Part 7: Back from the past
Lord Razer: He's been dead mostly. Probably not a great time for him, or at least not the first part of it. And yes, HIM is alive in this story and you're right that he didn't just give his daughter away (he traded her to Junior for a Wii! (kidding, though I should use that in an actually story sometime)).
DPSS: I know, right?
1. You have no idea how literally that statement is going to be applied.
2. You're half right and not far off.
3. Fair enough.
4. Good guess and certainly something HIM would do, though I like to imagine his deals have more of an element of tragedy to them, where he leaves it more open for the person he made the deal with to screw everything up and know it was all their fault that things went bad.
5. I guess, but I mean, come on, it's Jeff! He's just so…Jeff! How can you fear a guy like that? (except when he gets angry. He's actually very scary when he gets like that, if memory serves right)
nightmaster000: Thank you for the compliment. I always get worried when I upload a chapter about how good it actually is, especially when it takes a while between uploads, as I used to upload chapters a lot more frequently.
I'm glad you caught the sword thing, as I don't know how many others have gotten that yet (though, to be far, I hadn't used it a lot in the last chapter), but yes, Jack's sudden reappearance is connected to the break-in at Mandy's vault and his sword is one of the few items that are still missing (so I guess in a way Junior and Daniela succeeded in trying to help, though through no intention of their own (hooray for dumb luck!)).
And on a last note, for now Manny and Daniela don't know or even have any clue that Dan is their real father, as Mandy and Grim never had any reason to tell them. In fact, Daniela is the only one of the two whom has met him so far and she had no idea who he was. That isn't to say that they aren't smart enough to realize that Grim isn't their birth father. In fact, they do have suspicions about another ghost who they think could be their father.
Emeraldalex123: You know, I don't think I've ever really thought about a disabled Underworld being, power-wise I mean. A creature that is unable to do what just comes naturally to its species. I suppose Minnie kind of is in a way. Her father, Nergal Jr, seems to be a far superior shapeshifter than his father but Minnie, who in the comic is the same age as he appeared to be in the show, is nowhere near as powerful as he was at that age, despite being a gifted and very brilliant child. I'm guessing it's because she's only a quarter Nergal and her human biology can't be morphed as well as her Nergal parts can. I suppose I can seehow the same could happen to Chi and it is an interesting thing to think about. Usually with humans breeding with gods or demons you just think of the powers stacking but at some point some of the biology just can't agree with each other. I'll have to keep this all in mind.
And yeah, I don't know where the lamps and nightstands thing came from. I think I just thought it up one day and it just kind of stuck around in my head until I could finally use it somewhere. It still think it's weird that I did that but at least that's a less awkward thing for Daniela to walk in on Junior and Ikra doing.
As for Daniela's ecto-ball practice, it is partly due to self-esteem but the main problem is that she lacks the power and stamina to keep it going for that long. The technique is meant to teach control and power, kind of like the Rasengan in Naruto. Daniela has perfect control over her abilities but her raw physical power has basically remained the same since she was a kid, which is to say there is not that much and thus she doesn't have the power or stamina needed to keep the energy maintained for long periods of time. It just fades away once she isn't able to keep it going anymore. Manny has the opposite problem, where he has a lot of power but doesn't bother to control or maintain any of it. It's just that Daniela is more bothered by her problem than Manny is by his because she lives in a family of very powerful beings, her mother being right at the top in her mind and someone she could never hope to live up to.
AMTT94: I do really like some of your guesses and theories. Don't worry, I will have Junior and Minnie's relationship expanded upon as the story gets further, as to me that is one of the most important relationships in Grim Tales.
TexasGunKing: I see no shame in your eagerness as it is understandable why you'd want to know. I'm still working out the details as to how everyone's relationships with each other will progress throughout the story so there is that possibility but given that I'm trying to make this more of a story than a lemon, when the events get more hectic and Junior and Daniela get a lot more crap thrown at them (and they will), sex will not be an immediate priority for them. That being said I should definitely make a JuniorXDaniela lemon for the oneshot collection at some point, there was a suggestion I saw in jubebubee961's lemon collection made by nightmaster000 that might be kind of fun to do, as it does have many similarities to this story (mind you the suggestion was made before I made this story). If you have any suggestions for a Junior/Daniela lemon I'd be very happy to hear them.
desdelor97: Thank you.
Guest: And thank you too.
Chapter start:
Years ago, at the fall of Megaville:
With the slash of his sword, another lava creature fell. How many like it he had slain, Jack had lost count.
The samurai held the katana tightly with both hands, waiting to face his next opponent. Whether it'd be another single combatant or an entire legion that would be sent at him next, Jack had fought enough of both today to make them all blend together in his mind.
His shaking hands caused the blade to tremble, though it was not out of fear or excitement, just simple exhaustion. His legs felt almost nonexistent, like if he were to take a single step away from this spot he would collapse and be unable to stand again. The upper half of his white robe was completely torn away, revealing his bloody and scarred chest. Though he was a warrior greater than most, he was not perfect, as every bruise, cut, and gash across his body proved.
He'd been fighting for hours, this small lull in the battles being one of the very few opportunities he'd had to catch his breath, hard and heavy as it may be. Oddly enough, it was this lulls that the samurai seemed to hate the most, as the break in combat left him undistracted and his eyes couldn't help but gaze over the ruins of the city all around him. Everything he saw was simply rubble, the broken or burned bits of buildings and concrete, and the remains of fallen friend and foe alike.
The start of the fighting had been bad, he and the others being almost completely overwhelmed by the unholy forces that stormed the city. And slowly the fighting became worse, as while the enemy's forces thinned, so too did theirs.
Until he was the only one left standing in this section of the city.
Jack heard and felt the movement behind him, quickly turning towards it. Standing before him, so tall his frame nearly blotted out the sun as Jack stood in his shadow, was a monster. But not the monster who'd caused all this misery.
