Flash Sentry was at the headquarters of Sector Security, pleading with the chief. “Let me go after him again!” he said. “He’s up to something, and I can catch him in the act! I just need your authorization!”
The chief frowned. “And how can I be sure that you don’t just want to settle your grudge with him?” he asked. “You are infamously petty about these things, Officer Sentry.”
“Why else would he have that D-Wheel?” Flash asked. “Just give me one chance.”
After a moment of silent consideration, the chief nodded. “Very well. But I’m giving your deck an upgrade for this mission,” he said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a few Duel Monsters cards.
Flash took the cards and gasped quietly. “Wow… these cards are incredible…” He smirked as he looked back up at the chief. “They’re perfect. I won’t fail you, sir. This time, Soarin is going down.”
Actually, Soarin was going over the data from his D-Wheel’s tests at the moment. “Everything is stable,” he said when he had concluded examining the numbers and charts on the computer screen. “And velocity is where we need it to be. Tonight is going to be the night we pull this off, I can feel it.”
Thunderlane grinned. “Great. You can finally get back the card and D-Wheel.”
“We should go over the plan one more time,” Clear Skies said, pulling up maps and schematics of the Satellite area on another screen. He pointed to a spot near the shore, at the base of an unfinished bridge. “The pipeline where all the junk from the city comes in has an opening here. It constantly has trash going through it, except for a short window of time at exactly midnight when they shut it down for maintenance. It’s a small window, so you have to move fast. We’ll be tracking you the whole way to make sure you get through, but we’ll lose radio connection once you reach the city.”
Soarin nodded in confirmation. “Right. But before I go, I wanna thank you all for helping me every step of the way.”
“Hey, it was no sweat,” said Thunderlane. “Spitfire wronged all of us. We want this just as much as you do.”
Rumble pulled something out of his jacket and handed it to Soarin. “Let me help one last time,” he said. “Take this as a good luck charm.”
Soarin looked at the card in surprise. “The Calculator? But you love that card.”
“That’s why I’m giving it to you,” said Rumble. “So a part of me can be by your side when you win.”
There was a moment of hesitation. Then Soarin took the card and slipped it into his deck with a smile. “I’ll make sure it gets put to good use,” he promised, putting his helmet on. “I’ll see you when this is over.” He hopped on his D-Wheel and rode off toward the pipeline.
But he had no idea that he was being followed. Flash was scanning for active D-Wheels nearby, and he got a blip on his screen. “I have you now, Satellite scum.”
It was nearly midnight when Soarin arrived at the pipeline. He had only a minute before the maintenance began. As he watched, the flow of trash from the opening soon stopped. It was now or never. He went full throttle and zoomed forward. “I’m in,” he said into the headset equipped into his helmet.
“Excellent. It should be smooth sailing from here,” Clear Skies replied.
“Wait. We have something else on the radar,” said Thunderlane. “It’s right behind you.” Then there was nothing but static. They had lost contact.
Soarin glanced over his shoulder and groaned. Flash was in hot pursuit. “Pull over and surrender, Soarin!” he ordered. “It’s forbidden for Satellites to enter the city!”
“I don’t have the time or patience to deal with you right now,” Soarin said, facing forward again and continuing on.
Flash smirked and tapped a button on his D-Wheel’s console. “I’m activating the field spell Speed World Accel!”
“Duel mode on. Autopilot standing by,” the AI voice said from both machines. “Speed Cards dispersed.”
Soarin gasped as the notice appeared on his screen. “What?! You forced activation?”
“That’s right!” Flash said. “And this time, you won’t be getting away from me!”
Soarin sighed. “I guess I don’t have a choice. I’ll just have to defeat you within the time limit.”
“TURBO DUEL! ACCELERATION!”
Soarin
LP: 4000; Hand: 5; Speed Counters: 0
Flash Sentry
LP: 4000; Hand: 5; Speed Counters: 0
“I’ll take the first turn,” said Soarin. “And with it, I’ll put a monster facedown in defense mode!”
Flash chuckled. “Is that all? I would say I expected more from you, but that would be a lie,” he taunted.
Soarin scowled. “I set one card. Turn end.”
Soarin
LP: 4000; Hand: 3; Speed Counters: 1
Flash Sentry
LP: 4000; Hand: 5; Speed Counters: 1
“And now it’s my draw!” Flash declared, pulling the top card out from his deck. A wicked grin dominated his features when he saw that it was one of the cards he had gotten from the chief. “I summon Goblindburg!”
{Goblindburg
Lv4; 1400 ATK; 0 DEF}
Soarin looked at the red plane being piloted by a goblin in confusion, especially perplexed by the crate it was carrying. “This is a lot different from your usual warriors,” he observed.
