Pegasus sits at his elegant dining table, checking his ornate pocket watch.

"The duels have begun" he says to himself "and only the strong will survive. Those with insufficient skill will fall by the wayside...."

Cutting to the unlikely duo of Mai and Icarus. Said brown haired duelist was standing on the sidelines mentality cheering for Mai while occasionally snickering as she played her psychic act to scare her opponent. You have to admit it, to perfume 40 cards with different perfumes and to memorize them....that incredibly impressive.

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Within the duel another unknown duelist approached and locked eyes with icarus. Her blue sunglasses reflected the sun in an awesome way as the man approaches.

"Hey, you're that unknown duelist that hasn't been beaten huh" he scoffed and glares at her

With a very soft sigh she nodded, a small smirk grazed her lips as she fully faced him

"Yeah that me, and if you want to duel then you'll have to wait-" she points to Mai "...as you can see, I'm watching my friend duel.."

He growls and stomps over to her, getting in her face

"I don't think so you piece of trash, we're going over there to duel NOW!!"

Mai looked away from her duel to see her friend being harrassed for a duel

"Hey sweetie, go ahead and duel that loser. I'll be here finishing this guy off"

Icarus looked up at her and reluctantly nodded, she gestures to the man to lead the way. With a victorious smirk he walks icarus to a duel platform

Within five minutes they made it, only for icarus to realize it's a special kind of stadium with 2 people all ready and waiting

'A 4-way huh....don't remember this in the anime' she mentality noted but was duel ready as she got there

"As you can see, this isn't a normal duel, we don't like you so were gonna take all your star chips in one duel"

The first guy said as the other two just chuckled darkly like the lame anime villains they are.

She didn't say a single word, placing her deck on the board she drew her five cards.

Confused the men also got set up, with a smirk she looks at her hand

"Perfect..." setting two cards down with a face down she ended her turns..........

Within minutes icarus walked back to Mai with 6 star chips in her hand

"Way to easy....but it's to soon....need it get rid of these"

She said and noticed Xander with a small group of people that can be assumed as friends. She shrugs and walked over, Xander was the first to notice and looked nervous

"Hey....Xander right....we duel a few hours ago" she shyly asked, why was she so nervous for. He's just some dude; its not like he's seto kaiba or anything special.

A soft pink blush covers his face "Y-yeah that me, good to see you again" he stuttered while rubbing the back of his neck

Just before Icarus approached them Xander was just going on and on about a cute hooded girl duelist that was very good but gave his star chips back. Basically blasting her with complement and bragged that he'll totally ask her out if he saw her again.

Xander's friends were snickering and jabbing him lightly "Hey dude, she's here...do it" one guy said "yeah, she's here come on, don't wimp out" the other joked

Tilting her head icarus just ignored them and opened her hands to reveal the star chips.

A normal person would just keep them but its icarus, she wants to follow the story and In order to to that she cant get all 10 star chips at once

"Here, split it among yourself...i don't need them"

Xander taking them just gives them to his 2 friend, breathing calming he turned around to ask her only to see that she was already walking away

"Oof damn man, looks like you were to slow" one of Xander buddies said

"....yeah" was all he said as he watched her walk away

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Wandering around for some time, Icarus finds Mai again and chuckled slightly on how boosted she sounds like, laughing at the poor duelist she just defeated

But realization dawns on here....Joey's first duel is gonna happen...

Right on time, icarus caught a glimpse of yugi and the gang coming down the hill. 'Oh great!! I can use this' the thought

As joey and the group made it up to mai and I; they bared witness the blonde woman mocking the poor unimportant duelist.

"From here on out, I might need to stick with the gang...but that's means leaving Mai alone for the rest of the tournament" Icarus though sadly but to progress further she needs to be with the "dweeb partol" as seto would call them

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Just a few moments before........

Cut to our gang, with Joey in the lead.

"Bring 'em on," he says "I'm itching to duel, and I'll taking on the next player I see!"

Téa's with a not so confident look isn't so sure that Joey's isn't up for this, and Tristan agrees-there are tournament-level players here. But surely Joey's smart enough to realize...?

Joey runs ahead to stand on a cliff overlooking the ocean, proclaiming himself the next Duel Monsters Champion!

Everyone sighs, and Tristan practically spoke to himself "maybe Joey's not that smart"

while Téa just nods and says that Joey needs a reality check.

Then Joey begins to serious and reflects "I'd better be champion, for my sister's sake. She's always counting on me."

Flashbacks show Little Joey and Serenity, getting off the bus at a remote hillside stop.

Little Serenity looks up and asks her brother "where are you taking us big brother" and he says "to the beach, isn't that where you always wanted to go?"

Serenity smiles happily and cheers "you're the best big brother ever!"

