After two days and an civilian mask that I had made out of the blue to imitate one of Amber's species, we were quietly infiltrating a museum during its daylight hours in order to get a layout of the place. The plan was simple, infact it should be considering the time of day we had planned the raid. Unlike most cliche criminal cases, in order to draw attention to myself. We were going to perform the heist in broad daylight, maybe knock a guard or two around, undermine prince plot hole again, and make a flashy getaway. But until then we were mapping out what was valuable in the museum. Aside from the diamond itself there was a number of other objects of historic importance to Equestria, though only a few of them caught both of our eyes. Though it was sure interesting to find out some relics that belonged to Ambers country was on display here, prizes of the war between the legendary Commander Hurricane when he fought against the griffins in the war so long ago.
It was a certain old gold tiara with a variety of fang shaped bones jutting out towards the top that drew Amber's ire though, "That's the crown of the high king!" she muttered angrily under her breath, and I looked to her, my light blue feathers brushing against her own as I nudged her.
"Keep calm, and carry on Amber." I suggested, my eyes glancing from her to a pair of guards across the hall. Their eyes narrowing at the two of us as we were in front of the exhibit. I guessed it wasn't the first time someone got mad about one of their exhibits.
with a slow pull I managed to pull her away from the case and into the tribal sections of equine lore, where dozens of ponies were gathered around a crystal stand that had a thin rope barrier surrounding it from a five meter diameter. Inside the circle was a large blue ring of arcane symbols that surrounded the stand, upon which held a gemstone that had to be at least as large as my own natural head of muddled ice blue that was in the shape of a sphere. The room itself felt chilly and around the stands stood no fewer than four guards who made sure no one crossed the rope. Shining armor himself was one of the four.
Amber whistled, muttering to me, "That's a big gem, and a big trap they have under it."
"Pardon?"
"That's a binding, and fire trap." Amber muttered, "Whoever steps on it would either get bound in sealing magic, or if found to be below a certain temperature, burned to a crisp. Same goes for anything that tries to go over it either by wing. Magic wont help either since the case is enchanted against unicorn magic."
"Good thing I'm not a unicorn then." I muttered back, "Any weaknesses?"
Amber shook her head, "Short of digging under the rune and breaking a part of it from underneath, or covering the top of it with something that obstructs its ability to detect heat..."
I nodded, "Digging it is. Give me a second to put things in place."
This was going to take an coordinated effort on my part. Aku was already dwelling in my shadow, and it was a simple matter to work him underneath the black and white tiled floor as we broke off from the crowds, the room itself had a skylight, but the museum itself had a gem based security network of cameras. In order to protect this civilian mask in case I needed it again, that would mean me changing back somewhere private. I asked Amber, "get to the skylight, and watch my back when I make my entrance."
"Whatever you say boss." I grinned, as she did the same, and I walked casually to a bathroom. From there it was a simple portal behind a locked bathroom door to an unlit storage room and a change of face back to the star of this heist.
Someone with experience at robbing diamonds from museums, and a story most sad. A husband who would do anything for his poor unfortunate wife. One who first sparked my affections for the stories of tragedy among villains. All the while Aku was carefully disrupting the magic circle from beneath, turning and in two cases flipping some of the magic runes tiles in order to disrupt it. Once it was down, it was time to party.
the rooms ahead of me dropped to the point where the populace shivered in their coats, questioningly some of the ponies looked both confused and startled as Ice started creeping up the glass windows that separated them from history. I could hear someone call out, "what's with the air conditioning? Did it break?" and I but chuckled as I went into the role of the villain I was playing. Each step was a click clank of metal on freezing stone, and the guards started to feel uneasy. Shining Armor's voice was clear above the crowd, "Calm down everypony, it's probably just the diamond acting up."
