JC slowly opened his eyes. He sat up and held his head. It was hurting. When the pain left slowly away, he started to look around where he was. He was sitting on the top of a skyscraper. He was wondering, how he came up to on the building.

He stood up and looked down on the city. This definitely didn’t look like Orlando. The whole town was built up. There were just a few trees, but no real green flats. JC rubbed his eyes. Maybe this was a bad dream.

He pinched himself and opened his eyes again, but he was still there. JC sighed. It didn’t make any sense to stay there, so he decided to go downstairs and to look at the town.

When he came down on the street, it was a little alley not far away from the main street, when a boy in the age of 16 came his way. He had such a weird thing in his hands.

“Damn, why am I always losing?” he mumbled to himself. JC raised an eyebrow. The guy looked at him and saw the confused sight in JC’s face.

Angrily he screamed: “I know that I’m a loser!” and threw the weird thing in his hands fitful into JC’s direction.

JC caught the thing and looked confused at it. It was something like a bangle to put on your hand, but what he should do exactly with that thing… he had no idea.

He decided to search for other people to ask where he was. He came to the main street and saw a couple of people, having the same weird thing on their hands. It had a round basement, it was white with blue glass in the middle, and it had to trapezoid tiling mounted. In the round basement was a rectangular whole, where all of them put cards into it.

JC looked at his one and saw that there were also cards in there. But he had no idea what to do. He stuck this thing at his arm, like the others did and looked for a nice guy to ask, what he was going to do with it.

When he made his way, he ran accidently into a big guy. He fell on the ground groaning out of the little pain he felt and looked if something fell on the floor.

The guy he ran into turned around and looked angrily at him.

“Hey you, watch out where you are going!”

“I’m sorry” JC said and stood up.

The guy felt kind of provoked and grabbed JC’s shirt. “Do you want to get cheeky?”

JC raised an eyebrow. “Ehmm… no, I…”

The guy threw him on the ground again. “It’s time to teach you a lesson, idiot.” He put his arm in front of his chest and said “It’s time for a duel!”

The weird thing on his arm activated. The blue glass started to glow and the tiling carted out. It shined and on a little display appeared the number 4000.

JC still lied on the floor, not knowing what to do.

“What are you waiting for?” The guy asked.

JC was about to stay up, when a smaller guy with purple hair and blond highlights ran to him and helped him to stay up.

“Thank you” JC mumbled.

The guy smiled at JC and said: “It’s ok. My name is Yugi.”

“My name is JC. Listen. This guy said it’s time for a duel, but to be honest, I have no idea what he meant.”

“He wants to play duel monsters with you.”

“Duel Monsters?”

Surprised Yugi looked at JC. “You don’t know Duel Monsters?”

JC shook his head. The guy JC ran into laughed out loud and screamed: “This idiot has a duel disc and isn’t able to play Duel Monsters.”

Some other people around laughed loud. Slowly a whole bunch of people were staying around them to watch the duel.

“And how should I play, when I’m not able to play it?”

Yugi smiled. “I will play this game for you…”

“No you won’t!” The guy said madly. “But I’m a nice person… the dwarf is allowed to help you.”

“Hey” Yugi protested, but the guy just laughed.

JC put a hand on Yugi’s shoulder and said: “Calm down… I need your help with this weird game…”

Yugi nodded and went with JC to the opposite side of the guy.

Yugi helped JC to activate his Duel Disc and his opposite screamed directly: “My Turn!”

“You have to draft five cards at the beginning.” JC nodded and pulled out five cards. He looked at them. He had three cards with weird monsters on it, one green card with a blue cross on it and one purple card which showed a woman with purple skin and blue hair and she had something weird in her hands.

“That are good cards for the beginning” Yugi whispered. JC smiled, but wasn’t sure, what he should think of this weird world.

“Did you finish your coffee party? I make my first move now!” The guy pulled out a sixth card and smiled brightly. “That’s an awesome start. I play the Red Archery Girl in attack mode and two hidden cards. That’s it.”

JC frightened, when he saw a real monster coming out of the ground. It was a giant mussel with eyes. It opened its mouth and a mermaid with green hair and bow appeared.

“What the hell is that?”

The guy on the other side laughed loudly. “This idiot is afraid of the hologram!”

Defensive Yugi screamed: “Stop laughing. It’s ok if you’ve never seen a projection of a monster!”

“Whatever… instead of giving me advices, you should make your move!”

