"Don't worry, kid. I'll get you there. You're lucky a police officer is a good friend of mine."

"Yeah... Lucky..." Marcus said, but he was feeling rather nervous about something. What he's nervous about is that he's flying there in a fighter plane.

"Here we go!" The pilot said as he kicked it and the plane took off with Marcus screaming at the top of his lungs. At least this gives him a chance to make it to the match, but can he make it before it's over?

...

The Arena

"Team Mystic has gotten an early lead on this duel." M.C. announced. "Yukina has gotten the win for their team, but they need one more if they wish to advance to the next round of the tournament."

"Nice work getting us the first win, but Marcus isn't here yet." Felix said. "The second match is going to start soon. What do we do?"

"Looks like we don't have much time to figure that out." Cindy said. They all looked to the field and saw that Nicholas was coming out for the second match.

"Nicholas has stepped forward for the second match! We now await for Team Mystic's choice." M.C. announced.

'Mario might have failed, but I won't. We can't afford another defeat.' Nicholas thought as he was more determined to win this now. Nicholas seemed like such a nice guy, but Cindy feels like a fool. Was Nicholas just being nice to her just to gain info on them? Seeing how Cindy was feeling, Kent couldn't stay quiet any longer.

"Guys, we can't wait for Marcus." Kent said. "I don't like that this guy played us. Let me go out for this match!. I know I can do this."

"Are you sure, Kent?" Yukina questioned.

"He's right. We can't wait for Marcus." Felix said. "Kent, I say go for it. It's all in your hands now." Kent really appreciated that. This also means he gets to fight in the tournament. Now that he has permission, he hurried out to the field and was now facing the duel.

"Team Mystic is sending out Kent, who is registered as a sub. Is there a problem with Team Mystic or is this just an insult to Team Rosebud?" M.C. announced with the crowd turning against Kent.

"You might be the substitute, but it doesn't matter. I will not allow ourselves to be defeated." Nicholas said.

"Just keep talking, pretty boy. I'm going to enjoy knocking you around like the weed you are." Kent said as he got his duel disk ready. Nicholas did the same thing. The second round of this match could now begin, and niether of them want to lose.

"Let's duel!" They both said with 4000LP.

"The first move is mine!" Nicholas said as he was going first. "I'll start by playing Seed of Deception! This spell allows me to special summon a level two or lower plant from my hand! I summon the lovely Rose Lover!" He summoned out a lady dressed like a princess with her having 800atk points. "With that, I'm tributing my Rose Lover to summon out Gigaplant!" He summoned out a giant monstrous plant in place of Rose Lover with it having 2400atk points.

"Nicholas is starting out big by summoning one powerful monster on his very first turn. Can Kent find a way to counter that?"

"I place one face-down and end my turn!" Nicholas said.

"My turn!" Kent said as he drew his card. "You wanted a demonstration of what our decks can do. That's what you were after on the train, right? Well, I'll be more than happy to oblige!"

"Before you do that, I'm afraid you might need to change your tactics." Nicholas claimed. "I activate my Thorn Trapper!" He claimed as he activated his trap. "I understand your specialty is with pendulum monsters, which results to pendulum summoning. Isn't that right?"

"What if it is?" Kent questioned.

"Well, I'm afraid you're going to have a difficult time summoning out your stronger monsters." Nicholas claimed. "Thanks to this trap, you can't special summon any monster that's higher than level four as long as there's a plant-type monster on my field."

"Say what?!" Kent said as he didn't expect that.

"Kent can't special summon monsters that are higher than level four?" Yukina questioned.

"That might be a problem. It limits what he can special summon, and he won't be able to bust out his stronger monsters." Felix said.

"Don't let that stop you, Kent! You just need to change tactics!" Cindy called.

"Don't worry. I've got this." Kent said. "I'm going to start by summoning Heatsoul Trooper!" He summoned out his trooper as it came up with 1200atk points. "Next, I'm activating his special ability! Since I can't tribute him to summon a stronger Heatsoul, I'll just add one to my hand! I'll take my Heatsoul Colonel!" He claimed as he tributed his own monster and added another one to his hand.

"What are you plotting?" Nicholas questioned.

"I'll gladly show you when I set the pendulum scale with scale 3 Heatsoul Sparker and scale 8 Heatsoul Torch!" Kent claimed as he set the scale, one of his monster looking like a mechanical torch with a flame on top.

