"Jaden… Jaden wake up!"
Jaden's friends were all crowed around his fallen body.
"Who was that person he was dueling anyway?" asked Jesse.
Some of them went over to look at Jaden's unconscious opponent. They pulled the skull mask off his face and saw that his skin was ghastly pale, even more frightening were the three large scars on the left side of his face.
"Who the heck is this?" asked Aster.
"Oh my gosh! I'd know that face anywhere!" said Crowler "It's John Laughton!"
"Who?"
"He was once a student here at Duel Academy… the other students bullied him because of his albinism."
"I remember now…" said Zane "He got into trouble with the authorities a few years ago. He uses airborne toxins to induce hallucinations, his opponent's think they're seeing ghosts, and he uses this to scare them to death. Who knows what he could have done to Jaden."
"Just a minute, this will bring him back."
Atticus pulled out something with a stench that struck everyone like a bolt of lightning.
"What is that?!" exclaimed Syrus.
"A stinky sock. Trust me, this thing could raise the dead."
"Pee-yeew! That is ripe!" said Jasmine.
"Whose is it?" asked Mindy.
Chazz was blushing.
"Give me that!"
Not even the foul sock could wake Jaden up. Then Alexis got an idea.
"Jaden! Your dinner's ready!" she yelled in his ear.
"Uggh… dinner? Where's dinner?!"
Jaden sat up and realized where he was.
"Give us all a heart attack why don't ya?"
"Lexi… I'm okay… where's Sakura?"
"She's inside, we just got her back to sleep."
"I… I saw the island destroyed…"
"It was just a hallucination… We saw you being drugged with something on the TV…"
"Well that explains that… Now where's this dinner I'm hearing about?"
Some of the others fell over.
(You know what I mean, that thing in anime shows when someone says or does something that surprises everyone and they all just fall over)
"Tell you what Jaden." said Dorothy "You beat Billy and we'll have a nice big dinner waiting for you when you get back."
"Sounds like a plan. But we don't know where he is."
Suddenly Billy's image appeared on the TV.
"Congratulations slacker, you've defeated all the worthless others and completed the gauntlet! Now only one task remains… I'm waiting for you at Obelisk arena."
Light suddenly shone outside leading the way to the arena.
"Well that's my queue…"
"Hopefully this will be the last time."
"You know what they say guys, the third time's the charm."
Jaden made his way across the island to Obelisk arena. When he got there he found that all the lights were out.
"Alright I know you're in here, so come on out you maniac."
Mecha-Billy jumped down from the ceiling and stood to face Jaden.
"I must admit slacker, I'm surprised you made it this far… Beating Bruno, Heather, and being able to beat John while he had you on a visit to trip out city. You're harder to kill than a cockroach on steroids."
"You're one to talk. Even when we watch you get your head ripped off you always come back…"
"That's right… I'll do it again and again! I will make you pay for what you've done to me!"
"Threatening my family was bad enough, but now you threaten to blow up the whole island and everyone on it just to get to me? You're completely mad! Where's the detonator?!"
Billy pulled a remote out of his hands and pressed the button.
"NO!!!"
At that moment, all across Academy Island, black boxes that had been placed inside the buildings erupted sending confetti all over the place, they also sent huge banners into the air that read "BLAMMAAGE!!!".
"Are you telling me that you got us all worked up over nothing?"
"Pretty much. See slacker if not for Elizabeth I would be in the fiery underworld, and I'm never going back, I know God would never forgive me if I wiped out an island of innocent people when it wasn't necessary. All I'm really after is you, and I know God won't punish me for that, after all… an eye for an eye."
"That's it… now I'm going to kill you."
"Sure, but first slacker I think it's time for our final showdown. Now give me a good fight, like you always do…"
They both activated their duel disks.
"Let's duel!"
"I'll start things off! I'll summon a monster in defense mode and end my turn."
Jaden remembered that Billy had tried something like this before.
"I'm not falling for that again… I activate the spell card Nobleman of Crossout! This allows me to destroy one face down defense position monster you have out and remove it from play!"
Billy's Blast Sphere was removed from play.
"Now I'll summon Elemental Hero Heat!"
(ATK: 1600 DEF: 1200)
"My hero gains 200 attack points for every Elemental Hero on my side of the field, including himself!"
(ATK: 1800)
"Elemental Hero Heat, attack!"
(Billy: 2200)
"That was luck, but it won't save you from this, I activate Dian Keto the Cure Master, this spell card give me 1000 life points."
(Billy: 3200)
"Next I activate the spell cards Rushed Production and Machine Insurance. Now I'll used Rushed Production's effect, by giving up 1000 life points I can special summon Jinzo from my deck!"
(Billy: 2200)
(ATK: 1200 DEF: 750)
"Sure he only has half the attack and defense points he normally would, but it doesn't really matter because now I'm going to sacrifice him to summon Jinzo – Lord!"
(ATK: 2600 DEF: 1600)
"Now the effect of my Machine Insurance kicks in, since my Jinzo was sent from the field to the graveyard I now gain life points equal to the average of his attack and defense points!"
(Billy: 4150)
"Jinzo – Lord, attack!"
Jinzo – Lord blew Hero Heat away with a blast of psychic energy.
(Jaden: 3200)
"If he thinks that monster scares me he's sadly mistaken, it may prevent me from using any trap cards, but I don't need any to beat it."
Jaden drew his card.
"I summon Elemental Hero Stratos!"
(ATK: 1800 DEF: 300)
"When Stratos is successfully summoned, I can take an Elemental Hero from my deck and add it to my hand. Next I'll play R – Righteous Justice and use it to destroy your Machine Insurance. And now I'll play Double Summon so I can summon another monster, my Elemental Hero Sparkman!"