The doors opened from the employee only area, and I walked out, an intimidating height rivaling that of the princesses from foggy glass dome to the similar height of Celestia given a comparison. Two red glowing eyes peered from within, goggles that only added to the mystery that was my childhood villain remade. Cold metal suit continuing to whir with cryogenic technology and predictably my unnatural appearance from other ponies caused an uneasy silence as I strode through them, they walked out of my way. The guards gathered between me and the jewel. Shining armor at their front, "Halt, who goes there!"
A voice that echoed out of my mouth, a deep monotone that barely held but a spec of emotion to it, "The ice man commeth, for the diamond of blue."
Shining Armor snorted, "This is the property of the museum of Canterlot, not yours..." he paused, "Ice Man."
I would grin if I wasn't in character, "It is Mr.Freeze, Mr.Armor. And I would brace yourself."
He quirked his head to the side, curious since my character did not bear the trademarked magic horn of a unicorn, he would not see this coming, "Why?"
"For winter is coming early this year." I leveled the weapon that was held within my other hand, and pulled the trigger.
Ice, Ice was what covered the floor now, coated two of the four guards from foot to waist in half a meter of thick solid frozen water. In an instant half of them were immobilized to the point where they couldn't fight back, and Shining armor and his remaining guard dodged to the side and ran towards me, Shining armor's own barrier spell starting to raise up. I couldn't have that, so up went a tendril from Aku and the unicorn promptly fell flat on his face as the heavily armored unicorn came to a screeching halt not feet from me, his spell interrupted. It took a quick two shot to coat his legs and horn in ice as the still standing guard bounced his spear off my armor. It took a simple grab and throw to then lock that guard in a block of ice.
Shining Armor struggled still, however, but I simply marched onward. Pushing aside the glass case with my own hand, and bagging the diamond while various portals also robbed the other exhibits behind their foggy glass.
"Why are you doing this?!" Shining Armor shouted, as he banged his fore-hooves against the ice on his lower legs, and I but grinned in secret as Mr.Freeze slowly turned around and began walking towards the exit. Other guards appeared but it mattered naught for pegasus guards were glued to the ceiling after a shot, and the other two types of ponies more often than not got froze in place.
"Snow is beautiful don't you think?" Freeze monotoned, "Clean, uncompromising...."
"And cold..." one of the guards muttered, but both of us ignored him.
"Like the cold grip of vengeance." Freeze said, "Though it is not you who needs to suffer it Mr.Armor."
"What are you intending to do?!" Shining Armor voiced in dismay, finally working out how to get his horn free, but judging from the state of it, I still had a few minutes before it was warmed up enough to do anything.
"To teach a lesson, Mr.Armor." I smiled, as Aku slipped out of the area, still unnoticed, "The Puppet Master sends his regards." With that I walked out of the building and into an alleyway.
Briefly I heard Shiny yell, "You won't get away with this you fiend!"
I refused to answer, already out of sight it took another pair of portals to return myself back to base as well as Amber and the rest of my puppets, several of which hadn't even gotten the chance to see action but waited in hiding none the less. For what it was worth, the heist had been easy, almost too easy. That was suspicious, to say the least. But then again, Shining Armor was no Batman, and these guards lacked the technology that even basic security guards of that universe had. I had to remind myself that not every unicorn was as proficient in magic as Twilight. According to Amber most unicorns only learned a few spells related to their cutie mark, and I highly doubted many of the unicorns cutie marks were actually to be a guard, that would be an extremely dull personality stereotype if that was true.
I also had to remind myself that I had ambushed them from out of the blue, so it wasn't as coordinated as the real guards full capacity. It was a popular tactic in both strategy and war games to hit and run. I began to approach Amber only to see her snickering, "Wow that was awesome."
"Oh? How so?" My voice droned, crud forgot I was still wearing the mask, quickly I took it off, and repeated my question.
"Boss did you see their faces, they were all 'who's this chump' and then when you began freezing them, they all were utterly shocked!" She guffawed loudly, holding her sides, as she spat out, "Especially their Captain, whatever you said to him certainly rubbed him raw!"
I rolled my eyes and waited for her to calm down before speaking in turn, "Yeah, I simply told him that I sent my regards."
