Raging Demon Reaper

Disclaimer: I Don't Own Grim Tales. If I did, this would be on the SNAFU website.

nightmaster000- Not sure. Still, figuring Chi out a bit.

bubbajack- Well, I hope this excites you as much as the last chapter.

J-U- Your theory will be comfirmered or denied within...three chapters or less. So keep an eye out!

coldblue- I love your enthusiasm for my questions. You are one of the few that actually try to answer them these days. I'm not even sure if anyone notices them. And, I must admit, you have given me more than a few ideas(for this and other stories) with your suggestions and answers, and have guessed more than a few right- or not wrong in some complicated cases. I promise that if I use anything you answered/suggested that I didn't think of first, I'll credit you. So, I will continue with the awesome-chapter-supplying and I hope you continue with the grandly-in-depth reviewing!

Regular speak

Thoughts and Emotions talking to person outside mind

Demonic or Animalistic speak

Demonic or Animalistic Thoughts

AN: For the record, I've decided to stick with calling Junior's giant body his Reaper-Beast form/body.

Within the main body of the Reaper-Beast, the soul of Junior glared with red eyes at everything his clones saw. This giant form he had taken up was almost healed from the clone-regeneration, meaning he could end this annoying squabble and continue on. On to what, he wasn't sure. His only goal was to go on, with no reason or direction or plan to the vague objective beyond killing and feasting upon all that stood in his path.

Of course, there was one priority clear in his mind. One thing that stood vividly clear through the red haze. He was going to kill the one called 'Uncle Nergal', even if he had to use the entire force of the Reaper-Beast form to do it. His tentacles twitched angrily and the thorns on his head bristled in waves as he saw the demon through the eyes of his head Clone-The clone he had made specifically to be his second body while using this form, which despite the benefits, was a bit more cumbersome than a smaller form could be; hence the clone army.

Speaking of clones, he had thought to make more with the souls they had devoured. However, that would only weaken the Reaper-Beast. Not to mention he liked having some spare power on hand. The Demon-Reaper turned his mental eye towards other matters while Clone dealt with 'Uncle Nergal.' The Horse-Faced army was scattered and hiding in the streets, as were the rest of his enemies. Yet...he began to grow weary as his scales tingled. Even if he couldn't remember his family in his current state, he somehow knew not to take them lightly-especially the red-eyed one.

Nergal Junior V Junior-Clone

The Son of Nergal grunted as he flew out of what just might be a literal death-ray. Clone's cannon was strong, but he wasn't fast enough to keep it aimed at Nergal Junior while he was moving. Unfortunately, said demon also couldn't get close enough to attack without risking a point blank attack. As for his own guns...

He smirked and flew up high in an arc until he was above Junior by about fifty feet with his own arm formed into a cannon as well. Clone fired his red beam and Nergal returned fire with his yellow one, the Reaper-Hybrid seemingly with the advantage. The struggle between rays went on for a few moments before Nergal Junior's stopped and the black-glowing red Nergal-beam hit him, exploding on impact and causing a large cloud of smoke to form.

Clone floated with his dual-arm-cannon tense for another shot, starring at the cloud with his narrowed red eyes. He didn't believe for a moment that his foe was simply disintegrated without a trace left behind.

With Mandy

The Queen of the Underworld sighed as she stood in a far off, four-way cross-shaped alley. She needed a little space for what she was about to do. It had been a long time since she had used this particular weapon. It was so dangerous that she had it place in a pocket dimension only she could access instead of placing it in her vault. This thing...it was not something she ever intended to use. For many reasons.

She inhaled for a moment as she heard another blast from above. She chanted in a low voice and in a language with words she didn't even know the meaning of. She had memorized these words a hundred times. There was a spark in the air before her, her words echoing throughout the alley. The spark grew until there seemed to be a lightning bolt right in front of her. The 'bolt' opened to form a rift, sparks of electricity flying all around. Without fear or hesitation, she reached in and grabbed it. The first weapon she received after becoming Grim's wife.

"Never thought I'd see you again," She said to the weapon as it sparked with an electric growl...

Nergal Junior V Junior-Clone

Nergal Junior shot down out of the cloud like a bullet, his cannon-arm now a blade. His shocked godson's clone fired again at the shape-shifter. However, the demon managed to stay just out of the beam as he closed in, circling around the stream of Nergal-energy to keep Clone from hitting him. Clone grunted in irritation as his shot ended, allowing Nergal Junior to cleave the blade halfway down Clone's double-arm-cannon.

