Checkmate (anyone)

Entertainment, how would he find some this morning? He’d been feeling rather depressed most of the morning. The exact reason he wasn’t sure, but depression seemed to live around him anyway. He needed to entertain himself, he needed to make a jest, but how should he find such fun today? He knew exactly what he was going to do. He would play his favorite game, but first he needed to find a participant.

The sun was high in the sky; it would be hard to hide his hideous face from the public at this time of day. He shifted his goofy hat so it covered a larger portion of his face. It didn’t hide much, but people were bound to see him anyway. He had a knack for attracting unwanted attention.

The sloshing of his shoes on mud echoed innocently through the rocks. The dirt road was wet from the storm that had passed overhead not long ago. He looked at his reflection in a mud puddle, staring at his loathsome smiling teeth that simply refused to frown. He crushed his reflection as he walked through the water, soaking his cloth shoes.

The last village he traveled through was completely destroyed. It appeared that the carnage was caused by one man, or beast more like. He stayed there a while, examining the dead corpses, but dead bodies only provided so much entertainment before they grew old. Not a very lively bunch, the dead.

He stopped. The front gate loomed over his head, he’d seen bigger before. He didn’t know what the city’s name was, but it was rather large, huge in fact, but not as big as other cities he had been to. He stopped at the gate briefly to examine its handiwork; it was still open for the day. He walked inside, avoiding the direct glares of the people. He would gladly perform a trick or two for them, but the last several times he tried that they wouldn’t even let him speak. He was feared, and he didn’t blame them. There were reasons to fear him other than his bony shell.

If he had lips, he would have smirked as he passed a young woman on his right. She didn’t look like the type to play his favorite game, but she was still beautiful. On his left up ahead was a rather large merchant, but again he didn’t look like the type to play his game. Taverns were always places where one wanted to pick a fight, there was one up ahead, a hanging sign with the words “Broken Glass” carved into it. What a bizarre name for a tavern.

Toofy shoved through the front door with his right hand, stopped in the open doorway. His wide teeth appeared to give a devilish smirk; all eyes were looking at it. His teeth, his empty eyes, empty hole for a nose, and his jester’s hat. Toofy let them feed off his grotesque appearance, he almost wanted laugh. He knew they thought him as a demon, but they were sorely mistaken. He was far worse.

With a swing of his arm, the devil face of his mock scepter landed in his palm. Toofy popped the scepter into the air, snatching it with his right hand. He twirled it several times, eyeing a soldier in the back of the room who already drew his sword. The evil carving on his staff smirked for the skeleton before pouring flame into his audience.

Let the games begin.

Wa who! Another town. The metallic armored man deactivated his armor a wile before reaching the town. Most of people in this world didn’t have flashy hi tech bio-mechanical armor and J didn’t want any unwanted attention. As J walked through the gates he was surprised to see how big this town was. He moaned as his stomach started to growl. It seemed like he was always hungry these days. He wandered around until he found a tavern and walked inside. It was filled with the usual drunks, the card players, and the rowdy bunch. J walked his way around them for the bar. With the little money he had J ordered a meal and started scarfing it down.

Suddenly a skeleton walked into the bar and stood in the doorway. He was wearing a jester hat and clothes with bells on it. J was just confused how he managed to not fall apart at the joints. Most of the people in the tavern didn’t seem too happy about the jester’s presents. One soldier drew his sword as the skeleton twirled his scepter and shot fire into the bar. J instinctively activated his armor and jumped away from his table as it burst into flames. Without thinking he fired off a plasma bolt at the fire wielder.

Such amusement. The pathetic screams and horrendous cries for help was nothing compared to their outrageous reaction to their impending death. People ran across the bar as their bodies were engulfed in flame, alcohol from the drinks only made the fire more intense. Still, such chaos wasn’t as entertaining as Toofy’s favorite game.

An explosion lit up the left side of his vision, too close to his head. He turned instinctively toward the blast, seeing a burnt hole in the bar wall. Instantly the entertainer knew someone was attacking him. Another blast tore through the air, this time Toofy was ready for it. The skeleton dropped to the floor behind an overturned table. He twirled his mock scepter around in his hand, ending with a brief flick. The clicking of his staff was heard as it morphed into a large blade. The jester stretched his jaw, waiting for his attacker to show himself. The screams of the bar patrons faded off as they ran from the destroyed tavern. The groans of the wounded survivors were unmistakable, but other than that he couldn’t hear anyone else.

