The Seventh Shadow Rider

Slifer Red Dorm...

"Ah, we overslept."

"That means we'll miss out on breakfast!"

Jaden, Syrus and Chumley ran down to the Slifer Red cafeteria as fast as they could. There were a few plates left when they arrived and the cafeteria was mostly empty. The sole exception was Chazz.

"Whew, there's still some left." Jaden sighed, taking a seat.

"Thanks goodness." Syrus exclaimed. "Let's dig in."

The three each sat down at the table and grabbed a tray, only to realize that there was little food left.

"Hey, someone's practically cleared out our trays." Syrus said.

"What kind of selfish slime would do something like this?" Chumley asked.

They all looked up at the sound of someone chuckling and noticed Chazz sitting several tables away by himself. Getting up from their table they walked over to the black clad Slifer and stared down at him with angry looks. Chazz merely took a drink from his cup and smirked. "You snooze you lose."

"Give us back our food!" Syrus demanded.

"I'd be happy to give it back, except I ate it all. And it was delicious."

"What!?" Jaden exclaimed. "You ate our food? All of it? How?"

"I was hungry." He replied.

"Professor!" Syrus called out. "Chazz is being a…" The short Slifer interrupted himself as he suddenly remembered that Banner wasn't there.

"Oh, right. Banner's still missing." Jaden pointed out. "Man, this is getting serious."

"By the way, it's almost time for class." Chazz reminded them as he got up. "You dweebs should get going unless you want to be late." He then pulled down his eyelid and stuck out his tongue.

Having scrounged up what scraps remained on their trays, the Slifer Boys trudged over to class and joined their fellow students. However, no Banner meant no teacher, and therefore nothing was happening.

"I wish Banner was here." Jaden said.

"It is weird that he disappeared without explanation." Kaoru said.

"Come on, guys, I'm sure it'll be okay." Syrus tried to reassure them.

"Yeah, totally." Chumley pitched in. "Chancellor Sheppard has a whole crew of people looking for Professor Banner. I'm sure someone will find him eventually. Plus, on the bright side, at least now we get a break from class."

As if in response, the door near the stage opened up, admitting Professor Crowler, causing several students (mostly Slifers) to let out cries of lament. "Good morning, students," Crowler greeted them cheerfully as he walked over to Banner's desk. "Guess what? Due to Professor Banner's absence, I will be your substitute teacher for the day. Aren't you lucky?" His expression suddenly changed. "Because I'm certainly not! It was supposed to be my day off!" He slammed his books down on the desk in irritation. Jaden, Syrus and Chumley silently looked at each other for a second, then stared back at Crowler.

Despite his obvious displeasure, Crowler began with the lesson, pulling a picture up on the screen behind them, showing an almost full circle with a dot in the middle. "Let's see here… the Mark of Amnael. Yes, it looks like that's where Professor Banner left off. More duel alchemy nonsense I'm sure…" Crowler muttered the last part under his breath before proceeding. "Well, according to these tomes, the basis of this are… No, not that… that doesn't make any sense… I don't even know how to pronounce that word…" Crowler flipped through the book for a moment, before slamming it shut and jumping to his feet. "What gibberish! This makes no sense! And he's teaching you this!?"

Crowler eventually calmed down and went back to digging through Banner's materials, then began setting up a lab experiment on his desk. "Alright… time for some lab work… according to the syllabus. Let's see…" He grabbed a wire twisted into a spiral at the end and plunged it into a vial of purple liquid. "I think this is right." Unfortunately for him, the liquid turned purple and began to glow, then a few seconds later…

\*Boom!\*

A cloud of smoke blocked Crowler from view, and when it dispersed, the students saw the wire had stuck to his face. Grabbing the wire, Crowler ripped it off like a band aid, letting out a pained cry as it came off. The students tried not to laugh too loud, as their professor now had a spiral imprinted onto his face. "Alchemy? What gobbledygook! What nonsense! What pure drivel!"

"I wish Professor Banner would show up soon." Jaden said.

"You know, Banner usually blew himself up too." Syrus reminded him.

"Guys… Crowler's looking at us…" Chumley warned them.

"Huh?" "Huh?" "Huh?"