"Aku!" Jack exclaimed with distain as he kept his sword firmly guarded against the mighty Shogun. "I should have known you had a hand in the horrors of this day."
"Temper your sword, samurai." Aku said, raising his hand to pause him. "Even I am not so morally atrocious to take credit for the work and manipulations of my dear friend. My presence in this battle is solely as an observer. An observer with questions."
Jack raised his eyebrow to Aku, not quite understanding what he meant. "What do you want, demon?" Jack said evenly, though still keeping his sword ready between them, as more than anyone else Jack knew what a deceiver Aku could be.
"Why do you continue to fight, samurai?" Aku asked him.
"What do you mean?" Jack replied.
"…This world is not like the one we came from, samurai." Aku began after a moment. "The world that no longer exists, or, if it does, it is in a place we cannot reach. The world where I was king and you the one who sought to end my evil before it ever even began. The world where I committed hundreds of tragedies such as this during the time when you were still on your way to the future where I ruled. I remember slaughtering the same heroes as Kare has this day and laughing just as him. I remember the world we came from before you brought us here and the lifetimes we spent there are hard not to compare to this new world, is it not?"
Jack said nothing, wondering where he was going with this. He could not help but notice that Aku was not talking in his usual mocking tone. He was speaking very seriously and possibly even with a hint of sullenness, like he had been thinking about all this for a while now.
"You found a way back and I chased after you, a last ditch effort to prevent you from undoing the future I had created. But to little success, relatively speaking. You destroyed my past self, unsticking me from time and putting me under the watch of Clockwork, whom has promised to wipe me from existence should I ever meddle with time again. You chased me back down into the Underworld and ensured that I would no longer be as active a threat to the mortal world again. And you, still the warrior stuck in a time not his own, made the most of it and went on to explore this new hopeful world and inspire this timeline's heroes to a future that was not like mine."
"What is the point of this speech, Aku?" Jack asked.
Aku eyed Jack carefully. "With this world not like ours, why do you still fight for it?" He asked again. "Even at the darkest times and trials I put you though, there was always that hope that if I had not sent you into the future, you could have stopped me. That, had you been there, the evils I committed never would have occurred. But this time, in this world, there is no jumping back to undo the evils that have been caused this day. Everyone who cares about saving this city is already here, and has already fallen. Even those you've taught whom you believed would take us into a better future have either already realized the hopelessness of their situation or have met the same end as they would have in our world."
Aku gestured over the rubble and Jack didn't even have to look to know what it was Aku was referring to. The black haired woman clad in green garb who's death was caused in saving his own life during the battle. The student who gave her life for her master. Jack could even bring himself to look at what remained of her.
"What more can be done that hasn't already been done?" Aku asked. "Why continue to fight when this world cannot be saved like ours could?"
For a long moment, Jack did not answer back.
Now:
So caught up in his disbelief Aku nearly failed to react to the samurai's sudden leap at him from the broken open floors of the palace, his sword catching the light as it flew up towards him.
Moving at the last possible moment Aku's body shifted around the blade before it made contact, the samurai's attack hitting nothing but open sky. His dark form gliding along like a flying serpent, Aku dropped Chi and Daniela close to the ground before quickly going back to meet his enemy. "Flee from this place, my child! Flee!" He yelled to his daughter as she landed on her hands and knees. Daniela landed besides her, her ghostly form giving her a bit of a softer landing.
Despite her father's words Chi found she could not run, for before her was a sight very few had ever been fortunate and unfortunate to see. Her father morphed into a large black scorpion, nearly the size of a whale, as the samurai fell back down towards him from above. Aku's tail stuck at the airborne warrior but Jack blocked the beast's stinger with the edge of his sword. As Jack threw the stinger away from him with the force of his sword Aku's claws darted up at him. Jack only barely managed to avoid the first claw's snap by bouncing off the appendage the second his sandals touched it. He propelled himself into the second claw and bounced off that one as well, this time at an angle that flew him quickly to the ground. The moment he touched down onto the cobblestone he launched himself forward, swinging his sword before him to cut through all of the legs on the scorpion-Aku's left side. A yell of pain was heard throughout the compound but before Jack could get any further behind him Aku's tail bent over and wrapped itself around the samurai's leg before throwing him far forward into the compound wall.
It seemed to happen in almost the blink of an eye as Aku's form had shifted to that of a massive octopus, his eight long limbs reaching out to the palace and the walls around him as he stretched himself back like a slingshot. Launching his large center body forward Aku again transformed, this time into a ram. Using this new forms great speed along with the force gained by his previous maneuver, Aku slammed his horns into Jack. The samurai managed to prevent taking the full hit of the horns by blocking them with his katana but the impact was still great enough to send him nearly halfway through the wall, as evidenced by the large crater impression that they made into it.
As the two enemies pushed against each other the demon's eyes lit up, signaling he was about to blast the samurai. Reacting to this Jack spun himself around the demon, letting Aku slide from the blade's edge and smack him head into the wall, as he'd still been trying to keep the force on. With his opponent's back now exposed Jack slashed him right down the middle. The two halves of Aku flared up with pain but then stretched themselves out like a pair of giant hands reaching out for him. They slammed together and would have had Jack caught between them had he not leapt back in time.
The hands opened back up again, this time as a pair of large bat-like wings. Aku's body gained mass before he turned his head to face Jack again, this time in the form of a long-necked dragon. As one would expect, Aku's next move was the onslaught of fire that came spewing from his mouth. Jack leapt above to avoid it but Aku had been counting on him to do so, flapping his wings to create a sudden gust of wind that sent the samurai tumbling while still in the air, causing him to lose his sense of direction and control.
Snapping his jaws forward, Aku caught Jack and swallowed him.
