New Horizons

The Pharaoh stood before the massive metal circle. His school jacket and ridiculous protagonist hair was still wet from the rain. He observed the intricate carvings and glyphs on every block making it up. Wires sprawled from behind it, connecting to various panels on the wall. At the top, a decorative dragon head held the "KC" proudly in its jaw. Despite the activity in rooms around them, the chamber of the portal itself was intensely quiet. He looked solemnly to his rival turned ally. "Kaiba, absolutely nothing about what you just said makes sense."

Seto rolled his eyes and motioned toward the portal. "Come on Yugi. It's really simple stuff. My researchers dug up this old circle, which is clearly a portal, in Egypt when they were looking for more god cards. So, I had them bring it in, hired a few actual Egyptologists to help decipher the thing, and now I'm going to bring it online."

Yami Yugi nodded. "No, I get that part. We're ripping off Stargate, but whatever. What I don't understand is why you want to open the portal."

"I should slap you for that. This is entirely different from Star Trek. First of all, we've somehow determined that this portal leads to completely different realities. So anything's possible! We could discover anything beyond the gate!"

"... You're just trying to find real dragons, aren't you?"

The two stood in silence, Kaiba refusing to confirm the obvious. Yami sighed. "Well, I don't care. You can go have your Star Wars dragon adventure. But what about Dartz?"

"Screw him, I have a Kaibagate! Plus, you didn't let me finish! Secondly, we'd be traveling to dimensions entirely different to our own. Imagine all the different cards we could find Yugi!"

"Kaiba, you're assuming that every other dimension just happens to have Duel Monsters?"

Kaiba shrugged, laughing. "Even if they don't, I can push my products on them! We sent a duel disk through already to a random universe to make sure it wouldn't explode."

"And did it explode?"

"I don't know, we lost contact with it. Turns out we don't have radio contact with alternate realities, go figure. So we're gonna move straight up to human testing."

Yami eyed the door as Kaiba finished speaking. It was tempting. But he knew… He hoped, that Kaiba would have a good reason for bringing him here. "So if these other dimensions don't have Duel Monsters, why would I come with?"

The portal began whirring to life. "Well then I guess the "King of Games" is too scared to duel Seto Kaiba in a different dimension. Well Yugi? Too scared you'll lose in front of a bunch of new duelists?"

"That is entirely childish. I cannot believe you Kaiba! Of course I'm not afraid of you! In fact, let's duel right here, right now!"

A faint, shimmering blue light began to form as the portal grew louder. The pair's jackets flourished in the wind, being pulled toward the open tear. "Oh no! The wind from the Kaibagate's too strong. Guess you'll have to come with to duel me now."

"Damn you Kaiba. I suppose I have no choice now. Also, stop calling it that."

A voice came on over the intercom. "Alright Mr. Kaiba, we've set up the portal just like you asked, for dimension 00000001. Um… Are you sure you don't wanna try with some other people? It seems like a really stupid idea to lead with the CEO… Who's supposed to -"

Kaiba pressed the company logo on his jacket's neck, which lit up in response. "Shut up. I'm so confident in this plan working, I've left my shares to Mokuba just in case. Mokuba! That should let you know how confident I am in this plan… Also you're fired."

"I - Ugh, yes sir…"

Yami watched as Kaiba stepped closer to the gate, eyes alight in anticipation. "So, why dimension however-many-zeroes 1?"

"Because it's the first one. Which means it should logically be the best one. Come on Yugi, get with the game."

Finally complete, the glyphs beneath each prong on the gate lit up, and the blue light formed into a solid circular wall. It erupted forth, looking almost like a liquid, before just as quickly retreating back into the frame of the portal. The two stood in awe of the device, transfixed by the ripples of energy in the light.

"Boy oh bo - I mean, damn. Damn damn damn. I couldn't win this game for - No one's buying this are they?" The bright orange-robot glanced from player to player with his singular blue visual-receptor. He eyed the mess that was his hand, pleased with his double-bluff.

"Now don't think I don't understand yer machine ways there, Scraptrap -"

"Claptrap."

" - I see through you like my whiskey glass. Speaking of, where did that go now?" Dell lifted the brim of his hard hat up again, being careful not to reveal his cards. The deal had been kind. Two pair, aces and queens.

Jensen eyed the table again through his cyber-sunglasses, before throwing his cards down with his cyber-arms. Jack. Shit. "I didn't ask for these, I fold! But I could use a drink myself."

Their fourth remained silent as he pushed up his glasses, save for the tapping of his crowbar on the table. The probability of him winning was high enough to warrant his calm demeanor. Three of a kind, queens.

Claptrap stirred, viewing his remaining opponents. "Oh, Freeman… Still playing? Not… Put off by my stonewall confidence? Engi? No?" He eyed his useless cards. If only there'd been a seven in play. "Welp, guess I fold."

Finally, the hand drew to a close. Freeman smiled quietly as he drew in the pot. Dell sighed. "Damn, almost drained me right out. Ah well, gotta get goin' soon enough. Turrets to build, dispensers to place, y'all know the deal. But speaking of -"

Suddenly, the dingy bar became far brighter, a strange blue hue falling over everything. The table stood up, looking around as a hum began to fill the air. One by one, their eyes or eye-equivalence found the old empty stage. The flowing burgundy curtain billowed forth as a circle of blue light began to grow center-stage. It grew to almost eight feet, and then erupted forward. Once it withdrew and had settled, the whole bar stared silently at it.

