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#8
JUN 11 |
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“Planetary Strike” Part Eight
Wiccan sat in the Pantheon’s Mess Hall at a table with Portal, Gaia, Dark Angel, Lady Ororo and the Human Blizzard. He took a bite of his ham sandwich (amazing they still had those here) and said, “So, we should be in Uranus’ orbit in a few hours. Am I the only one thinking about soiling themselves?”
Lady Ororo laughed. “This is a far different Wiccan from the one an hour ago boasting of conquering all magic.”
“Magic I know, but this…it’s something entirely new to me. It’s brutal and right there in your face. I just can’t see myself ever getting use to these kinds of operations.”
The Human Blizzard was incapable of eating food, but he enjoyed the human contact. He made sure to sit across from Dark Angel though, because he still wasn’t quite comfortable with the idea of the woman. “Being nervous is natural, but Uranus is a heavily fortified planet. It will be the Magus’ first target, not us.”
Portal stirred his spaghetti up with a fork. “Doesn’t stop him from sending a few stray bullets our way in the meantime.”
With every second, Charles was growing more and more weary of being here. There were some fantastic sights to be sure, but that was little compared to the danger that they were all about to be thrust against. The Magus had spent two hundred years at war with Earth and, in that time, managed to ruin nearly two other major races along with dozens of smaller ones.
Now they were expected to fight in what was being billed at the last battle of the war, a battle that was going to be bloody, hard fought and bound to have causalities. Charles’ usual instinct would have been to create a portal and get out of dodge while he still could, but girlfriends had a way of breaking old habits.
“It won’t quite be that easy,” the Human Blizzard said. “Graviton of Earth-1509 is creating gravity bubbles around all of the fleet ships that will deflect any oncoming fire up and away from the ships. They would have to ram us if they were looking to do any real damage and, with Uranus in the way, that will be their priority.”
Something wasn’t making sense for Gaia in Jonas’ explanation. “Ok, if Uranus is such a powerful defensive system, then why would the Magus send his ships right into it? Why not come in from Mars or something?”
“The Uranus defensive network is one of the most powerful weapons in this galactic sector. Even if the Magus was to come in from Venus orbit, the network would be able to target his ships with as much accuracy as if he was right in front of them. He knows this and because of that won’t waste any time trying to be sneaky. Probably why he resurrected the White Gods: it was the only surprise move he had available to him.”
The mentioning of the White Gods piqued Dark Angel’s curiosity. “And what’s the deal with those guys? Everyone around here seems to get all squeamish when you mention them.”
“They are the least remnants of a war of the gods. The pantheons of the Quists and Skrull went to war with the gods of Earth sometime shortly after the war with the Magus started. Only the White Gods and Balder of Asgard survived the war. Nobody knows what happened to Balder after, but the White Gods tried to destroy the Magus. His general, Selene, was able to trap them in a death spell.”
Wiccan was becoming more and more impressed with this world’s Selene. “That must have taken incredible skill to do.”
“Magic is not my department I’m afraid, but I think that was the only time that Earth and the Magus managed to agree on an action being taken. Now that he’s released them, I’m not sure how we’re going to put them back,” the Human Blizzard said.
Lady Ororo appeared sorrowful for a moment. "Such creatures cannot be trapped. They can only be destroyed.”
The Human Blizzard nodded. “I fear that you may be right, Lady Ororo. I hope Earth is prepared to fight them. The Horsemen and Prime Sentinels may not be enough.”
Shevaun thought of Motormouth and Mindbender. “They will be able to succeed, I’m sure of it. Brian wouldn’t have sent ineffective A.R.M.O.R. Agents down there. He seems to have split us up into areas where we would be the absolutely most effective.”
Portal sat down his fork and said squarely to the Human Blizzard, “The question you should really be asking is how your government is going to lock all these beasties back up once we win?”
“I have thought about that, as I just stated with the White Gods and frankly, I think in ending one war we may have created another one.”
Portal laughed bitterly. “Big leap there, man. You’re assuming this war is going to end.”
Gaia ribbed her boyfriend and smiled at the Human Blizzard. “You’re right to be confident that this war is going to end. Charles just has a half-empty state of mind.”
Wiccan just loved how Gaia swooped in to always clean up her boyfriend’s verbal messes. Portal wasn’t deserving of such a wonderful woman and he could only imagine how the man would manage to say the wrong thing when they departed for Earth-521. He almost wished that Brian had demanded he take Gaia instead of her lousy lover. “If they don’t win then none of us go home and the M.D.A. will likely send in more people.”
“And no telling what they would be walking into,” Lady Ororo said as she imagined the number of ways this battle could go wrong. “So we make sure we win to keep anyone else from having to clean up our mess.”
Portal shrugged. “Out of our hands, really.”
