C.1 - Joey Onstage
Even if he was tucked away in the locker rooms, he could hear the cheering from the stadium just beyond it. It was practically filled out wasn't it? Excitement should be filling his every pore, his every fibre, but dang it! He just couldn't seem to feel it tonight. Because this was the first tournament he's been in in a while.
The first big, real tournament since the Kaibacorp World Grand Prix really. He'd had to take a break after he graduated from school. What with Yugi's thing and Teà leaving for America. Serenity Planning on moving back to Domino soon, the biggest reason he was unable to really spend all that much time duelling.
He had offered to get her an apartment. He also needed a stable income himself, as much as he'd wanted to duel, he just didn't have enough of a backlog of cash to really make it worthwhile and you know despite being top 4 several dang times in a row. That's not a big enough deal.
The people he tried to talk to to get into those big money match duels initially offered to let him in, ah, but they were always just ploys to try and talk to him about if he could get 'the great king of games' to get back into the seen. It was all a dang farce, so those had blown over.
And that's how he was forced to settle for a job not involving Duel Monsters for several months.
That would change soon though. He was sure of it.
Joey gripped his fist tightly. "C'mon, stop thinking about other things. We got a game to play tonight."
A simple round of swiss, just gotta climb that there bracket all the way to the top, baby!
A red light attached to the ceiling lit up. Alerting him that now it was his turn to play this game. (Well everyone's turn, they all walked out as one, but whatever).
Hastily he picked up his duel disk from the bench beside him. Strapped it onto his arm before he marched out from the locker room towards the stadium's arena.
He came to it from a long tunnel, the arena itself was a wide open space, multiple duelists were going at it, multiple taking to the various marked out duel fields at the same time, or well about to. They probably had to have them go all at once since there were so many of them, otherwise they'd all be here all dang night.
He moved over to the duel field where he knew he had to go to, he wondered briefly who his opponent would be- only to then get distracted as he looked up at the stadium's stands. It was huge and he was in the middle of it.
With all the bright lights, flashing of cameras, the constant movement, it was hard to make anyone out. Though…
Not that he'd recognise anyone in the crowd tonight. Tristan was out working late nowadays. Even on nights like this, Yugi was similarly out tonight. That really didn't leave much of anyone to still watch him from the stands. Other than Duke or Bakura, but if they were here, then he hadn't heard of it from them.
Eventually he came to his marked out spot on Duel Field 8, across from him was some person he didn't know. From a sheet he was given earlier their name was apparently Markus.
Markus stood across from him, wearing a dark blue jacket, their hair was dyed blonde. "Ey, there." Markus called out to him. "Better prepare yourself, you're looking at a king. I'm gonna dominate this entire tournament, so don't feel bad when you lose too soon."
Joey immediately tilted his head, bafflement ringing through his mind. Then he just leaned forward slightly, attempting to stifle a snort and failing miserably. "A king hey?"
"H-hey! You better believe it." His opponent called out.
Joey straightened himself. "Sure mate, no, I definitely believe you. It's just, well, I guess all kings look small if you keep the company I keep."
Markus visibly fumed. The boy's face turning to a shade of red, if he could, Joey imagined they would start blowing steam from their ears.
Markus then raised their duel disk up. "I'll show you."
"Mhm, sure thing." He nodded back. "So let me show you where you stand. Because you're not just facing anyone." He replied, a wide grin spreading across his face. He was getting back into the right mood for dueling already, what he felt like before quickly fading as he slotted back into a familiar routine.
Pressing a few button on the Duel Disk, his device powered on, the blades slamming together and a digital beep sounding off. "That's right." He declared, pointing a thumb right at himself. "You're looking at Joey Wheeler, now watch this!"
"Let's DUEL!"
Joey (4000LP) VS Markus (4000LP)
They then both drew from their deck, getting their opening hand. But it seemed Markus just barely beat him out. His opponent with the dyed blonde hair grinned proudly. "All that talk, but it seems you're a little slow."
"Whatever." Since he didn't manage to draw his hand faster, it seemed now his opponent was gonna take the first move, just great.
"Firstly," Markus called out. "I'll start slow, just for you. I play a monster face-down, then set one card behind it.
"That's it? Alright then." Joey called as he drew from his deck. Quickly looking through his hand, he knew what he should do. "Let's start things right. I play the spell card Instant Fusion! By paying 1000 life points, I get to summon the Flame Swordsman straight from my extra deck."
