[The cover shows Edouard and Isabel fleeing through ancient ruins as explosions bracket them. Their attackers are unseen. Cover copy proclaims, "Armageddon 1998!"] ____________________________________________________________________________ .|, COHERENT COMICS PRESENTS An ASHistory Series --+------------------------------------------------------------------------- '|` Catman: Minor Arcana #4 - Swords copyright 2010 by Dave Van Domelen ____________________________________________________________________________ [July 6, 1998 - Tel Megiddo, Israel] Edouard ducked behind an ancient stone pillar as the bullets pocked the dirt and stone where he'd been standing an instant before. Tactically, this really wasn't his kind of fight...all of the godpowered mercs were sticking with ranged weapons unless forced into melee. Sword of David was bulletproof enough to bull his way into that kind of fight, but he'd just found out that his opponent was no slouch at grappling range either. Isabel seemed to be holding her own, at least, which meant Edouard could focus on keeping his own pelt intact. But if things didn't turn around soon, the hodge-podge Israeli superhero team would be defeated in detail. This wasn't a bunch of random fanatics who'd sold their souls for power and then decided to team up, like the villain teams Edouard was used to. No, this bunch had pretty clearly been mercs together before the "Godmarket" hit, and they bargained as a group with one of the wargods. Their abilities may not have been ASH-level, but they complemented the squad's existing skill set very well. Tactically, this was a VERY smart group of foes. Strategically, not so much. Intel said that the paymaster for this little venture was trying to cast a spell using sympathetic magic at Tel Megiddo...also known as Armageddon...to bring about the end of the world. Sometimes it's not a good idea to have a "no questions asked" work policy. Then again, maybe these yahoos knew all about the plan, but expected their patron god to save them from the results. They certainly hadn't shown any inclination to parley. CLANKCLATTER! The Sword of David's signature weapon flew from his hand and hit the stony ground, slicing off a few chunks of rock in the process. It wasn't magical, but its supertech monomolecular edge came in awfully handy against armored foes, and the merc SoD (he hated that nickname) was facing seemed pretty tough. Sword of David leapt for his weapon...and vanished. As did the mercs. And everyone else on the hill other than Edouard and Isabel. "Ohhhhh crap," Isabel scanned the skies. "What now?" * * * * [October 4, 2026 - The Serengeti, Africa] Mid-July 1998 had been a chaotic and confused time, Edouard reflected as he hefted the weapon left behind by the Sword of David. If the world hadn't been toughened up by a generation's worth of supervillain-orchestrated disasters and the occasional interdimensional invasion, the two billion people who survived the crash of the godmarket would probably have been reduced to a few thousand scattered survivors over the next few years. Fortunately, though, most of the people who kept things running had been left behind, and critical services had redundancies built into them to help weather catastrophes. Most of those who vanished came disproportionately from the very poor...who were desperate enough to throw their lots in with any god who promised a better life...and the very rich, who probably thought they'd managed to broker better deals for themselves. Rich and poor alike vanished that day, though. And many of those in the middle, of course. Oh, and everyone with the Magene was gone, which was why Isabel and Edouard had found themselves very suddenly with a battlefield all to themselves, with the rest of the combatants on both sides winking out like candles. Only later did it become clear that those created by gods but who weren't exactly human were left behind. He never did figure out exactly why that was, though. News had been slow to get out through the traditional channels, since most of the faces of news had been among the vanished. Hell, one major network had put a sportscaster on as their head anchor because he was the most recognizable person they had left! But it only took a day or so for people to realize that it had happened everywhere. Almost all of the supers were gone. Everyone who had worshipped one of the pagan gods was gone. And everyone was worried they might go next, once whatever had done this finished digesting their first meal. It was not a good time to be a visible reminder of abnormality.... * * * * [July 14, 1998 - Tel Aviv, Israel] "Luckily, all the potential witnesses had cleared out of the combat zone, so no one outside of the Special Division knows you two didn't vanish with all the rest," Colonel Waldstein's permanently sour expression had only gotten more unhappy in the past week. "But the minute you step out there, some hardcore sephardim's gonna whip up a lynch mob. People seem to have decided that they'll be safe from whatever caused the big vanishing if they ramp up their religious fervor, and anything that has even a whiff of the supernatural is going to get torn apart." "Can we at least let our friends back in America know we're alive?" Isabel asked. They knew from watching the heavily censored news that all of the "god squad" incarnation of ASH had vanished as well, and there were some rumblings that Valkyrie had even helped make it happen, but the two catpeople did have friends among the normal humans in Chicago as well. Waldstein shook his head. "Above my pay grade, I'm afraid. Politics," he spat. "Long run, you'll probably get used for leverage of some sort, once things settle down enough that anyone can figure out where to use you. Short run, if you step