A raucous crowd had gathered in the large central plaza of Juego City, drawn to the spectacle of a titanic clash. It was the end of the preliminary rounds of Juego city's annual Duel Monsters tournament, the Summer Duel Carnival! The gathered crowd watched creature after creature, duelist after duelist fall until only a few remained, all to thunderous cheers. The competitors had dueled amongst themselves, slowly whittling down the field until only eight of them remained. The crowd was going wild with cheers as four final duels came to a close signaling the four competitors moving on the the next round.

The first of the duels was going on between a young man in his twenties and an old man. The young man, named Alex had messy, blonde hair and a pair of goggles on his head. He had been nervous at the start, but had finally taken the upper hand in the duel. He beamed as he saw his chance to end the duel and take a spot in the tournament's final round. Alex pointed at his opponent and announced proudly, "Alright let's finish this Galaxy-Eyes, Photon Stream of Destruction!" Alex's creature, Galaxy-eyes Photon Dragon was a huge, bipedal dragon. It's body had thick blue armor covering its arms and legs and it's bare skin lowed blue with power. Galaxy-Eyes roared at Alex's opponent. It reared back its head and lunged forward, unleashing a blast of light from its gaping jaws at the other duelist, causing a small explosion and lowering his life-points to zero. As his dragon's hologram disappeared, Alex leapt high into the air, cheering, "Yes! Yes! I did it I'm in!" He was one step closer; this could be it! His celebration was cut short by yet another explosion nearby. He had nearly forgotten, his friends were in this round too! Alex waved good-bye to his opponent and quickly ran into the crowd to see the results of the nearest duel, where his friend, Bishop, was dueling. Just as Alex expected, Bishop looked completely calm and had won.

Dressed in a pressed, black suit with a checker-board tie, Bishop looked more at home in a business meeting than on a duel field. His styled, orderly white hair and thin frame didn't help the assumption. However, the white haired young man had more than proven his mettle by reducing his opponent's life-points to zero while losing none of his own. Bishop let out a sigh and walked to his opponent, shaking the hand of the now blushing girl. He then turned to the crowd and waved at Alex. Alex tried to return the gesture, but was quickly drowned out by the throng of screaming, teenage girls that had surrounded the duel field, clamoring to get a look at Bishop.

After Bishop had appeased his fan club, he walked up next to Alex and gave him a handshake. Bishop smiled and said, "Congratulations on making it in, Alex. Excited?"

Alex was nearly shaking, "You better believe it! I thought I was done for in that last duel!"

Bishop chuckled and said, "No need to be nervous, you've never been one to falter from a challenge."

Alex looked around for a moment, trying to spot his last two friends' duels. Eventually, he spotted his girlfriend Mary's ace monster, a fearsome three-headed creature called the Blue-eyes Ultimate Dragon. Alex couldn't see Mary or her opponent through the crowd so he signaled to Bishop and said, "Come on, it looks like Mary is still dueling!"

The pair made their way through the crowd, Bishop commenting, "Whoever she's dueling must be pretty good to have kept her busy for this long."

"Yeah, Mary usually finishes duels fast." Alex agreed, nodding. Realizing he had nearly forgotten his last friend's duel, he asked, "Hey, do you know how Chester's duel went?"

Bishop shrugged as they reached the edge of the crowd. They finally got a good look at Mary's opponent as a monstrous roar erupted from his side of the field.

"You've got to be kidding me..." Alex said, mouth gaping.

"Oh that figures." Bishop smirked, rolling his eyes.

Mary grit her teeth as her opponent summoned a massive monster. She wasn't going to let this guy win this one! Her curly brown hair blew around her face as the monster created a fiery wind when it was summoned. Her opponent smirked as the wind whipped his crimson hair and black jacket around. In front of him stood his favorite monster, Jurrac Titanno. A tremendous red dinosaur that seemed to have lava flowing under its skin. The young man, about Alex's age, called out to Mary, "Ready to call it quits Mary-not-so-scary?"

