Soarin glared up at Spitfire and her D-Wheel. It was a lot different from the one she had taken two years ago, having only a single large wheel that went around the whole machine like a ring. “Where’s the D-Wheel you stole from us?” he asked.
“That hunk of junk?” Spitfire said, smirking. “It broke down ages ago. You can probably still find its remains if you head back to Satellite right now.”
“And my card?” Soarin said through gritted teeth.
Spitfire reached into the deck box strapped to her belt and withdrew Stardust Dragon from it. “Got your dragon right here,” she said, holding it up for him to see. “And I should really thank you. Without Stardust, I would never have gotten this far.”
“Well, I came here to take it back,” Soarin told her.
“Sorry, but the Queen doesn’t just give out free cards,” Spitfire replied, shaking her head and putting the card back in her deck box. “If you want it so bad, you’ll have to beat me in a Duel.”
Soarin smirked. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
“Then meet me at the Turbo Duel stadium in ten,” Spitfire said. She donned her helmet, hopped onto her D-Wheel, and zoomed off down the road.
“I’ll be there,” Soarin said to himself, riding after her.
Later, they were both positioned at the stadium’s starting line, ready for the Duel that had been inevitable for two years.
“Here we are,” Spitfire muttered. “Two former friends reunited, about to play a card game on their motorcycles. I hope you brought your best, because I won’t hold anything back.”
“You better not. I’ve prepared too much for you to take pity on me,” Soarin replied.
“Then let’s do this,” said Spitfire, pressing a button on her D-Wheel. “I’m activating Speed World Accel!”
“Duel mode on. Autopilot standing by,” the AI said as the countdown was projected in front of the riders. “Speed Cards dispersed.”
“Three…” Soarin counted under his breath. “Two… One.”
“TURBO DUEL! ACCELERATION!” And they sped down the track.
Spitfire
LP: 4000; Hand: 5; Speed Counters: 0
Soarin
LP: 4000; Hand: 5; Speed Counters: 0
“The Queen of the Course always goes first!” Spitfire proclaimed. “I summon Twin Sword Marauder in attack mode!” A masked warrior with a sword strapped to each wrist started running alongside her D-Wheel.
{Twin Sword Marauder
Lv4; 1600 ATK; 1000 DEF}
Soarin smirked. “Same old cards, I see.”
“I made a few upgrades,” Spitfire replied. “But before you see them, I’ll use another old favorite. Axe of Despair! This equips to my Marauder, giving him a thousand extra attack points!” A demonic axe appeared in the air, and her monster reached out to grab it. “I set one card facedown. Turn end.”
Spitfire
LP: 4000; Hand: 2; Speed Counters: 1
Soarin
LP: 4000; Hand: 5; Speed Counters: 1
“My turn!” Soarin shouted, drawing a card. “I activate the spell card Tuning! This lets me add a Synchron from my deck to my hand, then send the top card of my deck to the grave! I’m taking the good old Junk Synchron! Then I set a card and activate De-Spell to take out your Axe of Despair!”
Spitfire gasped as her monster’s weapon shattered. “I could tribute my monster to put that back on top of my deck, but I want defenses,” she muttered.
“Now, I summon Junk Synchron and activate his special ability!” Soarin declared. “The card I milled with Tuning was the level two monster Quillbolt Hedgehog, so he revives it in defense mode with its effects negated!”
{Junk Synchron
Lv3; 1300 ATK; 500 DEF}
{Quillbolt Hedgehog
Lv2; 800 ATK; 800 DEF}
“I see what’s going on here,” Spitfire grunted. “You’re bringing out your old pal.”
“Level three Junk Synchron tunes level two Quillbolt Hedgehog!” Soarin continued as his monsters moved into position to prepare for their tuning. “The stars come together to form a new power! Become the light that shows the way!” he said as the beam through the rings finalized his summon. “I Synchro Summon! Come forth! Junk Warrior!”
{Junk Warrior
Lv5; 2300 ATK; 1300 DEF}
Spitfire revved her engine, getting ahead of her opponent to look for a Speed Card. She couldn’t be down a monster already.
“Junk Warrior, attack Twin Sword Marauder!” Soarin commanded. His monster jumped toward its target, bringing its fist forward with an earth-shaking punch. “I’ll take this early lead and end my turn.”
Spitfire
LP: 3300; Hand: 2; Speed Counters: 2
Soarin
LP: 4000; Hand: 3; Speed Counters: 2
“My turn!” Spitfire growled. She drew a card and kept pushing her vehicle forward, finally spotting a Speed Card. Smirking, she leaned to the side and grabbed it as she passed. “Nice one, and just what I need. But first, I’ll Special Summon Vice Dragon from my hand since I have no monsters out, but its attack and defense are cut in half!”
