Stardust Shimmer
One: Closed Forest
"Well, crud," the hero called Wildcat swore at the creature. It was... green, it had a huge club, and on closer inspection, it was armed.
On a closer look, Wildcat realised that the so-called clubs were its fists. Wonderful.
Weighing his chances, he studied its proximity to the hospital, and decided to chance distracting it away.
"Right here, bugger," his fists clenched. "Let's see how you dance-!"
He leapt out of the way as the beast tackled him from above, seemingly more nimble than the impression it gave as it swiped out for him. Wildcat hit true, dancing out of the way as it hit asphalt where he would have been earlier.
Then the other one came, and Wildcat had to moan at the unfairness of it all as he dodged the yellow one. There was a yellow one... great.
"And this is what I get for front-line missions," Wildcat growled as he jumped off th head of the green one, narrowly avoiding the fist that instead careened into the green monster's forehead as the yellow one was also hit by the green one's fist. Confusion quickly faded, though, as both rounded on the one hero and grabbed him. Twin fists rose and would have turned his skull into so much mush if not for a timely hand, or hands.
"They're stronger than I thought!" Superman hollered as he kicked at the thick fingers holding onto Wildcat. "I might need backup for this!"
"Water?" Wildcat suggested as a fire hydrant burst as the green one threw it at them.
"Guess again!" Superman roared as he punched the green monster back three feet, said beast ignoring it in favour of running for... Superman.
"Guh!" the Man of Steel was smashed into the road, before the yellow one took both his arms and pulled. The green one then stomped flat as the yellow one let go, and both rounded back to their original prey. "Nice guys," the Kryptonian was back up and holding the yellow one back with an arm. To his surprise, he was lifted and thrown away.
"They don't tire," Wildcat noted as he leapt away from an armoured fist. "Then we gotta do this the hard way."
"Psychic Duellist?" Laid out on the hospital bed, Crow Hogan was hardly complaining as he stared down at the wreckage. People might envy his position, directly over the fight to see the heroes of the Justice League in action. He knew better.
"Gah!" He moved his head to avoid the wreckage flying in. "Are these guys after Momentum as well?"
The door to his room crashed open, Yusei and the tiny Seika tumbling in and slamming the door after them. The door shuddered with a few thuds, and then fell silent as the edges around it froze.
"She's locked us in," Yusei realised. "Oh, no. Crow, watch Seika. I'm going to get Setsuka."
"Hah?" Crow indignantly retorted even as he held onto the ten-year-old girl. "She's a Psychic Duellist, way beyond Aki! She could probably kick their asses already!"
"She's eleven!" Yusei wrenched the frozen door open to grab another short, dark-haired figure before slamming the door shut. "Never mind."
Setsuka was breathing hard, and there were twin spots of colour on her pale cheeks, but otherwise she looked fine. "That was Ancient Crimson Ape let loose in the hospital," she began. "Outside was-"
"Green Baboon and Yellow Baboon, I know," Crow sighed. "And more beasts."
Trees began to grow outside, sealing off all view.
"Closed Forest," Setsuka nodded at the dark foliage. "Not Forest, and not Ancient Forest. Closed Forest."
"A Beast deck." Yusei came to the same conclusion.
"It's a Psychic Duellist," Setsuka nodded. "Those two outside, fighting the Green, are not the most protected of minds. They'll lose."
"This isn't Neo Domino, we can't just walk out and challenge the guy," Crow joked. His grin faltered at the look in Yusei's face. "Yusei?"
"That's an idea," Setsuka agreed, her face carefully blank.
"Wait, I was joking! You'll really die if you walk out there!" Crow panicked.
Seika sniffed nervously, and the lights overhead flickered.
"We don't have any other options," Setsuka considered. "Seika-han. Be strong, okay? The professor is going to fix this."
"I feel jealous of the girl right now," Crow muttered as Seika stopped sniffing.
"It's three stories," Yusei considered the height. "How exactly am I-?"
