Once Laura heard what became of her friends, she moved as fast as she could. She had to hurry and do something to help them or else something bad is going to happen to all of them.

"Hang in there, Ichika!" Laura said as she tried to make it there in time. As she was crossing the street, a car was coming at her, but it stopped just in time. Luck would have it that the one driving it was the gang's old friend: Hector.

"Cross in the green, not between!" Hector called until he saw who it was. "Laura?!"

"Hector! Your timing is perfect! I need a ride!" Laura said as she hopped in the car without asking him about it.

"Sure, but I figured you were with your friends." Hector said as he started driving.

"Wait. You're heading the wrong way." Houki said.

"No I'm not. See?" Hector said as he showed he had all the points needed to get in the finals. "I'm heading in the same direction the finals are suppose to take place in."

"No! I mean we need to head to the harbor! Ichika and the others could be in real trouble and they're all down there!" Laura said.

"Ichika and Houki? Okay, that's worth breaking some traffic rules." Hector said as he did a sharp turn and got the car to turn around. "Hang on gang! We're coming to get you!" He drove off in the direction they had to go. Hopefully, it's not too late for them to do anything.

...

The Duel

The duel has taken another turn. To try and help Houki break out of Meldrick's control, Ichika even took over for Senshi. He had 2400LP with his Infinite Satellite. However, Valatin and Houki still had the advantage. They had 2400LP remaining as well, but they had the most cards active and it was Houki's turn. However, thanks to one of Ichika's cards, she drew Fortune Swordsman. It was the same card that Ichika gave her, and he's hoping that card will remind her of the friendship they had. It seems like it was working as Houki looked like she was struggling, but Meldrick kept trying to keep his hold over her.

"Houki, what are you waiting for?! Make a move that will finish him!" Valatin ordered.

"No, Houki! Fight it!" Ichika said.

"Houki, listen to Ichika! Think about what you're doing!" Charlotte called.

"Houki, please! Snap out of it!" Cecilia called.

"Are you really going to let some creep tell you what to do?!" Rin called. Houki seems to be trying to resist, but Meldrick isn't letting her go.

'You will obey me!' Meldrick told her as he continued to control her from afar. 'If we play this right, we can finish Ichika off here and now! You will do as I say!'

"I... I can't..." Houki said as it looked like it was working.

'You must, and you will! You will activate Release Wave, and you will discard that Fortune Swordsman to do it!' Meldrick ordered. 'I don't know what it is about that card, but Ichika obviously wants you to have it for a reason. You will do as I say!' Houki's trying to resist, but Meldrick is too strong as she reached for her spell.

"I play...Release Wave!" Houki said as she was able to play that spell. "By sending one card in my hand to the graveyard, all active spell and trap cards are destroyed!"

"Wait. That includes my two virus cards!" Valatin said as he didn't like that.

'Yes... Now, discard Fortune Swordsman!' Meldrick ordered as he tried to break their bond.

"Houki, don't do it! Don't discard Fortune Swordsman!" Ichika called as he's not giving up hope on her yet.

"This isn't good." Rin said as the gang wasn't liking the looks of this. Just then, they heard the screech of tires. They looked down the road and saw Hector and Laura made it just in time.

"There you all are!" Laura said.

"Laura!" Cecilia said as she was astonished to see her.

"And you're with Hector!" Rin said.

"Whoa... What's going on over there?" Hector said as he and Laura took notice of the duel that was happening. "Why are Houki and Ichika dueling each other?"

"And what about Charlotte?!" Laura said as she saw that Charlotte was in a restriction chair and had a freight right over her head. "We need to get her out of there!" She said as she hurried to her.

"No!" Mila said as she got in the way. "If we try anything, that guy will drop it right on top of her!" Laura looked and saw the guy was tempted to drop it. That was something Laura was not going to allow to happen.

"What is going on here?" Hector said.

"We'll explain later." Rin said as they all focused back on the duel. Houki was still struggling to resist Meldrick's power. Ichika is hoping she doesn't discard Fortune Swordsman.

'Do it! Discard Fortune Swordsman and bring me victory!' Meldrick ordered as Houki's hand grabbed Fortune Swordsman and was going to discard it.

