Raring to Go

The ocean surrounding Academy Island was calm as a group of seagulls rested in the water. That was before they saw a ship in the distance and flew away. As the ship passed through, it split the water in front sending waves to the side.

"Attention all crew members, this is your captain speaking. Now I know it's been a long journey, with everything that's happened so far. But all our hard work is about to pay off. We're about to reach our final destination and with the pay load safe." The man held a metal briefcase in his hand with Duel Academy's logo on the side.

"So full steam ahead man. This is the moment we've been waiting for. The moment Duel Academy gets their new rare cards."

On Academy Island, the sun had risen into the sky and illuminated the island. At the Slifer Red dorm, more specifically Jaden, Syrus and Chumley's room the three boys were sleeping. With the exception of Syrus. He sat at a desk with his eyes glued to a poster of Slifer the Sky Dragon. He held his hands together as if he was praying.

"Please, please, please help me ace my exam today. Or I'll be stuck wearing this red blazer forever. Not that there's anything wrong with red of course. It looks great on you Slifer, but I want to be in Ra Yellow. Please give me a sign that you'll help."

"Slifer! Oh right. It's just the alarm. And of course Jaden slept right through it."

"Wrong! Cause I played a trap." Jaden stuck out his arm and sent Syrus to the floor. Despite his movements, he was still asleep.

"Why can't he ever be dreaming in defense mode when I wake him up?"

"You know Syrus, after the written test, there's the field test. And it would be totally lishus for both of us if he slept right through it. You get what I'm saying?"

"Chumley, I hardly ever understand anything that you say."

"The field test is where they pit class members against each other in a duel. And I really don't want to duel one of the guys who beat Dr. Crowler. So if we let him sleep in, then well have a better chance of winning. Now do you get it?"

"Yeah I get it. And I'm starting to see why you were held back two years. Guys, get out of bed, we're already late. I'll save you a seat Hurry!" At that Syrus got up and ran out the door.

Even as he was running towards the academy's main building, Syrus was still studying. *'Okay cram time. Let's see. A normal trap can counter a normal spell, a quick-play spell can beat a ritual spell and-'* His thoughts were interrupted when he tripped on his shoelaces. "A double knot beats a single knot."

Later, Jaden got out of bed and ran to get to the classroom and take the test. "Man, Chumley sure can cook."

As he ran, he saw a woman ahead trying to push a minivan up the slope.

"Pardon me, coming through." He said.

"Should I be a gentleman or on time?" Jaden asked. It didn't take him long to figure out the answer.

"Gentleman." He ran over to the struggling woman. "Never fear, Jaden's here."

"Oh thank you. You must be from the auto club."

"Nah. I'm just your every day good deed guy."

"You're so nice."

"No problem. It's my pleasure." With his help she eventually managed to get the vehicle to the academy's main building.

"Thank you so much for helping me. I'll be sure to remember this."

"Don't worry, I'm just glad I could help. Later."

Inside the classroom, the students sat in silence doing the test under the supervision of Professor Banner. "You now have 45 minutes to finish your test."

Syrus sat in the middle of the students, mumbling in his sleep. "Which counters a field spell. Which counters..."

"I didn't know this was an oral exam Sy." He woke with a start and saw Jaden standing next to him.

"You finally made it."

"You two want to keep it down?" They looked behind them upon hearing Chazz's voice. "Some of us are planning to actually pass this test."

"Hey I always plan on passing, is just doesn't always work out that way." Jaden argued.

"Oh Jaden, how about you come down and get your exam." Banner called out to him.

"I'll be right there."

*'He better be.'* Alexis thought. *'We already started 15 minutes ago. He'll be lucky if he manages to finish.'*

*'Look at him.'* Bastion spoke silently. *'Tardy, puerile, if only he applied himself he could be a great duelist.'*

Kaoru, Arisa and Davis watched Jaden head down to get his exam.

A while after, Jaden and Syrus were leaning against each other and snoring lightly. Crowler was eyeing him through a small crack in the doors. *'You may be able to dream your way through the written exam, but with what I have planned, the field test will be a nightmare.'*

At the end of the time period, Professor Banner finally announced it was over. "All right class. The written exam is over. You may now walk, but not run, to get in line for today's new rare cards.

