Grim Tales: Complex

by Aros001

After an attack on his family Junior returns home after many years. Though he has his own reasons for staying away he finds he keeps getting drawn back. Because someone is trying to get him back. Rated M for language, fights, incest (because Grim Tales), and some (maybe) small lemon-ish bits.

12. Out-of-the-Box Vengeance Part 3

Part 12: Out-of-the-Box Vengeance Part 3

Lord Razer: Yeah. My original plan was just to have Pandora killed (since her immortality applies only to her age), but then I figured Mandy of all people would know that there are fates far worse than death and she'd want to send a message to anyone who'd ever think of trying to control her like Pandora did. I've so far haven't seen much of Game of Thrones (I'm sure it is good, given how well loved it is), so I'll have to take your word for it exactly how much like Jaime Lannister Junior is (though as far as I know Jaime didn't have a thing for both his mother and sister (though Junior hasn't had any kids with his sister, so it would be an interesting debate over who is more messed up)).

desdelor97: Thank you.

nightmaster000: Thank you. Like I said, I'm going to try and get these out faster, be it every week or every other week. The new chapters might not all be for this story, some might be for the oneshot collection or the Justice League/PPGD story, but I figure as long as there's consistently something being uploaded (preferably something good) then it should be fine.

Interesting theory for Daniela and Manny. There was one other example of ghost on ghost overshadowing, which was when Sidney Poindexter overshadowed Danny while he was in human form. But that might have been an unusual case, given that the two then completely switched bodies and worlds for a bit. One thing I'm actually surprised never happened in the show was Vlad possessing Danny or vice-versa. That would certainly give a good idea of what happens when a halfa possesses another (because I will be flying wild on what the consequences are here).

To get Billy's door I think Mandy just went back to the Shadow World to get it (presumably years after Grim managed to stuff them all back in there).

Nikola the Einstein: I'll need to remember the Foster's thing. It's a pretty good idea and would certainly fit with the Underworld's theme of embracing corruption (I believe these particular imaginary friends were called Extremeasaurs).

As to where Daniela and Manny would rank in terms of power, the closest person I could compare them to would be Danny Phantom himself (as in Dan's former past self). On the show, Danny could do everything that both Daniela and Manny can, but unlike them he never favored some of his abilities over others. Danny was a very balanced fighter, using a mixture of raw power and his more tricky abilities to win, like intangibility or invisibility. The way I've always thought of the twins, each one of them is just a little more than half the fighter Danny was. Manny might be physically stronger than Danny was at the same age and Daniela might have more control over her powers, but both are significantly lacking in the opposite areas. Together Daniela and Manny are something greater than Danny was, but on their own they'd have no chance against him. Hope that makes any sense.

And don't worry about me stopping the Junior-incest plot. Icky as it might be, I wouldn't have put something like that in the story if I didn't have a plan for it. And since I'm trying to speed up these chapter uploads, you should hopefully get to see how it plays out.

Never read Bones, unfortunately.

DarkDremora: Wow, thank you! I genuinely blushed a bit while reading your review. I'm very flattered. Especially the editor comment, though I don't know if I'd have the discipline for it. I've fallen quite behind on a lot of the things I'm writing and Griddles, the former Grim Tales editor, talks about the job quite a lot in the comments sections of each uploaded page (I even gotten to read some of the scripts he wrote when it seemed like Bleedman was going to hire him back). Still though, it's a very nice thing for you to say.

1.) Both of those certainly work.

2.) That would be quite the effective card to play, given Junior's current issues.

3.) A fail-safe is exactly what I'd call it, since if Grim hadn't managed to suck all the Billys back in, they very likely would have wreaked the castle and the Domain of Death far worse than Pandora's monsters could have.

4.) Probably.

5.) Fair enough.

6.) One of those guesses is technically right, but you'll see that in this chapter.

7.) That's certainly what I'm hoping this chapter comes across as.

As for the shipping, that's hard to say. I'm putting my other stories to the side for the moment to focus more on this one, so who knows what will happen? Though I'm still thinking about doing that Grim Tales Slasher story, so that's a possibly of shippable characters right there.

Emeraldalex123: I think your wording was fine and I agree, Green Lantern was a really underrated movie (just messin' with ya, I know what you mean). As for the overshadowing thing, it was just something I just kind of thought "What would happen if this happened?" and it kind of just went from there. In the original show even Danny could be overshadowed as long as he was in human form, so I figured Daniela could do the same as long as Manny was human too.

I don't want to give too much away yet, but I will say that Billy, Grim and Mandy's Billy, is not locked behind the door with the other Billys. He's somewhere else (though his own shadow, the one with the helmet, is in there).

DPSS: 1.) Something like that.

2.) Possibly, though do remember that in the original show, Vlad split Danny in half and then the ghost half did the same to Vlad, before overshadowing his ghost half. So it was two halves creating a new whole, while with Daniela and Manny…who knows what that is?

3.) Honestly, no, I cannot, save for whatever might scare a realm full of Billys.

4.) Ah, yes. The good old L.P.T.G.S.O.B.M.A.G. I can see them knowing how to deal with ghosts.

5.) I'd actually forgotten about Dullahans and now I really want to put them in somewhere. I used to watch a little bit of Durarara and, of course, I love me some Christopher Walken in Sleepy Hollow. I think they'll fit right in with the other creatures in Death's Domain.

6.) Okay.

7.) Well, because of Lantern's deal with Grim, it's a mystical legal mess as to whether Junior can actually eat his soul or not, but regardless Lantern's not going to have a fun time fighting him. That's for sure.

---

Chapter start

"J-…Junior?" Grim said, while everyone around the newly arrived Reaper stared on just as stunned as he was.

"Hold." Lantern quickly gave the order, his army of monsters not the type to enjoy being startled. His eyes never left Junior. "Didn't I kill you?"

"Well, now I know for certain that you were never a real bounty hunter." Junior commented offhandedly. "Because even on my first day I knew well enough to check for a damn body."

"I thought I vaporized you!" Lantern defended.

Junior didn't respond back, ignoring the cyborg and taking the moment to look over his surroundings. "This place has seen better days." He commented dryly to himself, taking note of the many discarded weapons and blood-stained armaments that he recognized as belonging to the Grimskull Armed Guard. What happened to all the actual troops was no mystery, with the horse-headed skulls of his mother's favored Tikbalangs mixed in with the litter of twisting Hydra necks, cracked Manotaur skulls, and remains of other creatures similar to those Lantern now had at his back. Why the giant Typhon was the only corpse with any remaining flesh (yet with no bones of its own) was a bit strange to him, but with the many hungrily snapping jaws of the Gashadokuro, it wasn't hard to piece together what'd happened.

Junior then felt around for what he couldn't see. "Charles is still alive. Just seems unconscious at the moment. …Dan's here too? That's odd, but not horrible, I suppose. But he's fighting…fighting…what is that? It feels like…no, it feels more like…"

"Dad, are you feeling this?" Junior asked, both his parents still behind him as he stood between them and the monsters.

"Feel? What are you talk-…" Grim started but cut himself off, his head slowly turning in the same direction as his son's. "…What in the world…?"

Mandy's foot tapped passive aggressively against the ground as she waited. "And for those of us that don't have Reaper Soul Senses…?" She asked impatiently.

"It's Manny and Daniela." Grim informed her, though not looking away from the nothing in the distance. "There's something wrong with them. …It feels like they're in a massive conflict with each other. And not just de fightin' kind."

Junior's grip tightened tensely around Dragonslayer's hilt. "Daniela…what happened to you after I got knocked out?"

"That's not that surprising," Mandy said to Grim. "Given that we've got three of the seven Sins missing from this little gathering Jack wants to throw at us."

"Sins?" Junior asked.

"She means us, Junior." Lust said as she apparated before his face, causing Junior to nearly jump back, his eyes making him look almost terrified upon seeing the non-Ragdoll form of his sister. Lust, of course, did not fail to notice this. "Oh?" She said, sounding rather intrigued as her eyes almost seemed to gaze right through him. "I wondered why I felt this form was the one to choose from this era. Now I see. This form has significance to you. …Your heart hurts, doesn't it?" Lust placed her fingers upon Junior's chest. Though the massless form could pass through him at any moment, it still felt like Junior's chest was set ablaze by her touch. "Because of how much you miss her. Because of how much you hurt her."

Lust then gave a very perplexed look. "And because…there's another? Hmm… Ohhhhh…! Well now…isn't that interesting?"

Lust brought her hands back up, sliding them sensually along Junior's sweating face, bringing herself in closer until her lips were nearly kissing his ear. "I looked into Mandy's heart too." She whispered lovingly, quiet enough so that the others couldn't hear her. "Would you like to hear what she would think of this secret hidden in yours?"

Junior felt his legs starting wobble and his vision starting to blur, his mind slowly slipping into blissful static.

He then felt himself thrown back to reality as both Mandy and Grim had grabbed him by the arms and pulled him away from Lust, whom looked greatly displeased over having another victim torn away.

"Back off, Lust," Mandy warned with a glare. "Unless you want to test your luck against my head again."

Eyes going wide at the mere memory of what she'd seen in the woman's mind, Lust instantly flew back to behind Lantern.

