A Different Kind of Paradise

Chapter XIV: Nero VS. Justice - Battle of the Roaring Skies

“Now is your last chance you roach.”  Justice tried to threaten Nero, the pony who had continually disrespected him.  “You can turn around and run away, or you can have me murder you.”

“Yo dawg, you funny.”  Nero laughed in response, causing Justice to become further angered.

He then dashed ahead with quick speed, Justice was prepared this time and threw an earth-shattering punch at where Nero was headed.  Nero barely dodged the incoming assault as Justice grinned and remarked “You should have run.”

Nero took this opportunity to rebound off of where he was standing straight at Justice’s arm, then again rebounded to gain the necessary momentum to deliver a powerful blow to Justice’s jaw.

From what Gabe had told him Nero had a slight edge if he kept his speed up, Justice could punch through walls, but threw all of his strength into each blow.  Doing this meant that he would be unable to recover easily if he missed his mark.  Exploiting this weakness was the only way Nero could survive and do any damage.

Justice howled with fury as he picked both of his arms up and attempted to smash Nero.  Nero effortlessly slid to one side and yelled “table hopper!”

“What?!” Justice had no idea what that meant.  Blinded by anger he began recklessly pummeling at Nero.

Nero quickly evaded each of these punches in a similar manner to before, right up until when he saw an opening.  When the punch came down he slid back, then dashed forward and kicked Justice in the face via wing-powered backflip.  The blow actually managed to stagger Justice.  Nero kept the momentum going as he quickly went as high as he could, then changed direction and with a devastating axe kick, toppled the great beast.

Justice was able to disrupt Nero’s landing by sweeping his arms as he got up.   “I have HAD IT!”  He roared.  He took in a deep breath and let out a torrent of fire.

This Nero was unprepared for; the room they were in was bigger than most, but there still was little room to keep out of the flame’s reach.  He was able to prevent himself from getting caught in the fire, but was at risk of being cornered.  He got an idea.

Eventually Justice ran out of breath and had to cut off the flames.  When he looked around and saw nothing but charred stone he began to laugh.  “That’s one pest down.”  He chuckled.  He began to walk toward the door but then realized something, shouldn’t there be a corpse?

A massive chunk of stone to the head answered that question.  “Looking for me?”

Justice turned and saw Nero, while Justice’s view was obscured by his own flames Nero hid behind one of the pillars that decorated the chamber, apparently the same pillars were so worn that it was a simple task for Nero to use them as his personal projectile.

“You little fu…”  Justice was interrupted by yet another chunk of stone to the face.  Enraged, he dove at Nero with his arms outstretched, but yet again the green pegasus was too quick for him and Justice rammed into the wall at high speeds; the ancient building’s groan not distracting the two from their fight.  Justice slammed his arm into the floor and not a second later spikes began to tear their way through the wall and floor.

Nero saw this attack and did nothing.   He just stood still and stared at the chain of spikes coming to impale him, focusing.  Right before he was skewered he saw an opening and took off with blazing speeds and perfect accuracy, flying straight through a gap in the spikes.  Narrowly avoiding being cut to ribbons, he came out and with all of his strength and momentum punched Justice right in the forehead.

Despite being outmaneuvered for the umpteenth time by his adversary, Justice was pleased.  He quickly recovered and grabbed the speeding Nero by his tail and slammed him into the floor.   He then pulled Nero to within arm’s reach and grabbed his body and, laughing, pinned the helpless pegasus against the closest wall.

“Looks like I win roach.”   Justice was trying to add insult to injury, but for some reason Nero had stopped struggling and his ears were twitching as he was trying to listen to something.  Justice began to listen in to see what could be so important; when he found what it was he and Nero locked eyes, each with a look of fear on their face.

The castle was crumbling underneath them.

No sooner than they had realized it, something had given way below them, causing the room they were in to fall; with them inside.

The sudden jerk of the castle caused Justice to let go of Nero, who immediately flew off.  Unfortunately the room they were in began to roll down the side of the ruins it was resting upon; noticing that he wouldn’t be able to fight Justice in this environment, carefully watched the windows and door for the best possible moment, and with lightning precision, flew out of the room.

