Yu-Gi-Oh! Generation Fusion!

by Autismo555

A masked man, known as the Controller, has plucked the major focal points of Duel Monsters history and gathered up the biggest villains from each timeline to destroy the history of Duel Monsters itself! Now with the help of their friends and allies, Yugi Muto, Jaden Yuki, Yusei Fudo and Yuma Tsukumo join forces to prevent the threat from destroying the game they love!

10. The Duelists Lost in the Eras!

Okay! First chapter in four months! I intended for this chapter to take about two months to complete, but things have been changing in my life. For one, I have decided to limit my time on the computer and focus more on TV stuff (you know, Netflix, WiiU stuff, all that). The other big thing was that I have moved out of my dad's house, and now I am officially living in an apartment with good people to pay a good rent to! Hooray for independent people!

*Ahem!*

So anyway, I really enjoyed writing this chapter! It was like making a bunch of one-shots making up a whole episode of Yu-Gi-Oh! that focused on the major players of the story, only being blocked a few times to get a lot of things in order, and unofficially coining the language of Kuri monsters, Kuribanese. (Corny, I know, but it just came to me while I was writing Luna's section of the story.)

ANyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter, because next chapter will start the Ancient Egyptian Era Arc because I wanted to do it in chronological order, and because Jaden is my favorite Yu-Gi-Oh! protagonist and I really have fun writing him! So sit back in your (recliner bed, couch, futon or whatever), relax, and enjoy!

---

Alleyway - New Domino City

Yami Yugi was lying face-down in solid concrete, stuck in an alleyway between two slightly run-down buildings. It was dark, cold, and shady like the nighttime in late October, and not even the brightest sunlight shining between the gaps of the building could fully illuminate the area. In this particular case, the red sun in the sky could not brighten the alleyway, but it still produced the solar light, heat, and rays that was necessary for the survival of humanity. Despite all that, the red sun still paled in comparison to the original yellow sun.

Suddenly, consciousness slipped back into Yami's mind as he felt the strength to open his eyes, the first sight he saw being a dirty concrete floor. With a grunt, Yami pushed himself up until he was on all fours, and looked the scenery. "Huh? Where are we?" the King of Games asked himself as he stood up and got another look at his surroundings.

His surroundings consisted of a dusty, dark, and nippy alleyway between two buildings that were cracked and chipped with an exposed layer of bricks underneath. In front of him was a wooden fence, a vertical lumber barrier that worked to keep the raccoons and strays either inside or out of the city streets. At his back of the alleyway was an area leading deeper into shadowy places of the city where only the slyest and crummiest citizens were allowed to wallow in their filth. Initially, Yami had no idea where he was, and neither did the ethereal image of Yugi Muto who suddenly appeared next to him.

"Yugi. Are you alright?" Yami acknowledged his partner.

"I'm fine," Yugi answered his partner. "Just a little dizzy maybe, but I should be okay."

A stillness fell over the Pharaoh reincarnate and Yugi's spirit as they looked around the alleyway. The skyless dark of the Void loomed precariously overhead, swirling above the like a thin layer of dish soap in a dirty frying pan, the liquid-like substance of the Void's space swirling and creating malleable shapes while being bordered with crimson red. Gigantic orbs hovered in the air, the eras and dimensions floating still in the only chunk of space floating in the emptiness.

"So do you have any idea where we might be, Pharaoh?" Yugi asked, breaking the silence. "Or for that matter, how we even got here?"

"I'm not sure, Yugi," Yami answered. "All I can remember before now was that we were trying to stop the Controller from destroying the universe, but then..."

Yami suddenly perked when he remembered what happened next. "That's right! When we were swept away by that wind, we must have been separated from our friends!" Yami remembered out loud, his eyes widened with realization. "And somehow, when the wind stopped, we must have landed here by accident!"

Something at the very corner of the Pharaoh's eyes caught his attention, making hum curiously as he spotted a card lying face-down on the ground. "What's this?" Yami asked himself as he picked up the card. The other side revealed it to be his ace card. "My 'Dark Magician'! It's all clear to me now! I gave this card to Jaden so that he and could combine our powers to stop the Controller from obtaining the Numeron Code! He threw it back to me while we were caught in that wind!"

"Now that we've figured out the mystery of how we got here, we need to find out where is here," Yugi said. "After all, if we knew what city this is, we may have a chance to find our friends."

"There's just one problem, Yugi," Yami said, his eyes closed in thought. "We are in a place that we do not recognize, so the odds are that we won't be able to find our friends, not even Jaden, Yusei, or Yuma."

"But we have to try!" Yugi shouted. "Remember, the Controller said that in three days, he will activate his cannon and everything we love will be gone in a single blast! We need to find them, and find them fast! If we can't find them wherever it is we landed, then maybe we'll have to find some friends who are will to stand to the Controller and stop him!"

Yami gave his partner's speech some thought and turned to him, smiling and nodding once. "You're right, Yugi. We have no time to lose, not when we have only three days to save every era in time before the Contoller's threat is being carried out."

Yugi nodded in accord before he disappeared. The King of Games climbed over the wooden fence and fell on the street on the other side. When he got over to the other side, he saw that the street he was on was a wide T-intersection backstreet with buildings lined up along the side, all of them either brick, plastered, or metal, housing what very few residents resided there. It didn't matter what state the buildings were in because Yami Yugi knew from first glance that he was in a poor, run-down backstreet of wherever he landed, which only meant that he was in a city. And if there was one thing Yami and Yugi learned from spending their time in Domino City, it was that the more livable and lively parts of the city would be around the center.

"Huh. That's strange. I don't recognize this street or any of these buildings," Yugi said, looking around the streets with his partner. "Maybe we landed in a part of town we've never been in to before?"

"I'm not sure, Yugi," Yami answered, shaking his head, "but I have a feeling that we're about to find out."

With that thought, Yami ran down the concrete streets of the backstreets and made the first right turn he saw. There, he came across an open street, a two-lane road leading from one place to another. He looked both ways, and when Yami turned his head to the left, he spotted something that made him gasp and Yugi's spirit to appear with the same reaction. "Pharaoh, look! Aren't those the same buildings that we saw earlier!?"

Yami drew back with shock; he instantly recognized the island of multiple skyscrapers built on an overpass built precariously over the city below. "You're right, Yugi! Those are the same buildings we saw!" the King of Games exclaimed in shock. He then gasped when he remembered something from earlier. "And unless my memory serves me wrong, those are the buildings Yusei said were part of the city where he came from!"

"But if that's true, then that would mean we've landed in Yusei's timeline!"

"Yes, we are in Yusei's timeline," Yami clarified. "Fifty years from our own time."

Yami and Yugi observed the sheer size of New Domino City, filled with complete shock and awe. The size of New Domino City definitely dwarfed the original Domino City by five times its size, and the structures of the buildings and the skyscrapers Yami and Yugi saw from their location was only one-fifth of the entire city. No matter how small the King of Games felt in comparison to the metropolis ahead, it would only be a complete understatement. In a city this enormous, finding their friends within three days in this city would seem like an uphill battle for them.

---

Outer City Limits - New Domino City

Alexis felt grass tickle her bare legs and arms, waking her from her unconscious sleep. Groaning, the Queen of Obelisk Blue sat up in her position, holding one hand on her aching forehead while she stared into a distance in a daze. "Wha...? Where am I? This doesn't look like Duel Academy."

Turning her head, Alexis found herself sitting on top of a cliff overlooking a metropolis spanning as far as her eyes could see. There were multiple highways spanning across a nearby sea towards an island with a big arched monument centered with a giant emerald ring in the middle. Alexis found the strength to stand up on her feet and place a hand on her chest in exhilaration at the new sudden surroundings she was forced in. "Actually, this doesn't even look like Domino City at all."

Alexis looked around the cliff, wondering where she found herself this time. Sure, she could take being inside an EARTH dimension full of sandy deserts, rocky monsters and Duel Ghouls, but being in a city as big as Tokyo completely overwhelmed her. Not sure what to do next, Alexis cupped her hands around her mouth and yelled out as loud as she could manage. "Hey! If there's anyone I know who's from Duel Academy, you'd better speak up now because I am seriously freaking out right now!"

When no answer came, Alexis simply sighed. "Well, I guess since no one is answering me, I'll have to do this another way," she said simply. "Time for me to take a little field trip."

Some time later, Alexis walked down the cliff and made her way into the city limits. Her heels made the descent a bit difficult given they weren't meant for walking down big hills, but once she made it into the streets of New Domino City, she couldn't help but feel some sense of excitement and danger from being inside the city. While she explored the city, she observed the damages that presumably the wind had caused and a waking crowd of people on the streets, some of those who were awake trying to shake the unconscious people back from their comatose state and others who were looking fearfully to the dark space above their city. There were three people that caught Alexis's attention as she walked by, one big guy, one tall guy with a slightly visible beard, and a woman with scraggly brunette hair in her thirties.

"Whoa! Look that sun! It's all red!" the big guy said, pointing at the red sun.

"Forget about the sun, what the heck happened to the sky!? It's all gone!" the tall guy said in a gruff voice.

"Why does everything bad always happen in New Domino City!?" the woman wondered in panic.

When Alexis heard the name of the city, she stopped mid-step and registered what she heard from the woman. "New Domino City? That's strange. This doesn't seem like the Domino City I know from before," she muttered to herself. "I guess this is the city that Jaden's friend said he lived in, and that means that what Jaden said about time-traveling was true after all... and that means that I must have landed somewhere in the future, far away from my own time that is."

Alexis continued to walk further into the city, overhearing some of the conversations from the people she passed by.

"Whoa, man! Check it out! Everything's so dark up there!"

"It's the end of the world as we know it!"

"Mommy, I'm scared!"

"Don't cry, sweetie! It'll all be over soon!"

"I bet Dark Signers are behind all this!"

"What!? You're crazy! Everyone knows that Yliaster organization has the technology to pull it off!"

"Well, whatever the case is, I hope that the Director clears this up soon! It's not looking too good!"

"And I better do something before it gets worse," Alexis thought to herself.

"Look out!"

Alexis stopped walking when a scared throng of New Domino City civilians ran around the corner and opposite to Alexis's direction, their faces lined with terror. The sounds of engines revving and police sirens filled the air when all of a sudden, a guy on a motorcycle with plain clothes and only a helmet for protection sped around the corner. Trailing him were three law enforcement officers, two of them in grey and the leading officer in blue riding police-styled motorcycles, with green lights flashing, sirens blaring, and labeled with the word "SECURITY" on the rear sides and on the windshield. The guy they were chasing was a thief who had a large sack draped over his shoulder, filled to the brim with stolen money while a few bills trailed behind him during the ride.

"Give it up, punk! You're only making your trip to the Facility harder than it needs to be!" shouted one of the officers in grey.

"Uh oh. I must have spoken too soon," Alexis said to herself.

"Heh. This is way too easy," the thief said in a shady voice. "That bright light may have knocked everyone down for the count, but I'm a light sleeper. And while the banks were taking a little catnap, then robbing ATM in this part of town will be like taking candy from a baby!"

The crowd ran away from the recklessly driving thief, and the only people who were left behind was Alexis and a little nine-year-old girl in the middle of the road. She was on her knees, too scared by the pandemonium to move, crying for her mommy while she cried her eyes out. Alexis gasped in horror when she saw where the little girl was stuck; she was right in the path of the thief's motorcycle, and the thief was heading into her head-on!

"Oh no!" Alexis gasped.

The security officer in blue gasped as well when he saw the girl crying in the path of the thief. "Hey, kid! Move it! You're gonna get hurt!"

But the girl couldn't move. She instead stopped crying, not initially aware that the thief was driving right into her until she uncovered her eyes to the sight of the front of his motorcycle. The girl covered her eyes and screamed in terror until she was suddenly scooped up and carried in the air. Alexis managed to scoop the child up in her arms, jump in the air with a pirouette motion, surprising the thief and the security officers. What really caught the thief off-guard was while Alexis spun in the air, her right boot collided with the thief's face, breaking his vizor off as he was knocked off of his motorcycle.

Alexis gracefully landed on her feet with the child safe in her arms while the thief landed like a sack of potatoes. The motorcycle continued to drive without its owner to control it, and without the proper steering, the motorcycle crashed into a nearby lamppost. The impact dented the base of the lamppost, and the motorcycle ended up smoking from the damage. The bystanders who witnessed the scene all released a cacophony of gasps as Alexis let the child down and looked down on the thief, his face tattooed with yellow marks with a big red welt forming on his cheek.

"That's what you get for taking stuff that doesn't belongs to you and driving like a maniac," she told the thief. "Not to mention, trying to run people over with your motorcycle."

The three police officers arrived on the scene in time as they made a formation around Alexis, the girl, and the thief. As the officers approached them, a woman broke through the front of the crowds with an expressive mixture of relieved and fear. The little girl spotted her mother, called out, "Mommy!" and ran over to the woman who knelt down and embraced her young daughter in a tight hug. "Oh, my baby! Thank goodness you're alright!"

The two officers in grey approached the thief while the officer in blue approached in Alexis. When the thief was close to coming to, the officers hoisted him up by his shoulders.

"Alright, buster, looks like you've just earned yourself another trip to the Facility," one of the police officers said to the thief.

"Hey look, someone gave him a new mark before we did," the second police officer quipped.

"Looks like we can have fun marking him on that spot, boys," the first officer said. "Say, how does a spiral pattern sound?"

"It's should be an improvement on his look. Then again, anything should be an improvement."

The other police officers laughed at the thief's expense while they slapped the cuffs on him. While two of the grey police officers led the thief away, the security officer in blue turned to Alexis, who she thought was their superior, given how she saw two stars on his jacket while the other grey coats only had one. The Queen of Obelisk Blue noticed two stars on the badge on his jacket, and seeing how the other officers behind him had one star, Alexis assumed that the officer was their superior. The officer took off his helmet and revealed his face, a smiling man with pale blue hair with bangs that nearly covered his eyes and hair that stuck from the back of his head.

"I'm impressed, ma'am. I've never seen someone use those moves to stop a criminal and save a little girl at the same time. Nice work," the officer complimented.

"Uh, thanks, I suppose," Alexis said, albeit a bit flustered.

"It's a good thing, too. Ever since that bright light darkened the sky, all of Satellite and New Domino City was thrown into chaos," the officer continued. "Panic in the streets, riots, robberies, you name it. We at Sector Security really have our work cut out for us, and given the rising number of criminal activity, it's always good to have a civilian give a helping hand." The officer pointed at the thief while the grey officers dragged him away to the back of a police truck. "Or a helping foot for that matter."

Alexis watched as the police truck with the contained drove off as the officer gave her a formal salute. "So, ma'am, Sector Security is in your debt now. If there's anything you need from us, then please don't hesitate to ask."

Alexis gave the Sector Security officer's offer a thought, and then she turned to the officer. "Actually, officer... sir... or whatever you call yourself, there is one thing I need help with," Alexis said. "See, I'm not actually from around here. I was separated from my friends when that bright light happened, and seeing that I'm the only one here, I don't know if any of my other friends made it here, too. Truth be told, I don't even know where to begin looking."

The officer smiled. "So you need my help to look for your friends, huh?"

"If that's what I was about to say, then yes."

The officer chuckled a bit. "Well, ma'am, if you're looking for a few lost people, then I know the perfect place where to start looking," he said proudly. "It's gonna be a bit of a drive and it'll take some time, but Sector Security Headquarters should provide the necessary means to search the entire city and the Satellite for your friends."

The officer went to his motorcycle, opened up a secret compartment on one side of the bike and tossed a helmet towards Alexis. "Here. Put this on," he said as Alexis caught it. "It's not exactly this season's style, but it'll keep your head safe from any fall or speed bumps just in case we happen to run into any trouble."

Alexis fit the helmet on her head. It was a bit warm and muggy inside, it was a bit heavy and weighed a little around her neck, and the vizor was slight foggy; however, it was also soft and snug, so she couldn't have any trouble preventing her from suffering any concussions or any other type of brain damage. "Thanks again, officer. With any luck, I'll be able to find my friends as soon as I can. I just wish there was some way for me to repay you for your what you're doing."

"There's no need. That's what Sector Security is for," the officer said. "And please, for all intents and purposes, call me Kaz."

Officer Kaz turned to his motorcycle, mounted on its seat, and revved its engines loud. "So what do you say, ma'am!? You wanna continue this conversation, or do you wanna look for your friends!?"

"More than ever," Alexis said as she joined Officer Kaz on his motorcycle. Officer Kaz revved his engines again, turned his sirens on, and sped towards the direction of the Sector Security Headquarters. "And please, for all intents and purposes, call me Alexis."

---

Underside - New Domino City

Crow was lying somewhere in the streets underneath New Domino City, face-down among a dusty, empty street with nearly desolate buildings. That was the location where the scummiest of scum resided in the city, the same sort of scum that Sector Security liked to pull double shifts to ensure that no criminal activity went on. As such, there was no criminal activity going on there at the moment, but rather up above in the streets where the criminals and fearful citizens pillaged, plundered, and rioted, calling every available Sector Security officer to arms... or rather Duel Runner, Duel Disk and Decks for that matter.

Where the Blackwing Duelist laid, he was not entirely alone. His Blackbird Duel Runner was parked precariously next to him, standing straight up with its talon-like kickstand feet planted firmly into the ground, his bird-like helmet hung on one of the handlebars. Unbeknownst to anyone with a Duel Runner, an ominous force recently acquired a new additional feature for the Runners, one that would work in Duels against those from another time. That additional feature was a certain Field Spell, created from the farthest future.

Crow felt his breath and consciousness come back as he grunted himself awake, his silver eyes opening to the sight of the undersides. He turned onto his rear and planted his head on his throbbing forehead, cringing at the sensation. "Ow, man. Feels like I've landed on my head or something," he muttered to himself before the pain eventually subsided. He opened his eyes and looked around his surroundings. "Okay, so where in the world am I? And why is my Duel Runner here, anyway?"

Crow stood up on his feet and walked over to his Blackbird. "Whoever put me with my Runner better not have gotten as much as a single scratch on it," he muttered as he carefully inspected his vehicle on all corners, searched underneath the exterior metal plating, and checked his hybrid Duel Disk placed on his dashboard. "Because I just got this paint job finished last week, and I am not emptying the rest of my pocket change to get my baby fixed again."

After quickly inspecting his Duel Runner, Crow sighed with relief and wiped his forehead with the back of his gloved hand. "Well, my Runner seems to be in perfect shape," he said. "Now I've gotta see if my systems are alright."

Crow switched his Duel Runner on so that his dashboard display screen was active. The screen displayed the Dueling field, then Crow tapped his Decklist app on the top-right corner which displayed a sliding view of his Deck, starting in alphabetical order with his "Blackwing - Abrolhos the Megaquake", following up with his "Blackwing - Aurora the Northern Lights" to the right, which then followed up with "Blackwing - Blizzard the Far North". Crow quickly scrolled through his Decklist, passing his monsters while keeping a hawk's eye out for anything different in his systems. Fortunately, he found nothing in his Main Deck monsters section.

"Hmm... so far so good. There doesn't seem to be anything wrong with my Duel Runner systems," Crow thought. After passing his Synchro Monster section, something in the Spell Card section caught his eye. "Wait a minute! What was that!?"

Crow swiped back to the Spell Card he saw between his "Black-Winged Dragon" and his "Speed Spell - Angel Baton" cards. His eyes widened at the sight of an unfamiliar Field Spell Card, depicting what appeared to be a Dueling Lane leading straight in the distance under a few glowing arches, with energy streams of blue and red crossing over each other. "I've never seen this card before. As a matter of fact, I've never heard of a card like this being released. Hey, wait a minute! How did this card get into my Deck, anyway!?"

Crow perked with shock when he remembered the person he saw in the Domino City Plaza, the man that Yusei, his friends, and the Signer Dragons were opposing. He remembered how the person brought out four powerful Dragons to fight his ad his friends' Dragons for the glowing card in the air. "Wait, I know who's responsible for this! It was that Controller freak and those Dragons of his! He must've added this card into my Deck while we were all knocked out!" Crow balled his hand into a fist and held it in front of him. "That snake! I bet the Controller slipped that card into our Decks so he could sabotage our Dueling!"

Crow slipped his helmet on and slipped his vizor down over his eyes. "Well, this is one Duelist who's not gonna be sabotaged that easily! I'm gonna find this guy, take him down myself, and then everything'll go back to normal! Simple as that!"

After turning his Blackbird on and revving up his engine, Crow was already riding the streets of the New Domino City underside, heading to the nearest ramp that he could think of. "Okay, so maybe I lied. Maybe taking this guy down may not be simple enough," Crow thought to himself. "That's why I need to find Yusei and Jack and the rest of the gang before I can find this Controller guy. After all, if we're fighting against an enemy more powerful than all the other enemies we've faced in the past, then New Domino City... no, the entire world will need the Signers more than ever."

As Crow rode towards the upcoming ramp, something caught his sharp eye that made him gasp. He swerved and skid his Blackbird to a halt, leaving a small trail of skid marks as rode back to get a better look at what he saw. There were a couple of skid marks that led up to a dumpster being significantly damaged on the side with a really big dent. Lying in the middle of the tracks was a girl, wearing a helmet, a pink sailor outfit, and a long skirt.

Crow's eyebrows furrowed slightly. "Wait. I think I've seen this girl before."

The Blackwing Duelist recalled seeing someone like the girl earlier. His mind flashed back to the split second when he passed a suspicious gyro-wheeled motorcycle wearing only a helmet with goggles over his eyes. The person who rode with the guy also wore a pink sailor uniform with a long skirt, and her helmet was the same helmet she wore. He found the guy suspicious through his own intuition, but the girl, however... Crow remembered who she was now.

"Yeah, I remember her! She was with that guy I saw earlier while I was riding back to the clock shop!" Crow recalled to himself, looking around the area. "So if she's here, then where is that guy, anyway? He couldn't have left her here intentionally like that if he crashed his Duel Runner into the dumpster, so he's gotta be around here somewhere. Not too far, I hope; these tracks are still a bit fresh. So where could he have gone?"

Crow put his hands on the side of his mouth and yelled. "Hey! Is there anyone here who had an accident here recently!? There's a girl lying on the ground here, and I think she's hurt, so you'd better come out and get her, now! This isn't exactly the nicest neighborhood for someone to lie down for a nap here!"

Crow climbed off of his Duel Runner walked on over to the fallen girl. "Guess he's not here, then," he said, picking up the girl over the threshold. "I really hate to do this while you're sleeping, but I can't leave you lying around here, not while you're hurt. Come on, I know the perfect place for you to recoup while I check the rest of the city out."

After mounting his Duel Runner, Crow arranged for the girl to lock her hands around his waist tight while he revved up his Blackbird for takeoff. The rear wheel spun in place, and Crow took off for the upper portion of New Domino City with his passenger, having only one destination in mind before he could search for Jack and Yusei.

