Hi! This is my very first story on this website, soooo... yay! I'm just assuming that all the characters in Duel Monsters were killed in Zero Reverse, just so I don't have an old version of Yugi or Kaiba running into a teen version of themselves. And it can't be too far in the future, because Officer Trudge and that bully at the very beginning of Yu-Gi-Oh are the same person. I think. They look too much alike for it to be a coincidence. Anyway, I haven't decided if I'm going to have any couples in here, but just in case here are the pairings there would be if I did: YuseixAkiza, JackxCarly, Joey xMai, LunaxRally, and I've probably forgotten someone but I'll put it in if I remember. Constructive criticism is thought about, flames are ignored. Thanks!

Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! or Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's.

The Crimson Dragon's Call

Chapter 1

"Oh, come on!" Yusei swore, pushing himself out from under his runner and looking over it, trying to see if he'd done anything wrong. It looked like it was in perfectly good shape, which only served as a cause for the duelist to become even more frustrated. It wouldn't start. No matter what he tried, fixed, replaced, or cleaned, the bike he had been through so much with refused to go. It'd been over a week, and he was just lucky that their next WRGP duel was still another week away.

"Still not working? You've been down here all night." An orange-haired man came down the stairs into the garage, yawning.

"No," Yusei said, sighing and running a hand through his hair. "I don't know what's wrong with it. Everything should be fine, but whatever isn't working is really well-hidden."

"Jack's runner wouldn't start yesterday," the ginger said matter-of-factly. "Think it's the same thing?"

"I have no idea. He didn't ask me to look at it. What about yours, Crow?" Yusei asked.

"So far, it's been fine. Akiza's is working, too. But if neither you nor Bruno could find anything wrong, then we're in trouble," Crow answered, making his way around Yusei's runner to his own. He slid into the seat and started it—or tried to. It didn't even make a sound.

"Are you kidding me?!" Crow gave a frustrated groan. "Not my baby!"

"Let me look," Yusei offered, though he had a sinking feeling he wouldn't find anything. Even so, he took his tools and slid under Crow's runner. Everything was in perfect condition. He spent a good twenty minutes searching, but there wasn't anything he could find that needed fixing.

"Sorry, Crow. Can't find anything," Yusei finally said, standing up and dusting himself off.

"It can't just be a coincidence. First yours, then Jack's, then mine. All three main duelists of Team 5D's. Someone's sabotaging us! Oh, when I find that-"

"Crow!" Yusei cut him off before he could say anything shocking. "I've been down here almost all week. Something that is this hard to find would take a long time to get out, and I honestly don't know anything that could be sabotaged. I'd have caught them. I was down here all night, and yours just stopped working. No one could have come down here in that time."

"So… what's stopping the runners?"

"I have no idea. I just hope I can fix it in time for our next duel."

"Yusei!" Footsteps pattered down the ramp, and the twins, Leo and Luna, stood before the two duelists.

"Leo, Luna. What's going on?" Yusei asked.

"Akiza's runner is broken!" Leo announced.

Crow groaned and dropped his head into his hands. "We're done for!"

"Broken?" Yusei asked. "How?"

"I was with them last night. I tried to start it this morning, but it didn't even make a sound," a new voice said. A burgundy-haired woman was making her way down the ramp.

"Oh, not you, too, Akiza!" Crow wailed dramatically.

"You already knew that mine hasn't been starting for the past week. Jack's broke down yesterday, and Crow's wouldn't start this morning," Yusei told her. "I can't find a single thing wrong, and neither can Bruno."

"There's nothing wrong with Jack's, as far as I can see, either." Another made their way down the stairs. He had blue hair, his jacket rolled up to his elbows and grease on his hands.

"This can't just be a coincidence," Luna said. "Within a week, all your runners just stop working!"

Yusei just shrugged. "I really don't know, Luna."

…..

Seto Kaiba frowned. Yet another call had come through. Duel disks- Kaiba Corp. duel disks were malfunctioning all over the world. Monsters would flicker into life, and then disappear and the disk would shut down, or it just wouldn't work in the first place. Even his own was experiencing trouble, and by conversations he picked up at school, both Yugi and Joey were having trouble with theirs. It was odd, this new development. Everything had been working smoothly, until about a week before. Then the tech just started going out in the masses. None of the top technicians could find anything wrong, and even Kaiba himself hadn't been able to see anything that wasn't perfect. Even his own wouldn't call forth monsters. And though he had spent many hours hunched over it in his office, everything looked pristine and perfect. He didn't know what was wrong. And Seto Kaiba hated not knowing something.

"Hey, Joey!"

Joey turned to see a pretty blonde approaching him. "Oh, hey Mai. What's up?"

"My duel disk just suddenly stopped working," Mai answered. "It's the strangest thing. I was in the middle of beating someone, and then both of our monsters just disappeared and the disk shut down. Has that happened to you?"

Joey nodded. "Me and Yug both can't duel with our duel disks. Heck, Kaiba hasn't challenged Yami in so long I'm startin' to think that maybe something's wrong with his."

"It's weird," Mai agreed. "I wonder what happened. They just started malfunctioning all at once. It's been all over the news. Everyone's talking about it."

"And no one can figure out why."

Joey and Mai turned to see a familiar face behind them.

"Yami! Yours is still broken?" Joey asked.

The ancient pharaoh nodded. "Neither Yugi nor I can find anything wrong with it."

"I wonder why," Mai said aloud.

To that, no one had an answer.

On Friday night, Téa, Joey, Tristan, Mai, and Yugi were at the game shop. They had staged a small dueling tournament (without duel disks, of course). Yugi and Yami alternated control, and every time it was won by one of them.

"Oh, that's it!" Joey frowned as Yugi's Dark Magician blasted away the rest of his life points. The duels between the two best friends always took the longest, and were always the closest. In this particular duel, Yugi was down to his last hundred life points when he finally managed to beat Joey. The short teen laughed.

"What's it?" he asked, grinning.

"I can't beat you," the blond mumbled, turning over the top card on his deck out of curiosity. His eyes bulged. "Wha-? I could've turned the whole thing around with this if I had drawn it one turn ago!"

Yugi looked over at the card in his friend's hand. It was Graceful Dice. He had already used Skull Dice and depleted Dark Magician's attack points by two hundred that turn, still leaving him with more than Panther Warrior, but paired with Graceful Dice, he could've bumped his monster's attack points up. If he was lucky, he could've surpassed Dark Magician's and maybe even won.

Yugi laughed again. "The universe is not on your side today, Joey."

Joey started to reply, but was cut off by a strange roar. A red flash illuminated the room, and a shape took form. It looked huge, its body curled around the walls and surrounding the group.

"What is that thing?" Mai asked, echoing the thoughts of everyone present.

It was a red dragon, its body seeming to flicker and move, its glowing yellow eyes fixed on the group.

I am the Crimson Dragon.

"What do want with us?" Yugi asked, his gaze fixed on the beast in his living room.

A new threat is coming, greater than any my chosen Signers have faced. They need your help. Come with me.