"Ya all right der, son?" Grim asked as Junior's head jerked roughly back and forth, the Demon Reaper panting heavily after having been overwhelmed so suddenly. Junior gave one look at Mandy and instantly ripped his eyes away, pulling himself out of his parents' arms to get back to his feet.

"I'm fine." He quickly lied. His head was pounding and he was still sweating, almost like he had a bad fever. And this was just from a few seconds of being under Lust's power, which Lantern had not failed to notice.

"Well, I wouldn't have expected Lust to be the one to hit you the hardest, Junior. But I suppose you are Mandy's son after all." He commented snidely. "Guess the apple doesn't fall far from the Bitch Tree."

Mandy held her gun out protectively. "You know, for someone who used to pride himself on his wacky, creative pranks, that was a pretty weak insult."

Grim stood beside her with his scythe ready. "The three of us against an army of monsters? Not de worst odds I've ever had."

"No!" Junior suddenly snapped, moving his hands to get them to back away.

"No?" Grim and Mandy asked in unison.

"Go get Daniela and Manny and then get back to the castle." Junior ordered firmly, though his panting form took away from the strength he was trying to project. "I'll handle things here."

"Absolutely not!" Grim said before Lantern could even get out his first surprised chuckle. "Junior, dese beasts have been tearin' apart our army all day and Mandy and I just barely fought off da Sins that tried to possess us! Dere's no way we're gonna let you fight four of dem on yer own, plus Jack O'Lantern and de rest of dis crap. It ain't happenin'!"

"Dad, just listen…" Junior tried to forcefully plea, but the look on Grim's face told him he wasn't going to budge on this.

But then Mandy stepped in. "Junior…why do you want to fight them on your own?" She asked calmly, surprising him.

It took Junior a moment before he answered back, as he was trying to avoid looking at his mother in a way that wasn't obvious. "…I can end this faster if I don't have to worry about holding back." Junior said, which was technically the truth. Whatever Lust had done to him it was still shaking him up badly and he could feel his concentration slipping. If he wasn't carefully he could easily lose control and let a certain…something…loose. The same something that nearly came out in his fight with the samurai and his previous bout with Lantern. "But I might have a way of pushing it back down." Junior reminded himself to try and calm his fears about what could happen, especially with Mandy so close again. "…just been a while since I've tried it…"

"Junior…" Grim said, a bit softer, wanting to talk him out of this foolishness.

"I know, dad." Junior interrupted kindly. "I know you and mom can take care of yourselves. But because I know that, I need you to trust my reasons for doing this on my own."

Grim opened his mouth to speak out again but Mandy raised her arm to shush him. "Grim," She said, turning to her husband. "Take me back to the castle, preferably one of the balconies. Then go save Daniela and Manny from whatever crap Dan's involved them in."

"Mandy! He's our son! We can just leave him to-!"

"Now, Grim." Mandy said with a firm order, turning to walk away from the army of monsters. "And hurry up about it. I don't want to miss a minute of this."

Grim looked back and forth between his wife and Junior, anger and exasperation splitting his features in two, before finally and with great reluctance turned to follow Mandy, catching Junior's eye as he did so and pleading that he'd be alright.

"Did you do somethin' ta piss him off before he left that yer tryin' ta make up fer?" Grim whispered harshly to Mandy when he caught up with her, slicing open a scythe portal and picking up the arm of the unconscious Pandora's Ghost from where she laid to drag the giant woman behind him. "He hasn't looked at ya by choice since he got back."

Mandy gave a look back, studying the scene as Junior still stood with his back to them and his front towards Lantern and the monsters. If she had anything to comment about, she didn't share it with Grim, merely turning forward again and entering the portal, Grim following behind.

Hearing the portal close behind him, Junior felt the tightness in his chest start to almost immediately loosen, though he could still feel the burning red eyes of his mother staring down at him from the castle. "I'm surprised you didn't try and stop them." He commented to Lantern, trying to get his mind away from her.

Lantern shrugged casually, seeming completely unworried. "I know I can't kill them, Junior. That's why my plan is to make them suffer. And like I told you before, killing Grim's favorite son is a good place to start. Bringing their castle down on top of them is a good step 2."

"Looks like you've already gone through a few steps more than that." Junior remarked over the state of the battlefield, bloodstained with the colors of red and black (and a few bits of green from snot, Junior couldn't help but notice) and scars in the earth from all the previous conflict.

"Heh. Hell hath no fury like a woman whose friendship was betrayed, and I'm talking about both your mother and Pandora here." Lantern chuckled.

"Who's Pandora?" Junior asked.

"No one important. Though I'd recommend against opening that door over there, in case you get curious." Lantern said, pointing over Billy's Door a few yards away. Junior raised an eyebrow questionably but didn't say anything. "More importantly, are you ready to fight again? Because my beasts here are only going to be patient for so much longer."

"You're certainly in a big hurry to fight against someone who nearly ate you last time." Junior remarked. "Back-up must really be a confidence booster."

"I'm not too proud to admit that." Lantern retorted. "You gave me quite a scare last time but this time I'm ready. I've got Pandora's monsters, plus your father's hungry little collection here," Lantern gestured at the towering orange-tinted Gashadokuro; all the skulls practically drooling as the cyborg kept them waiting. "Along with the Sins and my own power, which I recharged on the way here. All this vs. you, who aren't exactly looking as hot as when we fought before."

Junior wiped the sweat off his brow, but then gave Lantern a confidence-filled smirk. "No. Not hot. Not yet." He smiled, his eyes giving a quick flash of red. "Tell me something, Lantern… I know this was a bit after your time, but did you ever watch this little show called Dragon Ball Z?"

Lantern gave Junior a peculiar, puzzled look. "Can't say that I have."

"Yeah, I don't blame you. It's not for everyone. Especially not these days with how toxic some of the fanbase can be. But as a kid, I ate that shit up." Junior rambled. "The weird characters, the action, and, of course, all the over-the-top attacks and transformations. Kaio-ken, Great Oozaru, Super Saiyans one through four. I think they even added a God-form recently. Isn't that something?"

"Is there a point to this?" Lantern asked impatiently.

"I'm getting there." Junior said calmly. "So as you can imagine, first time I got my powers, after the whole Demon Reaper incident had settled down, I wanted to have my own dramatic transformations. My own ways of leveling up at the last minute to turn the tables. …But the thing is, that's not really how my powers work, as I discovered. No, you see, my body's way of powering up works more like layers than levels. Each new layer building up on what the layer beneath it can do."

"Layers?" Lantern asked in confusion.

Junior nodded and held out his hand. The flesh covering it receded back on its own, stripping itself away from Junior's now bare white bones. "This, for example, is what I call Layer 1: my base Reaper form. The body I was born/aborted with. The body all my Reaper powers stem from, even if I couldn't figure out how to use any of them before the incident."

The Nergal flesh then re-covered his arm. "Now this is Layer 2: my Demon Reaper form, courtesy of my sister's right eye. Comes with all the basic Nergal shapeshifting and adaptability powers. But adding those onto my Reaper powers, I get abilities unique to me and me only. In this form I'm virtually unkillable, can create weapons that can tear people's souls from their bodies, and can even eat said souls to add onto my own power. As well as a whole host of other abilities."

"I know. We've studied you, remember? That's why me and the others figured you always stay in that form these day." Lantern said.

"That's half of it. The other reason is because the powers that came with this form took the longest to learn how to use without going berserk. The longer I spent in this form, the easier it was to control. And once I had this form under wraps, I was able to figure out how to add a few Layer 3's."

"3's?" Lantern asked, noting the plural.

"Well, not all at once. Then they wouldn't be 3's, they'd be more like Layers 3, 4, 5, etc." Junior explained away. "Layer 3's are more like alternate skins, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. For example, if you really are made from remains of the Pumpkinator like you said, then you'll remember that giant rampaging monster I became when I first got my powers. I call that my Demon Reaper Beast form and it's a Layer 3. Incredibly strong. Incredibly durable. And able to reap souls by the thousands. Last time I used it was when Dan got in my way of collecting Bowser's bounty and we ended up fighting both each other and his army. Still pissed I never got to collect the price on his head."

Lantern seemed amused by this. "So that's your big plan to save the day? Another big Kaiju battle? For the record, that's what your father's little pet did to the last one." He said confidently, gesturing his large metal over to the many hill-sized remaining bits of Typhon, the pooling blood still creating more monsters to join Lantern's already sizable army.

"No, no." Junior said, still with a smile. "While my beast form is way strong, it takes forever for me to grow that much mass, thus why I had to steal bits of the Pumpkinator the first time just speed things up. And even then I lose a lot of speed being that heavy. No… The Layer 3 I'm thinking of is actually one I don't have a lot of experience with yet. In fact, I've only ever used it twice: once when I first got it, and when I needed to beat the guy who used to own this baby." Junior patted the hilt of Dragonslayer as it stood stuck in the ground. "…I'm curious how much more of a fight you'll put up than him?"

If he was physically able to Lantern would have smirked at the Reaper's little threat. As such, Lantern raised his arm up, ready to signal his army to attack. But as he did the cyborg noticed the strange mist wafting off it.

