"The Tyrant does his best to seem huge, to seem powerful, to seem fearless and invincible. But the truth is that at the core of every tyrant is a frightened little creature terrified of the possibility of it's own ultimate importance." - High King Varitus.

(Meant to conclude the final battle in Marathon 2 as seen here: http://www.comicvine.com/forums/rpg-9/marathon-ii-the-alien-cometh-a-cvnu-event-1493971/ )

Delta Marathon Ring

The Gauntlet had been thrown, the battle had begun, the apocalypse was now, the reckoning had come, it was time to rumble, whatever you wanted to call it; there was now a state of battle between Barak'Talak and his guard of Mutons, Meta-crushers, Zudjari, Milbots, Space Pirates, and Jiralhanae and those who had assembled to kill him to stop the Delta Marathon Ring from fi-

Hey there Mr.Narrator, mind if I take over?

What? I mean...huh? Of course I mind! This is my job.

Well I think you're little ehhh...dry. I'd be much better for telling this story!

But this is my job John you can't just bar-

So anyway, where was sir snoresalot? Oooh! Oooh! I know! I just set my helmet to play some epic tunes in my head as the big guy mobbed some of the other dudes with his mooks. Well, guess that just left the king of the mooks to take down then! I thought as I hefted my hammer in one hand and raised my shield in the other. Dave got his sword ready in both hands, Jade lifted her gun, and Rose just twirled those wands into place I mean have you every seen a twirl that nice?

But John...

I got this, don't worry! You go narrate other things! I'm sure you're needed elsehwere.

Oh fine. I'll just see myself out of here then! Bah humbug!

Jeeze, take a chillpill. Aaaanyway, back to Baraktabuttface. As Rose said, his shields were done, so I had to move in, quickity quick! Just as he got ready to smack one of us upside the head, I dashed in as hard as I could and twisted my shield into a bashing position, smashing it into the hammer. Now I'm positively sure that if that hit weren't being force concentrated by the two us, that probably would have wiped a thirty light year wide area clean of everything bigger than...hydrogen I think.

With all that energy going back into him he was lifted up and off his feet, something I thought I'd help him with with a SMASHING right uppercut with the hammer to send the goober on his merry way. Enough punch to match thirty supernovas sent him right into Rose, who made for a quick, lovely little spin and whalloped that guy into Girik's waiting fist to slam him into the ground for Cheval to open up. Now, anti-reality is pretty funky stuff, but it's about the only thing that can actually damage primordium.

I can't really describe it's colour, and it's not really colourless. It's like...against the concept of colour, I can't really describe it. Girik got out of the way real quick, and blam! The guy took at least thirty shots to hit him where it hurt. That opened up some real good holes in his suit and definitely took a bite out of him, but jeeze if he wasn't quick to heal. I swear the holes in his body were already filling up, and his armour wasn't too far behind.

"He'll get up in mere moments, get back quickly!" Rose warned as the dude's gravity mace brought him onto his feet and he smashed Girik right out of the way with a straight left swing so hard that the entire four point thirteen million parsec station must have moved at least a dekaparsek to the left. Okay, I'll admit that was pretty cool but then again it was from the King jerkoff of the universe so I couldn't give it too high praise.

RIght right where was I? Oh yes fighting butt face maximus. Damn guy stomped his foot to summon up some meta-crushers and whaddya know, I'm the only one left standing against the big lug. I was so sure he was going to try smacking me with the hammer that I had like...a fraction of a moment to bring my arms up and try to push back against him when he tried to bullrush me into the central power node thingy. I wasn't sure what it did and I sure as heck didn't want to find out!

And yeah, that was one heck of a hard shoving match. I could feel my boots digging into the ground and tearing open furrows into it and could hear the metal giving way beneath me as the two of us pushed against one another. We kept on butting each other's heads repeatedly, but I was starting to feel concussed after a few thousand or so sunbusting head bangs. Buuuut I had an idea, rather than try to outmuscle Mr.Universe here, why not just smack him with my hammer and WHOOSH! It went from it's place on my hip right into his gut, throwing him backwards.

