Same disclosures as in previous chapters. Nothing new this time. This chapter is fluff to help move the story along. Some people may not like it, but I needed to throw it in. There are only a few days left before Battle City and the same events will take place, with our own little twists. Slight differences from the show will be noticeable, but won't change the outcome. Here goes nothing. Chapter 4, launching!

Chapter 4: Preparations

"And then when we turned around, she was gone," Yugi said. It was Yugi, not Yami that was relating the story to Joey and Tristan. Yami had allowed Yugi to watch and listen to what had gone on last night at the museum. It was a lovely spring afternoon and the trickle of the fountain that we were sitting at in the park was quite relaxing.

"God monster cards? That sounds like some pretty powerful stuff," Joey said. "And who would have thought that Yugi was a pharaoh?"

"Just wait until you guys hear what happened before we went to the museum," Téa jumped into the conversation. Tristan and Joey looked at me and raised their eyebrows.

I was quietly looking at my reflection in the fountain's water. I turned my head to them when I noticed that no one was talking. "What?" I asked.

"Téa says that you and her did something last night," Tristan teased.

"Hey! That's not what I said," Téa growled. "Although, what he did was very sweet."

"Enough with the suspense already!" Joey exploded. "Out with it, Téa."

"Well, you see, there was this guy that was really ticking us off," She started to explain.

"He was hitting on her," I stated as I turned back to the fountain.

"Well, I guess he was at first…then Yugi challenged him to a duel," Téa continued. "But Brian wanted to protect me. He dueled the guy."

"You're kidding," Joey said. "You mean I missed Brian dueling?"

"It wasn't that great. He gave up once I summoned my Blue Eyes White Dragon," I assured him.

"And that was the interesting thing," Yugi said. "He has a Blue Eyes White Dragon."

"I have two," I informed them modestly. "They're just a couple of things I picked up from the Roses tournament."

"You should really take pride in your deck," Yugi told me. "Blue Eyes White Dragon cards are all but non-existent here."

I shrugged and stuck my right fore finger in the water and stirred it in a small circle. I was wearing a short sleeved t-shirt with my Millennium Bracelet around my wrist. It glistened in the light of the midday sun as I moved my hand around. "You guys really need to learn to relax," I told them. "The key to winning major tournaments is to have a clear mind. I believe we still have to register."

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot," Joey spoke up. "Serenity's going to have her operation tomorrow."

"That's great news, man," Tristan replied.

"Yeah, and the first thing she's gonna see is my beautiful mug," Joey laughed.

"Well what do you say we go get registered for Battle City?" I asked Yugi. "Might as well get the formalities out of the way now rather than later."

"Oh, you're leaving?" Téa asked me when I stood up. "We hardly get to do anything together."

"We'll try to do something later tonight then," I told her with a smile. Yugi and I then turned to go. Joey followed us saying he was going to enter as well. It took a long time to find a registration store, they weren't as plentiful as Kaiba had stated they were.

Joey approached the guy at the counter first and showed him his Red Eyes Black Dragon. "I'm sorry but there are only four rarity stars on this card. You need at least six to get in the tournament," he said. I sensed something from my bracelet. Before I could say anything the registrar spoke up. "My apologies. There are six stars on your card. It just took awhile to come up."

Joey was handed a box that held the latest technology from Kaiba Corp, a duel disk. The registrar explained how to operate them and then took care of me and Yugi. Yugi used his Dark Magician to get in and I flashed my Seiyariyu.

We left the shop and began walking home. I looked at my watch. "8:30. I'm gonna get chewed out by Téa later," I thought to myself. I had promised her that we'd do something tonight, but it had taken all day to find this place. "I'll make it up to her tomorrow," I said out loud.

"Oh, shoot!" Joey shouted. "I can't believe I forgot about Serenity! I told her I'd be there to see her at eight! Gotta run, later!" He turned and sprinted down an alley in the direction of the hospital. Yugi and I laughed when we heard the sound of several trash cans being knocked over and the "I'm okay!" that followed it.

We walked along for a little while in silence. "Seems that you and Téa have hit it off pretty good," Yugi said eventually.

"I thought we discussed this already. But yeah, I guess we have," I replied. "She's right, though. We never do anything just ourselves. Heck, our first kiss was in front of you guys."

"I'm sure that was embarrassing enough," Yugi laughed.

