Cover shows Solar Max and Jen Kleinvogel struggling in a swarm of shadowy, blurry demonic forms. Cover copy proclaims, "DEVASTATION IS NIGH!" //|| //^^\\ || || .|. COHERENT COMICS UNINCORPORATED PRESENTS // || \\ || || --X--------------------------------------------- //======================= '|` ACADEMY OF SUPER-HEROES #85 // || \\ || || Coming Home Part 2 - Devastation // || \\__// || || Copyright 2008 by Dave Van Domelen ___________________________________________________________________________ ACADEMY OF SUPER-HEROES ROLL CALL CODENAME REAL NAME POWERS ASSIGNMENT -------- --------- ------ ---------- Hong Jia Qong Jonathan Zachary Spacetime Control MISSING! (Red Beetle) "JakZak" Taylor Jin E Jen Kleinvogel Flight, Stealth MISSING! (Golden Swan) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ [March 12, 82 C.E. - Skies over China] "Something tells me that cloud on the horizon blotting out the sunrise isn't meteorological," Jen said as she clung to the back of Solar Max's armor. Her own flight speed was pretty fast, but the alien armor worn by the other hero could reach high subsonic speeds in the atmosphere. While it couldn't propel her that quickly, at least the distortion effects generated by her own gravity sheath let her breathe at those speeds, so she looked like a shadowy blot against the back of his gleaming red form. "Still too far off to make out details, even at max zoom," Solar Max replied, "but I think it's not so much a cloud as a swarm. Lots and lots of little demons, hanging out with the big bad reality-destroyer demon. Devastation has roadies." "Well, that's good news and bad news," Jen nodded. "The bad news is obvious," JakZak's smirk practically carried over their radio link. "What's the good news?" "Well, potential good news. If Devastation actually needs screening forces, it might mean that it's vulnerable during its emergence, and we might be able to stuff it back into its hole. Kind of like the original ASH did with Cthulhu back in 1989." "I hope it's a little more vulnerable than that," Solar Max shuddered. "ASH paid a pretty heavy price to stop that incursion, and it only worked in the first place because the stars weren't right yet. Do you suppose Devastation is just another name for Cthulhu?" "Who knows? Until '89, everyone just thought Lovecraft's works were pure fiction. But it's not like that was the first fictional menace to pop out of a dimensional rift in the 80s. But maybe Devastation just took the form of Cthulhu for some unfathomable reason of its own, just like it's coming out in a form that I presume conforms to the Secret Masters' beliefs now." "Well, I just hope the Secret Masters have a way to stop this thing," Solar Max frowned behind his helmet, "or we might end up in its N-dimensional belly." "Hey, I want to be appreciated for the meals I can prepare, not the meals I'm an ingredient for," Jen tried to lighten the mood, but it only soured her own, as she thought back to another day.... * * * * [March 1, 80 C.E. - Mount Hua, Sili Province] "That was very goodness," JakZak smiled at Jen, patting his belly. "Yes, very good," Seven Winds nodded, subtly correcting the man he knew as Red Beetle. "Golden Swan will make a good wife some day, if that is to be her Way," he smiled, standing from the dinner table. "Now, there are auguries I must study related to someone in the Imperial Court who may be practicing sorcery, and I'm certain the two of you have matters related to your recent journey to the West that you would be more comfortable discussing in private. Good night," he excused himself and left the common room between the cells JakZak and Jen slept in. "Whew," Jen sighed. "I know he doesn't mind it when we speak English around him, but it feels...rude, somehow. Even if the old man understands more than he lets on." "I...think he understands quite a bit, actually," JakZak looked a little uncomfortable. "There really isn't anything to add about the latest trip. No sign of Derek or Cas anywhere, nor message from them. I'm pretty sure he wanted to give us privacy for some other reason." He narrowed his eyes and gave Jen a faintly accusing look. "Are you..." "Look, I don't think there's any collusion going on, but Seven Winds is no idiot, and neither am I. That little wife comment was aimed at me as much as it was at you," JakZak said. An uncomfortable silence descended over the room. Jen finally broke eye contact, occupying her hands by cleaning up the dinner table. After about a minute of tension filled with innocuous domestic sounds, she heaved a sigh. "Yes, JZ. I've been thinking seriously about us," she admitted. "Romantically. What if we're trapped here for the rest of our natural lives? Face it, even if I hadn't dated you a couple times before you got together with Sarah, you're the only guy for the next two thousand years who I can relate to. And worse than that, I really like you." "Worse?" "You know what I mean," she snorted. "If I were trapped with just Cas, who I don't really know, or Derek, who I actively dislike, I wouldn't be having this problem. I'd find someone local I could at least connect with on some level...heck, these are monks, not priests...or even put up with celibacy if I was worried about the timeline. But no, I have to be stranded in the distant past with a guy I'd kinda like to marry, even if you *weren't* the