Duel Academy Welcomes You

Three days after the entrance exams, Claudio and the rest of the students that passed the exams sat inside of a helicopter en route to his new school, Duel Academy. He was thinking of all the fun he was going to have dueling lots of people with his deck. He was also hoping to duel Jaden (or as he dubbed him 'Hero Boy') seeing that he beat a teacher of all people. He saw him sleeping near a window seat along with Syrus. He himself was currently sitting next to Bastion, and they really hit it off and became good friends.

"Attention new Academy duelists." He overheard the captain speaking over the intercom, "This is your captain speaking, if you look out your window you'll see your new home away from home." Most of the students, did just that as they saw an island clear in their sights. Far away, it was mainly green due to most of the forest areas and even saw a dormant volcano. But main attraction, was the building in the center of the island. It was a silver color, surrounded by four tan spires. If you look closely, you'll see three dishes in the middle; a blue, yellow and red one in that order going diagonally down.

"Next stop, Academy Island!" The captain said. "Please fasten your seatbelts and sit in an upright position as we make our landing."

After a couple of hours, Claudio found himself in a large classroom you'd see in a University. Before heading over there, he had to change into his school uniform and had noticed that they were all different as he saw the other kids. The one he had was a yellow blazer with gray pants. He also noticed Bastion had the same uniform as him. But when he saw Jaden (who was taking a nap) and Syrus, they were wearing red blazers instead. He then looked around seeing other boys in the blue blazers and even some girls, but they had white blouses without sleeves and blue miniskirts.

Seconds later, a man in his late forties or early fifties appeared on the giant screen before every new student. He was bald but had a tan goatee around the chin. He wore a red blazer that was slightly darker than normal over a shirt and tie.

'*Must be the head guy.'* Claudio thought as the man on the screen begun his speech.

Good morning and welcome my students." He said in a pleasant voice. "I am Chancellor Sheppard, the headmaster here, and you are the best and brightest duelists in the world." As he talked, Claudio heard some snoring coming from Jaden. He shrugged it off as the Chancellor continued to speak. "Now please, get yourselves settled in at your assigned dorms. I hope you find them quite comfortable; depending on how you ranked of course." He finished with a slight chuckle.

The students were walking out of the main school heading off to their dorm room assignments. Claudio was checking his Duel Pilots, silver hand-held gadgets that showed IDs, grades, dueling credits linking up to the wins and...

"Well, Ra Yellow's my dorm." Claudio said, turning off his Pilot. "Room 468B."

"Looks like we're neighbors, old chum." The Jukebox Hero duelist turned around and saw Bastion walking up to him.

"Hey, Einstein what's up?" Claudio greeted.

"Einstein?"

"My nickname for ya, fits ya perfectly with your brain!" Claudio said, patting Bastion.

"I suppose, ready to head over to the dorm?" Bastion asked.

"Sure, let's go!" But before they could get any further, they heard a familiar voice.

"Hey Bastion, you in Red too?" It was Jaden sitting near a stone decoration in the courtyard with Syrus.

Bastion smiled slightly and looked over himself, "Let's see...yellow sleeves, yellow buttons. I don't think so."

"Oh..." Jaden realized as he looked at his red blazer, "So that's how it works..."

"Dude, you just figured that out?" Claudio asked.

Jaden glared at him, "So what? You ever think that maybe I was color-blind!" He snapped.

"Actually, no we didn't. *Are* you color-blind?" Bastion asked quietly.

The brunette snickered, "Nah, but I could've been!"

Claudio then did a double take at him. "Oh yeah, hero boy! Nice to meet ya face to face!"

"You're the guy with those sweet new monsters!" Jaden exclaimed. "Good to meet ya, too!" They both shook hands. "Maybe we'll see you and Bastion around the dorms!"

The boys in yellow looked at each other before turning back to Jaden and Syrus. Bastion then pointed his thumb towards the other side of the island, "I doubt that...your dorm's over there."

"Yup, later buds!" Claudio waved as he and Bastion walked on leaving Jaden and Syrus to walk to their dorm.

