(the illustration of Jaden's opponent in this chapter is available on deviantart)

After Billy's message the first thing Jaden and Alexis did was run to check on their daughter, they were relieved to see that she was still with Blair, right where they left her.

"You guys better stay here, Billy made it pretty clear that he wants me alone."

"Jaden…"

"Alexis I have to do this."

"I know but… be careful… I don't want to become a widow when I'm not even two years into my marriage."

"Yes Lexi, I'll be careful. You just watch out for yourself and Sakura, trusting that mechanical monster isn't a mistake I intend to make. Everyone else, keep your eyes open, try and find out what you can on this Elizabeth Beaufort, it could come in handy later."

"Don't worry Jay." said Jesse "We'll take care of Alexis, and your little girl, isn't that right guys?" he said to his cards.

"If that lame brain comes anywhere near my godchild, I'll blow his mechanical head off and make sure this time he stays dead." said Chazz.

Suddenly they heard Billy's voice over the intercom.

"Attention slacker… Your first opponent is getting impatient… and he doesn't like to be kept waiting…"

"I guess that's my queue to exit."

Jaden was just preparing to leave when he remembered something.

"Yubel, do me a favor and stay with Sakura, I don't want anything to happen to her."

"Don't worry Jaden… That maniac won't get near her."

As Jaden made his way through the dark deserted woods to the Slifer Red dorm he thought about all that was at stake here.

"Don't worry Jaden, I will help you win!" said Avian.

"We will help you win." said Burstinatrix.

"Yep, you got it Jaden!" said Air Hummingbird.

"Winning is our job!" said Grand Mole.

"Now let's go kick his butt!" said Sparkman.

Suddenly Jaden heard screaming, the next thing he knew there was a lot of Slifer students running past him.

"It's coming! It's coming!" said a student that ran into him "Run for your life! Run! Run! RUN!!! And when you're finished, RUN SOME MORE!!!"

"Okay, calm down… What happened?"

"Ba-ba-ba back there... Da-da-da-da."

"Okay, why don't you tell me what happened?" said Jaden to another student.

"Sure, Da-da-da-da."

"Well we know one thing's for sure Kuriboh. There's da-da-da-da over there."

Jaden finally made it to the Slifer Red dorm. He noticed that Sheppard had put a stone statue of Slifer the Sky Dragon a few feet from the dorm building. Apparently it was meant to inspire the students.

"Kinda brightens up the place."

This dorm had been Jaden's home the whole time he was a student at Duel Academy. Sure it was a dump, but for those years it had been his dump.

"Hello! Anyone home?!"

Jaden didn't see anyone around, and he was sure that Billy said his first opponent would be here. That's when he heard the intercom.

"Hello Jaden, this is Elizabeth pinch hitting for Billy who is... how do you say it? Decomposed?"

"Not decomposed! Indisposed! Geez." said Billy's voice.

"Sure, now where's my opponent?" asked Jaden.

"Oh he's on his way… wait a minute… do you hear something?"

Elizabeth played something that sounded like the tick tock of a clock, then he heard something that sounded like real deep breathing, it seemed to be getting louder and louder with each passing second, then Jaden saw that Kuriboh seemed to be panicking and pointing at him.

"There's something really bad behind me isn't there."

Jaden turned around and…

"GYAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!"

Back at the Obelisk Blue dorm everyone could see what was happening on the TV.

"By the god cards! What is that thing!?!" exclaimed Crowler.

Jaden was staring face to face with a ten foot creature with gray scaly skin, arms thicker than a tree, giant jagged teeth, and to top it all off a tail.

"Is that a man?!" asked Zane.

"Not at all." said Elizabeth "Remember the crocodiles Billy used a year ago? He got them from his companies research division which was experimenting with animal mutations, the big crocodile you see on screen is our first real success."

"Oh so he's just a monster, to think I was worried." said Aster.

"Let me guess… You call him Croc." said Jaden as if he wasn't afraid at all.

"HA-AH-AH-ARGH, pathetic mammal!" it said in a deep harsh voice "I am Bruno! The crocodile that walks like a man! And once I defeat you in this duel I will be rewarded with a suitable mate!"

"Mate?"

"That's pretty much all animals do." said Elizabeth "Mate and eat."

"Now enough talking… Let's duel!"

