Disclaimer: I do not own Yugioh, Yugioh GX or any of the characters, although I do own the Shadow Conquerors and Konami is just jealous that they didn't think of them first.


Episode Seven

Fiery, Fiery, Flame

Jaden walked away from where Bastion had just beaten Mr. Magician. Many times Jaden had wanted to turn around and make sure Bastion got to the hospital all right but Jaden knew Bastion would be all right, he would have his shoulders fixed in an hour, and twelve locator cards in two. As opposed to Jaden, who still needed five locator cards.

Jaden turned down 2nd Street and yawned, rubbing his eyes. When he moved his hands away from his eyes he saw a small volcano in front of him. Jaden laughed, he really must be tired. His watch read 12:45 but Jaden couldn't stop now for sleep. He couldn't sleep away the opportunity to be the King of Games, no way.

Jaden rubbed his eyes a second time but the volcano was still there. Jaden noticed a duel going on nearby and assumed it was a holographic projection from that duel, although it was a little far from the actual duel.

Jaden approached the volcano and put his hand up to it, to insure that it was just a hologram. His hand burned like crazy from that little touch. Jaden's hand had a small burn mark from where he had touched the volcano. It hurt like hell and that was when Jaden realized that, that volcano was at least partly real.

The volcano only came up to Jaden's stomach and the crater wasn't big enough to fit a human. Well, that's what Jaden assumed because he couldn't see the crater. The volcano was billowing smoke out of it every second. Then Jaden took a closer look at the smoke. It was not regular smoke; it was thinner, like the color of the Shadows in the Shadow Realm.

Jaden froze, could this volcano be a piece of the Shadow Realm? How was that possible? Jaden stuck his head further through the smoke, even though it was a hundred degrees at the top, to try and see the crater. But Jaden didn't realize just how good of a view he'd get. Because Jaden got sucked in.

Jaden fell down, down, down, into the crater of the volcano until finally he hit the burning rock that scorched his butt, getting him up immediately.

The volcano was now life size, big enough to hold a hundred or so people. There was a river of magma near where Jaden was standing and it was bubbling and oozing down into the bowels of the volcano. Suddenly Jaden heard a voice, from this massive mountain of fire.

"Welcome, welcome, you're the fifth victim-excuse me-contestant on, Fiery Flame's Volcano of Doom! Hello their, I'm Flame would you like to play?"

Jaden turned around quickly and he noticed a man sitting on the far side of the volcanoes. He was separated from Jaden by many rocks and rivers of lava and it seemed almost impossible to get to him. Jaden couldn't see him, because he was so far away, but Jaden could see he was wearing mostly black and his hair color is wild orange.

Jaden opened his mouth to ask Flame a few, 'questions', but Flame immediately started talking again.

"Ok then, get ready for Fiery Flame's Volcano of Doom! The rules are as follows; an obstacle course will appear in front of you, you will have to successfully make your way through it to get to me, and if you get through you can duel me. You can use your monsters throughout the obstacle course because, this is all very real."

Jaden smiled, "You're a Shadow Conqueror eh?"

Flame frowned, "What do' ya know about us?"

"Just that I've beaten a few of you."

"Oh, you're that kid, sent Clarissa home crying eh? Well in that case I'll spring the obstacle course up to Advanced."

Jaden laughed, "Do what you want; although in all of my encounters with the Shadow Conquerors I've never seen this before, bringing a piece of Shadow into reality, like an actual piece and not just shadows."

"Why thank you, and that is because I am on the counsel of Shadows. The five best Shadow Conquerors make up the Council of Shadows, and I'm number five. Well now, let the games begin."

In front of Jaden many rocks appeared. Rocks appeared everywhere, some floating in the air, and some on the ground, and some in the lava. This was his obstacle course.

Jaden stepped onto the first rock. The rocks went down the first lava river. He walked down, rock, after rock until he was halfway down the river. Then the rock beneath him fell. As Jaden fell towards the river he quickly devised a plan.

Jaden reached for his deck and put all his trust in it, and he placed a card onto his duel disk. Suddenly Elemental Hero Avion appeared and swooped down to save Jaden as he was inches away from the lava. "Avion," Jaden said. "Thanks now fly over to Flame." Avion nodded and took off, flying away from the obstacle course.

