Trial by Black Flame
Disclaimer: Don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! GX.
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"You outsiders have invaded and desecrated this sanctuary...for that, you all must be punished,"
Alexis, Jordan, Siho, Chrissy, and Jaden exchanged glances, all of them thinking the same thing. This was just like what happened at Duel Academy when the Gravekeepers captured them and tried to bury them alive. Shortly after entering the temple and seeing their friends being held captive, they too, were taken into custody by the men in the capes and headdresses. It was that memory of the Gravekeepers that gave Jaden an idea.
He turned to the leader, "How about I duel ya for our freedom?"
The leader chuckled, "You wish to duel us? Boy, you must have rocks in your skull, why else would you suggest such a stupid idea?"
Jaden looked behind the leader, to the glowing eyes in the darkness of the open gate, then back at him, "What's the matter? Afraid you're gonna get your butt whooped by a kid?"
Murmurs rippled in the crowd surrounding them. The leader puffed out his chest and exhaled loudly, "You are bold to not only challenge a servant to Horus, but also to call one a coward,"
"Bold, but stupid, if you ask me," Alexis muttered under her breath, "Jaden's gonna make it worse for us!"
"Just watch him work his magic...," Siho whispered, "Trust me,"
The leader of the robed people turned to the open gate and stared at the glowing eyes. As he stared, a series of low growls boomed out of the darkness, and when they ceased, he bowed his head and turned back around to Jaden.
"Very well, invader...we shall duel. I win, you and your thieving comrades become sacrifices to the great Horus," he nodded to the eyes behind him, "You win, you will go free,"
"Can we leave with some of the treasure?" Siho piped up, earning a hard nudge in the ribs from Jordan and Chazz.
The leader seemed to ignore Siho, and kept his eyes on Jaden, "What do you say, invader? Will you accept my terms?"
"Are you kidding?" Jaden grinned widely, "I'm all for it! Get your game on!"
"Excellent!" the leader held up his duel disk and a bright glow erupted from the darkened gate behind him. From the shadows came a large glowing orb that merged with his duel disk and Jaden could see a glowing card in the deck slot, with the rest of the man's deck.
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"This is gonna be interesting,"
"Yeah...I've seen the stats of this AI's deck, it's pretty strong. I dunno if Jaden can handle it,"
"Maybe...hey, where'd the girl go?"
"I'm right here!" Kairi rushed back to the console, holding a can of soda and a bag of M&M's in her hands, "Had to go to the vending machines to get a snack...no way am I gonna watch Jaden's duel on an empty stomach!"
Kristerr shook his head a little, "I hope he hasn't gotten rusty over the summer break so far,"
One of the female tech's looked at both him and Kairi, "I'm guessing...that Jaden's pretty good?"
"Oh, hell ya," Kairi nodded as she cracked open her can of soda, "You got no idea, sister!"
"Shh, they're about to start!" Kristerr hushed, snatching the bag of M&M's from Kairi.
"Hey!"
"I'm hungry, chill out,"
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"As I said before, you are very foolish to challenge the Sect of Horus, boy,"
"Whatevs...let's just do this already!"
Both of them raised their arms as their duel disks whirred to life, "DUEL!"
H: 4000
J: 4000
"I shall go first, seeing as you are in no position to make the first move," the leader said as they both drew their hands, then drew his sixth card, "I summon Masked Dragon (1400/1100) in attack mode, and I place two cards facedown, then I end my turn," he declared as a red and white scaled dragon appeared on the field, growling at Jaden.
The Slifer grinned as he drew his card, "Nice monster...lemme show you mine," he looked at his hand, "You're in luck. I've been wanting to show these guys off, since they're new, and I finally got my chance. I summon Elemental Hero The Heat (1600/1200)!"
A new monster arose on the field. It looked like an Elemental Hero alright, but this one was nothing like Jaden's other monsters. It had a strongly built body, and a magnificent body suit of white armor with gold and crimson flames painted on the legs, arms, and chest. An ornate red and gold helmet was on it's head, with wing-like features coming out of the forehead area.
"Nice monster...," Christina said in hushed awe, "Sweet...,"
"Heat's got a sweet effect too. Heat gains 200 attack points for each Elemental Hero I have on my field!"
E-Hero The Heat (1800/1200)
"Heat, take out that Masked Dragon!" Jaden ordered, pointing to the enemy Dragon, "Hero Heatwave!"
The new monster darted over to the Masked Dragon and threw a hard right, his fist blazing with an intense flame. The Dragon roared as the fist made contact, then exploded into nothingness, clearing Horus' Servant's field.
