Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to the Yu-Gi-Oh franchise. And in case you're wondering, there will be no synchro or XYZ summons in this series. (Also, I do break card rules a few times, though I did my best to keep it to a minimum)

Many wars had been fought over time, be them wars between countries, cities or tracks of land. Sometimes wars would take up the entire world. And as more wars were fought, weapons were enhanced. And now, in the year 3000, people have done away with standard weaponry and have now switched to mechs, giant robot suits that soldiers could pilot. Our story is about a young man who would partake in such battles.

It was a rather dreary day in Crystal City as a young man named Damien was on his way home from a long day of job hunting. His parents had died a few weeks ago and as such, he knew he would need work. But unfortunately, getting a job without past experience was no easy task.

This man, who always wore a trench coat of some kind, had messy black hair, one grey eye and one red eye, had himself to blame for this to a certain degree. He was not particularly good around people and only knew two different attitudes to show the world, those being mellow and bitter. And it did not help that he had a tendency to hit the bottle whenever things did not go his way.

Today, Damien had just been rejected from another job as he entered the house his parents had left him and took a deep breath. He slowly walked into the kitchen and opened up a cupboard under the sink, revealing a few bottles with alcoholic beverages in them. He looked carefully at each before noticing a bottle of bourbon.

The man shrugged with a neutral expression on his face before pulling it out and twisting the cap off. But rather than bringing out a cup or something to drink this with, he simply held the bottle above his head, tilted his chin up and poured the liquid into his open mouth. After taking what he felt was enough, he placed the lid back onto the bottle and returned it to the cupboard.

"Guess I'll see what's on TV," the man uttered while walking toward the living room.

He would have had something to eat or even more alcohol for that matter, but he had come close to using up every cent his parents had left him. As such, he knew he would need to save up for when the rent came due, though at the rate he was going, he would only be able to afford rent for this month. Once the next month was over, he would be evicted for sure.

Before turning the TV on, Damien glanced over to a photo of his parents next to him and sighed, "Sorry, Mom and Dad. I wasted everything you left me," before taking a deep breath and pressing the 'on' button on his remote.

At that very moment, there was a news report on, this particular report concerning a big war that was currently taking place between Crystal City and New Domino. Damien let out a sigh and groaned, "It feels like that war's gone on forever. When will it end?"

However, the man felt even more annoyed when the reporter stated, "Right now, the army needs your help, citizens of Crystal City! Domino's army continues to grow bigger, but you can still help! Sign up today if you feel you have what it takes! Remember, your city needs you!"

Damien rolled his eyes and looked at the photo again, focusing primarily on his mother and saying, "You don't have to worry about a thing. I'm not going to try to follow in your footsteps. I know you'd prefer it if I was safe."

As it just so happened, Damien's mother was once a soldier in Crystal City's army. It was said that she was the best they had. She had a perfect record and had never once been overpowered by an opponent. But of course, she retired when the war of her generation ended. She had never said anything regarding it or whether or not she would approve of a family member going to war like she did, but Damien always figured she would be against it.

Just thinking about his mother reminded Damien of an old possession she had left him as a birthday present when he turned ten, though he saw little value in this. It was not a trinket or a family heirloom but rather a deck of cards from a game that had been around for years known as Yu-Gi-Oh. Damien had taken no interest in such a thing, and thus these cards had no worth to him. The only reason he kept them was because he knew his mother wanted him to, but why did it matter so much to her?

Whatever the case, this hardly mattered as the man turned off the TV and made his way upstairs. With that, he slumped down onto the bed and slowly closed his eyes. It was only six in the afternoon and yet he felt like calling it a night anyway. After all, he saw no reason to stay up any longer.

However, after a few seconds, the man heard a knock on his door. His eyes opened as he groaned, slowly getting up to head to the door. Once there, he slowly opened it as a middle-aged woman stood before him with a smile on her face.

"Can I help you?" Damien asked with a look of confusion, the woman replying, "Actually, you can help me greatly along with your country," the man's eyes widening as she held out her hand and added, "I'm General Morgan of the Crystal City army and I've come to recruit you specifically!"