"No…not mist…" He realized. It was steam. All the blood that'd been spilled on the battlefield was starting to evaporate into the air, confirmed by Lantern turning around to the Gashadokuro, easily the most blood-covered creature there, and seeing the massive clouds of hot fog whirling off its many bones. The black blood pools of Typhon's looked so much more like tar pits now, bubbling rapidly as it gave birth to screaming Harpies and Manotaurs, only for the beasts to collapse and die seconds later from the scalding pain.

"What in the…?" Lantern said, his internal systems telling him the surrounding temperature had jumped nearly 30 degrees in the last minute and was still continuing to climb. He quickly turned back to Junior, ready to blast him for whatever he was doing, but hesitated, both from shock and confusion. By the look of it the sudden heat was effecting Junior too. In fact, possibly even worse than everything around him.

The Reaper's body was shaking heavily in pain, his hands in front of his face as Junior's body emitted a horrible sizzling noise, with smoke pouring out of his boiling eyes and skin, like he was being burned alive from the inside. His breath was short, jerky, and strained, moving in rhythm with his body's twitches when the soles of his boots suddenly caught fire and consumed his feet.

"What…?! What the hell?!" Lantern yelled, nearly taking a step back along with the rest of his monsters.

"Exactly." Junior smiled darkly through his pain, his voice carrying a grizzled echo to it that didn't sound like him at all.

---

Dan panted heavily, practically laughing as he stood opposite his son/daughter combination, looking just as beat up as he was, if not more so.

"Damn, kid. I'm actually starting to regret some of the things I said earlier." He said as his fist wiped the blood away from his mouth, worn-down holes now in the glove around the knuckles. They'd found a nice little unoccupied area near the castle to do their fighting (or, to be more accurate, Daniela tackled him down into it) and, given the now many blast craters and blood spatters that covered the wasteland around them, it was clear how busy the ghosts had been with each other. "I didn't think I was going to have this much fun with you."

"Shut up and die." Daniela's voice said as another ecto-stream burst from Manny's hand. Dan held out his own hand calmly and caught the attack in his palm, closing his fingers around it as it ended and simply absorbing it.

This was a further sign that their battle was over. Dan had no problem admitting his kids had gotten some good hits in on him. Hell, he was proud even. His neck felt like it was going to be sore for a week and his arms felt like they were practically jelly after exchanging so many hits. But it was clear Manny's body was on the verge of collapsing. While she'd gotten far further than any other ghost Dan had fought in recent memory, Daniela skill and stolen power were not as great as Dan's own abilities, especially not when she was still fighting Manny internally to keep control of his body while their father pounded them into bloody paste during the fight.

'Normally I'd say something about learning to rely on your own natural abilities," Dan remarked. "But I think I can make an exception in this case. So, I'm going to let you off here and let you get some rest and we'll meet back up to fight in…what, a year? That work for you?"

"What?!" Daniela screamed, infuriated by this insult. "How dare you try and back out of this fight!"

"I'm not backing out, kid. It's just that if we keep going, you're going to die." Dan pointed out simply to Manny's bruised and beaten form. "Not exactly what either of us wants. But say I give you some time to actually train in your brother's body and get used to it, then I might have a bigger, better fight on my hands. Now doesn't that sound fun?"

"You already have a fight right here!" Daniela spat, holding out Manny's arms in a wide fighting stance, his fists glowing green. "And it's not over until you're dead!"

After a second, Dan closed his eyes and shrugged. "Alright then, kid. If you say so." He said, his fist curling and ready to attack.

But before the battle could begin again, a large wall of solid purple energy spread out from the ground between them, keeping the ghost's separate. The wall then moved flexibly on its own, moving towards Daniela at great speed and suddenly encasing her possessed form, trapping the twins inside a small doming force field.

"What?! What is this?!" Daniela's voice screamed as Manny's fists punched the dome, though with no effect. Dan was just as surprised as her, but the sudden appearance of Grim next to force field immediately explained everything.

"Oh…Daniela, what did you do?" Grim uttered quietly as he looked at his stepchildren through the dome walls, deeply concerned and clearly fearful at some implication of all this.

Dan floated over to the Reaper while the twins still struggled to free themselves. "Excuse me, but we were in the middle of something." He said, not caring so much that Grim had stopped the fight but more that he involved himself in general.

"Oh yes, sorry to interrupt you in the middle of beating yer two underage children while they're clearly not in der right minds." Grim said dryly without even looking back, too busy staring into Manny's glaring eyes and their shifting green and red colors, signaling the twins were still under the influence of Envy and Wrath. Holding out his scythe before him, a small hologram on his wife up on the castle's balcony shined off the weapon's blade. "Mandy, it's worse den I thought. The twins ain't just fighting with each other. Daniela is possessing him."

"What?" Mandy said, her voice more controlled than her husband's but her tone making it clear that she knew how bad this was. "…Alright, get them back up to the castle. Quickly. If we're going to separate them then we'll have to risk bringing the Sins in too. Thankfully it looks like Junior's going to provide our guests with plenty of distraction."

At Mandy's comment, Grim, Dan, and, once she'd hit the dome enough times to realize she couldn't break it, Daniela all looked over across the fields in the distance to where Junior stood facing the army of monsters.

"Why is Junior on fire?" Dan asked to obvious, squinting his eyes to make his rival out better.

"I see…" Grim murmured knowingly, his senses giving him a better understanding of the situation. "So dat's why he was so confident in fighting dese Sins and monsters."

"Why? What's he doing?" Dan demanded to know while his kids just stared out of the dome, strangely quiet now and almost mesmerized.

Off where he was Junior's pain was only increasing, causing him to start screaming in agony, only then to change after one long howl into unnerving mad laughter, as the glowing red sears started to tear open throughout his body, slowly revealing the burning bones underneath.

Lantern, finally realizing how taken aback and distracted he had become, turned to his army. "…Are you blind?! GET HIM!" He roared, ignoring his own faults in this.

There was a collected moment of hesitation from all the creatures to attack the insanely cackling Reaper as his burning hands clutched his face. The Chimeras and Manotaurs were the first to rush forward while the Harpies and Orthruses hid behind the Hydras for cover. Junior made no moves to fight off the creatures and he had no need to. The fist of a Manotaur was less than a foot away from his head when the beast violently exploded into flames, the suddenness of it actually causing Lantern to give a jump. A Chimera that got within the same distance met the same fate, as did every creature foolish enough to get close, until the littering piles of burning corpses served as enough of a warning to get the others to back off. In response to this Lantern ordered the Gashadokuro to attack. But this time it was not the skeleton beast that hesitated to attack, but the Sins beside it, evidenced by Lust and Sloth, whom Lantern now noticed were looking very frightened and backing away.

"A few years ago, one of the Hell realms rulers named Mephisto went missing." Grim explained to Dan as they both watched the scene. "This wasn't much of a big deal for anyone. Demons don't exactly make many friends and the other lords were happy to split his realm between demselves. De only point of concern for dem was how Mephisto went missing, as they wanted to make sure it wouldn't happen to dem too. The reason was never discovered, but a short time before he vanished, it was known that Mephisto was looking for a bounty hunter. One strong enough to take care of a problem he'd created by merging the soul of a human with that of a rival demon he hated, Zarathos. The Ghost Rider."

"Ghost Rider? I think I've heard of him before." Dan said. "He was another one of Earth's heroes, right? Well…more of an anti-hero from what I've heard. Spirit of vengeance, all about punishing the wicked. That was his bag, right?"

"More or less." Grim said, not taking his eyes of his son. "Once the other lords learned of dis bounty dey tried to find him too, but never did. And he was one of de few heroes to survive Megaville."

"So…what? The Rider took Mephisto out when he heard about the bounty he placed on him?" Dan guessed.

"Dat's one theory. But dem Hell Lords, who so love der betrayal stories, came up with another. Dat the bounty hunter Mephisto hired did indeed finish de job, only to betray him when Mephisto wanted the Rider's soul back in his possession before he paid. Be it dat de hunter knew the Rider's soul was too powerful to let Mephisto keep or dat he just wanted to keep it fer himself, it's not a hard theory to believe. And one dat now seems all but confirmed."

With one final defiant roar, Junior's entire body erupted into blinding white flames, so bright that even Lantern had to shield his eyes. When the flames died down, Junior still stood where he had been in the now nearly glass-like circle of sand. His body was no longer in pain, having completed his transformation.

No longer was there any black Nergal flesh covering his face. Underneath his dark hood was now only his smirking bare skull and the torrents of flames pouring out from under his jacket to cover his head and hands, having burned everything else away. Junior's knuckles cracked underneath his fingerless gloves, joining the sizzle of steam off his sword's hulking blade as the only sounds in the now silent battlefield. His one remaining bit of flesh upon his body, his grey right eye, glared out at the army surrounding him, all practically holding their breaths to see what he'd do.

"Boo."

It was nothing less than a tidal wave of fire that exploded forth, stopped only by Lantern blasting it down its center with two circular energy ports in his palms, the solid force causing the sea of flame to split in two as it flowed around the army. But where Lantern had fired, to his alarm, Junior was no longer there.