---

Crow's deduction about the "Runner" that originally carried the its driver and his sister not being too far away was right on the money. What he failed to notice was the "Runner" and his driver were closer than he thought, obscured by the highway support pillars and the wrecked dumpster.

Shark in particular was already unconscious when the orange-haired Turbo Duelist was investigating the crash site. The sound of his Duel Runner engine and his obnoxious shouting voice was what brought him out from his sleep, and the only thing he could do at the time was draw labored breaths. His fingers twitched, then slowly clenched into a fist as he struggled to keep his head up and open his eyes a crack.

Shark groaned. "What a rough landing. That's the last time I shield my sister away from any hurricane or bright flashes of light."

-FLASHBACK-

Shark watched helplessly from the underside as he witnessed the battle between the Duel Monsters in the space within the Void. He recognized only a few of those monsters (not counting Yuma's "Utopia" monsters), and his eyes widened at the sight of the Egyptian God Cards and the Sacred Beasts in their fused form. The five Dragons and the three silhouetted Dragons in the air were all completely unknown to him. At his feet was the still sleeping form of Rio, missing out on the battle of a lifetime while the injuries she sustained left her unconscious.

Shark's eyes twitched with fear as he watched the monsters fight each other for the survival of their respective eras, his teeth grit together while his feet were planted firmly on the ground by his fear. "What's going on up there?" he asked himself. "Since when did those Duel Monsters get into a free-for-all match?"

Suddenly, he spotted a strong hurricane gust occurring in the air, converting each of the Duel Monster spirits into their original card forms as the storm raged on. The wind instantly picked up where Shark stood, and he shielded his face with both arms, grunting while he pushed against the wind. He looked down and his eyes widened when he saw Rio start to move with the wind, dragging her along the ground and threatening to scoop her away. When Rio started to float off the ground, Shark's instincts kicked in.

"Oh, no you don't!" He shouted, grabbing Rio by the back of her collar. "Get back here!"

Shark grabbed his sister and hugged her tight and close, acting as a shield to protect her from the abnormal weather. He had his back against the wind, and he could almost feel it picking him up as well, that was until a sudden powerful gust actually swept him and his motorcycle up from the ground. The front of the motorcycle slammed on the weighted dumpster, causing it to spin and crash at the back while Shark and Rio were flung to the wall of the ramp. Shark was sandwiched between the concrete walls of the ramp and his sister, causing him to grunt with the pain he was dealt.

Suddenly, as the winds roared louder and Shark's moans of agony grew dimmer, a bright light flashed from the air, engulfing everything in a flash.

-END FLASHBACK-

Shark built enough strength to support himself up, pushing his hands down into the ground to elevate himself while wincing to the pain. He turned to see his gyro-wheeled motorcycle lying against a crater against the wall where it impacted from being flung by the wind, smoking and scuffed in a few places. "Great. With my bike looking like a wreck, it looks like I'll never get our of this city," Shark complained. "Well, hopefully I can find an auto shop that can get my bike fixed soon. I have enough trouble trying to babysit you, Rio."

Shark's face jolted with shock as he looked and saw that his twin sister was nowhere to be found. "What!? Rio, where are you!? Where did you run off to!?" Shark called, standing on his feet. "Rio!"

The sound of engines running brought Shark's face to the highway above his head, and he looked up in that direction to see someone riding that highway. He instantly recognized the guy as the same guy he passed on a highway earlier, the one with the orange shirt and the brown leather vest with the black bird-shaped helmet and the yellow markings on his face. He was the one riding the black motorcycle with the yellow marks on the sides, and the person he thought suspicious of.

What caught Shark's attention was the person riding with him as his passenger. Her arms were around his waist, and her head dropped with exhaustion.

"Oh no! Rio! He's got my sister!" Shark said, gritting his teeth and clenching his fist with rage. "Oh, that does it! Nobody takes my sister away while I'm around!"

Quickly, Shark turned around and ran for his gyro-wheeled motorcycle. He snatched his helmet up from the ground, turned his motorcycle onto its wheels and turned his ignition on. The engines sounded skippy from the damages it sustained, but it had enough double-digit miles to take him around the city for his search. "Now that kidnapper is going to pay with the only way I know how," Shark said, slipping his helmet on and mounting his vehicle. "And that's the way of the shark!"

Shark's motorcycle burst through the junk and quickly turned onto the highway ramp. He was now after the supposed kidnapper in a misunderstood attempt to retrieve his sister.

---

Control Center - Inside the E.N.D. Cannon

The view of Shark riding on his motorcycle happened to be a pop-up screen that appeared on the overview map of New Domino City. The screen was connected to a jointed line that was met with a single dot, marking their exact location in the city and era. That map was one-fourth of the total screens in the E.N.D. Cannon's Control Center, the rest of the screens having overview maps of the merged Domino City and Duel Academy Eras, Heartland City, the Duel Monsters Spirit World, and the additional era respectively. Like Shark, pictures of the Duelists lost from their own respective eras and the Duelists who somehow managed to stay in their own eras popped up on the maps, giving the Controller insight to all of the major players in his Shadow Game.

The Controller watched from the seat of his throne while he kept his gaze onto the New Domino City map, to the views of Yami and Yugi, Alexis, Crow, Rio, and Shark, the first group of the many major players to wake up from their unconscious state. While he observed the movements and reactions of every major Duelist in the city, he couldn't help but emit a light chuckle. He found their shocked faces quite amusing.

"I would imagine that the King of Games has come down with a strong case of culture shock..." he mused to himself as he spotted the others stranded in New Domino City, "...and it seems that Reginald Kastle's overprotective instincts to protect his sister... will indeed put him in direct conflict with Crow Hogan's instincts... to bring her to safety. I believe that leaves me with Miss Alexis Rhodes... who will feel quite overwhelmed at the moment that she gets pulled into her first Turbo Duel. However... these concerns are trivial compared to what will happen... once my cannon's repairs are complete... and the Numeron Code is once again in my grasp..."

The pictures of the other three Legendary Duelists expanded as well, each one stuck in a different era, or in some cases, a dimension. The pictures that focused on the era that was pulled into the Void by accident revealed Jaden Yuki waking up in the expansive sandy area, tickled awake by his partner, Winged Kuriboh. In that era, there were pictures of Akiza Izinski walking on the desert land without her shoes on her feet, Tristan Taylor trapped at the bottom of a rising valley, and Tori Meadows lying unconscious near an oasis, a card held in her fingers. This era the four were trapped was the time when the first Duel Monsters competitions were Summoned by the mystical powers of certain magical items.

Next came the pictures where Yusei Fudo was stuck in the merged Domino City and Duel Academy Eras. He rode on his Duel Runner that stuck out in the streets of Domino City like a sore thumb, with a familiar tabby in his lap. Unbeknownst to Yusei, there was another Signer stuck in the era, but she was farther away than he realized. She wandered on the shores at Duel Academy searching for her friends as well, feeling an uneasiness on the island where three certain beasts were locked deep under the land. Then there was Joey and Tea, who were calling out for Yugi, Tristan, and surprisingly, Kaiba, much to Joey's chagrin. Finally, there was Tyranno Hassleberry who searched the forests for his "platoon" with no avail.

In Heartland City, there were only three individuals that were the focus of the pop-up pictures, two of which didn't belong in the timeline. Jack Atlas rode on his Phoenix Whirlwind, scouring the entire city, his minds draped in thoughts of where he was and where his friends might be. Syrus ran through the streets of the colorful, bright metropolis, surprised and shocked to see how far and progressive technology had evolved into holographic screens and trash-collecting robots. These two were the targeted anachronisms unknowingly being searched by Kite Tenjo, riding Orbital 7 while the latter took on the form on a motorbike.

Finally, there was the seven dimensions of the Duel Monsters Spirit World closely clustered around the Astral World, six of those dimensions based on the main Attributes of the Duel Monsters game. In the peaceful EARTH Dimension of Grace, Yuma and Astral stood at the edge of the lush meadow terrain, on the borders of the Forest with inhabitants that guard the sacred Ancient Forest and the city beyond the mountainside. Chazz Princeton was somewhere in that same dimension in the middle of the Sogen Terrain, becoming irritated by the presence of the three Ojama Brothers as they pestered him into going with them to their home country. Seto Kaiba stood on top of the Mountain somewhere in the WIND Dimension, deep in thought of his loss to the Controller and his skepticism making him think how he was trapped in yet another Virtual World simulation. Dr. Vellian Crowler was in the hot, volcanic belly in the FIRE Dimension's Civilization factory, mewling over the fact that he was stranded once again in the Duel Monsters Spirit World as lesser Machine-Type monsters in the area constructed powerful Machine-Type monsters. Last but not least, Leo was somewhere in the Closed Forest of the DARK Dimension's Dark World, hunted down by a beast stalking him in the woods.

"It feels a bit cruel... pushing these scattered Duelists by promising them... that my experiment will be carried out in three days time..." the Controller thought aloud. "They will rush too quickly to stop me... their minds and bodies will be exhausted... and their Dueling skills will be demoted to... oh, how should I say it? Less than a challenge than I would expect from them. In order for the restoration of my ship's energy... I will need all the Dueling energy that each Duelist can produce... even if it should cost them their entire existence. I suppose I should give them all a sporting chance... and allow them all the time in the world... to foil my plans..."

The Controller then thought of the connections of the heroic deeds that the Legendary Duelists performed in their own timelines. "Then again... each of their eras were only saved within three days before... so it should be easy for them to do it again... but therein lies the problem. I need their energies to power my cannon... and it can only work best if they are all pushed to their limits. That is where the five of you come in..."

The Controller didn't even bother looking back to face the five shadows flanking his throne, all of them being the figures he released from earlier. One of the shadows had long, spiky hair that stuck from the back of his head with a cape dropping down behind him. The second shadow was as tall as the first shadow with shorter spiky hair that reached towards the back of his shoulders. The third shadow was a man in his late twenties, with a curly hairstyle that covered the right side of his face. The second tallest shadow was a muscle-toned humanoid with extraordinarily long hair, and the tallest shadow that stood beside him was cloaked in tattered rages, thin and lanky like bones.

"The five of you were each of your era's biggest threats... opposed and beaten by the Duelists who dared opposed and succeeded... leaving your spirits and existence drifting away in the afterlife..." the Controller turned his head around so that he could only see the shadows from his peripheral vision. "Now that I have revived you all... you are each given another chance to do something better... something so great that not even the Legendary Duelists could defeat you with their own individual power..."

The Controller turned his head back to watch the screens. "However, there is a trade-off..." he added. "Each of you are to remain at your own eras under my strict supervision. I will allow you to do whatever it is that your hearts desire... but this can only extend to here and your eras and no further. However... if you can force the Legendary Duelists and their friends or allies to wage battle against you or your forces... then my cannon will have collected enough energy to reach its maximum capacity... within three days' time...

"And don't worry... soon you will satiate your will to dominate the era you intended to rule..." the Controller added, "...but, if you happen to come across a piece of the Numeron Code that I seek... retrieve the shard of the Code for me immediately... and I guarantee that your power will become greater than you could even imagine. So return to your eras. Plan your domination. I am sure that you will have a lot to catch up on..."

The muscular humanoid shadow was the first to disappear in a portal that conjured up behind him, allowing his body to materialize into dust that was sucked into the portal before it vanished. The body of the tattered and cloaked shadow was split into six streams, converting into a gigantic black serpent-like stream that shot to the ceiling and disappeared. On the face of the mid-twenties man, there was a sinister-looking mark that ran down from his eyebrow to over his eyelid and stopped just underneath, glowing a sinister purple light. His body glowed that same light before he vanished to his own era.

Before the two similarly tall shadows could disappear, the Controller raised his hand to stop them. "Not yet, you two... I have need of your services in the Ancient Egyptian Era... and it would only work best if you two could cooperate..."

The Controller kept his gaze to the screens, focusing on a certain former Slifer Red in the aforementioned era.

---

Sahara Desert - Ancient Egypt

Even though the clear, friendly blue skies of Earth was long gone, the red sun's heat still felt as hot as the original yellow sun in the Sahara Desert.

Jaden Yuki was lying in said desert under the heat of said sun, completely knocked out cold. He couldn't feel the soft bed of sands underneath him, the brightness of the sunlight shining in his eyes, nor the intense heat radiating from the red sun. He didn't even sense the presence of his Spirit Partner, Winged Kuriboh as it tried to call to him in Kuribanese. No matter how loudly the Fairy chirped to wake Jaden up, he couldn't get a response out of his partner, so that left him with one other option: He had to tickle the former Slifer Red out of unconsciousness.

Using its wings, Winged Kuriboh hovered over to Jaden's face and tickled it with his pure white feathers, causing him to moan. Another ruffle of the white feathers caused Jaden to moan a little louder, which meant that the tickling was working. With another tickle, Jaden suddenly awoke with a gasp and jolted upright on his seat, flinging Winged Kuriboh backwards as he was hit by Jaden from the sudden reaction he expected. Jaden caught his breath and took a good moment to collect his bearings.

"Whoa, that was weird. It felt like something was trying to wake me up just now," Jaden said to himself, noticing his Spirit Partner joining up next to him. "Wait a minute, I recognize that feeling from before. Were you the one who tickled me awake, Kuriboh?"

Winged Kuriboh nodded and chirped happily, catching Jaden with much intrigue. "Hold up. I just felt you and I didn't even use any of my powers. So how did you...?" Jaden's thoughts were interrupted when he felt something hot and soft under his hand. "Huh? What's this?"

Jaden scooped some of the soil and inspected it, letting most of it slip from between his fingers. "Sand? That's strange, did I end up at the beach or something?" he asked himself as he looked up and gasped. "Uh-oh. Make that a desert! And a big one at that!"

To answer his question, Jaden looked around and saw nothing but a sea of sand stretching for miles on end without anything to stop it past the horizon. He saw the darkness that replaced the once clear and blue skies of Earth, and the red sun that served as the imitation of the yellow sun that he and others were accustomed to. While Jaden observed his surroundings, he couldn't help but feel his jaw drop at the sight.

"Where are we?" he asked himself.

"I think the better question you should ask yourself is when are we?" a familiar feminine voice rang out from oblivion.

Jaden quickly turned to the source of the voice, in the ethereal form of his other Spirit Partner. "What do you mean, Yubel?"

"I mean as I say it, Jaden. We must be in an era not from our own timeline," Yubel said.

"How do you know that?"

"There is a strange magic in the air, Jaden. I can feel it, even in my spirit form." Yubel looked down on her clawed hand, feeling a tingling sensation through her nerves. "This is a magic that we have felt before, Jaden, but stronger. That could only lead me to the assumption that we are in an era in the past where Duel Monsters were first brought to life by powerful magic."

"I guess that explains how I was able to feel Kuriboh wake me up," Jaden said, rubbing the Fairy's head, making it chirp. Suddenly, a terrified shocked face replaced Jaden's friendly grin with a horrible thought running through his head! "Wait a minute! If we're in a era from the past with Duel Monsters becoming real, and if we're all stuck in the middle of a huge desert, then doesn't that mean that we're stuck in... in...!?"

With a terrified reaction, Jaden shot onto his feet, jerking his head around the scenery to the sight of nothing but a sandy sea, darkness that replaced the clear skies, and a single red sun looming in that darkness. "Oh no! Don't tell me I'm not where I think I am! Please don't tell me I'm not where I think I am!" Jaden screamed. When the realization finally sunk in, Jaden fell to his knees, comically weeping tears of devastation while Winged Kuriboh and Yubel watched from the sidelines.

"Oh no. I think I am where I think I am," Jaden whined, throwing his head up in the sky, "AND I THINK I'M IN THE SAHARA DESERT!"

Jaden's screams echoed far across the sand, only diminishing as it continued further until it was completely silenced. His dropped down and his arms drooped until his knuckles touched the Egyptian sands below. "Well, this is just great. I'm back at Duel Academy for no more than one day in five years, and I get transported back in time in Egypt!" the former Slifer Red whined as he flopped over on his back in the sand, spreading his arms and legs out. "This isn't how I pictured my week at the Duel Academy Reunion. I've always dreamed about going back to the Slifer Red Dorm, sleeping through the day, eating fried shrimp for breakfast and challenging all my friends to a Duel."

Jaden winced, covering his eyes with the bottom of his palms through his own version of agony. "Now I'm stuck in another dimension in the middle of the Sahara with nothing but my Deck and the clothes on my back! I'll probably starve and keep starving until I'm nothing but a pile of dried bones and a heap of old red rags! Unless the desert heat and the thirst haven't already gotten to me first, that is."

"Has anyone told you that you whine like a child when you're stranded in a desert?" Yubel said calmly, her arms crossed over and eyes closed, "Honestly, Jaden, in all the years that I've been stuck with you, I would have hoped you'd grow up at least once, and yet, here you are, complaining how you couldn't eat your oil-fried seafood and defeat your friend in your last Duel."

"Well excuse me, Miss Know-It-All!" Jaden sneered at the spirit. "At least you don't have to worry about starvation or thirst in your spirit form!"

Yubel smirked. "True, but that's why I'm planning on fixing that right away."

Jaden's sneer was wiped away into a curious look. "You can fix this? How?"

"How quickly you forget, Jaden. We are an entity made up of both human and Duel Monster Spirit, so what powers I have you have as well," Yubel taught the late teenager. "One of those powers includes the ability to see everything in the world. Unless you need me to remind you that it was with this power that I was able to watch you from afar at the beginning of your third year at Duel Academy.

"No thanks, I good," Jaden interjected hastily, having understood the powers that have been given to him. "So, we take a look around the desert and we can find a place with food and water, is that it?"

"Yes, Jaden. Now close your eyes and empty your mind. Concentrate on what you seek, and you will see it."

"If you say so," Jaden said with a single nod.

Jaden closed his brown eyes, letting his mind clear itself as he concentrated as Yubel instructed. Suddenly, he opened his eyes again, except they glowed to match Yubel's heterochromic eye colors of red and green, this time adding the ethereal form of Yubel's third forehead eye occupy his forehead. The third eye glowed, and visions of endless treks of sands passed through his head, followed with a few visions of oases with palm trees and shrubbery. Next, a long stretch of gigantic rock formations in the form of a great valley with a temple guarded by two giant statues of humanoid pharaohs, each sitting on a sandstone block.

Finally, there was a vision of a village that settled before a great, twenty-foot wall, obscuring a giant palace from behind its sandstone blocks. The only way through the wall was through a colossal doorway decorated on both sides symmetrically with twin giant humanoid guard statues holding spears in one hand, standing next to a thirty-five-foot obelisk. When Jaden tried to get a better look at the palace, he felt something like a barrier preventing him to look any further to the symbol of the Eye of Wdjat flashing in his mind.

Jaden gasped abruptly as the Eye of Wdjat's barrier not only pushed his ability to see into the palace back, but literally pushed him back onto the ground. He was thrown backwards and landed on his back, his eyes clenched closed all the way. Jaden planted his hand on his forehead, cringed to the migraine, and opened his eyes to reveal that his irises reverted back from Yubel's eye colors to his original brown coloration. While the former Slifer Red tried to live through the pain of a thousand hammers pounding the inside of his head, Winged Kuriboh hovered next to Jaden, asking if his partner was alright.

"I'm okay, Kuriboh," Jaden said, wincing to the migraine. "Just a little headache is all, but it's all good now."

Yubel's ethereal spirit appeared next to the Slifer Red. "Perhaps you should redefine what is 'all good', Jaden. You did see what I saw, didn't you?"

"I sure did," Jaden said, looking into the distance. "We may have been in Egypt the one time, but that village we saw definitely didn't look like any we've seen before."

"Nor should it be, not from out own time, anyway," the feminine Fiend replied. "Jaden, that village we saw could only exist in the past, many centuries ago from our time."

Jaden's curiosity was quickly caught. "Many centuries ago? But wait, if that village was there and we're here, then..."

"Then that would mean that we have been sent to an era where Duel Monsters originated from the mystical forces of the Shadow Games," Yubel finished. "Jaden, we have somehow made it to the era of Ancient Egypt."

"Oh no!" Jaden said, quickly standing on his feet. "Then we'll have no way back to our present, let alone this desert!"

"If fortune can smile down upon us, then maybe there is a way we can get back home. However, given that we are in the past over 5,000 years ago, then the chance that we can find our way home is very slim."

Jaden looked at the darkness up above where the sky previously was, watching the celestial objects in the empty space with a concerned frown. He saw the red sun burning in the empty space, sitting in the center of said space while the other celestial orbs orbited aimlessly around it. Jaden was more worried about the people trapped in the other eras and the dimensional worlds, specifically his friends whom were separated from that storm. All that Jaden could do was watch and hope that his friends were safe.

"So... what do we now?"

---

Sahara Desert Valley - Ancient Egypt

Somewhere in the Sahara Desert, there was a great valley, located miles and miles away from the Nile River. It was a giant rocky land mass that rose above the sands of the desert, as high as over 100 ft. in the air, overlooking only a part of the enormous desert. Unfortunately, this focused area of the valley couldn't catch a glimpse of the Nile, but it did provide shade for the people who wandered the desert, but it did provide lots of shade and some form of shelter for a certain teenager who stood at the bottom, calling for his friends.

And that person happened to be Tristan Taylor of Domino City.

"Hello!? Yugi!? Joey!? Tea!? Is there anyone here!?"

Tristan has had better days whenever he went with Yugi on one of his adventures. In fact, Tristan had seen all the crazy stuff before in the past... the dangers of the Shadow Games, chased down by the devious Rare Hunters, having his mind trapped in a Virtual World where he was trapped in the body of a robot monkey after losing a single high-stakes Duel, the terror of the Orichalcos, being trapped in the world of Capsule Monsters where Duel Monsters were real... but this made a spot in the top three craziest stuff he's seen in a single adventure.

The reason for this adventure to make a spot in the top three was because it was completely different from any other adventure he had been on. He first realized it shortly after he was woken up from his comatose state was for the hot wind to blow the sand in his face. After the pointy-haired teenager rubbed his eyes, opened them halfway and asked the usual questions of where he was and what happened to everyone, he saw himself stuck at the bottom of a great valley rising from the sands of the Sahara.

Initially, Tristan had to pass off the shock of his new, unexpected surroundings. After realizing that he was the only one who was stranded in the valley, he shouted for the whereabouts of his friends, only for his yells to bounce off the rocky walls and dissipate into echoes. When no one responded to his yells, Tristan stared at the desert past the exit of the valley, hands on hips, and an eyebrow raised upwards.

"This isn't good. If Yugi and the others aren't answering me, then they've gotta be somewhere in this desert," Tristan thought to himself aloud. "Only this desert is huge! How am I supposed to find anyone in a place this big?"