"Mister Slifer Slacker!"

"Yes sir?" Jaden asked.

"Chancellor Sheppard would like a word with both of you. And the rest of the gang. Report to him at once."

All the key-keepers, even those who'd lost their keys, met with Chancellor Sheppard and Crowler in the former's office.

"How is Professor Banner still missing?" Jaden asked. "I mean, it's not like he just vanished into thin air… right?"

Sheppard let out a sigh at this. "Who knows? The bottom line is we've searched everywhere and we can't find him."

"And there's no log of him ever leaving the island." Crowler added.

"I think we all know what happened." Chazz spoke up. "Banner got sent to the shadows."

"Don't say that!" Alexis yelled.

"We can't rule that possibility out. Especially with a lack of information regarding his absence." Ryan told her.

"And besides, as far as the spirit gates, there's been no new activity."

"Considering most of us still have our keys." Kaoru said.

"And we still have yet to rescue the remaining students." Arisa said.

A while later, the Slifer boys were hanging around a bench outside, trying to decide on their next course of action. "So how do we find out what's up if we can't even find Banner?" Chumley asked once he and Syrus had been filled in on the details. "Or another breakfast."

"You know, Chumley's got a point." Syrus piped up. "I mean, Chancellor Sheppard turned all of Duel Academy inside out."

"I mean, I wish we could help… but what are the three of us supposed to do that hasn't already been done? Why don't we focus on what we can do… like finding something to eat?"

"Right." Chazz said as he stepped onto the scene, taking Syrus by surprise.

"Ah! Beat it Chazz!"

"Chill out, short stack. I'm not here to cause trouble, I'm here to save the day. I'm going to help you all find Professor Banner." The boys looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders. "Well, say thank you!"

Chazz glared at the blond boy for a second before he calmed down and started walking. "Now, when searching for a missing person, the first thing you have to do is go back to the scene of the crime."

"But we don't know where that is." Syrus pointed out. "Isn't that a bit of a problem?"

"It's a figure of speech!" Chazz growled at the short Slifer. "We just have to re-trace Banner's steps."

"We don't know his steps either." Syrus whispered to his friends.

"I know." Jaden stated. "But let's just humor him."

"I guess so." Syrus admitted. "What if I just laugh at him instead?"

"Quiet!" Chazz barked. "Detective Chazz is on the job."

Despite any misgivings, they followed Chazz to their dorm building and started searching Banner's empty room. "Any luck?" Syrus asked after they'd been searching for a while. "Cause I'm not finding any clues."

"Same here." Jaden pitched in, browsing through Banner's bookshelf. "Is it too much to hope that he left a note or something?"

"He did." Chumley declared, holding up a piece of paper. "Guys, look."

The others crowded around the koala duelist and looked at the note. "That's Professor Banner's handwriting, cause it's not very clear."

"Must be code." Chazz said, snagging the note from Chumley, then staring at it for a few seconds. "Of course, I see."

"You see what, Chazz?" Jaden asked, sounding hopeful.

"The clue, genius." He snapped, obviously sarcastic. "You see, 'tree' must have a secret meaning."

"Really?"

"Oh come on, it's plan as day. At least, for a genius like me."

"Care to fill in the rest of us?" Chumley asked.

"It means Banner was investigating the tenth Shadow Rider," Chazz declared, full of confidence. "What's more, I know who it is. Man, I am just too good."

"The note was by the phone, which means that he wrote while talking to someone. Someone whose name sounds like tree." The red Slifers gave each other confused glances before turning their attention back towards Chazz. "Now, who do we know whose name sounds like that? Hint… she works in the cafeteria."

"You don't mean…?" Syrus said hesitantly.

"That's right, Dorothy. It rhymes with 'tree'. She's a Shadow Rider. Obviously she took out Professor Banner because she didn't want him exposing her."

The three of them stared at Chazz with eyes wide open.

"Dorothy!?" Jaden exclaimed.

"That's right, and I'm gonna call her out on it right now." Chazz then picked up the phone and dialed the number to the card shop, getting an answer after a couple rings. "Hello, Dorothy." He said, disguising his voice by speaking in a low growl. "We know you're the last Shadow Rider." Silence… "Don't bother denying it, we…" Silence… Chazz then promptly hung up the phone and turned towards the others. "Okay, so maybe I was just a little off."