"No, no, said Flame. "If you're going to try to skip the course, you're going to be punished." Suddenly Avion was gone and Jaden was dropped to the beginning of the course. Then lava began it spill all over the place, making the only safe route through the volcano the obstacle course. Jaden reached for the top card in his deck to help him but he found that he couldn't draw; he had to do this course by himself.

Jaden walked down the river via the rocks, none of them fell and he reached solid land. The lava flowed so that there was only one path to get to the second river. Jaden walked along that path but suddenly stopped to tie his shoes, and it was a good thing he did. A river of lava flowed past where he would have been if he hadn't stopped he would have been burned to a crisp; this was all timed so closely. Jaden reached the second river and saw that a wooden bridge was the only way across.

Jaden stepped onto the bridge and it lowered under his weight, the middle part of the bridge hit the lava and began to burn. Jaden ran as fast as he could, jumping over the burning spot and made it to the other side just as the bridge burned to a crisp.

Jaden was on a small slab of rock and in front of him was the final river, then Flame. This river was the biggest and hardest to cross. It had many rocks but they were falling every two seconds and lava was shooting out of the river. Plus there was constantly rocks falling out f the sky. Jaden stepped onto one rock and jumped onto another right as that rock fell. Jaden did that and just make it to the center of the river when a giant rock came crashing down towards Jaden.

Jaden jumped to avoid the rock but slipped as he hit another rock. He was left dangling from a rock as it began to fall towards the lava.

Jaden jumped with all his might onto another rock as this one was a foot from the river, and with a few more jumps Jaded was on the other side.

"No," Flame screamed. "You were supposed to fall into the river and lose your soul, no!"

Around Jaden a cage fell, to be precise a Nightmare Steel Cage, and Jaden was trapped like a rabbit.

"Come on man, you said you'd duel me if I made it through, let me out of here."

Flame snorted and got down from where he was sitting amongst the volcano's rocks.

"Fine I'll duel you Jaden, and we'll play for five locator cards and our rarest cards, oh and in case you didn't notice this is a Shadow Game, so also our souls."

Flame flashed his Shadow Amulet at Jaden and Jaden realized that this whole Volcano was a piece of the Shadow Realm. It was like a normal one where the regular shadows surround you, except in this case the shadows were a volcano.

Jaden nodded and realized that if he won this duel, he'd have all twelve locator cards and the Battle City Finals would be his. And with that the duel was under way.

Flame: 4000

Jaden: 4000

Flame started the duel off by drawing a card and by summoning Solar Flare Dragon. A flaming demon snake with horns and fangs emerged onto the field. Jaden took the time to study Flame; he had orange, almost red hair that was sticking out in all directions. He had tight black pants and a black turtleneck sweater. He was currently admiring his new monster.

"And my monster gets a six hundred attack point boost because this is a Shadow Duel!" Solar Flare Dragon let out a blast of fire and his stats became 2100/1000.

But Jaden was ready; he took his Shadow Amulet out of his leather jacket, as Jaden noticed his sneakers were beginning to burn.

Flame began to laugh, "You can't stop me, you're not powerful enough." Flame thrust his Shadow Amulet forward and suddenly Jaden's broke into.

"Hahaha, I told you, you can't stop me." Jaden began to feel an ounce of fear, with a 600 attack bonus and without his Shadow Amulet, Jaden was in trouble.

"Now I'll end my turn Jaden, make your move."

Jaden drew but suddenly Solar Flare Dragon let out a burst of flames towards Jaden. The flames went through the bars of the cage that Jaden was in and could have burned Jaden to a crisp if he hadn't dodged in time.

Jaden's life points dropped to 3500 and he was left with a puzzled look on his face.

"You see at the end phase of my turn my Solar Flare Dragon deals you five hundred points of damage."

Jaden took this into consideration as he made his move. "I'm now going to summon Elemental Hero Burstinatrix in defense mode (1200/800)." A woman in a red leather suit with gray hair and a gold crown appeared on the field.

"I see your puny attempts to fight fire with fire; my Dragon will kill burn Burstinatrix to a crisp." Jaden ignore the comment and placed a card facedown, ending his turn.

Flames drew a card and activated a card, "I activate the trap card Backfire, so that when ever a fire monster on my side of the field is destroyed you lose five hundred life points."