The Ra Yellow dorm building was like a how a library looked from the outside. It was very clean and true to the name, very yellow. Bastion and Claudio walked inside and found their dorm rooms across from each other. After unlocking it with the keys they got in registration, the opened to a fairly sized room with a bed near a window, a desk and drawers for the clothes with the bathroom near the entrance. It even had a small fridge and stove for food in cooking!

"Right on!" Claudio exclaimed. "A single room to myself, and it nearly has all the essentials!"

"Nearly?" Bastion called from inside his room. "Well, as soon as we get unpacked and the computers get setup that's true but what else could be missing?"

"Christening the new place, of course!" Claudio said as he started to unpack.

(Five minutes later...)

"There we are!" Claudio's room was now filled with posters of rock n' roll bands. "And for the final touch..." He pulled out his flying-V guitar and started playing his favorite song as he started singing Foreigner's Jukebox Hero. In fact, it was the name of the song that helped him choose the name of his cards and also the first song he fully learned to play. After awhile, he was done...

"Yeah, now it feels like home!" Claudio put away his guitar and noticed a faint clapping, coming from Bastion.

"Nice song, yours?" Bastion asked.

"No, though it's how I started to love music so much." Claudio replied. "It's even how I got the idea of creating the cards."

"Very nice." Bastion commented.

"I'll tell ya the story sometime, right now I'm about to check out the rest of the campus." As Claudio was about to leave, Bastion had one last thing to tell him...

"The welcome dinner's about to start in an hour, so you'd do well to hurry back before it's time."

"Gotcha!"

(With Jaden and Syrus...)

Both of the newly Slifer Red students headed in the direction Bastion pointed out and found their dorm building. But the place hardly seemed like a dorm, and Syrus couldn't have put it better has he said...

"This isn't a dorm, it's an outhouse with a deck!"

Well, it was more like an old apartment building with two floors, to put it a little more pleasant. At least Jaden didn't have any complaints, he leaned against a railing, looking at the ocean near the dorm.

"Are you kidding me, Syrus?" He asked. "Check out the view, this place is great!" The next went into their assigned rooms, which happened to be the same one. "Alrighty, this here is our room Sy."

As they looked in they saw long, two-seated desk along the left wall, window straight across from the door and a three-person bunk bed along the right wall. And near the door was a little stove.

"It's pretty small don't you think?" Syrus commented on the small room.

"Hey, you're a small guy." Jaden replied. "But anyway, I like it! This'll be a sweet pad for our first year at the academy!"

"Yeah, kinda weird meeting up at the entrance exams, and now roommates?" Syrus said, starting draw up a daydream of him and Jaden in some royal Egyptian clothing. "You think were connected in some past ancient life, Jaden?"

"No offense, but that's just lame." Jaden said. "They broke the mold when they made the two of us!"

"For very different reasons..." Syrus muttered.

"We need to work on that confidence of yours." Jaden pointed out as went over to the window. "But first let's work on some lights!" He pulled back the curtain, letting in the bright sunlight.

"Hey! Those were closed for a reason." Unfortunately, someone else didn't want it out. Jaden quickly pushed the curtains closed and turned to the source of the voice, coming from the top bunk.

"Sorry." Syrus said.

"Yeah, we didn't see you up there." Jaden sheepishly added.

"Well can you see me now!?" The covers pulled back revealing an angry, heavy-set boy with a face and hair similar to a koala's. Jaden and Syrus suddenly screamed in fear at the boy. "Will you stop your screaming!? Who are you and what are you doing in my room!?"

"Oh, sorry, name's Jaden Yuki!"

"And I'm Syrus."

"We're your new..." As Jaden tried to explain himself, the boy in bed turned his back to the new kids. "...roommates?"

You're new alright, so lemme tell you how things work." The grouchy boy muttered.

Syrus blinked, "Like when Parent's Visit is?" He asked.

"Duh, like the whole color thing works. That's the most important thing you have to worry about here."

"There are three colored dorms here. One named after each of the Egyptian God cards. There's the Obelisk Blue students, the Ra Yellow students, and the Slifer Red Students. Now, the Obelisk Blue students are the highest ranking students. Most of them get into the school and their rank by really high grades while others get in by connections. Ra Yellow students are really gifted kids that have a lot of potential...and then there are us, the Red Wonders,"

"The Wonders..." Syrus murmured, "That doesn't sound too bad. Like a group of superheroes or something."