"No!" Houki said as she took a different card and discarded it instead of Fortune Swordsman because the real Houki could never do something like that.

"She didn't discard Fortune Swordsman!" Ichika said as that was a sign that his plan was working. Not even Meldrick expected his power to be resisted so much by just one person.

"Now that I discarded a card, all the spell and traps are destroyed!" Houki said as a shockwave shot through the field, but the only cards that were destroyed were Virus Antidote and Virus Infect. "In exchange, your satellite looses it's special ability!"

'Fine! Keep the card, but if you play another monster! You can still bring me victory!' Meldrick declared. 'Summon a monster and win this!'

"I... I..." Houki was still trying to resist as Meldrick continued to enforce his power on her. "I attack with Coronix!" That wasn't what Meldrick wanted either. Another monster on the field and they would have won. Instead, Coronix went on the attack and destroyed Ichika's only monster. Since it's special ability was negated as well, he couldn't summon another monster. "Virus Code Berserker now attacks you directly!" Houki ordered Valatin's monster to attack and it struck against Ichika with his life points dropping down to a mere 400.

"Houki! What are you doing?! One more monster and we would have won, but you just gave him another chance to have victory!" Valatin claimed.

"That's it, Houki! Resist Meldrick and Valatin! I know you can do it!" Ichika said. His plan appeared to have been working. Houki was resisting more and more as the memories of their bond was breaking Meldrick's hold.

"Get out of my head!" Houki shouted as she pushed the last of Meldrick's hold on her and freed herself from him. "This was unreal as nothing like this has ever happened before.

"Houki! Is that you?!" Ichika called. Houki was taking some deep breaths, but it was her in control.

"Ichika? What's going on?" Houki questioned.

"She's back!" Ichika said as all of them were glad to see that Houki snapped out of it.

"This can't be! Master Meldrick's hold can't be broken!" Valatin claimed as he couldn't believe it.

"Wait. What's going on out there?" The minion questioned.

"Over here!" He looked to the side and was met with Laura as she kicked him right out of the crane. That was certainly a surprise to everyone. No one even noticed her when she got over there. When Laura got him out of the way, she hurried over and freed Charlotte from the chair.

"Are you okay?" Laura asked.

"Oui! Thank you, Laura!" Charlotte said as she stood up and they both ran out of there.

"Good. Charlotte is safe." Ichika said as things were finally looking up for them. The only one not happy about this was Valatin himself. He was frustrated, but he wasn't going to give up just yet.

"Out of the way! I'll finish this myself!" Valatin shouted as he shoved Houki to the ground. "It's still too early for you to celebrate, Ichika! You only have 400LP left and nothing to protect you. On top of that, even if you win, you or Houki are going for your last swim! There's still nothing you can do!"

"I wouldn't be too sure about that." Conner said. Him saying that told Valatin he had something sneaky in store, and that feeling was right. That was right when a submarine emerged out of the water. "I was able to get in contact with some of my workers. They were able to cut the weights that would have dragged them down." Ichika and Houki took a look. They pulled out the chains and showed that a tool like a blowtorch was used and broke the chains. "I'm not really friends with these guys, but I am a fellow duelist. I don't like the way you do things around here, so let's see how tough you are when you have to fight fair."

"You rat!" Valatin shouted.

"Senshi, time for you to finish this." Ichika said as he caused a switch and Senshi was in control again.

"Let's finish this, Valatin! It's my turn!" Senshi said as he drew his next card. "First, I activate Stratos Takeoff! With this, I can now summon out Infinite Stratos Rafael-Revive!" He summoned out Rafel-Revive with her flying out and had 1800atk points. "Next, I activate her special ability! I'm now capable of reviving Akatsubaki!" Akatsubaki came back on the field with her 2400atk points. "Next, I summon Stratos Warrior to the field!" He summoned out his warrior as it came out with 1400atk points. "I now have all I need to build my circuit!" When he said that, the gateway opened up.

"You can link summon?!" Valatin said as he didn't expect that.

