Shadowchasers: Twice-Told Tales
By 7th Librarian
A/N: Here we are! The final Shadowchaser for the team. Are you excited as I am?
For the two questions I posed at the end of the last chapter, here are the answers.
1. Lan'tao's daughters names are a reference to Neil Gaiman's book Stardust, in which a king has a series of sons named in that fashion.
2. References to other Shadowchasers works:
-Lan'tao mentions Divine's issues with Louis DaPen, the secondary antagonist from the original Shadowchasers fic.
-Lan'tao mentions that he's been selling his daughter's souls to Squarefoot for immortality. Jalie Squarefoot is the antagonist for Shadowchasers: Ascension
-One of Jalal's questions in the Codex of Index that Judy read was 'What is this generation's Shadowchild?'. The Shadowchild was first mentioned in the Shadowchaser Files and is a person with great potential for good or evil that arrives one every 500 years. Jalal had to personally defeat the last one.
-One of the other questions was asked how Shadowkind got to Earth. This topic was the subject of Adrian and Jalal's debate in Tsubasa's chapter and Jalal mentioned that they had had the talk before
-Phoenixia, as she explains herself to Judy, mentions that she's a 'living computer program'. Adrian told Jalal back in Kenshin's chapter that he has experience with beings like Kenshin.
-Lan'tao says that he had to promise the Queen's soul to Demogorgon for the arm that lets him wield the Champion's sword. Demogorgon was briefly mentioned in several Shadowchaser files and is one of Graz'zt's most hated enemies.
-Phoenixia mentions and explains the Origin Universe and Morgana's Kin to Judy. Both were mentioned in the Morgana's Kin Shadowchaser file and Leslie Garret, the Shadowchaser's liaison with the Kin, appeared in 'Shadowchasers: Ascension.
The obvious plotting in relation to The Thousand-Year Door don't count, sorry to say. :P
Now that is out of the wall, let's go...
TTTTTT
"I have to say, the getting is quite good tonight." Adrian shuffled his hand of cards around idly as he spoke, surveying the rather impressive candy pyramid that was slightly off to his left side. Comprised mostly of Butterfingers, Three Musketeers, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and Heath Bars, it was nearly up to his chin. "I don't know how I'm going to carry it all home."
"You won't have to bother, kitty." Seated across from the flamboyantly dressed Librarian was the equally flamboyant Dracula, the tinted lenses of her glasses making her fang-revealing smirk more than a touch creepy. "Given I'm the oldest being in the room, I'm going to take it all from you like the baby you are."
"One would think that after a certain point, age really doesn't have any relevance." Jalal said calmly. Though his stack of candy was smaller than either Adrian's or Dracula's, it was still moderately sized and he still possessed most of his chocolate bars which indicated he had been betting conservatively. "After about a hundred or so, about the only thing useful your age is good for is getting a birthday party.
"And even that wears dull after a point." Phoenixia was seated next to both the half-dragon and Adrian, dressed in a tastefully-revealing evening gown. The green visor atop her head indicated she was the dealer for that evening's game and went nicely with the odd pink flower tucked into her hair. "Though still fun to celebrate once in a while, I'll admit. Mei threw a surprise one for Adrian just a little while ago. It was blast."
"Literally." Adrian put in with a bemused sigh. "Who knew that you could bend space and time with such bad karaoke? Shame we'll never be let into that bar again, right, Thesis? They had the best beer-" Adrian paused as he caught sight of his brown-haired friend munching on a playing card. "Thesis! Cards are not food!"
"What? It's the joker, no one cares." The other dimension traveler protested around a mouthful of card. Swallowing, he grumped at the sharp look Adrian was giving him. "You told me not to eat my candy!"
"If you were hungry, one bar wouldn't have gone amiss." Adrian pointed out.
"Yeah, but I've named all my peeps..." Thesis pointed to the small row of five peeps that were in front of him, next to a sole chocolate bunny. "And you wouldn't let me bring a lunch, either!"
"You wanted to eat a live Shoggoth." Adrian said in a tone suggesting that this was a rather frequent conversation between the two.
"Spoilsport." Thesis huffed at him and shuffled his remaining cards around. "'Sides, you guys took all of my good candy..."
"You bet it all on a pair of twos."
"It was a good plan!" Thesis protested. "Jalal was bluffing."
"...you called that round yourself."
"...oooh, look, Phoenixia's cleavage!"
Adrian groaned and buried a face in his palm while Phoenixia leaned forwards to give Thesis an eyeful. "Yeah, that's right, look at the distraction..."
"Pfft-you can't distract me with that. I don't do the whole 'sex' thing. Even Aphrodite herself couldn't charm me into-" Thesis blinked as Dracula's hand suddenly flitted out and snatched one of his peeps. "HEY! MISTER MISSUS!"
Then Phoenixia's hand stole another. "NOT CLARENCE THE THIRD!"
Jalal watched Thesis protectively wrap his arms around his remaining stash and glanced at Adrian. "Is he always like this?"
"Oh, sometimes. Other times he gets a bit...stabby...and then I have to smite him with a rolled-up newspaper."
"You have weird friends."
"Of which you are one, Jalal."
"Touche." Jalal acknowledged. "Well, since our deck is now one or more cards short, I do believe we're going to need a fresh one, dealer."
"Good point." Phoenixia stood. "I'm sure we've got an indestructible deck around here somewhere. It shouldn't take too long to find, I think..."
"Try Mei's room. I think she was trying to practice throwing them or something..." Adrian told her, his hand discreetly moving towards Phoenixia's pile of candy.
That's when she plucked a petal from the flower in her hair and as she whipped it down, it morphed into a nasty-looking dagger that buried itself almost to the hilt between his fingers. "Touch my skittles and I'll make your guts a tennis racket and use your heart as the ball, kitty boy."
Thesis perked up slightly at those words. "Ooooh, can I help?"
Adrian stared him with a quirked eyebrow. "...you just offered to help me kill me, you realize, right?"
"It's for a good cause!"
The Librarian just sighed and pushed a good portion of his pyramid towards him. "Here. If this will keep you quiet, you can have it"
"Alright!"
