There Can Be Only One

Dennis McField was, by all means, a normal young teenage boy.

Well, not really. For starters he, like a lot of the kids that follow the Professor's orders, was an orphan. One that was picked up by the Professor personally- no that's a lie, he was just one of the many orphans that the Academia picked up and trained to be a soldier.

Or in his case, a spy, a spymaster in fact! His skills for the art of acting and subterfuge were quite arguably higher than that of his fellow spies, and his skills were so great that the Professor himself had given him an incredibly important task!

The task, was an incredibly important one, a task that as the Professor said himself, vital to the great goal of uniting the four dimensions back into one, and it was-

To uh, kidnap this one specific girl, or rather he had several targets that he has to watch out for, one being a duelist using a dark XYZ Dragon, and the other was a girl with a very specific bracelet similar to the one that this other girl in their original dimension had.

Suffice to say he and his team of spies has been in this world, or more correctly Heartland since they at least had information that their targets were both here according to the duel energy readings, for quite a long time, a few months honestly.

And though he has indeed met at least one of the targets that the Professor has told him to find, the boy who carried with him the dragon of darkness! Or at least one of his colleagues had, it wasn't surprising that he was a duelist studying at the largest dueling school in Heartland city, and boy was his dragon quite terrifying in a duel, and as soon as the match ended the spy immediately returned back to report.

Or so he heard. He's never seen the boy in question after all, he mostly just acted on his own and did what he used best, which was to of course, use his natural wit and charm! 

And there were still other targets that he and his colleagues needed to find, one of which was, as he had mentioned before, the bracelet wearing girl that they were still searching and some other people of note.

Then there's also the need for them to study and note strong duelists in this dimension with the intention to eliminate them first when the invasion occurs. And though he doesn't know how the invasion itself would go, the Obelisk Force that was sent along with them was convinced that whoever they faced they could easily defeat. 

And though he doesn't doubt that the Obelisk Forces were strong duelists on their own, recent events have made him question their actual dueling capabilities.

Of course anyone who were part of the Academia, be it students who studied there or people like him who worked to further the goals of the Professor, even someone who was in a whole other dimension like himself, had heard of the attack on the Academia.

Honestly, even today he couldn't quite believe even after hearing the story first hand, about how a single girl had single handedly fought the entirety of the Obelisk Force, even their newly appointed captain, and had even challenged the Professor himself, and even almost won.

Well, he said almost, but in actuality she did single handedly defeat every single one of the Obelisk Force that stood in her way, and also the newly appointed captain, but he counted it as almost because she technically lost against the Professor himself.

Well, he says technically, because the video of the duel that she had against the Professor was apparently taken down, multiple times at that since the video kept being reuploaded into DuelingTube, in multiple accounts.

It went viral of course, no one, and by that he meant no one, ever expected that the Professor would have almost lost against the lone invader, the infamous and ever mysterious Red Hat, who was then revealed to be a student of the Academia gone rogue.

And didn't that give a lot of mixed signals to every single person, operative or not, in the Academia.

The fact that the infallible, undefeated Professor who led them, taught them, and showed them the grand goal of merging the four dimensions had not only almost lost against a small child of his own age, held a form of summoning that none had ever seen before, but also 'cheated' to avoid said loss.

The fanatics, which basically meant most of the Obelisk Force and Obelisk Blues and a large part of the Academia students and operatives that worked under the Professor, professed how what he did was acceptable, even made excuses about it like how the girl herself was probably a genetically modified spy sent out by a rival dueling school to sabotage their plans, or how she herself cheated and what not.

But she wasn't a girl who won an entire tournament to get the scholarship to the Academia for nothing, the way that she dueled was simply out of this world. Her dueling prowess was now something that the entirety of Academia feared, himself included, and he felt that that fear was justified with what he's seen.

But still, there were others who started to doubt the Professor and his goals, some even outright left the Academia! Supported by how every other dueling school and media that now were aware of the Professor and his machinations started to fan flames to oppose his used to be secret invasion, cornering the Professor and subsequently the Academia to proceed with their plans.

From what he's heard, the Academia and Academy Island were now isolated and locked out from the whole world in the Fusion DImension, even with their best PR agents and having a good hold on the entertainment section of the world, they couldn't completely spin this whole mess into their favour, not with how sudden and how fast the news spread.

Even with the whole world itself against him however, the Professor preserved.

In fact, if anything the Academia seemed to work even harder than ever before. He heard that they now had some newly appointed staff, along with officially appointing new captains for the Obelisk Force, thankfully he didn't have to attend the no doubt stuffy ceremony, what with him being a whole dimension away.

The new teacher and his assistant apparently worked the students to the bone, he heard that their lessons were even more harsh and torturous that old man Sander's, and as a former student of the military made man himself, that sounded very harsh indeed.

Thank god that he wasn't in their shoes and was instead in a whole other dimension in a completely unclear territory, far better off then they were honestly.

Which brought him to one of the main objectives that were given to every single operative that works as spies on the other dimensions, including himself of course.

Though the infamous 'Red Hat Raid' that the Academia had weathered through left a huge mark whose effects were still felt to this day, in the Fusion Dimension at least, along with it came a new directive, a new mission that was given to every single Academia operative stationed outside of the Fusion Dimension.

And that was, of course, to be wary of the Red Hat.

Because the tool that the Professor had used that sparked many controversies among the Academia students and operatives to 'defeat' the Red Hat Yuuna, was apparently a randomly set dimensional transporter.

Which meant that she, a duelist with the capability to bulldoze through the entire main army of Obelisk Force duelist, their newly appointed captain, and the Professor himself, was somewhere out in the other dimensions.

And such was his luck, that he was the first to find her.

His first response was to hightail it out of the entire stadium, because though he was dressed like your average Heartland citizen, in his guise as a street performer, a guise that used his innate charisma and was something that he actually enjoyed doing, he didn't want to risk being seen by the one dubbed Red Reaper by the Obelisk Force.

And then the black and purple haired boy dueling in the grand finals of the exhibition match just had to have summoned his dark XYZ Dragon, and his resolve wavered.

Now, it wasn't like he didn't have his priorities, oh no, he might be a new disciple of Sakaki Yusho who introduced to him the joy of bringing smiles and the ways of entertainment dueling and street performances when they had first met, but even then, he had his priorities.

The list of mission priority that the Professor gave to every operative, from the one with the most importance and to the one with the least importance, was something a bit like this.

The first priority was to find the girl with the silver bracelet, one with an unnaturally high dueling energy level, or to find the deserter who possessed the same type of bracelet, a girl with purple hair tied with a ponytail named Serena.

The second was, for him who was in the XYZ Dimension, to watch out for a boy who possessed a Dark XYZ Dragon, an incredibly distinct feature to find, something that they could do while doing of their missions which was to observe and find high levelled duelists across the XYZ Dimension, far easier than the first priority mission that none of them still had completed.

And then came the third priority, which was to be on the constant look out for the Red Reaper, or Red Hat, or Yuuna, whatever she go by, along with the other deserters, the likes of Professor Cronos De Medici, and the one who used to have the position closest to become the new leader of the Obelisk Force before going rogue, Yuri, and their compatriots.

But while the latter was to be captured and or carded, barring Yuri for some reason who only had the designation to be captured and brought back to the Fusion Dimension's own Academia like Serena and the bracelet girls should they find them, the designation that they received when encountering the Red Hat was incredibly simple.

Run and do not engage, observe from afar.

An incredibly simple yet effective plan really, one that almost every single one of the operatives around the four dimension would easily accept without a second thought, barring the extremely devout of the Professor's followers who thought that they could defeat her themselves, he's seen the look in some of their eyes, be it wanting to prove themselves or wanting revenge for being defeated by the girl during her raid.

And though he certainly did not want to duel the girl, she was incredibly horrifying in a duel as he had watched her easily decimate a native XYZ duelist who had gone to the semifinals with the greatest of ease, that was exactly what he was roped into.

So essentially, he got greedy. He thought that he could stay low and hidden all while observing her from afar and gaining more information in how she dueled, and instead here he was, dueling the red hat wearing girl of his nightmares.

And promptly lost. It wasn't even a match really, the girl easily beat him so cleanly, even if he did manage to dealing something about half of her Life Points worth of damage with effects, something that gave him hope of winning, but it did nothing but irritate the girl.

He could only gulp as the girl came closer, hoping that his luck and charisma could get him out of this one.

Well, that and pressing the hidden button in the wrist watch that he has hidden on his sleeves, hoping that some of his compatriots would hurry up and save him from the girl in front of him before she squeezes enough important information.

-

"Now talk." She said coldly, glaring at the boy who whimpered under her with a look of fear etched at his face. "You will tell me all that you know. Are there others with you in this dimension." She demanded.

And to her demands he answered, shutting his mouth as tightly as he could and merely nodding his head. "How many are there in this city." She asked again, and he opened his mouth briefly, only to quickly shut them again.

