It was the winter of 2019. Christmas had come and gone. New year's day was fast approaching. People had no idea a pandemic was coming, and the only time anyone mentioned the word 'Corona', it was about beer. 23 year old Levi, a young man known for video games and the Yu-Gi-Oh! card game, was currently with his two friends for New Years Eve, playing the mentioned card game in a 3 person duel. Kevin, who was only a year older than Levi, was playing with his most recent deck; One that revolved around Ultimate Conductor Tyranno and Lost World. Sam, who was the youngest of the two, was playing with his plant deck; one that revolved around Black Rose Dragon. And finally Levi, who seemed to be frustrating the both of them at the moment, was testing out his new deck that revolved around the recently released Dragonmaids.

"And with only 2900 Life Points left, I attack with Dragonmaid Sheou to end the duel." Levi says, declaring his attack.

"I activate Magic Cylinder to redirect the attack back at you." Sam replied, flipping a face down trap.

"Sorry Sam, but I activate Sheou's effect. I negate the activation of your trap. And by doing this, Sheou goes to the graveyard and changes into House Dragonmaid." Levi says, summoning House Dragonmaid from the Extra Deck. "Now House Dragonmaid attacks directly and finishes the duel."

"I seriously hate those Dragonmaids already." Sam huffed, dropping the cards in his hand.

"I know." Kevin agreed. "Dude, how did you already get so many copies of all those cards?"

"I already told you; I don't open packs. I just buy the cards I need on . Opening packs is a huge waste of money these days. At most I'd just get structure decks because I know what's in them already."

"Could you please just use a different deck next round so I actually have a chance?" Sam asked.

"Well let's see, I have a Magician deck, Ancient Gear… Any of those sound better?" Levi chuckled.

"I wonder how Toons would work against them…" Kevin pondered.

"You realize as soon as Toon Kingdom's activation gets negated, you'd be screwed, right?" Levi asked.

"Okay then… How about a spellcaster deck?" Kevin asked. "You need to use that dragonmaid fusion card all the time to bring out your boss monster. If I have a spellcaster out with Secret Village of the Spellcasters as the field spell, you'd be stuck."

"Do you forget hand traps exist?" Levi asks.

"Yeah yeah, you pain in the–" Kevin mused before getting cut off.

"Hey guys, it's just one minute before new years!" Sam pointed out before turning on the T.V., putting on the news station where the ball drop was happening. As they saw the ball was already slowly descending down.

"Another year out of the way…" Levi said, watching the timer. "And we still don't have flying cars." He joked.

"Oh god, Levi, do you really think you could trust anybody with a flying car?" Sam asked, holding his head.

"We can barely trust people in regular cars as is." Kevin added.

"I was joking." Levi chuckles. "If anything I think I'd prefer augmented reality dueling… and I don't mean that fan made VR game, I mean with actual duel disks."

"You and every other duelist in the world." Kevin chuckled. "But I doubt it'll happen."

"Well you never know." Sam shrugged. "We've already seen augmented reality in other things."

"Yeah, while using some weird headset." Levi responded with an annoyed look.

"If you really think about it though, that's probably the safest way of doing it. Imagine how freaked out people would be seeing virtual monsters out in the open." Sam said.

"Who cares?" Kevin responded. "If anything that wouldn't even matter."

"I agree." Levi nodded. "I doubt any duelists would just duel in the open like Battle City or something… Although if someone did hold a tournament and closed off the roads for it, I wouldn't be opposed." He chuckled.

"10…"

"9…"

"8…"

"7…"

"Here we go." Levi says as they all look at the T.V. "6!"

"5!" The two friends joined in. "4! 3! 2! 1!-" Although, just before the ball dropped all the way down, the power cut off.

"What the hell?" Kevin asked.

"Oh for the love of…" Sam groaned.

"Jeez, that was timed almost perfectly. Happy New Year! Welcome to the dark ages!"

"Please stop." Sam groaned. "Don't you guys think this is a bit weird?"

"Not really. Power outages happen around here all the time." Kevin answered.

"Yeah but just as New Year's hits?" Sam asked. "And the weather isn't even bad outside."

"Well maybe some drunk idiot hit a telephone pole or something." Levi shrugged. "Wouldn't be the first time." He says, putting his cards away along with his Nintendo Switch.

