"Ladies and gentlemen it just doesn't get any better then this!" said Laiza "The duel monsters cage match just started and already Mr. Billy Jobs has taken 3/8 of Jaden's life points!"
(Billy: 4550)
(Jaden: 2500)
"I'd ask you if you'd like to give up and run home to your mother slacker, but thanks to the rules of the duel monsters cage match you're stuck here, so I guess you'll just have to stay and take the punishment."
"Even if I wasn't locked in this cage, I would never abandon Alexis to the likes of you!"
"You'd be doing her a favor."
"A favor? You're the one who has her bound up and gagged!"
"A temporary precaution, until I defeat you in this duel and she's seen the error of her ways."
"Sorry Bill, but that's not going to happen."
Jaden drew his card.
"Okay, for some reason my monsters only have half their strength, and I'm willing to bet it's because Bill sabotaged my duel disk while I was unconscious, but somehow I've got to turn this around for Alexis' sake, but for now I'll just have to play it safe."
With only 2500 life points left, Billy could take Jaden out with just one more attack if he could power up his Machine King.
"First I'll play a monster face down, next I'll play the spell card Mirage of Nightmare! Now during your next stand by phase…"
"I'm not some amateur! I know what the card does! Get on with it!"
"Okay… Next, I'll throw down two face downs and call it a turn."
"Two face down cards… Since he can't attack my Machine King he must be planning on destroying it with a trap card… Fortunately I have just the card in my hand to render all his traps useless."
Billy drew his card.
"It's your standby phase!" said Jaden "So now my Mirage of Nightmare let's me draw until I have four cards in my hand!"
"A lot of good that will do you. First I'll pay 1000 life points to activate the effect of my Rushed Production spell card, and I'll use it to special summon Jinzo from my deck with half it's attack and defense points."
(Billy: 3550)
(ATK: 1200 DEF: 750)
"Next I'll sacrifice him so that I can summon Jinzo - Lord!"
(ATK: 2600 DEF: 1600)
"Now the effect of my Machine Insurance spell activates, since Jinzo went from the field to the graveyard I now gain life points equal to the average of Jinzo's original attack and defense points!"
(Billy: 5500)
"And since Jinzo – Lord is a Machine, my Machine King now gets an extra 100 attack points."
(ATK: 2400)
"Well then I guess now's as good a time as ever to activate my face down card." said Jaden.
"Haven't you been listening slacker? In fact don't answer that. Jinzo – Lord is on the field, so you can't activate traps!" said Bill.
"Well then it's a very good thing this isn't a trap I'm activating." replied Jaden.
"What?!"
"It's my Emergency Provisions spell card, so now I'll give up my Mirage of Nightmare and my face down Bubble Shuffle to gain back some life points."
(Jaden: 4500)
"Fine… Have your little life point boost! It won't change a thing! Machine King, attack his face down monster!"
When Billy's Machine King attacked Jaden's face down Clayman it only had half it's defense points.
"Since I just destroyed one of your monsters my Spoils of War spell card now let's me draw 2 cards from my deck. Now Jinzo – Lord, attack the ******* directly!"
When Jaden was blasted by Jinzo - Lord's attack he was once again shocked by the electrified stadium floors.
(Jaden: 1900)
"It doesn't matter what card you play slacker! She's my Alexis now, and no one is going to take her from me!"
"This isn't fair!" said Syrus. "How is Jaden supposed to fight when his monsters only have half their attack and defense points?"
"Yeah, this jerk's cheating and Jaden just has to accept it?" said Blair.
"I knew that maniac would try something like this… I guess it's to bring in the big guns." said Chazz getting out his cell phone.
"What are you doing?" asked Mindy.
"Evening the odds."
Miles away someone groaned in anger because the ringing of his phone distracted him from the video game he was playing.
"Congratulations, you just cost me 50,000 points and my chance to wipe out and entire alien hive… Oh Mr. Princeton! How can I be of service? Oh…. No problem."
He ran over to his computer and got right to work.
"A little ghost imaging… a little satellite uplink… oh yeah, I am good."
"I've got to get something started." thought Jaden getting up "One more attack like that and it's over…"
Jaden drew his card.
"Yes! This is just what I… Darn… I forgot that for some reason all my monsters now lose half their attack and defense points when I summon them."
"Jaden I have a feeling you don't need to worry about that anymore." said Yubel.
"What makes you think so?"
"I don't know I've just got this feeling."
"Okay, if you say so Yubel."
Jaden looked over his hand to make sure he had everything he needed.
"Okay, I'll throw down a face down, next I play the spell card Polymerization to fuse the Burstinatrix and the Bubbleman in my hand to summon Elemental Hero Steam Healer!"
(ATK: 1800 DEF: 1000)
"What?!" exclaimed Billy.
"Now that's more like it!" said Jaden.
Jaden and Billy weren't the only one's that were surprised that Jaden's monsters had suddenly regained their normal status.
"Chazz, who did you just call?" asked Blair.
"I'd tell you, but then I'd have to kill you." he said smiling.
"Now I activate the field spell Skyscraper! Since your Jinzo – Lord has more attack points then my Steam Healer gets a 1000 point boost."
(ATK: 2800)
"Steam Healer, attack his Jinzo – Lord!"
Jaden's Steam Healer blasted Billy's Jinzo – Lord into nothingness.
(Billy: 5300)
Suddenly Billy was shocked by the stadium's electrified floors. But that wasn't supposed to happed, the stadium was only supposed to shock his opponent!
"Obviously you forgot about my Machine Insurance spell, since one of my machine monsters was just sent from the field to the grave I now gain life points equal to the average of my destroyed monster's attack and defense points!"
(Billy: 7400)
"But I also destroyed him with my Steam Healer, so now I gain life points equal to your destroyed monster's attack points."
(Jaden: 4500)
"And now I'll… wait, there aren't any cards left in my hand. Well I guess that's the end of my turn."
"I thought you fixed that slacker's duel disk so that all his monster's would have only half their attack and defense points!" whispered Billy through the comlink in his helmet. "And why did you set the stadium to give shocks on both sides?!"
"We didn't set the stadium to shock you sir, and we did fix Mr. Yuki's duel disk, but apparently somebody unfixed it."
"Well, then you'll un-unfix it! And shut off those blasted shockers on my side!"
"Don't you mean re-fix it? And it doesn't look like we can do either of those things."
"What do you mean?"
"We've been locked out by a remote terminal, it looks like we've been hacked!"
"What?! But how… who… oh forget it… You can't rely on anyone these days, you've got to do everything yourself." said Billy.
(To be continued)
So Jaden's duel disk is no longer sabotaged
but Bill still has a few tricks up his sleeve
The duel continues in
Chapter 10: Dueling by the seat of your pants