"Hey. Wake up. Are you okay?" Zoey blacked out for a moment, but she was beginning to pull herself together. She opened her eyes and was met with Huo standing over her. "Good. You're finally awake."

"What's going on? Where am I?" Zoey said as she tried getting up. She had a look around and saw she was on a field, but it was actually at the top of a building.

"Welcome to Nitro City, my home." Huo said. Zoey stood back up and had a look around. With the sun setting, the view was gorgeous. It was all breathtaking. "You doing okay?"

"Yeah... Who are you? How did I end up here?" Zoey said.

"Did you hit your head or something, Rini? It's me, Huo."

"Huo? Rini? You got the wrong girl. My name is Zoey." Huo was a little confused himself. He had a look at her, a little too close. He was so close to Zoey that it annoyed her. She smashed her fist against his head and got him to back up. "Ever heard of personal space?!"

"Maybe you're not, Rini." Huo said in pain. "She hits me too, but she says she doesn't go for the top of my head because she doesn't want to damage whatever brain I have left."

"I've had enough of this." Zoey said. "How did I even get here?"

"Beats me? I don't understand it myself." Huo said. He reached for his deck and pulled out his card: Tempest Tenrun. "You can blame this guy here. Ever since this guy started glowing, weird things have been going on."

"Really? Maybe you should start from the beginning." Zoey said. "Who is this Rini?"

"Rini is my oldest and closest friend." Huo said as he began telling his story.

...

Flashback

Huo and Rini have been friends for a long time. There's a reason Huo thought Zoey was her. Rini looks similar to her. Rini usually had emerald green hair that went down her back with her bangs curled around her forehead. She wore a white zipped jacket with yellow tights.

"Rini and I have been friends for a long time. We did practically everything together. He helped each other build our decks, ate together, and we even built my duel runner together. Rini was a genius when it came to mechanics. Sure, she's a little bossy, but she tries to get people to bring out their best. However, things didn't go well one day."

One day, not that long ago, Huo was driving through the streets of Nitro City. He was testing out the runner until he got a call from Rini.

"Huo, help!" Rini said.

"Rini? What's wrong?" Huo asked.

"There's some creep chasing me." Rini said. He could hear that Rini was in real trouble. He hurried as fast as he could to her. By the time he found her, he saw someone in a cloak already had a hold of her.

"Rini!" Huo called as he drove to her and tried to save her. When the two of them got close enough, their own cards began to glow and they all vanished in a light.

"I don't know what happened, but there was this bright light. Suddenly, I found myself in a strange city that looked like it was demolished."

Huo didn't know where he was anymore. The city he was in looked destroyed. He had no clue where he was or how he even got there. His biggest problem was that he doesn't know what happened to Rini.

"Who's there?!" Huo looked up and he spotted someone. What he didn't know was that person was Drewsin.

"You! Where's Rini?!" Huo said, but Drewsin didn't know what he was talking about. "Give her back!" He revved his runner's motor and got serious as he attacked him.

End of Flashback

...

"I haven't found Rini yet, but I know that guy knows something. I do got to admit that he's pretty strong with those xyz cards and this Shadow Shudamon." Huo said.

"Shadow Shudamin?!" Zoey said as she could see he was talking about Drewsin. "You got the wrong guy, Huo!"

"What?" Huo said.

"That guy's name is Drewsin." Zoey said. "He's not a bad guy. In fact, he's looking for someone important to him that was taken away. Truth be told, I saw the face of the guy you're really after."

"You did?!" Huo said as he couldn't believe it. "You're saying I was wrong. That figures. Rini says I do have a bad habit of jumping to conclusions. There was this one time I thought she was on a date, but it turns out she was trying to make a deal to get some parts."

"This Rini means a lot to you. Is she your girlfriend?" Zoey asked.

"Girlfriend?! Of course not!" Huo said as he was getting all flustered, but was also smiling. "I mean... It's not like I don't like the idea of us holding hands, going for walks on the beach, having dinner by candlelight, and more."

"Sounds like you gave this some thought." Zoey said as she could easily see how he really felt. "Anyway, the guy who kidnapped her is from a place called Promin Academy. That place is bad news."

"Promin Academy?" Huo said.

"Cool..." They all looked and saw a little kid trying to touch Huo's duel runner.

"Don't touch that. It's filthy. What is that even doing here?" The mother said as she pulled the child away.

"Oh man! We've been here for way too long!" Huo said.

"What are you talking about?" Zoey said, but she didn't get an answer. Huo just grabbed her arm and pulled her to the runner. He pulled up the seat and grabbed a couple helmets.

