Ham Man: As you know, I don't Yu-Gi-Oh, one comes before two, comes before sixty, comes after twelve, comes before six trillion, comes after five hundred and four, and that T is the 20th letter of the English alphabet.


Chapter 11: A Rival Appears - Part 4

Hayato had just finished his turn, having set a monster a set card, three cards in his hand and 1800 life points, while his opponent Bruno had a face up Scrap Golem (2300/1400), a face down Scrap Iron Scarecrow, one card in his hand and 3700 life points.

'I hope he falls for my trap," Hayato thought, as Bruno drew his card and assessed his options. "When he summons Scrap Searcher to my field, I can use my Icarus Attack to blow up his Golem and facedown."

"My turn," Bruno announced, "And I'll start by using my Golem's effect to summon Scrap Searcher (100/300) back to your side of the field," Scrap Golem opened up its door again, allowing Scrap Searcher to fly out over to Hayato's side of the field.

Hayato grinned.

"Why is he giving Hayato his monster?" Tamaki asked.

"Haven't you been paying attention?" Hiro replied, "He's giving himself an attack target, and with Hayato having 1800 points left, if this attack connects, it's all over."

"Well that's why I'm not going to let that happen," Hayato smiled, as his trap flipped up, "Icarus Attack," he explained, "By tributing a Winged Beast monster, such as the one you just gave me, I can destroy two cards on the field, such as your Scrap Golem and face down!"

Bruno frowned as his own Scrap Searcher became encased in a red aura, and flew toward Scrap Golem, breaking through the golem's body and straight into his face down Scrap Iron Scarecrow. Both monsters and the trap card exploded in a massive shower of pixels and scrap metal.

"Well it looks like one of them isn't as incompetent as I thought," William smiled, as Hiro and Sora glared at him.

"That's what I get for using the same strategy twice," sighed Bruno, "I'll set one monster face down and end my turn." A face down monster appeared in front of Bruno.

"Well that went well," Kaito said sarcastically.

"Well don't count my brother out yet," Sakura brightly replied. "He's still got twice as many life points, and they have the same fields; one face down monster."

"But Hayato has more cards in his hand, three - soon to be four," Kaito replied, "There's no point in having a large amount of life points and nothing to defend them with."

"I suppose you're right," Sakura agreed, "but Bruno does have a card in his hand, and a face down monster."

Kaito sighed and stared at the ceiling, "I guess there's no stopping her optimism."

"My turn," Hayato announced, drawing his card. "Dragunity Militum, I might be able to use her later, but for now…" Hayato grabbed the face down monster, and flipped it face up, "I flip summon my Flying Kamakiri #1 (1400/900)."

Hayato's card flipped over, revealing a large green insect-creature, complete with four paper-thin wings, multiple arms with long green claws at the tips, and two large, orange bug-eyes taking up most of its face.

"That thing is creepy," Tamaki whined, as he hid behind Hiro.

"And now I normal summon Dragunity Aklys (1000/800)," Hayato continued.

A slim red dragon with wings attached to its head, and silver amour covering its body, and a spiked horn above its head, appeared in from of Hayato.

"And thanks to Aklys," Hayato continued, "I can special summon another Dragunity monster from my hand, and then equip Aklys to it. And I chose my Dragunity Angusticlavii (2100/1000)!"

A bow-wielding man with an orange and blue beak-shaped helmet, artificial dragon wings of similar colouring and very light armour, appeared on the field. The man then jumped onto Aklys, drawing his own bow.

"Now Flying Kamakiri," Hayato ordered, "attack Bruno's face down monster!"

Flying Kamakiri lunged forward, slashing Bruno's facedown monster with its claws. The facedown monster was revealed to be a small creature made from a discarded camera for a body, a bathroom tap for a head, and several other small items for other parts of its body. Somehow the small creature managed to endure the attack.

"What?" Hayato cried, "You're monster should be toast!"

"My monster is Scrap Goblin (0/500)," Bruno explained. "And it can't be destroyed by battle but…"

"Well your monster may be untouchable, but you're not!" Hayato replied, cutting Bruno off. "Angusticlavii attack! Piercing Bow!"

"Piercing!" gasped Bruno. "Oh crap, I forgot about its effect!'

