Chapter 7: Pain in the Neck

Jaden sighed as he plopped onto the ground. He had walked his way out of the forest, only to find him back where he started, completely lost.

"Ah man, its like I'm in a never ending maze! How am I ever going to get home?"

"Gigoooooooooooo!"

Jaden snapped out of his rambling when he heard a call for help.

"Someone's in trouble! I'm coming!"

When Jaden reached the disturbance, he found a pale skinned Vampire pinning a small reptile against a tree.

"Giga, I told you that's my rarest card!"

"If I had known that was the best you could muster, I never would've accepted your challenge. Now I shall have to take something else as payment!"

"Leave him alone!"

The Vampire stopped mere inches from Gigabyte's neck when he heard Jaden's voice, turning to him with a scowl.

"If I were you, boy, I'd stay out of matters that don't concern you. Besides, I'm not doing anything wrong. We had an ante duel, and I won. I simply find his anted monster too weak, so I'm taking something else."

"A real duelist would never duel like that. You're going down!"

The Vampire guffawed at Jaden's challenge.

"Please, you think you have what it takes to beat me? I'll only accept your challenge if you can put up a rare enough monster."

Sensing what he had to do, Jaden held up his chosen monster.

"I'll wager Elemental Hero Neos!"

The Vampire's eyes went wide at what Jaden wagered.

"That is a rare monster indeed! You must be a strong duelist. Very well, I accept your challenge!"

After a few minutes, the two stood in the meadow, duel disks at the ready.

"By the way, what's your name?"

"Not that you deserve to know, but you may call me Vampire's Curse."

"Well, Curse, Get Your Game On!"

"Curse? How dare you defile my name like that!"

Jaden: 8000

Curse of Vampire: 8000

"Since I'm feeling generous, I shall let you make the first move. Not that it'll help you."

"Gee, thanks. I'll play Elemental Hero Clayman in defense mode and throw down two face downs. Your move."

"How pathetic. I draw! First, I activate Call of the Mummy! Now, since I don't control any monsters, I can special summon a zombie from my hand, and I choose Vampire's Curse (2000/800) in attack mode!"

"I see the family resemblence. Too bad Clayman has the same amount of defense points."

"That won't matter once I activate Overpowering Eye! This allows my Vampire's Curse to attack directly!"

"Wha- Aaaagh!"

Jaden seethed in pain as the Vampire's sharp nail slashed him across the chest.

Jaden: 6000

"Jaden!"

Alexis and Eria arrived just in time to see Jaden get attacked, but Eria was focused on someone else.

"Gigobyte!"

She wanted to run over to him, but the Vampire blocked her way.

"Don't move! Once I'm through with this pathetic human, he's next!"

Relucantly, Eria backed off while Alexis focused on Jaden.

"Jaden, are you alright?"

"Never been better. Nice play, Curse!"

"Humph. I'll summon Double Coston in attack mode (1700/1650) and end my turn. Its your move, if you even can."

"Just you wait. First, I play Polymerization, fusing Elemental Hero Avian and Burstinatrix to summon Elemental Hero Flame Wingman (2100/1200) in attack mode! Flame Wingman, take out his Vampire's Curse!"

With a single burst of fire from his Dragon arm, Flame Wingman burnt the vampire to ash, causing his opponent to cringe.

Vampire's Curse: 7900

"Is that the best you've got?"

"No, because when Flame Wingman destroys a monster in battle, you lost life points equal to that monster's attack points!"

"What?"

Flame Wingman got right in front of the vampire and let lose a tremendous fireball, singing the vampire.

Vampire's Curse: 5900

"I'll end my turn there. You're up."

The Vampire climbed to his feet, furious over Jaden getting the lead.

"You'll pay for that, you whelp! During my standby phase, I can pay 500 life points (5900-4900) to bring back my Vampire's Curse with 500 more attack points!"

A red aura enveloped the duelist as he paid the cost before his monster dug itself out of the ground (2000-2500).

"Uh oh, this is bad."

"Yes, and its only going to get worse, for you see Double Coston counts as two tributes when I summon a Dark monster, so I sacrifice him to summon Despair from the Dark (2800/3000) in attack mode!"

A large monster made out of shadows emerged, laughing demonically.

"Next, I activate Shield Crush to take out your Clayman!"

An unseen pressure began to build up in Clayman, cracking him until he collapsed into rubble.

"Now that that's out of the way, Vampire's Curse, take your revenge on that Wingman!"

Jaden had to look away as the Vampire got his full from his monster, cringing as he lost life points.

Jaden: 5600

"Despair From the Dark, attack that whelp directly!"

The shadow creature slashed Jaden with his massive claws, causing him to scream in pain.

"Jaden!"

Jaden: 2800

"I'm alright! And I'm about to be even better, because I activate my trap card Damage Condenser! By discarding one card from my hand, I can special summon a monster with attack less than or equal to the damage I took, and I choose Elemental Hero Neos!"

Alexis smiled when she saw Jaden's ace monster appear from nowhere, while Vampire's Curse remained unimpressed.

"Humph, not that it'll help you. I'll set one card face down and end my turn."

"Alrighty then, my turn!"

When Jaden saw what card he had drawn, he smirked. He had this in the bag.

"Alright, I activate the field Spell Neo Space!"

Vampire's Curse raised an eyebrow at the psychedelic colors surrounding them.

"What is the meaning of this?"

"As long as Neo Space is active, my Elemental Hero Neos and any monster that list him as fusion material gain 500 attack points (2500-3000). And joining him is Neo Spacian Flare Scarab (500/500) in defense mode, and for every spell and trap card I have, he gains 400 attack (500-1300)!"