Kamal, Jach'ohb and Nufai throw themselves in to fight the Meta-crushers, leaving Phrygus free to swoop in on that ice slide thing he does and slick up the floor just as he regained his footing after I called my hammer back and WHOOP he's on the floor and hella pissed. And right before the dude can even pick himself up, I whammied him with the blue knots to drill into all those open spots. He must not have liked it much from all the swearing he was doing before Dave rushed in to cut at his legs and back kick him back onto his face so that Rose could knock him to the side.

But I don't think that Aleksei was up to the task since the moment Barak'Talak got swatted over to him he grabbed the guy and threw him over the edge. Thank goodness he can fly. But once he started shimmering that's when I knew he had his shields up again. Okay, time to play dodge the singularity wave, because a line of blackholes is kind of hurty. Okay yeah I slipped and got smacked with one. Yeah, survivable I know but jeez my head was rattling from that and next thing I knew I was miles away while the Emerald Soviet tried to trip up the guy. That guy's got spunk even when he's totally outmatched, spunk apparently doesn't stop a fist to the face that knocked him out cold though.

Taranis let down the law on the guy! Thunder, lightning, the winds of a thousand worlds, and a god blast to boot! Molxivor brought down all the psychic shenanigans and I mean like all of them. The room was shaking from all the psychic energy coming out of the beetle guy's head while Aleksei came back with North Star to sucker blast him with everything they had, letting Ssi-rruvus smack him with all the magic he was worth for. Buuut I really don't think they were doing too much to slow him down. The stupid mace came in and launched black holes all over the place and it was up to Jade to deal with them, exploding them wherever she could while Dave cut the rest apart with time-splitter. SHINK! Yes that's what a black hole sounds like when it's being cut in half! Followed by BOOM. I'm the master PRANKSTER not the master liar, yeesh.

"You imbeciles think you have power? You haven't even begun to see power!" He shouted as he started teleporting all over the place, one smack and Taranis was down, one smack and he was down, another blow and Phrygus was down for the count, each time he teleported, he brought someone else down. When Jade finally locked down his teleportation, he had just swept aside Jach'Ohb, Nufai, and Kamal in a single blow and seemed ready to take down Cheval after bringing down everyone but us, Girik, Aleksei, Glitch, must have taken out the whole Nova Phalanx himself. Ooor he would have if Tombstone hadn't crashed a capital ship right on top of him after firing everything it had on him after smashing through the chamber door.

"Did I win?" Said the Ant when he popped out of the nearest hatch.

"I reckon that ought to hold him for a while." Tombstone said before he felt the entire thing begin to shift and turn beneath him right before Barak'talak punched the entire ship to pieces in a massive fireball. I covered my eyes even though that really wasn't needed, and when the dust cleared, the guy was still standing there!

I swear if Dave hadn't rushed in during a time stop and saved them they'd be scattered atoms right now. But Glitch and Aleksei were both down, and the Muton had just thrown himself at Girik. He must not have been expecting it because soon enough he was on the floor getting pounded to paste with his mace. But when I saw Cheval's anti-reality blasts hitting and doing damage, I had like, a lightbulb in my head.

I charged up, wound up my hammer and said. "Hey, big guy!" While Dave gave me a "what the fuck are you even doing face", Jade was busy trying to contain the singularity core of the ship, and Rose nodded knowing exactly what I was planning.

"BATTER UP!" I shouted before striking him in the chin with my hammer and sending him zooming on out of the chamber. I'm not sure how hard I hit him but the entire ring was reported to have moved a megaparsec from the hit, and apparently astronomers on Chiron registered a sudden bloom of energy. Which I guess is pretty awesome for a sucker punch! But I watched enough movies to know that the guy wasn't dead.

"Okay, come on guys. Let's pull the curtains on this ugly son of a bitch." Dave said as he shot off into space, with each of us flying off one after the other like rockets, Jade having to go last as she had to tear apart the black hole. It wasn't that hard to find him as we shot past stars, planets, and even whole nebula! Must have been pulling like...four thirteen million times C or something...something really fast I dunno! But there he was, trying to stabilize his flight for one last go at the four of us.