"We need to do three things then." she chuckled.
I dug through the new pile of stolen goods, giving her a curious glance, "And those are?"
"Well for one I'd like one of those ice beam things."
She asked, and I shrugged at the suggestion, "Perhaps if you can promise to remain nonlethal with it, I'll craft you a freeze ray sometime."
She nodded, "Deal."
"The second thing?"
"Well..." she picked through the few trinkets and artifacts that had been in the Griffin section of the museum, "I think you could garner favor with the Griffin kingdom if you ever needed to go there by returning these to them."
I rolled my eyes, "Right, like we want to start a multinational incident between your kingdom and Equestria."
She shrugged, "Guess I'll keep them in safe custody until we need them then."
" 'kay." I replied, "The third?"
"Well you have a gem of potentially potent magic, don't you want to gain its power for yourself?" She asked, "After all, that would be the villainous thing to do, no?"
"That or revive one of the greatest threats to Equestria." I spoke one of the other options, "But do you have any ideas how to do such a thing?"
She paused in thought, "I have a few contacts, perhaps if I could use a few of the other stolen goods, I could help you find an Unicorn who could explain the exact process for a price."
I wasn't really interested in the black market, or whatever it was called in Equestria, but there was really little other options to be had than to hire help. It wasn't like companions just fell from trees or anything. "Where did you have in mind," I asked, "And if you know anyone who is loyal to their contract long term, go ahead and add that to our list of potential recruits as well."
Amber nodded, "There's this tavern in the slums of Manehatten that serves as one of the more central locations to recruit some of the less savory types, but the real juice, so to speak, is underneath it."
I rose an eyebrow, "Underneath?"
She nodded, "Yeah, its entrance is in the sewer."
Now it was time to deadpan, "Of course it is."
"Hey its a minor inconvenience in any case, as for individuals, we could hold tryouts down there given a good enough price."
"We have a dragons horde." I stated.
"True enough." Amber replied, "Wait, question, did you deal with the dragon who owned it Boss?"
"Its been gone since the mane six scared it off to take a nap somewhere else."
The confused look on Ambers face made me clarify,"Mane six, Ie: Element bearers."
"Ohhh...."
I sighed, "Lets just go to Manehatten."
... realy ice puns
I love this chapter.
The puns
THE PUUNSS!!!!!!!
Welp good to see the humor is still strong in this one.
He need a plan b base just in case. think puppet master would do homestuck? It got a few tragic characters or villains like vriska plus a few sburb prop might help out in the long run.
Mr. Freeze is my favorite batman villian, so I got excited when you added him in.
5209907 The wiki doesn't explain it clearly. In the show, a mass of pure darkness floating in space was the embodiment of all evil. The gods got together to destroy it, and they managed to beat it. But one small fabric of that thing survived, and landed on Earth, killing all life on it (the dinosaurs).
A very long time after, he woke and started killing everyone in Japan, while making it's emperor watch. Then got locked away by a magical sword forged by the gods.
There is no tragic past to this villain, and we can't say he's a tragic villain just because "it's tragic that he was born being evil". Every villain would be tragic if pure evil was seen as tragic.
Seriously, if you watch the show, you realize how incredibly cruel he is. He has no redeeming qualities whatsoever. NONE.
And about the kid thing: so what? He never was seen in a personal conflict with one. And I'm pretty sure there were a lot of children in the cities he burned to the ground.
Such evil! I mean, look at this!
Truly the most foul of all beings.
5210705 "Awoke after a long time" more like the empereor tried shooting him with a poisoned, cursed arrow that gave him sentience and freedom, though continued attempts at killing Aku proved futile without magic sword. Before that point he was an amorphous blob floating in space without a real driving force, yet he was considered 'the ultimate evil' while he was trapped like that and the gods tried to destroy him outright. As far as we know he was just floating there doing who knows what. Aku wouldn't of even crashed into the planet of earth with what little he was left if they hadn't torn him to shreds without seeing if he could so much as speak or explain his actions.
