"Amy," Atem began, pointing at the bluenette.. They had traveled back to the park and headed to the game shop, where the five Scouts, Yugi, and Atem sat in the lounge. "Rei, Lita, Mina, Serena and Luna?" He moved his finger from one to the other, each of whom nodded. "I thank you for rescuing Yugi," He said.

"Not a problem," Rei replied. "But… I always thought YOU were Yugi? Every picture we found of you during the Battle City and Grand Prix tournaments listed you under his name," She said. Atem smiled and nodded.

"Back then was a little more… complicated," He said. He then explained the Shadow Games, the Millenium Items and the basics of their adventures. By the time he was done, the girls were stunned by the awesome tale.

"Damn…that's amazing," Lita said. She opened her mouth to speak again, but an odd noise from Atem's pocket interrupted. He reached in and pulled out a cell phone, which was emitting an odd sound. "Ring tone?" She asked. Yugi nodded.

"It's the sound of a card being Summoned on a duel disk," he whispered as Atem greeted the caller.

"Well, you certainly are the last person I'd expect to call this number," Atem said gamely. On the other end, Seto Kaiba rolled his eyes and sighed. Atem mouthed the word "Kaiba" to Yugi, who raised an eyebrow.

"Look, Aheem-"

"Atem," He corrected for the umpteenth billionth time.

"Atem. I didn't call for a personal friendly chat. I'm busy on a certain project. That's actually why I'm calling," Kaiba began cryptically. Atem rose an eyebrow.

"Do tell, Kaiba-boy," Atem said, grinning as he used the name he knew Seto absolutely hated.

Seto growled and ignored him. "I'm organizing another city-wide tournament. Whether it's going under the Battle City name or not is still a work in progress, but it will definitely be similar. I'm calling the world's top five duelists, besides myself of course, in advance so they can plan for it accordingly," He told his rival. Atem chuckled.

"So, have you called number three yet?" He asked. Number three, with top showings in both Duelist Kingdom and Battle City, was of course the one player Kaiba would rarely acknowledge as being in the top; Joey Wheeler.

"He…is my next call. Shut up," Kaiba ground out. He was dreading that call, but like it or not by Kaiba's statistics Joey Wheeler was the number three best duelist in the world. "There's a reason I called you first; I wasn't planning on calling in order, but you seem to be the expert on weird crap so here goes. Some strange people were asking me yesterday about any upcoming tournaments. All I told them was that one was in the works, but I could tell there was something… not right about them. I mean, one of 'em had red eyes and some sort of queen thing getup on, looked like she was going to a Renaissance fair or something," He said. Serena happened to overhear that description and froze.

"You gotta be…" She muttered. The other Scouts were equally stunned, and Atem noticed it.

"Alright, Seto. I'll keep my eyes peeled for anyone trying to sabotage your tournament for the millionth time," He said seriously. Seto let out a frustrated sigh and hung up. "Well. Goodbye to you too," Atem said as he pocketed the phone. "I'm guessing, Serena, that you know someone by that particular look?" He asked. She nodded.

"Sounds like Queen Beryl. Pure evil, lives in a place called the Negaverse. She uses her minions, like the guy Jaedite you dueled, to gather energy with which to revive Queen Metalia. Thing is, I thought we got rid of her… for that matter, come to think of it, I thought Jaedite was in eternal sleep," she added.

"So. Enemies of yours that apparently either have a beef or a use with or for Atem and I are entering a Duel Monsters tournament that we'll be entering? Sounds like the usual for us, Atem," Yugi deadpanned.

"Well, they're our enemies. We can keep watch, maybe… or… there is another solution," Amy added. All eyes were on her. "I… studied this game of yours briefly; that's why I thought the Magic Cylinders trick was funny. We could… well, we could learn this "Duel Monsters" game of yours, if you'd teach us. It seems to me that they're trying to Duel their way through this plan of theirs, and if so we could fight them at their level," She finished.

"Learn this card game?" Lita echoed.

