Chapter 1 – Back in Time
Yuma POV
The guy's Gachi Gachi is about to wipe out my 100 remaining Life Points, but I'm not afraid! I'm feeling the flow!
"I activate Battle Break! This stops your monster's attack and ends the Battle Phase!" My opponent's head falls and he ends his turn.
"Haha!" I grin, placing a hand on my deck. "My turn! I DRAW!" Perfect! "I Summon Gagaga Girl! Next, I'll play Giant Killer to knock out all your facedowns and give Gagaga Girl an ATK boost!" With the combination of these two, I beat the guy easy!
"Auugh!" He flies back as Gachi Gachi is destroyed, his LP become zero and cards fly out of his hand. I turn around and head home. Sheesh, more people want to duel me every day since the World Duel Carnival where I beat Vetrix...
I hear a rustle in the bushes. Spinning around, I hold my Duel Disk out in front of me protectively.
"Who's there?!" ANOTHER person wanting to duel me?!
The bushes give another rustle, then someone jumps out. Caught by surprise, I'm thrown to the ground as whoever it is basically tackles me. A brief struggle gets them off of me, and I jump to my feet.
It's a kid. Looks like he's around my age, but man, he's dressed weirdly. Goggles made out of gears, a long, pure-white trench coat, and what I think is a Duel Disk on his arm is designed like an engine, with pistons and all those other things.
"Wh-what's the deal, man?!" I sputter madly and point an accusing finger.
The kid grins and musses up his spiky, shiny silver hair.
"Hehe, so sorry Yuma!" He springs up. "I just wanted your autograph!" The guy holds out a torn sheet of paper. I take it, a little confused, and uncap a marker.
"Write it 'To Stargazer'." Stargazer grins even wider and holds his hands behind his back, fidgeting. I sign the scrap and hand it back. Stargazer jumps forward and quickly hugs me. "Thank you thank you thank you SO MUCH!" He runs off, practically skipping.
What the heck...who is this kid? Then Star leans down and drags something out of the bushes. It's a wagon, and some weird-looking piece of machinery is the cargo.
I sneak along and follow him. I know, not advisable, but hey, this should be more interesting than going home to have Kari yell at more for being late and dueling so much.
Stargazer heads into an old, run-down part of the city...Does he live here?
"Hey, Yuma!" Stargazer calls out to me, "I see you back there and you may as well come out!"
"Alright, alright, you caught me...Now spill it. What's that machinery for and why are you coming back over here? Why didn't you go home?" I walk out from behind a tree and Stargazer looks at me strangely and then lets out a small sad laugh.
"See...My parents abandoned me when I was young. I was apparently never supposed to be born but they didn't want to kill me. They left me here to die…See, The Fudo generation was supposed to end with my parents. But I was born...I am Stargazer Fudo!" Stargazer took a big breathe and then continued, "Now I'm building a time machine duel runner to find out once and for all why I shouldn't be alive...I will find out the dark secret of the Fudo family." I just stand there in shock trying to process everything Stargazer had told me. He was a Fudo?! He was from one of the best dueling lineages! But why was he not allowed to live?
"Hey Stargazer! I'm coming with you to the past!" He wipes off a bead of sweat from his brow and looks at me grinning.
"On an adventure with my hero! This'll be awesome!" Stargazer runs past me and picks up a giant box and hauls it beside the duel runner. "Lemmie just attach this one part so you can come along." Stargazer picks up a little wrench and attaches a little sidecar to the duel runner. "It might not be your style Yuma but I don't really have any other choice if you want to come along…"
"How did you have that ready? Did you know I would come… How?!" I wonder aloud. StarGazer grins at me again and then goes and washes his hands from a little bucket or water and I looked at him sympathetically. But before I could say anything he walks over to his duel runner and jumps on.
"So Yuma…You coming or not?"
Chapter 2 - Hope is Lost?
Star POV
"So Yuma...You coming or not?" I jump onto the duel runner and hit the glowing red button and a mechanical voice comes out: 'Initiating Warp Speed' I rev the handles and look back at Yuma.
"We're gonna go ahead and go all the way back in time!" I turn around and get ready to blast forward and then zoom back into the past.
"Wait...The past? I thought we were going to a restaurant for lunch…" He looks at me in false surprise.
"Silly Yuma," I giggle, "Anyway, Get set to go!" I move the runner so it's facing the door and then I rev it to its maximum and we zoomed forward! "AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME!" I yell as we zoom even faster.
