//------------------------------// // Roles We Play // Story: Puppets of Tragedy // by Iridescence T Wind //------------------------------// A deafening screeching groan accompanied the collapse of the massive stone doors that decorated the throne room. Inside was a room dimly lit with glowing blue mushroom lights alongside various softly glowing crystals. It was clear whoever this kings designer was for the castle had done a stupendous job, as its age was even evident without taking much of its dark glory through the years. The fancy rugs that must of once been red was a faded rotten black though, and that rug lead from the door up a set of stairs centered in the back of the room that elevated the throne itself higher into the air than any person in their right mind would sit at without seeming to all who looked upon it as safe. It would certainly give the Organization XIII thrones from kingdom hearts two a run for their money, as the throne itself was massive. Even more impressive in size and shape was the siren sitting on it. He was easily five men tall, and the doors that lead to this hallway weren't just for show where this one was involved. Aku restrained himself from matching the king size to size, it was surprise that could be saved for later after all. If I simply reacted it would mean that I was already on the losing side of this argument and that I felt threatened. The same would be the said if I made myself smaller than I already was with Aku. So instead, I went fully into character with Aku, his pointed glare being silent upon the king himself who returned it with eyes of cold amusement. Alongside his massive bulk, he seemed almost carved from interlocking pieces of stone, without scales or fur his body instead was similar to that of aging fake leather, only in a strange dark almost black purple rock instead of a softer substance. His eyes were like cinders and idly he chewed on gemstones with one hoof while his other rested upon the throne. his portraits and pictures did not do him any sort of justice, as the giant slowly eyed Aku up, and chuckled, "Who're you to oppose me, beings of shadows and flesh?" he spoke. Without any sense of grandeur or even the high society accent I had come to expect off the rich type of people that I had observed in my brief visits to Canterlot and Manehatten. Instead his voice spoke as if he were a lion, and Aku a mouse, "Do you think yourself a hero? To try and dethrone the rightful king of these lands?" "A Hero?" Aku repeated slowly, his eyes full of unknown malice, and his gestures almost condescendingly slow and grandeur present in his solid black form. Eyes narrowing; Aku continued, "Is that what you think I am?" "You come into my home, and talk to dethrone me in front of my servants, and you expect me to think of you as anything but a wannabe hero here to 'save the day'? Though I'll admit, I have yet to meet a creature as... interesting during my reign." Aku's eyes narrowed at the towering figure who's spiral fins framed a crown made of the same crystals he was munching on, "I can understand why you would think that." Aku said slowly, pronouncing each word carefully, with measured thought, "The assumption, however, that I am a good guy falls short, as you can probably tell. I, Aku the shapeshifting master of darkness is the opposite of what you would expect. I do not merely intend to free the people from your rule, but to conquer it, and set it under the shadow that is Aku." He sneered, "Good Luck with that shade. I am not just a king, but a god." he slowly rose off his throne, drawing out what looked similar to a sword but made out a heavy stone sword that was significantly different than most of the other rocks that made up this underground world, for one it had strange markings that glowed ominously with red tinted light. Great... Of course, I decided to pull a snazy one liner, and also one of my favorite quotes of all time. "Any man who has to say that he is a king, is no king." Aku told him, and with the coming battle, Aku started to grow to his full height. "Funny, coming from the shade who proclaimed his own title." the tyrant god-king replied, pointing his sword at Aku. Touche, Sharp, well played. At a hand gesture, Amber backed off. She was outclassed, but I could do with the morale support. To his sword, Aku was wary, but it didn't prevent him from changing his shape to one of the several animal motifs he was known for, in this instance, a gigantic Scorpion. The battle began. The speed of his first attack caught me off guard. For such a large creature I had been suspecting a lumbering clumsy giant, and it was the inverse. Aku's own claws was all that prevented him from being beheaded in that instant, as I caught the blade between them. "Oh, you caught it have we? Then this might be fun after all." I replied with a laser eye blast to his face. To my surprise he didn't even flinch, "Is that the best you can do?" Instead of replying with words, Aku let out a cackle, bringing his stinger to bear, aiming for his face, apparently the kings eyes weren't as willing to be struck as he avoided around the stinger to strike at Aku again. This time, I was prepared against his speed, and managed to dodge, only to discover that it was a feint and was punished with a nick to a claw. It sealed right back up, but it was disturbing. He was clearly a swordsman of considerable skill. I should of expected nothing less from an immortal. I struck back, alternating between my claws, tail, and a combination thereof while Davy