Author's Note: And now for a return to our regularly scheduled program. No wait…that's not it….

Chapter Thirty-Six: Revival! Return to Duelist Academy!

Mizuki sighed as she shifted her bag onto her right shoulder, feeling the weight of the papers and books inside digging down. Somehow her teaching a class had lost some of its interest after she had seen what happened to Aya. 'Something about Envy just seems strange, abnormal, and the same for Saint.'

"What I wouldn't give for a friendly face." She sighed out loud, but stopped when she heard the snapping of a twig. She spun around and stopped dead.

"Do I qualify?" Mizuki could no longer tell if her heart was beating. Staring right back at her was a face she easily recognized; only she hadn't seen it in many months.

Standing just a dozen feet away, wearing what looked like a deep crimson Academy uniform was none other than Janice. "What's wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost."

"Janice? But…I thought you went home to America after everything that happened last year…what are you doing here?" The dark skinned girl shrugged her shoulders and placed her hands on her hips, looking a bit uncomfortable.

"I honestly didn't want to come back to Duelist Academy after what had happened, so I transferred Academies. I'm now a student at East School Duel Academy and unfortunately I'm here at the behest of one of the Tsar of East School." Mizuki blinked rapidly, trying to absorb that flood of information.

"I don't get it, I mean, not the part about who sent you. I know East School has a Tsar, Duelist Academy has a Kaiser, and North Academy has a King, and so on. What I'm asking is why you were sent." Janice sighed and looked away slightly, fiddling with the DD6 strapped to her left arm.

"Sorry, but I can't tell you that, that's what he told me. It was good to see you again Mizuki, even if for just a minute…but I can't stay. I've got to deal with things here, and then I'll be leaving back to East School." She turned and without uttering another word walked away.

Mizuki stared at her retreating back and then began to run full speed, pulling out her PDA as she ran. 'They've got to know about this! This is a huge occurrence!'

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The moment he had received Mizuki's message on his PDA Sanzo had gone in the wrong direction. Instead of racing to meet her and the others outside the abandoned dorm he went for one of the other Obelisk Blue rooms, the special V.I.P. room.

Before he even managed to knock the door slung open and he was confronted by a teen slightly older than he was. The man had messy and greasy black hair that hung limply nearly to his shoulders, and was nearly six feet tall. He was also wearing the grey uniform that Envy had worn, except it had a yellow-gold armband on the left upper arm. "What do you want hero dork?"

Sanzo was taken aback by the greeting, but he pressed on anyways. "I want to speak with Saint right now. About…several important matters."

The older teen shorted and without any tact he stuck a finger in his left ear and wiggled it around, looking bored the whole time. "Well the name's Greed, and I'm not letting you by unless you've got something to offer me in exchange."

There was a familiar warm laugh from within the room, and suddenly Saint was standing behind Greed, a handful of inches taller than the younger man. "Now Greed, what have I told you about trying to extort my guests?"

Greed rolled his eyes and walked back into the room, ignoring Saint's comment. Sanzo glared after the teen, automatically disliking him. "Oh pay him no mind Sanzo; he's just an uncouth vagrant. Not a hero of the likes of you or I. Don't you agree?"

Saint stepped aside and gestured for Sanzo to enter. The Hero Saint did so, following the taller man into the room. There he was unsurprised to see Greed and none other than Janice in the room. "I was expecting to find you here."

Janice jumped to her feet, looking startled. "Sanzo! What are you doing here?"

Again Saint deflated the situation by laughing and placing a cool hand on Sanzo's shoulder, placating him. "She's here as a guest. An acquaintance of mine, the Tsar of East School, sent her to me in order to let me see her strength. He said "Pick out whoever you want to test, and see how she handles them."

Sanzo raised an eyebrow, surprised that somebody from an entirely different dueling school would be trying to get somebody else recruited into the Saint Corporation. "Did you agree?"

Saint smiled and nodded, motioning with his free right hand to the seated Greed, who still looked bored. "Of course, it was a favor to a friend. I was just making the arrangements for Janice here to duel my pro duelist Greed, one of the other Seven Sins."