"INSOLENT PESTS! YOU THINK YOU CAN BEST ME!? I WILL GRIND YOUR BONES TO DUST!" He shouted, making Rose snort.

"Quite the standard fare of threats really. Let's put an end to the bombastic braggart, shall we?" She said with a smile under her helmet, or at least I'm sure she was smiling.

"Oooh fun! Can't wait to smack him into paste!" Jade clapped with glee.

"Guys, I'm having my suit mark black holes, white dwarves, neutron stars, and other superdense objects. We need to smack them into him as hard as possible to finish him, yannow, like Mario Galaxy 2!" I said, getting a weird look from Dave.

"Mario what? Bro, this isn't time for references that fly over my head like a cruiser." He chastised.

"Just smack shit into him when you can between smacking him up close and personal!" I said quickly before giving a Neutron Star a sudden whack to send it flying even faster than we were to crash right into Barak'Talak, spinning him out of his charge and sending him back away from us. I can't really describe the sound of it, but man the explosion was all kinds of pyrotechnicy, shockwaves, sparks, fragments of neutron stuff flying every which way as he spun out of control before going level.

Rose followed up roundhouse kicking a white dwarf into his gut, and man did he go head over heels for that. "I WILL KILL YOU FOR THAT!" He shouted just as Dave sped up to get around for rapid sword swings, striking him in the weak points for massive damage before he managed to get a hammer blow to connect; batting Dave away while he let loose force blasts from his mace. Tough stuff but Jade was able to deflect most of it away. I brought my shield up and bounced one away; and I think that one ended up crushing an entire solar system as collateral. Sorry about that.

The boss man himself flew up to give me a smack in the head and yeah I really should have seen that coming, I had to fight to get myself level after my eyes filled with stars from the force of the blow as he whacked Jade and Rose aside, but from about a thousand light years distant, I found another neutron star to smack him with! This time though, he was ready and just punched it apart with his hands just as the five of us smashed right through a supermassive black hole and tore it to pieces. And man, a dying black hole is the most amazing thing. All this radiation comes pouring out of the broken singularity and event horizon, all this trapped information pours out all at once, and the whole thing goes KABOOM in every colour you can imagine and tons you can't! "Bah, you cannot hope to challenge me! I am the King of the Mutons, mightiest warrior of the Hierarchy!"

When Jade leveled herself out, she set up this huge ass ray of green sun energy. "You really need to shut the fuck up!" She shouted angrily before a gigantic beam speared forth and punched him backwards. Even though she was putting out enough energy to outshine a quasar galaxy by...a bunch of times! He was still pushing forwards and even shot forth his own energy beam back at her.

"Wait, guys...we need to do that thing we practiced for!" I said to them.

"Wait, that thing? Bro I dunno if you're crazy in the head but that's got a shit ton of potential for collateral." Dave said as he got his sword out after getting back into the flight.

"Though there is a risk of damage and it is indeed a stunt we haven't practiced for very often, it would seem to be our best option for dethroning the King swiftly." Rose countered as she assumed her position to the left of Jade.

"Thanks Rose. You sure this will work?" I asked.

"You suggested it oh wise friendleader." She said and this time, I knew she was smiling at me and I knew I felt hot behind the ears.

"Whatever you guys are going to do you better do it fast! He's getting stronger like we are!" Jade shouted as the two clashing beams pushed back and forth against each other and jeeze if he wasn't actually pushing back against her beam hard.

"Okay, team...SPIRAL TETRA-FRAIMOTIF GO!" I shouted as I flew above Jade and Dave flew to the right of her. She brought herself a bit downwards until we formed a diamond.

"BREATH!" I shouted as I poured everything I had into it; calling the winds, lightning, the warp, my psychics, and everything else on my laundry list of powers and shot it into a gigantic blue beam down to the center of the formation. I really hoped they all had the timing down or else this was not going to end in a fun way!

"LIGHT!" Rose added as she fired forth her own Orchid beam, Light, Magic, Psychic juices, Water, and all she could put in slammed into the beam. The beams started rippling and humming together as they started to merge, dancing around in a helix like you see in DNA and forming into a ball at the center.

