Raging Demon Reaper
Disclaimer: I Don't Own Grim Tales. If I did, this would be on the SNAFU website.
Regular speak
Thoughts and Emotions talking to person outside mind
Demonic or Animalistic speak
Demonic or Animalistic Thoughts
Halloween Town was under siege. That was the only way to describe the pure pandemonium that was going on within the town. For this was not the regular pandemonium of the frightful town, no. An army of mostly flaming Tikbalans facing down an army of child-sized reaper-Nergal hybrids while the denizens of the town fled from or hid inside their homes. Against this horde also stood Lord Pain, The Master of Time, The King of Halloween, Death himself, and even Queen Mandy. Under most circumstances, it would seem almost like overkill to have so many great beings on one side.
But this was not like any of the usual foes they faced. They faced not lords of the afterlives, nor power-maddened mortals, nor rebellion of their lands. No, what they faced was far worse than any of that. Grim Junior, Prince of the Underworld, Heir of Death, and now the first of the Demon-Reapers. Junior was now a being that could end all of reality, and was currently blinded enough by his rage to do so. Grim would later laugh at the irony. He himself was Death, Destroyer of Worlds, and yet his son-his eleven year old son-was the Devourer of Afterlives.
'You'll make a fine Death, me boy,' Grim thought as he cut off a clone's arm. 'Assumin we can stop ya here,' He added as he swiped at it again. He pause after the clone rolled under the attack and out of the way, grabbing its arm in the process. He watched as it slammed the arm back into the shoulder, the Nergal flesh grabbing and fusing with itself as the arm and sleeve became as though they were never injured, "Great, they can pull themselves back together," He commented as he cut at it again, only for it to dodge backwards.
"What'd you expect? He's your son after all, bone bag," Mandy pointed out as she shot at one that was dodging her bullets, "And they all seem to be getting smarter," She mentioned. The last clone she targeted hadn't been this hard to shoot down.
"Probably a hive mind, knowing our luck," Grim theorized as he parried the claws of one with his scythe, "Clockwork! Ya better have a plan, mon! We can't keep this up forever!" He yelled as he saw a clone fighting one of the Tikbalans. The small hybrid dodged a spear by leaping over and landing on the weapon, than running up the spear shaft to the horse-headed humanoid. The clone jumped on helmeted face and began ripping at the neck with its mouth, eating the flesh and 'drinking' the soul at the same time.
"I always have a plan, Grim," Clockwork said, sounding amused as a clone jumped at him and missed due to his form changing from an old man to a young boy. The clone pulled it's face out of the ground and looked annoyed at the Time Ghost, "Dan!" Clockwork yelled while conjuring up a medieval sword, looking up at the ghost shooting plasma balls at the clones while they leapt at him.
"Little busy right now!" Dan protested as he kept looking around for any trying to make a jump at him, blasting or dodging them before they made impact.
"It'll get a lot more busy for you if you don't knock out that main body soon!" Clockwork informed, beheading a clone without looking.
"Fine! These things aren't very strong, but there's a lot of them," Dan answered, mumbling the last part to himself in annoyance as he flew up even higher above the fighting. It gave him a moment to take in the sheer carnage going on. Clones ganging up on Tikbalans and eating them alive and dragging them to the ground, horse-humanoids impaling the demon reapers with magic spears, and some of the more foolish residents of this settlement chose to hide indoors- and paid a steep price. A handful of the clones weren't fighting in the street, but ransacking and hunting through the homes for more souls. He even spied one clone throwing a mummy off a roof, 'Ha! This is one brutal kid! Why couldn't Danielle be like this?' Dan thought with a smirk as he started channeling his plasma for a much stronger attack.
Down below, the first clone snapped his head up and glared at the ghost. He growled, crouching and tensing his muscles before catapulting himself up, like he was shot out of a canon.
Dan threw the large plasma ball, only to blink as a clone was suddenly in the path of the attack, 'A suicide defense?' He thought, his eyes narrowing as the clone grow a tail. It was long and scaly, and the end was like an axe with blades on both sides. The clone spun the tail and hit the sphere of energy, batting it away like a baseball and destroying another building on the other side of Halloween Town as a result. Dan snarled and shoot the now falling clone in the gut with a ghost beam, sending it plummeting to the ground and skidding in the pavement, tearing up concrete and flinging many clones and soldiers away as a result.
The clone wasn't even phased, merely standing up where he stopped and still glaring at the ghost as the spikes on his head seem to move in aggravation.