Besides when in the show is he really doing anything intentionally cruel?
Every time you see him in the show he is either watching jack, fighting jack, or chatting with others about things he wants done. Nothing in which involve being cruel to anything intentionally unless it involves people who harbor jack, the guy who has the only method of killing him and wants to kill him. In fact his response to most the populace seems to be to keep in good relations, as seen in the episode where he sits down an entire planet's children for a story, and his comedy routines involving the occasional pizza delivery guy or henchmen.
But then again arguing this point is like arguing why the goblin the adventurers have already slain hundreds of, is innocent when its just another goblin warrior, despite the 'heroes' committing the genocide of probably an entire race earlier while farming up gold and experience for items and levels for their next boss fight. Only to do it again on another unfortunate race or sub species in the next dungeon.
GARNER favour, not garter
5210969 Seriously? You believe that the giant eldritch horror in space was just misunderstood?
I think there was a good reason why the GODS had to get together to destroy it. Maybe he really was just a kind soul deep down, and appearances can be deceiving, and the gods just didn't understand all that, blabla.
The big word here is maybe. As far as we know: A thing of darkness, most likely symbolizing evil in the universe, gets destroyed by the creator of the universe, then a small piece falls down on Earth. Later on, a dark forest starts sprouting everywhere, destroying Japanese civilization. Then, poison arrow gives him life, and then he destroys the kingdom with evil glee.
Wow. Are you serious there? Every moment he appears or is mentioned in the show, it's because of something cruel. Let's see... one example: a alien prince and princess had crash landed on the Earth and begged for his help because they needed to get back to their planet to stop an invasion; Aku had their ship confiscated and ordered them thrown into a forced labor mine where they would live "miserably ever after. (he then proceeded to laugh evilly)
Also enslaving a shit ton of species, also burning down a fucking empire while making it's emperor watch, also kidnapping the puppy of the only robot than can have feelings, forcing him to kill Jack, ectetera ectetera
As for your other "points":
"He tells stories to children." Because Jack gave them hope, it's propaganda against future defiance.
"He commands pizza." Sure the scene was a joke, but he actually ordered a minion to kill Jack... -__- Even if he was ordering pizza, that's not an argument for anything ever.
I have no idea how you can remotely believe he is tragic. The closest thing to tragedy in him is that he has no chance at being redeemed, because good isn't even something he would ever consider, as he is evil incarnate.
Remember that a tragic villain is:
After he was given life, it wasn't because of circumstances that he was forced to do evil deeds, but because he took glee in that.
If you do evil because you enjoy evil, then you're not a tragic villain.
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it would of been far more crueler to murder either of them and let that war drag on, no? Despite his initial appearances, he does have a part of mercy about himself, and knows that Jack's nature of protecting others makes the samurai stronger. It could be seen as a test when he took the robots puppy to see if a temporary minion of his would fight all the harder when someone he had feelings for was on the line. Also something you said interests me.
Creator of the universe would imply that Aku was made that way by the 'creator of the universe'. Aku himself didn't have a choice in the matter if that was the case, and in otherwords he has no free will since the god that created him created him to be evil then. After all, if Aku was really an all evil tyrannical eldrich monster with no good within him, why would he have any subjects left to rule, and not take the more evil route of just killing everything that ever tried to cause him harm and leave naught but carnage everywhere he went? Some would say it was to rule, but frequently in the show Aku seems actually annoyed by ruling rather than enjoying it.
That fulfils the first few roles. As for circumstance, Aku never was given a chance. One second he was floating around in space, next second all the gods were beating him to death. He lands on earth and sits there in a pool unable to move, and suddenly a samurai tries to murder him with an arrow for making a forest passively. First thing he gets consciousness, what happens? He gets attacked by that samurai, and later by his army, and Aku goes on a killing spree only obeying what he was made to do before he could reallly gather up his mind.