For the first time in ages, Damien's eyes widened, but since he had gone so long showing next to no emotion, he was only able to manage an extra few millimetres. With that, the man asked, "Why me?"

"Well, you are Damien Lander, as in Emma Lander's son, right?" the woman asked as Damien blinked and uttered, "No, my name is Joseph Underwood. You want the house ten blocks from here."

Morgan rolled her eyes and remarked, "I know for a fact that you are Emma's son," Damien remarking, "Then why did you ask?"

The woman's eye twitched as she remarked, "Look, you have the blood of a true soldier in your veins. I know for a fact that you can help us. Now go pack your things right now, private."

Damien could tell there was no getting out of this as he let out a sigh and replied, "Okay, fine," the man closing the door and heading to his room. With that, he brought out an assortment of clothes and his liquor bottles and placed each set into a different hand bag.

He then remembered his cards and quickly placed them into his pocket. Again, he may not have had interest in them, but this deck was a present from his mother when he turned ten. He could not just leave it behind.

With that, the man headed toward the window to his bedroom and opened it. But just as it looked like he was going to jump out of it and bolt from the area, he froze.

A part of him wanted to flee for his life as he had no intention of joining the army. He knew he was not cut out for this. But at the same time, he could not help but wonder if this was the right decision. What if this was his only option? After all, he had inadvertently screwed himself out of every other job available.

With that in mind, Damien headed outside with his bags in hand as Morgan smirked and said, "Smart lad," the man staring as she added, "Oh, I know you were thinking of trying to escape. I have methods around that," the woman pulling out a taser as Damien stared at her like she was insane.

With that, the man entered the car she had used to get to his house and fastened his seat belt, putting his bags in the back. But before they left, Morgan asked, "Before I forget, do you have any Yu-Gi-Oh cards?"

"Yeah," the man replied with a confused look, "Why?" the woman beaming and saying nothing more before starting up the engine. Whatever the reason, Damien felt it best not to prod for an answer. It would have likely confused him more.

Soon enough, the two arrived at a large army base and stepped out of the car as Morgan said, "Welcome to our headquarters, Damien. While serving in the army, you will be living here. I hope you brought everything you needed from home because you won't be seeing that place for a long time."

Damien frowned in response to this and thought, 'Oh well, at least I brought my booze.'

With that, the man was led into the base as Morgan stated, "I have some business to attend to in my office, but Steven should be here soon to give you a tour of the base," a young slender man with green hair entering the area and giving an army salute while saying, "Steven, reporting for duty, ma'am!"

"Good timing," Morgan said with a smile before turning to Damien and whispering, "Just between you and me, his timing is his specialty," the woman walking off as the man thought, 'Why did she make that sound like a bad thing?'

"Hey, newbie," Steven said with a grin while holding out his hand, "Welcome to the Crystal City army base. For the time being, I'm your tour guide, Steven, but most of the time, I'm a private just like you."

Damien nodded as the green-haired man started to show him around. That said, though, he was not much of a help as by the time the two reached Damien's new room, the man had already forgotten where most of these locations were.

"Well, here's your new home," Steven said as he opened the door and asked, "Anything you wanna ask me?" Damien lifting his finger up only for Steven to give him an army salute and say, "Great. I'll be seeing you in the meeting hall at eight!"

With that, the man marched down the hall and slapped his forehead, groaning, "It's eight-hundred hours! Am I ever going to get that right!?" while Damien let out a sigh and decided to look around the base after dumping his bags carelessly into his new room. Perhaps someone more calm and collected could give him a reminder of where everything was.

But first, the man desperately needed to go to the bathroom and unfortunately, he had no idea where it was. His eyes would have gone truly wide if he was capable of that, but this hardly mattered as he wandered the hallway, his eyes darting left and right.

He then noticed a young woman with long red hair wandering the halls as he asked, "Hey, Miss? Do you know where I can find the nearest men's room?"

The woman nodded and pointed in the direction Damien had been heading and explained, "Turn left at the first fork you come to and it'll be three doors down," Damien nodding and replying, "Thank you."