{Vice Dragon
Lv5; 2000 ATK; 2400 DEF}
“Now, I’m activating the Speed Card Rev Revival! I can summon a monster from my Graveyard whose attack points are less than or equal to a thousand times my speed counters! Welcome back, Twin Sword Marauder!” Her monster jumped out of a dark portal and picked up its previous pace. “Now I activate my trap card Nightmare Archfiends! By tributing a monster, I can put three nightmare fiend tokens on your field!” Vice Dragon disappeared and three shadows appeared on Soarin’s field in defense mode.
{Nightmare fiend token
Lv6; 2000 ATK; 2000 DEF}
Soarin frowned. “That’s new. Why activate it if it doesn’t help you?”
“It actually helps me a lot,” Spitfire explained. “Every time a nightmare fiend token is destroyed, its controller takes 800 points of damage. And I have yet to normal summon, so I’ll bring out the tuner monster Delta Flyer!” She slapped the card down on her D-Wheel’s card tray, and a thin dragon with a golden body and white wings descended from the sky.
{Delta Flyer
Lv3; 1500 ATK; 900 DEF}
“You’re going for a level seven,” Soarin added up. “Too bad you can’t bust out your ace yet.”
“Guess again!” said Spitfire. “I activate Delta Flyer’s special ability! Once per turn, he can increase the level of one monster on the field other than himself by one! Give a star to your ally!” A single star drifted around the marauder before phasing into its chest, causing a dim aura to surround it.
Soarin gulped. “Five and three…”
“Yes! I tune level three Delta Flyer to level five Twin Sword Marauder!” Spitfire declared. Delta Flyer flapped its wings and flew high above the track before coming back down as three green rings around the Marauder, who became five stars. “The heartbeat of the Queen forms a line here! Witness the power of the rumbling heavens!” A roar echoed across the stadium as a blinding light shot through the rings. “I Synchro Summon! Behold, the avatar of my soul! Red Dragon Archfiend!” And her signature dragon appeared, its black and red scales gleaming, its body wreathed in flames.
{Red Dragon Archfiend
Lv8; 3000 ATK; 2000 DEF}
“This could be bad,” Soarin whispered to himself. “I need to find a way to counter that.”
“Red Dragon Archfiend, attack a nightmare fiend token! Absolute powerforce!” Spitfire commanded. “And when this card attacks a monster that’s in defense mode, all your defense-position monsters are destroyed! You’ll lose all the tokens and take 2400 points of damage!”
“I activate the special ability of the Junkuriboh in my hand!” Soarin said as his tokens were destroyed. A small metal creature appeared to shield him from the blast. “By sending this card from my hand to the grave, I negate an effect that would inflict damage to me!”
Spitfire snarled. “You’re just delaying your defeat, Soarin! I’ll end my turn with a facedown.”
Spitfire
LP: 3300; Hand: 0; Speed Counters: 3
Soarin
LP: 4000; Hand: 2; Speed Counters: 3
Soarin took a deep breath, then drew his next card. “My turn!” He zoomed ahead and snatched a Speed Card. “I activate Accel Draw! By paying two speed counters, I can draw two cards!” Looking over his cards, he made a decision about his next play. “I’ll use the spell card Double Summon, allowing me to bring out my Drill Synchron and Level Eater!” Two monsters appeared on the field: A round robot with tank treads and drills, and a small red bug with a yellow star on its back.
{Drill Synchron
Lv3; 800 ATK; 300 DEF}
{Level Eater
Lv1; 600 ATK; 0 DEF}
Spitfire frowned. “Never seen that Synchron before.”
“It’s still a tuner like the rest of them,” said Soarin. “So Quillbolt Hedgehog can revive itself! Since it wasn’t Special Summoned by its own effect, it went back to the Graveyard! And now, level three Drill Synchron tunes level one Level Eater and level two Quillbolt Hedgehog!” His small monster came back before turning into stars alongside Level Eater, then drifted into the rings formed by Drill Synchron. "Gathering power will turn into a spear that pierces the earth! Become the path its light shines upon!” Soarin chanted, and a whirring noise was heard inside the light. “I Synchro Summon! Break them apart! Drill Warrior!” The new monster was a tall humanoid clad in bronze armor. Enormous drill bits were equipped to its hands and feet.
{Drill Warrior
Lv6; 2400 ATK; 2000 DEF}
“I activate Drill Warrior’s special ability!” Soarin continued. “But halving his attack points for the turn, he can bypass your monsters and attack directly! Drill shot!” His monster launched a drill bit around Red Dragon Archfiend like a missile.
Surprisingly, Spitfire chuckled. “I was waiting for a direct attack,” she said. “Now I can activate King’s Consonance!” Her trap card flipped up, blocking the drill. “This negates your direct attack, and then I can Synchro Summon a monster by banishing the appropriate materials from my Graveyard!”
Soarin gasped. “That means you can bring out…!”
