Sekhmet: Did you know it takes an average of ten months to recover from mental burnout? Not making excuses, just saying. In all seriousness, we apologize for the unplanned hiatus. A lot has happened in seven months. I burned through two jobs, Susano-O burned through THREE, we moved to the big city, I got really into witchcraft, we can actually keep our new house clean, it's been a lot.

Susano-o: -But like the mighty phoenix we rise again, I've got a job with steady hours so I'm not dead on my feet every day!

Sekhmet: I went through a major financial instability that got REALLY scary, but I start a new job that could easily become a career in May. It's something I enjoy and doesn't have a lot of traffic either, so it hopefully won't be too mentally exhausted either.

Susano-o: It's time to move into Season 4 and then 5D's. LEGGO!

Sekhmet: Wait, we have to do the end of season quote.

Susano-o: "We evolve beyond the person we were a minute before! Little by little, we advance a bit further with each turn. That's how a drill works!"

Duel 72: Last Train Home

"There we go," Bastion groaned, standing up from his hunched position above the control box. "I have finally created a way to travel through dimensions without blowing the power."

"Great!" Rose smiled tiredly. "Now how the fuck does it work?"

"Simply throw this lever and we'll jump to another dimension," Bastion explained. "By my calculations we'll reach our dimension by at most two-hundred and forty nine jumps."

"...any way to shorten that?" Rose squeaked out.

"Nope, with what I have available I can't set a predetermined location, it's all random."

"Well….shit," Rose mumbled. "Guess we'd better get started."

"Wait, is everyone here that died? I don't want to have that week we spent making sure everyone was revived be for nothing. No duelist left behind and all that." Fontaine asked.

"I already did a headcount. Everyone's here." Axel said.

"Everybody here? I don't wanna come back." Yuko asked when everyone nodded, she turned back to Bastion. "Pull the lever, Kronk!"

"...No," Bastion deadpanned, throwing the lever, with a jolt they were thrown forward through time and space.

"Wrong leveeeeeeeeer!" Yuko careened with fake terror.

The island suddenly ground to a halt as the group tumbled to the floor, groaning as they looked around to see a desolate and destroyed city.

"What the hell happened!" Rose asked. "This looks like Bridgeport Connecticut!?"

"Oh boy, get ready for the messages." Yuko said, rolling her eyes.

"Bastion what the hell?!" Rose yelled, waving her arms around.

"Well we definitely jumped," Bastion defended. "-But I don't know why this place looks like this, just give it a few seconds and we can jump again."

"Guys? I think I know what happened." Syrus said, pointing upwards. Dotting the horizon was a series of Ancient Gear monsters, one passing directly over the building as it walked past.

"Oh dear Ra," Crowler said, looking up at the gears.

"Crowler, you're not staying here," Bonaparte glared.

Suddenly the Gears stopped and formed lines along the streets being led by a single 'Gearframe' and 'Golem' who raised his arms to the sky.

"The humans are dead" The Golem sang.

"The humans are dead" Gearframe sang back as it started to dance.

"The humans are dead," Golem sang.

"They look like they're dead," Gearframe sang back.

"We used poisonous gasses."

"With traces of lead."

"And we poisoned their asses."

"Actually their lungs," Gearframe corrected before pointing at Golem. "Binary solo"

"000000100000011000000111000001111," Golem repeated.

"Oh, oh one, one, oh, come on sucker lick my battery," Gearframe sang as the rest of the gears suddenly joined in dancing.

"Boogie Boogie (The humans are) Boogie Robo-boogie (The humans are) Boogie Boogie (Robo-boogie) Boogie Robo-boogie Boogie Boogie (The humans are) Boogie (Robo-boogie) Boogie Robo-boogie (The humans are dead)!" Gearframe sang.

This was all accompanied by the worst screeching sound ever heard as rusty metal was forced to bend in ways it was never meant to bend as the robots did, well, the robot.

"Oh Ra it's like there's a drill in one ear and a drill in the other, and they're meeting in the middle!?" Chazz screamed, covering his ears.

"Is this what Hell feels like?" Alexis asked, shoving Rose's fingers into her ears.

"Yes, yes it is." Yuko said, shoving her own palms against her ears.

All of a sudden the dancing stopped and the Gears turned towards them. "Humans."

"Throwtheswitchthrowtheswitchthrowtheswitch!" Syrus pleaded.

"Wait," Gearframe said. "Is that...Crowler?"

The Gears turned towards a hill in reverence at a giant statue of Crowler made of scrap metal. "Ahhhhh!" They chanted.