"Put this on. We need to go now!" Huo said as he handed her a helmet. They put their helmets on and got on the runner with Huo driving off. He hurried his way down the streets as fast as he could.

"What's going on? Why are you in such a hurry?" Zoey said.

"You want to get charged for trespassing?" Huo said.

"Trespassing?" Zoey questioned.

"I'll explain later." Huo said as he was hurrying as fast as he could. Soon, sirens could be heard. Zoey looked behind her and saw a security officer on a runner as well and was chasing after them.

"Stop in the name of the law!" The officer called.

"The police? Why are the police chasing us? Also, shouldn't you be pulling over?" Zoey questioned.

"Trust me, the police around here are people you actually shouldn't trust. They don't care how wrong something is, even if it's something minor." Huo said. "They'll just throw you away like scum without a care." Zoey didn't quite get it, but there was no time for it to be explained.

"Not pulling over, are you? Fine with me. I like a challenge." The officer said as he drove as close as he could to them. "This is Officer Dungus. I'm requesting authorization for the track. I'm about to initiate dueling procedures."

...

Headquarters

Officer Dungus contacted his headquarters. Many were working and monitoring the city. Above them all stood one man who was playing a game of chess on his own. He had blonde hair that spread out like wings in the back and wore a purple coat over his body with grey dress pants. He was receiving live footage of the chase.

"Another meddlesome fool that doesn't seem to know his place." The man said as he was arrange chess pieces around.

"Chief Rojin, Officer Dungus is requesting the tracks."

"Authorized. The sooner he apprehends these troublemakers, the better." Rojin said. "I can't allow troublemakers in my city."

...

The Streets

After being granted authority, parts of the road were lifted and were forming a track. When that appeared, Officer Dungus used a feature that allowed him to hack into Huo's runner and initiate duel mode against Huo's wishes.

"Nowhere to go now, criminals." Officer Dungus claimed.

"Looks like there's no way out. Can't believe he hacked my runner." Huo complained. "Hold on tight, Zoey."

"Why, what's going on?" Zoey said. Huo and Officer Dungus drove up to the tracks and it was just the two of them now. "I don't understand. What's going on?"

"A duel is about to happen." Huo said.

"A duel?! On these motorcycles?!" Zoey questioned. "Why are you dueling in the first place?"

"You see, there's a vast gap between the fortunate and the less fortunate here." Huo said. "I'm actually from the slum of the city. Around this city, if you're not part of the wealth or some big winner, you're considered trash around here and trash should stay in the slums."

"Say what? We're in trouble with the police simply because we were in a part of the city that we're not allowed in simply because we're not as fortunate? That's crazy." Zoey said.

"No time to tell you about it. We'll talk after the duel." Huo said as he was keeping his focus.

"There's no escape from the long arm of the law." Officer Dungus said. "You want your freedom? You'll have to fight for it."

"Let's duel!" Both of them said and were getting started with Rojin watching.

"I'll be the one to start this off." Huo said. "I'll start by summoning Speeder Centi to the field!" He started this duel by summoning a mechanical centipede with 1700atk points. "Next, I can summon a speeder tuner monster when Speeder Centi is summoned out! I'm summoning out Speeder Top!" Huo summoned out a spinning top with a mechanical eye on it with it having 300atk points. "Now, I'm going to tune my level three Speeder Top with my level four Speeder Centi!" His top broke into three circles with his centipede going through it and turned into four stars. "Fly through the night and be as silent as an owl!" A beam shot through as a new monster was formed. "I synchro summon Speeder Stealther!" He summoned out a stealth jet-like monster as it flew out with 2800atk points. "I place one card facedown to end my turn!"

"Amazing...! He was able to synchro summon a powerful monster on his first turn!" Zoey said.

"Is that all? That's nothing." Officer Dungus said as he drew his card. "I send three monsters in my hand to the graveyard to summon Montage Dragon!" He discarded three cards and summoned out a tri-headed dragon with ?atk points.

"What are it's attack points?" Huo questioned.

"Montage Dragon's attack points go up by 300 for each level from each monster I discarded. All three of my monsters were level four." Officer Dungus said. "That means his attack points rise to 3600!" His dragon's attack points rose up to that amount.

"A monster with 3600atk points summoned just like that?! You've got to be kidding!" Zoey said.

"It's only going to get worse, little girl. I'm summoning out Assault Dog to the field!" Officer Dungus said. He summoned out a dog carrying rifles on its side and had 1200atk points. "Montage Dragon, destroy his pathetic synchro monster!" His dragon fired three powerful beams and blasted Stealther with it. Huo got blasted by the attack as his life points dropped to 3200. "Assault Dog, your turn!" His dog fired some blasts and hit Huo with it as his life points dropped further down to 2000. "I'm already halfway done with you. For now, I end my turn. When it's over, you both are going behind bars."