The Hero Saint looked between the three others in the room, and then stepped past Saint. "I demand to duel Janice in Greed's place."

The older man raised an eyebrow, looking pleased and amused. "Eager to show me your growth after all these years? I've already told you that you stand amongst my"

He was cut off by a sharp look from Sanzo, so he merely smiled. "I thought that might be why you were here. Recruiting for your corporation you said. No, you're recruiting for six more, that I'm sure of. And here…I stand to face Janice to find out exactly why she's back, without any half-assed reasons like she was sent here by the Tsar."

Janice started to open her mouth to protest but was silenced by a wave of the hand from Saint and a smile as well. "No, that's perfectly fine. I'd enjoy seeing you both duel each other, so why not come with me down to the field and we'll see exactly what happens."

Because it was Saint's way to have people follow what he said it was less than surprising when Janice and Sanzo both followed him as he left. Greed just flopped down on the bed and pulled out a comic book, then flipped it open. "Sheesh, if I ain't getting anything out of this I'm not gonna bother."

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Fifteen minutes later Janice and Sanzo had found themselves out on one of the many open fields of the island with their duel disks at the ready. Saint stood off to the side, watching with an open smile on his face. He raised one hand and then casually brought it down. "Duel." (JLP: 4000) (SLP: 4000)

Janice drew from her deck harshly, a cold look in her eyes. "Sanzo, you're dueling me for some stupid reason again, and even though I think it's dumb for me to fight just because you don't believe me, I'll still prove my strength to Saint and to you! If I were still at Duelist Academy I'd show you that I'm just as strong as any Obelisk Blue, if not stronger!"

She slammed one card from her hand into her duel disk and began to explain as it appeared on the field. It was a magic card that depicted a man hunched over a table drawing designs of huge robots. "Mecha Designer is my magic card, and it lets me discard machine sub-types from my hand to add machine sub-types from my deck to my hand."

Without pause she held up three cards from her hand. "I discard Cyber Wolf, Cyber Goblin, and Cyber Giraffe to the cemetery in order to add three machine sub-types to my hand."

Three cards popped out of her deck from various places, one of them near the top, another fairly close to it, and the third all the way at the bottom. "The cards I've chosen are my three Cyber Dragons, the cornerstones of my deck!"

Sanzo braced himself, feeling as if he knew what was coming. 'So already she's going to summon out her ultimate monster. She is stronger than I would have guessed.'

Janice took one of the two cards that wasn't a Cyber Dragon and slid it into her disk. "Next I'll activate the magic card Fusion Life. This continuous magic card absorbs the attack points of any monsters used in a fusion, and when that fusion is successful it is destroyed and I gain the total attack points of all fusion components as life points. Then if the fusion monster required more than two monsters I gain an additional two thousand!"

This part Sanzo hadn't been expecting. 'That's a really rare card…I had to use my contacts with Saint to get one. Did she get it from Tobias last year?'

Her eyes were filled with determination as she held out the last four cards in her hand, three of which were the Cyber Dragons. "Its time for me to show you the power I've gained with the power of an all out rush with Cyber Dragons! Go, Power Bond!"

Sanzo grimaced as the three mechanical serpentine dragons were pulled into a swirling vortex. 'Damn…Power Bond is a fusion for machines that doubles the attack power of the summoned fusion monster.'

A tremendous three-headed machine dragon floated down onto the field and spread out its wide wings, roaring. "Power Bond's effect now doubles the attack of Cyber End Dragon (4000/2800) giving it a total of eight thousand!"

Janice's continuous magic card shook and then exploded, raining glittering dust down all over her field. "Since I completed a successful fusion summon my Fusion Life card now grants me the total attack of the fusion components as life points. And with the two thousand bonus that's eighty-three hundred!" (JLP: 12300)

Sanzo couldn't help but be impressed. 'She's skilled. Using Fusion Life gained her a huge advantage in life points, and she's using that to get around Power Bond's side effect which will deal her the original attack of the fusion summoned monster as damage during her end phase. Under normal circumstances four thousand damage would have ended her, but now she's safe!'