The Clone of Grim Junior roared in rage and pain, snarling at his 'godfather' and saw how he survived the last attack. He had used his own wings and tentacles as a shield, damaging them, but not beyond usage of the wings. Nergal Junior smirked in triumph as his spare arm formed into another cannon. His victory was short lived as Junior's dual-arm-cannon changed into a giant mouth. The jaw formed sideways where the cut was, putting the demon right in the mouth of sharp teeth; which is why Nergal Junior found himself trapped in Clone's new set of giant fangs which were trying to bite off his torso, trapping his cannon arm at his side and making it hard to move his blade-arm.

'F-fuck! Didn't think he could do that!' Nergal Junior thought to himself, feeling his arms bleeding heavily as his bones started straining under the pressure of Clone's arm-jaw, 'Minnie was a natural...but even she couldn't do stuff like this yet,' He thought in amazement, before smirking bitterly, 'Guess Minnie dying woke up some of Mandy's genes in him,' He mused as he decided to try something...

With Grim and Jack

"Dat boy is definitely Mandy's child," Grim said in an annoyed voice as he and his brother watched the fighting above.

"Dare I ask what makes you say that now?" Jack asked, raising his non-existent eyebrow.

"He is fightin and beatin, maybe even killin dat wife-humpin bastard of a scaly demon! Only Mandy's child could do dat in a way dat is un-enjoyable for me," The reaper explained with a sigh as he looked down from the roof top. Over a hundred clones in total with three two-dozen groups going down three alleys to smoke out and hunt down the remaining Tikbalan army. The remaining few dozen clones were guarding the giant body that they had all sprouted from.

Jack looked on sadly as he saw his beloved town more damaged than he ever remembered it being. Who knows how many dead, several buildings destroyed, and the fight wasn't even close to being over. 'Most Horrible Halloween Ever,' Jack thought in bitter irony, 'At least when this is all over, we can all say this will be a night no one will ever forget,' He thought hopefully. He knew Oogie was to blame for this, the fact that Grim tracked Junior all the way to the gambling-monster's hide out revealed that much. What exactly happened, only Junior could explain now...

"Ready, Pumpkin King?" Grim asked with a smirk as he readied his scythe.

Jack returned the smirk as he erupted into flames, turning into his Pumpkin King form, a scarecrow with a fire-breathing jack-o-lantern for a head, "Whenever you are, Brother Death," He said in a darker voice, flames jumping from his grinning mouth.

Nergal Junior V Junior-Clone

"You're not the only one with a tail," He said with a smirk.

Clone went wide eyed at that. He looked down on instinct as the eyes on his legs looked around Nergal Junior's lower region for activity...and saw nothing.

"Made you look!" Nergal Junior yelled as his hair turned into a mini-cannon and shot Clone point-blank in the face, making him howl in pain as he fell backwards and downwards, his arm-cannon-turned-mouth dissolving as he did. Pressing his advantage, he stabbed Clone through his small chest with his blade-arm, before Clone fell out of reach, 'Sorry Junior,' Nergal thought to himself, shoving the clone up high and retracting his blade before slamming the muzzle of his cannon-arm into Clone's torso, blasting the wound with the strongest beam he could manage before it had a chance to heal, sending him flying away from the Nergal demon.

If Clone screamed, it was lost in the blast as his Nergal-flesh was shredded from his reaper-bones before he fell to the underworld's surface like a star from the heavens...

With Pain

Lord Charles Pain gripped his spiked mace tightly, waiting for the opportune moment to strike. The cannons would rip him and his men to shreds before they ever got close, but the same would happen if they attacked too late and the clones realized where they were. He had to smirk at the situation, even as he tried to fight it down. He had watched over and helped raised Prince Grim Junior and Princess MiniMandy almost from the day they were born. He always knew those two would be great when they grew up-and how could they not be? Birthed by his Mistress, one of the darkest souls in the Underworld, and raised by his Master, Death himself, as his own children.

Nobody ever expected Junior to be this great this soon though. For what else could you call the one who singlehandedly slaughtered the Royal Guard of the Monarchs of the Underworld if not great? The Flaming Tikbalan Army originally numbered over a thousand and The Reaper-Beast on its own had devoured a fourth of them all and the clone army had torn through at least another fourth between the fighting and retreating. That left him with five hundred at best…never had they faced an enemy this overwhelming. Never did they imagine they would be warring against the heir to the very throne they served.

He was brought out of his musing by one of the lieutenants giving him two thumbs up, telling him they were ready on their end and the ones in the next alley over were as well. He nodded in confirmation and returned the gesture, saying things were ready in his alley and the one in the opposite direction as well. Their part in the plan was simple enough. When the time was right, fifty Tikbalans would charge on each of the streets, along with himself. They just had to distract the clones long enough.