"Still standing?" Dan asked to himself, "This one's different...," He realized, before he went wide eyed as the clone sent a plasma ball at him, "What the hell?! Clockwork, you didn't say anything about this thing having ghost powers!" He yelled at the Time Ghost.
"He didn't! He got them from your attack!" Clockwork answered, yelling over the battle. He was currently fighting with a spear, staff, and a clone of his own at his back. The one behind him looked like a soldier from World War 2, wielding a Thompson machine gun.
"Anything else you want to share with us, mon!?" Grim yelled as he cut one down the middle.
"Yeah, look out!" the Master of Time answered as he threw his spear at a clone that had jumped off a building towards Grim, "And they'll all be able to do that soon!" He informed, just as Dan got hit in the back by a plasma ball from another clone. Not a strong one, but it pissed him off a bit
"Mothafook!" The reaper cursed as he barely deflected a claw to the spine.
"Grim, your son is officially scarier than you!" Jack called while wielding two spears from fallen Tikbalans to parry and attack the horde of small soul eaters.
"Grim, Pain! We're running out of an army fast!" Mandy informed angrily, as she leveled every clone she could, knowing that the cavalry wouldn't be here for a while. She was the best shot in any world, but these clones of her son were getting better and better at avoiding them. Not to mention kill shots only kept them down for three seconds max!
"I know, woman! We just have to-!" Grim started, only to be silenced as a beam of yellow-green energy rained down on a group of clones, devastating them and leaving them in pieces. The fighting stopped as everyone looked to the new comer. There, floating in all his black-scaled demonic glory was the bounty hunter Nergal Junior with one arm shape-shifted into a cannon, "Nergal Junior," Grim said in distaste.
"What'd I miss?" The son of Nergal asked casually as he stared at the battle that seemed to have paused with his arrival.
"Grim, the clones," Mandy called, watching with tense muscles as every clone stared at the demon warrior in the sky. She gave the signal for all the Tikbalans to pull away and regroup, the other warriors following suit and started putting some room between themselves and the seemingly frozen clones.
Clone, as in the first clone and the only one with a tail, did something that caught everyone's attention, "Un..." He said with wide red eyes, his growling and scratchy voice echoing over the silence.
"Did...that one just talk?" Jack asked, not sure what to make of that.
"Junior?" Nergal said in shock, lowering his canon. Clockwork had failed to give him all the details, it seemed, "Yes, Junior, it's me!" He yelled, hoping to get through the boy. He thought they were fighting the Nergal Beast, not Junior himself.
"Un...cle," Clone said, his tone sounding numb.
"Junior?" Grim called, but got no response, to his annoyance, "He recognizes that wife-humpin bastard, but not us?" He asked out loud.
"Un...cle...Ner...gal," Clone sounded out slowly as his head dropped and his body shook. It almost seemed like he was crying.
"...Oh fuck/fook," Mandy and Grim deadpanned after a moment, both of their battle senses tingling.
Clone's head shot up with a wrathful glare, hand clenched until green blood dripped from the palm, "UNCLE NERGALLLLLLL!" Clone screamed as the clones all roared in rage like lions, the underworld earth beneath their feet shaking as their red eyes burned like flames from hell and the glow behind their teeth made it look like they would start breathing the same. The biological father of MiniMandy went wide eyed as the back of his godson's 'main' clone bulged before razor-Nergal wings burst out.
"He just made this all worse, didn't he?" Mandy asked neutrally to no one, sensing that her one time bedmate was going to get the fight of his life.
"I would suggest getting to cover," Clockwork informed calmly as he floated towards an alley, the main clone flying at Nergal Junior faster than an angel falling from grace.
"Why? With that one out of the way, the rest will be-!" Dan started, only to stop in midsentence as the other clones all morphed their right arms into cannons, similar to the one Nergal Junior had sported, and pointed them at their regrouped enemies, "a piece of cake," Dan finished blankly.
"Take cover!" Pain ordered as all the remaining soldiers of the royal guard took cover behind buildings and in alleys, right as the clones started shooting beams of red energy with a black glow.
"Well, this is a fine mess we've gotten into this time," Mandy drawled nonchalantly as she leaned against the alley wall, cocking her guns.
"First Halloween, and me boy nearly ends all the afterlives- still might in fact," Grim said with a sigh as the attacks kept coming, some chipping away at the side of buildings, "I blame you for this, Mandy."
"If by blame, you mean 'thanks for passing your genes to Junior,' then you're welcome," Mandy countered evenly, looking towards the street of death-beams, 'Why are his powers and eyes red when all nergals are apparently green?' She thought to herself, her calculative mind not taking that irregularity as simple coincidence.
