(Cues Pokemon The Rise of Darkrai Soundtrack - Kami to Yoba Reshi)
Location: Colosseum.
A wave of uneasiness washed over Zack as he approached the old colosseum. The one he and Ella used to train in. The clouds overhead began to darken as he walked through the gates and into the arena, where he found his nemesis stood opposite him.
“What took you so long?” Black said snidely. Zack took his sceptre and pointed it at Black. “You know damn well your mess is kinda hard to clean up.” Zack responded, wasting no time in activating his Fire Orb. Black summoned a dark sword to his hand. “And how do you intend to defeat me? I’ve been created to surpass you in every way.”
Zack shrugged. “Maybe so, but that’s only what you’ve been told. You can’t define your power by a statement alone.”
(Cues The Simpsons Hit & Run OST - Milking the Pigs)
Black bared his teeth. “You want proof, huh? Well how’s this?” he yelled, lunging at Zack, who blocked his strike with his sceptre.
HERE WE GO!
Sword and sceptre clashed in the middle of the arena, as host and copy engaged one another. Both went on the attack, matching each other's ferocity with heavy cleaves. Eventually, Black caught Zack out with a kick to the torso, sending him skidding backwards. The masquerade held his ground and summoned three rings of fire, casting them at his nemesis. Black ran towards them, performing a picture perfect leap through them. His reward: a strike to the chest from Zack's weapon, blasting him backwards. The dark doppelganger landed hard on his back, but performed a kip-up to stand back up. Zack cast a large stream of fire at Black, who opened up a dark void in front of him, which collected the attack and dissipated it. "Yo, that's not very fair!" Zack complained, summoning four fireballs that surrounded his foe. He cast them at Black from all angles, but again the clone caught them in his void. But Zack only did this to distract Black - he rushed towards him, looking to land a physical blow on Black's chest. As he swung, Black summoned a dark shield, blocking Zack's strike and holding him in place.
"Made to surpass you in every way, remember?" he hissed, shoving Zack back. "Convinced yet?" The masquerade switched up his tactics and activated his lightning orb. "I'm still alive, aren't I? So no, not convinced." Black growled and lashed out at Zack, hacking away at his host, who repelled all of Black's attempts. Faster than the eye could track, Black ruthlessly attack Zack from all angles, yet the masquerade was able to parry each and every one of his attacks. Taken aback by this slightly, Black pulled away. "What?" he exclaimed in disbelief. Zack wiped his forehead. "Phew. Good thing you're a clone of me, because I would've had no clue what to expect there!" he said, sending a torrent of electricity at Black, who leaped out of the way. In the air, Black fired down several blasts of dark magic down at Zack, who pulled up an electrical forcefield around himself. The attacks hit the forcefield, and though Zack was protected, the impact pushed him back slightly. Black then summoned a dark lance to his hand and lunged down at Zack, piercing through the forcefield and bursting it. He then stabbed for Zack's heart, but the masquerade backflipped to safety in the nick of time.
(Cues Akame ga Kill! OST - Yami o Kiru)
"This world hates you, Zack! Why do you insist on defending it? Protecting the fools that belittle and make a villain of you?" Black snapped, summoning a dark sword and slashing at Zack. The masquerade blocked the attack with the handle of his sceptre, holding his foe in place. He then raised his knee and kicked Black in the gut before slamming his sceptre into the dark doppelganger's midsection, sending him crashing into a stone pillar, breaking it and burying Black under the debris. "No idea. Well, I kinda have an idea. I was brought here to do a job, and that job is to stop people like you." Black crawled out from the rubble, retrieving his weapon. "I AM you! I am what you have been hiding behind that mask you're donning. Resentment, hate, spite. I am the culmination of all of your innermost thoughts that you hide behind a joyful facade." With that, Black lunged for Zack with a stab, narrowly missing his mark as Zack sidestepped and planted an enziguri to the face of Black, dropping him to the ground.
"You know something? You're not entirely wrong." Zack began, twirling his sceptre and equipping his ice orb. "I do have bitter feelings towards this world. I do have wish it would just give me a break. This world has made me feel grief, sorrow, loathing, but it has also given me kindness, compassion, and endearment." His mind filled with visions of Ella, Zomboi, and even Peep for a split second. "And it is those positives that I'm fighting for right now, and will continue to fight for until I draw my last breath. So you can bring forward your spite and malice, rally an army of everything I despise, 'cause you're gonna need all the help you can get if you want to break me for good."
