Serenity was hugging her brother tightly, as Vil had gone personally to collect her with Rook.
Since Jounouchi knew damn well what Marik looked like, he was easily able to keep Anzu and Honda well away from him or the Ghouls. It didn't hurt that Vil had sent his friend some money so they could take a break and get some food in them, since Jounouchi already had enough cards to enter the finals.
It had always irked Kaiba that the 'mutt' he had been so dismissive of consistently ranked in third place in the world rankings.
Honestly, there was little point in dueling now since the finals were due to start in a few hours anyway.
Spotting some familiar faces, Yugi smirked and let out a sharp whistle, attracting the attention of the two across the street. Idia and the Ortho twins turned, saw Yugi waving at them and made a beeline for them.
"Having fun?" he asked.
"I just got the last locator card!" said Ortho Alpha, beyond thrilled.
Yugi ruffled his hair along with Beta's, which made the cyborg very happy.
"Want to join us?" asked Yugi.
"Please. My stats aren't built for this much walking," said Idia exhausted.
"New friends, Yug?" asked Jounouchi.
"Guys, this is Idia Shroud and his twin brothers Ortho Alpha and Beta. Also, I'm so recording Kaiba's reaction to meeting Beta."
Jounouchi eyed Beta for a moment before asking "That's not a cosplay outfit, is it?"
"Nope!"
His eyes widened in recognition, because he recognized that voice from the VR headache they were trapped in for two hours.
"Where's the nearest electronic store?" he asked, his grin rather vicious.
"The nearest electronic store is about two blocks that way. But if you're wanting to record his reaction to me, I'm sure Idia-nii can upgrade any phone you get," said Beta.
Jounouchi looked ready to cackle. He was off like a shot to get the best phone he could get his hands on. It was made even better by the fact Yugi loaned him enough money to get the highest quality model available. When he came back he looked rather pleased, even if he would have to set up his new phone.
It was past time he got one anyway.
"Want some help?" said Idia. After all, he was sure Jounouchi would share the recordings of Kaiba's reaction to a superior nerd, as Yugi had put it.
"Yes, please. I barely know anything about this sort of thing," said Jounouchi.
With Idia's help (and a little bit of hacking) Jounouchi was the proud owner of a new phone that had an unlimited phone plan. While Jounouchi wasn't the most tech savvy, he understood Idia's overprotective nature as an older brother. And had accepted the twins as surrogate little siblings to protect and dote on.
Especially once he realized that Beta was the spirit inside the memory card he had busted Yugi talking to whenever he crashed at his house.
And honestly, Idia would rather have Vil, Yugi...whatever his name was, on his good side after he literally rewound time on a whim. That, and for protecting Ortho Beta until he could be reunited properly with him.
Just having Beta around was a balm on his poor soul that he didn't know he needed.
Yugi cast a glance and saw a blimp heading their way, and looked at the time. It had the Kaiba Corp logo on the side, so he knew the finals were about to start.
"Get ready to cast a few warming spells on you, because it's going to be cold that high up," he commented.
"Seriously?" said Idia.
"His ego is even more staggering than Leona's on a bad day," deadpanned Yugi. Idia choked, just a little.
It got even worse when Idia saw the machine to determine who would be dueling who and in what order.
"He's really obsessed with that dragon, isn't he?" said Ortho Alpha quietly.
"You have no idea," said Beta sighing.
An idea occurred to Yugi, a wicked, hilarious idea.
"Hey Beta, I had a hilarious idea..." said Yugi, and within seconds Ortho Beta was grinning wickedly under his mask.
Bakura, sensing mischief sidled up to Yugi in hopes of overhearing his devious plan. He missed it, but he still got to enjoy the show.
Yugi had an anticipatory look on his face as Beta went to work during the dueling, only pausing to watch his twin's duel. He shot Yugi a discreet thumbs up right before Kaiba went on the stage to duel Marik's sister Isis.
This was going to be hilarious, and Yugi handed Idia his phone to be aimed at Kaiba's side of the dueling stage to immortalize his expression. He knew he'd be laughing too hard to hold it properly.
He didn't have to wait for long and it was absolutely glorious.
Kaiba sacrificed two monsters to summon his precious Blue Eyes White Dragon, as expected.
There was just one major problem, and worse it was being broadcasted all over live TV and recorded for the world to see.
It was a blue eyed white dragon alright...but it looked like a cutesy sidekick out of a magical girl show, even if the stats were unchanged. There was even an adorable bow around the back of it's neck with frills, lace and pastoral colors that at least suited the beast.
Kaiba's expression went from gobsmacked, disbelief, denial and finally to absolute rage. If he wasn't in the middle of a duel and would be disqualified for it, he would have absolutely stormed off to find out who was responsible for this and end them in the most painful manner imaginable...and that was before he systematically destroyed the lives of their family for good measure.
Yugi, Bakura, and Jounouchi on the other hand were howling with hysterical laughter at the sight, and Yugi shot Beta a thumb's up discreetly.
Their laughter only got worse when he ordered his beloved dragon to attack (the stats had remained unchanged, just the appearance had been altered) with pure rage in his tone, only for the thing to let out the most adorable little roar before blasting Isis' monster. Even worse, it did some sort of aerial maneuver so the cameras caught every inch of the transformation, to Kaiba's complete and utter fury.
Yugi was wheezing from laughing so hard as Kaiba attempted to summon a second Blue Eyes, only for it to appear almost identical to the first one...just with different accessories and an apparent sassy attitude.