"LOOK OUT STAR!" Yelled Yuma from the back and I looked to the front of the road where a tree stood.
"It's now or never!" I grin wildly and hit the red button again and a portal bursts open in front of us, "Here we GOOOOOO Yuma!" We go into the portal and then all of a sudden we stop. Then we begin to accelerate so fast if felt like my skin was being ripped off. Then suddenly there was a flash of light and we were falling through the air.
"AAAAGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!" We both yelled as we plummeted down and crashed right into someone.
"Leo! Leo are you okay?!" A little girl's voice plummets out from the side.
"I'm fine Luna but there are just a couple of people from the sky on top of me…" Another voice comes out from under us and I grimace.
"Sorry about that." I say as I get up, "Names StarGazer...And you are?" I look at him but he doesn't reply at first. Then I realize it was because Yuma was still on top of him. I giggle and help Yuma off.
"My names Leo!" The boy says as he gets up his face becoming clearer as my eyes begin to adjust to the light. "This is my twin Luna!" Leo gestures to a little girl next to him and I smile at them both.
"My name is StarGazer and this is Yuma Tsukumo." I gesture to Yuma next to me and he flashes them a smile. "Anyway, We're looking for someone called Yusei. Do you think you could help us find him?" Leo and Luna look at each other and then shrug.
"Why do you need him?" Luna asks me nicely.
"HEY! YOU'RE NOT ANOTHER DARK SIGNER ARE YOU?! OR ARE YOU ONE OF THOSE MEKALORD DUDES?!" Leo yells at me
"Be quiet Leo!" Luna smacks him on the back of his head.
"What's going on here?" A voice comes from beside us and we all turn and look. A man with blond hair walks out of the shadows and it takes me less than a second to recognize him. It's Jack Atlas!
"These guys want Yusei!" Luna says to Jack.
"What do you all need Yusei for? I'll give you an autograph if that's what you need." I hold out the piece of paper of which I had gotten Yuma's signature. Jack quickly signs it and then turns to leave and I hug the paper to my chest.
"So...so cool but we still need Yusei." I stammer out. Jack turns and glares at me,
"What for?" He asks again.
"I-We- Yusei is- I need to-" I stammer out a bunch of different things but then trail to a stop. Jack was seriously freaking me out the way he looked down on me like that.
"The thing is…" Yuma steps in between us and nods at me.
"I- We're from the future!" I finally manage to say, "My name is StarGazer...StarGazer Fudo!" My words echo around for a bit and seem to be more impossible by the second.
"Well. I don't even give two blinks of my eye about your story. Come on Leo, Luna. We're leaving these crazy people." He turns around and storms away with Leo and Luna behind him.
"He-He didn't believe me...Well I guess we're going back home...Back to the warehouse." A tear escapes my eye and I turn around and bump into Yuma.
"You're giving up that easily?! We didn't come all the way to the past just to give up! Let's follow them on your epic Duel runner!" Yuma looks at me enthusiastically but I don't meet his eye.
"It got trashed when we landed…" I look down sadly. I had built that thing from scratch; scrounging parts from everywhere possible. Without it, we can't get back. Or even follow Jack and get the answers we need. The answers that I spent my whole life practically in search of. The answers I need.
"So we'll follow by foot!" Yuma's grin doesn't waver even a bit. I blink a few times. Doesn't he realize we're stuck here? "Time's-a-wasting! Let's go!" Yuma takes off running.
"Wait for me!" I call out, a smile finally on my face. I run after him and catch up. "What do you think he'll say?"
"That's why we're following him isn't it? Cuz there's only one way to find out! Meet him ourselves!" I smile again getting more confident with every word Yuma said.
"Look! There's Jack! And Luna! And Leo too!" I whisper loudly. We stop and watch them enter a little building. Was my great grandfather also poor? I wondered silently. We slowly creep up to the little house and look in from a window when we suddenly lose our footing and tumble down into the house!
"OW! OOF!" We slam into the ground and groan.
"You alright Yuma?" I pull myself up and see Jack right in front of me.
"These are the clowns we told you about Yusei. The ones claiming to have come from the future and the little one here," Jack points at me, "He claims to be a Fudo...Just like you!"