H: 3600
J: 4000
"Next, I'll place one card facedown and end my turn," Jaden said as he slipped a card into his disk.
"I activate my Masked Dragon's ability!" Horus' Servant barked, "When he is destroyed in battle, I can Special Summon one Dragon-Type monster from my deck with 1500 or less attack points to the field!" he took out his deck, fanned it out, plucked a card out, reshuffled and put it back, "With Masked Dragon's ability, I summon Spirit Ryu (1000/1000) in attack mode,"
Jaden watched as a small, blue scaled dragon with a glowing tail appeared, hovering above the ground.
That's not much of a Dragon... he thought ...what's he doing?
"That's not all," the leader of the Sect drew his card, "I summon Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV4 (1600/1000) in attack mode!"
A large, metallic dragon appeared on the field, it's glowing red eyes staring down at Jaden and his new Hero.
"Next, I play the Spell known as Level Up!" the leader slipped a card into his disk, "With this card, I can bypass all the requirements of Horus' effect and summon Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV6 (2300/1600)!"
The first incarnation of Horus glowed a bright light and as it did, it began to change...size and wingspan in particular. When the light died down, Jaden was now staring down a much larger, metallic Dragon with sharp claws and metal feathers jetting out of it's wings.
"Attack with Black Flame Torrent!"
Horus opened his mouth and let out a stream of pure black fire, which engulfed Heat completely. Jaden could hear the anguished cry of his Elemental Hero as he was destroyed mercilessly.
"Ha!" Jaden pressed a button on his disk, "Nice try, but I won't go down that easy! I activate my facedown Trap card, Hero Signal!"
Jaden's facedown card flipped over and an intense beam of light with a black, bold H in the middle of it shot outward and touched the ceiling.
"This allows me to Special Summon a Level 4 or lower Elemental Hero from my hand or deck, whenever one of the Heroes on my field is destroyed in battle," Jaden fanned out his deck and plucked a card out, "With the effect of Hero Signal, I summon the Elemental Hero Lady Heat (1300/1000),"
Another new Hero, or rather, Heroine, appeared on the field. She wore similar armor to The Heat, but it actually showed of her skin in some areas, and her face and golden hair weren't hidden by a mask.
H: 3600
J: 3500
"Before I end my turn, allow me to use the effect of Horus, yet again!" the leader grinned, "When Horus destroys a monster in battle, I can sacrifice his current form to summon forth his next, and more powerful incarnation! I summon Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV8 (3000/1800)!"
Gasps of both awe and shock rippled around Jaden as Horus evolved once again. This time, he was huge! He actually looked like an actual dragon, with a long tail, a wide, impressive wingspan, and a set of impressive scales...all in metal.
"I end my turn, boy,"
Jeez, why is it everytime I duel a bad guy, they call me boy? I have a name! Jaden thought as he drew his card, "I'll place two cards facedown, then I'll summon the Elemental Hero Ocean (1500/1000)!"
A blue-skinned, fish-like Hero appeared on the field, wearing white armor and carrying a pronged spear in it's hand.
"Ocean, attack Spirit Ryu with Deep Sea Spear!"
"I think not, boy!" the leader pressed a button on his disk, "I play Negate Attack! Not only does this Trap card stop your attack cold, it ends the Battle Phase, meaning you can't try to attack again!"
Jaden grit his teeth as Ocean came into contact with a swirling vortex, then bounced back over to him and Lady Heat.
"Sorry, Ocean, maybe next time," Jaden took a card from his hand, "Before I end my turn, I'll play this Spell card called Oil! This lets me take a Fire-Attribute monster from my Graveyard and add it to my hand. C'mon back to me, Heat!"
"Not so fast! I activate Horus' special ability! He allows me to negate the activation and effect of a Spell card!"
Jaden's eyes widened, "Say what?!"
"Not only that, but with this effect, he can destroy that card!" the leader chuckled as Jaden's Oil card was blasted and sent to the Graveyard, "Meaning you can't bring back that monster of yours,"
Man... Jaden looked at the last card he had in his hand, That's an annoying effect...
"Hurry up, boy!"
"I'm hurrying, I'm hurrying," Jaden turned Lady Heat to the side on his disk, "I'll place Lady Heat in defense mode, but before I end my turn, I activate her ability!"
The leader raised an eyebrow.
"For every Elemental Hero I have face-up on the field, I deal you 200 points of damage...and since I have two Heroes...," he trailed off, grinning.