"Is he serious?" Zoey said. "If all we're being charged with is trespassing, are we really going to jail for that?"

"These guys don't care. You do anything wrong, even a slight rule, you get locked away." Huo said. "You don't need to worry. That's not going to happen to us."

"You better win then." Zoey said.

"I will. Since it's the end phase of your turn, Speeder Top's ability activates! Since the synchro monster it brought out was destroyed, it and one other monster used in the synchro summon come back to the field." Huo said. Both his top and his centipede came back out on the field. "It's now my turn!" He drew his card and could see the way to win this. "I'm summoning out Speeder Horsey to the field!" He summoned out a mechanical horse that had a spiral pole attached to its back to the field with it having 1300atk points. "Next, I'm tuning Speeder Top with Speeder Centi again to summon a new monster!" The procedure happened again as he brought out a new monster. "Fly high and generate a whirlwind! I synchro summon Tempest Tenrun!" Huo summoned out his favorite monster as it soared through the air with 2500atk points.

"That's a pretty good monster, but it's not strong enough to take on that dragon." Zoey said.

"Just enjoy the show. No one likes a backseat duelist." Huo said. "I'm activating Speeder Horsey's ability, but I won't need to do anything. Tempest Tenrun negates that ability and destroies my horsey!" His horse was destroyed.

"Why did you do that?" Zoey questioned.

"It's because when Tempest Tenrun does that, he gains that monster's attack points." Huo said with Tenrun's attack points rising to 3800.

"It can take that dragon now!" Zoey said with joy.

"Tempest Tenrun, destroy his Assault Dog!" Huo said.

"What?!" Zoey said. Tenrun flew straight at Assault Dog and destroyed it with Officer Dungus' life points dropping to 1400.

"Fool. You should have destroyed my dragon when you had the chance." Officer Dungus said. "Once you destroy assault Dog, I can summon a second one to take its place." He summoned out a second Assault Dog and had the advantage again.

"I end my turn. Since it's the end, Tenrun's attack points return to normal." Huo said as his monster's attack points did just that.

"What were you thinking?! He still has that dragon!" Zoey said.

"I guess I should expect that from low-class scum like you." Officer Dungus said as he was going to end it.

...

Rojin

"It's over." Rojin said as he fiddled with his chess pieces. "That's the thing with pawns. No matter what happens, no matter whose side they're on, they always go down." He was ready to knock over a pawn piece as he saw the end of the duel, but he just realized something that could still be a trap. "Wait. He placed a facedown at the start of the duel."

...

The Duel

"It's all over!" Officer Dungus said as he drew his card. "Montage Dragon, destroy his Tempest Tenrun, and bring me one step closer to victory!"

"I don't think so!" Huo said as he intercepted the attack. "I'm activating Accelerated Reactor! This trap allows me to banish a synchro monster from my graveyard and add its attack points to another synchro monster on the field!"

"You what?!" Officer Dungus said.

"I wanted to destroy your dragon because I knew I would have a hard time winning as long as it remained on the field." Huo said. "I had to time this just right so I can do that without you having the chance of bringing it back."

"So that's why he didn't attack it last turn!" Zoey said as she could see it. "He was thinking way ahead. He just needed to time it right."

"Now, I'm banishing Speeder Stealther and giving it's power to Tempest Tenrun!" Tempest Tenrun was given power as it rose all the way to 6300. Montage Dragon continued with the attack, but Tenrun flew through the beams and smashed through the dragon with it being destroyed. Officer Dungus lost the last of his life points and his runner was forced to stop. That meant that Huo was free to keep driving.

...

Rojin

"Well, even a pawn can pull out a surprising win." Rojin said as he accepted the results. He did take a piece of the footage and zoomed in on those two to see their faces. "However, no one can really escape my eye." Whoever this Rojin is, he's someone you should be cautious around.

...

Huo and Zoey

Huo kept driving. Soon, they arrived in a different part of Nitro City. A part of the city that looked rundown compared to the fancy buildings they were at earlier.

"This is the part where I'm from." Huo said.

"Seriously? It looks like a completely different place." Zoey said.

"Yeah. It's like I said before. This is where the higher-ups place those they consider trash, even if we are people." Huo said. "We get the raw end of the deal and no one in the upper-class parts of Nitro City really care about us. They think we're garbage. They probably don't even like breathing the same air as us."

"Are you kidding me?! That's awful." Zoey said.

"You don't know the half of it." Huo said. Nitro City certainly seems like a strict and harsh place. How's Zoey going to survive in it? With Yukin and the others on the way as well, they're going to have a rough time in this city.