Ignoring Syrus' comment, the large boy continued, "The Red Wonders as in 'I wonder how rejects like us made it even this far'. A lot of people look down on the Slifers because they're the lowest ranking students on the island...nothing but the bottom of the barrel."

Jaden and Syrus looked at each other for a few moments before the napping boy waved lazily at them, "Oh, by the way, I'm Chumley. Nice to meet you."

(Back with Claudio)

The new Ra Yellow duelist was walking along campus as much as he could before he had to head back for to meet the rest of the students for dinner. Claudio stopped at a large part of the main building, and whistled at how big it was.

"Wonder what's inside of this place?" He thought as was about head inside.

"Hurry up, Syrus! There's some sweet duel action going on right now!" Jaden was approaching fast with Syrus hanging behind.

"How do you know? You got a sixth sense about dueling or something?" Syrus gasped, trying to catch his breath.

Jaden grinned as they slowed to a walking pace, "It's in the air, Syrus. Can't you just smell it?"

"Maybe, if the pollen count was lower..." Syrus noticed Claudio looking at the both of them reaching the building.

"What's up, Slifer dudes?" He greeted.

"Just checkin' out place, probably the same as you." Jaden replied. Claudio nodded.

"Big island, ain't it?" He asked.

"Yeah, let's go check out this place!" Jaden said as they and Syrus headed in.

The boys veered to the left into a very large room. The room was huge, with stands all around the walls and smack dab in the middle of it, was a large platform with wires coming out of the bases.

"Now this is sweet. This is the best dueling arena I've ever seen!" Jaden said, looking around the place.

"But there's no better arena than anywhere thanks to these duel disks!" Claudio added.

"That's true." Syrus said, but then became worried about something. "But do you think we're allowed in here? I don't want us to get into trouble or anything."

Jaden shook his head, "Nah, we're students here and this *is* our campus." He pointed out.

"Wrong. This is the Obelisk Blue campus. No Slifer Red slackers allowed!"

"And that goes the same for the Ra Yellow rejects!"

They all turned their heads to see a pair of teenage boys walking up to them, wearing dark blue blazers. They were the same guys hanging around the Princeton kid at the entrance exams; Torimaki and Raizou.

"Is that so?" Claudio asked, not liking how these guys were badmouthing him and the Slifers.

Raizou smirked, "That's right," he pointed to something behind them, "Look at the crest!" Claudio turned to see a large symbol was above the entrance of the duel arena. It looked like a symbol representation of a demonic creature that had horns coming out of the sides of its head, and the symbol itself was painted blue.

"This is Blue Territory, no Reds or Yellows allowed here!" Torimaki sneered.

Syrus turned to them, "Oh...sorry. We didn't know. We'll leave, right guys?" He asked, looking at Jaden.

The brunette shrugged, "Nah, I don't think so. We don't have to leave if," he pointed to the blue students, "one of you guys agrees to duel me! I'll be a guest duelist!" he offered.

"In fact Jaden, let's make it a tag duel!" Claudio stated. "I don't like ANYONE talking trash, to people they don't know!"

The blue haired student looked at Jaden for a few moments, "Wait a minute...you're that kid!"

Before any of them could ask them by what he meant, the brown haired student turned his head, "Hey Chazz! The guy who beat Dr Crowler is here!" he called out.

Both of the Slifer students and the Ra student turned to see a taller boy in blue with spikey black hair and cold eyes staring down at them, or rather Jaden in particular. Jaden waved at the new kid, "Hey, sup? I'm Jaden and you're...Chuzz was it?" he asked, looking at the first two blues. The kid growled as Claudio started to laugh.

"He's Chazz Princeton and he was the number one duelist at Duelist Prep School, so you be sure to pay the proper respect!" The blue haired teen snapped. His partner nodded, "Yeah, he's gonna be the next King of Games, the best duelist in da world!"

Jaden scoffed and crossed his arms over his chest, "Impossible..."