"Stuff it Chester, Barney over there is dragon food!" Mary snapped back.

"Ha! Jurrac Titanno will show you and that deformed gecko who is really 'Ultimate'". Chester said boldly, clenching a fist. Despite the posturing, Chester knew he was in trouble. He and Marry each had only 500 life points left. If he didn't end this duel now, Mary would on the next turn. The cards in his hand wouldn't grant him a victory, he only had one chance. Chester placed the spell from his hand onto his duel disk. "I activate Trade-in! I send Ultimate Tyranno to the graveyard to draw 2 cards from my deck." Chester drew the first card and drew Jurassic World.

"Useless..." Chester muttered as he reached for the next card. This was it, he needed to draw the right card or this was the end. He closed his eyes and drew the second card. As he saw it, his eyes widened. This was it!

"First I activate my field spell, Jurassic World! This gives my Titanno an extra 300 attack points!"

Jurrac Titanno's points rose to 3300 as the field changed into a prehistoric jungle, but Chester wasn't finished. He pointed to Titanno and called out, "Next I activate Titanno's special ability. By banishing Jurrac Stauriko from my grave, he gains another 1000 points!" Titanno roared as it was surrounded in a crimson aura and its power rose, yet again.

This was it, the final move! "Finally, I activate Forbidden Lance to drop 800 attack points from your dragon!" Chester cried as a golden spear flew from the card on his duel disk, piercing Mary's dragon, its power reducing by 800 points.

Jurrac Titanno 4300 Atk

Blue-eyes Ultimate Dragon 3700 Atk

"No!" Mary cried as Chester wound up the final blow.

"Go Jurrac Titanno, Primordial Hunter!" Chester commanded. With a roar like an erupting volcano, Jurrac Titanno surged forward slamming its jaws onto the dragon. In an explosion of light Mary's dragon disappeared and Titanno and its master roared in victory as Mary's life points fell to zero.

With the final duel completed, the crowd began to disperse. Through the thinning crowd, Alex and Bishop ran forward to congratulate and console their friends. Bishop came up next to Chester, who was beaming, and clapped him on the shoulder. "Way to go Ches! Nice win!"

"It was an awesome win, wasn't it?" Chester replied, grinning from ear to ear.

On the other end of the field, Alex had wrapped his arm around Mary's shoulders. "It's ok Mary, you did great."

She quickly shoved him off and grumbled, "Shut up, Alex..." Tensely, she walked over to Chester, her arms crossed. She extended one arm to him and said, "Congratulations Chester. I guess I'll just win the next one."

Chester looked at Mary's hand then grinned sneakily, shaking it slowly. "Sure, I look forward to it."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Mary asked, her eyes narrowing.

"Oh nothing, I just like surprises is all." Chester said, fighting down a giggle.

"Surprise my foot! I beat you loads of times!" Mary yelled back.

Bishop and Alex rolled their eyes. They locked gazes as they had the same thought, 'Are these two physically required to antagonize each other?' They both planned to call off the little bout, but Chester decided to give Mary a break.

Chester extended his hand to Mary in a real handshake this time. "He smiled warmly, stowing the impish grin and said, "Seriously Mary, thanks for the duel. It would suck if I didn't earn my spot in the carnival. At least with you, I know I earned it."

Still a little steamed, Mary accepted Chester's hand. Eventually she smiled and replied, "Can't let those fossils get soft, can I?"

As Mary and Chester finally let their rivalry cool down, Alex jumped up and said, "Alright, PRELIM-ENTRY-CELEBRATION-PIZZA IS ON ME GUYS!" Alex walked off towards a pizza parlor on the edge of the plaza. As his friends followed behind him, Chester turned to Bishop and Mary, whispering, "You guys remembered to bring your own cash, right?"

Mary and Bishop both nodded and said, "Of course..."

