Disclaimer: I do not own the Yu-Gi-Oh! GX series or any cards used in this story, however I do own all original characters and original cards.

Author's Note: This is my very first fanfic, so reviews are highly appreciated but flames are intolerable. This story takes place 15 years after Jaden's adventure at Duel Academy. It resembles the original series plot, so enjoy and without further ado, I present the first chapter of A New Adventure!

Chapter 1: The Trial Exams

The light from the early morning sun broke through Zachary's window. He woke up knowing that this morning was different than the others. Why? Because this was the day he takes his trial exams for the legendary Duel Academy. Once that thought shot through his head, he was up out of bed and getting ready.

"Zachary!" shouted his mother from the bottom of the stairs, "I hope you didn't forget about your exams!"

"I didn't ma, but thanks for the reminder!" he replied while putting on some fresh clothes, and in less than 20 minutes, he was out the door on his way to the Testing Center.

Zachary Curtis was an average teenager. Fifteen years old with dark blue eyes and black hair that was naturally spiked forward. He had a calm and collected personality, but the excitement of taking the trial exams distracted him from looking out for other pedestrians.

"Hey, watch where your going!" shouted probably the fifth man he had run into.

"Sorry 'bout that," apologized Zachary, but when he looked back to his direction, a tall building with a massive string of kids coming out of the door. Just the line to get in was longer than the body of Slifer the Sky Dragon. Zachary had quickly got into what he believed was the shortest line, but he soon discovered that the line he had just entered stretched around the building. After a wait for what seemed like a lifetime, he got to the receptionist.

"Name please," asked the receptionist.

"Zachary Curtis," he replied with a confident look on his face, but it soon turned to an expression of worry when the receptionist took a decent amount of time finding his name.

"Oh, here it is, I'm so sorry for the hesitance," laughed the receptionist, "So: Zachary Curtis, age: 15, born July 27, 2008. Is this information correct?"

"Yes," he replied with a sigh of relief.

"Okay then, here's your test booklet and answer sheet, and just sit in any available seat," said the receptionist as she handed the test materials.

"Thank you very much," and with that, Zachary took the first empty seat he saw and began the test that decides his position in Duel Academy.

After a grueling four hours of nothing but questions on duel monsters, Zachary walked home with some fellow test-takers.

"Damn, I thought it would never end," said one of the test-takers commenting on the length of the test.

"I know, for a moment there, I thought I was going to swear off duel monsters forever," Zachary added, "Well hopefully I'll see you guys at Duel Academy."

"Same here", agreed the test-takers as they walked off in their own directions.

After enjoying dinner and telling his parents about the test, he retired to bed and had late night fantasies about himself enjoying the luxuries of the highly talked about Obelisk Blue dorm. Just as he was about to be nominated as the greatest duelist ever to attend the Academy, the light of the morning sun ended the sweet dream. With a disappointed sigh, he pulled himself out of bed and opened his laptop. While checking his email, he noticed one labeled: Trial Exam Results: Urgent Message to Zachary Curtis. As soon as he saw his name and urgent in the same sentence, Zachary quickly moved his mouse over to the message and clicked on it. The instant it opened up, he read what it said:

Dear Zachary Curtis,

When we graded your exam, something very interesting caught our attention. It seems that you have scored far higher than any other student in your testing block. With these results, Duel Academy is considered to be too simple, and we have recommended you to a school of a higher degree, in which you have been accepted into. South Honors Duel Academy is far more rigorous, but your skills will greatly improve. All you have to do is attend the initiation duel tomorrow at 3:00 pm. We are deeply sorry if you had high hopes of coming to Duel Academy, but if South Honors does not recognize your skills, we will happily accept you. The ship to South Honors Academy will board and depart on Saturday, September 27. We hope you enjoy your years at South Honors Academy and have a great day.

Sincerely, Chancellor Crowler and the Duel Academy Staff.

Zachary sat at in his chair, mouth hanging open as he digested the news he had just been fed. When he came back to Earth, he was overjoyed that a better school had accepted him, albeit that he was a bit saddened by the fact that he wasn't able to attend his favorite dueling school, but he decided to suck it up and go with the flow he called his life. He checked his calendar and saw that Saturday the 27 was only two days away, so he picked up his deck and began training for his initiation duels tomorrow.

