eyes in Neo's graveyard (ATK 3600). Then it turned around and blew a raspberry in the blonde duelist's face.
Yang's eyebrow twitched. Monster Reborn usually mitigated the rebelliousness of any opponent's monster it revived. No point in summoning back a monster from the enemy's graveyard if it wouldn't listen to you and attack because it found you unworthy or something. But it wasn't a hundred percent perfect, and these Toon monsters were unpredictable as a baseline.
Fortunately, she didn't need her new acquisition to attack. She just needed it to stand on her side of the field and look pretty. Toon monsters could only attack directly if a duelist controlled Toon World and the opponent had no Toons of their own. If Neo wanted to sneak past Hot Red Dragon Archfiend and deal the final blow, she'd focus all her attention on destroying her stolen monster.
Falling right into Yang's trap.
"I lay one card facedown and end my turn," the blonde called out. She smiled softly as her facedown formed before her.
It was Spirit Barrier, a continuous trap card that kept her from taking any battle damage so long as she controlled a monster. And since Hot Red Dragon Archfiend was practically invincible with Follow Wing on it, that would keep her from taking any damage if the Toon monsters managed another direct attack barrage. Meanwhile, Torchwick's ice cream gremlin would be focused on taking out Toon Buster Blader thinking it would open the way for her to launch the winning bombardment, not knowing it would be useless.
Neo drew for her turn, her pink and brown eyes twinkling at the sight of her new card. She pointed to Toon Barrel Dragon, the shark-faced machine conjuring three coins before its gun barrels swatted them into the air.
One landed on heads. And two on tails!
"Wah, wah, Wwwwwaaahhhh!" Toon Barrel Dragon intoned, its face aghast as Toon Buster Blader pointed and laughed at its former ally from across the racing duel runners.
Yang grinned. "Looks like your luck has run out, short stuff."
Strangely, Neo mocking smirk didn't fade. If anything, it only seemed to grow more frigidly venomous.
She turned Toon Barrel Dragon's card sideways, switching it into defense mode. Then, she raised the one card in her hand and calmly slipped it into her duel runner's backrow.
Yang's eyes widened as it flashed into being.
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"From my hand, I reveal my ace, Blue-Eyes White Dragon!" Weiss yelled, turning the legendary monster's card around in her hand. "By doing so, I can summon Blue-Eyes Alternative White Dragon from my hand."
The dueling car was suddenly filled with a prickling static charge as an azure dragon with a glowing sheen to its scales flashed in front of Weiss and Blake (ATK 3000/DEF 2500). Pale electricity crackled between the spokes of its jaws, the wyvern's shadow looming over their enemies. Even Gatling Dragon looked positively puny in the face of the vibrant beast.
And it was only the warmup.
"I activate the spell card Ancient Rules! With this, I can special summon one Level Five or higher normal monster from my hand," Weiss screeched, slamming her ace's card down onto Myrtenaster. "Behold the pride of the Schnee Family! Rise! Blue-Eyes White Dragon!"
A vibrant alabaster maelstrom erupted at the center of the field. Jagged bolts of pearl lightning seared out throughout the train car, every window of reinforced glass blown to smithereens. Torchwick huddled behind Gatling Dragon and raised his duel disk to weather the tempest.
Adam did not take such shelter. He stared ahead at the crackling storm, stepping forward as electricity streaked over his shoulders, hissing past his Grimm mask.
A distinctive warcry pierced the air and a shadow descended from the tempest. Wreathed in lightning and howling like thunder, the legendary dragon of the Schnee Family laid claim to the battlefield (ATK 3000/DEF 2500).
For once, Torchwick had no sarcastic quip, no stinging snark in the face of such a bastion of pride and power. His fingers clenched in fear, his stance widening to take a blow. "Get ready. Ice Queen's brought out the big guns."
"Finally."
"What?" Torchwick snapped, his head whipping toward his partner. "Are you listening to me?"
"I've waited years to see one in the flesh," Adam murmured.
His arm twitched at his side. Out of fear? Bloodlust? Just an itchy elbow? Weiss couldn't tell.
