Kai Samaria walked through the streets of Domino City.
He wasn't lucky enough to live in the Neo sector of the city, but managed to scrape a living in the Asteroid Sector.
Below Neo and above Satellite, Asteroid was a filthy place. As no one important had lived there for several years the government put almost no money whatsoever into maintaining it.
Not only dirty, the Asteroid area was a fairly corrupt place. If you couldn't afford to live in Neo Domino City but hadn't done anything to merit a one-way trip to the Satellite area then you were sent here. As a result, people were discontented and were paranoid that they had been treated unfairly.
As a result people took every chance to get one over on someone else, legally or not. The security had their hands full!
Kai came to a crossroads and turned left as always.
3 blocks along he made as if to keep walking but pushed through an indiscreet door set into the side of a disused sandwich bar.
A flight of stairs led down. After they leveled out Kai stopped in front of a mirror and looked at the 16yr old gazing out at him.
5'11, with close cropped black hair, wearing black t-shirt and pants. He walked along the corridor and pushed through the door into the dojo.
Dueling wasn't banned in Asteroid, but owning a D-Wheel was.
And that was what he and the 3 other people in that room owned. Getting parts was difficult enough but getting the tools was.
Kai closed the door behind him and turned to face his friends.
Seb,16yrs old, 5'10 with long blond hair, a serious duelist when he wanted to be but quite a lot of the time he was joking around.
His twin sister Sasha, 5'6 with waist length black hair. She preferred not to duel but if she had to then she was a force to be reckoned with.
And finally Richie. He was the tallest and oldest, 19yrs old and 6'2 with short brown hair. Another powerful duelist to compliment the group.
He'd obviously walked in on the end of a duel, judging from the smoke billowing around the room. From the looks of things, Sasha had just smoked her brother, and now stood there berating him.
"If you'd just concentrated on the game rather than trying to fiddle with your style in the middle of a game then you might actually have a chance!"
Catching sight of Kai, she straightened up and walked over to him with a scowl on her face.
"And what time do you call this?" she asked.
"Do you care?" Kai replied, pulling her into a hug.
"Luckily for you, not really." she said, her scowl being washed away by a smile. "But really, you haven't shown up for 4 days."
Richie jumped down from his perch on a box in the corner.
"Yeah, were have you been?"
"Sorry guys," said Kai, "Security have been on my butt for a while. You know how they crack down on suspected D-Wheelers."
Seb and Sasha nodded whilst Kai walked over to a picture on the wall. Tilting it to one side he punched a code into the keypad behind it. A false wall slid back and he walked into it followed by the others.
"So," he said, addressing Seb, "any news?"
Using a network of contacts built up by the group over the years, Seb was trying to sort them out with places in the Prince of Freedom in Neo Domino City. The winner of that and 3 friends would be granted places in the pro-League with an opportunity to enter the next annual Fortune cup to crown the new D-King.
"Yep," replied Seb, "and before I forget, this arrived for you this morning."
Kai took the slim package extended towards him and tore it open."
Suddenly a voice blared out from the street above them.
"This is the Security...