He then let out a powerful yell, as bright energy surrounded him. The energy around him glowed stronger with his shout until it was finished with him, a ball of energy shot out from his chest and popped open in front of him, dropping a warrior clad in orange and blue, flaming sword in hand. (Joey/3000LP) (LV5/1800/1600)
"Don't think you can scare me with some outdated guy." Markus then scoffed at the fusion monster. "Instant Fusion doesn't allow you to attack with that guy, and he'll be gone by the end of the turn.
"You think I don't read my own cards." Joey Pointed accusingly at his opponent. "I ain't some novice like you, i tribute my Flame Swordsman, now let's see if you feel threatened by this guy."
With that, his favourite monster nodded their head in understanding, lowered their sword and turned away from his opponent to walk away, fading as they did. In their place a new monster faded into existence, a dark green cyborg with a set of red lenses over their eyes.
"Say hello to Jinzo, and bye to all your traps." As his Psycho Shocker stepped foot on the field a set of red beams fired from their eyes, scanning over the field and then to Markus' Duel DIsk, the duel Disk started to spark. "With Jinzo on the Field neither of us can activate Trap Cards. Even if you could, they wouldn't even work. So take that."
Markus could only frown.
It made Joey wonder partially if that was because their set card was a trap card, he couldn't know for sure. Jinzo always caused his opponent's disk to spark while it was on the field, regardless of whether a trap was on the field.
Well, if it was a trap, he better make the most of its current state. "Jinzo, attack that king's little guy!" At his command, the cyborg crossed their arms over their chest and fired another set of beams from their eyes, the beams left a trail of destruction behind them before they tore through their opponent's set monster.
The flying squirrel thing that appeared briefly stood no chance.
Joey frowned. Damn it, he knew that card.
"Since you destroyed my Nimble Momonga Their effect triggers, thanks for that by the way."
"You're welcome…" He replied with a soft sigh at the end. Just his luck.
"I gain 1000 life points and can immediately play two more Nimble Momonga straight from my deck in defence position." Markus explained as two more flying Squirrels hit the field, quickly followed by a flood of extra life points going to the self-proclaimed king. (Markus/5000LP) (LV2/1000/100)
Great, he'd only succeeded in giving his opponent more monsters. "I'll set two cards face-down and end my turn." Even if Jinzo prevented himself from playing Traps too, there was still a benefit to setting them this early so he can use them if Jinzo is gone.
Markus drew from their deck. Then grinned. "Thanks for the monsters dweeb, I play Double Summon, which allows me to normal summon twice this turn, and I'll use just that to tribute both of my Momonga to summon Granmarg The Rock Monarch and Zaborg The Thunder Monarch."
Two titanous giants appeared on the field, dressed in heavy, yet imposing armour. The one to the left juggled electricity in their hands, lightning rods coming from their back, beside them an even larger giant appeared in solid and thick looking orange armour with massive shoulder pads, that caused the giant to lean forwards and use their front arms to keep them upright.
The lightning Monarch crushed a lightning bolt in its hands (LV5/2400/1000)
And the Rock Monarch raised both of its arms up just to smash them into the ground again. (LV6/2400/1000)
"Big guys," He couldn't help but say.
"That's right, but their strength isn't all, they also have abilities that activate when they're summoned. First Zaborg will destroy your monster." Zaborg threw a lightning bolt through the air like a javelin, piercing the cyborg and destroying them. And Markus hadn't even called an attack yet to do it.
"And then Granmarg will destroy a face-down card on your field, and I'll choose your set card to the left!"
The rock monarch raised its arms.
"Hey! Not so fast, that card you're targeting is the spell card Scapegoat and I'm using that little number right now." The rock monarch smashed it's fists into the ground, sending a shockwave travelling out towards the face-down, only for it to flip just a second early. unleashing a set of four lambs jumping out onto his field.
(LV1/0/0)
"Agh… So what?" Markus growled. "Your little goats can't stop me for long." At that call the two Monarchs each attacked, destroying a lamb each and leaving him with just two remaining. "Your move."
"Alright, let's take this game back." He cheered for himself as he started his turn, drawing a card from his deck. Immediately however. "I activate my set card, Double Magical Arm Shield, see with this card, i can Tribute two of my monsters and then take control of 2 monsters you control!"