The East School student clenched her empty right hand into a fist as her body was covered by a red light. "I end my turn, and now I take four thousand damage from Power Bond's side effect!" (JLP: 8300)

Once the red light faded she glared at Sanzo and planted her left hand on her hip. "What do you think of that hero boy? Impressive enough for you or do you not believe me that it happened?"

He frowned and placed two fingers on the top card of his deck. 'She's much more aggressive than she was last year. Something unusual is going on here…and you know what it is, don't you Saint?'

When he shot a glance Saint's way the blonde man merely smiled as if he were perfectly innocent. "I draw!"

He fanned out his hand and registered the cards that were in it within that brief moment, and then he looked back up at Janice. "I'll respond to your impressive play by attacking with my full strength! I'll dig the truth out of this situation and defeat you at the same time!"

Without waiting for a reaction he slapped down his first card and a blue armored superhero appeared on the field, striking a dramatic pose. "Elemental Hero Bubbleman (800/1200), when summoned, lets me draw two cards if it's the only card on my field!"

He drew two cards and saw that one of them was another monster, while the second card was a trap. "Janice, prepare yourself! I activate my magic card, Super Fusion!"

Saint smiled faintly as a huge vortex of blue energy appeared in front of Sanzo. 'Ah, Super Fusion. How fitting considering I was the one who gave him that card…'

Sanzo snapped two cards up out of his hand and showed them to Janice. "Super Fusion acts like Polymerization, or rather it acts like a universal Power Bond! So I fuse Bubbleman with Featherman (1000/1000) and Sparkman (1600/1400) from my hand!"

All three monsters were sucked into the vortex, and then it closed in on itself. Finally there was a flash of blue light and a tall and muscular hero in green and blue floated out. He had expansive wings, a helmet, and his right arm was a gun. "With doubled power, here is Elemental Hero Tempester (5600/2800)!"

Janice's surprise faded and she laughed. "Even though you've got a card that can match Power Bond you certainly can't produce a fusion with that deck which can match the eight thousand attack points of my Cyber End Dragon!"

Saint continued to smile, watching both duelists carefully. 'You've sent me an interesting duelist my friend, however this one can't match my pupil. I'm curious to see your next move Sanzo. With your reckless and straightforward dueling style, I'm certain it will be interesting.'

Sanzo placed one card into his disk, causing it to appear face down behind Tempester. "Tempester is now going to attack Cyber End Dragon!"

The dark skinned girl shrugged and pointed at the oncoming hero with one finger. "Cyber End Dragon, counter-attack and wipe that stupid hero out!"

All three mouths opened wide and a triple blast of blue energy exploded from their jaws. All that energy came pouring towards Tempester, but suddenly the super hero began to glow as Sanzo's face down card shattered. "By sacrificing a magic or trap card on my field Tempester can prevent his destruction during this turn!"

Suddenly the faint glow that had surrounded Tempester erupted into a burning red aura and he flew straight into the air, avoiding the energy blast completely. "The card I sacrificed was Tempest Vortex! When this trap goes to the cemetery all damage to my field for the turn is negated, however if it went to the grave through Tempester's effect his attack now becomes a direct one!"

Janice gasped as Tempester flew straight over her Cyber End Dragon and dropped down in front of her, gun hand extended to point directly at her. "Tempester, attack her now! Chaos Tempest!"

His opponent screamed as a burst of energy engulfed her, burning a huge chunk out of her life points. She shuddered and nearly fell to her knees, but managed to catch herself in time. "That was quite a move Sanzo…" (JLP: 2700)

Saint chuckled at the determined look on his former apprentice's face. 'Such a wonderful move. To be expected of a Hero Saint.'

"I set two cards face down and end my turn, activating Super Fusion's side effect, dealing me twenty-eight hundred damage!" The aura around Tempester faded, and then a blue aura burned around Sanzo, draining him of almost all of his life points. (SLP: 1200)

Janice drew for her turn, and then held up the drawn card. "Activate magic card, Renewal of Triplets! When I have three copies of the same monster in my cemetery they are all special summoned! Come out my Cyber Dragons (2100/1600 X3)!"

