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#14
DEC 12 |
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“Planetary Strike” Part Fourteen
The Coldwitch
Command Deck
A battered and bruised Lady Ororo walked with a limp to the ship’s navigation controls. She was all that remained of her team after they had encountered a group of ravenous goblins in another part of the ship. They had proven harder to banish than any of them anticipated and Lady Ororo had survived the encounter mostly by luck.
Before she could reach the controls, fatigue set in and she collapsed. Right in the nick of time, Wiccan appeared out of thin air and caught the woman in his arms. “Easy, Ororo. I’ve got you.”
She looked up half delirious and smiled at the man. “It is good to see you still alive.”
Wiccan returned the expression and floated a hand over Ororo’s face. “Injuries gained may no longer be maintained.”
A white light flashed across Ororo’s body and the injuries she had received were no more. The only evidence of her having been in any kind of skirmish was her damaged clothing. Wiccan helped her to her feet and she said, “Thank you. I see you survived your encounter with Selene.”
“Her energy signature that obvious?”
“It’s as dark as a black hole. Not hard to miss,” Lady Ororo said as she glided across the floor to the ship’s navigation systems. “Now we have to finish the second part of our mission.”
Damien and Magma walked into the bay. He spared only a glance for Wiccan and said, “I couldn’t agree more.”
Magma walked over to Wiccan and unexpectedly hugged him. “I thought you were dead! You should have let us know you were alive.”
“No time. We have to get this ship on a crash course.”
“It’s already done,” Lady Ororo said as she backed away from the controls. “We need to let any other survivors know to get out of here.”
Wiccan backed away from all of them and said, “You all do that. I have somewhere else I need to be.”
And with that, Wiccan vanished like a wisp of smoke.
The Lonely Hunter
Central Computer Core
Portal was creating as many random portals as he could muster to catch the fire coming from the Kree rifles on all sides. The core was seated in a centralized location so hacking into it meant exposing themselves on all sides. Forge was busy trying to tap into the core so he need as much cover and time as possible.
Phobia was to Portal’s back and was firing shots from her own rifle to help reduce the incoming fire. She looked too short and too petite to carry a rifle, but the silver-haired woman was handling it well. “We don’t have all day here, Forge! Hurry it up!”
Forge didn’t respond, but Portal did. “He wouldn’t have to be here at all if your world had been able to keep their war to themselves!”
Phobia fired a shot towards the roof and struck a jetpack equipped Kree in the head. “Personally, I would have preferred the M.D.A. kept their noses out of this, but since you all decided to do otherwise you’re at least going to do the job right.”
“Hey, don’t lump me in with them!”
“Oh, the double standard,” Phobia laughed. “This is ‘my world’ but you’re not part of the M.D.A.”
Daken leapt over the both of them into a squad of approaching Kree soldiers. He cut through them with an artful grace and picked up two grenades off the dead soldiers. Rolling them to one of the entrances, he successfully stopped another few dozen Kree from entering into the fray. Turning back to the two, he said with all a gentleman’s charm, “Can we save the nip napping till we’ve actually won?”
Portal pointed a thumb at Phobia and said, “She started it!”
Phobia rolled her eyes. The childish remark wasn’t even worth a response from her.
“I’m in!” Forge exclaimed as he began to type more furiously than he had before, if such a thing was possible. “I’m setting the navigation systems to go offline in two minutes. It’ll take me a bit longer to get to more critical systems.”
“Just save the oxygen till we get off this hunk of metal ok?” Surge asked. She already could hardly breathe in this thing and the last thought she needed was suffocating out in space.
Paper Doll quickly cut out a miniature sword from one of her enchanted sheets of paper and held it in her hand until it became a real weapon. “We may have bigger problems people.”
Phobia aimed her gun on the new entries into the battle and Portal cursed his luck. The woman decked out in what looked like a blue and black ninja suit was none other than Frostsword. And if one needed further evidence of her identity they need only pay attention to her icy hair and the large blade of ice attached to her back. The man behind her wore an all black tuxedo with red spider cufflinks and a red cane to his accessories.
“Frostsword and Red Tarantula,” Phobia said. She wasn’t sure who among them knew what. “We need to watch our step.”