The flames circled around the entire legion of monsters, moving completely unnaturally as it boxed them in. Through the encompassed area was large, the beasts huddled together for safety, away from the walls of fire and close to Lantern as he tried to find where their enemy had gone.

From the other end of the circle, Junior's hand burst out of the flames, grabbing an unsuspecting Manotaur by the face and dragging him screaming into the flames with one solid jerk. Alerted by the noise, Lantern turned and fired quickly at the location, his monsters quickly sidestepping the blast. The flames in the area separated like before from the force, but again Junior was nowhere to be seen, nor was the captured Manotaur.

From the other side, two long metal chains burst out from the flames, the blades on their ends spearing through the skulls of a Hydra. The beast shrieked in its pain, but though it dug its claws into the ground, it too was dragged into the fire, this time with its fellow monsters able to see the tall creature burn.

This was enough for some creatures to forget any loyalty they had, with the able-bodied enough Harpies quickly taking off to the sky. Lantern screamed for the cowards to come back and fight, but as the words left his mouth, Junior had already leapt up into the sky to grab hold of one. With his scorching hands tightly binding her shoulders and his feet pressed to her stomach to hold himself, Junior vomited up molten flame from his mouth, incinerating the Harpy's screaming face instantly down to the bone. The other Harpies attacked back with their electro-whips, though those merely melted upon contact with the Reaper's blazing body.

Seeming almost amused by their attempts, Junior spawned the metal chains from his arms once more. The links moved serpent-like through the air, impaling the fleeing Harpies one after another, cutting through their armor like butter. Once he'd shish-kabobed them all, Junior held the chains tightly as gravity finally brought him back down. Moving out of the way of the Gashadokuro's sweeping attempts to grab him as he fell, Junior landed back in the flaming circle, and with a jerk of his arms, brought the many bodies of the Harpies brutally crashing down with him, killing them upon impact.

It was only a second of delay after he'd touched down, but once Junior's open palms touched the ground, several long black spears burst up from underneath, impaling and lifting up high the bodies of many monsters in his immediate range.

"Attack or get out of the way!" Lantern yelled, giving no other warning to the terrified beasts as the rocket launchers popped out of his arms and opened fire. The chains withdrawing back into his body, it appeared that Junior didn't even try to get out of the way. But when the rockets impacted Junior was suddenly nowhere to be seen.

Lantern then heard Junior's chuckling laugher from every direction. Not because of any echo. Lantern would almost think he was crazy to think such a thing but Junior seemed like he was moving around the circle of fire faster than he could even see. Every time he heard Junior's laugher in one direction, it then suddenly came out from another, shifting around too quickly for the cyborg to know where to shoot.

"Where are you?" Lantern bellowed in frustration, keeping his arms up in the vain hope of finding his laughing target. "Where the hell are you?!"

An extra flicker of bright flames appeared behind him. "Here."

For several yards Lantern was sent flying, his round orange body skipping and scraping across the rocky terrain before finally coming to a stop inside the wall of fire. For the time he was trapped in there, all Lantern could see was blinding red and yellow colors; the flames burning so intense that even though his thick shell, the few organic bits of him that remained could feel the heat, like they were being roasted inside an oven. For the first time since he'd gained his robotic form, Lantern could feel actual pain.

Acting more out of panic than any sort of true plan, Lantern's rockets managed to blast him out of the flames, throwing him several feet outside the circle. How long he'd been tumbling around in there, he couldn't say, though it couldn't have been too long or his damage would have been far worse, much as he hated to admit it. Thankfully for the moment it seemed that the extent of his injuries were merely a partially melted left foot and, though he couldn't see it, the melted imprint of a skeletal hand on his back from Junior's sudden shove.

Over the walls of fire, the only one of his creatures Lantern could see was the towering Gashadokuro, though the occasional flailing head of a Hydra told Lantern all he needed about the slaughter that was still going on inside the circle. "He's moving too fast for it to be scythe portals." Lantern tried to think the problem through as he listened to his monsters scream. "…The flames! It's got to be the flames!"

"Greed! Gluttony!" He called out to the Gashadokuro. "Blow it all away!"

At his command, the many thousands of the giant's skulls unleashed their wind breaths from all around its body, the tempest easily blowing away the raging fires, though shredding a good number of the box's monsters in the process. Those losses were of little concern to Lantern. What was important was that with the flames gone, the Gashadokuro's winds had blasted Junior out of hiding, his burnt skeleton body flying across the opposite end of the battlefield.

"Hrmm." Junior grunted as he picked himself off the broken ground where he'd landed, his body's flames being quick to reignite. Looking up he could see that he was in clear view of the Gashadokuro's empty stare, his bright body kind of sticking out amongst the barren wasteland. "…I need a new ride. Hmm…"

While Junior looked uncaringly around the battlefield, the Gashadokuro was quick to strike, blasting him with a blazing stream of air from its main mouth, not wanting to risk Junior cutting its hand again. The wind blast hit the area dead-on and yet had missed Junior, the giant quickly turning its massive skull over to the sudden bright spot near the castle's base, where the teleporting Reaper now stood.

"You'll do." Junior stated as he picked up the large horned skull of a fallen Manotaur, its flesh having been completely stripped away by the Gashadokuro's swarming skulls when it had still been under his father's control.

Upon his touch a dark red color started spreading over the skull, starting from Junior's palm. The Manotaur's many other scattered bones flew up from where they laid in the dirt, reforming themselves in their proper structure before being bound back together by the layers of thick muscle tissue that then started to grow out around them. As the beast's reanimation caused it to grow and lift the Reaper up higher, Junior still not letting go of its skull as he stood atop the Manotaur's back and shoulders like a gremlin, skin and shaggy black fur finally covered its bare, exposed features and the beast took in a pained, ragged breath.

"Where…? Where am I?" Biceptor asked fearfully, his eyes still torn apart from Lord Pain's previous assault. "Why…why can't I see?!"

Ignoring the beast's words and clear terrified confusion, Junior whipped his chain around Biceptor's neck and pulled back tight. The glowing hot metal links cut into Biceptor's throat and burned it fiercely, causing him to scream. From his throat Biceptor could feel the heat from the burning chain spreading out through the rest of his body, before the flames finally erupted out of his eyes, mouth, and hooves as his tormented scream turned into a monstrous roar.

"HYAH!" Junior whipped the chain in command and Biceptor, with no apparent trace of who he was before, obeyed, rushing his hulking body forward as his hooves left a burning trail behind them.

The Gashadokuro met Junior's challenge head-on, it's lower body moving like a landslide to intercept them. Biceptor did not change his course, still charging right for the titan as Junior leaned over and yanked Dragonslayer out of the ground as they passed. When they finally came to the bouncing skulls and flying bones, Junior and his Hell Steer crashed fearlessly into the wave, brusting through the whiteness and then kept going. Not through the giant's body but rather up it.

Like a salmon up a waterfall, Biceptor bounded his way up the Gashadokuro's length on all fours, the heat blazing off his hooves and hands melting craters into the areas of biting bones as they went.

Junior had no trouble hanging onto the Manotaur's rocking body, even with only one hand gripping the chain leash. And as he and his steer ran up past the giant's composite skull and the non-melted bones twisted off into separate swarms to try and grab them, Junior kicked himself off the beast's cooked back, gaining some air and sacrificing Biceptor to the skeleton, the resurrected Manotaur having fulfilled his purpose.

Almost like Dragonslayer was moving in slow motion as Junior let it fly up into the air, Nergal flesh grew out from the marrow of the Reaper's flaming bones to shape itself around the iron sword. The flesh working quickly, Dragonslayer was shaped into a new, far more powerful weapon. Where once it'd been a colossal sword, it was now the massive blade of a thick Nergalized scythe, its dense staff standing nearly twice as long as Junior was tall.

With his grip tight on his new weapon and with a single cry of battle, Junior brought the scythe crashing down upon the Gashadokuro, the superheated blade turning all the bones it cut through into practically melting hot lava. All the way down the giant's form he went, cutting a molten sear down the Gashadokuro's middle that spilled over across the bones of the rest of its body. By the time Junior had reached the end of its spine, half the skeleton's mass had melted away, and once the scythe's blade struck into the ground, it was an explosion of volcanic fire more powerful than even Typhon's dragon heads had created. The raging inferno consumed the Gashadokuro's remaining bones, incinerating them into white powder almost instantly and forcing Greed and Gluttony to finally abandon the finished creature.

Save for the crackles of the fire, it was almost total silence as neither Lantern and any of his remaining monsters dared to move, all standing in complete stillness as the Gashadokuro's ashes snowed down upon them and Junior merely watched the fire burn, almost mesmerized. It was only when the Chimeras and the Orthruses started to slowly and carefully back away did Junior finally turn his attentions back to them.

"No. No one escapes." Junior stated as his single eye turned from grey to a solid bright red. From his entire body, not just his arms, Junior's bladed chains burst out, impaling their way through the bodies of the now fleeing monsters whom now knew for certain they had no chance. The chains tore out their souls cleanly, the monsters' remaining carcass bursting into flame and ash upon the chains ripping through them. The souls screamed as the chains pulled them into Junior's body, but the sharp breath of power the Reaper took gave him all the encouragement he needed to keep sending more.

