Within the Fortune Cup stadium, Yusei, Leo and Luna were standing in a corridor… except Leo was slightly different to normal.
He was dressed up like his sister, complete with make-up on his face. As the incredulous trio of his sister and friends watched, he pulled on a wig and finally looked pretty much exactly like Luna.
"How do I look?" He asked, putting on a girly voice similar to Luna's.
"You're as good a Luna as Luna is!" Yanagi exclaimed, coming up behind them, accompanied by Bolt Tanner. Blister had left for the Satellite the night before.
"Yahoo!" Leo yelled. "I'm gonna be the star of the show!" Luna sighed.
"Please don't embarrass me." She said softly.
"Don't worry!" Leo cried, patting her shoulder. "Chill out, because I'm gonna make you a legend!" His sister sighed again as he walked away…
Rose and Sara went to the stadium before them and arrived a few minutes earlier.
The stadium was packed, every seat filled in anticipation for the Fortune Cup. However, the central area of the stadium was empty, the Duel Arenas and Turbo Duel track left desolate.
"Everybody listen!" The MC yelled over his microphone, appearing between the Duel Arenas. "Please put your hands together for Director REX GOODWIN!" The audience burst into applause as Goodwin appeared on holographic screens around the arena.
Suddenly a great whirlwind erupted within the arena and broke to reveal Red Dragon Archfiend, as Jack's Duel Runner shot from a tunnel and onto the track, circling the arena with Red Dragon Archfiend soaring over it before the Signer Dragon glided into the center of the arena, on a raised podium beside the MC, who quickly pulled away as the demonic drake landed.
"Let's hear it for the reigning champion!" The MC yelled. "The king of the cards! The one man who rules the duels! The Master of Faster himself, JACK ATLAS!"
Jack skidded his Runner to a stop in front of the podium and dismounted, pulling off his helmet and snatching the microphone from the MC.
"New Domino City!" He yelled. "What say we kick this tournament into overdrive?! Let's get this started!" He tossed the microphone back to the MC.
"It's time to meet the lucky Fortune Eight who could win the chance to Duel Jack Atlas for the title of Champion!" The MC shouted. One of the Duel Arenas split open and the two halves slid into the ground around as a platform rose from beneath, with eight people on it.
They were Rose, Sara, Yusei, Leo, Shira and Grieger. But there was one other duelist there, a teenage girl maybe a year or two younger than Yusei. She had magenta hair styled into elbow-length bangs, with some sort of hair curler tying the hair just over her forehead. Her eyes were fierce, an amber color, and her skin was fairly smooth and pale. She wore a crimson low-cut corset with short light green sleeves and a high collar, a sleeveless magenta trench coat that flared out behind her and reached her knees, and a magenta skirt, as well as dark red elbow length gloves and knee-height stockings. The Duel Disk on her arm was pink, purple and red with purple jewels for decoration.
"Now introducing, the mysterious Shira, great Greiger, Rose, Sara, Yusei Fudo, Ms. Luna and last but not least, Ms. Akiza Izinski!" The MC had to be referring to the teenage girl; there wasn't anyone else he could name in the area.
Jack's gaze met Yusei's for a moment, and then he gave a derisive smirk and looked away.
"Hey!" An audience member cried. "That Fudo guy has a criminal mark!"
Before the audience could heckle him though...
"Rrarr!" A roar pierced the air.
"And there's number eight!" The MC stuck a finger into the sky after the roar was heard.
A large dragon with dark red scales landed behind the other seven contestants after flying to the stadium. It then towered over everyone else and flapped it's wings before turning back to human form.
"Now, bring up the bracket shuffler!" Rex bowed before his image was replaced by a diagram displaying all eight duelists below a table apparently displaying the first round match-ups. The images began to shuffle, then stopped and the pairings flashed up on screen.
