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#6
MAY 10 |
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“Six Warriors of Virtue”
The Panoptichron, Outside Time and Space.
The man named Axel Asher sat in his crystal chair, watching the goings on in the universe. He hadn’t slept in three days; every time he did the voices came back.
A skittering noise to his left caused him to jump out of his seat, but he relaxed when he realized it was just one of the pathetic Timebreakers. The insect-like creatures maintained the Crystal Palace, but were completely pacifistic and had done everything he had asked of them since he took over.
At first he had felt guilty; banishing Heather Hudson and locking the Exiles out of the Panoptichron was hard but necessary. Although, a small part of him enjoyed the power he had gained over the six reality travellers.
He shook away the thoughts, realizing they were not his own. They were the Monolith’s; the massive ancient entity that used him as a tool to destroy the Multiverse. He and his Exiles toiled hard to repair the damage but even now it searched for him, to finish the job.
There was something inside of him, changing him from the inside out, and he had to fix reality before he was Axel Asher no more.
Earth 4680, The Temple of Sobek, Egypt
Swwwiiisssh!
The sword blade missed Longshot by an inch as he expertly leant backwards. While his opponent, an Egyptian man in full ancient Egyptian clothes, was off balance he retaliated with a kick to the stomach, doubling him over. Before he could regain his wind a wooden staff as hard as steel slammed down on the back of his head, knocking him unconscious.
All around the ancient sandstone temple his fellow Exiles engaged in combat with Egyptian warriors. Sabretooth laughed in rarely seen glee as he knocked scores of warriors aside like rag dolls with his enchanted club. “I love this thing!” he laughed.
Morph shrugged off spear and sword attacks, his putty like flesh completely unaffected by the weapons, as he constantly adjusted his newly acquired wizard hat. In the blink of an eye he turned from Gandalf to Harry Potter and knocked his foes down with an oversized broom.
Random flashes of pink light were the only thing that revealed Blink’s location. The team’s leader had donned a magical cloak, which rendered her invisible. However her teleport signatures were still visible, illuminating the various hieroglyphics and carvings of crocodiles decorating the temple.
Power Princess stood locked in combat with the owner of the temple, the Egyptian God Sobek. God of the Nile, Sobek was a menacing sight; seven feet tall with powerful muscles and, worst of all, the head of a crocodile. Zarda held both of the god’s wrists in a crushing grip; though she was forced to constantly avoid his vicious crocodilian mouth. If she had a hand free she could wield her magical shield, which was capable of creating powerful force fields.
Too distracted by the plight of his comrade he didn’t notice the guard charging towards him with his spear. Thankfully, though a giant green fist slammed into the man, knocking him across the room. Longshot turned around to find the newest member of the Exiles smirking at him.
“You better watch yourself, that face is too pretty to mess up,” teased Jade Nova.
After the tragic death of their comrade Migeual O’Hara, a.k.a Spiderman, Access had replaced him with this mysterious woman. She obviously came from a world very different to any of the other Exiles, as none of her contemporaries she describes sounded familiar. Dr Strangefate, White Witch, Iron Lantern, Dark Claw...none of these names rang a bell.
She reminded Morph of a woman named Frankie Raye, who had became the Herald Nova for Galactus. She certainly shared a resemblance to her and her name was Frankie Rayner, though her powers were different. Frankie wielded a powerful alien ring, which, when activated, transformed her body into living green flame. She could fly, possessed super strength and could created constructs out of green energy.
Everyone else on the team refused to trust the woman and kept their distance. If Axel Asher chose her for the team she was on his side. Longshot though, who was naive and trusting to an almost dangerous level, had been nothing but accepting to the woman, just as he had been with Zarda.
The blonde man smiled back and he hurled his staff at the woman like a spear. Partially thanks to his inherent luck powers and partially to his amazing skill, the staff missed her head by inches and struck another guard square in the forehead.
“I would provide the same suggestion to you,” he laughed.
“Should we help Gladiatrix over there?” asked Jade Nova, gesturing towards Zarda.