H: 3200
J: 3500
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"I don't get this...,"
"Get what, kiddo?"
Kairi looked away from the screen, towards Kristerr, "That leader guy calls that big dragon, Horus, right?"
"Yeah, so?"
"Horus isn't a dragon, though," Kairi frowned, "Horus is an Egyptian God with a bird's head and the body of a human. How the hell can an Egyptian God go from that to that?" she asked, jerking a thumb to the dragon onscreen.
"Don't ask me, ask Pegasus, he's the guy making these card designs,"
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The leader of the sect drew his card, "I sacrifice my Spirit Ryu in order to summon Luster Dragon #2 (2400/1400)!"
The smaller blue dragon disappeared and a large, beautiful, jewel encrusted dragon appeared in it's place, snorting smoke.
"That's not good," Jaden hissed.
"No, it's not, especially when I play this!" the sect leader pressed a button on his disk, "Activate facedown Trap card, Dragon's Rage! When this card is active on the field, and a defensive monster of yours is attacked by a monster with more attack points, the difference between defense points and attack points are dealt to you as damage!"
"...okay, definitely not good,"
"Luster Dragon #2, attack Elemental Hero Ocean with Emerald Flame!"
Jaden's aquatic spearsman roared in pain as a blast of green-colored flame roasted him alive, sending him to the Graveyard.
H: 3200
J: 2600
"Horus, attack Lady Heat with Black Flame Torrent!"
Seconds after Ocean was vaporized, Lady Heat was cooked to a crisp with the dark fire. Jaden looked away as she was blasted to ashes.
H: 3200
J: 600
"JADEN!" Alexis and Christina shouted from the sides.
"Dammit, Yuki, hang in there!" Siho yelled encouragingly, "Hang in there and kick this freak's ass!"
"You would do well to ignore those fools, boy," the follower of Horus shook his head, "There is no possible way a mere mortal like yourself can defeat the power of almighty Horus. NOTHING CAN DEFEAT OUR LORD HORUS!"
"Oh, get over yourself," Jaden pressed a button on his disk, "I activate my other facedown card, Hero Counterattack! I can only activate this when an Elemental Hero is destroyed in battle," he held up the only card in his hand, "You randomly pick a card from my hand, no brainer there, and if it's an Elemental Hero, I get to summon it to the field!"
The leader frowned under his headdress, "Fine, I pick that card...not like I have a choice,"
Jaden grinned as he slapped it onto his field, "I summon the Elemental Hero Woodsman (1000/2000)!"
A strange human-like creature appeared. It looked like a miniature figure of the Jolly Green Giant, but on one side of it's body, was a thick hide of tree bark covering arm and leg.
The leader scoffed, "Fool, what can that thing do against Horus?!"
"Nothing...but my Trap card can," Jaden's grin widened, "Did I forget? If the monster you chose is an Elemental Hero, not only is it Special Summoned, but the monster that destroyed my other Hero in battle, get's destroyed! So, say goodbye to Horus!"
The leader stared in horror as the metallic dragon broke apart and crumbled apart into rusty pieces, the red light dying from it's eyes.
"H-Horus! You killed Horus!" the leader glared at Jaden, "You may have killed our Lord, but Luster Dragon shall avenge it's ruler!" he looked at his hand, "I'll get you next turn, I end mine for now,"
With Horus gone, I can now use Spell cards Jaden thought as he drew his next card, "Alright, first off, I activate my Woodsman's effect! I can use Woodsman's power to take Polymerization card from either my Graveyard or deck and add it to my hand," he fanned out his deck and plucked out his Spell card, "Next, I play my other Spell card, Pot of Greed, which allows me to draw two more cards!" he drew two more from his deck.
C'mon, Jaden... Alexis pleaded mentally, We're all counting on you!
"I activate the Spell card, Heat Crystals!" Jaden's Graveyard began to glow, "I remove two Fire-Attribute monsters from my Graveyard and if any of them are any Fusion-Material monsters, I get to summon that Fusion monster!"
"Too bad you don't have any good monsters to fuse into a new one,"
"Don't be so sure!" Jaden removed Lady Heat and The Heat, "By removing my two Heroes, I summon forth, Elemental Hero Inferno (2300/1600)!!"
Everyone watched as a very large monster in white stepped out of a huge blaze of fire. It looked like a major upgrade of The Heat, it's deep red armor practically glowing in the light of the temple.
"HOLY CRAP!" Siho, Jordan, Chazz, and Christina shouted at the same time, "WHERE'D THE HELL YOU GET THAT?!"