Luna vs Greiger
Akiza vs Rose
Yusei vs Shira
Wenslow vs Sara
Leo was rather excited. "Yes! Greiger, and I'm dueling him! I can so beat this guy!" He glanced at Greiger, who nodded back…
'So I'm up against Sara.' Wenslow thought, looking in her direction. He was eager to find out how Blue-Eyes White Dragon fared against her deck revolving around winged beasts.
/
In the director's box, Goodwin sat with a cup of tea, Lazar hovering behind him in a slightly creepy way—although everything Lazar partook in became automatically creepy.
"Zigzix tells me he's hooked up the system. Now we'll know for certain if the Signers are who we hope they are." The clown snapped his fingers and a holoscreen appeared. A kooky-looking scientist peered back at the pair.
"Good morning, Director." Zigzix said. "I was able to come up with a device that could detect the mysterious power called Ener-D. It's my most inspired invention yet! It's amazing and fits in your purse…I give you the one, the only, fabulous D-Tector! By placing remote sensors all over the stadium, and feeding their signal into the D-Tector, I'll be able to spot even the slightest Ener-D activity."
"Excellent," Goodwin said, leaving his seat.
"Let's find those Signers!" Zigzix cheered before the holoscreen shut off.
/
The eight duelists convened in a waiting room. A video screen displayed the stadium and future duels to the participants.
"This duel disk you fixed for me rocks!" Leo said from his spot on the couch.
Yusei smiled across from him. "Glad you like it."
"I can't believe I'm actually about to do this. You don't have, like, any last-minute pointers for me, do ya?"
"I can do that!" Leo dashed away, eager to begin the tournament.
"And now, coming to us straight from the Tops, a precious half-pint bundle of wonder, Little Miss Luna!" the MC announced as Leo came up through a panel in the stadium floor.
"This is incredible! I should've brought my camera!" Leo said, caught up in the experience.
"Hoping to take her down, the wall of wallop, the tower of power, Greiger!"
Leo's opponent also emerged from the floor.
"Alright, have fun, and play nice! Let's shake those hands!"
Leo's tiny hand was dwarfed by the immense size of Greiger's. "That was cool the way you just grabbed the mic and defended my friend. I want you to know it's a big-time honor to be dueling you!"
"If I may say so, Miss Luna, you have quite a strong grip for a young lady."
"Hey, girls can be strong, too!"
"And now it's time for the first duel of the tournament! Players, activate your duel disks and begin!"
"Let's duel!"
Rua: 4000
Griger: 4000
"The first move's mine," Griger said. "I draw. From my hand I activate Star Blast."
"A spell? You're not starting with a monster?"
"I first have to lower my monster's level by harnessing the power of Star Blast, and sacrificing 500 life points."
Leo: 4000
Greiger: 3500
"See, Summon Reactor SK is a Level Five. So by taking its power down a notch, I can summon it directly to the field in attack mode."
A monster like a giant war plane emerged.
(Summon Reactor SK: ATK: 2000 DEF: 0)
"Yikes! It's got two thousand attack points!" Leo exclaimed.
"That's right. I believe that one must sacrifice a little in order to gain a lot. I end my turn with a face down."
"Greiger is off to a strong start! Let's see how Little Miss Luna responds!" the MC narrated.
"Here I go. I draw! You're not the only one off to a 'strong start!' I summon Morphtronic Celfon in attack mode! Pretty cool, don't ya think?"
"Before you make any more moves, I get to activate my monster's special ability. Because you summoned a monster to the field, Summon Reactor SK gets to hit you with 800 points of damage!" Greiger informed Leo. The wind turbines on the monster's shoulders blew two tornadoes at Leo and his life points.
Leo: 3200
Greiger: 3500
/
Lazar turned to Goodwin. "Greiger was the right choice for this. His relentless tactics will have that girl showing her powers in no time." He said confidently.
/
"Not bad, mister, but it's gonna take more than that to weaken my Morphtronic deck!"
"You keep talking about these Morphtronics of yours, but so far, I'm not impressed."
"Celfon! Start dialing…now! Whatever number the dial lands on, that's the number of cards from the top of my deck I get to flip over. And if the last card I flip is a Level Four or below Morphtronic, I can summon it! And…we've got a two!" Leo held his breath as he drew. "And the second card is…Yes! Get ready for Morphtronic Boomboxen, coming at you live!"