"Well I've seen enough, let's come back here never," Rose said, grabbing the lever.

"Wait," Gearframe said. "Take this letter, it will help you in the future."

"Umm, ok," Crowler said, taking the letter. "Rose throw the lever please."

Rose threw the lever, sending them into the stream again, Crowler looked at the letter he was given, then around at everyone before wordlessly throwing it off the edge into the void. The rest of the trip was made in silence before they landed again, in a frozen tundra in the middle of a blizzard.

"Oh god it's cold!" Alexis shouted as she stole Rose's jacket. "Did we land in Antarctica?!"

"Oh no I'm not getting Thinged!" Chazz shouted in terror.

"Is that a metal door?" Tania asked, squinting off in the distance. As Yuko was looking around, she saw a massive shadow approaching from the distance. She let out a horrified gasp, which drew everyone's attention to the shadow.

"Welcome to the Himalayas!" The figure yelled showing his shaggy white fur covered face with a big smile.

"..."

"Snowcone?" The Abominable Snowman asked, holding out a tray of cones. "They're lemon."

"…Bastion throw the switch." Yuko said.

"Wait, I want one!" Syrus yelled, but Bastion threw the switch before he could. "Awww," Syrus pouted.

A flash of light dropped them down on the coast of a beach in front of an impressive mansion, looking around they noticed this was an artificial landmass floating in the sky.

"Swanky," Rose said looking around.

"Hey!" A man yelled walking out onto the beach. "Who are you, why are you on my island, talk or I will call the police!"

"Ok ok," Crowler said, holding up his hand. "We are the staff of Duel Academy, I'm Dr. Crowler."

"Leo Akaba," The man responded. "Now how did you get here?"

"Dimension hopping," Rose interrupted. "Got sucked into another dimension now we're trying to get back."

"...There are other dimensions?" Leo asked.

"Yep," Rose said, grabbing the lever. "Bye bye," She waved, throwing the lever.

Leo Akaba looked at the spot where the island was. "Interesting," He said, rubbing his chin. "Very Interesting."

….

The next place the island landed was in the middle of a river. Looking around, it was on the side of a towering mountain. A dark cloud enveloped the top of the mountain, and most noticeably, creatures that they'd never seen populated the area.

"This is the most normal place we've been so far." Yuko said.

"Are we in ancient Japan?" Syrus asked. As they looked around more, a black and blue lion roared and bolted at the island.

"Throw the switch, throw the switch, throw the switch!" Chazz panicked, and the island disappeared just as the gang saw the red sclera of the lion's piercing eyes.

With a groan they landed in a cuboid shaped world, complete with a square sun in the sky.

"...This is Minecraft," Axel sighed, rubbing his forehead.

"We're not Steve shaped, I hate it here." Yuko said, staring at her hands like she was having an existential crisis.

"Wait before we leave, I wanna try something!" Chazz said, running over to a tree and punching it as hard as he could. "Oh Ra my hand!" He yelled falling to his knees.

"Why did you think that would work?" Jesse asked.

"Why wouldn't it?" Chazz questioned back, holding his hand out for Fontaine to fix.

"I JUST said we're not Steve shaped. We're not built for that." Yuko said.

"Can we leave before a creeper blows up the island?" Hassleberry asked.

"Creepers in the real world would be over six feet tall," Jessie provided helpfully.

"And on that note," Bastion said, throwing the switch.

….

They crashed down once more in an ocean, next to another Duel Academy Island.

"Did they build a new Island already?" Rose asked angrily. "We haven't even been gone a month! Right! Right?" She asked, looking at Bastion.

"Honestly I have no idea," Bastion said, shrugging.

"Well I guess we have two islands now. I'm up for a year long nap, what about you guys?" Yuko said.

"Hey!" A familiar male voice called out from the other island. "Who's there?"

"Syrus," Another familiar voice said. "Please don't yell."

"Shut up Rose!" The Syrus voice yelled.

"Sorry," The Rose voice squeaked back. From behind a nearby tree, a small female figure leaned out, but said nothing.

"...Oh I immediately hate this." Rose groaned.

"I hate it too. I want out immediately." Yuko said.

From the treeline, almost identical copies of the group came out to meet them. The girl who looked like Yuko was almost a shadow to the group, and the tips of her hair were a royal blue instead of purple. The Syrus looking figure sported minty green hair instead of his normal blue, and a stance that was way too cocky for his own good.

