For those of you who may, or may not, have read my first GX fan-fic, which was in itself a fail, it was also a learning experiance. I sort of struggled to get to grips with which 'Point-of-View' to use. However since then I have settled down, so enjoy this fic, and feel free to llok back on my old one, despite how bad it may have been in my own opinion, now, read on, read on, a world of adventure awaits you ... and don't forge the Duels, that's why people read these Fanfics.

There are things in this world … that cannot be explained by the preacher in his sermon, occurrences, disappearances, hatred, destruction. There are also things that cannot be proved by the scientist in his laboratory, historical events that 'never happened', do aliens exist?, alchemy, existence of the soul. And then there are things that can neither be explained nor proved.

That is when we come to the Shadow Realm.

Things were far from normal, after all, today was the day. Chris was up early, for once, normally he slept-in until about 10 o'clock on a Saturday, but this wasn't a normal Saturday. After a quick shower, he looked in his wardrobe, deciding on what to wear. There was the allure of wearing green, but something didn't quite seem right about wearing green, not today, so after several minutes, he finally settled on a pair of neat black jeans, held up by a similarly colored belt and a blank purple t-shirt.

He looked at himself in the mirror, he looked O.K, although he wasn't sure whether the black really went with his hair, a brilliant, almost platinum, blond. His eyes were blue and matched the hair to a tee, giving him what would have once been considered as an Aryan-style look, his hair was windswept and, in places, stuck-up in awkward directions, especially towards the back, whereas the front was gently slopped toward one side, often referred to by his mother as the worlds most unpopular 'wig'.

After an even quicker breakfast, he went back to his room to start packing his bag. The room was a small, yet enough room for him to be comfortable, his bed was on the left side of the room and his desk was on the right, a small, sturdy wooden desk that his grandfather had given to him after his old age caught up with him and his legs gave up on him.

The room was painted a pale blue, like the sky, supposedly calming, and on the wall above the desk was a picture of the current King of Games, Jaden Yuki. Yugi Moto having long retired from the face of Dueling, although he was still undefeated, he left his Title after claiming to need a rest, leaving the Dueling world devastated at his loss. Not what everyone expected, but everyone had predicted Jaden Yuki would easily take his place, and he did, he had been on top of his game for almost a year now.

Chris opened one of the drawers on his desk, or tried to, it was a little stiff, however after a successful yank he pulled it open. Inside lay what can only be described as a mess, filled almost to the brim with cards, Chris gave another heave and pulled drawer loose of the desk, before upending it onto the desk with a slightly gleeful expression on his face. There was a rush of air and dust as dozens of cards poured out onto the table, occupying the previously empty space, Vorse Raider, Kuriboh, Molten Zombie, Trap Hole and dozens more tumbled onto the veneered wooden surface with impunity.

At the bottom of the drawer was a small plastic box, hidden beneath the sheer amount of cards that had been pied on top of it, Chris pulled it out and after a quick check to make sure that it was not damaged in any way, pocketed it, before carefully scraping the cards back in the drawer and replacing the drawer in the desk as best he could. Now he had his Deck, now he just needed his Duel-Disk, another thing his Grandfather had given as a birthday present, an authentic Mark IV, just like the old King of Games ... there wasn't a single person who didn't have one, even if just for the kicks of wearing it and imagining that your are Yugi Moto himself.

He found it .. eventually, after spending a frantic 10 minutes absolutely tearing his room apart to find it, it was under his bed, behind a box of books, an old trunk and several other ... things, hiding from him. He hurriedly stuffed it into his rucksack, along with his lunch, a good book in case he got bored, and last but not least, his deck. NOW he was ready.

The Train was late, Chris was sitting on one of the red metallic benches that seemed to be on every train station, like silent guardians. There was that fresh, cool breeze that always seemed to flow through the station, Chris took a deep breath of the clean air, letting it out with perhaps the slightest hint of regret.

The station was empty, barren, desolate, and every other used to describe the words devoid, vacant and destitute. He was the only one there, slightly odd, normally on a weekend, this station would be packed, he had used to ride this train to school, but now he was riding it one stop further, into the center of town, rather than the edge.

Then there was the faint pitter-patter of feet, Chris glanced to his right, where the steps down from Platform 2 opened out onto Platform 3, the sound grew slightly louder as a figure emerged from the metal and glass tube.

