After Zero (A Yu-gi-oh story with no dueling)

Chapter 11 - Swing of a hero

"Whoa there!" Mere centimeters before penetrating Bruno's flesh, Clock's hand was blocked. Holding that hand was an arm wrapped in segmented red metal. "You could seriously hurt someone doing that. You should go practice at home." Clock was tossed away by the newcomer, who stood confidently and looked at Bruno with his dichromatic eyes.

"Who-"

"Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon at your service." He tipped his hat before turning around to kick the incoming Clock Dragon.

"HOW?! HOW CAN YOU KEEP UP WITH ME!?" Clock was fuming, almost trembling with rage. "Clock Speed Set, five-"

"Reaction Force!" A red and black spiral shot from Odd-Eyes' free hand, striking Clock in the stomach and sending her flying, screaming in uncontrollable anger the entire time. Odd-Eyes watched on like he had just hit an improbable homerun. "Aaaaaaand... gone." He walked to where Quantum was and stuck out his hand, before realizing she wasn't moving. "Uh, crap."

"I got it!" Waka-U4 had suddenly surmounted the dune which the two spirits were on. "She's synchro so... this should help!" He pulled a harp out of a compartment on his body, putting it in Quantum's arms. He plucked a few notes, which had Quantum wince before opening her eyes.

"Powertool..." She stood up, screamed in pain for a moment before speaking through ragged breaths. "Give this to Powertool-" She fell to one knee as she held out the harp, coughing up cyan blood which sparked as it hit the floor.

Bruno ran to her side and took her shoulder. Her body was burning up to the point of being scalding, but Bruno gritted his teeth and held on.

//

"Powertool! Powertool!" He slowly opened his eyes, recognizing the sight of his kneeling sister. She was badly hurt, holding one of her arms which more so resembled a bloodied limp noodle. Powertool tried to get up, but was soon aware of all the broken bones in his body. His systems were all malfunctioning or shutting down. He couldn't even speak, since his ribcage was crushing his lungs.

"How pathetic." The voice came from behind Ancient Fairy, and Powertool struggled to see who owned it. Standing among the rubble of the city Powertool defended was a white armored knight with a pink, flowerlike helmet riding a white horse. "This is all you signer knights are capable of? And you expect me to believe you can protect anyone when you cannot even protect yourselves?"

"Powertool... I'm sorry..." Ancient Fairy got back on her feet, and turned to face the enemy, tears streaking down her face from the pain. Powertool tried to scream out, to call for help, but the state of his body prevented him from so much as moving. He could do nothing but watch as Ancient Fairy walked to her death.

Agonizing seconds passed as Powertool watched. Every step his sister took was like a knife being shoved through his stomach. "So you have come to die." The knight shoved their hand out, striking Ancient Fairy with pure fighting aura without even dismounting its horse. Ancient Fairy was knocked back into a pile of rubble, where she collapsed and stopped moving. "Worthless rabble. Scum like you who can't even fight deserve what you're getting." Tears started to flow down Powertool's cheeks as the knight approached the rubble. He was completely powerless, they were going to die, and the humans they were meant to protect would die too.

Suddenly the knight's horse started whining and thrashing around. "Shiro Ou, calm down! Who are you!"

"I'm going to burn you." A new fighting aura threw the knight off their horse which ran in fear at the newcomer. "De Fleur, it's time for your execution." Red Daemon's stepped into Powertool's view, he couldn't see her face but she was standing between the opponent and Ancient Fairy.

"What do you care? Clearly if you are strong enough to scare Shiro Ou then you must be worth something." The knight unleashed their own fighting aura pushing back on Red Daemon's. "Show me why you deserve to fight alongside Stardust!" The knight charged, throwing a fist at a speed Powertool couldn't track.