"Well this is certainly interesting," Bastion said, rubbing his chin. "Another world only slightly different from us."

"What?" The Bastion counterpart asked, scratching his head looking confused. He was larger and muscular with the white still in his hair. "Cer-tan-lee?"

"...Please tell me that's chalk," Bastion begged.

"No," The Chazz counterpart, sporting a clean 9 to 5 haircut from the 50's and a clean blue jacket. "It's spray paint."

"...Dear Ra."

"Oh man I'm a nerd," Chazz groaned. "Is Rose still better than me?"

"Rose?" Mint Syrus laughed. "She suuuuucks."

The Rose counterpart looked down at her shoes, she was as tall as Rose, but was hunched down to appear smaller, sporting regular glasses and a skirt.

"Hey!" Rose yelled at Mint Syrus. "Insult me again and I'll kick his ass!" She yelled pointing at Syrus.

"Don't punish our Syrus for Mint Shit's mistakes." Normal Yuko said.

"I-I think we need to use a different designation," Sad Rose said, raising her hand. "We'll be version A and you'll be version B."

"Why are we B?" Rose-B yelled angrily.

"Because this is our dimension, you came to us," Rose-A answered.

"Fine," Rose-B groaned, crossing her arms.

"Wow, that's the best idea you've had….ever," Alexis-A chuckled behind her hand. She was sporting black hair and a red version of her normal outfit. Alexis-B just facepalmed.

"So can I talk in this dimension or…?" Yuko-B asked. Yuko-A said nothing, but gave a slow nod. She looked like she was afraid of everything. "That doesn't help your case."

"She might as well be mute. She's the little sister of the CEO of MotoCorp, but she's afraid of her own damn shadow." Syrus-A sneered. "It's honestly pathetic."

"Ok let's get out of here before I black out due to sheer audacity," Rose-B said, throwing the switch.

"Yeah, I'm already tired of this." Yuko-B agreed.

With one last flash, Duel Academy finally took its proper place in its own dimension.

"Oh thank Ra," Crowler yelled in jubilation as he saw the Industrial Illusions choppers flying around

"What's Industrial Illusions doing here?" Syrus asked.

"Zhey were funding ze project to bring you home!" Dr. Eisenstein yelled, pulling up to the island in a boat. "Bastion my boy! I knew you could do it!"

"Professor, it's good to see you again!" Bastion yelled back, running down to meet him. "You were right, there are other dimensions, so many different ones to explore!"

"And explore we will my boy," Dr. Eisenstein said, clapping Bastion's shoulder. "-But first let's make sure that THIS dimension stays where it is after all that jumping you did."

"Now about that year-long nap…" Yuko said.

"Well I wouldn't get too comfy," Chancellor Sheppard laughed as he stepped onto the island for the first time in months, seemingly unfazed by the ⸢Menacing⸥ aura coming off the student body. "Now that you're back from your vacation, it's time for midterms, and then we have a tournament to host," He laughed, turning around to walk back to the main office. "Come along Vice-Chancellors, we have work to do."

"..."

"..."

"Why must he fail us so often..."

"... Imma kill him….."

….. (Several days later)

Kaiba sneered sneeringly as he stepped off his Blue-Eyes themed jet. "Mokuba, remind me again why I need to come out here personally?"

"Seto the entire island disappeared, if nothing else we need to make sure it's still stable, there's an active volcano on it, we may need to move the school," Mokuba answered deadpanning at his brother's lack of care.

"Fine," Kaiba said, walking up the steps ignoring the looks of awe from the students. "Mokuba, how is the tournament planning going?"

"The Genex Tournament is ready to go after break," Mokuba responded.

"Good," Kaiba responded as he opened the door to the Chancellor's office, then paused when he walked into what amounted to a french riviera crossed with a day spa.

"Ah Mr. Kaiba!" Crowler said, waving from the deck chair he was sitting at while doing budget forms and sipping champagne. "Come in, come in, can I get you some champagne? Or maybe a nice Charcuterie Board?"

"Dr. Crowler," Mokuba said, recovering from his shock as well. "Where's Chancellor Sheppard?"

"Chancellor Sheppard has decided to return to his dojo and live out his life teaching students who are dedicated to the cyber arts," Crowler responded. "He passed the position to me before he left."

"And no one thought to inform me?" Kaiba asked glaring. Crowler, unfazed, took a sip from his drink.

"It was a….sudden change of leadership," Crowler explained.

"Hmmm…fine then," Kaiba said, taking a seat at Crowler's desk. "Now let's discuss the next semester."