A few days had passed since then and the teams preparing for the World Racing Grand Prix were all gathering to practice their teamwork before the competition.
"What the!?" Joey cried in shock seeing his sister Serenity, along with Mai and Leon. "Serenity, what are you doing here?"
Seeing her brother Serenity gave a playful smile. "What do you think Joey?"
Mai gave him a teasing smirk as she walked up and put her arm around him causing Joey to frown only to notice her hand him an entry form for the tournament. Seeing it his eyes widened in shock as Yugi walked over only to smile seeing that.
"Oh, you three entered together Mai?" he inquired curiously. "You'll be a tough team to take down."
"Flattery will get you everywhere Yugi, but it has been a while." Mai grinned as she glanced over at Leon and Serenity who both nodded. "We were thinking of having a practice match before the tournament started, you feel like a quick match for old times sake?"
Hearing that Yugi couldn't help but smile, he hadn't dueled Mai since Duelist Kingdom and he'd seen that she was a lot stronger than she was back then, plus it could help them practice the new relay style duels that Kaiba mentioned were key to the tournament… even if they didn't have bikes with them. Joey however frowned slightly.
"Hold on you guys, Kaiba isn't here so it's two against three, plus do you get the whole relay part of this tournament? How's that supposed to even work?" he asked them.
"Didn't you read the rules Joey, the way it works is if you run out of life points it immediately ends the current turn and whoever lost moves all their cards on the field to the next duelist in the team and they continue the duel from there." Leon explained. "So for example if you lose but have Red-Eyes Black Dragon in play, Yugi would start the duel already having your dragon on the field so it could potentially help him."
Hearing that Joey nodded with a grin. "That makes sense. Alright, then why don't we give it a try… Yugi and me against ah…oh wait it's still two against three which isn't exactly fair."
Mai rolled her eyes hearing that before stepping back. "I'll sit out then; besides I can't show you all my new tricks after all… I did pick up a few surprises for the tournament that just might help us put you two in your place."
Joey frowned a bit at that before he smiled and nodded. "Sure, sounds good to me Mai."
With that established Joey and Leon took their positions as they activated their duel disks for the practice duel.
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As this was going on Kaiba was looking over more of the teams planning on entering and was keeping in touch with Lazar about helping implement Ritual Summoning when he noticed he had a call. With a sigh he turned away from his computer to answer it only for his eyes to widen hearing the voice on the other end.
"It's been far too long Kaiba-boy. How have you been?" inquired the all too familiar voice of Maximillion Pegasus. "I heard the news, a tournament in the future. That's certainly interesting and it reminds me of…"
"Get to the point Pegasus, what do you want?" Kaiba questioned.
Pegasus only chuckled into the phone as Kaiba frowned and tightened his grip on the phone only for his eyes to widen as Pegasus continued to speak. The president of Kaiba Corporation couldn't believe what he was hearing. When Pegasus finally finished speaking Kaiba clenched his fists before sighing as he reluctantly agreed to the proposal.
"I do appreciate you being so willing to accommodate that on such short notice Kaiba-boy." Pegasus smiled. "I'll be over tomorrow to make the arrangements?"
"Fine Pegasus, I'll have someone ready to meet with you." Kaiba told him before hanging up as he sighed. "Of all the things he could have asked for that wasn't something I was expecting."
Taking another breath, he looked back at his computer where he was looking at the growing number of teams planning to enter the tournament. It was less than he expected but the cutoff he gave them was still two weeks away and given the teams were composed of three duelists it wasn't surprising that it might take a bit longer for them to get prepared.
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"Ok Joey, now I'll attack your Gilford the Lightning with St. Joan!" Serenity called as her fairy attacked Joey's monster and the two of them destroyed each other. "Then, with that done I can use Leon's Iron Hans to attack your life points directly."
Joey's eyes widened as the monster struck him and reduced his life points by 2200. "Aw man, that's not good."
"And it's about to get a lot worse for you Joey." Mai smirked causing him to blink in confusion before looking at his sister who was smiling.
"Ok, now that my battle phase is over, I'll use the spell card Monster Reborn to bring back your Gilford the Lightning Joey." Serenity revealed as Joey's strongest monster appeared next to Iron Hans. "That ends my turn."
Joey's eyes widened in shock seeing that as he only had a few life points left and no monsters on his field. Seeing that situation Yugi frowned but planned to take his turn if Joey lost and while he didn't have a monster in play he did have one set card left on the field and if Yugi knew Joey's strategies like he thought he did then he had a good idea what that facedown card was. Though just before Joey can draw his next card Leon's phone starts to ring as he answers it only to talk to someone before sighing.
"Is everything alright Leon?" Yugi asked seeing that.