Then she raised her right hand and thrust it out towards Tempester. "He may be tougher, but he's still going to fall right now! Evolution Annihilation Burst!"

Cyber End Dragon opened its mouth and shot out a huge wave of energy just like before, only this time with an entirely different effect. "Since sacrificing a card wouldn't negate the damage I'll just chain with Defusion!"

Tempester split apart and the energy blast sailed right through the area he had been occupied and then exploded about a dozen feet behind Sanzo. "Defusion lets me return my fusion to my fusion deck and special summon the components back to the field, so all are here in defense mode!"

His three heroes all appeared in crouched positions, even though it was going to be in vain. Janice laughed and snapped her fingers together. At the same time her three machines opened up their mouths and powered up attacks. "Cyber Dragons, attack together with Triple Evolution Burst!"

Three separate bursts of energy shot from their mouths, each one striking an individual Elemental Hero. But the destruction was the same and in mere seconds Sanzo's field had been emptied of heroes. "Pathetic, all of that for nothing."

Sanzo responded by pointing with his left hand to his remaining set. "Not nothing, they've got back-up! Reverse card open, Hero's Rule #2-Defense of Life! I can now special summon level four or lower heroes from my deck equal to the total number of monsters on my field destroyed so far this turn. That's three!"

Three separate cards were spat out of his deck and he placed them down onto his duel disk. "I special summon Elemental Hero Clayman (800/2000), Elemental Hero Burst Lady (1200/800) and Elemental Hero Wildman (1500/1600) all in defense mode!"

A brown rock-like hero, a lithe red-suited female hero, and a wild barbarian all appeared crouching down on Sanzo's field. Janice shrugged and placed her hands on her hips. "Those wimps won't stand against my Cyber Dragons, so I'll just end my turn."

Sanzo drew calmly, getting a look at a trap card. He placed it next to his remaining card, then took that last card and flipped it around. "I activate the card I withheld last turn, Polymerization! I fuse together Clayman and Burst Lady to form Elemental Hero Rampart Gunner (2000/2500) in defense mode!"

His two monsters warped together, creating a blocky looking hero in clay brown and red, wielding a shield in one hand and a hand that appeared to be a multiple rocket launcher as the other. "While in defense mode this monster can attack the opponent directly for half damage, so here it comes!"

Janice winced as the super hero fired a barrage of mini-missiles at her. They exploded all around her, buffeting her about and knocking her life points down. "Dang cheap hero…" (JLP: 1700)

The Hero Saint threw the card he had drawn this turn into his duel disk causing it to be appeared between his two monsters. "One card face down, and then I conclude my turn."

Now it was Janice's turn and she glanced at the card indifferently before pointing at Rampart Gunner. "Take care of that eyesore and knock out the rest of his life points now Cyber End Dragon. Evolution Annihilation Burst!"

"Open set card, Hero Barrier! When I have an Elemental Hero in play I can negate one attack this turn!" The huge attack fizzled out in mid-air, halted from striking Sanzo's fusion hero.

Janice scowled when she realized that her remaining monsters couldn't break the defense of Sanzo's fusion. "Fine, one Cyber Dragon will slay Wildman!"

Sanzo watched quietly as the Cyber Dragon's attack punched a hole in Wildman, destroying him seconds later. "I set one card and end my turn."

He immediately reached for his deck and drew. "Since I can't attack with a fusion if I play this card I'll activate it now. Fusionic Greed requires that I sacrifice a fusion, so say goodbye to Rampart Gunner!"

His fusion hero burst apart, leaving his field completely empty. "Fusionic Greed now allows me two choices. Either draw one card for every level of the sacrificed fusion or add one fusion related card to my hand for every two levels of the sacrificed fusion. I choose option two!"

Three more cards slid out of his deck and he fanned them out, and then held up one of them. "Go, Fusion Recovery! This allows me to place one Polymerization from my cemetery into my hand as well as a monster used in a fusion. So I return Polymerization and Bubbleman to my hand!"