Do you know the typical age a human being gets conscious thought? Around the age of 3-4 for humans, and that space abomination wasn't one of those. You could tell by how it fought that until the point the arrow entered the pool, that it behaved similarly to that of an giant squid with way too many tentacles, driven by instinct and the purpose it was made for. Similarly to a child, when Aku first erupted he was a reactionary creature for those first few days, primarily following his instincts, instincts that the god had 'made him for'. This lead to taking over the Earth in his early days like a laser and fire happy Godzilla. Aku's actions 50 years in the future is much more collected, and composed, with an albiet childish outlook at times. Though you should note his wording whenever he commands his minions, he doesn't say to 'kill' the samurai, but rather 'Destroy Samurai Jack'.
On numerous occasions Aku has tried to better himself and improve, these can be seen with his story of Little red riding hood, notice how he starts that story sitting down, and when you come back to him, hes standing up, both arms raised and a distant look of excitement on his face that makes him look as though he wanted an applause or a cheer for his 'brilliant' story telling. That and Aku dosen't even want to send yet more resources to fight jack in the first place, but is required to, as the samurai is extremely persistent in going back into the past to kill him off. Even on one occasion he tried getting a dual with jack to end it, but in the end the nature he was MADE for won out and caused the 'Incarnation' of evil to cheat because that was as evil did. Truth be told, it was the 'creators' who tried to destroy Aku's fault for even making something like that in the universe to begin with.
As for the duel,
Tell me, if you knew nothing about the characters at this point, who would seem like the villain to you? The guy who says he'll 'flutter off', or the maniac who swings the sword anyway first thing after that explanation? Aku is first and foremost a tactician. In order to win against a sword made to destroy evil, he must find a way to get around it and at the samurai wielding it for his own sake. Because if he did nothing, the samurai would of appeared a long time ago to kill him in his palace, and take the portal back to kill him again. As a ruler he made tough choices to conquer all that he has, and continue conquering, as when there are two or more empires, countries, governments, eventually a war will brew anyway. I'm not saying that Aku is right by 'enslaving' several species but slavery is often prelude to a later freedom. The freedom of unity under one government as well as the personal freedom. After all, take a look at all the species in Aku's empire that aren't slaves, and how Aku relied primarily upon robot forces as a military than risking the lives of his populace.
I could go on for hours about Aku, and why he isn't as evil as he seems. But then again he wasn't going to be used in this story to run an empire, but rather reflect the harsh decisions some rulers have to make for the safety of their people.
5214371 There's just too many points to answer back too!
Wow, what an essay we wrote on him.
I still firmly believe that he is pure evil, and I could continue the debate, but I really don't feel like it anymore. As they say, let's agree to disagree.
As soon as you even hinted to Mr. Freeze I put this on repeat,
made the scene that much better!
5209181 Aren't they Nice?
5242739 They make me smile in agony
Here's some tragic villains that you could use and how they'd also be useful:
Ice King (Adventure Time): He is a man who was cursed by a crown and just wanted love. His ice is more poweful than Freeze's and can fly
Foxy (Five Nights At Freddy's): Foxy was abandoned; left in a state of disrepair for decades, abandoned and alone. He is shown to be agile and very sneaky.
Metal Sonic (Sonic Games). He was a creation that believed he was the real Sonic, a classic case of Pinnochio Syndrome. He is very fast and can radiate energy from his body
Bizarro (Superman): He had always wanted to be good, but was never able to due to his opposite understanding. He has all the powers of Superman, which definitely makes him useful.
Magneto (X- Men): He's a mutant that has felt prejudice and was sent to a death camp. He contrs metal, what are most of the guard's weapons made out of? As well as the casing for the Elements of Harmony.
Just some suggestions.
Also, liked this chapter. Liked Mr. Freeze and love how Shining gets tormented. It's hilarious!
Right when you said goggles for you villain I knew exactly who it was :D and Mr.Freeze is such a awesome character. Like if he and batman actually talked, batman would see he's actually helping.
^^^^ first letters need to be capped XD
5210969 that was a ice day
What an ice day for mr freeze
Now that was just cold.
8665898
Very nIIIICE
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