NARCOLEPTIC DOGS PRESS, IN ASSOCIATION WITH COHERENT COMICS UNINCORPORATED,
PRESENTS...

WARDEN: AN ASH UNIVERSE COMIC
(ASH property of Dave Van Domelen. Warden property of Matt Rossi and Dave Van
Domelen. All Rights Reserved.)
ISSUE NUMBER THREE OF SEVEN:   CAVES OF ICE

(Cover: Warden is on top of a Gothic rooftop, two Gargoyles on the left and
one on the right. A man in a grey Ghi is attacking him with twin Jien, or Tai
Ch'i swords. Warden has drawn his hook sword and bundi, and is defending. In
the shadows of the left side, a pair of yellow eyes watches.)

     The shadow of the dome of pleasure
     Floated midway on the waves;
     Where was heard the mingled measure
     From the fountain and the caves.
It was a miracle of rare device,
A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice!
(Samuel Taylor Coleridge, KUBLA KHAN)

January 20th, 2023 11:28 AM

     Thomas was sleeping, and the sunlight pouring in his open window
rendered his skin incandescent. Dust motes swirled inside the shafts of
light, tiny stars wandering in irregular orbits.  Thomas always slept during
the day.
     He dreamt...and spoke to the mentor.
     He dreamt of a dead family, of paragangs who killed unchecked, of a
police department that couldn't, or wouldn't, do anything. And he heard a
voice.
     ++ have you stopped them yet?++ As always, the mentor was a breeze
barely blowing. Warden had to strain to hear it.
     ++Not yet. They are many. I am but one.++
     ++they will come for you. you must be ready.++
     ++I will be. I am my Brother's Keeper. I am the Warden. I will do what
needs be done.++
     ++it will have to do...++
     Thomas woke then. He always woke once the mentor had left him.  He
pulled the sheet off of himself and stood. He felt the dust moving in the
air, the air moving in the room. As the senses flooded him again, he smelled
food, still defrosting, in the kitchen. The fans could not hide anything from
him.
     And he felt the two men, armed with swords, on the roof. They did not
smell like paragangers, and the vibrations were wrong...they were skilled
warriors. He reached under his bed and pulled the weapons out, feeling the
heft of the hook sword and the weight of the bundi.
     Time to go to work.


January 20th, 2023 11:33 AM

     Tak Jao'Ke and his war-brother Kuul were preparing to entering the
round-eye's dojo when they heard it. Not a sound that many other people would
have been able to hear, but there it was, a slight fluttering of denim. They
pretended not to hear it in an attempt to lure the interloper in closer, when
suddenly they couldn't hear anything at all, not even their own heartbeats,
which they had spent years training to monitor.
     They leapt aside just in time to avoid the throwing coins that whirled
for their heads. Turning, they saw an unusual sight...a pale man wearing only
a pair of pants and tabi, gesturing to them with a hook sword.
     Tak Kuul gave the signal for right of challenge, and Tak Jao'Ke accepted
that right. As the massively built Kuul approached the pale man, Jao'Ke noted
the red cloth wrapped around his face...why does he hide his eyes?
     Kuul swung, his Jien glinting in the sunlight of mid-day. The hook sword
blocked one, and another blade seemingly came out of the air near the
stranger's side to block the other. Soon the sound of metal against metal was
ringing out on the roof as the two feinted and struck, attempting to gain the
advantage. Kuul's swing seemed to be on the verge of slicing the stranger in
the face, but he ripped his head out of the way, and the red cloth was the
only thing that was struck. It tore away, revealing to the two warriors
exactly why their opponent hid his face...his eyeless face.
     At first, Kuul and the stranger had been using different styles, which
was only natural. Only a select few are taught the Onyx Eye style of Kung Fu.
But then, the stranger began to switch over from Pakua and Bok Mon to Onyx
Eye! Kuul's greater strength proved to be not enough against the speed and
grace and astonishing prescience of the waxy-skinned opponent, who suddenly
swept both blades out of his hands and swept in, slashing his ribcage open.
Kuul, true to his training, did not cry out.
     Jao'Ke accepted this. Kuul had given the right of challenge, and people
die. The stranger turned and regarded him.
     "If you had attacked me then, you could have easily beaten me."
     "That is not our way."
     "Why are you here?"
     "The round eye below owes the Onyx Eye our tribute. We expect it. Why
did you intervene?"
     "I assumed you were here for me. I have many enemies."
     "One as skilled as you must. May I take the body of my brother?"
     "Very well." Warden stepped back as the lithe, tawny man easily lifted
the bulk of his comrade and stepped to the edge of his roof.
     "Tell the round eye that if he does not pay the tribute, we will come
again in force."
     "I will." With that, Jao'Ke dropped off of the roof. Warden looked down
at his blades, the blood drying in the sunlight a wine- red color that faded
into the stain on an old fence. He, of course, was not looking at the blades
with any sort of eyes, but he could tell what he needed to.
     He climbed back down and swung into his bedroom window, where he then
reached under his bed and pulled out the kit that allowed him to clean his
weapons. After spending ten minutes rubbing fragrant oils on them and wiping
them down with soft cloth and paper, he put them back under the bed, keeping
only his throwing coin. Then he went into the kitchenette and walked to the
refridgerator, pulling the orange juice out of the fridge. Jimmy was making
eggs on the stove.
     "Hey, Tommy! Thought you'd never get up!"
     "I have been up for an hour."
     "Really? What were you doing in there?"
     Warden poured himself a glass of orange juice, and then replaced it in
the fridge. He took a long drink out of the glass, and then wiped his lip
like a five year old. "I went up on the roof and fought assasins who had come
to extort tribute from you for allowing you to teach in their neighborhood.
They said they were from the Onyx Eye. Do we have any bagels left? After I
killed one of them, they left. They threatened to return unless you pay the
tribute." Warden opened the cupboard and began looking for bagels.
     "What?" Jimmy had heard of the Onyx Eye, but he had hoped they were just
an urban legend.
     "Never mind...I found the bagels."

