Gorgeous My Stage(challenge!)

[Tzu-Jan]

The little person, Tzu-Jan, has decided that today is a good day to...broaden his horizons. See something new, do something exciting. Well...it's new certainly, but far from exciting. The little guy has got himself stuck at THE most boring play EVER. Add to that the booster chair they gave him so he could see over all the other people is uncomfortable, and he's wishing he'd stayed back at the rowhouse. The play has a good concept I guess...an actor believes the world to be like a discordant play, with actors, stagehands, and directors working out of harmony. He intends to unify the world by building a glorious stage, and leading the world into a new era of peace himself. Yawn. Luckily the play is coming to a close, with the final musical number is coming up. It's in another language, and if Tzu wants, he can look in the bulletin to see the translation. He chooses not to though. The lead character bursts into song with his love interest next to him, as the rest of the cast gathers together.

All you sheep in search of a shepherd...
Look up and see....
My stage...gorgeous...my stage!

The singing ends abruptly after the first verse, jerking Tzu awake. what stopped the guy? Soon the answer is all to clear; six rows ahead, in the front, a person has stood and is apparently using the Force to hold the man's mouth shut. Tzu rises slowly, dropping to the floor and crawling under the chairs. He feels for once that his small size is a blessing.

[Neepik]

Neepik was standing in front, hand held out in a clenching motion, keeping the man's mouth shut.

"You diluted fool!"

Neepik had forgotten that it was only a play, and he felt insulted at the man referring to him as someone lost in search of guidance.

"You have no idea how many times people tell me that!"

Neepik took one large leap and was soon on the stage, towering over two very frightened actors. "Treat me like a monster, will you? I'll make you wish you had never become an actor in the first place!"

Neepik roared and his face mask slid into place. With one swing of his mighty tail Neepik managed to bowl over five other supporting actors. The Darksider apprentice raised a large fist and in one strike sent the main actor flying backwards. At last he landed in a crumpled heap with a large dent in his chest from Neepik's knuckles. The actress who was playing the actor's lover ran to his side and propped him up to see if he was ok.

"Yes, run to your puny, broken man."

Another strange howl escaped Neepik's lips and he dropped to all fours, thundering down the stage to finish the woman off next.

[Tzu-Jan]

Tzu comes up from under the seats as Neepik finishes his tirade and springs forward to grab the behemoth's tail. Neepik is roughly six times his size, dragging the little person along the stage. Tzu digs his heels in, wishing he'd had the frame of mind to bring his chain stick with him.

[Neepik]

Neepik stops and notices a little man holding on to his tail.

"Release me, insect!" Neepik snarled and lifted his tail into the air and Tzu along with it.

Neepik lashed his tail about in the air, trying to shake the little man loose. The main actress took the time to drag the knocked out man out a side door to the street.

[Tzu-Jan]

Tzu clings tightly to Neepik's tail, refusing to be thrown off.

"Gaaah!"

He can't punch or kick without being thrown off.

[Neepik]

Neepik raises up into a standing position again and brings the tip of his tail around to see where Tzu was clinging so tightly to him.

"You little..."

But Neepik had an idea. Instead of prying the little man off his tail, like he had originally intended to do, he would try something else. Neepik raised his tail high above his head and brought it crashing to the ground. That ought to do the trick.

[Tzu-Jan]

"Grraahaah!"

Tzu legs his tail go, sitting up and rubbing his head. He's got himself in over it this time.

[Neepik]

Neepik smirked behind his face mask, quite pleased that the midget was off of his tail.

"Now to deal with you," Neepik said turning to where the actor had been. Much to Neepik's chagrin, no one was there.

"LOOK AT WHAT YOU HAVE DONE!" Neepik bellowed. Neepik turned his full fury toward Tzu an roared. Neepik raised his foot and tried to step on the little man.

[Tzu-Jan]

Tzu rolls out of the way.

"What I did? I don't recall doing anything!"

[Neepik]

"You let that man get away!" Neepik bellowed and stomped the ground, causing the stage to splinter under his foot.

"Now you will die in his stead!"

Neepik dove on Tzu, aiming a flying knee strike at the top of his head.

[Tzu-Jan]

"I...I let him get away? YOU let him get away! You're the one that got distracted and let him escape!"

The little man is a small target, and his wily antics make him even harder to hit. He dodges cleanly, striking at Neepik with a curled fist.

[Neepik]

Neepik stops the wee fist with one large finger and punches. "You interfered! You made the distraction!"

Neepik was determined that he was not at fault and would make Tzu see it that way or kill him in the process.

[Tzu-Jan]

Tzu leans back so far that his head hits the floor, forming a bridge like a German Suplex. He flips back onto his feet, keeping his eyes on the bigger creature.

"I did, but you could have ignored me and continued! You could even have dealt with me at the same time you were attacking that other man!"

