Team Zero: Orichalcos

by Rex the Emerald Dragon

The third part in my Team Zero line up. Watch Team Zero fight the sacred power of the Orichcalcos. See if they can prove themselves worthy duelists in the eyes of the best three duelists in the world. Plus some other interesting characters!

33. Hold On! Bond of Friends

Team Zero: Orichalcos

Chapter 33: Hold On! Bond of Friends

Joe watched horrified as the silver armored lizard monster, crouching on his field, soon burst into small data bits. Flying across the field, it was like Joe's last hope was just drifting away. Lances trap card, Tragedy, faded away as it completed its task. Joe field now sat empty, void of all forms of life.

Joe-1450 LP
Derek-4000 LP
Lance-3700 LP

Sighing, Joe grabbed two cards from his hand and slid them into his duel disk. "I set these two cards face down and..." reaching back up to his hand he grabbed another card and slapped it down onto his duel disk. "I summon my Breaker the Magical Warrior (1600/1000)(1900/1000) in attack mode!." Respectively to calling them out, two representations of the set cards appeared right in front of Joe, then his red armored warrior card appeared. Holding up its sword, the monster whipped its cape back dramatically to its appearance.

"Why summon him in attack mode mate?" Derek questioned, shrugging at what looked like a bad move.

"So I can do this, Breaker attack his Rude Kaiser! Magical Sword Strike!" Joe yelled, pointing towards the green lizard monster. In a swift and brilliant display of swordsmanship, the warrior monster stabbed it thin blade through the armored chest of the lizard monster. Snarling in pain, the monster's body became limp as the blade was retracted from the breastplate of the monster. As the tip of the sword was drawn out, the Rude Kaiser simply exploded into data bits.

Joe-1450 LP
Derek-3900 LP
Lance-3700 LP

"Turn end." Joe ending statement came so quickly that Derek almost didn't comprehend it at first. Slowly though it reached him. Grabbing for his deck, he pulled the top card off and added it to his hand. Pointing to the red warrior on Joe's field, Derek took a deep breath then yelled out his command. "Manticore of Darkness attack!" Flapping its massive black wings, the beast monster flew across the open field to the waiting warrior. With it claw, the monster brought the warrior crashing to the floor before exploding into mass amounts of data bits.

Joe-1050 LP
Derek-3900 LP
Lance-3700 LP

"Turn end." Derek said, pleased that Joe didn't even attempt to stop his attack, leaving his field wide open for his partner to blast Joe out the tournament.

"Draw!" Lance yelled as he snapped the top card off his deck. "Perfect Machine King, attack and win this duel! Killer Missle Strike!" With large creaks, the metal flaps on the shoulders of the large behemoth machine opened up. Again, a massive spray of missiles began to pour out towards Joe. Standing in completely unwavering stance, Joe glared down the oncoming projectiles.

"Open down card!" Joe called out, whipping his arm around. "Hallowed Life Barrier!" As the said trap flipped up, a stream of silver lines started to shoot out of the holographic rendering of the card. Once they had shot out so far, the beams of silver light rippled and broke down into a bubble protecting Joe. "I discard this one card to make all damage to me zero for the turn!" Joe called out from inside his bubble. As he slid a card into his graveyard, Joe watched as the onslaught of missiles began to explode on the bubble's surface.

"What?" Lance was astounded that his attack was brushed off so easily. Lowering the tone of his voice, he growled out; "I end my turn."

"Draw!" Joe yelled out, the determination in his voice amplifying his fighting spirit. "Open set card, Jar of Greed! I get to draw again!" The purple bordered card flipped up with its name being announced. Out of it, the purplish red vase appeared on the field. Decorated in gold lining, and having a smiling face on the outside. It soon exploded as Joe drew. Beaming at the card, Joe almost couldn't control his happiness. "Gallant Armored Warrior! I can have a fighting chance due to this card. Since I am holding Polymerization and Dark Magician from my trap. Perfect!"

"Are we going to move?" Lance asked, rather impatiently.

"Yes we are, activate magic card; Polymerization!" Calling out, Joe slid the card into his duel disk slot, sending a rainbow of colors streaming through his duel disk. "I fuse my Dark Magician (2500/2100) and gallant Armored Warrior (2400/1600) to fusion summon: gallant Dark Magician (3000/3000)!" Appearing, the two yellow bordered cards began to glow. One of the purple robed wizard, the other of a warrior completely covered in white armor. Glowing, the two cards faded away and a large warrior monster began to appear on the field before Joe.

Standing tall, the new monster wearing white armor appeared in a rainbow of colored lights. Wearing a purple cape that hung down around it's body and flapped out in an invisible wind, it held up it hand which held a green staff that had a small green orb at the bottom and turned into a blade the farther up it went. The Dark Magician opened its eyes, adorned in a white helmet, the monsters purple hair barely visible beneath it.

