It was a clear day in the land of Axle City. Another race was occurring as the racers zoomed through the track leading through the forest.

"Can't catch me!!" Crusher mocked as he took the usual lead.

"We'll see about that, Crusher!" Blaze grinned and zoomed after him. "AJ, gimmie some speed!"

"You got it!" AJ pressed hard on the acceleration as they both sped up to catch up to their rival.

At the sidelines, Pickle cheered for his friends with his usual cheeriness. He was beaming and laughing happily as he shouted out his cheer.

"Go, Crusher! Yaaay, everyone! Go go go!"

He waved at everyone as they all passed by where he was cheering. Just as he planned to leave and head front to watch more of the race, he heard a strange sound coming from within the forest.

"Huh? What's that?"

He followed the sound and found himself in an empty field sighing the trees. Suddenly, a magical doorway appeared, causing him to jump and hide behind a bush in surprise.

"What is that...?"

The doorway soon opened, and out stepped a being wearing a white cloak and a golden mask with horns. The being glanced around and seemed to hum in thought.

"This is definitely the mortal world..."

Pickle stared at the being in confusion, narrowing his eyes at him. "Who is that...? And where did he come from?"

Suddenly, the being lifted a golden claw-like finger and created a circle in the air. Pickle gasped as the being casted a spell that surrounded him like a force field.

"Wha-- what?!"

Unfortunately, he gasped a little too loud, and the being turned to him with dangerous gleaming eyes from within the mask.

"Uh oh.."

Pickle gulped and turned to drive away when he was suddenly trapped by a magical net. The net lifted up into the air and was summoned to the stranger, who glared over at him.

"Well... who do we have here?"

"U-Um, h-hello!" Pickle nervously waved with a gulp. "Th-The name's Pickle! Wh-Who might you be…?"

"Emperor Belos," the being spoke. "ruler of the Boiling Isles."

"Th-The Boiling Isles?" Pickle tilted his head. "Wh-Where's that?"

"That is none of your concern, mortal." Emperor Belos spat out towards the green truck. "But you are quite strange for a mortal. You are not a human… yet you live here… in the mortal world…"

"Well, I'm a Monster Machine," Pickle replied. "A lot of them live here."

"Monster… Machine…" Belos repeated the word with slight interest. "Hmm… but there ARE humans here, are they not?"

"Yeah, there are. Wait..." Pickle gulped. "you're not gonna hurt anyone or ME, are you?"

"That would depend if I deem you… useful to my goal," Belos glanced over at him observingly.

"What goal?"

Belos didn't respond. Instead, he gave a nod and took out a scroll while setting Pickle down on the ground. He then opened the scroll to read, a red glow appearing from it, causing Pickle to panic.

"Uh... what's going on?!"

"I am checking your usefulness, young mortal," Belos spoke with a gleam of icy blue from the eye that was exposed by a crack of his mask.

Pickle was about to question what he meant when he suddenly felt pain in his stomach that crawled up to his tires. He glanced down at them to find them suddenly sprouting out owl-like feathers.

"W-What's happening?!"

The pain suddenly doubled, and he screamed as two large wings sprouted out from his back as his whole body were overrun by feathers.

After the last of the transformation had completed, Pickle felt himself lose control of himself as his eyes went full black and he released a wild roar. Belos glanced over at the now-cursed truck with a victorious look.

"Perfect. Now to release it."

He snapped his fingers, and the net disappeared. The Owl Beast roared and flew off into the sky towards where the race ended.