Unfortunately, as he quickly realized, though his mouth had caught the samurai, none of his teeth had. Meaning he'd just swallowed him whole. Meaning…
The fabled katana's blade struck out through the center of the demon's stomach and Jack pushed his way out, freeing himself from the creature's belly.
Aku transformed to attack again, this time with the attack Jack blocked being from another sword. Aku had transformed into Ikra, striking at him with an irregularly shaped black sword.
"How?" She said through gritted teeth as her blade struggled against his. "How are you alive? I was there! I saw you! I saw you die!"
Jack said nothing in response, his eyes simply staring out at her from under the shadow of his hat.
While the two continued to fight Daniela slowly stood back up, her ghost powers now having fixed up her broken nose. As she did what she could to wipe the dried green blood away from her face, Daniela felt completely lost on what to do. Like Chi next to her Daniela could not take her eyes off the fight between the two old enemies. For a second she was almost tempted to say that they should join in but quickly declared that as foolhardy, for if one of the Big Five lords was having trouble against an opponent like this, what possible chance could she have?
"Lady Chi." Daniela said, gently pushing the older woman's shoulder to try and get her attention. "Lady Chi, we need to get out of here!"
It took a moment before even responded. "W-what?" She said, still a bit shaken up.
"We need to go." Daniela repeated.
Chi looked back and forth between the battle and the girl and her own urge to help her father became overwhelmed as her side burned with the memory of the blade's sting.
"Alright." Chi said, giving a nod to Daniela, deciding it'd be a better idea to get reinforcements to help them instead of just fighting the warrior on their own.
The two women turned to run towards the palace and Jack, his sword still beating against Ikra's, did not fail to notice, instantly becoming alerted that they were about to get away.
It was as if she just blinked and Jack was gone, Ikra's sword hitting nothing but air as it made another swipe at where he had been. Ikra's eyes shifted to behind her and saw the samurai running at the two girls, his sword held in both hands as his blade prepared to meet them.
"CHI!" Ikra cried out.
Chi's slows slowly gazed behind her and for a moment she could almost see her reflection in the blade as the samurai brought in down upon her.
But Daniela, acting at the last possible moment, threw herself between the two, her back facing the blade as she tried to push Chi out of the way. It was a blow that could have been fatal for the young girl, had it actually cut her. The reason it did not was because of something even Daniella had forgotten about: she was still carrying the Scotsman's sword on her back. When the katana's blade came at her, the rune sword took the hit for her, the impact of the two indestructible blades hitting each other causing enough force to push Daniela into Chi as she tried to push her away. The impact caused the large blade to be knocked off Daniela's back and away from her but that was not something she cared much about at the moment.
Reacting in a split-second, Daniela wrapped her arms around the older woman's torso as she turned them both intangible and flew straight up, putting some distance between them and the ground, and thus the warrior as well.
Chi looked with some shock as they made their way further upwards. "You…you just saved my life."
Daniela gave a small shrug. "Well…yeah. I mean, you did the same for me earlier."
Chi was almost tempted to give her a small smile but then looked behind the younger girl. "Watch out!" She yelled as the samurai leapt up at them, travelling several feet up in a single bound as he still attempted to catch the girls. Whether or not the magic sword would be able to harm their intangible forms, thankfully Chi and Daniela did not need to find out, as Aku's giant black fist caught the samurai in midair and slammed him into the ground below.
"You dare try to harm my child?!" Aku roared. "You dare?!" The samurai struggled to free himself as his sword stabbed through the demon's hand as it held him down, though in Aku's enraged state he hardly noticed the pain. The demon's eyes glowed bright white as he stared down at his enemy until finally the energy that built up behind them was unleashed. Lasers of unimaginable heat and force stuck the area where Aku held the samurai down, the sheer power of the lord's blast causing the entire palace the shake by its very foundation.
"Holy…" Daniela couldn't help must mutter as the onslaught ended. Where the samurai had been pinned was now nothing more than a smoking black crater, with the ground and compound wall behind it having been completely obliterated simply due to being so close to the blast's point of impact.
Aku held his arm back up to himself and regrew his hand, as it had been caught in his attack as well. He flexed his fingers to get the feeling back into them and couldn't help but notice how hard he was breathing.
"That attack did not used to tire me out this much." He commented to himself. "I've let myself become horribly out of shape during these past years."
After a moment of lamenting Aku turning to Chi and Daniela, glad to see them a bit shaken but still relatively uninjured.
The shadow then fell across Aku's face. A shadow that slowly began to get larger. Aku looked up and saw, to his horror, what cast it.
It was the samurai, falling down from the sky above, his sword catching the light as it descended downwards towards the demon's head.
"No…!"
"FATHER!" Chi screamed as the blade connected. The sword cut effortlessly through the top of the demon's head and was met by little resistance as he traveling down the ruler's black body, the sword tearing through him as he went.
Aku could not even scream, so blinding was the pain. His body was split into two halves and the blade's magic ate away at both halves where they'd been cut. In an effort to save himself Aku's two halves quickly morphed back into one and compacted their densities together in an effort to heal his wounds as quickly as possible. Aku fell to the ground, exhausted but alive. His form was the same as it'd been before but now was a height equal to that of his old enemy, too tired and injured to go any bigger.
Jack now stood over him, sword held tightly in his hand as looked down at the demon.
"I always knew…even after you passed…that my end would still somehow come by your hand." Aku panted. "I accepted that fate a long time ago."
Aku tensed himself, ready for what would come next. But Jack made no move to raise his sword at him again, much to Aku's confusion. He just continued to stared at him from under his hat.
"What are you waiting for? Do it!" Aku demanded.
Again, Jack said nothing, just continuing to stare down at the ruler. But finally he did make a move and it was to turn away from Aku and redirect his attention towards Daniela and Chi.
"Wh-what? No! I am your enemy! Your battle is with me, not my daughter!" Aku quickly yelled at the samurai when he realized what he was going to do. "I am the one who destroyed your homeland! I am the one who stranded you in time! I am the one who has harmed you! She has nothing to do with this!"