"Attack Perfect Machine King now! Dark Gallant Magic Blade!" Yelling out his attack, the warrior monster launched its way high into the air above the ring. Within it fingers, it began to twist the blade around until it was no more than a blurry disk. From the orb resting at the bottom of it, purple lighting bolts began to shoot out. Suddenly, grabbing the staff part of the blade, the monster let gravity take the blade cutting through the red and white machine monster. The horrid sound of metal scraping against metal filled the dome for a few seconds as the blade of the monster cut through the body of the large monster. Once it made its way through, the warrior monster dropped to the ground and jumped back to Joe's field just as the Perfect Machine King exploded, turning into a large fire ball on Lances field.

Joe-1050 LP
Derek-3900 LP
Lance-3400 LP

"I end my turn." Joe triumphantly announced as his gallant Dark Magician looked ready to take on anyone else that would want to come at it.

The crowd was in awe for a second at the comeback move, but soon erupted into cheers. Joe felt so good, he took a wave at all the people sitting in the stands.

"I...um...draw." Derek, also completely stunned at the great comeback of Joe, said as he pulled his next card. "I switch Manticore of Darkness to defense mode and summon my Tiger Axe in defense mode (1300/1100) as well. Turn end." Calling out his turn, the large monster crouched down and folded its raven black wings around its body. Next to it, an orange tiger monster appeared crouching over its horizontal card representation. It's blue shoulder pads gleamed in the light, as well as the large axe it held between its paws.

"Draw!" Lance yelled snapping a card off his deck. "Activate magic card, Premature Burial. Costing me 800 life points, I will revive my Perfect Machine King!"

Joe-1050 LP
Derek-3900 LP
Lance-2600 LP

In a rush of light, the red and white machine monster reappeared on the field, towering over the other monsters. Grabbing another card from his hand, Lance slapped it down onto the duel disk. "I summon my Acrobat Monkey in defense mode (1000/1800)." Next to the large machine, a white and pale green colored, monkey looking android appeared crouching over its card hologram, turned horizontal.

"Alrght, my turn?" Joe asked, reaching for his deck.

"Nope." Lance interrupted, making Joe drop his hand down to his side. "I have played a machine monster, that increases my Perfect Machine King's attack by 500 points! (3200/1500) Attack his gallant Dark Magician my King! Killer missile Strike!" As the hatches on the shoulder of the large machine opened up, Joe watches as the barrage of missiles moved, in what seemed to him, slow motion towards his monster. Colliding with the monster, a huge fire ball appeared as thousands of explosions rang throughout the dome.

Joe-850 LP
Derek-3900 LP
Lance-2600 LP

"I set one card face down, now my turn is over." Lance called out as a card appeared on his field behind the large towering machine monster and the little, crouched over, monkey machine.

"No!" A bead of sweat rolled down Joe's brow. He had his monster torn apart so quickly, by the monster he had just destroyed with it. Slowly reaching for his deck, Joe put his fingertips on the top card on his deck. "What can I do...I am only holding one card, and it is Fusion Recovery. I could pull a monster used for a fusion and the Polymerization card back to my hand, but what good would that do me? I have the Dark Magician and Gallant Armored Warrior in my grave and neither of them can I just summon to defend myself."

"Come on Joe." Kevin silently cheered for his team mate, arm around Usami whose face was still red from crying.

"Here it goes." Taking in a deep breath, Joe pulled the card off his deck and flicked it around in front of his face. "Blue Eyes White Dragon!" Joe was taken aback by the strange dragon card he was now holding. He had forgotten, just before the match had started, Kevin had given it to him.

/Flashback/

/"Wait!" Kevin yelled, catching Joe's attention. Turning his head, he grabbed a card that was shoved right in his face.

"What the...?" Joe almost stumbled back. Hesitating he reached out and grabbed the card out of Kevin's hand. "What is this for."

"We still have to win. Take care of it please." Kevin almost couldn't look, but his voice was very serious.

"Dude..." Joe was at a loss of words. Nodding, he slid the card on his deck and gave it another shuffle. "I will take the best of care of it, and thanks." Smiling, he walked up onto the stage and met the three team members standing before him. /

/End Flashback/

"I still stand a chance!" Joe realized as he grabbed the Fusion Recovery in his hand and flipped it out to show both Derek and Lance. "I play Fusion Recovery! This lets me pull my gallant Armored Warrior and my Polymerization card back from the grave!" As his graveyard ejected the said card, Joe eagerly grabbed for them, flipping the fusion card into his duel disk. "Last hope, I play Polymerization to fuse my Gallant Armored Warrior and Blue Eyes White Dragon (3000/2500) to summon..."