"In this situation, the knight should arrive on a white horse," A glow sent shivers of cold down his spine as he slowly turned around. "Or, in this case, a dragon. Is this sufficient?"
"These two are strong..." Superman grunted as he pushed with all his not-inconsiderable strength against the arms of both. "Wildcat?"
Standing on the back of the green simian, Wildcat grunted. "Almost- Argh!" the yellow baboon slammed a large hand over him.
"Let go!" a white claw swiped at the hand, another arm reaching out to rescue Wildcat and sling him onto the back of a- dragon?
Superman stared as the majestic white dragon descended on wide wings to the road, both its riders disembarking as the dragon itself, a thing of icy beauty, began to fade into auroras.
"Never again, I'll never understand Seto Kaiba's dragon fetish..." the strange rider, wearing a blue shirt, dark pants with a belt, and good shoes muttered, unlocking a strange device on his arm. "Are you alright?"
"Never better, thanks there, sonny," Wildcat acknowledged. "What are you doing?"
The strange man took a deep breath. "I know you're there, Psychic Duellist! I challenge you!"
"Oh?" Both beasts and a third red monster walked out, parting ways as a man with brown hair walked out. "You're... Yusei Fudo. I remember you. What an honour, to be challenged by the man acknowledged as the Duel King!"
"And you are? Why are you doing this?" Yusei insisted as the dark foliage around them faded off to the normal Metropolis street. "There are innocent people inside that hospital!"
"So?" the man answered. "What about it?"
"For you to attack innocent people, where's your basic decency?" Yusei retorted. "If I win, you turn yourself in. If not, you walk free from me. How about that?"
"Hey!" Wildcat struggled to sit up.
"You go get help," Yusei answered him. It was a while before the hero got up towards Superman. "So, what do I call you?"
"I call myself Beast in our organisation," the man answered, his own DuelDisk out. "Shall we?"
"Duel!" both announced as counters flashed by their sides.
Yusei: LP 4000
Beast: LP 4000
"What are you guys doing?" Superman called. "We're currently in a war-zone!"
"As I'm the challenged, I go first," the man smirked as he grew a hand of six... cards? "I summon Giant Rat [1400/1450] in attack mode! I then set two cards and end my turn."
"Giant Rat?" Yusei twitched. "I see. Draw! I summon Fortress Warrior [600/1200] in defence mode. Then I set two cards and end my turn."
"You're pathetic," Beast snickered. "Since you won't play with me, I play the Spell, Tribute Doll, tributing my Giant Rat for Ancient Crimson Ape [2600/1800]." the giant rat was replaced with a large, hulking red-skinned beast moments later. "Then, I activate my reliable sanctuary, Closed Forest."
"For each monster in the graveyard, each Beast Type monster gains one hundred attack points," Yusei nodded. "And there's only one right now."
"Brilliant," Beast snickered as the crimson ape glowed [2600/1800 → 2700/1800]. "I normal summon Key Mouse [100/100 → 200/100] in defence mode. Turn end."
"Draw!" Yusei answered, staring at the cute little mouse with a key on its tail. "I activate the Spell, One for One, sending Quillbolt Hedgehog to the grave to summon Tuningware [100/300]. Then, I discard A/D Changer to special summon Quickdraw Synchron [700/1400] from my hand. Tuningware can be treated as a level two monster in a Synchro Summon. I tune level two Tuningware to level five Quickdraw Synchron. Gathering feelings will now become a new force! Become the path its light shines upon! Synchro Summon! Blaze on, Nitro Warrior [2800/1800]!"
"So that's one of the famous warriors behind Yusei Fudo," Beast admired as it was summoned, a green behemoth complete with nitrogen engine. "So?"
"Due to Tuningware I can draw one card," he proceeded to draw.
"What about it?" Beast smirked. "It's like those weak beings in the hospital!Defenceless, incapable, and human. I'll show them, how it's like to face what they showed me!"