"It could be fun, I guess," Mina said.

"I saw monsters and magic. I'm in," Rei said.

"I think Amy's right. We need to be able to play this game and enter this tournament," Serena said finally. She looked to Atem. "Do you think you can teach us?" She asked. Yugi grinned.

"You're talking to the top duelists in the world, Serena. I think we can manage a couple Duel Monsters 101," He said with a laugh. He motioned for everyone to follow and exited to the downstairs area, where he promptly began to launch into an explanation of the game, showing them various cards, explaining rules, explaining rules again because Serena got confused, and finally showing them his deck to give them an example of how a deck could be built.

"Alright…" Serena said once everyone had finally gotten all of the information processed and straightened out. "Who brought money?" She asked, looking around. It turned out that apparently no one had been planning on staying in Domino more than a day, as they had little more than lunch money on them. Serena face-palmed and Solomon, who'd been listening to the whole thing, chuckled.

"I think the shop can afford to sponsor a few young ladies," He suggested. Serena cocked her head, not sure what the old man meant.

"He means he'll let us borrow cards from his shop for a while," Amy translated for her friend. Serena's mouth formed an "o" of understanding. Yugi frowned for a second, looking around at the shop's card supplies. Then he smiled.

"You mean…?" He trailed off as his grandfather nodded. Not long after Yugi and Atem had beaten Duke Devlin at the Dungeon Dice Monsters game, Devlin's gaming store had made a merger deal with Solomon's quaint shop, allowing both of them access to a great deal of cards that neither would have had separately. An entire separate building of storage had to be built onto Duke's complex to hold their supply, which was where Solomon intended to take the new duelists.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Jaedite's attempt failed. I thought you said the Dark God was infallible," A woman's harsh voice came from behind the man with a smirk on his face, who currently had his face turned toward a computer. The two of them were both in the small apartment flat that was rented out in her name.

"A Deck and a card can only be wielded to their full extent by a strong duelist," the man replied without even looking up. "It's not my fault that Jaedite ran headlong into things without being prepared, Neflite," He added.

"OK, fine.. We practice and grow stronger before this next tournament picks up. By the way, Jaedite brings news of the Sailor brats being in Domino City. We do not know why, but they are more obstacles in our way," Neflite added.

"And this is a concern?" A new voice came from the next room. The door opened and out stepped Queen Beryl.

"Good. You finally got out of that gaudy queen's robe. Zorc's sake, you've probably attracted Yugi's attention already wandering around like that," The man finally looked up from the computer, his long white hair contrasting starkly with the tan skin of his grinning face.

"Rather rich coming from you, Bakura. Coming from the man who was wearing what could have been for a tablecloth as a robe when we found you, nearly powerless and dead?" Beryl asked, ever so slightly amused.

"Fair enough, I suppose," the Thief King replied, looking Beryl's new red, sleeveless top and denim jeans ensemble up and down. "So, Neflite, back to point. Yes, you all need to practice and grow. I taught you this game and gave a sacrifice of a large amount of life energy to bring back your queen. Which," He added, shooting Beryl a glance, "would be the reason I was 'nearly powerless,' thank you very much. In any case, I will not tolerate failure due to incompetency," He stated calmly.

Beryl narrowed her eyes. "I may be in your debt, but you will not talk to us as servants. We are equals in this endeavor, and will all be treated as such. You will show us the respect we show you despite your obvious repeated failures to defeat the Pharoah on your own power," She said sharply. The two evil entities stared one another down until Bakura smiled.

"Good. You have some fire in you. I like that in my partners. May I suggest that you go and duel Neflite? You could both use the practice," He added.

"A razor cannot be sharpened on velvet, Bakura. Perhaps I should duel you instead," Beryl shot back. Bakura chuckled and nodded.

"As you wish," He said, tossing Beryl one of the Duel Disks he'd bought from KaibaCorp. It was an older model, but it would do fine for the moment until they got newer ones in the tournament.

"DUEL!"