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#13
OCT 12 |
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“Planetary Strike” Part Thirteen
Selene walked around Wiccan like an alluring predator. Billy allowed her to get only inches away from him. She smiled at him seductively as she ran one finger down the center of his chest. “You must realize how much potential you have. I can see the ambition burning in your eyes. You want to tear through these books and parchments.”
Wiccan wouldn’t lie; the books and parchments were of a great curiosity to him. He could only imagine the spells and incantations that Selene had gathered from across this dimension’s galaxies. It was a fountain of wealth that he had every intention of pilfering when the opportunity presented itself.
“I take it that you know why I’m here,” Wiccan said as Selene continued to pace slowly around him. The lustful power coming off of the woman was more than most men could probably stand, but Wiccan happened to be of a different persuasion. He doubted that would even deter a woman like her.
“I know why you’ve been sent, but that’s not why you’re here,” Selene said as she spread her arms out and upwards. She looked like a dark queen showing her kingdom to a soon to be loyal subject. “You are a man of knowledge. The pursuit of it comes before all things for you and you have questions you want to ask me. So relax…I will provide the answers you want.”
“Your wards, how did you manage to make them so intricate? I’ve only come across wards that well knitted a few times before,” Wiccan said. What he wasn’t saying was that he had never been able to create a ward that strong. When breaking down Selene’s, he was simultaneously trying to reverse engineer them in his mind.
Selene stopped her pacing and looked at the boy with a smile worthy of any femme fatale. She had her arms folded under her chest allowing her to push up an already ample bust line. “Of all the things that I thought you would first ask I did not think it would be that. It’s Axi-Tun magic. Certain sects of their race have dedicated their entire magical studies to the practice.”
“My dimension has such a race, but my files don’t have much on their magical practices. Why did you tell me that? Do you really think this is going anywhere in your favor?” Wiccan asked a bit angry at the idea that Selene thought he was that gullible to be converted with a few flattering comments and bodily suggestions.
If Selene was insulted by the question, she didn’t let it show. Her features portrayed only a powerful need for attraction. Wiccan wondered how many men she had ensnared with her looks and slick words. He wasn’t fooled. A woman didn’t stand side by side with one of the most ruthless men in this dimension without having quite a streak herself.
“There are things you think you know, but you really are so confused. You believe this to be your alliance’s first encounter with the Magus. It is not. What if I told you that your alliance first came to the Magus with an offer?” Selene asked as Wiccan’s eyes widened like a fat fish ready to be pulled in. “Like I said, there is much you do not know.”
Wiccan had to pull himself together after the revelation. It was not as if he trusted Selene, but the moment he stepped into her presence he had erected a web of truth around himself. He would be able to instantly known the second that Selene was trying to deceive him. She wasn’t. “When did they come to him?”
The Fault
Two Hours Ago
“Why have you come to me?” the Dark Phoenix asked from her fiery throne. Her voice was passion and rage personified. That voice had conquered an entire universe and only through the efforts of the Argonauts had she been kept from conquering Gravity’s universe. They had seen firsthand what her brutal reign wrought to its people.
All the more reason he thought Vulcan was insane for sending him here to risk what he was about to ask. It was strange to look into the eyes of Ororo Munroe, but this wasn’t his world’s Ororo. She would have never succumbed to such a dark power. “My universe has need of you. Earth faces its death as we speak.”
The Dark Phoenix’s throne room was just one massive room connected to a massive temple that had been erected on the Moon. The many servants of the woman were versions of Gravity’s friends and enemies alike. It was painful to watch his friends, even different versions, trapped in such degrading servitude.
Elegant statues of this universe’s ruler lined the sides of the runway leading to her throne. With her immense passion came an immense vanity. Twenty foot long banners with portraits of herself etched into them covered every window. The roof of the throne room was an intricate stained glass picture of her massacring a group of heroes. Gravity recognized a few.
Every tile in the floor and every brick in the walls was blood red with tiny flickers of blue fire painted into each one. Gravity wondered just how much time that had taken. If someone like Quicksilver was trapped in her servitude hen probably not long at all. He wondered what the penalty for error was.
