Yuya Sakaki was not having the best week.

In the span of a few days, he'd somehow managed, in no particular order, to:

1. Get caught up in an interdimensional war (finding out one of his friends was from the invading side in the process),

2. Find out he had doppelgangers in at least two of those warring dimensions,

3. Become possessed by the spirit of someone from one of those dimensions,

4. Discover that an important tournament he spent the past few months training for was a front to find people to fight on the front lines of the war, and

5. Get stuck in a completely different dimension from any of the aforementioned ones.

…now that Yuya thought about it, that ordered itself pretty well.

In any case, with all of that safely behind him, Yuya thought that the worst had passed. He may not have wound up in the right place, but hey, at least the locals were friendly! Well, for the most part, anyway. Jaune and Ren seemed like they were humoring him more than anything else, but Nora and Ruby seemed to genuinely believe his story. Maybe they could help out in the fight against Duel Academy. They seemed pretty strong too, even if they didn't have any Duel Monsters cards to fight with.

Things were looking up for Yuya.

Until he looked up, anyway.

Not one minute later, he had a gun pointed at his face. Well, a cane, but it was pretty obvious that the hollowed-out barrel inside wasn't there to make the cane lighter. Yuya looked at the man holding the cane. He recognized the outfit that the man and his companion wore immediately, and both the duel disks they held on their wrists and the monster beside them confirmed it.

They were from Duel Academy.

His hand gripped the five cards he had just drawn tight. There wasn't any other explanation for this, at least not one he could think of at the moment. But how'd they make it to this world? Weren't they going to invade Synchro?

A fleeting thought sent shivers down Yuya's spine. What if they already did?

Yuya looked to the others. Even he could tell that they were holding onto their weapons tighter than a vice, and Ruby especially seemed rattled by the newcomers. Specifically by the newcomers. He noticed Jaune in particular shooting fleeting glances at the giant bird (Yuya didn't recognize the card, but he was sure it was some kind of fusion monster), but for the most part their attention was trained on the duo. The man had mentioned something red…was he talking about Ruby?

Just what was going on here?

The silence between the groups lasted for a few seconds longer, before the man lowered his cane with a very loud, pronounced sigh. "Oh, come on. I figured I'd leave you speechless, but I wasn't expecting Neo-levels here." The girl (presumably Neo) shot him a glare, aiming her parasol in his direction before jabbing it forward. The man jumped backwards, his chest coming within a hair's breadth of meeting the tip of the parasol. "Hey, watch it!" The man pushed the parasol away. "I didn't cheat death just to get killed because you don't have a sense of humor." Even with no sound coming out of her mouth, Yuya could tell that Neo was more than likely growling at the man. Her attentions, however, quickly turned to Yuya himself, who took a step back. She tugged on the man's sleeve. "What?" She pointed ahead, and the man glanced straight at Yuya. "Well, who do we have-"

"Torchwick…" The man paused, and tilted his head slightly to face Ruby. She took a step forward, stopping quickly as Torchwick raised his cane again. "How did you-you were-"

"Eaten? Devoured whole by that Griffon? Turned into Grimm chow?" He grinned, shrugging. "Who knows? Maybe it was a little bit of divine intervention? Maybe-"

A shot rang past Torchwick's head, skimming off a small bit of fabric from his hat as it zoomed by. Yuya turned to see Ren, Storm Flower at the ready and a determined expression on his face. Jaune looked like he was about to scream bloody murder, while Nora gave Ren a quick thumbs up. Ruby was still tense, though, adjusting Crescent Rose into rifle mode. Torchwick's grin morphed into a scowl as he raised his cane. "Fine. You want to skip to the good part?" A red glow began to emanate from the cane's barrel. "Me too."

With that, Torchwick fired at the group, a red flare erupting from the cane. Ruby fired Crescent Rose at the exact same time, causing an explosion as the two shots collided in mid-air. The force of the blast nearly sent Yuya flying off his feet, but he and the others managed to hold their ground as the ensuing cloud of smoke billowed outward. Yuya held up his arms to block the smoke, coughing as it enveloped the team. He quickly noticed his duel disk flashing and glanced down at it. A pop-up blinked in and out with a simple message: "Would you like to begin the duel with R. Torchwick? Y/N"

Suddenly, the phoenix burst through the smoke, with Torchwick in tow on top of its armor, nearly clotheslining Jaune in the process. The blonde swordsman managed to use his shield to block the flames from the bird's wing just in the nick of time, his shield pointed upwards as he tried to avoid the embers. The phoenix hovered in mid-air a short distance away, blasting fireballs from its mouth. Ren and Ruby both began to fire at the flames, knocking the balls off course into the snow and away from the others.

Yuya began to run towards the duo, but a shout of "Stay back!" from Ren stopped him in his tracks.

"But I can't just stand here! I can help-"

"Don't worry your spiky little head, Yuya!" Nora smirked as she lightly pushed the boy aside. "We got this all under control. Jaune, stay right there!" Nora zipped past Yuya (before he even realized she moved) and darted towards Jaune, Magnhild gripped tight in her hands. "Don't move! I wanna do that move from The Revengers!"