"Take off the wrappers this time!"
"Yeah, yeah..." Thesis muttered, but complied in removing the wrapper off a candy bar and downing it one gulp. "Why don't we beat, ya know, money like real people?"
"We're all too rich." The new voice was smoky and sudden, prompting everyone present to look at the table's last occupant. Dressed in a black suit coat with a red ruffle at the collar, the most unique feature about her was the criss-cross of white scars that covered her eyes and were nearly hidden by the glasses she wore. "With the amount of money we all have, nothing we wager could ever make any difference."
"Yeah, but-" Thesis paused to down another couple of candy bars. "-money's power, right? At least that's what I've heard in most places I've been. When you're rich, you can do stuff and such. Never saw a point to myself, it never tastes any good when I've managed to collect any money."
"Immorality and riches aren't always the best combination-you run out of 'stuff' to do." The woman explained patiently,
"Mmmm, Rayearth makes a good point." Dracula agreed, leaning back in her chair. "And its not like wealth can be simply converted to 'power', Thesis. Someone has to want what you have to make it valuable."
"Well, I wouldn't quite say that, Dracula." Rayearth produced a wineglass out of nowhere, followed by a bottle of wine. Pouring herself some, she continued. "You forget about Porcurians, those beings who literally convert wealth to physical power."
"You would know about that-your most recent report covered your encounter with one." Jalal put in. "Though it was...rather sparse."
"I fought it. I beat it." Rayearth downed what she had of the wine. "It was not a fight for the books."
Adrian lifted an eyebrow. "You fight a demon that can literally Hulk-out on you and was probably standing in the middle of all its wealth and its 'not a fight for the record books'?"
"Well, my team would think it would be, but for me, it was Tuesday. Albeit a slightly more interesting one than normal." Pouring another glass of wine, Rayearth smiled slightly at the looks everyone was giving her, despite her blindness. "Very well, if only to amuse you while we wait. Madripoor has long been an island of corruption and petty tyranny, enough so that even Shadowchasers avoid the place. However, there are some things even we cannot tolerate and idea of a demon gaining so much power there was simply unacceptable."
She took a sip of wine before continuing. "Jalal sent him to eliminate him, since the Gotthammers were otherwise occupied. Simple enough task, even if there were some obstacles..."
TTTTTTT
The Incantifer's Tale
TTTTTTT
Rhul's Regiment was a band of mercenaries who had been through a lot since their namesake had become the first orcish battlemage and decided to take his species' natural inclination for bloodlust in a new direction. Over the years they had been operating, they had fought in places all over the globe, from the Middle East to South America and even a few planes beyond this one. Their numbers had expanded beyond their own orc clan, including ogres, bugbears, dark elves and anyone who could aim reasonably well, hold a sword and wanted a little ransacking and blood to go with their money. Were it not for their incredibly high casuality rate (combat causalities for the unit were the all-time for the world's mercenaries, matched only by their off-duty causalities), The Shadowchaser would have had to consider them a serious threat and act accordingly.
But for all the wars they had fought, for all the money they had racked up slaughtering whomever was enemy of the person with the money and for all victories they could claim, Rhul's Regiment was discovering that there some things that warfare and combat had yet still to teach them.
Like what it felt like to get curbstomped.
Badly.
Most of the Regiment was already dead, so many of their corpses littering the mansion's driveway that the length of it ran like a stream with their blood. Barricades had been rent asunder like they were tissue paper, magical enhancements that could stop tank fire laughably ignored by nightmarish parodies of tigers and lions that their attacked swept forth to her aid, predators that leapt over the compound's walls and shrugged off weapons fire.
The golems that had managed to defeat this initial attack were reduced to rubble by a pair of giant gloves that had seized them and ended their interference with a single flex of their fingers.
To those that survived the onslaught, playing cards had flown from her hands and sleeves, slicing and tearing through body armor and muscle and flesh like it was fruit.
Any of those able to still stand and fight found gunfire found sheets of metal would spin forth around her to soak up the shots, dancing and weaving as if it were alive. And those who closed ranks with her, roaring in rage and bloodlust, had their powerful charges and lives ended with hammer-force blows from her staff-sized wand and strikes from her fists and knees that crumpled metal and bone.
Now those who had the common sense to flee the first line line of defense had holed up in the mansion's massive foyer. About two dozen of the Regiments' members, including a pair of ogres and Rhul himself. All watching the door, hearing the sporadic gunfire that was punctuated by truncated screams of rage or terror outside.
"This job ain't worth it...ain't worth it...not getting paid enough..." One of the surviving orcs muttered. "Not enough for this..."
"Shut it!" Rhul whacked the naysayer over the head with with his staff. "With the rest all KIA, just means more for the rest of us!"
"No money in the world is worth fighting thatmonster bitch..." The orc snapped back nervously.
"I got my magic and we've got...that... on the way here, ya coward. So quit your bellyaching. The guys outside were meant to slow her down- me and our current boss spent a lot of time and effort fortifying this building. Short of a few Epic-level spells, there's no way she can even scratch the paint let alone get in." Rhul shook his staff to emphasize this last point angrily.
"Yeah, but...she's one of them...Conifers, ain't she? They're supposed to be really good with magic..."
Rhul snorted. "So what? Just because she can do magic doesn't mean she knows everything- and some of the stuff the boss let me..er..borrow is top-quality shit. Even Maskent would be left outside scratching his beard and helpless!"
"S-sure, boss..." The orc nodded. "But..if she can't get in..and we can't beat it...aren't we trapped?"
"So I see one of the little rodents does have a brain. Indeed you are rather trapped." The voice came from nowhere and everyone at once. Female. Smoky and mocking. Frightening.
The Regiment's members glanced around nervously, weapons jerking and twitching with barely controlled urges to pull their triggers. Rhul glared and slammed his staff on the ground. "Show some backbone, you maggots! She's still outside the mansion and she can't in! She's just trying to scare you!"