We talked about several other things, until we came upon Yugi's house. I said goodbye and kept walking to my own house. When I got there I rushed upstairs and called Téa to apologize. To my surprise, she wasn't sad or even mad at me. I told her I would spend all day with her tomorrow. After hanging up, I went right to sleep.


The next morning I got up and took Téa out for breakfast then we walked around the city for awhile. A ringing sound drew our attention. "Oh, excuse me a second," Téa said as she pulled a cell phone out of her purse. "Hello? Oh, hi Yugi…What? No we haven't seen Joey today…The hospital to see Serenity?…What do you mean he never showed up?…Okay, we'll meet you there." She shoved the phone back in her purse then grabbed my hand and started running.

"What's going on, Téa?" I asked.

"It's Joey. He went to see Serenity last night," she explained.

"Yeah, I know. He said he was late and rushed off," I told her.

"Well, his mom called Yugi saying he never showed up. And no one has seen him since," she finished.

"That's not good," I said to myself. I let go of Téa's hand and kept running. The two of us found Yugi rushing out the front door of the hospital when we got there. "Yugi!" I called out. " Let's go and try to retrace his steps."

"And fast," He agreed. "It's almost time for the operation and Serenity locked herself in her room. Tristan's there trying to get her to come out."

We searched along the streets for twenty minutes before we got to the game shop we were at the night before. We found nothing on the way. As we looked around we saw that there was far too many ways to get to the hospital from where we were.

"Let me try to track him," I said. "I should be able to sense him with my Millennium Bracelet." I closed my eyes and held my hand out forward. Nothing happened.

"Let's just pick an alley and go!" Yugi said as he ran off. Téa and I followed suit.

Then, as we passed by one side street, something pulled my arm to the side. I stopped and shouted to the others. I looked down the alley and saw a bunch of knocked over trash cans. "This is it. I can sense Joey's presence now." I led them down the alley and around a few corners and found Joey laying on the ground unconscious with his duel disk on his arm and activated.

"Oh no, Joey!" Yugi said as he rushed to his friend's side. He tried to revive him, but Joey would not wake up.

Fearing the worst, I pulled his duel disk off his arm and handed it to Téa. I then grabbed his arm and threw it over my shoulder and picked him up. "We have to get him out of here," I said, half carrying and half dragging him through the alley. "Hopefully, he'll come to on the way. Come on, Joey. Your sister is waiting."

We got out of the alley a short time later on the street in front of the hospital. "At least he knew where he was going," I thought. He started mumbling something about his Red Eyes. He didn't sound good, but any sign of life was good at this point. We carried him through the front doors and into the elevator. Joey started to come around and could stand on his own feet.

The elevator doors opened and Joey hauled himself into the hall, barely. "Joey let us help you," Téa pleaded.

Joey waved his hand at us. "No. I can do it myself. I need to prove to Serenity that I'm strong, so she can get through this operation." We watched as he moved to his sister's door and begged her to come out. After several attempts, she threw the door open and caught Joey in a loving embrace.

"Guys…" I said quietly to Tristan, Yugi, and Téa. They turned to look at me and I nodded my head in the direction of the elevator, indicating that we should leave them alone for some family time. Téa silently handed Joey's duel disk to his mother to give back to him and we slipped into the elevator and headed back down.

"It's a good thing you guys showed up when you did," Tristan said. "They almost cancelled the operation. Where did you find him anyway?"

"Brian located him with the Millennium Bracelet," Yugi explained. "We still don't know what happened to him."

"We should wait to make sure Joey's alright," Tristan said when we got to the ground floor.

We moved out to the lobby to wait. We waited for the rest of the afternoon and into early evening. Téa had fallen asleep on my shoulder and was breathing softly in my ear. Tristan kept teasing saying how cute we were together and I kept shushing him, not wanting to wake my girlfriend. Yugi just stared at the elevator the entire time, waiting for his best friend to come walking out and show us all that he was just fine.

One thing that was still nagging at me was what had happened to him in that alley. When Joey had run off his duel disk was still in its box, let alone activated. What went on? Was he in a duel? Then, he had said something about his Red Eyes Black Dragon. Did he lose it? If he had, he'd be kicked out of the tournament. Before I could think of a reason, Téa awoke and lifted her head up at me.

"Has Joey come back down yet?" she asked with a yawn. I was about to say no when the elevator bell dinged and the doors slid open. Joey walked out wearing a huge grin.