"Oh, I'm so happy that my boy is taking an initiation duel for one of the best schools in the world!" exclaimed Mrs. Curtis while suffocating him in a death hug.

"I know mom, I'm excited too, but can you let me go? I won't live long enough to take the duel with your grip," Zachary choked out with the little breath had left.

"Haha, let him go Margaret, the boy has to concentrate, those duelists he's about to face are far tougher than what he would've at Duel Academy," warned Mr. Curtis.

"I know, honey, I'm just so happy he's attending the school that has been the passion for my family for years," Margaret noted.

"Really, Mom? So Grandma and Grandpa had wanted to go to South Honors?" asked Zachary, curious about what he had just heard.

"Of course, your mother almost made it in if I hadn't have messed up on the last few turns," Margaret added.

'Huh, so mom could've been a South Honors alumni. That's pretty cool, but it's even cooler that I'm the first one of my family to make it in,' thought Zachary as he looked at the clock which read 2:45.

"Oh shit!" cried Zachary, "I'm gonna be late!"

"Hey watch your mouth young man, do you want a ride?" offered Mr. Curtis.

"Nah, it's okay Dad, I'll just skate over there," said Zachary as he hurried out the door and rode his way towards the Duel Center.

"Ah, look at all these fresh new faces," said one of the examiners.

"Yep, it looks like there's going to be a good amount of freshmen this year," added another, noticing the amount of talent being shown during the present Duels.

"Looks can be quite deceiving, gentlemen," countered an examiner who also had front spiked hair, dressed in a long, white overcoat and spoke in a slight accent.

"C'mon Professor Romero, there is clearly a great deal of skill down there," replied one of the examiners, trying to give faith to the students.

Professor Romero shot a glare at the examiner, "You have to remember that the initiation duelists are supposed to go easy on these new ones, to at least give them a sporting chance in getting into the school. But anyway, a duel has been won, so call up the next opponent."

The examiner took a look at his clipboard, "Huh, looks like this is is the last duel of the day." The examiner turned on the intercom," ZACHARY CURTIS, PLEASE REPORT TO DUEL STATION 1!"

Zachary immediately woke up due to the sudden and loud call to his name. He proceeded to the station assigned, which he quickly noted that it was the middle arena.

'Great, looks like everyone's gonna be watchin' this one,' thought Zachary. Brushing that off, he looked towards the examiners and asked,"So, who's up?" Zachary looked over to the crowd to see a student with a white jacket uniform and back-spiked, jet-black hair glaring at him who looked about his age. Zachary swallowed his words instantly.

'This cocky little noob, I'll knock him right outta the park,' thought the overseer.

"Your opponent will be... Riley Bogard!" announced the examiner. With that said, the same student that was glaring at Zachary stood up and entered the arena.

Professor Romero saw Riley's evil grin and shouted at him,"Hey, Riley! Don't be too hard on him!"

"I'll make this quick Professor," replied Riley, "He won't be going to South Honors anytime soon."

Zachary and Riley took their respective places on the arena, activated their duel discs and drew their cards.

"Ready?" spat Riley.

"Let's duel!" shouted Zachary.

Zachary: 4000/ Riley: 4000

Riley drew his first card," I'll start. I put one card face-down in defense mode, and end my turn."

Riley had a wicked grin thrown across his face when the large holographic card appeared on his side of the field.

"Okay, draw! I summon Ancient Gear Soldier (ATK:1300/DEF: 1300) in attack mode, and equip it with Ancient Gear Tank, which boosts its attack by 600 (ATK: 1900/ DEF: 1300). And with that, I attack your face-down."

With that command, the mechanical soldier aimed its arm cannon and fired a barrage of bullets that struck the face-down with great power. The face-down revealed itself to be a turtle with a pyramid-like shell, before it shattered and was sent to the graveyard.

"HA! I knew you would be so stupid as to attack, because you just destroyed my Pyramid Turtle (ATK: 1200/ DEF: 1400), so I get to special summon one Zombie-type monster with a defense of 2000 or less from my deck to the field!" Riley then took his deck and found the one card he was looking for,"I summon Vampire Lord (ATK: 2000/ DEF:1500) in attack mode!" When he put the card on his disk, a regal looking vampire male rose from the ground. Zachary was taken aback by his recent move, but refocused.