next best thing to the last man on Earth." "But I'm already married." Jen seemed to deflate, the head of angry resentment that had been building up just flowing away. "Yeah. And part of that 'nice guy' thing is that you're not gonna give up on Sarah. Hell, you didn't give up on her when she seemed to be *dead*, turned to ice in a way that had been fatal every other time it'd ever happened." "Except for when it happened to Mr. Strings," JakZak countered, referring to how Tyra Dumont had been partially changed to ice and yet survived for some months before "dying" in a fall and becoming a telepathic parasite. "As good as fatal in her case," Jen waved aside the counter-example. "But you kept hoping, and she came back to you. So, of *course* you're not gonna stop hoping when you *know* you're still alive and might someday go back." Jen put down the bowls she'd been holding during this whole dialogue and sat back down on the floor. "What about Dan?" JakZak asked, referring to the leader of STRAFE's field arm, Dan Tracey. "Have you given up on going back to him?" Jen shook her head sadly. "There really hadn't been anything there for months before Monaco. You know him, married to his work and having an affair on the side with *more* work. When we were still part of a tight squad, and I saw him almost every day, I could stay inside his armor and make it work. But once we were promoted and started spending more and more time apart as we dealt with our different responsibilities? Forget about it. Oh, we still hook up every so often, but I think he's only doing it now because he feels an obligation to me. Maybe he never really loved me, just felt grateful that I'd saved him from his own obsessions." "Um...wow. Sorry to hear that. Now I'm worried about Dan, too, and I never thought I'd have to worry about whether *he'd* be okay," JakZak blinked. Jen chuckled, but with a touch of sadness to it. "The world's most perfect man has a lot of flaws, trust me on this one. He's just good at hiding them from the world. He may consider himself your friend, but I doubt he's ever really let his guard down around you. Hell, he's only done it around me maybe a half dozen times, and the first time it was when I was almost literally dragging him out of the abyss." [As seen in STRAFE #14 - Ed.] "I'm sorry," JakZak said softly, after a long silence. "For what? It's *my* screwed up lovelife," Jen sighed. "I dunno. Just seemed like the thing to say. Husband handbook page one, if there's any doubt, apologize," he grinned. "Wow, Sarah has you trained so well," Jen chuckled. "It's all the positive reinforcement." The tension evaporated like a fog at dawn, and at least for that night, things were okay again between the timelost heroes. * * * * [March 12, 82 C.E. - Mount Tai, Qing Province] The fog obscuring the dawning Sun had resolved into hundreds of demons of all shapes and colors, a riot of sickness as reality itself seemed to be a weeping sore where Devastation emerged. The top of Mount Tai was already coated in demonic ichor, and none lived within sight of the peak. Or, if any did still live, they wished they didn't. Solar Max was crushing the demons or swatting them aside with his gravitic powers, but it seemed like Devastation spat more minions out as quickly as they could be destroyed. For her part, Jen was a flitting shadow, cutting into the foul beasts with one of the swords she had brought from the monastery. Three spare swords were strapped to her back, and she was starting to wonder how much longer the first one would last as acidic demon goo was pitting its surface and weakening the blade. In a pinch, she could use the few bullets remaining in her STRAFE sidearm, but the fight had already suggested to her that only total dismemberment would stop these things. A gun might just annoy them. "I think we're getting closer," Jen said over the radio link, trying to sound hopeful. "Actually, we've been pushed back a little since we engaged the enemy," was Solar Max's dour reply. "But Devastation has been growing faster than we've been getting pushed back, so I guess we're getting closer in a way. Just not a GOOD way." Jen chopped a serpentine demon into two pieces, then spun around and cleaved its skull to make sure. The blade snapped as she tried to pull it out of the skull, and she snarled, tossing it as hard as she could into the body of another demon before drawing a fresh blade. "Days like this, I wish the Offensive Powers Fairy had left me an energy blast under my pillow." "It's not all it's cracked up to be," Solar Max grunted as he compacted a particularly large demon down to the size of a basketball. "I really had to watch my temper back in secondary school, or I'd accidentally slam stuff around when I got angry. This just happens to be a situation where 95% of the directions I could cut loose in NEED to be slammed around. Correction," he added, diving aside from the venom-dripping claws of a batlike demon. "Make that 90%...looks like Seven Winds is finally getting here with the reinforcements!" The demons milled about in apprehension, giving the two timelost heroes a moment's breathing space as the small flock of "travel clouds" swooped in. Neither Solar Max nor Jen had ever met any of the Secret Masters aside from Seven Winds, but they'd heard enough tales to figure out who was which. The bald