(ATK: 1600 DEF: 1400)
"Next I'll activate the spell card Spark Blaster. With this my Sparkman can force your Jinzo – Lord into defense mode!"
Sparkman shot Jinzo – Lord with his blaster, forcing him on the defensive.
(DEF: 1600)
"Now my Stratos can destroy it!"
Stratos flew up into the air and went into a dive bomb, it struck Jinzo – Lord dead on destroying it.
"Now Sparkman, attack him directly!"
(Billy: 2550)
"You're going to pay for that slacker! I activate the effect of my Rushed Production! By giving up 1000 life points I can special summon my Blowback Dragon from my deck with half its points!"
(Billy: 1550)
(ATK: 1150 DEF: 600)
"Next I'll play Polymerization, and I'll use it to fuse my Blowback Dragon with the Barrel Dragon in my hand to summon Gatling Dragon!"
(ATK: 2600 DEF: 1200)
"Now I play the spell card The Spoils of War and activate my Gatling Dragon's special ability! Now I toss a coin three times, and for each time it's heads I can destroy a monster on your side of the field."
Billy tossed the coin three times, but each time it came up tails.
"Shoot, it is of no matter… Gatling Dragon, attack his Sparkman!"
BUDDA-BUDDA-BUDDA-BUDDA-BUDDA-BUDDA
(Jaden: 2200)
"And now thanks to my continuous spell card The Spoils of War, I can draw two cards from my deck!"
"He's going to need them."
Jaden drew his card.
"I activate the field spell Skyscraper!"
After Jaden's buildings surrounded the field he held up the last card in his hand.
"And now I'll activate Emergency Card Stash, enabling me to draw six cards from my deck. Next I'll place this card face down. Now since my Stratos has less attack points than your Gatling Dragon, Skyscraper gives him a 1000 point bonus!"
(ATK: 2800)
"Stratos, attack!"
(Billy: 1350)
"That's it slacker… I'm done playing with you… I activate my Rushed Production spell card! By giving up 1000 life points I can special summon Machine King from my deck with half his points!"
(ATK: 1100 DEF: 1000)
"Next I'll play Fiend's Sanctuary, allowing me to summon a metal fiend token!"
(ATK: 0 DEF: 0)
"Now I'll sacrifice it and my Machine King to summon Perfect Machine King!"
(ATK: 2700 DEF: 1500)
"Now I'll equip him with the ultimate spell card, THE HYPER-DEATH RAY!!!"
"Oh it just had to be that one." said Jaden.
"When my Perfect Machine King is equipped with this spell card, not only does he deal damage even if your monsters are in defense mode, but he also gains 1000 attack points for every machine monster in my graveyard, in case you haven't been counting it's six."
(ATK: 8700)
"Perfect Machine King, end this!!!"
Billy's Machine King blasted Jaden's Stratos with the Hyper-Death Ray, but when the smoke cleared Jaden's life points were untouched.
"WHAT!?!"
"Sorry Bill, but when you attacked I activated my Hero Spirit, which I used to reduced the damage inflicted by your monster to zero."
"Err… Too bad that only works for one turn… And since I destroyed one of your monsters I can draw two cards thanks to my Spoils of War, and I think I'll play them right now, two copies of Dian Keto the Cure Master, which I can use to gain back two thousand life points!"
(Billy: 2350)
"On my next turn I will finish you off forever!"
Jaden drew his card.
"Sorry Bill, but there is no next turn for you."
"You bluff!"
"I think not. I activate Polymerization to fuse Elemental Heroes Avian and Burstinatrix to summon Elemental Hero Flame Wingman!"
(ATK: 2100 DEF: 1200)
"Next I activate Miracle Fusion, and I'll use it to fuse my Flame Wingman with the Sparkman in my graveyard to summon Elemental Hero Shining Flare Wingman!"
(ATK: 2500 DEF: 2100)
"Now for every one of my heroes chilling out in the graveyard, my Wingman gets an extra three hundred attack points."
(ATK: 3700)
"That's still not nearly enough, my Machine King has more than twice that many points!"
"I know, all because of that Hyper-Death ray, a problem all too easy to fix."
"WHAT!?!"
"I activate the spell card Mystical Space Typhoon, and I'll use it to destroy your Hyper-Death Ray, so your Machine King loses the six thousand attack points it gained!"
(ATK: 2700)
"Wingman, attack!"
Shining Flare Wingman blasted Billy's Machine King into oblivion.
(Billy: 1200)
"And when Flare Wingman destroys a monster, that monster's attack points are dealt to you as damage!"
(Billy: 0)
All across Duel Academy people started celebrating, but Aster, Zane, and Jesse could tell something was wrong.
"That was way too easy."
"NOOOOOOOO!!!"
Suddenly Billy was engulfed in a bright white light, when it faded Tom was standing in his place.
"But… he told me his deck would be sufficient to defeat you…"
"Tom!!!"
"So it wasn't Billy after all." said Chazz "It was Tom mimicking the role."
"But if that's Tom… where is the real Billy?"
Jaden left the arena to return to the Obelisk Blue dorm to discuss with his friends where Billy might be, leaving Tom on his knees at the arena.
"I don't… understand… He's beaten Yugi's deck… he's beaten Kaiba's deck… my processors tell me Pegasus' deck won't work either… Is there no dueling deck that can defeat his?"
Just then something crossed Tom's mind.
"Yes… No dueling deck can defeat his…"
(To be continued)
That's right folks, it's not over yet!
What is Billy planning, what does he hope to gain from all this besides revenge?!
The plot thickens...
