Team Mystic has made it all the way to the finals of the Worldwide Supreme Tournament. Now that they have, they can head straight for city as to where the finals are taking place. It's happening right in Platinum City, one of the largest and greatest cities. It's also the home of Marcus. Platinum City is basically like New York. When Yukina and the others arrived from the airport, they were amazed with the city.
"Wow! This place is amazing! The buildings and everything looks like a work of art!" Cindy said.
"I can't believe my home is where the finals of the tournament are being held." Marcus said as he could hardly believe his luck. He left home to try and be the best, but it turns out that this is where his crowning will be staged.
"Oh yeah! This place is perfect for the finals! When are they going to start?!" Kent said as he was sure excited.
"In about five days, but our opponent hasn't been decided yet." Felix said. "The second match of the Victory Round has to be held first. We'll face Team Camelot once again or go up against Team Void, who we know nothing about."
"It be fun to go against Arthur again, but I would also like to see what this Team Void is about. I wonder how they got that name." Yukina said. "Well, since we've got plenty of time, we can spend some time exploring the city while also getting ready."
"Luckily, we have our very own tour guide." Cindy said. They all turned towards Marcus to show them around, but they saw he already took off without them. "Marcus! Hold up! Where are you going?!"
"Sorry! I can't show you around right now! There's somewhere I have to be!" Marcus called and just left his friends in a strange city with no idea where to go.
"Hey! You can't just ditch us! Where are we suppose to go?!" Yukina called. "Hey! You get back here when I'm yelling at you!"
"Where could he be going in such a hurry?" Felix wondered.
...
Marcus
"I can't believe I'm back. I wasn't planning to until I beat Yukina, but this works out perfectly." Marcus said as he ran through the streets until he arrived at a local hospital. Once he got there, he ran straight to a room he was quite familiar with. "Dana! I'm here!" He called as he ran straight into the room, but there wasn't a sign of anyone there. "Dana? Where are you? Should you really be playing hide and seek in a hospital?" Marcus actually searched around the hospital room for someone. "Where could she be? Wait..." He said as he thought of something bad. "No! Don't tell me... No! She can't be!"
"Excuse me, but you are making a lot of noise and disturbing the patients." A nurse said as she came in. "Keep it down or I'm going to call security."
"Nurse! What happened to the girl that stayed in this room?! Her name was Dana Anders!"
"Dana Anders? Wait just a moment." The nurse said as she looked over the info she had. "Here it is. It says that she was transferred over to a hospital to better treat her condition."
"A different hospital? Do you know which one?!" Marcus questioned.
"No. I'm afraid not." The nurse said. That wasn't what Marcus wanted to hear. Just who could this Dana be to Marcus?
...
Team Mystic
Even though Marcus gave them the slip, Yukina and the others tried to find their way around the city and tried to enjoy their time there, like getting a great American burger.
"What?! What do you mean we can only get the regular burgers?! What about the jumbo size ones?!" Kent said.
"Only if you want a bad case of indigestion." Cindy complained. Regardless of that, they still managed to get something to eat and enjoyed themselves. They even gave the local subway a look as they hurried to catch the train.
"Hurry! Here it is!" Felix said as he and Yukina hurried on a train.
"Hold up! According to our ticket, our train is the next one! This one is going to 25th Street." Cindy said.
"Say what?!" Both of them said as they couldn't believe their rotten luck just as the train doors closed on them and those two went off on their own. Getting your way around the city is tough. The four of them did managed to get back together at a park, but Yukina and Felix bought some extra supplies.
"What did you buy all that stuff for?" Kent questioned.
"We couldn't help ourselves to all these clothes and souvenirs." Yukina said.
"And ended up wasting all of our money." Felix complained.
"You really need a tour guide to show you around so you know what to hit and what to avoid." Cindy said.
"We had one, but he ditched us for whatever reason." Kent said.
"Seriously? What could Marcus be doing?" Yukina wondered. As luck would have it, they spotted him walking by.
"Where are you, Dana?" Marcus questioned.
"Marcus!" All of them called. Marcus spotted them, but he knew he was in real trouble since he ditched them.
"Hold it right there! Where did you run off to?!" Yukina said.
"Yeah. You lived here, didn't you? Show us around." Cindy said.
"I can't right now. I got something important to do." Marcus said. "In fact, there's someone else I need to see. He has to know where she is." He said and then just took off once again.
"Hey! Get back here! You're not giving me the slip again!" Yukina called as she and the others chased after Marcus to see what he might be thinking now.
...
Marcus
All the tall buildings in this humongous city, but there was only one small building Marcus was interested in. With the others following, they soon found where Marcus was going.
"Still here! Same as it's always been!" Marcus said as he stood at small building. Yukina and the others took a look at it and saw that it was another local Duel Park.
"Another Duel Park?" Yukina questioned.