But Jack ignored his word, holding his sword up in both hands as he prepared for his attack.
"Please!"
Jack leapt forward at the girls.
"NO! Leave her alone!" Aku screamed as his arm stretched out after him. The samurai took notice of the arm coming after him and prepared his sword to cut it down.
But before the hand reached or he'd had a chance to cut it, a different black hand grabbed the warrior by the ankle. It happened so fast that both Jack and Aku were surprised by its sudden appearance. The hand belonged to a large hulking beast, nearly twice the size of Jack and three times as wide due to its sheer muscle mass. It took Aku a minute to realize that the creature was Chi, recognizing his long orange hair as it flowed down the creature's backside and its almost gear-like emerald green eyes.
Having pulled the samurai out of the air in mid-attack Chi crushed his ankle in her hand as she quickly smacked Jack against the ground, face-first. She then lifted him back up and did it again on her other side. And then again. And again. And again, tossing him back and forth in rapid succession, cracking the ground with every impact of the samurai's body. On the last toss she let him go and his broken body skipped like a stone across the courtyard lawn. Chi then quickly ran over to her father, morphing back into her normal form as she did so.
"Father, are you alright?" She asked worriedly as she helped him up. Aku could see it in her eyes how scared she was, though whether it was herself or him he could not say. "I've…I've never heard you beg before."
"Chi…listen to me…" Aku said as he tried to stand. "You must flee now. You cannot beat the samurai on your own and he…he is not how he once was. Something has changed him. Made him far more of a dangerous opponent than he was when I fought him in my youth."
"Father, I will not just leave you or our kingdom to the hands of…of…!" Chi trailed off and Aku could clearly see the reason why. Both looked over and saw the samurai get up from where Chi had left him. His back was turned to them as he bent over to pick up his hat, as it'd been knocked off when she'd been thrashing him around. And when he put the hat back on, it was at a 45-degree angle. His neck as broken and sharply bent to the side. The hand that'd placed the hat back on had at least three fingers bent upwards in ways they were not supposed to go. He was clearly supporting himself up on one leg as the other was just a twisted, mangled mess that hardly resembled a leg anymore, his other arm was bent completely backwards, and, though his robe's thickness made it hard for them to say for sure, they were fairly certain that the entire left half of his ribcage had collapsed inwards.
The fact that he could get up so calmly despite all these injuries was not what surprised the two. The fact that these injuries were starting to heal themselves was.
Even from where they were standing they could hear the sickening snaps of the samurai's bones knitting back together and realigning themselves. Once his arm had gotten back into place and his fingers snapped forward Jack placed both hands on the sides of his head and quickly snapped it back into place. He moved his neck slightly from side to side to get the cricks out before reaching down and picking up his sword.
"You never told me he could do that…" Chi said in wide-eyed horror.
"No…that's a new one…" Aku said, sharing her expression.
The samurai turned to face the two, now seeming completely uninjured save for his dirty scratched up robe, and Chi quickly moved to put herself in front of her father.
"Chi! No!" Aku protested again. "You cannot win against this man!"
Chi gave a small look back to her father but stayed her ground, pulling out a small golden pistol from within her robe and aiming it with one hand at the warrior. Jack did seem concerned about the weapon, holding his sword calmly with both hands as he stood, waiting for her to make the first move.
Chi's finger tightened slightly on the trigger but did not pull it. She kept her eyes locked on the samurai. With the speed she'd seen from him earlier she knew that even a single minute of losing track of him would be very costly for her. She had to wait for him to give her an opening.
After a solid minute of motionless silence Chi's arm began to tremble slightly, both in fear and anticipation of what she was waiting for. And it seemed Jack took notice of this, as he raised his sword slightly closer to himself, creating less openings in his form and getting into a better position to launch the first attack.
Chi's eye twitched for a second and Jack's sandal pressed into the ground, preparing to jump.
But suddenly Jack's face shot straight upwards in surprise and he quickly leapt back, getting out of the way just in time as the massive blade of Dragonslayer crashed down from above right where he'd been standing. The sudden attack took them all by surprise and in an instant later Junior appeared, grabbing the sword by its hilt and swinging it upwards from where it'd been embedded. Jack used his katana to block the Reaper's attack but the sheer weight of the blade sent him flying back as soon as it hit. It took a moment but Jack soon got his direction back, spinning himself while airborne before landing on his feet.
"Who the hell are you?" Junior asked Jack as he stood between the warrior and the rest of them. Jack gave no answer back. In his silence Junior looked over at the injured Aku and then at Daniela, whom still had some dry blood on her face. "You know what?" Junior said as he looked back at Jack. "I don't care."
In the blink of an eye Junior was already on Jack, bringing Dragonslayer down hard against the samurai. Jack's katana again blocked the blow, his hands blowing his blade sideways to catch the larger weapon. The impact of the heavier metal against the other instantly formed a crater around where the samurai stood.
As the two blades struggled against each other Jack's eyes widened slightly as Chi jumped up from behind Junior, her hand forming a large scorpion claw like that which her father had done previously, which she stretched out and used to strike at the samurai. Jack leapt out of the way in time but left Junior free to swing Dragonslayer at him again, this time striking Jack's katana in mid-air as he tried to block it and sending him flying back. Junior then grabbed Chi by the hand and threw her forward as her body stretched itself out, becoming long and thin as it transformed into a massive spiked ball and chain.
"Where the hell have you been?!" Chi yelled at Junior as she weaponized body smashed into the ground, just barely missing Jack but sending debris up from the ground where'd she'd struck to continuously pelt him.
"I thought you guys were inside and got lost." Junior stated with some irritation as he leapt forward to attack Jack, whom this time knew it was better to dodge the Reaper's swings than try to block them. "Seriously, it says something when I grew up in a castle and still think your palace is too big. I didn't even realize you were out here until your dad's eye thing shook the whole place."
