//------------------------------// // Chapter 3 - The Road to Mr. L // Story: The Stuff of Legends // by Harvs //------------------------------// Chapter 3 The Road to Mr. L "The pieces are all in place." Will said, walking down a narrow corridor. A doorway opened up at the end of the hallway leading to a control room filled with numerous luminescent screens and various annoying noises. "Soon, those 'heroes' will be no more." "Excellent." Said Captain Planet, looking over a rotating hologram of his world-in-construction. A few pieces were missing leaving the core of his planet exposed, but in no real danger. "Then very soon our perfect planet will be complete." "Let's not get ahead of ourselves Captain," A round man with a large mustache called out from behind a wall of computers. "There's still the matter of removing Sector Q." "Of course Doctor." The Captain replied. "And have you located another sector to fill its slot?" "As a matter of fact, I've got just the place." The man handed a picture to Captain Planet while staying hidden behind his fortified fortress of hardware. "It's a beautiful piece of land, a tropical paradise. There is a minor infestation of people however, but they will be of no consequence." "I'd say this will replace that miserable Sector Q nicely. How soon will we be able to extract this land?" "Just say the word, and my men will be ready to move." "Then let's make like a tree and leaf!" ***** "Wow... Look at that... it's beautiful." Vinyl said, removing her sunglasses and revealing her violet eyes. Or red eyes, I'm not gonna judge you, pick whichever one you want. "Will certainly wasn't joking when he said 'City of Gold'." Sephiroth said, seemingly unimpressed. "That's nothing, wait 'til you see Spielberg's bathroom." Yakko said, elbowing the Pyro who obviously didn't get the joke. "Don't get too comfortable." The winged one said. "Be on your guard. We're not welcome here, remember?" "But Sephiroth, this place is amazing." Vinyl trotted ahead of the group, admiring the serene beauty. "I mean, I wonder-" "No. We have to stay alert." "Vinyl sighed in disappointment and rejoined the group as they decided to head to the top of the city to get a better view." Yakko read in a low monotone voice. "Hmm?" The Pyro asked, tilting his head. "What?" Yakko asked, looking up to see confused faces all around. He looked back down at the script, read it again, then gasped in realization. "Oh, whoops. Wrong part." "Actually, that's not a bad idea." Vinyl said, looking to the giant golden temple in the center of the city. Half of her thought it really was a good idea, but the other half just wanted to see what else was in this wonderland. "Well then, I'll head to the top." Sephiroth said, making his way down the street. "But, Sephy..." Vinyl blurted out. The others looked bamboozled at her out-of-character outburst, but she quickly regained her calm demeanor and said, "I mean, we should probably stick together." GLaDOS, who had been silently conversing with Latisha about the finer points of life, said. "By my calculations, divided we only have a 4.998473000001 percent chance of success. But together we have a 32.33, repeating of course, percentage of survival." Sephiroth thought it through a few times, rolled his eyes and sighed, "Alright, fine. We'll all go up together." The group began to climb the long staircase. Sephiroth lead the way, followed by the Pyro and Yakko, who was carrying GLaDOS and Latisha. Vinyl brought up the rear using her magic to levitate her bass cannon. As they climbed higher and higher, even more of the beautiful city became visible. Vinyl gazed in amazement at the glorious golden everything, though the others kept their gaze fixed on the top of the stairway. They finally reached the top of the stairs and, embarrassed and disappointed that the two authors couldn't come up with a good joke at this particular moment, headed inside the temple. Except for Sephiroth and Vinyl who stood just outside the room and looked down on the city. The city lived up to its name with gold almost everywhere. Practically every building was constructed from the precious metal, and the rest of the city was beautifully made as well. There was an arena for sports of some kind with stone seats for an audience. And in the distance, they could see a giant whirlpool. It too was surrounded by stone bleachers and a walkway that dropped off high above the watery abyss. "You have to admit," Vinyl started. "It is really beautiful." Sephiroth looked down at the pony and opened his mouth to speak, but before he could say anything, Yakko peaked his head out from inside the temple, "Hey guys, you might wanna see this." The two turned to face their black and white companion, wondering what could be so important that they had to see it. Reluctantly, they followed the others inside the temple. The inside was fairly small and less glorious than the rest of the city. It was