...I just realized that I've had this chapter ready for months and never posted it. I only have two things to say on that note.

1) Oops!

2) Enjoy!

-C. Richard Crawg

Chapter Six

High Speed Gun Duel

After they had gone a few miles, Jake started to get suspicious about the car following behind them. Taking the same turn as they did once could be nothing and twice could be coincidence, but when the car matched their turn a third time, still keeping pace with them despite the traffic of Newark's streets, Jake was certain they were being followed. Jake opened a mental communication to two of his underlings; mayday, mayday, we're being followed: discover the identity of our pursuer and eliminate him.

Mr. Colburn noticed that two of the odd motorcycles were falling back, having probably noticed him, but he hadn't thought ahead this far; now that a confrontation was coming, what could he do? He was unarmed, driving at over 50 mph, and he doubted they were coming for a duel. What's worse, he recognized one of the two motorcyclists to be Simon, the only one of Jake's minions who'd escaped with him when they kidnapped Carl.

Even as he thought this, Mr. Colburn watched Simon pull alongside of him. Simon had been expecting to see a government agent or one of Solus's duelists. When he saw Mr. Colburn inside the car, his mouth immediately fell open. "You have got to be kidding me!" Mr. Colburn lip read what Simon said, and knew the only thing left to do was fight. Swerving sideways, Mr. Colburn attempted to ram Simon into a building. Finding himself losing control of his duel runner, Simon punched some buttons causing an incredibly tough dome to form around the runner, allowing Simon to crash into the wall without dying.

Mr. Colburn's eyes shot up. They could do that? He glanced at his duel disk and wondered what secrets it held outside of dueling. At that point he noticed that one of the buttons on the duel disk was flashing.

At the same time, Simon was ramming through wall after wall trying to regain control of his duel runner. Jake, Jake, you're not gonna believe it! It's his father; Carl's father is the pursuer. Jake cursed. At any other time, this might be good- he could have worked on bringing Mr. Colburn into the Order of Daemons –but now, he was busy; he needed to get back to Corbakkan ASAP and Mr. Colburn would only get in the way. Eliminate him—no check that—get him off our tale. Our primary objective is to reach Corbakkan. We cannot have this fool following us; we'll work on him later.

The minion on Mr. Colburn's right morphed his duel runner so that it had a Gatling gun attachment on either side. Then he pulled up in front of Mr. Colburn and turned around to face him while driving backwards. Taking a gamble, Mr. Colburn pushed the flashing button on his duel disk. "Battle Royal Mode engaged. Please select duel disk form." Mr. Colburn held his duel disk in front of him and pushed a random button just as the Gatling guns opened fire. The glass in the wind shield was shattered and the car went spiraling out of control.

The minion (whose name was Aaron) watched with grim satisfaction as he zoomed back toward Jake. Pack it up and forget about it, because this guy's done for. Jake sighed. Didn't I tell you not to kill him if it could be avoided? Oh well, I guess he was more trouble than he was worth anyway. We'd best just move on.

But back at the "wreck", the man in question was still alive. His duel disk had morphed into a shield, and although his legs were in poor condition after the wind shield shattered, his head and upper body were in no way harmed. Mr. Colburn tried to start the car, only to feel intense pain shoot through his legs, but he refused to give up. Starting up the car, he drove past bewildered spectators and back into the traffic. By this point, Jake and his minions were nowhere to be seen and Mr. Colburn almost gave up when suddenly Simon finally managed to come crashing out of the building he'd been stuck in for so long. Having heard that Mr. Colburn was dead, Simon didn't bother checking and instead focused on catching up with the others, so Mr. Colburn followed behind him.

Along the way, Mr. Colburn started experimenting with the various buttons on the duel disk. The first thing he noticed was that it had spat out six cards. Mr. Colburn wondered who could possibly want to mess around with holographics in the middle of a shoot out, but he picked up the cards anyway. After that he tried to find an appropriate weapon. The Gatling gun and Bazooka were too big for a driver to use, and the laser sword, axe, whip, etc. were all close range weapons. The shield had saved his life once, but it wouldn't let him return fire. Then he found it; the laser pistol was a small, ranged weapon that he could use with fair efficiency.

Around that time, his duel disk beeped at him. "Please play a card, end turn or shut down duel system." Mr. Colburn rolled his eyes. "Fine, sure, I'll play… this monster face down in defense mode and one card face-down and end my turn." The way the duel disk flashed, Mr. Colburn almost thought it had blinked in surprise. "Thank you, your next turn will begin automatically in one minute."

Around that time, Simon caught up with Aaron at the back of Jake's mob. Aaron turned just enough to acknowledge Simon's return… and to notice the car without a windshield in the rearview mirror. "Impossible."

Mr. Colburn opened fire. He wasn't a particularly good aim, especially not while driving, but he managed to score a couple of glancing blows off Aaron's duel runner. I thought you said he was dead! Jake said outraged. Go back there and finish him off and this time, I want you to bring back a body with you, or whatever's left of one. Aaron thought of throwing back a snide comment about how he thought Jake hadn't wanted Mr. Colburn dead before, but that wouldn't have gotten him any closer to a promotion.

Aaron and Simon flipped their duel runners around, and linked them remotely to the other duel runners so they could put their focus on Mr. Colburn. Mr. Colburn switched the duel disk back into a shield as Aaron let loose with the Gatling gun. Simon, deciding something more drastic may be necessary, activated a missile attachment on his duel runner. However, before he could fire, bullets started whizzing past his head and sirens started ringing in his ears. "Police! Pull over to the side of the road, all of you!"