"Was this your hangout or something?" Kent questioned.
"It's my home away from home!" Marcus said as he ran straight inside. "Hey! Guess who is back!" He called and got the attention of those in there.
"Is that Marcus?"
"It is! He's back!"
"And he's brought Team Mystic with him!"
"That's right! I'm back, and I brought my underling teammates with me!" Marcus claimed.
"Your what?!" Kent said as he put him in a headlock to get him to rephrase that.
"I meant that these are my equal teammates that have equally fought by my side!" Marcus said to get Kent to let him go.
"Marcus! It's good to see you again. You don't call or write, but you always did like to do things your way." They all looked and were met with a big guy that had copper skin. "How you've been?"
"Coach! It's great to see you!"
"Coach?" The others questioned.
"Marcus, come on. Enough stalling and tell us something. You know these people or something? Introduce us." Cindy said as she and the others don't like being left in the dark.
"In a minute! I'm in the middle of something important!" Marcus said, but he got smacked on the head by Coach.
"Don't be rude. They're right." Coach said. "Sorry about that. As you have probably seen, Marcus tends to just take off and do what he likes. People call me Coach. I happen to run this place. I take in duelists with potential and show them the ropes. I try to make them better and stronger. Marcus here was one of them. He's been coming to his place for over five years."
"Really? That's pretty cool." Yukina said.
"Too bad you couldn't team Marcus some self-control." Felix complained.
"Coach, where is Snyder?! I heard that Dana was moved to a different hospital! He has to know where she is!" Marcus said like he was eager to know.
"Dana and Snyder?" Yukina questioned as she and the others wondered who they were.
"You mean you haven't heard, Marcus?" Coach said. "Not long after you left, Slyder was able to become part of the Worldwide Supreme Tournament just like you. He managed to join Team Void." Marcus was astonished to hear that news. "Ever since that happened, he hasn't really come by around here."
"No way... Snyder is in Team Void?" Marcus said.
"Can we get some answers please? Marcus, who is Dana and Snyder?" Yukina questioned. Marcus walked over to the wall and stared at a photo of him with two others. One was a girl that was dark skin with long wavy black hair. The other was male with messy sandy brown hair.
"They're both my best friends." Marcus said. "It all started when I came here for the first time. That was around five years ago."
...
Flashback
Marcus was just a kid, and he just started learning about dueling. He was still rather new to it. When he started dueling, there was only one place for him to go to. He went straight to the Duel Park and couldn't wait to try out his new deck with it.
"This is going to be awesome! I finally get to duel!" Marcus said as he was going to love this. He certainly didn't want to wait around. He went straight inside and could see all kinds of fun he could have. It was like walking into an amusement park for him and he didn't know where to start.
"Hey, you!" Marcus snapped out of it and was faced with Snyder for the first time. "Who are you? I've never seen you around here before."
"My name is Marcus Zimmer. I'm going to be the next champion."
"Next champion? How many duels have you been in? How many wins have you had?" Snyder questioned.
"Uh... Well... I've only just started dueling." Marcus admitted.
"You've just started, and you claim you're going to be a champion?" Snyder said. "Well, at least you were honest about it. However, there's no way you're going to be a champion because that's going to be me. The name is Snyder Sanders."
"You're going to be a champ? I don't think so." Marcus said. "I'm not just going to be any champion. I'm going to be the best duelist there ever was."
"Tough talk for someone who never even dueled." Snyder said. "You think you're so good already? If that's the case, let's have a duel right now and see who is better."
"That's how we met? That's how I met Snyder. We dueled each other, and I was able to win."
"Yeah! I won! I won!" Marcus cheered. "I told you that I was the best!"
"No way!" Snyder said.
"I'm the best, so you're going to have to deal with it." Marcus claimed. "In your face! In your face!"
"Yeah, you might have won, but you don't have to be mean about it." That was when someone else came walking in. That happened to be Dana, and that's how they all met. "I could see a few flaws in your strategies. If you would have done things differently, you would have done better."
"Who are you? My dueling is great." Marcus said.
"Maybe you can prove that by taking me on." Dana said. "Besides, you can't claim you're going to be the best. That's going to be me. The name is Dana by the way." She claimed as she took Snyder's place.
"That was also the same day I met Dana. She challenged me next, but Dana was like a dueling prodigy. Out of the three of us, she was the best duelist. She ended up cleaning my clock."
"No!" Marcus cried as he took one more attack and ended up losing the duel. "This stinks! It isn't fair! I didn't even get to eliminate any of her life points!"
"Ha! Not so tough now, are you?!" Snyder mocked as he pointed and laughed at him, but Dana smacked his hand.
"Don't be mean." Dana said. "You're name is Marcus, right? You're not bad. You had a few good moves, but you were rather impatient and sprung them without thinking and didn't save them for later. With some work, you can improve. I be happy to help you, and I'm sure Snyder would too."