"You're only half-right, Rhul. I am trying to scare you..." As she spoke, tendrils of black fog crept their way across the mansion's windows, a horrible shrieking chill descending as the daylight was blotted out. At the same time, the foyer's lights flickered and waned, plunging the room into near absolute darkness. "But I am quite capable of entering. Knock-knock..."
The fog begin to spill into the mansion through nooks and crannies, carpeting the floor and surrounding the Regiment. One of them finally lost it and opened fire randomly, screaming and shaking. Only for to be silenced as something reached out of the darkness and dragged him away.
Rhul swore and muttered something, the top of his staff lighting up sharply and driving back the fog. "Show yourself, ya crazy woman! Your penny magic ain't worth shit to me!"
"Here I am." Bits of the fog gathered and swirled together before sloughing away to reveal the intruder. She was dressed to the nines in the outfit of stage magician, complete with tailed coat and top-hat. Despite the violence she had committed outside, the outfit was immaculately clean with nary a trace of blood or gore.
But it was her face that drew the eye. Sharpened with the lines of great age, a menagerie of scars decorated her permanently-closed eyes, but only added to her beauty rather than detract. And that shadow of a smile that seemed to be perpetually on her lips, as if she were just about to laugh at only a joke she knew.
The Regiment flinched at her sudden appearance and she doffed her hat to them, bowing so deeply her hair spilled over her shoulders like a gray tidal wave. Then she straightened and replaced the hat. "The Lady Rayearth, at your service."
"Waste the bitch!" Rhul's command was instantly followed, sprays of automatic weapons fire hammering away at her form and leaving her riddled with holes.
But that ghost of a smile never wavered.
There was only time for the gathered soldiers to realize that she had not fallen despite the amount of hits she had taken and there was no blood before Rayearth's body burst apart into flock of crows. Eagle-sized crows with four red eyes that shrieked with horrible laughter as they swarmed upon the closest targets, serrated beaks tearing at soft eyes, talons rending soft flesh.
Rhul snarled and swatted one of them away with his staff before scattering the rest into the darkness with a few whips of flame from the top. "Stay together, stay together, she's got to run out of tricks soon! They're not anything I can't handle!"
"Perhaps, Rhul..." Their heads snapped around to see Rayearth standing in front of them again. She swept her hat off her head and out low in front of her. They all stared in disbelief as a saber-tooth tiger emerged from the piece of headwear. It let loose a savage roar and pounced on the nearest orc, a single paw crushing the unfortunate individual's chest. "And perhaps not."
The ogres bellowed and charged, one smashing the tiger away with a club as they came. Rayearth let them come within a step of their reach and then snapped out a hand. Streamers flew from inside her sleeve, snaring and wrapping up the one on the left like a straight-jacket. It staggered, stumbled and than playing card flew from her grasp, lodging itself in the ogre's throat. Blood sprayed and it went down.
The second found its first swing avoided as she ducked and then her wand intercepted the two-handed smash that followed. Despite its slender size, the wand didn't even shudder from the impact. Heaving the club aside, she lashed out as the weapon extended, smashing the ogre across the face. Again and again she smashed blows into its body, wand retracting and extending to get through its feeble defenses.
Rhul and his remaining men watched as she tore the ogre apart. First its knees were broken, pitching it to all fours. Then she shattered its elbows. Several more precise blows struck pressure points and nerve clusters, causing its body to heave and twitch in ways it was not supposed to. Strikes to the face broke its jaw, leaving gurgling and moaning pathetically. And then she shattered its fingers and palms, leaving it to try and reach for her with a mangled, twisted hand.
When she finally slashed a card across its throat, Rhul would later tell of how he was sure that the ogre was crying in agony. Or relief.
Two more cards embedded themselves into the faces of his men and they dropped instantly, dead before they hit the ground. Rayearth snapped up another card into her hand as she advanced towards Ruhl, her heels clacking on the tile floor. "Well, battle mage? It is just you and me..."
Rhul growled and gripped his staff, infuriated more by that ghost of a smile on her face than the loss of all his men. "I'll see you burn, bitch."
"Try me." Rayearth stopped walking as the ground beneath her feet began to tremble ominously.
Rhul laughed as a great pair of jaws erupted from underneath her, swallowing her whole. The jaw's owner, a bus-sized black dragon, tore himself free from the ground eagerly, wings unfurling to their full extent. A horrible grinding noise emerged from him as he ground his teeth sharply and then snapped his head forwards, spitting out his captive. Rhul caught a glimpse of a bloodied, black mess before it crashed against the wall and then was lost as a bubbling green acid poured from the dragon's mouth. "Good timing, Hax!"
The dragon finished his blast, watching the wall and floor melt considerably as the acid bubbled and churned nastily. "I suppose it was worth cramming myself into the basement after all."
"Yeah, the bitch was tough." Rhul strode up to the dragon, slapping his scaled side appreciatively. "Took out everyone we brought with us. Most of the Regiment is dead."
"I heard the sounds of fighting, but did not think it so fierce." Hax rumbled. "But all the better for us. Fewer ways to divide the shares. More gold for my horde."
"Hax, with the amount of gold our new boss has got on his hands and all the stuff he's gonna bring in, you'll be building yourself a bigger cave within a week." The orc cackled and then cast an eye at the pool of acid that had been their attacker. "Why didn't you just eat her? I saw you grinding her up..."
"She tasted..strange and I do not need to be ill again." Hax snorted.
"Yeah, yeah whatever. C'mon, lets get your pay and see if we can charge extra for cleaning up the bodies." Rhul chortled to himself. "After all, once the men are dead, they're not mine anymore!"
"Very well..."
"Hehehehehehehehe..."
They both froze at the sound of the laughter.
"Hehehehehehe...hahahahahahahahaha..."
It was loud and clear and bright, like a child enjoying something entertaining.
Rhul's eyes widened and if he could have paled, he would have. "No friggin' way...she's dead!" Whirling to face where her corpse had been, he gaped at what he saw in the pool of acid. "Playing cards!?"
"A card clone. A useful little trick, don't you think." The fog that had gathered when she had first entered suddenly vanished and dragon and orc looked up to see her standing on the railing of the foyer's grand staircase. "A black dragon and a orc battle mage...don't think I've seen that before."