He held up the chosen cards, and then took one of them and slapped it down. "I summon Elemental Hero Bubbleman (800/1200) in defense mode, and since there are no other cards on my field I draw twice!"

As soon as he had those two new cards he took one of the last two of the cards he had previously added to his hand. "Fusion Annihilation lets me send a Polymerization or a fusion monster on my field to the cemetery in order to destroy one card on the opponent's field. This effect cannot be negated in any manner!"

He tossed his recovered Polymerization into the graveyard and then watched as Cyber End Dragon roared and then blew up, sending a plume of smoke into the air. Janice grimaced at the sight of her supreme monster gone. "Damn it…"

"Since my Bubbleman is much too weak to attack I'll just set these two cards face down and then activate my continuous magic card, Mirage of Nightmare. That ends my turn." Two cards along with a face-up card appeared on his field in a matter of seconds, and then it was Janice's turn.

As soon as she had drawn for the turn he reached for his deck and started drawing as well. "During my opponent's standby phase Mirage of Nightmare lets me draw until I'm holding four cards. I draw the full four."

Janice scowled as she glanced at one of his face-down cards. "Since I'm sure I know what one of those is I'm not afraid since there are no dangerous fusion traps you could have picked. Evolution Burst!"

A single blast from one of her mechanical dragons blew Bubbleman to smithereens, leaving Sanzo with just his two sets and his Mirage of Nightmare. "Second Cyber Dragon, direct attack!"

Sanzo pointed with his free hand at the middle card on his field. "This may not be dangerous, but it's a life saver! My chosen trap was Fusion Life Core which lets me gain the attack points of one fusion in the cemetery, and since it doesn't specify whose cemetery I choose your Cyber End Dragon!"

Her eyes widened as a burst of light shot out of her cemetery and slammed into Sanzo, empowering him with four thousand life points. "In chain to Fusion Life Core I activate my face down Emergency Provisions, sacrificing Fusion Life Core and Mirage of Nightmare for an additional two thousand life points!" (SLP: 7200)

She shook off her surprise almost immediately. "That means you're still open to attack, so my final Cyber Dragon will join the second in blowing a chunk out of your life points!"

Sanzo took two Evolution Bursts head on, and though it hurt he didn't flinch. Saint smiled at the sight of his determined former apprentice. 'Such power he displays even in the face of the deadly Cyber Dragons. He has improved…but this isn't all his strength.' (SLP: 3000)

Seeing that he wasn't going to be able to do anything else she held up her drawn card to her eyes and then placed it into her duel disk. "End turn."

As Sanzo drew the entire gang came rushing up. All of them, Mizuki, Shiro, Kane, and Enzeru. A few seconds later Harrison stalked in after them, his coat flaring out behind him. Mizuki looked back and forth between Sanzo and Janice, then at Saint, and then asked the obvious question. "What's going on? Why are you two dueling?"

Harrison placed a hand on her shoulder and shook his head. "Let it be Mizuki, I'm sure we'll see. Sanzo wouldn't be dueling her without a good reason, and right now he needs to concentrate on this duel."

The Hero Saint snapped up one of the cards he had drawn from Mirage of Nightmare. "Warrior Returning Alive allows me to bring back one warrior from my cemetery to my hand, so I choose Wildman!"

He picked up the monster and then held up another card from his hand. "Next up, Polymerization! I'll fuse Wildman together with Edgeman (2600/1800) in order to create Elemental Hero Wild Jaggyman (2600/2300)!"

A muscular barbaric man with gold armor plates on his body descended onto the field and slung a sword off from his shoulder. "Wild Jaggyman can attack every monster on the opponent's field, so here he comes!"

Janice responded by pressing two buttons on her duel disk and instantly both of her set cards flipped up. "My first card is Cyber Xerox, which I'll use to copy the effect of Fusion Life Core in your cemetery!" (JLP: 5700)

That card shattered after it gave her the four thousand life points from Cyber End Dragon. "My second card is called Cyber Dragon Creation, which lets me special summon a Proto Cyber Dragon to the field when a Cyber Dragon is destroyed, as well as letting me set one normal trap card from my deck onto the field."

