Tyranno came awake with a start as a bucket of cold water was thrown over him. "What, who the…" he spluttered.

"Glad you're awake, old buddy" a voice growled. "I don't want you to miss anything."

It took a moment for Tyranno to recognize the voice. He shook his head, clearing away the last of his drowsiness and focused on the speaker.

In front of him was a young man his own age, even taller and more heavily muscled than him with black hair gelled into short spikes. He wore tattered jeans and a scuffed jacket. His face looked as if it was fixed into a permanent scowl.

Tyranno recognized him and his eyes bulged as he said, "Sludge."

He tried to move only to find that his hands were handcuffed behind his back. "What in Sam Hill?"

Only then did he realize that they were in a large empty chamber with bare wooden walls and floor. There were several wooden posts, one of which he was handcuffed to, and a small table on which lay a duel disk and a key. Bright fluorescent lights glared down upon him.

His captor laughed humorlessly. "Oh you remember me, I'm touched." His scowl deepened as he added, "do you also remember how you sold us all out?"

"Dang it Sludge, what you guys did was wrong! Everything we did was wrong, but beating up that old guy went too far."

"Save it, I ain't interested in speeches" Sludge replied. "When I heard you'd gone to Duel Academy I thought about heading there myself but I decided it'd be less risky to let you come back to me. But anyway enough chatting, it's time I taught you a lesson you won't have learned at your fancy academy. I'm gonna teach you what happens when someone betrays me." He cracked his knuckles menacingly

"Stop!" a voice called.

He spun around to see Sadie standing a short distance away. "I won't let you hurt Sarge" she said firmly.

"And how are you gonna do that?" Sludge asked curtly.

"Say, get out of here! Run!" Tyranno yelled.

Sadie forced herself to ignore him and said "how about we settle this with a duel? I win and you let Sarge go."

Sludge leered at her. "And if I win you'll do whatever I want."

Her determined expression didn't waver. "Deal."

"Say, don't!" Tyranno yelled. "I ain't worth you taking a risk like that!"

"You're my friend Sarge" she replied. "I won't abandon a friend."

"Say…"

"Shut it Ty, the deal's been made" Sludge snapped as he put on his duel disk. He smiled mockingly. "Since I'm such a nice guy I'll let the little doll go first."

"Thanks" she said wryly as she took out her own duel disk and put it on. Both duellists activated their disks and exclaimed "let's duel!"

Sadie drew a card and examined her hand carefully. I better start out slow she thought.

"I set one monster face down and end my turn" she said.

Sludge grinned. "My move. First I send King of the Swamp from my hand to the Graveyard. This lets me add a polymerization card from my deck to my hand. Now I play polymerization to fuse Humanoid Slime and Worm Drake to form Humanoid Worm Drake!"

A bizarre monster appeared in front of him. It was formed out of blue-grey liquid with a tail, no legs, two wing-like structures on its back, a pointed head and two arms, one of which ended in a scythe-like blade.

Humanoid Worm Drake: ATK 2200. DEF 2000

"Humanoid Worm Drake, attack her face down!"

As the monster flew to attack and slashed with its arm blade at the face down card, Sadie called, "not so fast! I reveal my face down, Swarm of Scarabs. This monster's flip effect destroys one monster on your side of the field."

The holographic card flipped upright and exploded in a shower of pixels, but as it did so Humanoid Worm Drake was engulfed by a swarm of black scarab beetles. A second later and it too exploded.

He glared at her venomously. "I end my turn" he growled.

She smiled as she drew another card. "I summon UFO Turtle in attack mode."

Her monster materialized on the field. It resembled a giant green turtle with its shell replaced by what looked like a silvery flying saucer with a pointed top and a row of circular yellow lights running around it.

UFO Turtle: ATK 1400. DEF 1200

Sadie was usually reluctant to attack her opponents, preferring a stall and burn strategy, but this was too good an opportunity to ignore. "UFO Turtle attack him directly!"

UFO Turtle hissed and fired a yellow laser. Sludge doubled over as the beam struck him squarely in the chest.

Sludge: 2600 Life Points.

"Yahoo! Go get him Say!" Tyranno cheered enthusiastically.

"Thanks Sarge" she said. "I place one card face down and end my turn"

My Gravity Bind trap card should stop him if he tries to attack she thought.

He drew a card and looked at it, his glower fading as he saw what it was. "I play Pot of Greed. We all know what this does" he said as he drew two more cards. "I now play the spell Water Hazard."

A holographic card depicting a cresting wave materialised in front of him.

"With no monsters on the field I can use this to Special Summon a Level Four or below Water Type monster from my hand. I summon Gruesome Goo."

The monster that appeared was a large blob of brown ooze with two bulging eyes on stalks and a wide mouth filled with sharp teeth. A curved blade sprouted from its side.

Gruesome Goo: ATK 1300. DEF 700

"And as that was a Special Summon I can also summon Mucus Yolk."

Another slimy blob materialized next to Gruesome Goo. This monster shone a dark red and was featureless, save for an orb in its centre where the glow emanated from.

Mucus Yolk: ATK 0. DEF 100

She fought off an urge to grimace at the two gross monsters but then she noticed something odd about the second. 0 attack points? That monster has to have some kind of effect, but what could it be?

"See little doll, at first I was gonna go easy on ya" Sludge sneered. "But now things are gonna get nice and messy, thanks to my field spell Umi. Not only does this give my monsters 200 extra attack and defence points, it also takes away 200 attack and defence points from yours."

The spell activated, covering the field in water. UFO Turtle seemed to droop slightly and its saucer-shell turned red-brown with rust while both slime monsters expanded in size.

UFO Turtle: ATK 1200. DEF 1000

Gruesome Goo: ATK 1500. DEF 900

Mucus Yolk: ATK 200. DEF 300

That means his monster is now stronger than my turtle she realized in alarm. And since its only a Level 3 monster my Gravity Bind won't affect it!

"Gruesome Goo, destroy her turtle!"