She lifted her head, both of her opponents flinching as they saw that ghost of a smile had become a full-fledged grin. It was simple and honest and that only made it all the more frightening. "Now then...show me how you die!"
TTTTTT
Tsyvault waiting for her when she slashed open the office door with a playing card. The Porcurian's pink beady eyes glared at her through a haze of cigar smoke, the source of which was a massive Cuban cigar. "You're going to have to pay for that."
The Incanifer leaned on her wand like it was cane, a bemused edge to her voice. "The demon who paid probably a million dollar's worth of mercenaries to bleed and die all over his front lawn is trying to extort money from a poor stage magician? Is there no depth you won't stoop for a couple of pennies to rub together?"
"Bah. I knew those scum-sucking bottom-feeders were overrated." Tsyvault grunted in irritated satisfaction. "Least you killed them all so I don't have to pay them all."
"Rhul and the dragon escaped by dropping your kitchen roof on me." Rayearth gestured with her wand out the window nearby.
"What?" The Porcurian turned and saw a little black dot receding in the distance. "Damn! Now I gotta pay him or I'll never be able to hire another company again!"
Turning back back to his guest, silence hung in the air for a few moments as he puffed on his cigar and tried not to let her know how much her demeanor and face got to him. "Well, aren't you going to arrest me?"
"You own nearly a quarter of Madripoor and are literally sitting in the center of your wealth. The moment I made a move against, you'd 'hulk-out' and become stronger than a locomotive, bullets would bounce off your fat and you'd be able to bring down tall buildings when you tried to leap a single bound."
Tsyvault growled slightly. "You got bad taste in jokes." The cigar puffed a few times and glowed sharply. "And if you believe that to be true, why are you still hanging around? I could squash you like a bug with that kind of strength."
"You could, couldn't you?" Rayearth nodded, finished into her vest pocket and producing a package of cigarettes. Sliding one free, she returned the back to its home. "Or at least, you think you could."
He narrowed his eyes, though they were so small it was hard to notice that he had. "You think I'm bluffing?"
"No, what I think is that you think you could take me at your current max strength..." She produced a lighter and snapped it open, lighting her cigarette. Then the lighter vanished up her sleeve. "But you know who I am, too..and what exactly I'm capable of."
"The Waking Nightmare..." The arms of Tsyvault's chair creaked slightly as his grip on them tightened, with only a flicker in his eyes portraying his uneasiness. "A living legend, almost more so than that half-breed knight of yours."
"Humanity has Chuck Norris, Shadowkind have me." Rayearth said as she took a puff of her cigarette. "You can't be sure which way the fight would go and the only thing your greed makes you desire more than wealth is your life."
"Neither can you." Tsyvault settled back into his expensive-looking chair more comfortably, suddenly more relaxed as he realized that she wasn't in a mood to try and figure out who was king of the hill, either. "So what now?"
"Now...we play game, via the Fair Fight Clause. Win and you can go free, though you must give up all you own here. Lose and I'll end this conflict." Rayearth told him.
"And what makes you think I like those terms?"
"You like them because unlike me, you're not willing to die in a fight."
"Tch. Observant woman, aren't you?" He scowled at her through a ring of cigar smoke. "All right, we'll play it your way. But if I win, you hand over your deck so I can recoup my losses. I am a bussiness man, after all. And we'll play here at my desk." The cigar flared briefly. "I want your hands where I can see them."
"Very well..." Rayearth pulled her hat off, producing from within it a deck of Duel Monsters cards and then, with a sweeping gesture, a rather comfortable-looking plush chair fell out of it and rapidly expanded to full-size. As she sat down, the shadows of the room pulled together to form an encompassing dome of darkness. "The shadows will enforce our negotiations."
"Fine by me. You think I haven't used these myself?" Tsyvault produced a deck of cards from a drawer desk and set them in front of himself in the appropriate location while his life points appeared in glowing lettering on the table. (TLP: 8000) "I'll be going first. Like I said, I don't trust your hands."
"When dealing with a magician, its wise to not trust anything about them. Every thing is part of the act, Porcurian." She drew her opening hand, that ghost of a smile still on her face. "Even the audience." (RLP: 8000)
"Save the tripe for the kiddie show." Tsyvault grunted and drew his sixth card. "I set one monster in defense mode and end my turn."
"Is that all? How simple of you...but I'll not underestimate it. Simple things are often the start of something greater." Rayearth said with half-seriousness and drew for her turn. "I summon the monster known as Iriving the Illusionist."
She slapped down the card in front of her and smoke rose from it, forming into a purple-robed man with spoke green hair and grinning like a loon. He was barely three inches tall. "Iriving here specializes in monster himself appear to be someone else." (1800/1200)
"With an outfit like that, I can see why." Tsyvault eyed the little thing with distaste.
Iriving glared up at him while Rayearth merely continued to speak. "For his effect to work, all I need to do is reveal a Spellcaster-type monster in my hand and then he gains that monster's effects as his own." She plucked a card from her hand and flipped it around. "Like this one."
Tsyvault's eyes widened slightly. "Jowgen the Spirtualist!?"
"I see that I've touched a nerve. Good. Irving, why don't you wreck his little surprise for us?" Rayearth gestured and Iriving grinned as his outfit became the gold and red robes of the infamous monster. Grabbing the staff that appeared of nowhere, he twirled it and stabbed it at the set monster.
Tsyvault grimaced as a seemingly endless ofuda zipped out of the staff and smashed into the brown-back card, shattering it to dust. "Lucky shot...!"
"Oh, was that a searcher monster? How rude of me to not let you have your way." Rayearth mocked and slid a card into place behind Irving. "But like all of my magicians, my monster's trick is just that. There's a way around it, if you can figure it out..."
"I already have my own method, woman, so save your spiel." Tsyvault drew and then tossed down another card. "I summon my Mafia Gunner in attack mode!" (2300/1000)
A hardened-looking thug in a suit appeared, brandishing a Tommy Gun and looking rather brutal despite his small stature. "Now fill that half-rate Houdini full of lead!"
