Catch-22: The Player
By: m14Mouse
Summary: Well, it is about damn time. I think we are a little tired of these rules. It is high time we bend and twist them to our advantage. By the time, we are done with them. They will live to regret it.
Disclaimer: Don't own them. Many thanks to AKatsinTcups for betaing this chapter.
All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages.
-William Shakespeare
"No more games. No more fools. No more wild cards. Nothing but ruin. Just like it should be. Be honored, little boy. This will be your last," Saklas said with a grin as he rose his arm to hit Ren.
Ren's eye widen at the hand, heart beating loudly in his ears when a hand shot out and grabbed Saklas's arm mid strike.
"No, Saklas, he won't be. I will be your final opponent," A familiar voice said calmly.
Sensei….
Saklas jerked at the voice then twisted around to look at Sensei. Sensei pulled Saklas's foot off Ren's chest and dragged Saklas away. His eyes widen slightly at Sensei's outfit. It was kind of looked like one of Sensei's business suits, but it was different. For one it was completely black, normally, he has some color because Theo insisted on it. The clothing itself also look more old fashioned with a black blazer, trousers, and buttoned up waistcoat. His face being mostly hidden within the shadow of his black hat. Sensei's hands were twisting the knob of his cane.
"YOU!" Saklas shouted.
"My apologies for being late. He left a little surprise in the next room that the others and I had to handle," Sensei said pleasantly.
"How in the hell did you get through? I blocked the ways! You shouldn't have been able to enter. I am the gatekeeper! ME! No one gets pass me!" Saklas said angrily.
"Ah, you did but you forgot something. I can still travel through the tvs and you have quite a few of those," Sensei said amusedly.
Saklas's eyes glowed fiercely as he groaned. He took a swing at Sensei which Sensei side-stepped away from. Saklas snarled at Sensei building up a glowing power in his hand. He smiled maliciously pointing his glowing hand at the others.
WACK!
"I told you, Saklas. Your opponent will be me," Sensei said as he hit Saklas with his cane.
Saklas laughed.
"Because you and that shadow of a fool was finally desperate enough to form a contract."
"I think that we found acceptable terms. No, I would have challenged you even without a persona. You tried to harm my students and my shadow friends. I find that to be very unacceptable," Sensei said with an edge to his voice.
Saklas growled as he lashed out again.
He should move to help Sensei, but Sensei seemed to have it under control. He has seen Sensei fight with his sword,droving his blade through enemy shadows like a hot knife to butter. Makoto said once that he was all suave and charm when he fought, but Sensei was like watching a hammer pound a piece of metal into submission.
Ren did point out that he learned all his thief skills from Morgana.
Watching Sensei fight now was different. He seemed to be three steps ahead of Saklas. Easily dodging Saklas attacks. Even when he got close, Sensei would hit Saklas with his cane.
WACK!
And words….
He never seen Sensei angry. Disappointed? Yes. Angry? No.
Sensei was downright pissed off.
"You bring back shades of the past as if it would harm me, my students or friends."
Wack!
"You underestimate them. They overcame and didn't yield to their fears."
Wack!
"You cast illusions in order to weaken my students."
Wack!
"And they saw through them."
With each comment, Saklas become more enraged. He was making more and more mistakes.
"You speak of sacrifice. Yes, there are unwilling ones. Mine and my friends? We choose to travel the tv world and seek the truth. My students? They travel this world and choose to change people's hearts."
CRACK!
Sensei frowned at his broken cane.
"Well, it did hold up better than I thought it would," Sensei said as he threw the broken cane to the side.
Saklas stumbled to his feet and groaned.
"Your weapon is gone. You have nothing," Saklas said as he moved from side to side.
Sensei reached up and lowed his glasses.
"Then you are truly a fool. Come to me, Veles!" Sensei shouted as he removed his glasses.
There was a flash of blue and ground underneath them started to shake. Ren watched as roots burst out and clawed along the ground. That is when he saw Sensei's persona. Veles' outfit remind Ren of a monk. The persona wore a black robe with black hooded collar and a set of black traveling boots. Along the hem of his robes were flashes of gold. Veles reached his hand into the earth and ripped out one of the roots. Veles dusted it off and stared at it. Ren watched the root slowly twist into a staff according to Veles' will. Veles swung it around for moment before putting a lantern and cow skull on the head of it.
A moment later, he realized the gold was designed to form wolves running. Ren did note the design of the door where they came into this place was the same as the one along Veles' hood. The hood covered most of his face, but Ren could see a long white beard, big wiry white eyebrows, and pair of glowing yellow eyes.
"Well, it is about damn time. You call yourself a player when you are a pawn. It is high time to we show you how the game is played. You may have made the rules, but I think that it is time for us to bend them."
Veles swung his staff and the end of it hit the ground.
Roots shoot up from the ground like a wildfire. Saklas struggled to move out of the way and some of the roots started to ram into his body. He watched in fasciation as shadowy smoke poured from Saklas's body with every pierce of the roots.
"Joker, could you cast an ice spell for me? Any will do. Just enough to slow him down for a bit," Sensei said.
He nodded his head, switching to Belphegor, and casting a Mabufula spell. He watched as the ice attack hit the roots and spread to cover them like a shell. Next thing, he knew the roots were frozen solid.
Saklas cursed and struggled against the roots.
"I will kill you. I WILL! I will rip off your skin!"
"Ivy and Ume. I'm not going to need the rope after all. You can go and meet the others at the entrance," Sensei said.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Ivy and Ume on the tv screen with such disappointed looks.
"Awww…man, that sucks. I was totally looking forward to it, boss man," Ivy said.
Sensei chuckled.
"Maybe next time,"
"Gotcha, boss man!" Ivy said with a wave before disappearing. Ume nodded her head before disappearing.