"To attack innocent people like that... you are the worst!" Yusei retorted in disgust. "I normal summon Nitro Synchron [300/100]! I tune Nitro Synchron to Fortress Warrior! Synchro Summon! Come, Armoury Arm [1800]!"
"Interesting," Beast muttered darkly.
"I equip Armoury Arm to Nitro Warrior , giving it an increase in attack of one thousand points! [2800/1800 → 3800/1800]." Yusei continued. "Furthermore, in this turn if I activated a Spell card, Nitro Warrior gains one thousand more attack power by its own effect [3800/1800 → 4800/1800]. By effect of Nitro Synchron, I draw a card. I equip Nitro Warrior with Fighting Spirit, giving it a further increase of three hundred points per monster, but that doesn't matter. I activate Release Restraint Wave!"
"Crap," Beast finally swore as all his traps were blown away and Fighting Spirit shattered.
"Nitro Warrior, attack Ancient Crimson Ape!" Yusei called. "Dynamite Knuckle! This turn, you're finished!"
"Even if Nitro Warrior destroys the ape, I'll still keep my life points!" the opponent retaliated.
"Armoury Arm means that when the equipped monster destroys a monster by battle, the destroyed monster's attack points are inflicted as damage," Yusei pointed out as Nitro Warrior crashed into the ape and made history of being one of the most one-sided Duels ever.
Beast: LP 0
Yusei: LP 4000
"So, will you turn yourself in?" Yusei offered.
"Like hell!" the man slapped a card down, calling the Ancient Crimson Ape in hand. "Get him!"
"So, I just have to break these, right?" Superman flashed out of nowhere, easily putting a fist through the Duel Board, causing the holograms to flicker.
"They're holograms!" Wildcat hissed.
"Made real by that guy's powers," Yusei pointed. "That..."
"Was frankly not very challenging as a Duel," another voice from a third-storey window piped up. "Yo, Yusei! You totally kicked his ass!"
"Crow, you're supposed to stay in bed rest," Yusei pointed out, looking up at the grinning man with orange hair whose head was suspended out of the window. "Setsuka, is everyone okay?"
"Oi, believe in my parenting skills even when I'm injured!" Crow retorted indignantly -and loudly- as a tiny girl with long dark hair glared at him with chips of ice from the window.
"They're fine," the girl admitted. "The Ape left when you challenged him. So, what do we do now?"
"Relocate," Yusei grimly informed them, ignoring the other two battered heroes. "They're probably after that. Nakamura San should be on his way here in a few moments, get ready to leave."
"Who are you?" Superman demanded as the two faces disappeared. "Who was that?"
"A Psychic Duellist, someone capable of inflicting real damage through Duel Monsters," Yusei answered. "Oh, right. I'm Yusei Fudo, nice to meet you."
"Ah, same here. What do you mean by Psychic Duellist?" Superman nodded.
The young man's face twisted into a slight frown. "There's no way of truly describing one."
"Either way, thank you for distracting the man, but you were putting your life at stake challenging him like that," Wildcat cautioned. "We can't involve civilians like this."
Yusei indicated the hospital with one hand. "He was attacking the hospital. I took the most appropriate course of action. No superhero involvement."
The squeal of car tyres alerted all of them as a Mercedes, the rented kind, drove up to the hospital as two little girls exited and the driver, a barrel-chested middle-aged man in a formal suit exited, clearly intending to pick up both girls.
"Nakamura San!" Yusei called. "Ah, if you'd excuse me, I have to oversee my charges. Perhaps we can leave the questions to some other time?"
"Odd man," Wildcat concluded as the dark-haired man ran off towards the Mercedes. "Nice style though."
"He jumped straight into danger, without any backup!" Superman argued.
"No, there's a difference between running into danger without a plan, and running knowingly into danger," Wildcat shook his head. "That guy, he knows his tactics. He told us to wait for a chance to break the other's device. He's dealt with... Psychic Duellists like this before. Psychic Duellist... was that in the news?"