"Dueling ten foot crocodiles that walk on their hind legs?" said Blair "Now I've seen everything."

"Come on Mr. Hero… Take care of the big bad monster." joked Bruno.

"Oh I'll take care of you." said Jaden "My heroes and I will kick your scaly butt!"

"We'll see about that… Now come on."

Both of them activated their duel disks and their life point totals went to 4000.

"Let's duel!"

"I'm the biggest so I'll start! I summon a monster in defense mode, and next I'll play the spell card "A" Cell Breeding Device."

"What's that do?"

"Oh you'll find out soon enough… But in the mean time it's your turn."

"Okay, I summon Elemental Hero Sparkman in attack mode!"

(ATK: 1600 DEF: 1400)

"Next I'll have him attack your face down monster."

Jaden's Sparkman had no trouble.

"Now I'll just throw down a face down and call it a turn."

"HA-AH-AH-AH! You call that a monster? I eat punks like him for breakfast!"

"Just make your move."

"My pleasure, now the effect of my "A" Cell Breeding Device activates!"

Suddenly an a huge purple slug like creature shot out of the machine and attached itself to Jaden's Sparkman.

"What is that thing?!"

"That's an alien counter, once per turn during my standby phase my "A" Cell Breeding Device lets me attach one to one of your monsters. Now I'll play the spell card Mystical Space Typhoon and use it to destroy your face down card. Next I'll summon Alien Hunter!"

(ATK: 1600 DEF: 800)

"Aliens? Why would a huge crocodile monster be using alien troops?" asked Hassleberry.

"You never studied, did you?" said Syrus "I'm willing to bet this guy is using aliens because it's one of the only existing archetypes for reptile monsters."

"Now I activate the field spell Otherworld - The "A" Zone, next I'll attack your Sparkman with my Alien Hunter!"

"But they have the same attack points."

"Not for long, thanks to the effect of Otherworld - The "A" Zone, whenever one of your monsters battles one of my alien monsters, your monster loses 300 attack and defense points!"

(ATK: 1300 DEF: 1100)

"Now my Alien Hunter, attack!"

Jaden's Sparkman was impaled on the Alien Hunter's trident.

(Jaden: 3700)

"And now my Alien Hunter's effect kicks in, whenever he destroys a monster that was equipped with an alien counter, he can attack again, only this time it's directly!"

"Okay, not good."

"Alien Hunter, attack!"

(Jaden: 2100)

"Looks like Jaden's off to a rocky start. Don't you think so Billy?" said Elizabeth.

"Just tell me when it's over…"

"What's his problem?" asked Atticus.

"Bro don't you remember? He only had his head bitten off by a crocodile, he's probably petrified by them."

"Oh yeah."

"It's my turn!" said Jaden "And I'll summon a monster in defense mode. Now stop me if I'm wrong about this, but I'm sure your "A" Cell Breeding Device can't attach an alien counter to one of my monsters if you don't even know what it is."

"A lucky guess, but you're still not safe from me! I summon Alien Infiltrator!"

(ATK: 800 DEF: 500)

"And get this… If there are no cards on your side of the field in the same column as my Alien Infiltrator, then he can attack you directly!"

"Say what?!"

"Alien Infiltrator, attack!"

(Jaden: 1300)

"Okay… I've got to get something started!"

Jaden drew his card.

"First I'll switch the facedown Elemental Hero Wildheart on my field to attack mode."

(ATK: 1500 DEF: 1600)

"Now I activate the spell card Hand Destruction, now both of us need to discard two cards from our hands and draw two new cards!"

"So what was the point?"

"That point is I was looking for this, Polymerization! Which I'll use to fuse the Wildheart on my field with the Bladedge in my hand, in order to summon Elemental Hero Wildedge!"

(ATK: 2600 DEF: 2300)

"And if you think he's awesome now, just wait till you see his super power! He can attack all the monsters on your side of the field!"

"What?!"

"Wildedge, attack!"

Both of Bruno's monsters were destroyed.

(Bruno: 2200)

"Wait a minute… Shouldn't you have lost more life points than that?"

"You forget the effect of Otherworld - The "A" Zone, whenever one of your monsters battles one of my alien monsters, your monster loses 300 attack and defense points!"

"Okay, I'll just have to try harder next time."

"Now that's more like it!" said Syrus.