“I tune together the level three Delta Flyer and level five Vice Dragon in the grave!” Spitfire declared. Ghostly images of the aforementioned monsters shimmered into existence and broke down into their respective lights as Spitfire chanted. "Witness the wings guided by a great wind!” she shouted just before another roar sounded. “I Synchro Summon! Take flight! Stardust Dragon!”
{Stardust Dragon
Lv8; 2500 ATK; 2000 DEF}
Soarin scowled as the monster flew into place alongside Red Dragon Archfiend. Its scales were mostly white and sky blue, with patches of a darker blue reminiscent of the night sky on its chest and shoulders. It had long arms and wings, its nose was pointed like a spearhead, and its eyes were a piercing yellow. “You have some nerve using that card against me!” he shouted.
“The Queen does what it takes to win, even if her opponents don’t like it!” Spitfire retorted.
“Damn you…!” Soarin grunted. “I have to end my turn.”
Spitfire
LP: 3300; Hand: 0; Speed Counters: 4
Soarin
LP: 4000; Hand: 2; Speed Counters: 2
“My turn!” Spitfire bellowed as she drew. “I’m going straight in for the attacks! Red Dragon Archfiend, destroy Drill Warrior! Scorching crimson hellfire!”
Soarin slammed on the accelerator, causing his D-Wheel to shoot forward, but it wasn’t enough to avoid the attack. He didn’t care, though. He had to find a way to get Stardust on his side.
“You’re up next, Stardust Dragon!” Spitfire declared. “Take down Junk Warrior! Shooting sonic!” The white dragon shot a blast of cosmic power just as Soarin grabbed a Speed Card, destroying the warrior and lowering his Life Points. “Ha! What are you gonna do now, Soarin?!”
“Use my new Speed Card! Shared Bounty!” Soarin answered, slapping the card down.
Spitfire gasped in shock. “But that’s impossible!”
“There are a few conditions for this card’s activation,” Soarin explained. “First, I have to have no monsters on my field. Second, you need to have at least twice as many speed counters as I do. Third, you need to control two monsters that were Special Summoned from the extra deck.”
“Check, check, and check,” Spitfire muttered.
“Now, by reducing my speed counters to zero and increasing yours by one, I can take control of the extra deck monster on your field with the fewest attack points!” Soarin finished. He grinned happily as Stardust Dragon roared and flapped over to his D-Wheel, staring down Red Dragon Archfiend.
The second Stardust changed sides, Spitfire felt a burning sensation on her right forearm. She winced, one of her eyes twitching slightly from the pain, and massaged it with her left hand. When she looked down at it, she was shocked to see her dragon wing mark. It was glowing with scarlet light through the sleeve of her riding suit. “What the hell…?” she grunted.
Soarin was wincing as well, having felt a burning of his own. Glowing through his sleeve was a red symbol in the arrowhead-like shape of the tip of a dragon’s tail. “What’s going on…?”
The two dragons on the field glowed with a bright, silver light and roared louder than ever, shaking the stadium. All around the area, electrical transformers shorted out and lights in buildings turned off. They had become overloaded with a sudden burst of energy.
On the edge of town, a pale woman with aurora-colored hair sat in her mansion, unaware of what was going on. At least until she got a call on her phone. “Yes?” she said as she answered it after the first ring.
“Miss Director!” a male voice on the other end cried out in a mixture of worry and glee. “We’re getting energy readings, and they’re off the charts! Moment is spinning faster than ever!”
The woman hummed to herself. “This can only mean one thing…” she breathed. “Two Signers are Dueling…”
Back with the Duel, things were continuing to heat up. Literally. Spitfire was alerted to a message on her D-Wheel’s screen. “Warning. Engine overheating. Aborting match,” the AI told her.
She snorted. “Screw that. Activate manual override.”
“Manual override engaged,” the AI replied. “All functions are now in the rider’s control.”
“What are you thinking?!” Soarin cried.
“I don’t care what all this is! We’re finishing this Duel!” Spitfire shouted. “I end my turn!”
Spitfire
LP: 3300; Hand: 1; Speed Counters: 6
Soarin
LP: 3200; Hand: 2; Speed Counters: 1
Soarin frowned, but he knew Spitfire was too stubborn to see reason, especially when it came to her pride as a Duelist. She could never leave a game unfinished. “My turn! Draw!” he said, wincing again as the glowing mark on his arm continued to burn. “You’re crazy, Spitfire! Whatever is going on here, it’s most likely dangerous!”
Spitfire growled. “I’m not letting things end in a draw or surrender!” she snapped. “If I have to fight through this to defeat you, then so be it! Do your worst!”
“I have to end this quick…” Soarin muttered. “I activate Cursed Armaments! This card equips to one of your monsters, decreasing its attack points by 600 for every monster I control!” Red Dragon Archfiend was surrounded by a dark aura, and its attack points dropped to 2400. “Then I equip Stardust Dragon with Synchro Boost, giving it 500 attack points and one level!”