JC starred at his cards, not knowing what to do. Yugi smiled at him and began to explain. He pointed at a monster. “This is a monster card. You can call it up and it appears on your field in front of you, like the Red Archery Girl did. These monsters have attack and defend points. Your aim is it to get a stronger monster than your opposing player. In Attack mode you can assail the opposing monster, in defending mode you can protect your life points. The life points are the 4000 points, which are shown on the duel disc. The duel ends, when one of both players doesn’t have any life points.”

JC nodded. “Sounds logical.”

Yugi smiled. “Yes” then he pointed at the green card with the cross on it. “This is a magic card. There are different types of it. Some amplify your monsters, some give your life points back. You can read down there what each card can do.” At least Yugi pointed at the purple card. “This is a trap card. Most of them activate, when the oppose monsters are attacking you. Some of them protect your monsters, some protect your life points. How each one is working is standing on each card too. If you want to play a magic or trap card directly, you play it open, otherwise you hide it. If it’s a trap card, which is destroying the attacking monster, you hid it, so your oppose enemy doesn’t know what is under the card. Same with the magic card. You can also play a monster card hidden, but just in defending mode. You can’t attack with a hidden monster. At least there is one rule you have to think of, when you want to play monster cards. Monster with 4 stars or less can be played without restrictions. But if a monster has five or six stars you have to offer up a monster to play it and monsters with 7 stars and more need two offers. Anyways I’m at your side the whole game. If there are still questions, I can answer them during the match.”

“Thank you.”

“No problem. Now drag your first card.”

JC nodded and pulled out the card on the top of the deck of cards. It was a monster card. Summoned Skull stood on the top of the card.

“This is a real good card!” Yugi said smiling.

His attacking points were about 2500 and his defending points about 1200.

“Yes, but it has 6 stars…” JC said disappointed.

“That’s ok” Yugi said smiling. “In your first move you mostly play a monster with four stars or less. Like this one.” Yugi pointed on another monster card in JC’s hands. It said ‘Obnoxious Celtic Guard’.

“That’s a good card to start with” Yugi said. “Play it in attack mode.”

JC nodded and played the card. Now on his side the monster appeared as a hologram. It was an elf in a green and brown armor and he held a big sword in his both hands. His attack points were about 1400, just like the points of the Red Archery Girl.

Yugi pointed on the trap card in JC’s hands. “Play it hidden and finish your move.”

JC nodded and did how Yugi said.

“Have you finally done your move? God, you are annoying me. I will conquer you as fast as possible.” He said with an evil grin on his face.

“I finished my move” JC said and the guy took a new card into his hands.

“My Grandma plays faster than you do” the guy laughed and looked at his new card. “Nice. I’m sacrificing my Red Archery Girl and play Jinzo!”

JC looked confused at the monster. It looked like a tall, baldness cyborg. His eyes, nose and mouth were hidden behind a green mask and he wore something like a robe.

“You think he is strong with his 2600 attack points? Then see his effect! As long as Jinzo is on my field, you can’t play any trap cards!”

JC swallowed.

“Suddenly Yugi seemed to change. From one to the other second he appeared with much more confidence and he had this look in his eyes, that both are going to make it, even if the situation right at the beginning was bad for them.

“Jinzo destroy the Obnoxious Celtic Guard!” the guy said and Jinzo attacked.

Desperately JC looked at his life point counter. Now he just had 2600 life points. One attack from this Jinzo thing and it was over…

“I finished my move.”

JC drew a new card. It said pot of greed. Unsure JC looked over to Yugi. He nodded. “Ehmm… I play Pot of Greed. Now I can draw two more cards.”

“Wow… that was the first of your moves that made sense.”

JC ignored the comment and took the two more cards into his hands. One of them was the Dark Magician and the other one Graceful Charity. JC looked at his cards and saw the card Monster Reborn.

“I hope this is working…” JC said. “I play Graceful Charity. I put two of my cards to the graveyard and can draw three more cards.”

“Your cards have to suck, if you need to draw so many new cards”

Again JC just ignored the comment. He took the Dark Magician and another monster and put it on the graveyard. Then he drew three new cards.

“Ehmm… now I play… Monster Reborn. And I want my Dark Magician to come back.”

Yugi smiled. “That was an awesome move.”

JC blushed a bit and took the card Dark Magician from the graveyard and played it in attack mode.

“Wait… you just had the Obnoxious Celtic Guard. When did your Dark Magician come to your graveyard?”

“When I played Graceful Charity.” JC answered confused.

“Whatever. Your magician is not strong enough to beat my Jinzo.”

“It doesn’t have to…” JC said hesitantly.

“What? Why?!”

JC showed Yugi one of his new drawn cards which said ‘Soul Taker’. “Can I play this card now?”