While Tristan pondered the situation to himself, he was completely unaware that his cries had been heard by four certain people nearby, ranging in size from nearly seven feet tall to around four feet tall. They stalked the teenager from behind the rocks of the valley, dressed in dark hooded cloaks, their faces obscured by the shadows. They rode upon armored steeds, their bandages hands tightening on their reins and their scimitars sheathed in their scabbards, and their menacing eyes staring down on the clueless Tristan down below. Most oblivious travelers who have passed through this part of the valley have encountered these nomads before, and to all of Egypt and beyond its borders, these a sect of thieves and plunderers driven by their greed-filled hearts to raid, plunder, and destroy all villages that lay in their path.

These black-hearted thieves had their eyes set on Tristan, their intent to steal urging them to unsheathe their scimitars. The bandit in the front jumped from his mounted steed like a wisp of the wind, raising his curved sword above his head to perform a downward slash on his victim. Luckily, Tristan heard the noise from behind him and turned to the source. His face and body fell into shock when he spotted a cloaked man falling right at him, swinging his arms down to make his fatal cut.

"What!?" Tristan yelled.

Before the bandit fulfilled his attack, Tristan jumped back as the scimitar's blade stuck in the sand. Just as Tristan recovered from the dodge, he sensed another attacker jump from behind him, and he jumped away to avoid the attacker's scimitar. From the side, another cloaked attacker tried to slash the teenager, but the teen was quick to jump into an open area, staring down these three scimitar-wielding thieves who tried to ambush him.

"Alright, I'll bite! Who are you guys, and why did you attack me!?" Tristan demanded to know, fists clenched and trembling.

The three thieves all took their scimitars and held their respective swords over their shoulders. The first thief who attacked him, one slightly bigger than the other two thieves, stood up first to answer the teen. "We are the Shadow Bandits," the thief said in a deep voice, "and you will hand over what riches you hold if you know what is good for you."

"Oh yeah!?" Tristan took a battle stance in the form of a boxing pose. "Well, I've got some bad news for you, tough guy! I've got nothing on me except the clothes on my back, so you're not getting anything from me!"

"That is where you are wrong. If you carry little to no riches on you, then there is only one thing that we can take... and that is your soul!" The bigger Shadow Bandit held his scimitar with both of his hands and readied himself into a battle stance of his own. The Shadow Bandit lunged at Tristan with his scimitar and swung his blade downwards and then swung at his victim's torso, but each attack was missed when but missed when he quickly sidestepped away from the attack. Taking advantage of the timing, Tristan grunted, rolled his hand into fist and threw it at the Shadow Bandit's cheek.

"No! How about you take this!?" Tristan yelled as his fist successfully made contact with the cheek, sending the Shadow Bandit flying backwards by half a yard. When the large thief hit the ground hard, his two lackeys decided this was the time to follow-up with an attack of their own.

"You will pay most dearly for that!" one of the thieves shouted as he and the other thief jumped with their scimitars raised high.

Fortunately, Tristan was prepared for such an attack as he went into another stance. After all, a few years ago, Tristan helped Joey to fight some street toughs in hand-to-hand combat, so fighting these hooded hoodlums were no different than the toughs he fought. The only difference with these thieves were their weapon of choice they used to try and take Tristan's soul, and the setting where this fight happened. With a few punches thrown, a kick to the stomach, and a blow to the back of the head, Tristan stood victorious over the two fallen Shadow Bandits while breathing heavily.

"Sorry guys, but it looks like you won't be making a deposit anytime soon," Tristan said. His face fell into perplexity when he saw a strange dark aura surround the Shadow Bandits. "Or... maybe not."

The Shadow Bandits rose ominously from the ground to their feet, picking up their scimitars intimidatingly, their hidden eyes glowing brightly from the shadows of their hoods. Tristan backed up a bit with a growing uneasiness building up inside him. "Okay, that's just freaky. I hope these guys don't have anymore tricks up their sleeves." Tristan heard a bray from atop of the valley and saw three armored steeds perched precariously, ready to jump. "You've gotta be kidding me!"

The horses all jumped from the top of the valley and fell to the ground with their hooves ready to land in the sand. Each of the Shadow Bandits jumped higher than any other human being Tristan had encountered, and in an impressive display, the thieves successfully mounted their steeds in midair. When the horses and their riders landed on the ground, Tristan found himself contending with three Shadow Bandits looming over him with their eyes glowing an eerie glow.

"So, about my riches," Tristan stammered. "Do you guys want cash or...?"

"It is far too late for you, peasant," the large Shadow bandit said, raising his sword upwards. "Now you will pay with your soul!"

With a stammer and a yelp, Tristan ducked away just as the blade swung down, and he took off sprinting out towards the desert as fast as he could. "You can run all you want, little peasant, but no one has ever escaped the shadows!" the Shadow Bandit proclaimed as his steed rose on its hind hooves and brayed a loud whinny.

Immediately after those front hooves hit the sand, the three Shadow Bandits galloped after Tristan, scimitars held high and ready to claim their next victim's soul. Surprisingly, Tristan somehow managed to keep ahead of the three thieves, despite the sandy ground underneath his shoes giving his running speed a disadvantage, but he kept a good running distance ahead of them. "This is nuts! I know I wanted to take a vacation in Egypt, but I never imagined it would turn out like this!"

A trail of dust clouds and prints in the sand was left in the wake of the chase between Tristan and three of the Shadow Bandits.

---

Sahara Desert - Ancient Egypt

In another part of the Sahara Desert, miles and miles away from the nearest person or civilization, Akiza Izinski was lying somewhere at the base of a few sand dunes a few feet bigger than her "Black Rose Dragon". When her senses came around, the first thing she felt was a hot softness touching her cheek, more than enough to wake her from her slumber. She opened her rose-colored eyes to the close sight of the grains of sands stretching as far as her vision took her.

In response to the first sight she opened her eyes to, Akiza's body went into a shock that jolted her body up, fully awake. When the shock passed, Akiza looked around the endless land of sand and dunes, seeing nothing past the horizon except for the darkness of the Void. "Where am I? How did I get here? And what happened to all my friends?" she asked herself, feeling a newfound sense of worry as she last recalled the events that transpired before she black out. "Oh no! That storm... it must have separated me from my friends! They must have all been flung somewhere in the Void as well!"

Akiza raised her right arm to her chest and removed her long glove, revealing the Mark of the Dragon Foot that was imprinted on her arm. "Just to be sure that I'm not the only Signer here, I'd better see if I feel their marks as well." She closed her eyes and concentrated. "It's no good. I can't feel the Signer marks connecting us. They must be somewhere across the Void where I can't even sense our bonds."

Akiza raised a curled hand to her chest, a worried look staring into the Void at the glowing spheres hovering inside the artificial space. "Yusei... Jack... Crow... Leo and Luna... wherever you are, I hope you're all in a safe place," she prayed, seeing the red sun shine and covered her eyes. "But first, I think I'd better find a safe place myself. Just because that's not our own sun doesn't make the heat in this desert any less real. I'd better find some shade and fast."

Before Akiza could lift a foot to take her first step, the sand sunk underneath her pumps, making her fall forwards. Luckily, she put her hands out reflexively and she caught herself before she could take a hard face plant into the sand. "But first, I'd better kick of my shoes, first," she mused to herself. "These heels weren't exactly made for climbing sand dunes."

To that end, Akiza slipped her glove back on her arm, took off her pumps and walked straight across the desert in her nylon socks, dangling the straps of her shoes with her fingers with a hook-like shape. The sand under her feet felt hot on her nylon-clad soles, but then again, it was better for her to traverse a mile in the desert without any footwear than to struggle half a mile in her pumps. In a short time, Akiza walked a mile across the Sahara Desert, shading her eyes against the blinding brilliance of the red sun. The red sun may not have been bright like the original yellow sun, but it was still blinding nonetheless.

"This desert is so big and hot, it's like trying to walk through the Sahara Desert with nothing but the clothes on your back," Akiza said to herself. "Who would even think of living here in the first place?"

When Akiza finally came over a sand dune, she spotted a small oasis at the bottom. It was a little pond in the middle of the desert, teeming with plant life around the water consisting of plant life including shrubbery and a few palm trees. The trees were wide enough to provide her shade and protection from the light and heat of the sun. "An oasis," Akiza said to herself. "Well, it's not much, but at least it'll provide me with enough shade and hydration to last me most of the trip through the desert."

The Victorian-clothed Signer hiked down to the small body of water. When she came up to the shrubbery, she saw something lying at the shrubbery. "What's that?"

Akiza walked closer to what she saw in the shrubbery, and she gasped. "Uh-oh! More like, who's that?"

The person that Akiza referred to was an unconscious young girl that appeared to be in her middle-school years, lying facedown in the sand under the palm tree, her breathing soft in unconscious slumber. She had green hair arced over the right side of her face, some of the hair on her left side tied by a small red ribbon. She was wearing a white shirt with a yellow decal, a choker around her neck with a pink heart-shaped pendant with a large pink skirt tied by a leather belt around her waist.

Her body was laying out in the sunlight where the heat was emanating down on her form. Any longer under the heat, and the girl would catch heatstroke and suffer dehydration, and she wasn't even awake to know how close to water she was. Quickly, Akiza went over to the girl, gently turned the girl onto her back, and gently placed her hand on the girl's forehead. She was running a fever, borderline high given how she was lying in the middle of the desert heat.

"Oh no! Her core temperature is rising rapidly, and she's going deeper into unconsciousness! She must be suffering from heatstroke!" Akiza diagnosed the girl's condition worriedly. "This is not good! If she doesn't get enough water soon, she might perish in this heat!" She looked at the oasis pond glimmering in the sunlight. "I guess it's lucky for her that she's been laying right next to nearest source of freshwater, and I happen to come across her when I did."

Something caught Akiza's eyes that grew her curiosity. There was something the girl held firm in her limp right hand. "What's this?" Akiza asked herself as she inspected the object which turned out to be the backside of something rectangular, brown, with a darker brown ovular shape. "Whoa, it's a card! I wonder what kind of Deck this girl plays with?"

Curiosity consumed Akiza as she reached out to see the card up close, unaware that the outline of the card was glowing with a white aura around it. When Akiza's hand was close to taking it, all of a sudden, her Mark of the Dragon Foot appeared on her arm, burning its way into the skin as the card glowed brighter, as if it wanted to repulse the outside party from taking it. Akiza winced to the painful sensation in her arm and drew back it back, holding it tightly and gritting through her teeth.

"My Mark! It hurts even more than before!" the Psychic Duelist said, feeling the pain coursing through her body. "I don't know why, but it must be telling me not to take that card!"

Akiza looked down at the unconscious girl as the glow of the card dimmed. "That mark on her hand is gone," she thought. "Just who is this girl, and where did she come from?"

While thinking hard about the girl, the Signer gasped, remembering the state the girl was in. "Oh, that's right! I have to give her some water, otherwise she might not be able to make it out of the desert alive!"

Akiza quickly stood up, stepped over the girl and went over to the oasis to collect the water in her hands. What the Psychic Duelist failed to pick up was that she and the girl were not alone at the oasis. Perched in the top of the palm trees, too small to be seen past the overhanging leaves was a tiny bird, a little bird-of-paradise colored blue, marked with black with a white underbelly. Its head tilted at while it watched the young female with the green hair being cared for by the female with the red hair. What those girls didn't know was that the bird would become Tori Meadow's guardian angel for the duration of their stay in the desert.

---

Downtown Streets - Domino City

Somewhere in Domino City, there was a tubby tabby cat running in the streets. It's fur was colored tan, it had brown stripes down its back towards its tail, and the shape of it's body was almost rotund, if not completely. The tabby's stubby paws moved it across town and maintained some excellent speed, despite the bloated weight it put on during its nine lives. Following close to that cat was the bound spirit of its former owner, the late Professor Lyman Banner taking the form of a floating, glowing orb of gold light.

"Quickly, Pharaoh! We have no time to waste!" Banner urged his cat through a disembodied voice. "We must find Jaden and the others before it is too late! I just hope that we aren't too late!"

Pharaoh gave a little mewl in response.

The former alchemy teacher from Duel Academy and his cat, Pharaoh scoured the streets when they found they were alone in the city. He remembered what happened to Jaden and the others; he and Pharaoh witnessed the entire ordeal from behind the corner of a building. The meeting of the four Duelists from different timelines and eras, the coming of the Controller, the nerve-wracking Duel between Kaiba and the Controller, the battle between the latter's Dragon-Type against all the important monsters from each different era, and the storm to separate everyone in the plaza and scatter them throughout the space inside the Void.

Now it was up to Banner and Pharaoh to find a familiar face in the city. It did not matter if the face was Jaden, any of his old Duel Academy friends or even the friends he made from another time. Banner needed to find someone that could help, and they needed to be quick about it. So, in order to find someone whom he could be of assistance to, Banner called out anyone who could hear him, the one who inherited the power of communicating with the spirits. Although, seeing as how that gift was extremely rare, it was nearly impossible for anyone to hear him.

First, Banner and Pharaoh checked an empty alleyway. "Jaden, are you here!?"

Next, Banner and Pharaoh searched the unnerved populated streets. "Chazz!? Anyone!? Can you hear me!?"

Finally, Pharaoh checked underneath a soda vending machine, sticking his paws underneath to catch a mouse. "No, Pharaoh! I said we have to look for our students, not rodents!" the spirit scolded, an embarrassed teardrop grown on his orb-like body.

After a passing time with no trace of Jaden or his friends, Pharaoh sat on the sidewalk to catch his breath while Banner's ethereal form appeared, sitting slumped over his shoulders, unseen to the common eyes. "It's no use, Pharaoh, We have searched everywhere in the downtown area, and there is still no sign of Jaden anywhere," Banner sighed dejectedly. "If we cannot Jaden or anyone who could communicate with my spirit form, then this city and quite possibly Duel Academy, will be lost to the calamity that is coming."

Pharaoh mewled dejectedly as well. While the ghostly professor and his companion sulked, Pharaoh's ears twitched when his heightened hearing sensors picked up something. The tabby turned to the left and looked down the street where he saw something another street over, stood on his stubby paws, and emitted a distressed growl. Banner noticed his cat's change in behavior which intrigued him. "What is it, Pharaoh? What did you see?"

Pharaoh growled again as he took off towards the direction, Banner's form reverting to his glowing orb body and quickly following his pet. When the cat and the spirit got close, they saw what appeared to be a familiar red-and-white motorbike standing upright on the road, right next to its fallen owner. Upon closer inspection, Banner saw that the owner had black spikey hair with yellow streaks with a navy blue jumpsuit and gasped.

"It's Yusei!" the spirit said. "Good work, Pharaoh! Perhaps he may be able to help save this city after all!"

Pharaoh carefully walked up to Yusei, mewled, and gently nudged Yusei's nose with his paw. As expected, Yusei groaned in response as the ticklish sensation stimulated his nerves, allowing his eyes to open to the sight of a tabby cat and an orb of light that took the form of a translucent formal-clothed man. "Look, Pharaoh. He's waking up," the spirit said as Yusei blinked again. "It looks like tickling his nose really did the trick, didn't it?"

Pharaoh simply yawned.

Yusei pushed himself off of the ground with his hands.

"What happened?" Yusei asked as his face winced from the feeling of muscle soreness all over his body.

Banner gasped when he saw his friend from the future dealing with physical pain. "Oh, please Yusei, don't try and push yourself! You appear to be injured when you were thrown from that storm!"

"Believe me, I've had worse falls on my Duel Runner than I have without it," Yusei said, pushing himself up and positioned himself on his feet, standing up. When his senses quickly came back to him, he saw and recognized the cat and the spirit of the scrawny man standing beside. "Hey, hold on a minute, I remember you two. I may have seen you guys only a couple of times before, but you two were Jaden's companions, right?"

"Yes, and if I recall, we weren't properly introduced before," the professor said, placing a hand on his chest and bowing. "My name is Professor Lyman Banner. As you can see, in life, I was a former archaeologist, alchemist, and teacher at Duel Academy. Now my lingering spirit resides within the belly of my cat, Pharaoh. He was the one who found you here in the streets and decided to wake you up."

Pharaoh yawned while he was introduced and commended.

"I appreciate the help, Pharaoh," Yusei said, gratuitously rubbing the top of the tabby's head which made him purr. "Now tell me something, Professor Banner. Do you have any idea where we are?"

"I'm afraid I do, Yusei. We are currently in the streets of Domino City, of both my past and my present."

"Past and present?" Yusei asked. "Are you saying that the two eras involving the old Domino City have somehow become one?"

"Yes, and it is quite an interesting story," Banner said, flashing back to the clash between the Controller and the Legendary Duelists' four best monsters. "When you and your friends' monsters battled against the Controller, the damage to gauntlet has indeed separated the eras and dimensions from the circle he created by himself. However, when while that storm hit all of Domino City and beyond, the crystal on the Controller's cannon was destroyed, and the eras were bounced around, either being separated or merged with one another. Yusei, the merging of my past and present is the result of this accident, and I am already feeling the effects."

"Effects? Like what?"

Suddenly, the ethereal body of Professor Banner flickered from translucent to solid, surprising Yusei and surprising Pharaoh to the point where he ducked for cover behind Yusei's legs. Banner looked down at his hand as it flickered. "As you can see, thanks to the merging of two close eras, I am torn between my life and my afterlife. My memories are at constant conflict between my past and my present. If this is how I feel, then you can imagine what the people native to these eras would feel as well. However, I feel this is just the beginning."

"What do you mean?"

Banner turned to the Turbo Duelist. "Yusei, now that two different eras have been combined into one, the fabric of reality is at a risk of tearing itself apart. The time energies from these eras have combined to form one unstable energy, and it's threatening to open rifts between this world and the Void. Normally, a calamity would be quick and unexpected if your timeline and mine were to be merged, but since the difference between the merged eras is about fifteen years..."

"Then the effects will come at a slower pace, am I right?"

"Yes, and it will only continue to grow dangerous as the time passes. Soon, many rifts will open in the space like a burning paper, and then everything will be lost to the Void."

"You said that rifts in space will start suddenly appearing," Yusei recapped. "Is there any way to seal those rifts up?"

"I am not sure, Yusei, but I believe that the answer lies within your mark," Banner noted, making Yusei unveil his Mark of the Dragon Head on his arm. "Yusei, your mark has the power to prevent any crisis from happening in any era or dimension. Perhaps we can use that power to save this world before things get bad."

"How bad are we talking about?"

Suddenly, there was a loud noise like the wobbling of jelly amplified tenfold through a synthesizer, followed with the sound of a single sheet of paper being torn in half, also amplified through said synthesizer. The trio looked up to the altitude above the city see a rupture outlined by light, stretching over a part of the city, dripping oozy dark matter from the small openings. "Oh no! The first rift has already opened over Domino City, and it's already letting the darkness to seep through into this world! This may be the start of the calamity that is coming to this world!"

Quickly, Yusei stood on his feet, rand to his Duel Runner, and inserted his Turbo Dueling helmet on his head. "Then I'm going to check this out myself."

Banner gasped and reached his hand out. "Wait, Yusei! You cannot go out there alone! We do not know how dangerous that darkness is!"

Yusei reached his arm out. "Then hop on, already! If we can stop that tear now, we might have a chance to hold reality from growing apart for a time!"

Banner looked down to Pharaoh, who mewled as he looked back to his owner. Then the professor turned back to Yusei and nodded understandingly. "I understand, Yusei. Come on, Pharaoh! The sooner we can leave, the sooner we can stop reality from being torn apart!" Pharaoh understood Banner's request with a nod as the spirit reverted back into his glowing orb form, hovering precariously close to the tabby cat's face. "Although I must warn you, Pharaoh easily gets motion sickness at ultra high speeds."

Suddenly, Pharaoh opened his mouth, trapped the orb inside and swallowed. With his master's soul safe in his stomach, Pharaoh jumped into Yusei's arms and settled in his lap before the Turbo Duelist revved up his engines. The rear wheels spun, and Yusei with his feline and spirit companions rode downtown to where the dark matter was dripping from like a leaky pipe. A leaky pipe in space that would slowly grow to expand over time.

---

Downtown Streets - Domino City

"Hey, Yugi! Are you out here, pal!?" Joey Wheeler screamed in the city streets, his hands cupped around his mouth.

"Yugi! Tristan! Where are you!?" Tea Gardner called out in another street of the city.

"Tristan! Where are ya!? Come on, this is no time to be playin' hide-and-seek!" Joey screamed, looking inside an old abandoned warehouse.

"Has anyone here seen Yugi!?" Tea asked the people in the card shop, only to be met with many variations of the word "no".

"Hey, Kaiba! You'd better be around here somewhere!" Joey shouted before he felt nauseous. "Oh man. I think I threw up a little in my mouth there."

After a moment of fruitlessly calling out for Yugi, Tristan, and Kaiba, Joey and Tea both met up on one of the streets of downtown Domino City.

"Well!? Did you find them yet!?" Tea desperately asked Joey.

"Nope. I couldn't find one trace of those guys anywhere in this city," Joey answered, rubbing the back of his head. "It's like they disappeared after that storm picked up. Let's face it, Tea, they could be hundreds of miles away already."

"But we have to keep searching, Joey!" Tea begged angrily, making Joey jumped. "If there's any chance that Yugi and the others are still in the city, then have to find them! If Yugi and the Pharaoh aren't around to save our city, then I don't know who else in the world can!"

Joey's face grew into a proud, close-eyed smirk. "Don't worry about a thing, Tea. If there's one person who can help defend this city, that would be Joey Wheeler, one of the world's greatest Duelists this city has to offer! If there's some punk stirrin' up trouble in this city and there's no one around to stop him, then all ya gotta do is call me up and I'll beat that punk down so hard, he'll be flown into next week!"

Tea's expression was that of a comically embarrassed face with eyes closed shut. "That's assuming that your Duels doesn't last until next week," she said, making Joey's face twist.

"Hey, who're ya callin' slow!?" Joey snapped at Tea, growing his signature twisted grin while violently shaking his pointer finger at her. "I'll have you know that I've come in second place at Duelist Kingdom, took fourth place in Battle City, and I was one of the three chosen ones who helped save the entire world from the Orichalcos! So I would think I'd like to have a little respect comin' outta you of all people, Tea!"

Somewhere nearby and unaware to the two, there was a small wisp of dark matter that slithered up to them at close proximity at their heels. The sentient sliver of darkness was attracted to the two friends squabbling, and its unformed head turned to either person shouting at each other, and Tea was the next one to speak her mind. "Oh, come on, Joey. You know that I have great respect for you as a friend and as a Duelist."

The dark matter turned to Joey. "But you were implyin' that my Duelin' skills are slow, am I right?"

Then the dark matter turned back to Tea. "Slow, reckless, and a bit sloppy, but I only mean that in a good way."

"A good way? A good way how?" Joey asked Tea. "I'm good like I'm a decent enough Duelist ta get to where I am in da world, but nowhere as good enough as Yugi or Kaiba? Is dat it?"

An embarrassed teardrop fell fro Tea's head. "Hey, I didn't mean to make you feel bad, Joey. I'm just trying to give you some constructive criticism so you could get better as a Duelist."