Tzu hates to admit it, every word he just spoke is true.

[Neepik]

Neepik's eyes flashed bright red and he lashed out with his tail like a whip. "Don't tell me what I should and should not have done, wee man!"

Neepik hated being criticized.

[Tzu-Jan]

Tzu jumps too early to dodge cleanly, landing atop the tail and sprawling onto his stomach. He's given up trying to talk to this guy, and now seeks a weapon.

[Neepik]

Neepik dove on Tzu, punching with his left, then tossing a spear hand attack with his right, followed by a stab of his tail. Neepik was now set on squashing the wee man like a bug.

[Tzu-Jan]

Tzu leans back, rolls aside, and jumps up, trying to keep his breathing under control as he stays one step ahead of the giant. He needs something heavy, like a stick, if he's going to do any noticable damage.

[Neepik]

Neepik sweeps with his tail, knocking over a large spotlight that was sitting atop a metal pole. The thing falls over and the spotlight breaks off of its stand, leaving just the metal pole. Neepik rather liked it when something broke on his way to breaking someone. People usually were distracted by the wreckage. It made it easier to kill the person.

[Tzu-Jan]

PERFECT! Tzu dives on the broken light, holding the busted end out toward Neepik and circling slowly. The little man's stance is more confident, and the slight panic is gone from his eyes. Now this big threat is just big cannon fodder.

[Neepik]

"That weapon could be my toothpick, you maggot!" Neepik's deep voice thundered as he stood to his full height.

Suddenly Neepik was up in the catwalks above the stage with one mighty jump. The humanoid scuttled about on his hands and feet, knocking down the spotlights from where they hung, trying to hit Tzu below. At last the final lamp hit the ground and the stage became dark. Neepik was nowhere to be found.

[Tzu-Jan]

Tzu simply scuttles back far enough to avoid the falling lights, taking a deep breath as darkness overtook the room. He stands motionless, barely breathing at all, listening as hard as he can. Neepik has been a noisy opponent thus far; and without his eyes to guide him, Tzu must make do with his ears.

[Neepik]

Neepik now moves silently about up in the rafters. Being aggressive has not worked, so the humanoid decides to take a more refined, cruel approach.

Neepik slinks down to the floor quietly and and slips behind the background curtain, letting it ruffle slightly with his passing. Then he hurries to the other side of the stage and creeps out into the seats, hiding between the rows.

[Tzu-Jan]

Tzu focuses toward the curtain. His eyes are adjusting slightly, and he can see a slight movement. He points his staff, ready for anything.

[Neepik]

"What's over there? Did something move behind the curtain?" Neepik said in a mocking tone from the middle set of seats. "Not scared are we?" He teased.

Neepik silently squirted between two rows of seats, across the aisle and in between two rows of seats on the other side.

[Tzu-Jan]

Tzu now turns, facing out at the crowd, uncertain of where he's at.

"Not in the least bit scared. But it never hurts to err on the side of caution."

[Neepik]

Neepik moved to the outsides of the auditorium and slunk around back up onto the stage.

"We'll soon see about that," Neepik hissed from behind Tzu.

[Tzu-Jan]

Tzu whirls his body around shifts his grip, giving him a long attack radius in case Neepik is father back than he thinks.

[Neepik]

Neepik feels the metal pole on his neck. It stings a small bit. Neepik reaches up and grabs the pole, taking it off his neck. Then he lifts it into the air, bringing Tzu off the ground and tossing the pole and the man attached to it to the side.

"That stung," Neepik said in his usual mocking tone. "Maybe if you're lucky it'll leave a small red mark."

[Tzu-Jan]

Tzu stands shakily and thrusts out into the darkness. His eyes are slowly adjusting, but not enough for him to go on.

Just keep yakkin', big guy... he thinks to himself. I'll beat you yet.

[Neepik]

Neepik dodged and got a large scrape along his side from the broken end of the pole.

"Grrrr...."

Neepik's eyes flashed a bright red, giving away his location. The giant did a baseball slide toward Tzu, his big foot just as large as Tzu.

[Tzu-Jan]

Tzu rolls backward, having not seen the glow of eyes until the giant was upon him. He rolls backward off the stage and stays silent and motionless. This is no way to fight; Tzu would rather he were forgotten and left alone.

[Neepik]

Neepik looked around. The bulbs from the stage lighting were finally cool and did not stand out as much. The air hung thick and heavy in the darkness; everything was a brilliant orange and red.

As if on cue, the automatic air conditioning came on. "I love this technology."

Neepik looked around, waiting for the air to cool and make Tzu's body heat stand out more in the room. Until then, Neepik would simply smash the seats in the hopes that Tzu would show himself to escape being crushed.

[Tzu-Jan]

Tzu hugs the stage wall and scoots toward the emergency exit. With some luck he'll make it before he's found.