“Make no mistake, Goblindburg is as much a warrior as every other monster in my deck,” said Flash. “I activate his special ability! When this card is normal summoned, I can change him to defense mode and Special Summon a level four or lower monster from my hand! And I choose Rose, Warrior of Revenge!” Goblindburg’s crate broke open. A woman with red hair, a tight black combat suit, and a white scarf jumped out of it and climbed to stand on the plane’s wings, drawing her sword.
{Rose, Warrior of Revenge
Lv4; 1600 ATK; 600 DEF}
“Two level fours. Trying to bring out Excalibur again?” Soarin guessed.
“Not this time,” Flash corrected. “You already proved that my old strategy won’t quite cut it, so I’m trying something a little different. Level four Rose, Warrior of Revenge tunes level four Goblindburg!”
Soarin gulped. “Say what?!”
Rose jumped into the air and formed four green tuning rings, and Goblindburg flew into position, becoming four stars. “The warrior whose fist shatters mountains!” Flash chanted. “My monsters synchronize their energies now, calling upon your immense strength to put my enemies in their place!” A beam shot through the rings. “I Synchro Summon! Come to the field! Colossal Fighter!”
{Colossal Fighter
Lv8; 2800 ATK; 1000 DEF}
Soarin stared as a monster that really lived up to its name emerged from the light. The thing was huge, at least ten feet tall, and its entire body was covered in off white metal plating. There were some smooth, blue, gem-like protrusions on its shoulders, wrists, and chest, and its eyes were covered by an emerald green visor. “Well that’s new.”
“And soon, you’ll be old news,” said Flash. “Not only is Colossal Fighter powerful to begin with, but he gains a hundred extra attack points for every warrior-type monster in our Graveyards.”
“And you used two warriors to Synchro Summon it,” Soarin remembered as the monster’s attack points increased to 3000.
“And it’s just gonna keep getting stronger,” Flash replied, smirking confidently. “Go, attack the facedown monster! Colossal crashdown!” His giant warrior rammed its fist into the card, but when it flipped up, it was revealed to be a teal creature with sea-foam-colored wings.
{Shield Wing
Lv2; 0 ATK; 900 DEF}
“It won’t be that easy,” said Soarin. “My Shield Wing can’t be destroyed by battle twice per turn.”
“It can’t keep you guarded forever,” said Flash. “I end my turn with a facedown.”
Soarin
LP: 4000; Hand: 3; Speed Counters: 2
Flash Sentry
LP: 4000; Hand: 3; Speed Counters: 2
Soarin started his draw phase and smiled when he saw his Junk Synchron. “I’m gonna need more of a boost if I want to take his monster down,” he said, zooming forward to grab a Speed Card. Flash tried to reach it first, but the officer was a split second too late. “I’m activating a Speed Card! Flock Together! This lets me target a monster on my field with a level, pay speed counters equal to that level, and Special Summon a monster of the same level from my deck! I’m bringing out The Calculator!” A small red robot with buttons on its chest and a numerical display for a face emerged on the field next to his Shield Wing, but his D-Wheel slowed down a bit with fewer speed counters. Even so, he was sure Rumble was excited about this card being summoned.
{The Calculator
Lv2; ??? ATK; 0 DEF}
Flash blinked. “The hell is that thing supposed to do?”
“Quite a lot, actually,” Soarin answered as his monster typed away at its own buttons. “The Calculator’s attack points are equal to the total levels of all monsters on my field times 300!”
“And what is that supposed to help you accomplish?” Flash asked.
“It may not be strong enough on its own, but it’ll help me defeat your Colossal Fighter!” Soarin declared. “I summon the tuner monster Junk Synchron!”
{Junk Synchron
Lv3; 1300 ATK; 500 DEF}
“That’s a total of seven levels on your field, so your Calculator has 2100 attack points,” Flash counted. “But I think I know where this is going.”
“Level three Junk Synchron tunes level two Shield Wing!” Soarin declared, chanting as his tuner formed its three rings and Shield Wing turned into two stars as it flew through them. “The stars come together to form a new power! Become the light that shows the way!” he said as a bright light flashed. “I Synchro Summon! Come forth! Junk Warrior!”
{Junk Warrior
Lv5; 2300 ATK; 1300 DEF}
“Your tuner was a warrior monster, so Colossal Fighter has 3100 attack now,” said Flash.