She kicked the dumpster that chained him, making the orange haired boy wince at the loud clang of metal. "Answer the question!" She Shouted aloud, brows creased and the boy answered verbally this time.

"T-thirteen. Th-there's thirteen posted in this dimension, in Heartland City." He yelped and reluctantly answered, his once stiff posture going limp as he looked as if he had given up, defeated.

She filed that information in her head, thirteen wasn't a huge amount of people, but it's certainly a sizable infiltration team. She noted that he specifically said in Heartland City, and piled in on that. "Are there others outside of the city." She asked, and Dennis contemplated his answer for a second before shaking his head in a negative.

Which meant that whatever they were looking for, they knew that it was here in Heartland City, where the invasion would occur. Which meant that they knew that the bracelet girl of this dimension was indeed in this city, either that or they've at least managed to minimize their search radius to this city.

"Who is our leader in this dimension." She asked another question, and the orange haired boy had the gall to look ashamed as he tried to look away. "Answer the question." She said coldly once more, and he gulped.

"I-I-there's a commander posted on the outpost." He answered, and seemed to instantly regret the words even coming out of his mouth as he immediately shut his mouth shut as he finished saying so.

"And where is this outpost?" She grinned. A vicious one by the looks of how Dennis visibly paled. It wasn't a complete fix of course, but if she knew where their base was, and where their agents were, then she could dampen their plan as much as she could.

Raiding their outpost sounds like a good idea. That and it might be a cathartic form of punishment for them, and something that she could do to remove stress.

What better way to punish would be world invaders than to invade their own outposts?

The orange haired boy slowly started to open his mouth, an answer wavering at the tip of his tongue, before sounds of feet hitting concrete entered her ears, rushed, as if running, their footsteps somehow registering in her ears. She snapped her head to the source, turning her head to the entryway of the alley.

She closed her eyes as she focused her senses to hear, and the sounds of shuffling and boots hitting concrete roads increased second by second. Someone, no, a group of people were coming, rushing in, whether or not it was to their specific location or not, she didn't want to risk it.

The street next to this empty alley wasn't crowded, not in the least. The amount of foot traffic that she had seen while she headed this way was minimal, with only the occasional passerby and locals walking around leisurely.

The chances that the loud sounds came from a rushed group of locals were of course possible, and the chances of them being friends or allies to Dennis was also possible, worst scenario being that they were the local law enforcers, as she couldn't quite explain why she had a boy tied up with metal chains to a dumpster. She couldn't risk it. Not when she has a hostage who she could scry information from.

She grabbed the chain that tied Dennis to the dumpster, and pulled, pulling the orange haired boy with a relatively loud yelp. "We're moving." She hissed as she started to move out from the alley, dragging Dennis along with her out from the alley as discreetly as she could.

But it was, sadly, to no avail, as one of the worst possible scenarios was the one that turned out to be reality. "There! Dennis' over there!" She heard someone call out from the crowds, and clicked her tongue as she raised her pace, starting to run at this point and pulling Dennis' along with her as well.

The academia spy yelped again as she pulled, and for a second, the chain that she held resisted as the boy that was chained to it attempted to pull her instead. She put more power into her hands and puller him along, and with another yelp, the boy stumbled forwards and she continued to drag him faster as she started running.

"Wha-he's getting away!" She heard another voice, a girl's, said, and the sounds of feet clattering informed her of their pursuers. From the sounds of it, they were people who were specifically looking for Dennis, which means that they were either 'friends' or acquaintances that he had made on this dimension, or they were fellow Academia spies like the street performer himself.

At least they weren't the local law enforcement as she had thought earlier. It would be hard to explain how the boy that she had in chains were interdimensional terrorist intending to invade your world and cause mass genocide by turning people into cards through way of card game.

She dragged Dennis through the sea of people, all while the trio kept following after them. She essentially pushed Dennis to his limits as she kept dragging him through the various maneuvers that she pulled in an attempt to lose their pursuers.

She whispered words of apology every time she had bumped against someone as she dragged Dennis along with her like a dog on a leash, ignoring the many stares that she had drawn all while she did so and no doubt the trio chasing her were also causing the same kind of commotion that she was.

She went through twisting turns, alleyways, her eyes continuously scanning on ways and forms that she could use to lose the possible Academian pursuers that her hostage has somehow alerted.

"W-Waaaait!" She heard said hostage rasp as he kept trying to free himself or halt her progress and slow her down to be captured by his colleagues. "W-We can talk this ooooout!" But much to the orange haired boy's chagrin, she kept ignoring him.

Eventually as she had taken on a turn, not forgetting to kick down a trashcan and spilling all of its contents behind her in a measly attempt to slow them down, only to then be faced with a wooden fence a few heads taller than herself.

Or simply put, it was a darn tall wall that blocked the singular way out of this new alleyway that she and Dennis had entered. And with the trio no doubt catching up soon, she only had one option that doesn't involve dueling her way out of it.

She turned and looked at the orange haired boy, his clothing and hair stained with dirt and muck, both were equally disheveled as he took the short stop as a break to catch his breath, with both of his hands on his knees and gasping for air.

Though he seemed to realize that her attention was now aimed at him, and he raised his head to glare at her intensely. "What now… you-you can't escape from them you know? Why don't… why don't you just give up and… and let yourself be-"

"Jump." The one word that was let out of her mouth shut whatever speech that Dennis was about to make as he stopped and simply stared at her, blinking a few times to compute the unusual response that he instead got.

"Bwha-"

"I said jump." She said again cooly, pointing towards the large wooden wall, and the street performer in disguise paled.

"NO WAY NO WAY NO WAY! I might be an aspiring dueltainer and all, but jumping over something like that is impossible without something like a solid vision monster helping you!" The disheveled orange haired boy said as he crossed his arms in front of him and shook his head furiously.

She frowned harshly at the response that she had gotten, though at least slightly thankful that the boy wasn't outright trying to escape, though he probably realized that it was a futile effort to do so and instead chose to save his energy by not making any attempts.

Then she heard some clattering, as her head snapped to the source and saw a flying trash lid fly and hit the wall behind her, missing Dennis' head by a hair's breadth. She grimaced, knowing that the trio had caught up with them.

She saw that Dennis had frozen and gone even paler as his eyes stuck to the trash lid that had almost most certainly would have hit his head had he been any closer, and turned towards the large wooden fence, and saw only a single method of escape.

"Land properly." She said to the still chained boy, who blinked and turned to her confusedly, having only snapped from his stupor. Only to then be hefted from his collar by none other than herself.

"Wha-! What are you-!"

"As I said. Land properly." And having said her piece of advice twice now, she proceeded to heft the boy with a single arm, closing her eyes and breathing deeply for but a single moment, and threw him with all of the strength that she could manage.

"UAAAAAAAAAAA-!" She heard him cry as she essentially threw Dennis much to his horror over a wooden wall, followed by the clinking of the metal chains that tied him in her hand. And not contending to fall behind the boy herself, she followed.

She jumped not a moment after she had thrown him, chain in hand, towards a wall beside the wooden fence, and pushed herself off of said wall, gaining enough height and momentum to place her hand over the wooden wall, and to vault over it.

As with her many years of practice of parkour, she managed to land gracefully with both of her feet planted onto the ground, and she turned her head to see the groaning form of Dennis who had landed in a pile of trash, or rather, inside of an opened dumpster.

She heard shouting from behind the wooden fence wall, and clicked her tongue as she saw a hand started to reach over it, no doubt the trio were working together to climb over the large fence.

She clicked her tongue, at least glad that the stunt that she pulled off would buy her some more time, and hoped that her abyssal sense of direction would, for once, help her lose her pursuers.

She pulled the chain in her hand, and dragged Dennis up straight with another yelp, and went on to escape as she and her charge continued down the alleyway. Only for it to lead right into a clearing, a relatively large one, surrounded by buildings all around, with no other form of escape in sight other than the one way that they had entered through.

"Crap." It seemed that her sense of direction had led her into a dead end, and turning around she could see that the trio of pursuers had started to catch up, having heaved one another over the wooden fence.

She held a curse as her eyes wandered through the clearing, and saw a metal fence, too tall for her to throw Dennis over, and without and leverages or anything of the sort for her to use to jump over.

Thinking quickly she tugged on the metal chains in her hand, the individual chain clinking against one another as Dennis complied and hurriedly followed her towards said metal bars forming a fence.

She didn't have a lock in hand, because why would she have something like that, and simply tied the chains to the best of her ability to the metal bars, leaving the orange haired boy now chained to said metal fence.

"Stay here." She said coldly and received a hurried nod from the boy in question, and turned around to see the trio that had followed them. The seemed familiar, now that she had seen their faces, and thought that perhaps she could talk her way out of the situation perhaps, having impulsively ran from them, and perhaps even dissuade them off of That Man, if she revealed what his true intentions were as far as her knowledge goes.

But as soon as she opened her mouth, the trio simultaneously raised their left arms and activated their duel disk. Revealing not the average dueling blades that she had been seeing for the past week, but the sword projection of the duel disks that were actively Academian in design.