"Wait, what are you doing?" Sam asked.

"Putting my stuff away?" Levi says. "Can't exactly play in the dark… plus I should really get going now. No offense or anything, but I have a hard time falling asleep on the couch."

"What about you, Kev?" Sam asked.

"Same honestly." Kevin nodded. "And to be honest, I kind of promised Brittany I'd go back after the ball drop."

"Okay." Sam nodded. "Well it was nice hanging out with you guys tonight." He says, putting his cards away as well.

Kevin went ahead and put away his cards and Nintendo Switch in his backpack. "Maybe next Sunday we could do a smash tournament."

"You know I hate playing smash." Sam clarified.

"Why though?" Levi asked. "You used to play it with us all the time."

"Because you two are way too competitive!" Sam exclaimed.

Kevin just laughed a bit. "Come on, Sam. You'd have a lot more fun if you practiced more."

"I think I'll just stick to Yu-Gi-Oh, thanks." Sam huffed.

Levi chuckled a bit. "Fair enough. Alright. See you later Sam." He says before he and Kevin leave Sam's room and head to the front door.

As Levi approached the door though, he paused and looked around the living room near the entrance. "What's up?" Kevin asked.

"Weren't Sam's mother and sister here before?" Levi asked, looking around. "And on top of that, I don't think I see any of the cats around either."

"Didn't Sam's sister go to a New Year's party?" Kevin asked.

"Well yeah, but his mom should've still been home… and the missing cats are still something to think about too." Levi says. Walking back into the kitchen. He tried calling for the cats by name but got no response. "This is really weird… I know at least one or two cats are always around in the kitchen."

"Yeah…" Kevin nodded. "Hey Sa–?" Kevin called out, about to call Sam. Only to be interrupted by a loud scream that came from his room.

"What the hell!?" Levi exclaimed. "Sam!" He shouted with clear concern on his face. However, as they approached Sam's room again, they quickly saw a red glow getting brighter and brighter.

"What the hell is that…!?" Kevin asked, hesitating to move closer. However, that didn't matter. Seemingly out of nowhere, a crimson fiery beast came flying out, roaring as it charged toward the two.

"Tell me I'm dreaming right now!" Levi shouted.

"Run!" Kevin shouted. They two turned to run. But in an instant without even having any real chance, the two were swallowed by the crimson beast.

"..."

"...ys."

"...uys w-ke up!"

"GUYS WAKE UP!"

"Gah!" Both Levi and Kevin yelped, panting hard as they sat up from where they were.

"Are you both okay?" Sam asked.

"I think I might be having a heart attack, but other than that I think I'm fine." Levi answered, panting hard.

"I just had a crazy dream…" Kevin groaned, holding his head.

"That wasn't a freaking dream!" Sam exclaimed.

"...Huh?" Levi and Kevin asked in unison.

"Just look around!" Sam exclaimed, pulling the two up from the ground.

"Dude, take it easy! What you even… talking… about…" Kevin stammered, his eyes widening as he took in his surroundings.

"What… the…" Levi stammered, doing the same. From where they were, it looked like they were in the middle of a city. But that wasn't the most confusing part. What really took them off guard was the sight of people dueling with duel monsters. But not on table top like they were accustomed to. These duels were happening in reality; duelists in several corners of the city, dueling with actual duel disks. "Okay now I'm almost positive this is a dream." He says before getting punched hard in that arm. "OW!"

"Did that hurt?" Kevin asked.

"YES!" Levi exclaimed.

"Not a dream then…" Kevin said, finding himself staring at some of the duels… until he got punched back in the arm by Levi. "OW! What the–!?"

"Oh you know, I just had to be sure." Levi says, giving Kevin a smug look before suddenly getting tackled by Kevin, getting put into a headlock. "GAAH!"

"Well you know, I just gotta be extra sure!" Kevin shouted, holding on tight.

"Guys, stop! People are staring at us!" Sam exclaimed, trying to pull the two apart.

"Hey, break it up!" They suddenly heard a voice call out to them. At the sudden shout, the three of them backed away from each other, looking toward a police officer who approached them. "What do you kids think you're doing?"

Sam just huffed, pinching the temples of his nose. "This is normal for them, officer. You don't have to worry."