"I'm far from done!" Jaden took another card from his hand and slipped into his field slot, "I play the Spell card known as Skyscraper!"
One of Jaden's trademark cards appeared on the field as towering modern city buildings rose from the floor.
Jaden grinned, "This Field Spell card gives my Heroes 1000 extra attack points, if the enemy they're attacking are stronger than them. Inferno, attack Luster Dragon #2 with Blazing Justice Fist!"
E-Hero Inferno (3300/1600)
Inferno stomped over to Luster Dragon #2 and slugged the gem-encrusted dragon hard with a fiery fist, obliterating it easily.
"Woodsman, your turn!"
Jaden's wooden Hero darted across the field and raked his sharp claws across the leader's torso, making him fall to a knee, holding his side.
H: 1300
J: 600
"I end my turn,"
The sect leader rose back to his feet, shooting him a very hateful glare as he drew his card, "I summon Cave Dragon (2000/100) in attack mode, and I end my turn," he declared as a short, broad dragon appeared on his field.
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"I don't get it, why isn't he attacking with it? It's got enough points to end it!" Kairi frowned, confused.
"Because of Cave Dragon's effect...unless there is another Dragon-Type monster on the field with it, he cannot attack with it. Right now, Jaden's safe," Kristerr explained, "This won't last though...if Jaden wants to win, he better do it soon!"
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"Your move, boy,"
"Okay, seriously, stop calling me that," Jaden muttered as he drew his next card. When his eyes scanned the card, a confident look crossed his face.
"I play the Spell card, The Warrior Returning Alive! This card allows me to take a Warrior-Type monster from my Graveyard and add it to my hand," he reached down and grabbed a card from the slot, "I choose my Elemental Hero Ocean!" he inserted the final card in his hand into his disk, "Now, I play the Spell Polymerization! I use this card to fuse both Ocean and Woodsman to summon the Elemental Hero Terra Firma (2500/2000)!"
Another large and impressive Hero appeared on the field, this one looking like some kind of kid show superhero. It had a white suit of armor with blue crystals on it's shoulders and head, and a large red jewel in the middle of it's chest.
Christina tilted her head at the sight, "Dude, that thing looks like Frieza from Dragon Ball Z...,"
Her friends groaned loudly.
"It does!"
"Now, I activate the effect of Terra Firma!" Jaden pointed to Inferno, "I can sacrifice one Elemental Hero I have on the field and add that Hero's attack points to Terra's attack points. So, Terra Firma, say goodbye to Inferno and say hello to a power boost!" he said as Inferno exploded in a blaze of red hot flames.
E-Hero Terra Firma (4800/2000)
The leader's eyes widened and he stepped back, "4800 attack points?! IMPOSSIBLE!"
"Impossible? Doesn't look like it!" Jaden pointed at the Cave Dragon, "Terra Firma, attack Cave Dragon with Terra Homing!"
Terra Firma's hands glowed with a bright blue light before it ran across the field. It slashed Cave Dragon rapidly, light trailing behind each attack, and soon enough, the Cave Dragon roared before falling to the floor.
H: 0
J: 600
"And that's game!" Jaden gave him his two-fingered salute, "Good duel, dude, that was fun!"
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Back in the real world, the technicians watching the duel stood there, their mouths hanging open at the victory. Kairi and Kristerr were the only ones unphased by it.
"Nice alternative...but you still should've just used both to attack him, Jaden," Kairi shrugged, "But, your deck, your Heroes...you use 'em the way you want,"
Kristerr grinned, "Glad to see that kid's not rusty at all,".
A loud buzzing sound made Kristerr reach into his pocket and pull out a small cellphone. He looked at the number and sighed, "I gotta take this. You guys keep me posted on this okay?".
Kairi and the others nodded as Kristerr walked out of the lab, holding the phone to his ear.
"I like Jaden's new Elemental Heroes," Kairi turned back to the screen, "I just hope they can live up to the rep of his other Heroes...,"
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Kilnorc: Well, that one's done. First off, I REALLY, REALLY hope I didn't make any mistakes in this one, cuz it was hard enough goin' back and forth with each new card effect, LOL. Secondly, to those who haven't read the manga, Jaden's new E-Heroes? Well, they're the Heroes that he usually uses in his duels, instead of all the ones we're familiar with in the anime! I figured, original arc could use some new cards, so why not new Heroes? Anyhoo, once again, hope it was good and I hope I didn't (bleep) things up...later ya'll!