"A Fudo? From the future?" I hear Yusei's voice for the first time. "If this is true then that's incredible, but why would you come back in time?" I stand there trying to find words to say but Yuma steps up again.
"In the future, the Fudo family was supposed to end with his parents but they had a son. He was supposed to be killed but was banished from the city instead. The mayor of the city said that they don't want any more destruction from this whole family." Yuma stops and turns to Jack, "Let's duel Jack! If I win then you'll have to believe us! In the future...Synchros are outdated and we've got a whole new type of cards!" Yuma holds up his Number 39: Utopia Card. "Like this one…"
"You sound convincing but-" Yusei stops as Jack takes a step forward.
"If I win the duel you will all go home and stop bugging us. If I lose we'll listen to what you have to say…"
Chapter 3 – Duel Between Times
Yuma POV
I'm about to bust out my Duel Gazer when Jack stops me, looking at it curiously.
"What the deuce is that you're holding?" Everyone except Star looks at it curiously. I put on for everyone to see.
"This? It's a Duel Gazer. We have them in the future..to duel!" Jack laughs, a sharp "Wahaha!", the twins ooh and aah, and Yusei says to himself, "Couldn't be all that advanced...if you have to wear that eyepiece just to duel...maybe it's a good toy for the kids?" I'm steamed over this, but I gotta focus on beating Jack-for Star's sake!
He activates his Duel Disk, and I grasp for my key-only it's not there! I look down in shock realizing my necklace-and Astral-are both no longer hanging from my neck!
"AAAH! It's gone it's gone it's gone!" I dance around frantically, pulling at my hair. Star seems to be the only one who cares-"What's gone, Yuma?"-but Jack draws and I don't have time to look for it! The Duel's on!
"I'm gonna send you pests home!" Jack says. "First I send Mad Archfiend to the Grave and Special Summon Power Giant in attack mode! Then, I'll Normal Summon Twin-Sword Marauder! I'm throwing two facedowns-your move, Yuma."
I don't know if I can feel the flow without my necklace...but I've got to! For Star!
"My draw!"
Okay..he's got two monsters, one with 2200 ATK and one with 1600. I look down at my hand. Perfect!
"I'll start things off with Ganbara Knight!"
"Ha!" Jack scoffs. "A zero ATK monster? Kid, you're out of your league." Yusei is silent, looking at Ganbara and probably thinking something about weak monsters working together...
"Then, since I Summoned a Level 4 monster, I can bust out Kagetokage from my hand!"
Star hops up and down, nearly squealing.
"Yuma's gonna do it! He's got two Level 4s..." Yusei looks at him in surprise.
"And what does that mean?" He inquires. I grin.
"It means I can OVERLAY them!" I raise a hand. Jack looks stunned.
"O-Overlay? What sort of trickery is this? There's no such thing!"
"Oh, but there is in the future!" Star breaks in triumphantly.
"With my two monsters I build the Overlay Network! I Xyz Summon...Number 39: Utopia!" Yusei stands. "Interesting.." He breathes.
Jack takes a step back.
"H-How could this punk bust out a monster that strong on his first turn?! There's no way!"
"Oh, but there is, and I have!" I smile. "Go, Utopia! Take out his Power Giant with Rising p Slash!" Jack is thrown into the wall. "Aagh!"
LP: 3700
"Yeah!" Doing good! "I end my turn!" Jack pushes himself out of the small crater made and shakes it off. Leo and Luna can't seem to make up their mind who to cheer fo.
"That was lucky...I draw!
"I activate my facedown, Powerful Rebirth! This brings back Mad Archfiend a Level higher! Next I Summon Flare Resonator!
Now..I tune Flare Resonator with Mad Archfiend, to bring out the ultimate beast of raging fire and destruction!" I watch in amazement as the monsters become stars and these green loopy things appear. So this is a Synchro Summoning!?
"Get ready to face a REAL monster, you punk! I Synchro Summon my ace, Red Dragon Archfiend!" I hop around excitedly.
"Wow!" I say. "So cool!" A look of confusion passes over Jack's face, but he disregards me and directs his Dragon to attack Utopia. I laugh. "Not gonna happen! I send an Overlay Unit to the Graveyard to negate your attack!"
Jack is confused again.
"Overlay Unit? There's no such-" Yusei stands up real fast.
"Jack! Those must be the glowing things floating around his monster!" Yusei shouts.
Leo sniggers, "And besides-you didn't think there was such thing as overlaying either!"