"What did you just say?" The first Obelisk hissed.

"I said it's impossible for *him* to be the next King of games...'cuz that's exactly what I'm gonna be!" Jaden explained with a grin. The Obelisks stared at him and started laughing at what they had heard.

"Oh here we go..." Claudio muttered.

The two boys stopped laughing abruptly and glared at Jaden, "You? A Slifer Slacker, the next King of Games? That'll be the day!"

"Can it you two!" A cold voice ordered.

Chazz walked down the ramp a little bit to get into their view some more, "Maybe the new kid is right. He *did* beat Crowler after all...and that legendary rare monster of his. I guess it takes *some* skill to pull that off,"

"Aw, thanks," Jaden said.

"Or maybe it was just pure luck..." Chazz snorted ignoring Jaden's thanks, "I'd say we find that out right now,".

Jaden's grin became bigger, "Bring it!" He challenged.

"Hey Syrus, we should sell tickets for this!" Claudio joked.

"Huh?" Of course, he didn't get it.

"Well this certainly is a motley crew..." A new voice said.

They all turned to see another pair Obelisk student walk up to them, Alexis Rhodes.

"Wow...who's she?" Syrus whispered loudly. Claudio shrugged, "Just hope she's not like other three over here." He whispered back.

Chazz smirked at the two, "Hey Alexis. You come to watch me mop the floor with my new friend Jaden? I promise you it'll be a short duel, but it'll be fun too."

The girl, Alexis, crossed her arms and lightly glared at him, "I came to remind you guys that you're late for the Obelisks' Welcome Dinner,"

"Oh yeah..." Chazz leapt over the railing and onto the arena floor, "Come on guys." Alexis shook her head as the three of them left the arena.

"Sorry about him." She said as she turned to the Slifers and Ra, "Not all us Obelisks are like that. Chazz is just a big jerk, *especially* with Slifers."

"Ah, it's no big deal."

"Huh?" Alexis looked at Jaden, surprised at his reaction.

Jaden shrugged, "Those types don't really bother me at all. Besides I could take him down in one turn!"

"Really, Jaden?" Claudio said.

"Well two turns...okay, *maybe* two and a half turns." Alexis started giggling. "Hey, what's so funny?"

Alexis shook her head as she stopped. "Nothing, don't worry about it. Oh yeah, the Slifer Welcoming Dinner is starting too and you don't want to be late."

Jaden started to get in a jogging motion, "Well, we gotta get some food before it's all gone!"

"Wait up!" Syrus called as he ran after the E-Hero duelist.

Just before they were about to leave, Jaden stopped running and turned back to the Lady Obelisk, "Oh what was your name again?" He called out.

Alexis blinked once and smiled slightly, "My name is Alexis. Alexis Rhodes! And you are?"

"Jaden Yuki!" He replied. "See ya around!" And with that he and Syrus ran off.

"Hey, why didn't introduce me?" Syrus asked as he left.

Claudio laughed. "This will be a fun time, with them around."

"Uh, you might wanna get going, too." Alexis said.

"Huh? Oh snap! The Ra dinner, Bastion was on my butt about that!" Claudio said, freaking out a bit. "I'll just give you the quick intro: Claudio Osbourne, nice to meet ya, have a wonderful time! Bye!" Claudio dashed out of the arena.

"This will sure be a fun time this year." Alexis said to herself as she left for her dorm.

Later that evening, all the welcoming dinners were starting. The Obelisk blue dorms dinner was like a fancy party, with gourmet food, punch bowls and classical music played by musicians in the background. In the Ra yellow dorm, it wasn't as glamorous as the blues but they still had great food you'd find a restaurants and a buffet meal. And the headmaster was the one that cooked it. Claudio and Bastion took their seats along with the rest of the students at one of three large tables.

"Ah, welcome amigos!" The headmaster spoke in a thick, Spanish accent. (A/N: If anybody knows how to set up the Spanish letters with the accent marks, please let me know!) "I am Professor Sartyr, headmaster of the Ra Dorm! Now, would like everyone to tell a little about themselves?"

