Disclaimer: No I do not own Yugioh.

Vanguard Generations

Chapter 12: A whole party's going on over here

As the green-haired did this, he felt like he was suddenly in a very dangerous position. ("I'm walking the tightrope here…and if I'm not careful, I'll take the drop to my death.")

From his hiding place behind a nearby wall, Kuruske couldn't help but agree as he watched. ("A pair of Vanguards against a Ryoka? What are these times coming to?")

Kyoshi sneered and held up another finger, making the victory sign. "I think you're in quite a bit over your head, wouldn't you say Ryoka-san?"

Airos narrowed his eyes and looked over at Ryumen. "It's your turn, is it not?"

"Indeed it is." Ryumen drew. "At the current moment, we can't attack you thanks to your Disturbance Storm trap card, which prevents us from attacking until your next draw phase has come. So for now I'll simply place this drawn card face-down on my field and then my turn will end."

Nezemura chattered loudly, clacking its teeth together. "Hurry and summon your next monster, Ryoka. I will enjoy demolishing it…"

"Heh, you're not one to talk garbage-breath, considering you have only a hundred attack points." Ragumon held up his claymore to point its edge at Airos. "I, however, am more than well equipped to defeat any monster this foolish human can hope to draw. And if he draws another defensive trap that will just give my partner more time to prepare for when you run out of such paltry methods of protection."

"So annoying." Airos drew, sliding the card into his duel disk. "I set one card face-down on the field and then I end my turn."

"You think it's wise to set cards face-down when facing Nezemura? Fool!" Kyoshi drew the top card of his deck and it disappeared. "I offer a card as a sacrifice to activate another of my partner's techniques!" A new card appeared in his hand and he held it up. "Go Rat's Nest!"

Nezemura chattered against and shuddered. "Overkill…" There was an explosion of green gas, and when it cleared there were five of it on the field instead of one. "…Rat's Nest!" (5x100/100) "Now you're troubles are increased by five!"

Airos rolled his eyes. "Five nothings still equal nothing, right?"

"Go Nezemura army, attack directly!" The five rats launched right at Airos, and were blown away by another barrier of his air. "When Nezemura or one of his Copy Tokens damages your life points, you must discard the top two cards of your deck. That means you lose the top ten cards of your deck!" Kyoshi pointed right at Airos, snickering as the boy's duel disk whined in protest, spitting out five sets of two cards one after another.

Airos inserted all of the cards into his graveyard and bit his lower lip. ("Despite how low that damage was to me, it still cost me a lot of my deck.")

Kyoshi- 420

Ryumen- 420

Airos- 3300

Kyoshi glanced over at Ryumen. "You're up."

"And he's down." Ryumen drew the top card off of his deck and pointed right at Airos. "Go Ragumon, attack his life points directly!" His Guardian let out a howl of anger as it launched right at Airos like a missile, slamming its sword down onto the boy's invisible air barrier.

Kyoshi- 420

Ryumen- 420

Airos- 1200

Ryumen scoffed loudly and inserted his drawn card into his disk. "It's sad that you still think you can win against us now that our Guardians are out. Don't you get it yet…we're beyond your little Ryoka…"

Airos drew. "I first play Pot of Greed." Sliding the next two cards from his deck, he calmly held one card up. "Then from my hand I play Summoning Airs. For every magic and trap card in my graveyard, my life points will be increased by 100 points. Also, if the number of gained life points equals 2000 or more, I may special summon a monster card from my hand to the field." A green air fluttered around him and he threw a card onto his disk. "Come from the sky, Kaiser Glider!" (2400/2000) A large sleek golden dragon seemed to lower down from the sky, roaring its anger to the world. "Go Golden Burst!" He pointed right at Ragumon. "Destroy that annoying dog!"

"Who are you calling a dog, annoying Ryoka!" Ryumen pointed at his set card. "Go Redirection Gravity. This trap card will force your attack to be redirected to one target in play on the field, and that target is forced into defense mode if it isn't in that mode already."

