Chapter 2
Preliminaries, Four Battles for entry!
~Key Card: Speed World 2~
The sun rose from behind Neo Domino Stadium, slowly enveloping Neo-Domino City in its warm embrace. Only the earlier risers could see this scenery, one of them standing on the highest tower of Neo-Domino City, watching as the sun banished the cold chill of the night and the light of the other stars and the moon. As the sun raised higher, the figure turned around and entered the building.
All the screens in Neo-Domino City showed duels from previously given tournaments, including the shocking scene's that had taken place during the Fortune Cup. Most people didn't even glance at the screens, more waiting for the Master of Ceremonies making the announcement that the preliminaries were starting. Finally the replay was stopped and the Neo Domino Stadium appeared on screen, the camera concentrating mostly on the sphere in the centre.
Meanwhile, in the Neo Domino Stadium, all of the contestants were gathered in the central elevation waiting for the opening. The Master of Ceremonies, barely containing his enthusiasm, waited for signal that he could get on stage to open the WRGP. Finally getting his signal, he raised the microphone to his mouth, raising up at such a speed that his pompadour went up and down as he was fully raised.
"Everybody listen! Today is the big day, Neo Domino's newest tournament The World Riding Duel Grand Prix, made possible by the currently most wealthy man of Neo Domino, Hoshino Kousuke-sama!" The Master of Ceremonies made an elaborate hand gesture and the camera shifted to an man that was clearly in his mid forties, yet his eyes showed that he had endured much over the years, his short black hair was neatly cut in one length and worn in a way suited for a businessman. He was wearing a traditional black suit with a white shirt and a small black tie. He made a small bow towards the camera as it was pointed to him.
"Thank you everyone for participating in this tournament and give your best to make this a World Riding Duel Grand Prix to remember."
The camera moved back to the Master of Ceremonies, who put the microphone even closer to his mouth and took a step back from the camera.
"Now, this is how the WRGP will be done. First we start with the knockout rounds to reduce the amount of contestants to sixteen, this means that each team will have to score five victories in a row. If you lose, your out of the race. Then the remaining sixteen, will be put in four pools, to decide who get to the quarter finals, the top two of each pool pass through to the quarter finals and then its back to knockout matches till we have the very champion of the Hoshino World Riding Duel Grand Prix."
Slowly the sounds of talking came from both the contestants and the public, as the screen flicked off. Suddenly it sprung on again.
"Oh yes, the preliminaries, only the team leader duels. One match, one chance each to make it."
Different sounds echoed in the stadium, most of the contestants approved of this, the strain on their team would be far less. The public sounded displeased over the fact that they had to wait for the more spectacular duels. Then, the voice of Hoshino passed through the stadium.
"Will all the contestants go to their designated duel lanes, the preliminaries will start in 15 minutes."
The crowd turned silent, the displeasure quickly being swept away by the excitement for the start of the WRGP. The centre of the Neo Domino Stadium emptied quickly, as the teams left. Outside the sounds of the Duel Lanes being lifted in preparation could be heard. As the time elapsed the crowd grew more and more anxious, until finally, the face of MC appeared on the globe screen in the centre of the stadium and many screens across Neo Domino.
"Let's begin. RIDING DUEL, ACCELERATION!"
"So, Smith-san, anything out of the ordinary happened today?" Hoshino was sitting in his office, behind is ebony wood desk, some holographic screens were above the desk, but they were shoved aside so that he could talk with the man sitting in front of him. The man had messy, seemingly un kept dark brown hair, which hang in strands. His face was that of an man in his forties who still had a lot of life in him. Wearing a lab coat, which was closed, he sat with his elbows on his knees, leaning forward, with a mindful expression.
"I'm sorry Hoshino-sama, no special readings outside normal duel activity ones. I don't think the ones you are looking for have been pushed far enough or in worst case, were eliminated quite quickly from the tournament."
Hoshino stood up, pacing in the room, finally stopping and stared at the final duels being completed in the distance.
"No, they will definitely make it to the final sixteen. Smith-san, you can go now."
Smith stood up and with a slight bow, walked out of the business office to return to his own laboratory.
~Team La Nature Savage~
Marie bit on her lower lip, starring at her opponent. Her last attempt to gain control over the duel had failed and had ended up with her getting caught in her opponent's Shadow Spell. On the other side, a mechanized dragon with his three lasers aimed at her Naturia Beast, the white tiger was captured in chains and Lady Panther, who was crouching down and held her shield in front of herself.