man tearing into demons with his bare hands had to be Eight Tiger, who reputedly earned his name after wrestling eight tiger spirits into submission. Close on his heels would be Tien of the Five Swords...only one blade was working now, but it was said he could wield all five at once despite having but two hands. A bobbing and weaving cloud that steered erratically among the flying horde would surely be ridden by Master Li the Drunkard, and as the man laughed and broke an empty wine gourd over the head of a demon, it only confirmed Jen's suspicion. Two more Secret Masters hung back, avoiding direct contact with the demons. The white-haired man who looked like he could be the dour older brother of Seven Winds breathed out a gout of purifying white fire, indicating that he was the infamous mage Silver Flame. And, as the only woman in the group, the Heavenly Consort In Silk offered no confusion as to her identity. With her face hidden behind a jade mask and her hands sheathed in flowing silk there was little clue to her true age, but her grace as the streamers of fabric lashed out to strangle demons was undeniable. As for Seven Winds, he laughed and called down a mighty gust out of the clear sky to drive demons to the ground. "How good of you to leave us some foes upon which to warm up our muscles!" he called out, good-naturedly. It was odd for an almost conversational tone to be audible over the sounds of battle and screeching demons, but the winds carried his voice to the ears of those he wished to hear him. One of the lesser, but practical, uses of his elemental magics. "Kill all you want, there's always more," Solar Max called back, his helmet amplifying his voice to be heard over the din. Far less elegant than Seven Winds's solution, but just as effective. For several long minutes, heroes...who would be legendary had anyone known of them to tell their stories...fought on. The demonic hordes were pushed back, and soon it seemed like they were killing the foul things faster than they could emerge from the cracks in reality around the growing bulk of Devastation. Too bad the good fortune couldn't last. "Something's happening!" Jen pointed to the undulating dark mass of Devastation. It seemed to be gaining some definition, as if a distinct body part was about to form. Would it be an arm, to reach out and destroy? A gigantic maw set on devouring all before it? Eyes to glare balefully out at the reality it was determined to prune from the tree of existence? A single claw, larger than a mountain, emerged, demons swarming along its blackened metal surface like a colony of mites. "By the five elements," Eight Tiger hissed. "Buddha's own hand could not be so large!" "Buddha's finger would not be so ugly, at least," Master Li slurred as he steered his cloud towards the claw and tried to strike at it. But even moving about in what looked like lazy circles in the air, the talon flashed past at a tremendous speed, creating a slipstream that sent Master Li spiraling away. As it passed, it shed a new horde of demons that did their best to follow Li's unsteady path. Eight Tiger dove after him to save the drunken master from his new predicament, but not without a faint sigh. "I'm down to my last sword," Jen called out as she drew the blade and shrugged out of the scabbard rig she'd been wearing. "But I don't think I'd do more than give that thing a manicure with it!" "Five sword heavenly pattern!" Tien shouted, all of his blades in the air at once carving out a pattern of light and shrieking air that seemed to hang in front of him. When he stopped, the pattern flared even more brightly, then streaked across the miles to the claw, where it detonated in an almost invisible flare, so far away was it now. Devastation seemed unperturbed, the single claw stirring the clouds almost lazily. "One sword or five, it seems to not matter," he turned and said with sadness in his voice. "We are too late, it will take the assistance of Heaven itself to stop this." "Then it is good that I am here!" a voice called out in their heads, a rushing of wind across their spirits rather than actual sound. All turned to see a serpentine form streaking in from the West. "Most serene dragon of the Western mountains!" Heavenly Consort In Silk gasped. "Has the Emperor in Jade heard our pleas?" The dragon was among them in less than a heartbeat. "I'm afraid not," she replied, her mouth not moving as she spoke into their hearts. "The Heavenly Court is occupied with matters celestial, and has not yet noticed affairs here on Earth. It only came to my attention because I had been here attending to personal affairs." Jen cued up her commlink and whispered in English to "Red Beetle," "Is that who I think it is?" "If you think it's the Western Dragon," he replied the same way, "you're probably right." Back in 2026, the human front the Western Dragon offered to the world was the leader of the Central Asian Confederation. Would be the leader. Whatever, Red Beetle shook his head. "And I'm guessing these 'matters celestial' are another branch of the godwars." "How might we avert Devastation, oh mighty celestial minister?" Seven Winds asked, sounding far more respectful than Red Beetle could recall him ever being. As if to punctuate the question, the titanic talon reached down and carved what looked to be a light furrow across the wastelands