The dragon roared and released a golden ball of fire that slammed into one of the Nezemura tokens and blew it apart. Airos scoffed in frustration before motioning at Kyoshi to take his turn.

The boy did so in earnest, ready to take revenge for the loss of one of his Guardian's copies. "Perfect, this card will be a nice surprise in case you get arrogant and try to attack. I'll place it face-down and now Nezemura and its tokens will attack your life points directly!" The four remaining rats ran right past the Kaiser Glider and slammed into Airos' wall harmlessly. "Heh, your deck will soon be gone."

Kyoshi- 420

Ryumen- 420

Airos- 2800

Airos removed the top eight cards of his deck and slid them into his graveyard slot. ("At this rate I'll lose in a couple of turns.")

Kyoshi motioned over to Ryumen. "Let's end it in the next couple of turns, okay? I'd rather not deal with that new Vanguard…I mean…he made level two in his first real duel."

"Right." Ryumen drew the top card of his deck. "I offer a monster card from my hand to activate a Vanguard ability of a level four. By discarding this card from my hand, I can add one equipment magic card from my Guardian Deck to my hand!" A card appeared in his hand and he snapped it up. "Go Mega Crusher!" A giant black claymore appeared in the place of Ragumon's normal weapon. "This powerful weapon raises my partner's attack points by 200, and any monster he destroys in battle has its effect negated. Go Ragumon, crush his last hopes of winning. And before you argue, Ryoka, remember that for every monster you have on the field, my monster powers up by 200." (2500/1600)

Ragumon came flying in, its new weapon held back to slash through the golden dragon easily. "It's the absolute end for you, fool! Once your pretty little golden dragon is gone, you'll be next!" Then the weapon came flying in towards the Kaiser Glider's body, only to go flying right into Airos' barrier instead. "Huh?"

"Reveal face-down card." Airos pointed at his now face-up trap card. "Aero Reversal activates when I have Rising Air Current in play. It negates your attack by redirecting it to me, but since I have a monster in play the second effect of Aero Reversal says that during this turn you cannot damage my life points."

Ryumen snarled and stomped his foot angrily. "What an annoyance…end turn." As Ragumon returned to his field, he felt his confidence rise once more. "You'll be crushed soon, you know that right?"

Airos closed his eyes and drew the top card of his deck. After looking at it he sighed. "Good, I was growing really tired of listening to your voices running. I activate Surpassing the Barrier on my Kaiser Glider!" His golden dragon roared and exploded into dust. "By destroying my Kaiser Glider, I can call upon my ultimate weapon!" A giant golden meteor could be seen in the distance some ways behind him. "A monster beyond human comprehension in its speed." Then they all disappeared within a burning meteor of golden light.

Kuruske braced himself against the nearly earth-shattering strength of the passing meteor, and when the dust cloud cleared he could only stare in amazement at what he saw. The field was empty, with the exclusion of a pair of glowing seals in the air that quickly faded to dust.

Kyoshi- 0/Vanguard Status Nullified

Ryumen- 0/Vanguard Status Nullified

Airos- 2800

Airos tugged on his shirt and brushed back his hair with a hand. "That's the end."

Both Ryumen and Kyoshi were completely out cold, blood coming from their ears.

("What…what an amazing power. What was that?") Kuruske was about to get up and start applauding, but from out of nowhere someone beat him to it. ("Huh?")

"That's a truly impressive feat." A voice spoke out, cultured and thick in an English accent. "Nothing human could have taken what you just summoned easily, so for that I commend you, strange Ryoka."

Airos narrowed his eyes. "I doubt you understand what I did…"

"Velocity Kaiser Glider (2600/2100) is the ultimate king of the skies. When it is summoned it immediately attacks the opponent directly through all negating effects, and the timing window for activating magic and trap cards against it is impossible to calculate…essentially, it cannot have a trap activated against it because nothing human or even superhuman moves fast enough to respond to such an attack. As such, you attacked their life points directly so quickly they didn't even realize they had lost."