“I…Don’t…need…your help!” stated an obviously struggling Zarda.
“I’ll eat your heart for this disrespect!” snarled Sobek.
“That’s no way to treat a lady,” called a sassy voice behind him.
Blink removed her hood, ending the invisibility enchantment. As Sobek swung his reptilian head around to snap at the pink skinned mutant, he was struck by one of her crystalline javelards and teleported somewhere far away.
Upon the disappearance of their god, the two dozen or so Egyptian guards lost heart with the fight and fled in fear. The Exiles were indeed a fearsome sight, with their bizarre appearances and dangerous, enchanted weapons. Even Longshot, the currently most normal looking of the bunch, only had four fingers…and a mullet.
All six pairs of eyes turned to the objective of their attack on Sobek’s temple: a polished marble dais upon which rested a gleaming golden bow. Frankie took a step towards the dais but before she could reach the bow it vanished in a flash of pink light and reappeared in Blink’s hand.
She shot Blink a dirty look. “Everyone else has an item, Blink.”
The pink mutant looked dour; she didn’t trust Jade Nova as far as she could throw her, but she had her orders. The Timebroker…Axel, had tasked them with collecting six magical items from around the world. Each member of the team was required to carry at item; it didn’t matter who had what, just so long as they each carried one.
Reluctantly, she handed Jade the bow and the woman eagerly took the weapon. She examined the item for a moment; it had no strings and no quiver but as she held it out an arrow of what appeared to be sunlight manifested. She let the arrow fly and it blasted a hole the size of a melon in the sandstone wall. Blink instantly regretted handing her such a powerful weapon.
“Come on, lets get out of here and find out the next step in the mission,” she said, teleporting the group away.
Later
Earth 4680 was very different to any other Earth the Exiles had visited. A few had been technologically behind, but none until now still existed in pre-Christian times.
It was all because of the ancient gods, or in this case the still current gods. In most worlds, the gods slowly removed themselves from the world, but on this world something very different happened. A dark, powerful force came to Earth, an alien god that existed only to consume other gods, and laid waste to the divine realms.
Olympus, Asgard, Heliopolis and all the other divine realms went to war with this terrifying alien deity, known only as The Hunger and its fanatic followers. The gods were no match though, and soon fell one by one to the beast’s unending hunger. Not all of the gods died though; some of the most self serving or capricious of the various pantheons fled to Earth. They soon learned that The Hunger and its minions could not locate them while in the mortal realm, as if the alien god could only exist in places of great divine power.
Those that fled to Earth thrived without their fellow gods looking over their shoulders and each staked a claim to the planet and watched as their empires grew over the millennia.
The Exiles had arrived in this world with a very specific mission from Access; steal six certain magical weapons from six gods. Sabertooth carried a mighty club that once belonged to chief Celtic god The Dahgda. It bestowed him with superstrength to rival Thor, and he loved it. Anpao, Celtic death god, had used this weapon to enforce a brutal regime across all of the British Iles and Western Europe.
The pointed, wide brimmed hat Morph wore was rumoured to have belonged to Merlin himself. How Baba Yaga, Slavic goddess of misfortune and witchcraft, had gotten her shrivelled hands on it no one could guess. The hat had so far served no real purpose and seemed only capable of dispensing random items from its interior.
Blink’s cloak of invisibility had served the Greek god of the dead Pluto well for many centuries, but after a near death battle in his underground labyrinth he lost it to the Exiles. The cloak had then aided the group in easily stealing an enchanted staff from Amitsu-Mikaboshi, a particularly nasty Japanese god. Longshot had no idea who once owned the staff or who had blessed it but the weapon was stronger than steel and seemed to suit his innate agility naturally.
The shield Power Princess wielded was perhaps the easiest to take possession of. Loki, the current owner of the shield, was busy leading an invasion against rival Anpao. He had not even been present to defend his precious item, an unadorned platinum shield which projected mighty walls of light. Zarda suspected the shield was of Greek origin, possibly having once belonged to Apollo.