The happy kids play in the surf and build sand castles.

Little Joey look at Serenity and says "I'll bring you back to see the ocean again some day even if our parents do get divorced and we have to live apart"

"Promise?" she asks. And like a good big brother he pinky-swears he will.

Present-day Joey renews his promise to his sister "I'm her big brother, and I'm supposed to take care of her. I will win the tournament and the prize money, and make sure she doesn't lose her eyesight. And I'll show her the beautiful ocean one more time'

The gang look out over the island, and see Duel Monsters stadiums everywhere, with lots of duels going on.

Joey feeling pumped up says "I'm going in"

But Tristan not feeling as confident asks "are you sure you wants to do this, If you loses, you'll lose your only Star Chip"

Joey starts to freak out, but Yugi just smiles "don't panic, you can do it"

Joey calms down and hopes Yugi's right after all this will be his first official duel, and he really can't afford to get knocked out of the tournament at the very beginning.

Yugi reassures him "not everyone here is a pro, let's try to find an opponent on your own level"

Joey sits down considers what kind of field his cards are best suited for "well since my monsters are mostly fighter types, the meadow region is his kind of turf huh"

Yugi encourages Joey "see you know what you're doing"

Then they hear a familiar voice-it's Mai Valentine standing along side the hooded duelist, Mai taunting the player she's just beaten, and demanding his Star Chips.

The boy protests, claiming she must have cheated somehow. I mean to be fair how could she have known what her cards were when they were still face down?

"I'm psychic hun, and you're done" The boy runs away in tears, while Mai laughs. Icarus just laughs, after all seeing someone cry after a duel is kinda funny.

Icarus first notices them, after she calms down mai to spots the gang, sees Yugi's three Star Chips

They finally approach and here we all are.

"You know, I might be ready for another duel" Mai says confidently

Téa leans down to yugi's level and whispers "take her, and knock her off the island!"

Icarus hearing that just glares through her blue glasses, only for Joey to shiver making him think that he felt that glare before but doesn't remember from where.

Mai in all her glory points at Joey, challenging him first.

"Do you have the guts, to take me on?" She said

Joey being the lovable idiot that he his just pushes out his chest with pride "guess she heard about my amazing dueling skills"

"Aww that cute you think that~" Icarus said, after all he is still a newbie

Yugi is the next to notice her "her voice...she almost sound like...!!!"

Before yugi could think more Mai spoke up

"Oh please don't flatter yourself, We both overheard you guys talking on the boat, and we knows Yugi gave you the only Star Chip you have"

she explained as icarus nodded

"My motto is, to take out the weakest player first, and since you wouldn't even be here if Yugi hadn't given you one of his Star Chips, you must be one of the weakest players on the whole island"

Téa with a nervous look on her face looks towards Joey "Mai's ruthless, don't duel her first"

Tristan also reminds him that if he loses this duel, he's out for good. Which is the defense Joey, can't his friends have more confidence in him.

Icarus shakes her head and crosses her arms, leaning against Mai she whispered "To think these are my friends at school, they act like children out in public"

Mai was kinda surprised but just chuckled

Téa looking at Yugi says "you got to take on Mai in Joey's place, there's no way he can do it"

Which wow, kinda pissed Icarus off, before she can say anything yugi looked at her feeling something familiar about her

Sensing the hooded duelist anger yugi just smiles softly "this is Joey's decision to make, show Mai what your made of"

Joey agrees feeling his confidence come back "Yeah! Mai thinks thinks I'm some pushover, but she'll see"

Téa and Tristan are still skeptical as Joey continues to says "this is my chance to prove myself, Don't forget, Gramps trained me-granted, I didn't get a chance to finish my training, and granted, I'd wishes I had more time to practice, but I'm positive I can take her"

The poor hooded duelist just smiles as Joey rambled on, she forgets how cute Joey can be sometimes....not that Icarus likes him for anything.

Tristan and Téa warn him he'd better be right, for his sister's sake.

Joey accepts the duel. He and Mai take their places in the dueling arena, while Joey's friends urge him on.

Keeping a distance, Icarus making sure her hood is on right sets herself closer to yugi. Thinking back on the episode

"dosen't atem help joey cheat in the episode?" She thought but put her attention her two friends

Joey and Mai each bet one Star Chip.

Joey thinks the meadow will be to his advantage, but sad to say its not.

"Umm yes, as you can see Wheeler the field you're playing is 40% mountain, 40% forest, and only 20% meadow....have fun" Icarus announced which caught both Yugi's and Joey's attention

'Did she just say....wheeler?" They both thought but decided to ignore it for now

Joey begins freaks a bit, but Yugi (bless his baby panda heart) reassures him that he'll still get the field power bonus on the part of the field that's meadow.