"Yeah, everything's ok. I just need to head home, so we'll have to end this practice match early." Leon explained to them as he walked over to Serenity who handed him back his cards.
"No worries. It was cool dueling, and I can't wait to see you guys in the tournament." Joey smiled as Leon waved goodbye and walked off as Mai walked up to them. "Huh, is everything alright Mai?"
"I know you Joey, you're hiding something from us, aren't you?" she frowned. "What are you plotting?"
Hearing that Serenity's eyes widened at the thought that her brother might be keeping a secret only to blink as he laughed and rubbed the back of his head. Seeing that Mai frowned briefly before she smiled in understanding.
"Joey, what's going on?" Serenity asked. "What does Mai mean you're hiding something from us?"
"It's his strategy for the tournament Serenity, those cards are ones you've seen before but he has something new planned… he only told me about it recently. He's keeping his deck secret for now." Yugi explained causing her eyes to widen in surprise hearing that.
"Sorry for keeping it from you, but when we face each other in the tournament you'll see what I have in store." Joey grinned.
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"Hey, are you sure this is going to be a good idea? I mean what if that white-haired freak decides he wants to enter, and we end up dueling him again?" asked a large man with spiky dark hair. "That guy was seriously freaky."
"Maybe Zygor, but a freak like that isn't likely to find many friends and without a team he's not going to be able to enter the competition." pointed out a man in glasses as he smirked.
"Oh yeah… that's a god point Sid, I mean Bonz is creepy too but he's got us working with him so there's no worry about him not getting a teammate." Zygor chuckled.
"Exactly, so there's nothing to worry about." Sid smirked as a short pale man with a sunken face approached them. "Speak of the devil, we were just talking about you Bonz."
Bonz however looked anxious. "Well listen up, we might have some bigger problems than we thought."
"Huh, what do you mean Bonz?" Zygor asked hearing that. "Don't tell me that white-haired freak is going to be entering this one too."
Bonz shuddered hearing that as the memories of his brief duel with Ryo Bakura entered his mind where he tried everything but was easily overwhelmed and… he didn't know how they survived that duel it was a blur, but he knew it was a terrifying experience.
"Hey, Bonz are you alright?" Sid asked seeing that.
"I'm fine, and I doubt we have to worry about him, based on how he was acting in Battle City there's no way anyone will want to work with him." Bonz pointed out only to frown. "Though what I'm worried about is that Yugi Muto, the king of games himself, is rumored to be teaming up with Seto Kaiba and Joey Wheeler."
"Wait, those three working together? I mean, Wheeler's bad enough since he already beat you once but add in Yugi and Kaiba and what chance do the three of us have of winning?" Sid frowned.
"Well, maybe we won't have to duel them. I mean, don't the rules say there's some preliminary matches first?" Zygor asked.
"Even if we don't duel them in the preliminary round there's no way we won't have to worry about dueling them at some point." Bonz pointed out only to grin. "Which is why I have something in mind to handle that little problem."
"An idea to help us beat those three, I'm all ears." Sid smirked as Zygor nodded in agreement.
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"This is pointless Weevil; we'll never find a third member of our team who can match our dueling skill." pointed out a young man with long brown hair and a red beanie on his head. "The rules don't say anything about teams needing to have three members."
A blue-haired boy with glasses frowned. "I know Rex, but if Yugi and Joey are working together and they have Seto Kaiba supporting him we need someone to at least put some kind of card on the field… not to mention the extra life points we get for having a third duelist."
Rex sighed knowing Weevil was right but there wasn't a single duelist that he could think of that even came close to their skill… Weevil was a former regional champion and he was the runner-up and they'd both dueled in Duelist Kingdom and Battle City… but there was no way they would ever…
"Now I use the spell card Polymerization and use it to merge my Cyber Dragon on the field with two more in my hand, in order to Fusion Summon my Cyber End Dragon!" mentioned a male voice.
Curious Weevil and Rex walked over to see a tall young man with dark blue hair as a massive three-headed mechanical dragon roared above him as he was dueling against an older looking man with a Chaos Sorcerer on his field. Shocked they recognized the spellcaster as a powerful card only for this young man to with a single word order his dragon to destroy it, defeating his opponent before turning to walk off.
"Please tell me you saw that too Weevil." Rex whispered in awe. "A Fusion Monster that powerful could be a game changer, and it dealt damage even with Chaos Sorcerer in defense position."
"I saw, it looks like we found our third team member." Weevil smirked as the two of them moved to follow the young man and, persuade him to join their team.
(The different teams are preparing for the upcoming WRGP and working on their dueling skills. Next chapter Lazar will reveal a few changes to the tournament and by extension Kaiba will let everyone know what's going on, and Team 5Ds will meet up with some friendly rivals. As always any reviews or critique is appreciated.)