Having collected their last magical weapon, the team of reality hopping heroes had regrouped in a dense woodland somewhere in southern Europe. They had no idea whether their mission was complete until Asher contacted them, either through the Tallus on Blink’s wrist or the Timebroker hologram. Just then Blink’s green eyes glazed over, a sure sign she was receiving a telepathic message from Access.
“What’s the plan, pup?” asked Victor, ignoring the fact Blink no longer wanted him to call her ‘pup’.
“Asher has a series of missions for us. Destroy a temple, free some slaves, so on. First stop is to destroy a temple to Mikaboshi in Japan. I have the co-ordinates.”
Morph, who was sitting on a log, pulled a series of useless items from his seemingly bottomless hat: a pile of sticks, a rusty sword, and a duck. He said, “I have to say one good thing about Asher: his mission details are a lot more specific than the Timebreakers’ used to be. Remember ‘Find your greatest teacher’? That turned out great, thanks bugs,” he said sarcastically.
“Seems to me like Asher’s got a lot of messes on his conscience,” said Frankie dryly.
The woman had turned off her green flame, reverting to her human form. She stood not taller than Blink, with short blonde hair, round sunglasses and a leather jacket. Every so often her jade coloured ring would flash, as if it struggled to contained the emerald flame within.
“What do you actually know about Asher, girl?” asked Zarda sternly.
“Just that he’s unhinged,” she shrugged.
“I believe you’re hiding things from us.” Zarda took a menacing step forward. “If there’s information you’re not sharing with us, information that could free us from this servitude, you’d best tell us.”
Jade Nova wrapped her hands around the golden bow they had stolen from Sobek. She didn’t raise it but held it close, as if to remind everyone she had it. “I don’t know anything about Asher that can help you. I’m as much a victim as you are; yanked from my reality and stuck with a bunch of people who’ll probably stab me in the back first chance they get.”
Longshot stepped between the two women, “Be at peace, friends. Zarda, our new comrade has done nothing to warrant our suspicion. Frankie, you must earn our trust, but we will endeavour to treat you with respect while do you do so.”
Both women backed down, as arguing with Longshot was like arguing with a puppy; it was hard to do so without breaking into a smile. Morph didn’t get what he saw in either woman, but he decided now was not the time to make any ménage a troi jokes. Instead he continued pulling items from his hat: a boot a, fishing pole and a leg of ham entertained him this time.
“Longshot’s right,” stated Blink, much to Zarda’s consternation. “Frankie has to earn our trust, but there will be no in-fighting during the mission.”
Morph quickly shifted into a military officer and saluted his leader. The comedic effect was further enhanced by a pile of spoons falling out of his hat.
“And all I needed was one knife...so ironic,” sighed Morph.
The Temple of Sobek, Egypt.
The Crocodile God raged. How dare these heathens invade the sanctity of his temple! His disciples cowered as he punched holes through sandstone and reduced columns to gravel.
“In hindsight, you’ll regret demolishing your own temple just as much as you regret letting those heathens escape with your precious bow…well, Horus’ bow,” spoke silky voice behind him.
“He doesn’t need it anymore,” spat Sobek, as he turned to face Loki, trickster god of Asgard, “Come to gloat?”
Loki put on a show of being offended, “Dear friend, Sobek, I could never take pleasure in your suffering. I come because we have both been wronged. These mortals have stolen from both of us, along with each of the other gods.”
“They mock all of us,” mused Sobek.
“Indeed! Even now they challenge the gods, attacking our monuments and temples!”
“Rrragghh!” Sobek slammed his fist through the altar that once held his mighty bow. “I’ll crush their skulls!”
“Yes, indeed,” muttered Loki snidely. Sobek was not exactly known for deep thinking. “There shall be much death.”
Southern Greece
Longshot nimbly ducked a savagely thrown spear, but unfortunately the zealot behind him was not so lucky; a bare moment before he ran the Exile through he found a spear embedded in his chest.
The spear thrower, now unarmed, took one look at Longshot and his artfully wielded staff, and fled in fear. The blonde man didn’t bother to give chase, instead dashing across the courtyard to aid Zarda, who had five soldiers around her.