January 20th, 2023 12:45 PM

     The Onyx Eye were more than just a tong. They had monies invested in all
sorts of endeavors. They had destroyed and taken up the duties of a triad
known as the Black Snake twenty years before, and were heavily involved in
the drug trade. So they had no need for James Willot's money.
     The reason they were willing to send assasins was more about face than
money. If he paid tribute, then he showed respect to the Onyx Eye. If he did
not, then he did not. If that was the unfortunate case, he would die.
     Onyx Master Barrukh was so busy meditating in the garden that he barely
heard Jao'Ke return. He noticed that he did not hear Kuul, and that Jao'Ke
was heavier than usual.
     He stood and turned, and Jao'Ke bowed and presented Kuul's dead body.
     "The round eye did this?"
     "No. The pale one we had heard rumors of. He had assumed us to be after
him, and he intervened. Kuul claimed right of challenge, and the pale one
slew him."
     "Indeed." Barrukh was a very intense man. He sat down in his ornate,
hand carved onyx throne and thought about what he had just been told. "You
may stand, Jao'Ke. You witnessed the fight. Tell me of the pale one."
     "He is swift...very much so. Faster than any fighter I have ever seen,
with the exception of Taograth and yourself. He seems to know many forms, and
to learn new ones very easily. He began displaying the Onyx Eye skills after
a few minutes of fighting Kuul."
     "Did he?" Barrukh was concerned. This kind of interruption was not what
a powerful enterprise like the tong required. He mulled over Jao'Ke's report.
The lines on his wide and powerful brow creased together as he thought. "We
must deal with this pale one.  Does he not have foes amid the round eyes?"
     "Yes."
     "We will aid them."