He watched as she beckoned for the Moon Knight to come to her. She whispered something in his ear and he quickly departed from her like a scared child. Had she broken their minds as well as their bodies? “I have no reason to help our universe other than pure boredom, but I have no taste for combat anymore. Only if it is necessary. So I shall send the Dark Legion.”
Vulcan had told the Cosmic Protector to be formal as possible, but the thought of it made him want to gag. What formality did this monster deserve? She had destroyed entire solar systems and broke the backs of trillions. But this was for Earth and he would endure much for her sake. “Thank you, your infinitely wise Highness. Your wisdom is never ending.”
The Dark Phoenix saw and felt that the words had pained the man. In his own way, the pipsqueak was an elemental like herself so she could tap into him in ways he probably never suspected. But today wasn’t the time for such festivities so she would simply enjoy his agony for the time being. “They shall be ready to depart with you in the hour. Treat them well.”
The Coldwitch
“The Magus was approached by your alliance at the very beginning of our war with Earth. Then it was just me and Skaar working as his generals. They wanted to provide the Magus with support in his campaign in exchange for getting Mars after it was all over with,” Selene said. She saw that Wiccan was attempting to digest it all.
Wiccan knew that again the woman wasn’t lying. With information this potent she had no reason to. They couldn’t have wanted Mars simply for a place to build a prison, not to make that kind of deal. Selene was right…there was far more going on here than he knew. “What did they want from it?”
“The Neocounts of Olympus Mons,” Selene said and quickly realized from Wiccan’s expression that the words held absolutely no meaning for him. It was her fault for assuming that the world from which he hailed had the same horrors as her own. “They’re ancient Martians, locked away in hibernation. The Magus thought freeing them would threaten him.”
Pieces of the puzzle were beginning to connect in Wiccan’s mind. He didn’t like what the picture was beginning to look like, but he couldn’t deny what was in front of his face. Wiccan always tried to maintain a certain level of objectivity about him. “So when the Magus refused to work with them they went to Earth?”
“A Century or two later, but yes. I’m not sure why they waited so long to come back, but Earth bought into it. And under the pretenses of prison construction, your alliance was able to excavate the Neocounts. Needless to say, the Magus was furious and began to push his campaign harder. He wanted Earth taken out before your people could use the Neocounts on him.”
It all made sense to Wiccan now. Them coming to this dimension was never about protecting the prison because the prison had always been a fringe benefit. The M.D.A. leadership would have probably left this world to rot if Alise had not come asking for help. Them putting it up to a vote was only to guise their deception. Brian was going to have to be told about this.
The Pantheon
Brian knew that he didn’t need to be out in the thick of the fight, but he was itching to be there. The role of the general sitting back giving commands didn’t sit well with him. It had its perks, but he had too much of a conscience to let others fight while he did not. His mind whirled as he wondered what his team was going through.
No status reports had come in from Wiccan’s, Portal’s or Gaia’s attack forces. Mindbender and Motormouth were on earth and no one had an idea how that battle was going. He could only hope that these White Gods weren’t as fearsome as described by the natives. Dark Angel and her attack group were waiting for Wiccan’s to finish their objective.
“The last attack group is getting anxious. They want to launch,” Fleet Admiral Banner said. He was in his late forties, but looked like he could be in his early sixties. The stress of his job was apparent to anyone who had an inkling of knowledge about the war, but he also carried another burden. Banner was quietly dying from cancer but he would see this last battle out.
Brian saw the wear and tear on the man’s face. The way he controlled his features spoke of years of well-honed self control. Something a man of his rank and importance would need to have to do his job well. “Tell them that they will have to continue waiting. They’re my best bet against the Magus and I’m not going to compromise that.”
The Coldwitch
“So who are these Neocounts and why would my people go through such lengths to get them?” Wiccan asked, not sure if he even wanted to lump himself in with the M.D.A. right now, but he knew a lot of good men and women in their ranks. They fought for this Earth nobly and not with ill intentions in their heart and he wouldn’t separate himself from them.