"What!" Markus gasped as two of the lamb tokens disappeared, his trap card flipped up and two arms extending from the image of the card with a cartoonish stretching hands clamped around both Zaborg and Granmarg and pulled them to stand on his side of the field. "Now look who's king now." He bragged before pointing both of his newly acquired monsters forwards.
The two giant kings raised their hands to fire a pair of attacks directly at Markus, only for the kid to gesture towards their one face-down. "Sakuretsu Armour, when a monster you control declares an attack, I get to destroy it!"
Zaborg's lightning bolt crashed into a set of animated armour that emerged from nowhere and jumped in the path of the attack right before Markus could take the blow. The armour then flexed reflecting it back at the Monarch, the attack exploded on impact sending the Lightning Monarch toppling backwards destroying them. Granmarg however continued their attack, punching with enough force to send a wave of air that washed over the self-proclaimed king.
"Agh…" Markus growled at the fact. (Markus/2600LP)
"What does it matter?" The self-proclaimed king muttered. "That card effect probably only lasts until the end of the turn, i'll have my monster back soon enough."
"I don't think so." Joey replied. "Because in case you haven't noticed, i haven't summoned yet this turn and i'm feeling like a tribute summon personally." With that Granmarg faded from the field and was replaced with a new monster. "Ready to throw some hands? Maximum Six!"
A massively muscled humanoid monster with six arms and purple skin appeared, its hands beating on its chest like a gorilla. (LV6/1900/1600)
"See, when he's summoned I get to roll a die, and depending on its result my monster gains 200 Attack Points times that result." A dice appeared in Maximum Six's arms which it tossed straight up. When the die came falling back down it landed on a three. Giving Maximum Six 600 more Attack Points. (2500)
Joey grinned at that. Now it was strong enough to beat any more of those Monarch Dudes this kid seems to like playing.
"I set one more card face-down and end my turn." He declared, the card appearing by his feet once he set it in his Duel Disk. "Yours, kid."
Markus drew from his deck. He didn't seem happy at what he drew, though, maybe this kid was never happy judging from how he's played the game so far. "I set a monster face-down, then end my turn."
"Back to me, huh?" He said with a smile on his face as he drew from his deck. He then reached for a different card in his hand and summoned it onto the field. "Let's win this! Baby Dragon!" The small orange scaled dragon tyke emerged by his side before his commanded it onwards.
The small dragon tackled the set card, revealing a satellite of some kind with a single eye and grinning teeth painted on it's front.
Immediately he freaked out. "Cyber Jar!" He gasped.
"That's right!" Markus replied with a cocky expression. "And when they're flipped face-up, all monsters on the field are destroyed, then both of us draw 5 cards and then special summon all level 4 or lower monsters we got."
Cyber Jar's face opened up and began to pull every monster on the field inwards towards them like a black hole. His Baby Dragon and Maximum Six were toast.
Markus drew from his deck first. "Looks like I got Mobius The Frost Monarch, Warrior Dai Grepher, Thestalos The Fire Monarch, another Warrior Dai Grepher and finally Pot Of Greed. So from them I play both my Warrior Dai Grepher on the Field in Defence Mode."
Two mercenary style warriors appeared on the field, holding their swords up ready to fend for themselves. (LV4/1700/1600)
Joey nodded then drew his five cards. "Goblin Attack Force, Gearfried The Iron Knight, Red-Eyes Black Dragon, Lightning Blade and Alligator's Sword. Looks like I've got three monsters on my field then, not to mention I can still attack with them."
Goblin Attack Force (LV4/2300/0)
Gearfried The Iron Knight (LV4/1800/1600)
Alligator's Sword (LV4/1500/1200)
As each of his new monsters appeared on his field, he ordered each and every one of them to attack. The group of goblins equipped with clubs piled onto one of their Dai Grephers, one of the goblins getting them in a chokehold, while another is biting its arm ferociously, while the rest did a series of wrestling moves and jumping on top of them until the monster faded away.
Gearfried then struck at the next Dai Grepher, destroying it instantly. Then the Alligator's Sword ran forwards and cut at Markus again. (Markus/1100LP)
"That's it from me." Joey declared passing the turn back to his opponent.