Removing his cockscomb, the fool stuck it loosely on the tip of his sword. Carefully, he lifted the hat over the top of the table, seeking to draw out his attacker. Another one of the mysterious energy blasts tore through his hat, but that didn’t matter. Toofy got what he wanted. He placed the injured cap on his bald scalp, leaping over the table simultaneously. Toofy was only able to savor the carnage of the tavern for a brief moment before zeroing in on his target as he came down through the air. He didn’t have enough time to examine the man’s armor before his blade locked with the boy’s… hand.

A claw, apparently, was what was holding his sword. The boy was very young, only just emerging as an adult. The signs were on his face, unless he was somehow immortal like himself. His armor was the strangest, however, unlike anything he had ever seen. He took note of all of this in a mere few seconds. The last thing he realized was where his energy attack came from.

Toofy slid his sword from the knight’s claws, dodging around the man’s back as another plasma blast rocked the room. Moving quickly, the jester slashed his blade through his enemy as he ran. He turned to face his opponent as he slid to a stop, only to be shocked that his blade did nothing but a mere scratch on man’s armored back.

Toofy let out a satisfied laugh as his eyes met the opposing player. “Well, then, care to play a little game with me?”

Finally, a participant.

The jester hid behind an upturned table. J threw a mostly not on fire table on its side and ducked behind it with his head and gun arm over its edge. He watched and waited for the sick being to come out of his hiding place. The stupid hat started to rise up from behind the table and J made quick work of it. The metallic worrier smiled as he realized there was no head there to support the hat.

The skeleton then jumped out from behind the table and brought a sword that had appeared at the end of his scepter down at J. He was a little surprised at the sorcerer’s speed but was still able to grab the blade with his claw. J shot off another blast as the jester spun around him and slashed his back and ran away. J fired off a couple more bolts of plasma to find that the jester’s speed allowed him to dodge the blasts with crazy weird acrobatics.

The soldier gave up on his blaster and lunged at the menace. In one fluid motion he round housed kicked, spun and swung his fist, spun and kicked with his other foot, all of which the jester dodged spectacualy, and finally landed his claw. The jester flew across the room and slammed into a wall. J was surprised at how fast he flew and at first thought he would go strait through the wall. He was even more surprised when he got back up immediately and started laughing. The sorcerer lunged at J striking him over and over with his blade. J was able to block most of these with his armored forearms. Some of the strikes landed on his not so armored upper arms and they started to bleed from the flesh wounds.

J got fed up with this and jumped at the menace with both his feet in front of him. The jester immediately halted his attack and jumped to the side. He would have dodged the boots completely if J had not shot his off his thrusters. The force of the fire pushed J back a little and he did a backflip and landed with ease back on his feet. The Jester however was thrown once again against the wall with remarkable speed.

OoC: Your characters ganna be hard to write for cuase hes so unpredictable.

Check it out. What are the patterns of red and black you want me to put on him before i shade him?

Toofy huffed as he hit the floor. Sure he wasn’t feeling any pain, but getting thrown into a wall twice in a row by the same person gets annoying very quickly. What sort of threat was he if he could be tossed around so easily? Rolling to his side, he popped himself back to his feet with a quick shove against the floor. He moved without slowing, using the speed from his recovery to launch himself across the room, making space between him and his enemy.

The skeleton skidded to a stop, watching the armored warrior. The stranger had his arm posed, preparing to unleash more of his energy no doubt. Reaching up his sleeve, the entertainer withdrew four playing cards. He’d used his cards enough in the past to know which cards he held without even looking at them.

Ducking low, the jester darted through the bar as the wall behind him lit up. He glanced back. Either this guy was toying with him, or he was underestimating him. He knew this man had more up his sleeve or else he wouldn’t be able to afford that fancy armor of his. Well, he’d find out soon enough.

Toofy jumped upon the front counter, sliding over the bottles and goblets as they crashed to the floor. He flung his arm through the air, releasing all four cards.

J fired one more plasma blast at the skeleton. The ball of energy incinerated two of the incoming cards, but the other two made it past, lashing across his face. J instinctively held his cheek. He felt the stickiness of blood, but it was just a surface wound, nothing to worry about.

Toofy peered out from behind the counter. He eyed the cuts on his enemy’s face, he hit. If he used a ten card the game would have been over by now, but he couldn’t just go wasting his cards. He’d mess with this guy a little more before he’d result to his more powerful tactics.

J looked down at the blood on his hand that he had wiped off of his cheek, a playing card? Clearly this magician had more tricks up his sleeve then J had first thought. Dang it you’re an idiot, first of all you always underestimate your opponent and second, you never put your helmet all the way on until your hit in the face. He shunned himself as his helmet stretched in front of his mouth like a motorcycle helmets would, and a visor came down over his eyes. He wondered why he didn’t use the visor at the beginning of the fight. After he locks on to an opponent the visor will keep a small arrow in his enemy’s direction if he’s out of sight and will highlight him with red when he is in view. It also shielded of the only vulnerable skin on him.