"It's not like we invited you in!" Chi pointed out as the spikes for her ball form stretched out to become sharpened sword-like tentacles and attacked the samurai, his blade blocking and cutting off as many as he could.
"My point still stands." Junior retorted. "I counted at least three times I entered another dimension just by walking into a room. "One I can understand but there's only so many uses an alternate plane of reality can have before it just becomes excessive."
"Well, not everyone has access to scythe portals, Junior." Chi huffed as two of her tentacles wrapped around the Reaper. Junior let it happen and Chi threw his body forward like a dagger, Junior holding Dragonslayer straight above his head to guide his path. Jack leapt out of the way but the moment he did so Junior jabbed his sword into the ground, halting his flight. Holding tightly onto the hilt of his sword to hold himself up Junior kicked Jack hard in the back with both legs, a loud crack being heard as he did so and pushing the warrior towards Chi.
Chi's numerous tentacles took on a new form, as each end of the appendages transformed into the growling and thrashing heads of several large black hounds. The hounds snapped their teeth at the samurai as they tried to bite him. Jack blocked the first set of teeth with his sword but was unable to avoid the second as it bit down hard on one of his legs. The samurai gave no indication that he even registered any pain from the bite and simply stabbed his blade straight down through the hound's head, causing Chi to again wince and almost scream at the terrible burning caused by the sword, though she fought through it and did not let go.
Another hound head attacked and would have taken off Jack's own head had he not blocked it with his sword, the blade stuck between the teeth of the beast and keeping its jaws pried wide open. Though that did not save him completely, as from down the beast's throat Chi's arm popped out, holding her pistol. The barrel of the gun pressed right up against Jack's forehead and Chi pulled the trigger, shooting him point blank in the head.
The force knocked Jack's head back, though of course it did not kill him. Yanking his katana from the hound's mouth Jack slashed at the neck of the one holding his leg, decapitating it and freeing himself.
"No blood." Junior commented to himself as he looked at the warrior's freed leg. The damage to the robe was certainly an indication that he'd been bitten but even from the hole in his hat where Chi's bullet had exited from, there was no blood of any kind or color dripping out or staining his clothes. "What is this guy?"
As Junior rushed forward to help Chi, whom Jack now seemed focused on as he did not move away from her, Daniela stayed over by Aku, knowing she was more than likely outclassed at the moment.
"They fight…surprisingly well together." Daniela commented as she held one of the demon's arms over her back to help him stay standing.
"It's not that surprising." Aku commented. "They used to fight alongside each other quite often before they parted ways. Though funny enough they only ever met because Chi sought him out trying to kill him."
"What?"
"It was a misunderstanding." Aku assured her, though he went quiet for a moment as he thought about it. "Ehhh…sort of. Junior technically did what my daughter was angry with him for but it was not intentional on his part."
Daniela gave a Aku a look but said nothing about it, as it was clear to her how worried he was for his daughter right not, given that his eyes followed her every move with fear and his fist stayed clenched as he cursed his current weakened state, a feeling she could most certainly sympathize with.
Daniela's own attention was brought back to the fight as Junior and Chi attacked Jack together and he dodged out of the way, causing Junior's sword and Chi's currently enlarged fist to strike the ground hard and kick up a good amount of dust and debris in every direction. This misstep was hardly enough to slow the two down and they were quick to go after Jack again, but out of the corner of Daniela's eye she noticed something.
It was such a small thing it's a wonder that she noticed it at all but as the dust the two warriors kicked up drifted out from the impact spot, off to the side, a few meters away from where the battle was occurring, some of the dust seemed to just part away on its own. It may not have even registered to the ghost girl that this had happened were it not for what happened next, for as the dust finally settled against the ground and the far walls of the compound, that one spot where the dust had parted seemed completely untouched, as if something was preventing the dust from falling there.
"What in the…Lord Aku, do you see that?" Daniela asked.
"See what, child?" Aku asked back, not even looking in the same direction as her. He let out some of the breath he'd been holding as he watched Jack swing his sword and Chi stretch her stomach out of the way.
Daniela squinted her eyes as tightly as she could. On the path of bare ground that the dust had left untouched, she could almost make out the faintest outline of some humanoid-like shape.
"I think there's someone there."
A group of no less than twenty members of the Aku Royal Guard stood crammed in the hallway as their leader knocked on the door to one of the palace's inner rooms. The door opened up and it was no surprise to any of them that it was Demongo who greeted them.
"It's about time someone showed up. What in the blazes is going on out there?" Demongo demanded.
"There's an intruder in the palace." Said the guard who knocked on the door. "Lord Aku and Lady Chi are outside dealing with him now."
"Shouldn't some of you be out there helping them?" Demongo asked.
"Lady Chi's direct orders." The guard explained. "In case of an emergency we're to report straight here to protect her wife."
"Of course she did." Demongo sighed. "And I suppose our lord would have no reason to rebuke that order if he's personally handling the situation. Well, come on in then."
Demongo moved out of the way so that the guards could enter, though it came as no surprise to him that some of them deliberately pushed past him to get into the room, as even in a crisis situation they could rarely resist the urge to push him around.
As the guards spread out to stand and protect key areas in the area, including the bedroom and bathroom, the head guard was about to the close the door when Jeff came quickly scuttering along. "Wait, wait!" He called, trying to prevent them from closing the door on him. The guard would have anyway but Demongo stopped him.
"Trust me, Chi would be even angrier if you didn't." He pointed out. "Not to mention he's the only person in this place I can actually talk to."
The guard gave a shrug and let the spider in. "Whoo…thanks guys." Jeff said after he managed to shove his large abdomen through the doorway and the guard closed in behind him. "I was in the kitchen when the rumbling started and got worried. I was running so fast I almost dropped these babies." He explained, pointing to the tray of about a dozen steaming muffins he held securely with four of his hands. "Want one? Chi always wants me to make extra just in case."