"What's piercing?" Tamaki asked.

"You don't know what piercing is?" Sora replied in shock.

"That's right," Hayato smiled, "While Angusticlavii is equipped with a Dragunity monster, when he attacks a monster with a lower defence than his own attack, the difference is dealt to the opponent as damage."

"Oh so piercing is like my Fairy Meteor Crush," Tamaki summarised.

"Yes like that…" Sora groaned, "Amateur…"

Angusticlavii launched an arrow from its bow, hitting Scrap Goblin square in the chest, shattering the camera lens.

(Bruno: 3700-2100)

"Woah!" Hiro cheered, "That's a lot of damage."

"They're almost equal now." Tamaki added.

"Yeah, and when next turn comes he can do it all again!" Sora noted.

"Don't count on it," William warned, "Bruno is one of the best duellists of this generation, he's not going to slip through the cracks and fall behind anytime soon."

"Yeah, well we'll see about that," Hayato replied, "I'll end my turn there."

"Well before you do that," Bruno interrupted, as Scrap Goblin fell apart. "Scrap Goblin's effect destroys itself as it was attacked while in defence position. "And now since a Scrap monster was destroyed, I can special summon Scrap Searcher from my graveyard."

A hole in the ground opened up where Scrap Goblin used to stand, Scrap Searcher then flew out through the hole, and hovered above the ground in front of Bruno.

'Fine then I'll end my turn," Hayato replied.

'And now it's my final move!" Bruno announced. "If I can draw a spell or trap card that is."

"Final turn!" Hayato gasped.

'Draw!' He drew his card, Scrap Kong (2000/1000), "Damn it," Bruno grabbed the other card in his hand. "I'll summon Scrap Chimera (1700/500)."

A beast constructed out scrap metal, with the head of a lion, the wings of a bird and a snake head tail, flew over Hayato's head, and landed swiftly next to Scrap Searcher. Then another hole, similar to the one formed after Scrap Goblin was destroyed, but this time, Scrap Beast climbed out of the hole.

"When Scrap Chimera is normal summoned," Bruno explained, "I can special summon one Scrap Tuner from my graveyard, and I chose Scrap Beast (1600/1300). Now I tune my level four Scrap Beast with my level four Scrap Chimera to Synchro Summon the level eight Scrap Dragon (2800/2000)!"

Beast howled as it faded away into four Synchro rings, while Chimera extended its metal wings and flew into the air. The four Synchro rings then enclosed the metal hybrid, as it disappeared into four small shiny orbs. Then, a large column of light blasted through the rings.

Then, when the light faded, a large metal dragon appeared, with large scrap-tin wings extending out from its body, two red lights lit up on the dragon's head, mimicking eyes.

"Aah!" Tamaki cried, "Remind me to start recycling!"

"It… It looks like it belongs in a dump," Hiro noted.

"Scrap Dragon, Hiro," Sora sighed.

"Now Scrap Dragon squash that bug!" ordered Bruno. "Scrap Hurricane!"

Scrap Dragon let out a roar, which sounded more like metal rubbing together than anything else, before leaping into the air, and beating its massive wings. The beat of the dragon's wing caused a rush of air to blow Flying Kamakiri into the wall, shattering on impact.

(Hayato: 1800-400)

Hayato was knocked down by the gust. Panting he slowly got back up to his feet.

"He's only got 400 Life Points left," Tamaki panicked, covering his eyes with his hands. "I can't watch."

"When Flying Kamakiri #1 is destroyed by battle, I can summon a WIND monster from my deck, as long as it has 1500 attack or less. And I choose Dragunity Legionnaire (1200/800)."

A muscled man dressed in a light blue tunic, with large golden gauntlets and green wings and beak shaped helmet, appeared on the field in Flying Kamakiri #1's place.

"Brilliant!" Hiro smiled, "Dragunity Legionnaire can send a Dragunity monster from the spell and trap card zone to the graveyard to destroy one of Bruno's monsters, and if Aklys is sent to the graveyard it can destroy a card on the field!"

"Well that's not going to happen, because now I use Scrap Dragon's special ability," Bruno announced, throwing his arm in front of body, "Once per turn, I can target one card I control, like my Scrap Searcher, and one card you control, like Angusticlavii!"