Bastion started first as he stood up from his seat, without hesitation. "My name is Bastion Misawa, and as a hobby I do numerous equations for all the decks I prepare."

"Very good, who's next?"

Claudio thought since Bastion could get up like that without being called, why not? "Hello peoples! Claudio Osbourne, a huge fan of rock n' roll music!"

The rest of the students started getting into the swing of introductions such as a kid named Dimitri, who idolized every great duelist from past to present and even made several decks after them. And then a short guy named Brier, who was a bit shy when he got called on to talk. After all the introductions were made, the feast started. And boy was it good!

And with the Slifer dorm, the food there makes you feel like ordering take out! It was basically a small dish of rice, sardines with some sauces and chopsticks. Just about every Slifer student was complaining over the food.

"This is our big, fancy welcome dinner?" One student said to no one in particular.

"Forget the dinner, look at our headmaster! It's a cat!" Another said pointing at a pudgy, brown and black striped cat that was taking a snooze at the Slifer dining hall, or lack thereof. That thought was blown out of the water when a tall and skinny looking man with a dark hair and a pair of glasses came out from the kitchen area. He seemed like a nice enough teacher, normal too. At least he wasn't like Crowler.

"Hello children, I'm Professor Banner," he greeted them all in a light German accent. "Before we eat, I would like everyone to say some…" Before he could continue he was interrupted by Jaden.

"This is great!" He had already begun to stuff his face with rice while everyone else had been gawking at their food.

"Jaden, I think he wanted us to say something about ourselves." Syrus said, trying to stop his friend from eating.

"Okay, how 'bout this, I'm starving!" Jaden said with his mouth full.

"He's walking over here." Syrus warned but Jaden was still stuffing his face full of food. "I mean it he's…" Syrus didn't finish since Professor Banner now stood over them.

"Well, since some of us can't wait…" He said almost with a scowl. But in a friendly tone he said, "Let's eat!"

"All right!" Jaden said, taking in the rest of his food.

Back in the Ra Yellow dorms, Claudio and Bastion hung out in Bastion's room and started setting up his computer.

"Man, that was best food I've ever tasted!" Claudio said, still feeling himself full. "My mom's got competition!"

"The food was delicious, indeed." Bastion replied. "But you may want to watch it with the monitor."

"Oh, sorry!" The music fanatic set the monitor on the desk as Bastion setup the keyboard and CPU. After about ten minutes, the computer was setup and online.

"There we are!" Bastion said. "Thanks for your help!"

"Anytime!" Claudio replied. "Well, better get ready for bed! Nighty-night!" He left Bastion's room and was about to go to his own until he caught a glimpse of someone running outside past the window. "Huh?" He ran to the window and saw Jaden and Syrus running towards the Obelisk arena they were at earlier today. '*Why's hero boy heading off there at this time?'* Claudio decided to sneak out of the dorm and follow them.

He was about halfway there until...

"You know, you shouldn't be out here..." A voice called out, making Claudio jump up a few feet before turning around.

"Oh, Alexis what's up?" He said, trying to shake off the shock.

"Finding you sneaking out after hours, that's what's up." She said.

"Hey, I was trying to get Jaden and Syrus to come back from the arena, when you caught me." Claudio said, trying to reason with her.

"Why would Jaden sneak out around here?" She wondered.

"We could go find out right now." He offered.

"Fine, I believe you; let's go." Alexis said as she and Claudio ran inside the arena.

Inside the Arena, Jaden and Syrus made it inside to find Chazz on one side waiting with his two friends.

"Well well well...you showed up, Slacker," he greeted.

Jaden nodded, "Of course. After that challenge you sent to my DP (Duel Pilot) no way was I gonna miss this!" He told him as he climbed onto the dueling platform. Syrus took to the sidelines as the two duelists went to their respective ends of the platform.

"Now, we see whether you being Dr Crowler was a fluke, or a fact." Chazz said.

"Yeah," Jaden replied. "And we're gonna find out something else too; ;ike which one of us is gonna be the next King of Games,"

"Yeah yeah, whatever. Just be sure to get your best card ready to hand over after you lose."

"You too, Chazz. Now game on!"

Both of their duel disks turned on and they each drew their starting hands.