"We'll have to check," Superman answered. "Yusei Fudo..."
"What manner of man is he?" Wildcat finished.
Both girls sat in silence in the back seat, with Yusei riding shotgun and Nakamura driving as the rented Mercedes took off.
"How was your visit, Miss Setsuka?" Nakamura questioned, focused on driving. "Was the exhibition sufficiently interesting?"
"Eventful," Setsuka answered absently. "And interesting. We shall be going there again, Nakamura San."
"Yes, Miss Setsuka."
"Interesting?" Yusei echoed. "Setsuka, I don't believe you had any interesting in advanced physics."
"Setsu-chan?" Seika timidly asked. "Erm, ah... you don't have to come if you don't want to..."
"It's fine, Seika-han," Setsuka assured the other girl. "Perpetual motion has quite an... interesting background."
Seika frowned. "Setsu-chan, you ignored the man to look at your cards."
"He was boring," Setsuka replied. "You fell asleep when he was talking about solar energy."
"I don't have the brainpower to understand, Setsu-chan!"
"No," Setsuka ruffled black strands with a fond hand. "No, you don't. Maybe we can find a place to duel later, yes? That should be well within your ability."
"Really?" Seika brightened. "Yay!"
"We still need to make an appointment with Izayoi Sensei," Yusei pointed out. "She knows many people who can help with your problems, Seika, Setsuka."
"My problems come from my parents," Setsuka defended. "There's nothing wrong with them. Nakamura San knows that, even before they died."
Nakamura winced. "Miss Setsuka, your parents wished for you not to inherit the worst of their gifts, which unfortunately, you did inherit, along with your mother's intelligence. The least you could do is live as they would have wished for you."
"Live, without seeing my partners in duels, and without being able to fight," Setsuka considered. "I don't know that."
"Setsu-chan is so cool, to see Duel spirits!" Seika cooed happily.
"The ability to see Duel spirits is known to diminish in adulthood," Yusei considered. "While psychic powers are hardly understood, there is a chance that your sight may grow to not see them throughout puberty."
Setsuka frowned. "...oh. I see. However, I'm not the problem here, remember?"
Both men kept silent as Seika looked from the glaring little girl to the two silent men. "Eh?"
There was a crash as the car shook and swerved, tyres screeching against asphalt as the Mercedes kept to the roads and narrowly avoided the pavements.
"W- What was that?" Seika piped up nervously.
Yusei glanced at the rear-view mirror to see another unremarkable black car with tinted windows. "We're being... crashed?"
"In Metropolis?" Nakamura echoed. "Superman would be coming pretty soon."
"It's Psychic Duellists again," Setsuka murmured as she looked out. "See? A Gene-Warped Warwolf." Her face twisted. "That's... pretty sick. How is that a wolf?"
Yusei glanced out at the white beast-warrior running after them. "Persistent..."
"Nakamura San, focus on escape," Setsuka relayed, glaring into the mirror. "They're after Clear Mind, so they won't hurt us too badly. Take this chance."
"Yes, Miss Setsuka." Nakamura swerved around a corner. "Shall I apply the Duel override?"
"You have a Duel override installed in here?" Yusei perked up.
"It was an offer from the car company. The Madame was particular about vehicles in which she could use her powers to defend herself with," Nakamura elaborated.
"I don't think that car has a Duel system," Yusei pointed out.
"Why would it need one?" Setsuka answered as part of the back of the front seat unfolded to reveal a Duel console. "Hmm... Ice Master!"
Behind the car, the ice-armoured magician faded into existence, aiming at the car which froze and skidded across the road in its tracks, tumbling over upon hitting the kerb and into the arms of the bulletproof Superman.
"There we go," Setsuka leaned back into the upholstery with a satisfied sigh and Seika cheering.
Yusei kept frowning throughout the ride as the Mercedes swerved away.
Please review!
Stay tuned for the next turn: Fairy Meteor Crush. Duel, Acceleration!