surrounding Mount Tai...but it was actually a trench several meters deep. "I will try to force Devastation back," she replied. "It will take much of my strength, and I cannot be distracted by the minor demons that accompany Devastation like so many fleas. Then you must perform the ceremony of closing," the Western Dragon replied, her eyes flashing with both anger and sorrow. She seemed to know that this could well kill her, and resented it despite knowing that it was her duty. "The ceremony could seal you with Devastation," Silver Flame argued. "And it would surely slay you then!" "But if we do not, brother," the Consort countered, "Devastation will simply escape and destroy all. If it is to be the Dragon of the Western Mountains' fate to die this day..." "Wait," Red Beetle interjected, hoping his Chinese was comprehensible to all assembled. "You say the gods are distracted now, honored dragon. What if we could gain their attention?" The massive serpentine head shook sadly, even as the Western Dragon launched a blast of wind from her tail to scatter an approaching cloud of demons. "They vie now for matters more consequential than one world. You would not be able to distract them from that." "Perhaps NOW," Jen caught JakZak's drift, and joined the argument. "But what of the future? If we could force Devastation into a time when the gods were not distracted, would they intercede?" All eyes were on the pair of foreigners now. "You have the magic of time?" Eight Tiger asked, dubiously. Red Beetle nodded. "I cannot control it, which is why I have not used it in the years I have spent with Seven Winds. But I don't need to control the magic in this instance, do I? Just propel Devastation someWHEN else, and hope I survive long enough that the Jade Emperor takes notice and removes my demonic burden." "And if you think I'm not coming along," Jen added in English on their private link, "you're crazy. No arguments...I might be able to help stabilize things, or...something. But I'm not staying behind." "Very well," Seven Winds nodded. "This must be why the Way guided you here in the first place, the branch trying to preserve itself from destruction. My friends," he turned to the other Secret Masters, "Red Beetle and Golden Swan are not of our time, but if Devastation succeeds their world will never come to pass. We fight for all those who live, but they fight for all those yet to live. We must give them all the aid we can." He turned back to the pair, "And what aid might you require?" "Just hold it still and clear us a path. I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to be inside that mass if I'm going to push it outside of time. And, ah, be ready to try your way, Western Dragon. If we fail, or if I can only move part of Devastation away, you'll still have an angry demon to contend with." The next several minutes were a blur of flame and blades and claws and tearing wind as they stopped worrying about containment of the demons and simply fought their way to Devastation itself. At some point, Jen's last sword ended up stuck in the body of a glutinous demon and she simply abandoned it. The Western Dragon wound herself around the tip of that mighty claw, and by drawing upon all the strength of the mountains of her domain was able to hold it steady for the briefest of moments. In that moment, the two heroes from a future that might never be dove into the squamous mass of semi-corporeal flesh that was still emerging from the fissure in reality. "NOW!" Red Beetle shouted, and Golden Swan used her gravity sheath to reinforce the artificial wormhole he called into existence. And they PUSHED. * * * * [Outside Of Time] Everything was hazy, uncertain and full of fear and pain. JakZak and Jen could feel the mighty demon all around them, but everything seemed to be infinite in both direction and duration. They pushed, not knowing what they pushed against or in what direction, just knowing they had to keep driving Devastation deeper and deeper into time, hoping that someone would notice them before the demon decided to simply crush them and return to its unholy work. Then, after an eternity that felt even longer than that, the terrible pressure and pain vanished as if it had never been. "What...happened?" Jen asked. She wasn't sure how she could even be talking outside of time itself, but she was too relieved to worry about it. "Someone noticed, I hope. Or Devastation decided to just leave," JakZak replied, shakily. "I think we're going forward in time...but I don't have a lot of experience with this. We could be going backwards. Or sideways, even. Not that I even know what that would *mean*." "It means you people certainly do get around," came a third voice, out of nowhere and nowhen. "I swear, for a small cohort of admittedly powerful mortals, you Academy people are busy folks. You're heading in the right direction, though, give my regards to George when you get home...." "Hello?" JakZak called out to the nothingness that was barrelling past, but there was no answer. "We're definitely going to have to talk to George a bit more about his trip to the future," Jen said after a long non-time had not passed. "Did he say anything about any extratemporal entities?" JakZak shrugged. "He didn't remember much, but...whoa, turbulence!" "How can there even be turblence outside of..." Jen started to