January 20th, 2023 2:23 PM

     The Threnody was a mess. Raoul had bled all over the place before he'd
died, and so Rawluk and Hardy had been spending most of the past few days
cleaning the green ichor up. The stuff was horribly hard to clean...it stank,
too. Bathory was reclining on the semi-throne she lived in, thinking,
wondering what to do about the stranger who'd raided them.
     She was torn. On the one hand, he'd dared to invade her lair, and he'd
killed her favored servant...the one she'd changed with her powers in order
to make him a better servant. Ever since Bathory had been changed, she'd
known that it was possible to infect others with the same change as
herself...but only men. In many ways, she was a most unique new kind of
Vampire.  Sunlight didn't bother her, and she could change her form to that
of a cat.  The only thing she shared with classic vampires was a hunger for
blood...especially paranormal blood.
     And this 'Warden' was most definitely a paranormal. His eyeless face
stayed in her mind. With a warrior like that as my personal slave, I'd cut a
swath through New York's other paragangs.  And besides...he has a great body.
     "Bathory?" She lazily turned her head and regarded Kogutt, who now that
Raoul was dead was her right hand. "A visitor from the tongs is here. He
wishes an audience."
     "Does he? Did he say what about?"
     "He said that it concerned the eyeless face."
     "Send him in." She stretched, the light tawny fur on her body standing
out as Kogutt left. As she stood on the raised dias before her throne, her
muscular servant lead a slim asian man in.
     "Mistress Bathory, I am Jao'Ke, of the Onyx Eye. I bring greetings from
my elders."
     "Yessss. What do you come here for?"
     "We understand that you have been contending with the pale one, he who
has no eyes? We have an interest in ensuring that he does not interfere with
our operations."
     "Do tell?" Bathory smiled at Jao'Ke, who was not in the slightest bit
fooled. There was no happiness in this one. Best to finish the deal and
leave.
     "We know where the Ghost lives. We will provide to you that information.
In exchange, you agree to remain out of our affairs in the future."
     So, they know where he lives, do they? Well, now that's an advantage I
could use. Either I'll kill him or...I'll find another use for him. She
licked at her teeth, flashing the overdeveloped canines and purring slightly
at the base of her throat. Finally, when Jao'Ke was on the edge of assuming
that his offer had been rejected, she said one word.
     "Agreed."

Letter from Beth Willot to her brother, James,
Dated January 19th, 2023

     Jimmy,

     I recieved your letter and am unsure what to say. Yes, I'm still slated
to go to the Academy. Have you spoke to your friend about that? They're going
to want to take him anyway, and he can't avoid them forever.
     I talked to one of my counselors about the letter (Without mentioning
any names or anything...I pretended it was a friend of mine.) and she said
that Thomas is probably suffering from a martyr complex. I think maybe you
ought to think about turning him in to MetaPsych, Jimmy. It's for his own
good.  If he goes on like you said, he'll either get shot by an overzealous
cop or killed by one of the gangs...and they might come after you, too.
     That's all I can think of to tell you. Please, stay safe.
     Love, Beth


January 20th, 2023 9:30 PM

     Warden was disturbed. Something, he was not aware of what, but something
was troubling him. He could sense something bad, bitter, WRONG in the air
over the Bronx. He leapt from roof to roof, trying to decide what it was. He
knew that over the past few months, he'd begun to gain sophistication, to
understand more of the world he was living in. His lithe, taut muscled body
hurtled over a rooftop and landed in an alley where Warden's favorite stoolie
was known to frequent.
     Barnes was slumped up against a dumpster. When the long-coat clad
figured dropped to the ground in front of him, he straightened up and pulled
his collar, attempting to obscure his face. It wasn't much, but anything was
better than nothing at all.
     "Do you have anything for me, Barnes?"
     "Yeah, but you ain't gonna like it." Barnes was trembling slightly.
Warden latched his senses onto the anemic man's heart, feeling the rapid
pulse sending blood shooting through the veins and arteries.
     "Tell me."
     "Bathory was pissed when you hit her. So pissed, that she's decided to
take you out. Tonight. Some tong guy knew your stomping grounds, and he
traded them to her..." Warden was no longer listening. He'd left James alone
at the apartment...and apparently, the Onyx Eye had wasted no time in
determining a way to remove a potential threat. He was clearing the walls
before Barnes could finish his sentence.
     "Yeah, happy trails to you, buddy." Barnes lit a synthetic cigarette. "I
wouldn't want to be you."
     Warden leapt from roof to roof like a mad-man, and when the nearby
buildings were too tall, he flung himself through boarded up windows,
ignoring the pain of dozens of lacerations. He had to get back to the dojo
before...
     Before Jimmy pays for my sins. 
     ++ Mentor? Mentor?++ There was no response. As always, the mentor most
often spoke to him, and did not respond to his urgent cries for explanation.
Which were more and more frequent now. Why was his mission so critical? He
leapt over a four lane intersection and barely caught the edge of an old
warehouse, then hauled himself up and contined running, his coat fluttering
behind him like wings.
     Finally, he reached the dojo. The lights were off, as they also were in
the apartment upstairs. Warden concentrated, his blank face tense in the
gloom of the shadows as the moonlight cast a blue aura around his exposed
skin.
     He felt around with his mind. There were intruders. Seven of them. And
Jimmy was nowhere inside. They either arrived before Jimmy, or removed him.
There was no blood.
     Yet.
     Warden grimaced and prepared himself.