“I don’t need your help, Longshot,” yelled Power Princess through gritted teeth as she backhanded three Grecian soldiers through the air in one go.
Her words were water off a duck’s back as the agile man spun through the air, simultaneously kicking one soldier in the stomach and slamming his staff against the other’s skull. As his feet hit the ground the staff swung upwards, hitting the first soldier in the face and knocking him out cold. He slumped down upon the cobblestones next to his companion.
With a grin he said, “But I want to help you,” before dashing off to aid Sabretooth.
Jade Nova flew by, her fiery form bathing the area in emerald light. “Looks like you need all the help you can get,” she mocked.
Soon the last of the warriors were defeated or had fled in terror and the Exiles could set about the task at hand. The sextet converged in the center of the courtyard and eyed the giant statue of Pluto warily.
“So we just smash it?” asked Sabretooth eagerly, while making a few practice swings with his club.
Their leader nodded. “I’m starting to understand what Access wants of us. The villagers are watching us right now. We’re weakening the hold the gods have over these people.”
“Do not underestimate the fear a god can strike into these lowly people,” replied Zarda grimly.
Frankie gazed up at the statue and scoffed, “Doesn’t look so scary to me,” before rasing her golden blow and blasting its marble head off with an arrow of light.
“Leave some fer me,” grinned Victor, as charged forward and smashed one of Pluto’s legs off in one swing.
Blink couldn’t help but smilel she hadn’t seen her father figure enjoying himself like this in a very long time. In fact, she struggled to remember him ever laughing this way. Not wanting to be left out of the fun, she hurled one of her crystal javelards at the statue, teleporting its upper half to the ground before it could collapse upon them.
Power Princess reluctantly slammed her fists down upon the marble chest, splitting it down the middle.
Meanwhile, Morph closed his eyes and shook his hat like a magic eight ball. “Come on jackhammer! Come on jackhammer!” he chanted as he reached deep inside the hat. His face drooped to comical proportions as he produced not a jackhammer but a palm tree. He half heartedly swatted the remains of the statue with the tropical tree before a massive green jackhammer descended from the heavens and shattered it to rubble.
Jade Nova dropped down beside Morph with a smirk and dismissed her energy construct. “That’s how you do that, Gumby,” she laughed.
The malleable mutant tossed his useless hat to the ground in a huff and cried, “If Creed hadn’t snatched that club away from me I wouldn’t be in this mess.”
“Aww...poor baby, want a…” Frankie’s jest faded away when she noticed the crowd that was quickly building around them.
Ragged and put-upon villagers were quickly gathering, though they hung back from the unusual sextet. Longshot wondered how they must look to these simple people; the fact they didn’t flee in terror expressed either extreme courage or extreme hope.
The villagers whispered amongst themselves, until eventually one man cautiously split from the crowd. He was well muscled, shirtless and covered in soot; the hammer he wielded confidently suggested he was likely a blacksmith.
Rather than approach the Exiles, the blacksmith stepped up the nearest chunk of statue, one of Pluto’s arms, and began slamming his hammer down upon it. As if a dam had burst, the majority of the remaining villagers charged forward and joined him.
The Exiles could only watch on in surprised awe as the harried villagers reduced what was once a statue of a god into gravel.
Pluto’s Lair
“Ingrates!” howled Pluto, as he leaned menacingly over a pool of quicksilver, magically enchanted to show whatever he desired. Right now it displayed the very scene the Exiles were currently witnessing.
Loki, who was curiously examining a sculpture made of skull across the chamber, said mockingly, “It would seem your worshippers are less than enamoured with you.”
“A plague upon them!” the death god began to rant, “No, I’ll send Cerberus to devour their children!”
The god of mischief place a hand upon Pluto’s shoulder and guided him away from the scrying pool.
“The peons will suffer, of course, but it is with these usurpers where our wrath should lay.” He flicked the quicksilver dismissively, dispersing the image into nothingness. “We must make an example of these would be god-slayers.” He picked up a skull from the sculpture and casually examined it. “These rebels, their behaviour...no, their disrespect...warrants a unified response from all of us.” The skull was reduced to powder between his powerful fingers.