He stepped out further from the cover of his facedown or Gatling Dragon. It was dangerous to be so close to the enemy's monsters, but the bull faunus was entranced by the Blue-Eyes even as the prideful dragon snarled at him.
"Are you insane?" Torchwick whispered.
"Adam, what are you doing?" Blake asked, a flicker of concern for her former lover tainting her voice. "Get back. Get back, or it'll–"
"Waited years…" Adam mused, his eyes defiant behind his mask, even as his shaking spread to his entire body. "... to see it die."
"Keep waiting! Blue-Eyes White Dragon! Attack!" Weiss roared, her voice charged with adrenaline from Ruby's Pillar Dragon as the heiress thrust her arm toward Gatling Dragon. "White Lightning!"
"Rrrrraaaaahhhh!" Blue-Eyes shrieked, its jaws widening as alabaster bolts crackled between its spokes. The vivacious electricity surged through its maw, coalescing into a blinding orb of power.
"Beat the bad guy in front of you. Stop the Grimm," Weiss muttered, alive with righteous purpose uncontested. "Fire!"
Blue-Eyes White Dragon roared and the light of its blazing sphere erupted into a searing beam of ivory lightning. Torrchwick leapt back as Gatling Dragon was obliterated by the blast, smoke and shockwaves roiling out from the impact. Adam's Grimm mask was blown from his face an instant before the smog rushed over him.
Roman Torchwick & Adam Taurus: 1700 Life Points
Adam's Grimm mask flew across the train car and smacked against the wall. The white and red plaster cracked as it clattered to the floor.
"Got you," Weiss declared, gazing with pride at her prized dragon.
The way to the enemy was clear. Blue-Eyes Alternative White Dragon had more than enough power to wipe out their opponent's life points. Even if they tried to use Double-Edged Sword Technique to block the final attack, that card's downside would still finish them. What had once seemed an impossible duel to win was now a move away from triumph, a turn away from saving all of Vale.
"Are you alright?" Weiss inquired to Blake. Her teammate shivered in the wake of the lightning blast, her amber eyes staring at the discarded Grimm mask. Even with the disintegrated state of her bond with her former partner, seeing one you once loved be crushed wasn't a simple thing.
"I… I don't know," Blake admitted, wrenching her gaze back to the duel field. "But… we have a job to do."
"Precisely," Weiss nodded with a smile. "Don't worry. Once we get back to Beacon, you'll have all the time you need–"
"Do you know how many times the average person blinks in a day?" a cold voice spoke.
A chill rushed down Weiss' spine. Blake paled, her shaking body suddenly frozen still. Both huntresses turned towards the battlefield as the smoke cleared.
Adam stood tall, unbowed and unmoved in the wake of Gatling Dragon's demise. His crimson hair flared behind his dark horns, his unmasked face allowing all his fury to blaze through unfiltered, his icy blue right eye burning like a star that refused to die.
While his left eye, and most of his nose, was just… burned. Burned with three hellish letters.
The three letters that haunted Weiss' soul.
'Please don't hurt me, Schnee! Please!'
"The hell?" Torchwick murmured, even his cocksure face tinged with unease at the sight of the dark red SDC stamped into his teammate's face.
"Do you know how many times a person blinks in a day?" Adam repeated, his glare never leaving Weiss, for reasons she thought she once understood, but now realized that, like so many things, she'd horridly misjudged from her far-off castle in Atlas.
The scar down her left eye, the scar her father had given her, the scar over the same eye as the brand marring the man before her, throbbed as her mind reeled.
"I… I didn't know," she stammered. "I'm sorry–"
"Between fifteen thousand and nineteen thousand. That's how many times an average person blinks per day," Adam continued, bulldozing through her sputtering. "Every time I blink, my warped eyelid scrapes across what's left of my retina, nineteen thousand times a day. It digs through the burns, nineteen thousand times a day. It's agony, nineteen thousand times a day."
"I… I'm sorry," Weiss said again, feeling like her throat was closing up. "I'm so sor–"
"And it's worth it."
"What?"