"DUEL!" they both cried.

Chazz: 4000

Jaden: 4000

"Alright Slacker..." Chazz drew his card and looked at his hand, "I'll start by summoning Reborn Zombie in Defense Mode and I'll play a card face down."

Appearing in plain sight was a decaying zombie wearing a tattered cloak with gray hair and no eyes. Also, the bones of its right hand and foot were showing.(1000/1600) A face down card was shown behind it.

"I guess that's *one* way to start a duel. But I'm gonna go even bigger so here goes!" Jaden drew his card and looked over his hand, "Ok, first off, I'll play the Spell Card Polymerization and I'll fuse my Elemental Heroes Avian and Burstinatrix from my hand to summon the Elemental Hero Flame Wingman!"

Everyone watched as Avian and Burstinatirx appeared on the field before swirling into each other once more. Now, in their place, the large winged creature from the first duel Jaden was in on the field! (2100/1200)

"I told you I'd start big, didn't I?"

Chazz chuckled softly "I was *hoping* you would..."

"Why's that...?" Jaden asked slowly, not liking Chazz's tone.

The Obelisk smirked, "Because that face down I played before is a Trap Card that *you* set off! Chthonian Polymer, do your stuff!" He ordered. The holographic face down rose to reveal a card that had an image of a man wrapped in flames.

"What's Chthonian Polymer's...stuff?" Syrus asked meekly.

"I knew it! We had a feeling we'd find you guys here!"

Syrus turned around to see Alexis and Claudio walking up to them. "Alexis? Claudio?"

"Chthonian Polymer is a nasty Trap Card. It allows you take control of your opponent's Fusion Monster if you sacrifice one of your own." She explained.

"But..." Syrus looked back at his friend, "Jaden just brought out a Fusion Monster!"

"I now sacrifice my Reborn Zombie to take control of your Wingman, Slacker!" Chazz laughed as his monster exploded in a blast of light and Jaden's Elemental Hero appeared on his side of the field. But it was different than normal, Wingman was now in darker colors and growling in a rage of dark aura.

Jaden groaned as he lost his best monster, "Oh man...not my Wingman."

Chazz shook his head, "You're so predictable, Jaden. You wouldn't stop talking about this monster that day of the exams. I knew that you would use it soon."

"So what? Since that was a Special Summon, that still lets me summon a monster from my hand," Jaden reminded him then looked at his cards, '*Not like that'll help me though. Not one of these cards so far can go against the Wingman...'*

Chazz loved this. He had the Flame Wingman, the monster responsible for Crowler's defeat on his side of the field. And he was going to enjoy every second of it. '*Go on Slifer Slacker, summon another monster. After all, I haven't forgotten about the Wingman's special ability!'* He thought deviously as he watched Jaden scan the three cards he had left in his hand.

"Alright, I'll summon the Elemental Hero Clayman in Defense Mode!" Jaden declared as he slapped another card onto his disk. A large, round man of clay and mud appeared on the field, arms crossed, the red dome of a head shining in the light of the arena.(800/2000)

"There...all set up."

Chazz grinned as he drew another card from his deck, "Set up to get knocked down! Rise, Chthonian Soldier!" A man in dark armor, wielding a large blade appeared on the field next to the stolen Wingman. (1200/1400)

"And now...Flame Wingman, attack with Skydive Scorcher!"

The winged Hero rose into the air, then dove at Clayman as the flames rose around his body once more. With a groan of pain, the Clayman was destroyed in a flash of light and the Wingman landed in front of Jaden, arm stretched out to him.

"Don't think I forgot about his superpower, Slacker. Now, your Life Points take damage equal to that of your destroyed monsters attack points!"

A torrent of flames erupted from the Wingman's dragonhead arm and engulfed Jaden, knocking a small chunk of Life Points off.

Chazz: 4000

Jaden: 3200

"But don't think I'm done there Slacker! Chthonian Soldier, attack with Windstorm Slash!"

Before he could recover from the previous Attack, Jaden felt the blade go through him as the Soldier sliced into him, sending his Life Points down to the halfway mark.