"Eh, I've seen worse," Jack commented with a shrug, "Like what happened in 1570."
"You're never goin to let that Saeftinghe thing go, are ya?" Grim asked in annoyance.
Mandy rolled her eyes at that. These skeletons had always seen worse or stranger, "Charles, how long until the rest of the army shows up?" She asked, the wheels in her head turning.
"Assuming we're not overrun and the clones go after them first? I'd say at least ten more minutes, Mistress," He answered, setting his dislocated arm back into place as he did so.
"We have another problem," Clockwork informed, causing the others to groan and Mandy to roll her eyes, "The main body has almost fully healed and readjusted itself, meaning it'll be moving again very soon."
"Which means we need to get your ghost boy an opening fast," Mandy summarized, "Later, someone is going to explain to me what the hell this all is exactly or I will make heads roll," She warned with a glare before she went to the edge of the alley.
"Mandy in mother bear mode. I'll never get use to that," Grim mumbled as he got to his feet as well, blinking as the firing suddenly stopped, "Why'd they stop?"
Mandy slowly poked her head out...and jerked it back in as a beam almost hit her, "Well, that confirms it. They inherited my aiming as well," Mandy said plainly as she mulled over what to do, "Grim, Charles! Get over here! I have an idea."
Meanwhile
Nergal Junior barely had time to use his cannon-arm to block Clone's claws from getting close to his neck, and was shocked by the sheer force of the impact, "What's happened to you, Junior!?" Nergal Junior yelled, not knowing why Junior was so angered by him being here.
In response to his question, the red-eyed Nergal-reaper roared louder as his tail swooped around and cleaved into the demon's cannon-arm, making green blood flow out. The green eyed shape-shifter winced and pushed Clone away hard with the cannon before turning said weapon into a regular arm and producing a six foot long claymore, knowing Clone probably wouldn't give him the room or time to use the projectile energy-weapon.
Clone's growl sounded like rumbling thunder as he sprouted tentacles out of his hands, which then formed into a three foot blade emerging from each wrist. Surprisingly, when their blades met, Clone's smaller blades and frame didn't lead to him being pushed aside easily. The duplicate did not budge an inch as his wrist blades blocked the claymore. Nergal Junior was then quickly reminded of the axe-tail as it tried to severe his head. He grabbed the tail just below the blades as he held the claymore one-handed. Before he could do anything with the tail, Clone smirked. The tips of his razor-wings bent to point at him and then extended. He was forced to fly backwards or be pierced by the half-dozen or so razors.
'Dammit, he's good...too good. There's no way he could have learned how to use these powers this fast...unless-!' Nergal Junior thought, before going wide eyed as Clone charged at him again with the two wrist-blades. That wasn't why he went wide eyed though. That was from realization. He brought up his sword to block and grunted, "JUNIOR! What Happened To Minnie!?" The Nergal yelled, demanding an answer.
"...Minnie...?" Clone asked, almost sounding confused by the name.
"Yes, Minnie! She's the only way you could have gotten these powers and know how to use them! Now tell me what happened!" The father of Minnie yelled, glaring into the red eyes that now looked far more subdued with a distant look.
"...Dead...Angel...Heaven...," Clone answered after a moment, the force behind his blades lessening.
"Wha-!...But how?!" Nergal Junior asked, his eyes wide in horror. His daughter, his joy and world, was dead before she had truly lived. Worse than that, she was beyond their power to get back. As much as he loved his daughter, he never saw her getting into heaven; part of being an Underworldian.
"...My fault...," Clone answered, his blades skidding off the claymore as his arms fell limp.
Nergal Junior stared for a good few moments. Both he and Junior's Clone were oblivious to the fighting going on beneath them as they floated there in their own worlds of sorrow, "Is...Is that what this is about?" Nergal Junior asked as he looked at Clone again, "Junior...I know it hurts that Minnie is gone...but you can't destroy everything because of that!" He yelled, hoping he could stop this here and now.
Clone didn't say anything, but he didn't need to. Nergal Junior could see it. A single, glowing red tear came down Clone's right cheek, "My fault..."
"Junior...it wasn't your fault, I'm sure of that. Minnie gave you her eye, and that is proof enough for me that she didn't believe you responsible," Nergal said slowly as the tear fell from his godson's check and landed down below, "Do you really think this is what Minnie would want you to do with her power?"
Clone visibly tensed at that, "What...Minnie...wants..." He repeated with an edge to his voice.
"Junior?" The godfather asked, confused by the change in demeanor.