Idia eyes the youngest of his siblings, and Ortho Beta was radiating entirely too much glee over this entire thing.
By the time the duel had ended, the trio had to be checked over by the medics from laughing so hard.
Kaiba glared at them with daggers in his eyes while he stormed pass to find out who was responsible and how badly he was going to destroy them.
Once Yugi had been cleared by the on-board medics, he went straight to Ortho Beta.
"That was absolutely perfect. Please tell me you caught everything on camera."
"Yup," said Idia.
"His security was ridiculously easy to bypass," said Ortho Beta, shaking his head. But there was a strong sense of mischief in his aura. "I mean you'd think he would have at least upgraded it after it got hacked by a cheap bluetooth transmitter during the tournament."
Oh yes, Yugi remembered that with dark glee. Jounouchi had found the guy again just to get his Jinzo, only this time was forewarned about that stunt.
Yugi felt zero remorse for curbstomping the mid-tier duelists for their locator cards in short order, or for being the first to qualify for the finals. Jounouchi and Bakura were close, and Kaiba was rather annoyed to learn he was the fourth to qualify.
Then again they had an overwhelming advantage of almost four years worth of extra dueling experience, so they already knew how to counter whatever 'new' strategies he came up with.
Mokuba wandered over to them, as his brother wasn't in any state to be around. He was beyond pissed.
"You did something, didn't you?" he said, partly suspicious but also amused. Because honestly, it was only a matter of time before his brother pissed someone off who had the ability to retaliate.
"I claim plausible deniability," said Yugi instantly.
"Ditto," said Bakura and Jounouchi almost in unison.
"Uh-huh. So the fact you three were cackling like hyenas the second Seto summoned his signature monster and had cameras aimed at him before he actually did..."
"Coincidence," said Yugi, inwardly smirking. Being a top actor had it's perks, like being able to cultivate a perfect poker face while inwardly laughing your ass off.
Ortho Beta was snickering already. Mokuba turned his attention to him with an odd look on his face.
"Cool cosplay," he said. "But wouldn't that much tech be ridiculously heavy to carry around?"
"Not really," said Beta.
"Besides, we're waiting for your brother to realize something so we can catch him flat-footed twice," said Alpha grinning.
Mokuba's eyes narrowed in suspicion, but he left after that. The next duel was going to be between Mai and Alpha anyway.
Ortho beat Mai soundly, but at least this time she didn't end up in the Shadow Realm like before.
Marik's descent into madness was expected, if a bit sad after he easily beat his older sibling. Odion was one of the few who supported him unconditionally.
~*~*~*~*
Kaiba looked ready to kill as he stormed up to Yugi's little group.
He glared at Alpha with daggers in his eyes, which had Idia getting up to block Kaiba's view of the 'twins'.
"Is there a problem?"
"Which one of you bastards hacked into my system?" he demanded.
"I'll have you know most of us were born in wedlock, thank you very much," said Yugi dryly. That caused Bakura to mostly choke on his drink.
"Don't be coy with me Muto. You're not skilled enough to hack my servers, but the intrusion came from someone in your little group," said Kaiba pissed.
"How is my fault that your server firewall was so weak?" said Beta 'innocently'.
If Kaiba's glare could have killed, it would have. He was that pissed.
Mokuba however was giving Beta an odd look.
"Wait. That memory card you installed on Seto's VR game pods..." he said in realization.
Ortho Beta waved a little bit.
Mokuba's jaw dropped as he was a bit quicker on the uptake than his sibling.
"No freaking way..." he said in shock. Idia just looked smug, and why wouldn't he?
Ortho Alpha shook his head.
"Honestly, if the duel disk wasn't a requirement for the tournament I would have had Idy make something a bit more sophisticated. I suppose for a prototype it's okay, but why did you mass produce it before you properly worked out the bugs? The bluetooth was way too easy to bypass."
"That's actually his second attempt," said Yugi helpfully. "The actual prototype required throwing the thing like a frisbee of sorts and actual wires involved."
"That's just sad," said Idia.
"Like you can do any better!" snarled Kaiba, glaring at the bluenette.
"Uh, Seto?" said Mokuba. His brother looked at him briefly. "I'm pretty sure the other kid with the mask is actually an AI."
Kaiba's reaction to seeing Ortho Beta reveal some of the lesser gear he had on him (since Idia hadn't really bothered to upgrade it yet) was almost as glorious as the little prank Yugi had asked Ortho Beta to play on him.
It was one thing to deny magic and the nonsense Yugi had to deal with last time. It was another to have a semi-feasible concept actually come to reality in front of him.
"You have got to be shitting me. Since when are cyborg's real?" he demanded.
Because now the speed at which his system had been hacked made perfect sense, as his system was geared towards keeping out human intruders...not a literal thinking super computer.
Yugi gleefully dumped that headache on Idia. If he wanted to one-up Kaiba and get a dragon obsessed rival that can and would track him down to show who was better, then he could have him.
It wouldn't stop Kaiba from tracking him down to duel, but at least now he had a shinier toy to throw at him as a distraction.
On a related note, Noah and the Big Five didn't stand a ghost of a chance when they attempted to highjacked the blimp. Even if it meant Idia would have to create yet another body, this time for Noah since it really wasn't his fault he had been stuck in a computer all this time.
Ortho Beta was just happy to have a new best friend who could hack into things with.
Not Yugi's problem.