Justice wasn’t so lucky; he couldn’t quickly adapt to the changing environment and became disoriented.  He was constantly being knocked around by the spinning room and was unable to exit it before it crashed onto the ruins below.

Nero watched the whole spectacle as the ancient throne room landed and demolished itself and about everything beneath it.  He landed on a small bit of wall that had managed to survive the havoc.  For probably the first time in his life he wore a serious face as he glared at the rubble, not flinching as Justice’s massive fist emerged from the rubble.

Justice groaned as he pulled himself out of the debris of what used to be a set of ancient ruins.  He looked up when he heard Nero begin to gloat.

“I really thought you’d be tougher Justice.”  He mocked from atop his high horse.

“WHAT?!”  Justice roared at the top of his lungs, infuriated by the fact that this puny pony in front of him was actually mocking his strength.

“You heard me.”  Nero grinned.  “How can you expect to bring down all of human civilization, when you couldn’t even beat me in a fistfight?  I mean they have guns, tanks, bombs and what do I have?  A pair of wings and a handful of rocks; and according to you I’m just a roach, I’d hate to see what something as big as a butterfly could do.”

It was a miracle Justice’s teeth didn’t fracture with the force he was grinding them with.  He was boiling over with rage; today he had been betrayed, beaten, humiliated and insulted.  All he wanted was to rip Nero into little tiny pieces and smoke them.  He began to wade through the rubble as fast as he could, doing his best not to trip or get caught to avoid further embarrassment.  “Get over here!”  He yelled at the still smug Nero.  “Let me show you exactly how I’m going to burn down the human world.”

Nero began to flap his wings and slowly hover above the ground.  “I don’t think so.”  He remarked, gaining a fair bit of distance from the demon hulking towards him.

“You WHAT?!”  Justice couldn’t believe what he was seeing.  Nero actually just turned away from him.

“I’ve already proven that I’m better than you.”  Nero turned back just to give Justice a cocky look with the intent to make his blood boil.  “So I don’t need to fight you anymore.”  With that he took off.

Justice cleared all of the rubble from around him and screamed into the air “YOU ROACH!! GET BACK HERE AND FIGHT ME!!!”  Before letting off a blast of fire into the air.

After Nero reached a considerable altitude he began to cruise; he was lucky the building came apart when it did, or else Justice would have crushed him and all of his and Gabe’s planning would have been for naught, now there was only one thing left.

Nero’s eyes popped open when he saw something shift in the clouds.  It was time.  He closed his eyes and extended himself outward towards the clouds he had connected with over the last few days, he gave them strength, and now they’ll return the favor.  At a moment’s notice Nero stopped dead in his tracks, no sooner than he did Justice ripped through the air in front of him; roaring with fury and thirsting for blood.

When he saw that he had missed he turned to face Nero, playing his botched dive attempt off as a dramatic entrance.  “Did you miss me?”

“I don’t think anything would miss a mug like that.”  Nero quipped.

“I think I’ve heard enough of you being an idiot roach.”  Justice glared.  “Now get ready to die.”

“Don’t you think that’s a little harsh?”  Nero always wanted to use this line.  “Killing me because of the way I t-t-t-talk?”

Unable to stand it any longer Justice flung himself at Nero, his claws ready to slice into him.

Nero saw this and dove at Justice to, but at the last moment pulled up, kicked the back of his head, and took off in the other direction.

Getting real tired of being hit in the head, Justice turned around and began to pursue Nero through the sky.

Nero made sure to keep an eye on his pursuer, and came to a horrifying realization: Justice was gaining on him.  While it was happening rather slowly the gap between Nero and Justice was closing, soon Nero would have to contend with the killing machine on his tail.

Justice noticed this to, but didn’t feel like waiting.  He charged some fire in his mouth and spat streaks out at Nero.

Nero saw these and ducked out of the way of each of them.  He was surprised when each of the streaks exploded in the air in front of him.  He had to swerve out of the way of the fiery blasts, realizing that’s exactly what Justice wanted.  Not even looking back to see how close he had gotten, Nero closed his wings and began to fall.  As Nero went down he looked up and saw that he was a hair away from being mauled.

