"Jaden… Jaden wake up, we'll be there in a couple hours."

In an instant Jaden stood up like he was dueling, only his eyes were still closed.

"Wrong! Because I played a trap!"

Sakura laughed at her father's remark.

"Who was it this time?"

"It was Yugi again."

"Didn't you already beat his deck once?"

"Yeah, but Yugi wasn't using it, and that was minus the Egyptian gods."

"So did my favorite niece sleep soundly last night?" asked Atticus.

"Bro, she's your only neice."

"That makes her my favorite."

While the rest of them were eating breakfast Jesse noticed that Sakura was trying to catch Jaden's Winged Kuriboh as it flew playfully in circles around her.

"Hey Jaden, you never told me she could duel spirits too."

"Guess I forgot to mention it."

"I'll have to introduce her to mine one of these days."

"I still don't see how Chancellor Sheppard managed to squeeze in a few extra people just so we could be there for Sakura's birthday." said Blair.

"He said, the more the merrier, and besides he knows we were all there when… when Sakura was born, he knows we wouldn't miss her first birthday for the world."

"Well we all know there is one person Sheppard didn't have to make room for." joked Aster.

At that moment Jasmine slapped Aster in the back of the head.

"Ow! What was that for?" he asked.

"You know Alexis doesn't like it when you bring him up!"

"What are you all so scared of? He's dead."

"We know, we were all there. Old Bad Bill did a cannon ball right into a tank full of crocodiles! AAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!" said Hassleberry doing his impression of Billy's final moments.

"That doesn't change what he tried to do." said Zane looking at Sakura.

"And besides, he was ungodly rich, how do we know the people at his company didn't find a way to cure him?"

After Syrus finished his statement everyone was quiet for a minute, then they started laughing.

"Yeah, I expect they cured death the instant Jaden beat him." said Chazz "I expect he owned hospitals that are now packed with the dead. Hello Mr. Jobs, take one of these three times a day you'll soon be living again. Carry him out, next corpse please."

They all laughed again.

When the boat arrived at the docks Jaden and friends found Sheppard and others waiting for them.

"Jaden! It's been far too long, how've you all been?"

"You already know the answer to that."

"Is that her?"

"Yep, that's little Sakura."

"Awe, she's darling!" said Dorothy "She looks just like you Alexis… except the eyes, those are definitely Jaden's."

"Well it's nice to see she takes after her mother…"

Without warning Sakura kicked Crowler in the chin.

"Oh my gosh! Dr. Crowler I'm so sorry!"

"It's okay! She's just a baby, she doesn't know any better… oww… powerful for a little tyke."

"Uba!"

"She can talk?"

"She can talk, but she hasn't said anything yet." said Alexis.

"What do you mean she hasn't said anything?" asked Crowler "She just said Uba."

"Uba is not a word." said Chazz.

"What is Uba?" thought Jaden.

"It's kinda her name for me." said Yubel "She thought Crowler was an evil clown or something, so she asked for my help. But if you ask me she did just fine by herself."

"Oh, that still doesn't count as a word though."

Sheppard showed Jaden and the others through the grounds, apparently they had done some landscaping since Jaden and the others graduated.

"Love what you've done with the place Chancellor."

"Yes, over the years we've made a few cosmetic improvements, but that's not all we've done, which reminds me… Jaden, would you be willing to do a little demonstration for the students?"

"If by demonstration you mean duel, sure, just who would I be dueling?"

"Follow me and I'll show you."

Jaden knew that he'd be facing his opponent in Obelisk arena, when they got there it was filled with students who had come to watch the duel. Alexis had been right, there was a number of Slifer students chanting Jaden's name.

"Okay everyone, calm down! Jaden Yuki, an alumnus of this very school, has graciously offered us his services today. Can he bring an end to Tom's winning streak?!"

"Who's Tom?"

In response to Jaden's question a blue and silver robot came in and walked onto the arena.

"Greetings… I am KCAIDR-6 a.k.a. Tom, how may I be of service?"