Now that he knew where he was going, he wasted no time sprinting toward the bathroom. His mellow expression was still on his face, but deep down inside, he was excited to finally let out what he had to.

But just as he neared the door, the women's room, which was located right next to it, opened up as a younger woman with short pink hair and beautiful purple eyes stepped out. She turned to the right as her eyes widened, Damien running into her as both ended up falling. The woman's back hit the floor while her front side softened the man's fall.

Damien grumbled and uttered, "Sorry," his eyes widening by a few millimetres once again as he felt his head pressed up against something soft and round. With that, the man slowly lifted up his hands and placed them against it, squeezing it lightly.

He then pushed himself up as his body tensed up. His hands were pressed up against the woman's chest as she had a look of both shock and fear on her face, her cheeks beet red.

Damien quickly removed his hands and backed up while the woman slowly rose to her feet. She had light tears in her eyes as Damien uttered, "Look, it was an accident," only for the woman to run past him while crying.

The man slapped his forehead and groaned, "Dammit, this is why I don't talk to women," the man rising to his feet and slowly entering the bathroom. He would have to seek the woman out later and apologize if he at least wanted his allies to remain on his side.

Once eight o'clock rolled around, the man arrived in the meeting hall thanks to a nice stranger in the hallway who was more than happy to walk with him. When he arrived, he noticed the pink-haired woman from earlier talking to the redhead who had directed him to the bathroom. Seeing as she had a sense of urgency in her eyes, Damien could only assume she was talking about him and tried his best not to be noticed.

However, all conversations came to a halt when Morgan stepped up on stage and tapped the microphone, causing it to make a high-pitched sound. The soldiers all covered their ears as the general laughed and exclaimed, "Oh god, I love doing that!" everyone else glaring at her.

'This is our general?' Damien thought as the woman cleared her throat and said, "Alright, everyone, I've called this meeting together to welcome our new soldiers. Quite a few volunteered today. We got us twenty newcomers who will start training first thing in the morning. But there is one soldier in our ranks who I don't think is really going to need it."

Damien narrowed his eyelids as he knew she was giving him too much credit right now, Morgan then pointing at him and exclaiming, "I would like you all to welcome Damien Lander!"

The soldiers turned their attention toward him as he looked around in panic, the pink-haired woman staring wide-eyed while her friend gave him a cold stare. As if things could not get any worse, Morgan proceeded to call him up on stage.

The man took a deep breath and slowly made his way over to the general's side as she grinned and stated, "Damien here is the son of our finest soldier, Emma Lander, so I am expecting nothing but great things from him," the people then breaking out into heavy cheers. Now that they knew who he was related to, suddenly his presence in the army mattered to them.

Though unbeknownst to them, Damien wanted to bolt from the stage and leave the army base at this exact moment. He also wanted to call Morgan out on her rash decision-making. After all, it was very unprofessional for her to expect so much from him just because of his family and nothing else.

Soon enough, the meeting was over as the soldiers were ready to make their exit. However, there were two who stayed behind, and those were the women Damien had met earlier. The redhead noticed him about to head out when she tapped him on the shoulder.

The man turned and asked, "Can I help you?" only to receive a hard punch to the face, the man flying hard into the wall as the redhead gritted her teeth and snapped, "You have some nerve! Just because your mom has a great reputation doesn't give you the right to violate anyone you please, especially my friend, Cindy!"

The pink-haired woman bit her lower lip as Damien let out a sigh, rubbed the back of his head and gritted his teeth. With that, the man retorted, "For your information, that was an accident! I tried to apologize earlier, but your friend there took off before I could!"

The redhead refused to believe this as Cindy uttered, "I'm sorry. I knew it was an accident and yet I still tattled."

The other two turned to her as she added, "It's just, that's the first time anything like that has ever happened to me, so I panicked. I was going to tell Scarlet that it was an accident, but I had to listen to Morgan first."