"So what you're sayin' is that I'm not as good as a Duelist as I was, Tea?"

Tea had a hard time trying to answer the question. "Ah, well..."

Joey's head fell with his shoulders, and an air of dark violet gloom emanated from his head. "I knew it. My Duelin' is slow! I'm probably so slow dat da next time I Duel someone, it'll be Christmas in da blink of an eye!"

Tea brought her hands up at her chest level in defense while Joey was hunched over in depression. "Come on, Joey, snap out of it! I didn't mean anything like it!" she defended herself. She noticed Joey's rise in frustration as he trembled and his growling grew louder. "Look, why don't we drop this conversation so we can forget about it and focus on finding Yugi, Tristan, and Kaiba? That'll take your mind off of things..."

All of a sudden, Joey shot his face up, his face clearly shown in comical frustration in anger. "How can I take my mind offa things now dat you've gone and got me down!?" he shouted, his megaphonic voice blowing so hard, it made Tea's hair blow back.

The outburst made Tea weary and nearby people watched the scene as Joey trembled once more upsettingly. "Dat's it. If I'm gonna get some respect around here by becomin' a better Duelist, then I'm gonna go pay Gramps a little visit in his shop," he said, pointing his finger in the right direction. "He's the one who taught me more about Duelin' and he respects me because he knows I'm a great Duelist, so I'm gonna get some advice on how ta become a better Duelist than I am now!"

Joey turned and started running in the direction towards the Game Shop, leaving Tea behind.

"Joey, wait!" Tea begged, reaching her arm out to Joey but was ignored. Then she sighed. "Man, did I screw that one up, big time. How does Tristan know how to sugarcoat the truth better while I'm here blabbering everything that's coming out of my mouth? This is definitely why I need some more female friends."

What Tea did not know was that the little unformed sliver of dark matter had slithered up to her heel and attached to the shoe's backside like a symbiotic parasite waiting for the perfect moment to strike. The dark matter paused for a moment when Tea stressfully sighed once again. "Oh well. Live and let learn, I suppose. I guess I should follow Joey back at the Game Shop before he starts blubbering all over the floor again."

With her first steps turning into a stride, Tea followed Joey back to the designated destination, completely oblivious to her newest passenger on her heel. "Wait for me, Joey!"

---

Duel Academy Eastern Shores - Duel Academy Island

The golden beaches of Duel Academy Island was one of the most beautiful places that students, faculty, and neither enjoyed visiting once in a while. The beaches were known for their beachside snack bar, the location under the warm sunlight, and the waves that were in perfect condition for surfing. However, that was not the case today, for the beaches were empty, save for the animals that inhabited the sands above and below, and a certain teal-haired girl lying unconscious near the low tide. The water wasn't even high enough to touch her shoes.

Luna of New Domino City was the city's second inhabitant to have landed in an era from the past. She didn't know of it at first because she was in a peaceful child's sleep, arms tucked under he head as her soft breathing rhythmically repeated itself over. While Luna slept, her Spirit Partner, the Fairy-Type monster known only as Kuribon materialized herself from out of nowhere and called out to her in her Kuribanese language. She gently bumped the girl over and over while she called out to her, and it took several bumps and calls to get a reaction from Luna.

First came the groaning, then came the twitches of verse stimulated in her face, and finally came the opening of the eyes. The first thing that Luna saw upon opening her eyes was the sight of Kuribon staring at her with an anxious look in her eyes. "Kuribon?" Luna sat herself up and rubbed her eyes. "Kuribon, what's happening?" Luna looked around her area. "And where are we?"

Kuribon told her in Kuribanese.

"Duel Academy Island?" Luna repeated out loud. "I don't remember Duel Academy being on a tropical island."

Kuribon clarified the location to Luna.

"A different Duel Academy?" Luna translated, to which Kuribon nodded in an answer. She stood on her feet, looked up, and her mouth fell agape to the sight of a great building past a sea of trees, built at the base of a volcano. After she drank in the sights, Luna turned to face the great blue ocean and beyond, overwhelmed by sense of amazement and wonder. "This is so weird. I've never heard of a Duel Academy built in the middle of an ocean before."

"You won't find a Duel Academy like this in our timeline, Luna," a deep, gruff voice rang from out of nowhere. The owner of that voice appeared next to Luna in the form of a majestic and fierce male white lion, clad in azure armor with red markings surrounding the base of the horn on its forehead. "We have been flung into the era when Duel Academy was prospering, but this era has been merged by mistake with another era from a more distant past."

"I'm guessing that's bad, right?" Luna repeated the lion.

"Indeed," Regulus the lion spirit nodded. "When two different time eras are merged together, they will create a chain reaction, ripping the very fabric of space apart until there is nothing left. In this case, since the two eras merged together are not so distant from each other, the space will be ripped apart eventually, but more will come and soon."

"I guess," Luna said. She turned her head up at the swirling mixture of dark and crimson that was the Void, with the only celestial objects she saw being the red sun and a solitary orb of light that was nearly hidden behind said sun. "But there's something that I don't understand, Regulus. How did we end up in two different eras in time that merged into one?"

"You and your friends were summoned by the Crimson Dragon to aid it in the battle against the one who calls himself the Controller," Regulus explained. "Before the Controller could grab his hands on the Numeron Code, the card that could change reality forever, the Crimson Dragon called for the Signer Dragons to battle against the Controller's forces, and in the midst of that battle, a terrible and unnatural storm began to blow. You and your brother have been separated from each other in the process, and despite Yusei's intentions to save your life, you were separated once more on the beaches of Duel Academy."

Luna gasped as memories came flooding back to her, to the moment when she and the other Signers were called by the Crimson Dragon. She remembered how her "Ancient Fairy Dragon" was called out to battle the Controller's four Dragon-Type monsters alongside the other monsters who stood in his way. It was then that she remembered being picked up in that storm and whisked away from her brother before Yusei caught her in his arms, and they disappeared as well. Luna began to feel the gravity of the situation weigh her down with fear, and only grew worse when she realized that she was alone.

"I remember now! I was separated from Yusei after that storm hit, and that would mean...!" It was then that Luna thought of one certain Duelist that she was separated from, one that disappeared in with the storm. "That would mean that Leo is gone too! I bet he's flipping out right now knowing that I'm not around for him to protect!"

"Calm yourself, Luna. Now is not the time to panic," Regulus advised Luna. "We have other pressing matters at hand."

Luna forgot her worry and turned to the horned lion spirit. "What could be more pressing than being separated from my own brother!?"

The lion spirit closed his eyes. "As I said before, since these two eras are now one, the fabric of space has already began to undo itself. Soon, a rift between this world and a darker world will appear, and many more will soon follow in its wake. I can feel one opening near our location as we speak." Regulus looked up to the area above the trees, and in that spot exactly where the lion saw it, an abnormal streak of light ripped through reality, and ebon black liquid started seeping through the cracks and dripped into the forest below. Each drip sizzled into sentient smoke, making the birds and other forest wildlife run away from it.

Luna drew back at the sight. "Oh, gross! What is that stuff!?"

"It's darkness, Luna, impure and complex," Regulus answered. "Already, this world is falling into chaos, and if we cannot do something to stop the darkness, then this world is doomed."

"But how are we supposed to stop that from happening?"

"Your Signer mark may have the power to seal the rift up tight, Luna, but it can only hold the darkness at bay for such a time."

"Then I'll have to seal up that rift," Luna declared. "It may not stop that darkness, but at least I'll buy us enough time to figure out how we can save the world and find my brother at the same time."

Regulus nodded in accord. "A wise decision, Luna. Perhaps you will also meet other possible allies along the way."

"Right," Luna nodded back and ran towards the forest, in the direction towards the rift, followed by both Kuribon and Regulus. "I just hope that I don't get lost in the forest."

"This island is inhabited by Duel Monster Spirits, Luna. You must find them, and only then will they lead you to where you need to go."

---

Forest - Duel Academy Island

In that forest near the eastern shores of Duel Academy, there was a muscular student-turned-teacher out an about, looking for his lost platoon members as he would put it. He was lying unconscious in the forest after that storm that hit the Domino City Plaza whisked him away, and when he came to, he was lost in the middle of the woodland labyrinth. Now Tyranno Hassleberry spent the last half-hour calling for his old classmates to answer him, but those efforts wielded no response. His determination, however, was the only thing keeping him from not giving up his search, no way and no how.

"Hey, Sarge! Are you around here!?" Hassleberry yelled from his throat as he walked around the forest for a reply. "Chazz!? Alexis!? Truesdale!? Anybody here!?"

When nothing came back to him in the form of a voice, Hassleberry hummed and placed both of his hands on his hips. "I guess they can't hear me right," he said to himself. "Oh well. Guess I'll have to do this the old-fashioned way. This always used to get the Sarge and that little pipsqueak up when it was time for some hardcore Duel training at sunrise."

Hassleberry took a deep breath and bellowed from the top of his lungs so loud, all of Duel Academy Island and a quarter mile into the sea could hear it. "Hey! If there are any former Duel Academy students here on the island that I know and love from before, when I sound off, you'd better report here as ordered or I'll have you scrubbing the bathroom with your toothbrush, you got me!? Sargent Jaden! Private Truesdale! Private Princeton! Private Rhodes! ATTEN-HUT!"

When Hassleberry sounded off, it was suddenly louder than before, loud enough to scare the birds off. When the sound of scared squawks, frightened chirps, and frantic flapping of the wings echoed into silence and nothing else came to sound a reply, Hassleberry sighed again with a huff. "Well, this isn't good. If anyone from my old platoon members haven't sounded off already, than that means they could've gotten lost after we got hit with that storm. I just hope nothing's happened to them."

While the ex-Ra Yellow lamented the separation from his friends, he was completely oblivious to the abnormality occurring overhead and behind him. He was unaware of the sound of space wobbling around like jelly, followed by the glowing rip in reality that leaked sentient dark matter into the world, stalking the world to claim its first victim. That dark matter, taking on a gaseous form, slithered through the forest until it spotted Hassleberry from behind the bushes. The dark matter undulated and drew to tall proportions to the size of its muscular victim, and just before Hassleberry sighed again.

"Oh well, I guess that's that. Without Jaden and the others around, there's nothin' I can do now," Hassleberry said dejectedly, until he gasped and realized what he was saying. "Get a hold of yourself, Hassleberry! That's no way for an old soldier like you to talk! Remember, we're Tyranno Hassleberry! We're the son of the great General Hassleberry! We've got Dino-DNA written in our system, and we're the head of physical education at Duel Academy! There's nothing I can't do here except protect my old comrades!"

"Nothing you can't do, you say?" a menacing voice rang out, making Hassleberry jump. "I wouldn't be so quick as to make promises you can't keep, Mr. Hassleberry."

Hassleberry looked around and took on an offensive stance. "Who's there!? Show yourself right now, soldier!"

The voice chuckled menacingly as well. "As you wish..."

Bushes rustled behind him, and Hassleberry was quick to look back towards the bushes while retaining his stance and a fierce hard look. Out from the shadows of the trees and bushes came a black boot with a yellow midline running up the leg. The owner of said boot appeared more and more to the Dino Duelist from the shadows in the shape of a short-haired, shades-wearing, black leather-clad humanoid, making Hassleberry shocked and horrified by the familiar face in the woods.

"Oh no! It's you again!" the Dino Duelist yelped, backing away a couple of steps. "But how is that possible!?"

The humanoid spread an unsettling grin on his face. "There's nothing in the Void that isn't possible," he said, his entire body reverting back to the dark, gaseous state. "Like having you being wiped away from existence, for instance!"

Hassleberry screamed a bit as he backed up, then turned tail and sprinted ahead into the forest, followed by the sentient evil black smoke. Pushing the biceps in his legs, Hassleberry managed to keep ahead of the dark smoke, but the dark matter tailing him was going at a pace slightly faster than him and was beginning to catch up. His screams trailed through the entire "Isn't this just fantastic!? Just when I thought things couldn't get bad, they just keep getting worse! This is the worst Duel Academy Graduation Reunion EVER!"

The ex-Ra Yellow's screams trailed through the trees of the forest, unheard by anyone and anything within hearing range.

---

Control Center - Inside the E.N.D. Cannon

"Do you two understand what I am asking you...?" the Controller asked, finishing his plan for the two shadows, not moving from his seat as he sensed the duo nodded to his question of clarification. "Good. If this is the only for my grand scheme to work in three day's time... then the cooperation I ask between the two of you is highly mandatory. I know of the conflict the two of you had in your past life... but if you were to combine your powers and talents... then you will have all of Egypt and the world... eating from the palm of your hands."

The modules on the Controller's right gauntlet glowed, and two circular portals appeared in front of the two shadows in mid-air. "And to ensure that you follow through with what we discussed... I will be giving you these..."

From each of the portals came a full Deck of Duel Monsters cards, the maximum of forty that hovered in place. The two shadows graciously accepted the gifts by holding their palms out, and letting the Deck fall into their hands. They spread a few of the Duel Monsters cards a bit from the bottom, gazing with wonder to the sight of the powerful cards in their possession. "Be warned, though... these are not gifts compliments of myself..." the Controller clarified. "I am only lending you these Decks for the time being. If you somehow succeed in our plan... then you may keep the Decks for yourselves. If you lose just one Duel... then you know the penalty of losing in the Void. Do I make myself clear?"

The shadows nodded. The Controller could sense them nodding. "Good. You two are dismissed..."

The shadow who sported the cape had a mark on his forehead that glowed bright before he vanished. The chest of the final shadow glowed before he disappeared as well, leaving the Controller alone with his four lieutenants as he turned back to watch the screens. He chuckled. "It won't be long now, Legendary Duelists... soon, you and your friends will experience a challenge... the likes of which you have never been challenged to before... and that challenge... is seeing how you will be able to Duel... when you have been forced from your own world... and thrown in a completely new world..."

The Controller turned his sights on a teenager from Heartland City and his spirit friends making a move into the Forest.

---

Edge of the Forest - Grace (EARTH Dimension) - Duel Monsters Spirit World

Out of the Twelve Dimensions that made the two-layered circle that maintained the balance of the universe and everything in between, there were six certain dimensions that was home to the worlds of different Duel Monsters Spirits, each one signifying the six main Attributes of the Duel Monsters Cards. Any first grader who was a novice at the Duel Monsters game would easily guess that the six Attributes were EARTH, WIND, FIRE, WATER, LIGHT, and DARK respectively.

What those first graders rarely knew in real life and through fairy tales told by their friends, families, and peers, was those attributes had a different Spirit World that existed outside of the Human World. They were six of the eight (now seven) Duel Monsters Spirit Worlds that connected each other through either a circular shape or circumferences, the latter being beneficial to hold the universe together, and the dark Void at bay. Rarely does anyone from the Human Worlds venture into any of the Spirit Worlds, whether it was by choice or not, or through their minds or their entire body. Rarely does anything solid come out of those Spirit Worlds and into the Human Worlds, but then again, they weren't called the Spirit Worlds for nothing.

In this particular situation, a few of the Spirit Worlds had a few additional humans and spirits stranded within. One of those humans, a certain teenager paired with a certain spirit from Astral World, was lying in a field near the borders of the Forest Terrain, both of them unconscious from being flung around by the storm. Even though Astral was an ethereal spirit, that didn't mean he could feel physical pain or be damaged or fall unconscious from time to time.

Fortunately, Astral was the only one of the two to wake up in a field of grass, his heterochromic eyes opening and widening in shock. He got up in his seat, floated over the grass and hovered, looking around his surroundings and observing. "Where am I? How did I get here?" Astral wondered out loud before he realized where he was. "Oh no. I must be stuck in one of the Duel Monsters Spirit Worlds! Did that storm somehow throw me into this world?"

The familiar, obnoxious snorting of Yuma Tsukumo brought Astral's attention to the sleeping teenager. Yuma had the subconscious ability to talk in his sleep no matter how strange his dream was. The one thing he muttered in his sleep was "Sheepskin covered potato pies..." before he fell back to snoring through his nose. Astral was surprised to see his friend unharmed despite the ordeal they went through, but not so surprised by how he slept like usual.

So Astral floated downwards near to Yuma and tried to wake him up. "Yuma, you need to wake up. Yuma!"

The reaction caused by the yelling caused Yuma to groan and turn to his side. "Kari... I don't wanna go to school... I don't have my lucky Dark Magician underpants on..."

"...I am not going to ask," Astral said to himself. "Yuma!"

This time, the yelling caused Yuma to open his eyes weakly. Disoriented, he could only register Astral's voice as everything he saw was blurry and weak for a moment before he sat up in his seat. "Ugh... another weird dream..." Rubbing his eyes, Yuma squinted as he turned his head from side to side. "Astral? Did I just hear you call me? Where are you?"

"I am right in front of you, Yuma."

Still disoriented and tired, Yuma turned to his front as his vision cleared and saw his humanoid spirit friend floating in front of him. He blinked his eyes twice. "Oh, hey Astral, what's up? Is it Saturday morning pancake breakfast today?"

Yuma yawned a big yawn while Astral explained the situation to him. "I am afraid not, Yuma. We are not back at your home. Instead, we have been transported to one of the Duel Monsters Spirit Worlds, specifically to the dimension where EARTH monsters and all Beasts and Insect monsters dwell."

Yuma ceased his yawning and looked at Astral with half-lidded tired eyes. "The Duel Monsters Spirit World? You're kidding," he said tiredly.

Astral hovered close to Yuma. "Yuma, think. Can you recall the last thing that happened before you woke up here?"

The teenager yawned again, hummed and scratched his lower back. "Well, let's see. We were in the Domino City Plaza with the King of Games himself and the other two Duelists when the Controller appeared. We challenged the Controller to a Duel, Yugi's rival suddenly appeared and challenged the Controller to Duel and lost, and then he tried to take the Numeron Code..." With those two words of recollection, Yuma gasped when memories came flooding back and comically panicked. "Oh no, that's right! The Controller tried to take the Numeron Code! And when the Numeron Dragon disappeared trying to stop him, he called out 'Utopia' and all those other powerful monsters to battle him when he summoned those Dragons out! And then 'Utopia' destroyed the Controller's arm-controlling-thing and then that storm suddenly appeared...!"

Yuma gasped so sharply when he remembered what happened in that storm. "Oh no! Tori! She's been taken away from me by that storm! Who knows where she ended up!?"

Astral looked at the red sun hovering in the center of the space. "I may have an inkling as to who might."

Yuma stood up on his feet, glared at the sun, and clenched his fist. "The Controller. I bet he's got Tori held hostage in that big spaceship cannon of his!"

"I highly doubt it, Yuma," Astral said.

"Oh yeah!? And how do you know that, Astral!?"

"Because the storm that separated us from our friends was an accident. If the Controller had intended to capture your friends while you were unconscious, it would be to gain leverage over you," Astral explained. "However, since Tori is only a novice-level Duelist, I sincerely doubt that the Controller would go out of his way as to turn her against you. I believe that he requires more skilled Duelists for more sinister purposes in his plan."

"You mean like he wants to use them as insurance in case we get too close to him?"

"I don't know, Yuma, but we will have to wait and see. For now, we have another problem to deal with."

"You mean other than the fact that we're stuck in some weird dimension and worlds apart from finding our friends again?" Yuma asked sarcastically.

"No. This is something far more serious."

Yuma turned up to Astral with curiosity. "Really? What's up?"

Astral turned down to Yuma with another explanation. "Yuma, while we were taken away in that abnormal storm, the feedback in the Controller's E.N.D. Cannon caused the firepower to overload with an enormous amount of energy which caused it to explode. Not only had the explosion stopped the storm and flung everyone present in the Domino City Plaza to various eras and dimensions, but it appeared to have made the Numeron Code disappear."

Yuma's eyes widened with shock. "What!? The Numeron Code is gone!? But that's like the only thing powerful enough to return us back to our timeline!"

"Yes," Astral nodded, "and it is the only thing powerful enough to destroy and restart the universe as well."

"Well, where could it have gone!? The Numeron Code doesn't up and vanish just like that!"

"Agreed, which means the Numeron Code must be hiding somewhere in this space."

"So now what do we do!?"

"The only thing we can do, Yuma," Astral said. "We must stop the Controller from succeeding with his plan. He still has the Numeron Dragon in his grasp, which puts him at a distinct advantage over us."

"Okay, so how are we going to stop him!? He's up there..." Yuma pointed at the sun, "and we're down here!"

"Yes, I am well aware of that fact, Yuma. Perhaps there are certain Duel Spirits in this dimension who can provide us some aid in our mission... like a certain card given to you by your father?"

Yuma's agitated face softened to curiosity. "Can you be more specific on that, Astral?" he asked, unaware of what was happening in his Deck Box. "Because most of my Deck has cards that belonged to my dad."

It was then that the Deck Box on the teen's belt began to glow bright that got Yuma's full attention. Before Yuma could reach for his Deck Box, a small fish-like creature appeared from the box in its solid monster form, surprising Yuma but making Astral. The creature had a rubbery body with fins, colored indigo with circles of pink and white on its "face". A single fin sported from the creature's forehead, colored in uneven stripes of red, orange, yellow, green, and blue. It's bug-like eyes were closed in a joyous manner as it happily bounced its rubbery body in the air and circled Yuma's head, speaking in its native, telepathic language of Kuribanese.

"Whoa! Rainbow Kuriboh! Why are you here?" Yuma asked the colorfully, friendly Fiend.

"From what you told me before, when you traveled to Astral World in hopes of restoring me to full strength, your father sent his Rainbow Kuriboh to help guide you through the Astral World and the perils that awaited you there," Astral told the story. "From then on, your Rainbow Kuriboh has proven to be capable to help us out of a pinch many times before." Astral turned to Rainbow Kuriboh. "And unless I am incorrect, you are here to guide us through the Spirit World?"

Rainbow Kuriboh nodded and squeaked in Kuribanese. It's lemon-colored eyes glowed, and a beam shone from its lime-colored irises, revealing a full atlas of the Spirit World's vast EARTH Dimension which included the forests, the mountains, the canyons, the deserts, and the cities marked on the map. Near the edge of the borders to the Forest was a little blinking red dot coinciding where the trio were currently standing.

"Whoa! Check out the size of this Spirit World! It's huge, even on a map!" Yuma gawked in wonder before he turned to Astral. "But Astral, how are we gonna get out of this Spirit World, anyway? We've only got three days until the Controller decides to trigger his cannon again."

"There is more than one way to exit a Spirit World, Yuma, but perhaps the most convenient method in our case is to pass through a Gate."

"What's a Gate?"

"A Gate is a portal to another Duel Monsters Spirit World hidden in each of the worlds," Astral explained, visualizing a Gate somewhere in each of the Spirit Worlds, modeled after the environment they were built in. "Once a person passes through a Gate, they will be transported to another world with ease, but where that person will end up is unknown. Since the Spirit Worlds are connected to each other, there are four other Gates hidden in each world, guarded by a fierce opponent who will test their worth to pass through the Gate in a Duel."