"Crap!" Hayato's jaw dropped, as Scrap Dragon let out a massive screech, everybody covered their ears as both Scrap Searcher and Angusticlavii, and by extension Aklys, shattered into golden pixels.

"And now, since Aklys was sent to the graveyard, Scrap Dragon can be destroyed," Tamaki cheered, peeking through his hands.

"Ahh… no," Sora replied, "Aklys effect only works if it is sent to the graveyard while it's still equipped to the monster, if the monster it's equipped to is destroyed first, the effect doesn't work."

"Ugh…" Tamaki groaned, "No wonder people hate this game…"

"I'll end my turn there," Bruno smiled, as he fiddled with the last card in his hand.

"Well, it's now or never," Hayato whispered to himself, as he drew his card.

"Down to the last draw," Kaito smiled, "how many times does that happen?"

"A lot," Sakura answered, "It happens a lot."

"Come on Hayato," Hiro cheered under his breath, "You can do it!"

"My turn!" Hayato announced, as he drew his card. "Give me something good." He flipped his card over, Angel Baton. "I activate the spell card Angel Baton," which lets me draw two cards, but then I have to discard one card from my hand."

"We all know what that card does," William frowned, before turning to Tamaki, 'well everyone except…"

"I didn't," Tamaki nervously answered.

Hayato drew the top two cards of his deck, Dragon Mastery and Dragunity Arma Leyvaten (2600/1200), "I can't believe my luck," he smiled as he slipped his Monster Reincarnation into the graveyard. "I'll summon Dragunity Militum (1700/1200)."

A female warrior, armed with a short sword and dagger, she had green metallic wings attached to her armour and a green helmet over her long hair, appeared on the field, followed by a spell card behind her.

"Now I activate the spell Dragon Mastery, which allows me to equip a Dragunity monster from my hand to a monster I control, and in addition to that any monster that is equipped with a Dragunity monster gains 500 attack!"

"Now he can use that to equip a monster to Legionnaire," William thought, "And then he'll use his effect to destroy my Scrap Dragon, which will trigger its effect and allow me to revive my Scrap Golem. Then next turn I'll use its effect to finish him off."

"And now I use my spell card's effect to equip Militum with Dragunity Arma Leyvaten (2600/1200) from my hand." Hayato continued.

A large orange and black dragon, with two sets of wings, a larger feathered pair on its upper back, and a smaller bat-like pair lower down. The dragon wielded a large sword, and had… Militum standing on its shoulder, stroking its head. The large dragon could only let out an annoyed yet embarrassed growl. (Militum: 1700-2200)

"That's it," Bruno thought, "Now use Legionnaire's effect."

Hayato held his hand out in front of him. "And now I use my… Militum's effect, special summoning Dragunity Arma Leyvaten from my spell and trap card zone!"

"He didn't use its effect!" Bruno gasped.

Leyvaten flicked Militum off its shoulder with one flick of its claw, the large dragon then stepped forward, almost crushing Legionnaire.

"And since Dragunity Arma Leyvaten was special summoned, I can equip my Dragunity Brandistock from my graveyard to it."

A small blue, spear horned dragon appeared at Leyvaten's feet, the larger orange dragon then growled impatiently and nudged the smaller blue dragon away with the blunt edge of its sword. (Leyvaten: 2600-3100)

"And since he has Dragon Mastery on the field, his monster will gain 500 attack!" Sora added, "meaning that it'll be stronger than Scrap Dragon!"

"Now lets go," Hayato ordered, swinging his arm over his head and pointing dramatically at Bruno. "Make scrap of Scrap Dragon. Storm Blade! "

Leyvaten roared as it leaped to the air and flapped its feathery wings. With Scrap Dragon in its eyes, the dragon raised its sword above its head, and with one quick motion brought it to the ground, slicing straight through Scrap Dragon, letting the metal monster fall to pieces.

(Bruno: 2100-1800)

"And now, thanks to Brandistock's special ability, I can allow my Leyvaten to attack once again!" Hayato continued.

Leyvaten swung around in a quick circle, striking Bruno with its sword and sending up a cloud of virtual dust.

"Alright I did it!" Hayato cheered, "I can't believe I just did that, I beat the son of the greatest duellists of all time!"