January 20th, 2023 9:52 PM

     The members of the Oblivious inside the dojo waited. Sooner or later the
freak would have to show himself, and when he did he was theirs. The near-
total darkness inside was a habit derived from years of ambushes and sneak
attacks, and even though light or its absence was a non-factor to their
current prey, they kept it.
     Kogutt flexed his heavily muscled arms and waited. His paranormal
ability was a simple one...he could pump himself up with a kind of magic
steroid or something, growing thick with muscle and becoming a raging engine
of hate, determined to kill everything in his path. And he was looking
forward to doing so tonight. If he managed to kill this Warden (And he knew
he would) then Bathory would make him her number one. Her special servant.
     They waited another three minutes. Then the black billowing jacket of
Warden streaked through the window, glass spraying out on the room.
     "Kill him!"
     As one, the paragangers attacked the fluttering form. Glowing sparks
tore into it, knives perforated it, a gun sprayed bullets, and Kogutt
delivered the coup de grace, tearing it in half with a blow from his huge
fist.
     The contents of the trash bag wrapped in Warden's coat spilled out onto
the floor. The paragangers looked at each other...and then pandemonium
erupted. Half the gang experienced mind-rending pain as various parts of
their bodies seemed to riot. The other half, including the massive Kogutt,
became consumed with a nauseating sense of vertigo. They attempted to move,
but it was impossible to control their motion, and one after another they
crashed into the floor. Then Warden leapt into the room. As he did, he
dropped the attack, as the strain was too much in attempting to maintain it.
But he had the twin advantages now of opportunity and speed, and he used
both, spinning in a whorl of flashing blades and removing two of the gang
members in seconds. Five were left to face him.
     Kogutt stood, a rasping growl rumbling from his chest like some sort of
wounded animal, and he immediately leapt at the much smaller Warden. But the
pale, thin man simply slid between his legs and attacked the four gang
members behind him, his hook sword and bundi silver dancing in the faint glow
of the light coming in the window. Soon five was three.
     Kogutt again charged, and again Warden dodged him. This time the massive
paranorm couldn't stop himself from throwing a massive punch that crushed one
of his less agile henchmen's skull instead of Thomas Malfeas's. And then
there were two.
     The one remaining had earned the sobriquet "Sparker" from the Oblivious,
but his real name was Rawluk. And he was terrified. He attempted to hit
Warden with his flaming projectiles, but was only able to set the wall behind
him on fire. And then the huge, bulging form of his senior, Kogutt, was in
the way, hurtling towards his prey as he had done before.
     Thomas Malfeas, the Warden, simply grabbed one of Kogutt's arms and,
using an Akido throw, tossed him into the flames that were spreading up the
wall. The yellow-red blossom of heat was put out, smothered by the sudden
impact of the huge, obscenely muscled gang member. Kogutt didn't even have
time to howl in pain as Warden's bundi pinned him by his throat to the wall.
     Sparker looked on in absolute horror as he realized he was the last one
left. Then a foot flashed out of the dim blackness of the room, and he sunk
into unconsciousness.
     Warden looked at his handiwork dispassionately. He fell to searching the
room, looking for some clue as to where Jimmy was, and soon enough he found
it, slightly charred but still intact, in Kogutt's belt. It was a note
written on vellum with some kind of dark, heavy ink...he smelled that it was
blood...with a quill pen.  Although he could not see the letters, he could
sense how the depressions were formed on the page, and by searching through
the memories he'd stolen from others, piece the meaning together.

TO THE EYELESS ONE;

     We have to meet. It is inevitable. If you defeat my 'welcoming party'
and read this, as I know you will, then you are worthy. I have your friend.
Come to 154 Rockefeller Plaza, and maybe you'll even get to see him alive
again.

                                   Bathory.

     He tucked the note in his pocket, pulled his bundi out of the giant's
throat and walked upstairs to get a new coat before leaving.  He didn't
notice the ghostly shapes huddled on the rooftops across the street.
     "Do we attack?"
     "No. We wait until he has confronted the barbarians. Then, if he
survives, THEN we attack."
     "For the eye of Onyx."

NEXT ISSUE:

Things have definitely taken a turn for the worse. Can Warden rescuse Jimmy
from Bathory AND defeat the Onyx Eye? Probably not.

Written by Matthew Rossi