"Now!" Pain roared, charging out and slamming his mace into the large Nergal-eye of one clone's cannon, the horse-headed soldiers charging out after him with their spears ready. Charging into the horde of Undying Demon Reapers...

Nergal Junior V Junior-Clone

Nergal Junior panted as his wounds healed while he stared down at the building where Clone landed. There was a smoke trail from where he fell to where he landed, crashing through the ceiling and into the building itself. There hadn't been any movement or noise since the initial crash, but he couldn't see through the dust and smoke to confirm if...if Junior, or rather his clone, was dead. Or deader than he already was, at least

'Guess I injured him beyond his regeneration could handle,' He thought somberly, debating if he should blow up the building for good measure. He lifted an eyebrow as the smoke started to clear and he could make out Clone's form; what he saw almost made him flinch. With the demon-flesh no longer concealing the bones, it was unmistakably Junior. There was still some Nergal-meat on his bones withering and slowly growing back, but the skull was completely exposed and so was where Nergal Junior stabbed him in the chest. The bones were already healed, if they were truly ever broken, but the skull...the all too familiar skull of his godson, singed hair and the eye of MiniMandy in his right eye socket, glared hatefully at his flying form.

"That's enough, Junior! It's over! If you don't stop now, you're going to get yourself killed!" The Son of Nergal yelled at the Son of Death, pointing his cannon at the maddened child again. He would have added in how it would make Minnie's death in vain, but with the way Junior was acting, he wasn't positive it wouldn't just set him off more.

The hybrid just panted hard for a few seconds before smirking at his godfather and...chuckling. Clone chuckled a cold laugh, as if Nergal Junior had just said something so pathetically stupid that it was hilarious. He then spoke in a voice that resembled his normal one with a demonic echo, "Over...for you!" He yelled in triumph.

Nergal Junior looked confused for all of one second before he screamed as he was slammed hard into the ground. He looked over his shoulder and realized in horror what had happened. The Reaper-Beast, the giant Nergal-Pumpkin thing, had reached out and was now crushing him against the ground with its right arm, 'Shit! This is not good! There's no way I can wrestle this hand off me!' He thought frantically, trying to figure a way out, 'If I had enough room, I could try and break through the street and hope there's a sewer underneath, but it's taking everything I got not to become a pancake!' He reasoned, pushing against it with all his might...

The Reaper-Beast screamed in agony as its right hand was sliced, burned, and blown off all at once- much to Nergal Junior's relief. The latter looked up to where he had seen two attacks coming from and saw Grim and Jack, ducking on the rooftop from attacks now and returning fire when possible. They had supplied the slicing and burning, 'But what was that big flash?' He asked himself as he picked himself up...and then he saw her, approaching from the right end of the battlefield.

Queen Mandilin walked with a deadly calm about her. In her hand was a sword. On its guard were three golden blade-guards that were equal distant from each other, resembling claws. The grip was white with a gold strand that curled around and down the grip, connecting the blade-guard to the golden pommel of the sword. The blade itself glowed bright blue as electricity seemed to dance around as it hummed ominously.

Nergal Junior had only seen Mandy wield this blade one other time before she had sealed it away. The sword that destroyed armies, crushed castles, and allowed its original wielder to conquer all of Japan. The sword that was made from mixing sorcery and technology into one weapon. The sword that burned the hands of anyone that touched it...The Sword of Tengu!

"Stop gawking!" Mandy ordered sternly as she walked by him, cutting off the head of a clone without looking as the sword's electricity reached out and blocked all the Nergal-rays of death aimed at its wielder even as light smoke rose from Mandy's hand. She swung it and blasted eight clones with a single bolt of magic-electricity from the blade, "He's not done with you yet," She informed simply, not even looking as Clone shot out of the building and landed on the roof. His body was fully healed with his wings, demonic hood, and tail all restored. In one of his hands was a dead rat that he tossed into his mouth hungrily, chomping away as a mess of blood poured down his chin, mixing in with the red spatter trim of his coat. In his other hand was a small, withered wing of some kind. He took one look at it and snorted, tossing it aside.

"He feasted on the souls and bodies of the animals and monsters in there to refuel his power," Nergal Junior realized in an even tone to himself, a bit surprised, but not as much after everything else that had happened.

Mandy rolled her eyes at his behavior, "Obviously. Which means you wasted your opportunity to end this fight. Now get your ass in gear before he makes you his next snack," Mandy snapped as she felt the eyes of the Reaper-Beast glaring at her, felt the glare of her son with it. A glare she returned, "I've got the rest covered,." She added, walking towards the clones as they all snarled at her angrily.