Surprised Yugi looked at JC. “Are you sure that you play this game the first time?”

JC nodded.

“You have a talent for this game. Yes you can play it.”

JC smiled. “Ok, I play Soul Taker. I can pick one of your monsters and destroy it and you lose 1000 life points.”

“That… that can’t be!”

JC played the card and the guy had to watch desperately, how his loving Jinzo got destroyed.

“Now I play the second of my three drawn cards Giant Trunade. Now all of our trap and magic cards go back in our hands.”

The guy just stared at JC, not knowing what to do.

“Now you definitely have no trap card on your side. Ehmm Yugi… can I attack his…”

“Yes you can. You can attack his life points directly.”

“Ok… yeah Dark Magician. Attack him.”

The guy had to watch how his life points dropped to 1500 points.

“Ehmm Yugi, Can I tribute the Dark Magician to play the Summoned Skull now?”

“No!” the guy screamed. “You just can play one monster per move!”

Yugi laughed. “But he never played a monster from his hand in this move.”

“What?”

“Yes, he played Monster Reborn to play the Dark Magician, so yes, he can do that.”

“Ok… Then I tribute my Dark Magician and play the Summoned Skull. He has 2500 attack points and you have no cards on your field. That means…”

“I lost this game” His opposite said shocked.

The hologram of the Summoned Skull, which looked like a demon who was just made of bones and muscles, attacked the guy, who sank on his knees, and the opposite life points went down on zero.

“You made it!” Yugi said happily. Now he seemed to be normal again. JC wondered, but didn’t ask for it.

The crowed started to whisper and JC just got a few words like “Awesome” and “No duel with him”.

Yugi went to the guy. “The Battle City Rules say that you must give JC your most rarely card and your Locator Card.”

The guy gave them to Yugi, when he heard someone screaming behind him. Yugi and JC turned around and saw how a tall blond guy with brown eyes ran in their direction, screaming: “He has stolen my Jinzo card!”

The guy used the situation, when Yugi didn’t pay attention and just ran away.

“Joey, what is wrong?” Yugi asked worried and went towards Joey, who was breathing hard.

“This guy has stolen my Jinzo and my Locator Card!”

Joey looked on Yugi’s hands and asked confused: “Hey, where did you get them?”

Yugi smiled. “JC won them for you”

“JC?”

Yugi pointed on JC and JC just winked shyly.

“Oh, ok.”

“When these are your cards, then take them back.”

“Thanks” Joey said smiling.

“What are these Locator Cards?”

Confused Joey looked at JC.

“Wait, you don’t have any of these?” Yugi asked.

JC shook his head. “Like I said this was my first game. And I actually just have this Duel Disc thing and the cards, because a little boy came into my direction, screamed at me that he was such a bad player and gave it to me.”

Joey raised an eyebrow. “Show me the cards.”

JC gave him the cards and was smiling, when he heard Joey fangirling about all these cards.

Yugi watched with him. “I don’t know what the guy’s problem was. This is a real good deck.”

“Yeah and so many rarely cards in there. Even the Black Magician and the Magician of Black Chaos!”

“What?” Yugi asked surprised and watched the card with Joey.

“JC came to both guys and looked with them. “Is that a good card?”

“A good card?” Joey asked surprised. “This is the card Yugi used to beat Pegasus!”

“Who is that?” JC asked.

“Ehmm… just the inventor of Duel Monsters?” Joey went down to Yugi. “Where did you drag up this guy?”

Yugi laughed. “But Joey is right, I don’t know much about you JC. Tell us something.”

“If I would tell you, you won’t believe me anyways…”

Joey and Yugi raised an eyebrow.

“Try to…”

“Ehmm… ok. Please try to believe me, even if it sounds unbelievable.”

Joey and Yugi nodded. All three guys went into a side street and when nobody could listen, JC started to tell the whole story.

Yugi and Joey both looked at each other with a serious expression on their face.

“Sounds like this weird realm of the shades, if you ask me.”

Yugi nodded. “This was Marik’s work. But why did he take a guy from another place?”

JC sighed. “Actually I have another theory. You said this Duel Monsters game is popular on the whole world, but I have never heard of this. Maybe we should think of that I am not in a different place, maybe I am in another dimension… Like this realm of the shades is another dimension too as you said.”

“That could be… but how can we get you back?”

JC sighed. “I have no idea… I guess I have to find this Marik and ask him for letting me go back to my universe.”

“Yes” Yugi said. “And we want to find this Marik too. So you are not alone.”

JC smiled. “Thank you guys.”

“What are friends for?” Yugi said smiling.