"Whose side are you on!?" Jack demands.
"Hey," I call. "Are you done over there?" Jack rants some more in frustration but ends his turn. I grin widely.
"It's gonna be fun taking down a Synchro monster! My draw!
Okay..I activate the Spell card Blustering Winds! This boosts Utopia's ATK by a thousand!"
ATK: 3500
Stargazer: "Alright! Now it's stronger than Jack's Archfiend!"
Yusei: "Interesting..this guy has more skill than it would seem."
Leo: "So cool! Look, Luna! Did you see how he played that Spell Card?!"
Luna: "I'm here, too, you know, Leo!"l
Me: "Attack with Rising Sun Slash!" Red Dragon Archfiend is carved up into pieces, and Jack is thrown into the wall again.
LP: 3200
I practically dance in place. I'm winning, I'm winning, I'm winning! Against Jack Atlas!
Yusei calls, "Don't get so cocky, Yuma!" And he's right. Jack comes out of the wall angrier and scarier.
"If you're done messing around, now it's my turn and I'm getting serious!" He draws.
"I'm summoning out Deep Sea Diva first thing! She allows me to summon out another one from my deck! Then, I play the Trap Synchro Power Rebirth! This revives Red Dragon Archfiend and if I Synchro Summon with him this turn, you take 1000 points of damage!" He raises his hand. A red aura glows around Jack. It reminds me a little of Kite, actually, when he busts out Neo Galaxy-Eyes..."I tune my Deep Sea Divas with Archfiend! Let all the power and might of the cosmos gather itself into one form...RED NOVA DRAGON!" It explodes onto the scene. I have to try hard not to get knocked back by the shockwave. My LP: 3000 This is so amazing! I adjust my Duel Gazer and look at his new monster. ATK: 3500 Woww!
Jack says, "Red Nova gains 500 attack for every Tuner in my Graveyard! I have three!" ATK: 5000 WHOOAAA! I flap my arms around in excitement. Star looks worried.
"Attack!" I grin smugly.
"Not happening, Jack! I detach an Overlay Unit from Utopia and negate your attack-"
"No, you don't!" He reveals another Trap. "Nova Rampage! If its attack is over 4000, you can't negate his attacks and your damage is DOUBLED!" What? Noooo!
"Utopia!" I cry out as he's destroyed. I'm knocked backwards and this time it's me crashing into the wall...
"You're finished!" Jack shouts. He's right! I have 3,000 points of damage coming my way and no way to stop it...oh no...
Chapter 4 – New World
X POV
"You're finished!" Jack Shouts.
"Heh," My voice echoes all over the place and everyone looks around.
"Who's there?" Yusei calls out as he steps forward. I keep my eyes on Yuma and StarGazer though. They seemed to be nervous of the sound of my voice.
"I am X. You don't need to know why I'm here, but I believe that, if you'll allow me to join this duel, I can turn it around in one move. Wouldn't that be something? Also..." I grin. "You haven't got any choice in the matter anyway." I don't tell them how it works, but with one press of a button on my duel disk made of even more advanced technology than Yuma's, I join the duel, with 4000 Life Points and five cards in my hand.
"What the-" Yusei immediately looks suspicious. "You can't just barge in on Jack and Yuma's duel! This is to determine.."
"Yusei. Relax." Jack tells him. "Watch, I'm going to give this guy a taste of Red Nova's power, too!"
Yuma turns to me. "So, you're on my side, mister? Then...HELP!" His eyes grow big and he flaps his arms around. I laugh, though it's a condescending one. I reveal a card in my hand.
"I Special Summon Malefic Reflector! Zero attack, but a killer ability. When 'I' am about to take 3000 or more damage, this deals you the same amount of damage, but doubled, Jack Atlas!" Yuma cheers when I explain its ability, then pales.
"Wait...so you're not going to save me. X! What is this?" I laugh again, cruelly. "I said I'd turn it around. Didn't say I'd stop you from losing, little wimp."
The giant wave of Red Nova's attack reaches Yuma. He's thrown back and smashes through the wall. LP 0. Then from the mirror that is Reflector's torso, a larger wave of damage shoots out and hits Jack. There's already a hole in the wall, but I hear him bust through a window of a building across the street. LP 0.