She clicked her tongue in annoyance, knowing that there would be no way of making dialogue with how things were going, and activated her own duel disk.

In precaution, she took out three cards from her storage and mixed them into her deck, her duel disk immediately shuffling the cards as she placed them in. It would shoot her consistency a little bit, what with this making it so that she would have 43 cards in deck, but considering that she's facing Academia spies, then she'll take as many precautionary measures as she can. 

-

Urgent Mission!

[Academia Spy Confrontation]

Defeat the trio Academia Spies in a battle royale.

Rewards: 200000DP, Reputation (Academia) Down

Failure: Carded/Mind Control

-

And so, the duel began. A duel of her against three faceless Academian spies.

""DUEL!!""

Academia Spy 1: 4000LP

Red Hat: 4000LP

Academia Spy 2: 4000LP

Academia Spy 3: 4000LP

"I will go first!" The undercover Academia spy shouted as he took the first turn. "I will normal summon Ancient Gear Hunting Hound!" And placing the card onto his duel disk, the outed Academia spy summoned a monster that showed his allegiance ever further, the metallic gear based hunting hound appeared as it barked out a mechanical bark.

Ancient Gear Hunting Hound - Earth/Machine/Level 3/Effect: 1000/1000

"And activate its effects!" He declared. "If this card is normal summoned, I get to inflict 600 points of damage to my opponent!" And from the green mechanical monster's mouth, a beam of yellow lazer was shot and hits her.

"Che!" She clicked her tongue in irritation, the random burn effects on monsters are always annoying in this format so she learned, especially with how low the Life Point threshold in this world was.

Red Hat: 3400LP

"Then I will set a card face-down, and end my turn." And then he proceeded to simply end his turn, having passed after summoning Ancient Gear Hunting Hound and burning her for 600 points of damage and setting a face-down set card, and three cards in hand. 

"My turn, I will draw." And she drew her card for her turn, getting the sixth card into her hand, she shuffled them as she took out one of the cards that she would use. "I will activate the Spell, Pot of Duality."

Having the spell card activated and shining on the field, she explained the card's effects. "Pot of Duality allows me to excavate the top three cards of my deck, and add one of them into my hand and shuffle the rest." She said.

"But for the rest of the turn, I cannot special summon monsters." And the three cards that the Spell card revealed from off of the top of her deck was another copy of Pot of Duality, There Can Be Only One, and Ignis Heat, the True Dracowarrior. Those were certainly some cards, but with what she already had on hand, she made a decision and picked one.

"I will add the Continuous Trap, There Can Be Only One." She said as she revealed the card for all three of them to see and added the floodgate to her hand. Shuffling the six cards she has in hand.

"I will normal summon Inspector Boarder." And she then proceeded to normal summon a monster, summoning onto her field a monster that took the form of a mechanical officer, riding on a silver board, both his body and board were decorated with flashing red lights, in his right hand a stun baton coursing with yellow electricity.

Inspector Boarder - Light/Machine/Level 4/Effect: 2000/2000

"Wha-a Level 4 monster with 2000 points of attack?!" She heard the only girl in their group of spies cried out as she saw the high attack normal summon monster, not knowing of its condition where it cannot be normal or special summon if she controlled a monster, nor even its monster effect floodgate effect.

"Battle." And with that monster summoned, she immediately went on towards the Battle Phase. "I will attack your Ancient Gear Hunting Hound with Inspector Boarder." With the command, her monster struck.

"Guh!" The undercover spy grunted as his monster was easily destroyed with a single swing of his metal baton, destroying the mechanical hound and dealing a good amount of battle damage.

Academia Spy 1: 3000LP

And moving on to her Main Phase 2, she proceeded to do her next play. "I will set three cards." And she immediately then set three cards from her hand, leaving her with but a measly two card hand.

"And I will activate the Spell, Card of Demise." Which she then proceeded to activate a normal spell card that remained in her hand, and proceeded to explain the spell's effects. "This card allows me to draw until I have 3 cards in my hand, however for the rest of the turn after this card resolves, none of you will take damage, and at the End Phase, I have to discard my entire hand."

After explaining the effects of the spell card, she then placed her hand over her duel disk's deck case. "I will draw two cards." And she then drew two more cards, shuffling the now three cards that she has in her hand.

Briefly glancing at the cards at the two new cards that she had drawn, she chose one played them. "And now I will activate the Continuous Spell, True Draco Heritage." And she activated the Continuous Spell that she had drawn. 

"Then I will activate the effect of True Draco Heritage. During my Main Phase, I can immediately tribute summon one 'True Draco' or 'True King' monster face-up." She said explaining the Continuous Spell's effect.

"I will Tribute the Continuous Spell itself to tribute summon Dinomight Knight, the True Dracofighter." And sending the Continuous Spell from the spell and trap zone to the graveyard as tribute fodder, she tribute summoned the green armoured Wyrm monster who lets out a battle cry as he was summoned.

Dinomight Knight, the True Dracofighter - Water/Wyrm/Level 6/Effect: 2500/1200

"Wha-! She tributed a monster with a Spell card?! That's against the rules?!" One of them roared out.

"True Draco monsters can be tribute summoned by sending Continuous Spell or Continuous Traps that I control instead of a monster." She explained the passive innate summoning conditions that all True Draco monsters had.

"Now True Draco Heritage's effect, If this card is sent from the spell and trap zone to the graveyard, I can target one spell or trap and destroy it." She said explaining the graveyard effect of the card that she had tributed.

And she then pointed towards the one and only target that would not minus herself, pointing towards the set card that the first Academia spy had set. "I will destroy your set card." She declared, and the set card was destroyed.

And promptly checked her duel disk's screen as she scried through her opponent's graveyard. "As I thought." She spat out, seeing what the card that she had just destroyed. It was none other than Summon Limit.

It was a Continuous Trap, a floodgate, one that she herself had popularized, one that almost instantly kills any XYZ strategy.

"I will end my turn, and the effect of Card of Demise will make me discard my entire hand to the graveyard." And that she did, sending the last card in her hand which was another monster that she had drawn with the Spell's effect, an Ignis Heat.

"Then its my turn! I draw!" Said the second Academia spy as he drew up to six, starting off his turn as he moved on towards the Main Phase after the Standby Phase.  "I will normal summon Ancient Gear Hunting Hound!"

And he then proceeded to normal summon the same monster that the previous Academia spy had summoned on his own turn, summoning another copy of the mechanical gear based hunting hound.

Ancient Gear Hunting Hound - Earth/Machine/Level 3/Effect: 1000/1000

"And I activate its effects!" The black haired spy declared with a grin on his face, intending to use his monster's normal summon effect to burn her Life Points for another 600 points. Only for nothing to happen, the boy in question blinking and looking confusedly at his monster.

"W-what?! Why isn't it-"

"Inspector Boarder's effect." She started, readying herself for the long winded explanation that comes with having Inspector Boarder on the field. "Neither player can activate monster effects unless the number of monster effects that player has previously activated that turn is less than the number of monster card types currently on the field."

The other three looked… as she had expected, incredibly confused right as she finished the explanation of the monster that she had normal summoned the turn prior. "As there no Ritual, Fusion, Synchro, XYZ, or Pendulum monsters on the field, no players can activate the effect of monsters." She of course, omitted how the monster also inspects Link monsters on the field, as she was sure that even the Professor does not know of the summoning method.

"Synchro? Pendulum?" She heard the only girl of the team of three mutter under her breath. "So she knows of the other summoning methods too…"

"Che! Then I'll just activate the Spell, Ancient Gear Double Imitate!" The turn player Academia spy activated the spell card, and the spell's holographic projection appeared before him as it flashed.

"This card lets me target up to two 'Ancient Gear' monsters in either player's graveyard, and special summon them, but their effects are negated!" He explained the card's effects before declaring his one and only target.

"I will target the Ancient Gear Hunting Hound in Shiryo's graveyard!" He declared so, and as Inspector Boarder is on the field and there are none of the monsters that are listed on his effects, she could not activate the effect of Dinomight Knight in a chain.

"Then I will activate the Continuous Trap, There Can Be Only One." And she responded by flipping up one of the three face-down cards that she has in her spell and trap zone, revealing the Continuous Trap that she had added previously with Pot of Duality.

"That's the one that she added with that spell!" One of them pointed out, she didn't care which, they were interchangeable with her.

"While There Can Be Only One is face-up, each player can only control one monster of each Type, and if a player controls two or more monsters of the same Type, then they must send some to the graveyard so they control no more than one." She explained the card's effects.

"Which means that as you already have a Machine monster on the field, you cannot special summon any Machine monster." She finished explaining the effect of the second floodgate that she has on the field, and the chain continued to resolve.

"Guh!" The second Academia duelist grunted as his spell card essentially fizzled, and with that also locking him from summoning any other Machine monsters as long as the Continuous Trap persisted on the field.