Marie – Opponent
1200 LP – 1500 LP
8 SPC – 8 SPC
"Draw" Her opponent smirked and placed the card into his hand.
"First I activate the effect of my Barrel Dragon." The three guns of the Barrel Dragon started to charge up, glowing brighter at their bases. Suddenly the left one started to sputter and dimmed.
"Ha, two of the three is still good enough. Destroy Lady Panther!" The two remaining guns shot Lady Panther, who fell backwards and disintegrated into thousands of pixels.
"Now for my actual attack, Barrel Dragon, destroy Naturia Beast!" This time the shots were fired without charging, all three of the bullets hit Naturia Beast, who let out a pained growl as he vanished from the field, and one passed through and hit Marie as well, who clutched her teeth together, unwilling to show any discomfort caused by her opponents attacks. [100 LP]
"When one of my beasts is destroyed, I can remove two beasts from my graveyard to special summon my Yellow Baboon, Archer of the Forest!"
Marie pocketed two cards that shot out of her graveyard, as she placed a card onto her Duel Disk. A yellow coloured baboon appeared, walking on his hind legs, wearing a grey coloured armour and aiming an arrow at her opponent, showing his fangs at the same time. [2600 ATK]
"Better make this turn worthwhile of you, you are below the safety line. I end my turn."
Marie – Opponent
100 LP – 1500 LP
9 SPC – 9 SPC
"Oh I'm going to make it worthwhile, you won't get your next turn. Draw!" Marie placed the drawn card into her hand, picked the now middle one and placed it onto the field.
"I call to my aid, Rescue Cat!" A small white kitten with black and grey stripes appeared, wearing a small yellow rescue helmet, with its ears coming through special made holes for it, and around its neck there was a whistle. With big and bright blue eyes it starred at Yellow Baboon and then to Marie.
"I activate Rescue Cats effect. By giving her up, I can special summon two level three or lower Beasts from my deck. Crier pour aide[1]!" The small kitten gave a firm nod, seemingly jumped of the field while blowing the small whistle. As she vanished from the field, two new monsters appeared, one small white mouse wearing a collar with padlock and a key, while his tail tip ends in a small key shape [100 ATK] and one small black blob with a yellow face.[100 ATK].
"Now, I tune my level one Key Mouse to my level seven Yellow Baboon, Archer of the Forest and my level one Moja." The Key Mouse transformed into a light green ring, Yellow Baboon and Moja jumped up and passed through the ring, both of the vanishing and a total of eight stars appeared.
Lion dormant des forêts, défenseur des bêtes et des plantes. Élevas te triomphant en combat!
Appel de Synchro!
Rugir, Dragolion Naturia!
A large lion appeared on the field, but its manes were light red flower petals, its body covered by green leaves covering each other as scales and the tip of the tail ended in a large rose bulb. [3000 ATK]
"Ha, it's strong enough to take out my Barrel Dragon but you can't win. Victory is mi…"
"Speed Spell – Final Attack!" Marie interrupted her opponent without giving him even a look.
"Final Attack can only be activated when I have eight or more speed counters. It doubles the attack of my monster, but it cannot declare a direct attack and is destroyed at the end of the turn. Considering the circumstances, there is no end of the turn." Naturia Leodrake roared as his attack score doubled. [6000 ATK]
"Battle, Naturia Leodrake attack Barrel Dragon! Déchaînement de la nature![2]" The large lion pounced onto the Barrel Dragon, digging his claws into the metal until it cracked. Finally the Barrel Dragon shattered, shards of metal flew everywhere, hitting the opponent, who let go of an angry grumble as his life points hit zero and his D-Wheel started to slow down and pouring out steam. From the pit, her teammates started cheering. This was the fifth victory so they made it past the preliminaries.
~Team Flame Wing~
"I knew it, you had some trick up your sleeve." Cristov grinned, his opponent just had stopped what would have been a game ending attack with a Battle Fader. "Show me what you have got and try and beat me." The Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys flapped its flaming wings defiantly, as if to further increase the taunting words of Cristov.
His opponent grumbled angrily, drawing silently.
Cristov – Opponent
2400 LP – 2100 LP
5 SPC – 5 SPC
"I release my Battle Fader to advance summon Ambitious Gofer" The small pendulum shaped fiend vanished into a light and out of that light came a large floating head, with deep bubbly red skin and seemed to lack the upper part of his skull, something that seemed to be his brains being left exposed. [2400 ATK]
"Ambitious Gofer monster effect, I can destroy up to two monsters you have. But there is a slight catch, you can negate this effect if you reveal a monster in your hand." Cristov smirked and glanced at his hand, there was a monster present but he didn't need to negate it.