"So all we gotta do is find a Gate, beat the guy guarding it in a Duel, and we can pass through to another Spirit World," Yuma said, his smile spreading and his overconfidence brimming to the edge. "Oh that'll be easy. After all, with Rainbow Kuriboh leading the way, we'll be sure to find the Gates in no time at all."

"Do not be quick to judge, Yuma," Astral advised. "Each of the Gates are well hidden in each world, and only a select few would know where they are located. Even if we were to find them, the guardians of those Gates will not be easy to defeat."

Yuma pumped his fist up. "Don't worry, Astral. We've faced tougher opponents before and we always came out on top," he encouraged his spirit friend. "There's no way we're going to let some Duel Spirit get in our way from stopping the Controller and his cannon. You've got the skills and the smarts and I've got the flow, and when we put those two together, then there's no opponent that we can't beat."

Astral closed his eyes, smiled, and emitted a slightly amused hum. "You're right, Yuma. By combining our talents, we can overcome any obstacle in our way."

"You said it!" Yuma said with a single fist pump and a toothy grin. "Now that that's settled, where do we go first? This place is too humongous to find one of the Gates."

Suddenly, Rainbow Kuriboh bounced around Yuma and Astral energetically, chirping happily and rapidly with excitement.

"Now what's gotten into you all of a sudden, Kuriboh?" Yuma asked the Duel Spirit.

"Perhaps Rainbow Kuriboh knows where to begin," Astral theorized, observing the Fiend's reaction.

Rainbow Kuriboh nodded to the humanoid spirit's deduction. The Fiend's lemon-and-lime colored eyes glowed once more and the map to Grace was projected again, zooming in on the blinking red dot that marked the trio's current location. The map moved away from the dot as it focused away from their location and moved across the Forest Terrain and the Ancient Forest, continuing to move until it reached the other side of the Ancient Forest and stopped over a dot marking a city labeled "Schwank", the nearest civilization they could find on the map. Zooming out, the map revealed the distance between the red dot and the city with only the two Forests standing in between them.

Yuma bent forwards to get a better look at the marked location projected on the map. "Schwank? That's a strange name for a town," the teen criticized, "but since we are in the Spirit World, I guess we should expect this sort of thing."

"Schwank," Astral observed. "The name of that village does not strike me as familiar, but I have heard stories about the Ancient Forest before."

Yuma looked at Astral curiously. "Huh? You know that place, Astral?"

"I do. The Ancient Forest is a sacred land hidden deep within that nearby Forest," the envoy of Astral World explained. "Legend has it that the magic in the Ancient Forest is so adamant about preserving the peace of the land that whoever fights in that forest will be destroyed."

The teenager couldn't help but swallow a nervous lump in his throat and step back in fright. "Wait a minute! Don't tell me that we have to pass through that forest just to get to that place!?"

"There is no other way we can reach it, Yuma, and we are running out of time," Astral mentioned the details to Yuma. "Schwank is the only city near enough for us to reach by foot, and the only way is if we proceed through the Ancient Forest. We must be careful, Yuma. We cannot afford to pick a fight in the Ancient Forest lest we be destroyed, and there is no telling what might happen once we reach the forest."

"But if we got caught up in a fight while we're in the forest!?" Yuma shrieked, whimpering at the thought. "I can see myself already!"

-VISION-

Somewhere in the depths of the Ancient Forest, Yuma was currently in a Duel against a humanoid shadow, both Duel Disks unsheathed and cards in their hand. The only monster that was currently on Yuma's field was "Number 39: Utopia", and the eager teen was ready to deplete his unknown opponent's Life Points. "It's my turn! I draw!" Yuma declared, drawing his card. "Now, 'Utopia'! Attack him directly with Rising Sun Slash!"

"Number 39: Utopia" took the scabbard of his sword, shattered its sheathe, and swiped the sword in the air a couple of times. The Warrior "Number" then leapt up in the air, raised it's sword, and brought itself and the sword down on his opponent. The attack hit the shadowy opponent successfully as the slash blew the opponent back, reducing it's Life Points to zero before he feel flat on the ground, a screen popping up on Yuma's side of the field with his face and the word "WIN" in capital letters depicted on it.

"Alright! I won!" Yuma exclaimed as he jumped up in the air. He fell back on his feet and rubbed the underside of his nose. "That's how you feel the flow!"

Suddenly, the trees of the Ancient Forest began to sway to an unnatural wind. The depths of the forest began to glow, and an eerie murmur spread through the trees, surrounding Yuma and frightening him. "Hey, what's going on? Why is this happening?" Yuma asked as his body began to glow. "Wait! Something's wrong with my body! It feels like something in me is blowing up!"

Suddenly, Yuma's belly began to bloat and expand like a balloon. The teenager whimpered as his arms and legs bloated up as well as his face, screaming in terror before his whole body...

*POP!*

"NOOOOOOOO!"

Yuma's thought bubble popped as he screamed at the same volume and frequency to the horrors that ran through his mind. He cowered his head in his hands and shivered in his seat as Astral and Rainbow Kuriboh watched in embarrassment. "I don't wanna be destroyed! I wanna live to Duel another day! I wanna become the Dueling Champion of the world! I wanna eat some more of my Grandma's food! I wanna finally beat Bronk in a Duel-huel-huel!"

"Yuma, please pull yourself together. You're just embarrassing yourself as usual," Astral said bluntly.

"That's easy for you too say!" Yuma snapped. "You haven't thought of what happened if we got caught in a Duel in that forest and got destroyed in the process!"

Astral turned away from the sight and sighed as did Rainbow Kuriboh.

"And we wonder why the Controller chose him as a Legendary Duelist," Astral muttered, earning a nod from the Fiend in accord.

"Not cool, you two!" Yuma snapped, pointing his finger at them.

Astral looked back at the teen. "Yuma, this is no time to be frightened over your preventable fate. There is work to be done," the spirit advised. "We are separated from our friends and our home. We have only three days until the Controller's E.N.D. Cannon is fully recharged. Even as we speak, the odds of finding a way out of the Spirit Worlds to defeat the Controller is decreasing, and it will continue to do so unless we move through the Forests right now."

"What!?" Yuma practically jumped at this as he shot his finger at the nearby woodlands. "But Astral, you just said that the Ancient Forest destroys anyone or anything that tries to fight in it! How are we supposed to move through that without getting ourselves destroyed!?"

Astral turned his head to the forest and he explained his plant to his comrades. "It is quite simple. We must not allow ourselves to fight. We cannot pick a fight with any enemy we may come across inside the Ancient Forest, nor must we allow ourselves to retaliate to any attack thrown at us. If we can allow the enemy to strike at us, then the magic of the Ancient Forest will destroy them, giving us an advantage over the enemy and allowing ourselves to pass through the forest more safer."

Yuma looked at Astral for a moment with a perplexed look. Then he placed his hands on his hips and looked at the spirit with a raised eyebrow. "Wait a minute, Astral. Are you telling me that the only way for us to go through the Ancient Forest is to not fight the monsters in there that are trying to destroy us, and if we let ourselves get attacked on purpose, then the Ancient Forest will make that monster go boom?"

"That is correct."

Yuma frantically waved his fists in exasperation. "So you're gonna use me as live bait!?"

"That is not what I am saying. You already attract enough trouble without my help."

"Oh, thanks a lot, Astral!" Yuma snapped.

Astral turned back to his friend. "Yuma, I understand how frightening the thought of the Ancient Forest can be, but nothing is more important than finding our friends and stopping the Controller. If we are to find a way out of this Spirit World, then we must traverse through the forest and reach the village of Schwank. Otherwise, in three days, everything that we hold dear will be wiped out from existence in a single fell swoop."

Yuma found himself gasp in surprise and then grew a look of concern. "Well, when you put it that way, it does sound kinda bad."

"More than you would ever know, Yuma," Astral said, almost cryptically unsettling.

Yuma swallowed a lump in his throat, turned to the Forest, and stared at it momentarily along with both Astral and Rainbow Kuriboh. After a pregnant pause of silence, Yuma finally broke the silence by asking for clarification. "So, we're going into the Ancient Forest?"

"That is correct."

"And that village is on the other side of the forest?"

"That is also correct."

"And once we're inside that forest, we can't pick a fight or we'll be destroyed?"

"Again, that is also correct."

Another pregnant pause passed the trio before Yuma finally sighed, shrugged, and shook his head. "Oh well. We're lost in another dimension, we're walking into a dangerous forest with some mystic mumbo-jumbo, and we only have about three days to stop the Controller or he's going to blast us to oblivion. What do we have to lose?" the boy asked rhetorically before he reluctantly turned to the two nearby spirits.

"Alright, Astral. We'll try it your way," Yuma answered to the humanoid spirit, which made him smile and Rainbow Kuriboh to bob happily in the air. The celebration was short-lived when Yuma approached him and pointed his finger in Astral's face. "But...! If I find out that I was being used as live bait to lure any enemy into attacking me in that forest, I'm gonna find a way to pummel you so hard that you'll be spinning all the way back to the Astral World!"

A small snicker from Astral was his response to Yuma's outburst. "Fair enough. Now, since Rainbow Kuriboh has a full atlas of every Spirit World imprinted in his programming including where we are now, he will have to be the one to lead the way."

"Well what are we waiting for!? Let's get going!" Yuma said, regaining his enthusiasm steadily as a decent smile spread across his face. "The sooner we go, the sooner we can see stop the Controller and see our friends again!"

"That's the spirit, Yuma!" Astral commended, turning to the multicolored Fiend. "Rainbow Kuriboh, would you be so kind as to lead the way?"

Yuma gave his sentient monster a big and encouraging thumbs up. "Yeah! Rainbow Kuriboh, do your thing!"

The multicolored Fiend happily nodded twice before it took off towards the forested area, having the intended destination already imprinted in his mind, shortly followed by Yuma and Astral. When the two humanoids following the leading Due Monster Spirit entered the Forest, they were instantly surrounded by unfamiliar woodland trees illuminated by a dull light with spots of sunlight illuminating on the surface of anything solid.

"Wow. These trees are nothing like the ones back home," Yuma commented.

"Yes, Yuma, and when all of this is over, we can only hope you may never have to see anything like these again," Astral said. "The Forests of this Spirit World are quite different from the ones back in your world, and they can be just as dangerous if you get lost in them."

"Don't worry, Astral! With Rainbow Kuriboh leading us, there's no way we can get lost!"

"Actually, it's that overconfidence of yours that gets you so easily lost."

"Hey! What's that supposed to mean!?"

The conversation between Yuma and Astral were the last audible voices echoing from the Forest before the two plus Rainbow Kuriboh disappeared into the region. As they went deeper into the Forest, they would encounter some dangerous creatures and unfamiliar territories, the likes of which that were completely different from the Astral World, the Barian World, and Sargasso the Different Dimension Battlefield.

---

Sogen - Grace (EARTH Dimension) - Duel Monsters Spirit World

"Boss? Hey Boss? Wakey-wakey, eggs and bakey, Boss!"

Chazz's eyes slowly opened up, and the first thing he saw was a blur of three different colors: black, yellow, and distant streaks red. Grunting, Chazz rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand, blinked, and gasped at the shock to find one of his Spirit Partners, Ojama Yellow, floating precariously close to his face with a his hideously oversized lips cracked in a big toothy grin. "Good mornin', Boss! Did you get a good night's sleep?" Ojama Yellow said, eagerly wiggling his body from the neck down.

The sight of Ojama Yellow near his face made Chazz jolt upwards and screaming, knocking the Ojama backwards as the pale human sat up. For a few moments, Chazz sat in his spot for a few moments, his eyes wide, his mouth agape, and his face covered in nervous sweat before he jerked his head around from side to side. "What's going on!? Where am I!? How did I get here!?" Chazz sputtered the first things that popped into his head. When Ojama Yellow floated next to Chazz's shoulder, the latter caught him in his peripheral vision and screamed again; this time it was for a completely different reason.

"Hiya, Boss! I'm excited to see you too!" the bothersome Beast said, oblivious to his "Boss's" reaction. "I was worried sick about you because you were in a really big fall and you were unconscious for hours now, but it was a good thing you landed in a big, fluffy meadow. Otherwise, it'd be really quiet without you around. Am I right, guys?"

Yellow's two brother's, the tiny muscular cyclopean Ojama Green, and the chubby big-nose Ojama Black suddenly appeared, surprising Chazz even further. "Soitenly! Life ain't a party if the Boss-man don't show up!" Ojama Green agreed, picking the area under his eyelid.

"Abso-lutely!" Ojama Black followed up, wiggling his hips back and forth. "Ain't no party like a Princeton party!"

"Stop it! That's enough!" Chazz snapped, fling his arm out and knocking the three Ojama Brothers back screaming. He took a moment to sit and catch his breath, letting his head droop down while the Ojama Brothers returned to their master with a worried look on their disproportionated faces. "Okay, first thing's first! Where am I!? How did I get here!? And more importantly...!" Chazz shot his finger out at his three Spirit Partners. "Why are all three of you solid!?"

Ojama Yellow hovered near Chazz's drooping head. "Funny how you forget, Boss. Everyone is solid here in the Spirit World."

Chazz's head suddenly shot up with a look of fright etched on his face. "The Spirit World!? No way! Don't tell me I'm in the Spirit World!?"

"I know! Isn't this great!?" Ojama Yellow naively replied, wiggling his hips. "After all this time, we're finally back in our own world!"

"Can't you just smell that peaceful spring meadow breeze?" Ojama Black said, his eyes closed in nostalgic reverie.

"No, but I do see the peaceful spring meadow," Ojama Green answered, engaging in the same peace of mind.

"And I can taste the fresh air of the meadow. It's lovely," Ojama Yellow, his eyes all dreamy with bliss, joined in with his two brothers.

Chazz growled while irritated at the Ojamas' antics and snapped. "Will you idiots quit daydreaming right now and get real!? This situation is far too serious!" he screamed, the force of his volume throwing the Ojama Brothers back with a shock. After standing up and clearing his throat, Chazz stated, "Alright, look you guys, we need to take this seriously. We must have been sent here when that storm hit Domino City, and now we're stuck somewhere in the Spirit World. We need to find a way out of here and soon before anything bad happens to Alexis."

"Umm... aren't you also worried about Jaden, Syrus, and the others too, Boss?" Ojama Yellow inquired.

"Those guys can handle anything that's thrown at them, so they're fine on their own. What I'm more worried about..." Chazz's drooping body trembled all of the places as the thought of losing his "one true love" turned him into a battleground between love and bravado. "...is what's happening to my sweet darling Alexis! She could be anywhere in this place, and without me to be there to protect her! She could be cold! She could be hungry! She could be lost, and I'm not there to help her!"

Then Chazz clenched his fist and raised it to his chest, rising up as if to declare that he was going to engage in another challenge the universe was throwing at him. "But that's not going to happen, because the Chazz vows that he will find Alexis soon," he said, going into a dramatic pose to expressive his love. "Don't worry, Alexis, my darling! The Chazz will go to the very ends of this world to find you... even if it takes me an eternity!"

"You tell it like it is, Boss!" Ojama Yellow cheered.

"Hear hear!" Ojamas Black and Green chimed in.

Now that the melodrama was done and over, Chazz reverted to standing formally with his arms crossed over each other. "Okay, first off since we're in the Spirit World, we need to know where exactly we are and how we're gonna find Alexis in this place," the pale Princeton wondered out loud, fixing his eyes towards his three spirit companions. "Unfortunately, since there's no one else out here that can help me out, I'll have to rely on you three stooges for the time being. That is, assuming you guys have any idea where we are."

"Actually, Boss, we do have a good idea where we might be," Ojama Yellow said.

Chazz and the other two Ojamas were surprised by this. "You do?" the pale human asked.

"We do?" Ojamas Black and Green asked.

"Sure. Don't you two remember?" Yellow asked his brothers. "This is Sogen, the Meadow Terrain. We used to come up all the way up here to play when we were just little Ojamunchkins."

"Oh, yeah. Now that I think about it, we did have some good times in the meadow," Ojama Green reminisced.

"Like the time I had you to eat that Girochin Kuwagata for five bucks?" Ojama Black reminded Green.

"Yeah! Or how about the time we snuck into the Harpies' Hunting Grounds just to steal an egg from the queen's nest?" Ojama Green asked.

"And don't forget how we stole all the honey from that Mother Grizzly and we ran out all battered, bruised, and crying like a bunch of sissy girls," Ojama Yellow said, the three of them feeling relief and calmness like none other.

"Best birthday ever," the Ojama Brothers sighed in unison.

A pair of cold and clammy hands separated the brothers from each other as an increasingly-aggravated Chazz Princeton cut in on their reminiscing. "Sorry to interrupt your trip down memory lane, but there's something I gotta ask you first," Chazz said in a calm voice betraying his frustration. "You three seem to know this meadow from the back of your head, so that would stand to reason that you know exactly where we are."

"You betcha, Boss!" Ojama Yellow piped up. "If I remember this part of the Spirit World well, then there's only one place I know that's not far from here!"

"Hold on! You're not serious!?" Ojama Green said with surprise.

"You don't mean...!?" Ojama Black implied with widened eyes.

"I do!" Ojama Yellow answered his brothers.

Suddenly, the Ojama Trio jumped in the air with a joyous air. "Ojama Country!"

Chazz looked at the three brothers with embarrassment, having little to no surprise by the name of the location. "Ojama Country? Please tell me you're kidding?"

"No way, Jose! Ojama Country is our childhood home! We used to play with our cousins, Red and Blue all day until the cows came home!" Ojama Yellow happily explained.

"It'll be great to see how the old family is doin'!" Ojama Green exclaimed. "It's been so long since we've had any of Red's cooking!"

"And don't forget Blue! He's got one of the best artistic skills in all the Spirit Worlds combined!" Ojama Black added.

"But most importantly, we can't forget our dear Ojamama," Ojama Yellow reminded, making the other two brothers cry.

"Oh no! Our Ojamama! Our dear, dear Ojamama!" Black wept.

"Poor Ojamama! It just broke her itty-bitty heart when we left the country to explore the open world!" Green lamented, flashing back to a scene where the three brothers waved goodbye at a hilltop on the outskirts of the village of Ojama Country, the slightly shaded back views of various Ojamas including an elderly female Ojama resembling Yellow who wept while holding a tissue to her nose. "We haven't even called her or sent her a letter in years!"

"I just hope Ojamama is doing okay!" Yellow said worriedly, holding the cheeks on his oversized head.

"Look, will you three just quit yapping already!? Jeez, you're giving a headache!" Chazz barked at his three Spirit Partners who all immediately stopped crying after their boss snapped at them.

"Sorry, Boss," the Ojama Trio apologized.

Chazz sighed and placed his hands on his hips. "Right. First off, we're getting way offtrack here," he said, pointing at Ojama Yellow, Black, and Green, specifically in that order. "You three know where this Ojama Country is located, so maybe finding a clue to Alexis there isn't a bad place to start, but the longer we're standing here, the sooner that Alexis could be in serious danger. So now that we know where to go first, I'd say we stop by your old stomping grounds, pick up some supplies and get moving as quickly as possible. We don't have time to waste!"

The Ojama Brothers all gasped.

"Wait, Boss, are you serious!?" Ojama Green yelped.

"You're not saying that...!?"

"That you're coming home with us, Boss!?" Ojama Yellow finished for Black.

Chazz held up his hands in defense. "Now hold on a minute!" he hastily said, waving his hands in front of him. "Don't get the wrong idea, this may sound like a little family reunion to you guys, but we're just going there on business purposes only. If you want to visit your cousins and your... uh... Ojamama, that's fine with me, but I'm just going there to stock up on some food and find a map to this world and that's it."

"Oh, really!? Thanks, Boss!" Ojama Yellow said, taking Chazz aback as he gave him a hug on the chest. "You're the most considerate person we've ever known!"

"I wish I was that considerate!" Ojamas Green and Black said unison, joining in on the affectionate embrace.

Chazz couldn't help but shudder to the touch with uncertainty, much to the obliviousness of the Ojama Trio. He absolutely hated having to be hugged by the three misshapen Beasts, he could feel their clammy bodies all the way through his shirt. "If you all want to be considerate, then maybe you guys can consider..." Chazz slipped his hands under the Ojamas' bodies and flung them off like a rubber spatula. "...getting off of me!"

The Ojama Brothers recovered from being thrown and hovered near their shuddering master. "Sorry, Boss, but we were so grateful for what you're doing for us that we just had to hug you," Ojama Yellow explained.

"Yeah, it's not often that we don't go home to Ojama Country without your permission," Ojama Green said.

"It's fine, but just don't ever hug me without my say so, got it!?" Chazz said, shuddering at the thought.

"Yes, sir!" the trio nodded in unison.

Chazz released a stressed sigh. There was no way he was going to let them hug him anytime soon. Despite how the human and the three humanoid munchkins grew close as friends, Chazz never wanted the Ojamas to hug him, and their annoyance was no longer the reason; it was how their bodies felt against him. "Right, now that we've got this matter settled (as much as I could with these guys)," Chazz muttered, pointing at his three companions. "You three can lead me to Ojama Country. Come on, we've wasted too much time just standing around! Let's go already, we're not getting any younger here!"

The Ojama Brothers suddenly stood tall and gave a formal salute. "Yes sir, Boss sir!"

Ojama Yellow turned to his brothers. "Come on, guys! Let's show the Boss to our home village and make sure to look tough like we're on business!"

"Right!" the other two Ojamas nodded.

"Ojamas! Atten-hut!" Ojama Yellow ordered. Black and Green stiffened up and stood tall to the command. "Ojamas, about face!"

"What about my face?" Ojama Green asked.

"It's facing the wrong way!" Ojama Black said, turning his body and Green's cyclopean face to the same direction, making him grip his now-backwards head, wriggle about in place, and "whoop-whoop" in pain.

Not willing to waste any more of the Boss's time, Ojama Yellow had to float towards the frontside of his green brother and twist his whole body the neck down so he was facing the same direction as his face. After doing so, Ojama Yellow suddenly hoisted Green up by the back of his elastic boxers and floated towards the direction to the country.

"Will ya come on!? The sooner we go, the sooner we can help Chazz rescue his one true love!" Ojama Yellow insisted, carrying Green by his only form of clothing.

"Yes, sir," Ojama Black responded with discipline, but Ojama Green responded weakly through the pain of his frontside wedgie.

While the trio were floating towards their village's supposed location and goofing off with their "pretending to be serious" antics, Chazz groaned and held the bridge of his nose. "Someone remind me how I got used to these guys' goofing off," the pale human grumbled, chasing after the three brothers before they got too far. "Hey, wait a minute! Are you sure you guys know the way to your village!? Things tend to change while you're away from your hometown, you know!"

"Not to worry, Boss! I know these parts from the back of my hand!" Ojama Yellow assured his owner. "Trust me, we'll be there in no time!"