Rayearth watched as Iriving ran around her monster zones comically as the Gunner unleashed an endless number of bullets after him. "Entertaining...but you should know better than to just outright attack a magician."
She deftly flipped over her set card, revealing it to be a continuous trap card. "Doppleganger Illusion summons itself as a monster identical to one spellcaster on my field, including its name. Now, when you attack a monster with that name, you must hope you hit the real one or you can't do any damage."
"Cheap carnival tricks..." Tsyvault growled as smoke billowed out of trap and formed into an identical Iriving. The two Spellcasters sprinted around another in circles before separating dizzily. The Mafia Gunner glanced between the two, obviously confused. "Attack the one on my left!"
Gunfire roared and the targeted Irving stumbled, but the bullets merely left trails of smoke rather than blood. Rayearth chuckled as the Gunner tore off his hat and stomped on it angrily. "Nope. You'll have to try again."
Tsyvault merely scowled. "When Mafia Gunner battles, you have to draw one card."
"I see- that's the drawback for such an attack score..." Rayearth complied with the effect, drawing a new card. "I assume given I was just given a 'gift' by the Mafia, there are strings attached."
"You catch on quick." The Porcurian sneered and then tossed down a spell card. "I activate a Debt To The Family. Since I have a Mafia monster in play and you drew a card via the effect of the same kind of monster, you now have to fulfill your debt. Select and activate one of the following methods of payment, woman."
"Oh?" Rayearth tilted her head as the options appeared in the air above her opponent. "You gain 1500 life points, you get to add a monster from your graveyard to your hand or draw two cards...quite the steep repayment plan."
"Yeah, well, nothing comes free in the world." Tsyvault snorted at her.
"Very well-you may add the monster I destroyed last turn to your hand."
"Gladly." After doing so, Tsyvault grabbed another spell card. "Call For A Hit lets me discard a Mafia monster to declare one card in your hand. If it exists there, its banished." He grinned cruelly. "And since the monster I'm discarding is Mafia Hitman, not only do I get to draw one card, but all other copies of that card are banished as well. One guess who I want to get rid of."
Rayearth showed no reaction as a little red dot appeared on her Jowgen card, only for the card itself to be blown out of her hand and vanish. A second later, so did a card from her deck while Irving and his doppleganger both pouted as their outfits returned to normal.
Tsyvault drew and after glancing at the card, set it into place behind his monster. "I'll end my turn there. The Mafia already has its hooks in you and now its all a matter of twisting..."
"So you say. I beg differ." The Incantifer drew for her turn before grabbing a spell card from her hand and sliding it onto playing field. "Trick Summon lets me tribute two Spellcasters to summon a more powerful one from my deck straight to the field."
Irving and his duplicate both vanished in a 'poof!' of smoke and when it cleared, standing in their place was the Dark Magician. Except instead of the famous, purple-robed version, this one carried a much darker tone. His armor was a dark crimson, trimmed in gold and dark skin. His hair was silver and three slanted markings decorated each of his cheeks. He folded his arms over his chest with a smirk, confident despite his diminutive stature. "Every good performance needs a star, no?" (2500/2100)
"Heh, maybe this wasn't such a bad idea after all." Tsyvault studied the monster professionally. "That's a very rare version of that card and it should fetch a hefty price tag..."
"As would the other two I posses, as well as accessories." The corner of Rayearth's mouth twitched into a slightly larger half-smile than normal as Tsyvault's head snapped up with a surprised look. "Allow me to demonstrate- I activate the spell card Master Summoning Scroll, which I can only do when I have a Dark Magician in play. This monster summons itself as one of three different monsters."
A glowing scroll appeared in front of the monster and he snapped his staff at it, causing it to unfurl and release a glowing symbol of some kind. Then it burst into flames that swarmed over an empty monster spot next to him. A screech sounded and then a black, bone claw erupted from the flames, followed shortly by the rest of the body. It was definitely a dragon, sharp and jagged body that bone and covered in ash. "As you can see, I've chosen to summon it as Red-Eyes Black Dragon." (2400/2000)
The Dark Magician glanced at the dragon and then nodded his approval. He flung out his arms and the Arcana Seal, the golden background symbol on many spellcaster cards appeared beneath his feet. It stretched out, doubling in size so that it held the dragon with in its borders. Both of them sank into the glowing golden ground. What emerged was similar to the magician, but now his armor was jet-black and came with a set of wings and armored tail. The staff, too, was different-more angular and the top meant to look like Red-Eyes breathing fire. "Dark Black Dracomage is created when these two Overlay." (2500/2100)
"Spiffy...what's it do?" Tsyvault liked the look of the new monster, but the look it had on its face...too similar to its master's for his taste.
"Allow me to demonstrate-destroy his Mafia Gunner. Dark Fire Bullet." The mage complied, a twirl of his staff igniting the air in front of him. A black and violet fireball erupted from it, instantly incinerating the screaming Gunner into a small pile of ash. "Now...Dark Fire Inferno."
"What!?" Tsyvault had just enough time for surprise to hit before the mage unleashed a blast of the flames in his face. He howled in pain and swatted at them with his free hand, only for them to vanish instantly and leave him unharmed. (TLP: 6300)
"By detaching the Red-Eyes Overlay unit, my Dracomage can deal you his attack as damage when he destroys a monster in battle." Rayearth drew a card from her deck. "And thanks to your Mafia Gunner, I draw one card."
"And you fall further into the family's power, too!" The Procurian glowered at her as he flipped his trap card. "Unfair Interest Rate is a continuous trap that applies whenever you draw a card thanks to the Mafia. Either you pay two hundred life points or that card goes to the graveyard!"
"Mmm...very well. I'll pay the life points." Rayearth didn't seem to feel anything from the soft glow that surrounded her as the trap card sapped her strength. (RLP: 7800) "I'll set my new card face-down and end my turn."
"Draw." Tsyvault did so and flipped it around. "Monster Reincarnation lets me discard a card to fetch a monster from my graveyard." The spell card morphed into Mafia Gunner as he tossed another card into his discard pile. "And then the Shallow Grave will let me set the monster I just discarded from the graveyard."