"No, I think I will allow you to destroy my Phoenix." His opponent shot a worried glance at him, but by that time Ambitious Gofer had shot out lightening from its exposed brain, hitting the Sacred Phoenix who burst into pixels.
"Since your field is open now, Ambitious Gofer attack him directly." The same lightening that destroyed Sacred Phoenix shot towards Cristov. He smirked and raised his hand to signal an activation of a face down card.
"Trap card open, Phoenix Wing Wind Blast! By discarding a card," Cristov revealed the card to his opponent, Hand of Nephthys, and placed it into the graveyard slot, "I can send one card on your side of the field to the top of your deck, guess what I am hitting with it." A blast of wind with small cinders blasted from the card, sending Ambitious Gofer flying from the field.
"I don't understand, you could have stopped my Ambitious Gofers effect…why didn't you?" The confusions was visible on the opponents face quiet clearly. Cristov started to laugh.
"Shape up your knowledge, a phoenix is always reborn." His opponent seemed to realize something and grinned.
"Well then, I will place one card face down and end my turn" A card appeared next to his D-Wheel and vanished again.
Cristov – Opponent
2400 LP – 2100 LP
6 SPC – 6 SPC
"Draw, now for the effect of my Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys. If it was destroyed by a card effect, during my Standby Phase, I can bring it back from the graveyard. Rise from your ashes, Sacred Phoenix of Nepthtys!" A firestorm appeared on the field, slowly expanding, revealing the silhouette of a bird in it, with one powerful trust of its wings, the fire burst, revealing the gold armour that covered its body. At the same time, the set cards on both sides of the fields broke into shatters.
"What happened?"
"Sacred Phoenix' second effect, when its special summoned by its own effect, it destroys all the spell and trap cards on the field. Meaning your last defence is taken out. Sacred Phoenix attack him directly. Sacred Fire!" The Sacred Phoenix shot up into the air and dive bombed into Cristov's opponent. [0 LP]
The engine of the D-Wheel started pour steam out and slowed down to a stand still. Cristov went on without a glance to the pit, Shirley and Hiita were waiting for him there.
"Guys, I have great news. We are passed our preliminaries. Now we can get serious." With a big smile, he pulled of his helmet and put it down in front of him on the seat, resting with one arm on it, he made a victory sign to both his teammates.
~Team Fortress~
Joey smiled, this duel was his. He managed to destroy his opponents field on his last turn and the hand of his opponent had been depleted to nothing. Joey's only monster was a mechanical turtle, which carried a launching system on his back. It laid crouched holding in a defensive position. [2000 DEF]
Joey – Opponent
3200 LP – 1000 LP
8 SPC – 3 SPC
"Draw." His opponent frowned at the drawn card and shook his head. Clearly it was something useless.
"I activate the effect of Speed World 2, by spending 7 Speed Counters, I draw 1 card." An expression of hopelessness appeared on his face. "I summon Shining Angel in def. Turn End." An human wearing a toga, with a golden rope around his waste and golden bracelets around his arms, closed his two pair of feathered wings that sprout from his back so that they covered him. [800 DEF]
Joey – Opponent
3200 LP – 1000 LP
9 SPC – 4 SPC
"Draw. I summon Don Turtle in attack position." A small turtle shell appeared on the field, from the head entry two bright yellow eyes shone as if their were headlights, around the shell was a necklace with aquamarine beads and a golden pendant with small bars hanging from it. The front of the shell had a deep red symbol painted on it, seemingly being a Kanji symbol. [1100 ATK]
"Don Turtle's effect, when it is successfully normal summoned, I can special summon as many from my hand as I can. I only have one but that is more then enough." A second Don Turtle appeared onto the field. Joey's opponent let his head hang, realizing that he wouldn't make it past this turn.
"Catapult Turtle's effect, by tributing one of my monsters I can deal half of its attack as damage to you. Catapult Turtle, load the first Don Turtle." One of the Don Turtles moved onto the launching platform on Catapult Turtles back, who aimed at the opponent.
"Fire!" The turtle shell shot out of the platform, hitting the opponent, who started to sway dangerously from the impact. [450 LP]
"Load the second shot and finish it." The second Don Turtle was placed on the launching platform and was launched. The impact again made the D-Wheel sway, the danger of crashing was hardly present as the speed rapidly diminished as the D-Wheel started to pour out steam and came to a standstill. Joey stopped as well and walked to his opponent, giving him a hand.