"JUST A LITTLE OFF!?"

Chazz jumped in surprise as they all yelled at him, then regained his composure. "Let's just keep digging."

Despite some grumbling, they continued looking through Banner's stuff, leaving no stone unturned. At some point, Chazz somehow convinced Jeremy to lift him up on his shoulders so he could reach a wooden beam up high and look through a cubbie in the wall. As this happened, Jaden held up a pair of used dirty shoes, though Chazz simply told him to guess again. Chumley grabbed a pair of headphones, and Syrus had a ball of lint, but Chazz shot them down as well.

Finally after an exhaustive search, they uncovered a map of Academy Island. "Of course, it's obvious!" Chazz exclaimed, shoving Syrus aside to get a better look. "This explains it all. Check it out. It's the Mark of Amnael!" The others looked at the spot on the map Chazz was pointing at and saw that he was right.

"Hey… you're right." Jaden said.

"Banner's so into all that alchemy stuff, this must be where he is! Come on dweebs, let's go!"

"Let's grab our duel disks first." Jaden suggested. "Just in case." A few minutes later, they met up again out front, now equipped with decks and duel disks. "Alright. Let the rescue expedition for Professor Banner begin! Follow me, guys!"

"Follow you?" Chazz said, incredulous. "Yeah right. I'm the one who figured this whole thing out, so you guys can follow me. If you can keep up, that is."

The reds grumbled a little but followed him anyway.

"So…" Syrus piped up once they were in the thick of the forest. "Other than following you, what's the plan here?"

"Yeah," Chumley agreed. "How do we find Banner once we get to the alchemy mark?"

Chazz stopped and turned around, holding up the cat toy he'd been using to try to find Banner's cat. "It's simple. We use this to find Pharaoh."

The others groaned in disappointment at this. "Chazz… haven't you tried this already?" Jaden asked.

Syrus suddenly raised his hand excitedly. "Oh, oh, I have an idea…"

"Do you?" Chazz said doubtfully. "Well what is it?"

Syrus walked over to Chazz with a strange smile on his face. "Well Chazz, since calling out for Pharaoh hasn't worked, let's go a different route."

Chazz closed his eyes and sighed, massaging his forehead. "And that would be…?"

Taking advantage of his inattention, Syrus grabbed a black marker from his pocket and quickly drew several whiskers on Chazz's face, along with a dab on the tip of his nose. "Perfect. Now Pharaoh will think you're a cat."

Chazz growled in frustration and lunged at the reds, who all ran away laughing. "How about I show you my claws instead!? That's right, you'd better run!"

After an exhausting chase, Chazz and the others eventually came to a halt in order to catch their breath. "Alright…" Chazz spoke up between breaths. "We need… to get back… on track. How about… a truce?"

"That… sounds… purrfect," Chumley said.

"He's right…" Syrus agreed. "We need… to pick up on… the tail again."

"Grrr!"

Jaden grinned at Chazz, who was clearly irritated by their use of puns. "Come on… Chazzy. Don't be such… a sourpuss."

"That's it! Enough with the stupid cat jokes! Let's just get back to looking for Banner." Grumbling under his breath, Chazz pulled out the map and looked at his PDA to figure out their location. "Alright, it looks like we're not too far off."

The boys soon arrived at the place where the Mark of Amnael was on the map and split up to search more ground, though none of them went too far.

"Banner!"

"Professor!"

"Hello!"

"Ahh!" Syrus and Chumley suddenly came running through the bushes in a panic. "SNAKE! We saw a snake, and it was huge!"

"Whoop dee doo." Chazz said sarcastically.

"We are in a forest, you guys." Jaden pointed out. "You know… nature and all that?"

"But this wasn't very natural!" Chumley insisted.

A second later a dozen snakes fell down from the tree tops above them.

Enough time had passed since the snake incident that the sky had gone dark, and the Slifer boys were now resting around a campfire.

Silence reigned around the fire.

"Relax." Chazz said. "We've got more important things to do, like finding Professor Banner."

"I'm sure we'll find him soon." Syrus piped up.