Adam glared up at Blue-Eyes White Dragon. "Agony, nineteen thousand times a day, to never forget what you are. Your pride, your cruelty, how much blood soaks your hands. You can never fool me into complacency with pretty songs and empty words. I will never be lulled into weakness. For the meager price of an eye, I will rip the dragons from my sky."
He spat at the Blue-Eyes' feet. "I call that a bargain."
Blake stared at him for a long moment. At last, her face fell, not with fear, not with horror. Just resignation. "You're blind."
"Look at who you're dueling beside, 'darling'. I see clearer than you ever have," Adam scoffed, his facedown flying up behind him. "Trap card open! Double-Edged Sword Technique! Two Six Samurai are summoned from my grave in attack mode! They're destroyed at the end of the turn and I take damage equal to their attack."
Twin blades of light streaked out of the trap card, Legendary Six Samurai - Shi En (ATK 2500/DEF 1400) and Secret Six Samurai - Hatsume (ATK 1600/DEF 1500) forming from each of them, their blades ready to be drawn as they stood side-by-side with their master.
"Come on, Schnee!" Adam roared, his icy blue eye ablaze. "I am your reckoning! Attack me if you have the nerve!"
"I… I… I…" Weiss choked, unable to tear her gaze from Adam's face. Both the brand, and the bright blue eye so much like her own.
Eyes forged by Jacques Schnee's cruelty.
'In a duel, as well as life, there are winners and there are losers.'
Eyes forged of wrath, rage, and hunger for restitution.
'The Schnee Family does not lose.'
Eyes forged with spite unending for the monster who'd sat himself in the highest heavens.
'We are the apex.'
Eyes that did care if ripping him from that throne meant taking his place as just another monster.
Mirror, mirror… had her heart always been made of stone?
"I… During my Main Phase Two, I banish The Phantom Knights of Silent Boots from my graveyard to search another Phantom Knights' Fog Blade from my deck," Weiss whispered, diverting her eyes from Adam's. "I set one card facedown and end my turn."
Adam scoffed. "Such weakness. And you dare to look down on your betters."
Weiss winced, remembering how she'd earlier called the man scum. "That's not what I–"
"I activate my trap card! Destruct Potion!" Torchwick cut in, one of his facedowns flying up in front of him. It showed an image of Dark Ruler Ha Des crushing another monster and absorbing its life force.
Legendary Six Samurai - Shi En withdrew its sword and mercilessly plunged it into its gut. Its aura body disintegrated into a fiendish crimson mist, flowing back into Adam and Torchwick as their auras glowed.
Roman Torchwick & Adam Taurus: 4200 Life Points
"Pretty simple trap card. I select a monster we control, destroy it, and we gain life points equal to its attack points," Torchwick explained, smirking at Adam's back. "Got any issue with me using one of your monsters this time, hornhead? Or would you rather we got blown up by your second edge?"
Adam crinkled his nose and withdrew a card from his graveyard, his livid gaze never leaving Weiss and Blake. "Since exactly one Six Samurai monster would be destroyed by card effect, I can banish Secret Six Samurai - Fuma from my graveyard to prevent Secret Six Samurai - Hatsume from being destroyed by Double-Edged Sword Technique at the end of the turn. Meaning we take no damage."
Her two Blue-Eyes glanced back at Weiss with irked disappointment, but she hid from their gazes as she did Adam's. She knew they would have been fine if she hadn't continued her attack simply as a strategic move to win with Double-Edged Sword Technique's backlash damage. The opponent turning around a seemingly sure victory was just part of dueling.
No, her dragons were supremely vexed because she'd held back out of shame. That she'd abandoned her pride, the pride of a Schnee, and been unable to face The Blood-Soaked Bull.
Yet, what was she supposed to do? She wasn't blind to the justifications of her circumstances, of the threat to the innocents of Vale. She wasn't fool enough to think that the horrors her family's company inflicted on this man gave him the right to murder thousands for his hidden master. She came to Mountain Glenn to back up Blake, to support her friend as she worked to face her past. This was not the time to get cold feet!