[Neepik]

After a few seconds of not hearing any screams of pain or broken bones, Neepik stops. Tzu wasn't there.

"Where are you, midget?"

Neepik lets his voice fade out and strains his ears to listen. Neepik looked around, unable to make out any shapes due to rising room temperature, but he can make out movement.

Neepik forced himself to stay quiet as he concentrated. He was getting impatient. Where was that guy?

[Tzu-Jan]

There's a tiny flash of light as Tzu makes it outside through the emergency exit. No time to lose; he's gotta ditch the giant fast. Or at the very least make it home for his chain stick before the big man catches him.

[Neepik]

Neepik notices the room get cooler near the back of the stage area.

"HE GOT AWAY!" Neepik roared at the walls. Then the giant burst from the door through which Tzu had escaped and started to look about for which way the man went.

"Neepik searched about. He was looking for a small lump of heat that was cooling down to meet the temperature outside. Too bad everyone else was so tall.

Neepik accelerated toward the ground and landed in all fours. Something small was moving in between some tall things. "There he is!"

Neepik thundered down the alley and into the street, upsetting garbage cans as he tore off after the midget. People were running in fear. The slow ones were knocked over by Neepik's tail as it thrashed around to keep him balanced.

[Tzu-Jan]

Tzu hops up some garbage cans and onto a dumpster. He's now in the monster's plain view, but he's not dodging through a forest of legs. Now he can leap across shoulders and heads. He takes off, agile as a chimpanzee as he dances from shoulder to shoulder in the direction of the tenements he owns.

[Neepik]

Neepik roars, making a few punks wet themselves and babies cry. People scattered in all directions. Neepik chased after Tzu, making noise and wreaking havoc. He'd bust up the crowd's peace of mind and make things hard on the midget.

[Tzu-Jan]

Tzu loses his footing, leaping at the last minute to catch the top of a lamppost. Ok, now he's screwed. With this panic it'll be even harder to move about. Unless he wants to get stupid and play in the road...

"Follow if you dare!"

He leaps onto the hood of a speeder that's headed in the direction of his tenements.

[Neepik]

Neepik's rage is nearly at its peak: the little man will pay for his shenanigans. Neepik thinks about how nice it would be to catch up to the speeder Tzu is on and body tackling it into oncoming traffic.

The Force bent to Neepik's will and he bounded along after the speeder. The giant jumped over the vehicle and landed in front of it, whilring around only in time to grab a hold of the speeder so it didn't smash into his stomach as hard.

"Caught you! Now what sort of fun game will we play next?"

The driver, purely petrified at Neepik's sudden appearance, began to cry and beg for mercy. Neepik ignored him and made a grab for Tzu.

[Tzu-Jan]

Tzu dances up onto the roof of the car, nimbly changing to a speeder that was turning to his...right...yeah, his right, which is the driver's left. Just a liiiittle more...

[Neepik]

Neepik turned the speeder he was over onto it's roof and thundered after the next speeder. This was getting on his nerves.

"Stop right there!" He bellowed and held out a hand. The giant reached out with the Force to snatch up Tzu, but his rage caused him to miss and grab the car instead. Neepik clearly was not in total control of his anger. But he didn't think about that. All he cared about was the bug that was trying to escape.

[Tzu-Jan]

It does the trick though: Tzu topple off the car and rolls aside, somewhat dazed from the impact.

[Neepik]

Neepik pounces on Tzu, gathering the wee man in one large fist.

"Let's see how many times you're scrawny head will bounce before you come to a stop."

Neepik flung Tzu with a side-arm motion and waited to see what would happen. Neepik was finally enjoying himself.

[Tzu-Jan]

Tzu doesn't bounce at all; he just skids across the durracrete a little. He staggers to his feet, rubbing the stinging scrape above his left eye and glaring out of his right one. Now what's he gonna do? This guy's determined to kill him, it seems. He's thinking fast, but he can't find anything around him to use or bend to his advantage.

"Well...this is no good."

[Neepik]

Neepik charged toward Tzu, scooped him onto his shoulder and kept running until he hit a wall.

"Admit it! It was your fault they escaped the fate they deserved!" Neepik yelled. Evidentally he had the idea that he had won, and therefore he was right. "Admit it!"

[Tzu-Jan]

A blast of air escapes Tzu as he hits the wall, pinned between the giant shoulder and the durracrete.

"It's...not..."

[Neepik]

Neepik backhands Tzu hard across the face. "NO!" He roared.

Then something else roared. His stomach. Neepik was hungry. "Grrr.....You are wrong. It is your fault. But I have more important things to do than pry a confession from you. You cannot deny it forever. If I ever come across you again, you are as good as dead!"

Neepik let go of Tzu and stalked off to find food. Maybe one of those "all you can eat" places. He liked those.