"I get the same benefit as well." Rayearth watched a golden glow heralded the arrival of a set monster alongside her Xyz.
"Yeah, well, sometimes you have to give a little get a lot ahead." Tsyvault tossed down as second set card and then another set card alongside his Unfair Interest Rate card. "End of turn."
"I see..." Rayearth drew. "I detach the Dark Magician Overlay Unit on my Dracomage in order for him to gain the power to attack all monsters you have this turn once. Dark Fire Wave." The mage lifted his staff, rings of flames launching from it. To her surprise, the set cards were unharmed by the blazing magic fire even as they flipped up to reveal another pair of suited men, both carrying a six-back of bottles. "What's this?
The Porcurian gave her an ugly grin. "You just attacked two Mafia Drug Smuggler. And when they're flipped, they're shuffled into your deck face-up." The two cards lifted up and zipped over to Rayearth's deck, which shuffled itself neatly. "Or they would be, but my Promote From The Inside Trap lets me move a Drug Smuggler to the top of your deck, instead."
"You are running a strange deck." Rayearth watched the card shuffle itself up to the top of her deck. "I suspect you mean to make me draw this monster?"
"No, really? I thought I'd just share the wealth a little." Tsyvault's snort made his jowls quiver. "Now are you going to do anything else for this turn?" At Rayearth's slight headshake, he grunted in satisfaction. "Good."
Drawing, he slapped down his Mafia Gunner card. The Tommy gun-wielding thug reappeared and immediately opened fire, spraying her set card with bullets. It shattered to dust and the thug grinned in satisfaction. "Now, you draw and normally my trap card would come into play, but you'll find my Drug Smuggler's effect overrides that."
Rayearth pulled the card from the stack and watched as it floated out of her hand, down to her playing field in defense position. The suited man appeared alongside her two monsters, leaning back against a small brick wall that was suddenly there and looking decidedly bored. "So it summons itself in defense mode..." (800/2000)
"And that's not all. You can't tribute it or use it in any kind of summon-once the Mafia gets an agent in your business, they stay there." Tsyvualt looked rather smug as he set down another card. "I end my turn."
"My move." The Incantifer drew carefully and seemed to be studying her options- though it was hard to tell since one could not see her eyes at all. "I have Dracomage attack your Gunner."
"Gotcha. I chain Appropriate." Tsyvault grinned as her mage lifted his weapon and incinerated his Gunner with ease. (TLP: 6100) "Now, not only do you draw from my Gunner and have to decide on my Unfair Interest Rate trap effect's, but that payment increases by two hundred each time it happens. And thanks to Drug Smuggler, you have to draw each time you declare an attack."
"While you draw four cards thank to Appropriate." Rayearth's ghost of a smile faded a bit as he drew four cards and she drew her two carefully. "I pay the life points to keep both of my cards." (RLP: 7600-7000)
"The payments may not be much now, Incantifer, but they're going to add up real soon, real fast." With a fresh, full hand, Tsvault simply settled back into his chair leisurely. "Just be glad I can only have one copy of Unfair Interest Rate in play."
"Indeed." Rayearth slid a pair of cards into the spots behind her monsters. "Your move, Porcurian."
Drawing leisurely, Tsyvault chuckled as he grabbed one of his new cards and slid it into play on his field. "I activate The Goblin Negotiator. Now as long as this spell card is in play, once per turn, monsters on my field and I do not take any battle damage. But you get to draw a card as a result."
He slapped down a monster card, a greasy-haired but neatly dressed man in suspenders appeared. He grinned darkly, hefting his briefcase and pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose with a finger. "Mafia Lawyer may not be the best attacker around, but he'll get the job done." (1000/1000)
Then his eyes bugged out as the corrupt lawyer yelped and was yanked over to Rayearth's field and alongside the Drug Smuggler was yanked inside a floating violet coffin with a jewel in the center. "Hey! What the hell is that?"
"It's my trap card, Dark Renewal. Since you summoned a monster, I can send that monster and one other on my field to the graveyard to summon a Spellcaster from there. And since it is a sending, I get around Drug Smuggler's effect." Rayearth's ghost of a smile strengthened as the coffin opened, letting the crimson-robed form of her Dark Magician step free.
Tsyvault glowered at the small monster and growled a bit, the action making his whole body jiggle minutely. "I set one card face-down and end my turn."
Rayearth drew and then turned around a spell card. "Evolution Through Blood and Chaos lets me tribute a Dark Magician I have in play to summon out a greater power." Her magician nodded, lifting his wrists and slitting them with a knife.
Blood splattered all over the ground in a great pool as the Dark Magician collapsed bonelessly in it, Tsyvault staring at it with a touch of disgust and fear. "What the hell is wrong with you?!"
"Shhhh." Rayearth raised a glove finger to her lips. "Watch."
The pool swelled to an impossible size, more blood than any body could ever hold and swallowed the magician's body. It remained still for a long moment, then a hand burst free suddenly. The monster that pulled itself free, revealing it to be a radically different entity than what its sacrifice had been. Skin as black as pitch, the figure dressed in a dark, angular leather out. Blood dripped off its form and a hissing laugh emitted from underneath the skull-shaped mask adoring its face. "Dark Magician of Blood is summoned." (2800/2600)
Blood swirled and spun into a portal as the spellcaster stretched out a hand. "When he is summoned, I can bring back any Spellcaster in my graveyard." Black strings of magic fell from the magician's fingers, vanishing into the portal. With a jerk upwards, the limp, dangling form of her Dark Magician was pulled free. Another few twitches and the puppet monster jerked about lifelessly. "Isn't it lovely?"
"You're a twisted woman, enjoying something like that." Tsyvault still reached down and flipped up his set card. "Foolish Revival lets me select a monster in your graveyard and summon it to your field. Like my Drug Smuggler that's still there thanks to its special abilities!" The Smuggler reappeared, recoiling quickly as he caught sight of the puppet Dark Magician. "Still want to attack me?"