"Don't count on it," Bruno replied, as the dust cleared. He was completely unharmed from Leyvaten's attack, having the sword stopped less than a metre from his body, by a small creature with a upside down frying pan on its head.

"Scrap Goblin?" Hayato gasped, "But where did it come from?"

"When Scrap Dragon is destroyed, either by battle or card effect," Bruno explained, "It allows me to special summon one non-synchro scrap monster from my graveyard. In this case I special summoned Scrap Goblin in defence position, which as you know, can't be destroyed by battle."

"I also know that it destroys itself at then end of the battle phase," Hayato half-heartedly replied, as the small creature holding Leyvaten's sword still fell apart, but the dragon was unable to continue its assault. "I guess I switch Legionnaire to defence position and end my turn." Legionnaire moved to a more defensive position, crouching down with his arms crossed.

"Damn, he was so close," sighed Sora.

"Yeah I could just imagine the smile on his face when he does win," Hiro agreed.

"Oh and I almost forgot," Bruno explained, as he grabbed a card from his graveyard. "When Scrap Goblin is destroyed by the effect of a Scrap monster, in this case his own. I'm allowed to add one scrap monster from my graveyard to my hand. And in this case I choose Scrap Golem!"

"Ah!" Tamaki wheezed, "He's got that stupid Golem back!"

"But he's got no way to summon it!" Hiro added.

"Unless he draws the right card," Sakura replied. "You should really back up the person who you think is going to win."

"We don't want him to win!" Sora and Hiro yelled back.

"Well that's not very nice…" Sakura quietly replied, as she turned back to the duel, Sora and Hiro almost face-faulted.

"My turn!" Bruno announced, "Draw!" He looked over his drawn card, Card Destruction, then to his near useless Scrap Kong and Scrap Golem. "I activate spell card, Card Destruction, which lets us both send our hands to the graveyard and draw an equal number of cards that we discarded. But… because you don't have any cards, you draw nothing." Bruno slipped his two other cards into the graveyard and then drew two more.

"Man he must've had a bad hand if he used Card Destruction on just his two cards," Hayato thought. "I guess he was hoping for something that could summon Scrap Golem from his hand."

"Now I'll show you my true power, not the 'Son of the legendary Yusei Fudo's' power," Bruno announced.

"What's he on about?" Hayato asked.

"This!" Bruno replied, a tone of disdain in his voice. "First off, I'll summon Milus Radiant (300/250)."

A hole appeared in the ground, then a brown hairy dog with a small horn on the top of its head, and a round jewel lodged in its forehead, dug its way out of the hole and onto the field.

"300 attack?" Tamaki laughed, "That's not very much."

"Who would have a Milus Radiant in a Scrap deck anyway?"

"Actually, Hayato is now at a major disadvantage," Sora corrected the boys.

"Oh yeah, I forgot about its effects!" Hiro gasped, gritting his teeth together.

"Effects?" Tamaki began to panic, "what effects?"

"As you and Kaito said before, 'weak monsters should not be underestimated'. William explained, "While Milus Radiant is face up on the field, all Earth attribute monsters on the field gain 500 attack, while all Wind monsters lose 400."

"What!" Tamaki gasped, "But Hayato's monsters are all Wind attributes!"

Surely enough, as the group was discussing Milus Radiant's effect, the small dog leaped into the air. It landed with a large crash, sending up chunks of the floor into the air, where a strange power broke them into smaller pieces, and those pieces into smaller pieces, and so on until there was little more than dust in the air.

"Is that all?" Hayato confidently asked.

"No!" Bruno replied. The dust Milus Radiant's powers had created began to blow around in a sandstorm, battering all three of Hayato's monsters, and everyone else in the room whilst the dog creature seemed to enjoy its new environment. (Legionnaire: 1200-800/ Militum: 1700-1300/ Leyvaten: 3100-2700/ Milus Radiant: 300-800)

"Only 800 attack?" Sora teased, while protecting her face from the sandstorm. "Still not much of a threat, my brother can still take you on! I expected better from someone like you."

"Yeah," Hayato agreed, "Even with my monsters weakened, your monster can only tie with Legionnaire's defence! To think the son of the King of Turbo Duels misplayed!"