"What. Minnie. Wants," Clone was now barking out each word, snarling as he clenched his hands again, the blades disappearing.
"Junior, don't-" Nergal Junior called, knowing he had somehow set him off again.
"WHAT MINNIE WANTS?!" Clone snapped as his eyes glowed with rage anew, slamming his fists together as they formed into a single, large cannon.
"Shit!" Nergal cursed as he shot up higher into the air, nanoseconds before Junior fired the beam of black-glowing red Nergal-energy, ripping through the air.
Meanwhile
"There, the soldiers on the other side know what to do," Jack said, having just climbed out of a manhole. He had used the sewers to get a message to those across the street, not wanting to risk getting shot.
"Good, because some of those clones are starting to move up," Mandy murmured, hearing the clawed footsteps of her transformed and maddened son's copies slowly and cautiously creeping forward. She could also hear small hums from their cannons being charged, 'They've gone from berserkers killing everything in sight, to an army cleaning out an area. Junior, if I didn't know any better, I'd say you were actually doing this all on purpose,' She thought to herself, vaguely amused by that thought.
"Mistress, are you sure-?" Charles asked nervously, not liking this plan very much.
"Charles," She interrupted sharply, making him shut up.
"Are ya sure ya rather I not do your part me self?" Grim asked, a bit wary as well.
"It's more effective this way," Mandy defended as she walked towards the other end of the alley.
"Right, and you wantin to test these clones has nothing to do with it," Grim called as she left, shaking his head when she didn't stop, 'That woman...My Devil, I love her.'
"Well Grim, looks like we better get ready," Jack said after a moment, starting to climb up the side of the building skillfully and quickly with his long appendages.
"Yeah, yeah, I'ma comin. Good luck, Pain," Grim said as he floated up to the top as well.
"You too, Master," Lord Pain said, nodding up at his departing liege.
With Grim and Jack
Grim sighed as he walked along the roof tops, his brother and he making their way across the gaps as stealth-fully as possible, "I'm...sorry that this turned out to be such a disaster, Grim," Jack said gently, looking depressed himself over what a tragic turn this night had taken.
"It's not your fault, Jack. Mandy and me should have kept a better eye on those two, knowin how dangerous this place can be," Grim said, massaging his skull.
"You think everything will turn out okay?" Jack asked sympathetically.
"They always do, somehow. Don't know how, mon, but they do," Grim answered before chuckling quietly, "If Junior is anythin like his motha, he'll tear down the pearly gates to get his sista back," The reaper joked, only for him and his Pumpkin King sibling to stop and blink. They shared a look.
"That...is a scary thought," Jack said slowly, "And one I'm willing to believe at the moment."
"...Never speak of that again. I don't need Mandy gettin any ideas," Grim said grimly as they continued on atop the roofs, closer to the giant body and the main group of clones.
End of Chapter
And another one bites the dust! Hope you all enjoyed this piece. As you can see, things are starting to diverge from the comic more and more. And no, Nergal Junior isn't really early. Given that Clockwork and Grim probably would have been in and out by now if compared to the comic, he might actually be a little late. Yes, there is a reason Junior keeps snapping about...everything, basically. It'll be explained next chapter or the one after. Any way, I hoped you all enjoyed this little battle and hope you enjoy how it continues.
Also, in regards to Nergal Junior not knowing what was going on- we have no idea how much Clockwork informed him of the situation before arriving there or if anyone gave him a summary after he did. As seen in Afterbirth, althoguh no longer canon, there's more than one way to get Nergal Powers. He could have simply thought someone tried to get both reaper and nergal powers and screwed up.
Important Note- From now on and until he is dubbed otherwise, Junior's main clone is labeled as Clone. I'm doing this beause he IS different from the other clones and so no one gets confused between Clone, Junior, and regular clones in later chapters. They are all the same person, but they are different bodies and that can get confusing.
Questions To Ponder: Why are Junior's eyes and power red instead of green exactly? What is Mandy's plan and where is she going? What are Grim and Jack going to do? Will they be able to stop the gaint body before it's up and gonig again or will they have to fight it and the clone army? Will Mandy get Junior to attack Heaven one day? Did Junior/Clone get any other ghost powers? How is Clone different from the regular clones? Why is Junior snapping and getting angrier with Nergal Junior? Why does everything set him off? Will he kill his Uncle or will Nergal Junior strike down Clone thinking he's the real Junior? How will this delay effect what's going on with Minnie's soul?
Side Note- The Saeftinghe is a reference to a legend regarding the All Saints' Day flood of 1570.
Hope you all enjoyed this. AkumaKami64 signing out. R&R!