“Yea,” Portal agreed. “My first step should have been to tell Brian to shove this mission up his–”
Cairo, Egypt
Assets were hard to take account of in the midst of battle, but Fire Mage knew that Mindbender was one of them. He had made Mulzeta into a vegetable and it was enough power to make Death take notice. The Horsemen was usually too aloof to make commentary on another. That alone let the commander of X-Force know she was looking at a gem.
“Do you think you can take out another one of those creeps?” Fire Mage asked for the second time. Attacking Mulzeta had obviously fatigued the young man, but he wasn’t about to abandon the fight. He had already made it clear to Fire Mage.
Barely above a whisper, Palin said, “Get me by one.”
Fire Mage looked above her and saw Josiah Rage locked in a desperate fight with Tabir. It wouldn’t be long before those claws ripped into him. Hefting Palin onto her back, she created streams of fire from her hands and feet that flew her up. She sailed over Tabir and landed a few feet away from him. Quickly, she thrust her hands up and fired two streams of fire into Tabir’s face. She manipulated the fire until it was spinning around the White God in a cyclone.
“Now, kid! Hit him!”
Palin looked up like a weak drug addict and zeroed his concentration in on Tabir. Green and pink energy flickered out of Palin’ eyes as he tried to subject the White God to the full force of his abilities. Mindbender wouldn’t admit it, but he was exhausted. All his life he had been taught to restrain his powers and now being asked to cut them loose was draining, but he wasn’t going to back down from the task. Not now.
Exerting all the effort he could, Mindbender skirted the mental defenses of Tabir and began to rip through them like a tornado across a picket fence. But soon that torrent came to a grinding halt as Mindbender’s power fizzled out. He could do no more damage. Exhausted, he fell into the arms of Fire Mage.
For the moment, Tabir was injured and unable to make a move. While Palin’s attack had not lasted long, it had done enough. Fire Mage looked out over the roof and yelled, “Sergeant Cole!”
A few seconds and a flash of pink light later, a burly man was standing behind her. Carrying Mindbender in her arms, she stood to her feet and handed the unconscious mutant to him. “Get him out of here!”
“You, sir?”
Fire Mage waved the soldier off dismissively. “I’m fine. Now go.”
Cole nodded and departed with mindbender. He knew better than to ask a second time. Fire Mage’s name represented more than just her powers. The woman’s temper was legendary.
“You should have got out of dodge too,” Josiah said as he walked with a slight limp towards the X-Force commander. Tabir had slashed across his top thigh and left a nasty wound that was starting to bubble blue pus.
“You need to get that looked at.
Josiah grimaced at the suggestion. “And you need to get your head examined staying here. Your boy has ticked Tabir off.
The White God finally stirred and interlocked its claws across its monstrous face. The natural weapons began to shimmer as a low groan rumbled from Tabir. “Foolish mortals…you have earned our wrath and now you shall face our armies.”
Tabir threw his head back and white light erupted from his mouth. It was the same for all the White Gods across the wrecked city, even the comatose Mulzeta. The light tore into the sky and a thousand thousand cackles could be heard within it. It was a sea of malevolent violence ready to come pouring down on them all. Every soldier on the battlefield felt the intense hate emanating from the air above.
Josiah did his best to even out his weight on his legs but to little success. He didn’t like the idea of going into this injured. “We’re in for it now.”
“Tell me about it. Let’s hope these Horsemen and Sentinels can live up to their reputations.”
Uranus Orbit
Tyrusa Zane had been a First Kill in the Dark Legion since Her Exalted Majesty came to rule the universe. He would walk wherever the Great Phoenix commanded him to walk and he would destroy whoever she told him to destroy. It had been the Holy Lady that had saved his world from the brink of extinction. All she asked of his people was servitude; a small price to pay in the face of everlasting doom.
Her Immolated Holiness had granted his people, the Contraxians, dark powers and fashioned them into the deadliest warriors his universe had ever seen. They had been given the immense opportunity carry Her Exalted Majesty’s will across the universe with the original members of the Dark Legion. They showed all those who would not listen the error of their ways. Eventually, all came to understand just how awesome and tremendous the holy will of the Great Phoenix was. Tyrusa had been humbled to play a part in it.