Before they duel, Joey looks as Mai and asked a question

"Tell me Mai...why did you decide to take part in this tournament? Why do you duel?"

"For the perks she said "all the luxuries the prize money can buy" she exclaimed in joy

Joey sighs "well your selfish, you're only dueling for things, while me on the other hand, I'm dueling for the people I love"

Icarus sighs, for mai; dueling is her life. She makes a living off of it, how does that make her selfish.

Yugi smiles and shouts at joey "show her what it's like to duel from the heart!!"

Joey opens with .

The field power bonus raises its attack to . Then Mai smiles going into her psychic act, humming and waving her hand over her face-down cards

"I have to mystically choose which card would be the best" she said

Without turning it over, she chooses whose strength is boosted by the mountain's field power bonus to .

Joey attacks, despite the fact that his monster's attack is lower.

"Is he really that much of an idiot" Icarus mumbled

Yugi pipes in warning Joey that land monsters are at a disadvantage against flying monsters

Which only caused Icarus to scoff, one of the nebulous rules of the early episodes. Kinda stupid if you asked her.

Téa sighed and turned to yugi "did he blow it already?" Like wow téa, Joey's your friend

Yugi looks over towards Icarus getting the sense he meet her but Téa's question threw him off "No, but Joey attacked too soon.

(And fun fact, it wasn't Joey's attack, but Mai's-it's still her turn.)

Joey loses , bringing him down to .

Mai hums over her cards again, and plays a card face-down without looking at it.

Joey's rattled, and Yugi urges him to think about what he's doing before he moves again.

"Pro advice" Icarus mumbled

Joey sweats wondering how she can read the cards when they're face down. Which once again, that's a pretty cool strategy.

Mai smirks 'my little card trick will made this kid forget everything he ever learned about Duel Monsters, All I has to do is keep pushing his buttons'

Joey bites his lower lip 'what I do' he thought as he plays , thinking that the field power bonus will raise its attack to so it can take on the Harpie Lady head-to-head.

But Yugi warns Joey he's still not thinking, and Mai agrees-Tiger Axe is another land monster.

It loses its field power bonus against Harpie Lady and is destroyed, and Joey loses another points, bringing him down to .

Mai laughs "it will take more than your land-based wimps to beat my Harpie Lady!" and sets another card without looking at it "I'll give you hint-it's an equipment card that will help me beat your next monster in one turn"

Icarus chuckled a bit, seriously how does she know. Remembering 40 smells is harder than memorizing 10 words on a spelling test in 4 grade....you know what I mean.

Joey starts sweating "can she see my cards, too?" He thinks this over, since he can't see what she's playing, he thinks he'd better get defensive, and sets a monster face-down in defense.

Mai plays her equipment card, , to juice up her Harpie Lady.

Cyber Shield powers up Harpie Lady to attack points, and Mai destroys Joey's defense monster and laughs "your next card won't help you either"

Joey is completely flustered now, the thought of Mai having ESP or that she can read his cards as well as her own; He might lose the duel, and any chance to save his sister.

Yugi doesn't lose hope in joey, instead he encourages him "calm down Joey, and remember what my Grandpa taught you!!"

Joey and Icarus made eye contact and she nodded, confirming what yugi said. He has to remember to play the game.

Téa calls out too "Joey don't let Mai rattle you!"

Mai glared not noticing that Icarus was also cheering him on

"Stay out of it, saying that friendship doesn't win duels!" She yells "There can be only one champion, and on this island, someone can be your best friend today and your worst enemy tomorrow"

Mai is right, but with the yugi gang they all dont duel so I doubt they'll even understand...

"Once the competition forces you to face each other in a duel, where's your friendship then?"

Icarus nodded and let Mai talk

"That's why the only person a duelist can trust is himself" she finished and looks at Icarus.

She wasn't saying her friendship with Icarus is nothing, but under competition it truly is everyone for themselves. And the hooded duelist couldn't agree more.

Joey groans in frustration, not knowing what to do. He wants to win but he's some what distracted with the hooded duelist...isn't she supposed to be on Mai's side?

Tristan worries that Joey might be losing it.

Téa turns to Yugi and urges him to do something!

Then out of plot convenience Yugi's puzzle activates and the spirit of the Millennium Puzzle (Atem/Yami Yugi) comes out to encourage Joey also.

"Don't listen to Mai! We're always going to here for you, just as you are always here for us! She's just trying to divide and conquer, a strategy that's been used for centuries!!"

The eye glows in Yugi's forehead, and Joey eyes widened "when Yugi gets that look that on his face, I feel like I can believe everything he says" Joey thought

Icarus glares at the pharaoh which in turn Atem looks at the hooded duelist, both of them having a stare down