"Well keep that crap at home." The officer said, looking clearly annoyed. "And shouldn't you kids be in school right now or something?"

"School?" Levi asked. "All of us are adults."

"Yeah. Right." The cop said, clearly not looking amused. "Look, I don't have time for this. Go home, and don't let me catch you two punks roughhousing again. I'm letting you go off with a warning this time, but next time I'm taking you to the station. Understood?"

"Yes officer…" The three of them nodded in agreement.

The cop just shook his head, walking away from the three, leaving said 'kids' rather confused. "Okay, I know we don't look that young. I have a goatee for crying out loud." Kevin said.

"Um, actually Kev? You don't" Sam clarified.

"What?..." Kevin looked at Sam in confusion.

"Actually yeah, now that he mentions it, you don't anymore." Levi added.

"What the hell?" Kevin asked, quickly taking out his smartphone, looking at himself on the camera app. "What? I look like I'm 15! Heck, all of us do!"

Levi and Sam quickly took out their phones to look at themselves on their camera as well.

"Oh god, I can't be 15 again! I don't want to retake my driving test. That was such a pain!" Levi exclaimed.

"Okay, I think that's the last thing we should be worried about." Sam chided. "Shouldn't we be more worried about where we are!?"

"And hell, why we're here." Kevin added.

Levi pondered for a moment and looked around. He gaze then fixated onto a newspaper sticking out of a trash bin. He walked over to the trash bin and took out the newspaper, looking through the pages. "Uh… guys? You might want to take a look at this." He says, walking back to his friends, showing them the newspaper. The two looked through the newspaper for a moment, until both of them stopped on the same thing.

January 1st, 2004

"2004…? 2004!?" Kevin shouted.

"Okay, calm down dude." Levi says.

"Calm down!?" Sam exclaimed. "How the hell can you be calm about this?"

"Look, freaking out isn't going to get us anywhere. We just need to think this through." Levi took a deep breath, thinking a bit. "Okay… judging from what we've seen so far, we can tell that we're in a place where duel monsters are basically real."

"Well, the duel disks and everything are real." Kevin said.

"No!: Sam shook his head. "Kevin, you do realize what this means if duel disks and everything are real, right? That means duel spirits are real too!"

"Exactly. And the year is 2004, which means… oh god. This is right before GX starts."

"Before or after?" Kevin asked.

"It's literally the first day of the year, so it has to be before." Levi clarified. He paused for a moment before quickly looking into his bag. He saw that he still had all of his cards, as well as his nintendo switch, dock, controls, and games. "It looks like all my stuff survived the trip too."

Kevin and Sam both checked their belongings as well. "Yeah, same." Kevin added.

"Me too." Sam nodded. "But I don't understand. Why were we brought here?"

Levi looked up at the sky for a moment, then looked at all the buildings. "Maybe… because we basically wished for it."

"What?" Kevin asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, think about it. We always wished for something similar like this to happen for years… Maybe someone was actually listening." Levi said, smirking a bit.

"But is that really the only reason?" Kevin asked.

"What other reason would there be?" Levi asked.

"I don't know… maybe help Jaden?" Kevin shrugged.

"Why would Jaden need our help?" Levi asked in confusion.

"Well to be fair, not everything was easy for him." Sam said.

"Yeah… maybe we could make things easier for him. We could even make his deck better with other heroes he doesn't usually use." Kevin says. "Like masked heroes for example."

"Oh god." Sam groaned. "Those are already a pain to face. Do we really wanna give those to the duelist with plot armor?"

"No, Yugi had plot armor in the original series with all those weird anime exclusive effects." Levi clarified. "GX at least followed the rules most of the time."

"Well if that's what we're doing, does that mean we're going to apply for Duel Academy?" Kevin asked.

"I'd say that's a no brainer." Levi smirked. "But if we're doing this, we gotta bring our A game. And remember that there are gonna be supernatural dangers that might wait for us too…"

"Guys?" Sam asked.

"Yeah?" Levi asked as the two turned to him.

"I think our first goal should be finding a place to live." Sam said.

"...Oh yeah." Kevin started. "We're basically broke."

Hey guys, thank you so much for reading the first chapter of the first story I've ever uploaded onto this site. This story is kind of a silly idea that I had to include myself and my friends into the world of GX, so I do hope you enjoy it.