Jensen and Freeman drew their revolvers, nodding to each other as they drew closer. Anyone else with a weapon readied themselves as well. A minute that felt eons longer passed before what came next. Two teenagers, one in a flowing white jacket, the other wearing his blue jacket like a cape, and both with weird arm-blade things came out. The one in white also wore seemingly pointless blue straps over his otherwise black outfit, while the shorter one had hair like an explosion and a strange pyramid hanging from a chain around his neck. Neither had been seen around here before.

Dell, leaned back with his feet kicked up on the table, nodded to the strangers, though his look showed his unease. "Howdy you two. Fancy entrance y'all fixed up. I'd recommend you spill where you came from though, before my friends riddle you with holes."

The one in the white looked around, eyeing the bar. He sighed. "God… Damn it Yugi! We open a portal to go to another dimension, and we end up in a dive bar! When I get back through this Kaibagate, I swear to Obelisk I'll fire every person who dug it up!"

His companion, evidently named Yugi, stopped him. "Kaiba, don't be rude. Besides, look at this place. That man has cybernetic arms, that one's a robot, and I'm pretty sure there's a troll ordering drinks at the bar. Not to mention everyone here has a different art style. I'm pretty sure the portal worked."

Kaiba paused. "The what?"

"The portal worked, look around you!"

Kaiba turned to Yugi, face expressionless. "I'm sorry, what worked?"

Yugi sighed. The rest of the bar watched in confusion, but began to put their guns away. Frustrated, Yugi tried again. "The Kaibagate worked." Kaiba gasped.

Though they had temporarily ceased their game, the strangers had welcomed Yami and Kaiba to join them at the table. The Kaibagate remained open for now, and the people who had opened it remained employed, but on "thin fucking ice".

The construction worker with the southern drawl began to talk again. "So, you punched yer way in through from another dimension? With a "stargate"? Well, that's one way of gettin' here. Actually, come to think of, any of y'all remember how we got here?"

Evidently no one did. This "Inventory" as they called it was a weird place. "Well anyways, you two come from one o them Japanese cartoons, huh? Yeah, so does the bartender. Ain't that right Jill?"

"That it isn't, Dell, that it isn't. Sukeban's Venezuelan. We just use their art style. And it's called anime… Dick." The girl behind the counter continued fixing another customer's drink.

"Ah, 'pologies. Well, good to have you in any case. Yer welcome to Steam City anytime you fellas please."

Kaiba raised his hand. "Question: Why is that the city name? Is it still stuck in the steam-powered days? Because that would hinder my plans."

The cyborg, going by Jensen, leaned forward. "No, no, that's just a continuation of the reference. It's actually pretty nice. But what exactly do you mean by plans?"

Kaiba smiled. "Well, since it seems like I won't be seeing any dragons right now, I thought I'd move onto my next order of business. That being business. I see you gentlemen come all the way from your respective worlds to play a simple card game. So, would you be interested in playing the absolute best card game in any instance of the world? We call it: Duel Monsters!"

The mute ginger in the science-armor raised an eyebrow to this, and Claptrap hopped onto the table. "Oh yay, more pieces of cardboard to distract you all from the inevitability of your deaths! Tell us more!"

"Of course. Basically, you each battle with an assortment of monsters, spells, traps, fusions, and other cards to lower your opponent's life points. There's zombies, robots, dragons, insects, superheroes, dragons, spellcasters, vampires, dragons. It's really the best game out there."

Jensen smirked. "Really? Sounds like you haven't grown out of games for kids."

Yami raised a hand, finally done shuffling his deck. "Also, we play with holograms that enact the battles at full-scale."

The table was quiet to that. Even Jensen seemed interested now. "Well… We'll need some cards first I assume."

Kaiba looked from his deck to the Kaibagate a few times. "Oh yeah. Forgot about that. Well, we'll pop back through the Kaibagate and grab a few structure decks and booster packs for you all. Oh, and some manuals. And playing fields. And duel disks. You know what, I'll just bring through some stuff to set up a store."

As he rose to leave, Yami coughed. "Oh, Kaiba. Forgetting something? How about we give them a little demonstration duel?"

"Um… Uh… Wow, Yugi, could you be more rude? Why would I play the game they can't play yet right in front of them? What kind of monster do you take me for? We'll have our duel, just as soon as the cards start circulating."

"Wait, we're really going to have an introductory chapter without a duel? We're just gonna leave it on this? Although I suppose it's a decent hook to draw them in next tim-"

"Stop analyzing the story and get through the Kaibagate, Yugi."

AN: Attention Duelists! This fiction will be using some elements from YGO: The Abridged Series, as I watched Yu-Gi-Oh so long ago that's all that's in my memory. Also it's funny, and this whole fiction can only be billed as a comedy. Expect a whole friggin arc my dudes, and don't worry, duels will in fact be coming. I've got decks being made and everything. Also, for clarity's sake, this takes place in YGOTAS somewhere in the middle of the Waking the Dragons arc. Not sure if that'll come too much into play in this arc of CCGaTI, but it will in future.