The two said monsters disappeared into a large vortex but a shadowy man started to walk out. As the light flooded over the body of this man a white and blue armor plating on the Gallant Armored Warriors normal white one. A new helmet adorned his head that was the shape of a Blue Eyes White Dragon and a cape of dark blue slung down his back with a picture of wings imbedded into it. Holding out its sword it revealed the blade was solid white and surging with electrical power.

"...Blue Eyes Gallant Warrior (3400/3000)!" Joe's eyes were wide with happiness as the great, blue and white armored warrior floated down, shining boots touching the ground.

---

"What the...?" Kaiba leaned forward abruptly. "That kid gave away his blue eyes to that guy to use. Pathetic teamwork. Neither of them should have it."

---

"Blue Eyes Gallant Warrior comes with the affect to increase the attack by the attack of a monster that this card destroys at my end phase, but then on my next end phase it loses that attack boost." Joe explained, pointing to the Perfect Machine King. "Time to take control, Blue Eyes Gallant Warrior, attack Perfect Machine King with Burst Stream Blade!" Charging up a massive amount of energy on the blade of the monster, the Blue Eyes Gallant Warrior charged across the field ready to strike down the Perfect Machine King.

Launching itself high into the air, the monster brought its metal blade down on the center of the head of the large monster. Just as it made contact, the Blue Eyes Gallant Knight exploded into tiny data bits.

Joe-0 LP
Derek-3900 LP
Lance-2600 LP

"What the...?" Joe was awe struck.

"I opened my set card, DNA Surgery. This card changed everything into machine sub-type monsters." Lance explained pointing to his card that had flipped up. "With everything as Machine sub-type, my Perfect Machine King gained 500 attack points for each, and that is four. Acrobat Monkey, Manticore of Darkness, Tiger Axe, and of course, Blue Eyes Gallant Warrior. (Perfect Machine King 4700/1500)"

"So I lost." Joe, still in complete shock, bowed his head in failure.

"It was still a good played game though mate." Derek said, walking over to Joe. "You did well, holding your own against us like that."

"Thanks." Joe replied, still sad that he just screwed up Team Striker's chances in the tournament. "I gave it my all, and your right," Joe lifted his head to look at the Australian boy, "it was fun."

Turning, Joe walked down to his waiting team. They were now out, leaving four teams remaining.

Kaiba quickly got onto the field, holding his hand high in the air, he made his announcement. "And Team Zone is the winners!" Pausing for a brief second to let the roar of cheers from the crowd come forth, he took the chance to glare angerly at Joe and his team. Taking in a deep breath, he began to speak again. "In 15 minutes, Round three will start. The match ups are as follows; first, Team Zero will face Team Renaissance followed by Team Orichalcos verses Team Zone!" Finishing his announcement, Kaiba walked off the stage, leaving everyone to depart for the break.

Reku looked up in a wave of shock. Looking over, Reku and Lucien caught eyes, locked in a strange stare. Smiling oddly, the two of them blocked out every other thing in the entire dome.

"This strange kid we met when this all started at the restaurant." Reku's thought to himself, relating back to all he knew about the kid. "He is tricky, and I can't be sure of anything."

Lucien's thoughts were about the same, remembering back to what he knew about Reku. "I need to be careful, he has that strange crystal card that seems almost unstoppable. If he plays that, we are toast. I wonder if..." Lucien's thoughts trailed off for a brief second as he finally broke the eye lock with Reku. Looking over, he looked at both Akina and Ronin. "...I wonder if they also have those strange crystal cards."

Once Lucien broke his gaze, Reku also looked over at Lucien's team mates. "All three of them come with powerful tactics. We cannot underestimate any of them...or give any of them even a little slack."

The time had come, the third round was about to begin. Ronin, Akina, and Sachiko joined Reku, looking over at the opponents they would face. Aliya and Raoul did the same, looking on at the team that they would be facing.

The semifinals were about to begin.

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To Darksoulki: I can't think of anything to say too.

To LucienShadowMaster: Not sure of what to say to you either.

To Vyser Adept of Dragons: Again, I hate being confinded to just one type of deck. I enjoy a variety of decks and styles to play with.

To John: And John here can do math. Sorry, just had to say that.

To J.G. the Game Master: Hey, that is why I do this down here at the end of each chapter. To comunicate with my readers, and answer any questions. Never be afraid to ask, but if the question is one that would reveal something about the story, you aren't going to get the answer you seek. Anyway, yes, a good chunck of the cards here in my fic are of my own creation. If you are unsure, ask. And also, ask me first if you want to use a card of mine in one of you own fics sometime. I can tell you if you can or can't and all the information about the card. Or again, if you are curious, I'll be glad to answer any question about my cards.

To Demon Fan: (Nods and agrees)

To Dragon and Sword Master: Nope, it wasn't his last turn, but close. And as for Ryokurio, eh, wait and see but never forget the great stories of history always have a struggle of good and evil. How will things turn out a good majority of the time?
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