"Great duel" His opponent accepted the handshake and nodded in approval. Then he turned his D-Wheel and headed back to his teammates. Joey took his own D-Wheel back to his crew pit, Laurence and William were both waiting for him there to celebrate their fifth victory.
~Team Ancestral Dragons~
A tall human with blue hair stood on Koushaku's side, the human had a pair of blue dragon-like wings, with the membrane red, wearing a blue bird mask on his head the beak of it extended it, shading his eyes. The clothing was dark blue trimmed at the ends with gold, the boots had a small fur end on top of them and around his waist a golden belt with a blue cloth dropping at front and his backside. In his hands he held a bow and arrow, the arrow was slightly oddly shaped, the tip of it slightly resembling a trident, the end of the arrow also ending in a sharp point. [2100 ATK]
On his opponent side there was a knight, completely clad in a dark armour. On the left arm, the plating extended into a sword and on the right arm the plating was a lot broader to form a shield. [1800 ATK]
Koushaku – Opponent
200 LP – 1300 LP
3 SPC – 6 SPC
"Draw, time to get down to business. I summon the tuner monster, Dragunity Black Spear!" A small black dragon flew onto the field, the head was shaped in the form of a spear tip. His chest, stomach and the edges of his head were all of the same silver colour. In front of the middle of his eyes there was a small green gem placed and his wings sprouted from his hips, with a dark orange membrane. It roared one time at his foe. [1000 ATK]
"A tuner monster, don't tell me, a synchro summon?"
"Later, first I am activating Dragunity Black Spear's effect, by releasing a Dragunity Dragon type, I can special summon a level four or lower Winged Beast from my graveyard." Dragunity Black Spear vanished from the field and was replaced by a female, with white wings, consisting of vertical layers fitting together, except for the top part which had a jade green colour. Wearing an helmet resembling the head of a dragonfly, in the same jade green with big yellow eyes on the sides, a white piece of clothing covered her mouth and nose and from under her helmet light brown hair fell out. Her clothing was a white dress with the skirt only coming half way to her knees, the sides of it having a texture and colour resembling chainmail. Her feet and hand were covered in wounded gold coloured leather straps and she wielded two small blades, one in each hand. She crouched down holding her arms defensively in front of her. [1200 DEF]
"Next, Dragunity Militum her effect, once per turn I can special summon an equipped Dragunity to the field. I special summon Dragunity Corsesca." The arrow that was held by Dragunity Angus was replaced by a more regular one and in a burst a small flesh coloured dragon burst on the field, on the top of his head is his dark blue plating that runs from his back onto his head ended into a trident shape. His yellow eyes stared eagerly at Gearfried, thirsting to rip him apart. [800 ATK]
"Now, I tune my level one Dragunity Corsesca to my level five Dragunity Angus!" Dragunity Corsesca transformed into a light green ring, Dragunity Angus shot up passing through the ring and a total of 6 bright stars appeared as he vanished.
Aku no okami ga hoeshita toki, kuriin no eiyuu no yari ga awareru to kinjirareu taiki o hikisaite! Kakusei, seinaru kurogane yo!
Shinkuro Shokan!
Ten o nori, Doraguniti Naito Geaborugu!
A large serpentine purple dragon appeared, his body almost completely covered in a white armour plating, only the sides of his chest, his upper arms, his upper legs and his lower jaw were not covered by it. The plate on the head had trident shape, the edges of the side points covered with gold and a green jewel stood in the middle of the forehead between the two eyes. His claws and a diamond shaped spot on his chest armour all were gold. On his back was a small figure, covered in the same white armour, including the pair of wings that sprout from his back, on his shoulders he wore adorned shoulder pieces coloured purple. The figure wielded a long spear which the end shaped as the trident's end. [2000 ATK]
"Now, Dragunity Knight Gaebulg, attack Gearfried the Iron Knight! Kyofuyari Issen![3]"
The rider of the dragon, pulled his spear back and in a flash it trusted it forward at Gearfried the Iron Knight. It suddenly hit a barrier, a swirling vortex had appeared, protecting Gearfried the Iron Knight.
"Fancy trap isn't it, Negate Attack, it stops your attack and ends the battle phase." The opponent smirked at Koushaku. Koushaku shrugged.
"I end my turn."
Koushaku – Opponent
200 LP – 1300 LP
4 SPC – 7 SPC
"My turn, draw! Now to get rid of that last bit of Life Points of you. I tribute my Gearfried the Iron Knight to tribute summon Divine Knight Ishzark!" The Iron Knight was replaced by a bigger knight, with a clear white wing motif, all the adornments of his armour were wing shaped, including the handle of his buster sword.