"I-I will end my turn..." And he then simply ended his turn, ending it with four cards still on hand, and a singular monster on his field.

"You're both useless! My turn! I'll draw!" The one and only girl in their group of three said aloud as she started her own turn, drawing a card for the turn and starting out with six cards in her hand.

She saw the girl grin, and raised her hand up as she slammed a card into her duel disk's holographic blade. "I'll start by activating the Spell, Polymerization!" She declared aloud, activating her original dimension's signature fusion spell.

"Which lets me Fusion Summon a monster using monsters on my hand or field!" She grinned maniacally. "I'll fuse-"

"Then I will chain the Continuous Trap, Non Fusion Area." She declared aloud as she flipped face-up the tech card that she had drawn at her starting hand, the Continuous Trap shone as it was activated.

She would have gone for Dimensional Barrier, but considering how that card could also be copied used by the Academia just as her Summon Limit had as a counter to almost every other Extra Deck summoning mechanic, she opted not to.

This was one of the cards that she had stockpiled to specifically prepare for the upcoming invasion that no doubt was coming, along with some other generic staples that she's already selling.

The only problem that she had was the distribution of the card, she was only one person after all, she doesn't have any method to spread them in bulk.

"Non-Fusion Area?!" She heard one of them cried out the card's name with a look of shock in their face, seemingly baffled at the card's name that specifically floodgates Fusion Summoning as a mechanic.

"While Non-Fusion Area is face-up on the field, no players can Fusion Summon." She explained, and the one Academia girl's eyes widened as her Polymerization on the first link of the chain resolved activation without effect.

The girl then fumbled her cards, her eyes wandering left and right as she searched for something that she could play. "So? Hurry up." She urged the girl to quickly do a play or just end her turn. 

"I-I'll set one monster face-down." The girl said as she then proceeded to set a monster in face-down defence position. "I-I'll also set another card face-down, and I'l-I'lll end my turn." And she then ended her turn with three cards in her hand, and a T-set.

And with the girl passing her  turn, the turn controller returned back to the first Academia spy. "Geh?! It's my turn again?!" The first one shouted as he seemed to look around with a hint of fear and shock.

"I-I'll draw!" Four cards in hand, he then proceeded to start with his turn. "I-uh, I'll also set a monster and end my turn." And promptly ended it after simply setting a monster, no doubt not being able to play any playable cards that he had under the three floodgates that she had set up.

"My turn, I'll draw." And now it was back to her turn once more, and with a single card in her hand, she proceeded to her Main Phase. She briefly took a look at the card that she had drawn for the turn.

"Battle." And immediately went on to the Battle Phase, not even playing the card that she had drawn for the turn. "Attack, Dinomight Knight." And with her simple command, her monster struck the face-down monster of the first Academia spy.

As they entered the Damage step, the monster was then flipped face-up, revealing that it was simply another copy of the gear based dark green mechanical hound that was set, the monster growling as it was flipped face-up.

Ancient Gear Hunting Hound - Earth/Machine/Level 3/Effect: 1000/1000

And with the attack and defence difference being quite large, the Ancient Gear monster was easily destroyed with a single hit from the Dracofighter's fist, reducing it into motes of light as it was then sent to the graveyard.

"Attack." And she then proceeded to attack directly with her remaining monster, Inspector Boarder striking the Academia spy with his metallic electric baton, dealing a good amount of battle damage with that direct attack.

"GUAH!" The boy shouted in pain as yellow sparks of electricity coursed through his entire body, making the boy fall onto his knees as he received damage, leaving him with Life Points that are on the threshold of lethal.

Academia Spy 1: 1000LP

"I'll set a card, and end my turn." And she then proceeded to simply set another card in her plethora of spell and trap card, making a total of four cards in her spell and trap zone, and ended her turn/

"M-my turn! I'll draw!" The second Academia spy started his turn, and drew a card from the top of his deck for his Draw Phase. Now with four cards in hand, he then continued to start his turn.

"I'll set a monster face-down, and switch Hunting Hound to defence position." And his play was similar to those that the others had done, with a frustrated look, he set a monster face-down and switched the Hunting Hound that he had on his field to defence position, not even able to tribute summon a Machine monster with There Can Be Only One face-up on her field.

"...And I'll end my turn." With an incredibly frustrated look, the boy then proceeded to end his turn. Ending with two cards in his hand, and essentially two defence position monsters on his side of the field.

"Kuh! My turn! I'll draw!" And next up, the one and only girl spy on their group of three then started her own turn, drawing a card for her turn and starting out with four cards. Frustratedly looking at the cards that she had.

"I'll set another monster… And I'll end my turn." And with an eerily similar turn to the other Academia spies that went on before her, the girl ended her turn with a simple set and pass, ending her turn with three cards in hand.

"M-my turn!" And the turn player once more returned to the first Academia spy, who with a shaking hand placed his hands over his duel disk. "I-I'll draw!" And drew his card for the turn, adding a fourth card onto his hand. 

"I-I'll set a monster." And just like the many turns previously that have passed, following the play that the others had done as he was down on the many floodgates that he was under, he simply sets a monster face-down.

"A-and end my turn." And merely proceeded to end his turn, hoping that with that one set monster, he could perhaps survive another turn, even though the chance of such a thing was extremely low.

"My turn then, I'll draw." She said, drawing a card for the turn, adding up to merely a single card in her hand. "Battle." And simply proceeded to move on towards the Battle Phase, her two monsters seemingly readying themselves for battle.

"Attack, Dinomight Knight." And with that declaration and a snap of her fingers, the True Dracofighter jumped out to attack the face-down monster that the first Academia spy had set for his previous turn.

And as her monster was mere inches away, the face-down monster was then flipped face-up, revealing that the monster was Ancient Gear Gadget, the monster's gigantic gear on its back spinning as it was flipped.

Ancient Gear Gadget - Earth/Machine/Level 4/Effect: 500/2000

And though the monster had a respectable defence for what was basically a vanilla Level 4 monster whose effects never was relevant, it wasn't enough to weather the attack of Dinimoght Knight who easily destroyed the mechanical monster with a single strike.

"Now, Inspector Boarder, direct attack." And with that simple command, the Machine monster struck, dealing the final lethal push that finally threw one of the three Academia spies out of the game. 

"GUAAAGH!" He screamed loudly as he was struck by the attack of her monster, the solid hologram of the baton sending the boy flying and hitting the ground quite hard, and with that attack, his Life Points reached zero.

Academia Spy 1: 0LP

"Shiryo!" She heard the girl shout out of the name of probably the fallen boy, snapping her neck back to face her with a large scowl all while growling.

But she wasn't quite done yet, though she can't quite do another lethal push, she could at least clear a good enough monsters on the board. "I will flip my Trap, Eldlixir of Scarlet Sanguine."

She said, flipping up the trap card face-up, and revealing the card's artwork that shone as the holographic projection shone. "Which allows me to special summon one Zombie monster from my deck, but if I control no 'Eldlich' monsters, then I can only summon 'Eldlich' monsters, and I cannot special summon monsters other than Zombie monsters for the rest of the turn."

Not that she was going to be special summoning monsters at all for the rest of this turn, what with there already being There Can Be Only One on the field and all. "I will special summon Eldlich the Golden Lord in attack position."

And through the effect of the trap card she had activated, she summoned onto the field the monster with the small engine that she inserted in the deck. The gigantic golden lord of zombies appeared onto the field, filling the majority of the large clearing that they were in.

Eldlich the Golden Lord - Light/Zombie/Level 10/Effect: 2500/2800

"Attack. Adelantado Veiga." She declared so, and the large golden monster struck, the monster being flipped face-up, revealing that it was, surprise surprise, another Ancient Gear monster. This one being a metallic box with arms and legs, filled with machinery and all.

Ancient Gear Box - Earth/Machine/Level 4/Effect: 500/2000

But the defence points of the monster that the second Academia had set was still lower than the attack points of Eldlich, and the monster was then destroyed, leaving his field with only a single Ancient Gear Hunting Hound in defence position.

And with that, she finally finished her Battle Phase, and moved on towards her second Main Phase. "I will set a card face-down. And I will end my turn." And done with that, she ended her turn, setting another set card and ending her turn with no cards left in hand, four set cards, and three monsters of differing Types on the field.

With a growl, the second boy of the Academia spy group began his turn. "Guh, my turn!" He said, briefly looking behind towards the fallen boy that was defeated earlier. "I'll draw!" And he simply drew a card for his turn, replenishing four cards into his hand.

And the boy then looked at the cards he had in his hand, and took one of the four cards he had in hand and placed it onto his duel disk's holographic blade. "I'll activate the spell, Ancient Gear Explosive!" 

Said spell card then appeared in front of the boy, and shone as he began the explanation of what the card does. "This card lets me target an 'Ancient Gear' monster I control and destroy it to deal damage equal to half of its original attack!"