Chazz: 4000

Jaden: 2000

"C'mon hero boy!" Claudio shouted. "I know you're not going lie to this dude! Show him that these ranks don't mean squat in a duel!"

Alexis' eyes never left the duel, but she still heard Claudio. '*Even though he's a Ra, Claudio's still rooting for Jaden to win. I wonder if it's because they're friends or just duelist under the top rank wanting to get at the other Obelisks for putting them down...'*

Jaden was on his knees now and Chazz loved every bit of it. "Have you learned your place now, Slifer? You may have been someone back home, but here, you're nothing but a little amateur, you Slifer Slime!" He paused to insert a card into the bottom row of his disk, "I'll end my turn with two facedown cards!"

Muffled sounds were heard as Jaden's shoulders shook. Chazz's grin grew wider, "Aw, what wrong, baby? Are you crying?" He taunted.

The 'crying' turned into laughter as Jaden lifted his head, a large goofy smile on his face, "This is too fun!"

Chazz stared at him, "What!"

Jaden wiped his chin, "This is exactly what I came here for. I mean the trash talking, the action...it's all so great!"

"What the..."

"Wow!" Claudio said stunned at Jaden's attitude. "I guess he was right about not being phased by someone of Chazz's character, huh?"

"Now, I summon the Elemental Hero Sparkman to the field in Attack mode!" Jaden played another monster card, and what appeared was another strange looking human appeared on the field, this one dressed in yellow and blue garb with a curved blue helmet. (1600/1400)

"Alright, Sparkman. Now attack Chthonian Soldier with Static Shock wave!" Jaden ordered. The Sparkman jumped into the air and pointed his fist directly at the Chthonian Soldier. His arm was charged with electrical sparks before a large thunderbolt beam of shot out from his hand and hit the dark armored monster dead on, destroying it completely in an explosion.

Chazz: 3600

Jaden: 2000

Chazz growled at first, but smirked as he watched his Soldier's curved blade rise above the smoke and fly straight at Jaden, hitting him in the stomach. In pain, Jaden fell to one knee, holding his gut.

"Still think you won that one? Whenever Chthonian Soldier is destroyed, you take the same amount of damage to your Life Points as I did...the only difference is, *you* barely have any left to spare!"

Chazz: 3600

Jaden: 1600

"Shake it off, Hero boy!" Claudio said, giving his Slifer friend some motivational support. "1600 points is enough to keep you in!"

"It's only a matter of time before your best card goes to me, Slacker..." Chazz cackled.

Jaden shook his head as he inserted a card into one of the slots of his disk, "This ain't over yet...I play a face down and I end my turn."

"Play whatever you want, Slacker, it won't make any difference! My next attack will finish off your Life Points." Chazz scoffed as he drew another card, "And that attack's coming right now! Go Flame Wingman!"

As the Wingman's body began to be covered in flames again, Jaden shook his head, "I don't think so! I throw down a face down!"

"A Trap?" Chazz's eye twitched. He wasn't expecting this to happen. And he was so close!

"It's Mirror Gate!" Syrus said in awe of the Trap Card.

Alexis nodded. "Then Jaden still has a chance in this duel."

"Uh, mind filling in the yellow man over here?" The Ra asked someone.

"Mirror Gate makes two monsters in battle switch which side their own so now, the Wingman is back with Jaden," Alexis explained as the Sparkman appeared on Chazz's side of the field and Flame Wingman back on Jaden's.

"Well alright!"

The two Heroes grappled with each other in the air, sparks of flames and electricity crackling around their hands. It didn't take long before the Sparkman was covered with electrical currents and flames before it was taken down.

"NOOOO!" Chazz screamed at his loss of his advantage.

Chazz: 3100

Jaden: 1600

"And, just like you told me a while ago, my Wingman's superpower kicks in! You take damage to your Life Points equal to your destroyed monster's attack points!" Jaden reminded him as the Wingman send waves burning flames at Chazz. Once more, the Obelisk duelist screamed as his Life Points went down slightly below Jaden's.

Chazz: 1500

Jaden: 1600

"In your face, blue boy!" Claudio cheered.