Jaune's eyes widened as Nora stampeded her way towards him. "Whoa, hold on, Nora! Just give me a sec-"

Nora leapt into the air and landed on top of Jaune's shield, eliciting a quick "Ow!" from its owner.

"Liftoff!"

Jaune groaned in exasperation, but took his cue and pushed the shield upwards, catapulting Nora into the air. The huntress let out a cheery "woo-hoo!" as she flew towards the phoenix and raised her hammer high. However, a pink and black blur came into her line of vision just before she brought Magnhild down. A very familiar parasol opened up immediately after, and the hammer came to a halt on top of it. As a resounding gong rang through her ears, Nora fired off a couple of grenades, using the recoil to launch herself backwards. The parasol bounced the grenades into the air, where they quickly exploded in an electrical eruption. Nora gritted her teeth as Neo smiled innocently, the two landing back onto the ground with a thud.

Jaune ran ahead to help Nora, but paused as he heard a growl from close by. He turned around and saw a pack of Beowolves coming out from the forest, likely the same ones that Yuya had scared off earlier. The Grimm glanced at the scene before them, the lead one focusing its attention on the only thing not locked in battle: Jaune. His shoulders slumped as the Grimm made their way forward. "Oh, you have got to be kidding me."

Yuya watched on in awe as the battle raged, narrowly dodging a fireball as it fell to the ground next to him. This battle was like nothing he had ever seen before-even he had to admit, this gave Action Duels a run for their money in the thrill department. But even as he watched the hunters move and fight, the pit in his stomach grew. He knew they said they'd be fine-and they seemed to be proving it-, and he knew this was a lot more dangerous of a battle than he had ever been in, but he couldn't help but feel the pit get deeper and deeper. The past few days had taught him that nothing was ever as easy as it seemed. He looked at his disk again, the pop-up still flashing. Yuya reached for his belt with his free hand, poking around the various box-shaped pockets. He drew his hand out from one of them, and held up a card with what looked like strange circuitry on it.

"…maybe…"

Torchwick laughed uproariously as chaos unfolded around him, his arms outstretched wide. "Isn't this fun, Red? Think about it! Monsters even more powerful than the strongest Grimm, at my disposal! Under my control! I mean, can you even imagine how good this kind of power feels? I could take on anyone! The White Fang, Ironwood, and especially that bitch Ci-"He stopped, glancing down at the two gunslingers who were fighting off the fireballs. "Are any of you people even listening to me? Honestly." He tapped his foot on the armor beneath him. "Hey, birdbrain!" The phoenix looked up at Torchwick, who pointed his cane down towards Ruby. "Get her attention."

The phoenix looked down towards Ruby, flames growing in its maw. The quick stop to the barrage caused Ruby to fire at nothing, with the sudden recoil sending her to the ground. Crescent Moon slid out of her hands, landing at Yuya's feet. She looked up, her eyes widening in horror as she saw the phoenix looming over her. As Ren attempted to run to Ruby, flames from the bird's wings fell into a circle around her. The flames erupted upwards, creating a wall of fire that burned Ruby's left hand as she tried to reach for Crescent Rose. She recoiled and screamed in pain, a horrifying sound that echoed throughout the forest.

That was it.

Yuya had waited long enough.

The boy ran towards Jaune, who had just sliced off the head of the last of the Beowolf pack and was looking in Ruby's direction with a terror-filled expression. "Jaune," Yuya called out, "your shield!"

Without even looking at the boy, Jaune raised the shield over his head. "Which way?"

"Straight ahead!"

"You got it!"

Yuya jumped, landing on the shield. Jaune pushed up with all his might, launching Yuya upwards towards the ring of fire. Yuya held up his disk, gritting his teeth as he began his descent. He saw Roman's disk glow, and at that instant, he pressed the "Y" button on the prompt. "Please, let this work!"

Torchwick was none too concerned about the flying boy, his focus solely on Ruby. He leaned down, towering over the girl as she stood up to face him. She curled her hands into fists, her burned hand twitching in pain but still locked into a ball. "Still got some spunk, kid! I'm impressed." Torchwick mockingly tipped his hat as the phoenix began to open its mouth, embers spewing from the sides of its jaw. His smile was a wider one than Ruby had ever seen him have. "Now, just so we're clear on this, Red…" The man's eyes shone bright with fury and malice. "…this is extremely personal."

Ruby stared him straight in the eyes as flames began to obscure her vision.

Then, right as she could feel the heat on her face, she heard a voice.

"Action field spell activated. Cross Over."

The flames vanished-all of the flames did, in fact. The fires burning around them, the ring, and even the burst from the bird itself.

Torchwick's smile vanished just as quickly. The phoenix let out a pained cry and exploded into a burst of light, leaving nothing but air below its former owner. As he fell, square, blue platforms appeared all throughout the immediate area. These platforms split up the combatants-Nora and Neo were now at different heights from each other, and Ren and Jaune were now equally high-up, though far apart. A platform materialized right before Torchwick hit the ground, a hollow "thunk" echoing as he landed. "Argh!"