Justice was shocked, he had victory in his grasp, and then Nero decided to take a dive.  He watched as Nero stopped himself, spread his wings and started flying again.  Infuriated, Justice pursued from a much higher vantage point.  Making sure to launch a steady stream of fireballs.

Nero wasn’t expecting this much of a challenge; he knew Justice was a homicidal powerhouse, but now he was dealing with a game of speed, and unfortunately for Nero; it seemed that was a game he was only second best at.  Not only would he have to stay ahead of Justice, but avoid his burning attacks.   He let out a sigh and pulled up until he was higher than Justice’s position.  Not long after he heard a streak of flame coming his way.

Justice just watched in amazement as Nero was caught in a massive explosion.  He started to laugh as his body fell into a cloud.  Justice dove underneath the massive cloud, hoping to catch his foe’s corpse; however noting came out.  He looked in all directions, but there was nothing there.  “Cheeky bastard” he sneered to himself as he flew into the cloud.  He began to fly through it, intent on finding and slaughtering Nero.  “Little roach, little roach, let me come in.  Not by the hair on your chinny-chin-chin?”  Justice recited.  “Then I’ll huff, and I’ll puff, and I’ll BLOW YOUR HOUSE IN!”  He roared as he began to blow fire in every direction.

The fire evaporated as much of the cloud as it could, but that did little except create a clear pocket for Justice to float in.  “No need to be so violent.”  Nero’s made himself known.

Justice turned around and saw the green pony, once again glaring at him intently.  “Oh wait, yes there is.”  Nero finished.

Justice had just realized where he was and began to panic.  “No.”  He barely pushed through his lips.

A malevolent grin crossed Nero’s face as Justice realized he had just fallen for his trap.  “Hello dummy.”  He said as he readied his back leg.

Justice just stared, his eyes wide with fear.

“Aw, c’mon.  It’s a classic prank.  All members of the Weather Patrol do it.”  Nero finished as he struck his leg into the wall of the cloud pocket.

As it did lightning came from all sides and coursed into Justice, his shrill cry of pain was ear-splitting.  Eventually his scream ended as his entire body became numb and he lost all feeling of everything, including his wings.

Unable to move, Justice began to plummet.  He was helpless to do anything but watch as he fell through the air, trying in vain to regain control of his body to keep from crashing on the ground below.  He couldn’t even close his eyes to brace himself.  But just as he thought things couldn’t get any worse, he remembered where he was.

“You’re not getting off that easy!”  Nero yelled as he intercepted the falling demon.  After slamming into him he started to beat Justice mercilessly.  If Justice could feel anything he’d feel about a dozen punches to his face and jaw.

After a while the blows did start to leave an impact, and Justice wouldn’t have it.  However when he tried to throw a punch it had barely any strength behind it and all it succeeded in doing was causing him to spin out of control.  Because of his training with Rainbow Dash, Nero was able to stay on and continue pommeling him.

After beating Justice for a short time Nero looked down and then gave Justice a smirk, then flew off.

Justice gave a sigh of relief before he felt something on his back, and heard Nero’s voice.  “When you called me a roach you called yourself a steamroller.”  Justice felt something on his wings.  “Well I got news for you” Nero began to pull on Justice’s wings with tremendous strength.  “STEAMROLLERS CAN’T FLY!”  With that he tore the wings out of their sockets, the skin didn’t tear but the bones had separated, leaving Justice’s wings a limp accessory.

Justice howled in pain as Nero flew off for real this time.  He had finally regained feeling in his body.  The first thing he did was feel his useless wings and then look down.   When he saw what waited below him he screamed, and then braced himself right before crashing into a large structure in Canterlot city; the impact of this massive creature sent shockwaves all over the city and rocked all of its buildings and everyone in it.

The rich ponies of Canterlot turned to the source of the tremor.  They just stared as the watched the dust settle.  They had no idea what was going on, all they knew was that something just plummeted out of the sky and smashed into Canterlot castle.