Narrowing her eyes, Spitfire pushed her machine forward. “I won’t let you win!” she yelled.
“Stardust Dragon, attack Red Dragon Archfiend! Shooting sonic!” Soarin shouted. The dragon on his field blasted at its opponent, causing an explosion. As they clashed, the light around them grew even brighter.
Spitfire emerged from the resulting cloud with a Speed Card. “I activate Survivor!” she countered. “By paying half my speed counters, my monster isn’t destroyed!”
Soarin sighed. He was about to end his turn, but he got interrupted when his and Spitfire’s marks glowed even brighter. A screeching roar was heard, but it wasn’t either of their dragons. It seemed to come from the field between them.
Some of the light condensed on the track, and an enormous dragon that dwarfed both of the others emerged. Its body was long, serpentine, and seemed to be made of red energy. It glanced at the two Duelists and roared again, louder this time. Stardust Dragon and Red Dragon Archfiend both seemed to respond to this beast, whatever it was.
Spitfire winced and grunted, massaging her burning mark again. “Did you summon that thing?!” she asked over the noise.
“I thought it was one of yours!” Soarin replied as the serpentine creature circled around them in the air. “We have to stop now before we get hurt!”
“No!” Spitfire insisted. “No way in hell am I surrendering to you just because of this!”
“Then I end…!” Soarin grunted.
Spitfire
LP: 2700; Hand: 1; Speed Counters: 4
Soarin
LP: 3200; Hand: 1; Speed Counters: 2
“My turn!” Spitfire bellowed, forced to keep shouting over the dragons’ roars. She kept on going forward, searching for something to give her an edge. “I’ll activate Heavy Storm to clear away all spell and trap cards on the field!”
“I’ll use the counter trap card Solemn Judgement!” Soarin immediately said. “By paying half my Life Points, I negate the activation of your spell card!”
“Leaving you with 1600,” Spitfire said. “I’ll activate Pot of Greed to draw two cards, then set two cards facedown. Turn end.”
Spitfire
LP: 2700; Hand: 0; Speed Counters: 5
Soarin
LP: 1600; Hand: 1; Speed Counters: 3
“Now it’s my go!” Soarin yelled. As he was about to start, the giant red dragon beast flew above them, spreading its wings and straightening out its body. He then spied a couple Speed Cards ahead and revved his engine, snatching the first one. “I activate Overboost! This gives me four extra speed counters, but they get reduced to one at the end of the turn!” He then managed to grab the second one and hummed as he looked at it.
Spitfire smirked. “What’s the matter, Soarin? Grab a bad card?”
Soarin scowled. “I summon Speed Warrior! And during the battle phase of the turn he’s normal summoned, his original attack doubles!”
{Speed Warrior
Lv2; 900 ATK; 400 DEF}
“It’s not enough to finish me!” Spitfire spat.
“But I can come close since your Red Dragon Archfiend is still weakened!” said Soarin. “Stardust Dragon, bring it down!”
Spitfire actually started laughing. “I win! You fell for it!” she cackled. “I activate the trap card Magic Cylinder! This stops your attack and inflicts damage to you equal to Stardust’s current attack points, which are almost twice what I needed! Say goodbye, Soarin!”
Soarin glanced down at the Speed Card he had grabbed and quickly played it as the blast was redirected through an ornate wooden tube. “I activate the Speed Card Mir—!”
He was stopped by a combination of factors. First, the dragon of red energy had reached the peak of its ascent, its head about fifty feet in the air and its wingspan stretching across the entire stadium. It roared again, the sound resonating all around them, and glowed with a white light that nearly blinded both Duelists. Then they both got a notice on their D-Wheels. “Manual override disengaged. Aborting match now.”
“What?!” Spitfire shouted, shielding her eyes from the glow.
Results: Preempted
The two riders skidded their vehicles to a halt… right in front of a squadron from Sector Security. When they looked around, though, there was no sign of the dragon. Soarin rolled up his right sleeve and stared at his forearm, finding that the mark had vanished. “What’s happening here…?” he breathed.
“Attention D-Wheelers!” a security officer shouted into a megaphone. “You are using the stadium track during restricted hours! Please step away from the bikes!”
Soarin and Spitfire both dismounted, removed their helmets, and put their hands in the air. One of the officers that approached them soon after grinned maliciously. “Soarin. I heard from Officer Sentry over the radio that you escaped from Satellite. You’ll be coming with us to the detention facility. Madam Spitfire, we need you at HQ.”
Soarin sighed and didn’t fight back as the officers cuffed him and shoved him into the back of a squad car. But his mind was racing a mile a minute. That dragon, those marks, the reaction between his and Spitfire’s monsters… It had to mean something. But what…?