But she could not see The Blood-Soaked Bull when she looked upon Adam Taurus anymore, even knowing all he'd done and still sought to do. She saw only his bright blue eye and the branded scar beside it. She saw the righteous rage of one her family had destroyed. She remembered Banesaw's traumatized pleas from back at The Club as that same brand had marred his face. She heard her father's voice scathing her ear with his demands for her to do as he would do and just "put the animal down".
And she found her mind and hands frozen as she realized that was exactly what a huntress was supposed to do.
Torchwick was right. To escape her father, to chase some fantastical nobility, she'd signed up to be a killer for hire.
"Standby Phase time! That means Dangerous Machine Type-6 activates again!" Torchwick announced, his contraption spinning its gambling spheres before they stopped on three. "Three! Nice! That means you draw a card, bullhead. Now would you please step away from the giant dragons? I'd like to not be locked up in here with them as soon as possible, preferably before we hit the mountainside."
"You're not locked up in here with them. They're locked up in here with me!" Adam howled, ripping an extra card from the top of his deck. He flipped it around to reveal Pot of Greed, drawing two more. Combined with the one he had left over from last round and the one he'd just drawn for his turn, the furious faunus had four cards in his hand to wreak vengeance. "I activate Secret Six Samurai - Hatsume's effect! I banish two Six Samurai from my graveyard to revive Legendary Six Samurai Shi En!"
"Oh no!" Weiss yelped. If Shi En was revived, Adam could negate one spell or trap! Her trap card would be useless and he'd have a monster with twenty-five hundred attack points–
"Weiss!" Blake called out. "Fog Blade! Quickly!"
"Wha-what–Oh! Right!" Weiss floundered, scrambling for Myrtenaster's button to activate her facedown. "I activate Phantom Knights' Fog Blade! As long as this continuous trap is on the field, your monster's effect is negated, it can't attack, and it can't be attacked."
A sword of dark netherworld smog stabbed through Secret Six Samurai - Hatsume just in time, preventing her from reviving her liege.
Still, Weiss felt her balance teeter, her heart hammering as her ears struggled to hear anything but her breath growing fast and panicking. She watched Adam normal summon Legendary Six Samurai - Mizuho and special summon her lover Legendary Six Samurai - Shinai from his hand due to her presence. Even as the female, red-clad warrior sacrificed her love to destroy Blue-Eyes Alternative White Dragon, the explosion was muffled to the SDC heiress' scattered senses. Her regular Blue-Eyes White Dragon had to sweep in to block the shockwaves of its comrade's demise from blasting her away.
"-Since Shinai was tributed, its effect lets me add Legendary Six Samurai - Kizan from my graveyard to my hand. Then I can special summon him since I control a Six Samurai with a different name," Adam proclaimed, his dark-armored warrior hitting the field (ATK 1800/DEF 500). Like before, the presence of two other samurai, Hatsume and Mizuho, raised his attack points by three hundred (ATK 2100). "Then, I activate Asceticism of the Six Samurai! I target Kizan in order to summon a Six Samurai from my deck with the same attack points, but a different name! Grandmaster of the Six Samurai! Rise!"
Like during the last turn, Kizan was joined on the field by his old, withered, but no less dangerous future self (ATK 2100/DEF 800).
Weiss wanted to be brave like Blake was being and bravely stand ready for the quartet of samurai to attack, but she felt her knees buckling beneath her. Her high heels refused to step forward to stand beside her teammate, the specter of her father looming over her shoulder as his rancid sneer hissed against her ear.
'Fight,' he demanded. 'If you're a Schnee, if you're worthy, then prove it and put the animal down.'
She could do it, couldn't she? Her opponent had four valiant samurai of legend, but she had Blue-Eyes White Dragon, the ultimate creature of destruction. Its three thousand attack points were a wall none of the enemy's present warriors could scale–
"Mizuho! Hatsume! Grandmaster!" Adam roared, throwing out his arms as a fusion vortex warped the space in front of him. "Contact Fusion!"
"What?!" Blake exclaimed, her amber eyes widening as the three samurai were sucked into the swirling spiral.