“But don’t forget Junk Warrior’s special ability!” Soarin shot back. “The Calculator is level two, and he’s about to gain all 2100 of those attack points, boosting him up to 4400! Attack Colossal Fighter with scrap fist!” His monster charged forward and jabbed its foe in the stomach, creating a tangible shockwave and kicking up a massive cloud of dust. “There. Now The Calculator is free to hit you directly.” As he was about to declare the attack, though, the dust cleared, showing that Colossal Fighter was still standing. “But how?”
Flash grinned tauntingly. “Did you really think it would be that easy? Colossal Fighter embodies the warrior spirit. Whenever he’s destroyed by battle, he can revive one warrior-type monster from the Graveyard, including himself.”
Soarin growled in frustration. “Damn, I thought I had you. I end my turn there,” he finished.
Soarin
LP: 4000; Hand: 3; Speed Counters: 1
Flash Sentry
LP: 2700; Hand: 3; Speed Counters: 2
“My turn!” Flash shouted. He smirked as he saw what he drew. “I activate the spell card Twin Twisters! By discarding one card from my hand, I can destroy up to two spell or trap cards on the field! I’ll discard Heroic Challenger- Extra Sword to take out your facedown!”
Soarin gasped. “No! My Scrap-Iron Scarecrow!” he cried. “And with another warrior in the grave, that’s just more strength for his monster…”
“And he won’t be stopping at 3200!” Flash proclaimed. “I activate my trap card Needlebug Nest to send the top five cards of my deck to the Graveyard!” He took the five cards and smirked as he looked over them. “Four more warriors, meaning Colossal Fighter shoots up to 3600!” After doing that, he revved his engine and grabbed a Speed Card a few feet ahead of Soarin. “A Speed Trap,” he observed. “Reduction. But this one works in my favor. I send the top three cards of my deck to the grave and take 200 damage for each monster sent.”
Soarin sighed. “He’s just gonna keep powering up…!” he said in frustration.
“And it’s worth the 400 damage I have to take from this,” Flash added as his monster powered up even more. “Now I activate Pot of Duality! This lets me check the top three cards of my deck, add one of them to my hand, and shuffle the rest back into the deck! The downside is I can’t Special Summon this turn.” He picked up the first card. “Dark Blade.” Then the second. “Mystical Space Typhoon.” And the third. “And this is the one I’ll take. Magnum Shield!”
“Oh no!” Soarin gasped.
“I’m equipping the Magnum Shield to my Colossal Fighter!” Flash declared, slapping the card down as his monster grabbed a red and gold shield seemingly out of nowhere. “A warrior equipped with this card while in attack mode gains attack points equal to its original defense, giving him a grand total of 4800!” He held up the last card in his hand. “And now, I normal summon Copycat!” A magician with a hand mirror appeared and drifted alongside the D-Wheel.
{Copycat
Lv1; 0 ATK; 0 DEF}
“When this guy is summoned, he gains the original attack and defense of one of your monsters, and I choose Junk Warrior!” His monster morphed into an off-color version of Soarin’s Synchro.
“Both my monsters are going down if I can’t do something,” Soarin muttered, looking over the three cards he held.
Flash grinned. “Colossal Fighter, take out his Junk Warrior with colossal crashdown!” he ordered, prompting his monster to ram a fist into its target’s face. “And Copycat, take down The Calculator! Without all those levels on the field, it’s down to 600 attack points!”
Soarin grunted and swerved as he took the damage. “This is bad…! And with Junk Warrior in the grave, that hulk just gets even stronger.”
“I keep telling you, you’re just Satellite garbage,” said Flash. “You will face justice soon enough. Turn end.”
Soarin
LP: 1900; Hand: 3; Speed Counters: 1
Flash Sentry
LP: 2300; Hand: 0; Speed Counters: 3
“Call me garbage one more time…!” Soarin growled. “But it changes nothing! Because the only garbage I see here is you!” he accused. “You call yourself a man of justice and law, but all you ever do is abuse your authority to walk all over the little guy and hurt people less fortunate than you are! And I’m sick and tired of people like that! You’re no man of justice. You’re not even an honorable Duelist! Faust as my witness, I’ll bring you down!”
Flash let out an amused laugh. “How do you expect to do that? You’re running on less than half your Life Points and have no cards on your field!”
“I just have to trust in my cards, and they’ll help me win,” said Soarin, positioning his hand over his deck. “Here we go. I… DRAAAAAAAAAW!” He whipped the card out with incredible force, looked over at it, then slowly turned it over to see what he got… and grinned confidently. “My deck came through for me. By discarding a monster from my hand, I can Special Summon my Quickdraw Synchron in defense mode!” A medium-sized robot with a tattered cape, a cowboy hat, and a pistol appeared in a dim flash of light. “And the monster I discarded was Quillbolt Hedgehog! This little fella can revive himself if I control a tuner monster!” The next monster was a little orange hedgehog with screws and bolts instead of regular quills. “Unfortunately, he’s banished when he leaves the field if he was summoned this way.”