He then waved his hands forwards towards his one and only remaining monster. "I'll target my own Hunting Hound to destroy it and deal 500 damage!" And a flying gear with an explosive appeared ahead of him, and exploded outwards.

She clicked her tongue in irritation again, getting burn damage is incredibly annoying, but even more annoying was seeing how even 'elite' Academia spies like the boy in front of her would run an incredibly win more card like that, though she guessed that she should be glad that they would include a bricky card like that in their deck.

Red Hat: 2900LP

Though right after the boy managed to resolve the spell's effects and burn her Life Points for a measly 500 points, his grin immediately turned into a frown, and devolved into an outright scowl as he saw the rest of the cards in his hand.

"I'll set a monster face-down and I'll end my turn." And then the boy simply passed with a simple set and pass, placing another monster face-down defence position and ending his turn with two cards in his hand.

And with him passing his turn, the turn controller returned to once more the spy girl. "My turn! I draw!" And she drew her card for the turn, once again replenishing her hand back up to four cards.

She saw her eyes slightly widen and a small grin formed on the girl's face. "I'll activate the Continuous Spell! Ancient Gear Fortress!" Then right behind the girl, a large fortress of brick and gear formed.

"Now while this card's face-up on the field, during the turn that they were normal or special summoned you can't target 'Ancient Gear' monsters with card effects, and they can't be destroyed by card effect!" She explained with a huge grin.

"Alright! And while it's face-up, you can't activate cards and effects in response to the activation of 'Ancient Gear' cards and effects!" The second boy spy added in, reading out the second clause of effect that the Continuous Spell had.

"Now I'll tribute my two face-down monsters to summon the apex of destruction!" And she then proceeded to do so, tributing the two monsters that, as she checked the girl's graveyard, were both Ancient Gear Hunting Hound.

How did every single one of them opened Hunting Hound?! She was the one with a hand sculpting Skill here!

The girl then raised her right hand high up towards the clouds with a large grin. "Appear! The apex machine of destruction! Ancient Gear Golem!" And the gigantic golem then appeared onto the field, its height reaching the buildings around them, and no doubt gaining the attention of some of the local residents with its size alone.

Ancient Gear Golem - Earth/Machine/Level 8/Effect: 3000/3000

"Now with Ancient Gear Golem's 3000 points of attack, I can easily destroy your monsters!" The girl declared so with a large ear splitting grin. "But that's not all! I'll equip the Equip Spell, Ancient Gear Mask onto my Ancient Gear Golem!"

Using the third card in her card, the girl equipped an equip spell onto her newly tribute summoned monster and a strage mask made of mask and metal appeared on the face of the gladiator-like monster, equipping it with a card that she was not familiar with. "With Ancient Gear Mask, once per turn, the first time that the equipped monster would be destroyed by battle or card effect, it is not!"

So a simple once per turn protection effect then, quite simple to manoeuvre through. "And if the equipped monster attacks, you can't activate spells and traps until the Damage Step!" The classic Armades effect? Irrelevant. The monster it was equipped to already has the effect as a passive effect.

"And if the equipped monster attacks a defence position monster, it inflicts piercing damage!" It also gives piercing? Again, irrelevant. None of her monsters was in defence position anyway. 

"And if the equipped monster destroys an opponent's monster by battle, I can make any battle damage that you take from that attack become doubled!" So it was an Equip Spell with a plethora of effects that only helps push for lethal then, giving it minor protection, but nothing else. 

Easily removable, and she could still push for lethal, though it would be a little bit more annoying.

"Battle-"

"At the declaration of moving towards the Battle Phase, I will flip up the Continuous Trap, True Draco Apocalypse." She said, flipping up the set card that she had just set in her previous turn, revealing it to be another True Draco card.

Because although Fortress would protect Ancient Gear monsters from destruction and targeting the turn they were summoned, it doesn't make them completely immune to the effects of traps. And she could easily bypass the Armades effect that the monster and equip spell has if she just doesn't activate the effect on the Battle Phase, though activating it during the Damage Step would have been a bit more effective to push for damage.

"True Draco Apocalypse allows me to target one other 'True Draco' or 'True King' card that I control, and destroy it to halve the attack and defence of all face-up monsters that my opponent controls." She explained the card's effects.

"I will destroy my own Dinomight Knight, to half the attack and defence of all monsters you control." And as the effect resolve, and she destroyed her one Dinomight Knight as an effect not as cost, the attack of all face-up monsters that her opponent controls were halved, and with the Battle Royal rules being in her favour for once, it halved the attack and defence of all monsters that weren't her's.

Ancient Gear Golem - Earth/Machine/Level 8/Effect: 1500/1500

Ancient Gear Hunting Hound - Earth/Machine/Level 3/Effect: 500/500

"Ancient Gear Golem!" The girl called out in alarm as the attack and defence of the monster that she had spent two whole turns preparing for tribute fodder being so easily dealt with, what with now that it has half attack, it won't even be able to beat over Inspector Boarder.

"I-I end my turn…" And the girl decided to simply end her turn, ending with a single monster on her field, and a single card remaining in her hand, and now with the turn ending, the lingering effect that was given to the gigantic golem by Ancient gear Fortress faded away.

"Then I'll activate my Continuous Trap, True King's Return at the declaration of End Phase." But she wasn't quite done playing on her opponent's turn, she flipped up the True King Continuous Trap that she had opened in her opening hand thanks to her Skill.

"Another one?!" The second Academia spy cried out in frustration, she tuned him out.

"True King's Return allows me to target one 'True Draco' or 'True King' monster in graveyard and special summon them in defence position, but for the rest of this turn, I cannot special summon." Not that she was going to.

"I will summon back Dinomight Knight." And the green armoured True Draco made his way back onto the field in defence position, crossing his arms in a guarding position as he was summoned.

Dinomight Knight, the True Dracofighter - Water/Wyrm/Level 6/Effect: 2500/1200

"It's back?!" The girl shouted out as she saw her summon back Dinomight Knight, she tuned her out as well.

And now with that all said and done, the turn player changes. And with the first to go Academia spy having already been beaten and was out of the game, it was her turn. "My turn, I draw."

And having added a card onto her hand through her Draw Phase, she briefly glanced at it, before moving forward towards her Standby Phase, and into her Main Phase. "I'll change Dinomight Knight, the True Dracofighter into attack position." She said, and the monster changed his stance into one akin to that of a grappler.

"Battle" "I will attack Ancient Gear Golem with Eldlich the Golden Lord. Adelantado Veiga." And abiding to her command, the gigantic golden lord of the cursed Eldland struck, striking the gigantic golem with his fists.

"Kya!" The undercover girl shouted aloud as she received battle damage from the attack, reducing her Life Points by a good stack. 

Academia Spy 3: 3000LP

"B-but! Ancient Gear Golem isn't destroyed by the effect of Ancient Gear Mask!" And as she had just said, the gigantic mechanical golem of gears and metal pieces still stood tall, and it's equipped mask also still in place.

She merely hummed condescendingly before continuing with the Battle Phase, knowing from the girl's own explanation that the protection effect was only a once per turn. "Then I'll attack again with Dinomight Knight."

And the special summoned True Draco monster roared before rushing forward to meet the gigantic golem, leaping off into the air and punching directly onto the monster's head, or more precisely mask, and cracking it. Then the monster exploded, because of course it does.

"KYA!" The girl shrieked again as she received another stack of 1000 points of battle damage to her Life Point total, and with that second attack, her monster was destroyed, leaving her field empty.

Academia Spy 3: 2000LP

"Attack. Inspector Boarder." And with a snap of her fingers, the monster attacked, riding its signature metal board and flying towards her opponent, striking her with its metal stun baton directly.

"KYAAAA!" And just like the previous boy who was attacked directly with the monster, the girl was seemingly shocked with electricity from head to toe, even leaving hints of smoke as the attack ended and she fell to her knees, before promptly falling down unconscious like the fellow before her.

Academia Spy 3: 0Lp

"O-Oshino!" The last remaining Academia duelist cried out the girl's name, and something about all this seemed familiar, but she dismissed it.

"I'll end my turn." And she simply ended her turn with that, not playing the card that's he had drawn and passing her turn with three monsters on the field, and four face-up Continuous Traps on her spell and trap zone, two of which were floodgates. 

"N-no way… this-this can't be happening! What did you pull us into Dennis!" The boy said as he held his head in his hands, almost breaking down crying from the looks of it. "I should have known! We shouldn't have challenged her! Not again!"

Whatever mad ramblings that went through his mouth went in and out of her ears as she deemed it irrelevant. "Hurry up." She urged him as she gave him a stink eye, and he seemed to freeze in fear.

"I-I'll draw!" And the boy hurriedly drew his card for the turn, and fumbled the cards in his hands. "I-I'll set a monster!" And he sets a monster in face-down defence position as his normal summon for the turn.

"I-I'll end my turn" And with two monsters on the board, one being an Ancient Gear Hunting Hound whose attack and defence was halved, the Academia spy ended his turn. 