outside in the daylight you won't last until sundown, no matter how good you are in a fight. You're getting served the proverbial crap sandwich, I'm afraid, your only choice is deciding where to start chewing." Waldstein stepped across the room to where the recovered gear of the other heroes had been placed. People had vanished along with everything they'd been carrying, but in the heat of battle some things had been dropped or knocked away, like the team leader's sword. "Now, my men are stretched pretty thin, and I'm probably going to have to send even more of them out after sundown to enforce a curfew. So if you could somehow get past the lock on that door," he carefully brushed a hand across the flat of the uncannily sharp blade on the table, "I doubt anyone could stop you from leaving here. But even if you did get out, Israel's not going to be a safe place for you to hide. Word is, it might not be a safe place to exist at all for much longer, what with our neighbors deciding that crushing us would be a great way to prove their own religious fervor and get Allah to shield them from the vanishing." "I...see," Edouard nodded. Old memories of the Underground came flooding back. He'd practically grown up on the run, he could go back to that lifestyle for a little while, if he had to. And Isabel was a quick study. "If we have any other questions, Colonel, will you be around?" Isabel asked, also catching on. "Oh, I expect I'll be on site until sundown, but I'll be in meetings after dinner. About defense planning. A lot of important people. I might just tell my adjutant to not bother me with anything short of the base catching fire," he took his hand from the sword, leaving it on the table. "We'll keep that in mind," Edouard nodded. "And please, see if you can at least let our government know we're alive, even if we can't actually talk to them." The colonel was just as good at catching hints as throwing them, and nodded. "Well, I have other duties to attend to, so I'll leave you for now. We have a particularly bad mob starting to coalesce on the east side, and I need to make sure we have enough people in the area to keep it from boiling over. With our primary mandate having just gone up in a puff of smoke, Special Division's expected to pitch in wherever there's a need." With that he left. * * * * [That evening] As stealthily as possible the couple used the Sword of David's weapon to cut the hinges off the door and ease it open. True to his implied word, Colonel Waldstein had left no guards in the immediate area. As long as they didn't do anything too blatant, no soldiers would come to investigate for a while after dinner, either. The troops at this base had come to know the "American" catpeople and had no desire to fight them, but they were also loyal to their nation and would follow lawful orders. So the key was to make sure they wouldn't have to directly disobey either their orders or their consciences. Whether or not a riot was erupting to the east, there was a distinct lack of security coverage to the west, and what few patrols were out were simple to evade. It was harder to stay out of sight of ordinary citizens, though, and concealing robes hadn't been among the equipment Waldstein had "forgotten" in the room with them. Both had practiced moving and fighting in heavy robes just in case a mission called for stealth, as catpeople tended to stand out more than people in burqas no matter where you went in Israel. Perhaps Waldstein figured robes wouldn't have been helpful in current circumstances, or maybe he'd been specifically told to keep such things from the couple. He'd bend the spirit of orders too, but not the letter. Soon, though, the flickering of a building fire drew their attention. Whoever had lit the fire had moved on, probably more afraid of being caught than interested in watching things burn. Edouard and Isabel could tell in an instant that the residents had been killed first, the arson being more of a contemptuous afterthought. A Palestinian family, killed because they weren't One Of Us. The mirror image was probably happening in places where Israelies were the minority. And far worse in parts of the world where the power structure had been more thoroughly gutted a week ago. "We have to get out of here," Isabel hissed. "Grab a robe, but don't put it on yet," Edouard pointed at a trampled wash line. "We head for Palestinian-controlled territory, where we can blend in, at least for a little while. I doubt they're any less likely to burn 'demons' than the Israelis are right now, but at least we won't stand out in robes as much on our way to...somewhere else." "Where else, though? Israel is surrounded on all sides by enemies, and if the Colonel's sources are right, there's going to be armies marching this way from all directions except west! I can't swim to Italy, can you?" "For now? Egypt. They had a lot of 'investment' in the godmarket, they're bound to be more disorganized than Syria or Jordan. And if we can get through them, the interior of Africa strikes me as a pretty good place to hide until things cool down." Neither voiced what both thought. "If they ever do." * * * * [August 30, 1998 - The Serengeti, Kenya] They'd made it out of Egypt just in time, as the country recovered from the chaos much more quickly than Edouard would have expected. The reason had become clear soon enough, though. Egypt had been on the verge of a civil war in July, with the more hardcore Islamic elements preparing to overthrow a government that was increasingly throwing its lot in with the returned gods. When all the people who followed those gods vanished on the sixth, the rebellion turned into a nearly bloodless coup d'etat and the "clean up after things" plans simply got moved forward. Given that many