Leo and Luna cry, "Jack!"and rush outside to see if he's okay. One of them screams, "He's really hurt! The damage was real!" Yusei stares me down and his gloved hands curl into fists. Stargazer is conveying a similar level of ticked off-ness, even though he's shorter.
"X. Who do you think you are, sneaking in here and sabotaging an honest duel? And then you ruthlessly cut down my friend like it's nothing?" Yusei says quietly. "That's not gonna fly."
"Same," Star echoes. He's standing up the junky suitcase that is his duel disk, and Yusei is slipping on his Battle City-style model. "We'll crush you in a duel. Yusei, I know we just met and you might not trust me, but we've got one thing in common against this X guy, and that's that he hurt our friends. Will you team up with me to take him down?"
"Yes," Is Yusei's answer. I spread my arms, shuffling my hand back into my deck and resetting my field. Great. I can defeat them both at once.
"Oh? You sound so confident you two strangers will duel well together. Anyway, not that you asked, but I'll accept your challenge! To make it fair, I'll get 8000 Life Points at the start. Alright?" Yusei and Star nod in agreement. Stargazer slips down his goggles over his eyes and the lense of the left one changes to an orange tint. Duel On!
"Since it's a two on one, I'll take the first move." I draw and survey my hand and give a cold laugh. "First I'll summon out a little friend called Malefic Drive. [Malefic Drive is a level 3 monster with 1300 attack and 1200 defense] Next I'll lay one card face down and end my turn."
Chapter 5 – Will to Win
Star POV
"Next I'll lay one card face down and end my turn." I breathe a sigh of relief. I thought I might have to deal with something serious damage on the first turn. No...I can't think about myself...This is for Yuma!
"Well then it's my move! I draw! I'll special summon Cyber Dragon in defense mode since I have no monsters and you have one! Next I'll set one monster in defense mode and throw two face downs."
"Not so fast. I reveal my facedown…Malefic Archfiend. You'll see the effect later." says X in the same cold voice.
"Then, if that's all, my turn!" Yusei draws. "I activate the Spell Card, Double Summon! I'll Normal Summon Junk Synchron and Speed Warrior! Then I tune both my monsters to Synchro Summon...Junk Warrior!" Woww! Amazing! I'm seeing Yusei's moves in the flesh!
"Malefic Archfiend's effect activates!" Uh oh. "When my opponent, or in this case, opponents, have Special Summoned two monsters and I haven't Special Summoned since the duel started, I can destroy both your Cyber Dragon and Junk Warrior, and inflict damage to you equal to their Levels times 100!"
"Aaaah no!" Cyber Dragon explodes and a bolt of dark energy streaks at me. When it hits, just as the twins said, I feel real damage, and fall to one knee. LP 3500. The same thing happens to Yusei. LP 3500. X continues, "Not only that, but Archfiend lets me add one 'Malefic' Spell to my hand and then, Tribute my monster to add one 'Malefic' monster from my deck to my hand!"
"...I'll lay two cards facedown and end my turn!" Now X is up. He draws with an evil smirk.
"The first thing I'll do is play the field spell Malefic World!" As he slots it into place, the dimension around us changes to a sort of purple, space-y void. "Now, from the Graveyard, I activate Malefic Drive's special ability! By banishing it when Malefic World is on the field, I can bring back one monster from my opponent's Graveyard, and decrease its attack to zero by giving up 1000 Life Points!" X LP 7000. His monster gets sucked into the banishing black hole, and a circle opens in front of Yusei. His Junk Warrior comes out, except drained of color and looking like a puppet with cut strings. And its ATK is 0. X plays a card from his hand. "Hehehehe. Now I'll activate the card Pot of Greed. Now I can draw two more cards!" X draws two cards and I prepare myself. Now I'll banish the card Red Eyes Black Dragon from my deck to special summon Malefic Red Eyes Black Dragon! X points one finger at me,
"Attack him directly. MOLTEN FIRE BLAST!" I prepare myself to take some serious damage when suddenly Yusei says,
" I activate the trap Scrapiron Scarecrow!" The attack is negated and I sink to my knees, breathing heavily. We…We don't stand a chance…, No… Yuma was there for me… NOW I'M GONNA AVAENGE HIM! I finish out loud. X laughs in that same cold voice,
"Well then, show me what you have little 'hero',"
"I will! My move! First up I activate the spell Monster Reborn! Now Cyber dragon returns to the field!" Cyber Dragon materializes in front of me, "Next I'm summoning out