"My move. Draw." Markus hummed. "And i'll begin my turn right, by playing Pot Of Greed, which i shouldn't have to explain what it does." His opponent drew another two cards from his deck. Markus' eyes nearly bulged out of his head as he saw what cards he drew. "Let's go! I'm practically destined to win, go Monster Reborn, revive my Granmarg, and then afterwards, I'll tribute them in order to summon Thestalos."
The Rock Monarch briefly returned to Markus' field only to fade away immediately to make room for a giant clad in red metal armour, a visor over their eyes preventing them from seeing in this moment. Flames curled in the hands of the kingly embodiment of disaster.
"When he's Tribute Summoned, I get to take a random card out of your hand and you better pray he doesn't hit a monster or you'll be burned for damage equal to 100 times your monster's level."
The fire monarch raised a single finger up and small dot of super-hot flame blinking into existence at the tip before it flicked it straight through the air like a bullet, impaling his Red-Eyes Black Dragon and destroying them.
His life points trickled down slowly as he was forced to discard the flaming card. (Joey/2300LP)
"Now, in order to let him really pack a punch, I play Mage Power! This Equip Spell grants them 500 attack for every spell and trap card on my field. So far it'll only give him 500 attack points, but after I set this other card, their score rockets even further to 3400! Now attack! Make that Alligator Medium Rare!" (3400)
Thestalos threw its fire forwards, roasting his monster. His life points plummeted from the powerful blow. (Joey/400LP)
"How do you like that!" Markus bragged. "Feeling the heat yet? Nothing you got can top this, can it?"
"Only one way to find out." He replied, despite the sight of the empowered Fire Giant, he still felt plenty confident. He'd face bigger threats than this. "Let's go! Draw!"
The card he drew was just what he needed. "Looks like I got something tougher. I play Release Restraint. With this spell card, I tribute my Gearfried The Iron Knight to reveal their true power. Appear! Gearfried the Swordmaster!"
The armour on his armoured knight began to crack and shatter, light bursting out from underneath until it all exploded off of them. Revealing a well toned warrior, similar to the likes of Conan or other barbarian. Though right now he lacked his weapon. He should give him one. (LV7/2600/2200)
"I equip my Swordmaster with my Lightning Blade, gifting them 800 attack points, then following that, my Swordmaster's effect activates. He lets me destroy any card on the field whenever he's equipped with an equip spell and I'm using that and destroying your Monarch."
His swordmaster leapt high into the air to catch a blade that had appeared up there, he held the blade above their head and then pointed it down at the monarch, causing a lightning bolt to fly down, smiting the monarch and sending them crashing down to the floor. Hard.
"Now with that out of the way." Joey said with a grin as he changed his Goblin Attack Force to attack mode. "We attack!"
Markus let out a cry of surprise as his Goblins ran up and mobbed them. Beating every last life point out of them. (Markus/0LP)
[Joey Wheeler Wins]
"Nooo!" Markus called out as he fell to his knees and grabbed at his head.
He simply shrugged at the sight. "Calm down, kid, you'll do better next time." The boy didn't respond to that and just kept moping dramatically on the ground, so he merely shrugged and went to walk back to the locker rooms and wait for the next round.
Once he got there, he let himself take a deep breath. A pause. Then he exhaled. A smile slowly crept up on his face until he just couldn't bother with containing himself anymore, he pumped his fist into the air. "Heck yeah! Who's the man, that was an amazing duel."
He knew he missed this kind of atmosphere when he took a break from duelling. But man! He didn't think he'd miss it this much. His heart was pumping and it was taking every bit of self-control he had to not start bouncing on every wall here. Sure, this was a communal locker room and thus plenty of other people that were already here, having finished their duels already, were now staring at him oddly.
Ah, but who cared.
He was really feelin' it now. He was gonna take this run and make it all the way to the top this tournament. No doubt about that!
"Look who's excited, but if you don't mind. Could you step out of the walkway kid."
He turned around, insult already ready to shoot back at whoever it was calling him a dang kid. But he bit his tongue once he saw who it was, his eyes going wide. "M-mai! Woah, I haven't seen ya since- well…since we were in America and the whole… yeah…"
Standing behind him in the short hallway that connected the locker rooms to the stadium pitch, was Mai Valentine. A duelist first and foremost, one of the first he'd really fought in a professional setting.