"They're here!?" One of the students asked.

"Oh dear."

They all ran out of the classroom, eager to get their hands on the new cards. Bastion stood next to the two Slifer boys, attempting to awaken them. "Say. you might want to give some serious thought to waking up."

Syrus jumped from the surprise. "Ahh man! I flunked didn't I? I'm a complete failure."

"Sy, if we were graded on melodrama you'd get a perfect score."

"Hey where did everybody go?"

"That's what I've been trying to tell you. The new cards arrived today and everyone's at the card shop."

"What!? New cards!? Why didn't anyone tell us?"

"Because everyone wants the best cards for themselves. To use in the upcoming field test."

"Then why aren't you getting any?"

"Please, one card out of place and my deck's structure would be completely off balance."

"Mine sure wouldn't."

"Then let's go. There's nothing sweeter than the smell of new cards in the morning. Thanks for telling us about it." The Slifers took off running towards the card shop. When they arrived, no one was there except a girl behind the counter. "Huh? Where'd everyone go?"

"They couldn't have..."

"RUN OUT OF CARDS ALREADY!" They rushed to the counter.

"Excuse me counter girl? There's still some cards left right?" Jaden asked.

"Of course there are. The rares are gone but we have regular packs left." She slid one over to them. "Here you go."

"WE SAID SOME, NOT ONE!"

"Ahh man! I'm done for. I slept through my written test and now I'm going to fail my field test cause I can't upgrade my deck."

"Then take the pack Syrus." Jaden offered.

"Really? You'd let me take the last pack?" Syrus asked.

"If it's a confidence boost you need, here." Kaoru handed a rare card to Syrus. It turned out to be Magical Mallet.

"Magical Mallet. What's it do?"

"Basically, you can pull any cards you don't want back into your deck and get more useful cards instead."

"Now if you'll excuse me, I have a promotion duel to win." Kaoru left Jaden and Syrus alone.

"Yoo hoo. Auto club." Besides the counter girl now stood the woman Jaden had helped earlier.

"Hi. You work here too?"

"Oh no, I don't work here, I own here. Cool huh?"

"No. That's not cool, that's totally awesome!"

"You know her?"

"Yeah. I helped her out on our way here."

"Here, I have something for you. Now I know we're officially out of cards, but I did hide away a few, for a polite young student like you." She reached into the pocket of her apron and pulled out two packs. She handed one to Jaden. "Maybe you can put them to some good use. Just call it a thank you for helping me."

"Thanks. But I'm afraid we didn't catch your name."

Elsewhere in Duel Academy, Chazz was walking through the halls with a couple of his fellow Obelisks. "And then this guy shows up and takes all the new cards. I mean every one."

"So we couldn't get you any Chazz. Sorry."

"I can help with that." The two blue students traced the new voice to a person standing at the top of the stairs.

"That's the guy who took all the rare cards." Torimaki cried.

"Who is that anyway?" Raizou asked.

"Cards? What cards? Oh! You mean these cards." The person opened up their coat, revealing rows of cards held inside.

"Talk about having a card up your sleeve."

"What's wrong? Don't you recognize me? How about now?" He pulled back his hood to show his face.

"Crowler!?"

"You look all better covered up." Chazz commented.

"Yes, well I have a plan that will make us all look better. And make that Slifer look like the cut rate duelist he really is."

"But we're not in the same dorm. They won't let me be his test opponent." Chazz pointed out.

"Oh, you just leave that to me. You just be sure to use these rare cards in the field test against him. And once he loses miserably, he'll be kicked out of the school." Without another word, he handed Chazz a stack of rare cards.

Davis happened to be in the area and witnessed Crowler hand the cards to Chazz.

*'I better let my sisters know about this.'* He thought.

He then went to find Arisa and Kaoru.

They were eventually found in the gym.

"Hey." Davis called out to his sisters.

"What is it?" Arisa asked her brother.

"I just saw Crowler hand Chazz some rare cards." Davis replied.