Wiccan had to grit his teeth to keep from saying something. As much as he wanted to deliver a backhanded comment, he still needed Portal’s help. Ticking him off would do anything but guarantee he was going to get that help. So he had to soak up and deal with Portal’s eternal pessimism if he hoped to get what he wanted out of him.
Dark Angel, fortunately, didn’t have that limitation. “Could you shut up already, Charles? We can and we will win! I don’t want to know you are my back-up out there and can’t get a bleeding grip!”
“Hey! I’m being asked to possibly get myself and my girlfriend killed out here! I think I’m more than entitled to complain.”
The Human Blizzard stiffened up for a moment and said, “Perhaps it is time for me to leave. This seems a bit too personal for me to partake in.”
Gaia’s eyes cut into daggers at Portal. “No, stay, Jonas. This conversation is over. Let’s go Charles.”
Portal knew that look well. “Ok. We’ll see you guys later.”
The two got up from the table wordlessly with Gaia taking the lead and Portal following behind with slumped shoulders. Wiccan watched the two leave and felt a great swell of satisfaction at Charles being humbled in front of everyone. Underneath the surface of that though, he held a bit of jealousy. There was a spark between those two and, despite their constant arguments, they made it work. For lack of a better term, they were each other’s other half. Wiccan’s was trapped on a conquered world and he was here enjoying a laugh at the expense of someone else. At that thought, he got up from the table too.
“I’m going to go to my room, get a little rest before we come into Uranus orbit,” Wiccan said.
Lady Ororo was even more worried about Wiccan now because something was truly disturbing him. Her empathic abilities allowed her to pick up on that and that made someone like Wiccan even more potentially dangerous. Whatever was bothering him, Wiccan was the type of person who would be determined to fix it. Ambition mixed with a strong emotional desire never worked out well. She had seen too many fall to that on her world.
“Well, that about killed lunch,” Dark Angel said with a sigh. “Guess we’ll pick this up when we get to Uranus.”
Lady Ororo nodded. “So it would seem. We should say a prayer for ourselves and those on Earth.”
Cairo, Egypt
Amiri landed in the market square like a small meteor. Dust and chunks of dirt flew up from his impact that made the already terrified people even more frightened. That was until they were able to make out the man who was in the midst of the dust. His red tattoos werglowing and crimson light trickled from his eyes.
“Governor Nur!”
“He’ll save us!”
“Praise the Nur family!”
Amiri’s ego couldn’t prevent him from taking in some of the accolades, but there was work to be done. He was about to face something that had not walked on Earth in quite some time.
Gods.
“I smell the stench of dying mortal flesh!”
The renewed screams of the people of Cairo reached Amiri’s ears as they rushed past him to escape the White God that had issued the insult. Amiri stood his ground and stepped out of the crater his body had created. “From what I heard, it was a mortal who locked you away and a mortal who now has you on a leash.”
“You will regret your words, Child of Apocalypse.”
One by one all of the White Gods revealed themselves in front of Amiri. Four in total, but they had survived a heavenly war more brutal than any Earthly mythology had ever conceived of. Amiri knew he was facing down a mighty challenge, but Apocalypse strengthened him. The blood of Apocalypse flowed readily through him and that would be his way to victory.
Tabir of the Endless White Forest was at the front of the White God gathering. He stood at nearly ten feet and had chalk-white skin that shined from the fine coat of slime covering his skin. Loopy red eyes bore straight into Amiri and he would have found it comical if not for Tabir’s other prominent feature. Long, curved claws dangled from each of his fingers and they were heavy enough that Tabir could only drag them along the ground. The White God’s teeth were as black as his hair. “The mortal thinks to insult us. We should teach him manners.”
Two ten-inch blades erupted from Amiri’s forearms and he pointed them at Tabir. “You are more than welcome to try.”
“Be careful what you ask for mortal,” Tabir said as he launched himself at Nur with a guttural roar that sounded like a wounded eagle falling from the sky.
The god moved swifter than Amiri had expected and he narrowly dodged a set of claws from taking his head clean off. Tuck-and-rolling forward, Amiri drove his blades into the stomach of Tabir. He pushed himself up off his knees and lifted the White God into the air with his blades in the god’s stomach. Hurling him back into his fellow gods, Amiri said, “Who’s next?”
Tabir had been caught and steadied in one hand by Deyunja of the Rotting Hand. Of course, it helped that the said hand was about the size of a frying pan. Deyunja was a mammoth man and covered from head to toe in white armor that was littered with dozens of red spikes. In his other hand, he carried an axe that looked like it could cleave a car in two with one swing. Amiri knew Deyunja’s feats the best of all the White Gods: It had been him who had slain Hercules. That death was what had finished the Olympians in the war.
“This grows tiresome; let us finish this weakling off now,” Deyunja said as he sat Tabir on the ground. Tabir and the two other gods nodded in agreement.
Amiri bent his stance in preparation for the attack. “I am a child of Apocalypse! And you will yield to me before the day is done.”