"You'd better be right," Chazz grumbled as he and the Ojama Brothers disappeared over a hill. "'Cause if you do somehow manage to screw this up, then I'm gonna Chazz you up!"

"Understood, Boss!" the brothers acknowledged.

What the Ojamas forgot (to their much later regret) and what Chazz didn't know (to the Ojamas' later regrets) was that near where they were previously, there was a single picket sign shaped like a wedge, pointing towards the real direction of Ojama Country. It was a hideously drawn sketch of a single upwards arch-shaped hill with dome-like houses with the miniature versions of Ojamas Yellow, Black, and Green drawn above and to the center of the houses. Where the four were going wasn't towards Ojama Country, but a place where the first instance of something wrong going on in this dimension would make them want to find Ojama Country as soon as possible.

---

Closed Forest - Darkness (DARK Dimension) - Duel Monsters Spirit World

It was dark as it should be.

In the DARK Dimension also known as Darkness, everything anyone could see around them was pitch black, the brightest hue of light being any sinister gleam in some of the fiendish inhabitants' eyes. In retrospect, this was the dimension where most of the DARK Attribute Duel Monsters Spirits resided, Fiends and Zombies alike, dangerous Dragons, maniacal Machines, fallen Fairies, even the sinister Spellcasters who delighted in the use of Forbidden Arts.

In addition to the inhabitants being so warped and evil-looking, the scenery was warped naturally or unnaturally by evil powers far beyond anyone's comprehension. There were dark palaces built alongside jagged cliffs above a lake of molten lava, the size of them bigger than any mall and skyscraper on Earth combined, heavily guarded by ravaging forests, a 400-acre labyrinth with traps that would send anyone unfortunate enough to fall for it to their doom, and a powerful army of Archfiends, lying in wait to claim the next poor soul that wandered into their territory.

One of those forests contained a certain young boy, the twin brother of the earlier Signer who washed up on Duel Academy's shores but without any Duel Spirit to wake him up. Instead, his body decided to do the waking for him, and it did so when Leo opened both eyes in a sluggish motion. While his eyesight steadily transitioned from blurry to clear, Leo muttered his sister's name, gasped when he fully registered he wasn't back in New Domino City, and jolted upwards.

Leo looked around the environment, gazing upon the dark and twisted flora he was surrounded by, blocking any and all light that failed to shine through to the boy. The growls and howls of wild Beasts snarling within the depths of the forest unsettled Leo's nerves, and the thought that something wasn't the biggest fear Leo had to face. What Leo feared was how the area seemed so familiar to him, from a long time ago that is.

"Where am I? What's going on?" Leo asked himself as he continued to look around, and eventually up to the blackness that the Void took place for the sky. Seeing how he was alone made the boy make one of the first classic mistakes anyone would make when they wake up to find themselves in a completely different place.

"Hello? Is there anybody here?" Leo asked to the forest, hearing nothing in return. "Jack? Yusei? Crow? Akiza? Luna? Anyone?"

Suddenly, something lizard-like crawled rapidly through one of the branches, turning Leo's attention to the sound. Nearby, something big and dark growled as it rustled through the bushes, forcing Leo to turn to the sound. Teeth chattering and body shuddering, the wide-eyed young Signer fell to his knees and hugged himself. "Oh man, this is not good! This is totally not good! I don't know where I am, but it's really freaking me out! It's dark, there's who knows what lurking in the woods, and Luna's not around for me to protect her! What am I gonna do!? What am I gonna do!?"

Leo shook his head when he realized the thoughts running through his head. "Get it together, Leo! This is no time for your stinking thinking, this is the time to take action!" he told himself, standing up and looking brave. "So what if you're lost in a big, scary forest full of monsters all by yourself without Jack, Crow, or Yusei around? So what if you're separated from your sister? That doesn't mean you can fall down and give up like a coward! This is the only opportunity you can take to finally grow up and be a man! There's no way you're gonna let some creepy-looking forest scare you!"

Unbeknownst to Leo at the time, there was a hulking humanoid figure that lurked up behind him, raising its fists up and growled menacingly. When the growl was heard, Leo looked behind and gasped, staring at the giant who was ready to attack him. "Unless there's a giant creature ready to pound me into the ground!"

The shaded Beast roared and slammed it's fists into the ground, but not before Leo jumped out of the way, skidding through the ground on his side as dirt rained on him from the impact. Though he wasn't thoroughly harmed by the near-miss attack, Leo couldn't help but grunt from slight soreness when he sat up and looked at his brutish assailant as it rose back up, leaving a big hole in the ground where threw it's fists down.

"Okay, pal, what's the big idea attacking me in the forest!?"

When Leo got a better look at the darkened creature that tired to attack him, his eyes widened and gasped; he remembered facing that Beast from long ago and he instantly regretted yelling at it. The Beast was a hulking gorilla wearing a helmet with an amber jewel at the forehead, dark trousers held up by a belt, and brown leather boots. The gorilla slowly walked up to the frightened boy and snorted irritably; it must've remembered the boy as well.

"Wait a minute! I know you! You're that 'Ape Fighter' Devack used in our Duel a long time ago!" Leo blurted out, then freezing as he made a horrible realization about the twisted forest. "Then, this must be the 'Closed Forest' Field Spell! How is this possible, I don't remember ever accepting a Duel while I was unconscious!? Unless... this must be that Spirit World Luna always talked about!"

The Ape Fighter snorted once again, took a couple of steps forward towards Leo, and snorted again. As the DARK Beast loomed over the young Signer, Leo backed up a few steps and put his hands up defensively. "Wait a minute, big guy! Let's talk about this!" he said, a nervous smile spread across his uncertain face. "Look, I know you must be angry that my sister and I beat your master in a Duel, but that was a long time ago! So why don't we put this whole thing behind us and we can go get a banana smoothie? My treat."

Ape Fighter barred his teeth with a growl, reeled back his fist and threw it down, only for the target to suddenly dodge the attack as the fist was dug into the ground. Leo then turned tail and ran for the thickness of the Closed Forest. "If you didn't want a smoothie, I would've also taken you out for a banana split!" Leo screamed as he disappeared into the forest, earning the Ape Fighter an enraging roar before it lunged after him.

Jumping through the thick branches of the Closed Forest's twisted trees was one of the scariest things Leo has done in a long time, and the sound of the Ape Fighter breaking through the petrified trees close behind him deepened the fear. Looking behind him and through his peripherals, Leo saw the figure of the Ape Fighter catching up to him through the typical running motion of using its knuckles for boosts. That sight made Leo gasp and accelerate his speed only by a little. The Closed Forest got it's name for the interior being so claustrophobic, and wherever Leo ran in it's dead flora, the forest seemed to close in around him.

"I take it back! This isn't the time to grow up and be a man! This is the time to scream and run away!" Leo screamed. He screamed even louder when the Ape Fighter finally closed on him and pounced, thrusting it's opposable paw to end him.

But the blow never came. Instead, it was blocked by a power shovel connected to a mechanical arm, belonging to a particular draconic-like Machine who stood between it's master and his attacker. Leo was especially surprised to his favorite monster out and about, and he hadn't even activated his Duel Disk. "Power Tool Dragon! Is that you!?"

Power Tool Dragon looked back at it's master, it's red eyes staring at the boy with what appeared to be life in that cold body of metal. The struggle of power between the Power Tool Dragon and the Ape Fighter reached a climax when the Synchro Monster pushed the Beast back and thrust it's screwdriver-equipped claw at it. The screwdriver went through the body of Ape Fighter, who bellowed out in agony before it shattered into gold shards, disappearing forever.

In the aftermath, the Power Tool Dragon retracted it's screwdriver arm and looked back to it's owner, who was very surprised to say the least while he walked up to his Dragon. "I can't believe it! I never turned on my Duel Disk, I've never Summoned any monsters, and now you're here and in..." Leo rapped his knuckles against the Dragon's knee, "...your solid metal form. I bet this means that whenever a Duelist is in trouble in the Duel Monsters Spirit World, some of their best monsters can pop out from their Decks and help them out! Am I right!?"

The metallic Dragon who was asked Leo's rhetorical question just simply stared at him, the boy taking the prolonged silence as a no. "Or maybe not unless both the Duelist and his favorite cards share a special bond with each other," Leo guessed. "But either way, this is so cool! With you out and about, we'll be able to find Luna and the others in no time!"

A metallic-robotic murmur came from the Power Tool Dragon, and Leo's eagerness dropped. "What? What do you mean we can't find the other Signers in this dimension?" the boy asked the sealed Signer Dragon. "Hold on a minute! How can I even understand what you're saying even if all you make are those noises? Is that how Luna is able to communicate with the other spirits back home?"

Leo perked up and vigorously shook his head. "That's not important right now! What I need to know is why we can't find my sister and our friends in this dimension?" A metallic ring came from the Power Tool Dragon, which to certain people, translated into the answer that made Leo gasp. "What!? Luna is trapped in one of the time eras the Controller stole and she can't find a way out!? Then does that mean we're trapped here as well!?"

Power Tool Dragon nodded once which made Leo scream. "UWAAAAAGGGGGHHHHH! This can't be happening! There's no way this can't be possible! If we can't get out of the Spirit World, then we'll never find a way to get back home! And that means there'll be no more celebrating birthdays or holidays with anyone! No more Dueling, no more New Domino City, no more anything! We'll never see our friends again! If things get even tougher for me, then I might have to live off of the land eating nothing but whatever I can scrape off of rocks! Unless they happen to have a burger joint around here, but I don't think that's possible in the Spirit World."

The draconic Machine let out a robotic noise, and Leo exchanged looks with the Duel Monster as if they were having a telepathic conversation. After a moment, Leo grew a confident smirk. "You're right, I shouldn't be sitting here worrying too much. It's time that we do something about the situation at hand," he declared. "But first, let's get out of this creepy Forest. Who knows what else is lurking in these trees?"

Somewhere, near the location of the Machine and the young Signer, many dark figures began to reveal themselves in the shadows, their eyes glowing something twisted and evil. Leo took notice and drew back with an ominous fear growing. "You know what? I really don't wanna know, so let's get going before things get a bit rough."

Power Tool Dragon lowered it's scoop shovel hand and allowed Leo to jump and catapult him onto his back. With the young passenger safe and secure on it's back, Power Tool Dragon spread it's wings and took off into the sky, using the screwdriver arm to jab through the trees and escape the Closed Forest. Leo shielded his face with his arm to prevent the petrified wood splinters from damaging his eyes, and when Power Tool Dragon escaped from the canopy of the forest, he uncovered his eyes and got an aerial view of a portion of Darkness.

The Closed Forest made up a protective border that stretched on for miles, infested with wild and dangerous Beasts like the Ape Fighter that was encountered earlier. In the distance so far that a lightning storm was required to shed a little illumination for anyone to see, there was a mountain range made up of jagged, sharp rocks. The only reason that Leo and Power Tool Dragon could ever see the mountain range was because there was a swirling vortex of clouds, spraying lightning at random. The strongest bolts of lightning came from the center and struck right below the eye of the never-ending storm, suggesting there was a location where it struck the most, but Leo was not in the right mood to investigate.

"Talk about being kept in the dark. This place is looks like it goes on forever," Leo observed with a worrying look. "And speaking of forever, let's find a way out of this place before we get stuck here forever."

Power Tool Dragon nodded once and turned to fly in a random direction.

Before the Power Tool Dragon could even thrust itself forward in that direction, there was another shadowy figure hidden somewhere in the canopy below, a Fiend watching the two with a glint of evil intent gleaming from it's green, glowing eyes. With it's fiendish clawed, brown gauntlet, the Fiend pulled back the drawstrings on it's golden bow and quickly released an arrow targeting the Power Tool Dragon and the child on it's back. The arrow flew threw the air and stuck itself into the left hind leg of the Dragon, causing it to flinch and scream in pain as Leo was quickly thrown about.

"Hey, Power Tool Dragon, what are you doing!? What's gotten into you all of a sudden!?" Leo's question went unanswered as a final jolt from Power Tool Dragon sent the boy thrown back down through the trees of the Closed Forest, breaking through too many branches to count that was enough to give him some marks and bruises on his body.

Leo landed on the ground hard, his belly on top of a pile composed of infertile soil, hardened roots, and petrified branches broken from the boy's fall. Leo pushed on his forearm and struggled to get up from the ground, only lifting his upper body up from the ground by a few mere inches. "Owww, that really hurt!" he moaned with a little whine cracking from the wind knocked from his lungs. "I really wish Luna was here right now... I kinda need her spirit friends to heal me, like now!"

It was then the young Signer noticed that he and the ground had been eclipsed by a shadow from up above. Leo looked up and squealed when he saw the rapidly descending shadow of his Power Tool Dragon falling right on top of him. "Oh, this is gonna hurt me a lot more than it'll hurt him!"

In his screaming, Leo already knew that his luck was not on his side because the Power Tool Dragon landed on top of him, flattening him into the crater where the metal-clad Dragon had created from the impact. The Dragon's dense metal shell, combined with the power of the impact velocity, adding the boy's place underneath the Dragon's steel belly at the wrong time were all the contributing factors to Leo being knocked out unconscious and lying injured underneath his deactivated Duel Monster Spirit Partner. Leo's ribs were cracked, his body bruised, and his legs unable to function since they were all but crushed by the fall of the Power Tool Dragon.

Seeing that his hunt was successfully taken down, the Fiend jumped from the top of the trees and landed near where his targets had fallen. He walked up to the two foreign creatures inside his turf, looked down on the mark on the boy's arm, and let out a creepy, deep and throaty chuckle. "Looks like I've bagged a Signer and his Dragon! The King will certainly be pleased once he learns of my new catch!"

---

Outside Scrapyard - Civilization (FIRE Dimension) - Duel Monsters Spirit World

There was a commonly known misconception that involved the blazing world of Civilization, the Spirit World Dimension of FIRE. Duel Spirits from all around the formerly Twelve Dimensions claim that the world of FIRE-Attribute monsters was made only for most FIRE and Pyro-Type monsters due to the blazes that still raged through it's volcanic lands. That wasn't necessarily true; other monsters of Types and Attributes have lived in this dimension then and now, but the most common Type of Duel Monsters that currently reside in Civilizations were Machines.

The reason why could be explained in a short summary. Long ago, when Duel Monsters Spirits were thriving and prospering in their respective realms, there was a certain unknown industry from the Wastelands of the EARTH Dimension that made Machines from the metal of any scrapped shield, armor, or weapon salvaged from battles long passed. At first, the business was booming, making Machine monsters out the wazoo and providing excellent employment for any poor person or spirit who had no jobs to keep bread on the table. However, as time passed by, the resources to create the Machines dwindled, and the Machine industry was rapidly falling into a downward spiral.

Then came the discovery of new dimensions, and then everything changed.

When the natives of the EARTH Dimension were the first to explore the blazing lands of the FIRE Dimension, among them including the representatives of the Machine-creating industry, discovered that the molten magma forming beneath the surface of the solidified lava was a pure source for the creation of metal, thus bringing the biggest comeback in the Machine development industry. Soon, industrial factories were built alongside the volcanic outskirts of Civilization (to which it was named the Outside), junkyards were formed in the more desolate areas to scrap any unwanted metal or terminated machine, and able-bodied humanoids and weaker Machine-Types worked endlessly through day and night to manufacture stronger, more able Machines ready for shipping to another dimension.

Nowadays, thieves and loiterers have been trespassing into the scrapyards, either stealing any scrap metal for whatever reason or using one of the precariously-placed junk mountains as their hangout spot. The industry invested in the use of security to keep out or arrest any unauthorized personnel intruding on the premises without a legitimate authorization through a key card. There were "Watch Dogs" at the edges of the scrapyards keeping vigilance with their sharp ears and noses, cameras placed at various points of the scrapyards, and "Monster Eyes" patrolling the skies, scanning the scrapyards with their spotlight eyes for

This is where Crowler's story begins.

The Vice-Chancellor of Dueling Academy was sprawled somewhere on the solidified magma ground, lying in the middle of a scrapyard somewhere inside the Outside. Up above him was the patrol of many "Monster Eyes" using their spotlight eye beams to search the scrapyard, and yet somehow managing to avoid coming into contact with Crowler. Which, by some divine intervention, was good because the moment Crowler opened his eyes, he blinked a couple of times and shot up on all fours, jerking his head left and right.

"What!? Where am I!? How did I get here!?" Crowler got a better look at his surroundings and deduced where he was, and remembered what happened before he passed out. "Oh, I get it. I must've gotten swept up when that horrible storm hit, and I must've hit that poor man by accident. So here I am, all alone and stuck in the middle of a scrapyard... with nothing but the clothes on my back and about a dozen Monster Eyes flying in the air..."

The last observation struck Crowler as odd. He took a second look at his surroundings and gasped when he spotted the monocular Fiends sweeping the area with a beam of light coming from their eye. Crowler's first initial reaction to the sight was a shocked gasp. "What this!? About a dozen Monster Eyes in the skies!? But that's impossible!"

Crowler "ooped" as soon as he spotted a Monster Eye coming around the corner of the junk mountain, covered his mouth, and ducked away underneath a smashed Anti-Fusion Device just as the Monster Eye's lights passed through his area. Luckily, the shade cast underneath the hollow of the Anti-Fusion Device obscured the scrawny Vice-Chancellor from the light's gaze, so the Monster Eye passed on by without catching anyone in the unauthorized area.

Meanwhile, Crowler was hiding against the wall of the Anti-Fusion Device's hollowed-out interior with both hands over his mouth and legs shaking like a scared woman. His eyes screamed in shock that he could not bring his mouth to do, knowing well where he was. "This... this cannot be! Have I been thrown into the Duel Monsters Spirit World when I was caught in that storm!? That's not fair! It took me months to get over my nightmares about this place!"

Crolwer crawled halfway out from under the hollowed machine and looked around as Monster Eyes continued to patrol the area. "This is absurd. The odds of getting thrown back into the Spirit World was about a one-in-a-million chance! How am I ever going to explain this to my therapist when I get back to my own world!? The only reason why I even got back to Duel Academy was because it took a miracle from Jaden to send us back! This is not how I planned the Duel Academy Reunion at all!"

When the coast was clear, Crowler crawled out from under the Anti-Fusion Device and sighed. "Well, I suppose that's that. I'll have to live out the rest of my days stranded in this dump, living off of nothing but maggots and rain water."

"What are you talking about!? Are you giving up on yourself that easily!?"

A voice that only Crowler could hear snapped him out of his depression and looked around to find the source. "Wait, what!? Who said that!? Where are you!? Show yourself!?"

"You're the only man in the world who has the power to wield the 'Ancient Gear' cards, and all you can do is quickly mope like it's the last day of your life!? Have you no honor for the man who poured his blood, sweat, and tears into making Duel Academy the most prestigious Dueling school in the world!?"

Crowler turned around, and in the broken dome glass of the Anti-Fusion Device was his reflection, only instead of bearing Crowler's shocked face, he bore a determined, angered face complete with a toothy frown. "Hey, I know you! You're supposed to be me!"

"Correction! You're the one who's supposed to be me, not some easily-submissive Slifer Slacker!" Crowler's reflection shouted back.

"But what can I do? I was thrown in the Spirit World through circumstance, there's no way I'm going to get back home!"

"That, my skinny beanpole friend, is where you are wrong! There is always a way back home! You just haven't looked hard enough to find one yet!"

"But how!? The Spirit Worlds are too big! Even if I could find a way out of this Spirit World, there's no telling where I might end up! For all I know, the next exit I take might drop me into the middle of a boiling lake of lava, leave me stranded in a desert wasteland without any food and water, or leave me in the middle of a darker world where those Fiends would lock me up and sell me up at the lowest bidder!"

Surprisingly, Crowler's face stung to the sensation on his own reflection smacking his face sideways, leaving a red hand mark on his cheek. "Pull yourself together, man! You're giving up too easy at what you think is impossible! You're not a wimp! You're not a coward! You're not some low-graded Slifer Slacker! You are Dr. Vellian Crowler! You're the headmaster of the Obelisk Blue dorm and the Vice-Chancellor of Duel Academy! You've endured nine years of Duel schooling to get yourself a Ph.D in Dueling! You're the role model your students look up to when things are going tough for them! Giving up now would be like insulting the very students you taught them never to give up!"

Crowler rubbed his slapped cheek. It stung as he stroked it, but he looked back to his own reflection while he reflected his years as active Vice-Chancellor of Duel Academy. "He's right. I'm right. I can't give up now. My adventure's just begun, and I'm already letting my fears and worries get to me quickly." Crowler stopped the mark on his cheek, let his hands loose at his sides and tightened them into fists. "How disgraceful of me! If I give up now, the students won't have an experienced Vice-Chancellor there to teach them how to Duel just like Jaden and his other friends!"

The fire of courage that only flickered inside Crowler expanded to a raging fervor of determination. "No! I can't let my former students down! Not now! Note ever! As long as I have life in this old ticker, I solemnly swear to all students and graduates of Duel Academy that I will never give up, no matter how bleak the situation may look!"

In his own personal thoughts of conflict and resolution, Crowler neglected to spot one of the Monster Eyes turning around the corner until the light came upon him too late. The Monster Eye's light cast on him, Crowler's fire instantly went out, and the light from the monocular Fiend instantly turned to red which coincided with a scream that activated the "Intruder Alert" sirens. Crowler spotted the other Monster Eyes rendevzous with the one Monster Eye that caught him in the act, whimpered, and took off sprinting away from the other Monster Eyes that followed him in hot pursuit. For someone of his age and poor cardio, Crowler was certainly a faster runner than the current holder of the Olympic gold metal for fastest runner.

"I take it all back! I don't want to be courageous and not give up at bleak situations! I just wanna run like the coward I am!"

As Crowler came to an intersection of junk mountains, he was stopped in his tracks by a couple of snarling Watch Dogs, and as he tried to turn, he found himself blocked by another Watch Dog, followed with the ferocious, mouth-foaming Guard Dog. Crowler turned around, and again, there was another Watch Dog and a Guard Dog blocking his exit. "It's no good! I'm surrounded!" Crowler observed, looking around but finding no way around the beastly security. "I need to get out of here, quick!"

Crowler turned back to the direction he ran from, but as he did, he was greeted to a series of bright headlights and blinking red lights catching him off-guard, blinding him for only a moment. As his eyes adjusted to the lights, Crowler could make out a humanoid silhouette in the light wearing a leather jacket and trousers, with horns protruding out from both sides of the helmet he wore. The shape of the humanoid, Fiend most likely, grew bigger as it drew near the intimidated Vince-Chancellor.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here? A humanoid female deciding to take a little stroll down the scrapyard?" the approaching Fiend guessed so slyly. "What's wrong, honey? Did you get lost and decided to take a shortcut home?"