Selene appeared momentarily distracted and then gave a smug smirk. “Your friends were trying to break through my barrier. I just needed to patch up the holes for a moment; that young woman’s magic seems familiar in a way. But as to your question, the Neocounts were the rulers of ancient Mars. They were the planet’s foremost super-Martians I suppose you could say.”
“The M.D.A. is littered with hundreds of thousands of superhumans. What would these Neocounts have to offer that would make them so valuable?” Wiccan asked. A part of him was excited by the potential answer despite himself. He wondered if it was possible that these Neocounts could be mystical in nature.
That was when they both felt a surge of dark energy alone with every other psi-sensitive in a thousand mile radius. Wiccan knelt over and hurled despite himself. The darkness was corrupting and felt like biting into a rotten apple. Where had a power that rank come from? Standing to his feet and wiping his mouth, he asked, “What was that?”
Selene for the first time in their encounter seemed unnerved. “It can’t be. Your allies are insane!”
“What? What are you talking about?”
Another first came when Selene looked at Wiccan in anger. “I had believed the Magus mad when freeing the White Gods, but to bring the Dark Legion…”
More unknown entities yielding more questions; Wiccan was a consumer of knowledge, but this was starting to get ridiculous. “The Dark Legion. What is it?”
“The personal army of the Dark Phoenix. Not of this world, but another.”
Wiccan shook his head. “This war is out of control.”
Selene moved close to him again and her lips were nearly on his face. “That is why I need you. Until you I have not met anyone I thought cold help me topple the Magus. Join with me and we’ll end this madness.”
Wiccan smiled. “And then we’ll rule it all?”
“Yes, together, as King and Queen.”
A look of pained shock crossed Selene’s face as Wiccan’s black knife drove into her stomach. He twisted the blade violently and caused her to cry out. Leaning even closer to the witch’s face, he said, “Too bad I’m gay.”
Black veins rippled across her body as the power in Wiccan’s knife sapped her very essence. He had planned an attack for every one of the Magus’ generals before he had even left. This was his attack for Selene. He had read an archival record that showed Selene being fell by a blade on Earth-616. That event led him to try a similar strategy here, but this knife was imbued with the spirit of a Paaf, a demon of Earth-1983. The demonic soul sapped on someone as drenched in dark magic as Selene.
It wasn’t until she fell to the floor like an empty husk that Wiccan yanked his knife loose. Looking around at the room full of books and parchments, he smiled. He was about to be a kid in the candy store. Then he would do what he came here for.
The Stormrider
Like so many others, the Magus had also felt the dark power that had entered into the battlefield. He smiled to himself. The sheep were starting to grow fangs it seemed. He would have to match their boldness.
Captain Vinorsa Iodirr stood at his command station below the throne of his unwanted master. The news of Hala’s devastation and capture had rocked every Kree in the Magus’ service, but that only steeled their resolve to win here. A victory on Earth was the only way to ensure that Hala could be retaken and its former glory restored. Vinorsa loathed to think about the horrors that awaited them upon their return. The Shi’ar would not be kind.
His thoughts were suddenly broken by a harsh command from the Magus. “Captain! Tell Arides to unleash the Accusers. If it is war that Earth truly wants then I shall be a gracious guest.”
It was an order that the Captain did not want to belay. The Accusers were one of the last bit of glory that the Kree people had and the Magus was about to waste them in this battle. He would have no strategy for them. They would just be thrown into the onslaught and expected to make their own way to survive. An Accuser was a true warrior so they would not complain, but Vinorsa imagined that they could not be happy with their leadership.
“Your will be done, Magus,” the Kree said as convincingly as he could muster.
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To Be Continued...
Next: In A.R.M.O.R. #14: The Dark Legion faces off against the Accusers!
The Dark Legion
They are the enforcers of the Dark Phoenix’s law. Shortly after her universal reign was complete, she gathered the universe’s most vile criminals onto one planet. Psycopaths, murderers, would be dictators, racketeers and plunderers made up the assortment of sentient entities she had collected. Faced with agonizing death, these criminals pledged their fealty to the Dark Phoenix and, with her power, she transformed them into a dark elemental army each one wielding a different element. Not just of nature though, but encompassing the elements making up the universe itself.
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