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

Chapter 16 - Programmed Hatred

Clock let out a sigh as she felt the Link energy drain into her core. She sneered at everyone around her. "Hello. I hope you weren't expecting to just walk away without clocking!" She rushed Starving Venom, yoinking the snake from him and crushing it all in one move, before Starving Venom could even react.

"Bruno! Run!" Quantum's despair was palpable. Bruno understood. The feeling of dread he had felt when he had been close to her, he could now feel from over thirty meters away. Just the two link monsters she had absorbed had already taken her to that point.

"Now you can all get out of my sight! Clock speed set, nine-thousand!" In a flash, Clock blitzed all of the Metalfoes and Predaplants, leaving only Bruno, Quantum and Starving Venom. "Wow! That's one hell of a high!" She cackled.

"You- You- You- After I- After all this!" Starving Venom was trembling. He was not raging as he had been before, rather he began to clutch his head and howl. The scream that he let out was pure unfiltered hatred. Green light erupted from the earth, darkening the sky which was now covered in black clouds. The same sickly green now showed the veins running around Starving Venom's body.

Clock, for once, showed some hesitation but almost instantly decided to attack. Neither Bruno nor Quantum could see what happened next, but in the end Clock was hoisted up by her neck. "W-what?"

"You are nothing." Starving Venom squeezed harder before slamming Clock onto the ground and stomping hard enough to shatter the ground entirely.

Clock moved fast enough to avoid the stomp but even with all the hundreds of meters of space she'd built with the singular movement, Starving Venom was able to catch up before she had any time to even think.

At that point Quantum grabbed Bruno, who had been transfixed on the spot, and ran with him. There was no way either of them would be able to do anything. Bruno had no idea how to use the Code Talker transformation he had gone into, but even if he was able to use it, he had now seen the overwhelming power they would be up against. Nothing he could do would help.

Starving Venom kept laying into Clock. It was taking everything she had to avoid him crushing her insides. She had a feeling that even if she consumed a hundred link monsters, he would always be stronger. She needed a plan. She needed time to think.

//

Though it would probably have been wise to immediately leave the castle as fast as they could, Red Daemon's wanted to stop off in a few places.

Jean casually followed her, trying to seem like he was meant to be there as they passed by dozens of guards and workers, most of whom were monsters that averted their eyes when Red Daemon's passed them.

Eventually they reached a huge metal door which Red Daemon's threw open with ease.

"I'm back dumbassess!" Red Daemon's declaration was met with raucous celebratory screaming from the monsters inside of the room she'd opened. Dozens of spirits were inside. All short imp-like creatures carrying various manners of tuning forks. They started crowding around her and tossing mugs of some drink to each other.

"Alright! Boys! I need a favor! If anyone comes asking as to where I am, what do we say?"

They all responded at once. "Fuck right off!"

Red Daemon's laughed heartily. "Nice! Now somebody throw me a barrel and some meat! I'm gonna hit the road!" In one hand she caught the keg full of drink and in the other she caught the full roasted carcass which were immediately tossed to her. "One more thing lads! Get this guy dressed! My liegeman can't go around dressed like a peasant."

Quickly the little fiends gathered around Jean, dexterously taking off his clothes and replacing them with clothing similar to their own. He seemed to like the now outfit quite a bit.

"Alright! Let's go!" Red Daemon's turned around with vigor. "You and I, we've got a lot of road to cover!"

//

For nearly twenty minutes Clock had barely evaded Starving Venom's attacks, he had started getting in nicks and scratches as she had rerouted a smidgen of processing power towards thinking. At this point she had formulated a plan.

"You should fall over and die like your friends!" Clock's taunt was precisely positioned at the time she needed it at. With Starving Venom ahead of her, his rage would be directed forward and predictably he thrust his arm forward and through Clock's abdomen.

Exactly as Clock planned.

"Clock speed set, zero!" She disappeared from sight. Although Starving Venom, and anyone else who would've seen the fight would think that she had completely vanished, in reality Clock was in a strange state, halfway between existing and not existing.

Starving Venom screamed in rage. "Disgusting cyberse! You can't escape me! I'll chase you-" He was suddenly interrupted by a punch to the gut.

"Starving Venom, quit it!" Odd-Eyes' fist held itself in his brother's stomach without resistance.

"Let go of me Odd-Eyes!" The fusion dragon tried to continue to fight, reaching to grasp Odd-Eyes' shoulders.

"I said stop!" Odd-Eyes wreathed both himself and his brother in red and black flames which burned for an entire minute before disappearing, causing Starving Venom to slump over.

Odd-Eyes gently put him down into a sitting position. "Your people are still alive, pick them up, bring them home and take care of them. Do not attack the Metalfoes again. But get ready to fight, time is running out."

Starving Venom nodded, his dimmed expression not at all exuding understanding.

"Good. I'm going after I finish up here." Odd-Eyes walked to where the drill once was. Slamming his sword in the ground he once more created a pillar of light.

//

"Quantum! Stop! We're going too far!" The two had been running so far that they had made it back to the border with Link.

The cyberse spirit made it over the border before she snapped out of it and stopped. "I... I..."

She ran back over to Bruno before collapsing to the ground. "Clock... I can't keep up with that!" She started trembling, shaking with an intensity that almost caused Bruno to start trembling too. He was only now realizing how scared Quantum was of her fusion counterpart.

"Wait... there-"

"There was no chance of us keeping up with that. If Starving Venom hadn't gone berserk, we'd both be dead." Her broken voice caused Bruno to react similarly, falling to his knees and sobbing.