"Yeah Hayato is definitely going to take you out next turn," Hiro added. "That'll prove that our duel club is the best! Who cares if it's run by the children of the Signers, ours will still be better!"

William and Sakura, both gave an unnerved glare at the group.

"Oh boy," Kaito sighed, "They've done it now."

With one statement, Bruno made the whole room quiet, at least for a second. "I activate the spell card, Monster Reborn."

A circle of symbols appeared the floor, the circle slowly rotated and glowed white, as Bruno's Scrap Dragon emerged from it.

"Shit," Hayato swore, as the large metal dragon extended its wings and roared.

"And since Scrap Dragon is an Earth attribute monster, it gains 500 attack from Milus Radiant's effect." Bruno explained. (2800-3300) "And now! Scrap Dragon, attack Dragunity Arma Leyvaten! Super Scrap Rage!

Scrap Dragon made another loud screech, as it leaped into the air. The dragon flapped its metal wings furiously, gathering a large ball of wind and sand in front of it. The dragon then launched the wind ball with one flick of its wings.

Hayato could only watch as his favourite monster was engulfed by the massive attack, he fell to his knees as orange pixels dropped out of the ball, and his life points dropped down to zero.

(Hayato: 400-0)

The virtual sandstorm and the remaining cards on the field faded, "Damn it," Hayato cursed, "How could I lose like that?"

"Now do you see that I'm not just 'the son of Yusei,'." Bruno announced. "I am nothing like him." Bruno announced.

"Bruno, stop." Sakura ordered, a new, stern tone in her voice.

Bruno stopped talking, and marched past his sister, and out the doorway. "I'll be in the back room."

'Bruno, come back!" Sakura called, following her brother out of the room.

"Well…" Kaito nervously waved, as he left the room. "I've got to go… someplace… because… I have… things… to… do…"

"Ugh…" Hayato groaned to himself, "That was humiliating."

"Hey that was quite an impressive game," Tamaki noted.

"Compared to your effort, it was." William added.

"Oh shut your face, you thief!" Sora spat.

"Oh well it looks like someone's back to being a little b… brat," William replied, placing his hand in his pocket.

"Yeah well this little brat has two fists and I'm not afraid to use them!" Sora retorted, as she moved her stance to what looked like a typical karate stance.

"Get him beautiful Sora!" Tamaki cheered.

"Oh please!" William chuckled, "you don't know karate! That's not even the right kind of stance! You'd be on the floor in an instance if I took you on!"

Meanwhile Hiro was helping Hayato to his feet. Hayato was fairly despondent.

"Hey, Hayato. Dude," Hiro nudged Hayato's shoulder, "That was awesome duel, you almost had him beat, like when you used his monster with Icarus Attack, or when you summoned Leyvaten."

"I guess it was a good duel," Hayato sighed, he began to make his way to the doorway, before turning to his friends "Come on guys, lets leave." He then turned to William, "We're sorry for intruding, please forgive us." And then continued out of the room, with the rest of the group not far behind.

When the four of them were gone, William took his hand out of his pocket, along with two cards; Lightpulsar Dragon and Darkflare Dragon, "Was I right to keep these cards? All his other cards were destroyed by that crash. But not these two weren't, I feel that there's something about these cards, something I don't understand, but what?"


Meanwhile, in the back room.

"What was that?" Sakura asked, as she stood over her moping brother, who was sitting on the floor, hunched against a bookshelf.

"I… I… don't…" Bruno started to reply, but changed his mind. "We both know what that was! I know we're both sick of that 'hey look it's the Signer's kids!' crap, I'm sick of living in the shadow of my father, the one that we never see anymore, and you are too."

"I know," Sakura replied, sitting down next to her brother, almost in tears, "but Dad has a job to do, Momentum is still a work in progress, that's what Mum says. Dad needs to work at it constantly, to protect us and the future."

"I know," Bruno sighed, placing his arm around his sister. "We just need to stay strong, because one day we can be a happy family again…"


Author's Notes: Sorry for the late update, I have been busy, and a bit lazy.

It was originally planned for Hayato to win against Bruno. But I decided against it, because it would help toward Hayato's character development in the long run.

I'm not going to go into detail – yet – about Yusei and Akiza's strained relationship with Bruno and Sakura, but as 'yet' implied that will become very important later.