of the factions involved had been practicing nationbuilding in recent years by supporting Israel's Palestinians, they'd done a pretty smooth job of it. On the good side, it meant there were very few cases of total social breakdown in Egypt, so little risk of being swept up in a random riot. On the bad side, the cracks Edouard and Isabel had been counting on slipping through had closed pretty quickly. They avoided starvation only by the barest of margins a few times, which had become an even bigger worry once Isabel realized she'd gotten pregnant, probably back in May. "It's beautiful," Isabel looked out over the plains, which were still unnaturally green from the influence of one or more gods. Much of Africa had become verdant and lush in the past year, although with the gods withdrawing their hands things would likely collapse back to the previous state soon enough. "And there don't seem to be any people," Edouard added. The settlement they'd passed two days ago had been utterly depopulated, a sign that everyone had worshipped the pagan gods. If any had been left behind, they probably run away rather than try to survive in a ghost town. "Like I said, beautiful." Edouard twitched his ears. In the past few weeks, they'd seen humans doing some fairly awful things, but unlike his bride, Edouard came from a world that was far worse, if less violent. He was concerned that she'd become embittered with the entire race lately. "We'll have to be careful, though, and check any settlements for food that was left behind," Edouard warned. "Living rough means knowing what's safe to eat and what isn't, and all of my experience in that regard comes from the Amazon. We'll need to keep a close eye on the wildlife and avoid eating anything that they avoid." "Or just eat the wildlife," Isabel smirked. "Remind me to tell you about poison arrow frogs some time," Edouard shook his head. "But right now..." "Yeah, I spotted them too," Isabel confirmed. "Three to the east, in the tall grass. And I bet there's at least one more I don't see, getting ready to close a trap." "Near the rock to the northwest," Edouard avoided turning in that direction. The geometry of his head gave him better peripheral vision than a human, if a slightly smaller zone of binocular vision. It was one of the reasons he favored melee, since he was a lousy marksman. Isabel's eyes were set in a slightly more human face, by comparison. "They've been watching us for a couple of minutes now. I think they're confused." "Confused?" "We look like humans, at least as well as I expect a lion can tell. But the wind has shifted enough times they have to have caught our scent, and we don't smell like humans. Nor do we exactly smell like rival lions come to intrude on their range," Edouard explained. He didn't bother elaborating the point that all he knew about lions he learned by watching television. Feline Moreaus were almost always made from domestic cats, and the Amazon wasn't exactly home range to unmodified lions. "I'm not sure, but they might also be able to smell that you're pregnant." "They're moving," Isabel started to reach for the rifle slung over her shoulder. "Stop," Edouard placed a hand on her arm. "I don't think they're attacking. The hidden reserve has broken cover, but they're not rushing us. If they *are* attacking, it's the most pathetic lion attack since Dorothy got back from Oz." Okay, so he probably watched too much television, Edouard reflected. The quartet of lionesses joined up about ten meters away and then slowly advanced in a neat line, as if marching in parade formation. When they were three meters from the couple, they faced Isabel and bowed their heads. "Look, red circles on their foreheads," Edouard observed. "Oh. Oh!" Isabel put her hand to her mouth in shock. "I know that symbol, from the memories Astarte unlocked. It marks these lions as servants of Sekhmet." The largest of the lionesses raised her head and looked directly at Isabel, then nodded in a very human gesture before returning to her respectful bow. After a long, silent moment, the lionesses turned and slowly padded away, moving with deliberate purpose. "Should we follow them?" Edouard asked, hoping his wife had some sort of goddess-granted intuition on the matter. While either unable or unwilling to speak, the lions seemed to have understood the question. The stopped, and the eldest turned slightly as if to gesture that they follow. "I guess so," Isabel shrugged. "We goddess-made need to stick together, right?" "I feel like such a plebian," Edouard chuckled as the two walked after the lions. "I was only made by a mortal." Still, after a decade of being an exile, Edouard couldn't shake the feeling that he was finally coming home. * * * * [October 4, 2026 - The Serengeti, Africa] And home it had been, now, for more than half his long life. The United Empire seemed like no more than a dream sometimes, and even his decade in America was faded in memory for all of its vivid events. The planet still supported life, humans only rarely intruded on the plains of his family, and that was enough. The lions of Sekhmet had interbred with normal lions, and the current generation was only moderately more intelligent than the baseline population, but they still treated Edouard's family as part of their extended pride. Tomaz had been born with lionesses as midwives, out on the plains, early in 1999. When Mauricio and Luisa came along three years later, they were born into a house, converted from a ranger station. The triplets Rodrigo, Teresa and Ricardo made the house a bit too crowded and in 2005 the lions of Sekhmet helped them find a sprawling ranch home that was in good enough shape to move into and where the family lived even now. Tomaz was big enough by then to start helping run