"Do they have chocolate?" The guard asked. "My doctor say I shouldn't be having chocolate anymore."
"Banana walnut and peanut butter." Jeff happily told him.
"Ooh!" The guard cheered as he picked one up off the platter. He was about to lower his mouth guard when suddenly a loud scream of terror echoed throughout the room, almost causing him to fumble the pastry in his hands and almost drop it. Seconds later one of the red clad guards came running out of the bedroom, the fear and panic on his face very clear.
"Michael! What in the Sam Hill are you screaming about, son?!" The leader yelled at him.
"M-m-m-m-m-m-m-…she-sh-sh-she…!" The guard stuttered heavily.
"Out with it, man!"
Michael pointed sharply into the bedroom, keeping his back completely turned to it. Demongo, Jeff, and the guards quickly ran inside and all went wide-eyed over what they found.
No one.
There was no one in the room.
And there should be.
The muffin slipped from the guard's hand and hit the floor. He didn't seem to notice.
"…Chi's gonna kill us." Demongo wept.
Junior and Chi stood, both panting heavily as they stared down their samurai opponent, whom even after all their attacks seemed not to have tired at all, as he still was able to stand calmly, his sword in hand as it pointed stilly at the two of them.
"What is this guy?" Junior thought to himself. "He seems human but…" Junior squinted a bit at the man, his eyes glowing a tad greener as he did so. "There's something off about his soul. But I can't tell what it is."
As Chi reloaded her pistol she shot a look over to Junior, being carefully to still keep her eyes on Jack. "I know probably better than anyone that you're stronger than this, Junior. You're already panting and you're barely using your powers. What gives?" She asked.
"Shouldn't you be more worried about yourself, princess?" Junior deflected with a glare.
"This is an enemy even my father couldn't beat at the height of his powers and he holds one of the only weapons in the universe that can hurt us or even cause us real pain. It makes sense why I'm doing crap-all against him. What's your excuse?" She pointed out rudely.
Junior didn't say anything in response, simply giving her a sideways glance of irritation before gripping Dragonslayer's hilt with both hands as he stared down the samurai.
Chi's brow furrowed in anger as she looked at Junior before again focusing on Jack. "You need to leave, Junior." She said.
"I'm fine." He stated gruffly.
"If you need to hold back this much then you're not fine." Chi pointed out. "You're putting us all in danger."
"I'm fine." Junior repeated with a bit more anger.
"If you still can't control it even after all this time-!"
"I'M FINE!" Junior roared as he launched himself forward at Jack, his sword crashing down at the warrior's own. The Reaper gritted his teeth as he pulled his sword back up and swung it again, only for the samurai's blade to intercept it again. There was a clear difference between the advantages and disadvantages the two had against each other in this battle. Dragonslayer was a far heavier blade than the katana and it took all of the samurai's strength to block its attacks when he found himself unable to dodge. If even one of Junior's swings were to get through it would horribly mutilate his body, thus why Junior kept on the pressure with bow after bow of his sword. But that was where his advantages ended. Dragonslayer's weight and length meant it took longer to swing than a smaller sword and took a lot of strength to do so. Even Junior with his Demon Reaper powers could feel himself starting to get tired after using the sword so much, as it was intended to be a one-hit kill weapon. Most other swords would have shattered by now against Dragonslayer but Jack's katana was just as indestructible as the iron blade, if not more so, and its slimmer and lighter design allowed for Jack to be far faster and more fluid in his movements, having no trouble moving in time to block the Reaper's assaults.
It appeared to be a stalemate between the two as Junior continuously hammered against the samurai's blade but one wrong move from either of that could change that in an instant. And given how the battle had been going for them so far, Chi didn't like their chances.
"I need to end this now." She stressed to herself as she put away her gun and sharpened her hands into points. "Just hold out for a few more seconds, Junior."
She bent down and jabbed her hands into the ground. Beneath the dirt and stone that made up the underside of the compound Chi's arms sprouted numerous appendages that spread out like the roots of a tree, traveling every which way underground with the majority of them traveling towards where Junior and Jack stood clashing their swords. As the metals impacted again Jack looked over and saw that Chi was kneeling now and leaving herself exposed. Seeing this as his opportunity Jack quickly moved off to the side of Junior's next attack and leapt over him. Tentacles shot out from Junior's back to try and grab him but Jack had already gained too much of a distance between them as he ran towards Chi, sword set to impale her.
A smile cracked across the woman's face. "Gotcha, bitch."
The ground beneath the samurai's feet began to glow brightly with white molten heat. Even with the warrior's incredible reaction time he just barely managed to leap back as a pillar of red fire erupted from below and reached skyward. Jack felt his sandal sink slightly into the ground where he'd landed and saw the spot glow brightly as well. He dodged sideways away from it just as another pillar of flames burst through. Where he went another burst upwards, just barely missing his face, though it did completely cut through the front part of his hat. Before he could even make the move to get away again another pillar came forth at his side, cutting off his path. At his other side another sprouted up. And then another appeared much closer to him. And then another, one after another, each popping up closer and boxing him in.
Chi let out a primal scream and the final bit of ground that laid directly beneath the warrior's feet lit up the brightest of all of them as she poured everything she had into this last attack. The blast that erupted from below melded together with the others that'd trapped him within, this pillar of flame encompassing them all with its size. All around the compound other pillars popped up at random, this one spot not being enough to act as a vent for all this power that pumped through it. The shadows of every person, tree, and rock that stood within the walls stretched out endlessly as the faced the torrent of white hot flames.
Like the demon lord who stood next to her Daniela had to shield her eyes as best she could from the blinding lights, but unlike him she made a great effort to look over to the spot where the dust had parted earlier. In that spot she still saw nothing, though that served to only confirm her suspicions, as the small bits of broken rock and earth that sat behind that spot did not cast a shadow. Something in front of them was blocking the light and preventing it from hitting them.