"The operation was a success!" he said proudly. We all congratulated him. "Serenity's in recovery right now. The doc says she'll be able to see perfectly in about five days."

"Perfect! Just in time to see the tournament," Tristan stated.

"Are you alright Joey?" I asked. "You were in pretty bad shape when we found you. What happened?"

"I'm fine. Some guys wearing capes jumped me in the alley and demanded that I give them my Red Eyes Black Dragon," he explained. "Then, when I refused, he forced me to duel him. I lost the duel, but I still refused to give it to them. I think I got hit from behind, I don't remember."

"What about the tournament? You don't have your rare card anymore," Yugi wondered.

"I still got that covered, Yug. I've got Time Wizard, remember?" Joey replied. "Besides, all I have to do is track down that creep that took my card and win it back."

I listened to all of this and something still didn't feel right. Why go after Joey's Red Eyes? There are much better cards than that. Why not try to take my Seiyariyu or Yugi's Dark Magician? And why cards? Why not our Millennium Items? It wasn't adding up. Someone waving a hand in front of my face broke my thought process.

"Hello? Anyone in there?" Téa asked me. "C'mon we're leaving."

I blinked a few times and looked around. Yugi, Tristan, and Joey were already out the door. "I'm coming, I'm coming," I said. I looked at my watch. It was only 6:30. "Hey, Téa. Wanna go catch a movie?"


The five of us spent the next two days hanging out, playing a few games of Duel Monsters as well as Dungeon Dice Monsters, which I never did get the hang of, and preparing our decks for the tournament. I kept my rarest cards hidden, a little surprise for them during the tournament. On Saturday, Téa and I finally had our first "official" date, one without interruption. And on Sunday, Paige had prepared a good luck banquet for me, Yugi, and Joey. Téa and Tristan were invited, too, of course. I wouldn't have had it any other way.

Monday morning was the beginning of it all. I met up with Yugi, Yami actually, and Joey and went with them to the city square where the official announcement was going to be made. It was my first competition in some time and I was looking forward to the challenge.

Don't forget what else we're here for.

"I know," I said quietly.

"You know what?" Joey spoke up.

"Nothing. Just that I'm gonna wipe the floor with you," I replied jokingly.

"Joey Wheeler," a female voice said from behind us. "I thought I heard that loud mouth of yours."

"Hey, Mai," Joey responded. "I didn't know you had entered."

"You think I'm gonna miss out on this?" Mai said. "Say, who's this? I've never seen him before."

"I'm Brian Matthews," I stated. "You don't need to remember my name. It'll be in all the papers when I win this thing."

"Confident, aren't we? Good luck, kid. You'll need it," She said as she turned to walk away.

"Good luck to you too, Mai," Yugi said.

Then there was another voice. "Hey! Yugi!" it called out.

"It's Mako," Yugi said. "How have you been?"

"Great!" replied the enthusiastic duelist. "I have some great new cards I've been dying to test out. I look forward to our rematch in the finals."

"As do I, Mako," Yugi responded. Just as he did, two more duelists approached us. One was wearing a ski cap and the other one was wearing the biggest pair of glasses I'd ever seen.

"Well, well. If it isn't Rex Raptor and Weevil Underwood," Joey said, a bit annoyed. "What rock did the two of you crawl out from under?"

"Watch what you say, Wheeler," Weevil spoke up. "My bugs are ready to squash you."

"I'm ready for some dino-demolition myself," Rex said with a grin.

A few minutes after they left Kaiba's blimp flew over head. "Attention, duelists. Before we begin, I will explain the rules of the tournament," Kaiba's voice echoed from the blimp's speakers. "With your duel disks, each of you received a locater card that has a piece of a map on it. After each duel, the winner will claim a locater card from his or her opponent as well as their rarest card. If you lose all of your locater cards you are disqualified. The first eight duelists to obtain six locater cards will be eligible for the finals. The entire city is your battlefield, now let the dueling begin!"

"Let's split up," I said. "You know, every man for himself."

"Yeah. See you guys in the finals!" Joey agreed.

Yugi nodded and walked off. Joey and I then turned in different directions and went on our way. I smiled inwardly. "This is going to be one heck of a tournament," I thought.

I expect to see a lot of challenges ahead. We'll have to watch our backs.

"I know," I told him. "Now let's do this!"