Crowler didn't take the wrong assumption of his gender so well. "What!? How dare you! I'll have you know that I am a man, not a woman!" he snapped, shocking the other motorcyclists to the point of screaming. "And another thing, I didn't get lost or take a stroll! I just woke up in this dump all by myself! Me! And no one else is here with me!"

Suddenly, Crowler felt himself tackled to the ground, felt the sensation of metal closing around his wrist behind his back, and the clicks of handcuffs tightening until they couldn't tighten anymore. One of the motorcycling Fiends then hoisted Crowler up by his feet and led him to a police car that just arrived on the scene, driven by a violet-colored ogre in a police uniform. "Let's hear some more of that story once we take you in for trespassing on private property," the Fiend said.

Crowler wriggled, writhed, and screamed like the female most people mistook him for as he was led into the car. "Wait, hold on! This is an outrage! You can't arrest me! I'm the Vice-Chancellor of the world's most prestigious Duel Academy! I have a Ph.D in Dueling! I have the right to an attorney at-law! I will not be subject to this kind of criminal behavior from..."

The police car door slammed, silencing Crowler's continuous ranting from the outside while the violet ogre proceeded to the driver's seat. As the squad drove out of the junkyard and to the Outside branch of the Duel Monsters Spirit Police Department (the DMSPD for short) with their capture locked away in the leading, the gang of Stygian Sergeants whispered to one another about the terrible shock they had to endure in their lives. More shocking than dealing with every rogue Thunder-Type Duel Monster Spirits in the worlds.

"Hey, did you even realize that guy was a dude all along?"

"I thought he looked like a girl. Maybe it's because of that haircut, those earrings, and those frills he was wearing."

"I am going to need a lot of sessions with Counselor Lily after this."

With Crowler wailing in the backside of the police car, the Duel Monster Spirit World's Finest drove out of the junkyard.

---

Mountain - Backyard (WIND Dimension) - Duel Monsters Spirit World

Out of the seven Duel Monsters Spirit Worlds that existed, only the Backyard was the most underrated dimension of all Spirit Worlds.

First, here's a little insight as to what the Backyard was. The Backyard was the dimension of WIND, a grand breezy plain that was mostly made up of snowcapped mountain ranges with peaks reaching as high as the clouds, and at the feet of the mountains were mystical forests that once (and presumably still in secret) housed a tribe that specialized in the art of wind magic. The forests themselves were enchanted by the magic of the winds, it even housed WIND Fairies that danced within the mystical flora.

The Backyard was also the dimension that was close to the EARTH Dimension of Grace as like a sister world, yet despite how close the two dimensions were, the WIND Dimension was almost as vacant as Grace's Canyon. In fact, one of the reasons why the WIND population was scarce was because most of the WIND Winged Beasts that once thrived in the mountains migrated to the Canyon, as well as the other mountains and forests in Grace, and other habitable places in the other dimensions. The other reasons ranged from the supposed extinction or endangerment of rare Winged Beasts to the forced secret migration of the WIND tribes of mostly Psychics and some Spellcasters. The only populace of the WIND Dimension consisted of Dragons, Winged Beasts, Fairies, a few Spellcasters, and a tribe of might Thunder monsters.

Today, the populace increased by one human: Seto Kaiba, or at least the shell that was once the great and glorious Seto Kaiba.

Kaiba stood on the peak of one of the mountains, staring longingly down the fluffy white clouds that spread past the horizon, catching the occasional glimpse of greenery down below. His face was molded into his usual stoic features, but inside, he found himself pondering about the recent streak of misfortune that repeatedly disgraced him. From the public relations strain of his company done in by that maniac, Dartz, to the deliberate sabotage attempt on his company by his corporate rival, Zigfried, Kaiba's company was going under as fast as he was sliding down a downward spiral. In order to rebuild himself, Kaiba needed to beat Yugi in a Duel, but it was thanks to the Controller that the Duel was interrupted, and the winner was not declared.

Instead, Kaiba challenged the Controller in the stead of Yugi and his three other unknown friends, and lost. It wasn't just a loss done in by a skilled opponent, it was a loss that completely shattered his own pride; the one thing he had that he had worked so hard to achieve on his own, yet obsessively went out of his way to try and reclaim for himself. What's worse was that the Controller defeated him using the combined forces of three "Blue-Eyes White Dragons", his "Blue-Eyes White Dragons", and delivered blow after blow with those relatively unknown monsters not from his time.

"So this is what it feels like... to stand on top of the world and feel like you've hit rock bottom all at the same time..." While Kaiba thought long and hard, his mind flashed back to more significant points from the other day.

-FLASHBACK-

When the egotistical Duelist's laughter waned, Yugi laid his arms down to his sides and sighed. "I feel sorry for you, Kaiba," he said, grabbing his rival's attention. "While you were trying once more to usurp my title, you resorted to trickery instead of fighting with all of your honor and your heart." Yugi then lifted his finger and pointed it at Kaiba. "But now that you have foolishly revealed your tricks, Kaiba, I have now the perfect formula to defeat you once and for all!"

-TRANSITION FLASHBACK-

"Can it, rich boy! I'm just about reaching my breakin' point with you!" Joey snapped, making Mokuba reel back a little with shock. "I don't get ya, Kaiba! First ya invite only Yugi and threaten me an' my friends would be banned from your crummy tournaments, den ya pull a fast one on Yugi fer bringin' out yer 'Blue-Eyes' durin' the Duel when clearly, ya said you wouldn't use it! If I didn't know any better, I'd say you stooped back down to da level of bein' da big, fat, stinkin' cheat we all first knew!

"Look, pal, I respect da fact dat you're a lone wolf, but dat doesn't mean you can pull stunts like dat just so you can come out on top like dat," Joey preached to Kaiba. "If ya keep cuttin' corners like dat and think you're gonna get away with it, den no one's gonna Duel ya, even if ya offer dem da rarest cards in your briefcase. And trust me pal, dat's not gonna be good for your business."

-TRANSITION FLASHBACK-

"Face it, Mr. Kaiba... you were in too far over your head in this Duel... and now you have fell too far behind," the Controller said. "You may have some skills that are quite legendary... but I have a better insight to your Deck... than you already do. No matter what move you will make... no matter what stratagem you try and conjure up... I will always be three steps ahead of you... and there is no chance that you will emerge victorious..."

-END FLASHBACK-

Kaiba sighed through his nose and turned around, walking towards the path down the decline of the mountain. "So I've become that predictable, have I? Thinking that my strategies are easy to read like some discarded children's book?" he questioned himself inwardly. "Don't you worry about that, because I plan on becoming stronger and more powerful than I ever will... and then, once I have enough power housed inside of my Deck, I'm turning my sights on that mystery masked freak, reclaim my honor and glory..."

Kaiba disappeared down a slope as another thought crossed his mind. "...and then, Yugi, with all that power at my disposal, I'll be coming for you next."

What Kaiba was unaware of was that on another mountain peak across from the one he descended from, there was a humanoid Duel Monster Spirit with much emphasis on the human part, spying on him through his binoculars. The unnamed Duel Spirit had watched Kaiba from afar, sensing the conflict and turmoil that he buried deep within himself, the sort where he just closed a padlocked on it, sealed the lock, and threw away the key. The Duel Spirit knew that he had to help Kaiba through any means necessary.

Just the thought of how made the Duel Spirit smirk.

---

Kite Tenjo's Laboratory - Heartland Piers - Heartland City

As one of the dimensions and eras that simultaneously awoke trapped in the Void, Heartland City had its fair share of confusion and the occasional chaos.

In some parts of the grand metropolis, horrified bystanders gazed at the darkness of the sky above, and the seven glowing orbs that hovered above it. Out of those seven orbs, only one had merged with the atmosphere, and that was the center sphere. They couldn't tell because from far away the shapes were all faded like it was drawn with dark lead, erased with a simple pencil eraser, and left with a vague figure in the sky.

In other parts, thieves, lowlifes, and looters took advantage of the pandemonium by breaking into any store they first laid their eyes on. Most of the looters were caught by the impeccable timing of the Heartland City Police, but there were some who got away with valuables ranging in thousands of dollars, like TVs, jewelry, electronics, and some of the most rare Duel Monsters cards that was deemed too dangerous or too valuable to play. All that was left from those stores were ravaged interiors and the possibility that business would be inevitably ruined.

However, there was one place in Heartland City that was left untouched without incident, and that was at the piers of Heartland. The piers had been closed for years due to the low number of imports arriving by the boat, making it an ideal hangout spot for many friends or gangs and the last place anyone would even think of looting. After all, the piers were already dull and they carried little to nothing of value or importance in their vacant empty storage units, so that was all the more reason why Kite Tenjo and his father thought it necessary to construct a secret lab along the piers.

"Orbital, get me the visuals on the condition of the city and the skies."

"Y-Y-Yes, sir!"

Inside that secret lab, Kite Tenjo and his overworked robotic assistant, Orbital 7 displayed a few holographic monitors, displaying both the unraveling chaos in the city and the planet-sized spheres that hovered precariously over the city. Kite carefully examined the images on the monitors while Orbital 7 typed away at the keyboard using the tentacle-like extensions from his claws. As a robot, Orbital 7 could type with those extensions at supersonic speed with surprisingly good accuracy.

Once the data had been transferred to Orbital 7's processing power, he gave the initial report to Kite. "A-A-As you can see, sir, m-m-most of the population in Heartland C-C-City has been thrown in a sta-a-ate of complete chaos due to the circumst-t-tances that are now beyond our control. Riots are b-b-breaking out, buildings are being looted by hoodlum-um-ums, and it will only continue to spread throughout the ci-i-ity."

"That's nothing that the police can't handle. Right now, we have more pressing matters to attend to," Kite stated matter-of-factly. "Orbital, give me a diagnosis on those spheres above the city. They may provide us with a clue."

"Y-You got it, Boss!"

Orbital 7 rapidly typed on the computer keyboard, and another monitor popped up, initiating a scan of the sphere above the city using a veil of white that passed through it. When the scan was complete, several more screens popped up, and Orbital 7 gave another report to his young master. "Acc-cc-ccording to the scan, the sphere a-a-above the city appears to have a combination of two otherworldly energi-gi-gies that can only be found in both Astral World and the Barian World-orld-orld!"

Kite blinked, his expression unmoved. "So I take it that the sphere above our heads is the Astral World?"

"Th-Th-That seems like the case, M-M-Master Kite."

Kite put his finger to his chin and pondered. "So Astral World as among the Twelve Dimensions that was brought into the Void as well. Then that means the other six dimensions must be part of the Spirit World as well. With all but one of the Twelve Dimensions come together, there's a good chance that Heartland, as well as all the other dimensions are likely to face the high possibility of extinction unless there is some way we can avoid certain destruction."

A red alert suddenly blared in Kite's lab, the lights blinking crimson as Kite and Orbital 7 looked around. "Orbital, what's going on?"

Orbital 7 typed on the keyboard as fast as he could. "According to our sensors, th-th-there seems to be two time an-n-nomalies that appeared somewhere in the city!" the stuttering robot announced. A monitor popped up to depict the image of the overhead map of Heartland City with two orange blinking lights, each one a far-enough distance away from each other and moving. "W-W-We have reason to believe that the two time anomalies a-a-are native from another-r-r time! P-P-Perha-haps they have s-s-something to do with the four other d-dimensions we saw earlier!?"

Kite's eyes narrowed at the thought. "Maybe Orbital has a point. Two different time anomalies moving within the city could only lead to reason that they are people from a different time period. Maybe we'll get some more answers to this mystery once we're able to catch up with them."

"Orbital, come with me," the blonde said, turning for the door.

The robot turned his head a full 180 degrees. "What? Wh-Wh-Where are we going?"

"We're going to check out these anomalies for ourselves," Kite said. "The nearest anomaly happens to be moving at a pace of a moving vehicle, so we're going to switch to vehicle mode."

"B-B-But Master Kite! We don't know a-a-anything about the anomaly! F-F-For all we know, it could be a d-dangerous monster who mercilessly d-d-defeats it's opponents with a-a-a single blow-ow-ow!"

"That's why we have to see what that anomaly is for ourselves," Kite explained. "The whole city is in an uproar, and we're the only ones who can save it. Are we in this together or not?"

Orbital's antennas drooped as he fidgeted his claws together in worried thought. "A-A-Alright. I'll do anything to sa-sa-save this city," he said. "A-A-After all, th-th-this city is my home, and I will n-n-not allow my own wife and children to l-l-live in such a city full of ch-ch-chaos!"

"Glad you're doing this for the right reasons," Kite said as he and his android assistant walked out the door. "Let's go."

"Y-Y-Yes, sir!"

A moment later, an armored motorbiker riding on his beige motorbike burst out of the doors of the secret lab, turned, and revved down the street towards the first anomaly. That motorbiker turned out to be Kite, wearing a protective armor on his body that was actually part of Orbital 7's transformed form while the rest of the robot's form transmogrified into a motorbike. In search and pursuit for the first anomaly that traveled at high speeds, Kite and orbital 7 steered away from the piers and turned into the highway, having much resolve to find out more about said anomaly.

---

Heartland City Highway - Heartland City

Jack Atlas remembered when he first rode down the streets of New Domino City using the Duel Runner he stole from Yusei, when he felt the energy and thrill of seeing a new world for the first time. He remembered feeling the giddiness of entering a new society, a better one that lacked the constant smells of fumigation and burning coals, unwashed citizens in tattered rags, and the dark dreariness that hung about the Satellite. No, Jack was beyond thrilled to be living for years in a life of luxury, dominating the competition along the way, earning the hearts and minds of his ever-growing sea of fans, and becoming the King of Turbo Duels for a few years straight until Yusei came along.

The ride through the highways of this new, futuristic metropolis had reminded Jack of that feeling once again. The sights of the New Domino-sized city triggered a feeling that spread from his heart through every nerve coursing through his body. He gazed at the structure of the buildings, where most of them were rounded around the edges to avoid that dull appearance of a normal prismatic building, colored in bright hues for a feel of happiness, and made of metal to signify their futuristic appearance.

"What's with this place? It looks like something out of a child's drawing," Jack mused to himself as he looked around the city. "Actually, the bigger question I should be asking is how my Duel Runner ended up here with me?"

Jack thought back to the last thing he remembered when he was being thrown around and around in that storm, one that took place in Domino City after the Crimson Dragon transported him and the rest of the Signers to Yusei in the plaza... without his Duel Runner anywhere in sight. After his "Red Dragon Archfiend" and the other Signer Dragons battled the masked man's four powerful Dragons, and when that scrawny man accidentally knocked him away from Yusei, Jack was knocked out cold and woke up somewhere near a road with his Phoenix Whirlwind parked conveniently next to him. At first, Jack thought someone must have tampered with his beloved one-wheeled vehicle if they could bring it to a city full of mystery and bright colors, but after running diagnostics, Jack was more than convinced that someone intentionally left it for him to have.

"Well, whatever the case, I'm glad to have my Duel Runner with me," Jack said to himself. "I need all the horsepower I can get before I can find Yusei and the others. After all, since there's a lunatic out there who has it out for Yusei, I might all the help and horsepower I might need to find my friends. I'll have to search this city from top to bottom if I have to, but if I can't find one hair from them, then it's most certainly guaranteed there's gonna be trouble with a capital T."

Jack revved his accelerators which activated the boosters on his Dueling monocycle, giving him some extra speed as he sped down the highway, swerving around the newfangled vehicles in the passing lanes as he disappeared into the depths of the city.

---

Heartland - Heartland City

Heartland, for lack of a better term, was the heart of all Heartland City. It was an area located in the center of Heartland City, surrounded by a large steel wall and marked in the center by the giant spire structure that was Heartland Tower. The only way through the giant metal wall was through a set of giant doors, but they were closed off to everyone outside of those doors, so only those with special clearance were permitted entry. While the idea of Heartland being closed off to the outside seemed less than ideal, the center of the city was used as a paradise to those who were poor with the express intention of bringing happiness and fun to all residents living within the walls.

On this day, when the whole of Heartland City was going up in chaos wrought upon by the merging atmospheres of this world and the other world, there was only one character who became an unintended addition to the populace of Heartland. He ran through the city's expansive streets, calling out for his dear comrade that he had been separated from, but he couldn't accept that it was all in vain. This city was like an endless maze to him.

"Jaden!? Jaden!? Are you here, Jay!? Jay!?"

These were the screams of young Syrus Truesdale, who used most of his stamina running around the streets to look for his best friend somewhere in the city, but it was all in vain. Everywhere he turned, Syrus could only see himself surrounded by the technicolored buildings and structures, streets lined with very unfamiliar faces, and a variety of space-age vehicles stopped at every street by the pandemonium.

"Jaden, are you out here!?" Syrus called to an empty alleyway.

"Come on, Jay! You've got to be here somewhere!?" Syrus whined, checking a public park.

"Ollie-ollie-ollie oxen free!" Syrus yelled from on top of a random building.

Syrus only went back down to the streets and turned around another corner when he stopped to catch his breath, bending down and propping his arms on his knees. "It's no use. I can't find Jaden, Chazz, Alexis, or Hassleberry," the Duel Academy graduate whined, examining his surroundings. "This place is way too big for me, and everything about it looks like something I read from a children's comic book."

Syrus turned his head and jumped back in shock when he saw a machine cross the street's crosswalk, like a giant colorful egg rolling on its gyro wheels, with metallic claw-like arms, and a stoic-looking face. "What is that!? Is that... a robot!?" he shrieked.

Suddenly, the robot rolled up to a tin can lying on the streets, picked it up using its claws, and blinked its eyes for a moment before it opened its mechanical mouth before dropping it in. "A robot that can move, grab, and collect trash!?" Syrus screeched, holding his face by his cheeks. "What's with this city, and why does it look like the setting for a mediocre Saturday cartoon show!?"

The trash-collecting robot wheeled itself out of sight, leaving Syrus alone to collect his thoughts. "This has to be the craziest day I've ever had! First my era gets stolen along with a few others, then we cross over to another era in the past only to meet with the King of Games himself! And if that wasn't strange enough, I had to sit through and watch Seto Kaiba of all people get clobbered by that Controller guy from the end of time, get swept up in a storm, get separated from my friends, lose consciousness, and wake up in an alleyway in a colorful city with trash-eating robots! Has my life come down to this since the last episode!?"

Having vented his own furious and scared thoughts from his head, Syrus fell on his seat and slumped forward. "It's no use. I bet Jaden and the others are long gone right about now, far away in another city, or an era in time, or even in another dimension. What can I do now? I'm stuck here in another era or dimension that's bigger than two Domino Cities combined, and there's nothing I can do to help them. How am I even going to get out of this place if I don't even know the first thing about this place?"

Syrus sighed. "Well, I guess that's that. I guess I'll have to be integrated into a society where they might have flying cars, holographic video games, and diet pills for breakfast, lunch, and dinner."

Suddenly, a shadow jumped across the wide gap of the rooftops between the building across the street and the building near where Syrus was, zipping by at the speed of a highly-trained ninja. While in mid-air, the shadow then took his hand and threw a couple of cards down at Syrus, sticking into the concrete like a couple of throwing stars, scaring him out of wits. "Hey! Who did that!?"

Syrus noticed that he was briefly eclipsed by the shadow above, and he turned to see it just before it disappeared over the rooftop. "Hey you! What's the big idea throwing your cards at people like that!?" he screamed at the rooftop, but to no one in particular. "Don't you know that throwing stuff at people could seriously hurt someone!?"

When the shadow was gone for a prolonged time, Syrus turned his gaze to the ground and stared at the two cards that the mysterious marauder threw at him. Their artwork was obscured by the shade, but that didn't stop Syrus from investigating them. "What are these cards?" Syrus wondered as he delicately picked them up from the ground, and examined them. He gasped. "Wait a minute! Aren't these the same Type of cards that the Controller used to defeat Kaiba with?"

Syrus didn't know much about the two cards in his hand, but he thought back to the climax of the Duel when the Controller brought out two more Dragon-Type monsters on his field, using the power of the three "Blue-Eyes White Dragons" to call them out using their own Summoning method. That was when an epiphany struck the former Obelisk Blue about the significance of these cards. "Oh yeah, I bet somebody wanted me to have these so I can get stronger and help my friends, but I don't know how to use these. I don't even know if my Duel Disk can Summon these cards."

Syrus looked down at his Deck Box strapped onto his hip, stared longingly at it, and felt some sort of peaceful tranquility emanating from his very cards. Their owner smiled; he could feel his "Cyber" monsters beg him to take the two additions with him. Ever since he inherited the Deck from his brother, Zane, Syrus could feel what his "Cyber" cards were thiking, sharing an equally close bond with each other much like how Jaden was with his cards. This may be the closest thing for Syrus to fully communicate with the Duel Monsters Spirits, but the warmth between himself and his cards made him smile, giving him the power to make up his mind fully.

"You're right, guys. There's nothing we can't do now. After all, Jaden and the others are counting on us to get out of this mess in one piece, and we will not let them down," Syrus said, standing up with much determination, clenching his fists. "It's true that we're lost now, and it's true that we don't know the first thing about this city, but right now, that doesn't matter. What matters now is that we have to be strong! We have to stand tall! But most importantly, we have to be brave! Brave as my brother was back in his day! Brave as Jaden, who's fighting for his life in another era! Brave as the King of Games, who stared in the face of grave danger! There's nothing we can't do to be brave like him!"

Multiple sneers and evil chuckles from behind him made him think otherwise.

Syrus froze when he heard these chuckles, and he slowly turned with a fearful look in his eye. There, standing right behind him was a small group of intimidating thugs with a glow of evil in their eyes, and that alone made Syrus whimper as he turned tail and ran as fast as he could in a random direction, followed by the thugs. "Except when I'm being chased by a group of thugs who look like they wanna take much more than my Deck! Jaden, HEEEEEEEEELP!"

While Syrus was once again screaming across the city, this time with a band of gang members chasing him menacingly, the shadow the gave him the cards stood by on a rooftop, watching the chase from afar. He then turned and walked only a few paces before his entire body disappeared.

---

Control Center - Inside the E.N.D. Cannon

The body of the shadow reappeared inside the Control Center in the heart of the spherical E.N.D. Cannon.

Specifically, the shadow had appeared at the door to his Master and Creator's throne room where he kept a weather eye on the lives of the major Duelists trapped in his little game. His throne was flanked by three other humanoid shadows, each standing as tall as the next, with hair of two different colors with their styles ranging from messy and unkept to neat and parted. Even their clothing greatly differed from each other, perfectly matching with their own hairstyle.

When the lieutenant present in Heartland City had returned from his mission, the Controller sensed his arrivale but didn't turn around to acknowledge him. "I do hope that Syrus Truesdale appreciates the... complimentary gifts we left him at the city..." the Controller told his returning lieutenant. "They were specifically made to work with his hybrid Deck... as part of an experiment I've based around my own hypothesis... so I would really hate it if he wastes them by not using them in a Duel... before he loses one of his matches here..."