the household, early maturity being a part of Edouard's genome that bred true. The family expanded three more times by 2011, with Damio and Osorio in 2007, Janinha, Enez and Alberto in 2009, and finally Vicente, Cristovo and Maria in late 2010. By that time, Isabel was starting to feel and act old, even if it was hard to tell just by looking at her. Perhaps whatever magic Astarte had used was running out, with no gods around to replentish it. At only thirteen years old, Isabel simply never woke up one morning, mere days after the youngest children had been weaned. Edouard was surrounded by fourteen children of his own, and dozens of Sekhmet's lions and their progeny, and yet he still felt the most alone he had ever been. If not for his duty to the family, he might have sunk into a deep depression and never come out. But as riven as he felt, he was not alone, and he had to be strong for his family. Now, even his youngest was older than Isabel had ever been. Maria favored her mother's tawny appearance rather than her father's gray fur, and her thirteenth birthday had brought tears to Edouard's eyes. Sorrow for his lost love, but joy because none of their children had suffered their mother's fate. There were no grandchildren yet. Edouard wasn't sure of the genetics of it, as there had been almost no third generation Moreaus in 1989, and all breeding was controlled by the humans anyway. He was fairly certain that his children had all at least experimented with sex, but so far no issue had come of it. Maybe Isabel wasn't enough like him for their children to be fertile, and he had sired a generation of mules? Or perhaps they simply needed some outside blood. To know would require science a little more advanced than what could be scrounged from the picked-over ruins of the 20th Century. Something more like the mad science that had been practiced in Khadam, assuming any of them were left alive. Hell, their big "patriotic hero" Onslaught had been halfway to being a Moreau himself, and might not have vanished with the other superhumans. Edouard had ignored the world beyond the great Serengeti for decades, focusing on his family. Maybe the needs of his family demanded he look to the outside world again.... ============================================================================ Author's Notes: Back in the notes for #1, I pointed out that one way I could have gotten the necessary backstory on Edouard out would have been a few paragraphs of exposition. But not only would that have been a poor substitute for an actual story, it also would have kept me from coming up with all sorts of worldbuilding stuff that doesn't directly have to do with Edouard. Being forced to flesh out the bare bones into four stories meant I was creating a lot of stuff around Edouard, sometimes inventing things in the middle of a scene (like the idea of the three armored heroines in ASH being known as the Armor Angels, or making Isabel into a gun bunny). Summaries can plug a hole in the backstory, but only stories fill in the cracks around the hold too. The cover copy, while being a literal description of the first scene, is also a reference to DC's Armageddon 2001 crossover event. :) But no worries that I changed the ending because too many people guessed it.... The first scene of this issue was the last one written, and that's part of why I broke with the pattern of bracketing all the flashbacks with scenes set in 2026. Originally, I *had* opened with the 2026 scene. But things were feeling way too expository and dry for a story set at the end of the world, so I wrote the Tel Meggido scene. I decided I didn't want to abandon the entire opening 2026 scene, though, so I left it in as the second scene and tweaked it to remove the "and then this happened on July 6" summarizing while leaving in the aftermath reminiscences. As revealed in ASH #13, Jerusalem was destroyed by an atomic weapon to help cover the evacuation of Israel to the island of Cyprus. With no outside allies and a renewed fervor gripping its enemies, Israel was unable to hold out against the invasion that took place in the months after the Godmarket Crash. Most of Israel and large sections of Jordan are uninhabitable even a generation later, this was no "clean" nuke like the one that destroyed Wichita, nor were there superhumans around to help contain the damage. When I was first working out the timeline for the births of Edouard's children, I didn't even think about grandkids...it's not like I come from a culture where sibling marriage is normal. But Edouard is a genetically modified cat designed to be part of a self-sustaining breeding population of servants, so inbreeding is probably a significantly lesser danger than it is in humans (or in human-bred show cats of the more extremely weird varieties). And Isabel is god-made, those tend to be able to create sustainable populations from just a single mating pair, as per the "father of all (insert mythological creature here)" figures in myth. So why wouldn't there be a third or even fifth generation by 2026? Rather than go nuts with an extended family tree, I realized the LACK of a later generation would give me an even better reason to get Edouard involved with the outside world again, when he shows up in a future issue of ASH. What? You thought I'd put Ahmed in the neighborhood, use Vicente and Cristovo into a scene in ASH, and NOT have Edouard meet one of the sons of Onslaught? Tsk. Avian Moreaus aren't the only ones with dovetails. ============================================================================ 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 (if you're on Facebook instead, there's an Academy of Super-Heroes group there too). ============================================================================