Daniela's hand glowed bright green as she shot a quick burst of ecto-energy at the spot. In midair above that point her blast connected with something unseen and a loud cry of pain was heard, with whatever it was having been taken completely off guard by the unexpected attack.
"I knew it!" Daniela exclaimed, her voice not being able to be heard by anyone other than Aku due to the furiosity of Chi's power, though his eyes were closed to protect them from being blinded and thus he could not see what she did. Green sparks began to fly from where Daniela had struck, almost seeming electrical in nature, and soon she began to see a sharper outline of whatever was there. It was still mostly see-through, but it was clear that whatever it was using to be invisible was starting to fail.
Knowing that its presence had been discovered, Daniela saw the unknown being turn and run for it.
"Hey! Come back here!" Daniela yelled as she flew off after it towards the hot springs.
Finally, Chi's attack came to an end and the torrents of fire faded away, leaving only the smallest bits of flame left on the plants and grass within the compound. The shogunness's entire body shook and trembled from exhaustion as it could barely support its own weight anymore. Her arms then began to turn into smoke before they finally faded away, causing her to finally collapse onto the ground, panting heavily. As almost a testament to have weakened she was Chi's eyebrows went out too.
"You're not as far away from inheriting my throne as you think you are, Chi." Aku commented internally as he proudly observed the many scorched holes his daughter had left around the area, as well as the large crater her main attack had created.
As Chi's breath started to come back to her she saw a pair of black shoe standing next to her head, which she recognized as Junior's.
"Come here. I got ya." He saw softly as he moved his arms to help her up.
Chi gave no voice of protest and allowed him to pick her up by her waist and get her back on her feet. "Thank you." She said in a sincere but very tired voice.
"Never seen you do that before." Junior complimented.
"It's new, and hopefully something I won't have to do again." She explained as she looked at her now limbless shoulders. "Going to be a bit before I can regrow my arms. Please tell me I got him."
"Part of him." Junior said as he pointed off to their side.
Chi looked over and saw the thankfully motionless body of the Jack laying on the ground a few feet away from the crater. His robe was consumed in flames and his entire right arm was gone, along with a good chunk out of his right foot and upper thigh.
"He jumped into one of the other fires before you hit him with the big one." Junior explained. "Guess he knew he couldn't get out of it without taking a hit so he went for one that wouldn't vaporize him. Though I guess he wasn't fast enough to avoid all of it."
"Not that seems to mean anything when it comes to this guy." Chi commented, not taking her eyes off the body. "Would you mind…?"
"With gusto." Junior said as he let go of Chi, making sure she was well enough to stand on her own before he moved on over to the samurai's body, Dragonslayer in hand. He too kept a careful eye on the fallen warrior, ready for if and when he'd get up again. Junior held his sword tensely in his hands, with each moment Jack did not get back up adding to his unease. He could have hung back and hit him with some long ranged attacks to be safe but if he had survived Chi's assault Junior highly doubted some bullets or scythe chains would finish the job. He needed to get close and make sure the warrior was properly taken apart.
As he moved closer Junior glanced over to see the samurai's katana lying next to his hand, through thankfully not in it, likely having dropped it after he landed. This gave Junior some comfort, as the sword was the man's only weapon and even if he did awaken Junior was sure he'd be able to move quick enough before Jack could pick it up.
Standing over the warrior's body, Junior held Dragonslayer up above his head, ready to cut the samurai's body straight down the middle.
Out of the corner of his eye he looked back over to where the katana was.
And discovered it was gone.
"What?!"
In a flash the samurai slashed upward with his remaining arm, the sacred blade of his sword cutting through the Reaper's left eye and then his wrist, causing him to dropped Dragonslayer behind him.
"JUNIOR!" Both Chi and Aku exclaimed as the Demon Reaper let out a howl of agony, both his good and stump hand darting over to cover his profusely bleeding eye.
With his opponent left wide open Jack slashed downwards at Junior, his sword striking between the Reaper's neck and shoulder.
Only, to his surprise, the blade only went in halfway before it wouldn't go down anymore. In fact, it became stuck in Junior's body.
As the samurai tugged to try and pull the blade out Junior finally moved his hands away from his eye, showing that it was now not only healed, but both eyes were completely red in color. Junior's teeth were gritted and sharpening themselves as the Reaper gave an almost animalistic growl at Jack.
Grabbing Jack by his burning robe with his remaining hand, Junior yanked the samurai forward while his stump hand smashed into his incoming face. The impact of the punch was so great it tore the upper half of the samurai's robe away from his body as he was sent flying away from Junior, his body skipping across the ground until he finally came to a stop.
The robe burned for a bit in Junior's hand before he tossed it to the side. His dismembered hand then crawled up his leg and chest before trailing down his arm and reattaching itself to him, his Nergal flesh spreading out and sealing up the wound.
His hand restored Junior yanked the katana out of his body, a bit of green blood spraying out as he did so but that sealed up quickly as well. Junior glared ahead with is burning red eyes as he snarled but quickly clamped them shut as he tried to calm himself down.
"No…I am the one in control. I'm…I'm ok." He told himself as he reopened his eyes and they reverted back to the normal green coloring of his Nergalized form. He breathed, though it was a bit shaky as he did so. He looked over to Chi, hoping that she'd not seen what had almost just happened. And thankfully, she did not, though that was because her shocked eyes, along with her father's, were not on him.
"J-Junior…" Chi stuttered as she stared.
Junior looked over to the samurai and his eyes went wide as well, the shock being nearly enough to cause him to drop the katana.
The samurai stood up from where Junior had knocked him. The loss of his upper robe revealed a number of details the group had been unable to see earlier. On his back was some kind of mechanical device that covered the majority of his backside. None could see the full thing from where they were standing but from the look of it it was very advanced and deeply embedded into the warrior's body.