Dave shot up with "TIME!", letting out a red ray of chronons, fire, cold, and dragon speech, the weirdest sort of music going between us as the beams started resonating together. Now some red was added to our concoction, and the universe itself was beginning to shake beneath what we were putting into it.

"SPACE!" Jade finally shouted when her green doom laser of spacions, earth, the green sun's energy, and kinetic force and everything else she could pull all threw themselves into the giant ball of doom. For a second Barak'Talak's beam came racing towards us at billions of times the speed of light, a giant white ray of death that caused reality to crack and splinter around it.

"We're in clear intergalactic space, let it go now!" Rose shouted just as the beam got within a few miles of us, bright as a gazillion days.

"FIRE!" We all shouted and threw forth the Spiral Tetra-Fraimotif as a gigantic beam that I swore had a dragon's head at it's front. A cosmic song rang in my ears as it raced across the distances faster than light. Reality pulsed and beat according to it's life. The energies of a billion, billion exploding stars, and that's lowballing it, seethed within a point about a hundred feet thick and a hell of a lot longer. Helixes of energy curled and twisted around it as much as they could as they headed right down for Barak'talak's own spiral ray.

When they smashed into each other the universe scrunched up around the collision points, a hole was punched clean through and the monsters inside the hole were immediately fried by the power and the others desperately tried to close it before they could get smashed. So much power was involved that I don't think there really are any comparison points besides a Big Bang as far as naturally occuring things go. Anything caught by the blast was certainly blasted so hard that physics no longer were a factor for anything caught in it.

For the teensiest moment when the two beams collided there was a bit of a stalemate, then the blast just punched right through Barak'talak's beam. Reality itself must have pulled itself over and hurled as a beam that could have probably totaled thousands of galaxies every second relative to our timeframe if Barak'Talak wasn't about to take the brunt of it ripped right through it. Physics itself broke down before the beam and I'm pretty sure Barak'Talak's last words were "Oh shi-" before the beam hit him.

After that, I gotta give him credit; I could faintly hear something screaming over all the noise...or maybe that was just me. We actually had to keep up the beam up for three seconds before it stopped encountering resistance. The fact that he stood up to three seconds of all of that is major props to the douchelord of the cosmos. Dornan nor Death Harbinger wouldn't have survived for a thousandth as long, Koshmar would have probably have bitten the dust in the face of that. But then, this guy was throwing punches that could destroy galaxies, so he had to be made out of stern stuff.

Now at this point we all stopped and Jade opened up a portal to the green sun for the beam to go off to without shooting through the cosmos like a super-bullet. We all flew up to where the big lug was to make sure he was dead and yep! Hammer and armour were there, but not a trace of his cells. High fives all around!

"We still have a Ring to turn off you know." Rose said. "Oh yeah, thanks for that Rose." I said, to which she said "Anytime, John." Tilting her head in a friendly way.

"Jade we need a trip back to the control room!" To which Jade nodded. When we got back, the others must have gotten back up because the room was occupied by the good guys and all the hierarchy losers were on the floor dead.

We threw down Talak's empty equipment to give everyone proof that he was dead and I never expected Girik to be mad enough at the guy to give his armor a good kick. Cheval pushed a button with High Horse's help and aborted the whole firing sequence and you'd never believe how relieved everyone was when the "fry a seventh of the universe" pulse was averted.

Then the ring sent a pulse of another sort that left us all confused. Oh god did it happen? Did we screw up? "No, no, no. No need to worry, the Ring has not been fired. That was a communication pulse." 612 High Horse said, guess it must have read some of our minds.

"Communicating to...what exactly?" I asked, making the A.I nod happily, must have been really excited to answer questions!

"In the event of the abortion of a MARATHON RIng's firing sequence, a pulse will be sent to all other rings to put them on standby status so that they can be activated at a single remote location." She said as a holographic map showing each of the seven...well six since Carol blew up one, rings and where they were in the universe and a dot on where I managed to figure Earth was.

"Why...the Nexus of course."