---

…Aku City: The Royal Palace…

Mimi tossed and turned fiercely in her bed, before finally being jolted awake in an ice-cold sweat.

It was Junior, that much was certain. In her dream she had seen him, or at least sensed him amongst the chaos of it all. What else had she seen was hard to remember. All that redness and fire. And so much pain. So much madness. But was it happening now? Or was it an event still to come? Ever since the Red had left her, her psionic powers had trouble staying bottled up, as they no longer had to constantly work to contain the essence, and the flashes of things she saw were too strong for her to comprehend all at once.

But one thing was certain, she thought as she shifted her legs over the side of the bed. Something bad was going to happen and it heavily involved Junior.

Her feet touched down on the carpeted floors, Mimi's legs strong as she was ready to get up and go find him.

But then she felt the weight of her belly as she tried to stand, stopping herself and looking down at the pregnant bulge that encompassed most of her lower body.

A familiar conflict of emotions rushed through the long-haired woman. She still wanted to go. She still wanted to help her friend. But the sudden fear of what could happen if she went... Both to her child…and quite possibly to her, as she remembered…remembered what she couldn't go through again…

There was a knock at the door and Chi slid it open. "Hey, Mimi. I've got some soup. Jeff figured that with all that happened earlier-…" She then cut herself off, seeing her wife sitting on the edge of their bed with her arms held around her stomach and crying silently. "Oh no." She quickly set the bowl and tray down on the dresser beside the door and hurried over to Mimi, sitting down and wrapping her arms around her protectively. "Shhh. It's okay, Mimi. I'm here."

Mimi turned her frame slightly and hugged her back, it practically having become a reflex at this point after how often her beloved had come to comfort her, be it from a sudden panic attack or another night terror.

"…Was it another vision? About Junior?" Chi asked after giving Mimi a chance to get some of the tears out of her system.

Against the pink fabric of Chi's robe, Mimi nodded her head.

Chi held her wife a little tighter in response, trying to comfort her as well as herself. "Maybe it doesn't mean anything." She suggested hopefully. "Your powers have sent you plenty of visions about Junior before, the last one only about a month ago, and we saw for ourselves just today that he was fine. So maybe it's nothing to worry about."

Mimi tilted her head up to Chi, and from the look in her eyes, she believed those word about as much as Chi did, which was to say not very much.

"But…I suppose it wouldn't be a bad idea regardless to make sure we're keeping tabs on him. Make sure that if he needs help we can give it to him." Chi relented a bit, which thankfully helped Mimi's features to lighten their gloom a bit. "I'm not going to abandon him, Mimi, I promise. I owe him too, remember? It's because of Junior that I'm able to hold you like this. That we're going to be able to have a family together."

Mimi's face fell slightly further back into her sadness, with her now pressing her body further into Chi's arms.

"…You're not a coward, Mimi." Chi told her gently, recognizing the familiar look of guilt on her face. The same guilt that'd passed over her features when Junior left the palace earlier that day. "There's nothing cowardly about not wanting to suffer anymore. There's nothing cowardly about not wanting to go back into the world your bastard father put you in."

After a few seconds, Mimi held tighter around Chi's waist and leaned up to kiss her.

"I love you too." Chi said, kissing her back.

---

"Love him to no end but I swear dat boy be showin' off at dis point." Grim commented as they watched Junior make short work of all the remaining monsters from Pandora's box.

"What else do you do with power?" Dan asked, though still not looking away from the scene. "Jeez, I can't tell if I should be angry with me for holding out me or entertained by the show he's putting on."

Grim gave the ghost a look of interest. "You've never seen Junior use this form before?"

"Hell no. The most power I've ever seen him bring out is that big form of his he had when we first met. Don't get me wrong, it's still plenty strong, but I've never gotten to test myself out against this bad boy."

"I don't think I'll ever understand fools like you." Grim expressed, fairly unconcerned. "Alright, Daniela, Manny. Let's get you to up to da c-!"

It was a massive boom that sent both Grim and Dan tumbling back as the energy dome exploded open. As the smoke cleared and the noise caused their ears to ring, Grim looked up just in time to see the Daniela-possessed Manny flying off towards Junior.

"How? How did she break through the shield?!" Grim exclaimed in panic as he and Dan stood back up.

"I think…I think I saw him…her…making clones inside the dome. Maybe she made enough to push their way out?" Dan suggested, rubbing the back of his sore skull.

"Dere's no way. Dis same shield protected us from a blast by Typhon earlier. Dere's no way she could have broken it by just making too many of herself to contain. She couldn't even have…" But Grim stopped himself, finally realizing what Daniela had done. "My word…she phased into it."

"You made an energy shield to contain a ghost that can be phased through?" Dan said with a snort. "Gee, where could the faults in that plan possibly be?"

"Not through it! Into it!" Grim repeated. "She sacrificed a clone into the shied so that she could escape."

"I don't follow."

"Two objects cannot occupy de same space at de same time." Grim explained, remembering how he felt the shield shatter from a single wide point that he'd lost all control over. "Even my energy shields are solid enough to be bound to dat simple rule of physics. Daniela's clone must have phased into it and den gone solid. She and de shield couldn't exist in de same space at once so they destroyed each other. …But de amount of control she'd need to have over her intangibility in order to flow with the energy of de field…and de amount of power she'd need to have just to keep going until dat point…" Grim carried over into silence. "Dat was something Daniela could have never done just on her own. She's adapting too well to Manny's body and if we don't separate dem soon…"

Dan seemed less worried. "Heh. That's my boy! …Girl. …Kid. …Kids. …Whatever."

---

Junior's soot covered tongue licked his exposed teeth, having just finished feeding on the soul of the final monster. Which meant he only had one target left…

Junior turned jerkily to look towards Lantern. Upon the Reaper setting his eye upon him, Lantern quickly started to crawl backwards on his back in fear to get more distance between them. Junior was unbothered by this, seeming to be in no real hurry to tear the cyborg apart. He walked at a calm pace after Lantern, holding the staff of his scythe horizontally across his waist in both hands with its blade pointed up above his head, to keep it from scraping across the ground.

As Junior caught up with him, Lantern raised his palm up, ready to blast him away, but found himself hesitating; frozen as he looked up upon Junior's cold burning face.

With his prey too afraid to make a move, Junior lifted the four hundred pound scythe up high as he took aim at Lantern's chest.

A blast of ectoplasm then smacked against the back of his hood, getting Junior to turn his head to see what'd bothered to do so.

Standing right behind him, her twin's hand still steaming, was Daniela, staring daggers at him while her emotions twisted Manny's face into a rage and contempt-filled grimace. "You dare…" She uttered, breathing hard as the Sins forced out more of her anger. "You dare show up now, when the battle is nearly over, and steal the glory that was supposed to be mine?! And where did you get all this sudden power?! Couldn't have been bothered to share it with me though, could you?! No! You just wanted me to stay on as your weak little fangirl! Make you feel so much more superior, huh?! Well you're not!" She screamed before blasting him again. The most damage the hit did being the bit of extra smoke it created when it struck the flames of his unflinching body. But one look at the ghost's flashing green and red eyes told Junior everything he needed to know.

Junior dropped the scythe into the ground, the blade striking between the startled Lantern's legs and just inches from his crotch, before walking over to his siblings, not saying a word. With Wrath and Envy causing her to view this silence as an insult, Daniela lunged at him aggressively to attack. Manny's possessed fist struck Junior's chest, with no effort of defense against it by the Reaper. Not that he needed to, as it clearly didn't hurt. It wasn't until the fifth or six punch that Junior finally grabbed the teen's arm to stop it, striking them across the face with his own skeletal fist, causing Manny's mouth to spit up quite a decent amount of blood from the force.

Slightly off balance by the strong hit, Daniela tried to attack again but Junior merely kept hold of Manny's arm and punched her, spending the next minute wordlessly beating the teen's face until Daniela finally stopped trying to fight back.

When he was done, Junior used Manny's arm to lift the rest of the bloody body up to see his face. "Get out." He ordered evenly. "Or I burn you out."

A difficult but still smug smirk spread across Manny's split lips. "You wouldn't dare." Said three voices in synchronization; one Daniela's and the other two the Sins', having gained enough influence to talk through the teen. "Not while we still have your siblings."

With hardly a second of hesitation, Junior released his grip around the arm and placed his wide hands at the sides of Manny's head. While the burning palms did of course cause great discomfort to them, it was unclear what Junior was actually doing.

That was until they felt the heat. The intense burning welling up from Manny's stomach and flowing through the rest of the shared body, causing the orange glow of his muscles to be seen from beneath his skin.

All four of them, Manny included, had their screams shrieking out of the single mouth. Whatever fire Junior had lit within their body, it was no ordinary flame. Even as its black-tinted flickers started to flare above Manny's skin, it was not burning away any of the flesh to keep itself lit. It seemed all the flame needed to thrive as the pure agony it caused the four beings, and as the black flames travelled to consume the ghost boy's entire body, it had plenty of pain to create.

By the logic of their panicking minds, or even by just pure instinct, the Sins knew that there was only one real choice to release themselves from this pain of being too close to a mortal body, and as such, they released their hold over Daniela just enough to allow her to change Manny back to his human form. At such time the two teens were violently split apart and knocked away from Junior's grasp by the sudden force.