"But my trap only allows you to summon monsters that are level four lower! With that scale, you can only summon level four monsters!" Nicholas reminded.

"That's all I need! I pendulum summon!" Kent called as he was brining out two monsters. "I pendulum summon Heatsoul Sniper and Heatsoul Private!" He claimed as his two monsters came out with 1500 and 1400atk points. "They might not seem like they're strong compared to your giant weed, but just wait. My Heatsoul Torch's pendulum ability can ignite the fighting spirit of one my Heatsoul's by the attack points of a pendulum in my extra deck!" His torch ignited his Heatsoul Sniper with its power rising to 2700. "Heatsoul Sniper, attack his Gigaplant! Fire away!" His monster took aim and fired a powerful blast that hit the monstrous plant. It was destroyed with Nicholas' life points dropping to 3700. "Now my Heatsoul Private can attack you directly!" His monster attacked Nicholas directly as it slashed against him and his life points dropped to 2300.

"Ouch! Nicholas is getting burned rather hard as Kent burned down that giant plant!"

"No! I refuse to lose!" Nicholas said. "We just simply can't lose! For what we are fighting for, I simply won't be defeated! Not after all the trouble we had to go through for this."

"You keep saying that you'll win no matter what it takes, but why is that?" Kent questioned. "What exactly are you fighting for?"

"Hold on. Trouble? What trouble?" Cindy said.

"What are you talking about, Nicholas?!" Yukina called. "What exactly have you done that is making you want to win so badly?"

"I guess... I guess there's no harm in telling you. What happened before the match is irrelevant up to this point." Nicholas said. They didn't like the sound of that. "Take your buddy for example. There's a reason he's not here, but that was originally intended for Yukina."

"What?! Are you saying you were responsible for what happened to Marcus?!" Cindy questioned.

"But it was originally intended for Yukina since she's our best duelist. He tried to sabotage our team." Felix said.

"You really want to win like this?!" Yukina questioned.

"It's nothing personal, but it must be done." Nicholas claimed. "You see, what you don't know is that the three of us were raised in an orphanage. It's how we all met." When he said that, all of them were listening to this. "It wasn't easy for us, but we tried to make the most of it. Now, we find out that the orphanage doesn't have enough money. It's closing."

"It is?" Yukina questioned as they were feeling bad for him.

"That's why we're here. That's why we're dueling in this tournament." Nicholas said. "If we win this tournament, maybe we save the orphanage. We can give it some recognition that people would want to help by donating money. That orphanage was our home. We have to do what we can to save it. That's why we must win this tournament at any cost. I'm sorry for the trouble we're causing, but this is just too important for us to lose!" The truth has finally come out, but will it change the outcome of this duel?

...

Marcus

"Okay, kid! We're right about there!" The pilot said as he and Marcus were right near where he needs to be.

"Great! So, where are landing?!" Marcus questioned as he really wanted to get off.

"I'm afraid there's no landing strip or anything. I hope you're not afraid of heights." The pilot said. Marcus didn't like the sound of that. The next thing Marcus knew, he was ejected out of that machine and was parachuting down to the town. What a way to get to town.

...

The Duel

"Now that you know what we're dueling for, I will not allow us to be defeated!" Nicholas said as he took his next turn. "I activate Rose Lover's ability from my graveyard! That allows me to summon Fairy archer Ingunar!" He summoned out a fairy that flew out on the field with 2400atk points. "Ingunar can't attack on the turn she's special summoned, but what I can do is revive Gigaplant from my graveyard!" Igunar fired an arrow and revived Gigaplant with it having 1200def points. "Next, I activate Re-Planter! This spell switches the battle position of one plant on the field, so that I can attack with my Gigaplant!" He claimed as his Gigaplant was in attack mode now. "Gigaplant, devour his Heatsoul Private!" His giant plant on the attack as it swallowed up his private in one bite. That caused Kent's life points to drop down to 3000.

"You might have destroyed my private, but his special ability now activates! I can take any Heatsoul card in my deck, and add it to my hand!" Kent said as he took a card. "I choose my Heatsoul Drone Strike!"

"It won't help you." Nicholas said. "I don't care what I have to do. There's just no way I can lose this."