She was small, perhaps no bigger than a meter and a half at the most, maybe a little more with shoes, with black hair that, under the sunlight, appeared to have the slightest hint of green in it. She had eyes that were the faintest brown, making them appear almost pale amber or maybe faint crimson. Her hair was tied back with a massive red ribbon that was almost the same size of her head and the edges pocked out from behind it like the sun behind the moon on an eclipse.

She was wearing what appeared to be a school uniform of some kind, involving the combination of a white formal blouse and a light black cardigan that went from collar to waist and was done up with a pair small gold buttons. From there on she wore what can only be described as a short skirt, eye-twitchingly, perhaps almost illegitimately short, perhaps 6 or 7 inches, hopefully more, followed by a pair of thick nylon stockings, the same colour as the cardigan, and some small, black slip-on shoes. On her back she was carrying a rucksack similar to the one that now lay at Chris's feet, black and grey and green, the kind of bag that would cost very little and would last a long time and would carry almost anything that was about the size of an A4 sheet of paper if not larger, the perfect jack-of-all-trades bag.

She looked out of breath, most probably have done the same thing that Chris had done, run straight from wherever they had come from to the station, thinking that the were going to be late for the train, and the look of relief on her face showed that, just like Chris, for once she was actually glad that the train was late.

She slumped down onto one of the benches, panting heavily, she looked at the clock on the platform and sighed.

At that point, almost out of nowhere, the train arrived, suddenly, almost as if it had been withheld until that very moment. There was the familiarly high-pitched shrill shriiiiiiiiiiek! of metal-on-metal-on-metal as the train screeched to a halt. Chris picked up his bag from at his feet, swung it over one shoulder non-chalently, and change his focus from the girl to the stopped train.

Hitting the button on the side of the train, as the doors opened, Chris was blasted with a sudden burst of hot air from the inside of the train, stepping up from the platform and onto the train. It was packed with people, most of them between the ages of 14 and 16 and most of them chattering excitedly between themselves, others sitting alone gazing out of windows, and even some couples sitting together just ... talking. It didn't really matter, everyone was going in the same direction so that was one topic of conversation out of the window.

It took Chris approximately 5 minutes to find an empty seat, or rather seats, a four-square of chairs with a small table in the middle, almost at the back of the train. Here it was slightly less crowded, since everyone wanted to come off as close to the stair as they could so that they could be first there, leaving everyone else up at the other end of the train. Chris took his bag off his back and sat down on the chair closest to the window, placing his bag next to him on the available chair, and looked out of the window and watched calmly the scattered buildings of houses and the odd bungalow mingling with the greenery of trees and open grass spaces as Space shot past at.

After a little while, like a lot of people on their own on a train, he grew bored, and so he turned his view from the outside world, closed his eyes and wriggled back in the chair in an attempt to gain some comfort. The train ride would be about an hour, maybe less, depending on how many delays and stops there were, it changed every day. Some days there would be 1 stop, others 5 or 6, it all depended on a schedule that he really just couldn't be bothered to look up at all, so he was just going to wait for the announcement.

He wasn't sure how long he dozed for, although it was probably no longer than about 10 minutes or so. When he awoke he rummaged in his bag and pulled out his deck and started flicking through the cards, slowly, observing each one as if he had just seen it before. He had made several decks, then taken them apart and remade them, adding new cards, gingerly removing older ones, computing new strategies, working out new combos, exploring new themes, then he had calmly ripped them apart again, merged them, hated it, taken them apart again and remade this one. This one was his favorite, of all the decks, most of the themes and of all the combos he had ever explored, he used it rarely, but today it would get a proper introduction.

It was quite a common theme really. A lot of people seemed to like it at the moment, although he knew it was nothing more then what he liked to call, and his Grandfather referred to, as a 'Phase'. Decks went in fashion, and out of fashion, depending on the Ban Lists and the new cards which were released. Go back a year or two and EVERYONE had an Elemental Hero Deck, because of their flexibility and because the rising star Jaden Yuki had them. Go back a year or so before that and EVERYONE had Spellcaster Decks, because Yugi Moto had made his comeback tour and because they had so much potential, so Spellcaster's immediately came back in fashion.

There was the sound of the doors between carriages opening and then closing followed by the pattering of feet, as Chris gazed out of the window again, his cards still held loosely in his hands. From his view through the train window he could now see grey clouds on the horizon, maybe signaling rain, or thunder and lightning, or maybe something else? ... or he was just being ominous as always.