Daniela and Manny bounced roughly on the ground as they fell away from each other, the black flames having thankfully dissipated when they split. Manny was the first to lift his head up, though barely able to focus on anything simply due to the sheer pain his body was in and the unrelenting pounding of his skull. Looking around, his vision slightly blurred, Manny could see Lantern a few feet away, still lying on his back and looking just as shocked and confused as he was. When he looked to see the motion of the being standing between him and Lantern, that last thing Manny saw was a flaming white fist smashing his face against the ground, knocking him out cold.

Whether it was the noise or simply now having gathered enough strength to do so, Daniela lifted her head up as well, the eyes of her less beaten body going wide as she saw the tall burning skeleton walking from her unconscious twin over to her.

"J-Junior?" She stuttered from down on the rough ground, not knowing herself how she somehow knew it was him underneath all that flame.

Saying nothing, Junior lifted his foot up and brought the sole of his boot down hard against her face, taking her out of the battle as well.

From the twins' sides Wrath and Envy floated on up, both glaring in frustration at Junior as they saw nothing within the Reaper that they could yet use to their advantage. They even looked towards Lantern for possibilities, but as he still lay cowering on the ground, it was clear he was to be of little help.

In place of the non-stop aggression he'd been showing since he'd arrived, Junior was now strangely calm, looking at his envious doppelganger with curious interest. But that moment of peace was soon to pass, as Dan suddenly arrived at his side, seemingly out of nowhere.

"Jeez, Junior, you've really been holding out on me." He commented as he nonchalantly leaned on the Reaper's shoulder, seeming more amused than anything by the bodies of his two kids blacked out on the ground and paying no attention to Lantern. "Now tell me the truth, with this much firepower, why haven't you used it in our fights? Maybe it wouldn't be much but it certainly could have helped you during those times when I had you up against a wa-!"

Faster than the eye could see, Junior turned and brought his clenched fist crashing upwards into Dan's chest, creating a small shockwave of air and causing the ghost to vomit up an obscene amount of blood as every one of his ribs exploded.

"Did I just see his fist?" Lantern mechanical eyes widened as the point of impact stretched out like rubber behind Dan's back without breaking through.

It was a sickly mushy noise as Junior pulled his hand out. Dan took a few steps back, his arms clutching his chest as his face twisted and twitched from the pain, barely even able to make a noise out of his gaping, bleeding mouth. It was only by the pure instinct to fight back that Dan managed to roar with his Ghostly Wail, the devastating attack striking Junior at point-blank range. But the most the green scream amounted to was blowing the flames of Junior skull back before the Reaper cracked his palm against the apple of Dan's throat, instantly silencing him as he choked on the hit.

Bashing his forehead against Dan's face, Junior caused the ghost to fall to the ground. Startling Lantern, the Nergal flesh of the Dragonslayer scythe moved on its own, ripping its blade out of the ground and flying back into Junior's hand. Grip on its staff tight, Junior made sure the fearful Dan was watching as he lifted the weapon up above his head.

Junior brought it down with one swing.

Dan's eyes clamped shut, not wanting to see his end.

But the end didn't come. After a few seconds passed and he still felt no sudden split of his skull, Dan carefully peaked open his eyes, his lids tearing open as he saw the point of the oversized scythe hanging an inch above the bridge of his bloody nose. Slowing gazing his sight over the blade to Junior's darkly smirking skeletal face, Dan watched as the Reaper pulled the scythe away.

"Heh. Wuss." Junior chuckled as he moved over to Dan's side and kicked him out of the way, like a bag of old garbage.

Watching Dan's tumbling body, Junior finally noticed someone he hadn't before, his father, Grim, kneeling over the bodies of Manny and Daniela. Like Dan, he also ignored Lantern's presence, though he saw nothing to be impressed by in the children's condition.

"Dat black fire Junior used didn't leave any physical injuries. Though I can't say he didn't try to make up de difference." Grim commented grimly as he checked their bodies, breathing a sigh of relief that he could still feel their pulse. "It certainly worked out, but… Junior, you didn't need to go dis far to split dem apart."

Grim's attentions were brought back up by Dan's tumble ending at his feet. "…Your beating I can live with." Grim remarked uncaringly as Dan lay next to his children; bruised, beaten, and with his shattered pride unable to comprehend what just happened. Looking to perhaps understand some other reason for his son's sudden brutality, Grim turned to look up at him. But when he did, all he found himself noticing was the odd way Junior was looking back at him. Something that seemed to perk Envy's attention as well.

"Oh?" The Sin paused with an inquiring look at how hesitant and forcefully restrained the burning Reaper now looked.

"What is it? What do you see?" Wrath quickly asked his brother.

Envy smiled devilishly. "An opportunity."

The Sin glided his way over to Junior's side, the Reaper finally having a proper reaction of off-put bewilderment upon seeing the face of his eleven-year-old self on an enemy. Envy moved to speak into Junior's ear, causing Grim to hold his scythe defensibly in front of himself, knowing from his own experience dealing with the Sins what was about to happen.

"You want what he has, don't you?" Envy whispered, too quiet for Grim to hear him. "What you deserve more than he does. Look at him. So frail. So feeble. So weak. He doesn't deserve the hand of someone like Mandy. To share the same throne and bed as her. Not like we do."

Like with Lust, Junior felt his vision starting to blur, but instead of the world around him fading into blissfulness it started to narrow, forcing all his attentions on Grim, something Junior shook his head jerkily to try and shake off, like fighting back a sneeze almost.

"Junior…" Grim stood up carefully, holding his hand out with an easing gesture. "Junior, it's going to be okay. You can overpower de Sin's influence wit a stronger emotion, or even channel it into somethin' to fight fer you, like I did. You don't have to let it control you."

"Listen to him talk! Giving advice to you like he knows better!" Envy spat. "Your power is greater. You're more deserving. And with him out of the way…there's no one to stop you from taking what's rightful yours, is there? Your throne. Your woman."

Among the orange flames of his twitching skull, a light of green flashed across Junior's red eye. He could feel the flames hardening his bones, cooking them as his hands started to feel more and more like hot sharpened metal.

After another flash of envy, Junior pulled back his scythe at his side, aiming it at Grim, now very much alarmed.

"Junior…" Grim tried to fearfully ease him back. "Junior, just listen…"

With no sense of the words having reached him, Junior threw his scythe forward with a mighty slash; Grim only throwing up his own scythe's staff to block it on reflex, as he'd already seen how much physically stronger his son was than him.

But curiously, even though its swing clearly made its full arc, the giant blade never touched him. Certain he was just imagining things, Grim quickly felt around his chest and robe, trying to find where the cut was but coming across nothing. Look at Junior as he questioned what'd just happened, Grim's answer appeared right behind him, as he sensed one of the few things that only the true ruler of this realm could.

Right behind him a large swirling portal had been torn open, its size easily matching something the Dragonslayer blade could create. Thankfully or not, Grim didn't need to worry about anything coming out of it to attack him, as in fact the portal became a powerful vacuum of the area, sucking up everything immediately in front of it with its powerful winds.

The limp bodies of Daniela and Manny were the first to fly in, followed by the still conscious, but in far too-sorry-of shape to fight back, Dan. Grim was next, as even the digging of his scythe into the ground couldn't keep his lightweight bone body out forever, and the Grim Reaper fell quickly into the portal.

It seemed as soon as he went through Grim felt his back slamming against a hard brick floor, while the portal closed shut above him. His head in a slight daze from the landing, Grim's empty sockets opened wide as he saw Mandy standing in front of him. "Fancy seeing you here." She commented.

Grim quickly looked around, recognizing the castle around them. "Junior…teleported us up to de balcony?" He realized.

"Seems like our son felt it'd be easier to fight off whatever envious feelings the Sin was bring out if you weren't there." Mandy theorized evenly as she activated the communicator under her armband. "I need a medical team up on the top floor balcony, Southside. We've got heavy injuries." She ordered, glancing over at the pile of Daniela, Manny, and Dan.

Grim, standing up and brushing off his robe now that there was a moment of calm, said "Envious of me? Jeez, dat Sin musta done some seriously deep digging ta find dat. Even I don't envy de life I've had."

Mandy gave a noncommittal shrug and turned her attention, along with Grim's, to back over the balcony's edge, to where far down below the castle's mountain the action was. To where Junior still stood with the Sins in the visible distance.

"You think putting some space between you will help?" Envy asked, laughing confidently as he could still see Junior struggling under his power.

"It's certainly what he's been doing for years." Lust commented, bringing a smile to both her face and Envy's as Junior took a quick step back from her as she flew up from where she'd been hiding. "Left home at the age of just sixteen and spent the next fourteen running from what he really wanted."

"What he deserves." Envy added knowingly. "You've justified it to yourself a few times, haven't you, Junior? This is the Underworld after all. There's nothing wrong with an incestual desire down here. And besides, who else could be a worthy enough mate for you?"

"Well…I did see one or two very delicious thoughts about a certain blond sister of his." Lust giggled. "Some of them made almost made even me blush, given my lovely little form right now."

