Part Five: Lord Of Illusions
RIPPER
It was me!
"Die, shit fist!" The other-me slashed the air in front of me with his massive knife.
I jumped back, tumbling into Skorre and Aleks.
"What the Hell is going on?" Aleks bellowed, the confusion gripping him.
"Battle morphs, now!" David ordered.
David began to change into a Gervasid, the form of Tak Sistranus.
The rest of us morphed to Aorkian.
Get his ass! LaRouche said in thought speech.
Britz said, Should we disable this hostile or kill him?
KILL THAT BASTARD! Aleks roared.
Just then…things got a whole lot more interesting.
DAVID
"You killed me!"
I knew the voice coming from behind me…
Turning around to face him, my worst fears were confirmed.
It was Jake.
What the HELL is going on?!?! LaRouche yelled fearfully.
I flung my twenty foot long tail at "Jake", knocking him against the wall.
I killed you myself! Your dead!
"Surprise, Dave, we Animorphs do not stay dead."
He began to change to Tiger.
Foolish humans.
I was distracted by this new voice, it slowly dawned on me who it was.
Visser Three.
You killed my mother! You killed my father! Skorre charged the Andalite controller, berserk.
Jake was now totally a Tiger.
This will be easy. You're a Tiger and I'm the ultimate predator in this galaxy.
Jake pounced, digging his claws into me.
You'd think so, wouldn't you?
Visser Three took his tail and stabbed Skorre in the abdomin.
Another enemy had entered the frey.
"Stop, you fool! We are not to destroy the Beast!"
"Jake" jumped off me, Sorry, just didn't want him helping his friends.
This new voice was vaguely familiar to me, but Aleks knew it better than I did.
Slip!
The human punched Aleks on the neck, sending his Aorkian form to the ground.
"The one and only."
But…I shot you!
"Yeah, and you did a piss-poor job of it, too. Didn't I always say to shoot a man twice, just to be sure? You give the Rampage a bad name."
Slip kicked Aleks on the ground, causing him to grunt.
Britz and Skorre and LaRouche had their hands full with "Visser Three". Britz had his hands clasped on the Visser's tail and Skorre and LaRouche.
Ripper was facing off with his doppleganger, both at a standstill.
"Filthy fuckin' dog! Die, I am the RIPPER!"
I'm the Ripper!
"Then why do you fight like a dog?"
Ripper went mad, and tore into his opponent like a demon, chopping his head off in his massive jaws.
Spitting it out, he said, Tastes like chicken.
Skorres blades found the Visser's chest, spilling blue blood and organs across the floor.
The Andalite collapsed.
Jake was circling me, keeping me from getting up and moving, but not attacking me.
What the fuckin' Hell are you?
Demons, Jake answered, matter-of-factly
Aleks was fighting with Slip.
"Oh, come on, buddy, is that the best you can do?" Slip was holding his own against the Aorkian, jumping and punching like a machine.
Not quite, but this is… Aleks swung a massive claw and tore off one of Slip's legs.
Slip lay on the floor, bleeding.
Come on, Antimorphs, take your best shot! Jake sneered as the six of my crew surrounded him.
Six pissed off Aorkians pounced on him and tore him apart.
We began to demorph, when I heard the clapping.
"Bravo, Beast, you just get more exciting every minute, don't you?"
The creature looked like a man, but had red skin. Tiny horns on his head, and devilish features on his face.
He was dressed in a zoot-suit.
"Who the fuck are you?" I asked, tired and confused.
"Good question. I'm Puck. Who are you?"
"I'm David James Taggart."
He laughed, "You think you are. You're so much more than just that, David. SO much more."
"What the Hell do you mean by that?"
"Good way to put it, seeing as that's were you come from, kid. You're the one who's going to pull it off. Your going to give Him his power back."
"What the fuck are you talking about?" Aleks spat.
"Berenson came closest. Stupid kid, like that damn Sheild too much, ended up becoming a Demon, Ovilkhan. Manimals beat his punk ass, those Power-damned Maiar got a huge promotion from that bastard, Whistler."
"Uh, does anyone think this guy is making sense?" LaRouche asked, "What were those things?"
"Shifty's, Demon warrior breed. They can pluck into your mind and take the form of what you fear most, what can damage you the best. They totally become it, get it's personality and all that shit. Fun little buggers."
"Why don't you get lost, pal?" Sara blurted.
"OK, maybe we got off on the wrong foot. My name is Puck, at least right now it is. I used to be called Quinz, actually that's a pretty funny story. See, I was a Haas and I did this little favour to Mephisto…"
"Wait a second, who's Mephisto?" I asked, perplexed.
"The Dark Lord, The Lord Of The Shrikes, The Fallen Maiar, The Dark One, The Beastmaster, The Destroyer, He's got so many names it's hard to keep track of them all."
"I've heard that name before."
"Yeah, and you've seen Him, too. You saw your master."
"I have no master!"
Puck shrugged, "True, Mephisto didn't exactly create you. I did. Knocked up this human bitch, and what came out was the nastiest, most evil Demon you could ever see. So Mephisto came up with His plan and we chopped the Demon into a bazillion little parts and named them each David- that's the Drac word for Beast- and gave them each a mission: To destroy the universe. All part of the big scheme to get the Stone back. The whole future of our Empire depends on it."
What the fucking, bloody, fucking HELL was he talking about?
"Empire?"
"Yeah, the Machines Empire…Hell."
"Hell?"
"You heard me. See, there are Demon dimensions, millions of them. We call them all Hell, since the Machine is in charge of them all…"
"Machine? Who's a Machine."
"Long story. I'm sure you'll find out eventually."
Puck looked around, and walked up to Britz.
"Funny little character we got here. Hybrid, eh?"
"I am a composite," Britz said.
"Smartass," Puck said, letting a huge tongue come out and lick him.
"Jesus, he's a demon and he's a fudge packer!" Aleks sneered.
"Actually, a half Demon. Half Drac to be precise. And no, I prefere the female Demons. They know the best tricks," Puck said, winking.
"I still do not understand," Skorre said.
"This guy creeps me out," Sara said.
"Thanks, I do try," Puck muttered.
"Well, I must be going. You still have a huge adventure before you get it done with. Oh, don't worry, you'll wake up from your fight with the Shifty's and think it was all a dream, then the REAL fun begins…"
"See you in Hell, kiddies," he sneered.
He snapped his fingers and was gone, in a puff of smoke.