Jake cursed. It was bad enough having Mr. Colburn on their tail, but now the police were involved and the media would follow. Scare off those cops. Corbak can handle any backlash from the media and politicians just as long as we don't kill any governmentees. Simon flashed him a thumbs up and turned to his cards. "I summon Wind Effigy!" A tornado of feathers then formed out of nowhere and, at Simon's command, proceeded to rough up the squad car. Not to be left out of the fun, Aaron declared, "I now summon the Stygian Street Patrol!" And with that another motorcycle came circling around Aaron, but this one's rider wasn't human.

Seeing the Wind Effigy attack the police, Mr. Colburn at first thought that the drivers were panicking, but when the Stygian Street Patrol started trying to drive him off the road, he realized these holograms were more dangerous than he'd previously assumed. And as if things weren't bad enough already Aaron was readying his Gatling gun again.

Mr. Colburn was about to give up and try again some other time when suddenly, Chomp! The ground under Aaron erupted and a massive worm crushed him before sinking back underground. The Stygian Street Patrol squealed as if in pain and disappeared, and Simon squealed in panic, "Medusa Worm! He summoned a Medusa Worm!" Mr. Colburn blinked. He had forgotten about the monster he placed face-down. Medusa Worm was a fairly good monster during a duel because it could destroy a monster when it was flipped face-up and could flip itself back face-down, but with its low stats, it was easily destroyed in battle.

At least that would have been the case during a duel, but this was a Battle Royal in which reality played a greater role than stats. The Medusa Worm was following the bikers by moving through the sewer system beneath the roadway, allowing it to move very swiftly and strike very decisively. In this fight, the Medusa Worm was of incalculable value.

While Mr. Colburn struggled to weave around the new hole in the road, Jake's three remaining minions started to swerve, trying to avoid the unseen menace below. At the same time the two of them that had yet to do anything pulled out their cards in a panic to defend themselves. "I summon Goblindberg which also allows me to special summon Master of the Flaming Dragon Swords!" A goblin-piloted biplane took to the skies with a wild eyed warrior wielding two fiery swords on the wing of the plane. "I summon Opticlops!" Mr. Colburn swerved again to avoid the ogre-like beast in his path, but fortunately for him, the monster was quickly left far behind, unable to keep up with the cars and bikes.

Just then, Mr. Colburn's duel disk beeped at him again, waiting impatiently for him to start his next turn. Drawing his card, Mr. Colburn looked on with grim satisfaction as he declared, "I activate the Pyramid of Light trap card!" A massive, white, pyramid-shaped light appeared in front of the vehicles, and Jake's minions yelled in a panic as they suddenly discovered themselves driving off the road and up onto the side of the pyramid. Even Jake couldn't help gaping in awe. The Pyramid of Light? He… he couldn't possibly summon those monsters: his duel disk wouldn't have allowed him to use fake versions of Chaos Spawn.

But to the demon-worshipper's horror, Mr. Colburn then declared, "I pay 1000 life points to summon both Andro Sphinx and Sphinx Teleia from my hand." As the duel runners reached the top of the pyramid, the two giant half-man, half-lion abominations blocked their path on the other side. Then Mr. Colburn's car came over the top of the pyramid and careened into the duel runners, knocking off most of the riders and sending them tumbling to the ground. Jake, however, managed to hold onto his runner long enough to play a card and declare, "I banish the Stygian Street Patrol from my fallen minion's graveyard!"

Then everything came to a screeching halt. Jake and his followers groaned on the pavement while their previously summoned monsters tried and failed to distract the two massive Sphinxes. Carl lay on the ground nearby, still unconscious, but Mr. Colburn's legs were too torn up for him to leave the car without keeling over. And as long as Jake was alive, the last thing Carl's father needed was to let his guard down. Instead he yelled, "Andro Sphinx, Sphinx Teleia, tear that boy to pieces!"

There was a quiet groan as the two sphinxes slowly stretched their limbs. Then, they lunged at Jake, jaws snapping hungrily, but just before reaching him, they stopped. Mr. Colburn peered closer in confusion as saw that a new demonic being no larger than the average human was now floating in midair between Jake and the sphinxes, holding each of them back with one of its two hands. Panting, Jake finished his previous declaration; "This lets me Special Summon Yubel from my hand, and Yubel can block and redirect any attack." Mr. Colburn didn't even have time to register what Jake was saying before the purplish demon hurled the sphinxes into the air towards him.

"Oh damn!"

Mr. Colburn jumped out of his vehicle only to collapse onto the pavement as pain shot through his bloody legs. He turned to look up just as the two sphinxes fell from the sky.

Jake stood up slowly, warily watching the two great beasts struggling to stand back up. So bizarre; first Carl's dad shows up with Chaos Spawn and now his duel disk remains active after his death. "You three," he said aloud, gesturing to his minions. "Capture these Chaos Spawn and catch up; my priority is still taking Cevin back to Corbakkan." Jake's minions didn't look very pleased about the orders, but they nodded their assent as Jake got back on his duel runner and drove off.

Simon turned to face the Sphinxes which had now stood back up. "Alright, you overgrown half-breeds, let's make this quick." Jumping back onto his duel runner, Simon yelled, "I play Hammer Sho-"

Chomp!

Simon disappeared as the Medusa Worm resurfaced with a hurt but very much alive Mr. Colburn on its back. The other two minions had barely enough time to register this before the Andro Sphinx seized the Goblindberg out of the sky and sent it crashing down on top of them. Mr. Colburn glanced around for any sign of Jake. Seeing that his prey was long gone, however, Mr. Colburn just roared in frustration and had the Medusa Worm take him back into the sewers before deactivating the duel system. From there, in the stench of his new hiding place, Mr. Colburn dragged his injured body away from the battle site just as the police started to arrive.