Way back at Duelist Kingdom. Which felt like an eternity ago, even though it was a little over a couple years ago.
She still wore her classic purple sleeveless jacket look. Though it seems she's cut her hair to be shorter, just below the ears, since the last time he'd seen her. "I haven't seen you in a while too, ya lug."
He stepped back, allowing her to enter the room without just pushing past him. She walked to the side with him. "So?" She hummed as she crossed her arms. "How have you been?"
"Me?" He pointed at himself. "Ugh… you know. Back from my uh… duelling break let's call it. Graduated from high school. Now I'm breaking into the scene of pro duelling."
"Oh? Graduated?" Mai hummed. "Well good on you. How are you enjoying the world of adults?"
Joey sighed. "Annoying. Duel Monsters, as much as I wanted to make a living out of it. Coming from my level. The cash prizes weren't enough to really live on yet. So I had to get a real job for a bit. Sort out my whole thing. Help friends. But everythings good now, now I can really take home the gold and try making a career out of this."
"Oh? Well, you're right about that." Mai replied. "Like most sports, you only really get paid in a couple tens or couple of thousands, once you get popular that's when the money starts rolling in. And by popular I mean super popular."
"What counts as super-popular?" Joey inquired more.
"Oh? I'm not super-popular. I'm talking about Seto Kaiba levels. Though… i'm surprised you said the tournaments you've gone too aren't a 'high enough level' for you to get enough money from. You entered Duelist Kingdom and Battle City, not to mention the Grand Prix." Mai explained. "I'd have thought you'd be high enough profile to at least break even."
Joey shook his head. "Apparently no… which is bull. Despite how well I've done in prestigious tournaments like that, unless the organiser is named Seto Kaiba or Pegasus it seems no-one wants me.
"Did Pegasus let you into his tournament?" Mai asked, thinking to herself for a moment.
"Regardless." He quickly waved his hands to distract her from thinking about that. "I don't have enough credit to enter. Apparently." he added that last bit with a bit more resentment.
He then shook his head and let out a short huff. "I've tried getting through, agh… but I keep getting stone walled unless I do them a certain favour. I'm hoping that problem goes away once I show off a more impressive record. Speaking of which, aren't you prestigious? This Tournament is pretty Mediocre."
Mai sighed. "I'm sorry to say, but Duelist Kingdom and Battle City are outliers in my career." The Harpie Duelist then turned to the side and folded her arms over her chest. "I'm not usually in a lot of high ranked tournaments because of that. So I go to smaller tournaments sometimes to make ends meet. Though for a mediocre tournament it seems like we'll have a good showing, must be due to the time of year or something."
It was December, wasn't it? That made sense.
Though hearing about Mai's own troubles with getting into tournaments, he couldn't help but feel sympathetic.
"Oh." Joey hummed. "I always thought you were the best of the best. You certainly duel way better than a lot of people I've faced, that's for sure."
"Well you certainly know how to flatter someone. Not that it'll help you beat me this time." Mai bragged.
"Oh? You're on, I promised myself I wasn't going to lose this tournament, you ain't gonna change that Mai."
"Aw… What a happy reunion." The sound of a slow clap cut through their lighthearted conversation.
The accent of that voice was unmistakable, even if he hadn't heard from them for over a year. Even longer than he's met Mai. He and Mai turned towards the voice and saw him.
The blonde locks, the stubble, the thick sunglasses. Then perhaps the most iconic bit of their look, the flag he's wearing as a bandanna.
"Bandit Keith?" He tilted his head somewhat. "You're alive?"
"No thanks to you." He huffed.
"Hey? What do you want me to do?" He growled back. "I didn't even know it was you at the time. What's with the stupid cloak and all. Though, as much as I'd like to, I can't really blame you for kidnapping my friend back then, since you were probably under the control of Marik at the time."
"Yeah…" Bandit Keith raised a hand up to the side of their skull and gripped it. "After that whole debacle, I was basically homeless. Been clawing my way back out of the gutter. Before right now, this was just gonna be another tournament. But now." Keith grinned like a mad man. "This is gonna be personal."
"You think you can take me on?" Joey grinned, he could feel his blood pumping. "Best of luck, you're gonna need it. Cause like I've said a hundred times. You're all doomed, cause Joey Wheeler is here to take home the gold, baby!"