"Yes." Dracomage spun his staff around and unleashed a wave of fire at the Porcurian, but the Goblin Negoiator card glowed and the fire died out before it reached him. Tsyvault drew four more cards as Rayearth drew her two. "I choose not to pay life points and will discard my draws."
The puppet magician was next, a twitch from his master causing him to raise his staff awkwardly as magic gathered at the tip. The blast sailed across the field, but then the sound of a bell filled the area. Rayearth's brow furrowed slightly as she drew for Drug Smuggler and then promptly discarded it, Tsyvault drawing two cards himself. "Battle Fader..."
"Correct. A useful little thing to have and I actually just drew it thanks to your first attack." He rolled the cigar to the other side of his mouth, ash sprinkling across his desk. "You can't fight the Mafia or my power- whatever you do, you just dig yourself in deeper and deeper."
"So you say. But your own greed will be your undoing." Rayearth seemed unconcerned as she tapped the ash off the end of her cigarette. "Your desire for wealth and power makes you predictable which make you stupid which makes you dead."
"You're more insane than the rumors paint you, woman." Tsyvault scowled at her, waving a meaty to encompass the playing field between them. "I control the board with ease-everything you do just hurts yourself and I have more than enough to finish you off."
"I do not doubt it, especially since you're trying for Exodia." She puffed on her cigarette in satisfaction as Tsyvault jerked in surprise. "A single playset of those card is worth nearly millions and given your strategy, there's no way a greedy piece of hog slime like you could resist trying to pull that off. The show of ultimate wealth is to posses the ultimate power."
"Hog slime, huh?" Tsyvault ground out. "Even if you know about it, there isn't anything you do stop me. You have no hope and no chance!"
"Wrong, Tsyvault." The shadows seemed to deepen, leaving only the light of her cigarette to illuminate her face and in that half-light, the smile on her face chilled the demon to the core. "You have no hope and chance..."
She held up a spell card and her magician unleashed a wave of magic that blasted all of his backrow to dust. "Dark Magic Attack. The card I drew for the start of this turn."
"But...but...if you had that, you could have...beaten me..." Tsyvault stared at her, uncomprehending as felt a cold pit of fear swallow his arrogance and pride and continue onto the rest of him. "What...why..."
"Because I told you, even the audience is part of the act, Tsyvault. And you're my last trick for the evening." Her smile broadened and he shivered in dread. "I want to make a demon of hell scream for mercy, to beg and plead and cry...wouldn't that be something grand?"
"Not...not gonna happen, bitch..." Tsyvault drew himself together as best he could.
"Prove me wrong, then. I end my turn" She tipped her hat to him with that eerie smile still in place. "Best of luck."
"I don't need luck!" He barked, but glanced down at his deck and felt the sweat of fear trickle down his body. She had just trashed his backrow and despite the massive hand he held, only had three of the pieces in hand. And no draw cards- his strategy relied on making her draw and stealing. Even if he drew another piece, he couldn't complete the win condition.
And that woman, that crazy magician woman, sitting across from him so calmly and smiling that creepy smile with no eyes and smoking that cigarette, knew it. He didn't know how, he didn't care how, but he knew she knew it. He was going to lose, lose it all.
And she knew it.
That was the joke-that's why she had that damn ghost smile earlier. She found him funny. Found him amusing, diverting. Him. A superpower in his own right, a demon, a being who had more wealth pass through his hands than most countries saw in their entire lives and she found him amusing. Had marched right through all his property and possessions and made a mockery out of what he had built, had guessed his plan in the duel and treated it like garbage, had disrespected him, disrespected his wealth, his status.
Something snapped.
"DAMN YOU!" Anger replaced fear as fury burst through him, cards scattering as he hurled the desk away into darkness. Steam billowed out of his nostrils as he grew and grew and grew, muscle piling atop of muscle to the point of grotesqueness. He was eight feet tall, then ten and then twelve. Red surged in his eyes and his roar was nearly deafening. "DAMN YOU!"
Rayearth just watched, not having flinched or moved from her seat. Nor showing inclination to as he swung a fist that easily half of her size down to reduce her body to paste. "You broke the rules, Tsyvault."
The fist froze a few inches from her head, the Porcurian snorting and growling in fury and all traces of real conscious thought lost.
Rayearth just smiled some more. "That means I get to inflict a Penalty Game. One I like to call Gluttony's Real Form."
For a moment, nothing happened...and then Tsyvault staggered back, each step shaking the ground. He roared and flailed as his body bulged horribly. His muscles rippled and lost their shape, being replaced by something else as he grew more. Arms, legs, torso- all but his head was lost to this new growth. He tried to stop the process, his natural power, but it was too late- it had gone too far and was going on sheer momentum now.
The Incantifer watched him become nothing by a sagging mass of bloated flesh that was bigger than most cars, his now-small head nearly swallowed by his grotesque and overblown thing that had been a 'body'. "Would you like to know what I did?"
Rage had devoured his brain, for the Porcurian snarled and gurgled at her violently, frothing at the mouth.
"I goaded you, because your own greed means you could never swallow your pride and admit you could lose. And now...I used the Penalty Game to covert all of the power and muscle you would get from your hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars of wealth into fat." She stood up, walking over to him and rolling the cigarette in her mouth. "You must weight at least a ton, if not more..."
She produced a playing card with a flick of her wrist. "Now then, I told you I wanted you to make a demon scream..."
Beady red eyes watched as she almost tenderly slid the edge of the card against his warped skin before she made a swift slit on a lower part of his bulges. He snorted and snarled at her.
"I know, that didn't hurt at all because of how buried you are...but...I just need that one cut." She smiled at him and despite the all-consuming rage he felt, Tsyvault flinched ever so slightly. "I hope your screams are those of delight, Porcurian...what I'm about to do should remind you of home, shouldn't it?"
And those beady red eyes watched as she plucked the still-lit, still-flaming cigarette from her mouth. They watched as she casually flicked it towards the open gash she had just made, fat spilling out from it in a sludge. They watched as the cigarette struck the cut.