"Next I'm going to summon another Solar Flare Dragon!" (2100/1000) I'll now activate Polymerization to fuse my two Solar Flare Dragon's to create, Twin Flare Dragon (2000+600 2600/1500). It was one Solar Flare Dragon's body, with two heads each one revving to go.

"And because two FIRE monsters (The Solar Flare Dragons) were destroyed you lose 1000 life points thanks to Backfire." From below Jaden two fireballs emerged and they hit Jaden's jacket as his life point's dropped to 2600. Jaden quickly took off his burning jacket and through it out of the cage into the lava river.

"And now my Twin Flare Dragon attack Burstinatrix!" Each head unleashed a massive beam of flames that took Burstinatrix out in a second. "And now I'll end my turn." Flame announced with three cards in his hand. But then Twin Flare Dragon's ability kicked in.

"My monster deals my opponent 1000 points of damage during his/her standby phase." The dragon breathed flames at Jaden that he carefully dodged, or he thought he dodged because his shoe caught fire and he threw that into the river too. Jaden had to keep his foot from touching the rock and burning. And Jaden's life points went down to 1600.

Jaden drew, giving him six cards in his hand and readied his move. "I'm now going to activate the magic card O-Over Soul, allowing me to bring back one Elemental Hero from my graveyard to my hand." In a blaze of fire Burstinatrix remerged. "And I'll activate the magic card Fusion Gate," around the duel many clouds appeared, representing Fusion Gate.

"And now I'll fuse Burstinatrix with Bubbleman to create, Elemental Hero Steam Healer (1800/1000)!" The two monsters appeared on the field and began floating into one another, and eventually into a portal in the sky. The clouds grew darker and suddenly a new monster came out, Elemental Hero Steam Healer."

The new monster was made of metal; he had silver metal wings, purple armor with red lining, and small metal claws. "And I'll equip my new Hero with the magic card, H-Heat Heart! This card gives him a five hundred attack point boost (2300/1000)!"

"And finally I'll equip him with the magic card Fusion Sword Murasame Blade, giving my monster an eight hundred attack point boost (3100/1000)," making Elemental Hero Steam Healer the strongest card on the field." Flame began to grew worried about the power of this new monster.

"Now Elemental Hero Steam Healer, attack Twin Flare Dragon!" Steam Healer let put a long blast of steam and flew up into the sky; he then swooped down and hit Twin Flare Dragon in the stomach. Twin Flare Dragon blew up and Flame lost 500 life points, bringing him down to 3500.

But then of course, Backfire kicks in. In a small explosion that set Jaden's shirt on fire Jaden lost 500 life points bringing him down to 1100. Jaden immediately put out the flames, although he was left with a big brown burn mark on his shirt.

"When you play with fire, you'll get burned." Flame commented but Jaden ignored him.

"Oh Flame, I think I forgot to mention Flame Healer's special ability, when he destroys a monster that monster's attack gets added to my life points. He destroyed your Twin Flare Dragon whom had an attack of 2600, meaning I gain 2600 life points." Jaden was now beaming as he his life points shot cleanly up to 3700; he had taken the lead by 200.

Flame was frowning but there was nothing he could do about it as Jaden ended his turn. Flame drew, giving him four cards in his hand, and smiled when he saw what he drew. "I'll just have to stall," he said to himself as he placed a card face down and ended his turn.

Jaden drew, wondering what Flame was planning but not worrying about it too much. "I'll now summon Elemental Hero Sparkman to the field in attack mode!" A monster in a gold and blue suit with sixteen-hundred attack points and one thousand-four hundred defense points appeared on the field.

"And now Sparkman, attack Flame directly." Sparkman charged up his electricity and unleashed it upon Flame, who then in part revealed his face down card. "Negate Attack, negating you attack and ending your battle phase, "he said laughing as Sparkman's attack harmlessly bounced off of an invisible shield.

Jaden ended his turn and Flame drew, laughing. "I'm now going to sacrifice your Elemental Heroes Sparkman and Steam Healer to summon my best monster!" Jaden was astounded; you weren't allowed to sacrifice other people's monsters. But it all made sense when Jaden saw Flame's most powerful monster.