"What are we supposed to do?" Kaoru asked her siblings. "It's not like we can do the same thing."

"Don't you have a extra Elemental Hero Prisma?" Davis asked her.

"I do." Kaoru nodded. "I can get another copy whenever I feel like it."

They had too much skill to rely on any rare cards, so they weren't going to obtain any more.

Arisa and Davis went to do that while she prepared for her duel.

The duels then started in the school gym.

Kaoru stood across from Bastion.

"I wish you luck in our duel." She told the Ra.

"Same here." Bastion replied.

"DUEL!"

Kaoru: 4000

Bastion: 4000

"I'll begin with Elemental Hero Stratos in attack mode."

Elemental Hero Stratos: 1800/300

"And now I use it's special ability." She placed Elemental Hero Liquid Soldier into her hand.

"That will end my turn."

"My go." Bastion drew.

"I summon Gamma the Magnet Warrior in defense mode."

Gamma the Magnet Warrior: 1500/1800

"Then I place one card face down."

*'What is he up to.'* Kaoru thought.

Clearly Bastion wanted her to attack. She wasn't about to take the bait.

"I use Mystical Space Typhoon to destroy your set card." It was Dimension Wall.

*'That would have caused me to take damage if I decided to attack.'*

"Say hello to Polymerization. I fuse Stratos and Liquid Soldier to summon Elemental Hero Absolute Zero."

Elemental Hero Absolute Zero: 2500/2000

"But I'm not done. Since Liquid Soldier was used as fusion material I can draw 2 cards, at the cost of discarding one."

Kaoru drew two more times.

"Destroy Gamma with Instant Freeze." She commanded.

Gamma was frozen solid and then shattered with a punch.

"I'll end my turn with that attack."

Bastion drew for his next turn.

"I set a monster face down and one card face down."

"My go." Kaoru said, drawing a card.

"Absolute Zero attack his face down monster." It was Cyber Jar.

Cyber Jar: 900/900

Both monsters were destroyed and then Kaoru and Bastion excavated the top 5 cards of their decks.

"I special summon Heat and Ocean to the field."

Elemental Hero Heat: 1600/1200

Elemental Hero Ocean: 1500/1200

"And I bring out Alpha the Magnet Warrior."

Alpha the Magnet Warrior: 1400/1700

The remaining cards were added to their hands.

Jaden walked onto the field and saw his opponent.

"Wait, I'm facing an Obelisk and it's Chazz!" Jaden asked Crowler.

"That's right, Jaden." The teacher confirmed this. "Since you always talk such a big game, I decided to pull some strings for you so you got the challenge you deserve." He pointed to Chazz.

The duelists inserted their decks into their disks and activated them.

"Duel." They both said.

"No excuses this time Chazz."

"Bring it Slifer slacker."

Jaden: 4000

Chazz: 4000

"Oh it is brought." Jaden drew his five cards along with another which turned out to be Winged Kuriboh. 'Hey there Kuriboh, you're in for a treat. You're in for a treat. We're about to show off some serious skills.' "Remember this guy Chazz? Elemental Hero Clayman." A big human like stone figure with a red head knelt int front of Jaden with it's arms crossed. (2000) "He'd like to get reacquainted."

Chazz smirked and chuckled to himself. "Don't start thinking that oversized pile of pebbles had a chance against me Jaden, or against this. Meet Magical Mallet."

"What's that?" Jaden asked.

"A redo. All the cards in my hand that I don't want, I put back in my deck. Then I shuffle and draw the same amount again. Pretty cool, don't you think?"

"What!? A rare card on the first draw!?" Syrus gasped.

"And a dangerous one too. Now Chazz can essentially pick which cards he wants and which he doesn't." Bastion explained.

"That's not good for Jaden."

"I haven't gotten to the best part. I got to reshuffle Magical Mallet. So if I draw it again, which I just did, I can play it again and again. And that comes in handy when I'm looking for this. V-Tiger Jet." A yellow and green machine resembling a tiger appeared on Chazz's field. (1600) "And there's a lot more where that came from. Check out the magic of Frontline Base. It let's me summon a level four or below union monster this turn. Such as W-Winged Catapult." Another machine appeared beside the first. It was blue and had slots to shoot rockets from. (1300) "Now I merge them together to create the VW-Tiger Catapult." The tiger machine flew up and landed on top of the Winged Catapult. (2000) "But I'm not done yet. He's still got his special ability."