A cold lump of ice plummeted down Weiss' throat, Banesaw's towering Gate Guardians Combined flashing through her mind. "He figured it out."
He figured out how to use a technique that should have been impossible with an archetype it didn't naturally come to.
"Won't accept a life of destitution. Suffering is over now. Terminate. Annihilate. Take vengeance for our pride. Destroy them all while I am glorified! Fusion Summon!" Adam shrieked, his eyes blazing as he glared up at Blue-Eyes White Dragon. "Secret Six Samurai - Rihan!"
A glowing emerald figure streaked out of the fusion vortex, razor-sharp blade claws shearing through the spiral as it leapt onto the field. Green robes marked with mystical sigils billowed behind the new samurai, the lithe warrior taking a ready stance as it stared down the Blue-Eyes White Dragon towering above it (ATK 2400/DEF 2400).
"Time to get what you deserve, Schnee," Adam snarled. "I activate Secret Six Samurai - Rihan's special ability! By banishing the Secret Six Samurai - Kizaru in my hand, it targets and banishes one other card on the field!"
"No," Weiss whimpered, her eyes flickering to her grandfather's dragon, his legacy. "Blue-Eyes!"
"Wipe that dragon from my sky!" Adam commanded.
The sigils painted over Rihan's emerald robes flared with light, the cloth expanding into titanic free-flowing serpents. Flooding into the air with seemingly endless length, the silken snakes wrapped around every inch of Blue-Eyes White Dragon. The majestic dragon of the Schnee Family shrieked in pride and agony as its captor coiled tight, squeezing the life out of it.
Weiss could only watch in horror as the monster that'd been with her since childhood was crushed by the mystical cloth. A flood of confusion froze her, unsure if she should be glad the symbol of her family was gone despite the pain its loss called her.
"Battle!" Adam spat. "Secret Six Samurai - Rihan! Attack them directly!"
Weiss barely heard the order for her execution, staring blankly as the samurai that'd banished her dragon charged in with its blade claws extended. Blake was shouting something at her, something about using the effect of the Fog Blade trap in her graveyard. But the heiress was too stupefied to move. She was too lost in the icy feeling that maybe, for the crimes of her name, she deserved what she was about to get.
Eventually, Blake stopped shouting at her and merely dashed in front of her teammate to shield her, discarding one of the cards in her hand to Gambol Shroud's graveyard slot. A purple tapir with a top hat and a golden star on its side bounced onto the huntresses' field on a sideways defense position card (ATK 1000/DEF 2000). "When your monster attacks directly, I can discard Performapal Springoose to activate the effect of Performapal Inflater Tapir in my graveyard! It special summons itself in defense mode!"
Secret Six Samurai - Rihan swooped in and cut the friendly circus animal to pieces, even as the purple creature inflated itself like a balloon to ensure Blake and Weiss weren't even scratched. But with its death pop, nothing stood in the path of Legendary Six Samurai Kizan's nodachi (ATK 1800).
"Now do you see the weakness you've sided with, Blake?" Adam scoffed. "If she'd only had the strength to sacrifice her contingency, your monster could have walled you both in safety from Kizan. Instead, you'll die together. Direct attack!"
The final samurai leapt for the huntresses, its blade singing through the air.
Blake grabbed Weiss' shoulder, panic in her amber eyes. "Weiss! You have to use Fog Blade's graveyard effect right now or we're dead!"
"G–raveyard effect–Oh! R–right!" Weiss scampered, smashing the necessary button on Myrtenaster. She snatched The Phantom Knights of Torn Scales from her graveyard slot and frantically smacked it down onto her duel disk. "I banish Phantom Knights' Fog Blade from my graveyard to summon The Phantom Knights of Torn Scales from my graveyard."
An ethereal sapphire ghost-wearing ancient knight armor manifested onto Weiss' field (ATK 600/DEF 1600). It drew a pair of short swords in its possessed gauntlets, rushing to meet Kizan is a clash of blades.
"Wait? What?" Weiss blinked, befuddled by her monster lunging into battle rather than huddling down on a sideways card. Wait, why didn't it have a sideways card–
"Weiss! Get down!" Blake called. "You summoned it in attack mode!"