Jones readied himself for combat. Up above, where we had entered this accursed city, puppets were getting into formation, infantry class puppets that were the minions of Aku. From below... well that was a surprise. He parried my blows, almost effortlessly, and countered when I had over extended my tail by cutting it off, hissing, Aku changed forms into that of a giant crab, enlarging one of his claws to act as a shield while the other struck at the tyrant by extending and yanking at the sirens lower fins whenever he struck. He got defensive after the first few blows managed to succeed in catching him off guard in the combat change, but soon enough he countered my shield and lance like tactic by cleanly slicing through both the shield and the grabbing claw. If I couldn't defend or attack against him with Aku, then I needed to try restraining him. To this end Aku grew further, the Siren was no Jack and was unaware of Akus powers of regeneration and immunity to standard damage. His sword may of had magical properties embedded within it, but the strikes themselves were with the basic parts of the blade. I lunged out my form, eight tentacle arms from seemingly nowhere. He didn't flinch, recoil, or try to run, instead he calmly diced through half of my arms and nicked almost the entirety of the rest before they acquired a grip around him. He studied Aku as the arms merely regenerated and recombined with Akus mass as they forced the tyrants kings arms to his sides, and held him into place. "So I see you rely heavily on magic." The tyrant king commented, as my pressure increased, "A good tactic... Against the magically inept, sadly for you." He took a breath in, and I realized too late what he was going to do. He shouted. Shockwaves emitting from his shout causing enough force to cause the room to shake and pry Aku off of him like loose slime into a wall. Through my link I had to remove Aku's hearing or else suffer being deafened myself. however, some damage was done and already I was starting to get a headache from the sheer volume that attack had been. Aku, pried himself from the wall, and the king started talking, probably about how he was superior in every way or some other piece of rotten cake at a birthday party. Aku deadpanned and gestured at where his ears would be if he had any. He looked more smug, and talked some more. So, I took some of my new reserves of energy and added it to Aku's next attack. Lasers spewed into a single point in front of Aku's mouth, and he breathed flames into that mass... Magical Lightning spewed from that single point, and struck the 'god-king' hard enough to send HIM into his throne, and break it and causing dust and bits of stray rock to spew everywhere. "How about them apples?" I snarked from base. Aku merely stood up silently in his default form and brushed himself off as the dust settled. The Tyrant King was getting back up, but he had a burnt spot on his chest... Okay that was an understatement, it was glowing bright red and it covered up one of his breast muscles. But his expression was absolutely livid. I turned on Akus hearing again to have some more mid-combat banter with the so called 'god', "You dare?!" He all but shouted, and I had to deafen the hearing down to as low as I could. He was bleeding, but not by much, I called out in Akus voice as a devilish retort, "I thought gods couldn't bleed. What with being omnipotent and all." With another shout shockwave heading towards us he charged, I had him dodge out of the way of both the shout and his sword swings as he resumed his assault. Aku blasting at him with magic while avoiding his attacks with forms like a snake and hawk, keeping a distance from the fighter lest my puppet get torn apart from the magnitude. Only a few minutes of tense dodging and attempted attacks passed by before the devilish serpent started to use his own magic. It wasn't subtle, not in any sense of the word, his voice had changed from blind yells to a song, I cursed silently, as his voice added its own chorus and music to the song as he began its lyrics. I had braced myself for a shockwave that didn't come, instead it was like an aura that passed over everything, and began to warm up. It was then that I realized my mistake in identifying him as an Earth class siren, he was different. For one, his fins didn't match up with the depiction, and the rest of the rock like armor that coated him slowly began to melt off of him like ice to water, only in this case, magma. His first spell Caught me by surprise, as lava dripped onto Aku from above, a large block of melting rock collapsing onto Aku and crushing his form underneath as well as creating a hole in his own pyramid. Aku reformed, out and around the molting hunk of sludge. I needed to move this plan outside, I had prepared for him to be an Earth user, but hopefully this would still work. Aku shifted into the form of a Chinese dragon and flew out of the hole he had made, as the pyramid collapsed. Aku was burnt beyond a regeneration ability, the material his mask having been made from not being a high enough quality to negate the damage. "There is a prophecy.... his voice rang out, "Of a distant fire king-..." He erupted from his pyramid, a strand of lava in tow, lifting him up into the air like a badass. "One born between union of fire and water. One born between-" I shut him up with a blast to the face. The music continued, however through the cavern as his voice echoed endlessly from his sheer volume. He coughed smoke and glared at me again, underneath