(Illustration now available on deviantart)

"Jaden, meet Tom, an artificial intelligence robot designed by the Kaiba Corporation with the ability to mimic the appearance and deck of virtually any duelist. Our students use him to practice with, but he's never lost a duel, and I'm hoping you can change that."

"So I'm raging against an undefeated machine… sounds like fun. Alright Tom, time to get your game on!"

"Select duel module."

"What?"

"Before Tom can duel you need to choose a duelist for him to become. Some students have Tom become themselves so they can learn new ways to use their deck, others have him become a pro duelist to see how they'd fair against them."

"So any duelist can be challenged?"

"Anyone."

"Okay Tom, surprise me."

"Processing request… Duelist identified, Jaden Yuki… calculating player strength… selecting duel module… module selected… please stand by."

The sky blue orbs on Tom's head, hands, chest, and knees started to glow. Next Tom disappeared behind a bright white light, when it faded Jaden couldn't believe it.

"I am Seto Kaiba… Prepare to duel."

"Is that really Seto Kaiba?!" asked Syrus.

"Don't you pay attention?" said Chazz. "It's Tom in the guise of Seto Kaiba."

"Yes, thanks to the hologram projectors built into his body." said Crowler "Tom will now act and think like Seto Kaiba, all the while wielding a holographic duplicate of his deck."

"But why did Tom choose Kaiba?" asked Blair.

"I'm guessing that when the player lets Tom choose, he tries to think of a deck that he knows can beat his opponent." said Zane.

"Then why didn't he just go with Yugi's deck?" asked Hassleberry.

"You weren't here when it happened." said Alexis "During our freshman year Jaden defeated a duelist who was using Yugi's deck minus the Egyptian Gods, but Jaden's never beaten Kaiba's deck… not that I'm aware of."

"Are you ready to play runt?"

"I'm always ready."

They activated their duel disks and their life point totals went to 4000.

"Let's duel!"

"Someone looks excited." said Dorothy looking at Sakura.

"She watches me and Jaden duel all the time." replied Alexis "She enjoys it."

"It's my turn! First I draw… Next I'll summon a monster in defense mode and end my turn."

"That's it? I expected more from the great Seto Kaiba, but then again I guess you're not really Kaiba. I'll place a card face down, and next I'll summon Elemental Hero Wildheart in attack mode!"

(ATK: 1500 DEF: 1600)

"Wildheart, attack and destroy his face down monster!"

Tom's monster was destroyed, but he was actually laughing.

"By destroying my Giant Germ you've activated its special effect, first you lose 500 life points!"

(Jaden: 3500)

"Now I special summon two more Giant Germs from my deck in attack mode!"

(2x ATK: 1000 DEF: 100)

"Two monsters?! With Kaiba's deck that can only mean one thing!" said Jesse.

"First I activate the spell card Mystical Space Typhoon, your face down card is destroyed!"

Jaden's Mirror Gate was destroyed.

"Now I sacrifice both my Giant Germs to summon the legendary Blue Eyes White Dragon!"

(ATK: 3000 DEF: 2500)

All of the students gasped at the sight of the legendary beast.

"Blue Eyes, attack and destroy his Wildheart! White Lightening!"

Jaden's Wildheart was incinerated by the dragon's attack.

(Jaden: 2000)

"Now this is more like it!" said Jaden.

The students were amazed by how calm Jaden seemed, then again most of them still remembered about how he never lost his cool in his televised duels against Billy Jobs.

"I play the spell card Polymerization, and I'll use it to fuse the Elemental Heroes Clayman and Bubbleman in my hand to summon Elemental Hero Mudballman!"

(ATK: 1900 DEF: 3000)

"And I think I'll leave it at that."

"Awesome!" said Syrus "Mudballman has just enough defense points to survive Blue Eyes' attack! That should buy Jaden some time!"

"But not a lot of it." said Aster "If I know Kaiba's deck then he'll be able to find a way around it, and be able to protect his monster from anything Jaden might try."