"I set one face-down, and end," concluded Zachary.

"My turn, so I remove my Vampire Lord from play and summon Vampire Genesis (ATK: 3000/ DEF: 2100)!", when Riley said that, his Vampire Lord burned in a huge pillar of flames and what emerged was an even more fearsome monster appeared in its place. The spectating audience was filled with oohs and ahhs.

"Since that was a special summon, I summon Regenerating Mummy (ATK: 1800/ DEF: 1500) in attack mode! With these kick-ass monsters in play, I attack your soldier with Genesis, and my mummy will attack your life points!"

As soon as he said that, Vampire Genesis took aim at his soldier and attacked. Zachary's soldier stood no chance against the beast. But once his soldier was gone, he felt a sharp pain go through his body when he was attacked by his Regenerating Mummy.

Zachary: 1100/ Riley: 4000

Riley laughed as he watched Zachary get up and continue the duel.

"Just give up already! You only have 1100 life points left and no monsters on the field. I can't believe you wererecommended for South Honors Academy," Riley insulted Zachary and put an evil emphasis on his name.

"I never back down from anything, no matter the situation," with that said, Zachary's normal, calm, personality changed into a more serious and tensed up one.

'What the hell's up with this kid? For one moment he was like any other duelist, now he's all serious and tense.' "What the hell are you up to?" demanded Riley.

"Winning this duel," as Zachary drew his next card, he smiled and threw it onto his duel disc.

"I summon Ancient Gear (ATK: 100/ DEF: 800) in attack mode!" Zachary called out as a small, rusty, little robot composed merely of gears emerged from the ground.

"Are you serious?" mocked Riley,"That was your super-awesome pl-" Zachary cut him off. "I wasn't done yet, I activate Machine Duplication, which allows me to special summon up to two more Machine-type monsters with the same name as one on my field with 500 or less attack points. So that means my Ancient Gear is going to get a friend."

One more Ancient Gear emerged from the ground and positioned itself next to its friend.

"So what, they're still weak!" Riley exclaimed, as he prepared to draw.

"I'm still not done, so if you would be so kind as to remove your hand from that card on your deck," Zachary ordered as Riley did what he was told.

"I activate my face-down trap card Ultimate Offering! This little trap allows me to summon one more monster at the cost of 500 life points," Zachary explained.

Zachary: 600/ Riley: 4000

"Now, I tribute two of my Ancient Gears to bring out, Ancient Gear Golem (ATK: 3000/ DEF: 3000)!" Zachary summoned the massive beast from his hand. Riley stepped back a few steps in fear of the newly summoned monster, but he quickly regained his composure when he noticed that the attack points of his Vampire Genesis and Zachary's Golem were equal.

"You wasted all that time to summon something that won't even destroy me?" Riley laughed,"Wow! You're more pathetic than I thought!"

"That's why I have this," Zachary interrupted as he revealed the card last card in his hand, "I activate Limiter Removal!"

Many spectators gasped when they heard what he had activated. Riley took note of this and looked around the arena, "What?" Riley then looked over to Zachary and barked, "What the hell does that card do?"

Zachary smiled and explained, "Limiter Removal is a card that doubles the attack of all Machine-type monsters on my side of the field, and destroys them at the end of the turn."

Riley's mouth dropped open as he predicted for what was coming next.

"So Ancient Gear Golem (ATK: 6000/ DEF: 3000) attack his Regenerating Mummy! Mechanized Melee!" commanded Zachary as the Golem slammed its massive fist into the mummy and dropping Riley's life points to zero.

Zachary: 600/ Riley: 0

The audience cheered as Riley fell to his knees in defeat. 'I can't believe some noob finished me in one turn!'

'Wow, this kid certainly has a bright future at South Honors,' thought Professor Romero as he got up and left the building.

Zachary was distracted by the cheers and celebratory handshakes given by the spectators and examiners, but the one thing that shot through his mind, is that a new adventure will be awaiting him tomorrow.

And that's a wrap on Chapter 1!

Thanks so much for reading and reviews are appreciated!

Author's Note: I hope you understood that Zachary was born in 2008, which is the year the last episode of Yu-Gi-Oh! GX aired. That means this story takes place in 2023. I just wanted to tie in the original series with this fic, to give it some sort of chronology.

I hope to get Chapter 2 up and running soon!