say, when they both felt like they'd been turned inside out.... * * * * [Somewhen, Somewhere?] "Urrgh," Solar Max grunted as the strange sensations stopped. It was like the "hangover" he'd gotten from his two previous deliberate attempts at either looking through time [Academy #6 - Ed.] or traveling through it [ASH #31 - Ed.], but not as severe. Telltales in his armor flared to life, warning that he was falling, and from pretty high up. Exerting his gravity powers, he slowed his descent, then reached out to grab Jen, who seemed to have been hit a little harder than he had by the temporal disorientation. Within a few seconds, she'd recovered enough to at least hover under her own power. "I really REALLY hope we're home," Jen mumbled. "I don't want to do that again." "Believe it or not, it gets better...well, not as horrible...with practice, I think," Solar Max tried to quip, but it came out sounding like he couldn't even convince himself of it. "Okay, I'm picking up radio transmissions, and that's definitely a modern city below us," Jen seemed to have steadied herself a little, and she'd strengthened her gravity sheath to the point where she was little more than a blur. Solar Max released his grip on her. "Ugh," she wrinkled her nose. "It stinks though...be glad you're in a sealed armor and can't smell the air. At a guess, I'd say we've got to be in the TwenCen. You think we bounced off the Barrier?" "I wish I had enough experience to say, but I don't recall feeling anything notable at the beginning of our trip back to the First Century," Solar Max pointed out. "I think the Barrier just gets in the way if you try to enter the timestream from 1998 through 2023 or so. Otherwise, you skim over it like a stone on a pond. I'm not picking up any panicked emergency response to our arrival, though, so we're probably not in the Third Age. We've gotta be pre-IDINS protocols," he noted, referring to the Interdimensional Immigration and Naturalization Service, a branch of the regular INS that had been created in response to the high number of interdimensional visitors and invasions that marked the Third Heroic Age. "We're a little high up for me to be sure, but those cars down there look pre-Third Age too. Unless there's a motor convention in town, there's an awful lot of old-fashioned steel box stuff on the streets. I was never a motorhead, but I think those things are 1970s 'Detroit Steel'. Lemme swing down for a closer look, I won't stand out as much," Jen pointed out. "You try sifting the datasphere some more..." "Attention, flying supernormals!" came an amplified voice from far below. "We would like to talk to you!" "Or we could go ask the nice man down there with the bullhorn where and when we are, I guess," Solar Max replied. ============================================================================ Next Issue: They've made it as far as 1976, and you've already seen one side of that story in Coherent Super Stories #4...but now for that tale through the eyes of JakZak and Jen, and the revelation of why they came derailed from the timestream in the first place! Be here for part three of Coming Home, "Infiltration"! ============================================================================ Author's Notes: Cthulhu is public domain, no matter what the Derleths may say. And in the 1989 event in question, I used a hand-made plush Cthulhu bought at a convention (this was before Toy Vault came out with its horde of plushthulhus) that was set up so you could put miniatures in its mouth. Which happened on a few phases. 40d6 of normal damage will mess up even a brick, and the telepath who said he didn't need help...well, that player made up a new character for the next session. The whole "uneasy romance" between JakZak and Jen was part of Tony's original plans for the timelost storyline, but I actually forgot about it while writing #84. I remembered before finishing it, but decided that there was already too much talking in the issue, so I moved it to be a flashback here. :) I am amused that the issue of exactly when the Consorts Song died in 82 C.E. is *still* stumping Library of Congress researchers. At this point, I'm wondering if someone's going to be able to get a refereed paper out of the topic by the time all is said and done. Finally, for the benefit of new readers, the mysterious voice in the "outside of time" scene is Baal Samin, guardian of the celestial temple. The stability of spacetime is his baliwick, which has led him to multiple interactions with members of ASH (mainly George Sylvester). He's not courting worshippers in the 2020s, though, so he's not going to be showing up a whole lot. Just in the time-travel and dimension-mangling stories. :) ============================================================================ For all the back issues, plus additional background information, art, and more, go to http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/ASH ! To discuss this issue or any others, either just hit "followup" to this post, or check out our Yahoo discussion group, which can be found at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ash_stories/ ! There's also a LiveJournal interest group for ASH, check it out at http://www.livejournal.com/interests.bml?int=academy+of+super-heroes ============================================================================