Then there was a small, ahem! from behind his field of vision, he half turned as someone standing behind gave a polite cough. His eyes widened slightly, ever so slightly, as he recognised the figure standing there, it was that girl from this morning.

"Excuse me, may I sit here" she asked, indicating the seat opposite him, her voice was small, and there was a slight timidity to it. Chris blinked, the slight tiredness from having woken up still in his head momentarily disorientating him,

"I think she want to sit there?" his thoughts said

"Oh … Duh!" came the reply

"Yes" he said, slightly hesitant as she tossed her bag onto the opposite chair and sat down across from him, giving him a nod of thanks. Chris turned his attention back to his cards, although he couldn't help but glance up at her every few minutes or so, just out of instinct, there was … something about her that almost drove you to look at her.

She spent most of the journey staring out of the window, humming a strange tune softly to herself. It's notes were not like anything Chris had heard before, although he quickly lost interest in it as his mind began to wander.

As the train pulled into the fourth station, people stood, swinging bags and suitcase in hands or on backs. Children and Adults crowded around the door, each eagerly wanting to get off the train for a variety of reasons.

The streets were crowded, it was a weekend, people were shopping, children were running around, chasing each other, blowing bubbles in parks and chewing on sweets and adolescents were doing ... whatever adolescents do in their spare time.

Chris ducked under a tree, the park was, surprisingly, almost empty, despite the crowds surging like blood through the streets, maybe that's why they built the Academy Test Center there in the first place.

Situated in the middle in a park surrounded by grass, flowers and trees, almost picturesque, with a sprawling complex, with a small arena of sorts, with 6 different areas each for a different duel, open to the elements. The rest consisted of a single story examination room that was massive, with perhaps enough space for a couple of hundred people, maybe slightly less. However the Green party weren't particularity happy about having a building in the middle of a Green Belt, but for some reason they'd stopped complaining after a while.

There was a small waiting area before the Exam room, crowded to the brim with people, mostly teenagers, meaning it was hot, stuffy and very noisy. Chris glanced at his watch, it was 10:30, they had half an hour before the exam actually started, so why were they all here early? It was a rhetorical question, but he had to ask it, to himself at any rate.

Someone at some point had obviously invested a small amount of money in putting in several of those tables that you would find in a park, a pair of benches and a table made of wood and joined together with solid planks. It was around these that people mainly crouched around, watching the frantic exchange between those who couldn't wait for the duels at the academy and were already taking names or those that could and just wanted a warm up.

Chris sat, leaning back against the table, watching a pair of boys face off, this pair both had duel-disks, Mark IV, just like his. One of the boys had black hair that reminded him more of a mane than of hair, whereas the other had brown hair that just defied physics and stuck-up in every direction like the quills of a porcupine, becoming a hedgehog towards the front. On the brown-haired kid's field, 5 goblins clad in shiny metal armor and armed with swords stood in attack position as well as a Continuous Trap, whereas on the black-haired kid's field, a huge warrior with a wolfs head instead of a human one and bearing a large Axe and a wooden shield in each hand, also stood in attack position with a Black Amulet around its neck, and behind it was the image of the equip spell which the Wolf bore.

"Now, Elite Goblin Attack Force, attack his Wolf Axwielder, with Goblin Swords"

The 5 goblins charged toward the big Wolf-warrior, who swatted two of them with his huge axe before getting swarmed under through strength of numbers as their swords pierced his body and he gave a great howl before he exploded in a blast of pixels.

Black-Hair – 500 - 50 = 450

"Nice move, but did you forget about Black Pendant" The black-haired kid said as he plucked the cards from his Duel-Disk and slid the pair of cards into his Graveyard "now when this Equip Spell is sent to the Graveyard, it deals you another 500 points of damage"

There was a small explosion as a black light shone from the black-haired kid's graveyard, striking his opponent

Brown-Hair – 1000 - 500 = 500

"Well those may have been nice moves, but I still have my trap card, Goblin Charge, so my Goblins don't change battle position during my End Phase, so now I end my turn"

"My … Draw" he paused for a second, studying the 4 cards he held in his hand,

"Now I activate the Ritual Spell card Synthesis Spell"

Suddenly a huge mechanical cage appeared between the pair, throbbing with electricity, two smaller cages appeared on either side of the larger cage.