{Quickdraw Synchron
Lv5; 700 ATK; 1400 DEF}
{Quillbolt Hedgehog
Lv2; 800 ATK; 800 DEF}
“Just building up your defenses, huh?” Flash asked. “You’re running away from the inevitable, Soarin! You already lost your precious Junk Warrior, and you couldn’t tune for it with this setup even if you hadn’t!”
“You assume that it’s my only Synchro monster.”
Flash paused. “Wait what?”
“Normally, I would need Junk Synchron to bring out this monster, but Quickdraw can substitute any Synchron when he’s used for a Synchro Summon,” Soarin said. “Now! Level five Quickdraw Synchron tunes level two Quillbolt Hedgehog!” Quickdraw drifted into the air, forming five rings to house the two stars that Quillbolt turned into. “Gathering roars turn into an echoing arrow which tears through the sky! Become the path its light shines upon!” Soarin shouted as a beam shot through the light formation. “I Synchro Summon! Take aim! Junk Archer!”
{Junk Archer
Lv7; 2300 ATK; 2000 DEF}
“More random trash?” Flash snorted as the orange and white mechanical bowman formed from the light. “Learn your lesson already. My monster is too powerful.”
“Then I’ll have to get rid of it,” said Soarin. “But first, I play Monster Reborn to bring back The Calculator! With nine levels on my field now, he’ll have 2700 attack points!” The little monster revived and typed out its current attack power on its chest. Then Soarin pointed at the enormous monster his opponent had out. “I’m activating Junk Archer’s special ability! Until the end of the turn, your Colossal Fighter… is banished!”
“What?!”
“Dimension shot!”
Flash stared as Soarin’s monster pulled back the string of its bow and let its shot fly. The arrow pierced Colossal Fighter through the chest and seemed to form a black hole at the point of contact, sucking the monster into the void. “N-no way!”
“Now,” Soarin continued. “I summon Zero Gardna!”
{Zero Gardna
Lv4; 0 ATK; 0 DEF}
“What’s the point of that?” Flash wondered.
“This. By tributing Zero Gardna, my monsters can’t be destroyed this turn!” Soarin answered. “So now it won’t be a crash when Junk Archer attacks your Copycat! Scrap arrow!”
“It can still attack when it uses that effect?!” Flash said incredulously as his last remaining monster was impaled by another arrow.
“This next hit is for you, Rumble!” Soarin shouted. “Calculator, attack Flash directly! Subtract the rest of his Life Points with a math masher!” His monster typed a few more numbers and charged forward, its fist sparking with electricity, punching the officers D-Wheel.
Winner: Soarin
Flash snarled irritably as his automatic breaks activated. “This can’t be real! How did I lose to you again?!”
“That’s just how the cookie crumbles,” Soarin taunted as he sped closer to the end of the pipeline. He only had a few seconds left. Just as he made it through, the hatch started closing, and he threw one last taunt over his shoulder. “Have fun at the family reunion that’s about to happen!”
Flash raised an eyebrow in confusion. “Family reunion? What?”
“WARNING! MAINTENANCE PERIOD IS NOW ENDING!” a loud machine voice echoed throughout the pipe as the exit slammed shut. “FUNCTION WILL NOW RESUME NORMALLY! PLEASE STAND CLEAR OF THE PIPE!”
Hatches began to open in the walls, each one spilling out a river of junk. Flash’s eyes widened when he realized that it was all heading right for him. “No!” he shouted as he and his D-Wheel were swept away by the refuse. “NO! NOOOOOOOOOO!”
In the workshop back in Satellite, Soarin’s friends were excited beyond belief. “He made it through!” Thunderlane and Clear Skies cheered. “Victory is ours!”
Rumble smiled as he watched the blip still moving on the screen. “You did it, Soarin. And with my card, too. Now give her hell.”
Later in the city, Soarin was driving through the streets, a determined frown creasing his features. This was step one down. There was still one last thing to do.
“So you finally made it,” a very familiar voice said.
Soarin screeched to a halt and looked to where the voice came from. Just as he expected, Spitfire was standing next to her own D-Wheel on a nearby overpass, apparently taking a break during one of her late night rides. “And you know what I want, Spitfire,” he said, scowling up at her.
Spitfire smirked and removed her helmet, revealing her spiky, flame-colored hair. “This day has been a long time coming for both of us.”