"It's my turn, and I'll summon the Lord of Dragons in attack mode!"

(ATK: 1200 DEF: 1100)

"As long as this monster is on the field all Dragon type monsters cannot be targeted by spells, traps, or monster effects that specifically designate a target."

"It's almost like I'm psychic."

"It's my turn! First I draw, next I'll place two cards face down and activate the spell card Mirage of Nightmare, now during your standby phase I can draw until there are four cards in my hand, but during my next standby phase I need to discard the same number of cards I drew."

"Is that all? What a pity… here I was thinking you'd be a worthy opponent… It's my turn again! First I draw!"

"Hold on, it's now your standby phase, so thanks to Mirage's effect I can now draw four new cards."

"Fine, just don't forget to discard four cards during your standby phase."

"Actually I won't need to, because now I'm activating my face quick-play spell Emergency Provisions, and I'll use it to destroy Mirage and gain 1000 life points!"

(Jaden: 3000)

"Too bad all those extra points and cards aren't going to do you any good. First I'll switch my Lord of Dragons to defense mode, next I activate the spell card Burst Stream of Destruction, when there is a Blue Eyes White Dragon on my side of the field I can use this spell card to destroy every monster you control!"

The Blue Eyes fired a blast that destroyed Jaden's Mudballman.

"But since you used Burst Stream of Destruction your Blue Eyes can't attack this turn."

"Oh I'm not too worried about that. I activate the spell card Polymerization!"

"NO!!!"

"Here it comes!" said Chazz.

"And I'll use it to fuse the Blue Eyes on my field with the two Blue Eyes in my hand to summon The mighty Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon!"

(ATK: 4500 DEF: 3800)

"Attack Jaden directly! Neutron Blast!!!"

The attack flew at Jaden.

"Not so fast! I activate my face down trap card, Negate Attack!"

The Ultimate Dragon's attack was swallowed into nothingness.

"Nice move… But you have only postponed your inevitable defeat!"

"You know, I wish I had a rare card for every time I've heard that." said Jaden.

He drew his card.

"Sweet! I activate my second Polymerization, and I'll use it to fuse the Elemental Heroes Avian and Burstinatrix in my hand to summon my good old friend… wait for it… Elemental Hero Flame Wingman!"

(ATK: 2100 DEF: 1200)

"A lot of good that move is going to do you Jaden…" said the copycat Kaiba "My Ultimate Dragon has more than twice as many attack points as your precious Wingman."

"Which is why I'm activating Fusion Weapon! Since Wingman is a level 6 fusion monster, I can use this spell card to give him a 1500 attack point boost!"

(ATK: 3600)

"That's still not enough…"

"I know, which is why I'm activating the field spell Skyscraper!"

Giant buildings rose out of the ground.

"Thanks to this, when one of my Elemental Heroes is about to battle a monster with more attack points, then that hero gets a 1000 attack point boost!"

(ATK: 4600)

"No!!!"

"And that gives him just enough points to wipe your dragon out! Wingman… cook his goose, or in this case his dragon."

Flame Wingman fired a blast that sent the Ultimate Dragon up in flames.

(Tom: 3900)

"NO! MY ULTIMATE DRAGON!!!"

"And that's not all, my Flame Wingman still has his super power, now you lose life points equal to your destroyed monster's attack points!"

(Tom: 0)

The students burst into applause, Tom reverted back into his normal state and fell to his knees.

"No! I can't believe this… I am superior to him in every respect… the cards… the strategy… a duelist like you can't beat me… This can't be true!!"

"Aww… To bad so sad." said Atticus "Well he's your consolation prize Tommy… It's Bucket-O-Nothing! Surprise your friends, impress your family, annoy perfect strangers! It's absolutely nothing… but wait! There's more! Order now and we'll send you a hardy handshake absolutely free! For only NINETY-NINE NINETY-NINE NINETY-NINE!!!"

"I still can't believe I'm related to him… even if it is by marriage." thought Jaden.

(To be continued)