A card appeared face down on her field and then a cruder and smaller version of Cyber Dragon appeared. Jaggyman finished cleaving through the last of the three Cyber Dragons and then turned his attention on it. "Sorry Sanzo, but during this turn Proto Cyber Dragon cannot be attacked." (JLP: 4200)

Sanzo shrugged and placed the last two cards from his hand into his disk. "End turn."

Janice drew and pointed at her set card. "This is where we end it Sanzo! Reverse card open, Raging Summoning of Hell! This lets me choose one monster on my field with fifteen hundred or less attack and special summon all cards of the same name from my hand, deck, or cemetery to the field!"

The Hero Saint's eyes widened as he realized what that meant. "And while its face-up on the field Proto Cyber Dragon is considered to be named Cyber Dragon…"

"That's right, and while normally you'd get to summon as well your monster is a fusion so you get nothing! So now I special summon all three Cyber Dragons (2100/1600 X3) from the grave to the field!" One by one her three machine dragons appeared on the field, their upper bodies shaking as they roared in triumphant return.

Sanzo glanced down at his set cards, reassuring himself. Saint merely continued to smile as Janice held up the card she had drawn that turn. "Pot of Greed lets me draw two cards of course."

She drew two cards and then began to laugh. "This is really the end Sanzo, just like I said! Let me show you the true ultimate monster of my deck, provided for my use by the Tsar of East Academy for my duel here! Using it I'll blast through you and right into the ranks of Saint's pro duelists, just like he wanted!"

She held up the card over her head and her monsters began to shake. "Overload Fusion allows me to remove machine sub-type monsters on my field and in my cemetery from the game in order to summon a fusion monster. And I'm going to be using up all eight of them!"

Even Sanzo was surprised at her words. The only ones who didn't seem surprised by her remarks were Saint and Harrison. Harrison was scowling while Saint smiled. 'Sanzo, you'd better survive. This is a monster unlike any you've ever faced…'

"This fusion monster requires that I sacrifice a Cyber Dragon on my field along with at least two other machine sub-types in order to fusion summon. And here it is born, the almighty Chimeratech Overdragon (4800/3000)!" A tremendous roar ripped through the air as a beastly dark dragon at least the size of Cyber End Dragon floated down onto the field.

Unlike Cyber End Dragon it wasn't a mirror-sheen silver, instead its metallic flesh was black and in place of a trio of heads it had dozens of machine-like dragon heads, like a devilish mechanical hydra. "What is that thing?"

"Chimeratech Overdragon is the deadliest fusion monster in the entire game of Duel Monsters! You see, although hard to summon its special effect makes it a true monster. For every monster used in its summoning it can attack once, meaning this monster now has eight total attacks per turn!" Sanzo's eyes widened as he realized exactly what that meant. The horrifying monster could continue to attack unless eight attacks were negated, so even having five monsters on the field wouldn't halt its assault.

But to Janice's surprise Sanzo held his arms out wide and laughed. "I came here trying to get answers, but this is even better than any of that! Come on, bring on your monster and I'll find out if I'm hero enough to beat it down!"

"Fine, if you want it then you've got it! Overkill Evolution Burst!" One of the mouths fired a beam of dark red energy that was otherwise identical to a Cyber Dragon's attack. But Sanzo held up one arm and a shield appeared on it, pulling in the attack.

"Draining Shield allows me to negate one attack and gain life points equal to the total attack strength of the monster whose attack I negated! That's one attack defeated!" His shield shattered and then another of the monster's mouths opened. (SLP: 7800)

"That's fine, here's the second one! Overkill Evolution Burst!" Suddenly she felt a tremor go down her spine as Sanzo's remaining card flipped it. It depicted a Sparkman being surrounded by a crackling blue aura.

"You fell for it, the first attack could have been the end anyways! Hero's Soul Union allows me to increase the attack of one Elemental Hero in play by the attack of one in my cemetery, so I give Tempester's twenty-eight hundred to Wild Jaggyman!" Janice gasped in terror as Wild Jaggyman's attack skyrocketed to fifty-four hundred, more than her supreme monster could muster.