His screams weren't delightful, Rayearth decided as she felt the warmth of the flames. But they were still beautiful
It was worth smiling about.
TTTTTT
Adrian and Thesis had stopped their playful theft of each other's candy and were staring at the Icantifer across the poker table with surprise on their faces.
Rayearth took a sip of her wine, parched from her speaking. "I never said it would be a nice story, only one to pass the time."
Jalal, for his part, just looked a little put-out. "I should know better than to ask for full reports from you by now..."
Silence hung in the room and then Thesis spoke, eagerly leaning forwards. "Can I get your phone number? We should, like, totally, hang out sometimes and chill by killing some Elder God spawn. Trade evisceration methods."
Dracula snorted. "Please. Like burning a demon alive in its own fat is anything to write home about. Humanity inflicts worse cruelties to itself all the time. And I would have won the fight with the Porcurian."
"Of course you would have, you're the oldest earth-bound Shadowkind in existence and nearly qualify as a god." Adrian pointed out. "And what she did that demon was nothing compared to that ogre clan who razed that entire town down that one time- there are still scars in the land from that."
"A typical Wednesday for me."
"I could do that in my sleep. Not that I need any, being the lord of all vampires and all."
"Hey, can that Penalty Game work elsewhere?"
"No, Thesis. For one thing, you don't have the patience to learn a card game."
"I do, too! We're playing poker, aren't we?!"
"If you could call your losing streak that, yes, then we are."
"I'll show you losing, furball!"
Jalal sighed and grabbed a candy bar off his stack as the flashes of light and grunts came from under the table as Adrian and Thesis rolled around in their impromptu brawl. Peeling the wrapper off, he flicked it casually into the trash and took a bit.
With friends like these...
TTTTTT
A/N: Dark, yes? Well, that was the intention. I honestly don't know which is darker-this or Tsukihime's chapter, but it can never be said that I don't brave outside of my writing comfort zone to try this kind of thing...can't be a good writer if I don't at least try new things. And if anyone felt this chapter was a bit...rushed or hustled together, it was. With college in full-swing, I need to finish Tales before I can work on Backwater and so, I have to give myself deadlines to stay track. This one's came and went, hence the nature of the piece.
One more chapter to go and then...then I have a surprise.
Secret Life of Characters #6: The Lady Rayearth, the Waking Nightmare.
"Your suffering brings me joy..."
Rayearth is perhaps the Shadowchasers best- and worst-kept secret.
Even most members of the organization know very little about her, save her team and Jalal, but everyone knows of her.
Jalal is a legend because of his great and many deeds, all etched into history.
Rayearth is legend because of the shadows swallowing her deeds.
She is a living myth, with wild stories and rumors forever circulating about her and her accomplishments. Some say Jalal founded the Gotthammers because she would have found their work 'boring'. Others say that the reason Hell exists is because Heaven doesn't want to let her in when she dies. Others say that she is the only duelist ever to end up on the Forbidden List and still others say that she doesn't use magic, the universe just bends to her will out of fear.
All agree that she is ruthless, savage and sadistic.
It has been noted by many that if Jalal is the bright, noble king of the Shadowchasers, Rayearth stands as the black queen. Joining the organization only a couple of hundred years after its founding, she quickly proved that her potential for cruelty and destruction were matched only by her devotion to protecting the innocent. Willing to undertake tasks that no other would and never straying from her oaths, Rayearth easily earned her unoffical title of 'Waking Nightmare'- what she would do to some enemies easily made them wish they were dreaming. At the same time, many would tell of the times she would perform great acts of kindess without hesitation or thought of reward and many of her targets deserved what she did to them.
Paradoxical as she is, Rayearth is a being who's era seemingly has slipped away from her. Gone are the years where her brutal strength and force were necessary to eke out existence and law and order in savage world and she has become something of a relic. Many who do not understand her nor the circumstances of the past cry for her arrest or expulsion from the Shadowchasers, as well as expunging all record of her servie, claiming she is nothing but a monster and no better than the what the Shadowchasers are supposed to fight.
Jalal, however, is not so near-sighted and knows that sometimes, you must battle a monster with a monster and that getting your hands dirty is a necessity against some of the evils he and his men must face. To that end, he assigned Rayearth to Backwater shortly after its founding in order to keep her out of public view. So far, this has worked and the citizens of Backwater regard her as a hero, despite what little action she has personally taken. For now, she is content to learn new hobbies such as her stage magic and train the next generation of Shadowchasers.
The loss of her eyes, yet retaining the ability to see, is something only she and Jalal know the reasons behind. If asked on the subject, she simply replies "I have given up my eyes so that I may truly see." What this means is anyone's guess, though it is of interesting note that her Shadowchaser mark seems to be part of the scarring.
Deck: Rayearth's deck is something I thought up on the spur of the moment, realizing that a Spellcaster would suit her, but only with the proper bend to it. Hence, Arkana's version of the Dark Magician, as well as a different 'branch' for it to explore into than the standard ones we have. I honestly had a lot of fun with it and fully intend to expand a bit more on the cards and possibilties. That said, Rayearth is the team's trump card and so it not someone who see a lot of action, mostly because I don't want her curbstomping everyone else.
A complete list of her cards will be showcased next time she has a duel, though I'm always willing to take questions.
The Mafia set of cards did not get to showcase all they had, either, but it'll show up again, too.
Origins: An Incantifer Shadowchaser is something I've always thought would be cool and Rayearth was born out of that. This particular slant on such a character- ruthless, sadistic and bloodthirsty- is another of my experiments. The modern age of Shadowchasers is very different from the past eras, where the sword was the rule of law and I imagine that it was not a very fun or pleasant time to exist in. If Fayte embodies the knightly ideals that we romanticize from such times, Rayearth embodies the harshest aspects of such a life. She is also inspired by the TV show Dexter, which feature a man who cannot resist his compulsion to kill, focus solely on using his skills to hunt and kill other serial killers. The idea of a 'good evil' character is fascinating and I hope to build on it more. Moreover, she rounds the Backwater team by being on the far end of the spectrum, very much a 'Knight of Cerebus' as the trope goes.