Junior angrily ripped his scythe through both Sins, but they just laughed as the blade passed harmlessly through their gaseous forms. Though that didn't stop him from trying a few more times, just out of frustration.

"As much as I love what I'm finally seeing, that won't do you any good." Wrath said as he floated to join the other two. "The Rider may have the power to punish evil but even it can't harm us when we're not acting through someone else." Junior gave an animalistic snarl, though that only seemed to make Wrath even more confident.

"Why not have both Minnie and Mandy?" Gluttony suggested as he hovered around the group like a blimp. "Then maybe go back to Aku City. Get Ikra in on this. Then Chi and Mimi. And if their baby turns out to be a girl, well then that's another we get to have. Think about it: how many would say no?"

"Gluttony, sometimes I remember how much I love your overindulgence." Lust complemented.

"Me too." Greed stepped in. "And there be no reason to stop there. The bigger de harem, de bigger de kingdoms, de more plentiful de offspring. Why not take as much as we can get?"

"Get back!" Junior warned, though with great effort as the screeching music of Sloth's clarinet passed through his ears and rapidly sapped his strength and will, making it much easier for the other Sins to exert their influence.

"Lust." Wrath spoke, being the least occupied as it was near impossible to bring out rage while Sloth was using his power. "You're the one who had the most immediate and powerful effect on Junior when he first arrived. Does he have anything else he's burying?"

Lust gave her fellow Sin a mischievous smile, catching the others' invested attention as well. "As a matter of fact, there is. Or at least seems to be." This provoked a horrified reaction out of Junior, which only encouraged her to continue. "When I was in his head earlier, I could tell there was something Junior was keeping hidden in the far back of his mind. Something he doesn't like to think about. I couldn't quite tell what it was but it was so filled with love and yet almost overflowing with shame that there's no way it could have escaped my notice."

There was a clamor of excitement from the other Sins, with Envy in particular saying "Well don't keep us in suspense, Lust. We want to know too. We deserve to know."

Lust happily complied, floating over and wrapping her ethereal arms around Junior's neck.

"Don't." Junior begged, such an odd thing to come from a form as fierce and powerful as his current one.

"There's no need to be afraid of what you really want, Junior." Lust smiled sweet, though her tone of evil apparent, as she kissed him.

The connection into the Reaper's mind was almost instant, the power of the Ghost Rider being the most resistance that she faced, as all their talk of Junior's regrettable memory had brought it floating almost right up to the top of his subconscious.

Entering the memory was little diving into a cold pool. Everything was muddied and thick but little trouble for the Sin to see what was around her, the little there was.

Hundreds of fallen and snapped trees, mixed with the deeply scarred ground, some bits with clear claw marks etched in. This area had once been a thick, healthy forest, though now destroyed beyond all recognition. And in the center of all this destruction was Junior, looking only slightly younger than he was currently; kneeling amongst the debris and weeping heavily over something in his arms. It took a moment before Lust could tell what it even was, but when the time came she realized the person in his arms looked like her. Which was to say it looked like Minnie, but just barely.

"Huh. I would have bet money that this was about his mother, not her." Lust remarked to herself. "Though I can certainly see where the regret's coming from."

Minnie had been horribly ripped apart, with what little blood her ragdoll body held leaking in drips out from her missing lower half. She had large chunks taken out of her chest and face, leaving only her left side more or less intact, as her eye stared up tearfully into the right one she'd given Junior so many years ago.

"Minnie… Minnie, I didn't… I didn't mean to…" Junior sobbed, his tears splashing against her face.

With great effort, Minnie lifted her remaining hand up to touch her brother's cheek. "It's okay… It's not your fault." She said softly, trying to sooth him, even in spite of her clear racks of pain and the wetness coming down from her own eyes. "It's not your fault."

The world of the memory started to disorient and all around Lust the colors of the land blackened into pure darkness, save for the sky, which started to bleed red across its vastness from a single point, stopping only when the black void of the land reached up and smothered it all.

For a moment, Lust seemed trapped in nothing but eternal blindness.

And then, something grabbed her.

Lust jerked away from Junior's face, releasing herself from his mind.

"Well?" Wrath asked impatiently. "What did you see?"

For the longest moment, Lust didn't say anything. "…We've made a horrible mistake." She spoke, her lips quivering.

"What?" Envy said, speaking for the rest of the confused Sins.

Lust turned sharply towards them, her expression nothing less than pure panic and fear. "Run! Just run!"

Junior's hand shot out at her, grabbing the Sin by the back of the head. Tightening his grip around her, molten white cracks and sears rapidly tore their way through Lust entire body as she screamed in bloody agony, seconds before she exploded.

The noise echoed throughout the field as it passed over the now horrified other Sins.

"He can touch us?! That's not possible!" Gluttony screamed. "Wrath, you said he couldn't touch us!"

As if replying to some challenge to the Sin's words, Junior drove the Dragonslayer scythe's blade through Gluttony's wide gelatinous belly, holding the screaming Sin pinned in the air as the metal glowed hot and Gluttony's body started to inflate like a balloon, before soon bursting just like one.

"Holy shit…" Envy stammered as he watched the few remaining bits of his fellow Sin flutter to the ground, still burning like leaves. Junior turned his attention to the rest of them and unlike before, there was no hint of any of their influences on his cold murderous face. As the flames consuming his bones seemed to kick up higher, his very footsteps leaving behind molten prints in the rock, the only bit of color that burned brighter than the Reaper's body was his solid red eye peering through the fire.

"Envy! Do somethin'!" Greed yelled at him as Sloth played his harsh melody for the Reaper, trying to sap his strength again but to no effect. Not even able to slow him down anymore. "Ye had influence on him before!"

"It won't do any good." Wrath stated, looking just as nervous as the others but with an air of knowing about him. "He's beyond what you and Sloth can do to him now."

Were it not for the current situation Envy would have been greatly offended. But when he saw that it was himself that Junior was headed for, the Sin knew he had to try something anyway. "Junior, please. I've seen inside your mind. You and I know you deserve more. You deserve both Mandy and Minnie's love! And with what I saw inside Daniela's mind, I know you can have even more! You can have all you want, you just have to acknowledge that it's you who deserves it! Nobody else!"

Junior finally stopped in his tracks, for a moment getting Envy to think he might now have a chance. But as Junior looked his younger self in the eye, he breathed "I have what I deserve."

As soon as his empty sockets made connection with the Reaper's single eye, Envy felt himself falling into its fire. All around him, all Envy could see were the many thousands of tragedies sparked by his influence, by what he represented. The death of Desdemona at the hands of her tricked husband, Othello. The suffering Hera brought down upon Hercules, punishment for the mere act of being born from her husband's affair. Uranus shoving his children back into Gaia's womb, for taking her attention always from solely him. Junior's ranting screams at Minnie during the final moments of her pre-ragdoll life, for daring to be more gifted than him and saving his life. For all this and more, Envy burned.

His bones sizzled and popped as flames poured from his open mouth and eyes, muffling the Sin's screams as he faded into fire, snuffed out once there was no more of him left to consume.

The smoke blew away into the wind and Junior focused his attention on the others. Greed and Sloth looked ready to blaze their way out of the realm as fast as possible, but Wrath actually floated in a bit closer, looking surprisingly fearless.

"You took this nearly as far as your mother did. Hell, maybe even further, all things considered." The Sin said, sounding almost proud. "She overwhelmed Lust with her pure, raw hatred, just as you've used your rage to fight back against us all. Whatever stone Lust kicked over in your head, it must have been a doozy." Wrath's eyes told the whole story. Just as Lust had seen his connection to Minnie earlier with just a look, Wrath could see the true fuel behind Junior's sudden strength. "I'm not still not entirely sure why you're able to touch us now, but in truth it doesn't matter. You know why? Because I'm Wrath! I'm rage incarnate! No force in history has been the cause of more tragedy than I have! I am the deadliest of all the seven Sins and you think your anger has any hope of being greater than mine?!"

Junior said nothing, simply standing in silence as he glared at the Sin, though that only allowed for Wrath to continue on further.

"Well come on, then! Try and kill me like you did Lust, Gluttony, and Envy! Just try and overwhelm me with your great rage!" He challenged. "I was there when Zeus took vengeance upon his father! When the Hulk broke his first world! When your own mother realized Pandora had tricked her into opening the forbidden box! I've seen the most ferocious rages this world has ever known, so do you, a forgotten pampered prince, truly believe you have even the slightest…s-…slightest…"

Wrath's words started to slowly trail off. As he looked deeper and deeper into Junior's red glare, the Sin saw something within them he hadn't before.

"Well that's…unexpected." He said, practically gaping, his mouth hanging open as he floated almost totally stunned by the revelation. He then made a noise, one which none of his other Sins had ever heard from him in their past hundred lifetimes together.

"Is Wrath…laughing?" Sloth asked, finally freaked out enough to take the clarinet away from his mouth and speak.

Wrath couldn't help it, his head shaking hand and forth from the disbelief of it all, yet with still the most manic and insane smile spread across his face. "You're going to be magnificent." He told Junior, his admiration showing through his laughter as he gladly accepted his fate.