The redhead, Scarlet, let out a sigh and turned to her friend, asking, "Are you positive?" Cindy nodding and replying, "Yeah, he was running really fast and had no time to see me there."

The redhead took a deep breath and turned back to Damien before exclaiming, "Watch where you're going next time!" the man letting out a sigh as she put on a more calm look and added, "Also, sorry for punching you."

Damien nodded and replied, "It's fine, you had a good reason," his face remaining the same as Scarlet nodded and said, "You're at least more civil than you look."

With that, the two women were about to head back to their room as Damien asked, "Hold on, where can I find that Morgan chick's office? I need to ask her something."

Scarlet nodded and said, "Here," pulling a folded up sheet of paper from her pocket and handing it to him. Damien opened it up to realize it was a map of the building, and it looked like it had been made with pencils.

"This is a map I made so I'd never get lost here," Scarlet said with a light smile, "You'd never believe it, but it took me ages to figure out where everything was. Now I don't even find myself using it, so you can keep it."

Damien had to admit, this was a very nice gesture and more than made up for earlier. As such, the man bowed his head and replied, "Thank you."

With that, the two women walked off as Cindy waved at Damien with a light smile. She still looked a little nervous, but not as much as before. Though the man could not help but wonder why someone so timid would even so much as sign up for a spot in the army.

Whatever the case, his top priority was finding Morgan's office, and after a little while, he eventually found it as he took a deep breath and knocked on the door. The door opened up as Morgan sat at her desk, rather delighted to see the man.

"Oh, hello, Damien," she said, "What brings you here?"

"There is something that's been on my mind since the ride here," Damien replied, "You asked me if I had Yu-Gi-Oh cards."

"Oh yes," Morgan replied with a nod, "Can I see them?" the man shrugging and pulling them out of his pocket as the woman replied, "Oh, good, you actually did bring them with you. I was worried you might have just said that to shut me up."

'So that must be a common thing with her,' Damien thought before placing the deck back in his pocket and asking, "Why did you ask me to bring them?"

"Oh, right," the general replied, "I really should have explained that. Everyone gets so confused when I tell them they need Yu-Gi-Oh cards to join. Well, you know how we use mechs to fight, right?"

Damien nodded and replied, "Yeah, that's common knowledge," but just as Morgan was about to elaborate on this, her eyes widened as an alarm sounded throughout the building.

"You're gonna have to find out the hard way," the woman stated, "We're under attack," Damien groaning in frustration. He was about to head off to his room when Morgan asked, "Aren't you gonna come with?"

"But I haven't trained yet," Damien remarked, "I don't even know how to work a mech!" Morgan taking a deep breath and saying, "I know you'll be able to figure it out. You got it in your blood."

The woman had a big grin on her face as Damien slapped his forehead. He knew that if he did not ago along with this, she would likely force him. Though all the while, he was resisting the urge to tell her how rash this was. She was once again using his family as her only reason.

However, when Damien entered an area filled to the brim with mechs, he had to admit they were actually pretty cool. While his face did not show it, a part of him actually felt rather excited to pilot one, even if he had no clue how to do it.

He tried to enter one only to find this one belonged the Steven, the green-haired man saying, "Sorry, Damien, but that one's assigned to me," the black-haired man turning to Morgan and asking, "Are there any mechs here that don't have assigned pilots?"

"Oh, right," the general replied before pointing to twenty and adding, "Those ones were recently built. You can claim either one for the time being, though they're all preserved for the others once their training's complete."

Once again, Damien could not help but wonder how Morgan was a general but refused to ask any more questions. He found a silver mech that looked strong enough to him and boarded it. However, his eyes went wide when suddenly, a speaker system turned on, a small image of Morgan's head appearing in the lower right-hand corner of the cockpit.

"Damien, can you hear me?" the woman asked as the man stared with confusion, the general adding, "This is the communication system. Every mech has it."

"That makes sense," the man replied as she added, "I do have faith in you, but just to be on the safe side, I will guide you through the basic start-up procedure," Damien breathing a sigh of relief. It seemed Morgan did have a sense of responsibility even if it did not show all the time.

