Jonkatta scurried along the telephone wire, stopping occasionally to make sure that the foil wrapped around his head was still firmly in place. It was really just a scrap of candy wrapper, but the Park Stranger had enchanted it to help shield Jonkatta's mind against mystic assault. "I make no guarantees," the black squirrel had warned. "A proper shield would take far more than three months to construct...and it would have used gold foil from really good chocolates, not part of a KitKat wrapper. Alas, all the good chocolate shops are inside the Darklands." Still, it seemed to have worked so far. Jonkatta had made it as far as the campus of Washburn University, and was debating whether to risk contacting the local cell of Grays, when the lightning and gouts of flame sprang up a mile or so west on 29th. The human superguys had decided to make another assault. This was the third time that day the superguys had passed him by. First, fighting abominations on the way into the city. Then, running away like the devil was on their heels (and had that really been a giant squirrel on the horizon earlier?). Now they were back for more punishment. Did they even TRY to use stealth in their operations? In any case, they would probably overtake his position again in a few minutes, assuming they moved as quickly as they did on their way in earlier. Movement to the east caught his eye, and he twitched nervously to focus on it. Three figures approached, riding THINGS that were horselike but had once been human. They were clearly agents of the so-called Darklord who ruled Topeka now. As they pulled to a stop on the brown grass of the Washburn campus, a fourth figure rose from the earth in silence. Jonkatta decided to move closer. The fourth figure seemed to be a roughly man-shaped pile of dirt and rocks, a pipe emerging incongruously from its shoulder. The horsemen were, from left to right: a writhing mass of tentacles, a man made from ash and a helmeted, red-haired woman who moved with a leaden deliberation. Something moved on her shoulder.... Jonkatta crept as close as he dared, hiding behind the "WASHBURN UNIVERSITY" sign at the roadside. What was that small creature on the shoulder of the redhead? Then it leapt from the woman's shoulder and *grew*. It landed on the ground a woman, cloaked in metal and wearing a glowing amulet. It was Gwen. She was working for the Darklord not because she had been dominated (as the other woman seemed to be), but because the Darklord had found the key to her soul. He had done for her what her own kind had failed to do. Granted her the ability to resume her true form. Cold gripped Jonkatta's soul. He knew then that Gwen was lost forever, his self-given mission a failure. He turned and started running to the west as fast as he could, not even hearing the battle that soon broke out behind him.... @>-`-,-`-,-`-,`-,-`-,-`-,-`- \\ // -'-.-'-.'-.-'-.-'-.-'-.-'-<@ .|,Coherent Comics Presents \\ // #13 - Veni, Vidi, Vagi --X------------------------- E }X{ ARCHS copyright 2002 by the '|` A Superguy Tale // \\ Dvandroid (Dave Van Domelen) @>-`-,-`-,-`-,`-,-`-,-`-,-`- // \\ -'-.-'-.'-.-'-.-'-.-'-.-'-<@ Across the sere grass of the university grounds, five heroes faced five villains in a situation that had graced countless comicbook covers since time immemorial. "No farther, Exarchs," the tentacled leader of the villainous crew sneered, holding up an interposing hand. "Our lord bids you destroyed here." "Who are you?" Skysabre demanded. "And why didn't you come out to play earlier?" "I am Kraken, and we are the DARK PENTAD!" Thunder crashed, and in the distance an Author could be heard to whinny in terror. "And the Gentle Gift of Crimson felt we would be wasted on a montage." There was general nodding of agreement. "My associates are Ironwood, Char, Necropolis and..." "Mairi!" Jack gasped as he recognized the blank face behind Ben Sidhe's ornate helm. "What have you done to her, you, you...?" "Ben Sidhe merely pays for her sins of trespass through service. You, on the other hand, will have to pay with your lives!" With that, the Dark Pentad ("AIE!") sprang into action. AIR Skysabre noticed immediately that whatever was dulling Ben Sidhe's will had done little to her reflexes, and he barely dodged her initial leaping kick. She was bare-handed, but he was reluctant to use his sword on her until he knew more about why Jack knew her...and seemed to care about her. They traded a few blows, each blocked or avoided, her superior skill countred by Skysabre's subtle use of winds to his advantage. Then she started to scream and his guts turned to water.... WATER "Mairi, hold on! I'll...!" "You'll do nothing," Kraken interrupted as he seethed towards Jack. "Your armor does seem to be protecting you from our lord's direct influence, but at the expense of mobility!" He lashed out with a pair of dark tentacles, which Jack barely pushed aside with his staff. "I'm fast enough, sushi boy!" Jack rebuffed, extending the staff in an attempt to spear Kraken through the chest. His foe twisted aside, grabbing the weapon in the tentacles that hugged his body. Another tentacle shot out and caught Jack around the neck, the acid dripping from it setting his nerves on fire.... FIRE "Come get some, ash-hole," Forgeheart taunted, casually swinging her gore-spattered hammer. Fire had burned off most of the monster-bits clinging to her weapon, but it still presented a fearsome aspect. With a voice like the spitting of a fire's last embers, Char chuckled. "I like to play with fire," he hissed, flowing more than walking towards her, his ashen body losing bright sparks to the wind. Forgeheart leapt and swung, planting her hammer solidly in Char's chest. He burst apart into a stinging cloud that swirled around her and clung like a bad odor. She felt her fires flickering out, and found it harder and harder to breathe. "It's like a snuff film, and I'm doing the snuffing!" Char snickered as he tightened his embrace until Forgeheart looked like she was coated in burnt wood.... WOOD Ironwood danced through the air, nimbly dodging