Starting around Junior, the air rose hundreds of degrees at once, and the following geyser of flame that burst out from his body and stretched to the heavens was blinding even from the castle's top. When the light finally faded, Junior was the only one left, standing still burning in the center of the mile-wide circle of steaming glass.

Even with the Sins now gone, Junior did not feel sated quite yet. And thankfully, there was still one more opponent left. One whom was now strangely absent from the battlefield.

"Laaaaaaanterrrrrrrn."

Though he'd had plenty of time to get away as the Sins distracted the Reaper, the cyborg had not gotten off far. His remaining non-melted leg could only support so much of his weight and balance while rocket-blading away. As such Lantern had only now managed to hide behind a large rocky mountain, about two over from Castle Grimskull and out of its direct line of sight. But he was still too close to all the action for comfort and after feeling the rumble from Junior's last attack, Lantern's panic had served only to increase his pace in activating the communicator in his arm.

"Come on, Eris! Dammit, pick up!" He said strenuously while trying to keep as quiet as quiet as he could. He punched in the proper numbers over three times and yet still no answer from the other end. "You said you'd have my back if this operation went south. You promised! Pick up!"

"Laaaaaaanterrrrrrrn." Junior breathed again, this time Lantern easily hearing him, as he turned immediately around and saw the flame-spewing Demon Reaper just a short distance away, staring at him with glee.

There was no prior thought, just the instant reaction. "Get away from me!" Lantern yelled as his arm launched a volley of missiles at Junior; the same containing the same Nergal-paralyzing gas that'd stopped the Demon Reaper in their last battle. Each struck their target with no resistance but afterwards Junior simply walked unharmed out of the cloud of smoke, chuckling fiendishly in amusement as his flames simply burned away the invisible gas. "Stop it. Stop that laughing!" Lantern ordered furiously as he sent more missiles, the futile gesture achieving the same result, save for Junior making sure his laughs were a bit louder this time.

"I SAID STOP THAT LAUGHING!" Lantern roared as he threw his hands out of the way, creating a clear path for the energy hidden behind the scowling jack-o-lantern face on his chest to explode outward in a single streaming beam of power. The blast struck Junior directly in the chest and he finally did stop.

But only to adjust to the sudden force, as seconds later and Junior continued making his way towards Lantern, effortlessly pushing his way through the attack and laughing the entire way.

Pumping more and more power into the blast proved to be of little worth as Junior kept advancing. And thus, with no other options and the Reaper practically in his face within the next few steps, Lantern cut off the blast and simply rushed Junior. Throwing his fist with all the strength his metallic body would allow, it was caught by Junior's own hand just before it'd have hit his face. Refusing to give in, Lantern punched with his other fist as well, only to have it caught too.

With both men struggling against each other, hand against hand, the back of Lantern's elbows opened up, revealing and activating the blazing rocket thrusters within, adding to the force and power behind his push. But still, Junior's strength somehow matched his own and would not release his hold or be knocked back.

"I gave up everything for this!" Lantern yelled into Junior's face, giving it all he had as the thrusters raged behind him. "Everything I had, just so I wouldn't have to be afraid of anyone anymore! Not of Endsville's Queen! Not of her knight! Not of Grim! And most certainly not you! Once I destroy you and your family, no one will ever even think about cutting off dear old Jack O'Lantern's head, just for playing a few harmless pranks! Once I'm done with you, I can finally live again!"

And on those last words, Junior tore Lantern's arms clear away from his body.

After a second of blinking shock as Junior dropped the arms onto the ground with a rude clang, Lantern turned his cylindrical head, looking from one sparking, leaking hole in his shoulder to the other. "…...Please don't break my butt." He begged when he finally looked back at Junior.

Junior gave his dismembered opponent a raised eyebrow and a sinister smirk.

His skeletal jaw then opened up many times further than it ever normally would and Junior dove animalistically at Lantern, sinking his sharpened teeth into his robotic shell before tearing a chunk off.

For the next several minutes, the only sounds heard echoing thorough the Domain of Death were Lantern's pleading screams and metal being violently ripped apart.

Once the noise stopped reaching them, those up in the castle had to wait only a minute before Junior's bright frame appeared in the distance from behind the mountain, alone.

"And that's the end of that." Mandy said, giving the battle its official finish.

"Thank god." Grim sighed, happy to have the whole thing finally over with. "We should probably send someone down to bring Junior up to de infirmary. Heaven knows he could probably use de rest."

"Looks like he's already thinking of getting up here on his own." Mandy commented, pointing far down to Junior, who indeed seemed to be staring up at them and not moving, somehow able to see them even from such a great distance.

It was such an eerie silence that surrounded Junior now that the battlefield had no one else left upon it other than him. It left such a quiet void that his thoughts had little trouble filling it."…They really wouldn't be able to stop me, would they?" Junior remarked to himself as he stared up at his parents. "Their armies, no more fierce than this one. I could kill them all in an instant and then take what's left." His red glare grew sharp and more determined. "I could take her…and no one could stop me."

Bending his legs back, Junior leapt a fill mile into the air with a single jump. As his arc started to turn downwards towards the castle, Junior felt his burning fingers turn to claws in his excitement, unable to contain himself as Mandy image came closer and closer in his vision. Finally, she was going to be his, whether she liked it or not!

"Please…no more."

The tearful words from the dream echoed through Junior's head like a heartbeat and his wide eye instantly snapped from red back to its original grey.

Junior crashed into the castle's balcony, flipping and tumbling across its full length before coming to a hard stop against the stone wall of the building. The flames of his form were gone, having reverted back to the black Nergal flesh of his Layer 2 form. He was couching and hacking horribly, his throat never having felt so dry. But even through that great amount of heaving, it was his trembling hands that Junior couldn't stop staring at.

"What…what was I about to do?!" He questioned himself, horrified over what'd almost happened and looking like he was about to be sick.

So lost in thought Junior gave a startled jump as Grim rushed over and knelt down to help him. "Junior! Are ya all right, son?" He asked worriedly as he checked him.

Looking rapidly between both Grim and Mandy, whom still stood where she was, Junior's mind was swarming with too many thoughts and emotions to think clearly. All he knew is that he couldn't bear to deal with so much of it right now, and thus blurted out the first thing he could think of that would buy him more time. Something he'd overheard Lantern say.

"Who is Eris?" He asked.

Both Grim and Mandy blinked wildly in surprise at the question.

"Well…dere's a name we haven't heard in a while." Grim remarked.

---

Lord Pain awoke with a groan as he touched his hand to his helmet. "Where…?" He said, his dazed vision slowly coming into focus. It took him a moment before he realized he was leaning against a wall and, upon turning around, it was something of a shock to him to see the familiar red banners that decorated his master's home.

"This is…this is the second floor, east hallway." The knight realized, looking around and recognizing the many distinct bits of artwork and framed portraits of the Grim family lining their way up and down the hallway. "I'm back in the castle but…how? The last thing I remember was the battle and… How did I get here?"

Chapter end

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Author's notes: In case anyone's curious, I have not seen Agents of SHIELD, where Ghost Rider has apparently become a big character recently. I'm sure it's a fine show but there's a list of other shows I'm trying to watch through first, the next likely being Star vs. The Forces of Evil, as people have been asking me to put her and Marco in my stories.

Anyway, while this Ghost Rider power Junior has might seem like an asspull (and technically it is), it is something I'd planned to have in the story for a while, thus why I had it as one of Junior's confirmed successful bounties back in chapter 4. For those of you who don't know much about the Ghost Rider character, don't worry about it. For this story, the most you need to know is that he was a demonic (sometimes angelic) punisher of the wicked and sinful and that by presumably eating his soul, Junior gained the Rider's powers, though he doesn't use it that much.

Pretty much just like with the Mandy-incest plot stuff, I am putting the Ghost Rider power in for a reason. The story will not be about the Ghost Rider power; the Ghost Rider power will be a part of the story. There is a story-based reason why Junior has this power, and I'll give you a hint, it's not just for the power boost. In fact, for Junior, it was never the power bonus that Junior cared about when it came to the Rider's power, but that's for hopefully the next two chapters.

And speaking of the Mandy-incest plot stuff, Junior's issues are clearly not getting better, given that Envy nearly got him to attack Grim over it and on his own Junior was about to…well, do some rather unspeakable things, we can assume, before he stopped himself at the last minute.

So apparently, something bad happened to Minnie a little while back. But what? One would assume she's still alive, given Grim has said she still sends the family letters, but what happened in that memory, well, only Junior and her know and Junior's certainly not talking about it.

Final note, this Layer 3 Ghost Rider form of Junior's is called Angel of Damnation (at least it would if I'd remembered to give him wings, but maybe I can fit that in next time).

Final final note, anyone else notice that one of the Sins is missing from Junior's kill-count? What the hell happened to Pride?

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QTP: If Junior was hired by Mephisto to hunt down the Ghost Rider, why did he decide to keep the Rider's power/soul for himself? Was Mimi sensing Junior's turmoil during the battle or was she sensing something later to come? Why did Junior never use the Ghost Rider power against Dan before? What happened to Minnie in Junior's memory? Why was Junior suddenly able to touch and attack the Sins? What did Wrath's final words to Junior mean? Why did Lord Pain wake up back in the castle? What will be the fallout of everything that happened because of this attack?