She let out a sigh, and placed her hand over her duel disk. She had expected this to be easy, but as expected of a complete counter deck based on floodgates, it really was easy to defeat her opponent. The problem is simply that as it was a control deck, it was quite slow.

"My turn. I'll draw." She said as she drew a card for her turn, and with that, she could simply go for broke and go for lethal from this position on. As long as he doesn't have anything in the likes of Battle Fader or Swift Scarecrow, she should be able to end the game here and now.

Though honestly if There Can Only Be one was removed from the field earlier then she could have summoned back the Ignis Heat many turns earlier and pushed for lethal that way, or perhaps get a Conquistador on board, though she couldn't as it meant summoning another Zombie monster in the form of a Trap Monster, though it's still treated as a trap.

But she doesn't have any ways of removing the floodgate from her field annoyingly enough, so instead she'll have to push with what she has on board. "True Draco Apocalypse effect." She declared, activating one of the two Continuous Traps that she possessed on the field that wasn't a floodgate. 

"True Draco Apocalypse allows me to target one other 'True Draco' or 'True King' card that I control, and destroy it to halve the attack and defence of all face-up monsters that my opponent controls." She explained the card's effects once again, reciting word for word of the card's text.

"I will destroy my True King's Return, to halve the attack and defence of all face-up monsters that you control." And destroying her other in archetype Continuous Trap, she halved the attack of all face-up monsters that her one opponent controlled, halving the already halved attack and defence of Ancient Gear Hunting Hound.

Ancient Gear Hunting Hound - Earth/Machine/Level 3/Effect: 250/250

"True King's Return effect." And having sent it to the graveyard, she activated the effect of the Continuous Trap in question. "If this card is sent from the spell and trap zone to the graveyard, I can target one monster on the field and destroy it."

Pointing to the still unknown monster, she declared the target for the card's graveyard effect. "I will destroy your set monster." With no cards that he could use to chain or protect the monster in question, the set monster was then destroyed revealing an Ancient Gear Soldier who sat in defence position and was then destroyed and sent to the graveyard.

With no other moves or plays that she could do, or rather would do, she snapped her fingers and moved on to the Battle Phase. "Battle. Attack. Inspector Boarder." And with the command given, the baton wielding Machine rode its metal board to strike the singular monster that her opponent had, attacking the weakened mechanical hound and easily destroying it with a single swing of its metal baton.

And with that, his entire board has been cleared off of monsters. Once more, she snapped her fingers and gave out an order. "Direct attack. Dinomight Knight." With a loud battle cry, the green armoured True Dracofighter attacked.

Sending a good strike into the boy's solar plexus, the Academia spy almost doubled down from the solid hologram's attack. "Guogh!" He let out a painful cry as he fell to his knees and clutched his stomach, and with sparks of electricity sparking from his own duel disk, clearly receiving more damage than he normal would from the hologram's attack.

Academia Spy 2: 1500LP

"Finish it. Adelantado Veiga." And with that declaration, the giant golden Zombie attacked under her commands. The monster rearing its hand back and striking with enough force to send the Academian spy flying into the air, and hitting the ground with a loud thud all while he screamed at the top of his lungs.

"GUAAAAGH!"

Academia Spy 2: 0LP

With the duel done and over, she turned off her duel disk, and the solid projections all started to vanish into motes of light one after the other. She eyed the now downed trio of Academia spies, sent to scout ahead and plan for the destruction of this dimension, and mused what to do with them.

She might as well interrogate them, just like she was going to no doubt do with Dennis. She could use whatever they reveal and cross reference them along with whatever piece of information that she can pull from the others, making sure that she gets the most accurate pieces of information possible.

Thinking so, she began to turn to see where she had left her orange  haired capti-

Only to find that the Perfomage duelist was gone, and where he once was but a mere piece of metal chain lying on the concrete ground below, left sitting next to the metal bars where she had tied it previously.

"Wha-! He's gone?! That damned-!" She cursed as she hurriedly rushed to the fallen piece of chains, keeping an eye out to the fallen trio of Academia spies at the corner of her eye as she inspected the piece of chain that she was quite sure she had tied properly.

Either she hadn't apparently tied it well enough allowing the street performer to easily escape the chain that binds him, not that impossible considering that it was such a rushed job, or he had done something to escape them.

Most likely he had done so all while she was fully concentrated at the duel. While the duel raged on, one sidedly that it was, he might have done something to his chains and escaped, or perhaps the duel itself was entirely a distraction for someone else to help him escape.

She took a second to quickly check the perimeter, quickly checking the area around her, or rather around the area where Dennis had disappeared to check where exactly he had escaped to.

Eventually she found… nothing. Absolutely nothing. There was nothing that she could see with merely her eyes that could lead to finding where exactly the orange haired Academian spy had disappeared to.

And so she stopped. With virtually no chances of finding where exactly the darned Performage duelist had gone, she clicked her tongue as she turned to the defeated trio. It's still fine. The situation is still salvageable, she still has three captives in hand, who might have the same amount of information as Dennis did, so she could still-

And as her eyes slowly fell to the trio, the defeated trio of Academian spy that were slowly but surely disappearing into motes of light just like solid vision monsters. "T-they disappeared?!" She shouted alarmed at their extremely sudden disappearance.

She rushed to where they once fell to, hurriedly placing her hands over where they once were. "What the hell is this! What the actual fu-" She kept herself from cursing any further as she balled her fist to the point that they went white.

She took a deep breath and, standing up from the crouching position that she took to inspect the defeated trio's sudden disappearance, and walked back with a jog towards the heap of trash next to the wooden fence that Dennis had fallen into, or more specifically, the metal dumpster that contained it.

And started going ham.

"Damn it!" She shouted, and she bashed the metal dumpster with her foot. "Damn it! DAMN IT ALL!" She shouted at the top of her lungs as she repeatedly kicked the metal dumpster with all her might. She didn't know how long she kept at doing it, but she stopped when her feet finally started to hurt, and the boots that she wore gave off, it's sole falling and looking worse than it had ever before.

She absentmindedly thought of buying a new pair. These ones were old anyway, Sister Claire had given it to her after all, she had had it for years, that and it was the only footwear that she had. The only value that they had were sentimental value, she would probably shelve them somewhere in her apartment after she got a new pair.

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, slowly opening them back again after she had calmed down after the short temper tantrum that she had. And she saw the side of the dumpster had bent inwards, almost to the point of even cracking the dumpster's steel exterior open and letting all the trash inside of it out.

Ah, that makes sense why her foot hurts. A lot. Honestly she wouldn't be surprised that she had cracked a few bones when she had done that, no doubt that she'll have bruises and won't be able to walk straight at the very least.

And sure enough as she tried to walk back with her right foot, she winced from the pain, hissing slightly just from moving the appendage in question. A million curse words flew in her head, her accursed mind somehow pinning That Man to blame for all of this, and she had to close her eyes and breathe deeply to calm herself down.

"No. Calm down. This is a good learning experience." She slowly said aloud to no one, doing so simply to calm herself down in an attempt to see the whole mess in a new perspective, to see the benefits that she could instead gain from the sudden disappearance of not only Dennis, but also the trio of Academia spies that she had easily beaten out with floodgates aplenty.

"There's Academian spies here. No doubt that this city, that Heartland, has a lot of them. In fact, there's apparently an outpost here somewhere filled to the brim with them." She mused, pulling what she knew from the short interrogation session that she had with Dennis.

That was no doubt, the orange haired boy in question had said it himself, and the appearance of three duelists who had the Academia's own duel disk and blatantly using Polymerization basically outs them as coming from the Fusion Dimension.

Which means that they're already here, That Man's foot soldiers were already in this dimension. And knowing how That Man would want to operate behind the scenes as she had learnt from Sister Claire, there was a possibility that he might have a hand in the government, or at least the law enforcements or the likes to cover up the tracks of his spies for this long.

"And there's a commanding officer." She said as she placed a hand on her chin, contemplating aloud. "Which says that there's a chain of command of some sort. And no doubt that the commander in question would have the most information, or maybe even an in with the Professor himself." She said That Man's name with spite.

She didn't know how high Dennis ranked in the commanding ladder, but simply by guessing that he actually had an XYZ deck of all things, that might tell that he was a high ranking official. Making the orange haired Performage duelist a high ranking spy of some sort.

"Wait." She stopped herself as she frowned and scrunched her eyebrows. "XYZ? No, that's not right. Performage is more known for-" And her eyes slowly widened and her breath hitched as realization dawned on her.

Perfromages weren't an XYZ deck. Don't get her wrong, Hat Tricker and Trick Clown along with Damage Juggler certainly made an incredible Rank 4 engine at the time of their release, but the card that made Performages a deck that sends shivers down to her spines wasn't it's tribal XYZ Monster.

No, it was its Pendulum Monsters. Performage Plushfire being the most notorious card of the archetype's Pendulum Monsters that were printed by a longshot simply with its incredible floating ability that made it one of the backbones of PePe.