his rock armor he was still massive, but glowing bright orange and red as fire decorated a mane that was now visible around his crown, which had somehow withstood his heat. "Sorry, as much as I want to hear your song." My voice sounded from an intercom, "You won't be getting an entire one off, if I can help it." "And who the heck are you?" Spark asked the air, looking around for me but not finding me. I chuckled grimly. "The guy who's going to beat you." I replied. He started to chuckle, then to laugh, "My destiny isn't to fall to no conjuration of darkness you little shades, not to a pony, griffon, siren, or dragon. I have slaughtered countless challengers during my reign and even more before that. What hope do you have against me? I am the legendary God-King and there is no stallion or mare that can defeat me!" Oh really now? Destiny had decreed that no Pony, Griffon, Siren, or even dragon could slay him? Good thing I was none of the above. Nor was any of the people fighting him. They were all puppets. He was asking for it. I knew he could be injured, he got another bleeding wound from that strike, a small cut on the face but it was proof enough, I took a cannonball through a portal into my room, ignoring the filling sea water as I started to paint a logo onto it, grinning maliciously in my room as I sent wave two forward, "How about this?" I replied over the intercom before all hell broke loose. Sheer numbers, that was the word that came to mind as I saw my waves of beetle like robots crawling in rapid pace out of the prepared holes in the ceiling. Airborne units armed to the teeth coming out like a freaking horde. Rocks started to fall as GLaDOS's mounted rocket turrets descended from the ceiling, armed with lethal rounds. It would be required for someone of his caliber. For the most part he looked bemused, "What are those? Insects? Really is that the bes-" He was getting annoying so I had Aku punch him in the face... With yet another laser. Repeatedly. The first three made contact before he started to play the dodging game, and then the scythe armed bug bots started to fall on him. He was able to massacre them easily, but they were serving their purpose. It was clear that I was going to need something with a bit more, for the lack of a better word, oomph to it. So I called to mind the most powerful cannonball I knew that a standard cannon could operate in a show. The complex shuddered as a blast of lava rammed into the hordes with all the force of an earthquake, and I paused momentarily to make sure that I didn't make a mistake on the logo I was painting on it. A picture of crossbones and a skull with a clown nose and a pair of plus shaped scars marked in the eyes. Next I'd have to quick dry it if I wanted to use it in time. Beside me, another pair of cannonballs were being similarly painted by robotic arms. Hopefully I wouldn't need more than one. But at the moment Aku was going to need even more help. The rest of the cannonball was painted red. The normal minions and even the special ones that were iconic to Aku were getting slaughtered by the angry tyrant. His sword was glowing red and hissing as oil and shadow as well as bits of blood rolled off of his blade. That was the good news. The bad news was that the runes in the sword had activated, and the result was, to be frank, terrifying. He was holding a giant flaming sword. There was no other way to describe that weapon than more over-sized than any jrpg blade that any fantasy hero could ever hope to wield. Worst yet, he held it in a way that suggested that it was no heavier to him than a pencil was to me. My eye twitched. At this rate Aku wouldn't survive, and he was one of my favored heroes. A trio of puppets spawned next to my chest and reached into it and grabbed out two masks and a crown... My concentration left the beetles to retreat and vanish as Aku held his own. The underside of my facility was heating up and I found myself replacing the ceiling and letting the old one fall into the water where they landed with a loud bubbling hiss and sank into the water. Aku was like an airborne snake, avoiding as much as he could while maintaining the bosses interests, doing all he could to avoid that ever glowing inferno that was his sword, and then his song started up again, but the lyrics were lost to the blazing fire and the sounds of magma hitting water. The caves walls were glowing and starting to melt, at this rate, I was growing even more worried. Aku was backed into a corner, the sheer size of the sword now having grown long enough that it should of been considered a giant freaking lance at this point of death and he prepared to deliver the final blow on Aku. Then was there was a noise clearly different than anything else that was going on. The sound of a whining engine. "Hey, Fire man." Mr.Freeze said as his gun went off, "I think you should... cool off." The angry fire siren tilted his head, still in song only to get his head struck with a beam of ice, and an explosion of steam rolling off him. It was just the opportunity I needed for Aku to vanish into a portal for recovery. Leaving three individuals standing before Sharp Opera as the steam cleared, a section of his head now covered in obsidian that slowly collapsed off and cooled, leathery skin, beneath him. He glared upon the Icy metal clad warrior, a blue robed old man with blue skin and a white beard, and a very angry and spiky looking turtle the size of two men. "Okay, what is with these people and Interrupting me?!" He shouted in annoyance.