The green-haired boy frowned. "It seems like our mystery guest has done his homework…but now I wish he would reveal himself already."

"Of course I shall introduce myself…" A tall form slowly walked into the moonlight of the parking lot, a strange air of energy coming from him. He had long black hair, and a pair of cold purple eyes. The clothing he wore was so ornate and body-encompassing Airos was amazed the man could move at all. "My name is Victoran Burenst, monarch of the Humanity Cross."

Airos felt like he was missing something deep concerning this guy, but he didn't really care. "I am Airos, which is all you should need to know. Now then, what is your business?"

Victoran looked down at his gloved hand, smiling calmly. "I must speak with your friend Shinsei."

"Friend? I think you're GAH!" Airos nearly launched himself into the air as Shinsei seemed to just appear right in front of him. "When did you wake up?"

"About two seconds before your little duel with those two guys began…thanks for giving me time to get something to eat. I felt so tired…" Readjusting his clothes, Shinsei smirked at Victoran. "Yeah, can I felt you with something? Or are you just here for the autograph of the soon-to-be king of Duel Monsters?"

Victoran closed his eyes and spoke calmly, unperturbed by the insolence of his target. "I have come to offer you a position at the lower levels of our prestigious sect. Considering your bloodline, you should be obviously honored that I'd even come to personally see you."

Shinsei felt his very body, from head to toe, bristle as this man talked. ("Something about him literally rubs me the wrong way…he's acting under a motive.") "And if I were to refuse this proposal, which I obviously freaking am?"

Victoran lifted up one gold armor-plated arm, which had a ridiculously fancy duel disk attached to it. "Then I must execute you."

Shinsei snickered. "Yeah, come and try…"

Victoran frowned deeply. "You don't know what you ask for, boy…"

"Sure I do. Show me your power in its fullest and maybe I'll consider your offer." Shinsei sneered and then stuck out his tongue. "Or are you afraid, gold-chan?"

Victoran's expression didn't change, but his duel disk did activate. "Execution it is then. So be it, come and take what you requested."

Shinsei snapped up his duel disk. "Good, I needed a warm up right after dinner!" His disk activated and he drew his opening hand. "Hey Airos, go check on Andrew and make sure he's okay."

"I'm not your errand boy, jerk." The green-haired boy walked over and rested his back against a nearby wall. "I'd rather watch this duel instead."

"Enough talk, your death waits." Victoran drew his opening hand. "Have you made your last will, boy?"

"Duel!" Shinsei smirked and slid the top five cards off of his deck.

Shinsei- 4000

Victoran- 4000

Shinsei removed the top card of his deck and smiled calmly. "I hope you're not just how you look on the outside…all glitter and no substance." Snapping up a card, he hoped he was right. "Go Polymerization! This magic card allows me to fuse monsters in my hand and field together to special summon a fusion monster from my fusion deck!" Holding up two more cards, he grinned as a pair of humanoids appeared on his field. One was a block-like humanoid made of clay, and the other was a superhero holding a large side at its side. "Elemental Heroes Clayman and Shieldman fuse together to create this!" Both monsters were sucked into a powerful vortex, and when it cleared there was an version of Clayman on the field holding a giant shield in front of it. "Elemental Hero Stone Shielder (0/2600) in defense mode! I place one card face-down on the field and then I end my turn."

Victoran sighed deeply and drew. "Are you prepared, foolish one?" As he said this, his entire body was nearly swallowed up in a powerful explosive blast of blue energy, which quickly surrounded him like a flame. "Your execution will be grand, I promise you that much for getting rid some of the Chaos Flame riff-raff for us."

Shinsei felt his left arm shudder and pop out of its socket, while the rest of him was nearly thrown across the parking lot. Screaming in pain, he dropped to one knee and the two cards he had in his hand dropped to the ground while he forcefully popped his arm back into place. "Shut up, you loud-mouthed royal pain in the ass!" Snatching up his two lost cards, he leapt to his feet and pointed right at Victoran. "Well, are you making your move or what?"