"So now I sacrifice my Silver Fang from my hand"

A huge Silver wolf appeared, with yellowed eyes, then it began to glow with a red aura

"and I also sacrifice my Wolves Servant"

A diminutive man appeared, with black eyes that had no pupils and wearing tattered clothing. He too began to glow with a red aura

"and Ritual Summon, my Lycanthrope"

Both monsters were sucked into the smaller cages, and the electricity flowed into the smaller cages and both monster howled like the Axwielder before them before they dissolved and were absorbed into the larger cage, which suddenly began to shake … until it exploded outwards, and out of the cage bound a huge werewolf, with vicious sharp claws and a strange device attached to its chest like some form of cybernetics connecting to its arm. Around its waist was clad the remains of a pair of blue shorts. (2400/1800)

"Now Lycanthrope attack his Goblin Elite Attack Force, with Lycan Shadow Dance"

The huge werewolf looked hungrily at the 5 goblins before giving a huge roar and running towards them, the goblins immediately dropped their swords and ran for it, however the Lycanthrope soon caught them all and tore them to shreds.

Brown-Hair – 500 - 200 = 300

"That doesn't matter, I still have enough points to finish you off next round"

"Not quite, you see there isn't going to be a next round, because Lycanthrope has a special effect, when he deals damage to an opponent, like he just did, the opponent loses lifepoints equal to 200 points times the number in my Graveyard, so just in case Math isn't your strong point, that makes 1000 points of damage"

Lycanthrope gave a long howl, as five small orbs of blue, spectral light appeared, it gave another howl and they slammed into the Brown-Haired kid, blasting him with energ

Brown-Hair – 500 - 1000 = 0

The Hologram of Lycanthrope faded with a final victorious howl and the brown-haired kid picked himself up off the ground and shook hands with his opponent, there, right there, that was just that tiny little bit of sportsmanship that you got from people who didn't play in the big leagues or even prep schools, people who dueled for fun instead of for respect or to prove that they were better, basically, people who weren't elitist snobs.

Then there was the sound of a bell, from the examination building, the bell for the exams, at that point everyone immediately stopped dueling, either claim draws or promising rematches, and hurried towards the Examination building.

The Exam was an hour, a long, hot and slightly boring hour, and there was questions on EVERYTHING. This was not the kind of thing that you could revise for, each paper had different questions and each question was worded differently of contained different phrases or circumstances. From how to counter combos to favorite cards and even opinions on strategies and deck archetypes. At least they were thorough, Chris was sure that he hadn't done too badly, although he was sure that he had slept Research as Research and left out that question about Royal Decree since it had made absolutely no sense to him at all as well a few others for varying reasons.

Now they were all outside on the grass, enjoying the cool breezes after an hour of being broiled alive inside a tin can. Duels had either resumed or started again and people were slowly getting up and heading over to the stadium for their duels. Chris pulled the small laminated card out of his pocket that had his name and duel time on it. He glanced at the card, feelings its plastic, tacky surface before pocketing it and getting up and started making his way toward the arena.

It was modern looking, almost like a small stadium or coliseum, with stands for those people who wanted to watch to see what people could do or just to enjoy watching the duels. It was opened topped, so the fresh sunlight filled it with an almost mystical quality, making Chris feel slightly light-headed due to the amount of adrenaline he was now feeling pumping through his veins like a fire.

The rows and rows of chairs were almost like the kind you would find at a cinema, with seats that had to be pulled down and would annoyingly flip up if you stood up.

Chris was waiting in a small room just off the arena floor, this was where everyone waited to be next on, waiting for their names to be read out by a reedy faced woman who would come in and signal them that they were next into the arena.

Chris was nervous, pumped full of adrenaline and as high as a kite, but nervous all the same. Another name was called and another person left and another person came back through the room, either heavily relived, or heavily emotional, or sometimes both. Overjoyed with victory or broken in defeat.

"Christopher Andrews"

When Chris heard his name, he almost collapsed out of sheer excitement, calming himself, he breathed in slowly … and then out again. He could feel the blood pumping in his ears beating like a drum. This was his chance for potential.

He walked out into the arena, the stands were reasonable crowded, although there was some rather large gaps in places. Every now and again there was the odd splash of red or blue or yellow as some of the actual students had come to watch.

He had a strange feeling of foreboding as he stepped up onto the arena, it was time … time to duel. ... that sounded cheesy didn't it?

So ... opinions please? Good, Bad or Flame, bring on the Reviews, please?