But no, the fact that the Academian boy having a part of the most notorious Pendulum deck at the time of its release wasn't what worried her, it was simply the fact that he even has a deck that would have gotten Pendulum cards at all.

Which means that, "He's an important 'character', someone that actually appears in 'the story'." She growled out with gritted teeth. It was a simple line of logic that she could easily connect, and with the orange haired boy getting Pendulum Monsters, and being a part of the Academia could mean several things.

Either he continued his acts as a spy, and somehow infiltrated the main character's crew and got Pendulum Monsters of his own before stabbing them in the back and betraying them one way or another, or the Academia would start printing Pendulum Monsters of their own and giving them to their high ranking officials.

Both of those explanation could certainly fit to the narrative, after all, Lunalights did have Pendulum Monsters of their own, but Serena, the one and only user of the deck that she knew of and was a known 'character' of the series, came from the Fusion Dimension, just like Dennis.

Which was quite the terrifying image, though considering the nonexistence of Ancient Gear Pendulum Monsters and the like, and how Ryo, Fubuki, and Edo who are no doubt strong duelists of the Academia having no Pendulum Monsters of the sort, that theory didn't sound that sound, even if That Man himself uses what seems to be a pure Pendulum deck from what she could infer from their short bout.

She shook her head as she shelved that whole problem for a later date. The possibility of her enemies gaining access to Pendulum Monsters, and in lieu Pendulum Summoning is certainly concerning, but not something that she couldn't handle.

The problem was, now that she was looking at the bigger picture with a clear mind, was if others could do the same.

The invasion was coming, the appearance of Academia duelists, who can apparently disappear after they were defeated, presumably returning back to the Fusion Dimension or something like that, was a huge sign, along with apparently outposts being placed in Heartland City of all places.

The place was going to turn into a warzone when the Academia comes, and though she was spreading staples like Veiler and some generic Trap Holes around, now that she's been outed, the Academia was most certainly going to keep an eye out for her, and by proxy her dealings. 

She would have to be more careful as she sells her cards around the market, and now knowing that the Academian duelists would use floodgates, she would have to start selling generic backrow removal spells in bulk.

And there was also something that she noticed during the three versus one duel that she had just had. "It was slow." She murmured aloud, of course knowing that she was playing a control floodgate deck like True Draco would be extremely slow, but it was because of how long winded and drawn out that the game was that she had let Dennis escape from right under her nose.

"So I have to be faster then." She muttered aloud, which means that control decks are off of the table when, and not if, she eventually duels against the Academia goons and foot soldiers who would be dueling their way in the invasion. And with how frequent the battle royals like what she had just been in, no doubt something that she would be seeing a lot of considering how they would surely push the advantage of numbers against unsuspecting duelists, she should probably go with a going second OTK deck.

Of course considering her being locked into XYZ Monsters for Extra Deck options, there are several decks that instantly come to mind. Numeron of course being the one that easily came into the forefront of her mind, but considering the 4000 Life Point format and the possibility of facing Chaos Ancient Gear Giant and it's ability to lock monster effects during the Battle Phase, she removed the deck as an option, for now.

And at the thought of selecting a possible deck, a notification came up in the corner of her eyes, and as she began to read the text that her System had given her, she couldn't help a grin coming from the corner of her mouth.

Again, she shook her head to clear her mind, taking a last glance towards the fallen chains and metal bars where Dennis was once chained onto. "Dennis. I'll remember that name." If she ever met the orange haired duelist again, then she would bring her all to capture him again.

-

"Wh-what was that?! That girl is scary!" 

Hiding amongst the crowds and pacing away as fast as he can without drawing much eyes to himself, Dennis hissed out those exact words as he hurriedly made his way to one of the many hideouts that were given to the Academian spies hiding in the XYZ Dimension.

He knew that the infamous Red Hat was supposedly an incredibly strong duelist, but he didn't think that she was that strong! She single handedly defeated three of the strongest duelists that were posted here! All three of them were the best of the best of Ra Yellow, capable of going toe to toe with other Obelisk Forces themselves, and she easily beat them single handedly!

He groaned as he imagined the scolding that he would no doubt receive from the commander as soon as he made his return for disappearing so suddenly, that and sending a distress signal and all.

And he basically lost them their current best fighters, barring the Obelisk Force that they have as security details, if he isn't demoted for all of this, he's either losing his job as a spy entirely, sent back to the Fusion Dimension as a grunt since he's already outed as an Academian spy, or he'll just get carded for his transgressions.

Though he might possibly be able to manipulate his report first to draw the three in a bad light, maybe making something up to say that they were confrontational when the reason for him sending a distress signal was to simply notify them of the Red Hat's presence, and that they started the whole confrontation.

Which they technically did, he'd just have to make up a whole excuse for being in chains and being dragged by the girl in question around the city.

He hopes that, just like his luck had saved him and let him escape from the chains that Red Hat had tied him up with, and he would have to thank Sakaki-san for teaching him all those magician escape tricks that he never thought he would ever have to use, that he would be able to keep going on as a spy and pose as a street performer all while studying under Sakaki-san's tutelage, he quite like this job of his.

That and he hopes that he would never have to meet that red hat wearing girl ever again.

-

Returning back to her apartment was a hassle, especially since she was essentially lost and had to ask for directions, multiple times that is, but she at the very least did manage to make her way back, even if it was basically night time by the time that she had returned.

The bruise and possible broken bones that she has in her right leg certainly did not help hasten the journey, if anything it slowed her down, because of course she had to live with the consequence of her actions, spirit shenanigans be damned.

She sighed as she took off her boots, wincing slightly as her right foot twinged with pain once again, and eventually just threw them onto the single room that she had, and they bounced off of the wall with a loud thud.

Sighing again, she felt the barrier in her mind slowly started to crack down, and a mountain of emotions that she had kept throughout the entire ordeal of the evening dropped to her shoulders.

Lingering flames of anger burned in her heart, anger at the mere existence of the entire Academia backing That Man along with his devious machinations, anger at having let Dennis slip past through her grasp and not having squeezed him for more bits of information, and at the thought that they had sunk their claws into Heartland City just like they had with Academy Island.

And she simply stood there, fuming as she flopped onto her cheap futon, having thrown her jacket off and leaving it lying on the floor haphazardly and simply… stayed there as she processed her emotions slowly but surely.

And as the hint of annoyance and anger that she had kept throughout the entire ordeal started to slowly dissipate fully, and now left her feeling drained of emotions, drained of strength from even standing up from her futon.

She sighed as she closed her eyes and further on placing a hand over them, exhaustion finally settling in after the long rush of adrenaline, and she relived what had basically happened in the first day that she had appeared in this dimension.

As she sighed again, a quiet 'ping' reminded her of her System's earlier notification, and with one eye opened she silently commanded for her System to bring said notification back up, and she read them in her head.

-

XYZ Dimension Structure Deck Selection

Structure Deck: Onomatopoeic Universe 

A deck that contains Gagaga, Gogogo, Dododo, and along with Zubaba monsters and their support cards. Contains an Number 39 support along with a select few XYZ Monsters related to the archetype. Choosing this Structure Deck will grant you the perk "Onomatoplay".

Onomatopaira: (If your Ace Monster is 'Number 39: Utopia' or a card that lists 'Utopia' in its card text) Allows you to start the duel with two of either 'Gagaga', 'Gogogo', 'Dododo', or 'Zubaba' cards in your starting hand.

Structure Deck: Inzektors Assemble! 

A deck that contains Inzektor monsters and their support cards. Contains the card Inzektor Exa-Stag and Inzektor Exa-Beetle, along with a select few other XYZ Monsters that support the archetype. Choosing this Structure Deck will grant you the perk "Inzektor Transformation".

Inzektor Transformation: (If your Ace Monster is an Inzektor Monster) Allows you to start the duel with two Inzektor monsters with different names and the same Level in your starting hand.

Structure Deck: Ruler of Dragons

A deck that contains Dragon Rulers monsters and their support cards. Contains the card Voloferniges and a select few other XYZ Monsters that support the archetype. Choosing this Structure Deck will grant you the perk "Ruler of Elements".

Ruler of Elements: (If your Ace Monster is a Level/Rank 7 Dragon Monster) Allows you to start the duel with a random Level 7 Dragon Ruler and a random Level 3 Dragon Ruler.

-

They were… quite solid selections for basic XYZ Structure Decks, especially compared to what she remembered what the Fusion Dimension counterpart offered her that is.

Having beaten Anna in her first duel, and by that she meant her first actual physical duel that wasn't done in her Duel World, she managed to unlock the three Structure Decks that she could select essentially for free.

She mused as she laid in her bet, which of the three decks that she should select.

Quite honestly, the mere thoughts of playing Dragon Rulers under essentially no banlist, even if she does technically ban herself from playing extremely overpowered cards like Pot of Greed and Graceful Charity or even Painful Decision and being able to play all the dragons in question at three is incredibly tempting.