"I hope so." Jaden said. "Because I really miss him, you know? All the little things he did… Like the time he gave me his bowl of pork fried rice with chili sauce because he knew it was my favorite."

"Of course, he was allergic to chili sauce." Chumley pointed out.

Jaden blinked in surprise at this. "He was?"

"But, uh… I'm sure that had very little to do with it. But he was always nice to you, Sy. Right?"

"Well… he did offer me a carton of milk all for myself once. Although it might have been… a little past the due date." Syrus' face scrunched up at the memory.

"Weird?" Chazz asked. "I'll tell you what's weird: Giving me his carrots even though I repeatedly told him I hate carrots, and then having the nerve to steal my dessert 'as compensation'. He sure was shifty sometimes."

"It's true." Syrus agreed. "Like when he tried to teach me how to swim, but instead I just ended up spearing fish for his dinner."

"I guess he kind had two sides to him." Jaden said. "But that doesn't make him a bad person."

Chazz nodded. "Good point. Guess that's why we're looking for him."

"Speaking of, we should get back to it." Syrus suggested. "Right guys?"

"Seriously, break time's over." Chazz declared. "Let's go find Banner!"

\*Meow\*

The boys all perked up at the sound of Pharaoh meowing.

"I think it came from over here." Chumley said.

The four of them jumped up, grabbed their flashlights and started looking for the feline.

After searching for a while, the Slifer boys had decided to spread out in the hopes of improving their odds of finding Pharaoh. Chazz was by himself when Ojama Yellow appeared on his shoulder. "*Something's wrong. I'm scared!*" The spirit said.

"Yeah, well, what's new?"

"*Look boss, something's just not right here.*"

"Oh please," Chazz shot back, swatting the yellow spirit aside. "Get lost." Doing a sweep around with his flashlight, he finally caught sight of Pharaoh lying on the ground. He also saw the Mark of Amnael floating next to the cat, though it disappeared a moment later. "Pharaoh, finally." Walking over the the chubby feline, he crouched down and saw a pair of glasses on the ground. "What the… Banner's glasses? He must be close." Following Pharaoh, he saw another Mark ahead, which lead him to Banner's necktie, and another after that where he found Banner's shirt. "Where's the Professor? He'd better not be naked, or else I'm gonna…"

A cry of panic from the three Ojama spirits drew Chazz's attention to the mysterious cloaked figure standing across the lake from him. A layer of fog floated above the water, giving it an eerie atmosphere. The figure raised its arm, activating its duel disk.

"You took Banner." Chazz stated, activating his own duel disk. "Well, I'm gonna win him back. Let's go!"

"*Get em Chazz!*"

"*We're with ya!*"

"*That's right!*"

"Time to Chazz you up!"

Chazz: 4000

?: 4000

"I'll start with Armed Dragon Lv 3." The short orange dragon appeared in front of Chazz. (3/**1200**/900) "Then I'll place one card face-down and end my turn."

Mystery duelist drew, playing the spell that brought forth the giant metal contraption, then followed up with two more spells that summoned two monsters, one serpentine and the other a draconic, though the fog and darkness made it hard to distinguish them. (3/**500**/500) (3/**500**/500) Mystery duelist then thrust his/her arm out and the monsters attacked, spewing beams of energy and fire, striking Chazz directly.

Chazz: 4000-3000

"Ugh. These things can attack directly? Great."

The Shadow Rider ended their turn with one card face-down.

"Here goes! During my standby phase, Armed Dragon evolves to Lv 5." The small orange dragon disappeared grew into the more powerful red/black dragon. (5/**2400**/1700) "Then I'll use his effect, discarding Flying Kamakiri to destroy one of your weaker monsters." Armed Dragon shot out its spikes, destroying the serpentine monster. "Then I'll summon Masked Dragon in attack mode." A red/gray dragon appeared next to Chazz's bigger dragon. (3/**1400**/1100) "Armed Dragon attack, destroy that thing with Spiked Spinner."

"*Chazz it up! Chazz it up! Chazz it up!*"

Armed Dragon spun its arms around rapidly and charged, only to be blocked by a floating device that summoned a barrier of wind. "What? Ok then, let's see you pull that off twice. Go, Masked Dragon." Chazz's other dragon spat out a torrent of flames, but the device stopped it with a wall of fire. "Grr… I place another card face-down and end my turn."