J then shunned himself for being a distracted idiot because in the time he was busy mentally abusing himself he got a descent sized slash across his neck by the jester as he passed swinging his sword. J quickly tuned and fired off another round of plasma bolts as the jester danced around, weaving his way through the blasts. The soldier lunged at the skeleton once more swinging his limbs in a feury of strikes. The jester laughed as he dodged the blows, occasionally blocking them with his staff or pushing off a fist to propel himself backwards farther away from J.

The skeletons speed seemed to match J's, however his lack of weight and the ability of bending his limbs in sometimes unexpected ways seemed to give him the upper hand. J knew he was going to get much more creative if he was going to out play this joker. “Oooo, look at speedy skeleton man, look how fast he is.” He mocked. J used his thrusters to rocket himself once more at the jester and was just barley able to grab him by the foot with his claw as the menace dodged to the side. Still flying across the room with his momentum J lifted the skeleton over his head, "Here you go table, have a skeleton men." and slammed him down through the table. He felt a blade slice strait through his upper left arm and yelled in pain as he kicked the skeleton hard into the wall. J then jumped at the jester and smashed into him with his feet only catching the skeleton’s chest with one foot as the jester attempted to dodge. The soldier then unleashed his thrusters shooting the jester strait out of the wall of the tavern. As he flew through the patio he sung his arm sending four more cards at J. all four hit him in the chest. The first one only leaving a small scratch, second one almost reaching the skin, third one sticking in him a millimeter, and the fourth one digging a good two inches into his chest. "Ah, you suck!" He said in anger, ripped the cards out and threw them back at the their owner. He was disappointed when they immediately fluttered to the ground like harmless pieces of paper.

The jester had flown all the way across the road landing with his feet against the wall of a building and sprung back with his blade ready. J glanced down at the puncture wound in his arm as it throbbed. It would make his left arm a little weaker for a while but knew it would heal up after about fifteen minuets. In all this wasn’t looking good, no matter what he did to this skeleton it didn’t seem to faze him at all. As much stamina as J had, he wondered if he would be able to outlast this freak of nature.

Toofy had used eight of his cards already, four twos and four threes. Sure their use wasn’t in vain, but it would be wise to save the remaining ones for when he actually needed them. His challenger’s strength was much greater than his own so he’d strike fast and quick before he could land a hit on him again.

Toofy pulled his blade back to his side as if to prepare an upward vertical slash. He charged headlong forward. J pulled his clawed arm back, bracing himself. As the Jester got closer to him, he couldn’t help but notice the noise of jingling bells approaching from behind. He almost wanted to turn around and face the noise, but he knew his real target was charging at him from the front. Toofy leapt off the ground with one powerful bound, he twisted his torso in midair as he pointed his blade toward his grounded foe’s head. J swung his cannon arm up as quick as he could.

Toofy’s jaw snapped: new plan. His blade retracted back into the staff just before the scepter lodged itself deep inside J’s exotic cannon. Metal screeched in objection, but he managed to keep it docked tightly. J swung his free fist at Toofy’s skull. The skeleton dropped to his hands, narrowly avoiding the attack but receiving another one to the face. The Jester flipped backward through the air, head over heels, landing softly on the roof of a small general store. Stirred dust began to settle.

J grabbed the mock scepter embedded in his arm, but even with his strength it would not budge. He would have to find other means to take down this jester. If he tried to use his plasma cannon now, it could very well explode and leave himself crippled. He was left without a weapon, but so was that undead monster. That thing still had his bizarre cards, but now he was without his precious sword.

Toofy’s head peered over the top edge of the general store. Amazingly his cockscomb managed to stay rooted to his skull, but it was scorched and tattered in a few places. Other than the damage to his clothes, he seemed virtually unharmed. As if to amplify this assumption, he stood casually and dusted a layer of dirt off his shoulder like one would brush away a small insect. Toofy tilted his head to the side with a look of false curiosity as if he hadn’t noticed his opponent was there. The bare bones folded his hands behind his back. He dropped a single card into his hand and played with it between his fingers, hidden behind his torso. He knew which card it was, it was one known to drag in a few good laughs. “Hello, Ace.”

J glared up at the skeleton. He decided now might be a good time to come up with some kind of a plan. Well there’s a freaking rod stuck in my arm. Freaken ridiculous. But now he don’t got a weapon other then his cards… I wonder what other tricks he’s got up his- before J could finish the thought pain exploded through his back. A thousand feathers stabbed through his armor into his flesh. The force of which threw him froward landing face first in the middle of the street. J reached back and grunted as he pulled out a hand full of sharp feathers. He got up on his hands and knees and looked forward as the sound of bells jingle in front of him. The jingling started to come closer and closer.