"What? I would?" Snyder said.
"Come on, Snyder. You lost to this guy, so you need to improve. Plus, he's like how you were when you first started." Dana said. "You guys both love to duel and both want to be the best like me. You have a lot in common." When she pointed that out, both of them wondered if that was true.
"After that, the three of us became great friends. All three of us loved to duel, and the three of us all aimed to be the best. We wanted to be the number one duelist in the world. We were good for each other, and it was thanks to them that I got to be the duelist I am today. That all changed years later. What happened next was months before I met up with you guys."
...
Five Years Later
"Okay! Give it a try, Marcus!" Snyder dared as they were playing basketball instead. Marcus tried to stop Snyder from making a score, but he failed and just fell face first against the pavement with Snyder scoring a basket. "That's ten to nothing."
"This is so dumb. What does basketball have to do with dueling?" Marcus questioned.
"More than you think." Dana claimed. "You need to look at everything around you, think on your feet, make quick decisions, and try to trust your instincts. Physical and mental activity is a great way to help improve your dueling. Let me show you." She claimed as she tried to take the ball. "Come on, Snyder. Try and stop me."
"Okay, but you saw what I did to Marcus." Snyder warned.
"How is it your fault he tripped on his own two feet?" Dana said and went for it. Snyder tried to stop her, but Dana was able to get around Snyder and made a slam dunk. "See? Like that?"
"That's easy for you to say, Dana. You're so smart and talented. It's like your great at everything." Marcus said.
"Maybe, but everything I do helps improve my dueling." Dana said.
"But we're lucky to have you. The three of us can end up being the best duelists in the world." Snyder said. "Marcus and I even got so good because of you."
"And the three of us are going to be the very best of the best!" Marcus said.
"Right. The very best! We're going to be number one!" Dana said.
"Number one!" All three of them cheered. They were all filled with high spirits, but those cheers quickly turned to fear when Dana suddenly collapsed and appeared to be in pain.
"Dana!" Marcus called.
"Dana! What's wrong?! What is it?!" Snyder said as it didn't look good.
...
The Hospital
"Dana got really sick. The doctors diagnosed her with an illness. I didn't really get all the medical lingo, but they say that Dana's dueling days were done. They say that so much exertion and strain on the body ended up being bad for her, and it was only getting worse. Dana was the best duelist out of the three of us, but it wasn't fair what was happening to her."
Marcus and Snyder couldn't believe the news. The doctors were doing everything they could to help her, but it wasn't good at all. The two of them just stood out in the halls and felt so incomplete without her. Dana was the one that helped them become better duelists, but now they can't help her.
"What are we going to do now? Dana's dueling days are done." Snyder said as they felt so helpless, but Marcus wasn't going to stand for this.
"No way does it end like this. Snyder, we've got to become number one." Marcus said. "We have to keep going for Dana, not just for us. We've got to keep the dream alive, and maybe if we become the best, it might help Dana in some way. That's the best way we can help her."
"You're right. We've got to keep aiming to be the best. We'll be number one for her." Snyder said. That was the day those two promised that they would keep the dream alive. Not just for them, but it will be for Dana's sake as well.
End of Flashback
...
"Not long after that day, I found out about Duel Battlers and saw you duel against Raika, Yukina." Marcus said as he remembered seeing that after it already happened. "I thought that if I could beat someone like you, I would be one step closer to being the best. That's why I left Platinum City and came after you guys. In fact, the Windwitch deck isn't even mine. It originally belonged to Dana."
"That isn't your deck?" Yukina questioned.
"Nope. Before I left, I asked Dana if I could take it with me. This way, it will feel like a part of her will be number one." Marcus claimed.
"Now this whole number one thing makes sense, Marcus." Cindy said. "It's not just for yourself. You're trying to keep the dream all three of you had alive."
"And all this time I thought it was because he was arrogant." Kent said as they feel like they see Marcus differently.
"I think it's a little bit of both." Felix said.
"You three have always been close. What happened to Dana was tragic." Coach said. "I was always so proud to see the three of you work together."
"The three of us were even planning to enter the Worldwide Supreme Tournament when we heard of it, but that was when Dana's condition kicked in." Marcus said. "That's why I saw an opportunity when I was with you guys and wanted to be a part of your team. This could help Dana. I wasn't planning on returning without good news, but I didn't expect the finals to be held here. I went to the hospital to see how Dana was doing, but they say she transferred to another hospital. I thought Snyder might know where she is. He's not here, and I don't know where he could be."
"Ask and you shall receive." They all looked to the entrance and there he was. Standing in a black unitard-like body suit was Snyder himself. "I thought I find you here."
"Snyder!" Marcus said as he was glad to see him again. At least he got to see one old friend, but this old friend is still on an opposing team.