She what?!
Weiss's eyes zipped down to her duel disk, her crystal blue eyes widening at the sight of her Torn Scales' card right ways up instead of in sideways defense mode. Such a basic, foundational aspect of dueling! How had she messed it up at such a critical moment?
But it was too late. Kizan's nodachi sliced Torn Scales apart, the armored phantom exploding in a shockwave that blew Weiss and Blake away. The cat faunus did her best to shield her frazzled teammate, but the force of the blast sent the pair tumbling across the train car floor.
Weiss Schnee & Blake Belladonna: 200 Life Points
Weiss groaned as she landed in a heap, Blake laying beside her, sparks of her fragile aura crackling over her deck box. The heiress was pricked with shame at the sight of her friend suffering for her stupid mistake. For a moment, the purpose she'd come to Mountain Glenn with blazed through her once more, determined to support the dark-haired girl. She shouldn't be making newbie errors putting her in danger!
'Prove yourself worthy! Prove yourself the apex!' her father's voice barked in her ear. 'Prove yourself a Schnee!'
Weiss grit her teeth as her aura flickered. She forced herself to her knees, pushed on by her hate, by her spite for the man whose voice filled her mind. She staggered to her feet with the swell of her duty, by her will to be a huntress.
'Prove yourself a huntress!' Jacques' voice chorused her even then. 'Put the animal down!'
The last words struck her the moment she finally raised her head, seeing Adam's face one more time. Seeing that rage, and hatred, and spite carved into that blue eye and brand the same way she knew they were etched into her own features.
Her scar burned and her knees buckled. She faintly felt even the adrenaline boost of Starving Venom fleeing her, some horrific thing crushing even Ruby's strength.
Weiss collapsed back to the floor, recalling back to Dr. Oobleck's questioning around that warm campfire. About how she'd chosen to be a huntress so as not to hurt people by formally joining the SDC. About how her teacher had warned her that the path she'd chosen was not always black and white. She should have known better after her duels at The Docks and The Club, but she could not have imagined the magnitude of sins crushing her. Even monsters such as Adam Taurus were, in the end, forged by the failures of her family.
And it was her family. Sure her father's evil was the core of it all, but her mother was the one with the family name, with the training as a hunting duelist, with the connections through Atlas high society. She could have stopped Jacques from warping everything their snowflake and dragons stood for before he had grown into the unstoppable bastion he now was, but instead, she chose to run away into a bottle. Even her grandfather, the great and noble Nicholas Schnee, had handed the most powerful company in the world to a man whose greed he must have had some inkling about. The blood of the bull faunus' victims soaked their hands as well.
Now, Weiss had a choice. Be a huntress, another monster, another link in the world's worst chain, and slaughter the monster made to fill her coffers with lien… or die, punished for her sins but unable to help the thousands of innocents who'd fall as collateral damage. In a few minutes, it wouldn't matter either way. The train was going to hit the mountain.
'At last, you see the cage, little songbird,' her mother's voice gloated in the opposite ear from her father. 'Even if you became a dragon, you were never going to be anything but his.'
Never going to be anything but his child. His huntress.
His monster.
RWBYRWBYRWBYRWBYYUGIOHYUGIOH
"By returning Amazoness Golden Whip Master to my hand from my Pendulum Zone, I summon Amazoness Spiritualist from my graveyard. Summoning an Amazoness monster also special summons Amazoness Baby Tiger from my graveyard. Then I normal summon Amazoness Fighter," Ilia announced, a shamaness in tribal garb (ATK 800/DEF 1800), a muscular bare-knuckle brawler (ATK 1500/DEF 1300), and an infant tiger (ATK 500/DEF 500) taking the field beside her scarred tiger. But as the latter exited defense mode, its claws snapped out as Golden Whip Master was replaced in the Pendulum Zone. Its attack points rose by its own effect and the powers of its Pendulum Scale allies (ATK 3100). "Battle! Amazoness Tiger attacks Starving Venom Fusion Dragon!"