…Wait a minuet… pain shot throw his back once more as the skeleton fists slammed into his back over and over again pushing the needle feathers deeper.

“AAAGGH!!!” J pushed off the ground and swung his left arm around at the laughing fiend. Despite the two and a half foot extension of the scepter the jester still managed to duck under and jump away. J erupted his thrusters throwing himself at his opponent. The jester did a back flip landing halfway up the side of a building. He then pushed himself off the wall landing with ease on a flag poll twenty feet high.

J landed on the same spot on the wall and thrusted up towards the skeleton. The wind blowing past him ruffled the feathers agitated the many wounds. The pain disoriented J causing his eyes to water and upset his balance. As J was about to reach the flag pole the jester dropped down, grabbed onto the ball at the top of the pole, swung himself around twice gaining great speed and kicked J hard in the face. The soldier was thrown back against the wall and experienced the familiar pain pierce into his back. He fell back down to the ground and coughed hard. The skeleton laughed with merriment and hopped down onto J’s back. J cried out in pain as the jester did an attempt at a tap dance while waving his hands around as if twirling a imaginary baton.

J pushed off the ground hard sending them both straight into the air. He spun and clocked the jester so hard with his own scepter that it made the menace cartwheel a couple of times in place. The jester grabbed onto his scepter still protruding from J’s outstretched arm and swung around it a few times and kicked J again in the face. J flew back down to the ground from there place suspended in air, landing and his hands and knees.

The jester had been pushed back again against the wall of the building from the force of his kick and lunged once more at the armored man. J could hear the sound of bells coming and was this time ready for what come. He knew that if he hit him in any direction but down the skeleton would just fly away again. J waited until the last second before dodging to the side and beating the skeleton hard into the ground. The jester was stunned for a few seconds but this was a few seconds to long. J jumped down onto the fiends ribs and brought his fist down pushing the skull a foot into the ground. He then slammed his foot into the hole and ignited his thruster all the wile beating the skeleton with his own scepter.

“Die, die, die, die, DIE!” J said through clenched teeth with every whacking of the rod. The jester finally got his feet into position and kicked J in the chest throwing him back a couple of feet.

Toofy kicked hard, sending his armored opponent tumbling away.

“Die? Gladly.” The jester mumbled under his breath, but quickly recovered his public personality. The truth Toofy occasionally wished was a lie was impossible to avoid: the truth that he couldn’t die no matter how hard he tried.

The skeleton’s backbone was embedded in the ground from the warrior’s constant attacks, the ground hardening around his ribs from the flames that emitted from the soles of his feet. He wriggled in place like a worm on a hook, soon freeing himself from the dirt encasing him. Shaking off the excess earth he began to put space between him and his recovering enemy. J was already on his feet again, fury clearly blazing in his movements.

A card slipped into the skeleton’s hand, he flipped it around twice before tightly locking it in his grasp. He dared to pull a joke with the stranger’s current anger. “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.” The jester mused matter-of-factly. Sure it was a weak gender joke, but he had a hunch it would annoy his enemy enough to fuel his anger.

J huffed. He leaned forward slightly before sprinting. Metal feet tore through the ground as he readied a clawed strike to the cocky jester’s skull. The card in Toofy’s hand vanished, on cue Toofy jumped backwards. J’s charge didn’t stop until something grabbed his right shoulder, forcing him to veer to the side. He turned instinctively, swinging his free hand without needing to look. His fist connected with bone, bare bone. Toofy stumbled backward from the powerful punch. J prepared for his next course of action, but the sound of screeching metal threw him off guard. He toppled forward, a long lash in his back.

He caught a glimpse of the attacker before he hit the ground. It was the jester, no a second jester. Toofy eyed himself with a slight chuckle which only made things more confusing. He was thrown off by the misleading sound of the bells and the fact he didn’t expect there to be two of them, this time he’d be prepared for anything. The laws of science didn’t seem to agree with this abnormal calamity, in which case one should expect anything.

J stood slowly to his feet, quickly formulating various possible choices for his next move. It was two on one, the odds were against him.

Toofy and the joker faced each other, expressions permanently identical. They nodded once, confirming that they would finish this warrior with a most spectacular display. The first skeleton lurched forward, the second following two feet behind. J reacted fast, lifting his cannon and tearing through the first attacker. The second came down on the soldier’s arm, blade bouncing off the durable metal and back for a second strike. J turned to the side, narrowly avoiding the second strike as the second skeleton bounded forward for another attack.