the hail of arrows Oakthorn aimed her direction. "Clumsy human," she sneered, hurling a handful of confetti at him. It turned to shrapnel as it flew, nicking his arms and legs and sticking into the living wood of his armor. She moved more like an animal than like a woman...like a squirrel, in fact. Oakthorn aimed an arrow at the ground, willing the grass to grow where the arrow struck. It reached up in long tendrils to ensnare Ironwood's leg, but turned to dead metal the moment it touched her, flaking away at a casual shake. Then she leapt close enough to touch him, and he staggered under the weight as his armor turned to lead. A quick legsweep and he fell to the hard earth.... EARTH Necropolis was silent, but Katena could hear its screaming in her mind. Even with the protection her armor gave her against feeling the pain of the earth, this cut through. It was as if Necropolis was the embodiment of an entire city's anguish. It was slow and clumsy, but no matter how much damage she did, it simply regrew from the ground. And just being near it was getting painful... eventually she would fall even if it never touched her. However, its slowness gave Kat the luxury of being able to assess the overall situation. And it sucked. Clearly, fighting element to element was a bad idea. These guys seemed to be designed to exploit the weaknesses of their counterparts, at least in some cases. Char couldn't be burned or smashed, Ironwood could kill anything green and living by turning it to metal, and Necropolis was psychically wearing Kat down. "Everyone! Time to change dance partners!" Kat shouted, sprinting away from Necropolis and towards Jack, who was getting buried in tentacles. "I've fought your sort before," Kat whipped the Stone Catena out and smashed it against Kraken's tentacles, shearing off several and making the others lose their grip. Jack gasped and staggered free, amazed to still be alive. "The armor...it has activated!" he looked down at himself. The bulky armor had become a skintight shell that covered him from head to toe, protecting him from Kraken's acid with its sparkling black plates. He looked like a humanoid beetle of some sort. "I've got this guy," Katena yelled. "You seem to know that one," she nodded at Ben Sidhe as she whirled her weapon in a pattern to fend off tentacles, "go help Skysabre!" WATER Jack leapt across the battlefield to where Ben Sidhe was pummelling Skysabre. Her chi-powered scream was enough to disable most men on its own, and even strong ones like Skysabre were too disoriented by it to put up a creditable fight. Fortunately for him, Jack had experienced that scream several times before, and knew how to fight off its effects. Stowing his staff, he leapt for Mairi with a kick aimed at her head, hoping he could knock her out with a single blow. She sensed him coming, and he missed by a hair. "Mairi, wake up!" he pleaded, then started parrying blows. "Skysabre, go help someone else, I can deal with her!" Unsteadily, the Exarchs' leader nodded and staggered off. AIR Forgeheart and Oakthorne were both in trouble, but Anna seemed worse off. She was struggling under a sheath of ash, while Stan had only had to ditch most of his armor and had taken a few moderate cuts. Forgeheart it was. He called up a strong wind and blasted it at Anna, bowling her over. At first, that was all it did, but then the ashen coating started to erode as well, swirling away in an angry cloud that fought against the wind and tried to return to its victim. In moments, Forgeheart was free of the encrustation and levering herself to her feet with the haft of her hammer. "I can keep this guy at bay, you help Oakthorn!" Skysabre shouted over his own roaring winds. FIRE Anna coughed out the last mouthful of Char and nodded. She didn't even bother moving, she just directed a gout of flames at Ironwood, which the woman barely evaded. Stan had been backed up against a tree, and was now pulling a new suit of living armor out of its heartwood. "I've got this one, Stan...but I think Kat's about to get double- teamed!" she yelled as she ran over to interpose herself between Ironwood and Oakthorn. Indeed, Necropolis was moving inexorably towards the fight between Katena and Kraken. WOOD Stan nodded and looked at the remaining villain. It seemed to be a concentration of death and pain, which must have been why Kat had problems with it. "Have some flowers for your grave!" Oakthorn shouted, firing another special arrow at the shambling form. Where it struck, a dandelion bloomed. Then another. And another. And in seconds, Necropolis was covered in yellow and green weeds, their taproots hungrily reaching down through its body in search of moisture. It struggled, but could not break free of such a profusion of life. Stan looked around. Char was all but neutralized, Jack had Ben Sidhe on the ropes, Necropolis was tied down. Only Kraken and Ironwood remained serious threats, and that wouldn't last too much longer. He nocked an arrow and took aim on Kraken. Then the world exploded. DEATH Tybalt drifted down on a small dark cloud and surveyed the stunned forms littering the field. "I am disappointed in you, my Dark Pentad," CRACK! AIE! "I had expected better of you, despite your relative lack of real combat experience. We will have to find some better training methods for you once I have disposed of these interlopers. Or perhaps we can retain them as slaves for you to spar with...." WILL THE EXARCHS BE DISPOSED OF OR USED AS PUNCHING BAGS? IS EPISODE THIRTEEN REALLY THE UNLUCKY NUMBER FOR OUR HEROES? WILL THE FIFTH EXARCH BE THE *ONLY* EXARCH? Tune in next episode for answers to all of these questions, for once, on the next...SUPERGUY! ============================================================================= Author's Notes: I hope to get #14 written before the end of the calendar year, since it kinda wraps up the whole membership thing. I've already very roughly blocked it out, and work is likely to be slow (lots of shutting down to save money over break). Happy Holidays, and don't drink the egg nog Wayne made!