"The summoning conditions require three monsters with "Stratos" in their names!" Senshi claimed. "I set Rafael-Revive, Akatsubaki, and Stratos Warrior in the link arrows!" All three monsters were set on the left, top left, and the top arrows. "Fly through the cosmos with your arrows like a shooting star! I link summon Link 3 Stratos Archer!" He summoned out a new spaceman-like monster that was light blue armor and six diamonds made of energy coming from its back. It also had a bow attached to its arm with it having 2600atk points.

"I've never seen that monster before, but it's still not enough to win!" Valatin claimed.

"That's where you're wrong. I activate Stratos Archer's ability! It can banish a monster next to its link!" Senshi claimed and the board shows that both monsters are next to his archer's link. "I banish Coronix!" His archer pulled back the string and formed an arrow out of energy. It fired the arrow and it pierced Coronix with Coronix disappearing.

"Yes! Since Coronix was removed from play, he can't bring it back!" Rin said.

"Time to finish this! Stratos Archer, attack Virus Code Berserker with Cosmic Arrow!" Senshi ordered. His archer formed another arrow and fired it at Valatin's monster. It got blasted and ended up destroyed with Valatin's life points dropping to 1800. "And this duel is over. Stratos Archer has one other ability. When he destroys a monster next to his link, you take damage equal to that monster's attack points."

"That can't be!" Valatin said as he couldn't believe it. The archer fired a third arrow and it soared straight to Valatin. It hit him and he lost all of his remaining life points. That marked the end of this duel with his friends glad he found a way to pull it off.

"Houki, are you okay?!" Senshi asked.

"Yeah. I don't know what happened, but I'm great thanks to you." Houki said.

"No! How could this happen?!" Valatin shouted as he was in denial. "The plan was perfect! What went wrong?!" He didn't like this at all and he knows what failure means for him. "No! Forgive me, Master Meldrick!" He pleaded for mercy, but Meldrick didn't show any as he took control of Valatin's mind and was speaking through him now.

"Well, this was certainly a surprise. I didn't expect you to escape, but you did." Meldrick said.

"I've had enough of your games, Meldrick!" Senshi shouted.

"We'll see, but if you really wish to settle things, we will. We'll settle this in the finals. I'll be there." Meldrick claimed.

"And I'll be waiting." Senshi said as he was looking forward to facing him and finishing this struggle. That was when Meldrick released Valatin and Valatin's mind was loss as well.

...

Meldrick

Meldrick was furious that his plan failed. He thought he had every advantage, but he lost every bit of it. As he smashed his fist against the wall next to him, he let his rage and anger fueled his desire to defeat Ichika and gained all the power.

"We'll settle this in the finals, Orimura. One way or another, your power will be mine!" Meldrick declared.

...

The Harbor

As the sun was beginning to go down, all of them took a moment to breathe after what happened. Houki and Charlotte don't remember much on what happened, but everyone was just glad they were safe. They even informed Hector about what happened.

"Sheesh. Sounds like you guys got yourselves in a real pickle. This Meldrick sounds like a creep." Hector said.

"He is. He'll stop at nothing to get what he wants. That's why he did what he did hear." Senshi claimed. The same could be said for Senshi. He'll do whatever he can to stop Meldrick.

"Uh... Ichika..." Houki said as she stepped forward to him and was blushing. "I just want to say...thank you. I could still hear your voice, picture your face. You were able to save me."

"Don't be so modest, Houki. Our bond is what gave your the strength you needed in order to break Meldrick's hold over him." Senshi claimed. Either way, Houki is grateful to have a friend like Ichika, their bond stronger than ever.

"Give me a break." Connor said as he wasn't really interested in all that friendship stuff. "I don't know what happened here and I don't really care. Just make sure you make it for the finals, Orimura, because the one that's going to beat you is me." Connor is making sure Senshi knows that he has more than just Meldrick to worry about. He and Mila were off, but Connor stopped for a moment. "Orimura, you could have won that duel without banishing Coronix. So why did you do that?"

"That's simple. That was Houki's card. He had no right to use it." Senshi claimed. Connor could agree with that. Connor might want to beat him, but at least he'll do it with honor. With that, the two siblings take their leave. It's off to the finals now that all of Ichika's friends are together. With Meldrick waiting for them, they're now ready to face anything that comes their way.