Ruby looked up at her teammates. No platform had appeared underneath her; rather, she was still in the ring of scorched earth as before, with less fire, thankfully. She cupped her hands over her mouth, shouting out, "Are you guys ok?"

"We're fine," Jaune called back, "but what about you?"

"I'm-"She paused, looking behind her. She saw Crescent Rose lying on the ground and dashed towards it, grabbing it with her left hand. She yelped in pain, dropping it to the ground with a clatter. She paused for a moment before using her right hand to pick it up. "…I'm fine."

"…uh, guys?" Ruby looked over to Nora's platform. Neo wasn't making any moves (instead seemingly trying to block the sun out with her parasol), but Nora seemed to be scouring the area. "Anyone know where Yuya went?"

"Look to the skies above, ladies and gentlemen!" Far above the cluster of platforms was a solitary square, and Ruby could spot a familiar-looking silhouette standing atop it. "As much of a spectacle as all that was, I'm pretty sure none of you would exactly call that "fun", right?" The shadow hopped off the platform, flipping in the air as it landed on the centermost platform of the cluster.

Yuya spread his arms out wide as he stood up straight. His left hand still held the same five cards he drew at the start of the fight. A ball of light, surrounded by what looked like Duel Monsters cards, hovered above him. "That's why I'm pleased to announce that for the first time ever, the world of Remnant will experience the action, the thrills, and the fun that the Standard Dimension has been enjoying for years and years! You're going to experience the spectacular showstopper that is the You Show School brand…" Yuya shot an arm into the air, pointing towards the heavens. "Action Duel!"

"What the hell are you going on about, kid? Who are you?" Yuya lowered his arms and faced Torchwick. The older man dusted off his outfit, picking up a card from the duel disk. "And what did you do to my Blaze Fenix?"

"Oh, is that what it's called? That's good to know!" Yuya smirked, raising up the arm his duel disk rested on. "And for the record, my name's Yuya Sakaki, and the field reset when we agreed to the duel. I figured it out once I saw that my duel disk reacted to your's. Didn't you notice?" The dirty look on Torchwick's face was answer enough. "You must be really new over at Duel Academy, huh?"

"Shut up. I didn't agree to anything here." The joking tone was gone from the man's voice. He glared down at Ruby, who held Crescent Rose aloft in a threatening manner. "Do you have any idea what I've been put through because of her? The chances I've lost because of her meddling? The life I almost lost because she couldn't keep her nose out of other people's business?! Do you have any idea what you just took away from me?!" Ruby was stunned. Had she really driven him to that much anger? That much hatred?

"No. I don't." Yuya glanced down at Ruby. He couldn't see too much detail on her hand, but it looked bad. Really bad. "But that doesn't give you the right to take away anything from anyone else. Plus, if we're being honest," Yuya added, "I've seen people from Duel Academy that still have some good in them, that still have a chance to learn from their mistakes. You definitely don't fit into that category."

Yuya could almost hear Torchwick break a tooth from grinding his teeth so hard.

"…you know what?" Torchwick put the Blaze Fenix card into a slot on the duel disk. "Fine. I'll humor you. You know why?" Yuya shook his head. "You've managed to do something that, up to this point, only Red has successfully been able to do."

"Oh? And what might that be?"

Torchwick drew five cards from the top of his deck, his gaze piercing through the air towards Yuya. "Make me want to murder someone as slowly and painfully as humanly possible." He balled his free hand into a fist. "Maybe beating you at your own game will teach you not to screw with grown-ups, kid." As he spoke, Neo leaped away from Nora (who responded with an indignant "Hey!") and towards her companion. Torchwick held out a hand as she drew closer. "No. I'll handle this. You take care of her team. I want them down and out before this is over." He turned his gaze to Ruby. "I'll take care of you soon, Red! I've just got a pest problem I've got to deal with first."

Yuya raised his hand back to the sky. "You might find this pest is a bit more persistent than most!" He drew his index finger and thumb together. Roman readied his duel disk. "Alright, it's time to start the show! Say it with me, everyone! Five!"

Nora raised Magnhild to the sky, smirking as Neo landed back in front of her, parasol at the ready. "Four!"

Jaune shook his head. This was ridiculous. Utterly ridiculous. But… "Three!"

Ren sighed. There was strange, and then there was this. Still. "Two."

Ruby planted Crescent Rose on the ground. Her left hand still hurt a bit, but she managed to give a thumbs up with it nonetheless. She wasn't sure why; she could probably have done it far easier with her right hand. But seeing the look on Torchwick's face was worth it. "One!"

Yuya looked down at his new friends. He wasn't sure when he was going to get to the Synchro Dimension. He wasn't sure when he was going to find Yuzu. He wasn't even sure how well he'd do in this duel.

But he was sure he was going to have fun all the way through.

"Action…" Yuya snapped his fingers, and the ball of light dispersed across the field, sending cards flying in all directions.

The curtain was up. The show had begun. It was time to…

"…Duel!"