“Very well, mischief maker, but I still get to set Cerberus loose,” conceded Pluto.
“I would have it no other way.” Loki stepped over to the scrying pool with a grin, before reaching into a pouch on his belt and drawing forth a small dead vole.
He dropped the desiccated rodent into the mercury and chanted in the ancient language of the Jotun Trolls. He looked to Pluto and said, “Gather the others; its time.”
Southern Greece
Pluto’s statue had long been reduced to powder, and the villagers now cheered and revelled. The Exiles found themselves gifted with red wines, fruits, breads, dried meats and dozens of other types of food.
“What’s the plan now?” asked Sabretooth of Blink.
The pink mutant eyed her Tallus with confusion. “There’s nothing but silence.”
“Is the mission over?” asked Frankie.
“Pretty uneventful ending if it is,” replied Blink.
As if on cue, a massive lightning bolt split the sky above them and thunder boomed. Black clouds grew out of nothing and turned the day to night.
“You had to say that, didn’t you?!” demanded Morph, turning himself into an umbrella as the rain started pelting down.
A huge swirling vortex of wind and rain quickly grew around the entire village, blocking off all escape. Blink tried hurling her javerlards at fleeing villagers in order to send them to safety but the wind were too strong, blowing them off course.
Soon the swirling wind and rain made it difficult to see and Longshot grabbed hold of the nearest person and held on tight, trying to combine their weight and prevent being blown away. A few instants later and the wind died down to nothing, as if it had all been a dream.
“You can let go of me now, Longshot,” said Zarda, with a hint of a smile in her voice.
He stepped back and was about to offer his thanks for helping to save him when he realized they were no longer in the Grecian village. Where there were once sandstone tiles beneath their feet there was now thick, dew covered grass. They stood upon a wide green hill, the type Julie Andrews would dance upon, with a background of forbidding mountains.
Cries of shock and terror quickly filled his ears; the villagers had also been carried along for this mysterious voyage and, unlike the Exiles, they were unaccustomed with instantaneous travel.
Lightning stuck at the base of the hill, a tremendous bolt that nearly blew the team off their feet and felt as if it could shatter the hillside. This was only surpassed by the second bolt that followed, and the next after that, until six thunderstrikes had stuck in succession around the hill.
From each thunderbolt emerged a god and a battalion of warriors. Anpao with his barbarian horde, Pluto and his undead legion, Baba Yaga with her spectral hags, Sobek and his Egyptian spear bearers, Mikaboshi and his tengu and lastly, Loki, with an army of trolls.
Every one of the villagers cried out in despair and many dropped to their knees in prayer.
“Do not waste your prayers curs!” spat Pluto. “There is no mercy for you this day!”
“Get us out of here, Blink,” demanded Sabertooth, who was tensed and ready for a fight.
“I’m trying, but something’s blocking me!”
Loki smiled his vulpine smile and waved his finger scoldingly. “There is no fleeing, my would-be usurpers. It all ends this day.”
“If I die, I’m going to kill Asher for dragging me into this,” muttered Frankie dryly.
“If we die, then at least we will die well,” replied Longshot grimly, as he hefted his staff.
“Protect the villagers,” ordered Blink.
So it would be six people against an army. The Exiles were concerned but determined to defend the villagers that they had unwittingly dragged into this mess. Each hero took a point around the hill, facing off against a god and their army. Each god found themselves gazing up the hill with a figure that seemed more myth than man.
The barbarian with his club, as mighty as a bear. The rogue, as elusive as ether and as deadly as a serpent. The ranger, able to rain down quick and anonymous death from afar. The mage, wielding arcane magicks to rival the gods. The crusader, standing stalwart against adversity with her shield of will. The acrobat, untouchable by even the gods.
Longshot thought he saw fear in the eyes of Pluto as the gods stared uphill at him. He quickly realized it was not in fact him that was so terrifying but the sky above. A beautiful light, like a twinkling jewel, shone down from above and increased in intensity until the entire hillside was engulfed in rainbow light.