made up of only one room with a small pool of water in the middle. There was no furniture and very little gold with most of the treasures being in the walls. "So..." Sephiroth started, looking all around the room. "What is it that you wanted to show us?" Yakko pointed across the pool to the back of the room. "Over there." He said. The group looked to where he was pointing and could see a man sitting cross-legged on the ground. "Hey, I thought Will said there were no people here." Said Vinyl to the group. "She's right." GLaDOS agreed. "Do you think it's possible he lied to us?" "Why? What reason would he have for doing that?" Sephiroth asked in return. They made their way over to the man sitting in the temple. His skin was dark but his hair was white, tied back in a ponytail. He wore well-crafted plate armor and carried a large halberd with red markings on the blade. He seemed rather lifeless with a blank expression on his face, even with a group of six strangers surrounding him. He didn't say a word, only maintaining his slow, steady breathing with the occasional blink of his eyes. But the most peculiar thing about him were the green words hovering over his head that read: Leeroy Perplexed at this development, the Pyro made his way closer to the man, reached his gloved hand out, and tried to touch the words. But his fingers phased through the letters seamlessly as if they didn't exist. "What's wrong with him? He appears to be defective." GLaDOS speculated from Yakko's hand. "I don't know." Sephiroth replied, inspecting the man's weapon. "Do you think this could be the guy Will was talking about?" Vinyl asked. "Ya know, 'Mr. L'?" "Everything does check out... But why is he just sitting here? And how long has he been here? Nobody just sits still doing absolutely nothing." "You should see my brother some time." Yakko joked, though again nobody understood it. "Has he moved at all since we arrived?" Sephiroth asked, waving his hand in front of the man's face. "Mm m mmph." The Pyro answered, shaking his head back and forth. With a small sigh, the one winged angel turned back to the doorway. "Well, so much for getting information from Mr. L. Looks like we'll have to find our own way out." He began towards the exit, motioning for the others to follow, leaving the man where they had found him. ***** "Well that was completely pointless." GLaDOS said as they neared the bottom of the stairway. "There seems to be no way in or out of this city, other than the way we took." Sephiroth sighed. "We may have to go back the way we came." "But how do we know if that'll work?" Vinyl Scratch asked, once again levitating her amp. "We don't, but it's our only choice." "Alright, time's up. Let's do this..." "What was... who said that?" Vinyl asked, her hooves finally touching the bottom of the staircase. They looked at each other, but no one answered. "LEEEEROOOOOOOOOOOOOOY JEEEENKIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINS!!!" The group looked up to see the man from before, plummeting down at an incredible speed directly towards them. "MOVE!" Sephiroth yelled, instantly grabbing Vinyl Scratch in one arm and Yakko in the other and jumping out of the way. *CRASH* The man landed leaving a small crater in the ground. The previously green words above his head were now red, and around him was a faint glowing aura. As he slowly rose to his feet, he drew his weapon and struck a fighting stance. "Come at me bros!" He called out in a cocky, arrogant tone. "Vinyl, get everyone out of here." Sephiroth said, quickly getting to his feet and drawing his masamune. "But..." She protested. "Go now! I can handle him myself." He barked, keeping his eyes on his opponent. She was against splitting up the team, especially in this situation, but she had no choice. She and Yakko placed GLaDOS and Latisha on the bass cannon and headed for the exit as fast as they could. The Pyro however, remained by Sephiroth, his fire axe in hand. "Pyro, go with them! It's too dangerous here!" "Hhmm mmhm hmmhmm!" The Pyro argued. Soon after, their feet began to burn. They looked down to see yellow light cracking through the earth below. Within seconds, the ground became as hot as a furnace, forcing the two to back away from Leeroy. The man pursued however, raising his enormous weapon with both hands and preparing to strike. But a quick dodge from Sephiroth caused Leeroy to miss, slamming the ground with his blade. Now with the upper hand, Sephiroth swung his sword horizontally expecting the blade to make contact with Leeroy. But instead, his blade just bounced off the transparent aura of light that surrounded his foe, causing him to lose balance. "What?!" Exclaimed Sephiroth. Leeroy took advantage of this and raised his palm at Sephiroth. Before he could react, he was struck by what felt like a hammer-blow to the head. No matter how hard he tried, he could not bring himself to move. With Sephiroth incapacitated, Leeroy