Act II - Mark of the Dragon

Chapter 4

Leo carefully maneuvered his Duel Runner through the rubble. The streets in this exotic land were not taken care of. It was like living in a real dystopian movie with a bunch of poor people everywhere. Leo had grown up as a solid middle class person, but the last 3 months had been a real eye opener. He had only survived thanks to the help of his Duel Spirits, training by his parents, and instinct. Oh how he missed the convenience of a modern society. It was like being thrown back into the dark ages with Duel Runners. On top of that there was a lack of police droids which made this place rather dangerous to be. Leo carefully took his hands off the throttle as he moved at a slower pace; he had no spare parts to replace his Duel Runner if anything broke. Which would be the icing on the cake of this disaster. It took him about an hour to navigate the rubble road before Leo found a flat enough space he could take his Duel at faster speeds on the open road.

He was still adapting to the tighter controls and faster movement as he drove through destroyed buildings, scattering people and more. Trees, plants grew wicked like weeds without care or forethought. This was a city in desperate need of repair Leo pulled over to the side of the road. It was a giant cliff that overlooked the entire city grounds. Very little lights were on and the streets were mostly empty giving it a lonely vibe. Creepy, Leo thought to himself. Kuriboh and Lifestream Dragon appeared in their spirit from around him. "Such an unnerving sight. You'd think with such a massive town there be people around. Bustling doing normal people stuff robots everywhere. But in reality it's an empty desk. Like in those old dystopian movies they used to make in the 21 century. Creepy." Leo said and Kurriboh looked at him bewildered.

"Kuriii?" Kuriboh asked.

"I don't know Kuriboh. I mean that's a possibility, but until we find that other dragon we will never have a clue." Leo admitted and looked over to Lifestream Dragon who was unusually quiet. Something had nerved his best friend and it made Leo's uneasiness get worse. Lifestream looked over at him, but looked over the wild city. Not making a sound, "Well we should get going before those freaks appear again. Don't want any trouble." With that Kuriboh landed in Leo's lap in his spirit form Lifestream took flight and with that Leo turned his Duel Runner around. With that he restarted the slow way through the city. As breeze was starting to settle in across the city once he was on firm ground Leo sped up his Runner. Achieving faster speeds and zooming through buildings foraging his own path. The sun was just beginning to set over the land and a breeze followed suit. If anything ever went wrong Leo always had an emergency backup to get out of any situation. Feeling the wind against his skin was something different from the roads in Chalice Town. Leo would often zone out during his rides and focus only on his own thoughts.

His peaceful ride was destroyed by the sounds of Lifestream Dragon roaring. Leo turned his attention to the side to see flashing blue and red lights behind him. What was this in the 21st century? Human police officers had been phased out with more advanced dueling robots. Heck an entire subgenre on the internet had evolved to people purposely starting trouble with the police bot to duel them. They were known to cheat, use illegal moves and more. On top of that the bots were adaptive so had developed a counter to almost every strategy. It was a curiosity, but Leo slowed down slightly. Much to the annoyance of Lifestream who roared at Leo with furry, "You in the illegal Duel Runner pullover!"

"Relax Lifestream, nothing bad is going to happen," Leo said. "Besides, if anything we just flee back into cyberspace for a while." With that Leo slowed down even slower to let the mysterious Turbo Duelist behind him catch up. The figure appeared behind him as Leo took a sharp turn deciding to play with his catch for the day. Dueling was one of the few activities even in this strange place he could enjoy. Though most of the duels he got into were proven to be unfulfilling. People would play with reality dumb strategies or really obscure ones Leo had never seen before. With that Leo sped only slightly as the figure on the Duel Runner behind him slowed. With that he zipped down another street at really sharp angles that his pursuers struggled to follow suit. Kuriboh was giggling in Leo's lap as Lifestream just followed next to him silently. "Man, this is fun. You're gonna catch up or what slowpoke?"