But then it was Sanzo's turn to be surprised when she responded by slamming the remaining card in her hand into her duel disk. "Cyber End activates if I have a fusion machine of level eight or higher in play! It ends my battle phase and destroys all monsters on your field!"

All of the machine dragon's mouths opened wide and smothered Wild Jaggyman in pure energy, vaporizing him almost instantly. But not only that the energy overflowed and hit Sanzo head on, tossing him five feet backwards. "If my opponent has higher life points than I do at that time they take the attack of one monster as damage to their life points! So take your fifty-four hundred!" (SLP: 2400)

She took a deep breath to calm herself as Sanzo picked himself up. "It's over Sanzo, there's no way you can beat me or Chimeratech Overdragon now. Give up, the only hero left in your deck is Necro Darkman, and he's a tribute monster who'd be useless right now. Its over!"

Sanzo brushed himself off and raised his head. To her surprise his eyes were shining as he drew swiftly from his deck. "Don't be a fool Janice, a hero never surrenders, especially not faced with a monster of that level! The strength of the hero will always surpass that of a monster!"

He held up the drawn card and cards began to slide out of his cemetery. "Farewell of the Hero lets me remove all heroes from my cemetery and place them out of play. For every two removed this way I draw one card, and check it out!"

He fanned out ten cards, and then shoved them into his back pocket. "Since that was ten removed I now draw five cards!"

As soon as he had finished drawing the five he flipped one up. "Monster Returned allows me to special summon one monster from out of play to the field, so Elemental Hero Bubbleman (800/1200) returns and I draw two card!"

One quick glance at his cards told him all he needed to do. "I activate Bond of Heroes, which lets me special summon one hero from my hand if I have a hero in play. My choice is Hero Kid (300/600) who when special summoned summons all other copies of himself from my hand or deck to the field!"

A purple haired kid in what looked like a space suit dropped down onto the field, followed quickly by two identical little kids. Janice shrugged, looking bored. "That won't do it, not against Chimeratech Overdragon. He can plow through all four of those monsters and still have four extra attacks."

"You didn't understand, I special summoned them because I have a normal summon remaining. You see Janice, you were wrong to say that Necro Darkman was the only hero I had left. There's one more, the rarest of them all. It's a card said to have been created by Pegasus to honor the very first master of the Elemental Heroes, one of the Academy's first legends, Yuki Judai!" Two of the Hero Kids faded away and a blazing column of light erupted in their place.

He slammed down one of the cards he had been holding, and even Saint's eyes widened. 'Impossible…he never had that monster before. Even I've never managed to obtain one!'

When the light faded a tall hero in all white stood on the field. He was an imposing monster with rippling muscles, a jewel in the center of his chest, and a little spike extending over the top of his head. "Allow me to show you the rarest of them all, the unique and deadly Elemental Hero Neos (2500/2000)!"

Janice's eyes widened, surprised to see an Elemental Hero she had never heard of. The Tsar's words came to her then. 'Go to Duelist Academy, I've arranged for you to be introduced to Saint. When he sees you face your opponent I know he'll be impressed, and will give us both an excellent idea of that power.'

Somehow she could tell now what she hadn't realized before. 'He wasn't talking about me impressing Saint; he was talking about my opponent! He knew all along I'd face Sanzo, somehow he knew! And he wanted to gain an idea of Sanzo's strength for himself and Saint. But…why?'

Sanzo held his right arm up into the air and Neos began to glow. "According to rumor the first Neos was a one of a kind normal monster that worked only with some mystery group of monsters. However, the rare creature created by Pegasus was inspired by that and possesses a unique power, the power of Contact Fusion!"

Bubbleman formed into a ball of blue light while Neos became a ball of white light and then they collided together. "Neos' ability of Contact Fusion lets me shuffle him and any other monsters on my field back into my deck to special summon a fusion from my fusion deck with fusion components the same as those shuffled back. So meet the first of them!"