"That can't be good."

"You're right. Because by sending a card to the graveyard, I can force your monster into attack mode." Jaden's Clayman rose from it's crouching position. (800) "So after this heat seeker blitz from my Tiger Catapult, your life-points are toast." Chazz's monster shot a series of rockets that landed around and on Clayman.

Jaden: 4000-2800

"I'll finish up with one card face-down."

"Go ahead and finish up, cause I'm just getting warmed up. Speaking of, here's someone who can really turn up the heat. Elemental Hero Sparkman, in defense mode." The golden armored electric hero appeared before Jaden in a flash of electricity.

Elemental Hero Sparkman: 1600/1400

"And I'll throw down a face-down."

"Now much else he can do with all the new rares Chazz seems to have." Bastion said.

"It's just not fair."

"He'll pull it off somehow."

"Ready for round two you Slifer Slime? Well X-Head Cannon is." A blue and yellow humanoid machine appeared in front of Chazz. It had two shoulder cannons, two arms and it's waist ended in a spiked ball.

X-Head Cannon: 1800/1500

"And thanks to Frontline's magic, so is Z-Metal Tank." A yellow machine shaped like the bottom of a tank settled close to the others.

Z-Metal Tank: 1500/1300

"No way!"

"X and Z? Aw man, that can only mean one thing." Syrus said.

"Now I play my face down card, Call of the Haunted. In case you slept through that class, it let's me bring a monster back from the graveyard. Like the Y-Dragon Head I discarded for my Tiger Catapult's effect." A red dragon machine came back from the grave. "Now I combine them all to create XYZ-Dragon Cannon." The metal dragon attached itself to the top of the yellow tank. It's wings came off as the remaining machine landed on top of it.

XYZ-Dragon Cannon: 2800/2600

"Now Chazz has over two monsters with 2000 and 2800 attack points." Bastion said.

"But wait Jaden, there's more. Actually less. Sure, they say two is better than one, but I'm gonna have to disagree. Especially when the one in question, is the ultimate V to Z Dragon Catapult Cannon." Both machines broke apart and their pieces flew around each other. When they were settled, a new giant monster stood in their place. It had the tiger's feet and it's legs were made of the Winged Catapult. At it's waist level stuck out the dragon's head and it's body consisted of X-Head Cannon with the two guns sticking from it's chest. The arms were made from the yellow tank and it's head was covered with the tiger's face. Red wings came out of it's back and a tail of the same color underneath.

VWXYZ Dragon Catapult Cannon: 3000/2800

"Makes your Sparkman look like a heap of sparkplugs. Or at least it did." Jaden's monster suddenly disappeared.

"Hey! My Sparkman!" Jaden cried.

"Oh I'm sorry, didn't I mention V to Z's special ability? He can remove one card on your side of the field once per turn. And if you think that's impressive, just wait until you see his attack. An attack that will strike your life-points directly."

"Don't think so Chazz, I have a trap. A Hero Emerges."

"A hero what?"

"Emerges. As in emerges on to the field. Cause now you randomly pick a card in my hand and if it's a monster, I get to summon it. So take your pick, Chazz."

"Whatever. The far right."

"Sweet! Elemental Hero Burstinatrix. I'll play her in defense mode." The red clad female hero kneeled down with her arms in front of her.

Elemental Hero Burstinatrix: 1200/800

"She won't be defending you for long. When Dragon Catapult Cannon attacks, I get to choose your monster's mode. And you know what? I choose attack mode. So not only will she be zapped, but so will your life-points." Chazz's monster leveled it's cannons at the female hero. As it shot a blast at her, she rose from her couching position. The shot struck her dead center and she cried out from the impact.

Jaden: 1000

"What's the matter Jaden? Having some test anxiety? Don't worry, it'll be over soon." Chazz taunted.