Boss man?
"Ruin will come no matter what! There is no hiding from it, fool! It will eat you and strip you bare!" Saklas shouted and foamed at the mouth.
Sensei took a pair of dice from his pocket and stared at them.
"Funny thing, Saklas. I already have," Sensei said as he threw the dice.
The dice landed right in front of Saklas.
"We might want to leave now. I haven't quite perfected when they will go off."
"Go off?" He said.
"The dice explode."
Ren felt a slight panic run through him. His eyes darted to the shield. The damn thing was still up.
"Mona, turn into a van and get everyone out! NOW!" He shouted.
"But…but…what about you and Sensei?!" Morgana said in a panic.
"We have an exit. Come," Sensei said as he grabbed Ren's arm and pulled him toward the one of large tvs. Sensei reached out and touched the screen. Quickly, he and Sensei were in some weird tunnel. It remembered of those crazy spinning tunnels at the fair.
"He tried to copy the tv world and he did a terrible job at it. Although, he did manage to get the particulars right."
He snorted a little.
"You sound like Fox."
Sensei chuckled before he was cut off by a loud explosion. He could feel the tunnel shaking.
"GO!" Sensei shouted before he took off toward the end of the tunnel. Quickly, he followed. In no time, they reached the end of the tunnel where a lone tv sat. Sensei grabbed his arm and step right through the screen.
They tumbled the ground when they made it out of the tv.
"BOSS MAN! JOKER!" Ivy shouted.
"It is good to see that you are well," Ume said.
"Hey," Ren said as he stumbled to his feet. He glanced over at Sensei, who was still kneeling on the ground.
"Sensei?" He questioned as he rushed over and helped Sensei to his feet.
"I forgot how tiring it is to use a new persona. I need to rest for a bit," Sensei said with a yawn.
"You push yourself to hard. As warrior, you should know better. I suppose that it is understandable. You have great fondness for your students and their safety. I suppose your actions are justified. So, I will allow this time," Ume said disappointedly.
Ivy rolled his eyes.
"Ume is worried and is terrible at expressing it."
"HEE HO! HEE HO!"
"MR. SENSEI! MR. JOKER! You're okay!?"
He could only watch as Nom Nom and Black Frost tackle them to the ground. Nom Nom started licking his face.
"Nom Nom, stop!" He said with a laugh.
He glanced over to see Black Frost having Sensei in a death hug.
"Nom Nom, stop being such a dog! Let them up!" Lila shouted.
Quickly, Nom Nom got off him and turned to Lila.
"NOT A DOG!"
Lila didn't seem to pay attention as she jumped to hug Sensei as well.
"Hee hoo!"
"You're going to have share!"
Sensei laughed as he struggled to get up.
"Sensei! Joker!"
He turned around to see his friends and the other shadows running toward them.
"You guys okay?!" Ann asked.
"Man, I am so glad that you guys are safe," Ryuji shouted.
"This is wonderful. We had no clue where you would end up until Ume and Ivy showed up," Yusuke said.
"Oh my god, you are alive…barely," Futaba said.
"Oracle…" Makoto sighed.
"We are fine. Sensei is a little tired. We need to get him out of here," He said.
Ryuji and Yusuke rushed over to try to help Sensei to his feet, but Black Frost and Lila refused to move.
"Give me a moment." Sensei said to Ryuji and Yusuke.
"I'm okay, you two," He said softly to Lila and Black Frost. He patted both of their heads.
"HEE HOO!"
"Nope!"
"Once I rest up, I will be back with snacks. I promise," Sensei said trying to soothe the pair.
Both of the shadows shook their heads. Sensei leaned over and whispered something to them.
Ren turned around and notice two of the shadows are missing.
"Where are Mint and Daito?" He asked.
"Apparently, Takeshi and Takeo wanted to show them the shadow they caught," Makoto said.
"You mean the head that they chopped off," Ryuji said added.
"It was a glorious battle. You are lucky to have him. Sensei is a fine warrior and handy with a rope." Ume said in a matter of face tone.
"I miss all of the fun stuff," Futaba mumbled.
"Me too," Yusuke added.
Slowly, Black Frost and Lila got off Sensei's lap. Sensei smiled at both then patted their heads. Sensei worked his way to his feet before he stumbled back.
"Whoa…Whoa…we got you, Sensei," Ryuji said as he prevented Sensei from falling back. Ryuji put Sensei's arm over his shoulders and Yusuke went to the other side to do the same.
"Well, it is a mission accomplished," Mona added.
"Let's go home," He said.
End of The Player
Next Chapter: The Waiting Game
A/N; Disappointed? Excited? Grumpy? XD First off, the references from the past chapters. Most of you got them. Some of the references were a little bit hard to find. The Horde came from SMT 4. While Salvation isn't a new spell, its appearance comes from the older games. When you cast Salvation or any healing spell, it took the form of a tree. Yes, Veles/Yu cast the spell.
One reviewer from got it right! Now Veles: the god of the underworld, magic, earth, trickery and a lot of other things. Now why him? What in the hell were you thinking? I researched a lot. Some gods didn't have a lot of lore to work with. Some gods fit the trickery aspect but their lore didn't. Some gods were a part of Ren's array of personas (Odin was on the list at one point). I thought about using Yu's existing personas. Lucifer was high on the final list. Again, I strike out because Lucifer was used to make Ren's final persona. Veles kept coming up. The more that I research him, the more he fit.
I could go on and on because I have a lot of notes at the topic. So give me an excuse to use twitter, guys and ramble on and on about this topic. I am M14Mouse there as well. Again, thank you guys for the wonderful support, kudos, etc. You guys are awesome. Read and Review if you wish.