And as she read out the Extra Deck option that the deck would give her for free containing none other than the deck's own unofficial Dragon Ruler Mecha Phantom Beast Dracossack, quite the blast from the past that card, the temptation to pick the deck was quite large.

And Voloferniges, the Darkest Dragon Doomrider itself wasn't quite a bad card as well, essentially being a Drident, one that is a Quick Effect spot removal for monsters which only gains the Spell Speed 2 clause should it be made entirely out of Dragons with some small attack manipulation effect, though it can probably only be activated once, what with it needing two materials to be detached unlike the infamous Drident herself.

And though she couldn't access the usual Level 8 Synchro Monsters that the deck would have played should it have access to something like Flamvell Guard, Dragunity Corsesca, or even The White Stone of Ancients, the remaining Rank 7 cards that she could possibly access with the deck certainly made up for the empty Extra Deck Space.

There's Red-Eyes Flare Metal Dragon, which can technically easily burn her opponent out of the game incredibly quickly if she has at least two on field, especially with the 4000 Life Point format, and has destruction protection while it has XYZ Materials, but activated effects that she would probably never run unless she played a Red-Eyes variant of the deck.

There's also Odd-Eyes Absolute Dragon, which can technically negate attacks and special an 'Odd-Eyes' from hand after doing so, and could float into another Extra Deck 'Odd-Eyes' when sent to the grave, commonly done by simply linking the card off, but seeing as the other XYZ Odd-Eyes targets being, well, Pendulum XYZ Monsters whose effects she has never read before, and her dislike towards playing a deck similar to those that other 'characters' play, she would choose not to play it along with the other Odd-Eyes XYZ Monsters.

Well, that and the best target for the monster's floating effect, Odd-Eyes Vortex Dragon, the in archetype omni negate, was something that she couldn't play. What with it needing a dedicated Pendulum deck to fully function and all that.

And then there's Number 11: Big Eye, one of the main reasons for even playing a Rank 7 deck in the first place. A card that can, as a soft once per turn, target and permanently steals an opponent monster at the caveat of said Big Eye not being able to attack for the turn.

The thought of being able to basically Snatch Steal an opponent's monster essentially for free was always mind boggling, and the fact that it was a soft once per turn truly was the icing on the cake for that one, even if the deck has to high roll to even be able of putting two Rank 7 XYZ Monsters on the board simultaneously in one turn.

And there are certainly other great Rank 7 options that she could possibly go into. She could technically go into Super Quantal Mech Beast Lusterrex with two Level 7 Monsters, though without Super Quantum White Layer it's spot monster negation effect wouldn't be a Quick Effect, and Dark Armed, the Dragon of Annihilation is also a great not once per turn spot removal.

An honourable mention certainly has to go for Number 42: Galaxy Tomahawk and its ability to essentially flood the entire field with tokens, essentially making it a card that would allow easy Link plays, though she sadly was still incapable of doing such herself what with her now being locked to XYZ Summoning and all.

Inzektor on the other hand? While it was certainly a strong going second hand, should it open with Inzektor Hornet, without Link Monsters to go into, and the honestly bad selection of XYZ Monsters that it gave being Inzektor Exa-Beetle, Inzektor Exa-Stag, Number 3: Cicada King and Number 20: Giga-Brilliant, the deck was… horrendous.

Sure should it go second and open an Inzektor Hornet in the opening hand, which the Skill that it gives does help what with Inzektor Dragonfly, Inzektor Centipede, and Inzektor Hornet all being Level 3 Monsters, along with the Spell, Zektrike Kou-ou helping with the consistency, it could certainly chew through most boards that the people of this dimension make.

Then again, Inzektors were quite well known for its board breaking capabilities at release, what with Inzektor Dragonfly and Inzektor Hornet even being on the Limited list for a good amount of time before eventually being powercrept and was subsequently placed off of the banlist.

But going first would be completely different. With no access to the strong Link Bosses that the deck could have easily summoned like Giant Beetrooper Invincible Atlas or a four material Apollousa, Bow of the Goddess, what with it being able to spam monsters onto the field thanks to Dragonfly, the best that the deck could technically make going first is Cicada King pass.

Though technically the deck can make Digital Bug Rhinosebus, what with possibly summoning it with its innate summoning condition if she were to make either of the tribal Inzektor XYZ Monsters, and that would simply leave her with a Drident that destroys the opponent's monster with the highest defence that deals piercing battle damage.

And though doing such wouldn't be that hard, what with Inzektor Ladybug being able to Level modulate easily to summon Inzektor Exa-Stag and all, both the Inzektor deck and the Dragon Ruler deck's first turn play would essentially end with a one time monster only Drident pass.

Which is certainly not half bad in this currently slow format that she inhabits in this dimension. It certainly should be enough to even out something like Chaos Ancient Gear Giant, what with it not having any protection from monster effects and all that.

But Onomats? Onomats was a deck that would undoubtedly be the arguably best choice of the three decks available.

After all, the deck itself was arguably one of the best shell for a Rank 4 toolbox that was available in the game. It certainly helped with the amount of legacy support that the deck received.

Although the deck was simply filled with mostly one offs, and also filled with filler cards of the Zubaba, Gagaga, Gogogo, and Dododo archetypes like Gogogo Goram, Gagaga Head, and even Dododo Driver, it has the essentials for the backbone of an Onomat deck.

That being, of course, Zubababancho Gagagacoat, Dodododwarf gogogoglove, and of course Utopic Onomatopoeia who's always treated as the four archetypes, knitting them together.

Albeit, they're only one offs at the moment, but the Continuous Spell, Onomatipickup and the normal Spell, Onomatopaira certainly does help with the consistency, though the other many one offs that the deck has basically does nothing but hamper it.

But the most important part was, of course, that it was one of the best shell for a Rank 4 toolbox, the most common Rank with the most versatile of XYZ Monsters, and there are certainly a plethora of them. 

From non destruction like Castell to even a Dingirsu protection in Light Dragon @Ignister. Turning off the entirety of graveyard effects as a Quick Play in Abyss Dweller or even turning off one third of the game's mechanic with Number 16: Shock Master. Easily accessible backrow removal with Tornado Dragon, and even the ability to recur resources with Daigusto Emeral.

And don't even get her started on Time Thief Redoer. In a sealed format, which this dimension is basically in, that card is a house and a half, especially with how people are still running generic trap cards, something of which she certainly did help spread. 

The versatility that Rank 4 XYZ Monsters has are simply too varied for her to pass up. Even if the 'Boss Monster' that the deck wanted her to go for is either Ultimate Dragonic Utopia Ray or Ultimate Leo Utopia Ray.

The former was basically a card that hadn't made it out of the lists for what she knew as modern Onomat decks, while the latter was a staple, along with ZW - Pegasus Twin Saber, which basically makes the XYZ Monster a spot monster negate that halves attacks, and a effect that negates monster effects after resolution.

It was no wonder why people used the latter more than the former.

Though the deck itself doesn't have some of the staples of a Onomat, or rather Utopia deck like Number S39: Utopia the Lightning or even Number 99: Utopia Dragonar, it at the very least has Number 39: Utopia Double and the Spell, Double or Nothing! Which would let easy OTK pushes.

The last push that made her choice was the possibility of something happening like last time, the Emergency Mission that she had to pass to defeat Edo and face the Professor, a legacy duel of sorts. 

Because the last time in the Fusion Dimension she had to face Edo's own Destiny HERO with her own mish mashed HERO deck, a deck that she had to hurriedly make, and possibly would have almost lost to burn damage on the crackback if she hadn't OTK on her own turn.

And said HERO deck was one of the three decks that was given as a choice for a Structure Deck way back when she had just started dueling again back in the Fusion Dimension, but the deck that she had chosen instead was the Monarch Structure Deck as it was the best of the three, what with the HERO deck that was offered then was filled with vanilla monsters.

And in such, she had to pay a good chunk of her DP back then to build a half competent HERO deck, it certainly didn't help that her System had just somehow updated at the time and given some new legacy cards, which had made it even harder for her to choose the cards to put in the deck.

And with the XYZ Dimension, or rather this Heartland City being the place where the Academia would be invading, there was no doubt that an Emergency Mission like the one that had forced her to play pure HERO deck without Destiny HEROes, and with this being the XYZ Dimension, the chances of the deck that she would be forced to play being Onomat, or rather, Utopia, was incredibly high.

"In the end it isn't even… a hard choice to make…" She mumbled out sleepily, and even yawned as exhaustion overcame her once more, and she sleepily made her choice. Though two of the three decks that were given as choices were meta at their time of release, and even receiving bans not long after they dominated the entirety of the meta game, passing one of, if not arguably, the best Rank 4 toolbox ever printed would be too much.

She doesn't have enough energy to go to her Duel World to farm DP tonight, and with the Academia spies posted around this dimension now noticing her here, she'll have to sell cards a bit more carefully now. 

But she'll deal with all that tomorrow. For now she would rest to prepare to face the coming invasion that was on the horizon.