But even this strange, unknown device was not what had caused the group to pause in shock. They had not noticed it before due to his robe and the shadows under his now destroyed hat. Even his hands during his attacks had moved too fast for any of them to have taken note. With the exception of his right shoulder, which had been blackened by his arm being burning to cinder, the samurai's entire body was a light pinkish color, with the good majority of his body, including his chest, arm, and undersides of his eyes, looking like they'd been sown and stitched together.
Junior could barely speak. "He's…he's a ragdoll…!"
Chapter End
Author's notes: Didn't see that coming, did you? Or maybe you did and just didn't want to say until you were sure, which is fair enough.
So…Jack's a ragdoll, and a fairly mute and hard to kill one at that. Though Chi's little Limit Break would have done the job had she landed a better hit. Though an attack that leaves you literally disarmed is certainly not something you want to spam, thus why the grenade punch has never really caught on. Sorry about how easy Aku went down and that Daniela didn't get to do that much during this chapter. With the actual comic saying that Aku has lost some of his zeal now that his rival is gone, I just thought I'd make some sense that Aku would let himself get a bit rusty over the years. He's still powerful, mind you, but his powers have grown a bit dull without an opponent to constantly test himself against. And as for Daniela, well, it's not like she won't have anything to do next chapter, given that I just made her run blindly after an enemy she knows nothing about. That should be fun. And don't worry, the other half of Jack and Aku's conversation in the flashback will be in the next chapter.
Who made Jack like this and why? Tune in next time on Grim Tales: Complex! And by that I mean read the next chapter which should hopefully come out faster than this one did, though like last time, I make no promises.
Also, I want to say something about one of the most recent pages of the actual Grim Tales comic "Breaking the tension" that's been bugging me and it's about all the comments on that page calling both Aku/Ikra and Mandy whores. Now, keep in mind that this these are just my own personal view on this and I can understand why some of you may feel differently, but these comments really piss me off.
So the thing that's set people off is Ikra hitting on Grim and basically outright stating that they'd had a past with each other that was more than likely just physical and sexual. And I don't get where people are getting this idea that this makes Aku/Ikra a whore. She's only expressed romantic/sexual interest in two characters so far: HIM, basically wondering why he's so focused on Mandy when he could have her as his queen or at least by his side, and now Grim, whom she seems to have had a past relationship with and is making these comments likely to mess with both him and Mandy (and possibly HIM but who knows). How does liking or at least being openly attracted to two characters make someone a whore? Especially when Aku only acts this way when he's Ikra. Otherwise he acts basically as he normally would, though a bit more mellow since Jack has died.
Second, I hate how there's this mentality that Mandy is a whore, though not to say that I can't understand why. Taking out the Christmas page where she seduced Santa (which I treat as just a one-off, non-canon gag page like the April Fools, Halloween, and other Christmas pages the Bleedman comics have, as they have no impact on the actual story and very well could have just been something fun Bleedman wanted to do) the only people that Mandy has been confirmed to have slept with are the fathers of her children (Junior's father, Nergal Jr, and Dan Phantom) and Grim on their honeymoon. She might have slept with HIM before but HIM dropped hints that Mandy used to be his queen, so it'd make sense that that'd happen.
So we have Aku/Ikra, whom is a single ruler who is attracted to HIM but is smart enough not to let him play her and had a past with Grim (likely a long time ago, given how they speak with each other), and we have Mandy, whom is basically female Zeus but with higher standards and an actual plan behind her way of doing things. I'm sorry but I think it's really unfair to be calling these two whores just because they either have a sex drive that goes beyond one person or uses sex as another tool for what she wants. Heck, Junior as I've written him in this story is closer to being a whore than either of them, given how much I've had him sleep around, and even then he only does that because he's got a lot of issues and is very lonely and has problems he'd rather not think about, not because he's a whore. And I really think it's unfair to label Mandy and Aku/Ikra as whores when what they're doing is both understandable and completely reasonable (well, for them I mean. They're still both evil rulers of the Underworld for a reason after all).
Now I'm not saying they're not being oversexualized, mind you, especially Mandy. Bleedman has a good art style but I've never liked Mandy's outfit in this story. I get the whole "empowered woman can dress however she likes" thing, but this isn't a woman dressing herself up in this outfit out of choice. This is a fictional character being drawn to wear this outfit, likely for the titillation of the male reader (and while I appreciate the thought, I both have and can write porn online should I ever want that titillation, so there's not much need to push it into the story). I get that in the original show Mandy was about ten (I think) that they never would have put her in an outfit like this at that age, but I just have a hard time seeing that character from that show growing up and deciding to wear this. But it's kind of a minor complaint for me, as it doesn't ruin the story for me. I guess I'd compare it to The Joker from The Batman animated TV show, where the look was kind of off but the personality was still spot-on and strong so I could look past the look.
Then again I suppose it says something about me that my favorite Mandy outfits in the comic are her assassin uniform and her mayor outfit (dressed to kill and dressed to pass bills!). I know neither of them would work as a queen's outfit and if you were to ask me how I think Mandy's outfit should look, I wouldn't be able to tell you. Like Harley Quinn's outfit in Suicide Squad (or the Arkham Games or really anything since the New 52), as I get it's hard to translate the jester costume to other mediums. I can't tell you what I should look like, just that it shouldn't look like that.
QTP: Who brought Samurai Jack back as a ragdoll? If Jack is a ragdoll, how come he's so much more durable than Minnie's ragdoll form? Why did Chi want to kill Junior when they first met years ago? Who is the invisible being that Daniela chased after (I'll give you a hint, it is not a ghost, as Daniela's ghost sense would have gone off as it had earlier when Dan showed up)? What happened to Chi's wife? Why was Chi telling Junior he needed to leave the fight?