“The Rainbow Bridge!” snarled Pluto. “What have you done Trickster?!”
Loki grinned and shrugged, before fading away, leaving his bewildered troll army behind.
The Rainbow Bridge, which connected earth to Asgard, had materialized above them. At the far end of the bridge, the skeletal remains of Asgard could just be seen.
“I hear thunder,” stated Zarda, whose hearing was only matched by Sabertooth’s
“Gettin louder,” agreed Victor.
“The gods are booking,” said Jade Nova, pointing down the hill, to where each god and their armies were fleeing in terror.
The thunderous sound had grown so loud everyone could hear it now; it was coming down the bridge like a wave. There was a darkness engulfing the Norse city now, so much so that it was no longer visible. Like a cloud with a mind of its own, the darkness came swarming down the bridge straight towards them.
“Get down!” shouted Blink and the group complied.
The villagers quickly followed and just in time, for the darkness rushed over them. Longshot realized that the darkness was not indeed smoke, but a phenomenal swarm of insects. Locusts, wasps, spiders, centipedes...every creepy crawly imaginable compromised what Longshot surmised was The Hunger. For whatever reason, the swarm took no interest in any of them and instead rushed down the hill towards the various deities.
“Susssssstenancccce!” cried a hissing voice from everywhere within the swarm.
The Hunger enveloped each god and their army and even the thunderous buzz of the swarm failed to drown out their screams. All the Exiles could do was lay there and watch as the alien deity devoured each god and their minions.
Within moments it was all over; the swarm retreated back up the Rainbow Bridge, leaving naught but a few specs of blood. Loki’s trolls and the other divine soldiers were also gone, while the human minions, such as Sobek’s warriors, were left untouched. They were currently scattering across the Norse hills in terror.
“Was…was that meant to happen?” asked Morph, as he and the others hesitantly rose to their feet.
“This was Asher’s plan: to draw the gods to this place where The Hunger could sense them,” surmised Blink.
Longshot watched as the Rainbow Bridge faded away and wondered if this made them killers? Essentially they were Axel Asher’s pawns, but would they have knowingly followed his directions if they had known it would lead to this slaughter?
Victor and Zarda would have; killing for the greater good was within their moral code. He, on the other hand, felt violated. Doing good was ingrained in who he was, literally. When he was created in the Mojoverse, Arise had created him to be a force for good. Asher had corrupted his purpose in life, and he swore to himself he would find a way to rectify the situation.
“So are we done here?” asked Frankie, as her emerald flames dissipated.
“Yes, we’re done.” Longshot eyed the bloodstained fields and tossed his staff onto the ground, with the others followed suit with their own weapons. Sabertooth almost pouted as he tossed his mighty club to the ground, which almost brought a smile to Longshot’s lips.
He felt a strong hand on his shoulder and looked back to see Zarda standing there. It was clear she understood the anguish he was going through, if not the source of it. He placed his hand over hers and gave her a smile of thanks.
Blooonk!
The six virtuous warriors vanished in a flash of divine light, leaving the awed villagers behind. Cautiously the group moved to the spot from where their saviours had departed the mortal plane.
Slowly, reverently, six of their best picked up the bow, the shield, the hat, the cloak, the club and, lastly, the staff.
Epilogue
“Your visit has been most fortuitous,” stated Loki smugly as he eased back into his throne, a glass of fine mead in his hand.
“I am only pleased to be of service,” replied the diminutive man in the butler suit.
“I am want to shower you with gold and jewels that would make kings weep, but these things do not call to you, do they, Timebroker?”
“The course of this universe has been set right, that is all the reward I require,” replied the small man politely. “Good-bye, Loki...we shall not meet again.
As the strange apparition faded away, he found himself gazing out the balcony windows of his grand throne room. As the only deity left, the world was now his.
Axel Asher, meanwhile, watched the god through the Crystal Palace, satisfied in the knowledge that five months from now the god would be dead, slain by six legendary warriors.
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The End...
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