"Oh no it won't! My deck's still armed and ready to get at you. This isn't over yet. It's just barely started. My turn!" Jaden looked at his new card. It was one he'd gotten from the pack Dorothy had given him. What do you think Winged Kuriboh?"

"*Coo!"*

"Well all right. If you say so. Let's do it. I summon Winged Kuriboh in defense mode." Jaden's little furry monster with wings floated in front of him. Most of the girls in the audience squealed at how cute it was. "And I'll throw down a face-down too. That's it."

"That's it. But all he's been playing is defense." Syrus pointed out.

*'I sure hope you know what you're doing Jaden.'* Alexis thought worried.

"All done huh? Good, cause now I can cook that Kuriboh and I like mine well done. There's about to be a fried furball on the field ya loser!" Chazz said.

"You don't scare me." Jaden argued.

"No big deal. I don't have to, that's his job. Dragon Catapult Cannon attack." As the blast flew towards Jaden, he readied himself for it.

*'Okay, time to test my newest weapon.'* "I sacrifice two cards and activate Transcendent Wings." The little monster expanded in a flash of light. It was now larger, had a golden headpiece shaped like a dragon and wide white wings coming from it's side. The blast surrounded the new monster but didn't destroy it.

"Ahh! It can't be!"

"Oh it be. Transcendent Wings evolves Winged Kuribon into a level ten monster. And it gets better too. By sacrificing himself, Kuriboh destroys all monsters in attack mode and deflects their attack points back as damage to you. Kuriboh, why don't you show him how it's done?" The energy surrounding Kuriboh converged in front of him and shot back at the enemy machine.

Chazz: 1000

"Lucky punk!" Chazz said, glaring daggers at Jaden.

"Lucky? Nah. I just happen to have a soft spot for old ladies, but not for you Chazz. And that's too bad, cause with a thousand life-points each and my turn coming up, all I need is the right monster and you'll be finished. Here goes something. Yes! Elemental Hero Avian." The green hero with wings appeared on Jaden's field.

Elemental Hero Avian: 1000/1000

"Attack!" He flew towards Chazz and slashed him with his claws, knocking him down to his knees.

Chazz: 0

"Yay! Jaden did it!" Syrus cried happily.

"Told you he would Syrus."

"That's game! Unless you want to duel again Chazz."

"Oh, we will." Chazz hissed.

"That reminds me." Kaoru suddenly said. "I'm going to act as your tutor after this."

Jaden!" Syrus calls out as he, Ryan and Bastion made their way over.

"That was well played Jaden. Not in the history of our academy has a Slifer dueled an Obelisk in these exams. You not only held your own, but you won. Your courage against overwhelming odds is inspiring. I hereby promote you to Ra Yellow, good job!" Sheppard said causing everyone to cheer.

"Ra Yellow? Great job Jaden!" Syrus said hugging him.

"I do what I can." Jaden smiles.

"Excellent work Jaden let me be the first to welcome you to Ra Yellow." Bastion said as they shook hands.

"And let me be the second." Kaoru said, shaking Jaden's hand.

Back at the Slifer Red Dorm Syrus told Chumley about what happened and was feeling down.

"Hey Sy, if you're gonna mope around you might as well make me a grilled cheese." Chumley said.

"I just wish Jaden would have said goodbye at least." Syrus said sadly.

"Who's talking about saying goodbye?"

Both Slifers turn to see Jaden walking in.

"Jaden what are you doing here?" Syrus asks.

"I came to congratulate you on your field test and in case you forgot I live here!" Jaden said surprising him.

"Huh?!"

"Sure Ra Yellow has nice clean sheets, no cockroaches, and spiffy blazers, but without you it's just not home." Hearing this, tears ran down Syrus's face as he ran over and hugged Jaden. "Come on Syrus calm down you're getting my jacket wet!"

"I thought…I thought I'd lost you! Now I'm never letting you go!" Syrus sobbed.

"Chill out Syrus come on!" Jaden sweat dropped.

Up from his bed Chumley laughed at the whole thing.

"Am I interrupting something?" A female voice asked and it was Kaoru clad in a Obelisk Blue uniform.