Lava surrounded Jaden on all sides and the lava towered up above his head to form Flame's ultimate beast, Lava Golem. Lava Golem picked up the cage Jaden was in and brought it up to his chest. The heat intensified and Jaden had to look down and squint to see Flame.

"Meet my ultimate beast Lava Golem (3000/2500) today's prize on Fiery Flame's Volcano of Doom. But of course all of us here at Fiery Flame's are very generous, so we just decided to give Lava Golem a test run, see how much you enjoy losing 1000 life points every turn." Jaden knew perfectly well what Lava Golem did, he had versed it once before in grade school. A big rich kid name Max who was always picking on Jaden had used it against him in a duel. But Jaden sure showed him. Anyway, Jaden got full use of Lava Golem but he lost 1000 life points a turn, simple as that.

"And now Jaden I'm going to activate the continuous trap card Overdrive Overload. This card prohibits monsters with seven stars or more from attacking, in other words Lava Golem can't attack. In other words you can't benefit from Lava Golem because all he can do is make you lose life points!"

"He can still defend," Jaden responded.

"So what, that's nothing to be too proud of, he'll be the death of you." And with that Flame ended his turn.

As Jaden was about to draw a glob of lava narrowly missed Jaden, bringing his life points down to 2700. Jaden drew and smiled so brightly that his teeth lit up the cave. "First of all I'm going to summon Elemental Hero Clayman (800/2000) to the field in attack mode!" A big monster made out of Clay spheres appeared on the field with a red dot for a head.

"And I'll activate the magic card R-Right Justice! For each Elemental Hero on the field a can destroy that many magic/trap cards. I have one Elemental Hero on the field (Clayman) so I can destroy one card. I choose to destroy Overdrive Overload!" Clayman ran forward and smashed the trap card to pieces.

"Now Clayman attack Flame directly!" Clayman ran forward again and punched Flame in the stomach, knocking the wind out of him and sending him flying.

"Now, Lava Golem attack!" Lava Golem roared and raised his two big arms. He then brought them smashing down upon Flame who began to burn. Flame's life points dropped to zero making the final score 2700 to 0.

Lava Golem disappeared and Jaden was brought back to ground level. Flame's Shadow Amulet began to glow against his screams. Flame chucked it into the river of lava with his last ounce of might but it still succeeded in capturing his soul.

Jaden approached Flame's lifeless body as the volcano began to disperse, leaving them on the streets of Domino. Jaden retrieved Lava Golem and five locator cards from Flame's pocket, giving hm a grand total of twelve locator cards! Battle City here he comes!

Jaden left his house with a change of clothes (All his clothes had been at least partially burned from the duel). He was now wearing a red leather jacket with a black T-shirt and pants. He had on new white sneakers and sat down at a nearby bench to try to get the locator cards to reveal the location of the Battle City Finals.

Jaden put the cards in all kinds of positions on the duel disk but nothing seemed to work. After half an hour he gave up and just stacked them up and put them on his lap.

But suddenly the locator cards began to glow, that was it. The trick was to stack the cards on top of each other. The cards projected a holographic image of Kaiba in his famous white jacket.

"Congratulations duelist, you have obtained twelve locator cards. Now your goal I'm sure is to make it to the Battle City Finals. You can only compete in the finals if you make it there before eight duelists do, so make haste. The location of the finals is…" Kaiba stepped aside to reveal a coliseum, "The new Kaiba Corp. Duel Monsters Coliseum! Located on the south side of Domino at Main and 98th street." Jaden looked up; he was all the way down at Main and 20th street.

The hologram stopped and Jaden ran to Domino Park where his bike was parked, he was on his way to the Battle City Finals!


Next time on Battle City GX…

As Jaden makes his way to the finals Chazz is still searching for a few more locator cards. He bumps into Professor Banner and together they bump into two Shadow Conquerors. Unaware as to whom the Shadow Conquerors are they find themselves in a Shadow Duel fighting for their souls. But not just any Shadow Duel, a Double Duel Shadow Duel. Jaden and Banner vs. No. 4 and No. 3, members of the Shadow Council like Flame. Will Chazz and Banner be able to work together or will 4 and 3 rip them to shreds. The ending is going to be a surprise or your money back (Guaranteed!) Next time on Yugioh…

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