"You slow down," the man was wearing a gray uniform with a white helmet. It was a standard designed Duel Runner which seemed to have trouble keeping up. Leo just started to slowly speed up increasing the distance between the two of them. As he made another sharp turn and the man behind him muttered something. Leo released a small wave of Momentum energy that danced around him. "Fine then since you won't slow down. I'll force you to by a Turbo Duel." With that the man clicked a button on his Duel Runner.

"Overriding suspects Duel Runner. Duel Runner engaged," the mysterious man Duel Runner said.

"Duel Runner overridden. Autopilot engaged," Leo looked at his Duel Runner confused. As his Duel Runner without his desire switched into one of the oldest forms of Turbo Dueling. Which had started around 200 years ago since the start of Turbo Dueling as a sport. It was a type of dueling usually used in lower end street duels for young children who were just starting into the sport. Using the very old Speed World which had been replaced dozens of times.

"Mom, what's going on?" Leo asked. A moment later in the right visor his assistant Ai appeared. Ai technology had developed that everyone had a completely or almost sentient Ai. It was in Leo's Duel wrist, a small chip in the top of his wrist that had thousands of functions. After getting trapped into this strange place the dragon had left him. He reprogrammed the Ai to look, sound and act like his mother. Which kept him sane in the crazed world. The Ai of his mother appeared wearing her usual gray shirt and jeans. "How did the freak behind us manage to override my Runner? Thats spatz."

"Well based upon further inspection it appears to be an old piece of technology. That allowed human police officers to override suspects Duel Runner. By forcing them into a Turbo Duel with no way to escape other than victory or defeat. I believe it was phased out over a century ago. Mostly like it's just a really old piece of code needed to keep your Duel Runner running and able to duel older style Runners. It will take me a few hours to create a patch to prevent this. Want me to create the patch babe? And should I activate the portal back to Digital space?"

"Make the patch, disable autopilot and then it's time to build some Momentum," Leo said happily.

"You got it babe, just be careful,'' his mother Ai disappeared and with that the Turbo Duel began.

Leo: 4000lp vs ?: 4000lp Turn 1: ?

Leo refocused on the duel in front of him to look up to see in the visor of his helmet. Gate Blocker in defense mode a giant 100 atk/ 3000 def beneath on the first turn. Why did these people always duel so slow? "Now that you can't gain any more Speed Counters. I'll place 3 cards face down and end my turn. Don't worry Ghost when I'm done with you you'll be locked up in the Facility for good." The man said laughing it was then that Leo finally noticed his annoying siren that was beeping.

"This is going to be another easy duel isn't it?" Leo asked Kuriboh who was cheerful, enjoying the breeze. Kuriboh looked at him with his eyes as Leo shifted his Duel Runner and released a small amount of Momentum energy. Leating the white energy to dance around his Runner which only caused him to go faster. His strange opponent was struggling to keep up. "Fine then, my turn. My draw!" Leo shouted at the man who looked at him confused.

Turn 2: Leo

Leo lifted his right finger in the side of his visor to see all of his cards. "Well I'm going to play this game really slow. So I summon Psychogenic Kuriboh in defense mode and end my turn!" With that Kuriboh lifted from his spirit form as he appeared on the dueling field. Psychogenic Kuriboh was a level 1 light fiend/Psychogenic monster with 200 atk/300 def. It looked like a normal Kuriboh, but its fur was light gray and blue streaks. Instead of the traditional brown one. Kuriboh flew around happily at having a physical form and landed back into Leo's lap. "Relax Kuriboh, nothing bad is going to happen. And since it's now my end phase Psychogenic Kuriboh special ability triggers allowing me to remove one card from anywhere in my deck and remove it from the game. Giving me 1 banishment counter. And with that I call it quotes for now." Leo said to the man who was still slowing behind him.

His only problem was getting rid of the giant wall in front of him, but that would come crumbling down sooner rather than later…