The new monster that was summoned looked just like Neos, only it had blue armor plates on its shoulders, legs, chest, and a water tank on its back, as well as the same little water jet on its right arm that Bubbleman had. "Meet Elemental Hero Neo Bubble Guardian (2500/2000)!"

Sanzo reached for his deck and drew twice, and then placed those cards into his deck. "Neo Bubble Guardian reflects his component monster other than Neos, so when he's summoned I draw one card for each hero in play, which is two. But that's not his true power."

The Hero Saint raised one arm and pointed at Chimeratech Overdragon. "Elemental Hero Neo Bubble Guardian attacks Chimeratech Overdragon! Neo Bubble Shooter!"

A jet stream of water shot out of the little weapon on Neos' arm, heading straight for the huge chimera. "You're a fool Sanzo, Chimeratech Overdragon responds by attacking right back! Overkill Evolution Burst!"

Suddenly Sanzo slammed one of his cards into his cemetery. "Neo Bubble Guardian lets me discard one card from my hand to create any card related to the fusion component that isn't Neos. And since Neo Bubble Guardian is treated as Bubbleman at this time, I can do whatever I want. For instance, I discard a magic card!"

The card suddenly reappeared on the field as a Fusion Gate, and then its shape began to change as the image and text did as well. "The card that I'm turning it into is Bubble Illusion! This magic card lets me activate a trap from my hand when Bubbleman is in play!"

Sanzo slammed another card from his hand into his duel disk. "Dimensional Tunnel Mirror Gate activates! The two battling monsters now switch control, meaning I'm the one attacking with Chimeratech Overdragon!"

Janice screamed as her newly gained Neo Bubble Guardian was consumed by the huge energy attack. "No…no way!" (JLP: 2500)

"Control still remains with me, so I'll have Chimeratech Overdragon end it with the next shot! Overkill Evolution Burst!" She screamed again as a huge blast of energy struck her, burning away the last life points she had left. The power of her own monster had crushed her. (JLP: 0)

She fell to her knees as the images fading, the duel at its end. Sanzo closed down his duel disk and walked forwards until he was standing in front of her. "We had a deal. Why did you really come?"

Sighing the dark skinned girl picked herself up and brushed herself off. "I didn't realize it at the time, but somehow he knew. Somehow the Tsar knew that if I came to duel that I'd face you. And he wanted to judge your power and give an example of it to Saint as well, as a gift."

Sanzo glanced over at Saint, who was smiling as he walked away, leaving them all behind. "I understand. What do you do now?"

Janice sighed again and shook her head, looking back over at the people she still considered friends. "I only had lease to spend one day on the island to make this duel, so now that I've done the duel I have to return to East Academy."

To Janice's surprise Mizuki rushed forwards, along with everyone but Harrison who hung back. "Hold up there Janice! It's been way too long, so why don't you stick around for at least another few hours. We can hang out and have some fun, eat lunch or something, all of us like before."

Harrison snorted and turned on his heel, starting to walk away. "You can exclude me from that lovey-dovey crap. I don't go in for mush, and I'm certainly not one of you losers."

Mizuki smiled brightly at Janice, and she was unable to not return the smile with one of her own. "Don't mind him; he's just not capable of expressing emotion. So come on, what do you say? Spend some time with us before you go?"

Janice laughed and surrendered. "Guess I'm staying for the time being. Not like the Tsar can do anything about that."

As they began to laugh and talk, catching up after months of not seeing each other, Sanzo could only stare after Saint. 'Who was the Tsar, and why did he want to see my power? And why go through all that trouble just to see it for himself and show Saint. What do those two really want?'

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Author's Note: Wow, that ended up being a really long chapter. And the scary thing is, that was only ten turns.

Next Time: Vlad suddenly returns to Duelist Academy and speaks to Beatrix about the man's plans. Unhappy with the way things are going and no longer satisfied with his position, Vlad challenges the former Kaiser to a duel. Vlad's true identity is revealed as he pits Strongman against the strangely beautiful deck at Beatrix's command. But who is Beatrix really?

See it all in, VS Beatrix; Strongman Strike!