"That's my Jaden." said Alexis.

"Err… You'll pay for that mammal! I activate the effect of my "A" Cell Breeding Device to place an alien counter on your precious Wildedge. Next I'll place a card face down and play Code A Ancient Ruins."

"What does that do?"

"Oh you'll find out…"

"Not before I wipe you out with this, my Elemental Hero Heat!"

(ATK: 1600 DEF: 1200)

"And for every Elemental Hero on my side of the field, he gains 200 attack points!"

(ATK: 2000)

"Hero Heat, attack!"

"Not so fast! I activate my trap card, Negate Attack! As I'm sure you know this cancels your monster's attack and ends the battle phase."

Jaden's attack was blocked.

"It's my turn again, and I'll use the effect of my "A" Cell Breeding Device to place another alien counter on your Wildedge. Next I activate the spell card Pot of Greed and draw two more cards from my deck… Next I'll remove the two alien counters on your Wildedge so I can special summon my Alien Overlord!"

(ATK: 2200 DEF: 1600)

"Now I'll activate his special effect! Once per turn I can place an alien counter on all the monsters that you have out! Next I'll activate the effect of my Code A Ancient Ruins, by removing the alien counters I just attached to your monsters, I can special summon an Alien monster from my graveyard, and I think I'll choose Alien Hunter."

(ATK: 1600 DEF: 800)

"But he won't be around for long, because now I'm sacrificing him to summon my Alien Mother!"

(ATK: 2300 DEF: 1500)

"Okay… definitely not friendly."

"Don't worry, her bite is as bad as her bark. But first I'll play the spell card Corruption Cell "A", this lets me place an alien counter on your Wildedge. Now I'll attack him with my Alien Overlord!"

"But my monster has more attack points!"

"Not quite, thanks to the effects of Otherworld - The "A" Zone and my Alien Overlord, your monster loses 600 attack points!"

(ATK: 2000)

"Overlord, attack!"

Jaden's weakened Wildedge was destroyed.

(Jaden: 1100)

"Now you no longer have that monster to give power to your Hero Heat, so he loses 200 attack points!"

(ATK: 1800)

"And now I'll attack him with Alien Mother, thus activating the effect of my Otherworld - The "A" Zone, causing it to lose 300 more attack points!"

(ATK: 1500)

"Alien Mother, attack!"

(Jaden: 300)

"He's only got 300 life points left!" exclaimed Syrus.

"Come on Jaden, you can do this!" said Alexis.

"I must admit Bruno… Those Alien monsters of yours are pretty sweet, but I think it's time you met some of mine… I activate O - Oversoul! This lets me special summon a normal Elemental Hero from my graveyard, and I choose the one and only Elemental Neos!"

(ATK: 2500 DEF: 2000)

"What the?! He wasn't in your graveyard!"

"Think again, remember when I played Hand Destruction?"

"… Oh yeah."

"And he's not the only card I sent to the graveyard, I also sent Neo-Spacian Aqua Dolphin there as well, so now I can play Cocoon Party, and use it to special summon Chrysalis Pinny!"

(ATK: 100 DEF: 700)

"Next I'll activate the spell card Contact, this causes Chrysalis Pinny to grow up into Neo Spacian Glow Moss!"

(ATK: 300 DEF: 900)

"Now I'll activate a contact fusion between him and Neos to summon… wait for it… Elemental Hero Glow Neos!"

(ATK: 2500 DEF: 2000)

"Now I'll activate his special effect, I get to destroy one card on your side of the field, and what happens next depends on that cards type. And I choose… your "A" Cell Breeding Device!"

Bruno's card was destroyed.

"And since I used Glow Neo's attack to destroy a spell card, he can now attack you directly!"

"WHAT!?!"

"Neos, finish him off!"

(Bruno: 0)

"No… I can't lose… now I'll never get a mate! This is all your fault! I WILL RIP YOU APART AND EAT YOU ALIVE!!! GYAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!"

Suddenly something shocked Bruno before he could touch Jaden.

"Twinkle… twinkle… little star…"

Bruno fell to ground.

"What the heck?"

"Don't worry, he's just unconscious." said Elizabeth. "Billy wants the honor of killing you all to himself. Now proceed to the Ra Yellow dorm, your next opponent is waiting for you there."

(To be continued)