"Don't worry, Syrus Truesdale will definitely use those cards in one of his upcoming Duels," the lieutenant responded. "Even if he does know how to play those cards, it won't do him any good against the storm that'll hit Heartland soon."

"All the more reason why I ordered you to give those cards to him..." the Controller said. "If our plan to restart the universe needs to come to fruition... then we need all the Dueling energies we need to recharge the Cannon's power... and the Numeron Code back in our grasp. Collecting the energies necessary will be a fairly simple task... but trying to reassemble the Numeron Code will be a difficult task to fulfill... unless... those areas where I have located the scattered energies of the Numeron Code also coincide... with the location of the Legendary Duelists. I'll have to look further into this myself..."

An alarm blared on the Controller's gigantic screen -four of them simultaneously, to be exact- as the images of the Four Legendary Duelists appeared, each taking a stance against their first opponents, Duel Disks armed and ready. He couldn't help but chuckle at the impeccable timing. "Ah... it looks like the first Duels are coming in now..." the Controller said. "Let's see what surprises we have in store for us..."

Starting from the most distant past to the distant future, the Controller traced his gaze on an image of Jaden in the Ancient Egypt Era, standing in between the three Shadow Bandits and Tristan Taylor, the bigger of the bandits holding his DiaDhank on his arm.

"Alright, pal, if you want this guy so bad, you'll just have to get through me first!" Jaden stated as offensively as his stance.

The second image the Controller saw was none other than the famed stoic Yusei Fudo, riding his Duel Runner down the streets of Domino City. Riding on alongside the Turbo Duelist was a slim, humanoid form of darkness itself, riding on a Duel Runner that took most of its appearance from the rider's clothing.

"Your crazy campaign to purge this city into darkness will never happen! Not while I'm around!" Yusei shouted over the rush of the Duel Runners engines.

The third image revealed Yami Yugi standing in an abandoned construction area under New Domino City, surrounded by a small group of hoodlums, street toughs and thugs ready to tear him apart through means of violence or Duel Monsters.

"I gave you all a chance to walk away peacefully, but I guess there's no other choice," the King of Games boldly stated against the thug's leader. "I guess I'll have to teach you a lesson on how to not take your opponents so lightly!"

Finally, there was an image of Yuma and Astral together in a small opening of the Forest, facing off against a hulking, muscular Fiend they had the unfortunate displeasure of encountering. Yuma had his game face on and Astral remained stoic, not faltering under the intimidating gaze of the Fiend.

"You think we can take on this guy, Astral?" the boy asked his partner.

"Most likely, but be cautious, Yuma. You'll never know what tricks these Fiends will have up their sleeves," the envoy of Astral World warned.

Yuma grinned and rubbed his nose. "Now where's the fun in being cautious when you can weed 'em out on the first turn?" he asked, pointing at the Fiend. "Okay, ugly, get set to get Decked!"

The Controller watched with amusement as the Legendary Duelists and their opponents activated their Duel Disks, unknowingly playing right into his gauntleted hands. To this, he slightly chuckled once more. "The fools will surely be surprised to see what happens... when someone loses a Duel in the Void..." the Controller contemplated out loud. "For if a Duelist should lose their Duel here... they will also lose their existence to the Void... but they'll recover shortly... for the ones who will be erased from existence will also be erased from memory as well..."

The Four Legendary Duelists activated their Duel Disks, and the Controller moved his fingers across the blue orb on the arm of his throne.

"Let the games begin..."

The Controller pushed on the orb, making a little white square appear from the pressure.

Two extra images popped up on the screen.

One was a count down clock, counting down from 72:00:00 to signify the three day time limit he challenged the Legendary Duelists with.

The other was a certain Field Spell he activated before his Duel with Kaiba, ensure that anyone from any era or dimension could legally play their own Duel Disk in the same area without restrictions.

"Generating Action Field: Crossover."

And simultaneously came the mantra of all Duelists from the four most prominent Duelists to come out on top in history.

"LET'S DUEL!"

TO BE CONTINUED...

---

FEATURED CARDS

YUGI MUTO'S CARDS

-NORMAL MONSTERS-

Dark Magician
(DARK/Level 7/Spellcaster/2500/2100)
The ultimate wizard in terms of attack and defense.

JADEN YUKI'S CARDS

-EFFECT MONSTERS-

Winged Kuriboh (spirit)
(LIGHT/Level 1/Fairy/Effect/300/200)
You take no battle damage from battles involving this card. If this card on the field is destroyed and sent to the Graveyard: For the rest of this turn, you take no battle damage.

Yubel (spirit)
(DARK/Level 10/Fiend/Effect/0/0)
Cannot be destroyed by battle. Your opponent takes all battle damage from battles involving this face-up Attack Position card. During your End Phase: Tribute 1 other monster or destroy this card. If this card is destroyed, except by its own effect: Special Summon 1 "Yubel - Terror Incarnate" from you hand, Deck, or Graveyard.

CROW HOGAN'S CARDS

-EFFECT MONSTERS-

Blackwing - Abrolhos the Megaquake
(DARK/Level 7/Winged Beast/Effect/2600/1800)
Cannot be Special Summoned. This card cannot destroy monsters by battle. If this card battles a monster, after damage calculation: Return that monster to the hand. Once per turn, during your Main Phase 1: You can have this card lose exactly 1000 ATK, and if you do, return all cards in your opponent's Spell & Trap Zone to the hand.

Blackwing - Aurora the Northern Lights
(LIGHT/Level 10/Winged Beast/Effect/?/0)
Cannot be Normal Summoned/Set. Must be Special Summoned (from your hand) by banishing 2 face-up monsters you control (1 "Blackwing" Tuner and 1 non-Tuner) and cannot be Special Summoned by other ways. This card's Level becomes the combined Levels of the monsters banished. Once per turn: You can banish 1 "Blackwing" Synchro Monster from your Extra Deck whose Level is less than or equal to this card's Level; until the End Phase, this card's name and original ATK become that monster's, and replace this effect with that monster's original effects.

-TUNER MONSTERS-

Blackwing - Blizzard the Far North
(DARK/Level 3/Winged Beast/Tuner/Effect/1300/0)
Cannot be Special Summoned. When this card is Normal Summoned: You can target 1 Level 4 or lower "Blackwing" monster in your Graveyard; Special Summon that target in Defense Position.

-SYNCHRO MONSTERS-

Blackwing - Silverwind the Ascendant
(DARK/Level 8/Winged Beast/Synchro/Effect/2800/2000)
1 "Blackwing Tuner" + 2 or more non-Tuner monsters
When this card is Synchro Summoned: You can target up to 2 face-up monsters on the field with DEF lower than this card's ATK; destroy those targets. You cannot conduct your Battle Phase the turn you activate this effect. During each of your opponent's turns, the first "Blackwing" monster you controlthat would be destroyed by battle, is not destroyed.

Black-Winged Dragon
(DARK/Level 8/Dragon/Synchro/Effect/2800/1600)
1 Tuner + 1 or more non-Tuner monsters
If you would take damage from a card effect, place 1 Black Feather Counter on this card instead. This card loses 700 ATK for each Black Feather Counter on it. Once per turn: You can remove all Black Feather Counters on this card, then target 1 face-up monster your opponent controls; that target loses 700 ATK for each Black Feather Counter you removed, and if it does, inflict damage to your opponent equal to the ATK lost by this effect.

-SPELL CARDS-

Speed Spell - Angel Baton
Speed Spell
Remove 4 of your Speed Counters: Draw 2 cards, then send 1 card from your hand to the Graveyard.

Speed World 2
Field Spell
Spell Cards other than "Speed Spell" Spell Cards cannot be activated. If a player activates a non-"Speed Spell" Spell Card, they take 2000 damage. During each player's Standby Phases, except for the first turn of the Duel: Each player places 1 Speed Counter on their copy of this card (max. 12 each). Once per turn: You can remove Speed Counters of your own; apply the appropriate effects.
● 4 Counters: Reveal any number of "Speed Spell" Spell Cards in your hand, then inflict 800 damage to your opponent for each card revealed.
● 7 Counters: Draw 1 card.
● 10 Counters: Destroy 1 card on the field.

LEO'S CARDS

-SYNCHRO MONSTERS-

Power Tool Dragon
(EARTH/Level 7/Machine/Synchro/Effect/2300/2500)
1 Tuner + 1 or more non-Tuner monsters
Once per turn, during your Main Phase: You can add 1 random Equip Spell Card from your Deck to your hand. If this card would destroyed while equipped with an Equip Spell Card(s), you can send 1 of those cards instead.

LUNA'S CARDS

-EFFECT MONSTERS-

Kuribon (spirit)
(LIGHT/Level 1/Fairy/Effect/300/200)
If an opponent's monster declares a direct attack: You can reduce the battle damage to 0, and if you do, Special Summon this card (from your hand). During damage calculation, if this card is being attacked by your opponent's monster: You take no battle damage from this battle, also your opponent gains LP equal to the attacking monster's ATK, then you can return this card to your hand.

Regulus (spirit)
(LIGHT/Level 4/Beast/Effect/1700/1000)
Once per turn: You can target 1 Field Spell Card in your Graveyard; shuffle that target into your Deck.

YUMA TSUKUMO'S CARDS

-EFFECT MONSTERS-

Rainbow Kuriboh (spirit)
(LIGHT/Level 1/Fiend/Effect/100/100)
When an opponent's Xyz Monster declares an attack: You can equip this monster from your hand to that monster. It cannot attack. When an opponent's monster declares a direct attack: You can Special Summon this card from your Graveyard. If Summoned this way, banish this card when it is destroyed.

FLASHBACK

-NORMAL MONSTERS-

Dark Magician
(DARK/Level 7/Spellcaster/2500/2100)
The ultimate wizard in terms of attack and defense.

Elemental HERO Neos
(LIGHT/Level 7/Warrior/2500/2000)
A new Elemental HERO has arrived from Neo-Space! When he initiates a Contact Fusion with a Neo-Spacian his unknown powers are unleashed.

-EFFECT MONSTERS-

Obelisk the Tormentor
(DIVINE/Level 10/Divine-Beast/Effect/4000/4000)
Requires 3 Tributes to Normal Summon (cannot be Normal Set). This card's Normal Summon cannot be negated. When Normal Summoned, other cards and effects cannot be activated. While this card is face-up on the field, this card is also treated as a Warrior-Type monster. Your opponent cannot Tribute this card. Control of this card cannot switch. Cannot be targeted by, or leave the field by, the effects of Spell/Trap Cards and non-DIVINE monsters, except by its own effect. Other card effects are only applied on this card until the End Phase. (This effect cannot be negated.) Once per turn, during the End Phase, if this card was Special Summoned: Send it to the Graveyard. If this card is Special Summoned in face-up Defense Position when an opponent's monster declares an attack, OR if exactly 1 monster you control is targeted by a card effect that could target this card; that card/effect/attack now targets this card, instead. During either player's turn: You can Tribute 2 monsters; apply 1 of these effects.
● Destroy all monsters your opponent controls, and if you do, inflict 4000 damage to your opponent. This card cannot declare an attack the turn this effect is activated.
● This card's ATK becomes ∞ until the End Phase.

Slifer the Sky Dragon
(DIVINE/Level 10/Divine-Beast/Effect/X000/X000)
Requires 3 Tributes to Normal Summon (cannot be Normal Set). This card's Normal Summon cannot be negated. When Normal Summoned, other cards and effects cannot be activated. Once per turn, during the End Phase, if this card was Special Summoned: Send it to the Graveyard. While this card is face-up on the field, this card is also treated as a Dragon-Type monster. This card gains 1000 ATK and DEF for each card in your hand. Control of this card cannot switch and cannot by targeted by the effects of Trap Cards and Effect Monsters, except by "Obelisk the Tormentor" and "The Winged Dragon of Ra". The effect of "Obelisk the Tormentor" and Spell Cards can only affect this card for one turn. This card cannot be removed from the field by the effects of Spell Cards. If a monster(s) is Normal or Special Summoned to your opponent's side of the field in face-up Attack Position: That monster(s) loses 2000 ATK, then if its ATK has been reduced to 0 as a result, destroy it.

The Winged Dragon of Ra
(DIVINE/Level 10/Divine-Beast/Effect/?/?)
Requires 3 Tributes to Normal Summon (cannot be Normal Set). This card's Normal Summon cannot be negated. When Normal Summoned, other cards and effects cannot be activated. This card's ATK and DEF becomes the combined ATK and DEF of the Tributed monsters. While this card is face-up on the field, this card is also treated as a Machine-Type monster. While this card is face-up on the field, it cannot be targeted by card effects, including the effects of "Obelisk the Tormentor" and "Slifer the Sky Dragon". If this card is Special Summoned from the Graveyard, you can activate the following effects:
● This card can attack all monsters your opponent controls once each. If your opponent controls no monsters after this effect resolves; it can attack your opponent directly, even if it has already attacked one or more times this turn.
● If this card is Summoned in face-up Defense Position when an opponent's monster declares an attack; change the attack target to this card.
● During the End Phase; send this card to the Graveyard.
While this card is face-up on the field, you can activate the following effects:
● Once per turn: You can pay 1000 LP: Destroy all monsters on your opponent's field. This card cannot be destroyed during the End Phase.
● Once per turn: You can pay LP until you have only 1 left; increase this card's ATK and DEF by the amount of LP paid. If you use this effect, during either player's turn: You can send 1 "De-Fusion" from your hand or field to the Graveyard; reduce this card's ATK to 0, and if you do, increase your LP equal to the previous ATK.
● You can Tribute 1 or more monsters on your field; increase this card's ATK equal to the Tributed monster(s) ATK.

-FUSION MONSTERS-

Armityle the Chaos Phantom
(DARK/Level 12/Fusion/Fiend/Effect/0/0)
"Uria, Lord of Searing Flames" + "Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder" + "Raviel, Lord of Phantasms"
Cannot be Special Summoned, except with "Dimension Fusion Destruction". Cannot be destroyed by battle. If this card battles an opponent's monster, during damage calculation: Inflict 10,000 battle damage to your opponent. Once per turn: You can switch control of this card to your opponent's field until the end of this turn, and if you do, banish all other monsters your opponent controls during the end of this turn.

-SYNCHRO MONSTERS-

Ancient Fairy Dragon
(LIGHT/Level 7/Dragon/Synchro/Effect/2100/3000)
1 Tuner + 1 or more non-Tuner monsters
Once per turn: You can Special Summon 1 Level 4 or lower monster from your hand. You cannot conduct your Battle Phase the turn you activate this effect. Once per turn: You can destroy as many Field Spell Cards on the field as possible, and if you do, gain 1000 LP, then you can add 1 Field Spell Card from your Deck to your hand.

Black Rose Dragon
(FIRE/Level 7/Dragon/Synchro/Effect/2400/1800)
1 Tuner + 1 or more non-Tuner monsters
When this card is Synchro Summoned: You can destroy all cards on the field. Once per turn: You can banish 1 Plant-Type monster from your Graveyard, then target 1 Defense Position monster your opponent controls; change that target to face-up Attack Position, and if you do, its ATK becomes 0 until the end of this turn.

Black-Winged Dragon
(DARK/Level 8/Dragon/Synchro/Effect/2800/1600)
1 Tuner + 1 or more non-Tuner monsters
If you would take damage from a card effect, place 1 Black Feather Counter on this card instead. This card loses 700 ATK for each Black Feather Counter on it. Once per turn: You can remove all Black Feather Counters on this card, then target 1 face-up monster your opponent controls; that target loses 700 ATK for each Black Feather Counter you removed, and if it does, inflict damage to your opponent equal to the ATK lost by this effect.

Life Stream Dragon
(EARTH/Level 8/Dragon/Synchro/Tuner/Effect/2900/2400)
1 Tuner + "Power Tool Dragon"
When this card is Synchro Summoned: You can make all players with 2000 or less LP become 2000. Each player takes no effect damage. Once per turn: You can change the Levels of all Synchro Monsters you control from 1 to 12.

Red Dragon Archfiend
(DARK/Level 8/Dragon/Synchro/Effect/3000/2500)
1 Tuner + 1 or more non-Tuner monsters
After damage calculation, when this card attacks a Defense Position monster your opponent controls: Destroy all Defense Position monsters your opponent controls. During your End Phase: Destroy all other monsters you control that did not declare an attack this turn. Monsters Summoned after your Battle Phase are excluded from this effect. This card must also remain face-up on the field to activate and to resolve this effect.

Stardust Dragon
(WIND/Level 8/Dragon/Synchro/Effect/2500/2000)
1 Tuner + 1 or more non-Tuner monsters
During either player's turn, when a card or effect is activated that would destroy a card(s) on the field: You can Tribute this card; negate the activation, and if you do, destroy it. During the End Phase, if this effect was activated this turn (and was not negated): You can Special Summon this card from your Graveyard.

-XYZ MONSTERS-

Number 39: Utopia
(LIGHT/Rank 4/Warrior/Xyz/Effect/2500/2000)
2 Level 4 monsters
Cannot be destroyed by battle, except with "Number" monsters. When any player's monster declares an attack: You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card; negate the attack.

Number 39: Utopia Beyond
(LIGHT/Rank 6/Warrior/Xyz/Effect/3000/2500)
2 Level 6 monsters
Cannot be destroyed by battle except with "Number" monsters. Cards you control are unaffected by your opponent's card effects. If this card has a "Utopia" monster as an Xyz Material, it gains this effect.
● During your Battle Phase, the ATK of all monsters your opponent controls becomes 0.
● During either player's Battle Phase: You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card, then 1 face-up Xyz Monster you control and 1 "Number 39: Utopia" in your Graveyard; banish the first target, and if you do, Special Summon the second target from your Graveyard, then gain LP equal to half its ATK.

Number 39: Utopia Roots
(LIGHT/Rank 1/Warrior/Xyz/Effect/500/100)
2 Level 1 monsters
Cannot be destroyed by battle except with "Number" monsters. If this card battles an opponent's face-up Xyz Monster: You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card, then attach it from the Graveyard to that opponent's monster as an Xyz Material; negate the attack, also, until the End Phase of this turn, this card's ATK becomes equal to the difference in Ranks between this card and that opponent's face-up Xyz Monster × 100, multiplied by the number of Xyz Materials currently attached to a monster your opponent controls.

Number C39: Utopia Ray
(LIGHT/Rank 4/Warrior/Xyz/Effect/2500/2000)
3 Level 4 LIGHT monsters
Cannot be destroyed by battle except with a "Number" monster. If your have 1000 LP or more, destroy this card. You can Xyz Summon this card by using a "Number 39: Utopia" you control as the Xyz Material (Xyz Materials attached to that monster also become Xyz Materials on this card). You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card; it gains 500 ATK and 1 of your opponent's monster loses 1000 ATK, until the End Phase.

Number C39: Utopia Ray V
(LIGHT/Rank 5/Warrior/Xyz/Effect/2600/2000)
3 Level 5 monsters
Cannot be destroyed by battle except with "Number" monsters. When this card in its owner's possession is destroyed by an opponent's card (either by battle or by card effect): You can target 1 Xyz Monster in your Graveyard; return that target to the Extra Deck. If this card has a "Utopia" monster as an Xyz Material, it gains this effect.
● Once per turn: You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card, then target 1 monster your opponent controls; destroy that monster, and if you do, inflict damage to your opponent equal to the destroyed monster's ATK on the field.

Number C39: Utopia Ray Victory
(LIGHT/Rank 5/Warrior/Xyz/Effect/2800/2000)
3 Level 5 monsters
Cannot be destroyed by battle except with "Number" monsters. If this card has a "Utopia" monster as an Xyz Material, it gains this effect.
● During either player's Battle Phase, when this card battles an opponent's monster: You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card; negate that opponent's face-up monster's effects that battled, also this card gains ATK equal to that opponent's monster's ATK, until the End Phase.
● When this card attacks, your opponent cannot activate any Spell/Trap Cards.

OTHER

-EFFECT MONSTERS-

Ape Fighter
(DARK/Level 4/Beast/Effect/1900/1200)
If this card destroys an opponent's monster by battle: This card gains 300 ATK. If this card does not attack during your turn, the ATK gained from this effect returns to 0 during the End Phase of that turn.

Broww, Huntsman of Dark World
(DARK/Level 3/Fiend/Effect/1400/800)
If this card is discarded to the Graveyard by a card effect: Draw 1 card, plus another card if this card was discarded from your hand to your Graveyard by an opponent's card effect.

Guard Dog
(EARTH/Level 3/Beast/Flip/Effect/1500/500)
FLIP: Your opponent cannot Special Summon for the rest of this turn.

Monster Eye (multiple)
(DARK/Level 1/Fiend/Effect/250/350)
You can pay 1000 LP; add 1 "Polymerization" from your Graveyard to your hand.

Watch Dog (multiple)
(FIRE/Level 1/Pyro/Effect/0/0)
During your Main Phase 2, if this card was Normal Summoned this turn: You can send 1 Spell Card from your hand to the Graveyard; Set 1 Continuous Spell Card directly from your Deck. You can only use this effect of "Watch Dog" once per turn. You cannot Special Summon during the turn you activate this effect.

-SPELL CARDS-

Closed Forest
Field Spell
All Beast-Type monsters you control gain 100 ATK for each monster in your Graveyard. Field Spell Cards cannot be activated. Field Spell Cards cannot be activated during the turn this card is destroyed.

Crossover
Field Spell
At the start of this Duel; force this card's activation from your hand or Deck. If each player controls 1 copy of this card, this card gains this effect:
● Cannot be targeted by, or destroyed by card effects. If any player activates a Field Spell Card; that player can place that Field Spell Card underneath this card (min. 1). This card's name becomes the name of the card placed underneath this card, also it gains its effects. (Each player can only have 1 Field Spell Card placed under 1 copy of this card. During either player's turn, if a player activates a new Field Spell Card while a player controls 1 copy of this card with a Field Spell Card placed underneath it; that player must send that card to the Graveyard.)

Crossover Acceleration
Field Spell
At the start of this Duel; force this card's activation from your hand or Deck. If each player controls 1 copy of this card, this card gains this effect:
● Cannot be targeted by, or destroyed by card effects. If any player activates a "Speed World" Field Spell Card; that player can place it underneath this card (min. 1). This card's name becomes the name of the card placed underneath this card, also it gains its effects. (Each player must activate a "Speed World" Field Spell Card with the same name. During either player's turn, if a player activates a "Speed World" Field Spell Card with a different name while a player controls 1 copy of this card with a "Speed World" Field Spell Card placed underneath it: That player must send that card to the Graveyard; the player who sent that card to the Graveyard must place the activated Field Spell Card under this card.)

Forest
Field Spell
All Insect, Beast, Plant, and Beast-Warrior-Type monsters gain 200 ATK and DEF.

Mountain
Field Spell
All Dragon, Winged Beast, and Thunder-Type monsters gain 300 ATK and DEF.

Sogen
Field Spell
All Beast-Warrior and Warrior-Type monsters gain 200 ATK and DEF.