The tiger roared and leapt for the purple and ivy dragon, its power back to its base number since the end of Ruby's turn. Still, Starving Venom Fusion Dragon charged into the fray with a manic smile on its jaws, its flytrap wings swinging for the enemy.
But the attack points did not lie and the tiger's claws shredded the botanical dragon. Ruby raised her arms to shield herself from the winds that buffeted her as her monster fell, its remains pooling into a dark pool of toxic plant sludge.
Ruby Rose: 3700 Life Points
"You shouldn't have used up all your resources to make that monster," Ilia chided her opponent. "Now that it's gone, you're wide open–"
BOOM! Three tendrils of rancid plant sludge erupted from the pool of Starving Venom Fusion Dragon's remains, racing across the train car roof with their mistress' supersonic speed. The putrid vines pierced every one of Ilia's special summoned monsters, injecting them with poison that burned them away from the inside out.
"W–What?" Ilia gasped, her eyes wide. "Another effect?"
"Yup!" Ruby revealed. "When a Fusion Summoned Starving Venom Fusion Dragon is destroyed, I can destroy all your Special Summoned monsters!"
"Three effects? All that powerful?" Ilia grunted. "That monster is ridiculous."
"Haha!" Ruby nervously laughed. "Yeah, he is kind of crazy, isn't he?"
Though her praise was sincere, she was secretly glad Starving Venom was destroyed. Amazoness Fighter was strong, but Ruby's usual tricks would suffice to best it, as opposed to some mega-powerful Fusion monster. With Ilia's only having seven hundred life points left, almost anything in her deck could secure the win.
She didn't need her Pillar Dragon out threatening to gobble up her defeated opponent to claim victory. She could win, shut down the hardlight barrier and duel anchor trapping her on this car, and advance to help Weiss and Blake stop the engine car. She could be a huntress! Everything was coming up Team RWBY–
"Gah!"
Ruby heart stopped at the sound of her sister's cry, her and Ilia's gazes falling to the turbo duel below.
RWBYRWBYRWBYRWBYYUGIOHYUGIOH
Toon Table of Contents.
That was the spell Neo had drawn for her turn and flipped around. It shifted Toon World's pages back to the very start of the book, a rainbow sprouting from its table of contents. Yang checked the data beamed over to Bumblebee's display screen, finding it to be an unremarkable searcher to add a Toon card from deck to hand.
It fetched the criminal gremlin another Toon Bookmark, which she activated immediately. Like before, the goofy bookmark with a cartoon face sprouted from the tome, laughing up another card from Neo's deck: Any card she desired that either was Toon World or mentioned it in its text.
Like with the bookmark, Neo activated her new card immediately, Toon World's pages flipping by like a machine Gun.
When the pages finally stopped, they produced a colorful jack-in-the-box. The handle became to turn on its side, its cheerful jingle sounding eerie to Yang's ear.
She glanced down at her runner's display screen, discovering the spells name: Comic Hand.
She didn't have time to read any more before the jack-in-the-box dinged it's death knell. The lid flipped up and a huge hand covered in a white showman's glove sprang out.
At the tip of a child's arm extender, the hand zipped across the gap between the two duel runners. Yang flinched back as it approached, expecting some sort of effect damage. That'd be one way to get around her Spirit Barrier trap.
But it was worse.
The giant hand pressed its pointer finger onto Yang's duel disk and plucked her Hot Red Dragon Archfiend card!
"Hey!" Yang roared, her eyes instantly burning red. "Give him back!"
Her dragon clutched it's head, howling in pain as its aura body flickered. The giant hand grabbed it by its chest on its way back, wrenching the demonic creature into the depths of Toon World. It handed off Hot Red Dragon Archfiend's card to Neo before zooming back into the pages before the tome slammed shut.
"Give him back!" Yang barked, gunning her duel runner at her opponent's. "Give him back!"
Neo wiggled Hot Red's card in front of her teasing smirk, gracefully twirling her runner out of the way of Yang's charge. The taunting criminal snickered at her foe as she placed her ace atop her duel disk.
Toon World snapped open again, its pages whirling by until it reached the jack-in-the-box again. The lid flipped up and the hand popped out again, Hot Red Dragon Archfiend on its palm.