Chazz glared daggers at Jaden and Claudio as he drew his next card, "Lucky turn, you Slifer Slacker. Now I play the Trap Card, Chthonian Blast! Since you've destroyed one of my monsters, I get to destroy one of yours!"

A swirling mist appeared on the bottom of field just before it ensnared the Wingman and destroyed it on the spot.

"Plus, you take damage equal to half of your destroyed monsters attack points!" Chazz added gleefully.

Chazz: 1500

Jaden: 550

"Now, I activate my Trap Card, Call of the Haunted!" Chazz went on as his second facedown card flipped upward to reveal a card with a haunted graveyard as a picture, "This lets me bring back a monster from my Graveyard to the field in attack mode! I summon Chthonian Soldier, but he won't be staying long, because I'll be sacrificing him to summon Mefist the Infernal General (1800/1700) to the field!"

Jaden looked calmly at the mounted horseman in front of him, "Not bad..."

"Not bad?" Chazz looked at him for a few moments, "You're something else, you know that, Slacker? Acting confident and all...but you're lousy monsters won't get you out of *this* jam."

Jaden looked at the only card in his hand. The Winged Kuriboh and smiled at it, "I know he's wrong, Winged Kuriboh...because we both know that my monsters and I have a bond." He drew his next card and smiled slightly. '*Speaking of...'*

Alexis turned her head to the entrance of the arena, a nervous look on her face. Claudio noticed the look and looked concerned, "Sup, 'Lex?" He asked.

Alexis' eyes went wide and she snapped her head back to the two dueling students, "Guys! We got company! Campus Security! If we get caught here, we're all gonna get seriously busted."

"What!" Syrus yelped.

Jaden looked at her, "What? Why? I mean, we're all students here, so why should we worry?" He asked her.

Alexis rolled her eyes and pulled out her PDA, "The Rules of Duel Academy say that there is no off-hour dueling in any arena! Chazz *knows* that," She looked at the other Obelisk who's face began to turn red, "But lemme guess...he didn't tell you?"

The blue haired Obelisk student leaned forward from his watching place, "C'mon Chazz, let's go!"

Princeton snorted and turned away from the others, "Fine..."

"Hey wait a minute, the duel isn't over!" Jaden protested, wanting to finish up his turn.

Chazz hopped off the platform and started walking away, "Yeah it is, Slacker. I saw what I needed to see. You're a sorry duelist and you beating Crowler was a fluke..."

"But..."

"Jay! We gotta get outta here!" Syrus urged.

"Yeah man, I don't wanna get busted on the first day!" Claudio added. "Heck, it's really not the first day!" He grabbed Jaden and hoisted him over his shoulder as Alexis lead them out of the arena.

After some close calls and some moments of silence, Alexis and the others made it outside of the main building. She looked back to Jaden who was being let down by Claudio with Syrus right behind them.

"You sure are stubborn aren't you?" She asked him.

"Only about my dueling." Jaden scowled.

Syrus and Claudio sweatdropped. "Anyway, thanks for showing us the back way out, Alexis."

The Obelisk female smiled and nodded, "No problem. I'm just sorry that you didn't get to finish your duel with Chazz, Jaden."

The brunette Slifer shrugged, "It's okay. I just picture on how it would've ended anyway..."

Alexis raised an eyebrow, "Oh? From my point of view, it could have gone either way."

"Pfft, no way! Not after I drew this." Jaden lifted up the card he had drawn before they escaped the patrol. It was the Monster Reborn spell card. Alexis looked at it, surprised at the luck he must've had to have drawn the card.

"Let me guess..." The Slifers and Obelisk turned to Claudio as he explained. "You would have brought Flame Wingman back to destroy Mefist and take out Chazz right there!"

Jaden smiled."You got it! Catch ya later!" He said as Jaden and Syrus ran back to their dorm.

"Well, it's been a great night!" Claudio said to Alexis. "Next time, I'll get up on stage and rock the arena with my monsters! 'Til then, sleep tight!" The Ra ran back to his dorm.

The blonde Obelisk female watched as the two Slifers and Ra ran off. *'This is going to be one interesting year...'* She thought with a smile before she left the area for her own dorm.