"So what? That's not enough to defeat me!"

"Who said I was done? See, the neat thing about Neos is that I don't need Polymerization to fuse him with my Neo Spacians, I just need them on the field."

"What are you talking about? That's impossible!"

"Want to bet? I return Elemental Hero Neos and Flare Scarab to perform a contact fusion! Come on out, Elemental Hero Flare Neos (2500-3000)! And like Flare Scarab, he gains 400 attack points per spell or trap card, but he counts both yours and mine (3000-4200)!"

"What?!"

"Flare Neos, take out his Vampire's Curse!"

Vampire's Curse could only watch in horror as his doppleganger burnt to ash once more as the flames licked his body, causing him to cringe.

Vampire's Curse: 3700

"I activate my trap card, Call of the Haunted! This allows me to bring back my Vampire's Curse!"

"Alright then, I end my turn. Your move!"

Vampire's Curse nearly ripped the card as he drew it from his deck. He snarled when he realized he couldn't do anything.

"I switch my monsters into defense mode and end my turn."

"Then I guess this is game! First, I summon Elemental Hero Sparkman (1600/1400) in attack mode. Next, I equip him with Sparkblaster! And this handy little weapon lets me switch the position of any monster I choose up to three times, so I'll use it on both of your monsters!"

Vampire's Curse could only gasp in shock as two shots from Sparkman's gun forced his monsters from a kneeling position into a fighting position.

"Next, I activate Miracle Fusion, removing from play my Sparkman with the Flame Wingman in my graveyard to Fusion Summon Elemental Hero Shining Flare Wingman (2500/2100) in attack mode!"

"So what? Both of my monsters are stronger than him!"

"Actually, they're not. See, Shining Flare Wingman gains 300 attack points for each Elemental Hero in my graveyard, and right now I have three of them (2500-3400)!"

"Oh no!"

"Oh yes! Shining Flare Wingman, shed some light on Despair From the Dark!"

Jaden's hero flew up to the giant shadow, emanating bright light. Despair From the Dark tried to shield itself, but was soon evaporated.

Vampire's Curse: 3100

"And just like Flame Wingman, you lose life points equal to your monster's attack points!"

Shining Flare Wingman floated down to Vampire Curse, blinding him with bright light as the Vampire hissed while his skin burn.

"The light...it burns!"

Vampire's Curse: 300

"Finish him off, Flare Neos!"

Once more, Vampire's Cuse was burned to Ash, this time taking the duelist with it as he screamed in agony, disappearing in a cloud of smoke.

Vampire's Curse: 0000

Jaden wins!

As soon as it was safe, Gigobyte ran to Eria, tears in his eyes.

"Gigobyte, where were you? I was so worried!"

"I went to find food, but then I got lost. Then that mean Vampire cornered me and forced me to duel, and..."

"Shh, shh, its okay. You're safe now."

She then turned to Jaden.

"Thank you for saving him. I don't know what I would've done if I had lost him."

"Hey, all in a day's work for a hero."

"Come on, Gigo. Let's get you home."

"Gigo!"

With that, the two wandered off, leaving Jaden and Alexis facing each other.

"Man, am I glad to see a familiar face. I've been wondering around all day trying to find a way home."

"Me too. You... haven't seen any one else we know, have you?"

Jaden thought for a minute, then shook his head.

"No, but I did see a penguin in a tuxedo run past screaming "HE'S AFTER ME!", if that means anything. Why have you"

Alexis sighed, sgaking her head.

"No, its just... Before I woke up here, I was dueling Atticus. I'm afraid that if I wound up here, he could have as well. I know he can take care of himself, but ever since he came back I'm afraid of losing him again."

Jaden put a reassuring hand on her shoulder trying to comfort her.

"Its okay, Alexis. If he's here, we'll find him."

Alexis blushed, trying to hide her face.

"Thanks, Jaden."

Just then, they saw some kind of light glowing off in the distance.

"What's that all about?"

"It could be Atticus, let's go!"

Syrus and Hassleberry leaned against a tree, resting as they tried to figure out where to go next.

"Let's face it, we're lost! We've passed this tree a million times!"

"How would you know? They all look the same!"

"Because that's the same face you drew on it the last time we came through here!"

"It is... Oh, it is."

Syrus sighed, really wishing he was in bed right now. Just then, he spotted a light in the distance.

"Hey Hassleberry, look at that! That might be our way home."

"Yeah, you might be right! Come on, lets get moving!"

Bastion kept walking, leaving the colosseum behind him. The Amazoness tribe had been very hospitable, but he had to get going if he wanted to find his way home. As he stopped to catch his breath, he spotted a bright light far off in the distance.

"Hmm...I may have found a way home...or a trap. Only one way to find out!"

"Hey boss, why are you walking in circles?"

"Yeah, we passed that tree five times already."

"Hey knucklehead, we're talking to you! Least you could do is say something."

"WILL ALL OF YOU SHUT UP! HOW CAN I FIND US A WAY HOME IF YOU KEEP BLABBING!"

At last the three Ojama brothers went silent, allowing Chazz a moment to think. Just then, he saw a bright light in the distance.

"I wouldn't go there, boss."

"Yeah, nothing good comes from bright light."

"Take it from us."

"Well, I'm in charge, and just because you three are bugging me we're heading right for it!"

"No!"

Deep in the forest, a moss covered gate rose from the ground, strange energy emanating from it.