To Alex's surprise (and no one else's), he had forgotten his wallet. Thankfully, his friends had their own cash and paid for the pizza. While eating pizza, the conversation eventually came to Alex's plans following the tournament. "I actually got in touch with a few sponsors. They've sent a few scouts who are gonna watch me during the tournament."

Chester choked on his pizza, "Wait, are you serious?!"

Alex just shrugged and said, "Well... yeah." He had always talked about becoming a pro-duelist. He wanted to be a top-rated duelist, just like his older sister. It was his biggest dream, but he had never actually done anything to really pursue it until now. "If I do well and they sign me-"

"You'll be on the fast track to the pro-circuit!" Chester interrupted, excitedly.

"Alex, that's amazing." Mary blurted, her face looking like she'd swallowed something nasty.

Chester and Alex were completely oblivious, they just kept talking about all the prizes Alex would win and how much Alex would travel. Luckily, Bishop caught it and decided to change the subject. He patted Alex on the back and said, "Alex that's great, your sister would be so proud of you."

"Yeah, maybe she'll see me out there one day." Alex said, a single tear welling up in his eye. It had been nearly 12 years since his sister, Claire, mysteriously disappeared. One day before an international duelist conference, her hotel room was found completely empty. There were no signs that a person had ever been in the room, much less left. All that was ever found was Claire's deck containing the Galaxy-eyes Photon Dragon card and a note with Alex's name on the envelope.

Alex rubbed the tear from his eye and said, "Claire left me this deck and it's going to bring me my dreams!"

"Hear, hear!" Chester cried, raising a glass of cola. With a dramatic flourish, he said, "To chasing our dreams!"

Alex raised his glass to Chester's and added, "To grabbing hold of them!"

Mary mimicked them and mumbled, "To our dreams."

Bishop chuckled and raised his own glass, but before he spoke gave a meaningful glance at Chester. "To not letting them get away from us!" As they drank Mary couldn't help feeling Bishop was right.

Alex woke up and was standing on...nothing. Below him, above him and all around him there stretched a massive expanse of stars and galaxies. Under his feet he could definitely feel a floor, but if his eyes were right, there was nothing there. Alex began to call out for someone when suddenly, he "heard" a voice.

"Take hold of it."

He didn't hear it exactly, it was more like he just felt the words. As such, he couldn't tell if it was a male or female speaking.

Alex whipped his head around trying to find the speaker. "Who are you? Where are you?" Noticing he was seemingly in space, Alex muttered, "Where am I?"

Again the voice spoke, "You have bright eyes."

Finally, seemingly in the corner of his eye, Alex saw something...no, someone. It was a figure wearing a tattered blue cloak and hood. From bits of gold scattered around the frayed edges, it must have been beautiful once. Now though, it was torn and frayed as if used for battle. Alex turned towards the figure and it did the same. It lifted a slender arm from beneath its cloak and pointed at Alex. The arm had a duel disk on it, the same blue as the cloak in the shape of a swirling galaxy. The voice spoke again, this time in tangible words and a clearly female voice. "You have bright eyes. You must see your future and take hold of it. The figure's duel disk began to glow and sparkle as it activated, the "galaxy" spinning outward until it became the card field.

"Do- do you want to duel me?" Alex stuttered, thoroughly confused. Suddenly, he felt his duel disk on his arm and it began to activate, unfurling into his duel field. Before Alex could even register what was going on, he heard another odd sound, a heartbeat. Where was that coming from? Alex shook his head, what was going on?! The only person there was the cloaked figure.

"Where are we? Who are you?" Alex asked again, but the figure just silently took a dueling stance. "Answer me!" Alex shouted, voice now trembling.

The figure just stood and repeated the phrase, but added "Take hold of your future and open your eyes."

Alex was getting fed up and took the only route he knew how. "Fine, if it's what you want then I'll duel you, but if I win, you'll give me answers!" The figure remained silent as Alex took his own dueling stance, the odd heart beat still ringing in his ears.

His eyes focused on his next opponent, Alex shouted, "LET'S DUEL!"