Nergal Junior just nodded as he kept his eyes on Clone, not daring to argue with Mandy at this moment...

In the Reaper Beast

Grim Reaper Junior roared in rage at the loss of his form's hand, the flames of his soul burning the hottest they had yet as he glared at her! The red eyed enemy he had been fighting earlier, the one who did not run from him. He should have pushed on and devoured her soul when those pests of an army showed up. He would have had he known she would be this much of an irascible and persistent foe.

He allowed his rage at the set-back to fade into his already overflowing well of hatred as he observed the situation. The rest of the horse-headed army was led by the green-skinned one to attack his attacking clones that were scouting them out, the red-eyed one was fighting the clones defending his Reaper-Beast body with a new weapon, the two skeletons were on a nearby rooftop giving her covering fire, and 'Uncle Nergal' was fighting with his main clone.

...Something was very wrong, Junior realized. Even an animal can do basic math in context. The two ghosts were missing and he had not devoured or killed enough of the enemy army for only this few to be left; there were far too many missing. A regular animal would assume its prey had fled, but Junior was a Demon Reaper. He could 'smell' their souls with the Reaper-Beast better than his clones could, they had not left. So, where did so many enemies vanish to?

Nergal Senior sighed to himself in depression as he watched it all happen, standing some ways away from the soul. He had long since given up trying to snap the boy out of his mental autopoiesis of rage and hatred. Even if the representation-of-Nergal was in his sights, Junior just ignored his godfather's father's presence, possibly not even registering the voice while focusing on the battle, 'So, this is what happens when you combine a demon, my species no less, with reapers?' He mused to himself, looking at the carnage through Junior's eyes, 'I suppose this is why Reapers can't naturally reproduce at all, much less with other creatures. We would have all died out ages ago...,' Nergal realized before eyeing the son of death curiously, 'But what does that make you, Little Death? A freak of nature that is unlikely to appear again...or the forefather of a whole new race?' The Progenitor of the Demon Reapers?' He wondered, curious what the future would hold for this boy...if there was any future at all.

The great demon from the center of the earth couldn't help feeling nervous as he saw Junior smirk wickedly once again. The hybrid knew exactly where his foes were hiding. If they had not left and they could not be found on the earth or in the sky, that left only one place they could be. Down Below!

End of Chapter

Chapter Three Complete! And what a fun chapter it was to write! I was afraid it would seem a bit choppy with the jumping arond, but I think this fits together pretty well. Start and end the chap in the same place. So, yes, Mandy has the Sword of Tenju from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It's been modified or upgraded a bit, and even Mandy doesn'twant to keep it lieing around- and she has Horror's hand in that vault! And yes, I threw in Jack's Pumkin King form from Oogie's Revenge. Surprised Bleedmen didn't do that during the canon fight with the Reaper-Beast. For the record, Junior doesn't really remember Nergal Junior, he just has that mental label for him stuck. And I'm sure you can all guess where the remaining troops are. For those of you that are a bit confused on the numbers, it's three-hundred fifty Tikbalans missing.

Anyway, Nergal Jr and Clone continue their fight-yes, I had to do the hair-cannon thing, it was begging to be done with Nergal Jr's hair style!- and boy is Junior pissed with his godfather. Clone got a monster and rat snack to recharge, Mandy is taking the feild by storm, Jack busts out his pumpkin king fire-powers, Grim actually saves Nergal Junior, Pain is going spartan on the clones, the Ghosts are MIA, Nergal Junior is finally getting some personal time with his godson, Nergal Senior is playing Observer, and Junior is crunching numbers.

So, now onto the Questions to Ponder: Will Mandy's sword turn the tides of this battle? How did she even get it? And why did she not want to use it, beyond the burning hand thing? What exactly is MAndy intending to do? Will Jack and the town hold a grudge against Junior for this night? Will Pain and his men be killed before Mandy's plan can succeed? Has Junior figured out the plan? Will he ruin it before it can take effect? Is Nergal Senior right about Junior starting a new kind of reaper race or will our hybrid be one of a kind? Where are Clockwork and Dan any way? Will Clone/Junior or Junior/Reaper-Beast kill/devour Mandy, Nergal Junior or anyone else close to him? Will Nergal Senior try to interfere? Even if Clockwork and Grim get into the Reaper-Beast, will Junior even calm down and coroperate?

Random odd fact- Lord Pain's weapon is labeled as a 'spiked cudgel' on the wiki for GT. I don't see much different between it and a mace though.