Mulezta of the Vanished White Valley threw back his head in laughter. It seemed to echo through and rip across the sky. His mouth was full of long, serrated blue pikes that had a closer resemblance to the carapace of a beetle than with teeth. “This one has fire...I like it! I’ll destroy it, but I like it!"
Deyunja lifted his axe above his head and charged at Amiri. Before he could take more than two steps the ground caved in under him and the rest of the White Gods. Amiri smirked and looked behind him at a new arrival on the battlefield.
“About time. Where are the others?”
The Nubian floated across the air and landed next to his commander. He stood almost a head taller than Amiri and was wrapped in a beige cloak. “They are on their way. Unfortunately, there are other crises at hand.”
Amiri’s eyebrow perked up. “Other crises?”
The Nubian’s long black hair masked most of his face from Amiri so he could contort his face into whatever expressions he wanted. Right now it was framed to match his annoyance. “Surely, Master,you have not forgotten that the White Gods had soldiers at their command that were imprisoned along with them.”
“Of course not,” Amiri lied. He had been so caught up in the idea of actually facing down gods that he had forgotten that detail. “Well, I doubt your sinkhole will keep them off their game for long.”
As if on cue, rhe White Gods rose up from the sinkhole on the green and white feathered wings of Awjalu the Light. Tabir and Deyunja each stood on a wing as if they held no weight at all and Malezta was being carried by the unusually long arms of Awjalu.
The Nubian looked up and shed his cloak, revealing a tight black vest accented by gold gauntlets. It also brought to light the sword that was strapped across his chest. Pulling his hair back into a ponytail, he asked of his commander, “Which two do you want?”
Amiri laughed. “We’ll let them decide.”
The Pantheon - Central Computer Station
Vulcan walked into the room and immediately felt the energy of the Omega Sentinel. Energy was his domain and it was part of the reason he had been alive so long...his body was slowing converting itself into pure energy. Gabriel wasn’t sure what exactly would happen to him once the process was complete, but he could not wait for the day to be completely free of his mortal form.
In that way he envied the Omega Sentinel. She had gone from being an ordinary human into an immortal form of metal that would endure and only grow stronger as the years passed. He stood behind her for a moment admiring the work she was doing trying to break the field around Africa.
[[Is there something I can help you with, Vulcan?]]
“I’ve just come to check on the progress in solving our current dilemma.”
[[The timeframe for completion has been accelerated. The field will be down in 5.2 minutes.]]
“Excellent, Karima. Good work.”
The Omega Sentinel looked back at Vulcan with a grim expression. [[Karima is dead. I am a Sentinel and, when this is all over, I will remind everyone of that.]]
Vulcan had known that calling her Karima would strike a chord. It was just an attempt on his part to see if anything mortal in her was left. "Once this is all over with, huh? Should I take that as a threat Omega Sentinel?”
[[No...but only because your chances of victory against the Magus are still at 43% even with my assistance. So you’ll be dead before I have the chance.]]
“And your logical limitations begin to show,” Vulcan said like a master would to his pet. “You only assume our defeat because you assume that every possible card has been played. We have a few more tricks up our sleeve yet.”
The Alexander Galaxy
Olympias System
Gravity floated above the orbit of the Olympias System’s fourth planet and stared straight up at the giant green rip in the sky. Holding his wrist communicator up to his mouth, he said, “I’m at the Fault. I’m going in.”
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To Be Continued...
Next: In A.R.M.O.R. #9: The White Gods may think their opponents are few, but not for long as their force field drops.
Earth-97701 Historical Records
THE SENTINEL WAR
-An incursion that occurred late in the 20th century involving the entities known as Bastion, Nimrod and Ahab. Bastion kidnapped the great robotics geniuses of his time (Tony Stark, Hank Pym, Phillip Horton and Suzi Endo) and brainwashed them into helping him create new classes of Sentinels. The greatest of these experiments was an enhancement of the Prime Sentinel that would come to be known as the Omega Sentinel.
-Bastion and his allies sent their new armies to attack X-Men bases in san Marco, Jamaica and Los Angeles. Vulcan was the only survivor of the San Marco attack. The crippled X-Men received help from the Avengers and Crusaders in fighting off the Sentinels.
-When they encountered the Omega Sentinel, they found themselves completely caught off guard. The Omega Sentinel beat all of them and would have killed Winter Soldier if not for Amadeus Cho sending her to the Negative Zone. A strange precursor for what would happen to the X-Men.
-Fortune happened to be on the heroes’ side as the Blue Marvel and Icarus returned from space. With them rallying the heroes, they were able to locate Bastion’s base. The Blue Marvel ripped Nimrod apart while Icarus wiped the mind of Ahab clean. Bastion was detained and locked away. SWORD retrieved the Omega Sentinel out of the Negative Zone and handed her over to SHIELD.
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