Now they had been instructed to travel to another universe with a man called Gravity to help his earth claim victory. There were men and women of Earth amongst the Dark Legion to Tyrusa’s recollection. Earth would always be a place of great holiness for it was where the Queen of Elements had come forth into her path of destined rule. Protecting even another version of it would be a most worthy honor. Standing in the way of the Dark Legion claiming victory was the army of The Magus. The feeble dictator had thought to send an army of Accusers against them.
“For Her Exalted Majesty, the ruler of all things good and strong we fight!” Tyrusa said in the midst of space as he rose up his black skull staff. “These heathens think to stand against the power and strength of Her Isolated Holiness. Let us show them how wrong they are!”
A chorus of weapons rose up as one in the silent vacuum of space. Gravity shivered a bit at the sight. He really hoped that Vulcan knew what he was doing by inviting these people into the war. There was one thing he couldn’t deny though: they looked prime and ready for a fight and looking at the mass of Accusers coming towards then, it was going to be a bloody one.
Turning to Tyrusa, Gravity said, “I’ll give your people an opening, but I suggest you attack right now.”
The leader of the Dark Legion smiled at Greg with oozing black teeth. He turned to his troops and yelled, “You heard him. ATTACK!”
The soldiers of the Dark Legion propelled themselves forward with a speed that Gravity had not anticipated. Every one of them flew through space at speeds above that of sound and each was pounced on an Accuser before Gravity had time to properly react. Staring in awe of the ravenous, speedy attack, Gravity said, “Yea…definitely glad they’re on our side.
Clasping his hands in front of him, Gravity reached out to the Null Hammers that every Accuser carried and gave them the weight of a small fighter. Though able to carry the burden, the Accusers were forced to move much more sluggishly if they wanted to use their weapons. May of them opted to drop their hammers and engage the Dark Legion with their fists. It was a sea of green and black that soon was starting to run into a field of red and white as the blood of each side was spilled.
But the Dark Legion was unyielding. Gravity witnessed a soldier with only one limb left still managing to choke the life out of a fully functional Accuser. He watched another entrap a dozen Accusers in a giant water bubble and drown them all. Yet another cut down Accuser after Accuser with body-exploding lightning. They were horrifically persistent and Gravity felt fear in the pit of his stomach. He was beginning to doubt Vulcan’s wisdom in bringing them here.
“You have brought great evil to your world.”
Turning his head slightly, Gravity saw Dazzler out of the corner of his eye. He didn’t have time to give the Herald his full attention. All his focus was on giving the Dark Legion a quick sweep through the Accusers, but they weren’t the Kree’s finest without reason. “Yea, if you went out there and helped a bit we could send them back home sooner.”
“I did not know that your desperation knew such ends. You have fixed her eyes upon this world and it will not be long before she decides to take it for herself.”
Gravity didn’t want to hear what Dazzler had to say, partly because he was trying to concentrate and was starting to lose focus. But the bigger part of him didn’t want to hear because of the truth in her words. Maybe they had set the Dark Phoenix on a course straight for their universe. Greg didn’t want to think he had a role to play in such a horrible event and he thought of it made him sick to his stomach.
Dazzler, Herald of Galactus, floated over the Argonaut and left with one parting warning before heading into the fray. “You may want to make peace with the Magus for he shall pale in comparison to the Dark Phoenix.”
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To Be Continued...
Next: In A.R.M.O.R. #15: Portal and his people face off against Frostsword. Dark Angel and the Human Blizzard move against the Magus himself, while in Cairo the armies of the White Gods come forth!
No supplemental information this time. I figured I’d make some sort of comment considering how long this story has been going on at this time. Never did I imagine this first arc being anywhere near as huge as it has become. It’s really epic and I say that with only a smidgeon of bias. I can honestly say though it is the first time I’ve written a big story like this and didn’t really plan on it being this big. At this point, I’m sure I could find some way to rush a conclusion, but I don’t think that would do these characters justice, or you, the reader for that matter. So often writers when they build up big stories get intimidated or bored with the length so they rush to a conclusion. I refuse I say! I will carry this out until it reaches a viable, strong conclusion. I will give it as much respect as I gave the build up.
So let the war continue.
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