"Nicholas, I understand why you want to win so badly, but that doesn't make what you're doing right." Kent said. "Can you honestly say you're proud of the way you win? Can your reason really justify your actions?"

"You wouldn't understand." Nicholas said.

"No, I do understand! We had a few situations where we had to win! Heck, I was once a thug that pushed others around!" Kent claimed. "Still, I learned that there are just some things you don't do just because you want to win so badly. You should believe in your own skills. That's something I learned from my friends." Those words really got to Nicholas. "What about the orphanage? How do you think those people will feel when they find out you won like this?"

"Well... I..." Nicholas said as he wasn't sure how to answer that.

"We haven't broken any rules, Nicholas." Emily said as she ran up to him. "Remember why we're doing this. You said it yourself that what happened before the match is irrelevant."

"You might not have broken any rules, but can you honestly say you are proud of the way you won?" Kent questioned.

"Don't judge us! We're fighting for something important here! Just hurry up and lose, big guy!" Emily said. "Everyone's waiting to see my match!"

"Sorry, but that's not happening!" Kent claimed as he drew his next card. "I'm the won that's winning this! I pendulum summon!" He pendulum summoned once again as one monster come out. "Report for duty once again Heatsoul Trooper!" He claimed as his trooper came back with 1200atk points. "Your trap might prevent me from special summoning high level monsters, but I can still normal summon them! I tribute my sniper and trooper to summon Heatsoul Colonel!" He tributed both of his monsters and summoned out his Heatsoul Colonel with it having 2300atk points. "I now activate Heatsoul Drone Strike! This spell gives me a Heatsoul Drone on every open monster space I have!" He claimed as four drones appeared on his field with 0atk points.

"Those things have no attack points. How can they help?" Nicholas said.

"You're about to see when they attack!" Kent said as his drones went on the attack and charged right at Gigaplant. "When these babies attack, I don't take any damage! What's more is that the monster that destroyed them loses 400atk points each!" Nicholas certainly didn't like the sound of that. Each of the drones crashed into Gigaplant and caused some damage as Gigaplant's power dropped all the way to 800. "Now I activate my torch's pendulum ability to give my colonel attack points equal to my sniper, and his ability can add more to it!" Heatsoul Colonel's power increased as it went all the way to 5300.

"I can't beat that!" Nicholas said.

"Heatsoul Colonel, attack!" Kent said. His monster opened fire as it blasted down on Nicholas' monstrous plant and destroyed it.

"No!" Nicholas shouted as his life points dropped all the way to zero from that attack, and that meant only one thing...

"It's over and done! Kent wins, and the total victory goes to Team Mystic!" M.C. announced.

"Yeah! Way to turn up the heat, Kent!" Yukina cheered.

"Way to go!" Felix called. The four of them were feeling really good about this win.

"I made it!" That was when Marcus burst right through the door and was ready to action. "Sorry I took so long to get here, but thanks for waiting! Now that I, the number one duelist in the world, is here; I'm ready to take down Team Rosebud!"

"You're late, Marcus! It's already over!" Yukina called.

"Yukina and Kent won the first two rounds! The match is over!" Felix said.

"What?! You mean I missed all of it?!" Marcus said as he couldn't believe it.

"Talk about being late for the party!" Kent teased.

"What are you even doing out on the dueling field in the first place?!" Marcus said as he couldn't believe this was happening to him.

...

The Train Station

"I want to apologize for how we acted." Nicholas said as he and the rest of Team Rosebud hated how they acted. With both teams at the train station, Yukina and the others were about to hit the road. "We thought our actions could be justified, but it still wasn't right. We're so sorry."

"We understand why you wanted to win so badly, and maybe there's still a way to help the orphanage." Yukina said.

"Hopefully, we'll see you again when things are better." Felix said.

"Can we go?!" Marcus called. "I want to make sure I don't miss our next match! I'm so going to be a part of that one!" He claimed as he was still sore about missing the match. The rest of the team boarded the train and were on their way with the two teams saying their goodbyes.

"Hey! Check out this message I got!" Mario said. "The orphanage just got a generous donation from Celestial Duel to stay open!"

"Wait! Isn't that who is sponsoring Team Mystic?!" Emily said.

"I don't believe it..." Nicholas said. After all that, the team still helped them out. "Thank you!" He shouted at the top of his lungs as they will never forget how kind Team Mystic was to them.