"How long did it take you and Ella to come up with that spiel?" Black scoffed, drawing his blade once more. Zack smirked "I dunno, how long did it take for Peep to code that response?" he scoffed back. And with that, the two locked up again. After a struggle for possession, Zack raised his knee into Black's gut, forcing him to hunch over. He then pulled his sceptre back like a golf club and slugged his rival in the midsection, sending him flying into the stands. Black dropped to the ground in a slump as Zack activated his Fire Orb and cast a chain of fire to coil around his opponent. The chain began burning Black's body and he writhed in pain trying to free himself. Zack then began to charge up a Fire Pillar to finish Black off, but the dark doppelganger began to emit a dark forcefield from his body, prying the chains off of him and snapping them, allowing them to fizzle out and giving him the chance to dodge the incoming attack by leaping high into the air, sprouting dark wings from his back.
(Cues Breaking Benjamin - I Will Not Bow (Instrumental))
"You weren't supposed to do that!" Zack complained, but Black didn't care. He summoned a large dark cannon to his hands and aimed it down at the admin. "I'll do whatever I have to, Zack. Anything it takes to make sure you die!" he screamed, charging up a powerful beam from his weapon. Zack had two choices to make now. Try to flee the arena, or try to block the attack? Tough choice, but he was running out of time. Black fired the massive beam down at him, and out of instinct, the masquerade pulled up a fiery forcefield to defend himself. The attack collided with Zack's shield, which split the attack and redirected it in all directions. The admin was forced to remain in his shield for nearly a full minute, struggling to hold off the attack. The entire 29,000 seater arena was all but destroyed at this point, and it was taking all of Zack's might to hold off the attack, with his rival showing little signs of letting up.
"JUST GIVE UP ALREADY! YOU CAN'T STAY IN THERE FOREVER!" Black screamed. "I CAN TRY, DAMMIT!" Zack screamed back. But deep down, he knew he couldn't hide forever - he needed to attack back. In a very dangerous move, he lifted the forcefield from around himself and launched it through Black's attack, sending it slamming into his foe's chest, halting Black's attack. Wiping the sweat from his forehead, Zack sprouted his own wings of fire and flew up after his foe.
Equipping his Fire Orb again, Zack cast another fireball at his foe, which Black parried with a simple sword swing to send it off course. But this left Black's midsection open to a kick from Zack, which knocked him backwards. Still airborne, Black summoned three dark spheres around himself and launched them at Mental. The masquerade soared higher into the air and soaring over Black's head. "Guess you missed!" he taunted. An evil grin fell over Black's face. "Guess again!" Zack turned around and came face to face with the three projectiles, which he took head on, knocking him out of the air and sending him plummeting to the ground. Black met him halfway with a Dark Cannon at the ready, and firing a large explosive blast of dark energy into Zack's chest, sending the masquerade down to the ground and forming a massive Zack-sized crater in the floor.
(Cues Akame ga Kill! OST - Shikoutazer)
Zack began to cough up blood, struggling to breathe as his adversary stood a few yards away from him with his Dark Cannon charged up again. "It's over, Zack!" he declared, preparing to fire. Until his cannon was suddenly hit by a massive blast of ice, freezing it and his hands solid. "What the hell?" he growled, glaring up. Zack also took a glance behind him and saw the silhouettes of three familiar figures.
"You having a nap or something, Zack?"
"Are you really letting some copy/paste break Rule 5?"
"Come off it, you never quit this quick when you're trying to kick my ass!"
The groggy admin's eyes adjusted to the figures that were approaching, which eventually revealed themselves to be Ella, Zomboi, and even Peep. "But... how... are you all here?" he managed to say through grunts of pain. Ella reached down and took his hand, helping him up. "We followed the yellow brick road." Peep said sarcastically. "Or what's left of it."
"And whose fault is that?" Zomboi responded, to which Peep rolled his eyes. "Look, I know I messed up, and I don't expect you to forgive me, but I'm not after your forgiveness." the cryokinetic admin said, with regret clearly visible on his face. "But give me a chance to make this right." Zack was still unsure what to make of it, but felt like he was in no position to turn down help, especially from powerful allies like these. "Looks like one chance is all we're gonna get, so yeah, knock yourself out." he said, as Ella took out a sceptre of her own. Zack immediately recognized it. "Isn't that-"
"My dad's weapon? Yeah, I took it because, well, you kinda have mine." she explained, switching to the Water Orb and began healing Zack's injuries. But as she did, Black was making his move, charging a blast from his Dark Cannon, which he fired at the pair, giving them no time to react. But Peep suddenly leapt over both of them and quickly pulled up a snowflake shaped shield to hold off the attack for the moment. Eventually though, the attack snapped the shield in two, with both halves of the shield now forming a bladed weapon. Peep quickly tossed one of the blades towards Zomboi, who caught it in midair as the two lunged at Black.
(Cues Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story OST - The Grand Finale)
WIP