"Alright, how do I start moving?" Damien asked, "I don't see an 'on' switch or anything like that."

"That's where your cards come in," Morgan replied with a smile, "Insert your deck into the rectangular slot to your right."

Damien looked down at the dashboard and noticed a slot that could definitely fit a deck of cards inside of it. He found this to be a weird way of starting it up, but at least now he knew why he needed Yu-Gi-Oh cards with him.

With that in mind, the man pulled the deck out of his pocket and inserted it into the slot. With that, bright lights came on inside the mech as it started up. Morgan then told Damien how to move as he followed her instructions, rockets activating in the bottoms of the mech's feet while it took off through an opening in the ceiling.

Unfortunately, just as the man had exited the base to confront the enemy, Morgan had cut off her communication with him as she believed he would be able to figure out the rest out on his own. The man gritted his teeth and growled, "Thanks... bring me into the battlefield but don't tell me how to fight! I should have made a run for it when I had the chance!"

To make matters worse, the controls were a tad confusing. It was not that there were so many buttons that he could not figure out for the life of him but rather it was the lack of controls. Movement was straight forward but there was only one other button, and that was a big red one labelled 'Engage Enemy'.

However, before he could even think about this, he noticed a whole slew of mechs headed toward the base. Luckily, the other soldiers seemed more than ready for this but Damien had no idea how he was supposed to help out.

At the back of the enemy line was a big black mech that resembled a phantom of some kind. Inside was a man around Damien's age with short blue hair.

"Alright, Drake, are you ready for this?" asked a middle-aged man through a speaker, the blue-haired man replying, "Of course."

It seemed this Drake person had something rather valuable attached to his mech as the man on the other end stated, "Remember, you are to drop that bomb onto the base. As such, I want you to avoid combat with the enemy mechs. I have nothing but faith in you, but I can't risk having you blow up."

"Understood," the younger man replied before breaking communication and heading forward. He did the best he could to avoid having to fight any of the other mechs. After all, it was just as his general had said. His role in this mission was far too important.

But while the other members of Crystal City's army were busy with their own enemies, Drake noticed Damien not too far in front of him. He simply shrugged and knew he would have to avoid engaging battle with this soldier too.

However, because Drake did not try to avoid him immediately, Damien assumed this soldier was going to attack him as his mech held its arm out, its eyes widening as the pilot exclaimed, "WAIT! I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I'M DOING!"

With that, Damien instinctively hit the red button as two slots opened up on the mech's sides, shooting out small orbs. The orbs stopped once they were located between the two mechs and formed a clear sphere around them as Damien was beyond confused.

However, he seemed to have a small idea of what was going on when he heard a small voice coming from his mech saying, "One-on-one battle engaged." Damien then noticed a few readings form on the top of the screen, one of these being the vitality of his mech, twelve-hundred to be exact.

"Wow, that's a lot of life," Damien uttered, "I must have scored me an advanced model," before noticing a reading of his opponent's life and noticing it was five-thousand. The man's eyes and mouth were wide open as he groaned, "Don't tell me I got a dud!"

Drake took a deep breath and thought, 'Oh well, at least this one's mech is weak. I should be able to take care of him in no time.'

With that, the dashboard of each mech flipped over to reveal thin slots shaped like playing cards, two rows of five to be exact. As if that was not strange enough, the voice from earlier returned and stated, "Please draw five cards and prepare for your duel."

"Wait, what?" Damien asked as he looked around and noticed all of the other mechs were not fighting like he believed mechs did. And just as he was about to question why everyone was just floating there, his speaker came on again as Morgan asked, "Just a quick heads-up, you defeat your opponent by beating them in a game of Yu-Gi-Oh."

Damien's eyes widened as he asked, "What!?" the communication cutting off as Drake had already drawn five cards and said, "Well, go on. You initiated the battle, therefor you get the first move."

Damien could not believe any of this. This was undoubtedly the stupidest thing he had ever heard in his life and yet it was real. He had to defeat this highly-ranked opponent in a game he knew next to nothing about if he was to help out during this battle.