"Divine Knight Ishzark, attack Dragunity Knight Gae Bulg! Breakdown Distortion! And by Divine Knights effect, your monster will be removed from play. Not that it matters, this attack will finish it." Divine Knight Ishzark started to charge forward, dragging his sword after him.
"Oh it will finish, but not the way you think. Dragunity Knight Gaebulgs effect, by removing a Winged Beast from my graveyard, he gains equal amount of attack as that monster till the end of this turn. I remove Dragunity Angus!" The faint image of Dragunity Angus appeared and was absorbed by the dragon, who let out a bloodlust roar. [4100 ATK]
"Dragunity Knight Gae Bulg, counterattack, Kyofuyari Issen!" Once again, the rider moved the spear backwards, at the same time Divine Knight Ishzark jumped up, reading to slash sideways through the dragon and rider. Instead, he get hit in the chest at full force by the spear. For a moment he hang there and then shattered into pixels. The opponent hit display screen of his D-Wheel in frustration as his Life Points hit zero. The D-Wheel started to slow down, Koushaku passed his opponent as he moved out of the Duel Lane into the crew pit.
"And that makes five" Koushaku stepped of his D-Wheel and put of his helmet. In an instant Daiichi was jumping up against him, Koushaku patted him on his head. His two teammates were busy with something else, Meguru was reading and Tozaru was looking something on his laptop. Koushaku scrapped his throat. Meguru hardly looked up, but signaled with her hand that she had heard him, normally this meant that she was in the middle of a page and didn't want to look up and lose the line. Tozaru got up and grabbed him by his shoulder.
"Great job and since this victory was our fifth, I took the liberty to look up which other teams already have made it, the competition looks interesting, a lot of European teams, Team Unicorn, Team Sherry, Team Ragnarok are the more well known ones, but there are other not so known teams."
"Tozaru-kun, leave that for tomorrow. The rest of the day we will rest, tomorrow are the pools announced."
Tozaru nodded, turned around and jumped backwards as he almost crashed with Meguru.
"Congratulations Kou-kun…"
The rest that Meguru wanted to say was lost in the announcement of the MC.
"Everybody listen, the preliminaries have ended. All the sixteen teams that will advance on have been selected and the pools will be selected overnight. Tomorrow is a resting day and we will continue after that with the pool matches!"
That night, Japan and the rest of the world, was hit by an earthquake. Regions with earthquakes often considered it number x of that year, on the other hand regions were never earthquakes were felt, the people were desperate to hear from the authorities what happened. Many countries had suffered great damage, the one that took most was the Netherlands, the earthquake was powerful enough to destroy or weaken many of the protective works against the sea, two third of the country was flooded as the sea reclaimed its lost land, many lives were lost.
Back in Neo Domino City, a young boy ran through the house. His brown eyes checking every room to see if anyone was hurt, his black hair sticking to his face from the sweat. Finally he arrived at the large mahogany doors of his fathers office. He burst in, his father was standing at the window starring outside.
"Chichiue, daijobu?"[4]
"Hai. Ja, hitori ni shite kudasai, Hiiryu"[5]
The younger boy bowed slightly and closed the doors, leaving Hoshino alone to stare at Neo Domino City. Hoshino's gaze was fixed on the sky, his expression thoughtful.
~~Key Card: Speed World 2~~
Meguru: "Kou-kun, did you feel that earthquake last night?"
Koushaku: "Yes, definitely something strange about it and some lunatic is raving in the front of our workshop. "Battle of Charms, Raging Wind!" Just get lost!"
[1] Call for Aid
Synchro Speech Leodrake: Sleeping lion of the forest, protector of the beasts and plants. Stand proudly in battle! Synchro Summon! Roar, Naturia Leodrake!
[2] Rampage of Nature
Synchro Speech Gae Bulg: When the demonic wolf howls, the hero of Chulainn's lance will appear and pierce the foreboding atmosphere! Divine steel awaken! Synchro Summon! Ride the sky, Dragunity Knight Gae Bulg
[3] Tornado Spear Flash
[4] Father (lit, honorable father), are you allright?
[5] Yes, now please leave, Hiiryu
Author note: In case you are wondering and paid attention, I am aware that I used both TCG and OCG terminology in this chapter. That has a reason, which might or might not become clearer later on or you might have caught on to it already. Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh, I do own the OC's. I like to thank everyone who helped me with making this fic possible.