"Your Vanguard energy…" Frowning, the black-haired man reined in his powers a little bit, lest he shatter his opponent accidentally. "How did you beat another Vanguard? Your Vanguard energy is almost zero…and if this is after you rested, then there should be no excuse at all!"

"What are you babbling about? Let's just duel!" Shinsei tried to ignore the fact that his legs were trembling now. ("This guy is the real deal…a powerful opponent…a true challenge!")

Victoran narrowed his eyes and looked down at his deck. "It's such a shame I am using my Guardian Deck against you…but I thought you'd be better than this. Oh well, it is an execution after all."

"Stop calling it that! This is a duel!" Shinsei snarled despite his fear and pointed right at the man. "Now hurry and play your card!"

"Very well." Victoran held up one hand and a flurry of rose petals came out of nowhere, swirling around his field like they were trapped in a tornado. "May the heart of chivalry come here…bring yourself forth!"

A single cut appeared in the sky, and from within it emerged a silver-armored form holding a heavy bastard sword with one hand. It was a blond-haired and blue-eyed man…looking like the Prince Charming from almost every little girl's fairy tale. "Radiance of the Silver Heroes appears! Run in fear, villains!" (3400/2500)

Shinsei's eyes nearly exploded out of his head. "3400 attack points? And how did you summon your Guardian without using…"

"It is a power a level six Vanguard possesses…by discarding one Familiar Summon card from my hand or deck, I can special summon my Guardian at any time." Victoran held up a card. "Activate equipment magic card, Sword of Truth!" A glowing white sword replaced Radiance's normal sword. "The attack of Radiance increases by 2500 points and once per turn I can remove one magic or trap card from the game." Radiance aimed his blade at the face-down card on Shinsei's field, which dissolved into dust. (5900/2500) "Radiance, banish his monster from this realm!"

"Prepare yourself for combat!" The silver knight launched in and slashed right through the armored superhero, its body dissolving into little particles of air. "With my sword equipped, your monster is removed from the game as well."

Shinsei just stood there, even his eyes trembling in complete and utter fear. ("No…this isn't right…how can…")

Airos felt like passing out from the force of that aura, even in it's reigned in state. ("What in the name of hell is this guy?")

From his spot behind the wall, Kuruske pounded his fist into the ground a couple of times. ("This is far wrong! Damn it, why is he here? Wouldn't one of the top six duelists of the Humanity Cross have better things to do than go demolishing new Vanguards?")

"Well?" Victoran pointed at Shinsei. "The turn has gone to you, executionee."

Shinsei shakily drew, and slid the card into his disk. "Go Pot of Greed." Two cards left his deck, but he nearly dropped them because of how much his hands were shaking. Looking at the two drawn cards…Shinsei closed his eyes and suddenly felt better. "What am I so afraid of?"

"You're afraid because you should have accepted my offer…" Victoran crossed his arms across his chest. "Well, make your move already."

Shinsei felt a hand touch his shoulder. ("Kenshin…")

("I'm here partner…we won't lose to him if you believe in your deck and in what it represents. This man uses his influence and power to bully people around, that he does. And that cannot be allowed!") The samurai smiled slightly and faded away. ("Believe in yourself, and don't let his power worry you.")

Shinsei opened his eyes. "He's right! The duel's still on, and in this turn your Guardian is graveyard bound!"

To be continued…

To Neo Arkadia: The names Bob and Jim don't inspire fear though…hell, they don't inspire any emotion other than 'wow, that's really plain'.

To Seeker of the Soul: Trust me, Airos isn't in danger in losing that easily, even to a couple of Vanguards. He's a very powerful guy, for more reasons that one.

To john: Airos isn't a Vanguard, ya know.

To Isumo: Sure, you can use them. But for the love of the gods, look your fic's older chapters over and correct some of the name spellings. Kiba? Tamias? On that note, please list what cards you will be using in your next review, just to satisfy my curiosity as to what theme you're trying to fill anyway.