(Morphtronic Boomboxen: Atk: 1200 Def: 400)
"Now I play a facedown and end my turn!"
/
Up in the stands, Luna clutched at her head.
"Something wrong?" Dexter asked.
"Just a headache…"
/
"It's my turn. I draw, and from my hand I summon Trap Reactor Y-Fi to the field in attack mode!" Another plane-like monster joined the first, only this one was a bit less threatening in appearance. "Trap Reactor, attack!"
"Gotcha, Greiger! I activate my Morphtransition trap card, and now I can switch my Celfon to defense mode and put your attack on hold!" Leo countered smugly.
"Ha! By playing your trap you walked right into mine! It's called Trap Reactor for a reason. You see, Trap Reactor lays into you for 800 points of damage each time you activate a trap card!"
Leo: 2400
Greiger: 3500
"I'm not done with you yet, little girl."
"Bring it on!" Leo shouted.
"Summon Reactor, unplug that Boomboxen permanently!"
The monster's tornadoes hit, but Boomboxen didn't seem hurt.
"Haha! When my Boomboxen's in defense mode, it's able to tune out one attack every turn!" Leo explained.
"But that only allows me to use Damage Summon." Greiger said, activating his trap. "After an unsuccessful attack, Damage Summon allows me to sacrifice 800 life points and summon a new monster."
Rua: 2400
Griger: 2700
"I summon Spell Reactor RE to the field!"
(Spell Reactor RE: Atk: 1200 Def: 900)
Greiger ordered an attack on Boomboxen, and Spell Reactor RE unleashed missiles that shot Leo's monster straight into the graveyard.
"My tunes! Aaaaah!" Leo cried.
"I'll place one card face down and end."
/
"He's still focusing on combos he likes. He's not adapting." Yusei scowled.
/
"You don't seem very rattled. Don't you realize you're stuck? I've got all three of my reactor monsters on my field. You've already brought direct damage on yourself by summoning monsters and triggering trap cards."
"In other words, I can't do anything without taking damage."
"That's right. Every duelist needs to be able to summon monsters and activate traps and spells. But if you do any of that, you'll lose even more life points. I can spend the rest of the duel doing nothing but watching you chip away at your own life points every time you try to do something!"
/
"I'm still not getting any signal whatsoever! Maybe the girl's just not a Signer?" Zigzix suggested to Lazar via holoscreen.
"We've conducted an investigation. We have every reason to believe she is. Your job is to find us the hard proof we need, Zigzix. You can do that, can't you?" Lazar's tone was cold.
The scientist nodded. "There is one anomaly I should probably mention. The sensor has detected a faint signal emanating from the stands…"
"From the stands?" Lazar's surprise was clear. "And not from Luna?"
/
Luna's headache was getting worse.
"You okay?" Dexter asked again. "Should we get you to a doctor?"
"I'm fine." Luna said.
/
Leo examined his cards. "I've never tried this before, but here goes. This next round determines everything! It's my move. I activate Celfon's special ability. Dial now!" The screen flipped around on Celfon's front and the numbers of the cell phone dialed randomly from one to six.
"What's it gonna be….it's a three!" Leo pulled the cards from his deck.
Sweet! I've got more Morphtronics on the way. I think I can win this!
"I switch Cellfon into attack mode! Start dialing…now!" Again, the numbers on Cellfon's chest changed. I've gotta be able to bust out Morphtronic Datatron. "All right, a one! There we go!" Leo drew his card. "I summon Morphtronic Datatron in attack mode!"
/
Cheers broke out in the stands, echoing in Luna's aching head. She groaned in pain.
"Is it getting worse, Luna?"
"I can't tell…" Luna dropped her hands, knocking her hat off and exposing her pigtails. "I just feel really weak…"
/
"Your life points don't stand a chance against me, little girl. No matter what card you play, you're taking damage!"