turned his attention to the Pyro and gave a grim smirk. A bit discouraged from his friend's failed attempt, the Pyro took a few steps back, but still stood ready. Leeroy charged at the gas jockey, weapon in hand. Quickly thinking, the Pyro pulled out his flare gun with one hand while still holding onto his axe with the other. He fired a shot at the armored foe, not expecting it to do anything. But much to his surprise, the flare passed through the shield as if it wasn't even there and hit Leeroy's shoulder causing him to let out a shriek of pain and lose his balance. With Leeroy's trajectory thrown off, the Pyro quickly moved out of the way of his incoming blade. He skidded to a stop and immediately, Leeroy began to summon holy light to heal himself from the flare shot. With his guard down, the Pyro took the opportunity to close the distance and strike with his axe. But upon impact, the axe was deflected off of the shield and the Pyro was knocked back onto the ground. Leeroy chuckled a bit at his futile attempts and continued to cast his restoration spell. Sephiroth finally recovered from the stun Leeroy had cast on him and ran over to the dazed Pyro to help him up. "It's no use." He said. "Neither your axe nor my sword can best his shield. But your fire..." He looked down at the Pyro's flare gun. And then, it came to them. The only way to beat their opponent, the only way to win. W + M1 Leeroy, still encased in his fluorescent shield, charged back into the battle. His wound completely healed, he was ready to fight again. With the villain charging in fast, the Pyro dropped his flare gun and fire axe, pulled out his home-made flamethrower, and began to charge back. Sephiroth tried to stop him so they could think of a better plan, but it was too late. Sparks flew as the two neared each other. When they were within a few feet of each other, the Pyro sidestepped his opponent's blade, just as he had dodged 1001 Demo-Knights before him, pulled the trigger, and doused him in flames. The searing flames breached through Leeroy's shield instantly as his halberd just missed the Pyro. He tried to turn around for a second attack, but the fire turned his plate armor red-hot, causing it to burn its wearer's flesh. He fell to his knees, unable to even stand in the flames. The enemy's cries of agony were like music to the Pyro's ears. his victim burning alive and begging for him to stop. He felt right at home. But suddenly the screams of agony were replaced with crazed laughter. Confused, the Pyro let go of the trigger to see his adversary once again standing on his feet, a slightly brighter aura around him, almost like a giant bubble. The Pyro pulled the trigger again, but this time not even the fire had an effect on Leeroy. Though the enemy continued to laugh, the Pyro could see the fear in his eyes. Then, all of the sudden, the man made some strange gestures with his hands and they began to glow bright green. The Pyro waited, his finger itching to burn him again. But in just ten seconds flat, he threw his left hand forward and disappeared without a trace while his laughter slowly faded away. The two, not exactly sure what to make of this, just stood there. Until the Pyro asked, "Mmm mm mmph?" "Is that it?" Sephiroth asked, looking around the city for any sign of their heavily armored foe. But as time passed, it became more and more clear. Leeroy was gone. "Are you guys okay?" Yelled Vinyl Scratch as she galloped towards the two. "We're fine." Replied Sephiroth, placing his sword in its sheath. "What are you doing back here? I told you to take the others and leave." "I did, but then I heard laughter, so I came back to check on you...." "Well I appreciate your concern." The swordsman interrupted. Not sure if he was being sincere or sarcastic, Vinyl continued talking. "And to tell you we found another way out of the city." "Where?" Asked Sephiroth, turning around to look at her. "There's a hidden passage in the waterway that leads out of the city, everypony else is waiting for us there." "Well then, we'd best not keep them waiting." Sephiroth followed behind Vinyl Scratch, making their way towards the waterway. As they walked along, the angel turned toward the Pyro and said, "I guess I should be thankful." The Pyro tilted his head. "That man caught me off-guard. If you hadn't stayed, I might not be here right now." The Pyro nodded as they neared the rest of the group. Yakko stood guard of Vinyl's bass cannon with the two foods resting on top. "Oh good, you're still in one piece. Well, actually two pieces, since you're two different people." GLaDOS said in a lighthearted, yet still monotone voice. "Nice to see you too..." Sephiroth said back. "Guys, we can talk on the way. Right now we should get moving." Vinyl said, taking her amp back from Yakko as she started down the waterway. With the others following her, they could only imagine what lay at the end of the tunnel.