Mystery duelist drew, then played Pot of Greed, followed by a spell that summoned a bird like monster.

500/500

"I play Ojama Trio." Chazz interrupted. "Now you get three Ojama tokens. No need to thank me." Copies of Ojama Yellow, Green and Black appeared on the other side of the field.

Ojama tokens: 0/1000

x3 The Ojama Yellow token looked like it was about to say something, but instead simply let out a scared 'eep' and decided to stay quiet.

The Shadow Rider didn't react to the Ojama tokens, simply commanding its monsters to attack. Twins bursts of fire shot across the lake, striking Chazz again.

Chazz: 2000

"*Oh no, this doesn't look good.*" Ojama Yellow squeaked.

"Shut up! You're going down, Shadow Rider!" Chazz declared, drawing his next card. "You know why? Because the Chazz is on the job. I activate Level Up! And by sacrificing my level 5 dragon, I can summon Armed Dragon LV7." Chazz's Armed dragon grew again, becoming bigger and more fearsome.

Armed Dragon LV7: 2800/1000

"I send Despair from the Dark to the grave and activate Armed Dragon's ability. Now all your monsters with equal or fewer attack points will be destroyed. Oh, and when those Ojama tokens are destroyed, you lose 300 life-points for each one. Go, take them down!" Armed Dragon let out a roar and its underbelly glowed blue. It then released a barrage of energy discs that destroyed all the monsters on the opposing field.

? 3100

"Now I play Call of the Haunted to bring back Despair from the Dark that I just discarded." A dark shadowy monster rose next to Armed Dragon. (8/**2800**/3000) "Now I'm going to attack you directly." Chazz's zombie flew across the lake, but again the strange device stopped it, conjuring a wall of shadows. "Whatever. It's only a matter of time until I figure a way around that card. Any last words, Shadow Rider? Before you're toast?"

"*I do.*" Ojama Yellow piped up. "*I never should've doubted you, boss!*"

Mystery duelist drew, then activated a spell, drawing two more cards. Then the clouds parted as the next card was played. And just like Alexis, Chazz saw all his monsters destroyed as a meteor shower fell from the sky. The Shadow Rider then played one last card.

The Mark of Amnael appeared next to the Shadow Rider. "It's that mark…" Chazz said in surprise. "But why?"

Unfortunately he had little time to ponder the question, as the stone creature raised its arm and attacked. He could only scream as the resulting blast of fire struck him.

Chazz: 0

"Hey guys, over here!" Chumley called out in the middle of their search. "I found Pharaoh."

Jaden and Syrus came up to the koala duelist and saw him holding Pharaoh in his arms. "Nice job, Chum!" Syrus said.
"Hey Pharaoh." Jaden spoke to the cat. "Where's your pal Professor Banner?"

\*Meow\*

"He couldn't have gone far." Syrus said.

"Come on guys, just keep looking." Jaden encouraged them.

A scream suddenly ripped through the air.

"You guys hear that?" Jaden asked. "I think that was Chazz."

Running in the direction they'd heard the scream, they soon ended up at the lakeside where Chazz had been not so long ago. "Guys, look over there!" Chumley said, pointing at the water's edge. There they saw the Mark of Amnaeal floating above Chazz's scattered cards, and the spirits of Ojama Yellow, Black and Green hunched over crying.

In the secret underground chamber, the final Shadow Rider stood before the pedestal holding the lock to the Spirit Gates. He/she placed four keys into the empty slots, which began to glow, leaving only two unlit. The chamber began to shake as the pillars surrounding the pedestal moved back and beams of light burst through the ceiling.

Suddenly the ground began to shake, and out beyond the island's shore, a pillar of light shot into the sky. Another burst out from the water, and then another, and another, until eight pillars surrounded the island like a cage.

"What's going on?" Syrus asked, worry obvious in his voice.

"I don't know." Jaden admitted. "But it can't be good."

"Where are Arisa, Ryan and Kaoru?" Chumley asked.

"I have no idea, but we could really use their help." Syrus said.