Or at least a warped cartoon version of Hot Red Dragon Archfiend.
The reds were bright and pastel, surrounded by cheerful yellows and oranges instead of hellish black. The horns on its head with traffic safety cones and its pupils were replaced by googly eyes, Its wings were pipecleaners and they and its wrists were connected to Comic Hand's fingers by puppet strings. A far too full water balloon jingled in the right claw.
"What?" Yang murmured in horror. "What did you do to him?"
Her ace, the closest she'd ever come to her father's Signer Dragon, the summation of all her tireless studying and effort in forgework, had been warped into a joke. Her pride, her strength, had been twisted against her and perverted into a mockery of her beloved monster.
Neo laughed, all the sound her voice lacked made up for tenfold as Toon Barrel Dragon and even Toon Buster Blader, who was on Yang's side of the field, cackled at the fiery blonde. Comic Hand even worked a puppet string for the mockery of Hot Red Dragon Archfiend to have it point and laugh at the duelist it was stolen from.
They hollered and ridiculed her as she frantically looked down at Bumblebee's display. Yang frantically read over the information on Comic Hand, only to grow paler with each word. If Neo controlled Toon World, she could equip the spell to an opponent's monster, take control of it, and turn it into a Toon monster. That meant that, even if Toon Buster Blader was still stronger, she had access to…
Neo gracefully waved her hand and Comic Hand twitched Toon Hot Red Dragon Archfiend's right claw forward, chucking its jiggling water balloon at Toon Buster Blader.
"Absolute Power Blaze," Yang whispered, facing her dragon's special ability for the first time as the water balloon burst and the flames of hell erupted out.
The fire washed over Toon Buster Blader, wiping it from the field and leaving the blonde without a monster to support Spirit Barrier's effect. Comic Hand yanked its finger again, Toon Hot Red Dragon Archfiend's jaw falling as a Molten Scarlet Flare began to burn.
Yang spotted Neo riding her mount in the shadow of the stolen dragon, her smile as playful as ever. But her eyes? Her eyes were cold and vicious, just as they were at The Docks so many months ago. Just as they were at The Club when she'd eyed Hot Red Dragon Archfiend with such interest.
And it was only then that Yang realized…
Neo snapped her fingers.
… this was always how she'd planned to end it.
'You think your soul burns hotter than the sun, but it's a matchstick.'
Molten Scarlet Flare burst from Toon Hot Red Dragon Archfiend's maw as Mercury's warning carved through her mind.
'What is regular old you going to do when the cold, cruel world comes knocking?'
The pillar of fire slammed into the blonde hunting duelist student, her aura shattering as Bumblebee shrieked and spun.
Yang Xiao-Long: 0 Life Points
Winner: Neopolitan
Yang put all her considerable skill to bring her runner's shrieking spin to heel. The sides of the mount opened up, the emergency brake kicking in as chaff smoke spewed into the tunnel.
And yet, even with the duel anchor binding them shattered, Neo still peeled around, driving straight for her bested opponent.
"What are doi–" Yang snapped, only to be cut off at the sight of her enemy's cold glare still focused on her, the playful smile beneath it still excited and sadistic.
And Toon Hot Red Dragon Archfiend's maw still burning.
'I'm not going anywhere.'
Another stream of flames rocketed towards her, the vow she made to Ruby so long ago echoing through her mind.
'I'll always come back, safe and sound.'
That innocent promise of youth burned away as her warped dragon's fire obliterated Bumblebee's back wheel, the force of the blast flipping the duel runner over.
Fire and scorching metal surrounded Yang as she careened across the train tracks.
Next Time on Cards of Remnant!
"Please, I have to save her! She's my family!"
"Shut up! Just shut up!"
"Fight with me. Maybe we can stop them."
"I don't want to be a monster."
"Ozpin! You better have a good explanation for this!"
"Goodbye to solitude! Goodbye to the peace we always knew!"
Next Time on Cards of Remnant: Time To Say Goodbye - Part 3
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Go Forth and Conquer!