Leo: 1600
Greiger: 2700
"Looks like Greiger's Reactors have Luna pinned to the wall! I can't watch, and yet I can't look away!" The MC cried.
"By releasing a monster on my field, I can activate Datatron's special power, which'll burn you with 600 points of direct damage! So I release Cellfon!"
Leo: 1600
Greiger: 2100
"And now I release Datatron in order to advance summon Gadget Hauler!" A blue and white truck appeared in Datatron's place. "Tada! Now, unless I'm mistaken, I won't take any damage, 'cuz Summon Reactor's special ability only works once a turn, right?"
(Gadget Hauler: ATK: 1300 DEF: 0)
/
Yanagi let out a sigh of relief. "I was wondering why he risked another summon."
"That was a good call. Leo needs to stay focused now and not go crazy and break loose." Tanner said.
/
"Time to break loose!"
/
"Dammit."
/
"From my hand I release Morphtronic Magnen!" A magnet-shaped ghost appeared on the field, only to turn purple and vanish. A matching purple glow surrounded Gadget Hauler. "Now whenever I send one of my Morphtronics from my hand to the graveyard, Gadget Hauler gains eight hundred attack points!
"Next I activate the Factory of 100 Machines spell! And with the power of this card, I'm able to remove every Morphtronic in my graveyard from play!" The four monsters in Leo's graveyard flashed into balls of yellow, orange, red, and blue light before hitching a ride with Gadget Hauler. "For every machine-type monster that fits the bill, Gadget Hauler gains two hundred attack points! So now, it's a whopping twenty-nine hundred!"
"The activation of that spell card brings you one step closer to certain defeat!" Greiger countered.
Leo: 800
Greiger: 2100
Leo stood tall. "Gadget Hauler, take out his Trap Reactor YFi! Yeah!" The truck split in hald to reveal a giant laser cannon pointed straight at Greiger's monster. A blue stream of light was fired, and a column of gray smoke obscured Greiger's side of the field.
"Did it work?" Leo wondered, peering through the smoke.
Apparently not. Greiger was still standing, and laughing to boot. "You may be small, but you have a warrior's spirit. As a warrior myself, I salute your strength!"
"Well, thanks, I guess, but how come you're not, like, damaged?" Leo asked nervously.
"Because of the Delta Reactor trap card, which negates your attack, so long as I send my Reactors to the graveyard. Then, I can summon a reign of doom, along with my Flying Fortress Skyfire!"
As the giant monster flashed onto the field, Greiger continued his speech. "I activate Flying Fortress Skyfire's special ability to send my card to the graveyard in order to obliterate one card on your field. You're mine, little girl!"
Missiles rained down on Leo's monster.
"Gadget Hauler!"
"And now you're wide open for a direct attack!"
With his 3000 attack points, Skyfire dropped a single missile, wiping out the rest of Leo's life points.
Leo: 0
Greiger: 2100
Leo fell to his knees with a cry of disbelief and frustration as the MC said, "It's over! Griger will be advancing to the second round, and Leo will be getting a gift basket."
/
"Too bad…"
"He dueled well, though."
Luna stopped clutching her head. "Huh?"
"What is it?" Both Yanagi and Dexter turned to her.
"My headache's gone! Just like that!"
/
Greiger walked down the hallway back to the duelist's lounge, encountering Lazar on the way.
"Bravo, Mr. Greiger. That was quite the explosive duel."
"Your Intel's bad. You said you were looking for a girl, but that kid was obviously a boy."
Lazar pulled a few sheets of paper from a folder he carried. "It seems we were the victims of a little identity prank."
Greiger looked at the photos Lazar presented to him. "Twins?"
"Twins."
/
"The D-Tector wasn't picking up any Ener-D from the duelists, but there was a signal." Zigzix reported to Goodwin via holoscreen. "It was coming from this girl in the stands."
The image of Zigzix was replaced with a picture of Luna in her disguise, sitting next to Yanagi and Dexter. A small, wicked smile made its slippery way onto the director's face.